#Foot care services New York

[rybsteinmedical]

Diabetes Foot Care - Tips And Reasons To See A Podiatrist Regularly

Are you suffering from diabetes? If so, you should take good care of your foot health! Yes, you read that information right! 

Foot problems are a common complication of having high blood sugar. People with this condition can experience foot problems due to two main reasons! 

First, their blood supply may get affected and lead to slower healing. Secondly, they can lose sensation in their feet due to nerve damage. A person with nerve damage may not even realize that minor cuts in their feet can lead to ulcers.

If you have diabetes and want to avoid any complications in your foot health, it’s good to see a podiatrist in New York regularly. Getting your feet checked by your doctor can help diagnose the problem on time before it causes further damage to your nerves or legs. 

This article describes the adverse effects of poor blood circulation in a diabetic person, suggestions to improve circulation, and some practical foot care tips to enhance foot health!

Poor Blood Circulation In Diabetics -

Poor blood circulation is a major cause of the slow healing of cuts and sores on your foot. How can you know if you have a blood circulation problem? It's when you have pain or cramps in the back of your legs while walking, sitting, or standing!

Mostly, this problem occurs due to the hardening of arteries when they clog up. Some of the common causes include excessive smoking, high cholesterol, increased blood glucose levels, etc. 

How Can You Improve Blood Circulation?

Learning the cause of your poor circulation can help you take some steps to correct them! For example- you can follow these tips to improve your blood circulation -

Control blood-fat levels.

Control your blood sugar levels.

Do some sort of physical activity to maintain your fitness.

Give Up Smoking (or limit smoking).

You might have already heard and seen that smokers have a high risk of heart attacks, strokes, and blood circulation problems. This is because smoking can lead to spasms or narrowing of blood vessels. This, in turn, leads to foot problems in diabetics. 

And most importantly, if you are from Brooklyn, you should see a primary care doctor in Brooklyn, NY, when you suspect you have diabetic foot complications. Getting the treatment at the right time can be the best idea to improve your blood circulation and prevent further damage to your nerves in the legs. 

Foot Care Tips For Diabetic People -

A diabetic person needs to have his feet checked by a podiatrist in New York at least once or twice a year! Remember, diabetes can lead to gangrene, a dead black-colored tissue. Most of the time, it results from the delayed treatment of foot injuries. 

Here Are Some Tips For Daily Foot Care -

People with diabetes and neuropathy or vascular disease can follow these tips to prevent foot problems -

Check the feet daily. Look for signs of infection, such as redness, swelling, or heat. 

Keep the feet well-cleaned. Drying the area between the toes is important after washing the feet. 

In case there is a lot of moisture between your toes, applying methylated spirits is good.

Make sure to apply moisturizer, especially on the cracked heel area.

Tips To Keep In Mind While Buying New Shoes -

Don’t buy shoes if you feel uncomfortable wearing them.

Try to avoid investing in open-toed and narrow-toed shoes.

Always have your feet measured first before purchasing any shoe pair. Make sure you buy a long enough pair with enough space inside. 

How To Prevent Yourself From Getting Any Injury To The Feet?

Though you can reduce the chances of getting foot complications by visiting your doctor regularly, here are some more tips that can help you avoid injury on your feet with damaged nerves.

Never go somewhere barefoot.

Always wear appropriate shoes.

Refrain from wearing shoes that are too snug.

Reduce the chances of injury by wearing protective shoes that are well-fitted.

Make sure your toenails are clipped regularly. 

If you have corn or calluses, get them treated by a podiatrist in New York or anywhere near your place.

Before stepping into the bathtub, check the water temperature with your elbow. 

Do not put your feet close to the radiant heaters. 

Visit your doctor regularly to check signs such as reduced circulation, sensation on your foot or abnormal foot structure, etc.

When To See A Doctor?

See your doctor if you feel pain, heat, or swelling, and observe discoloration in your feet! In case you develop a cut on your feet that becomes red and does not heal for a long time, do not hesitate to make a trip to a nearby clinic. 

Diabetes is a condition that can negatively affect the blood circulation in your body. In addition, it can cause damage to your nerves in the feet. If you have diabetes, you need to observe the signs of foot problems early. Getting treatment from a primary care doctor or podiatrist in New York can help you stay on top of your foot health!

[jointherebellion215]

Birdie

John "Bucky" Egan x female!reader

Summary: A rare night out in London has Bucky coming to terms with his feelings for you.

Word Count: 2.9k

Tags: mechanic!reader, songbird!reader, female!reader, she/her pronouns used, drinking culture, cursing, mutual pining, moderate bouts of denial, insecurities, women supporting women because it's what we deserve, let's pretend that The Old Therebefore is an ancient Appalachian folk song in this universe, maybe she's a Mary Sue idgaf, I just wanted to write something happy so LET ME LIVE, WWII era, there's no Y/N but reader has the nickname "Birdie"

A/N: Yeah, I'm obsessed with Masters of the Air. I had to write something for my mans before the creative procrastination literally killed me. Please leave a like, comment, or even a reblog if you're so inclined :)

You can read my OC version of this story on AO3!

Songs Mentioned in This Fic:

Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy by The Andrews Sisters

G.I. Jive by Johnny Mercer

The Ole Therebefore (Accapella) by Rachel Zegler

Disclaimer: I own nothing. This story and any recognizably named characters are based solely on dramatic portrayals of the characters from the series, not the real individuals they represent. All the respect to the actual service people who fought and died in the Second World War. Also, don't copy my writing without explicit permission. That includes you, you AI sonuvabitch.

Your heels clicked on the cobblestone streets, turning into the pub you’d heard so much about. You were out celebrating a very rare weekend off. The Brass had somehow allowed you and twenty other mechanics from base two days leave, so you took advantage of the opportunity and headed straight to London.

Your two best girlfriends from base were with you. Teresa was one of the toughest nurses you’d ever come across. She could give you a wide grin, crinkles around her hazel eyes, and reset a broken bone without breaking a sweat. It helps that she was already working towards becoming a nurse back in New Mexico, the war just sped along that process. You had bonded over your love of books, giving each other recommendations almost weekly.

You’d met Irene on the boat to England. She puked on your shoes almost thirty minutes exactly after leaving the port in New York. You gave a small grin, offering her a handkerchief and a piece of ginger candy and the rest was history. Finding out that she was a fellow mechanic was the icing on the cake. Coming in at a whopping five foot two, the spritely blonde could easily be found in a crowd with her loud Appalachian accent.

It seemed almost like fate for the three of you to have found each other. Being some of the few women on base naturally made you close, but you were closer with Irene and Teresa than any of the others. That’s not to say that you weren’t friends with any of the men, because you were. Friendly. 

All three of you were dressed to the nines, in contradiction to your everyday work wear. You all got ready together in your hotel room, giggling while you applied makeup here, spritzed some perfume there. You all felt confident and were ready to have a good time. You spotted some familiar faces and made your way over towards them, your friends linked arm-in-arm with you. Lemmons was the first to greet you.

Of the fifty men on the ground crew, Sgt. Ken Lemmons was the most welcoming of them all. From the get-go, he didn’t care if you were a man or woman. He just wanted to know that you were capable. You were sure he had to go through some hazing because of his age, which probably changed his perspective on gatekeeping the job. This made earning and maintaining respect a lot easier for the women on your crew. We all came over with the same goal, it was better for all if we just helped each other out.

“Hey Birdie! Nice to see you out and about.”

Ah, the famed nickname. You tend to hum and sing under your breath when elbow-deep in a project. It helps you pass the time and clear your mind. Of course, the rest of the ground crew quickly caught on to this habit of yours, which quickly earned you the nickname “Birdie”. You, of course, never sing solo in public, so this confuses anyone who’s not around you while you’re working. But the name stuck, so here you are. Birdie.

Chairs are quickly cleared for you and your friends, which you all graciously take. You go up to buy some drinks, knowing what your friends like, and quickly return with your drinks of choice. Conversation flows, laughs are shared, and a few drinking games are played over the next hours. Teresa soon speaks up on a topic you’d been hoping to avoid.

“Do you think he’ll be here tonight?”

You shrug and look into your drink, “Dunno. Why does it matter?”

Irene, the ever supportive best friend that she is, backs up Teresa. “What do you mean ‘why’? This is your chance to finally make a move!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” You quickly deny, taking another sip.

An unladylike snort leaves Irene, “My ass! You and Major Egan have been making googly eyes at each other when you think the other’s not looking for months. I’m saying it’s time for you to perk your tits up, buck on over and ride that—!” You slam your drink on the table, pressing your hand over Irene’s mouth, heat rising to your cheeks in embarrassment.

“Are you insane?” You whisper harshly, looking around to make sure no one overheard you. You seem to be in the clear, which makes you calm down a bit. Irene pushes off your hand, takes a swig of her drink, and consults the person who started this whole conversation.

“Am I wrong?” You look to Teresa, who cringes slightly in agreement.

You gape at the pair of them. Normally, you were the median between the two girls who had vastly differing opinions. But this is what made them come to a consensus? Unbelievable.

“Look, I’m not saying that I don’t want to.” You start, which makes your friends nod encouragingly at you. “It’s just that… Is he really as interested as you think he is?”

They both groan and slump against each other, like they’d just run a marathon. Teresa sits up, scooching your chair in closer so that the three of you were in a private triangle, cut off from the rest of the group.

“Let’s look at the facts here, okay?” Teresa starts to tick off a finger with each point she and Irene make. But you seem to always have a rebuttal at the ready.

“He brings you coffee every morning.”

“I thought he does that for everyone.”

“He constantly fixes his hair when you’re around.”

“He takes care of his appearance!”

“He walks you to the mess hall every day for dinner.”

“We just happen to be going the same way. And we happen to have the same dinner schedule.”

“He read The Hobbit when you said how much you loved it.”

“He’s an adventurous guy, it’s an adventurous book, what’s not to like about it?”

“You two literally will walk and talk outside alone for hours.”

“A man can’t have a stimulating conversation with a woman?”

“He laughs at all your dumb jokes.”

“Hey! They’re not all dumb. Like, the one with the goose and the—”

“Point proven. Anyways! He has your picture in the inside pocket of his jacket.”

That one stops you in your tracks. You brain tries to justify this meaning but comes up blank.

“He…” You struggle with an excuse. “He…” Your best friends give victorious smirks in your direction.

“He… likes the extra padding in his jacket?” You stutter over what is possibly the most pathetic, sorry excuse you could have ever come up with.

“When are you gonna admit to yourself that he likes you? Like, actually truly likes you?” 

You gave a sad sigh, letting the insecurity you were feeling deep down come to the surface. “I just… He’s just so…” You had stomped down your feelings for so long that it was becoming hard to articulate what exactly you’re feeling.

