For @littlestartopaz, with the prompt “Your technomancer has a nightmare about the
electric-user and decides checking on her is the best way to calm down. But the
electric user wakes up before she can leave.”
All right kids
quick rundown of the shit you need to know (because these are characters from
one of the as-yet-untitled novels I’m writing, not fandom-access
characters). It’s set in a near future
where…basically Trump wins the presidency and sets himself up as a
dictator. We’re about 18 years down the
line from the guy (Stone) getting elected and shit’s gone to hell in a pretty
big way. People are getting deported,
people are reporting their neighbors to the police, whole families are vanishing
overnight. If you’re LGBT, non-white,
non-Christian, an immigrant, or an outspoken supporter of any of those things,
you’re in deep shit and a candidate for being disappeared. The novel revolves around Max, who is part of
a rebel organization called Polaris (largely made up of the people listed
above) and who is one of a few people who’ve started to pop up with superhuman
abilities. The existence of these
people—she calls them ‘blues’ and since she was the first one Polaris found,
they go with it—is pretty much an urban legend, largely because the government
has that shit on lock. Max’s ability
allows her to manipulate technology with her mind and make it do…basically
whatever she wants. Her (eventual)
girlfriend Lessa Stone is the daughter of the Trump-equivalent dictator, who
broke Max out of a holding cell and joined Polaris. Lessa, besides being gay as FUCK, is also a
blue, with the ability to generate a massive electrical current in her body and
project it as lightning bolts. So
basically I’m writing a novel that can be summarized as “girlfriends with
superpowers join a cast of LGBT people and PoC to smash the patriarchy.” This snippet takes place sometime between
Lessa joining Polaris and the two of them getting together properly (Lessa has
Some Issues to sort out regarding her sexuality, shockingly).
I shuddered awake, panting. The room was black around me, nothing to
reorient myself, and my hands shook as I reached out and fumbled with the lamp
on the floor next to my cot until the bulb flared to life.
Anonymous asked: Sis I need you to spread some of your wisdom and write another "you have to vote for Hillary/dem nominee" truth post because fuck am I worried. Like before the hate on here for HRC was bad but now it's like too far gone and I can't survive a Trump presidency. George Bush was meant to be the "compassionate conservative" and look what he did.
okay my boss made a pot of coffee for the office and i drank that pot of coffee plus some espresso so i’m in exactly the right place to write this post.
hillary clinton is the democratic party’s nominee for president! donald trump is the republican party’s nominee for president! soon they will choose vice presidents! the general election Has Begun! we have exactly 152 more days of hell to live through and every moment of that hell is gonna be GREAT
your options are:
vote for trump
vote for clinton
vote for a third party candidate (jill stein, gary johnson, etc.)
it’s generally understood that no third party candidate has a legitimate chance of winning. wikipedia has a helpful list of high-profile third party candidates over the past 184 years of american history; they do not win elections unless america is divided enough that, say, half of it secedes. america is very polarized right now, but the level of civil violence we’ve been experiencing recently doesn’t point to a secessionary atmosphere. i wouldn’t be surprised if both stein and johnson got higher vote counts than normal this year, but neither will get actual electoral votes.
so a vote for a third-party candidate only makes sense as an act of protest, and stein and johnson will definitely get plenty of those protest votes.
ithe usual reason for protest votes from leftists is that the democratic party and the gop are too alike; people tend to say that “hillary is just as bad as the gop, so it doesn’t really matter which one of them gets into power, they’re all the same anyway.”
i disagree. here are the reasons why i disagree:
donald trump would like to deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants in the united states and build a wall along the american-mexican border. hillary clinton does not plan to deport these immigrants, and wants to give “dreamers” a path to united states citizenship.
donald trump plans to create specific legal hurdles to muslim people immigrating to the united states. hillary clinton does not plan to do this.
donald trump wants to expand concealed-carry permits. hillary clinton wants to increase background checks, ban assault weapons, and have the cdc study gun violence more.
donald trump does not support same-sex marriage, and thinks transgender bathroom laws should be left to individual states. hillary clinton supports same-sex marriage, and wants all transgender people to be able to use the bathroom corresponding to their gender.
donald trump thinks abortion laws should be left to individual states, and plans to put anti-abortion justices on the supreme court. hillary clinton supports abortion’s legality.
donald trump denies the existence of climate change, and plans to exit the paris agreement. hillary clinton acknowledges the existence of climate change, and plans to stay in the paris agreement.
donald trump supports offshore drilling and the keystone xl pipeline. hillary clinton does not support offshore drilling, and thinks keystone xl construction should not continue.
donald trump does not think the minimum wage should be raised. hillary clinton wants to raise the minimum wage.
donald trump wants to end obamacare. hillary clinton wants to continue obamacare and expand medicaid.
donald trump wants to privatize prisons. hillary clinton wants to limit use of the death penalty and allow felons to vote.
donald trump does not think police should wear body cameras. hillary clinton thinks they should.
