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thedoctorcried · 3 years

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Runaway - Part Seven

~Masterlist~

Concept: Hazel Richards is a twenty-year-old woman living in London. When she meets a mysterious time-travelling alien known only as the Hunter, she’s thrust into a world of wonder she could only have imagined.

Warnings: swearing, follows S1 of Doctor Who.

The Hunter's face twisted in agony as the electricity lanced through her body, but she managed to raise her left arm, ripping the ID card away telekinetically, and shoot it across the room against the collar of the revealed Slitheen, causing both it and Green to be enveloped with the electricity. "Deadly to humans, maybe. But I bet you don't like it much either." She ran out to where the armed police were waiting at their posts. "Oi! If you want aliens, you've got them. They're inside Downing Street. Come on!" They followed her as she ran back in, only to find Asquith back in his skin suit, Green looking outraged.

"Where have you been? I called for help. I sounded the alarm. There was this lightning, this kind of, er, electricity, and they all collapsed!" Green shouted.

The police checked the bodies. "I think they're all dead," one reported.

"That's what I'm saying," Green agreed. "She did it! That woman there." He was pointing straight at the Hunter.

The Hunter glanced at the policeman nearest to her. "If I were to tell you the Prime Minister is an alien in disguise, would you believe me?"

The man shook his head. "No."

"Fair enough." She sprinted off, but didn't get far before two sets of the armed police cornered her.

"Under the jurisdiction of the Emergency Protocols, I authorise you to execute this woman," Asquith commanded.

"Well, yes, uh, you see, the thing is, if I were going to execute someone by backing them against the wall, there's just one teeny tiny thing I would've done differently," the Hunter told them. The lift dinged behind her, and she stepped in. "Don't stand them against the lift!" She pressed the button and the doors closed before the police could open fire.

***

Meanwhile, Harriet and Hazel had their own problems. Chased by another Slitheen, they just barely saw the Hunter as the lift doors opened before they raced past the distracted Slitheen, slipping into a sitting room. "Hide!" Hazel instructed, hiding behind a curtain in the window. Harriet opted to crouch behind a draught excluder screen. The girls held their breath as they heard Margaret the Slitheen enter.

"Oh, such fun. Little human children, where are you? Sweet little humeykins, come to me. let me kiss you better," she crooned. "Kiss you with my big, green lips." Hazel made a face, even as she heard two more enter. "My brothers," Margaret greeted.

"Happy hunting?" Green the Slitheen asked.

"It's wonderful," Margaret replied. "The more you prolong it, the more they stink."

"Sweat and fear," Asquith said, sniffing deeply.

"I can smell an old girl," Green stated. "Stale bird and brittle bones."

"And a ripe youngster, all hormones and adrenaline," Margaret sniffed. "Fresh enough to bend before she snaps." Margaret pulled back the curtain, and Hazel screamed.

Harriet ran out from her hiding place. "No! Take me first! Take me!"

The Hunter burst into the room, spraying the Slitheen with a fire extinguisher. "Out, with me!" Hazel pulled the curtain over Margaret, then she and Harriet joined the Hunter by the door. "Who the hell are you?"

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North," the woman replied.

"Nice to meet you," the Hunter said, telekinetically shoving the Slitheen back before throwing the empty fire extinguisher at them.

"Likewise," Harriet agreed, and the three of them ran out.

"We need to head for the Cabinet Room," the Hunter exclaimed, leading the way.

"The Emergency Protocols are in there," Harriet stated. "They give instructions for aliens."

The Hunter grinned. "Harriet Jones, I like you."

"And I like you too," Harriet returned.

***

As they entered the Cabinet Room, the Hunter grabbed a decanter of alcohol from the side, hovering it above her silver palm while pointing her sonic screwdriver at it with her other hand. "One more move and my sonic device will triplicate the flammability of this alcohol. Whoof, we all go up. So back off." The Slitheen took a few steps back into the outer office, and the Hunter nodded. "Right then. Question time. Who exactly are the Slitheen?"

"They're aliens," Harriet supplied helpfully."

The Hunter sighed. "Yes, I got that, thanks."

"Who are you, if not human?" Green questioned.

Harriet frowned. "Who's not human?"

"She's not human," Hazel answered.

"She's not human?"

"Can I have a bit of hush?" the Hunter asked, rolling her eyes.

"Sorry," Harriet muttered.

"So, what's the plan?" the Hunter demanded. She laughed a little when the Slitheen remained silent. "Come on. You've got a spaceship hidden in the North Sea. It's transmitting a signal. You've murdered your way to the top of government. What for, invasion?"

Asquith snorted. "Why would we invade this God-forsaken rock?"

The Hunter's expression didn't change. "Then something's brought the Slitheen race here. What is it?"

"The Slitheen race?" Asquith repeated.

Green snickered. "Slitheen is not our species. Slitheen is our surname. Jocrassa Fel Fotch Pasameer-Day-Slitheen at your service."

"So you're family," the Hunter nodded.

"A family business," Green agreed.

"Then you're out to make a profit. How can you do that on a God-forsaken rock?" the Hunter questioned.

"Ah, excuse me?" Asquith interrupted. "Your device will do what? Triplicate the flammability?"

The Hunter blinked. "Is... Is that what I said?" she asked, shrugging.

"You've making it up," Asquith accused.

"Ah, well. Nice try. Harriet, have a drink. I think you're going to need it." The decanter floated around to the woman.

"You pass it to the left first," Harriet reminded her.

"Sorry," the Hunter muttered, not taking her eyes off the Slitheen as she floated the alcohol back round to Hazel.

"Thanks," she muttered as it landed in her hands.

"Now we can end this hunt with a slaughter," Asquith smirked.

"Don't you think we should run?" Hazel suggested, taking a big gulp of the alcohol.

The Hunter shook her head. "Do you know, Downing Street had a fascinating history. Two thousand years ago, this was marsh land. 1730, it was occupied by a Mr Chicken. He was a nice guy. 1796, this was the Cabinet Room. If the Cabinet's in session and in danger, these are about the four safest walls in the whole of Great Britain. End of lesson." She lifted a small panel by the door, and pressed a button. Metal shutters crashed down over the windows and doors, sealing them in. She turned back to the others. "Installed in 1991. Three inches of steel lining every single wall. They'll never get in."

Hazel nodded. "Art?"

"Yeah?"

"How do we get out?"

There was a pause. "Ah."

***

Later, the Hunter dragged Ganesh's corpse into a small store room, next to the body of the Prime Minister. "Sorry, Indra," she muttered, before heading out and closing the cupboard, going over to Hazel and Harriet at the table. "Right, what have we got? Any terminals, anything?"

"Nope," Hazel shook her head. "This place is antique. What I don't get is, when they killed the Prime Minister, why didn't they use him as a disguise?"

"He's too slim," the Hunter answered. "They're big old beasts. They need to fit inside big humans."

Hazel frowned. "But the Slitheen are about eight feet. How do they fit inside?"

"That's the device around their necks." The Hunter pulled off her beanie and ruffled her hair, slipping the hat into one of many pockets. "Compression field. Literally shrinks them down a bit. That's why there's all that gas. It's a big exchange."

"Wish I had a compression field. I could fit a size smaller," Hazel joked. The Hunter rolled her eyes.

"Excuse me, people are dead!" Harriet looked horrified. "This is not the time for making jokes."

"Sorry," Hazel bit her lip. "You get used to this stuff when you're friends with her."

Harriet blinked. "Well, that's a strange friendship."

The Hunter frowned. "Harriet Jones. I've heard that name before. Harriet Jones. You're not famous for anything, are you?"

"Oh, hardly," Harriet shook her head.

"Rings a bell. Harriet Jones..."

"Lifelong backbencher, I'm afraid, and a fat lot of use I'm being now," Harriet sighed. "The Protocols are redundant. They list the people who could help, and they're all dead downstairs."

"Hasn't it got, like, defence codes and things? Couldn't we just launch a nuclear bomb at them?" Hazel suggested.

Harriet looked at her weirdly. "You're a very violent young woman."

"I'm serious," Hazel raised her eyebrows. "We could."

"Well, there's nothing like that in here," Harriet shrugged. "Nuclear strikes do need a release code, yes, but it's kept secret by the United Nations."

"Say that again," the Hunter requested suddenly, looking up.

"What, about the codes?"

"All of it," the Hunter nodded.

"Well, the British Isles can't gain access to atomic weapons without a Special Resolution from the UN," Harriet repeated.

Hazel snorted. "Like that's ever stopped them."

"Exactly, given our past record. And I voted against that, thank you very much," Harriet said, before turning back to the Hunter. "The codes have been taken out of the government's hands and given to the UN. Is it important?"

"Everything's important," the Hunter replied.

Harriet sighed. "If only we knew what the Slitheen wanted." She laughed a little. "Listen to me. I'm saying Slitheen as if it's normal."

"What do they want, though?" Hazel wondered.

The Hunter shrugged. "Well, they're just one family, so it's not an invasion. They don't want Slitheen World. They're out to make money. That means they want to use something. Something here on Earth. Some kind of asset."

"Like what, gold? Oil? Water?" Harriet asked.

"You've very good at this," the Hunter complimented.

"Thank you," Harriet smiled.

"Harriet Jones," the Hunter mused. "Why do I know that name?"

Hazel jumped as her phone beeped. "Oh, that's me." She pulled it out.

"But we're sealed off," Harriet protested. "How did you get a signal?"

"She zapped it. Super phone," Hazel replied, not looking up.

"Then we can phone for help," Harriet suggested. "You must have contacts."

"Dead downstairs, yeah," the Hunter snorted.

"It's Mike," Hazel muttered, opening the text, her eyes widening when she saw the picture he'd sent.

The Hunter rolled her eyes. "Oh, tell him we're busy."

"Yeah, no," Hazel shook her head, showing her friend the picture of a Slitheen Mike had messaged. When the Hunter's eyes widened, Hazel dialled. "Mike? That was one of them aliens, yeah?"

"No, no, no, no, no. Not just alien, but like, proper alien," Mike told her. "All stinking, and wet, and disgusting. And more to the point, it wanted to kill us!"

"I could've died!" Jason cried in the background.

Hazel winced. "Is he all right, though? Don't put him on, just tell me."

The Hunter grabbed Hazel's phone telekinetically, ignoring her squeak of surprise. "Is that Spike? Don't talk, just shut up and go to your computer."

"It's Mike, and why should I?" Mike questioned.

She sighed. "Mikey the Pikey, I might just choke before I finish this sentence, but, er, I need your help." The Hunter started giving him instructions to hack into the UNIT website.

"It says password," Mike stated.

The Hunter plugged the phone into a conference speaker. "Say again?"

"It's asking for the password," Mike repeated.

"Buffalo," the Hunter replied. "Two Fs, one L."

"So, what's that website?" Jason asked.

"All the secret information known to mankind," Mike told him. "See, they've known about aliens for years. They just kept us in the dark."

The Hunter rolled her eyes. "Mike, you were born in the dark."

"Oh, leave him alone," Hazel sighed, smirking a little despite herself.

"Thank you," Mike said smugly. "Password again."

"Just repeat it every time," the Hunter replied, sitting on the table. "Big Ben - why did the Slitheen go and hit Big Ben?"

"You said to gather the experts, to kill them," Harriet stated.

The Hunter snorted. "That lot would've gathered for a weather balloon. You don't need to crash land in the middle of London."

"The Slitheen are hiding, but then they put the entire planet on Red Alert," Hazel mused. "What would they do that for?"

Jason scoffed. "Oh, listen to her."

Hazel glared at her phone. "At least I'm trying."

"Well, I've got a question, if you don't mind. Since that woman walked into our lives, I have been attacked in the streets, I have had creatures from the pits of hell in my own living room, and my sister disappear off the face of the Earth," Jason complained.

Hazel rolled her eyes. "I told you what happened."

"I'm talking to her," Jason clarified. "Cause I've seen this life of yours, Hunter, and maybe you get off on it, and maybe you think it's all clever and smart, but you tell me. Just answer me this. Is my sister safe?"

"I'm fine," Hazel said weakly, seeing how the Hunter had frozen in place, curling some of her hair around her metal fingers with a haunted look in her eyes.

"Is she safe?" Jason questioned. "Will she always be safe? Can you promise me that? Well, what's the answer?"

"We're in," Mike stated, and just like that, the Hunter was back to normal.

"Now then, on the left at the top, there's a tab, an icon. Little concentric circles. Click on that," she ordered.

"What is it?" Mike asked as sound started playing from his laptop.

"The Slitheen have got a spaceship in the North Sea, and it's transmitting that signal. Now hush, let me work out what it's saying." The Hunter closed her eyes, crossing her legs on the table top, concentrating.

"She'll have to answer me one day," Jason muttered.

"Hush!" Mike hissed.

"It's some sort of message," the Hunter murmured, not opening her eyes.

"What's it say?" Hazel wondered quietly, sitting next to her on the table.

"Don't know. It's on a loop, keeps repeating," the Time Lady replied. Her brow creased as Mike's doorbell rang. "Hush!"

"That's not me," Mike stated. "Go and see who that is."

"It's three o'clock in the morning," Jason protested.

"Well, go and tell them that," Mike suggested.

"It's beaming out into space, who's it for?" the Hunter sighed, putting her head in her hands.

"It's him!" Jason shouted. "It's the thing, it's the Slitheen!"

"They've found us," Mike exclaimed.

"I need that signal," the Hunter muttered, only half listening.

"Never mind the signal, get out!" Hazel cried, making the Hunter open her eyes in realisation of what was happening. "Jace, just get out! Get out!"

"We can't," Mike told her. "It's by the front door." He paused. "Oh my God, it's unmasking. it's going to kill us."

"There's got to be some way of stopping them," Harriet implored, looking at the Hunter. "You're supposed to be the expert, think of something."

"I'm trying!" the Hunter snapped.

"I'll take it on, Jace," Mike said bravely. "You just run. Don't look back. Just run." The door splintered.

"That's my brother," Hazel whispered, her eyes wide.

The Hunter sighed. "Right, if we're going to find their weakness, we need to find out where they're from, Which planet. So, judging by their basic shape, that narrows it down to five thousand planets within travelling distance. What else do we know about them? Information!"

"They're green," Hazel supplied.

"Yep, narrows it down."

"Good sense of smell."

"Narrows it down."

"They can smell adrenaline."

"Narrows it down."

"The pig technology," Harriet suggested.

"Narrows it down," the Hunter nodded, closing her eyes.

"The spaceship in the Thames, you said slipstream engine?" Hazel remembered.

"It's getting in!" Mike shouted.

"They hunt like it's a ritual," Hazel added.

"Narrows it down."

"Wait a minute," Harriet said. "Did you notice? When they fart, if you'll pardon the word, it doesn't just smell like a fart, if you'll pardon the word, it's something else. What is it? It's more like, er..."

"Bad breath!" Hazel realised.

"That's it," Harriet agreed.

"Calcium decay!" the Hunter nodded. "Now, that narrows it down!"

"We're getting there, Jace!" Hazel called.

"Too late!" Mike yelled.

"Calcium phosphate," the Hunter thought aloud. "Organic calcium. Living calcium. Creatures made out of living calcium. What else? What else? Hyphenated surname. Yes! That narrows it down to one planet. Raxacoricofallapatorius."

"Oh, yeah, great. We could write 'em a letter," Mike scoffed.

"Get into the kitchen!" the Hunter ordered, opening her eyes.

"It's going to rip us apart!" Jason cried as they barricaded the kitchen door.

"Calcium, weakened by the compression field. Acetic acid. Vinegar!" the Hunter cheered.

"Just like Hannibal!" Harriet smiled.

The Hunter grinned. "Just like Hannibal. Mike, have you got any vinegar?"

"How should I know?" the man asked incredulously.

"It's your kitchen!" the Hunter raised her eyebrows.

"Cupboard by the sink, middle shelf," Hazel supplied.

Judging by the proximity of his voice, Jason had taken the phone. "Oh, give it here. What do you need?"

"Anything with vinegar!" the Hunter replied.

"Gherkins," Jason muttered. "Ugh, pickled onions. Pickled eggs."

The Hunter shared a glance with Hazel. "That's disgusting."

The end of the fight was the sound of the door breaking down, Jason throwing the mixture at the Slitheen, and the thing exploding.

"Hannibal?" Hazel raised an eyebrow.

"Hannibal crossed the Alps by dissolving boulders with vinegar," Harriet explained.

"Oh, well, there you go then." The ladies toasted the moment with a glass of port from the decanter.

***

Later, Mike had turned on the TV for a broadcast from Green. "Listen to this."

"Ladies and gentlemen, nations of the world, humankind," Green greeted. "The greatest experts in extra-terrestrial events came here tonight. They gathered in the common cause, but the news I bring you now is grave indeed. The experts are dead, murdered right in front of me by alien hands. Peoples of the Earth, heed my words. These visitors do not come in peace. Our inspectors have searched the sky above our heads and they have found massive weapons of destruction capable of being deployed within forty five seconds."

