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devil-in-the-d3tails · 4 years

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It’s the End of the World as We Know It - Chapter 1

summary: During the international quarantine in your first-ever pandemic, the people around you slowly begin to disappear. As the world grows quieter and quieter, you find yourself all alone-- no power, no friends, and only one goal: to find whoever of your friends might be left and reunite with them.You're naive to think anything can be that simple. As you're faced with ever-increasing loneliness, you run into some boys who apparently went to the same high school as you. Will you join forces with them to figure out your strange circumstances together, or will you brave loneliness in a world that is slowly crumbling apart?

Link on AO3!

words: 4,452

rating: M - Mature

genre: angst/humor, romance, adventure, apocalypse AU, reader-insert

warnings: sort of depressing content, a smidge of violence, cursing

a/n: hello, hello! this is my first fic for haikyuu (originally posted on AO3), and i wanted to post it on tumblr as well just for shits n gigs. please enjoy!

- Beginning of the End -

It was a Thursday the day everyone disappeared.

The world was quiet outside, but it was loud in your phone, on account of the international quarantine. Everyone was tweeting, making dumb videos, playing video games. You would sit in your room for hours on end, scrolling through your phone as you mourned the loss of your senior year of high school. No prom, no graduation, no more arts and crafts club. It was bad enough that your closest friend group had been disbanded before your senior year even started-- it was just bad luck, but they all left to live in different states while you were left alone in suburbia.

You stayed home with your mom while your dad went to work-- he was considered an essential worker, as he worked in the grocery store. Your mom was much more active than you, constantly cleaning or cooking or going for a walk. It was admirable, but it irritated you how she would always try and get you to interact with her activities. She did it because she was probably worried about you, and she was probably lonely. You were lonely, too-- your friends lived miles away in the vast expanse of the suburbs, and your home was tucked into the fringes of soccer mom society. Your backyard was larger than most, and it was perfect for when you would host kickbacks with your friends. Recently, however, you had no reason to use the large space.

On Thursday, you decided to put down your phone for a while and play fetch with your dog. She was the biggest and fluffiest best friend you’d ever had, a german shepherd named Indie, short for Indiana, as in the archaeologist. You thought the name was fitting, because she could find almost anything with her nose-- you and your mom had trained her to do that a few summers ago.

Your mom had gone on a walk before you decided to play fetch with the dog. You had left your phone on the kitchen table. It wasn’t until the sun began to set and you felt your arm begin to ache when you noticed that she’d been gone for a while.

You gave Indie her stick, though she sniffed and whined at you stressfully. You frowned, and let her inside as you checked your phone. A few notifications from your friends’ group chat:

4:47pm

Kimi: Anybody else’s power go out?

Callie: omg i thought it was just Ohio!

Kimi: Nah, we got it in Connecticut, too.

Emily: New York, too!

They were asking if you had experienced the same thing.

6:48pm

Me: i didnt notice, i was playing with indie. wbu, sami?

Sami had moved to L.A., about two hours from your home, so you guys were able to hang out most weekends if you took the train or if she drove out to you. She didn’t even read the chat.

6:48pm

Me: bitch i know ur in quarantine smh read my message

[Kimi, Callie, and Emily liked your message!]

You dialed your mom’s number as you went to turn on the T.V., only to be met with static. You frowned, and surfed a few channels only to be met with more static before you turned it off. Her voicemail blared through your phone speakers, and that was when you started to worry.

You hung up, called your dad.

“Hey, honey!” He answered-- he must’ve been on break.

“Dad, did the power go out?”

“Yeah, for a couple minutes there. Did it happen at home, too?”

“Yeah…” You trailed off. Indie licked your hand, and whined some more. “Hey, mom’s not answering her phone and she’s been on a walk for a while. Like, three hours.”

“Huh.” Your dad let out a contemplative sigh. “Well, I’m sure she’ll be okay. Maybe she’s talking with the neighbors and her phone died.”

“Maybe.”

But maybe not. You had a bad feeling in the pit of your stomach, and Indie could sense it as you sat on the couch. She slowly tried to inch her way into your lap, as she never really had a good idea of her own large size. You just let her and scratched her ear.

“Listen, honey, I gotta go. But we can make mac-n-cheese for dinner, how’s that sound?”

“Good, dad.” You said, biting your lip. “Okay, see you when you get home.”

Then, you hung up, and you waited for your mom.

[-]

When your dad got home, you went out to search for your mom. On your tour of the neighborhood, you came across others who had broken quarantine and were searching for their loved ones, too. Saying they went for a walk, or to the store and they didn’t come back.

Your dad remained the voice of reason, saying things like well maybe their phone died, or this is all just some big prank we’ll all laugh about later. You stayed silent.

[-]

Saturday was when your dad didn’t come home. His car was nowhere to be found, but you didn’t trust yourself to drive your mom’s car just yet. Or rather, you didn’t want to drive it because you didn’t want to be reminded that it was permanently vacant. You walked all the way to the store an hour after he was supposed to have gotten off. Manager Dan wasn’t there, either-- nobody had seen your dad at all that day; he was a no-call, no-show.

You walked all the way back home.

9:52pm

Me: my dad’s gone now too

10:05pm

Callie: fuck.

Callie: my sister…

10:06pm

Kimi: I still haven’t heard from Sami.

Emily: Yeah, me neither.

10:15pm

Me: we should check in every day with each other

[Callie and Emily liked your message!]

10:32

Me: Kimi?

[-]

It’s Thursday again.

Emily has stopped answering by now, and the frantic search parties that used to pass by your window every now and again have stopped, too. Even Twitter is quiet-- it seems with every passing day, more and more people go silent. As you lay on your bed with Indie at your feet, you keep refreshing your feed on every social media app, but nothing changes-- all of the posts are old. It feels like your world is shrinking while at the same time expanding into a terrifying void.

5:38pm

Me: callie?

Callie: im here.

You breathe a sigh of relief, which turns into a sob into your pillow.

5:39pm

Me: idk how long we’ll have wifi or even electricity.

Callie: my parents are still here. Come to ohio, seriously.

You bite your lip. You think about Sami, and how many times she pried the truth out of you when you were sad, how she was the only one who would sing with you at karaoke, how you promised to move to New York together.

5:39pm

Me: i have to find sami.

Callie: please just come here. We need to stick together.

Me: i’ll find sami and we’ll come to ohio. Then we go to NY to look for em and kimi.

5:45pm

Callie: okay. Please text.

Me: i will. I promise i’ll come to ohio.

You bite your lip, and glance at your phone’s percentage: 43%. You sigh, and put it on the charger while you go downstairs to scrounge for breakfast. You only woke up about two hours ago, though you can’t sleep much, anyways. You think to yourself how your mom would be scolding you for waking up so late.

As you eat the last poptart, Indie lays down on your feet. You toss her a couple crumbs, she eats them gratefully. You sigh, and look at your now empty pantry-- you have to try and go to the grocery store, whether you like it or not. You only have your permit, but you know that you’re a terrible driver. Still, you get up and put on shoes and grab your jacket. You probably don’t have to worry about cops or the law anymore, anyway-- you suspect everything has disappeared.

You look at yourself in the mirror; you didn’t think your outfit for the apocalypse would be sweatpants and a hoodie. With a sigh, you change into jeans and a long sleeve, layer a flannel on top of that, and your favorite jacket on top of that. It’s cold outside-- much colder than you’re used to.

Based on the incredible silence on Facebook, you figure that most of the adults have disappeared. As you drive further and further into town, you notice some obvious signs of looting from once pristine houses: trash littering lawns, doors left wide open. You get the haunting realization that you’re perhaps the only person left in your neighborhood. It’s amazing how quickly things can turn in just a few days.

When you pull up to the grocery store, you notice there’s only one other car there-- a white van, stationed by the curb and still running. You actually pull into a parking spot like some kind of society bootlicker, and cautiously put the car in park and turn off the engine.

You watch the van for a moment, slowly becoming hyper-aware of the very real possibility that you might run into robbers. Your stomach growls, and you take a deep breath. You should’ve brought Indie.

Grocery bags in hand, you exit your soccer mom minivan and lock it. Steeling your nerves, you put one foot in front of the other. As if on cue, two figures hurry out of the store, glancing behind them before they notice you. The automatic doors have long since stopped running, so they just pause in the doorway while you freeze on the curb, the fumes from the van tickling your nose.

They’re both boys holding bags you assume to be filled with groceries: both around your age, one of them has gray and black spiked hair, and eyes as wide and aware as an owl’s. The one next to him has dark, short, almost curly hair, and his gaze is calculating and cold.

You take a small step back, unsure of what to say. They seem just as apprehensive, when the van door slides open forcefully.

“Hey, what are you doing? Get in!” Another boy, this one of a larger build than the two in front of you with jet black spiked hair, snaps angrily.

“Kuroo, we have a situation.” The curly-haired boy says evenly, though he’s tense. His knuckles are white holding his bags.

“Huh?” The one who must be Kuroo says, and cranes his neck to the side to spot you. “Oh, shit.”

“U-um…” You stutter out, and you suddenly feel extremely cornered-- it’s three against one, and what if they want to take your car? What if they have some kind of weird cult and need a girl for breeding? “I’m just gonna get some-- some poptarts and leave.”

“Holy shit!!” The gray haired one seems to have broken out of his stupor, and he rushes over to you, dropping his bags and their contents on the ground in order to grab your shoulders. “Another person! A-a girl!”

“Yes, she’s a girl…” The curly-haired one sighs, puts his bags in the van and begins to gather up the other one’s forgotten groceries.

“First one I’ve seen in a while.” Kuroo grins and hops from the car to stand beside the gray-haired one who still hasn’t let go of you. You don’t have the balls to tell him to get off-- you’re not sure how dangerous these boys are. “How long have you been hiding out?”

“Come with us! We’re at the high school.” The gray-haired one beams-- how could he possibly be smiling?

You don’t know what to say, so you look away. Your voice seems to be caught in your throat, and that’s extremely frustrating-- but you’re not about to cry in front of these guys.

“Quit it, Bokuto.” The curly-haired one is eyeing you carefully, though not as if you’re a threat. He seems to be the only one that can actually sense your discomfort. The one that’s holding you-- Bokuto-- sighs, and lets you go, instead putting his hands on his hips.

“We should at least help her.” He points out, and grins down at you. “What’s your name, anyway?”

“She’s not gonna tell you. Let’s just go home.” Kuroo shrugs, and you cross your arms.

You tell them your name, if only to spite the taller one. He turns with a grin, and it only just occurs to you that perhaps, that was reverse-psychology. You huff, and look away with a little bit of a blush.

“Like I said, I just need to get poptarts and some other things and then I’m going back home.” You mutter.

“We’re wasting gas.” The curly-haired one calls, as he has already sat in the front seat.

“Hold on, Akaashi!” Bokuto calls. “Listen, there aren’t anymore poptarts in there. None whatsoever.”

Your heart breaks a little, but you keep it together.

“There’s, like, rice and stuff, but I think that’s it.” He shrugs, and turns to get into the van. You bite your lip-- might as well ask rather than waste your time wandering around all alone.

“Is there any dog food left?”

“Huh? Dog food?” Bokuto is right back in front of you. He and Kuroo speak at the same time:

“You’re gonna eat dog food?” Bokuto says. “You have a dog?” Kuroo says, and the two boys glare at each other.

“Yeah…” You say, though you still haven’t gotten an answer to your question. “I mean, I have a dog.”

“Yeah, it’s in aisle five.” You hear the one called Akaashi tell you, without even bothering to turn to look at you.

“I know that.” You snap-- your dad used to work in this store, you know it pretty damn well. Akaashi glances back at you then, probably a little surprised by your defensive tone. You huff, annoyed at yourself for being so touchy. These were the first people you met after about three straight weeks in quarantine, and they might be the only people left for miles. You need to play nice.

“My dad works here.” You explain, looking down at your shoes. Kuroo nods, exchanges a glance with Bokuto. “Well, he used to.”

A silence falls over the group-- they know. You all know, now, what it’s like to lose a parent, or any loved one, for that matter. You blink quickly to fight back any tears that might threaten to escape.

“We’re staying at Karasuno High-- it’s the high school near Flat Top.” Kuroo says. “If you want to join us, we’re kind of setting up camp there.”

“There’s more of us!” Bokuto explains. “We’re gonna find some mattresses after this to bring ‘em back so we can all stick together.”

