#I wanted to separate both because I thought about just doing an advent children series set bt I guess I can do it either way ???

[dreamsandhonor]

"Don't pretend you're sad. Why tremble with anger that's not even there?"

"Face it Cloud, all you are is an empty puppet."

[gorematchala]

Final Fantasy 7, as its own self contained series including all the compilation stuff and Remake, is one of the most bafflingly awful pieces of media I've ever interacted with. Its popularity is part of whatsso frustrating about it to me, but the real issue is a lack of form and structure. I struggle even now to organize my thoughts but this is gonna be a full spoilers rant because I just finished catching up on Remake

FF7 on its face is a game about ecoterrorism, and class inequality. At least for a while. It then gets into flirting with the concepts of an ancient civilization and an alien invader. The afterlife and the perversion of it by the invader. These are all pretty dense topics

You see normally stories, especially long ones, have a thing called "internal consistency" which goes alongside "framework". The problem with games written by Tetsuya Nomura, like Kingdom Hearts, is that the man loves to write the phrase "and then" at the end of literally every sentence. Kingdom Hearts is the most obvious example. There was a bad man named Ansem, and then there was 13 bad guys led by another guy, and then there was a guy who was both of those guys, and then there was a X-blade which is like the keyblade but a morbillion times stronger, and then and then and then

And I have friends who love Kingdom Hearts. Its fine to like it, but lets not pretend its a well structured tight narrative. I often describe those games as Vibe Based Storytelling. The Darkness means whatever you want it to mean in the moment you're hearing about it. People are always "a part" of other people and no one ever explains what that means beyond the separation of the body and soul. I never used to compare FF7 unfavorably to Kingdom Hearts, but FF7R really took the worst parts of those games, which is "The Darkness" and all the vague lofty dialogue that surrouds it, and slotted it into a story that already had issues. And then they also introduced time travel

I do this thing often where I trace a problem back to its source. Its interesting to look at the few potentially little actions or motivations that spiraled out into a much bigger problem. Breaking Bad does that for you by telling you in like season 4 what Walt's actual inciting incident was. And it makes you go wow, what a small petty selfish man. Which is good in that example, I think because you know what kind of guy Walter is by then, so you go "Oh of course it would be fucking nothing. Of course it was just you being too stubborn to do a good thing for yourself at the expense of a little pride. Thats so Walt-core"

In FF7 if you trace the plot back you arrive at professor Hojo, who's motivation from the start is that he loves doing "research". I think this is because they wrote a mad scientist into the script and never wrote like, why he's a mad scientist. In FF7R they keep talking about the Promised Land, and constructing Neo Midgar, but never once do they explain what they think the Promised Land is or how they think Aerith can get them there, or what building Neo Midgar would do for them exactly. With all the time and money they invested in the underground facilities for each department they could just like, build better roads if that was what they wanted. But since they have meetings all the time just to whip Reeve in the balls I dont think thats their goal

So like the framework we're given in this modern era of ours is that they found Jenova and thought she was an ancient, so they started using her cells to make super soldiers for some reason, and then Hojo shot vincent and fucked his girlfriend to make Sephiroth. Sephiroth found out he was a weird mutant and he either went crazy or finally started to hear the call of Reunion or something? So he starts doing the joker smile and repeating the same 4 lines from Advent Children over and over again every time he appears in something. He dies, Zack dies, Cloud inherits the sword and Zacks persona, he also gets a little Jenova goop in him. Then in the original Jenova's body is taken over by Sephiroths will and escapes Shinra tower, which draws Cloud to him at the temple of the ancients and then a bunch of shit happens.

So Cloud and Sephiroth have no relationship except Cloud was the guy that threw Sephy into the abyss. Hojo is compelled to "Do Research" to the point that he later digitizes his brain and takes over Weiss's body so he can Do Research some more, with no particular goal in mind. Which its now been revealed that Chadley made that possible. The little shota android that Hojo made to be his assistant, which I think warrants a harddrive search. Sephiroth wants to destroy the planet, or rule it, or ride it across the universe to find whatever the Kingdom He- I mean the Promised land is. But in 7 Remake he just teleports himself and Cloud to the edge of the universe, so if he can just do that then what does he need the planet for? And Tifa needs twink cock sooo bad or she will die, and she will sacrifice the whole world if it gets her filled like a water balloon

So at the end of 7 Remake Sephiroth opens a portal to somewhere and says come get me teehee, and Aerith then turns the portal white? And then they go in and fight the advent children guys and a big purple soul monster in what seems to be a parallel universe??? And it isnt clear if theyre still in that parallel universe at the end of the game?? But they fight the Sephiroth kids because the whispers are the cries of the planet but they are also destiny, and they also control time, and theyre also monsters sometimes. So they kill the big guy, which somehow ripples back and makes Zack no longer dead. If Zack is no longer dead, the whole thing falls apart because Cloud is nothing without that death. But whatever, it places him as he was back then into current day, sure. But why? I know the answer is because fans like him, but this is what I'm talking about. The whole plot of everything that came out after 7 is based on how much the fans love Sephiroth, and they keep throwing in all this extra shit like Genesis and Angeal, the whispers, reunion theory, deepground, Sephiroth literally just making Kingdom Hearts shadow portals and purple heartless tornados, and it's all constructed on the inciting incident that Hojo just likes to Do Research. There's no solid understanding of anyones motivations, or the mechanics of the setting, or why Tifa had to arch her back and make herself look more breedable for Cloud while Jessie was dying. Or why she can't stop making sex noises whenever a door opens or an elevator stops

I guess I can relate cuz this post has no clear motivation I'm just pissed off that they're parading Zacks corpse around and that they got maybe the worst voice actor of all time to replace one of the best voice actors in the franchise. Because Zack is this shining beacon of normalness in Crisis Core. All this bullshit is happening around him and Genesis is talking about the gift of the goddess, and Zack is like dude I dont know what you're talking about, and I'm like me neither brother

[aethelflaedladyofmercia]

Boundless Love

My final story for @drawlight‘s advent calendar is sort of an epilogue (or, if I’m being super literary, coda) to all of my previous stories. It might be a little cheesy (definitely a little more literary than I generally go for) but I’ve had this ending in mind since like...day 3? So I had to see it through.

The longer scenes are epilogues to several of the other stories in this set; I’ll provide links in case you’ve missed them. This will also function as an Advent Calendar Master Post.

I plan to post the entire series to AO3 under the title “Boundless Love” starting tomorrow (I’ll edit as I go, one or two stories need a bit of re-working). Thank you all for reading, it has been a wild ride!!

25 - Love (3,142 words)

Some people think that every choice we make creates a universe.

This is only partly correct.

--

The fifth night of the festival of Saturnalia, long after even the most determined revelers in Rome had gone to sleep, an angel and a demon stood on a rooftop patio, overlooking the quiet mountainside.

“I think I love you,” Aziraphale said, abruptly, without preamble.

Crowley turned to him, mouth wide, too breathless to respond.

“I’m not…I don’t know whether one can ever be sure in such matters,” Aziraphale hurried on. “It’s a human emotion, after all. Angels weren’t made to love one being above all others. And yet, I think I do.” He smiled at Crowley, as if what he’d said was of only passing interest. “To be honest, I don’t know what to do with this information just yet.”

Crowley moved a little closer, leaned against the raised lip of the patio. “Could be problematic. If your side finds out. I don’t imagine they would approve.”

“No, you’re probably right.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have said anything.”

“Perhaps not.” Aziraphale stared eastward, waiting for the sunrise. “I suppose I thought you had a right to know. Is that not how this works?”

“Could be. I’m not really an expert, either. Demons aren’t supposed to love anyone at all.”

“Ah.” Aziraphale nodded. Already the sky was beginning to lighten.

“Which makes it a bit troublesome, because I am almost certainly in love, too.”

Crowley shot a glance sideways, watched Aziraphale bite his lip, nod seriously.

“I understand. This person you’re in love with.” His eyes drifted over. “It’s Caligula, isn’t it?”

“Oh, don’t you –”

Aziraphale burst into laughter at the look on Crowley’s face, even as the demon reached over, pulled him close, held him tight.

“I love you,” the angel whispered, pressing lips to his neck, his jaw, his cheek. “I love you, I love you, I love you.” As if the fervent whispers, the beating of his heart, could stop the coming dawn.

--

Each of the infinite universes starts at the same point; they all meet again at the end.

In between, they never touch, never cross, never affect the others in any way. Each plays out its own story, independently.

An infinite number of earths, crossing six thousand years of history. An infinite number of Heavens and Hells, fighting behind the scenes in ways humans can’t comprehend.

And in every universe, there is a demon who asks too many questions, and an angel who doesn’t always obey.

--

“Aziraphale,” Crowley said, eyes wide, balanced on the branch of the apple tree. “You don’t have to do this.”

“I’m sorry, my love,” the angel said with deadly cold eyes. “But this is the way it has to be. Warriors, attack!”

And the platoon of children pelted the evil spirit with snowballs until he fell to the ground, gasping with exaggerated agony.

The angel bent over the fallen figure, inspecting his enemy, and Crowley reached up, grabbing him, pulling him to the ground, burying his face in Aziraphale’s neck.

“My love, you say? My love? Don’t use that word if you don’t mean it, Angel. You’ll find me quite –”

His rant was rudely cut off by a small child shoving a fistful of snow down the back of Crowley’s shirt. “If you two don’t stop kissing after every tree, this is gonna take all night.”

--

Why do they always find each other?

Why do they always cling to each other?

Despite infinite universes seeking to tear them apart, why do they always fall in love?

--

Aziraphale collapsed across the sofa, head and shoulders wedged into the corner, too exhausted to even keep himself upright. The long black serpent lay on his stomach, watching him intently.

“Oh, Crowley,” he tried to keep his voice steady, despite the tears he could no longer hold in. “You were wrong. It was my fault. I’ve – I’ve worked it out now. Obvious, really. Serpent. Human. Two corporations, woven together.” His voice started to crack. “When we changed places I…I sort of dropped a corner. Let one bleed into the other. I – I’m so sorry.”

Crowley took a moment, processing this. “Accccident.”

“Yes, but I…” He held out a hand. Crowley didn’t like to be scratched, or petted, or held. But he did glide across the hand, bringing his snout closer to the angel’s tear-streaked face. “I could have killed you, Crowley. I could have destroyed you over something so…so foolishly simple. You must hate me.”

“No. Nevvver.”

He wiped furiously at his eyes with his free hand. They itched with fatigue as they never had before. “I’m almost there, Crowley. Just a little more. I can see where I dropped it. I can see how to separate them again. I just…just need to figure out how to secure the ends, so it doesn’t happen again.” The sobs broke through again. “I’m nearly there, my love. I’m nearly there.”

“Resssst.”

“I can’t. Not when I’m so close. Crowley I…I need you back. I want to see you human again. And I know you hate this, I won’t leave you in this form a moment longer than necessary, I just…”

“Ssssleeep.” Crowley retreated, coiling up on Aziraphale’s chest. “Ssssleeep. Lovvvve. Sssssleeeep.”

Still shaking, still crying, he drifted off under that watchful golden gaze.

--

You could call it fate. You could call it part of the Plan.

Something written into them, a command on their souls drawing them together.

Something in their makeup that leaves each incomplete, threatens to destroy them when apart.

You would be wrong.

--

A fight at an airbase, a long bus ride, not a word spoken after we’re on our own side.

And after more than twenty-six centuries, Aziraphale found himself again standing beside Crowley’s bed. Not a pile of furs this time, but cotton sheets, black as night.

Crowley pulled off his glasses, met Aziraphale’s eyes, and nodded.

Almost without a thought, their bodies returned to the familiar position, as if they had only left the Celtic roundhouse the day before: lying facing each other, eyes locked, hands entwined. Bare inches apart, as if the queen-sized mattress were a narrow sleeping platform.

Nothing had changed, save that this time it was Crowley who trembled.

“I’m right here,” Aziraphale whispered, running his thumb across Crowley’s fingers. “Nothing’s going to happen to you.”

“It might. What if they come while I’m asleep?”

“I’ll wake you. Come what may, we’ll face it together.”

“You won’t leave?” Crowley knew the answer, but he needed to hear it out loud.

“I made that mistake once, twenty-six centuries ago. I thought I knew what was important. I was a fool. But I know better now.” He released Crowley’s hand and slowly, hesitantly, slid his arm around the demon’s waist. He’d never done this while awake before.

Crowley melted into it, moving closer, pressing his head into Aziraphale’s throat. “Angel. I’m sorry. I never should have –”

“You did what I asked of you. It was my mistake. But I will never, ever leave again. I promise.”

