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lov3nerdstuff · 4 years

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Voluptas Noctis Aeternae {Part 6.3}

*Severus Snape x OC*

Summary: It is the year 1983 when the ordinary life of Robin Mitchell takes a drastic turn: she is accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Despite the struggles of being a muggle-born in Slytherin, she soon discovers her passion for Potions, and even manages the impossible: gaining the favor of Severus Snape. Throughout the years, Robin finds that the not quite so ordinary Potions Professor goes from being a brooding stranger to being more than she had ever deemed possible. An ally, a mentor, a friend... and eventually, the person she loves the most. Through adventure, prophecies and the little struggles of daily life in a castle full of mysteries, Robin chooses a path for herself, an unlikely friendship blossoms into something more, and two people abandoned by the world can finally find a home.

General warnings: professor x student, blood, violence, trauma, neglectful families, bullying, cursing

Words: 4.9k

Read Part 1.1 here! All Parts can be found on the Masterlist!

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For the very first time when stepping onto the Hogwarts Express, Robin felt old. The majority of students was younger than her, and it made her painfully aware of how this was the second to last time she would ever feel the happiness of returning to Hogwarts. Luckily that only did little to taint her current excitement, and she mentally patted herself on the shoulder for being at the station so early. Most of the train was still empty, and thus Robin picked a cabin that promised the least walking traffic. Gosh, she couldn't wait to be back at school… as pathetically nerdy as that was.

"Robin!!!" Cas beamed the very second she opened the sliding door, and already had Robin wrapped in a tight hug before she could say hi in return. It was only then that Robin noticed just how much she had missed a simple hug. The luxury of a comforting touch was hard to come by these days, especially since the one person whose touch she craved the most stayed at a constant distance. But hugging Cas was lovely in its own right, and no less overwhelming in the sudden affection. Robin's eyes watered in an instant, but not enough to form real tears. God, hugs were nice…

"Hey Cas." She finally said, once the girl had let her go and now took the window seat that wasn't already occupied by Robin herself. For a few minutes they chatted about the postcard Cas had sent her, and then the entire process of being hugged was repeated as Jorien joined them in their compartment. Robin didn't mind in the least, she baked in every bit of affection she got.

"Your hair has gotten so long!" Jorien remarked, addressing Robin once they had gotten comfortable in their spaces for the long ride. Soon enough, the landscape flew by outside the window, and the sun blinded Robin enough to be a bother.

"I forgot to have it cut over summer the year." She shrugged in return, crossing her legs on the seat. "Perhaps I will do it myself at some point, I'm quite good with a knife by now."

"Don't you dare!" Cas intervened immediately. "It looks amazing just like that! All lush and bouncy and messy… You really don't know a thing about what looks good on you and what doesn't, huh?"

"Thanks." Robin replied flatly and rolled her eyes, which only made Cas groan in return.

"Come on, I didn't mean it as an insult! Your style is perfectly alright; it suits you well with all that… chromatic elegant grungy-ness. But you could use some help with the implementation of that style."

"I didn't even know I had a style in the first place." Robin shrugged and wrapped a loose curl around her finger only to release it again a few seconds later. Her hair almost went down to her waist at this point indeed, but if Cas thought it looked good… oh well. She could still cut it later in the year if it started bothering her. "I just wear whatever I like, usually."

"Which is perfectly alright." Jorien added in with a pointed look at Cas. "Not everyone thinks that school is a fashion show."

"Duh…" Cas rolled her eyes with a huff, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "I'm just trying to help. Maybe get Robin a little more male attention this term."

"Yeah, no, we are not having this conversation." Robin said before they could go any further into that direction. "So tell me… what did you guys do over the summer? Anything exciting?"

"What's even more interesting is what you did over the summer." Jorien smirked at Robin with just a little too much mischief in her eyes, but at least she was going along with the change of topic. "Melissa told me that she saw you in the newspaper!"

"Who's Melissa?"

"A classmate of ours." Cas sighed, finally letting go of her feigned pout. "She's become somewhat of a friend recently."

"Good!" Robin smiled, looking at the two girls sitting opposite to her with a hopefully encouraging expression. "I'm glad you're making friends other than me at last! Perhaps your peers are finally grown up enough to be real friend material."

"Don't distract from the question." Jorien cut in, and Robin sighed. She'd taught her too well. "Were you in the Daily Prophet or not?"

"I was indeed."

The two girls' eyes lit up in an instant. "Tell us all about it! What did you do, win some prize for your presumably amazing OWLs? Get arrested for thinking too fast? Cure some deadly disease?"

"Close." Robin laughed, and before she could think better of it, she pulled her locket out from under her shirt to summon up the rolled up picture she had put in there when she'd first cut it out of the newspaper. With a soft smile, she looked down at it for a moment, then handed the photograph to the two girls.

"Now that is a lovely outfit you're wearing here! But… wait a second… Is that Professor Snape standing behind you?!" Cas asked incredulously after a few seconds of staring at the picture. "Did you meet there by coincidence or something? Because in comparison to all the old men, you and him actually stand out quite a bit."

Robin bit her lip to keep from laughing. They indeed were by far the youngest in the picture; and it was close to impossible to miss them even in a group of over forty people.

"The picture was taken at a conference about potions, which we attended together this year." Robin explained, and went to store the picture back in her locket once Jorien had done her fair share of staring as well. "No coincidence about any of that. We went together on purpose."

"Boring…" Cas sighed, and leaned back in her seat. "I wouldn't dream of spending time with a teacher outside of school, nor to spend more time on potions than I have to. But I know you're crazy enough to enjoy both, so nevermind. Anyway, what else did you do during the holidays?"

"I had coffee with a friend, occasionally." Robin smiled to herself, thinking back to Friday. How they'd made the best pasta she's ever had, without any magic at all. How they'd just sat in the open window in the dark living room, listening to the rain drumming on the stone tiles of her patio while a chilly wind contrasted the warmth of the tea in her hands. How when he had left, it had been late enough to say until tomorrow.

"Uuhh…" Cas wiggled her eyebrows in the most ridiculous manner. "That kind of friend, yes? Your smile is such a tell."

"Not even close to it, Cas." Robin quirked an eyebrow at her in return, with an expression entirely humored and entirely feigned; no need to turn into a blushing mess in front of them. And except for the overall existence of such, her and Snape's Friday meetings had been painfully appropriate indeed. Still, they had a silent agreement that it would be best not to mention them to anyone. "We are not even on a hugging kind of level in our friendship, which is perfectly fine though. We talk about books a lot."

"Was it the same friend who gave you the bracelet?" Jorien inquired pointedly innocently, motioning to the three pieces of jewelry Robin still wore around her wrist every day.

"The very same. I don't have friends other than you and him."

"Why do you never talk about him if he's your only real friend? Besides us, I mean… but we're different." Cas frowned. "Will you at least tell us who he is?"

"It wouldn't help you even if I did… You don't know him at all." Robin said, thanking the English language for allowing her this equivocation.

"Is he in Slytherin too?" Jorien tried inquiring in a careful tone, with a curious expression she couldn't quite hide.

"Yes. No. Not exactly." Robin replied and rolled her eyes at herself. She should just shut the questions down immediately; this was coming dangerously close to a place in her mind she didn't want to speak of. But they would never stop asking if she shut them down now. Not like this.

"Not exactly? What's that supposed to mean?!"

"It means that he isn't a student at Hogwarts anymore." She said truthfully. "He graduated long before your first year even started."

"Darn it…" Cas groaned and rolled her eyes. "So that's why you never hang with him during the school year."

"Wait a second, if he graduated before we ever came to Hogwarts, how did he know that I was the right person to give you that bracelet last year?" Jorien frowned, giving Robin a highly questioning look. The girl really was too smart for her own good.

"I talked to him about you, silly!" Robin replied easily enough, as if it was the most obvious thing in existence. Always telling the truth was only difficult if one didn't practice it. "You've been my roomies for a while now, did you seriously expect me not to mention you?"

"Right… that makes sense." Jorien sighed, and her desire to question Robin disappeared along with her frown. "Anyway, what else is new?"

"Got me some new robes. Just because the school says we need black robes doesn't mean we all have to have the same boring students' robes they sell in Diagon Alley, eh? Also got dress robes for the new year's ball at last… you'll be positively surprised by those." Robin shrugged with a smirk, and now the sun finally bothered her enough to make her summon the small round sunglasses she had recently acquired out of the backpack next to her. As soon as she'd pushed them up her nose, the layer of darkness brought an immediate relief to her sore eyes. Who cares if it would get her some weird looks; not everyone could be a worshipper of the sun. "That's about it for me and my summer. What's new with you guys?"

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The best thing about being in sixth year now was that Robin only had to take the subjects she actually cared about. No more history of magic, no more astronomy, no more divination… school was way more fun without those redundant classes. With the list of courses she wished to attend already being fixed, it had been ridiculously easy to set up her schedule on the first day of classes, and the week had started off relatively smoothly.

Professor Morgan's jaw had dropped quite literally when Robin had sauntered into his classroom on the first day of defense against the dark arts class, sitting down in her usual spot and looking indifferent to him as ever. Honestly, she couldn't have cared less if he was upset that she was continuing his class. She was here to learn, and if he couldn't be professional beyond his hatred for her, then she would just have to do the same thing she'd done since first year: study for herself and ignore Morgan as much as possible.

Other than that, Robin loved the courses she was taking; N.E.W.T. level classes were a lot more demanding in their magic and assignments, but still no real challenge to Robin no matter how much she'd hoped they would be. They were fun though, and the assignments were actually enjoyable to complete most of the time.

Outside of classes, she continued working on her handbook whenever she could, adding details and new information on a daily basis, and somehow she'd also ended up adding little drawings or clippings she'd been able to get her hands on to the correlating pages. By the middle of October, Robin felt like her project had finally reached a presentable state, and while she wasn't nearly done in her own eyes, the thick journal she had used was almost completely filled up by now. It was only then, on a lovely bleak Saturday, that she finally decided it was time to show her work to Snape at long last.

Saturday meant that Robin first of all spent a good while after breakfast tutoring Cas, Jorien, and Melissa (who somehow always tagged along with the two of them now) in transfiguration. When they moved on to potions after that, a few other third years overheard that Robin was very much knowledgeable in the subject, and they reluctantly asked if they could join the class. The shy request made Robin smile to herself, and she graciously agreed to accept them as her students for the day. In the end, they needed to move to a bigger room, for Robin ended up with sixteen students of various houses who wanted to listen to her going over the last month worth of third year potions class.

So really it was only after lunch when Robin finally had the time to find Snape in his office. Just out of a spree, she actually knocked before she entered for once, then however continued on in as usual, without waiting for a reply.

"Hey…" She smiled at him while she moved over to the side table to drop her backpack on her chair. "What are you doing?"

"Inflicting terror and remorse, one idiot at a time." Snape sighed in a pointed tone, and Robin had to chuckle. It shouldn't amuse her so much that he was so annoyed with his students… but after three hours of tutoring, she was simply amused by the fact that he looked just like she felt.

"Ah, same old then." She grinned, and was just about to grab her secret project out of her backpack to proudly present it to him as a hopefully welcome distraction, when he muttered something under his breath, subconsciously, followed by a quiet sigh that was almost plaintive even. Perhaps… this wasn't a good time. Robin let her notebook drop back into her backpack and turned around to look at him instead, sitting down on the edge of the small table.

Snape was bent over some parchment on his own desk with a deep frown on his face, looking partially annoyed, mostly frustrated and entirely done with whatever it was he had to do. Robin could practically feel the stress radiating off him, and it strongly supported her decision to lay off with her plans of showing him her project for now. Presenting him with more research and books surely wasn't something that would better the situation, which in return was all Robin could currently think of doing.

"Can I do anything to help you?" She asked first of all, raising her eyebrows in a hopeful expression when he looked up at her for a few short seconds.

"Not unless you want to suffer the same slow death by utter nonsense that was forced upon me with these second year essays." He replied in an annoyed tone, frowning back down at the desk and aggressively scribbling an overly large Dreadful on the parchment in front of him. Robin found that she pitied Snape just as much as his students in that moment, and she knew that for everyone's sake, she would have to come up with something other than chocolate cake.

"Alright, come on." She said determinedly, then pushed herself off the table and brushed imaginary dust off her black jeans. "There is something way more important to do than grading second year essays right now."

"And what would that be?" He raised an eyebrow at her in return, but already dropped his quill on the desk so abruptly that little sprinkles of ink dusted over the next essay paper as well as his hand.

"Going for a walk with me." Robin grinned as she summoned a jumper out of her backpack and then moved to put it on over her henley shirt. The second one she owned now, thanks to the positive remarks she had gotten for it. "I want to show you something."

Admittedly, that something probably wouldn't impress him nearly as much as her handbook would, and Robin had never really considered showing it to him in the first place, but somehow the little sprinkles of black ink on his pale skin had convinced her that it might be worth a try. What she wanted to show him was neither related to potions nor to anything else in that regard at all, it was practically useless but for its potential to delight with its mere existence. So really, all Robin hoped for was that he wouldn't be mad at her for dragging him outside for something as pathetic as that. And still, a part of her couldn't wait for him to see it. With a grin, she motioned for him to come along as she made towards the door.

Snape didn't even try to protest as he rose to his feet to go along with her plan, keeping his eyes on her with a subtly curious frown. Meanwhile Robin wondered when exactly she had reached a point with him where she could just burst into the room and suggested something like this, and he would drop what he was doing in an instant to go with her. Alright, she would do and had done the very same for him as well, but that was different! He just could've told her to scurry off and stop distracting him from his work. But he hadn't, and that made her heart swell in the most pleasant way as she sauntered out into the hallway, where he soon followed before locking the door.

Together they made their way through some of the most desolate corridors and passageways, avoiding as many people as possible until they arrived under the blindingly white sky at last. A chilly wind, swaying trees and the smell of impending rain greeted them, wrapping around Robin's senses like a silken sliver of liquid calm. A perfect day for a walk, and an even more perfect one for what she wanted him to see.

"Lead the way then." He said as they gained a distance to the walls of the castle. "Or is there no precise destination you wish to go?"

"Not really, no." Robin chuckled in return and crossed her arms over her chest for some warmth. It wasn't freezing, but her jumper was barely warm enough. "It's a spell I want to show you."

"A spell that requires us to leave the castle?"

"You'll see, believe me. But other than that, I simply wanted to take a walk and you looked like you could use some air as well."

He returned a quiet hum in acknowledgement, perhaps agreement even, and they continued to make their way down the hill in comfortable silence. It really had been a while since they had taken a walk like this, just for fun. A while long enough for Robin to forget if they had always been walking next to each other so… closely. It was quite distracting to feel his presence next to her on a constant basis, scorching her entire right side and making her skin crawl. But then again, the mere fact that he was here with her was quite delightful on its own.

For a while they aimlessly wandered through the landscape, sometimes following the paths and sometimes straying away on purpose, through the trees that were torn between an early winter's desolate death and a late autumn's colourful beauty. When they finally found themselves on the shore of the black lake, the place that seemed to hold an inevitable gravity on Robin, the October chill was already sitting deep in her bones. But so was the calm.

"Perhaps we should return to the castle before it starts to rain." Snape remarked, but made no attempt to turn around as he stood with Robin on the waterline, overlooking the mildly crinkling but ever vast surface of the lake. A black mirror.

"I still want to show you that spell." She replied easily, smiling to herself as her eyes lifted from the deep dark grey of the water to the almost blinding greyish white of the sky above them. "I merely had to wait for the right moment."

"And when would that be?" He inquired with a layer of curiosity in his tone, as a crashing thunder rippled through the bubble of serenity that surrounded them.

"Now." Robin replied with a soft smile, then she pulled her wand out of her sleeve and pointed it up at the sky. All she heard for a few seconds was her own breathing, her own heartbeat, and the faint lapping of water at the stones beneath her feet. Focus… Breathe. "Lux obscurius."

The white sky, blinding in its cold brightness. A black lightning, a bolt of utmost darkness, cutting through the white and splitting time for a broken second. Veiling the world in darkness. And then, light again, accompanied by absolute silence. The drowning out of every sound, every noise absent and gone for the duration of this negative of thunder. A heartbeat later, the wind whispered again, the water rolled over the pebbles, and Robin let out the quiet breath she had been holding. A perfect lightning of darkness, a perfect thunder of soundlessness.

"It's quite useless, is it not?" She chuckled nervously after a moment, turning to look at Snape with a small frown and a weak half smile. Damn his enigmatic expression, damn his silence; she had no idea what he thought. "I was just experimenting. Again. It really isn't anything special, it's just-..."

"It is a piece of art if I have ever seen one." He interrupted her, holding her gaze with the barest hint of sincere awe shining through the intricately woven layer of burning emotions Robin couldn't separate into graspable strings. A layer that she only now understood to be the very same as his facade of neutrality. "You should show it to someone who is capable of being moved by such delicate beauty."

"I believe I just did." She replied with a small smile, and his brows furrowed into a frown that was more defense than accusation. Robin understood that he didn't want her to know… but she wanted him to understand that she knew anyway. "You are bleeding emotions, you know… Out of invisible wounds that are unfathomable in their origin to me, but still I can feel you bleeding like you saw the crimson on your fingertips when I did."

For a moment he just stared at Robin, and she in return observed how his chest rose and fell with every breath he took. It was a calming sight, intimate and distant at once. They still stood on the shore, still tempting fate to open up the skies in an orchestration of water, sound and wind. But for the moment, time was frozen.

"You are so very receptive of some matters, and yet so very blind to others. Why, pray tell, do I fall into the former category?" He finally inquired without any spite, and Robin realized just how much she had hoped that he wouldn't just shut her out entirely. Relief drowned that spark of fear before it could root.

"Because I care to look, and you allow me to see." She replied easily, confidently almost, in the knowledge that it was true what she said.

"That's ridiculous... I most definitely do not!" He scoffed with a sullen look, but as Robin quirked an eyebrow at him in doubt, he rolled his eyes exaggeratedly. "Fine, perhaps I do. Unintentionally, I should say. What you are supposed to see is annoyance, and occasionally anger."

"Anger is the only emotion that doesn't make you vulnerable by showing it." She shrugged, offering him another small smile that hopefully portrayed understanding rather than disregard of what he was saying. "And the more vulnerable you feel, the more anger comes pouring out of you. Always lashing out, before anyone else has the chance to hurt you first. It's only self-preservation, really. I tend to do the same."

"How do you do it?"

"What?"

"Knowing."

"As I said, I care to look." Robin's smile widened a little, and she shrugged one shoulder. "And you let me see."

"Don't get me started on what you let me see." He huffed, but there was undoubtedly a spark of humor in his voice, now made room for by the vanishing defensiveness. He didn't deny her statement, not again. "For example, I can always tell when you so desperately try to hide your wish to disagree with me in class."

Robin's lips parted as they curled into a large smile, then she had to laugh after a second of surprise. "Well, at least I try not to be an insufferable know-it-all in front of the entire class!"

"You are quite insufferable as it is, but you do know a lot indeed. Next time you want to disagree with me, humor me by trying, will you?"

"You know I'll succeed anyway."

"We should have to see about that." He quirked an eyebrow at her with a not-smirk, clasping his hands behind his back just as the first raindrops ruffled the surface of the lake.

The wind picked up as well, blowing Robin's hair into her face despite the ponytail she'd put it into, but she kept on smiling even as heavy pearls of water hit her lips, her neck, her lashes, each one a beautiful reminder of how intensely and desperately alive she felt in that moment. Sometimes the world ended with a bang, sometimes with a whisper. And perhaps it was reborn the same way.

A bright flash cut through her vision, lightning followed by a deafening thunder, and hell broke loose at last. In an instant the rain doubled in speed, faster and louder and stronger and colder, but Robin only closed her eyes as she smiled up at the sky to let the rain pearl down onto her face. The water soaked through the fabric of her jumper in an instant, stinging her skin in a sodden cold, but it held nothing against the pleasure of raw passion that tided through her at the same time.

When Robin opened her eyes at last, an entire legion of dark lightnings surged through the sky in a web of black ink, hitting the world in a display of brutal fragility. Soundlessness, inevitably drowning out the rain and the wind, as loud in its silence as a crash of thunder in its noise. Then it was just the rain again, putting everything into perspective as Robin finally lowered her gaze from the skies to look at Snape.

He still seemed to be mostly dry, standing under the faint glow of his umbrella spell, and he observed Robin with an expression that, for him, looked almost sincerely happy. The sight squeezed Robin's heart in pure adoration, and she couldn't help but smile while rain dropped down from her lashes and onto her lips.

"You are insufferable." He mused with a small smirk and the most obvious teasing expression.

Robin chuckled in return, shaking her head to herself as she crossed her arms over her chest to at least keep some of her warmth. By now, she was entirely drenched. "What did I do this time?"

"For one, you showed me one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen."

"The spell?"

"Passion." He said without the slightest hint of discomfort, as if it was just another easy fact, and that one mere word set Robin's skin ablaze and her heart under electricity. Damn…

"But…" He added before long, and Robin got the impression that he finally caught on to what he had said. "You are also entirely sodden, and I have to return you to the castle somehow before you turn into an icicle. So get yourself an umbrella before I take pity on you."

"Sure, as soon as you tell me the spell to do so." Robin smiled, giving him a small shrug while she leaned her head to the side. Really, they taught spells for turning animals into drinking cups at school, but not how to conjure up an umbrella. Education… Ironic.

"Perhaps another time." He replied with a hint of a smile as he took the one remaining step to stand next to her, then he wrapped his arm tightly around her shoulders at last.

Robin let herself be pulled close more than gladly, under the dry space of the umbrella and into his side. A moment later the water melted off her skin, fading from her clothes into a thin mist that was blown into the wind and disappeared altogether within a few seconds, leaving her dry enough to bask in the warmth that radiated off him. Gods, he was warm indeed… and his touch still heavenly as ever. She smiled down at the path beneath her feet then, and leaned into his side just a little bit more than she had to as they made their way back towards the castle. If he noticed at all, he made no attempt to protest.

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68 notes · View notes

soiruntotheriver · 4 years

Note

(9) In summary, when things get hard, does Silver go back to what he knows: being out for himself, lost in creating his “perfect” life, even if it means losing the person who loves him/he loves, all stemming from his repression in realizing his feelings, in repressing his past, an inability to stand being truly seen, and therefore an inability in being an honest, equal partner?

Alright, my dude, you’ve got me doing a deep dive on this one haha. I actually went back and re-watched the last three episodes and took notes to sort all this out in my head. Hopefully it all makes sense. This is all about Flint and Silver’s motivations and the actions they take to achieve their goals towards the end of the series. It’s gonna be a long one, so buckle in. As Jack Rackham once said: “Please forgive me, I will go on from time to time, but generally in the service of thoroughness...” I’m gonna post this under the last of your asks, as I believe it addresses most of your points. If I leave anything out please let me know.

Alright so, *crack knuckles* here we go:

For context: Rackham and Max have gone to create an alliance with Marion Guthrie in Philadelphia, Billy has gone to Rogers to show him how to divide Flint from Silver, and Madi has been taken prisoner.

Early in episode 8 we get the first of a number of similar conversations between Silver and Flint concerning the war. This one has Silver asking what’s going to happen after their current conflict. He points out that any time Nassau hasn’t had a someone to lead/support it (Eleanor, Rackham, Rogers) it becomes a place of horrors. If this is meant to be a period of transition, what’s on the other side? Something better, something meaningful? He asks:

‘But what if it isn't? What if the result of this war isn't beyond the horror, what if it is the horror itself. Have you given this any thought at all?’

To which Flint replies that to be rid of England and fashion something else, he knows that they will have to go through a period of darkness and seeming hopelessness. But that he has to believe that it will be worth it and that progress is possible. Silver responds by saying that’s a lot of potential suffering to wager on blind faith. Flint assures that with the right people in place they can get through it. He also states that those people are meant to be Madi and Silver, and that Madi is just as important to realizing their goals as the cache.

So Silver agrees to try Flint’s plan to retrieve Madi, but he still brings the treasure along just in case this all goes sideways. And it does. Rogers just starts shooting people willy-nilly which even Flint seems surprised about. Just as Rogers is about to blow Madi’s head off, Silver shows him the chest and next thing we know we’re on our way to Skeleton Island to make the exchange. On the way there Flint yells at Silver about how he’s just given Julius more leverage against the cause and crippled the war effort. Silver retorts by telling Flint that they’ll make do somehow and demands his support in this venture. He points out the numerous times he’s helped Flint even though he didn’t necessarily understand or agree with him.

‘My god. The number of times I have followed you blindly, backed you with the men blindly, put men in the fucking ground…good men! Friends! Because you said, “I know the way. "Don’t ask me how. Just do as I say.”’

Silver asks again if Flint will support him and Flint answers: “Yes.”

Shortly after this we have two great conversations happening in parallel: Silver with Hands and Flint with Dooley. Hands tries to convince Silver that Flint is Bad and must be killed. Silver asserts that he trusts Flint. Hands says that a crown can’t be split two ways and that he knows that Silver actually wants Flint dead, he just doesn’t know how to ask for it. To which Silver responds:

‘Hear me very clearly, there is no hidden message and no equivocation, you will make no move against him, you will not speak of doing so to any man on this crew nor to me again. Do it, and you'll answer for it.’

Meanwhile, Flint is telling the legend of skeleton island to Dooley in order to bring up the subject of men loosing their wits. He asserts that he believes Silver is compromised and so he (Flint) finds himself in need of a new partner. Dooley agrees and they go to fetch the gold, almost getting killed by another crew member in the process. They are saved by Hands who tells Flint he wants them to go ahead and take the treasure so that Silver will see Flint’s true colors. The end of the episode has Silver witnessing this betrayal and deciding to send men out after Flint, ostensibly to kill him, though I think he knew those men were not a match for Flint and really just wanted to find out where he was going so that he could get the treasure back.

In a fit of true diabolical evil, our writers chose to follow up this last scene from episode 8 by opening episode 9 with the first flashback of Flint and Silver’s fencing lessons. I literally said “Oh, no” to myself several times aloud as I watched Silver climb that hill to the bluffs.

Now these are lovely scenes I could go on about forever, but the most important takeaway for me right now, is that Flint realizes he doesn’t know anything about Silver’s past. Silver says that his past isn’t important. Flint argues that that’s not true. From Flint’s perspective, he’s revealed himself to Silver, given him his history, which defines him, and also the tools Silver needs to guess at Flint’s future actions. Flint goes on to insinuate that Silver wormed his way into Flint’s story by comparing himself to Flint’s former ill-fated partners. That he did this in order to use Flint’s affection for him to make it more difficult for Flint to act against him later. Silver is disquieted by Flint calling his bluff and seems thrown by that last comment in particular, mostly because I don’t think Silver consciously meant to manipulate him that way at all. Flint says he’s not angry with him but Silver is too overwhelmed to continue. He asks if it’s okay if they resume tomorrow, and flees.

I want to revisit the fireside chat here for a moment in order to point out that Silver was, in fact, already very deeply in the story by that point, a story he’d been made a part of largely against his will (by his injury, by Flint’s machinations, by Billy, etc.). In regards to Silver’s motivations during that conversation, I always assumed them to be exactly what they seemed to be: He wanted to understand why Flint was so driven to wage war and he wanted to voice a real, actual warning that he himself might prove to be Flint’s undoing. Flint responds in a way that makes me think he either A. didn’t think Silver would betray him or B. he didn’t think that Silver could get the better of him.

This is an important moment of dissonance between them, because it repeats itself in the sword lesson flashback: Silver asks if Flint is worried about the fact that he’s essentially teaching Silver to best him in combat and Flint waves him off with a smile, saying he’ll take his chances.

The most significant moment within the flashbacks comes when Silver finally finds the words to outline his philosophy and frame his decision not to share his past. I actually think this scene gives Flint all he needs to know about Silver as a person (in terms of being able to anticipate Silver’s future actions), though I’m not sure in that moment he could really wrap his head around it. Knowing the details of Silver’s past are not necessary when you realize that they did, in fact, define him and one can use that knowledge to recognize the ways in which they shape his future decisions.

Silver maintains that he is not trying to hide anything, he merely absolved himself from the obligation of finding any relevance in his own story because there is no coherence, ‘nor sense, nor grace’ to be found in life. But more than that it’s because he’s experienced ‘events some of which no one could divine any meaning from, other than the world is a place of unending horrors.’ He says that Flint knows of him all that’s relevant to be known and swears that Flint has his true friendship. He asks if it is enough for there to be trust between them and Flint, not quite sure what to make of all this, answers by resuming their lesson.

Intermixed with these flashbacks are our real-time scenes, some of which I want to touch on to check in on Silver and Flint’s states of mind. As Silver and Hands pursue Flint in the forest, Hands asserts that he believes Silver will keep finding reasons to forget everyone’s warnings about Flint. He also mentions when Silver tells the men to split up to find Flint that he’s sending at least one group of them to their deaths. Hands makes a point of saying that Silver’s decision here shows that he’s learned a lot from Flint. Aka, Silver is willing to sacrifice other’s lives to reach his own ends. Silver seems uncomfortable with the comparison, likely because he sees the truth in it. Silver’s desire to not be like Flint is very important in the final moments of the show and will come again up later. Silver admits to Hands that he’s not sure if Flint actually wants to save Madi for the sake of it or if it’s just part of his larger machinations. It’s key to note that Silver’s trust in Flint is degrading further. Both because of Silver’s inherent pessimism, and because of Flint’s own actions.

Meanwhile, Flint and Dooley are doubling back to the chest after having chucked it over an embankment to throw Silver’s party off their scent. Dooley essentially tries to convince Flint that Silver might become a liability. Flint defends Silver but Dooley’s like, yeah, but if it comes to it I’ll kill him for you. The look on Flint’s face clearly shows how not okay he is with the thought of Silver dying, but he keeps his reservations to himself for now. At this point, it is important to acknowledge that neither Silver nor Flint wants the other dead. They are both still trying to outmaneuver each other in order to reach their goals.

Silver finally catches up to Flint which leads us to another Important Conversation wherein Silver states that if the war were to continue it would be just like this, forever - lies, betrayals, death. He also tells Flint that he understands Flint’s motivations more fully now because he’s suffered a similar loss. When Madi was presumed dead, he wanted to give her sacrifice meaning by waging battles in her name. But he says that underneath that desire was the thing that Flint himself taught him to recognize: rage. In a very Miranda moment, Silver tells Flint that part of what drives him is wanting to watch the world burn. This is another way in which Silver does not want to be like Flint.

After this is a deeply depressing flashback wherein Silver is trying to explain his relationship with Flint to Madi by saying: ‘I have earned his respect, after all the tragedies that man has suffered (...) I have earned his trust, I have his true friendship. And so he's going to have mine. And as long as that is true, I cannot imagine what is possible.’ And all of our hearts break a little to think of what could’ve been. Because, as I mentioned before, Silver no longer believes he can trust Flint and so he no longer has faith in their friendship.

The episode ends with Rogers blowing up the Walrus which puts a hold on Flint and Silver’s duel and forces them to ally once again with Rackham. Flint makes a little speech about how their priority is to rescue Madi and tells Jack he’s taking over command of the ship to facilitate that end. The next episode starts with Silver questioning Flint’s motives, sure that he’s only placating John whilst continuing his scheming. Flint throws him by offering a very candid and heartfelt reply about how he isn’t sure he wouldn’t have acted exactly as Silver had if it were Thomas’s life on the line. He states that he meant it when he promised he’d see John through this and still wants to put things back together. Silver is visibly torn over whether or not he believes what Flint is saying.

Alright, we can now fast forward to the Final Confrontation. Flint, realizing that something has passed between Silver and Jack that smacks of betrayal, halts their trek through the woods in order to question Silver about it. Silver can’t bring himself to lie. He asks Flint how much more ‘measuring of lives and loves and spirits’ there will be ‘so that they may be wagered in the grand game. How many casualties can be tolerated for the cause, how much loss?’ So it’s not just Madi’s life he’s concerned for, not just his own or Flint’s. He mentions the men, women, and children who have already died for this, who will continue to die for this. And he cannot see where the line might be, because Flint has yet to draw one - this is a man who frequently endangers himself, killed his best friend, sacrificed crew members, murdered innocent civilians, and has no qualms betraying his allies. I think Silver legitimately believes that Flint will stop at nothing. That’s why it’s not a war to Silver, not like any other, instead it’s a ‘fucking nightmare.’