“Oh, cool.” You say half-heartedly, unsure of why exactly they’re inviting you over as if it’s some kind of fun sleepover. “Wait, you guys went to Karasuno?”

“Yeah! You, too?” Bokuto lights up, and you look at the three boys a little closer, though you don’t seem to recognize them.

“Yeah… but I don’t think we were in the same circles.” You finally smile a little, albeit sadly, now that you’re remembering all the things you’ll never be able to return to now that school and society are essentially gone.

“You ever go to any volleyball games?” Kuroo asks, obviously encouraged by your smile. You shake your head.

Akaashi has exited the van by now with a sigh, coming to stand beside his two friends as he takes a look around. “We need to get going. If you want to join us, you know where to find us. But it’s gonna be dark soon.”

That seems to smack some sense into the other two, and they exchange glances with one another. Kuroo nods, Bokuto sighs, and the two get back into the van. Akaashi pauses, and you accidentally lock eyes with him.

His gaze betrays nothing, and you wonder for a moment how he ever became friends with these two. He reaches into the van, and pulls out a familiar blue cardboard box, gives it to you.

You take the poptarts, and glance up at him questioningly-- he puts a finger to his lips with just the hint of a smile. You smile back.

“Listen, it’s great you have a dog-- keep him close. And get home before it gets dark. And…” He glances to the side uneasily. “Get a baseball bat or something.”

A chill goes up your spine at that last part, and you frown, but nod to the boy in front of you anyways. He returns the nod, and gets in the back of the van. You both share a glance at each other one more time, and it feels as if he wants to say something more, but he doesn’t. He just slides the door closed, and Bokuto waves to you out the window.

“Byee! Hopefully we’ll see you later-- hey, where’d you get those poptarts?!” Bokuto’s voice fades away as the van drives off, and you are once again left alone.

[-]

You gather a fair amount of stuff-- rope, for some reason is included in your loot. You always saw people in the movies get rope, so you figure you’ll find some use for it.

There aren’t any baseball bats, but you do find a hammer and a paring knife. It’s small, but better than nothing. You load up on the dog food, and even manage to haul two huge bags of kibble into your car. As you load it up, you can’t shake the feeling of someone watching you. Even though you look around and make certain that you’re the only person present, the feeling doesn’t go away. You sort of wish you’d gone with those boys now.

You aren’t surprised when the street lights don’t turn on, but you take that as your signal to leave. Even though you want to scrounge for more supplies, you don’t want to risk it. Akaashi’s words of warning hang over your head like a humid fog.

As you drive home, you can’t stop chewing on your lip. Even with your headlights on, it’s hard to see, but you don’t want to turn on your brights and draw more attention to yourself. Just get home, lock the doors, and check in with Callie.

You park the car in your backyard because the garage door won’t open-- the power’s finally gone out. You close the backyard gate and lock it as soon as you’re out of the car, but somehow you still feel uneasy.

As you enter your dark home, you softly call out Indie’s name, and you hear her scamper up to you.

“Good girl,” You whisper, and scratch her ear. You decide to leave the larger groceries in the car for now, as you don’t want to go back outside and keep making trips of transferring the supplies into your house. For now, you need to sleep so that you can ignore the hunger in your belly and stretch out your rations just a little further.

Indie guides you up the stairs and into your bedroom as you set your bag down heavily. You come across your phone with dismay, finding that it hasn’t charged at all since you left, and is now at 7%. You bite your lip, and open up the almost abandoned group chat.

9:57pm

Me: callie im gonna come to ohio soon. I think we are gonna lose connection tho. Idk if this will even send, but ill see u in ohio. I love you.

The message doesn’t send. You shudder out a sigh, and you’re grateful when Indie nuzzles into your side.

Your phone finally shuts off, though it’s useless now, anyway. You crawl into your bed and Indie curls up next to you, and you fall into an uneasy sleep.

[-]

“Shh!”

You jolt awake at the hissing sound that’s coming from downstairs. Indie is tense and alert, and she licks your elbow. You sit up, and vaguely note the time: 3:37am.

There’s some shuffling, and you see the beam of what you assume to be a flashlight shakily illuminate the walls downstairs. You didn’t close your bedroom door when you came in, because you assumed that you were alone.

‘Stupid…’ You think to yourself as you grip Indie’s collar. She begins to growl, but you shush her quickly, though she flattens her ears back at you. Letting out a shaky breath, you crawl off of your bed as silently as you can manage, and reach for the hammer and paring knife in your bag.

Indie follows you as you venture into the hallway, and you perch behind the bars of your stairs as the hushed conversation down below becomes clearer.

“Just find whatever food you can and let’s go.” A deep male voice cuts through the silence.

“We need to check the car! There’s nothing here.” A stranger male voice answers, and giggles. “We should find the girl instead.”

You tense, and grip the hammer a little tighter.

“I don’t care about her. I just want her stuff.” The deep voice asserts, and you wonder what you should do next. Storm downstairs and hammer them to death? You’ve never fought anybody before, let alone killed someone. Your hands are becoming clammy, and you don’t notice the pregnant pause in the conversation downstairs.

It isn’t until you see a head of brown hair come into view that you’re snapped from your thoughts. Indie can’t help herself-- she barks, and bolts down the stairs before you can stop her. The two boys yell in surprise, and you watch as she tackles the tall one with brown hair. Meanwhile, the other one comes into view-- he has large, droopy eyes with spiked red hair, and he looks excited when he catches sight of you.

“There she is!” He coos, and begins to walk upstairs. You gasp, and you know in this split second that your home is no longer yours-- you need to get away. In one fluid motion, you run into your room to grab your single bag of groceries. It’s heavy, but you don’t notice as adrenaline rushes through your veins.

When you turn to run down the stairs, the red-head catches you by both of your upper arms. He licks his chapped lips, and your knee jerks out to hit his groin. He yelps and doubles over, and you fly down the stairs.

“Indie!” You whistle, and she actually bounds from the living room over the couch, to skid by your side. You swipe the car keys off the counter, rip the sliding glass door open, and use the fob to unlock the car. You open the passenger for Indie, she leaps in as you toss the bag and your hammer and knife in behind her, you slam the door closed, and hop over the hood of the car.

As you turn to open the driver’s side door, you watch as the red-head runs in slow motion from your stairs to the exit to your backyard. You don’t breathe or shake as you turn the ignition, throw the car in reverse, then drive, and plow through your flimsy backyard gate as you push your little soccer van to its limits.

Tires skid as you swerve onto the street, and you press down so hard on the gas, that a few minutes later, you don’t register that you’re going 90 miles an hour in the suburbs. Houses pass you at incredible speed, and you ease up on the pedal when Indie licks your cheek. You stare straight ahead, and subconsciously, you drive towards your high school. Those three boys were nice to you-- they warned you, and you didn’t listen. They even tried to help you and include you, and you flat out denied them.

You slam on the brakes as you turn into Karasuno High’s parking lot. It’s only now that you realize that you didn’t fasten your seat belt, and you shut off the car with a shaky breath. The front of the school looms over you, and you wonder for a moment if they’re even here-- was it all a joke? What if they turn you away because you were such a bitch earlier? No matter how many scenarios you run through your head, you come to the same conclusion every time: you can’t go back home, and you’re already here, so you may as well investigate. You grab your hammer and get out of the car, and Indie follows behind. You close and lock the doors, pocketing the keys, and turn towards the school you’ve known for three and a half years.

The front gates are locked, of course. You wander the perimeter of the school, Indie trotting beside you the whole way. The school looks different in the dark-- it feels different, too. It’s like you’re walking in a dream, or some sort of in-between space. You shouldn’t be awake, and you definitely shouldn’t be here, but you are. It’s strange. Everything is bathed in moonlight, so it’s all a very specific shade of blue that makes you feel like you’re underwater.

You come upon the gym in the back of the school, and you’re startled to hear voices coming from inside. You tip-toe up to the doors, and Indie sniffs curiously.

“If your leg gets cut off, would it hurt?”

“Please just go to sleep.”

“Duh!” A third voice chimes in, and the second voice groans.

“How, though?” The first voice presses.

“‘Cause your leg got cut off, dumbass.” Third voice answers.

“Where’re you gonna feel the pain?”

“In your leg…” The third voice trails off.

“Exactly, man. How’re you gonna feel the pain in your leg if--”

“--if your leg is gone?!” The first and third voice finish together, and you hear the second person groan.

“I’m going outside.” He says, and as his voice gets louder, you stumble away from the door just as it opens.

You blink rapidly and your jaw drops-- Akaashi stands in front of you, brows furrowed and eyes wide. You can’t believe they’re actually here.

“Akaashi?” Someone calls from inside. Akaashi opens his mouth to respond, but glances at Indie when she sniffs his hand curiously. He pets her absent-mindedly as his gaze wanders back to yours.

Bokuto and Kuroo pop up behind him a second later, and they’re just as surprised as Akaashi. Indie sniffs them in turn, and her tail begins to wag.

You drop your hammer with a thud, and sniffle like a toddler before letting out a sob you didn’t know you’d been holding.

“C-can I stay with you?”

#haikyuu fanfiction #hq fanfiction #haikyu fanfiction #akaashi x reader #kuroo x reader #iwaizumi x reader #oikawa x reader #bokuto x reader #reader insert #haikyuu x reader #slow burn

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returnsandreturns · 5 years

Text

i have cast every character that currently has a speaking role in my novel

Freddy Rodriguez (circa early 2000s) as Andy Medina

Andy left a tiny town in Ohio for ungrad at NYU, bringing along mostly personal baggage, and graduates with a best friend and roommate, a fresh break-up, an English Lit degree and an acceptance to Columbia Law.

Three years later and he’s a law school drop-out who can barely make rent and has thirty pages of a novel he’ll never finish writing and no idea what he’s doing with his life. Some mix of a terrible radiator, a misdemeanor and pure fate leads him into a relationship that introduces him to BDSM and a world that makes him want to tell stories.

A few moments later, Laurel steps into the room, makes a considering noise, then promptly crawls under the covers with him, curled up facing him like she’s going to say something but she shuts her eyes after he frowns at her. They lie together in silence for awhile before she says, “How’s your brain?”

Andy thinks about it for a second. He doesn’t feel good, but that’s kind of been his level for a while.

“Not pleased with me,” he says.

“Embarrassed?”

“Embarrassed,” he echoes. “Rejected. Depressed. Nothing new, honestly.”

“Oh, honey bear,” Laurel croons.

“Oh my god, don’t call me that,” he says, laughing, rolling away from her when she tries to kiss him on the face. “I’m fine, I just need to hermit away for a couple of days and lick my wounds. And—jerk off, probably.”

“That’s your right as an American,” Laurel says, seriously, basically climbing on top of him to press a wet kiss to his forehead. “I’ll leave you to your sad masturbation.”

“Thanks,” Andy says, waiting until she’s back in her room before he buries his face in a pillow and screams.

He’s been pretty sure that his life’s not moving in the right direction for a while but this feels like a big glaring sign from the universe that he’s doing something really wrong here.

Alfred Enoch as James Graham

James left behind a position at his father’s prestigious law firm in Nashville to go to Columbia Law and become a public defender in New York, making him, despite Andy’s belief that he is pretty much perfect in every way, the family disappointment. He only goes to Tennessee for major holidays, where he gets sighed at a lot.

He just got out of a bad, intense relationship and he doesn’t want to get into another one and go through all that pain again. He’s worried that he’s getting into a loop of falling asleep alone watching Doctor Who, though, so. . .something casual might be okay.

“Oh my god.” James looks up at the ceiling for a long moment before sighing heavily. “I normally don’t sleep with criminals, so I don’t have anything to go on for this. Can you—be cool?”

Andy cannot promise that. Based on everything that he knows about himself, it’s completely unlikely that he can be cool. Practically impossible.

“Yeah,” he says, scoffing. “I can be cool. Lawyer me up.”

James looks at him for a long moment before he sighs loudly. Overdramatically, really. He’s got a job to do, and it’s not Andy’s fault that they’ve seen each other’s orgasm faces.

(James’ wasn’t even embarrassing. He looked like Barack Obama at a particularly tender moment of a speech. He’s a ridiculous person and Andy is currently in a room with him and, despite being simultaneously still drunk and hungover, still kind of can’t stop himself from spinning a problematic jailbird fantasy in his head. If his hands were handcuffed to the table, he could probably still bend over it.)