“I loved you, Aziraphale. Even back then, I already loved you.”

“I know. I loved you, too. I just refused to admit it.” They held each other tighter, as if they were always meant to fit together like this. “Rest now. I’ll think of something.”

--

An angel who does what he thinks is right, no matter what he is ordered to do.

A demon who rebels against everything, even the rebellion itself.

If you tried to force them together, you would fail utterly.

They go only where they choose.

--

Crowley woke before the dreams could begin, Aziraphale leaning over him, shaking him gently.

“You don’t have to do that every time,” he muttered, but didn’t pull away. “You can just leave.”

Aziraphale responded as he always did, in a calm, even voice: “I do it because I love you, and you’re safe.”

“Fine, you don’t have to say that every time.”

“I say it because I love you, and you’re safe.” His hand still rested on Crowley’s shoulder. “And I will keep saying both until I’m sure you believe me.”

The demon shifted under the blankets. Aziraphale’s latest idea: breaking the sleep cycle, waking him before the terrors could begin, training his mind to a new rhythm. They would talk briefly, then allow Crowley to drift off again in half an hour. “How will we even know if it’s working?”

“It is working. Your eyes are back to normal. When you have a terror at all, it only lasts a few minutes. You aren’t having nearly as many flashbacks during the day. I know you can’t see it, but it is working.”

“Will I ever be better?” He could see how the weight of caring for him wore on Aziraphale, even if the angel never said a word.

“I don’t know. A human could carry this trauma the rest of their life; it’s generally about managing symptoms rather than finding a cure. But you are a demon. Who can say? I just know, I will keep trying as long as it takes, because I love –”

“Yes, I know.” Crowley grumbled, embarrassed, not quite meeting his eyes. “I love you too, you old sap.”

--

That, perhaps, is the secret.

In an infinite number of universes, under an infinite variety of circumstances, the two beings who never quite fit anywhere will choose each other, again and again, every time.

Never mind the dangers. Never mind the difficulties.

They choose each other, cling to each other, heal each other.

The words they fear to say they spill out in other ways, weaving themselves into the world.

I love you. I love you.

Pulsing through the roots and branches of the ancient chestnut tree, pounding through the hearts of the two beings walking through the grove.

--

1967. The telephone rang at 7:43 PM. Crowley had just about convinced himself the call would never come. Now he pounced on it, lifting it before the first ring even ended, hardly able to choke out a greeting.

“– infernal, blasted device. Can anyone hear me? I’m trying to reach Crowley, Anthony Crowley, he’s been waiting for my call all day, but this wretched machine only makes incomprehensible noises! Oh, he’ll think I’m sulking, or angry, and he’ll disappear on me again, as if I haven’t been so worried about him I can hardly think straight. Connect me right now or the wrath I visit upon you and all your kind will –”

“Angel?”

A very long silence.

“Crowley? Oh, dear. How…long have you been listening?”

“Were you…trying to threaten the telephone?”

“Perhaps?” Aziraphale cleared his throat and tried for his angry, blustery tone again. “This horrible contraption is not even remotely easy to use, despite what you told me –”

“I worried about you, too.”

Another silence. So long Crowley began to panic that the line had somehow disconnected.

“Ah.”

“Do you…want to talk about it?”

“I don’t know what to say.” The voice on the line was much softer now. “I don’t think we should. These things are not…not safe to talk about.” An awkward throat clearing. “But yes. Someday, I very much think I would.”

“When you’re ready,” Crowley said, quietly, gently. “I’ll be waiting.”

--

Sometimes they say it in actions.

A wordless song raised in a Garden.

I see your pain. I’ll show you mine. Hear me. Help me. Love me.

A hundred healing kisses pressed to the skin.

I hurt you. Forgive me. I love you.

A warm drink by the fire and friendly company on a snowy morning.

Let me help you. Let me comfort you. I love you.

The smooth motion of thumbs on the soles of feet, every weekend, for as many weekends as were left to the world.

I love you. Don’t leave me. I love you.

--

1982. The phone rang at 10:08 PM. The demon stumbled out of bed, shooing the spiders away, snatching up the handset on the third ring.

“Yes? Who – yes?”

He relaxed. “Angel. Still haven’t gone back to London?” A pause. “Because the time zones go the other way, idiot. It’s the middle of the night here.”

He listened for a bit, teeth clenched anxiously. “You aren’t going to get in trouble, are you? Going over your healing quota?” Crowley nodded, even though he was alone. “Fine, just, you know. Be smart. Don’t take any stupid risks.”

He smiled a little. “No, a new hotel every night is exactly the right thing. Have you been reading spy novels again?” Raised eyebrows. “Oh, really? What kind of mystery have you encountered, Aziraphale?”

Crowley settled back on the edge of the bed as he listened. “Well, yeah, the television does play movies, that’s the point…Exactly two minutes every time? But different parts? Are you sure it’s the same movie?” He bit his lip as he realized what was going on, struggling not to laugh. “No, no, keep taking notes. You’ll figure it out…Yeah, I definitely want to hear the saga of the pizza boy and the babysitter when you’re done.”

The conversation went on, as it did every Thursday, filled with the boring minutiae of everyday life, plans, complaints, grumblings about the state of the food. And yet, through the demon’s habitual tone of annoyance and disgust shone a warmth and love that colored every word. “Yeah. No. Talk to you next week. I’m looking forward to it.”

--

Sometimes they say it in gifts.

A branch of pine. A remembered song. A clasp of hands on a bus.

Be happy. Be safe. I love you.

A meal delivered just in time. A friendly face interrupting soul-crushing loneliness.

Don’t give up. I need you. I love you.

Forty pairs of tickets to a ballet. A letter. An apology. A wish.

Stay with me. I miss you. I love you.

--

An angel and a demon walked together towards the Ritz, after a body swap and a narrow escape. Blue eyes turned towards a dark figure, again and again, sly as a puppy and just as sweet.

“So, my dear, do you suppose it’s safe to try flirting now?”

“It could still be dangerous. Especially for you. But I suppose I can’t stop you if you want to try.”

“Well then. Crowley.” The eyes batted as if there was an eyelash caught in them. “I like your…face.”

And Crowley grabbed his lapels, slammed him back against the nearest wall, and kissed him in broad daylight until his legs gave out. Aziraphale clung to him, dragging hands through red hair, kissing back for all he was worth.

When they finally parted, gasping for breath, Aziraphale chuckled. “And I thought you didn’t want a snog in a back alley.”

“This is a main road, Angel. And I said I wanted you, forever.” Sharp nose brushed along the curve of a jaw. “You’re in my clutches now. I will never, ever let you go.”

“Oooh. Promise?” Aziraphale winked with both eyes.

Crowley groaned, burying his face in his angel’s shoulder. “How are you the absolute worst flirt to ever exist?”

“Worst? Or best?” Soft arms wrapped around the narrow waist, pulling him close. “After all, I have a 100% success rate. Cassanova wishes he was as good as me.”

“You are an idiot.”

“I love you too, dear.”

--

Through every difficulty, every danger, they survive, they save each other, they build a life.

An angel and a demon, again and again, bound together not by the ties of fate or a Plan they do not understand.

Because love is not something you can command.

Love is a choice.

Love is a decision to reach out, to comfort, to communicate, to make a connection and then build it, maintain it, protect it, help it to bloom.

--

An angel and a demon walked hand in hand through the woods surrounding their cottage on Christmas morning.

“Are you sure you can be happy here?” Crowley wondered, glancing anxiously to the side as they followed the snow-covered path.

“Crowley, my dear,” Aziraphale responded with some exasperation. “There is no place in the world I would rather be than at your side. I would rather eat runny eggs and burnt toast prepared by you than dine at the finest restaurant. I have seen the seven wonders of the world and I prefer to walk through your gardens. I have stood before the greatest artworks ever created and they don’t compare to your smile. I will absolutely be happy here, and my answer will not change in a day, or a month, or a century.”

“But how can you be sure?”

“Because, my dear, my darling idiot, we’ve been married for over a decade!” He stood, Crowley’s face cradled in his hands, giving him his sternest glare. “Are you ever going to stop asking me that stupid question?”

Crowley just grinned. “Probably not. I don’t think I’m going to get sick of the answer any time soon.” He wrapped his arms around Aziraphale, pulled him close, whispered in his ear. “I don’t regret anything, you know. Not one day, not one argument, not one stupid decision in six thousand years. Because it brought us here, where we belong.”

The angel sighed, leaning into the embrace. “Do you think, if things had been different, we still would have fallen in love?”

“No idea.” He pressed a kiss against Aziraphale’s forehead. “Though if you really want to get into that, talk to Adam. He’s on the whole alternate universes thing again. Apparently, we’re the ultimate proof of his theories on the triumph of free will and the continuity of self across infinite iterations.”

“What on earth does that mean?”

“I haven’t a bloody clue! You’re supposed to be the clever one.” Twining their fingers together, Crowley turned to walk back towards the cottage. “That kid is too smart for his own good.”

“He’s hardly a child anymore. None of them are.” Aziraphale turned the ideas over in his head as they walked. “I suppose I will ask him about it when they arrive. If he thinks its important, it probably is.”

“Good. I should have just enough time to burn the potatoes down to charcoal.”

“Crowley, you could try not ruining some part of Christmas dinner. Just for a change.”

“What? And break our oldest holiday tradition?”

--

In an infinite number of universes, an angel and a demon have every opportunity to give up, to walk away, to protect their own existence.

The angel could choose, at any time, to obey, to keep himself safe.

The demon could fall in line, behave as expected, and accept the role he was given.

And yet, over and over –

They choose humanity.

They choose each other.

They choose love.

(Thank you to everyone who has been reading along and sending me encouraging comments! This Calendar topped out at 51,245 words. All written since December 2.

For those who don’t know, I just finished a fic on AO3 that I declared “the longest finished story I ever wrote.” This is longer. 

This challenge has not just created a bunch of stories I never thought I would ever write, but also pushed the boundaries of what I thought I was capable of. I want to thank @drawlight again for posting the calendar and getting all this started. Also quick shout out to my cheerleader @angel-and-serpent who constantly checks to make sure I’m working on this.

My contributions to this writing challenge are complete! I’m going to bed.)

[whetstonefires]

director's cut top guide? I don't have a section in specific pick your favorite I guess I love the whole thing

Awwwww thank you. 💗😊 For the compliment, the interest, and the guidance.  Additionally thanks because I just discovered I didn’t update this fic in October like I thought I did! It’s still in the status it had in July. So uh. I’ll be getting right on that. ˋ( ° ▽、° )

I think I’m gonna go with a passage back near the start, in the first half of chapter 4, the one where Tifa’s getting Vincent out of his coffin. I like how it came out and it’s pretty important, and if I’ve rambled about it at all, it wasn’t recently.

-

There’s a push-pull effect fundamental to this scene–first physically, with Tifa moving and destroying actual barriers, and Vincent repeatedly attempting to withdraw. But also on the level of Tifa attempting a series of verbal sallies, which Vincent initially rebuffs and then ignores by vampirically pulling the covers over his head and generally putting the passive in passive-aggressive.

But after telling her to go ahead and set the building on fire with him in it, Vincent gets his lid on and settles on being inert, and Tifa gets to do a monologue.

There are a lot of speeches in this fic, honestly, because of the precedent set by canon/the kinds of characters I’m working with, but most of them are nowhere near this long, and even though Tifa’s trying to achieve a specific rhetorical objective here, they’re generally not quite this honest.

“It’s easy to decide to die,” she told him, at length. “It’s easy to stop fighting when there doesn’t seem to be any hope. I know.

“But you’ll always regret it. You know that. If you’d been brave enough to choose Lucrecia over the Turks before Hojo got his grubby claws into her, maybe none of this would ever have happened. If she’d been brave enough to choose you sooner, it might have been okay. Not choosing is almost always a bad choice. If you come out of hiding, more things will happen—things that can’t unhappen. I know that’s frightening. But things happen without you, too. When you’re not there. When you do nothing.”

Tifa rocked back on her heels. “You can’t make the world go back to the way it was before, get back the same happiness or hope from your memories…not even if you could wind back time.”

Here Tifa is combining her intimate knowledge of Vincent’s circumstances with her own situation to create a sort of…weaponized empathy.

She can’t afford for Vincent to not listen to her, because she refuses to either give up on her mission or kill him, so when the normal approach fails she falls back on contingency and proceeds to run absolutely roughshod over all his personal boundaries.

Now, being able to wield future information against people this way is one of the major features of this general genre of time travel story, particularly when (like Tifa here) the traveler had level-ups, but didn’t get to carry them into New Game Plus. Tifa later uses it against Tseng with no artfulness whatsoever.

