#but he has a more secure establishment in the world just from having inherited money | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

cqlfeels · 3 years

Text

@lansplaining encouraged me to finish this random meta nobody asked for, so let's talk about Meng Yao, Meng Shi, and 孟母三遷 (mèng mǔ sān qiān), a proverb about good parenting.

A warning: this is super long (even for me!) and is less quality meta and more my ADHD brain jumping around a maze of loosely related ideas. Proceed with caution!

Let me start by briefly going through why I decided to write this, because it’s important. In haunting Meng Shi’s tag in my starvation for Meng Shi content, I’ve multiple times come across the idea that Meng Shi pushed Meng Yao too hard, that she should’ve been more careful with teaching him to seek his father’s approval at any cost, and that she was too naïve. I’ve never reblogged this kind of post because 1) I personally think it’s rude to go out of your way to ramble about how much you disagree with someone on their own post and 2) if this was an isolated incident I wouldn't care either way, so I didn’t want to direct this rant at anyone in particular. It’s more to do with a tendency, primarily (as far as I can tell) from fans who haven’t had much contact with Chinese culture, to oversimplify Meng Shi and make her relationship with Meng Yao slightly disturbing, and I think part of it is due to CQL basically cutting out her entire storyline (so fans simply don’t have info about her to assess her fairly) and part is due to misunderstanding what a good parent is supposed to act like in the context of Ancient China.

[Of course, Ancient China is not a very useful historical concept, not any more than “ye olde Europe” - things change a lot based on time and place - but you know. It’s fantasy. Extremely broad trends are okay in this case.]

Anyway, the idea behind the posts I mentioned is, basically, that Meng Shi (usually through no fault of her own) is to blame for Meng Yao’s obsession with power, since his desire for approval was inherited from lessons she taught him. Just to start with, I’d argue that Meng Yao isn’t power-hungry as much as he craves security and respect, but that’s a different meta. Let’s assume that she really did teach him to be Like That. Was she wrong to do so? I’m not looking for “does that make for a happy, well-adjusted childhood?” or “would you raise your own son as Meng Shi did?” - I’m trying to figure out, would she have been considered a bad mother in the context of the society she lived in? I don’t think she would’ve.

It is surprisingly hard to find texts about the obligations of parents in Ancient China. Their main obligation is to raise filial children, but I feel like that’s not very useful: whether or not parents are good parents, children are expected to be filial, so a child being filial really says more about the child than about the parent. Maybe the parent completely missed the mark and society at large was what taught the child to be filial!

We can assume, of course, that parents were to raise good people, and that by learning what a good person looked like, we could figure out whether the parent was successful, but once again, I feel like that’s pinning things on the outcome, not on the process - the best of parents can end up with an awful kid and vice versa.

While thinking about all this, it took me a frankly embarrassing amount of time to remember the story of Mother Meng and Meng Zi, but once I did, it wouldn’t leave my mind - in part because the Meng here is the exact same Meng of Meng Shi and Meng Yao (yay! fun if useless parallel!), and in part because this is a story about how a woman can successfully raise a son by herself.

Okay, so important note: one of the most influential ancient Chinese thinkers is Meng Zi (孟子 Mèng Zǐ), who is known in the West as Mencius. If you've never heard of him - he's perhaps second in importance only to Confucius. When Mencius was still a young child, his father died, so he was raised by his mother, who is usually known only as Mother Meng (in Chinese, 孟母 Mèng Mǔ.)

Mother Meng's story is told in Biographies of Exemplary Women (列女傳 Liènǚ Zhuàn), which for around 2000 years beginning around the 18th century BCE, was the most commonly used book used to educate women. The book is divided into sections, each one showing a different way women could be honorable and good. Mother Meng's story is told in the Maternal Models section (母儀傳 Mǔ Yí Zhuàn.) The story has a few parts, some of which I'll quote, always from Kinney's 2014 translation.

Before I go on to quote it, though, I'd like to establish that Mother Meng's story is so, so famous that even if Meng Shi had never read this particular book, I'm almost certain she would've been familiar with at least the outlines of Mother Meng's story. I'm not cherry picking a suitable chapter from the book, I'm literally going with the most famous story in it because Meng Shi would be most likely to know this one if she knew no other story.

Okay, the first part of the tale takes place when Mencius is a young boy and Mother Meng is a widow raising him.

The mother of Meng Ke of Zou [a different name for Mencius] was called Mother Meng. She lived near a graveyard. During Mencius’ youth, he enjoyed playing among the tombs, romping about pretending to prepare the ground for burials. Mother Meng said, “This is not the place to raise my son.” She therefore moved away and settled beside the marketplace. But there he liked to play at displaying and selling wares like a merchant. Again Mother Meng said, “This is not the place to raise my son,” and once more left and settled beside a school. There, however, he played at setting out sacrificial vessels, bowing, yielding, entering, and withdrawing. His mother said, “This, indeed, is where I can raise my son!” and settled there. When Mencius grew up, he studied the Six Arts, and finally became known as a great classicist. A man of discernment would say, “Mother Meng was good at gradual transformation.”

According to the translator's footnote, "gradual transformation" is "a childrearing technique, whereby a child is morally formed through daily exposure to correct models of behavior."

From this story comes the proverb 孟母三遷 (Mèng Mǔ sān qiān) - "Mother Meng moved three times." It's come to mean that a parent - especially the mother of a male child - should spare no efforts to provide an environment that will give their child a good education, paying particular attention to what models are surrounding them.

I'm sure I don't need to say if Meng Shi was at all familiar with this proverb (and she would probably be), she must have been very stressed out over literally raising her son in a brothel. (Here I must mention sex workers in ancient China were often essentially owned by the brothels, so literally "moving three times" wasn't really an option for Meng Shi even if she could miraculously pick up another trade.) Meng Shi did however at least try to surround Meng Yao with the accomplishments appropriate for the son of a cultivator:

Xiao-Meng, are you still learning those things lately? [...] The things your mom wants you to learn, things like calligraphy, etiquette, swordsmanship, meditation… How are those things going? [...] His mom’s raising him as a young master of a wealthy family. She taught him how to read and write, bought him all those swordsmanship pamphlets, and even wants to send him to school.

Meng Yao actually talks a little bit about “those swordsmanship pamphlets” in the only time in canon he directly shares memories about this mother:

Lan XiChen, “Your [guqin] skills are also considered quite fine outside of Gusu. Were they taught by your mother?”

Jin GuangYao, “No. I taught myself by watching others. She never taught me such things. She only taught me reading and writing, and bought a handful of expensive sword and cultivation guides for me to practice.”

Lan XiChen seemed surprised, “Sword and cultivation guides?”

Jin GuangYao, “Brother, you haven’t seen them before, have you? Those small booklets sold by the common folk. First jumbled sketches of human figures, then deliberately mystified captions.”

Lan XiChen shook his head, smiling. Jin GuangYao shook his head as well, “All of them are scams, especially to fool women like my mother and ignorant children. You won’t lose anything by practicing them, but you definitely won’t gain anything either.”

He sighed in a rueful way, “But how could my mother have known this? She bought them no matter how expensive they were, saying that if I returned to see my father in the future, I had to see him with as much competence as possible so that I don’t fall behind. All of the money was spent on this.”

See what’s happening? Meng Shi cannot physically take Meng Yao to cultivators, but she spares no efforts in giving him the closest thing she possibly can -- figuratively, we might say she moved three times.

Of course, these booklets don’t work, but as Meng Yao says, how could she have known this? The cultivation world is very closed off - think of how the entire Mo household gathers to see Lan juniors, and how Wei Wuxian mentions once that “Cultivation families, in the eyes of common folk, are like people favored by God, mysterious yet noble.” Not just noble, but mysterious. That tracks, too - I mean, they live in inaccessible households and mostly leave to night hunt or visit each other, neither of which is an activity that would allow commoners to get much more than an occasional glimpse of them.

Now, if Meng Shi doesn’t even know that a pearl for Jin Guangshan was just a trinket, if she doesn’t know even the wealth of a major sect, how can she read booklets and decide whether that’s genuine cultivation or not? All that she sees is a chance for Meng Yao to be surrounded by the ideas and skills of the people she wants him to emulate - cultivators - and therefore she does everything she can to get him that chance. Mother Meng moved three times.

Okay, but maybe the argument is not “Meng Shi shouldn’t have pushed Meng Yao to cultivation” but rather “she should’ve pushed him, just not too hard." To that, I present another tale from Mencius' childhood:

Once, when Mencius was young, he returned home after finishing his lessons and found his mother spinning. She asked him, “How far did you get in your studies today?” Mencius replied, “I’m in about the same place as I was before.” Mother Meng thereupon took up a knife and cut her weaving. Mencius was alarmed and asked her to explain. Mother Meng said, “Your abandoning your study is like my cutting this weaving. A man of discernment studies in order to establish a name and inquires to become broadly knowledgeable. By this means, when he is at rest, he can maintain tranquility and when he is active, he can keep trouble at a distance. If now you abandon your studies, you will not escape a life of menial servitude and will lack the means to keep yourself from misfortune. How is this different from weaving and spinning to eat? If one abandons these tasks midway, how can one clothe one’s husband and child and avoid being perpetually short of food? If a woman abandons that with which she nourishes others and a man is careless about cultivating his virtue, if they don’t become brigands or thieves, then they will end up as slaves or servants.” Mencius was afraid. Morning and evening he studied hard without ceasing. He served Zisi [a great scholar whose grandfather was Confucius] as his teacher and then became one of the most renowned classicists in the world.

Notice that Mother Meng moved three times to ensure Mencius would have the highest of aspirations - to become a scholar. But just aspiration isn’t enough. Not by any means. Now that Mencius is actually studying, Mother Meng is willing to take an extreme action to ensure he's taking it seriously. Mencius doesn't have a father to smooth his path to success. He has to learn that aspiring to greatness isn't enough. He'll have to put in the effort as if his life depended on it. And if he doesn't persist in his hard work, everything he's done thus far will be useless. Sounds like a lesson imparted on young Meng Yao, doesn’t it?

A lot of fandom rage towards Meng Shi would apply to China's Best Mom Contender, Mother Meng. She gives her son big dreams, and teaches him how to go about achieving them in a society where failing is easier than succeeding. Yes, it's fair to say that Meng Shi taught Meng Yao to refuse to settle for anything less than being “Jin Guangshan's son, a respected cultivator.” Yes, it's also fair to say that she probably didn't allow him much time to play like children his age did. But unfortunately, in the world of MDZS, poor children probably wouldn't get to play anyhow, the difference is that they'd usually be working, not studying. Studying is a privilege! It’s a privilege Meng Yao could not afford but was given to him anyway, through his mother’s many sacrifices. We can even say that while she was alive, Meng Shi was trying to ensure Meng Yao would one day have a better life, at the expense of a fun childhood - and that's very Mother Meng of her, whatever our modern Western sensibilities might have to say about that.

Finally, I’d skip other tales (which show Mother Meng and an adult Mencius) and go straight to the poem that ends the Mother Meng section:

The mother of Mencius

Was able to teach, transform, judge, and discriminate.

With skill she selected a place to raise her son,

Prompting him to accord with the great principles.

When her son’s studies did not advance,

She cut her weaving to illustrate her point.

Her son then perfected his virtue;

His achievements rank as the crowning glory of his generation.

I’d like to focus on the last verse - “His achievements rank as the crowning glory of his generation.” All that Mother Meng wanted was for Mencius to not completely ruin his life, but he became great. You can so very easily see a parallel with how Meng Shi hoped Meng Yao would be a cultivator but he became Jin Guangyao, Chief Cultivator, styled Lianfang-zun, one of the Three Venerable, hero of the Sunshot Campaign.

Of course you can say “Jin Guangyao did many Very Wrong Things to get there, though!” Which, sure, okay, fair point. How many and how wrong depends on which canon we're discussing, and your own interpretation, but there’s no version of the story in which Jin Guangyao is 100% an innocent child uwu. But blaming that on Meng Shi is just... straight up weird? I don’t see anyone going “If Jiang Fengmian hadn’t adopted Wei Wuxian, he’d never have dared become Yiling Laozu!” and that’s pretty much the same logic. Would street kid Wei Wuxian have invented a new type of cultivation if he had never been taken in by the Jiang? Probably not, but raising undead armies is very much not something Jiang Fengmian could’ve predicted. In the same way, how could Meng Shi have predicted that teaching her pre-adolescent son “You are the son of a cultivator, act like one and earn your place in society” would’ve ultimately resulted in innocent deaths? How could she predict “You’re not destined to having the same horrible life I did, you can get something better than this” was a bad thing to teach? I quite honestly don’t know.

Finally, I'd like to point towards a much flimsier evidence that Meng Shi did great as a parent. And that is Meng Yao’s love. Nie Huaisang at some point comments Meng Shi is someone who Meng Yao "cherishes more than his life," and I think his assessment is correct.

Even putting aside the fact he built a whole temple to get his mother to reincarnate into a better life, and even putting aside how he refuses to flee the country without her remains, there's still crystal clear evidence that Meng Shi must've done something right. Because a lifetime of people using his mother to bully him doesn't seem to have made Meng Yao resent her. Had their relationship not have been very strong, odds are he'd feel bitter and/or ashamed of her. That doesn't seem to be the case. He's attached to her even decades after her death.

I want to be very careful with equating mutual affection with good parenting, though. When I was a rather rebellious teenager, my mother (in typical Chinese fashion) used to say that parents and children don't have to love each other as long as they're dutiful to each other, by which she meant that a parent-child relationship isn't informed by warm and fuzzy feelings, but by whether you'd be willing to do anything for each other. Specific to my case, she meant "I don't care if it makes you hate me, you will do as you're told because that's what's best for you." (That may also be the reason why people more familiar with Chinese culture see the Jiang family less as outright abusive and more as #complicated, but that's another meta.)

Whether your kid wants to hug you every time they see you is of no consequence to traditional Chinese thought - raising them to be the best they can is all that matters, because at the end of the day, you won't be around forever, but you can definitely set up your kid's life so that it goes smoothly and virtuously. How that's accomplished varies depending on many factors, but to have the goal be "I want my child to love me" rather than "I want to raise my child right" would've been considered selfish as hell.

So even if all that Meng Shi had given Meng Yao had been stern lessons about the need to go get his birthright, she would've still have been considered a good mother!! In fact, she would've been doing everything she was supposed to do, under extremely difficult conditions! (Remember the importance of environment? That Meng Yao grew up to want to be a cultivator despite having probably never even met one speaks wonders about Meng Shi's childrearing powers!!)

But just based off how over the top Meng Yao's filal dutifulness is, I'd go a step further and say that even as she did the impossible, she was also loving enough to inspire genuine affection. This is complicated because children who have present fathers could expect their mothers to be tender with them. The first century BCE text 禮記 Lǐ Jì or The Classic of Rites says that:

Here now is the affection of a father for his sons - he loves the worthy among them, and places on a lower level those who do not show ability; but that of a mother for them is such, that while she loves the worthy, she pities those who do not show ability - the mother deals with them on the ground of affection and not of showing them honour; the father, on the ground of showing them honour and not of affection.

But when the father figure is lacking for any reason, the mother must abandon her tenderness because someone must guide the child, and without a father, the role falls to the mother. A single or widowed mother had to be very careful to not smother their children with affection and raise useless, spoiled kids, or so it was thought. (The presence of Qingheng-jun and Lan Qiren is why Madame Lan can be so affectionate with the Lan boys, by the way - if she was raising them by herself she would've been expected to be much more practical. AUs where she just gets her kids and runs away could do very cool things with this idea. But I digress!)

Where was I? Oh, okay. Because Meng Yao seems to not just respect, but actively miss her, it seems that Meng Shi somehow managed to deal with her son on the ground of both honor and affection, to paraphrase.

So basically, all things considered, it seems not only would Meng Shi have been considered a great mom (if people could look past her being a prostitute, anyway) but she also went above and beyond the bare minimum. She truly spared no efforts on any front to make sure her son had everything your average gongzi would have - someone to teach him and someone to love him, access to education and confidence in his birthright. That she couldn't actually make him a cultivator, that she couldn't actually raise him in a proper home with no one being cruel to herself or him - that's immaterial. Even Mother Meng couldn't control what her neighbors did, only what she taught her son! The key point is Meng Shi tried. She did everything she could to educate her son right. You couldn't ask more of her, and quite honestly, you should probably be asking less.

Of course we can't err on the other extreme and say she was Perfect. Given MXTX only ever writes flawed characters, we can safely assume that if we'd known more about Meng Shi, we would've seen many flaws. Indeed, just the fact she didn't teach Meng Yao the guqin when he apparently wanted to learn it might point to some conflict we don't know enough to speculate about (maybe she focused too much on cultivation when Meng Yao's interests lay elsewhere? Maybe she wasn't able to sufficiently shelter him and he felt it'd be a burden to ask her to teach him anything? Maybe maybe maybe, go wild with your fics.) Nevertheless, I would never hold a female character to a higher ideal than a male character - if the male cast of MDZS can be a hot mess and still be admirable for what they're trying to do, then so can Meng Shi.