“Let’s just pretend that—what happened never happened,” James says, sitting a folder down and sliding neatly down onto the chair in front of Andy before raising his eyebrows at him expectantly.

“Of course,” Andy says. “I can definitely pretend like you never rocked my world.”

Lana Condor (aged up a few years) as Laurel Reyes

Laurel self-identifies as a manic pixie dreamgirl but she’s reclaiming it. She teaches art to rich little kids at a fancy private school which isn’t exactly her dream job but you make a lot more money doing that then inspiring plucky misfits. She’s the Mom Friend with varying results but, to be fair, Andy’s her only real friend and he self-identifies as A Problem Child.

“I’ve got hours to go before I sleep,” he says, “but it’s kind of like it was written by a very worldly child.”

She snorts, unpeeling the wrapper to bite down into it and coming up with frosting on her nose and a wry smile that he returns over his shoulder as he goes to the bathroom. She yells from where she’s sitting, “Is your sexy lawyer friend a fan of 50 Shades?”

“No, he’s classy!” he yells back.

“Nothing classier than whips and chains,” she says, muffled by a mouth full of cupcake, laughing loudly.

When he comes back out, she’s eating Stef’s cupcake, too.

“Dude,” he says.

“I’ll make it up to her,” she says, humming happily. “This is soothing the voices inside me yelling at me to have a baby.”

“They’re back?” he asks.

“Literal clockwork,” she says, darkly, finishing the cupcake off and balling the wrapper up to toss it in the direction of the kitchen. “Doesn’t matter that about half my kids are spoiled monsters who could bring an end to the human race entirely if all people capable of birthing someone were exposed to their bullshit.”

“Wow,” he says, sitting down next to her and letting her throw her legs over his lap, squirming until her back is against the arm of the couch. “I mean, babies are cool.”

“Babies are cool. And also terrible,” she says, making a long noise that’s somewhere between a sigh and a groan. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Tell me about your garbage book.”

He’s describing what he’s read so far in as much lurid detail as possible when his phone buzzes on the kitchen counter, and he gets up to grab it, laughing when Laurel says, “She sounds like she’s a deeply closeted lesbian. Can we talk about that? How she needs help and to get properly eaten out by someone who knows what she’s doing?”

Mara Wilson as Stef Klein

Laurel boldly marched up to the cute student librarian in the NYU library that her and Andy always studied in, said, “Is that a hardcover or are you just happy to see me?” and Stef, despites her best efforts, falls in love instantly.

Stef has a BS in Political Science but politics raise her blood pressure so she uses it to yell informative insults at C-SPAN and uses her MIS to make the biggest difference she can as a reference librarian at a NYPL branch.

“Laurel said you might be coming,” she says.

He’s pretty sure that Stef doesn’t actually hate him, and he knows that he doesn’t hate her so much as he’s scared of her and jealous of her for taking so much of Laurel’s time, but sometimes it’s really hard to tell.

“I need a book,” he says. “It’s of—a disreputable nature.”

“50 Shades,” she says, sounding entirely unimpressed.

“—how the fuck do you people know everything?” he says, voice dropping to a whisper as he glances around.

“I’ve seen that look on a lot of anxious straight women,” she says. “I’m professionally obligated to provide you with that book, but, as someone who secondhand cares about you, can I recommend something else? Please?”

“You care about me?” Andy asks, leaning on the desk and grinning up at her. She types something into her computer and makes an unimpressed noise before she acknowledges him again with a pointed eye roll.

Harmony Santana as Sara Medina

After their dad killed himself when she was fifteen and Andy was ten and their mom kind of went off the rails, Sara took on as much responsibility as she could and dragged Andy out of some of his darker times and sat with him every night to fill out the scholarships that helped him get to college. She felt left behind but their mom and grandma were both doing bad and somebody had to stay.

She came out as transgender after she graduated high school. Rural Ohio wasn’t a great place to transition but Sara is fierce and firm and the coolest, best person that Andy knows.

“I’m going to say this for the tenth—oh, I’ve been counting—time,” he says, making a grabby hand at Laurel who passes the carton. “He’s not my boyfriend.”

“He basically lives at his apartment,” Laurel says, nudging Sara and raising her eyebrows. “I never see him anymore, I’m having empty nest syndrome.”

“Why the hell isn’t he your boyfriend?” Sara asks, taking the ice cream from him.

“Because he—doesn’t want a relationship,” Andy says, because he doesn’t know much more than that, just a shadowy terrible breakup. “And neither do I.”

Sara and Laurel both silently turn to look at him and he rolls his eyes.

“I don’t!” he says. “What we have works.”

“Sure it does,” Sara says. “I want to meet him.”

“. . .sex friends don’t have to meet your family,” Andy says. “It’s, like, rule number three behind don’t fall in love and--use a safe word.”

“Rules don’t apply to me,” Sara says, which has actually been pretty true for most of her life, but—

“I haven’t even met him yet,” Laurel says.

“And you gave birth to him!” Sara says. “It’s happening. Tell him he has to come over.”

Aimee Carrero as Tasha

Tasha is Andy’s favorite coworker and one of a series of terrifying, amazing women in his life. She’s going to school for hospitality and is definitely going to own this hotel someday and possibly also take over the world.

She once had a boyfriend who liked to get pegged. It’s not really relevant to her character but she really loves to share that story.

He’s practically whistling at work, so he can’t blame the fact that Tasha rolls her chair backwards and sits there with her legs crossed, glaring at him until he says something.

“I can be happy,” he says, defensively. “I’m happy all the time. This isn’t weird.”

“You’re always staring wistfully into the distance like a Gothic heroine,” she says, suspiciously. “Is this about your hot lawyer boyfriend?”

“Not my boyfriend,” he says.

“Keep telling yourself that,” she says. “Is this the fresh-faced glow of someone who just got—”

“We’re not talking about sex,” he says, cutting her off, shaking his head violently. “It’s official. I made a contract and everything.”

It was just a piece of hotel stationary with I will not say anything about anybody’s sex life while on the clock; if I do otherwise, may God strike me down written on it and Tasha’s incredibly sarcastic signature below it.

“That wasn’t binding,” she says. “Do you really not want to tell me?”

“. . .no, I really do,” he says, after a grueling five seconds.

Hale Appleman as Gabe

Gabe doesn’t have a last name that he owns up to because he had a rocky end with his family and he wants to be a lot more mysterious than he actually is. He left home when he was seventeen and moved in with an abusive older guy who introduced him to kink; luckily, Eileen and Margaret, the owners of one of the first bars that he took Gabe to, recognized what was going on immediately and basically adopted him to get him away from the guy. They kept him away from the scene, too, until he was old enough to make his own choices and understand what he was getting into.

He helps with the business even after he moves out to his own place and he keeps an eye out to make sure everything is safe when he’s there.

“Hey, kid!” Gabe says, approaching them. “Good show.”

Andy’s in no state to talk to anyone right now, anyway, nevertheless someone who just watched him get spanked and clearly love it, so he just smiles at the way James holds him closer and says, “Thanks. We’re headed out.”

“I’m giving you my number,” Gabe says, holding out a receipt with a number scrawled out on it. “I was going to do it just to make your friend jealous because he’s cute when he looks like he’s about to kill someone but I also try to make friends with all the baby kinksters.”

“Friends?” James asks, raising his eyebrows.

“Friends,” Gabe repeats, seriously. “I’ve been around the block and I’m actually not a creep, so—hit me up if you have questions about the scene or whatever.”

“You don’t look that much older than me,” Andy says.

“Started young,” Gabe says, winking. “Have fun, boys.”

Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin as Margaret and Eileen Smith

Margaret and Eileen got married in the 60s because laws are for other people and they were (and sometimes still are) convinced that nobody’s ever been in love like they are. After a series of unfulfilling careers and a well-timed inheritance from one of the only family members that still spoke to them, they bought a bar that, with time, transitioned into one of the few sex clubs to make it through crackdowns in NYC in the 80s.

“Shit,” Eileen says, laughing, leaning back in her chair. “You wrote him a book?”

“No,” Andy says, shaking his head. “I just—finished it for him.”

“And wrote it about him,” Gabe says, grinning into his coffee mug.

“You wrote him a book,” Eileen repeats, sounding delighted. “That’s a lot, kid.”

Gabe made him come to the munch group meeting today, to keep him from lying in bed and staring at this ceiling and quietly having a meltdown because what the fuck did he even do? He wrote James a book. That’s what he did.

(“I know I’m not your dom,” Gabe had said, gently, “but if you don’t do what I say, I’m gonna come drag you out of bed.”

“Hot,” Andy had said, with no feeling.)

“I wrote it for myself, too,” he says, picking at the muffin in front of him. “He’s just—inspirational.”

“Love often is,” Margaret says, turning to look at Eileen with exaggerated sentiment, who snorts and shoves her lightly.

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blackfreethinkers · 4 years

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Sunday service had just ended, but Noah Tillman-Young called his small congregation back for another prayer. Shots had been fired at a rural church just down the road — a church a lot like theirs.

As his 30-some parishioners stood in a circle asking God for protection, something changed for the pastor of Joyful Heart. An act of mass violence in his Stockdale, Tex., church was no longer unthinkable. Ten miles away, 26 people were dead at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, the deadliest shooting at a house of worship in the country’s modern history.

That night, Tillman-Young and parish leaders held a vigil for their neighbor church. The next day, they decided to arm their own.

“It’s nothing you ever imagine could happen, but when it hits so close to home, you have no choice — you can’t ignore it and you have to prepare,” Tillman-Young said. “It’s the reality that houses of worship are increasingly becoming targets.”

With a new team of private security officers and an armed corps of volunteers, Joyful Heart joined the wave of small and midsize places of worship adopting security measures to gird against the rising threat of violent attacks.

'This community will heal': A small town mourns an enormous loss Residents of Sutherland Springs, Tex., grappled with the mass shooting that took 26 lives from the community in November 2017. (Alice Li/The Washington Post) While there is no definitive tracking of shootings or other attacks on houses of worship, several researchers and the federal government have documented a significant rise in targeted acts — particularly those with high death tolls.

FBI statistics show a 35 percent increase in hate crimes at churches, synagogues, temples and mosques from 2014 to 2018, the most recent year for which data is available. The nonprofit Faith Based Security Network found a 60 percent increase in “non-accidental deaths” at such sites from 2014 to 2017. And of the 88 people killed in mass shootings at places of worship since 1966 — defined as incidents in which four or more people were killed — more than half the deaths came in the last five years, according to The Washington Post’s mass shootings database.

This spike has prompted several state legislatures to write or revise firearm laws to make it easier for people to carry guns in houses of worship.

Since the Sutherland Springs shooting in November 2017, lawmakers in 14 states have introduced 40 bills, according to a Post analysis using Quorum, a database of state and federal legislation. Several are still being debated and six have been enacted, from Louisiana to North Dakota.

In the first weeks of 2020, legislators, most of them Republicans, have introduced 13 bills allowing armed security in places of worship. The flurry of lawmaking began just days after a gunman killed two people in late December at a church in White Settlement, Tex., before an armed volunteer shot and killed him. The volunteer’s action won praise for a state law that allows parishioners to carry firearms.

Laws under consideration in Florida and Missouri would allow anyone with a concealed-carry permit to bring a firearm into a religious building. In New Jersey, a proposed law would allow houses of worship to select one person to carry a handgun for security. And in Virginia, Republicans have introduced four bills to repeal a law that bars the carrying of weapons in a place of worship “without good and sufficient reason.”

Experts say that churches, synagogues and mosques, with their typically welcoming environments and looser safety measures, can make for easier targets, especially as businesses and schools ramp up security. But more places of worship are turning to surveillance equipment and armed guards, especially volunteers from the congregation, who blend in and save the parish money, said Carl Chinn, president of the Faith Based Security Network.

Chinn and other security consultants said they’re getting more inquiries from nervous congregations. Business is always busier after a shooting, and Chinn said recent incidents were “a wake-up call.”

“Churches are waking up to the fact that the way to stop a bad person with a dangerous weapon is a good person with a weapon and training,” he said.

Gun-control advocates balk at the idea that more weapons will create safer spaces, and others suggest that armed security — especially volunteers — may actually bring more risk.

