#as well as when anytime you have something to say you have about a trillion words in the effort to do so
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Hey um,, I’m unsure if your asks are closed or not- but I wanted to put this here for any time your okay with doing it-
Would you mind doing DJSS (and maybe even neon J) with an S/O that has issues with low self asteem/wanting to live? I don’t mind if you don’t get to this, or it’s too dark to do— I just have been having problems with these for a while now and I’d be extremely greatful for this as comfort :”)
DJSS:
He has lots of cosmic, poetic phrases to give you anytime you’re feeling down (many of them come from what he’s had to tell himself).
“This universe is over 13 billion years old, made of billions upon trillions of tiny, tiny little atoms. In all that time, with all that matter, do you realize how extremely unlikely it is for an individual life to be made? For you to exist, as you are? You beat all odds just to be here. Isn’t that amazing? Isn’t it a gift that you are on this Earth?”
He makes an effort to praise you whenever he can. He does appreciate you, after all, and it really is very special that he could meet you in this vast universe. He makes sure to express how loved you are.
If anyone is making you feel shitty? Nothing but insults for them. According to DJSS, anyone who looks down on you is clearly a closed-minded imbecile. They’re not worth your time.
As for you thinking poorly of yourself on your own, well in that case he says you just need to learn to see yourself better. You already are a radiant treasure, you’re just having trouble seeing that. One day, he hopes, it won’t be so difficult.
If you’re in the public eye at all, he tries to shield you from criticism. Usually in the form of blocking and reporting haters online, or physically shielding you from onlookers as you travel. On the other hand, every time someone is praising you, he likes to show it to you - holding his phone out to you with positive comments on social media, or quietly pointing at someone staring at you starstruck.
When you're feeling low, he wraps you in his arms and holds you close. He'll stay cuddled with you for as long as it takes for your mood to lift.
He usually stops you if you begin to hurt yourself. If that's saying something negative about yourself, he interjects with an objection or a contrasting compliment. If you have a habit of doing anything physically destructive, he takes both your hands in his and directs your attention elsewhere.
"Life is a fleeting thing, so short in eternity. I'd like to spend as much of mine with you as possible."
You actually get him to start paying attention to all the little beauties of life. He tends to be caught up more in the big picture, but as he's done to know you he's started focusing on how precious life is. It is pretty impressive that people made the buildings around you, isn't it? A cozy shirt really is something to be happy about, isn't it?
He tends to treat himself a lot, and so he treats you, and especially he gives you little gifts if he thinks it will help. You deserve happiness after all.
And if you are insecure about your appearance? "Who cares?" He asks bluntly. It's a house for your mind, as long as you feel good and healthy in it, what does it matter what anyone thinks? He thinks you l're attractive anyways, no way is a change to your appearance going to turn him away.
.
Neon J:
He often pulls you into activities. There's no time to dwell on dark thoughts if you're busy, he reasons. So he frequently invites you to join him for fun or for errands. Sometimes it's not so much an invite as it is him just showing up and saying "Get ready we're doing this, you have 10 minutes."
His ideal choice for an activity is something creative. It doesn't matter if it's new to you or how good you are at it. Neon finds that having an outlet and evidence that you've been working helps to pull you out of what-ifs.
Draw, write, sing, whatever. Neon encourages you to do it passionately and not give up until it's done. And then, you can look at it and say "I made this."
He isn't one to voice his own self doubts much anyways, but he's on extra alert to not talk down about himself around you. He doesn't want his problems to worsen yours.
If you're ever doubting his love for you, Neon sits you down and takes your hands in his. "Look at me," he'd say before telling you there's a hundred reasons he thinks most people wouldn't like him. But you don't see flaws in him. So why would he see so much wrong with you? Is it so hard to believe that the love you feel for others can be felt for you?
"I'm glad I'm still alive. That I survived to meet you. That you're alive now, here, with me. If you can't stick around for yourself yet, do it because I'm not done loving you. Someday you'll be glad you did."
He assures you that all of his compliments directed at you are genuine. He really thinks you're wonderful, inside and out, and he'll tell you that as much as he needs to until you believe it.
"Just one more day," he tells you when you're having a really rough day. "Just get through today and then see what tomorrow brings."
He gives you a lot of surprises - material gifts, tasty food, fun experiences. Breaking up monotony has helped him before, so he hopes that it will help you as well. He can also coax you to wait for a day or two, or to complete a task, or to say something nice about yourself so that he can give a little reward.
#imagines#romantic#no straight roads x reader#no straight roads x reader romantic#neon j x reader#neon j x reader romantic#dj subatomic supernova x reader romantic#dj subatomic supernova x reader#depressive thoughts
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We did not have control over it or a handle on it and he was helping himself and since they're like quiet while he's eating for some reason even docile so he looked around and they're like not bothering him that much then they're saying they have an act it doesn't matter if they're acting or not they're annoying and they're abusive so he found him stuffing him for bread and they're bothering him about it now with inflammation and staring at him and saying they're awesome they're bums pay the blonde in the park staring at people I want my money back and my stuff my family instead I have to listen to this irritating s*** every few seconds only to find out that these people don't track anything and don't care at all what he's saying yet go to these places and find out for the most part it's true and can't figure out what their f****** problem is and blame everyone else when they're just annoying people to do things they're wicked and they think that other people die because they're near someone who's probably actually doing it it's very stupid but they were doing it around Jesus too this is a different story if you mess up with this guy it could be catastrophic for telling you to get out of here if you don't you're going to be gone I don't care what the job is it's going to be better than this garbage
Mac daddy
You think you're wrong and you're idiots are pushing it but he says that we made him stupid some of them and some of them are infiltrated and they're doing cheesy s*** like we do and it makes sense and he wants us to stop talking but we just keep getting more and more trouble that makes sense too
Bja
The sort of get something your people don't know you from sight as well as other stuff and have something for that is so why you're moron doesn't work that way that nothing let you butcher me and you're going to be dead soon and I guess so he says yeah I guess so it's coming up pretty soon June 4th you'll be gone and he says that I say I thank you and all that but really I see this is really stupid it's not changing and we're losing stuff I didn't tell you something just saying it every time and it just keep trying to tell them stuff it's probably wrong and you just die in the proofs everywhere get off the line go to hell we're going to have you shot right now and as many times during the day is required and then we do hear that
Trump
Fair enough from this idiot so we're going to start taking him down again what a pain in the ass he's a huge loser too I'll tell you I'm not I've never seen anybody who's dumb as this guy you're going to get rid of him so he can do other things and people can enjoy life a little while fighting I'm going to go after him now
Thor Freya
We hit him just the same but really we should gang up on them and cut them down this is terrible and he's saying anytime you feel like stopping them you can gang up on them I do hear I do hear that it's kind of gross we have a schedule that's only about a month or a month and a half and a little dweebs will be out all of them
Nuada Arrianna
I'm tired of telling of them telling me how to do stuff and being wrong suggesting things and it's wrong and it's all over the media it's everywhere you look and the idiots do it and they fight each other I mean they suck so bad it's a huge pile of stupid they have to start doing things at work
Hera
We're going to start announcements and about space
#huge huge forces are fighting up there and off Saturn it is the foreigners at 1 trillion versus the empire at 350 billion and about 150 billion more and they're going to take it out to even big stuff and it's going to be awful. Right now they're fighting like crazy and it's going on for long durations of time many hours on end
#in addition to that there's a big war on Mars well it's over Mars and it is Tommy f the pseudo empire and the warlock mostly those two ganged up on the pseudo empire and they are fighting like madness Tony f has 300 billion the pseudo empire has 400 billion and the warlock have 300 billion they moved 100 billion in and now they're fighting in earnest and we'll all disintegrate probably to nothing
#there are two more battles that are massive and the third is now brewing in addition to these two making it seven or eight humongous battles in space it is over tightened and Tommy f is there and is engaging Trump Tommy f has 200 billion Trump has 300 billion and it sat there all night yes they're engaging now
#another battle is over the tower ships and it is a huge battle. There are a few more items but this one is very big every party out there is there and fighting each other the morlock have a hundred billion Tommy f is 100 billion Trump has 200 billion the minority the foreigners have 200 billion we have 100 billion and we're observing the empire has 300 billion in their engaging.. as of now they haven't been engaging until this afternoon for some reason but now it's going to be heated
#in addition to these battles that you see the foreigners detached a bunch of ships to Saturn they have 300 billion there to the empire's 1.3 trillion and the comet empire has 2.5 trillion no they're just kind of holding their own and sitting there from what we heard it's not true they're taking pieces of the comet empire but it's still very huge but they are getting technology and they are sending that out and it's to fight their technology that's extremely important
-all in all the number shifts left will be 400 billion after the above if they disappear for Max warlock, Trump will have 200 billion remaining only, Tommy f about 380 billion, about 900 billion pseudo empire minority warlock will have 600 billion and the empire has a detachment separate of 400 billion and we are not disclosing our numbers I'm a smaller than it used to be but they still feel like they're big but we feel the way the battles are going it's going to be different
More shortly
Thor Freya
Olympus
We have a couple other things to announce in a moment
Hera
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The reason atheists are so annoying is because religion is dogshit dumb.
It's genuinely not a big thing to anyone but children discovering a better argument than whatever dumbasses around them had been parroting, or worse, hearing any argument for the first time and not being experienced enough to debate it.
It's essentially optimism vs nihilism in it's dumbest form. It's easy to lose optimism and easy to gain nihilism, both are necessary in day to day regulation. But at the least you can say atheist took longer to think than religious people. Not that that's an achievement, it's like choosing to be smarter than a bird. You really only can choose to be dumber than one.
Religion is essentially a dressed up philosophy to force upon others in cult-like fashions, atheism ain't cool just because it's the default, inarguably. I'd like religion if it wasn't so fundamentally ridiculous, corporatized, generic, and easy to disdain and debunk in the same breath.
I had friends who'd make religions, because while it was fun, they also wanted to have their own understanding that wasn't just following the trend. Damn near nothing public opinion is the full story. It's all a guess upon small scopes given vast importance that isn't there, to just agree with the most commonly recognized is to not even try for the truth but accept the convenient closest opinion.
The real thing is just forgo it all and be. We weren't really designed for shit, we just do, following what other's believe is stupid because there's Billions of us with Uber-Trillions+++ before and after. Not everyone will like Dragon Ball over Z, it's just what life is.
But at the very least I can have more believability in atheism than anything in these old ass beliefs from a time when candles were the primary lightsource. Make your own religion or at least don't jump into the corporatized bandwagon. It was all bullshit capitalism, a grift, nothing more. Don't let the rich have utter copyright nationwide forced philosophies disguised as religion when you can easily make a better story AND character about God than any cuck in a 'spensive car passin' round the non-taxable paychecks.
Historically, religion is LAAAAME. But art is cool. Create shit instead of being lazy, if there were a god, he'd be pissed you didn't use your powers to create as he did you in his image. A Carpenter who did magic tricks especially ain't wanting the same house on every street.
What? How can you tell I only understand christianity and literally not one other religion? It's almost like I only heard the dumbest until something smarter came and fundamentally lost interest in something so childishly unimportant, but anytime I hear about it, well, it's usually being an excuse for inhumanity. As it turns out it's actually more than some fun astrological signs nonsense, but something that's primarily used negatively because people use it positively for themselves, and instead of treating people as individuals, treat them as groups, so that it'll be easier to dehumanize the very concept of being wrong.
It's why I can't back any organized religion, christianity or not, because it boils down to a FAT excuse that means nothing. Kinda like Hamas and 13k Dead Children with Democrats, it's an excuse to ignore inhumanity and immorality, not an objective truth to the reality of Mass Starvation and Israel killing more of their own than Hamas.
If you can make an excuse, and have enough people reinforce it, it becomes a cult. All religion is to become a cult. If it wasn't, I think fanbases and other forms of communities would've been equal in measure, but simply put, even combined, it's not.
Laziness. That's organized religion to me. Because the world is too fascinating to already know shit about shit on shit like this shit. Watch religious people crumble when even simple humanity rules are challenged, it's not belief, it's an excuse. To know is to not question, to question is to challenge. Religion doesn't even reach "To" before "know" before it gives up entirely and starts stoning people for minor differences in physicality or mentality.
Just saying. Don't see a lack of belief causing death in abundantly tragic, fucked up, morbid ways. Only religion. Because it will always lead to that when enough people get involved in one, but never any other community or fanbase, just the one with Political and Financial Power, no Steven Universe fan is gonna go out and kill people in the name of the gem or whatever, not more than once at least. Religion? Even your own made one, if large enough for a politician to weaponize, will no longer be a religion, but a cult. One without an ounce of truth left to it, or yourself.
Be individual, not religious. Be active, fall and rise, don't give up and be christian. The white people's stolen belief is Definitely Wrong and I'm certain of it considering how much they had to steal for their Larp. But remember, regardless of that, all religion fundamentally is an excuse to make other's believe enough that you too can believe and no longer question or try! A personal religion, or belief/lack there of, is Far Better, because my god, of course organized religion can convince alot of people, it's been around enough to learn gaslighting, manipulation, and of course, abundant profiting. But not truth. Never an effort. Just the easiest most convenient opinion.
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I was going to give you a Discord link but I rather give you this.
. . .
If you don't want to join our Discord for more information, Good.
We probably don't want you here anyway, the amount of people we had the fucking band literally at this point reaching a thousand.
You can read the fucking invite and the reason why I'm posting this is just in case if you want more information or if you want to talk to me directly or something I post a whole bunch of Fairy stuff there
Keep in mind I do not post this very stuff for entertainment I do not post it for fun I post it as a distress beacon
!
Imagine sending a fucking message in a bottle but you sent trillions of the fucking thing's !
!
I'm not making these God damn post on this fucking website for your goddamn entertainment I need some fucking help, I don't mean mental help with a lot of people are really mean about that whenever you try to tell spiritual truth or paranormal truth people go right to call you a schizophrenic it's the most favorite word to call anybody, especially open-minded stuff hyperintellectual stuff paranormal stuff alien stuff religious stuff spiritual stuff taboo stuff
It's a very high chance if you say something very intellectual you're going to get Called a schizophrenic as well
. . .
So anytime you see me say anything about my people on the internet I I don't post I never post any of this shit for fun it's never entertainment it's never for fun, it's a fucking distressed beacon
. . .