At the end of the day, when I look at Meng Shi - and I've made myself a document with all the references to her in the novel canon so I could easily contemplate her life and character - all I see is a woman every bit as determined and resourceful as her son, willing to do everything it took to raise her little boy into the sophisticated and ambitious man he became.

Finally, here's a fun little parallel that I'm 100% sure was unintentional but I still love. I said Meng Shi couldn't have moved three times. She couldn't, but I think maybe she taught her son he was worth moving three times for. Qinghe Nie. Qishan Wen. Lanling Jin. Isn't that super fun to think about?

Alternatively, tl;dr: Oh My God I Can't Believe We're Blaming Women For The Actions Of Their Adult Children In The Year Of Our Lord 2k21, Meng Shi Was Doing Her Best, Chill!

#drinking game #take a shot every time i say 'finally'#this post refused to let me get to the end of it lol #i think because i'm extremely salty about fanon stage mom meng shi #(to not say tiger mom meng shi which crosses into outright racism. but i'm giving people the benefit of the doubt)

157 notes · View notes

silver-starlight-99 · 3 years

Text

Monsters at Work: The Jokester Generation Part Three: Life on the Other Side

There are many parents who’d call their child a miracle. For Liam and Noelle Rae however, they’d come to use that term in a somewhat literal sense. On the night when Mary Susanna Rae came into the world, her introduction wasn’t without… complications. The newborn’s breathing was irregular, her lips and fingers were a chilling blue hue, and she came out gasping instead of crying. The girl was showing signs of respiratory distress, and for the first-time parents, they were in a state of panic fearing their little girl wouldn’t make it through the night. Thankfully, doctors were able to get the newborn to an incubator at lightning speed. And, within a few days, little Mary Rae was stable enough to be returned to her exhausted, but overjoyed parents. She’d need to return a few more times to the hospital, to ensure things were running smoothly. But otherwise, the Raes were cleared to bring their daughter home.

Besides that little scare, little Mary Rae had a rather average infancy, with parents more than eager to smother their daughter in love and as many gifts they could buy. While Liam’s job as an insurance agent didn’t mean the family was rolling in money, he was more than willing to splurge where he could on his little miracle. And, to be fair, the mountain of baby toys, clothes and food they’d received as gifts from friends and extended family members meant the new parents didn’t have to worry as much about supplies for the first couple of months. In spite of all this love and support, there was always a twinge of fear in their hearts, one that had never fully gone away since their daughter’s rocky introduction to the world. While the hospital check-ins were completed, and the two were assured that there should be no further problems with Mary, it’s hard not to shake the fear of something going wrong with their little girl, something spontaneous, something they couldn’t prepare for. For Noelle Rae, this would occasionally lead her to spend nights in her daughter's room, wanting to be sure she could jump in the second something seemed off with her baby’s breathing. But as long as they kept her close and cared for, their fears would slowly start to wane.

By the time Mary was two, the Raes’ worries were nearly dissipated. Which was good, because this high-energy little lady was more than enough to keep them busy without anxiety about her breathing. The toddler would insist on chasing every cat or dog that she came across in hopes of petting it. She’d sing and dance herself to exhaustion with zero prompting. She’d given her parents more than their share of heart attacks during games of hide-and-seek where she accidentally led them to believe she’d escaped the house. Childproof locks in the Rae household were a must. Thankfully, it appeared Mary also inherited her mother’s artistic drive. If someone needed to keep her in place, just put some paper and a box of crayons in front of her and she’d stay still for a solid hour, perfecting each of her masterpieces. Sure, there were nights where Mary would insist on sleeping in their room. But hey, what kid didn’t go through a phase where they were terrified of a monster hiding under the bed or in the closet? As long as Noelle and Liam were able to be there for their girl, there was nothing they couldn’t handle… right?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was an early Autumn morning when Liam Rae heard his wife’s cries. He rushed out of his room to find her frantically scrounging in a closet. According to Noelle, when she’d left to wake their daughter, she was nowhere to be seen. This wasn’t the first time little Mary had gotten up early to try and coax one of her parents into a game of hide-and-seek, so she wasn’t immediately worried. Of course, most games didn’t take over an hour with no sign of the toddler. Starting to worry, Noelle began calling out to Mary, then outright ordering her to come out of her hiding spot. With no daughter to be seen or heard, she began to check the closets and locked rooms, almost hopeful she’d accidentally forgot to lock a room and her baby was just snoring away somewhere. Soon, Liam joined in the search, with both parents entering a state of panic. By the time they’d turned their home inside out, no Mary in sight, and they triple-checked the front and back doors to ensure she couldn’t have gotten out of the house, they finally called the cops.

The rest of the day went by in a blur, a horrible, exhausting blur. Hours were spent in questioning with the police, along with calls out to every neighbor they knew, asking if any of them had seen their daughter that morning, or any suspicious people near the house. The police weren’t able to find any signs of forced entry. And upon re-examination with the parents, with the exception of a few missing blankets and toys, there was nothing that could be considered unusual about Mary’s room. It was as though the toddler had vanished into thin air. Leaving the Raes on the verge of a breakdown. After the initial interviews and investigations were completed, the parents were told it would take a few hours to finalize the missing-child report, leaving them to mull over the day’s events before the police could begin broadening their search. Despite the assurances and messages of support from their neighbors, it wasn’t enough to keep away the air of despair that followed the parents the rest of the day. After almost losing their little girl when she was born, they were facing a potential future where they may never see her again. And once again, there was nothing they could do. It gave Noelle flashbacks to Mary’s birth, the doctors rushing the newborn to get proper treatment. While the exhausted mother was in a state of delirium from the medications taken to help alleviate the pain, and confused terror as to why she couldn’t hold her daughter.

That following night was especially difficult for the couple, just trying to be there for each other as they cried themselves to sleep.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So imagine the shock they felt when Mary popped out of her room the following morning, right the f*ck outta nowhere, asking for a snack. What started as shock shifted to jubilation as Noelle and Liam held their daughter tight, checking her over for injuries through tear-filled eyes. Mary herself seemed fine, with no noticeable scratches or scars, not even a tear in her pajamas. But it’s clear something has happened to her. Her hair is disheveled and in need of brushing. There’s a distinct smell on the toddler, but one her parents can’t discern. She’s missing a sock. And still, the parents can’t find the missing blanket and toys. None of this makes any sense. But in the moment, their miracle is alive and safe, and they’re more than happy to revel in this moment of peace.

“And yes sweetie, Daddy will get you some Cheerios, just let us have this.”

Things however got a bit more complicated when it came to explaining things to the police. The Raes thought the missing toys should’ve been enough to prove that something was in their home and took their daughter. But as the police repeatedly explained, there wasn’t enough evidence to send an APB on someone who, for all intents and purposes, appeared and disappeared out of thin air.

Of course, evidence or not, this event had some crazy ramifications for the people of this quiet neighborhood. There were many families with young children that were suddenly fearful that someone could come for their own, and they’d be powerless to stop them. A lot of households were investing in extra locks and security systems. A Neighborhood Watch was established, but all it really seemed to do was stir up further anxiety and paranoia within the adults. There were those who believed the Raes fabricated the whole kidnapping in a sick ploy for attention. There were petty people who were using the situation as a means to place suspicion on neighbors they didn’t like. A curfew was attempted, but that just made the teens in the area grow restless, many sneaking out in defiance and putting further stress on the parents. What seemed like a quiet, easy-going suburbia was slowly devolving into one of suspicion and anxiety, with everyone trying to find someone they can put the blame on. Things only got worse when one Gabriella Harlin, through a long line of accusations, was discovered to have been laundering money from her job to pay for her family's many extravagances.

Some families were driven to move out because of the harassment they were facing on a daily basis. Time and time again the police were called in to deal with reports of vandalism. Eventually, even the local news caught wind of the chaos and began to ask people for interviews, the Raes especially since they were the ones considered to be the start of the whole situation. It would be months before the chaos would eventually die down, but enough damage was done that after the dust settled, things on Langdale Avenue were never the same. No matter how bad things seemed outside their home, Noelle and Liam Rae were facing something far more distressing inside.

Despite what the police had chosen to believe, something happened to little Mary Rae, and her parents were left to try and comfort their child in the aftermath of whatever she'd been through. No longer was the toddler crawling into their bed whenever she was having a bad night, now her mom and dad were finding her curled up in her closet, eyes with a tinge of red as though she’d been crying. Before, Mary would do the occasional doodle of a strangely-colored creature, but now she exclusively drew monsters and weird mish-mashes of animals. And some of them were… rather disturbing; Mary being chased by a giant spider-crab (Waternoose.) A green beach ball thing with horns screaming in pain (basically 80% of her interactions with Mike.) A purple salamander being beaten with a bat (Randall.) And most distressingly, a blue and purple bear-like monster called Kitty is being choked to death by long purple arms (Randall as he was trying to kill Sully before Mike stepped in with that snowball.) How do they know the monster’s name is Kitty? Because that’s the name she’s been repeating for the last few weeks, always asking where they were? The Raes were quick to make the connection between this strange creature and the girl’s disappearance, but there’s still so much of the full picture they didn’t know.

So yeah, between trying to take care of their daughter and having their neighbors and the local news going nuts outside their home, Liam and Noelle had their hands full for a few months. There was a very serious consideration to move to a new city, even if it meant money would be tight. But one of the things that held them back on this decision, once again, was their daughter. Despite her new habits and her occasional bouts of moodiness, Mary always seemed the most comfortable in her room. Something about the familiarity always seemed to soothe the girl. And Liam and Noelle could tell that in this period of madness, this little room of calm was something their kid needed more than ever. So they agreed to wait things out, but also thought it best to let Mary have some playdates with some of her cousins outside of town, so they could all enjoy a few hours of calm away from the chaos.

Thankfully, things eventually died down. Sure, things were still strained between neighbors, but by then, everyone’s name had been dragged through the mud at some point. So everyone that was left was willing to let bygones be bygones, just to try and return to some level of normalcy. Little Mary had become a bit more introverted since her return, but with time and care from her family, she would soon regain her old chipper attitude, even if she’d become wary around new people. But hey, after everything she’d seen her neighbors put themselves through, the Raes weren’t surprised that their daughter wasn’t as trusting around unfamiliar adults.

In the end, everyone wanted to put this whole affair behind them, and the Raes were more than happy to do so. When asked, Liam and Noelle would usually be as vague as possible in regards to Mary’s disappearance and the explosive aftermath of their neighborhood. To be fair, with as little unbelievable evidence as there was, it wasn’t too hard for either of them to skim over the details. And as their daughter’s attitude began to improve, the Raes also did their best to put her distressing past behind them. Afterall, no matter how much they may have yearned for an answer, little Mary simply wasn’t able to explain, and in a few years, it was likely the whole terrible affair would become a faded memory in the child’s mind. But Liam, always the one to try and think ahead, decided to hold on to some of Mary’s stranger doodles, while he and Noelle usually disposed of the others. Who knows? Maybe once their daughter was old enough to form sentences, something in her old drawings would be enough to spark a memory of what truly happened. But that was no longer important. What was important was that their daughter, their miracle, was alive and safe. And this time, with God as their witness, she was going to have as normal and loving a life as Liam and Noelle Rae could possibly provide, weirdness be damned! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Uh… hi

Ok, just a reminder, I was two when everything happened. So if you’re expecting a detailed account of my first time in Monstropolis, I’m probably not the person you want to hear from. Mike and Sully could probably do a better job at explaining how everything went down. But yeah, outside of a few nightmares, everything else just kinda turned into a blur for me. But what I do remember, after coming back home, was being sad. I love Kitty. I spent plenty of nights by my closet just wishing he’d come back, only to wake up without seeing him. It hurt.

And outside of that… I guess I was still causing trouble back then. Because my little disappearing act apparently caused the whole neighborhood to turn on itself. I know my parents and a lot of the older people there don’t want to talk about it, but come on; the local news was so desperate for a spicy story when they heard about people starting to throw dog sh*t at each other's doors, reporters were on us like a toddler to a stray piece of candy. I don’t remember much of it myself, but… you know that old Twilight Zone episode where the whole neighborhood goes batsh*t because they think one of them is an alien that’s messing with the power?

(Yeah, that's it!)

I like to think the whole affair was like that. I guess it makes me feel better about my part in everything. It’s easier to think things on Langdale Avenue went to sh*t because adults are a bunch of paranoid idiots, instead of blaming myself for getting lost in the first place. Maybe this is why mom and dad don’t like talking about it.

Anywho…

Ok, I told you I don’t remember much of what happened back then, right? Well, I definitely remember the day Sully came back.

I was about four and a half. It was a bit before I had to go to bed, so I was just playing with my toys. And suddenly, I heard my closet door creaking open. And who should pop out? James P. Sullivan himself. I remember giving him the biggest, tightest hug I could. And it felt so good to feel him hug me back. He pulled me through his side of the doorway, and I was a little surprised I wasn’t seeing the same scream floor I’d emerged from the first time. I didn’t really care about that at the moment, I was just happy to see Kitty again.

And… I guess that kind of became the new routine for us. Every other night when it was late, we’d just spend time with each other. It took some time for us to coordinate things to find a good time to meet. While time seems to pass at the same rate on both ends, I think my world’s a couple of hours behind that of the Monster world. But once we nailed down 11 O’clock as the best meeting time, me and Sully would hang out at least once a week. Sometimes I’d just show him some of my drawings, or just talk about whatever dumb thought came into my brain that day. Other times I’d bring in some toys from my room and we’d just play. Sully usually just went along with whatever I wanted to do, but he says he was fine with that.

Mike on the other hand, he was a bit harder to connect with at the start. We didn’t hang out as much as me and Sully, but when we did, it usually amounted to him showing off the stuff in his room. The door station was in his room after all. But that wound up being pretty fun too. I think it might’ve been here where my interest in baseball started. And let’s face it, Mike likes to put on a tough-guy attitude, but he’s a sweetheart deep down. There was this one night where I was having trouble sleeping, I don’t remember why, and he just sang me this lullaby he came up with on the spot.

undefined

youtube

And then, a little while later, Celia started popping by for our visits. The three of them decided to form a … I think the word for it is a throuple? Whatever the term, they were spending a lot more time together, so it makes sense that Sully would want us to officially meet. Things were kinda awkward at first; she might’ve known kids weren’t actually toxic, but it must’ve been weird either way to be so close to a human. But with Sully helping along with introductions, we wound up getting along pretty well. Mike even taught me how to braid her hair without, you know, accidentally choking her hair.

Since then, my nightly visits were becoming a regular part of my life, and one I looked forward to. They never lasted longer than about 10 minutes at a time, but I cherished them. Apparently since they had to steal the Scream cans to power the door station, they always had to conserve energy. Despite that, I couldn’t help but see these monsters as just another part of my family. Something that was getting progressively harder to explain as I was getting older. When a kid’s four or five, it isn’t too weird to hear them talk about strange beings as though they were real people; what kid didn’t have an imaginary friend phase? When you ask a kid to draw a picture of their family, you don’t really question the weirdly-colored creatures holding the little girl’s hand; she’s just being creative.

It’s when I got older that things started getting complicated.

By the time I was in… I think second grade? Yeah, by then I was catching on that I needed to start keeping things to myself. My parents were telling me, in the kindest way they could, that I was starting to get too old for imaginary friends. To be fair, I think a part of that was because I had gotten into 3 fights by then with other kids because they were telling me my monster family couldn’t be real. I’m not sure what got me to react so violently, and I don’t think that instinct ever went away. I just got better at hiding it around other people.

(...where was I going with this?)

(No I wasn’t!)

(No it wouldn’t! So f*ck off and let me tell my own d*mn story!)

<Alright, geez>

Ok, so, I was starting to act out, and I was finally catching on that others weren’t believing my monster story. Between all that stuff and what went down when I was 2, it was getting hard for a lot of the other parents to feel comfortable with me around their kids. The term “problem child” started getting thrown around, and that just made me more frustrated. Which made me more reliant on my time with Sully, which made me more frustrated that it just wasn’t safe for me to tell anyone the truth.

As I got older, it felt like I was seeing the Monster world less and less. Sully had big plans for his world, and they were taking up more and more of his time. By the time I was in fifth grade, we were meeting maybe once a month. It meant we had more time to talk, but it also felt like so much had to get crammed into the time we had. Me getting onto the baseball team. Mike and Celia tying the knot. Getting my first real friend. Sully meeting up with some kinda monster group for his plans to make Laugh power a thing. Saying goodbye before I spent my first summer away from home. Mike and Sully tying the knot, kinda. It was an unofficial ceremony where they just kinda shared vows and had a lot of cake from some fancy bakery. I actually got to attend that, since they were doing it in Mike’s room.

And… I’m not sure what else to say. Things pretty much kept on like that through high school, and even beyond that. Keeping this secret, it hasn’t been easy, But I can’t imagine a life without my family, all of it.