“He just seems so unreal. Like, of everyone he could have chosen, why me? I mean, I know I’m great. But you’ve seen the other girls on base. They’re all so beautiful, smart, classy… and none of them are covered in engine oil ninety percent of the time.” You looked down at your hands, specks of grease and oil peeking out from beneath your nail beds. It seems like it would never completely wash out, no matter how hard you scrubbed. You hadn’t even painted your nails for this weekend, knowing it would be money wasted come Monday morning when you’re back on the clock.

Teresa and Irene share a look that you don’t see, then come forward and grab each of your hands. 

“The words you just used to describe those girls. All of that is you, Birdie. That and more. You being a mechanic doesn’t make you any less of a woman, and to hell with anyone else who thinks otherwise.”  You nodded in agreement, Irene’s words of encouragement slowly washing away your anxieties.

Teresa spoke up next, “You deserve someone who will rearrange the stars and the whole night sky for you. And I’m more than willing to bet that Major Egan is up for the job.” 

“Besides, none of that 'unreal' stuff. At the end of the day, John Egan is nothing more than a man. If he can’t look past his nose and his d—" You gave a squeak to cover up the vulgar word Irene was about to blurt in public. She rolled her eyes fondly and continued.

“If he can’t see what you’re worth and make the effort to treat you a hundred times better than that? That’s on him. Not you. You know what you deserve, and you deserve everything you want. Absolutely everything.”

You sniffed, happy tears coming to your eyes. You brought your best friends in for a hug, thanking them profusely. 

“Don’t sweat it,” Teresa grins into your shoulder “every girl needs to be pulled out of her well sometime.”

You pull back from the hug, grabbing your glass and tipping your head back, finishing the rest of your drink. “Even if he’s not gonna be here, let’s have a ball!” Your girlfriends cheer as the three of you go to the bar for refills.

One drink turns into two, which turns into a few more, and suddenly you’re buzzed. Your group are having a rambunctious time, Irene dancing by the local piano player. Once Irene looks over to you, she stops and whispers in the player’s ear. He nods, then starts a new tune. Irene starts up her voice, walking over to you and Teresa, encouraging you to join her. 

The alcohol has loosened you up enough that you don’t feel the nausea you usually associate with being perceived, so you join in the harmonies you and your friends have practiced in your bunks at night.

He was a famous trumpet man from out Chicago way

He had a boogie style that no one else could play

He was the top man at his craft

But then his number came up and he was gone with the draft

Soon the whole pub was jumping and dancing along to the tune as you brought a new vibe to the pub. It was like a spark that started an entirely new night and everyone was eager to go on forever.

One song turns into an entire set, which ends with a full rendition of G.I. Jive, which had everyone singing along. It was a magical moment; made you feel like you were a part of something important.

Irene sidles up to you, giving you a hug. She says in your ear,

“I think it’s time to slow it down a bit. How about you sing that song I taught you.”

She means an old Appalachian folk song that’s been in her family for generations. You had heard her sing it one night and immediately loved the dark, but strong nature of the lyrics. It was an honor to learn it from her. 

“I don’t know, it’s your family’s song and…”

“And I can’t think of anyone better to sing it to these soldiers.” You gave each other a look, her slight eyebrow raise gave you the courage to nod in acceptance. She smiled, hugging you again, her voice yelled out to the crowd. 

“Birdie’s gonna sing solo!”

The announcement is met with raucous applause, Irene and Teresa shoving you towards a dodgy looking table. Crank offers a hand up, which you take gratefully. As you find your bearings on the tabletop, you quickly spin around and find all eyes on you. 

The crackling energy in the air seemed to simmer, the fast-beating hearts of the pubgoers recognizing a moment to acknowledge you. Nausea starts to make an appearance, but a deep breath quells the sensation within you for the time being.

You take another deep breath. Inhale, exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

You close your eyes, open your mouth, and sing.

Meanwhile…. 

Majors Gale Cleven and John Egan walk down the familiar street, one eager to catch up with his fellow countrymen’s alcohol intake, the other just happy to spend time with his friends. They were arriving later to the festivities due to being caught up in filling out reports. By far the worst part of having a higher rank was the paperwork.

“It’s pretty quiet.” Buck acknowledges. “They’re usually rowdier by this point.”

Bucky sniffs, shrugging off the concern. “Ah, it’s probably nothing.” 

As the two men approach the pub, they find that a crowd has formed. Soldiers, civilians, RAF, USAAF, old, young— people had obviously stopped to watch whatever was going on. It was dead silent, save for a voice singing. Was there a radio show on or something?

A familiar face peeks out at them from the crowd, DeMarco quickly waving them over. 

Bucky is quick to question, “Hey, what’s going on?” but is immediately shushed by nearby crowd members. Buck cringes in apology, despite not being the one to disturb the peace. His best friend, ever unshaken by the opinion of strangers, carries on.

DeMarco leans in, whispering, “Your girl’s taking us all to church.”

“My girl..?” Bucky’s nose scrunches in confusion. He makes space through the crowd and quickly makes sense of DeMarco’s words. It was you.

I’ll catch you up

When I’ve emptied my cup

When I’ve worn out my friends

When I’ve burned out both ends

Standing on a tabletop, watchful eyes sat all around you like baby ducks flocking to their mama. You were captivating everyone with each note and word that flows from your mouth. Damn, you've got a set of pipes— a voice that belongs on the radio, in concert halls, on Hollywood records. He had no idea.

His little Birdie.

“Wow.” Buck mutters in awe from behind him, and Bucky couldn’t be more in agreement.

When I’m pure like a dove

When I’ve learned how to love

He hadn’t noticed before, but her eyes were closed. Like she needed to concentrate on each and every breath she took, every single movement her body made, before letting them out in an angelic melody.

As if by divine intervention, her eyes pop open and lock on his as she belts “how to love” 

It could’ve been an eternity, for all he knows, the amount of time that they spent locked in each other’s gaze. The world pauses around them, everything frozen. Her eyes were already the kind to knock a man clean off his feet with a single gaze, but he thinks- for a brief moment- that his heart completely stops beating.

John Clarence Egan would swear every day from then on, until his dying breath, that the course of his life was altered in that very moment. He knew how it would continue from then on, and how it would end. How he wanted it to end.

Then the world starts back up and carries on.

Right here in the old therebefore

When nothing is left anymore

Her final hums are joined by a short blonde woman who stands nearby, another face he recognizes from base. 

The applause that picks up after the end of the song is near deafening. The star of the hour gives a shy smile, a quick curtsy and is given a hand to step down from the table.

Everyone soon starts mingling, the normal chatter of the bar returning. But Bucky is stuck in his spot, dumbfounded. In all the conversations you’d had together, somehow this never came up. He should’ve put two and two together, as he recalls overhearing your hums one morning as he made his daily coffee delivery to you. But you had been caught off guard, so much so that you tripped off the ladder you stood on and fell. Luckily, his quick reflexes kicked in to catch you before any serious injuries occurred. 

Remembering the sensation of his hands on your waist and thighs, face just inches from yours, sent his brain into a tailspin. That’s not even considering just how damn cute you were when, after a beat, you turned away from him and playfully mourned the cups of coffee that were splattered all over the hardstand.

“John. John?” A hand waving in front of his face knocks him out of his reverie. He blinks once, twice. Then looks to his best friend.

His voice comes out uncharacteristically weak in response, to which he then clears his throat and corrects. “Yes—yeah?” He pops the collar of his sheepskin jacket to try and hide the rampant red of his ears that signals the heat radiating from them.

Buck just shakes his head and gives him a knowing smile. “You sure know how to pick ‘em, Egan. Never thought I’d see the day.”

“See what day?” Bucky starts to consciously return to his body, leaning on the bar.

“The day when a girl finally knocks you on your ass. I knew you had a thing for her, but that?” He points to his face and motions to indicate where they had just been standing. “That’s something else. That’s something real.”

Bucky gives another shrug in response, to which Buck throws back an unconvinced frown. He turns his head to gaze over the pub patrons and is distracted by you once again. Any denial he was about to spout immediately dies in his mouth when you lock eyes with him again and give him a dazzling smile. The world starts to fade away again.

His heart pumps faster in his chest at the sight. Damnit. He sighs, telling his best friend the truth he’s been privately wrestling with for a while now, all the while keeping his eyes locked on yours.

“I know, Buck. I know.”

Bucky smiles back at you and is elated when your face lights up. You give him a wave.

“She kinda snuck up on me.”

[suraemoon]

MOTA: Post-war

~ Easter Sunday Headcanons ~

🐣: Easter Sunday lends itself so easily to daydreaming about post-war suburban life. Here are some ideas I thought up yesterday of how some of the boys and their families celebrate Easter. I hope you like some fluff. (Bunnies, eggs, and happiness galore)

💛: @precious-little-scoundrel gave me the idea to post these after I was yelling them to her yesterday. I hope you all aren’t Eastered out just yet.

Being some of the earliest birds to the nationwide baby boom due to a four-week New York getaway, the Crosby’s quickly become professionals at the Easter Sunday routine

After an hour of hiding yawns and dozing off while standing in their pews at Easter Sunday Service, all the neighborhood kids show up at the Crosby house for their famous annual Easter Egg Hunt.

As soon as their car rolls into the driveway, Jean and Harry watch in wonder as their crew of excited kiddos doubles, triples, and soon quadruples in a matter of minutes

Hiding spots are determined days in advance and as the years go on, the amount of eggs that Jean has to buy grows exponentially to account for the adopted little bunnies that come strolling by with baskets the size of their whole torsos

Mrs. Jean Crosby puts out chairs and a group of adoring parents get to gradually watch their children grow up before their loving eyes every April

The same toddlers who first waddled around on the newly mowed grass trying to find their footing all those years ago soon become elementary school kids with minds enthralled by the competition

Soon these toothy grinned kids become teenagers who keep the magic alive for the newest toddlers while also taking the time to show the next-gen elementary kids who are the professional easter egg hunters

The Crosby’s haven’t always had the holiday nailed though

One year after much convincing from his wife throughout the whole month of March, Harry agreed to dress up as the easter bunny

When he suddenly stuck his costumed head out from the top of their white picket fence, a church choir of crying and screaming ensued

Instead of being faced with the excited wonder-filled faces that he expected, Harry was met with wide eyes full of terror and dropped jaws full of shock

Children flailed to the protection of their mamas instead of going to hug the famous mascot of the season

He spent an hour going around to every child with his furry head off and shamefully cradled in his hands

apologizing and ensuring that yes, it was just Mr. Crosby, not a giant rabbit who hopped out of nowhere and scared the communion wafers out of them

In his adult life, John Bucky Egan never really cared for Easter festivities up until his eldest daughter was born

When sunny April came around the year that Little Miss Egan turned two, Bucky was excited to take her to the Easter egg hunt ran by the local Church

While the older kids go haywire in their now dirtied church suits and fancy dresses trying to pick up as many eggs as people they counted in church pews just a half hour before, Baby Egan waddles around gently.