But if you want to you can join the Discord if you want you better if but if you join there are a couple of rules
1. No, Being a mute. - once you into the server you better start fucking yapping & talking, explain who you are why you're there what your intent is !
2. You better be there to learn, if you're not going to learn or contribute or try to do the most important thing that I want people to do is fucking help me find my God damn people or get information about the Gray's, Accurate Information ! Then you will be swiftly removed from the server if you are inactive for a long period of time you will then be completely kicked out but not banned ! - allowing people to rejoin a later date.
3. Don't be a dick and post stupid shit and don't post stupid shit in, A important place like the main Chat and don't post shit in the wrong Channel, understand that I'm perfectly fine with these spamming I don't got a Problem with spammers, as a matter of fact I fucking encourage it.
But as long as you're spamming truth, you spamming useful data, either way I just want to let you know that when you join the server you're basically on the team, if you dick around or fuck around or start going against the message of the server or you're not contributing any other part of the server then you will be removed cuz you have no place being there therefore you are a problem therefore you mostly going to rot or spoil or Fester with me people end up Rotting Away, Anyway and they end up turning into complete dicks and fucking things over
@Reader
But, don't worry I won't leave you high and dry.
👍🏻
Here's a little bit of Content !
Link :
youtube
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Is the Chinese Spy Balloon Really Russian?
When the presstitutes focus on something – like the Chinese Spy Balloon – you can rest assured it’s a well-planned distraction tactic.
And we’ve been pounding the table for years about how the Boyz want you to “look here…don’t look there.”
Not only is it how they make fortunes at YOUR expense in the markets, but it’s also a means of controlling the sheeple similar to the Roman Empire providing “Bread and Circuses” (Cough! Super Bowl, Cough!) for the peasants.
Don’t take the Spy Balloon bait.
Because, before you know it the Boyz will accuse Russia as being behind the Chinese Spy Balloon.
And the absurdity of this madness reminds me of the old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon series where the Russian spies would say: “The Moose and Squirrel Must Be Involved Somehow.”
READ: Rocky and Bullwinkle 2022 April 4, 2022
AND: The Moose and Squirrel Must be Involved Somehow July 18, 2018
AND: The Party of Unity Calls Putin a Killer March 19, 2021
So, before getting caught up in the media madness of a “Chinese Spy Balloon” think for a moment:
How does the most advanced military system on the planet (with a nearly $1 Trillion budget) somehow miss a balloon entering its airspace?
And how did the balloon simply show up after it was above our missile silos (that most of the entire world knows exists)?
Is this the Boyz version of “Ballooney Tunes” so the sheeple forget about WW3?
The whole thing is laughable. We supposedly have defenses against ICBMs, but couldn't keep a balloon the size of several buses out of our airspace? Got it.
So, you should consider this a Weapon of Mass Distraction.
Ironically (or NOT), you can literally buy surplus weather high altitude balloons on Ebay.
And do your own Chinese thingy.
“Raunch Barroons!”
But you just get the feeling that Brandon got paid in some way to let this happen.
It's all very weird.
On the other hand, he probably didn’t even know it was happening.
The point is – and as we are wont to say – they really believe we are that stupid.
And buying into this hysteria gives them more reason to keep dishing it out.
Again, Don’t Take the Chinese Spy Balloon Bait.
Why?
Because they’re not about to stop anytime soon.
But when you stop buying into their egregious narrative is when you wake up and know the truth.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
~ John 8:32 ~
Learn how to put the truth to work for you every month in our “…In Plain English” newsletter (HERE).
And share this with a friend…especially if they like the Rocky and Bullwinkle series.
They’ll thank YOU later.
We’re Not Just About Finance
But we use finance to give you hope.
************************************
Invest with confidence.
Sincerely,
James Vincent
The Reverend of Finance
Copyright © 2023 It's Not Just About Finance, LLC, All rights reserved.
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INTO THE WOODS [YANDERE!JIMIN] [05]
SYNOPSIS: Park Jimin is your needy, clingy, summer camp cabinmate that both creeps you out and makes you regret ever trying to be socially engaged during your summer break. After submitting truckloads of request forms to switch cabins and getting rejected, you realize that you must swallow your pride and get comfy with your new cabinmate. He hates it and so do you—at least, that’s what you thought.
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Tag List: @little-orochi @sinning-on-a-sunday @desia2 @sugabased @girlmeetsliv3 @planetyoon @queenm0thra @hobitoons @kpopisnicee @softforpj @cxprisc @floralsockbabe @superzinefishclod @jooniescupcakes @hoseokslefteyebrow @hobi-acorn @junkyuholic @youcantbesiriusremus @cadet-lea-05 @seokchella @chimchimsauce @rmdreams @chi_yimma @actualday6trash @theworldisfullofsin @kassandravictoria @BtsEnchanting @mixed-youngsters @santa-solis @softfbangts @bartiertae @thatonebtskid @vixen1216 @YoonKvng @hodginss
NOTE: WOW look who’s made an appearance!! so here i am w/ an update after... what? ten thousand years? not sure if anyone even remembers this fic haha! thanks to my co-writer, luciole (on quotev), this chapter was able to get finished after sitting on one scene for the longest. thank you for waiting and hopefully i can get back into the groove of writing asap! <3
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You want to enjoy your trek back to camp. You really do. But it's incredibly hard to do so when your chronically antisocial cabinmate won't respond to a single word you say.
Each joke you crack is swallowed whole by the silence that follows, and every comment you make on your unfortunate surroundings falls on deaf ears. Perhaps you just weren't funny or you were being annoying, but that couldn't possibly be the case. You would be more inclined to believe that Jimin suddenly converted back into a mute, but you certainly wouldn't buy the Hellen Keller act anytime soon.
Despite his clear avoidance, the silences between you two are no longer awkward - for you, at least. When he doesn't laugh at a joke of yours, you don't feel the intense sear of embarrassment raising the hairs on your skin but, instead, there's a comfortable silence.
You'd like to believe that maybe he's not so much of a verbal laugh kind of guy, he just prefers to keep it all in. It's an unintelligible assumption, but it helps somewhat soothe your irrational fears of Jimin growing a sudden hatred for you.
"Hey, Jimin," you call from behind him, having lagged a few paces back due to his somehow inexhaustible stamina that keeps him in the lead pretty much at all times. "Can we please take a break? I think my lungs are about to collapse."
The boy halts in his steps and looks back to give you a single nod, his face stoic and unreadable. You shift uneasily and avoid eye contact, suddenly unnerved by his change in personality, though not surprised. You spot a large log covered in a thick layer of moss a few feet away and make your way over to sit on it.
Plopping down, you think back to anything you may have said that could have offended him in some way. Was it the joke you made about how big his hoodie was on you? Perhaps he had thought you were calling him fat? You didn't mean to hurt his feelings, if that's the case.
You thought you were making some progress with him, but it looks like you are back at square one again. It's discouraging, yet you aren't quite sure why.
Did you really want to be his friend? Or were you only bearing the weight of his strange tendencies because, in retrospect, you literally had no other choice?
You glance at Jimin, watching as he coolly rests against a tree turned away from you, his dark hair falling into his eyes. You just can't seem to figure him out; one moment he's the one initiating conversation and the next he's pulling back as if he's been burned. You wish you had some kind of sixth sense to help you understand the burdened inner workings that make Park Jimin, but you unfortunately don't.
And you're honestly too much of a coward to ask him if everything's alright, so maybe it's best if you just give him some space. He can't ignore you forever - you live in the same cabin after all, and a pretty small one at that. He would have to talk to you sooner or later. Right?
You sigh, shaking the intrusive thoughts from your mind. There is no use in mulling over something you can't control; if Jimin wants to indulge in his bouts of teenage angst, then so be it. You take a moment to recollect yourself and catch your breath, taking the chance to tentatively attempt at tidying up the bird's nest of hair that sits tangled atop your head.
But the bird's nest seems determined to stay until you get hold of a hairbrush, which, considering your current situation, could still be quite some time away. Getting up in favor of leaning against a tree yourself, you absentmindedly mirror Jimin's stance as you watch him from the corner of your eye. Nope, still not one sign of social capability.
This time your sigh is louder. Loud enough for him to hear and, low and behold, he turns his head in your direction to look at you. At this point, his constant changes in behavior from open to antisocial to intrigued are starting to get on your nerves, and you decide to show it.
Narrowing your eyes enough for him to notice, you turn away to stare at a tree in front of you which looks exactly like all the other hundreds of trees surrounding you.
Stunning, you think ironically. Like I haven't seen enough chunks of nature in the last twenty four hours.
Suddenly, a prickly feeling creeps up your spine. You're familiar enough with it by now - he's looking at you. Staring, more accurately, so intensely you can feel goosebumps welting up the skin of your arms despite the soft fabric of the hoodie that shields you from the cold morning air. But you don't turn around, you don't bother at this point.
Jimin musters you from his peripheral vision. Had he done something wrong? Had he offended you somehow? A million questions of the like course through his head all at once.
Even though he hasn't been able to come up with an appropriate topic for a new conversation after awkwardly ending your last one, he feels somewhat wronged by your behaviour. It's not his fault he was too shy to just start babbling about, even if that's what you might want.
He can feel a familiar heat crawl up his neck, whether from shame, embarrassment or anger - he can't tell. Jimin wants to talk to you. So what's stopping him? His fear of abandonment? His innate ability to drive away those he loves? The possibilities spin through his mind, fueling the insecurities that burn fiercely within.
Whatever it is, the answer to his questions are not yet transparent, and he refuses to bend backwards to figure it out. In the end, this struggle would all be for nothing; you are a temporary piece on this board of chess, a queen who will fall if he gets any closer. When camp ends, so will whatever this is. It happens, it's life. Right?
And in that case, is this the reason why Jimin is currently making his way over to you, palms clammy as he wracks his mind for a conversation starter, for something, anything to say?
You raise an eyebrow when you see the boy approaching you. Oh, he finally wants to talk now? You scoff but hold back on a clipped comment, knowing how sensitive Jimin can sometimes get. You don't exactly know him that well yet either, though you honestly wouldn't put it past him to spring a knife on you if you say something that doesn't sit well with him.
"Yes?" You question as your roommate halts in your wake, his eyes gleaming unsurely in the midst of the early morning sunlight.
He peers at you, seemingly conflicted. He opens his mouth, closes it, and opens it again like a fish. The cycle continues a couple times before you begin to find it humorous. You hold it in though, for his sake, and gesture for him to just spit it out already.
"...Are you mad at me?"
The question stikes you silly, and you are hardly able resist the urge to actually burst out laughing. So it has been a misunderstanding. Here you are, pondering over the trillions of possibilities as to why this boy could be mad at you, yet him thinking you are mad at him not being a single one.
Still, you are incredulous at this revelation, and you do your best to express it in the most unassuming way possible.
"Me? I thought you were mad at me!" You cry, eyes almost bugging out of your skull with vexation. Jimin tilts his head, slightly furrowing his eyebrows in perplexion.
The way his hair moves across his forehead as he tilts his head makes your heart flip, but you push the feeling away. It must be low blood pressure from your lack of proper meals the past day and night. Looking at the shifts in Jimin's expressions, it seems a lightbulb has flickered to life with the way his eyes glaze over in realization.
"Ah, I see.." He breathes, almost in relief, the corners of his mouth twitching upwards. Your eyes widen for a millisecond at the unusual display of emotion, but then he shocks you even further when takes two large steps towards you. Now he's suddenly right in front of you, impossibly close with you craning your head back to look up at him.
"..Uh..?" You whisper in confusion, furrowing your eyebrows as his hands slowly rise up to your face.
In a flash, Jimin grabs the drawstrings of the hoodie and quickly pulls, scrunching up the hood and masking your face from view like you had done earlier at the campsite.
"J-Jimin?!" You squeak as you hear the pounding of footsteps and a quiet chuckle that reminds you of a chuffing tiger.
Astounded, you struggle to pull the hood from your face. When you do, the only thing you see is a glimpse of Jimin's white shirt before he disappears behind a tangle of large branches. A twinge of fear pulls at your gut and you take off after him, afraid that you might lose him in the thicket of eternal tree trunks.
It doesn't occur to you that the usually stoic boy just showed you his way of having fun. Of joking around, of horse play. Why exactly was it so strange to you? Shouldn't you be happy that he's acting like this so openly? You aren't sure how you're supposed to feel but, for now, you can only think about how worried you've become at this sudden surfacing of positive growth.
Was he perhaps.. warming up to you? It's a thought so obscure that you almost laugh out loud at yourself but as you catch up to Jimin moments later, you are almost rendered speechless at the sight of him smiling.
It's a genuine, toothy smile that reaches his sparkling eyes and you're shocked to see the sight of his pearly whites. But as quickly as it comes, it goes, wiped from his face in seconds as he turns away to face a dirt path that leads through a somewhat familiar scene with trees, trees, more trees and-
Was that.. smoke? It billows through the tops of the trees, its fading grey fingers curling up into the morning sky. You've half a mind to jump up and scream with joy. A campfire! And from the looks of it, a big one. Of course, one can never be entirely sure that said smoke doesn't come from illegal and possibly murderous poachers camping nearby, but the chance is considerably slim.
Jimin feels himself tensing up beside you. So this is it, huh? His blissfully isolated alone-time with you was finally coming to an end. Disappointment curls in his stomach; things would go back to how they used to be, wouldn't they? He almost wants to pick you up and carry you back through the trees and into the small clearing where you'd spent the night. Where he'd made some of the happiest memories in a long time.
Of course, semi-kidnapping you back into the forest was out of the question. The last thing he wants is for you to hate him, avoid him like the plague, to shun him too just like the others-
You suddenly grab his hand without a warning, immediately stopping his train of thought- and if he isn't mistaken, there's a tiny blush on your cheeks. His heart skips at least three beats, the way your slender fingers curl around his bigger hand making his insides feel all kinds of warm and fuzzy.
The smile you shoot him is dazzling as you practically drag him by his hand towards what is, hopefully, camp. Running after you, he hesitantly entwines his fingers with yours, too.
—
Who knew isolation could be so blissful. After having been swarmed by fellow campers with a hurricane of concern, curiosity, and wonder how you hadn't been eaten alive by a cave bear, the camp supervisors had mercifully decided to send you and your socially inept partner to your cabin to relax. Formalities and questions would be dealt with tomorrow.
