#Aunt Sidonia

[the-flowing-river]

Here's everything i recall about Suske and Wiske, wich isn't a lot. It's also, very Belgian, wich means i dont know all of the words in English.

Wiske is a normal girl, her aunt is... Interesting, her brother is Belgian champion lightweight boxing, he appears in the very first issue and never again, for some reason, in this first comic they go to a different country, to spy and leave with a tank wich runs on milk, Rikki (her brother) leaves, and Wiske and Sidonia (the aunt) go to the beach, where they meet a mad scientist who over the course of the series will invent time travel, be asked by the government to help them with critical issues surrounding the blue hope diamond, discover how to talk to plants, and create life from paintings, he offers them a ride on his Private airplane, they go to the island Amoras, wich is stuck in the dark ages, and they meet Suske, who is in contact with his great uncle, who is a ghost from the 1700's or there about, one of their main enemies is the worlds most wanted criminal, and though they foil his plans constantly and frequently, he never just pulls out a gun and Kills them, another one of their friends is called Lambik, he is dumb and vain, and all things considered a great character, his brother is a human who can fly using... I'm pretty sure magic, wich is a recurring thing, because another one of their foes is the black madame, who is a witch, Lambiks dad is an old ass man, who lives in the jungle next to a village who as far as i recall dont have electricity, and he runs the local radio station there. Another one of their friends is jerom who is a person from the stone age, he's monstrously strong, and bulletproof, also the crime boss is called Krimson and is a drug addict, that aunt has a lot of family including an opera singer, who's husband is a genius, and a Beaver hunter in Canada.

[wolint]

FRESH MANNA

POWER-HUNGRY

2 Kings 11

There’s a proverbial saying that absolute power corrupts absolutely which conveys the opinion that, as a person's power increases, their moral sense diminishes. It is a known fact that unlimited power tends to corrupt the minds of those who possess it.

The most atrocious power-hungry bible character with no morals was Athaliah -the wicked queen, ironically, her name means “the Lord God is great”. She was the daughter of the dastardly King Ahab of Israel and Jezebel who married Jehoshaphat’s son Jehoram with disastrous spiritual results. Being the daughter of two very wicked people meant she was not only born into but grew up in an atmosphere that completely denied God.

If we look up the word “wickedness in the high place,” we’ll probably find one name, Athaliah. Her hunger for power was so great that she went to extreme lengths to take and keep it. Athaliah is the representation that absolute power corrupts absolutely.

She had the kind of power so many in our society today would kill for.

How inhumane that a grandmother, like her, could be so callous and power-hungry to kill her grandchildren just so she can become queen.

She exploited the death of her son to have all the males of the royal stock killed, then assumed power. When her husband died, she murdered her grandchildren, but Jehoash was taken and hidden by his aunt, Jehosheba.

She took measures to place herself on the throne by removing all rivals and then proceeded to make the worship of Baal, Pheon and the cult of Sidonia Baal predominant in the land, she also used the dedicated things for the worship of God for her deities according to 2 Chronicles 24:7. She usurped the Davidic throne for 6 years because Judah had never had a ruler who was not a descendant of David as mentioned in 1 Kings 9:5 and the only woman in history on the throne, even though illegally.

Christians are called to be servants, willing to be last to lead according to Matthew 20:26. Everyone, including believers, wrestles with the desire to be powerful and influential, even through dishonest and perverse means.

Resisting the many temptations of power can be extremely challenging, and many have fallen prey to them. Power can turn a good man in private life into a tyrant in the office, viewing such power as all-in-all is too intoxicating that it is almost too difficult for individuals not to abuse it. Undoubtedly, those who attain power (whether legitimately or not) have repeatedly been depicted as woefully deficient in empathy, intimidating and instilling fear in others, and willing to initiate violence—or encourage others to undertake violence on their behalf.

Athaliah’s wicked and violent reign came to an end when she stumbled upon the secret coronation ceremony of Jehoash and the high priest asked that she be dragged outside the city gate and stoned to death, “there’s no rest for the wicked, heh”. God says in Psalm 5:4 that there’s no pleasure for those who are hungry for wicked power. Plato quotes “The measure of a man is what he does with power.” Believers have been given power in Acts 1:8 and 1 Corinthians 6:14 to be responsible people of power and not power-hungry people who abuse power. Don’t be power-hungry but God-hungry.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, help me to guard my heart and mind against corrupting power and from abusing the power you’ve given me in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Shalom

Women of light international prayer ministries.

[thisdayincomics]

March 30

Spike and Suzy was first published in De Nieuwe Standaard on March 30,1945. The books revolve around the adventures of the eponymous Spike and Suzy, two children, along with their friends and family. The stories combine elements of comedy, fantasy, and science fiction, such as talking animals, time travel and ghosts. In the first regular comic, Suzy and her Aunt Sidonia meet the orphan Spike and unrelated Professor Barabas. Later they also meet Ambrose. In the earliest stories, Willy Vandersteen used fictional countries like "Chokowakije" ("Chocolaslovakia") and "Amoras" (a tropical island). He dropped the use of those after a few stories, although some later stories revisit Amoras.

