#//WHAT IS IT WITH THE PUBLIC SAFETY DEPARTMENT GROPING HIM UNDER TABLES

[architectofhope]

discrete

NSFW Prompt List | status: open

discrete. my muse reacting to yours touching them under a table.

  The holiday party had not been, to his pleasant surprise, all that bad. The President hadn’t dallied long at the gala, and in his absence the entire room seemed to let out a breath of relief. People trickled out bit by bit, but stragglers from various departments began to drift from their respective tables to mingle with one another, sitting at other tables and enjoying snippets of conversation between coworkers who were in sore need of letting their hair down every once in a while, so to speak. The Commissioner perhaps most of all. 

  He sat at the table with Mayor Domino and his granddaughter Rita, Reeve’s own assistant, as well as a few other Urb Dev members and a scattering of others — half the PR team and the head of Food Services among them. So when Quistis drifted away from Public Safety —Heidegger’s inebriated booming laughter and Palmer’s incessant wriggling that shook any table he sat at a clear enough reason for anyone to stray— Reeve welcomed her with a tug of the seat beside him, gesturing with a sociable smile for the woman to join them.

  The table had been absorbed in a bit of light-hearted banter between the one of the PR representatives and the head of Food Services, each of them taking one side or another in the matter in what would be known in months to follow as the Great Potato Salad Debate. Reeve mostly kept himself out of it, but made his support of the person that fed him well-known with a rare display of genuine amusement plastered across his face.

  He lifted the flute of seemingly bottomless champagne to his lips to take a drink when he felt a delicate palm spreading along his thigh under the table. His gaze drifted to the source of the touch, thinking it at first to be a mistake before following that arm up to the poster-child of ShinRa Public Safety herself — an elegant strawberry-blonde woman with a penchant for speaking her mind, even in the face of one of the most violent men Reeve had ever known. It was clear by the way she did not even venture a glance in his direction that she knew exactly what she was doing and took the breathless bewilderment on his face as no reason to cease.

  The drag of nails along the inner thigh of his slacks caused him to inhale deeply, taking a quick glance around the table to make sure none had noticed, finding them all mercifully absorbed in the debate at hand. He rested the champagne flute on one knee as his hand dipped beneath the table to arrest her wandering touch, withdrawing it from between his legs and rolling it within his grasp so that he clutched it gently in his fingers, palm to palm.

  It may have seemed like a knee-jerk rejection at first, but after several moments the pads of work-worn fingers began to trace small patterns against her skin, along her knuckles, thumb brushing feather-light sweeps against her own. That he did not brush her hand away, that he held to it, twined his long fingers between hers, he hoped was enough to express what he had no ability to say in that moment: not a no, but not here.

[theoneloneblogger]

Retrospective Rumours Part Five: The Reforms of a King

Perry’s Retrospective Rumors: S2E5 -  The Reforms of a King

 Note: Some of the following is a fictional and romanticized version of true accounts and should not be held to historical scrutiny.

  As I reflect on the massive amount of time I have devoted in the past when a Charity Shop Manager I am led to wonder about the amount of appreciation and respect that is currently held for our beloved institutions by the Charity Commission. The word charity not only relates to charity shops but to the half way houses, rehabilitation centers and help groups; the day centers organizational care establishments and mental health in general. Now the Charity Commission isn’t responsible for all of these things of course but the sociological view of them covers so many bases its unreal today. There is as much dust under the Charity Commissions moldy carpet as there ever was. Still, perhaps we should be grateful, for we don’t see the sumptuous, carpet, dripping with neglect and entropy, at the back of the shop. Moreover, in this age of compact and marketed paranoia, the dust has turned to ashes and the residue has been diligently wrapped in red tape, thrown away by a loving beaurucratic.

  Arthur Wesley, Duke of Wellington was temporary priminister when the First Reform took place and looked tentatively into the way in which the unfortunate members of society are treated; walked. It was 1832 and the noise from the protestations outside 10 Downing Street swamped his ears. The National Political Union had so much to say about the dissolution of Rotten Boroughs that it was overwhelming. Certainly he couldn’t cope with the mess that he felt Lord Charles Grey had left him when Arthur took over office. The First and Second Reforms had been a total failure as far as opposition was concerned. By Royal decree his efforts to subjugate the opponents of parliamentary reform were causing so much rioting and rise in the Chartist revolution that his time in office was now at a close. Perhaps that was for the best.

