#Country Press Inc

[driveintheaterofthemind]

Vintage Pulp - Dynamic Detective (May1937)

Country Press, Inc.

[neptuneiris]

sparks (02/04)

And I know, I was wrong But I won't let you down

pairing: business-boyfriend!aemond x fem!reader

summary: at the beginning your relationship with aemond is perfect and there were no worries. until he becomes the Heir of his father's company, the most important in the whole country and certain events and certain people start to interfere in the relationship.

word count: 8.8k

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IT'S HERE! MY GOD-i'm so excited for you to read this, I'm really enjoying writing this fic so much and your comments and opinions make me very happy, and I'll be waiting anxiously to answer them:)

I also want to thank you for the incredible support for the first part, it was simply amazing! thank you for reading, commenting and reblogging, it means a lot to me beautiful people❤

now i won't stop you anymore, enjoy and wait anxiously for the next part!

As the sun slowly sets on the horizon, you and Aemond arrive at the majestic event venue of one of the most luxurious hotels in the city.

You are both dressed elegantly, he in an impeccable black suit and you in a stunning metallic ocean blue dress, the same color of the sapphire that Aemond wears in his empty socket and also his favorite color.

You have always waited for the ideal moment to wear this color of dress and match perfectly with Aemond, knowing too well and so does he that this night is very important.

The whole street and around has the passage completely obstructed for outsiders, there are police cars guarding the whole area along with security guards to allow the entrance to the hall of the huge hotel where the whole event will happen to the people who have been required.

You along with Aemond are allowed to pass through easily, while you watch through the window as all the press goes crazy and take pictures of absolutely everything, especially the car, as they know that inside is the Heir to Targaryen Inc.

There are a lot of cameras, a lot of light and above all a lot of people.

You feel how Aemond's hand gently squeezes yours, bringing his body a little closer towards yours, observing everything just like you and feeling perfectly how anxiety starts to run through his body, as well as he starts to feel a knot in his stomach.

The magnitude of the event and the amount of people gathered there started to make him feel nervous even though he has attended these events before.

But especially now he feels that way because he knows that all eyes will be on him now that he is his father's Heir.

He knows he hasn't even gotten out of the car and he's already the center of attention, so he imagines what a disaster it will be by the time he's finally in full view of all the photographers.

You immediately notice the change in his facial expression and gently stroke his arm with your free hand, comforting him, watching him with understanding and giving him all the support you can, letting him know that this is what you are here for and that he is not alone.

Aemond feels a little more reassured to feel your touch and closeness, feeling lucky to have you by his side at this crucial important moment in his life's work.

He doesn't even understand how he had thought of coming here earlier by himself, without you. He doesn't know what he would have done.

However, good times can't last forever.

Confused you watch through the car windows as Criston continues to drive slowly along, passing the main entrance to the hall where all the businessmen and also women with their companions have their pictures and videos taken.

Thing you've done with Aemond before but… now it looks like that won't be the case.

"Where are we going?"

"Love, I need you to do this for me."

You ask him watching him with your frown, to which Aemond looks nervous, anguished and sorrowful, holding his hand more firmly with yours.

Then you watch how Cole parks at another entrance on the other side of the hotel…. where there is absolutely no one, just security guards.

He starts to say to you as he gets fully incorporated in the seat, leaning towards you, not letting go of your hand and speaking to you in a rushed tone out of nerves, as you turn your gaze to him confused.

"I need you to go through that door, Hel should already be waiting for you. I'll meet you in there, okay?"

His words definitely throw you off, watching him with great attention and slight surprise.

"Why?"

He stirs in his seat as he sees the confusion in your eyes, also as little by little sadness begins to creep in, feeling more anguished than before but having to ask this of you, even though he doesn't agree.

"It will only be for this moment, I promise. Once we meet in there, we'll be together."

"But why don't you want me to come in together with you?"

He lets out a long breath, starting to worry.

And despite his explanation, you can't help but feel sad and annoyed as you watch him still intently with your brows furrowed, not saying or doing anything for a few seconds, the realization becoming clearer.

"It's not that I don't want love, it's just that my grandsire has asked to take pictures of us with Rivers and his uncle."

He explains to you with a sad look.

"And I don't want them to take pictures of you standing apart and start publishing them in magazines talking things about you. At least there's no one here and it will be safer."

"Sir, we have to go now. They're waiting for you."

Cole alerts him from the pilot's seat, watching you in the rearview mirror, and Aemond again watches you, insistent and concerned.

"Love, please," he murmurs to you under his breath.

You avoid looking him in the eye as you now resignedly let go of his hands almost abruptly and coldly and then grab your handbag and begin to quickly exit the car.

You lower your gaze as you press your lips together, feeling the discomfort coursing through your body, trying to control your true emotions, but you can't.

You definitely didn't expect this.

Aemond lets out a long breath.

"Please don't be angry, love."

He tells you pleading and sad, but you don't look at him or say anything to him, you just get out of the car and close the door to quickly head to the huge door with a lump in your throat and with a sharp pain in your chest.

You truly understand the importance of this event for him and the company, you were the one who insisted on coming too, but you definitely didn't deserve this, to be hidden away as if you were an intruder and didn't belong here.

And Aemond at all times is not calm and has barely started the night.

Once he gets out of the car, as you also enter the hall where the whole event will be held, inside and outside the bustle of the crowd and conversations fill the air.

He meets his grandsire, Alys Rivers and Larys Strong, while you meet Helaena.

You also see other family members of Aemond that you also know, like his half-sister Rhaenyra and his uncle Daemon Targaryen, also his nephews and cousins, his mother and his brothers, Aegon and Daeron.

Even Helaena didn't know she would be so busy, apologizing to you for how little time you have to catch up, but you assure her that all is well, when the truth is not.

You thought that with them everything would be easier to get along with, like before, especially after what just happened, since you always got along well with his family.

But this event is too important since the Targaryens are the center of attention and everyone is busy, even the cousins and nephews.

The whole place is absolutely grand and elegant, the whole atmosphere has an aura of prestige and sophistication like all the people present.

The room has tall, wide windows that offer breathtaking views of the city, illuminated by the night lights, as the hotel is located in the upper suburbs.

At one end of the hall there is a raised stage where presentations and speeches will take place, there is also sound and projection equipment, also an area for the press. But for the moment, there is a group of musicians.

Silk tapestries add touches of warmth and luxury throughout, as well as large crystal chandeliers hang from the high vaulted ceiling, casting flashes of light.

There are tables carefully decorated with white linen tablecloths, as well as comfortable and elegant chairs with high backs.

Finally there is the luxurious bar, where drinks are free and there are two male bar tenders at disposal.

You head there, wanting to have a drink to calm your spirits, unconsciously waiting for Aemond, being here alone and not feeling… not at all well.

There are already a considerable number of people entering the hall, all the businessmen with their wives, sons and daughters, also their assistants, while you watch as all the Targaryen greet everyone and are cordial with elegance in their clothes, postures and out-of-this-world appearance.

While you stand apart, sipping your glass of wine, observing everything. Then you take your phone from your bag to entertain yourself for a moment, when then, Aemond appears.

But not alone, but with Alys Rivers.

This doesn't bother you, on the contrary, Aemond was completely honest with you telling you that they wanted to take pictures of the two of them and that's what happens, while you see him with his serious and cold face standing at the entrance with her and then a small part of the press inside the room taking more pictures of them.

But that's not what catches your attention or what bothers you, what does is that this woman is wearing a dress the same color as yours.

You hide your surprise very well while at the same time a mixture of emotions completely overwhelms your inner self, watching how she poses and smiles with such elegance towards the cameras next to him, completely pleased.

It seems that she is his companion, not you.

Compared to your dress, hers is completely fitted to her body and reaches above her knees, wearing black high heels, with her hair pulled back in an elegant bun with black locks falling on either side of her face.

While yours is completely long and a little looser without straps, wearing silver high heels with your hair completely loose styled in slight waves. (click here)

Normally the color of the dress wouldn't have mattered to you, but you see the way she poses and behaves with him in front of the press, while those people with their cameras ask them for more and look pleased too, asking them to be closer to each other.

It really looks like she is his escort, totally overshadowing you.

At that moment, your self-confidence fades and discomfort comes over you, also annoyance. You try to keep your composure but the tension all over your body is too much, instantly looking away from them and feeling an incredible urge to cry.

It's just a dress, don't overreact.

You tell yourself, saying you shouldn't react, not here, not now knowing that this is important to Aemond and his family, that you are really his companion, not her and that eventually everyone will see that.

But you can't help it… you feel humiliated.

You take a huge gulp from your wine glass, averting your gaze from everything and everyone, focusing on the city lights through the large windows, enduring more of the urge to cry and let out everything you're feeling.

Though clearly Aemond doesn't have a hard time finding you all over the hall.

"Hey."

You hear him approach and he gently takes your arm and turns you towards him, watching you with full attention, while you take the last sip of your glass of wine, watching him afterwards without emotion.

"Hey."

You look away and call the bar tender, asking him to refill your drink, still feeling the discomfort all over your body as Aemond knows perfectly well how you must be feeling.

And he watches you hopefully, wanting you to say something, anything, even giving you his full attention, wanting to be with you and only you after such a stressful and unnecessary entrance to this boring event.

But nothing. You don't say or do anything to him.

"Love, I'm so sorry," he tells you honest and sad.

Again you say nothing to him, acting completely unconcerned, your face neutral and emotionless.

"Seriously, about before I didn't want to do it but my grandsire insisted and she…" he pauses, letting out a long breath as he runs a hand over his face, "I'm sorry. If I had known I would have—

"Don't worry about it."

You interrupt him, not wanting to talk about it anymore, certainly because you don't want to ruin his night any more and you don't want to stress him out any more when he must be getting enough to do and take care of tonight.

But he insists.

"I know you're upset and—

"I know perfectly well when you're lying to me."

"I'm not upset."

"I'm not upset. I haven't even said anything."

You tell him still watching him emotionlessly, clearly wanting to make yourself look as believable as possible with your words. Then at that moment the bar tender hands you your glass of wine and you begin to drink, going back to watching everyone.

But Aemond continues to watch you intently, concerned.

"Then say something, anything, please."

And that's when you start to react, starting to get annoyed with his attitude.

"And what do you want me to say?" you snap at him quietly, "I told you I'm not upset."

'At least not with you, just with the situation,' that's what you really want to say.

But you stay quiet, wanting to end the conversation once and for all, as you tried to do from the beginning but he keeps insisting.

"I don't know Y/N, just tell me something, whatever you want, but make it true," he also whispers quietly, moving closer to you to create more privacy between the two of you in public.

"Y/N! There you are, my dear!"

And before you can say anything back to him, at that moment a third voice interrupts the small discussion as it approaches towards both of you.

Alicent Hightower exclaims with a huge charming smile, sporting a beautiful emerald green dress and extravagant hairstyle, instantly enclosing you in a gentle but firm embrace which you reciprocate, now putting on your best face.

"Ah finally I see you after so long," she says lovingly in your ear, "I'm so sorry we couldn't talk when you arrived, as you can see we're all busy and it's crazy, like every time. But I'm so happy to see you."

She tells you as she pulls away from you and continues to watch you with her soft, comforting smile.

"Don't worry, I totally understand," you assure her with a small smile, "You look beautiful."

"Oh! Thank you," she observes to herself, still smiling, "You too my dear, absolutely beautiful."

You widen your smile a little more, for a moment feeling embarrassed since also a certain woman is wearing the same color as you, but you quickly push that thought away.

"Thank you so much."

"Come," she says to both of you, without letting go of your hand, "Rhaenyra has told me she wants to greet you, so does Daeron, before it all begins."

And this is what puts the discussion you were having with Aemond to a complete pause.

He follows you instantly, while you soon greet his half-sister and nephews, starting to catch up with all of them, also his cousins, Baela and Rhaena, who have always been absolutely charming and fun with you.

You also greet Aegon, who comes accompanied by his girlfriend, Cassandra Baratheon, where you know they are only dating because of an arrangement between his grandsire and her father, as the Baratheons also own an important company and thanks to their relationship, the two companies have partnered up.

You then talk to Daeron, who tells you that he is about to enter college along with Luke, his nephew, and then a very animated and happy Helaena joins in the conversation, the two of them making you totally forget everything that happened as soon as you and Aemond arrived at the hotel.

In fact when you and Helaena talk alone again, she mentions to you quietly that everyone knows what her grandsire is trying to do with Aemond and Alys Rivers, telling you right away that she doesn't agree nor does anyone else for that matter, only him.

She also tells you not to be intimidated by him, much less by that woman by briefly mentioning about the dress since of course she has noticed and assures you that you are not alone in any of this.

You are quite relieved and comforted by this, as you had given up hope the moment you saw Alys so pleased at Aemond's side, but now hearing this… it really makes you feel very relieved.

Then the whole event begins.

You take a seat next to Aemond at one of the tables that are right in front of the stage along with his entire family, as well as the other guests, while Otto Hightower takes the microphone and gives a brief welcome.

Aemond next to you takes your hand, intertwining his fingers with yours, wanting to feel your touch despite what happened a few moments ago between the two of you and you leave him, where neither of you say anything.

Then businessmen begin to take the stage, each speaking on key topics in the banking industry, such as financial regulation, investments, digital banking, risk management, fintech technology and more.

These presentations are given by industry experts and thought leaders, including Otto Hightower and Larys Strong, the uncle of Alys Rivers.

Even Helaena takes the stage to talk about new acquisitions in Highgarden's company, also Daemon with Rhaenyra Targaryen.

They also offer the opportunity to pitch projects or seek investments related to banking, they also talk about acquisitions, mergers or strategic collaborations.

They also again talk about financial technology.

When it then comes time for all the businessmen to focus on establishing relationships that can lead to business opportunities, collaborations and alliances with other businessmen.

Aemond tells you that he will be back in a moment, telling you briefly that he will speak with Rodrik Greyjoy, also an important businessman who is the head of the Pike company, the most important company in the Iron Islands.

You just nod and he leaves, then you think you might talk to Hel or Daeron, even Jace or Baela for the moment, but as you watch them, the entire Targaryen family is again busy talking to different men with their wives and children.