Stormwatch is a secretive team of superheroes who tackle dangerous missions while remaining unknown to the larger superhero community. It was originally a United Nations (UN) "crisis intervention unit" founded as a successor to the Warguard. In the early 1970's, the UN's first orbital space station, Monitor One, was caught in the wake of a mysterious comet. Most of the station's staff were killed by radiation that penetrated Monitor One's shields, but a few survived and were altered by the event, changing form and gaining superhuman abilities. Out of the ashes of the Monitor One and Warguard disasters, John Windsor founded the Seedling program: A second generation of humans granted superpowers by the comet event were used as the core of a global peacekeeping force, StormWatch, operating from a giant orbital platform named SkyWatch.Stormwatch is overseen from a satellite by its director, the Weatherman. The Weatherman was Henry Bendix, who had cybernetic implants connected to his brain to better monitor the world situation and his Stormwatch teams in action. His field commander was Jackson King , an African-American telekinetic. Other founding members include Hellstrike, Winter, Fuji, and Diva. Stormwatch began in Stormwatch #1 (March 30, 1993).

[raleigh-ocean]

i found you (who i thought i'd lost) | rowan ramírez & raleigh ocean

Summary: He doesn’t know why he’s so nervous, where all that confidence that he built during years went as they were driving towards the Robichaux’s Academy. But for a second, he closed her eyes and remember the smile his mother gave him in one of those last moments of clarity she had before passing away, and it gave him courage enough to finally find what his ten years old self had been yearning twelve years more: someone that was actually home.

words: 6,531

n/a: They deserve to find each other and rebuild their family, period.

His hands were quick to check again if his vest was well placed, to smooth every wrinkle that could have possible appear in the ride from aunt Abigail's house. He was still getting used to not wear his uniform and more adequate clothes, so he felt strange wearing such outfit.

"You crooked your collar, honey," his aunt's gentle hands went to fix it for him and he felt how the weight on his shoulders eased a bit. 

"If you keep being this nervous, I'm afraid you'll pass out as soon as we are in their doorstep," Behold barely pulled down his sunglasses to look at him. "And you'll sweat your new suit."

"Sorry, si...Behold," it was hard to not address the man as usual, but he was getting there. "It's just that...what if she doesn't likes me? What if she thinks I'm a fraud and came to hurt her even more?"

Abigail looked at Behold when the boy, her sweet boy, looked down to his new shoes. All this new apparel only made him look like a child on adult clothes. The other man in the car sighed loudly and put a hand on his thigh, reassuring, like a father about to give his son a good advice. Facing his hand upwards, he waited for the boy to place his there, and when he did it Behold just gathered his magic to give him more strength.

"Then she will miss how good you are, Rowan," it made him smile, trembling a bit, but seeing him like that was better than seeing him reduced to the little boy that Abigail brought to Hawthorne when he was barely twelve. "But taking in count you two exchange emails and she picked you personally among other warlocks to teach, I think she would at least listen to you."

"She still thinks I'm trying to seduce her or something," the three of them laughed at that, because Rowan had told them as much. 

The joke made the air in the car to soften, his worries stopping from making his magic move a bit wildly. And from then, the ride kept its calmness till they finally arrived. 

It was nice to see their sisters lived in such... beautiful place. He wished for a second for Hawthorne to be like that again, because he had seen its better days before everything went underground for their safety. And maybe, in the future, he could say something to reborn their school in a nicer place. His eyes not only went to both manors, because they could only be called like that, but to the biggest protection enchantment he ever saw. The magic lattice called him, as if it was reclaiming him in some way, and his magic moved slowly towards it as if it was the Hamelin's flautist.

"Everything's gonna be fine, Roro," his aunt managed to pull his focus away from it and it tingled against the skin of his neck something similar to static. It wasn't a sweet sensation, was a dangerous one, full of 'come and see what I have', making the hairs in the back of his neck going up. 

"If we manage to come in," Behold had been looking at the same Rowan did, and now was more serious than he saw him since they left Hawthorne. "We can't touch that fence without probably be back in San Francisco on a box or just by the seer force of the magic."

"Why don't you just ring the bell?"

Rowan didn't have time to actually stop her aunt and Behold was too dumbfounded about her being acting so...natural about the whole thing. But when Abigail touched the button, it didn't happen anything but the mere sound of the bell. And it hit him that, even when her aunt knew about magic...she wasn't a witch at all. She had been aware of it because her family had been one of the few that actually came from the witches of Salem, her mother being the last witch before Mallory was born, halting his aunt and his aunt's children generation.

Mallory, his cousin, which he didn't see in person for at least seven years.

They waited for a second, watching closely in case the magic bubble that protected both houses did something, but the only thing that happened was the fence opening for them.

Once they were in the grounds, Rowan started to feel like he shouldn't be there. Not because he regretted his decision to come, but because it felt like his magic didn't belong there and was a frightening experience, as if they place didn't want him at all. Rowan wondered, curious mind as always, if the witches felt the same when they went to Hawthorne. Did his sister felt it? And what about the Supreme?

But it all had to wait in his head, because there was figure waiting in the doorsteps for them. 

Rowan recognized her face because he had seen her in Mallory's social media, however her name escaped his thoughts. The red headed woman with the cane - and the dog, a very large dog that was by her side in such protective way that he wondered if the animal would bite them if they tried to put a hand on the woman - arched one eyebrow upon seeing them and when they reached her, she talked with easiness.

"Goode didn't expect you until Friday," there was a bit of confusion in her words, but it didn't made her voice waver. 

"Our schedules allowed us to come a day earlier," Behold talked to her in light manner, shaking her hand in a short movement. "How have you been Wilhemina?"

"Sweetheart! So long since we saw each other," his aunt Abigail launched forward and enveloped the woman in her arms, without caring a bit about how uncomfortable the sudden burst made her. "I have to give an earful to that rascal, you and Raleigh have to come more often for tea."

He was paralyzed while the greetings were exchanged, not knowing what to do except exchanging glances with the dog, which seem happy by the way its tail hit rhythmically the porch's floor. The dog got up when Abigail gave it some cuddles in its big head and Behold tried to avoid it because it had drool falling from its mouth, but then it approached him as if it knew him from forever and hit his knees with his big body, trying to get some more cuddles.

