#…honor because he has a robust sense of duty

[dykeredhood]

Lmao maybe I could be someone’s begrudging wife like how Horatio my best friend Horatio Hornblower feels obligated to love his own wife

[dancingwiththeplanets]

Relief

Paz Vizsla x fem!reader 

     masterlist

Summary: “I know that we’re strangers but something really awful has happened to me and I need you.”

A/N: highly recommend listening to “everything i wanted” by billie eilish before reading because that is just the vibe.

Warnings: angst, ruminating, lots of dialogue, mourning the death of a parent, deals with depression and anxiety, soft!paz, a big brute with an even bigger heart

Word Count: 11k (oops)

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“Death changes people, it brings some people together, pushes other people apart...” You remember your buir’s words as if they were spoken to you just yesterday. They were the words he said on the day of your mothers funeral. “...but you and I, we do not let such things hurt us. We are stronger together, my ad’ika, we can only get through this together. Yes?”

“Okay, buir.” You said. Your wide, 5 year old eyes not fully comprehending the situation.

He nodded, pained, and whispered, “That’s a good girl,” before leaving a gentle kiss on your forehead and departing to the ceremony, your small form in tow.

He was right, death did change people. You remember seeing him in pure agony, as much as he tried to hide it from you. Your aunts and uncles would always be over, consoling him, distracting you, oftentimes just having you stay with them so your father could grieve away from your eyes.

But he never let it hurt your relationship. No, he was the best buir anyone could dream of. Your buir.

He was a proud man, respected and admired by all the warriors in the covert. Fierce, honorable, diligent and selfless. He would and did do anything for anyone. And the tribe respected him immensely. They even elected for him to be the Alor on more than one occasion, and he practically was. But he refused the title again and again, preferring to do all the work without carrying any official status. Even so, he certainly inherited the same amount of respect that the actual Alor had.

“All of the privilege and none of the responsibility.” He would tease, winking at you as the two of you would sneak out of the kitchens or any other ‘off-limits’ part of the covert, everyone turning a blind eye to your buir and ad’ika antics. Mainly just because they respected him too much to chastise you.

Truly though, he was a very respectable man. He trained the little ones, led hunts and security protocols for the covert, found lost Mandalorians and brought them home to the tribe. He dedicated his life to building the strongest and most operational covert that Mandalorians had seen in years. And he did it all for you. All so that you would have a safe place to grow up, so that you would lose as few brothers and sisters, and as few aunts and uncles as possible. So that you wouldn’t lose anyone just as suddenly as you’d lost your mother.

But he never prepared you for the day you would lose him.

The two of you were unimaginably close, so close that now you regretted ever developing a relationship that strong with him even if he was your father, because look at what it got you.

How were you supposed to go on? What was your life without your buir? What was this covert without your buir?

You look around the room, dozens and dozens of armored warriors here to pay their respects to your father, his body already having been buried.  The tears leak out of your eyes without reserve as you hold tightly to your friend's hand, scanning the room for the comfort of your boyfriend. “He’ll be here soon” She whispers, though you sense doubt in her voice, “I’m sure of it.”

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

You’re not sure what time it is, only that you’ve spent yet another restless night collecting tears in your pillow. Your booted feet pad down the deserted hallway of the covert. It’s aboveground, hidden beneath the treelines of a dense forest on a nearly desolate planet. It’s beautiful, unlike most every other secret covert that exists, though very few do. It has bulletproof glass paneling all around to allow for light to peek in through the trees. It’s warm and inviting instead of cold and gloomy.

“We need a home. Not a prison.” Buir had said.

You wince, face contorting in pain at the memory of him sharing the design with you. He had a dream. He wanted to live the way he used to, on Mandalore. Embracing nature and training warriors in the traditional way. He wanted your small tribe to grow into the hundreds. And that it did, well, to just over a hundred at least.

The most recent tribe came in from Nevarro, about seven months ago. He’d managed to track them down and get into contact with their Alor. Though some members of their tribe were reluctant to merge- they always are- they soon decided to join forces with your own, strengthening your numbers. Plus, they got to move to a much more beautiful, safe, and spacious planet.  

Regrettably, you hadn’t gotten to know many members of the new tribe still. They were...different. Still pleasant from the interactions you’d had with them at least, good sense of humor and all, but they were devoted to the old ways of Mandalore, conservative, reserved, passionate. Most unusually they didn’t arrive with any women in their tribe, aside from their Alor. For some reason odd, universal reason, Mandalorian women were hard to come by. It was a troubling issue that distressed many people in the tribe, in any tribe. It felt like a curse on your people. But this tribe literally had only one. They obviously cherished and admired her immensely, they made her their Alor.

Also, their creed didn’t allow for them to remove their helmets, a drastic difference from the one you had sworn that didn’t even require you wear your armor all the time, though you and most everyone almost always did. You were still Mandalorian; Training, honor, armor...they were still as big a part of you as your soul was to your body. But everyone around here knew your face, and vice versa, even if you did spend most of your life behind the shield.

This week however, you couldn't bring yourself to put it on once. Hell, you didn’t even bother with your flight suit. You just stayed locked up in your tiny room all day and night, only leaving when you were forced out by your friends. “It’s for your own good,” they would say. You suppose they were right, but no matter how good of friends they were to you right now, their company seemed to make it all worse.

A part of you wanted Collin, your boyfriend of two years, but he seemed to disappear from sight every time you caught his eye, an action that made your friend, Brie, chase after him in a rage the last time. He had been so blatantly obvious. You were in tears, yet again, mourning your father, yet again, when you caught the flash of his grey armor slip past your crying form in the common room. The hurt you had felt was unimaginable. The betrayal. You know that your relationship was strained as of late, but this, the death of your father, how could he not be around for you? Even if just as a friend?

So here you were. Another sleepless night, another late hour gone by without the noisy comfort of the of the tribe at work. Your head was pounding from the tears, the dehydration and the pain. The kriffing pain.

This time you couldn’t do it. You couldn't stay trapped within the dark walls of your room any longer, quickly pulling on something decent to wear in the late night or early hours of the morning- you didn’t know what time it was- before mindlessly wandering the covert.

Empty. It must be smack in the middle of the night. Well, at least you could sulk freely, allow the tears to escape without worrying about what a blubbering mess you must look like. A part of you was thankful, this was...kind of nice? There was nobody hovering around you. No visors following your every move in pity or concern, waiting to catch you when you break. You did pass one or two guards patrolling the halls, but you avoided them as best you could, hoping to avoid being questioned.

You finally take a moment to sit, hiding yourself beside some phony shrub in the corner. You’ve wandered to the dining hall. You look around, hoping to distract yourself with the silent chatter of the five or so warriors lounging around, probably on break from late night duties. Your eyes finally resting on a group of three of your vods sitting around, talking. They’re from the new tribe, well, most recently new.

You don’t know any of them particularly well, least of all the heavy infantry warrier whose figure commands your attention. He spends most of his time with the higher ups or teaching the foundlings, and you fall somewhere there in the middle. But he’s broad and robust and by maker if he doesn't captivate your attention.

You listen to the quiet echoes bouncing around the spacious dining hall. There’s hardly anybody here, it must be so early. You groan, to you it just feels unbearably late.

You don’t know how long you sit here, hidden behind the leaves of the plant, hazy eyes focused on the blue warrior. You just sit, staring, he’s...peaceful to observe. His arms are crossed over his chest, leaned back comfortably against his chair.  He huffs at something one of his brothers says, you can barely hear it, but you see the shake of his shoulders before he adjusts his posture and a small smile pulls at your own lips for some reason.

You shake your head. Is this wrong? You think, averting your eyes away from Paz’s form. You feel guilty for some reason, you mind reminding you of Collin. The guilt impacts you painfully for a moment, adding to the feelings of loss and exhaustion before you shake the thoughts away.

No. You think, eyes squeezing shut at the new wave of emotion hurting your already distraught mind. I’m just people watching. Not admiring. This is allowed. This actually feels...kind of nice, it’s allowed.

You permit your gaze to return to Paz and his friends, watching them nod at another couple of Mandos who pass by.

There was something so...comforting about Paz. You don't even know how you can think that? You don’t know him.

You watch his attention shift to his boots which are sprawled out in front of him, heels resting on the hard floor. He kicks his feet out a little bit, watching them wiggle from their movements. His action again tugging the teeniest of smiles to your lips.

You feel a small and brief glimmer of warmth in your chest, though quickly replaced by a pain that pinches from your gut to the back of your throat. Tears gloss over your vision before you’re able to fight them away with slow, deep breaths. It feels as though your body is chastising you for daring to feel a degree of happiness so suddenly.

No. You cower away from the invisible being hurting you, eyes squinting shut again.

You yearn for the slight relief and warmth to return. You need it. It just...feels so damn hard to breathe like this.

The anxiety, the fear, the distress. It just won’t leave you alone.

You don’t even realize what you’re doing until you’re already out in the open. You’d abruptly stood from your hiding spot and started walking toward the source of relief, before nearly choking on air realizing what you were doing.

Holy shit, you gasp, It’s too late to stop walking. You’re already out in the open, and you’ve made it well into their field of vision. If you stop, they’ll notice you.

Kriff, kriff, kriff, kriff, kriff.

The anxiety is burning in your chest again. Your steps falter before you stop, you’re not even sure what you’re doing anymore.

What you do know is that now you’ve caught the attention of the Mando sitting next to Paz, whose visor now watches your frozen form in the middle of the hall. Your heart beating loudly in your chest as you stand there motionless, eyes wide and breathing faltering at having been detected.

You must look absolutely deranged.

But of course, it had to get worse. Noticing the stillness of their friend, the other two shift their attention to see what’s silenced him.

Three visors. There are now three visors on you. Staring down your shaky, frozen form.

You can’t walk this off, you can’t play it cool. They’re already looking at you, you’ve stood still here now watching them for now who knows how long.

What do you do?

Kriff.

You recoil slightly, crossing your now shaking hands in front of you, hoping they wouldn’t notice your trembling palms.

What the hell is wrong with you? Relax. You’re a Mandalorian, just think.

What is the least horrible way out of this?

Carry it out. Whatever it was that you were doing, whatever mission your subconscious had led you on, just execute it.

You breathe in a shuddery breath, placing one foot out in their direction and hesitating before allowing the other to follow its movements.

Geez, walk much?

It’s so quiet in the empty hall, only 5 or 6 other Mandos out on the other end, so each tap of your feet is as audible as that of a bantha on crackling ice as you make your way to them.

“Okay, vod’ika?” One of them asks kindly. You recognize the maroon helmet from up close. Ramsey?

Ramsey, you think.

You nod slightly, suddenly remembering how out of it you must look. Eyes puffy and red, lips swollen, hair in disarray. You feel even more anxious to desert the mission than before, resigning to just get it over with and face the object of your desire.

“Paz,” you say, internally groaning at how pathetic and fatigued your voice sounds. “May I please speak with you for a moment?”

Kriff, what’s the plan now, di’kut?

The question directed at him takes him aback, but his posture instantly straightens. “Of course,” He says, rising from his seat.

You blink back a little as he stands to his full height. Have you ever been this close to him? Surely not, you would remember the feeling of being towered over like this. Paz hesitates, waiting for your instruction. Osik, were you just brazenly sizing him up right there? Great, and now he must think you’re intimidated by him.

Abort, abort, abort.

He tilts his helmet at you, snapping you out of your thoughts. You move for him to follow, which he does. You try to move as far away from the others as possible without being terribly obvious in hopes that they won’t overhear your conversation.

“Is.. everything alright?” He asks once you’ve guided him a safe distance away.

“Yes.” You say instantly, eyes locked on your hands. “I-I mean, n-no.”

This is weird.

What have you done?

You force your gaze up to meet his, noticing his visor tilt in concern. He no doubt already knows what’s troubling you. Everybody in the covert knows about your father’s passing, there was a ceremony for kriffs sake. Paz was probably there.  

Your lip trembles suddenly, embarrassed, and instantly you’re cursing yourself for having put yourself through this. With everything in you, you squeeze your eyes shut and look down, the only way you know you’ll be able to ward off the tears, though you know your conduct is a dead giveaway as to what you’re trying to do.

He says your name, and there it is again, relief. Fleeting and short-lived, but making that one small breath easier to inhale than the rest.

“I’m so sorry,” You whisper in frustration. Opening your eyes to see his feet having moved closer to you than they were before.

Always concerned with the wellbeing of his tribe. You remember. That’s what this big brute is known for anyway, right? You can trust him.

“No,” He says, his tone soft spoken, a sharp contrast to his intimidating form. “Take your time.”

You take a deep breath, nodding your head at the floor before forcing your eyes up once again.

Always maintain eye contact. It’s a show of respect. And you always show your superiors that you respect them. Your dad's words remind you to keep your head level to Paz’s. Or...at least as level as it can be to Paz’s.

The reminder that you are indeed speaking to an alor’ad stirs up new nerves in your belly, you were falling apart in front of a captain. Worse, a Vizsla, Mandalorian royalty.

“Um,” you eventually sputter out, collecting your thoughts. “Well I...I kind of have a weird request.” Your murmur.

Are you going to faint? It feels like you’re going to faint.

“Okay,” He nods to indicate you have his full attention, “What is it?”

“Um,” Your voice wavers, suddenly feeling very shaky and lightheaded again, and incredibly annoyed that you didn’t just opt to put on your helmet for the sake of hiding your face. Only...it makes it really hard to breathe when you already feel like you can’t get enough air. And pulling it off every five minutes to clean your face of newly gathered tears was difficult.

He says your name again, this time slowly raising a hand to your shoulder. You exhale in relief when you’re met by his touch. “Hey,” He says, “It’s okay, what do you need?”

You take another calming breath, soothed by the weight of his hand that hasn’t left your shoulder. “Well first, are-are you busy today?”

What a stupid question, you think. He ranks high up in the chain of command, of course he’s busy. Not to mention, it’s probably, what, 5 a.m. right now? And he’s sitting in the dining hall. He certainly didn’t wake up this early because he didn’t have something to do.

“Not at all.” He assures with a shake of his helmet.

Sure.

You dismiss the obvious lie, staring his blue visor straight on. You can see your pathetic, teary-eyed reflection staring back at you in the space where his eyes would be.

He wants you to tell him what’s wrong, you remind yourself, just do it.

Using what remaining courage you have, you open your mouth to speak. “I...I know you don’t know me that well. I don’t really...know you either. I-I don't even know why I’m here asking you this right now. But, um,  my-” you choke on your words, confidence diminishing “-my dad is dead, and I’m hurting and afraid and feeling completely unlike myself. I don’t know when the last time I slept was or if I’ve eaten anything in the last couple of days. I just know that-that something really awful has happened to me and I know y-you and I we-we’re practically strangers but right now I just n-need someone and I r-really want that person to be you-”

You hadn’t even realized the flood of tears gushing down your cheeks or the defeated sobs suddenly shaking your body until you were pulled into a pair of arms, his arms.

Strong, protective, shielding arms.

You hear the gentle sounds of Paz shooshing you, his hand pressed to the back of your head and cradling you in a comforting manner.

“I’ve got you, cyar’ika.” He hums, voice light and sweet like honey.

You almost don't mind the heavy sobs racking your body for a moment.

Sweetheart. He called you sweetheart.

You feel his body stir above you, either looking around or else...motioning something to someone. “Hey,” He whispers, keeping your head tucked into his arm, “Come over here with me.”

He guides you away from the dining hall where no doubt, despite your best efforts, whoever was in there had both seen and heard you throw your fit. At the very least catching your sobs at the end.

Ushering you around the corner to an empty hallway, he helps you down on a bench, sitting next to you. Your sobs slowly subsiding to small sniffles under the gloved hand moving soothing circles up and down your back.

He doesn’t say anything for a while, allowing you time to gather yourself. Once the wobbliness in your breathing evens out to a calmer, drawn out, pace, he asks again, “What can I do, vod’ika? I’ll help you, just tell me what you need?”

