#also lying saying I don’t take payment oh that’s BULLSHIT | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

pigtownchronicles · 3 years

Text

Chapter 2.4 - The Broker

The phone call on Monday had been cryptic:

“Brokerage,” a rather deep voice had said on the other end of the line, after Barry dialed the number he’d been given.

“Yes, hello. My name is Barry Gersholm. I was given a card with this number to contact a Mr. Ian Miller.”

There was a bit of silence. “Who gave you the number?”

“A fellow named Hugh.”

“Are you buying or selling?”

“Excuse me?”

“Buying or selling?”

“I guess...I’m not sure? I was told that I...uh...had some assets that might be valuable. Selling, I guess?”

A little more silence than before. The man asked him for his name again, gave Barry an address to write down, didn’t repeat it, and then hung up.

It was not the sort of business contact Barry was used to dealing with, but then, nothing about Hugh, or Depot, had been anything like he’d expected. The more he thought about it, though, the less likely it seemed like something he ought to do. He had no idea who this person was. If he told Dennis where he was going, he would have a conniption--taking a drug dealer up on a possible job offer with a third party, without knowing anything about what they did? Was he an idiot? Maybe he was, he thought, but at the same time, it was exciting. He couldn’t really remember the last time he’d taken a risk--an actual risk, barebacking while on PrEP didn’t really count, not that Dennis could know about that either. That evening, he thought about telling him, but didn’t. Tuesday morning, at the office, he spent all day trying to figure out how to get out early. He had never been good at believable excuses. Richard checked in with him again, and his smarmy fucking demeanor made him want to be there even less.

“Hey Richard, I’m gonna take off early, get a little work down at home this evening,” he said, “I got a doctor’s appointment, hope you don’t mind.”

“Of course not, any meetings you might miss?”

“Nothing on the schedule.”

“Then no problem. Oh, but in exchange, you have to promise to come out with the rest of the team on Friday. I want us to have a little party, you know, to celebrate our near completion of the project.”

More likely, it was to celebrate his own promotion, but Barry agreed to go. If nothing else, it would be beer he didn’t have to buy on a Friday night. Around three-thirty, he packed up his stuff and left the building, and about ten to four, he arrived at the address that had been given to him. It was a rather dilapidated house, looking like it had survived a few rezonings in its time--on one side was a liquor store, and on the other, a little string of businesses being run out of repurposed buildings like this one, until they ran up against a sizable apartment building that took up the rest of the block. Unlike those other little shops, this one didn’t seem to have a sign anywhere around it, but the address was right. He walked up the steps, gave a knock on the door, and after a moment, it opened up, revealing a rather tall fellow in business casual, maybe a bit younger than Barry was. “Barry, right?” he asked. It was the same voice from over the phone, but in person, he was putting off a little more charm.

“Yeah, you must be Ian,” Barry said, and the man nodded as they shook hands.

“Come on in, let’s have a chat.”

Barry followed him into the living room, which still felt more like a living room than the meeting room it might be used as. There, sitting in a sagging armchair, was Hugh. Ian sat in a second armchair, leaving Barry the couch in front of them both. He gave a little nod to Hugh, but he wasn’t quite sure what to make of this. If he’d been suspicious that they were selling drugs before, he was almost certain of it now, and he wasn’t sure this was the sort of move he wanted to make. Best to go through the motions, though. He pulled his resume out and handed it to Ian, who set it aside without looking at it. “Hugh and I have been talking about his impression of you on Friday, and I asked him to join me for our chat today, if you don’t mind.”

“I don’t,” Barry said, “I suppose I just feel a bit in the dark about all of this. What exactly is it you do here?”

“The growth in this part of the city over the last year has opened up a number of possibilities that would have been unimaginable before,” Ian said, putting on a tone not unlike half the tech startup gurus who were rotated through his office for various seminars each year, “I have found myself in a rather fortuitous position, to be able to offer folks the ability to take part in a commodities trade unlike anything that has been in existence before this.”

Barry nodded along, and then decided he didn’t quite feel like nodding. He was being sold a line of bullshit already. “That all sounds very fascinating, but it doesn’t tell me anything--I’ve been in sales long enough to know a pitch when I hear one. Just be straight with me.”

Ian looked over at Hugh, and gave him a look that could have meant a number of things, part shrug, part curiosity, perhaps.

“I’m a broker, as it says on my card. But what I buy and sell isn’t anything...physical, exactly. I’m in the business of buying and selling emotions, experiences, pasts and futures. Livelihoods.”

“Sounds like drugs.”

Ian gave another one of his little shrugs. “You sound like that’s what you were expecting, but no. I know Hugh has many hustles, but this isn’t drugs, not exactly. Like I said, I’m merely a broker, trying to help men find their way to happiness. Everyone has things they don’t like about their life, of course. But to someone walking down the street, perhaps that life you have is exactly what might make them happy. You in turn, might desire aspects of another. My services and skills help men like this connect, and make one another happy. To give each other the assets that they no longer appreciate.”

“That...what does that even mean?”

“Here, let me show you something,” Ian said, picked up a remote control, and turned on the TV hanging on the wall.

Barry recognized the location--it was the couch where he was currently sitting, but instead, a rather slender, twinky fellow was sitting there. “I’ve tried to gain weight all my life, I guess. I’ve always just had this strange desire to be...fatter. I can’t really explain it. I know I should be happy with how I look, but I’m not,” the young man said, “Can...you really help me?”

The video cut to the young man lying on a table in a sterile looking room. It looked like hyperlapse, what came next, but it was too smooth. The man’s body began to swell, packing on weight while he laid there, seemingly in a matter of moments. He went from a lean 170 to well over 300 pounds, and after the strange transformation, the video cut back to the couch, where the...new man was sitting, grinning with delight.

“How are you feeling? Adjusting well?” Ian’s voice said from off screen.

“Fuck, I’ve never felt better man, I finally...feel like I have the body I was supposed to have. I know that sounds a bit sick, but I can’t thank you enough.”

Ian paused the video, and waited a moment while Barry digested what he’d just witnessed. “That’s just one of many, many testimonials I could show you. Some changes are physical, like this young man. Others want a different persona. Others want a different line of work, a different past, a different family. Anything that you want to sell, I can try and find a buyer to connect you with, or if not, I’m also happy to take unwanted aspects in exchange for payment.”

“I...that’s unbelievable.”

They watched a few more videos, and either Ian should have been in Hollywood doing special effects, or he was telling the truth. Hugh slipped in then, and made a pitch. “I could see that you wanted another chance there at the club. A younger body, carefree, able to dance the night away, resilience and vigor and all of those wonderful things. You, in turn, have a respectable career, a husband who you seem at odds with. But those things could be an asset to someone else, and you, in turn, could have what you wanted on Friday night.”

Ian had gotten up for a moment, went to a glass display case on the wall, pulled a little jar from it, and returned to where they were sitting. He tapped a small bit of the powder out from inside the jar, and made a small line on the coffee table. “Here, this isn’t the real thing, but I’ve managed to...synthesize, some of what I do downstairs for folks. If you want a little taste of what I can offer you, try this.”

“So it is drugs.”

“It’s an emerging product line, still in development. I merely want to help you fully understand what I can offer you. I assure you they’re completely safe. The effect only will last a few minutes.”

A bit suspicious, and thinking it would probably be just a little bit of coke, since all of this had to be a very complex ruse, or scam, or...something. He took the hit anyway, because he felt like he deserved a little coke for listening to this bullshit, but what happened when it hit him was unlike any drug he’d experienced before.

He wasn’t...in the house anymore. He was in a club. What club didn’t matter, what did matter was the pounding of the music, the throbbing energy in his body, and when Barry looked down at himself, it wasn’t...his body he was looking at. He was slender, and young, and vibrant, with a...sizable bulge in the front of the skimpy underwear he was wearing with nothing else. But he wasn’t there to look at himself, he was there to dance, and vibe, and it felt like he could do this forever. The euphoria that washed over him wasn’t from a drug, it was the sheer thrill of that moment, and just as he grasped it and held it, believed it, it was gone--and he was sitting on the couch again, eyes tearing up slightly, while Hugh and Ian watched.

“Now do you understand? That could be you. For real.”

“I think...I think I need to go,” Barry said, wiping his eyes. That had been....too exquisite. Too tempting. He needed some distance to think about this.

“No worries, my offers are always open ended. You take the time you need to come to the decision that would make you happy. You wouldn’t be the first to walk away from it--sometimes, knowing what you could have is enough to make you appreciate what you already possess. I’m merely offering you the possibility of something else, alright?”

Barry retreated back to his car, and just sat in the silence for a while. He could feel it, the pulse of the music in his bones again...but was that really what he wanted? It would be pleasurable, sure. Fleeting, maybe. But what was really missing from his life didn’t seem like something that could be bought and sold. But then, what if it could be?

***

Want more Pigtown Chronicles? Support me over on my Patreon, and you can get early access to new chapters, along with loads of other content!

#pigtown #age regression #drugs #hallucination

14 notes · View notes

woodface · 3 years

Text

Leena deserved better

So we’ve made our way halfway through s4 of Warehouse 13 and I have so much feelings and a whole lot of salt. I love this show and its found family, but oh boy, do I also have issues and most of it revolve on how Leena gets treated.

I love Leena a lot. Despite how... well for 3 whole seasons this show does not know what to do with Leena. It’s so painful to watch. They threw in a character who was all heart and could see a little too much. Her aura reading made her rather mysterious and a little mystical, and she obviously is very empathic to all the other characters around her. She’s able to sense artifacts and the strange energies they resonate... and unlike with Pete’s vibes or Steve’s ability to know when someone is lying, the writers did not know what to do with that or did not really want to bother trying to write around it.

So they kept Leena in the background. Sometimes there to lend an ear, to do the jobs others were too busy to do, but in general, Leena was shoved towards the background.

It took them until S4 before they let Leena venture away from the B&B and the warehouse, and god, that moment is so good that it’s painful. We get a glimpse of who Leena is, of how she can read these artefacts and keeps them in balance. Her reactions are so amazing and it just makes it all that more painful that we never got more of any of this. Even when the show was focussing on Leena with the pearl of wisdow, Leena had to carry that burden on her own. She didn’t get to confide in anyone else, she didn’t get the team around to support her. (Not on screen anyway, but let me headcanon it.)

In comes S4 where Leena is suddenly thrust forward in an attempt to build up the character they neglected for 3 whole seasons so... well her death would have a bigger impact on their story. It’s rather telling that we come to understand her true impact on the warehouse, that we come to see what she did, after she’s gone. Through the eyes of Artie so we could understand his guilt and his grief. While all the other characters around are more focussed on Artie. There is no pause in the show for them to remember her by, to show how much she is missed.

The grief over Leena is shown solely through the eyes of Artie. Leena’s death is the greater evil Artie has to live with as payment for using an artefact to change the world. It’s so gross and so disappointing, and it doesn’t work. At all.

What strikes me as odd is how this death closely follows everything happening with Steve. The writers set up a big storyline here. Steve dies for them, to save them. Steve sacrifices himself, and Claudia is so eaten up by guilt that she does the wrong thing. She does exactly what Artie says they should never do.

They bring Steve back and show us just how bad it is. Claudia ties herself to his fate, she binds them together and every hurt he feels, gets transferred to her. It’s an interesting storyline and the potential had me on the edge of my seat. Claudia has spent so much of her life trying to get her brother back. Only for him to walk away and leave her behind, and Claudia is left fumbling until she find her home with this little family.

Only for history to repeat itself and Claudia once more being faced with potentially losing a brother, and putting her own life on the line to get him back instead of learning to cope with her grief. The parallels are so obvious and it’s obvious where this storyline was meant to lead. Steve realising the danger he poses to Claudia, convincing her that he had his time and he would not let anyone get hurt in his place. Steve taking himself off the metronome after being able to say goodbye to Claudia and allowing her to move on.

It would have been beautiful, even if it would have been painful. Except, that’s not how it goes. There are no consequences to Claudia’s actions. They go back to Steve’s mother, have the weirdest kind of ceremony that felt not really cathartic and mostly confusing, but they do it. Easy as that. A moment of love, the metronome gets destroyed and Steve can live happily after.

Steve’s death would have had meaning. It would have resonated and he would have died protecting everyone. He would have been a hero, and he would have been a good brother keeping his found sister safe. Except, he lives.

Steve being alive leaves a bad taste in the mouth when a few episodes later Leena gets killed. And it doesn’t resonate. Claudia’s angst is about Artie and while that is understandable, Claudia’s lack of grief for Leena isn’t. They got Steve back without any great negative consequences, but no one pauses to think about getting Leena back. No one mentions while they angst over having Artie use the astrolabe again and that it would kill HG, Steve and Mrs Frederic, it would ultimately mean saving Leena.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think using artefacts to bring the dead back is a particularly good idea, but the show just literally made it clear that in fact, it can be done and you can get a happy ending. For the while male character, at least. (And even for HG Wells as well.) The black woman? No, she isn’t worth it. Heck, no one even wants to stop and think about what it means that Pete actually saw her. That’s just the Warehouse, apparently.

There’s so many ways they could have handled this better, even if she still ended up dead in the end. Heck, just the group sitting together in the B&B telling stories about Leena would have been something.

The closest we get is Artie showing us four seasons too lately exactly the type of work that Leena did. All the things, the show didn’t bother to include before as they shoved Leena’s character to the side. And it just makes the character’s death that much harder to swallow, because we never even got to see her shine. And in the same instant, we see Steve (the boy who lived) take the seat and do what she was good it in her place.

I realise I’m like 8 years too late with my indignation, but it still sucks, dammit. I’m still mad as hell because Leena was an awesome character and she deserved so much better than any of this bullshit.

And now I need like 500 fixit fics. I need the entire team dogpiling on Leena as she’s safe and sound with them again. I need Claudia clinging to her and showing her relief that she didn’t have to lose Leena too. I just... Rawr.

They couldn’t even bother to give her a frigging last name, goddammit.

#warehouse 13 #leena #metabending #so much late saltiness

5 notes · View notes

soundofseventeen · 4 years

Text

13 Days of Christmas (Xu Minghao)

I’m almost done.

Word count: 2268

“Did he see me?” You asked ducking behind the curtains.

“If he did, he would’ve been knocking on your front door already,” Chan said nonchalantly. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re so fucking weird?”

“He has a dog, Chan! And he’s the cutest thing ever!” “Are you talking about Minghao hyung or his dog?”

“Shouldn’t you be at home?” “Shouldn’t you stop taking pictures of my friends?” He brought the baseball cap he was wearing down to his eyes. “Seriously, I’m getting tired of you falling in love with them.”

“I’m not in love with any of your friends!”

“Let’s see...there was Cheol hyung at the coffee shop, Mingyu and Jihoon hyungdeul at the gym, Jun hyung at the park...and my personal favorite Soonyoung hyung at that restaurant.”

“That one wasn’t intentional!” you pointed your finger at him “You know I was meeting Wonwoo there!”

“So you say.” He shrugged, looking for his jacket to put it on. “Listen, as much I don’t enjoy spying on my friends with you, I have to go meet Vernon and talk to him about a show coming up...no you can’t come to either.”

“I wasn’t asking to go.”

“You can’t either way so ‘bye! I’ll text you later.”

You rolled your eyes. You loved Chan but he liked to blow things out of proportion from time to time. He had very attractive friends, yes, but you didn’t care for following them around town and hoping they’d notice you. Yes, Seoul was big but he wasn’t exactly the shy type….he had 12 other friends that he constantly like to spend time with….at the same time. You could barely handle four people at once for a couple of hours but hey you respected him. But that wasn’t the point.

You could name one attractive thing from the oldest to the one barely older than him but he wouldn’t really listen to that. But there was something about Minghao that kept you on your toes. You couldn’t exactly figure out why he stuck out like a sore thumb. He had the iconic resting bitch face made you afraid to approach him in the past, even when he had the cotton candy looking hair thing going on. You talked to him the least and admired him from afar the most. He also had this thing where he ruined your ego by rejecting someone else. As in, someone else confessed they had a crush on him and he said he wasn’t interested and to think about other things besides him. (As if he was some kpop idol.)

And then, he seemed a little friendlier when he got a dog. It wasn’t a big change but it was enough for you to say hi to him...and take pictures of the dog when Minghao wasn’t looking. But as always, Chan caught you at the wrong time and made his own assumption. Well, he wasn’t wrong but you wanted to play it cool...or as cool as you could manage.

You waited a few more minutes until you were sure that Chan was gone, so you could leave to do your grocery shopping for the week. The cold weather often made it impossible for you to get things done but with the holidays approaching faster and faster, you wanted to have your fridge and cabinets stocked with food in case someone in your family dropped by to surprise you or in the unlikely event that you’d be snowed in. You knew you had enough nonperishable food to last you to the New Year...even to Valentine’s Day, but you didn’t like being at home with nothing to do, so you threw your jacket on, transferred money out of your savings and headed straight for the supermarket, not quite sure what you were gonna buy.

You were quite proud of yourself for everything you bought...even though you felt tired.

Well, you didn’t actually get into the spirit of buying food, (and maybe presents if you found some that you liked enough to give) until you had caffeine in your system. You loved Chan, you really did, but he somehow usually managed to drain enough energy out of your system to power an army. You stopped at the local dog cafe, since it was the closest thing to you. You’d been there a handful of times and even though you had no complaints about the coffee...the price was another story. Somehow though, being surrouded by all the furry animals made up for it.

You sat at one of the tables after getting your drink, becoming a bystander to the outside world. You opened your backpack and pulled out your sticky notes. Though you still had time for the Chfristmas gift shopping, you wnated to be sure you had enough to make it to your next paycheck...even with what you transferred. It was noisy inside but somehow you were still able to get lost in your thoughts and what you still had to do, only coming back to reality whenever a pup scurried past by and their tail thumped on your leg.They often made you wanna have a pet of your own, but you couldn’t afford one just yet.

”Do you mind if I sit here?”

You looked up to see Minghao balancing a laptop, a book, his own cup of coffee and his newest trusty sidekick and you nodded, standing up quickly to see if there’d be any way to help him unload but he waved you off.

“I got this. It’s just so crowded here and you were the only familiar face I saw so I thought it’d be good to ask you.”

You merely smiled at him, unsure of what to say. You’d be lying if you said you never pictured something like this would happen, but you also couldn’t deny it made the situation a little scarier. Minghao in your daydreams often stopped by quietly, and shyly put your favorite pastry on the table and he shared his earphones with you and he’d sneak peeks at you. This Minghao quickly opened his laptap and fed his dog a biscuit to keep him quiet. He didn’t bother to make conversation with you and instead flipped through the notebook and typed in whatever was written down. “I’ll be out of your hair soon. I just need to buy a few presents for people.”

“Oh, you can stay as long as you want. Im just making some payments and then I’m leaving.”

“Who could you possibly be stalking today?” He didn’t break his gaze from the laptop so you couldn’t tell if he was joking.

“I...no one. I have to do grocery shopping and maybe start buying people stuff.” You did some addition, wondering just how much you could pay this month and still have enough to spend and letting out an irritated sigh when the numbers didn’t agree with you. You completely ignored him then, focusin on the internal bargains you made with yourself until you reached a satisfactory conclusion. You tapped your fingers on your knee absently, making one more quick estimate when you felt somthing licking your hand, Alright, you momentarily forgot that it was a pet cafe so you gasped a little louder than inteded, but it was time to go anyways.

Minghao noticed this and quietly rebuked the poor pup in Chinese and turned his attention to you. “I’m sorry. You don’t have to go. I can leave.”

