Who is to rule?

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1.) I don’t understand how that can be

2.) But I’ve never done fieldwork from a car before (!!!) so I’ll take your word for it.

“Heeeey”, she said, like someone gently broaching a topic I should have noticed, “Why does the lane next to us have diamond shaped symbols on it?”

That is! A subtle and friendly way of asking why we’re sitting in traffic when there’s a carpool lane Right There! I laughed and pulled into the lane and started driving.

Unfortunately. That isn’t what she was implying, she was genuinely asking. So we were stuck in traffic, she asked about what was clearly a breakdown or emergency access lane, and I laughed and started driving in it. She was Alarmed.

“Hello! Excuse me! We can’t drive in this lane! No one else is driving in this lane!!”

“Oh! I should have said — this lane is for people with more than one person in their car.”

“That is RIDICULOUS. You are lying. You are lying about what this lane is for and we’ll get arrested! (ma’am it’s fine but if it weren’t it would be more of a “ticket” situation) we’ll get a “ticket”! (Ma’am again it’s fine but were it not I alone would get the ticket) because that IS NOT the purpose of this lane. That is a RIDICULOUS lie.”

“I’m sorry, I should have said — I thought you were being subtle about my oversight. Please observe the carpool sign.”

“I don’t know what a carpool is and I don’t believe you.”

“How about you look at all the cars stuck in traffic and see how many have more than one driver, and if there are at least five I’ll get back into the traffic jam.”

“FINE!”

<a pause>

(With dawning horror) “none of these cars have more than one person in them.”

“I know.”

“None of these cars have more than one person!!”

“If you weren’t here I’d be right there with them.”

“OK but there was no train to where we needed to go.”

“There’s no train to where they needed to go either.”

“I know McDonalds and Burger King sell Burgers, but what does Wendy’s sell?”

“Burgers”

“And Sonic?”

“Burgers.”

“Jack in the Box?”

“Burgers.”

“In’n’Out?”

I really haven’t had to pretend to have a gun that many times!

We were staying in a cheap hotel, she was coming out of the shower wrapped in a towel. Someone shoulder-slammed the hotel door and popped the lock open and started fumbling with the security chain. I snarled “GET AWAY FROM THE DOOR, I HAVE A GUN.” and the person left.

She was WAY way WAY more concerned about me traveling with a gun (ma’am I do not have a gun) why would I SAY I had a gun if I couldn’t back it up? (Ma’am to get him to stop trying to break in) But why would he THINK I had a gun? How would that even work? Please tell her where I keep the gun. (Ma’am I promise there is no gun.)

The debate continued through my call to the front desk and our packing and being protectively escorted to our car by a young man who I could absolutely take in a fight. (“What is she mad about?” “I told the guy I had a gun.” “Smart! Maybe you should get one if you’re gonna travel like this!” “Haha yeah” “So why is she mad?” “She thinks I have a gun.” “WHY WOULD SHE LIE ABOUT HAVING A GUN?!?!”)

had to pretend to have a

gun that many times!

in the midst of the blackfyre rebellion, maekar and baelor targaryen have a quick conversation in their tent.

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Maybe because it’s quite common for male protagonist to meet a character in which they see a younger version of themselves, a version who is a bit more naive but is also the one keeping intact all theirs hopes and dreams for a bright future, but it’s rare for this character to be a young woman, and in Black Sails it happens with Flint not once but twice, and with two women who are radically different from each others and in a complete different posorion in society and in term of things they fight for. (And, dare I’d say, different from Flint in terms of both ideological ground, positions in society and reasons why they are fighting- James Flint’s switch from seeing a mirror of himself in Eleanor to Madi through season 2-4 is supposed to represent Flint’s progressive radicalization against colonialism and his growing political and social awareness of its problems, sure, but it doesn’t change the fact that Flint’s main dream remains always to make Nassau a new republic of pirates, tho it change how much he would visions its change and indipendence from England, while Eleanor’s initial support of Flint’s plans stemmed from her thinking they would have brought stability and prosperity to Nassau- and to her power on it, see my previous Eleanor’s meta to read how I think for her there isn’t a clear difference between the two- while for Madi the pirate republic represent first of all the possibility of a socoety without slavery, and pirate-Maroon alliance is a way to hope a fight against the Empire, against slavery, can and will be won.)

(So you can say that Eleanor’s main goals were always a bit less radical- prosperity of commerce, stability, mantaining power- than Flint’s own were, even when they were on the same side, and that Madi’s priorities were in the beginning of the Maroon-pirate alliance more sincere and radical that Flint to begin with, because I think that James Flint initially saw fighting slavery as a consequence of fighting England, while for Madi and her parents and her people obviously the correlation cause-consequence is the opposite, and I think while Flint genuinely grows to care about the cause, just as he grows closer to Madi, he initially only saw the idea of fighting against slavery as a way to gain a strategic alliance with the Maroon people.)