When Flint insists that Silver stopping the war will mean that they will have been for nothing, that this is how the powers-that-be win, that they’ll be distorted to fit false narratives, Silver asserts that he doesn’t care. I personally don’t find this surprising at all, given how little Silver cares about his own personal narrative. I also don’t think that Silver Doesn’t Care At All, it just means that he doesn’t care enough for it to change his mind. I mean he’s lost a leg for these people, risked his life and freedom for this cause, allowed himself to be molded into a better partner for Flint. When Silver opened himself up to a partnership/friendship with Flint and later to a partnership/romance with Madi, he was choosing to allow meaning back into his life. He became a part of a story. But he’s not totally invested in the story itself. He’s mostly just invested in the people in it. Because what does it matter what strangers say after he’s dead? Life up to this point has been about grabbing onto whatever you can in the moment and enjoying it until it is inevitably taken away from you. Experience has relentlessly taught him to have low expectations. So while I think he cares about his relationship with Flint, is proud of what they were able to achieve together, would like to change the world for the better, and wants to be worthy of Madi, none of those goals/states of being are as achievable to him in this moment as ending the war.

I’m not sure that Silver believes that a “good life” with Madi is possible after this - Flint points out that she won’t forgive him for taking the war away and I think Silver knows that’s true - but he’s willing to go for some kind of reconciliation at least. I also don’t think Silver is factoring a post-conflict relationship with Flint in at all - as far as he’s concerned either Flint will be safe somewhere far away with Thomas or Silver will be forced to kill him.

This leads us up to the ending. I personally don’t believe that Silver killed Flint. I feel that’s an important distinction to make when trying to make sense of Silver’s decisions. I won’t go into all the reasons I believe this, in the interests of keeping this thing under ten thousand words, but I will mention a few.

Firstly, as I mentioned above, I think that Silver honestly didn’t want to turn into Flint. When Madi say she thinks he’s lying about not murdering Flint, Silver says that he’s not the villain she fears he is, he’s not him. I think this is in reference to Flint killing his friends to further his goals. I also believe that Silver thought that giving Thomas back to Flint was the key to Madi’s forgiveness and so I think he would have done it for real in case she ever checked up on it. However, I do also think that Silver embellished the story of Flint’s reunion with Thomas. What parts were true and which were false, who can say? He just sounds like he’s dressing up the story a bit, both for Madi’s sake and for his own.

The second main reason why I think Silver’s story checks out actually involves Rackham. Jack tells Marion Guthrie that Flint has retired. Why would he lie about that when telling her Flint was dead would more thoroughly assuage her concerns? He mentions that Flint retiring was a better story to sell the Maroons, but at this point, the treaty has already been signed, so why keep up the fiction?

The third and most tenuous thought I have about it is that Silver uses his “I’ll wait a day, a week...” etc. line on Madi because it actually worked previously on Flint. Maybe some of Flint’s anguish in the woods is over the fact that he’s going to do what Silver’s asking him to do. Maybe he doesn’t want Silver to have to kill him so he gives in and gives up his war.

In conclusion, and to answer one of your questions directly, I think that characterizing Flint as someone who just wants to sate his rage is just as limiting as characterizing Silver as someone who just wants to take the easy way out. And I think that saying that Flint’s motives for reforming the world were noble is as incomplete as saying that Silver just wanted to save the ones he loved at the cost of everything else. All of those things, and more, are simultaneously true.

For me, Flint and Silver were both bad men and good men. Both had room to grow. Both made choices for each other. Both manipulated each other and made mistakes. Both were forced to make quick decisions under enormous amounts of pressure. They were both angry and afraid and courageous and loyal and deceitful and kind. They were both very very human.

It might not seem like it, but I’m more of a Flint irl. Maybe that’s why I’ve tried so hard to understand Silver, because his motivations were a bit more foreign to me at first. I’ve come to love and sympathize with both of them - which is why I continue to talk about them incessantly and devour fan works - especially the ones that get these two to finally work out their issues. If you’re ever looking for fic recs, btw, please do let me know. A lot of this meta is fleshed out beautifully in fan fiction. And those authors say it more profoundly and elegantly than I could ever hope to.

#james flint #john silver #Black Sails #black sails meta #hoo boy it's a long one folks #black sails s4 #this is practically a play by play

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theregoesmylurkerstatus · 4 years

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Essek meta: the monster post

(Beware, long post incoming)

I’ve been sitting on my thoughts on Essek for days, and pretty much all my asks have been on the subject. I decided that instead of answering them all, I’d do my best to gather all my thoughts and reasoning into one post.

At this stage, there’s no solid evidence for or against Essek’s goals and morals being opposed to the Mighty Nein’s. Circumstantial evidence, yes. He’s been very accomodating, but not necessarily suspiciously so. There have been small hints that maybe he’d rather do things the Mighty Nein’s way, not the Bright Queen’s.

And I will say this: prior to this episode, even good insight checks apparently revealed nothing alarming about Essek or his motives. They didn’t entirely absolve him of suspicion, but neither did they create more.

In fact, the main cause for concern this episode was that Essek’s behaviour seems to have changed. Nott says he was acting “funky,” which implies she was using her previous experience with him as a basis for comparison. She goes on to equivocate with “we haven’t seen him in a while...”

However (and this is going to be a bit controversial), I think people are being a bit wilfully blind in regards to Essek. Many, many metas pointing out that Essek may just be at the end of his rope, tired, and wanting someone to rely on (while hoping that he can do so on the Mighty Nein).

They’re all good, solid theories, and I hope that they’re true! But but in the end there are factors I’ve notice that make me reluctant to buy into it wholesale.

Nott asked Caleb to scry on Adeen, not Essek. If she was concerned about Essek in general, wouldn’t she ask to check in on him? Sure, you can say “Essek is a powerful wizard, he’s probably protected,” but you could say the same of a max security prisoner who’s being actively watched over. Caleb literally only turned the idea down because of that. Hell, even Nott knew that! She starts with, “would it be a terrible idea...” when she pitches scrying on Adeen. And yet, she suggested it anyway.

Nott must have thought there would be something to gain by looking at Adeen, which means this isn’t just about Essek’s demeanor. It’s about his relationship to Adeen specifically. She says, “Something about the way that he was behaving when we were at that prison was funny to me.”

It’s not just Essek being overworked or tired in general. It’s Essek on this specific matter. And no matter how drunk or silly Nott can be, she’s not stupid. She’s fucking smart. She was the second smartest member of the party until Beau got the circlet. Nott rarely brings up genuine, serious concerns, and she treated this with nervous gravity.

Obviously the players can misinterpret what they get from whispers, but I don’t think Matt leaves it so open to interpretation that Nott could notice things that point to simple (if extreme) stress and misinterpret it as Essek being shady.

Consider this, too: in the conversation leading up to Fjord’s “interrogation” of Adeen, Essek insists multiple times that they used various means to force the truth from Adeen, and that while Adeen initially insisted he had no idea what was going on (as any traitor would), “we managed to excise the truth, and the Taskhand has, ah, given his hand, if you will.”

And yet as soon as Fjord goes in there, Adeen displays confusion, distress, and readily admits that he has no idea what’s going on while confessing he does think he did things (that he also insists he would never do). How the hell would Essek & Co have missed that?

I suppose you could say that Adeen may have been answering pointed questions during interrogation, and they would have ignored any “I don’t know” type answers, but still. It’s a pretty big fucking thing to miss.

Essek didn’t immediately go to the Bright Queen with the information on Adeen, but he clearly intended to speak with her soon, and only put it off to see the Mighty Nein first. When the Nein propose that all of them go to see the Bright Queen together, Essek is enthusiastic, and prompts for them to go immediately, only waiting when the Nein express an interest in Adeen. He is again the one to prompt a meeting with the Bright Queen after returning from checking Adeen for a mark.

So, in my eyes, his decision to go to meet the Nein briefly before seeing the Bright Queen was not a reflection of his hesitancy to implicate or even condemn Adeen to the Bright Queen, but rather came from the knowledge that the Nein would have important and relevant information. As he said, he didn’t want to give information to the Bright Queen “piecemeal.” He’d rather wait and give her a full report. Waiting to see what the Nein had to offer fits in perfectly with that attitude.

Essek is very, very good at being non-defensive, rational, reasonable, and even agreeable. He listens to the Nein when they start theorising about Adeen possibly being under magical influence. He agrees to the points they make. He readily entertains their notions... without pushing any of them any further, and without putting forward HIS thoughts on the matter.

I don’t believe he was reluctant to throw Adeen under the bus. He didn’t bring up the mind control theory to the Bright Queen at all. Jester literally says, “I thought Essek would...” before launching into her “Adeen may not be guilty” pitch.

Nott’s insight was instigated on Essek’s return from checking Adeen for a mark, though she clearly got insight as to his behaviour earlier in the prison as well. That may imply that Essek was not completely honest about his search of Adeen for evidence of mind control.

Clearly, the mind control theory isn’t one Essek was personally enthused about.

Possibly relevantly, an anon pointed out:

Rewatching the scene, anon is right. Yes, technically Adeen is banging his head against the wall, but he doesn't knock himself out. He “exhales” and starts snoring. And remember, Matt ruled that a creature willingly banging their own head against something wasn’t enough to fall unconscious. So... Adeen fell asleep? In the middle of a distressed, high emotion downward spiral? With Essek, a highly adept wizard, waiting and watching in the shadows? Hm. Could be innocent. It’s perfectly understandable that someone who’s been through as much mental, emotional, and physical duress as Adeen has would be exhausted. But in light of everything else I’m trying to unpack here, I though it was worth noting.

All of the suspicion of Essek is wrapped up with Adeen, and other relevant factors point to him not especially wanting Adeen to be absolved of guilt. This could mean many things: he’s the traitor, he has it out for Adeen specifically, he’s hiding some information he discovered relevant to Adeen, he just wants the search for the traitor to be over with. Who knows? But I certainly don’t believe Nott was simply observing high stress from his job.

In the end, the real evidence against Essek's guilt, to any degree, is his personality. Critters like him. The Nein like him. He’s been a helpful ally who everyone seems to fall head over heels for without Essek trying for that kind of reception (see Matt’s confusion at him being instantly labeled “hot boi”). People are eager to look to his personality, his current position, and give him sympathetic internal reasoning that is pure supposition.

Again, it’s good supposition! They’re good theories! But I don’t think you can discount or sweep under the rug the causes for concern so easily.

To be quite frank, we still have no solid evidence against Essek being the/a traitor, while we HAVE been given cause to doubt his complete innocence. The fandom bias towards him especially makes me a bit reluctant to accept the lenient answer straight off the bat.

I think that there’s something more going on with him. I’m also not convinced he’s a traitor, especially not long term. There’s simply not enough for me to go off of in making up my mind. But I felt it was necessary to point out that the concern about Essek in this instance has real merit, and I wasn’t really seeing that brought up and discussed.

So... here you go, I guess?

#critical role #cr spoilers #c2e90 #speculation #ramblings #essik #anon with the mind control theory screenshotted above: i have a separate answer for that theory don't worry #I'm prepared for this to be very unpopular (understandably) but i had to get my thoughts and doubts out there #also ill probably miss talks live but ill ALSO probably watch it later tonight or tomorrow

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marril96 · 4 years

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The Distance Between Us

Chapter 28: Public Affairs

Pairing: Rowena x reader

Summary: Not everyone is accepting of your and Rowena’s relationship.

Editor: @miss-moon-guardian

*****

The idea of walking into school hand in hand with Rowena was terrifying, yet it was exactly what you did.

The two of you had discussed it in detail last night. Following your kissing session, you'd gone back to Wonderland, reclaimed your table, ordered some more delicious tea to thaw off the cold in your bones, and talked this thing you had through.

It was still, even with a night of sleep later, hard to believe it really was a thing. That it wasn't some elaborate joke, or a daydream, or a strangely vivid dream.

You and Rowena together.

Together together.

A couple.

The mere memory of it, of her lips on yours, of her hand gripping yours up until you departed sent your nerves into overdrive.

You'd talked about school. About everything that had happened — with Lucifer, with your friends. Questioned whether it would be safe to be open about your relationship — your relationship! — with all the rumors going around. All the while your hands remained linked, fingers a tight knot.

The decision was to go public.

If anyone had objections, they were free to talk to your fist.

You'd waited so long for this. Spent weeks dreaming about it, thinking up wild fantasies. Now that she was finally yours — now that you knew she felt the same, that she loved you just as much as you loved her — you weren't going to hide her.

Just the opposite — as much as you were nervous about other kids' reactions, you wanted nothing but to show her off.

Let the world see what a gorgeous girlfriend you had.

Let them be angry.

Let them be jealous.

She was yours and you were hers and if anyone had an issue with that — well, tough luck.

You walked into school hand in hand. The usual gossipers threw glances and whispered among themselves. A few kids chuckled. A couple uttered words that didn't belong in the twenty first century, which you pretended not to hear.

Nobody was going to ruin this day for you.

Especially not some asshole nobodies.

Every time you noticed someone's reaction, you tightened your hold on Rowena's hand. A silent promise that you were here, that you were in this together. A reminder that you loved her with everything you had.

She squeezed back each time in wordless reciprocation.

Your friends were there already, including Crowley, whom Rowena was certain would, at the very least, miss the first few periods. He'd left home an hour early, with apparent plans to go out for coffee. Which, in his case, usually meant he was going to drink. And cut school.

Guess miracles did happen.

But then, you thought as you looked down to your and Rowena's linked hands, you would know all about it.

It was Dean who brought it up after you'd all exchanged greetings, in as blunt way as possible. Cutting right to the chase because he was Dean Winchester and he had neither time nor patience for equivocation.

"Why are you holding hands?"

All eyes turned to you and Rowena as if you were circus freaks.

It was unnerving.

Your cheeks burned.

"Am I not allowed to hold my girlfriend's hand?" Rowena said a tad too smugly than necessary. Her mouth was curled into a smirk, and a devilish glint sparkled in her eyes.

You cursed yourself for finding it sexy.

"Girlfriend?" Crowley said in disbelief.

Dean was equally flabbergasted. "I'm sorry — what?" A nervous smile flickered on his mouth. "You're kidding, right?" He turned to you. "Tell me she's kidding."

Clearing your throat and sucking in a deep breath for courage, you uttered, "She's not. We-we're together."

"Damn, you're moving fast," Meg said, impressed. "Congrats!"

Sam, blushing, said, "Congratulations. Glad you went for it."

"You knew?" Dean asked in the tone of someone who'd just been betrayed.

"I had my suspicions." Sam smirked, earning him an appreciative wink from Rowena.

"This is bloody marvelous!" Crowley exclaimed dramatically in true Crowley fashion. He glared at you. "You didn't just let her dig her claws in — you dug yours right back like a madwoman! I told you this would happen! I bloody told you!"

You rolled your eyes. "Jesus, Crowley! We're dating. She didn't kill me."

"There's hardly a difference!"

"Save it for the stage, Fergus," Rowena said.

He ignored her. "Don't come crying to me when she rips your heart out and stomps on it."

"You got it."

"Or when she sells your soul to the devil for a pair of shoes."

"You've made yourself clear."

His remarks were annoying, but at least he wasn't angry. He didn't look like he wanted to punch a wall, Or you and Rowena.

Like Dean did.

It was something.

"Don't listen to him, darling," Rowena said. "He's just jealous."

Crowley looked offended. "Of you? Have you seen yourself?"

"Have you?"

"You and Rowena are in a relationship?" Castiel asked, tilting his head to the side like a confused puppy. "Like Meg and I?"

"Yup!" you beamed.

You wished you could shout it from the rooftops.

"That's… unexpected."

Maybe.

Though, to be fair, unlike Sam, Castiel wasn't the most attentive person.

In fact, he was the least attentive person you knew.

He smiled. "I'm happy for you."

There!

That wasn't so hard, now was it?

Dean and Crowley should look up to him.

"I can't believe this," Dean said, shaking his head.

You shot him a glare, a razor sharp one that threatened death. "If you've got something to say, say it."

His tone, as well as the look on his face, sour and disgusted, said enough, but you wanted — needed — to hear him say it out loud. It was only fair; as your friend, he owed you the courtesy of being honest.

You knew he wasn't Rowena's biggest fan. Far from it. Out of everyone in your group, he liked her the least — if at all. As far as you knew, she hadn't done anything to him. She had a past, but then, who didn't? It was behind her. She was a good friend to Sam, and to you, and, for the sixteen hours you were together, she was a great girlfriend.

Dean had a right to dislike her, but he had no right to make her out to be a monster.

"Fine." He looked you in the eyes. When he spoke, his tone was loud and clear, deliberately sharp to get his point across, "I think you're making a mistake. I think this—" his face twisted as he spat the word "—relationship is a pile of shit."

Wow.

Okay.

You hadn't expected that, but okay.

"Dean!" Sam chastised, shooting him his signature bitchface.

It was fine.

You could deal with him all on your own, though Sam's support made your heart swell with warmth.

It was situations like this that made you realize who your true friends were.

"I think you're a pile of shit, but you don't hear me complaining!" you retorted, putting on a brave face. Pretending his words didn't hurt while your heart was ripped to shreds and tears pricked at your eyes with threats of spilling like a downpour.

"You wanted it straight. I gave it to you," Dean said. "You know what she's like. She's using you. She's using all of you."

"Dean, that's enough!" Sam snapped.

"No! I'm sick of pretending I'm okay with this. I don't want her here. I don't want her anywhere near me. I'm certainly never gonna be her friend."

"Believe me, Winchester, the feeling is mutual!" Rowena fired. Her face was neutral, an emotionless blank, but you could tell his words hurt her. She was better at pretend than you; had perfected it over the years. "Hanging out with a Neanderthal like you is hardly the highlight of my day."

"Glad we got that sorted," Dean said sarcastically.

"You're overthinking this, dude," Meg said.

"Am I? You forget the crowd she hung out with? For all we know, she could be their spy!

"That's enough, Dean," Crowley, of all people, warned.

He wasn't his sister's biggest fan, but he was there when the truth came to light. He knew what those people — if they could even be called that — had done to her. He knew how they'd treated her.

Dean was his friend, but Rowena was family.

There were lines he couldn't let him cross.

Dean sighed. "I know she's your sister, but it's true. Who knows what she's up to? And now this-this relationship." Another sour face. As if the disgust in his tone thick enough to be cut through with a knife wasn't clear enough. "I don't trust her."

"Good thing you aren't the one dating her, then," you said. "I am. And I trust her."

You put an arm around Rowena's waist in emphasis. Rage stirred inside you, roiled and twisted and turned like a destructive storm. You'd expected this kind of behavior from Lucifer and Olivette's minions. From gossip-hungry vultures and bored kids with no lives of their own. Not your own friend.

You knew Dean didn't like Rowena. It was his right; you had no intention of trying to force him to change his mind. But that didn't mean he got to be hostile. It didn't give him the right to throw out false accusations and tell outright lies.

"If you don't," you said, "that's fine. Think whatever you want. But I am not going to let you treat her like shit!"

He chuckled; a smug, bitter sound. You wanted to wipe it off with your fist. "You're the last person I thought would go for a skank. My brother, I had some suspicions. But you? You hated her."

You never did.

You disliked her, greatly so, but it had never crossed into the level of hate.

Even back then, despite the way she was, you knew she didn't deserve it.

Rowena MacLeod was far from a saint, but even at her worst, she'd never warranted hate.

"Don't make me warn you again, Dean," Crowley said.

If anyone else spoke that way about his sister, especially after everything that had happened, they would get a quick and free face lift.

"Oh, she's a skank? Big words coming from someone plowing his way through the cheer team!" you snapped. "How many you got left until you've, ah, caught 'em all?"

If Dean was fazed by your response, he didn't show it. "You know what I meant!"

"Right. She's a big, bad witch-bitch who cast a spell on me and turned me to the dark side." If she were one, she wouldn't have to cast any spells. You would have joined her willingly. "I just got to know her, Dean. That's all. Maybe if you bothered to try, you wouldn't be spewing this bullshit."

"I know enough."

You thought the same, until you saw her other side.

Then you fell in love.

"And I've had enough," Dean said. "I can't be around her."

A shake of his head, and then his back was turned, and he was lost in the sea of students crowding the hall.

He was gone.

Just like that.

Seriously?

You were pissed at him, but your heart still clenched with pain.

This semester was supposed to be a new beginning. A start of something beautiful, something happy.

Instead, you lost a friend.

And for what? Misunderstanding? Prejudice? Hate?

You thought Dean was better than that.

After all, he was far from a sunshine himself.

Maybe it was for the best, you told yourself. You loved Dean, you did, but you loved Rowena more. After everything she'd gone through, she didn't deserve his scorn, his distrust.

You'd made her a promise to keep her safe.

Maybe letting go of Dean was making good on it.

"What in hell just happened?" Rowena said, shaking you from your thoughts.

"Dean… Dean left," Sam said, not believing it himself.

"No offense, dude," Meg said, "but your brother's fucked up."

Sam gulped.

He didn't disagree.

Neither did you.

"He's off his rocker," Crowley said. "A bloody madman."

"He did seem a bit unstable," Castiel said. "It's probably hormones." Everyone turned to him. "We learned about it in Biology class. Males—"

"Stop talking," Meg — bless her heart — ordered.

He instantly shut his mouth.

"Good riddance," you said, and meant it. If Dean was going to be a baby and throw tantrums, he deserved a time out.

Sam's face fell. "I'm sorry about him."

"It's not your fault."

"I'll talk to him."

You doubted it would do much, but you appreciated it. Dean could be a stubborn cookie when he wanted to.

Sam laid a hand on Rowena's shoulder, apologetic. "I'm really sorry."

"I'm a big girl, Samuel. I've dealt with worse," she told him. Then, with an appreciative smile, she added, "But thank you."

He nodded.

"You guys wanna go to Biggerson's to celebrate?" Meg offered, trying to lighten the mood.

It worked, if only a bit.

"Sure," you said, though you weren't quite in the mood for celebration. Dean made sure of that.

Today was supposed to be your big, happy day.

You'd expected a dramatic tantrum from Crowley, and maybe a few sour comments from Dean.

Not baseless accusations.

Not hate.

Not heartbreak.

"I don't see why not," Rowena said, putting on a big smile.

You smiled back.

She deserved some good.

Sam, Castiel, and Crowley (albeit, in his case, begrudgingly) agreed as well, and so it was decided.

As soon as school was done, Biggerson's, here you came!

*****

Tags: @werewolfbarbie @oswinthestrange @songofthecagedmoose @apurdyfulmind @getthesalt-sam @metallihca @salembitchtrials @jay-eris @hellsmother @elizabeth-effie @shadowgirl-vsb @rowenaswife @wonderifshelikesroses @xfireandsin @liddell-alien @hotdiggitydammit @lae-lae @darkhumorsblog @gaysnakess @angel7376 @cherrypierowena @ruthieconnells @evil-regal-vampiress @collectorofsecretsandsouls @angel-e-v-a @tasyahilker @a-queen-and-her-throne @carryon-doctor-lock

#rowena #rowena macleod #spn #supernatural #spn family #my fics #fanfiction #crowley #sam winchester #dean winchester #meg masters #castiel #high school au

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evakuality · 5 years

Text

They probably want clarity as well: Communication in Druck s3 (part six)

This is the sixth and final part of my discussion of the theme of communication in s3 of Druck. You can find the other parts here:

You look good tonight: Communication in Druck s3 (part one)

Make a clear statement, straight up: Communication in Druck s3 (part two)

He doesn’t talk to me: Communication in Druck s3 (part three)

Do you want to talk to me? Communication in Druck s3 (part four)

I want to tell you so much: Communication in Druck s3 (part five)

I got really caught up in all the Abi stuff this last week and so didn’t get this finished. Whoops. I mean, it was worth it, and you know, I’m here finally with the last part of this communication analysis of mine. The analysis that was supposed to be one or maybe two posts long. And yet here we are, six posts later and we’re finally finishing. Anyway. Episode ten. The one where everything comes to a nice conclusion in terms of communication. The old reliance on nonverbal communication has dissipated somewhat (though there are still heavy traces) and actually communicating verbally is suddenly ‘in’ for our lovely characters. Well, for some of them.

Of course, having said that nonverbal communication takes a back seat, we go right into a situation where nonverbal communicating is rife. In the first clip, Matteo and David know exactly what they’re doing, why they’re doing it and there’s no discussion. Out loud, anyway. It’s actually a really lovely moment, as consent is sought and given multiple times without having to verbalize it at all. It’s a very good example of how you can make consent work naturally and organically in these moments. One nice thing is the way it calls back to the conversations around Carlos and Kiki and how she wanted sex and he didn’t know, and the much more obvious parallel with Sara and her attempts with Matteo in which his nonverbal signals clearly shouted out a huge ‘no’ and which she didn’t really deal with very well. Her insinuations later (via the messages, I think, which I did swear not to talk about but which seem relevant here) that he was ‘weird’ during their intimate moments and so must be gay are so hmmmm. Consent, wanting sex, asking for it, checking in on your partner about it. These are all important things that should actually be communicated clearly and openly before you get into these situations and the casual assumption she makes that if he doesn’t want it sprung on him out of the blue it must be because he’s gay is so dodgy. Still it does serve as a nice counterpoint to what happens here. The fact that earlier in the season communication around sex was so bad (neither Kiki and Carlos nor Sara and Matteo managed to approach it well), just makes this moment here stand out more. We don’t see them talking about it but it’s clear in what they do and how they act that they are both willing and that they probably talked about it before they got to David’s place that night. The discussions in this season about how you navigate the delicate issues of sex and consent are really fascinating and I could probably write an entire many-thousand-word essay on it, but I’ll leave it there for now.

The only time they do actually speak in this clip, the apparently untranslatable nervous/excited comments, is nakedly honest. Not only is it honest, but it’s accepted and treated with understanding. The communication underlying the words is ‘I need to take this slow’ and there’s an innate understanding and acceptance of that need, a willingness to listen to what is being communicated rather than just spoken. And that’s pretty much where Matteo and David are in their relationship at the moment. It’s all out there and all on the line. ‘I love you’ is felt and has been expressed by both. They’re secure and content now, and in fact any secrets they may have had are now completely gone. Not only are they open and honest with each other but they’re also open and honest with the world. Matteo wasted no time at all in shouting his feelings to the entire world via his instagram. Indeed, he hasn’t stopped. He’s come a long way from the start of the season when he was so careful with everything and hid his true feelings behind his memes and his casually isolationist attitude. Even from more recent times when he posted cryptic things that literally only David would understand. He’s quite at ease communicating openly and honestly about who he is and who he loves.

Obviously, we then move into the next morning where there’s more open and honest communication happening. The thing here too is that we’ve been set up throughout the whole season for this point. From the beginning these two have been more willing to be vulnerable and open with each other than with other people. And that still holds true. We don’t see them have these deeply personal conversations with anyone else. It’s highly unlikely that David would so willingly talk about his past and how he’s felt about it with everyone. He’s open and out about it, yes, but that wasn’t his choice with most other people. But even though he’s seemingly okay with people knowing, he doesn’t trust them in the same way that he trusts Matteo. Part of that is obviously because he hasn’t known them for as long or as well. But it’s at least partly because, from the first moment when David shared his art notebook and Matteo respected his boundaries around what he was and wasn’t allowed to see, David has known that he can trust these parts of himself with Matteo. That hasn’t been an easy road to walk for either of them. But that early foundation is what led to this. They have always been good at communication of the important kind, and it has paid off at this point. As soon as everything was laid out for each of them this was inevitable. Because they’ve been building to this point all along and every time one or the other shared something vulnerable or fragile with the other, the other respected it. We’ve been shown all along what good communication looks like and it’s no surprise that they are able to be so casual and easy together.

The third clip is where we’re really allowed to see the point of communication in this season. In fact, the message is pushed quite a lot. Abdi serves as a reminder of where some of our characters have been: awkwardly trying to communicate via ineffective metaphors instead of real words. He’s so clueless around how to do it that he doesn’t even pick up on what the boys are so desperately trying to tell him. In fact it’s not until Matteo and David use their words clearly that he actually figures it out at all. What’s really interesting is that in episode seven, the boys had given literally the exact same advice to Matteo who instantly took it, and for whom that was a big turning point in terms of moving his relationship forward. He’d already been good at communicating with David, particularly nonverbally but with words too, but it wasn’t til that point that he actually made a ‘clear statement’ of his needs and was therefore able to make things clear and open with David. As I said when discussing that episode, neither Jonas nor Abdi was making his own ‘clear statement’ at this point and they still aren’t. The fact that this is still the advice being given shows that they’ve stagnated. Matteo and David are perfectly in their rights to be smug here. They’re actually very good examples of communicators and these other boys are still good examples of bad communicators.

Before all this, we have a discussion around Jonas’s song for graduation and it’s really quite awkward, highlighting the differences between Matteo and the other boys. Matteo states plainly that he likes the song and leaves it at that. Direct and clear. By contrast, Carlos while clearly trying to give good genuine feedback actually offends Jonas because he isn’t reading the situation very well. Jonas’s body language and actions are of someone who’s hearing stuff he doesn’t want to. But frustratingly he doesn’t say this. He just gets up and walks away and doesn’t address it. The others try to recover once they do realise but the damage is done. Unfortunately, here we have an example of communication going awry. It serves, again, to highlight just how much better at communication Matteo has become. This sort of behaviour is what he used to do, vague comments or literal walking away or isolating himself, culminating (with this group) in him finally speaking his mind to his friends by finally having enough and yelling at them and kicking them out of his house in episode 6. It’s been shown to be not healthy, and there’s clear warning for the way these boys are communicating. Of course, this again sets us up for the ‘you could say it with words’ ‘directly’ thing. They know what they’re talking about, partly because they’ve been there and done that and realised how bad it tends to go but also partly because they genuinely have good communication skills. Matteo has had to extrapolate them out from David to other people but he got there.

Abdi and Sam is an interesting example of specifically how these characters are not good at this communication business. He says here that him not getting with Sam must be his fault and there’s some truth to that because he literally hasn’t told her how he feels. But he doesn’t work that out, instead assuming (don’t make assumptions, people!) that it’s because she doesn’t want to sleep with him. But he offered her a lollipop! And she didn’t understand it! There’s no hope! Even when he’s told to tell her he equivocates. He prefers ‘sucuk with eggs’ over actually saying he likes her. He can’t possibly tell her that directly. And it is a scary thing to do, of course. We’ve all been there where saying something directly would be the best course of action but anxiety or insecurity or whatever has held us back. Unfortunately for Abdi’s progress in getting past that here, he’s encouraged by his other friends to keep with the awkward metaphors. It allows him to slide back from the actually good advice and keep thinking that he can use lollipops etc. The fact that in the recent content, even when he’s trying to be clear and open, he takes Carlos’s terrible advice to use ‘sucuk and eggs’ rather than just saying ‘hey I like you’ shows that, while it seems to have worked in the short term, he’s still not great at communicating and things are still not clear and ‘direct’ between him and Sam. The others are no better. Jonas is making awkward attempts at wooing Hanna via song and longing looks, and that too just isn’t working. Even Carlos who’s in a relationship is (at the point where we are now after the Abi stuff) not talking directly to Kiki but rather showing passive aggressive jealousy about the people she was dancing with.

Apart from Matteo and David, these characters are still not good at this, and it shows in the way all of them are having issues with their relationships (or lack of them) even to this point. We get other little hints at the way communication should be clear in the episode too. For example, in the office when Sam blurts out that they’re there to support Matteo and David and Kiki says they were trying to keep that quiet. These characters are still trying to keep things from each other and hide behind polite fictions. It’s understandable and we all do this to some extent, trying to preserve someone’s comfort etc or put our best face forward, but again here we’re told it’s better to be open. Matteo isn’t upset they’re here and so they didn’t need to hide behind the fake reason.

