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smoosnoom · 1 year

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Hi! I have a couple of writing related questions. I was curious how you decide when a story is finished? Do you come up with the ending first or just go with it until it "feels right"? How do you motivate/discipline yourself to finish a story? Or do you not struggle with that so much? I'm having trouble structuring stories and finishing things. I find myself writing all the time, but it always ends up being little snippets or a couple thousand word scenes and I can't seem to fit them into an overall plot or story…? Does that make sense? I feel like I have like 18 different stories going on and sometimes there's like a bunch of scenes that could fit one story but I can't make them… Mesh. Also I can't just finish it off. I always feel like there's something missing or like I'm just not sure what the overall point of the story is so I don't know how or when to end it. Anyway, thinking about this made me curious what your general structure is. Do you start with a scene and then flesh out from there when starting a story? Or do you start by having an overall plot and writing based on an idea? Like do you block out your stories scenes/pacing etc first or just write in order, beginning to end or jump around from scene to scene and stick it together later? Does your process change depending on the story? So sorry for the kind of aimless questions. I'm just curious about your process. I'd love to be able to actually complete something, but I don't really have anyone to talk to about writing, and I thought maybe getting advice from someone who I see and enjoy the finished work from could help me in some way. No worries if you don't really know how to answer this and don't want to. I won't be offended lol Anyway ty love your work, have a good day :D

hello ! im so sorry for taking so so long to get to this, i would keep coming back to change or add something to say :)

I was curious how you decide when a story is finished? Do you come up with the ending first or just go with it until it "feels right"? ... I can't just finish it off. I always feel like there's something missing or like I'm just not sure what the overall point of the story is so I don't know how or when to end it. - this fluctuates from time to time; sometimes i feel like a story is done right when i write the last scene, and then i'll come back to it and add a whole other scene because it doesn't seem right . i try to consider if whether or not the entire story has come full circle, if it's satisfying and the ending is something worth having read the previous paragraphs for, if the last few lines are conclusive enough, or if it feels like something should be coming after it . i don't know a proper formula or fool-proof solution to this, its just a Feeling u get, but if u are at a complete loss, what i try to do is completely forget about it for a few days (at least five), and then come back and read the entire thing, editing Nothing, but only taking notes on what to fix, until u reach the end, where u, with a fresher perspective, can tell if the ending is right or not . sometimes, theres just no point to a story other than being written - if that's the case, then thats fine . writing is meant to be fun, if it feels incomplete, come back to it at a later time, don't look at it for a while . if u cant bear to do that, then maybe rewrite it completely - i've done this several times, rewriting thousands of words because something is just . missing . so i take the old work and rework it into something i like better, rewriting and removing and adding bits and pieces . try to spend some time away from the work, that helps me immensely !

another piece of advice from aaron sorkin is that sometimes when he finds a lull in his writing, he takes a shower - showers are great for getting ur imagination flowing :) something else i heard is to take the work and put it in a place not easily accessible, and then, after a few weeks, looking at it again . another version of this is putting it away and rewriting the entire thing from memory . ive done all three and they help as well :)

How do you motivate/discipline yourself to finish a story? Or do you not struggle with that so much? - if u mean continuously working on a story til the end, then absolutely i do struggle with it !!! half the time its the sheer want to write that keeps me going, or if its a story so daunting i dont know how to write it, then i try to make it easier to write for, maybe telling myself ill stop writing after thirty minutes, or until i get a thousand words done, or just until i reach a scene that i really want to write . that, as well as just Forcing myself sometimes really helps, sometimes i just need to get myself to do it in order to the words to flow out properly. ill also admit that sometimes what gets me going is the idea of feedback, what people might think of it or even how satisfied i might feel from writing and finishing it . if u need a friend to cheer u on, or u need to post a bit or two on here to get that encouragement, then feel free . also implementing a "write for thirty mins/for five hundred words/etc." really helps too :) maybe giving urself a deadline as well, such as getting a certain amount done by a certain day

I find myself writing all the time, but it always ends up being little snippets or a couple thousand word scenes and I can't seem to fit them into an overall plot or story…? ... I feel like I have like 18 different stories going on and sometimes there's like a bunch of scenes that could fit one story but I can't make them… Mesh. - it does make sense :) i have a doc just called "cut" that is a series of scenes and snippets and phrases that arent related in the slighted - its only for the sake of putting the idea in my head out and onto the screen, which i might later use for a story i write at a different time if i find that it fits . u don't need to make all these separate scenes fit, sometimes they just aren't meant to . if u find urself writing eighteen different stories, and then only extensively working on a specific few, then i suggest combing some of these stories where they fit . if they don't, then go for the one u want to work on the most, the one that matches ur current writing mood . i know saying "work on which one uwant to work on" is pretty unhelpful, but theres no better solution . maybe asking someone else which one they'd like to read the most also helps, something i do :)

Do you start with a scene and then flesh out from there when starting a story? Or do you start by having an overall plot and writing based on an idea? Like do you block out your stories scenes/pacing etc first or just write in order, beginning to end or jump around from scene to scene and stick it together later? Does your process change depending on the story? - sometimes i do all of these . it does change depending on the story ! for some, i get a flash of a scene that i quickly write out, and, from there, an entire story is inspired in me and i start writing it as quickly as i can, and this changes from just writing down the parts i really want to implement or i feel are imperative in the work, or i finish the initial scene and begin from the start . other times, i have a plot in my mind and i start to write it, but never have i stuck with the initial plot - it always morphs into something else, and ive never resisted from that urge . one plot point will turn into five, and i have sticky notes i keep next to my bed and desk and in my bag and by the door whenever these ideas stick, or i get a sudden scene idea, which i quickly jot down, and, most of the time, i start jotting down quick outlines for the next few scenes . these are never detailed, especially on a sticky note, it's usually just (bike scene, diner scene, "insert quote i just thought of/want to include", etc.) . things like that . i also almost always jump around - i've never written anything in a linear manner, and i probably never will . sometimes the place u are in during the story is in such a lull u want a change of pace, and that's fine :) let that happen ! then u go back to the part u need to work on, and sometimes its even easier to tie two separate scenes together .

im so happy u enjoy the work i put out ! u mention not having anyone to talk about writing with, but my dms are always open and id love to chat if u want :) and if u ever want a second opinion/some help (it feels weird to say help because i am just trying my best on here LOL) then let me know !!! please feel free to just hit me up, i'd love to talk !!!!!!

none of these questions were aimless, and im so sorry for taking forever to reply this, i tried my best to answer as thoroughly as i possible could :) if i missed anything or u want any more clarification on anything, please let me know !!

thank u for the ask !

#/ask #this is . such a long post im so sorry

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camotherogue · 2 years

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Wassup mann!! F/O question!! How many F/Os do you have? How did your insert meet them!!

homeslice i gotta be honest i have way more than any sane person needs. More than i can list, i have so many even I forget them sometimes

My current brainrots r my brawlstars f/os (mostly Carl) and Andrias. Grime also. I'll put the meetings into a read more!

Carl

- Alright so ive got a lotta reworking to do for my old brawl stars self insert, but essentially they met at Barley's and clicked really fast.

- I've got a few versions in my head for how they met actually based on what the mood is for before-bed-mental-fanfic-time.

- Main one is that Cam, the stand in name for s/i, overhears Carl infodumping like mad to someone else and just falls head over heels INSTANTLY. And ends up going to Barley's more often just to listen to his voice and such (it thinks his lisp is so damn cute too which only makes it want to go to Barley's more often)

- The other one, reserved for my aggressive days, is Cam getting a bit mean to someone in defense of Carl. Someone makes a shitty comment about him or to him and Cam refuses to let it slide, and gets in the aggressor's face somethin fierce. Depending on severity of my aggression, it can develop into a full out fistfight. Cam wins obviously <3 and Carl is left going .//////.

- However it goes, Carl and Cam click very well due to their shared love of crystals and rocks and the like, autism win <3<3<3

Andrias

- Okay theres a LOT of lore for these two bc I basically never stop thinking about them but Atlas meets Andrias at the same time Anne does. Well, almost.

- Because of his chronic pain and bad knees, he took a bit longer to make it up the stairs to the throne room, and just barely missed Anne and the Gang heading off to their hotel room.

- Rot pokes rots head in, giving a nervous glance before making direct eye contact with the King himself. Because he's socially inept (/aff), he gives a little wave to Andrias, who returns it bc he really is a sweetheart and goofball.

- "I uh, don't suppose they left already?"

- "Ah, you just missed them!"

- "Wonderful." Atlas isn't pleased about the idea of taking the stairs again. "Which way is the hotel room, if I may?"

- Andrias gives him the directions, but seems a touch disheartened that Atlas is leaving so soon. For once, the shapeshifter reads the room, and makes a spontaneous decision not to go immediately.

- "Well, I suppose it can wait. Not every day one gets to meet the King of Amphibia, right?" He steps into the room and approaches the throne, slightly hesitant bc of social anxiety, but he speaks to the king as though he were an equal rather than a mighty ruler, and Andrias actually really likes it. It's nice not to hear "your majesty" and "my liege" every other sentence.

- "Hah! Very true. Andrias Leviathan is my full name, may I have yours?"

- "I don't think I'm interested in giving my name away, but you may know it." They share a laugh. "Atlas Tarbound, at your service. Pleasure to meet you, King Andrias."

- And they click immediately! I could go on for hours about them I'm not kidding (there is so much more than I can fit in a single post /gen)

Grime

- My selfshipping with Grime is a little complicated, because when I get into selfshipping with several characters I tend to make au versions of my self-insert rather than different characters for shipping purpose!

- So the version of Atlas used here is a different timeline from the one that ends up with Andrias.

- Essentially, I determined that with Atlas living in the woods on the edge of the valley, rot'd likely encounter soldiers from Toad Tower quite often.

- And Atlas doesn't like intruders very much, especially ones without decent intent. So rot regularly drives away said soldiers with his illusions, shapeshifted monster form, and traps to keep rots way of life as it is.

- One of these days, Grime leads a group into the woods to figure out what exactly keeps sending his soldiers back trembling and terrified to go back into the seemingly innocuous woods. Because of this, Grime gets to witness the Beast In the Woods firsthand.

- However, Grime catches Atlas on a high-pain day, which means with enough fighting his form fails and it returns its his default: Just Some Salamander

- This is thoroughly surprising and interesting to him, and he strikes a deal with Atlas: Join my forces, and I can help you keep a peaceful life when off the battlefield by declaring these woods off-limits to hunters and the like.

- Atlas takes this deal, and becomes a soldier under Grime's command. Quickly becoming the army's very own living weapon.

And there! Three self-insert stories in one post! I hope you enjoyed my rambles, heavens know I sure enjoyed writing them!

#amphibia #brawl stars #amphibia king andrias #amphibia grime #brawl stars carl #selfshipping #f/o chatted #not art #camo rambles #askbox #pinkdinkydoon #mutual asks

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teeto-peteto · 7 months

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Another question, if that’s not too much to ask: Who is your favourite character from each Runeterra region?

HOO thats a long one and i have the memory of the size of a pea so im opening Map of Runeterra for this one. Its never too much to ask just dont mind me not remembering all the people that cohexists in league of legends universe im sleepy and obsessed with THAT one character.

i'll try to give further explanation but in most cases is just for the aesthetic and not because of the lore so my apopopopologies <3

Freldjord: Braum!! Who doesnt love that big guy. Honestly, he's fun, he's cute, he's very talkative and passionate about the things he likes so he feels relatable at least for me. And he's kind to everyone! and kind to creatures! Probably one of my 'shirtless TM riot men that i actually like' list. He's just wholesome and warm.

Demacia: Ahhh uhhh ummmm yeah ahhh... demacia huh... ummm... (On my pc Morgana's little icon under Demacia's name is the old splashart pre rework i just think its fucking funny)

Poppy! I know she's a yordle and that i already said that i love them but overall demacian characters feel a bit dull to me (not all of them, but if you know, you know...). I just love her big ass hammer and her story, and how she's so convinced that she's not the hero but everyone around her clearly nows it. I love how she looks! And i love her pigtails... I also liked her old design, wich surprises a lot of people when i express it. Yes, she was sometimes uncannily creepy... but she had cool splasharts in the past, and i didnt mind her being ''ugly''. Fuck Riot's concept of beauty.