You let out a long breath and stand there alone for a few moments observing everything around you, then decide to approach the bar again and order a glass of wine, which is what you usually always drink when you feel uneasy and anxious.

And standing with your glass again you observe everything, focusing on Aemond for a moment, watching him talking to Greyjoy, both a bit more apart from all the people and looking both very serious and professional with what they must be talking about.

You don't know how long you last like that, just standing there and nothing else, not really doing anything, just asking the bar tender to refill your glass every so often, making sure to always drink small amounts of your wine.

When then you notice it.

Being alone in a secluded corner of the huge hall, you see how two women a few meters away from you in long and more than elegant dresses, wearing valuable jewelry and with a look of superiority and also a little mocking, watching you.

This confuses you and catches your attention at the same time, watching out of the corner of your eye as both watch you from head to toe and talk quietly among themselves without disguise, you not understanding anything.

You observe yourself, wondering if there is something out of place in your appearance, since appearance is what matters most in events like these, but everything is still fine with you, so you do not understand what it is that draws their attention to you.

However, in the face of this you again feel your nerves coming and your confidence fading, feeling uncomfortable, out of place and with anxiety all over your body.

You turn around, leaning your elbows on the counter as you bite your lips and try to calm yourself, feeling that suddenly all eyes are on you, not understanding what is wrong with you.

When a voice speaks in your direction.

"I'm surprised to see you here, Y/N."

You leave your drink on the bar and turn around, coming face to face with Otto Hightower, who is also wearing a smart suit and has a serious, cold look on his face that shows unconformity in your direction.

And you have no idea what to say to him.

How is he surprised to see you here if you've come to these events before with Aemond?

"It's not what you wanted, I guess," you tell him with a certain bitter and serious tone, speaking to him in the same way he is speaking to you.

He bites the inside of his cheek, then settles next to you with an appropriate distance, calling the bar tender and asking for a glass of white wine, while you watch him intently throughout.

"No, of course it's not what I wanted and I'm relieved that at least you understand that," he finally tells you, serious and direct, "I told Aemond perfectly well that he shouldn't have brought you, but he's just as stubborn as his brother."

You bite your lips, avoiding speaking to him in a ruder tone than you should and also avoiding saying what you really want so as not to cause real trouble, with annoyance starting to course through your body.

"I'm his girlfriend," you tell him seriously and in a reminder tone.

"And this is work," he replies in kind, "And serious work. Something you wouldn't understand from working in a coffee shop."

You let out a snort.

"Are you trying to put me down?" you stare at him incredulously.

"I'm just being honest and seeing things as they really are," he says and doesn't give you a chance to speak, "My grandson is a successful man, just like his family. And he should surround himself with people just like him. Believe me I have made sure he is where he is now and I care deeply about his future," he says with a condescending tone, "Don't you?"

"Of course I do," you tell him instantly, "I've done nothing but support him."

He gives a fake smile.

"That's good to hear, exactly what I would expect from you, but I want you to understand one thing and I want you to get it right, Y/N."

He begins to tell you with his eyes never ceasing to look directly into yours, glowing with a cold and more than willing determination, his posture demanding power over you, making you feel small as you continue to watch him intently.

"You don't belong in this world," he tells you menacingly, "I've tolerated this nonsense from you and him long enough, but now that he is his father's successor and is in a higher position and with a promising future, I won't tolerate it anymore," he makes it clear to you, "You can't really offer anything important to Aemond and that's what we need, assurance and alliances for the good of the company."

He tells you in the cruelest tone of all, where even though you try to remain calm, you begin to feel insecure and lose your composure as you listen intently, feeling a sharp pain in your chest.

"And that's exactly what Alys Rivers can offer him."

Then your shoulders drop, your whole posture ceases to feel tense from the defeat invading you and you feel a deep ache all through you, feeling utterly small, helpless and vulnerable.

You lower your gaze with your lips parted, trying to control all your emotions as you feel your eyes glaze over and you feel a painful lump in your throat, not wanting to cry now in this place with him continuing to watch you intently.

Then you press your lips together in an expression of anguish and humiliation, unable to help yourself.

"Our family has built a reputation and that's the most important thing to us. And you don't fit in, you're just not of use, now do you understand what I mean?" he tells you expectantly.

But despite how he is making you feel, you try to defend yourself.

"Is money and reputation really more important to you? Don't you care about his happiness?"

"Aemond is not going to live on love, silly girl, neither the company," he tells you instantly annoyed, "So I hope that for the sake of him and his work, you will be the one to decide to end the relationship since he certainly won't," he tells you bitterly, "Alys Rivers is starting to lose patience and there is no way I am going to lose the opportunity of association with her company, have you understood?"

You watch him without saying anything, still with your sad look and also with the surprise to see his determination, the how he really doesn't care about Aemond's feelings, while he throws you his hateful look and continues to watch you more than threatening.

When then the sound of the microphone catches everyone's attention, also yours and his, watching the stage.

"Hum… excuse me? May I have your attention for a moment, ladies and gentlemen, please?"

Alys Rivers speaks, starting to get the attention of all the people who stop talking and focus on her, while you still feel all your overwhelming emotions.

"Good evening everyone, it's a pleasure to be here present with all of you," she smiles elegantly to the whole audience, clasping her hands together in front of her, "For those who don't know me, I introduced myself, I'm Alys Rivers, co-owner of the Riverlands company, nice to meet you."

She says as she radiates confidence and determination, reflecting her commitment and enthusiasm, as you watch the business wives smile at her throughout.

"I would like to take this moment to announce a very early association that I am still working on together with my company partner, Larys Strong," she says without stopping smiling at any moment, looking very happy and excited "So I would like to call to the stage my very soon to be partner, Mr. Aemond Targaryen."

Thunderous applause from all present can be heard throughout the hall, while you watch as Aemond smiles politely throughout as he walks up to the stage and makes his way to stand next to her, who also claps in his direction and watches him proudly.

And so together they appear confident and authoritative, as if they own the whole place, while Aemond waves and thanks the whole audience at the same time.

Then the applause fades and Alys speaks again.

"It is also an honor to announce before all of you, a collaboration of our two companies," she says proudly, "Since I first met Aemond, his vision and ethics impressed me deeply. We have shared many conversations and have discovered that our companies have common goals and values."

Aemond at her side nods in approval and continues.

"Our companies, Riverlands Group and Targaryen Incorporation have been at the forefront of financial innovation for years. So we have decided to join forces to empower our organizations."

Then Alys says something else, but you don't pay attention as Otto Hightower again speaks in your direction.

"Now you see?"

He says to you and you again feel that sharp pain in your chest as you turn your gaze to Alys and Aemond.

"That's the way things should be, the two of them together, a perfect complementation," he says confidently, "Even all the people here are pleased to see them together, the press too, that's what they expect, not a coffee shop employee next to the next head of the most important company in the country."

Each of his words and also the ones from before are like a dagger to your heart, feeling sadness, shame, humiliation and anguish.

The feeling is horrible, especially because you see how again all the people applaud for the two of them and the press starts taking pictures of the two of them together, while you feel trapped in a whirlwind of negative emotions that consumes you completely.

You watch as Aemond doesn't approach her at all, but she does, placing one of her hands on his arm, smiling and posing for the cameras, while you watch as Aemond tries to subtly pull away from her, but she won't let him.

You also know he won't say anything to her at that moment, not when the eyes of everyone in the place are on them and so are the cameras, so they continue to pose for more pictures to be taken.

"Enjoy the rest of the night."

Otto tells you with the fakest look and words of all, watching you for one last time then turning away from you and back to the crowd, complacently watching the show his grandson is putting on along with Alys Rivers.

And when you watch him walk away, at that moment you notice it again, the stares of the women.

This time you see how they and their husbands look in your direction, with curious looks and others with equally mocking looks, whispering among themselves, all of them watching you from head to toe, making you feel even worse.

They make you feel as if you are an intruder, as if you are the one who is wrong to be here, as if you are not Aemond's girlfriend and instead they accept Alys, looking at you as the bad guy, even with pity.

Then you feel you can't take it anymore and decide you've had enough.

Completely humiliated, you turn away from the bar and start looking all over the place for Cole, who you find at the main entrance along with more security guards, heading towards him quickly.

"Ms. Y/N?"

He says to you as you stand in front of him.

"Can you take me home?" you ask or rather plead, "I'm not feeling well."

"Do you need me to get you something?" he asks you instantly, willing.

"No, just take me home, please."

"Of course but Mr. Targaryen knows?"

"Yes," you lie, "You'll have to come back to pick him up."

Finally you convince him and both of you go to the door where you entered instead of the main door since the press is still outside.

And not having the courage or the spirit to say goodbye to anyone, not even Helaena, you finally leave the place.

Meanwhile Aemond continues taking pictures and enduring the flash of the cameras every second, slyly taking Rivers' hands off him, acting unconcerned and willing when inside he wants it all to be over.

When in the middle of all the commotion, he catches a perfect glimpse of your figure walking out of the event through the doors he asked you to enter with Cole by your side, without even looking back, this catching his attention and confusing him instantly.

He is about to apologize to quickly go after you, not liking that at all, feeling a bad feeling, starting to worry, but a hand on his shoulder stops him.

"They want to take pictures of the whole family together."

He turns his head and finds his grandfather, whom he instantly watches attentively and curiously.

He watches all the people around him for a moment as everything is a mess as everyone wants to take pictures and videos, but in the end he leans over to talk to him, trying to create privacy.

"Why did Y/N leave?"

"She leave?" he repeats acting surprised and confused, "I don't know, son. I didn't even notice. Now come on."

"I saw you talking to her," he tells him instantly, insistent.

"We didn't really talk much, now come on, this is important."

He tells him also serious and insistent, making him stand still for the press to start taking pictures of the two of them with Alys Rivers and Larys Strong, then the whole Targaryen family and so on with other businessmen.

But all the time Aemond is not calm, not at all.

Until after a while he sees Cole re-enter the hall, so he quickly makes his way towards him.

"Where is Y/N?" he asks him with bewilderment in his eyes and in his tone of voice, concerned.

Cole frowns.

"Sir, she said she was feeling sick and wanted me to take her home."

"And why didn't you tell me?" he snaps at him instantly, slightly annoyed.

"I'm sorry Sir, but she said you knew."

And at that moment Aemond knows that's definitely not good.

He lets out a long breath and runs a hand over his face, beginning to feel frustrated, only to have his mother walk over to him at that moment and take him with her to have a conversation with the Arryn's, reluctantly having to stay, feeling uneasy every moment as he wants this all to be over so he can come to you.

But the night is far from over.

And it is not until two hours later that people begin to say goodbye to leave, so Aemond takes advantage and also decides to leave, since he sent you severe messages at certain times but you did not respond to any, this stressing him and worrying him more.

So once he is able to leave, he quickly together with Cole start to leave the hall, but Eleonor hurriedly stops him.

"I'm sorry Sir, but aren't you supposed to stay? Here I have the card for the suite you asked me to book," she raises the card in her hand, looking at him confused.

Aemond feels a sharp pain in his chest, not having the slightest idea what happened with you as to decide to leave without telling him anything, but he knows it's no good, besides the fact that his grandfather's attitude seemed suspicious to him.

And he can't help but feel annoyed.

He knows you haven't spent any time together and he thought it would be a good idea to book a suite for the two of you without telling you anything, wanting it to be a surprise, but now it's all ruined and he doesn't even know why.

"No, Y/N is gone," he tells her with frustration visible all over his body and gaze, "You use it or cancel it or whatever, it doesn't matter anymore."

And without further ado he resumes his walk, wanting to get to you as soon as possible.

You hate the loneliness in which you find yourself.

When you get to the apartment, you want to leave immediately, thinking for a moment that you should have asked Cole to drop you off at Floris or Sarah's house.

You put on your sleeping clothes and take your pillow and a sheet to go back to the living room and get comfortable on the huge couch, wanting to sleep and forget about everything.

In fact that's what you think now, maybe call one of them and ask them to pick you up. But the hour is already late and you don't want to bother them.

So the only thing you do is to take off your make-up and your dress where at all times you still feel the discomfort and humiliation running through your whole body, feeling also a helplessness.

But unfortunately that's not what happens.

What happens is that you can no longer control all the feelings and emotions you felt since Aemond asked you to enter the event through other doors and you finally let it all out, starting to cry silently even though you are alone.

You don't know how long you last like that but you cry until you fall asleep, hugging one of the couch cushions tightly in the darkness of the huge apartment.

Some time later Aemond finally arrives home, so in a hurry he rushes into the apartment with all his anguished and worried look on his face, wanting to see you and talk to you, heading purposefully into the bedroom.

But he definitely didn't expect to find you asleep on the living room couch.

Never before have either of you had the need and desire to sleep apart, not even after having a fight, so surprise comes over him and he watches you sound asleep there… on the couch instead of the bed.

He doesn't know what to do, doesn't know what has happened, and doesn't know what to think.

He understands that you were very upset with him for what he asked you to do so that is one reason, also Rivers' colored dress, but what happened next?

He doesn't know and he's very frustrated that he doesn't know, he's also frustrated by the whole situation.

And he can't stand it. He can't stand seeing you lying there asleep, not wanting to sleep with him.

He takes off his jacket without taking his eye off you at all times, leaving it on the back of the single couch and carefully walks over to you, where again his heart breaks at the sight of the dried tears on your cheeks and also the cushion you are hugging wetly.

Immediately he feels guilty, so gently, he kneels beside you and watches you for a few seconds sadly, asleep in a ball, with an expression of exhaustion on your face.

You blink then carve your eyes, getting used to the night light to try to see, when Aemond's cologne hits your nostrils and you look up at him over your face with a confused expression.

He swallows hard and leans over you to hold you in his arms gently and carry you to bed without waking you. He puts one arm under your knees and the other under your back, trying to lift you gently.

But because of the movement and also from feeling his hands on your body, you wake up.

"What are you doing?" you ask him sleepily.

"I'm putting you to bed, love."

You frown and immediately place your whole body hard and tense, removing his hands from your body.

"No, I want to stay here."

He lets out a long breath.

"Come on, let's go to bed."

"No."

"Love, please."

"I already told you no, Aemond."

You tell him in a more serious and completely annoyed tone, as he watches sadly and worriedly as you make your intention clear and again cover yourself with the sheet, turning your back on him with your annoyed expression.