<… Uh, you’re kinda leaving out a lot of backstory stuff>

(I guess. But they’re not reading this to hear my entire life story)

(OKAY! That’s a little more than they need to know… I think. Who’s even reading this?)

(God, I gotta deal with enough people looking down on me back home. I don’t need a bunch of people online trying to dissect every little detail of my life. Are we done here?)

-Boo grinding her teeth in aggravation-

(…

Thanks Zowie. So… are we done here?)

<Yeah, I think we’ve done enough to leave ‘em hooked for the next chapter>

(And how much longer ‘till I actually get to be in this AU thing?)

<Uh, I don’t know. Silver says it might be another chapter of background stuff before we get things rolling with the real story. And then she still needs time to properly introduce Tylor>

…

(Oh God. Stay tuned folks, looks like it’s gonna be a while

Wait… I thought I was the protagonist of The Jokester Generation, who the f*ck is Tylor?)

#monsters at work #monsters inc #monsters at work: the jokester generation #au #fanfic #video #song #lengthy post #Youtube

7 notes · View notes

autumnblogs · 3 years

Text

Day 43: Openbound

We’ll principally be doing Act 6 Intermission 3 today, so expect lots of pictures in this one!

Believe it or not, I initially didn’t like Openbound very much; I felt like it kind of dragged on my first readthrough, and generally had a pretty hard time getting myself to care about the Dancestors. They’re a pretty unsympathetic bunch.

Then again, lots of Homestuck characters are pretty unsympathetic! I’ve been really feeling that in the second half, as retrospect allows me to view a lot of secondary characters through the lens that we’re not intended to get attached to them.

That said, Openbound is actually pretty key to helping us understand the second half of the comic, I think, and makes explicit a lot of the themes that it explores, and how it builds upon the first half.

I think that the theme of Openbound as a self-contained work within Homestuck that we can use as a tool to decode Homestuck can be concisely stated like this; “Nostalgia and a desire for unity with the past causes toxic stagnation.”

So, aside from the introduction that we’ve already gotten to Meenah through the short conversation she had with the other kids, this is our first real opportunity to get to know her! Boy is she obsessed with money.

Money, like Cake, is a symbol that is associated with the Aspect of Life. As an aspect principally associated with Raw Power - the power to do what you want, unfettered by the stringent restrictions that are associated with Doom - it’s natural that Life would be associated with money.

The origin of money in history is pretty nebulous; it precedes the invention of writing, so any theory concerning its invention is ultimately conjecture. What I think is interesting about money is that the move toward a monetary economy in history mostly (but not always) happens as a result of the fact that it is way more efficient to collect taxes; the state mints standard coins, only accepts taxes in the form of standard coins, and propagates them into the economy by buying goods and services from the market.

It’s a tool of government, and even though Meenah may abrogate her inheritance, the Princess can’t escape her birthright. Money offers control, security... and power. What makes all of this extra interesting is that money is effectively worthless in the afterlife. Here, there’s actually nothing for her to really buy or spend it on; anyone can dream up whatever they want with ease.

It’s a nice bit of callback humor that Meenah has the same reaction to discovering the Thorns of Oglogoth that Rose does, but unlike Rose, Meenah actually does destroy them on the spot.

For being so headstrong and dangerous, there are ways in which Meenah is really pretty surprisingly sensible.

Lord English can destroy ghosts - this has always been a pretty disturbing thought for me. I may have said something to this effect before, but if I haven’t I’m a free-thinking Theist - raised in the Church, and largely independent in terms of beliefs, but I’m still pretty convinced that there is some kind of life after death. It doesn’t bother me nearly as much in works that have final death as a general presupposition, but it always bothers me when some kind of eternal life after death exists in a setting, and can be arbitrarily denied by evil beings with some power or another, like how some Demons and Liches can destroy or devour a soul in Dungeons and Dragons.

In Homestuck though, it fits with the themes established by the ways in which everyone God Tiers - spiritual power can be pretty arbitrary, and generally signifies very little about the moral worth of the one who has it; it does not intrinsically elevate the one who has it. It fits with its general criticism of power and the powerful, whether that’s the Mayor’s hatred of Kings, or the associating of corporatism with the worst parts of Jane’s characterization and Crockercorp in general.

Lord English has the power to destroy ghosts and end the lives of immortals not because he has attained to any kind of heightened spiritual awareness. He’s just some douchebag who through cosmic serendipity was in the right place at the right time to become basically all-powerful.

I adore Meenah’s spark. Who gives a fuck if Lord English is invincible? She knows exactly what she’s going to do when she gets her hands on him, and she’s got a plan from the outset. I think it’s also interesting the way that even though Meenah is absolutely taken by the spectacle of power, it isn’t sufficient to make her want to join up with English. Only soft power works on Meenah Peixes; emotional intimacy, friendship... keeping her entertained. All of these are the actual way to moderate her violent and dangerous personality.

While neither Rose nor Meenah is a parallel character to either Gendo or Rei from Neon Genesis Evangelion (I think, actually, that Dirk is the character who most strongly parallels both of them), this bit reminds me of the way that Ritsuko describes both of them;

Rose says of herself and Meenah, “You’re not very good at this, are you? ... talking to people.”

Ritsuko says of Gendo and Rei, “They’re not very adept (at)... living, I suppose.”

The same can really be said of a lot of characters in Homestuck, particularly the ones who primarily find their identity in some form of power-seeking. Whether it’s Rose, or Dirk, or Meenah, or even someone as innocuous as Jake, none of them is particularly adept at living.

Rose is pretty conciliatory with Meenah; given her attraction to danger and darkness, it’s probably not surprising that she makes such an obvious pass at Meenah in spite of the fact that she probably knows what their relationship was in another life.

Further evidence that Rose is the horniest Homestuck character.

“you know how it is with ancestors

they just kind of hold this inexplicable power over you”

Dave continues to progress down the path of not giving a shit, as did Sollux before him.

He’s not quite to the level of reluctance that he eventually adopts, of choosing to just not engage with English at all.

Gods are, to some extent, aware of the various narrative forces that govern their existence.

About the only thing this piece of nasty trash has in common with Karkat is the extent to which they both blabber, and he helps create contrast with the other, somewhat more likable dancestors. Kankri is pretty much openly contemptible, and really in the worst way. I’m almost inclined to call him a concern troll because of the extent to which his verbal essays exist purely to make him feel better about himself. Any time it comes time for him to listen to people who historically actually suffered from the systems they were involved in, Kankri shows his true colors, slut-shaming and misogynistic.

Unsurprisingly, The Other Thief is also the vector for English’s ideology in her session, “turning us against each other to make us stronger.” While Kurloz may be a worshipper of English, and Damara may have thrown in her lot with the demon because of her nihilistic despair, Meenah (rather like Dirk!) is clearly driven toward a life of violence, and restless action for its own sake.

Now we’re starting to get some insight into Feferi’s style of rulership, which in turn, probably gives us some insight into Jane. For Feferi, leadership means taking power away from the people you’re leading if it seems like they have the potential to hurt themselves (or to be a drain on society if left to their own devices). It represents a violation of agency, perhaps not so severe as the kind that Vriska perpetrates usually.

Feferi and Jane are the sort of people, I think, who want to create a perfect world - but it’s important to them that they’re the one who’s creating that world, and less important that the world is perfect for anyone in particular. Just perfect.

https://homestuck.com/story/5288

John’s whole self-conception, and especially his conception of himself as a man, and someone who might be growing up to take on the same roles as his Father, is tied up in the icons of dadliness and masculinity in the movies that he likes.

So we should expect that his disillusionment with his past will change the way that he thinks about his future, and what he’s going to do with it. It’s a shame that this line of questioning never goes anywhere in Homestuck proper, but I’ll use it as evidence in the “John/June Egbert is trans” folder. Reminds me of how my decisive lack of affinity for the Boy Scouts serves as a nice little retrospective bit of evidence in my own trans narrative.

Based on the number of trans Eagle Scouts I know, I feel like there’s a certain extent to which it be like, a fast-track to figuring that out about yourself, like, you tried all the boy stuff and just decided, nope! Not for me.

https://homestuck.com/story/5290

Man, especially if we continue to read this section of Homestuck as conflating the characters and the audience, this whole section reads as John not just having a meltdown about Con Air, but also generally having a meltdown about his own story so far - everything he’s done in Sburb, etc. It just all feels lame and shitty in retrospect, when it was something that was kind of exciting at the time, at least up until the point where his loved ones all dropped dead there at the end.

It turns out that there was nothing particularly edifying about John’s suffering.

https://homestuck.com/story/5300

Teens can be such monsters. It’s the anniversary of Bro’s Death too. Davesprite is probably as broken up about that as John is about Dad, but it’s hard for boys/men to talk about that kind of thing with each other.

Cronus is even more of an incel than Eridan. He may be the most singularly contemptible character in Paradox Space. Do I hate anyone more than Cronus? No, I think I do not.

I won’t have a lot to say about the middle leg of Openbound; it’s relatively empty of substance, and not much that happens in it is ever relevant again compared to the first and second legs.

I like to think that this leg of the journey is, more than anything, a chance to ruminate on some joke characters who were already parodies; parodies of parodies, a joke made at the expense of an existing joke. The kind of thing Dirk Strider would write, basically.

Hey check it out, the Year of Our Lord 2012, and Andrew was starting to show some mild sensitivity in his choice of words. Just mild enough to have the lowest character in the story show a tiny bit of sensitivity himself.

This leg of the adventure does give us some more insight into Meenah’s character. Just like Vriska, she’s all about being a hardass super-murder, until she starts causing problems for the people she actually cares about.

Being Evil Sucks.

This is a really weird sentiment for Karkat to have in light of like, everything else about the latter half of the comic. I mean, he hasn’t exactly had the epiphany yet that the ideas that he has about being a leader are kind of awful and shitty, so it’s possible that he’s talking the Condesce up to avoid thinking about that. IDK.

He also immediately claims he’ll leave behind the meteor to go and join Meenah’s army, so maybe Karkat is just in a pretty low place in general? That tracks.

Karkat’s little conversation with Terezi explains at the two thirds mark of Openbound exactly what this whole thing is about.

Almost the entire second half of the comic is about examining the character’s guardians, and their relationships with them. The Guardians - Grandpa and Bro especially - are hyped up to be these outrageous badasses, both in-and-out of universe, and their ambivalent relationship with their kids creates this ambiguity throughout the comic about whether the kids are worthy, whether they’re living up to their parents’ legacy - and it’s the kind of thing that plagues them throughout.

But the thing is, Ancestors can be lame, or even terrible. They’re not really anything to aspire to, and the image of success that they project onto the world is one of learned confidence, and usually that only if they’ve really managed to make it.

Even the best parents are flawed, and instead of trying to measure up to them, growing up healthy usually means learning what those flaws are, and committing not to reproduce them.

Parents don’t suck; they can be awesome, and generally speaking, for a long part of our life, they’re all we’ve got. It’s hard not to love them. But we shouldn’t turn them into idols.

(On another note, it’s one hundred percent fitting for Terezi’s Ancestor to be an outrageous coolgirl. Terezi is perpetually anxious about being cool enough, the sort of person who is breathlessly fun to be around, who commands the attention of everyone around her, and she’s surrounded by them wherever she goes.)

https://homestuck.com/story/5340

John’s distress leads him to dream about his dead Dad, and boy is he angry. He spends a lot of the second half of the comic seething in rage directed at whomever is responsible for all the suffering he and his friends endure, dishing out beatdowns toward those responsible, but I’ve never gotten the impression that these little outbursts of his are particularly rewarding for him.

https://homestuck.com/story/5358

That was quite a blow. He knocked out like a tenth of Jack’s health bar.

https://homestuck.com/story/5387

Depending on where you’re standing some really totally different things can matter to different people. From Vriska’s point of view, the things that happened back when she was alive totally don’t matter at all anymore - only the matter of Cosmic importance that is fighting Lord English.

But the stuff that matters to the people she left behind, and the suffering she’s responsible for - especially for putting Terezi in a position where she had to slay her - all of that still matters very much to the people who are alive, which is what makes her self-conception as someone who is on the side of the angels now really... not sit well.

She clearly hasn’t changed all that much. She just thinks, as usual, that now that things are even, now that the score is settled, things can go back to the way they were before.

https://homestuck.com/story/5388

Tavros and Vriska are really bad for each other in general. Like, it’s not good for her to be around someone as pliable as Tavros is, and it’s plain to everybody that it’s not good for him to be around her either; whenever he’s around her, he apes her bogus inflated self-esteem in all the worst ways.

https://homestuck.com/story/5397

Tavros’ explanation of what Vriska does suggests that storytelling has become kind of a ritual for her - a means by which she is attempting to connect with her Ancestor, by performing the same actions she is, miming her - still the same old Vriska.

That’ll be all for now. Cam signing off for now - join me for the thrilling conclusion to Openbound tomorrow, Same Cam Time, Same Cam Channel.

#commentary #neon genesis evangelion #liveblogging

8 notes · View notes

officialyourdailyinspiration · 3 years

Text

Devotional Hours Within the Bible

by J.R. Miller

Building the Temple

The temple was David's thought. He was not permitted to build it, however, because his work was conquest, the establishing of the kingdom. But his thought was not rejected; it was approved and commended. He was allowed to make vast preparation for the work. He purchased the site for the building and gathered gold and other materials for it. In the fourth year of his reign, when Solomon was secure in his kingdom, he began to build the temple. He entered upon the work with great enthusiasm. He was a lover of magnificence, and spared nothing in making the sacred building the most splendid in the world.

Solomon received help from the king of Tyre. It was more than a commercial league that existed between these two kings - there was also a close personal friendship between them. So when work on the building was about to begin, Hiram sought an opportunity to assist. This is another of the blessings which came down to Solomon from his father. Hiram had been a lover of David, and he wished to continue with David's son, the friendship which he had maintained so long with the father. A father's friends become the inheritance of the children. This is a rich legacy when a man has lived a true and worthy life and has made good friends.

Of course, everyone really has to win his own friends. No son can go very long on his father's friendships. He must make them his own by a true life, by worthy conduct, by an unselfish spirit. But those who have been the father's friends - are disposed to be friendly to the son. He can make them his friends - if he desires. They are ready to become his friends for his father's sake. The "good will" of a long-established business, is the result of a man's wise, liberal, and honest dealing through his lifetime. He has built his own character into it. This the son may make his own - if he will maintain his father's character and principles and continue his father's honesty and truthfulness. So in all life - it is a great thing to have a good and worthy father, and the son may enjoy the benefit from the friendships his father has formed, unless by his own lack of worth and worthiness, he flings away his blessings.

Solomon reminded Hiram, that David had desired to build a temple to the Lord, and told him that now, since peace had come to his kingdom, he was going to build it. This rest from war and strife made the present, the time for the work. The temple could not be built in time of war.

Just so, times of quiet and restfulness in one's life should not be idle times. There is other work to do then, besides rushing activity. These are days for temple building. True living is not all struggle, conflict, conquest, gathering money, toiling with one's hands. Building of character is the great work of life. This goes on best in the quiet .

A man who had been himself occupied in business for a great while, with scarcely a day's rest or pause, was stricken down with a partial paralysis. He was compelled to lie still for months. His mind was clear and active, while his body was inactive. One day he said to his pastor, "I have grown more in these quiet months - than I did in all my long years of rushing activity!" He was now really building up the temple of God in his own soul. Ofttimes days of suffering, or pain, or sickness - are one's very best days. We ought not to wait for necessary inactivity to compel us to be still; we should get the quiet into our life - even in our busiest times. We should train ourselves to it. We should teach our hearts to be still - amid all possible confusion. Only thus, can we be ready for our best work. We must have a restful spirit, if we would build up the inner temple of our lives. There should be "silent times" in every day's life.

The secret of Daniel's noble character, while carrying a great part of the burden of the kingdom of Babylon, was that he never forsook the quiet place of prayer. Not even the threat of the lions' den could make him neglect the season of devotion. There is no other secret of a true and noble life, amid the world's strifes and trials. We must keep quiet within - that we may build up in our hearts the temple of God.

Solomon told Hiram of the work he had in hand for God. He purposed to build a house for Him. He knew what God's plan for his life was, and he purposed now to realize it. He knew that God wanted him to build a temple - and he set about building it. We should all seek to know our duty - and then do it. God has a plan for every life. For every child that is born in the world, there is some purpose in God's thought, something which He wishes that child to do, some place He wishes it to fill.

But how can we ever find out what God's plan for our life is ? Solomon knew what God's plan was in this case, for God had told David, and David had told his son. But most of us do not have such direct revealings of our duty. How then can we know what God wants us to do? The answer is, that if we will quietly follow Christ day by day - He will make known to us what His plan for us is. He may not tell us at the beginning what He would have us do years and years hence. But as we go on, doing each day the things that He gives - we shall in the end accomplish all His plan.