Every egg she picks up is taken slowly and carefully from the soft grass beneath her Mary Jane’s, looked at with soft eyes as if being examined and if found fit, is put into her pink basket

Bucky, being impatient and full of excitement for this newly unlocked family activity, sneaks a few extra eggs into her basket to make it look like she has more

His little princess shouldn’t have to hunt for all her own eggs and risk getting her white lace dress dirty anyways

Egan is the only adult collecting eggs with a bunch of random kids. His excuse is that he and his little one share a basket of course. She needs her daddy to teach her how egg hunts are done in order to be better prepped for next year.

The Egan’s aren’t the only ones with a knack for egg hunts.

The Rosenthal children do not celebrate Easter but it does not stop them from showing up to the park’s “Eggstravaganza Hunt” every year

Being the determined little Rosies that they are, they dominate the competition. These kids will have their baskets full to the brim with eggs in a matter of minutes.

You notice a child with a head full of bouncy brown curls, pink cheeks, and grass stained knees run by you? You better hope that your little Bobby can keep up.

Rosie watches on like a focused parent at their child’s soccer game

His children with their chocolate and sugar covered faces furrow their eyebrows and tilt their heads when a random woman with a crying child tells them “Do y’all really need all that candy? Jesus would want you to share, don’t you think?”

The Mini Rosenthals come back home with sugar rushes that can power the whole neighborhood for a week straight

An upside for Rosie and his wife who have to deal with these energized little roadrunners is that the kids crash an hour earlier than usual

leaving room for extra alone time on a cool Sunday night

One easter, Benny Demarco randomly walks through the foyer of his home with a white floppy eared bunny wearing a perfect little bow tie

Is that the one you wore to our date last weekend? His wife can’t help but shake her head at her husband’s audacity as the children gather around their newest sibling with eyes full of happiness

The kids are excited but Mrs. Demarco has to try to put on a smile because “Who the hell is going to take care of that thing?”

Soon enough, a hutch is built in the backyard and more bunnies are added to the family

Mrs. Demarco falls in love and calls them her “bunny babes”

She’s met with a “I knew it was a good idea” from her husband every time she is seen cradling and baby-talking to one of their beloved pets

I mean…they are both major pet lovers. It’s one of the reasons they work so well together. But is one more responsible of the two? Definitely.

The excited squeals of children and adorable nose twitches of cute little bunnies makes it all worth it

The Demarcos aren’t the only 100th household with their own personal Easter Bunny

When John Egan jokingly told his four year old that leaving a baby carrot under her pillow would lead to a special gift from Mr. Easter Bunny himself, he did not expect her to take it seriously.

At midnight, Bucky wakes up with eyes hardly open and gets out of bed with a mission

This annual mission is to tiptoe into his daughter’s bedroom and carefully exchange the aluminum foil wrapped baby carrot tucked carefully under her soft pillow for a few cents from his wallet

As more children are born, the tradition continues

Even future generations of Egans continue to buy bags of baby carrots as Easter Sunday approaches

Not only to snack on them all of Spring Break but also to place one in a sandwich bag or wrap one in saran wrap to hide underneath each child’s pillow

Not necessarily knowing why they’re the only house that participates in this unusual tradition

Not knowing that it started from the unbreaking belief of a wide-eyed four year old and her father who stopped laughing when he realized that he was stuck playing off-brand Tooth Fairy for the rest of his life

Gale Cleven’s household has a more relaxed Easter Sunday compared to the rest

After Church, some Easter themed activities, and a well-needed nap upon arriving home, the Cleven’s go to their garden to plant new flowers

Fresh tulips, chrysanthemums, and pansies are all beautiful, refreshing signs that spring is here

Why do the Cleven’s have such green thumbs you ask? Maybe their blonde hair resembles the comforting sun, the plants can’t help but feel warmth. Maybe their caring blue eyes are as nurturing as water, the plants can’t help but thrive.

They started growing flowers and vegetables in their garden when the first after they bought their house

It was the Clevens’ first step towards making it a home

The flowers represented new beginnings, fresh starts, and growth. Essentials after everything they have been through.

————————————————————————

Hope you enjoyed! Wishing everyone a happy, happy Spring🌸 My first time writing something and posting it in 4 months…ahhhh. There’s more where this came from, my mind just does not stop.

[tomorrowusa]

Democrats have been missing an opportunity for 9 years by not bringing up the issue of the alleged bone spur{s} which got Trump out of being drafted for military service during the war in Vietnam.

Memes and stickers with the slogan SHOW US THE X-RAYS! should be produced in mass quantities.

New York Times: Daughters of foot doctor say he diagnosed Trump with bone spurs as ‘favor’ to Fred Trump

Relatively few people may care directly about Trump being a nepo baby draft dodger. But the issue does put Trump on the defensive and causes him to get distracted from his usual playlist of self-pity. And when Trump gets distracted, he goes off on typically weird tangents like sharks & boat batteries, Hannibal Lecter, or how Democrats are somehow plotting to rename Pennsylvania.

So Weird Donald, SHOW US THE X-RAYS! 🩻

[fatehbaz]

The New York State Urban Development Corporation saw in the piers a sacrificial milieu of impurity and devaluation. Rivera described the event as follows: “It’s called a sweep. Not even a fucking eviction. A sweep, like we’re trash.” [...]

The clearance operation of the piers took place under the New York Slum Clearance Commission and Law and its frothy utopian verbiage of “sanitizing” an environment [...] unsuitable for human life. [...] The demolition of the piers showed the violent clash of two confronting forms of urbanism. [...] [Manhattan’s] working class industrial base was transformed into a corporate and service-based economy and New York State Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller, together with city planners, implemented policies to frame Manhattan as a place for work, but not living. [...] The rhetoric used by public and private officials to get rid of the piers was embedded in medical metaphors, [...] "blight" [...]. At the same time, these discussions were imbricated with racial depictions and xenophobic targets: most of the constructions beleaguered in this operation were inhabited or used by black people, Latin Americans, migrants, and displaced communities. [...]

---

The piers thrived with life. [...]

The notion of the piers as insalubrious areas that needed to be wiped out gained traction in the 1980s - during the peak of the HIV/AIDS crisis [...]. This narrative concerning the piers was active in New York City until the early 2000s, until Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor George Pataki opened the Greenwich Village segment of Hudson River Park on May 30, 2003. The highway was finally demolished [...] and a series of gates were erected to keep Pier 45 closed after 1am [...]. The previous residents of these spaces were just routine casualties. The new proposal opted for a unitary, straightforward, apparently open but constantly surveilled set of facilities, where constant circulation (by car, skate, bike, foot) was central, and framed the conception of the piers as a passing point. This contrasted the labyrinthic and fragmented former setting, with multitudes of hidden spaces that provided a sense of privacy and safety [...].

---

The history of the piers runs parallel to the history of the LGBTQIA+ movement in New York. This is where Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson decided to locate the first installment of [...] (STAR) in 1970 [...], a year after the Stonewall riots. [...] [D]uring the 1973 Gay Pride Rally [...], [Rivera] asked the movement to support [racialized, trans, gender non-conforming, homeless, and incarcerated people] [...] instead of just focusing on cis "men and women that belong to a white middle class club" [...] [which entailed] the negation of alternative forms of living [...].

Members of these groups were ostracized and deprived of typical considerations during the outbreak of an epidemic: protocols of announcement, transparency in information, research, and measure-taking. Meanwhile, the communities that congregated around the piers, and the piers themselves, helped spread information about AIDS, made transparent the available data, and offered care among affected communities. Groups and associations like STAR, Gay Men's Health Crisis, and Gran Fury were essential in this effort. [...] This environmental activism, where kin was formed [...], happened in places like the piers. [...] They were an escape from the constant scrutiny of authorities and from homophobic attacks [...].

---

AIDS' first name, GRID (Gay Related Immune Deficiency), as well as the common “gay plague” and “gay cancer” epithets, strengthened the idea of a specifically gay disease related to a certain environment-specific villain. Journalists, following the views of public health authorities, blamed the epidemic on [...] the places gay people frequented. [...] Physicians thus described a spatial configuration located in downtown Manhattan [...] which [...] posed a threat [...]. This claim had terrible consequences for the activist spaces and urban fabrics that confronted the epidemic [...]. The remnants of Pier 45 were demolished. The activist history of these places was “cleared.” [...]

---

When Sylvia Rivera shouted to the authorities “stay away from my house!” while being evicted, “house” not only referred to the physical construction of her home. She was confronting teleological progress with the project of a[n] [...] assemblage based on [...] mutual caring [...] and defying colonial narratives of race, sex, gender, and nature. The territorialization of epidemics, identities, and citizenship not only shape the built environment, but the built environment shapes them in return. Architecture thereby assumed the form of an expanded spatial practice [...].

When Rivera was trying to save her home from demolition, she said, “there’s so many fucking buildings in this fucking Manhattan.” What New York City was losing with the demolition of Pier 45 was not just a series of dwellings. It was losing a complex ecosystem of coexistence.

---

All text above by: Iván López Munuera. “Lands of Contagion”. e-flux Architecture (Sick Architecture series). November 2020. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

[brooklynislandgirl]

information

basics

full name: Elizabeth Irene Riley {{Birth-Certificate: Elikapeka Ailine Alohaekauneikahanuola'Ilikea'wahine Riley}}

nicknames / aliases: Beth, Apples, Konachino, Jelly Bean {{the nurse shark}}

height: 5 foot even

age: 27-35 {verse dependant}

spoken languages: English, Pidgin, French, Latin, Spanish, Basic/some: Russian, German, Greek, Japanese, Mandarin, Kikongo {Kituba}, Masalit

physical characteristics

hair color: deep chestnut/mahogany brown

eye color: green/honey brown {central heterochromia iridum}

skin tone: sand/olive with warm undertones { "deep autumn"}

body type: delicate/petite {ectomorphic/triangle}

dominant hand: left

posture: straight, graceful, poised

scars: The shark bite scar/muscle atrophy/shortened tendon {right leg}

tattoos: sea turtle with the Hawai'ian island chain on its shell, with a hibiscus {left hip} {eventually the tree of life as above/so below near the bottom of her neck/between her shoulder blades} She has three sub-dermal studs just inside the arch of her hip.

birthmarks: freckles around her chin, across her nose, sharp 'little' teeth

most noticeable features: Wide doe-eyes, 'fangy' smile, nose crinkles when she does so unguarded/genuinely.

childhood

place of birth: Pearl City/Honolulu, O'ahu, Hawai'i. {for Turn: Brooklyn, New York}

siblings: Andrew Riley, Jayden Morgan

parents: The Admiral, Iwalani Kahananui {Riley} Stern

adult life

occupation: ER Nurse/ER Doctor {verse dependant, might be NYPD or SHIELD agent} {for Turn: Wealthy Socialite}

current residence: Verse dependent {for Turn: Philidelphia, Boston, NYC} close friends: this is an entire blog roll roster of my beloved mutuals, so verse dependent? {For Turn: Ben and Samuel Tallmadge, Caleb Brewster, Anna Strong, John Simcoe, Malcolm Baker}

relationship status: Verse dependent. Beth doesn't so much date as she lurks, closely. Waiting for all parties involved to tire out and just move in.