“I have to go anyways,” you stood up, feeling embarrassed. “I have to go make dinner and then call my mom to see how she’s doing. Plus, if I give my landlord the rent money money now, I’ll be able to spend mh next check however I please.”

He surprised you by standing up too. “No, I insist. You can stay and I’ll leave with Pandi. I didn’t mean to disturb you.”

“Mingaho, it’s fine,” you assured him. “I have to go and-shit it’s cold!” The breeze that snuck in when the door opened reminded you that the holiday was here and you rushed to put your overcoat and gloves on, grateful that you left your beanie on.

“Pandi said she’s sorry...hey Y/N?”

“What?”

“I think you might need your phone for future things,” he chuckled. He picked it up and shoved it into his pocket. He took your only grocery back and walked outside with it until you were ready to join him. “I guess we can walk with Chan’s friend tonight, huh sweet girl?” He knelt to the dog’s level, and put on the small jacket he carried in his messenger bag on her and after some deliberation, a Santa hat too

You finally stepped outside as he was zipping her up and you had to contain your squeal at the adorableness. You had to admit though: seeing your intimidating crush caring for some thing as vulnerable as a pet made your heart do things. He just gave you a shy smile and offered you your bag. “Wait, are you coming with me?” The thought alone made your heart race in a way that scared you.

“Well, we live in the same area...and it’s almost dark outside...don’t you think it’d be more awkward to walk by ourselves?” He shot you a pointed look and you had to admit that you felt silly. He was still kinda scary. “Besides, I need to talk to you.”

There it was...the chill in your bones that had nothing to do with the air. “Oh my god, please tell Chan I’m not in love with any of you and I don’t stalk any of you.”

“I was just gonna say that if you wanted to watch Pandi when I go back to China next month...Chan said you’re good at taking care of pets.” You couldn’t tell if the reddening of his cheeks came from the cold air or the acknowledgement of what you said, but you cursed Chan for making your life miserable. “The stalking thing was a joke.”

With a blush as red as his Pandi’s Santa hat, you could conclude with absolute certainty was that if you didn’t give Chan a well-deserved lump of coal...you’d defintiely be chucking one at him soon. “Oh...sorry.”

“I’m gonna regret asking this, but is that really all you and Chan talk about?”

Oh, the candidness only embarrassed you further, and you wished more than anything to have been run over by a reindeer. “Chan seems to think...I’m in love with either one of you guys or all of you. And I’m not...at all.” The attraction was another story. “He’s convinced that I know all of your schedules and have all these photos of you hidden somewhere in my room.” You shot Minghao a short glare as he opened his mouth. “And I can 100% tell you it’s bullshit.”

“So you’re really gonna deny taking pictures of me from your room?”

“They’re all of your dog, I swear!” You whined. “You just happened to come out in a few of them.”

“Y/N.”

Your gloved hand reached into your pocket to take out your phone and you threw it at him. “The code is 2605.”

“Why are you giving it to me?” He asked, sounding amused. He didn’t know what your lockscreen would be, but he had to admit that he found it endearing. (unless it’s Hao, then picture something completely different.) And the same for your wallpaper.

“Because if I showed you, you’d think I was deleting them.”

“How do I know they’re not backed up in your laptop somewhere?” He didn’t know that you could be so funny either. No wonder Chan liked hanging out with you.

“Wait until I get home and I bring the fucking thing to you,” you muttered but he still heard you.

“Are you gonna give me gingerbread cookies and hot chocolate too?” He finally stopped stalling and went to your gallery, unsure why his heart was pounding.

“If it’s gonna shut you up, then yes.” You took his leash to take Pandi, but were surprised when he didn’t say anything. The screen was still bright enough for you to catch the glare reflecting off his glasses as he casually swiped through them. He finally nodded approvingly and he handed it back to you, but let you keep the leash. “Proof enough?”

“I mean, I’m still not convinced. I might have to see your laptop too. Plus you promised me cookies.” He was a little bummed that he found a whopping total of three pictures he was included in when it came to his pet, and that was including the one where it was only his shoe.

Minghao had always found you cute, but when Lee Chan started the crazy rumors of you being a stalker, he was skeptical, especially how you managed to show up a lot of the time after he pointed it out. Coincidence? Or something else?

“You...are...infuriating.” You shook your head. Maybe this would make your crush go away.

“Are they homemade?” He remembered that Chan said you baked for fun from time to time.

“You’re not getting any.”

“I guess I’ma have to tell my friends you’re a stalker.”

Yep, walking home as the stars came out and with the wind blowing the pine scent in every direction, your crush on him was slowly fading.

He gave you a small smile followed by a giggle and gently ruffled the beanie on your head. “You’re funny.”

Or not.

115 notes · View notes

carmintros · 5 years

Photo

@tomebit / ❛ ｡ ✩ ﾟ my eyes are probably playing tricks on me again, but is that really miguel bernardeau? oh, wait, it’s just nico vargas. yes, that twenty-three year old bookshop assistant, who i am pretty sure is a local. according to the talk of the town, he is incredibly reticent & acidic, yet undeniably quick-witted & innovative. that is precisely why half finished glasses of wine, dog eared book pages, the ache of a broad smile & ignored phone calls remind me of them so much, but then again you know what they say about cancers, we’ll see how that one turns out ! penned by tash / aest & she / her

nico never really had a hometown growing up — his mother was an artsy, creative, flighty type who never had it in her to stay in one place for long. she always said the wind was calling her to newer, more exciting places: nico just mostly thought that was bullshit.

but with no father to go and stay with, he didn’t have much of a choice but to follow her whims — and as a result, his childhood was mostly, lived out of a vw van.

by the time high school rolled around, nico and his mother had settled in the heart of carmel. his mother was teaching local art classes at the high school, while nico finally got a taste of normalcy.

that being said, he wasn’t the most thrilled by the prospect of carmel and all its small town glory — but it was also better than what he’d been doing prior. his mother drove him levels of batty, on account of being so very similar in disposition, and personality.

the true twist in nico’s life came when he was 17, and his mother finally exposed the secret of his parentage. his father wasn’t really absent, or dead or missing or anything she’d lead her son to believe — his father was in fact a well known writer and lyricist, living it up in la and pretending not to know about his illegitimate son.

nico’s parents had engaged in an affair when they were younger, thus resulting in his birth. in order to keep him hidden, nico’s mother took a large payment every year, paying for his school, his expenses and the like. they always had the money to stay in one place, but nico’s mother never wanted to attract any attention, and run the risk of nico’s parentage being revealed.

whether it was his mother or his father - it was always the in the nature of the vargas family to keep secrets.

to say nico was angry upon learning the truth, was an understatement. whereas before, nico was a quiet, studious student who just wanted to make friends and keep his nose clean, maybe go to a party or two, and maybe even go to college — suddenly he was angry, twisted, bitter and callous. rude and cold were his default prerogative, and nothing could really break him out of that spell — the only person with half a chance was his high school sweetheart.

despite learning the truth, nico’s father never stopped sending him money; and nico managed to put himself through college with it. it’s a sore spot with him — nico wanted to be nothing, nothing at all like him; yet he was so desperately poor that he was willing to take his money.

during the course of his college years, nico majored in fine arts, with a specialisation in portraiture and a minor in writing & literature. he’s well aware it’s not… enough to actually make a living, and any sort of real term ob will have to come with a masters and phd — but for the first time, nico was actually happy with something that he was doing.

recently, nico’s father gave an interview talking about the virtues of family and guidance — and in response, nico gave one too. to rolling stone, detailing just how much of a hypocrite his father was, lying and paying his mother off, in order to hide his illegitimate son.

the resulting fanbase and attention wasn’t something nico adored, but it was worth it if his father would stop lying — and maybe even leave him alone. the opposite took place, with his father’s renewed interest in his son’s life, and even more money being thrown at his son.

because of his experiences and despite the years since his paternal revelation, nico is callous and cold and cruel; he’s more prone to insults than he is compliments — and usually spends his days reading at the shop, ignoring customers unless they want to buy books.

( he still refuses to stock any of his father’s poetry, no matter how much his boss tells him to do so. )

wanted connections

ex-fiancee. a crucial part of nico’s story, she was formerly his high school sweetheart. things ended on horrible terms, with nico cheating on her in a fit of grief about their relationship. a connection to the main will be sent for her!

former one night stand. the woman that nico slept with and ended his engagement. the two don’t speak and nico refuses to acknowledge the fact he also, cannot get her out of his head.

fwb. someone he’s currently messing around with. it really just fills the void for nico, between working at the shop and going home to an empty apartment. that’s it.

half siblings. nico’s father has other legitimate children with his wife, but whether they come to carmel looking for him — or were already there — is a big question mark.

colleagues. people nico barely tolerates bc they work at the shop alongside him; and he’s able to pass off some of his shifts to them, if need be.

potential roommate. his apartment is big enough for himself, and his father pays his rent; but nico still wouldn’t mind the company. he’s a fairly lonely person, despite refusing to admit it.

best friend. really one of three people nico isn’t a complete asshole too, and perhaps the only one who can get to the crux of his emotions. they’ve known each other since college, and are there through thick and thin.

#carm:intro

7 notes · View notes

dukeofishgard · 5 years

Text

FFXIV Write 2019. Prompt #1 - Voracious

feat. Duke and Dracyn’s youngest son, Lucien Jr, set in the future. I’ve really been in the mood to write him for a while and explore his character more and ironically this prompt fit him perfectly. No real warnings, other than Lucien Jr is an idiot.

@sea-wolf-coast-to-coast

“You’re a real piece of work, you know that right Lucien?! I mean, it’s not as though I’ve been sitting here, worried about you or anything! Why the hells should I be when you’re clearly fine and dandy wandering about without a care in the world!”

Lucien winced, opening his mouth to respond but then quickly snapped it shut at the look on the other man’s face, offering instead only an apologetic, weak smile.

“You get back to Limsa and your first instinct isn’t to come let me know you’re back, no of course not, because that’d be too bloody hard for you, aye? No, instead you beeline to the Drowning Wench and find the first bastard willing to listen to your outrageous fething stories!” The man huffed, glaring over at the dark-haired man.

“Um, one moment-” Lucien held up a finger, wagging it slightly, “Do you mean to say you do not believe my stories? I say this because you just called them ‘outrageous’, soo…”

“Yes, Lucien. I utterly believe your batshit story about how you single-handedly rescued an entire ships worth of slaves-”

“It was not single-handedly! Freya was there! I give credit where credits due…” he scratched the back of his head sheepishly, glancing away, “Mainly cos Freya’d kick my ass if I didn’t if I’m being honest…”

“Oh, fine then.” Kiaran retorted, “You and Freya single-handedly destroyed that ship AND a notorious pirate captain AND freed the slaves. That’s why the Maelstrom’s saying they did it-”

“Oh bullshite, are they really!” Lucien stood up, uncaring as the blanket fell off his body and exposing himself as he furiously began to pace around the room, “That’s just my parents work! You know my father worked for them, and my mother obviously is, well, I mean- hugely influential. Twelve, I can’t BELIEVE they’ve actually covered up my work! I mean… I shouldn’t care that much, a real hero does deeds for the good, not for the recognition so- ”

“Shockingly enough, Lucien- I can’t confirm a single detail of that because I barely know a single damned thing about the particulars of your family because YOU, refuse to introduce me to your entire fething family!” Kiaran cut him off, stalking over to point a finger at his face, shaking in annoyance, “You refuse to so much as even consider the idea of me even saying hello to anyone who may be even the most CASUAL of acquaintances.”

Lucien sputtered for a moment, blue eyes blinking rapidly at the suddenness of his lover’s outburst, waving his hands frantically to attempt to calm him down, “W-...Well, that’s for your own good, I’ve told you!”

“Oh, yes of course,” Kiaran rolled his eyes, turning his back on Lucien and waving a hand in the air, “Your mother, the bloody Duke of Ishgard is overbearing and liable to have a stroke if he finds out you’re serious with anyone… because he’s apparently an ‘immortal’ and fears for your eventual death. Your father is both a former pirate and somehow former Maelstrom . Kidnappings seem to follow your family everywhere and you’ve all got so many enemies out for your blood-” he paused, turning back to stare at Lucien, “That a good enough summary? Really, I’d be less pissed if you just were honest and say you’re not ready to be serious.”

Lucien gaped at him, hands shaking as he balled them into fists, “I am being honest! Why would I lie about all of that?! It’s for your own safety that I keep you at a distance!”

“Oh, sorry I wasn’t aware ‘keeping someone at a distance’ also meant fucking anyone who fawns over you-”

“I don’t fuck just anyone!” Lucien huffed, crossing his arms and looking away, “Only the ones I want too.”

Kiaran snorted, shaking his head, “So. All of them then?” he retorted, rolling his eyes.

“No! Not all of the-”

“He does have a point. You’ve a rather voracious appetite I’ve yet to see satiated, Lucien,” A third voice rose from the door, and the two men blinked- glancing over at the unannounced visitor who stood in the doorway, arms crossed as she surveyed the room, “My apologies, Kiaran. The door was opened, and I was looking for Lucien. Please allow me to take him off your hands.”

Kiaran sighed, rubbing his forehead and waving a hand, “No. It’s fine. I’m used to Lucien barging in here unannounced, why not you as well!”

“Freyaaa…” Lucien’s voice came out as a whine as he stared at the viera with the saddest puppy eyes he could muster, blue eyes shimmering in the sunlight, “Don’t take his side! Tell him that everything I’ve told him about my family is true! That it’s dangerous for him to be involved with me!”

The viera named Freya glanced between the two men, light brown ears twitching slightly and black eyes gazing at them balefully as she spoke, “Kiaran, you are a good man. Please understand that Lucien is correct and has spoken the truth… it is absolutely dangerous to be involved with him,” she paused, glancing at the naked dark-haired man who was now smugly looking at Kiaran at her words, “But not because of the reasons he stated. No, he is just an idiot. A foolish idiot. Trust me when I say it is better you stay far away from his foolish endeavors. Now, will you put some clothes on Lucien so we can go and collect our payment from the other day?”

“I- wha- FREYA… that is NOT what I meant for you to say! That’s not- I’m NOT an idiot! I simply have a voracious appetite and lust for adventure and helping others-”

Freya stared at him blankly for a moment before leaning down to pick up his discarded pants and chucking them at his face, “Can you please stop monologuing, shut up, and put clothes on? Yes, all the things you stated about your family are true,” she glanced at Kiaran again with a shrug, “To be honest, he is not wrong about that. The Bellefleur-Navarre’s are not exactly a family that most normal people can handle. I grew up with Lucien and I can still barely deal with the events that seem to consistently befall them,” she glanced back at Lucien who had finally untangled himself from the pants she had thrown, ��But my point stands. Lucien is an idiot. Please, let him grow up a bit more before you force him to introduce you to his family.”

Lucien glared at her, throwing his pants onto the ground with a huff and crossing his arms, “I am NOT an idiot-”

“You absolutely are. Do you really think you have the upperhand in this conversation whilst ranting nude, little idiot?” Freya turned to stare at him unblinking, “You may be a morally upstanding man, but you are absolutely an idiot. Now please put on some clothing lest I start judging Kiaran more than I already do for bedding you.”

Kiaran groaned, bringing a hand up to rub at his brow, “For the love of Twelve, would you both just get out of my house? Some of us actually have work we need to do and I can see clearly there’s absolutely no getting through to you yet again, Lucien.”

Lucien glanced at him, now very clearly pouting, “Really? You’re just going to kick me out? Just like that?”

“I’ve done it before, and I am doing it again. Get out. I can’t believe I actually held some manner of affection for you last night that let you come back here in the first place. Grow up Lucien, and then come back to talk. Until then, I’ve got no time for your hyperbolic stories.”

“I…” Lucien frowned, staring at him for a moment before leaning down and gathering his clothes in a huff, “Fine. Fine! See if I care. You think I care? I don’t. You’ll see one day that I’m not lying and then you’ll feel bad. And I still won’t care!” He turned away, clutching the bundle of his clothes against his chest before stalking out- uncaring that he was still not dressed.

Freya watched as he left before turning to Kiaran with a bow of her head, “Please forgive him. He’s got the best and worst traits of his parents unfortunately, he means well… he is just an utter fool,” she shrugged, “Take care Kiaran. I shall see you in a few days.”

“In a few days?! Do you REALLY think I am going to let that brat back into my house? I’m done with him, and you heard him, he ‘doesn’t care’” Kiaran asked, glaring at her- eyes flaring with annoyance.

She returned the stare with zero emotion, simply shrugging her shoulders with a nod, “You have every other time,” she said plainly before turning on her heel and left without another word.

----

Outside Lucien had, much to her thanks, put on his pants and was in the process of pulling his shirt over his head- uncaring of the stares of the people on the street.

“Bloody bastard, I swear, I’ve no idea why I put up with him. Blah blah blah, you’re full of shite Lucien, blah blah blah whine whine whine. Seven hells, could you lay off me for one twelves damned tick,” he turned, blue eyes turning to stare icily at Freya as she leaned against the wall to watch him, “You didn’t help a single bit in there, you know. I hope you’re happy.”

Freya shrugged, idly checking her nails, “You are the one who didn’t help yourself. I do not know why you insist on sabotaging your relationship with Kiaran every chance you get. If you were just honest-”

“Freya, you heard him. He doesn’t even believe the basic facts about my family. You expect him to believe the rest? Please. My family is even weirder than what I’ve told him. Whatever, it does not matter anyway. Plenty of other fish in the sea, eh?” he winked at her, a cheeky grin appearing on his face, “Or so they say. Heh, there sure were plenty last night until he showed up and occupied my time-”

“Please-” Freya held up a hand, pushing herself off the wall and shaking her head, “Do not continue. We’ve a payment to collect and another job to start o great hero of Eorzea. Mayhap that will cheer up your clearly broken heart.”

“I do NOT have a broken heart, Freya…!”

“Of course not. You’re just sniffling like a babe because… allergies? Yes?”

“Shut up! Nobody asked you.”

“And you wonder why he treats you like a child, idiot.”

#FFxivWrite2019 #ffxiv #balmung rp

7 notes · View notes

calwh7 · 5 years

Text

Sleep Walking - Chapter 1

Hey I’m back but with voltage, think I’ve moved on. This is something I’ve wanted to write for a while now so I thought why not?. Thanks to my friend tho who have encouraged me to write this especially @gamerneko-girl thank you 💕 also the gang mentioned in this is from my fave game sleeping dogs.

—————————————————————

Description: Yumeka, the daughter of Soryu Oh and MC lives with her mother in Hong Kong, oblivious to the fact that her father is the boss of the Ice Dragons, one of the Sun on Yee’s sworn enemies. Yumeka is also a mobster behind her mothers back, she is a high up member of the Sun on Yee. Now plagued by her mothers capture, she must fight for her mothers freedom by single handedly bringing down Soryu Oh, but with secrets uncovered left and right, will Yumeka make the right decision? Will she ever get her mother back?

Pairing: well it’s kinda Soryu x MC but it’s their kid. Who will also get a girlfriend.

Warning: this story contains scenes of violence, abuse, torture and very bad laungage throughout all chapters. There’s a scene in this chapter that’s kinda gruesome, it’s in between the * . You can skip it it’s not really story important.

Notes: a triad is basically a Cantonese mobster who belongs to one of a few specific gangs, Soryu is NOT a triad though. Yumeka is not a good person like her father. Also Sor doesn’t know he has a kid, he think that MC left him 19 years ago. Also Ryusei doesn’t exist in this. Enjoy!