He feels more the anguish of being this way with you, the feelings of frustration and loneliness taking hold of him, feeling helpless in the face of the situation.

He misses you completely, your closeness, mutual support and communication, because this just makes everything even worse, not being able to work things out, you leaving his side, having this physical and emotional distance.

Aemond feels like the person he loves is slipping through his fingers and there is nothing he can do to stop it.

"Y/N please," he insists once again, hating the situation and the feelings it brings, "Let's go to bed, you know I won't be able to fall asleep without you by my side."

"Let me sleep," you tell him seriously and curtly, still turning your back to him.

"Love."

Aemond calls you one last time, feeling the negative emotions invade him even more at that moment, feeling hopeless, but he stops when he sees that you are firm with your decision and he can't do anything about it, feeling more constant the sharp pain in his chest.

And so you ignore him, trying to go back to sleep.

So Aemond has no choice but to heartbrokenly retreat to the bedroom and leave you alone in the living room.

The next morning, the horrible sound of your alarm wakes you up, telling you that you have to get ready for work.

Not having slept enough the night before and remembering everything that happened, you're annoyed and defeated as you lie there for a few minutes staring at the ceiling, not having the energy for anything at all.

But knowing that you can't afford to miss work, you have no choice but to get up.

However, it strikes you that the coffee pot in the kitchen is not on, because even though Aemond has the day off, he still locks himself in his office to get a lot of his work done, and coffee is essential for him to be more productive.

So curious and cautious, you head to the room, seeing that the door is open.

And when you slowly peek your head out, you see Aemond on the edge of the bed, sitting up and rubbing his eyes, looking in a tired state and as if he hadn't slept all night.

You press your lips together, as you don't want to talk about what happened, at least not yet. But you know that avoiding it won't be easy.

You know it when Aemond catches a glimpse of your slowly moving figure out of the corner of his eye, so he raises his gaze and his eye looks directly into yours.

You instantly react, avert your gaze from him and head to the closet with a hurried step to grab clean clothes while he watches you attentively and pleadingly at all times, wanting this silence and tension between the two of you to end.

"Y/N—

He couldn't sleep all night and the restlessness so far hasn't left him alone, so he's exhausted and doesn't plan to do any work today because he simply can't.

But he wants to try to fix about last night.

He calls softly to you in a careful tone but you quickly cut him off.

"I'm going to shower."

You say hurriedly but with no encouragement in your voice and quickly walk past him, entering the bathroom and closing the door behind you, leaving him alone with those bad thoughts in his mind, letting out a sigh as he brings his hands to his face, frustrated and tired.

It's not until an hour after you finish getting ready to leave for work that you see Aemond in the kitchen pouring himself a glass of water, finding it strange that he's not locked in his office, but you don't ask him anything about it.

And when you finish making sure you bring all your stuff in your bag, like your phone, keys and wallet, Aemond watches you cautiously throughout, still feeling that weight on his shoulders and that ache in his chest for not being on good terms with you.

"I can drive you."

He tells you suddenly, softly and in a calm voice, this catching your attention but you don't even notice him, instantly hurrying to get out of the apartment soon.

"It's okay. I don't want to slow you down at work."

"I'm not going to work today," he lets you know, this surprising you, but you hide it and don't react.

But you still reject him.

"There's no need. Don't worry."

And so you head for the door, walking out of the apartment, leaving him behind.

This of course hurts Aemond, as you've never turned him down on this sort of thing before, feeling really bad.

Still he later texts you asking if you need him to pick you up, but again you turn him down telling him that Sophie, your co-worker, will do you the favor, when in fact you take the bus.

And once you get home, there is still this tension and silence between the two of you, which feels horrible, but above all it feels more horrible to Aemond, who even though he tries to talk to you about it, you don't let him, cutting him off instantly, excusing yourself with other things.

That night you sleep in bed together with him, relieving him that he didn't want to go another full night without sleep, but you both sleep completely apart, not touching each other.

That's unusual, he's just never been through anything like that before and of course he hugs you and tries to talk to you in the comfort of your bed, but you don't respond to his touch.

You let him hug you but you don't hug him back, turning your back on him, making it clear that you don't want to be that way with him. So he can only let out a sigh and pull away, respecting your decision and your space even though it hurts.

But he can't take this anymore.

The next day at work he goes looking for his grandfather, serious and willing, entering his office without knocking and closing the door without much tact, watching him with annoyance all over his face.

Otto Hightower looks up from some papers on his desk and embodies an eyebrow at him, expectant and slightly confused.

"Can I help you?"

"What did you say to Y/N?

He inquires her instantly, getting straight to the point, serious and annoyed. But of course, Otto Hightower feigns an innocent expression on his face.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't lie to me," he warns, "I know you talked to her and I want to know what you told her."

"Aemond," he lets out a sigh, "If you're having problems with your girlfriend, you don't want to try to get me in on your fights—

"It's no coincidence that she left that fucking event right after I saw her talking to you, so tell me what it was you said to her," he demands again, more serious than before.

Otto shakes his head, even with the innocent expression lingering.

"I told you we didn't even talk much. We just talked about your future, the things you're accomplishing and in the end I told her to enjoy the rest of the night, that's all. So maybe you should be more concerned about why your dear girlfriend walks out of a very important event for you leaving you alone, like she doesn't care."

Aemond can't help the frustration and anger that begins to grow inside him.

"I know you're lying."

"You're misunderstanding things."

"She's not talking to me! She's upset and I don't even know why, she doesn't want to tell me!" he exclaims angrily, completely losing his patience.

And his grandfather just watches him silently with a serious look, not saying anything else to him and this causing more frustration and annoyance to Aemond who quickly walks towards him, placing his hands on his desk and leaning towards him with a threatening face.

"I don't know what happened but I know you said things to her," he makes it clear, his tone serious, "You made me hurt her to not only ruin the night for me, but for her as well—

"Aemond—

"Or what?" he interrupts him as well, not letting him speak, "You think I don't know all the effort you're putting into trying to further increase the rumors between Rivers and I with the press? In how you're interfering between me and her by getting Rivers in the way? And all because you don't want to lose a fucking association with a company at the cost of ruining my relationship?"

Otto Hightower slowly rises from his chair, watching him just as seriously and menacingly.

"An association that believe me you don't want to lose either, Aemond."

He makes it clear to him slowly, with an obvious and equally menacing look, leaving Aemond silent for a moment.

"We could never partner with Dorne, so partnering with Riverlands is all we have left, because after all, before long you'll be the new boss or am I wrong?"

"If you lose it… it could cost us millions," he reminds him slowly and clearly, "And you risk not only your own future as an businessman, but the future of all of us, your family, the partnerships with the other companies, the employees and the legacy we've built. And obviously I can't allow that to fall apart."

He inquires and Aemond swallows hard, feeling a knot in his stomach, knowing full well that his father's health is getting worse every day.

And everyone knows, his mother, his brothers, uncles, aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews, everyone… that it's only a matter of time.

"But there are other ways, there are—

Aemond shrugs and clenches his hands tightly into fists as Otto watches him harshly, the room feeling charged with tension.

"We will go bankrupt, Aemond! What don't you understand!?"

Explodes Otto furiously.

""Your father left a lot of work pending since he got sick and now you are his successor, which you are lucky that I am breaking my back for you to help you, to save from now on your reputation and the company that will be under your command when the time comes. And that you don't want to help me in the same way for not learning to separate personal relationships from your work, is not my problem."

"We will go into crisis if we don't get Riverlands, we will lose income, we will have a lot of debt, our companies in Oldtown, Lannisport, Stom's End, in the Vale and in Winterfell we will lose them. And Riverlands has partnerships in Essos as well as Dorne, so understand what's at stake," he continues in a harsh tone, "Do you want Helaena to lose Highgarden and Winterfell or your mother to stop running the company in Oldtown? Do you really want to lose everything we've built? Is that what you want to happen, Aemond?"

Aemond's heart begins to pound, he lowers his gaze and with his jaw clenched he thinks about it, he feels anxiety and deep bewilderment. He thinks of his sister, his mother, his brothers, his whole family, everything they have built.

Otto's words echo in his head in a constant echo and suddenly… he feels trapped, cornered in his own life, helpless.

At that moment he craves a respite, that need for peace, he needs you by his side, the woman he loves and the one who can give him that comfort zone.

But you are not there, everything suddenly feels lost and he also feels that everything is wrong, and he is instantly overcome with frustration, sadness, anger and an overwhelming sense of vulnerability.

Aemond really clings to his own determination, determined not to give in to his grandfather's threats, but he knows he's right about everything about the company and his family. And he really feels trapped, because he doesn't know what to do about Alys Rivers and her company.

So he can only place a bitter smile and shake his head, his mind a mess.

"You're unbelievable, you know that?"

He tells her as he begins to walk away from him, starting to pace around the room slowly as he runs a hand over his face, placing it on his chin.

"You leave all this burden to me, because you want to take advantage of me just like what you did with Aegon and Cassandra."

Otto rolls his eyes, watching him just as annoyed and bored as before.

"If you don't want to learn how to work this kind of thing out's, I don't understand why you're going to be the next boss."

"No, of course I can work this kind of thing out," he makes it clear, serious, watching him annoyed, "Just not in this dirty way."

"Alys Rivers is a very demanding, perfectionist and exacting person, just like her uncle. So if she wants to try to maintain an intimate relationship with you, you're going to let her, for the good of the company. Or at least pretend, pretend you're interested in her too so you can sign that fucking paper once and for all."

Aemond looks at him completely disgusted, badly and with a scowl on his face, watching him as if he doesn't know him.

"You are… completely disgusting."

"I'm teaching you how to survive in all of this and also how to keep the company afloat," he makes it clear to him, his other way of looking at things.

"You only think about yourself, money and reputation. You don't care about my feelings, my relationship and that I'm hurting Y/N."

"No, I don't care, because the company is not going to sustain itself otherwise," he tells him simply, nonchalantly, "And if your girlfriend can't understand this, your job, your future and that we can't fail, then I don't understand why you're still with her. You have to make sacrifices in order to live, and that's something you better start understanding now."

Yes… Aemond knows he will have to make sacrifices. It's the first thing his father told him since it was ruled that he would be the Heir.

But Aemond told himself from the beginning that if those sacrifices were his family or his relationship with you, he will go to great lengths to keep his family out of it and you too, because he is not willing to lose you.

He wants to be worthy of you, treat you like you deserve, give you the world and keep you by his side, because the last thing he wants because of his desperate grandfather and a reckless woman is for the relationship to no longer work.

He knows it won't be easy, but he will do the impossible.

Although… the breaking point is near.

general taglist:

@melsunshine @n4forlife @iamavailablesstuff @ttkttt @elliaze @trshngyn @tsujifreya @imsoshygirl @watercolorskyy @kckt88 @zenka69 @yentroucnagol @crispmarshmallow @bellastwd @queenofshinigamis @strangersunghoon @happinessinthebeing

[going-to-ikea-for-the-fries]

Bait and Switch. || Scammer!Reader x Victim!Ghost

Rating: M Words: 2.6K~ Pairing: scammer!Reader x victim(but not really)!Ghost CW: phone scams/conning (reader never actually cons him), financial issues?, threats (Simon threatens to find reader), degradation?. other tags: crack, OOC Simon., you/your pronouns (gn!reader but uses a female fake name), obviously fake names (pun/funny), lying, joking, the weirdest meet cute? a/n: this started out as a joke/crack and turned serious/dark at the end? idk how i did this.

Simon Riley would say that being legally dead is the best thing to have happened to him and that's because it allowed him to escape a bunch of responsibilities that regular men have to uphold.

He gets paid covertly, in full, and does not have to pay taxes on his income.

He rented a flat from a sweet ol' lady, who didn't run a background check or ask for a copy of his birth certificate (terrible choice on her part), and he pays her by dropping an envelope of cash in her mailbox on the 1st of every of the month.

He not only is old enough to drink but also sounds and looks old enough as well, which means he doesn't need I.D. to buy alcohol (not that any shops or bars really care enough to check).

He doesn't have a credit card. Or a debit card for that matter. Hell, he doesn't even have a bank account, so he doesn't have to pay maintenance fees.

He doesn't have a smartphone. And up until recently he only had a pager. In fact, the only reason he doesn't have a pager anymore is because it got shot in the crossfire during a mission... so Price forced him to get a jitterbug.

In short... Simon Riley can escape a lot of things (death, taxes, Philip Graves...). But telemarketers and phone scammers are not one of those things.

That's how, on a boring Wednesday afternoon, his new phone ends up ringing, like it had been doing multiple times a week for the last four weeks.

Telemarketers.

He never got telemarketers on his pager.

He hated telemarketers.

But that didn't mean he blocked them-

"What?" He answered as soon as he picked up the phone.

An automated voice came over the call, one of those typical Siri-esque robot voices, delivering a prepared speech: "Congratulations! You've won a free cruise to the Bahamas! To claim your prize, press 1."

Oh, now, this was different. He didn't need to hear more to know it was a scam call. But that didn't mean he was going to hang up.

So Simon pressed key 1, which caused a beep to sound over the call.

"Thank you!" The automated voice continued. "We are now connecting you to a live operator to claim your prize!"

Barely a millisecond went by before you took over the call. "Good afternoon, this is Stella Gormoni with Blissful Blessings Inc.! Who am I speaking with?"

As stereotypical as it is, Simon had expected a different voice on the other end of the line... maybe from a scammer in a foreign country who'd speak heavily-accented English...

But instead, he got a sweet and professional sounding person... It almost made him second-guess the scam that was being pulled on him.

His mind moved quick at coming up with a fake name. Not just a fake one, but a pun one too. "Wanh'a, first name Aiden." He replied, his gruff voice reverberating on the call.

"And how do you spell that?" You asked him politely, and, through your headset, he could hear your keyboard keys clacking in the background.

"That's A-I-D-E-N." He replied as he entered his kitchen, spelling his first, as if that was somehow what was causing you difficulty.

"Uh-huh!" You acknowledged in a peppy tone. "And... your surname?" You asked him.

"W-A-N-H-'-A." He continued spelling as he crossed the small kitchen, hearing your fingers tapping away at your keyboard in his ear.