You take one long lazy look around your temporary living space. Sleep looks irresistible, almost delectable right about now. You let out a lengthy yawn as you plop down on your bed, all the drained energy and missing sleep from your little expedition suddenly hitting you like a brick.
Jimin, at the other end of your shared room, seems in a rather similar state to you, oddly enough. You can't recall him ever even so much as expressing the need to sleep- no yawning, no eye rubbing, nothing. Maybe some good old fresh air wore down his vampiric tendencies a bit. Your roommate has already silently shuffled into his own bed, albeit horizontally, although that didn't seem to bother him at all.
As much as you would like falling asleep on the spot, diving in the peaceful silence between you and Jimin, the way the bends of your arms and the hairs in your neck stick together tells you that you need a shower, desperately.
Already kicking off your shoes, you do your best not to fall asleep on your feet walking towards the small bathroom, having just enough presence of mind left to grab a pair of clean pyjamas before entering. Once inside, you basically rip off your sweaty clothes and toss them Kobe-style into a hamper nearby.
The cold water hitting your skin feels like bliss after a while of overheating. When you emerge, you can feel more like an actual human being rather than a caveman with the bodily hygiene of an ape. You get dressed and leave the bathroom with a sigh and a tired, relieved smile on your lips.
Jimin props himself up on his elbows, his gaze lingering on you a lot longer than necessary. You might not be aware, but he notices right away; above your cozy pyjamas, you've automatically thrown on something else - his hoodie. His hoodie. That strange sensation he always seems to get when he sees you drowning in his jacket creeps up his throat again to grasp him in a chokehold.
You take notice of Jimin's fall-back into staring out of the corner of your eye, but it bothers you strangely little. It would appear that, while mostly being incredibly, cripplingly awkward, being lost in the woods with your cabin mate had somehow brought you closer in a mutual, silent way. Maybe a peaceful co-existence is possible for the two of you after all.
With shallow motions you crawl under your blanket, turning so you face Jimin's side of the room. With your last bit of conscience, you shoot your groggy cabin mate an exhausted, yet earnest smile. And before you're out like a light, you can still see him inconspicuously reciprocate your action, all while gazing intently as if you might disappear if he so much as glances away.
His smile... your mind slips into a state of comatose, your heavy eyelids finally closing as your train of thought drifts into dreamland. The dark haired boy listens as your breaths grow heavy, watching as your body relaxes beneath the sheets. His eyes flicker around the room, his face subsequently heating up.
Her smile is really nice. Jimin thinks bashfully as he settles into bed, facing away from you, and quickly pulling his blanket over his head. Just a simple thought, but if only you could see the grin on his face right now.
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For @klarolinefallbingo “Did you have to upset the goblins?”
A/N Thanks to @helpfulfairy for giving me some supernatural tips that were so useful to make this happen : )
Mission Impossible?
Kol Mikaelson, the youngest prince of the underworld, is being held captive in the forbidden forest by an army of vengeful goblins. Two separate rescue missions are launched. One by a mysterious mercenary hired by the King and the other his older, and very suspicious brother. Who will come out victorious and what secrets will be revealed along the way?
I
Yes, he’d upset the goblins.
So much so that the young prince found himself captive in the deep, dark depths of the forbidden forest.
Goblins weren’t considered a threat in the supernatural order of things but, at the same time, they could easily be underestimated. Although, the possibility they had joined forces with one of their bigger enemies couldn’t be dismissed either.
“Your highness.” Klaus turned to see his servant mid greeting. Josh was young and inexperienced but at least he’d mastered his technique. “I come bearing news.”
“Well, how about less bowing and more talking. What news do you have of my brother from the capital?”
The ruling family oversaw the entire realm and resided in the heavily guarded capital. Klaus, however, had recently taken up a posting in the northern region in order to quell rising tensions against the heirachy.
This latest attack on his brother seemed too much of a coincidence, even if he probably did do something idiotic to deserve it. Kol was the black sheep of the family and their relationship was strained at times. Although, that didn’t mean he wasn’t anxious about his fate given he was missing.
Abducted.
Goblin fodder, according to Rebekah. His sister, the princess, never did possess much empathy or tact.
“The King is displeased it has come to this,” Josh recited. No surprises there given Mikael was never happy and made his sentiments known on a regular basis. “He wants this dealt with quietly and swiftly so has contracted a highly trained mercenary to track down the prince.”
“This is father’s great plan?” He growled. Klaus was trying to remain composed but this latest news was doing nothing to ease his concerns. As much as Kol frustrated him, Klaus had no intention of leaving his rescue up to a questionable stranger whose loyalty could be bought.
“I understand that the mercenary in question possesses the requisite skills for this kind of mission.”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” he replied gruffly. “Do you know this mercenary?”
“No, Your Highness,” Josh replied. “All I know is that he is well trained in tracing, combat and speaks fluent Ghukliak.”
The language of goblins. Not many outside their close knit circle could speak it let alone were fluent.
Klaus felt his chest constrict, his instincts telling him he was right to question his father’s motives and that the supposed mercenary probably wasn’t who they purported to be.
Klaus knew someone who fitted that description.
Someone he loved probably more than he should.
But it was a she not a he.
She was brilliant, that much he knew from their time together. She spoke multiple languages and dialects. In fact, they’d met when she worked as a translator at their annual summit which brought together representatives from all supernatural orders.
He also knew she was handy with a weapon given that time she ‘accidentally’ stabbed him in the foot during an impromptu and mock fencing battle. Well, afterwards she maintained it wasn’t an accident because he was being an ass. Rather than incensing the hot blooded prince it only made him want her more.
And more.
But they were from two different worlds, so much so that their possible union would be considered a curse that could bring down the ruling heirachy and everyone they presided over.
Suddenly, all of the good memories were replaced, not by their wretched circumstances, but by a renewed and sickening fear for her safety along with his brother.
“Bloody hell,” he cursed aloud, unable to help himself.
This was not a game, so what was she playing at?
“I’m sorry, my lord, is there something I can do...”
“Summon Elijah and prepare the horses. We’ll be leaving at first light.” Elijah had been visiting when Kol disappeared, so Klaus figured the least he could do was lend a helping hand, especially given what they faced.
“But the King.”
“Not a word, Josh, if you value your life,” he hissed, spinning on his heel and leaving the room without a backward glance.
II
“I think my behind has gone to sleep.” Caroline rolled her eyes wondering not only why she’d opted for a companion but chosen this particular one. The fog was thick in these parts and for once she was glad her friend couldn’t properly gauge her reaction.
Caroline was trying to tell herself she made the right decision. Katherine Pierce was a revered witch in these parts so was more than qualified for the mission but every minute they rode and every single complaint was telling her otherwise.
“Luckily you’re not doing the work then is it?”
“I’m doing plenty.”
“Complaining doesn’t count.”
“I’m heartbroken, the least you could do is give me some pity,” she growled. Before Caroline could reply she continued. “In case you’re wondering, that means my most vital organ has been shattered into a trillion, tiny pieces.”
Drama really should have been her middle name.
Caroline wanted to be that supportive friend who knew the right thing to say. Unfortunately, she’d had her most vital organ broken too and, not that she’d admit it to anyone, still hadn’t fully recovered. Well, not enough to give any helpful advice.
“He’s not worth it,” she offered mechanically, thinking that line had been thrown at her enough times.
“I beg to differ.”
“You’ve never even mentioned anyone and now suddenly he’s the love of your life?”
“What can I say? It all happened very quickly.” Caroline knew that feeling all too well. “He’s not my type at all so I wasn’t expecting it to hurt so much.”
“So, who is he?” Her friend gave her a look which said she wasn’t going to divulge his identity anytime soon. “Fine, then you can stop whining and let me concentrate.”
“Why are you doing this?” The question wasn’t completely unexpected but at the same time it was a difficult one to answer. “Not to mention pretending to be some kind of mercenary which we both know you’re not.”
“I have the skills required,” she argued.
“But mercenaries don’t possess loyalty or hold allegiances, nor do they care for anyone but themselves. We both know you are far good to be that way.”
“I might have misrepresented myself, true, but let’s just say I owe someone.”
She’d been the one to leave in the middle of the night, to flee when their circumstances became too difficult. Caroline knew he would have fought to the death for her and a life together.
She knew if she couldn’t give him that then the least she could do was help his younger brother. Someone she’d grown fond of in the short time they’d spent together. It wouldn’t fix them but she hoped it would make some amends at least.
“You gamble? That I wasn’t expecting,” she offered. Caroline wanted to correct her but thought better of it.
“Maybe I liked you better when you were complaining about your love life.”
“Fine, if I tell you his identity it stays between us.” Clearly they were back to her mystery man and Caroline was immediately regretting her clumsy segue. “Promise?”
Caroline only nodded by way of response, there was only so many theatrics she could take in one day.
“It’s Prince Elijah.”
Caroline’s head flicked around to face her friend. Now that she wasn’t expecting, even if she did know him. She needed to conceal her surprise. “Well, now it makes sense that prince of the underworld isn’t your usual type. How did this all come about or do I not want to know?”
“We met purely by accident on the streets of the capital. He’s handsome, yes, but it was something else.”
“Let me guess, some imaginary magnet was pulling you towards him.”
Caroline knew that feeling all too well when she’d been with a certain prince that happened to be his very own brother.
“And how do you know that exactly?” She’d clearly said too much.
“Uh, so, how exactly did he break your heart then?”
“He had to leave the capital on assignment. I must admit finding out you wanted help rescuing Kol Mikaelson seemed like a weird coincidence.”
“Does Elijah know?” Caroline did not need that complication. She knew Elijah and that, although they quarrelled, he was extremely loyal to Klaus. If he found out Caroline was on a mission to rescue Kol he wouldn’t let that stand.
“Of course not,” she replied. “Although I did tell him I had business with you and I could have sworn I saw a flicker of recognition in his eyes. Do you happen to know why that would be?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Caroline could have kicked herself for being such a bad liar.
“Okay, so tell me about this debt you owe, it’s the least I deserve.”
This was going to be difficult to explain without giving everything away.
III
“I thought father said there was a mercenary rescuing Kol?” Elijah asked as they made their way through the forest the following day.
“Well, if you’re not up to it, older brother,” Klaus responded emphasising the word ‘older’ on purpose.
“I was merely pointing out that it seems excessive given we are currently fighting wars on multiple fronts. But Kol does like to be the centre of attention so will appreciate the added effort, I’m sure.”
That last part Klaus couldn’t argue with.
“I’ll be sure to tell Kol you said that after we save his sorry ass,” Klaus joked before growing serious again. Something had been playing on his mind since he found out the possible identity of his father’s chosen ‘mercenary’. “Do you trust Mikael’s intentions?”
“Is that a rhetorical question, Niklaus?”
“I find this whole situation unsettling. It seems all too much of a coincidence that father has sent us outside the capital and now Kol is missing. You don’t think that he...”
“What? That he Is trying to kill the heirs to the throne and his very own children? Mikael has many faults and he’s certainly not going to win father of the year but I think you’re being a tad ridiculous.”
“I know I’m the cynical one but think my suspicions are justified.”
“And what makes you think that?” Klaus hesitated briefly. He had no intention of mentioning Caroline, not yet, but when it came to her he couldn’t contain his feelings or his composure for long.
“I believe the mercenary father hired is Caroline.”
“Forbes?” He questioned dubiously. “Why would you think that?”
“She speaks multiple languages, a skill the very mercenary possesses.”
“Well, last time I checked she isn’t a mercenary but fallen fae royalty.”
“Watch how you talk about her, brother.” Klaus growled. He couldn’t help the over protectiveness, it just seemed to envelop him when anyone spoke adversely against her. Even after she left him he still couldn’t let her go.
“Finally,” he acknowledged. “I admit I only said that to incite you, Niklaus, given she was the best thing to ever happen to you.”
“That I don’t need to revisit, brother. But we both know that nothing good could come from our union.”
“Remind me, was that before or after she stabbed you?”
“Elijah has a sense of humour who would have thought that?” Klaus drawled. “Clearly I’ll never live that incident down but right now, given present and urgent circumstances, it doesn’t matter.”
“I must admit, I’ve been distracted.” That Klaus wasn’t expecting. His brother was the epitome of law and order and not much more.
“I’m almost too scared to ask.”
“There’s a woman.”
“And here I thought you were celibate for life,” he chuckled.
“Hilarious, Niklaus,” he shot back. “Although, given our brief discussions, apparently she’s travelling with the very girl you are pretending not to seek.”
Klaus was struggling to control himself. Not just because he wanted to kill Elijah for dropping that clue without warning but because the thought she was close only made him want her more.
TBC - You Reap What You Sow for @klarolinefallbingo
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lasagna evening
request: Could you write some domestic fluff with adult stan uris
A/N: (2020 edit: this was my first ever stanley writing :>) Man oh man do i love this concept. ajsndfjsdf i love, i just love. I apologise for the title lmao i dont have any other ideas alsdfsdjn. This is so fluffy and cliché that you're going to die :D Btw, gifs of Andy Bean are very hard to find and I'm mad about it. Hope this is what you were looking for. Happy reading!
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“Honey, I'm home!” Stan says in a louder voice so his loved one could hear him. For she's known to often leave music playing loudly through their apartment and go into another room to do something. He hears the smooth voice of Billie Holiday singing about autumn in New York and he smiles to himself, kicking off his shoes. The music is loud enough for her not to hear him at all.
He walks into the kitchen, both hands holding a grocery bag tightly until he puts them both on the center counter. Her music is playing right in front of him, just a few feet between him and the sound system.
“Baby!” He calls again. Stan leaves the bags be and they crinkle a bit, the products falling on top of one another. He walks over to the sound system and turns the song's volume down. And he hears her humming. It's coming from her study.
Stan jogs a little down the hallway to get to her and reaches the door frame of her study. He peaks his head in. “Babylove,” he says and smiles immediately upon seeing his girl sitting on her carpet, her back turned to him, still humming and obviously hunched over something.
She whips her head around and smiles wide. There's a wicked glimmer in her eyes. “Honey!” She squeals and hurriedly gets up from her position, almost falling over her own legs, and tip-toes over to her one and only.
He leans in to steal a kiss from her soft angel lips and she still has to stand on her tip-toes for him to succeed. She embraces him then, her arms around his neck, and smiles wide. Stan recieves a loving kiss on the cheek and smiles, too. His eyes are full of love for the woman in front of him.