—————————————————————

The rumble of the engine smoothed out as I parked my bike in a secluded alcove next to my apartment building, hidden enough so that no one would steal it through the night. I sighed as I began the journey up the stairs of the building, passing neon lights of suggestive words that flashed through the windows. I finally reached number 57 on the fifth floor, but hesitated before entering. I could hear shouting from inside, a mans fluent Cantonese shouting at a woman's timid, broken one that still had a strong Japanese accent. I think I'm really lucky I can speak both languages. That mans voice belongs to my mothers 'boyfriend', Li Wei Shang, who is actually a customer of my gang, the Sun on Yee, although not a loyal one. He would never dare lay a hand on my mother, he knew the consequences, but he'll happily throw me about a bit, because if I hit back I know the consequences . I couldn't get rid of him, not with the ever present promise that a much younger Yumeka had made to her mother. That was to never hurt him and always show respect, because apparently he has given us a lot and we should be thankful. Bullshit, if only mum knew what he really is, but then again I would also be exposed for who I really am as well, and the one promise that my mother made me swear by was that I was to not ever enter mafia culture. That lasted until I was about thirteen.

I opened the door, dreading what was to come. I heard heavy footsteps hurrying closer to me, and when I turned round from closing the door I came face to face with Li.

"No, don't hurt her please! Get out of here Yumeka!" Her shouts were cut short when Li's fist hit my face, leaving a small trail of blood from my nose.

"Get the fuck away from me!" I kicked him in his stomach hard causing him to cripple over.

"This little shit stole my money, MC! I need it back" He was holding his stomach whilst pointing an accusing finger at me.

"Here it is, I didn't steal it, just borrowed it" I calmly placed 50 dollars onto the coffee table and paced along to the bathroom, locking the door behind me. I could hear the shouting continuing but it had reduced to a more shouty conversation, if you could call it that.

I stared at myself in the bathroom mirror, hands gripping the sink. Sighing, I took off my Adidas jacket to inspect a wound that was left there from this afternoon by a rather jagged hunting knife. It wasn't a deep cut but it was still bleeding and in need of stitches, I'm just mad the boy who cut me managed to cut into a tiny piece of my dragon tattoo that goes up my left arm. That shit was kinda expensive. Taking the medical kit I keep in a bathroom drawer, I began sewing close the wound with a medical needle and thread, then wrapped a bandage around it so it doesn't get caught. Halfway through my bandage work my phone rang, still in the pocket of my jacket.

"What do you want Sami?" Sami Cho is the nickname for my best friend in the Sun on Yee.

"Yumeka, I don't give a shit no more and everyone agrees with me, Li is three months behind his payment and he ratted us out to the cops this morning and that's why there was a drug bust down at the docks wear house, he know shit he ain't supposed to know. We gotta kill him, I don't care about your little promise to your Momma, just go tell her the truth, no point in lying. But we'll get him tonight, I'm sure you'll be joining in as well?" Sami's tone was final as he half shouted his demand down my phone. I don't think I could argue with him, not now. Too many times I've saved Li’s ass.

"Well shit Sami, nice to speak to you too. Umm... fuck, you really going to do this? My mums gonna kill me, and you ain't seeing me for a couple days either 'cuz I really gotta lay low if I ever want a chance to speak to my mum again. I know your right, and sure as hell I'll be the one killing that son of a bitch. Just come here at three or something, and don't ring the doorbell like last time, idiot" I whispered harshly down the phone, getting my point across. I've been waiting for the right excuse to get rid Li for a long time. I just turned nineteen last month so I've been an adult for some time now and I think I can handle the aftermath of my mother. Lame excuse, I know, but at least it's something.

I came out of the bathroom with my jacket crumpled in my hand shoving it in a dirty washing pile in a basket by the bathroom door. I felt the heaviness of my switch blade, phone and wallet in my front jean pocket, giving me some comfort at least. My next stop was the kitchen where I made a nice hot cup of coffee, just like my mum taught me, only this time I slip in a little sedative that I keep hidden in my medical kit.

"Hey, sorry 'bout that Li, I'll pay you back double and it won't ever happen again" I approached him with a weary smile and gestured for him to take the coffee off me.

"You better be you little shit, don't think your mum would appreciate me telling her all about her little mafia kid" He sneered at me, quiet enough so mum wouldn't hear from the bedroom and snatched the cup out of my hand, gulping down most of the laced beverage.

"Only thing your mum and you are good at, making fucking coffee" He laughed a little as he drained the other half of the cup before slamming it down on the coffee table and announcing that he was going to bed.

"Goodnight" I smiled at his back as he retreated to his bedroom that he shared with my mother. Now I only need to wait an hour, take my mum to the hotel round the block, and the rest will just be a good night out with my mates.

An hour passed of me lying on the couch and I could hear the thunderous snoring coming from the bedroom, time to make my move. I opened the door quietly and snuck up to my mums side and shook her awake.

"Mum, come with me. I need to get you out of here. Pack a small bag, your going for a trip" I whispered.

"Yumeka sweetie, it's two in the morning, it can't be that important" My sweet mother smiled up at me from her bed.

"I'll explain when we get there, but I really need you to do this for me. I'm in a bad situation and I really need your help, but we have to get away from here. Please mum, I love you" I whispered back at her whilst grabbing onto her hand, hoping my little performance would be convincing enough.

"You're scaring me now Yumeka, what kind of trouble are you in? Please don't tell me it's gang stuff!" Her voice broke halfway through her worried Japanese, almost like she was ready to cry. Maybe I was playing into her emotions too much, no time for crying, at least not now.

"Mum" I warned her with a hard voice. "Please do as I say. It's for your safety, not any one else's" I glared and regretted it as soon as it left my mouth, but it got the job done, 'cuz now my mums hurrying about the place packing essentials for at least three nights. She picks up her bag with shaky hands and headed to the front door.

"What about Li?" Mum turned around, finally saying something for the past ten minutes.

"Fuck Li, mum, just stay close to me. Where I can see you" I ushered her out of the door keeping a firm grip on her elbow, switchblade out of my pocket and in my other hand.

"Yumeka I don't like where this is going, why do you have a knife?" I gave her a side glance.

"You really need to be quiet, I'll explain later" I hurried her down the stairs and out onto the cold street and just as we turned round the corner, Sami and two of my other friends where there to greet me.

"Yumeka, how you doing? Go deal with your Momma and come straight back, we ain't gonna be waiting for long you know" Sami greeted me with a smile, almost like he hadn't seen me just a few hours ago when we were running from some cops down at the docks.

"Just give me ten minutes" I nodded and left.

"Who were those people? I'm seriously worried right now and I need answers" Mum gripped my knife free hand with her other hand.

"You'll know when we get there".

It took us only three minutes but we arrived in a stingy, run down one bed Hotel room. Good enough for one night.

"You better start talking Yumeka, I'm really freaking out over here. You're never like this" Mum sat at the end of the bed, holding the frame for some support.

“You’re really going to hate this mum, but I’m...sorta in...um. I’m a triad. And I’m in the Sun on Yee” After my little confession, I looked around the room awkwardly before sitting on a slightly dirty arm chair where I lit a cigarette.

“You’re what?! How could you do this to me! And for how long” Her last question was barely audible. Her face contorted as sobs racked her body. If I hadn’t been so eager to leave my mum and go kill Li, maybe then my heart would’ve broke a little.

“I was thirteen. I just started out as a drug runner, then my... talents got me promoted, you could say. Now I’m just like any other guy in the gang but I got special privileges so I can keep it a secret from you, since my boss wanted me to stay, ‘cuz apparently I’m a real good find talent wise” I shrugged my shoulders and took a long drag of my cigarette.

“So those dangerous looking guys back there, they’re your friends? And those tattoos, I should’ve known they’re gang related” Mum raised a shaky hand to wipe at her over spilling eyes.

“Yea, Sami is my best friend actually. Look I’d love to stay and chat, but I’ve got a job to do. I’ll be back in an hour, please don’t leave the room. Here’s some money for room service” I dropped 20 dollars onto the end of the bed near mums lap.

“You can’t just leave me here Yumeka, I can’t let you do that. You’re going to hurt Li aren’t you?! Yumeka please-”Her cries were cut short when I slammed the door on her, taking the only key card with me. It pained me, but it had to be done. I walked down the hallway of the hotel and I could still hear my mums crying and shouting.

“Don’t you dare fucking let her out” I snapped to a passing maid who cowered back in fear. If I had known how wrong I was, I would have never left my mothers side, but nether the less I walked to the elevators humming a giddy tune, excited for the job of taking down Li.

* * *

“Look who finally showed the fuck up!” Sami shouted in my direction as I headed round the back of the sky scraper apartment building.

“Look I got a little caught up, you know how my mum is” I laughed as he punched my arm. I looked down a few feet away from him, a battered and wheezing Li Wei Shang at the other guys feet staring up at me.

“Yu-Yumeka” He coughed up a wad of blood onto the pavement.

“Don’t fucking talk to me Li. You knew this day was coming” I spat at him and gave him a swift kick to his stomach, earning a scream and from what I could hear, a broken rib.

“You better start talking. Why’d you tell Li?! Why were there cops waiting for us at our hideout this afternoon. Why were there Ice Dragons too?!” I shouted in his face and took my switchblade, slashing his shoulder as an ear piercing scream flew out his mouth.

“Oh shut the fuck up” I stood over him and grabbed his sweaty blood stained face.

“I-I told them! To get extra money! T-they said I would have protection” Li whimpered.

“Protection? You already pay us protection money. Well, you’ve been lacking on those payments for three months now. I’ve been lenient Li, you gave me and my mother shelter and food, so I got you outta a lot of trouble. But not this time, little bitch” Taking my blade, I held it close to his throat, watching him start to really panic. I wasted no time and quickly slashed his throat, leaving him to bleed out.

“Come on guys, I got places to be”.

* * *

“Mum, you okay in there?” I softly knocked on the hotel door. No answer.

“Look. I know you hate me right now but I’m coming in. I’m really sorry mum” I mumble just loud enough so that she could hear. I scan the key card and step inside.

“Oh fuck, no no no no, fuck!” I smashed my closed fist against the wall leaving a bloody hole. Funny enough, that was probably the least worse of the damage. There were chairs overturned, a broken window and TV, glass every where. There was a sizeable patch of fresh blood on the pillow of the bed, that means her kidnappers couldn’t have gotten far. But before I could do anything about it, I was brought to my knees by fear, letting a few silent tears roll down my face.

I took a deep breath, collected myself and stood upright again. That little moment won’t happen again, I will find my mum.

“She sure as fuck ain’t dead” I whispered to comfort myself, but I did not expect a chilly voice and the sting of a needle at the side of my neck to be one that answered.

“That’s what they all say. Night night”

And then I was dreaming.

#kbtbb #soryu oh #yumeka oh #kissed by the baddest bidder #kbtbb fanfic #action #mafia #oh this is kinda shit now that i read it #need a name for the MC suggest one if u like

25 notes · View notes

violetbeachpod · 6 years

Text

TRANSCRIPT: 6 - Memories

backstreets back alright

Okay. Here we go. Gotta knock this one out, and then it’ll be done. It’ll be over, and it’ll be done, and, and, and.

Elaine here. My turn.

Look, I’m not--

I don’t know if I can give anything productive to this conversation, just. I’m--I don’t want to be a part of this, I don’t feel like I’m a part of this. I don’t feel like I’m a part of anything, necessarily, I’m.

I’m a background player. That’s all. And I don’t mind it! I’m--I like it. Prefer it, honestly, to this, to this--sci-fi bullshit, AJ called it, when he dropped by yesterday. He--he needed a vent session. He called it a salt sesh, which--no. I won’t do that. Maybe it was ironic? But he wanted a vent sesh. And his family doesn’t really “do” “those.” And he’s a sweet kid. He deserves a vent sesh.

Can I pull off sesh?

But anyway. I prefer not doing anything to sci-fi bullshit. And I haven’t--It was never really my thing, I was more of a sitcom girl. Like, good ones, obviously, but.

And then, I’m--I’m living in this, which is ridiculous, and--

Teresa’s back. That’s important to say. Just cuz--it happened an hour ago, I’m not sure if all of you know. Well. You’ll know by the time I put this in the folder, but. It’s important that I share what we know now, right? That’s--that’s how storytelling works.

Teresa woke up in her bed this morning. I was on my way back from work, and she called me, just cuz--we saw this stuff first, we kinda. We bonded over that, in the beginning.

And she asked me if I noticed that the sky was blue, rather than the normal olor.

I said, Teresa, you’ve been gone for two weeks, no one’s been able to find you, the sky is always blue, y’know, I went through the motions. Told her everything that’s happened since she went away. Angie had a class this morning, so she doesn’t know yet.

And Teresa is just--she’s insistent that I’m lying to her, that Angie or someone is just playing a joke, and she says that, no, she--that’s how the town got its name, Elaine, our sky is weird. Because of the circle.

I know you’re new here, she says, but come on. This is, like, pre-moving here stuff.

And I--I didn’t know how to react, so I just repeated, I said, she’s been gone for two weeks, and that we’re all so worried. That we’ve all been losing our minds looking for her, that--

[Sigh]

And Douglas is sitting on my lap right now and he’s my only hope for some sense of grounding in this life. Yes you are. Yes you are the only thing holding me back from going into panic.

He’s a sweet boy. The sweetest boy. If Teresa weren’t allergic, I’d bring him over, but--no.

I’m concerned, is the thing. I know--I don’t know these people as well as Rob might, but I’m still concerned.

I’ve been doing some digging, on--on the town’s history, this morning. Wikipediaing, and what have you.

I can’t find anything. I just—I can’t. It’s. All I can find is Facebook groups for, like, yard sales and swap meets and support groups—and I’m gonna go to the swap meets, don’t get me wrong, but they’re just—they’re not important to the cause at hand.

When I was at boarding school, my sophomore year roommate would always go on these deep mystery-solving dives—there was a still unsolved murder that took place on campus thirty-something years ago, and she dedicated herself to ending it. And—

And we’re not friends, or anything, so I can’t, like, reach out, say, hey, girl, it’s me, from high school, uh, I’m being haunted by a ghost maybe, and there’s also time travel, no big, so—how’s med school? Y’know? Can’t do that, that’ll—that’ll make me seem crazy. I’m not in contact with anyone, from back then. It wasn’t, like—not for a lack of trying, I just. Everyone else was closer, I sorta fell out.

But that’s not relevant to the point at hand, which is that Teresa, who is a friend of mine, who’s a smart kid, who’s back, is convinced that the world is wrong.

And I don’t think that the world is wrong. I think—well, maybe I’m the crazy one, maybe I’m the one who’s misremembering the sky, maybe I’m the one who’s gone, but. Look. Listen. I—I don’t know what’s going on. I really, honestly, never have. Like, for my whole life. I’m smart, sure, but I—not in the way where I know other people’s experiences. In the way where I know my own. Where I know how to navigate my life. Not the kind of smart where I can handle weird sci-fi bullshit. Y’know? I’ve secondhand watched a lot of sci-fi, and I. Do not care for it. In the slightest. At all.

Which is, like, sacrilege, in this group. I like fantasy, usually, it’s just—never been huge on sci-fi, ‘cept for the big stuff. Star Wars, etcetera. It’s just not my thing. Is it a crime? No. It isn’t. Please stop trying.

So, here’s the thing about boarding school murders—cuz that’s where my brain keeps going, with this, because that’s the closest thing I have to mystery hunting in the past. Because I did help, yeah. I—I didn’t have many friends, okay, I was new, I was shy, I didn’t do sports or anything, like—I needed friends, and I had this opportunity, so. I stole a video camera from my film class and I helped make a documentary. Look. They can’t get me for it now, I have a masters. So.

We would sneak out into the woods out by the dorms and we’d just—we’d film recreations of the murder. A student killed her—well, we figured out that it was just her friend, but my roommate thought it might have been either an athletic rival or a romantic partner--which I shut down fast, like, look, I am all about gay people doing things, unless they are murder.

And we’d do this every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday night, around three AM. I didn’t sleep much at age sixteen. I don’t sleep much at age twenty-five, even, but, like—I get more, now. So that’s really good. But irrelevant. And my roommate, whose name was Janice Potter, she was from Georgia and she hated that about herself, and—like, sure, cool, whatever, one Tuesday night, when I was busy building sets for the musical, she went out by herself, with the camera, and—I was walking back to the dorm, and I saw her lying in the woods with a broken leg. And I—I brought her to the infirmary, said she fell while taking pictures of the set build for the newspaper. She wasn’t even in newspaper, we—we barely had a newspaper. But the nurses didn’t care, they just needed to tell her mother something.

And the next morning, she didn’t remember going out. I think it was trauma, or something, but I had to go to the hospital with her, because I could recall events and nobody else could. It wasn’t great, and I had to lie a bunch to doctors, which I think is a crime, maybe, which—like, the amount of time that it took me to get that social energy back was—maybe eighty seven years. I’m still getting that back.

But that’s what I keep coming back to, that night in the hospital, when I just stopped giving a shit about the murder, about the mystery, and I just started caring about the people. That’s where I’m at, with this.

I don’t care about some government conspiracy, or alien invasion, or—parallel universe, or—

Wait, yeah, that’s it. there’s some parallel universe shit happening. There we go, proof that you find things as soon as you stop looking. I am basically unstoppable, and, guess what? I’m never gonna die.

But that’s not the point. Whichever one of you all wants to figure out the semantics, feel free, but. I’m not caught up on that.

Here’s the point: Teresa is alive, and she’s back, and we need to take care of that first. We can focus on the parallel universe, which--look, I’m too excited about this not to share. But you guys have to prove it. Cuz I’m not doing that.

Look, so, we’re talking--

[there’s just static. there are syllables, sure, things close to words, but there aren’t words like there were before. there’s just this static.]

I’m assuming that got cut out, like--like Benji got cut off, like AJ got interrupted. But, hey, I--I got it. I’ll email you.

I’m gonna head over to the dorms, bring Rob with me—she’s asleep right now, but I’m—I’ll wake you up in a sec. You’ll hear the in retrospect, like, oh, that’s why my beautiful future-wife who I love was so happy even though a friend of ours may or may not be an amnesiac. God, you’ll think, I love her. I’ll make you coffee so you don’t hate me when you wake up, but—you’ll get it in the future.

I know it’s scary, right now. But we got this, I feel like it for the first time, like there’s relief, rather than dread or worry or aliens in my brain on loop, it’s—

We’ve got this.

Here’s my wrap up. Because we all do these, I guess. Some words.

There’s something terrible in trying to solve a mystery, there’s something—I don’t know. It feels wrong, to be solving a mystery you’re not supposed to. For example, Janice Potter isn’t on Facebook. I’m not going to try and figure out why. I don’t want to know what I don’t need to know, I want to know that people are safe and good and—and not being abducted into parallel universes or whatever we’re calling it.

There’s something perfect in actually solving a mystery, there’s something—

You know how it is. I’m not gonna get all literary. That’s Rob’s job.

Just got a text from Angie with “SHE’S BACK” in all caps, with seventeen heart emojis. It’s very sweet, very nice, very good. It’s cute. That’s what this is worth, that’s—that’s what’s worth celebrating. Benji’s already responded, so’s Charlotte, and—

This is the light at the end of the tunnel. Let’s get out of it.

Okay, that’s bad, that’s clichéd. I can do a better closer than that. We need a better one-liner than that. I can’t come up with a good one, but--I want you all to know that I can do better and I will do better in the future with any and all one liners. I’ll probably come up with twenty as I drive to the dorms, so, uh, venmo me if you want one. Please. I do need payment for my non-sequitirs.

Cool.

Love you, bye.

#transcripts #elaine #season 1 #violet beach #violet beach podcast

4 notes · View notes

sjw-or-nah · 7 years

Text

This was submitted to me. Like, fuck outta here bitch. Is this for real?

