#yes the government sucks in this situation | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

jongseongsnudes · 7 months

Text

pretty

bff!jake. 1.6k. smut ft. roommate!jay.

“i- wh- what the actual fuck?”

“i said what i said, let me suck you.”

“you’ve lost it,” the startled man leans away from you, his face contorted from your sudden suggestion, “all that studying finally broke you.”

“god jake,” you roll your eyes and lean forward, almost closing the gap between your bodies entirely, “why are you making it more complicated than it needs to be? i just need to suck your dick for like a minute.”

the poor man’s expression is one that has you immediately in a fit of laughter, confusion, disgust with a hint of arousal, all displayed across his face at the same time.

yes, it was a weird request to make towards your best friend but it’s not like you haven’t done it before. and for some unexplainable, wild reason, sucking his dick always calmed you. especially in times when you were stressed over your head about classes.

like right now.

“who asks their bestfriend shit like this like it’s the most normal thing to do?”

“for the last time. sim jaeyun will you let me suck you off?” you get up from the bed as you say so, arms folded, your tone more of a threat than a question, “you do realise jay is next door, and i’m pretty sure he’d be more than willing to let me suck-”

“okay okay! for fucks sakes suck me then! no need to bring out the government name.”

your hand is already at his thigh before he could even finish his sentence, immediately palming him through his sweat pants. with an accomplished grin on your face, you kneel down in between his spreaded legs on the floor, your eyes never once leaving his as you do so. it’s something you know for a fact jake likes you doing, giving him that full attention, like he’s the only thing that mattered to you in the moment.

“fuck- why do you do this shit to me?” he whispers, his voice much lower than before. he watches you through lidded eyes, his gaze entirely on your new submissive position in front of him, “you’re so evil.”

“and you love it, jake.”

the way his dick twitches in your hand to the call of his name only excites you more, further pushing you to get a move on. so you do just that, pulling off his pants and boxers down to his ankles in one quick motion before grabbing onto his member.

the man’s deep groans instantly fill the room as you begin to jerk him painfully slow, your evil self enjoying the situation a little too much. you can’t help but pout when you notice the way his clutch on the bedsheets tightens because it should be your hair he’s gripping. not the damn bedsheets.

“c- come on don’t tease.”

“i don’t know what you’re talking about...” lies. you knew exactly what you were doing, and to make things worse for him, you decide to lean in closer to his leaking tip. but obviously not close enough.

the frustrated sigh that emits from his throat is hard to miss, the sound making you chuckle a little to yourself.

he’s so desperate for you, just like how you wanted him to be.

“you’re so hard jake... look at you.”

“i swear to god- oh shit!”

your lips pressing onto his tip is enough to have him in a puddle, his words no longer coherent. it makes you feel good to be able to make jake turn into such a mess, without having to do much at all.

“you enjoy doing this to me don’t you?” there’s a sudden change in his eyes, his gaze dark and serious as he reaches out to grab the back of your neck, holding you still in place to look at him, “you’re such a brat.”

if there’s one thing you’ve learnt about jake over the years, is that the man is a big softie when it comes to you, always letting you have your way no matter how ridiculous it is.

but the only times jake will not let you have your way are times like these. it’s as if something switches in him, going from soft to dominant all in two seconds when you push the right buttons.

when you were bratty.

and god was this jake hot.

“jake...”

“you were all talk before,” he taunts, a smirk forming on the end of his lips, “go on. show me what that mouth can do besides shit talk.”

and you didn’t need to be asked twice, especially not by jake sim.

your mouth quickly wraps around his hard on, barely managing to take half of it before you can feel it hit the back of your throat. although you’ve done this numerous times before, jake’s size always managed to surprise you.

no more words are needed, the room now filled with his grunts and the sound of you slobbering all over his dick. you know you should be embarrassed by your noises, but you’re not, your only goal now was to please the man.

often enough, you’d imagine how good it’d feel to have him fuck you with it. making you feel good, making you cum.

it was so wrong to have such fantasies about your best friend but every time you’re in bed with your hands down your pants, there’s no one else you’d rather think of but jake sim.

tears begin to form in the corners of your eyes as you continue moving your head, sucking on his length like your life depended on it. hard and fast, edging the man closer and closer towards his release.

his tightened grip on the back of your neck tells you that he’s close. so you do what you do best, grabbing onto his base with both your hands, stroking it in sync with your mouth.

“f- fuck- i’m gonna-” he mumbles while trying to pull your head away but you don’t budge, hinting for him continue on. and he does just that, finishing deep in your mouth, his cum slowly dripping out the corners of your lips as you pull away.

he tastes bitter, the vast amount a little hard to swallow but you manage nonetheless. the sight of you struggling has the man smirking, obviously loving the way you look with his mess dripping down onto your top.

“you look so pretty like this.”

“pretty only like this? wow you’re such a gentleman sim.”

“no,” he chuckles before pulling you up, your body slightly falling onto his at the force. his arms are quick to stable you, literally manhandling you to straddle over his lap in which you were more than happy to do, “you’re always pretty. the prettiest.”

your heart unknowingly skips a beat to his sudden compliment, as if you didn’t just suck him off and as if there wasn’t a massive cum stain on your top. you knew jake had a way with his words when it came to the ladies but this? this wasn’t what you were expecting him to say, not to you, his best friend.

“what?” he laughs, his hands already at the ends of your top, hastily pulling it over without hesitation, “where did that bratty mouth of yours go?”

“jake...” you whimper at the coldness hitting your skin, the sensation making you hard inside your bra.

“shit. you’re perfect.”

he yanks on your hair as he says so, pulling your head back so he could attack the exposed skin on your neck. you’re already a moaning mess at this point, the feeling of his lips on your sensitivity, one that has you seeing white all over.

“you don’t like it when i’m nice but prefer it when i’m like this?” his grip in your hair tightens more, making you whimper out in surprise, much to his liking. you could feel him smiling into your skin, as if pleased by your reaction to his actions.

the man is being rough and as sick as it was, you were enjoying every second of it.

“you even sound pretty, i wonder what you’d sound like if i were to fuck you,” jake’s voice is one you’ve never heard from him before, raspy and deep. even deeper than his morning voice, which you’ve always found so fucking hot already.

“do you want me to fuck you?”

“god yes jake, please.”

you never understood why you and jake hadn’t fucked yet. you’ve sucked his dick, given him handjobs and he has fingered you here and there. but that’s all it ever got to. despite the oh-so-obvious sexual tension that always followed you both aound, you two just didn't fuck.

“as much as i want to hear you, you have to try to be quiet tonight,” his lips makes its way towards yours, leaving behind a trail of gentle kisses on your skin, “jay is next door-”

“maybe you should’ve thought of that 30 minutes ago, when i was sleeping. too late now.”

and to your horror, there standing at jake’s opened door is his handsome roommate jay who looked like he was about to burn the apartment down with his glare alone. the man’s unkempt hair and boxers-only outfit tells you perhaps he had been sleeping, which made you feel awful for being so loud just now.

but despite his glares, you noticed one other thing. it’s that he’s looking directly at you, at your barely covered chest, like he had been the entire time he was standing there.

fuck.

end.

2023 © jongseongsnudes on TUMBLR. PLEASE DO NOT COPY, TRANSLATE OR REPOST.

3K notes · View notes

stil-lindigo · 6 months

Note

Hey, I just wanted to share something with you, as someone who's so invested in the Palestine conflict, I hope it might inspire hope, even a little.

I was born and live in Egypt, a very conservative and religious country. These days I deleted my Tiktok and rarely ever use Twitter, as I'm in my senior year, and seeing the constant deaths and torture was getting into me so much that I couldn't even eat or drink properly, nevertheless properly study. I honestly am not proud of myself for doing so, but there's comfort in the fact Egypt is so Pro-Palestine. There's a lot to be done, and even for people like me, we can help.

My school has been donating food, clothes and blankets to Palestine. The McDonald's in here have been trying to distance themselves, claiming they're "100% Egyptian", only to get mocked and insulted. I go by the local McDonald's, there's a lot of schools where I am, around 5 in two blocks, and where before they were constantly so full, these days they're so empty. I can only see maybe 3, 4 people in there. A lot of people in my school are on a complete strike, against every American product. We've resorted to buying and getting local products instead. Egypt is doing very poorly economically at the moment, but there's still a lot of effort into knocking out American products, even if not by the companies, by the youth and the children. I can't go a single class without one of my teachers openly supporting Palestine. My Arabic teacher constantly uses the people in Gaza to teach me grammar, calling them brave and courageous. My geography teacher denies Isreal, and has been in league with others to get more donations and aid. Egyptians believe so truly that Palestine will be free that it's hard not to think so too. I've had classmates openly agree that if they could, they'd join the army to help fight for Palestine, I've seen more people than ever mocking the current regime, I've seen more people than ever falling out of the American illusion and seeing it for what it is. I've spent a lot of religion classes being taught Arabic brotherhood and chivalry, when previously, the lessons were stereotypically conservative in nature and I used to despise them for it.

Yes, the government sucks like every other, but there's an air of open support in here. No one is losing their jobs for stating the truth, homes and shops are waving the Palestinian flag. Even the antisemitism, which was rampant, has seen a noticeable decline. People in here stand for Palestine.

I want to also let you know you've been an inspiration for people, or at least, to me. I want to be able to participate more, and I see your reposts and reblogs and I want to do even more than what I did at the start, which was retweeting and reposting and sharing what I can to my friends. Unfortunately due to my current living situation and my terrible memory, I missed being able to donate to the school, but they have stated to open up donations again soon, and I'm preparing in advance for that one. I was not raised Zionist, but I was raised warned against participating in political affairs, saying I'd be put in more trouble, and even could be killed. But I see you and I see so many Americans losing their jobs and being branded criminals and as moral failures for speaking out, and I find it harder and harder in me not to also speak out. And even if I'm not constantly retweeting and reposting, there is something I can do. You helped me realize that, and I'd like to thank you.

I hope this cheers you up even a little, I've noticed your posts these days expressing how much this has been upsetting you. It's been upsetting to all of us, and I want you to know that it's not fruitless, no matter how many western countries and how many bootlickers make you feel otherwise. This ordeal has taught me the world is a brotherhood, politics and money are never a reason for why we should not stand together, and why we shouldn't speak for those having their voice silenced.

Please excuse me if something comes off wrong or unnatural. Like I said, I was born and I live in Egypt, English is not my first language and I still have issues communicating my personal thoughts in it. Please never don't stand for Palestine. Please never lose hope for it, like the Egyptians never have and never will. Please never let people make you feel hopeless and insane.

Thank you for listening to me, thank you for caring about Palestine when it would've been easy not to. Thank you for using your platform, and if you found it in you to read this thing, thank you for giving time to a brown Arab, when the world so strongly encourages you not to. Please continue to inspire justice, and I hope the world one day continues to inspire hope for you.

😭 anon, I cant explain how much I appreciate you sending this message. I know there is hope for Palestinian liberation, I know that we will see freedom for Palestine. But god do I need the reminder sometimes that we aren’t all just shouting into the void. My country of Australia shamefully takes a cowardly stance on Palestine, always deferring to the US to guide our foreign policy, and yet always claims moral superiority over other countries such as yours. Thank you, really thank you so much for sending this message. I feel so so honoured to have earned an audience that includes you. I believe an audience does reflect an artist, and to know I have done you proud in any way makes me feel full.