You nod your head, electing not to rub the abused skin around your eyes that was being continuously irritated by tears. “Could you maybe, stay with me today?” You ask timidly.

“Yes,” He responds instantly, “Yes, of course. Wh-what would you like to do? How can we...divert your attention?” He attempts to sidetrack the word distract, acknowledging that his word choice probably doesn’t make much a difference. “Is there anything on your agenda today?”

“N-no.” You sniff. “All my responsibilities this week were redistributed to other people. I have nothing to do.”

He hums, considering your words.

“But um,” you offer, “I suppose it would be good to take a shower.” You chuckle lifelessly, tugging at the unwashed ends of your hair.

You see his form tense beside you, and your eyes widen in horror in realising your error.

“O-oh maker, no. I was kidding, cause I’m a mess and all that’s - kriff - that’s not at all what I was insinuating-” You panic, fumbling for words.

He chuckles lowly beside you, raising a hand up to ease your stammering, “No, it’s okay. I understand. Allow me to...escort you then?”

“To the-” You swallow, cheeks no doubt pinkened by the encounter, “You really don’t have to I wasn’t seri-”

“Self-care is important.” He says, rising to his feet. “It’s the start of a new day, and it’s early enough that you’ll likely have the entire washroom to yourself. C’mon,” He extends an arm out to you. You contemplate taking it for a moment, briefly, again, considering Collin.

Who isn’t here.

“Really?” You ask, stunned both by his willingness to wait outside the washroom while you shower and his consideration of your privacy.

He lifts his elbow again in response. You rise from your seated position, hand hesitantly grabbing a hold of his arm as he lowers it back towards his side, making the gesture less obvious to prying eyes.

You hold onto the crease of his elbow, your other hand mindlessly joining your other so that you practically hang onto him. He tugs you forward, and you begin walking at a comfortable pace.

“Thank you,” You say, sounding stunned again. “I...I can’t imagine that when you woke up this morning you thought you’d be babysitting a stranger.” You mumble, embarrassed.

He huffs, “You are not a stranger,” then he says your name, again. Honey, pure honey.

“You are a member of my tribe,” He continues, “Even though we do not know each other well, I still care about you.”

You blink back your surprise at his words. This man truly is honorable. Caring and considerate and selfless. A big brute with an even bigger heart. You can’t stop yourself from looking up at him, nearly gaping at his words. “You care about me?” You ask.

He hums, looking at your wide eyes staring up at him. 

“You don’t even know me.” You mutter as he looks away. You can’t possibly care about someone who you don’t know. 

“I’m observant.”

You hesitate, feeling another foreign feeling flutter in your belly. 

“Observant?” You challenge.

His visor looks back down at you, your puffy eyes swimming with curiosity. You want him to prove it. 

He takes a tentative breath, hoping you’ll allude his suspiciously observant behaviors of you with the fact that he was trained to be hyper aware of his surroundings. He speaks slowly, “Your favorite food is vegetable pie, probably because it’s a main course, but also sweet. You like to busy yourself with your hands, often tinkering with whatever small, broken objects you manage to find around the covert. Every morning, you head to the training room early to run your own drills and stretch before everyone else arrives. You have a boyfriend, Collin I believe, who you like to align your chores with so you can do them together, except for cleaning the kitchens, which you always try to switch off with somebody else.”

Your eyes stare unblinkingly at his profile. “How-how do you know that?”

“Because kitchen duty is always crossed out under your name on the chores chart, and a different chore is always handwritten underneath.” He says, unable to contain an amused laugh. He opts to only remark on the last of his observations.

You slow to a stop, feeling suddenly incredibly ashamed. “Wow,” You say in admiration. “I-”

You can’t think of anything to say in response, you don’t know anything about him. And here he was telling you that not only does he care for you simply as a member of his tribe, but he actually knows things about you.

You’re overwhelmed by his thoughtfulness, “Paz- I’m...I’m ashamed to say that I don’t even know what your favorite color is.”

He barks out a laugh, surprising you. “Are you concerned with what my favorite color is, cyar’ika?”

“Yes.” You answer, perhaps a silly amount of gravity. “Upon hearing all the things you know about me that most others don't, I mean I’m...I’m touched Paz.”

His tilts his head, visor lingering on your face a moment, and you’re sure that while it was a somewhat silly conversation, he can see the annoying little pools of water that gathered in your eyes again.

He’s silent for a moment. “My favorite color is brown,” He says.

“Brown.” You reflect.

He nods, “It’s warm, soothing.”

“Okay,” You say, hand reaching for his elbow again. “Brown. I’ll remember that.” You squeeze his sleeve in promise.

“I’m sure you will,” He smiles. Or at least you think he does. It sure sounds like he does.

You continue walking on in silence, only passing one other vod in the spacious hall. You’re fairly certain that the Mando approaching does a double take as he sees you clinging to the heavy infantry warrior, but Paz just gives him a nod as you pass in silence. It’s still terribly early. Or late, to you at least. For it to be early you would have had to have slept in the first place.

Your pace is slow, and you wonder if Paz notices the utter exhaustion plaguing your body.

Oh. He must, you think upon catching a reflection of yourself.

Kriff, you look about as good as you feel.

He stops outside your room so you could run in and bag some clothes, before you venture down to the washrooms. You walk comfortably in silence, despite having enjoyed some distracting conversation with him, it feels like the most you’ve spoken all week, and it was tiring, though not unpleasant.

“Could I, ask you something?” He hesitates, clearing his throat. Noting that you keep your eyes glued to the space in front of your feet. “Where is your...uh, Collin?”

He should be doing this. Paz reflects. Taking care of you.

You raise your eyebrows at the floor. “Sleeping I’m sure.”

“Well yes,” He says, “But why hasn’t he been, you know...around?”

His brows furrow at his own words. Well done Paz, you di’kut. First the poor girl’s dad dies, then you offend her by asking why her boyfriend hasn’t been taking care of her. Let alone the fact that you just made it known you’ve noticed his absence. That did not come out at all how he wanted it to.

He’s surprised by a little laugh emitting from your lips. Small and half-hearted and barely audible, but by maker if even then it isn’t one of the prettiest sounds he ever heard.

“Cause..” you sigh, searching for the answer. “-cause he’s an asshole.” You mutter, blunt as the truth leaves your lips.

Oh.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn't have overstepped-”

“It’s okay,” you mumble, “what’s one more thing in my life..”

Paz is silent for a moment. You’re surprised your eyes haven't welled with tears again. Lately it seems like they prefer looking through a blurry lens rather than a clear one. But maybe a part of you expected this with Collin. Your relationship isn’t what it used to be. For the last six months it seems as though his interest in you has slowly diminished. It takes having something fun and interesting for him to seem excited about spending time with you. Cause maker forbid anytime you try to just sit and hang out with him you enjoy yourselves, he’s always got some excuse on hand to get him out of it.

“No,” Paz insists, interrupting your ruminations. “I’m sorry. Perhaps he thought space is what you wanted?”

I think space is what he wanted.

You don’t answer, arriving to the washrooms. Being the only two people in at this hour, the echo of his heavy armor clinks around the wide space. You pass door after door of the enormous shower rooms. Kriff, this is weird. Why was the first thing you thought of when he asked you what you would normally do to shower? I mean sure that was true, but certainly you could have forgone this item on your agenda for the sake of being...proper?

You glance at your passing figure in a mirror and flinch.

Although.

Maybe you...need a shower.

You must have showered within the last few days, right?

“Okay,” Paz says, breaking the silence. “I’ll wait out here.” He says, standing in the communal space with sinks and benches. “You just, take your time vod’ika. Let the water...freshen you up or, soothe you or..some shit.”

Your frown abruptly turns into a wide smile as you giggle.

Victory. He thinks.

His breath hitches behind his own helmet. Kriff, you have a lovely smile. How had he never noticed your smile before?

“Thank you, Paz.” You say, retreating to a random facility and briskly closing the door.

You lean against the door once it’s shut, the ghost of a smile still on your cheeks.

He’s really just going to stand out there. Just so that you know he’s there, that you’re not alone.

“Wow.” You whisper, soaking in the warm feeling in your stomach. It feels like forever since you’ve felt that, giddiness.

You move to turn on the water, slowly stripping yourself of your clothes. You were still wearing your nightshirt from your fruitless sleep endeavors. It was nothing indecent, just a plain, black, elbow-length shirt. Luckily, you had had enough sense in you to pull on a sports bra before you abandoned any notions of sleep, lazily just slipping on some green cargo pants over your leggings before wandering aimlessly through the covert.

You look comfortable but...certainly not like a fierce Mandalorian.

You try your hardest to wash the gloom off your face, focusing your attention on the mission at hand in hopes of keeping distracted. Now you remember why you’d been putting off showering. For some reason, whenever you’re buried under the protective warmth of the loud, secluded shower, at least since it happened, you started to-

The first sniffle comes before you sense its approach, and within seconds your body is shaking in silent sobs.

“Shit.” You whisper.

Pull it together, it’s okay, just breathe. Paz is out there, you don’t want him to hear you.

Your tears blend together with the water running down your body from the shower, making it impossible to discern what is the result of your own pain and what procured it.

You let out a silent whimper, quiet enough that thankfully, you’re sure Paz couldn’t have heard.

Breathe. It’s okay, you’re okay.

No. I’m not okay.

I’m all alone.

“Stop it.” You scold yourself harshly, your soft breath echoing only in your ears.

You are not alone.

Someone is here for you.

Paz. Paz dropped everything to take care of you.

He’s right outside that door, waiting for you.

You take another moment to compose yourself, allowing the last few suds to wash down your form before turning the water off. You quickly dry yourself off and pull on your change of clothes, now wearing a blue sweater and leggings. You didn’t even bother bringing a flight suit. What’s one more day of not suiting up. But at least you’ve still got your boots.

You walk to the mirror, sighing once you get a good look at yourself.

Great.

Swollen, red, angry eyes stare back at you with a red nose to match.

Fuck. You shove all your things back into the sack, giving your hair a final few shakes with the towel before moving towards the door.

It swings open, and you’re met with the sight of Paz leaning against the opposite wall. Arms crossed, one foot propped up against the wall. His visor turns in your direction as you emerge from the chambers. He hmphs, observing your appearance.

“What?” You ask, hesitating to step closer.

“I like the color.”

You look down at your sweater, unknowingly having sported a blue in the exact same shade as his armor. You hide your gaze in your chest, mumbling a half-amused, “Oh.”

“It signifies reliability, did you know that?” He asks.

You still don’t meet his gaze, but smile. Makes sense.

“It is very fitting for you.” He finishes.

You finally look up at him. For you? He believes you to be reliable? “Oh, th-thank you.” You stutter, feeling truly flattered by his compliment.

His visor tilts silently back and forth on your features as you step up at him. He notices your freshly irritated eyes.

“Are you-”

“-it’s nothing.” You interrupt, shaking your head.

“I um,” You shift awkwardly from foot to foot, trying to lighten the mood with an obviously forced smile. “I tend to emerge from showers with angry eyes, at least, as of late.”

Paz’s hand surprises you as it reaches up, gently cupping your elbow, so swiftly you’re not even sure he meant to do it.

“Not angry, mesh’la,” He mutters, “sad.”

Your mouth gapes open slightly, not having expected such a remark from him. He seems slightly distressed by his own slip of the tongue as well, immediately tensing.

His mind is reeling, guilt flooding over him like a tidal wave in a storm. He feels as though he crossed a line. He’s supposed to be caring for you, distracting you, not calling you beautiful when you already belong to someone else.

“I’m-”

“What the hell is going on here?”

Both your gazes snap up in the direction of the source.

Standing under an archway, halfway between the entrance of the washrooms and you, is Collin.

Your breath hitches, “Collin.” You breathe out.

Paz’s hand jerks instantly from your elbow, hanging tensely by his side.

Collin says your name questioningly, taking another step towards you. He’s wearing his armor, but his helmet hangs down by his side. Blonde eyebrows furrowed suspiciously at the two of you.

“I said,” he repeats, “what is going on in here?”

“Nothing.” You say instantly, taking a step away from Paz.

Well that was a suspiciously guilty maneuver.

Collin eyes Paz for a moment, whose form hasn’t moved even an inch since Collin interrupted you both. He closes the distance between the two of you, but still stays a generous space away.

“What are you doing down here at this hour?” He questions, eyebrows furrowed tightly together.

“I..I couldn’t sleep.” You say.

“Again?”

Again? Your father died not one week ago, does he really expect you to be sleeping soundly?

“Yes it’s- been difficult to find the right headspace for rest.” You answer. “I thought perhaps a warm shower would help alleviate the uneasiness.”

His eyes flick to Paz before quickly landing back on your own, suddenly morphing his face into one of concern. His posture loosens slightly and he reaches towards you, showing you more affection than he has in months. “Well, are you okay? You don’t look very good.” Collin says.

Your frown deepens, suddenly you feel very offended. 

“Yeah? Well I look the way I feel, wise guy.” You snap, startling both of you by your outburst. His hand retreats from your space, moving to clench and unclench by his side.

“I’m sorry,” He scoffs after taking a tense breath, “Have I done something wrong?”

“Collin-” Paz’s voice breaks his role as an audience member to your discussion, polite but still warning in his tone.

“-No, I am not speaking to you.” Collin spits out, “I’m speaking to my girlfriend. My girlfriend who you were getting awfully close to in the privacy of this empty washroom.”

Your heart is thumping in your chest. He’s right, this certainly was not a good look. It was highly irregular for you to be up so early. And here you were alone at an ungodly hour with a man who wasn’t your partner. Kriff, how could you be so stupid? You should have known that Collin would stumble in here at this time, he does early morning flight training every week, today must be his lesson. It must have slipped your mind, or maybe you’d forgotten his schedule. Had he even shown you his schedule?

No. No, he hadn’t. When was the last time you even saw him? Surely a few times a day but had you even shared a moment of substance together since the funeral? You’ve gone to him for comfort yet you can’t remember how any of those interactions went. He dismissed you, or offered you a peck on the forehead before changing the subject.

Come to think of it, how dare he come in here angry with you for anything. If anything, you should be the one who’s angry. Paz was right, where has he been?

“You’re right.” Paz says, shocking you and Collin both, your gaze quickly snapping in his direction. “I shouldn't have reached for her. But I was only trying to comfort her, I swear to you that is all. Regardless, you need to relax.” He speaks calmly, the warning back in his tone.  

Collin huffs, taking a menacing step in Paz’s direction. He always was arrogant. 

Your eyes widen, “Collin-”

He rasps out his next words in with a snarl, cutting off your attempt to de-escalate the situation. “Listen here, vod-” He spits, but not before being cut off by a startling quick grab to the front of his chest plate, yanking him forward.

Collin’s heels barely graze the floor as he looks directly up at Paz’s visor, who seems to have grown another six inches, the two quite literally helm to helm.

“You do not address me as your vod in such a manner of disrespect.” Paz growls, his voice sending a harsh shiver down your spine, slightly in alarm, slightly in...something else.

Your breath hitches, frozen as you watch the scene unfold. If you’re too frightened to move, you can’t imagine how Collin feels. Although...maybe a small part of you wishes you did.

“Jare’la,” Paz scoffs, shaking his head. “I am your alor’ad. And I do not tolerate a lack of respect. If you are confused about your place, then I will gladly show you where it is. Tayli’bac, vod?” He spits the words out menacingly, challenging Collin to oppose his authority.

“Elek! Elek, alor’ad!” Collin stammers, “N’eparavu takisit!”

Paz huffs, visor staring Collin down a moment longer before releasing him, shoving him back in the process.

He stumbles to catch himself, grabbing onto the side of the sink for leverage. You’ve never seen him look so...cowardly.

