i feel like the idea of conspiracy theories gets a bad rap, bc many of them have a right wing flare about them. but, like, if you want to be very technical about it, a surprise birthday party is a conspiracy lol. personally I don’t think it’s crazy or unfair to say “people in power don’t always have holistic motivations”

Imagine you're the CIA and you want to keep people from looking into your project. It's easiest to preemptively discredit the theories and the people who believe them by twisting the truth to something that sounds absurd and promoting that.

Chemtrails? Fluoride in the water for mind control? Some Q bit about pedo cabals and pizza restaurants? If someone starts talking to you about any of those subjects, your immediate response is to laugh nervously, run away, and then post about the weirdo on the internet later. (And you're not unjustified for doing so — Q people especially scare the shit out of me.)

But the thing is, there are elements of truth to each of them. In the 1950s, the US Army intentionally dispersed irradiated zinc cadmium sulfide over low income and predominantly-Black neighborhoods in St. Louis as part of a Cold War weapons test. MK ULTRA is a real, known CIA project intended for mind control. It is an open secret that many of the international bourgeoisie have close contacts with child sex traffickers and high-profile pedos; look at all of Jeffery Epstein's contacts.

'Tis the Damn Season // a regency au

chapter 2/11: On the Road to Ruin

There was a buzz of excitement in the room that Annabeth herself could not quite believe— even she was surprised to realize how much she was looking forward to entertaining the callers. Perhaps they would all be putting on airs in an attempt to win her favor, but the promise of stimulating conversation was too appealing to turn down.

The Sweetest Sounds 

Cinderella AU | 30k | chapter 1/7

“You’re not from around here, are you?” Annabeth asked, looking up at him. He looked back at her innocently. It seemed genuine, which only confirmed Annabeth’s suspicions.

“Why do you say that?” he asked. His eyes were really a distracting shade of green.

“Most people from here know better than to show me kindness,” Annabeth said, beginning to walk down the road again. He started walking again too.

“I think everyone deserves kindness,” he said, easily. A little too easily.

“Well forgive me for saying so, but that’s a very naive way of viewing things,” Annabeth said, quickening her pace. He matched it easily.

“Do you not think you deserve kindness?” he asked.

“It’s more complicated than that,” Annabeth insisted. “Not that you would understand.”

Merry Chrysler: Chapter 6

Arrives over a year late with starbucks....here you go anon, I hope you are still around in the fandom to read it! and that it was worth the wait.

“No.”

Reyna’s body moved away from Percy, confusion and anger clear on her face. If Reyna was anything like Annabeth, she definitely didn’t like when people didn’t do what she expected them to. “Excuse me?”

“No offense Reyna,” Percy said, judging by Reyna's body language she was in fact offended. “But not only have I not seen Annabeth in six months, but I also have no idea what the fuck has been going on with my family and friends.”

“Well, I’m sure your girlfriend can update you after I’m done talking to her.” Reyna’s eyes were hard, challenging her in front of her camp was probably not Percy’s brightest idea, but Annabeth couldn’t say she didn’t agree with him.

“Well, Annabeth is not only my girlfriend but also my best friend, and right now she's the only person who can fill me in on the months since I was kidnaped by Hera. So if you'll excuse me, we're going to go for a walk so she can tell me how my mother is doing.” Percy started standing up. “After everything that I have gone through lately I think I deserve at least that.”

Reyna’s eyes were murderous, and while Percy flinched at her stare he didn’t back down, and if Annabeth was being honest in that moment she didn’t care much about being diplomatic and accepting Reyna’s offer. She hadn’t seen her boyfriend in six months, the one thing she wanted to do right now was to be alone with Percy and kiss him senseless, not going for a walk with a practical stranger. Sure, Reyna was in charge of the Roman demigods, but Annabeth’s current priority was Percy; she and Reyna could talk politics later.

Percy turned, the bravado he had shown seconds ago was gone, instead, he looked at Annabeth with some panic on his face and quickly gestured for them to leave the forum, probably before Reyna’s shock ended and she started yelling at him.