Noxus: Hhahahahahhahah im terrible but im a sucker for Kled. I love that guy i already expalined this on previous posts. Playing league is my way to cope with roughness in life and has been present through a lot of my trauma and i started playing Kled when i had some peaks of anger issues, the thrill of his gameplay made me de-stress a lot and i love his quotes. He is also very charming in quotes! He's funny, he's silly and he's old and theres something unspoken going on there, brain weasels. I love that guy and her screaming lizzard she's my baby. I love Skaarl and how she has her own personality that often crashes with Kled but she's nonetheless always loyal to him and restores her courage to save his ass. Queen.

Piltover: Hummm probably Orianna. I say probably cause im unaware if her lore has changed from 2014 to this day. I love the concept of a human girl with such a loving father that tried so badly to keep her alive as she was dying and loosing parts of herself and how he tried to keep her with him until she became just a beautifully but souless creation. Its a character i actually like having no quotes related to her lore, in the end Orianna is already very much gone, she's now but an empty metal shell that only commands the ball and speaks souless about human emotions she so used to understand when she was human. Fun fact i was a sucker for BlitzxOri ship and i still think its funny and cute.

Zaun: Twitch... he's a rat. There's nothing more about it. I would say Janna but she's technically Shuriman but either way i will briefly say that i enjoy her in Zaun, queen is giving fresh air slay pop off. Back to Twitch, i always liked him! He's silly, i have his punk skin and i adore how he looks, he's silly and stylish... I also got his shadowfeet skin cause he reminded me of my pet rat Kenny and i bought it to try and cope with his passing, i upgraded him maestry 7 on his honour. I dont know! He's cute in all of his skins not just the ones that intently try to make him cute, punk one is great, and i loooove how his head looks in Ice King skin... He's just lovely, and munches on cheese. And stinks. Its literally so me.

Targon: Soraka, probably. She's a goat unicorn lady! What else can i say? Im a sucker for most of her skins mostly the old ones. I love program Soraka, its one of my favourite skins of her, i think she's neat when i dont analize it... if i did i would set in on fire probably. I dont know her gameplay is cool and its one of the firsts supports i started playing. I used to heal the minions when you could do that back in the day. I remember my shock face first time i healed someone and realized my health bar went lower like 'OH sharing is caring!'. Unicorn lady mom.

Shurima: Renekton. Only because he's a crocodile and 'crocodile' is the word i pop up in my mind whenever i overthink to make my mind blank, and because i think crocodiles are cool. He's stubborn and resentful. Just like meeeeeeee

The Void: Kog Maw... he's silly designed and right now im VERY hungry im feeling very Kog Maw right now. I dont knoooow he's silly and i love his skins that do not portray him as cute too... I love skeleton kog maw he's amazing sack of bones. Point of all this is because i think he's cute, mostly. I want to hug him and he would puke on me and burn me in acid. cutely, though. he ate and left no crumbs.

Ixtal: FOR SOME REASON QIYANA'S ICON HAS YASUO'S ILLUSTRATION what. Uhhh i dont know why Milio isnt in the list of Ixtal champions... I think Riot's map machine broke. Anyway. Milio!!! He's a sweet kid, with a lot of preassure on his shoulders but he's so carefree and confident but not in a smug way but in a 'i have to do it for my omele' and he's so fucking adorable with his little fire dudes... I loved his lore and his short story he DRAWS pictures of his adventures and sends it to his family it makes me sob and punch the wall because he's such a sweet child he deserves the whole world. He's here to bring the good vibe on Ixtal. When i started playing him i didnt read his lore and he was talking so lightheartedly of his family that my poor ass knowing Riot i said 'Those bitches are definetly dead' WELL TURNS OUT NO and im so very happy cause if his family isnt okay i will kill everyone in this room and then myself.

Ionia: Uhhh can i get uhhhh ummm like... an interesting champion i have no problems with? /jk. Jhin :) he's iconic, so iconic riot decided to bamboozle all of us with 200 dollars chroma LOL. Okay but there was a lot of Jhin fever when he was released and the early years of his existance and those were probably the years i had the most fun on tumblr. He's memeable, but you can also take him seriously and think that the guy is fucking crazy and excentric. He paints his nails so... bonus points. His hourglass body type in project: Jhin was so INSANE it made everyone wild in this website. For once there was equality, briefly. His face reveal was kiiiind of a letdown, i expect him to be more fucked up but well i guess that what is behind a mask is another mask. In castilian dub his voice is very recognizable, he's actually the same voice actor that does Batman voice! wich is very cool, but he also does the ads of Carrefour wich is a supermarket and sometimes you can bug your own mind and imagine Jhin selling you a kilogram of tangerines, its so fun. Jhin also canonically shaves his balls wich is not a personal preference of mine nor does this add to the why i like him i just felt like i should say that Jhin canonically and confirmed by a rioter shaves his balls.

Shadow Isles: Maokai he's a FUCKING tree oh my god. I loved that little instance of Ruined King when we saw a younger maokai he looks so silly and curious... I loved his little paper on the game. Also i dont know how are they called in english... does riot call them 'saplings' to the little guys Maokai throws around and that are sitting on his hand? In Spain they are called 'pimpollos' wich is the name i call my followers on instagram, actually im going to start calling everyone my little pimpollos :)

Bandle City: Teemo... he's the first champ i've ever known. He's short, he's an explorer, i dont think he's twisted he's just smart and that scares humans for his yordle powers. But he can also be a little bit of a dummy, like in Dont mess with the yordles. He KEEPS a DIARY oh my GOD i want to read it and it also feeds my Tristmo ship cause i imagine him drawing Tristana and doodling silly stuff while she is watching her train or thinking about her... He also has wich is, for me at least, one of the bests legendary skins in the whole game being that Omega Squad. That one sent me FLYING when he was leaked and i had started playing already for 5-6 months or so. I begged my dad to buy it. I loved his old interactive page that also eventually leaked and got into official league page where you could click on different condecorations and trinkets and he would drop his quotes about other yordles and champions. That skin messed my brain scheme forever. and when they released Omega squad tristana... my ship level RISED... He's a baby, but he can bite you if he wants. I will protect him from people that says he's a trash champion.

Bilgewater: Do i even have to...?

what a babygirl he is.

#hi i dont know shit about lore most of the time but here i am #hope this was insightful to my terrible persona #next time ask me for the characters i hate when you feel sassy enough <3 #dont do it #there will be blood and i dont think anyone is ready for that post to drop.

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gendrie · 1 year

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A thought came to me yesterday about the batch of chapters Jon Roberts received from grrm and i wonder how many of them, if any, were written alongside mercy? because that map has a lot of hinted locations considering it came out in 2012 back when grrm was just getting back to writing twow. since grrm was still talking about arya in braavos in 2020 i think she’ll have a lot of content in twow imo. or grrm wrote literally nothing in between 2012-2019 lol besides that 2013 arya chapter of course

i have a lot of questions about this also. honestly, i do believe grrms writing stalled for awhile and that he only put his nose to the grind within the past couple years. theres a reason this book is taking so long and its not bc he's been working consistently for the past 12 yrs lol

i think its likely that some of the chapters that will come after mercy were also written during that era, yeah. he always said the gap worked amazingly for arya so he probably had a lot material for her that needed to be reworked. i figure roberts got a at least 3/4 chapters. which i feel like is plenty to wrap it up.

do we know for certain he was still writing arya in braavos in 2020? bc i think i know what you’re referring to and imo it actually implied the opposite. it is possible a different character goes to braavos after arya leaves. but i do agree she will have a good amount of chapters in twow.

#ask #asoiaf nonsense

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tetsunormous · 3 years

Text

How the boys would help you with insecurities

I think I wanna make this a mini series so if theres anything specifically you want me to address, lmk!!! This post will mention body size, stretch marks and body dysmorphia so if that is triggering please don’t continue reading! :) I know it may not make a difference coming from a stranger but you’re so beautiful. No matter which hq boy you love, I firmly believe none of them would ever judge you based on your physical features 💜

mentions: Kuroo, Bokuto and Akaashi

genre: fluff, comfort

Kuroo

He would notice right away because he’s literally so observant, but he wouldn't bring it up until he felt the time was right

He finds you standing in front of the mirror with nothing but your underwear on.

You’re hands tracing the stretch marks on your hips with a slight pout on your face

Knocking softly on the door, he walks up to you, wrapping his arms around your waist

“What’s going on in that pretty head of yours, hmm?”

Your eyes avoid his gaze but he just takes your hand in his, as he begins to trace the same patterns you were just doing.

“Remember what we talked about last time? Stretch marks are natural baby”, his voice is soft as he presses a kiss into your hair. “Just means you’re living, yea? I got them too. Do you think mine are ugly?”

Meeting his gaze through the reflection, you shake your head quickly

“So don’t talk about yourself like that, okay? I know that’s a hard thing to do but let’s try to rework those thoughts, yea?”

Turning you around, he grabs your face between his large hands. Giving you a soft smile, “you’re so beautiful, and I’m gonna remind you every day how lucky I feel to call you mine. Even if you can’t see it yet, I’m gonna show you, so stop being mean to the person I love.”

Bokuto

The MSBY boys are all heading to the beach today, and Bokuto has asked you to come along, knowing how much you love the ocean

He realizes you’re being a little more quiet than usually when they two of you get there

“Are you feeling okay, babe?”

You sit down on the beach chairs and flash a smile at him, “yea Bo, just wanna stay here for a bit”

He knows something is wrong, you never give up a chance to go swimming with him, so he sits down next to you and takes your hand in his

“What’s wrong? Do you wanna go home?”

Letting out a sigh you tell him how you just felt a little more insecure today. Seeing how other people look in their swimsuits makes you upset that your body isn’t as curvy as everyone else's.

Baby boy is floored. He literally can’t understand why you would ever think poorly of yourself.

“Baby, what? Who cares what everyone else looks like? You’re beautiful just the way you are, you don’t need to look like anyone else cause you already have the best body -- at least to me.”

Just listening to his explanation brings a small smile on your face, and his face lights up when he see’s you feeling better

“We don’t have to go swimming today, but no more thinking bad things about yourself, okay? I love you and your body cause it loves me back in a way that only you can.”

Akaashi

You’ve been borrowing a lot of Akaashi’s clothing, which isn’t abnormal, but it’s been so frequent lately he’s also run out of clean clothes to wear

“Hey, I’m going to do some laundry, why don’t you put on some of your clothes so I can wash that shirt. You can put it on again tomorrow, okay?”

you agree and go into your closet to find an oversized sweater to wear before coming back

he doesn’t want to push you but he knows something’s up so he takes your hand and leads you to the couch

sitting down with you he hesitantly asks, “do you not like your clothes anymore, darling? Do you want to get some new stuff?”

avoiding his gaze, you play with his fingers in your hand. “I know it’s silly cause people always say stuff like “omg you’re so skinny!” like it’s a good thing but sometimes I hate seeing how my body looks and wearing your clothes lets me hide myself”

Akaashi takes a few moments to process what you’re saying before asking, “does wearing clothes that are a little bigger make you feel more confident?”

nodding at his question you look over to him, blinking away your tears

he sends you a little smile and presses a kiss onto your knuckles, “alright, I want you to feel good, so you can take my clothes, okay? Let me go start the load now so you’ll have clothes for tonight.”

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heartachebf · 3 years

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9, 23, and 37 -Batz 🖤💜

fic related questions

9. which fic has been the hardest to write? um can i say all of them ^_^ on a more serious note, id probably have to say either my georgebur high school au fic or my enemies to lovers fwt fic! i love the concepts behind them so much, and i love the bits and pieces of them that ive managed to write, but its just been So hard over the months to actually Work on them enough to be able to post them :( im sure there are others thatve been tough to write, but those are the only ones that come to mind right now!