"Who's a good boy," he mumbled, scratching its head and receiving a head butt in the right thigh and a low bark. "Yes, you totally are…"

"Sidonia, here," Wilhemina called the dog suddenly and she obeyed gladly without missing a bit. "I'll walk you to the office, Goode is a bit busy this afternoon but I'm sure she'll receive you right away. Kyle, come here and help them, please."

A boy not older than Rowan himself approach them shyly yet surely, reaching for their luggage. For him and Behold, for sure, the boy - Kyle - reeked of magic that wasn't his, as if it was part of him in some way. It creeped him out but decided not to think more about it, only smiling at him politely. It made him more nervous, however, to know that he was following his sister-in-law in order to know his actual sister. He couldn't help himself to look at the way she presented herself and wonder, again like his whole life, that he now knew why his sister didn't care much about any men.

However, all that nervousness melted away when they entered finally the Supreme's office and saw such powerful woman cradling in her arms a baby while a mere toddler was listening to her reading the book the little girl held. A tender scene that was soon broken by them showing up sooner than expected.

"It's good to see miss Day's pregnancy went well," Behold said, a softer smile tugging at his lips while keeping his position after taking off his hat. "A boy this time, perhaps?"

"You really wished, Behold, he would had been hot topic in Hawthorne," Cordelia chuckled softly at that before looking at Wilhemina for a second and then to the little girl. "Sweetie, mom has work to do, I'm sorry."

"Come here, I'll give you all those dinosaur cookies you like and none of your mothers can do anything about it," was the only response the redheaded gave, getting a groan back from one of the little girl's moms and a little chirp from said girl. 

But even when the bribe was there to take, the girl stood there by her mom, standing up with the baby in her arms to place her in the auxiliar crib. She looked unsure of what to do for a second and Rowan felt a tug at his heart.

It seemed she didn't want to being separated from her mother...or her baby sister.

"You better go eat them or I'll do," he found himself saying, getting the rest of the adults to look at him and making him blush madly. "I'm getting hungry."

She didn't need more, quickly making her way towards Wilhemina's waiting hand. She gave a little push to Rowan, as if asserting her will to not let him eat her cookies, and pulled a bit rougher than intended to make the woman about to taking care of her to hurry. But it was obvious that Wilhemina had her own pace, so the only thing she got was a light reprimand before both leaving the office, Sidonia walking behind them loyaly.

"I thought you'd arrive on Friday, did something happened?" Cordelia finally asked, after placing a enchantment to cover the crib in a bubble of silence - of course he knew, it was an easy one. "And why is miss Prince here?"

"I think I'll let mister Ramírez here to explain himself, he's actually the one that wanted to have a meeting with you." Behold only took a seat after helping Abigail to do the same, letting Rowan standing there while Cordelia looked at him after putting away whatever her kid left behind. "The only thing I ask you is to listen him till the end."

Okay that literally throw any courage he was building but there wasn't a way back. Cordelia sat then, patiently waiting for him to start talking, but at the same time her face showed her worry because it was obvious she never got called by a teacher just for the sake of it.

Rowan took a couple deep breaths, messing his hair back - why did he decided to let it loose instead of having in a bun like always -, and then he started before it took too long and he bored her to death.

"I called this meeting b-because...because a few months ago, I discovered something that could maybe change a life. It took me long enough to gather every bit of information and not give myself false hopes," he finally put the folder he had been holding all the way from the hall, when he took it out of his backpack, over the desk for Cordelia to see. "And now that I know for sure there's a chance, I wanted to give it a try. That's why my aunt is here," the statement made Cordelia frown and look at Abigail. "She came as a witness and another source of validation in case everything fails."

"Why would you need a witness, mister Ramírez?" asked the Supreme, taking the files in her hands to read them while talking. 

"Because I was... I'm afraid she won't believe me, miss Goode," his chest got tight to that and then he decided to let her read everything he had compiled in those pages. "I don't want to hurt her more, I want the best for my...for her in fact, but I promised my mother I would find her and that's what I did once I was old enough for it," he chuckled, closing his eyes and trying to tighten his fists to control himself. "All that I had to do was gather information, in the end, because she came to me not long ago with any of us knowing anything…" Cordelia was now reading, a hand to her lips, and a dark look in her eyes. "I just wanted her to know about me, let her decide what to do with me, but if she decides she doesn't want anything to do with me, I'll just keep living my life without bothering her anymore…it was the last thing my mother wanted. For us to at least find each other."

"How is this even possible?" she mumbled, looking now at him. "The records said she didn't have any other child."

"Because Kaya didn't want your mother to know about him, not after what she did," Abigail talked then, helping his nephew. "She came to me when she was left alone after knowing about him growing in her womb," she sighed a bit louder. "And it's easy to trick those who doesn't look for someone anymore. Myrtle Snow came to see Kaya a few years later and, by that time, she had lost herself in her gift trying not only to find her daughter but because that gift was selfish like that. My mother knew about that fatal flaw, because our families had been close since a really long time ago, and after seeing myself how much grief all this brought to Kaya...well, it was only natural for me to help her. I took Rowan as my great-nephew and sent him away to Hawthorne when the time for him came."

That explanation made Cordelia to rub her forehead, wrapping her head around the situation as fast as she could so she could handle it well enough when the wave came in.

"Didn't you think it would be right to tell her right away when she came back?" there was anger in Cordelia's voice and Rowan couldn't blame her because he felt the same upon knowing his aunt kept in touch with his sister.

