#Imagine your name becoming the name your family chose for all the subsequent strange the unwanted

[quiet-art-kid]

just realized there is too much angsty hiccup 2 fanart and not enough angsty hiccup 1 fanart

[haveyouseenthis]

I’m staring to wonder...

After playing/watching Until Dawn, Man of Medan, and Little Hope, I’ve kind of got this theory going. I don’t know how well it’s going to hold up since depending on how you look at it we’re only 2-3 games into this whole mess, but so far I like how it looks.

My theory, my guess, my thought, my idea....whatever you want to call it - I think all of the antagonists in the Dark Pictures Anthology will be human, not supernatural. More specifically, each game is about humans dealing with extreme emotions and the consequences of their reactions and decisions.

Hear me out!

*spoilers*

Look at Until Dawn

There are two primary antagonists in the game: The Psycho/Josh and the wendigos.

Josh seems well-adjusted when we first meet him, which seems incredibly weird, but we quickly realize that he is far from fine. He is dealing with mental illness exacerbated by grief over the still relatively recent disappearance of his two sisters. Although it is never explicitly stated, it’s not difficult to imagine that Josh and his family at least suspect their family members are dead. Over the course of the game, we see Josh lose his grip on his sanity. With each scene he seems a little more unhinged, culminating in his exposure as The Psycho and subsequent punishment. The final time we see Josh, he has transformed into the second, are much scarier, antagonist of the series: The Wendigo.

The Wendigo, we learn, are born of a curse. They are humans who turned to eating human flesh to stay alive and consequently were possessed by the spirit of a wendigo. They are strong and deadly, a nearly perfect killer and a great horror movie monster.

But Tek, you say. The wendigos are supernatural monsters! You said everything will be about people.

It is.

Yes, the wendigos become the main threat of the game, but they only exist because of people. As a consequence of truly desperate situations, people made the choice that turned them into monsters. Similarly, Josh, driven to extremes by his anger, chose to put in place a plan to endanger his friends. While he could not have known the full extent of what would happen that night, Josh was the spark that lit the flame of their (potential) demise.

Until Dawn, at it’s core, is about what happens when people are left with nothing but desperation and despair.

Okay fine, you don’t believe me still. I get it; I do. Until Dawn isn’t the best example with it’s supernatural monsters. But what about Man of Medan?

If you’ve played Man of Medan, then you know that there was nothing supernatural happening on that ship - except maybe the fact that it was somehow still floating after nearly a century. The cargo is to blame for everything. Whatever the concoction was, it was literally scaring people to death. That is, if someone else didn’t get scared and kill you first.

The pirates, however, start us off. As far as antagonists go, they are menacing, but nothing compared to the mystery we saw in the prologue. You feel as if you’re biding your time until the real threat arrives.

And when it does, you’re already in the thick of it. You’ve seen each character make decisions that can potentially threaten themselves and those around them. Before you even reach the ship, you’ve been introduced to the idea of people as the antagonists of the game. The question then becomes how do these new antagonists fit in with what you already saw?

Very well, it turns out. The gas plays with the mind, causing the characters, both playable and pirate, to go mad with fear. And here is where we hit upon the core of the game.

Man of Medan is about fear. Plain and simple. It’s a kind of fear that plays with the mind and turns people into their own worst enemies. Depending on how you played the game, fear could’ve made you fall to your death or kill someone you love. Fear could’ve caused a pirate to kill you. Fear is the name of the game here. Extreme fear and what it makes people do.

So where does Little Hope fit I can hear you asking. I’d be happy to tell you.

Like Medan, how emotions play with the mind is at the center of Little Hope. Say what you will about the ending - I thought it was good - but every monster in the game springs from the mind of one man. The horror was connected to trauma and grief. Each demon that chased them down was representative of how Anthony’s family died. The unthinkable events of real life made tangible horror. The ‘monster’ hunting Anthony down is his survivor’s guilt.