And please don’t ever feel ashamed of your English, you are eloquent and have a wonderful, compassionate voice, and you have inspired hope in me for yet another day.

#free palestine #askbox #I need to save this one. to look at when all seems bleak and hopeless #thank you anon I needed to read this today

599 notes · View notes

txttletale · 10 months

Note

yo i really like your content and agree with you on most things but i don't really know what you mean with that last one. my friends from ukraine both oppose the war's existence but would rather not be violently annexed by an imperial power so of course they, with little other options, support resistance efforts.

it's really hard for me to understand what you're going for because if ukraine stopped fighting back it'd just get taken by russia. maybe i just have bad brainfog, but it's hard to understand what you're asking us to do and believe. should we try and take out both the russian and american imperialist powers at once? but that's unrealistic and unlikely to happen in the near future, no matter how much i personally support it, which i do.

i guess my question is, what's an actual realistic thing we should support in the meantime? we can't just pretend that somehow revolution will take out both american and russian imperialist interests immediately, so. it's like, well yes we should have a better world playing by better rules, but how do we do the right thing when we are bound by the rules now.

i have friends who have family who died in the war, and sometimes it feels like bloggers i otherwise trust say things that sound suspiciously close to "ukraine should stop this pointless fighting and give up." which i am aware isn't your intention, and i want to be an effective anti imperialist and have the correct and informed opinions on stuff like this, but i am having a very hard time understanding what you are trying to say.

i really promise i am not a concern troll or nato apologist or anything, i just also have personally been struggling with what to support and how to save innocent lives. i hate war and i wish we could magically create a situation in which ukraine didn't have to rely on horrible things for self defense. i just don't know what to do or believe because my friends would rightfully hate me if i said ukraine should stop defending itself.

i mean, first off: don't worry, you obviously don't sound like a concern troll or a nato apologist. this is an eminently reasonable question -- healed's law strikes again. & i certainly don't blame you for worrying that marxist-leninists are apologists for russian imperialism, because unfortunately many self-proclaimed marxist-leninists have been deceived by the frankly paper-thin figleaf of 'denazificaiton'--even as putin, puppet of the russian bourgeoisie denounces lenin & the bolsheviks & the soviet union with every speech he makes. it sucks!

first of all, i think the important thing here and the central point of disagreement is on what constitutes 'ukraine'. liberals and nationalists alike consider nations to be fundamentally one whole: that all the people of ukraine together constitute 'ukraine', and so 'ukraine as a whole' has consistent interests, and acts as a one--the ukrainian government represents this unitary ukraine armed forces of ukraine fight for this ukraine.

but the marxist analysis of the nation is completely different. from the marxist perspective, the nation is split across class lines. ukraine is not 'ukrainians', but in fact 'the ukrainian working class' and 'the ukrainian bourgeoisie'. now, of course, there are further contradictions even within these classes--there is a faction of pro-Russian bourgeoisie, and a faction of pro-Western bourgeoisie. but remember, we must apply the same analysis to these countries too: the 'pro-Russian' Ukrainian bourgeoisie do not wish to submit to Russia's working class, but to their oligarchs. the 'pro-Western' Ukrainian bourgeoisie are not opening the nation's economy to the European and USAmerican working class, but to their bourgeoisie. so the bourgeoisie are, in every case--even when split among themselves--only ever in league with other sectors of the bourgeoisie.

so, through this lens, how do we see the war in ukraine? well, i think that the union of communists in ukraine must have a far better handle on this than i, because they're living through it: so i will quote their analysis and then elucidate on it in relation to your question.

The puppet regime in Ukraine participates in this war in the interests of Ukrainian oligarchs, who have made themselves completely dependent on big capital of the West and NATO, who have turned the Ukrainian army into an advanced military unit of the Western bourgeoisie. The war is not about "the Ukrainian nation," not about "the Ukrainian language and culture," not even about "European values". It is a war for the united interests of the Ukrainian and international bourgeoisie, which coincide in their desire to destroy the economic and political power of the Russian bourgeoisie. No interests or rights of Ukrainian workers are protected by this war. Both Ukrainian and Russian workers in this war have only the right and obligation to go to the front and die so that one group of the world bourgeoisie defeats the other and gains more monopoly rights to oppress the workers, both in their own country and in the defeated countries. […] For the working class of Ukraine, this imperialist war has the most tragic consequences. It lies on the shoulders of the workers the role of "cannon fodder" and the inevitable deaths in the fighting, mass impoverishment, unemployment, complete restrictions of rights and freedoms for the sake of protecting the interests of the Ukrainian big bourgeoisie, the oligarchs and the interests of the Western bourgeoisie in destroying and robbing Russia and seizing its natural resources. This will inevitably be accompanied by the destruction and seizure of Ukrainian industrial and natural resources, including in the case of Russia's success. The same fate awaits the vast majority of the Ukrainian petty bourgeoisie. The big bourgeoisie has already bought its children out of the war and taken them abroad, just as it took its capitals out. But that is not the main point: the big bourgeoisie is profiting from the war under Zelensky, just as it profited under Poroshenko: stealing finances, making money from reselling weapons, supplying the army with uniforms, food, repair work, humanitarian aid, etc. In war the bourgeoisie makes billions of dollars, while the mobilized people have to be equipped and fed by relatives, friends and volunteers – which is clearly not enough. As in peacetime, but even more brazenly, the bourgeoisie is getting rich off the bones of the working class!

—Union of Communists of Ukraine, On the War and the tasks of the working class

that is to say--the russian army, which is funded by the russian bourgeoisie, is fighting to establish the exclusive right of that russian bourgeoisie to oppress and exploit the ukrainian people. meanwhile, the ukrainian army, funded by the ukrainian and western bourgeoisie more broadly, are fighting to maintain the exclusive right of the ukrainian and western to oppress and exploit the ukrainian people. already, ukrainian public assets are being put up in a fire sale for western buyers--(and of course, should russia's offensive have been as succesful as they'd hoped and this war already over, they'd be doing much the same thing for the benefit of buyers among the russian bourgeoisie).

this is what is meant by 'inter-imperialist' war. it's easy to say 'well, the ukrainian army isn't imperialist--it's fighting for the nation's independence!' but in terms of real economic interests there is no 'the nation'. the ukrainian army isn't fighting for the ukrainian working class (which of course includes themselves!)--the government that pays them and the states that equip them wouldn't do so out of any sense of interest in the well-being of the working class. we can see this clearly as the western imperialist powers now start to equip the ukrainian army with depleted uranium shells, which will poison swathes of ukrainian land and cause sickness and death among the people this army purports to be fighting for. the goal of the ukrainian state and army isn't to protect any working class people--only to protect its total right to the economic exploitation of those people.

it's this that the ukrainian state is afraid of when it fights not to cede territory, not the (surely real, to be clear!) brutality from the russian state that would face the inhabitants of any such ceded territory. in fact, funding nazi groups that operated in those areas before the war and will surely continue to operate afterwards, the ukrainian govenrment makes it clear that brutality against the inhabitants of its eastern provinces alone does not phase it, so long as the ukrainian bourgeoisie (& their western bourgeoisie patrons) continue to be the ones profiting off the region's people and resources.

elsewhere in the article the UCU observe the same thing that can be observed by those outside of ukraine by listening to the words of zelenskyy and the ukrainian government's allies--that even the goal of 'protecting its people' [read: protecting exclusive economic/extractive access to those people] has been sidelined by the dream of a total or partial obliteration of the russian bourgeoisie entirely--not for any moral or anti-imperialist reason, but simply so that the ukrainian/western bourgeoisie no longer have competition.

[...] the goals of warfare are changing. If at the first stage of the civil conflict the Ukrainian regime aimed to restore state control over the Ukrainian territories, where this control was lost, then at the second stage it aimed to destroy Russia as a condition for the existence of Ukraine.

—ibid.

so--now that i've really dug into the precise nature of this war and why it's being waged on both sides, i'll answer some of your points directly:

if ukraine stopped fighting back it'd just get taken by russia "ukraine should stop this pointless fighting and give up."

both of these positions, both the one you hold yourself and the one you worry about others expressing, assume that what the ukrainian armed forces with NATO backing and full-throated embrace of fascist paramilitaries is doing constitutes 'ukraine' 'fighting back' against 'russia'. but it doesn't--it represents the ukrainian bourgeoisie fighting back against the russian bourgeoisie.

so, the big question--do i think that the ukrainian proletariat should abandon armed resistance against the russian invasion? absolutely not!

genuine popular resistance against the russian invasion is heroic and commendable--i am under no belief whatsoever that in the face of imperialist war the ukrainian people should not arm themselves and fight against the imperialists. i just reject the framing of the actual war as prosecuted as constituting this, because, to go back to what i've already established, there is not in fact one 'ukraine' but two--only one of which constitutes in a mieaningful sense the ukrainian people. i don't believe (and neither do the UCU, whose analysis i base mine on somewhat) that 'the war' as you ponder 'supporting' constitutes the ukrainian proletariat arming themselves or fighting against imperialism on their own behalf, but rather being armed by the bourgeoisie and fighting on their behalf.

and obviously i'm not an idiot who's blind to the actual numerial and material realities. the communist, anti-imperialist movement in ukraine, just like in most of the world, is completely dwarfed by imperialism and its footsoldiers. 'the ukrainian proletariat as self-armed acting organization rising up and challenging both imperialisms and freeing itself from both sets of bourgeoisie' is not something that's gonna happen tomorrow, and it's not an immediately actionable plan--no ukrainian communist can wake up tomorrow and say 'well, today i shall hit the big proletarian revolution button'.

the realities are that as the meeting ground between two imperialisms, ukrainian communists have to make decisions about which one they can most ably fight, might need to temporarily align themselves with or allow themselves to benefit from the ukrainian bourgeoise state--but never support it. like any bourgeoise state, a communist should know the ukrainian state is an enemy of the proletariat. yes, the pressing material realities on the ground might well make cooperation with that bourgeoise state the best temporary option--but 'cooperation' should never mean 'support' or 'loyalty', and should be done only tactically with ultimately loyalties remaining above all else with the working class.

in fact, refusing to offer the government and army a show of support and valorization is a key element of creating the conditions--radicalization, agitation--that would allow the proletariat to effectively rise up and truly combat imperialism, rather than choose under which imperialist heel they would rather be ground into dust. don't support an end to the war on either imperialist bloc's terms, but rather on proletarian terms--understand that the state of ukraine is not on the side of the ukrainian people, except tangentially, in individual moments of necessary alliance. raise awareness of the true war, the class war, and resist the ukrainian state's claims to stand with the people when it pursues the interests of the bourgeoisie.

tldr: the anti-imperialist position is not that the ukrainian proletariat should not be fighting, or that their fight is not worth supporting. the anti-imperialist action, therefore, is to draw the most awareness possible to this division within 'ukraine' among the working class themselves, make them aware of the realities of the economic condition. this is of course the foremost anti-imperialist and communist task across the entire world, because it is only through creating organizations of the working class that will fight for the working class can international imperialism be dfeated.

i'll leave this answer off by adding what the UCU said about this very topic in the same statement i've been quoting:

We understand the complexity and danger of these tasks, which inevitably cause repression on the part of the bourgeois political regimes. That is why workers' and communist organizations will need to develop illegal forms of class struggle along with legal ones in order to set and implement such tasks. The UCU has been forced to conduct its work in illegal forms since 2014. Many workers' and communist organizations may consider these antiwar tasks impossible because of their organizational weakness and lack of influence on the working class. However, historical experience shows that a correct and honest formulation of the tasks of the working class in conditions of war – real, not momentary tasks – may not yield success immediately, but will yield gains as the revolutionary situation intensifies. Since the task of destroying capitalist social relations is an international task, the international coordination of workers' and communist parties' actions, including the joint elaboration of tasks for the struggle against the imperialist war of the twenty-first century for the sake of uniting the international struggle against this war, for a communist reorganization of society and world peace, is becoming increasingly important. Proletarians of all countries, unite!