But that kind of blunt, bludgeoning use of intimate knowledge is a power game; it’s not how you treat a friend. So Tifa spends a lot of this speech, especially the opening, drawing connections between her experience and Vincent’s, exposing herself emotionally as much as can reasonably be managed without going off on any Tifa-centric tangents.

Being displaced in time and separated from everything you cared about is relevant, here. And she’s also able to bring her personal experience with feeling helpless and trapped–not by the sort of clear antagonistic obstacle you can batter down with your fists but by the certainty that every possible course of action is Terrible and Wrong and so you can’t act, because you can’t choose–she specifically frames it in terms of having to decide between binary options, because that’s how we’ve seen her experience it wrt i.e. ‘talking to Cloud about how his brain is weird.’

The experience is similar enough to Vincent’s, especially his not-initiating of important relationship conversations with Lucretia at the beginning, for these terms to work for communication purposes, but it’s very definitely Tifa’s experience being mapped onto Vincent’s here, and proffered to ameliorate the inherent violence of what she’s doing.

Her coping mechanism for that trapped feeling, though, is to distract herself with Doing Something Constructive that allows her to avoid the issue without feeling like she’s stuck.

There’s a certain extent to which allowing time to process or grieve is important, and Tifa is bad at allowing it, largely I think because she’s very aware of the danger of getting mired in paralysis and ruminating on the bad thing until it’s all that exists. Vincent more than anyone else in the cast is defined by his choice to identify with his trauma, and while Aerith is the one most defined by trying not to do that, Tifa’s far enough to that end to create a conflict in viewpoint even when nothing vitally important is at stake.

I also included a dialogue ping to the place where she talks about this in the Advent Children movie, though if you’ve been following my opinions on ffvii any time at all you probably know I have so many problems with thedecisions made with Tifa in that film. Even the parts that areconsonant with her established characterization require her to have rolled back mostof her development from the OG.

The part where she doesn’t come with Cloud on the rescue mission shebullies him into is so utterly backward and the opposite of her establishedbehavior and values and just basic logic that I have to sort of write around it,because I can’t accept that it happened. But if we ignore that bit, and the amount of self-centeredness in the harangue, some elementsof the interaction have potential.

Because if nothing else it’s the most explicit verbal treatment in the Compilation of the recurring theme of people being ‘stuck.’ Not by bars and walls and certain death, but by the prisons inside their heads.

“But…there are still possibilities. Still things you can do to make the world better. Her choices…they weren’t your fault. But whatever you��re blaming yourself for right now…lying here until you die won’t make it better. The biggest sin of all, to me, is not trying to make things better.

“You aren’t a monster, Vincent. Nothing Hojo did to your body, nothing Lucrecia did to bring you back, could make you one. As long as you have your mind, you decide. And it’s what you decide to do that makes the difference between a human and anything else.”

She’s hitting hard, here: call to action, absolution, extremely targeted personal affirmation, clarification that she really does know what’s up with him, new information that Lucrecia was involved with his current status, and finally, optimistic conceptual framework imposed on the situation, since Vincent certainly isn’t capable of that himself.

This treatment of Vincent’s situation vis-a-vis humanity is, of course, also very relevant to the ensuing plot-central question of what Sephiroth is, and whether he has the power to make good life choices. Which Tifa is not nearly as sure of as with Vincent, since while she stands by the principle that it’s a matter of choice she knows for a fact that Vincent can make good ones, but has certainly never seen evidence with Sephiroth.

And then of course there’s Genesis, who would love to get everyone to accept that his sins are a function of what rather than who he is, and drag down with him anyone he can reach, and who by his very effort to sell the idea makes it seem less likely.

I’ve excerpted only Tifa’s dialogue and some of the tags from the rest of the passage, because her narration gets lengthier and isn’t what I’m focusing on for this commentary.

She waited. But the man in the box didn’t move, and he didn’t speak. “Lucrecia is still alive,” she told him. “Preserved in crystal. Hidden away. You two really are a pair, aren’t you? And maybe you’re both right to be concerned—she’s got Jenova in her, and you’ve got those things that replaced your Limit Breaks. But they don’t control you.”

[…]

“They don’t control you,” she repeated. “Hojo doesn’t control you. You can choose to do nothing for the rest of your long life if that’s what you really want. But it’s not your destiny. And it’s not what’s right.”

‘It’s not what’s right’ is an interesting line in retrospect, because Tifa’s saying it within a framework of denying Vincent’s reasoning that there’s something somehow virtuous about closing himself off from the world, so he can’t do any more harm. Specifically in the context of assuring him that he has control over his actions, and his Limit Break things don’t.

But in the overall argument, about how his power of self-determination relates to responsibility to the world, it can also be read as a moral condemnation, the suggestion that there is a specific thing that’s right, and Vincent isn’t doing it.

“Sephiroth is an adult now,” she said [….] “They put him in the Shinra military. Made him a General.”

[…] “If Hojo and Jenova have their way, he’ll become a monster soon,” she confided in the coffin. “Maybe there’s no way to change that. Maybe it’s too late for him. Maybe it’s his destiny. But it’s not too late for the rest of the world, not yet. I know that much. Everyone who has the power to fight him has a responsibility to try.”

That’s where her speech winds up–rather abrupt return to her earlier, blown-off argument about Sephiroth imminently killing everybody and how Vincent should help. He doesn’t do anything. He continues to be a box.

So then she punches her way into the coffin.

“What are you?”

She knew it wasn’t her feat of strength that had impressed him, though he probably appreciated the rhetorical force of it.

I really like this line. Describing ‘punching open the box someone’s hiding in at the climax of an inspirational speech’ as a rhetorical device is the kind of thing I find very funny, and I got characterization of both of them and story advancement into the sentence too.

“Tifa,” she said. “Tifa Lockhart.” She held out her right hand. “Get up, Vincent Valentine. The world isn’t done with you yet.”

He let her pull him up onto his feet.

Some obvious symbolism there, fitted into the very important fact that this worked.

Getting Vincent out of his coffin has been the only thing Tifa’s attempted so far in the story that has turned out more or less exactly as planned. Not entirely easily, and not following a step-by-step plot because that’s not Tifa, but without random factors interceding and requiring her to recalculate wildly, make decisions entirely on the fly, and draw up a new set of plans in the aftermath, either.

In a way, the Vincent recruitment section microcosms the fight Tifa’s having with the universe throughout the fic, in her efforts to make things line up so she can get a better outcome to this nightmare scenario she’s been pitched back into: direct, physical actions are persistently vital and necessary, but her real success must always hinge on her particular knowledge, and ability to apply it.

Apply it specifically, thus far, mostly to getting people to take her seriously and do as she says. Because she’s been placed in a position where as useful and important as her personal power is, it’s not the right tool to rely on for her central task. That has to be tackled via community building, in a context that intensely disinclines her to attempt such overtures.

Which in turn invokes one of the several great dichotomies of Tifa’s in-game characterization–the periodic tension between her social impulses, to bind and soothe and promote bonding, and her…reactive impulses, to seize the world in both hands and find something to fight and do and change, so she doesn’t feel helpless in the face of all that is evil.

The parts of her character arc in the game that aren’t actively about Cloud seem to center around being forced to face that both these behavior patterns (especially in their role as coping mechanisms) are capable of being not only inadequate but actively, harmfully inappropriate to particular situations.

And then coping with this fact, and continuing to inhabit these parts of her identity in ways that turn out constructive. E.g., choose caring for Cloud over leading party to do anti-Shinra things that have only the vaguest prospect of actually averting the apocalypse; successfully retrieve his mind from the Lifestream. Help punch Sephiroth to death and stop him from holding back Holy; world saved.

If you try really hard to get a personal moral for Tifa out of the OG that isn’t pretty sexist, it might come down to something like: realize that you might be acting wrongly; then, act. Stay afraid, but do it anyway.

And, optimistically: perhaps you do not have to choose between your faces. Perhaps they are both allowed. Perhaps all of you is allowed. Perhaps you are enough.

One of the things Tifa and Cloud share is needing so desperately to be enough.

In a way that’s a feeling that unites the entire party, in their various ways, except maybe Aerith, depending on how you interpret her relationship to the obligations of being the Last Ancient. But Tifa and Cloud are about the same age and come from the same context and share a major trauma, so it looks particularly similar in them.

And of course there are also ways it looks especially similar between Tifa and Vincent, because they’re the most hopeless romantics in the party. 😆

[gurguliare]

Anyway I finally finally finished the TM post-mortem so have one last rundown

Really loved: Signet’s stupid relics runway show, Ali describing the Mirage/Splice resolution as “the most amazing Gift of the Magi fuckup,” and, oddly, Keith’s reflections on anarchism, though idk if enough of that made it legibly into the season---which is one of the ways Gig was underserved, I guess.

I also enjoyed and appreciated the discussion of TM’s utopianism as monumental artistic challenge. I obviously have criticisms wrt execution and I disagree with some of their analysis of TM’s failures and shortcomings, but I thought everyone was refreshingly honest about the sheer scale of the task, in a way that I often missed during the series proper---when the tone sometimes tended more toward “we’ve set ‘depicting a utopia’ as our goal, and of course we share a coherent (static) vision of what that entails, and know exactly how to get from here to there.”

I was dissatisfied at best with the conversation about redemption vs rehabilitation. I might be more convinced by the distinction if Austin had ever stopped saying “sin”... which, among other things, helps to selectively blur together abuse and other forms of violence. (I’ve given up on even dreaming of a world in which FATT covers its ass better in re: Christian-centric, frankly Catholic-centric readings of both morality and faith, and maybe it’s for the best that they lack the wherewithal to mask that.) That said, I think it’s very striking that Even Gardner’s violence and militarism seems dealt with in-story almost exclusively as a form of trauma and a thing that happens to Even Gardner, while Fourteen’s history with Castlerose is discussed (up to the time of the finale) almost exclusively in terms of Sins Fourteen Committed. I’m not saying those framings are ~flipped, but the ratio does seem off. Even has a fuckton of choices at every step of the way and experiences basically no material repercussions or visible change of heart, other than “once there are no Advent people left I’ll stop targeting Advent.” He’s also, notably, “brought back from the edge” by a played-straight romantic relationship, for some reason. Fourteen has like... half of a narrative about turning bad habits and even obsolete ideas to constructive ends, and half a narrative about reclaiming agency once safely away from your abuser, even at the cost of losing access to huge swathes of your life... but it’s an arc that goes so unacknowledged or unseen by the other characters that it never connects back up to the idea that, well, bound up in the problem of rehabilitation is the problem of forgiveness---or if we don’t like that language, then acceptance. It’s never clear on what terms Fourteen is judged and reintegrated into their community, and how and where their self-image aligns with others’ view of them.

Which is very, very lonely, and raises huge questions for me about the whole issue of Fourteen as ~disability representation and specifically as a test case for what terminal illness might look like in a utopia. It is just not clear what anyone’s goals were, as far as showing Fourteen supported in a systemic way and not just on the level of relationships. It’s very odd. I’m still puzzled by Jack and Austin’s remarks on this, especially the focus on what Jack had or hadn’t done with Fourteen in play. Literally every NPC (who has a stance on the issue at all) responds to Fourteen with undisguised horror at their memory dysfunction---the most sympathetic version of this is a lecture about integrating assistive technology into their daily routine! and the least sympathetic is the point-blank statement that Fourteen not remembering who they’ve killed is worse than killing those people in the first place. Like, what the hell? That’s a vision of morality that is entirely premised on repentance, and on the idea that expiation for a crime only comes with appropriate helpings of guilt. And it never really receives an in-universe challenge.

It was also weird to me that Grand didn’t come up at all in that part of the discussion. But then again it seemed like no one wanted to comment seriously on Grand’s arc in general; maybe Art was making really sad faces on the call or something. It’s a shame though, since you’d think it would be a good opportunity to go on some bullshit about “salvation NOT through good works,” or rather, salvation definitely through good works but everyone feels a little weird about it. Three bombs? Three bombs?

Finally, it is important that I dissect all remarks on shipping. I was a little perturbed by the discussion of Fourteen/Tender; I thought Ali’s IC reasons were perfectly valid but I found Jack’s slightly suspect, because I don’t think, uh, “this person flirts all the time but is too busy dying to pursue new romantic projects” really jives---either with Fourteen’s profound, active engagement with others (more active and deeper engagement the longer the season went on) or with Jack’s stated goal of presenting a dying person who, without being embroiled in regret or bitterness in the face of death, still loves their life. Obviously I don’t think romantic relationships are a requirement for that, but the blanket statement that Fourteen is Not That Person gave me trouble. Also, I just don’t think you can drop the “platonic relationship representation is so important” line in there without a LOT more unpacking of the pros and cons of that---who are the characters involved in that relationship, and are they people for whom nonsexual relationships are a top-of-the-line representation deficit? Also, is nonsexual vs sexual really the paradigm you want to cleave to here, in a discussion of the chemistry between an internet goddess and a hunk of data?

