I know the US government acts like a corporation but it’s not.
Not voting isn’t the same as a boycott. Because you can’t bankrupt a government by not voting. All you get by not voting is less control over what the money is doing.
The money comes from taxes, not voting. Abstaining from voting does nothing to reduce the governments ability to get money and spend it on shit.
So yes, sometimes you vote to reduce harm because not voting WILL NOT REDUCE HARM.
It’s not a boycot. Abstaining doesn’t take power from the government. It just reduces the number of people they feel answerable to.
you're not a person anymore, just a personification. you're a concept, an abstraction. all neatly defined boundaries and borders, none of the vagueries or blurring of lines or grey areas that come from being mortal.
you can never change, now. never grow or evolve, you are this, forever, stagnant. and the thing you've been made to embody might not even be your best trait.
This month is the one year anniversary of posting my poem “Condolences” to TikTok and Instagram, where it amassed millions of likes and tens of thousands of comments.
Since, people have used the poem for adaptive art pieces, short plays, books, and class work. For your piece of art to be transformed into another…it’s difficult to describe.
After several rejections from poetry publications a decade ago, I decided to post my work online instead. The responses were overwhelming. I realized that an official publication doesn’t make you a poet. Writing poetry does, and bonus points if you manage to resonate with just one other soul who needed to hear what you needed to say.
I was utterly taken aback by the response to this piece. People have asked me many times to explain it, but from the response it was clear that the meaning can be explicated with a little time.
Some people who didn’t understand it until it was explained were angry when it came together. It wasn’t written for them.
I’m only grateful that it reached the people who needed it.
I feel that the imagery is part of the piece, but I know not everyone can or cares to listen to a video. Here is the poem:
———————
They buried a girl in my hometown today.
“A young woman, gone too soon, in the prime of her life,” they all said.
My friends and I all knew her. We grew up together.
We were in all the same classes and hobbies and we made up games together at recess.
But none of us went to her funeral. We weren’t invited, because the people planning it didn’t think we’d understand. They said it wasn’t our loss.
So we got together for drinks. We laughed all morning and played card games all day.
At 4 o’clock, we heard the church bells. We saw that long, sad procession of cars stretch like a creek through town, up the cemetery hill.
We heard strange rumors that night, that the casket was empty. That they put it hollow in the ground.
So we went to the plot first thing in the morning. They buried her empty box next to her dad, down the row from an estranged aunt she never really knew all that well.
There wouldn’t be a stone for months, but the little placard had my name on it. But not the one I go by these days.
“How strange,” we all said. “What a waste of good crying.”
All of this mourning for me, and I was down the street the whole time, laughing and drinking.
But some people will never understand. They’d rather plan a funeral than learn a new name.
My friend said she felt sorry for them, in some small way.
i've read quite a few time loop fics and they are so good. but what about a fic about after a time loop?
this person, a veritable stranger, is looking at you like you hung the moon. they know things about you, things that they shouldn't. and you can't shake the feeling that something has changed since yesterday
“Your brother is adorable.” The cashier cooed at Danny, peering over the counter with a smile. “What’s his name?”
Danny looked down to the surly, scowling little de-aged Batman currently holding onto his hand, glaring up at the cashier with bright blue eyes.
Things had already been bad enough when he’d gotten caught in a fight in Gotham, but things went from bad to worse when a magician had hit Batman with a de-aging spell and then shoved them through a portal.
Into a different fucking dimension.
Because of course neither of their lives could be easy. And now the two of them were stuck in Iowa in the middle of nowhere, at a truck stop gas station, trying to go on a cross-country roadtrip to reach the nearest hero city and get home.
He looked up and smiled awkwardly, trying to come up with a name off the top of his head — one of the heroes called Batman ‘B’ when he got hit right? B for Batman, right. B… B… Bee… Bees.
“Buzz.” He said, and tried not to grimace as the cashier’s face warped with surprise. “Like the astronaut.”
Poor kids, oh no. Bruce has SO much trauma. And now he has a child's emotional processing abilities. This is NOT going to be a fun trip. Danny is getting a crash course in looking after traumatised children. He's doing his best.
Oh yeah no, this is gonna suuuuck for the both of them. But it’s gonna be great! It’s gonna be fine, it’s gonna- it’s gonna be a trash heap thats what it is. But hey it’s gonna be damn entertaining. For me. That is. Baby Bruce in his youth was already a surly depressed kid with just One Trauma but this Baby Bruce with his ten tiered wedding cake of trauma is gonna…
It’s gonna be interesting that’s for sure. Since he has his memories of being an adult he’s much more helpful than he would be if he didn’t, but he’s in a weak kid’s body with the emotional processing to match. It’s hard to stay serious all the time when he’s struggling to stay calm.