He looks to you, taking a moment to gather himself. Your eyes are still wide, mouth agape as you just stare at him in disbelief. He wets his lips with his tongue, seeming to swallow down another remark, eyes darting to Paz before returning to you. “So, that’s the way it is, huh?”

You’re speechless, “I- I don’t..”

You contemplate the severity of the moment, what’s at stake. Your silence is answer enough, you decide, before opting to look down, relinquishing your chance to speak. With it goes your willingness to explain, to try and salvage whatever pathetic excuse of a relationship you thought you had had with him. “I’m sorry, Collin.” You say, unsure of the words as they leave your mouth.

You hear only the sound of heavy breathing. Two sources of heavy breathing, and neither of them are coming from you. Then, a sound akin to that of a growl. You look up to face him again, only to see his focus on the man beside you. Paz looks back at him, unmoving, domineering, daring him to overstep.

Was Collin challenging you, or Paz?

Was Paz simply defending you or...challenging Collin? And for what?

You feel another spike in anxiety, suddenly feeling as though you were observing a mating duel, a challenge over possession of a lioness, a female...not...terribly uncommon in Mandalorian culture, though nonetheless offensive.

“That’s enough.” You whisper, though with enough exertion to be heard by both males.

You see Paz’s visor turn to face you out of the corner of your eye, but you don’t move, keeping your gaze averted to Collin.

He stares Paz down for another moment before meeting your eyes, saying your name with a stiff nod, and uttering a “Goodbye,” before briskly leaving the room.

You let out an exhale once he’s rounded the corner, catching your breath. That was it.

You’ve lost him.

You stare at the empty door, at the ghost of the shadow where he once stood, waiting for the tears to fall. You feel heavy, you feel distressed, but perhaps not anymore than you already had. There’s not a swirl of emotion in your gut nor rising in your throat that compels tears to swim in your eyes again.

You hear your name being called once, twice. The third time, you look up, much higher up than you’d expected to, at the imposing figure now standing directly above you.

“Are you alright?” He asks softly.

You hold his gaze, watching your reflection blinking up at him. He doesn’t move, waiting for your response to his question. Your gaze drifts down slightly and to the side, staring at the plain wall behind him, before reconcentrating your focus.

“What um,” Your voice comes out somewhat both hoarse and mellow, quiet as you continue, “What should we do next?”

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

“Are you sure you’re alright?”

Paz was guilt ridden. Surely he could have let the little brat mouth off to him one time to spare you from getting hurt. But no, he just had to go and threaten the kid right in front of you. It was just instinctual. He would have done it without restraint any other time to any other member stepping out of line, but upon reflection, maybe the whole thing was his fault. Collin had walked in on you two nearly close enough to embrace. Of course he was pissed. And then, he degraded him, ordering him into submission right in front of your eyes.  

You didn’t blame him. Not in the slightest. I mean, what did Collin expect? He straight up challenged the alor’ad. It was foolish and insulting, and quite honestly Paz wouldn’t have been out of line to clock him then and there. But you suppose he was holding himself back for the sake of your wellbeing, not wanting you to watch your boyfriend - ex-boyfriend - get pounded on while you were already in such a state.

“Yes.” You say, emitting a heavy exhale. You really were.  

The halls have started filling with armored warriors, the covert finally beginning to come to life with a sunrise shining through the trees and early risers popping up.

“Vizsla!” Someone shouts, the two of you turn to see Stephan jogging towards you.

“Hey,” He says, walking once he reached a comfortable earshot, “We missed you on that perimeter run. Was surprised you didn’t show up, is everything-?”

His voice trails off, visor finally ticking in your direction. He seems a little taken aback by your presence, or rather that you were within Paz’s company.

“Vod’ika,” He finally says. “What are you doing with- uh, I mean, how are you?”

“What am I doing with Paz?” You smile, “You don’t think I could handle a perimeter run, Steph?”

His helmet ticks back in surprise at your banter, “N-no, vod’ika.” He says, looking at Paz and huffing in amusement. “We’ll gladly have you join us on the next one.”

“Sure.” Paz nods.

“So…” Stephan continues with uncertainty, “How-how are you?”

Couldn’t make it thirty seconds in without having that question thrown out at you.

You hesitate, the frown slowly returning to your face. Should you answer truthfully? Lie? How are you? 

“I’m…”

You seem stuck on the word. Did you choose a word? What word are you even looking for?

You’re still talking. You remind yourself.

Shit, now you look like you’ve shut down.

You feel a hand rest on your back, blinking forward from your gaze that had somehow been drawn down towards Stephans boots.

“We were just heading to the kitchens.” Paz responds, you tilt your face in his direction without raising your eyes, keeping them glued to the space in front of you, ashamed.

“Okay, yeah.” Stephen says hastily, “Well, uh, Jay made some really good morning muffins, vod’ika, and they’re still warm I bet.”

You nod your head in acknowledgement, offering a pitiful smile, “I’m sure.”

Poor Stephan, it’s not his fault you were like this. He’s just checking in on you, and here you are making him feel bad for asking about your wellbeing. It’s just a question.

Kriff, why are you so weak?

You conceal yourself back in your thoughts, sure that you look absent with glazed over eyes. But you can't bring yourself to care. That’s the weird thing about feeling so desolate, you just don’t have the energy to hide it sometimes.

You hear the foggy exchange of words between the two warriors, simply choosing to retract yourself from the conversation and instead focus your attention on the gloved hand rubbing soothing circles on your back.

Stephan’s modulator rises to a more upbeat tone before stepping forward and offering Paz a light slap on the arm as he passes, evidently dismissing the two of you to carry on with your business.

Paz’s form shifts to watch Stephan leave before turning to you. “Okay?” He asks.

“Okay.” You nod.

He hums, sounding unconvinced as he lightly nudges you forward again, letting his hand drop from its place on your jumper.

No... come back.

You walk side by side in silence, trying to get him to walk a step ahead of you so you can follow. But anytime your step falters purposefully to give him the lead he slows his own, silently insisting you walk side by side. Instead, he steers your direction with fleeting contacts. A hand pulling your arm, his gloved fingers tapping your shoulder. You’re happy to let him guide you, appreciating the delicate touches in direction.

Feeling a sliver of life breathed into you at each one.

The touches stop far sooner than you need them to upon arrival to your destination. You notice you’re heading towards the mess hall again, feeling discomfort at the idea of seeing more of your vods, or worse, having a repeat of your public meltdown you’d had just a few short hours ago.

You’re more alert now, having picked up on the light buzzing from the dining hall. There’s probably quite a few people out there now. And you’re not sure you’re ready to face another wave of concerned and attentive brothers and sisters.

“Paz-” You say, ready to object, but not before you’re steered off to the side, scarcely missing exposure to the hall full of bustling Mandalorians.

Instead, Paz opens a door and gestures for you to walk through, which you do.

Oh. The kitchen.

You’ve been in here many times, but not often during the day. Jay keeps a tight lockdown on the kitchen, only allowing his apprentice to be in here during the working hours of the covert. He’s got a considerable number of Mandalorians to feed, yet he prefers to tackle the challenge alone. Usually kicking anyone out who pops in to help, scolding them for messing up his rhythm.

He has no problem allowing people to make their rounds of kitchen duty though, but that only consists of cleaning up the space once it’s shut down for the night. Mopping, washing, organizing...he tends to lock up all the good treats and hide away the key, making the task totally not worthwhile for you.

Of course, being the daughter of the unsanctioned Alor and all, you had special privileges. One of them being you could hang around the kitchen without Jay kicking you out every time. He still did, but he gave you more leeway than the others if you stayed out of his way and only snacked on the scraps he wasn’t saving.

The door swings shut behind you and you round the corner, the clink of your armored warrior just behind you.

Whoa, whoa. You stop yourself. Your?

You catch sight of a red Mandalorian viciously attending to something on the stove. “What are you two doing in here?” Jay shouts over his shoulder, turning back to his frying.

Paz looks around the empty kitchen, “I heard a rumor about morning muffins.” The deep rumble of his voice saying the words prompts a breathy giggle from your lips, catching his attention, before he continues to glance around for the treats.

Jay huffs, motioning with his wooden spoon to the corner, “Over there. Take one and get out.”

“Thanks,” Paz says, his hands lightly resting on your shoulders from behind and nudging you forward. “Nice attitude.” He mumbles for your ears, an amused smile still lingering on your lips.

“Nice signet.” Jay scoffs, evidently having heard, “Or lack thereof.”  

“Nice apron.”

“Okay- get out of my kitchen.” Jay says, looking up from his dicing.

You surprise yourself by letting out a lively laugh. Paz’s hands tighten over your shoulders at the sudden sound, feeling damn near enamored by Jay for having caused it.

He looks to Jay and gives him a grateful nod, who nods slightly in return, so as not to be caught by your gaze, before returning to his work.

You make your way to the tray of muffins in the corner, boldly sitting down on the couch in front of the fire. Exactly where you and your dad would sit and enjoy the freshly baked cookies or cake made by Jay that morning, the small area being off limits to everyone else in the covert.

Paz is certain Jay would have snapped at them to get away from his personal space if it weren’t for you. You’re sat next to him, gazing at the fire that Jay lights every morning to warm the frigid kitchen.

“For you.” Paz says, handing you a small muffin with a napkin wrapped protectively around it.

You smile at him, accepting the gesture, just allowing it to slowly warm up your fingers in your lap. The movements of the fire captivating your attention as the flames dance in the soft lighting.

“Cyar'ika.” He says softly, the word sending a shiver down your spine. “You really ought to eat something.”

You look to your side again, taking in Paz’s appearance on the tiny couch. Its small size having forced you to sit right up against each other. The leg closest to you is propped up and over the other comfortably, his knee resting elevated slightly above your own.

You wonder if you clink your knee against his own if his hand will slip off it and land on yours.

A silly thought, you think, amusing yourself.

His tilting visor alerts you that you’ve been shamelessly gawking at him. Twice in one day.

“I- um,” You stutter, averting your gaze. “I’m not terribly hungry, Paz.”

He hums, “Well it’s a good thing you’re not terribly hungry because all you’ve got there is a teeny muffin.”

“Yes, it would appear so.” You smile, still making no movement to eat it.

Paz breathes in a slow, contemplative sigh. Guilt starts to flood your senses again, he’s done so much for you today, why can’t you just do this one thing for him?

“Tell you what,” he offers, your eyes rising to meet his visor, “You eat that muffin, maybe have a little bit of tea, and I’ll tell you about the time your vod and I went to Jabba’s Palace.”

Your eyes widen, and you boldly swing your hand down to grasp his arm as you straighten. “The Hutt story?” You choke. “You’ll tell me the Hutt story?”

Paz’s modulator rumbles as he chuckles, knowing he’s got you entrapped by a golden exchange.

He nods, “I’ll tell you the untold and widely sought-after story about the time Devin and I went to visit the Hutts-”

“-Deal!” You squeeze his arm, still gripping tightly from earlier.

“Yeah,” Jay utters, his looming figure now standing directly behind you both, “Kriffing deal.”  

“Get out of here.” Paz huffs, shoving Jay back over the arm of the couch. He doesn’t argue, but you see his retreating form adjust the volume settings on his vambrace.

Paz shifts back cheekily with his arms spread around the couch. He gestures to the uneaten muffin on your lap, waiting for you to uphold your end of the deal.

You sigh, unwrapping the baked good. But the thrill of getting to know the story that caused such an uproar in the covert shoo’s away the discomfort, replacing it with a slightly giddy feeling.

You take a bite, looking at him expectantly. He just scoffs, gesturing again to the tiny muffin in your hand. “C’mon, that thing is like the size of a whistle bird, you finish that before you get the story,” He says, with much emphasis on the “before.”

Fair.

You down the muffin faster than you thought you could, much too excited to finally hear the secret tale. You were going to have bragging rights around this place forever. Paz shakes his head at you, lightly laughing, “So that’s all it takes, huh?” He nods to the empty napkin in your hand.

You ignore him, knowing he knows full well the value of this information. Whatever it was that happened when those two visited Jabba’s Palace, Devin had come back damn near afraid of his own shadow. It took months for him to pull himself together. Your vod would literally jump at the sound of an egg cracking open, reaching for his blaster and slipping up on his grasp. It was kriffing hysterical to you and everyone else in the tribe. And you assumed you weren’t really being malicious. Paz had been there too and returned unscathed, and laughed all the same. And even though he teased Devin to no end about it, he swore he’d never tell a soul what happened, so up until this point, nobody knew what it was. But here you were.

Paz turns over his shoulder, “Hey Jay,” He says politely. “How about a cup of tea for your vod’ika?”

“What am I your maid?” Jay retorts.

“You are the cook.”

Jay mutters something under his breath, but you don’t pay him any mind, having heard him fill up a pot of water immediately upon Paz’s request.

You avert your gaze from Paz’s helmet as soon as he turns to face you again. You look to the fire, biting your lip as a smile slowly grows on your face. It crosses your mind that you feel not only okay in this very moment but actually...happy. The fleeting moments of relief you’ve been feeling all morning, small moments of peace jumbled in with all the sadness and the anxiety, were all because of him. This man who you did not even know three hours ago. Who let you cry in his arms, who stood guard outside the washroom while you showered, who defended you, called you sweetheart, made sure you knew he was always there with you. The same man who now sat next to you on the couch you weren’t allowed to sit on in a kitchen you weren’t allowed to be in. Your smile grows wider, and in your peripheral you’re very aware of his visor still staring at you.

“What?” Paz chuckles.

“Nothing.” You giggle, tears gathering in your eyes. But for the first time today, first time all week, forming not in pain but in relief.

“What is it?” He insists, still playful in his tone. His knee nudges you as if to prompt a response.

A tear slips down your cheek and he leans forward instinctively, his hand finding yours in your lap without hesitation. “Mesh’la, what is it?” He asks again, this time void of all silliness, concerned.

You shake your head, your small smile still present, but certainly reflecting more of the emotion you were feeling.

You place your other hand on top of his own that covers yours, trapping his gloved fingers in your two hands, before looking up at him.

“Just, thank you Paz.” You say, admiration and gratitude dripping from your voice.

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

He likes your voice, he decides, it sounds so sweet, like pure honey.

His eyes are lost in yours behind the visor, watching another tear slip down your delicate cheek. He can hear the relief in your voice. The pure relief and admiration. Admiration? Do you feel admiration for him? He sure hopes you do, otherwise you might find it weird that he’s staring at you for so long. Kriff, he should stop staring at you. But look at those eyes. Those wonderfully expressive eyes that aren’t looking angry or sad or pained, but warm. He feels ensnared by your gaze, a light smile trailing your features, a sprinkle of tears sliding down your cheeks. He watches one slip down the shape of your cheek, rounding your nose and lips before forming a teardrop on your chin. He watches it glisten, unable to bear letting it fall. Mindlessly, he raises a gloved finger to catch it.

Your breath hitches at the contact, and his finger hovers under your jaw before sliding up to catch another.  

Your eyes flit back and forth along the dark shade of his visor, searching, wondering what his eyes look like, head tilting unconsciously into his glove.

He takes the gesture as permission, slowly lifting his thumb, his palm, his whole hand up against your cheek.

You both feel suspended, his hand frozen caressing your cheek. Your eyes have dried up now, carrying a glow of wonder in them. His head tilts slowly and unknowingly to the side, almost like he can’t hold up the weight of his helmet a second longer.

The sound of approaching footfalls brings you back to reality, Paz’s hand drops from your cheek and your faces turning towards the source that dared to interrupt your moment.

“Geez, no need to cry about it, I’ve got your tea.” Jay quips, perfectly deescalating the tension of the moment. Making it a point to show you he was minding his own business.

“Um, thank you.” You mutter, still coming back to the present.

“It’s sleepytime tea.” Jay says, “Ground with dandisonyl.”

“Dandisonyl?” You ask, more alert, “That stuff is rare and expensive.”

“And strong.” Paz huffs.