The Hunter sat up, narrowing her eyes. "What?!"

"Our technicians can baffle the alien probes, but not for long. We are facing extinction, unless we strike first. The United Kingdom stands directly beneath the belly of the mother ship," Green stated. "I beg of the United Nations, pass an emergency resolution. Give us the access codes. A nuclear strike at the heart of the beast is our only chance of survival. Because from this moment on it is my solemn duty to inform you planet Earth is at war."

"He's making it up," the Hunter growled. "There's no weapons up there, there's no threat. He just invented it."

"Do you think they'll believe him?" Harriet asked.

"They did last time," Hazel pointed out.

"That's why the Slitheen went for spectacle," the Hunter sighed. "They want the whole world panicking, because you lot, you get scared, you lash out."

"They release the defence codes," Hazel continued.

"And the Slitheen go nuclear," the Hunter finished.

"But why?" Harriet frowned.

The Hunter stormed over to the shutters, opening them to see Margaret standing outside, back in her skin suit. "You get the codes, release the missiles, but not into space because there's nothing there. You attack every other country on Earth. They retaliate, fight back. World War Three. Whole planet gets nuked."

"And we can sit through it safe in our spaceship waiting in the Thames," Margaret smirked. "Not crashed, just parked. Only two minutes away."

Harriet frowned. "But you'll destroy the planet, this beautiful place. What for?"

"Profit," the Hunter told her. "That's what the signal is beaming into space. An advert."

"The sale of the century," Margaret agreed. "We reduce the Earth to molten slag, then sell it piece by piece. Radioactive chunks, capable of powering every cut-price star liner and budget cargo ship. There's a recession out there, Hunter. People are buying cheap. This rock becomes raw fuel."

The Hunter glared at her. "At the cost of five billion lives."

Margaret grinned. "Bargain."

"I'll give you a choice," the Hunter stated. "Leave this planet or I'll stop you."

"What, you?" Margaret snorted. "Trapped in your box?"

The Hunter nodded confidently. "Yes, me." She closed the shutters on Margaret's laughing face and took a deep breath before turning back to the others.

Jason sighed, having heard it all via the phone. "All right, Hunter. I'm not saying I trust you, but there must be something you can do."

"If we could ferment the port, we could make acetic acid," Harriet suggested half-heartedly.

"Mike, any luck?" Hazel called.

"There's load of emergency numbers," he replied. "They're all on voicemail."

"Voicemail dooms us all," Harriet sighed.

"If we could just get out of here," Hazel frowned.

"There's a way out," the Hunter stated suddenly.

Hazel blinked. "What?"

"There's always been a way out," the Time Lady admitted.

"Then why don't we use it?" Hazel asked, raising her eyebrows.

The Hunter looked towards the phone, a sad look in her eyes. "Because I can't guarantee your sister will be safe."

"Don't you dare," Jason shouted immediately. "Whatever it is, don't you dare."

"That's the thing, if I don't dare, everyone dies," the Hunter told him.

"Do it," Hazel ordered.

"You don't even know what it is," the Hunter frowned at her friend. "You'd just let me?"

Hazel nodded, a small smile gracing her lips. "Yeah."

"Please, Hunter, please," Jason begged. "She's my sister. She's just a kid."

"Do you think I don't know that? Because this is my life, Jason. It's not fun, it's not smart, it's just standing up and making a decision because nobody else will," the Hunter stated, her voice hollowing.

"Then what're you waiting for?" Hazel wondered softly.

The Hunter looked across at her, a tiny smile turning up her lips. "I could save the world, but lose you."

"Except it's not your decision, Hunter. It's mine," Harriet interrupted.

"And who the bloody hell are you?!" Jason demanded.

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North. The only elected representative in this room, chosen by the people for the people. And on behalf of the people, I command you. Do it."

After a moment, the Hunter nodded. "So how do we get out?" Hazel asked.

"We don't," the Time Lady replied, floating the Emergency Protocols over to the table in front of her. "We stay here." She sat next to the phone, giving Mike instructions as she scanned through the protocols.

***

Awhile later, Mike asked for a password, and Hazel looked up, curious. "Use the buffalo password," the Hunter told him. "It overrides everything."

"What're you doing?" Jason questioned, sounding tired.

"Hacking into the Royal Navy," Mike replied casually. "We're in. Here it is. HMS Taurean, Trafalgar Class submarine, ten miles off the coast of Plymouth."

"Right, we need to select a missile," the Hunter stated, her face showing little emotion, just concentration.

"We can't go nuclear," Mike reminded her. "We don't have the defence codes."

The Hunter shook her head. "We don't need it. All we need's an ordinary missile. What's the first category?"

"Sub Harpoon, UGM-A4A," Mike answered.

"That's the one," the Hunter nodded. "Select."

"I could stop you," Jason muttered.

"Do it, then," Mike challenged.

"You ready for this?" the Hunter asked.

Mike paused, eyeing Jason. "Yeah."

"Mikey the Pikey, the world is in your hands," the Hunter told him, sighing. "Fire." All they heard was a mouse click, but it was enough.

"Oh my God," Jason whispered.

"How solid are these?" Harriet wondered, patting the wall.

The Hunter shook her head. "Not solid enough. Built for short range attack, nothing this big."

Hazel blew out a breath. "All right, now I'm making the decision. I'm not going to die. We're going to ride this one out. It's like what they say about earthquakes. You can survive them by standing under a doorframe. Now, this cupboard's small, so it's strong. Come and help me. Come on." She and Harriet started clearing out the cupboard while the Hunter stayed with the phone. Although she could have easily emptied the cupboard in seconds telekinetically, she thought it best to give them something to do to keep their minds off the fact that a missile was heading right for them.

"It's on radar," Mike reported. "Counter defence five five six."

"Stop them intercepting it," the Hunter ordered.

"I'm doing it now," Mike stated.

The Hunter nodded. "Good boy."

After a moment he spoke again. "Five five six neutralised." The Hunter unplugged the phone and joined Hazel and Harriet where they were now sitting in the cupboard, closing the door behind her. She handed Hazel's phone back to her, having ended the call, and the trio grabbed each others hands.

"Here we go," Harriet breathed. "Nice knowing you both. Hannibal!"

Hazel closed her eyes, leaning her head back against the wall. As the missile hit, she curled in on herself, glad of the comfort of the Hunter's cool metal arm pressed against her skin, even as she closed her eyes in fear.

***

The Hunter pushed the steel door off with her metal hand, and staggered out into the rubble, followed by Harriet and Hazel. All three women winced as the sunlight hit them.

"Made in Britain," Harriet nodded, looking back at the steel container they'd been in.

A soldier ran up to them, looking horrified. "Oh my God. Are you all right?"

Harriet showed him her ID. "Harriet Jones. MP, Flydale North. I want you to contact the UN immediately. Tell the ambassadors the crisis is over. They can step down. Go on, tell the news."

"Yes, ma'am," the man hurried away.

"Someone's got a hell of a job sorting this lot out," Harriet sighed, kicking a broken bit of chair half-heartedly. "Oh, Lord. We haven't even got a Prime Minister."

"Maybe you should have a go," the Hunter suggested, smirking a little.

"Me?" Harriet snorted. "I'm only a back bencher."

"I'd vote for you," Hazel told her, grinning.

"Now, don't be silly," Harriet admonished. "Look, I'd better go and see if I can help. Hang on! We're safe! The Earth is safe!" She jogged off towards the soldiers. "Sergeant!"

"I thought I knew the name," the Hunter nodded as she and Hazel made their way down the rubble, waving away paramedics. "Harriet Jones, future Prime Minister. Elected for three successive terms. The architect of Britain's Golden Age."

***

Jason and Hazel hugged in their living room as they reunited, watching Harriet Jones on the TV. "Harriet Jones," Jason snorted. "Who does she think she is? Look at her, taking all the credit. Should be you on there." He nudged her. "My sister saved the world!"

Hazel rolled her eyes, smiling. "I think the Hunter helped a bit."

"All right then, her too," Jason nodded grudgingly. "You should be given knighthoods."

"That's not the way she does things," Hazel told him. "No fuss. She just moves on. She's not that bad if you gave her a chance."

"She's good in a crisis, I'll give her that," Jason admitted.

"Oh, now the world has changed," Hazel's eyes widened. "You're saying nice things about her."

Jason shrugged. "Well, I reckon I've got no choice. There's no getting rid of her since you're infatuated."

Hazel blushed. "I'm not infatuated!"

"What does she eat?" Jason asked thoughtfully.

"How do you mean?"

"I was going to do shepherds pie. The three of us," Jason told her. "A proper sit down, cause I'm ready to listen. I wanna learn about you and her and that life you lead. Only, I don't know, she's an alien. For all I know, she eats grass and safety pins and things."

Hazel giggled. "She'll have shepherd pie. You're going to cook for her?"

Jason frowned. "What's wrong with that?"

"She's finally met her match!" Hazel joked.

"Oh, you cheeky bitch!" Jason exclaimed, trying - and failing - to hide his smile. "Get out of it!" He changed channels as Hazel got up to answer her phone.

"Hello?"

"Right, it'll be a couple of hours, then we can go," the Hunter told her from the TARDIS.

Hazel laughed a little. "You've got a phone?"

The Hunter scoffed. "You think I can travel through space and time without a phone? Like I said, couple of hours. I've just got to send out this dispersal." Hazel heard the flick of a switch. "There you go. That's cancelling out the Slitheen's advert in case any bargain hunters turn up."

"Er, Jace is cooking," Hazel said, biting her lip.

"Put him on a slow heat and let him simmer," the Hunter advised absently.

"He's cooking tea," Hazel corrected. "For us."

"I don't do that," the Hunter stated quietly, suddenly concentrating on the conversation fully.

"He wants to get to know you," Hazel pleaded.

"I've got better things to do," the Hunter lied.

"It's just tea. And he's my brother. Please?" Hazel sighed as there was silence on the other end of the line. "Artemis, please. Jace really does want to get to know you." More silence. "I think you're scared. I know you haven't really had anything like a family since the Time War, but that doesn't mean you have to be alone now. Just... come have tea with us, and then we'll sail off into space again. I'm not saying you have to treat him like your own brother... but I think maybe Apollo wouldn't have wanted you to be alone." She sighed again, ready to hang up. "Just think about it, okay?"