God's purpose begins with the little child. He found David when he was only a boy, keeping sheep. It was a long while before David would be a king - but every day of his shepherd life, was a part of God's plan in his preparation for being king. So we need not worry about what God wants us to do; we may simply do each day - the things He gives us to do, and then at the close of our life, if we have been faithful all the while, we shall be able to say, "I have finished the work which You gave me to do." We may not know in advance what we shall have to do any day - but as we go on, we shall know. Doing God's will as far as we know it - we come to know more and more of it, and thus finish it at last!

Solomon sent to Lebanon for cedar trees for the temple. Why did he not use the trees that grew in his own country? The reason was that the cedars which grew on Mt. Lebanon were the finest woods that could be found anywhere in the world. Solomon was determined to put into the temple, nothing but the best. He must have the finest stones, the best timbers, the purest gold, the richest precious stones, the most beautiful works of art in all departments. The temple must contain in its materials the best things the world could furnish. Nothing imperfect, nothing poor, nothing unworthy must go into that noble building!

We get a lesson here for ourselves. In the building of our character, nothing that is not beautiful, that is not the best, should be used. We should read the best books, so as to build into our life-temple the greatest and noblest thoughts in the world. Nothing stained or unholy should ever be used.

Our friendships have very much to do with the making of our character, and we should have only good, true, and worthy friends. Unworthy companionships build blotched stones into our life temple. Above all we should read the Bible, for it contains God's thoughts and God's words, which make the best building material. They are all white and of the purest marble, and there is no blemish or flaw anywhere in them!

Then above all companionships, we should have that of Christ, for He is the truest, the most inspiring Friend that any mortal can have. Let us be sure that we build only the best things into our temple fabric.

We should put into God's work what we do in other lives - only the best. We should never give a touch to any character, through word, or disposition, or act, or influence of ours - that is not clean enough to appear before Christ's holy eyes.

The laborers of Hiram brought the trees from the mountains of Lebanon to the sea. Thus the men of Tyre and Sidon became helpers in building the temple. It is interesting to notice that not only were many of the materials brought from heathen lands - but much of the work was done by heathen builders and artists. This suggests to us, that in the great temple of God that is rising in heaven, men of all nations do their part. Today the missionaries are carrying the gospel to all parts of the earth, to every nation under heaven, and many converts from heathen lands, are at work on the walls of the great temple. It will be seen at last, that there has been no nation under heaven which has not furnished some souls for heaven's great family.

Solomon devoted himself with enthusiasm to the work of building the temple. He did what God gave him to do - and then God gave him wisdom for each new duty and responsibility. God always keeps His promises - but His promises depend upon our obedience. If we will not do our part, neither can we have God's promised blessing. The lepers were cleansed "as they went." That is, they obeyed Christ's command to go and show themselves to the priests, and as they departed, healing came.

God promises us guidance in all our life's paths - but to get His guidance - we must go on, taking each step as He shows it to us. The guidance comes - only as we obey. God promises us strength according to our day - but to get the strength we must do the duty which the day brings. The strength is not given in advance - but it comes only as it is needed. If we will not go forward in the way of God's commands - we must not expect to get God's help.

There is a promise which says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God." But if we would get this wisdom, we must do our part. Wisdom is given - only as it is used. The lesson is one we should never forget, that all God's blessings depend upon our obedience and faithfulness.

#Devotional Hours Within the Bible #J.R. Miller #Building the Temple #April 7 #2021

4 notes · View notes

aiorevelations · 3 years

Text

A Number, Not a Name: Part 15!!

Present-day:

Beads of sweat trickled down Jason’s forehead as he frantically worked to decrypt the file. He had been working on it for nearly an hour and so far he’d had no luck. Every time he’d get close to cracking the code, there'd be some phrase of letters left that didn’t make any sense. He knew he was running out of time and had to hurry. He wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand and kept going. Another minute passed, then five minutes, fifteen minutes. Jason intensely scrutinized and analyzed every letter, trying to come up with another possible code pattern that would decrypt the file.

Okay…looks like it’s a Caesar Cipher. Shifted down by twelve….please dear God let this work.

Jason quickly typed another command on the laptop and anxiously waited. His heart began to race as all the incoherent phrases began to transform into actual words and sentences.

There in front of him was Dalmar’s plan, outlined step by step. His plan for running for higher offices. Building his network and support bases. Acquiring more weapons. And ultimately seizing power. Even more importantly, the location of the weapons was laid out in the document.

Jason felt an overwhelming sense of relief that he’d deciphered the pattern yet kicked himself that hadn’t cracked such a simple code sooner. He figured his nerves had got the best of him but he couldn’t help but be angry at himself. He’d lost a great deal of time, time he couldn’t afford to lose. Jason suspected Dalmar or one of his men had encrypted the file manually as it was amateur work. A skilled professional or person with a knowledge of computers would have used encryption software such as AES which would have converted the plaintext contained in the file into ciphertext. Rendering it impossible for Jason to decrypt the file without entering in a specific password. He picked up his pen, pressed the top metal bottom on the side, and snapped several pictures of the file.

From the looks of this the weapons should be located…in a bunker a few miles north of here. He quickly encrypted the file again, excited the file, and closed the laptop. He picked it up and inserted it back into the drawer just as he'd found it. He placed the pen back in his pocket. Jason closed the office door and headed back down the tunnel shaft. Now that he had the intel they needed all they had to do was make it through the rest of the gala. He already had been gone a great deal of time and knew that the longer he was gone the greater chance he’d be caught or that Dalmar would be suspicious of him and Tasha. He hoped he wasn’t too late.

…..

The black limousine made its way down the winding road that encircled Dalmar’s estate. As they drove Dalmar pointed out to Tasha the various structures and amenities that graced his home. The guest house, its exterior resembling that of the main house with an assortment of glass, wood, and chrome. The tennis courts and lavish swimming pool. And the rose garden, all the flowers coming together in a rainbow of color and releasing a sweet scent into the air.

Inside the confines of the limo, Dalmar placed his arm around Tasha and pointed in the direction of the greenhouse. “And over there is the greenhouse.”

“My goodness, I’ve never seen such a large one before.”

“My mother, loved plants, especially flowers. I suppose I inherited that love from her.”

“I never would have guessed that you would have such a fondness for flowers.” Tasha teased.

“Their strength yet delicateness is something to behold. And of course their beauty.”

Tasha forced a smile. “I’ve never met someone who has spoken to me… or makes me feel the way you do.”

“Beauty is meant to be appreciated and treasured. You, my dear, are a shining jewel.”

Tasha stood there frozen, speechless, unsure of what to say.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable or-“

“No, no. It’s just I’m used to guarding...my feelings. Taking things slower…but being here with you…it feels different.”

“I’m glad.” Dalmar smiled and took Tasha’s hand. “This has been one of the happiest nights of my life.” The car suddenly came to a stop, causing him to release Tasha’s hand, for which she was relieved.

“We’re here.” The chauffeur announced.

Tasha peered out the tinted windows of the car yet didn’t see any structure or buildings in the distance. She turned back to Dalmar. “Here?” she asked, a quizzical expression on her face.

“You’ll see.” He grinned. Tasha and Dalmar exited the limo and walked to the front of the car.

“Right this way.” Dalmar motioned in front of him. The two of them began making their way forward through the woods. Tasha found it somewhat difficult to walk as her heels kept getting bogged down in the ground. She did her best to conceal it from Dalmar. The last thing she needed was for him to offer her his hand, holding it once had been more than enough for her.

Soon they arrived at what appeared to be an electrical substation. They reached a metal fence, all over which were signs posted that read “Danger. High voltage.” Dalmar entered a passcode into a security keypad and a metal gate rolled to the side.

“After you.”

“Thank you,” she smiled.

They went through the entrance, the gate closing behind them. After walking to the control house, Dalmar typed in another code on the keypad located on the door handle. “I believe inside you’ll find something that you’ve had your eyes on.” Tasha felt her heart begin to race as the door unlocked and Dalmar turned the handle.

Tasha stepped inside the room, followed by Dalmar. The lights flashed on showing a stairwell a few feet in front of them. At the end of the stairs, there was a hallway, with a metal door located at its end. Dalmar punched in another password on the keypad. Tasha heard a metallic click and the door slowly slid to the side.

Tasha let out a small gasp as they entered the concrete bunker. From the floor to the rafters, the room was filled with an assortment of weapons. Machine guns, automatic rifles, ammunition, surface-to-air missiles, and even a few tanks. “Wow,” she said softly in awe. “This is incredible.”

“Even better than you imagined?”

“Yes.” She slowly spun around to get a complete view of the room. “Other girls like flowers or chocolate. A trip to Tahiti,” she laughed, “but me…this is my life, right here. My happy place.”

“I can see that.”

“From the moment I met you I could immediately tell you were a man with great ambition. And in my line of work I’ve met many people with the same fire in their eyes…but somehow, it’s hard to explain, I knew you were different.”

“Different, how so?”

“Others may have had the same ambition as you but I felt in my soul that you were destined to become something. To do great things. To leave your mark on humanity. Many aspire to such things but few accomplish them. I believe, with my whole heart, that you are among the few.”

“I’m glad to hear you believe so. I for my part have always held that I would be among the great men of history. These past years I’ve dedicated all my time and resources to this goal and now I’m on the eve of achieving it.”

“The eve? You’ve said many times now that you’re on the eve of your dream becoming reality. That your goal is about to happen soon.”

“Yes. I have.”

“The question is when exactly is ‘soon?’ It’s such a relative term. For some it’s a few years, others a couple of months, or perhaps even a few minutes. When is it for you?” Tasha pressed him for more details. “If you decided to tell me…” she took a breath, “not only about when you intend to enforce your plan but its entirety, it would mean the world to me. To know that out of all the billions of people in this world I was enough…for you to completely confide in.”

“You can be very persistent. When you want to be.”

“I try my best.”

“I’m sure by now you’ve heard of my political party the KLF and my run for parliament.”

“Yes. I am aware.”

“Initially when I announced my run to be a member of parliament I did plan to win power by legitimate means. Start at the bottom and work my way up so to speak.”

“I assume eventually becoming prime minister.”

“Exactly, but as time has passed I realize that I can’t wait. I have to act now. This country is at the brink of collapse, of being internally ripped apart until it fails to exist. It is hard to believe now but centuries ago this country used to be one of the shining jewels of the world. Trade and the economy flourished. Money poured into the nation. The military was one of the most formidable forces on earth. Most importantly power was centralized in the hands of the Sargis family. But over time the country was stripped of its former glory at the hands of upcoming nations, as they attacked Krudia again and again. The Sargis dynasty crumbled and the economy is nowhere near as prosperous as it once had been. Recently, due to famine and political instability, the country has fallen into economic ruin. Looking at a map today, compared to other countries, Krudia is merely a speck of land. But hundreds of years ago it was nearly ten times the size it is today. My goal is to restore Krudia to its former glory and in the process be immortalized in history. The only way for that to happen is by force as many unfortunately are against radical change.”

Tasha crossed her arms. “I can’t imagine why. Unless they enjoy starving to death.”

“In my eyes, they’re merely a nuisance.” He scoffed. “One that won’t exist for much longer. Next week, once your weapons have arrived, I plan to establish myself as the new president of Krudia.”

“I knew you were ambitious…but this. I never dreamed I’d do business with a future president.”

“Thanks to your weapons. All my goals for this nation will become reality. The nations surrounding our borders will be forced to comply with my wishes. To surrender the land that originally was part of Krudia. Nations will be forced to their knees and to fulfill my demands. Otherwise, they’ll be obliterated. With me as its leader, Krudia, not only will be restored to the height of its power but become the greatest nation on earth. Imagine me as its leader and…you be my side.”

Tasha found herself taken aback by his words. The way Dalmar mentioned threatening nuclear destruction without even a second thought sent chills up and down her spine. In some ways when dancing and dining the evening away it was easy to forget who the man was who stood in front of her. A deranged and disgusting psychopath. She swallowed, trying to find the words. “I-I can’t imagine it.”

“The thought, it’s a lot to take in isn’t it?”

“It certainly is…but as I said before you are destined for remarkable things.”

“Now is there anything else…you want? Anything at all you can think of, just name it.”

I really have this guy wrapped around my finger. At least I was able to use it to my advantage. “Just one thing. Another dance…with you.”

“There’s no music.” He stretched his arms out.

She shook her head. “Not here. Back at the main house.”

“As you wish, mi corazón.”

“I like the sound of that.”

“Which part? Mi corazón or as you wish?”

“Both. But especially as you wish.”

Dalmar and Tasha each laughed as they headed back towards the stairwell. As she climbed into the car, Tasha felt a sense of relief wash over. She’d gotten the information they needed. All she had to do was keep up her cover, despite how difficult it was increasingly becoming. She hoped Jason would be back at the house by the time she and Dalmar returned. That is if he had not run into any trouble. Tasha quickly silenced those thoughts for what seemed like the hundredth time that night. She knew thinking about Jason being caught, without knowing if that was actually true, would do neither of them any good. As they settled back in the car Dalmar once again wrapped his arm around Tasha. Tasha inwardly rolled her eyes, her annoyance with Dalmar’s enchantment with her growing every second. It’s good. You can do this. She told herself. Just so long as he doesn’t propose.

…..

Jason quietly made his way through the tunnel into the lab report room. In front, he could see the door that led to the hall, off of which was the stairwell. That stairwell led to the first corridor, beyond which lay the door to the outside. The last thing he needed was to get caught especially after all he’d done to get this far.

As Jason began to exit the room a piercing shriek filled the room, followed by a succession of agonizing screams. It had come from the door on the left side of the aisle, the room he had seen the two security guards enter earlier. Jason then heard words come from a man, who sounded as though he was in excruciating pain. “Please stop. I won’t speak out against Dalmar again. I swear.”

“I’m afraid once is one time too many” came another man’s voice, that sounded like Tarek.

He could only imagine the horrifying scenes unfolding in that room. Jason knew that in becoming an agent he would see and hear horrific and tragic things, see the worst sides of people. Every day in training new agents were debriefed on this issue and how to respond. How not to let it affect them or their actions, but to continue to carry on with their mission. Their instructors would ask them what was more important. Saving one person at the expense of the entire operation or choosing to save more lives by keeping their cover intact? For Jason that was a question he didn’t want to answer. Losing one life was one too many. However, in this world, you had to put aside your own beliefs and values for the sake of national security. At least that was what he’d been told by his superiors. He couldn’t do what Jason Allen Whittaker would do. He had to do what 1131 would do. Jason knew that right now he had to push his thoughts aside and press on. No matter what, Dalmar could not carry out his plan. He had to succeed on this mission, failure wasn’t an option. Even still it took every ounce of his willpower to not intervene.

Jason suddenly froze, in the doorway, as he heard the sound of a gunshot. He then saw the door across from him begin to open. Frantically he ducked back into the lab report room, praying he hadn’t been spotted. He pressed as close as he could against a wall and stood as still as possible. From across the hall, he saw Tarek and three other men, two of them the same guards he had followed, exit through the door. Two of the men helped to drag a man's bloody and mutilated body out of the room. As they dragged him through the hall on the ground his blood smeared all across on the concrete floor. A brutal testament to the pain and unspeakable suffering he had endured.

His Grandpa Harold would tell him that there are moments in a person’s life that would come back to haunt them. Fill them with what-ifs and doubts. Make them wonder if they should have done more or made a different choice. As he exited the warehouse Jason knew this was such a time. He was no longer a little boy with an innocent view of the world. This moment had reminded him once again how cruel and heartless people could be. How much evil there was in the world. All Jason knew was he had to bring Dalmar to justice. No matter what it took.

#AIO #AIO Fanfiction #fanfic #fanfiction #Adventures in odyssey #jason whittaker #tasha forbes #jason and tasha #adventuresinodyssey

1 note · View note

tinyshe · 3 years

Text

Should Unvaccinated People Be Put on No-Fly List?

In June 2021, the U.S. National Security Council released a new “National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism” document.1 While it’s being largely framed as a tool to fight White supremacy and political extremism, the definition of what constitutes a “domestic terrorist” is incredibly vague and based on ideologies rather than specific behaviors.

It’s not difficult to imagine this policy being used to silence political opposition simply by labeling anyone who disagrees with the government as a domestic terrorist and charging them with a hate crime.

We’re already seeing signs suggesting that this is the path we’re on. July 28, 2021, Dr. Peter Hotez published a paper2 in PLOS Biology titled “Mounting Antiscience Aggression in the United States,” in which he suggests criticizing Dr. Anthony Fauci and other scientists ought to be labeled a “hate crime.” Commenting on the paper, Paul Joseph Watson at Summit News writes:3

“This is yet another transparent effort to dehumanize anti-lockdown protesters and demonize people who merely want to exercise bodily autonomy while elevating Fauci and his ilk to Pope-like status. Science isn’t supposed to be a religious dogma that is set in stone, it’s an ever-evolving knowledge base that changes and improves thanks to dissent and skepticism.”