children: Beth is incapable of having children, but loves everyone else's. {Turn: None...yet.}

criminal record: various juvenile charges for destruction of property, vandalism, and the like. All neatly sealed and never to be spoken of again.

vices: entirely too fond of a glass or six of wine in the 'evenings'. workaholic.

sex and romance

sexual orientation: demi-sexual {{I would say she leans towards heterosexual but the body isn't exactly a concern for her, so long as she likes/feels connected to the person}}

turn-ons: Intelligence, kindness, wittiness, passionate, idealism, honesty, empathy, caring for other people, the environment, animals.

turn-offs: Cruelty, abuse {physical/verbal/of power, etc}, lack of respect, refusal to accept boundaries, one night stands

love languages: physical touch, acts of service, quality time

relationship tendencies: Beth tends to be slightly oblivious when it comes to relationships. She is avidly keen in getting to know people, cannot help but to try and nurture them in what seem to be natural ways as much as she's able to. She doesn't experience sexual attraction until well after feeling bonded to someone. This can lead to many mixed signals. When it comes to love/sex/romance, Beth tends to be a little naive and extremely trusting,and that has always broken her heart in the past. Beth doesn't do one night stands, or casual hook-ups, though she doesn't judge others for them. Some people might consider her clingy.

miscellaneous

hobbies to pass time: surfing, dancing, knitting, reading, gardening, card games, chess. {Beth is amusingly aggressive when it comes to competitive games/sports}

mental illnesses: Beth lives with bipolar disorder, shows signs of childhood trauma, and tends toward fear of rejection/abandonment self confidence level: Beth has all the self esteem of a banana slug outside of a medical-treatment setting. ~*~ tagged by: my darling M @honorhearted tagging: Tell me about your muses!

[solarpunkani]

Hey do you happen to know of any resources for someone in Iowa looking to get into native plant gardening? Thanks in advance! (Love your blog btw)

*cracks knuckles* sorry for keeping you hanging since November 3rd, homie, but I'm back home and down to get started!

Before I do, a special reminder that I'm not based in Iowa! I don't think I've ever even set foot in Iowa. I'm a Florida girlie lol. However, I will do my best to give you my advice and find some resources for you!

In my experience, many native plants grow slowly from seed. This could be because I mostly prefer perennials (I am way too lazy to replace an annual every year), but they can take awhile to germinate and an even longer while to size up. I've gotten seeds that say to wait upwards of 3 weeks to see any germination, and that's often after waiting a month or more for proper cold stratification! All of this is just to say--you gotta have a bit of patience when it comes to all gardening, but especially with native plants!

If you can get your hands on some seeds now, they'll likely need cold stratification. Fortunately, cold stratification is happening right now--put the seeds where you want them to grow, and let chilly winters do the work for you! Needing cold stratification basically means the plant has evolved to know it needs to wait until after winter to start germinating, so as things warm back up in spring, your seeds'll start growing!

Once they start growing and get established, they'll really start going--if they're in their perfect conditions, they'll be more than ready to take over a bit and manage on their own! Keep an eye out for watering needs, but generally I find native plants don't need much when it comes to fertilizer and pesticides. If you don't want things to spread a lot, you can always choose to grow certain plants in pots instead--or if you're really determined to grow a plant your soil isn't quite right for, a pot does wonders. My soil isn't very moist, so I grow a good chunk of my swamp milkweeds in pots to keep a better eye on their care.

Iowa's got a handful of growing zones going on, so knowing what the zone for your region is will help you pick the best plants! You can also pick plants known to have grown historically well in your region--I've seen plant range maps break things down by counties for my state, which helps give a good idea of whether it's a good idea for me to grow something touted as a native to my state. It's entirely possible for something to be native to your state, but not your half of the state, for example!

Browsing through a couple of sites, I hope these'll be helpful to you!

This is a link to Iowa Native Plants, which has a nice primer on the importance of native gardening as well as a few guides to native plants in their Finder tab! They also seem to sell a hanfdul of books on native gardening that may be an interesting read for you!

My Home Park appears to have a lot of information on native plants, and sells native plants that can be shipped to your state! I can't say I've ever had a plant shipped to me before, let alone from them (they don't service my state) but it could be worth a shot! If anything else, could be a good source of information! They also have a blog, and a feature that lets you mock up a garden to see what it'd look like (I didn't try it though). They also seem to service North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Maine.

The Tallgrass Prairie Center links to a ton of resources on learning about native plants, planting them, landowner incentive programs, and organizations you can join that are full of others who are passionate about native plants! The Tallgrass Prairie Center itself aims to establish and protect native plants, restore ecosystems, and increase awareness and appreciation of the Tallgrass Prairie Ecosystem. I think their site's definitely worth a look-through, or you can use it as a bouncing off point to find other sites full of info!

The Iowa Native Plant Society is a nonprofit organization full of people who are enthusiastic about native plants! They host field trips, workshops, have a newsletter, and more! It could be a fun way to learn more about native ecosystems on their trips, and if they're anything like the native plant society for my state, the calendar on their site will probably start lighting up with different chapters' native plant sales as we get closer to spring, so keep an eye out! They've also got books and lots of resource links on their site!

Oftentimes when I look up information on how to grow a particular plant in my state, the university extensions office is one of the best resources. As such, I think the Iowa State University's Extension and Outreach website is likely to have some good info for you about gardening! I've also in the past emailed some staff from various offices questions about native gardening and gotten good answers, so they're definitely a resource to be utilized!

I almost forgot to link the Xerces Society! The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation has a primary focus of protecting insects in the US, but that often goes hand in hand with native plants, so they're a great resource for learning about plants and the insects that rely on them! Especially helpful is their Pollinator Conservation Resource Center, which has lists of plants and suppliers by region! You can also find just their plant lists here!

Speaking of plant lists, The National Wildlife Federation has a list of keystone plants by ecoregion! Keystone plants are highly important, as they're vital to the lifecycle of many species of insect, which then help feed birds and other creatures--you get the picture. I used the National Wildife Federation a good bit when I was writing my Biodiversity Saga on increasing biodiversity in your yard/on your balcony/in your area on a budget.

iNaturalist is a fantastic website for cataloguing the cool insects you find in your new native garden, as well as learning about the variety of plants, animals, insects, etc. that are in your area! Make an account and just vibe around!

Books can be a great resource! Unfortunately, my attention span is frequently lacking when it comes to books, and I definitely haven't read any that focus on Iowa's native flora. However! I've got a few general books that are nice reads, so you can definitely see if you can find these in a library or online (I'm including Thriftbooks links because fuck Amazon).

Hellstrip Gardening by Evelyn J. Hadden is a book I read last month that honestly inspired so many new projects out of me that next year is gonna be busy. Might as well get a healthy dose of inspiration now so you can do some planning and be roaring and ready to go come spring! I liveblogged it on my gardening blog, and shared some of my favorite notes as well!

Attracting Native Pollinators by the Xerces Society is a book that offers a generalized view on why its important, ways you can utilize native plants at any scale from swaths of farmland to a school garden or a small yard, and provides lists of plants that can be good for your region near the end! They also have Gardening for Butterflies, which I honestly haven't read yet, but I checked it out from the library so Mayhaps Soon. PS: you can buy Attracting Native Pollinators and Gardening for Butterflies from the Xerces site directly, and support their work! However. Hoo buddy, the pricing.

(Psst, here's the plant list from Attracting Native Pollinators, don't tell Xerces)

My final message to you, young padawan, is to grow milkweed. If there's a milkweed native to your state, grow it. If there's several native to your region, grow a ton of it. Milkweed is the host plant for Monarchs, but it's also such a high-value nectar source for so many other insects you've just gotta try and grow some in my book. Also a lot of the sites I saw for your state had pictures of blazing star and black eyed susans and let me tell you. Plant those. You'll have so many happy pollinators.

I can't think of anything else. If any Iowa gardeners wanna chime in with their favorite resources and such, feel free to!

[space-mermaid-writing]

The witchling and the god [Loki x Witch!Reader] Chapter 27

Summary: The Avengers were looking for someone to help Loki fit in with the team. To become socially acceptable, so to speak. He had been given the choice of sitting in a cell in Asgard or serving some sort of community service probation on Midgard. The Avengers and Shield both felt that as long as Loki was on Earth, he should be under supervision. This is now your job. Why? Because you’re a witch. You’re not sure why this qualifies you, but here you are, giving it a shot. What could possibly go wrong?

Tags: Witch!Reader, Magic, Witches, slow burn, everybody lives in the tower, character development, Loki‘s redemption, Stephen Strange is a friend, Loki and Stephen are frenemies, Tony Stark is a good bro, kids love Loki, Tony has stupid nicknames for everybody, eventual smut

Main Masterlist | Series Masterlist | Read it on AO3 | Previous | Next

Chapter’s Note: Beta by @zaria-04

Chapter 27: Old Wounds

You hum softly to yourself as you stand in your garden and pick berries. Normally you wouldn't bother with it and float magically to reach the high branches. But since the witch hunters attacked Gabriel, you've become wary of showing your magic in public. Even if it's in the safety of your own garden and you have no direct neighbors. You never know who may be watching.

The harvest of berries is unfortunately meager. You missed the right time and most of them have been eaten by birds or are already starting to mold. There won't be enough for jam, but maybe you'll bake a pie with them.

Since you spend so much time in New York, you've neglected your garden. The pumpkins and zucchini are doing well and promise to grow big again this year. They also need less care than berries.

You've already weeded to give your important plants more room. Because of your absence, everything is a bit more overgrown than usual.

After you’ve raided the bushes, you go into the house with the bowl and put it in the kitchen. Eloise has placed an order for potions, but you decide that it can wait a few more days and that the pie is more important. With a flick of your hand the berries start to wash themselves in the sink and fly back into the bowl. In parallel, you open a book where you collect your recipes and flip through until you find what you're looking for.

You have two of these books, one for regular recipes and one for magical ones. It's important to keep the two strictly separate, otherwise you may have some unpleasant mishaps, as you've learned.

Your phone rings with a message that you ignore for now. Only when a second and a third message arrive shortly afterwards you do pick it up.

It's Tony, there are a lot of exclamation points and it sounds urgent.

"Alarm! Code: Dangerous Jazz Hands"

You have no idea what that means, but you put your work aside and touch a rune on your doorframe before stepping through.

"Jarvis, what happened?" you ask, after barely setting foot in the compound.

"Thor has returned from Asgard. He and Loki are currently on the thirty-fifth floor."

You hear a loud crash that sends a vibration through the building.

"On the thirty-fourth floor,” the A.I. corrects.

Cursing softly, you run. The elevator takes you up and as the doors open, you hear loud yelling and more crashing.