"It wasn't the right time yet, not for her, not for him," the feeling that there was something more behind those words grew once again, but he knew his aunt well enough to know she wasn't going to tell anything. "But now it maybe is."

Rowan couldn't help but look at his new shoes, again, with the mighty need of taking them off and throwing them away. He felt uncomfortable, he wanted to get in his other comfy clothes, he wanted to be in his room at Hawthorne fantasizing his half-sister was out there waiting for him to find her...not in front of the Supreme trying to make her see he was telling the truth.

"I don't know how is she gonna react," Cordelia's tone was sincere once she talked again and looked at him pitifully, a strange sorrow clouding her eyes. Rowan felt himself tear up, but held it together. "She's been calmer, yes, but this touch everything she protects fiercely," she stood up again, circling her desk to stand by Rowan and putting both hands in his shoulders. "I don't want to get your hopes high, but I can promise you to be there when you finally tell her."

"That's much better than the fatalism he was bringing all this time," Behold finally spoke up, letting go a deep sigh. "Take it, my boy. It's better than anything."

"When do you want to tell her?" Cordelia asked, leaning in her desk and looking at the warlocks.

"When is her lower time to avoid getting decapitated?" he joked, his body relaxing a bit just because he let some stress out like that. Rowan didn't see how Cordelia's eyes lightened up a bit upon hearing that kind of humour.

"Then dinner time, she always had been one to relax after getting food at night," Abigail took in her hands to bring more peace to the room. "Why don't we go get you some tea, sweetheart? It'll do you some good."

"And maybe afterwards you can watch some afternoon classes? I'm sure it will interest you to see how we proceed here," the Supreme proposed, looking first at Behold and then at Rowan again. "If that's alright with you."

"He isn't a student anymore, mister Ramírez here is his own persona and a teacher, that you appointed after all," the older man went back to his chair, flicking his fingers to open the door. "So go on, enjoy the visit."

Rowan knew right away they were going to talk in private about all of this, he at least knew that much. He didn't need to have the Future's Sight nor any Sight to know stuff, because his perception was different from the others. Behold had told him, once they knew he wasn't going to develop his mother's gift, that that was the only thing left from her legacy in him. A way too keen perception and insight that helped him to overcome the absences in his life.

The trip to the kitchen was uneventful, except for a few witches that looked at him weirded out yet curious, and he ducked his head out of shame and hide behind his too long hair. His aunt only needed to ask one of them if she could show her the kitchen, and there they were, getting help from Kyle to brew some tea. He didn't talk much but seemed happy to have another boy around and Rowan felt the same, exchanging some banal words with him and being patient when his speech became broken at times.

Looking around, he smiled upon seeing how peaceful and clear the place was, sipping on his tea and feeling better while he talked with Kyle about a baseball game. It was one of the only normal things he enjoyed and it was nice to have someone to talk. It wasn't that he had actual friends in Hawthorne, maybe a couple of other boys that were a bit closer, but none really appreciated him after ten years.

"...so, do you want us to go out and have dinner at your favourite restaurant?" a voice sounded suddenly in the kitchen and soon Kyle, Rowan and Abigail saw two girls holding hands and laughing together, one of them a bit taller than the other but not filling the space as the shorter one did. "I just want to have some time alo-"

"Mallory?"

Rowan felt himself warm with the mention of that name and his aunt was soon wrapping her arms around her granddaughter. He also felt how Kyle stood up and the other witch looked their way for a second too long, making the other guy in the room to go away with a mere wave of his hand for him as a farewell. His cousin didn't look at him yet but he prepared himself, standing up and fixing his clothes again to look presentable.

"You're a warlock," the unnamed girl was direct and he turned around to look directly at her. Mallory and Abigail turned to look at them too. "You weren't supposed to arrive o-"

"On Friday, yes, but we dec-"

"Roro?"

A weird satisfaction washed over him when the witch's face got pale because Mallory recognized him and the only thing that he could do was to pick up his cousin in his arms, hugging her like no tomorrow. It was easy to do it, because he was strong enough to give her a good bear hug, one of those they used to share when they were young. He didn't need someone to be hostile right now, he needed someone to reconfort him and him strength. 

Rowan knew his cousin was a witch because she had been the one telling him, straightforward as she was, and he finally told her the same after years of being tired of the 'being at a boarding school' white lie.

When they broke the tight embrace, Mallory smiled at him with the might of the sun and took the other witch's hand in hers. She eased at that and prepared herself to whatever Mallory was going to say.

"Zoe, this is my cousin, Rowan Ramírez," Mallory chirped and seeing her this happy, made him feel much better. "Rowan, this is...this is my girlfriend, Zoe Benson."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," he said, politely, while shaking hands with Zoe, which seem as lost as ever there. "Sorry for being rude, it's been a long day already and it isn't lunch yet."

However, the meeting was cut short when the back door in the kitchen opened, followed by child laughter and a few barks, along with heavy steps.

"Auntie, more cookies!"

"More cookies? You ate my last package, I'm sure your mother is gonna kill me if I give you more sugar," Rowan's eyes went first to the adult that was holding the Supreme's daughter in her arms as she weighed nothing, which probably was like that. 

"More!" another chirp and the girl lifted her arms, almost taking down the woman's glasses.

"Auntie Mina and I need to have a conversation later about getting back to your mother by spoiling you," she sighed and then Sidonia barked again, seeing so many people in the kitchen but going towards Rowan at full speed and placing her big paws on his stomach. "What's going on here?"