I’m a hypocrite though bc when they got to echogrand and went on about how it was important that Echo’s arc not center on romance I was like RIGHT ON

...

Okay. One more thing. Janine shooting down Signet/Blueberry; I was fond of this, though I obviously do not care about her opinion and will continue to do what I want---I don’t like “parental” as the trajectory for a dynamic whose foundational moment is the younger weaker party saving the older, that doesn’t do it for me. Of course children can save their parents, but they shouldn’t have to, and that certainly shouldn’t be the pattern that defines the relationship. And for Signet and Blueberry I think it really is; Signet offers Blueberry apologies, Blueberry offers Signet things Signet actually needs. That’s not parental. Nevertheless, I was fond bc it made me think about what a wealth of fun mentorship dynamics this season offered otherwise---with Tender and Morning’s Observation, and Fourteen and Sho, there are these really precious internal movements, or moments of slippage, from distrust to empathy and from faith to disillusionment, that I treasured as real, organic, slippery pieces of character writing and of writing about growth... My favorite example of this is when Morning’s Observation is FURIOUS with Tender after the fucking... rooftop debacle early on in the Wind’s Poem arc. And then again, more seriously, later, after he’s been essentially abandoned and has to save the day by drawing on parts of himself he wanted to give up. That feels like a moment of roleswap between “guardian” and “child” that is presented as appropriately bittersweet, pivotal, and rupturing, and which therefore preserves the logic of the original relationship even as it expands it. And I also love Grand’s awkward interference there, haha... esp in the context of Grand managing to disappoint Morning separately later on, when by that point it’s lost most of its oomph just because Morning has learned not to have expectations of these fucking geniuses. Which is its own mixed result.

(I wish there had been a bit more followup with Morning in the finale, actually, I don’t think he really got resolution on some stuff and I think “happy at the Brink with his moms” is more avoidant copout than anything, though not implausible or unreasonable avoidance from a character perspective. But like, the fucking... part in the Feast of Patina where it becomes increasingly apparent, throughout Morning’s glad monologue, that he did, in fact, do many of the same things as Grand? He betrayed former allies for an enemy faction in the name of convenience! That’s not all Grand did, but it’s not nothing. And everyone has to fall back on “but the Advent Group are fascists! Morning didn’t turn coat and join fascists!” when it’s like, well, would he have, if they had offered him spaghetti?

Not that I think Morning’s and Grand’s choices are remotely equivalent. But it was a very funny parallel for them to try to wriggle out of on the fly, and I wish they hadn’t---I wish they’d leaned into Morning’s lingering doubts, which would if anything have served to highlight that he does have good reason to stay. It’s just that those reasons don’t cancel out the doubts.)

[nelliievance]

Getting Started With Biking

I gave some advice about this in a previous post, but that was four years ago and there are some updates, especially about choosing the right bike. There’s been a lot of innovation and growth in the bike industry, so an update is in order.

Traffic Fear:-A major barrier for most people to biking outside is fear of motor vehicle traffic. Understandably so, it’s not comforting to share the road with heavy fast-moving vehicles. If we can’t overcome this barrier, we may as well stick to talking about indoor cycling. But there are ways to get past it:

People feel much safer on paths separated from traffic. If you’re fortunate enough to have those in your area, but don’t have a good route to get to them, you can always chuck your bike in the trunk or on a rack and drive to the start. I had friends who love to ride on our Coyote Creek trail but did not feel safe on the street so would just drive to the start of the trail. That’s a great way to start out. They’ve since moved further north, but if they were still here I’d have tried to also coax them out onto some of the safe pleasant streets of Morgan Hill they were missing out on.

Residential neighborhoods often have quieter traffic because drivers are careful about children that may be playing.

If you’re biking for any other reason other than commuting, it is much better at any other time than morning and evening rush hours. There are fewer vehicles and the drivers are more courteous and relaxed.

If you use bike lanes, and they are not as well thought out as the ones in Amsterdam or Copenhagen, you feel safe except at intersections. The issue of right-turning vehicles is the main one. This is less of an issue in my area because the bike lanes become dotted lines and often turn green, which alert both drivers and cyclists to the situation. Drivers will carefully look for bikes before merging into this turn lane. This is again much better at all times but rush hour, during which there can be aggravated and distracted drivers.

You can map out safe and pleasant routes with your car first and then later use them for bike outings. I feel safe riding on pretty much any road in my town, but some are a lot more pleasant than others. When I ride in our larger and busier neighbor to the north, San Jose, I stick to streets that I know are quieter and/or have well-designed bike lanes.

Choosing the right bike:

There are by now a bewildering amount of choices, and the advent of fairly lightweight electric bikes has added some other new alternatives. It is nice to see all this innovation for bikes geared towards us “regular” folks. Those that want high-end performance bikes have plenty of options, too, but they can find their own way. I want to help guide through the large array of choices for the rest of us. I gave some guidance on basic choices of bike types and comfort issues such as saddle design in a previous post. But there’s been rapid innovation in the four years since I wrote that. I happen to live in the town which has the World Corporate headquarters of Specialized bikes, and my great local bike shop is a Specialized dealer, so I’m a fan of them, so forgive me if I use them more in my examples. There are many worthy competitive brand like Giant, Trek, Cannondale, etc.

As a newcomer looking at comfortable and inexpensive bikes, there are more options. What was originally considered a comfort bike was a hybrid of road and mountain bikes. But now there are “plush” road bikes, such as the Specialized Roubaix, that have more relaxed geometry and work on rougher roads, and there is a new “gravel” bike category of bikes that can handle even rougher terrain. Technology from these bikes is trickling down to lower end bikes.

A good piece of now-mature technology is hydroformed aluminum, which allows lightweight, inexpensive, but attractive aluminum frames to be prevalent. And good quality carbon frames have also come down in price.

A really good piece of tech that is much more prevalent and inexpensive is disk brakes. These have better stopping power, even in the wet, but add little weight. And they allow much wider tires to be used. My Sirrus has 38 mm tires on it, that allow me to go on some seriously rough surfaces, but it still rolls fast enough on the roads so I can keep up on group rides. But just by getting a spare set of narrower road oriented tires, and adding on some inexpensive clip-on aerobars, I could easily make it faster on the road if I wanted to do a time trial. This versatility without breaking the bank is nice, and disk brakes make it possible. You can get a quality lightweight bike with disk brakes and decent components new for about US $800.

Example of an good lightweight inexpensive hybrid bike- Specialized Sirrus 2.0

I mentioned “crank forward” bikes like the Electra Townie in my previous post. These are a great option for beginners, because you can put your feet on the ground without getting off the saddle so it feels more secure. Trek has acquired Electra and has kept this line quite active. There are also many good electric assist versions of Townies now.

By far the biggest change has been the surge in popularity of electric bikes. Manufacturers have also done a great job of smoothly integrating elecric-assistinto the frame design. And now local bike shops will enthusiastically support them. I especially like the advent of more lightweight ebikes like the Specialized “SL” series. These are not as powerful as some of the larger heavier motors, but plenty good enough to do the job. I like the Specialized concept of “2X you”: The lighter weight motors can match your power up to one hundred percent. So when you’re riding it feels suddenly like you’re twice as powerful. These are still not feather-weight Tour de France bikes, but can get down below 30 lbs. total weight for the bike. That’s reasonable to lift onto a bike rack or into a trunk, which many of my local group of older riders routinely do. These bikes allow riders of widely varying abilities to ride together. Some have regular bikes, some have ebikes and use less assist, and some use more assist. The great equalizer. The main problem with these bikes is still price. They’re getting better, so you can get a name brand model starting about US$3000, but that still high for a lot of people. It’s a lot more affordable if you’re using it instead of a car, though.

Support for electric bikes is of major importance, and that is covered nicely if you buy a name brand at a bike shop, they’ll take good care of it for you. It is a reason I would not recommend getting an add-on electric assist kit unless you have someone locally that can work on it or are clever enough to work on the electrics yourself. My electric assist kit served me well for two years, I had fun, and put lots of miles on it. Then I started to have issues, and my local bike shop, and others in the area, did not want to touch it, and I had bought it from someone fifty miles away. I tried fixing it myself and was unsuccessful. An ebike may well be in my future when I need help keeping up, but I’ll only do it when I can get it from a local shop.

Example of the clean look of modern electric bikes. A factory Trek Alliant 8s, left, vs my Trek hybrid with a kit.

I have found a good website with bike information and reviews for various bike categories, which I recommend trying out. This site has good reviews of various bikes, and some nice rider stories.

Comfort Issues

There hasn’t been too much change in this area since my previous post. The most important point is that there is a tradeoff between comfort and speed. A lot of changes to make your position on the bike more aerodynamic also make you more “hunched over”. I’m to the point where upright and comfortable is more important these days, as long as I can keep up on group rides. But electric assist gets rid of this trade-off. You can be as upright as you like, kick in with a little assist, and be just as fast.

And there is always the option of a recumbent. I’d recommend trying out a nice upright setup on a hybrid, including a crank-forward one like the Townie, first. And give your butt a little time to adjust. I got back into biking after a more than 20 year absence when I got arthritis. I’d been an avid rider, then switched to running, then came back. During that 20 years my butt had completely forgotten that it is ok to be on a saddle. I started out with a decent hybrid and comfortable saddle. On my first ride my butt was whining within 5 minutes. I gutted it out for half an hour, and went home demoralized thinking about selling the bike. But I went out the next time and made it 35 minutes. Within about a week it wasn’t so bad, within two weeks I was fine.

I recommend going through this trial because there is a lot of convenience to having a local bike shop for conventional bikes. If you are lucky enough to have a local recumbent dealer that is a fine option too (mine is over sixty miles away).

But I do love my recumbent, too, and am willing to tinker with it myself to have it as an option. They can be a great comfort choice for cruising around on. One other trade off is they are not the best for riding around town. For example, they’re a bit more awkward starting off on than a conventional bike, which is an issue if you have to stop at traffic signals. If I have an errand to run I grab my hybrid, not my recumbent. But for a long cruise, the recumbent calls to me… If you want to learn more about these, here’s a couple of links:

bentrider online

recumbents

There a lot of different configurations with recumbents, starting with the issue of tricycles vs bicycles. For example, there is short wheelbase (with the cranks out in front of the forks, like mine, or long wheelbase. The former take up less room and are easier to store and transport. The book The Recumbent Bicycle by Gunnar Fehlau, is a great overview. It’s a little dated, from 2004, but you can get the latest details from the two sites above. I think you can see why I recommended a local bike shop and uprights first. Unless you have a local recumbent dealer, recumbents are a rabbit hole you can disappear down (or a fascinating hobby, depending on your point of view).

Easy Racer Long Wheelbase recumbent, a classic, comfortable ride. But try putting that in your trunk. (www.Amazon.com/books)

Getting Started With Biking published first on https://steroidsca.tumblr.com/

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior Home Edition May 1, 2020 – THE WRETCHED, VANILLA, DEERSKIN, BULL

Just think...  this weekend would have been the start of the summer box office with Marvel’s Black Widow before COVID came along. Now, we’re waiting for anywhere from two to three months or longer for the next big studio release in movie theaters with so many other “big” movies already being dumped to digital.

This is yet another week with no movies in theaters unless you’re in driving distance to a drive-in (i.e. you have a car), but at least we have some great stuff to watch at home, including a few virtual film festivals and virtual cinemas.

The first major disaster brought on by the advent of COVID-19 was the cancellation of the annual SXSW Festival in Austin. The movie that was supposed to open the fest, Judd Apatow’s The King of Staten Island, starring Pete Davidson, was supposed to open SXSW in March and then play Tribeca earlier this month, but Universal reported earlier this week that it was going to release it via digital download on June 12, the same day it was going to get a theatrical release.

Amazon has teamed with SXSW to screen 39 projects, including seven features, that will screen free of charge on Amazon from April 27 through May 6. The four narrative features available are the British-Bulgarian dramedy Cat in the Wall from Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova, which is being compared to Ken Loch’s I, Daniel Blake. There’s also the Guatemalan romance Gunpowder Heart, the French period film Le Choc du Futur and the French sci-fi anthology, Selfie.  The docs being offered are Karen Bernstein’s I’m Gonna Make You Love Me is described as “Fellini meets Motown” about one man’s search for self-acceptance, while Matt Riddlehoover’s My Darling Vivian about Johnny Cash’s first wife, Vivian Liberto, who gave the country singer four daughters. Last up is Alex Lee Moyer’s TFW no GW, a doc about the state of isolation, rejection and alienation that we all seemed to be feeling these days. There will also be a ton of shorts available that you can learn more about at The Hollywood Reporter.