For a moment, you didn't talk, as if stunned into silence. Had you just picked up on the fact he was trolling you by giving you a name that, phonetically, sounded like 'I Don't Wanna'? Probably. But you hadn't hung up yet.

"Well, congratulations, Mr. Wanh'a, you just won an all-inclusive, two-week long cruise to the Bahamas!" Your peppy tone made him bite his lip to contain a laugh. Well, at least you were dedicated in continuing the scam. "How are you feeling?"

"Very well, and yourself?" Simon asked casually as he leaned himself against the door of his refrigerator, leaning down to look inside and find a snack.

"I'm doing very well, thank you, sir." You replied in a cheerful tone. "So, let's process the information so we can get you your prize, shall we?" You announced in a polite tone.

"Go right on ahead, sweet'eart." He murmured as he grabbed a yogurt and closed the fridge with his hip, sitting at the table and peeling open the lid.

"Well, for us to start, I'm going to need your-"

"Actually, I have a question, before we start." Simon interrupted your speech, cutting off your silver-tongued lies.

You went silent for just a moment before you replied with a sweet little: "Of course, what can I help you with, Mr. Wanh'a?"

"I want to know how exactly I signed up to receive this prize." Simon replied before he placed a spoonful of yogurt in his mouth.

He was trying to accomplish two things by doing this: 1) throw you off your game and make you stammer and stutter, and 2) see how long it took for you to get annoyed, and hang up on him.

"Well, that's what I was going to explain, you see-" You replied, a smile behind your voice, but his trained ears could pick up the slight frustration. It made Simon smile.

"Oh, then, I'm sorry for interrupting you, sweet'art, please go ahead." He replied and gestured with his spoon, as if giving you the stage, unnecessarily so, because you were not there to watch it.

"As I was saying... You were entered automatically into the draw by buying a cereal box of any Kellog's cereal at Tesco. I'm sure you saw a 'Win a free cruise!' sticker on yours?" You asked in a professional and sickly-sweet tone.

He could see right through your scam, he had already done that. You name a famous brand, one people trust, to trick naive or impressionable ones into believing you...

Normal people would tell you they no longer have the cereal box, many of them naive enough to believe your scam despite the fact they hadn't even bought one of those boxes in the first place...

Next, you'd ask for the card used to make the purchase, and some people were dumb enough to read their number aloud to you...

Oh, how he hated scammers. Even more than telemarketers.

"I do remember seeing something like that..." He murmured, his voice deepening, before he popped another spoonful of yogurt past his lips, loudly smacking them right against the receiver of his jitterbug.

"Well, all I need is for you to get the box and read me the code that's imprinted on the inside of the flap!" You announced.

"Well, you see, I would, sweet'art... But my sight isn't so good anymore..." Simon replied. "I'm getting up there in age, you know?" He continued eating his yogurt.

"I understand, sir." You replied. "I'm sorry to hear that. One of my cousins also started losing his vision pretty early." You announced.

Huh.

There was no hint of forced sympathy in your voice.

No, you were being genuine. That was a real story of your life you were telling him...

But you had picked up on the fact he was trolling you, right? So why were you-

"Good thing though, about this system of ours, is that you can just confirm your credit card details so we can double check them and get you that prize!" You had, your tone right back to the scamming silver-tongue you had held until now.

Secretly, Simon had to admit that he admired your commitment to the bit. He couldn't help but smile a bit, amused.

"Oh, of course. Let me just set you down while I get my card." Simon replied and got up, finishing his yogurt and tossing out the plastic container, popping the spoon into the sink, and, after setting down his phone, he walked out of the room.

Simon glanced down at his wrist watch, noting the time on it, then, approached his bedroom door, grabbing his over-the-door pull-up bars, and began doing a quick set, leaving you to 'wait' for him in the kitchen.

After a few sets, he waltzed back into the kitchen and grabbed his phone again. "You still there, da'lin'?" He beckoned in a gruff tone.

You sighed, your politeness sounding slightly more forced. He had kept you waiting for over ten minutes after all. "Yes, sir, I am. Did you get your card, Mr. Wanh'a?"

"Oh, please, enough of this 'sir' thing, Mr. Wanh'a was my mother." He replied, then went silent for just a beat, almost like he could hear your frustration sizzling on he other end.

He was being more and more obvious with his trolling... And it pleased him immensely to imagine a parasite like you seething on the other end of the line, reaching your wits' end.

"You can just call me 'Ai', it's what my friends call me." Simon continued, a smirk forming on his lips. "And we're friends now, right? You're giving me a cruise and everythin'." He added, his tone just as charismatic and peppy as his had been.

"I guess we are!" You replied, returning the overly cheery tone. "So, 'Ai Wanh'a', then?" You asked, but he could hear the mix of frustration and amusement behind your voice.

"Yeah? What d'you want, babygirl?" Simon asked, unable to resist making a more impish remark. And, unfortunately, it had the desired result. It genuinely caused your brain to blue-screen for a moment.

Sure, you'd experienced plenty of people getting angry at you when you attempt to scam them, or even trolling you the same way this bloke was doing but...

It was definitely a first, to have someone flirt with you, even if it was still part of his trolling attempt.

"Your... credit card details?" You ended up adding, your voice still showing the surprise and light meekness that came from him catching you off-guard.

"Oh, of course. Are you ready? It's a very complex number." He replied.

"Ready when you are." You added as you steeled yourself for another smartass response or run around from him.

"Here it is: 1234-5678-9987-6543." He replied, reciting the numbers 1-9 in order and then backward. "And the three digits on the back are: 210."

Oh, he was so fucking annoying! He didn't get to troll you, even if it was pretty amusing of him to do so, then flirt with you, then go back to trolling.

"Sir, if you're not interested in the cruise, just say so. There's no need for this mockery." You replied, your tone serious and professional though you were definitely seething on the inside.

Simon could tell. And he reveled in it. "Oh, but I am interested!" He replied with a smirk behind his voice. "In fact, I want to know more. Will my cabin in the cruise have an ocean view?"

Simon heard you inhale aggressively on the other side of the line, steeling yourself not to hang up on him, or down right berating him on the phone. "Yes, Ai, of course!" He heard your fake cheeriness through your clenched teeth. "It'll be a luxury cabin, actually. Isn't that great?"

"No, it's not that great, actually. I get very seasick, you see?" Simon murmured. "Not to mention, ever since my pet goldfish died, I've just never been able to look at the ocean the same..." He added in a forced pitiful tone.

You went quiet again on the other side and Simon knew he had finally worn you out. He waited to hear the clicking sound of the call falling, but, instead, he just heard you let out a sigh.

"You're very frustrating." You murmured.

"Oh, my, is this how you speak to all your prize winners?" Simon gasped dramatically.

"Shut up... You didn't have to be a smartass, you know?!" You scolded him, as if you had any ground to stand on.

"No, I fear I did, sweet'art." Simon replied as he leaned casually against the kitchen counter. "You called me, interrupted my day, and wasted my time with a scam, of all things. I have every right to be a smartass and have some fun with it." He added, a smug tone obvious in the dulcets of his deep voice.

"Okay? You could've just hung up on me?" You were truly grasping at straws to justify your behaviour. It was comical.

Simon laughed dryly. "And waste an opportunity to annoy a parasitic leech like you?" He quipped.

That stunned you into silence for a moment and you couldn't help but pout a bit.

"Not to mention, what you're doing is illegal, you know that righ'? And I'm military, I could get you arrested for this." He added.

"For that, you'd need to know where I am." You retorted, maybe a bit bratilly. "Besides, I knew you were a soldier."

"And how did you know that?"

"You used the NATO phonetic alphabet while spelling 'your' name'." You replied directly. "Nobody spells 'Aiden' as 'Alpha-India-Delta-Echo-November'."

"So you knew I was military and you still went ahead with your little scam attempt? You're not that bright, are you?" He defied you, which earned him a scoff from your end.

"No, I already knew you were trolling me."

"Oh, so you just wanted to waste my time?"

"That's exactly it, Aiden."

"Sounds to me like you're just looking for trouble, da'lin'." He quipped, his voice having lowered to a gruffer tone.

Rolling your eyes, you scoffed. "Am not. I'm just enjoying myself. You're not the only one that can make jokes at people's expenses."

"No, you really are..." He tutted his tongue and shook his head. "Need I remind you you were trying to scam me, and other people?" He added in a tone that sent a shiver down your spine.

"I know what I was doing."

"Yeah? And are you proud of that? Proud of being a conniving little cunt who tries to take people's hard-earned money?" He taunted you.

You didn't reply. Of course you weren't proud. You still had a conscience! But you wouldn't tell him that. He wouldn't get the satisfaction of hearing you apologise.

"I see. You don't like what I'm saying, so you give me the silent treatment, is that it, sweet'art?" He teased. You could hear the smirk behind his words.

"I wonder if you'd still act like this if you had to face me and had to answer for yourself."

Closing your fists tight, you steel yourself again to gain some edge and reply to him. "I guess you're going to keep wondering then. Because it's not happening."

"You know, it's a shame your little computer spat out my phone number for you to call..." He trailed off.

"And why's that?"

"Because instead of anyone else, you got me... And that's just... really bad luck for you. Any other service member, you would've been fine..." He trailed off.

"What, are you some sort of General-Major-Chief thing, super high up the ladder?" You taunted.

Simon simply chuckled dryly on the other side of the line. "No. But I'm definitely the worst person you could've tried to play with."

"Oh, big scary man, what are you gonna do? Gonna come teach me a lesson?" You added, taunting him some more, clearly feeling comfortable behind your laptop, with your smartphone, sitting at home, comfortable and warm, with your pet at your feet. "Oh, I'm so scared!" You added, feigning fear in a dramatic tone.

"Is that a challenge I'm hearing, sweet'art? Inviting me to come pay you a visit?" Simon asked you, his brow cocking, despite the fact you couldn't see it.

You don't know what it was about the way he spoke. The way he said that. The way his voice sounded.

It sent a shiver down your spine, a cold sweat, like he was, for the first time, not joking around anymore.

"No...?" You murmured in reply, feeling your shoulders tensing in an unpleasant way.

"Yeah... That's an invite I'm hearing..." He disregarded what you said and chuckled. "Maybe I'll come pay you a visit then, hey? How does that sound, little leech?"

[leveloneandup]

Christen Press on returning to soccer following ACL tear, season three of The RE—CAP podcast

Christen Press, the all-time leading goal scorer in Stanford history, has starred for club and country since graduating in 2010. With the USWNT, she has won two World Cups and scored 64 international goals. Press has played overseas professionally, including a stint at Manchester United, as well as in the NWSL with the Chicago Red Stars, Utah Royals and currently with Angel City FC.

After tearing her ACL in June 2022, Press required four surgeries and an arduous recovery. She returned to her first training session on Tuesday, after which she spoke to SBJ about her rehab and the new season of her podcast. Along with Tobin Heath, Megan Rapinoe and Meghan Klingenberg, Press founded a media and lifestyle brand called RE—INC in 2019. She and Heath are the co-hosts of the RE—CAP podcast, which returns for its third season on Thursday. The first episode includes appearances by USWNT legend Abby Wambach and author and podcast host Glennon Doyle.

On returning to the pitch . . .

I am currently in the car driving home from my first training. I would say the road to recovery happens very slow, and then yet it happens all at once. I have been back in the team environment for almost four months. So it's been a long time that I've been integrated into the environment, and it took four months for me to get ready to be in a warmup and a passing pattern — really simple, basic stuff. And I felt very ready for it. I felt almost underwhelmed by how easy it was because I've done a lot more complicated things, and yet it was also entirely overwhelming and joyful to be so connected to my teammates and be celebrated in the way that I have been these last two days.

I'm very grateful for that. They say it's the hope that kills you, and as I drive home, I just have this big smile on my face because I can't help it. I can't help hoping. I can't help believing that I'm going to make it back, and it's going to be everything that I see in my head. I'm relentlessly optimistic, I'm naively positive, and I like that about myself, and I'm not I don't intend to change it. I think the way that it left me feeling was just like, yes, I can do this.

On monitoring her rehab . . .

I'm a person of devices, so I have quite a toolkit, I'd say, of ways that we're tracking and measuring. The truth is we're really still working through issues with my knee, and I have chronic scarring of the knee, so I can experience some discomfort and some swelling that could lead to more scarring, which is incredibly rare, because most people don't scar after a couple months after their surgery. I'm now over nine months for my surgery and still at risk of scarring. So it just means that I have to try very carefully with how much impact my knee can take.

We're being careful, but we're progressing. In terms of my overall fitness, what my GPS has said is that I've got to like 60% of a match load, which is all that I really need to get in terms of volume. And yet, in the warmup and the passing pattern today, it felt like I played a 90-minute game. I was so fatigued. There's training, and then there’s really training. There's no way to get fit for football, except for playing football. And I've done a ton of running, I've done a ton of lifting, and now it's time to play.

On how deep she gets into data . . .

My performance staff would laugh because they said they've never worked with a player that cares so much. So right now, I wear a Polar Watch that I was given in like 2015 from the national team. It's just old school. And I wear my Apple Watch, which is connected to my GPS so I can see all my data live, from heart rate to distance to speed to all that. And then I do sleep with an Oura ring — although I'm not endorsing any of these products, I'm not connected to any of these products — but I do sleep with an Oura ring and track my sleep and my stress levels.

On season three of the podcast . . .

Our show really is about authenticity, and it's about creating a more inclusive space for sports and including diversity of perspective. And so that means we have hard conversations, and we have honest conversations and we have vulnerable conversations, and we have a lot of fun — the same spirit and joy that you saw last year during the World Cup edition of the show. We're back, and we're bigger than ever.

On the origin of the creating the podcast . . .

I never thought I would be in media. I think that's even more true of Tobin. There's two typical paths for athletes after soccer, and it’s coaching and broadcast. ‘So Christen, do you want to be a coach?’ ‘No.’ ‘So Christen, then you must want to be a broadcaster? I was like, ‘No.’

That's an interesting part of the story, but first and foremost, we decided to launch this show as current and active players, and that's unique and different. It's not really a stepping-back-from-soccer thing. It's current players trading stories and having a little bit more space to dictate the narrative.