23. if you were to revise one of your older fics from start to finish, which would it be and why? ok im about to be very vulnerable and open with this one, but the first thing that comes to mind is a rhys/fiona borderlands fic that i wrote when i was 13 that was basically just a self indulgent rewrite of a piece of canon. (fun fact, that fic and all my other borderlands fics are on a super secret ao3 account that i scrapped years ago for. reasons im honestly not too sure of anymore) but i really like the idea behind that fic still, but its very. ugh. yknow? its very clearly written by a very young person! and if i ever get heavily back into borderlands, i honestly might try and rewrite All the fics ive got posted on that account bc They Deserve Better

id also probably pick my pta dads buddie au bc the au is so near and dear to my heart, but i started it when i was 16 and it needs a lotta major reworking before i can ever hope to Continue it

37. talk about your current wips. omgomg ok, so ive got Four active wips and Two fic ideas that are lengthier that i havent started yet, but i still am Actively Thinking about them (under the cut bc this post is getting long enough as is)

1. first is an angsty stan/kyle fic! to summarize, stan and kyle are pretty new to their relationship, and kyle invites stan over to dinner at his parents house so they can meet him as his Boyfriend instead of his Best Friend for the first time. but stan gets an eensy bit shitfaced and makes an ass of himself, so kyle tells him he needs to get his shit together. n stan is pissed bc hes like "i dont have a drinking problem!!" but then he talks to kenny and craig and tweek and theyre all like "um. dude you definitely have a problem lol." and im not sure how itll end yet, but i Am excited for it!

2. next is the one where stan realizes hes nonbinary and comes out ^_^ not much to say about that one yet, but i Am excited for it

3. next is the one where craig counts tweeks freckles !! not much to say abt this one other than the fact that its saying sappy craig rights And its gonna be nothing but extreme fluff

4. next is another style fic! this one has kyle n kenny being besties, as well as stans band, crimson dawn! basically, crimson dawn has a show, kenny asks kyle to come, kyle Goes to the show, and immediately falls in love with the cute lead singer whos absolutely Wrecking his throat with his screaming ^_^ theres also gonna b some side butters/kenny!!

5. next is one of the ones thats just an Idea so far! this one is centered around how, in the vaccination special, kyle+cartman+stan kinda treated kenny like their son so! au where they decided to adopt a kid (kenny) together (bc thats a thing that bros do)! and the fic is basically gonna center around kyle and cartman getting into fights all the time n eventually going to counselling together so they can Stop fighting, and stans jus kinda there, being the best dad he can while also supporting his friends in their journey of being able to parent together again ^_^ and then therell also be some stan/kyle later on, havent decided yet :)

6. finally, single dad stan au!! basically, stan n wendy had a kid together, but they later divorced (but they remain good friends!) n their kid is starting kindergarten! n for one reason or another, stan meets the cute school librarian (kyle ^_^) and gets a big crush on him! n thats all ive got for that one so far ^_^

#my brain is rotting from the inside out w all my fic ideas actually #craig.txt #asks #baz/ezra/magnus tag #tubs dont look

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robininthelabyrinth · 5 years

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Fic: An Internal Affair - Chapter 12 (Ao3 link)

Fandom: The Flash Pairing: Leonard Snart/Barry Allen

Summary: Leonard Snart, the CCPD Captain of Internal Affairs, is known as Captain Cold for a very good reason: He hates corrupt cops with a merciless vengeance, and once you’re on his list, you’re in serious trouble.

His next target?

A CCPD lab tech named Barry Allen who’s developed a suspicious habit of disappearing at random intervals.

—————————————————————————————————

There's a closet at the end of the hallway on the other side of the top floor from Barry's lab. It's little more than a glorified broom closet that sometimes gets used to store samples and evidence that's still being analyzed.

It's small, and dusty, and dark, but it's just large enough to have a small stool big enough to sit on inside (primarily used for going through samples because doing that while crouched over is hell on your back) and that makes it the perfect place to go have anxiety attacks in the middle of the day, if one were so inclined.

Barry is currently so inclined.

The last week or so has been crazy.

Just - legitimately, unbelievably crazy.

First there'd been the whole issue with Hartley Rathaway, who they'd barely stopped from destroying STAR Labs with his sonic weaponry a few weeks back. He should've been locked away safely, but he'd managed to trick Cisco into letting him escape from his cell in the Accelerator, and, despite Barry's best efforts to scour the city for him, they'd totally lost track of him after that.

At least he didn't seem intent on re-offending imminently, so there’s that, if nothing else.

That'd been bad enough, but what followed less than two days later..?

Insane.

Just.

Insane.

Where does Barry even start thinking about it?

At the beginning, he supposes: Iris returning from one of her fact-finding missions with the Anti-Flash Task Force with the news that Clyde Mardon, the first meta Barry ever defeated and which Joe had to shoot down, apparently had a brother named Mark Mardon, and that Mark Mardon was planning something in revenge. Something aimed specifically at Joe.

Iris had also been really weird around Joe but refused to explain why, just saying she was processing some stuff and would tell them both later once she figured out how she felt like reacting about it. Joe thinks it's just her reacting to there being a threat on his life, but Barry's not so sure about that.

(At least whatever it is wasn't Iris discovering the Flash thing, thank God - she assured Barry in private that whatever was bugging her didn't involve him and was entirely about Joe. He shouldn’t be as relieved by that as he is, but give him a break, he’s not a saint. Man, she is going to kill him when she finds out about the Flash thing, and he's going to deserve it.)

Either way, the CCPD took the threat seriously and began to take actions to protect Joe and guard the waterfront, except their actions weren't anywhere near enough because it turns out that Mark Mardon, like Clyde Mardon, is a weather-controlling meta.

A weather-controlling meta who decided that he was going to get back at Joe West by attacking his precious city, which he did by creating a freaking tsunami using the river.

A tsunami!

In Missouri!

What the hell, man; that's just wrong.

Barry’s never recommended therapy to a soul in his life, particularly after his own negative experiences as a kid, but seriously, if the choice is between talking through your issues with a therapist and trying to process them with a tsunami, go with the therapist!

He’s pretty sure Mardon didn’t expect for the tsunami to get as big as it did, judging by the expression on his face, but whatever he meant to do, what he did end up doing was creating a wave large enough that, if not stopped, would undoubtedly sweep through the entire city and destroy huge swaths of it.

Including the parts that had Iris and Joe and Len and Cisco and Caitlin in them.

Everyone had been utterly frantic, seeing no way to either stop the wave or evacuate the city in time. Based on a crazy last-second suggestion, Barry tried to create a counter-force by running as fast back-and-forth as he could, pushing himself past his limits, but he knew even as he forced himself into pain and beyond that it wasn’t going to be enough.

He wasn't going to be able to stop the tsunami.

And then – he did.

No, not with the counter-force idea; once he had a chance to think about it for a second he realized that it was an incredibly stupid idea to begin with. That didn't work.

What did work, though, was grabbing Mark Mardon out of his hiding place in Keystone City and putting him in the Accelerator before he ever had a chance to launch the tsunami.

Because apparently when Barry runs that fast, he went fast enough to go back in time by a day and stop the whole thing before it ever started.

Mardon problem solved.

Barry just doesn't know what to do about it.

It, of course, being the fact that he somehow actually traveled through time.

Backwards, that is, rather than the usual leisurely forward minute-by-minute progression he and everyone else normally does.

...holy crap, does that mean his "speed" powers might actually be a form of time manipulation? That he's not running "faster" than people, but rather that he's running at regular speed while time slows down around him?

No, that can't be right - Cisco routinely talks to him via the comms while he's running, which would be impossible if time had slowed down. Unless the time-slows-down effect is extremely localized, explaining why people immediately around Barry are moving too slow to "talk" but Cisco, at a distance, isn't...

Yeah, this whole focusing on trivial details or abstract questions isn't working to effectively distract him from the overarching point at issue here.

He ran backwards in time.

He ran backwards in time!

He ran.

Backwards.

In time.

Nope, no matter how many times Barry says that, it doesn’t get any less weird.

That shouldn't even be possible! Barry's a human being, not some bizarre singularity-black-hole in the making - unless that's what lies at the far end of his speed capacity –

Barry groans and puts his head in his hands.

He wants to talk to Iris about this, but he can't, because he's been lying to her so long about being the Flash that he doesn't know how he'd raise it even if Joe lifted his prohibition against telling her.

He wants to talk to Len, cool-headed, practical, sci-fi nerd Len, about this, but he can't, he can't just reveal himself now - and what if Len thinks that Barry's been deceiving him, too? He kinda has been, and they may be new to each other but Barry already knows that Len has deep-seated issues with deception and betrayal. So that's out, too.

And while Cisco and Caitlin are technically available, Barry desperately wants to talk to someone, anyone, that isn't part of what Cisco's been calling Team Flash, because he has the sinking feeling that they (or at least Dr. Wells) kinda-sorta-maybe theorized that this was going to happen.

The time travel stuff, that is.

Dr. Wells hadn't even been all that surprised about it! A total reworking of how humanity understands physics and the nature of time, but nope, Dr. Wells, a renowned physicist, doesn't seem to care about the scientific implications. If anything, he'd just been pissed off that Barry changed what happened - apparently he "should've been more careful with changing history" which, uh, seriously? Barry literally saved the whole city? That seems like a worthwhile change to him, whatever the personal costs that might come about as a result.

Also, seriously, he just broke physics, how is that not the priority issue here?!

It'd been weird. Not to mention how Dr. Wells' lack of surprise, combined with the vaguely pleased-anticipatory look Dr. Wells'd had when Barry first mentioned his time travel? Really making Barry feel kind of manipulated here. Or like a science experiment. Or like one of those psychology experiments where you don't tell the subject what the goal is in advance because that could affect the results...

Either way, he's feeling used.

All that emphasis on training speed - was it really to help Barry catch up to the Reverse Flash, as Cisco's started calling him, or was it to see if Barry could break the time barrier?

And if it was, why hadn't Wells just told him that was the goal?

Maybe Barry doesn't want to have the responsibility of fixing the timeline as well as the city, okay? He was a huge Harry Potter fan growing up - he's gotten into all the debates about what the wizarding world should and shouldn't have done with the Time-Turner technology/magic they apparently possessed for no reason other than to let an over-achieving student take extra classes, and damnit, he doesn't want to be book 3 Hermione! He doesn't want to have to be constantly thinking about what events over the previous day or whatever might be worth going back to fix! Barry's already doing two full-time jobs; time travel would just make the responsibility to be “always on” even worse! He wants to live a normal life sometime!

Cisco and Caitlin aren't any help, either with his complicated feelings about Dr. Wells or about the time travel thing. Cisco thinks time travel is cool, but in, like, a non-personal way, theorizing that Barry might go all Back To The Future on them and accidentally erase someone from existence which, thanks Cisco. Like Barry needs any more pressure here.

God, Barry loves the guy, don't get him wrong, but sometimes Cisco is too focused on whether something is "awesome" and not enough about the actual impact of that something. Prime example: Captain Cold's cold gun, which remains an outstanding threat.

Caitlin, too; he would've thought that she'd be more sympathetic, but she'd immediately started thinking of major historical events he could change for the better - mostly the Particle Accelerator explosion, which killed her fiancé and ruined her career. Which, again, wow, pressure much? Barry can't blame her for her reaction but then she and Cisco'd gotten into an argument about paradox and neither of them were really noticing Barry's freak-out so he just said he had to go back to work and came here.

And even putting aside the whole time travel business, he really can't talk about his disappointment in Dr. Wells with them of all people, because neither Cisco nor Caitlin seem to understand that it's not actually normal for a boss to run experiments on his staff without their consent. Apparently that's "just how Dr. Wells is" and "well, you know, he is a genius" - which is not okay! Forgiving someone for being a dick because they're a genius is, like, sign number one of a toxic working environment, and Barry legitimately doesn't know how to convey that to them.

It's like they've never had a union rep bring a lawyer to ramble at them for an hour about their rights as employees. Though now that Barry thinks of it, STAR Labs was probably never unionized, so that explains that, anyway...

Besides, even if he could think of a way to explain to them that he's really upset with Dr. Wells right now, he's not actually sure if there's even a point in trying to do so. They stayed with Dr. Wells after the Particle Accelerator explosion; Barry's not sure there's anything the man could do that would break their loyalty to him.

Which is by itself kind of weird? That's a lot of loyalty to have to a single guy in relation to, well, a job. Even Hartley had been weirdly obsessed with Wells as a person, rather than just as a bad boss. Barry can sympathize with the idea of Wells being a father figure, he totally gets that, but...it's a bit weird.

Weird or not, though, it's pretty depressing. Barry's never really thought about there being a difference in their goals, him and Dr. Wells, and it's kinda depressing to realize that if there is a difference, Cisco and Caitlin - probably his closest friends right now - would fall on Dr. Wells' side.