#ask #long post #i hope this helps! i entirely understand your worries & concerns & i genuinely hoep this elucidates something about the situation for you

422 notes · View notes

watchyourbuck · 6 months

Text

YES I’m all for buddie drama bc guess what? It’s inescapable in this tv show but do you know what other thing I’m a whore for ???? Absolutely unhinged Buck and Eddie stealing a firetruck to fuck, making out in a storage room, using the firehouse’s hoses to wet, uh…, something other than the equipment. Just Eddie raising his eyebrows suggestively at Buck so they can suck each other off in the locker room or Buck eating his lunch a liiiittle too provocatively so Eddie has to adjust himself in front of everybody

And yes, Hen and Chim and Bobby are all disgusted by this situation because that is government prOPERTY, but you know what? They look happy and it has never once interfered with their jobs (except maybe that one time Eddie was in charge of strapping Buck for a rope rescue and the guy moaned out loud)

387 notes · View notes

vanwritesfan-fiction · 6 months

Text

Naughty or Nice

Request: So the first one would be jack has been spoiling the girls a little to much which comes with a little bratty attitudes from them they come to an agreement that this Christmas the girls are gonna get Cole Santa left them Cole because they were behaving badly through out the year and jack a few days before Christmas he tells the girl about the Cole and how Santa’s brings it to kids who aren’t nice and been naughty

Warnings: none

"Jackman." Jack groaned at the sound of your voice because you only used his government name when you were pissed with him. He thought about hiding under the desk in his office, but you found him before he could take any moves. "Yes, baby?" He made his voice extra sweet, an attempt to diffuse the situation. Your face let him know it wasn't worth the effort.

"Did you buy the girls more shoes?" You held up a pair of brand new New Balances that you found in Brooklyn's closet. "Yeah, she needed a pair to match the new track suit that I bought her." You narrowed your eyes at him, making him cower. "You bought her more clothes, too?", you asked through gritted teeth.

"What? Its just clothes and shoes. They're always gonna need those." Jack really didn't see the problem, but you knew that when it came to his daughters he was the biggest pushover. He would spend every last dollar on them if he could, and while you thought it was incredibly sweet that he loved to spoil his girls as much as he did you, it had gotten a little bit out of control.

"Baby, its not just clothes and shoes though. It's the iPads and the toys and the trips. You are spoiling them rotten." The girls only knew the good life because they grew up with rich parents, and you didn't want that to overshadow the values that you and Jack worked so hard to instill in them. "They are six and three years old, we really need to tone down the spending, okay?"

Jack stood up from his desk, and walked over to you, wrapping his arms around your waist to pull you close. "Okay, I promise." He tried to kiss you but you backed away. "You promise what?"

Jack rolled his eyes with a chuckle. "I promise to tone it down with the spending." You patted his chest. "Thank you." You finally gave him the kiss he'd been waiting for. "Christmas is in a couple days, and the girls already have enough presents underneath the tree for five Christmases. They don't need anything else."

Jack sucked in his teeth with a wince. "Jack, you didn't."

"I just have a couple more things that I ordered arriving tomorrow. I promise, after that, no more spending." He nodded to reassure you, but you knew he was lying through his teeth.

"Jack, no more spending money on the girls. Whatever you ordered needs to go back." You handed him the pair of shoes before going back to cleaning the house.

****

That night at dinner, Brooklyn hardly touched her food as she told you both about her day.

"And then, Dani, a girl in my class, she said that her daddy is getting her a car for Christmas. Its gonna be a Barbie car." She could hardly sit still she was so excited describing all the features of the battery powered car.

You walked over to the dining room table with a side of mash potatoes, placing them down on the table and helping yourself to a serving. You caught her starting to stand in her chair. "Brookie, please sit on your bottom." She did as you said, not even breaking her sentence. "Daddy, do you think Santa could bring me a car for Christmas?"

"I thought you wanted a Barbie Dream House, Brookie?" Jack had taken the girls to see the Barbie movie, even though they were a little young to see it, and Brooklyn wouldn't stop talking about how much she wanted a new Barbie playhouse.

"I do", she nodded, "but I also want a Barbie car." She turned her attention back to Jack. "Daddy, can you ask Santa to get me the car too?" Jack avoided eye contact, knowing if he looked at Brooklyn's big brown eyes, he was going to place the order tonight. "I don't know, baby. Its so close to Christmas and you already sent your letter off to Santa. We'll see." He glanced at you, catching the small smile on your face, knowing how hard this was for him.

"That's not fair, though!" She crossed her little arms over her chest in a pout. "I'm gonna be the only one without the car!" You could see the waterworks were about to start, Jack's greatest weakness. He flexed his jaw, working overtime not to give in. You intervened before it got out of control. "Brooklyn, that's enough. Daddy said we would see."

That just set her off, tears beginning to stream down her face. "I thought you loved me, Daddy!" She ran off to her room, you and Jack quiet as you heard her bedroom door slam. "Jack, no." You stopped him just as he started to get up to follow behind her.

"I'm just gonna buy the car. Its not a big deal, and I don't want her to be upset on Christmas." Jack pulled out his phone to place the order. "Jack, she is playing you. She knows how weak you are. She knows all the right buttons to push to get what she wants." Jack scoffed. "I am not weak."

"Oh really? She mentioned this car for the first time today, and you're already ordering it, babe." Jack sighed, raking a hand through the curls at the front of his face. "She's six? Where did she learn this?"

"You forgot who her mother is", you remarked with a cocky smile.

****

That night, you and Jack decided that Brooklyn needed a reality check to help her understand just how fortunate she was. She was still young and had a lot of growing to do, but she was also very smart, and you thought it was an insult to her intelligence to not push her to behave better. Jack had a creative idea to hopefully get her to be more grateful for her life, and help the Louisville community at the same time.

Brooklyn woke you up at the crack of dawn, jumping on your bed and waiving a letter in the air. "I got a letter from Santa!", she exclaimed, excitedly opening the envelope "It was under my door when I woke up!" Jack tried his best to hide his smirk from Brooklyn, tucking his chin underneath the comforter. "Oh really? What does it say?"

Dear Brooklyn,

Your mom and dad told me that you have been asking for a lot of very nice presents this year, but you haven't always been on your best behavior. I am working to bring you all the toys that you ask for, but I need you to promise that you will work on being nice to your parents and your little sister.

There are so many little boys and girls around the world that I have to get to on Christmas Eve, so I would love it if you would help give them a wonderful Christmas by helping your Dad, the greatest rapper alive in my humble opinion, give presents out to the kids of Louisville.

Its important that we work on being thankful for the things we have, because not everyone is so lucky.

Love, Santa

"Daddy, I have to help you pass out presents for Santa!"

Jack chuckled, "Okay, baby. We'll go to the Neighborhood House this afternoon." She jumped off the bed before you could tell her to be careful, and ran to her room to get ready. You read over the letter again, smiling to yourself. "Good job babe." You patted Jack's chest. "Santa has questionable music tastes, but other than that, I think this will really give Brooklyn some good perspective.

Jack got up and walked to the bathroom. "I didn't write that letter, babe. That came straight from Santa, and he said that wives that are mean to their husbands also don't get Christmas presents. Especially a certain Bottega bag they've had their eye on." He let out a sputter of laughter when your face dropped.

"Jack, did you get me that bag I've been dreaming about?" You were quick out of the bed, peppering his face with kisses. "We'll have to see." He shrugged with a chuckle.

Tag-List:

@jacks-daycare

@livsters

@katiaw2

@xangelonmyshoulderx

@thatonegirlthatlikesthings

@j0hkiya

@bell3e

@isisosidixj

@caroline334

@lightsoutstyles

@hufflewhore128

@jackscurlyhair

@jackharloww

@brixo

@beautiifulpeople312

@bernelflo

@taniapri

@ageofthebarbarians

@honeyharlows

@aga21

@iheartharlow

@neon-lights-and-glitter

@w1ldthoughts

@jackslilsecrett

@harlowcomehome

@fantasywritersstuff

@exoticr0ses

@iknowdatsrightbih

@itsyagirljaz

@hoodharlow

@bobthe-turmpetman29

@wittyjasontodd

@purecinnamonextract

@fluidsentiment

@comehomeimissyou

#jack harlow #jackman thomas harlow #jackharlow #jackman harlow #jack harlow x reader #jack harlow imagine #jack harlow concepts #jack harlow fanfic

157 notes · View notes

asongofcrownandshield · 1 month

Text

As someone aiming for a diplomatic career, and who has always studied the History of the world, more precisely wars and genocide, I must say: human beings are not learning from their own stupidity. The crisis in Rafah is absolutely expressing that and it is concerning. Frustrating. Upsetting.

What is happening is a genocide. We were upset about the Shoah. We were upset about Rwanda (and not enough). We were upset by the Uyghurs (again, not enough). We were upset about a lot of genocide. Why are we not upset against Israel, when part of their history is to be populated because of a fucking genocide??? (I know the History of the creation of Israel. The whole thing. And it sucks. I could write an essay on why the whole thing was fucked up since the beginning).

Are our countries supporting Israel because they are rich? Yes. Are they supporting them because we — ancient colonial powers and the UN — helped in the creation of their State? Also yes. And it is pathetic.

The fact that governments such as the US, the French, and a lot of Western countries are not acknowledging a genocide, is absolutely not normal. The fact that we are basically still financing and selling bombs to drop on the Gaza stripe, and most importantly today, on Rafah, is unsettling. For countries which are proud of their democracy, which are proudly saying in their foreign policies that we should not support violences, war crimes, censure, they are absolutely doing the contrary. All in virtue of money. That's how the world run but money should not be above human rights.

How is it logical that people are being killed, and no one is doing shit?

How is it logical that we are banning social media for spreading the truth on the international situation?

How is it logical that students are being arrested for protesting for basic human rights? For peace? How is it normal that places such as universities, which are supposed to support freedom of expression, we can see students and teachers are not allowed to talk? Reuniting around a common cause?

How is it logical to still defend a State such as Israel and to not acknowledge they are doing something deeply wrong, deeply evil? How is it normal that it took us, as an international community, more than seventy-five years to actually act?

1.4 million people are in Rafah. 1.4 million people have nowhere to hide. Are waiting to be evacuated. Are waiting to die because of our inaction. How is it normal?