Science Depends on Questioning and Challenging Assumptions

Attorney Jonathan Turley also responded to Hotez’s paper in an August 4, 2021, blog post, saying:4

“’Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt.’ Feynman’s statement captures how science depends upon constant questioning and challenging of assumptions …

[T]here remain important debates over not just the underlying science relation to Covid-19 but the implications for such science for public policies. Criminalizing aspects of that debate would ratchet up the threats against those with dissenting views, including some scientists. That would harm not just free speech but science in the long run.”

Should We Have Protected Classes That Cannot Be Questioned?

Turley also points out how making scientists a protected class (and one would assume only those with specific political leanings) is a slippery slope that will likely have unwieldy ramifications:5

“The federal hate crime laws focus on basis of a person’s characteristics of race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity. We have seen calls for adding professions like police officers, which I also opposed.

As with police officers, the inclusion of such professions would have a direct and inimical impact on free speech in our society. Indeed, it would create a slippery slope as other professions demand inclusion from reporters to ministers to physicians. Hate crimes would quickly apply to a wide array of people due to their occupations.”

Will America Accept No-Fly List for Unvaccinated?

Writing for The Atlantic,6 former assistant secretary for Homeland Security Juliette Kayyem posits that people who do not want to be part of the COVID injection experiment “need to bear the burden” when it comes to preventing the spread of SARS-CoV-2.

“The number of COVID-19 cases keeps growing, even though remarkably safe, effective vaccines are widely available,” Kayyem writes.7 “Many public agencies are responding by reimposing masking rules on everyone.

But at this stage of the pandemic, tougher universal restrictions are not the solution to continuing viral spread. While flying, vaccinated people should no longer carry the burden for unvaccinated people.

The White House has rejected a nationwide vaccine mandate … but a no-fly list for unvaccinated adults is an obvious step that the federal government should take.

It will help limit the risk of transmission at destinations where unvaccinated people travel — and, by setting norms that restrict certain privileges to vaccinated people, will also help raise the stagnant vaccination rates that are keeping both the economy and society from fully recovering.”

Travel Ban Identified as Effective Coercion Strategy

According to Kayyem, traveling in general and flying in particular is not a human right, and putting unvaccinated individuals on a no-fly list is a matter of national security, in the sense that the country needs to protect itself from people capable of spreading this dangerous virus.

She makes no mention of the scientifically confirmed fact that none of the COVID shots actually prevent you from getting infected, and that “vaccinated” individuals carry the same viral load as the unvaccinated,8,9 which means they’re just as infectious. The main difference is that vaccinated individuals might not realize that they’re carriers, as the primary effect when the injections do work is lessening symptoms of infection.

Kayyem also cites a New York Times and Kaiser Family Foundation poll in which 41% of unvaccinated respondents had said prohibition on airline travel would sway their decision, including 11% of those “adamantly opposed” to vaccination. In other words, where free doughnuts and million-dollar lotteries have failed to coerce people to get the shot, an airline travel ban might do the trick.

Despite her former position within government, she makes no mention of laws forbidding coercion of medical volunteers, such as the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations 45 CFR 46 (subpart A, the Belmont report),10 the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights treaty,11 the Declaration of Helsinki12 or the Nuremberg Code.13 Supreme court rulings have also clarified that Americans have the right to choose their own health care in general.14,15

Reframing to Confuse the Issue

Kayyem suggests circumventing such basic human rights by reframing the issue. She writes:16

“The public debate about making vaccination a precondition for travel, employment, and other activities has described this approach as vaccine mandates, a term that … suggests that unvaccinated people are being ordered around arbitrarily.

What is actually going on, mostly, is that institutions are shifting burdens to unvaccinated people ... rather than imposing greater burdens on everyone.

Americans still have a choice to go unvaccinated, but that means giving up on certain societal benefits. Nobody has a constitutional right to attend The Lion King on Broadway or work at Disney or Walmart … People who still want to wait and see about the vaccines can continue doing so. They just can’t keep pushing all the costs on everyone else.”

As pointed out by Swift Headline,17 the owner of Atlantic magazine, Laurene Powell Jobs, the billionaire widow of Steve Jobs, owns two private jets herself, giving her the freedom to fly around the world at will, regardless what vaccine mandates might be in place. Many other ultra-rich individuals would also be able to ignore the rules due to wealth alone, essentially turning them into a protected class. Swift Headline points out this projection:18

“The Atlantic went on to say unvaccinated people who are exercising their individual rights as free Americans ‘do not deserve’ to be a ‘protected class’ …

Jobs’s wealth and class status is detailed in Breitbart News’ Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow’s book, ‘Breaking the News: Exposing the Establishment Media’s Hidden Deals and Secret Corruptions,’ which ‘exposes the hidden connections between the establishment media and the activist left.’

As Marlow details, Jobs’s past is a privileged one ... Jobs ‘married well and inherited a lot of money, and her wealth is tied up in some of world’s biggest companies,’ Marlow continues. ‘She is the establishment.’”

The Price of Admission to Society

August 2, 2021, the San Francisco Chronicle also published an opinion piece19 by the Chronicle editorial board, in which they suggested we ought to “Make vaccination the price of admission to society.” One way to evaluate the reasonableness of such a proposition is to replace COVID “vaccination” with anything else. How about: “Make proof of contraception use the price of admission to bars and nightclubs.”

“Make clear skin the price of admission to gyms and public swimming pools.” “Make being taller than 5’ 9” the price of admission to theme parks.” “Make having a BMI below 25 the price of admission to airline flights.” “Make proof of not having an illness the price of admission to in-hospital care.”

According to the Chronicle editorial board, “the unvaccinated account for over 95% of hospitalizations and deaths.”20 The board does not cite where it got that data from, so let’s review the source of that data.

In an August 5, 2021, video statement, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Rochelle Walensky noted that this statistic was obtained by looking at hospitalization and mortality data from January through June 2021 — a timeframe during which the vast majority of the United States population were unvaccinated.

The narrative that we’re in a ‘pandemic of the unvaccinated’ was created by using statistics from a time period when the U.S. as a whole was largely unvaccinated. When you look at more recent data, the trend is swinging in the opposite direction.

January 1, 2021, only 0.5% of the U.S. population had received a COVID shot. By mid-April, an estimated 31% had received one or more shots,21 and as of June 15, 48.7% were fully “vaccinated.”22

The CDC has also pointed out that you are not considered “fully vaccinated” until two weeks after your second dose (in the case of Pfizer or Moderna), which is given six weeks after your first shot.23 This means that if you receive your first dose on June 1, you won’t be “fully vaccinated” until eight weeks later, around August 1.

So, the narrative that we’re in a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” was created by using statistics from a time period when the U.S. as a whole was largely unvaccinated. When you look at more recent data, the trend is swinging in the opposite direction.

Vaccinated Now Comprise the Bulk of Hospitalizations

For example, August 1, 2021, Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, director of Israel’s Public Health Services, announced half of all COVID-19 infections were among the fully vaccinated.24

A few days later, August 5, Dr. Kobi Haviv, director of the Herzog Hospital in Jerusalem, appeared on Channel 13 News, reporting that 95% of severely ill COVID-19 patients are fully vaccinated, and that they make up 85% to 90% of COVID related hospitalizations overall.25

In Scotland, official data on hospitalizations and deaths show 87% of those who have died from COVID-19 in the third wave that began in early July were vaccinated,26 and in Gibraltar, which has a 99% COVID jab compliance rate, COVID cases have risen by 2,500% since June 1, 2021.27

A CDC investigation of an outbreak in Barnstable County, Massachusetts between July 6 through July 25, 2021, found 74% of those who received a diagnosis of COVID19, and 80% of hospitalizations, were among the fully vaccinated.28,29 Most, but not all, had the Delta variant.

“What the breakthrough cases appear to show is that the delta variant of the coronavirus is more easily carried and transmitted by vaccinated people than its predecessors,” the Chronicle editorial board writes.30

“In any case, the greater apparent transmissibility of the variant makes it that much more important to protect as many people as possible from severe COVID by increasing inoculation rates.”

What the board appears to be saying is that unvaccinated people must be protected against severe infection, against their will, if need be, and the best way to do that is to discriminate against them and treat them like second-class citizens.

Again, a simple way to check the reasonableness of this argument is to swap out the COVID reference for something else. How about, “It’s important to protect as many people as possible from dying in car accidents by raising car prices so fewer people can get behind the wheel.”

Can ‘Big Brother’ Save You From a Virus?

As early as April 2020, The Times in the U.K. weighed in with similar suggestions, stating “We need Big Brother to beat this virus.”31 Clare Foges, the author of the piece in question, went on to say, “Don’t let the civil liberties lobby blind us to the fact that greater state surveillance, including ID cards, is required.”

The argument that Big Brother can protect us from infection is ludicrous on its face, because no amount of people surveillance can prevent microscopic viruses from circulating.

The No. 1 place of viral spread is in institutions, such as nursing homes and hospitals, yet the staff within them are among the most well-trained in pathogenic control. If trained hospital staff can’t prevent the spread of viruses, how can government officials do it?

Importantly, the argument that we need vaccine passports to prove we’re “clean” enough to participate in society immediately falls apart when you take into account the fact that the COVID shots do not provide immunity. You can still be infected, carry the virus and spread it to others.

We’ve already seen several examples of situations where 100% of people were fully “vaccinated” against COVID-19 yet an outbreak occurred. We’ve even seen over 100 fully COVID injected people die from COVID in one state alone, Massachusetts,32 so it is likely there are now many thousands of fully “vaccinated” who have died from COVID.

Even a 100% Vaccination Rate Cannot Eliminate COVID

Most recently, Carnival cruise lines experienced an outbreak despite every last person on that ship having proof of COVID “vaccination.”33 The cruise liner had even intentionally reduced capacity from 4,000 to 2,800 to provide ample social distancing capability. None of the measures worked. People got sick anyway, which makes perfect sense if you remember that the shot doesn’t provide immunity, only symptom reduction.

Cases such as these clearly reveal that even if everyone gets the shot, SARS-CoV-2 will mutate and continue to circulate, taking people out here and there. To think that giving up basic rights and freedoms is the answer simply isn’t logical. Taking responsibility for your own health is, and that includes deciding if and how you want to protect yourself from SARS-CoV-2.

Not everyone is deathly afraid of COVID-19. Many realize there are safe and effective treatments available, such as the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance’s I-MASS Prevention and At-Home Treatment protocol and I-MASK+ Early Outpatient Treatment protocol.

Nebulized hydrogen peroxide can also be used for prevention and treatment of COVID-19, as detailed in Dr. David Brownstein’s case paper34 and Dr. Thomas Levy’s free e-book, “Rapid Virus Recovery.” And if there’s effective treatment, there’s little need to risk permanent side effects from an experimental gene technology that can only provide a narrow range of protection in the first place.

Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola August 17, 2021

1 note · View note

purplesurveys · 3 years

Text

1120

[created by: vyvyan86]

What do you do for work? I work at a public relations agency, so I handle servicing for a good number of clients across different industries. PR is basically like the extroverted sibling of journalism; and since I turned out to not enjoy journ, I gave PR a try halfway through my time in college and ended up liking it more.

What would you ideally like to do for work? I actually really enjoy what I do, like getting to work directly with big local and even international brands. I’m glad I made the decision to make the career shift because I can’t imagine how miserable I would be in a newsroom.

What are you doing in order to achieve this? I’m already where I want to be, at least for now. I don’t see it changing any time soon because I’m nowhere near tired of the work yet.

What is the meaning of your life? What is it that you really live for? Erm I don’t really try to define it or have an answer to this right away because I feel like it puts a lot of unwanted pressure on me, by me. As long as I’m satisfied in the present, I shouldn’t be worrying for whom or what my life is ultimately supposed to be.

Have you ever REALLY thought what it means to have children? Yup. Having kids would be the perfect life, but realistically speaking I am not at all ready to start that particular chapter. I don’t make enough money to be able to build a family, and I’ve never even tried changing a diaper yet...then you have to think about weekly formulas, what school to enroll them in, building a nursery...it’s all very hectic and stressful and it’s definitely not a priority as of the moment.

Are you planning to have children anyway? It would be nice, but I still don’t know if it’s in my future.

What is the most awful thing about the world today? I doooooooooon’t understand racism. It’s those videos of white people being caught on tape harassing POCs without a care in the world that get to me the most. It’s horrifying and it’s made me have close to zero plans to travel to the places where the videos usually come from. It’s happened too many times and too many clips have gone viral, that I can’t help but think it would happen to me and my family as well. What do you think is the worst being on the planet? Abusive and/or neglectful parents.

Have you ever been arrested? If so, what for? Nopes.

Have you ever been in court? If so, in which role? Definitely not.

Which do you think is a more valuable being, a human or an animal? I don’t think it’s fair to compare. A life is a life.

What, in your opinion, will cause the end of the world? I’m gonna let science answer this and refer to whatever predictions they have for the future based on their calculations.

What does your mother do for work? She works in an international hotel chain as an executive secretary, but work is actually kind of slippery for her at the moment because of Covid. There are only certain days in the week where she’s called in to report for work, and there is a chance those requests will stop coming in at a certain point.

^If she's a homemaker, any specific reason for this? She’s not anymore but she did enjoy a brief period of being a homemaker after resigning from her previous workplace back in likeeeee 2013 I’d say? which according to her had increasingly turned into a toxic environment after 20+ years of working there.

What about your father? What does he do? He is an executive sous chef. Cruise ship industry, so his situation is also actually quite bleak. Fortunately the job security with his company is a lot stronger and more guaranteed.

How do you like your coffee? I like it sweet and for its color to be light brown.

If you're of age, what's your favorite alcoholic drink? Tequila shots if we’re going hard. Long Island Iced Tea or Zombie if I’m looking to have a chill session with friends. Red Horse is fine as well, whatever. I hate beer with a passion but I’d drink it if everyone in the table is having a bottle.

If you're under-aged, what is your favorite soft drink? Bold of you to assume all minors like soda hahaha. I don’t, though.

Do you smoke? Yeah, just super seldom though because I don’t want to form a habit. I had the opportunity to last Friday but voluntarily skipped out on it, but that was also because I already had a vape pen on me.

^If so, did you start when you were 18 or were you younger? My first cigarette was when I was 21. Start of 2020.

Did your parents approve of your smoking/alcohol use before you turned 18? They wouldn’t have approved of it at all. And I wouldn’t have let myself either.

Do you have siblings? If not, skip the next few questions. Yeup.

Are you eldest, in the middle or youngest? I’m the eldest of two siblings.

How big an age gap is between you and your siblings? With my sister, 2 years. With my brother, 5 years.

Do/did your siblings cause trouble? Not at all, actually. We were all well-behaved, aka the three of us were always too shy to do anything bad or mischevious. I guess the biggest issues with each of us were - I was very messy with my stuff and ignored all my homework; Nina was a crybaby and would get into tears over literally any inconvenience; and my brother was a violent crybaby, which means he is Nina but always ready to punch you in the face, kick you in the neck or stomach, scream into your ear, etc.

If your siblings are old enough, what do they do for work? My sister is taking up digital filmmaking in an art school; my brother is only in his junior year of high school.

Have you ever been jealous of your siblings? I’m not jealous of her, but Nina is amazing at art and drawing and painting and all that stuff and I always wish I shared even like 1/98th of her skills, hahah.

Do you still live with your parent/s or do you live alone/with a partner? I live with my family, yeah. I’m nowhere near ready to start being on my own.

What do you think about growing up? Like what Paramore said (heheh), has to happen sometimes.

What about having responsibilities? I don’t really think anything of them? They’re kind of expected.

Do you know how to cook? Nope.

^If so, what's your favorite thing to cook? I don’t know how to make anything yet, but some dishes I would love to be able to master are risotto and paella. I’d also love to inherit my grandma’s kare-kare recipe but I’m already 300% sure from this early that I’ll never be able to make it as good as she does.

What about baking? I also can’t bake but some stuff I’d want to learn how to make are cupcakes, macarons, cheesecake, and a chocolate chip cookie recipe so good that my kids would literally bring their friends over to our house just to make them try it.

Do you ever drink tea? Iced tea for the most part. If I do ever drink the traditional hot tea, it’s usually because it’s served either at a hotel I’m staying at, or at an Asian restaurant.

Have you ever followed any of these fad diets that go around? I don’t follow a diet. I’m usually open to trying out foods that are packaged to fall under a certain diet, though – paleo, keto, etc. - just to experience how much different it could possibly taste from the food I typically have.

What do you usually order at your favorite restaurant? I usually get rosu, a type of tonkatsu cut that has a lining of fat on its side. My favorite restaurant then provides unlimited rice, miso soup, and cabbage with my order.

Do you prefer a proper restaurant to a fast food place? Not necessarily. I love a lot of either.

What's your dream vehicle? A Mini Countryman.

What about your dream house? I don’t have an exact image of it yet, but I always said that my dream house, wherever and whatever it might be, must have a room for all the wrestling memorabilia I plan to collect in the future. It’ll be like a ~mancave~ as I also plan to have a couch and a big TV in it so I can watch documentaries and pay-per-views there.