“What are you doing in here?” He asks, his hand going in slow circles over her back.
“Before you turned my music down,” she says, pouting and pointing her index finger into the middle of his chest, “I was listening to Billie and making another small sculpture.” She smiles, proud of herself.
“You're getting inspired again?” Stan raises his eyebrows in happy surprise and his love nods, biting her bottom lip. “So, who's the muse?”
“You, silly.” She says and they both laugh. She notices Stan already glancing behind her shoulder to see what she's making. To not spoil the surprise, she brings his eyes back to her, holding his chin softly. “It's not finished yet. When it will be, you'll be the first to see. And you know that.”
“Of course. You know I'm impatient about seeing your art.” He tells her and tickles her sides a little, making her giggle in the most beautiful way.
“So,” she claps her hands, “what are we making tonight?”
“Hmm, let's see...” Stan pretends to think, “seeing as I bought the ingredients for lasagna, I guess we're making... lasagna?” He squints, teasing his girl. She laughs and kisses him on the cheek again. And then all over his face, which makes Stanley laugh instead.
When he's about to plead for breath, she stops and grabs his hand, closing her study door with the other. She drags them both back down the hallway and lets go of Stan's hand to turn the volume higher. Stan gives her a mock-annoyed look, but they both laugh.
One of the billion, trillion things he loves so much about his girl is her energy and youthfulness. They're only two years apart, but Stanley has always felt older than he actually is. And he wanted to enjoy his youth when it was happening, but a lot of things kept him from it.
Her youthfulness and eagerness and sort-of hyperactivity brings joy in his life. Makes him happy about still being here, having a life. She's brighter than the sun to him in many ways.
“Do you have the recipe?” Stan asks her as they're unpacking the groceries.
“Uh-huh, I printed it out. It should be next to the sink.” She replies, pulling tomato after tomato out of the bag.
“Terrible place for a paper to be, if you ask me.” He tells her, but she only laughs. Stan walks over to the sink and sure enough, there is a page with a recipe printed on it. And it's not wet. He quickly goes over the ingredients and steps. “So how was work today?”
She works as a museum manager/administrator in a pottery museum in town. Taking that she's an artist herself, she needs to be in an artistic place and area at all times. An administrator might not seem like the job to you, but to her it's the perfect one that pays the bills and takes her on holidays with her loved one. Many artists to meet, artworks to see and inspiration to suck in.
“Quite amazing. You know I met that one artist I've always wanted to host at my museum—”
“Emily Lacey?” Stan finishes instead of her. She nods.
“Yup. And she's even more lovely than I thought she'd be. She's got great sense of humor, a great sense of style, of course, and turns out we have a lot in common.” She tells him. Stan smiles, watching her rush around the kitchen and talk. “She likes to read books, go to the cinema, travelling, hiking.”
“Wow, you two are basically twins.” He states.
“I know, right?” She looks at him with wide eyes, clearly excited. Stanley chuckles. “How was your day?” She asks him.
“It was good.” He says. “Better now that I'm home.” Stan states and they share a look of love and knowing. “The book is coming along well, there's not much left. And I had to teach a new class today! All the kids were sweethearts.”
“How old were they?” She asks and, while doing so, gives Stan a piece of dough to flatten out. They both start working on a piece.
“Uh, they're... I think second or third grade, so eight to nine.” Stan says in between grunts of pushing the wooden roll on the dough. “Why such a question?”
She shrugs. “Just wondering. Thought they'd put you in a college now.” She admits, and huffs.
“Huh.” He turns to her, puts the roll down and crosses his arms over his chest. “Don't you think I'm good enough for primary school?”
She laughs and huffs again. “No, I think you're more than good enough for primary school, and better than perfect for teaching college kids ornithology.” She tells him, honestly.
“Listen, it's nothing wrong with me.” Stan insists, pointing at his chest and raising his eyebrows. “Ornithology is not the most desired class in college, even for biology majors. So they have one professor in each college that isn't exactly an ornithologyst, but knows enough and can memorise texts from books. And they put that guy to teach ornithology if it's at all necessary.” He explains in detail.
“But that is so unfair! I bet you're not the only ornithologyst without a chance to teach in college, and they put some knock-offs in your place.” She justifies.
“You have a fair point.” Stanley agrees. She smiles wide.
“I know. You gotta fight for your rights, hon.” She tells him. “We both know that your passion is ornithology and that you're an actual ornithologyst. They should let, whoever's in charge of it, the people who really know what they're talking about teach ornithology. It makes a huge difference for the kids.”
“Listen, if your artist carrier ever flakes, you should become an education politican.” Stan says upon restarting to flatten the dough. His love laughs out loud, holding her tummy. Stanley only smiles wide to himself.
“Can you even imagine me dressed in formal clothes everyday, having that politician-lady haircut, wearing glasses and talking in a very serious voice about the issues of today?” She asks him, mimicking the way politicians speak in the last part. She even makes a funny face. “I could never. I mean, yeah, they pay you like, crazy money, but I'd never do that.” She shakes her head, still quietly laughing to herself. Stanley keeps smiling.
Merely two hours later, the couple have finished their lasagna. They had put on their food-making playlist, which is basically a playlist full of songs that they know all the lyrics to and sing together to at the top of their lungs. Includes ABBA, Queen, David Bowie, Journey, Elton John and many, many others.
They're happily setting the coffee table in the living room, and they're almost finished. Stan is already turning on the TV, wrapped in a blanket and waiting for his one and only to join him.
She's still getting them forks and spoons, and when she has, she turns off all the lights in the apartment. Except for the little light in the kitchen above the stove, that one always stays on.
She tip-toes—a habit of hers that is not entirely healthy for her feet—into the living room and puts the instruments down on the table. She collapses into Stan's open, waiting arms with a happy sigh. He wraps the blanket around her and keeps his arm around her, too.
Her fingers push between his and they lock together. As if their hands were crafted just to be interlocked with the other's, no one else's. They feel like they're made for each other.
Stanley presses a kiss into her hair. “What are we watching tonight?” He asks, his cheek now pressed where his lips just were.
“Hmm,” she thinks and watches Stan browsing through movies and tv-shows on the screen, “something funny. Don't you think?”
“Yeah, we always watch dramas.” He agrees. “I'm kinda sick of you making me cry every other evening.” Stan admits then, and they both laugh. Stan yawns.
“Do you have a favorite?” She questions, looking up at him. He looks down at her and almost gets hypnotised. Looking at her makes him go a bit weak, every and anytime. The years spent together either don't do anything to help it or even give more to the effect.
“I don't watch that many comedies, not my favorite genre.” He tells her as his hand caresses the side of her face. She closes her eyes to that. “You can choose. Show me your favorite!” He suggests and she smiles. “Just not anything dumb, okay? I know you like those a lot, but, please, spare me.”
She looks at him and rolls her eyes playfully. “Alright, alright.” She agrees and turns to lay on her stomach, over Stan's lap and takes the remote from his hand. “I'll spare your soul from the doom of dumb comedy movies, my prince.” She teases and Stan smiles. “Aha!” She exclaims upon finally finding the movie she was looking for.
She pushes the 'play' button and reaches for their two plates of lasagna while the intro plays. She straightens her back, sitting normally just like Stan and giving him his lasagna piece.
“Hear ye, hear ye. Feast your eyes and ears with the wonder that is Bruce Almighty!” She theatrically introduces the movie. She likes Shakespeare and Old English, despite that she may not be the best at using it right. Stan smiles at her.
They lean in to steal a few kisses from each other before indulging in their home-made (hopefully, well-made) lasagna and the world of Jim Carrey's comedy.
Permanent taglist: @v0idbella @inlovewithmiddleagedcelebs @works-of-fanfiction @destiel-stucky4ever-loki-queen @stfxlou @ur-gunna-h8-ths@empressdreams @betweenloveandfire @but-legendsneverdie@deardeacy @thewinchesterchronicles @mavieesttriste16@mrsmazzello@benhardyseyes @langdonzvoid @intrrverted @the-freak-cassie-131
A/N: Tell me why everytime I look at a picture of Stanley Uris, I immediately want to cry. Oh my God. heurehuherufshfsdh.
#stanley uris#stan uris#stanley uris x reader#stan uris x reader#stanley uris imagines#stanley uris imagine#stan uris imagines#stan uris imagine#adult!stan uris imagine#adult!stanley uris imagine#adult!stan uris x imagine#adult!stanley uris x reader#it imagine#it imagines#it chapter two imagine#it chapter two imagines#the losers club imagine#the losers club imagines
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Article from The Atlantic “This Is Not a Normal Mental Health Disaster” (posted July 7th, 2020). Excerpt:
In any case, the full extent of the fallout will not come into focus for some time. Psychological disorders can be slow to develop, and as a result, the Textbook of Disaster Psychiatry, which Morganstein helped write, warns that demand for mental-health care may spike even as a pandemic subsides. “If history is any indicator,” Morganstein says of COVID-19, “we should expect a significant tail of mental-health effects, and those could be extraordinary.” Taylor worries that the virus will cause significant upticks in obsessive-compulsive disorder, agoraphobia, and germaphobia, not to mention possible neuropsychiatric effects, such as chronic fatigue syndrome.
The coronavirus may also change the way we think about mental health more broadly. Perhaps, Schoch-Spana says, the prevalence of pandemic-related psychological conditions will have a destigmatizing effect. Or perhaps it will further ingrain that stigma: We’re all suffering, so can’t we all just get over it? Perhaps the current crisis will prompt a rethinking of the American mental-health-care system. Or perhaps it will simply decimate it.
Shared in entirety under the cut for those who can’t access it:
This Is Not a Normal Mental Health Disaster by Jacob Stern
If SARS is any lesson, the psychological effects of the novel coronavirus will long outlast the pandemic itself.
The SARS pandemic tore through Hong Kong like a summer thunderstorm. It arrived abruptly, hit hard, and then was gone. Just three months separated the first infection, in March 2003, from the last, in June.
But the suffering did not end when the case count hit zero. Over the next four years, scientists at the Chinese University of Hong Kong discovered something worrisome. More than 40 percent of SARS survivors had an active psychiatric illness, most commonly PTSD or depression. Some felt frequent psychosomatic pain. Others were obsessive-compulsive. The findings, the researchers said, were “alarming.”
The novel coronavirus’s devastating hopscotch across the United States has long surpassed the three-month mark, and by all indications, it will not end anytime soon. If SARS is any lesson, the secondary health effects will long outlast the pandemic itself.
Already, a third of Americans are feeling severe anxiety, according to Census Bureau data, and nearly a quarter show signs of depression. A recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that the pandemic had negatively affected the mental health of 56 percent of adults. In April, texts to a federal emergency mental-health line were up 1,000 percent from the year before. The situation is particularly dire for certain vulnerable groups—health-care workers, COVID-19 patients with severe cases, people who have lost loved ones—who face a significant risk of post-traumatic stress disorder. In overburdened intensive-care units, delirious patients are seeing chilling hallucinations. At least two overwhelmed emergency medical workers have taken their own life.
To some extent, this was to be expected. Depression, anxiety, PTSD, substance abuse, child abuse, and domestic violence almost always surge after natural disasters. And the coronavirus is every bit as much a disaster as any wildfire or flood. But it is also something unlike any wildfire or flood. “The sorts of mental-health challenges associated with COVID-19 are not necessarily the same as, say, generic stress management or the interventions from wildfires,” says Steven Taylor, a psychiatrist at the University of British Columbia and the author of The Psychology of Pandemics (published, fortuitously, in October 2019). “It’s very different in important ways.”
Most people are resilient after disasters, and only a small percentage develop chronic conditions. But in a nation of 328 million, small percentages become large numbers when translated into absolute terms. And in a nation where, even under ordinary circumstances, fewer than half of the millions of adults with a mental illness receive treatment, those large numbers are a serious problem. A wave of psychological stress unique in its nature and proportions is bearing down on an already-ramshackle American mental-health-care system, and at the moment, Taylor told me, “I don’t think we’re very well prepared at all.”
Most disasters affect cities or states, occasionally regions. Even after a catastrophic hurricane, for example, normalcy resumes a few hundred miles away. Not so in a pandemic, says Joe Ruzek, a longtime PTSD researcher at Stanford University and Palo Alto University: “In essence, there are no safe zones any more.”
As a result, Ruzek told me, certain key tenets of disaster response no longer hold up. People cannot congregate at a central location to get help. Psychological first-aid workers cannot seek out strangers on street corners. To be sure, telemedicine has its advantages—it eliminates the logistical and financial burdens of transportation, and some people simply find it more comfortable—but it complicates outreach and can pose problems for older people, who have borne the brunt of the coronavirus.
A pandemic, unlike an earthquake or a fire, is invisible, and that makes it all the more anxiety-inducing. “You can’t see it, you can’t taste it, you just don’t know,” says Charles Benight, a psychology professor at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs who specializes in post-disaster recovery. “You look outside, and it seems fine.”
From spatial uncertainty comes temporal uncertainty. If we can’t know where we are safe, then we can’t know when we are safe. When a wildfire ends, the flames subside and the smoke clears. “You have an event, and then you have the rebuild process that’s really demarcated,” Benight told me. “It’s not like a hurricane goes on for a year.” But pandemics do not respect neat boundaries: They come in waves, ebbing and flowing, blurring crisis into recovery. One month, New York flares up and Arizona is calm. The next, the opposite.
That ambiguity could make it harder for people to be resilient. “It’s sort of like running down a field to score a goal, and every 10 yards they move the goal,” Benight said. “You don’t know what you’re targeting.” In this sense, Ruzek said, someone struggling with the psychological effects of the pandemic is less like a fire survivor than a domestic-violence victim still living with her abuser, or a traumatized soldier still deployed overseas. Mental-health professionals can’t reassure them that the danger has passed, because the danger has not passed. One can understand why, in a May survey by researchers at the University of Chicago, 42 percent of respondents reported feeling hopeless at least one day in the past week.