*disclaimer: in no way shape or form to I endorse anything this bitch says, just felt the need to share this bullshit*

Are Prostitutes Better Than Normal Women?

A Short Essay by John Doe

Is it cheaper to have sex with normal women than with prostitutes? No, and here is why.

When you have sex with a normal girl, it’s by no means “free”. You have to take her out to dinner, buy her drinks, and you might have to go on two or even three dates before you will have sex with her. If you add up the total costs of these three dates, it would be approxiately around 400 dollars.

Now let’s look at the cost of the average high quality prostitute. You can bang a prostitute for 2 hours for 250 dollars.

What are the benefits of using prostitutes instead of dating normal women?

1. The average prostitute is far hotter than the average normal woman you can date. 2. YOU get to do the choosing, and the power of choice is in YOUR hands, instead of in the woman’s hands 3. With a prostitute, you have sex with her and that’s it. No emotional drama, no mind games, no bullshit, like there is with normal women. 4. You don’t have to waste hours of your valuable time that you could otherwise spend on making money, taking women out on dates or trying to pick up women in bars and clubs. No, instead you pay a prostitute for one or two hours of her time, have sex with her, and leave. 5. You choose WHEN you want to have sex. So let’s say you’re a busy businessman, instead of wasting 5 hours at a bar or on a date, instead you’d spend only one or two hours with a prostitute, and that at your convience too. YOU are the one who chooses WHEN, and so you save a LOT of time. 6. Prostites are DEFINITELY cheaper than getting married. Overall, through a 10 year marriage and divorce, you’d end up spending at least 250,000 dollars. Now let’s take that number and divide it by 250 dollars, which is the average price of a high quality prostitute in a Western country. That is sex with 1000 different high quality prostitutes. Now if you talk to any married man, who is HONEST, he will admit that sex with the wife after the first 6 months or year starts to get boring. And this is why people in long term relationships barely have sex, because it’s BORING having sex with the same person time after time. Variety is the spice of life! You could have sex with 1000 different women for the same price it would cost to marry one woman and have sex with her. And considering how unstable most western women are nowadays, the chance of divorce is around 60%, with the woman initiating the divorce 90% of the time. You are likely to lose at least 50% of your assets and savings in a divorce, and so marriage to a western woman may end up costing you up to 500,000 dollars or even a million dollars, once you add in the divorce costs and long term child payment and alimony costs.

So let’s take that number, one million dollars, and divide it by 250. That’s 4000 DIFFERENT women you could pay to have sex with, instead of marrying one woman who will just end up turning into a bitch and divorcing you anyway. So it’s your choice guys. Would you rather marry one woman, who will get bored of sex after 6 months, and end up stealing all your assets and savings in divorce, or would you rather have sex with 4000 different beautiful women for the same price?

Another very relevant point is that the world of modern dating has become quite risky. Most women see nothing wrong with making a false rape accusation against a man. Most rape cases are fake and are done out of a motive of REVENGE by the woman. Did you break up with your girlfriend? Watch out, she might make a false rape accusation against you just to get revenge. Did you cheat on your girl with another girl? Watch out, she might make a false rape accusation just to get revenge on you. Forgot to tell your girlfriend “happy birthday”? Watch out, she might make a false rape accusation against you in order to get revenge on you. At least 90% of rape cases are FALSE, the sex was CONSENSUAL and the woman later changed her mind AFTER the act and decided “oh it was rape”. LOL. And this is why the police no longer take rape cases seriously, because literally 90% of women who claim to have been raped are LYING!

So that is another HUGE benefit of prostitues. A prostitute won’t make a false rape accusation against you.

What’s another GREAT reason that men choose to use prostitutes? Because by paying for sex, they can have sex with a MUCH hotter quality of woman than they would normally. For example, if we rate women on a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of beauty. The average guy will be able to pick up and have sex with a 4 or a 5 from a bar, a club, or Tinder. Meanwhile, if the same man paid for sex with a high quality prostitute for $250 dollars (about the same amount of money he would spend picking up a 4 or 5 from a bar, club, or Tinder), the prostitute he would have sex with would be an 8 or 9 on the beauty scale. So for the same amount of money, he can have sex with a much hotter woman, and with much less effort too. Think about all the effort you have to put in to go to a bar or club. You have to buy good clothes, you have to spend lots of money on drinks and food, and also have to spend a lot of money on making sure your apartment is cool and stylish so the girl will feel comfortable there. So unless you’re a man who was blessed with the looks of Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise and have women chasing after you, the easiest and cheapest option for most men to have sex with the hottest quality of women is to simply PAY for sex with a hot prostitute. One guy was asked why he paid to have sex with prostitutes and his reply was “If I’m being brutally honest, the hottest women I’ve ever had sex with have been prostitutes … I would never be able to have sex with women who are ridiculously hot unless they were prostitutes.” I can also personally testify to this point. The types of chicks I was getting from Tinder were mostly fat or at best mildly hot, I would have rated them between a 3 and a 6 on the attraction scale. Then the first time I went to a prostitute, I was blown away with the options and the QUALITY too. Here were super hot girls who I could bang for such a cheap price. Needless to say, I gave up on dating and ONLY bang prostitutes now. I’m a much happier and peaceful person as a result.

Another couple of reasons that men gave as to why they choose to have sex with prostitutes are:

"Getting a prostitute is so easy: no strings attached, you can choose the woman you want before you purchase, then they arrive at your door. Couldn’t be easier.”

I can also testify to this. Getting a normal girl to have sex is a real pain in the ass and involves so much struggle, drama, and mind games. Then of course after you have sex with her, you have to deal with her stalking you, calling you so many times, and with her unrealistic expectation that you are going to have a committed and exclusively relationship with her. All that compared with the EASE of banging a hot prostitute, and the choice is simple. I chose to not waste time trying to date women anymore and only bang hot prostitutes now.

“We want to have sex without all the bullshit of pretending to be really interested in a girl. When you pay for sex, you don’t have to swap numbers at the end when you know you won’t call. You pay, have sex, she leaves. Everyone’s happy.”

This goes along with the above point. With normal women and dating, you have to PRETEND to care about her and PRETEND to be interested in her, when in reality all you want is to have sex with her. With a prostitute, there is no pretensions and that really is a beautiful thing because ultimately then sex becomes about the raw physical act as well as the pure attractiveness of the woman, and thus you are able to enjoy sex a lot more.

Lastly, let’s touch on the issue of legalization. On average surveys, 70 percent of men said they would vote to legalize prostitution, meanwhile 60 percent of women said they would vote to keep prostitution illegal. Now it’s pretty obvious why women want to keep prostitution illegal. Women use sex as a weapon to control men. So it would disrupt the economics of women’s control over sex if prostitution was legalized, because then MEN would have control over WHO they want to have sex with and WHEN. Forget all those arguments about morality, the REAL reason women want to keep prostitution illegal is so that they can CONTINUE to control men with sex. In effect, women are like a mafia that is desperate to keep control of the sexual marketplace. If prostitution was legal, men would be a lot less inclined to put up with women’s bullshit just to get sex from them, when they can go pay for sex from a much more attractive woman and without all the hassles and drama that dating and normal women bring.

What about STDs some of you might say? Well the whole STD scare is mostly a MYTH that has been blown way out of proportion by feminists and conservative religious leaders in order to scare men away from having sex. In reality, the rate of transmission of AIDS is 1 out of 700 during heterosexual sex. That is, if a man had penis to vagina intercourse with an AIDS-infected woman, it would take 700 times on average before he would contract it. The only way people get AIDS is through using needles to inject drugs, or having anal sex, especially with homosexuals. So the whole AIDS thing is a huge scare, a MYTH, that has been blown way out of proportion.

What about Herpes? Well studies show that 80% of the US population already has Herpes in one of it’s forms, so that is not really an issue.

The only other STD that you would have to worry about is Chlamydia, and it can be easily cured within 3 days with antibiotics.

Now, that is UNPROTECTED sex. If you are using condoms to have sex with, then the chances of getting any of these STDs becomes less than zero. And that includes oral sex as well. Most prostitutes will insist that you always use a condom, even during oral sex. So as long as you are using condoms, then STDs are nothing you should even remotely worry about.

So what are some of the main reasons why prostitution should be legalized?

1. If prostitution was legal, it would reduce the STD transmission rate by about 50% amongst prostitutes.

2. If prostitution was legal, it would reduce rape by at least 150%. Many studies have shown that legal prostitution reduces rape, sexual assault, and other sex crimes by a lot. The same studies have shown that legal prostitution reduces the STD rate amongst the general population by about 50%.

3. The real number of human trafficking victims in the prostitution industry is actually less than 5%. But if prostitution was fully legal, the tiny number of women who are forced into prostitution involuntarily would be able to go to the poliec to get help and escape from their pimps. Keeping prostitution illegal hurts prostitutes the most, so it’s funny how feminists want to keep prostitution illegal and yet at the same time claim they care about women’s health and women’s rights. Feminism is nothing but the biggest pile of bullshit hypocrisy the world has ever seen.

4. Feminists say “my body, my choice”. So if 95% of prostitutes are VOLUNTARILY engaging in prostitution, then why should those women have the RIGHT to choose what to do with their own bodies, even if that includes trading sex for money? What right does the government or anyone else have to tell two consenting adults that they cannot exchange money for sex?

5. It would save a lot of money and resources from our police and government. Tens of millions of dollars a year are wasted by our police and government arresting and putting prostitutes in jail. If prostitution was LEGAL, on the other hand, and taxed and regulated, it would bring in tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars a year in tax revenue for our government, as well as freeing up valuable police time for REAL crimes like rape, theft, murder, assault, etc.

6. If prostitution was legal, prostitutes would have legal rights and would not longer get taken advantage of by pimps and other shady figures, including corrupt police officers. Yes, the police also contribute to the oppression of prostitutes because there are many corrupt police officers out there who blackmail and extort prostitutes for money and/or sexual favors. If prostitution was legal, all of this would end and prostitutes would finally have legal rights.

7. Prostitution is the world’s oldest profession. It is NEVER going to stop no matter how much the police or government tries to stop it. There are ALWAYS going to be men who are willing to pay money for sex, and there are ALWAYS going to be women who are willing to give sex to men for money. Prostitution has also been an integral part of many cultures and thus trying to stop it is literally impossible. And why should it be stopped? No one has the right to tell two consenting adults that they cannot exchange money for sex. So rather than waste time trying to stop it, just legalize it and tax it, the same way we do with cigarettes, alcohol, and now marijuana.

All in all, I believe in personal freedom. I believe that no one has the right to force their own sense of morality onto others. In some very ancient cultures, prostitutes were actually given very high status in society and considered as spiritual people who could heal men of their problems through sex. That was thousands of years ago though, before self-righteous modern western religions were invented and started violently forcing their concepts of morality onto people. Funny how societies that were thousands of years old were actually far more advanced than we are in the modern age in terms of sex and prostitutes.

It took almost a century for people to wake up and legalize marijuana, which is a completely harmless natural plant that hurts no one. In the same way, society and people in general have to EVOLVE and realize that they have no right to force their own sense of morality or control onto others. The modern society is actually a very sexually restrictive society, compared to cultures and civilizations of the past. And it’s this sexual restrictiveness which contributes to so much psychological neurosis, sex crimes, and frustration in general. Is it a coincidence how people in America are so quick to anger and lose their temper, whereas in a place like Thailand where prostitution is legal and accepted, people are very laid back and cool headed? People need to stop seeing sex as such a big thing, and just realize that sex is a normal and acceptable part of life.

With that said, I believe that I have covered all the points as to why prostitution should be legal and an accepted part of society, and so this essay comes to a close. Please feel free to copy, paste, and distribute this essay as my goal is to influence and educate as many people as possible, the only thing I ask is that you do not change it or edit it in any way whatsoever. Thank you very much

Sincerely, John Doe

#wtf #submission #fuck off

12 notes · View notes

theyareskewed · 6 years

Text

Chapter Three

Hey everybody! Here is the very late release of Chapter Three. I’ll release more as soon as I am able, sorry for the wait.

The dull thud of wood on wood was extremely prominent in the mid-morning camp. There was a small crowd of people clustered around a relatively clear area beside the highway on the dry soil. Dust was swirling around the group as they watched the ongoing tussle with interest.

Razz was standing with her knees slightly bent in the middle of three others with weapons. Her machete was in one hand, tomahawk in the other. They had their blades embedded in wood so that if a strike was made there would be no blood. The other three people were armed as well, one with a mace, another with a whip, and the final with several daggers, shanks, and shivs of different shapes and sizes.

Sin moved first, flicking her whip out with a sharp crack, aiming for Razz’s feet. Razz’s lips curled into a smile as she leaped forwards, just barely skimming past the whips location and landing neatly. She turned on her heel and began to sprint towards the mace-wielding boy named Kane.

He hefted his weapon above his head, and swung it down at her as soon as she came near, but she deftly paused right before she got into range and alternated her path from directly at him to towards his left. She moved with speed, racing past him and giving him a solid thwack with the machete held in her right hand as she passed. Now that she was behind him, she slid back a small bit, allowing herself time to regain her solid footing. Kane turned to her, and swung his mace towards her with more speed than she’d predicted.

Razz whipped up her machete, bracing it with both arms though she still held the tomahawk in her left. She winced as the mace-wielder cracked his weapon into hers, jolting her entire body. The distinctive pop of joints cracking echoed just behind the sound of the impact and Razz leaped forwards, slamming her tomahawk into Kane’s collarbone with the flat of the blade, so as not to harm him.

He gave a little involuntary yelp, and Razz was grinning in a rather disturbing way now. She shoved him away with all her strength, which simply caused him to stumble a tiny bit, and began to run towards Dee.

Dee’s face was curved into a smile even more unnerving than Razz’s. Her eyes were unsettlingly filled with enjoyment and satisfaction as Razz approached her.

The moment Razz was in range to swing at Dee, the younger girl leaped backward, arching her back so that the blade of Razz’s machete brushed past her. She smacked the back of Razz’s arm with her own, lunging forwards to add more to the shove.

Razz stumbled rather significantly, nearly catching herself before there was a sharp whistle and something black and leathery wrapped itself around her ankles. With a swift tug, it was over.

Razz hit the ground face first, coughing as the wind was knocked out of her. She groaned, rolling over onto her back and grabbing her chest, Tomahawk lying in the dust beside her. Her machete was still held in the hand not clutching her ribs, however. Claps and whistles echoed around from the bystanders as they hucked different colored stones at each other in payment for their bets.

“You’re dead,” Dee said coolly, standing over her with eyes of steel.

“Yeah, no shit,” Razz grumbled, looking away from the blond haired guard.

“What did you do wrong?” Dee prompted her, a minor bit of irritation now in her gaze.

“Nothing,” Razz muttered, propping herself up and continuing to avoid the guard master's eyes.

“That’s bullshit,” Dee spat, “I’ve spoken to you about this every fight since we started training your sorry ass!”

Razz couldn’t restrain herself as she turned to Dee with fiery eyes. “Wanna call me that again?” She snapped.

“You answer the damn question and maybe I won’t have to call you that,” Dee hissed.

Razz and Dee stared one another down for several long seconds before the former finally relented. “Fine,” she muttered, “I didn’t look behind my back, and I let myself get unbalanced.”

“Damn right you did,” Dee snapped stepping away from Razz, “Let me show you how it’s done one more damn time.” She walked back over towards the central area of their training, and shouted, “Sin, Kane, form up!”

The pair quickly moved into positions on either side of Dee, weapons drawn. The girl in the middle was easily a full head smaller than just Sin, much more than that in comparison to Kane, and yet she radiated confidence.

The girl waited for one of the others to move first. The moment that they did, she sidestepped and calmly spun her weapons in her hands. She moved towards Kane, her steps fluid as she leaned out of the way of his first swing, one weapon facing forwards and the other held behind her back. The second Kane finished his swing, she neatly elbowed him on the shoulder blade and sent him tumbling to the ground.

She then turned, her second weapon flying up to block Sin’s whip. The black leather curled around her shank, and Dee glowered, dropping the useless weapon and grabbing the whip. She yanked it hard, jerking Sin forwards before turning again to jab her weapon at Kane’s back before he could get himself back up. She whirled towards Sin again, and before the raven haired girl could get her dagger from its holster Dee held her shiv at her opponent’s throat.

“Game over,” Dee hissed, dropping the whip and stepping away from Sin to scoop up her shank.

She turned to Razz with smoldering eyes, and said coolly, “maybe put a bit of effort into it next time.”

Razz glowered right back at her, and after several long seconds, Dee turned away, tossing her weapons at Chrys who was in the crowd.

“Get those ready for an actual fight,” she ordered, before blowing past the crowd.

Razz didn’t pay attention to where the blond girl went from there. She was too irritated to care. She was seething, and almost threw an elbow when Major laid his hand on her shoulder.

He leaped back, lifting up his hands in an ‘I come in peace’ gesture.

“What the fuck do you want,” she hissed, glowering at him.

“Easy, Spitfire,” he said evenly, “just coming to tell you that your twin wants you.”

She stared at him, sensing that there was more.

“Alright, alright. I also came to say that you shouldn’t take Dee so seriously. Kid’s been through a lot, she doesn’t mean to cause such harm.”

“She’s a bitch,” Razz snapped, “we’ve all been through a lot, but not all of us are as much of a bitch as she is.”

“Very few of us actually watched our families be slaughtered, Razz. Just- cut her some slack, ok? She’s younger than you.”

“Screw off Major,” Razz said, rolling her eyes and starting to storm away, “I’m going to go find Gwen.”

Major watched her go, Razz could feel his eyes on her back and she resisted the temptation to throw something at him. Preferably something heavy, and at his head. The only thing she was remotely grateful for was the fact that he didn’t call after her.

She didn’t really intend to go after her twin. Gwen would be busy organizing the patrolling for the day, and Razz had no say. She didn’t want to sit quietly on the ground behind her twin while the taller girl did the commanding and she was left to mutter ineptitudes under her breath.

No, going to Gwen just wouldn’t do. With a deep sigh, Razz walked over to the farthest edge of their camp and settled down in the dust. She pulled her weapons around so that she could see them, and went about pulling the chunks of wood off of their edges. It was as if the blades sighed in relief, a crushing weight lifted off of their chests.

Razz sighed, lying down so that her back and head had contact with the dusty ground. She closed her eyes, hugging the machete to her chest. The black metal was hot in the afternoon sun, and she relished the burn in her hands. She wanted the callouses to harden, wanted her hands to burn and scald until the warmth of her blade was no longer painful. That was how she would survive, she reminded herself every time the burn grew too intense, and she did not remove her hands.

She couldn’t say how long she lay there but eventually, her peace was disturbed.

“Razz. Razz get your ass up.”

Razz opened one eye, staring at her sister, entirely unimpressed. “That’s how I’m treated now?” she asked mildly, closing her eye again, “like a dog that isn’t listening?”

“Oh my god, you’re impossible,” Gwen groaned loudly, “can’t you just get UP?”

Razz waited just a moment before she could sense her twins irritation and she pushed herself into a sitting position. “Satisfied?” She asked, her sarcasm thinly veiled as she stared her twin down.

Gwen took a deep breath. “Can you just- stand. Please?”

Razz rolled her eyes, and dropped her arms to her sides, pulling the machete and tomahawk off her chest. She stood then, looking away from Gwen to shove the machete through a pocket with a hole in the bottom and hook her machete to her back, the grip rising just above her right shoulder. She turned her eyes back to her twin, and said with more calm, “What do you want, Gwen?”

“You fought with Dee again,” Gwen said, her eyes tired, “that’s the fifth time this week Razz. You’re ridiculous.”