We fucking need to act. We fucking need to speak and to shake our institutions. As a new generation with brand new ideas, Palestine should not be left alone anymore. What we are starting should still go on. Until Palestine is free, from the river, to the sea.

We need to boycott Eurovision. The Olympic Games. Because if we are letting Russia not participating because of the invasion of Ukraine (normal), then, Israel should not be allowed in moments like these when they are basically currently killing thousands of people.

As Macklemore said in Hind's Hall (all funds are going to UNRWA, please stream it):

"What if you were in Gaza? What if those were your kids?

If the West was pretendin' that you didn't exist

You'd want the world to stand up and the students finally did, let's get it"

Free Palestine. All Eyes on Rafah.

#rafah #palestine #free palestine #free gaza #international #eurovision #olympic games

64 notes · View notes

timetobeaghost · 7 months

Text

The Noah hate mob is so much worse than I thought. Finally saw the story pic going through someone's blog. Cluelessly I had kinda figured a "sticker" is something you can add to your pic, like a filter. And I thought he might have made a dumb sexy pose maybe with a hot dude and put "zionism is sexy" on it. I thought he might have been somewhat douchy and insensitive, because that seemed IC to me, making a dumb post in a serious situation.

But no. He is making a selfie with a friend who seems to be involved in anti-antisemitism activism and wears a (literal, yeah everyone but me knows what a sticker is, I guess) "Hamas is ISIS" sticker, which is a very important message (because people did not use to like islamists cutting off people's heads and raping girls back when it wasn't happening in Israel, maybe they could remember that feeling) and holding Stickers in her hand that apparently read "Zionism is sexy", which is meant to proudly support Israel and Israeli jews, which is healthy and understandable considering it is a reaction to a horrible terror attack on Israel and to a reminder that its very existence in in danger. No, Zionism does NOT mean war! Zionism does NOT mean ethnic cleansing. To say this is antisemitic trash. Jews wanting the tiniest bit of land to live in peace and thrive is the farthest thing from evil. Do you know how many Jews used to live in the Middle East. Do you know where their offspring is now? ISRAEL. And nowhere else because they were ethnically cleansed out of everywhere else.

And no Israel is not perfect, radical settlers and a right wing government supporting them and all that. That needs to be solved. That in no way means Israel's existence and with that Zionism is evil.

Now still those ZiS stickers could be criticized as dumb, I guess. As flippant in a serious matter, but any hate boner can only be explained by antisemitism, and Noah really didn't do shit to deserve anything. And then he was told he should be put in a blender by Hamas. Hamas being a terror organization who really does specialize in slaughtering jews in creative ways. For context.

The only proper reaction is 💯 support for Noah!

If you are part of a hate mob you are those people, oh they had good reasons for their spontaneous anger, I am told. Spoiler alert: history has already decided you suck. And I can guarantee you the Duffer brothers deepest revulsion. No one dreams of appeasing you people! Leave ST fandom and enjoy your jihadism fandom, if that's where your priorities lie.

If you are on the side of: "Yes I know he kinda deserves criticism, but lets not overdo it. Bullying is not nice either", congratulations for being human, but you are the majority Germans in the mid 1930s and you can do better.

Because someone asked me what I say to a 6-year -old Palestinian being murdered in the US, I say this is utterly VILE. It was a crazy, violent murderer's reaction to the terror attack and it is endlessly tragic that this happened. It was not a reaction to solidarity with Israel's people. The pos was reacting to the actual event. Peaceful, loving support for the victims is the antitheses to that. I wanna ask back what you think of hundreds of children being brutally murdered or kidnapped in Israel on October 7th. Can we agree that this shit is utterly vile as well? Can we agree THOSE HOSTAGES NEED TO BE BROUGHT HOME? Btw?

#noah schnapp #byler #antisemitism #guess I wasn't done #i stand with israel #hamas is isis #support noah schnapp

141 notes · View notes

restinslices · 2 months

Note

I found your twilight post with the Lin Kuei brothers amusing and relatable 🤣

Can you do headcannons on watching marvel movies with the reader? Captain America is my favorite character in the movies lol

The MCU is huge so lmk if there was something specific you wanted to know about

Bi-Han

I don’t see any of them watching a lot of movies so you definitely introduced it to him��

He takes the longest time to finish the movies because it’s not on the top of his list when it comes to concerns

He’s one of those overly critical watchers so he’s annoying as fuck to watch movies with

I can see him liking Ultron

Why? I think he’d like the concept of Ultron and understand why he’s thinking the way he is

The type to agree with Thanos until someone points out he could’ve just doubled the resources

His favorite Phase is Phase 3 purely because Hela is his favorite character in the entire MCU

He’s legit upset she was killed off

I’d say which show is his favorite but I only watched Wandavision and TFATWS so moving on-

I don’t know if I see him reading the comics. Maybe if he’s curious enough

The Avengers and The Guardians of The Galaxy are pinned against each other a lot, but what does he think?

I think it changes a lot. Depends on his mood

One thing’s for sure; he prefers the OG Avengers

Not one of those Marvel fans that remembers everything and he doesn’t really stay up to date

Hasn’t even watched any of the shows yet

Please bring Hela back and stop pissing him off. She ain’t do nothing wrong

Quick afterthought

He’s Team Cap

He don’t even wanna listen to Liu Kang. Why the fuck would he agree with the government controlling The Avengers?

Kuai Liang

NOT one of the overly critical watchers so thank fuck

If he spots something that’s off, he’ll call it out but that’s as bad as it gets

He likes a mix of villains and heroes

If the villains got a point, then they got a point. That’s just how it is.

He likes villains that can become better people. The pure evils ones he’s like “yeah you suck” but villains that are actually victims or who have done certain things but try to become better, he likes

Because of that I’d say his favorite villain is The Winter Soldier

He’s done terrible things but Kuai Liang feels pity for him and enjoys his story

I think either Avengers or Civil War is his favorite movie

He prefers the og era of the MCU and I think the Avengers as a whole reminds him of his family (petty as fuck towards each other but there’s ultimately love there) and Civil War was a banger

A situation where there’s technically not a right side is a topic I can see him liking

With that being said, he is both Team Cap and Team Ironman

Since he follows Liu Kang I can see him being like “sometimes teams need to be reined in and need someone to follow”

But in the same breath this is the same government that is corrupt and has proven themselves as not trustworthy

And people could always die before the heroes are able to help

Then there’s Bucky and he once again understands why Steve wouldn’t tell but he also understands Tony’s anger

He stays somewhat up to date when it comes to the new movies and shows

He knows when they come out but he doesn’t see them right away

Tomas

I can see him staying up to date and seeing the movies whenever he could

Has possibly read some comics too?

Prefers Heroes

Do I wanna say his favorite character is Spider-Man because the PS5 Spider-Man voices Tomas?

Yes

So that’s what imma do

Does he have a favorite Spider-Man?

I’m not sure. I can see him seeing the positives and negatives of all the Spidermen

Team Cap for the accords

Team Ironman for the Bucky situation

His parents were killed so are we surprised? No

The type to see the positives of Phase 4 instead of just saying it’s shit

Is it the best? No. But it’s not all ass. Damn.

He prefers the Guardians so when Gamora was killed, his heart was in SHAMBLES

“Maybe Gamora and Peter can fall in love again”

I have bad news

Favorite Phase is always changing. Each Phase has bangers and non bangers so it changes day to day

I know I said he loved all the Spidermen but his favorite movie is probably a Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movie

Do not tell him the Avengers are more like coworkers than family. Do not fuck up his day

He likes found family movies so he enjoys the movies that focus on the groups

#mk1 #mk1 2023 #mortal kombat 1 #bi han sub zero #bi han #kuai liang scorpion #kuai liang #tomas vrbada smoke #kuai liang mk1 #kuai liang headcanons #bi han headcanons #tomas vrbada headcanons #kuai liang x reader #bi han x reader #tomas vrbada x reader #tomas vrbada #mk1 headcanons

62 notes · View notes

eardefenders · 3 months

Text

Sherlock & Co - Mailbag Episode 3 Transcript

00:00 John: Heyyy there, I’m,uh, I’m, uh, back in your ears! Heh. Uh, thanks for inviting me in. Um, I-I just wanted to add a chunk on before this Q and A just to give you an update on all things Gloria Scott. Uh, thanks so much for the kind words, first off. Uh I-I-I did warn about its angst. Um, and I appreciate i-it’s not always a fun ride when, when those kinds of things happen. Um. But hey! I’m glad you all enjoyed it. Um, glad the masterful sound design was appreciated.

00:32 John: Uhm, yeah I thought I’d, I’d check in now and give you a rundown of it all. Post match interview sort of stuff. Uh, Lionel did recover from the stroke. He is out of hospital, but he will be going back to Australia. Um. He’s-he's obviously cooperating with the government, um, down there. It’s not an easy situation, but he’s handling it with remarkable grace and dignity. Um. Victor is, as well. Can’t quite get the read on things with him at the moment. He’s obviously very, very torn. Uh, we solved the case for him, but, y’know, yeah. H-he’s in a much worse place then he was before. Um. *pause* Such is life. Uh, such is a very complicated life, I should say. He’s helping his dad, with the inquiries. Uh, m-my gut says there’ll be prison time. *sucks teeth* Um, y’know, c-cooperation and evidence and the, yeah, t-the mitigating circumstances might be helpful to Lionel and all, but, uh… *deep breath* ultimately lives were lost. He was complicit. Y’know this is the world we live in.

01:49 John: *sucks teeth* Victor has paused the job search, but uh I-I do believe he’ll be coming back to the UK once, y’know, whatever happens, happens. But, uh, yeah. Tough stuff. Um, glad you all enjoyed Mariana joining in on the adventure. Um, don’t know if she enjoyed it all that much. So far she’s watched corpses get pulled out of the canal and now she’s watched an elderly stroke victim get extradited for murder. So, uh, y’know. *chuckles lightly* Welcome to the world of true crime, Ametxazurra!

02:23 John:Um, Sherlock asked me to apologize, also, actually. Um, yes, to apologize that he wasn’t technically correct in his solving of the case. Um, uh, Hunter did reveal the actual truth. I, I told him people wouldn’t really mind. He got me to apologize anyway, so, uh, yeah. There you go. Um, so he’s been a right mopey bastard, as you can imagine. *clears throat* So, to cheer him up, I carted him off to…an indoor theme park! Heh, yeah, you heard that right. Theme park. But indoors. Well, theme park’s a bit strong to be honest. I-I-It’s like an arcade with an indoor roller coaster. But yeah! Y’know! Uhm, back to Camden, but for a much more enjoyable experience.

03:05 John: These questions were asked, um, before The Gloria Scott episode aired. T-two that I ask Sherlock right at the end are eerily prescient. Um, that’s the right word, I think? Uh, I hope. Welp, you’ll see what I mean. Enjoy!

03:19-3:49 *Intro Music*

03:47 *Arcade Sounds Fade In, we can hear Sherlock exerting himself*

03:50 John: Yoooo, wassup guys! Welcome to the John Watson channel where we talk all things John Watson all the time! Ehh, that’s my impression of a youtuber or real podcaster, hope you enjoyed it. Ah, right, Sherlock, tell the members where we are.