Rowan couldn't gather any words upon seeing Raleigh in such quotidian setting. It made him feel bad for trying to meddle in the calm life his sister was living in the moment. The worst thing about all of this was discovering his sister and him were pretty much alike, now that he was seeing her out of those fucking professional clothes and just wearing comfy sweatpants and a giant hoodie matching her crocks. It scared him, more than when they met, her scar now that she wasn't wearing makeup drifting the attention from it but at the same time it brought a weird peace to him seeing her being that gentle with the little girl, who was trying to escape her arms to go with Zoe and Mallory.

He didn't heard half of the things said after that, barely letting himself be dragged and giving automatic responses to whatever was asked to him. Raleigh was quite content to see him, trying to calm the dog down so she didn't make him end up in his ass because she was strong. And he wasn’t that strong to not indulge in the way things still were.

Not only Raleigh but Mallory helped him through the afternoon, showing him all that Cordelia wanted once the private meeting between her and Behold finished it. He wrote down some new stuff he was sure would help him in his lessons, but also laugh and clapped when some of the other witches did something well. During those hours Rowan also learnt some more things about the life in the Academy: they usually made bets about things that could happen around the house, how Mallory and Zoe ended up together, how sometimes they made matches between the members of both houses for fun, how they gather a Friday a month to have movie night all of them and also how the teachers were the ones with more ongoing arguments over the silliest things.

It made him want the same good feeling in Hawthorne, even when Rowan knew they probably had some of the same dynamics between them, because after all everyone wanted to be better than their fellow classmates.

When the staff gathered for dinner, only them few, after everyone had their dinner, Rowan felt uneasy.

He sat at Behold’s left side and Mallory, invited that night only, right by him. Across from Rowan, Raleigh took seat along with Wilhemina and their aunt Abigail - their, because Raleigh also called her like that. Some people that was missing when they arrived got there in time for the food like Cordelia’s wife, Misty, and Queenie and Madison, the last one giving him a long stare before taking a seat in the other side of the table. Everyone was polite and talked as if they were part of the group, and it felt nice to be around people like that.

However when coffee arrived, Rowan knew he couldn’t wait anymore to get the big secret out of him. He looked to the Supreme for a second and she caught his intentions right away. Should he say it there, in front of everyone? At least his sister would have her people around her in case everything went terribly wrong. The family she found ready to take action and cover her in their warm arms.

“Miss Ocean, I have something to tell you,” he started to say, his hands twisting under the table because he was still sitting. 

“What is it buddy?” she managed to say before getting another spoonful of chocolate ice cream, making Wilhemina to lift one eyebrow again because of her manners. “Are you gonna tell me you don’t want to be teacher anymore or something?”

He was glad she made a joke at least, because it eased his heavy heart.

“No, not at all, I’m still pretty much thankful that you gave me this opportunity,” his voice trembled a bit, but Rowan covered that with a little laugh. “It’s the true motive behind our visit, why we really are here,” his eyes went to his aunt Abigail and then Raleigh did the same for a second before placing her focus on him. “Not long ago, I discovered that…well, is difficult now to put it in words.”

“Take it easy, none is rushing you,” her voice was serene yet he knew, deep in his own soul, that she was somehow being careful.

“I’m...I’m your brother,” Rowan let it out in such strangled voice that he doubt he was heard at all, but his sister's face went incredibly pale. "It's difficult to explain, but I had done research...and my aunt here helped me. We...well, our mother asked me to find you b-but...I was really young and I didn't know what to do, and now everything-"

"Is this a joke?" her voice was so serious that it creeped him out, but his sister was now looking at their aunt. "What the fuck is this all about?"

"It's true Raleigh," Abigail said holding her stare without problem, not being troubled by how her features grew angrier each second that passed. "Kaya had him a couple years after you were gone, I not only took care of your mother till her very end but I also helped to raise him. That's why I'm here, to tell you finally the truth."

Everyone in the room was silent, almost scared to say something. 

Rowan couldn't blame them at all, because all of this was nuts. It was absurd, because this kind of things only happened in movies and they were very much in the real life, even living in a world of witches and warlocks. Cordelia was getting an inquisitive look from her own wife and Behold was looking between them, his magic ready to react in case things got violent. Raleigh stood up and Wilhemina took her by the arm, fast as if she was also waiting for her to react, and muttered something to her before his sister made her lose her grip on her arm in such gentle way that made him wonder if she was angry at all.

"I was in your home, seven years ago, and you only told me she was gone long gone, lost in her Sight," Raleigh's voice trembled while turning around to look at Abigail, as if Rowan wasn't there. "And you decided to hide something like this from me?"

"You barely could take care of yourself back then, what would you have done?" Abigail didn't move from her seat but Rowan did, standing up. 

It wasn't funny to suddenly feel such strong magic all over the room. He felt out of air and everyone except the only 'mortal' there as well, except maybe the Supreme that seemed to at least know things weren't going well. Rowan coughed but tried to push his own power to deflect it from the rest while Cordelia moved her own magic to gather it around the woman as a shield.

"Look, I don't want to impose on you," he managed to croak, fighting the urge to withdraw his magic because it was starting to burn in his magic conducts. "I will go away if you want it, out of your hair before you noticed, but I only wanted to at least know what my mother thought long lost was finally found."

His words did something to the woman, because suddenly the room was empty of magic again. A long deep breath from everyone sounded, recovering at their own pace, but none of them was fast enough to catch her this time. Raleigh stormed out of room and both Cordelia and Wilhemina were the first ones to react. However Rowan was the one following her, gabbling that he got this and he was going to fix it. Probably the last persona on the house she wanted to see, but he was the one putting this situation over her and he wanted to at least make it right. 