And then secondly, we really approach this as business leaders. This is our business, this is our company. We are a 3C company: content, community and commerce. The most amazing thing about women's sports is the community, and we're trying to build the coolest women's sports community in the world in our membership, and we're feeding that with amazing content.

And I think because we have such an authentic and vulnerable relationship with our audience that we've developed over the last five years that we've been building this business, it made sense for Tobin and I to be our first piece of content that was really more large scale and more widely accessible. But the plan will be to find like-minded people that sit at the intersection of sports, progress and equity, to continue to hear stories from an insider's perspective. It really disrupts the industry in that way.

On topics they plan to cover in season three . . .

We're going to be talking about women's health, particularly in sport, which is obviously a really hot topic, and representation in sport — how we make it more diverse and equitable for more people, be it across the gender spectrum, the orientation spectrum, across different races and classes. I think that's incredibly important. Soccer in America is an upper-middle class sport, and almost everywhere else in the world, it's a very accessible sport that's found on the street. That's really the spirit of football, so that's really important to us.

On the role of athletes as activists . . .

The interesting thing about the community that surrounds women's sports in particular is they care about a lot more than the sports, and the values transcend beyond the pitch. And that's about diversity, inclusion, progress. And I think that's just inherent because it is disruptive in itself to see women embodied, powerful, unapologetic and also very celebrated the way that you do in the professional sports world today. The people that it's drawing in are the same people that want to march, and they want to create change and they want to stand up for what they believe in.

It's so embodied in the Angel City culture. The professional team that I play for has just nailed it. And when you're in the stadium, it's electric, and win or lose, it's a different type of vibe than any other sports arena I've been in because there's a connection point for all of the audience. They care about more than the X's and O's. They care about what we represent to them, the progress and the opportunity that we as women athletes represent.

On the versatility of women athletes . . .

It's always been that way in women's sports, and it's just becoming more popularized. I think the expectation is that we would always be multifaceted as women and expected to do multiple jobs in multiple roles, if we were going to have careers. And so it really did take to me and my personality to be a player and also be a leader off the field, on the US women’s national team, going through the Equal Pay lawsuit, going through the reestablishment of our players association.

For me, it was such a balancing sense of purpose that I continue to create space in my life for that, and I think that's what we've done with our business, RE—INC. RE—INC is reimagined, incorporated. We set out, in 2019 when we started this company, to reimagine the status quo, to reimagine the way women are seen and experienced in sports. And it's a very bold and ambitious goal, and we do it in a multifaceted way. And I'm really, really proud of that.

[mayajadewrites]

Sweet Secret (Levi Ackerman x Reader)

Pairing: Levi Ackerman x F! Reader CEO Levi Ackerman coming in hot. I've been wanting to write a CEO Levi/Sugar daddy Levi story for a hot minute. Enjoy!

Summary: You needed a job. Ackerman Inc was hiring for an in house assistant for none other than the CEO: Levi Ackerman. He's known to be essentially the worst to work with, you decide to take the job and take on the challenge that is Levi Ackerman. Will your relationship remain professional, or will their be monetary value added to the stakes?

ao3

Chapter One: Opportunity

“Breathe. It’s just a job interview.” You take a deep breath just like your yoga instructor taught you. 

The economy is shit, much to your dismay. Being an adult isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. Just like many other people in the country, you’re applying to several jobs a day and receiving multiple rejection emails almost daily. 

Your last office job laid you off - they claimed it was for ‘budget reasons’ but who knows. During your latest job search, you found a listing for an ‘In House Assistant’ for Ackerman Inc. 

Ackerman Inc is known for their property management - they own much of the city and are continuing to grow. This job also supplies a place to live, who can say no to that? No rent, no utilities, and you’re getting paid.

You grew up in the city, so the skyscraper before you doesn’t scare you much. The windows are glossy, definitely freshly cleaned. 

You take your first step into the building.

“One step at a time.” You say to yourself. The doors automatically open and you’re greeted by an auburn haired receptionist. 

“Good morning! How may I help you?” Her attitude is cheerful as her hair follows her head movements.

“Good morning. I’m here for an interview for the in home assistant position.” You hold your bag close to you.

“Amazing! And you’re early. Mr. Ackerman will love that. My name is Petra, I’m the receptionist here at Ackerman Inc.” She reaches her hand out.

You tell her your name and shake her hand gently. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Let me take you up to the conference room, Mr. Ackerman should be in shortly.”

Walking through the halls of Ackerman Inc makes you feel like you’re in a museum. Awards strategically placed on the wall, aesthetically pleasing paintings lining hallways, and not a speck of dust in site.

“Here we are!” Petra opens the door for you. “Would you like any coffee? Tea?”

“I’m okay, thank you though.” You take a seat at the long conference table. You’re too nervous to drink or drink anything before an interview. 

You look down at your fingertips, your well manicured nails shining against the overhead lights. You’re happy you went with OPI’s bubble bath nail polish shade, you think to yourself.

Soon the door opens and you see a man with a strong stature paired with jet black hair walk through. You immediately tense as you fix your posture  and stand up to greet him. 

“Hi, it’s so nice to meet you. My name is-“ You hold your hand out.

“I know your name.” The man glances at you before he sits down. “I’m Levi Ackerman, the CEO of Ackerman Inc. I’m gonna cut to the chase for this, because I need an assistant asap.” 

You nod your head as you listen to Mr. Ackerman. He shuffles through the papers in his hand, pulling out a laminated copy of your resume.

“Your resume looks great. How do you feel about cleanliness?”

“I appreciate a clean environment, sir.” 

“That doesn’t answer my question.” His half lidded eyes meet yours. His eyes are a blue-gray. You take note that they match his grey pressed suit that was definitely recently dry-cleaned and ironed.

“I clean every day. I’m not sure how you want me to answer that. I’m a clean person.”

Levi only nods as he places your resume on the table gently. 

“This position requires you to work at my home, work here, basically anywhere I am.” Levi taps his index finger on the table. “It’s a 24/7 job since I work 24/7. You’ll get days off, but they’re almost like on call shifts. If I need you, I need you.” 

You nod in response. “That sounds okay.”

“You’ll have to move in asap as I need you to start this Monday. How does that work for you?”

“I can have my stuff ready tomorrow morning.” 

“Congrats, you have a job.” Levi stands up and grabs his papers that were on the table previously. He pulls out his wallet - a designer one at that. He hands you a business card that’s nestled between his middle and index finger. “Call me tomorrow when your stuff is ready. I’ll have movers bring it over.”

“Thank you Mr. Ackerman.” 

Levi nods as he leaves the room. You can’t help but watch him through the glass windows as he makes his way to the elevator. His demeanor is… cold. He didn’t ask too many questions, which makes you think he already did his research on you. 

But hey, a job is a job and the pay is better than your last one.

Why did he need an assistant so quickly though?

As you walk out of Ackerman Inc, your phone buzzes in your purse. You see your little sister’s name across the screen.

“How did your job interview go!” She says enthusiastically.

“I got the job. I start Monday.” 

“Is Mr. Ackerman hot?” 

“Alexis!” You roll your eyes. “He’s my boss now so I have no… opinions about his looks.” You lie. He’s obviously attractive. But he’s your boss - therefore forbidden.

“You can think your boss is hot. A lot of people fuck their coworkers.”

You roll your eyes at her statement. “Bye, Lex.”

“Love you!” She sings before hanging up the phone.

Your little sister, Alexis, is more like your daughter at this point. You’ve been on your own since you were 16 and Alexis was 6. Your parents are addicts that could not care less if you lived or died, so you took your sister and ran. 

You haven’t seen them in 12 years and don’t plan on seeing them ever again.

___________________________________________________________

The reason you could move in so quickly to Mr. Ackerman’s house is because you’ve been couch surfing for the last 4 months. Alexis for once has a stable job and lives with a roommate, so you were on your own.

As you entered your friends apartment, you took a deep breath. This will be your last sleep here. You won’t have to burden anyone anymore.

“Hey! How’d your interview go?” Ymir, your best friend, emerged from the kitchen. Her girlfriend, Historia followed behind her.

“I got the job!” You smiled. “I’ll be moving in tomorrow morning.”

“Where did you get the job again?” Historia tilted her head.

“Ackerman Inc.” You watched as she typed the name into the search bar.

“Wow, THE Ackerman Inc!” Her eyes got wide as she kept reading. “Did you… read the reviews about the CEO?”

“Levi Ackerman? No I didn’t. Why?”

Historia said nothing and handed her phone to you.

While the pay is great, Levi Ackerman is the biggest dickhead I’ve ever met.

Be careful applying to this place. The CEO, Levi Ackerman, has no soul. No heart. 

Do yourself a favor and steer clear of Ackerman Inc. It’s not worth it to deal with the king of assholes - Levi Ackerman.

You sigh and hand the phone back to Historia. “It’s too late. I need a job and it provides housing.”

“You always have a place here.” Ymir wrapped you into a hug. “We love having you live with us.” 

“Thank you.” You hug Ymir. “I appreciate you so much. But I’ll be out of your hair soon.” You walk to your ‘bed’ which is the living room couch. You gather some of your knick knacks and shoved them in your tote bag.

You barely had anything to your name. Just a few outfits for interviews, your laptop, phone, and various chargers. Unemployment only helped with so much.

As you look up into the TV, you take a sigh of relief.

You have a job. This is the start of your new beginning.

You pull your phone out and text the number that’s on the business card that Mr. Ackerman gave you. 

> I’ll be ready by 10 AM. Here’s my address.

You received a text back rather quickly. 

The movers will be there at 10. <

> Honestly, I don’t need movers. I only have 1 bag.

You stared at the screen as the three dots appeared on the screen. You felt butterflies flutter in your stomach. Does he think you’re pathetic? That you have nothing to your name? 

I’ll pick you up at 10. Do not make me wait. <

> Of course.

You think to yourself, why would he come pick you up himself? Surely he has people to do that for him. 

Oh well. 

[girlactionfigure]

LEICA AND THE JEWS

The Leica is the pioneer 35mm camera. It is a German product - precise, minimalist, and utterly efficient.

Behind its worldwide acceptance as a creative tool was a family-owned, socially oriented firm that, during the Nazi era, acted with uncommon grace, generosity and modesty. E. Leitz Inc., designer and manufacturer of Germany's most famous photographic product, saved its Jews.

And Ernst Leitz II, the steely-eyed Protestant patriarch who headed the closely held firm as the Holocaust loomed across Europe , acted in such a way as to earn the title, "the photography industry's Schindler."

As soon as Adolf Hitler was named chancellor of Germany in 1933, Ernst Leitz II began receiving frantic calls from Jewish associates, asking for his help in getting them and their families out of the country. As Christians, Leitz and his family were immune to Nazi Germany's Nuremberg laws, which restricted the movement of Jews and limited their professional activities.

To help his Jewish workers and colleagues, Leitz quietly established what has become known among historians of the Holocaust as "the Leica Freedom Train," a covert means of allowing Jews to leave Germany in the guise of Leitz employees being assigned overseas.

Employees, retailers, family members, even friends of family members were "assigned" to Leitz sales offices in France, Britain, Hong Kong and the United States, Leitz's activities intensified after the Kristallnacht of November 1938, during which synagogues and Jewish shops were burned across Germany.

Before long, German "employees" were disembarking from the ocean liner Bremen at a New York pier and making their way to the Manhattan office of Leitz Inc., where executives quickly found them jobs in the photographic industry.

Each new arrival had around his or her neck the symbol of freedom - a new Leica camera.

The refugees were paid a stipend until they could find work. Out of this migration came designers, repair technicians, salespeople, marketers and writers for the photographic press.

Keeping the story quiet The "Leica Freedom Train" was at its height in 1938 and early 1939, delivering groups of refugees to New York every few weeks. Then, with the invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, Germany closed its borders.

By that time, hundreds of endangered Jews had escaped to America, thanks to the Leitzes' efforts. How did Ernst Leitz II and his staff get away with it?

Leitz, Inc. was an internationally recognized brand that reflected

credit on the newly resurgent Reich. The company produced cameras, range-finders and other optical systems for the German military. Also, the Nazi government desperately needed hard currency from abroad, and Leitz's single biggest market for optical goods was the United States.

Even so, members of the Leitz family and firm suffered for their good works. A top executive, Alfred Turk, was jailed for working to help Jews and freed only after the payment of a large bribe.

Leitz's daughter, Elsie Kuhn-Leitz, was imprisoned by the Gestapo after she was caught at the border, helping Jewish women cross into Switzerland . She eventually was freed but endured rough treatment in the course of questioning. She also fell under suspicion when she attempted to improve the living conditions of 700 to 800 Ukrainian slave laborers, all of them women, who had been assigned to work in the plant during the 1940s.

(After the war, Kuhn-Leitz received numerous honors for her humanitarian efforts, among them the Officier d'honneur des Palms Academic from France in 1965 and the Aristide Briand Medal from the European Academy in the 1970s.)

Why has no one told this story until now? According to the late Norman Lipton, a freelance writer and editor, the Leitz family wanted no publicity for its heroic efforts. Only after the last member of the Leitz family was dead did the "Leica Freedom Train" finally come to light.

It is now the subject of a book, "The Greatest Invention of the Leitz Family: The Leica Freedom Train," by Frank Dabba Smith, a California-born Rabbi currently living in England.

Thank you for reading the above, and if you feel inclined as I did to pass it along to others, please do so. It only takes a few minutes.

Memories of the righteous should live on.

Rabbi Yisroel Bernath

[shadowland]

Dennis Hopper's collection of owned and gifted books (a few are listed under the cut)

Islands in the Stream (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1970)

Magic (Delacorte Press, 1976)

Sneaky People (Simon and Schuster, 1975)

Strange Peaches (Harper's Magazine Press, 1972)

I Didn't Know I Would Live So Long (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973)

Baby Breakdown (The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1970)

37 (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970)

Presences: A Text for Marisol (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1970)

Little Prayers for Little Lips, The Book of Tao, The Bhagavadgita or The Song Divine, and Gems and Their Occult Power.