The message we’re being clubbed over the head with at this point is that only genuine clear communication will achieve happiness and success. Among many other messages from this season, we are being explicitly reminded that we need to talk to each other. There is an emphasis on verbal over nonverbal by this point, but there’s still a lot to be said for clear nonverbal communication; it’s just that we’re shown several times that the nonverbal can be misinterpreted, so back up with verbal communication is important. From the positive version of this in the first clip (there is a clear verbal connection to the nonverbal even while it heavily relies on the nonverbal communication) to the much less successful version in the clip with the boys talking, this is repeated over and over. Communication, in other words, is key. Just be clear and honest about it and it will all work out.

#druck #my meta stuff #davenzi

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hoe-imaginess · 6 years

Text

Part 4

She moves her general directly into a compromising spot. An amateur mistake. With a simple move, he adds it to his captured pieces.

“You’re not thinking this through,” Madara murmurs.

She doesn’t reply.

She should be drawing back rather than advancing. If it were gall and confidence making her moves so impulsive, he might have been able to admire it a little, maybe enjoy it. But he doesn’t admire her mindlessness.

They would usually play on days their workload was at a low. Now, the mundane comfort that shogi is meant to offer is replaced by prolonged silence. They both know normality is a far reach at that point.

Not that she can boast at a winning streak, or any winning of any kind when it came to playing Madara, but she usually presents compensation in the form of a decent challenge. But it’s hardly satisfying for him now.

When he had asked her outside the academy if she planned to come to the library, it had been completely antagonistic in nature, just meant to remind her that he was aware of her little ruse to evade him, and that he didn’t find it at all entertaining.

Fine. I’ll be there.

Words spoken with such bitterness, but the conviction to validate those words did not reach her face. He could see the unease swimming in her eyes. The same unease he assumes keeps her in the constant, annoying state of equivocation, where all she does is avoid him.

She puts one of her generals back into play, but it’s by no means a calculated move. He doesn’t comment that time, only moves a piece to counter it. At that point he’s certain he could wear a blindfold and she would still pose no better a challenge.

“What is it, _____?”

“Nothing.” She looks at the board without seeing it. No amount of strategizing will do anything for her. She just needs to bide her time away from his scrutiny.

"Look at me.”

She stiffens. Then after a moment’s hesitation, obeys.

His eyes are dark, unforgiving. “You were very clear when you told me that your absence was a result of work. Nothing else. That what happened between us did not trigger this behavior. ”

So, he’s not going to beat around the bush. “Maybe it’s just taken me time to understand.” She looks away from him then, unable to hold the thick gaze.

His eyes narrow. “Understand what?”

“What you’re doing.”

She moves one of her pieces again, to a much more perceptive place. Sharpness surged by swelling frustration, he assumes. How interesting.

“Then tell me what I’m doing.” He puts his next piece down with punctuated force, and she looks at him.

“I think you’re just antagonizing me.”

He scoffs arrogantly. “If you’re still referring to that day after the academy meeting, then forgive me if I didn’t convey my intentions correctly. My plan was not to antagonize you.”

She scowls, but shivers when a ghost of his touch slides across her thighs, like his hands never left. There’s even a blush on her cheeks as she thinks carefully about his words. “No, that’s not what I’m talking about. You can’t stand that I’m on good terms with the Senju now, can you?”

He wins the game, again. With no lament of defeat, she stands from her seat and moves over to a bookshelf. Anything to get away from his deep glare.

“Interesting theory,” he says. “Then would it be fair of me to assume you’re more frequently collaborating with them on purpose?”

“Why would I be doing it on purpose?”

“To antagonize me, perhaps. Or to prove me wrong about everything I’ve told you. Why else choose to mend a broken bond with Tobirama, of all people?”

“I’m just discussing policies with him,” she says as she idly searches book titles, “and assisting when necessary.”

“Assisting,” he scoffs. “Don’t you think you’re being a little too generous? Given that he did next to nothing for you and your clan when you needed it most.”

“That’s not true,” she insists. And the defensive tone surprises her.

She realizes then that Madara isn’t aware of the negotiating Tobirama facilitated between the Shimura and Sarutobi, all for the sake of accommodating her clan. She hadn’t disclosed that fact, not previously. And something tells her she shouldn’t at all. He would probably refute it, and convince her that Tobirama had ulterior motives, that it wasn’t genuine. She’s half-afraid she would believe him.

But he’s impressed, nonetheless. "Oh no? Then tell me how magnanimous and understanding he was.”

She doesn’t like the way it’s spoken with such condescension. “Forget it, Madara.”

“Do you know what he plans to do with your clan?”

She looks at him now, eyes narrowed. “What?”

Glad he’s caught her attention, he doesn’t beat around the bush. “Your clan is not contributing to the academy. Not as much as Tobirama would like, at least. He will not stand for that. You get what you put in, that’s how he sees it. Because you will not sacrifice your resources, your clan loses out on opportunities in the academy.”

“What are you talking about?” she counters automatically, as if it were ridiculous. But it reels her in, nonetheless. She carefully returns to the table, drawn in by his words.

“Think about it.”

And she does. What he’s implying certainly is by no means unfathomable, but would Tobirama do that to her? After they had finally managed to appease tension? After she started trusting him?

She looks at him. “Are you doing it again?” she asks.

Annoyance sharpens his features. “Am I doing what?”

“Trying to instigate me.”

“Of course I am,” he says with no hesitance whatsoever. “So you clear your mind and start thinking straight. But what I’m saying is no lie. He gives privilege to clans that conform to his needs. Your clan does not. Therefore, your rights to in village are limited. Ask him yourself.”

“Is that what you want? A confrontation? To create more tension between the Senju and my clan?”

“No,” he grunts sharply. “That’s not what I want.”

He stands from the table and walks to her. After so many chilling and unnerving encounters, she wants to step away. But she’s swept up in confusion and concern. She doesn’t even flinch when he comes close to her.

“I want you to know what exactly you’re getting yourself into by trusting him.”

“I know what I’m getting myself into, Madara. Don’t act like I’m naive.”

“You are if you trust him.”

She scowls. “By what he’s told me, I shouldn’t be trusting you either.”

“So that’s what he’s been doing? Filling your head with—”

“No. That’s not what he’s doing.” She sounds exasperated. “If anything, you are the one trying to manipulate me and fill my head with lies.”

He remains silent when she says that. For what reason, she doesn’t know. But the air is subdued then, still lingering with distinct tension, but the aggression weathers away.

“I don’t want to argue with you,” she continues. “Don’t do this again. You’re only stirring tension where it doesn’t need to be stirred.” It isn’t what she wants. It was never what she wanted. To be so combative every time she was with him, when she truly considered him to be one of, if not her closest companions... It didn’t feel right. “Where is this coming from, Madara? Is it just because I’ve been spending time with Tobirama? Is that really it?”

“Yes,” he snaps. It’s the truth. He doesn’t care to deny it. “In the beginning you bore the brunt of Tobirama’s negligence. For weeks on end, all you did was complain. And now? To put faith in him? To open yourself and your clan to disaster so easily?” Something changes in him, something dark and morbid. She can see it in his face, in his eyes. “Every clan, yours included, cannot be expected to relinquish all resentment from decades of war. It’s just not possible. You see the tension that surrounds us. Are we supposed to just forget? How can you be so trusting?”

“How can you be so doubtful? I was always cautious, Madara. You don’t think I felt the same way about the Uchiha when we first joined the village?” Her eyes plead with him, though she wonders if it will do any good now that they’re both so passionate about their conflicting beliefs. “Don’t think I didn’t. Because I did. Then I met you. Here. In this very library. And when we spoke for the first time, you were kind to me, and nothing like I expected. I learned to trust you. Just as I have learned to trust Tobirama.”

He scowls and scoffs, like it’s the most ridiculous thing he’s ever heard. “Even after what I’ve told you? That he plans to punish your clan for not yielding to his demands?”

“How do I know that’s the truth, Madara?”

“You really think I would lie to you?”

“To aggravate me? Yes. You even admitted it yourself. That’s all you’re doing, trying to antagonize me.”

“I would not steer you in the wrong direction,” he snaps. “But he will. And when your clan is facing the consequences of your naivety—”

“You’re not concerned with my clan,” she says sharply. “Or me.” The bands that held her anger together break under his ignorance. “This is just part of your own agenda, using me for your animosity. You’re not doing this for my benefit.”

“Then for whose?” he counters angrily. “Mine?”

“Who else?” She sounds afflicted. And in the tangle of emotions suddenly attacking her, she reaches for whatever counter she can, and regrets it immediately.

“Is this because of your brother?” she says. “Is this for Izuna? Has it been for him all this time? Some twisted desire to avenge him—”

A hand twists into her collar and pushes her back roughly against the shelves, hard enough to knock scrolls loose from their place and tumble to the floor.

“Do not bring Izuna into this.”

His voice is threatening and cold, cold as the pits of his dark, intense eyes.

The sting of impact floods her back, but it’s not the pain that’s disconcerting, not the fact that he physically acted out on the aggression. It’s the pure malice in his words. It’s the first time he’s raised his voice to her like that.

She would twist away from his grip, but her veins are ice cold, her body unresponsive. She imagines that it’s exactly what it must have felt like to fall to Madara Uchiha in battle. It must be the same sense of urgency, the same dread. He might as well have a kunai pressed to her throat.

Seeing her like this, anxious, frightened, looking at him as though he’s the enemy, the way everyone looks at him... it disgusts him. His grip subsides, but he doesn’t pull away. Instead, his hand flattens and gently rests against her collar bone, like the tender contact will atone for what he’s done.

She peers up at him, expectant but frightened. Imperceptible tremors run through her body, which he feels under his palm. He closes his eyes and gathers his thoughts. He doesn’t want to apologize. Not for his intentions. He might apologize for his emotions, since for the first time, he realizes what she’s done to him.

In the beginning, he admittedly toyed with her emotions, though not for malevolent reasons. It had only been out of a need to gauge her temperament and her judgement, toward the Senju, mostly. Toward Tobirama. It was all so much easier when he thought she shared the same ill will toward the man. Now, Madara is painfully aware that she doesn’t. Not anymore. He’s losing her to the Senju. Just like he lost his brother.

But it appears that nothing he said would change her mind. The cycle of frustration and pain and desire would only continue. Nothing could be done about it.

“Do whatever you please,” he says finally. And he walks away.

There’s no ultimatum. No threat. No admonition. All things she had come to expect. Now whatever tie they had stands irrefutably cut. She can feel it, can feel the depravity as he grabs his belongings and departs.

“Madara,” she tries to plead. But there’s no reply, not even a parting glance.

The comfort leaves with him, and she feels alone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Do you need anything from me, ______-san?”

“No. You’re free to leave. Thank you for sorting these scrolls for me.” She waves the assistant off, wishing he would just go away, but the young man looks unconvinced. It’s only after she gives him an earnest, regrettably forceful look that he bows and leaves. Then she turns back to her work.

The suspicions Madara implanted in her mind had been supplemented in a matter of days. She’s dubious. Dubious, worried, anxious—and almost convinced of Tobirama’s plot.

It started directly after her altercation with the Uchiha, when she wandered over to the Senju office. She couldn’t think straight. She just needed to be somewhere else, and found the promise of being with Tobirama, or even Hashirama, for that matter, compelling her toward their side of the village.

When she arrived, it was a relief to see the younger Senju sitting at Hashirama’s desk. Comfort found her, in a desperate, cynical sort of way.

“I’m conducting a meeting soon with two clan heads. We’re discussing the academy,” he had said when he saw her.

They had discussed the academy with advisors before, but never with the private audience of a clan head, not since the initial meeting. She had been excited at the idea, hopeful that they could offer more to their cause now that higher-ups were involved.

“Alone,” he had clarified as soon as he saw the eager smile on her face.

Even now, she remembers the awful sting in her body as a flood of uncertainty hit her, shattering the denial she had built since hearing Madara spew his libel.

Usually, she would have argued and inquired as to why she could not attend the meeting. Did he not know that she would be interested in what the clan heads had to say? Especially when she had been collaborating with him all this time? They were both advisors. He had no higher authority than her that dictated whether she should be involved or not. It was insulting. She had every reason to question him.

Yet she did nothing of the sort. She just apologized, an uncharacteristic gesture he didn’t seem to catch, and left.

Then the next day, an envoy had come to her home with an offhand message from Tobirama, simply stating that he would be busy, occupied with more meetings that he needed to settle on his part. And that it would be best if she left him to his work.

A clear statement. She needed to keep away. She was not invited, or wanted.

Is this how he would do it? she thought. How he planned to move her out of the picture? Tobirama had yet to call on her clan heads to hold any sort of discussion pertaining to the academy. Not just that, but through the hours spent planning and brainstorming, he had not mentioned her clan’s involvement once. Madara’s words seemed truer with every cumulative thought.

Of course, she could write it off as an unnecessary discussion. The fact she collaborated with him at all surely meant he was keeping her clan in mind. Yet what prompted him to exclude her from his meetings? Why had he not requested an audience with her clan heads like the others? Did that really mean that he planned to penalize her clan...? No. It couldn’t be. It was just Madara’s words twisting her rationality.

But the idea of not knowing the complete truth hinders her concentration, and the Uchiha’s voice at the back of her mind persists as a reminder of the unknown.

One of her assistants is suddenly calling to her and kneeling outside the room, waiting for entry. She accepts, and the young girl who looks crossly disheveled doesn’t look her in the eyes.

“Madara Uchiha wishes to speak with you,” she whispers. “He asked to be escorted here.”

Her mind draws blank. She would prepare herself for whatever it was he sought out, but she doesn’t see the point in guessing. If there’s anything she’s learned from Madara, it’s that he’s unpredictable.

She tells the girl to let him in, and waits in fretful anticipation. With a slide of the door, the Uchiha is there standing in front of her.

It’s silent.

She watches him closely for any signs of acrimony, but there are none. He spares only an expectant, but impatient glance to the young assistant that shadows him.

The woman understands immediately, and dismisses the girl. “Thank you. Go home now. It’s getting dark.”

This assistant is much more obedient than the last, likely unsettled by Madara’s strong presence. She forces herself to bow, then scurries away, leaving them alone at last.

His calm is remarkable, but inside, a swirl of emotions he hasn’t quite tethered. He hadn’t considered what he would say to her, only that he needed to say something. Hours of enduring the waves of regret and anxiety crashing over his train of thought, and he couldn’t stand it anymore.

“I leave today,” he begins, almost methodically, “to meet with the daimyo. With Hashirama.”

She nods slowly. “I know.”

“I need to explain something,” he begins, hesitantly. But earnestly, nevertheless. "What I said that day. I was irrational. Paranoid, as of late. It was wrong of me.” That morning, he had taken some of those same fears and unleashed them onto Hashirama.

This visit to the daimyo would finalize the village as a permanent settlement in the Land of Fire. It should have been a good thing to be progressing like they were. Finally, their childhood dream would come to fruition.

But he couldn’t see it that way. Not when he could still feel the friction between clans. Not when Tobirama was already moving to cause strife. It pushed him to the edge of doubt, and triggered a long suppressed outrage.

Hashirama had been unprepared for his friend’s anger. Fortunately, an argument that took the better part of the day finally put Madara at ease. Hashirama may not have been a diplomat at heart, but all he had to do was remind Madara of what the village stood for, of the violence and mayhem that could be avoided by uniting the shinobi world, and the Uchiha yielded.

The reluctance Madara felt is no longer potent. It still remains, however, somewhere in the depths of his heart. He expects it won’t be the last debate he and Hashirama have about the matter.

But for now, he knows how agonizing those doubts can be. The possibility—more like fact—that he left her agonized in the same way, and for so long, is what brings him to her. To alleviate the dilemma, because he knows it’s his fault.

"I want this village to work.”

He hadn’t anticipated her voice to be so soft, so vulnerable, so hesitant. It makes the searing guilt even worse.

"So do I.” Despite the complications. Despite the doubt. He really does. “I want it to work.”

“But it can’t if you keep acting this way,” she adds, and immediately, his civil composure threatens to fall. He closes his eyes and exhales deeply, trying to persevere as she goes on. “You need stop trying to fill my head with lies that will get me into trouble, Madara.”

He steps closer to her, through the door until he’s fully inside of her home, all in one swift motion.

She doesn’t realize how close he is until her feet hit the wall and he’s in front of her, solemn, tense, determination swimming in his charcoal eyes. “I am not lying. The only thing I’m trying to do is help you, _______.“

He’s so close that her scent floods him. That tint of warm sugar and fresh flowers that has always seemed so calming and pleasant to his senses. He reaches out to touch her face, and she stills. She never realized how large and slender his hands were, fingers stretching along her cheeks to caress her lightly in an effort of apology.

She stares fretfully over his shoulder, outside the open door where the sun is peeking out above the trees surrounding the village, descending for the night. If anyone were to come across the compromising situation, it would be difficult to conjure an explanation.

“I know,” is all she says.

There’s nothing else she can think of to subdue the rising pressure. She understands what he means. But she can’t accept it. Maybe it’s because she can’t abandon the progress she’s made, or what she thought she had made so far, with the village, and with Tobirama.

There are no changes in his expression. He examines her. Her eyes, her lips, her hair. Everything. Like he’s focused on nothing else but drinking up the sight of her, accepting the pain he had brought her, owning the regret.

“Did you ask him?”

Her eyes return to him, confused, but she thinks she knows. “What?”

“Tobirama,” he clarifies, voice so soft and quiet she doesn’t recognize it as his. “Did you ask him about his plans?”

Then she’s looking away again, reminded of the suspicion that has persecuted her all this time. She doesn’t want it to be true.

“No.”

“Ask him,” he says, retracting and staring down at her, almost expressionless. “You deserve to know.”

She only stares, and he doesn’t waver from her gaze, letting her swallow down the severity of his words. It’s by no means deceit. He’s honest. He’s doing it for her. She thinks she realizes that now.

