Blamebrampton

And then there's a bit right at the end of the story as the wife and the husband are walking out of court:

Jill turned abruptly. "What is your name? Your real name."

The man's gray eyes flickered. He smiled a little, kind, gentle smile. "I'm afraid you would not be able to pronounce it. The sounds cannot be formed..."

Jill was silent as they walked along, deep in thought. The city lights were coming on all around them. Bright yellow spots in the gloom. "What are you thinking?" the man asked.

"I was thinking perhaps I will still call you Lester," Jill said. "If you don't mind."

"I don't mind," the man said. He put his arm around her, drawing her close to him. He gazed down tenderly as they walked through the thickening darkness, between the yellow candles of light that marked the way. "Anything you wish. Whatever will make you happy."

And I. God. There's something there. A soupcon of monsterfuckery. To tell your partner in a moment of intimacy that yes, you're something so inhuman that the lips you're stealing can't speak your actual name. You're a parasite that not only had the ability to burrow under this man's skin and take over his life, but you were so desperate to escape a dead, dry, blasted planet that you did.

Here it is again. You might want to save it just in case an accident like that happens again

Long Live Evil by Sarah Reese Brennan, page 254

(America never was America to me.)

Langston Hughes, jazz poet, playwright, social activist, leader of the Harlem Renaissance, was a major inspiration for Eric Mitchell, the Golden Cobra and wicked marquis formerly of New York. (And so was Lil Nas X, yes. The past isn’t dead, it’s not even past, and we do not know which songs will echo through the ages.)

‘I was unhappy for a long time, and very lonesome… Then it was that books began to happen to me,’ Langston Hughes said of his childhood, and I think we who love stories know what he means by ‘books began to happen to me.’

‘I am the young man, full of strength and hope, Tangled in that ancient endless chain Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land! Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need! Of work the men! Of take the pay! Of owning everything for one’s own greed! …

Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream In the Old World while still a serf of kings, Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true, That even yet its mighty daring sings …

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose— The steel of freedom does not stain. From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives, We must take back our land again.’

the poem is really worth reading.

🤨 wait a second… does this guy maybe have… 🤨 a crush? 🤨 on me?? Okay wait. Let me ask real quick. Because Great If True. Okay NEVERMIND NEVERMIND. READ THE ROOM WRONG. So silly of me!!

Lord Marius: what are you talking about?

Lord Zoltan: oh my gods is bisexuality real? Okay I also have a daughter.

Lord Marius: what, I cannot stress this enough, are you talking about?

Humble palace guard Key, in possession of supernatural hearing and pretty good understanding of sexual implications: … I do not Like this man who is trying to Sell his Children.

(For non-Irish folks: "lads" is a local unisex plural. Also: "skint" = "broke". )

(a little article about the pub is here)

Meanwhile, next time I'm up in town, Imma go over and have a glass of wine there (though it's a bit out of my normal stomping grounds) and thank them. 🙂

The Thomas House (on Google Maps)

And I’ve also been thinking about Rae in the hospital and a younger Eric alone on the roadside, both face to face with death, but still having to worry about medically bankrupting their families as they enter this fantastical world whose cruelty is still so similar to their own. Just with the addition of greed manifesting into flesh eating undead.

And now I’m thinking of said manifestations popping up back in their world, no magic needed, and how they would navigate those horrors without the knowledge of their fave novel. No cursed items or prophecies. Just whatever they can piece together from the fallout of years and years of unchecked corporate power that built a city in its image that was ultimately doomed from its conception.

cobra: I knoooow and that power imbalance is why it's now soooo unethical and entirely off the table for us to fuck 😔

The kid was picked up by an ambulance 30 minutes later.

Now as an adult working in security I get SO MANY folks- upper-middle aged mostly- coming to me to 'rat out' people they think are faking it.

I was once sent into a bathroom because a client demanded that the "fucker won't get out, so go drag them out"- I was NEVER going to do that, so I did a wellness check instead. You know who it was? A person recently released from the hospital after a car accident. They had a hole in their skull and major hearing loss. They couldn't answer the owner because they couldn't HEAR the owner.

Another time about a homeless man who got around town by kicking the ground from his wheelchair. "You know he doesn't actually need that thing, his legs work fine, it's just for pity points"- Oh, so he's not paralyzed, his wheelchair is performative? Funny story Dale, I actually know that guy, he was backed over by a truck and has chronic pain from his shattered pelvis. But sure, let's make him stand up and walk everywhere so nobody feels too bad for him and tries to help him or something.

"She doesn't need that scooter, I've seen her get out of it."

"Look how fat he is, because he just rides around and refuses to get up."

"She doesn't really need that cane- she comes here without it all the time"