04:01 Sherlock: Indoor theme park! Augh! *through gritted teeth* You little alien bastard! Get back here!

04:09 John: Sherlock is doing some whack-a-mole, ah, or they’re aliens in this place, not moles. Could be alien moles. Who knows. Ah, it’s an indoor theme park in *in a very exaggerated North London accent (genuinely he sounds like an ass here)* North London. That’s North London, sorry. Bit excited. Had about a kilogram of sugar. Haha, I’m looking at all sorts here. Arcade machines, carousels, basketball hoop game thingy, air hockey, bumper cars -dodge’ems, call’em what you will-, and an indoor roller coaster! Hahahaa! It’s wild stuff. Okay, let’s get to some questions over a casual game of air hockey.

04:40 *Audio Cut, sounds of air hockey being played*

04:41 Sherlock: Have that! *puck hit sound* And that!

04:44 John: ‘Have that and that’? What are you, a musketeer? Hahahaaaa! *sound of a puck entering the goal* First point Watson! Heyheyheeeey, ahhhh. And now for the first question. Uh, Tonkster aka Resetoaster asks, “To John and Sherlock, if you go to Subway -the fast food I should clarify- what do you usually order?”

05:03 Sherlock: *with exertion* You’re *sound of the puck being hit* distracting me! Ah!

05:06 John: Ah, you wouldn’t be saying that if you were winning.

05:07 Sherlock: I’m not winning *puck hit sound* precisely because of it.

05:11 John: Alright, fine. I’ll answer. Uh, I like the turkey club. Is that-Ow! That hit my finger. *hisses in pain*- I think there’s a turkey one. Um, I like that one on plain-ish bread. I don’t think their fancy breads are all that good. Uh, and then I’ll have a southwest sauce- Wham! Haha! *sound of puck entering goal*

05:23 Sherlock: Oh, bugger.

05:26 John: Subway order?

05:26 Sherlock: Never been.

05:27 John: Great.

05:27 *audio cuts. Sounds of automatic rifle fire going off*

05:29 John: Reloading. Cover me!

05:29 Sherlock: Covering.

05:30 John: Incoming at your two o’clock.

05:31 Sherlock: On it!

05:32 *sounds of two loud gunshots*

05:33 John: Yesss, Sherlock. Right, through the lobby. Okay, let’s see how this goes. Bellaxbear01 asks “If you guys want another pet, what animal would it be? Another dog, another cat, or maybe a fish?”

05:47 Sherlock: I like fish. *sound of gunshots* Very much. Reloading.

05:50 John: *pleased* Oh, hahah! I like fish too!

05:52 Sherlock: Really?

05:53 John: Yeah! Tropical?

05:54 Sherlock: Tropical or temperate.

05:56 John: Well that’s good to know. Yeah, worth maybe one day looking into that? Oo! Getting shot at here. Uh, Amelie5 asks “Do you have a favorite case you’ve solved so far?

06:05 *sounds of a big gun being fired*

06:07 Sherlock: A good question at bloody last. Die you bastards! *big boom*

06:12 John: Oh wowhaowhaooow! *sounds of I guess dirt falling, maybe bodies???* *with a smile in his voice* Oh, you made him blow up! Ha! Ahh, I know the feeling. Poor sod.

06:18 Sherlock: I rather enjoyed the Red Headed League.

06:22 John: Yep, that was a good’un. -Oh, duck down! That’s a machine gun.- Did you like the Red Headed League because of the case or because it proved me wrong about it being boring?

06:27 Sherlock: Mmm, both.

06:28 John: Great, well-oh I’m dead. *sound of man yelling, presumably John’s character dying in the game* Balls.

06:31 *audio cut. Ambient arcade sounds with something fizzing at the forefront*

06:34 John: What is that?

06:35 Sherlock: *struggling to speak* opp ing andy.

06:37 John: Opping Andy?

06:38 Sherlock: *still struggling to speak, but clearly annoyed* Op-opping. Andy.

06:41 John: Ohhhh, popping candy. Right. Well, RangerPip asks any specific reason you started smoking a pipe?

06:49 Sherlock: *unintellible gargling and consonant sounds*

06:54 John: Right, well, if you understood that RangerPip, well done you, haheh. *pause* *in a considering tone* Hunnh. He may or may not be choking.

07:03 *audio cut, loud music and bumper car sounds*

07:04 John: Ah!

07:04 Sherlock: Ahahaha!

07:05 John: Hahahah, left! Left! Left!

07:08 Both: Ah! *sound of impact*

07:09 John: Oh my god, my ribs! Argh, right! Let’s get up some more speed and smash into these kids-uh, I mean! These, um, big burly blokes.

07:17 Sherlock: Here we go.

07:20 John: Yesss, Sherlock, we are at some speed now, baby! Hahahah, right! Question from Raylein, “Does Archie get human food? And if he does, who feeds it to him?”

07:30 John: Ah yeah I do feed him, I-

07:30 Sherlock: Yes.

07:33 John: Wait.

07:34 Sherlock: What?

07:35 John: You’re feeding him as well?

07:36 Sherlock: I am, yes!

07:38 John: Well, that explains a lot. Uh, yeah Raylein, I don’t really like animal products going to waste so I just, um, I chuck him all sorts. Ope, here we go. Come here you little shits.

07:44 Sherlock: Ahhhhhhhh!

07:45 John: *sound of impact* Ah hahah!

07:48 *audio cut, it’s much quieter now, but they’re still at the arcade*

07:49 John: *remorsefully* I just didn’t think they’d cry and tell their mums is all.

07:51 Sherlock: That’s what children do. *accusingly* You told me to smash into them.

07:55 John: I did not say that.

07:57 Sherlock: Can I get the SD card out of your microphone and check?

08:00 John: No.

08:01 Sherlock: See.

08:02 John: Andrew says, “Question for Sherlock: Do you have any piercings? And, if you don’t, do you want any? And, if you do, which ones do you want?”

08:10 Sherlock: *sucks in a deep breath* Ear piercing. I haven’t used it for some time.

08:14 John: Why not?

08:15 Sherlock: Was that asked in the Discord?

08:17 John: What?

08:18 Sherlock: That. Just then. The ‘Why not?’

08:21 John: …No.

08:22 Sherlock: *takes a breath* Well then. I needn’t answer it. This is a time for members.

08:26 John: Right. Great. Lovely. Ok, MushPit says “Your deductive skills, was it talent you were born with or a skill that you developed and perfected over time?”

08:34 Sherlock: I assume MushPit is asking me, not you?

08:37 John: Ah ha ha, very funny.

08:40 Sherlock: My senses have always been, um-

08:43 John: Overcalibrated?

08:44 Sherlock: Yes, quite. Sooo, I’ve always observed a lot. When I found it difficult to tune out of my surroundings, I decided to analyze them. Then it became rather addictive. Yes, it became a skill, but I feel it much stronger then a skill. It feels like a byproduct of my very existence. I cannot unlearn it. IIII cannot wind it down or soften it. It occupies me as much as I do it. I fear that I cannot stop it. Even if it kills me. Even if it drains everything from me and I can never truly find it to know myself, to know my surroundings without the necessity…uh, no, the-the requisite to my very self. To t-try to understand everything-

09:33 John: The rollercoaster’s ready.

09:34 Sherlock: Oh.

09:35 John: Uh, we- we can finish if you want? Uh, y’know we can go on it later?

09:40 *audio cut, we can hear the roller coaster going and John and Sherlock on it. John keeps saying ‘Woohoo! Wheee!’ and Sherlock is saying joyfully ‘Bloody fantastic! Absolutely bloody fantastic!’ Both of them also keep laughing in between their exclamations*

09:48 *audio cut. We’re outside. London traffic can be heard.*

09:53 John: Oh that was good! Wasn’t it?

09:54 Sherlock: *pleased* Superb.

09:56 John: Not a bad idea, is it? A theme park, indoors? I mean we were a little old for it, but hey, y’know, there’s no age limit on enjoyment! Well, I mean you can’t go jumping into a soft play or anything like that, but yeah. Yeah. Now we are walking near Chalk Farm. Not actually a farm of chalk, of course. It’s just a nice place between Bellsides Park and the Northern end of Camden town. How’s that q and a session for you, mate?

10:16 Sherlock: Is that question on the Discord?

10:17 John: Right, ok. This is not a thing. You can still have normal chats with me inbetween members questions.

10:25 Sherlock: Noted.

10:26 John: Well it’s a question for me now anyway. Um, has your mother finally listened to the podcast? And if yes, what does she think of it? Uh, yes, has she listened? She has! She didn’t like the sound of my bomb. That makes two of us, there. Eheh. Uh, and she sent me further messages about Mariana. And! She will occasionally point out when I’ve been rude to people on the show. *clicks tongue* She also asked me if the Austrian man’s face was okay, so she has at least, definitely finished one adventure. And, no. His face is not. Ok. Mum. Uhh, so- hunh, this is weird.

10:59 Sherlock: What’s that?

11:01 John: Two questions here, next to each other. Uh, I-I’m not making this up. First one, Ramt or-or Ramtonk, “t-the flowers on my orchids are gone, but the plants themselves are thriving. Uhh, they’re watered as they should be and get optimal sunlight. Will the flowers ever come back?”

11:19 Sherlock: *pleasantly surprised* Hhha!

11:20 John: Right? Yeah and the second one from Batonks the Graveyard Ghost says, “Question for John, do you have any funny memories from your childhood that you’d like to share with us?”

11:30 Sherlock: Yes, that is quite remarkable.

11:32 John: Well! I’ll let the adventure of The Gloria Scott answer those questions! So, ah, everybody, thanks so much for these. I hope you enjoyed the answers. Sorry it’s been so short, but I’ve just noticed that that’s our bus!! We’re gonna miss it! Go! Go! Go!

11:46 Sherlock: *frustrated sigh* For goodness sake!

11:47-12:17 *Outro Music Plays*

#sherlock & co #sherlock and co #sherlock holmes #john watson #sherlock and john #transcript #transcripts #goalhanger podcasts #my transcript #sorry once again for the delay on this #i've got a lot of things I'm doing all at once lol

93 notes · View notes

alpaca-clouds · 7 months

Text

Americans, we gotta talk voting

Okay, my dear Americans. I right now see a lot of "Don't vote for Democrats" posts coming up, and those are just not... very politically informed. I am sorry. I know your political system sucks. Because it does. Because it does not allow you anything but to vote for the lesser of two evils - and there is no doubt that these are both evil. They are.

But Republicans are the bigger evil. There is just no doubt about this. No matter what topic you care about, they are the bigger evil. And due to the system being rigged as fuck, not voting basically is a vote for the Republicans.

I have seen so many posts now with "Don't Vote for Democrats, because Palestinian Genocide", which yes, is true. That is genocide and the Democrats are helping to fund it. But... The Republicans are very much pro-Israel as well. If not even more so. The current situation in Palestine is very much a result of Trump's actions regarding Israel in 2017. If you don't know, what I am talking about, look it up.

Even the entire "America First" thing will not stop the Republicans from also funding Israel. Because one of the core voter bases for the Republicans are Fundi Christians. And those Fundi Christians do believe that Jewish people should rule Israel, because in their point of view this fulfills part of some fucking apocalyptic prophecy!