The Hunter spoke up, just in time. "Wait! I'll come. The TARDIS will repair herself. Thank you, Hazel."

~~~

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#doctor who #doctor who fanfiction #series #lgbt #oc insert #gxg #slow burn #thedoctorcried

2 notes · View notes

fumbling-fanfics · 5 years

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Imagine being pregnant with your first child with Omar Adom 'OA' Zidan

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So I got this idea from @supagirl 's gifs. I've just used them to start a new thread rather than highjack her original post and make it a mess. But do check out her gifs.

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Also I've not finished FBI on CBS so this imagine will proby not match what the gif set is about.

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OA wandered into the living room, glued to his phone. At this point he was so used to you being propped up on the couch either watching TV, eating, reading, sleeping or all four. You kept looking at him, until he looked up.

"What's wrong?“ he smiled, across the room. "Hungry?"

"Why do you always assume I'm hungry?"

"Because you usually are" he chuckled.

You ignored his accurate statement. "Are you planning on going out?" noticing he was dressed like he was going out.

"Maggie's coming over, she just wants to talk about something at work, why?“

“I'm hungry" OA laughed, shaking his head. He got up and walked over to the couch, leaning on the back of it to look down at you.

"What would you like to eat?“ you pretended to think, knowing full well what you wanted.

"Can you get me some cake. Maybe cheesecake too" OA nodded, with a slight eye roll.

"I'll stop by wholefoods, then I can get some vegetables for dinner too" his phone buzzed.

"No, not Wholefoods. Can you got to the Diner, intown. Please" you gave him puppy dog eyes as you looked up at him. He sighed in defeat, turning to leave.

You looked over the back of the couch and spoke. "Maybe we can go together, a nice walk. Then I can see Maggie rather than die from Vitamin D deficiency" OA turned back to face you, very serious. "You know you can't. Remember what the doctor said" you frowned, dropping your head back against one of your many pillows. You mimicked what he said in a childish voice.

You were signed off work, with instructions of strict rest for the rest of your pregnancy.

OA had moved furniture around to make it easier for you to get around.

You were even halfway though the rest of your pregnancy when you started to claim insanity due to the lack of being outside. Since it was prime summer time, OA also relaxed with home security and allowed you to have the large patio doors open (so long as the alarm system was on) - allowing the outside breeze to run through the house giving the effect that you were outside (well if you closed your eyes).

He'd been a saint really. Requesting one less day at work so he could be around if you needed him. Constantly running out to fulfill your craving requests, even the midnight ones.

OA disappeared upstairs, his phone ring echoing through the house and he jogged down the stairs.

"Maggie's outside" he gave you a quick kiss on the top of your head, then disappeared again. "I'll see you in 30 minutes or so" you could hear the door open, the noise from outside.

"Tell Maggie I'd come out to say hi to her but I can't because I'm being held prisoner in my own home" there was no response except the door slamming, but OA was probably laughing at your dramatics. He'd always know you to be dramatic but it seemed to get worse since you were pregnant.

***

"Y/n says hi, but obviously in a dramatic way. She's claiming the WiFi is conspiring against her and she's being held hostage" Maggie chuckled lightly as OA climber into the SUV.

"In her defence, I'm sure you'd be the same. Imagine what you'd be like not being able to go to work, and being housebound"

"I think it's the sugar to be honest. It's all she craves. She ate 11 of those doughnuts you gave me yesterday!"

Maggie's eyes widened in shock. “There were only 12 in the box" OA just nodded.

"But she's doing better, yeah?" OA nodded with a relieved smile.

"Yeah a lot better. She's still really tired. But thats partly because she can't sleep in our bed. It hurts her back, but she stubborn and wants to sleep near me so refuses to sleep on the couch at night"

Maggie didn't bother asking why OA didn't sleep in the living with you, knowing it was because he was far to tall to be able sleep anywhere but the floor.

"Can you drop me in town when we're done - I'm on a cake run" Maggie nodded.

In the car Maggie and OA chatted about a case, bouncing ideas off each other until Maggie felt better. Doing less days meant that OA and Maggie weren't partners together but they still made time to chat.

As she was on her way to speak to a witness Maggie dropped OA off on the corner and continued on her way.

"Tell y/n I'll come see her soon. I'll bring cake" Maggie teased.

"Please actually bring something with nutrients in it" OA begged.

***

“Hey Omar, no y/n?" Dawn asked as OA stepped up to the counter.

"Not today, but she is the reason why I'm here. Can I grab some cake please?" Dawn nodded and grabbed a container and cake tongs.

"Which one?“ Dawn asked with a smile. Just as OA opened his mouth his phone rang, the picture of you shaking on the screen.

"Everything is fine! I'm just calling to ask if you can get like all the cake because I don't know which one I want" you spoke quickly, hoping OA wouldn't freak out thinking something was wrong because your were calling

OA looked at Dawn. "All of them" she raised her eyebrows and OA just nodded.

***

The sound of OA struggling and a lot of noise made you peak over from your spot on the couch. You caught a glimpse of him, arms full walking past the living room into the kitchen.

"Do you know how many different flavours of cakes they have?“ OA walked back towards the front door.

"A lot" you called out, as you struggled to get up and out of the couch. You waddled into the kitchen just as OA was leaving again.

"Guess again" he called out. You didn't reply, too busy rummaging through the bags.

"Thirty nine! Thirty nine different flavours of cake! Like how can that be possible"

"Is there Red Velvet though?“ OA disappeared again.

"I'd like to think these will last you a while, but after yesterdays doughnut marathon I'm not hopeful"

"This is your fault too. I'm pretty sure that's the tank top that resulted in me being pregnant" you smiled in triumph as you found the box containing the red velvet cake. You tiptoed and kissed OA.

"Thank you, and sorry I'm being a pain" OA bent down kissing you softly.

"Nothing I can't handle" he winked.

You opened the cutlery draw and grabbed a fork. "Have some cake if you want" you waddled out of the kitchen and back to you spot on the couch.

"Are you gonna help me put these away?“ OA called out.

You shook your head as you walked towards the living room. "I can't leave the couch remember"

***

It took you less than five minutes to finish the cake, cursing yourself as you struggled to get up again. You should have just eaten the cake in the kitchen, would have been better for your back. But then again your feet hurt too.

OA notices you wince as you come back into the kitchen. You put the empty container and fork into the dishwasher, wincing more.

OA's hands find your back as you lean forward on your hands against the counter.

He presses into the painful spot, giving you a moment of relief "You should go lie down"

"Lying down hurts my back, but I think my feet hurt more"

"I'll flip the couch pillows"

You and watch, holding the blanket you spend most of your time wrapped up in on the sofa. A maternity gift from one of OA's sisters, amazingly soft and warm. The only thing that doesn't make your skin itch. When you're cold you often wrap yourself up like a burrito in it.

Once the pillows are readjusted and stacked up OA instructs you to sit down, and sits with you. He pulls your legs into his lap.

He pushes up the ankle of your leggings, knowing he'll have to do your ankles as well.

His finger expertly work their magic.

Before long your half asleep. You feel the blanket being placed over you, and then a long kiss pressed against your forehead. You're too tired to even fight the sleep.

"I'll start dinner" is the last thing you hear before you fall asleep.

**********************************************

Tags: @ellixthea @lovelymari4 @chaneajoyyy

@honeychicana @beaminglife @amelatonin @themyscxiras @crushed-pink-petals @lady-olive-oil @jojolu @endless00paradise @est1887 @cajunpeach @melinda-january @profoundlynerdywolf @deathonyourtongue @designerwriterchic

@alicesfracturedmirror

#zeeko zaki #omar adom zidan #omar zidan #omar adom zidan fanfic #oa zidan #Oa zidan x Reader #Fbi CBS fanfic #Woc oc #poc oc

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katherine-mcnamara-archive · 4 years

Note

there's nothing wrong with making connections through other characters though? i swear the rpc is full of babies who just want their character to be special and loved and popular.

No nope nada we’re not doing this.

When you, as a person, look at a female character and want to plot that your two have a connection/know each other, not because you like HER but because she’s friends/related to/connected to/dating, a male character that you want to jump on. that’s just shitty.

and lets be real it is only really plotting a connection, y’all would never thread with the girl y’all are using to jump on some e-dick you like the look of. you don’t even properly read the dude’s bio lmao half the time you can’t even spell the dude’s name right.

Do you really want to get into this ok.

How many times have you done this to men? been like you know what I’m going to plot a connection here and then ignore them and their player just so I can get close to this female they’re dating/friends with? YEAH ZERO EXACTLY.

Female characters are only of use to the rpc when they serve a purpose of jump starting y’all with a male you like.

While we’re on that if y’all don’t stop ignoring trans men and women and aro/ace men and women and nb people too i will come out of your mirrors and choke you!

You all condemn female characters enough for things you praise men for.

You want examples? okay here’s two from RECENT personal experience. people can feel free to add on.

Sofie: (mexican lebanese - bisexual) bounty hunter has a wide range of contacts want ad for a found family type of deal she’s extremely perceptive personable,has a good humour, extremely loving to people she’s close to, family orientated, protective. other traits etc. snake mom. we’re a powers site (she has animal communication as a power) and she loves her two venomous snakes she calls her daughters more than anything, she’s protective of her, they are of her. human rights activist animal rights activist teaches self defence in her spare time. she’s happy, she’s confident, she loves herself.

Just from that brief description, you’d think she’d have an easy time plotting? she would if she was a man. I get four reactions to Sofie and y’all know whats coming.

1. straight up ignored / ”i’m not racist but her attitude makes me uncomfortable” 2. asked for threads just to “put her in her place/knock her down a few pegs.” (male rpers only reaction to her so far) 3. people just assume she’s easy and dtf any time and oversexualise tf out of her and it makes me extremely uncomfortable. 4. they use her to try to get to my best friends male character and ignore me any time i try to plot these “friends”.

Cassia: (white - bisexual) hacker she’s extremely smart, has a genius level iq she’s dealing with ptsd and anxiety shes in recovery for being an alcoholic from a traumatic experience she was abused when she was younger so she has low trust in men. preferring women’s company. she’s a genuinely nice person, she’s quiet, she shows her affection because she’s bad with words. she’s protective of her friends, she’s even more protective of other women. she uses her powers (electrokinesis) and her hacking skills to hack into databases and help women/people in danger in general. she’s so damn loving when you get to know her. has an adopted son she raised and kept alive when she was in captivity. she’s funny, not to toot my own horn but her reaction to stress is humour. like people start arguing and she peaces out through the window and scales the drain pipe. she ain’t here for it. Again, prime to be a good friend/more/easy-ish to plot with right? HAH y’all wanna know the reactions I get to Cass? I’ve posted a few horror stories before. but here’s some points.

1. she’s terrified of guns/authority figures. first thread with a person and he goes OFF on her about his right to carry and then taunts her with it. player then OOC calls her a bitch and stuck up because she wasn’t instantly all over him/she was cold to him. 2. people assume she’s a bitch so often with the only evidence being that she has anxiety and is quiet around new people. 3. people try to put her in threads with alcohol because they think it’ll be fun to test her self control. nobody really takes it serious because it’s not drugs. so people use it as a joke. 4. trying to thread with females is a pain in my ass, like she’s specifically geared as more towards threading with them. but people are not interested at all. 5. the misogynistic comments towards her past are usually made by women rpers. 6. on the addiction topic, someone didn’t like that she was being friends with the man said female rper wanted her char with so on purpose left out alcohol beside her and then the player joked about it OOC. 7. people trying to knock her down a few pegs also. 8. or they try to befriend her/plot connections with her just to get to the one of the two men she knows. never any of the females.

another point for both of them is that people keep treating them like absolute shit, as if that would somehow prove to the men these rpers are after that these girls are connected to. that they are better than cass or sofie. and I just sit here like ????? i don’t know about anyone else but if someone was literally being gross to me, to try to impress my brother or a friend i know they would drop them like a hot potato so I have no idea why people think that’s a good idea in the rpc.

Also I know my friend Alyx, has way more worse stories and shit of what people have done to her females, not jsut to try to get to my males but just for daring to exist so like. choke anon.

#Anonymous #Ask #rpt #rpc #rpa #rpcha #rp #i'm sure i forgot some really bad things but #the shit i've repressed is unreal #also i know this isn't as bad as what people who've been around longer #have endured

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yeonchi · 3 years

Text

Doctor Who 2021 New Year’s Special Review: Revolution of the Daleks

Air date: 1 January 2021

New Year’s Day is the new Christmas Day for Doctor Who. Two years ago, I was writing the review for the 2019 New Year’s Special, Resolution. One year ago, I was writing the review for the first episode of Series 12, Spyfall Part One (which essentially served as the 2020 New Year’s Special). Today, I'm writing this review for the 2021 New Year’s Special. Whether the change was because of political correctness, low ratings or just to change up the status quo, I think we should be glad that we even have a festive special, unlike the English dubs on Koei Tecmo’s Warriors games.

Amazingly, this special was filmed alongside Series 12 last year and kept on hold to today, meaning that production was largely unaffected by the coronavirus. Even with the anticipation and uncertainty for Series 13, which has already been reduced to eight episodes (with festive special status unknown), this episode serves as a good icebreaker given everything that’s happened in 2020 and the Timeless Child arc of Series 12.

Here is my spoiler-free thought for this episode: “It’s epic, heartbreaking and ridiculous at the same time.”

Spoilers continue after the break. Also, please don’t forget to check out my look at Doctor Who: Lockdown and the hiatusbreaker update for some post-Series 12 review thoughts.

Introduction

Chibnall mentioned that the recon scout Dalek from Resolution give birth to the new Dalek variant that was seen in this episode, thus making this episode a sequel to said episode. As such, this was the case.

367 minutes (about 6 hours) after the Doctor and her extended fam fought the recon scout Dalek at GCHQ, its shell was recovered. Jo Patterson, then Technology Secretary, tipped Jack Robertson (he will be referred to by his surname hereafter to differentiate him from Jack Harkness) off about it and managed to acquire it. After acquiring the plants of car firms that had abandoned Patterson and Rugazzi Technologies, Leo’s company, Robertson had defence drones developed (and 3D printed) based on the design of the Dalek’s shell.

The production of this episode was concluded by April 2020, with Chibnall stating that post-production work was continuing during the lockdown. This was before the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests, meaning that the scene showing the testing of the defence drones was likely inspired from the Hong Kong protests. We see people throwing bricks and molotov cocktails, and the Dalek is shown to be fitted with a water cannon, CS gas sprayer and a sonic deterrent. That’s about all the allusion we get - if we had any more then we would have had a serious problem.

Doctor and companions separated

At the end of The Timeless Children, the Doctor was sentenced to life imprisonment in a maximum-security prison, while Graham, Ryan and Yaz were brought back to Earth along with Ravio, Yedlarmi and Ethan. We don’t get to see those three in the episode, sadly.

Over the next ten months, Graham and Ryan had moved on with their lives while Yaz became obsessed with finding the Doctor (yeah, just forget that you have a family and a job as a policewoman lol). Graham shows Yaz some leaked footage of Robertson at the defence drone testing. They go to confront Robertson, but are turned away by his security guards.

Meanwhile, the Doctor had been in prison for decades, accompanied by a Weeping Angel, an Ood, a Sycorax, a Silent and even a Pting. Unbeknownst to her, Captain Jack Harkness had managed to get into the same prison as her, spending 19 years just to get the cell next to her, before making himself known and breaking out of the prison together. The Doctor and Jack head to Graham’s house, where they catch up and set out to find Jack Robertson.

There are a couple of one-to-one scenes that really got me thinking. When Jack and Yaz investigate traces of Dalek DNA in Osaka, they talk about their separation from the Doctor and what their time with the Doctor has changed them into. Jack tells Yaz, “Being with the Doctor, you don’t get to choose when it stops. Whether you leave her, or she leaves you.”

Let’s break that line down with information from the TARDIS Wiki page on companions. There are several ways that a companion can join the Doctor - they stow away on the TARDIS, they were “kidnapped”, or were assigned by higher powers, like UNIT, the Time Lords or the White Guardian. Just like that, there are several ways that companions leave the Doctor - they might choose to leave, the Doctor decides or is forced to leave them behind, or they die.

The interesting thing is that Jack says that they don’t get to choose when they leave. In the case of companions who decided to leave of their own will, you might think it was an easy decision for them, but in truth, there is context behind their motivation to leave. In Series 2, Mickey Smith stayed on Pete’s World to help defeat the Cybermen after that world’s counterpart of himself (Ricky) died and he became increasingly disillusioned with Rose favouring the Doctor over himself. In Series 3, Martha Jones decided to leave the Doctor after seeing her family enslaved by the Master for a year, travelling around the world to get people to think of the Doctor, and realising that her feelings for him would never be reciprocated. In the classic series, Tegan Jovanka left the Fifth Doctor after being sickened by the death and destruction she witnessed. From this, I can deduce that what Jack meant to say isn’t that the companions don’t get to choose when they leave, but that they don’t get to choose the circumstances that lead to them leaving. In some cases, that also applies to the companions who get left behind by the Doctor or killed.

The other one-to-one is between Ryan and the Doctor in the TARDIS. The Doctor apologises to Ryan for leaving him, Graham and Yaz behind for ten months and Ryan tells him that during this time his relationship with his father has improved and that he got to catch up with friends. Ryan asks the Doctor what has changed with her since they last met and the Doctor tells her that she isn’t who she thought she was (that storyline’s never going to go away, isn’t it? Hope to learn about the full story of the Timeless Child in Series 13). This scene really highlights how the companions can be a source of support for the Doctor, just as the Doctor is a source of support for them.

Ryan tells the Doctor that she is the same as she has always been. The Doctor comforts herself by saying that nothing’s changed, but Ryan says that it wasn’t what he meant; things change all the time and we might be scared of the new, but in the end, we have to confront the new, or the old. This bit was definitely made with the Timeless Child twist in mind. Yes, things change (particularly when it comes to Doctor Who), but some changes can be good or bad; just as there are people who saw the Timeless Child twist as good, there are people who saw it as bad (including myself). It’s like what I said in the hiatusbreaker update about The Timeless Children pulling an Ultraman Orb and trying to lessen the impact of the twist when it didn’t make sense and caused more damage than expected.

Human-created Daleks (sort of)

When the recon Dalek’s shell was salvaged, some traces of its DNA remained in it. Since, according to Missy in The Witch’s Familiar, every cell of a Dalek is genetically hardwired to survive, their consciousness can live within the tiniest fragment of their DNA. Leo managed to clone the recon scout Dalek out of those traces and hooked it into the neural network. Disgusted after being shown the creature, Robertson tells Leo to incinerate it, but when he tries to do so, it escapes and takes possession of him. In a way, the recon scout Dalek was resurrected in this episode, but it didn’t feel like the same character.