A good deal of this uncertainty was inevitable. Pandemics, after all, are confusing. But coordinated, cool-headed, honest messaging from government officials and public-health experts would have gone a long way toward allaying undue anxiety. The World Health Organization, for all the good it has done to contain the virus, has repeatedly bungled the communications side of the crisis. Last month, a WHO official claimed that asymptomatic spread of the virus is “very rare”—only to clarify the next day, after a barrage of criticism from outside public-health experts, that “we don’t actually have that answer yet.” In February, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Americans to prepare for “disruption to everyday life that may be severe,” then, just days later, said, “The American public needs to go on with their normal lives,” then went mostly dark for the next three months. Health experts are not without blame either: Their early advice about masks was “a case study in how not to communicate with the public,” wrote Zeynep Tufekci, an information-science professor at the University of North Carolina and an Atlantic contributing writer.
The White House, for its part, has repeatedly contradicted the states, the CDC, and itself. The president has used his platform to spread misinformation. In a moment when public health—which is to say, tens of thousands of lives—depends on national unity and clear messaging, the pandemic has become a new front in the partisan culture wars. Monica Schoch-Spana, a medical anthropologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told me that “political and social marginalization can exacerbate the psychological impacts of the pandemic.”
Schoch-Spana has previously written about the 1918 influenza pandemic. Lately, she says, people have been asking her how the coronavirus compares. She is always quick to point out a crucial difference: When the flu emerged in America at the end of a brutal winter, the nation was mobilized for war. Relative unity prevailed, and a spirit of collective self-sacrifice was in the air. At the time, the U.S. was reckoning with its enemies. Now we are reckoning with ourselves.
One thing that is certain about the current pandemic is that we are not doing enough to address its mental-health effects. Usually, says Joshua Morganstein, the chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s Committee on the Psychiatric Dimensions of Disaster, the damage a disaster does to mental health ends up costing more than the damage it does to physical health. Yet of the $2 trillion that Congress allocated for pandemic relief through the CARES Act, roughly one-50th of 1 percent—or $425 million—was earmarked for mental health. In April, more than a dozen mental-health organizations called on Congress to apportion $38.5 billion in emergency funding to protect the nation’s existing treatment infrastructure, plus an additional $10 billion for pandemic response.
Without broad, systematic studies to gauge the scope of the problem, though, it will be hard to determine with any precision either the appropriate amount of funding or where that funding is needed. Taylor told me that “governments are throwing money at this problem at the moment without really knowing how big a problem it will be.”
In addition to studies assessing the scope of the problem, which demographics most need help, and what kind of help they need, Ruzek told me researchers should assess how well intervention efforts are working. Even in ordinary times, he said, we don’t do enough of that. Such studies are especially important now because, until recently, disaster mental-health protocols for pandemics were an afterthought. By necessity, researchers are designing and implementing them all at once.
“Disaster mental-health workers have never been trained in anything about this,” Ruzek said. “They don’t know what to say.”
Even so, the basic principles will be the same. Disaster mental-health specialists often talk about the five core elements of intervention—calming, self-efficacy, connectedness, hope, and a sense of safety—and those apply now as much as ever. At an organizational level, the response will depend on extensive screening, which is to the mental-health side of the pandemic roughly what testing is to the physical-health side. In disaster situations—and especially in this one—the people in need of mental-health support vastly outnumber the people who can supply it. So disaster psychologists train armies of volunteers to provide basic support and identify people at greater risk of developing long-term problems.
“There are certain things that we can still put into place for people based on what we’ve learned about what’s helpful for PTSD and for depression and for anxiety, but we have to adjust it a bit,” says Patricia Watson, a psychologist at the National Center for PTSD. “This is a different dance than the dance that we’ve had for other types of disasters.”
Some states have moved quickly to learn the new steps. In Colorado, Benight is helping to train volunteer resilience coaches to support members of their community and, when necessary, refer them to formal crisis-counseling programs. His team has also worked with volunteers in 31 states, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
Colorado’s approach is not the sort of rigorously tested, evidence-based model to which Ruzek said disaster psychologists should aspire. Then again, “we’re sitting here with not a lot of options,” says Matthew Boden, a research scientist in the Veterans Health Administration’s mental-health and suicide-prevention unit. “Something is better than nothing.”
In any case, the full extent of the fallout will not come into focus for some time. Psychological disorders can be slow to develop, and as a result, the Textbook of Disaster Psychiatry, which Morganstein helped write, warns that demand for mental-health care may spike even as a pandemic subsides. “If history is any indicator,” Morganstein says of COVID-19, “we should expect a significant tail of mental-health effects, and those could be extraordinary.” Taylor worries that the virus will cause significant upticks in obsessive-compulsive disorder, agoraphobia, and germaphobia, not to mention possible neuropsychiatric effects, such as chronic fatigue syndrome.
The coronavirus may also change the way we think about mental health more broadly. Perhaps, Schoch-Spana says, the prevalence of pandemic-related psychological conditions will have a destigmatizing effect. Or perhaps it will further ingrain that stigma: We’re all suffering, so can’t we all just get over it? Perhaps the current crisis will prompt a rethinking of the American mental-health-care system. Or perhaps it will simply decimate it.
In 2013, reflecting on the tenth anniversary of the SARS pandemic, newspapers in Hong Kong described a city scarred by plague. When COVID-19 arrived there seven years later, they did so again. SARS had traumatized that city, but it had also prepared it. Face masks had become commonplace. People used tissues to press elevator buttons. Public spaces were sanitized and resanitized. In New York City, COVID-19 has killed more than 22,600 people; in Hong Kong, a metropolis of nearly the same size, it has killed seven. The city has learned from its scars.
America, too, will bear the scars of plague. Maybe next time, we will be the ones who have learned.
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I'm more poor than an Ethiopian lemonade stand and I was wondering if you could spare some Harper x Kirishima headcannons so I could have something of value. (If it isn't a bother, you don't have to. Hope you're doing well, have a nice evening.)
Harper X Kirishima Headcanons for the poor and needy
Here's a link to the story on my Wattpad
Kirishima's thoughts don't bother Harper in the least. He can compliment her up and down in his head and she won't bat an eye. But the moment he says something out loud, her cheeks are red, her fields are plowed, and her crops, watered.
Harper is fairly rational and blunt, as we all know. She's a "no-nonsense" type of fellow. Well, to put it simply and logically, she views Kirishima had perfect husband material. Even before she gained any real romantic feelings for him, it was just obvious. She looked at him and was like "Yeah, he'd make a good spouse."
Kirishima loves music, and has a "Harper Playlist" full if songs that remind her of him. He was embarrassed when she found out. Harper was surprised to find little to no depressing songs, most being upbeat and light. Oddly enough, they fit.
Kirishima asked his mothers for advice, but they're clueless lesbians who met each other on a whim and got married because it "seemed legit", so he ends up asking Mr. Aizawa, the active male role model in his life. Aizawa runs a blog, so naturally suggests Kirishima start one of his own to try and get advice. Surprisingly, he does.
Harper does better focusing on a single person's thoughts to help block out everyone else's. It's why she sleeps better when cuddling with Kirishima. His thoughts aren't horribly loud, not horribly quiet, and are generally low-key unless he's having some sort of Fanboying Moment™. Her head is on his shoulder, and then she's out like a light.
Kirishima likes to carry/hold her, whether it be in his arms, on his back, his shoulders, wherever. He just likes to have her off he ground somehow for whatever reason.
Kurogiri adores Kirishima with a burning passion, which works seeing as he follows Harper like a lost puppy. Because Harper doesn't like going out, he often times makes them home-made food and will put on a movie. He likes having a "job."
Harper's parents are social butterflies who get along with everyone. One day, they meet Kirishima's parents. Instant. Hatred. The two teenagers literally don't give a shit though, so it's fine.
Harper vents to Kirishima about the bullshit she hears almost constantly. Aizawa's thinking about flowers? Kirishima knows. Momo being gay? Kirishima had been informed. Aoyama is thinking about baguettes? He's clued in. She stays surprisingly connected with him, and he loves it.
Kirishima's parents adore Harper with every fiber of their beings. Kirishima tries to bring her over, but she gets swept away by his parents almost immediately.
Harper isn't the jealous type, but anytime Mineta is thinking something sexual about Kirishima, she makes it a point to get him to stop. Even if that means siccing Aizawa on him.
Kirishima enjoys bringing Harper food, blankets, fuzzy socks: just stuff like that. Maybe he'll bring one of his hoodies for her one day, and some donuts another. He's not the kmnd reader out of the two of them, but sometimes Harper feels like he is.
Kirishima carried Advil around for her because she forgets.
Harper has a surprising talent for dyeing hair. When Kirishima's black roots start to grow in, she proves to be pretty damn good at perfectly re-bleaching the roots and coloring them red. She does the same thing for Dabi when she sees how spotty he gets.
Kirishima wouldn't say he boasts about Harper, but you ask anyone in the bakusquad, and she's literally all he talks about.
Harper really loves the ocean, because the waves really help drown out thoughts. Kirishima was excited to find out she liked it, and wants desperately to teach her how to surf, but doesn't know how to bring it up.
Harper unconsciously starts asking Kirishima's opinion before ever making decisions. Everyone who notices (Aizawa, namely) finds it extremely cute and never fail to tease her about it.
Kirishima is almost always with Harper. Anytime he can find time to be around her, he is. Harper actually doesn't mind. With anyone else, she'd be over them in about ten minutes, but there's something about Kirishima that's extremely easy to stand.
When they first started dating, Aizawa had a Fanboying session in front of Kirishima, leaving him mind-blown and unable to ever see Aizawa the same again. Harper and Kirishima develop a game between the two of them where they try to get Aizawa to break face in class, talking about cats, referencing his blog, and even going so far as to call him dad.
Harper really didn't want to let anyone know they were dating, just to avoid getting asked trillions of questions, but keeping it a secret was causing Kirishima to get extremely jealous anytime she interacted with another male despite normally not being the jealous type. Eventually she said fuck all and just told.
Kirishima is extremely insecure, and Harper is very aware of that. She makes an active and constant effort to accommodate it to the best of her ability and make him feel better. He notices and loves her all the more for it.
Kirishima's phone is always on at all hours in case she sends him a text.
When Kirishima first started his blog in search of relationship advice, he accidentally ran across Aizawa's. Not knowing it was his, Kirishima ended up getting a lot of good tips from it.
#harper#kirishima#mha eijirou#kirishima x oc#bnha manga#bnha oc#bnha#mha aizawa#mha#aizawa shouta#aizawa#present mic#fanfiction#fanfic#headcanons
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Lore Episode 9: The Devil on the Roof (Transcript) - 28th June 2015
tw: animal death
Disclaimer: This transcript is entirely non-profit and fan-made. All credit for this content goes to Aaron Mahnke, creator of Lore podcast. It is by a fan, for fans, and meant to make the content of the podcast more accessible to all. Also, there may be mistakes, despite rigorous re-reading on my part. Feel free to point them out, but please be nice!
In March of 2014, a hiker in Lithuania stumbled upon a warm spring that was melting the ice on a frozen pond. It’s not unusual to find things like this, but he was curious. I would be too – the pond was frozen over, but there was a nice window into the still waters beneath. I have to think any one of us would have leaned in for a closer look. When he did, though, he witnessed something that his mind had trouble processing. It appeared to be a living creature, but it was unlike anything he had ever seen. Thankfully we live in a very connected, very digital age, and he used his phone to take a short video. I have no idea what the creature was, or if it even was a living thing at all, and I’m not going to discuss it today, or tell you more stories about similar sightings, because there aren’t any. It was a one off, a random occurrence that had never happened before, and would probably never happen again. Some stories are like that – sometimes we bump into something new, with no history or record of events to lend it pedigree or validity, and those stories frustrate me. Other stories, though, go deep. Some legends have been told for centuries. Some creatures have been sighted by hundreds of people over the years, and each new sighting lends credence to its story. And even if it’s all made up, or just one big misunderstanding, these layers upon layers of story seem to somehow give life to the creatures they describe. When we find these deep wells of folklore, our minds are presented with a challenge. Do the centuries of first-hand accounts serve as a proof, or do they highlight our incredible, cross-cultural, nearly genetic predisposition toward gullibility? Few places challenge us to such a degree as the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey. Inside that wooded expanse, mystery runs far and wide. Mystery, and some say, the devil. I’m Aaron Mahnke, and this is Lore.
When we think of the east coast of the United States, we think of urban sprawl, of endless strings of bedroom communities, looping around massive metropolitan centres. New York City. Boston. Philadelphia. Washington DC. All of these places are symbols of humanity’s inability to leave an undeveloped area untouched. What most people don’t know, however, is that there is a huge expanse of forested land cutting through the southern part of New Jersey that simply boggles the mind. It’s called the Pine Barrens, and it’s the largest undeveloped area of land in the mid-Atlantic Seaboard. Seriously, this place is massive. There are 1.1 million acres of forest, and beneath it all are underground aquifers that are estimated to contain over 17 trillion gallons of the purest drinking water in the country. As you might imagine, such a massive area of untouched land comes with its own treasure chest of mythical creatures and frightening folklore. The local Lenape tribe of Native Americans tell stories of the Manetutetak, the wood dwarves who live in the forest, a local version of the global “little people” legend. There are other creatures rumoured to exist in the pines, including “Big Red Eye”, the “Hoboken Monkey Man”, undocumented species of large cats, the “Cape May Sea Serpent”, the “Lizard Man of Great Meadows”, and something called a Kim Kardashian. New Jersey, you see, is full of monsters.