The Republicans do right now plan to turn America into a fascist dictatorship. That is not a conspiracy theory, but something they are very open about. And under this dictatorship a lot of people will suffer, including but not limited to people who aren't white, queer people, disabled people, homeless people, children. And there is a very good chance that a lot of people in the global south will also suffer more - for one reason or another. Oh, and of course Muslims in general, given that the Republicans are also very openly Islamophob. If you have already forgotten: Just think of Trump's travelban.

I know it sucks to vote for the lesser of two evils - because both sides are evil - but... It is not as if there is much of a choice.

And, yes. Ideally there should be a revolution. The American government should be overthrown, because it is evil to its core. But until you can mount that revolution (which you should work on and not just talk about) you gotta vote for the lesser evil. Because the bigger evil is really, REALLY bad for everyone.

#american politics #politics #vote #please vote #us politics #islamophobia #capitalism #anti capitalism #revolution #usa #democracy #beware

88 notes · View notes

canmom · 2 years

Text

Yes, what 'AI art' promises to do is something that has happened many times before in capitalism. Even in the 'art industry', we've seen technology all but do away with entire lines of work, such as the illustration styles that withered after photography proved to better serve the needs of advertisers and clients who wanted a realistic likeness.

And it sucked for those illustrators. Maybe not the well established ones, but the ones who had hoped to enter that industry. Just as it sucked for the textile industry workers when the mechanical loom appeared.

Trying to suppress AI art through legal means may be a strategy with little chance of success and high potential for collateral damage. The Luddites found that machine-breaking proved an ineffective strategy (edit: because the government killed them), the miners of Wales were not able to stop Thatcher closing the pits and importing materials (edit: because the government beat the shit out of them). But to treat workers - in one of the few lines of work to still offer any sort of intrinsic fulfilment, at least in theory - who may be responding in a knee-jerk way to an impending threat to their ability to continue that practice and possibly survive at all, with scorn and derision? To justify that with Marx? Come off it.

Certainly, sure, the real enemy was capitalism all along. If AI were never invented, art would still be a precarious industry where you have to work stupidly hard on a speculative basis to even get a chance to get a foot in the door. An industry valuing predictability would still prefer to elevate bland, repetitive artwork; it would still push the chosen few artists who make it and get jobs to work themselves into an early death; we would still be faced with the implications of turning creation into 'content' in a social media feed. In a less precarious world, one where artists were free to pursue our practices with ample support and no fear of not making rent if there's a bad month, AI image generators would not even be a concern.

But we don't live in that world and I have no idea how to bring it closer. There isn't a 'start the revolution' button I can just press if I don't like my lot under capitalism.

What AI promises to do, what its proponents claim, really is to make everything worse in this industry. AI has many limitations compared to a human artist, but that doesn't matter for doing damage. For the employed artist, the threat of AI is going to become a similar labour discipline tool as the threat of outsourcing to a country where labour is cheaper, or the threat of installing robot tills in retail. "Don't make too much of a fuss, we can replace you." It doesn't matter if it isn't entirely true, it's another cudgel against labour organising.

In the already often miserably exploitative world of small scale illustration commissions which many artists use to support themselves while learning? Now you don't just have to compete against Fiverr's race to the bottom. The good chaps at Silicon Valley have helpfully built an obedient data centre than can do a 'good enough' job for many clients even faster and cheaper, that never gets tired. You'd better hope you have a loyal audience already, or else the independent income and exec function to work on art as a hobby on top of everything else you need to do to get by. Illustration commissions is already a pretty saturated market, turning something that ought to be a dream job into a grind. So... let's add more pressure, eh?

Worse, a lack of realistic routes to learn will likely ripple on up, similar to how the miserable conditions and high attrition of inbetweeners in anime led to a situation where there aren't enough key animators, so the industry increasingly draws from self-taught hobbyists and relies on a limited pool of overworked sakkans to paper over the gaps caused by their lack of training.

None of these problems are unique to AI. But they're all going to be made worse by it. And obviously people are going to be afraid of that coming, before we know how it will all shake out for sure. That's not a stupid reaction.

The argument over what is Real Art(TM) may be corny, but it reflects the fact that for most of us trying to make art, it is not nearly so fulfilling to type prompts into a computer and pick your favourite result as it is to draw on your own visual library and experiences and understanding of light and form and symbols and shape and etc., to go through the meditative process of solving the problems of the drawing yourself, to get the satisfaction of 'omg I made that' at the end. I'm sure creating the AI system in the first place had that sort of fulfilment for its programmers, but using it is to be a curator more than a creator, or at least to shift the creativity into coming up with combinations of keywords rather than directly making pictures, and that just doesn't grab me in the same way at all. If people enjoy it that's genuinely great for them, but I don't think very many people who set out to be an artist would get the same satisfaction out of typing prompts. It's not something we wanted automated. (Perhaps we could compare it to creating an aimbot for an FPS game.)

But that's a fairly tricky thing to articulate, so it is not surprising that it gets mixed up in ideology like 'artiness is proportional to hours spent'. Unfortunate, but that doesn't make the intuitive alarm signal misplaced. If AI art can find a niche as just another tool for expression, great, I'll shut up - but if it becomes a widespread sentiment of 'why are you wasting your time painting, just let the AI do it', we've lost something valuable. 'We want to replace artists' is the explicit sentiment of many of the AI's creators and proponents, so it's not like this is a baseless fear.

Trying to develop an art practice under capitalism is always a pretty awkward bargain at best. AI won't destroy the drives that lead us to make art, and won't do much to liberate us either. My hope is that it will become an easily ignored sideshow to the kinds of art I like; my fear is that this is only the beginning of its impact and a lot that's valuable will be lost in the chaos.

Did photography 'liberate' illustration? It's true that after the demise of the realist painting of Loomis's generation, new forms of illustration arose: scifi and fantasy illustration, many kinds of stylised illustration. But idk, that argument feels weird - if you cut down a tree to build a house where it used to stand, and a new tree grows nearby, is that liberating trees? It's hard to put any valence on that. In any case, AI proponents are trying for a fully general replacement to all types of illustration, including potential new ones. (Perhaps that's nothing more than tech cult hype; at the moment its stylistic repertoire is more limited.)

And perhaps we might expect, as capitalism continues to throw off labour without much hope of new industries arising to absorb it, that there will come a point where the balance tips and for better or worse, a vast social transformation unfolds suddenly and unexpectedly.

Would be nice if I can live long enough to see it.

Living off commissions is already proving not viable for me, regardless of AI - so I'm training to go into a different creative industry (game dev) where there's more demand in the present era, and I'll have to develop visual art more slowly, with whatever energy and executive function I can spare. I hope I will enjoy working in game dev, and I'm lucky to have skills that even make it an option, but I don't love that I have to make that decision based on what can keep a roof overhead and not on what I most want to spend my time learning to make. And I can only imagine the feeling of someone who found a seemingly stable niche doing something they truly enjoy, and now face getting thrown back into this corner.

The AI problem may just be a symptom of capitalism, but that just makes it less tractable. It may be 'just a tool', but that tool is embedded in a whole mess of social relations. Who runs the AI, who stands to benefit? Better to articulate a critique of AI-in-capitalism that navigates around the blind alleys than to cast scorn on people reaching for the first way out they can see to a genuinely bleak situation.

#ai art #to add more trash to the gyre

450 notes · View notes

nartml · 9 months

Text

"Itachi was a good brother"

"He did nothing wrong"

Sigh

CW: Entirely unorganized, I had thoughts to express and no order in which to do so.

What are some of y'all on? Respectfully, what are some of you guys talking about? Why is this even a debate? Some hardcore Itachi stans need to get their eyesight checked 😭

There are ways to acknowledge a character's tragedy, their impossible situation, the excruciating circumstances they're under, without justifying genocide and inhumane torture.

Itachi was a tool. Thoroughly manipulated by everyone, and exposed to horrifyingly gruesome sights at a young age. He was a tool, which did Konoha's bidding, followed instructions to a T. And yes, the stuff that he's done will forever haunt him. He possibly hasn't known a moment of true peace or happiness in his life. All very tragic.

That said, he still. Well, sucks. And fucked up badly. You can feel sympathy for him –you probably should– and I do too. But the fact that he didn't regret it makes me side eye him.

His clan was planning a revolution, because they were all alienated, discriminated against, victims of unbelievable prejudice and racism based on a bunch of nonsensical bullshit (fuck Konoha btw)

So naturally, when the government mysteriously found out, he was ordered to slaughter all his people –including pregnant women and little kids– mercilessly. And naturally, he did as they asked.

But he couldn't kill his little brother, because apparently "Konoha's orders were not more important than your life, Sasuke, doesn't he love you so much".

So instead of killing him, he makes him relive the massacre of his family a cool 500k times, then sets him up for a lifetime of hatred, pain, anger, bitterness, survivor's guilt and loneliness.

Manipulates Sasuke's worldview, makes him believe that in order to achieve his goal of killing him (something that Itachi set him up for as well btw), he needs to be entirely isolated without any sort of connection to other people. Shows up 5 years later, traumatizes Sasuke some more, tells him he needs to kill his best friend. Yk, all the stuff a good older brother does.

Then some years later Sasuke manages to kill him, just as Itachi wanted, and Itachi ofc pokes him on the forehead, even in death keeping his distance from Sasuke without ever clarifying what it means.

Isn't he just the loveliest?

He's a tragic character with an abundance of issues, who absolutely fucked Sasuke's life entirely, and no matter how much you kick your feet and scream, he's not a good older brother.

"But he loved Sasuke so much"

I'm sure he did; at least in a twisted sort of way. But holy shit, this might blow your mind to smithereens, just because you love someone doesn't mean you love them right, that you're good for them, or did good to them.

Itachi loved Sasuke, but he sure as fucking shit did not love him right, was not good for him, nor did good to him.

"But Itachi was so guilty, it's not like he was having fun when doing all this, he'll forever be traumatized by what he did"

This shouldn't even be up for debate. Feelings, intentions and actions are not of equal importance. The impact of an action you took is more important than your intentions and/or your feelings regarding that action. One is tangible and affects others, the other is internalized and all you.

Itachi's situation was complicated, and there was no realistic outcome where everyone is happy. He was cornered, more or less.

So he held his head down and did as he was told.

Regardless of how he felt about it before, during and afterwards, despite his intentions and reasoning for what he did to both his clan and Sasuke, despite the guilt he feels, it doesn't change the cold, hard reality of the negative impact he had on his little brother and his family's name. Sure, intentions/feelings/reasoning plays a role in feeling sympathy for him, but you gotta hold him fucking accountable for the atrocities he committed.

You could say that he did it for peace, because the revolution would've been bloody, that Konoha had to do what it did to avoid countless deaths, or whatever bullshit arguments y'all want to make. It's inconceivable to me how you can't even hear the wrong in those statements.

Konoha did not do it for peace, there was NOTHING peaceful about any of it, no justification for it. If you think genocide is the only solution to a rebellion that hasn't even been executed yet, then I guess y'all's mindsets are way too fucked up and you should look into it. Konoha most certainly used this coup as an excuse to rid itself of the thorn that were the Uchihas. Because you know what ended up happening?