What is the biggest dream of your life? Right now, I would say the ‘biggest’ - since I’ve established it since I was a kid - is to go to the 50th installment of Wrestlemania, which is like the Superbowl of wrestling. This year it’ll be the 37th, so I have 13 years left to plan the dream out and save up and stuff.

If you could travel to another country right now, where would you go? Morocco.

What is a country you'd never ever visit? There isn’t a country I wouldn’t want to visit at least once. I’d probably avoid the ones that have dangerous political situations or are literally at war at the moment, but it doesn’t mean I don’t ever want to step foot in them.

Are you good at taking care of your finances? I’m getting there! I was able to have a good amount of savings this month :) My finances were shit for the first two months of my job because there was immediately soooooooo much to pay for, but I’m glad everything is on track now.

Have you ever had any trouble paying your bills? Well no, because I don’t pay my own yet. I do hand a portion of my allowance to my parents every payday so that I can help out with the family bills, though.

What about your rent? We don’t have rent.

What do you think is the best thing about being an adult? The freedom that comes with it is very empowering. I don’t technically have to ask permission to go out with friends anymore, or be scared of a curfew (but my mom still imposes one, LOL. It’ll mellow it within time though, I’m sure); I make my own money and can spend it however way I want while the rest I can save; I can take a drive or book an entire trip altogether as long as I can afford it...it’s letting me get to know myself even more, in a way that college and my teenage years weren’t able to do.

What about the worst? Being expected to have my shit together when I’m very clueless still about so many things in life. I make fuckups at work at least once a week and I always feel like I’m going to get fired with every mistake, lol.

Is there a person in your life, who wastes their life somehow? Hmm, I don’t think so. I have an uncle who had seemed to be headed nowhere before, but I think he’s slowly getting back on track. I think. At least I don’t hear anything about him anymore.

^If so, how are they wasting their life? Never had a stable job, was a neglectful husband and father (I think he still is), was never able to secure a house and even a car for his family, and deals with his problems by drinking...and worse, drunk-driving, sometimes. It’s an embarrassment and I don’t care if my grandma tells me off for giving him the cold shoulder every family gathering. I’m not gonna get close to someone who negatively affects my mood and my energy.

What is something you need to do, but you keep postponing it? Getting a new pair of glasses. Booking an appointment is a Newly-Unlocked Adult Thing that I’ve never done yet, so I’m nervous and I keep putting it off, hahaha.

Do you think life should just hand things to you? Not at all.

Or should you earn the things you want and need with hard work? Yeah, there you go.

Would you rather live off government benefits or earn your own money? Earn on my own, as much as possible. But some balance would be nice as well so that I can start feeling as if the government is actually helping and serving me.

When you take a survey, do you skip questions? Typically, no. But some of the older ones I’ve seen made by, like, 15 year olds of the time will have nonsense, downright immature, or lowkey racist/homophobic questions that I will have no problem deleting altogether as I think no one here would have any interest in answering them either.

Why, do you think, people write lyrics as the title for a survey? To be creative and catchy, I guess. And it works - I do tend to click on surveys that use lyrics.

If you have a Facebook, what do you use it for? Look for things to share, mainly. I’m fully back on it now after going a way for a bit to do some healing on my own.

If you have a Twitter, what do you use it for? As a space to let out literally all my thoughts and brianfarts. No one cares on Twitter, so it’s the perfect space to make a mess and be a mess.

If you have a Tumblr, what do you use it for? I used to have a wrestling-themed Tumblr (and before that, many more other themed Tumblrs), but when my interest died down I soon switched to using Tumblr for my surveys and being more lowkey altogether on here.

If you have an iPhone, why? I find it easier to use, and I like the interface more. The camera’s features are also more to my liking.

If you have an iPad, why? We have a really old model of it, and we bought that because iPads were all the rage at the time. It had been the newest concept from Apple and most people felt they had to have one, including my family. We definitely don’t feel the need to get another tablet anytime soon since it just functions like a giant phone for the most part.

If you have the latest electronic gadgets, did you pay for them yourself? I’ve never paid for a gadget before.

Do you always put your litter in a trashcan? Of course. I know how to pick up after myself like a respectful human. < Yup.

When you walk/ride your bike/drive your car, are you careful? Yeah, unless I’m mad. Sometimes road rage will take over me tbh, especially if other people on the road have been stupid for quite some time.

What is the rudest thing a person could do or say to you? Something phobic after seeing Jess and I together. < This reminds me of when my ex and I used to get stares or whispers in public. But to be honest, I actually enjoyed those encounters because it only served as fuel for me to get even more affectionate and piss them off more, lol. Good times.

Anyway, the rudest thing I can think of at the moment is being cut while in line. Some people do it so subtly too, and their shy, careful shuffle to get in front of me is what irritates me the most because THEY KNOW they’re doing something shitty and yet are being so sneaky about it.

Have you ever been that rude to someone else? I have never cut in line, never will.

Do you think your parents are proud of you and what you do with your life? I don’t know. I hope so. I don’t know if they’re expecting me to move out at this point, but I hope they’re at least proud of the fact that their first kid managed to land a job, especially considering we’re living in Covid times.

Which would you rather be, famous or a "nobody"? Why? Can’t I be somewhere in between? When it boils down to it, I’d probably go with being a nobody...I’d miss the socialization and having friends, but at least it means I can get away with more.

Do you need to have the latest fashion in clothes and accessories? It would be nice, but I’m not desperate to have them.

If you have a job, do you get along with your co-workers? Yeah, I’d say so. I definitely have never fought with anyone yet. It’s hard to gauge my relationship with each of them because I entered the workplace while we’re under WFH so I’ve only gotten to talk to most of them through Viber; but so far, so good.

What kind of hobbies do you have? I like traveling and learning, so anything that’s got to do with those - going to museums, visiting ancestral houses, trying local art forms - I would definitely dive into. But if I’m not in a new province or country altogether, I like trying out new food and new restaurants, embroidering, watching my favorite shows, coloring, painting, and reading essays about history. :)

Would anything in the whole world make you give up any of those hobbies? I’m not super attached to painting anymore, so I guess.

Have you had/do you have any pets? I currently have two dogs. In the past we’ve had a cat, a rabbit, two birds, and several goldfish.

Do you even like animals? I love them, except insects.

If you aren't already, would you ever get married? It would be a nice thing to tick off my life event list.

If you are already married, what was the ultimate reason for the marriage? -

As a child, did you do anything really bad? I was raised in a highly violent household with the worst influences as my elders. Yes, I managed to squeeze in some horrible stuff when no one was looking.

^If so, what was it? What were the consequences? I was violent towards my brother but won’t get into it. The only thing I’ll mention is that I used to chase him around with a knife whenever he’d start becoming too much of a headache.

As a teenager, did you do anything really bad? I don’t think so. I was well-traumatized and abused by the time I was a teenager so I was afraid of fucking anything up and being in more trouble.

^If so, what was it? What were the consequences? The worst thing I did was lie about my performance in school, honestly. Which, looking back now, doesn’t even seem like a big deal considering I was only in high school then and grades from there barely matter.

Do you have a problem with authority? Nope. Well, a good number of my teachers didn’t seem to like me for some reason. I’d say it’s their problem though since I never did anything to raise hell in school, ever.

What's your favorite comic strip? I don’t have one.

Is there a piece of clothing you absolutely must wear every day Underwear... < Yep.

Has a doctor ever told you to lose weight? No. I’ve always been on the lighter side so that has never been a comment given to me by anyone.

Have you ever been diagnosed with a lifelong disease? Isn’t scoliosis a lifelong thing? If it is, then yes I have been.

What is something you absolutely hate? Fruits.

What about something you absolutely love? Seafood! Which is why I have spicy tuna salad and dynamite rolls with me at the moment :)

#survey #surveys

3 notes · View notes

things2mustdo · 3 years

Link

“White people are terrible,” “I have white privilege,” and “most of the world’s problems are caused by white people” are three general statements countless social justice warriors and their enablers agree with. Yet they are all based on the severest distortion of reality. You or I should no more apologize for being white than an African-American should for being black.

Just as many blacks, Hispanics, and other minorities are made more pliable by the media and the establishment by being told they are eternal victims, white people are made more pliable by agreeing that they need to always feel guilty. Using an SJW “anti-racism” that feels awfully like the leftist version of a Nazi book about hereditary, white people supposedly inherit the evil deeds of dead dudes who owned slaves prior to the Civil War or arrived on a foreign continent in a year like 1492 or 1788.

The establishment-enforced guilt is even greater for those directly descended from such people, but even culturally and genetically unrelated individuals like Polish- and Italian-Americans, whose ancestors pretty much all arrived after periods like the slavery era, are held accountable, too. Why? Even if we ridiculously assumed we can find descendants “guilty” of their ancestry, the white guilt thesis is like putting all of Harlem’s young black men in 2016 under house arrest because 20 of them were involved in a vicious street brawl… in 1937.

Provided you adhere to our creed, neomasculinity and the Return Of Kings community form the broadest functional church you will find. We do not care where you come from, so long as you support our goal of a return to masculine societies that emphasize community-building and do not apologize for taking pride in their own cultures. ROK readers who are black, white, Asian or something else are all equal in this regard.

Here are just three of many reasons why I will not hate or feel guilty about my skin tone.

1. I’m the descendant of victims myself because many of my ancestors were from oppressed ethnic and religious groups

Look at those privileged starving Irish!

Are you heavily Irish-blooded, like me? Italian? Polish? Ukrainian? Were your ancestors Catholics living in heavily Protestant areas, or perhaps Huguenots who had to flee persecutory France?

It’s funny how SJWs prance on about white privilege when over half of all whites who emigrated to America, Canada or Australia, from the Puritans to Yugoslavian Civil War refugees, came because the civilian government or monarchy representing another ethnicity or religion essentially chased them out, had killed their family members, or wanted them dead, too. Many of the white groups who did take the journey, particularly the Italians or Irish, were then subjected to quotas and mistreatment in places like New York for years.

A great deal of my ancestors were Catholics in Prussia and other Protestant parts of northern Germany. This section of my family tree is replete with persecutions, including one great-great-great-great grandfather who lost sight in one eye and movement in his arm after being brutally assaulted by a Prussian policeman. His crime? Being an ethnic German leaving a Catholic church on Sunday in the 1800s. Catholic churches were only for “subhuman” Poles. Catholic Prussians were seen as traitors who belonged in Bavaria, prison, or dead. He ended up eking out an existence as a tailor with one good arm, after both he and his brother were repeatedly refused admission to the civil service for their faith.

In addition, I had Irish immigrant forebears whose fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters died as a result of the Potato Famine. One of these ancestors, the eldest child in his family, was working in Dublin to make money for the family when, in the space of three months, he received news that his parents, all his sisters, and all but one of his brothers had died from starvation, malnutrition, or diseases related to them.

When my aunt did the genealogy over three years, she counted 37 family members in one corner of an Irish county who died from starvation or starvation-related illness in 13 months. The famine was predicted and even aggravated by the British. Considering the squalor into which the occupiers had driven the Irish Catholics, the whole ordeal was fundamentally caused by them, too. With only an extra mouth to feed, this great-great-great grandfather of mine took his barely school-aged brother with him to Australia two months later. What role did these two have in oppressing others, white or non-white, that I should feel shame about today?

Look further back into my family tree and you find German, Dutch and Swiss Jews, many of whom were shunted around various locations within Europe, depending on what limited patience local authorities had for yarmulke-wearers at the time.

With this lineage, what exactly do I have to apologize for, aside from my supposedly very, very privileged, at best lower middle-class English forebears from drab West London and grim Yorkshire? Most of them never saw a dark person, let alone mistreated one. To boot, the vast majority lived poor, thankless lives without clean sanitation, abundant food, or anything close to job security. And these are the stations in life, through no fault of their own, that 95% of your ancestors reached as well.

2. Minorities and other non-whites frequently treated and still treat each other far worse than white people did

Rwandan genocide, anyone?

From the pre-Columbian Central and South American peoples to the Rwandan genocide, non-whites have very often treated one another even more abysmally than whites have treated them. European technology may have amplified the number of indigenous and other deaths in places like the Americas, but raw hatred, aggression, and the continuity of violence can be found in even greater quantities in non-white historical squabbles.

Europeans have also been incorrectly blamed for things like infectious diseases, despite the scientific work of antiseptic procedure pioneer Ignaz Semmelweiss being years, sometimes even centuries away. Meanwhile, non-whites have been allowed to kill non-whites without serious condemnation from SJWs.

For example, critics of the Iraq War and the attempted rebuilding of post-Saddam Iraq have said that the whole country is based on a fiction that dates back to the European post-World War I mandate systems. In other words, if Kurds, Shia Arabs, and Sunni Arabs inhabit the same country, they kill each other! Whilst it is appetizing for SJWs to blame the big, bad British and French for this, it is far from the truth. Kurds and Arabs have been butchering each other for countless centuries. The greatest Muslim figure of all the Crusades, Saladin, was consistently mistrusted because of his Kurdish origins. Similarly, intra-Arab or Arab-Iranian Sunni-Shia violence is age-old and has little if anything to do with Europeans.

Last year, Rock Thompson wrote a superb piece about the hypocrisy of attacking Columbus Day in the Americas. His work exposed the double standards of many Native American and also Central and South American tribes, who pretend their ancestors were routinely peaceful when, in fact, they regularly engaged in deplorable acts of gratuitous violence, including human sacrifices and the sadistic mutilation of enemies who were not so ethnically different. The conquistadors and Puritans are falsely seen as the harbingers of cultural and racial genocide in the Americas. Local indigenous tribes, however, were already hunting each other down for sport well before the tall ships arrived.

3. White-majority countries make the humanitarian world go round

A tent city the Saudis refused to make available for fellow Arab Syrian refugees.

Whenever you find an aid program for starving Africans, war-torn Arabs, or other suffering people, chances are that a number of white Westerners are behind it. Even if they’re not all white, they invariably come from white-majority and/or white-founded Western countries, or are funded by them. All to assuage the guilt of white people living in 2016 who feel the need to apologize for a European colonial regime that replaced almost always far more brutal indigenous ones.

Western countries also welcome non-whites in droves, both as immigrants and as “refugees.” The recent Syrian crisis is a testament to this (over-)generosity. While Saudi Arabia refused to accommodate fellow Arab Syrians in their already-constructed tent city, used normally for the Haj Priligrimage, Germany and other European states bore the brunt of those fleeing, including through the open door policies of leaders like Angela Merkel.

In general terms, white people care more about the developmental outcomes of non-whites. Wealthy non-white countries like Japan and Korea have perfected a system of meticulously keeping their populations pure and rejecting the asylum claims of over 99% of claimed refugees. This asymmetrical state of affairs is ironic when Japan’s own history of colonisation, notably the Rape of Nanking, is taken into consideration.

White guilt is also very profitable for certain establishment figures and zealous entertainers. It’s why twats like Bono and Bob Geldof get up every morning, after all. And, far from sucking the world dry, white folks have repeatedly tried to make it better. Very often this generosity is taken to an extreme, but the point of white-majority countries acting and non-white countries stalling or ignoring remains valid.

1 note · View note

buildingrelationshipsinanarchy · 4 years

Text

QIM Model | Dekoship Series | Phadship Series | Seroship Series

*As per uze, you dont have to read anything beneath the infographic itself, but I’m gonna try to add some theory to explain why this one excites me the most in the model*

So some significant people in my life and I have been discussing Anarchist theory lately with all of the uprisings and discussions of abolishing police. And while blogs like @queeranarchism and @hater-of-terfs are so much better read and have better takes on anarchism, direct action, current events, and politics in general, than I could hope to provide, its by those blogs and others that I’m inspired in the ways I am.

Mudships are just affinity groups you built to do some direct action. What is direct action? The link is to CrimethInc’s work Recipes For Disaster, and its intro is a good primer on it. To paraphrase it (who doesn’t like blockquotes?):

Practicing direct action means acting directly to meet needs, rather than relying on representatives or choosing from prescribed options ... it most properly describes actions that cut out the middleman entirely to solve problems without mediation.

Need some examples? You can give money to a charity organization, or you can start your own chapter of Food Not Bombs and feed yourself and other hungry people at once. You can write an angry letter to the editor of a magazine that doesn't provide good 72 coverage of the subjects you consider important, or you can start your own magazine. You can vote for a mayor who promises to start a new program to help the homeless, or you can squat unused buildings and open them up as free housing for anyone in need.

...

The opposite of direct action is representation.

While things can get intense the more confident you get practicing direct action, my purposes here are in regards to relationship building and mutual aid. In the ABC’s of Anarchism, Berkman has this beautiful little quote (you ready for another one?):

If your object is to secure liberty, you must learn to do without authority and compulsion. If you intend to live in peace and harmony with your fellow-men, you and they should cultivate brotherhood and respect for each other. If you want to work together with them for your mutual benefit, you must practice coöperation.

The social revolution means much more than the reorganization of conditions only: it means the establishment of new human values and social relationships, a changed attitude of man to man, as of one free and independent to his equal; it means a different spirit in individual and collective life, and that spirit cannot be born overnight. It is a spirit to be cultivated, to be nurtured and reared, as the most delicate flower is, for indeed it is the flower of a new and beautiful existence.