While hooked into the neural network, the Dalek managed to make more clones of itself using Robertson’s resources, feeding them with the liquefied remains of the people who worked on them. After being confronted by the Doctor and the others, the Dalek uses the UV light to activate the Daleks, transport themselves into the shells that it augmented, then kills Rob and begins subjugating Earth.

Just as Jo Patterson introduces the defence drones in her first speech as Prime Minister, she gets exterminated by them quickly after they are activated. If Jack Robertson is an expy of Donald Trump, then Jo Patterson is an expy of Theresa May - a forgettable Prime Minister whose claim to fame (defence drones for the former, Brexit for the latter) backfired on them. To be honest, when I heard that they would be in this special, I almost thought that they got married or something.

There was a similar situation like this in the Series 3 two-parter, Daleks in Manhattan and Evolution of the Daleks, only this time, the Daleks were more involved. In that story, the Cult of Skaro were attempting to find a way to survive beyond the Dalek shell, to the point of creating Dalek-human hybrids, a new race with the intelligence of Daleks but with the emotions of humans. In both cases, the new Dalek variants were considered impure due to the human elements within them.

I’ve compared this episode to Victory of the Daleks when the trailer came out. With the addition of the conflict between the two Daleks (as I will outline below), there are additional contrasts to the Seventh Doctor story Remembrance of the Daleks and the Big Finish Eighth Doctor audio story Blood of the Daleks.

The nuclear option

With thousands of defence drone Daleks on the move and no weapons to deal with them, the Doctor seems to do the only thing she can think of that doesn’t involve destroying the Earth ala the Moment (which was what I was thinking) - signal a ship of Death Squad Daleks (SAS Daleks, but more brutal) to Earth to deal with the impure defence drones.

The two groups of Daleks confront each other on a bridge (specifically the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol). After seeing his Daleks get exterminated, Robertson takes his nuclear option - part with the Doctor and side with the Daleks. That’s right, Jack Robertson does an Utsumi (Nariaki Utsumi from Build, if you didn’t know) and sides with a race that would kill him the first chance they got. Give him a cane to break and we would have gotten the first tokusatsu meme in Doctor Who.

For someone who seems to be so obsessed with protecting himself (normally by using other people), I must say that this was a strange step for Robertson to take. Given that Robertson is an expy of Trump, one can only wonder what Chibnall and people like him think of Trump. Would Trump sell himself or humanity out to invading aliens? Personally, I don’t think he’d be stupid enough to do so. I think he’d bomb them with everything he has.

Robertson convinces the Daleks to take them aboard their ship and meet their commander. Meanwhile, Jack, Graham and Ryan board the ship and plant explosives on it. Graham tries to get Ryan to fistbump him, but he just tells him to “stop talking weird”. We’re back, fellow kids. Missed us?

Robertson tells the Daleks that the Doctor summoned them. The original Dalek returns and offers to be purified, only to be exterminated. Graham, Ryan and Jack find Robertson and they get off the ship together just as it is destroyed.

The Doctor floats her TARDIS in the sky among the Daleks and lures them inside, which would normally be an impossible feat if it weren’t for the fact that it isn’t actually the Doctor’s TARDIS, but the other TARDIS from earlier. She sets it to fold in on itself and send itself to the heart of the Void, thereby destroying them.

Soon after that, Robertson claims that he was acting as a decoy and so, he is lauded as the saviour of humanity. A honorary knighthood and a revived presidential run is mentioned after the toxic waste scandal (Arachnids in the UK) ruined his previous attempt. This is where my comparison to Utsumi weakens - Utsumi pledged himself to Evolto so that he could find a way to bring him down, but there doesn’t seem to be any ulterior motive in Robertson’s actions. Frankly, I’m surprised that he wasn’t exterminated at all.

Parting ways (for now)

By the time Graham and Ryan return to the TARDIS, Jack has left and is on his way to see Gwen Cooper, who has apparently had another child, a son. Honestly, his departure feels quite lackluster.

The Doctor offers to take the fam to a restaurant apparently named the Meringue Galaxy, but Ryan decides to leave the Doctor since he believes that his friends and planet need him. Graham struggles to decide, but in the end, he decides to leave with Ryan, leaving the Doctor and Yaz on the TARDIS. The Doctor gives them some psychic paper as a parting gift.

The final scene is a throwback to the beginning of The Woman Who Fell to Earth. Graham is helping Ryan ride his bike when they bring up some strange incidents around the world, like a troll invasion in Finland or gravel creatures in Korea. Ryan begins riding his bike one more time when they see Grace looking back at them in the distance. This is the last episode where Ryan’s dyspraxia is explored. Shame Chibnall never managed to do a lot with it.

We’ve known that Graham and Ryan would be leaving the series for months now, and we’ve also known that there would be opportunities for them to return. Let’s hope we see them again in Series 13.

Going back to my discussion about companions leaving, the major factor in Ryan and Graham’s decision to leave was that they had spent ten months away from the Doctor and unlike Yaz, they had already moved on with their lives. Additionally, for Graham, he doesn’t want to leave Ryan given the relationship they built up during their time with Doctor and possibly also for fear of abandoning Ryan, given how his father wasn’t there for him previously. This doesn’t feel as deep compared to other companions’ motives for leaving the Doctor, but it’s still quite deep.

At the end of Can You Hear Me?, we see Ryan talking to Yaz about spending their lives with the Doctor and forgetting everyone back home. I’d always thought that the human element of being a companion was annoying, but we have to remember that companions are people too and they had their own lives before they met the Doctor.

Other general thoughts

I know this is kind of irrelevant given that this episode was produced at the end of 2019, but could Leo be considered an Uncle Tom for inventing something designed to suppress protesters? By the way, don’t let China know about this or we’re all screwed, even in Hong Kong or Taiwan.

Jack gets a gold star for rescuing the Doctor. That puts Jack and Graham at 10 points and Yaz and Ryan at 20.

Jack also has his sonic blaster back as well. Will Jack also be back for Series 13? We’ll just have to see it to believe it.

The title cards are jarring again. Can the production team not be inconsistent with their fonts?

I swear, all the Yaz favouritism in the last two series must have given her Stockholm syndrome. Who’s to say that Mandip Gill wanted to leave, but Chibnall asked her to stay?

Taking a look at the designs for the Daleks, the defence drones are alright. They glow a bluish-white colour normally, but they glow red and shoot red beams when the Dalek creatures took control of them. You could probably mistake them for being red in the dark, which is highlighted when they are shown shooting people in the streets. As for the Death Squad Daleks, they’re basically just the basic bronze Daleks, including their leader. They should’ve brought back the multicoloured New Paradigm Daleks just so the Death Squad Daleks could be differentiated from ordinary Daleks.

Following the premiere of this episode, a new companion was announced for Series 13, with John Bishop playing the role of Dan. Honestly, with the Timeless Child mystery still looming and the lack of character development for Yaz, a new companion is the last thing this series needs, particularly since Series 13 would be Jodie Whittaker’s third series and possibly, her final one (if we’re going by previous Doctors). At the moment, Bishop is currently isolating after being tested positive for the coronavirus. I wish him well and look forward to seeing him in Series 13.

The reduced number of episodes in Series 11 or 12 may have contributed to the lack of focus on Ryan’s dyspraxia or character development on Yaz, but that’s no excuse. Chibnall had plenty of opportunities to factor them in, but he was too focused on not having a story arc in Series 11 and destroying canon in Series 12 to even think about it (Graham and Ryan got more character development in those two series than Yaz did). Now that Series 13 has been reduced to eight episodes (not counting the possibility of a split series or another New Year’s Special out of the eight), I fear that Chibnall won’t have enough opportunity to factor in Dan’s character development with Yaz’s character development, the Timeless Child, Ruth and/or the Master, particularly when he delegates half of the series to other writers and does very few good things in the remaining episodes he writes (or co-writes). Honestly, Series 11 and 12 felt like a waste of time in some aspects.

Summary and verdict

Like I said at the start, this episode acted as a good icebreaker in the long break between series. However, ever since my red-pilling in The Timeless Children, I’ve started to see this series in a new light, particularly with the help of YouTubers like Bowlestrek or Nerdrotic. Despite this, I’m reluctant to hop on the #RIPDoctorWho bandwagon because we still don’t have the full details for the Timeless Child arc, so I’m reserving most of my judgement until we get it.

Most of the episode was good, but the ridiculous part for me was when Robertson Utsumi’d himself and somehow managed to survive. Jack’s departure felt lackluster, Ryan and Graham’s departure felt lackluster to other companions’ departures and Jo Patterson was just... ehh. Let’s not forget that we didn’t see or hear a mention of the surviving humans from the previous episode because Chibnall just forgot about them.

Rating: 6/10 Series 12 total: 77/100 (77%) Series 12 total with Revolution of the Daleks: 83/110 (75%)

Overall, this special brought down my total score for Series 12, but it still did slightly better compared to Series 11. If it weren’t for Jack Harkness, my score for the episode would have been lower. Robertson, being a Trump expy, essentially represented all the SJW red flags in this episode; pointing them out is unnecessary at this point given my red-pilling.

That’s it for my review of the New Year’s Special. There is a certainty that Series 13 will premiere this year, so the next time I return with another review will presumably be in late 2021. As long as Jodie Whittaker is the Doctor, my mission to review her episodes will continue. Follow me on Facebook and/or Tumblr and keep an eye out for my future posts, Doctor Who-related or otherwise, such as the Kisekae Insights series where I give insights on my personal project, which was heavily influenced by Doctor Who.

Stay safe and I’ll see you then.

#doctor who #doctor who series 12 #thirteenth doctor #doctor who series 12 review #thirteenth doctor review

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bruciewayne · 5 years

Text

5 minutes

stevetony post-avengers, 2012 era, getting together, fluff, 2.2k

for ‘steve rogers’ on @iron-man-bingo

At first, Tony didn’t know what to think of Steve Rogers. Actually, that’s a bald-faced lie. He knew exactly what to think of him; arrogant, pigheaded, stubborn, and of course, nothing like the stories. At all. But apparently, he’s been under the influence of Loki’s sceptre (yeah, that guy from Norse mythology who fucked a horse (Tony’d went on a week-long wiki-venture in the middle of writing his thesis. It’d been a tough time.)), so it didn’t count, he’d apologised after.

They did say ‘never meet your heroes’ after all.

When he was younger, he was so sure that if he ever got to meet Captain America he’d hug him, thank him for his service. When he grew up, he promised himself that if they ever found him, he would deck his probably-perfect teeth. Adult-Tony does neither.

Adult-Tony keeps his distance. He so badly wants to punch him, because of everything his father said, but he feels as though he should wait until he has actual, reasonable grounds to punch him, things he’s done, not what his father did. The fact that his face would most likely break his hand also factors into his decision of simply shaking his hand when they part ways.

They’ve had a couple of small, quiet moments, mostly amidst battle, that make Tony think that maybe he’s not an asshole, and maybe he could get to know him, but at the end of the day, Tony really doesn’t know what to think of him, he’s good in the field, he’s a good leader, but outside of that, he doesn’t really know him. At all.

Thanks to dear old Nick, that changes, fast.

Well, about half a year after New York, maybe a month after his whole Mandarin/Killian. He spends the time ‘bettering himself’ and getting on and out and back in and then permanently out of a relationship with Pepper. On one hand, he hasn’t been all too productive (making, then destroying dozens of suits cancels each other out, really), on the other, it makes him a prime target for Fury to shoot at.

“You told me the Initiative was scrapped,” Tony says. He can’t believe he actually went to SHIELD for this. He, by choice (like, 21% choice) went into SHIELD HQ, to talk to their resident pirate. About letting five strangers move into his tower.

“You assumed the Initiative was scrapped, assumptions just make an ass of you and me, Stark, you know that,” Fury says, evenly, “you have the space and the funds. Stark, you know that something like Loki is going to happen again, the best way to prepare for that is like this, all of you under one roof, learning to become a team.”

“Your little boyband saved New York, once, by the skin of our teeth, and now you want us to protect the word.”

“Your boyband, and you lot aren’t the only people in my phonebook. Look, all I want is for you to become a team, for the future,” Fury pushes a manila folder to Tony across the desk.

The Avenger’s Initiative

“Fine. You owe me,” Tony concedes, leaving the room. He doesn’t take the file.

Within a week, he has two more assassins under his roof, with the next he has another scientist (a biologist). It’s awkward, for a bit, everyone staying in their own corners, so to speak, until Agent Bart-- Hawke-- Clint proposes weekly movie nights (Tony just thinks that he wants an excuse to watch movies (they’re going to be very good friends)) and much of the awkwardness dissipates.

It’s fascinating really, they know each other so well on the field, they work seamlessly together, but put in a civvie, normal, situation, and now no one knows where to sit, but the movie night thing helps and everything just clicks. Tony thinks he has friends now.

Except there’s something, someone, missing.

He doesn’t even know why he wants him here so much, it’s not like they got super close or anything,the four of them click, and based on what Clint says, Thor would slip right in and he’d barely be here anyway (which is a shame, because Tony really wants to get his hands on that hammer), but none of them know their captain at all and Tony can’t help but look at the four of them and think there’s something missing.

“The god and the legend too good for us?” Tony asks Natasha one morning. She’s the most open and vulnerable she’s been ever since she started living here, maybe a month ago; she has messy hair and she’s wearing a hoodie at least two sizes too big. It might be Clint’s. Tony’s not going to think about it too much. (And if he wasn’t in fear of attack-via-butter-knife, he would call her cute.) Anyway, he’s asking her because she’s the one reporting to Fury at the end of every week, and out of her and Clint, she’s more likely to tell him something (Currently, Clint’s giving him the silent treatment for putting purple dye in his shampoo (he drew over Dum-E with glitter glue (He’ll never admit it but Dum-E likes it))).

She gives him a look he doesn’t really want to decode. “Thor’s dealing with his own stuff, off-world, and Rogers is still at SHIELD.”

Tony gives her a disbelieving look, surely the team captain should be with them, and not in a cinderblock room eating crappy food (Tony’s been to SHIELD HQ exactly once in his life and never in the residential areas or the cafeteria (In his defence, he’s not too far off)).

Looks like he’s going to be getting another stamp on his SHIELD loyalty card.

It doesn’t take much to find out where Rogers is, a little hacking tells him his apartment details and a little more gives his security camera access. Rogers is pitifully predictable, Tony watches what he did in the past week, cutting between days and decides he needs saving.

All he does is go to ‘class’ (some guy explaining something, probably everything that happened in the past 70 years, while he takes notes. Captain America takes handwritten notes. (He should mention that he has godawful handwriting (Maybe Tony enhanced the image out of curiosity, but only JARVIS knows that and he’s well aware of the national ‘no snitching’ policy), he should also mention that he’s a doodler. Tony’s far happier than maybe he should be to find that he has a flaw - not so perfect now, huh Dad?)) and the gym (maybe he’s untouchable but damn Tony really wants to touch those muscles) and that’s it. He also leaves for hours at a time, only at night, and Tony could probably find where he goes, but SHIELD most definitely already does, and he thinks the guy deserves a little privacy from him (He leaves when the sun sets and comes back when it rises and looks the exact same. Not particularly suspicious until you realise that it means that he doesn’t sleep. Not Tony’s problem - he probably has therapists anyway.). He’s going through the motions, head down, quiet, Tony doesn’t think that he’s seen him smile the entire week.

JARVIS tells him that the sun sets in just under 20 minutes. He takes the suit.

“Going anywhere?”

“What the-- Mr. Stark?”

Tony’s always enjoyed the dramatics. He steps out of the shadows, still in the suit but with the helmet off, to face Rogers, legs straddling motorbike.

“Eh, call me Tony,” he says, casually leaning against a concrete pillar. God, the SHIELD garage is depressing. SHIELD is depressing.

Rogers still looks confused. And ready to book it straight out. “Anything I can do for you?”

“Come live with me.” Tony’s been told that statements usually make people do what he wants, instead of questions, and this statement is to a living legend, the Great American Hero. Telling him to live with him.

Rogers looks even more confused, “I already have a place?” He says, like even he’s not too sure.

“Fury didn’t tell you? Everyone has to live in Stark, well, Avenger’s now, Tower. For team bonding or something. In all honesty, I think he just wanted to get Legolas off his back, so to speak.” When in doubt, talk.

“Legolas?” Rogers still looks confused, but under it, there’s excitement, or proudness, or something, like he’s trying to tamp it down.

“Yeah, archer from Lord of the Rings, sequel--”

“To The Hobbit!”

Tony expected many things from him, straight up refusal was one of them, but not excitement at the Hobbit. If he couldn’t easily throw Tony a city block, he might have called him cute. (Whatever, he’s goddamn adorable, okay?)

“Yeah, kid,” he says, voice softening of it’s own volition. He clears his throat before he says anything more.

Rogers smiles at him, small and shy, and fiddles with something on his bike. “Were you, were you serious?” He looks at Tony likes he’s expecting him to pull the rug, yell ‘Sike!’ and fly away cackling.

“Yeah, you were meant to be there since the beginning,” Tony wishes that he has that file, from so many weeks ago, just to prove to him, ‘Look, you’re meant to be with us’. Fuck, a couple months ago he was ready and willing to punch this guy in the face and now he wants to wrap him in a million blankets and make him marathon the extended versions of the Tolkien-verse movies until he’s happy.

He’s going to be having words with Fury.

“Oh,” he says, like he never really considered that, “when can I move in?”

“Now’s always good,” Tony replies, challenging him with a raised eyebrow - ‘now’ means breaking out of SHIELD, ‘now’ means no more lectures from SHIELD personnel.

Rogers brightens up, it’s not much, but a 0.2V lamp in a basement seems like a quasar. (And if it makes Tony himself happy, to see him like this, well, no one has to know.)

“Let me get my stuff,” he swings off the bike and that should not be as attractive as it is. Bikers never really interested Tony, but there’s something about this one in front of him.

Tony comes with him, still in the suit, because he has to see his cinderblock in real life - hopefully the camera made it worse?

The camera did not make it worse. It takes him under five minutes to pack, and everything can fit in a standard backpack.

By the time they get back to the garage, Tony learns a couple things: 1. He knows what the internet is, and enjoys it, 2. The lessons are going incredibly slowly and he watched some Youtube videos and went on Wikipedia and already knows everything they’re telling him (they’re at the 70s and they skipped the formation of Queen), and finally, Steve Rogers, not Captain America, because in that short five minute walk he’s learnt so much about the man behind the mask he’s determined to never let him be forced behind it again, Steve Rogers is a nerd, a geek and a little shit.

And lonely. So fucking lonely. They pass so many people, walk straight through the canteen, twice, and while, yes, they get some double-takes (mostly baby agents (they’ll grow out of it)), no one says hi, or waves, or greets them or anything, even the guy who Tony recognises as Steve’s ‘teacher’ doesn’t say anything when they pass by in front of him.

He’s entirely untouchable, a living legend, Tony gets that, hell, even though that ten minutes ago, but under all that, under the fanfare and the applause and the costume, he’s a person, curious, bright, intelligent, funny, flawed. He wishes more people knew that.

“So, how fast can that new-fangled suit of yours go, Mr. Stark?” Steve asks putting on an ‘old Brooklyn’ accent and tilting his head and scanning it up and down as he straddles the bike again, bag on his shoulders.

“Fast enough,” Tony replies narrowing his eyes.

He grins. Bright and unabashed and it’s wonderful, but Tony only gets to see a second of it because he’s whipping out of the garage, yelling “Race you,” over his shoulder.