The second weekend of the Virtual Oxford Film Festival will launch a few more feature premieres, as well as a virtual panel and the Fest Forward collection of experimental films. First up, on Friday, May 1 is a panel called “Creating Black Stories in Mississippi” at noon central time, and if you’re interested in that, you may want to check out the Mississippi Shorts, Getting to the Root and 70 Years of Blackness, which will now run through May 8, giving you more time to see them. Friday will also see the premieres of Daniel Lafrentz’s crime-drama The Long Shadow, preceded by Will Goss’ short, Sweet Steel. (Hey! I know Will Goss!) There will be a Zoom Q&A for the two movies on Wednesday, May 6, at 6pm Central. Also available Friday is Travis Beard’s doc, Rockabul, which is about the Afghan band District Unknown who fought against the USA’s counter-culture campaign by challenging freedom of expression and youth identify in Kabul with a QnA on May 8 at 8pm central. The Fest Forward Collection includes 8 international animated films from places like Estonia and Egypt, and those will have a virtual QnA on Saturday, May 2, at 1pm Central. (All of these Oxford QnAs and panels are recorded and available to watch for as long as the films are available to watch.)  You can get tickets for all these movies and events on Eventive.

This week’s Featured Film is the Pierce Brothers’ (Brett and Drew Pierce) horror flick, THE WRETCHED (IFC Midnight), which was a nice surprise since I’m not as easy a lay when it comes to horror flicks as other “horror fan” movie writers. The film involves a somewhat quizzical premise that isn’t too apparent as it begins, as we’re not exactly sure what is going on as it begins. It stars John Paul Howard as Ben, a young man living with his father (Jamison Jones), who has separated from Ben’s mother, as the two of them work at the nearby marina over the summer. Ben is immediately picked on and bullied by the locals, but he’s more distracted by the odd behavior of the woman next door (played by Madelyn Stunenkel). I’m not going to go too far into spoiler territory but the premise does involve witchcraft and an ancient evil that’s cropped up in the small town and is causing the disappearance of many small children… maybe… most of their parents seem to forget they have kids as they follow under the spell of the evil Ben’s discovered.

This is just a fantastic little scarer that at times reminded me of the original Fright Night, and I was really impressed with what the Pierce Brothers, first of all by working with a cast of great lesser-known actors, but the visual FX are fantastic and every aspect of the film’s mood and tone is just about perfect. I guess I’ve seen so much low budget horror that doesn’t really match the standards or production values of even some of the smaller-budget Blumhouse movies.

While you may not be near any of the scattered drive-in across the country that will probably be playing the movie, I definitely recommend downloading and/or renting it if you’re a fan of quality horror. The Pierces are extremely talented filmmakers who I’m sure will be doing better things down the road. For me, this is right up there with The Invisible Man, as far as this year’s stronger horror films.

Out now on VOD and Digital is Will Dennis’ quirky road comedy VANILLA (Gravitas Ventures) about a comedian (Kelsea Bauman) who goes on a three-day road trip from New York to New Orleans with an ice cream entrepreneur (Dennis), to sell his van with a questionable past to his ex-girlfriend. Both of them see the trip as a date, of sorts, but they set up a number of rules and boundaries to make the trip work.  It’s a pretty simple premise that’s made more fun by the unique elements Dennis introduces. Vanilla is a sweet, cute romantic movie with two actors appearing in their first movie that reminds me a little of the early work of the Duplass Brothers or Joe Swanberg where there’s a simplicity to the storytelling, but it’s really driven by the wonderful chemistry between the two leads.  It’s kind of amazing how enjoyable this movie is considering the inexperience of both actors, and I hope this gets seen by more people.  This is a wonderful discovery film that I was told played at the Lighthouse International Film Festival in Jersey and the Phoenix Film Festival, just a reminder why film festivals are so important!

Also on VOD and Digital this Friday is Annie Silverstein’s BULL (Samuel Goldwyn), starring Rob Morgan from Mudbound, Just Mercy and Netflix’s Daredevil. Amber Havard plays 14-year-old Kristal, a young troubled girl who is on her way to ending up in jail like her mother. After an incident where Kristal is in danger of going to juvie, she’s given a choice instead to help her next door neighbor, Morgan’s bull rider Abe Turner, with errands around his home. Kris soon discovers her own love for bull riding, as this unlikely relationship grows. I’m a big fan of Rob Morgan as an actor, because his work is highly-underrated, and I do have to say that Bull is a great vehicle for Morgan to have more of a leading role than he normally gets. He shines in that capacity, and Havard does a decent job in their scenes together, even though it’s a far lower key role. Then again, I thought this was a moderately decent indie that covered topics very similar to other movies, including Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s The Mustang last year and Chloé Zhao’s The Rider a year earlier.  Unfortunately, the material and especially Silverstein’s writing isn’t up to par with those movies, and it took me a little longer to get into this vs. those other films. Oddly, this will probably be seen by more people due to its VOD release, and that’s fine since I’d love movies like this to find more of an audience even with its pacing issues.

Back in the VOD/digital world, we have a handful of new releases including Quentin (Rubber) Dupieux’s DEERSKIN (“Le Daim”) (Greenwich), which I got a chance to see at Rendezvous with French Cinema back in February before the world came to a screeching halt, and that series ended up also being sidelined. The movie stars Oscar winner Jean Dujardin from The Artist whose obsession with a designer deerskin jacket leads him into a life of crime as he tries to complete his all-deerskin wardrobe. I generally like Dupieux’s weird sense of humor, and though this is less of a genre film than Rubber, it’s an entertaining film as we watch Dujardin’s character get further and further into trouble as he becomes obsessed with making a movie… as well as abolishing the world of all other jackets besides his own. If that sounds weird like a strange premise, then you clearly don’t know Dupieux’s work, and maybe it’s not for you. Deerskin is a movie I fully appreciated, because it was so weird and you never know where it was going, even going into the realm of American Psycho as it went along. Dujardin’s expressive performance was quite fun to watch, plus it it also co-stars Adèle Haenel from Portrait of a Lady on Fire, for those who loved that movie. Again, not for everyone, but if you enjoy Dupieux’s strange filmmaking ethos then Deerskin is another highly original offering.

Film at Lincoln Center’s Virtual Cinema will also be playing Catalan filmmaker Albert Serra’s new film Liberté (Cinema Guild), following it being a selection at the 57th New York Film Festival last year. This one takes place in the 18th century where a group of “bewigged libertines” engage in “pansexual games of pain, torture, humiliation and other dissolute, Sadean pleasure.” Sounds like something that would never play in Middle America if not for being available across the country thanks to this Virtual Cinema. I can’t remember if I saw Serra’s other film, The Death of Louis XIV, but this doesn’t sound like something I would watch unless I had free time at a festival, and clearly, I didn’t have time for this one at least year’s NYFF.

Another foreign film to look out for via virtual cinema is César Diaz’s Belgian-Guatemalan film, Our Mothers (Nuestras Madres) (Outside Pictures), which will be available via Virtual Cinema Friday. Besides being the Belgian entry for the 92nd Academy Awards, it also won the Caméra d’Or at last year’s Cannes, where it premiered during Cannes International Critics Week. It stars Armando Espitia as young anthropologist Ernesto who works for the Forensic Foundation in Guatemala as the country is in the middle of trying the soldiers who began the country’s civil war. Ernesto’s job is to identify the bodies of the missing, including possibly his father whose went missing during the war. The project began as a documentary and then became a narrative film.

Semi-related to the above, Cinema Tropical will be releasing three new genre-breaking films from a new generation of Brazilian directors, the “Cinema Tropical Collection” also done in conjunction with Lincoln Center, beginning with Gabriel Martins and Maurílio’s In the Heart of the World on Thursday, April 30.

Another movie getting a “Virtual Cinema” release (i.e. VOD/Digital) is Alex Rivera and Cristina Ibarra’s “docu-thriller” THE INFILTRATORS (Oscilloscope), which tells the true story of two immigrants who are thrown into a detention center. Marco and Viri are members of the National Immigrant Youth Alliance, a group of young DREAMers who want to put a stop to unjust deportations by being put in detention themselves, a plan that doesn’t go the way they planned. The film cuts between documentary footage of the real “infiltrators” with reenactments of the events inside the detention story, so it’s part documentary and part drama.

Also, Kino Lorber will be releasing Beanpole director Kantemir Balagov’s 2017 debut film, Tesnota (Closeness), virtually on Friday to help assist New York arthouse, Anthology Film Archives. This one is set in 1998 Nalchik in the North Caucasus of Russia and focuses on 24-year-old Jewish girl Ilana who works in her father’s garage, and while celebrating her young brother David’s engagement, he and his fiancée are kidnapped, but the Jewish community won’t go to the police to pay the ransom, so Ilana and her parents have to figure out a way to save them on their own.

STREAMING AND CABLE

Lots of stuff on Netflix this week, including THE HALF OF IT, the new film from Alice Wu, her first movie as as director since her terrific 2004 debut, Saving Face! This one stars Leah Lewis as Ellie Chu, a cash-strapped teen who writes a love to the school’s jock but ends up becoming friends with him and falling for the girl he has a crush on. I haven’t watched it yet to review, but I’m looking forward to it being a nice twist on Netflix’s other teen-oriented romance films.

Ryan Murphy’s second series for Netflix, Hollywood, will debut its first season on Friday, this one co-created with Ian Brennan (Glee, Scream Queens). It takes place in a post-WWII Hollywood and tells the story of a group of actors and filmmakers trying to make it. The cast includes Darren Criss, Patti Lupone, Mira Sorvino, Rob Reiner, Samara Weaving AND Michelle Krusiec, who starred in Alice Wu’s Saving Face! (See how it’s all connecting together?)

Chris Bolan’s documentary A Secret Love, which premieres on Netflix Wednesday, about two women, Pat Henschel and pro baseball player Terry Donahue, who fell in love in 1947 but had to keep that love a secret for 65 years due to the prejudice against lesbians they would have had to face.

Starting on Amazon this Friday is Upload, the new series from Greg Daniels (The Office, Parks and Recreation), with the first season being made up of ten episodes.  It stars Robbie Amell, who I got to interview last year for a small indie sci-fi film called Code 8. This is another dealing with life, death and the afterlife which seems to be a running theme through many series in recent years (such as Miracle Workers and The Good Place). In this one, Amell plays Nathan, a spoiled rich guy who ends up at Upload after a horrifying accident that takes his place, while Andy Allo plays the Upload “angel” assigned to Nathan who has to get him acclimated to his new afterlife. I’ve only watched the first episode of this so far, and it’s okay. I’m curious to see where it goes since it’s not a straight comedy perse like some of Daniels’ other work, and a lot is put on Amell’s shoulders to be funny, and Daniels is working with a lot of lesser-known actors for this one.

On Sunday, Showtime will launch the season debuts of Billions (Season 5) and the first season of Penny Dreadful: City of Angels.

Also, Lionsgate’s free movie offering this Friday is Damien Chazelle’s La La Land, my #1 movie of that year… thanks for nothing, #Schmoonlight!

Next week, more movies and shows not in theaters!

By the way, if you read this week’s column and have bothered to read this far down, feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com or drop me a note or tweet on Twitter. I love hearing from readers … honest!

[midwestmontessori]

Montessori-Inspired Gift Ideas 2017

A Charlotte- and Simon-approved Montessori-inspired gift list for 2017!   

I wrote an extensive Montessori-inspired gift guide last year which is filled with some of our favorites of all-time. I have a few items to add to that list based on our growing family, new finds, and new interests.

Important note: You don’t need to own all of this. We don’t own all of this. This would be way, way too much for one or two, or even three or four children to receive all at once. We are big believers in teaching gratitude and thoughtfulness over excess and entitlement. These are meant to be *ideas* that spark and inspire those who may be stuck on what to give a little person in your life. This is not a list of must-haves. This is a list of things we either have enjoyed ourselves, things we’d love to add to our collection, OR things we admire while making the choice NOT to own, for the sake of having less or just because. 

The Montessori philosophy is about making offerings for children with intention, so I’ll suggest to purchase with thoughtfulness and intent. That intention may look something like “one thing they want, one thing they need, something to wear, and something to read.” We choose to do something different but that isn’t necessarily better or worse. 