  Cecil Jackson-Cole was instrumental in setting up some of the first charity shops that focused on the poor and needy. Oxfam was one of his greatest achievements. Since the House of Commons Charity Bill that went through on the 13th of July 2006, and the Health and Safety Programme of 2007 things for our altruistic friends have become increasingly more difficult.  Heartless corporations and groping institutional departments sweep the understanding nature of our compassion like great dustpans and we only have to look at the recent mind numbing, sumptuously absurd behavior of charity Green Crescent Bangladesh UK who were only recently accused of funding terrorist activity in 2017 to see the corruption oozing from such institutions.

    How far exactly have we come since the Third Reform Act was instituted by Royal decree in 1832? Work Houses continued to flourish at that time and the efforts of the reinstated priminister, Lord Grey were in comparative vein. As a consequence, and Lord Arthur Wellingtons reputation took a vital hit until he was called back again to parliament after his valor in France some years later. As far as the poor of the age were concerned little had changed. They all still toiled in the fields and brick yards and their conditions were little amended. Most of the changes instituted focused on the wealthy and middle cases, which were now divided between the working classes even more than before.

  In the modern age of charitable life Andrew Hind, Chief Executive of the Charity Commission said; "We are working with relevant law enforcement and other agencies to investigate the allegation that terrorist activity is connected with the charity. The matter is of serious concern to us, and we are taking this action given the gravity of the matter, the public interest and the need to protect charity work and funds.”  Have we seen anything resolved from this?

  Certainly any such resolution is comparable to the days when the Whigs won over the common man as usual. Jewish emancipation was on the rise in the 1800’s and the third reform instituted the first protestations toward the Women’s right to vote. The Chartist movement was on the rise and it led to the instigation of the poor being looked at with greater urgency. Ultimately the Great Reform Act was the first port of call in the rise of modern democracy. Charity shops were not set up in their current form until the late 1940’s and no one batted an eye lid at the way in which poor houses were contemptuously taking advantage of the reserve labour force available.

   However, despite the numerous legislations winding themselves around contemporary charities, like unstoppable growth inhibitors, high street outlets seem to be thriving. For instance, Government officials, apparently, are failing to stop the bulging and swelling of charity shops taking over the center of Welshpool it was claimed even today. The irate members of the local council are crying that high streets all over the country are being overwhelmed with charity shops taking advantage of rate relief and pushing away local traders.  Apparently, ‘Charity shops get 80 per cent rate relief” so when it comes to paying rent they can afford to pay more.” It is unfortunate also that public awareness of the sort of wealth that flows in and out of philanthropic emporiums is also growing.

  The number of people choosing to shop at village charity shops is, as a result, decreasing from the rate of several years ago. This last might be indicated by the fact that last year’s figures on the Charity 250 Index went down by 3.74 %; a disappointing realization since the average for such is 7.7 % per annum. Are we to blame for not giving, or are` the charities to blame for not asking nicely enough, and taking without saying thank you? Probably a bit of both. The statistics are not doing the running of outlets many favour. Much has to be spent on badly judged and constraining regulations that seem to change every day between brunch and teatime. Compliance with the laws we all must abide has become so awkward that it is now the case that not more than twelve people are allowed in a shop at any one time. This situation, exacerbated by the new Anti-Ageism Legislation that was being inserted into the workplace in 2006, with a painful twist, that is not being received at all well by managers and trustees.

  There is of course the insistence that Quality Control must have their say.  Is it not enough that our daily lives are dictated to by these anal pen pushers, we now have to accept that they have their hands all over our charitable institutions? The fractured result of an attempted free democracy that was instated by the Great Reform Act? All these considerations shops seem to be required to ply such a large amount of their income into complying with these demands that even the larger chains are struggling to break even. Consequently, more than 40 % of their income seems to be going into this and the purpose for which they exist is sidelined. This excessively large governmental intervention, fairly self-evidently, has been occurring for so long now that the public at large are losing confidence that their money is going where it is needed. As a result, the smaller charities are losing the war on both sides.