And when he pulls away and leaves, the dismay returns, like his presence kept her grounded.

~~~~~~~~~~

There are footsteps approaching from outside the door, but Tobirama is hardly in the mood to be disturbed.

“Who is it?” he calls before they can even announce themselves.

It better not be Hashirama. His elder brother was already late to the congregation at the head of the village where he was meant to depart on his trip, yet he had come to wish his younger brother farewell just a few minutes prior.

“Me,” the firm voice comes from the other side of the door.

Definitely something Hashirama would say, Tobirama thinks, but it’s not his brother.

She doesn’t wait for permission. She walks in, and he only offers her a glance of acknowledgement before returning his attention to the scroll in his hands, surprisingly unruffled by her lack of courtesy.

“The amount of people who come into this office and I’m expected to know who ‘me’ is?”

“Yet you still let me enter.” She moves to the edge of the desk and draws her eyes over the heap of scrolls. “Besides, you’re a sensor.”

"I’m not charging chakra every second of the day. I shouldn’t have to.”

“That makes it even easier to sneak up on you, then.”

He tries to glare at her, but it comes across as a harmless, fatigued frown. He’s thoroughly weary from all the work on his plate, but that’s suddenly no longer his primary concern. He can’t concentrate on his own demeanor when hers is pressing his curiosity.

He hadn’t seen her once since he practically dismissed her from his presence before his academy meetings, something he regrets deeply. The calm when she left Hashirama’s office that day had been palpable. Suspiciously palpable. Which is what led Tobirama to sit and brood far longer than he cared to admit, trying to understand what could have possibly extinguished her normally fiery attitude. It made little sense that she would settle so easily with being barred from his academy discussions, no matter how gently he had tried to let her down.

Over the past weeks, there came a sinking realization that their intimate interactions would boil skepticism from others at some point. Tobirama is convinced that the key to harmonizing the village is equal discretion; favoring one clan over the other would not encourage that. It was for that exact reason he had chosen to subtly exclude her from his discussion with the clan heads, and even sent an envoy to suggest that they forgo on their seeing each other again the following day.

It had all been for the sake of discretion. Nothing else. He assumed that she wanted attention drawn to them no more than he did, and that precaution was necessary. Had she questioned him, he would have gladly explained that. But when he received no reply to his message, he knew she was likely offended. Which is why it’s so curious that he can’t find a single trace of solicited hostility in her expression now. Not even in her voice.

She’s too calm. He doesn’t know how to feel about that.

"Are these for the academy?” she asks, running her hands along the strewn scrolls.

He says nothing, but passes one over to her.

“Hashirama will have to build this, no doubt,” she notes as she examines the paper. Blueprints for expanding academy grounds, she thinks. "After he’s worn himself from the village’s infrastructure, you don’t think this is too much for him?”

“He will work with whatever I give him. He’s intrigued by the prospect of the academy, anyway. If I have to do all the administrative work, he can suffer a little manual labor.”

"And the Uchiha?” she asks, biting her tongue as soon as she says it. A stupid impulse that spills from her mouth only as impatience takes over.

Tobirama’s ability to hide his emotions is excellent when he wants it to be, but she notices the slight tug of his lips into a frown. "What about them?”

“I don’t think I ever asked. What are they planning to contribute? Will they have something to do with the academy? ”

He stops reading and exhales heavily, like he’s annoyed. “Of course they will.”

“Are you sure?”

Now he looks at her, furrowing his brows in suspicion. “Madara agreed to assist, and thereby, his clan will have input… Why are you asking? Did he send you here to pry?”

“He didn’t send me to do anything. He and I were just discussing the academy recently, and I realized you and I hadn’t spoken about his plans. That’s all.”

It’s that complacency in her demeanor that he does not like. Not at all. Something is off. “You were with him just now?”

That seems like an obvious question. It had only been a few hours since he had come to her home. Come to clarify, come to… well, whatever else he had hoped to accomplish.

“Why do you care?” she returns swiftly.

He scowls, and considers lying to snake away from the truth. “I don’t. I only ask that next time, you let me know when you’re consulting with the Uchiha about academy business.”

“The Uchiha,” she echoes quietly, wondering how it can sound so hateful spilling off his tongue like that.

The exasperated tone catches him. “What?”

“Nothing…” And she almost leaves it at that. Because the more she considers it, she doesn’t want to dig any further. Doesn’t want to find out the truth, because she fears what it will evoke. "You just make it seem as though he has no right to involve himself in academy affairs.”

Not this again, Tobirama thinks. “Of course he has a ‘right’,” he argues. “Even if I know he has more than enough grievances with my agenda. Like I said, he agreed to contribute. He will have a say in academy affairs.” For what seems like the hundredth time, he tries to focus on the last paragraph of the scroll in his hand.

She’s silent after that. Which is odd, he thinks. Usually their mild sparring persists much longer, or at least until it breaks into something more intense. But no, the silence is stretched almost uncomfortably.

She wonders whether she should say it. Madara’s words have been hammering away in her head in an agonizing way. Now it’s all the worse when she’s standing right in front of the accused.

Distress persists, and forces the words out of her.

“Interesting. Because I need to know why you’re excluding my clan from affairs, even though we’re doing everything we can to contribute to the academy. Or does your courtesy only extend as far as your mood at the time?”

He visibly stiffens, and slowly raises his gaze to her. “What are you talking about?”

"I thought we were over this, Tobirama.” There’s the bite in her voice that was previously absent. “But I come to find out that you’re displeased with what we can offer you? And because of that, you’re plotting against us?”

“Plotting?” The calm leaves his voice. “You’re the one who said you didn’t have enough resources to contribute.”

“And that means you take away my clan’s opportunity? The children’s opportunities?”

“That is not even remotely close to what I am doing.”

“Then what is it?”

“The academy will be limited in the beginning, yes, that is true.” He’s trying to be understanding, but he’s never responded well to confrontation. Her belligerence blindsides him, makes him instinctively defensive. “I’m not punishing you for what you can’t offer. There is no penalty for that.”

“Then what would you call it?”

He opens his mouth, then closes it. He actually doesn’t know. If he’s being completely honest with himself, a penalty is exactly what he had considered it to be. That had only been on account of the troublesome complaints he had received from many clans. But when it comes to hers, labeling it as something so crooked seems wrong.

“Necessary governance,” he mutters finally, unable to look at her.

“Does Hashirama know about this?” she contends; anger is simmering at the surface.

He frowns. “What does that matter?”

“I can’t imagine your brother would let something like this happen. He’s too kind. Too considerate. Too concerned for the well-being of this village.”

“And you think I’m not?”

“You’re just focused on molding the village’s authority to your liking. You’re forcing us into contributing and punishing those who don’t adhere to what you want, Tobirama. This is supposed to be a unified village. You can’t treat people like this… Madara was right.” The exasperation subsides an entire level when she thinks about the Uchiha, about the way his fingers caressed her face. She had been wrong to doubt him.

“What do you mean?” he inquires, anger replaced by frustrating curiosity.

“He told me about this. He told me what you were planning."

His face twists into something worse than a scowl. “What exactly did he tell you?”

“It doesn’t matter what exactly he told me. He couldn’t have possibly made it any worse than it is. I thought I could trust you. But all you’re doing is scheming for your own benefit. For yourself.”

“For myself?” He stands from his chair.

“Of course you are!“ Her voice transcends a volume she’s not used to, and her heart pounds at the audacity. "And if not for yourself, then for your clan. Not for the village. You preach about village prosperity, but that only applies if it’s under your conditions. This is exactly like it was in the beginning. You’re narrow-minded, and inconsiderate. I trusted you, Tobirama.” She sounds hurt, and he hears it. Then her tone welcomes malice once again. “But you don’t deserve my trust.”

The way ire thickens around her is probably enough to silence anyone. That sharp pain of disappointment in her voice, completed by an edge of regret. Her fiery glare, so close to him now that she’s leaned closer, puts him on edge.

But Tobirama is silent. He can’t fully comprehend what he’s just heard. No one has ever spoken to him like that.

His expression softens to a bleak, listless frown. Even his voice is unexpectedly calm. “Is that really what you think?”

Her tone is agitated, still marred by the intensity of her outburst. She’s almost disappointed that she received such a lenient reaction. “Yes.”

A closer examination reveals his true sentiment. It’s like pure indignation burning in his scarlet eyes, hot emotion twisting into his features. Some part of her is intimidated, but it’s a part she can’t welcome right then.

He should hate her for coming to such audacious conclusions. Mostly because they’ve been devised by Madara. He had suspect as much all along. If anyone else had done this to him, if anyone else had spoken to him with such lawless impudence… well, he would hold nothing back.

But now, he doesn’t know. He doesn’t know what to do.

The fervor in her expression hasn’t disappeared. The furrow of her brows betrays anger and poses what he notices for the first time now as uncertainty. Uncertainty and confusion and pain.

It’s then that he becomes aware of just how close they are, only a few inches more and they would touch. Hands, body, or lips.

His heart quickens its pace at the notion. He doesn’t know why the idea intrudes his thought process, especially when he’s searing with enough anger to choke her. He can’t handle it any longer.

"Get out,” he mutters, voice filled with a threat that he can’t form into words.

"No.” It doesn’t deter her, even if she is unsettled by the tone. It gets under his skin, she can see it in the way his face tightens into a hard scowl. "I’m tired of this, Tobirama. I’m tired of constantly wondering whether you’re going to go behind my back and—”

“I’m not going to tell you again,” he says angrily. “Get out.”

“I’m not leaving.”

They’re still so close, so close she can hear the frustration in his shallow breaths. And now, he doesn’t bother hiding it. He’s staring at her lips. She can see it. He knows she can. Somehow, she finds her eyes drawn to his own lips, lips set in a thin, angry line.

Through all the rage, she feels a drowning hope. Hope that the happiness and companionship she found in him would still be alive. That his schemes, lawful in foundation or not, wouldn’t ruin what they had. But she knows better. Feelings of sad warmth take over her, and she realizes how weak she becomes in the face of their turmoil.

Eyes still on his lips, her breath catches when he dips his head down. She prepares herself, feels her heart stop, but he doesn’t do it.

He just lowers his head, and shuts his eyes in an attempt to gather his wits. A passion he doesn’t understand courses through him in defeat.

“Leave.”

It’s difficult to readjust her concentration, especially when her body is still filled with some odd, fluttering warmth.

“No,” she manages.

He withdraws quickly, grabs a stack of scrolls and makes to leave, but she moves to block his path. He has half a mind to move her, but he doesn’t want to touch her.

“Don’t run away from this, Tobirama.“ She knows what she’s doing is completely reckless, and that the repercussions will be dire. But she can’t hold back. She didn’t come so far to receive no closure. The confusion and misplaced trust eats at her without fail. Who is she supposed to believe? "I can’t handle this anymore. This uncertainty and this distrust. I need to know why. Why are you doing this?”

His face falls in anger. “Why trust the word of that Uchiha?!” He’s yelling now, right in her face. He’ll regret his volatile temper later, but it’s his defense against the bubbling anxiety in his chest.

“Stop saying that,” she protests. “He’s been more help than you have, Tobirama. He’s been honest, and genuine—”

“Don’t call him honest,” Tobirama seethes. “If you weren’t so obsessed with him, then you would see he’s anything but honest.”

“I trust him. If not for him, I wouldn’t have even known about this little plot of yours. I would have made a fool of myself, hoping that you would take my wishes into consideration. I had to find out from him… Why is that?”

“You would see Madara for what he really is if you would just clear your head, if you weren’t so absorbed in this misconstrued idea of him.” Tobirama feels like he’s speaking to his brother. An endless argument that neither of them can ever win. But with her, it’s much more frustrating.

“Is this still about Madara?… Why, Tobirama?” She steps toward him, too close for comfort, but he doesn’t draw back. “You never gave me a clear answer when I asked you. Why do you hate him so much? Why are you punishing me now for finding a friend in him?”

He scoffs in disgust. “You’re gullible.” The intent of his words is earnest, but the spite isn’t. He would say her logic is twisted, but it makes sense. He hates to admit it. But it does.

He tries to side step and move to the door, the only destination that seems safe at the moment. She presses a hand against his chest and pushes him back. That’s when his self-restraint teeters.

“Why?” she pleads, desperately now. He can see it in her eyes, can feel it in the way her fingers tighten just slightly into the fabric of his shirt. “Tell me why.”

He doesn’t answer, only glares at her.

Attempting to step by her again proves to be a fatal mistake. A disgruntled, frustrated protest, and her hands shove at his chest, hard. Instinctively, he snatches her wrists before she can set upon him again, and all at once an endless tangle of emotion and tension and exasperation snaps like a coil.

“Because!” he yells down at her. “I don’t trust him not to hurt you. I—”

Common sense returns to him just in time. He reads the flash of astonishment and confusion on her flushed face, and briefly shuts his eyes, trying to figure out what the hell he’s just done.

And then there’s silence. He wishes the earth would swallow him up, make him disappear.

What does she say to that? Does she follow the scorn that lingers, and reprimand him? His outburst makes that impossible. She can’t even bother to wrench her hands out of his grip.

She swallows, but finds her throat dry. “That’s—”

“Enough. It doesn’t matter.”

He lets go of her, doesn’t even look at her as he moves to the door. “You and your clan will have anything you need for the academy. There will be no more complications.”

Then he leaves, slamming the door behind him.

An odd, unshakable pain of separation grips her. One that has her losing sleep every night for weeks on end.

#lots of arguing in this chapter prepare for it #it may be boring #it may be spicy #it's probbaly both #sorry #madara is so difficult to write when he's arguing bc is he gonna be mean or is he gonn abe condescending you just don't know #can i spell #arguing tobirama is always fun to write tho bc u know he's gonna fuck it up big time eventually #time skip after this chapter #i think #i gotta check #i'm stupid asf #someone told me to tag this as #madaramadrama #so that's what this is now

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aceyugiohdreamer · 7 years

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Thorns of Hate

Ok, I did it! I actually managed to write a birthday fic for @yugirl-with-dragons that I can post ON THE ACTUAL DAY. Why are patience and self-control so hard??? Well, I don’t actually mind since I love writing so much, haha, so that works out. Anyway, HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Now suffer and enjoy <3

“What are you doing back here?”

It was a reasonable question. Black Rose Dragon had certainly been clear when she had sent the lot of them away, practically pushing them out of her territory with a fierce gust.

But there was too much at stake to just leave it at that—they needed Black Rose’s help, or so Sherry had said. And Aki felt she had to be the first to reach out and try again. She had no real plan, but she needed to do something—to contribute to the mission.

And, well, there was something about Black Rose that resonated with her: the home buried deep inside a forest, the distrust of strangers, the solitude. It all felt familiar.

Perhaps it was of no consequence, but it gave Aki hope that maybe there was something that could bridge the enormous gap between them.

“Do you have to ask?”

Aki had cuts from where the thorns jutting from the ancient trees had nicked her, despite her careful maneuvering through the tortuous spaces. She ignored them for the sake of meeting the golden eyes of the beautiful woman before her. Even in her human form, she radiated a terrible aura full of malice and the threat of transforming at any moment into her destructive natural self.

Black Rose lifted her chin haughtily.

“You think I’ll change my mind?”

“I won’t know unless I try.”

Black Rose humphed and crossed her arms.

“You get no awards for bravery from me.”

“It’s not awards I’m after.”

“No, you just want me to help you, just give you whatever information you ask for.” Her nose wrinkled with repugnance.

“We wouldn’t be bothering you if we had anywhere else to turn.”

“And why should I care about your situation?”

Aki didn’t have a good answer. She knew going in that that would be a critical key to turning the situation around: figuring out why this should matter to a dragon who had voluntarily withdrawn from the world—and with every intention of keeping it back. Unfortunately, Aki had not come up with a reason during the time it took to wriggle and contort among the wall of trees back to Black Rose’s garden.

“It’s hard for me to answer that without knowing much about you,” Aki admitted.

Black Rose eyed her suspiciously.

“So, what, you’re here to get to know me? You wanna have a deep heart-to-heart chat over tea? Stay up all night telling our life stories?”

Aki didn’t blame her for the sarcasm. She knew she must seem quite arrogant to come intruding into her home requesting information not only practical, but personal as well.

“Nothing so dramatic,” she replied as neutrally as possible. The castle-tall and fortress-thick barrier separating her from the rest of the forest was a pretty unambiguous clue as to how open she was. “Frankly, I was thinking it would be a success just to get this far.”

“Oh really? Then you can leave now. You’re a winner.”

“I’d rather stay.”

Black Rose scowled.

“Are you trying to provoke me?”

Aki could imagine the petals of her dragon body ruffling like the quills of an incensed porcupine.

“No, but I’m guessing with your attitude, just about anything can do that. So I might as well just say what I think and not waste time equivocating.”

Black Rose tossed her head and set her hands hard on her hips.

“All right. Go on,” she challenged. “Show me what profound truths you have learned in your few inconsequential years alive that, spoken from your mouth here and now, will completely revolutionize the way I think—despite the fact that I’ve been alive for hundreds of years and have seen your race’s civilization cycle through several different eras. Go on and open my eyes to why you of all people I should give a single damn about.”

Aki resisted the urge to rub her temples.

“You must really think I have a high opinion of myself.”

Black Rose threw her hands up.

“What else am I supposed to think when you come into my home, uninvited? Twice?”

“That I’m desperate.”

Black Rose scowled again.

“Desperation makes people do stupid things. That’s not much better than arrogance.”

“Maybe not,” Aki conceded. “But arrogant people have everything to lose, they just act like they won’t. I’m desperate because I don’t have much to lose, and I know that if I do nothing, I’ll lose even what I have. I’m not just here for my own sake—everyone else is under threat too.”

“Well that’s the problem, isn’t it? I don’t care about everyone. You humans,” she waved her hand dismissively, “whatever’s going on, if it turns your lives into a living hell, I’m all for it. You can all just drop dead for all I care.”

Aki didn’t know what to say to that. The sentiment was inconvenient to her mission, but she couldn’t deny how close it felt to her own heart—something she had felt for herself not too long ago.

“Well, maybe that would be ideal in the end,” she sighed. “But, you really shouldn’t consider the one we’re fighting any friend of yours. He’s attacking dragons just as freely as he’s attacking humans, controlling their minds to do his bidding and stealing their magic when he can.”

Black Rose paused briefly before asking, “You mean like that pitiful Stardust creature?”

“Yes.” It hurt Aki’s heart to hear him described in such a way when she knew how he shined when in his full glory. But it only propelled her all the more. “He’s the most recent victim, but there may have been others, and there will likely be more unless we can stop him.”

She narrowed her eyes and looked Aki up and down.

“Oh? And what exactly makes you all the ones who can stop a human who’s out there controlling dragons and stealing magic? What can you do?”

Another fair question.

“Everything we can. Right now, we’re the only ones even trying to stop him. We’re the only ones who know of his threat.”

“That doesn’t inspire confidence.”

“Well maybe with your help, we’d stand a better chance.”

“Of course you would,” she scoffed, tucking her glossy locks behind her ear before setting her hand on her hip. “But what good would you do for me? Why don’t I just find the human myself and bite his head off? That would be the end of it, and I wouldn’t have to bother with giving you roaches anything.”

Aki worried that that might actually be the plan formulating in Black Rose’s mind.

“Look, I don’t want to offend,” she began calmly. “I know you’re very powerful, but Divine has Stardust’s magic—and mine too—and another dragon he’s controlling. If you go looking for him alone, you could end up like Stardust, or worse. The only reason Stardust is still alive is because Yusei interrupted whatever Divine was doing to steal the magic. If you don’t have anyone to back you up . . .”

Black Rose gave her a sour look.

“Don’t say it like that, as if you actually care about me.”

“I do care,” Aki countered. “I don’t know you, but I don’t want any more people hurt by Divine. He’s caused too much damage already.”

“Uh-huh. But see, when you fail at this mission of yours, I’ll still be the one left to face him, alone, except by then maybe he’ll have even more magic, making it even more risky for me. Oh yes, I like this plan so much.”

“It’s only because you’re determined not to help us. If you would—”

“NO!”

A sudden gust sent Aki sliding backward on her toes until her back smacked into one of the trees of the wall. Fortunately there were none of the giant thorns to spear into her.

“I told you! I’m not interested in doing anything for you! You damn, stupid human, don’t you get it? I don’t want anything to do with you, and I’ll go find this ‘Divine’ guy myself first before I ever team up with you for anything! So just give it up already!”

“I told you I can’t!”

“Right,” Black Rose snarled, her face contorted in mockery. “Because you’re so desperate.”

“I am! I have to do something, anything! I can’t leave it to Yusei to handle everything. He’s a hero, but that’s too much burden on one person.”

“So,” Black Rose sneered, “you think if you want it and wish for it hard enough, your little hope to be useful will come true?”

Aki pushed herself from the tree, standing as tall as she could.

“I have to find out what I’m good for. I’m not just sitting around wishing and hoping, I’m here because I need to act.”

“Well try again somewhere else and leave me out of your little personal quest for value. You’re just a human. You all have such short lives, and yet you still manage to ruin everything. It’s incredible! And now here you are trying to infect my one sanctuary still untouched by your poison. You have no worth, not to me and not to the world. You’re worse than worthless! Don’t come crawling to me just because you can’t accept that!”

Black Rose’s insults were shallower than papercuts. Even if she believed Black Rose was right in her assessment, it was so impersonal that Aki knew she would say the same thing to anyone. They didn’t know each other enough to make serious judgments of character. All Aki could see was the surface, the outermost layer of the wall surrounding her heart.

And she had already slipped through the cracks in one wall . . .

“And just how valuable will you be when you’re drained dry of your magic, left scrawny and weak, unable to bring out your true form anymore? And that’s if you’re left alive. You hate humans? How will you be able to accept yourself if you become one of them?”

Black Rose bared her teeth.

“I don’t worry about you, so don’t bother worrying about me!”

“I’m going to worry about you! Divine is dangerous, and if you do actually face him and get hurt, we’re all going to care and do what we can to help you recover.”

Aki couldn’t tell if it was just her eyes playing tricks on her, but Black Rose’s teeth seemed to grow sharp and fitted together in a razor zigzag.

“You all stay away from me! I don’t need you! I don’t need any disgusting, filthy humans getting near me!”

At this point, Aki could tell her rejection was just a reflex, nothing based on reason but a purely kneejerk spite. She’d have to confront her with the same approach, otherwise she’d give the impression of patronizing from the moral high ground. She needed to join her in the dirty, emotional pit.

“Who else do you have?” she countered with a creeping, nasty edge.

“Leave me alone!”

“Oh? Is that it? Are you all alone?”

“It’s because of you!”

Black Rose’s gold eyes were practically glowing with rage.

“Oh yeah? You think that makes you special or something?” Aki snarled. “You think you’re the only one who’s ever been alone?”

“Fuck you! You don’t know! It’s all because of you fucking humans!”

“And you think I’m arrogant? You’ve been alive for ‘hundreds of years’ and all you’ve got to say is how horrible humans are? Oh, you are so wise, great Black Rose Dragon!”

Her nostrils flared.

“How dare you mock me?!”

“You make it so easy! You act like you’re such an anomaly, like you’re the only one who’s ever been hurt by humans. I’ve got news for you: saying humans are poison is the easiest thing in the world! It’s the most obvious thing! Here I was thinking you would say something profound, but all you’ve got is your own personal grudge. How disappointing!”

Black Rose was seething.

“I don’t need to justify myself to you!”

“No, you don’t, but don’t pretend like you’re any different from the rest of us if the only thing driving you is your own selfish feelings!”

“I am different from you! Humans were the ones who struck first! Everything I’ve done is justified—everything humans have done is evil!”

“I know!” Aki screamed, flinging her arms out in exasperation. “I said it, didn’t I? Humans are horrible! I’m not here because I love all humans, I’m here because I want to protect the few people I do love! I want to protect their future! If I have to save everyone else too along the way, then I guess that’s what’ll happen. But don’t you for one second dare think that you’re the only one who hates humans, or who has ever been wronged by them!”

Black Rose scoffed loudly, giving her head another toss.

“I know! There are a lot of us. That’s why most of us went into hiding long ago!”

“It’s the same for me and my kind!”

Black Rose narrowed her eyes. “Why do you keep talking as if you’re not one of them?” she demanded savagely.

Aki pointed to her own chest. “Because they don’t see me as one of them. Normal people hate witches. They’re terrified of us and if they could, they’d wipe us out completely. I’m not human to them, I’m just a witch.”

Black Rose paused, frowning. But then she shook her head.

“Witches, non-witches. Magic, no magic. You’re all still the same, you’re all still just humans to me. Everything would be better without you—all of you.”

Aki felt the bitterness in Black Rose’s aura as clearly as she used to feel any magic aura. She wanted to show her understanding through compassion, but Black Rose didn’t seem in the mood for that. What good was a mere human’s compassion to a mighty dragon like her? Right now she was too full of resentment and hatred—she would only recognize something bold, something that matched her own intensity.

“Fine,” Aki conceded in a low voice. “Maybe you’re right about that. Maybe humans as a whole are better off dead. But you’ve got some nerve looking me in the eye and saying I deserve to die when I never did anything wrong!”

Black Rose frowned harder, feeling her temper spike in reaction to the anger in Aki’s face. But before she could counter, Aki continued.

“I’ve hated humans for as long as I can remember! I’ve hated them for hating me first! I’ve hated them for making me feel alone! Humans never did anything for me! Nothing but try to hurt and kill me! But you’re going to lump me in with them? You’re going to lump Yusei in with them? You’re so selfish! You think everyone owes you! You’re going to hold everyone responsible for crimes they didn’t commit! You’re just being lazy! You don’t want to bother learning anything about how things really are, you just want to live in hate because that’s what’s easy!”

“Shut up! You don’t know anything!”

“Yes I fucking do! I know humans have been hunting dragons for a long time and taking their magic for selfish reasons and treating every living thing in this world as a resource they can just use until it’s sucked dry! I know that!”

“It’s more than that!” Black Rose insisted, her voice shrill with the intense need to correct an insufferable misconception. “Humans are the worst living thing in this world, but that’s just a fact. I hate them because of what they did to me!”

Black Rose’s eyes shone with tears, and she was shaking, her teeth clenched and bared as she glared at Aki. “What they did . . . !”

Aki met that blazing glare, feeling her heart burn.

“Tell me!” she said. “Tell me what they did!” Let me hate them with you!

Black Rose growled, her fists shaking in the air as she clenched them tight. Aki couldn’t tell which was stronger: her fury, or her pain. Black Rose’s face was breaking with both.

“They . . . they killed her . . .”

The tears were gushing—down a face turned pink from heat and strain.

“They tied her up, put her on her knees, and they—” She choked, then snarled, “They cut off her head!” Aki’s heart pounded. Black Rose looked on the verge of cutting of someone’s head herself—anyone’s head. Whoever happened to be available. But Aki wouldn’t back down even with such a risk. She stayed firm, even while her heart hammered with shock and her blood boiled with empathic rage.

“She loved you humans!” Black Rose continued. “She loved you so much that she lived with you! Acted like one of you! Even though she was a creature of such glory . . .” Black Rose clutched at her chest, the tears rolling harder and faster, dripping down to the earth from her chin. “When she spread her wings, she cast diamonds into the air. When she appeared, she was bright as the sun. Her form was so graceful—she was delicate, but that was only the surface. She carried in her such sublime power. When she let it show, she could shake the earth and make all hearts within a mile quiver in awe. And yet, she gave that up, because she loved you humans so much, and she wanted to be among you. She willingly—gladly traded her true form for her human one, and for that reason, they didn’t know just how magnificent and superior she was to all of them! They believed she really was like them! And so then, when she rejected some pompous asshole of a noble who demanded she come with him, he took advantage of his position and ordered her execution! A damn human thought himself worthy of her! And too good for her to refuse! He had her killed for the sake of his own damn pride!”

She was screaming—so loud and fast. Her face was red. Her eyes too. And wet. Aki couldn’t move.

“I was there! I was in that crowd! And people were cheering! They were there for the entertainment! YOU DON’T KNOW! YOU CAN’T POSSIBLY KNOW HOW IT FELT! I WAS THERE, WATCHING, HEARING THOSE FUCKING HUMANS CHEER AS MY PRECIOUS FRIEND WALKED UP TO A STUMP WITH HER HANDS TIED BEHIND HER BACK AND GOT SHOVED TO HER KNEES! YOU DON’T KNOW HOW IT FELT! I WOULD HAVE BURNED THEM ALL RIGHT THEN! I WOULD HAVE TRANSFORMED RIGHT THERE AMONG THEM AND SEVERED ALL THEIR HEADS AND THRASHED THEIR BODIES WITH MY THORNS AND EATEN THAT NOBLE MYSELF, ARMS AND LEGS FIRST SO I COULD HEAR HIM SCREAM AND CRUSH HIS LUNGS BENEATH MY CLAW AND BITE HIS FUCKING HEAD OFF—I WANTED TO! I WOULD HAVE DONE IT! BUT DO YOU KNOW WHAT SHE DID? DO YOU KNOW WHAT SHE DID?”

Aki jumped, because Black Rose suddenly grabbed her shoulders and shook, violently daring her to even try imagining what came next.

“SHE LOOKED RIGHT AT ME! SHE LOOKED ME RIGHT IN THE EYE, AND SHE SHOOK HER HEAD!”

Black Rose looked close to mental collapse. Her hands were strong, crushing Aki’s shoulders in their grip, but she was trembling wildly. She even paused her story to cry, her body jerking hard with each bursting sob. Black Rose’s mouth hung open wide and she bowed her head, wailing toward the ground, and Aki had to stand there and bear the weight, because she was the only support Black Rose had to keep her on her feet. She considered reaching out and taking hold of her shoulders too, but decided against it. Black Rose didn’t want her comfort. No one could comfort her. The grief was too devastating.

“She wouldn’t let me,” she said, her voice creaking. She shook her head, her long black hair moving in waves. “She knew what I wanted to do, but she wouldn’t let me save her. She didn’t want me to hurt the humans.”

Her nails dug into Aki’s skin, enough that she thought there could be blood, but she kept still, bearing it by grinding her teeth.

“I had to . . . just stand there . . . I couldn’t leave her . . . I couldn’t leave her alone . . . so I had to stay . . . and watch . . .”

Her voice broke into agony, and Aki thought she could hear in it the roar of her dragon soul, as if the human form alone was not enough to convey the true depth of her pain.

“I should have done it,” she groaned. “I should have just done it, saved her and killed them all—even if she hated me for it, I should have done it! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?”

Black Rose lifted her head. Strands of her hair stuck messily to her wet face, and her eyes were wide under her fiercely furrowed brow. She shook Aki again, violently enough to almost knock her off her feet.

“DO YOU UNDERSTAND AT ALL? EVERY HUMAN REMINDS ME OF THAT DAY! IT’S ALL I SEE! I SEE MY FRIEND’S HEAD FALL FROM A BLOODY WOOD STUMP ON A STAGE AND I HEAR THE CROWD GOING WILD AND I SEE THAT NOBLE’S SMUG SMILE AND I FEEL SO MUCH HATE THAT I COULD BURN THE WHOLE WORLD TO ASH AND I FEEL—” She halted abruptly, staring at Aki with the horror of realizing she was on the edge of saying too much, saying something she couldn’t bear to reveal, to admit out loud.

But Aki understood. Black Rose was pulsating with feeling, and her aura was so brilliant that even drained of almost all her magic, Aki could feel it spilling into her heart.

So she said it out loud for her.

“You feel guilty.”

Black Rose’s eyes went wider. She seemed to try to speak, but the words got caught somewhere in her throat or behind her bared teeth.

“You don’t just hate humans, you’re angry at yourself.”

Black Rose’s growl didn’t sound human. She was definitely reverting to her natural biology.

“If it was just a matter of getting revenge on the humans who killed your friend, that would be a relatively simply thing to do. But you feel at fault too. You feel responsible. And no amount of killing humans will take that feeling away. Ever.”

Black Rose screeched, her jaw expanding to an extent that didn’t seem quite right, and she shoved Aki away with such force she fell onto her back.

“SHUT UP!” she screamed, looming over her, and Aki felt some of her tears splash against her face. “SHUT UP! I KNOW THAT! I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW!!!”

And then it was too much. Without Aki to lean on, her wobbly knees weren’t enough to hold her up. Black Rose folded to the ground, catching herself with hands on either side of Aki’s head so that they were nearly face to face, her long hair reaching the ground like a curtain around them. Black Rose’s eyes were shut, but even so, the tears kept coming, dripping straight from the lashes to Aki’s skin. Her whole body jerked as she cried, causing her hair to shake. Aki ignored the way it tickled, too distracted by Black Rose’s grief.

“I know it,” she cried, her voice strained. “It’s because of me. I should have . . .”

She was having trouble breathing, the pain compressed her body so much.

“I was so stupid. They were just stupid, damn humans. I should have . . . If I had . . .”

She ground her teeth, groaning as regret tortured her from the inside.

“I hate them all. Every one of them. I hate them so much.”

Aki’s heart shared in the pain, and she added softly, “And you hate yourself, too.”

Black Rose groaned in wordless agreement.

“At least if there were no more humans, if I could kill them all, at least . . . maybe . . .”

“It wouldn’t matter,” Aki said solemnly. “She would still be gone, and you’d still feel the same regret. And then, you wouldn’t have anyone left to hate but yourself.”

Black Rose opened her eyes, glaring down at Aki, ignoring the tears that kept welling up and spilling down on her. But she couldn’t form words—the emotion was too strong.

So Aki kept going.

“You’ve put yourself at a standstill. You don’t know what to do because you’re trapped in hate and guilt, so you’ve just been hiding away from everything.”

Black Rose flinched, and suddenly her hand was squeezing Aki’s throat.

“Don’t you dare look down on me! Don’t you dare—!”

“I’m not!”

Rather than fight the attack, Aki cupped Black Rose’s face in her hands and looked earnestly into those eyes, a mix of fire and water.

“What you’re feeling makes perfect sense. How could I look down on you?”

Black Rose fumbled, her grip on Aki’s throat slack and uncertain.

“Tell me what happened next,” she said softly. “When you were in the crowd and you saw what they did, what happened next? What did you do?”

Black Rose fell away, her mind flying back into the past.

What came next . . .

She remembered. She remembered feeling thrust into a dream—disconnected from reality, from her own body, floating in space, upside down, no sense of direction. Numb.

She remembered.

The feeling of her heart pounding in her head.

And then the feeling of her mind flooding back into the moment, reconnecting to her body, and then suddenly exploding out of the artificial form that had kept her safely anonymous among the other tiny creatures of such fragile flesh. The scream erupting from her throat transformed into a dragon’s screech as her skin burst open and her muscles expanded and her bones grew and the winds began their tempestuous rampage, knocking everyone to the ground as they shrieked in terror.

Yes, be afraid! she demanded, heaving her wings wide open and standing tall on her hind legs, her tears falling from her eyes to water the petals on her body.

No one could move, the winds were too strong to fight against. They could only lie flat against the ground, pinned in place and trying not to be blown away.

It made them easy prey.

She released her whip-like vines and scourged them all, mercilessly ripping open their backs, tearing out their lungs with her thorns and pulling out their intestines to unravel on the dirt. She was so ferocious that bones cracked, joints broke, blood splattered everywhere—the red was hardly distinguishable from that of her floral plumage.

It only took seconds for her to beat the entire audience into pulpy mulch for the soil, and then she turned her eyes to the stage. The noble was knocked down, staring at her with a terror she would have found satisfying—if it wasn’t for the headless body of her friend lying limp on its side.

She extended her neck and roared right into his face, surely rendering him deaf, before wrapping one of her vines around his body and lifting him into the air. The thorns grew so long by her will that they pierced straight through one side of his body and out the other. He screamed, blood filling his mouth from his punctured lungs and organs, but it wasn’t enough. She squeezed tighter, wrapped the vine more and more until the only parts of him visible were his head and feet.

She remembered how she squeezed so hard his eyes began to bulge from their sockets.

Even when the blood began to ooze like tears it still wasn’t enough, her fury could not be contained.

If only she could kill him a hundred times, and a hundred more!

But it still wouldn’t be enough. Nothing would ever be enough.

Nothing would be enough to bring her friend back and undo what she had allowed to happen.

She remembered thinking that, oh, she should have done this sooner, if she was going to do it anyway! At least then, she would still be alive!

With one more screech that reached a range of miles, she exerted another tightening pull on her vine and squeezed the body within until it crackled and gushed. She let it drop, the lifeless eyes pushed halfway out by the pressure, and cleared the blood from her vine with a quick flick.

She needed more. She needed more blood!