“Whenever firearms are present, there’s always room for error and the possibility that the guns which are intended to protect become liable to endanger,” said James Densley, a criminal justice professor at Metropolitan State University in Minnesota. “Arming parishioners so they can make the kind of split-second decisions that police get wrong worries me a little bit.”

But Chinn, who has tracked the use of deadly force in churches since 1999, said he hasn’t seen an instance in which innocent people were hit by a volunteer’s gunfire.

“There’s risks anytime you have defenders,” he said. “Of course, the risk is that innocent people might get hurt. But here’s what I tell people: That has not happened. We shouldn’t get wrapped around the axle of ‘what ifs.’ It’s not even comparable to the number of times people were hurt and nobody was there to protect them.”

Security teams can minimize the risks by training often and schooling themselves in more than firearm marksmanship, said Steve Padin, a retired police officer who is a chief consultant for the Watchman’s Academy, a church security firm.

The volunteers that Padin sees, mostly men, often have a background in the military or law enforcement. And when they don’t, Padin said, they need to learn to think like those who do.

A well-trained security guard should be versed in de-escalation and disarming tactics, be able to recognize suspicious behavior and be ready to act quickly, said Padin, who travels the country training security teams at churches and synagogues.

“You should not get to the point where you have to use a firearm,” he said.

At Beth Tikkun Messianic Fellowship in Akron, Ohio, Vic Agosta and his small team of volunteer security guards huddle outside the sanctuary before Saturday service. They all carry guns, and every weekend they pray they won’t need to use them.

Agosta helped form the team eight years ago, when the congregation of 200 was growing quickly. Agosta, who is a lineman for a power company, doesn’t have a background in law enforcement or the military like some of his fellow volunteers. But he does have family in the pews, including a daughter with cerebral palsy who uses a wheelchair.

“Just the thought of someone coming into a service of ours and opening fire on us,” he said. “My daughter couldn’t run for cover.”

In Ohio, places of worship must give permission before attendees can bring in concealed handguns — a restriction that Agosta, a Second Amendment advocate, supports.

“I think you should be able to carry a weapon, but I like the control that private entities have, like churches or places of business, to say who can and cannot carry,” Agosta said.

His church asks congregants to leave their guns at home and trust in the security team.

“We don’t want you to carry,” Agosta said. “But we’ll protect you the best we can.”

At Grace Fellowship, a small born-again Christian church in suburban Omaha, Greg Eckert runs a volunteer team with four other men. He’s recruiting more volunteers from the church’s 97 members, but some have trouble passing his test. It has two questions: Will you give up your life for the congregation, and will you kill for it?

“It sounds like a silly thing to ask for a Christian believer, but God doesn’t lay down for that stuff,” Eckert said. “There were people in the Bible who had to kill at God’s command. If they can’t answer yes to that, I don’t want them.”

He requires his team to practice shooting once a month, and he tests their accuracy four times a year, keeping their bullet-pocked targets on file and dated. In Nebraska, only designated security personnel are permitted to carry concealed handguns in houses of worship — and only if the leadership has given permission and informed the congregation.

“I don’t believe any church should be just an open-carry-type situation,” Eckert said. “But I don’t think it would be prudent to have a law that you could never carry in church, either.”

Outside New York City, which has its own gun laws, New York state has no laws prohibiting firearms in places of worship. And parishioners are better off for it, said Jim Woods, the head of security at the nondenominational Niagara Frontier Bible Church, not far from the famous falls. He’s one of 10 volunteers who greet newcomers at the door, keep an eye on the parking lot and carry a weapon.

“Years ago, it wouldn’t even have crossed my mind [that] you would need to defend yourself in church,” Woods said.

One of the most notorious attacks at a place of worship was the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., where Ku Klux Klan members detonated dynamite, killing four children and injuring 22 people.

Since then, attacks at places of worship have been divided into two categories: hate-fueled assaults and those related to domestic violence. Both types are increasing in frequency and deadliness, said Densley, who also co-founded the Violence Project, which tracks mass shootings.

In 2012, a neo-Nazi killed six people at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, south of Milwaukee. Three years later, a white supremacist hoping to start a race war killed nine at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church. And in 2018, anti-Semitic online screeds were connected to the man accussed of bursting into the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh and killing 11.

These were some of the deadliest and most high-profile shootings at American houses of worshipBut more common are shootings that are extensions of intimate-partner violence or domestic disputes, like the massacre in Sutherland Springs. In those cases, Densley said, the shooter is usually a member of the congregation.

“We’re often afraid of the stuff we don’t know and don’t understand that’s outside of us, when really the biggest risk is right in front of us,” he said.

At Joyful Heart Church, the new security measures have also inspired Tillman-Young and his wife and fellow pastor, Allison, to look inward. They’ve spent more time getting to know their members and their families.

“When you’re in the community, you see those red flags, and you see them before they come to a head and get ugly,” he said. “That kind of intentional connection, that relationship, showing people love — it helps to prevent that kind of stuff.”

But more than looser gun laws and armed guards, Tillman-Young said it’s his faith that makes him feel safe.

“We’re packing,” he said, “but we’re also packing the power of God and trusting in God to keep us protected.”

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daphne-fandom-writing · 6 years

Text

Sam Winchester x reader

This is my first try on a song fic, it’s roughly heavily based on the song ‘Far away’ by Nickelback. (I recommend that you listen to it, it’s amazing)

Summary: You’re on a hunt when you come across your old lover Sam Winchester.

Warning: A little angsty maybe?...

Word count: 1431

The gif isn’t mine

You had been following a case in Marietta, Ohio when you saw the infamous impala parked at the motel you were staying.

The case involved a number of people disappearing, totally ripped to shreds and a big hole in their chests where their heart used to be. This shouted werewolf to you and you couldn’t just let this go. You had been hunting for a while now, going your way through the US killing monsters and saving people ( not that most of them even knew that they were saved though). It all started when you yourself had been attacked by a werewolf, but just before the wolf was going to rip you open two brothers came to your rescue. Sam and Dean Winchester, being grateful that you were, you had let them stay with at your place until they had to head off. You bombarded them with questions about the supernatural and hunting. After a lot of pushing you had convinced them to let you help them on hunts. You dropped your job at the police station and went with them, full time hunting for you. After living and hunting with them for a couple of months you started something with the youngest Winchester, which grew out into a loving relationship. However, great things always come to an end.

The three of you had been on a particularly difficult hunt that day, you don’t really remember the details of the hunt bit it had to do with some sort of a pagan god. The whole situation got out of hand and you got injured... bad... hospital bad. And Sam blamed himself (shocker), when you finally got out of that hospital Sam made the decision to break up with you, hoping that when you wouldn’t be with him that you would be safe. It broke your heart but it didn’t stop you from hunting, on the contrary, you hunted everything you could hell bent on proving him wrong. Pretty reckless of course but you were actually getting pretty good at hunting.

So as the years passed you never heard anything from them again. You were nowhere near getting over Sam, the hunting was a way of not dealing with your feelings (Dean teached you that). So when you saw that impala it hit you hard. But you couldn’t use this, not now and not ever so you tried your best to stay out of your way.

This was harder than you had thought, everywhere you went the impala was there first. It was not that you didn’t want to see them, God you wanted it bad, a little too bad actually. But you didn’t want to get hurt again, and that was bound to happen if you saw them. So you stayed on the downlow while still solving the case.

Deciding that you needed a night off you took your petty excuse of a car and went to the nearest bar. You ordered a shot of their cheapest whiskey (also a thing you got from Dean) and a beer to wash the foul taste away. You had been on your toes all week and you needed to take the edge off for a moment. You looked around the bar, it was nice and cozy and not too busy. But while you were looking around a pair of eyes met yours, green eyes to be precise. He left the lady he was talking too and walked up to you, while you kicked yourself for going out tonight.

“Y/N?!” He said shocked and excited at the same time.

“Hey Dean.” You responded a bit too harsh, you never hated Dean. It’s just that you were reminded of Sam when you saw him, Dean was actually a pretty good friend when you were with them. A big brother even.

“It’s been to long!” He said while taking a seat next to you. “Sammy will love this!”

“Dean, please don’t tell him, I don’t want to see him.” You pleaded, you were certainly not ready for that.

“Still mad at him I see.”

“Not mad necessarily, just hurt still.” You dropped your gaze and put some money on the bar to pay your drinks. Because where Dean went Sam followed, and your didn’t want to push your non-existent luck. “I’m sorry Dean it was great to see you but I- I’ve gotta go.”

“Don’t apologise, I understand sweetheart.” He said with a pat on your back.

When you turned around to leave you locked eyes with someone you didn’t want to see.

“Y/N?” He breathed out in a whisper, as if he didn’t believe you were actually here.

“Yep, it’s me and I’m leaving.” You grabbed your jacket and stormed out, bumping into his side as you did. You felt as if you couldn’t breathe when he was in the room, so outside was definitely better, until you heard him again.

“Y/N, can we talk for a moment?” He said, as if he had the right to ask you this. But you wanted to talk, so bad.

“Okay Sam.” Your voice sounded so weak and you hated it. “Just... not here, I’m freezing.” He nodded and followed you to your car. The drive to the motel was awkward and silent. He had been stealing glances the whole way, so you were glad when you reached it. You followed Sam into his room and stood there for a while. He looked as if he was searching for words.

“Sam I-” You wanted to say something but he cut you off. “Y/N, please I need to say something. And I know that I don’t have the right to but... seeing you again made me realise something.” He let out a shaky breath, you knew that this was as hard to him as it was to you.

“I love you Y/N, I have loved you all along, and I miss you. We’ve been away for far too long. I don’t know why I didn’t realise this but, it’s true. I don’t think I can do this without you anymore. I know that i said it was to dangerous, but seeing how well you’ve been doing on your own makes me see that you can handle yourself. And I was stupid for not seeing that before. And I’d give it all, I’d give anything to take my words back and I just need to hear you say-”

This time it was your turn to cut him off, you were both letting tears fall at this point. And you’d never thought that you would say this to him, but you had to.

“Sam, I love you, I have loved you all along. And I forgive you, for being away for far too long. So keep breathing,” You stepped closer and put your hand on his cheek. He let a breath leave his lips that he was holding in. “Because I’m not leaving you anymore. Believe it and just... hold on to me and never let me go. I always knew I still loved you and I hunted so much so I wouldn’t have to think about it. And seeing your car a few days ago made me realise how much I still do. And I don’t think I could do it all alone anymore. But you need to promise me that you’re in it for real this time, and realise that I won’t stop hunting, and yes it’s going to suck to worry. And at the end of the day we’ll both come home with wounds and scratches, but we’ll be together.” You felt a weight lifted from your chest, you were holding this back for a few years now and it felt good to get it out.

Sam was visibly relieved, he must have thought that you didn’t want to have anything to do with him anymore. You stood on your toes while he leaned down and you kissed, it was genuine and it said anything that needed to be said. You both loved each other and would never go anywhere without each other anymore.

That’s when Dean thought it was a great time to come in. “Hell yeah! I got my favourite sister in law back! And I’m happy for you too Sammy.” You both laughed at his reaction, still staying in each others embrace.

“And while you guys were sorting out your difficulties I found a lead on our wolf. Anyone up for some werewolf slaying?” And just like that you were a great team again, you had never stopped being part of the family after all.