Lolita (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1955)

The Dramas of Kansas (John F. Higgins, 1915)

Joy of Cooking (The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1974) 

The Neurotic: His Inner and Outer Worlds (First edition, Citadel Press, 1954)

Out of My Mind: An Autobiography (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1997)

The Savage Mind (University of Chicago Press, 1966)

Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors (J.B. Lippincott Company, 1974)

The Documents of 20th Century Art: Dialogues with Marcel Duchamp (Viking Press, 1971)

The Portable Dorothy Parker, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, I Ching, and How to Make Love to a Man.

John Steinbeck's East of Eden (Bantam, 1962)

James Dean: The Mutant King (Straight Arrow Books, 1974) by David Dalton

The Moviegoer (The Noonday Press, 1971)

 Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions and General Tales of Ordinary Madness (City Light Books, 1974)

Narcotics Nature's Dangerous Gifts (A Delta Book, 1973)

The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Dover Publications, 1967)

Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines (Oxford University Press, 1969)

Junky (Penguin Books, 1977) by William S. Burroughs

Weed: Adventures of a Dope Smuggler (Harper & Row, 1974)

Alcoholics Anonymous (Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 1976)

Skrebneski Portraits - A Matter of Record, Sketchbooks of Paolo Soleri, and High Tide.

Raw Notes (The Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 2005)

Le Corbusier (Heidi Weber, 1965)

Henry Moore in America (Praeger Publishers, 1973)

Claes Oldenburg (MIT Press, 2012)

Notebooks 1959 1971 (MIT Press, 1972)

A Day in the Country (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1985)

Album Celine (Gallimard, 1977)

A Selection of Fifity Works From the Collection of Robert C. Scull (Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc. 1973)

Collage A Complete Guide for Artists (Watsun-Guptill Publications, 1970)

The Fifties Aspects of Painting in New York (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1980)

A Bottle of Notes and Some Voyages (Rizzoli International Publications, 1988)

All Color Book of Art Nouveau (Octopus Books, 1974)

A Colorslide Tour of The Louvre Paris (Panorama, 1960)

Dear Dead Days (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1959)

Woman (Aidan Ellis Publishing Limited, 1972)

The Arts and Man ( UNESCO, 1969)

Murals From the Han to the Tang (Foreign Languages Press, 1974)

A (Grove Press Inc., 1968)

Andy Warhol's Index Book (Random House, 1967)

Voices (A Big Table Book, 1969)

Another Country (A Dell Book, circa 1960s)

On The Road (Signet, circa 1980s) 

[workersolidarity]

🌍 🏦💵 🚨

FIVE RICHEST BILLIONAIRES DOUBLE THEIR WEALTH SINCE 2020 WHILE 5 BILLION ARE MADE POORER

Oxfam International, a British-founded International Charitable organization based in Nairobi, Kenya, says the world's richest people have managed to double their wealth since 2020, as 5 billion people are made poorer as a result of a "decade of division."

Oxfam made the claims in a press release on its recently published report released Monday, January 15th on inequality and global corporate power called "Inequality Inc."

According to Oxfam, the world's richest people have more than doubled their wealth from $405 billion to $869 billion since 2020, a rate equivelent to $14 million per hour, while approximately 5 billion people have been made poorer in the same time period.

"If current trends continue," the statement says, "the world will have its first trillionaire within a decade but poverty won't be eradicated for another 229 years."

Oxfam looks to the Davos gathering of the world's largest corporations, pointing to the valuations of the top ten largest companies, together worth more than $10.2 trillion.

“We’re witnessing the beginnings of a decade of division, with billions of people shouldering the economic shockwaves of pandemic, inflation and war, while billionaires’ fortunes boom. This inequality is no accident; the billionaire class is ensuring corporations deliver more wealth to them at the expense of everyone else,” Oxfam's International interim Executive Director Amitabh Behar is quoted as saying.

“Runaway corporate and monopoly power is an inequality-generating machine: through squeezing workers, dodging tax, privatizing the state, and spurring climate breakdown, corporations are funneling endless wealth to their ultra-rich owners. But they’re also funneling power, undermining our democracies and our rights. No corporation or individual should have this much power over our economies and our lives —to be clear, nobody should have a billion dollars”.

According to Oxfam, Billionaires increased their wealth by $3.3 trillion since 2020, a growth rate three times faster than inflation.

Oxfam adds that, despite representing just 21% of the global population, the countries of the Global North own 69% of global wealth, with Global North countries home to 74% of global billionaire wealth.

Further, the top 1% own 43% of all global financial assets, with billionaires owning 48% of wealth in the Middle East, 50% in Asia, and 47% in Europe.

In addition to overall wealth, 148 of the world's largest corporations raked in $1.8 trillion in total net profits, a 52% increase over the period from 2018-2021.

Corporate windfalls increased to nearly $700 billion, with the report finding that for every $100 in profits made by the top 96 major corporations between July 2022 and June 2023, $82 was paid out to wealthy shareholders.

Oxfam International interim Executive Director Amitabh Behar says that “Monopolies harm innovation and crush workers and smaller businesses. The world hasn’t forgotten how pharma monopolies deprived millions of people of COVID-19 vaccines, creating a racist vaccine apartheid, while minting a new club of billionaires."

The Oxfam press release goes on to point our that people are working harder and for longer, often for poverty wages in unsafe jobs, adding that the wages of nearly 800 million people have not kept up with inflation, losing $1.5 trillion in value over the last two years, the equivalent of nearly a month's lost wages for each individual worker.

Oxfam also found that, of the 1'600 largest companies, less than 0.4% of them are publicly committed to paying employees a living wage.

Oxfam shows how a "war on taxation" by large corporations has pushed the effective tax rates on corporations to fall by a third in recent decades, while relentless privitization of public services like education and water services have expanded massively.

“We have the evidence. We know the history. Public power can rein in runaway corporate power and inequality —shaping the market to be fairer and free from billionaire control. Governments must intervene to break up monopolies, empower workers, tax these massive corporate profits and, crucially, invest in a new era of public goods and services,” said Behar.

“Every corporation has a responsibility to act but very few are. Governments must step up. There is action that lawmakers can learn from, from US anti-monopoly government enforcers suing Amazon in a landmark case, to the European Commission wanting Google to break up its online advertising business, and Africa’s historic fight to reshape international tax rules.”

Oxfam offers three notes on how governments can rectify the situation, including the following:

🔹 Revitalizing the state. A dynamic and effective state is the best bulwark against extreme corporate power. Governments should ensure universal provision of healthcare and education, and explore publicly-delivered goods and public options in sectors from energy to transportation.

🔹 Reining in corporate power, including by breaking up monopolies and democratizing patent rules. This also means legislating for living wages, capping CEO pay, and new taxes on the super-rich and corporations, including permanent wealth and excess profit taxes. Oxfam estimates that a wealth tax on the world’s millionaires and billionaires could generate $1.8 trillion a year.

🔹 Reinventing business. Competitive and profitable businesses don’t have to be shackled by shareholder greed. Democratically-owned businesses better equalize the proceeds of business. If just 10 percent of US businesses were employee-owned, this could double the wealth share of the poorest half of the US population, including doubling the average wealth of Black households.

#source

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[365-days-of-taylor-swift]

January Day 23

[library-child]

How Armstrong Feint became Hangfire

Re-reading ATWQ fueled my brainrot concerning the radicalization of Armstrong Feint. How did a loving father become a terrorist hell-bent on slaughtering children? So I did some research on common risk factors that can make people susceptible to terrorism and checked how they apply to Armstrong. Needless to say, this only made my brainrot worse. Anyway, here are the results.

Social isolation ☑️

The first risk factor is the lack of reliable social connections. You may be all alone or unable to open up emotionally to the people close to you. You might even have trouble interacting with other people in the first place. This can result in feeling alienated. There also is no one to support you when you are hurting or interfere when you start radicalizing.

While having only Ellington's limited and likely romanticized perspective on her life with her father, there are some hints Armstrong may have been lonely. He was a single parent who spent most of his time working alone in the wild. Ellington does say she contacted people who knew him, but she never mentions anyone but her father when talking about her past. This could imply they led a very isolated life. Also, Armstrong's enthusiasm about nature could have something to do with his having trouble getting along with other people. At least, he seemed to prefer plants and animals over people.

Hardship ✅

Intense suffering makes you vulnerable in many ways. If you experience hardship and don't get support, you might become more susceptible to radical views/groups. That's what's so seductive about things like cults or terror organizations, after all: They promise you a community, a sense of belonging, and an easy solution for your problems.

Again, we don't know enough about Armstrong's past. He certainly must have been stressed out by being a single parent and the only bread-earner of the family. And he must have gotten into this position somehow. We never learn why Ellington's mother has never been in the picture. Furthermore, as a nature-loving person, he must have felt extreme anguish at the destruction of his home region caused by the flood. Not to mention the destruction of his hometown and the life he had built for himself.

There is also one intriguing aspect that doesn't get explored in the books, so it's purely speculative: the war that made Colonel Colophon a hero. We don't know when exactly this war happened or how involved the Snicket country was, but it does open the possibility that Armstrong's generation had to fight as soldiers.

Lack of perspective ❓

You're in a bad place and don't see a way out. You don't see the point anymore and don't know how you want to go on. Another allure of terrorism is providing you with a 'meaningful life'.

This one is tricky. Armstrong did have a purpose in the form of a young daughter whom he undoubtedly loved with all his heart. We don't know if or how he intended to reunite with her had he succeeded. We can only speculate if he fell into resignation. Perhaps he was shaken by the futility of his life's work after one tycoon's decision had undone it. Perhaps he realized Ellington was growing up and wouldn't need him in a few years.

Powerlessness and injustice ✅

This is relevant both on a social and individual level. When you live under corruption, tyranny, etc without a way to defend yourself, you're more likely to resort to terrorism. It's also relevant if you personally feel you're being treated unfairly and there's nothing you can do about it.

The social injustice is blatantly clear: Ink Inc. was allowed to destroy Killdeer Fields for profit, and its inhabitants could not prevent it. The flooding must have started several years before the beginning of ATWQ. Who knows what Armstrong and the rest of the town did to fight it, all in vain? We also see how corrupt and incompetent the institutions, such as the police, the official fire department, the press, and the legal system, are in the Snicketverse. This might have been a reason the V.F.D. became successful in the first place: They fixed the failed state.

Armstrong's individual perception is more obscure. He certainly realized he was a victim and probably became increasingly obsessed over this. He may have started out being rightfully outraged by the injustice done to him by Stain'd-by-the-Sea and shaken by his own helplessness. But eventually, he got stuck in this state of mind until he forgot he still had agency and responsibilities.

Over-simplified worldview ✅

You tend to view the world in clear black-and-white categories: You are always the hero, and the others are the villains. You're always the victim, the others the oppressors. You're never responsible for your actions; it's everyone else's fault. You lose touch with reality as you sink deeper into a super simple, convenient narrative of how the world works, and spreading terror and violence is the only right to do.

Hangfire displays this attitude during his conversation with Lemony in book 4. He only points out Stain'd-by-the-Sea's crimes without taking ownership of his own. He equates humanity to beasts trying to survive. There are no morals; every act of violence is just self-preservation. It's kill or be killed, meaning kill the children of Stain'd before they can repeat their parents' mistakes.

Conclusion

What can I say? These books have messed up my brain.

[yjano]

Never The Same.

Pairings: Jake x Mc.

Warnings: Swearing, violence, angst, smut, other pairings;), traumatic experiences.

Words: 4.1k

Author's note: Hey there, guess who's back with a new story? Yes, yes it's me. Honestly, this story is going to be a big piece of work and a lot of angst. It's not connected to the game at all. Because I always want to try something new and newer. Read it only if you're into angst stories, please. Thank you and let's go! 🩶

Prologue.

I took a deep breath as the scent of coffee infiltrated my nose, I always loved the scent of the warm dark liquid in the morning. I took a small sip while, slowly walking towards the entrance of the massive building before me, a small smile falling upon my face at the sight of the big silver letters that stood proudly above the automatic doors. "DW Inc."

I had just been out of university when I managed to get a job at the country's biggest company for lawyers. It wasn't an easy job to get, but somehow I managed and I couldn't be more grateful. It was rare for fresh-out-of-school lawyers to get a job at DW iNc, and yet they had somehow hired me. Some people would call it luck, but I preferred to call it my destiny. I was destined to become one of the best lawyers in the country.

In a small time, I worked for DW Inc. I had only gotten the smaller and easier cases, while the big and interesting cases would get handed to the older and more experienced lawyers but I was still very proud of what I had been able to achieve in only a few months. Most people would say my job was boring or stupid at this point but to me, it was my whole world.

As I walked through the doors of the big building my eyes stumbled upon Lilly, the building's receptionist. Lilly had been the first one to welcome me into their company after I got the confirmation that I had been hired as a lawyer for DW Inc, and we had become friends pretty quickly. Lilly was a nice and friendly girl who always made time for their employees and I always admired that in her.

I gave the blonde girl a big smile with a quick wave before, walking further into the building and towards the elevators. With my cup of coffee still present in my hand I pressed the button that would take me up to my floor while waiting for the doors to open.

It didn't take long for the doors to open but what I hadn't expected was the young woman that flew out of them as soon as they were open wide enough. A woman I had come to know as Cleo, one of DW Inc's best lawyers. I only got to take a quick look at her face but it surely seemed like she had been crying. Her eyes were red and puffy and a sad look covered most of her face.

With my eyebrows raised I stepped inside the elevator to go up to my department, still thinking about my little encounter with the woman. Cleo usually wore a serious expression on her face and she was always busy with a big case, so to see her cry was a complete surprise for me. It didn't fit the girl's character and it instantly made me wonder what had been wrong with her.

I slowly shook my head, not giving it too much thought while I pressed the button for the sixth floor. The elevator beeped and the doors slowly closed taking me up to my office. An office I, unfortunately, had to share with four others due to the fact I was pretty new at the company and didn't earn enough to get my privileges. I couldn't wait until I got my own office where I wouldn't be interrupted by co-workers and where I could work on all sorts of big exciting cases.

It didn't take long for the elevator to arrive at the fifth floor, a small ding indicating that I had arrived at its destination and I quickly stepped out of it to make my way toward my office. All while still taking small sips of my coffee. The taste woke me up almost instantly from my morning slumber. Within a few minutes, I finally arrived at my own office, walking over to my desk while putting my half-empty cup of coffee down. I was about to sit down on my chair and open up my computer to open up my latest case but got almost immediately interrupted by someone calling out my name.