"...he never cared! It does not matter what I do! I could die and he wouldn't even bat his eye."

That is Loki's voice – furious, hurt – and you rush in that direction.

"You know that is not true." Thor is more collected and firm. He tries to reason with his brother.

"Really? Did he even ask about me? How I am doing? If I'm fine?"

The pause that follows speaks for itself and you hear another crash as something is thrown against a wall and breaks. You turn around a corner and see a hole gaping in the ceiling with metal struts peeking out. The path in front of you is blocked with rubble, which you climb over. You are now very close to the voices and hear the brizzle of raw magic. Shit, that's not good.

"That's what I thought." Loki's words are cold with venom. "I am just an unpleasant thorn in his foot and he has finally found the perfect way to get rid of me."

"Brother, please!... Stand back, Rogers. It's fine. I handle him."

"I do not need to be handled!"

You meet Tony, who is in his Iron Man suit, but faceplate open. "Good, you're here," he greets you, "Tell him the sun is getting low or whatever helps to calm him down."

You nod, but otherwise acknowledge him no further, instead pushing past Steve into a room. It's one of the lounges, but half the furnishings are destroyed. Pictures have crumbled from the walls, a table lies in pieces and the couch is overturned.

Loki's hands glow with magic, his whole body seems to be radiating it. He glares angrily at his brother. Thor has Mjolnir in his hands and the cracks on the wall testify that he has already used his weapon.

Thor puts a hand on Loki's shoulder to calm his brother, but Loki shakes him off and a hand to hand combat fight breaks out between the two. It doesn't look like they truly want to hurt each other, but the two Asgardians are inhumanly strong. A normal person's bones would break over this.

"Loki."

He pauses at the sound of your voice. Thor too, waiting to see what his brother would do, how he would react. Loki doesn't turn to face you. "Leave."

As if! You don't move an inch, not wanting to risk getting too close to him, because you don't know how much control he has over himself right now. But you don't back down, either. "No. This is about Odin, right? Screw him! You deserve better."

That makes him look at you. He sees you standing in his corner, even though you have nothing to do with this. But he also sees Tony standing in the doorway in his suit and Steve on your other side, without his shield but ready to step in if necessary. He feels Thor's gaze on him behind him. The men look at him with a mixture of waiting, wary and pity. Loki hates it. This is exactly what he wanted to avoid. He doesn't need to be handled.

You notice the shift in his aura, similar to when Felix died in the hospital. With your next words you get his attention back on you. "You want to smash things? Sure, I understand that. There are canyons we can go to. Just let's go together, okay? You promised me." Grasping at any straw, you reach out your hand for him to take.

Loki remembers and hesitates only for a brief moment. He prefers to be with you alone over being with these oafs of Avengers. The glow of his hands goes out and he slowly steps toward you. No one else dares to move, but the tension in the room is almost palpable. Only Thor suddenly looks much more relaxed and smiles.

Loki grabs your hand and the next moment you're both gone.

Tony breathes a sigh of relief. The witch still got it. "Jarvis, where did they go?"

"They are currently on the roof-deck," chimes the A.I.'s voice.

Thor steps up to him, his hammer leaning casually over his shoulder. "Stark, I take full responsibility. This has nothing to do with my brother's rehabilitation." He gestures to the resulting mess, but Tony waves it off while retracting his suit.

"I get it, Thor. I've never thought I'd say this but I understand Loki. Your father is really a dick, huh? I know that feeling all too well."

"Howard wasn't-...," Steve starts, but falls silent when he notices Tony's look.

"Let's not open that bottle, Cap, shall we? And don't worry, Manowar," he adds, turning back to Thor. "My insurance got that covered. But for the sake of my beloved tower, next time you want to talk about family with him, please go to that canyon."

He leaves the room to call construction and orders Jarvis to inform him in case Loki did something funny.

~~

Meanwhile Loki and you are standing on the roof terrace, still hand in hand. It's a beautiful day, sunny, but not too hot. Just the right amount of clouds in the sky and with a light breeze in your hair. And of course the noise of the city below you.

You're surprised that Loki transported you up here, but you don't ask about it. Instead, you turn to him and look up at him.

His face is turned away and he is looking at a point in the distance. You know what it looks like when old wounds cut open, relieving the same old fights.

You press a kiss on his cheek. "Hey, you with me?" It's a cautiously, gently question and he snaps out of his spiral of thoughts.

"Yes." His answer is as short as it is cold and he takes a step away from you. He's still angry, a mess of emotions. Loki was expecting it. He knew what Thor would tell him when he returned. Still, he would have liked to be taught better, had still had hope. After all, he is still the little boy who wants his father's approval. A snort escapes Loki. The recognition of his surrogate father. His biological father had abandoned him to die.

You give Loki his space, but squeeze his hand as a sign that you are there for him. "Family can be tough," you offer.

"You have no idea what it's like to be an outcast from your family. To not belong, no matter what you do. No matter how hard you try to please or get even a little attention." Loki's voice is venomous, his eyes narrowed like a snake's, ready to bite. It's defensive, you know he doesn't mean it. Or maybe he means it, but he'd be sorry for his tone later.

"You're right," you relent, looking at your intertwined fingers. "I'm glad that no matter what, at least I could always count on my family. On my siblings. But you have Thor. No matter what might have come between you two in the past, he's there for you now, supporting you."

"That's not the same thing. You don't understand. Your humans' lives are too short to understand some things. You are just too dull."

You inhale sharply by his rude words and your tone gets somewhat colder. "I'm not just a simple human," you remind him, but he laughs tonelessly.

"Of course you are. You just live a bit longer than the average human. But you're still one of them." Loki realizes he's derailing, but there's nothing he can do about it. It's like an out-of-control steam engine hurtling at high speed toward an abyss. And he's not only sitting in the front row, but shoveling coals into the fire to speed it up. It's absurd. He knows better. But he can't help it.

"You're adopted and that's bad, it complicates your life. But if you would just look out of your little shell of sulking, you would find that there are people who love you. Even within your family. And as for the rest: you are a prince. After all, they have to respect you for that. They don't hunt you down and kill you," you say more harshly than you intended, thinking about what just happened to Gabriel.

"I'm sure that they would just love to do that," growls the Asgardian.

"But they don't!" you exclaim and something snaps inside you. Loki seems a little surprised, you have never raised your voice to him like this. His expression darkens a bit more, a reflex whenever someone uses a tone towards him he doesn't like. But before he can even open his mouth, you continue speaking, angrily. "In the past, it wasn't just witch hunters we had to watch out for. I couldn’t stand out and I had to be careful who I trusted. So I know what it's like to live in a world where you're not wanted. They got me once and I pray I don't have to go through that again!" Your fingers slip from his and point accusingly at him.

"These witch hunters don't look like much of a threat to me," Loki says dismissively. "After all, here you are, standing before me, alive."

You stare at him. This is not the Loki you know. This one is cold, heartless with a total lack of empathy. Nothing suggests the kind and charming Asgardian you've become so familiar with. You don't know which of the two is the real one, how much of both is him.

You want to yell at him, you want to shake him, to get him back to his senses. But would that do any good? You're no longer responsible for him, you've quit and you're only by his side as a friend, as a lover. And this part of you is deeply hurt, and it shuts down. You don't feel like dealing with him at the moment. If he really wants to be an asshole, he can do it without your presence.

You open your mouth, but you don't know what you want to say.

A cruel smile creeps onto Loki's face, barely preparing you for his next, devastating words. "Cat caught your tongue? I thought you were so quick-witted. Or did those witch hunters damage your brain in the long run?"

You clench your hands into fists to stop yourself from smacking him. "Do you think your mother would be proud of you right now?" It may be a low blow, but you don't care. You don't even wait for an answer, you wouldn’t get it anyway. Instead, you turn around and swallow your tears as you walk away.

Loki's eyes follow you, the shock of your words bringing him back down to earth and leaving a sour taste in his mouth. He is aware that he has made a mistake. He just doesn't understand why he let this happen.

For quite a while he just stands there, shoulders slumped. The anger is gone from him - he gave it space, unfortunately against the wrong person.

With slow steps he starts to move, his eyes silently fixed on the floor, and returns to the prince's suite.

Thor is there. He is sitting on the couch with the television on. Nothing about his demeanor suggests that just twenty minutes ago he was destroying half a floor of the tower by fighting his brother. Next to him is a bowl of popcorn he made. In the microwave, of course. He wouldn't be stupid enough to use his lightning powers inside the tower for that. There wouldn't be much left of the corn afterwards.

He hears the door and Loki's footsteps. "Did you get it out of your system?" Thor looks up from the TV, but then sees his brother's expression and his face falls. "Oh no, Loki..."

"I made a mistake," the younger Asgardian mutters and drops down on the couch next to Thor.

Thor turns off the TV and turns to his brother. Loki has his head buried in his hands and Thor waits silently until he begins to speak. There is a pause, but Thor knows to be patient with his brother.

"How does mother put up with father? With everything he has done and is still doing?"

The question surprises the elder, but he thinks about it. "I guess she loves him and understands him, even if she doesn't approve of everything."

Another pause.

"How is she?"

"Good." Thor smiles gently. "She misses you, but she said you found something more dear to you since you don't write as often as you used to."

That is true. Since the Lunar Convergence, Loki has taken to pen and ink only sporadically. He has spent most of his time with you. A fact that makes him sigh. "I said some horrible things to her."

Thor frowns. "To mother?" Finally Loki looks at him and it clicks with Thor. "... Oh, I understand. Your Witchling." He says the word with a smile because it's Loki's nickname for you and he talks about you a lot. "So...?" he asks.

"So?..." Loki retorts.

Thor looks at his brother waiting, but nothing more comes. Loki has no further retort, but merely stares sadly at a point somewhere between the wall and the floor. Thor knows this look all too well, knows that a lot is going on in Loki’s head right now. It's a look that is often followed by a long self-isolation, because the younger Asgardian has never learned any other way to deal with the emotional chaos inside him. One would think that Asgardians would be wise and clever due to their long life, but the truth is that they are stubborn and take much longer to learn a lesson.

Thor is willing to nudge his brother in the right direction. By force, if necessary. "You said you made a mistake. So go, fix it." He reaches for the remote again, turns back on the TV, and grabs the bowl of snacks. Leaning back, he puts his feet up on the table.

Loki gives him a sour look. "It's not that easy."

"Good. Then it’s a challenge for once. You're always complaining that everything is so boringly easy here on Midgard," Thor replies nonchalantly. He has averted his eyes from his brother and watches the animated characters on the screen as if they were more interesting than what Loki is telling him.

Loki is gobsmacked by his brother's behavior, not used to him being so dismissive. "You seem to misjudge the situation."

"And you seem to be forgetting something important." He says this like it's something pretty obvious and throws a handful of popcorn in his mouth. "You're Loki, Prince of Asgard, worshiped as a god by Midgardians for centuries. Use your magic, use your silvertongue. Or don't. Maybe it's not worth it. You can watch the time of adventures with me." Thor gestures to the yellow dog on the screen.