But hovering over them all like a patriarch, perched at the top of an ornate family tree, is something that has haunted the Pines for nearly 300 years. The original story goes something like this: in 1735, one Mrs. Shroud of Leeds Point, New Jersey, became pregnant with her 13th child. According to the legend, Mrs. Shroud secretly wished that this child would be a devil or demon child. Sure enough, when the child was born, it was misshapen and malformed. Mrs. Shroud kept the deformed child in her home, sheltered from the curious eyes of the community. But on a dark and stormy night, because bad things only ever happen on dark and stormy nights, of course, the child’s arms turned to wings and it escaped, flying up and out through the chimney. Mrs Shroud never saw her devil child again. That’s the story - or at least one version of it. A more prominent version of the legend identifies the mother as Mrs. Leeds, not a Mrs. Shroud from Leeds, who was from the Burlington area of New Jersey. Mrs. Leeds, according to the legend, had dabbled in witchcraft despite her Quaker beliefs, and this hobby of hers made the old women attending her birth more than a little uneasy. To their relief, though, a handsome baby boy was born that stormy night, and he was quickly delivered to Mrs. Leeds’ arms. That’s when he transformed. His human features vanished, his body elongated and even his skin changed. The baby’s head became horse-like, and hooves replaced his feet. Bat-like wings sprouted from his shoulders and he grew to the size of a man. Other stories have persisted through the centuries as well. One claimed that the monster was the result of a treasonous relationship between a colonial Leeds Point girl and a British soldier, while another story tells of a gypsy curse. There seems to have been no town or county in the Pines area without its own version of the story. Many of them vary wildly. But one thing united them all: the description of the creature. In all the stories it was some sort of hybrid or mutation of a normal animal. Most of the stories describe it in the same terms: head like a horse, wings like a bat, clawed hands, long serpent tail, and legs like a deer. In some accounts, the creature is almost dragon-like. Coincidentally, the Lenape tribe refers to the Pines area as Popuessing which means “the place of the dragon”. Swedish explorers even named the area “Drake Kill”, kill being the Dutch word for river and drake meaning dragon. Whatever the truth is behind the origins behind this legend, and whatever its core features really are, the people of the Pines were united in what they called it: The Jersey Devil. And this devil was more than just a story that was passed from person to person. Over the centuries that followed, countless eyewitness reports surfaced that seemed to point to one overwhelming conclusion. The Jersey Devil… was real.
What makes the Jersey Devil so special is the quality of many of the sightings. Individuals with no need to make up stories, whether for political or professional reasons, all seem to have found the courage to report incidents that would normally be laughable. Stephen Decatur was a United States naval officer who was known for his many victories in the early 1800s. Decatur was, and still is today, a very well-respected figure in American history. There have been five warships named after him, he’s had his own stamp through the US postal service, and in the late 1800s, it was his face that graced the $20 bill rather than Andrew Jackson’s. According to the legend, Decatur visited the Hannover ironworks in Burlington, New Jersey in the early 1800s. The facility there manufactured cannonballs, something Decatur was very familiar with, and he had arrived to test some of the product. On this occasion, Decatur was said to have been on the firing range, operating the cannon. While there, he witnessed a strange creature flying overhead. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before and, like a true American, he aimed a cannon at it. He fired, and the shot was said to be true, striking the creature in mid-air. Mysteriously though, nothing happened. The creature continued on uninterrupted. Another early resident of New Jersey was Joseph Bonaparte, the brother of none other than Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon had appointed his brother King of Spain in 1808, but Joseph abdicated just five years later, before moving to the United States. He took up residence in a large estate called Breeze Point, near the Pine Barrens, and lived there for nearly two decades. One of his favourite past times was to go hunting in the Pines. On one of those hunting trips, the former King of Spain was in the woods near his home when he discovered some strange tracks in the snow. They looked like the tracks of a donkey but there were only two feet present, not four. Bonaparte commented on how one of the feet appeared slightly larger than the other, as if deformed in some way. He followed the tracks to a clearing, but stopped when the prints vanished. It was as if the animal had simply taken flight. As he was turning to leave, Bonaparte heard a strange hissing sound. He glanced back, only to find himself standing face to face with a large creature. He described it as having bat-like wings, the head of a horse, and it stood on thin hind legs. Before he could remember to use his rifle, the creature hissed one final time, flapped its wings, and flew off into the sky. He later described the events to a local friend, who simply smiled and congratulated the man. “You’ve just seen the famous Jersey Devil”, his friend told him.
The following decades were filled with more and more sightings and reports. In the early 1840s, a handful of farmers began to report the death of livestock on their land. In most cases, tracks were found but they could not be identified. Others claimed to have heard high-pitched screams in the Pines, a sound that would forever be connected with the Jersey Devil. By 1900, belief in the Jersey Devil was widespread and stronger than ever. Nearly everyone in the area believed that something otherworldly lived inside the Pines. Anytime disaster or death entered their lives, they cast blame on this creature, but some had also begun to do the math. If this creature really was the child of Mrs. Shroud and was born in 1735, then it was very, very old. Folklorist Charles B. Skinner commented on this in a 1903 publication. “It is said that its life has nearly run its course”, he wrote, “and with the advent of the new century many worshipful commoners of Jersey have dismissed, for good and all, the fear of the monster from their mind”. Skinner, you see, thought that it was gone - that the Jersey Devil was too old to carry on terrorising the people of the Pines. But when the events of 1909 unfolded, just six years later, one thing became very clear: Skinner couldn’t have been more wrong.
January 1909 was a busy month for thpe Jersey Devil. In the early morning hours of January 16th, a man named Thack Cozzens was out for a walk under the stars in Woodbury, New Jersey. A sound caught his attention, and he glanced up, only to see a large, dark shape fly past. Cozzens recalled noticing that the creature’s eye glowed bright red. 26 miles away that same early morning, in the town of Bristol, Pennsylvania, a number of people reported seeing a similar creature. One eyewitness, a police officer named James Sackville, actually fired his handgun at it, without effect. E. W. Minster, the town postmaster, also saw the flying thing, and according to him, it also unleashed a high-pitched scream. When the sun rose that morning, several people reported finding strange hoof prints in the snow. No one could identify the kind of creature who would leave such tracks. And just one day later, on the 17th, unusual hoof prints were found in the snow outside the home of the Lowdens in Burlington, New Jersey. The tracks surrounded their trashcan, which had been knocked over and rummaged through. Other people found tracks on their rooftops. Trails were followed into streets, where the tracks would simply vanish. The Burlington police tried tracking the creature with the help of hunting dogs, but the dogs refused to follow the trails. At 2:30 in the morning on Tuesday the 19th, a Mr. and Mrs. Evans were asleep in bed in Gloucester, New Jersey, when a scream awoke them. They both climbed out of bed and approached their window, and then stopped, paralysed by fear. There on the roof of their shed stood a creature unlike anything they had ever laid eyes on. According to Mr. Evans, it was roughly 3ft tall and had the head of a horse. It walked on two legs and held smaller, claw-like hands against its chest. The leathery wings were still present, as was the long, serpentine tail. The couple managed to frighten the creature away after watching it for nearly 10 minutes. Later that day, professional hunters were called in to attempt to track the creature, but they had no success. The following day brought more of the same. A Burlington police officer was the first to see the creature, followed by a local minister. A hunting party that was formed to track the beast claimed they watched it fly towards Moorestown, and in Moorestown, it was seen at Mount Carmel Cemetery. From there, it was seen to fly toward Riverside, and there, hoof prints were found in a cluster around a dead puppy. A day later, an entire trolley full of passengers in Clementon watched a winged creature circle above them. The Black Hawk Social Club reported their own sighting, and when a Collingswood fireman saw one up close, he turned his hose on the creature, chasing it off. Later that night, a woman named Mrs. Sorbinski of Camden heard a noise outside in the dark. She grabbed her broom and stepped out, only to find the mysterious beast trying to catch her dog. Mrs. Sorbinski beat at the creature with her broom until it released the dog and flew away. When a crowd gathered as a result of her screaming, they all claimed to see the creature off in the distance. The mob charged toward the thing, then a police officer even fired shots, but whatever the creature was, it had managed to escape into the sky. The creature made a few more random appearances across New Jersey during late January of that year, but it was one final sighting in February that leaves many questions to be answered. An employee of a local electric railroad was out working on the tracks when he saw what he later described as the Jersey Devil flying overhead. He claimed to have watched the creature fly into one of the overhead electrical wires, generating an explosion large enough to melt the metal tracks directly underneath. A search was made, but no body was found.
Maybe the stories of the Jersey Devil are about something else. Maybe they’re really about fear - fear of the unknown, fear of the dark, a fear of what might be lurking out there in the trees. Humanity has feared these things for millennia, but perhaps the people of the Pines feared something more basic, more fundamental than whatever might be waiting for them in the darkness. Perhaps they simply feared being alone. There’s nothing worse than experiencing a loss you can’t seem to explain, or noises you can’t identify, especially if you are in a new and strange place. The sources might very well be real and normal, but in the setting and culture of their day, the unexplainable only served to highlight the loneliness of the early settlers of New Jersey. The Barrens had a way of giving permission to fear the unknown. They still do to this day. When settlers discovered rare or unusual plants and animals inside these woods, it became easy to take it one step further. Demon children, creatures dancing on rooftops, livestock and pets being attacked – we explain our existence with fantasy, because sometimes that’s the only thing that can help us cope. In 1957, some employees from the New Jersey Department of Conservation found a partial animal corpse in the Pines. It was a mangled collection of feathers, mammal bones ad long hind legs that appeared to have been burnt or scorched. It might be logical to assume that the creature that flew into the electrical wires in 1909 had literally crashed and burnt, only to be discovered decades later. It might, in fact, sound like the creature was gone for good. But in 1987, an unidentified woman in Vinland, New Jersey, reported that her German Shepherd had been killed during the night. The dog had been torn to pieces and dragged over 25ft from the end of its chain. The only evidence the authorities could find around the body were hoof prints.
This episode of Lore was produced by me, Aaron Mahnke. Learn more about me and the show over at lorepodcast.com, and be sure to follow along on Twitter and Facebook @lorepodcast. This episode of Lore was made possible by you, our amazing listeners, [insert sponsor break here]. To find out how you can support Lore, visit lorepodcast.com/support. You’ll find links to help you leave a review on iTunes, support Lore on Patreon for some awesome rewards, and find a list of my supernatural thrillers, available in both paperback and ebook formats. I couldn’t do this show without you, and I’m thankful to each and every one of you. Thanks for listening.
Notes
Most of the sightings mentioned by Aaron seem to come from Monsters of New Jersey by Loren Coleman, which has no public access
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DEATH BATTLE Review: Aquaman vs. Namor
Marvel and DC’s Aquatic kings of Atlantis duke it out in this Season 6 opener. Who will reign supreme, and who will end up sleeping with the fishes?- We’ll find out in the Season 6 premiere of DEATH BATTLE!
Woo hoo! It’s good to be back, folks! Man! It’s been a while. There have been a lot of changes. Like the new schedule for their podcast, the new location change of said podcast, and a whole bunch of other stuff like changing the Youtube channel name. With that said, let’s dive right into the first episode of the season.
Aquaman′s Preview.
We start off Aquaman’s lap by going over his origin story. And thanks to the new movie that’s been swimming around theaters, I’m sure we know his story by now. A good ol’ romance between the land and sea that would make one of the most remembered heroes around. The one and only, Aquaman.
With his origin story now out of the way, we can freestyle right into the powerset of the Atlantian King. And get used to those swimming, water, and ocean puns, because they’re not drowning out anytime soon.
And we even get to go over a lot of his powers about communicating to fish, though, not all of them…
(Don’t worry. Arthur got better).
And that “Clear” thing gets explained around here:
But there is one aquatic sea creature that he can’t mess around with, like his friend, Topo. Who goes from a goofy octopus to…
That.
But as it turns out, Aquaman isn’t just limited to sea life. He can also talk to birds and other less intelligent animals. And while he doesn’t have total control over humans, he can still mess with their heads and disorient them enough to win fights.
DAMN! Aquaman is scary when he wants to be!
But no true Atlantian King would be complete without his trust weapon of choice, his trident………s……… Please note the plural.
(Poseidon is in Boomstick’s hand, Neptune’s trident is in Wiz’s hand).
Aquaman also has plenty of strength feats to back him up as well. Like the time he lifted a ship comparable to the size of this thing thanks to his water magic:
And he’s got plenty more feats to back him up.
Now, blocking the Dead King’s scepter is an impressive feat. As that was the same scepter that sunk Atlantis in the first place. Since Atlantis is considered a continent, it has to be bigger than Greenland, the largest island on Earth.
Which, in simpler terms, means that the total size of Atlantis swims at about
836300 square miles! In order to sink or destroy it, the dead king Atlan would have to have managed to take down this much volume in one blow:
In order to do this, Atlan would have to have struck it with a grand total of
over 155 trillion tons of TNT! And Our boy Arthur blocked that!
But even with all of that power, Aquaman isn’t exactly invincible. He’s susceptible to dehydration, and his durability has limits (as we’ve seen with the piranha thing).
But he’s found different ways to work around that weakness. Like that one time where he used blood to refuel himself. And no, I’m not showing a screenshot for that. It might not be as bad as Elfin Lied, but I’d say that for a guy like Aquaman, one time in the blood pool is enough.
And the end line really should have been a line from Brave and the Bold. Literally any time he would shout his signature “OUTRAGEOUS!” would have been nice to hear. But we just get his word of warning from the Superman animated show instead.
Namor′s Preview.
We start off Namor’s lap by going over his origin story. And thanks to the new movie that’s been swimming around theaters, I’m sure we know his story by now. A good ol’ romance between the land and sea that would make one of the most remembered heroes around. The one and only, Namor.
Except this time, Namor would spend more time in the sea rather than on land. Basically, Aquaman is Surf and Turf, while Namor is just… Surf.
With his background out of the way, let’s delve deeper into his arsenal and powers.
(Wow… Never seen that before…)
Uh, anyways, Namor is also Marvel’s first mutant… Well, kinda. See, Namor isn’t the first mutant to be born, he was simply the first that Marvel introduced. This is because Namor is part Atlantian and part Mutant. Where the mutant part comes from is anyone’s guess, but maybe he just had an X-Gene laying around. This gene is what allows Namor to fly with those wings of his.
And Namor has plenty of other powers to fish for as well.
He can mimic marine life to copy their abilities. He can also communicate with other marine life as well, and his Atlantian education makes him a worthy heir to the throne of Atlantis.
He’s also got a trident named after Neptune.
Wait for it…
(God. I love the fact that I’ve figured out my screenshot editing skills. Makes things so much easier to work with).
Anyways, Namor’s trident isn’t just a fancy fish fork, it has hydrokenisis, mystic blasts, mystic formation, and can even animate objects.
And if he needs backup, he can use his horn to… Huh? What’s that (inaudible whispering) He doesn’t use it in the fight? (Inaudible whispering) And Aquaman doesn’t even call for Topo either? (Inaudible whispering) And now you’re telling me that we need to get to the feats?
Oh………
Y’know, the fact that they didn’t go over the Island Utopia’s weight kinda shows that Namor……… Probably wasn’t going to win this. I mean, tossing a 9000 ton naval destroyer is impressive, but when compared to the 255 thousand ton ship that Aquaman threw……… It’s not exactly reassuring to the Namor fans.