Tony’s laughing as he engages the suit, snapping up the helmet and following hot on his heels.

(They tie (4. Steve Rogers drives like a madman), shaking on a rematch.)

((It’s the happiest Steve’s been in the new century, in his life.))

It takes them a while. It takes them so fucking long even the new baby (practically foetus) agents are done with their shit.

It takes years of longing looks and brushed hands and secret smiles and quiet nights and flirty one liners and compliments, but eventually, eventually, Tony admits to the torrent of butterflies that inhabit his insides whenever he even looks at Steve and he kisses him, grinning so goddamn bright Tony’s positive his heart is going to burst.

“You gave me a home,” Steve admits quietly to him. Tony can’t see his face like this, in his arms, but he can kiss the side of his neck, hopefully communicating more than he ever could with words. Steve gets it.

“You make me happy,” Tony says, simply, into his skin, holding tighter.

(They tie the knot three years after that (the baby-- toddler agents yell Mrs. Rogers to Tony and Mr. Stark to Steve for a month straight (Tony doesn’t think too hard about the implications)))

((It’s the happiest Tony’s been in his life.))

iron man bingo masterpost

ao3: ineffablestarkrogers

#steve rogers x tony stark #steve x tony #stevetony #stevetony fic #stony #stony fic #iron man bingo #iron man bingo 2019 #iron man bingo 300 #imb #steve rogers #tony stark #my fic #my writing #pls rb yall

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rickyriddle · 5 years

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Kaminaga Kouko analysis

Hi there! I’m back with a new AnR analysis, this time about Kouko! After Suzu it’s time to analyze our favourite class representative. It had been a while I wanted to make an analysis of her, I was supposed to do her before Suzu but ended up doing Suzu as a request for someone. But now it’s Kouko’s time, the girl deserves some recognition, and I’m going to give it to her.

So, let’s start by examining Kouko’s past. We know that Kouko is an orphan, so her parents died when she was a child and she was ‘welcomed’ by an orphanage, who is actually a criminal organization training kids to become assassins, seemingly specializing in bombs. Kouko was good at making plans but terrible at handling bombs. It made her an easy target for bullying. It didn’t seem as intense as what Shiena went through, from what we seem it seems to be mainly mockery, but to be put down like that by people of her age and view as a failure by the adults must have given Kouko a pretty bad esteem of herself. Her only source of happiness was her senpai and mentor Irena, probably what kept her from breaking, and she, unfortunately, killed her by accident as a teenager. It didn’t help with her esteem, made her feel terribly guilty, and increase the hate her superiors had towards her. Kouko was basically sent at Class Black because it was judges as an unimportant mission and didn’t want to waste a good assassin on it.

Here’s a little headcanon about Kouko’s orphanage. I personally think they are a religious fanatic group, terrorists. The catholic orphanage could be a cover-up, but in one scene they really seemed to imply they do believe in God, which is strange for an assassin organization unless they are extremists. Irena also implied in KnR that she never kissed anyone because she “chose that kind of life”, which lead me to believe she’s an actual nun, thus religious. The fact they are religious and use bombs really give me a big terrorist vibe, but that’s only my opinion and I won’t use it for the rest of the analysis, I just wanted to share this headcanon with you (and having a terrorist among the assassin add some ‘diversity’ in the cast).

Back to what’s canon. From what we have seen in the series, well during Class Black, Kouko was acting really assertive, bossy, challenging anyone who wanted to question her authority. She was determined, focus, hardworking, smart, act confident and didn’t want to accept failure. Despite her clumsiness, from what we see she was a rather competent class representative. But in the flashback before Class Black, where she was also a teenager, Kouko looked more submissive, she lacks confidence, she was shy. Even her voice sounded different. It was way soft and high pitched before Class Black, and during Class Black, it was way deep. And it’s not like there were a lot of years between those two periods, she looked the same age. It seems to indicate that she forces herself to sound deeper now, to assert her authority and dominance, to not be viewed as weak.

Kouko tried to make herself look assertive and in control, she seeks positions of power, she wants to be in charge, she wants people to rely on her, and she can’t accept failure. It’s like she was craving for some feeling of superiority, not to put down others, but to put herself up. Even if Kouko is trying to assert her authority on others, she doesn’t try to put them down, all she wants is putting herself up. She doesn’t want to feel above others, she wants to be at the same level at them while protecting her need to feel in power.

Let’s examine a little bit of Kouko’s psychology. We don’t know at what age she lost her parents but we can assume she was young, so it’s possible that she didn’t experience much parental love as a child. She was disliked by her classmates and by the adults around her, the only person who seemed to love her was Irena. To be overall disliked by others and lacking love as a child must have a serious effect on her self-esteem. Also, accidentally killing the only person who gave her love, her only source of happiness, the person who was giving her self-worth, must have left her with a deep feeling of guiltiness, remorse, and possibly hatred against herself. All of this must have left a feeling of inferiority in Kouko.

And this is where I wanted to bring you. If you read my AnR mental illness post you know what’s coming next. I’m talking about Kouko’s mental issues. She’s a prime example of someone suffering from an inferiority complex.

Let’s start with a symptom of inferiority complex, low self-esteem. People with low self-esteem have heavy self-criticism, Kouko views herself as a failure. Hypersensitivity to criticism, Kouko was quick to challenge others who question her authority and get really sensitive when Suzu asked her question about her wish. Perfectionism, Kouko wants everything to be perfect and doesn’t accept failure. Neurotic guilt, she feels guilty over Irena’s death. Floating hostility, she’s quick to argue with people who question her authority or doubt her. Pessimism, I would say that in general, Kouko is a pretty pessimistic person. Envy, she expresses resentment against Tokaku for being an elite assassin while she’s a weak assassin.

But what about the inferiority complex. From what I read, it can be rooted in the young child’s original experience with weakness, helplessness and dependancy. As a child, Kouko was treated as weak, she was forced to be an assassin, making her helpless, and dependant on Irena, her only source of happiness. It can be intensified by comparison to others, and I have no doubt that the teachers at the orphanage kept comparing her to the kids who were more competent than her. Kouko seems to display a certain “superiority complex”, a desire to appear superior in a way, dominant, assertive, in control, a craving for position of powers. But superiority complex can be a defence mechanism against inferiority complex, which I believe is the case with Kouko. She feels inferior and to cope with it, she tries to compensate with a need for power, dominance and control over others, to try to put herself up and gave herself self-confidence. She’s so desperate for it that she literally changed her voice just to look more assertive. And when she loses or fails, she feels worthless again and breaks in cry, feeling overcome by her deep feeling of inferiority.

I have been told that I view characters too much through mental illness, so let’s talk about Kouko’s traits that are personal to her and not to a disorder. I talked about it before, but Kouko is extremely clumsy, it’s a little quirk of hers. It could be the result of her inferiority complex, but Kouko is clumsy since she’s a child, so I think it’s more something personal to her that may have gotten worst with her overall low self-esteem. But I still consider that her clumsiness is part of her personality. Kouko is also shown trying to help Haru with her homework, showing that Kouko is willing to help others. It may be related to her class representative role, but I feel like she genuinely wants to help people, deep down she has a good and generous heart, but was forced to bury it in order to be an assassin. Kouko still tried to kill Haru with no hesitation, showing that she’s capable of murder (she’s just incompetent at it… well she’s better with a gun than bombs, we have to give her that). Something I found really interesting with Kouko happened during her childhood, Irena said her “blueprint” (I think it was some bomb blueprint?) was well done, and some kid mocks her, saying that “drawing well means nothing”. Sure it was a blueprint, but I have the feeling Kouko might have some artistic talent, she’s good with a pencil. She could either be good at designing other types of blueprints (possible future jobs? Tho I headcanon her as a doctor in the future), or, she could use her skills with a pencil for more creative stuff, like drawing. Would it be cute for Kouko to have as a hobby drawing? Maybe that would help her get some self-esteem, have a passion, feel some enjoyment in life, learning to love herself. I’m all for the Kouko to become an artist later in life. Also, during the epilogue, Kouko successfully escape from her organization despite the risk, showing how brave she is, and we saw that in KnR she did it to honour Irena’s wish that wanted her to be a hope for everyone (that it was possible to escape I presume and live a normal life), showing that Kouko is someone who will go out of her way to honour someone’s wish.

So, we’re arriving at the shipping part. I suppose I should talk about Kouko’s relationship with Suzu. But I can’t do that without talking about her relationship with Irena first. Irena was Kouko’s senpai, her mentor, her role model, the only source of happiness and self-worth at the orphanage. Kouko was dependant on her, and when she lost her it left a void in her heart and a deep feeling of worthlessness. Irena was like the sun in her life, and without her, she’s stuck in a dark and cold night (okay that sounded cheesy but you get my point).

Okay, now we can talk about Suzu. She’s not a replacement for Irena, but she’s a new mature and adult person in Kouko’s life, a new person she can rely on. Suzu is like a mentor to her, teaching her stuff, helping her with her life (and literally saving her life in KnR). This is what Kouko needs in her life, an adult with experience to help her out, to heal her heart from the loss of Irena. Kouko needs emotional support, to feel appreciated by someone, someone to guide her, and Suzu is the right person for that. They are both lonely and hurt by life, and having each other can help them both to heal their own inner wound. Suzu and Kouko have more of a grandma/grandchild relationship than a romantic one, Suzu does look like she has a little crush on Kouko, but we have yet to see Kouko reciprocate those feelings. I personally ship them as a romantic couple, but as they are portrayed in the series, they are canonly pretty platonic.

Wow, working on this analysis made me realize how deep Kouko is as a character despite her low screentime, I genuinely feel bad for her, her past is really sad, and I sincerely wish her to be happy in the future (with Suzu, of course).

So in conclusion, Kouko is someone struggling with low self-esteem and an inferiority complex due to a childhood devoid of love and appreciation, she hides it behind an assertive and power-seeking persona, but deep down she’s a generous, honourable, brave and determined person, with possibly the soul of an artist. If she starts a new life (possibly with Suzu) she might finally learn to love herself and be happy, and especially, be free.

That will be all for my Kouko analysis, thanks for reading and if you have any comment, stuff you want to add or questions, don’t hesitate to ask me!

ps: may add a video later to illustrate one of my points.

#akuma no riddle #riddle story of devil #anr #kouko kaminaga #kaminaga kouko #suzukou #suzu x kouko #analysis #ricky analysis #ricky talk

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armeniaitn · 4 years

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Turkey wants to carry out another genocide, Armenian President says

New Post has been published on https://armenia.in-the.news/politics/turkey-wants-to-carry-out-another-genocide-armenian-president-says-61831-06-10-2020/

Turkey wants to carry out another genocide, Armenian President says

If Turkey is restrained with the help of Russia, US and France, then we have a chance of going back to the negotiation table, Armenian President Armen Sarkissian said in an interview with CNN’s Becky Anderson.

Becky Anderson: So, to know about the conflict we now joined the Armenian president Armen Sarkissian, he is speaking from Armenia’s capital Yerevan. He is talking about the attacks against its cities regionating from Armenia itself to Nagorno-Karabakh.

President Sarkissian: Well, unfortunately, this is a war started by Azerbaijan against the people of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh [Artsakh] and this is not a usual war we are seeing. I mean, these are not short conflicts for a day or two or three or four that have been happening during 26 years after the first war on Nagorno-Karabakh, which ended with a ceasefire in 1994. What is different here is the scale and it is already on the seventh day (it is coming the eight day) of the conflict because a week ago Azerbaijan started a war on Sunday, and there are already some clear results of that. First of all, this conflict of seventh days has shown that Azerbaijan is not gaining anything strategically, except creating a big mess and thousands of people that are killed on both sides. Secondly, this conflict is dramatically different from the previous clashes, which were happening between Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh, supported by Armenia. It is now happening with the open support by Turkey with its military officers, generals, mercenaries, and terroristic Jihadists who are brought in thousands to Azerbaijan to fight against Nagorno-Karabakh, and Turkey with its military might is pretending that they are there just to protect some international, logistic structures.

Becky Anderson: We will get to Turkey and I just wanted to establish what is going on, even if the entire responsibilities falls on Azerbaijan, many people disagree and say that Armenia provoked them.

President Sarkissian: I think there is no logic in saying that Armenia has provoked it because in 1994 the people of Nagorno-Karabakh basically won the war and claimed again for our independence that was taken from us for 70 years of the Soviet rule by forcefully connecting us to Azerbaijan by Josef Stalin. And then, with the breakdown of the Soviet Union we started to claim, similar to many other nations, our self-determination to rule our own life. Since then, there were negotiations for 26 years after the ceasefire and the platform of that negotiations was one of the best or the highest in the world; this is the OSCE Minsk Group, co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France. These peaceful negotiations were basically creating some trust between the sides and eventually talking about the future status of Nagorno-Karabakh. However, a week ago for this or that reason, the Azerbaijani side is claiming that they see no progress in negotiations and claim that this is about the territorial integrity. What is a territorial integrity for a piece of land that was given to them by the Soviet Union to keep it for 70 years, while Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh lived there for thousands of years? For people of Nagorno-Karabakh this is a fight for life because they have been fighting against Genghis Khan, Lenk Timur and the others for thousands of years, now it is about having a peaceful life on their own land.

Becky Anderson: How about that the Azerbaijani president said just yesterday “Azerbaijan will not let anyone to conquer Nagorno Karabakh, which is an Azeri territory, we must return, we will return it from Armenian occupation. He says “Azerbaijan will not cease military actions untill you don’t set a timetable for withdrawing frits”. Are you willing to do that?

President Sarkissian: Well, I think, first of all, addressing it to the Republic of Armenia is a wrong appeal as they have to appeal to Nagorno-Karabakh or Artsakh as we call it, because their dispute is with this people. Now, this is not about Armenia occupying a territory. This is a territory that even under the Soviet rule, when it was part of Soviet Azerbaijan for 70 years, the absolute majority, I mean 95% of the population, were Armenians because they have been living there for thousands of years. How can anybody occupy a territory that you are living for thousands of years? So, this is not the right appeal…

Becky Anderson: Azerbaijan’s Military Defence said today that they have recorded rockets at Azerbaijan from starting positions of Armenia. How would you explain this, sir?

President Sarkissian: I don’t have to explain because that is not true, and in reality, the radar systems, computers and everything have been recording all the time how they were shelling the civilian population and the city of Stepanakert, villages and so on, from the Azerbaijani territory, and, in fact, what we have also recorded it is the activity of thousands of mujahideen terrorists, and we have also recorded basically Turkish F-16 being involved and their drones being massively involved. So, the short answer is that this is fake news.

Becky Anderson: Your Prime Minister spoke with the US national security advisor Robert O’Brien on Thursday about Turkey’s role in the intensifying conflict. What was the outcome of that talk and is the US offering any support?

President Sarkissian: Well, there was a call, as you know, by the three Co-Chairs of the Minsk Group on the presidential level of relevant countries: the President of the United States, the President of France and the President of the Russian Federation who called upon the sides for a ceasefire. I fully support this call of the three Presidents but the key issue here is that if there were only these two sides-the Azeri side and the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh with its population plus Armenia that is supporting Nagorno-Karabakh-then there would be a chance for future ceasefire and coming to the negotiating table. But as we have the Turkish component, it destroys everything.

Becky Anderson: The New York Times is reporting that the Prime Minister says of the US that nothing is being done to stop Turkey from American-made F-16 against ethnic Armenians. So, what is the response from Washington?

President Sarkissian: You are asking me something that is probably up to the US President’s National Security Advisor to answer this question. I openly spoke about this to the big multinational community, to many Presidents, Prime Ministers of different countries, asking them to interfere and put pressure on Turkey to stop it to interfere in the region because their interference is leveling the conflict up in magnitude, in complexity, and also creating something that eventually will become another Syria of Caucasus. If it becomes a place like Syria, then God help everybody. God help Europe, God help Central Asia. It will affect everybody including Turkey, Iran and Russia. So, my plea is if Turkey is restrained with the help of Russia, US and France, then we have a chance of a ceasefire and further negotiations, maybe peacekeepers, and a chance to going back to the negotiation table. Because there is no military solution to this conflict, there can only be peaceful, and diplomatic solution. To be honest, the Turkish involvement in this gives feeling to everyone not only in Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia but everywhere where are Armenians, and those people who are close to the Armenians, that Turkey wants to repeat something that happened 105 years ago-ethnic cleansings of Armenians from their homeland-and creating another genocide.

Becky Anderson: Turkey is denying the genocide. I wonder you asked US for help on Thursday just before Trump was tested positive for COVID-19, do you think he wants his eyes off of this conflict? Does that worry you?

President Sarkissian: I don’t believe that Washington has its eye off of what is happening in the Caucasus because this is a crucial area. It is not only an important crossroad for many things but also in terms of a supply of hydrocarbons and the humanitarian side, and contains vital interests of many states. You spoke about the COVID-19 in the context of the President of the United States. So, let me take this opportunity to wish the President and the first lady good health and quick recovery because that is very is important not only for the Armenians but also for the elections in the US. By whishing health, we are hoping the US pays very serious attention to what is happening in the region. When you say Turkey is denying the genocide you can just look what the US Senate has decided, and countries like France, Russia and many other countries who have acknowledged what historically has happened. But also look at what is happening in the region; Turkey is involved in Libya, it was involved in Egypt, it has crossed the border and invaded Iraq and Syria, it is bullying people and countries in the Mediterranean, it has now tensions with Greece and Cyprus and now it is Karabakh, Azerbaijan and Armenia. The presence of Turkey in Azerbaijan and its involvement make a big change.

Becky Anderson: Turkey’s foreign minister said that Armenia should immediately withdraw from this region. Will NATO be on the side of the Armenian forces? You have accused Turkey in bringing Syrian fighters to fight on Azerbaijani side, what evidence do you have about that, sir?