I turned around to face the person who had called my name and was surprised to find my boss's assistant standing in the doorway.

"Mister Bloomgate would like to see you in his office in 10 minutes." She informed me with a small smile on her face and some papers in her hand.

Without giving her too much response I managed to say a small "okay" in return while I began to shut down my computer and grabbed my cup of coffee again. A large frown started to make its way down my forehead when I turned around towards the entrance of the office. Why in the world would Alam Bloomgate want to see me? I didn't do anything wrong, did I? A lot of scenarios came across my mind, most of them ending with me getting fired or worse expelled...

This would be it, I would lose my chance at having a successful career.

With heavy steps, I made my way to the elevator and waited until I heard the familiar ding which indicated that the elevator had arrived at my current floor. With a heavy heart and a deep sigh, I stepped inside the elevator and pressed the button for the eighth floor, the floor where all the important people of DW inc have their office. All of them including their boss Alan Bloomgate. A floor I would never have my own office if I kept going like this.

I had only been once to the eight floors and that was to deliver something. Oh, how I wished that would be the case this time too.

I once again heard the familiar ding of the elevator and with shaking legs I slowly stepped passed the metal doors, making my way toward Mr. Bloomgate's office. An office that couldn't be missed. Once you left the elevator you would instantly know where to go. Mr. Bloomgate's office was without a doubt the biggest in the whole building. Two massive wooden doors decorated with gold stripes instantly indicated where you needed to be. Multiple desks stood before them, all of them filled with young women who took phone call after phone call.

I slowly made my way towards the impressive doors, instantly walking up to the desk where his assistant was sitting. She gave me a warm smile and nodded her head towards a little waiting area on the other side of the hallway.

"I'll inform Mister Bloomgate that you've arrived."

I somehow managed to nod my head a little before walking to the little sitting area and taking place on one of the black red chairs. Multiple thoughts immediately started to flow through my mind. The most important one of them was that I should have called in sick. If I had been sick they wouldn't have fired me, right?

"You can go inside," She suddenly said, shaking me up from my thoughts. I gave the girl a soft nod before standing up with a heavy body and a heart that pounded against my chest. I swallowed hard and raised my hand, knocking on the door. A small 'come in' coming from inside the office.

I looked at her for a little reassurance and she instantly gave me a small nod indicating that I could open the door.

I took a deep breath before slowly opening the door, my breath instantly stocking in my throat at the sight before me.

This was my first time inside his office and I had never seen a room that was more perfect than this one. The beautiful black floor gave an amazing contrast to the white walls and in the middle of the room stood a big black desk that just screamed power to Taehyung.

When I looked behind the big desk I locked eyes with none other than Alan Bloomgate. A man I hadn't had the chance to meet up with until now. Mr. Bloomgate had always been one of the best lawyers in the country, winning every case and getting praise from almost everybody. Ever since I decided that I wanted to become a lawyer I had looked up to the man. When I was still in law school I followed every case the man did and took notes of almost everything. Alan had been my role model from day one, so when I got hired by DW inc. it was truly a dream come true.

Coming from a family of lawyers it didn't surprise people when Mr. Bloomgate took over DW inc from his father a few years ago, making it all the more special for me to work in a place like this.

I never thought I would feel anything other than admiration when I looked at the man before me but never before had I been so wrong about anything. The only thing I felt at the moment was fear.

Fear to lose my job, my dreams, and everything else I worked so hard for.

I got completely lost in my thoughts until I suddenly heard Mr. Bloomgate's voice acknowledge me.

"Thank you for coming Mc."

I gave the man a forced smile when he motioned me to take a seat opposite of him.

"No problem sir, I wasn't busy with an interesting case anyway," I answered softly while sitting down, the moment those words left my mouth I wished I would have just stayed silent. I closed my eyes and mentally cursed myself.

You complete and utter imbecile. Who in the world would say something like that to her boss?

To my surprise, Alan started laughing. It wasn't fake or forced, it was a genuine laugh, a laugh that threw me completely off guard.

I gave him a surprised look, getting a big smile in return.

"Mc, there are some serious things I would like to talk to you about".

I gave the man a small nod while he continued.

"I don't know if you've heard about what happened to Cleo?"

"I haven't heard anything about her sir," I answered softly, immediately thinking back to my little confrontation with the woman this morning.

Alan clicked his tongue while giving me a serious look.

"I fired her this morning, she refused to do one of the most important cases we have at the moment."

I couldn't believe my ears. It did explain why Cleo was crying this morning but her getting fired and refusing to do a case, it just didn't make sense to me. Cleo is known to never back down from a case, so to hear that that is exactly what she has been fired for just didn't make sense to me. None of this sounded like the Cleo I had gotten to know in the small amount of time I had come to work with DW inc.

I looked back up at Mr. Bloomgate with questioning eyes.

"Why are you telling me this?" Sure I was a good listener, it was a job as a matter of fact but that couldn't be the reason why he wanted me in his office right? Alan just gave me a slight smirk and leaned back against his chair.

"Because Mc, I want you to handle the case Cleo refused to do."

I looked at him with disbelief in my eyes.

"Seriously?"

He gave me a short nod and I couldn't help the big smile that broke out on my face. This was it. This was my big chance. I wasn't getting fired, I was getting a promotion!

Alan slid me some papers and I took them with shaking hands from the man. My eyes started scanning the papers and I immediately understood why Cleo had refused to do this case. Oh fuck.

I looked at the picture attached to the top of the first page. A man with jet-black hair and pretty blue eyes stared back at me. Eyes and a face I knew way too well...

Jake Dalton, was the biggest hacker, and mobster known in our country.

"Do you accept this case Mc?" He suddenly asked, knowing I wouldn't be able to refuse the case.

I looked one last time at the blue-eyed man in the picture before a dark smirk found my way onto my face.

"I do, I won't disappoint you."

I would be crazy to let such a big opportunity go, I would prove I can win this case. I would prove that this is why they hired me in this company, this was going to be my big breakthrough.

As I made my way out of his office. I couldn't help but be overflowed with joy, my now cold cup of coffee still in my hand. I finally got a big case. It didn't matter I had to defend one of the biggest criminals in the country.

It would all be worth it in the end. Right?

It had already gone pitch black outside, stars shining bright in the sky and the moonlight softly coming in through my office window shining on my freshly brewed cup of coffee. It must have been way past midnight but I didn't care. I was still working on my new case, the Dalton one that is. The excitement from getting a promotion was still running through my veins, making me even more eager to get everything done as soon as possible while completely forgetting the exhaustion that would soon take over my body.

The whole night I had been studying the file Alan had provided me with, digging up articles about my client, and writing down notes on my laptop. It didn't take long for me to figure out that this case was a lot harder than I first thought it would be.

Jake Dalton wasn't a sweetheart, far from being one, to be honest. The list of accusations against my client got on and on and with each passing second, I was afraid I would find out more things that I was supposed to plead the prisoner innocent for.

Thus far I already had over 40 crimes the prisoner was accused of. All of them fell at least in one of the categories I had listed on my laptop.

•Assault, arson.

•Kidnapping.

•First-degree murder, vehicular homicide.

•Armed robbery.

•Drug possession, drug manufacturing, drug trafficking.

•Blackmail, money laundering, cybercrime.

Everything you could think of was already on my list. Everything except for rape. I was really glad that wasn't something my client decided to do. The man at least had some kind of dignity to stay away from that particular one, I wasn't sure if I would have taken the case if it had been on the list so I was glad it wasn't.

I still had some problems with the list though, if I wasn't able to convince the jury of Jake's innocence in at least one of these accusations, he would surely receive the death penalty. There was no way they would let the prisoner live with all these things to his name. The guy was a danger to their country and I was pretty sure they would do everything to get rid of him.

The whole thing meant that if I wouldn't able to pull this off it would mean I lost my case and would never become the great lawyer I strived to be. On the other hand, if I did manage to plead the prisoner nonguilty to some of these accusations I would become one of the greatest and most famous lawyers in our country within an instant.

I had to win, there was no way I was going to fail, failing wasn't an option anymore. Mr. Bloomgate had given me an opportunity and I was going to make full use of it. This was my dream, and I wouldn't let anything come between me and my goal.

Reading carefully through some of the evidence which has been provided, I couldn't help but feel bad. This man was a monster if everything he was being accused of was true and I would be the one to plead him not guilty to all of them if Jake had done it or not...

Shaking my head to get rid of the thoughts that just roamed my mind, I continued my research on my new client. If I truly wanted to be a good lawyer it didn't matter if my client did the things he was being accused of. It only mattered if I would be able to convince the jury that my client didn't do it. That had to be my only goal. Plead this man not guilty and go on with my life, in other words.

Do your job and don't question it.

With that thought in mind, I opened a new internet tab, researching yet another page on Jake Dalton. If I wanted to know who I would be defending, I should know who exactly I was dealing with, what was Jake Dalton like, what were his motives and how could I make him look as innocent as possible.

I typed Jake's name into the google search bar, pressing enter and instantly being hit with an overload of articles on the prisoner. All of them started with things he had done, all of them except one.

'The biggest hacker and mobster Jake Dalton finally captured.'

I clicked the article, my eyes scanning the page like there was no tomorrow.

'After years of terrorizing our country, the leader of the red-eye crew, Jake Dalton, has finally been captured by the police. 5 years after the murder of one of the best FBI agents. The agent's family will get their justice by seeing Jake Dalton behind bars for the rest of his life. Jake Dalton was captured by the police on Friday night the 5th of march just outside the gas station. It is not yet known with which accusations he will be charged.'

I couldn't believe what I had just read, my eyes big and my mouth slightly open. There were almost no details about how my client was captured or how they eventually managed to find him. There was no information except for the fact they had captured Jake Dalton.

Maybe the police didn't want it to leak but at the same time that didn't make any sense to me at all. I would have expected the police to tell all the details of such a great capture, not keep quiet about it like it was an everyday occasion. It just didn't make sense to me, it just wasn't right.

A small yawn left my mouth, while my eyes slowly started to close making me unable to read the thing on my computer properly. With a soft shake of my head, I decided that I had done enough for today. Shutting down my computer while putting my belongings in my bag, with a small breath of air, I put my bag over my shoulder while walking towards the elevator. The freshly brewed cup of coffee was completely forgotten on my desk.

I had never been in the office at this time of the night, almost no one was there anymore except for some janitors and I suddenly became highly aware that if I became stuck in the elevator I wouldn't be found until the next morning. Not wanting to take the risk of spending my night in a small metal cubicle I decided to use the stairs.

I started to make my way down to where I would be able to leave the massive building, not missing the fact that It was awfully quiet on every floor I passed, too quiet...Horror movie quiet.

I shook my head to get rid of the creepy thoughts and continued my way downstairs, the faster I was out of the door the better. The dark had never been my favorite thing in the world, I used to be afraid of it when I was little and he never fully grew over it. This time was no exception to that statement.

After a few more minutes of conquering my fear, I finally reached the bottom of the stairs, quickly making my way out of the front door. I made my way out on the street and I noticed that Lilly had already gone home, the lobby was empty without her continuous laughing and chatting.

I had texted her earlier today that I would be working late and that she didn't have to wait for me, on a normal day we would have taken the subway back home together since we lived in the same district. But today wasn't a normal day. Today was my first day as Jake Dalton's lawyer and I made full use of that title.

Lilly and I had always been very close. Our friendship had only grown stronger over time, the two of us now were closer than ever inside DW inc. Lilly was much more to me than just a colleague, she was my friend and I wouldn't trade her for the world.

I slowly started to make my way out on the street, instantly being met with fresh air hitting my face and invading my nose. I closed my eyes and inhaled the fresh air, a feeling of pride filling my whole body. I had finally gotten the promotion I was dying to get and couldn't help but feel the need to celebrate my victory even if it was in a small way.

It was pretty late, so I chose to just go home and settle for a good glass of red wine, a real celebration would follow when I got Jake out of jail. I started to make my way toward the subway station, smiling the whole way.

I finally did it. All my hard work had finally paid off.

Within ten minutes the subway had arrived and another ten-minute ride later I reached my district and began my walk home. The thought of my apartment brought an instant feeling of joy to my system.

I could clearly remember the day I got the keys to the small place as if it was yesterday. I had been so proud to have gotten a job at DW inc, getting the keys to my place and moving to a house inside the capital just made it all more real.

Trading my life at a farm just outside of Duskwood for the busy city life of Duskwood had been a huge step for me. I remembered my parents being so proud of me and yet sad to see me leave but in the end, it had all been worth it.

After a five-minute walk, I finally arrived at my apartment block. It wasn't big but it was big enough to fit around fifteen apartments. The only downside to my apartment was that there wasn't an elevator, luckily for me. My apartment was on the third floor and not on the fifteenth.

Quickly making my way inside and rushing up the stairs I made my way up to my home. Instantly sticking the key into the keyhole the moment I arrived before my door. I twisted the keys and opened the door to let myself inside. The smell of home instantly hit my nose and made me feel welcome.

My apartment wasn't anything special. Just a kitchen and living room with two doors, one for my bedroom and one for my bathroom. Most people would consider my apartment small, but I considered myself blessed to have a home I could call my own. It was my place, a place where no one would judge me no matter what I did and where I could truly be myself.

I made my way to the kitchen, opened a cabinet, and took a perfectly polished wine glass. The pretty glass was filled with a cherry red liquid within a few seconds, a content smile made its way onto my face.

I took a small sip from my glass of wine and smiled as the red cold liquor slid down my throat. I was never someone for alcoholic beverages but wine was my only exception to that rule. The wine wasn't alcohol, wine was something you had to savor.

Walking towards my couch I sat down, my mind was instantly filled with thoughts about the exciting day I had. Never in a million years would I have thought that today would finally be the day I would get a promotion, and finally get my first big case.

Feeling satisfied with how my day had gone I quickly finished my glass of wine and decided to get ready for bed. Tomorrow I could use all the energy the universe could give me, as that would be the first time I would meet my newest client.

I was finally going to meet Jake Dalton...