It was easy to find her, mostly because the only thing she did was making a beeline towards the front door and then to the outside. Rowan took off his vest and his shows before following her, crossing the front yard and soon going out of the parcel to cross the street, where his sister was sitting in the edge of the sidewalk.

If she noticed him, she didn't show it, but Raleigh didn't stop him from sitting by her side. They shared the silence that the night gave them, looking at the enormous house in front of them. For Rowan it wasn't a weird silence, it was very familiar in fact, because he was used to his mother being wrapped in that wondering silence that he always knew was going to break once his mother told him something fun.

Other times she started to cry, expressionless, and mumbling names long gone.

And other times she just started to sing.

He could barely talk in spanish, but there was a song that he learnt by heart just from listening to his mother singing it. Rowan didn't know why, but it felt right to start singing it for his sister, maybe lacking the sentiment because he didn't have such sorrow rooted in him, and demonstrate her that it wasn't a joke. Did their mother sing it for her too when she was little? Did their mother joked around her as she used to do around him, even when she was really sick?

All those questions his inner child wondered for years arose in his mind while singing, but he felt that soon they would be buried forever in order to not hurting anymore.

Nevertheless, when he knew the song was about to end, his sister's voice started to reprise it. And the sadness, the grief long buried, the yearning, the love behind those words...everything her mother sang it with, came alive again in that calm street in New Orleans.

Rowan started to cry then, his chest hurting and his heart squeezed against his sternum, listening to the voice of the only person on Earth that was blood related to him. He cried as if he was again in his mother's funeral, he cried as that first night away from the only home he knew for twelve years, he cried with all those feelings he buried for so long to control his powers...that now where bringing rainclouds over them, starting to cry along with him while Raleigh doubled the last part of the song. And while he cried, there was a hand on his thigh, a reassuring hand that seemed to not want to leave.

By the time Raleigh stopped from singing, the rain already drenched them to the bones. Rowan was still sobbing, but he was calming down little by little in between hiccups. He recognised his sister's magic reaching for him, now warm and not asphyxiating, and he let her envelop him in it because he very much needed it. They still didn't say a word, until he managed to mumble what his heart wanted to hear.

"What would you have done if you knew about me seven years ago?"

He felt an arm over his shoulders, hugging him and making him lean his head in Raleigh's welcoming shoulder. It was comforting in an awkward way, but he didn't want it any other way.

"I would have done the same I did, that I can't lie," she was sincere, not taking her eyes off from the house. "But, at least, once everything was done I would've gone to get you out of that fucking dungeon," Raleigh laughed openly, making him giggle. "I've been in the darkness all my life, the last thing I'd have wanted is for you to live like that too."

"It's not that bad, actually, we have a really nice library," Rowan retorted, pressing his wet sleeve to his runny nose. "And it's always chilly, even in summer."

"Fucking Hell, both things I don't have here," Raleigh sounded annoyed, in a light-hearted way, and that was like a wave of relief.

Rowan didn't want that moment to end, afraid that even when they were talking like that his sister decided not to talk to him further.

"I have a lot of papers if you want to check them, to see this is not a joke," he didn't broke the contact, but couldn't help but inform her about it. "I wrote down everything aunt Abigail hid, along with things mom said and some other magic related things and-"

"I don't need that, because I do believe in you," his heart grew three sizes upon hearing those words, more tears in his eyes. "I hadn't heard that song since I was seventeen, not even now that I'm capable of doing so just by tapping something in my phone...but you singing it like that, with the same up and downs mama did...it was enough for me."

"You were the one singing it like her, I don't even know spanish to singing it well," Rowan chuckled that and it made Raleigh to chuckle as well.

"Yeah, that much I heard, we have to put a remedy to that, sweet baby Jesus," rain was still falling over them, but now it was lighter, and Raleigh held him closer to her body. "Can I ask you something, Rowan?" and Rowan only hummed in response, his sleeve again against his nose. "Was she happy before…?"

Even unspoken, he knew about what his sister was referring to. The memory came back to his mind and Rowan closed his eyes, letting the goodness of it all to come to him again. He had come home like every other day from school, but that day his aunt wasn't the one welcoming him with open arms. Kaya was there at the door, her too long hair fixed it in a braid and her lean body covered with a dress full of flowers, and her expression was so clear and lucid that her smile was able to make Rowan smile even harder. With some difficulties, she listened to his entire day while eating and they spent the afternoon watching television, Kaya holding him close to her and kissing the crown of his head every now and then. She laughed openly when Rowan had told her a story - that one thing foggy in his mind - and she told him in response about making a picnic the two of them in the backyard, so she could teach him more stories.

When the night came, his mother helped him to get ready for bed and said how much she loved him, tucking him while the shadow of her gift was trying to get her back as a selfish lover. He grew to recognize that detail, how it started to darken the rim of her eyes every time the magic was about to take her back.

But she seemed to fight against it for once, looking at him with eyes full of love and that smile she only gave him.

By next morning she was gone, but her smile was still there nonetheless.

"I like to think she passed like that, peacefully and not sad," he whispered and Raleigh sighed so deep that he could believe he heard it form in her lungs. "Aunt Abigail and I tried to make her as happy as we could."

The rain started to stop pouring over them and, as they looked at the big house Rowan could feel his sister's brain moving with million thoughts once again. She finally moved, standing up, and offered her hand to help him up to his feet. Rowan took it gladly and once he was by her side, it made him chuckle discovering they were almost of similar height but she was still beating him for a few centimetres for sure. 

The main door of the house opened to reveal a worried Wilhemina, leaning on her cane, and Sidonia again by her side. Rowan didn't move because Raleigh didn't either, so they waited a few seconds more in the street, both sharing a silence they seemed to enjoy.