Man, he wishes he could talk about all this to Iris. Or Len.

(Not Joe. Joe would just immediately start encouraging Barry to use his time travel powers to stop routine crime, like murders and robberies, before they ever happened, and wouldn't understand at all why Barry's reluctant to take on that sort of responsibility. He hasn't even read Harry Potter! Or, like, Minority Report!)

No, what Barry needs is someone who's his friend, not Dr. Wells' friend, someone who's nerdy enough to get it, honorable enough to keep the whole thing a secret, and scientific enough to help him think through all the potential consequences here –

Holy crap, he's an idiot.

No: he's a genius.

The answer that would simultaneously solve both of his current problems just hit him.

First problem: the suddenly-too-constricting circle of people who know about him being the Flash, thus limiting who he can talk to about this time travel/Dr. Wells development.

Second problem: the fact that he's run into a total wall on the whole disappearances thing.

Answer: He can tell his CSI friends - Gila, Terri, and Andre - about the issue!

He can't believe he didn't think of this before. They're his friends, after all, even if he kinda-maybe-sorta has been neglecting them recently in favor of Cisco and Caitlin. No one's prohibited him from mentioning the Flash thing to them (unlike Iris), and as CSIs, they're familiar with keeping things totally confidential, which he needs them to do with his identity as the Flash.

It's perfect.

After all, they're all total nerds, so they'll be able to provide an objective (semi-objective, anyway) perspective into what's going on with Dr. Wells!

Plus, they might be able to help him make progress on finding the Reverse Flash - he still thinks Chemical X is speedster residue, but he hasn't been able to confirm that because he doesn't have the tools necessary to do that in his on-site lab. But his friends do, what with all those fancy new toys they're always telling him to come play with.

They also have access to all the same case files as he does, so if he crosses off all the ones he knows aren't related to the Reverse Flash, they might be able to see a pattern in the ones that are remaining. He's been trying, but it feels like every time he's on the verge of some sort of breakthrough, something Flash-related comes up.

Seriously, this Flash thing is really starting to take over his life. He hadn't had much of a life before, so he hadn't noticed it all that much, but now that he has an engaging project at work he wants to do in his free time, he's starting to realize that he doesn't actually have any free time anymore.

Or, at least, the fact that he's given Team Flash at STAR Labs the idea that he'd give every minute of his free time to them, and if he doesn't, Dr. Wells gets annoyed, and when that happens, Cisco and Caitlin call-slash-text him pleas to come sooner.

Yes, Barry could say no, and he's trying to do it more often, but he's kind of a doormat sometimes. He's aware of that.

Though the way Dr. Wells mentions his mom every time Barry skips out on training is really starting to piss Barry off...

He's getting distracted. The point here is that his idea - telling his friends - is a great idea, and he should do it.

(A little voice in his head suggests that there might be some downsides to the idea if he thinks about it a little longer, but he's really desperate to talk to someone, so he's just going to ignore that little voice. He's sure it'll be fine.)

Decision made, Barry jumps up.

He promptly knocks his head against one of the shelves and has to spend a few Flash-speed seconds catching all the evidence samples before they crash onto the ground, but when they're all back in order, he heads out right away.

The CSI building (technically, the off-site forensic science analysis division of the CCPD, but no one calls it that) is just as he remembers it: a big squat office building painted a soul-sucking taupe color, unlovely and boring and everything Barry's job is not.

Barry smiles at it fondly.

They throw the best holiday parties here. And birthday parties. And weekend parties, any time they have to work Sundays...yeah. This place is totally awesome.

Okay, maybe the parties aren't the most exciting by anyone else's standards - Barry's well aware that D&D marathon sessions, WoW LAN parties, and high-stakes science trivia drinking contests aren't everyone's speed, but they definitely are his.

It's a good place.

Barry considers just running upstairs, but that seems rude, so he buzzes in through the front desk like a proper visitor would. The door guy - a friendly if somewhat nebbish guy named Gary who's studying frantically for grad school just about every second he can, something that doesn't seem to have changed in the entire time Barry's known him - looks up from his textbook and exclaims, "Barry! Buddy! It's so good to see you!"

Barry grins. "Hey, Gary. How's it hanging? How's John?"

Gary flushes pink in delight. "I can't believe you remember my boyfriend's name. You only met him once!"

"Between the British accent, trenchcoat, and tendency to flirt with everything up to and including inanimate objects after a few drinks, John was very memorable," Barry says dryly. "You're still together?"

"Yeah, we're good," Gary says. "He's been a bit busy with this thing at work - something called Project Rising Darkness, I don't know, I think his co-worker Manny thought it up, he's kinda emo - but he's been helping me apply to work with the FBI in my spare time now that I'm on the verge of graduating."

"At last! That's really great, Gary; I hope you make it," Barry says warmly. Something occurs to him. "Uh, actually, do you know about the new Internal Affairs guy in the CCPD?"

"No; what about him?"

"I hear he used to do undercover work in a joint CCPD-FBI group," Barry says. "Maybe he could recommend you?"

"You think so?" Gary asks, brightening. "That would be amazing! I'll reach out to him."

"You do that," Barry says, amused. He's pretty sure Gary's unique combination of overwhelming optimism and extreme eagerness to please could evoke sympathy from anyone, whether they’re an undead zombie or a ninja assassin or both; a mere supervillain like Captain Cold doesn't stand a chance. Besides, it could actually help Gary's career. "I'm here to talk to Gila, Terri, and Andre - are they still in the old room?"

"Your old crew, of course! I should have guessed," Gary says, beaming. "No, they're on the new floor - let me give you directions."

Good thing Barry asked.

See, there's some benefit to going slow sometimes.

(Barry really wishes he could think of a good way to tell Len about being the Flash - he'd get such a kick out of all the slow/fast puns Barry's made so far.)

When Barry gets up to the new floor, though, he slows down for a completely different reason.

"What the hell...?"

"Barry!" Gila exclaims, abruptly appearing out the door. That part's not a surprise; Gila was the person who inspired Barry's belief that chubby five-foot-two women with hair a color of red not found in nature are capable of a sort of magic sudden appearance thing that the Flash can only envy. "You finally came to visit!"

Barry just gestures mutely.

She grins. "So what you're saying is that you like the new lab."

"You said you got new machines!" Barry yowls. "You didn't say they redid everything with state-of-the-art tech!"

Andre - Gila's opposite in every respect, being tall, skinny, and dark-skinned - strolls out of the door, laughing. "They felt very bad," he says, grinning. "You know, you look remarkably well for someone who was in a coma for nine months."

"I know," Barry says, grinning back. "But seriously! Look at this! This is amazing!"

"You want a tour?" Terri asks, joining the rest of them.

"Do I ever!"

The tour takes them all past the end of official working hours, but no one minds; they're all used to working odd hours.

By the end of the tour, Barry's fallen in love. Deeply, irrevocably in love - with one of the new spectroanalysis machines, which he's named Julie.

"You know you can't take that back to the city with you," Andre says, sniggering.

"You can't separate me and Julie! We're meant to be!" Barry exclaims, hugging the machine.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, you big baby. You're the one who volunteered to be the on-site tech," Gila laughs. "You get the fresh crime scenes, we get the cool tech – deal with it!"

Barry mock-grumbles at her.

"Now, it's getting late," Terri says briskly. "Why don't you tell us why you're really here?"

Barry blinks.

"We're your friends, B," Andre says, not without fondness. "We know you and love you for the absent-minded super-focused asshole you are. No way you came all the way out here just to say hi and go on a tour our admittedly kickass new facility; if you wanted to do that, you would've done much earlier on."

"So what's the issue and how can we help?" Gila asks.

"Uh," Barry says.

He's never really had to tell someone. Maybe Felicity, but that was because she already knew about Oliver and he could just, you know, communicate in lots of "you know..? You know..."s.

Well, at least he can consider this good practice for telling someone like Len or Iris.

"Okay," he says. "I have - no, wait. Can you guys first promise to keep this, like, super confidential? The most confidential. It's really important. I might not be able to tell you everything, but I want to tell you some of it and, well, yeah. You guys promise?"

They all impatiently agree.

"Okay," Barry says again. Wow, this is harder to get out than he thought. Maybe it'd be easier with an oblique approach? "Uh - I have a lead on Chemical X."

"You do?!" Gila exclaims.

"Well, a hunch," he corrects. "Let's take a step back: the Particle Accelerator explosion released a lot of dark matter -"

"And don't we know it," Terri grumbles.

"- and it's been affecting people."

"How?" Andre asks.

"They've been developing strange abilities," Barry tells them. "All sorts. We've been calling them 'meta-humans'."

"You and the CCPD?"

"Uh," Barry says. "No. Me and the scientists over at STAR Labs."

"Wells," Terri growls. "Of course he'd know more than he let on."

"He's trying to help," Barry says firmly. "Please try to stay objective, Terri. Anyway: you know how you think the Flash is an urban legend?"

"Less so now, after all the reported sightings," Andre says wryly. "A good scientist admits when their hypothesis is wrong...You're saying the Flash is one of these meta-humans? That the dark matter somehow gave someone the ability to, what, run at incredible speeds?"

"Yes. And not just him; there's another speedster out there, dressed in yellow instead of red and emitting red lightning instead of yellow. I think that speedster is behind the disappearances, and that Chemical X is the residue left behind when he runs."

"A human running at Mach speeds," Gila says thoughtfully. She's the chemical analysis expert of the three of them, compared to Barry's jack-of-all-trades (with an interest in weird stuff), Terri's forensic accounting, and Andre's fingerprint/DNA specialization. "That might do the trick, yeah. But what makes you think it's not the Flash? I've never even heard of this second speedster: Occam's Razor suggests one makes more sense than two."

Ouch. No wonder Captain Cold is suspicious, if even Barry's friends jump to that assumption.

...huh. Maybe the guy really isn't a supervillain - just a very unorthodox cop worried that Barry's up to something.

Barry doesn't know exactly what to do with that thought, so he shelves it for later.

"No," he says. "I know it's not the Flash."

"Why?" Andre asks.

"Well..."

Barry runs.

Just from one end of the lab to the other, but it's enough to make his point.

"Holy crap!" Terri exclaims, amid similar exclamations. "Barry, what the hell?"

"See," he says, grinning. "Told you I knew it wasn't the Flash. Cool, isn't it?"

There's another five solid minutes of yelling about how freaking awesome super-speed is and potential scientific implications and possible applications before they finally settle down.

That, of course, is when Barry breaks out the time travel thing, and that gets all of them yelling again, this time for ten minutes.

Barry enjoys the whole thing. Not just because they do, in fact, think that the whole Flash thing pretty damn awesome but also because some of their ideas about scientific applications of his usual Flash powers are pretty damn neat: learning about brain plasticity by studying the effect of learning at super-speed, the possibility of transferring his healing powers (even if only temporarily) via a blood or bone marrow transfusion, super-speed surgery or fire rescue or even just using it to test the laws of physics as they know them...

Honestly, this is more along the lines of what Barry was expecting when Dr. Wells had asked him to agree to help scientific progress by allowing himself to be studied: crazy brainstorming, hypothesizing, testing, record-keeping with an eye towards eventual publication...

Huh.

Why haven't they done that at STAR Labs? How have they all managed to get so fully fixated on the question of speed, and specifically of maximizing speed? Even before he'd found out about the Man in Yellow and how he needed to catch up to him, everything they'd done had been aimed at making him faster.

Sure, one of the joys of a new discovery is finding out its limits, but getting to a top speed isn't the only limit they could be testing.

Now that he thinks about it, Caitlin's wistful requests to study his biological reactions were always brushed off, as were Cisco's occasional daydreams about trying to replicate even a lower level of speed in his machines; at this point, they've stopped even asking - Caitlin focusing all her research on maximizing his metabolism to enable further speed, Cisco doing nothing but creating new suits that can go faster. No different experiments, no exploring different alternatives, barely any hypothesizing and no control groups at all...

That - isn't how science is supposed to work.

Barry has the distinct sinking feeling that something is even more wrong in STAR Labs than he'd originally thought, and that in his excitement over his new abilities and joy at having new friends, he may have overlooked it entirely.

Great.