But even if it wasn’t all in his head, the story’s antagonist is still very human. The overlapping characters of Reverend and Mayor Carver show the destruction one man can bring. Each is responsible for the destruction of their own towns. Reverend Carver, especially, takes on characteristics of the ‘monsters’ in Anthony’s life. The connection with his namesake is obvious, but he also represents Anthony’s conflicted feelings as to Megan’s guilt. I doubt that the demon we see Megan talking to before the fire is real. I think, more likely, it is a representation of the ambiguity of Megan’s guilt and intentions. Despite his anger, Anthony cannot ever bring himself to allow for Megan’s total guilt. If she set the fire on purpose, which I personally doubt, then Anthony, on some level, concludes she must have been manipulated. In 1972 it’s the demon. In 1632, it’s Reverend Carver. Reverend Carver also has obvious connections to the priest Reverend Carter from Anthony’s own time, mainly his obsession with the occult. While it’s not quite clear why Carter was fascinated, we’re given the explanation that Carver was trying to recover his wife. To be honest, I’m not sure what Carter’s occult fascination has to do with him being an antagonist, but I do think it’s important to establishing a connection between him and the other reverend. This connection is exemplified in their connection to Megan. To be frank, I think the priest was molesting Megan. I think that’s why her behavior was poor. I think that’s why her grades started slipping. I think that’s why she acted strange and closed off. She wasn’t possessed by some supernatural demon, she was dealing with her own trauma.

It should also be noted that the supplementary townspeople do not have faces, making them appear monstrous and alien. I’m sure this is an echo of what Anthony felt after initially taking the blame for the fire.

Finally, with the exception of Anthony, the characters are exceptionally unlikable. Were you to try and play them in character, you would likely succeed in driving a wedge between the group members. I note this because the game rewards you for not being antagonistic towards your group mates. It’s a small detail, but one that I think reinforces the idea that people are the real things to be feared in these games.

All this to say, Little Hope is about dealing with grief and trauma, how it effects the mind, how it eats away at you until it is the thing that chases you in the dark.

With only a couple games out, I have no idea whether this theory will hold true or not. And really, how fitting for a game based around choices. Of course the choices people make under pressure can become the most threatening thing around us. Still, regardless of whether this theory holds true, I just hope they continue to tell good stories.

I do have a couple guessed for House of Ashes though. If my theory holds, I think there’s a chance the antagonist will either be some sort of religious cult, enemy guerillas or soldiers, or perhaps even a double agent within your own group. Personally, I would love to see something with the last one, maybe even in combination with the first. Maybe the statue that we see is some underground temple that has been disturbed and this group sent someone to stop whatever is being done around it. I don’t know.

But whatever the story, I think the monster will be human.

[jasontoddiefor]

Hello! I was reading the « fic rec » question and i would be reeeeaaaallly glad to have a look at what you liked! Anything Anakin-related, and preferably AU or fix it (the nile ain’t just a river yada yada...) Thaaaaaanks

Anakin fix-its? You’ve come to the right place. These are all the stories in my bookmarks tagged as “fix it”! There are more but I do not have the patience to search for all of them rn. Not all of these are as Jedi positive as I like my fanfic, but they’re all 10/10 reads regardless.

Title: The Giver Summary: Anakin had pretty much adjusted to life at the Jedi temple. He went to class, he trained with his master, and he had begun to have strange dreams. A friendly figure would meet him at night when he closed his eyes and went to sleep. As they build up their friendship, Anakin begins to slowly confide in them, telling him about his worries, hopes, and dreams. They offer guidance and wisdom, watching Anakin grow to be a Jedi Knight, and trying to figure out where everything went wrong. Sometimes, the answers that you're looking for aren't ahead of you, they're behind. Link:https://archiveofourown.org/works/22790647

Title: If you could love the flame Summary: And Anakin knows suddenly and irrevocably that they will always be this: his two royals, his two diplomats, his two myths come to life Link:https://archiveofourown.org/works/25100827

Title: Sabbatical Summary: Anakin decides to leave the Jedi as a child, and Obi-Wan goes with him. When Palpatine sends Dooku to find them, things don't go as planned. Link:https://archiveofourown.org/works/22801789

Title: where the light won’t find you Summary: Or maybe Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka do turn to the Dark Side after Mortis. And maybe they accidentally save the galaxy anyways? (But that doesn't mean they still don't cause a headache for the rest of the galaxy.) Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24460300