“And expensive.” You insist again, looking down at your tea. “Jay, why would you waste this on me?”

He leans down against his forearms, now looming over your shoulders. His smug nature radiating off his posture alone, “Now, and this is just an observation, but you look kriffing tired. And that there,” He gestures to the cup of earthy smelling tea you’ve placed on the table in front of you, “That’s sleepytime tea. And you, vod’ika, of all people, look like you need some serious, quality, sleepytime.”

His statement ends with a pinch to your cheeks, and it’s your turn to aggressively shove him backward, causing Paz to let out a sweet laugh.

“Paz,” You say, looking to the only superior present, “He wasted good, expensive herbs on me. That stuff can be used medicinally.” You say with reprimand in your voice.

Paz surprises you by shrugging, “He kind of did use it medicinally.”

“Oh, alor’ad.” You chastise, using his official title to remind him of his role here.

He shrugs, using his whole body for the movement, before picking up your cup and placing it back in your hands. “I suppose you’re right, alor’ika.” He teases, “So you’d better drink it all so as not to let it go to waste.”

You roll your eyes, taking a sip of the tea. With your nose nestled into the cup you miss the silent exchange of approval Paz gives Jay.

Readjusting your position so that you’re facing the fire again, you turn your head towards Paz, taking another sip of your tea, it is surprisingly good. “Get on with the story then.” You command, grinning at your victory.

“Okay.” Paz says, grunting as he adjusts himself to sit comfortably once again on the small couch, opting this time to keep one arm swung over behind your head. You smile in content, looking down sheepishly at your tea and having a bit more.

“Well, it all started on the ship. I mean before we even got to Tatooine. Devin, being the utreekov that he is, forgot to bring the kriffing-...”

You listen intently to his story. He’s using his hands as he talks, passionate and perhaps a little dramatic. He’s taking extra care to include all the details, probably indulging in the fact that you and, undoubtedly, Jay, are paying him your absolute, undivided attention. You sip at your tea, the taste warm and comforting alongside Paz’s sweet voice. Your eyes are getting heavier, and you blink at the burning feeling stinging your eyes from the light of the fire, deciding that you’ll be able to listen better with your eyes closed, and gently placing the empty mug on the table.

“So, finally we get to Jabba’s palace. And Devin’s already a nervous wreck after that encounter with the Trandoshans, and-”

His voice carries a hint of thrill in it. You wonder if he feels exhilarated in finally getting to tell this story. Your lips twitch slightly, content that he’s trusting you with it. 

Feeling heavier on one side, you allow your head to swing slightly in his direction, snuggling more into the embrace of the couch.

You notice his words trailing off, realizing you weren't paying much attention. Hearing only the sounds of the crackling fire in front of you, you slowly force your eyes open.

Paz’s head is turned down as much as it can in his position. And though you can’t see his visor, you’re certain he’s staring at you.

“Keep talking.” You mutter, resting your head back again.

You hear the sweetest breath of a chuckle sound from beneath his helmet, which you suddenly realise you're very near to. “Close your eyes again.”

“No, I wanna listen to the story.” You mumble, your low energy blending the words together.

“You can only evade sleep for so long sweetheart.”

“We’ll see.” You challenge, eyes fluttering closed against your will.

“Yes, we will.” He whispers. He’s silent another moment, admiring you and your peaceful expression with a smile on his face before carrying on with the story, speaking much more softly than before. The light humming of his voice is soothing, and you notice it growing quieter and quieter, yet the feelings of security and warmth and relief all stay with you.

Paz looks towards the fire as he speaks, trying to draw out the story as long as he can. He feels the light weight of your head resting against his shoulder, not daring to move a muscle and disturb your peaceful slumber.

It’s still early in the morning. Behind the fireplace and through the density of the thick wall, Paz can hear the covert coming to life. And while their days are just starting, yours has finally come to a peaceful end. He listens to your serene breathing through the long pauses he takes in his story, knowing that really, he’s only telling it to Jay now, who notably moves through the kitchen swiftly and with as little clicking and clanking as he can muster.

“-And so, that’s what happened on Tatooine.” Paz whispers, looking at your parted lips and lightly closed eyelids.

The fire casts a harmonious glow on your face, making your features look warmer, livelier, serene.

You look utterly angelic.

He remembers how you crumbled in his arms not five hours ago, pained and distressed and lonely. You sought him out even though you didn’t know him, not knowing how much he’d admired you from afar. To see your normally light and radiant face masked with such despair, he couldn’t bear to see it again.

He watches your sleeping form take a staggering breath, your body relaxing into its position, nudging your face further into where it fell on his shoulder. He dares to let the arm wrapped around the couch lower slightly, so that it rests comfortingly around your form.

“Sleep, cyar’ika,” He whispers. “I’ll be right here when you wake up.”

He hopes his silent promise is enough to soothe your sleeping form, listening to your breathing even out to a more peaceful rhythm.

“I’ll be here for as long as you need.”

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

Translations:

Alor - chancellor Vod’ika - little sister Osik - shit Di’kut - idiot Jare’la - stupidly oblivious of danger / asking for it. Alor’ad - captain Tayli’bac, vod? - Do you understand, mate? (menacing) Elek! Elek, alor’ad! - Yes! Yes, captain! N’eparavu takisit! - I’m sorry (lit. I eat my insult) Alor’ika - little leader Utreekov - fool, idiot (lit. emptyhead)

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

a/n two: They both think the other person’s voice sounds like pure honey.. 🥺

also we need more Paz x reader content on Tumblr my dudes. 

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Taglist: @wandsmith​ 💖

[kuh-boose]

This is gonna be critical of the halo show (ie the show that just kind of uses halo as a skin), so if you like it and don’t wanna hear criticism, maybe don’t read. 

People go on about how "well since it's not the games he has so reason not to reveal his face." And to that  I would say it's a lot less about him revealing his face and more him having/not having a reason to remove one of the few safety measures he has for himself. The armor keeps him safe, it keeps him linked with Cortana and his team, it gives him intel. He's been engrained since childhood to take advantage of everything at his disposal to ensure his safety, his teams safety, and mission success. The risks to John aren't so much about concealing identity so much as the paranoid protective and vigilance measures of child soldier who has grown up to watch SO many people die around him because (to him) he wasn't good enough or prepared enough to stop it. (you’ll notice that what we’ve seen of other spartan IIs puts them roughly in the same wheelhouse)

The only social arguments I can think of is that Spartan IIs get major shit by a lot of other members of the UNSC just for existing, and, more significantly, he takes his being a "symbol of hope" thing very seriously. He *likes* being a symbol people can rally behind, even if he feels undeserving of, or indifferent to, the honor. Oh there’s also probs some neurodivergent stuff going on there that I’ll mention in a sec.

These parts of his character are all fascinating and like *perfect* gateways into discussing PTSD and how it could represent in a high functioning person like John. He also very much has a martyr complex. And lets not forget that the man very likely has some sort of social function disorder (what was it at the beginning of 4? mildly sociopathic?) that would make human interaction difficult, likely more so outside the armor. Like on surface level he's an amazing soldier, but inside he is riddled with guilt and an overly robust sense of duty. He truly feels like everything that goes wrong is his fault, that he should be able to stop all the bad things. He is constantly trying to grasp at everything, *anything* that will make him a better soldier, give him less chance at failure so that people around him stop dying. And what bites is these are complex character issues that the show doesn't seem to give a damn about in favor of cheap, over done stuff. 

(To be fair, past episode one I've just been watching reviews and clips because I refuse to give Paramount my viewership for their numbers. So if I missed something that would address these concerns, my bad. But like, I doubt it since they’re constantly showing the face of a man who is very likely paranoid about being out of armor in any capacity)

I just stay salty about this ok?

[bone-wolves]

Rowan’s Shade Pack Summary: Yr 1

Enit had emerged from the spirit world at the beginning of Spring, into a world of green, of sunlight, of multitudes of sights and scents that nearly overwhelmed the senses of her mortal wolf form. Her first months she spent experimenting with the mortal world, exploring different areas and inviting into the pack those wolves whose spirits she felt would work well in her pack.

Over the year the pack lived in the Deciduous Forest, the pack moved to the Swamp for the winter, and after careful consideration and discussion with her scouts, Enit has decided to move the pack to the Riparian Woodland now that Spring has arrived.

(to see a full story like write up of pack members click the read more! Fair warning, it’s LONG)

Her first pick, her partner, was Pietro, an intriguing and entertainingly arrogant young wolf who she immediately felt attached to. Having him scout new areas was beneficial to the pack as a whole, because while he was good at helping her get her pack shaped up, his know-it-all attitude and biting snark occasionally riled up the pack members more than she liked. When Enit had shared some of her spiritual aspects with him, she was not surprised to find that it had enhanced his toothy grin, making him seem even more intimidating than before.

Her second scout, Tara, was a blessing she hadn’t realized she’d been getting - Enit had considered her to be a smart and capable wolf on meeting her, but Tara’s dedication to her role surprised and astounded her! While Pietro may have claimed to be “the best, most adept and highly skilled” wolf in the pack, the true honor may just have lain with Tara - she traveled the lands, scouted out new trails, and discovered new areas with an almost supernatural ease, all while avoiding many of the dangers and illnesses that could befall a wolf in strange lands. Enit was not surprised to find that the spiritual aspect she shared with Tara granted her a phantom-like presence, allowing her to flit from place to place without attracting too much attention.

The hunting groups - oh, Enit had to work at picking the right wolves for them!

Her first group, Orion’s Pack, were a friendly and outgoing bunch, always full of energy, yipping and barking and howling and roughhousing all day long. Enit had to admit, she did enjoy their energy, and joined in on the wrestling often. It did help her feel more like a Real Wolf. They weren’t the most focused or best coordinated wolves, she had to admit - Rigel, who’d gained the hazy aspect from Enit’s spirit, most often stumbled upon a good trail as she idly wandered across a field or among the trees out of sheer luck and the fact that her presence was difficult to discern in certain lighting. The Chasers worked decently well together - Bellatrix could get over-enthusiastic and occasionally overshoot their target, but with Meissa and Saiph’s assistance and direction the three managed to get the prey to go where they wanted it to. Mintaka...well, Enit was relatively certain it was only her spirit aspect that gave Mintaka a larger, more robust set of teeth that helped her as a finisher - Mintaka was often distracted by something or the other and would jump at the prey sometimes at nearly the last second. Still, the group worked very well together and Enit enjoyed their presence in her pack immensely.

Her second group, Orion’s Club, was quite a different story. There were only three so far, though Enit had chose two of the adolescent pups to join once they were old enough, but those three could sometimes pull in more prey than her first group of hunters. Enit’s spiritual aspect had granted Alnilam More Sight, All Sight, More Eyes and More Vision, and between that and her exceptional scent skills she was a formidable stalker. Betel - Enit had to admit, Betel was a terror. Aggressive and domineering, she made an excellent Chaser all on her own, and with Enit’s spiritual aspect accenting her limbs, she could pull off maneuvers that made the rest of the pack’s heads spin. Alnitak had been meant to be a placeholder, her anxious and shy nature so at odds with Alnilam’s and Betel’s more outgoing and loud ones, but she had been blessed with the phantom presence much like Tara, deepened by her natural quietness to the point that much of the prey Betel chased to her didn’t notice Alnitak until she rose, like a ghost, to fall upon them and wrestle them to the ground. Enit hadn’t been sure about this pack of hunters, but she had to admit they were exceptionally skilled and she didn’t think her pack would do well without them, even if Alnitak and Betel tended to harass and pick fights with other members of the pack almost daily. At the very least they listened to her and backed down when she told them to. Keeping the respect of the more aggressive and domineering members of her pack was something Enit knew she had to maintain if she wanted her pack to continue to thrive.

Enit had chosen Persie as the pack herbalist out of necessity more than anything else - illnesses and injuries had begun to be a problem and when enit stumbled upon the herbalist bear in the woods she knew she had to send someone to learn from him, and soon - but the wolf’s dutiful nature proved to be a boon in that field. She paid careful attention to Herbert’s lessons, and noted each characteristic of every single herb with an extraordinary focus. She might not have been a very outstanding wolf at the beginning, but after months of hard work, learning, and practice Persie showed herself to be a valuable and important member of the pack. Without her Enit was sure her pack would be suffering, and some of her pack might not even have made it through the first year.

Aala was a young and serious minded Wolf that Enit had mistaken for Persie upon their first meeting - the two wolves were similar enough to be littermates, though they weren’t! Enit hadn’t been sure if the young wolf would be a permanent member of the pack, and Aala herself hadn’t seemed certain either. She seemed to waffle between staying and going, occasionally traveling out to the edges of the pack’s territory and traveling the boundary before coming back to the dens with a furrowed brow and thoughtful expression. Once the packs first pups were born, however, Aala found her purpose. She was a serious but caring pupsitter, taking care of all pups given to her care with skillful gentleness. The pups all loved their “AuntAla” and she in turn helped them grow into strong and capable young wolves.

Speaking of pups - most of the pups born the first year were, well, test pups. Enit wasn’t sure how pregnancy and pups worked really - spirits didn’t mate, didn’t carry anything inside of them, didn’t give birth. Sometimes spirits could become so full of energy that something split from them and became a spirit of its own, but the feel of it, the experience of it, Enit learned, was completely different than that of mortal mating, pregnancy and birth. She was honestly fascinated by the whole matter, both when it included her and when it didn’t, and she honestly influenced more pregnancies and births than she probably should have. Only after she started to think of the care the pups would need did she realize that she may have taken on too much for her pack to handle, and the situation had to be rectified. So Enit decided to undo some of the pups, or rather, the pup’s mortal forms. It was delicate work, and she had to hole herself up in the portal-den to do it, but it wasn’t painful or detrimental. As far as she knew. The pup’s spirits would continue on, their sparks returning from where they came, and only their mortal forms would be undone, crumbling away to return to the earth. Enit thought she handled the situation quite well - until she realized that the mortal wolves of her pack had little understanding of the spirit realm, and the eternal lives and cycles of spirits that inhabited mortal forms. It was an alien thing to them, something fearful and awe inspiring and so, so different from their own physical lives. She tried to explain that the pups hadn’t died, that they hadn’t suffered (at least she didn’t think they did, at least their spirits hadn’t), but the mother wolves couldn’t understand. Enit felt true hurt and sympathy upon seeing the sadness and pain in them - she’d never meant for that to happen. She did love her wolf pack, as much as a spirit as herself, one from a far different plane than the spirits of mortal beings, could love the physical containers of lesser spirits. So she went back to the portal-den, and clawed against the strands of existence as delicately as she could, her work as tiring as careful as before, and erased the memories of the pups from the pack’s minds until they were only vague half-dreams that returned to them, sometimes, in the darkest hours of the night.

There were three pups in the pack, however, that Enit had decided would grow to become new members. Two were of her own pack - a daughter of Pietro and Saiph, and a daughter of Pietro and Mintaka - who had caught her eye and her not-quite-mortal heart. That they were adorable when biting at each other and wrestling and rolling about helped her decision as well. The third was a young pup she had found at the edge of her territory while patrolling one day, a gray-and-white splotched pup with an independent streak that had told her she was “esploreen da hole wowld” all by herself. Enit thought she was wonderful, so she plucked the pup up and carried her back to her den, where Aala, ignoring the pale pup’s indignant growls, tucked the little one under a paw and told Enit she would make sure she stayed put. 