He hasn't had a chance to raise the whole Wells issue with his CSI friends yet, but he's starting to think that he might need to raise that on a different visit. Possibly after he's had some time to think about it and figure out if he's just being unduly paranoid or if there really is something off there.

After all, Terri already dislikes Wells, thinking there was something intentional behind the Accelerator explosion; if Barry doesn't tread lightly here, they might not be willing to entertain the possibility that it's all a coincidence.

...a really big coincidence.

"Okay, okay, okay!" Terri eventually shouts, holding up their hands. "Hush. We can brainstorm ideas later. Barry, I assume the difficulty you're having is in both running and analyzing?"

"I definitely leave a residue that appears similar on a surface glance," Barry confirms. "And it seems pretty similar, but I'm worried about there being bias affecting my ability to confirm if it's definitely Chemical X..."

"We have a lab room for testing," Gila says, taking charge. Chemical analysis is her specialty, even though she prefers to throw the weirder things over to Barry. "Come on."

The test, when done properly - Gila insists on several variations, plus a few "control" runs using Andre, which is so normal Barry feels like crying in relief - takes about an hour to finish on the new machines.

Barry spends the whole hour telling the group stories about the metas he's defeated – unsurprisingly, they’re a lot less interested in how he defeated them than they are in just what abilities dark matter can produce, so he eventually gives up on trying to tell them the stories and starts just describing the meta powers and letting them brainstorm possible applications or explanations for them – and trying to decide on whether he should bring up the Wells thing or not.

Assuming there even is a Wells thing beyond some crappy scientific method, bad management skills, and a few weird reactions.

He still hasn't decided by the time the result comes out.

And the result -

"Yep, this is definitely Chemical X or something extremely similar," Gila reports. "The analysis matches on multiple vectors. Congrats, Barry, you have a residue; the only question now is if you're secretly a serial kidnapper."

"Hey!"

"Joking," Gila says, smiling crookedly. "You were definitely in a coma for a few of these early ones. We came to visit a few times. You're all alibi'd out."

"Speaking of which," Terri says from where they and Andre have been pouring over the case files. "Can you come here and double-check some of these? I'm starting to see a pattern, but there are a few outliers."

Barry comes over, noticing that the files have been divided into three piles, one large and two smaller ones. "Yeah, I think -"

"No, no, there's just a few in particular," Terri says. "And I want you to think carefully if there's any chance they could be Flash-adjacent, any chance at all."

Barry nods, frowning. "You think you have something?"

"Well, maybe. I don’t know why the disappearances related to the Flash would be different, they’re still disappearances, but ignoring that, if we try to exclude them, then I think I see two patterns instead of one," Terri says. "It's not unusual in forensic accounting - people are rarely corrupt in only one way, if that makes sense? They usually have a couple of different plots happening at the same time, and that can confuse the results if you look for only one explanation. But these outliers...well, they might just be outliers. But based on the stories you've been telling us, these actually feel like they might be Flash-related, and therefore can be excluded, which would support my theory."

"What do you mean?"

“Well, take this one, Mason Bridges – he was investigating the Flash, right? And then there’s this one, Simon Stagg.”

“What about him?”

“Didn't you say you fought him - or, uh, around him, anyway - at Stagg Industries?”

Barry blinks. He hadn’t thought of that. “Yeah, good point,” he says. “Danton Black – he’s the one who basically committed suicide, it was awful – was trying to get back at Stagg Industries because they stole his work on cellular regeneration and took credit for it.”

“So Stagg witnessed a fight between a meta and the Flash right before he disappeared?”

“Uh,” Barry says. “Yes?”

“So we can say those are tangentially Flash related, too,” Terri says briskly, putting the two files into one of the smaller piles. “And this Farooq guy you mentioned, who used lightning to get rid of your powers and then got driven off –”

“I’m, like, 90% sure he died, but I’m honestly not sure.”

“No body, though,” Terri says. “I’m counting it as a disappearance. Plus you take the fact that that Professor Stein guy’s last known whereabouts were when he was heading to STAR Labs –”

“That was way before my time, though,” Barry objects. “He disappeared before the Accelerator even blew!”

“Good point. I’ll put him in the STAR Labs pile.”

Barry’s eyebrows go up. “STAR Labs pile?”

“As far as I can tell,” Terri says, “a handful of these disappearances can only be connected by the fact that they’re related to STAR Labs, particularly prior to the explosion. Could just be coincidence, but we're dealing with disappearances including the man in charge of building permits, a local paparazzo who went there to look for a scoop and never came back, this professor going there right before the explosion, that sort of thing, and since I'm looking for any pattern at all right now, I'm going to take it. But here's the interesting thing: if we put those aside, and put aside the specifically Flash-related ones as well, the rest of these – ” And here they gestured at the large pile. “– have a significantly more sinister connection.”

“Sinister?” Gila echoes.

Terri makes a face. “I’m pretty sure they’re Family hits.”

“They’re what?! No way!”

“Unfortunately so,” Terri says. “It’s pretty subtle – a lot of these people are only tangentially related to Family stuff, accountants or political figures or hospital staff or county clerks – but I’ve been doing a lot of work for the organized crime division recently, following the money trails, and I recognize some of these names.”

Barry sits down hard, all thoughts of Wells abruptly wiped from his mind. “The Man in Yellow is working as a Family assassin?”

“Possibly,” Terri says, reaching out to tap what they’d dubbed the ‘STAR Labs’ pile thoughtfully. “Not sure how that relates to these one ones if that's the case...Though if they are a Family assassin, the question arises: why? And why aren’t they doing more of them?”

“Assassination at super-speed,” Gila marvels. “They could kill the mayor in the middle of city square and no one could stop them.”

They all look at her.

“It wasn’t a suggestion! I was just saying.”

“The Families aren’t going to act that publicly,” Andre says, shaking his head. “Not in a million years; that’d bring the Feds down on their heads.”

“Not to mention inciting the whole city to riot,” Terri says. “Central’s very ‘oh, well, the Families, what can you do’ most of the time, but public interference on that scale? No way. No one would tolerate it. The only reason they’re tolerated as much as they are now is because most people feel comfortable with the way they’re cordoned off: their operations are mostly focused on the slums, their protection rackets don’t extend to the wealthiest neighborhoods, and so what if they bribe a few councilmen? We all know who they are, so it's almost like having a comforting safety valve.”

“Same with the police,” Barry says, making a face. “We all know which guys are in Family pockets are, so we all shrug it off, saying it’s better to know who it is than not to know.”

“I wasn’t saying they’d do it,” Gila protests. “Just that they could, you know, and what are people going to say? A streak of light did it? How would they even connect that to the Families? If they don’t know there are two speedsters, they’d probably just assume it was the Flash!”

Uh.

Barry hadn’t thought of that.

“Everyone would just assume it was the Families, even if they also thought it was the Flash,” Andre points out. “Everyone always blames crime in Central on the Families, and they’re usually right, too.”

Right.

Whew.

Barry doesn't want to deal with the thought of being framed at super-speed.

“I have a better question, though,” Andre continues. “If these are the Families, why are there so many? Like Terri said, the Families exist in a pretty tight balance in Central: enough influence to rule the streets, not enough to bother the movers and shakers. This many hits, in such a short amount of time? That’s not balanced. They must be planning something big.”

“The Families have been fading in power recently,” Terri offers. “Power-wise. The Feds have been taking huge bites out of them for the last decade and a half, ambushing major deals, busting huge deposits, blocking key intake lines…”

Barry snaps his fingers. “Captain Cold!”

“…what?”

“No, sorry, the new Internal Affairs guy, Captain Snart,” Barry says. “Captain Singh told me that he used to be undercover, that his cover got blown, and that the Families are still trying to kill him. He’s been helping bring them down!”

“And now he’s changed tracks to start taking down corrupt Family-bribed cops?” Gila asks, sounding impressed. “I mean, good for him; that's real dedication and work ethic there, at least for the three weeks he’s probably got left to live until the Families murder him. Especially with these disappearances.”

“Holy crap,” Barry says.

“What?”

“No, it just occurred to me,” Barry says. “All these disappearances – the Anti-Flash Task Force, which Captain Snart is involved with, is looking into these disappearances. Like you said, if you don’t know there’s two speedsters, you think it’s the Flash! That’s why he’s looking into the Flash!”

“Reasonable enough,” Terri says.

Barry shakes his head. He’s been so obsessed with trying to figure out Captain Cold’s evil plan – because, like, the guy has a mask, a superpowered cold gun, cold puns, supervillain is clearly the obvious conclusion here – that even though the thought had occurred to him once or twice, he’d never really believed in the possibility that maybe the guy is actually, well, doing his job.

Except – it seems like that’s probably what’s going on.

So weird.

“I’m going to need to think about this,” Barry says.

“Make sense,” Gila says. “Now what, though? I assume you don’t want to out yourself as the Flash.”

“Definitely not.”

“I’ll write up a draft report about how these particular disappearances appear linked to the Families,” Terri offers. “That’ll get everyone on the right track, I think, without needing to get into the other ones being Flash-related. But Gila will eventually need to submit something on the residue…”

“I can say it might be related to a speedster,” Gila says. “But that might lead him to suspect the Flash more…”

“No, you should still do that, even if it makes him suspicious,” Barry says. “Stopping this guy is the top priority, above everything else. If I have to stop being the Flash for a while or talk to Captain Snart about what I’m doing, I’ll do that. I’ll figure something out.”

“Good luck!”

Barry heads back to the office, torn between being absolutely elated at the progress they’re making and kind of horrified at what they’ve discovered. Somehow, even though he’d signed up to be a superhero, he hadn’t really thought about going up against the Families – the closest he’d come was fighting Nimbus, and that’d been one of the toughest fights he’d had yet –

There’s someone in his office.

It’s pretty late, getting close to nine p.m.; the building should be deserted. The CSI lab, which is basically Barry’s private area, should definitely be deserted; there shouldn’t be someone walking around with only one dim phone light to guide them.

What the hell’s going on?

Barry reaches inside the room and flips on all the lights at once.

“Jesus fuck!” the intruder swears, clutching at his eyes to shield himself from the glare.

The intruder –

“Detective Lloyd?” Barry asks, surprised. “What are you doing here?”

“I was looking for some of case files and evidence someone checked out,” Lloyd says, sounding annoyed. “What’re you doing here? Isn’t it past your bedtime?”

“I had to duck out for an appointment,” Barry lies. “I came back to finish up some projects. You know, if you think the evidence is up here, then the only person who could’ve checked them out is me – which cases are you looking for? I might be able to help you find it.”

Lloyd rattles off some case numbers.

Those are a few of the disappearance cases, some of the ones they’d determined were probably Family hits.

“Oh, yeah, I know where those are,” Barry says, heading towards the evidence cabinet, as he's mentally dubbed it. “Gimme a second. How long do you need them? I still have a few tests I'd like to run..."

"I don't think that's a good idea, Allen," Lloyd says.

Barry pauses in the middle of pulling out the evidence bags. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you know how it is. What with the Commissioner running for office and all, that means Deputy Commissioner Gillick's going to be moving up soon, and he doesn't like too much spending," Lloyd says, reaching out and plucking the bags out of Barry's hands. "Especially on low-priority cases like this."

"I know they're not at the top of the queue," Barry says, a little stung. "But they're still important. In fact -"

He's about to tell Lloyd about the Family connection, but Lloyd cuts him off.

"They're low-priority, Allen," he says. "Trust me. No one wants to be wasting time looking into these. Just relax, will you? Take another - heh - day off. We've got a pretty good handle on these cases." He waves the bag. "And we're pretty sure there's nothing all that serious to them."

"But -"

"That's final, Allen," Lloyd says. "Listen, take a tip from a friend, yeah? You want people to like you, you do your job, you do it well, and you don't step on people's toes in the process. It's not like these cases are going down the memory chute or something; we're just bumping them down so they don't interfere with more important stuff. You hear me?"

"I hear you," Barry says, still frowning.

Lloyd slaps him on the back, says, "I knew you weren't as uptight as they say," and heads out.

Barry would normally spend the next hour stressing out about who 'they' are and the fact that he's totally not uptight but do people think he is, but he's too busy being utterly appalled.

Why would Lloyd be warning Barry off a Family-related case? He's not one of the cops in the Family pocket, not even slightly; there's never been a hint of scandal there.