Title: Family is more than Blood Summary:Two souls go into a sandstorm to change their fates. They find each other instead.Or the slightly cracky AU where a bounty hunter is the one that gives the Chosen One a proper family. Link:https://archiveofourown.org/works/24469039

Title: Twin Sons Summary: “He…” Anakin took a breath, trying to force his heart to stop hammering into his ribs, and he looked back at the man kneeling behind him, trying to apologize with his eyes, “he’s like me, sir. He’s like me, he’s a slave! His Master made him do this, his Master caused him…don’t hurt him. Not when we have him here, not when…not when we can free him.” - On Slavery, Freedom, and bringing Balance to the Force. Link:https://archiveofourown.org/works/24449365

Title: Aay’han Summary: Obi-Wan Kenobi sees what the Jedi Temple is doing to his Padawan, and he acts.This affects the galaxy in ways he never could have imagined. Link:https://archiveofourown.org/works/24280987

Title: if only i knew Summary:Newly knighted Obi-Wan Kenobi and his padawan, Anakin Skywalker, have been sent to Ryloth on a simple diplomatic envoy. While there, an unsettling incident causes Obi-Wan to look at Anakin in a new light and re-evaluate...everything.The Galaxy will never be the same.aka: "come for the obikin, stay for the tzai and deep emotional discussions that dismantle every single misunderstanding in the prequels." Link:https://archiveofourown.org/works/24353887

Title:  Ib'tuur Jatne Tuur Ash'ad Kyr'amur Summary: No one knows what the Council is hiding, but the effects ripple throughout the galaxy. Anakin knows he is loved. Former slaves are freed. A long-lost Master and his Padawan are returned to the Temple. No one understands how Obi-Wan Kenobi does these things, but they are grateful for it anyway. Link:https://archiveofourown.org/works/23581780

Coruscanti Regency The thing is, when Anakin figures it out, is that it all obviously has been there, if he’d only cared to look for it.And, admittedly, he is angry. Mostly at himself, which isn’t something that happens very often, so it’s an especially harrowing realization.All these years, he thinks, I’ve been so blind. I was so busy ignoring everything I didn’t want to think about and blaming everyone else for things not under their control that I didn’t stop to look at the bigger picture.He sighs and leans back in his chair to gaze at the ceiling.If only, he laments, true remorse coloring his thoughts, I had started watching period holodramas earlier.OR, how Plo Koon watching and subsequently introducing Ahsoka to Star Wars’ version of Downton Abbey changes Anakin's life path like nothing else could.

Reading Into Things When Ahsoka first meets the Supreme Chancellor, she gets a sense of his less than wholesome interest in her Master. Her intuition will go a long way.

Simple Steps Galaxy changing events don't just suddenly occur. They are the result of a series of small steps.

like someone bereft and lied to Anakin has a weird feeling in his stomach as he walks away from the Chancellor’s office.Who would have thought that Chancellor Palpatine would be a student of the Sith? Only to know how to keep the Republic safe from them, of course. All those priceless artifacts and holocrons that he’s collected to keep safe, hidden in his private rooms.It’s a good thing that he isn’t Force-sensitive, Anakin thinks with a small laugh, because the energy coming from all those things would have driven the poor man mad in a day. He only spent maybe twenty minutes in the room, just long enough to look at the piece the Chancellor thought might be of use to him, and his head was still spinning.

Deliver Us Jango Fett cannot save all his clones, but he can save five. He can save five, if he's willing to entrust them to the Jedi. Not just any Jedi, though. One who has already defied their Code for a child. One who knows Mandalorian culture. It is worth it, to save five innocent lives. He had no way of knowing it would change the galaxy and throw the proverbial spanner in one Sith Lord's plans.

we are all just trying to be holy  There was something warm and gentle in Depa’s voice, the way there always was, the way that was starting to sound like home to Anakin, though it would be awhile now before he recognized it. “Let me tell you a secret, my young Padawan: every Jedi has attachments.” He blinked up at her, eyes wide and confused. “Even Master Windu?” She laughed, nodding. “Even Master Windu.” -- An AU where Depa Billaba takes Anakin Skywalker as her Padawan, Obi Wan Kenobi interferes just a little bit, and Mace Windu is very, very tired.