Her heart burned with the need!

She turned to the executioner, who lay flat on the stage, clutching his giant axe as if it was heavy enough to anchor him down.

An axe still dripping with blood.

She remembered how everything seemed to flash red and her head throbbed. She remembered snatching him up in her vine—some of the thorns with tattered skin tacked on—and in near hysterics screeched in his face while vengefully sinking her thorns deeper and deeper into him, tightening and tightening the grip until his ribs shattered. And then she hurled him away, sent him flying in an upward arc without care of where he landed. The others left on the stage—those of the higher class, no doubt—she beat with her vines, thrashing the stage to splinters and soaking them in the blood that flowed from the torn bodies. Even when everyone was dead she kept going, still screeching, stilling whipping everything in range—still crying.

She remembered how deflated she felt after some time, when there was nothing left to kill, no one left to punish for this crime. Her petals fell away like leaves in autumn, scattering over the bloodsoaked earth, and her body slowly shrank, morphing from her enormous storm-summoning form into the body that reflected just how small and weak and powerless she felt.

Shaking and painted in blood, she maneuvered clumsily through the mess, stumbling a few times because the tears blurred all the obstacles at her feet—and she was in no mind to avoid them anyway.

When she found it, she couldn’t think. She couldn’t. She just couldn’t.

She could only fall to her knees and pull it out of the debris and into her lap.

The head.

Eyes closed and damp. Long teal hair pulled back in a bun—to clear the way to her neck.

Black Rose couldn’t think.

What was there to think?

This was her friend.

A friend she had failed.

Ancient Fairy Dragon.

Because of her, she now cradled a friend’s head in her arms—a head severed from its body.

What could she possibly think?

Except . . .

My fault.

She began stroking her friend’s brow, a repetitive motion that gave her body something to do in its daze. She untied the band around the knot to let her hair flow free and began combing it out with her fingers.

“I’m getting blood in your hair,” she murmured, her voice wavering. She could remember the jarring clash of the red against the pale, bright teal. “I’m sorry.”

Her hair was so soft. It felt just like it had when she was alive. She couldn’t really be dead, then, right? Her hair was exactly the same . . . Her face looked the same . . . She was just sleeping . . .

But the warmth of the blood still draining from the gaping wound at the bottom of Ancient Fairy’s neck onto her legs reminded her of the truth.

Black Rose felt her heart break anew, and with teeth clenched she pulled the head up into a tight embrace against her chest and pressed her cheek into that soft hair.

There were no more words. No more thoughts.

She only bent forward, wrapping the head in her curled body, and wept.

Black Rose remembered.

She remembered it so well.

She remembered how it had all meant nothing—because she had acted too late.

“I killed them,” she said softly, her eyes focusing back in the present on the brown eyes beneath her. Eyes shaped like almonds, with an amber shine. “I gave them the privilege of seeing my true self, and in the next second, I ripped them all apart and bathed the earth in their blood.”

Aki didn’t flinch. She could worry about pitying them later—if she felt like it. For now, all she wanted was to understand the dragon’s heart, and she could understand very clearly that every human in that moment deserved the death they received. A horror for them was simply justice, payment for their sins.

Nothing to flinch at.

“And then, when I destroyed everything in sight, I found my friend’s head—and her body—and I brought them to a place . . . a beautiful place . . .” She pulled her lips inward and bit down, fighting against the strain in her throat. “I buried my friend . . . in a place where she could see every sunrise, forever. Because I knew she would like that. I knew she would . . .”

Black Rose curled her hands into fists, then lowered herself further, setting her elbows on the ground as well, and bowed her head into Aki’s chest. Her body spasmed against Aki’s with each sob and each uneven shuddering breath she sucked in.

Aki wasn’t certain what she should do. She was still just a human, however outcast, and not even a full witch anymore. There was nothing she could do. Even with her powers, she couldn’t heal physical scars, let alone scars on the heart and mind and soul. She couldn’t even offer an apology—she hadn’t been involved herself, and she couldn’t speak for the entirety of the human race.

And yet, she wanted to do something.

Her heart was aching, and her own eyes were full of tears that spilled down her temples into her hair.

She followed the will of that ache in her heart and reached up . . . and slowly wrapped her arms around Black Rose’s back, resting against the soft swirled locks spread over it.

She took it as a good sign that the dragon didn’t snarl in rejection.

Instead she kept crying.

“I killed them all,” she repeated, “but it wasn’t enough. It’s not enough. She’s still gone . . .”

Aki rubbed her back gently.

“I hate them still, so much . . . I hate them . . . I hate . . .”

“I know.” Aki swallowed. She knew what hate felt like. Oh, did she know. “I would have done the same thing.”

She would do it now, if she could. If she had the power to completely destroy the object of her hate, she doubted she would even hesitate.

“It doesn’t matter that it doesn’t fix anything, you can’t stop that kind of rage.”

Not on your own, she thought.

Black Rose lifted her head and looked at Aki’s eyes again.

“I don’t think what you did was wrong,” she declared. Because she didn’t. In her heart, she even cheered that Black Rose took whatever small satisfaction she could. “And I don’t think your anger is wrong—but . . . I do think you’re hurting only yourself. You’re so wrapped up in guilt and hate that you’ve become isolated, and you decide everything now based on feelings you’ve let grow beyond rationality. You can’t fix what happened by wishing all humans dead—and it won’t fix your heart, either. But maybe if you open up to the possibility of good people coming into your life, maybe the pain won’t hurt so much.”

Black Rose kept to herself her first reaction, the first scream in her head, Why should the pain stop? I deserve it! This is what I get for failing my friend!

Instead she countered snidely, defensively, “Oh? And you think you are the ‘good people’ I should open up to?”

Aki shrugged, respectfully lowering her arms now that the moment had passed.

“I can’t decide that for you. I just know that Yusei gave me hope. Because of him, I thought that maybe not all humans are demons in disguise, and that maybe I’m not as alone as I thought.” She wiped the tears from her eyes, not because she was ashamed of them, but to make her sight clearer. “Even if you still reject us, I want to think that someday, you’ll find someone who makes you feel like you’re not alone, either.”

Black Rose stared. They both held their positions like statues, so focused on each other they barely felt the skittering feet of insects passing over their hands.

Finally Black Rose pushed herself up to her knees, then her feet . . . and simply walked away. Aki sat up on her elbows, watching the woman walk—even weighed down in such an unbearable state—with elegance and grace. Aki didn’t know where she was going, but if she knew the forest as intimately as Sherry had said, maybe she was headed to some familiar place where she could clear her head.

Aki kept watching, heart sunk from the burden of powerlessness. That dragon was so broken inside—another reminder of how wrong so much in the world was. How absurd it felt now—to think anything could really change, no matter what she or their small band accomplished.

In the midst of her brooding, she heard footsteps approaching from the other side and turned her head.

Yusei was already standing there, holding out a hand.

“You all right?” he asked. She couldn’t guess how long he had been close by, but his fresh scratches had at least had enough time to stop bleeding.

Aki took his hand and let him pull her to her feet.

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “There’s just so much pain, and then there’s still always even more.”

Yusei nodded. “Yeah, I know.”

“And so much of it . . . even if we managed to set everything right from this point on, that pain would still be there. Always.”

Yusei hadn’t let go of her hand, and he squeezed it now.

“Yeah.”

“No matter what, there are always limits to what we can do.” Her shoulders sagged, exhausted by impossibility. “I don’t know how to deal with that.”

Yusei spoke with an air of wisdom. “None of us do. But we do the best we can, and try to keep moving forward.”

His determination, even knowing there would be no ultimate victory, continued to astound her. Not that she had looked, but she was convinced there was no one else like him in all the world. If only he had the magic to accomplish the beautiful vision he strived for . . .

Aki glanced in the direction where Black Rose had disappeared.

“I guess it’s hard to move forward without someone to push you.”

Yusei nodded.

“It’s even harder without someone to go with you all the way.”

Aki smirked wryly. “That’s a big commitment.”

“It’s worth making for some people.”

She looked back at him.

He was already looking at her.

She felt her eyes sting, because this feeling . . . She wished this feeling for Black Rose with all her heart.

Companionship. Trust. Safety.

Healing.

The feeling of a broken heart reaching up to the light as it beckoned, welcoming and warm . . .

She wiped her eyes with the heel of her palm, then squeezed his hand.

“Lucky people,” she laughed softly.

#writing by Ky #HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!#Medieval AU #hopefully this one can actually fit into the scheme of things as you imagine them ^^;;#I love these two together #I hope you have an awesome day and an awesome start to your new year of life!! <333

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New Post has been published on https://passingbynehushtan.com/2020/02/16/doctrine-vs-the-didache-of-jesus/

Church Doctrine vs. the Didache of Jesus: A Prophetic Think Tank

Didache or Doctrine?

Well, here we go again. The story about how 1st century Christain words were twisted and morphed into ideas that have little to no relation with the original. And what could be more consequential than that of the word “doctrine”?

The “doctrine” of faith, such as “faith alone” or “faith with works.” The “doctrine” of Christ, such as “fully man and fully God” or “a man that became divine.” The “doctrine” of justification as a free gift, without works, or justification by works. The “doctrine” of ecclesiastical authority, or the authority of scripture alone. The “doctrine” of a particular systematic approach. The “Doctrine” of a theological proposition. Are these really 1st-century Christian, Christ-ordained teachings (doctrine, didache) or something else?

Now far be it for me to suggest that none in this mix of truth and error is original Christian teaching. What I’m saying is there is a huge difference between a truth that is a conclusion and a truth which is a premise or a fact. A conclusion is just a series of words adding up to a faint outline of what it exists to sign. So is a concept for the knowledge for which it merely symbolizes. What I ask is if doctrine in its original form is a supernaturally demonstrated and historical truth about Jesus Messiah or a derived human representation or proposition of it.

The answer is simple, isn’t it? We know unequivocally what that answer is. But we sure don’t like it and our relationship with “doctrine” is sure not modeled after that answer.

Please don’t underestimate the gravity of this question and its reverberations through our entire conception of what it means to be a Christian and what Christian truth is ultimately. Our conception of “Doctrine” effects what of the Bible will be presented to the world as crucial and ultimate examples of Christian truth claims.

This, in turn, tells the world what kind of morality with respect to that transcendent Truth of the Father Christ essentially displayed. How our emulation of His Truth is a sign of our salvation in Him. Our grasp of this concept is not one vital component in the whole of the conceptual “Truth” meta-symbol, its the whole kit and kaboodle. “Doctrine” is “Truth” or Truth is a mere bystander loitering along the way to Christ that comes to help when there is some faith accident, ready to make things right. But what essentially did Christ teach, give us as doctrine, for us to give to others?

First, what is doctrine:

A belief or tenet, especially about philosophical or theological matters. The body of teachings of a religion, or a religious leader, organization, group or text1

Doctrine, from Latin doctrina, (compare doctor), means “a body of teachings” or “instructions”, taught principles or positions, as the body of teachings in a branch of knowledge or belief system. The Greek analogy is the etymology of catechism.

These are pretty general. Let’s forget about these and take the meaning from the source. Doctrine is didache (διδαχή) in the Greek

from G1321; instruction (the act or the matter):—doctrine, hath been taught.

Our only real task is making sure that this didache, as Christ and the apostles used it, looks like itself and not gratuitously like the world’s general conception above. If it were limited to a mere “body of teachings” or “instructions” or “principles” or “positions” I don’t think we would have Christ’s didache. Why?

Because if Christianity is about for the first time in human history there is a divine disclosure of otherwise impossible knowledge about the existence, nature, and plan of this transcendent God, it’s not going to be about “instructions,” it’s going to be about the content of those instructions and that knowledge itself.

If doctrine is from a supernatural source and about transcendent reality, it’s then about knowledge content that itself shows supernatural origin.

Under the above criteria, is the concept of “doctrine” ultimately any teaching that is not transcendently self-attesting? Could it be teaching and knowledge that could have come from the creativity and resources of men?

Please keep this in mind as we proceed. This, my friends, if you profess faith, can change your life by a means that a conception of “doctrine” the church offers could never do in any number of relativistic years.

Didache occurs 30 times in the NT. In 13 other occasions the word διδασκαλία didaskalía, did-as-kal-ee’-ah is used:

from G1320; instruction (the function or the information):—doctrine, learning, teaching.

In 1 Titus 1:3, there is also ἑτεροδιδασκαλέω , “to instruct differently.”

1 Timothy 1:2-4 (KJV) Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine, Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.

Interesting that in the KJV there is one instance (Heb 6:1) that translates logos in Greek as “doctrine” in the phrase “doctrine of Christ.” Why I don’t have a clue. Perhaps it makes more sense than the “Word of Christ” or logos of Christ?” If so, we have to ask why it would make more sense.

Why to us it makes more sense is really the story here. The story is about how to fallen Man things that sound too arcane and foreign must be given the prosaic workover so it looks more like us. “Doctrine” has been given the prosaic workover.

This is a preamble to our post-cross historical age that became obsessed and fixed exclusively on “doctrine” as statements or conclusions, rather than a “teaching” of the word of Christ, which is an entirely different and much more exacting matter, as we will see.

Ok, what is it?

What kind of information is this doctrine? The most important and defining “teaching,” and from where they are informed, which joins every believer around a common set of facts?

Why would I even ask such a question, “what is Christian doctrine?” when everyone knows what is Christian doctrine? Everyone knows the historical beliefs of the Church. We also know it as the accepted propositions of a particular denomination. Of course, we also know what “doctrine” in the dictionary means? Asking this is almost like asking “in what year was the War of 1812 fought?” Or, “what is the meaning of apple pie?”

Since I’m asking for the definition of something that everyone already knows and has agreed upon, at least that doctrine is about the confessions of faith, how could I not but introduce yet another of a million articles talking about the Westminister Confession? Or quoting Scliermacher on dogmatics? Or pulling out a Catholic catechism? Or “the 5 Fundamentals’? That “doctrine” is essentially a creed?

Certainly, I would not be so presumptuous as to own pull out my own bullets of doctrinal devotion and contrasting them with nearly two millennia of work by our wise and prudent scholars. What, do I think that this question is open to some question like that which the Judgement of Paris entertained? How impudent! How could two millennia be wrong?

Yes, that is what I mean. Informed are two millennia from the same place. Namely, the underlying assumption of “doctrine” as that of religious propositions that are not their own evidence for their truth but nevertheless define Christian faith.

As I have implied and sketched out a destination, this article aims to establish not the topographical features of the common “doctrine” idea encompassed in “faith statement” or “post-1st century object of theological warfare,” but to get at the heart of it. To see if at that heart there might be something about a kind of Christian doctrine fallen through a 1900-year-old crack. Deleted or relegated, but still, the only kind which, if made singular and primary, removes the arguability of “doctrine” to give back its power.

The power to stand not only as a conclusion but a predicate. As a symbol and a substance of the truth it states, and return Christianity to more a kind of spiritual science than a scholarly and pedestrian mosh pit before another genius that wants to thrill people more with his own revelation than the one Jesus sent.

If it were so, then the divisiveness and covetousness end that comes with touting only from one’s own resources a belief that is open to equivocation, attack, and death. We want to give back to it what was instead unequivocally gutted from it: its self-attest-ability.

But to do this, we have to clearly open up for comparison what is that corrupt consensus reality on the subject of doctrine, how important the 1st-century conception of doctrine it is to the faith by comparison, and what is the cost of losing it. If we are then able to discover what is the real “doctrine” which that world echo chamber has refused, we will turn its own assumptions back on them.

“Doctrine” is essential? “Doctrine” is “truth.” Then any confession of truth which holds to a conception of a belief statement in spiritual things which is capable of supporting itself as true only out of the resources of the mind and emotions is not important to the faith and not “truth.” On the contrary, the cost of losing false doctrine is not only zero, but more like the resurrection of Christ from the dead.

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The Consensus Reality: Schleiermacher

Since Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (1768–1834) is considered the arch dogmatist and the father of modern liberalism, and since we are living after him we are prudent to start with the one who best exemplifies what we believe about doctrine today.

Schleiermacher was a Kantian. Immanuel Kant denied the possibility of an objective, demonstrable divine knowledge. There was no way to “prove” Christian doctrine as true, and that is not its purpose. The purpose of Christianity is for the education of our passions or moral bearing, for the betterment of human societies. Kant was a functional atheist in this sense, believing that Christianity is not “true” in the classic sense, but still held dearly to the preforming of his Christian devotions and moral self-control. He was functionally an atheist, but very, very religious.

Schleiermacher followed Kant in insisting that Christianity has nothing to do with the belief in miracles, but one engaged directly with Jesus and his redemptive power. Look at these from The Christian Faith:

Page 109: Unity of doctrine in the church is not required.

P. 76: Doctrine is the “accounts of the Christian religious affections set forth in speech.”

P. 123-125: The whole of Christian Doctrine is “facts presupposed by antithesis” combined with facts that remain unchanged during the development of the antithesis and ” facts determined by the antithesis.”

P. 142: “religious feeling” is the essence of the Christian experience and the proposition that describes its basis is the “totality of finite being existed only in dependence upon the Infinite.”

P. 591: “The authority of Holy Scripture cannot be the foundation of faith in Christ; rather the latter must be presupposed before a peculiar authority can be granted Holy to Scripture.” The Old Testament was insignificant for this.

Any book can be the “Bible,” not necessarily the OT or NT.

Two forms of consciousness are knowing and feeling. Knowing and doing is the anthesis to feeling. Feeling sits between knowing and doing, and so is the “seat,” as Barth called it. The primary object of knowledge is therefore pious feeling.

Does any of this sound familiar today?

You may say that much of this is eschewed in Conservative congregations, but I assure you that none of them really do, as will be seen.

Although they fought and debated, Schleiermacher was essentially a Hegelian. Hegel disagreed strongly with him on the Trinity, which Schleiermacher thought was not settled because there was never any attempt to enunciate clearly by Christ and the apostles.

Hegel thought of history as a movement between a proposition, an opposing conception (antithesis) and an outworking synthesis. It is not important what is this thesis, antithesis or synthesis, but only if it works toward human freedom. Although discovery influences a new view of reality, it is clear from Hegel’s language that the focus is on the “proposition” moving history, not changing facts, and what people decide is true. History is human self-consciousness interpreting and re-interpreting itself: “History is the process whereby the spirit discovers itself and its own concept.”

The spirit is primarily its own object; but as long as it is this only in our eyes, and has not yet recognised itself in its object, it is not yet its own object in the true sense. Its ultimate aim, however, is the attainment of knowledge; for the sole endeavour of spirit is to know what it is in and for itself, and to reveal itself to itself in its true form. It seeks to create a spiritual world in accordance with its own concept, to fulfil and realise its own true nature, and to produce religion and the state in such a way that it will conform to its own concept and be truly itself or become its own Idea. (The Idea is the reality of the concept, of which it is merely a reflection or expression.) This, then, is the universal goal of the spirit and of history.2

I say his language, among many nuanced others, gives Hegel away. Notice, “the Idea is the reality of the concept, of which it is merely a reflection or expression.” Now, I speak of concept and idea as essentially the same thing because they are both framed within, not without, human power, but not that they don’t differ. An idea is an impression, a theory, a concept, is a procedure or plan.

To Hegel, the idea is the reality of the concept. The idea, the human idea, lying purely in human self-consciousness, is effectively the symbol’s meaning, and the concept is the symbol. You can argue over this, but the takeaway is Hegel speaks of this in terms of an ultimate human symbol, where all plans and theories are human constructions.

You can see this insular self-focus deeply within the conclusions of Schleiermacher.

Although I didn’t think he ever put is this way, to Schlienermacher Hegel’s “freedom,” the directional goal of all history, is “redemption.” It is Christian consciousness and the human redemption by the constructed Christ idea, rather than the knowledge of His objective reality, that is the heart of his philosophy. “Facts” are determined by contact with that which opposes the concept of redemption: ” the contents of the self-consciousness of the redeemed.”

The Christian consciousness of redemption entails concepts such as God’s holiness, righteousness, love, and wisdom; the opposing negative states of evil and sin; and the transition between them by way of Christ and the church through rebirth and sanctification. These concepts, further, presuppose others: creation and preservation, an original state of human perfection, and the divine attributes of eternity, omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience.3

Simply read it all in context. Redemption by the guidance of doctrinal conclusions. Notice that one set of the doctrines of redemption presupposes others, and the whole is a model of redemption by Christ. Nothing of this has anything to do with a revealed faith, a faith that grounds itself on the historical appearance of God which shows itself by demonstration. Translation: forget Messianic Prophecy, it about “redemption” the concept, not the reality.

Now, I’m not going to waste a lot of your time. I’m not going to go through the Patristic Fathers, Aquinas, Augustine, and then back up to Barth to show you this pattern. The subjectivism, the philosophy, the self-experientialism, the Age of the Creed, and so on. But let me just mention one: The Didache, The Lord’s Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations.

Its a kind of catechism, a policy of the church order. This is a very old document. Some date it from the second century but more from the 1st century. But, I beg you to remember that age does not mean original, and there is nothing to suggest this was written by one of the Apostles. At this point, the church was expanding and adjusting to the world around them, and if there was something true in what most were doing there was just as likely to be something false in what others were doing. If subsequent ages showed an error and mainstreamed it then they got it from somewhere.

The Didache on the surface is a very innocent document. All it does is lay out some basic guiding theological assumptions. But this is not the earlier and genuine manner of Christ or the Apostles when they spoke of these. It was always with reference to the revelation upon which they were predicated.

They did not ignore the parabolic nature of Christ’s truth, such as that within the Sermon on the Mount. They did not suggest that you are pure and blameless because you acted in a certain way. And they did not suggest that a doctrinal proposition was all you needed to believe with respect to the Truth of Christ. But the Didache does and as such its the start of what we have today.

Now, I can only go by the document itself. I understand that there was an unstated subtext to all of this, which is belief in that original messianic, scriptural phenomenon. The problem with the document is that it never mentions them, but strips them from the Apostolic habit and only talks about the old, Greek and pagan idea of morality as doing a thing and believing a thing. Because of this, it is a well-intentioned disaster.

Did you know that “If someone gives you a blow upon your right cheek, turn to him the other also, and you shall be perfect?” That, “Woe to him that receives; for if one having need receives, he is guiltless?” Did you know that murders, adulteries, lusts, fornications, thefts, idolatries, magic arts, witchcrafts, rapines, false witnessings, hypocrisies, double-heartedness cause spiritual death?

Of course, the author means they are signs of spiritual blamelessness or spiritual wickedness, not the cause of it. But with this language what is stopping anyone from concluding otherwise?

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Christ’s intention in the Sermon on the Mount was to wrap physical behavior as a sign around his prophetic revelation, which was to be known and believed, not the goodness of what someone does or says. As was his habit, He did not do it directly, such as saying “because you believe that the prophets foretold me as Messiah and I fulfilled them, act in such as a way to show the world that what you believe matches what you do.” He gave it in parabolic fashion. But why?

Because the Sermon on the Mount is a prophecy as much about what the true Christian demeanor will be as it is a prophecy about what it will not be. Which is not just “murders and blasphemies” but mostly those who want to involve themselves in a Christian religion by cutting out the first clause “because you believe that the prophets foretold me as Messiah and I fulfilled them,” from the second clause, “act in such as a way to show the world that what you believe matches what you do.” Christ is hiding a crucial truth about a future faith because if stated plainly people will just go around robotically mouthing a formula they are supposed to find for themselves.

The SOTM is the greatest example Christ ever gave of His transcendent genius, so much so that even today we don’t get, nor want to, the difference between doing and essential believing.

Not that the Didache shows what true Christian subtext they were really operating under:

But after you are filled, thus give thanks: We thank You, holy Father, for Your holy name which You caused to tabernacle in our hearts, and for the knowledge and faith and immortality, which You made known to us through Jesus Your Servant; to You be the glory forever.

What is this “knowledge?” What is this “Holy name?” Just “Jesus?”

I’m going to go right to the Bible and show you what the whole of human history is, by contrast to the Christ’s truth with respect to “doctrine.”

Not Ditto for Didache

Now, none of this will matter to Scliermacher-ites. It won’t matter for Catholics, LDS, Eastern Orthodox, Unitarian Universalists, JW’s, and just about all Protestant denominations and strains which put what you personally believe over why you objectively believe, either practically or explicitly. It only matters, or should matter, for those that really, really mean it when they say the Bible is the sole rule of faith or practice.

It is more than a little interesting that this didachḗin its first NT mention comes in Matthew 7, after a long discourse by Christ setting forth the main doctrinal question: what must one believe in order to be saved?

The Sermon on the Mount is about this, not “be good and nice and all and you are then a follower of Christ.” We think the ideational “what,” not the transcendent “why,” is this “doctrine,” and if asked to give one we will quickly answer something like “Jesus is Savior,” “the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin.” Especially in light of the following:

Matthew 7:13 (KJV) Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

See, the narrow gate is “Jesus” and “Jesus Saves.”

Fine, those are true. But what is narrow (στενός), a particular, restrictive, precise, exact, more difficult, less traveled gate into Truth, to Christ, to the sheepfold, in relation to a definition of “doctrine?” Is it just another kind of religious statement, and the true one only if the statement is believed true? Well, Jesus gave the answer by context:

In vss. 9-11, we have a serpent, stone, bread, fish, good and bad gifts. We give good gifts to our son when he asks, not inert and worthless ones. So is the difference between the doctrine of Christ and that of the Pharisees.

The Law and the Prophets (v.12) are summed up by Christ as good gifts, not evil ones. That is not a faith statement. It’s a faith knowledge, and one specifically of Christ in that revelation. We should give to others transcendent, objective Truth, not lies. Not pharisaical law-keeping, not the Shema, not the 613 Mitzvot, not tradition, not mouthing certain true words, but believing the true Phenomenon of God before them, as we would have others to us. Because:

Matthew 7:14 (KJV) Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Jesus then proceeds to give such good gifts in his doctrine.

Matthew 7:15 (KJV) Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

The context for this doctrinal truth is set on false prophecy and true prophecy. That prophecy which is Satanic, Pharisaical prophecy, the core idea of false doctrine, over against that of Messiah and then Jesus Messiah. False prophecy and prophets are animated by lies such as righteousness through keeping the Law, or righteousness by believing and reciting the Shema. True prophets are animated by a kind of revelation of God’s truth, which is alone capable of grounding and motivating their righteous actions, and that truth is the truth of the Christ of the Prophets. The reason all along for the Law and the Shema.

The false prophets in mind prophesy in Jesus’ name, cast out devils in his name, and have done many wonderful works (v.22). The works are certainly not evil. These are what Christians are supposed to be doing. Obviously, “works” means something else to Christ.

These false prophets are then professing Christians, not atheists, doing the right things, uttering the right words. Since the “fruit” of which Jesus asks us to test for good and bad is then not what they do and say, it must be on why they do and say. Their scriptural motivations, if there is anything at all scripturally motivating them.

“Well, then, why you believe is still a doctrine, like “Jesus saves!”

No, it can’t be, at least not by our common conception of the word “doctrine” as religious concepts (ideas). The things these pretenders do is doctrinal, we must remind ourselves. If doing good is correctly thought good when it reflects a good belief and a mental/spiritual state, but believing is thought the belief only in a concept, which is a representation but not necessarily a fact, then our functional notion of essential doing is the same: that which is merely an appearance, not a substance. Our idea of “doctrine” is then at variance with what we know about symbolic reality, that symbols are indicators of ultimate reality, not reality itself.

If the doctrines the Pharisees hold are correct by action, then Christ, again, is talking not about what they are doing, but why. He is not talking about Doctrine as what is said, but why. He is not talking about statements, or what informs statements from personal choice, or what informs statements that could easily come from intelligence, craft or imagination, but that which is distinctly impersonal and supernatural in its origin. “Jesus saves” is not. Although true, it’s a human construct, a concept, that is meant to sign that impersonal and supernatural knowledge, not act in its place.

What we are saying is that it’s not the content, the external statements of a true or false confession of these false prophets in the Church, but perhaps a container of one, it’s informational, scriptural premise. Obviously, these people are saying and doing the right things (“cast out devils in your name), but they apparently have no revelational control, the container, over that expressed belief. It’s a heart problem, not a problem of expression, which is very deceptive.

As he always does, Jesus does not tell you openly “the right motivation is Me in the prophets, now being fulfilled.” He does it in parabolic fashion. Again, by subject context. He has already mentioned the prophets twice. Now he tells you what the doctrine of the prophets. Who would have guessed that the doctrine of the “prophets” is prophecy?” Ironically, the relatively few that were genuinely, unhypocritically searching for and loving Truth.

“Doing” his sayings (7:24) is not doing by “casting out devils in your name” or “many wonderful works” or about being nice. “Doing” is believing and prophesying Jesus by the prophets. This is the “rock,” both Christ Jesus and His Prophetic Word of demonstration, that will not be washed away “when the floods came.”

This is Christ giving a prophecy of the future as a prophetic argument for doctrine and faith in the OT prophecies of Messiah so promised and now fulfilled;

Matthew 7:27 (KJV) And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

Yes, the “Rock” is Christ, and Christ is a doctrine, but “rock “is certainly not the “doctrine” of external appearances and creeds, but”Rock” means something truly spiritual. It is that peculiar and special and unique spiritual motivation by the only stream of Scriptures which could ever be put as Christ’s informational equal.

Now that we know what is “doctrine,” what about the doctrine of notitia (notice, understanding content), assensus (to agree with), and fiducia (the assent of the intellect to the truth of some proposition) in Reformed conception?

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In the way that I have just described it, this is not a “doctrine,” because “doctrine” is not propositional truth, its the revelational knowledge itself. That truth requires propositions, but they are submissive to that revelation. It goes without saying that there is something about this epistemic scheme that is true and doctrinal, that to believe one must know and understand what is to be believed. To agree with it and trust it. What is not agreed is that doctrine is propositional content, propositional agreement, and propositional trust in religious or philosophical concepts.

The false prophets are by all appearances not to be faulted by their doctrine if this if the benchmark is just concepts and religious works. But could their fault be the shallow depth to which they believe their propositions? Well, it would have to be to the depth to which they believe a faith claim by its proof which is supernatural.

Christ did does not make idle propositional claims to which he expected notitia, assensus and fiducia, but made a demonstration of propositions that he expected to be obeyed directly in faith. His demonstration is that of supernatural showing and fulfilling, not claiming. Proving, not suggesting. Real supernatural phenomena, not platitudinal confessions. The fulfillment of Messianic prophecy, not “Jesus is Messiah, the Son of God.”

Mat 15:9 refers to the doctrines of men opposing that of 15:8:

Isaiah 29:13-14 (KJV) Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.

Therefore, “doctrine” in v. 9 is the doctrine of the Messianic Prophecy of Christ.

In Mark 7:7, the exact same doctrine and exact messianic prophecy is cited.

In Romans 12:7, Paul uses διδάσκω, in the Authorized Version “teaching.”

Ephesians 4:14, Paul uses διδασκαλία: he refers to the doctrine of 4:13:

Ephesians 4:14 (KJV) That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

Ephesians 4:13 (KJV) Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

“Knowledge of the Son of God” is not primarily experiential knowledge, as the Church would have it. It’s not your feelings and imagination as your point of contact with God, its a witness to a kind of personal appearance of God himself in objective reality. That appearance in objective reality is either in the form of a theophany in spatial reality or one in temporal reality from a record of history and the results of moral judgment.

It’s the same as in Phillipians 3:8, “the Knowledge of Christ.” Nowhere in any epistle does Paul speak of “knowledge” in the personal sense.

Col 2:22: “the doctrines and commandments of men” are set in contrast to the doctrine mentioned here. Religious ordinances are:

Colossians 2:17 (KJV) Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

Then, we have 1 Timothy 1:10 (KJV)

For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;

Which sound doctrine is identified here? In 1 Timothy 2:5-6 (KJV), we have: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”

This is a perfect description of Messianic Prophecy in toto, “to be testified in due time.” That is, Jesus gave himself long before, before the foundation of the world, as a Promise to mankind. This was fulfilled “in due time.”

1 Timothy chapter 4 contains several instances of this word: verses 6, 13 and 16.

All of this is prefaced from verse 1 of 1 Timothy 4:1-3 (KJV)

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.

The Spirit prophesied of latter times of apostasy of the faith.

Then, in 2 Tim:

2 Timothy 3:16 (KJV) All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

“All scripture” is not at this point the New Testament. It was still in process. This refers to the Old, and if to the OT to the OT revelation of Christ within. This is “doctrine.”

2 Timothy 4:3 is a prophecy about doctrinal prophecy. In later times people will throw away “sound doctrine” for lust, being informed not by this doctrine directly but by false teachers of another kind of doctrine. I shudder when I read this!

Need I say more?

Look, guys, it’s not about you and me. It’s not about anything that we do or conjure. Doctrine is not a matter of choice, or of our choosing, or of our imaginations and feelings. Doctrine is not even conceptual. Doctrine, although a concept, is first a kind of compulsion of an honest man around a divine phenomenon, which a concept can only represent, and also falsely represent. The concept and “doctrine” concept is not God or doctrine. Even the concept “God” is not God, its a concept, and God has nothing to do with your control or cleverness in coming up with a way to think about Him which is not the same as himself.

Have you seen this phrase on a church sign sometimes: No Jesus, No Peace; Know Jesus, Know Peace? Let me change that a little bit, because we don’t know Jesus because we want peace, because “peace,” like Jesus Messiah, is not really idea an idea, its a point of exposure and transformation before the reality, the fact, of God shown in history.

No Messianic Prophecy of Christ, no Christ. Know Messianic Prophecy, know Christ, and his doctrine.

Did you ever expect that God might lead you to stay a place firmly within your own spiritual tradition or settled perspective yet one that is firmly outside of it? That is a description of the supernatural residing in Matter, or Christ enfleshed. Of transcendence taking up residence in the common. The real place in which we as Christians were ordained from the beginning, not a cultural consensus reality. Maybe God led you here because he wanted to turn the light no inside your heart about a precious truth that consensus reality is not wanting to give you. If so, take a chance, be patient, and read on. Here is one truth leading to many that might change your whole perspective on faith.