“Reyna looked pissed,” Annabeth said once they were outside the forum and had started to walk towards the hills that she assumed were where the city was located.

“Oh believe me, she's super pissed.” Percy squeezed her hand. “She's probably cursed me a hundred times already and is thinking up ways to kill me in a political way.”

His tone was joking but Annabeth knew him and she could see he was tense and she didn’t know why. It wasn’t because of his exchange with Reyna, she had first noticed the way his shoulders had been rigid and his jaw was clenched during lunch. He was good at hiding it, and Annabeth wouldn’t have noticed if she hadn’t been studying him so intently. He didn’t say more, he just held her hand and kept walking, face full of determination. If it hadn't been for his hand firmly intertwined with hers, and the soft way his thumb caressed her skin, she would have been filled with anxiety.

Annabeth could start to see what she assumed was New Rome. Colorful houses and buildings in what looked like a mix of Italian and Ancient Rome architecture. Under different circumstances she would have felt anticipation run in her veins, the idea of studying those beautiful buildings would have made her fingers itch with the need to sketch. But right now all that mattered to her was to be with Percy. With every step the buildings were taking form, she could appreciate their beauty and it was making up for the fact she had felt unwelcome in this camp filled with Romans. The Triumphal arch welcoming them into the city was getting closer when Percy changed their direction, instead leading her towards the forest on the outskirts of the city.

just remember: you asked for this

This is stupid. It’s one date - that he doesn’t even want to go on, not really, because it means he has to have this conversation. It’s one date, he tells himself. Funny, he thinks, that he’s not reminding himself that it’s also just one hookup that he’s missing out on.

The phone rings and rings and rings.

He’s about to hang up when he finally hears Sokka’s voice say, “Hey, Zuko.”

“Hi,” Zuko says. Something loud and high-pitched echoes down the line. Hard to tell if it’s laughter or screaming. “Do you have company? I’m not interrupting, am I?”

“No, you’re fine,” Sokka assures him. “It’s just Katara and Aang over to see Momo. Suki says hi, by the way.”

Zuko feels heat rise in his cheeks. “Hi, Suki.”

“I’ll tell her,” Sokka says. “What’s up?”

There’s a smile in his voice, and Zuko can picture it as clear as day. His stomach twists itself into a knot, and he tries hard not to let the feeling of it bleed into his voice as he says, “Do you have a minute to - to talk? I don’t want to drag you away from your night.”

Sokka’s smile is replaced with concern. “Is everything okay? Do you need me to -”

“No, it’s alright,” Zuko says, even though it’s not, because the ache he feels at the sound of Sokka’s worry is stronger than anything he feels at the prospect of this date. “It’s just - I can’t come over tomorrow.”

“Oh,” Sokka says. “How come?”

“I have, um -” Bite the bullet, Zuko. “I have a date?”

He feels like he can breathe again now, though he’s not sure when he stopped.

“A date?” Sokka asks. He doesn’t sound nearly as fazed as Zuko wishes he would. “Who’s the lucky guy?”

“It’s, um, some guy Ty Lee knows.” It’s a struggle to recall the few details she gave him this afternoon. “His name’s Jet, I think. He’s some kind of activist. I don’t know, Ty Lee wouldn’t give me much to go on so I’m basically going in blind.”

“So what’s the - the plan, or whatever?” Sokka asks. There’s a peculiar strain to his voice, like he’s in pain or exerting himself. “What are you doing?”

“It’s a double date,” Zuko explains, and thank the stars above that it is. Blind dates don’t usually go well for him; most guys see the scar and run the other way. “Ty Lee and Mai, me and - and Jet. Ty Lee got the four of us a table at that fancy new place downtown. I don’t know what it’s called. The one with the chandeliers and the big sign in cursive.”

“I know the one,” Sokka says, and he sounds fond. Indulgent. Zuko wants to drown in that voice, the same one Sokka uses when Zuko makes a bad joke, when they’re watching TV and he picks something he knows Zuko likes, when there’s only one slice of pizza left.