  The theory is underlined by the fact that the prices at these establishments have risen so noticeably. A very fine pair of jeans can be found in many large supermarket chains for two pounds fifty, and similarly in other accessible outlets. Whereas an almost identical pair of accoutrements are prodded every day in your local charity store, at four pounds fifty.  Parochial Charity Shops today can be perceived as a shattering micro empire within the shattered empire of our nation. If the governing body of the charity commission were a leadership party they would have no voters, excepting the small majority clinging to an old and struggling sweater.

  It seems that the, remaining, majority of their wealth comes from self-important middle classes, who seem to think that just because they deliver a few flyers it somehow gives them the right to feel good about themselves. Perhaps the answer to all the questions concerning the validity of charity shops in our society today lies not in the high street at all but further afield. It is with the suburban, or even the parochial, that the future of the market lies. It is one of the Charity Commissions top priorities, in the legislations of 2006, that an outlet is to support, and build, or at least contribute towards, a common trust with the community.

  As such we find that it is not to the town shops that we find this type of understanding and communal spirit but the smaller shops beyond. Having managed such a shop, myself for the last year, (almost on an everyday basis), I find myself seeing the reason in this school of thought. Charity shops in small village environments tend to receive a higher daily dividend than those in the town because their prices tend to be substantially lower and therefore draw in more custom.

   Perhaps on that basis we should all be looking for quantity in our browsing and purchasing and not quality. To further the analogy, I shall be bold and crass enough to say, `it’s not what you’ve got, it’s where you put it. With the highly unlikely hope that charity shops will only extend their baleful influence within the confines of villages and small towns it might even be possible that our landscape is not so blighted after all and that the small efforts put in by Arthur Wesley, Duke of Wellington were not so much in vein as an effort made by an institutionalized soldier in a patriarchal government where he possibly shouldn’t have been. Who’s to say? Reform and protestation on a social scale are, and continue to be, ugly stains resulting in corruption and negligence. Sweeping under the table those that we don’t want to see. Segregation and Fragmentation on an unprecedented scale perhaps? Hearts and souls reside therein. Solitary existence grinds to a halt, without our bearers to help us watch out;

 Video

 ·         Video

·         Katherine House – Charity Shops, Oct 23 2014

·         Wellington – The Iron Duke, BBC, May 15 2017, Richard Holmes

·         Mould and Mildew Under The Carpet, Michael Dayton, Sept 13 2018

·         Chartists Hetonsgate TRMT Tour, Three Rivers Museum, Feb 1 2016

·         How Corporations Became So Powerful, Thought Monster, Feb 23 2015

·         Cecil Jackson Cole, Andrews Charitable Trust, Oct 14 2016

·         Green Creasant Trust Annual Dinner, May 15 2018

·         The Children Who Built Victorian Britain, Documentary Workhouse, Dec 24 2016

·         Charity Commission-Safeguarding, Feb 6 2015

·         LSE Events, Andrew Holdene, The Productivity Puzzle, Mar 23 2017

·         How The Suffragettes Won British Women The Vote, 100 Years Of Women’s Movement, BBC Teach, Jun 9 2016

·         Jewish Emancipation and Anti-Semitism Video Project, Feb 20 2017

·         Seeding Root Growth Inhibitors Ohio Stat University, April 1 2014

·         There is Only One Way Out Of Poverty, Progell, Mar 13 217

·         The Charity Commission Trust Welcome Pack, Jul 31 2018

·         What Is Discrimination? Equality And Human Rights Commission, 29 May 2018

·         Reform Act Of 1832, Richard Rosivouch, Jan 30 2013

·         Late 1990’s Tesco Sells Levi Jeans, Supermarket, UK Active Research The Kino Library, Jul 2014

·         Come Thrift with Us, Aug 1 2018

·         An Introduction To Charity Legislation, Institute Of Fundraising, Feb 3 2012

·         Urban Revitalisation For All Webinar, Island Press, Jul 2 2018

·         Fragmentation And Polarisation Of European Politics, Sarah De Hounge, University Of Amsterdam, Social Science Research, Jan 23 2018