But, much like DC’s Atlantian royal, Namor isn’t invincible. He also needs water. Not to survive, but to maintain mental stability. This can sometimes cause him to be the villain. Though it should be noted that this isn’t how bipolar disorder actually works.
But as long as there is water left in his body, Namor will continue to be the defender of Atlantis.
And again, we could have gotten his signature battle cry of “IMPERIOUS REX!” From the 2006 Fantastic Four show. But no. Much like Aquaman, we get a word of warning from the 90s version of the show.
The Battle Itself.
Luis is lead on this fight, with Zack, Kiid, and Kayas helping out. Aquaman will be voiced by Kaiji Tang, and Namor will be voiced by Todd Haberkorn. Jerky is the sprite artist, as per usual, Kings of the Sea by Therewolf, Chris Kokkinos lead on sound.
I should also note that instead of his usual “Alright the combatants are set! Let’s end this debate once and for all!” Wiz now says ‘Alright the combatants are set, and we’ve run the data through all possibilities!” It doesn’t have the same feel of epicness that the previous line had. Maybe they’ll change it back, or maybe it’ll take some getting used to. But at least they kept the good old line from Boomstick.
“IT’S TIME FOR A DEATH BATTLE!”
So, with DBC’s new schedule, we didn’t actually get the full audio for the fight. Shame though. Friday was enough time to not only see the battle, but to also gather enough questions for them to answer. Also, now broadcast can’t force Achievement Hunter out of the studio anymore with the excuse of DBC since they moved. But the just of it the story of this fight is that Aquaman does a splash in the pool, and it ticks Namor off.
So they do battle underwater. I should also note that the pool says “50 ft” which implies that it’s that deep. There’s also no “FIGHT!“ Soundbite. Which takes away from the overall feel of it. I miss that announcer. Hopefully, they’ll get it back next episode. Because that sound is something that I’d use for a text alert.
They even exchange a few fisticuffs in the air before crashing onto a beach.
And we also get to see a little Easter Egg too!
(Roshi rebuilt his house. Yay! (Commentary suggests that this takes place before or during that fight though, but I like my idea better mostly because it feels better continuity-wise))
And Namor decides to bring out the big fish, by using his animation powers to summon a few rock golems to do battle with Aquaman.
But Aquaman doesn’t drown easily.
So they take the battle to the water again, where both of them call their aquatic armies to fight. But Aquaman’s army is also backed up by the Clear, so they obviously win there. So they take it even deeper where they clash.
Oh. Right. The finishing blow.
5…
4…
3…
2…
1…
(Y’know, I tried to make this a gif, but the website I used didn’t want to use videos from the website. So it’s back to using screenshots).
Well……… That’s quite the predicament you’re in, chum.
Verdict + Explanation.
Well, both were evenly matched in terms of ability. That was basically a no-brainier. Comparing abilities on their own basically means that you could essentially flip a coin to determine a winner
Namor had wing feet, but Aquaman had magical flight thanks to his trident. Neither side really held advantages in any category.
But while Namor could win in some scenarios, Aquaman had more intense abilities to win out more times than not.
Remember how Namor could match Savage Hulk?- That’s an impressive feat of strength, considering that Hulk could lift a 150 billion ton mountain. But Aquaman could stop Atlan’s Atlantis-Sinking strike. Which had over a hundred times more energy put into it. It’s not exactly a 1-1 comparison, but Aquaman has more feats that back up his own strength.
Namor once kept Utopia from falling into the ocean. Calculating it, that means that Namor managed to hold up a little over 1400 tons of TNT. While the force Aquaman stopped was nearly 200 billion times more powerful.
And when it came to speed and reaction, Namor could catch the Human Torch, who breaks the sound barrier on occasion and regularly flies 140 mph on his normal days. But Aquaman has gone toe to toe with Wonder Woman on multiple occasions. And we all know how fast she is.
Aquaman also had the edge in the whole “Controlling sea life” thing too. While Namor could communicate and command them, Aquaman could dominate their will. And giving them a Clear fueled edge-up also meant that Namor was stuck commanding regular fish while Aquaman was controlling super-fish. This not only meant that Aquaman’s aquatic telepathy was stronger, but it also meant that whatever he was commanding was also stronger.
In the end, both fighters had plenty of counters and abilities, but Aquaman’s strength, speed, and telepathy made Namor fish food.
Overall impression.
I feel a bit… Unsure about this. Not only is the “FIGHT” soundbite missing, but we didn’t get Wiz’s usual “Let’s end this debate once and for all!” line. Don’t get me wrong, this is still very well-researched, and the fight was pretty fun (When you could see it, anyways), but the voice acting was a bit……… weird. Not bad, it took some re-watching to get the feel of it, but for first-time viewers, it would feel weird.
The rock golems aren’t exactly that great-looking either. This kinda feels a bit… rushed. Like we go the unedited version instead of the more polished version. If I’m right on this, and the polished version is out by the time this goes up, then sure. Let’s go. But the overall feel of it doesn’t feel like one of Luis’ fights. More like… a rushed product. It kinda hearkens back to the old Captain America vs. Batman fight that was also filler. Maybe it’s because they said that they planned this for last season, but this doesn’t feel like a strong start.
7.0/10. It’s not a bad fight, but it’s……… Unfamiliar waters.
Next Time…
Well……… This should be a mega battle. We haven’t had a battle royale fight since… the Kanto battle royale. Should be fun, though now I have to write in every single Mega Man.
I’m thinking X might have this, if I’m not forgetting anything about the other robots. He was built to be better than classic Mega Man, so… It’s a reasonable guess. But it looks like I’m going to need to find a way to differentiate later on.
Is there a fight that you want me to review? - Send an ask/request, and I’ll look into it!
Do you want to read my fanfic based around DEATH BATTLE itself? click here!
Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you next time for…
A battle of Mega-proportions!
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THE ONLY WAY TO DO A UTURN😂…GOODWOOD FESTIVAL OF SPEED🤘
There's a few things wrong with these people one of them is is he the new car and they want to make it a fly car they want the kit because it's the fast one and they're waiting for it and we did release it at 3:30 p.m. so would not be the same as the tide and all this other crap until a few people anytime and they come down a little we did release it and we're getting orders in the trillions okay trillions and you want to see if it works no they don't care they're ordering it the whole kit almost every single one of them gets the big motor the full conversion and the interior it it's all the leadership that's left what's this thing and they're going to take the design they're going to turn into a fly car and go 80,000 miles an hour.. we are including the specs and location in your dash for the forward looking ass looking and other radar before looking as powerful and it's necessary if you're driving. And people want to use it flying so and a lot of people
Thor Freya he wants me to bring back our guys so we can get into it and we had some baseball players some were pretty big and we started seeing some bigger people this is going to work finally
What a pile of wimps it's incredible and he's doing this stuff he tells him what to do and then go ahead and do it and it's working and the hard knock is working and he said we got to make a ton of factories so we're calling on our people again we have a lot of factories going up but it's not enough this is a massive movement almost anyone can ride these motorcycles and the cruisers are superb it's a Honda rebel it sounds better and is more speed a little bit and handles a little bit better believe it or not and has better parts but it looks a lot cheaper but it's not well actually it doesn't look cheaper but it is cheaper much cheaper we need personal to volunteer for this to Captain factories or factory areas or assembly plants and those are like co-ops you have people that are on swing shifts some people work one day a week doing a certain task like John Hartman I'm sorry James Hartman but it looks like he's almost John Hartman and Junior and he does come in and he tabulates things and he organizes things he was on the factory and does recalibration and then he leaves after 4 hours and comes back next week at different day and he likes doing it there's a lot of people like him there's people that like to sweep the place up like Garth he does some other jobs and oils and greases and maintains the machinery and a son and daughter say they can put up with it but they can't put up with what they're doing now and it makes him feel worth stuff because they are when they're doing it he wants to sign up and he's directed it him to me and I assign someone to him and he said this is good it's working and also he wants to sign up for the stealth car this is not with Brad it is laughing they have worked on stuff and it's kind of funny cuz they're both suck at it when they're together and he goes not with him and he says you don't have to but it's funny so he's going to do it and Shaquille O'Neal says he wants him to set up something out there in Madagascar and he's going to go ahead and do it but he's got tons of stuff going on that he's already ordered like 10 trillion kits or something. We sold so many kids it's ridiculous I don't think we've ever sold that many anything but as our son and daughter say it doesn't take any time to make them for the most part it comes in a box it's about 8 ft long and 2x2 and UPS is going to be full of them it looks like a weight lifting gym but that's to move the motor to a century position and to reinforce frames. Most of them are for the charger and the sun was right the challenge of people want to hold out and they probably won't it's going to be a little faster that particular car so we're going to publish
Thor Freya
Olympus he wants to have contests involve other products of ours included or coupons and we're going to go ahead and do that
What's the solid stupid beer is his fake brother pissed him off he pissed me off too I want to do this and Matt piss me off a little and his real brother pissed me off with Budweiser I've had enough of them and the stuff they were doing and do and you're glad to do this generic beer he wants to sponsor the car races and he wants race car drivers to race for generic beer using his car the one that they bill and they're going to step up and he wants people to Captain these projects and they're going to have to organize it through Thor and Freya cuz it's going to have to be at racetracks and I was going to accept them now ours can accept them now and others will be forced to use it
Hera
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Joan’s Song 6: Hunting Asari
A thresher maw!? Really!? Again!? “Back! Back! Back!”, Joan Shepard was shouting as loud as she could, even though Kaidan sat right beside her, and even though he already had brought the Mako to maximum rearward speed. A load of acid spit went down where the vehicle had been a moment before. Some of it must have hit one of the front wheels for the Mako suddenly made a slight turn to the right. The motion dampers quickly stabilized the vehicle. “Lost a tire”, Kaidan just confirmed, surprisingly calm. Shepard was anything but calm. She had faced those monsters on Akuze before. And she had seen what they were able to do with soldiers trapped inside these metal coffins. Her next order should have been ‘Chief Williams, identified target, fire at will.’ Instead she just screeched “Ash!” “On it”, came the confirmation from the seat behind Shepard. The Mako’s main gun started barking. A warning signal reminded Shepard that she had been pulling the trigger of the secondary gun all the time. The weapon now had overheated and had to go through its cooling cycle.
The Mako slightly jumped when riding over a hill. It could barely be felt inside. Kaidan said, “solid rock” and halted the vehicle. Right, even a thresher maw could not break through solid rock. They should be safe here; says so in the chapter on maws in the Alliance’s xeno-combat manual. Shepard had written that chapter after Akuze. “Damn gun needs calibrating”, Ashley said. “How long?”, Shepard demanded to know. A moment of silence, then, “done, Commander. Let’s go and get that worm!”
Finding an asari archeologist in the Artemis Tau cluster did sound easier than it was. The extranet listed three prothean sites in that cluster. Dr. T’Soni had published on all three: There was some kind of penal colony from the “Post Citadel Period” on Therum. A research post from the “Proto Imperial Period” on Sharjila, and a “presumably religious” structure from the “Imperial Era II” on Edolus. Shepard remembered that her history teacher had told her that whenever archeologists label something as “religious” they, in fact, have no idea what it is.
Usually, she would have clicked away all those boring texts, but her “contact” with a prothean had made her curious. The University of Thessia was leading in research on the protheans. Their history was divided into three periods: the “Proto Imperial Period” before they founded their empire, the “Imperial Period”, which was further divided into four “eras”, and the “Post Citadel Period”, the time after which the protheans had abandoned the Citadel and their empire had collapsed in a civil war lasting for centuries. There was a mining colony on Therum, the other two were uninhabited. Shepard had sent a request to the miners and decided to check on the other planets while waiting for an answer.
“Wow, we should add this shot to the manual as the ‘William’s Maneuver’.” Ashley boasted while they examined the body of the thresher maw. “Dream on, Chief, you just were lucky”, Shepard replied with a smile. “You are a space tyrant, Ma’am.” about four meters of the maw’s body were on the surface. Ashley had hit it right at the moment it came up. Impossible to say how much more worm was still underground. A few meters away was a battlefield. The scenery was all too familiar to Shepard: a Grizzly, part of that vehicle was melted; a couple of mauled bodies. Whatever got hit by the maw’s acid melted away, metal, armor, arms, legs, torsos, heads. Akuze. The images of Lieutenant Burnside’s Grizzly, she trying to get inside, slipping on entrails, touching acid, Alena, bleeding, dying, reaching out for her. Shepard had pushed her back to get away. She suddenly felt as sick as did back then and had to throw up. Ashley gently touched her back, “Let’s get you off this world, Jo.”
Back on the Normandy, Therum hadn’t responded so far. Shepard send a report about the dead soldiers on Edolus to Admiral Hackett and placed her name on the list of report recipients, meant she would be informed anytime someone else reported anything related to it. Their next destination was Sharjila.
There were no signs of life at the prothean site on Sharjila. However, there was a compound in use a few clicks away. If Dr. T’Soni was on this planet, it must be there. When the Mako climbed over a hill overlooking that compound, something came flying in their direction. A rocket. It was deflected by the Mako’s shields. “Looks like this is the right place”, Kaidan said.
The two guns of the Mako had made short work of whatever resistance was outside that bunker. “Chief, would you please be so kind as to knock at that door?”, Shepard asked with some mock “royal” accent,. “A pleasure, Ma’am”, Ashley replied and fired the main gun. The gate of that building was obliterated and Kaidan accelerated the Mako to maximum speed. The vehicle crashed through the debris of the gate and a wall behind it. They ended up in some warehouse. Lots of armed people were running around. Ashley meanwhile had manually loaded a stun grenade into the Mako’s gun which she now fired into that hall. Its sound was able to destroy the eardrums of most species and might even be lethal to some. Before anyone in that warehouse was able to recover, the three marines had dismounted and started cleaning out the room. Shepard and Ashley were wielding shotguns, Kaidan his auto-pistol. Suddenly something massive hit Shepard. Her armor started vibrating, a warning that the shields were off and she better took cover. She dodged behind a crate and saw some movement on a balcony. “Sniper”, Shepard shouted. “Got him”, Kaidan replied. He used his biotics to pull the sniper off the balcony. A turian; he was helplessly floating towards them while Shepard and Ashley used him for target practice.