The pack had spent most of the year in the temperate weathered leafy forest where Enit had first emerged, but as winter drew closer and the mortal wolves began to speak of the chill of it, the lack of prey and the illness it could bring, Enit decided that a move was in order. As the last of fall waned, she took her pack and traveled to the warmer, and stinkier, but far more interesting swamps to the south. They spent the winter there, under the heavy boughs of the Rowan tree that moved along with them to the wonder and amazement of the mortal wolves, but as time went on Enit wondered if the choice had been a good one. Hunting was difficult - even though her hunters were skilled they could only bring back the smallest of prey, complaining of the damp stink of the place making it difficult to locate trails, saying that the soft mucky ground grabbed at their paws and slowed them down. Enit herself found the entire place absolutely wonderful, intriguing, full of sights and sounds and textures she could not get enough of, but she had to admit that raising a pack in the swamp did not seem to be the best idea. She consulted with Pietro and Tara, and sent them out to scout a new area for the pack to live in, and after many discussions they settled on a wooded territory threaded through with rivers. While the pack stocked up on what food they could and prepared to move, Enit headed out to ready the new territory and prepare a place for them.

[lionsongfr]

A tale from the Clan of the Lionfish

Of Charges and Guardians

Part 2 here: link

SeaQueen heaved herself from the river to the shore with effort, the cold breath of air sending a shiver through her body.  She whispered a thrumming tune of magic, the water rippling from her scales to the ground. It warmed her a bit, but she did not wish to stand out in the open for long.

 Fallen Star Fort loomed in the distance, its lights gleaming like a beacon against the burgeoning darkness. Willing her wings to fan out and her legs to pump underneath her, she ran into the sky- sand and snow swirling in miniature whirlwinds as she rose.

Her eyes watched the fort as she flew in closer, everything looked normal to her physical sight and mage sight. TidalKing’s message had been one of urgency, not a dire threat, but an urgency none the less. She had suspected and mentally prepared for many things, from the threat of war or need of magic. The walls looked intact, the guards relaxed, and the magic barrier gleamed bright, thank Tidelord, so if it was a threat it had not reached the fort yet. There was large vine of bougainvillea which crawled along the southwest tower, though it was long dead from the frost she made note of it. She would need to remind her mate to remove it, before it brought harm to the structure of the fort or gave clawholds to climbing invaders.

She landed heavily to the ground before the fort, grace long forgotten after such a trip, but she would not show such fatigue to her clanmates. With her head raised high and her gait steady, she walked to the gate and signed the clan emblem to the magic barrier.

“I, SeaQueen, Leader of the Clan of the Lionfish, ask that you open these gates so that I may enter!” she roared to the guards.

She inwardly smiled as they hustled to open the doors, both physical and magical. They had been relaxed, but not sloth to their duties. Lieutenant IvoryCoast, an Imperial, greeted her at the doorway, his bow deep into the sands with wings spread wide. She nodded and lifted a claw to signal him to rise.

“Rise Lieutenant and let us quit this frigid doorstep to warmer climes.”

He rose slowly and then swiftly as he realized she was waiting for him. She walked beside him into the courtyard as the doors closed and stretched her own wings a bit to bath in the warmth. The magic barrier made this place as warm as a spring day, and her bones appreciated every ounce of it. She turned to IvoryCoast to see his respectfully lowered gaze.

“Now I wish to ask where might the lord of this keep be? The one who so summoned me.”

With a shorter bow, he intoned, “My lady Queen, I shall be honored to lead you to him. He is awaiting your arrival in the northern tower.”

She nodded again and waited for him to move before walking alongside him. She could see it bothered him a bit to have right next to his side, his flickering ears and twitching whiskers betrayed him. But she would not walk in front of him like a proper royal or trail behind him like a hatchie. Clanmates should swim side by side, sharing the comfort of each other’s presence. She gave greetings to the many bowing dragons around her, it seems the night market was just beginning as incense, flowers, and food perfumed the air.  She could feel the tranquility in her soul, a sense of good cheer in the faces and hearts of her kind. Whatever her mate had called her for, it was not something that had caused fear or worry to douse this contentment.  

“I hear that you have had new shoal of hatchies born, IvoryCost, my congratulations to you and your mate.”, she chatted as she accepted a cup of mulled wine and roasted fish offered to her. She was starving, using magic to change into water and ride the tides was costly, despite the added strength of the high tides and full twin moons. What she truly needed was a nest, but fish was like sleep and sleep like fish, she would catch both when she can.

Her eyes flickered to her guide, and a gentle smile rose to her lips. As she had been focused on her fish and drink, he had stopped to expound upon his new hatchies, his voice filled with joy and the determination of parent. She let him have his moment, and hers to snag a few more bites of food, and motioned to keep on moving to which he acknowledged and followed. No more twitching whiskers or ears, his face was relaxed and wings eased open. She was no better than a Skydancer with all this emotional maneuvering, but it felt nice to have another dragon not so uptight and anxious over her every need.

They made way through the market crowds, and he opened the northern tower door for her with a flourish. She passed him and began to make way up the stairs to the second story, the close quarters making both climbing upon impossible. She did wait for him at the door, and he knocked upon the oaken structure with resounding booms. She hid a laugh as an oath blistered the air and her mate’s call came forth,

“Come on in Lieutenant, before you break my door again!”

IvoryCoast flicked his ears back in annoyance before opening the door for her, and she walk into the office. He intoned with a robust voice,

“I present to thee, SeaQueen, lair founder and leader of the Clan of the Lionfish, may Tidelord forever grace her future!”

The Imperial than give a shortened bow and shut the door, giving her little time to examine the room. It was cramped with paperwork, her mate, and oddly two other Guardians who blended in with the darkened corner. The pair could have been from the same nest, with scales as dark as the abyss- but their eyes and manners made them more different than the moon and sun. The Shadow male arched his body to show thick muscles gracing his side before bowing in an elaborate display of wings and tail. The Lightning female slowly bowed, her body foreshortened by standing perpendicular and her wings tight to her body. A cautious display, she kept her eyes on SeaQueen till very end of her bow. SeaQueen turned to see her mate doing his own slow bow, his mouth curling into a smile.

“Rise loyal subjects and newcomers, dwell no more upon the ground and let me seek the truth in your eyes.”

A smothered laugh from her mate earned him a piercing eye from her and he smoothed his spines in somber formality. He stood straight and made a claw mentioning to the two Guardians in the corner.

“Ah, yes, my la- SeaQueen, I present to thee the Guardians, BlackGhost and CrownOfThorns, they have come because their Search has ended and they have found their Charge.”

The pair rose from their bows and stepped closer to her, the light showing a blue gleam across their wings. They placed a fisted claw to their chests and spoke in unison,

“Our Charge is you, SeaQueen.”

[thoughtfulcupcakesublime]

The business community heard about data, education, and an array of other topics. 

Congressman Rob Wittman discussed them on September 30.

Wittman was one of the speakers in a Congressional Series the Prince William Chamber of Commerce hosted at its headquarters in Manassas.

He represents residents of the 1st district, which includes Prince William County.

Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton spoke about the Rural Crescent and the National Rifle Association (NRA) at the chamber last month. Trade and transportation were a couple of topics Congressman Gerry Connolly talked about on October 8.

The video can be found here:

Below, is the video transcription.

Lyle Dukes: It’s good to have everybody here, and the congressman here. I’m excited about this morning. I’m Bishop Lyle Dukes. I’m the current chair of the Prince William Chamber. Again, we want to welcome you to, we call it, a round table discussion with Congressman Wittman. We are going to just jump to our conversation. I’m going to ask Gary Jones from the Fauquier Bank come. He’s going to introduce the congressman.

Gary Jones: At this time, we’re going to introduce him. He was first elected to serve the first congressional district in Virginia in December of ’07. He was reelected for his sixth full term to the House in November of ’18. For more than 20 years, he has served in several levels of government, from Montross Town Council to United States Congress. Rob won his first campaign for public office in 1986, when he was elected to the Montross Town Council, where he served for 10 years, four of them as mayor. In ’95, he was elected to the Westmoreland County Board of Supervisors, and was elected its chairman in ’03. In 2005, voters in the 99th legislative district elected Rob to the Virginia House of Delegates, where he served until he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in ’07.

Gary Jones: In Congress, Rob serves on the House Armed Services Committee, and the Committee on Natural Resources, where he is well positioned to represent the needs of Virginia’s first district. He has quickly earned a reputation for being an advocate for our men and women in uniform, and for being a champion of the Chesapeake Bay. On the Armed Services Committee, he serves as the ranking member of Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee. In addition, as cochair of the Congressional Shipbuilding Caucus, he is a staunch advocate for the robust naval fleet and a healthy domestic shipbuilding industry.

Gary Jones: Rob has served as chairman of the U.S. Naval Academy’s Board of Visitors since 2010. As a member of the House Committee on Natural Resources, Rob brings his professional expertise in water quality, fisheries, and other natural resource issues. He is a champion of the Chesapeake Bay for its environmental and economic attributes, and has introduced legislation that would increase the accountability and effectiveness of cleaning up the bay. He serves as co-chair of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Caucus, which brings bay issues into focus for members of Congress.

Gary Jones: Prior to his election to Congress, Rob spent 20 years working in state government, most recently as field director for the Virginia Health Department Division of Shellfish Sanitation. Earlier, he worked for many years as an environmental health specialist for local departments in Virginia’s Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula regions. He owns a PhD in public policy administration from VCU, a master of public health degree in health policy administration from University of North Carolina, and a bachelor of science degree from Virginia Tech, so Rob?

Rob Wittman: Gary, thank you. Folks, I want to get out from behind the podium, and just stand here before you. First of all, good morning.

Audience: Good morning.

Rob Wittman: Gosh, what an honor and privilege it is to be back here with the Chamber. I want to thank you all so much for the great job that you do in connecting different parts of our business community to decision-makers, and making sure that we hear and understand the thoughts and ideas and concerns that you have, because it informs the decisions that we make.

Rob Wittman: What I wanted to do is talk about some of the issues that are before Congress now, beside from what you hear in the headlines each and every day. I think, as I talk to folks, obviously the element of impeachment is going to continue on, but what I hear from most folks is what are the other elements of business that the nation is getting done? What is Congress getting done? What is happening there that gets the nuts and bolts business of the nation done each and every day? There are a number of things that have to be done.

Rob Wittman: First of all, let me start out with what I think one of the most fundamental duties of Congress, and that is to get a budget done and get appropriations bills done. Those things need to be done on time, yes, yes, yes. CRs are not a way to operate, and anybody who has to deal with that understands how problematic continuing resolutions are. Here we are, unfortunately, again in another continuing resolution through November the 21st. We should have had all of this done prior to that time. We have all of this time ahead of time.

Rob Wittman: This year, we finally did reach a two-year budget deal. We should’ve stayed in Washington. You know, there’s this ridiculous archaic process called August Recess, where Congress goes home for five weeks. We know what we’re facing. We know we have to get these appropriations bills done, yet everyone goes home, and then we come back with 13 legislating days left, without any of the appropriations bills done, and then we’re back into a continuing resolution.

Rob Wittman: Now, the complicating factor this time is that now we have a November 21st deadline for appropriations bills to be done, before the expiration of this continuing resolution. I can tell you, with the amount of political division in Washington, it’ll be a challenge to try to get that done. The unfortunate part about the whole deliberations on impeachment is everything grinds to a screeching halt, and the only thing that consumes every bit of oxygen in Washington, unfortunately, is impeachment. Yet there are other things that need to be done, so I’m hopeful that we get these appropriations bills done. Hope is not a strategy, though, so I know that we have to do more than just that.

Rob Wittman: That’s why it’s incumbent upon the appropriators, the Appropriations Committee, to actually get this work done. The Senate’s been slow. The Senate is just finishing up their appropriations bills. They didn’t even start this in earnest until right up to the deadline, which is the end of the fiscal year of September 30, so it doesn’t make sense to me that we’re waiting there until the last minute. Those things absolutely have to be done.

Rob Wittman: Additionally is we have to get the National Defense Authorization Act done. That is the authorization for our nation’s military, and obviously for Virginia, for this area of Virginia, it’s critically important to get that done. I am one of the conferees. That means I’m on the conference committee, which are a group of House members, a group of Senate members that sit down and work out the differences between the House version of the bill and the Senate version of the bill, which is the way the process is supposed to work, and it’s working well, I believe.

Rob Wittman: We are going through those deliberations. We look to get that done, hopefully by the end of October. Again, that all depends on all the other moving parts that are going on there in Washington, but it’s hopeful we get that done by the end of October. That’s critical, too, because that lays out the path for our nation’s military, and for what happens with appropriated dollars that come into the nation’s military. Anybody that does business with the military knows that not having an authorization, and working under a continuing resolution, creates a number of different challenges, so we want to make sure that those things get done. Those are the critical elements of business that Congress, I believe, is sworn to do, and I’m hopeful that’ll get done.

Rob Wittman: Other areas that I think are critically important, and things that we’ve done over the last four years now, continuing throughout the district is, first of all, our education system, specifically making sure that we have an education system that produces graduates that are ready for the jobs that are there today. Let me give you two numbers that I think ought to fully inform what happens at every level, federal level, state level, local level. As we speak today, 46% of college graduates are not working in the area in which they received their degree. That creates an imbalance there, so we have sometimes, in some areas, an oversupply of degrees and an undersupply of jobs. Then what happens in that situation? How do those individuals find employment?

Rob Wittman: Second of all is of the jobs in the future, from today on, the jobs in the future, about 60% of those jobs will not require a four-year degree, but they will require a certification or credential. To me, that is critical that we have, within that realm, a renewed emphasis on career and technical education. That, I think, is key. If you look at where we are today, look at our economy, looking at making sure we prepare our children for success, their path to success is going to be making sure that our school systems not just prepare them to score on a standardized test, but to make sure that they have the knowledge, skills, and abilities for the jobs that are out there. I think that that is absolutely critically important.

Rob Wittman: Great example is right here in Prince William County. If you look at what’s happening at Micron, massive expansion at Micron. It’s great. They’re building additional foundry capacity. Remember, Micron is the only producer of semiconductors in the entire United States, and they’re expanding here in Prince William County. Great news. I want to see them do even more. The neat thing about it is they’re working with the school system here, and many of their technicians there do not require a four-year degree, but they require enhanced education to make sure that they come there with the basic skills, and then they teach them how to work within that foundry.

Rob Wittman: They’ve done a great job with Prince William County schools, to make sure that graduates from Prince William County Schools are ready to go to work at Micron. The neat thing about it is you can go to Micron. You can start in one of those jobs. You can continue to gain skills, and Micron, then, will pay you to go back to school if you want to pursue a two-year degree or a four-year degree, so again, great segue to be able to get into that.

Rob Wittman: Another great economic opportunity… The expansion that’s taking place at Micron is specifically for the semiconductors, the microelectronics that will go into vehicles of the future. That’s going to be one of the largest expanding demands for semiconductors. We all know. I drive a little Toyota Corolla, and you would think a Corolla wouldn’t have a bunch of advanced technology in it, but I can tell you, when I put the cruise control on, it has an optic eye that looks ahead of me. If the vehicle gets too close to the vehicle in front of me, it applies the brakes.

Rob Wittman: If I’m driving down the road, and my tire touches the white line, the vehicle steers me back to the middle of the road. Now, when it first started that, it was a little bit spooky, as the vehicle kind of takes things over, but after a while I’ve gotten used to it. That’s just the beginning of what’s going to happen with our automobiles. Micron’s at the very, very forefront of that.

Rob Wittman: Another element that’s critical, that will be another expanding demand, is what’s called a trusted source of microelectronics. Trusted source means this. It means that the semiconductors that are in critical hardware for the United States, whether it’s the military, whether it’s communications, comes from a place that we trust will not have other technology in the chip or will have problems with the chip that could cause security issues for the United States. We all know that the largest producer today of communications technology are Chinese companies, Chinese companies like Huawei, Chinese companies like ZTE.

Rob Wittman: I can tell you this, folks. China is not our friend. The Chinese are ruthless and relentless. That hardware that goes into building these new 5G systems is not hardware that we want built in China. It is not going to be to our, we’ll call it, strategic or economic advantage to have that. We want those microelectronics, those semiconductors, produced here in the United States. We want those systems, that hardware, produced in the United States, for a variety of reasons. The economic reason is one of them, but I would say, at the top of the list, is a strategic reason to make sure that those systems are produced here in the United States. The good news is that we’re in the process of working to make sure that Micron is one of those trusted sources of producing those semiconductors for communications systems, for national security systems, to make sure that we preserve what is valuable to the United States.