Honestly, if Barry hadn't known it was a Family case, he probably wouldn't have even thought it was all that weird. Lloyd's heavy-handed suggestion to butt out is practically normal for cops, who are notoriously protective of their cases, and even the weird hour he came by isn't all that unusual for a cop.

It's not that Barry's worried or anything, of course: once Terri and the others submit their report, the cases will be upgraded once more, no matter what Lloyd says.

But - it is a Family case. And Lloyd tried to squelch it.

Why would he do that, if it wasn't on the orders of one of the Families? Was it on someone else's orders? If so, who, and why is Lloyd listening to them?

What's going on here?

#coldflash #barry allen #leonard snart #iris west #joe west #eobard thawne #Harrison wells #cisco ramon #Caitlin snow #gary green #john constantine #my fic #an internal affair

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itsclydebitches · 5 years

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How do you feel about the theory that Atlas (Ironwood) is using relic of creation in secret. It somehow being the reason Atlas has advanced tech. Also may be involved with Penny's creation. Why does a robot have a soul? Maybe it was created using magic or somehow copied from someone else?

Just in terms of the potential I think it’s a fantastic idea, though practically speaking it seems pretty hard to sell. It would require that, after everything we saw involving Ozpin’s caginess in Volume Six, Ironwood still had enough information/resources to get the relic out of its vault, access it (if there’s a specific “password” like saying Jinn’s name), and then using it for experiments involving scientists that know nothing about this war, thus risking the inner circle’s secrets getting out. I can’t imagine Ozpin sanctioning all that when he won’t even admit to the group he’s traveling with that another relic has questions left. Or, Ironwood managed to pull all this off for years–long enough to create Penny and then following her time at Beacon–without Ozpin ever finding out, which I find equally improbable. It would also paint Ironwood as another betrayer. I definitely don’t think that’s an impossibility, but using a relic in secret is waaaay bigger than bringing your army to Beacon. The story has done a lot to establish him as someone who desperately wants to be loyal and I’m not sure he would have talked himself into taking things that far. He might have, but that seems a bit of a disservice to the character imo.

Additionally, I’ve always seen Atlas’ tech as a matter of privilege. We managed this thing and we’re not sharing it unless you can pay, we have a reason to, etc. Privilege breeds more privilege until we’re standing on top of everyone else. Penny isn’t as easily explained though. How does a robot gain a soul? Well, from what I remember it was less that they gave her a soul and more that they created a synthetic person capable of generating aura, which by extension allows for individuality to develop. A soul is the byproduct. Definitely connected, but not quite the same thing. We have seen some evidence that people can manipulate aura that’s not their own–Jaune bolstering Ren’s through his semblance, Pyrrha unlocking Jaune’s, etc.–so it’s possible that you could, perhaps, figure out a way to extend aura into a machine. Sort of give it a taste until it learns how to make its own. Or someone in Atlas has a specific semblance that allowed for new types of aura control/manipulation/creation. Or Penny was a fluke and no one quite understands yet how she came to be. Which would explain why we (presumably) haven’t seen other AIs yet.

I think a lot of this will come down to whether they want to rework Ironwood’s research into the future plot. If so we’ll no doubt get an explanation as to how this happened–perhaps, yes, referencing magic somehow. (Either Ozpin’s type of magic or dust/semblances which are basically magic, but no one calls it that.) Or, if that part of the story is pretty much done, Penny’s existence might just be hand-waved away as a unique, miraculous occurrence. RWBY certainly wouldn’t be the first Sci-Fi-ish story to tell us that things exist without getting into the nitty gritty of how.

#rwby #mymetas #Anonymous

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wlwtsubomi · 5 years

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Well, uh, I have to admit I somehow never even saw your OSAS stuff until you mentioned it and I looked through the tag?? And I can’t really get what it’s about from just the art but it looks rad and I’m always down for original works (I feel you on drawing shit for your own stuff instead of actually progressing the story) so have at it! Tell me about OSAS, anything from what the world’s like to what the characters like to eat!

akgajdagh honestly thats valid!! osas tends to fly under a lot of peoples radars 😔✊

and also algjakdg thank y ou!!! ive been trying to work on osas for a long while so im rly touched that u think its cool and also that im still Relatable™ ;;w;; i can,, talk a lot,,,, abt osas,,,,,,,, im answering the two questions u gave (what the worlds like and what characters like to eat) and just gonna sneak it under a cut

yeehaw!!

ok so the world?? ive mentioned it several times but the worlds called uxordra!!! if u go back and find stuff u MAY find that like. i have called it uxodra or uxorda and honestly?? im not sure which one was right so i mashed the two together called it uxordra and called it a day

its ruled by kingdoms bc its. kinda like every other fantasy world like that. note that i started working on osas when i was like. in 6th grade so u have to rly bare with me here bc all the ocs have those 6th grade oc Tragic Backstories or are ocs from a fandom that ive reworked to put them in here. and also if u look closely u would be able to pick out the inspo for some parts of osas.

ALGJAD but yeah its separated into kingdoms!! surprisingly, there isnt a lot of conflict between the kingdoms in the story. surprisingly bc like. thats the plot for several fantasy stories huh. but thats mainly bc 6th grade me didnt even think abt making a fuckin map of uxordra. like ok i get it. but why. 6th grade me i couldve evolved the story so much if only i had a map but instead i didnt and now the story that i came up w rly only mentions only a few different kingdoms and im too invested w it so im too lazy to change it and figure out how to change it. and also they have like. no names

and for that im serious i mean. the kingdom that osas is mainly set in? thats like. the only one named so far. its called valkarie and yes its like valkyrie but just iwth an a instead of a y. see its bc one day 7th grade me realized that i needed a name and came up with one on the spot. but ive been thinking of it and refering to it as valkarie so much that now thats what its called. its a big oof. its arguably one of the biggest kingdoms next to this other one that i dont have a name for??

five out of the main group was born in valkarie!! while iovita ( hes the one w curly hair thats mainly sketched in green) was born in that other big kingdom!! that other kingdom (which is REALLY need a name for considering its the origin place of one of the MAIN CHARACTERS) is like. ok so valkarie is rly just. powerful as a kingdom. but that other kingdom?? theyre just funky! theyre a big trading hub and outsource of crops and everyone thinks theyre cool.

valkarie is. kinda mess. as ive mentioned before yeah no one rly likes them but?? theyre powerful?? they have a big military and iovita comes over here and immediately hisses thru his teeth bc man this is. hm. this seems Excessive. but in their semi defense there was already a good amount of guards and knights and shit but then this whole entire thing happened in ruresi and now all them from there moved to the capitol and its just agakdagjajd Too Many Guards! but yeah like. they also are kinda hggjghjdjg-ing bc there was this whole entire thing called the idarist war which will eventually be elaborated in osas once i actually WORK ON IT!!!!!!!!!! and like it rly just depleted a lot of resources and threw people out of wack

oh my god and i like. just realized i forgot to put this here. but like. theres also gods!!! whenever theres a character in the osas tag that doesnt look human?? tahts a god!!! they just kinda exist and give people things and sometimes start droughts like a fuckin idiot!!!!!!!!! aglajdajg ill probably explain them more in osas. again if i actually WORK ON IT!!!!!!

but yeah. the kingdoms are rather peaceful when it comes to each other. the real conflict most of the time is within the kingdoms themselves?? and at the start of osas its not even that full of conflict. the real peak of hardship was like 80 years ago during the idarist war but most (i say most bc. ruresi.) of valkarie has recovered or at least. recovered as much as they could.

and uhhh what the characters like to eat??

bodil (the ginger one with the teal-ish coat!!) likes salty things!! admittedly its bc her diet kinda. Sucks??? she lives off of preserved things and things merope serves (which is all bar food so. lots of salt.) she also likes milk. she is a simple lesbian she sees milk she drinks

merope (the one w an eyepatch and vitiligo and also sharp chompers………..) really likes stew!!! his aunt used to make it a lot when he was younger and its been his favorite food since!! he makes so many salty things that at this point hes kinda exhausted

aludra (the one with those red marks and blank eyes?? shes mostly drawn in red) cant eat anymore. shes a ghost. BUT anyways she also likes stew. but she also loves dry food that is rly easy to snack on (like crackers or smn!!) bc she kinda used to like just sit in her room and Brood.

iovita (yeah ive mentioned him already. hes the one in green) likes pies!! he likes fruits and as such was like “holy shit you can bake SO MANY fruits into pies. he really likes everything really?? bc yeah his kingdom is known for their abundance of farmland which means lots of fruits and meat and vegetables and its just. wild. but he really doesnt like sour things. conan eats a lemon in front of him and iovita realizes that Their Gods Will Not Save Them.

alfjadka yeah conan (has the light hair w dark roots, that emo bang, and drawn in grey) likes sour things. or so he says. he really likes sweets actually. especially caramel. his mom used to sneak him candies and its a mixture of just that positive association and also just. sweets good. that just makes him really love candy.

sorin (has the bandage over eye and the burn scars. also a ginger. mostly drawn in a yellow-gold) does really?? have??? a favorite food???or a favorite thing to eat???? he takes what he gets and at the least he knows that bread at the least is semi-reliable. ruresi while it was still up wasnt especially known for their food and it really shows?? well at least, sorin says that but conan has noticed that sorin sometimes stares at cakes for a long time………..

(conan buys every cake he sees sorin staring at then always eat a bit before going “oh wow!! i cant finish this sorin u can have it”. sorin is always a bit skeptical abt actually getting it and every other bite asks if conan is Really Sure He Can Have All This. but he eat its every time.)

#ladjagjadhagjsfhadj i like talking abt osas ;w;#osas #wash speaks #verderi

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babydollsmadd · 5 years

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Red

I am once again way too late with this but oh well. I’ll answer this for all my paras bc why the heck not!!

send me a color ☁️✨

red: what makes your para(s) the angriest and why?

Zazie: Literally anything and everything. He’s an angery boi. Tho, there’s one thing that really makes him furious, more than anything else. And that’s his birth parents. Like, just don’t talk to him about it. Don’t mention it, don’t ask questions, nothing, because he will literally start breaking everything around him. Just don’t.

Tatsu: Honestly? His friends being complete idiots. He gets really angry at Zazie & Nyru for not being able to figure out how to be together, he gets mad at his sister for being with a person he doesn’t deem worthy, that kinda thing. He cares for them so so much, and seeing them being unhappy gets his blood boiling because it shouldn’t be this difficult.

Nyru: Being alive, I guess. She has a lot of internalized anger issues, so you have to make her very angry to see her blow up or something. That usually only happens when Zazie’s being a total dick, or she starts ranting about certain topics.

Daiki: I’m… not sure?? He’s not that developed yet. I don’t think he really gets angry much. And I feel like he’s the same as Nyru, so even when he does get angry, he’d more likely run away from the issue instead of actually deal with it.

Nyra: Things involving Tatsu. Their relationship might even be more complicated than Nyru & Zazie’s at this point, which, damn how did that happen. She internalizes all of her anger, and the only time you actually get to see her angry, is when she’s in a fight with her ex.

Nyro: I have to really try to be objective here for personal reasons. They’ve done a lot of actual soul searching and working on themselves, and they have been getting a lot better. I think nowadays they’re really only angry at themselves and their past actions.

Ami: Anything she can find to be pissed about tbh. She likes getting angry at things. But one thing that really gets her going are terfs, transphobes, all that good stuff. Oh, and she can’t stand her parents, not one bit.

Megumi: She’s… difficult. She’s generally extremely chill and doesn’t really get angry unless people are talking shit about her friends or something. But then again, sometimes she gets very drunk and starts fights in clubs for no reason. So I’m not sure? One thing she used to get really angry about were people questioning her relationship with her ex, Suki.

Ao: Chill and zen as can be. You won’t catch her actually being angry at anyone. She’s the most adult out of the group and always talks things out with people, and tries to make sure the rest also talks it out. There are things that make her mad, but your really wouldn’t know.

Suki: Instead of getting angry, this bitch just immediately turns it into anxiety. So you never know if she’s angry or sad or anxious, because from the outside, it looks the same. She has a strong sense of justice tho, so I think unfairness and rude people make her really angry.