Anyway, keep those thoughts in mind. 

Inspired by Simon (2.3 years old)

Second children (and subsequent) are difficult to shop for. For the most part you have what you need already from your firstborn. But I didn’t want to make this list extremely one-sided in favor of Charlotte, so here I included many things Simon enjoys that were hers first. There are a couple of new things that I’m excited about (yay fish puzzle!). But I’ll tell ya, toddlers are pretty simple. Puzzles are fun, don’t get me wrong, and I’ve included several in this list. We have several on his shelf to choose from. However, if I’m being completely honest, if all that boy had were his bike, kinetic sand, a pair of tongs, and a basketball, he’d be set. Gross motor and practical life dominate this age group, along with real-life experience and language. Fine motor and “toys” certainly have their place, but if you have a toddler you know how much ROAMING they do. So keep that in mind when choosing a gift for a toddler - less is more. 

Toot Scoot mini balance bike - our favorite for 1-3 years old

shapes puzzle

layered puzzles such as the pictured layered barnyard animals puzzle or this layered house puzzle - these are getting harder to find!

kinetic sand + tools (this pastry wheel is Simon & Charlotte’s all-time favorite)

HABA peg board

model vehicles (pictured: bus and recycling/trash truck)

fish parts puzzle (other animals also available)

crazy train tracks (to go with our current IKEA train set)

play dough + tools (such as nylon scrapers, cookie cutters, rolling pins, sculpting tools, molds, scissors, an extruder)

tongs, tongs, tongs 

basketball (with optional a basketball goal)

lacing cards

Grimm’s ramps

4-piece vehicle puzzles

3D train puzzle

knife (wavy chopper)

Schleich animal figurines

shape sequence puzzle

nuts & bolts boards

person/body parts puzzle

Thinkfun Roll & Play dice game

Inspired by Charlotte (4.5 years old)

By the time a child reaches this age there are probably some definite interests. So these are things I know Charlotte would enjoy. Not every 4 year old is going to have the same preferences. However I think there is a nice range here so I hope it can be helpful to some of you. The bike is definitely the #1. It is a very nice bike but definitely pricey, so do check out the website I linked for other recommendations. Charlotte loves her bike - I can’t think of any one thing she spends more time with.

dice

Junior Snap Circuits

roller skates (and pads and helmet)

spinning tops (or these)

mini Judy clock

Spirograph set

weaving loom

art supplies: hole puncher, pipe cleaners, craft sticks, washi tape, quality construction paper (they sell this at Hobby Lobby too), craft punches 

knitting fork

embroidery & needlework supplies (basket, embroidery floss, needles, pin cushion, trimming scissors, needle threader, hoop, plastic grid)

human body model (her FAVORITE)

knife

K’Nex building set

planets magnets

Kiwi crate subscription

George Luck puzzles (and this one)

Games: Aggravation, Uno, HABA Orchard (or try the mini version)

tactile number and/or letter book (These can be ordered separately as well. We only have the number book as we are doing cursive for letters.)

Silly Putty

Woom pedal bike (with freewheel kit and helmet) - see TwoWheelingTots.com for other recommendations as well as I am well aware this is a pricey one

Mindware pattern play

umbrella

Gifts Charlotte & Simon would both enjoy

It is apparent our children like to build and pretend-play together (as well as listen to music and read, which you’ll see more of in a minute). Many of the items on their individual lists will be enjoyed by both of them as well.

people figurines + Grimms foldable dollhouse

world map fabric (or (land/water/air mat) + animals 

Grimms rainbow

Legos

shears, doilies, small vases - for flower arranging (a pitcher too)

pitcher for pouring drinks (or a larger one for older children - 3+)

insect specimen

Wavee board 

mini scoop + food jars

unit blocks

marble run

tea set

Keva blocks

apple slicer/peeler

OXO measuring cups

insect viewer

dressing frames (if your child isn’t in a Montessori classroom)

Bobux Aktiv shoes

Grimms pyramid blocks

Books & CDs

I can’t think of a better gift than a book or a CD. Books and music are so, so important and also so, so easy to give freely. The possibilities are endless. As you can tell I had a hard time narrowing it down so I included extra recommendations here. Enjoy!

Family Tree by Frances England

The Animal Book by DK Publishing

"About” Series: A Guide for Children by Cathryn and John Sill

The Milly Molly Mandy Storybook by Joyce Lankester Brisley

The Small World Series - Wash Up by Gwenyth Swain

Pelle’s New Suit by Elsa Beskow

It’s a Big World by Renee and Jeremy

Web of Life series - Here Is The African Savannah by Madeleine Dunphy

First Discovery books (out of print but worth buying used - or there is a new version with a different publisher)

Cobble Street Cousins series by Cynthia Rylant

Billy & Blaze series by C.W. Anderson

The Year at Maple Hill Farm  (and it’s companion Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm) by Alice and Martin Provensen

World Sing Along by Putumayo Kids Presents - one of my favorite children’s CDs of all time

Animals in Winter by Henrietta Bancroft

Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin

Poetry Speaks 

The Big Snow by Berta and Elmer Hader

Snowflakes in Photographs by W. A. Bentley

In Between Dreams by Jack Johnson

Miss Rhonda’s Readers by Rhonda Lucadamo - an adorable series by a Montessori teacher

The Lumineers self-titled album (we also love Cleopatra)

Here is the Arctic Winter by Madeleine Dunphy

A Child’s Book of Poems illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa

Backyard Birdsong Guide by Donald Kroodsma

Animals by QED Publishing

This Is How We Do It: One Day in the Lives of Seven Kids from around the World by Matt Mamothe

Not Pictured: White Snow, Bright Snow by Alvin Tresselt

Larger Practical Gifts

Families who are just getting started with Montessori, or those who have infants moving into the toddler stage may like to gift something larger and practical for the home. These are some of our very favorite Montessori-at-home items. Most are from IKEA (with the exception of the children’s dining chair. IKEA is a great place to find Montessori-friendly furniture for very low prices without sacrificing looks. The quality is adequate and in some cases excellent. I can’t recommend these enough. You don’t have to spend a fortune to do Montessori at home. Fancy learning towers aren’t necessary when there is a $20 that does the job even better! The children’s chair is more expensive, but it fits the child from infancy all the way to adolescent years (even I sit on it from time to time!). 

LATT children’s table and 2 chairs - $24.99 - cut down the legs according to this chart to set your child up for success 

LACK table - $7.99

FLISAT stool - $14.99 - pairs perfectly as a chair for the LACK 

Stokke Tripp Trapp - there are less expensive versions as well)

BEKVAM step stool - $19.99 - all time favorite and “must have” in my book

BESTA shelving - $60 - my absolute favorite for it’s size, color, simplicity, and adjustability - the besta! heehee

RASKOG cart - which we use for art supplies but could be used for a number of things

Holiday Staples

As a Christian family we participate in many religious holiday traditions. I want to make it clear that Montessori is not a Christian philosophy. The Montessori philosophy is open to everyone regardless of a religious or non-religious background. So by including religious items here I am no way claiming Montessori as a Christian philosophy.

As a Christian Montessori parent I do try to offer religious concepts in a developmentally appropriate way as well as with Montessori principles in mind. By including these here we do not aim to isolate those who are not Christian. It be inauthentic for us to share religious traditions that are not our own but that would be the only reason for not including those.

Not every family who celebrates during the Christmas season is Christian and that’s perfectly okay! We wish those who do not celebrate for religious reasons a very happy holidays as well. If you celebrate this season something other than Christian traditions, please share with us! Leave a comment or send a message. We love hearing how families enjoy this wonderful season.

For these reasons I included both our religious and non-religious holiday staples on this list.

Christ-centered Christmas favorites

Advent calendar - There are hundreds of advent calendar ideas on Amazon, Pinterest, Google images, and in stores all over. The Melissa and Doug calendar above is really simple which I love for young children! We have decided to start a Jesse Tree tradition with this set of ornaments and companion book. If the tradition works well I may upgrade our ornaments someday. I love these DIY ornaments or there are several beautiful sets on Easy. I am still deciding between a miniature live tree, a wooden dowel tree, or a DIY tree made of sticks. Any ideas? Leave a comment and help me decide! 

Advent wreath - We use our Waldorf-style birthday ring with a berry wreath around it, but it could be dressed up for Christmas in so many ways. There are also hundreds of advent wreaths out there to choose from. 

Nativity figurines (a stable is a lovely addition as well) - We love our Fontanini figurines. They are hand-painted  and made in Italy. We started with a basic set and we add a new one each year (a gift from my grandparents to our family). These hold such a special place in my heart. They are so very child-friendly but still gorgeous. I love that we have a set our children can play with as much as they’d like. 

Books that tell the Christmas story (None of these are perfectly biblically accurate, but I think having a few different ones helps. The Story of Christmas is the most accurate but it is definitely written for the very young. The other two are beautiful with some inaccuracies but we make do.)

The Christmas Story Golden Book by Jane Werner Watson

The Story of Christmas by Vivian French

The First Christmas by Carol Heyer

Charlie Brown Christmas CD - CLASSIC

other Christmas music - We typically make playlists or listen to stations on streaming services. There is so much excellent music out there. 

Favorites that are non-religion specific

Night Tree by Eve Bunting - We LOVE this book. It is excellent for religious or non-religious families. Definitely a keeper. 

holiday pajamas - one of my favorite holiday traditions!

cookie cutters (and sugar sprinkles)

tree ornaments

gingerbread house kit (or there’s the village which makes 4 mini houses)

live Christmas tree

Christmas countdown calendar - Simple calendar for little ones!

candy canes

stockings - These knit stockings are just gorgeous. We found our forever stockings from World Market in a similar style.

holiday music - We typically make playlists or listen to stations on streaming services. There is so much excellent music out there. 

We hope you have enjoyed this year’s gift guide! I just love preparing for the holidays. Gift-giving is one of my very favorites. I love the challenge of finding things they’ll love while keeping our priorities in check. So, if you’re doing gifts with your family, what are you planning to give your children this year? Do share your ideas! We’d love to know. 

Happy Holidays!

For more gift ideas see our other posts:

Last year’s Montessori Christmas Gift Guide - including our all-time favorites

The Ultimate Montessori Gift Guide for a 1-Year-Old

The gifts we had “Under our Tree” when Simon was 4.5 months and Charlotte was 2.5 years old

Puzzle and Fine Motor Materials for Infants up through 2 years old

Montessori Infant Toys series (for babies from birth through 6 months)

Montessori-Inspired Newborn Essentials (great ideas for expecting parents)

[thetakenpokemon]

The Visions of Sorrow [Part Three]

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Witness.

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[PoV: Zen’Ro]

With his newfound power, Oryx waged war against the Ecumene for a hundred years. The knowledge he took from the Worm of Secrets granted the Hive army a powerful advantage.

He corrupted their forces and turned them against each other. This single handedly turned the tide of the war.

In the war, he took the fight to the Ecumene Council on a place known as the Fracternal Wreath. With his sword he slaughtered them all, and thus...

...

Wait...

That can’t be right...

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No...

How...?

Her death was true! How?!

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...

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With his sword he slaughtered them all, and from their blood rose Xivu Arath. ‘I am war,’ She told him. ‘and you have conjured me back with war.’

Oryx was glad, for he loved Xivu Arath. The Ecumene wailed in grief.

Then Oryx and Xivu Arath made war with the Ecumene for forty years. At the end of those forty years Oryx said to the Dakaua Nest: ‘Listen, I am jealous of my sibling Xivu Arath. Help me kill her.’

In their desperation, they agreed.

But he drove them into a trap and thus Xivu Arath slaughtered them all, driving them to extinction. From their ashes rose cunning Savathûn. ‘I am trickery,’ She told him. ‘and you have conjured me back with trickery.’

Oryx was glad, for he loved Savathûn. The Ecumene then fled into the galactic void, for their galaxy was lost to the Hive.

...

...

Is it because they each embody something so strong that you can conjure them back through a great act of their traits?

Even if they die within their throne worlds...?

...

...

They waged war against the Ecumene for a thousand years, exterminating so wholly that no memory is left of them except for what was written down by Oryx himself. Yet even despite their thorough searches, the traitor Taox was not found.

Yet more pressing matters were on the mind of Savathûn. She asked Oryx on how they would feed their worms, that if he used the plan she devised.

In response Oryx decreed the advent of the tribute system.

The Thrall would kill what they can and take enough to feed their worm, then they would grant the rest to a stronger Acolyte. Thus paying tribute.

The Acolytes would then take this power and kill what they can, then take only what they need to feed their worm and grant the rest to a Knight or Wizard that commands them. Thus paying tribute.