Konoha, the very government who orchestrated this, ended up then writing Itachi off as living proof of "the curse of hatred", as someone who went insane because of the clan's innate ugliness, that damned, forsaken curse that no wretched member of that family can shake off. Entirely shoved this disgusting, fucked up situation under the mat.

In the end, when it's time to write the history books, Itachi and the Uchiha clan will be registered as vile creatures who were full of hatred and that's how they'll be remembered. No justice was served for them, and that is heartbreaking.

___________________________________________

TL;DR

Moral of the story: Konoha sucks, Itachi was not a good brother and did a lot of things wrong, and the Uchiha clan is a forever misunderstood tragedy.

Bonus: fuck Tobirama "curse of nonexistent wiener" Senju

___________________________________________

To clarify something:

I am not one of those haters who sit on their moral high horse, point fingers and go "They're such a horrible person, I would never do such a thing. Look at me, the angelic good person, I can't even fathom how someone could do this". Shut up, you're annoying, and what you're saying makes no sense, because you quite frankly can't know what you'd do if you were in that character's shoes, and moreover, it doesn't even matter because it's, guess what, not about you. Quit judging how much of a "scumbag" a character is based on your morality without showing any sort of empathy or understanding of a situation.

You can't relate in the slightest (which is good in this case, I wish nobody ever relates to Itachi's situation), therefore your judgement and morals are irrelevant

Specifically talking about Itachi, I don't can't know if I would've done what he did, because I'm 120% disconnected from the circumstances and laws of his reality. If I were in his shoes and in his universe, I would be an entirely different person with different ideals. Same goes for you.

All this being said, I personally feel iffy about Itachi. I have sympathy for him, but I still think he has objectively fucked up very, very badly.

Plus, I am a Sasuke defender to my core and from a purely pro-sasuke standpoint, he annoys me.

I think I rambled a bit off topic at some point, this is a mess

#itachi uchiha #anti itachi #tagging that to be safe #idk if this counts as anti itachi but it's all criticism #no praise to him was given here but i kinda sorta defended him at the end a lil #i had stuff to say about him #pro sasuke #anti konoha #fuck those bitches #anti shinobi system #fuck you too #anti tobirama #can't forget his annoying ass either #some of y'all pro itachis have dirt in your eyes #he fucked up and was a bad brother and you should know it #long post #naruto #i think that's all

98 notes · View notes

valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn · 10 months

Note

tEaM cAp BaD, tOnY gOoD

The fact that takes like this are still being spewed 7 years after Civil War maddens me.

OMG where do I even start... You know, maybe this is the result of the MCU not knowing where they stand in regards to heroism. In the past we used to watch superhero movies that were very clear on defending the heroes and keeping the villains accountable, but for some reason the MCU seems to enjoy questioning their heroes and framing them in a negative light while justifying the bad guys - so I'm not surprised to read these takes.

OP says "Hydra didn't hide themselves after the reveal". Uh, yes, they did, actually. And with good reason. If you have been infiltrating an American intelligence agency for decades and you're finally outed, why exactly would anyone go out there and happily advertise they're Hydra? That... makes no sense.

I honestly have no interest in talking about "Did Wanda and Pietro know or not?". I'll just leave this here.

In the same comment OP shows his anger at Wanda for not facing any consequences for her actions, he defends Stark "not selling more weapons" as enough accountability for his. So he can spend his whole life willfully ignorant of where his wealth is coming from, he only decides to stop selling when those weapons kill Americans (he didn't give a fuck if they hurt other people), he can literally tell the government to suck it when they request his tech (which I'm okay with, but damn, nice display of hypocrisy right there when these stans claim the heroes are awful for not signing the Accords in CW)... and all this shit is enough for Stark to be off the hook?

They want Wanda, sometimes even Steve, to be jailed and punished but when it comes to Stark, if he pouts for a while they call it a day and that's enough accountability for him 🤦‍♀️

OP's line about Edith is even worse: "Edith is designed as a planetary defense system." I always think of Zola's line in TWS whenever I read a take like that one: "HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security."

More control doesn't equate more safety, it tends to cause the opposite thing, actually. But of course NWH never addressed the morality of this device so many fans think its existence okay. If they had handled it like Nolan did their ideas would be different. Edith is another Project Insight and Stark was still defending this "control is safety" years after CW 👇

That's Hydra rhetoric. I couldn't care less if it's a so-called "hero" saying it, that line could be said by Zola or Red Skull or Rumlow, that's how messed up it is. But all of a sudden it's Stark saying it and that makes it okay?

OP: "Steve Rogers [...] solves problems by punching things [...] He has no fucking idea how to handle a situation involving a bioweapon or a terrorist." Tell me you don't understand Steve's character without telling me you don't understand him. This stan is one of those who thinks Steve is just a buff guy with no brains who can only punch his way out of things, which is hilarious because he has been shown to be the exact opposite of that.

A guy who figured out how to take that flag from Camp Lehigh, who could easily tell he was being deceived after being defrosted when that Shield woman approached him in the med bay, who figured out Loki's sceptre worked like a Hydra weapon (linking the space and mind stones & how they worked), who knows military regulations well enough to know where a building is built in the wrong place, who can figure out he's going to be attacked in an elevator after only a few seconds...

Sure, he only knows how to punch things 🙄

#anti tony stark #steve rogers #team cap

73 notes · View notes

qqueenofhades · 4 months

Note

I graduated a year ago and had a job for the 2 months and they laid me off without reason or anything because i was still in the 3 month trial period. Anyway I noticed that they didn’t let the engineers and architects reach the year, you know avoid seniority and stuff. And that was in April, it’s gonna be a year and I still haven’t got another job, I’ve done some freelance jobs here and there, but the last one was for December. I know January it’s kind of a dead month but I’m dying with it, honestly I don’t think I’ll reach the minimum payment of my credit and my car needs gas(at least it’s payed off) and I’m honestly so goddamned depressed. Somewhere I read that a lot of vacancies come out in January but I haven’t seen that many and the ones I’ve seen and sent haven’t even contacted me

Im sorry to bring all this glum to you, but I’ve seen some other recent graduate anons come at you, and you’re so understanding and aware of this economy and job market 🥹

Alas, as ever, I wish that I could make it better and tell you exactly what to do to fix it, but I cannot. However as always, I am absolutely offering you a cup of your preferred beverage, a baked goodie, and a chance to sit at my Internet Grandmother Kitchen and get some things off your chest, so yes. It does suck a lot out there and while it sounds cliché, you gotta do your best, keep trying, and see what comes along.

Hopefully you have other resources or support systems, but if you are in the US and need assistance in basic stuff like paying bills and getting gas, please think about looking into the federally funded 211 service:

Not enough people know about this, and it's way better than hoping that people on the Internet can help you out with bills every time you hit a crunch (although if you do have generous friends, I myself have been saved by them a time or two -- absolutely no shame or judgment here!) But they literally exist to help people find funds and resources for situations like this, and even if you're not in the US, I advise looking for similar government initiatives or programs. They might or might not exist (alas, I am American so I only know our version) but there should be at least something like this. Try searching "211 service equivalent for [country]" or similar keywords?

And of course, if you are reading this and ARE in the US: look into 211! Please don't drive yourself crazy with fear or stress! There are definitely stopgap services and funds that exist for just this sort of thing! Please do use them. I am sending hugs.

#anonymous #ask

24 notes · View notes

spurgie-cousin · 4 months

Note

I was listening to a podcast with Jill Dillard and something about that situation bugs me. Obviously it was wrong for JB to not pay them for their time on the show, but they always "forget" to mention that Derick had a good paying job that he quit to become a fake missionary. Yes the job he had sucked, but it was a job and it would have paid the bills, especially since they were living in that first house for free. It's an unfortunate fact of life that in the US if you want money you have to work at least a little bit. I wish they would take a little responsibility for their own financial issues that were not a direct result of JB being a stingy bastard.

I kind of get what you're saying, but in the interviews I've heard it's less about their financial situation and more about just the principal of the thing. Maybe the interview you heard was different, but the impression I got was that it was more about exposing Jim Bob's control over the kids and how he used his belief system for his own financial gain.

I mean Jill didn't even know she was supposed to be getting regular compensation for being on an internationally aired tv show for a long time, so it's not like they were just sitting around not making money bc they were waiting on a check. They had income, but they were also cutting into their earning potential by filming for hours a day for free, something that was insisted upon by JB and that Jill was afraid to question bc of her upbringing. Jim Bob was also falsifying his tax documents and lying about paying them too, so.....

Also I don't think Derick's choice to be a missionary has much to do with anything really. It's a really, really respected position in that corner of evangelicism that he would've seen as an investment in his and his family's future. and it's not like he wasn't getting paid for it, he would've gone into it expecting to be supported financially by a church or missionary organization, as would Jill when she eventually traveled with him.

Also just to reiterate, JB wasn't just being stingy, he was stealing money from his kids because he was greedy and literally lying to the US government about it. They weren't not getting paid for their thousands of hours of work because he wanted to save money or something, he was making them sign contracts he didn't give them time to read because he knew under the belief system he raised them in they wouldn't question him. And he did this with the express purpose of hoarding the money that was meant to be paid to his adult children for his own financial gain, and I don't think Jill and Derick are wrong for exposing that behavior from a guy that acts morally superior to everyone. Even if it was just to get a paycheck, because they were owed it anyway (to my knowledge they haven't gotten even like 1/4 of what they're owed though, and it sounds like they expected that to happen).

#i feel like people give Jill and Derick a harder time bc it's s tv show they weren't paid for and not like construction work or a “real job”#but a lot goes into tv too and we all know reality shows are heavily scripted and edited so it's just as much work as being on a sitcom.#replace tv show with factory job or something and more people would be rightly outraged that JB finagled his kids out of their pay i think #like multiple duggar kids have said they worked 12+ hour days. like how the fuck do you live when you're doing that regularly and not being #paid? and you can't get out because your dad controls your life?#jill dillard #Derick dillard #jim bob duggar

21 notes · View notes

eos-aurora-rise · 10 months

Text

“It’s not so bad.”

And it wasn’t. It had all the clinical neatness of Percy’s room back home, just with less furniture. What Percy lacked in bed frames and side tables, he made up for in stuff; there was no other word for it.

Ginny stepped over a stack of books which were balanced bizarrely a foot in front of the door. The top book was titled ‘Laws and Regulations of Quidditch’ - Ginny had read that one before. She trailed her fingers over the words as she made her way further in, kicking her shoes off before stepping onto the thick shag rug that she happened to know he’d filched from his room at Hogwarts.

“Yes, well. I’m working on it.”

He sounded particularly flat these days. Ginny glanced up at him over her book. He sat cross-legged on the sofa, a laptop balanced on bony knees as he tapped away at it halfheartedly, even as his eyes darted critically around the living room.

Things were different after the war. The ministry was still in crisis mode, all cylinders firing while they attempted desperately to clear out all of the death eater-flavoured corruption that had been festering for decades. It meant holding trials for convicted criminals, while unconvicted criminals sat in the stands judging them. It was an utter mess.