Like he is so frustrated man. And stressed. And just a teensy bit scared but that’s fine. It’s fine. It’s fiiiiineee. It’s not like he’s gotta figure out a way to get himself and this civilian teenager to safety all on his own as a kid. Yeah, everything will be fine in the middle of cornfed Iowa. Yep! Totally fine.
Luckily its the beginning of summer in this dimension and that the JLA exist here. So yay, there’s hope!
It's not like they have much cash on them either. Now, Danny will absolutely out himself as a meta of some kind by accident. Probably a measure of him being strong and quick to heal. Because, they look like homeless kids. Easy target. Danny would not let Bruce get hurt. So, Danny got hurt. Then healed up in a few hours. Bruce is observant. Stressed out of his mind. But paying attention.
Just imagining Bruce and Danny both doing their damndest to "parent" each other here (in Danny's case, more like "big sibling" like Jazz was for him, but same difference).
Danny because he's the bigger, more physically and emotionally mature one here. So he feels like it's his responsibility to look after Baby Bruce until he's back to his proper age and capable of looking after himself again.
Bruce because even though he is physically and neurologically a child right now, cognitively he knows he's the adult and therefore feels like it's his responsibility to see the young teen Danny back to the (presumed) safety of their home dimension.
Danny hates that he doesn't really know what he's doing. That he doesn't really know how to handle a traumatized child or how to safely get across country without much money. Without money because Danny didn't have any at all before he robbed that first mugger. Because he's a 15 year old homeless fugitive. And, oh Ancients, does this world have a GIW? If he uses his powers, will they track him down and take him away? Will they take Bruce too or leave him stranded in the middle of nowhere in the wrong world? Best not to use too much of his powers. Just in case. That's the more grown up thing to do, right?
Bruce hates that his little body doesn't have the training his grown one did. That he doesn't have the stamina or fighting skills or pain tolerance or emotional control that he did before. That Danny frequently has to slow down or stop to let him rest or tend to his random injuries or calm him down from a meltdown. And he especially hates when Danny gets hurt defending him because Bruce has no defensive training any more.
Just, both of them trying so so hard to be the grown up the other one needs. And both of them falling just short of being able to do that.
Absolutely. I'm focused real quick on Danny trying to act as a grownup with the money they got, so whenever they make a pitstop at one of the gas stations he's in the food aisle trying to ration stuff for them. Immediately he's ignoring all candy and is looking at more of the healthy stuff, even if he'd like something sweet himself. He bought them water bottles the first time and they've kept the plastic bottles on them since to refill whenever possible. Slim Jims and the jerky are some of his go-to's at gas stations.
The annoying part about all of this is the fact that they have to plan their route to where they're going. And how. Just so that there's somewhere for them to end up, lets say they agree to go to Metropolis. They landed up near northern Iowa first and they've managed to find clothes that somewhat fit for Bruce -- he and Danny swapped shoes because batman's boots are too big on bruce and only slightly fit Danny better, but bruce can't walk around barefoot especially once they reach the cities.
Fate gave them a mercy in that they were dropped off in a cornfield close to an empty house, so Danny was able to grab clothes for Bruce from there. Although the guilt is gonna eat Danny alive.
Huh. Y'know, I had just kinda assumed they were headed to Gotham to get help from this world's Batman (cause if there is a JL, surely there is a Batman).
But the fact that they are headed for Metropolis, presumably looking for Superman, I feel like that says something about Bruce's thoughts on himself. That he would trust alternate Clark to help him and Danny before he'd trust alternate him to do the same.
Yeah, I thought Gotham at first too but thought it’d be nice to shake things up a bit. My thought process too was arguably that, it’d probably be safer trying to get into contact with Superman (who has superhearing) and see if he can help them get into contact with the JLA (emergency meeting anyone?). They’ll probably still end up in Gotham because it’s a de-aged Batman, but going to Superman is arguably safer than going to Gotham as two semi-vulnerable kids.
Rest assured I do think they’ll for sure talk to this world’s Batman, but getting to Metropolis is their goal. And Clark is lowkey touched that Batman trusts him enough to ask for his help with this kinda thing.
Perhaps the biggest difference should be the lack of a Danny Fenton Phantom.
Either Danny was never born. And possibly without him the portal is never opened.
OR
Our Danny's grand destiny, to become the Balance and the Bridge and the Space Ancient and the King, meant that all other versions of him had to completely die and "move on" in the portal. Every echo, every potential, all collapsed into one being. There simply cannot be multiple versions of a being that powerful, that important.
From there, I see 2 options for what effect this could have on the world.
Either the portal doesn't open (or does but destabilizes and closes quickly after). In which case having inadvertently killed their son completely dissuades the Fentons from continuing their research. Without an open portal releasing ghosts into the world, the existence of the Realms is never proven. And the GIW, while still existent, are even more clueless and incompetent than the are in Danny's world. Their existence causes Danny stress and inner turmoil because he doesn't know how competent they are. But we know that they aren't actually a threat to them.