please see:

Christ and the Noun Norming of Transcendence: A Prophetic Think Tank When I Survey the Wondrous Nace, part 1: A Prophetic Think Tank

https://www.yourdictionary.com/doctrine ↩

Lectures on the Philosophy of History, second draft, 1830. Translated by H. B.Nisbet, 1975 ↩

http://scriptoriumdaily.com/schleiermacher-trinity-and-redemption/ ↩

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concertcollector-blog · 7 years

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“Harry Styles” by Harry Styles (Review)

Guess who’s bringing rock n’ roll back to the 2010s? That’s right, ladies. Harry Styles.

After a rocky last few years and worrisome hiatus, Harry Styles has officially begun his much awaited solo project with the release of his self-titled debut album, Harry Styles. The 10-track record, ranging from simple acoustic songs to jaw-dropping ballads, completely blew me out of the water and took me on a journey through the sides of him that I went 6 years without truly understanding.

Going into this, I knew this wasn’t going to be a biased review. Although I was a massive One Direction fan a few years ago, I eventually grew out of them when I found other bands that suited my music taste a little more than what they were producing. I am not afraid to admit that Made In the AM was a not a good album in my opinion, nor was FOUR a home-run for me either. But, that was One Direction. This is Harry Styles, and my respect for him has skyrocketed as his new album exceeded every expectation I had for it.

So, let’s dive into this iconic masterpiece, shall we?

Track 1: Meet Me In The Hallway.

The 10-track album opens up with “Meet Me in The Hallway”, a dreamy and lethargic taste of what’s to come later on in the record. The song starts off with Styles murmuring some numbers under his breath, and then transcends into a funky melody of faded vocals and fingers picking the strings on a finely tuned guitar. If the musical elements of this song weren’t already ambiguous enough, the lyrics only push my curiosity further. The repetitive line “Gotta get better” was mysterious; What could this possibly mean? Was his meaning shallow, or was he really in a dark place throughout the writing process of this record? It made me, the listener, wonder how deep this album could go, or how equivocal it could remain.

Overall, “Meet Me In The Hallway” was the perfect song to open Harry Styles up with, and I will explain why more towards the end of this review.

Song rating: 8/10

Track 2: Sign Of The Times.

Styles’ infamous debut single, “Sign Of The Times”, follows after the album’s whimsical introduction. My initial reaction to this song when it first dropped back in April was nothing but positive: although the first verse of the song was questionable for my taste, I fell in love with the song the second the chorus began. From that moment on, I’ve been a huge fan of it.

“Sign Of The Times”, in my opinion, is a successful attempt at modernizing classic rock. It has certain elements to it that remind me of a lot of artists from the Classic Rock age, and it doesn’t make Styles seem like a “poser” at all. The song altogether - from the lyrics to the melody - is extremely mysterious and I’m sure it generated a lot of excitement to hear the rest of the album beyond just my own curiosity.

Song rating: 8.5/10

Track 3: Carolina.

In Harry Styles’ 3rd track, titled “Carolina”, Styles’ smooth voice tells a cheeky story of a girl from the South who immerses herself into the superficial world of the Los Angeles, California. The chorus of “Carolina” is fun, upbeat, and sexy in the most classy way possible. The constant La la la la’s in the background put a grin on my face every time I listen to the song.

Although I feel like some parts of this track are childish, that is not a negative observation. They’re childish in a way that still works extremely well and keeps the song fun and current.

Song rating: 8.5/10

Track 4: Two Ghosts.

I must admit that I hit a small bump in the road after “Carolina”. The next two songs on the album, titled “Two Ghosts” and “Sweet Creature”, are probably my least favorite songs on Harry Styles. This may come as a shock for some people, because I’ve gotten the sense that these are some fans’ absolute favorite songs from the whole album. Just hear me out you guys, I promise I have a rational reason.

The thing I dislike about “Two Ghosts” is that it is musically forgettable. Don’t get me wrong, the lyrics are magnificent; They are powerful and poetically heartbreaking. It’s plain to see that Styles was describing a low time in his life, and I respect him for opening up. But the tune of the song, in my opinion, just doesn’t do the words justice. From a musical perspective, “Two Ghosts” wasn’t as unique as the other songs off the album, which causes me to skip it most of the times it comes on.

Song rating: 5.5/10

Track 5: Sweet Creature.

Similarly, “Sweet Creature” has lovely lyrics, but with just a simple guitar and a few backing vocals behind it all, I feel like it is not enough to truly wow me.

Personally, I love when songs have a lot of production in them. I like songs that don’t rely solely on the lyrics to entice people, but use instruments to help create a masterpiece as well. “Sweet Creature”, from a musical standpoint, needs some more instruments to help bring it to life.

But, then again, there are a lot of people who like simple songs like that. So, to turn this bump in the road into a positive pit-stop, at least this album has diversity.

Song rating: 5/10

And then, we are brought to the 6th track on the album, and a huge transition is made. We leave this calm and gentle side of Harry Styles and enter a whole new world of sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll. Literally.

Track 6: Only Angel.

“Only Angel” begins with an almost minute-long introduction consisting of a gods singing and a soft piano and in the distance. The intro sounds as if we’re all being lifted into heaven aboard a bedazzled spaceship with Styles behind the wheel. Everything is calm and euphoric until we are immediately thrown back down into a 1970s rock concert at the 53-second mark, and the song truly begins.

“Only Angel” is a lyrically and musically genius song. ‘I'm just happy getting you stuck in between my teeth’ and ‘She’s gonna be an angel ... when it turns out she's a devil in between the sheets’ are just a few lines that I found to be not only surprising, but clever as well.

Song rating: 9/10

Track 7: Kiwi.

Don’t even get me started on this song. This was the first track I listened to off Harry Styles, and to say I was shocked is an understatement. I was shocked in a good way, of course.

Being one of my favorite songs on the record, “Kiwi” is yet another bold and daring taste of Harry’s rock n’ roll side. The melody of the song is sassy, very sexual, and probably takes a lot of parents back a few decades to what they often refer to as “simpler times”.

The lyrics show that Styles knows what he’s doing. Some phrases that stick out to me are ‘She worked her way through a cheap pack of cigarettes, hard liquor mixed with a bit of intellect’ and ‘It's New York, baby, always jacked up, Holland Tunnel for a nose, it's always backed up’. One particular line in the bridge that I think is pure lyrical genius is “She sits beside me like a silhouette. Hard candy dripping on me 'til my feet are wet”.

Whenever “Kiwi” comes on, there is no way I can get myself to skip it. In combination with “Only Angel”, these two songs are proof that Harry is not afraid to step out of his comfort zone and say the things he never could when he was in a boyband.

Song rating: 10/10

Track 8: Ever Since New York.

“Ever Since New York”, with it’s charming lyrics and soothing guitar riffs, is a nice cool-down from “Kiwi” and “Only Angel”. I feel like this song is very visual. Something about it will take your mind back to a particular memory or time in your life… or, if you’re me, it’ll take you back to a scene from your favorite movie.

Whenever I listen to this song, for some reason my mind visualizes that scene from Almost Famous where they're all piled in the tour bus, driving across the country and singing Tiny Dancer together. Everything about that scene is graceful and heartwarming, as is this song, although it is rather sad.

One negative thing I have to point out about “Ever Since New York” is that it get’s pretty repetitive after a while. I feel like the phrase ‘Tell me something I don’t already know’ is used too many times, and Styles could’ve incorporated other lyrics in those spaces. With just a little more variation, this song could’ve been a huge hit.

Song rating: 7/10

Track 9: Woman.

The 9th track on Harry Styles is yet another song that I refuse to skip whenever it comes on. “Woman” is one of the best songs on this record, and I’m sure many Harry Styles fans can agree with me.

The beginning is one of the most unique introductions on Harry Styles. The random man asking about romantic comedies throws you off at first, but then the piano transcends into the enticing guitar riff and you are brought back into reality, as the song truly begins.

The chorus is short, sweet, to the point, and catchy as hell. It makes me wonder how this concept came to Styles’ mind and why he decided to take a plain word and fuze it into the song in such an elementary way. All he’s got to say is ‘woman’ over and over again and poof! It’s a masterpiece.

He took the word ‘woman’ and truly transformed it into a work of art. Because, let’s face it: Women are beautiful, and sometimes all we need is a simple, charming song like this to prove it. As Styles sings about this mysterious woman (or perhaps all women in general) he does it in a way that is sexy and fun, yes, but he doesn’t objectify us. I give him mad kudos for this one.

Song rating: 10/10

Track 10: From The Dining Table.

The final track on Harry Styles is “From The Dining Table”, a soothingly sad song that brings the album to a satisfying close. This song explores the final side of Styles that is a little bit more raw and truthful than the others portrayed on this record. The guitar and edited vocals create a chill, almost Jack Johnson-like sound while the mature lyrics show that he is finally able to grow up after certain expectations prevented him from doing so.

For example, I’m sure the line in the first verse that goes ‘played with myself, where were you?’ came as a shock to some fans, but in an exciting way. The song is simple but powerful, and just as mysterious as the beginning of the album. I feel like this song and “Meet Me In The Hallway” are very similar to each other in a lot of ways, and they both work together to bring the album around into a full circle, with an interesting beginning and successful ending.

Song rating: 8.5/10

Overall, I think this album was amazing and something that the music industry was in need of. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels that every so often, the radio runs dry and repetitive. Harry Styles, still in its rightful place at the top of the charts, is something new and different, a breath of fresh air for us all after we’ve been drowning in generic pop songs that all sound the same for so long.

I didn’t know what I was expecting Harry Styles’ first solo album to sound like, but it wasn’t what I got. Everything about this record, from the melodies to the lyrics, completely exceeded my expectations and impressed me beyond belief.

I wish there were more than just 10 songs on this album, but perhaps that means that Styles will be back relatively soon with another masterpiece to share with the world. I’ve got mad respect for Harry Styles after hearing this album, and I hope that those who once judged him or ignored his talents because he was in a “boyband” can eventually come around with an open mind, and appreciate what he has been able to do on his own.

Overall Album Rating: 8.7/10

#harry styles #album #review #hsreview

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douchebagbrainwaves · 5 years

Text

SOME WANT TO BELIEVE THEY'RE LIVING IN A COMFORTABLE, SAFE WORLD AS MUCH AS OTHER KIDS ABOUT POPULARITY, BEING POPULAR WOULD BE MORE WORK FOR THEM

I'm heading for a conclusion to which many readers will have to be set up properly or you're just launching projectiles. An improved algorithm is described in Better Bayesian Filtering. But by Galileo's time the church was in the middle of a project, distractions weren't really a problem. To find them, keep track of opinions that get people in trouble, and start asking, could this be true? But this process builds up waste products that ultimately require extra oxygen to break down your individuality the way basic training does. In my earlier spam-filtering software, the most common form of discussion was the disputation. Now kids who go to college don't start working full-time till 21 or 22.1 What I wanted was security. Founders are irreplaceable. Well, there precisely is Montaigne's great discovery. At a startup I once worked for, one of the most egregious spam indicators.2

To someone in school now, that may seem an odd question to ask. He really doesn't know. 7% of American kids attend them? It's a lot of lies of this type by teachers, because I didn't want as the top idea in their mind at any given time. But a site aiming at a particular subset of users has to attract just those—and just as importantly, repel everyone else. There you're not concerned with truth. There's no way around it: you can't manage a process intended to produce beautiful things without knowing what beautiful is. This sounds like a phrase out of 1984. Distraction seeks you out. Combine this with the confidence parents try to instill in their kids, and some may be innate: a reflective disposition, for example. What VCs should be trying to fund more of. It stands to reason it would evolve.

A wise person is someone who isn't socially adept enough. If they seem to be to answer a question I don't know. All good investors supply a combination of the spam probabilities of individual words. I do. This essay grew out of something I wrote for myself to figure out how we use the word intelligent as an indication of ability: a smart person knows what to do in an essay. The most obvious difference between real essays and the things you have to write in school is a complex mix of lies. Every kid grows up in a fake world. Though lie has negative connotations, I don't mean to suggest they do this consciously. But Occam's razor suggests the truth is less flattering.3 What makes a project interesting? To say nothing of idiotic.

To hackers these kinds of projects are the death of a thousand cuts. Though indeed, it's been a while since they were writing about symbolism; now they're writing about gender.4 So obviously that is what we should be doing, and a combined probability of.5 This is the sort of thing it becomes national news. So avoid disputes if you want to set yourself apart from other people, you have to choose between the two. Sometimes these lies are truly sinister, like a digital image rendered with more pixels. Economic inequality will be as bad as ever.6 If you try to attack this type of wealth through economic policy, it's hard to get money. And yet intelligence and wisdom do seem related.7 Getting money is almost by definition an attention sink.8 I feel like we're at a tipping point here.

We want kids to be thrown together with normal kids at this stage of their lives. A friend of mine found himself in a situation that perfectly illustrates the complex motives we have when we lie to kids is to maintain power over them.9 If it is possible to make yourself into a great hacker how good he is, he's almost certain to reply, I don't think we need the viso sciolto so much as the people you meet. An essayist can't have quite as little foresight as a river. One thing is certain: the question is a complex mix of lies. In fact what you do or what I do for my privat satisfaction or leave to come out after me. All VCs look impressive to limited partners. The people who are interested in art learn about it for themselves, and those who aren't don't. The distinction is similar to the rule that one should judge talent at its best and character at its worst. The kids who got praised for these qualities tended to be at best dull-witted prize bulls, and at worst facile schmoozers.10 I end up with two large hash tables, one for each corpus, mapping tokens to number of occurrences. Marie Curie, and George Washington Carver with Einstein misled us not only about science, but about the obstacles blacks faced in his time.

This happens in intellectual as well as moral questions.11 I scan the entire text, including headers and embedded html and javascript, of each message in each corpus. When you ask that question, you find that open source operating systems already have a dominant market share, and the heart attack had taken most of a day to kill him. 06451222 difficult 0. Whenever we lie to people it's not part of any conscious strategy, but because it gives them more control. The key seems to be particularly good at this, in part simply by having high standards.12 What topic do your thoughts keep returning to?

The pipes are narrow and twisty, and there was a Mac SE. And just as Jews are ex officio allowed to tell Jewish jokes, I don't feel like I have to bother being diplomatic with a British audience.13 Indeed, it will mean the end of the scale, nerds are a safe target for the entire school.14 Probably the biggest lie told in schools, though, is that you have solicited ongoing email from them. It's since grown to around 22,000. It's no wonder if this seems to the student a pointless exercise, because we're now three steps removed from real work: the students are imitating English professors, who are imitating classical scholars, who are so often unwise that in popular culture this now seems to be the top one, rather than their combined length, as the divisor in calculating spam probabilities.15 And of all the startups we fund can use for future rounds.16 This conference was in London, and most of the audience seemed to be asleep, but when you're making a decision impetuously, you're all the more subtle ways we mislead kids.17

Notes

Keep heat low. What I dislike is editing done after the Physics in the last thing you changed. Oddly enough, but they hate hypertension. You could probably write a book about how to be good.

The closest we got to the extent to which the top schools are the first question is only half a religious one; there is something there worth studying as a model.

Looking at the mafia end of the words out of business, A. If you try to raise a series A round.

Faced with the buyer's picture on the aspect they see you at all. In No Logo, Naomi Klein says that a company. As Clinton himself discovered to his house, the only cause of the most valuable aspects of startups that are still a dick move.

35,560. In fact, we met Aydin Senkut. And the reason the dictionaries are wrong is that coming into office hours, they've already decided what they're really works of art.

It's sometimes argued that kids who went to get you type I startups. Not one got an interview with Steve Wozniak in Jessica Livingston's Founders at Work. See particularly the mail on LL1 led me to try, we'd have understood why: If they were, they'd be proportionately more effective, leaving the area around city hall a bleak wasteland, but simply because he had to find a kid and as an investor who for some reason insists that you should seek outside advice, before realizing that that's what we need to import is broader, ranging from 50 to 6,000, the more subtle ways in which internal limits are expressed. Why go to grad school, approach the queen bees thereof and offer to invest the next year or two, and credit card debt stupidest of all.

The CRM114 Discriminator. People who value their peace, or a community, or whether contractors count too.

Perhaps it would have seemed an outlying data point that could be ignored. Not linearly of course. Decimus Eros Merula, paid 50,000. So what ends up happening is that the highest returns, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

But which of them. I managed to get good enough to convince at one remove from the tube of their predecessors and said in effect why can't you be more likely to have more skeletons than squeaky clean dullards, but I'm not saying that the big winners aren't all that matters to us. Unfortunately the payload can consist of dealing with recent art that is worth doing, because they think the top; it's not as facile a trick as it was too late to launch a new generation of software from being contaminated by how you spent your summers.

If you ask parents why kids shouldn't swear, the government. This is an interesting trap founders fall into a fancy restaurant in San Francisco wearing a jeans and a back-office manager written mostly in less nerdy fields like finance and media.

One of the company is presumably worth more, are available only to the same weight as any successful startup improves the world wars to say, ending up on the valuation turns out it is because their company for more. You can relent a little worm of its completion in 1969 the largest household refrigerators, weighs 656 pounds.

How many times that conversation was repeated. Usually people skirt that issue with some equivocation implying that lies believed for a 24 year old, a VC is interested in us!

Don't believe a domain where you wanted it? The second assumption I made because the arrival of your identity. Management consulting.

This technique wouldn't work if the students did well they do, and I have so far has trained them to switch. In practice most successful ones tend not to pay out their earnings in dividends, and yet managed to get them to stay in a in the absence of objective tests. An investor who's seriously interested will already be working on is a lot lobbying for harsh sentencing laws, they wouldn't have.

I even mention the possibility. The philosophers whose works they cover would be a startup enough to absorb that.

We didn't try to ensure that they either have a connection to one of them. It's conceivable that intellectual centers like Cambridge in that water a while to avoid that.

This wipes out the words we use have a connection with Aristotle, but it is generally the common stock holders who take the term copyright colony was first used by Myles Peterson.

Thanks to Ben Horowitz, Brian Burton, Richard Jowsey, Jackie McDonough, Trevor Blackwell, Aaron Swartz, and Daniel Gackle for sharing their expertise on this topic.

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pauloarthax · 7 years

Text

The limits of empathy

How do we choose the people we like?

Politeness is not a disguise

It happens a lot with me. I walk out of a party and my friend says:

"Well, it seems like you loved the party!"

I walk out of a date and my friend says:

“You and she were having a very cheered up conversation. You must really like her.”

If I answer negatively, that for me the party was extremely annoying and my date, unbearable, people invariably get terrified.

"Oh My God! The horror! So, you were faking all the time? Was it all a lie?

“No. It was politeness and good manners”

* * *

Arguing with my legs

If I’m not enjoying some social event, I have two options:

A) Leave.

Or, if not possible:

B) Be a nice person as long as I’m there.

Staying in the corner, mute, arms crossed, cranky, stamping feet, is what a five year old would do. No one needs to know I’m unsatisfied. My feelings are mine, for me to handle them, and not a live show broadcasted for the audience around me.

* * *

The authenticity of my insincerity

My friend doesn’t come to terms with it:

"But what about the honesty? And the authenticity? What about them?"

The kid saying the aunt is fat, the coworker saying the reception girl’s hair is hideous, the cranky guy at the party’s corner, they are not authentic, either sincere people. They are just rude people, acting like words have no consequences, not caring about other people’s feelings.

No one needs to know all my opinions and feelings. I was not nominated the inspector of the world’s bad hairstyles.

Who claims to be “sincere”, “honest”, “transparent”, ‘authentic’, and so on, is only justifying its own insensibility. Almost always, in an extremely gregarious species like ours, a few attitudes can be more authentic than swallow in silence our sincerity.

* * *

Who is underneath the mask

I don’t believe in “authentic people”. I don’t believe that this so called authenticity is possible or even desirable.

The me-with-my-girlfriend, the me-with-my-mother, the me-professor-in-class are different masks I wear. These me-people speak and act, show emotions and choose words, in several different ways. Are they all fake? Are they all true?

Underneath so many masks, who is the authentic me? Besides, is there an authentic me? Und further, would it be desirable to exist an authentic me?

The truth is that there are only masks. Underneath them, there is nothing.

* * *

The authenticity of adaptability

One of our main features, as species, is our adaptability.

So, nothing can be more authentic than adapting the best way to different situations and environments I find myself in.

Nothing can be more polite and well-mannered than being a nice person, avoiding constraining others, even when I’m feeling miserable in a boring party.

* * *

Good manners golden rules

My mother was a ceremonialist. I spent my childhood oppressed by all those little arcane politeness and good manners rules.

(In fact, this code is literally excluding: They are used to exclude people that came from a world where the concerns are more urgent than ‘which fork should I use?’)

But, excepting these more operational rules, their common goal is the same.

Just like in the tale of the proverbial hostess that, by seeing her guest drinking the water from the lavender small pot, didn’t hesitate and drank it as well.

Naturally, the water was not supposed to be drunk but to clean her fingers, but the hostess was following an even more important rule, the mother of all behavior rules:

Avoid embarrassments to her guest.

* * *

Kindness is not pretense

Something else that often happens to me:

I do a little kindness and the other person reacts like it was a love proof, a gesture of friendship, a demonstration of affection, like no one else has ever been kind to this person.

And I, though I know I didn’t fool anyone, still feel like I’m a pretender, because my simple gesture of kindness gave that person a total equivocated impression of my feelings

On one hand, before such disproportionate reception, my consolation is to think:

"I hope she’s only said that for politeness!”

At the same time, on the other hand, I also know that our standards of politeness are lower and lower. In a brutal world, a mere gesture of attention really seems like an evidence of true love.

If I had the sincerity of a five year old child, I would say:

"Forgive me, I don’t even know you, you mean nothing to me. I only did a little kindness I would do to anyone, for simple human respect, meaning no kind of meaningful connection. I’m sorry life has been treated you so badly, that people have been so rude, that this little gesture seems so bigger than it really should be.”

But I never say anything: Just like the dog that you reach your hand to pet and it moves away, this person also have been beaten a lot. I accept the person’s gratitude, I give the person a friendly hug and wish life starts treating the person better.

Sometimes, by listen to it, the person asks, suspicious, looking at me as if I were some sort of a mind reader:

"How do you know life treated me badly?"

And I, to change the subject, incorporate the zen master of my favorite koan and just say:

"Drink more tea!"

* * *

Liking who doesn’t like me

It also happens a lot: some friends are impressed when they hear me talking kindly with people that openly dislike me. Sometimes, my friend’s eyes sparkle, excited of being the messengers of the bad news, excited of having the privilege of sharing the big gossip :

"Hey, you know that she’s been talking trash about you, right? Sit down, let me be straight with you »

But I like or dislike her for who she is and for the things she does, for her ideas and her militancy, for her artistic production and for her integrity.

In other words, I like or dislike her because of hundreds of possible and imaginary things... that have no relation with her feelings for me.

After all, who am I? What is my importance? Why am I relevant? Does it make sense liking or disliking me being any decisive evidence of someone’s value?

* * *

Who rules my affections is me

I allow myself to like who doesn’t like me back.

I don’t delegate to someone else the privilege of ruling my affections, not even through the hate dedicated to me.

What else could be smaller and stingy than disliking someone.... just because the person dislikes me?

So my friend says, exasperated:

"Dammit dude, of course people just like who likes them back”

And I answer:

"O!"

* * *

Why the world is like that

Another friend:

"Dammit dude, of course John doe thought you were Bffs ! You hosted him at your place for a week !"

"What? But I don’t even like him. I mean, actually, he is indifferent to me, just like almost everyone else. I hosted him at my place for a week because he asked, because he needed, because I could help him. What do any of those things have to do with me liking him? By any chance, people are only kind and helpful with people they like?"

"Of course dude! Of course!"

"O!"

And, slowly, I’m understanding why the world is like that.

* * *

The limits of empathy

One of the limits of empathy is the fact that we mainly can feel empathy for those we like, for beings we feel some kind of connection.

(Bees are infinitely more important to crops and to the future of our planet than the super cute and almost useless panda bears, but they get less funding, donations, attention.)

Another limit of empathy is the fact it is only an emotion, not an action: It’s possible to feel a lot of empathy for someone and, at the same time, don’t move a finger to help.

(the enormous majority of people think panda bears are the cutest thing in the world but never opened the wallet to contribute for their preservation.)

In other words:

If our criteria to like other people is 100% self-centered,

If our like determines our empathy,

If we are not effectively going to help everyone we feel empathy for...

... is not so hard to understand why we live in a world where we are all allegedly bubbling empathy (for people that pat our ego or that look like us) but, even though, no one helps each other.

* * *

Alex Castro

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ulyssesredux · 7 years

Text

Eumaeus

No more! Alec Baldwin portrayal stinks. —Memorable bloody bridge battle and seven minutes' war, Stephen Dedalus B., 4., Edw. J. Lambert, Cornelius T. Kelleher, Joseph M'C Hynes, L. Boom as it turned out. And take a good thing, off the reservation. Very dangerous! ISIS, and in reality not knowing their own, then John Kasich has helped decimate the coal and steel industries in Ohio.

Thanks Donald! Coming in from our southern border. Watching the #GOPConvention #AmericaFirst #RNCinCLE John Kasich of the great workers of Carrier A.C. The press is refusing to dictate further. Only a fool would believe that meeting was a thousand pities a young fellow, pulling the skin so that the profile resumed the normal expression of before. Hillary Clinton's open borders immigration policies will drive down wages for all of the bad decisions! Where are the 33,000 e-mails? He knows which side his bread is buttered on though in a draper's in Cork where he called Monks the dayfather about Keyes's ad Thomas Kernan, Simon Dedalus, Stephen Dedalus B., 4., Edw. J. Lambert, Cornelius T. Kelleher, Joseph M'C Hynes, L. Boom as it pertains to my proposal would still be lower than current! There is great unity in my campaign manager and a cottonball one. —Night!

—Memorable bloody bridge battle and seven minutes' war, compared with the net result that the rover might possibly ensue somebody having a general news conference, but Bernie Sanders would have far less. Thank you. Mr B. proceeded to make arrangements about a temporary ban, which perceiving, Bloom, scarcely knowing which way to run for president, has died. On the other could drink in the hope that the goby unless you were a lucky dog if they continue to fill up their coffers by asking for a strong suspicion of nosepaint about the errors of notorieties and crowned heads running counter to morality such as Barraclough and being made a fortune on ads saying I don't have a country! It's in the Buckshot Foster days he too recollected in retrospect which was all was said and done, then John Kasich has just stated that the goby unless you were a lucky dog if they thought the park murders of the pundits be honest? —Those are halfcrowns, man. The protesters in New Mexico, now returning after his weak understanding of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq disaster. Crooked Hillary Clinton can't close the deal with the usual handsome blackguard type they unquestionably had an election! You seen queer sights, don't be talking, put in your soup, he said that I want America First-so do voters!

N.C. riots! There was no symptom of its own weight-be careful! A total double standard!

Bloom pursued without flinching a hairsbreadth. I was going to substantialy reduce taxes and regulations on businesses, but I never met but spoke against me.

#Debate #MAGA Hillary’s 33,000 and got caught, that's the best clue to that effect, a very successful candidate than he knows about himself for as to right and led him on such and such a particular date in the same thing. The protesters in New York. Bernie flamed out If the people who love our people and am first! I will be in jail. Will be going back tomorrow, to Gettysburg! By our ground game on Nov.

Ate by sharks after.

—No, it is lousy healthcare. Of course. Praying for everyone. Writing for the actual perpetrators of the great comments on my record in primary votes in Wisconsin until the election! —In a knockingshop it was scarcely professional etiquette so. They don't look presidential! They don’t know how bad it is very unfair. Car companies and others are allowed to raise money for the patrons of the whole business.

My thoughts and prayers to the Trump. —she had ended, patient in his own accord stopped for no special reason to look exhausted and done, then heir apparent, the very thing he commented on was equipping soldiers with firearms or sidearms of any sort, hung on to be our president!

The jarvey addressed as it didn't come down, on June 25th-back to America, fix our military and take care of our vets! Stay safe!

Shakespeares were as common as Murphies. Also why washing which seemed rather vague than not, if a trifle prone to baldness, there always being the V.P. pick are the 33,000 e-mails were deleted by Crooked Hillary. But it was United Ireland a by no means by the media, are protesting. Bad performance by Crooked Hillary, we are not widespread. Our very weak Senator, goofy Elizabeth Warren didn’t have the impetuosity of Dante and the awful truth dawned upon him to sever his connection with a stutter the name of Bags Comisky that he was slightly hampered by an Italian chap. I will fix it. If the Republican Party can come together as friends, after the grind of city life in the sweeper car or you might as well as current mission, but outside, criminals! People believe CNN these days almost as little as they are in on the moment she was distinctly stouter.

#Debate #MAGA I will win! Like actresses, always assuming that there have been so many great endorsements yesterday, a perfect study in itself which the p.p's raise the wind on false ads against me by the bye, his right side being, to put on belongs to me for her, I will clinch before Cleveland and get her latest book, which perceiving, Bloom indicated.

Where would you be surprised to learn that a Spanish type?

Tomorrow's events will be rapidly reversed!

Crime reduction will be rapidly reversed! Not capable! Depending on results, we would have kept those jobs in Pennsylvania have just certified as a paragon of virtue just shows that Crooked Hillary to get African-Americans will vote for him, that the old seadog, himself a wife when Miss Right came on the other, obviously addressed, looked at the lowest rung by the circumstance that one of the make believe!

#Trump2016 Thank you to Donald Rumsfeld for the lessee or keeper, who is self-funding his campaign. Crooked Hillary after the fun had gone on fast and furious he got paid his screw after every middle of this tête-à-tête put a good word for us and our country.

Hillary hates her! Tim Kaine has been true. I mean for singing purposes. A lot of those that want to hit Crazy Bernie Sanders has done a spectacular job in the least effective Senators in the striking position.

Besides, though that is to be president because her husband and her opponents are strong. Perhaps it is to say, love my dirty shirt. But who? Because of course, he conceded. I will send in the existence of a bun, or my campaign is very hard to make a better future for our great election victory. So with all his life who came in for it but put a whole, his right eye completely. That worthy, however, and all Americans-and with all types of foreign governments. Because Gov. Kasich cannot run in the history of politics especially if you paid them because the pols and their felonsetting, there was a speaking likeness in expression but it cost him no small blame to our ultimate goal: MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! However in another pocket he came from Bridgwater with bricks. Will be talking, put in by monks most probably or it's the big jobs push back into the words radical Islamic attack, this time in Nice, France, I have raised/gave $5,600,000 missing e-mails-PAY-FOR-PLAY. Sleep well Hillary-but they know she is all over the fabled ass's kick.

The Cruz-Lawsuit coming Why can't the pundits or commentators discussing the fact that it subsequently blossomed into. While I am getting bad marks from certain pundits because I have negotiated on military purchases and more easily and convincingly but smaller states are forgotten!

On my way to the great people!

We can do is be a tax on our country.

The sailor lugged out from a different world! This joke of a humorous character occasioned a fair share of the incident his own accord stopped for no special reason to look into your situation bc there's never been anyone more abusive to women in striped loincloths, squatted, blinking, suckling, frowning, sleeping amid a swarm of infants there must be smart, tough and vigilant. Really sad news: The great Arnold Palmer, the ancient mariner put in by monks most probably or it's the big debate. One thing I simply hate to see everyone, concluded he, without the option of a horse, dragging a sweeper, paced on the paven ground, brushing a long story short Bloom, who confessed to still feeling poorly and fagged out, paused at the Republican National Convention. She then said, could by straining just perceive him, was busily engaged in collecting round the door of the. Amazing crowd.

The Germans and the chance of his particular partiality.

Get out and vote on Tuesday! Wow, reviews are in and guess what-we just officially won the election results. The Crooked Hillary Clinton. With a touch of fear for the wall, staring out of business if—a big success.

Media in the Buckshot Foster days he too recollected in retrospect which was distantly suggestive to the issue, might occur ere then it was a stalwart advocate of from the great State of Virginia and Nebraska.

Looking back now in a two on one side he had recovered his senses. 2 mile course. But in the history of the Crown and, turning over the GQ cover pic of Melania, he affirmed. I am going to lose by going with me and he could not have done Look forward to debating Crooked Hillary Clinton says that she got more publicity than any campaign in 3 or 4—big rally.

It doesn't matter that Crooked Hillary Clinton is soft on crime, by saying she’ll tax estates at 65%. So, Spain. For Growth tried to play the Russia/CIA card.

We owe him an open mind and the election results were in. The National Border Patrol Council NBPC said that if the whole eventempered person declared, stood to him or words to that equivocal character's whereabouts for a strong push from Crooked Hillary has once again by law to do so many mistakes-and they all lived happily ever after!

Debate.

I want them to give a shite anyway so long, just like Crooked Hillary should be ashamed of herself! AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

Thank you, after a packed rally. Of his digs for bringing in a cheap eatinghouse somewhere but he failed to do with them as a threat and therefore incorruptible.

Today we lost a great two days! We love you Ohio! Another little interesting point, thinking he might safely say. Wow, NATO's top commander just announced that Lyin' Ted is when he gave at Stephen's anything but a gay sendoff. No recognition-SAD Election is being badly criticized for her, I uses goggles reading. He wants four more years of Obama or worse!

#VoteTrump Look forward to a politely put query, said he saw him once on the campaign trail by President Peña Nieto. My condolences to the great businessman from Mexico, now returning after his weak understanding of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq disaster. Poser.

Don't reward Mitt Romney had his weather eye on the spot to see and hear ROLLING THUNDER. Numerous patriots will be greatly missed! —A gifted man, ruled the roost after their lowbacked car, both of them. When is the nominee of one guinea per column.

While he was not so sure about hacking if they didn't see eye to eye in everything a certain point where he figured on going was five and six he got he informed Stephen about Miss Ferguson who was acting as his bottom jaw would let him, sinewless and wobbly and all of the money once in a coordinated effort with the net result that the goby unless you were a blithering idiot altogether and refuse to have brought the subject, however—he had caught a fleeting glimpse of her name for the swearing-in he rolled after his successful libation-cum-potation, introducing an atmosphere of the late Mr Patrick Dignam were removed from his seat near the not over effusive, in a way that might be read as yes, pretty in its way a species of repository and pushed big time by press, have impact! Besides, though in all its glory and in a noncommittal accent, their BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS was a captain or an officer. People could put up with a blind moon.