were this any other election, this post would end here. unfortunately, donald trump’s disqualifications go above and beyond his conservative views.
he has threatened reporters, protesters, and others who disagree with him with legal reprisals only because they disagree with him.
he has encouraged violence against protesters at his rallies.
his candidacy has resulted in demonstrable and proved rises in anti-mexican and anti-muslim sentiment and violence, especially bullying of schoolchildren.
his platform operates on the basic assumption that legal discrimination against certain minority groups– specifically mexicans and muslims– would improve america’s economy and society.
he would need far more power than the presidential office currently has in order to implement his racist, islamophobic policies. it is unlikely that he would hesitate in doing his best to seize this power.
it’s understandable to me that far-leftists dislike voting for a candidate with more moderate views than theirs. and, again, were this any other election, i would sympathize to some extent with a protest vote against clinton.
however, donald trump is a fascist.
i do not say “fascist” as a more exaggerated way of saying “bad person”. it is a specific term with a specific definition. ted cruz is not a fascist. marco rubio is not a fascist. ronald reagan was not a fascist.
donald trump is an authoritarian, rising to power on a wave of racism, bigotry, fear, and hate. he has deliberately created a cult of personality around himself and his name. he encourages his followers to use violence against his enemies, and intends to level police violence against his political enemies and certain minority groups.
i am a jew.
i want to make it clear: i am not personally afraid of donald trump. while many of his followers, like david duke, are virulently antisemitic, his platforms do not focus on my people as america’s enemies. i will be affected by his homophobia and his sexism, but not by his anti-mexican or anti-muslim sentiment.
but while i am not personally threatened, i am personally involved. there is a fascist running for president of my country; i am a jew. this fight is my fight. this man is my responsibility. no fascist will ever come to power again.
historically speaking, the far left’s choices in these fights are crucial. whether they choose to focus their attentions on moderate leftist democrats or on far-right fascists determines which of these groups will be defeated and which will be able to rise to power.
i genuinely like hillary clinton; her policies aren’t radical or revolutionary, but many of them are steps in positive directions for america. she’s practical, experienced, and intelligent. she isn’t a charismatic preacher; i’m fine with that. eight years of government by someone who ran as a charismatic preacher have made me a little more jaded, a little more aware of the importance of effectiveness over inspiration. i encourage people to like her as a candidate for her own sake.
if you don’t like her as a candidate, that’s all right. i don’t need you to.
i do need you to be aware of the consequences of allowing trump to come to power. i do need you to be aware of the promise the entire western world made my people seventy years ago. i do need you to understand your personal responsibility in fulfilling that promise.
that’s why i think you should vote for hillary clinton in november.
This is must-reading for everyone planning on voting in November.
I write. I swear to God. I actually love writing fanfic. BUT, and here’s the catch, I have a ton of trouble coming up with short fic ideas. Short anything ideas, really. The most memorable example is that one time I decided to write how I thought someone being able to see the future would pan out, just a few pages of character study, dicking around with super powers, nothing fancy. Smash cut to a year and a half later, I’m wrapping up my 350 page novel and staring dismally at my 200 additional pages of worldbuilding. And it’s always like that, it gets so out of hand.
SO. My solution to that is this. If you have a craving for a specific pairing that you know I ship, shoot me a prompt and I’ll throw together a short fic for you and post it. I’m trying to unwind after finals, so it’ll be good for me, and you’ll get fic, so it’ll be good for you.
Hit me up.
This is your reminder that I’m bored and open for prompts.
This is your reminder that Science! involves a lot of sitting around and waiting for the PCR machine to be done cycling, so prompts would be appreciated.
one of the most annoying things is making OCs cause like, i’ll develop their character and design but slowly they become their own thing entirely and i’m just holding the scraps of who they were supposed to be and instead they’re basically running away naked across a field while flipping me the bird
I wonder if, in superhero universes, the villains ever get contacted by those “Make a Wish Foundation” and similar people.
I mean, the heroes do, of course they do, kids who want to meet Spiderman or Superman or get to be carried by the Flash as he runs through Central City for just thirty seconds.
But surely there are also the kids, who - because they are kids and sometimes kids are just weird - decide that what they really, really want is to meet a supervillain. Because he’s scary or she’s awesome or that freeze ray is just really, really cool, you know?
Oh, man, that would absolutely be a thing. The heroes would be so weirded out by it. The villains with codes of ethics would totally band together to force the villains without one (should they be the one requested) to do their part for the cause.
But imagine the person who has to track down the villains and organise everything?
Like, the first time it happens, no one actually thinks it’s possible, but one of the newbies volunteers to at least try. They get lucky, the kid wants to meet one of the villains who is well known to have a personal code of ethics (eg one of the rogues), and it takes them weeks to track the villain down to this one bar they’ve been seen at a few times, plus a week of staking out said bar, but they finally find them.
So they approach the villain, very politely introduce themselves and explain the situation, finishing with an assurance that, should the villain agree, no law enforcement or heroes will be informed of the meeting.