“Maybe,” Razz said, irritation creeping back into her tone, “if Dee was less of a prick-”

“No, Razz, no. I’m stopping you right there. I’m pulling you from the guards.”

Razz was immediately hit by a wave of insult. “Are you kidding me?”

“No,” Gwen said, her eyes tired as she did her best to ignore the fury that emanated from her sister, “You’re being reassigned.”

“To where?” She was angry, truly angry. “I’ve been everywhere else! Ray says I’m too headstrong for the Scouts, the Cache won’t have me, you don’t need another pack mule, and now you’re telling me I don’t fit in with the group of headstrong pricks?”

“Yes,” Gwen said, “That is exactly what I am saying. If you would shut your mouth, maybe I’d tell you where you’re going!”

Fair point. Razz fell silent.

Gwen waited for several seconds, and Razz could feel her anger mounting again but she held her tongue. Finally, Gwen spoke.

“You will be in a free rider group.”

“What the fuck is that?” Razz asked though it was apparent that her anger was subsiding.

“I know you, and I know that you… think. Differently.” Gwen rolled her eyes at herself and then rephrased it. “I want you to think for me.”

“Once again,” Razz said, sarcasm so thick it dripped from her words like syrup, “what the fuck is that?”

Gwen thought for a second. “Strategist,” she finally said, “I want you to be my strategist.”

Razz could not find the words to argue with this choice. She stumbled over her words for several seconds before finally managing to coherently ask, “Why me? What would it entail?”

“You’ll help with organizing the scouting patterns, and when we have to fight, you’ll join the fighters. Any sort of large attack that we notice in time will be yours to command until the fighting begins, then you will defer to Dee like everyone else will in that situation. We’ll figure more stuff out as we go, but that’s the gist of it.”

Razz stared at Gwen for several long seconds and then let out a whoop. “Are you kidding? You better not be kidding!”

“I’m not kidding,” Gwen said, a well-deserved smile curling onto her lips.

Razz cheered again, almost tackling her twin in a hug. Gwen let out a small giggle and hugged Razz back, before shoving her off. “Come on, bitch sister,” she taunted, using the hated nickname that she used when Razz was being annoying, “let’s go see about making sure your aptitude is correct at the Cache.”

“Wow”, Razz snorted, “nice of you to pull out that name again.”

“I knew you’d love it,” Gwen teased, now out of Razz’s reach.

Razz gave a little noise of indignation and darted after her twin, punching her in the arm. “We all know,” she said with sarcasm barely veiled in her voice, “that you’re the bitch in this duo.”

Gwen smiled broadly, and without another word, they walked towards the main part of the camp, side by side.

They opted to get something to eat before going to meet up with the Weapons Cache. Razz insisted like usual that they eat from her dwindling store of food instead of the group’s significantly larger one, but Gwen didn’t protest. They ate in a peaceable silence, and after that stood to make their way to the Cache.

It struck Razz again once they approached the small, exclusive group. They were so odd.

She looked them up and down as she approached, the small things registering in her brain. The dark brunette she knew- that was Chrys, the leader. She had become… acquainted with the short heterochromatic eyed girl in a scuff over who owned what weapon. Bonnie- that was her name, yes. The final member of the group she had not yet been introduced to, though she had seen them around camp. She had heard some of the gossip, about how the pepper-haired kid wasn’t ‘normal’, but it didn’t particularly phase her. Afterall, none of them were normal by this point.

Normal wasn’t something that you called a kid after they had killed something living. It wasn’t what you called a kid after they lived alone on the streets for weeks, or banded into a ragtag group of different ages, lifestyles, and beliefs.

No, they were not normal. Not one of them. So what did it matter if the third member of the Cache wasn’t ‘normal’.

Razz let Gwen lead her into the midst of the trio, drawing herself up so that she would come off as a larger person. She knew that she wasn’t the biggest person, and she did her best to let her personality beef up her size.

“Chrys, Bonnie, Ven,” Gwen said, nodding to each of them in turn, “you’ve all heard of Razz by now.”

The three members of the Cache nodded their heads in near unison, eyes watching the twins with an unimpressed expression.

“Well, she’s been here a bit now and I think it’s time that we do aptitude work.”

“That’s Chrys’ department,” Ven said mildly, their voice inflecting a mix of curiosity and distrust.

Razz knew that already, but she didn’t say anything. She simply turned towards Chrysoberyl’s unimpressed face and stared.

Chrys stared back, equally unimpressed.

After a moment of awkward staring, Gwen spoke up.

“Uh… guys? Can we… get to the whole… aptitude thing?”

Chrys gestured to Bonnie. The small girl stood, uttering a curse under her breath as she walked to her bag.

“We have to get you a couple of weapons to try out first,” Chrys explained coolly, her voice unimpressed but firm, “At least one of each aptitude.”

Razz was just slightly embarrassed that she didn’t know exactly what each aptitude was, but she didn’t really want to ask. Asking would make her seem much less in control.

“The aptitudes are towards heavy, light, or medium weapons,” Gwen explained quickly, sensing Razz’s faint confusion, “and from there they get divided into long distance, middle range, or melee.”

“You’ll be designated a primary aptitude and a secondary one,” Chrys said mildly. “Medium weapons,” Gwen explained quickly, sensing Razz’s faint confusion, “and from there they get divided into long distance, middle range, or melee.”

“You’ll be designated a primary aptitude and a secondary one,” Chrys said mildly, catching on, “one that’s based around distance, and one around melee. We want you to be able to beat the shit out of something up close if you don’t have the ability to smack it from afar.”

Razz resisted the urge to laugh at that mental image. “Fair enough,” she said.

“I’ve got the weapons,” Bonnie interrupted, straightening from beside the massive backpack. She was literally covered in weapons, from head to toe. She had a massive sniper rifle strapped to her back, several pistols and a few revolvers strapped to her hips, and some smaller rifles and shotguns slung over her shoulders. That was just the guns. She was decked out with staffs, knives, blades, maces and bludgeons, shanks, shivs, spears, and every other classification of weapon you could imagine.

It didn’t seem possible for the tiny blond girl to be able to carry so much, but she didn’t seem to be too phased.

“Let’s get away from the main area,” Chrys prompted, already walking away.

“I’ll leave you to it,” Gwen said quietly over her twin’s shoulder, “I have to go check on the others.”

Razz gave her a rather desperate look.

Gwen giggled. “You’ll be fine! I’ll be over in the main area, you can come and get me once you’re finished.”

“Hey!” Chrys was yelling from an area farther away from them. “Let’s move it!”

Razz didn’t allow herself any more hesitation. She broke away from her twin, heading to meet Chrys.

The testing took several hours longer than Razz expected. It involved a lot of target practice, with a range of guns. She started off small, handling the smallest of the handguns and slowly building up to the rifles. She was then handed spears, staffs, whips, and any other weapon that couldn’t swing out as far as everything else but still went farther than a simple melee weapon.

That was just the distance weapons.

After breaking up fence post after fence post, Razz was expected to take the handheld weapons and beat the shit out of a skeletal looking tree, devoid of all leaves.

The sun was starting to set by the time Chrys told her she could stop.

Razz was panting, exhausted and hungry. She turned angry blue-green orbs towards Chrysoberyl, waiting to hear the final decision.

“So?” she asked after several long moments.

Chrys rolled her neck, and shrugged. “Well,” she said evenly, “you’re definitely a medium to lightweight.”

“Thanks,” Razz muttered sarcastically, rubbing her wrists. Some of her blisters had popped, and new ones had formed. She stung all over.

Chrys waited a moment more before saying anything else. “You’re a medium melee primary,” she decided, “and a medium long range secondary.”

“Which means what?”

“You get to keep your machete,” Chrys said evenly, “and you’ll be assigned a handgun and a rifle to go with your tomahawk. The knives can stay, I suppose, but they’re not something you should be working with regularly.”

Razz heaved a sigh. She got to keep her weapons.

“Where did you even get all of this shit anyway?” she asked.

“Lots and lots of illegal looting,” Chrys said without emotion, turning away. “Yo, Bonnie!”

Bonnie looked up from her position beside Ven over with the group.

“Let’s get this shit cleaned up!”

Bonnie lifted a hand to show that she’d heard, and she said something to her friend before she began making her way towards them.

“What’re you still doing here?” Chrys asked irritably, glowering at Razz.

Razz didn’t need another hint. She forced her legs to carry her back to the group, eyelids drooping. When she neared, Gwen was one of the first to notice her.

“Hey, Razz!”

Razz lifted a hand in greeting, and Gwen jogged over to her. The slightly taller twin wrapped an arm under Razz’s arms, supporting her a bit.

“Kicked your ass, did she?”

“Apparently,” Razz groaned, “aptitude testing takes several hours.”

“Yeah Chrys was vetting you pretty hard. Let’s get you over to Dusk for some help with those hands.”

“What about my hands?” Razz asked, looking down. She was surprised to see the blisters that had popped had begun to bleed a small bit. “Oh,” she intoned mildly, “I hadn’t realized.”

“Yeah, no shit,” Gwen said with a small bit of amusement, “come on now.”

They slowly made their way over to where Dusk was sitting, rummaging through a large bag of medical supplies. He glanced up when they neared, noticing Razz’s bloody hands, and he reached back into the bag.

“What the hell did you do?” he asked without much emotion.

“Chrys was aptitude testing her,” Gwen explained so that Razz didn’t have to. She helped her twin sit, and then settled down beside her, holding out Razz’s hand.

Dusk made a small noise of understanding, and pulled out some antibiotic cream and bandages. “I don’t have a lot of gauze,” he explained as he began to smear the medicine over her wounds, “but these bandages should be thick enough to protect the blisters until they heal.”

“Speaking of the testing,” Gwen said over Dusk’s explanation, “what did you get?”

Razz had been mostly zoning out, ignoring the sting to the best of her abilities. “Oh.” She blinked, before thinking back. “Uhh… Medium melee, and medium long distance?”

Dusk smiled faintly. “That’s the same as Gwen,” he reflected with a small bit of amusement as he finished binding Razz’s hands.

“Really?” she asked, tipping her head slightly, “I didn’t realize that we fought so similarly.”

“Chrys bases it off of body type, not fighting style,” Dusk explained evenly as he taped the end of the bandage to itself.

“Makes sense then,” Gwen said with a small snort of laughter, “we are you know, identical twins after all.”

“Oh really,” Dusk said, his voice crimping up in sarcasm, “I hadn’t noticed.”

Razz chuckled, looking down at her bandaged hands.

“You know,” Gwen said calmly, “they look kinda good on you.”

“Well I rock anything I wear,” Razz responded evenly, winking at her sister. She was rewarded with an obvious eye roll.

“What are you two doing up here?”

Razz yelped, ducking her head and swinging an arm out wildly.

She punched Major in the shin rather hard.

“Motherfucker,” he gasped out, bouncing backwards, “ow!”

“Oh shit!”

“I told you not to sneak up on her like that Major,” Gwen intoned mildly.

“Fuck that hurts!”

Razz winced slightly for him, shaking out her hand.

“That’s going to bruise,” he groaned, drawing out the last syllable in a plaintive tone.

“Don’t fucking sneak up on me, prick,” Razz muttered just loud enough to be heard.

Dusk chuckled a bit and shoved his supplies back into the bag. “Get the hell out of my area,” he said with amusement, and Gwen flipped him the bird in a loving way before getting to her feet.

“Come on, you two frickin babies.”

“Have you felt her punch?” Major gasped out, tentatively testing his shin.

“I’m her twin Major. I’ve been punched by her more times than I can count,” Gwen said evenly, and Razz smirked.

“That was gentle,” she warned him, “don’t mess with the hormonal teen.”

“Yeah no shit,” Major muttered, testing his leg again before settling back into a standing position.

Gwen shoved them both. “Move!”

“Ok, ok! We’re going!” Razz feigned exasperation as she started to jog away, clenching and unclenching her fists against the bandages, getting used to the feeling.

“Let’s go, Major!”

“I’m moving!”

The three moved off in a small bickering bundle back into the main part of the group. Once they arrived there, Razz couldn’t help but smile a little bit. The bandages really did suit her, and she couldn’t help but find a small bit of joy in this odd but caring group she had stumbled upon.

She felt that things might really be alright for once.

#Chapter Three #Chapter 3 #3 #Chapter #Writing #Release #Razz #Bonnie #Chrys #Gwen #Dusk #Ven #Sin #Kane #Swearing #Character Development #Fun #Platonic Fluff #Siblings

1 note · View note

casandpuppies · 7 years

Text

October Destiel AU Challenge: Day 10 - Sharing is Caring

31 Days of Destiel Drabbles: Day 10 - Homeless

It takes Dean less than a day to realize that he’s not very good at this whole “homeless” thing. Not that he’s aiming to be a pro, or anything, but it’d be really great to make it through this without dying on the streets.

Most people would probably say he’s a colossal idiot, and he’ll be the first to admit he’s made a lot of stupid decisions in his life. This one, he can’t bring himself to regret. And it’s not like he planned for things to end up just like this.

Tuition prices are going through the roof, and Sam needs to finish college. Sam also needs to focus on his studies and not have to worry about holding down a part-time job to pay for school. Why wouldn’t he prioritize Sam’s tuition payment over his rent? He can make it on the streets for a little bit if he has to, he told himself. He’s tough. As an added bonus, that extra five-hundred bucks could go right to Sam, in the guise of Dean picking up more hours or getting a raise or something, and his little brother would be none-the-wiser.

Unfortunately, he never factored in the possibility of getting fired once he was evicted. Who knew that not having a place of residence was grounds for firing someone? Kind of puts a kink in the whole “do this for a couple months as a worst-case scenario, just to get ahead on tuition payments” plan. Well, as long as Sam never finds out, or he’ll never hear the end of it.

So, here he is, siting pitifully on a bench in Lawrence’s city park, hoping a cop doesn’t come around to chase him off. In the approximately one week since he’s had to slum it on the streets, he’s been chased off benches and out of alleyways so many times he’s lost count. If he had a dollar for every time it happened, he could buy a damn mansion.

At least he’s still got the Impala—hell, she’s about the only thing he’s got left. She’s parked several blocks away, in a public parking lot. It’s only October, so it’s not freezing cold yet, but it’s getting a little chilly during the nights, and if he doesn’t do something, then it will definitely be a problem later on. If all else fails, he can sleep in her, although her tank’s almost empty, despite his attempts to ration it. Even a car without any heat will be better than nothing.

Food’s also a problem, too. He expected it to be, of course. But it seems like he’s particularly bad at obtaining it. There’s never anything even remotely edible in any trash can he comes across (it’s probably already been picked over by the time he gets to it), and he’s been turned away from the soup kitchen more times than he’s been given food. Kind of defeats the purpose of a soup kitchen, he thinks with a scowl.

Tonight is one of those particular nights. Apparently, his luck was bad enough that he showed up after they ran out of soup. Which is a load of horse shit, if you ask Dean, because it’s not like he showed up five hours after they first started serving food.

With a heavy, put-upon sigh, he shifts on the park bench until he’s lying down. It’s just gotten dark outside, and the temperature is dropping a little. Good thing his leather jacket’s fairly efficient at keeping the cold off. For now, that is.

He doesn’t realize he’s closed his eyes until the sound of footsteps approaches, followed by someone clearing their throat. Cracking one eye open, he sees a scruffy, dark-haired man standing at his side, wearing a ratty old coat. Homeless, probably. If there’s one thing he’s gotten out of this week, it’s the ability to instantly recognize another homeless person. Maybe some kind of solidarity bullshit.

“Hello,” the man says, in a deep, gravelly voice.

“Hey,” Dean replies, hoping the man will understand the unspoken question and will explain what he’s doing here.

The man stays silent, staring at him so intently it becomes unsettling and makes Dean’s skin crawl. “Can I help you?” he adds, pulling himself back into a sitting position.

“I saw you get turned away from the soup kitchen, today.”

Dean shrugs. “Yeah, well, what can you do? Just unlucky, I guess?”

The man stares at him for a few seconds more, then holds out a thermos that Dean only now realized he was holding. “You can have this, if you’d like.”

“What is it?” He blinks warily at the dented, metal container.

“It’s soup,” the man explains patiently. “I usually try to save my serving for later. I try to ration it out, you see? But you look like you could use it.”

“Oh,” Dean says, and feels like he could kick himself. The guy offers him what could have been his only meal of the day, and all Dean can say is ‘oh?’ He shakes his head. “That’s, um…you don’t have to. I don’t want to take your food, man.”

Trench coat-dude mirrors Dean’s shrug, though the motion is kind of awkward, like he’s not totally sure what he’s doing. “May I sit?” He gestures to the unoccupied section of the bench.

“Knock yourself out, dude.” Not like it’s his bench.

“I’m Castiel,” the guy says, out of the blue.

“Dean.”

Castiel smiles. “I can tell you haven’t been out here long. On the streets, I mean. I would have seen you, otherwise.”

Dean casts him a curious look. Talking to this stranger beats sitting and staring at nothing. “You been living on the streets a long time, Cas?”

“Several months. There are many things I don’t understand yet. But…” He trails off, and looks down at his lap.

“But?” Dean prompts.

“But I’ve learned that the kindness of strangers is truly incredible. Especially among those who have very little to give. It’s very heartening. If not for random acts of kindness, I likely wouldn’t have survived out here. It’s amazing, the things you learn from homeless people. I would like to help you, if you’ll allow me.” Once again, he tries to hand Dean the thermos.

What the hell? Dean thinks, and slowly plucks it out of Castiel’s hands. “Thanks,” he says, twisting the cap off and taking a gulp. It’s canned soup, nothing fancy, but it’s about the best thing Dean’s had in days.

Castiel’s smile brightens. Then, he’s suddenly on his feet. “I’ll see you around, Dean. Good luck.” In the blink of an eye, he’s gone, and Dean’s left staring at the empty spot he’d been sitting in all of five seconds ago. His eyes trail down to the battered thermos in his hands, then back to the vacant seat on the bench.

Weird little dude.

Despite the oddness factor, Dean hopes Castiel is right. He hopes to see him around. Maybe it’ll make this situation a little more bearable.

(To be continued?)

#destiel #destiel fic #deancas #deancas fic #deancas fanfic #Supernatural #Mandy's writing #October Destiel AU Challenge #this one's really lazy I'm sorry :(#I might do a part 2 tomorrow though #because the original idea I had for this one was kind of long to write in one day for one drabble #so I might cheat a little #I'm sorry this is trash lmao I suck at this #but I'm trying dammit

5 notes · View notes

megsblackfirewrites · 7 years

Text

This Farce Ends Now: Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Joseph did his best not to scream at Mary and her lawyer as they sat opposite each other in the office set aside for them. He’d wanted to do this amicably without needing to involve the courts. Mary had agreed, probably because she knew that they would never give her the kids and it was better trying to weasel something out of him rather than through the courts. And boy was she trying.

“I am not paying her support,” he said calmly.

“Mr. Christiansen, I’m sure you understand that Mary is used to a certain type of living,” her lawyer smiled. “In order to keep up that standard of living….”

“I am not paying for her drinking problem,” Joseph said, nodding to his own lawyer. “And Mary is an architectural engineer; she can surpass what I bring in without too much effort.”

“Mary hasn’t worked in....,” her lawyer tried to argue.

“Three years; after she found out she was pregnant with Crish,” Joseph said. “I’m well aware, sir. However, were she to submit a resume, I’m sure they’d take her back in an instant. She was a model employee.”

“You just don’t want to pay me a cent,” Mary snapped.