Silence stretches down the line between them, until Zuko asks a question he’s not sure he even wants answered.

“It’s okay, right?”

Sokka doesn’t say anything for a moment, and the knot in Zuko’s stomach tightens, squeezes until he feels like he’s suffocating. Then, Sokka says, “What do you mean?”

“I mean -” Zuko sighs. This is harder than it should be, and he knows there’s only one person to blame for that. He grits his teeth and asks, finally, “I mean, you don’t mind, right? If I go?”

There’s a right answer to this question. There shouldn’t be, but there is.

He knows this isn’t fair of him. He shouldn’t ask it like this, he shouldn’t put Sokka under pressure like this - he shouldn’t feel like this, either, desperate and hopeful and tragic, but he does. He does.

He feels desperate and hopeful and tragic, so he’s saying to Sokka, do you mind, except that’s not the truth of it, that’s not the whole of it. 

He’s saying to Sokka, tell me you mind. Tell me you don’t want anyone else to have me. Tell me I’m yours.

Tell me I’m yours. Tell me I’m yours. Tell me I’m yours.

“Why would I mind?”

Something in Zuko shatters.

“No reason,” he says, because isn’t that the truth? Sokka has no reason to mind if he goes out with someone else. That’s not what they are to each other, and he was a damn fool to think otherwise.

“Listen,” he says, “I have to go.”

“Oh,” Sokka says, and has the nerve to sound disappointed. “I - okay.”

“I just wanted to, um, let you know what’s going on,” Zuko says. Keeping his voice level is a herculean feat. “I didn’t want you to think I was standing you up.”

(I wanted you to give me a reason not to.)

“There’s a dirty joke in there somewhere,” Sokka muses. “I just can’t find it.”

In spite of everything, in spite of himself, Zuko smiles. He’s ruined.

“Stop looking,” he says. “I’ll see you, Sokka.”

He’s got his thumb hovering over end call, when Sokka says, “Hey, Zuko, wait.”

Zuko’s lungs open up and his heart leaps into his throat. “Yeah?”

“Call me after. I want to hear all about it.”

That’s - it’s not what he wants, but it’s something. It’s the suggestion that this isn’t the end of them, that he’ll get to hear Sokka’s voice again, maybe even his laughter, if he’s lucky.

“I - yeah, okay,” he says. “That’s - that’s all, I guess. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Enjoy your night, say hi to Momo for me.”

He hangs up before he has to hear Sokka say goodbye.

B99 + Olympics AU: in which Amy finds herself hoping that what happens in the Olympic Village doesn’t stay in the Olympic Village. 

They first meet at the opening ceremony at Sochi, when Jake literally bumps into her. (“Charles! Take my picture with it!” He’d been yelling, before colliding into her back and nearly sending them crashing onto the arena floor. Amy just waved off his flustered apology with a laugh. “First Olympic Games? Mine too.”) They get separated in the crowd before they’re able to properly introduce themselves, but their little exchange keeps her warm throughout the freezing night. 

She’d probably deny it if anyone asked, but they next meet again thanks to Tinder. (“You two just need to bone,” declared her new friend, a figure skater. Amy wasn’t sure she agreed with that logic, but she did download a couple dating apps on the off chance she’d be able to swipe right on him.) They chat for a bit then decide to take a walk around the Village; they’d be eating their weight in free McDonald’s if it weren’t for their upcoming events. Talking to Jake is light and breezy, but it’s also so much more than that, like they’ve known each for decades or for an eternity’s worth of past lives.

They cheer each other on, not just at Sochi but also in Amsterdam and in Oslo and wherever else they’re competing. For months, the support only comes in texts and calls and video chats. (“Is everything okay?” She whispered into her phone after one particular competition of his, knowing full well what it’s like to just narrowly miss the podium. “Everything’s fine,” Jake replied, voice low and even. “I’m talking to you.”) He surprises her by flying in for her last tournament of the season and claps the loudest when she’s awarded a gold medal. It’s silly, but she’s not sure whether she’s happiest about breaking a national record or about finally finding out what it’s like to kiss her favorite speed skater.