"I can't promise you everything will be peachy from now on," Raleigh said that in a tone Rowan didn't expect his sister to have, taking in count how big and heavy was her presence. "I still have much to learn, to unlearn, to fix and to break...but I can promise you somewhere to call home again, even if I don't know yet where is that place suppose to be."

Rowan finally saw that his sister was a sad person, but in such sadness she seemed to hide a noble heart. Many would have abandoned him in the same situation, quickly forgetting he ever existed, but Raleigh didn't. She was sincere when she said that last statement, she gave him an answer to the only question he never asked. 

Would you let me in? 

And for that, he was thankful and relieved. He chuckled at that, gaining an amused look from Raleigh and then they started to walk towards the Academy as if they didn't ran away at all and they were just coming back from getting something in the store.

"I'm good with that if that means you let me take a hot shower somewhere," the joke fell from his lips, easing the seriousness of the moment and showing his attitude was pretty much similar to his sister's. "Then we can keep talking about everything, if you want."

"I would love to for sure, just let's see first if Mina doesn't cut my head because I was a fucking asshole in there."

[sordidandsublime]

I think that by the time we hit the PT timeline, Vadim's English will sound very neutral. He doesn't sound like an Englishman, and he doesn't sound like an American (his a's don't drag, sentences don't end on a rising note) but sometimes his accent dips unexpectedly and subtly. This has the unusual advantage of making certain people listen to him closely when he speaks in hopes of predicting when his inflection might change. So far no one has divined a pattern to the quirk. His grasp of the language is excellent, but Millenial slang eludes him now and then. He'll talk for hours if you let him, he can be very entertaining, but at the end of it you'll realize he hasn't told you anything important about himself. Any personal details may well be lies.

Miklos doesn't have much of an accent to his English either, or if he does, people have called it "vaguely eastern European but not really". His words drag and catch sometimes, it's almost a drawl but not languid enough for that, listeners get caught in the rhythm of it. His voice is low and a little rough with the intimation of long nights and too many cigarettes. He speaks calmly and in a voice loud enough only for those he's speaking to. Hearing him say "fuck" is probably quite the experience, even if it's uttered in aggravation.

Cross has cheerfully avoided the pretensions of adopting the accent of a temporary country of residence, and so despite his British education he sounds very much like an Italian who just happens to speak fluent English. He's been speaking it since childhood anyway. He doesn't use his hands to speak as much as people think his countrymen would, when he does the gestures are measured. He's a great smoker; eyes are drawn to his hands while he lights up, takes a drag, holds the cigarette casually between forefinger and middle. He'll point and wave his hand with the cigarette in it and you'll find you don't mind. A good storyteller, his voice is alight with ironic good humor.

An experience; listening to Isidro switch from the most kalye, bisdak Bisaya anyone has ever heard to fluent burgis Filipino English to Spanish without a beat. The Sidonia kids all sound almost American, their grasp of vocabulary is better than the average American's though. Bea's got more of a twang to her accent; she's been chastised for this by her various aunts and her grandmother many, many times over the years. She has a hard, brassy laugh, calculated at a pitch to make people turn to look at her in public spaces. Ibarra is very proper in his speech and mannerism, very politic, his smile and laugh are both calculated for sincerity and palatability. Ava has the most neutral accent of her generation in the family. She deliberately pitches her voice a little lower than it already is; it's useful in the classroom and when talking to people in the hospital or dealing with officers in the constabulary. She doesn't move more than she needs to, she thinks about how to arrange her limbs or how to navigate a space before doing so.

[numismaticacastaldi]

Belgium 2020: 5 € Luke and Lucy. 75 years, that can count! Luke and Lucy (Suske and Wiske) are the brainchildren of Willy Vandersteen. They met for the first time "Op het Eiland Amoras", a comic strip that appeared in the newspaper in 1945 and shortly thereafter was released in album form. Since that very first comic, Suske and Wiske have experienced more than 350 adventures together with Aunt Sidonia, Lambik and Jerom. On the front are a bilingual name and anniversary display around the well-known drawing of a young Suske and Wiske duo that let themselves be carried away by the spirit of Sus Antigoon. Available in two beautiful coin designs! he coin is issued in two variants, each of which covers half the print run: a classic coin with a relief and a coin with the image fragment reproduced in the original colors of the first album. Mintage: 12.500 for each type (normal and colored). • • • • #belgium #5euro #eurocoin #commemorativecoin #LukeandLucye #SuskeandWiske #SusAntigoon #numismatic @numismatica.castaldi https://www.instagram.com/p/B9R0_1-HmgH/?igshid=j3b4e42fvt7y

[peace-love-piper]

(Date: 11 October 2019; Location: Ministère des Affaires Magiques de la France; Part One of Two)

Piper’s insides squirmed uncomfortably as she followed her cousin through Place de Furstemberg to stand at the center of the Wallace fountain. The lift that would carry them down into the Ministry shifted into motion and Piper jumped involuntarily.

She didn’t know why she was so nervous about this. It wasn’t as if they were doing anything wrong—well, nothing explicitly wrong. Then again, she hadn’t told anyone in her family besides Emi what she had planned in coming here, knowing her mother would vehemently disapprove, like she had been for Piper’s entire life.

There was also the fact that she hadn’t told Loxley what she was up to, either, instead sending him off sightseeing with Oz for the afternoon. Piper did feel bad about that, but what else was she supposed to do? Involving him felt…messy. Dangerous. But why? She couldn’t put her finger on it, but Piper just had a bad feeling about what she was going to discover here, and she wanted to keep Loxley far away from it all. After all, why else would it have been such a fiercely guarded family secret for so many years? Her mother liked her privacy, but this was different. Piper could just feel it.