“I refuse to pay for your booze, Mary,” Joseph said. “And if you’re going to come after me for support, I’ll come after you for child support. It’s only fair considering I have full custody of four children under the age of ten that still require around the clock care and supervision. And I’m currently unemployed while I finish up some courses that the local Victim Services requires for a full time position.”

Mary paled, but her lawyer shrugged. “That is hardly an issue. We can simply sit on your owing payment.”

“As will we,” Joseph smiled before he sighed. “Look, I’m not here to be a dick. I want this done and over with so we can get on with our lives. You’re free to take half the possessions in the house, so long as none of them are the children’s possessions. I will have full custody of the kids until you’ve cleaned up your act and can prove that you’re not abusing alcohol. Until then, you will have supervised visitation rights.”

“You think that’s reasonable?” she snapped.

“Very reasonable,” Joseph narrowed his eyes.

“And what makes you better suited to raise our children? I’m their mother!”

“Funny how you only seem to use that argument when you think it will benefit you,” Joseph snapped. “You have an alcohol problem, Mary. That’s why you are unfit for custody at this point in time.”

“Or are you just using that as an excuse so you won’t have anyone interrupting you getting fucked by all of your sidewhores?” Mary sneered.

“I never had more than one partner, Mary,” Joseph rubbed at his eyes. “Robert lied to you.”

“And I have to take your word for it?” she sneered.

“Yes,” Joseph said. “But even if Robert hadn’t fed you a steaming pile of lies, my sexual appetite would not make me an unfit parent. Or even my lack of fidelity. That is between us, two rational adults, not my relationship with my children.”

Mary glared at him before smiling sweetly. “Fine. Then I’m taking your yacht.”

“You can take half of the possessions on board the yacht,” Joseph said coldly. “I am willing to sell it and split the sale….”

“You would just jip me,” Mary sneered. “Keep your stupid boat. I’ll sign this agreement. I want this stupidity over with.”

Joseph did his best not to scream as his lawyer handed the paperwork over to Mary’s lawyer. It shouldn’t have been this much of a fight. Why was Mary so determined to hold onto him when she didn’t even like him anymore? Why wasn’t she allowing both of them to move on with their lives? It would have been better than letting these wounds fester like they were.

“I will have these filed right away,” his lawyer said as she clacked the papers against the table to get them straightened out. “Mary, Gerald, it was very nice for you to cooperate with us.”

Mary glared at Joseph as he got to his feet and followed his lawyer out of the office. He rubbed at his eyes, wondering if it really was all over. Was Mary really going to let him walk away like this?

“How’re you feeling?” his lawyer asked.

“Like I’m a few seconds away from throwing myself into the ocean,” Joseph sighed and shook his head. “Thank you, Monique. I appreciate this.”

“It’s my pleasure, Joseph,” she smiled. “The worst is over now. Worry about getting your kids adjusted and happy. I’ll handle the legal bullshit.”

He smiled and shook her hand before heading out to the parking lot. He had to go pick his kids up from soccer practice and retrieve his baby from Brian’s clutches before the kid developed a love for the scent of board shavings.

***

“Oh, hello, Luci,” Joseph smiled as Chris’ pet jumped up onto the couch beside him. “Why aren’t you in with Chris?”

Lucifer stared at him for a moment before crawling onto his lap and curling up. Joseph smiled as he ran his hand down the feline’s back and earned a long, happy purr. He returned to his book, highlighting passages that were going to be used on the upcoming test. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous. It was the first test he’d had to take since he’d graduated high school. Sure, there were courses he’d picked up here and there to be able to become a minister, but he already knew the material inside and out. Abnormal psychology, though? That was a new one to him.

He glanced up at a knock on the door, wondering who would be bothering him at this hour. The kids were already tucked up in bed, so it wouldn’t be one of their little friends breaking their parents’ curfew to be little rebels. Maybe it was Lucien come to talk?

He gently pushed Lucifer off of his lap and set his textbook down on the coffee table as he got to his feet. He could vaguely make out a shape on the other side of the door; one of the other dads then?

“Robert,” Joseph blinked as he opened the door. “Um, it’s rather late, don’t you think?”

“Not even ten,” Robert snorted as he pushed past Joseph and headed for the kitchen. “We’re celebrating your divorce.”

“Robert,” Joseph sighed as he followed him. “It’s not something to celebrate. And you’re friends with Mary; isn’t that bad form?”

Robert shrugged. “I’m also friends with you,” he said as he set the whiskey on the counter. “Get that fruity wine of yours and those cookies. We’re pigging out.”

Joseph shook his head as he got a wine glass out for his wine and set the tray of fresh cookies between them at the island. Robert poured himself a glass of whiskey and lifted his glass.

“To you finally being a free man,” he said. “And the beginning of a new life for you.”

“Cheers,” Joseph chuckled as he tinked his glass against Robert’s and took a sip. “So...how’ve you been?” Robert shot him a look and Joseph laughed. “Okay, you have to deal with the small talk in my own house, Robert,” he said. “If we were in yours, I would respect your silence rule.”

Robert shrugged a shoulder and pushed his fingers through his hair. “I’ve been okay,” he said. “Val’s been helping me clean up my act a little bit. Actually forced me to do laundry at a decent time. And cook decent meals.”

“She’s a good influence,” Joseph smiled.

“I have no idea how she turned out so good when I was a shit father,” Robert sighed and shook his head. “Marilyn did more work than I thought.”

“I’m sure you helped more than you thought,” Joseph soothed. “I mean, you weren’t neglectful to be malicious. Some people just...shouldn’t be parents.”

Robert glanced at him and sighed. “Sometimes I’m not sure if I appreciate what you say or if I want to smack you,” he said.

“I’m used to it,” he chuckled and tipped his head to the side.

Robert reached out and plucked a cookie off the plate. He chewed it slowly, his dark eyes closing in contentment. Joseph settled down against the island and slowly sipped his wine. He hadn’t realized that he needed this. He could already feel his nerves relaxing.

“Mrow?” Lucifer asked before he jumped up on the island.

“Hey, down,” Joseph scolded as he poked Lucifer’s nose. “We talked about this, young man. No dirty paws where there’s food.”

Robert’s mouth fell open. “You have a cat,” he said. “You got a fucking cat!”

“Volume,” Joseph smiled. “Yes, Chris got him when we got the dog. Robert, Lucifer. Luci, this is Robert.”

“You named it Lucifer,” Robert cackled.

“No, he was already named Lucifer,” Joseph shook his head. “And off the table, darling.”

Lucifer glared at him before jumping down on his lap and curling up. He scratched behind the cat’s ears and smiled at Robert as the man seemed to swoon on the spot.

“Joseph Christiansen with a cat named Lucifer,” he laughed. “Will wonders ever cease?”

Joseph rolled his eyes. He was glad that something so simple could make his friend laugh. He had gotten over the novelty a while ago, so he didn’t laugh as much as he used to. And it was sort of getting old anyways.

“So,” Robert said after a few minutes. “You’re single now.”

“Robert,” Joseph looked at him.

Really? He should have known that Robert had ulterior motives for coming and celebrating. The man always did. It was just how he operated.

“Hear me out,” Robert raised his hands. “You’re single now. You can get back into the dating scene whenever you want. You’ll never have to worry about cheating on Mary ever again.”

“I’ve already come to terms with that, Robert,” Joseph said. “If you’re looking to proposition me this time….”

“No, that’s just it,” Robert shook his head. “I...I don’t just want you for sex, Joseph. I thought about this for a while now and...fuck, I’m not good with words okay? I can spin a story like you wouldn’t believe, but explain my feelings?” He rubbed angrily at the fringe of hair just above his forehead. “Look, when we started that affair, I really only wanted to fuck you for the novelty. I had enticed a married man into my bed, you know? It was the ultimate bad boy fantasy. But then...then I started to get to know you more, actually held you after we fucked, and...and I fell in love. You’re an amazing man, Joseph, and...and I know I blew it. I wasn’t any better than Mary. I wanted you without any consideration for you or your feelings or even what Mary would do if I lied about your extramarital activities. I was selfish. I always have been.”

Joseph leaned forward, folding his hands under his jaw as he listened to Robert’s confession. He knew how hard it was to get Robert to talk about his feelings and fears, so he wasn’t about to stop the man. Not yet, anyways. They had both been selfish. They had both done something wrong. If Robert was apologizing, there was more than enough hope for him left in the world.

“But after I’d cooled off when you dumped me and stayed with Mary, I realized something,” he continued. “I was acting like Mary. I was acting like you were property. You aren’t. You never belonged to me or to Mary. And...and I only want you to be happy now. Whether that’s with me or someone else. I want you back in my life, Joseph. I can’t….I can’t stand just watching from the sidelines as you go on with your life hurting from our stupidity.”

Joseph smiled as Robert fell silent and wiped at his eye. “Robert, you always meant the world to me, even when we were just friends,” he said. “I know a hurt soul when I see it and yours was in a lot of agony, even when you and Marilyn were trying to start over. You were hurting so much and I wanted to help you get better. And then...Marilyn had her accident.

“You were so distraught, but you were trying to seem unaffected. Aloof until the final moments. I knew better. I waited until you were comfortable around me and when I asked you if you were alright, you came apart at the seams. I knew in that moment that I loved you; I held you and let you cry, knowing that in that moment you were the most beautiful creature in existence. Your emotions were so pure, your grief was so real, that I knew this was the real Robert Small. Not an aloof man that acted too cool for friends and drank too much. You are a gentle soul with a heart of gold struggling to fit into a life he thought he should have because emotions were the enemy.

“I still love you, Robert. I always will. But I need time. I’ve been with Mary most of my adult life and I need time to find myself again. Even if I know this isn’t what you want, I want to be friends with you again, Robert. I want to get to know the man you’ve become and let our past burn away.”

Robert’s eyes had teared up again and he nodded. “I want that too,” he whispered. “Being friends with you is better than letting myself waste away to nothing.”

Joseph wiped a tear from his eyes and laughed. “Look at us being mature adults about things,” he laughed. “Who’da thunk it, right?”

Robert smiled and sipped his whiskey. “Had to happen at some point, I suppose,” he teased.

Joseph smiled as he sipped his wine. “To us being mature adults,” he said after a moment and lifted his glass.

“Cheers, mate,” Robert chuckled as they clicked their glasses together and sipped in their honour.

Joseph had no idea what his future would hold, but if he was there with Robert watching his back, he knew he’d be okay.

#DDADDS #Joseph Christiansen #the end

7 notes · View notes

tessatechaitea · 7 years

Text

Suicide Squad #9

Lobo's expression makes it seem like DC Comics are far sexier than they really are.

I don't mean to be critical of Lobo's English since he's obviously ESL and who am I, a guy who knows only English, to criticize a person who has made the kind of Herculean effort to learn more languages than the one they learned almost automatically from birth BUT he really doesn't need to both start and end a sentence referencing the person he's speaking to. I will not change that to "to whom he's speaking" because that's an antiquated grammar rule which tries to force English to be more like Latin. So don't correct my English when I'm trying to correct somebody else's, you jerk!

Amanda adds one more member to the Super Duper Scary Suicide Squad team: Cyclotron. In a different version of the DC Universe that isn't this one at all, Cyclotron was Nuklon's grandfather. This is before Amanda came up with the brain bombs and thought she could manipulate people by dangling gold-plated carrots in front of them. Cyclotron is probably the "brain bomb" last resort for when she loses control of these maniacs. The Squad is airdropped into the tiny evil country where they immediately encounter the metahuman threat composed of Growth, Missile, Statue, Wind, and Island.

Bah. No man is an island.

Even though it's an obvious thing to say, I just like the rhythm of that caption responding to the panel. During the battle, Amanda realizes that the civilian populaces are inextricably linked to their metahuman overlords. When the metahumans die, the civilians die as well. So Amanda decides maybe they should abort the mission before everybody on the island is dead. Amanda Waller of the past is soft! The Super Duper Scary Suicide Squad defeats the metahumans and the evil emperor. The only part of the mission left is to destroy the machine the country was using to create metahumans. Past Amanda Waller screams at them to destroy it in an emotional display which Present Amanda Waller would never succumb to. Sensing her desperation to destroy this machine, Cyclotron steps forward and proposes a better idea: the Super Duper Scary Suicide Squad should use the device to take over the world themselves. For the first and last time, Amanda Waller shits herself. That last sentence doesn't have the impact it should because I forgot to mention this story is called "The First and Last Mission of Suicide Zero." Amanda realizes that gold-plated carrots aren't the best thing to dangle from a stick if she wants to keep people other than Lobo or Captain Carrot in check. She makes a mental note to check into the efficacy of brain bombs and then tells Rustam to destroy the machine himself. Lobo also decides he wants to destroy the machine because he's one of the smartest villains in the DC Universe in that he would rather have money than the pain in the ass bullshit that comes with ruling the world. I'm glad he said that (and Rob and Si wrote that) because it's tiresome having all these super-villains who are fighting to simply have more stressful lives. People who want power are fucking damaged idiots with low self-esteem and probably tiny hands and the worst comb-over in the history of comb-overs. Amanda Waller thinks up a new plan on the spot: double the size of the gold-plated carrot!

I'm beginning to sympathize with Lobo in Justice League vs. Suicide Squad. Did Amanda renege on the promise of payment and instead stick him in The Catacombs? I suppose the story isn't over yet but Lobo may be the only member of the Super Duper Scary Suicide Squad with an actual beef against Amanda. Oh, and Rustam! But he's a Quraci terrorist so fuck him!

Cyclotron tries to talk his way out of being killed by Lobo. He points out how he was promised his freedom to go on this mission but now Amanda has ordered him killed. How can you trust a lying monster like that?! I mean, ignore the part where Cyclotron decided to derail the mission and stopped doing what he promised to do for his freedom. I don't think that part is important to Cyclotron's argument. I mean, sure, he's right since he was really just part of the mission so Amanda could abort it using his death (probably! I'm still not past the part where Lobo decides to kill Cyclotron! Which means he's also killing Future Nuklon, I guess! Poor baby Nuklon! Although I'm assuming Nuklon is okay since Cyclotron already had his baby girl by the time he got his powers. So good news, Nuklon fans! Nuklon will be around in like fifty years or something.).

Grandmaster Comic Book Reader!

I suppose everybody here should be pissed that Amanda tried to kill them all with Cyclotron's blast. But all of them except Lobo and Rustam brought it on themselves, really. I hope Lobo gets his double-sized gold-plated carrot at the end of Justice League vs. Suicide Squad. I bet he does. That's why he joins the Justice League of America! For the excellent pay and benefits. I mean, he won't actually get the benefits because they're only going to hire him part time. And his pay won't be that great because he's technically unskilled labor and an illegal alien. But the promise of constant violence is a nice perk! The Super Duper Scary Suicide Squad manage to survive the blast but they were all comatose. So Amanda built a prison for them and locked them away because they were too dangerous to have in the world. Mostly they were too dangerous to her and her future plans. Always best to just bury incriminating evidence way out in a desert. Or so I've heard. What Did We Learn? I don't think we learned anything we didn't already know. Lobo will do anything if he's getting paid. Amanda Waller is a monster. Some other characters exist with motivations already mentioned in Justice League vs. Suicide Squad. But I do appreciate having this Rebirth origin of the super-villain version of the Suicide Squad, mostly because Lobo is in it. Also, Lobo was written well! Not that it's hard to write Lobo. You just have him refer to himself as the Main Man, say "frag" or "bastiches" once or twice, mention how he always does a job he's been paid for because he's an honorable genocidal maniac who loves violence, and don't have him say "Sorry, not sorry." Easy! The Ranking! +1!

#Suicide Squad #DC Comics #Rob Williams #Si Spurrier #Riley Rossmo #Ivan Plascencia #Lobo

1 note · View note

sassyhottubstrawberry-blog · 6 years

Text

compare life insurance quotes usa

"compare life insurance quotes usa

compare life insurance quotes usa

BEST ANSWER: Try this site where you can compare quotes: : http://insureinfo.xyz/index.html?src=tumblr

RELATED QUESTIONS:

Ford mustang insurance for a 17 year old?

I wanna buy a 88-93 mustang 5.0 could I save insurance by putting it in my parents name? How does that work because if it's in my name it's gonna be pretty high.

Can i get my car insurance reinstated?

Hi, my insurance was paid in full for 10 months. i had a crash end september went down i was at fault. I still had till end march on policy and obvs its been cancelled as car was right off. I am sure the woman said i can reinstate policy as i paid in full?? Any help would be good thanks""

""New York car insurance, LoJack discount for Allstate?""

Hi all, I currently have Allstate car insurance and I bought a new car with a LoJack installed. When I tried to get the discount, they only took off $7 per month on my policy.. Looking online, I discovered that New York state mandates that car insurance companies must give a discount for LoJack, but I'm not sure how much. The LoJack website isn't very clear on the subject, saying 25% for NY but I'm not sure if that means up to 25% or a mandated 25%... Anyone happen to know? I'm having trouble finding any concrete information. Here's the info from LoJack I found: http://www.lojack.com/car-insurance-discount.html Thanks!""

Should we have socialist car insurance?

Is it unfair that people pay different amounts for their car insurance? Doesthis constitute discrimination against people who have to pay more? Should we socialise it so that we all pay the same rate? Why or why not? :-)

How much is my insurance?

I basically know nothing about insurance. im 17, the car is a 99 kia sephia with 80,000 miles and its red. i live in a suburban town in new jersey. help me out p.s. i didnt want to find a quote thing online because i dont want them calling my house and stuff since u have to give info""

On an estimate how much does car insurance cost?

How much is the insurance on 50cc scooter for a 16 year old?

Please could you tell me the amount for full comp, cheers""

How much does car insurance cost?

Im planning on getting a 2012 honda accord coupe. will it be more expensive to insure compared to the sedan model or will it only be a slight expensive?

""Non owner SR22 insurance, a cheap website?""

Non owner SR22 insurance, a cheap website?""

How much does it usually costs for liability insurance on a car?

Buying a 1997 Ford F-150 2 door soon and wanting to know how much liability insurance is going to cost? just a Estimate is all Im looking for. :)

Why do red cars go hand in hand with a high auto insurance bill????

Red cars always get a high insurance rate. Not all red cars are sporty or fast so why is this?

Should I put a claim in with my auto insurance?

Today at a light a car rear ended me. My rear bumper has some small scratches and some paint marks from the other car. No dents or anything else. the car that hit me seemed to have worse damage to his front bumper. We called the police and they did a report. The other guy said he is not going to put in a claim with his insurance. He admitted fault and apologized over and over. I was wondering if it is worth me putting in a claim with my insurance? I don't want my rates to go up and even though I am not at fault, i wonder how aggressively my insurance will pursue a claim with the other guy's insurance since damage is so minor. I actually wonder if it was worth calling the police, when I really think about it. I was just shaken up at the time. I think re painting the bumper would actually be less than my deductible. I don't really have any pain and no noticeable injuries. I had a friend say I should put in a claim for minor back pain, but even if i was in minor pain, i have heard the 10,000 most companies give always go to lawyers and chiropractors I don't want to lie and don't want to spend time going to chiropractors too end up not getting anything and still having to pay to repaint bumper, have my rates go up and be aggravated. any advice?""

How much is car insurance for a 17 year old female?

im 17 and would love to buy myself a car but i worry about the insurance. i am thinking of buying a used 1998 jeep grand cherokee, its a really good price but i dont want to go and buy the car if insurance is way to expensive. any ideas on how much insurance would cost. if it counts i do get good grades in school.""

What is the best/cheapest car insurance for me?

im 16, and unfortunately my parents wont let me go under their insurance for the car ( i know that complicates things) but im hopeing that if i get my own car, and pay for my own insurance it wont be too expensive :( does anyone know what insurance company would give me the approx. lowest cost?""