Harry had spent the last year sitting in on nearly every single one. He wasn’t a man suited to politics in any way, but he fought diligently to protect the people who didn’t deserve to be there, and name everyone he knew who did.

He’d gotten Draco Malfoy out of a sentence in Azkaban, and had dropped his mother’s sentence down to a few years of house arrest. Ginny personally thought that Azkaban was a waste anyway, on account of them having no soul to be sucked out, but upon voicing that she’d gotten a chastising look and much good-hearted explanation about difficult situations.

Ginny knew difficult situations. She’d raised and led a rebellion among children who were tortured for failing to be soldiers. Draco Malfoy had kissed the shoes of Voldemort and left them to die.

Whatever. There was a reason that the ministry let Harry sit in on their trials, and not Ginny.

“Working?”

“Trying to. Drinks are in the fridge.”

“Muggle.”

Percy sent her a scathing look. She grinned, stepping over even more plastic files and loose leaves of paper as she stepped into the small kitchen.

While the ministry busied itself with self-destructing under the watchful eye of the Chosen One, Percy had quit. It was about the closest he’d come to having a spine in his entire life, as far as Ginny could remember. She wished he’d done it a bit earlier, but going by the haunted look in his eyes that had seared itself into her brain some time around them wrapping Fred’s body in blankets to carry it out of the great hall, so did he.

“What shit is this?” Ginny groaned, popping the fridge door open.

Percy didn’t do well with boredom. He needed to have his time effectively filled or he went mad. In the immediate aftermath of the war, he’d disappeared. He’d cut himself off, vanished into nothing. Mum had torn herself to pieces over it. Losing two sons at once was… well, more than any of them could handle.

When he’d finally turned up on their doorstep with the general air of a cat who’d gotten caught in the rain, it had been with an offer from a muggle university and the hope that he could work in the muggle government. After the screaming and crying and fighting, Ginny had settled herself on the edge of the bed and asked him what had changed.

He’d said ‘everything’, and they’d left it at that.

“It’s effective. I’m poor.”

He’d picked up all sorts of muggle quirks. Ginny was getting used to it.

“‘Vodka’? What the fuck even is that?”

“Take a shot of it. It tastes like shit and it burns the whole way down, but you’ll be drunk in 10 minutes.”

Ginny studied the bottle curiously. Sounded good to her. She reached into the cabinet above the sink, plucking out a couple of shot glasses before picking her way back to the sofa.

It took a little skill balancing them all in one hand, but she eventually managed to effectively free the other hand long enough to slam Percy’s laptop closed on his fingers. He hissed a few nasty insults, but took the hint and slid it onto the floor, grabbing his glass from Ginny with no small amount of irritation.

“Alright.” Ginny began, topping their glasses off with the clear liquid. It smelled foul, harsh and chemical, but she didn’t complain. “What is it.”

It wasn’t really a question anymore. They often talked about the same thing. Percy wrinkled his lip, though whether it was at the ‘vodka’ or the memory, Ginny wasn’t sure.

He knocked it back with practised skill, coughed a little, and sighed. “He bought me dinner.”

Ginny closed her eyes. Of course he did. She could just about picture Oliver Wood’s face in her mind's eye. He was usually windswept, sweaty, bright red in the face, and grinning like a madman. She didn’t see him off the court often, considering they were so far apart in years, so that had always been the image that stuck with her. Passably handsome, but not her type.

She pressed the shot glass to her lips, braced herself, and tossed it back as quickly as she could. Percy was right. It did burn.

“God, that’s fucking awful.” She choked, but Percy, who had been staring unseeingly at the wall the whole time nodded solemnly.

“Isn’t it? I don’t know what to make of it. It feels important.”

Ginny swallowed against the urge to keep coughing and blinked at her brother through teary eyes.

He looked horrid. Pallid and gaunt, half-dead in his seat. He was working himself to the bone, trying to make up for all of the things that he did, the people he let down. Like the rest of them, he carried Fred’s weight on his shoulders, the feeling that he could have done something but didn’t just as heavy in his heart.

He wanted to believe that he was helping in whatever way he could, and if it took the very life from inside of him to do it, then that’s what he would give. It was a big part of the reason that Ginny was even bothering to drag herself around muggle transportation to visit him so often. Nobody else would.

He hadn’t been cut off, per se, but no one was going out of their way to see him. He visited home for Sunday dinner, just like the rest of them did. The only difference was that Ginny went out drinking with Ron often, and went to the muggle movies just a few weeks ago with George, and even travelled to Romania to spend the week with Charlie at the dragon centre. She babysat for Bill and Fleur every other week on Thursday.

And Percy sat in his flat, on his own, drinking and working. Unless he went out for food with Oliver Wood.

“Well, it doesn’t sound like ‘nothing’.”

That’s what Wood had called it last time Ginny had been over. The flirting, and the pining, and the endless drunken complaining. All nothing. Within a few days, Percy had gone from nervously pink, even managing a bit of a smile when Ginny got him drunk enough to admit how handsome he found Wood, to this. Grey, tired, monotone.

“Merlin.” Percy sighed. “I feel foolish every time. He hurt me, and I still leapt at the chance to go out with him again.” He held his shot up, and Ginny dutifully refilled it. “But I can’t quite tell him to bugger off either.”

“You need to be clearer, Perce. About what you want from him.”

He looked desolate. Ginny hated Oliver Wood.

She hadn’t always gotten on with Percy. She was more like the twins, fiery and angry and mischievous. Her accidental magic manifested as pranks so often that they’d called her the triplet. Percy had begged on his knees for a week before mum agreed to put a charm on his bedroom door that stopped Ginny from sneaking in to set his socks on fire, or make his duvet wrap him up and drag him down the stairs.

She’d thought he was a boring, stuck up, bastard of a brother. And then she’d thought him a foul coward.

Now, he was barely a smudge on the sofa of his new apartment, 20 minutes away from a muggle university campus, drinking disgusting ‘vodka’ and mourning his fragile, fractured relationship with Oliver fucking Wood.

Ginny had worshipped him once, the picture of the athlete she wanted to be. Now, in the burnt-out wreckage of the wizarding world, her priorities had shifted. She had learned to love her brother again, and she hurt to see him suffer like this.

“What if I don’t know what I want?”

“You have to figure it out eventually.”

“What if I decide I want nothing to do with him?” Percy asked, finishing another shot as Ginny prepared her own. “If I just make him stop tugging me around.”

“Is there much tugging going on?” Ginny asked, voice innocent as though she wasn’t hiding a smirk behind her shot. Percy went a little pink, lips pursed in distaste.

“Absolutely not. Not since… well.”

Ginny hummed in understanding. Percy had been utterly pissed when he divulged that particular piece of information.

They hadn’t gotten close quickly. It had started awkward and stilted. Percy wasn’t interested in fixing things in the family. He wanted to slip away unnoticed and forget any of it had ever happened, to ignore the wounds until they finally killed him. Ginny had been absolutely determined to make him remember, no matter how painful it had happened to be.

One of them had managed to convince the other that it would be easier if they were drunk, though Ginny couldn’t remember which of them it was, exactly. They’d barely been upright when Percy managed to slur out a small truth - Oliver Wood of all people had pressed him into castle walls and kissed him senseless in their sixth year. They’d been on and off, close and distant, ever since.

On a particularly low night, Percy had invited him over to spend the night. Things had gone cold for months after. Ginny listened patiently, stomach turning dangerously as she’d stared into her beer, the frightened, scarred words of her least favourite brother ringing painfully in her ears.

He’d kept it short, constantly cutting himself off. The more intimate it got, the more professionally he spoke. He described his relationship to Penelope Clearwater clinically, voice flat. I never loved her. I knew I never could.

Ginny thought of Harry. He was bigger than the world sometimes, too bright to look at. He had big ideals. He’d walked out of the war with this deep desire to change things, to protect the people who’d survived it all, to make the world better. He’d dropped out of Auror training to get a teaching degree. He’d run a couple of speeches through newspapers before deciding he hated the attention.

He was a mess, essentially, but a beautiful one. Nothing could slow him down. Meanwhile, Ginny was stumbling to keep up with him. She’d taken a year off her Quidditch training to mourn Fred. She spent long days cradling her mother’s tear-stained face, and burned through her clothes when she forgot she was ironing them. The world had slowed to a crawl. She couldn’t keep up.

She thought about how she admired Harry, in all his fierce determination to save the world. It had made her want to keep fighting for it. When the Carricks flicked a curse at her, she thought of him. If Harry could, she could.

“Well, what about you? Any- tugging?”

Percy made a face when he said it, like he was sucking on a lemon. Ginny laughed, knocking back another shot. It was still harsh, but the faint haze across her eyes softened it. Percy had been right - it worked quickly. She sighed.

“None. I haven’t the faintest of how to ask her.”

Percy huffed, leaning his shoulder into the back of the sofa. Ginny had thought about it a lot. Maybe she’d mistaken admiration for love. Maybe she’d mistaken friendship for something more. Maybe the quiet fascination at Luna’s stories, and the way the light filtered through her pale hair, and the little crease at the corner of her mouth when she smiled in satisfaction - one which didn’t appear when she smiled in excitement - maybe all of that wasn’t platonic observation.

So no, Ginny and Percy hadn’t gotten close quickly. But there was something about being the only gay siblings among 7 that helped the process along quite a bit.

“Buy her something. Something pretty.”

“She’s not very material, Perce.”

“For Merlin’s sake.” He hissed, flicking Ginny’s knee. “That isn’t the point. It’s not about the thing, it’s about the thought behind it.”

“Surely it’s more thoughtful of me to not buy something she won’t want? And besides, I don’t see you buying Wood anything.”

Percy sighed shortly, studying the empty shot glass in his hand with enough intensity to smash it to pieces. “I’m not spending money on that bastard.”

“He spent money on you.” Ginny pointed out, immediately receiving a nasty glare in response. After a moment, it faded.

“I suppose.”

“That’s your in. You can tell him you owe him a meal or something. Find a way to spend the day with him.”

Ginny didn’t have any trouble inviting Luna out for the day. She was happy to go wherever Ginny pleased, smiling all soft and pretty as she always did. She had a story to tell about every stone, every flower, every new face they passed. The problem lay with drawing the line between friendship and romance.

Percy was almost the opposite. It seemed that the only interactions he managed to have with Wood were flirty and charged. Actually getting to know each other was the only hurdle they had.

“Maybe. But I’m busy.”

“Percy.”

“I said maybe, didn’t I? Merlin.” He grabbed the vodka from Ginny’s hand, filling his glass quickly. “It’s so bloody difficult.”

“Welcome to homosexuality.” Ginny offered, ignoring the nervous flash of Percy’s eyes when she said it. She was working carefully on making him a little less afraid of words like that. His own insecurities were just as much of a hurdle as Wood’s apparent inability to commit to anything. Well, they were all recovering.

If Ginny was braver, and Luna less agreeable, and Percy more self-actualised, and Wood more confident, maybe they’d all be happy. But war did funny things to people.

Silently, Percy topped off Ginny’s shot and clinked their glasses together.

“Cheers to that.”

#fanfiction #harry potter #ginny weasley #percy weasley #percy x oliver #ginny x luna #family feels #alcohol #gay #post canon #post 2nd wizarding war

54 notes · View notes