Rin: People shitting on art and artists lmao. (I really don’t know tbh, I’m still reworking him so just, give me break)

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lastofmars-a · 5 years

Text

rules ━ tag 20 followers you’d like to get to know better tagged by : @spdernoir tagging : if you see this do it!

nickname : TJ / trouble jude / trouble if you’re nasty ;) (HRDLKSAJ im kidding but yest i am going to legally change my name to trouble and theres ntohing you can do to stop me)

gender : trans man he/him

astrological sign : leo

height : 5′3″

sexuality : bi / questioning gay idk its weird rn dw abt it

hogwarts house : gryffindor

favorite animals : hhfhfdsralk idk? cats?

average hours of sleep : bad.

dogs or cats : BOTH

number of blankets : 2

where i am from : was born in mass but rn im in nc. lol ive been all over

dream trip : gosh... idk .. europe? anywhere thats cool to visit. id like to go to china someday

when i created this account : time isnt real

why i created this account : i had to reboot him from my old account bc i was depressed and out of the rp scene for like a year and a half, also bc he desperately needed a rework anyways

followers : 386

#follower count /

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patriotsnet · 3 years

Text

Should Republicans Vote In Democratic Primary

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/should-republicans-vote-in-democratic-primary/

Should Republicans Vote In Democratic Primary

Official Disinvites For Us Indys

Republican Caller: Should I Vote in the Democratic Primary to Undermine Bernie?

Because we’re disrupting the coronation. It has to be us, right? It can’t be that the candidate they are putting a thumb on the scale for is the problem…

The share of independents in the public, which long ago surpassed the percentages of either Democrats or Republicans, continues to increase. Based on 2014 data, 39% identify as independents, 32% as Democrats and 23% as Republicans. This is the highest percentage of independents in more than 75 years of public opinion polling.I was a registered democrat for over 40 years and left the party last Jan, changed back to caucus for Bernie here in CO and left the democratic party the day after.

Is It Common For Democrats To Participate In The Republican Primary And Vice Versa

In short, no. According to Elizabeth Simas, a political science professor at the University of Houston who spoke about this with Texas Standard, cases of strategic voting dont happen much in primary elections. Certainly, there are people who do it but we just dont see it happening as much as theres potentially this fear for it to happen, Simas said.

In areas dominated by one party, especially rural areas, voters might cross party lines in the primary to have more of a say in their local races.

In my county, all the local races are Republican. Judges, sheriff, district attorney, Martha Mims, a Democratic voter who lives Williamson County, wrote in The Texas Tribunes Facebook group, This is Your Texas. If I want to have a say in local government, I have to vote in the Republican primary.

Voters like Mims can do that, thanks to Texas open primary. Do you have more questions about voting in Texas? Submit them to our Texplainer series.

Disclosure: The University of Houston has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

How Do You Choose

When you show up to your polling location, youll decide whether you want a Democratic or Republican primary ballot.

But after choosing a side in the primary, you have to stay in that lane through the runoff. You cant vote Republican in the primary election and then participate in a runoff election between top Democratic candidates.

That said, voting in a primary does not commit you to vote for a particular candidate in the general election. You can vote for either partys candidate in the November election.

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Sorry Kid It Just Doesn’t Work That Way

This is not a high school glee club. If an independent wants to change their registration every four years for six months in order to vote in the Democratic or Republican party in NY, they can. You do not get to do one fucking thing to stop it. It has been happening for some time, and it will happen more and more as time marches on. I am a leftist. I have every god damned right to have a voice in who the leftist candidate in the GE is going to be. Tough shit if you and other loyalists don’t like it. And I have every right to say, well, that candidate that won does not represent me so I will vote for someone else even if that is a third party. Isn’t democracy a grand thing? This attitude is going to ensure future losses not wins. 47%. That is the number. That is the math!

Invite Independents Into The Process

The Democratic Party ought to open the nominating process to voters registered as independents, allowing them to sign up as Democrats on primary day. Sixteen states have created open primaries through laws or referendums, according to the nonprofit group Open Primaries, although the parties have the authority to do so unilaterally. Yet Democrats have done so in only six states, the group notes.

James Zogby is president of the Arab American Institute and a member of the Democratic National Committees executive committee. Bernie Sanders appointed him to the partys primary reform commission.

Reaching out to such voters currently alienated by the two major parties would increase the chances that the Democratic nominee can win in November. At the same time, the party needs to work to strengthen its bonds with its existing members.

The sad but simple truth is that being a Democrat no longer means very much to many Americans. According to the most recent Gallup poll, only 27 percent of voters identify as Democrats, and 30 percent say they are Republicans. At the same time, 42 percent call themselves independents, including half of millennial voters . This share of American voters who dont identify with any party has held constant for well over a decade.

The Democratic Party needs to give voters, including independents, a reason to become engaged in party-building. Since we need the votes of independents in the fall, shouldnt we give them a voice in the spring?

Recommended Reading: What News Channel Do Republicans Watch

Well No That Defeats The Purpose Of Primaries

But I do think that they should be open. It was different when the majority of the populace was divided between the two parties, but now that Independents make up the largest voting group, it seems wrong to exclude them unless there is same day voter registration at polling sites. Too many states make it as hard as possible to vote now that the voting rights act was gutted, so we need to make changes to make the process as inclusive as possible. The more hurdles that people have to jump through to vote, the more discouraged and cynical people will be. That serves the interests of the PTB, but it doesn’t serve the country’s interests. We need and informed, engaged citizenry or our democracy-what’s left of it-will lose all legitimacy. That, at least, is my view now.

The Present Process Is Prone To Chaos And Capture

We need not recount here the devastating effectiveness with which Donald Trumps insurgent candidacy steamrolled the traditional gatekeepers, commandeered media attention, and mobilized what some of his backers called his troll army. However, the weakening of gatekeeping was not limited to one candidate or one party. The Democratic Party establishment found itself barely able to contain the insurgency of Sanders, even though he was not a Democrat and he did not win a majority of self-identified Democrats except in his home state of Vermont and neighboring New Hampshire.

Neither candidate changed the system all by himself. Rather, both saw and exploited the invisible primarys fragility. Candidates could bypass traditional moneymen by reaping donations online, tapping deep-pocketed tycoons, or funding themselves. They could bypass traditional media by using social platforms like Twitter and Facebook, and they could hijack traditional media by behaving outrageously. They could treat their lack of endorsements as a mark of authenticity.

he nomination process makes unrealistic demands on voters, not because voters are lazy or stupidtheyre notbut because they are human.

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With No Republican Primary Gop Supporters Are Free To Vote For ‘chaos’

With no Republican presidential primary this year, Republicans are free to make what political scientists call negative strategic votes for Democrats without having to sacrifice the chance to vote for their own party.

Voters can cast ballots in only one primary per election, but they can vote however they choose in general elections despite the primary they choose.

A large crowd of candidates means smaller vote counts can swing elections and being early in the national process could also be expected to add to a particularly strong chances for crossover voting, said D. Sunshine Hillygus, a Duke University political science professor who has studied crossover and negative strategic voting.

She said the crossover votes can be negatively strategic, “trolling or throwing a wrench in it,” or they can be positively strategic as a backstop.

The only cost for Republicans who are so inclined to instigate “chaos?” They’ll get on a Democratic mailing list.

And, indeed, crossover votes could be a factor in the primary, said David Woodard, a retired Clemson University professor who has consulted with Republicans for decades.

Republicans who otherwise wouldn’t want to interrupt their Republican voting record could actually brag about crossing over this year, Woodard said. Fueled by impeachment and memories of Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Republicans will be highly motivated this year, Woodard said.

Get Rid Of Superdelegates Completely

Will President Trump encourage Ohio Republicans to vote in the Democratic Primary

Superdelegates had some of their power stripped from them after the contentious 2016 Democratic primary contest. Now its time to finish the job: They ought to be neutered entirely.

Selina Vickers was a delegate for Sen. Bernie Sanders at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. She is a candidate for the West Virginia House of Delegates, in District 32.

Superdelegates debuted at the 1984 Democratic convention, after the party reworked its rules to respond to President Jimmy Carters calamitous defeat in 1980. The idea was that these special delegates typically politicians and senior party officials wouldnt be bound by the decisions of state primary voters and caucusers: They could throw their weight behind whichever candidate they thought would perform best in the general election. This year, there are 771 superdelegate votes and 3,979 pledged delegates . The problem is that there can be a chasm between the judgments of party insiders and the grass roots about which candidates are most electable.

A certain number of elected party leaders could retain the title of automatic delegates, but they should not have a free or wild card vote at any stage. Instead, they should pledge to a candidate before their states primary or caucuses. If their candidates dont earn votes at the state level, they wouldnt have a say so they couldnt interfere in the democratic selection of a nominee.

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What Is A Party Primary Election

The Democratic and Republican Parties are required to use primary elections to choose their candidates for the general election. Although it is up to the parties to decide who may vote in their primaries, generally only registered voters affiliated with the Democratic or Republican Parties may vote in that party’s primary election.

Democrats Plan To Keep Their Primary Strategy

Morgan Carroll, chairwoman of the Colorado Democratic Party and a former state Senate president, said a proposal to forgo primaries would never receive serious consideration among state Democrats.

She called the idea ridiculous and undemocratic.

If we had a candidate that recommended it, I think theyd be driven out of town, Morgan Carroll said.

She sees the push as part of a larger pattern by Trump and his loyalists to basically move in an authoritarian direction, take away choices from voters, make it harder to vote, make it hard for the people to decide, and make it easier for them to install whoever they want in whatever position they want.

Want exclusive political news and insights first? Subscribe to The Unaffiliated, the political newsletter from The Colorado Sun. Thats where this story first appeared. Join now or upgrade your membership.

If the Republican proposal passes, she said its hard to know whether more unaffiliated voters would participate in 2022 Democratic primaries because they would be the only primary left they could vote in.

She thinks the move would backfire for Republicans as theyve struggled to win elections in Colorado in recent years. If I were a rank-and-file Republican person, Id be furious.

Colorado Sun staff writer Jesse Paul contributed to this report.

Read Also: Are There Any Other Republicans Running For President

Enhance The Role Of Superdelegates

We recommend doing the opposite of what the DNC chose to do with its Unity Reform Commission. Instead of diminishing the role of superdelegates by preventing them from voting on the first ballot or reducing their numbers, the party should augment their influence.

The purpose of superdelegates has never been to overturn the choice of voters in primaries. True, in principle they might act as a last barrier to a manifestly unacceptable candidate, like George Wallace or Henry Fordbut even that is unlikely, if a candidate has won a decisive victory in the primaries. Rather, their real importance is their indirect influence on the upstream end of the process. Their convention votes incentivize candidates to reach out to them in the early stages of campaigns. A candidate who seeks superdelegates support will need to listen to them and promise to work with them. Also, superdelegates commitments early in the process help establish party support and momentum for favored candidates. Superdelegates do not decide the nomination, but they do influence the nominees, the media, and the votersand that is exactly as it should be.

We recommend doing the opposite of what the DNC chose to do with its Unity Reform Commission. Instead of diminishing the role of superdelegates , the party should augment their influence.

Its Primary Day In Pennsylvania Heres What Voters Need To Know

Laura Benshoff

May 18, 2021

Voters, wearing protective face masks as a precaution against the coronavirus, stand at a distance from each other as they wait in line to casts their ballot in the Pennsylvania primary in Philadelphia, Tuesday, June 2, 2020.

Its Primary Day in Pennsylvania.

Voters around the commonwealth will pick representatives from their parties to put on the ballot for the November general election. In Philadelphia, where Democrats outnumber Republicans seven to one, the primary can be more determinative than the general election.

Judicial races, school board seats, and the Philadelphia District Attorneys office are all in the running.

Recommended Reading: What Percent Of Republicans Approve Of Trump

Over 150 Companies Sign Letter Supporting John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act

One reason Republicans in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts may have focused their initiatives solely on voter ID laws, rather than including other election changes, is because public polling has shown those requirements have broad backing by members of both parties. A recent Monmouth University poll found that 80 percent of Americans back requiring voters to show photo ID in order to vote.

“The struggle with ballot initiatives are always getting the actual initiative on the ballot to start with,” said Garrett Bess, vice president of Heritage Action for America, a conservative advocacy group. “But if the question is put to the voters, then I think it’s an almost certainty to pass.”