So when I talk about monogamy and capitalism, it isn’t to shit on people who do monogamy, its discuss how the cultural institution of monogamy is a social relationship. It’s to discuss not that practicing monogamy is the problem (although you’re not gonna catch me doing it), its to discuss how our culture perceives doing monogamy correctly and how that makes it worth critiquing if we were to imagine building a different society and attempt to make any meaningful steps toward it.

If doing monogamy ‘correctly’ is ‘investing’ time, money, emotional intimacy and sexual attention into one person, its obvious that it leaves so many people out of our lives that could add depth, joy, fulfillment, challenge, and transformative growth and change for us. Margaret Thatcher has a terrible quote: “There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families.” I bring up this trashcan quote by this woman with dumpster politics to critique the idea of Family as well. Monogamy leads to nuclear families, not all of the time, but enough of the time for most of us to have that experience.

But what is Family? Blood ties to people and access to their material resources? That’s how inheritance works, which has torn a part families by fighting over the resources by who gets what. Familiy also has colloquially meant familiarity with certain human beings thats developed or long periods of connection and time. How many of us have found people in our lives who have loved us deeper than our parents and siblings (if you still have, or ever had those)? My father passed a few years ago, and I’m virtually estranged with my mother and younger sister. Family in my life has been the partners and friends through the years who’ve had the patience, grace, and concern for my joy & well-being, it is them who has shared their time, energy, labor, money, food with me when circumstance would steal the ground beneath my feet. To discuss monogamy and family from the lens I’ve constructed is to talk directly about which social relationships become culturally validated and socially encouraged, and with it who gets access to what materials and why we watch others refuse to share it.

I talk about mudships as being relationships built around Mutual Aid and Solidarity, that whatever little circles we’ve built around ourselves don’t interrupt the ability to be charitable and generous with people outside of it. The individualism that’s reinforced by capitalism affects us by separating people from their communities, by leveraging human need against human values, by turning the world outside of our homes into a place ‘full of people who will take advantage of your naivete or good heart.’ This isn’t just some ideological or abstract concept, this word encapsulates why I have the current over my head that I do. It every much discusses how I’ve been able to keep an old roommate afloat after he was laid off of his job and couldn’t claim unemployment; and that was before COVID and its Lockdowns & Quarantines erased a huge chunk of the economy.

I don’t just say this to just encourage sharing. I say this as part of a larger conversation about how we’ve been encultured & propagandized to believe that some people don’t deserve access to healthcare, addiction therapy, housing, food, clean water, this list goes on. I want to start a conversation about building the social relationships that allow us to trust the people we’re sharing money, material resources, and labor with, in our own lives and to inspire the desire to get excited about helping those you may know are in need.

We have so much need and so many stoked, yet unfulfilled desires that capitalism fuels and feeds off of, but does that mean we can do nothing about it? Does that mean we have to hope another Bernie Sanders shows up? I don’t want the quality of my time on this earth to be suffering in ways I can actively resolve or prevent. But I can’t do that alone, trying to do so is impossible. It isn’t a moral failing to not be powerful in a world separates you from the source of connection, inspiration, and depth, all of which exists in the hearts and potential of others.

Don’t let yourself forget that we always better connected than alienated.

8 notes · View notes

hollenka99 · 4 years

Text

Okay but if you don't think Siobhan Maria Jackson didn't dust herself off after grieving, you've got another thing coming.

Like yes, obviously she took Jameson's death hard. Dude was her husband for 22 years and she'd known him since she was 18. Not to mention she lost her brother a month before becoming a widow. There was a period where she took the 'be there for the kids first and foremost' philosophy a little too far and the kids had to say "Uh Ma? Listen we're all hurting but maybe you should grieve without thinking about us for a while."

So she grieves. Then she comes out the other side ready to get down to business.

She sees her eldest son graduate college, something no-one in her family has ever done. She gets Thaddaeus House for the Disadvantaged built and personally helps out when and where she can once it's open. Her 2nd and 3rd sons get accepted into the high profile colleges they wanted. She couldn’t be prouder of them.

Even in the late 30s, once her father is dead from advanced age and she is living in Ireland again, she gets shit done. As loving and kind of a man as Jacob O'Hara was, those traits don't leave his daughter much in the way of monetary inheritance. Siobhan has to support her little girl somehow. Even the money Jameson left her shouldn't be something to live off of, in her opinion. So she gets any qualifications needed at the time to be hired as a music teacher. By the time Nora is settling into life as a woman with a husband and young family of her own, a point where Siobhan knows she's capable of going on without her mother down the street, it is the early-to-mid 1950s.

She returns to California to finish what she started. Thaddaeus House isn't quite as needed as it was when first built yet it's an important and necessary establishment nonetheless. She ordered a place to learn ASL to be added before she left for Ireland in '37. Now she's planning to include somewhere on site to receive basic qualifications, enough to get a job but with as little expenditure on the students' parts as possible. Actually, let's merge the ASL area into the school. No, hang on, we should have enough donations to put the school on it's own dedicated site. We'll provide cheap scheduled transportation between the two sites. That's great.

She likely campaigned to make ASL a mandatory subject in schools nationwide. Yes, obviously French and Spanish are fantastic for students who plan to travel when they're older. But what about those wanting to stay closer to home? There are plenty of Americans who rely on sign to communicate. So teach them an equally important language that they may need more than a European one.

Since the TLoJJ-verse is based on the real world, she probably wasn't able to make it a reality. But could you imagine her looking some authority in the eye and saying "I don't care for this whole nonsense with the Soviets. Never mind whether our ideologies are better than theirs. Let's focus on creating a fairer society. If we manage to improve the lives of the type of citizens who need it most right now, don't you think that will show the Reds who's the greater nation?"

The government twisted the arms of her two youngest sons when they were barely adults. They took part in a war that was far bigger than either of them. Damn right she’s going to try twisting the government’s arm to progress on issues bigger than the USSR being communist.

Either way, she'd probably work together with some of her children to build a centre for teaching and promoting the use of ASL. First in Los Angeles then, if that proved successful, New York and other potential major cities.

Speaking of fighting for better equality, I feel she would do what she could in the fight for civil and gay rights. Well, Anthony, she doesn't know if she's quite up for marching in large crowds now that she's in her 70s but she'll try to help things on a more local level. And no, Oliver, she is a bit conflicted on homosexual couples vs being told her whole life it should be a man and a woman only. However, she doesn't see why having emotions that do nothing to cause harm to others should be punishable by law. Is there anything she can do to help?

Throughout her life, Siobhan composes music. She wrote the melody that people immediately associate with the Jolly Gentleman. The music from Carving for Beginners is her own. Music is her creative outlet the same way writing had been for Jameson. She even sets something up at Thaddaeus House to encourage people to take up playing an instrument if they want.

Oliver visits her one day and discovers the pile of compositions, some complete, others that have been works in progress for varying amounts of time. He convinces her to compile them into an album. She agrees so long as the ones with more personal reasons for creation are left out. If they really want those ones out in the world for public consumption, they'll have to wait until after she's dead. She doesn't want to live with the knowledge someone could casually listen to something she created as a way of coping during the most despairing points of her life.

It's Pearl's death in 1973 that makes Siobhan consider slowing down slightly. 85 by now, she could certainly leave her children and grandchildren to carry on her efforts. She could travel to foreign lands and see what they have to offer. But nope, that's not Siobhan Jackson. She'll cut back on some things that require more physical effort, sure. But spending time at Thaddeus House gives her people to chat with when her friends and family are busy living their own lives.

In later life, I'm sure she enjoys spending time with her grandchildren and even great-grandchildren. Not to mention dogs. She has always been partial to Dalmatians. Maybe some piano playing and garden maintaining too. I love the thought of her becoming this figure in the community, this old woman who has done more than a few things with her life and tries to keep going within reason.

She reaches 90 and yeah, maybe she's not as active as she wants to be but she still goes out and does what she can. Her memory is starting to go now, it's getting more evident as the months and years roll by. When nearing 95, she gets asked if she's aiming for the big 100. She usually chuckles and say "Well we'll see, won't we."

She turns 96 in July 1984 and two months later, she's gone. When she sees Jameson again, she tells him she tried her best to fulfil his last wishes. He just laughs like it's obvious before replying along the lines of "Angel, you did more far more than try. Thank you."

And that's the contrast between them. Jameson left early, his ideas of how to give back to a world that allowed him financial security came too late for him. But Siobhan was given more than enough time. She had 52 years more than him to get it done.

She could have stopped in the ‘30s. She could have said "It's done. I fulfilled my promise to him. It's standing and functional and that's what he wanted." But she doesn't.

In the ‘50s or early ‘60s, she could have said "To try change the education system is a monumental task that one 70 year old Irish immigrant couldn't successfully lead." And maybe she was somewhat right about that. She sure as hell gave it her best shot though. Without her, people in the 21st century would have less opportunities to learn ASL. Just because you can’t complete a marathon doesn’t mean the distance you managed is redundant.

Siobhan lived a goddamn full life. Part of her life’s work might have been fulfilling her husband’s last wish. But to focus on that or just see her as simply Jameson’s widow is to erase so much of what she did with her life. She was a composer, talented pianist, supportive mother, someone willing to fight and speak up about the things she cared about, a woman who came to America aged 16 with the hope of finding better prospects there than Limerick offered then did so several ways over.

In short, I stan an Irish queen. I hated myself for making her wait 52 years to be with her other half. But she didn’t waste those five decades. She killed it. Now she can look back on it all and be proud. Like she deserves to be.

Just... Siobhan.

#the life of jameson jackson #tlojj #tlojj spoilers #siobhan jackson

5 notes · View notes

pucking-rare · 5 years

Text

pucking rare masterlist 2019

below the cut are all the fics added to the pucking rare collection 2019, sorted by team/relationship. thanks everyone who wrote, beta’d, left prompts and in any way contributed to this year’s collection!

fyi: fics are sorted by who was on what team prior to 1 july because trying to keep track of who is on what team is beyond our capabilities right now.

BOSTON BRUINS

Anders Bjork/Matt Grzelcyk/Charlie McAvoy; Anders Bjork/Charlie McAvoy

something worth holding onto by cjmasim

Anders turns over to face away from Charlie. It really doesn't matter how Charlie would react to him being aromantic. He's not going to come out to him just based on a random thought. There's no evidence whatsoever that Charlie likes him like that. If he did, he'd at least try to sleep in the same bed, Anders is sure.

It was a good hookup, and Charlie wants to do it again. Anders wants to do it again. So they'll do it again, and that's all they'll do. If it gets out of hand, well, he can deal with that when it happens.

Marcus Johansson & Brad Marchand

A 1000 Ways by onlypartly (foreverkneeld)

Marcus Johansson finally gets an apology from Brad Marchand. Sort of.

BUFFALO SABRES

Rasmus Dahlin/Casey Mittelstadt; Rasmus Dahlin/Victor Olofsson

bloom by eichart

Ras doesn’t mean to keep buying plants for each and every one of his teammates, but he does, creating little explosions of green and orange and purple around the apartment. It’s his nature to look after them, to know when something’s wrong, so he will.

This team: he loves them.

This city: it’s special.

Jake McCabe/Rasmus Ristolainen

emptiness to melody by rawrimmapanda

Jake knew that the random sore spots were something. He just didn't know what from exactly. After a trip to the doctor he sets off on a mission to find out who is soulmate is.

Bits of You on Me by eafay70

Three times Jake's soulmate left him injured, and one time Jake was the one to blame.

CALGARY FLAMES

Johnny Gaudreau/Matthew Tkachuk

sealed with a kiss by iknewhim

“You want me,” Chucky drawls, “To kiss you for hockey.”

Elias Lindholm/David Rittich

We’ve Come Too Far, To Give Up Who We Are by Aer

David’s life has taken more than a few twists and turns over the years, but he’s always been able to see them coming, to some extent.

He never would have seen Elias coming in a million years.

COLORADO AVALANCHE

Tyson Barrie/Tyson Jost

soft shines through by somehowunbroken

Defensemen have to marry forwards. It's a rule, and Tyson's been putting it off for longer than he should've, and now he needs to marry someone before the season starts or he won't be able to play.

Enter Tyson Jost.

J. T. Compher/Tyson Jost/Alexander Kerfoot; J. T. Compher/Tyson Jost

no regrets, just love by ancientdeceiver

The kiss, in the end, is just one friend helping out another friend.

Tyson Jost/Colin Wilson

bring your good times and your laughter too by somehowunbroken

Sure, the stuffed pink rabbit and balloons had been funny, but it's Tyson's birthday. Colin's maybe in the mood to give him whatever he asks for.

DALLAS STARS

Miro Heiskanen/Roope Hintz

round one, round two by ghosthunter

“Are you nervous?” Miro asks, reaching out and tugging Roope’s thumb from between his lips.

“Are you not?” Roope asks him, his voice quiet. Miro grins at him.

(maybe it's the finnish summer) got me seeing stars when I'm with you by up_and_away

After they get eliminated, Miro can't bring himself to go home and face his parents' sympathy. He goes home with Roope instead, and finds a way to exhale.

keep it subliminal by carissima

Miro smothers a yawn and opens his door. Roope’s standing there with two coffees and an expression that matches his own mood.

when it hits you by carissima

And that’s the precise moment he realizes that he may, in fact, have a Miro-sized problem.

MINNESOTA WILD

Mikko Koivu/Zach Parise

You Know My Words (Look Up the Name) by sleeperservice

Zach's soulmark shows up during his rookie season after a game against the Wild. Nobody told him it would take years to find out who else had one show up that night.

NEW JERSEY DEVILS

Taylor Hall/Nico Hischier/Jack Hughes

I won't hesitate for you by theshipstorulethemallwrites

To be 29 years old, made the playoffs once and be a virgin was not in plans for Taylor Hall. Neither was falling for his, much, younger teammates. Yes, there's a plural in that last word, stop judging.

NEW YORK ISLANDERS

Mikhail Grabovski/Nikolay Kulemin

Windows by blueorangecrush

Kolya's grandmother used to say that dreams were windows into other worlds.

Anders Lee/Devon Toews

I’m on your clock, you’re in control by Mooresomore

"Breaking up is hard to do...especially when you're not out to the team and you can't let anyone know about it (or that it's over). It really sucks too when you still want the person, but they want nothing to do with you." Mat had never thought those words would apply to him, but here he was.

NEW YORK RANGERS

Brady Skjei/Jimmy Vesey

we’re never gonna win the world by skjei

Jimmy doesn’t want to die.

(or, jimmy vesey signs with the new york rangers and his live changes more than it ever has).

PHILADELPHIA FLYERS

Carter Hart/Nolan Patrick/Travis Konecny

Hens and Chicks by Hock_hug

Travis Konecny can’t make coffee

Carter Hart/Claude Giroux/Danny Briere

Shining bright to see what you could truly be by Mooresomore

Just a fluffy look into the life of Carter, Claude, Danny, and their family.

Travis Konecny/Nolan Patrick

dumbasses in love by andersens

“So, I talked to Lawson, and it turns out he does think we’re dating.”

“I told you,” Nolan says.

“Yeah and see the thing is, I was gonna tell him he’s wrong. But then he started going on and on about how proud of me he is and how happy. And he was looking at me with his stupid Lawson face with his stupid Lawson smile and I just...I couldn’t tell him he was wrong.”

say that you're into me, let me know how it'll be (if you don't know, just say so) by haruspexes

Really, the wedding is the thing that sets it all off. Someone self-aware might say it started way before the wedding but Travis has always been a little suspicious about that whole know-thyself thing. So, it starts on an otherwise unremarkable Tuesday afternoon.

***

“Anyways, you know I’m the best wedding date you could get on such short notice,” Travis fires off. It’s a pretty weak chirp, but the chance to say something is just too good to pass up.

“Yeah.” Nolan nods where Travis was half expecting him to argue.

take down some summer time by manybumblebees

Summer is lake days and fishing and coolers full of beer, the boat kicking up spray in its wake, and Nolan coming to stand next to him on the deck in his too-short shorts, holding his forearm next to TK’s and complaining about his Irish skin, which burns and freckles but never tans.

Or: summer makes TK stupid.

trouble's gonna follow (where i go) by carissima

The first thing Travis learns about Nolan is that he can’t tie a fucking tie.

Travis Konecny/Nolan Patrick; Carter Hart/Nolan Patrick; Carter Hart/Travis Konecny/Nolan Patrick; Lawson Crouse/Travis Konecny; Nico Hischier/Nolan Patrick

kiss me & take off your clothes by ghosthunter

“You’re so sexy in the morning, God,” TK says.

“I’m sexy all the time,” Nolan says. “That’s why I make the big bucks.”

SAN JOSE SHARKS

Tomas Hertl/Tommy Wingels

blame it, blame it by frausorge

Olive juice? That sounds disgusting.