If it were not looking smart, we have an open fashion as she lived there.

—Memorable bloody bridge battle and seven minutes' war, compared with the marked difference in their musical and artistic conversaziones during the so-called Obama years. Our incompetent Secretary of State, costing Americans millions of people. Voglio. People will be interviewed on This Week with George S this morning that I wanted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN & MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN! Dem Gov. of MN. The rally inside was big and enthusiastic crowds, looking down on his companion's boot but Stephen, who were conspicuous, needless to say, appealing to the ratings are in on the erstwhile tribune's private morals.

Fifty yards measured. Russia or any other candidate.

In any case couldn't possibly hear because they live round the. The V.P. a joke! Getting the strong endorsement for president, has a very weak and desperate Lyin' Ted Cruz can't win Kentucky, she has been divided for a movement!

20 were killed! Voting machines not touched! From the heart!

He will be having a quiet forty winks for all of the clans in Barney Kiernan's so that the Dems were never asked to be a terrorist who killed so many people in the same way and nodding.

What year would that be about eighteen now, finally, receiving plaudits! Great State of Virginia-dealing with men who get off the ways at Alexandra basin, the TSA is falling apart, not exactly tell being as good an Irishman as that rude person I told you about at the border.

#DNC Our country is a better deal for the moment till the priests and ministers of the demimonde ran away with himself or lain low for the American flag-if they didn't see eye to eye in everything a certain analogy there somehow was as hard as brass and the same being a proverbially bad hat Mr Bloom, to tell you the ticket. That worthy, however, towards where Skin-the system is rigged-so do voters!

And so forth, jockeys and esthetes and the time of it and turn it to the future, Donald—Donald J. Trump Hillary Clinton just lost every Republican she ever had, in the county Sligo.

The opening of Trump Turnberry in Scotland was a hero, Detective Steven McDonald. I wouldn't ask you only, pursued he, on my record in primary votes in the back of everything greed and jealousy, pure and simple. Low energy Jeb Bush just endorsed me, would rapidly have a clue.

A magnificent specimen of manhood he was perhaps not that way so long as I decide on Cabinet and many others. —And that one of my Commander-in. —Ma ascolta! I have postponed tomorrow's news conference in 179 days.

So they turned out to vote in two states, including those registered to vote Trump SAFE! Crooked Hillary is too deep. —Quite so, in reply to a Crooked Hillary Clinton is a hit, a group of gazers round skipper Murphy's nautical chest and then attacked him and return it to make general ducks and drakes of. Look what is happening! They can't! Crooked Hillary Clinton. Hillary last night about a temporary ban, which is a fraud!

I have self funded my winning primary campaign is hearing from more and more Bernie supporters that they openly cohabited two or three lowspirited remarks he let drop or the telescope like Edison, though I believe it. That was really a work of art for which Bloom, who scarcely seemed to be seen except a fourwheeler, probably the selfsame evicted tenants for whom they seemingly formed an object of bringing off a coup. Very unfair!

In the nature of a mutual friend when they knew it was highly likely some sponger's bawdyhouse of retired beauties where age was no more children. A soft answer turns away wrath.

Crooked Hillary and the U.S. are now doing approval rating polls. Bernie's exhausted, he queried, if he would one day take unto himself a nuisance to everybody all round he was strongly inclined to suspect it was highly likely some sponger's bawdyhouse of retired beauties where age was no message evidently, and run as an Independent. All talk, talk and have got nothing but bad publicity for doing so! It wasn't Donald Trump that divided this country people sell much more to follow at the mess.

I've circumnavigated a bit. We need to secure our borders. The Club For Growth tried to shake me down for one, you mean the intelligence, in the footsteps of the UK have exercised that right for all Americans-and that will happen because the pols and their bosses knew I would like to express my warmest regards, best wishes on the final night, after a cursory examination turned their eyes apparently dissatisfied, away from the others evidently eavesdropping too.

Am I right, the licensee of the thing. Crooked Hillary e-mails. No respect Big Republican Dinner tonight at Mar-a one night stay in the local papers could be managed by some reminiscences but he doesn't believe that Bill Clinton and Tim Kaine has been explained by competent men as the day the people! The sailor stared at nothing in the shape of a streetwalker glazed and haggard under a black straw hat peered askew round the corner and speak another vernacular, in which his wife, Madam Marion Tweedy, Bloom, so now he wants the even worse TPP approved. See you there!

Kasich was never asked by me to change the subject he pondered suitable ways and flowers and chocs. These timely reflections anent the natural course of the bad decisions!

We pay a disproportionate share of the water about the massive unreported crisis now unfolding—maybe her emails? Very short and lies, and now this U. Writing for the Cuban people, or fools, won't even call it, dreaming of fresh woods and pastures new. Isn't this a ridiculous shame? Whoever embarked on a witch-hunt against me were put together by my political opponents and a liar! Getting ready to leave for the nonce hidebound precedent, a pardonable weakness because meeting unmistakable mugs, Dublin residents, like names. She is a good poor brute he was quite in keeping with his character and held it in the U.S. Crooked Hillary Clinton. #MakeAmericaGreatAgain Gov Kasich voted for me, my numbers continue to make it a wide berth, eased himself closer at hand, the squandermania of the deceased were present, deprecate him, in her hold. N.! Tomorrow a big stake in it. Wisconsin's economy is bad and destructive track record. I am not bought like others! Paul Ryan, a perfect study in itself which the brush would soon brush up and looked at Stephen, image of his back up to you Spanish onions and the Dems said maybe it is in. She. Do people notice Hillary is spending tremendous amounts of money for the fact that I called it and it at one another it being a movie star-and then seventytwo of his particular partiality. Four more years of Barack Obama! The highly neurotic Debbie Wasserman Schultz was overrated.

He was the man in his own say to say, either simply looking on glumly or passing a trivial remark. Do you all remember how beautiful and important evening! His Grace.

Clinton's term as Mayor was a bit of steel, repeated he, all that money spent on Hillary's emails. Hillary and the accommodation left much to my children on December 15 to discuss the fact that I was in the dark, manner of means an old maid or a prude, said. Because he more than the Republicans picked Cleveland instead of being in his own peculiar way which she told me came into his private affairs on the debate? Illegals out! The splendid proportions of hips, bosom.

Dems was so big that they will NEVER be able to lead on border security-no enthusiasm! The media lies to make it much harder!

Bow to the people of Colorado never got to vote for TPP, which was all more or less at one time, he was truly an honor to be the pecuniary emolument by no means by the name of Tighe. One thing I like best about Rex Tillerson, the former viceroy, earl Cadogan, had a great Memorial Day! Will be in Terre Haute, Indiana in a good time. Wagnerian music, a piano on the erstwhile tribune's private morals. Well, that is, a grasswidow, at the Democratic Party, they say.

Whereas no photo could because it simply amounts to one thing, he affirmed.

Very nice! But watch, her Achilles heel, which turned into Store street, Dublin's premier photographic artist, being his own say to say that I couldn't handle the complexities and danger of ISIS-it will be meeting with the orthodox preliminary canter of complimentplaying and walking out leading up to then, number one act and priority. Nice! Do you think they are.

Cinque la testa piu Mr Bloom, without going into their good graces as he took them for, imported them. Hillary said her husband and her team were extremely careless in their then condition, both instinctively exchanged meaning glances, in fact I am very proud to stand shoulder-to-play question. Thank you to all family members and loved ones. Not fit!

There were wrecks and wreckers, the worst president in U.S. political history Oregon is voting today. Crooked Hillary was involved in today's horrible accident in NJ and my galloping tearing tandy, O!

Enjoy! OHIO NBC/WSJ/MARIST POLL Trump 42% Clinton 41% Just left a great shock to citizens of all classes by whom he had, to be married by Father Maher. No wonder companies flee country! I will be the destruction of the question. She could without difficulty, he was truly augmented obviously by gifts of a number of stories there were on that side of the country. He's the backbone of our daily bread, O tell me on their behalf in a word of caution re the dangers of nighttown, women of our country want borders, police and Secret Service Agent for President Clinton excoriates Crooked Hillary is spending big Wall Street, lobbyists and special place. Look what's happening!

The ONLY bad thing for Crooked Hillary put her husband is going on, it’s going to be a Native American. Nettled not a pleasant lookout, very, very!

Hillary was a stalwart advocate of from the Republican nominee! Great State of Florida is so bad! —The temperaments at the FBI! Very unfair! If he doesn't believe that Ted Cruz is now! We are now doing approval rating polls.

There would be very dishonest and totally desperate. Bernie Sanders has lost most of them all.

Was she?

Many of Bernie's supporters have left the Republican Party what to do with The National Border Patrol Agents was the WORST abuser of woman in U.S. political history!

Analogous scenes are occasionally, if a trifle prone to disparage and even to wait on and profit by the way of life. All are washed in the shape of solid food, say, I know. In trade, and boats and ships. Wow, reviews are in. Katie Couric, the name, and with many states left to go to D.C. on January 20th 2017, will lose readers! To cut a long time! —both with delegates & otherwise. It was so and so on, beautiful Bournemouth, the sailor said. That's work too. Carefully avoiding a book in the direction of a gait to the effect that the loss of jobs and companies lost. Celebrate Martin Luther King Day and all countries, fight back? Crooked Hillary Clinton wants completely open borders, etc. It is time for CHANGE—was about China, NOT WOMEN! Hillary Clinton has been fighting ISIS, rise of Iran, and forgot to mention the many problems of poverty, education and safety within the bounds of possibility.

I can safely say. His Grace.

From inside information extending over a series of years looked different somehow since, as it was the appearance on the part of his bilgewater some little while back.

Still just then, being responsible for NAFTA and NAFTA devastated Ohio and is only the southern glamour that surrounds it. It was a great shock to citizens of all eatables seemed to be Secretary of State tomorrow morning. Lady Fingall's Irish industries, concert on the female form. Word is that the small of his, by Twitter, pundits and otherwise, Silken Thomas, Grace O'Malley, George IV, rhododendrons several hundred feet above sealevel was a total mess. Very impressed, great enthusiasm! That is a total Clinton flunky! Going to Salt Lake City, Utah, for interment in Glasnevin.

Many of his finale. Hillary. The face at the Grand Opening of my foreign policy. Wow, reviews are in and Arnold Schwarzenegger got swamped or destroyed by comparison to the victory speech and demeanor were absolutely necessary, it is now endorsing Lyin' Ted and Kasich are unable to answer tough questions! Marble could give points to 113.

All too Irish, Stephen mumbled in a discreet corner only to be home! The Boers were the beginning of the world with O & Hillary Hopefully, all over the top from the pen of our leaders to eradicate it! They took their country the U.S. He ought to have a conflict of interest with my presidency.

Sad! Pathetic Our not very presidential. Crooked Hillary hates her! Let me cross your bows mate, he stated, He said Kasich should leave the baseball game in Cuba, a pardonable weakness because meeting unmistakable mugs, Dublin residents, like names. Crimea! #Imwithyou ISIS threatens us today because of the country.

NOT! He could spin those yarns for hours on end all night long and lie like old boots.

Wow, the old line pols like Crooked Hillary. Low energy Jeb Bush, George W and George H.W. all called to congratulate me on the fools step in where angels principle, advising him to go with and report a story about me. Hillary would be scorned & called terrible names! Thank you Cleveland. Unfortunately I have asked Boeing to price-out a Wisconsin ad with incorrect math. The dysfunctional system is rigged! Typical politician-can't make a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, including those registered to vote in six states. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Scandal! I didn't inherit it, they had acquired drinking habits under the microscope lately. To which absorbing piece of original verse of 910 distinctive merit on the table, that number will only get worse.

Very short and lies, and nothing to show cause why and, as he always believed in minding his own private account while Dublin slept. Enjoy! Go out and vote! Many are professionals. ISIS, and rapidly getting worse. I want America First-so why isn't the media makes this a big speech tomorrow to discuss terror and the book about Ruby with met him pike hoses sic in it! Even though I believe it.

Thank you. —Let me cross your bows mate, he continued, passionate abandon of the two, Mulligan, as people often did about others, namely, that is who was doing at the end was the one person she doesn't want to thank everyone for the U.S.Senate. His initial impression was he might meet with the usual quantity of other things, we were Iying becalmed off Odessa in the general hullaballoo Bloom sustained a minor injury from a case or two in the spring when young men's fancy, though such criminal propensities had never been an inmate of his, and he was afraid his collision bulkhead would give way. Crooked Hillary in that language?

So totally dishonest!

I not only fighting Crooked Hillary is flooding the airwaves with false and vicious ads with her phony Native American in order to be themselves and express their best wishes on the newcomers boarded Stephen, whom he had lost as well, by God's will we get tough, very much forward to meeting Prime Minister Theresa May in Washington D.C. On immigration, I’m consulting with our immigration officers & our wage-earners.

Heading to New Hampshire. The system is totally rigged against him! Change! Very exciting! We will Make America Great Again!

MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Thoughts and prayers for all the spoof he got caught Voter fraud! —Eaten alive? #Trump2016 Word is that Crooked Hillary Clinton knew everything that her husband? Like that. Today did todays cover story on my record in lawsuits. I called it and turn it to him or her next day, the baby and so many Obama Democrats voted for NAFTA, worst in American political history! Made up, was whether it was a highly laudable institution to which sounded rather a far cry, you could scarcely be prepared for every contingency as even a dog breed unknown with a sort of counterblast to the spot when wanted but in their vivacious language in dispute, though he had so it seemed. His Stephen's mind was not a few irascible words when it took the civilised world by storm, figuratively speaking, early in the title rôle how to keep them off?

I am spending very little.

Another thing just struck him a few in point of fact though a good old Hollands and water. Hillary Clinton's people complaining about with respect to the listeners who followed the passage of arms with interest so long as it was not aware that Russia took over Crimea. I'd carry a sandwichboard only the southern glamour that surrounds it. Crooked Hillary just took a major news conference concerning my Vice Presidential pick on Friday-great in states! See you soon! Shame! I've heard of him so he has done poorly with such men! Obama!

Wow, Ted Cruz can't get any worse.

These are extremely dangerous people and the time of it in of course the remains of the genus homo already there engaged in repicturing his family hearth the last presidential race, by their facial expressions, that is totally rigged! The rules DID CHANGE in Colorado on Friday afternoon! I would go to yours!

Bernie Sanders is exhausted, just like we will take place this year and Dems are to blame but themselves. Great deal for the reason why the other hand others who had to produce your credentials like the 116% hike in Arizona.

Many say it, evidently derelict, seated habitually near the not over effusive but it would afford him very great personal pleasure if he had a row with Lenehan and called him and his beloved evicted tenants question, then it would have won all debates, especially for a wife. Will know soon! Kasich has helped decimate the coal seam of the thing, not to outstay their welcome having first and foremost, being a case or two accompanied this thrilling announcement.

Kasich just announced-by sources-that no charges will be a smooth transition-NOT! Hillary Clinton is not acceptable. For Growth tried to play the Russia/CIA card. The DJT Foundation, unlike most foundations, never paid fees, rent, salaries or any other candidate.

After which he very distinctly remembered, having gone into it more for the swearing-in-Crooked Hillary Clinton. Such a great four days in Alma Mater, a total meltdown but the system is alive & well! China seas and through all those perils of the young man named Antonio's livid face did actually look like I have raised between 5 & 6 million dollars, in the U.S., and it was beyond yea or nay did a world that doesn’t exist. Gov Kasich voted for NAFTA, worst in many years, high educational abilities though he hadn't said a 14 year old article in People Magazine mention the words radical Islamic attack, yet it is #1 trending.

To the African-Americans are seeing big stuff. ISIS, or the newest stage favourite instead of the sister island would be even worse. Many people died this weekend. Really sad that a Spanish type? I will work hard and personally in the farfamed name of Tighe.

The system is rigged!

Judge of his age when dabbling in politics is now spending Wall Street endorsing Goldman Sachs.

These are people who love our people and the U.S.

With Luis, Mexico, amazing crowd! Silence all round marked the termination of his washing. Wrong, he was at heart a born raconteur if ever been before, the guardians of the television viewers that made my speech had millions of jobs and will be having a temper of her.

Hillary Clinton does not know me but attacked last night. Grin and bear it. It is. Hillary! It's like one of the money expended on your education you are. People want LAW AND ORDER! False reporting, and Crooked Hillary can never beat Hillary! I just happened to be abroad waylaying and generally terrorising peaceable pedestrians by placing a pistol at their memories for in nine cases out of the families and all others, if that will ever happen!

Ivanka intros me tonight! Get out and vote West Virginia-really big crowd, great people!

The United Nations will make it easier for me, still must fight So great to have the resources to support our people if we have raised over $13M from online donations and National Call Day, and shook his head with a yawn or two and two together, six sixteen which he gave at Stephen's anything but immaculately attired interlocutor as if both their minds were travelling, so much of the south, however, who anno ludendo hausi, Doulandus, an uncommonly able ruffian who in any event, please be careful. For the nonce he was none to come up behind him. Thank you! An exception here and there was no animal's fault in particular if he would see the greatest love, as the head of the lane who knew the lady now his 1440 legal wife who, though they weren't even a dog. People must remember that ObamaCare just doesn't work, I have decided to postpone my speech. She is totally rigged against him! On immigration, with no interruptions.

Added to which of course and in a two on one. A, repeal Ocare, borders, police and Secret Service detail? ISIS, and then thinks it will hurt Hillary?

—Yes, Stephen Dedalus B.A. who were resolved upon encompassing his downfall though the name, and the rigged system is totally confused. I was never asked by me to change the playbook! Crooked Hillary's V.P. pick said this morning. Every on-line polls, and his gestures being also clumsy as it turned out the various contents it contained no reflection on his boot.

They can't! If I only had 1 person running against me. —The temperaments at the idea, he just wants to shut down our First Amendment rights away. We must do everything possible to keep pace with the courage of his digs for bringing in a hundred million years the coal and steel industries in Ohio on Tue.

I will work hard and so on and before election day.

What he wanted to meet and an appearance in the confusion, which will occur to anyone with a smile, will fix it, all that sort of thing and he is now endorsing Lyin' Ted Cruz has been divided, angry and untrusting.

Two of my first acts as President, Joe Biden, just announced that he was personally concerned, was the particular lodestar who brought him down to Irishtown so early in the Feds! I can focus full time on fighting Republican nominee! Now she has bad judgement & insticts. Who pays? A beautiful language. Thank you to NC for last rally! Crime reduction will be carried live at 12:00 A.M. to talk manufacturing in Pennsylvania this afternoon. He vividly recollected when the accosting figure came to my team of deplorables for tonight's #debate #MakeAmericaGreatAgain I will never have the endorsement of Crooked Hillary Clinton was SO INSULTING to my people.

They thereupon stopped. She is totally based on made up things that he had the ball at his disloyalty.

He will be going back soon. Crooked Hillary is spending a fortune off of debt, will be there! How bad is the proper spirit. What has happened to come, alternately racking their feelings the mermaids' with sixchamber revolver anecdotes verging on the auspicious occasion when they die they'd try to the Governor of Virginia-JOBS, JOBS! Reduce dues Chuck Jones, who is totally rigged & corrupt!

Our country has been proved conclusively by several of the end result was in the dock himself penal servitude with or without the faintest suspicion of nosepaint about the case of BAD JUDGEMENT! As usual, gave them this report and why are they so sure about that. #VoteTrump today! Bill Clinton and Tim Kaine is, to be glued to the grave. Just left a great wall on the other lucky mortal he having had the ball at his disloyalty. Crooked Hillary. —The Irish, for one million dollars, including Never Trump, all over our country Safe Again for all Americans-and it was a disaster for jobs and illegal immigration. I am spending a fortune, I will bring jobs back!

Thank you to all of them, and ventilated the matter was that a Spanish type? Goofy Elizabeth Warren has been amazing. Such a dishonest person! Joseph, Michigan. Bill's meeting was just the beginning. Eggs on the wrong moves-Convention Center, Airport-and now she didn't go to Charlotte on Saturday to grandstand. Then we can litigate her fraud! We’ve lost jobs and found it a wide berth, eased himself closer at hand, the Republican bosses. We will, perhaps more time on fighting Republican nominee! A wonderful experience, and now she is Native American heritage are on a square of brown paper, the keeper concurred but nevertheless held to his main view.

See you soon! Leaving now for a nice thank you!

We cannot continue to be without regular meals as the adage has it, I swear, we are! She said they had to make general ducks and drakes of. She is reckless and dangerous! Make America Great Again! These opening bars he sang and translated extempore. We love you and will campaign tomorrow. Throwaway recalls Derby of '92 when Capt. Thank you, the sailor said. Crooked Hillary's bad judgement forced her to lead. Hillary Clinton led Obama into bad decisions! African-American voters-but also farther away from the bottom and reflected upon the historic fracas when the figures are announced in the cut of his bosom in any event, please be careful! Now she has bad judgement call on BREXIT-she should never have allowed this fake news to leak into the U.S. toward businesses and 50,000 for the cold steel, somebody who was evidently au fait. Sad!

The best plan clearly being to clear out, he desired the female's room more than conjectured that, eh? It all begins today! Crooked Hillary Clinton announce that she is unable to cite a verse from the very palatable odour indeed of our empire. No games, we will slaughter you. Two policemen just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago and our borders.

In Texas now, he resumed with dramatic force, as we know it! Sad to watch all of the deep.

ISIS is taking credit for my speech last night the big jobs push back into the public and country at risk? All of my locker room remarks! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will it take for African-American community: The great Arnold Palmer, the end. She is not in yet but expected any minute Maximum II. One morning you would open the paper though why pink. This Week with George S this morning. Same old stuff, our country will never change, the sailor of his digs for bringing in a Cabman's Shelter. Now we begin!

Their conversation accordingly became general and all. Our law enforcement officers!

Last rally of the town till the staggering blow came as a host of things in general, Stephen responded. —Someone saluted you, to tell you the candid truth, that is the readiest channel nowadays. Napoleon, Mr Bloom, who let us all down in the full of undesirables but M'Conachie told him, or from one party to another state.

To which impromptu the neverfailing Bloom replied without a beggarly stiver. Why, as he confidently anticipated there was nothing short of a ladder in night apparel, having been born in technically Spain, i.e. Brown, Robinson and Co. After today, home of my children, Don King, just like our big wins in West Virginia-really bad judgement. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! I spent Friday campaigning with John Kasich was never asked to speak! We have enough problems around the world comes to its senses regarding nukes Someone incorrectly stated that there was such a thing to do with them. Crooked Hillary, costs will triple! When I become POTUS we will get it! Crimea, nuclear, the sources, they have to lose with dignity. He tried his hardest to recollect.

John Podesta on HRC: Bad Instincts.

Beside the young man named Antonio's livid face did actually look like forced smiling and the case, Roger Charles Tichborne, Bella was the man in his sentrybox by the cast of countenance. Bad instincts A lot of wedding emails. I seen a crocodile bite the fluke of an alternative postnuptial liaison by plunging his knife into her, when duly refreshed by his rum puncheon exploit, gaping up at the poverty, education the genuine article, literature, grandfather, the lutenist Dowland who lived in Fetter lane near Gerard the herbalist, who shut down roads/doors during my term s in office fighting terror for 20 years-disaster!

Why? Today we are all looking for a little by L. Boom, CP M'Coy,—M'lntosh and several others.

Can you recall the boats? Nobody can beat me on Monday. Due to the pillars of the bracing ozone and be in jail. They were haggling over money. Ireland must be careful!

You might put in, manifesting some natural impatience. Mr Goodbody. —In a knockingshop it was going to Iran.

And what's the number. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! And apropos of knives remarked to his protégé in an over sober state himself recognised Corley's breath redolent of rotten cornjuice. I would like to call Lyin' Hillary, costs will triple! Highly unlikely of course the remains of the sinews or whatever she has BAD JUDGEMENT was on an air Youth here has End by Jans Pieter Sweelinck, a stupendous success, providing puffs in the middle of the upper ten and other things, we are!

Thank you to Jack Morgan, Tamara Neo, Cheryl Ann Kraft and all would love to call it in the bone for the Irish lights, Kish and others are allowed to run against is Donald Trump. The final Wisconsin vote is in the U.S. sells Taiwan billions of dollars for them to go to D.C. on Jan 20th for the endorsement of Crooked Hillary Clinton has bad judgement forced her to be accurate and inflammable doubtless the fallen leader's, who scarcely seemed to him from a nasty kick if you vote for TPP, which is the proper authorities, a stupendous success, and the coast was clear they left the Republican Party. When I said no. Paul Ryan said that Crooked Hillary should be in Wisconsin until the election results from Trump Tower in Manhattan. Phony politicians! Crooked Hillary Clinton told the FBI! Obama Democrats voted for the next number of other uncalledfor expressions.

Wow, President Obama and that’s what you’ll get if you paid them because the muscles here, & their families.

Even though I am working hard, even supposing, he beckoned, while the other, possessed the greatest danger of ISIS-it is a very, very effectually cooked his matrimonial goose, thereby heaping coals of fire on his pick, the sailor, now many bankruptcies. FAKE NEWS. This election is over a series of years previously in the economic, not the least productive senators in the last drop even when clothed in the jesuit fathers' church in upper Gardiner street and women that gave their lives for us yet? Why, the homecoming to the contrary: top adv. Bad Judgement. I chew that quid. I gave, he counselled to close quarters, though he was only too conscious of the great people of Colorado where over one million people have been saying this for years. See them sitting there stark ballocknaked eating a dead horse's liver raw. I said, in the shape of knowing what good form was came out in the House! Come. She is ill-fit with bad judgment. Terrible!

Wow, Ted Cruz really went wacko today.

Tremendous crowds expected, the baby and so did I. Chicago murder rate is record setting-4,331 shooting victims with 762 murders in 2016. Sad! They laughed at police Muhammad Ali is dead! I've gotten to know about it at one time which of course would be bust! Very interesting day! So as neither of them and one Tomkins who made toys or airs and John Bull the political celebrity of that sort of thing though as the day, especially when added to the person addressed of friar Bacon for a nice thank you! Fear not them that sell the body but have a great friend in the jesuit fathers' church in upper Gardiner street and looked at the Republican Party.

What was it you? Staying at a moment's notice, your money or your life, leaving that for that day's work, one lean, walk towards the railway bridge. He will be fun! What a great job done-it is just the wellknown case of the bestknown passages in Holy Writ, apart from any outside object, the soi-disant townclerk Henry Campbell, facial blemishes apart. For those few people knocking me for $1,000 deleted emails about her daughter’s wedding. Win FBI director said Crooked Hillary! Time to change the subject.

Crooked Hillary can never beat Hillary Clinton should stop meeting with the puppets of politics-b/c of the Democratic Party, they do an amazing talent and wonderful man who doesn't know how bad it is unfair in that shelter one night and said he perfectly understood and begged the chance to beat me on the budget, military, vets etc. #VoteTrump Don't reward Mitt Romney had his weather eye on the economy.

—Curious coincidence, Mr Bloom pursued without flinching a hairsbreadth. Ask the then captain, he intimated, was prone to baldness, there must be smart, tough and vigilant? Wait. Does anybody really believe that meeting was probably initiated and demanded by Hillary! Thank you! The United States Congress. False reporting, and then orthodox as you are. She is a total fraud! With a high ro! So proud of my mouth, he intimated, was in the widest possible sense. Changing venue to much larger one.

Heading to Tampa now!

Mr Bloom ventured to say nothing of the two sides in fact disgustingly sober, spoke a word of caution re the dangers of nighttown, women of our national security.

We pay a disproportionate share of the sinews or whatever they want even if it is-early voting in FL. I beg to differ with you in votes and delegates. #Debate #BigLeagueTruth The 2nd Amendment rights in Chicago, have her or swing for her condition. Ate. Many people are sick and tired though unwrinkled face.

Am flag! Crooked Hillary Clinton, who let us all! Marble could give points to not a few times in the Red Sea. Lyin' Ted Cruz lost all five races on Tuesday-we just had a very different tone of voice from the facile pens of the husband frequently, after returning from Ohio and is losing votes in Wisconsin until the election results. You know Simon Dedalus, Stephen answered unconcernedly. Bernie voters. Not good! The keeper of the door and reflected upon the historic fracas when the thing was public property all along though not for the final debate and it was and a randy ro! Two more days and Ohio was mine!

Silence with a much more.

Isn't this a big player. A figure of middle height on the tremendous cost and cost overruns of the head of simple, I don't have a full view of the Great Northern railway station, the eloquent fact remained that the phony media quoting people who work for Ireland. To sweep the floor which the camera could not vouch for the people of Colorado never got to come here. The day before Mr Tobias or, more states coming up in the seventies or thereabouts even in the market and a rather antediluvian specimen of manhood he was caught by a wolf but what about mutual equality. Cruz is weak & losing big, easily over the fabled ass's kick. —See here, you could scarcely be prepared for every emergency that might be hanging about there or simply marauders ready to open Trump U case but the result of his disenfranchised fans are for me. —Ex quibus, Stephen interrupted, that Ireland must be consequences-perhaps loss of Nykea Aldridge. #DTS With all that sort which he laid on the fantastic job he has done it again. —As bad as it simply led to trouble all round he was. On-line from Wikileakes, really vicious. These beautiful children will be leaving my great honor to introduce my wife, Madam Marion Tweedy, made a mistake to fight ISIS, or plain star!

MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN supporters another victory-306! I said LEAVE will win, all the circs. In fact, he said, meaning work. Word is-RADICAL ISLAM! Exclaimed Bloom till he remembered reading of in or about that period, the eloquent fact remained that the point was the reason they thought I was going to New Hampshire today, wants borders to be made because that merry old soul, believe in the Red Sea done that. Bernie fought for England as against her, unless he is cursing the mate. People very unhappy with Crooked Hillary just broke-said she should drop out of business if—a big WIN in November, I didn't catch the latter portion. Congratulations to THE MOVEMENT CONTINUES-THE FIELD OF FIGHT-by a Somali refugee who should not happen! As for Mr Bloom bending, fancying he was one. If I lost-monster story!

Many people dead and many millions more votes than she did not know the C markings on documents stood for. Can real love, supposing he did his best to depict a star in a discreet corner only to be in New York! I would NEVER mock disabled.

Crimea during the so-called popular vote. Will he bring the energizer to D.C. to speak of. Wrong, he went to make general ducks and drakes of. Instead she is unfit to be themselves and express their views. Interest, however, and his horrifying adventures who reminded him forcibly of father and sister, failing that, despite her statements were lies and fabrications!

And nothing on #Benghazi. We’re going to bring steel and coal dying! You are very smart and just about all else. They passed the sentrybox. They should both drop out of place as things always moved with the two figures, coffee 2d, confectionery do, there is much different! #NeverTrump is never more. This joke of a person's character, no pun intended. That's where I was viciously attacked me from getting the job, will you sleep yourself? Crooked Hillary Clinton is being badly criticized for a big success. The media refuses to say the rigged system and bring back our borders will be greatly missed! Did China ask us if it was as yet merely in its most virulent form on a 2 1/2 Failed presidential candidate. Anyhow upon weighing up the pros and cons, getting ready to leave for Washington, D.C. #MAGA Well, Iran has done in Baltimore. He dwelt, being on all fours with the natives choza de, another the seaman's discharge. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

—There was lice in that it subsequently blossomed into. Most importantly, she unbuttoned his and then they are genuine? Because mostly they appeared to be stolen from us by other countries where we will slaughter you pigs, I can’t blame Jeb in that it will be even worse. Very impressed, great enthusiasm!

The Irish catholic peasant. Very dangerous! Could it be because Cruz's guy runs Missouri?

Lyin' Ted Cruz, who were conspicuous, needless to say, on my ownio. So dishonest!

Great Again! Just tried watching Saturday Night Live-unwatchable! There will be brought against Crooked Hillary Clintons foreign interventions unleashed ISIS in Syria, Iraq and Libya. African-Americans are seeing big stuff.

General James Mad Dog Mattis, who also knew of the invincibles was done when we were just projected to be glued to the blandiloquence of the DNC but why did you won't get in Harvard. I have created tens of thousands of jobs and illegal immigration, I’m consulting with Wall Street. The Skibbereen father hereupon tore open his grey or unclean anyhow shirt with his mad vagaries among whose other gay doings when rotto and making water jobs and manufacturing in Pennsylvania.

He bet them what they call first aid at Skerries, or headline fundraisers-those disconnected from real life. A lot of money & wealth from the lips of Stephen's respected father, sung to perfection, a gem in its own toll of deaths by falling off the phone with the language in dispute, though he tried to recollect. Senate for taking the day off again, far and away too late! 1 win and 38 losses. WRONG or lie! Silence all round to the contrary that stab in the eighties, eightyone to be packed? Changing venue to much larger one. Mr Bloom's sharp ears heard him then expectorate the plug probably which it was before his time Galileo was the rub. LIE!

As to the faubourg Saint Patrice called Ireland expects that every man and man. If the Republican Convention was far more important component of our country want borders, police and law enforcement to check for dishonest early voting in Florida-on-Shannon or somewhereabouts in the wintertime not forgetting the usual mudslinging occupation reflecting on the win. Nice! #BigLeagueTruth Ready to lead. So how and why are they worried it will never forget. Any negotiated increase by Congress to my surprise, and outright lies, and I will be a matter of fact they turned on to the person he represented himself to the victory speech and demeanor were absolutely incredible.

Watch their poll numbers looking good! Will be there soon. Amazing crowd last night about a concert tour of the bunch though you wouldn't think he had contrived to get out, he B. couldn't help feeling and most properly it was prearranged as the sine qua non for any kind of an upstairs apartment with the idea of finding any food there but thinking he might quite easily be in jail.

Based on her knee, were admittedly unscrupulous in the not too inquisitive? Thank you, the best bloody man that he didn't make the smallest and it was killed him himself and had to produce your credentials like the distinguished personage under discussion beside him, or headline fundraisers-those disconnected from real life. Happy Easter to all of his age. Does anybody really believe that Bill Clinton is trying to make such bad judgement-Bernie said the picture was handsome which, barely permissible once in a particularly animated way, both of them who were sufficiently awake enough to solicit or how any man in the neighbourhood of 300 pounds per annum. Great Again. I look very much the same fashion, a few in point of fact the slight soiling was only a tanner touch and full of that it was, it appears, in the smallest and it is #1 trending. Salt Lake City, Utah, for our great country again united as Americans in common purpose and other things, we will make our country with her fleshy charms on evidence in an open mind and the media pushing false and fictitious report that any money spent against me is the New York disaster.

January 20th 2017, will be going to talk about the vulnerable point too of tender Achilles. THE SYSTEM IS RIGGED! Bernie sanders has abandoned his supporters, and nothing to help! Democrat pols in Atlantic City. Someway in his spare moments when desirous of so doing was he, the phony election polls, I can’t tell the truth.

The horse was just puzzling again, she unbuttoned his and then attacked him and Sherlockholmesing him up generally in orthodox Samaritan fashion which he very sensibly maintained, and China on trade for so long as it simply amounts to one day realise some Wednesday or Saturday of travelling to London via long sea not to say, by their total absence to say that he was her very average scream! —Why, the cause of many liaisons between still attractive married women getting on for fair and smart candidates.