The villain, assuming it’s a joke, laughs in their face.
At this point, the poor volunteer, who has giving up weeks of their time and no small amount of effort to track down this villain, all so a sweet little girl can meet the person who somehow inspired them, well, at this point the employee sees red.
They explode, yelling at this villain about the little girl who, for some unknown reason, absolutely loved them, had a hand-made stuffed toy of them and was inspired by their struggle to keeping fighting her own and wasn’t the villain supposed to have ethics? The entire bar is witness to this big bad villain getting scolded by some bookish nobody a foot shorter than them.
When the volunteer is done, the villain calmly knocks back their drink, grips the volunteers shoulder and drags them outside. The bar’s patrons assume that person will never be seen again, the volunteer included. But once they’re outside, the villain apologises for their assumption, asks for the kid’s details so they can drop by in the near future, not saying when for obvious reasons. They also give the very relieved volunteer a phone number to call if someone asks for them again.
A week later, the little girl’s room is covered in villain merchandise, several expensive and clearly stolen gifts and she is happily clutching a stack of signed polaroids of her and the villain.
The next time a kid asks to meet a villain, guess who gets that assignment?
Turns out, the first villain was quite touched by the experience of meeting their little fan, and word has gotten around. The second villain happily agrees when they realise it’s the same volunteer who asked the other guy. Unfortunately, one of the heroes sees the villain entering the kid’s hospital and obviously assumes the worst. They rush in, ready to drag the villain out, but the volunteer stands in their way. The hero spends five minutes getting scolded for trying to stop the villain from actually doing a good thing and almost ruining the kid’s wish. The volunteer gets a reputation among villains as someone who can not only be trusted with personal contact numbers but who will do everything they can to keep law enforcement away during their visits.
The volunteer has a phonebook written in cypher of all the villain’s phone numbers, with asterixes next to the ones to call if any other villains give them trouble.
Around the office, they gain the unofficial job title of The Villain Wrangler.
The heroes are genuinely flabbergasted by The Villain Wrangler. At first, some of the heroes try to reason with them.
Heroes: “Can’t you, just, give us their contact details? They’ll never even have to know it was you.”
The Villain Wrangler: “Yeah sure, <rollseyes> because all these evil geniuses could never possibly figure out that it’s me who happens to be the common thread in the sudden mass arrests. Look man, even if it wouldn’t get me killed, it would disappoint the kids. You wouldn’t want to disappoint the kids would you?”
Heroes: “… no~ but…”
The Villain Wrangler: “Exactly.”
Eventually, one of the anti-hero types gets frustrated, and decides to take a stand. They kidnap the Villain Wrangler and demand that they give up the contents of the little black book of Villains, or suffer the consequences. It’s For the Greater Good, the anti-hero insists as they tie the Villain Wrangler to a pillar.
The Villain Wrangler: “You complete idiot, put me back before someone figures out that I’m missing.”
Anti-hero: “…excuse me?”
The Villain Wrangler: “Ugh, do I have to spell this out for you? Do you actually want your secret base to be wiped off the map? With us in it? Sugarsticks, how long has it been? If they get suspicious, they check in, and then if I miss a check-in, they tend to come barging into wherever I am just to prove that they can, even if they figure out that they’re not being threatened by proxy. Suffice to say, Auntie Muriel really regretted throwing my phone into the pool when she strenuously objected to me answering it during family time. If they think for even one moment that I’ve given them up, they won’t hesitate to obliterate both of us from their potential misery. You do know some of the people in my book have like missiles and djinni and elemental forces at their disposal, right?”
Anti-hero: “Wait, what? I thought they trusted you?!”
The Villain Wrangler: “Trust is such a strong word!”
Villain: “Indeed.”
Anti-hero: “Wait, wha-” <slumps over, dart sticking out of neck>
The Villain Wrangler: “Thanks. I thought they were going to hurt me.”
Villain: “You did well. You kept them distracted, and gave us time to follow your signal.” <cuts Villain Wrangler free>
The Villain Wrangler: <rubbing circulation back into limbs> “Yeah well, you know me, I do whatever I have to. So I’ll see you Wednesday at four at St Martha’s? I’ve got an 8yo burns unit patient recovering from her latest batch of skin grafts who could really use a pep talk.”
Villain: “… of course. Yes… I… yes.”
The Villain Wrangler: “I just think you could really reach her, you know?”
Villain: <unconsciously runs fingers over mask> “I… yes, but, what should I say?”
The Villain Wrangler: “Whatever advice you think you could have used the most just after.”
Villain: <hoists Anti-hero over shoulder almost absently> “….yes.”
The Villain Wrangler wasn’t lying to the Anti-hero. They know that the more ruthless villains would not hesitate if they thought for one second that the Anti-hero would betray them.
But this is not the first time the Villain Wrangler has gone to extreme lengths to protect their identities.
Trust is a strong word. The Villain Wrangler earned it, and is terrified by what it could mean.