What happens when you don't pay cancellation costs for car insurance?

Un-named popular car insurance provider added my 22-yr old son to my policy without my permission. Said it was done internally, couldn't take him off policy. So I canceled. I should say that before I called to cancel this policy, I started a new policy w/ a local company. Progressively, I received a bill for cancellation costs of $120.00. What happens if I don't pay?""

If I'm only listed as a driver on a family insurance plan. Will the rates go up if I move into Detroit?

As answered in my previous question, legally I am supposed to change my license to the address where I reside. Living in Detroit constitutes a higher insurance rate than that of the suburbs. Will my rates increase if the policy is not in my name since I am only listed as a driver?""

Best car for cheap car insurance England?

i'm looking for an affordable car for my first one i'm a 19 year old female, i''ve checked a 2001 ford ka 1.3 and it was the second cheapest one for insurance which was 1500 the only thing putting me off is my friend had one and she said it guzzled petrol :P which i think she means it wasted petrol, the cheapest was a fiat 500 the insurance was 1300 but i really can't afford one so just want a cheap run around until i've saved up enough to buy a new one, does anyone know any affordable cars max price 1500 with cheap insurance thanks!! oh and if anyone has had a ford ka do you recommend one?""

Why is my health insurance so much?

My girlfriend- is 22 in shape and healthy other than having psoriasis and ADD; she has health insurance and pays $90 damn bucks a month. I am looking for insurance since I will soon be 26 years old in shape and healthy and am looking at paying $200 a month. This is bullshit frankly- I am healthy, only have ADD (which I don't even take meds for but want to start again) and have a steady well paying job. I tried looking through the websites but found nothing less than $110 for not so great coverage. Can someone explain to me a. where to get good affordable health insurance b. why there is such a difference in cost since she has more problems and we are only 3 years apart c. are there any options for me if I went to healthcare.gov? I know she isn't lying about the payments and I know she has a co pay with each subscription/doctors visit but its minimal like $30-60 minimal. Any help or advise is very appreciated- also please don't make this political.""

What is the age in Florida for males when car insurance gets cheaper and the prefered minimum age...?

for renting a car?

Choosing a good car which has cheap insurance---I live in CANADA?

Car choosing help--I LIVE IN CANADA.? I need help choosing a car that is going to be low insurance for me. I'm 22/female/college grad/part time worker/full insurance G / Went to driving school. Thanks in advance.

How do i take out a car of my insurance?

So my brothers car got repo and i wanted to take to out of my insurance but the lady says i cant wtf

Can I get car insurance if I don't have a SSN? Will that cost more?

Guys, I'm an international student who is about to go to California in the upcoming September. Currently I'm holding a international driver's permit and a valid driver's license from my home country. I want to purchase a car and get myself covered by the insurance asap upon my arrival. But as a alien, I won't be eligible for a SSN before next year, so I can get insurance without it? If the the answer is yes, will that cost more if I have a SSN? Furthermore, anyone know if I can get car insurance just on my international driver's permit? Thank you in advance!""

If you have fully comp insurance & drive somebody elses car & have a bump will it cover damage?

my daughter lent her car to her cousin who has fully comp of her own but she crashed the car will her insurance pay for damage??????????

Medicaid pays 100% but does insurance?

People who don't qualify for medicaid has to have regular insurance . A lot of those who don't qualify for medicaid can be determined by just a few dollars as they have a cut off limit. If they have to buy insurance wouldn't they have to pay the difference between the ins pay and balance? If one does not get insurance then there is a fine from your taxes. Is all this correct? Does the fine go towards an insurance premium if they pass the new health care law? Sorry for so many questions. Just trying to understand this a bit.

Can my Friend put me under his car insurance?

I am 18 Years old and have had m licence for less than a year but when I get a quote from an insurance company they tell me that I have to pay within the 300-400 range because I have little experience, never had insurance, have no credit and I am a noob... Well, even though I am only driving my car 10 miles a day, it seems like they do not want to trust me on the road. So I asked my friends (because my mom doesnt drive, and I dont get along too well with my family) and he is willing to put me under his insurance... But can he? Would he be the owner of the car and I would be the co-driver? Just let me know any ways I can work this out... Thanks.""

compare life insurance quotes usa

Buying new car; 1 day insurance?

I am going to look at a car soon, with intentions of making it into a winter project. It is drivable, but I do not plan on driving it until summer. I would rather not tow it home, but without insurance I dont want to drive it. Is such a thing as 1 day insurance an option, just to get it home? If so, how much does this usually cost? If not, are there any other possibilities besides a tow? State of Pennsylvania by the way.""

Does anyone know a carr insurance company that quotes and lets you print certificate?

i need a car insurance certificate for wed and my own insurance cant post one in time. does anyone know a web site that quotes and then lets you buy and print off a certificate? not swift cover as they wont insure my car as im only 24! thanks!!

Can I get insurance now that my wife is pregnant?

My wife is 35 weeks pregnant. I graduated from Respiratory therapy school this past spring. At the time my wife, son and I were on Medicaid. Now that I have a good job I make too much money and am going to get booted off Medicaid. Can we get insurance for my wife?""

Will 1 speeding ticket make insurance companies deny you coverage for a job?

I know my question was a little confusing, but I wasn't sure how to word it. In other words, about a week ago I got a job with a local company called Rental City. It's like a ...show more""

Cheap car insurance with dui in california?

i know drinking and driving was dumb and dont drink anymore for a year. i need car insurance where can i find the best deal something cheap for a whole year for liabilty for my shitty car.

Do I need to mention car insurance claims when going for motorbike insurance?

Title says it all really! I have a car insurance claim against me which I want to know if I have to declare when applying for motorbike insurance. Hopefully not, because motorcycling is quite different to car driving..?! Thanks!""

State Farm or Allstate Car Insurance: Which one is Better?

I'm trying to choose between the two...which one is better?

Difference between a deductible and co-insurance?

I am shopping for individual health insurance and I do not understand the difference between these terms. Also, if a plan has a $1000 deductible does that apply to the entire 12 month term of the plan or every single time I receive health care services? And what about co-insurance?""

Am a 16 year old boy and i want a mustang for my first car... gt or v6?

money is my concern... insurance? gas?

I paid my car insurance in full but iv seen a better car thats cheaper to insure?

iv only had the policy 2 weeks can i trade my car in for the one iv seen and claim the difference back of insurance company also just taxed the car iv got 135 for the full year would this be transferable sorry this is my first car so new to all this

When does insurance rates go down?

I been in an accident in 2006 and I was looking for insurance quote for less and I wanted to know if it will lower in 3-5 years. start with a clean slate. Thanks

Insurance for a child ?

I'm on my fathers insurance until I turn 26, but I have a one year old baby girl. How much will it be to have good medical insurance for just her ? She needs good insurance because she has medical issues.""

How much is car insurance?

Where is the cheapest place to find car insurance for an 18 year old?

Hey, was just wondering where the best place to look for cheap young drivers car insurance? I understand that I am still going to be paying a significant amount money for it but surely there must be some cheaper than 2000? Also does anyone know which type of car is the cheapest to insure? Thanks""

Insurance for newborn?

I am on my stepfather's insurance through bluecross/blueshield. I am about to have a baby and she can't be covered on this insurance. would i have to lose my insurance and get medicaid and us be on it together or can i just get medicaid for her and keep my insurance? and what if it isn't all resolved when she is born, will she be able to see a doctor?""

How much would insurance for a motorcycle cost for a 17 year old?

How much approximately for a 17 yr old with a 250 ninja? what about a 600cc bike? I do not have my drivers license yet, only my permit and I would get a learners permit on my bike. How much do you think it will cost?""

Is Progressive a good insurance company?

My mom seems to think it's not based on what she heard almost 10 years ago. We currently have Allstate which is costing us $265/mo whereas Progressive could cost us $171/mo. IDK why she won't even try it

3 Insurance Questions for a young driver?

(What coverage package would be recommended for a young driver?) 1. What coverage would be recommended to best protect you in the event that your car is stolen? 2. What coverage would be recommended to best protect you in the event that you have an accident that is your fault? 3. What coverage would be recommended to best protect you in the event that your car is hit by an uninsured motorist?

Cheap car insurance in ohio for a 17 male not on parents insurance?

what would be the average amount for car insurance for a 17 male still in high school not on his parents car insurance. he really needs this car to get to and from college and he is mostly on his own im trying to help as much as i can so what would be a average amount for him knowing this Information. please help me

Car insurance.. help please?

I got a 2000 Dodge Neon a couple days ago and i was wondering how much the insurance will be a month? I'm a sophomore girl in highschool and i usually maintain a B average (you get about $25 off insurance for maintaining good grades). And how much will it be to get it licensed? I payed $1300 for the car (they were desperatly trying to sell it) and it's in perfect condition.

Car insurance claim?

Around a month ago already my passenger side car window got shattered. It's still intact, just completely spidered out. I had been on my thirty minute break from work and parked near the grass side of my apartments. My window was actually rolled down half way too. While inside my apartments ( we live on the first floor very near to where my car was parked) I remember a guy mowing the lawn around the apartments. When I went back outside to go back to work I had saw my window. We know for a fact that the lawn mowing guy ran over a rock and it had hit my window, but we didn't actually see it. Again, my window was rolled down a bit so if someone wanted to break in they could have. I have called the apartments on several occasions and they said they would get back to me on the lawn mowing company so I can make a claim. Still never have. This was almost a month ago. What can I do? If anything since I didn't physically see it? I also only have liability coverage on that car.""

Which is worse on insurance costs or points a DUI or not haveing insurance?

My insurance company has on record that my husband had a DUI 2 years ago, but he didn't I got the paper work to show that it was a driving without insurance charge but I want to know which is worse to the insurance company.""

My medical insurance company ask for homeowner insurance policy?

I fell on my deck, and went through surgery, the total medical expense is about 25K. Now my medical insurance company is asking for homeowner insurance policy. I am not sure how to handle it to avoid any potential cost to me such as deductible or premium increase. Is the medical insurance policy the primary or the homeowner insurance policy for this case? Thanks

Raise car insurance price?

I recently got a speeding ticket for $198. I've only been pulled over twice, once in 2006 and then this current occasion. I'm a college student and I'm very short on money and I'm unsure as to what to do. I've already saved $100 and when I get paid again, I'll save the remaining amount. However, I hadn't thought about traffic school just because it's about $30 for the class and then an additional $10 to get the certification sent to me and by that point, it'll be close to 30 days and I have to mail the ticket and payment out since I was pulled over in a different county. And, it would end up costing me more money in the end. I'd receive 4 points on my license without taking traffic school. How bad is 4 points? Will the points make my car insurance go up? What's the best thing to do in this situation?""

Insurance: Can i??????

Can i start my own insurance company and insure my own car and thats it?

compare life insurance quotes usa

On average how much would it cost for an independent living 15 year old girl to get good health insurance.?

Car Insurance rate increased when I moved????

I recently moved WITHIN the same county and my car insurance rates increased because of the move. Should it increase even though I am in the same county???? It's seriously like 5 miles from my old house....

Income Based Health Insurance in California?

I'm 18 years old and live at home with my dad/step mom. They don't have insurance through their employers, so neither do I and because their combined income is so high (6 figures) I'm not eligible for Medical or Medicaid. Any ideas on what I can do to get affordable health insurance? I have a job too...""

Best car insurance prices for financed cars?

I'm only 19, and I'm getting a financed car VERY soon. I know I can't look at the big name guys, cause I've already done that and they want $450 a month just for a car with no power and isn't even sport. I plan on either getting a 2009-10 Dodge Avenger or 2009-10 Nissan Altima/Sentra. I have had car insurance without a gap for almost 2 years now on my current car, so I won't have any problems having anyone cover me or anything. I live in FL, so if anyone knows of any small insurance companies that are good with financed cars and teens, PLEASE list it below. Thanks.""

Why are so many Americans losing their health insurance plans due to the Affordable Health Care Act/Obamacare?

Is there serious corruption in the health insurance industry? Would that have something to do with it? Why would so many health care professionals like doctors and dentists have problems with the Affordable Health Care Act/Obamacare? By the way, I'm keeping my employer based plan.They're not changing it, and, it's through my union.No one else in my store is changing theirs,either.""

Can I insure my car for more than it's worth?

I recently spent a lot of money getting my car into great condition. I don't want to have an accident and have the insurance company only give me a quarter of what I put into it, just because the book value of it is low. I have USAA if that makes a difference.""

Cheap Car Insurance UK?

I have been looking at quotes for a while now and I keep on getting the quotes for around 3,000+, there is no way I am paying that. Before anyone suggests go on your parents insurance or get a provisional not happening, I want my own car on my own insurance 3rd party. Does anyone know any decent places where I can get insurance for 2,500 or less, it would be much appreciated.""

Against my religion to have health insurance?

I live in the US and it is against my religion to have health insurance. If I will be forced to buy Obamacare, it will disrespect my God and I will never be allowed entry to paradise. I don't want to ruin my mortal life and my afterlife. Am I exempt from buying Obamacare now since it's very intolerant and hateful to force a man of God like myself to purchase this health insurance?""

Car insurance- driving school?

is it worth it and if u have done it how much have you saved on insurance a month

Car insurance question?

Would it be cheaper to get insurance on a Golf GTI or a older muscle caR? because there are alot of classic car insurance companies who do great deals but i don't know and as a first car by the way. i would of thought as its an older car it would be cheaper

Is a Honda Civic expensive to insure?

I'm looking into buying myself my first car. Hoping for a newer used. I've been asking some of my friends about what car I should get, and many have said the Honda Civic. However none of them own this car themselves (many said if they could go back & change this they would.) But what I'm wondering is it expensive to get insurance for?? I've heard yes & no, so I'm just confused!! Thank you!""

What types of insurance would a spin cycling instructor require?

exmaple public liability, and why would they need these types of insurance""

Nissan GTR Lease & Insurance Cost?

Approximately, how much is Nissan GTR lease and insurance cost? Thanks.""

""How much is average insurance for a motorcycle, preferably in Texas.?

I am female and over 25 yrs. of age.

Will a speeding ticket affect my insurance rates?

This is my first speeding ticket and the cop claims I sped 15 mi over the 25 mph limit. If I plead guilty and pay the fine and attend traffic school, will this still be reported to my auto insurance company?""

""Monthly Insurance for a 16 year old, if he were to get a G37 Coupe? IS250? IS250c? TL 2010?""

How much would it cost? an estimate? I heard grades, colors of the car, and other things like that affect the insurance cost? Well if it does, he gets 4.0 and he wants a Black. We live in CA. And our insurance company is Farmers, but I would just want a monthly insurance cost. thank you!""

Can I drive a car without teenage insurance?

My uncle said I can borrow his car for new years, but he doesn't have teenage insurance. Would he need it if I'm only borrowing it for one day and night? Can I still drive it? If something happens will regular insurance cover? I've been driving for a while I'm good at it. Plus a few of my friends riding are also licensed, the oldest 23. I'm 18.""

I need cheap auto insurance below $150?

I'm 18 just got my drivers license got a honda civic lx 2010 and i need auto insurance i have a suckish job and i'm currently not in college but i will be attending after this next semester. i'm just looking for auto insurance, why is it so complicated?""

""Where is houston, tx is there an affordable OBGYN clinic?""

I do not have insurance, but need to get in to have an obgyn exam. Does anyone know where the most affordable place would be, and no do not suggest planned parenthood. They are on a sliding schedule, but apparently I make too much money which is a crock of crap.""

What's the best car insurance company 2 get the lowest price rates on a 74 caprice classic?

How much would my motorcycle insurance cost?

i might be purchasing a 1999 honda cbr 600s4. i have no riding experience. i live in NJ. i am 22 years old. i have 4 points on my license (from careless driving tickets), besides that, a clean driving record. any sort of educated guess would be much appreciated.""

Is there a way I can drop my car insurance since I am not using my car?

I have not used my car in a few months but still have insurance on it. I still want to keep my vehicle though, but just have it in the garage. Can I drop my insurance? My biggest fear is that once I cancel it and want to start driving my car again I will have higher rates? Is there any way I can avoid this???""

I need non-owner car insurance?

Does anybody know what insurance companies offer this thanks.

Would i need goods carrying vehicle insurance?

If i was to transport mechanical tools or a regular basis in a vauxhall combo van, would i need to get goods carrying vehicle insurance instead of normal car insurance? I'am a bit new to this so any advice would be appreciated. Thanks""

How do you get insurance on a scooter you don't know the make/model of?

I bought a scooter off of Craigslist, no title, just bill of sale. I want to get the title for it, but my state requires you to first have insurance on the bike/scooter before you can register it. I have no idea of the make or model, I know it's a 49cc and it is Chinese made. I checked the VIN and it is not stolen but does not give any other information on it. How do I go about doing this? Can I use a cheap insurance company like The General or something? Also, I am located in Colorado but I think it's pretty standard around the country of the same process. I'm looking to register it in my name, get the title and get a Low Power Scooter sticker for it. 10 points to the best answer!""

compare life insurance quotes usa

America - Are you legally required to get Car Insurance?

In the UK you can't go on the road without insurance, is this the same in america?""

Can a 17 year old get their own medical coverage in California?

I'm 17 and live in California. I was wondering if I am legally allowed to sign up for my own medical insurance, like through MediCal or something, and not through my parents. It's a long story, but neither of my parents are able to provide medical coverage for me. And I'm not emancipated or anything. 10 points best answer. thank you ( :""

Need help to find a car with cheap insurance?

Ok so im nearly 17 and i live in the uk so will be taking my driving test soon. I want a car that isnt to expensive to run and cheap insurance as insurance is really high at the moment an the car cant be to expensive either as i dont have a lot of money the most money i would be willing to be pay is about 2500 and cheapest insurance please!

What happens if you get pulled over and get a ticket for no insurance?

OK so I just got pulled over this morning for not having any insurance and I had no idea I did not have it. For one the car is not mine its my boyfriends and for two his mom was the one that had insurance on it and dropped it without telling me, so I had no idea. I just went and got insurance on it like an hour after I got the ticket, so will the ticket be dismissed, if not what will happen and how much will this all cost?""

How much would extra would i pay for another car on my policy?

I currently own 2 cars and am looking to buy another one. It is a 99 crown vic police int P71. I dont want collision or anything extra, i want the lowest insurance policy that i can get. Im taking that, that would be a liability only policy, am i correct? If not what kind of policy do i ask for? Also, how much more a month would this cost? No one will steal it because its a former cop car, but you couldnt tell and i doubt i will reck it.""

Who has the best health insurance in California for college students?

I am a full time college student, and I am looking for health care insurance, but I'm not for sure which to go for. I was looking up Blue Shield of California, Health net, and Kaiser, but I'm new to this.""

Insurance question for sport bike?

Ok so I drive already and im going to be 18 very soon. I'm thinking about getting a sport-bike for college mainly because they have very good mpg and are fairly cheap.Once i get my m1 licence im thinking on getting a kawasaki ninja 250 or a suzuki gsxr 600. How much would insurance cost extra on the gixxer than for the ninja, thanks !!!""

Am I able to check the status of my husbands car insurance claim ?

Last October , I sold my car so I would be able to buy a more gas efficient car. I found a car that I wanted that was a stick but didn't no how to drive stick. My husband talked ...show more""

What kind of insurance do I need?

I provide training workshops for colleges and the school I am currently doing work for asked me to send them a certificate of insurance. They said, they need this in order to process a purchase order. What kind of insurance do I need? I've never had to do this before? Is it general liability insurance? And generally, how much does it cost?""

Why do I need title insurance?

I'm buying a piece of property, the lender says I have to get title insurance, why?""