Furious, Loki jumps up and glares at his brother. "There's nothing more worth it! I'll show you what I-..." He notices Thor's smirk and realizes that he stepped right into his brother's little trap. That sneaky bastard. He learned a lot from Loki. "Fine," the younger prince sighs, "You are right. There, I said it. Are you happy now?"

"I was happy to see you blossom at her side in these past weeks." Finally Thor is looking at his brother, his face nothing but honest. "It would sadden me if our family quarrel drove a permanent wedge between you. So, I mean it: fix it."

His brother's nod is enough for him as answer. "Do you want some of my popcorn? It's buffalo wing flavored." Thor holds the bowl out to him, but Loki makes a face in disgust when he sees the sticky brown texture. "Absolutely not."

"Your loss." Shrugging his shoulders, Thor shoves another handful into his mouth.

Loki steps up to the large panorama window, hands clasped behind his back, and ponders what he can do. He realizes he has gone too far. Normally he is a master of words, and knows how to use them in his favor. He made a mistake, but he'll be damned if he can't make things right again.

It's a sensitive subject for you, and Loki feels that it's not just the attack on your brother that's the reason. It must be something else. Something older.

Loki thinks about who he could talk to, who could tell him more about it. Because he is sure that you are not interested in talking to him or even seeing him at the moment. He has no contact with your siblings. Loki knows that he can get to your sister through the door portal in your room, but he doesn't want to use it. The risk of him stumbling over you is too high.

He can only think of one other person who might know something, and he doesn't like the prospect of that. Loki straightens his shoulders. It doesn't matter. If it will help him, he will do it. With renewed determination, he turns and strides with a "Thank you, brother" as he passes Thor, out of the room.

Thor smiles softly. "Anytime."

_______________________

(Please don't hate me. Sometimes things have to get worse before they get better. It's the last time Loki and the Witchling fight. I swear!)

Loki: „I hurt the Witchling with the greatest weapon I know.“Thor gasps „You stabbed her?“Loki: „No!“Thor: „Did you attack her with magic again?“Loki: „No, I meant words. I hurt her with my words.“Thor: „Ooooh….“

Code: Dangerous Jazz Hands = Loki’s hands glow with magic and not in a fun way

Tag List: @lokisgoodgirl @lokixryss @itsybitchylittlewitchy @yokshi-unbeliebubble @fictional-hooman @elennair @all-envy-suyu @purplekitten30 @elisadmaggiore @nothing2113 @ceo-of-stfu @moonlightreader649 @ronipiamka @fluffybunnyu @ninjarose23 @ozymdias @huntress-artemiss @sofi786 @thedistractedagglomeration @rosaline-black @msrawog @moonlightreader649 @paetonnn @eldriidd @r4inlov3r @eleniblue @eleniblue @maeisonline @marvel-love24 @sinsandguilt @kalinaselennespeaks @ohtellmelove @eleniblue @hyojin-2579 @just-someone11 @marygoddessofmischief @fall-myriad @melavoris @baebeepeach

[saintmeghanmarkle]

Lady C Tea YouTube 10/12/23 (a few nuggets paraphrased by me) by u/daisybeach23

Lady C Tea YouTube 10/12/23 (a few nuggets paraphrased by me) Greetings from Castle Goring!Let me read a statement from Harry, The Duke of Sussex. This is in relation to their attempts to use children and certain abuses online to further his and Meghan’s agenda of censorship. In that ridiculous symposium that he and Meghan were parachuted into by the largest company on earth, Blackrock. Harry said, “There is a reason why no one is working in this space. The size and power of these companies can make you feel scared and helpless. We all realize that.” Without realizing it, Harry is giving the game totally away, because HE is being backed by a large company and HE is not scared, nor is Meghan. In fact, he is using the company and they are using Harry and Meghan to increase a stranglehold on information. I have to give this a bit of a recap. They arrived in a 7-car convoy to travel 200 feet. They could have walked it in three minutes. Of course, that would have denied them to show how much they need security and how much they need 7 cars to protect them. What kind of protection are we getting against their word salad and rubbish? I suppose you must be careful about your carbon footprint but they do not. And, did you notice what she was wearing? She wore evening wear in the daytime, yet again. I have said this before. Meghan has no clue how to dress. She has no clue what is appropriate. She wore eveningwear to Trouping the Colour and church services during the day, in Britain. She wore a variation of the same outfit she wore to Ripple of Hope awards where she insists on showing us her big, broad shoulders. To wear evening wear in the middle of the afternoon, who does that except a tart or a scrubber? The woman is so inappropriate at all times it is beyond me. I don’t know if you noticed Catherine wore a smart trouser suit for the whole day. I don’t know if you noticed Meghan stopped off at a school on Brooklyn, Meghan wore spray on trousers. I don’t know if you have noticed but Meghan think she has the best figure and the best legs in the world when they are actually shapeless. She thinks her legs are the benchmark for leggy beauty. There is something deeply disconcerting about someone who is a public figure, objectifying herself. Remember she complained about being objectified by Deal or No Deal, but on two occasions in New York she objectified herself physically. The first time, she showed us her legs and chicken foot and then she showed us her bare shoulders. I am going to read a few remarks from the newspapers. This is going to show that despite Meghan and Harry’s efforts to be taken seriously, they are treated like a joke. Except for Harpers Bazaar who said she cemented her fashion icon status in an off the shoulder pantsuit. LOL….LOL….no, my dear…I was a student at the Fashion Institute. I am here to tell you that Diana Vreeland and Carmel Snow would be spinning in their graves that the magazine they made famous would make such a ridiculous statement. And when is Meghan going to stop emulating Medusa? We already know you are just like Medusa. The New York Post, Page Six, Associated Press and Town and Country all mentioned Harry and Meghan made their first return to New York after their “near catastrophic car chase.” Oh my was that the two hour car chase where they were traveling at two miles per hour? Sniff Sniff. The whole thing was a study in indignity, rampant exhibition of greed and power grabbing.

[plantdonutwrites]

💙 tmnt vday prompts · week 01 · leomin (leo x min-ji)

hello! it’s me again and i am PARTICIPATING and talking about ocs and ships and things I seldom ever talk about in public. WELL. here goes nothing.

1. in which tmnt universe does your pairing exist?

the 2003 animated series, also known as the series that has my entire heart.

2. introduce us to your otp.

well, you guys already know leo, of course. but this young lady here is min-ji seong! she’s a korean-american high school student who lives in new york city. she’s a pianist, but she also writes songs and plays the acoustic guitar. when she was eleven, she was in the subway when a bombing ‘incident’ happened and lost half of her left arm; she now has a cybernetic prosthetic. she’s a warm and empathetic person with a dash of trauma and skittishness.

3. how did they meet?

it’s a whole... thing, but they meet when leo and his brothers investigate the foot going into a building one night that ended up being min-ji’s aunt’s boutique, and she was working the closing shift when she was attacked and was either going to be abducted or murdered by the foot soldiers. you know the drill, though: our boys show up, take some names and beat up the bad guys, and the day is saved. for the moment, anyway. min-ji ended up being in the foot’s and the purple dragon’s cross hairs by no fault of her own... but that’s a story for another time.

4. how is the relationship now?

after upwards of two years of being friends (and pining), they eventually start dating and for the most part is great and wholesome and cute and very healthy. they’re very insightful and attentive to one another and feel safe in each other’s company. they both have their traumas and shortcomings, but fortunately are pretty good communicators, so any bigger issues between them are often immediately addressed and short lived.

5. what is each other’s love language?

words of affirmation and quality time are very big for the both of them, in both receiving and giving. acts of service is also present in the two of them, but not as prominent.

6. do they get married or have any kids?

no and no. the future is pretty uncertain, especially since min-ji has ambitions of becoming a professional musician of some kind, and who knows where that will take her. but for now they have each other and are fully committed to that, and that’s enough.

7. what is your favorite thing about this pairing? (gush as much as you want!)

oh, THIS is going under a cut.

leo got to be a first person witness in min-ji's growth and healing with her low self esteem, self worth, and also her traumas. and he is so, so proud of her and genuinely feels honored that he's gotten to be a part of her life and see her overcome obstacles of all kinds. he admires her inner strength and how all of her experiences haven't left her cold (like it had once done to him). She is continuously recovering from past experiences, learning how to defend herself and stand up for herself, and shows kindness to people even when they don't deserve it. not to mention she bonds significantly with his family--becoming close friends with raph, being a beam of support for don, and being silly with mikey and occasionally indulging in his mischief and playfulness. he appreciates that she cares deeply for his family and he wishes he could get to know her family in the same way.

on min-ji's part: when they first met and during the period of time where they were still getting to know one another, leo (intentionally or unintentionally) offered min-ji a lot of stability and a sense of safety that she didn't have in her life for a while, and she clutched onto it for dear life. she has always found him to be a calming, but strong presence, who was always gentle and hyper aware of her mood and her verbal and physical expressions of emotions and thoughts, which was like a breath of fresh air for her. min-ji finds leo easy to talk to and express herself with, even with difficult or embarrassing topics. learning more about his and his family’s past (especially with what happened at the end of season 3 and throughout the first half of season 4) made her even more sympathetic to them, and she admires how he was able to heal from those events as well. all in all, they’ve had intense roads to individual recovery and they found one another along the way, which is beautiful.

thanks for reading! 💙

credits!

· tmnt vday prompts

· tmnt otp meme

· art by @redstringraven​ (used with permission, thankie muchly)

[ammg-old2]

In the early 19th century, sailors making their way to Providence, Rhode Island, depended on the signal of the Warwick Neck Light to safely find their way. While it no longer carries the navigational significance it once did, the 51-foot tower continues to preside over Narragansett Bay from its clifftop perch. 

Now, this historical property’s dramatic views could be yours.

This year, the General Services Administration (GSA) will give away six of the historic beacons, including the Warwick Neck Light, at no cost. An additional four will be sold via public auction. The goal of the transfers is to preserve the historic buildings, even as technology renders them obsolete.  

For hundreds of years, lighthouses have welcomed travelers to the shores of the United States. However, the advent of navigation technologies like GPS has left many of the shore’s sentinels without a practical purpose. Since the passage of the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act in 2000, the GSA has been transferring ownership of lighthouses “no longer critical to the U.S. Coast Guard’s mission needs” to groups willing to preserve them, according to a statement from the agency.

“People really appreciate the heroic role of the solitary lighthouse keeper,” says John Kelly of the GSA’s office of real property disposition to Mark Pratt of the Associated Press (AP). “They were really the instruments to provide safe passage into some of these perilous harbors which afforded communities great opportunities for commerce, and they’re often located in prominent locations that offer breathtaking views.”