The Price of a Name Anakin isn't quite sure how to deal with the clones he now commands, especially given that they refuse any attempts to individualize themselves. The quest to help the clones is going to go further than Anakin ever imagined.

Pebble in a River He woke up. And everything changed, but of course, that's what life does. It changes. There are so many options, so many things that seem right. And yet each of those things also feels wrong. Failure isn't an option, not again. But there is no outline for success, and he's hardly the only one in the game. He's tired, and exhausted, and so very lonely. But force help him, he's going to save as many people as he can. Really, Force, he needs the help.

Entirely of the Light With Palpatine unveiled as Sidious, Anakin manages to defeat him but ends up severely injured. As he recovers, Obi-Wan finds himself helping Padmé raise her and Anakin's children while he struggles with his feelings for both Anakin and Padmé.

Aggressive Negotiations  Everything about Skywalker was unorthodox. Even his parenting skills. A war meeting was the last place Rex expected to find a pair of toddlers, but there they were. But Rex is an officer, and a professional, and he will absolutely hold a child's hand if they ask. He's not a monster.

I had a vision! Mace Windu gets thrown back in time right to the point where Anakin is first presented to the Council. He remembers the horrors of the Clone Wars and he will do everything to change the oncoming future. "I had a vision" is becoming his most used phrase, he earns himself a Padawan with a penchant for trouble and Qui-Gon lives. All is going well, isn't it? No, there's still a republic to save, an army to deal with and most certainly a timeline to unfuck. Based on the tumblr posts by suzukiblu.

The Same Hope You will come to me sooner or later, Chosen One.Maybe once, when he was in the middle of a war that seemed like it would never end, a secret relationship dividing him between two of the people he loved most, juggling the guilt of failing his padawan. Maybe the Anakin back then had felt beholden to destiny, had had no choices, had felt like he would never have any choices.But the Anakin of now is a different person, because of his choices.He chose to leave the Order. He chose a new start.He chose acceptance, and understanding, and sometimes even forgiveness.He chose Obi-Wan. Always Obi-Wan.[[ The story of how we got here and everything that happens after. ]]

A Mind Always Free "Observe. Learn what you can. Keep everything secret. Don't be emotionless, but don't allow your emotions to show. And most importantly, take what you can get when you can get it, but let it go when it is taken away from you," Shmi Skywalker said softly, caressing the face of her son.(Anakin remembers what's like to be a slave and the Galaxy is better for it.)

Home  Time travel fix-it story with a bit of a twist. After his death, Obi-Wan wakes up on Tatooine, in the body of his padawan self. But instead of trying to prevent Anakin from Falling, he decides to change the future by stopping Qui-Gon from ever meeting the little Ani. If Anakin lives like a civilian, away from the Temple and Palpatine, the world will be a better place... right?A story in which Obi-Wan learns that Anakin Skywalker will always be his home--and his ultimate weakness--regardless of his attempts to do the right thing and stay away.

You Shall Become (Me) The Guardian of the Sith Temple doesn’t particularly care for the new breed of Sith, for all that they’ve been around for 1,000 years. But they’re the only Sith the Guardian knows about. Until one day…Alternately, "How to accidentally join the Sith without really trying."

Elements The words “Yes, Master,” come out of Anakin’s mouth so naturally that Obi-Wan suspects they were his first words. The realization comes to him so suddenly: his Padawan still has the mindset of a slave. When he decides to fix that, everything changes.

The Chosen Anakin is found by Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan when he's a newborn. It changes things.

The Sun and the Ocean Five things that happened when the twins were born early.hint: threesomes happen and assholes die.

A Time For A Yes, a Time For A Hell No The Council comes to him with a stupid, asinine plan that will only work if Anakin is in on it. Only to tell them that Anakin isn't going to be in on it.That's the moment Obi-wan decides he's had enough.[Prequel to my story "Go on, Go! Walk out that door" or 'The Scene' that started it all]

Magic Blankets C-3PO accidentally saves the galaxy by teaching a young Ani Skywalker how to crochet.Or in which the power of love and crafts solve a lot of problems and the Jedi Creche is about two inches away from kidnapping Anakin at any given moment.