Can I drop my non-owners insurance policy after I get my revoked license back?

I got a DWAI a while ago, and I will be eligible to reapply for a license soon. In order to do this, I have to apply for non-owner's car insurance and fill out an SR-22 form. After I have gotten my license back, can I legally drop the non-owner's insurance? I have never owned a car or had insurance before, so I have no idea how car insurance policies work.""

Is a hatchback (3 door car) considered a sports car with insurance?

if not what is it considered and is the cost higher than a sports car

When will a 1989 Mustang GT Convertible become a classic?

The car is in good shape, runs great, new top and no dents. Should I sell it or keep it?""

Car insurers recommendations?

hi there people, Since passing my test in December, I have been looking to buy (and insure) a car. Shortly I will be able to afford a little run around and have been getting insurance quotes for cars like the Fiesta and Corsa. I have noticed that over the last few months comparison site quotations have jumped from an average of 1800 to 3000 for someone in my circumstances. I have read and understand why car insurance has been hiked up, no win no fee claims are more popluar, fraud and bogus claims and economic recession are responsible for a massive increase in car insurance premiums...Im so angry at these things. I cannot believe this as I though 1800 was extortionate to begin with. I have found Elephant insurance who are quoting me reasonable prices however, back to around the 1800 mark. Please can you recommend any other good car insurers for first time drivers. I am 33 and live in Manchester England. All the big name insurance sites that appear on comparison sites see like a rip off, so any smaller insurers you have had experience of would be useful;, Thanks.""

""If I ride my friends motorcycle, do I need insurance?""

I have my license, and will be getting my own bike at some point, but for now, if I drive my friends motorcycle around, do I need insurance for it? Or does his cover me?""

How much is the average travel trailer insurance rate?

I am interested in getting a modern (2005 +) travel trailer approx 25-28'. I wanted to know what the average rate would be to insure it. Also, is it a requirement to get it insured? Thanks.""

I bought a car with no tax road and no mot and no insurance.?

hi there. iam one of the unlucky driver in london , i have bought car from acution few days a ago and i was driving it from biritsh car acution to garage where my mechanic can have look at it. i was in my way to garage and some one carshed in my car, police where there and i asked for my info and i give it to them, i have said everything as i am saying it to u guys. i just bought car didnt have time for insurance and mot and tax road im in my way to mot station where i can get one, and they toke my info and drive off. as i have been moved from my perviuos address i didnt got any letter from them which i meant to be in court, now i have other letter which shows i have to be in court by 27 march, i just wana know, what will happen and im i gona get any points and how much fine?? is there any prison for it ,, please help me is so important ,this matter is playing with my life at the moment ?""

Im wondering how much i should expect to pay for car insurance?

im 17 years old and got my license about 2 months ago (without drivers ed) and i have a 1989 honda accord coupe im just curious how much i should expect to pay for insurance for..1 month? 6 months?

Question about insurance?

im getting out on my parents insurance soon when i get a car, and they want me to buy a small truck which the insurance would be about $130 a month, and they dont want me getting a littlte car, about how much more would my insurance be on like a stock 93 del sol or something similar""

Something about getting health insuance?

yes i triedd to get free health insurance at a health place and i make to much money , i only work pt at my job, and i collect social security every month. I also tried to get medicade i can't get that. my monthly income is two thousand a month. there was another option is called healthy NY if i apply to that , the payments on that are $200 a month. i can't afford hat either i have too many bills , so is there any more ideas you people can give me. please help.""

Car Insurance Problem Please Help!!!?

Hi everyone, somebody hit my car and drove off about 3 weeks ago. I phoned my insurance up and made a claim, the problem lies now on my son, who is the addtional driver and who hasnt been driving my car because he doesnt need to. The problem is that he has had drink driving conviction and no insurance conviction for about 3.5 years. Prudential my insurance company want to see my licence and his licence counterparts, BUT we completely forgot about the convictions etc. So now I have a problem where i think my insurance will be void but he doesnt drive the car nor was he involved in the accident. What happens now as they have requested both photocopies of our licences, is there a way out of this, thank you""

How to apply for cheap health insurance in California?? (plz read)?

Ok here is my scenario, I have a friend (only a friend not lover etc....)....she has a 7 year old kid, who is very ill and in the hospital, her hospital bills keep stacking up and as a single mother who only works part time she could not afford health insurance.... me being a good friend i would like to help her out apply for healthy families mediCal or anything like that for free, plus add additional insurance to keep her costs down....anyone suggest any plans or prices that would work good in my scenario, also my job offers health insurance for me and my family (im single) would they offer health insurance to my friends kid if i put them as beneficary or would that not work out???? (please help much gladly give 11 points to best helpful answer) kid is very ill almost like lukemia so asap is apprieated.... thanks Jeff""

Car insurance for temporary work in California?

I have a 4 months of temporary work in California and I am thinking of taking my car. My current car insurance will not cover driving for work purposes in California. What is the easiest way to get car insurance for 4 months for California?

When can i refinance my car loan ??

i bought a car on June 5th this year ( 200-7-) Now i pay around 425 dollars for it every month , and as per insurance around 198 . i make around 750 dollars a month . i am doing this because i want to be independent from my parents. If i don't start somewhere then i will never be on my own . anyway emotional stuff aside..hehe. When can i refinance my loan , currently it's around 6-7% I think my credit score went high , my equifax is 669 , when i checked right now on creditinform.com. I have chase bank , you think they can lower it ? do you know how much lower they can go ? around 300 maybe? i am goin to take defensive driving class also , i heard that saves a lot of money also on insurance.. Please help , : ) thanks , have a nice day.""

Lying about age to get car insurance?

Hello i was just wondering what would happen if i lied about my age only to get car insurance because my mom is having a hard time splitting an account with me and her on it but different payments. I only wanna pay mine, and she wants to pay hers.""

compare life insurance quotes usa

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-much-would-my-monthly-insurance-bill-18yr-old-malei-peter-cook"

0 notes

kennethmullins · 6 years

Text

Lawsplainer: Michael Cohen's Attempt To Delay The Stormy Daniels Litigation

Oh my God. Oh my God. Ohmigod ohmigod OMG.

Now what?

This Michael Cohen thing.

You're going to have to be way more specific.

He's trying to take the Fifth! He wants the Stormy Daniels lawsuit stopped so he can take the Fifth!

Well. Sort of.

Isn't that huge?

Yes and no.

That's not helpful. You're not being helpful.

Imagine my guilt. What is it that you want to know about? What part of the Stormy Daniels lawsuit don't you understand?

Just a tiny bit of it. Just a bit. Some. Part of it. Just part . . . all of it. I don't understand any of it. I don't know what's going on, I just nod when people talk about it.

Okay. Let's start from the beginning.

So. Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, claims she had a relationship with Donald Trump in 2006 and 2007. She claims that when the infamous "grab them by the pussy" Access Hollywood tape became public, she wanted to tell her story to the media. Once she started shopping her story, she says that Trump — through Michael Cohen — approached her and negotiated a non-disclosure agreement — $130,000 for her silence. The parties to the agreement were "Essential Consultants LLC", a company formed just before the 2016 election, Mr. Trump (referred to as "David Dennison,") and Ms. Clifford (referred to as "Peggy Peterson."

Is . . . is it normal to have a nondisclosure agreement with aliases and a party that's a new company that you just started?

No. No it is not.

Anyway, Ms. Clifford got a $130,000 payment under the agreement. When the existence of the agreement became public in February 2018, Mr. Cohen began making statements about it and about Ms. Clifford, and sought to enforce the provisions of the agreement (including the gag order on Ms. Clifford and the penalty provision) in a secret arbitration proceeding.

Ms. Clifford, through her current attorney Michael Avenatti, filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court asking the court to hold that the agreement is not enforceable, so that (1) she can talk freely and (2) she won't be penalized for talking. You can read that here. Clifford sued Donald Trump "aka David Dennison" and Essential Consultants, the company Mr. Cohen created.

Then, in what they thought was a shrewd move but was not, Essential Consultants removed the case to federal court.

Removed it! Wow. Removal, with the removing and stuff. Exciting. I understand.

. . .

I don't know what that means.

OK. Federal courts, broadly speaking, can hear two types of cases. One type is a case that alleges a violation of a federal statute. The other is a case under what's called "diversity jurisdiction." The idea, historically, is that state courts might not treat someone from another state fairly, so if a case involves disputes from people from different states, you can "remove" it to federal court, and litigate it there. Put simply, if someone sues you in state court, you can remove it — that is, transfer it — to federal court if there is "complete diversity" — if no plaintiff is from the same state as any defendant. Also, the amount at issue has to be high enough.

So here, Essential Consultants (supported by Trump) moved the case from California state court to United States District Court for the Central District of California, because Clifford is from Texas, Trump lives in DC, and Essential Consultants is a Delaware company. The notice of removal is here.

Was that a good idea?

No it was not. Conventional wisdom is that federal courts are better for the defense and more likely to enforce arbitration agreements. However, federal judges move faster and abide by deadlines and rules more closely, and are substantially less tolerant of bullshit than state judges. If substantial portions of your defense are premised on bullshit and delay, don't remove to federal court.

So. What's the issue in federal court?

Well, the main issue is whether the nondisclosure agreement — and especially the part that requires disputes to be arbitrated in private — are enforceable. If they are enforceable, then Trump (and, I suppose, "Essential Consultants") could conceivably get a gag order against Clifford and get massive damages against her for breaching the confidentiality agreement, and could do so through a private arbitration proceeding instead of in public.

But wait a minute. Stormy Daniels already told her story in public. It's been all over the media. All this litigation does is draw more attention to it and, potentially, make Trump or Cohen answer questions about the hush money. How does it make sense for Trump and Cohen to try to enforce the nondisclosure now that the cat's out of the bag?

It's a very foolish move.

Unless, of course, Trump and Cohen are worried that failing to pursue Clifford will signal to others than other nondisclosure agreements will not be enforced.

But really, even then.

Okay. So even Ms. Clifford says that she signed this agreement and got the $130,000, right? So how can she say that she's not bound by the nondisclosure agreement and the arbitration clause?

You can read her arguments in her amended complaint in federal court.

She has three main arguments. First, she says that there was never an enforceable contract. Her argument is this: Trump never signed the contract. Now, normally, that wouldn't be a good argument — Clifford signed it, and she accepted the money, which is enough to enforce it against her. But here the contract has some ill-considered boilerplate language that it's only effective once everyone signs it. Don't put that in your contracts if you're not going to get everyone to sign them.

Second, she says that the contract is unconscionable. Very rarely, a court will refuse to enforce a contract if its terms are too shocking and one-sided. Clifford claims that the million-dollar penalty and other terms, all one-sided, and that there's no penalty if Trump or Cohen breach (by, for instance, Cohen's rant to the media).

Third, she argues that the contract is void because it's against public policy. Courts refuse to enforce certain contracts that contradict strong public policy — as one example, you can't contract to conceal a crime from the police, and can't contract to kill someone. Here, Clifford argues that the contract is against public policy because it's meant to evade federal campaign contribution limits (in the sense that the $130,000 to silence Clifford represents an undisclosed and excessive contribution to Trump's campaign) and because it suppresses speech about a candidate for President.

Clifford argues that because the whole contract is void, the arbitration clause is void.

These are, at least, plausible arguments.

Is that all?

No, in her amended complaint, Clifford threw in a defamation claim against Cohen, on the theory that he justified paying her hush money by saying "Just because something isn't true doesn't mean it can't cause you harm or damage." Clifford claims that's defamatory because it states that she's lying.

I think that's an unusually weak defamation claim — the statement is hyperbole in the context of trash-talking about litigation, and isn't even definite, and therefore isn't a provable statement of fact. Cohen has filed an anti-SLAPP motion against that claim, which I think he might win if the case ever moves forward.

Wait a minute. If there's an agreement saying all disputes are arbitrated, who decides the dispute over whether the agreement is valid?

You spotted the loophole! People trying to enforce arbitration agreements always argue that the arbitrator should decide whether they are enforceable. People trying to break them always argue that a judge should decide first. The law in the area is something of a mess, but it's often the case that the arbitrator decides.

There's a significant exception, and Clifford is trying to take advantage of it. The Federal Arbitration Act generally controls arbitration agreements in federal court. Under that Act, if a party disputes that the arbitration agreement was formed at all (as Clifford does here), the federal court can hold a mini-trial on that issue alone. Essential Consultants has asked the federal court to send the whole thing — including the attacks on the validity of the agreement — to arbitration. But Clifford has asked the Court first to hold a mini-trial on whether the contract was ever formed at all, and — crucially — to allow limited discovery into that point through depositions of Cohen and President Trump.

That's where it was when the shit hit the fan.

The search of Michael Cohen's office?

The search of Michael Cohen's office, which was huge.

This immediately created grave dilemma for Michael Cohen. On the one hand, the litigation in California would require him to testify — in arbitration if not in the deposition Clifford requested — and would require him to otherwise commit himself to facts. But based on that search, the FBI is clearly investigating him based on the hush-money agreement with Clifford. It's likely that the government's theory is that Cohen engaged in transactions that broke campaign finance laws by paying the $130,000 to protect Trump's campaign, and perhaps committed other violations arising from that core violation. It would be absolutely reckless for him to start talking about the circumstances; the only good advice is to lawyer up and shut up.

Incredibly — and uniquely, in the course of the Trump people's behavior in the last year — Cohen has done something smart. Well, sort of. He's decided to preserve his option to shut up. He's asked the federal court to stay the case — freeze it without activity — because it implicates his Fifth Amendment rights in the criminal investigation.

He can take the Fifth in a civil case? I thought that was for criminal cases.

You can take the Fifth anywhere. The difference is the consequence. If you take the Fifth in a criminal proceeding in which you are the defendant, it can't be held against you. The prosecutor can't even mention it to the jury. But in a civil case, taking the Fifth — that is, asserting your Fifth Amendment right to remain silent — can have serious negative consequences. If you're the plaintiff in a civil case and take the Fifth, the case can be dismissed. If you're a defendant, there can be all sorts of other bad consequences. The jury can be told to consider that you took the Fifth. The Court can prohibit you from introducing any evidence on the issues on which you took the Fifth, so that you can't effectively contradict the Plaintiff's evidence. You can be left unable to prove essential parts of your defense. It's pretty disastrous and it's very hard to defend a civil case while taking the Fifth.

So, when faced with a criminal investigation, both plaintiffs and defendants often ask the civil court to stay — freeze — the civil case while the criminal investigation or prosecution is going on.

And do courts to that?

Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. The Court is supposed to use a five-part test to decide whether to stay the case. The factors are (1) the plaintiff's interest in moving forward and the harm to plaintiff if there is a delay, (2) the burden on the defendant if the case moves forward, (3) the convenience of the court, (4) the interests of third parties, and (5) the interests of the public.

How do you think it will go?

I think Clifford has the better argument by far.

Her opposition brief is very strong. She points out that Cohen has already run his mouth extensively about the hush money transaction in the media, so his interest in shutting up can't be that strong. She points out that Cohen himself initiated an arbitration proceeding to try to shut Clifford up. She points out that Cohen filed a declaration in this civil case about the formation of the contract even after the FBI's search warrant, and gave a statement about the matter the day after the search.

Moreover, Clifford points out that Cohen's motion is extremely vague — it amounts to saying "look, the FBI is investigating the same general subject." He doesn't explain what specific subjects of testimony (including, for instance, the source of funds or his communications with Trump) that could incriminate him. Finally, she points out that the case is of national interest and has attracted huge public attention, weighing against a stay.

Cohen's failure to commit that he will take the Fifth doesn't help either. Perhaps because taking the Fifth is so widely perceived as a sign of guilt (which, of course, it is not), Cohen's not ready to say definitely that he will take the Fifth to any questions about the transaction — he's sticking with the wishy-washy argument that his rights are "implicated." That's compounded by the fact that his lawyers, asked about him taking the Fifth, publicly denied that he had decided to do so, and suggested that doing so was premature. In other words, they undercut their own stay request.

Wow. That's . . . wow.

I KNOW, RIGHT? I think you only get one smart move per quarter out of Cohen. Contemplating taking the Fifth was his. Now it's all downhill until July or so.

So where does this leave us?

Judge Otero, who is hearing this, is a very no-nonsense judge who likes things to be orderly. I expect a thorough written opinion from him on the stay promptly — within days, I suspect. The best thing Cohen has going for him is that he's only asking for a 90-day stay. Judge Otero may look at this daily-escalating national legal catastrophe and decide that shutting down the civil case for a few months to see how things work out is not a bad idea. Or he may just say Cohen hasn't carried his burden of showing he need a stay.

What happens then?

It depends on the ruling. If Judge Otero grants the stay, then Cohen will have mitigated the harm from this very foolish litigation for the time being, allowing him to focus on his troubles in New York. If Judge Otero denies the stay, next he'll have to rule on whether Clifford gets to take limited discovery and get a mini-trial to determine whether the contract was ever formed and therefore whether the case should go to arbitration. If Judge Otero allows that, then Cohen will have to decide whether actually to take the Fifth when confronted with questions. Buckle up.

Will you update this post when Judge Otero decides?

If I feel like it.

0 notes

nancydhooper · 6 years

Text

Lawsplainer: Michael Cohen's Attempt To Delay The Stormy Daniels Litigation

Oh my God. Oh my God. Ohmigod ohmigod OMG.

Now what?

This Michael Cohen thing.

You're going to have to be way more specific.

He's trying to take the Fifth! He wants the Stormy Daniels lawsuit stopped so he can take the Fifth!

Well. Sort of.

Isn't that huge?

Yes and no.

That's not helpful. You're not being helpful.

Imagine my guilt. What is it that you want to know about? What part of the Stormy Daniels lawsuit don't you understand?

Just a tiny bit of it. Just a bit. Some. Part of it. Just part . . . all of it. I don't understand any of it. I don't know what's going on, I just nod when people talk about it.

Okay. Let's start from the beginning.

Is . . . is it normal to have a nondisclosure agreement with aliases and a party that's a new company that you just started?

No. No it is not.

Then, in what they thought was a shrewd move but was not, Essential Consultants removed the case to federal court.

Removed it! Wow. Removal, with the removing and stuff. Exciting. I understand.

. . .

I don't know what that means.

Was that a good idea?

So. What's the issue in federal court?

It's a very foolish move.

Unless, of course, Trump and Cohen are worried that failing to pursue Clifford will signal to others than other nondisclosure agreements will not be enforced.

But really, even then.

Okay. So even Ms. Clifford says that she signed this agreement and got the $130,000, right? So how can she say that she's not bound by the nondisclosure agreement and the arbitration clause?

You can read her arguments in her amended complaint in federal court.

Clifford argues that because the whole contract is void, the arbitration clause is void.

These are, at least, plausible arguments.

Is that all?

Wait a minute. If there's an agreement saying all disputes are arbitrated, who decides the dispute over whether the agreement is valid?

That's where it was when the shit hit the fan.

The search of Michael Cohen's office?

The search of Michael Cohen's office, which was huge.

He can take the Fifth in a civil case? I thought that was for criminal cases.

And do courts to that?

How do you think it will go?

I think Clifford has the better argument by far.

Wow. That's . . . wow.

I KNOW, RIGHT? I think you only get one smart move per quarter out of Cohen. Contemplating taking the Fifth was his. Now it's all downhill until July or so.

So where does this leave us?

What happens then?

Will you update this post when Judge Otero decides?

If I feel like it.

Copyright 2017 by the named Popehat author. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8247012 https://www.popehat.com/2018/04/16/lawsplainer-michael-cohens-attempt-to-delay-the-stormy-daniels-litigation/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

0 notes