At many lighthouses, upkeep is challenging: Two of the structures up for auction, the Penfield Reef Lighthouse in Fairfield, Connecticut, and the Stratford Shoal Light in the middle of the Long Island Sound, are accessible only by boat.

“They’re such unusual reflections of our history that it takes a certain kind of person who wants to be a part of that,” Robin Carnahan, administrator of the GSA, tells the New York Times’ Michael Levenson.

For now, the lighthouses won’t be available to just anyone. The GSA is first offering them at no cost to federal agencies, state and local governments, nonprofits, educational agencies and community development organizations. To be eligible, interested buyers must be able to maintain the historic property and allow the public to access it. More than 80 lighthouses have found a new owner—and stable future—through this process so far, according to the GSA.

Several of the lighthouses up for grabs this year are already under the care of nonprofits, which can apply to continue their work, Kelly tells the AP. For example, the Nobska Lighthouse in Falmouth, Massachusetts is maintained by the Friends of Nobska Light, which has applied for the transfer of ownership, according to the Cape Cod Times’ Zane Razzaq.

If no owner is found, the lighthouses will be offered for sale to the public via auction. The GSA has auctioned 70 lighthouses to date, in sales ranging from $10,000 to over $900,000, reports NPR’s Emma Bowman.

Other lighthouses going to auction this year include the Cleveland Harbor West Pierhead Light in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Keweenaw Waterway Lower Entrance Light in Chassell, Michigan. The list of transfer-eligible lighthouses includes Lynde Point Lighthouse in Old Saybrook, Connecticut; Plymouth/Gurnet Lighthouse in Plymouth, Massachusetts; Little Mark Island and Monument in Harpswell, Maine; and Erie Harbor North Pier Lighthouse in Erie, Pennsylvania.

[ashandkatiewrite]

FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL

Chapter 14

FIC SYNOPSIS: Maggie Hastings meets her dream man after a flight into New York City— Bucky Barnes, a pilot who seems to be everything she’s looking for. Except that she already has a boyfriend who never has time for her. After a near-tryst with her dream pilot, Maggie runs, only to find out he later meets her best friend and they’re now crazy about each other. Among their group of best friends, between Chicago and New York, and four weddings and a funeral, Maggie and Bucky struggle to keep their fiery chemistry a secret so they don’t hurt the ones they love.

WRITTEN BY: @if-you-onlyknew & @scherbatskybish

Pairing: Bucky Barnes/OFC

Rating: M (Mature) & E (Explicit)

READ FROM THE BEGINNING

chapter preview…

"This is your Captain speaking.”

Maggie’s head snapped up from the scientific journal she was reading as the plane settled at 30,000 feet and a very familiar voice spoke over the intercom. 

“Bucky?” She found herself whispering his name, in a state of shock. Had Maggie just hallucinated hearing him? 

“We’re expecting a smooth flight into the Bahamas in about two hours. The temperature there is a balmy sixty seven degrees Fahrenheit so I hope you’ve all packed your swim gear.”

There were chuckles throughout the plane and a few that were very confused.

Maggie shook her head in amusement, her cheeks flushing as her stomach erupted with butterflies. Bucky was her pilot — for real this time. He had gotten his pilot's license! 

“Oh, we’re not going to the Bahamas, unfortunately. Scratch that. We’re on our way to New York and will be there in forty five minutes,” the smooth voice said with some humor and joviality in his voice by the sound of it. “You can still expect a smooth flight with very little to no turbulence. And if anyone is in need of a very talented doctor on this flight, we’re lucky to have Doctor Hastings in seat 4A. Enjoy the flight.”

Maggie blinked, her face going red. He knew she was on his flight.

The intercom clicked off and the fasten seatbelt sign turned off. 

Several people turned in their seats to look at Maggie. One man spoke up right away and began to pull his shoe off. “I got this problem with my foot,” he started to say. 

“Do not take your shoe off, Carlos,” the woman next to him berated him. “I told you to take care of that bunion years ago.” Carlos pushed his foot back into the shoe with a grumpy look on his face and began quietly bickering with his companion.

Maggie was grinning, despite knowing she’d have people coming up to her throughout the duration of the flight looking for free medical advice, but she didn’t care. Bucky was her pilot. He had followed through with his dreams and Maggie could not be more proud.

The beverage service began and when the flight attendant stopped at Maggie’s row, a glass of tequila sour was offered to her and Maggie knew exactly who it came from . “From the Captain,” the flight attendant confirmed with a faint trace of a smile. 

There was no first class section on this plane since it was such a short flight from Philadelphia into JFK, so the drink would have cost money normally. 

Maggie grinned, taking the drink. “Please tell him thank you,” she told the flight attendant, who then gave Maggie a small, folded up piece of paper. 

Her face flushed as she opened the note.

Drinks? 

— Bucky

TAGLIST: @ocappreciationtag • @julieelliewrites • @arrthurpendragon • @darkwolf76 • @cas-verse • @victoriapedrcttis • @cjand10 • @acabecca • @seb-soph • @eddysocs • @darylandbethfanforever9 • @scarletwidoww

[makingenemies]

𝑶𝑭 𝑻𝑬𝑹𝑹𝑰𝑩𝑳𝑬 𝑪𝑶𝑵𝑭𝑬𝑺𝑺𝑰𝑶𝑵𝑺 ...

𝘪𝘵'𝘴　　𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘯　　𝘮𝘦　　𝘴𝘰　　𝘧𝘢𝘳　　𝘣𝘦𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘥　　𝘵𝘩𝘦　　𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵　　𝘰𝘧　　𝘯𝘰　　𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯

𝐓 𝐇 𝐄  𝐄 𝐗 𝐓 𝐑 𝐀  .  .  .

name ( s )  :  viktor drake ( undisclosed government name )   .   alias  :  viktor drake ,  vik , viky ( careful with that one )   .   d . o . b .  december  4  ,  1943   .   in  :  san francisco  ,  california   .   he  holds  citizenship  in  the  united states of america   .    he  speaks  :  english  , moreno version of italian   .   religious  beliefs  :  raised by non-practicing roman catholics — returned upon moreno family undercover op   .   educational  achievements  :  bachelors degree in criminal justice   .   current  occupation  :  underboss for the moreno family   .   former  occupation  :  fbi agent until '78   .   eye  colour  :  dark brown   .   hair  colour  :  black varies from shoulder length to shorter , namely shorter in the 70's and 80's   .   height  :  6′1″ , 186 cm   .   distinguishing  characteristic  :  aroma of tobacco lingering , catholic crucifix tattoo between his shoulder blades with latin writing   .

current  theory  :   possible waning confidence on the state of the moreno's after lev's death   .   frequent locations  :  the halcyon , hotel  calgarie when necessary , the one chinese restaurant off fifth ave   .   habits  :  spending holidays alone at restaurants , smoking excessively   .  prized  possession  :  engraved zippo lighter gifted to him by the late lev ' lucky ' moreno   .

inspo  ;    𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘦 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘰 ( 1997 ) , 𝘫𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵 ( 𝘹-𝘮𝘦𝘯 ) , 𝘫𝘰𝘩𝘯𝘯𝘺 𝘶𝘵𝘢𝘩 ( 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬 ) , 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘷𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘣𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘯𝘦'𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳

𝐓 𝐇 𝐄  𝐒 𝐓 𝐎 𝐑 𝐘  .  .  .

the day one is born, one is nearly taken. a life for a life, living on borrowed time and death comes like a debt collector one cold december night. a place he hasn't been, but new york whispers its promises, where twinkling lights illuminate the city and the rush of the metro past the vacant platform tightens a boy's grip on his mother's hand. darkness never shrouds them but the light flickering overhead gives way to the cold barrel of a gun pointing at her, the woman whose hand he holds. and it's always the same; the pearls around her neck, the purse over her shoulder. . . 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳, and because of this she must let go. and upon returning, san francisco is colder somehow, the fog is heavier and the cherry red cable cars rolling up and down familiar streets remain his only constant. his father sits in the corner of the living room with silent regret louder than words can ever be. he should have gone with them. and she's still there too, his mother, in debt to death more than most, but left with a reminder. 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥. and that reminder is a push of fate, his fate. next to his father's morning coffee, the newspaper headlining the fbi's most wanted and a mugshot searing into his memory, one of them. 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺. his twenties are serviced to a double life. a throw away special agent, one foot in and one out. he's expendable enough, but he's ' got what it takes ' they tell him. he's the one who can end it all. and he thinks so too. pompous might and the expense of youth, the fbi craves it. but so does another. at the hands of a fresh faced attorney he finds his way in. she is the first to bind him, and soon wire tapped conversations and acceptance from crooks feels a little less like a means to an fbi weekly check in. mannerisms cannot be turned off, speech patterns bleed into outside conversations, and relationships. . . 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘣𝘭𝘶𝘳. years in. he marries, for his cover. he fathers children, for his cover. he kills, for his cover and he's disowned, for his cover. . . 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦. and lev moreno knows this, it's a waiting game. a test and viktor makes his decision the day he blows the fbi's sting operation. his pledge of allegiance, but his penance is serving at the bottom, until again, he makes a sacrifice at the alter of lev moreno. his blood ties are chosen and it's all he has left. 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥. the climb to the top is not without sacrifice, and when he can give no more he finds the title he's come to earn to be no less a personal hell than the one he's paid for since the day he chose.

𝐓 𝐇 𝐄  𝐂 𝐎 𝐍 𝐍 𝐄 𝐂 𝐓 𝐈 𝐎 𝐍 𝐒  .  .  .

the agent , the partner he had when part of the fbi in the '70s, the one that he checked in with during his undercover op who he blindsided after turning on the fbi for the moreno family

the ex wife ( 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘣𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘭𝘢𝘩 𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘯 ) , she was his initial ' in ' with the moreno family back in the 70's and the mother of his child, divorcing in '81.

trust issues , neither seem to be too fond of each other, reasons neither can seem to articulate. call it a hunch, a feeling. in the moreno group and would not be aware, like most are not of the fbi past

keeping the bed warm , it's as heartless as it sounds, and both know it.

( 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘪 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘸 )

[jeaninemasonsource]

it’sjeaninemason This past Friday, I had the privilege of visiting with asylum seekers in New York City. Giving back and being in service to the community fed my soul during this difficult time. I’m happy to say this is a positive post! I was so impressed and moved by the care and concern our city is showing these families. I live in New York. I believe in our great state. And I am proud of what I witnessed. Our incredible public servants partner with community based orgs, faith based orgs and people who just care and want to be helpful to meet these migrants with dignity. It’s an impossible task they’ve been dealt and yet everyday on average 600-700 people arrive seeking refuge, and these hardworking New Yorkers do what they can to keep them safe, fed and equipped to make their way in this country. To find solid footing and a better life. It is an unbelievable operation. Thank you @nycgov @nycemergencymanagement @nuchealthsystem @zachiscol @newyorkcares @thisisabouthumanity and others.