[alcida-auka]

Rey Killed Her Parents

Rey Killed Her Parents — Just One of My Crazy Star Wars Theories

Hey everybody, I don’t do this too often, but I love the new Star Wars movies so much that I’m coming up with all kinds of crazy speculations for the trilogy and 9th movie, much like I did with X-files back in the 90s. Now I’m not the first person to have theorized that Rey killed her parents — which I find oddly reassuring–but I’d like to add my own process as to how I came to this fun little tinfoil theory with some visual cues from the films.

So how did I come to the theory that Rey is responsible for her nobody parents never coming back?

The Force Awakens

Well, it goes back to something I first noticed back on my second viewing of The Force Awakens a few years ago. I would not really come to the conclusion that Rey destroyed her parents at that time, but I did notice something that seemed too significant to ignore.

Namely it’s this:

In Rey’s force vision, in which she sees scenes from the past and future, she stands outside of herself as a young girl, arm held tightly by Unkar Plutt [likely why she has an aversion to having her hand held by the way]. As her family’s craft leaves her behind, ascending to the sky, she cries out pleading with them to come back.

But this particular vision of the craft ends strangely. As the ship ascends, the sky turns an ominous red. And take note of that, because in Star Wars red lighting is often used to denote something evil or dark afoot.

Later towards the end of the film, we will see this darkening of the sky and subsequent red lighting again.  We will see it  when Kylo Ren kills his father immediately after the Star Killer base planet begins to implode. From Abram’s commentary on this scene, Kylo Ren is entirely conflicted just prior to this darkening of the sky, and up untill that point he is truly thinking of leaving with his father. When the sky darkens, the lighting on Kylo Ren’s face changes from blue to red, and it signifies an abrupt change to evil/darkness. He immediately kills his father, an act he regrets intensely upon its conclusion.

Now, at the time, I only noted that the darkening sky in Rey’s vision was a parallel to the darkening sky above Star Killer base. I knew it was intended to be significant, but I was unclear as to how. It could have meant nothing more in Rey’s vision than a foreshadowing of Kylo’s patricidal act, a blending of timelines. But why cast that dark red shadow on both scenes? A dark red shadow that is specifically intended to symbolize the dark side?

This is where the Last Jedi comes in, and where I started drawing my theory.

The Last Jedi

In the throne room of the recently deceased Snoke, Kylo Ren makes his famous plea to Rey to join him in creating a New Order. Desperate to get her on his side, to “let go of the past”, he encourages her to remember her parents, something that she has been actively repressing for years.

Rey admits they were nobody. Kylo Ren, who so far has never been deceitful to Rey (and Rian Johnson the director backs this up), clarifies further her own memories that he saw back during their force bond in the hut. They were drunks, junk traders, who sold her for drinking money. Rey does not deny this and her face shows an unhappy acceptance.

But where it gets interesting is this: Kylo also says her parents are dead, buried in a pauper’s grave in the desert.

Now many fans have thought this a discrepancy from what Rey’s vision in the Force Awakens showed us.

But I don’t think that it is, and I certainly did not think it was in the movie as I watched it.

It’s entirely possible that Rey’s vision of her parents leaving were a fabrication in her mind. After all, Rey is an unreliable narrator of her own life, and created the fiction of her parents coming back as a way to rationalize her abandonment and the notion her parents did not want her. If she believed her parents were “somebody”, a great Jedi hero, a warrior, she could fantasize that they HAD to leave her for heroic reasons, and thus it would mean she was loved, and they would come back.

However, I find the idea that her vision of the abandoning ship being a fabrication to be unlikely. The Force does not create deceitful visions.

Thus, Rey’s parents did leave her.

But how did they wind up dead in graves on Jakku? Why are we told this?

This is where the Force Awakens vision and red sky comes back into play.

Just as the darkening sky and red light immediately preceded the violent action of Kylo Ren killing his father–a sudden, impulsive act–this image of the same red light symbolizes a dark act immediately after the ship’s ascension into the sky.