Dressed in prim clothing from her cousin’s closet, Piper and Emi looked strikingly alike, the only notable differences being the slight peach tinge to Piper’s naturally blonde hair and Emi’s towering high heels, which clacked against the marble floor of the atrium while Piper hurried after Emi in flats.

They stood in line at the welcome desk, Piper fiddling nervously with her own fingers until her cousin swatted at her hands to get her to stop.

“Bienvenue au Ministère des Affaires Magiques. Indiquez votre devoir, s'il vous plaît?” said the receptionist when they approached.

Without any hesitation and with beaming confidence, Emi replied, “Nous sommes la famille de Monsieur Atticus Ayers. Nous aimerions visiter la Salle des Records.”

The receptionist nodded and waved a hand at them, whereupon on their dress fronts appeared leaf-shaped glass pins that designated them as approved visitors.

The Records Room was three floors down, and when they were alone in the birdcage elevator, Emi said, “See? Easy peasy.”

“I suppose…” Piper agreed, and then added, “…but…aren’t you, you know…nervous? About what it will say?”

“Pas du tout. I mean, how bad can it be, really?”

How bad, indeed.

If Piper hadn’t been so antsy, she may have been able to better appreciate the somber beauty of the Records Room, with its stained wooden paneling carved with intricate twisting vines, the tall glass windows that were nearly opaque in the low lighting.

The archivist said with a wispy tone, “Puis-je vous aider?” Emi repeated her explanation from before, and the archivist waved them in. “Allez-y.”

The carved wood paneling inlaid upon the glass of the doors was shaped like a tree, and it split down the middle as the doors swung open to admit them. The Records Room itself was dark and cavernous, and only when Piper shot several glowing orbs up above their heads was she able to take in the towering units of shelving, like building-size bookcases, that went on and on in winding, irregular rows—a veritable labyrinth. “Wow…” Piper whispered in breathless wonder, momentarily forgetting her nerves in the presence of such history and majesty.

Emi’s heels clack clack clacked upon the floor, echoing in the space. She cleared her throat and said loudly, “Ayers.” All at once, all around them, it was as if life was breathed into the room. The shelf towers creaked and groaned as they twisted, shifted, and spun at alarmingly high velocity considering how heavy they were. Piper gasped and grabbed Emi’s hand, shifting closer to her in an attempt to stay out of the way of the moving columns, which she belatedly realized was probably unnecessary. One column finally halted in front of them and a box-shaped compartment high above their heads began to shift down toward them, changing places with neighboring compartments like a coin bouncing through a maze, until it stopped at their level and opened to reveal its contents.

Emi reached a hand inside and withdrew a scroll of parchment, which she levitated at eye level with her wand and unrolled. She leaned closer to better read the words, and a light orb obediently hovered closer, as well. She studied the scroll for several minutes before she pursed her lips and said, “Hm…this seems to only include Daddy’s side of the family.” With a flick of her wand, the parchment rolled itself back up and returned to the compartment. “Why don’t you try asking for Aunt Em?”

“Oh…well, er…alright. Erm…Oliver?” Piper said. Nothing happened. After a moment, Piper tried again: “Er…Olivier?” Again, nothing. She bit her lip and then said to Emi, “…do you know your mother’s maiden name?”

“I…I don’t, actually,” Emi replied sheepishly.

Piper sighed. Okay, so this was a setback, but she wasn’t about to give up when she’d already come this far. She pondered the situation for a minute. “Well…what if we tried tracing things back through Meredith’s adoptive family? We’re related to that Veela line, right?”

“C’est brillant! The matriarch is Sidonia…Auclair, n’est-ce pas?” Emi said, and then called out with purpose, “Auclair!” The shelves all twisted and moved again, and this time the parchment that Emi withdrew from the compartment that arrived before them seemed to shimmer with a silvery, iridescent glow. It was quite beautiful, really; Piper suspected it looked that way to distinguish it as Veela lineage. It seemed like a fitting quirk for documents relating to her kind.

She found Meredith’s mother’s name toward the bottom of the parchment. “Here’s Mer’s mum, Bettine Higgs…” Piper read aloud, tracing her finger over the glimmering script. The document seemed to only include family members with Veela blood; connected to Bettine by a swirly line was Marie Angelov, and up from there was Sidonia Auclair, the current matriarch. There was a sketch next to her name of her likeness, beautiful and almost ghostly in silvery ink. Up further still was the previous matriarch, a woman named Emilia Auclair. This one, too, had a sketch, and Piper immediately recognized it from a picture her mother had once shown her. “Emi, look! That’s our great grandmother!”

Intrigued, Emi leaned in to inspect where Piper was pointing, her pouty lips forming a little o. “Well, that must be who I’m named after…”

Piper felt her pulse warm with adrenaline. They were close now, she could feel it. She traced her finger down over the lines stemming from Emilia: Sidonia, Amandine, and then…what? Piper frowned. There was a smudge of light where another name was meant to be, like a glare that prevented it from being read. “That’s odd…” she said, and tried to rub at the smudge. “Ow!” she exclaimed, withdrawing her hand and inspecting her finger where it had been rudely zapped, noting an angry red burn mark that began to fade just as quickly as it had appeared.

“Piper…” Emi said, and Piper looked back at the parchment. Next to the glare, a string of black words written in a different hand began to appear: Ce document a été marqué comme classifié et transféré au Bureau des Secrets.

Piper’s brows furrowed. “Oh, fuck.”