Rob Wittman: Let me tell you one of the reasons that China is so interested in getting their hardware in communications systems around the world. Folks, the most valuable commodity today, tomorrow, next week, next year, next decade, next century is data. Everything that we do each and every day is data driven. When you pick up your cell phone, there are thousands of bits of data that go out every day. That information gets picked up, and it tells a story about each and every one of us, and it tells a very distinct story about each and every one of us, but it also tells a story about our businesses. It tells a story about our communities, and that information can be used in an advanced technology called artificial intelligence.

Rob Wittman: When you take all that data, and you put it together, it’s amazing then what that artificial intelligence can do with that data. Data becomes the element of not just commerce in the future, but of power in the future. That’s why the Chinese today are working with everything they have to vacuum up every single shred of data that they can get. They do that for a strategic reason, because they want to be able to get a strategic advantage over the United States, and thyroid want to be able to use it in a variety of different ways economically. They are looking to do that for their own economic and strategic means.

Rob Wittman: That’s why, first of all, we have to look at protecting data. We have to look at making sure we have systems that we control where data goes, how it’s utilized, who has it in their hands. Those things, I think, are critically important. That’s why a place like Micron is important, and that’s why having a education system that educates our students to be able to be the employees in the companies that produce the hardware, that also are able to take the data and use it in productive ways for operations here in the United States, are all critical.

Audience: Oops. I was going to say, is it you?

Rob Wittman: I’ll tell you what it is. This is a jacket that has a little protector in it for microchips, to make sure somebody can’t scan your phone or whatever, but it also does strange things with my phone when I have it in that pocket. I’m just saying, just goes to show you, and this is… I don’t think this is a Chinese phone, no.

Rob Wittman: Anyway, but it’s key that we have an education system that prepares our students for those jobs. It’s key, too, that those operations happen here in the United States. If we’re going to compete in the worldwide economy, those things are critical. An education system that focuses on CTE is key. Right next door to Micron, you have Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin produces all of the systems on board our submarines, our Virginia-class submarines, but also, the newest class of submarine, the Columbia-class, which will replace the Ohioclass.

Rob Wittman: The technicians there that are building those systems, those computer systems, that take all the data and determine if we have to, how to target an area with the weapons that are on board that submarine. The students that are building those computers are right here from Prince William. Right here in my high school. They go there, under an internship program, go there, and work, and produce some of the most advanced systems of the world. These are individuals that are high school graduates, but they developed the skills, the specialized skills, here in Prince William County. That is really the wave of the future. Then again, at Lockheed, if they decide to pursue a degree from there, they can do that, or they can have a tremendous opportunity, career-wise, with that. The same with a number of other businesses here. I can go down the list of businesses here that are connecting with the high school, to make sure they get these career and technical education graduates.

Rob Wittman: Let me talk about another thing, and then I want to go to your questions. As we talk about our school systems, and we talk about technology, and we talk about the things that are going to be the conduits of commerce in the future, one of the most critical elements of that is broadband, better known as high speed Internet. If we’re going to have that connectivity to make sure that our businesses are able to function, it needs to be across our communities, in every corner of the commonwealth.

Rob Wittman: I want to give credit to companies like NOVEC, who are looking at areas that are unserved, and using technology, using their infrastructure, using the system of poles that are out there, that carry power to your house, and using satellites, using satellite technology there, to make sure that people have connectivity to where they can access broadband. You would think, in a county like Prince William County, that every area would be served, but it’s not. There are areas in Prince William County that are not served. When you have an area that’s not served by high speed Internet, or by broadband, you have a business that either can’t start or can’t expand.

Rob Wittman: You also have parents and students that don’t have access, so when they take home that tablet computer from school, and the teacher has given them an assignment, and they have connectivity at school, but when they go home, they don’t, what happens? Mom or Dad have to put them in the minivan, and they have to travel down to a place where there’s WiFi, so they travel to the library or to the local McDonald’s, or wherever, to do homework. You go to the parking lot in some of these places, and you look, and families are in the minivan, as their child does homework, unacceptable. Let me tell you. Connectivity is better in some third world countries than it is here in the United States. We can do better, and we must do better. I think that’s key.

Rob Wittman: Another element that’s key is how do we bring down the cost of health care? How do we increase access to health care? One of the most exciting ways that I’ve been working on, even to my days back in the General Assembly, is telemedicine, to be able to use high speed Internet to connect patients with doctors, and they don’t need to go to the doctor. The doctor can see them at a distance. They can go to a facility, or what they can do is use, again, technology today. Folks have a Fitbit.

Rob Wittman: What does a Fitbit do? It monitors your heart rate. It monitors your vitals. Guess what? You can have that programmed to a doctor’s office, to where, if your heart rate is doing something strange, guess what? You get a little text or an email, and doctor’s office says, “Give us a call. We want to have a conversation with you,” or, “Go to our facility. There’s something going on here that we want to make sure we get out in front of,” or that patient needs to go and have a diagnosis, but can’t get through the traffic, so they can go to a nurse or a nurse practitioner, where that nurse or nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant, takes their vitals, and then confers with the doctor through a screen at a remote location, could be a specialist or otherwise, to take care of their condition.

Rob Wittman: Think about the number of additional patients that doctors could see. Think about the additional access. Think about bringing down costs, where we can do more with the number of providers that we have. Those things are all incredibly important, but the conduit, the critical conduit for that, is broadband. Those are the things we’ve been working on. We have a broadband taskforce we’ve been working on in the district, where we bring together folks in the governor’s office, and we’ve been working hand-in-hand with the governor’s staff. Eric Feinman is the director of the governor’s broadband effort. The legislature has put additional dollars in. We were able to get $600 million in the budget last year, the federal budget.

Rob Wittman: Now that sound great, but I want to put it in perspective. The cost of completely building out the broadband system in the United States is going to be about $80 billion. The good news, though, is that the dollars that we’re bringing together at the state level and local levels we’re combining with investments from private providers and accelerating how this effort is built out. We’re focusing on what’s called middle mile strategies, which is essentially the fiberoptic in the ground that connects areas, because this is all going to be a fabric of connections. The last mile is going to be wireless, fixed wireless, so it will be an antenna there that’ll send a high frequency signal to your home, and then there’ll be repeater antennas that’ll send it to other homes, or it’ll be satellite, where you put it on there, and you repeat or you connect from a satellite receiver to multiple locations that are then transmitted through high frequency radio waves.

Rob Wittman: Those things are critical, and that’s the way we’re going to build out the system and get to some of these more remote areas, where it’s just not feasible to run a fiberoptic to people’s doors. We’re getting those things done. We’ve had great success and, as I said, Prince William County’s been in the lead to connect our school systems with businesses, with decision-makers.

Rob Wittman: We brought down the deputy secretary of education from the federal level, the governor’s director of career and technical education within the department of education, brought them to Northern Virginia Community College, and at their new Workforce Training Center, and it was great to have them there, and to lay out a plan about what we’re going to do to make sure we’re enhancing career and technical education.

Rob Wittman: Prince William County’s been at the forefront on addressing what I think are critical issues. They’re critical issues for our economy. They’re critical issues for the future of our communities, for our students, and for our commonwealth, so it’s been a real honor to be part of that, and I appreciate what each and every one of you in this room do, and look forward to your continued feedback to us, as what we can do to make sure we enable each and every one of you, as members of the business community, to make sure we are providing the path for success for you, for the community, and for the commonwealth. With that, let me go to your questions, thoughts, ideas, and concerns, and I’ll do my best to answer your questions. Yes.

Speaker 5: Yes, could you give us the flavor of how life is different for you, going from the majority and a subcommittee chairman to the minority from an organizational/operational standpoint in the House?

Rob Wittman: Sure, well, I believe being a legislator is about relationships, and going back to my days of Town Council Board of Supervisors, it’s all about establishing relationships to get things done, and it’s a little more difficult in the minority, because the majority controls which bills go before committee, which bills go to the House floor, but the basics of legislating are still the same. You still have to communicate with folks. You still have to advocate for your legislation. You still have to be able to find 218 folks, no matter who they are. It doesn’t matter whether they’re democrat or republican, you have to find 218 in the House, and you have to find 60 in the Senate to say yes, to be able to get things done.

Rob Wittman: I was very pleased. We had a very good week last week. I was able to get three of my bills out of the Natural Resources Committee, and they all passed unanimously, so it just goes to show, if you put the work in, you can get things done. It is a little more difficult, because there are different things that you have to navigate when you’re not in the majority, but again, it boils down to making sure that you are focused on the legislation and finding as many folks as possible to get those things through.

Speaker 6: What can we do to help the contractors, government contractors, who are not getting paid during that time? I mean, it could be financially devastating.

Rob Wittman: That’s a great point. You know, Senator Kaine, Senator Warner, and myself put a bill in to make sure that, in the aftermath of the last shutdown, that contractors got paid. Unfortunately, it got pulled out in the final budget agreement, but I think it’s critical because, as you said, things that get forgotten is the work that you are not paid to do, that you never get those dollars back. When government reopens, you’re still expected to get that work done, yet you’re having to keep people on the payroll and essentially pay them. The agencies tell you to stop work. Can’t do anything else.

Rob Wittman: What we’re trying to find is a path forward. What I’m doing on the House side, and what Senator Warner and Senator Kaine are doing on the Senate side is to really work in concert. Several things, I think, have to happen. First of all is, it is so illogical during a shutdown as to how things unfold.

Rob Wittman: Think about this. You have a federal workforce, where some people are determined to be essential, and some people are determined to be nonessential. I get a big question when that happens. People say, “Well, why do we have nonessential employees?” How many businesses here have nonessential employees? I mean, it’s ridiculously idiotic to even have that label.

Rob Wittman: Here’s what I’ve said is that, first of all, all our employees are essential. Second of all is when you have a shutdown, it should be about Congress getting the job done, not about stopping government from getting the job done. I have a bill in that says this: If there is a shutdown, just like with a CR, we will take dollars in the salary categories and set that aside, so salaries will continue. People will continue to go to work, essential and nonessential, and get the job done. What will be reversed is the illogical element, and that is during a shutdown, some federal employees have to go to work and, by the way, they’re not paid while they’re going to work. They’re being told, “You’ve got to show up and go to work.” They’re not being paid.

Rob Wittman: Now, we do make sure they get paid afterwards, but think about this, they get paid, and the nonessential employees that didn’t have to go to work also get paid, so there’s a lot of animosity that gets created in the workplace, when some get paid and some don’t, but everybody during that time has to go to work. Then, in the end, everybody gets a paycheck. That’s not fair. Rob Wittman: What I’ve looked at is to say, how do we stop that, because during a shutdown, you have some employees that aren’t going to work, some that do. Members of Congress do not go to work. Now, we keep our offices open, and I continue to go to work, but you’re not required to, so some members don’t. They just close down their offices, and guess who continues to get paid? Members of Congress. It’s critical, critically stupid.

Rob Wittman: What I’ve done is to say, “Let’s reverse the roles. Let’s do this.” My bill says, members of Congress have to go to work until the shutdown ceases. Members of Congress do not get a paycheck until the government shutdown ceases. Senator Warner and Senator Kaine, on their side, are saying, during a shutdown we’re going to set aside money, to make sure federal employees and contractors continue to get paid, while the work of the nation continues to get done, because it needs to get done.

Rob Wittman: Then, if Congress wants to go back and forth, then they can do it, as long as they don’t get a paycheck. That way, we are minimizing the harmful impact of these shutdowns. I think that’s one way to do it, and to get Congress’s attention. I can tell you this. I believe that if you withhold members of Congress’s paychecks, I think you’ll see an awful lot of bipartisanship right now. Speaker 6: Yes, yes, yeah, that sounds… Thinking about this coming Thanksgiving, we’re going to have turkey, so I’m going to have a picture of a turkey.

Rob Wittman: That’s right. That’s right. Well, I hope that things get done. Now the one concern that I have is a long-term CR that could be put in place, and that’s going to be tremendously harmful to our military. As you know, long-term CRs are not good for contractors either, because it puts things in suspended animation, and people are afraid to push money out the door, especially for any type of new project, so if you have just received an award for a job, and you’re facing a CR, sometimes what happens is that money just gets held back. The problem is the agencies continue to go to you and say, “You need to be ready to do the work,” and then your challenge is how to keep my employees on that I need to do the work, whenever the green light comes on and says go ahead and get it done.

Rob Wittman: We’ve had a lot of conversations with the Veterans Administration about having a veteran business mentoring program, to make sure that when veterans are making the transition from active duty to the business community, that they know what do you do? I mean, a lot of them have great ideas, but they don’t have the nuts and bolts about how to put together a business plan, how to pursue financing, how to go and make a proposal to a bank, and banks lend in certain ways, and in certain ways they don’t, so if you need money for inventory, that’s different than needing money to build a building or rent a building.

Rob Wittman: I think that, as they look at all those elements, veterans need to know those, the differences there. A mentoring program, or at least a Business 101, so they know how to write a business plan, how to get those things done, is key. We’ve been working with the VA to make sure that veterans have that, that one-stop shop. I’d like for them to be able to go to one place and say, okay, how do I get all these different questions answered, and how do I make sure that I’m prepared when I jump in and I put that sign out there and say my business is open? How do I make sure that I’m prepared for success.

Rob Wittman: Then another thing, too, is for those veterans and for other companies that want to be able to serve veterans, I always encourage them, and the VA, I think, does a good job of this in making sure that companies look about how they can access being able to recruit veterans. Many times, businesses will go, well listen, I want to hire veterans. I’ve put this out there to say that I’m focused on wanting to hire veterans, but there’s sometimes a difficulty in reaching or being able to communicate with veterans to say, hey, here are the jobs that we have. Here’s where we’d like to put you in our business, and here’s where we think your skills will fit for our business. Another thing we have to do, too, is to make sure there’s a better connection with businesses and jobs for veterans out there, also.

Speaker 6: Yeah, that sounds like a great… Our company is… We’re small, but this year we’re doing a veteran’s calendar that will come out in 2020, and a portion of that is going to go to support a veteran’s retreat in Haymarket. The other portion of it… We’re going to raise a minimum, a minimum of $20,000, and the other portion of it will go to grants for veteran-owned companies. I guess, the demonstration is for me, as a small business, what can I do? I can’t do big things, but I can do something small.

Rob Wittman: Sure. Well, I think any business that wants to help can look at how do we get out there and recruit veterans, and then, to be part of a mentoring group. I know Chambers and others do a lot of business mentoring. I think what we can do to help is to bring the VA in and talk about what are the things that maybe the Chamber can do, as they’re trying to mentor veteran-owned businesses. A lot of them, as you know, have to struggle with navigating all the different elements about how they pursue business, especially small, veteran-owned, or small, disabled veteran-owned businesses to be able to navigate that. I think, helping in those ways can be significant for folks.

Speaker 6: Thank you so much.

Rob Wittman: Sure, thanks. Gary?

Gary Jones: Kind of comment, and then I have a question not related whatsoever.

Rob Wittman: Sure.

Gary Jones: Talking about CRs and government shutdown, I think one thing that would be really important for the federal government to consider is the SBA, Small Business Administration. Aside from just veteran-owned businesses, I mean, when we get into a recession, there are tens of thousands of non-veteranowned businesses that are affected on a monthly basis across the country. The economic impact is really severe on employees. It’d be nice, not just from a banking perspective, to see you guys carve out, but really for the business community to understand those that are involved in the SBA process who need a type of financing, that that isn’t halted, as well, for months at a time.

Gary Jones: Totally shifting gears though, but as the ranking member on a

Speaker 6: I’m sorry, what was that last statement you said? That is a what? Did you say culprit?