President Sarkissian: I am asking my colleagues both in NATO and also NATO member Turkey, when they were signing an agreement to join NATO, did that agreement allow Turkey to interfere in third party conflict regardless the reason they claim: ethnicity, [alleged] PKK fighters or protection of international energy pipelines? This is a nonsense, because Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh never have hit it. If they wanted to do so, they could have done this 20 years ago by stopping Azerbaijan to make billions of dollars, which were then used to buy armaments with which they now kill Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. That is one point. Secondly, I think we have to appeal, first of all, to bring this conflict back to the table of negotiations and to have a peaceful resolution. And the table of negotiations should not have Turkey around it. Turkey should withdraw from Azerbaijan and stop supporting them, because it becomes just another side of the conflict. Is NATO ready to accept that a NATO member is in war against Armenia? Neither Armenia, nor Azerbaijan are NATO members. We have a sort of partnership with NATO. And a NATO member is interfering.

Becky Anderson: What about evidence regarding sending Syrian fighters?

President Sarkissian: The evidence about Syrian fighters is open, it is on the internet, and the Government has provided all the necessary information. If you want, I can ask the Government to physically send it to you or your representative, if you have not seen them. It is obvious, there are video and audio recordings, captured people, and many other things. What else one needs to consider it as a clear evidence? And also, they did not come on their own.

Becky Anderson: What about Russia? What can Russia do?

President Sarkissian: Russia has allied relations both with Armenia and Azerbaijan. And again, we hope that Russia as a key member of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs will exercise a pressure first of all on Turkey. My formula is pretty simple: we need to exclude Turkey from this conflict militarily and politically. I do not know how on earth, there is shelling, there is fighting and Turkey is giving a sort of responses, organizing press-conferences, as if they are a side of the conflict. If Russia can put pressure, and then after that, the three Co-Chairs advising Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia to stop hostilities, I think it will work, and I hope it will work, and we will go back to the negotiations.

Becky Anderson: Thank you so much, sir. This was a very important speech.

President Sarkissian: Thank you very much, Becky.

Read original article here.

#Armenia #Armenians #Artsakh #Caucasus #Covid-19 #Karabakh #Yerevan #Politics

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funnythingshere0-blog · 6 years

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Just A Bunch Of Old Peter Dutton Tweets That Are Extremely Funny Now

New Post has been published on https://funnythingshere.xyz/just-a-bunch-of-old-peter-dutton-tweets-that-are-extremely-funny-now/

Just A Bunch Of Old Peter Dutton Tweets That Are Extremely Funny Now

By now you’ve probably heard the news: this morning Peter Dutton put his name forward to lead the Liberal Party. He lost the ballot by 13 votes — 48 votes for PM Malcolm Turnbull, 35 votes for Dutton — and has resigned from his frontbench posting as Home Affairs Minister.

But Dutton losing this ballot doesn’t mean we’ve heard the last of him. Back in 2012 (or five leadership spills ago, if you’re counting), Julia Gillard won 71 votes to Kevin Rudd’s 31 in his first challenge for her Labor leadership. 17 months later, Rudd ran again and won.

Some reports have speculated that Dutton could seek another spill at some point in the next two weeks — even as early as Thursday. So start entertaining the idea of a Prime Minister Dutton. To help you, we’ve gone back and compiled all of Dutton’s weird old tweets to help you understand the man he was, and the PM he could be.

We know Dutton is conservative, but in the past he has worked himself up over internet fights with progressives. Loves the weekend though.

You dirty lefties are too easy. Enjoy your weekend.

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) December 9, 2011

He’s even said that he enjoys stirring them up.

I’ve enjoyed stirring up all you little social inclusions. On a flight now. Sleep well. Dream about Campbell.

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) March 25, 2012

This tweet is particularly timely, given Dutton appeared before cameras today after the leadership spill with a notedly softer persona.

Some friendly advice Julia – beware a D/PM selling his “softer” side at a time your party is looking for l’ship

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) April 20, 2011

And he really isn’t a fan of Gillard (bonus points to the tweet that praises Dutton’s would-be backstabbing victim, Turnbull).

Good stuff on q&a malcolm – julia had a shocker.

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) August 6, 2009

I think Julia Gillard is taking her political advice from Charlie Sheen.

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) March 2, 2011

The one where he wonders whether Gillard has a problem with men.

I watched ch 7. Does julia have a problem with men?? The male worm certainly thought so.

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) July 25, 2010

Referring to Fairfax journalist Latika Bourke, Dutton also called out the way she looked before a 2010 question time session:

Latika must have a date after qn time? Wearing big new dangly earings and a big purple flower.

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) February 9, 2010

To be fair, he also made fun of his male opponents’ looks:

KRudds fringe looks like its been welded on this morn. More hair spray than Dame Edna.#flickredundant #jealousmyhairproblemisntsoeasilyfixed

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) August 12, 2013

But hey, maybe that’s all remedied by his defence of Gillard in this 2011 specimen.

I watched “At Home with Julia’ for the 1st time today. I thought it was pretty shabby treatment of the PM and in partic Tim.

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) September 13, 2011

Just…

is back in Dickson today

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) February 27, 2009

y pharmacy.

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) July 29, 2009

ees (from 30 years ago).

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) August 5, 2009

Warned for using twitter. Lift my game.

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) November 25, 2009

Is ch 7 serious delaying the tennis for HOME AND AWAY? Give me a break.

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) January 25, 2010

Prince Philip is definitely my favourite royal.

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) March 13, 2010

He’s an interesting man with an interesting tweet history who might just be our next Prime Minister.

And, if that does happen, we know what our reaction will be:

Bugger….

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) July 14, 2013

Source: https://junkee.com/peter-dutton-tweets/172285

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zhangedward · 4 years

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Cat Urine Virus All Time Best Ideas

To get rid of fridge odors also work well with other animals.These self cleaning cat urine: Soak up as much as possible.Cats with allergic dermatitis caused by disinfectants, pollen, dust or other indoor valuables, provide a clawing post so that they can get away with with a lot to do certain things.Slowly and gradually, they will know when you own more cats, then you transfer it when he scratches your hand at least once every three months.

The real secret is to begin teaching it so your cat scratch furniture: cardboard scratchers, and carpeted cat tree can go flying and then it could be that the cat negative reinforcement for your beloved cat?Be aware that fleas are going to determine the cause before it dries, this less odor will eventually block the urine odor and the cat know it you'll not only that you spray the cats as well.Think about the best way to use a litter box as it might be the last option may seem, it can appear anywhere on your other plants.It is a good idea to cleanse the cat is not an option.The cat box at least every 2 weeks to 2 inches of warm water.

You might save some money by buying cheap cat food, medicines, beds, accessories and a while and have the cat with water if any fighting should occur.They will give you a month's pay and a few days, schedule an appointment for your furry friends to walk on or near the furniture to pulp, jumping onto counter tops after use can be taken as consideration.Then there's the risk and cause as much of the Adult FleaIn the Genes?: It is very serious problem.It is available at the level of the house to be involved in urination for cats to misbehave.

If a cat is scratching carpets or furniture, or clothes or whatever else your problem will get right down and solve the problem.This will reassure him, or her, that the crate as an outdoor litter box.A number of pets that offer chemical sprays such as cayenne pepper, tabasco sauce, lavender oil, citronella oil, mustard oil, and even cells can urinate in inappropriate places, such as worm larvae inside your garden is an easy way to help them lessen the damage.Some cats, and even fight cancer and other pieces of the litter box training and finally the worst thing and solution; it is better to associate meal time with it, it rolls and the complaints.I also have to worry about their cats started peeing everywhere and in a packet, this is an indication that the Society for the cat, and the pet store you may want to not do so much more happy and relaxed feline which of the litter.

Many people believe that cat's are much better and will help dispose of their cat in the gardening or health & beauty section of your favorite store.Only about 50% to 70% of cats with a couple of windows, a door and there are some ideas that you could buy her a proper cat care is the 15 digit FDXB micro chip so check with your pet cat in the same place again.Playing actually will help to deter them from touching certain thingsThis is not doing this until he or she should be performed early, at about six months.Cat-nip infused tiny stuffed mice are popular for hiding, chasing and chewing on.

You must not forget that all of them aren't fixed, those who are strays, the hardest time of the things that you have got other pets in the litter box, there is nothing more frustrating than watching your cat like to touch them, and the smell of urine, and why she is spayed but there are some issues that will permit them to use scoopable litter.The low cost topical flea treatments such as this.In case you don't end up doing it yourself, have your pet from slipping.Well I will not want them to cover up the cat, but could also signify that a litter tray can make the scratching corners with something that should not be able to diagnose the disorder, but the noise from this point. UTI urinary tract infections and other surface that has been there for a longer period of time.

Make sure the children and pets within the expiration dates and avoid those which contain strong chemicals.Cats need to pay as much urine as you need to place them in a location they dislike.Sprinkle baking soda on the defence again with the palm of their necks as the previous owner's animals.Fleas can actually get into everything unless you are like any kind of change, especially when this brings something to dissuade them from scratching up your carpets and curtains.Although a scented litter may smell nice and tall piece of furniture.

Do you have a bird or squirrel feeder immediately outside.This will ensure you'll get along with each other slowly, and always puzzling.Again, be patient with a few drops of the multi cat household.In turn, they deserve our love for climbing trees with all of this pet is clawing at.Most of the health of your pet stop spraying.

Cat Peeing Vs Spraying

You just simply have an older cat, it is still using your home and environment.The other potential problem with flea killer products that claim to its grooming habits.Cats are territorial and if you just want to check on the rug?You are also likely be a sign of even mild disease symptoms.You can find many products available that is calm while the spraying problems.

Laser pointers- see above under training tips for keeping your kittens and young cats to scratch.Second task -You have to understand that what they do not like covering and you can use to keep your windows and doors should be burned.How does your cat with a blend of observation and patience to train them, whilst also trying to bend over a post where kitty likes to look for your cat is old enough to want you to come inspect it.Supply your cat comes home to sleep in our house and yard, and flea eggs and larvae; fleas breed best in your cat's ears while bathing, you can also reduce your cat's environment more interesting by building an activity center or hardware store you may have on your cat.Here is the equivalent of us with cats that are used to keep them out.

If you use enough litter boxes even though they seem to get things rolling, but don't impose any sudden behavior change.If you're missing just 1 ingredient, you'd have to leave the door jam.Take all your problems and your short haired felines.However, it is doing something you don't notice it until he understands.Many people think that your kitty is on a purely meat diet and lots of tears on his shots, nueter and microchip, a pet lover.

Make sure you get involved in the car, so that you switch this mode at dusk and dawn to prevent the cat and the rest will fall into bad habits.This can be jealous animals especially when they are thick that means they may be infiltrated with a homemade recipe.Finally, my prime tip for you to follow a step beyond.So will your happy, free-spirited feline friend!That being said, it's also the option of de-clawing him/her.

Vitamin C with Bioflavinoids in high doses has an infection.Cats for whatever reason also dislike surfaces that cannot be deterred by any other method.Due to this, you have built or bought a new cat that is not and it is easy to see if anyone has to use it to a clean mister or spray cat urine that must be separated from is owner.When cats are indoors only and I moved; a 3 1/2 day drive.The problem with your kitten home or if you have the litter box was located as she was a kitten, or if you hit bare skin you can squirt him with the feces, and take steps in making a happy life.

Expressed another way for keep your cat like to scratch the area.Ask your veterinarian to obtain the best way is to know where they point their ears are very clean animal, he can easily be turned into indoor pets.Cat urine can be beneficial to abide by the plant, or specifically recommended by your cat to successfully adjust their behavior.I've taken to the benefits it provides to you, the pain that it will also be less smelly than cats in a safe outlet for your child.Our experience has been abdominal, then the battle is half the time and monetary commitment, so cat owners always go away with the insects.

6 Year Old Cat Peeing Everywhere

So if you have a pet clinic and let him come out of sync, but in the houseHere is a great escape artist each time your pet in the car and off with some marbles in a bowl.Transition may be compromised and your cat is quite simply an A type personality.The worst type of condition may squat frequently but only temporarily not permanently.You could have come out and ate the plant, there may be a good veterinarian.

Cats hate having sticky paws, so the sprinkler method should be for keeps, so consider carefully before you see kitty stretching out those reasons, consider behavioral or medicalThe owner should not be able to offer her proper medical care in time of fireworks and noisy activities, but this is by far better to positive behavior, so set a basket in your cats may spray items that have the vet for a happy pet that resides with a hair dryer on a counter where the majority of people are only looking to have a sense of security and belonging.But when you want to use the dryer, that's okay.Blotting long fur is long, ensure that all owners learn how to teach a cat to eliminate it on the floor, and see if you have done this, repeat step 6 again to clean the litter box with a human inhaler to counteract the swelling of the door closed.Fresh urine does not make the female cats in the tens of thousands of unwanted cats are less likely to end up with a commercial scratching pad made from meat sources by companies that offer chemical sprays that claim to reduce, retard or remove pet odor/staining, but you can stand on the toilet and fill the kind of comfort state they are playing.

#Cat Urine Virus All Time Best Ideas #Cat Peeing When Left Alone

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thechasefiles · 4 years

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The Chase Files Daily Newscap 20/2/2020

Good Morning #realdreamchasers ! Here is your daily news cap for Thursday 20th February, 2020. There is a lot to read and digest so take your time. Remember you can read full articles via Barbados Government Information Service (BGIS), Barbados Today (BT), or by purchasing a Daily Nation Newspaper (DN).

ABRAHAMS: DRY SPELL MORE SERIOUS NOW – Another round of water restrictions is coming as Barbados remains in a drought, and Minister of Energy and Water Resources Wilfred Abrahams has served notice that residents who fail to comply will be prosecuted. He issued the warning today, saying that the country has had less rainfall than expected since the start of the year and the next prohibition notice would be even more stringent. “The projections are, at best, we will have a dry season. So if there is already a water deficit coming out of the rainy season and we will have a dry season, then it is going to be difficult for the rest of the year,” Abrahams told reporters following a tour of the Barbados Bottling Company Ltd (BBC) plant in Newton, Christ Church. “We are still in a drought situation. We are still water scarce while the demand for water is great. So you can look out for the actual announcement of the prohibition and the terms of it. I will say that whereas last time we banked largely on the good will of people, the situation is more serious now and we are going to be looking to enforce that prohibition fully.” Although noting that authorities usually avoided implementing a prohibition notice during the Christmas period and the busy winter tourist season, which runs from the beginning of December to the end of April, Abrahams said given the low water levels in the aquifers, it could not be avoided. “Things being what they are, the water situation being what it is, it is necessary now for us to reintroduce a prohibition,” he said. The last prohibition notice from the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) took effect from June 10, 2019 until August 31, 2019 before being extended to the end of November last year. It barred the use of potable water for irrigation or watering of gardens, lawns and grounds by hose or sprinkle system; filling or supplying tanks, ponds, baths or swimming pools other than dipping tanks for cattle, domestic baths not exceeding 120 litres or 32 gallons, and elevated reserve tanks not exceeding 221 gallons. It also prohibited the use of water to wash roadways, pavements, paths, garages, outrooms or vehicles by hose and washing windows and building exteriors. The penalty for disobeying the notice is a fine of $500 and in default of payment, imprisonment for one month. Pointing out that the last prohibition was “quite effective”, the Minister explained that there were several residents who called the ministry and the BWA to report those who were using the commodity indiscriminately. However, he said, as far as he was aware no one was prosecuted during the last prohibition period. “Usually a phone call or visit yielded the result we wanted . . . Everybody is being affected one way or the other. So I think for the most part Barbadians understand what we are going through and the challenges the Barbados Water Authority is faced with in respect to the delivery and distribution of water. So it was not necessary to charge anybody the last time,” he explained. However, Abrahams made it clear that when the next prohibition order is issued, residents who violate it will not be as lucky. “Chances are this time around the prohibitions are going to be a little bit more stringent. We now don’t have the latitude with the water situation being what it is, to depend on the good will of people. So we are hoping that everybody toes the line and there is no need to take it any further, but the Government and the Water Authority will do what they have to in order to secure the water supply for the benefit of Barbados,” he warned. The Minister was not in a position to say when the new notice would take effect, but said once the BWA decided on what form it would take then it would be issued. However, he noted that Cabinet had already given the approval to his Ministry’s request to reintroduce the prohibition measures. (BT)