[eretzyisrael]

by Sean O'Driscoll

Newsweek found that one Yemeni business administrator is the joint owner of Hamas' UAE property company, which owned an office block worth $150 million; is the co-founder of a Hamas-linked, publicly traded Turkish construction company; owns 20 percent of a Hamas front company in Saudi Arabia; and is on the board of another Hamas-linked Sudanese company. Separately, company records show an accountant from the West Bank is central to four major construction and real estate companies in three countries: Turkey, Sudan and Saudi Arabia.

The network appears to be growing. A wealthy Sudanese businessman who had close ties to Osama bin Laden, the late Al-Qaeda leader, and who is described by the U.S. Treasury Department as a "Hamas financier," set up a Hamas-linked company in Spain last December, corporate filings show.

The U.S. placed companies and executives on its Hamas sanctions list in 2022 and during three rounds of sanctions imposed on Hamas after the October 7 attack on Israel. That attack killed around 1,200 people, and militants took some 250 others hostage, the Associated Press reported. As of January 9, 2024, Israel's air, ground and sea assault in Gaza had killed more than 22,400 people, two-thirds of them women and children, the AP said, citing the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. The offensive has devastated large parts of the Gaza Strip, displaced nearly 85 percent of its population of 2.3 million, and left a quarter of its residents facing starvation, according to the United Nations.

[mariacallous]

Russian intelligence is using a Serbian agent to infiltrate EU institutions and to spread pro-Kremlin talking points about its invasion of Ukraine, according to a Western intelligence briefing seen by POLITICO.

As recently as October 2023, Serbian national Novica Antić — an active “agent of influence” who knowingly worked closely with Russia’s security agency, according to the documents — held meetings with European officials in Brussels and in particular, Members of the European Parliament.

Those MEPs included German Greens lawmaker Viola von Cramon-Taubadel, Italian Socialists & Democrats lawmaker Alessandra Moretti, and Vladimír Bilčík, a Slovakian member of the conservative European People’s Party Group, according to a press release and a photo seen by POLITICO. There is nothing in the intelligence briefing to suggest that Moretti, Bilčík and von Cramon-Taubadel were aware of Antic’s FSB links when they met with him.

Moretti, Bilčík and von Cramon-Taubadel did not respond to a request for comment from POLITICO.

Antić, the chair of the Serbian Military Trade Union, also met with representatives of the EUROMIL and EPSU trade unions, which represent armed forces personnel and public services employees in the European Union, respectively.

When asked about the meeting with Antić, an EPSU official responded, saying: “A delegation of his union was in Brussels in October, where they met with several MEPs and they were all transparent. The only topic was trade union rights.”

EUROMIL told POLITICO said they reacted strongly to the events in Serbia and rejected any possible ties with the Russian authorities.  EUROMIL President Emmanuel Jacob added “the organization could take the short-term step of temporarily suspending Serbia’s observer status pending clarification.”

According to the Western intelligence briefing seen by POLITICO, Antić is an active “agent of influence” for Russia’s Federal Security Service, known as the FSB.

Antić works closely with an FSB associate named Vyacheslav Kalinin, a Russian national and editor-in-chief of Veteran News, a media website specializing in news for the veterans of the armed forces. An “About us” tab on the website says that Veteran News is an “information partner” of the FSB and the Russian Ministry of Defense, among other branches of Russia’s security forces.

Kalinin did not respond to a request for comment from POLITICO. 

While the intelligence briefing highlights Antić’s actions in particular, it noted Kalinin recruited other people, without specifying how many and within which countries.

Russia is using Serbia as a launchpad for influence operations designed to weaken pro-EU and pro-NATO sentiment inside the country as well as within the European Union, which has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion two years ago. Antić has used his role as head of Serbia’s military union to criticize Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and senior members of the country’s armed forces.

“They took every opportunity to promote Russian propaganda relating to the war in Ukraine,” the briefing said, referring to meetings in Serbia and EU countries.

The news that Antić held meetings inside the European Parliament underscores the body’s vulnerability to state-backed influence operations. Earlier this month, POLITICO revealed spyware was found on the mobile phones of two lawmakers in the European Parliament, including former French Europe minister Nathalie Loiseau, who chairs the body’s defense subcommittee. 

Antić and his representatives did not respond to a request for comment from POLITICO.

Kalinin invited Antić to Russia to meet with senior Russian military officials between 2019 and 2020. Initially focused on influencing Serbian civil society, the pair have since widened their focus to include European trade union and veterans’ organizations and, in recent months, members of the European Parliament.

Antić, an outspoken critic of Serbia’s armed forces who has fallen afoul of the country’s political leadership, is currently being detained on unspecified charges, according to news website Balkan Insight.

According to Balkan Insight, Antić has been dismissed from Serbia’s military twice over the past five years. He has, per the publication, gone on a hunger strike to protest his detention. A lawyer for Antić declined to specify to Balkan Insight on what charges he was being held.

[diammante]

 ⸺   THUS  I  CLOTHE  MY  NAKED  VILLAINY  WITH  OLD  ODD  ENDS,  STOLEN  FORTH  OF  HOLY  WRIT. 

NAME APOLLONIA HOLMES A COURT. NICKNAMES ONLY NIA TO THE SELECTED FEW ZODIAC ARIES SUN, ARIES MOON, VIRGO RISING. DOB APRIL 18TH, FORTHY-SEVEN. GENDER CIS WOMAN. PRONOUNS SHE/HER. PLACE OF BIRTH LONDON, ENGLAND. RELIGION ROMAN CATHOLIC. LABEL THE HEIRESS OCCUPATION SOCIALITE, INVESTOR, COO OF HOLMES A COURT INC. A JEWELLERY BRAND.

HEIGHT FIVE FOOT SEVEN INCHES. HAIR DARK BROWN, REGULARLY STYLED. EYES DARK BROWN, USUALLY NOT ENHANCED WITH MAKEUP. SCENT A MIXTURE OF AMBER, VETIVER AND HIACYNTH, AND OF COURSE CIGARETTES. INSPIRATION PRINCESS MARGARET ( THE CROWN ), CATHERINE TRAMELL ( BASIC INSTINCT ) HILDA FURACAO ( HILDA FURACAO )

FATHER DAVID HOLMES A COURT ( OWNER OF HOLMES A COURT JEWELLERY BRAND AND HOUSE ) MOTHER JOCASTA GREVILLE ( SOCIALITE, COUNTESS OF WARWICK ) SIBLINGS NONE. SPOUSE WILLIAM PHILIPPS ( VISCOUNT ST DAVIDS, DIVORCED ) / gif credit to mistressvera, edited by me.

the only child of david holmes a court, an american jeweler, and owner of holmes a court inc. and his wife, jocasta, a british socialite and noble woman. apollonia grew up between two countries and two worlds, always having one foot on british soil, while the other, she kept neatly on the streets of new york. childhood was an amalgamation of protocols, endless tutoring, and relentless scrutiny under the watchful eye of the press.

as a teenager, she found a lifelong friend in ignes, though certain resentment has built up over the years. it's at this tender age that she started to diverge from the norm, unwilling to play by every rule that had been set by those much older than her. it could be said that her parents enabled this type of behavior by spoiling her first, which ultimately only made apollonia's volatile nature stronger.

the press had been fond of following her to nightclubs, balls, countless celebrations, naming her 'the unconventional apollonia' in the process. she, on the other hand, both loved and loathed her life, but things took a turn in her twenties, when her parents set an ultimatum and promised her the key to the holmes a court empire. all she had to do was marry well, someone who would amplify their legacy.

she met william at the behest of her parents, and thereafter started a relationship with him. the heiress with vivid brown eyes never held any love for him, and instead, preferred the company of her lover. the marriage of william and apollonia was quick, flashy and grand, and she detested every moment, but with it, she had secured herself an entire future.

at a later date, she moved to new york with him, just so she could be closer to the headquarters of her father's company. four years later, she divorced william. she never had any children, despite wanting her own, and instead turned to arts and charity in order to feel something.

over the years, many stories and rumors and man-made myths were spread about her. from the notion that she bathes in milk and sleeps in silk sheets only with a diamond choker around her neck ( very true ), to the rumors that she does indeed have a child, are just some of them.

she doesn't design most of the brand's jewelry, but she did lend a creative hand in the process of creating a few dazzling pieces. she also has two named after her, one incredibly luxurious necklace and a diamond-studded choker.

can be rather charming and witty, but also brash and brazen. loves to gamble. drives a motorcycle just to spite her image but can also show up to any event dressed to the nines. is a woman that's made of polar opposites. always smoking. the scent of smoke has gotten under her nails and she can't wash it away. the one thing about apollonia that you can never forget is how she smells. the scent of her always lingers.

[leveloneandup]

Extra Time: Two World Cup Champs Aren’t Scared of the Dutch

Holland day

So, two-time World Cup champion Christen Press, what scares you about the Netherlands, America’s second-round opponent at this 2023 World Cup? The U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT) will face the Orange Lionesses tonight at 9 p.m. E.T. in New Zealand's capital city of Wellington.

Press, who won titles in 2015 and 2019 as a forward for the U.S. but recently underwent a fourth surgery to repair the knee preventing her from playing in this World Cup, is mildly offended by this question. “As soon as you say, ‘What scares you,’ I took that as a player,” Press says. “And I’m like, ‘Nothing scares me.” Press, 34, laughs. “OK, go ahead, Tobin …"

As in Tobin Heath, who’s also on this call—and was also on the 2015 and 2019 USWNT World Cup teams (in addition to the 2011 one)—and has also won a pair of World Cup titles, in 2015 and 2019 with the USWNT. Like Press, Heath, 35, has been sidelined due to injury. So I called on the duo—who are among the founders of the lifestyle brand RE-INC, often finish each other’s sentences, and are co-hosting an excellent podcast and YouTube program during the World Cup called The RE-CAP Show—to break down the U.S.-Netherlands matchup.

Heath agrees with Press. She doesn’t find the Dutch all that frightening. “The Dutch are a good team,” says Heath. “They're not a great team in this tournament.” Heath concedes that the Dutch are the best team in the USWNT’s group, which also includes Vietnam—whom the U.S. defeated 3-0 on Friday in the World Cup opener—and Portugal. “Outside of us,” Press chimes in.

“Outside of us, yes,” says Heath.

Yes, U.S.-Netherlands is a rematch of the 2019 World Cup final. But Heath cautions against reading too much into that. “There were a ton of better teams we played in 2019,” says Heath. She and Press point to games against Spain in the Round of 16, France—in France—in the quarters, and England in the semis as much tougher tests. The U.S. won those games 2-1, but shut out the Netherlands, 2-0, in the title game. “We always say our final was one of the easier games for us,” says Heath.

What’s more, the Dutch—who beat Portugal 1-0 in their World Cup opener—are down a superstar. Vivianne Miedema, the country’s all-time leading goal scorer, is missing this World Cup due to an ACL tear. “We don’t have to significantly adjust what we’re doing in order to take care of an individual player,” says Heath. “I don’t think they can do much damage to us.”

The one Netherlands player Heath mentioned in our conversation as a threat to watch—striker Lineth Beerensteyn—is now unlikely to play, because of an ankle injury she suffered against Portugal. Heath notes that the Dutch have a solid aerial presence off set pieces. And the Orange Lionesses could exploit the tendency of U.S. outside defenders Crystal Dunn and Emily Fox to play “inverted” positions—meaning they sometimes serve more as midfielders, moving into more centralized spaces on the pitch, getting involved in short passes on the attack. That strategy can leave the U.S. defense susceptible to Dutch counterattacks out wide. “You are leaving a big area to exploit,” says Heath.

Still, the former USWNT players aren’t all that worried. If anything, this is a huge opportunity for the Americans to make a statement. Germany made its mark, with a 6-0 crushing of Morocco. Brazil cast itself a real threat, with its 4-0 opening game victory over Panama. Spain beat Zambia 5-0 on Tuesday. “There’s a few teams that are like, we’re here,” says Heath. “We didn’t have that game against Vietnam. We can have that game against the Netherlands, if we want. I don’t see there being any reason why we can’t.”

~~~

Parting thought

Since they’ve played in past tournaments, I asked Heath and Press what it’s like for players at the World Cup between games. The U.S. did travel from Auckland to Wellington in the five days between its matchups against Vietnam and the Netherlands. Still, that’s plenty of downtime.

Enough to make you go stir-crazy?

“It’s almost like surrealism,” says Press. “The days are a little gray and foggy. You almost can’t remember. You’re very careful with when you look at your phone and who you even connect with. Or how much you walk. Your whole life is bubble-wrapped. Every second of the day. And then you have to go out and do this incredibly physical and risky and hard and emotionally draining thing. And then you just are bubble-wrapped again.”

“We sit around and talk and try to get a little bit of relief. It's this incredibly difficult experience to explain. You're with the only people in the world that get it. And that creates a bond with every single player I've played with in a world championship that's unlike any other. Because there's this respect. There's this knowingness. You don't even have to say anything and you know what's going on with your teammates.”

“We eat too many meals. We’re really just trying to fuel, fuel, fuel. And we talk and we laugh and we make it to the next game.”

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from the Associated Press (AP):

The official nonprofit organization of the National Park Service is set to receive the largest grant in its history, a $100 million gift the fundraising group described as transformative for the country’s national parks.

The National Park Foundation, which Congress created in the 1960s to support national parks, will receive the donation from Indianapolis-based foundation Lilly Endowment Inc. The park foundation described the gift on Monday as the largest grant in history benefiting U.S. national parks.

The money will be used to address the needs of the country’s more than 400 national park sites, said Will Shafroth, president and CEO of the National Park Foundation.

The foundation hopes to announce the first round of grants stemming from the donation later this year, Shafroth said.

Exactly how the money will be utilized remains to be seen, but one of the foundation’s priorities is restoring coral reefs at Biscayne National Park in Florida, Shafroth said, while another priority is the restoration of trout species in western national parks. Those are among the foundation’s recent investments.

In addition to funding initiatives that protect fragile ecosystems and species, Shafroth said the money will also be used to create opportunities for young people to visit national parks.

The National Park Foundation is in the midst of its “Campaign for National Parks,” a $1 billion fundraising effort to support parks. Lilly Endowment made the gift to support that effort, said N. Clay Robbins, chair and CEO of Lilly Endowment.