Gary Jones: Not culprit, no.

Speaker 6: I’m sorry. I didn’t hear the last

Gary Jones: It’s just important that they understand, to try to keep the SBA process moving forward, and not frozen in time.

Speaker 6: Oh, okay.

Gary Jones: So you’ve got South China, say in 2013, the Chinese started dredging and creating islands. We did nothing. The world did nothing. It was clear what they were going to do with it. Nothing has happened. They’ve completely militarized those islands now. The Philippines, the [inaudible 00:33:31] basically ruled in favor of the Philippines in ’16, has done nothing.

Gary Jones: Outside of freedom of navigation, occasionally, where we’ll send some ships through, the importance of that region to the world, where a third of economic traffic goes through those waters on an annual basis, what is being done, anything? You don’t hear. It’s rare you ever see any other country’s Navy ships go through that. It doesn’t seem to be anything, whether regional or worldwide, to do that. It’s just kind of, hey, they’re going to do what they’re going to do. We’ll send a ship through every once in a while, but at some point, they may not…

Rob Wittman: Yeah, well, the Chinese want to push everybody else out of the South China Sea, whether it is the Spratly Islands, which are off of the Philippines, including Scarborough Reef, which is where they went in there and started to drill for energy in a territory that didn’t belong to them, that belonged to the Philippines. As you said, the world court ruled against China. China doesn’t pay any attention to that ruling.

Rob Wittman: The Paracel Islands, which are off of Vietnam, they also are in the Paracels, establishing military or militarized islands in those areas. All of that runs out of Hainan Island, which is the large island that’s right off of Japan in the South China Sea. What we are doing is not just the Freedom of Navigation operations, which means we put a ship in there. The Chinese get all spun up, and they surround our ship and hassle it, but we think the most important thing to do is to make sure that we are cultivating partners in that region, specifically the Philippines. President Duterte runs hot and cold, as far as his relationship with the United States, but I was just talking with State Department and Navy leaders the other day about what we’re doing there.

Rob Wittman: There’s an older facility the U.S. used to be based out of, called Subic Bay. It’s deteriorating. We gave it to the Philippines. It’s actually a pretty good facility. They have allowed it to go into a state of disrepair. What we are working on is a relationship with the Philippines, so several things can happen. One is that we do things to improve that facility, so we can, not base ships out of there, but have ships visit there. If we can have some of our ships there that’ll help the Philippines patrol their areas, have some presence there, and then also help them build their Navy… They have thousands of miles of shoreline, hundreds of islands there, some… actually thousands of islands there that they have to patrol. It’s a very, very difficult place to patrol.

Rob Wittman: We have some older ships that are in mothballs up in Philadelphia. They’re our old frigate ships, still very good ships. What we’re looking at is selling them to different governments. We’ll take them and fix them up and sell them to different governments. They’re still pretty good ships. The Philippines is one of those governments on the list to have a ship for them to be able to help patrol their areas, to give some presence there to let the Chinese know they’re going to be on issue. It’s not just the Chinese doing the economic development, but it’s Chinese fishing vessels coming in and fishing in international waters, many times illegally.

Rob Wittman: Secondly, too, is our relationship with Vietnam. The communist party of Vietnam and the communist party of China, there’s still a relationship there, but the governments between Vietnam and China do not get along very well. There’s a great opportunity there for the United States. We’re building that relationship with Vietnam to make sure that they understand that China’s not always going to be their friend, and what the Chinese are doing in the Paracel Islands is actually against Vietnam’s interests. We are working on building that relationship, both an economic relationship… The key for Vietnam is to get a trade agreement. If we can empower Vietnam economically, they are at the same place that South Korea was 25 years ago.

Rob Wittman: Trade agreements that South Korea pursued allowed their economy to boom. We think the same thing is potentially there in Vietnam. The key for that, and the key for us to be able to put pressure on the Chinese, is a strategic agreement with the Philippines, and then an economic trade agreement with Vietnam. I think doing those things greatly enhances our ability in that region to influence.

Rob Wittman: Another area that’s critical, it’s not right in Southeast Asia, but affects that area, is instead of calling that area the Pacific region, it’s actually the Indo-Pacific region, because India is a big player in that region. China’s specifically trying to isolate India. We’ve had some great… I’ve gone over there and visited several times. I’ve had some great meetings with President Modi, and they want a stronger economic relationship with the United States. Now, they’ll never be an ally, a formal ally, but they can be a strong partner.

Rob Wittman: They are rebuilding their Navy. We are rebuilding our Navy. They want to have similar joint agreements, as far as how they operate in the regions where we jointly operate. Those are another great area of opportunity for us to push the Chinese out of the areas that they’re trying to operate. The Chinese aren’t only trying to enhance their operations in the South China Sea. They want to have a worldwide presence, so as you know, they’ve opened up a number of Navy facilities around… In Karachi, they’ve opened up a naval facility, which really puts the Indians on edge, and the same there in Africa at Djibouti. They’ve opened up a port actually right across from where the United States facility is there in Djibouti.

Rob Wittman: They want to have a worldwide presence. They’re doing naval operations in the North Atlantic. What we’ve got to be able to do is to make sure that we counter the things that they do. We don’t have enough ships, resources, and the wherewithal to do it by ourselves. The way we counter the Chinese is to have trade agreements, economic relationships with these other countries, and then strategic relationships. They don’t necessarily have to be a formal ally, like NATO, but to have an agreement to say we’re going to jointly operate with India. We have an agreement like that, and with Japan and others. If we do more of that, then we can counter the effort that China’s trying to put forward to push us out, or not just us, but everybody else, out of these areas.

Gary Jones: Interesting.

Speaker 7: Got a question for you.

Rob Wittman: Yes, yes, sure.

Speaker 7: [inaudible 00:39:48] talked about telecoms a little bit earlier, and I was curious what you see the role of government, especially as you see a movement towards more 5G reliability, in terms of systems, where do you see the role, I guess, of the government in that conversation?

Rob Wittman: Well, I think there’s several roles. One is on the regulatory side, to make sure the frequencies that have to be there for 5G are readily available. I’ve talked with Chairman Pai. Ajit Pai is the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, very forward thinking about how do we make sure, at auctions, that those frequencies are available across the board to companies.

Rob Wittman: He came here to the first district. We had a nice town hall meeting. One of things we emphasized with him is our smaller ISPs. Our Internet service providers, have high quality spectrum, but the FCC sometimes wants to take that spectrum back and re-auction it off, so a spectrum that would be available to anyone to use, now they want to take it back and sell it at auction.

Rob Wittman: Listen, I understand. They raise a whole lot of money at auction for those frequencies, but if you take those high-quality frequencies away from smaller companies that provide Internet service, and give them the not so good frequencies that don’t have distance, that can’t penetrate trees, which is the big impediment of those signals, can’t overcome geography, then they won’t be able to sell a quality product to consumers, and consumers won’t buy from them, so what happens to the small ISPs? They go out of business. We want to make sure that, from a regulatory standpoint, that the frequencies are available.

Rob Wittman: Another element, too, of 5G is the technology side. 5G has a couple of different limitations to it. First of all, giant capacity, so big, big, giant pipelines, so lots of what they call bandwidth. The problem is it doesn’t have much distance, so if you’re going to build out a 5G network, every couple of blocks, you have to put in a repeater, so it works more like an enhanced WiFi system than it really does a mobile wireless system, but there are other elements of frequency that you can use with the 5G technology that allow you to reach out farther.

Rob Wittman: The challenge is the single company in the world that produces that technology is the Chinese. They’re actually putting it in place in King George County. People love the quality of service, because it has lots of bandwidth and lots of distance. The problem is all of its Chinese hardware, and don’t think that Chinese hardware there in a communications system isn’t taking every single shred of data. Rob Wittman: I tell businesses this, that every shred of data that you are now exchanging, don’t think that somehow or another… because the hardware is manufactured by the Chinese. Guess who comes in and repairs and maintains the hardware?

Audience: The Chinese companies, yeah.

Rob Wittman: Yeah, the Chinese companies, so anyway, so that’s another element where we have to have that. I think making sure the frequency is freed up, and making sure that we look strategically at who produces the hardware for that. 5G can reach rural areas if we allow the frequencies, the lower frequencies that go longer distances, that still have enough of the higher band there to give you the pipeline, and then we have the hardware there to do that. I think those are the critical elements, so regulatory side, the frequencies, and on the production side, hardware, to make sure that it’s not Chinese produced.

Speaker 7: Mm-hmm (affirmative), thank you.

Rob Wittman: Sure, sure. Yes.

Speaker 8: Hi Congressman.

Rob Wittman: Hey.

Speaker 8: I worked the poll of my precinct last election 14 straight hours, and I think you won 75% of it, because you felt that being fiscally responsible is very important. Some of your esteemed colleagues, not so much, so we have a national debt that could be getting to crisis levels. How do we get a handle on that?

Rob Wittman: That’s a great question. We are right now at about $22 trillion of debt. That is approaching 100% of our GDP. Economists will tell you, once you go past 100% of GDP, it does impact the private economy. As we speak today, we pay about $390 billion a year just in interest on the national debt, unbelievable. I have a hard time wrapping my head around a trillion dollars, but the best representation I’ve heard is this. If you represent a million dollars in the stack of thousand dollar bills, your stacks about six inches high. If you represent the $22 trillion of debt that our nation has today, your stack of thousand dollar bills is 67 miles high.

Rob Wittman: That’s what we’re talking about, and unfortunately, it’s not going to be us. It’s going to be our children and our children’s children. Money that’s being spent today is money that’s going to, at some point, have to be paid back by somebody in the future. If it’s not paid back, for those folks that think somehow you don’t have to pay it back, or you can just keep paying interest, that’s, that’s

Speaker 6: Insanity.

Rob Wittman: Well, it is, and it’s not achievable. You can’t continue to do that, because every day there’s a treasury auction, and the United States sells its debt. You heard about the inversion. Some other countries, actually, in trying to sell their debt say, “You have to pay us, in order for us to be able to get that money.” That’s not going to work either.

Rob Wittman: What we have to look at is how do we structure the system, as you said, where we have a federal budgeting system where the math works, where you’re not spending more than what’s coming in the door? You’ve got to talk about both sides of the balance sheet. You have to talk about the spending side, which I think there’s a lot of things that we can do there, and everything has to be on the table, without endangering, without endangering… Let me emphasize this, without endangering the money that individuals have put into the Social Security and Medicare system. It is your money. It is your money. We have a responsibility to manage it, so when you need it, when you go to get it, when you come to retirement time, it’s there.

Rob Wittman: I talked to a group of young professionals not long ago in Williamsburg, all 35 years of age and under, and I asked them by a show of hands, and I said, “How many people in this room expect to get a Social Security benefit when you retire?” Not a single person in that room raised their hand. Yet, when I asked them about the solutions to the problem, they said, “Here’s the deal. We don’t mind continuing to pay in some to the system, because we understand it’s going to reach a deficit, and we want to make sure that people have the dollars they need for their retirement, but don’t keep taking our money and putting it into a system that we know there’s not going to be a penny there when it comes time for us to retire. Give us another set of choices, or re-manage the system, or do something to make sure the longevity of the system is put forward.”

Rob Wittman: It’s a simple math problem. Again, people are living longer. Remember, too, Social Security premiums are capped at $120,000 of income, so once you make over $120,000 of income, you pay zero in Social Security withholding. Yet, when you look at the averaging for your Social Security benefit, the averaging doesn’t take into account the cap on the premiums that go in. Make it a simple math problem. You have to manage Social Security as a defined contribution program, not as a defined benefit program, because in a defined benefit program, you’re relying on other people paying in to pay for people collecting today. That math problem doesn’t continue to work.

Rob Wittman: In 1932, Social Security was put in place. There were 30 people paying in for every one person collecting benefit. Life expectancy was 68 years of age. You were eligible for Social Security at 65. Today, as we speak, there are two people paying in for every one person collecting a benefit. Life expectancy is 78 years of age. Eligibility is either 65 or 66-1/2, depending on your age. It’s purely a matter of math, and it’s not me that’s saying this. The trustees that are charged with managing Medicare and Social Security talk about Congress has got to do something. The longer Congress waits, the more difficult the solutions become. That has to be part of the balance sheet and to be able to address that.

Rob Wittman: I think that there are ways, ways that you can do that. I want to make sure, too, that we consider the structure about how we look at continuing to borrow money. I mean, think about this. We have a number of people here from banks. Think about this. If you had a customer come into your bank and say, “By the way, I want to borrow money, and I can’t pay you back any principal. All I can do is to pay you the interest,” you’d say, “Sorry, you don’t qualify.”

Rob Wittman: Let’s say, perchance, that you did make that loan and said, “We’ll go ahead and make that loan, and we’ll go ahead and let you just pay the interest on it.” Think about this. When that customer comes back in your bank and goes, “Hey, by the way, I can’t pay the interest. Can you lend me some money to pay the interest?”

Gary Jones: [crosstalk 00:48:28].

Rob Wittman: It’s just beyond imagination. Yet, that’s how our federal government works. In any realm, this banking, it just could never work that way. We’ve got to get the federal government back to being able to operate just as a business does, and focus on the math. Focus on the math. You can get, I believe, the politics out of it. Anytime anybody wants to talk about managing, not doing away, but managing the autopilot spending programs of Social Security and Medicare, automatically folks say, “You want to push grandma over the cliff. You want to take away benefits from folks, to scare them.” That’s not the case, not the case, at all, but we have to be able to have an adult conversation about all those things, because it’s simply and straightforward a question of financial management.

Rob Wittman: If we don’t do that, we will get to a point where it’s unsustainable. At some point, at some point, people will not continue to buy U.S. Treasury issues. They buy it, because the United States is still the best place you can put your money. There’s still a yield on those treasuries, even though sometimes it’s fairly low, but if we get to a point where people say, “I just don’t believe the United States can or will pay those dollars back,” what happens then?

Rob Wittman: I know it’s something… We do have treasury auctions where not everything is sold, and the Fed will jump in and cover that. I’d like to see the Fed audited, so we can understand

Audience: Good luck.

Rob Wittman: How are the different elements of what happens there affecting the system that we have today, so we understand that, so we know? Because my concern is that if you’re creating long-term imbalances there, by the things that you’re doing within those treasury auctions, there can be a problem. We’ve seen, if those things come to a head, and they come to a head pretty quickly, the outcome is not a good one, so I think there are a lot of things that we can do there. Yes, sir.

Todd: I’m curious. We’ve got a spat of elections coming up here.

Rob Wittman: Yes, yes.

Todd: To the point of the deficit, let’s say that there is a big turnaround, and those that are elected feel that the tax change should be reversed to try to bring down the businesses, stock market, whoever. We hate uncertainty.

Rob Wittman: Yes, yes, yes.

Todd: You know? It would just be nice to, as long as we know what the rules are, we could play by the rules.

Rob Wittman: We try, that’s right.

Todd: What do you see happening, if there were a significant change in the Senate, as there has been, with tax law, and some of those changes?

Rob Wittman: Well, listen. It’s always hard to predict what the nature of the body will be after the next election. I think that there are positive impacts of the most recent tax policy. Now, we can debate that back and forth. It’s still a matter of financial management for the United States, so I think you have to look at all of those different elements. You have to look, too, about what happens in what I call financial behavior, so if you do change the tax code, there’s always an outcome of how financial behaviors change, either sometimes in good ways or not so good ways.

Rob Wittman: Sometimes people move money away from where you’d like for it to be, and sometimes money gets moved into areas where you would like for it to be. It’s hard to predict what would actually be the outcome. It’s great to put out all these proposals about new tax here and new tax there. Certainly, on the presidential side, that’s happening, but both bodies still have to pass a bill that would go into place. Then, once that comes before the public, and the public has an understanding about what that would entail, the political dynamics of that change, change immensely.