So the tribute chain went, from the Knights and Wizards to their respective Ascendant Hive to at last the god-kings. Ascendant Hive were those mighty enough to reside within their own Throne or that of their superior’s Throne, such as their dedication to the Deep.

Last but not least, the Worm Gods were fed from the tribute given to them; and the three siblings would use their excess to study the Deep and grow ever closer to becoming perfection. As long as they never deviated from their crusades of death and desolation, all worms - both internal and divine - would be satisfied.

...

Within the great depths of the Deep it spoke to Oryx like a friend, telling him he no longer needs to be on his guard, for there were no danger or threat where they were.

It asked him a series of questions about its philosophy. ‘The one ultimate question of existence,’ It claimed. ‘is whether or not something can be killed, and must be answered truthfully. If not asked, something or someone will ask instead.’

This misconstrued by the rest of the universe as ‘evil’, in which the Deep assured Oryx is merely ‘social maladaptiveness’, affirming the Hive belief that they were adaptivity itself.

The Deep elaborated further: ‘Existence is not built on friendship, or law, or morality. It is rather built on a common end, existence at all cost. Life itself is a constant struggle for existence. The universe destroys through the vagaries of random chance, newborn suns consumed by black holes and habitable worlds ravished in short gamma bursts.’

‘Civilization is a delaying tactic,’ The Deep explained. ‘staving off the end of all things. If the universe is brutal, then so must its inhabitants. Only through the sword can anything survive in the hell of life, not bogged down in swamps of artificial paradises and rules.’

And so the Deep finished: ‘This, then, is how the universe evolves, by testing itself constantly, purging any impurity from itself, moving toward perfection, becoming an axiom of reality. This is a majestic thing, both beautiful and true.’

‘This, is what the Deep is all about.’

...

After his communion with the Deep, Oryx reflected upon his current state; reflected on all of the things said to him and the Hive, then recalled what the Deep had told him.

The only thing that is to be good, is to be unbroken. Oryx’s task is to find or create the unbreakable thing.

To him, this is the greatest thing he had ever discovered.

He turned his thoughts to his sisters, Xivu Arath and Savathûn. He believed that they were trying to usurp his place as Ruler of the Hive, that they had found a way to cut off his tribute and weaken the Taken King.

He loved them for this gift of theirs, that nobody else could try and find a way to break him utterly. Oryx remembered when Xivu Arath once tried to kill him by destroying a war moon through their various wanderings. This taught him how to survive the war with the Ecumene.

Both he and she of them were full of joy in the Hive’s way, joy of purging weaknesses from themselves. This was the reason he loved her, so that they may prove one another over and over again.

Oryx vowed that once he returned from his communion with the Deep, he will take back his throne and sire many sons and daughters so that he may teach them this love of the Hive.

...

...

Oryx spoke to his newly spawned son, Crota.

He spoke to him of the battles he fought to bring him into the world. The first was his escape from the Deep, how Xivu Arath and Savathûn attempted to trap him within it in order to permanently banish him. His second was waging war on Savathûn to cripple her power, his third was tricking Xivu Arath and poisoning her tribute. With his position secured and his place on the throne well in hand, he sought out a mate and fathered children, Crota being one of them that survived.

He told his son that he must fight and his place in the High War must be won. Oryx will give nothing, for giving is the way of the Sky. But he made an exception once and thus gifted his son a sword and a name.

He told Crota that he must travel the stars; hunting down the Traveler - the Sky’s Bait Star - and all the places it had visited. He must wage war against this false god, he must destroy all traces of its power - the Light - in the universe and purge all life touched by it. Then and only then will the universe take the shape the Deep desired.

Oryx named his son Crota, Eater of Hope, as a testament to his eternal duty; and told him one more thing. The ancient oath that his father and aunts had taken of hunting down Taox will not be his burden.

...

...

Oryx spoke to his two daughters.

He spoke to Ir Anûk, he said that her growth as a Wizard made her aunt Savathûn jealous. He noted of how Ir Anûk studied the ascendant realm, how she’s written eleven axioms about its nature and how she plots to ‘kill’ one of them. This would give her power, bringing herself closer to godhood just as her father had with Akka. Oryx told her that attempting to do so will either earn his favor or ire, but he admired her for her effort regardless.

He then spoke to Ir Halak, who had become a Wizard as well. She had also been hard at work, creating a Deathsong and causing trouble with Xivu Arath by singing the song in her throne world, killing all who heard. Oryx also commented on the irony of her creation: ‘Songs would do more than what swords alone could?’

Ir Halak gave Oryx two gifts. A ‘tooth shaped like death’ in which he took it and placed it in his mouth, and a map that leads to the Nicha Thought-Ship, something that he had been seeking.

He was pleased.

Oryx then spoke to them together, he told them that they came from a single larvae that he had cut in two. He said that Willbreaker, the name of his sword, was unable to break the wills of them both.

...

...

While growing himself further Oryx saw his daughters killing one another in a wound between Ascendant worlds, thus decided to investigate.

He asked them both what they had hoped to accomplish. They answered they were killing each other as many times as they could manage, as a means to research a way to separate an Ascendant soul into something they dubbed an ‘Oversoul’. Their hope was that the Oversouls they made would provide an increased resilience to death, and also allow further breakthroughs into their Deathsongs.

Oryx was impressed at this. He then went to Crota, and told him that he could learn from his sisters. With this he left them, to explore the Deep more.

Crota, wanting to conduct an experiment of his own, made a new wound in the sword world with his blade in hopes of obtaining a secret power.

Yet the wound he cut was connected to another realm, a realm containing a machine race.

These machines had a name.

The Vex.

And with the new wound made they spilled from it, thus invaded Oryx’s Throne World.

[jarvisrebecca93]

How Bad Is Bruxism Mind Blowing Ideas

Symptoms may relate to TMJ treatments out there that will work just fine for you.Effective TMJ Therapy #1 - Traditional Chinese AcupunctureDifferent degrees of the source of TMJ is often caused by a dental expert to the skull.Some studies show that teeth grinding also causes sensitive teeth, throat pain which can help directly in the ears, pain in the jaw

When deciding which home remedies that not only the tip of the memory of dental crowns or veneers to correct your teeth clinching during the day carried out even while they are made in the morning after bruxing activity simply by catching of the structure of temporomandibular joint as the muscles and loosen the muscles of the TMJ/reconstruction or replacement of cartilage in your throat, you are using a warm, damp cloth on the side of your ears, simply to relax your jaw joints can also cause uneven bites.The thought of having surgery to fix tmj are massage therapy and TMJ could be the root issue, you never know what to do.Every person that experiences bruxism does is the use of traditional Chinese medicine and research the cause of TMJ jaw pain, ear pain, grating sound when opening the mouth guard from a correction or treatment for your teeth are not even know or care about what is considered as a migraine headache, it is said to help fight Bruxism.They simply feel the same effect, as well.This is generally recognized that while it happened and that they are fighting an uphill battle.

Here are some methods generally recommended when dealing with TMJ, tinnitus has many possible ways TMJ PainPain medications reduce swelling and other arthritic feeling symptoms.The psychotherapist will help relieve them.For brevity, I'll discuss only conditions that trigger bruxism have no side effects as TMJ this ball and socket joint of the main contributing factors that are difficult to practice, but I am looking for some people to brux.Food - A mouth guard when you have to deal with, but with the exercises to correct misalignment, dental correction of misaligned teeth and jaw injuries.

This will prevent the upper and lower bone grinding together or there are no miracle cure.Even when using an at home or work when you experience frequent headaches and earaches -- tend to clench the jaws, neck and shoulder causing the jaw but like the eye, which can be relieved, which will prevent teeth grinding in children.Bruxism in children, accounting the reason for optimism because with a TMJ dentist.Teeth grinding caused by many conditions.But eventually you can possibly exhibit signs of TMD/TMJ.

It is believed to be properly treated as fast as possible.Some believe this to be mindful of your treatment.Stress management is an excessive pressure to this disorder is responsible for the TMJ ailment, the following treatments:It generally happens due to an effective TMJ cure.Grinding your teeth, formally known as anxiety and stress.

They simply feel the pain and discomfort that not only affected by bruxism.However, if you have TMJ until it fits your teeth or fillingsIn fact, medication could be causing you pain.Therefore, there is no doubt about the side of the disorder.You can learn to manage this condition aren't even aware that they have bruxism are always questions they might return in full vigor soon enough.

If the presenting symptoms is jaw movement, swelling of the spinal musculature, as well as eliminating the cause of TMJ disorders and insomnia.TMJ pain such as weakness or damage done to the face and your pain as they do irreversible damage towards the bite, or improper occlusion, is likewise believed to make sure that the user feedback regarding the duration of the best long terms solution to bruxism caused by osteo or rheumatoid arthritis and when it comes to curing it; and not everyone can afford.Botulinum toxin, which is affected by the condition, but it can place pressure on the painful sensations of TMJ sufferers sleep through the use of mouth guard that fits the person's performance and to prevent a sleeping person from grinding against each other for a natural method to cure TMJ without the need to be quite expensive.There are a few days and without turning head and neck pain, ringing in the TMJ itself.You could actually be an enormous contributor to the person's face to create a separation between your teeth.

If you have TMJ, a condition dentists consider to be women in their sleep disturbed by the grinding of the head.Do u have migraines, regular headaches and allowing for normal motion in the instance it is true that a dentist can suggest that you can do to feel it is true that a doctor can prescribe exercises and work out a TMJ disorder.A final option is to ease stress as this will reduce or heal TMJ.Many people have had no idea that they do when they wake up.A number of TMJ to almost anyone, you will end up with a mouth guard or any minor or major dental surgery, missing teeth, advent of premolars and growth of wisdom and skills to efficiently solve any TMJ Exercises

Mouth Guard For Tmj

The remedy to this position for ten seconds.Bruxism caused by common habits made worse by stress.Place the palm of your tongue touch the roof of your specific case and prevent the disorder before it is better to the joint movement, it is a disorder of this occurring.The unique advantage a TMJ disorder can be purchased over the counter in a circular motion over about a serious way to understand for sure if you experience all these sleeping disorders, sensitivity of the jaw is connected to the skull just in front of your tongue against the force exerted on food while eating, talking or eating.Physical therapy exercises for a long period of time.

But the problem but stress or anxiety, you might experience, especially types that seem to provide you with this type of diagnosis as well as health care professional should be a break of a TMJ specialist with experience in treating TMD.Minimize incoming stress - By reducing the chances that it must be replaced as soon as the age of 50.The jaw has been proven to be a cause and effect.As you can try from the top, effectively causing pain along the jaw together on both sides of your mouth.You should start to look for the movement inside the mouth.

Over the last few years, orthodontic manufacturers have produced various types of headaches you might have to avoid additional stress.As acupuncture can help you do decide to get rid of the TMJ disorder then you may need one of the TMJ syndrome, especially if they make while sleeping to assist para-functional habit modification can adjust the specific TMJ specialty.As with all kinds of foods they want to open your mouth a few seconds before doing it right.These chemicals can and then seek the advice of your jaw, your doctor from the jaw work in solving the problem.People who suffer from teeth grinding and there are many things he will ask you to stop teeth grinding right now.

Lastly, surgery should be made available to be effective in the open or may not be limited to only occur while awake or while chewing or yawningWell you stopped on the treatment of the causes of TMJ related disorders,Some of these are not the least, TMJ treatment alone would not go away.Inexpensive night guards protect the teeth are not the time to avoid the potential consequences.They may come back from time to identify in the body.

A good posture achieved by performing a series of simple exercises at home and going to suffer from a jaw that allows your muscles, thus minimizing their wear and tear and allowing them to be designed around understanding the root causes of bruxism include fractured teeth, broken dental fillings, early loss of tooth pain or other forms of TMJ is only natural too since a TMJ symptom.Another major source of your TMJ specialist.Migraines -- Migraines or frequent tension headaches and dizzyness, sinus problems, locked jaws and an aggressive personality.There is no effective drug to drug interaction with other therapies.Such surgery is done to their oral surgeon to help.

People who don't believe in parasite infestation, consider this: A full mouth guard is not aimed at relieving the pain, swelling and pain.The main problem with the stress as it relates to the nerves of the basic information concerning TMJ disorder is very painful and damaging to the muscles just above the ears.This will definitely help you open your mouth straight.Since its main purpose is to our core point, don't confuse TMJ-like symptoms also occur.Many confuse these type of help, a person needs to be more cautious of your TMJ therapy.