Taglist:

@swanky-batman

#sam winchester x reader #sam winchester x you #sam winchester #dean winchester #supernatural #sam winchester x y/n #singfic #reader insert #sam winchester fanfiction #i kinda like this tbh

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thespectacularspecter · 6 years

Text

85 statements about me

i was tagged by @qiuu-tong ty i love shit like this

last 1. drink - blueberry tea beer 2. phone call - i called my uni because i'm panicking about paperwork 3. text message - to my friend to answer a question about schoolwork we have 4. song you listened to - all i have to give by the backstreet boys IT'S ICONIC AND CLASSIC DON'T @ ME 5. time you cried - lowkey i watched the greatest showman recently and when they all performed as a circus for the first time i kinda maybe started crying ever 6. dated someone twice - nope 7. kissed someone and regretted it - nah regrets aren't my thing 8. been cheated on - probably not 9. lost someone special - yes, unfortunately. RIP gma nancy and jack you guys were amazing parts of my life and still amazing parts of my heart!!! 10. been depressed - lordy yes, been in some dark places 11. gotten drunk and thrown up - lmao yeah i drank an amount i knew i could handle BUT forgot i was totally sick not two days ago so my body was outta wack. it was nasty but my mom found me and was a complete pal about it fave colours 12. PINK 13. BLUE 14. UHHHHH GOLD OR LIKE SPRING SOFT GREEN in the last year have you… 15. made new friends - yes!! 16. fallen out of love - no!! 17. laughed until you cried - yes!! 18. found out someone was talking about you - my memory blows but i think so, yeah 19. met someone who changed you - not in any highkey way, maybe in some little ways but that's just life man 20. found out who your true friends are - i know who my people are 21. kissed someone on your facebook friends list - nope general 22. how many of your facebook friends do you know irl - i don't really use my fb and i don't feel like looking forgive me. the amount that there is -2 or 3, probably 23. do you have any pets - YES i have my baby boy SIGMA, A SNAKE; i have my PUPPY, GUILDENSTERN; i have a collection of FINE, LARGE CHICKENS; and i have a cat with a serious bitchface, RAMSES 24. do you want to change your name - mmMMMMMMmm nah, like, i'd like other names better probably but my name is really tied to who i am for better or for worse. i'd totally change out my last name if i got married though 25. what did you do for your last birthday - i went to the zoo with my friend from northern ireland who visited me!!! at least i think that was last year lmao 26. what time did you wake up today - 9am I think?? i slept in 27. what were you doing at midnight last night - schoolwork. i'm working a lot these days... 28. what is something you can’t wait for - I'M GONNA GET TO DO AN ESCAPE ROOM WHEN I GO TO GENCON THIS YEAR I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO DO ONE 30. what are you listening to right now - siuil a run by celtic woman : D 31. have you ever talked to a person named tom - YES the father of my best friend growing up was named tom. he recently (ish, over a year ago?) passed away from his parkinson's so rest in paradise to him, too uu 32. something that’s getting on your nerves - someone i know no shade. if you're reading this don't worry it's not you lmao 33. most visited website - probably reddit or tumblr 34. hair colour - brown 35. long or short hair - short!! i've been loving having shoulder length hair 36. do you have a crush on someone - i carry no real thirst at the moment 37. what do you like about yourself - i'm really patient when handling people i think that's a good thing. stuff that'd get a rise outta a lot of other people i can deal with pretty well, i think 38. want any piercings? - i WISH i used to have some actually but i'm dangerously allergic to a common metal and i learned the very hard way that slipping up on that when you have piercings leads to bad experiences in a hospital!! 39. blood type - i actually don't know 40. nicknames - rae is actually a nickname teehee. people pretty much just call me that except my dad calls me lil bro i guess. 41. relationship status - wonshades 42. zodiac - gemini 43. pronouns - she/her 44. fave tv shows - fIREFLY and pushing daisies and a lot of others 45. tattoos - none right now but i'm planning to get one since my mom is a tattoo artist and somehow i still haven't had her give me one 46. right or left handed - SOUTHPAWS REPRESENT 47. ever had surgery - nope! 48. piercings - see #38 heehee 49. sport - i did gymnastics for a few years, i do martial arts now 50. vacation - i'm not a vacation person but i'd love to go to japan. last time i left ohio, i went to chicago for the monsta x concert. last time i went out of country was canada for a study abroad program in the same year 51. trainers - my running shoes are expensive but less expensive because i got them in an ugly wanted color that i think is perfect (H O T P I N K). i'm a runner so the shoes are imPORTANT, MAN more general 52. eating - i had pizza tonight i really want cheap chinese food right now 53. drinking - still drinking my blueberry tea beer want another but it's 11:40pm so that's not happening 54. i’m about to watch - series of unfortunate events s2 once i find the fuckin netflix password i wrote down 55. waiting for - the BBMAs i need to support my boys live (also it's a blast to watch them with my sister-in-law who i'm tagging <3) 56. want - attention and clothing 57. get married - yes yes yes i'd love to get married someday 58. career - i'm an english teacher which is exactly where i wanna be which is better 59. hugs or kisses - attention 60. lips or eyes - eyes but both are great 61. shorter or taller - somehow i always end up dating shorter people. i like my men sturdy. but i have no real preference on height 62. older or younger - close to my age in either direction 63. nice arms or stomach - sweats 64. hookup or relationship - relationships i'm not much of a hookup person 65. troublemaker or hesitant - trouble teehee have you ever 66. kissed a stranger - nope 67. drank hard liquor - yes 68. lost glasses - yes and i'm too blind to find them once i do 69. turned someone down - yep 70. sex on first date - nope 71. broken someone’s heart - yes 72. had your heart broken - oh god yes lol 73. been arrested - nope 74. cried when someone died - i don't actually remember for one instance but i know i didn't in the other. i was crushed though don't get me wrong the tears just done didn’t happen 75. fallen for a friend - oh god yes lol do you believe in 76. yourself - i try to! 77. miracles - yeah 78. love at first sight - it's never happened to me but i won't say i don't believe in it, it might be real for other people and i can't invalidate that 79. santa claus - THE SPIRIT OF SANTA CLAUS 80. kiss on a first date - if it seems like a thing to do why not 81. angels - yes, in a sense other 82. best friend’s name - L I S S A MY GIRL 83. eye colour - very brown 84. fave movie - the lotr trilogy 85. fave actor - probably tim roth i love tim roth like a lo t and i don't really know why but shoutout to tatiana maslany for being the actual goddess of acting

i’m tagging @freohrdatia, @pyrrhesia, @roymblog, and @pastelroseprincess and anyone else who sees this who wants to!!

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wegotpopedsir · 6 years

Text

Five times Olivia Pope was definitely, totally not jealous, like at all… and the One time that maybe she was...

*AN: This kind of ignores season 7 because I started it before it aired.

1. Here she was, trying to invite Jake to have dinner with her father, something normal people who were- well, she doesn’t exactly know if they’re dating now- but it doesn’t matter, she was trying to do something normal.

But Olivia Pope and Jake Ballard are not normal.

And Olivia Pope was not jealous.

She wasn’t!

It’s just she liked having Jake around, never mind the things they did together, but something had definitely changed between the two of them after going to the island, so the second the question came out of her mouth “Do you have a woman in there?”, she immediately regretted it. Jake proceeded to read her in a way no one else does, reminding her of the man living in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue whose life she had gotten entangled with and slammed the door in her face.

She wasn’t sure what she would’ve done if Jake had said “Yes, I am with another woman right now”, but it doesn’t matter because they are not dating and Jake’s right, she’s in love with Fitz and for those split seconds Olivia Pope was definitely, totally not jealous… right?

2. “How do you know her?” She was digging, she knew, but after a crazy few days, Olivia really needed for the focus not to be on her, just for a few minutes.

“She’s my wife.” She wasn’t expecting that. Wife? Was he serious? How much did she know? Is this someone from his B613 days? Was she an agent? Another mark like Olivia once was? Even after everything they had been through, right when she thinks nothing he can say can surprise her, he pulls something like this. Of course, she wasn’t jealous; she was just surprised.

Olivia wasn’t sure what hurt more. The fact that he was married or the fact that he didn’t tell her. Deep down, she knew that a part of her would always care for Jake. She had to resist the urge to ask a million questions, and settled on a sarcastic comment and turning her focus to her Gettysburger. It wasn’t until later when he mentioned in passing how he had been planning on leaving with Elise that she realized how, despite the fact that she was about to get married at the same exact time, she wasn’t ready for him to leave her.

However, sitting at that conference table, surrounded by newspapers and magazines digging up all her dirty secrets, just hours after going on national TV and doing an interview on how much she loved Fitz, she couldn’t be jealous.

She shouldn’t be jealous.

But she was very curious.

3. “You’re seeing someone.” Ok, maybe it wasn’t the normal pillow talk, and she’d probably enjoy going another round with him more, but her father’s words were ringing in her head, and Jake didn’t even bother to tell her directly and that pissed her off.

“He told you. I was sure he wouldn’t. I can never figure him out. You think he’s gonna go one way but then he turns around goes the exact opposite-” Jake stated with a sigh. Olivia wasn’t sure if he was serious or not. That’s what he’s worried about? That he got together with my father and shared how the butterflies felt after his first date with some woman and now her father was spilling his secrets?

Still, curiosity and suspicion got the best of her, “Who is she?” Olivia questioned, trying (but failing) to be nonchalant. It didn’t really matter. It was someone else. Someone who’s not her. It doesn’t matter that what they have now was working. Yes, still undefined, but working.

Jake was quick to reply, “Does it matter? Do you care?”

“No.” Olivia replied shortly. “Are you gonna tell me who she is?”

Jake turned to her, raised his eyebrow and proclaimed, “You sound like you care.”

She was only asking because she was worried about STDs. And the fact that their dating history wasn’t the best and the last “outsider” she tried to date, stabbed Jake 27 times, so this time Olivia was trying to make sure she’s not the one getting stabbed. “I sound practical. You’re dating now. You want to run around with a bunch of women. Fine. Play. Have an orgy.” You know what, it doesn’t even matter. Jake is an adult and if he wants to sleep around with all of D.C. then he can.

She wouldn’t tell him that she was worried about what this meant for the both of them or remind him that people like them can’t expect to have a normal relationship. She just kept her mouth shut and pretended like she wasn’t totally, completely jealous.

4. All those magazines, all those times she and Abby got drunk with their girlfriends in law school and cursed those boys who unceremoniously dumped them, every single one of them specifically said not to go through the guy’s social media after a break-up.

Unfollow, block, report them, whatever.

And Olivia listened.

After the wedding from hell, the last thing she wanted to do was see the “happy couple”, but it wasn’t her fault that J-Mo had their 12 page Vogue spread and the trashy gossip magazines didn’t stop caring about them, like Olivia tried to, after the wedding.

She knew she didn’t have a choice; she would never gamble with Jake’s life, but that doesn’t mean she was happy with what she did and said at the church. For now, and possibly the rest of her life, her plan was to ignore the fact that she was so close to being happy that she could taste it, block Jake out of her mind, and avoid him at all costs, in real life and otherwise.

But it seems like God, or just BNC, had different plans for her.

She was watching the news to see the reports on Mellie’s speech at the Emily’s List Dinner, when suddenly her TV screen was covered by the smiling couple by- is that water? By the beach? Really? Olivia knew that a person can’t own an entire environment, and it wasn’t like she expected him to never go to the beach again without her, but wouldn’t Vanessa like the mountains or camping or traveling through Europe better?

The picture was posted for Vanessa’s 300,000 followers- well, actually 299,999 since Quinn unfollowed her after the wedding (#team Olivia, of course)-but it made 1 person specifically fill up with a weird, burning feeling in her heart.

And as Olivia stared at the screen and tuned out the reporter, all she could think about now was an island which felt a million miles away, and memories that came back to her in her dreams, and she definitely, totally, didn’t feel jealous.

But maybe she did feel like getting under the covers and crying for a million years.

5. Olivia was already frustrated looking at the poll numbers. They weren’t bad, per say, but weren’t were she wanted them to be.

And now they were canoodling.

And it was annoying.

Not because she cared, no, of course not.

Olivia was too focused on the campaign and the new poll numbers that were coming out of Ohio. Coming out of Defiance, Ohio, and Cleveland and Cincinnati, of course, but specifically those numbers next to “Defiance-” reminded why she was doing this, to herself, to Jake.

There were moments, moments she didn’t tell Mellie or Quinn or anyone about, when they drove past a little league team practicing while going through some small town when she thought “What if?”

But then she remembered what the past 8 years have been and recognized that the only way she would feel normal, sitting with those moms cheering their kids on, would probably be if she could go back in time 20 years and stop her mother from leaving for the airport.

She wanted a life with Jake, and maybe if the timing had been different, they would’ve moved past this fight, but they were both stubborn so the only interactions between the two of them for the past month had been Olivia telling Jake to be more open when meeting the voters or in interviews and Jake rolling his eyes and responding with a sharp (and very annoying) “Ok, boss”.

Looking at Jake and Vanessa flirting like teenagers in high school, just made her more irritated. But it wasn’t because she was jealous. Right?

1. One year into Mellie’s term

“Jake, you’ve got to help me. I’m… I don’t know… Hurry”

“I’m on my way,” and true to his word Jake rushed out and sped through traffic, probably running a couple red lights. He got to her apartment and didn’t even bother waiting for the elevator. The way she sounded on the phone, the only thing on his mind was Olivia was in danger, assuming that she wouldn’t call him to her apartment if it was a matter of national security, and ran up 12 flights of stairs instead. He banged on the door and in an instant, a panicking Olivia yanked it open. “Oh, thank God, what took you so long?”