Rob Wittman: What I would say is the proposals being put out there are a long, long, long, long way away from actually becoming reality. Then, once people know more about it, usually when the public speaks, most of the time, the Congress listens, and you’ll see, from that standpoint, I think, at least a more measured response in whatever gets put out there. I think, Todd, that’s what we’ve seen traditionally is… As I’ve said, the old adage goes, the executive branch proposes; the Congress disposes. So many times, these ideas and such that come up, it takes a lot to get through one body with a simple majority, and then get a 60-vote majority in the Senate to be able to get that done. It’s a good thing that things don’t go through at lightning speed.

Todd: That’s true. Thank you.

Rob Wittman: Yes, sir.

Mike: Representative Wittman, my name’s Mike [inaudible 00:53:01], and I’m with AARP. My wife is here [inaudible 00:53:05]. We’re part of the Fredericksburg area, and we’ve been to your office a couple times up on the Hill, and also in Fredericksburg. I just want to take the opportunity to thank you for the professionalism and the receptiveness of that Fredericksburg office. My question is, in this area, we have a lot of individuals that are hurting because of prescription drugs, the cost of prescription drugs.

Rob Wittman: Yes.

Mike: What initiatives are you putting in place to reduce the cost?

Rob Wittman: Sure, well, actually there are a number of them. We actually passed four, I think, really good bills out of committee, first this, to make sure that on pricing of pharmaceuticals, that we look at how they’re priced across the spectrum, not just in the United States but elsewhere, to make sure we equalize those prices. It’s called the Fair Drug Pricing Act. It’s really about the ability for the United States to push the pharmaceutical companies and how they ascribe costs to things like marketing and other things, what I think gets borne by the U.S. consumer and doesn’t get taken up by other consumers in other regions.

Rob Wittman: There’s no logical reason, to me, why pricing can’t be fair across the board. There’s no reason why the same, the exact same pharmaceutical in Europe or Canada is priced differently than in the United States. The same way with cancer drugs. We have an extraordinarily high cost on cancer drugs. We have to be able to bring that down. What we’re trying to do is to unify how cancer drug research is done, so that we don’t have to worry about a single company focusing on a very, very narrow spectrum of cancer drug, and then once they develop it and get approval for it, the prices are astronomical. If we were able to do the research and development across the spectrum and then allow all these different drug companies the ability to produce the drug, costs will come down.

Rob Wittman: I think there are a number of ways that we can do that. Transparency, too, in what insurers pay for pharmaceuticals is key. Another element, too, is the largest purchaser of pharmaceuticals in the United States is the United States Government. Both in the Medicare program and how Medicare recipients are able to purchase pharmaceuticals, we ought to, and this is a bipartisan thought about how you do this… Why doesn’t the federal government put this piece of business out there, and have the pharmaceutical companies bid on it and say give us your best bid, instead of individuals having to go to the marketplace and determine, well, which one of these companies is the best for me? I don’t think it always ends up, for everybody in general, at the best place, so I think that we can look at those elements to really be able to bring down pharmaceutical costs.

Mike: Thank you.

Rob Wittman: Sure, thank you. Yes, ma’am, hey.

Theresa: Theresa [inaudible 00:56:01].

Rob Wittman: Yes.

Theresa: Prince William County’s been great, and you’ve been great with support for the data center industry. Listening to you talk about Huawei and 5G, how do you see that playing out in your world right now, like with the JEDI cloud and where DoD is heading? Do you see this as a risk, or is Congress talking about that as a risk to outsourcing data centers?

Rob Wittman: Well, we have been talking about it. There’s a lot of back and forth about that, as you know. The issue came up with Amazon and others about cloud computing. Cloud computing, I do think, has a significant role to play in how we manage data. Cloud computing, done properly, does provide a much higher level of security than what happens in a single mainframe computer system, where somebody… Eventually somebody can go enough times to find a pathway in, and then we have problems.

Rob Wittman: The key, with JEDI and others, is to make sure that we have continual security elements about what happens in that system. When you have the private data providers, the key is what are they doing? Many times, it’s not just the cloud perspective there, but it’s what are they doing to secure their data centers? We have a bunch of data centers here in Prince William County. Some of them are as protected as trying to go to the FBI headquarters. That goes to show the amount of thought that they’re putting in, in making sure that we’re protecting those areas.

Rob Wittman: I think, when you’re looking at cloud computing, there are things that you can do to make sure that those facilities are protected, the physical facilities. Even though data does move around, all one person has to do is to get to one facility, and it can create a problem, because we know of the interconnectivity out there in the cloud. Then, secondly, is to make sure, too, that there are continual upgrades in cloud computing, as to how data is managed, and then how data is accessed, because the folks out there, the nefarious folks that figure out, how do I make my way in here?

Rob Wittman: There are some… I can’t talk a lot about it, because we get the security briefs on that, but there are some pretty imaginative ways that others are thinking about to be able to get into the cloud, and not just to gather critical information there, but themselves to be kind of floating around in the cloud, and as they’re floating around, as you know, data’s going in five million different directions, is they have a little filter there, and they’re looking at it and saying, I want to catch specific little pieces of data.

Rob Wittman: While they may not, today, collect something that is significant, and while they may not next week, as they continue to collect this in that little net, have something that’s significant, but it may be next year or the year after or the year after, where they finally get enough little bits and pieces in their net, to where they can go, okay, now we see something going on. We have to be mindful of some of the things that are happening there, too, because let me tell you, our adversaries are pretty ingenious about thinking of ways to exploit what we do. The cloud is very, very powerful in being able to protect data, because it moves around so much, but people are thinking creatively, too, about how they can gather things that are critically important. It’s not a day-to-day security issue. It’s a long-term security issue. Yes.

Mark D’Antionio: Hi, good to see you again, by the way.

Rob Wittman: Yeah, good to see you again.

Mark D’Antionio: I want to first say, first, Mark D’Antonio, Northern Virginia Community College at the Woodbridge Campus. Thank you for visiting us and talking to our students in the past.

Rob Wittman: Yes.

Mark D’Antionio: Hope to have you there again, soon. By the way, my wife says hi.

Rob Wittman: Tell her I said hello to her.

Mark D’Antionio: My campus is located by the Wegmans on the route one area. We’re in sort of a… We characterize it as an island of disadvantage. We have a lower income level there, and so our students are disproportionately dependent on student loans. My boss, Dr. Hill, he’s… We’re constantly having these meetings about that, and about how we can help students. Financial aid’s a complicated thing. I don’t know if there are any experts in this room. I’m certainly not one, but what I’m concerned about is will… Being all the things you spoke about, the South China Sea, the military, 5G, and all these other things that are very important and deserve expenditures by the U.S. Government, is the government going to be able to maintain its commitment to provide or guarantee loans for students, particularly students that go to schools like mine, where they’re not very… They’re very fortunate to meet a Congressman, and they’re very fortunate to get a chance to go in there and get started.

Mark D’Antionio: Of course, we’re a big feeder to George Mason and other schools, and it would impact them negatively, as well. Will we still be able to, or will the government still be able to meet its future commitments on that?

Rob Wittman: Mark, the answer is yes, we will. In fact, we’re looking at other ways, because we believe that, for students, many students, especially those that are looking to retrain or are trying to figure out, right after high school, what can they do to gain a certification or credential, that accessing Pell Grants is key. Today, as we speak, Pell Grants, which is the largest source of grants for students, is limited to somebody that’s pursuing a two-year degree or a four-year degree.

Rob Wittman: What we believe is that Pell Grants ought to be available to all students, including those that are coming back to take a couple of courses to get a certification or credential, or taking courses to enhance their job skills. We think that those things are very important. I have a bill in, called the PROPEL Act, that says that those students will have those dollars available.

Rob Wittman: If you’re a veteran, and you’re getting assistance under the 9/11 GI Bill, you can go and take a course that’s non-degree related. You can go and take a set of courses that get you a certification or credential. Why can’t you do that under a Pell Grant? You can’t currently. We want to make sure Pell grants cover all of those things. If we’re serious about career and technical education, we need to open up those grants to everyone.

Rob Wittman: Folks say, “Well, you know, going to the community college and taking a couple of courses to get a certification or a credential, you know it’s only three or four hundred dollars here or there.” If you are an individual that’s working from paycheck to paycheck, three or four hundred dollars for a course may as well be $10,000, because you just can’t afford it. You’re literally… Every penny of your paycheck is taken up each month.

Rob Wittman: If we really want to provide the opportunity, Pell Grants for students, as they are pursuing these certifications and credentials, and even additional coursework, just to be able to get a little bit of enhanced skills to where they can go into the job marketplace and get a better job, or advance in the business that they’re in, is key. Not just standing by the student loans that are there, we have to make sure that we allow Pell Grants to be available.

Rob Wittman: It really goes back, too, and the community colleges do a fantastic job of this, and that is making sure that, as a metric, we are looking at the course direction that our students are taking, and have them knowledgeable about how that results to opportunities in the job market. I think too much of the emphasis… My wife’s a schoolteacher. This is her 40th year of teaching school. Too much of our emphasis has been on standardized tests. If you look at the association between standardized test scores and employment availability, opportunity, and job paths in the future, the correlation between those two is almost zero.

Rob Wittman: Listen, it’s great to measure progress. I want to make sure that our students are learning, but the question is, are they learning the right things? Are we putting them on a path to where they’re going to be successful in life? Are they going to be successful in the jobs that they are going after? Community college does a great job in making sure that the coursework that’s available there is directly related to the demands in the job market. I think those are key, but that has to go all the way down, and I think it has to start in elementary school. I think that fourth and fifth grade is where we need to start the discussion between parents and their children about what’s the path forward?

Mark D’Antionio: Okay, thank you. Hope to have you on the campus again soon.

Rob Wittman: Mark, we’re looking forward to getting back soon, so we’ll do that.

Mark D’Antionio: All right, thanks.

Lyle Dukes: Okay, we’ll take one more question, or… okay?

Rob Wittman: Any other questions?

Speaker 13: Yeah, I’ve got one.

Rob Wittman: Yes.

Speaker 13: What can we do to best help you? You’re always helping us. How can we extend a hand back your way?

Audience: Great question. Very good!

Rob Wittman: Meetings like this, where I get to come in and tell you what’s going on, and you give me your feedback, is tremendously important. I think the thing you can do to help us, too, is as you’re talking to people in the community, everybody out there either has an idea about what can be done to make our government operate better. I can tell you, there is no ownership of good ideas inside that 90 square miles of fantasy land we call Washington. They’re right out here with what you all deal with, so thoughts and ideas about things.

Rob Wittman: We do a lot. In fact, we put out an email almost every other day, in giving people updates on what’s happening in Washington. It’s not political, and we’re not going after anybody. We’re just talking about what’s happening, and we’re soliciting ideas from folks. We do a lot of survey work, so if you come across folks, please have them come to our official congressional office website and go there. They can subscribe to these weekly e-newsletters. We don’t share their information with anybody, but we put out a lot of really good information about what’s happening in Washington.

Rob Wittman: I would just encourage folks to go there. If you have people that have thoughts or ideas, have them contact our office. That, I think, is really the biggest help for us. The way I can best do my job is to listen to as many people as possible. I understand that when I make a decision, some people are going to disagree with it, but my obligation is to make sure I listen to everybody. I don’t care your political strifes, your ideology, who or where you are, even if it’s outside the first congressional district, my obligation is to do what’s best for the first district, for Virginia, and for our nation.

Rob Wittman: By the way, let me mention this, because Virginia is unique, in that our congressional delegation meets every month. Most other congressional delegations in the Capital can’t even get in the same room together. We meet every month. We sit down and talk about what we need to do for Virginia. That’s why, when bills go through, many times you’ll see that it’s members, republican and democrat, on our side, in the House, and it’s Senator Warner and Senator Kaine carrying companion legislation over on the Senate side. We always talk about what’s going on and what’s happening for Virginia.

Rob Wittman: Within that realm, I think things go extraordinarily well, but we’re always looking for ideas. We’re always looking for thoughts about what we can do and how we can do it better, and as much as we can in this highly partisan world, is to try to break through some of that partisan noise because, as I said, good thoughts and ideas about how to solve things doesn’t have a specific political ideology. It’s about what are we doing in the best interest of folks here in the commonwealth and back in the first district. I think that’s the way that you can best help us. Just keep the information flowing our way, so we can continue to do the best job that we possibly can.

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Our #FakeHero president is an insult to our Founders

Washington Post

Eugene Robinson

Opinion writer July 3 at 7:51 PM

The signers of the Declaration of Independence were highly imperfect men. Thomas Jefferson and his fellow Southerners were rank hypocrites for declaring “all men are created equal” while owning men, women and children as their slaves. John Adams was sour and disputatious, and later as president would sign the Sedition Act cracking down on criticism of the government. John Hancock was accused of amassing his fortune through smuggling. Benjamin Franklin could have been described as kind of a dirty old man.

Yet they laid out a set of principles, later codified in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, that transcended their flaws. At this bizarre moment in our history, it is useful to remember that the ideas and institutions of the American experiment are much more powerful and enduring than the idiosyncrasies of our leaders.

We have a president who neither understands nor respects the basic norms of American democracy. Make no mistake: Donald Trump is a true aberration. There is no figure like him in U.S. history, for which we should be thankful.Trump’s inexperience is unique; he is the only president never to have served in government or the military. This weakness is exponentially compounded by his ignorance of both policy and process, his lack of curiosity, his inability to focus and his tremendous insecurity. He refuses to acknowledge his shortcomings, let alone come to terms with them; and he desperately craves the kind of sycophantic adulation that George Washington, a genuine hero, pointedly rejected.Trump is a #FakeHero. He strings along his supporters with promises he has no idea how to keep. Like many a would-be strongman before him, he defines himself politically by the fights he picks; he erects straw men — faceless “elites,” cable television hosts, Muslims, Mexicans, nonexistent individuals or groups waging an imaginary “war on Christmas” — because authoritarians always need enemies. Yet his ego is a delicate hothouse flower, threatened by the slightest puff of criticism.

The Founders, mindful of their own faults, ultimately designed a system to contain a rogue president. They limited his elective term to four years, gave checking and balancing powers to the legislative and judicial branches, and designed impeachment as a last-ditch remedy. The Trump presidency compels all of us to be mindful of our constitutional duties.The role of the citizenry — to express approval or disapproval at the ballot box — includes making sure that suffrage is not selectively and unfairly denied by restrictive voter-ID laws or partisan purges of the voter rolls. It is heartening that red states have joined blue in resisting the attempt by Trump’s trumped-up “voter fraud” commission to assemble a national list of voters. Perhaps some future administration could be trusted to make sense of our confusing patchwork of voting systems. This one can’t.

Congress must assert its powers of oversight. One reason the signers of the Declaration gathered in Philadelphia to pledge “our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor” to the cause of independence was that they saw the mingling of royal power and British commercial interests as corrupt. We now have a president whose far-flung business empire — which he has refused to divest, and which his family still operates — presents myriad potential conflicts of interest. Trump has deepened the swamp, not drained it; and Congress has a duty to sort through the muck.Congress must also let Trump know, in no uncertain terms, that any attempt to impede or disrupt special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian election meddling will have the gravest consequences. Trump should be told that firing Mueller would automatically be considered grounds for impeachment.The justices of the Supreme Court, meanwhile, should study the court’s decisions in United States v. Nixon, which forced Richard Nixon to turn over his White House tapes; and Bush v. Gore, which halted the 2000 vote recount in Florida. Both were instances wherein the court, which rightly shies away from decisions that determine who occupies the presidency, felt it had no choice but to act. It is no stretch to imagine that Trump’s contempt for the Constitution will once again force the court’s hand.

The Fourth of July is no day for despair. It’s a day to remember that our system, though vulnerable to a charlatan such as Trump, is robust and resilient. Eventually he will be tossed or voted out. And the star-spangled banner yet will wave.