“Commander, is that Dr. T’Soni?”, Kaidan was bending over an asari body. Shepard started scanning her face, “Doesn’t look like her.” It took the spectre database a few moments to compare the scan with trillions of filed faces. Finally, it came up with a name: Dahlia Dantius, wanted for murder and slavery on Kahje, reward 300,000 Credits. Also wanted for fraud on Irune, reward 500,000 Credits. Shepard whistled. Even without Dr. T’Soni, this trip had paid off. She made a full body scan of the asari and sent the results to both addresses. Now, they only had to figure out how to get the Mako back into the open.
When entering the Knossos System, it became clear why Therum didn’t answer: Geth! “Several geth drop-ships in orbit of that planet.”, Joker confirmed. Drop-ships were not armed and the Normandy was able to destroy three of them before the others managed to jump to FTL. Shepard, Ashley, and Kaidan dropped in the Mako. Finding Dr. T’Soni was not much of a problem: they simply followed the path of destruction the geth had left. The team ran into several geths, both the normal robots as well as those large ‘Armatures’. None were a problem for the Mako. The situation, however, was most confusing. Ashley brought it up first, “Why would T’Soni attack this colony? They must have found something truly important.” Kaidan had a different idea,” Or maybe, the geth attacked it because the doctor is here?” This even made less sense. Shepard shrugged, “We’ll find out soon enough.” They had reached the entrance to the underground dig site.
This structure clearly had been a prison: there were open cells on several levels, only accessible by two elevators, one on the “wall-side”, probably the original access. A newer one was running along the “open side”, most likely built by the archeologists. In one of the cells, there was an asari caught in some kind of stasis field. “Dr. Liara T’Soni?”, Shepard asked. “Thanks to the Goddess!”, the voice of the asari sounded damped through the field. “I came in here to find shelter from the geth. Now I am trapped and can’t get out. Please, I am in here for two days now. I need food and water, and“ she continued, blushing, “a change of clothing.” “Doesn’t look like the evil mastermind we were looking for.”, Ashley said grinning. “What?”, Liara replied confused, “I am just a researcher. I don’t know why the geth are after me.” “That’s pretty obvious, honey.”, Ashley said disdainfully, “your mommy has become Saren’s pet and now his geth after your blue butt too.” It seems, as much as Shepard was able to fall in love with complete strangers within seconds, Ashley was able to develop an animosity in the same amount of time. “Benezia? But I haven’t spoken to her for years. And I don’t know a Saren.” Kaidan finally interrupted this interrogation. “We have hostiles coming down the ramp, Commander.”
Someone was trying to call the elevator, but Ashley had blocked its door: ancient trick; always works. Now, the geth had to come through the dig site. It was several floors below Shepard; no cover, a perfect kill zone. Ashley noticed a large device down there, “A miming laser. We can use it to blast a way through to the asari.” “Provided, we get it working.”, Shepard chipped in. “Shepard, please”, Kaidan said, somewhat bugged, “it is designed to be operated by unskilled workers. We’ll figure it out.” “Your turn, LT.”, Shepard shrugged. “I am a vorcha when it comes to computers.” “And here come the flashlights!” Ashley already had raised her sniper rifle.
There was a krogan with the geth, but he died all the same. Kaidan indeed was able to get the miming laser working. However, he couldn’t turn it off again. He seemed to have launched some automated mining program that now started to demolish the prothean structure. “Run!”, Shepard shouted, “I’ll get the asari.” Kaidan and Ashley took the “external” elevator while Shepard used the prothean one to get into the asari’s cell. Another console was waiting for her. The symbols on it didn’t look like any writing she had ever seen. Liara realized the problem, “Look for one with two lines and a circle, it reads ’off’ in Prothean.” Shepard got it, released Liara, grabbed her hand and dragged her out. In time. The prothean “Imperial Institue of Correction No. 409″ had been in use for 103 years. It was dormant for another 50,000 years. It collapsed two hours after Shepard’s visit.
#mass effect#therum#commander shepard#femshep#femshep x ashley#shepard x ashley#ashley williams#kaidan alenko#liara t'soni#joans song
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via Politics – FiveThirtyEight
Welcome to FiveThirtyEight’s weekly politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited.
sarahf (Sarah Frostenson, politics editor): After a midterm election, it’s not unusual for a president to reassess strategy and approach and make appeals to the “middle” or to “reach across the aisle.” But we’re talking about President Trump, who currently doesn’t have a good track record of working with Democrats. So, what evidence do we have that he will try a different approach? And is trying a more bipartisan approach even a good idea?
geoffrey.skelley (Geoffrey Skelley, elections analyst): We’ve been waiting for the fabled “Trump pivot” for, what, two years now? I’m not counting on it happening next year.
sarahf: But his polling numbers aren’t good. It really seems as though he’s only popular in rural parts of the country.
What does that mean for 2020? Doesn’t he have to start to appeal to more groups than his base?
clare.malone (Clare Malone, senior political writer): Well, the short answer is “yes”!
I’m not sure how Trump’s efforts to appeal to more groups will go. He told a group of reporters on Tuesday during a meeting with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer that he will shut down the government if he doesn’t get funding for his border wall. People don’t generally like it when the government shuts down.
sarahf: But on playing hardball on the border wall as a strategy — isn’t it to some extent more important that Trump deliver on that campaign promise to his supporters, regardless of the political fallout?
geoffrey.skelley: Problem is, the border wall idea is unpopular.
So this is a complete play to the base, which Trump arguably already has locked up. If he’s looking to improve his fortunes, pursuing a government shutdown for something that the majority of Americans oppose doesn’t seem wise.
clare.malone: Yeah … I mean not to sound like a joke here, but, man, they really should have taken infrastructure week seriously!
Imagine how popular a bill funding infrastructure projects would actually be. And I’m sure to appease Trump, you could have stuck in some border wall provisions.
perry (Perry Bacon Jr., senior writer): I don’t think announcing you are excited about a government shutdown is smart.
sarahf: If Trump’s meeting with Schumer and Pelosi is any indication of what is in store, it seems like Trump won’t be trying a new strategy of appealing to the middle anytime soon.
So … to play devil’s advocate for a moment, is not appealing to a common ground a smart move? President Obama tried to compromise with Republicans, but, arguably, that didn’t work out too well for him and the Democratic Party.
clare.malone: I don’t really see the administration making real moves to open up other avenues of policy discussion. It just seems so hammered by other things — staffing issues and deflecting potential campaign finance law violations by the president.
perry: Obama had this vision for working with Republicans in 2011 (after the Democrats lost the House in 2010), and that fell apart. Trump seems to get the polarized nature of our politics better than most people. I think fighting with Pelosi and Schumer is not the worst idea. Just don’t force a government shutdown over the wall.
sarahf: So if Trump shouldn’t be fighting quite so aggressively for the wall, what would be a smarter move for him?
clare.malone: I’m not sure, Sarah, what the right issue for him is. The trade war stuff is fraught, obviously, and there are murmurs from the financial world about a possible financial crisis on the horizon.
perry: The Democrats are saying they want to investigate Trump aggressively. I think he can make that into a pretty compelling argument about Democrats trying to reverse the will of those who voted for him.
clare.malone: He doesn’t have a lot of places to go right now that aren’t divisive. And the White House doesn’t seem to have a lot of will right now to talk about these non-divisive issues.
geoffrey.skelley: Early on in Trump’s administration, Gallup found strong bipartisan support for proposals requiring companies to provide paid family leave for employees after the birth of a child and a plan to spend over $1 trillion on infrastructure. So perhaps those are places to start.
clare.malone: That’s two votes for infrastructure!
An Ivanka Trump resurgence with family leave??
geoffrey.skelley: Yes, that’s my thought too. You could have the first daughter out there pushing a new family leave proposal.
perry: I just don’t think either of those ideas will be accepted by Republicans in the Senate.
That’s part of Trump’s challenge: Any policy ideas he has must be adopted by the GOP-controlled Senate, too. So it’s not just him dealing and finding compromise with the Democrats.
He can’t really move to the left in any meaningful way.
clare.malone: Perry, why do you think infrastructure would be perceived as moving to the left?
perry: Any infrastructure bill that Pelosi would support would also include billions of federal dollars in spending that the House Freedom Caucus and many Senate Republicans won’t be interested in.
clare.malone: But what if you slipped in something for the border wall? Isn’t that a possible scenario?
I guess it’s also the old GOP priorities vs. the new Trump GOP priorities playing out vis-à-vis spending and financing a marquee campaign promise.
geoffrey.skelley: Having the Senate pass an infrastructure bill with money for a border wall would put pressure on Democrats in the House. Trump could then claim that House Democrats were holding up money that would rebuild the country — dare I say, “make America great again”?
But it is definitely tough to see conservative Republicans in the Senate going for it.
perry: I think Trump has two broad choices: On the one hand, he could tone down his rhetoric, hire a very experienced chief of staff, remove his son-in-law and daughter from top administration jobs, and try to become a less divisive figure. He could, say, model himself after Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who is very popular. On the other hand, he could amplify the country’s current political divisions and make the 2020 election a debate over which party is hated the most.
clare.malone: I feel like I know the answer to this …
sarahf: Same …
perry: I think the second path is easier for him and potentially a political winner.
geoffrey.skelley: Yeah …
clare.malone: So we’ve decided! Compromise is dead!
geoffrey.skelley: It’s the path that Trump is familiar with and therefore more comfortable with.
sarahf: OK, so does that mean any hopes for bipartisan legislation in this Congress are misplaced? I’m thinking of the criminal justice reform bill that a bipartisan group of senators has pushed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to bring up for a vote — an effort that the president has supported.
clare.malone: That bill has had some longer-term bipartisan support, so there’s still some hope, perhaps.
perry: I think small bills like that can pass, but that won’t define Trump and his presidency.
geoffrey.skelley: Yeah, it’s difficult to come off as bipartisan when, theoretically, you sign that into law and then the next minute you’re saying that you are proud to shut down the government.
sarahf: OK, I think it’s safe to say that we all think Trump’s strategy moving forward appears to be more of the same: Democrats are toxic to his agenda. But with special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, is that really the best strategy to deflect attention?
According to a recent poll, the share of Americans who approve of how Trump is handling the investigation has dropped. (Granted, Mueller’s numbers are down, too).
geoffrey.skelley: If the Mueller investigation really is an existential threat to the president, it makes sense that he would pursue a course to make it as partisan as possible. The House’s new Democratic majority could also help Trump — it gives him a partisan opponent to play off of, rather than just trying to undermine Mueller.
perry: Mueller’s numbers are not great in that poll. Trump has successfully poisoned that probe in the minds of Republicans. As a citizen, I think Trump’s attacks on the news media, law enforcement and other institutions are deeply problematic. But as a person who studies elections, I think attacking these institutions has been very smart politically. Barring Mueller finding some very clear evidence of, say, Trump encouraging the hacking of the Democratic National Committee, I don’t think Republican voters will take Mueller’s findings that seriously.
geoffrey.skelley: Of course, the scandal is not only affecting the president’s strategy, it’s also affecting his ability to hire staff, I’m sure. Want to be the president’s new chief of staff? Prepare to lawyer up.
sarahf: Right, and while appointing different chiefs of staff isn’t unusual (although Trump has moved at a faster pace than his predecessors), it does seem as if the coalition that Trump brought with him to the White House is now gone?
perry: To me, Trump’s biggest threat is not Mueller, but losing in 2020. To win re-election, he needs to get back some suburban voters or increase his margin even more among white people without college degrees — and that should be his sole focus moving forward.
It’s not clear how much Trump cares about policy or has specific goals for the next two years. I could imagine him picking an establishment Republican-type like Mitt Romney as chief of staff. If that person became a major force in the administration and Trump listened to him or her, that would help him win suburban voters.
But Trump could also go the more conservative route and pick Rep. Mark Meadows, one of the leaders of the House Freedom Caucus. It looks as if Meadows even wants the job. And then, of course, Trump could try to win every white voter without a college degree.
clare.malone: Or you could easily imagine him picking a non-entity as chief of staff, someone who bends to Trump’s whims.
perry: And that would be a mistake.
clare.malone: And not really do much to shore up white suburban voters.
perry: I also assume that is what he will do.
sarahf: At this point, doesn’t Trump’s path to electoral victory depend on winning at least some suburban voters?
geoffrey.skelley: Oh absolutely. Trump probably can’t win Michigan or Pennsylvania if he’s losing the suburbs as badly as Republicans did in the midterms, and that sort of performance could make a state like Arizona a battleground, too. Still, midterms are not good predictors of the next presidential election, so the 2018 results are far from determinative. But they are a warning.
perry: Unless he gets to, say, 85 percent with whites who don’t have degrees. (Trump won 64 percent of that group in 2016.) Then he’s OK.
I just think he should probably have a strategy of some kind. When you are considering Nick Ayers, Chris Christie or Mark Meadows to be your chief of staff, it suggests that you really have no strategy. Those people have little in common beyond being Republicans.
I also think he could go the full Stephen Miller route, and that might be a path to victory. Dial up the immigration policy even more and keep coming back to issues that divide people along racial and cultural lines, like the migrant caravan or kneeling by NFL players.
geoffrey.skelley: Demographics aren’t destiny. But if Republicans don’t recover a bit in the suburbs, Trump could have a tough time winning re-election. And I think that’s the danger of an all-in Stephen Miller strategy. It’s a question of diminishing returns — how much more of the non-college-educated white vote can Trump get?
perry: That’s what I don’t know. I’m not sure he hit his limit in 2016.
Maybe.
geoffrey.skelley: Me neither.
clare.malone: So to return to the original premise: What Trump should do, for starters, to increase his chances of winning in 2020 is to make more establishment GOP decisions when it comes to staffing and rhetoric.
But we also don’t think he’ll actually do either of those things.
sarahf: Yeah, I think this conversation has made me realize that looking at Trump’s approval rating isn’t perhaps as telling as we think.
We think it matters because unpopular presidents don’t necessarily get re-elected (see Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush). But maybe just ensuring your opponent is less popular than you is enough.
perry: That’s what I think.
In 2018, Democrats had 435 different candidates (a different candidate in every House race). In 2020, they have to run a single candidate. And my guess is that Trump will try to demonize that person (and maybe succeed).
geoffrey.skelley: Recall that both Trump and Hillary Clinton were very unpopular, and Trump still won. He will want to discredit his eventual Democratic opponent. And his approval rating may not need to be much above 45 percent to win a close, partisan race.
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