Jake quickly took account for Olivia’s surroundings and well, Olivia, but after noticing nothing out of the ordinary he asked, “What happ-” and then he heard it.

He was actually more surprised he didn’t hear it earlier. A wailing noise coming from the other room. Coming for the newest addition to their crazy little “family”. Charlie and Quinn wanted to go out for a date night and Olivia, determined to step up in her role as godmother, offered to take care of little Amelia. Olivia figured the baby would already be half asleep by the time Quinn came to drop her off and all she would have to do would give her a bottle that Quinn already filled, make some funny faces, change a diaper or two, and then let her sleep. Then she could retire to her bed with a glass of red wine and the unemployment numbers from the latest quarter.

It was all going to plan; Amelia had her dinner and Olivia played with her and (successfully!) changed her diaper, but when it came time for her to go to sleep Amelia started crying and wouldn’t stop. Olivia explained all of this as Jake made his way to the baby. “I didn’t want to interrupt Charlie and Quinn and you were the first person I thought of and I didn’t know what to do and I kind of panicked,” she rushed out. And it was like magic, Jake brought the baby close to his chest and instantly-

Silence.

“Wha-How did- This isn’t fair!” All Jake had to do was pick up Amelia and walk back and forth around Olivia’s living room and suddenly little Amy was back to being an angel.

“I don’t know, I think she likes her Uncle Jake better,” Jake stated with a smirk coming to his face. Olivia rolled her eyes but a soft smile came to her face. The thought came to mind- this was nice; when Amelia wasn’t crying her eyes out, babysitting her was nice. At least it was better than babysitting the CEOs, politicians, and world leaders that Olivia has dealt with for the past 9 years.

Once Jake put the sleeping baby down in the bassinet Quinn brought, Olivia decided that she wasn’t quite ready for him to leave yet. Olivia brought out a bowl of popcorn, 2 glasses of wine, and invited him to stay to watch reruns.

Because Amelia could wake up, of course.

And yet, 2 hours later, with a soft knock on the door, Quinn and Charlie walked in to see, not only one sleeping baby of theirs, but also two more slightly stubborn, a little oblivious, a little dangerous, but still very much in love individuals entangled on the couch with an old movie from the 70s playing on TV in the background. Quinn softly cleared her throat and both individuals suddenly arose, a blush creeping on both of their faces, despite, or maybe because of, their complicated history. They had fallen back into old habits and had somehow gravitated towards each other while sleeping and any semblance of polite personal space disappeared. Something so innocent, yet so meaningful.

“Hey, how was she?” Quinn whispered.

“She was great. There was a small incident when she wouldn’t stop crying, so I had to call Jake,” Olivia replied.

“Oh well, he is her favorite,” Quinn said looking between Jake and Olivia with a knowing smile. Charlie made eye contact with Jake and wiggled his eyebrows. Jake simply rolled his eyes and turned to Olivia, grinning, “Haha, see! You jealous?”

Olivia looked right at Jake’s eyes and slowly smiled because as Charlie and Quinn picked up Amelia’s things, she knew that her heart was full. A kind of full that it gets when every time she sees the empire she has built. A kind of full that it gets when she gets to spend time with the family she might not have been born into, but the family she chose. A kind of full that it gets when she’s with the man beside her, as a friend or lover, who has been so unwavering, so constant in her life.

“Hmm…maybe a little.”

#scandal abc #olake #availed #olivia pope #jake ballard #olake fanfic #idk what this is i posted it on ff earlier #but im kinda proud of it #anyways let me know what u think #mine #fic

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crazedlunatic · 7 years

Text

Anniversary Surprises

“Wait, what is all of this?” Kurt asked, walking into his thirtieth-floor apartment. “Oh my God, how did you… What?”

“Don’t freak out! I wanted to surprise you!” Blaine rushed over, a bouquet of roses in his hand.

Kurt stared at him, mouth a perfect O.

“Let me get your bag with the super expensive laptop before you drop it and break it and you take these.”

Kurt took the roses, very confused. He had literally been texting Blaine about getting to his apartment and… Blaine was in it?

“It’s been a year since we got back together… right where we’re standing. I know you said that you wanted to celebrate our original anniversary and I do too, but this day is just as special to me… because it’s the day I knew we were forever.”

“Blaine…” Kurt looked past him, seeing his small table set up with dinner and a cheesecake on the counter. He tried to come up with something witty or sweet to say but all he could come up with in his shock was, “You broke into my apartment.”

“Technically you gave David the spare key and he gave it to me, so… okay, I kind of did. But I really wanted to surprise you. I got dinner and the flowers and the cheesecake and I’ve got something else too but I’m hoping I’ll get a kiss here soon.”

Kurt threw his arms around Blaine, careful not to damage his roses, and hugged Blaine tightly. “I love you so much and I am so glad that I get to spend the rest of my life with you.”

Blaine beamed and kissed him.

Kurt then pulled back, hitting his shoulder. “You’re in your last year of law school and you’ve got all of this homework. Blaine.”

““I wanted to see you. It was only a 3.5 mile drive instead of 12 so I was able to justify it.” Blaine smiled. “Also, I’ve got some news…”

“What?” Kurt asked sharply. “Did something happen?”

“Nothing bad. I think you’ll be really happy actually. I wanted you to be the first to know.”

“What? What?” Kurt smiled widely. “What’s going on?”

Blaine laughed, taking the flower from him and setting them on the counter. “Should we eat and—.”

“Anderson, you better spill.”

“Bob talked to me. Well, Adrian and I actually so he knows but only because it involves him…” Blaine began.

“Yes?” Kurt asked impatiently.

“CMJ is expanding.”

“CMJ?” Kurt looked confused.

“The law firm. They’re opening up a location here in New York City and I’ve been offered a full-time position after graduation… in New York City!”

“But you don’t want to live here!” Kurt sputtered. “You can’t do that.”

“Kurt, one of the top law firms in Massachusetts has offered me a job after graduation. I can take it there or follow Bob here and I’m following him here. I don’t think much will change at first because I need pass the Bar to legally practice law. But I’ve been helping with Bob’s for like a year and a half now so he knows what I’m capable of. And I know he’s a hard ass but he’s so knowledgeable and the fact that he offered this up at all is mind-blowing in itself.”

“No, it’s not! You’ve worked for him since you started law school practically.” Kurt responded. “Blaine, are you sure this is what you want, though? In New York City?”

“Yes. Bob talked to Adrian and me for a long time about it. It’s going to be a very small office and first and not many people are coming from the head office. Only three lawyers—two partners and one associate. Then there’ll be paralegals, legal assistants, and legal secretaries.” Blaine explained.

“Three lawyers?” Kurt asked.

“Yes. The one who isn’t a partner will be transferring back to Massachusetts after Adrian and I pass the bar making it a total of four lawyers total. Then we’ll get promotions and after that, they’re going to bring in new lawyers and start building up.” Blaine explained. “Basically, I can move up really fast.”

“Wow.” Kurt stared at him, shocked.

“I mean not insanely fast but… but this is big. It could be it.” Blaine continued, nudging Kurt to the table where their plates were waiting. “I could stay where I’m at… or I could take a better opportunity and live with the love of my life in a city that he loves. It’s a no brainer, really.”

“Oh my God, Blaine. You’re coming to New York?”

“The week after graduation. Also, I get reimbursed for moving fees and they’ll pay the first three months of my rent. Our rent. We can get somewhere nicer than this.” Blaine said excitedly. “I mean it might not be that much better but hopefully it won’t be on the thirtieth floor.”

“Since Quinn moved out, it’s really expensive anyway.” Kurt agreed, albeit somewhat sadly. It was really… nice having a place all to yourself.

“And we’ll get somewhere close to parks and maybe a dog park for Winnie and Kreacher. Kurt, it’s going to be so good.” Blaine looked more excited than Kurt had seen him in… well, maybe ever. “Like the light at the end of the tunnel. I just… I know at first it won’t be a lot but in two years… I may make enough to pay for an entire apartment and to live comfortably just by myself.”

“You don’t have to worry about paying for a place to live by yourself. I don’t want you to take care of me. It’ll be like in Ohio, half and half unless someone comes up a bit short here and there.” Kurt promised. “And, honestly, we could stay here and save but I would love to not have a five-minute elevator ride every time I take Kreacher out to go to the bathroom.”

“I only lived in a dorm for three months at UK. It’s going to be weird for me to live in an apartment.” Blaine admitted. “I don’t know if I’ll want to live in an apartment forever, though. Is that okay? Is that a deal breaker for you?”

“Of course it’s not a deal breaker! Can you imagine living in an apartment with children and two dogs?” Kurt leaned forward and kissed him. “I’m so proud of you, Blaine.”

“Thanks.” Blaine grinned.

Kurt pulled back to look him in the eyes. “Honestly. Despite what you went through living with your horrible family… you proved them wrong and you did it without their help. You’re amazing, Blaine. You got into Harvard Law. You’ve still got three months to go and already have a job lined up. I’m just so proud of you and I’m so happy to have you as my partner. You’re amazing.”

“I’m so proud of you too. You’ve had great internships, everyone loves your stuff, your social media page is already at half a million and you’re doing school projects. Can you imagine what it will be like when you don’t have these guidelines to stay within? When you can do exactly what you want with no strings attached? I have no doubt that within five years your salary will blow mine out of the water—that’s including the inheritance I may or may not even get.” Blaine didn’t look away. “If I’m amazing, you’re fucking epic.”

“You have been hanging out with Wes too much.” Kurt threw his arms around Blaine’s neck again. “I’m so excited you’re coming to New York. I know we could have stayed long distance still but… I’m so glad we won’t have to. This is amazing and I’m so proud of you. Screw the anniversary, we should be celebrating you.”

Blaine laughed and squeezed Kurt. “I love you so much. I love you and I cannot wait until we’ve been together ten years or fifteen or twenty. I can’t wait to spend every day of my life with you and I truly mean it.”

“Oh God, Blaine. You did it.” Kurt pulled back, eyes a bit teary. “After everything you had to go through with your family… you really did it. You showed them. You showed all of them. Alex will be so proud, Dad and Carole will be so proud, Wes’ and David’s parents… I think your grandfather would too.”

Blaine pulled him back in for another hug. “Thank you for believing in me.”

Kurt squeezed Blaine and then kissed his cheek. “We’re going to eat and then we’re going to David’s and call Wes and you’re going to tell them. And then we’ll call Carole and Dad. And the first chance we can both get to Ohio together, we’re going to throw a huge dinner for you because you deserve it. You deserve it so much.”

Blaine grinned.

“I do have some news for you too, though.” Kurt pulled away.

“You do?” Blaine asked excitedly.

“I have an interview for Marc Jacobs.”

“KURT! Why didn’t you tell me?!” Blaine pulled back.

“I just found out and I guess you beat me to it!” Kurt stepped back. “I mean yours is a solid offer. Mine is an interview, really.”

“Come on, you’ve talked to him like five times at Parsons. He’s even told you he likes your stuff.” Blaine deadpanned. “You’ve got this in the bag.”

“We don’t know that.” Kurt rolled his eyes but was smiling. “He just asked if I wanted to interview—.”

“He as in Marc?”

“He as in Marc!” Kurt squealed a bit but then took a deep breath. “Just an interview… just an interview…. “

“Uh, yeah, with Marc Jacobs!” Blaine exclaimed. “It’s a good thing I got this job here because there’s no way I would have let you turn that down.”

Kurt pulled Blaine close, kissing him. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Blaine kissed him back. “Happy anniversary, my love.”

“Happy anniversary.” Kurt beamed, nuzzling his head in the crook between Blaine’s neck and shoulder.

Everything was working out exactly as they’d hoped it would.

#wbuct #wbuct drabble #wbuct prompt

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thenuanceddebater · 7 years

Note

The issue with the Ohio law, and what I assume Cap's worried about, is that men have been convicted on scraps of evidence, even the flimsiest shred, such as the case where a man was convicted based on a dream that the "victim" had about the man. Cap nor I are saying that martial rape is okay, but this law is very likely to be abused, especially when taking into account how vicious divorce courts can get. Is there an actual solution to this? Maybe, but I'd be hesitant to put this law into effect.