That act is Rey, a child powerful in the Force, unintentionally killing her parents by bringing down their ship, in a naive attempt to bring them back to her.

This is why she remembers being abandoned, and why Kylo Ren has seen their graves in her mind. Rey’s parents never got to leave, and furthermore, she remembers them being dead. I can imagine that this would be such a traumatic act that she blocks it out, and over time creates her comforting myth that someday they’ll return for her, that she was never a bad girl who hurts people, a girl that gets abandoned for being bad.

Now, obviously, this is just a theory of mine, and some other folks on Reddit and Tumblr. But it’s cool to see others have arrived at the same minor theory on their own as well.

There’s no telling if it is remotely true until the 9th movie comes out December 2019, but if it is, it has some interesting implications for her character.

It becomes yet another parallel to Kylo Ren. These characters are both mirrors of one another in several ways–they feel abandoned by everyone around them, they are intensely lonely (even Rey, when surrounded by her new Resistance friends, comes off to me as standing a part from them), and possibly, they have both killed parents.

Ben Solo is a character that has been described as “coming from the light [eg, has good, heroic parents]” but is putting on the dark persona of Kylo Ren.  Nonetheless, he is drawn to the light, both in himself, and in the person of Rey.

If Rey is a mirror of Ben Solo/Kylo Ren, we can surmise that she “comes from the dark” but wears a persona of light. She is drawn to the dark side, something that Luke Skywalker points out repeatedly. Of course, she is also drawn to the darkness of Kylo Ren/Ben Solo.

How is Rey “from the dark”? Possibly this references her parents being good-for-nothing drunks, happy to sell their child. Going with my theory, though, it could also be that the “dark” is her darkside powers that she used to kill her parents.

Again, as much as Kylo/Ben is dark and light, so is Rey, their approaches to it are simply reversed.

And it’s not talked about much, but Rey wears a mask as much as Kylo Ren wears his metal one. It’s simply that Rey’s mask takes on the form of her la-di-dah, Pollyanna unbridled optimism. It’s a shame that people feel Rey is a dull character, because in reality she is as complex as he is, and is also fighting conflicts within herself. Through the Force bond conversations with Kylo Ren, the Last Jedi film was showing us the growing cracks in her ever-happy facade.

If Rey has killed her parents, not only will it bring about further conflict within her character for the last film, it may help to shatter some of her Jedi-like self righteousness that she tends to have. Granted, killing your parents when you are 5 years old cannot be compared to a young man in his 20s killing his father, but she will realize how intense the darkness in her can be. So far she has chosen the Light side of things easily, but I envision her having a crisis of faith in the next movie.

Ultimately, whether this theory is just tinfoil over-analyzation or something that could actually be realized, I suspect that the next film will have both Kylo Ren/Ben Solo and Rey achieving balance of Light and Dark within themselves and between each other.

Side observation–one does wonder if Kylo Ren saw in Rey’s memory that she killed her parents and not just the graves on Jakku. If he did, it would mean he chose not to tell her, either hoping she remembers on her own, or not wanting to hurt her in that moment any more than she already is.

I could see the latter being a possibility–much of his suffering has been in the perception that people think he is a monster, and he is just stepping into the role he thinks everyone has driven him into.

While Kylo Ren certainly wants Rey to stop pining after her parents in the hopes that she’ll rely only on him and no one else (he is desperate not to be alone in this scene), he doesn’t exactly want her to become so utterly despondent to believe she is a monster incapable of being loved. Hence the “You’re nothing but not to me”, but no “And you’re a murderer just like me!”

Also, Unkar Plutt must know some shit, he’s the last guy aside from Rey to have seen her parents. I get that Rey hates Plutt and does not want to talk with him any more than she has to, but I wonder if she will ever consider asking him about that deal her parents made.

Anyways, that’s my crazy tinfoil Star Wars theory. I have no idea if Rey actually killed her parents, but it’ll be interesting to see if this one pans out or not! Have you got any zany wild Star Wars speculations or theories? Post them below!

[hufflepuffmarlenemckinnon]

Dog meets Duckling

An Excerpt from my Novel-Length Fanfic The Dog and the Duckling

Summary: Sirius is assigned to mentor Marlene Mckinnon when she joins The Order of the Phoenix. His perceptions of Hufflepuff house are drastically changed, and so is his life.