Still, the effort marks a new chapter in the broader national Republican effort to advance new limits on elections following former President Donald Trump’s campaign of lies about last fall’s vote. A number of leading backers of the ballot initiatives have boosted Trump’s false claims of fraud.

Voter fraud in U.S. elections is exceedingly rare. Although there is no evidence of widespread malfeasance in last fall’s election, more than a dozen states have so far enacted changes this year.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 36 states already ask voters to provide some form of ID, with most of them allowing voters without ID to cast ballots if they sign a form under oath.

Using An Analogy Such As A Private Club Or A Sports Team Is Neither Naive Nor Dishonest

If you are an Independent or non-aligned voter, you simply change your voter registration to Democratic if you want to vote for a Democrat in a Primary, or to Republican if you want to vote for Republican in a primary. There is absolutely no restriction on doing this, other than the need to do it a certain number of days before the primary. Whether or not the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are de-facto institutionalized political parties, sports teams, or clubs does not change this. If you want to vote in a closed primary, you simply change to the party that you want to be in within the allotted time before the primary. One can always change back to Independent or non-aligned afterward if one chooses. Why do you think this is “s***ting” on people? Candidate preference:Biden

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Professional Vetting Provides Quality Control

Our case so far has dwelt on the shortcomings of the plebiscitary nominating process. So, we ought to re-emphasize: We are not saying that primary elections bring nothing to the table. To the contrary, they surface all kinds of important information about candidates and voters. What we do believe is that two filters are better than one. Electoral and professional perspectives check each others excesses and balance each others viewpoints; and, more than that, they complement and improve each other. Each provides the other with vital information which otherwise might be missed. Perhaps most important, professional input aids in winnowing the field to those who will likely govern competently.

wo filters are better than one. Electoral and professional perspectives check each others excesses and balance each others viewpoints

Insiders look for whether candidates are able to work with others, and whether they have sound judgment, adaptability, a nuanced way of dealing with problems, and influential relationships inside and outside government. Insiders also observe candidates character, and they can detect personal flaws that might affect sound decision-making. Insiders know from experience the attributes and talents necessary for effective governing. Voters are not privy to that kind of detailed, hands-on knowledge.

Vetting not only evaluates politicians; it also helps equip them to govern.

Virginia Voter Guide: The 2021 Primaries

Will President Trump encourage Ohio Republicans to cross-over to vote in Democratic primary?

The 2021 election season in Virginia has begun.

The 2021 Virginia primary election, which will determine the candidates who will face off in the fall, will be held Tuesday. Voters are weighing in on the contest for the Democratic nomination for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general among other races. Most of the Republican races were already decided in a series of remote conventions May 8, although there will be a few GOP races on the ballot.

Most of the changes to voting in Virginia adopted last year due to the pandemic are still in place, but there are a few differences. Heres what you need to know.

Read Also: Do Republicans Vote In The Primary

Trump Has Zero Desire To Be Speaker Of House Spokesman Says

Oregon progressive Senator Jeff Merkley and Minnesotas Senator and former Democratic presidential candidate, Amy Klobuchar, introduced the For the People Act, along with majority leader Chuck Schumer, in the Senate in March.

Jeff Merkley

. is absolutely right. This bill is critical for our country. We must fight with everything we’ve got to pass the For the People Act and save our democracy.

Today they probably know it is going to be parked in a cul-de-sac and the Republicans, aided by Democrat Joe Manchin, are going to throw away the keys.

Heres what Merkley tweeted yesterday.

Jeff Merkley

Make no mistake: Our democracy is in crisis. Republican lawmakers are trying to restrict Americans’ right to vote all across the country. Tomorrow we have a chance to right these wrongs by passing the For the People Act. We must get it done!

And heres Klobuchar earlier today reminding everyone that Barack Obama has spoken out to support a compromise version of the bill put forward by Manchin .

Amy Klobuchar

Voters Need Help: How Party Insiders Can Make Presidential Primaries Safer Fairer And More Democratic

Summary

Presidential-nominating contests in both major political parties are at risk of producing nominees who aren’t competent to govern and/or don’t represent a majority of the partys voters. Raymond La Raja and Jonathan Rauch argue this is a result of the declining role of party insiders in the nomination process and call for the reversal of that trend. Primaries function best, they claim, when voters and party professionals work in partnership.

Don’t Miss: How Many Registered Republicans In Texas

The Republicans Planning To Vote In South Carolinas Democratic Primary

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Twelve years ago, Rush Limbaugh, who had not yet received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, urged the listeners of his enormously popular and very conservative talk-radio show to vote for Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries. In the patchwork process that is employed to nominate Presidential candidates, more than a dozen states have open primaries, which allow registered voters to participate in either contest. Limbaugh wanted Clintons close but seemingly losing fight with Barack Obama to go on for as long as possible, on the theory that a protracted battle would weaken the eventual nominee. He called the plan Operation Chaos. Limbaugh didnt think that Clinton was necessarily the weaker of the two candidatesin fact, he ultimately concluded that Obama was; by May, 2008, he was pushing his fans to vote for the senator from Illinois. Barack Obama has shown he cannot get the votes Democrats need to winblue-collar, working-class people, Limbaugh said. He can get effete snobs, he can get wealthy academics, he can get the young, and he can get the black vote, but Democrats do not win with that.

Oh You Don’t Want My Vote In Nov

I’m an Indy that votes Dem. My state has closed Repug primaries/caucuses. If I were Right leaning I’d be insulted that I have to change my affiliation to them and back afterward to have a say in who the best candidate to run for GE is.The Dem party is now smaller than the Indies, and will be even smaller in a few months after Hillary’s scorched earth antics. I don’t think you want to disinvite us all at this point.

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From Ohio To Florida Your Cheat Sheet For The Next Crucial Primaries

Five states voting Tuesday could be make-or-break for some presidential candidates. A primer on whos voting and what outcomes are likeliest

Tue 15 Mar 2016 11.00 GMT Last modified on Fri 9 Feb 2018 19.15 GMT

On 15 March, the names of the remaining presidential candidates Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and John Kasich on the Republican side, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders for the Democrats will be on ballot papers in five states and one US territory. Although this Tuesday will be less frantic than Super Tuesday two weeks ago, when 12 states and one territory held primary elections, its just as important. By 16 March, the race for the White House could look very different depending on how Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio vote.

Thats partly because the delegate numbers in those states are so high in total, 367 Republican and 792 Democratic delegates are available on 15 March. That brings us significantly closer to the finish line of having just two presidential candidates: at the moment, 33% of Democratic delegates have been pledged but by the time the polls have closed on 15 March, that number will rise to 50%. For Republicans, pledged delegates will jump from 46% to 61%.

Those percentages just mean that playing catch-up gets harder from here. Clinton is still on track for the Democratic nomination to change that, Sanders needs to pick up at least 326 of the pledged delegates .

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Should Republicans Vote In Democratic Primary

Official Disinvites For Us Indys

Republican Caller: Should I Vote in the Democratic Primary to Undermine Bernie?

Because we’re disrupting the coronation. It has to be us, right? It can’t be that the candidate they are putting a thumb on the scale for is the problem…

Is It Common For Democrats To Participate In The Republican Primary And Vice Versa

In areas dominated by one party, especially rural areas, voters might cross party lines in the primary to have more of a say in their local races.

Voters like Mims can do that, thanks to Texas open primary. Do you have more questions about voting in Texas? Submit them to our Texplainer series.

How Do You Choose

When you show up to your polling location, youll decide whether you want a Democratic or Republican primary ballot.

That said, voting in a primary does not commit you to vote for a particular candidate in the general election. You can vote for either partys candidate in the November election.

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Sorry Kid It Just Doesn’t Work That Way

Invite Independents Into The Process

James Zogby is president of the Arab American Institute and a member of the Democratic National Committees executive committee. Bernie Sanders appointed him to the partys primary reform commission.

Recommended Reading: What News Channel Do Republicans Watch

Well No That Defeats The Purpose Of Primaries

The Present Process Is Prone To Chaos And Capture

he nomination process makes unrealistic demands on voters, not because voters are lazy or stupidtheyre notbut because they are human.

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With No Republican Primary Gop Supporters Are Free To Vote For ‘chaos’

Voters can cast ballots in only one primary per election, but they can vote however they choose in general elections despite the primary they choose.

She said the crossover votes can be negatively strategic, “trolling or throwing a wrench in it,” or they can be positively strategic as a backstop.

The only cost for Republicans who are so inclined to instigate “chaos?” They’ll get on a Democratic mailing list.

And, indeed, crossover votes could be a factor in the primary, said David Woodard, a retired Clemson University professor who has consulted with Republicans for decades.

Get Rid Of Superdelegates Completely

Will President Trump encourage Ohio Republicans to vote in the Democratic Primary

Superdelegates had some of their power stripped from them after the contentious 2016 Democratic primary contest. Now its time to finish the job: They ought to be neutered entirely.

Selina Vickers was a delegate for Sen. Bernie Sanders at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. She is a candidate for the West Virginia House of Delegates, in District 32.

Read Also: How Many Democrats Republicans Are In The Senate

What Is A Party Primary Election

Democrats Plan To Keep Their Primary Strategy

Morgan Carroll, chairwoman of the Colorado Democratic Party and a former state Senate president, said a proposal to forgo primaries would never receive serious consideration among state Democrats.

She called the idea ridiculous and undemocratic.

If we had a candidate that recommended it, I think theyd be driven out of town, Morgan Carroll said.

She thinks the move would backfire for Republicans as theyve struggled to win elections in Colorado in recent years. If I were a rank-and-file Republican person, Id be furious.

Colorado Sun staff writer Jesse Paul contributed to this report.

Read Also: Are There Any Other Republicans Running For President

Enhance The Role Of Superdelegates

We recommend doing the opposite of what the DNC chose to do with its Unity Reform Commission. Instead of diminishing the role of superdelegates , the party should augment their influence.

Its Primary Day In Pennsylvania Heres What Voters Need To Know

Laura Benshoff

May 18, 2021

Its Primary Day in Pennsylvania.

Judicial races, school board seats, and the Philadelphia District Attorneys office are all in the running.

Recommended Reading: What Percent Of Republicans Approve Of Trump

Over 150 Companies Sign Letter Supporting John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act

Voter fraud in U.S. elections is exceedingly rare. Although there is no evidence of widespread malfeasance in last fall’s election, more than a dozen states have so far enacted changes this year.

Using An Analogy Such As A Private Club Or A Sports Team Is Neither Naive Nor Dishonest

You May Like: What Year Did The Democrats And Republicans Switch

Professional Vetting Provides Quality Control

wo filters are better than one. Electoral and professional perspectives check each others excesses and balance each others viewpoints

Vetting not only evaluates politicians; it also helps equip them to govern.

Virginia Voter Guide: The 2021 Primaries

Will President Trump encourage Ohio Republicans to cross-over to vote in Democratic primary?

The 2021 election season in Virginia has begun.

Most of the changes to voting in Virginia adopted last year due to the pandemic are still in place, but there are a few differences. Heres what you need to know.

Read Also: Do Republicans Vote In The Primary

Trump Has Zero Desire To Be Speaker Of House Spokesman Says

Jeff Merkley

. is absolutely right. This bill is critical for our country. We must fight with everything we’ve got to pass the For the People Act and save our democracy.

Today they probably know it is going to be parked in a cul-de-sac and the Republicans, aided by Democrat Joe Manchin, are going to throw away the keys.

Heres what Merkley tweeted yesterday.

Jeff Merkley

And heres Klobuchar earlier today reminding everyone that Barack Obama has spoken out to support a compromise version of the bill put forward by Manchin .

Amy Klobuchar

Voters Need Help: How Party Insiders Can Make Presidential Primaries Safer Fairer And More Democratic

Summary

Don’t Miss: How Many Registered Republicans In Texas

The Republicans Planning To Vote In South Carolinas Democratic Primary

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Oh You Don’t Want My Vote In Nov

You May Like: How Many Democrats And Republicans Are Currently In The Senate

From Ohio To Florida Your Cheat Sheet For The Next Crucial Primaries

Five states voting Tuesday could be make-or-break for some presidential candidates. A primer on whos voting and what outcomes are likeliest

Tue 15 Mar 2016 11.00 GMT Last modified on Fri 9 Feb 2018 19.15 GMT

source https://www.patriotsnet.com/should-republicans-vote-in-democratic-primary/

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