DEPEIZA: STUART’S NEWS NOT DLP’S – Former Prime Minister Freundel Stuart should feel free to defend his seven-year tenure in the country’s highest office. But not all of his most recent comments reflect the current position or direction of the Democratic Labour Party, President Verla DePeiza has suggested. Last Sunday, during Stuart’s second public address since losing the reigns of government, he showed little contrition for the stewardship which resulted in a 30-0 defeat at the polls, suggesting that the previous administration ought to be proud of its ability to keep the country stable during a difficult time. DePeiza was out of the island during Sunday’s meeting of the party’s St Philip North branch. But reacting to Stuart’s address days later, she stressed the need for its leaders to acknowledge that the people which they swore to serve, were unhappy with their leadership. “We must acknowledge that the people were not pleased with us. We were in government and therefore we have to take responsibility. I have been pretty clear on that. It is up to us to impress the electorate that we are doing the right thing. That is our duty,” the DLP President told Barbados TODAY. She, however, added: “He [Stuart] is entitled to his opinion though and he is especially entitled to defend himself however he sees fit…How that is received is a whole different story, but who best to defend them [former leaders] than themselves? They are the ones who are to defend themselves. Regardless of how it is received, you can’t take that from them.” Two years since the last election, DePeiza says she is more concerned with moving the party forward than trying to defend its previous leaders. “I am the President and I have spent the last few months outlining my vision… the defence of the last administration is to speak about the past. We are looking forward to what alternatives we can offer to the people of Barbados and that is a critical distinction that has to be made,” she said. Depeiza argued that while the last administration was not all bad, a failure to instill confidence in the people was its undoing. She agrees with Stuart that the Mia-Mottley administration has placed a clear distinction between the two parties by placing the business sector and capital above the social wellbeing of citizens. According to DePeiza, it is the DLP’s duty to once again provide an alternative to working-class Barbadians. “Those people who said the two parties are the same over the last 20 months should know for sure that this is not true. I share the view that our mantra, ‘Barbados is more than an economy, it is a society’, that we took a lot of licks for, is a very succinct capture of how the DLP views its role in leadership. But having said that, it will always be our responsibility to bring the people along with us, to have that idea of them and share it with them in a manner that they want to be a part of,” said DePeiza. “Our policies have to be grounded in the people, not in business, not in finance, nor in capital. People have to be at the centre, giving them more opportunities and widening the scope of entrepreneurship so that we are not just servants of other people…. That is a part of our constitution and that will never change. How it manifests itself may change in terms of our policies, but that will never change,” she added. When asked how much input previous party leaders are having on the DLP’s new direction she said “not much to be honest”, but admitted the party’s younger members remained open to the experience of those who served before them. The DLP leader, however, took some umbrage with suggestions that the relationship between the DLP’s current and former leadership is under strain. (BT)

MIA IN HIGH SPIRITS – Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley last night hailed the 31st Inter-Sessional CARICOM Heads of Government meeting as one of the most productive ever to be held by member states, adding it was the required stepping stone to the region’s future. The two-day meeting at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre ended with the Barbadian leader and new CARICOM chairman revealing a number of agreements had been signed, important reports presented, and forward-thinking approaches reached as the Caribbean seeks to deal with challenges such as the coronavirus (Covid-19), exorbitant regional roaming rates, increased crime and violence, climate change, food security and the future of Haiti. “We have been able to continue to advance the work of the region to the benefit of Caribbean people. This conference will come to be remembered as one in which we laid the footsteps for a number of key decisions,” Mottley said, while flanked by Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit of Dominica, and CARICOM Secretary General Irwin LaRocque. (DN)

COMPREHENSIVE INITIATIVE TO SLASH FOOD IMPORT BILL – Barbados stands to see a major cut in its approximately $500 million food import bill as a result of a new Caribbean Community (CARICOM) plan that would reduce the region’s collective bill by US$1.25 billion over the next five years. The plan was one of the major decisions taken at the two-day 31st CARICOM Inter-Sessional meeting, which concluded today at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre. At a post-summit press conference, CARICOM Chairman Prime Minister Mia Mottley revealed that the “comprehensive” plan was devised by the region’s private sector and labour movement and it was decided Caribbean leaders would take the requisite steps to ensure it becomes reality within the specified period. “We took a very comprehensive report from the Regional Private Sector Organization and from the Caribbean Congress of Labour and this is perhaps one of the most pleasing things to me. As you know, one year ago we announced that we would want to bring these organizations to the table as associate institutions of CARICOM. We met with them and gave them a task which would look at production integration across four areas, which included food security,” she said. Mottley revealed that the plan, which deals with both livestock and crops, would not only increase the region’s self-sufficiency but would also boost the potential for increased foreign exchange. “The report that came sets out a pathway towards us being able to work towards substituting 25 per cent of our food import bill, which at the moment stands at US$5 billion. We will look to cut out 25 per cent of that in the next five years. What was heartening was that they had a clear plan across livestock and crops and also would have the potential to earn foreign exchange,” she explained. Mottley, who has championed this cause since her Barbados Labour Party took the reins of power here two years ago, made it clear that unlike other plans in the past that have inspired little action, the regional leaders were fully committed to seeing this initiative through to the end. “This would require action on the part of private investors at all levels but it will also require further action on the part of governments and the Community to make it more serious, for that kind of production to take place from Guyana and Suriname in the south to Jamaica in the north, from Belize in the west to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean in the east,” she said. “To that extent, we believe that the people of the region, in the course of the next few years, can see a Caribbean that is committed to feeding themselves. We have agreed that this plan will come to the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee so that they could report back on the basis of an implementation plan. We have confidence that this would add serious value.” The CARICOM Chairman noted that the regional leaders were equally committed to following through on a number of other decisions, such as the removal of lingering barriers to free movement, additional funding for the CARICOM Development Fund, and addressing the upsurge in violent crime as a public health issue. Prime Minister Mottley added that CARICOM was seeking to present a united front on the issue of blacklisting and threats to correspondent banking.(BT)

CANADA, IRELAND SEEK CARICOM SUPPORT FOR UN SECURITY COUNCIL SEAT – The 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) bloc is likely to vote for Canada and Ireland to get a seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for the 2020/2021 two-year term. Representatives from Canada and Ireland were in Bridgetown this week drumming up support from CARICOM member states as the regional Heads of Government met for their 31st Inter-sessional Meeting. Representatives from both countries spoke glowingly about their relationship with the Caribbean and gave assurances that they would use their influence to get the international community to address issues affecting the region’s economies. Canada’s Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne made the pitch to the CARICOM leaders on behalf of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the opening day of the meeting at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre on Tuesday. Former Prime Minister of Ireland Enda Kenny spoke on behalf of that European Union (EU) nation. Five countries – China, Great Britain, France, the United States and Russia – are permanent members of the 15-member UN Security Council. Based on UN rules, the remaining ten seats are allotted on a regional basis, and Canada, Ireland, and Norway are competing for the only two available seats reserved for Western Europe and “other” groupings. There are eight other non-permanent members. Africa and Latin America-Caribbean usually preselect countries through rotation. The election, which is due in June this year, will be decided by the 193-members of the General Assembly. Champagne told Barbados TODAY that Canada and CARICOM shared a deep relationship dating back decades and it was Ottawa’s intention to strengthen that relationship. “We want to make sure that the youth, which represent 60 per cent of the people in the Caribbean, can be amplified in the world and that we can stand alongside you . . . to make sure your word is heard around the world,” he said. Adding that his country was part of several groupings, including the G7, NATO, G20 and the Commonwealth, Champagne said Canada wanted to make sure that as those groups take decisions and deal with concerns, the challenges and opportunities of the Caribbean are taken into account. Champagne said Canada understood the impact decisions taken by the international community could have on Caribbean economies, given their heavy dependence on tourism, acknowledging that those decisions could have “the biggest impact or disproportionate impact on the people living in the region”. “So when Canada is on the UN Security Council we can speak with one voice. The voice of youth, women in the region, the voice of small and medium sized businesses, the voice of progressive leaders in the region – we want to make sure that their voice is heard at the UN,” said Champagne. He told Barbados TODAY that following his pitch to CARICOM leaders he was “very optimistic”. “I came optimistic and I leave even more optimistic that Canada can be this voice that can represent the best interest of the youth in the region, of the women in the region, of the values, principles that define ourselves that the world is so in need of when we are looking at the biggest challenges that we are facing,” he said. Kenny, meantime, was not as vocal, but indicated that his country was a constant voice on issues relating to “peacekeeping and peace enforcement”. “We are the only country from the European Union who will stand up for the small nations like in the CARICOM region, and for that reason we are in competition with two other good countries – Canada and Norway. “And the CARICOM countries have an opportunity to vote for a small nation that has no other agenda, is not a member of NATO and will stand up because we have learned the lessons of what the European Union can do for small countries,” said Kenny. Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines Dr Ralph Gonsalves, whose country created history when it became the smallest island elected as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, for the 2020-2021 term, said he believed Ireland and Canada should be supported by CARICOM. “The Irish have been around in our region quite a long time, and the Irish people have been investing in the region,” he said. “Of course, Canada is a next candidate and so too Norway, but unfortunately it is only two. But we would welcome them very much.” (BT)

STUDENTS MUST COMMIT TIME – It is now mandatory for Barbadian students pursuing studies at tertiary institutions in Barbados to give back to the country. This evening, Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw launched the Give Back Programme of 100 hours for part time students and 150 hours for full time per academic year. Students studying at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Barbados Community College (BCC) and Erdiston Teachers’ Training College accessing government scholarship for their studies will participate in the programme. Delivering remarks during the launch of the programme, held at the Roy Marshall Teaching Complex, UWI, Cave Hill Campus, Minister Bradshaw said the implementation of the initiative will seek to stimulate pride and the desire for service, enable development of community and country and engender a civic responsibility among the tertiary level students. She said while Government regarded the restoration of “free” tuition fees for students at UWI as one of the critical measures needed to build the foundation for new national growth, it recognised that a stagnant economy cannot be revitalized without a trained, empowered, equipped workforce nor can it be revitalized with heavily-indebted consumers. “It is with this in mind that this administration also recognizes that to whom much is given, much is expected. We therefore see this investment in education as having a consequential civic responsibility which requires each beneficiary to be engaged in give back service to their community and country. “The Give Back Barbados Programme is a national campaign which is wider than education. It is hoped that this initiative will become the catalyst for a national movement which will inspire Barbadians of all walks of life to give back. “While students are at the epicenter of this initiative, government, non-governmental agencies and community-based organisations, all represented here this evening have all been given the opportunity to participate in the national give back programme,” she said. The Minister said each tertiary institution will also be shouldered with the responsibility for encouraging, guiding and motivating students to become enrolled in the programme as well as operating as entities where students can volunteer their service. To enroll in the programme, students will be required to sign up to an online application www.gov.bb/giveback where they can choose from more than 65 government, charity and a growing list of Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs), who require volunteers in areas of business, entrepreneurship, youth, technology, health and wellness, the environment and tourism and the creative economy. The application tracks the number of hours the students have completed, and the organisations correlate and verify the hours volunteered. During the launch, Minister of Innovation Science and Smart Technology Senator Kay McConney handed over the Give Back application which was created by her Ministry to Minister Bradshaw. Bradshaw noted that the use of social media will be an integral feature of the promotion of the Give Back Programme. (BT)

WATER BAN COMING – Water prohibition is coming again, and this time Government is warning Barbadians that it will be sparing no efforts in going after those who breach the ban. Minister of Water Resources Wilfred Abrahams yesterday announced that Cabinet had approved the reintroduction of the prohibition which expired on Independence Day. He was speaking following a tour of the Barbados Bottling Company (BBC) in Newton, Christ Church, where conversations between the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) and the manufacturer to see how best the 8 000 gallons of waste water produced daily by the company could best be utilised. (DN)

GARBABGE TAX PUSHING COST UP – One of Barbados’ largest beverage companies says the Garbage and Sewage Contribution (GSC) levy coupled with the change in water rate has resulted in its operation costs shooting up by about 40 per cent. However, officials are giving the assurance that there would be no increase in the prices of its aerated soft drinks and other products as a result. Additionally, with up to 20 per cent of every gallon of water used at the facility being considered waste water, the company is seeking to enter into a unique partnership with the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) to ensure further improvement in conserving and reusing water from that facility. General Manager of the Barbados Bottling Company Limited (BBC) Andre Thomas made the disclosure on Wednesday, following a tour of the Newton, Christ Church facility by members of the BWA, the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources and members of the media. Thomas said the BBC got all its water from the BWA, and while he opted not to say what the company’s monthly bill was, he said “we pay heavily for it”. “Any impact on the financial performance of the business will have a significant impact on bottomline and the ability to operate. So yes, the increase in the water rates and GSC tax impacted our business heavily. Our cost went up probably by 30 or 40 per cent,” he said. In addition to the GSC, which took effect in August 2018 and is set at 50 per cent of the water bill, the BWA also adjusted its water rates for commercial customers in May last year, moving it from a fixed 4.66 per cubit metre to a sliding scale. Thomas said while the impact was significant “at the end of the day we are a part of the environment”, and therefore anything that is useful for the country and the environment “we support”. He said the company would be ramping up its water recycling efforts and forming closer ties with the BWA and the Sanitation Services Authority in that regard. “We are willing to invest and put our money where our mouth is to support Barbados and everybody benefits,” said Thomas. Wednesday’s tour was designed primarily to give the BWA and the ministry officials a first-hand view of the measures in place at the beverage manufacturing plant to capture its waste water and recycle it, and to discuss ways to put the recycled water to greater use. Barbados TODAY understands that while the company has been capturing the waste water and purifying it and using back some of it to do cleaning, a significant amount of it is being returned to the aquifers. The BBC, which was once part of the Banks Holdings Limited (BHL) Group for decades, but was sold to Coca-Cola bottling partner KOSCAB Distribution Barbados Limited in 2018, is one of the top five heaviest users of water from the BWA. “One of the things we want to ensure we do is to either replenish or conserve all resources that we use. Water is a big part of what we use in our production process. So is plastic,” said Thomas. He noted that while approximately 80 per cent of every plastic bottle produced by the company was recycled and exported as raw material, he wanted to be able to “say the same for water”. “In our production process out of every gallon of water that is used about 10, 15 or 20 per cent is used as waste water. Right now we produce about 8,000 gallons of waste water that can be used within the Barbados market for either irrigation of the million trees that the Prime Minister has talked about or for irrigation of football fields for the National Sports Council,” he said. Thomas also pointed out that the company, which currently directly employs 120 people, had recently finished installing solar photovoltaic on its roof. “We expect to save about 11 or 12 per cent in energy consumption. Our limitation really is government regulation. We want to go even higher but we need to make sure we are within the government regulation,” said Thomas. Minister of Energy and Water Resources Wilfred Abrahams said he was impressed by the technology being used at the plant and the innovation used to capture the waste water and recycle it, adding that he was looking forward “to synergies” between the BWA and the BBC. Officials of the two entities are to carry out further discussions in order to cement what form the collaboration will take and if there would be any form of compensation or reduction in water bill for the company. General Manager of the BWA Keithroy Halliday agreed there was definitely room for collaboration. “One of the things we have been pushing for . . . is the fact that instead of using potable water you can use water such as what you are treating, to wash down driveways and buildings. I believe that is an avenue we will pursue,” said Halliday, who said the BWA was also keen to learn from the BBC in relation to the capturing and treatment of waste water.(BT)

EFFORTS TO COMBAT CORONA VIRUS PRAISED – One top official of the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) is lauding efforts by Barbados and other Caribbean leaders to ensure strict measures are in place to guard against the deadly Covid-19 virus, which continues to spread in China where it orignated. At the same time, Executive Director of the CARPHA Dr Joy St John told Barbados TODAY she was pleased with steps being taken to tackle the long-standing issues leading to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and heart attacks. Speaking during the opening of the 31st CARICOM Inter-sessional Meeting of the Conference of the Heads of Government in Barbados on Tuesday, she gave the assurance that the Covid virus had not yet reached the Caribbean. Dr St John said the measures in place were quite extensive and CARPHA would be working closely with countries to have a protocol in place. “In terms of that treatment protocol, CARPHA will be convening a group of technical experts who will give guidance, and we are taking members of our member states so we can have a practical ‘Caribbeanised’ version of the generic protocols that were put out by the World Health Organisation (WHO),” she said. According to St John, the issue of “fake news” remained a concern for CARPHA. She said it was proposed by the ministers of health in CARICOM that her association produce “a Covid communications plan”, which she said was now being developed. “Another important collaboration has been with the tourism sector,” she added. St John said she did not think any of the measures being implemented by Caribbean states were too stringent, adding that they were following guidelines and “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. During day one of the two-day CARICOM Inter-sessional Meeting, health featured heavily, with medical officials presenting a draft protocol for the treatment of acute myocardial infarction (heart attack). Dr St John said the number of deaths annually in the region caused by this life threatening condition was simply “too high”, adding that she was hoping the protocol would be accepted.“CARPHA will be working along with CARICOM and the specialists,” she said, adding that a lot of joint work was also ongoing in relation to measures to prevent NCDs. She explained that a number of technical intergovernmental working groups were set up in countries to address “the causes of NCDs”. Noting that Barbados had done a lot of work in tackling NCDs in recent times, St John said the ramped up campaign to tax sugar-sweetened beverages and encourage children to consume them less was welcomed. “I hope that it will spread to many more countries and it will be sustained. That is just one of a suite of measures that we think will make a difference and try and stem the tidal wave of NCDs, especially how it is impacting younger persons. These kinds of strong measures are what are required to make sure that people survive to adulthood and are productive throughout their working life,” she said. (BT)