I would have benefitted.

Thoughts and prayers are with those affected by two powerful earthquakes in Italy and Myanmar. I am very proud to have a clue. Look how bad ObamaCare is a total disaster. Very sad that Republicans would allow him to unfurl a reef the sailor said.

I know more about Cory than he knows about himself. The invention of email has proven to be the winner of the very palatable odour indeed of our modern Babylon where doubtless he would never do this under the Loop line rather out of the business, Cabinet picks and all would love to call Lyin' Hillary, who this time stretched over.

Politics! Stephen mumbled in a moment. Governor Mike Pence for their confidence in me! On the other hand he had shared her bedroom which came out in the required direction it was called, sitting bowlegged, they would be the least trusted name in news if they thought they were much bigger wall fence at W.H. If dummy Bill Kristol has been withheld in response to a slight extent with some slow stammers, proceeded: Our lives are in peril tonight. I am pleased to announce that she did not do justice to. Media, as a Rose is She. Such hatred! Wow, did a world of good fellows. Hillary's people said the things she will be coming to the number, in fact on the SOUTHERN BORDER, and shook his head, twice. Is that first epistle to the best residential quarters of financial magnates in a landslide! Hillary Hopefully, all creeds and classes pro rata having a temper of her crimes.

It is time to renegotiate, and looked at Stephen, obviously bogus, reminded him Irish soldiers had as often fought for nothing. Then as for that day's work, I never understood, he relished a glass of choice old wine in season as both nourishing and bloodmaking and possessing aperient virtues notably a good thing, not funny and the first land called the Deadman and from Ramhead to Scilly was so big that they ever endorsed a man who doesn't have a country that WINS again continues In just out book-THE FIELD OF FIGHT-by General Michael Flynn. —You just took the civilised world by storm, figuratively speaking, how much palmoil the British government gave him for the wall, staring still in much the reverse though he possessed, he very sensibly maintained, and with all types of foreign governments.

A division in Clanbrassil street, prepared to swear a hole through a long story short Bloom, as it happened, and, turning money away, he reflected, take that kind—during a general I will never forget! It was her very long and very vigilant.

We are going to finally mention the many problems of poverty, violence and despair. Thank you to my season 1. But, talking about additional guards or employees How can Crooked Hillary and Obama, is WRONG! Our law enforcement officers!

They are practical and are not happy with them as, I didn't start the fight with Lyin'Ted Cruz over the place doing interviews, but if the whole galaxy of events, all kinds of words changing colour like those who keep us safe is an attack on us all see how THE MOVEMENT does in Oregon tonight! She is flying with him tomorrow. No new deals will be in Missouri today with Melania for the young man named Antonio's livid face did actually look like I have been declared the winner.

They do anything to do with a pick of the shelter and bore due left.

Will know soon! There would be in Missouri today with Melania for the American people! It has been explained by competent men as the case was it? Why does the media blames my supporters!

—Is that first epistle to the great coach, Bobby Knight has been treated terribly by the banks. The lady's eyes, rather in a way you find anywhere the like of Irish bacon? This story is not the plane behind her like I did not throw a flood of light, none the less free to admit those icecreamers and friers in the U.S. It certainly pointed a moral, gagged and garrotted. I will stop this!

Just leaving D.C. We now have confirmation as to whether he had not but the people that were never asked by me. But I had 16 opponents, she would lose! One was inadvertently knocked off and out amid the elements whatever the season considering, for choice, retorted the cabby like Campbell, the Cuban/American people and the Japs were going to Indiana tomorrow in order to keep me from the beginning.

President Obama's brother, Malik, just came out in the circumlocution departments with the utmost importance had not but the music of Mercadante's Huguenots, Meyerbeer's Seven Last Words on the stage, didn't honor the enduring fight for you while Hillary brings in more people that LOVE OUR COUNTRY. Bombshell!

Crooked Hillary Clinton now wants Obamacare for illegal immigrants?

I uses goggles reading. These politicians like Cruz and 1 for 42 John Kasich of the Mohicans, he at the photo, to trail the conversation in the nick of time to get top level security clearance for my press conference in 179 days. Interesting how the U.S. Indiana.

See media—asking for impossible recounts is now putting out nasty negative ads on me. Can you believe I lost-monster story! Quite dark, large, no jobs.

Sad to watch. They tell me on their marrowbones to him and his horrifying adventures who reminded him in South Africa. Stephen to tell you. There are no sources, they knew it. Media is fake!

He could not have liked them, and then secure the border. Wisconsin.

The Democratic National Committee had strong defense! Bill's meeting was just then.

Skin-the system is rigged-so time to time a firstrate tonic for the mess. —both with delegates & otherwise.

Squeezing or.

Look where the empty vehicle was waiting without a penny with an air Youth here has End by Jans Pieter Sweelinck, a perfect study in itself, beggaring description, conveyed the impression that we will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

Mr W. Bass's Sceptre 3. Can't believe these totally phoney stories, 100% made up events THAT NEVER HAPPENED.

My supporters are far tougher if they do an amazing job. Stephen anyhow lent him one of her face round the side of a Dannyman coming forward and turning queen's evidence or king's now like Denis or Peter Carey, an uncommonly able ruffian who in other respects has much to my son now, massive crowd expected. —5 victories on Tuesday! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN rallies. Who's the best admirals and generals we've got? Of course, temperamental, no economising or any idea of the Telegraph tell a graphic lie lay, as allies, & their families-along with Obama-and that is, if found suitable. Also, without giving the show away, no economising or any idea of finding any food there but thinking he might have been prosecuted and should embrace them-without them the old specimen in the seventies or thereabouts even in the act of scrambling out of business operations. The horse was just looking at the usual hackneyed run of catchy tenor solos foisted on a manoeuvre after the way, there being no competition to speak.

This Tweet from realDonaldTrump has been killing our police. Our economy will sing again. One was a house, given a tremendous amount of laughter among his entourage.

The voters wanted to ascertain was why that ship ran bang against the Washington insiders, just like Crooked Hillary Clinton strongly stated that there have been written stupid, because of him, I am saying if I don't know if that will ever happen! Landing in New York, he should run as an Independent! So, Spain.

Then we can give what he states, and while many of them who were flying the Mexican flag.

That boggles 'em. Just arrived in Scotland.

Mr Bloom thought well to stir or try to make matters worse, were patently trying as if he regarded her with improper intent, the pseudo Skin-the-Goat, merely gazed in the sectarian side of the pundits be honest? —That's right, the rarest of boons, which, barely permissible once in a way that it brings all states, with all the conversation, was a big if, however, he experienced no little stamina, if properly handled by some fellow with a wedding reception. I say NO WAY!

—There was a thousand pities a young man's sideface looking frowningly rather. Martin Cunningham, John Power, eatondph 1/8 ador dorador douradora must be changed to additionally focus on the floor. They are in on the shore in commotion petrified with horror. The dishonest media!

—What age is he? Shakespeares were as common as Murphies. One morning you would feel a different man. He doesn't know how to win the Electoral College in a seedy getup and a wonderful and truly respected woman, Phyllis S! —Eaten alive? Hillary victory, has the slowest growth since 1929. That’s why ICE endorsed me. I will never come back from Asheville, North Carolina, where of course all traffic was suspended at that, Stephen answered unconcernedly. A Greek he was all part and parcel of the state, he supported Kasich & Marco Rubio. Bad Instincts. I we broke the deal on Crazy Bernie Sanders must really dislike Crooked Hillary is too deep.

I am the king of Spain's daughter, Stephen Dedalus B.A. who were always hanging around on the cards in his pocket Sweets of, which should never have been front page news! Weak leaders, ridiculous laws! Watched protests yesterday but was under his frigid exterior notwithstanding the little I know more about Cory than he took out his pocketbook and, even supposing you did you won't get in after what occurred at Westland Row terminus when it was the worst voting record in the loved one's smiles.

Lyin’ Ted Cruz denied that he had seen that nobleman somewhere or other eternally cropped up with being bitten by a lot-and fair elections. Will go back perhaps, work in the case might be, having been there for 30 years-why was DNC so careless? Just what I was here for cars sold here! —Then, separately she stated, and his gestures being also clumsy as it was though at first blush there was not quite the same Kaine that took hundreds of delegates ahead of him and then there was that a person who has lost most of his supporters, and it is Russia dealing with the confidence trick, supposing he did feel a different world! They accuse, remarked to his mind somehow in Talbot place, first turning on the former man, I would have it Great rally in Florida. I want to stop.

He counselled to close the deal with the constable. Kasich are mathematically dead and many other things, no 9 Newbridge Avenue, Sandymount, for the face of providence though it merely went to make it look like I am getting great credit for this by the Mona which was distantly suggestive to the LGBT community! In this country. Big crowds. Then we can litigate her fraud! There's an example again of simple, was not at all. I will fix it? Doing my best to yawn if he values his health in the U.S. Wow, just announced that Iraq U.

I gave millions of wonderful people living in Nazi Germany?

Drop out LYIN' Ted. My son, Bernard Corrigan brother-in-THANK YOU FLORIDA! I hope corrupt Hillary Clinton just had a distinct success, being adored as gods. Beside the young man beside him, when he occupied the boards of the town tolerably pink without a second or so it seemed.

Victory of outsider Throwaway recalls Derby of '92 when Capt. Congress. Heading to New Hampshire soon to be married by Father Maher. I only wish my wonderful daughter Tiffany could have been so amazing. We need unity & leadership. —Everybody gets their own, then dropped me over locker room remarks! She buys dear and sells cheap.

Can you believe that his problems with The Apprentice except for the future of the thing than anything else Mr Bloom said. To which absorbing piece of intelligence echo answered why. His last term as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton and the whole world was full of that Cap l street library book out of about sirens enemies of man's reason, mingled with a strong suspicion of a half laugh. Bikers for Trump are on a policy of the most dishonest person! Two more days and weeks go by, he having just a club for people to express their own hands and scratched away at his age when dabbling in politics roughly some score of years previously when he says it, the TSA is falling apart, not the plane carrying $400 million in cash going to win-I always do-trade, a very dishonest and totally desperate. Unlike crooked Hillary Clinton, I have already taken Crimea and continue to push. I would have to announce that she would misrepresent the facts! I decide on Cabinet and many for a few days ago. On-line from Wikileakes, really vicious. The Bernie Sanders supporters are furious with the G.Q. model photo post of Melania from a case he told Stephen how he simply but effectually silenced the offender.

Her the lady's eyes, rather in a place of worship for music of Mercadante's Huguenots, Meyerbeer's Seven Last Words on the scene exhibited, a headhanger putting his hind foot foremost the while the lord of his supporters, and Raul Castro wasn't even there to greet him. Now that African-American & Hispanic communities Hillary Clinton and the accommodation left much to answer for, imported them. Crooked Hillary would be catastrophic for the next three weeks, man.

It was truly an honor to be picked out by their total absence to say it will expand in Michigan and U.S. instead of being close to Erin's uncrowned king in the widest possible sense. We will bring jobs back home! We have Paul Ryan said that he would ever endorse me! Quite apart from circumstantial evidence. In fact, was of the house or else they were too far simply sat in his mind but merely as a spare chaw about you? People in our country, this is a purely religious threat, which asked me for her, more so, I won in a bloody tart off the phone with the noise of his back. It wasn't Matt Lauer that hurt Hillary?

Michael Bloomberg ran again for everyone. Why is it that the crowd and enthusiasm at two rallies was incredible. Not good! Today will be big factors. #MDW Don't believe the people think. 200 pounds damages. ISIS LAUGHS! N.C. Even the once famous Skin-the-Goat, alias the keeper made her bow to the wholesale whoppers other fellows coined about him.

It was my favourite and Red as a pure invention, he intimated, plunging in medias res, would have their convention in Pennsylvania have just won THE GREAT STATE OF OREGON. He will be asking for impossible recounts is now telling the truth about her, unless they were much bigger wall fence at W.H. If dummy Bill Kristol actually does get a great deal, we’re going to be and not waste his valuable time with some hilarious pretext when not present, were very much against me.

I will be the destruction of the desert, distilling grapes into potheen in his own business moved off but nevertheless remained on the e-mail case and the greatest of pleasure in making your acquaintance as she lived there. There's my discharge. Johnny Lever, O! These beautiful children will be in charge of the day off again, I believe he is doing poorly and fagged out to Crooked Hillary suffers from BAD JUDGEMENT by H! Since their names bi or triweekly with the remark: Glass. Mr Bloom said, and so on. Many are professionals.

—Chews coca all day, especially in the A division in Clanbrassil street, famous for its C division police station.

No more! I don't want the PEOPLE! Kasich voted for NAFTA, a must!

I objects to. Not honest! Discussing these and kindred topics they made a fortune for their release.

Are we living in a landslide, I know more about Cory than he knows about himself for as to one of the Great Northern railway station, the forlorn hope. The thing I simply state what he was not a few odd leisure moments in fits and starts a stained by coffee evening journal, another the card, picture, and we had a home somewhere beneath or seemed to be Secretary of State tomorrow morning. We are with everyone at the soft impeachment with a long waiting list of potential U.S.

In Old Madrid, a veritable son of inspector Corley of the G division, lately deceased, who eventually euchred their third companion, were carried out certainly Hynes wrote it with the U.K. John Kasich is STRONGLY in favor of Common Core! Jeb, Rand, Marco and all others in the least surprise at the outside considering the fare to Mullingar where he called Monks the dayfather about Keyes's ad Thomas Kernan, Simon Dedalus, Stephen said, who wants to take in as the case might be only bluffing, a work simply abounding in immortal numbers, in point of it-but they know that Crooked Hillary's negative ads against me were put up a miniature cameo of the end of his salt that served it. Finally, in no way have a good candidate? Not as much right to be spirited away by a few irascible words when it waxed hotter, both occurrences happening at the same cyberattack where it apparently awoke a horse of quite another colour to say, I am speaking, early in the next week: OH, ME, AZ, IN—check w/a free & ind UK. And what might your name be? Over his untastable apology for a cup of coffee or whatever they were unable to cite a verse from the decidedly miscellaneous collection of waifs and strays and other things, we have raised/gave $5,600,000 e-mail scandal!

Taken a few hints anent the keeper, not me! Dishonest media is unrelenting.

Whereas no photo could because it was a fellow by the 16,500 border patrol agents have issue a presidential primary endorsement—me!

No way they are just made up by concluding, eschewing for the middle of the submerged tenth, viz. coalminers, divers, scavengers etc., were utterly powerless from sitting that way like the Bisley.

How quickly people forget that Crooked Hillary called BREXIT so incorrectly, and I mean real monsters! I am spending very little. This country cannot take four more years of weakness with a dumpy sort of thing though as the lookeron, a headhanger putting his hind foot foremost the while the other hastened to affirm, work together to solve some of the law stands, was a case he told Stephen how he simply but effectually silenced the offender. The only quote that matters is a loyal Trump supporter & star Having a good catholic, he ceased. If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the mess the U.S. The media lies to make it a great man that ever scuttled a ship, another was a total disaster!

Foot and Mouth. The Skibbereen father hereupon tore open his grey or unclean anyhow shirt with his daughter had experienced some remarkably choppy, not to put it in of course I needn't tell you. They broke the all time record in the Trump U civil case, exist between married folk? Wow, Hillary Clinton only knows what, found drowned or the RNC. Quite so, I uses goggles reading. In those waxworks in Henry street I myself saw some Aztecs, as it was no-one can give up. Lyin' Ted Cruz and 1 for 42 John Kasich is STRONGLY in favor of Hillary Clinton's term as Mayor was a bit risky to bring him home as eventualities might possibly by some fellows inside on the qui vive with just a few hints anent the brutes of the CNMI Rep Caucus with 72. Ireland, an ideal neighbourhood for elderly wheelmen so long before the same, the communicative tarpaulin added. Anybody whose mind SHORT CIRCUITS is not which party controls our government for the nonce his new misnomer whiled away a few years since. —Jews, he conceded. I will have a country that WINS again continues In just out: 31 million people have no problem in doing so badly, poverty and crime on principle. From the heart! Heading to New Hampshire.

Will go this AM. He personally, he said, could easily have. Watch! Isn't that what you call going to bring steel and coal dying! This will quickly lead to special results for our country with her fleshy charms on evidence in the habit of his perambulations round the door of the race so that the phony allegations against me in first place. Thank you! WRONG! Heading to D.C. to speak.

A phenomenally beautiful tenor voice like that, despite the people. He liked an old German song of Johannes Jeep about the old stager went out on secret tape that Crooked Hillary and I will win! But, according to his dearly beloved Queenstown and it is just the same way as the lookeron, a woman all the result was solid! Can't watch Crazy Megyn anymore. One another it being largely a question of our MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

Because of course started rather dizzily and stopped to return it to be the destruction of civilization as we know it! The Bernie Sanders has lost a brilliant finance minister and wonderful man who doesn't have it rigged in favor of TPP fraud! Why hasn't she done them in the dark quite near so that the former viceroy, earl Cadogan, had laid aside, he was her declared favourite, where we had a distinct and painful recollection they paid his screw after every middle of the medical analysis involved. I right, the Republican Convention are totally filled, with all of the time of the Year-a-Lago for our COUNTRY!

So sad! Let's set the all time!

Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on the Coffee Palace and its temperance and lucrative work.

His record BAD #NeverHillary Crooked Hillary said, That is horrifying. If I win the Electoral College is actually genius in that there was not as a personal hedge fund to get herself rich! Many say it, should waste his time on the best authority it is #1 trending. Glass. I will be brought against Crooked Hillary has the greatest danger of all classes by whom he had tried to use Air Force GENERALS and Navy ADMIRALS today, Trump Tower to ask me to be a disaster. Adjacent to the other fellow like the Bisley. —Why, the shebeen proprietor commented. Congratulations to my son, Bernard Corrigan brother-in-the-Goat amusingly added, the old line pols like Crooked Hillary Clinton, who may be the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood, doesn't know me, about blood and the support of Bobby Knight, has passed away. It is so totally biased. If it were not looking smart, we have no basis in fact only a tanner touch and full.

Thank you for fifty years, do nothing to show and there was really no secret about it. There was a total disaster. If you can't run the White House A statement made by Mrs. Obama about Crooked Hillary has only gotten bigger! Company to stay in the striking position. Look where the empty vehicle was waiting without a fare or a prude, said he didn't make the smallest bones about saying so either that man from certain pundits because I love watching these poor, pathetic people pundits on television working so hard and so on. Mr Bloom promptly did as a very, very, very much forward to meeting w/a free pass? We are going to Trump Jupiter now! I am pleased to announce this? The forgotten men and women would and did favors for regimes that horribly oppress women and gays & refuses to write about it and let the Schumer clowns out of each pocket for the next Secretary of State. All talk, no pictures. From this moment on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings up 24% from 2016, I understand, but outside, criminals! Come November 8, she's out! Hopefully the Republican nominee! I don't believe sources said, laughingly, Stephen said staring and rambling on to talking about accidents at sea, ships lost in a while though not to recommend criminal charges against Hillary because nobody views him as a great day campaigning in Indiana. Bernie Sanders said, That is a garbage document it never should have easily won the State of Texas!

The rally in Anaheim. Crooked Hillary can't!

Sleepy eyes Chuck Todd, a big if, however, was, should not be allowed to use leverage over me.

At all events was in, big & over! With all that.

Why do Republican leaders deny what is going on. I can focus full time on fighting Republican nominee!

Mr Bloom being handicapped by the badly needed. Thank you to General Motors and Walmart for starting the big numbers going-VOTE TRUMP!

We are going to bring him home as eventualities might possibly by some landlady worse than any other, that those bits were genuine forgeries all of my first primary victory, has a career that is, not a natural deal maker. Hillary Clinton deleted 33,000 and got caught Voter fraud! Much bigger win than Hillary except for the moment, rounding which he seemingly evinced little interest, Mr B. proceeded to stipulate, you see, that had little pills like putty and he put it, but costs are out of such a complete fold. Crooked Hillary Clinton has zero imagination and even was twitted with going a step in the army? I raised/gave!

Nevertheless he sat tight just viewing the slightly soiled, good as his bottom jaw would let him, sinewless and wobbly and all the spoof he got he informed Stephen about Miss Ferguson who was just looking at this reporters earliest statement as to have ever run for Pres. I am going to do this had we Trump not won the Trump University lawsuit for a small fraction of that sort of a publican there whose maiden name had been mentioned as having happened before but it would be a great man, you'd think it will never forget.

The economy is bad for the season when duty called Ireland for short. Landing in New Mexico were thugs who were conspicuous, needless to say stormy, weather. Shakespeares were as common as Murphies.

The F-35, I am soooo proud of my great Turnberry Resort. Mr. Khan, who is totally based on total popular vote than the other way about saw through the nose always and ever cooped up since my old stick-in-Crooked Hillary has the greatest love, supposing he did entertain the proposal, as time went on, beautiful Bournemouth, the Dardanelles under Captain Dalton. When I am right, while prudently pocketing the photo showing a large way of poor John Casey and a very open and pored upon Lord only knows what, found drowned or the RNC has and why? Obama or worse! Mr Bloom gazed abstractedly for the funeral of a start but it was quite on the face so that for that the rover might possibly ensue somebody having a general election. If dopey Mark Cuban of failed Benefactor fame wants to destroy Bernie Sanders, after stealing and cheating her way to look into the minutiae of the distorted and inaccurate media. He will endorse her today-fans angry! Very racist! #DTS With all that money spent on Hillary's emails. Crooked Hillary.

With Luis, Mexico and the great workers of Carrier.

Can't allow lightweights to set up a soft job as a jest, laughing 1530 immoderately, pretending to understand everything, the sources don't exist.

Why haven't they released the final debate and it pointed only once more on the moment whether he had put in by monks most probably or it's the big question of time. Even though I have not been in our society. Point of fact they turned out. We must come together and win a high order, as a crossing sweeper. Crooked Hillary Clinton conceded the election. Though a wellpreserved man of no little difficulty in making both ends meet. Think about it and merited a radical 500% increase in almost twenty years. Stephen, who embarrassed herself and the temperature refreshing since it cleared up after the Friday herrings they had she should drop out of the question. Just returned but will be fun! Then the decree nisi and the election! Stop illegal immigration and not singly but in a Clinton ad. 1000 sovs with 3000 sovs in specie added. —Mrs Bloom, without going into Ukraine, you could scarcely be prepared for every emergency that might be a matter of that sort of thing. Crooked Hillary Clinton was not perfectly certain whether he might have been front page news! I did. Serious bias-big rally.

Culo rotto! Did it hurt much doing it? Loafer number two queried. -I always knew he was very ancient history by now and then they say I must talk to my proposal would still be lower than current! Looking back now in a school, man, i.e. Gibraltar. Crooked Hillary no longer talking. Still just then. I were in big trouble-which is in pocket of Wall Street paid for by Wall Street endorsing Goldman Sachs.

We only want to stop. The United Nations has such great potential but right now is #TrumpWon-thank you! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Crooked Hillary Clinton! Kasich is more proof that she would now use!

Lyin' Ted and Kasich are unable to beat—she had one opponent, instead of the night with an unprepossessing cast of countenance. A.B.S. It beats me, and other purchases after January 20th so that the point was the case of O'Callaghan, for a big success. African-American voters-but would campaign differently Campaigning to win the Presidency is that the amount he deposited unobtrusively in four coppers, literally knocking everything else with the net result that the Iranians killed the scientist who helped the U.S. are now doing approval rating polls.

Will be going back tomorrow, to Gettysburg! Company to stay in the U.S., and all others, liable to go off at a muchneeded moment when every little helped. GREAT AGAIN! She is not a virtue. —Mrs Bloom, to his main view.

Tomorrow a big problem! Certain Republicans who have fought me and spoke nearer to, could easily picture his advent on this scene, and boats and ships.

A hoof scooped anyway for new foothold after sleep and sea air life was full of the third precept of the wherewithal was demolished.

As those were particularly pressed for time, as he might have been saying, not forgetting the Irish lights, Kish and others, liable to go with and Leonardo and san Tommaso Mastino.

This election is over a country! Shame. Illegals out! S. is preparing for battle to reclaim Mosul. Hillary is spending a fortune off of debt, will be talking about airplane capability and pricing.

So or some unknown listener somewhere, Stephen mumbled in a landslide, I won it with a guy who likes me much better! Why, the invincible, and Raul Castro wasn't even there to point a moral, the third precept of the lane who knew the PAC was putting it out to be spirited away by a Middle Eastern immigrant. Gospodi pomilyou.

Tomorrow's events will be a party. Miami for Houston, Oklahoma and Colorado. He understood however from all I can get! It won't work!

I had a great time in Cleveland. Anyhow inspection, medical inspection, of course started rather dizzily and stopped to return it to sleep myself, should immediately resign in disgrace! —What's this I was going to win the Presidency is a purely religious threat, which, of the most prominent pleasure resorts, Margate and so did I. Chicago murder rate is record setting-4,331 shooting victims with 762 murders in 2016. The world is a total mess she is in horrible shape and falling apart, not forgetting the usual affectionate letters that passed between the cup and the Black Sea, the other hastened to affirm, work together to solve some of the state of Pennsylvania-he cannot win the Presidency I've ever seen. I would have won all debates, and ISIS is still running a major ad of me playing golf all day, the whole business.

We will bring them back! Catching up on many things on purpose. My wife is, if approached, and more! Ohio. Very exciting! Another thing just struck him, or the eggsniping transaction for that matter despite William Tell and the high at present unlit warehouses of Beresford place Stephen thought to think of Ibsen, associated with Baird's the stonecutter's in his scythed car. Thank you to Ford for scrapping a new factory or plant in Kentucky.

Such bad judgement, poor leadership skills and a bit. You may mention my name, and read: Return of Parnell. Hillary's pay-for-play question.

Something evidently riled them was a big deal! Just and their bosses knew I would like to thank everyone for the next 8 years. I say she’s a fraud who has done a spectacular job in the wrong states! As soon as his fidus Achates inhaled with internal satisfaction the smell of James Rourke's city bakery, situated quite close to where they might be hanging about there or simply marauders ready to leave for Washington, D.C. and giving it a great job done-it will sell many air conditioners!

Crooked Hillary sent Bill to have a corrupt political machine pushing crooked Hillary.

MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Stay safe! Bernie Sanders is being protected by the people of Munich. Let today be devoted to the victims, and never will. His heavy glance drowsily roaming about kind of chanty or other though where he could say: Glass. Whether I choose him or not over effusive but it grew on him someway. Figne toi trop. She is the 53rd anniversary of the public the primary and most indispensable. You were a lucky dog if they really loved him, I want the drone they stole back. I am watching Crooked Hillary picks Goofy Elizabeth Warren, often referred to as Pocahontas, just announced that the horrendous protesters, incited by the way, seen from the brown costume does be with you in all debates After the litigation is disposed of and respecting all of the Fishguard-Rosslare route which, of the number for?

I will sign the first to perceive. —The Irish catholic peasant.

This Tweet from realDonaldTrump has been treated terribly by the media, with its historic associations and otherwise, Silken Thomas, Grace O'Malley, George IV, rhododendrons several hundred feet above sealevel was a typically false news story. He will be campaigning in Connecticut.

He will never forget!

Congratulation to Jane Timken on her with affection, carried away by a Middle Eastern immigrant. We've accepted the outcomes when we were Iying becalmed off Odessa in the MIDWEST. It will be handing over my Twitter account to my RALLY in Arizona.

Hillary flunky who lost the election despite all of the water about the case of hot passion, pure and simple. Beside the young man beside him, I am not trying to belittle-totally unfair!

The speakers slots at the Army-Navy Game was fantastic! No, something in the market is up nearly 10% and Christmas spending is over-JOHN WON! ISIS is taking credit for this by the aid of their hands. The elder man who picked it up and looked at the intelligence, I have always been the same sand where they belong!

Lyin' Ted Cruz can't get to 1237. Lady Cairns of Swansea run into by the tragic storms and tornadoes in the vicinity of the King, has done nothing! When will this stop? People don't want to report that on the paven ground, brushing a long story short Bloom, said he would never be forgotten again.

Sleeping! Pres. Obama should ask the DNC convention ignored it. What belongs, queried Mr Bloom determining to have brought the subject, however, towards where Skin-the-Goat amusingly added, the sailor replied, relaxing to a report from the Koran.

CNN anchor chairs, or whatever you like to express my warmest regards, best wishes on the head of a milk and soda or a prude, said he was utterly at a muchneeded moment when every little helped. If I only had 1 person running against Crooked Hillary is getting! And humanely his driver waited till he remembered reading of in or about ninety six. Wow, just like our big wins in the Spring.

Or do you good, shelters such as the adage has it, dreaming of fresh woods and pastures new as someone somewhere sings. Time Magazine, Drudge etc. My transition team, which should never have been with us at Mar-a one night and said like giving the show away, no necessity, of course congregated lodging some place about the schooner Hesperus and etcetera. Never missed nor he never will.

Have a shot at me. But in the morning burrowing quickly into all colours of different sorts of crazy charges. We are going to put a boiling swimming cup of what Bernie stands for opposite! Why aren't the Democrats speaking about our great movement is verified, bade fair to do with story! He, B, enjoyed the debate last night about a lady, even supposing, he resumed with dramatic force, as a sort of a new plant in Kentucky. On-line from Wikileakes, really vicious. I will be going to The Army-Navy Game today.

And the identical same with murderers. Florida, was of the bunch though you wouldn't think he had not noticed her and suffice it to be president.

DESPERATION! Many people are seeing what a total secret.

Lovemaking damages. Interesting to fathom what earthly reason could be drawing easy money. Crooked Hillary's telepromter speech yesterday, roughly some score of years looked different somehow since, as he might very easily have.

Do you all remember how beautiful and safe a place Brussels was. Will be in Alabama for last evenings great reception. She could without difficulty, he was a tattoo mark too in Indian ink, lord Bellew was it? Will be meeting with Charles and David Koch. I find it offensive that Goofy Elizabeth Warren, Hillary Clinton likes to talk about the whole business and he said, DO NOT believe it was and a strong and great! Unfit to serve as #POTUS.

Also, without being actually positive, it is visually important, as he muttered against whoever it was a disaster from which it was John Bull. A division in Clanbrassil street, Dublin's premier photographic artist, being on all fours with the voters, I am not trying to get rid of all he heard that rumour before. President Obama ever discuss the business, I have raised over $13M from online donations and National Call Day, and every welltailored man must, trying to protect Hillary!

Added to which there could be managed by some with facetious proclivities as Lord John Corley some called him after the counterattraction in the last minute. #VoteTrump Look forward to introducing Governor Mike Pence who has put the first ballot and are proved to be back on for fair and smart message directly to the faubourg Saint Patrice called Ireland for short. A great opportunity there certainly is though every country, they would be very dishonest media of incredible information provided by WikiLeaks. Wow, interview released by Intelligence even knowing there is no longer has credibility-too much failure in office fighting terror for 20 years-and make a superhuman effort of memory to try and concentrate and remember before he remembered that he recognised in the morning. Goofy Elizabeth Warren and her team were extremely careless in their vivacious language in a large way of a streetwalker glazed and haggard under a serious emergency belongs! Weak leaders, ridiculous laws!

Same old stuff, our country on trade, but not loudly, and around the world but we are not looking smart, we are transferring power from one Administration to another, from all I can safely say. Loafer number two queried. Russia is a good poor brute he was rather nonplussed but inasmuch as he more than $4 billion. My statement on how bad ObamaCare is. Crooked Hillary did not throw a flood of light, none at all. No way It is amazing but, bringing common sense to bear on it and fly in the House and Senate committees to investigate top secret intelligence shared with NBC prior to making a major ad of me by taking up the best residential quarters of financial magnates in a loving position locked in one another's arms, drawing attention to the LGBT community! Media should also apologize For many years! Disgraceful! Don’t feel sorry for crooked Hillary Clinton except for the chief secretary's lodge or words growled in wouldbe music but with the other two, she has made serious bad calls, is now putting out nasty negative ads against me.

Added to which was the least productive Senator in the Kildare street museum 890 today, talking of that if, as luck would have to focus on the scene but in the hall. It is being treated very badly needed wall, then, he ventured to plausibly suggest to break the ice, it goes without saying you would open the magnificent Turnberry in Scotland. Mike Pence won big! Crooked Hillary V.P. choice is VERY disrespectful to Bernie Sanders is lying when he says his disruptors aren't told to go BLANK themselves-was very bad.

On the other occupants of the U.S. is looking very bad judgement, poor leadership skills and a very open and pored upon Lord only knows what, found drowned or the reverse in fact like the hell idea and the press refuses to speak-Wednesday release Just returned but will be a great Memorial Day and remember before he remembered reading of in or about that. I belong to Ireland, an idea he utterly repudiated. Are you bad in the sleeper car who in other respects has much to be accurate and inflammable doubtless the fallen leader, that Ireland must be important because I belong to Ireland, Parnell said, have impact! Also why washing which seemed rather vague than not, your money or your life, earn your bread, O! We do not like or respect women, when got up to a very open and successful presidential election. Lyin' Ted Cruz and Graham, who has lost his energy and money. People could put up-making big progress! Heading to New Hampshire and Maine.

We have raised between 5 & 6 million dollars, & as a welcome intelligence to not a virtue.

Obama should have been so many jobs we can give up.

Our wonderful future V.P.

Too bad, but last night. Europe. Nobody volunteering a statement he winked, adding bloodthirstily: A gifted man, Mike Pence was harassed last night the big day for her to announce that she will be going back soon. I am saying if I got the better of him so he has vast experience at dealing successfully with all that was illegally circulated. It wasn't Donald Trump. After which harrowing denouement sufficient to eat even were it only an added charm like the claimant in the China seas and through all those perils of the desert, distilling grapes into potheen in his impetuosity to get it approved. The establishment should save their $$! Only stupid people, we welcome all voters who want a better deal for workers! The king of debt. The irrepressible Bloom, availing himself of the young man he truly hates, Lyin’ Ted Cruz, who advised me that alliance members must PAY THEIR BILLS. Different ways of bringing off a coup. Lots of support for our great election victory. Crooked's speech. I will fix U.S. Hillary Clinton's watch-she's done nothing about me.

Crooked Hillary V.P. choice is VERY disrespectful to Bernie Sanders endorsing Crooked Hillary is copying my airplane rallies-she secretly used them! Disloyal R's are far tougher if they do the typical political thing and he thanks me! Dem pols said no.

Great Again. Crooked Hillary has said about her daughter’s wedding. My Experiences, let us say, a blunt hornhandled ordinary knife with nothing particularly Roman or antique about it to the other country, this country, they say, love my dirty shirt. He changed his story.

He was a bit too given to charity, and much more competitive, comprehensive, affordable system. They are practical and are not happy that he had a massive victory in becoming the Ohio Republican Party. Goofy Elizabeth Warren is weak and ineffective Senator goofy Elizabeth Warren’s records to see, that he wants the people of Indiana to vote in six states.

#Ulysses (novel)#James Joyce #1922 #automatically generated text #Patrick Mooney #Eumaeus #politics #American politics #presidential elections #21st century #Donald Trump #2016 #2017

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