Or the portal does open. There are ghosts coming through. And without a Phantom to stop them, shit hits the fan fast. The Fentons blame the ghosts for killing their boy (willfully ignorant, total denial of the fact that it was their machine that started this). The crusade against ecto-entities is much more vicious; it spreads further, faster; everyone everywhere speed running the process to create the best anti-ghost tech. Ghost hunters of this world are terrifyingly competent. And even the Justice League, perhaps recently formed specifically to fend off these inter-dimensional invaders, are heavily biased against and have been equipped to detect and fight these Realms Ghosts.
My brother and I have this thing where sometimes we forget that we live with our parents and we’ll say “my lawyer has advised me not to finish this joke/anecdote” to stop from saying something untoward in front of them and the other day we were talking about sandwiches and fluffernutters came up and I started to say “fluffernutter? I don’t even know her!” But my dad leaned over and goes your lawyer is advising you not to finish this joke at the dinner table” and it was really funny
Jazz had gained an interest in investigating true crime. Her interest led her to create podcasts on different cases she had researched. Sometimes, Danny, Sam, or Tucker would join her, acting as her co-host while she recorded that weeks story. After a while, Jazz had gained a decent following.
Then the message came.
Jazz was outside her home, a tiny townhouse she was renting, returning from the library when her phone pinged. She fished the device from her pocket and looked at the screen.
Stop.
It was a message from one of her followers, who went by the username Oracle_Speaks. They had built a bit of a rapport with Jazz - discussing old case files and theoriesing on unsolved crimes. Sometimes, Oracle would help decipher case notes.
Jazz frowned at the weird message, her forehead scrunched in puzzlement. She lifted a foot over the first step to the door and removed her hand from her backpack's shoulded strap to place it on the railing.
Her phone ping again.
Go back
Maybe Oracle was sending her these messages by mistake. It was the only logical reason Jazz could come up with. Maybe Oracle was playing an online game, and their party was getting too far ahead without them. Jazz wouldn't know for sure unless she asked.
She pulled up her keyboard. Her fingers ready to type out a response when another message popped up.
DONT ENTER YOUR HOUSE
A chill ran down Jazz spine, causing her the hair on her arms and the back of her neck to rise. How did Oracle know she was outside her front door. Jazz chanced a glanced around the empty road.
This had to be a fluke right. A strange coincidence.
Jazz didn't know why she suddenly looked up, but she did. One of the blinds in the upstairs window moved. Not in a way that a breeze had caught it but as if someone had been peering through them and quickly retreated.
Nope. Nope. Jazz had gone through to many missing person, human trafficing, murder, and serial killer cases to linger here any longer.
She turned around and walked away, intending to head to the nearest busy area or police station. On her phone, she pulled up Danny's number when Oracle sent another message.
His current plan is to boost Florida’s economy by investing in city infrastructure and green energy, to give back to the middle class that, he believes, kept Florida running, and wishes to further protect from climate change by investing in both state wide and country wide green policies. Russell also wishes to dismantle discrimination in his state and country, protect families and workers through affordable housing and wages, to address gun reform and the use the new bipartisan background check act, and, finally, wishes to institute reproductive rights for all and focus on women’s issues in the state.
"Somebody needs to do something about Sephora 10-year-olds...these i-pad babies are so rude and don't do what they're told....oh my God, these kids can't read and have no social skills...Ugh, look at these little consumers and their Stanley Cups."
I am, in fact, actively worried for these children and I refuse to hate them for the ways that society, as a whole, has failed them.
![minicomic drawn in dreary blue hues. page 1, panel 1: an article on a computer screen reads "[COMPANY] LAYS OFF 30% OF EMPLOYEES." the subheading under the title adds, "Hundreds scramble to pay the bills." panel 2: portrait of eunnie, an exhausted girl with glasses and shoulder-length hair. she stares at the news, leaning her head in a hand. panel 3: she sits back with the same dismal expression, typing something on her keyboard.](https://64.media.tumblr.com/46643d4466a2228ecf8c4b4447c03933/18dc74b82e2db0db-50/s1280x1920/bc4fd1ea03d54546a3798cdc783c209721fa67e6.png)
![page 2, panel 1: eunnie's search query reads "[COMPANY] ceo salary." the result below reads "$30 million a year," followed by a quote that declares, "The industry has never been more profitable!" to the right is a photo of the ceo - a nondescript man in a suit wearing a sleazy grin. panel 2: eunnie sits at her computer, face blank. panel 3: everything turns red, an abrupt zoom-in blurring eunnie's portrait as she blasts lasers from her eyes.](https://64.media.tumblr.com/571b98383a785c2490a6ff059c1281f8/18dc74b82e2db0db-45/s1280x1920/6aa74d62b086b5ce08a70961282d0bc1992605b2.png)