#WelcomeWithDignity #ThisisAboutHumanity

[dustteller]

Oh no, not bad healthcare for the rich people! I just feel soooo bad you know, its always such a tragedy when colonizers move here to exploit our island and puertorricans don't bend over backwards to make their lives easier! Its so waful when the sufferings of the mangey poor unwashed masses also happen to affect the wealthy and privileged!

It's already bad enough that they had to go through a power outage! I mean, they were fine, they weren't like those disgusting gross people that dared to not have enough resources to survive a sudden deadly freeze and the subsequent government mismanagement. But it was just so cold! How can their delicate rich people skin EVER survive being a bit chilly!

Of course, the solution is to move to an island with a better history with natural disasters and a much more functional power grid! Plus, its got such a storied history with piracy! I know it does, because its in the caribbean and I watched Pirates of the Caribbean once! I bet the island is perfect for my pirate adventure, just like Sir Francis Drake!

And you don't even have to interact with the locals! You get to hang out with other proper rich people, as the lord intended! God forbid you move somewhere and actually have to suffer living amongst the dregs of society, can you imagine how terrible it must be to interact with the people you're colonizing?

But like, when we moved to a poor country, we didn't think the poverty would affect US??? We're rich! It's so awful that we don't get special treatment just because we turn into a (very) expensive lobster once we're out in the sun for longer than five minutes! Its such a fucking hassle when the poors don't know their place serving us! If we have any healthcare problems, we have to waste time getting a flight somewhere with PROPER healthcare! Its so rude to treat such important guests like that, the island rabble should be ashamed of themselves for letting us be mildly inconvenienced!

Ok, sarcasm aside, I HATE these articles with a burning passion. Its always rich americans that have enough money that they can just drop everything and relocate somewhere on a whim, and they always get upset that the poor countries they're taking advantage of are, in fact, poor countries with structural issues. Its so clear they never do any research, ever, and they're always upset that they have to deal with the same issues the rest of us do. And the thing is, they're rich. They have a support system somewhere else in a better area. They can literally just move back at any time with minor worries. None of these issues are actually more than a mild inconvenience to them, because if they were, THEY WOULDN'T BE HERE. Meanwhile, us puertorricans? We actually have to live here. I have family members that have died due to the healthcare crisis on the island. So do most of my friends. We struggle to find doctors with the space to see us, and god forbid we actually need a specialist. It took my grandma with cancer weeks to be able to see a doctor that specialized in cancer treatment so she could start chemo. To recieve basic mental health care, I had to do an outpatient hospitalization because there just aren't enough therapists on the island. And that's for us, who are lucky enough to be able to afford it. Not everybody can. In fact, most people can't. I and my family are amongst the luckiest here, and even we couldn't even come close to reaching the level of americans like these. My uncle's son is severely disabled, and hes lucky that he lives in New York, so he has access to services for himself and his family. He can't even visit Puerto Rico with his family because there just aren't enough services for his son to be safe here. Him and his wife take turns visiting family every few years, usually for family emergencies. His son will probably never step foot on the island. And, again, we are the lucky ones, and we struggle a lot with the situation here.

All that is without getting into other issues here. LUMA, our power company, is incompetent. We have constant power outages. A few days ago I spent a whole day without water because the water treatment plant didn't have electricity. We were prepared, because this occurs often enough that we have so many of containers of water stored away for when it happens. It was only for a few hours, so it didn't bother us. We're used to it. During summers, its common for there to be water rationing. Basically, the government shuts down water access for one to three days, and then you get a day of water. Repeat this for weeks if not months at a time. After Maria, I didn't have power from September 20th to January 11th. Luckily, the water was only gone for a week. Do you know what the Act 20's (americans who are here for tax benefits) do when this happens? They leave. They just pack their bags and head back to whatever layer of hell they came from, and they get to have a nice time visiting their family for a bit, and then they come back and can pretend it never happened because to them it didn't. They don't have to go through this. When our issues turn from a mild inconvenience into something they don't feel like dealing with, they get to take themselves out of the situation.

We can't do that. Do you know what happens when we cant take it anymore? We have to deal with it. Or, alternatively, we get to consider the posibility of leaving our whole lives behind, not because we want to, but because we need to. To leave our friends, our parents, our homes, our whole support systems, to venture into the unknown alone. When my uncle left for New York, he did not think he was going on a pirate adventure. He was thinking about how he was going to afford rent on his own. He was thinking about how New York was where the good jobs were, and if he and his wife wanted to live a stable life, they had to make that decision. He was thinking about how he didn't know how to dress for the New York winters, and there was no one there to teach him. He was thinking about how, for those first six months, he was completely alone amongst strangers that didn't want him there. The only reason he and his wife were able to make it was because of other hispanic immigrants that took them under their wing and taught them how to do what they needed to to survive this new, unfamiliar, unflinchingly hostile place. For them, moving away from home wasn't an adventure at all. It was a shared tragedy.

I think often about leaving. I love my island so much. I don't want to leave. I've spent a few years in New York for college, and it is so difficult. I love New York, I really do, but every second I spend there I can feel the wrongness resonating down to my bones. My home is etched there in the white stone inside me, and being away from it hurts. But I did it because I know an US degree is worth more than a PR one back home. I did it because there are resources there that I can't match in Puerto Rico. I did it because I thought that if I paid my dues now, there might not come the day that I have to pay penance there forever and be buried somewhere where there will be snow on my grave.

I'm looking for a job now in Puerto Rico. One of the jobs I applied to had 850 other applicants alone. Most others are also flooded with applications. I know I'm not going to find anything above minimum wage here. Im hoping that I'm smart enough, talented enough, lucky enough to be able to claw my way up and find a way to be able to stay. I'm terrified that I will have to leave anyways, that all my best efforts will not be enough, because hard work has never saved us from having to leave.

So no, Mrs. Sarah Lindsey and Mr. Sean Flynn, I don't feel bad for you. I don't feel bad that a couple of colonizers had enough privilege to be able to describe uprooting their entire lives as "wanting a change of scenery" or "looking for adventure of some sort, a pirate adventure." The struggles you can so easily just leave when cosplaying as poor island people no longer suits you are the ones we bear for the price of being able to live in our home. And, additionally, I would like you to know that Puerto Rico is quite the ironic place to live out your little fantasy. You want to be Sir Francis Drake?

Twice the forces of Sir Francis Drake and the full weight of the English crown sailed on our capital of San Juan with the intention of turning it into another colonial holsing for the British. Twice we held him at bay. Twice we forced him to retreat, once by cannon fire, and once by attacking until his entire fleet was sieged by an outbreak of dysintery. The English would never manage to find their footing in the Spanish Americas after this. Sir Francis Drake died shitting his guts out two months later off the coast of Panama after a string of defeats, his reputation in tatters.

So yes, go ahead and live out your pirate fantasy to its fullest extent! I'm sure you'll do great!

[archupnet]

Financial Management in Architectural Practice: Challenges, Strategies, and Opportunities Financial management is one of the most critical determinants of success or failure for any architectural firm. Given the diversity in the types of architectural offices in the market—ranging from sole proprietorships to large corporate firms—each faces unique financial challenges requiring tailored strategies to achieve profitability and meet objectives. This article explores how financial management impacts different types of architectural offices and examines the opportunities and challenges they face. Types of Architectural Firms and Their Financial Challenges The architectural market is home to a variety of office structures, from small-scale sole proprietorships to mid-sized firms and large multinational corporations. - Sole Proprietorships: These are often run by a single architect or a small group of employees, facing significant challenges in managing costs due to limited financial resources and project volume fluctuations. For example, during periods without active projects, the architect must be flexible in managing expenses, including salaries and overheads. In such cases, owners may need to defer salaries or cut costs to avoid deficits. - Mid-Sized Firms: Compared to sole proprietorships, mid-sized firms operate with a more stable footing, as they can allocate their team across multiple projects. However, the challenge lies in managing cash flow to ensure regular payroll and cover operational expenses, particularly when client payments are delayed. Good financial management helps prevent liquidity issues that could lead to operational interruptions. - Large Corporate Firms: Large architectural firms benefit from diverse projects and clients, but they also face significant challenges related to high fixed costs, such as payroll and administrative expenses. A market downturn can heavily impact profits, necessitating intense competition for contracts to maintain financial balance. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many larger firms had to adapt by reducing workforce or rethinking project pipelines to manage overheads effectively. Impact of Salaries and Flexibility in the Workplace In most architectural firms, salaries constitute a major portion of fixed costs, making them critical to financial sustainability. During times of abundant work, salaries can be lucrative, but when project work slows down, it becomes essential to cut expenses or adjust staffing structures to minimize financial strain. For instance, in a city like New York, where competition among architectural offices is fierce, flexibility in managing salaries and overheads is vital for survival. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) 2022 reports, around 40% of small architectural firms closed within the last decade due to their inability to adapt to financial volatility. Financial Challenges of Competition and Quality Competition in the architectural market varies significantly between cities. In Jeddah, for example, the large number of architectural firms intensifies competition for clients and pricing, which can significantly impact service quality. Many firms may offer lower prices to secure contracts, resulting in compromised quality. In contrast, in cities like New York, architects focus on building strong reputations and delivering high-quality services, which helps them stand out in a competitive market. Quality is a significant factor in determining a firm's future, as clients willing to pay higher fees expect superior design and services. This explains why firms that prioritize low-cost services often cannot compare to firms focused on innovation and excellence. Financial Pressures of Establishing an Architectural Office Establishing an architectural office is far from simple; it requires careful financial management and planning. According to an AIA (American Institute of Architects) 2023 report, the average cost of establishing a small architectural office in a city like New York is approximately $150,000, covering rent, salaries, and office setup. In contrast, the market in Dubai is more diverse but requires similar caution in planning expenses, especially given the rising number of architectural firms and increased competition. The primary challenge is balancing the provision of high-quality architectural services while ensuring profitability sufficient to cover work costs and associated risks. Achieving this balance demands that architects not only excel in design but also deeply understand financial management and planning. Quality as a Determinant of Market Value Quality plays a crucial role in determining an architectural firm's position in the market. Firms that focus on delivering innovative and sustainable designs can establish a strong presence even in the most competitive markets. For instance, Norman Foster has successfully created an architectural brand known for quality and innovation, enabling him to thrive despite intense competition. Thus, excellence in design and attention to detail are key to an architectural firm's success. Effective financial management also plays a vital role in supporting innovation and ensuring sustainability. Profits can be reinvested in research and development, as well as hiring top talent, which enhances the overall quality of work and attracts clients seeking distinction. Conclusion Financial management in architectural practice is the key to success and sustainability in a challenging market. Whether the firm is a sole proprietorship or a large corporation, managing cash flow, covering fixed expenses, and adapting to market fluctuations are crucial factors for survival and success. As competition increases, quality and innovation become indispensable tools for enhancing a firm's market position and achieving sustainable profits. Ultimately, financial excellence is as important as design excellence, with both contributing to the realization of the firm's architectural vision. https://archup.net/architects-salaries/ Read the full article