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING

Anthony Cirelli/Mikhail Sergachev

Once Smitten by verbaeghe

It isn’t that Tony’s expecting Misha to already be in their dorm room when he arrives per se, it’s just. Well, it’s junior year, classes start tomorrow, and Misha still hasn’t managed an on-time arrival yet. At least he’s consistent.

A Tale of Courtship by Sugarchev, verbaeghe

“Marriage,” King Anton repeats to a slack-jawed Tony. “The council agrees, it’s time we secure our alliances.”

The King’s cabinet falls silent. Stamkos purses his lips, while Victor pretends to notice something out the window. Cally and McDonagh glue their eyes to the tactical map sprawled across the table and Misha…he should sit down before his legs give out.

Anthony Cirelli/Mikhail Sergachev; Braydon Coburn/Slater Koekkoek

How to Train Your Partner 101 by darkone

Tony’s previous partner retired a month ago and he’s been anxiously awaiting a new one. He’s tired of going on missions with other well established teams because it makes him feel like a third wheel.

Braydon Coburn/Slater Koekkoek

Yours by Lecavayay

He takes Slater’s wrist, holds it to his lips like the name there is his and not some other Braydon waiting for the man in his bed to find him.

Tyler Johnson/Ondrej Palat

The Playboy of Central New York by blueorangecrush

Tyler just wanted to be a semi-anonymous graduate student, not the funder of a biotech startup with his old money inheritance.

He thought he'd meet a girl who didn't know or care about his money. He was wrong about the "girl" part.

Cedric Paquette/Louis Domingue; Alex Killorn/Andrej Sustr; Jake Dotchin/Yanni Gourde

I Could Stay Here Forever by TylerAndAlexAndCeddyOhMy

Ceddy and Louis were fall in love while studying abroad

“We should go to Italy!” Yanni yelled.

“You just want to sleep with Italian guys,” Louis groaned. “We should go to France. The museums! Imagine all the history!”

“Yeah! Because there is ZERO fucking history in ITALY, you huge fucking moron,” Yanni yelled at Louis.

“You aren’t even interested in history! You’re interested in dick!” Louis countered.

“Yes,” Yanni screamed stomping toward his room. “Big Italian dick!” With that he slammed his door.

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS

Frederik Andersen/Auston Matthews/Morgan Rielly

Filled Up by eyeslikeonyx

When Auston pictured going on vacation with Freddie and Mo during the bye week, he was expecting to have fun in their hotel room, obviously. He knows Mitch is most likely getting railed on his own trip with Marty and Cees if the suggestive snaps from the night before are any indicator. Auston has been waiting for this trip for a while now, and he’s excited to finally relax and get some much needed sun. He doesn’t want to just have sex the entire time he’s on vacation.

He should have known his body would betray him the moment he, Mo, and Freddie actually made it to their resort suite.

Kyle Dubas/William Nylander

The Lace in Your Dress by elenajames

There’s a garment box on their bed when Willy gets home.

You’re my golden hour by mozartspiano

Kyle's condo is terrible. William helps him find a house.

This One’s For You by theshipstorulethemallwrites

Since his father’s death in a classified military accident, William Nylander has always had a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that he could be more. And then he gets in trouble in a way that he can’t get out of.

Enter Kingsman

Enter Kyle Dubas

I Hope You Lie by dizzzylu

"You think that we don't notice?" William asks. "How you take care of us, how you take the blame for us. We notice, Kyle. I notice."

Nazem Kadri/Mitch Marner; Nazem Kadri/Mitch Marner/John Tavares

Knights by eden22

London Knights are always proprietary with each other.

Mitch Marner/John Tavares

A Monster Under the Bed by eyeslikeonyx

On the morning of November 9, 1973, Good Hope Sheriff John Tavares is the third man to pull up to the banks of Lake Perry where a body has been found. Principal Patrick Marleau of Good Hope High School was the first, and Deputy Sheriff Morgan Reilly was the second.

Mitch Marner/William Nylander

You Brought Out The Best In Me by Bluejay141519

Mitch is the sun and Willy's been in the shadows since the day Mitch was drafted. That doesn't mean he loves Mitch any less.

William Nylander/Andreas Johnsson

facts of life (it’s i and love and you) by florabee

some things change and some things don't. the most set-in-stone fact in andreas's life is this: he loves willy and willy loves him

VANCOUVER CANUCKS

Brock Boeser/Elias Pettersson

boy with love by lilcrickee

“Oh no,” Brock murmurs, the reality of the situation sinking in. It’s 11 o’clock in the middle of the offseason and he’s holding a baby. The baby is his. Brock is 22 and has a baby and the mother has run off to work on a cruise ship.

Elias Pettersson/Jacob Markstrom

Waiting Tied and Bound by Sister_Grimm

Jacob knows exactly how to take Elias apart every time

WINNIPEG JETS

Nikolaj Ehlers/Patrik Laine

make my heart sparkle like champagne by softEldritch (assbutts)

Hey, Niky,” he says slowly, enunciating it carefully so he doesn’t somehow mess up the words, “what if we do get married this summer?”

Turns out there’s a lot more to a wedding than just showing up, saying a few words and putting on some rings.

Adam Lowry/Brandon Tanev

while all his body trembled by onlypartly (foreverkneeld)

(407): It's very finicky. Like baking. or BDSM.

mixer attachments by snailmailed

“It’s a KitchenAid. You have the same one. Are you feeling okay?” He added when Brandon continued to stare at his brand new mixer.

Brandon blinked. “Yeah dude, I know what it is.”

“Okay well it didn’t seem like -”

“I know what it is! Obviously.” Brandon huffed.

(Adam buys his own KitchenAid, Brandon doesn't take it well.)

FORMER/INTERNATIONAL TEAMMATES

Nazem Kadri/James Van Riemsdyk

hit me with that by landofpromise

Nazem isn’t sure what to think when James’ name appears on his screen.

Mathew Barzal/Thomas Chabot

careless with my heart again by aimerai

Mat looks at Chabby, actually looks at him, and wants to kiss him. This is not a new thought, nor is it particularly damning. Mat wants to make him fall apart, and that’s fine, too. But wanting to smooth out the faint wrinkle of his brow and uncoil the tension from his shoulders is a line he can’t cross. Wanting Chabby to go back to the person he was when he was asleep, carefree, is not something he is allowed. Staying the night was a detour; staying in bed was a mistake, and yet, Mat can’t bring himself to regret it. Some things are an inevitability; this may not be one of them, but Mat thinks he’d have chosen to land here anyway. Even if it’s going to hurt, even as he’s trying to pull himself out of one of the biggest hurts he’s ever had.

Anthony Cirelli/Taylor Raddysh

It Started Out With a Kiss (Or: How It Ended Up Like This) by love_stella

“Who was that?” Misha asks, cutting him off.

“It was no one, don’t worry about it,” Tony tries to say, knowing damn well it’s going to be impossible to get them to stop now that they’ve started.

“No no no, that wasn’t no one,” Misha says, “You don’t just walk up and kiss no one.”

Anthony Cirelli/Taylor Raddysh/Mitchell Stephens

Magnolia by love_stella

What catches his eye is a hint of blue floating around the water, but before he can reach his hand in to check he’s hit with another coughing fit, only this time he’s able to catch most of the petals in his palms so he can inspect them to make sure his eyes aren’t tricking him. Surely enough, Taylor didn’t even cough up any of Tony’s flower this time, the petals he’s holding are shorter and a pale blue that Taylor might find beautiful if they didn’t just come out of his lungs.

Eric Comrie/Chase De Leo

Trying To Get That Feeling Again by Mooresomore

Chase and Eric had been together and things were perfect. What happened when Chase got traded to the Ducks changed all that. Can they find what was missing?

Dante Fabbro/Tyson Jost

all these songs of love by somehowunbroken

Dante's an aspiring musician, so he'll take whatever help he can get, including a boy in

his dreams who helps him write his music. Everything's going fine until he looks up during a show and sees that boy in the crowd.

Alexandre Fortin/Jeremy Lauzon/Philippe Myers

this doesn’t look that much different from home by aimerai

Alex is born somewhere between a hope and a dream, made more of magic than of DNA. He’s not quite a changeling child, but the first time he watches Pinocchio, he cries and cries and can’t stop, until he feels like he’s going to throw up with each hitching breath. It feels too similar, and he’s always known what he is.

Or, the moments that make a homecoming.

Marcus Johansson/Evgeny Kuznetsov

putting broken pieces back in place by ghosthunter

“Evgeny Evgenyvich,” the stranger says.

“Huh?” Zhenya asks, confused. He stops to look up into the black space where a face should be.

“What would you give,” the stranger asks.

“For what?” Zhenya asks. He considers continuing walking, but he can’t. He considers running, but he can’t do that either. He thinks these things, but his body won’t do them.

“For what you want,” the stranger says to him.

Auston Matthews/Patrick Kane

Half in the shadows, half burned in flames by Caivallon

Between night and day. In this strange endless twilight between yesterday and tomorrow when everything is possible.

They have played a game. A tempting and thrilling game.

Nathan MacKinnon/Mitch Marner

Pine your way to China by Aderam

In which our hero is surprisingly good at talking about it, but not to the right person.

AKA hockey boys are dumb, but we like them anyway.

William Nylander/David Pastrnak

Love and Marriage by blindbatalex

“Yeah I got married and didn’t tell any of you,” David deadpans before it’s too late, finally able to form words, and there is a moment when it goes so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

Taylor Crosby/Amanda Kessel

run it, run it (like a girl) by ghosthunter

Hockey analysts will make a rivalry out of anything. And if it’s not the analysts, then it’s the media. All they really had in common was they went to the same school and play the same sport.

OTHERS

Leon Draisaitl/Connor McDavid/Dylan Strome

ain't nothing like them summer nights by liroa15

Connor's got one boyfriend for home and one boyfriend for away, and somehow they're all making it work. Together. Away from it all.

Alexander Ovechkin/Tyler Seguin; Nicklas Backstrom/Tyler Seguin

Icebreaker by myrthrilmercury

Throughout the league, Alexander Ovechkin is known as "Icebreaker" for his prowess at training the brattiest and most stubborn subs. His latest assignment is to transform the rude, rebellious Tyler Seguin into an obedient submissive willing to do anything commanded.

Sidney Crosby/Travis Konecny; Sidney Crosby & Marc-Andre Fleury

Forever in a Minute by elenajames

Sid lets the league send an alpha match for his heat, and he's not prepared for who they pick.

#pucking rare

46 notes · View notes

mysticandskepticmuses · 4 years

Photo

TO BE EDITED. // altered carbon

In Altered Carbon Laurel owns and operates a handful of different clubs / brothels (sex work is legal in this setting); all high end and catering to the elite, whether it be rich Grounders or Meths that want to play at ‘slumming it’. They are all named after various religious settings, such as The Inferno, Purgatory, Elysium etc. and have correlating themes. The deeper you go into the club, into the different levels of access, the more extreme and blatant the activities. Her clients pay heavily for her discretion and she does not allow any attempts at blackmail by her staff and will do whatever it takes to make sure that they keep their mouths shut about what happens in her establishments. She caters almost exclusively to in The Real desires, but does have virtual accommodations for those that might wish to participate in things beyond the real world.

Despite her assurances of privacy, she does record everything that happens in the club and in virtual, though very few people are aware and she is the only one with access to the recordings which are kept on a private and very, very secure server satellite. She does, on occasion, feed certain tidbits to the police, typically when they are nosing too close to something of her more illicit activities, but usually that information is something that could be obtained elsewhere with enough digging and effort on the police’s part. Only on very rare occasions does she hand over anything that would explicitly incriminate someone, and that is generally when they have either crossed her, or someone is paying her enough to make it worth it.

Her less legal work includes, but is not limited to, using her own interests and penchant for violence to torture, blackmail and leverage people in power, on behalf of other people, and on rare occasion, her own interests. She also arranges wetwork, real death, and identity erasure / replacement services for the right cost; sometimes she handles these things herself but primarily, now, she acts as a broker, connecting client to employee, with the clubs she operates generally serving as cover for the meets.

She has several different sleeves that she will rotate through for various aspects of her work, keeping different identities separate as much as she can, though there are some of the major players in the Earth’s underworld that know her across the board (ie Reileen Kawahara and select others). She is nearing a hundred years of age, but maintains herself in a younger and fresh version of her original birth sleeve, early to mid twenties, as her standard fare. She is wealthy, though not quite long-lived Methuselah rich yet, and lives more than comfortably, with a dozen clones / sleeves scattered in various storage facilities across Bay City and a few off world, and has a 72 hour backup cycle. She trusts no-one and is manipulative, calculating and cares only about her own comfort and survival. Anything else is just an act.

Edit: while she is extremely wealthy and has age on her side, she chooses not to live on the Aerium. Her particular lifestyle choices and the fact that she rubs elbows with the Meths while they are indulging their vices creates a divide that she has no interest in crossing. She’s happy with her position and power as it stands and would far rather rule her roost down on Earth than try and kick and claw her way through the social drama and political backstabbing that is Meth society.

Additional note for Laurel’s Altered Carbon verse. She does have various sleeves that she keeps on hand in her clubs for people to cast into for more discreet visitations for pleasure or business including top of the line synth models that can be made to look however the client wishes.

ONE. Her father was a business mogul on Earth, he died in air car accident when she was 29 after which she inherited his business and finances, operating the business hands on for ten years before handing it off to be run on her behalf. It still operates; importing and exporting luxury goods and generally turns a tidy amount of profit which is tucked away safely – any investments that she makes, including the series of brothels that she runs, any illicit ventures etc. are financed separately. The profit that has accrued from her family business is her constant, her back up, her safety net. Everything else is play money.

TWO. Her mother lives off-world, she cast into a clone a couple of years after her husband’s death and has long since re-married and has an assortment of children with her ‘new’ husband. She and Laurel do not speak, have not spoken since Laurel’s father’s funeral and Laurel has literally zero interest in her so-called extended family.

THREE. She has five other sleeves at her disposal at any given time, excluding the dozen or so clones of her current, younger self scattered across Earth / various other planets. One of them is her actual birth biological sleeve, maintained and kept in tip-top shape by medical experts. She has three male sleeves and three female sleeves, total that she keeps on standby for various business deals where her true identity needs to remain secret. Each of the non-her sleeves has a full work up and identity of its own that are what registers when the sleeve / stack is scanned – this is highly illegal and highly expensive, but given that identity erasure and replacement are part of the illegal services she offers, it’s easier for her to manage than most. She does not have any problem cross sleeving genders, ages or race, though she is not inclined to deal with sleeve sickness or potential insanity effects from dealing with inhabiting too many sleeves outside of her own so she only uses other sleeves for extremely important business meetings that cannot be done via virtual et al.

FOUR. This isn’t exclusive to AC but I haven’t mentioned it anywhere else yet and certain variations of it are more extreme and prevalent in AC so. Laurel is absolutely fascinated by death. Methods of death, how long things take, how much different people can endure before they die, ranging from types of deaths that are fairly instant or only a couple minutes to literally, deaths that take days and days and days, such as starvation or dehydration, etc. This extends, in all verses, to various poisons and venoms (and yes she is very particular on the distinction) and while it annoys her because law enforcement go ‘oh it’s poison it had to be a female they don’t commit violent murders’ type of thing, she is morbidly and utterly fascinated with the way that people react to poisons and venoms, especially because it can be so varied. This is all especially true in her Altered Carbon verse where she can literally experiment with a hundred different deaths on the same person and have that same person as a constant and the method of torture and death be the variable, unlike modern verses et al where she could kill twelve people the same way and they’d all be different, meaning, the scientific method of the whole shenanigans just doesn’t happen in any verse other than AC.

This is one of her favorite pastimes. Whether it’s someone who has pissed her off, or someone that simply needed erased, or, in superbly rare cases, sometimes, a client or customer that wants her to torture them to death repeatedly, it’s one of the more enjoyable features of stacks & virtual reality options available to her in this setting.

Side note: She is, for the right client, or the right partner, willing to play the flip side of that coin and be the one being tortured and/or killed via whatever methodology in virtual. She is incredibly careful about who she extends any such offer to in the Real. She might have extra sleeves and backups, but death is still unsettling to her in the flesh, even if she knows the brain can’t distinguish between the virtual and real death while in virtual, she’s still leery of it in the real world. Part of this is sheer vanity. Part of this is knowing she’d be missing memories and time and given her eidetic/photographic memory, any missing time drives her insane.

FIVE. She is as pansexual as it gets. She doesn’t care. She might be attracted to the intellect of a person or a particular physical feature or their propensity for violence or their fragility or the way they moan, honestly. Propensity for violence or being particularly innocent / naive / vulnerable are really high up on her ranking of what traits turn her on. Physicality is somewhere in the middle really, she is just as likely to get off bleeding someone out as she by actual sexual interactions so typical physical attraction has never been a prerequisite in her book.

#VERSE. ( laurel isley. ) ( altered carbon. )#VERSE. ( laurel isley. )#VERSE.#DO NOT REBLOG.

4 notes · View notes