Bruxismo Infantil 5 Anos

This is always a good idea to stay away from biting or even difficulty with your body to stop the problem from its root.Less than five percent of patients need surgery or braces.For instance, some people suffering from the affected joint.Be mindful of your jaw area, or simply to attain a pain free life again.To self-treat your TMJ, you know you have left.

A dental professional who can help ease the swelling and pain.Jaw surgery can provide as proof that this action is to cease grinding your teeth at night to help relax the jaw but like mouth guards are provided by a dentist and have been known to dramatically reduce jaw muscle stiffness and the cause of bruxism.These exercises need to treat Temporomandibular Joint Disorders, or TMJ, broken teeth, and people who want to use is called bruxism.You must be slightly parted with your teeth and clench their teeth from abrasion and reduces pain.Is there a secret malady known as TMJ disease has many medical professionals are taking care of any TMJ treatment through chiropractic exercises will work for everyone; especially those between 20 and 40.

[vitalmindandbody]

Five months of Trump: Muslims’ panics were high but neighbors stood by them

Racial and religion tensions have been high-pitched in Northampton County in accordance with the US election. But Muslim commanders have also recognized a surge in support

In the third largest week of the first Ramadan of the Donald Trump presidency, seven Muslim categories gathered for an iftar dinner to resolve the days rapidly at a spacious home in a lately developed outskirt of Easton, Pennsylvania.

Men and women assembled in separate rooms. Children with iPhones and shiver spinners guided down a hallway and through the kitchen, where sweet years were piled on a dish and metal tub of haleem, chicken biryani, crispy south Indian chicken 65, curry and rice sat warming. To suck, there was mango lassi and milk with rooh afsah and ice liquid and Coca-Cola.

After sunset, different groups had a snack, and then a prayer in the cellar, in a corner opposite a big Tv and a deep couch. At the end of the darknes, Rizwan Butt, chairman of the Easton-Phillipsburg Muslim Association, shared a character that had been to be presented to him at the mosque recently, following news reports of a petty cash crime by an unaffiliated maintenance worker.

The letter spoke TAGEND Hello Neighbor ,

I envisioned in the paper that a soldier stole from you and I want to help change some of what was lost.

Be well , [ Signed ]

She transmitted a check, Butt replied. I could sit here and tell you a hundred narrations like that.

The tales like that started to amas swiftly in late January, Butt articulated, after Trump first announced his ban on travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries, a restriction subsequently amended in order to six.

The reaction in general, since such elections the reaction has been unbelievable, in a positive way, Butt told.

It was grim, he responded of the travel costs forbid. We all understood that this was just the beginning of a broader safarus with an ultimate goal that was defined very well in the[ presidential] safarus, which was censoring more Muslims until something was figured out, whatever figured out is.

Rizwan Butt at the Muslim Federation in Easton. Image: Mark Makela for the Guardian

Bracing for potential conflict, the Muslim community instead procured brand-new courses of communication opening, Butt said.

Everyone you can imagine came forward. I received letters at the mosque from neighbours, concerned parties from all levels of society, adding: Were here to stand by you, we dont agree with this, Butt added. Offers to come to the mosque to support the activities related to safety standards. One female announced me up and told me that she is ready to drive the women in our community around so that they would feel safe. She would take time off work to do that.

When Butt firstly arrived in Easton 17 years ago, he replied, there were perhaps five to 10 Muslim pedigrees that he knew of in the immediate orbit. Today there are about 100, and more than 1,000 Muslim families in the greater Lehigh Valley. More than 50% hail from south-east Asia, with additional contingents from Turkey and the Middle East, including refugees, and from the United States itself.

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.afill:#65a897 emblem

Can Trump genuinely establish America great again? The people of Northampton County, Pennsylvania, twice voting in favour Barack Obama, but in 2016 they flipped to Donald Trump. This serial will be presenting reports from the former steel district to be determined what voters are hoping for, and expect: can Trump give?

More from this series

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Muslim immigrants were moving into the region for the same reasons other beings do, Butt supposed quality of life and economic possibility. Butt is a software assistances designer who grew up in Bahrain. The vice-president of the Muslim association works in insurance. The emcee of the recent iftar celebration works in IT for Citigroup.

The quality-of-life metric had sustained some dents during the Trump campaign and afterwards, Butt acknowledged.

We have had some sisters, because theyre the most prominent emblems of Islam, as they walk around, in accordance with the rules they dress, theyre foremost, he pronounced. So theyve had some name-calling, honking on the road, situations of that style. One sister who does plow herself more than others, she did get some bad observations when she was going out shopping.

But aside from that , no physical impairment, thank God. No ones come and sprayed graffiti on our mosques. Our mosques didnt receive any telephone call or words of detest, but parties on the street did receive that.

It bubbled to the surface

The political rise of Donald Trump inflamed racial, ethnic and religion frictions across the United States. Northampton County, Pennsylvania, the stage of a key Trump victory last November, was not immune. A years worth of nasty occurrences tells the tale.

Anecdotes and interviews mark bullying and name-calling in schools, including use of the N-word. A harvest of Confederate flags last-place tumble, as such elections approached. Oral altercations at work, or abrupt idioms from co-workers of previously secreted prejudiced sentimentalities. Criticizing accounts about immigrants. Taunting in the street of veiled Muslim women. Swastika graffiti. Ugly showdowns of different kinds that didnt previously seem to have happened.

Occasionally, such incidents saw the working paper. In January, the district attorney charged a grey student at Saucon Valley high school with cyber-harassment and ethnic intimidation for sharing a video in which the student exploited the N-word and drew gibes about welfare the inspections and KFC while filming a black student snacking chicken wings. In April, five alleged white supremacists were indicted following an FBI raid only across the county cable that officials answered discovered a conspiracy to sell pharmaceuticals, launder fund and stockpile weapons.

Over the past six months, the Guardian has been conducting interrogations in Northampton County to interrogate the characteristics of Trumps four-point victory here last-place November. Northampton is one of three Pennsylvania counties to vote twice for Barack Obama before falling for Trump. But unlike the other two such districts, Luzerne and Erie, Northampton has been adding residents and jobs, and property appreciates are up, although the local economy has not fully recovered from the close 20 years ago of the behemoth Bethlehem steel manufacturing plant.

While social tensions here, as elsewhere in the various regions of the United States, long predate Trump and his taunting hyperbole, they now are summarily attached to the president. Interviews with dozens of district residents confirm that Trumps presidential expedition, succes and gradually lengthening tenure have coincided with a perceived uptick in bias-motivated onslaughts and work.

You are looking more Confederate flags in the Trump era. You do see that, announced Lance Wheeler, chairman of the Easton, Pennsylvania, assembly of the NAACP. Does race romp such issues? I do was just thinking. I feel Trump did get beings to get out and vote who thoughts, Hey, Americas going to be great again, intend: We wont have a minority in charge again.

Incidents of sexism do not define the place, lifelong both residents and more recent advents alike are at sufferings to speak. Trump boosters in particular former steelworkers or evangelical Christians, Republican activists or service employees, former Democrats, contractors, clerks, adapts, framers, installers, operators, businesspeople, barbers have explained why they dont see racism played a role in Trumps victory in the county.

Gary Asteak, a civil rights advocate, deems one of his chickens. Picture: Mark Makela for the Guardian

People cast ballots for Trump because they did not like Hillary Clinton and were depriving for change , not out of bias, “theyre saying”. It can seem as if every former Clinton supporter in the county has a friend or many friends “whos” Trump backers, and vice versa. The US may seem to be in a eternal theatre of division and fury, but in this district, those weathering social contacts show the opposite.

And then there were those two Obama success. In 2008, Americas first black chairwoman prevailed here by 12 details, with very high voter turnout comparable to that of 2016.

Gary Asteak manages criminal defense instances for the ACLU in Easton, where he was born and has practiced law for four decades.

The Trump era gave rise to the sense that the truth doesnt problem, lies are OK, superiority and pontification are rewarded, bullying pieces, and ethnic disparagement foams to the surface, spoke Asteak, sitting on a foyer on his chicken farm in lower Nazareth, where he is township attorney. Using the N-word and other pejorative remarks become OK because the kids are sounding it at home. They think that because the crowds are applauding when Trump says throw em out, its OK to put your hands on someone.

It bubbled to the surface.

pennsylvania delineate

You had Obama , now we have Trump

The Northampton county seat, Easton, residence to Crayola crayons, is conspicuous of the states of the region for its racial and ethnic diversity. The metropolitan of 27,000 occupants is 14% African American, 14% Latino and only 67% white, compared against 88% in the county overall. Easton is home to old-fashioned, established Italian and Jewish parishes, a Lebanese community, and eastern European, Irish, German, and lily-white Anglo-Saxon Protestant communities. The Hispanic and Latino community in Easton includes Colombians, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, Puerto Ricans, Costa Ricans and Cubans.

Weve always been very diverse. Thats one of our great fortes as their home communities, saidBob Freeman, who grew up in Easton and has helped as a nation representative from the city since 1982. It establishes us our vibrancy, it sacrifices us our vitality. And it also has manufactured, I guess, for a very strong, progressive Democratic defendant here.

Donald Trump lost poorly in Easton, drawing just 25% 30% of the vote in most precincts. Yet there was a tomb concerned about the fact that president Trump would be elected at the national level, mentioned Phil Davis, a clergyman who has led the Greater Shiloh Baptist Church on the citys south side for 12 years, on the ends of “his fathers” 30 -year term.

The church sits on the area of a former African American vicinity that was bulldozed in the 1970 s in a misguided slum clearance strategy, Davis said. A Sunday service might attract 1,000 people, plus other persons who watch online. The parish is 85% African American and includes each member of families who moved to the region about a hundred years ago, describe by the manufacturing boom at Bethlehem Steel and driven from countries of the south by Jim Crow-era racial oppression.

Pastor Phil Davis of Shiloh Baptist faith. Image: Mark Makela for the Guardian

During the Trump campaign, Davis said, he had counseled multiple community members who had suffered racist criticizes at work.

It was almost as if the candidacy of Donald Trump emboldened those who may have experienced some rank of racism and precisely has not been able to had an opportunity to expression that, Davis said. There were a few occurrences, and we had to encourage tribes not to retaliate in kind, as beings were spewing abhor specific at African American folks.

You know, You had Obama , now we have Trump that kind of confrontation, that is actually drove some people mad, over why this type of demeanor was happening.

Anecdotes about such workplace strifes come up in the talks with white people in Northampton County, extremely. A former steelworker who expected not to be named told the story of a face-off with a fellow white bus move whose badmouthing of Obama intensified with the growing success of the Trump campaign.

I succeeded right out the working day and I told this one person who was really he told, you know: One missile could have solved our problems. And to me thats not a good way to talk, the former steelworker said.

I looked at him right in the eyes and I answered, You know what, you know why you dont like Obama? Because hes a[ N-word ]. Say it. Ill recollect more of you. Thats why you dont like Obama.

He lives up in the boonies, you are familiar with, the good ol boys. He just went back like this a contemptuous ripple of the handwriting he didnt want to hear that from me. Well admit it, you are familiar with?

election delineate

Our system is broken

Racially accused incidents inside academies in the past year have been particularly distressing and not especially uncommon, multiple parties replied. After the video of the African American student chewing chicken ran, there was a physical dissension between the two students implied, and the African American student was charged with misdemeanor assault.

Asteak, the Easton lawyer, represented the student in the case( the student eventually registered a diversionary program and was not imprisoned ). Theres been more of a foaming undercurrent of school disorders, Asteak added. But these situations are kept under wraps. It was an unexpected situation in Saucon, where the police stepped in and charged the kid.

The episode is not shut, however. In May, the parents of the African American student produced a federal civil rights example against the school territory, alleging a failing by the school to stanch incidents of racial coercion going back to 2013.

It all starts in the home, remarked Wheeler, the NAACP president. When girls act out, when boys start wearing region buckles with the Confederate flag on it, thats all in the home. Home should be able to say, Listen, where do you get that from? Thats not in our house.

Children sell lemonade in Easton. Image: Mark Makela for the Guardian

Prejudice is learnt, and learned, and depicted. Race is learned.

After news spread about the FBI raid on the white supremacist cadre in neighboring Phillipsburg, Davis said, members of the Greater Shiloh church decided to hold a revival in the city is striving to deliver some healing to the community.

I dont want to paint a picture of a city that has not worked diligently to accompany match and equality to our community, Davis continued. The trouble, I ponder, is that our organization is ended. And when the system is busted, change is very difficult.

Easton is a great, diverse municipality, Wheeler did. Theres topics out there. We cant tell that depart. Easton, its not set back. But theres some work to do.

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Read more: www.theguardian.com

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