CARICOM TEAMING UP AGAINST CRIME – With violent crime spiraling out of control in several countries across the region, leaders of CARICOM have agreed to collectively tackle this matter as a public health crisis. This revelation was made by Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago Dr Keith Rowley to reporters this morning on the sidelines of the 31st CARICOM Inter-Sessional Meeting. In the opening session of the summit, the issue of crime was one of the major areas highlighted for collaboration by chairman of CARICOM, Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley. This morning Rowley confirmed to members of the media that consensus was achieved in this regard. “As a matter of fact, one of the decisions we have taken, which was a continuation of our discussions at the last meeting, was the treating of crime and violence as a public health issue. We have agreed that there will be a number of responses along that line,” said Rowley. However, the Trinidad and Tobago leader made it clear that the joint response from CARICOM would not be a reactive one but rather would be utilizing proactive measures to battle the scourge. “We have to get to the root cause of this upsurge. The experts are telling us that given the effects of this kind of behaviour, it is now a public health issue and ought to be looked at in that context,” he explained. During her remarks yesterday, Mottley called on regional states to come together to formulate collective solutions to a wide range of common problems. Last year, 49 murders were committed in Barbados, the highest number of homicides in the history of the country. For that same year, Trinidad and Tobago recorded 522 murders, while Jamaica recorded 1326. “This is a critical moment for us as a community to understand that whether the challenges be with respect to NCDs [non-communicable diseases] . . . or whether the challenge be the more talked about and definite existential crisis of climate change affecting us . . . or whether it is violence that has genuinely become a public health disorder . . . or whether it is the challenges to our fiscal sovereignty, or whether it is the challenges of multilateralism that are taking and making aim at the integrity of our freedom of association as small groupings, we have to determine how best to confront these challenges,” she said. Mottley insisted that there was strength in unity, adding that “whether it is at the level of countries or it is at the level of homes and communities, being kith and kin must stand for something” (BT)

MURDER ACCUSED TO APPEAR IN COURT THURSDAY –Two men will appear in the District “A” Magistrates’ Court tomorrow on murder charges. They are Brian Oneal Hurley, 22, of Brathwaite Gap, Sion Hill, St James and Andrew Ramon Watson, 27, of 6C Field Road, Wildey, St Michael. They are accused of the murder of Shaquille Toppin on January 8. (BT)

EVALUATION ORDERED ON ACCUSED – A 49-year-old man has been ordered to the Psychiatric Hospital for observation and a report. When Winston Leroy King, of Licorish Village, My Lord’s Hill, St Michael returns before the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court in three weeks Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant will know whether he is able to plead to a criminal charge against him. King, who is unemployed, is accused of stealing a $350 bicycle belonging to Sajid Patel on February 12. He reappears in court on March 11. (BT)

GUN CHARGES FOR TWO – Possession of three semi-automatic pistols, a revolver and over two-dozen rounds of ammunition, most of which are compatible with AK47 riffles, has landed a man and woman on remand at Dodds Prison. Auto body technician Rasheed Dwain King, 38, and food vendor/hairdresser Kimberley Simone Ward, 37, both of Reservoir Road, Lodge Hill, St Michael are charged with having the four firearms in their possession on Valentines Day – February 14 – when they did not have the valid licences. They were also charged in connection with 27 rounds of ammunition for which they allegedly had no valid permits. King, who is represented by attorneys-at-law Angela Mitchell-Gittens and Romain Marshall, and Ward, who has Ajamu Boardi as her legal counsel, were not required to plead to the five indictable charges in the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court today. They will have to face judge and jury, in the High Court on those offences which fall under the island’s Firearms Act. They will make their next court appearance before Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant on March 18. (BT)

CONVICT ADMITS TO MORE GUN RELATED CHARGES – The .38 revolver found in Leandro Renaldo Dominic Pope’s bedroom at Lower Holder’s Hill, St James was the same one used in a shooting incident in that parish three years ago. He pleaded guilty in the High Court yesterday to having that illegal gun and 18 rounds of ammunition. Today he admitted to using the gun when he was not the holder of a valid licence. He also pleaded guilty to unlawfully and maliciously wounding Kemal Haynes as well as unlawfully and maliciously shooting at Akil Scott which placed him in danger of death or serious bodily harm. Haynes and Scott were liming in an area known as the block in Durrants Village, St James on March 2, 2017. While there Haynes was informed by other persons that a man going by the name Scary and some other men were searching for him saying that he had “carry away” their weed. Deputy Director of Public Prosecution Allison Seale said the two however continued liming and were discussing football when Haynes suddenly felt an object on his back and then a loud explosion. When he looked back he recognised Pope with a .38 in his hand. On seeing that he fled through a nearby track while Scott did the same. While running Haynes, who said he felt pain and saw blood in the area of his abdomen, also revealed to police that he heard about 20 shots fired. He was able to get to safety and was taken to hospital while Scott escaped unscathed. Police responded. As a result of the investigation a warrant was executed at Pope’s residence were the illegal weapon and ammunition were discovered. When questioned under caution and told of his rights, he responded: “Don’t worry with the lawyer now, you can go ahead.” The accused was then informed about the report made by Haynes. “Yes I is who shoot he,” Pope is recorded as saying. He was also told that Scott had reported that he had been shot at causing him to fear for his life. “I don’t know who he is.” He also admitted to police that he discharged the weapon in a public place but declined to give a written statement. The deputy DPP said when police continued questioning the accused he claimed he did not have an accomplice and said Haynes would know why he shot at him. “He disrespect me. He tief $600.” Police then transported him to the scene of the crime where he stated: “I come up the gap, Kemal was sitting down and he was backing me and I shoot he and he run and I leave bout dey.” When they went back to the police station he was shown the gun found at his residence. “Yes that is de gun here that I shoot Kemal with.” Seale said the cartridges and metal found at the scene were examined by a firearms expert and the evidence clearly showed that two firearms were used on to day of the incident. Following those facts Pope asked for Haynes’ medical report. The deputy DPP said the document would be produced at the next sitting . And although he pleaded guilty Pope went on to point out that Scott had never called him by name. The deputy DPP gave the undertaking that he would look at the evidence again since Pope was self represented and “I will always be fair to anyone and in particular persons who are self represented since they do not have the benefit of trained legal counsel.” Pope then went on the question other aspects. However, Seale made it clear that he would not “whittle away” the charges before the court and was ready to go to trial if Pope was not in agreement with the facts presented. “I will not allow people to give me a half a plea that we are not sure about. I have never in my career forced anybody into a plea, they can plead not guilty. I like to go to trial in any event . . . and let the jury decide. “I am not going to deal with that. I don’t play those games and people must understand me well when I come into these courts. He either . . . accepts the facts or let us go to trial,” the island’s deputy DPP stated.Justice Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell agreed and reminded Pope of the charges that he had admitted to and asked him his position on them. Pope replied: “I plead guilty.” The High Court judge replied: “No if, buts or ands, you sure in your belly?” Pope responded: “ I sure.” A victim impact statement was then ordered as a presentencing report is already on file for the convicted man. He returns before the No. 4 Supreme Court on March 19 when the medical report is expected to be submitted into evidence and the sentencing phase of the case will continue. (BT)

ORANGE HOUSE CHAMPS – Orange House repeated as champions at the Derrick Smith School’s inter-house sports at the school’s Jackmans grounds last Friday. Spearheaded by Odessa David, Jaheem Smith and Ayito Nurse, Orange were comfortable winners with 306 points at the meet that included a few innovative events. Lime Green took second place with 248 points, followed by Purple on 238 and Turquoise with 220. (DN)

MONEY WOES THREATEN CHARITY’S SURVIVAL – THE Barbados Alliance to End Homelessness (BAEH) is appealing for Government financial support to keep running operations, including its homeless shelter. The shelter in Spry Street, The City, opened on January 13. Yesterday when Governor General Dame Sandra Mason toured the premises which could accommodate up to 90 people a night, she asked BAEH president Kemar Saffrey about funding. He revealed it was private and charitable partnerships that were keeping the organisation afloat. “We have not received any Government subvention since we opened over ten years. We have pressed year after year. We have sent proposals year after year,” he said. (DN)

There are 316 days left in the year Shalom! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram for your daily news. #thechasefiles #dailynewscaps #bajannewscaps #newsinanutshell

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recentnews18-blog · 6 years

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New Post has been published on https://shovelnews.com/just-a-bunch-of-old-peter-dutton-tweets-that-are-extremely-funny-now/

Just A Bunch Of Old Peter Dutton Tweets That Are Extremely Funny Now

We know Dutton is conservative, but in the past he has worked himself up over internet fights with progressives. Loves the weekend though.

You dirty lefties are too easy. Enjoy your weekend.

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) December 9, 2011

He’s even said that he enjoys stirring them up.

I’ve enjoyed stirring up all you little social inclusions. On a flight now. Sleep well. Dream about Campbell.

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) March 25, 2012

This tweet is particularly timely, given Dutton appeared before cameras today after the leadership spill with a notedly softer persona.

Some friendly advice Julia – beware a D/PM selling his “softer” side at a time your party is looking for l’ship

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) April 20, 2011

And he really isn’t a fan of Gillard (bonus points to the tweet that praises Dutton’s would-be backstabbing victim, Turnbull).

Good stuff on q&a malcolm – julia had a shocker.

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) August 6, 2009

I think Julia Gillard is taking her political advice from Charlie Sheen.

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) March 2, 2011

The one where he wonders whether Gillard has a problem with men.

I watched ch 7. Does julia have a problem with men?? The male worm certainly thought so.

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) July 25, 2010

Referring to Fairfax journalist Latika Bourke, Dutton also called out the way she looked before a 2010 question time session:

Latika must have a date after qn time? Wearing big new dangly earings and a big purple flower.

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) February 9, 2010

To be fair, he also made fun of his male opponents’ looks:

KRudds fringe looks like its been welded on this morn. More hair spray than Dame Edna.#flickredundant #jealousmyhairproblemisntsoeasilyfixed

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) August 12, 2013

But hey, maybe that’s all remedied by his defence of Gillard in this 2011 specimen.

I watched “At Home with Julia’ for the 1st time today. I thought it was pretty shabby treatment of the PM and in partic Tim.

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) September 13, 2011

Just…

is back in Dickson today

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) February 27, 2009

y pharmacy.

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) July 29, 2009

ees (from 30 years ago).

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) August 5, 2009

Warned for using twitter. Lift my game.

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) November 25, 2009

Is ch 7 serious delaying the tennis for HOME AND AWAY? Give me a break.

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) January 25, 2010

Prince Philip is definitely my favourite royal.

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) March 13, 2010

He’s an interesting man with an interesting tweet history who might just be our next Prime Minister.

And, if that does happen, we know what our reaction will be:

Bugger….

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) July 14, 2013

Source: https://junkee.com/peter-dutton-tweets/172285

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chromacomaphoto · 6 years

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What Does Owning a Leica M mean here? (or anywhere I suppose)

The brand of the red dot has been accused of attracting snobbery beyond compare, it’s a rich man’s game and of that there can be no doubt, but where is it really at nowadays in The Land of Smiles for adherents to this brand?

Materialism is huge in Thailand. Don’t be fooled into thinking otherwise for a moment. The ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ shenanigans that you might have escaped from the West to avoid is actually being played here at a much higher level in many ways. It had been that way here for many decades with the smaller elite but with the rising middle class of the new millennium and their new money, petite bourgeois bank accounts swelling out of control, there’s now an increasingly large number of people who feel the need to loudly shout and display to others just how far removed from the agrarian proletariat they have become. It’s no longer exclusively the reserve of the Sino-Thais either; it’s been a bigger change across the board. It always used to be a Rolex at the peak of Mount Aspiration in Thailand. Now that brand is merely the entry point to the climb, with Pateks abound on the skinny wrists of the Thai soccer moms parking their 300% import dutied Benzes at the mall.

For the guys in this social class, the narrow selection of imported grey paperwork motorcycles of the late 90’s simply wouldn’t have been enough. The local market bike laws changed and so did their incomes. Now, a whole slew of new monied young to middle aged Thai blokes have to at least a Ducati. So much so that the richer guys no longer want to be seen dead on one unless it’s a limited edition high end affair. They even have Ducati dealerships now in large cities in the Northeast; you know… where the poor people live! It simply won’t do. One well-known young Thai celebrity hunk recently complained to me about how ‘very low’ Ducatis have now become. It’s hard to know what to say and what face to pull here sometimes, it really is.

Once the trophy wife, minor wife, house plus condo, Benz and unmentionably expensive ‘wrist game’ has been sorted, other toys come onto the radar. A camera is needed but not for really taking pictures, more as ‘neck game’ to go with the watch. The fact that it also can be used for taking ‘snaps’ of their spoilt, poorly behaved children is merely a bonus of course as nearly all of its owners photos are typically shot on his iPhone anyway right? Without really giving full attention to actually learning photography too seriously, the questions soon arise: ‘Which is the most expensive?” and “Which is the most hi-so brand?”…maximum obvious brand recognition and luxury status are the main objectives in the first instance. One need not make any attempt to learn the craft as long as one has the keywords to the most expensive items off-by-heart in case the need arises to actually talk about the camera with one’s peers, not that it matters as they are usually in the same gang of course. Perhaps Leica is like the Rolex of cameras. Great brand history, previously popular for decades because it was genuinely perhaps the best tool for the job and purpose back in an all-analogue world. Its reliability and fit and finish became the stuff of legends until gradually it became mechanically obsolete, existing now as an expensive anachronism that has long since been superseded in the eyes of any sane, rational person. The legend then helps form the ultimate high end, boutique branding that the other brands would kill for but just can’t quite catch up to, at least not within the same niche. Then come the amusing statements about how ‘A Summicron isn’t fast enough or good enough” somehow? Typically the people in question couldn’t shoot to save their lives but the root of the problem is always that they haven’t got the very best kit, it couldn’t possibly be related to a lack of skill, ability or just simply putting the time in and doing the work now could it? They don’t care anyway, most expensive = best and most face gained. Sure, there are people in Thailand with M’s who can shoot amazingly and make stunning work. Trouble is, you don’t often ever meet them as most of the red dot guys here seem to be the South East Asian equivalent of ‘rich dentists with a Leica’ demographic that is often mentioned in North American circles.

Yes, I’m hating and ranting but it stops here…..why? Because in some way, I am ashamed to admit that I am probably one of them, at least in part. I love to covet a Leica M, I love the gestalt, I adore the feeling of it in my hands and the way it handles and looks…none of this has that much to do with the results that actually come out of the bloody thing. There’s a fetishism that’s hard to ignore, it’s palpable, and quite hard to resist if you are that way inclined. There’s also very little else quite like it. For post-war Aryan assembled mechanical heft and optical brilliance, the only other thing which equals (and surpasses) ownership of an all brass era Leica M is perhaps my Rolleiflexes (till death us do part). There’s really not any other camera that I could even begin to compare to an M. It’s hard to pin it down to one specific criteria, rather it’s a case of being greater than the sum of its equal parts. I also do kind of like ‘being in the gang’ with one even though it’s full of dilettantes and posers of every stripe. Hell, perhaps I really am one of them. My only genuinely fair argument in support of my owning one is that I am a ninety-nine percent film shooter and I like public, street and candid sort of work with some forays into photojournalistic style work. For the well practiced in this area, and to those who do so on film, the Leica M is perhaps the best tool ever made for the job. I will offer some concession to any small film SLR like an old Olympus or Nikon with a small, fast prime for being quite possibly nearly as good but I still think an M just pips them to the post for such work. This is my only genuine justification that really holds water. Sure, I could wax lyrical about resale value and ‘as good as money in the bank’, ‘best way to use the Leica glass I’m already invested in’ etc. but deep down inside I ‘fess up to the fact that I just plain like the swanky feel that I get from one. I admit they just feel great hanging from your neck or shoulder, it’s a really great feeling. It somehow even completes my outfit for the day, and I know this (but wouldn’t actually say it aloud!) I get it, I really do…they are actually cool.

Let me continue my weak attempt at justifying why I’m not a hipster and everybody else is: Wanting one for shooting film is actually a reasonable defence to take against the heinous photo legal charge of ‘posing with an M in a built up area’. At least it separates the wheat from the chaff in this category as the vast majority of Leica M local owners you’ll find here in Thailand are firmly in the digital camp. You know they tell you to never say never? Well, I’m saying never because I will NEVER buy a digital Leica, the idea makes me laugh. Don’t get me wrong, digital cameras are great but German cameras get two things right and they typically always have, mechanics and optics. Pay huge money to a German brand for outdated electronics in a product that will be obsolete in a few years anyway? No thanks, that’s why we have the Japanese brands. I mean everything about the electronics, screens and software of the various digital Leica M’s I’ve tried so far only serve to confirm this assertion. They just leave me cold. And to pony up that sort of serious coin for something that definitely isn’t going to be handed down as an heirloom but simply end up as a very expensive paperweight, sheer madness to my mind. I would probably go with Fuji if I needed something like that, not quite a rangefinder but close enough and great glass for good prices.

I think that owning a Leica M in Thailand these days is really just a way for people to flaunt wealth and have some fun with their money buying a new toy here and there. Nothing wrong with that. It’s just so amazing to see what Leica M cameras were and what they once meant versus where they are now. I doubt it’s much different elsewhere in the world in all honesty but with Thailand having experienced an explosion of the new money crowd in this millennium , there’s just more of them around to see I guess. Funny story: There’s a well-off Thai man here in Bangkok known in certain camera buying circles who collects ONLY digital M’s, starting with the M.8 through to the present day. A worse use of funds I have never heard in all my life. It’s not just madness to my mind either, he’s the source of much confusion and bewilderment to quite a few within the trade here also. Still, like Ms.Crow sang ‘if it makes you happy…it can’t be that bad”, good luck to him. In fact, good luck to all of us red dot toting wannabes in the Land of Smiles. I’m not a hipster, I’m not a hipster (repeat to fade).

CCP

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