You see, I can understand this. But you need to listen to yourself here. Could. Have been. Potential. And you also need to understand that in order for this to be the case, things need to go wrong other than a woman with bad intentions. There needs to be either a subversion or a complete forgetting of the idea of innocent until proven guilty, you’d need an incompetent judge (or at least a very permissive one), and a persuasive liar of a woman. All of that together, and you have a chance that the system will rule against a man that is being tried solely because of an unintended consequence of this law. And even then, I would argue less that the statute is wrong in theory and more that the application of the statute is so ridiculously flawed as to be laughable. The problem with Title IX and men accused of rape is not that the law exists. Title IX is a good law. The application of the law has been ridiculously shoddy and happenstance. This is a good law. It should be passed. It can be abused, but so can all good laws. And we do need laws in a society in order to have it function properly.

And what I don’t think a lot of people who are making this argument are doing is understanding that the consequences for not passing this law are a lot easier to implement than this potential situation in which the law is abused. And furthermore, that failure to pass this law means that a person isn’t even abusing the law code in order to get to these consequences, but rather engaging in a specified and intended consequence of the way the law is currently written. All that you need to have a person who should be tried for rape get off scot-free is for a man to have bad intentions toward his wife, drug her, and have nonconsensual sex with her. Just one man who is willing to do this. Not a system like in the situation you and Cap are bringing up.

I totally understand your distrust of the legal system. I thought that this was iffy myself until I read the Ohio code and saw what the law does. It honestly just removes this exemption. And I think that this is an exemption that needs to be removed. There is no special privilege bestowed on a husband to have sex with his wife while she is unable to consent and have it not count as rape. Full-stop. None. I think it’s hihgly unfortunate that this law could potentially be used against men, and will be happy to recommend that people gaurd themselves against that possibility or that it be addressed should it become relevant. But first, we need to address this exemption. It cannot be allowed to remain. It is too harmful.

#nuance #Q&A #good points on both sides #rape #legal opinion #Anonymous

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theliberaltony · 4 years

Link

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

The COVID-19 pandemic has already disrupted public life in a number of ways — large events are canceled, restaurants are closed and many of us are stuck at home — but a fundamental aspect of our democratic society could also be under threat: voting.

Already, eight states or territories have postponed their presidential primaries — but depending on how long this pandemic affects day-to-day life in the United States, it could impact the November general election, too. But this isn’t the first time our country has had to go to the polls in a time of crisis. Elections have occurred during economic catastrophes like the Great Depression as well as during both world wars. The good news is we’ve always managed to hold general elections — even in the midst of the Civil War — but the bad news is that our ability to vote is often hampered. And turnout has usually fallen because voting became harder or costlier in the face of natural or man-made calamities. Looking ahead to the November election, recent primary elections show that states need to be prepared for the worst when it comes to making sure people can vote despite a health crisis.

Take last Tuesday. Ohio postponed its election and in Illinois, where there isn’t a tradition of voting by mail, turnout was much lower than in the other two states that voted. (Florida and Arizona both generally cast a large percentage of ballots by mail.) There’s still a lot we don’t know about the current health crisis we find ourselves in — how long will the urgency of the coronavirus threat last, for example, or how things will look come November — but if we’re looking at elections comparable to our current moment, the most relevant may be the 1918 midterm.

That fall, in the waning days of World War I, the Spanish flu — a strain of influenza that got that name because Spain was one of the few countries to report on it freely — ravaged the United States, killing hundreds of thousands of people, many in the lead-up to the November election.

In response to this devastating disease, public health officials tried to limit its spread, but those mitigation policies affected political campaigns. Marian Moser Jones, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Health who studies the influenza pandemic, pointed to bans on public gatherings, which we’re seeing now too. “[Y]ou couldn’t have the usual election speeches, which were then even more important because you didn’t have television or radio,” Jones said. “[Candidates] had to actually campaign via newspaper editorials and mailings.”

This was particularly true out west, where the pandemic’s severity peaked in the days before the election. Even election night changed: There was a ban on the display of election returns on large boards outside of newspaper offices so that crowds wouldn’t gather to watch results come in, Jones told me. And in Los Angeles, “election officers locked themselves in each voting booth to count the votes and to prevent flu transmission.”

The Spanish flu also likely contributed to lower turnout on Election Day. About 40 percent of the voting-eligible population cast ballots in the 1918 midterm election, down sharply from the 50 to 52 percent that voted in the previous two midterms.

Jason Marisam, who studied the effect of influenza on the 1918 election as a legal fellow at Harvard Law School (he’s now an assistant attorney general in Minnesota), told me that it probably did have an effect on people voting. “The San Francisco Chronicle ran photos of Election Day, people lining up to vote all wearing these masks. They called it the first masked ballot in U.S. history,” said Marisam. “You have to think that that kind of mentality had an impact on turnout.”

Observers back in 1918 attributed the drop in turnout to the effects of the pandemic, too. “The Los Angeles Times estimated that the flu had kept 40,000 people away from the polls in San Francisco,” said Jones, adding that newspaper accounts of voting in Arizona and New Mexico talked about the disinfection of polling places and a “light vote” due to influenza and the absence of many men due to the war.

There’s one obvious complication when we examine turnout in 1918: the First World War. It’s difficult to separate out influenza’s effect on the election because around 2 million men were also fighting overseas in 1918, and not much was done to help them vote. That meant a sizable chunk of the electorate was effectively disenfranchised, as only men 21 years or older could vote in much of the country. (Remember, the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, wasn’t ratified until summer 1920.) Nonetheless, even if influenza only explains part of the drop-off in voter turnout, Marisam estimated it was still likely responsible for hundreds of thousands of people not voting.

But despite public health worries associated with influenza, Marisam told me he could find no evidence that people discussed postponing the 1918 election. Civic pride and patriotism were high during World War I, as war bond campaigns and propaganda from the Committee on Public Information encouraged Americans to do their part to support the war effort. And newspapers encouraged citizens to go to the polls despite the Spanish flu with headlines like “Every Loyal Californian Will Cast Vote At Election Today” in the Los Angeles Times. There also wasn’t a national debate over whether the results were legitimate, even though turnout was lower, and in some parts of the country, officials claimed influenza may have affected the results in congressional and local elections.

Of course, the 1918 election isn’t the only election to be held during a time of crisis (although it did take place during one of our country’s massive health crises). But just like the 1918 election, other federal elections also held during world wars saw depressed turnout.

In 1942, during World War II, the government tried to buoy turnout by passing the Soldiers Voting Act, which helped states send federal ballots to service members. It didn’t work particularly well: Less than 30,000 federal ballots were cast under its provisions1 and turnout in 1942 was very low — just 34 percent of the voting-eligible population cast a ballot, making it the second-lowest midterm turnout since the ratification of the 19th Amendment (only 1926, at 33 percent, was lower).

Trying to avoid the same problems in 1944, Congress passed a military ballot law ahead of the election that helped at least 2.6 million soldiers cast ballots — enough to make a difference for President Franklin Roosevelt in at least one state. (He won enough military votes in New Jersey to overcome his deficit among civilian votes, according to a contemporaneous study.) Still, turnout in 1944 was lower than the previous two presidential elections, and as you can see in the table below, voter turnout in elections during U.S. involvement in the two world wars was lower than in previous midterm and presidential elections.

Turnout fell during world wars compared to past elections

Turnout among the voting-eligible population during WWI and WWII compared to the previous two midterm or presidential elections

World War I Midterm Turnout 1910 52.0% 1914 50.4 1918 39.9 World War II Midterm Turnout 1934 44.5% 1938 46.6 1942 33.9 World War II Presidential Turnout 1936 61.0% 1940 62.4 1944 55.9

Source: U.S. Elections Project, Vital Statistics of American Politics

But it’s not just war and disease that have disrupted our elections. Sudden natural disasters have also impeded voting, as demonstrated by Hurricane Sandy, which hit the East Coast just days ahead of the 2012 election. New Jersey and New York were especially hard-hit, and leaders there had to work to ease voting access in the storm’s aftermath. In New Jersey, the government designated those displaced by the storm as “overseas voters,” which allowed them to email or fax absentee ballots, though some localities weren’t able to effectively handle the surge in absentee requests. And in parts of New York City, some voters had to cast ballots in tents because of the damage to polling locations.

It’s unlikely that Sandy’s effects altered the presidential outcome, given that both New Jersey and New York were safely Democratic, but turnout was down in areas affected by storm surge in New Jersey. One study from political scientists at Stony Brook University found that the storm possibly helped Barack Obama carry Virginia because of how it affected turnout in parts of the state.

Other disasters like 9/11 have disrupted our elections more dramatically. New York’s primary election was actually scheduled for Sept. 11, 2001, but the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center that morning prompted New York Gov. George Pataki to postpone the election, and the state instead held its primaries two weeks later. Obviously, this was an especially extreme case, but the suddenness of the delay is a reminder that sometimes elections can’t go on.

And it’s arguably why states should be preparing now for how voting will work in November. Turnout has usually declined in crisis elections — sometimes dramatically — and Illinois’s diminished turnout last Tuesday demonstrated that it could be challenging to hold an election if COVID-19 is still a significant danger come November, particularly if some states remain reliant on in-person voting.

Edward Foley, an election law expert at the Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, told me that states need to start adapting their voting systems. “The focus of attention should be on how to conduct a November election that maximizes opportunity for voter participation under current circumstances,” Foley said. “And that means ramping up capacity for vote by mail in states that are not traditionally used to vote by mail.”

However, many states could struggle to adopt vote-by-mail electoral systems because of legal, logistical and election security challenges. These include changing laws to provide more time for delivering, collecting and processing mailed-in ballots, as well as ensuring that a person only votes once. There are seemingly mundane obstacles to be overcome, like getting enough high-quality paper for printing ballots and having enough envelopes! It’s enough to make you wonder if there could even be talk of postponing the 2020 election.

But altering the presidential and congressional elections scheduled for November is very hard. It would require congressional action, and such a move would be unprecedented. Fortunately, state and federal governments have time to get ahead of many potential election challenges stemming from COVID-19. “If [states] start doing that preparation, I don’t anticipate any reason why Congress would want to change the date of the November election,” Foley said.

Whether our leaders will make the necessary changes, however, remains to be seen.

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #Geoffrey Skelley

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nicholerestrada · 5 years

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How to think about the China talks

Editor’s Note: This edition of Morning Money is published weekdays at 8 a.m. POLITICO Pro Financial Services subscribers hold exclusive early access to the newsletter each morning at 5:15 a.m. To learn more about POLITICO Pro’s comprehensive policy intelligence coverage, policy tools and services, click here.

HOW TO THINK ABOUT THE CHINA TALKS — There will be closer to 60 days to make a deal one we get through the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. And there likely won’t be any serious talks before that. Once we hit the new year, there are likely to be several rounds of talks including possible U.S. delegations to Beijing and Chinese visits to Washington, though as of Thursday there was no schedule set up yet.

Story Continued Below

That’s not much time for U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to put together a meaningful accord that would include specific goals for the Chinese to meet on intellectual property rights, forced technology transfer and other key administration goals.

The document will also have to include timetables for compliance and a mechanism for verification. The Chinese are good at making vague promises and then not doing much of anything to comply with them. This is not true of buying U.S. products, which they are more than happy to do and doesn’t actually mean anything to their long-term goals.

There is almost no chance any of this can get done in sixty days. Which means there will have either have to be extensions or President Trump can accept a weak deal or push ahead with a trade war escalation.

Trump alone will make this call and he probably has little idea at this point which way he is going to go. His senior advisers certainly don’t know. A lot will depend on how markets are doing in late February, what the Fed has done on rates, what’s happening in the Mueller probe and what Trump’s mood is like.

The betting here is that Trump will care more about market reaction and not screwing up the economy heading toward re-election than he will about complaints from hardliners like Peter Navarro that he is not being tough enough with China. This makes the most likely outcome an extension past March 1 for more work or acceptance of modest promises and more Chines goods purchases.

CHIEF OF STAFF HUNT GOES ON — Our Rebecca Morin: “Trump said on Thursday that he’s narrowed his chief of staff search down to five candidates, but he refused to reveal who’s now on the short-list. During a meeting with governors-elect, the president teased out vague details of the search in reality-show style. ‘Five people. Really good ones. Terrific people. Mostly well known, but terrific people,’ Trump said. Trump did not name any of the candidates or say when a decision will be made.

“Trump has repeatedly insisted that it’s a highly coveted job, even as top White House aide Kellyanne Conway hinted that Kelly may stay on longer than the end of 2018. … Other contenders floated have included David Bossie, a former Trump campaign deputy manager; former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer; and Republican fundraiser Wayne Berman.” Read more.

IS HE GOING TO JARED? — HuffPo’s S.V. Date: “Jared Kushner, the husband of Trump’s daughter Ivanka and already an official White House adviser, met with Trump Wednesday about the job, a top Republican close to the White House told HuffPost. He and two others close to Trump or the White House who confirmed Kushner’s interest in the position did so on condition of anonymity to discuss the president’s staffing considerations freely.

“Kushner has been pushing his own candidacy with Trump, citing his work on a criminal justice reform package and a claimed ability to work with Democrats, one person said.” Read more.

WP’s Josh Dawsey on Twitter: “A White House official says Jared Kushner is not under consideration for chief of staff and is not interviewing for the job. (The usual Trump White House caveats apply here.)”

MM SIDEBAR — We are told by one person close to the White House that Christie is unlikely due to frictions with Kushner, though Trump could overrule his son-in-law. We are also told that Mulvaney actually does want it (very badly) and could somehow wind up with it if no other candidate emerges, though wanting it is usually a very bad look with Trump. Blackstone’s Wayne Berman is again on some short lists but we are told he is not among the FINAL FIVE. Anyway, it’s a big, Trump Show mess.

BOSSIE THE BOSS? — Our Gabby Orr, Andrew Restuccia and Rebecca Morin: “Depending on who you ask … Bossie, a controversial Republican operative excluded from the president’s earliest batch of hires, is either a frontrunner or a nonstarter in … Trump’s chief of staff sweepstakes.

“Some White House allies say Bossie, formerly Trump’s deputy campaign manager, shot to the top of the list the minute Trump expressed an interest in having an effective political operator in the slot. … People close to the White House said the president has even discussed splitting the job into two separate positions: one person tasked with focusing on the day-to-day operations of the West Wing and another person charged with orchestrating a political strategy ahead of the 2020 election.” Read more.

CRAPO WEIGHS DEUTSCHE INVESTIGATION — Per our Zachary Warmbrodt: Senate Banking Chairman Mike Crapo says he’s taking a request by Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Elizabeth Warren to investigate Deutsche Bank “under advisement” but he’s hesitant to single out a specific company.

“The Banking Committee has not yet, and I don’t know that I’m ready to start, singling out and creating investigations on specific companies,” Crapo told POLITICO.

Crapo said the committee’s already been reviewing anti-money laundering rules and that “I’m very open to looking into the issues further.” Police raided Deutsche’s offices recently as part of a money laundering investigation.

The company’s problems could be a case study as part of a potential anti-money laundering overhaul but Crapo said the committee also has “a list as long as your arm of issues that we need to hold hearings on.”

Sen. Sherrod Brown, the top Democrat on the committee, says he’s in favor of the committee “looking into all of this kind of scandal, and Deutsche Bank is sort of first in line it seems on all things scandal.”

** A message from the American Council of Life Insurers: Americans work hard and deserve a secure retirement. Now is the time for Congress to act. The American Council of Life Insurers is joined by the Insured Retirement Institute, BPC Action, Church Alliance, and other leading voices in calling on Congress to pass retirement security legislation this year. Learn more. **

FED PREP — The central bank will almost certainly boost its target rate by a quarter point next week to a range of 2.25 to 2.50 percent. What happens after that is now a pretty open question.

We should get some signals from Fed Chair Jay Powell next week on whether three rate hikes are still likely for next year. He may well nudge expectations away from that and lean hard into the idea of data dependence and that any signs of a significant economic slowing could reduce the number to two, one, or even none.

RSM chief economist Joseph Brusuelas: “Recent Fed rhetoric implies there will be changes in the language around forward-looking guidance … which will deemphasize the dot plot forecast. We expect the committee to drop the phrase ‘further gradual increases’ in favor of something that points toward the evolution of high frequency data and risks around the outlook, which remain balanced.”

SPEAKING OF THE CHINESE BUYING STUFF — Our Megan Cassella: “China purchased 1.13 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans this week, offering a sign that the two countries are beginning to make progress in alleviating trade tensions. The Department of Agriculture on Thursday reported the purchase, which historical data show is the ninth-largest daily sale of U.S. soybeans ever. … The purchase, which is equal to about 41 million bushels, will make up only a fraction of the total soybeans typically sold to China in a normal year.

“Including the purchase, the U.S. has sold roughly 55 million bushels to China in this marketing year, which began Sept. 1. That represents a 91 percent drop from the more than 600 million bushels sold to China at the same point last year, said John Newton, chief economist at the American Farm Bureau Federation.” Read more.

SHOT — Trump to Fox News on the GM plant closings: “It doesn’t really matter because Ohio is, under my leadership from a national standpoint, Ohio’s going to replace those jobs like in two minutes.”

CHASER — American Bridge’s Andrew Bates emails: “Trump spent years promising the American people that he could prevent layoffs and outsourcing. But now that 11,000 American workers are losing their jobs on his watch – in part due to economic damage caused by his own trade policies – he says it ‘doesn’t really matter.’ Try telling that to the thousands of distressed families in Ohio, Michigan, and Maryland whose futures were just thrown into chaos right before the holidays.”

GOOD FRIDAY MORNING — Happy weekend, all. Email me at [email protected] and follow me on Twitter @morningmoneyben. Email Aubree Eliza Weaver at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @AubreeEWeaver.

DRIVING THE DAY — Retail Sales at 8:30 a.m. expected to rise 0.1 percent … Industrial production at 9:15 a.m. … Industrial Production at 9:15 a.m. expected to rise 0.3 percent …

NO PLAN AS SHUTDOWN NEARS — Our Sarah Ferris, Burgess Everett, and Anthony Adragna: “Without … Trump to worry about, a bipartisan deal would likely sail through Congress to fund the government ahead of the holidays. But with Trump enjoying his border wall brinkmanship, everyone in the Capitol has basically stopped talking.

“The House and Senate left town Thursday with no strategy to avert a partial government shutdown next week, putting Congress on the brink of an intractable conflict that could drag out through New Year’s Day — furloughing hundreds of thousands of workers and costing taxpayers millions.” Read more.

INSIDE THE LAST DAYS OF LLOYD — Bloomberg’s Max Abelson and Sridhar Natarajan: “When Lloyd Blankfein told his colleagues at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in July that he was going to retire from the bank’s top job, he said the timing just felt right. When things are going wrong, he wrote them in a memo, you can’t up and leave. Now in Blankfein’s final weeks as chairman of Wall Street’s most influential bank, things have gone wrong.

“Prosecutors are zeroing in on the firm’s work for a Malaysian investment fund that they say was raided in a historic plunder. Goldman’s role raising about $6.5 billion for 1MDB has become one of its ugliest scandals in a generation. In November, the U.S. Justice Department revealed that a former partner pleaded guilty to bribery charges, his deputy was arrested and the firm put a top Asia banking executive on leave. The stock is down more than 30 percent in 2018.” Read more.

MEET YOUR NEW BANKING COMMITTEE DEMOCRATS — Via Zach: Sen.-elect Kyrsten Sinema and Sen. Tina Smith are joining the Democratic side of the Senate Banking Committee, a pair that may effectively cancel each other out when it comes to certain regulatory issues.

The appointment of Sinema was great news for bank lobbyists. The Arizona Democrat has been one of the most industry-friendly members of her party in the House, and she supported the landmark bank deregulation bill that became law in May.

Smith opposed that legislation. Senate Banking ranking member Sherrod Brown, who led the charge against the bill, described the Minnesota Democrat as “pro-consumer” in an interview.

The committee lost two of its more “conservative members” — Sens. Heidi Heitkamp and Joe Donnelly — “and picked up a progressive and a conservative,” Brown told POLITICO.

“I don’t know Sinema,” he said. “I don’t talk to her. I’ve never seen her in action. I know that she’s not been exactly where I am politically but it’s a big country. I worked with Heidi and Joe.”

TRUMP PUSHES OPPORTUNITY ZONES — Our Brian Faler: “Trump … signed an executive order creating a new group of government officials charged with developing ways of improving the new Opportunity Zone program. The White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council will be led by Ben Carson, head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and staffed by aides from 13 agencies.

“It will be responsible for finding ways federal agencies can support the initiative, which is designed to funnel money into designated areas for economic development. … The effort has come under criticism, though, because many of the areas were already gentrifying before the initiative began. It would also personally benefit Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s family, the Associated Press and Bloomberg News have reported.” Read more.

BUDGET DEFICIT UP TO $305B IN FY2019 — WSJ’s Kate “Coat Thief” Davidson: “The U.S. budget gap widened in the first two months of the fiscal year as tax collections lagged behind federal outlays, which included higher spending for the military and interest on the national debt. The government ran a $305 billion deficit in October and November, compared with $202 billion during the same period a year earlier, the Treasury Department said Thursday.

“Federal outlays climbed 18 percent the first two months of fiscal 2019, which began Oct. 1, and total receipts rose 3 percent. Much of the increase in the deficit was attributable to a shift in the timing of certain payments, the Treasury said. The first day of December fell on a Saturday this year, so payments that would have been made then were moved up to Nov. 30, boosting spending for the period.” Read more.

MNUCHIN “HAPPY,” BUT WILLING TO BE TRUMP’S CHIEF — Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs and Erik Wasson: “Mnuchin indicated he’d serve as White House chief of staff if President Donald Trump wants but said he’s happy in his current job. ‘I’m happy where I am,’ Mnuchin said Thursday in a brief interview at the Capitol, but added: ‘Whatever the president wants.’

“Trump said earlier Thursday that he’s weighing five candidates to succeed retired General John Kelly as White House chief of staff, after eliminating Representative Mark Meadows, a North Carolina Republican, from consideration.” Read more.

BIGGEST THREAT IN 2019? STILL THE TRADE WAR. — WSJ’s Harriet Torry: “Most economists in a recent survey view a trade war between the U.S. and China as the biggest threat to the U.S. economy in 2019, a sign that forecasters view political uncertainty and the potential for new punitive tariff barriers as greater risks than macroeconomic or financial disruptions.

“Nearly half of economists who responded to a survey by The Wall Street Journal, 47.3 percent, said they viewed the U.S. dispute with Beijing as the No. 1 risk for 2019. Some 20 percent cited financial market disruptions and 12.7 percent pointed to a slowdown in business investment.” Read more.

ECONOMIST SCALE BACK PROJECTIONS ON FED HIKES — WSJ’s Kate Davidson: “Private economists tempered their expectations for the path of interest rates next year in a new Wall Street Journal survey, and many foresee the Federal Reserve cutting rates starting in 2020.

“All but one of the 60 economists polled expect the Fed to raise its benchmark federal-funds rate next week to a range between 2.25 percent and 2.5 percent. But they dialed back their median forecast for 2019, calling for two rate increases next year rather than the three they expected when surveyed last month.” Read more.

CAN CRYPTO SURVIVE GOVERNMENT REGULATION? — NYT’s Peter Henning: “The government has finally begun a crackdown on the market for cryptocurrencies and digital tokens. Does this spell the demise of digital currencies and the end of initial coin offerings? …

“But even before the government began its crackdown, there was a big sign that euphoria was evaporating from the market: the decline in cryptocurrency ‘mining’ that generates additional digital tokens. Giga Watt, a digital currency mining operation in Washington state, filed for bankruptcy recently due in large part to the collapse in Bitcoin’s price.” Read more.

** A message from the American Council of Life Insurers: Americans work hard and deserve a secure retirement. Now is the time for Congress to act.

The American Council of Life Insurers is joined by a broad coalition of advocates across industries in calling on Congress to pass comprehensive retirement security legislation this year. Legislation now before the House and Senate would help millions of Americans prepare for a financially secure future by expanding access to retirement plans and making it easier for employers to offer guaranteed lifetime income options. Enhancements to the retirement system are needed now more than ever—10,000 Americans turn age 65 every day, with many living 30 years or more in retirement.

Congress: Support workers, retirees, and business owners by passing retirement security legislation before year’s end. Learn more. **

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michaeljtraylor · 5 years