Rated Teen mostly for language and innuendo.

A/N: So most everyone who follows me will have gathered that I headcanon Marlene as Duck animagus for a lot of the fic I write. I decided to put some of the backstory of that up on Tumblr in case anyone was curious. I’ll keep these blurbs listed in chronological order on my Fic Masterlist.  

August, 1980

“I need new friends.”

Sirius mumbled empty insults under his breath. His closest friends had left him in the lurch. Sure, they had a valid reason, what with their 6 day old baby and all...He didn’t really think that they should have planned their family with more consideration for him. But he couldn’t help feel annoyed at the new duties to The Order of the Phoenix he would pick up due to James Potter’s absence for the next 8 weeks.

He felt a smile coming on as he imagined little Harry giving them at least a tiny bit of hell.

James Potter was probably changing a nappy at the very moment that Sirius attempted to keep his eyes open while reading over files on the newly enlisted witch he’s be mentoring. James’s task would be more brief but certainly had a more unpleasant odor. The little parlor room The Order of the Phoenix rented at The Leaky Caldron was perhaps a bit musty from old furniture and neglect, but that was the worst of it.

Sirius has persistent doubts that he’d be a suitable mentor. He didn’t really understand why Dumbledore chose him to take up this slack.

He went over the possible reasons in his head. Because pointless mental conjecture was one of the long list of things that Sirius Black enjoyed more than paperwork.  

I suppose I was the next best thing?

He wasn’t. He knew this. The Potters were the sort of people that took naturally to leadership. They’d been head boy and girl during their 7th year at Hogwarts and they were both more patient and more responsible than most people in their early 20s. Sirius was a far cry from that description.

Two years out of Hogwarts, the goals he’d accomplished were less, “find a wife, buy a house, have a baby” and more “try not to be a gigantic twat to anyone today”.

He was fairly pleased with his progress in being less of a twat. He hadn’t been born to be a good or a kind person because certainly none of his family possessed those qualities. He didn’t even become aware that it was an option until he was 11 years old. His youthful attempts at catching up were often abject failures in real decency. He’d been a major twat a time or 50.

He really had gotten better. He didn’t feel like a decent person deep down, but it was certainly what he was aiming to be.

Sirius didn’t really do “responsible” though. He once bought new clothes because he was so rubbish at laundering spells, rather than practicing up on the aforementioned charms. It seemed reasonable to Sirius. He rode a flying motorbike and never found himself compelled to follow the rules in favor of having a good time.

He considered the possibility that Dumbledore was using this as some sort of mission to persuade him into behaving like more of a role model. The only flaw in that theory was that it assumed Dumbledore had reasons for all the things he did. Sometimes he just did things. No one knew why. Including Albus Dumbledore himself.

But reason or no reason, Sirius was stuck with the job and very soon he’d be face to face with his new mentee; Marlene McKinnon of Hufflepuff house, age 16. It was his his job to teach her how The Order works and let her follow him around, watching and learning,for the next month until she went back to Hogwarts.

She’d be entering 7th year. Sirius figured she must’ve gotten bored and restless during the summer or that perhaps her older sisters and brothers going off to fight in wars seemed exciting to someone that young. With four siblings in the order she’d be an obvious recruit after she finished 7th year.

He spotted the line on the file in front of him that stated Marlene wouldn’t even come of age until August 31st.  Generally, The Order wasn’t wild about taking under-age witches and wizards or even of age ones who were still at Hogwarts.

There were exceptions. Sirius found a pondering what made Marlene McKinnon exceptional more interesting than her file as well.

7th years were particularly vulnerable to recruiting from the Death Eaters. Having a 7th year spying for the order and keeping tabs on who had taken the mark and who was likely to to do so was a fairly useful thing for The Order. It had been done before.

But a McKinnon would be ghastly choice for this task.

The McKinnons were a well known wizarding family. All fervent supporters of Muggle Born equality and every one of them (now that their youngest had signed on) was Order affiliated. Sirius didn’t know their exact percentage of Magical ancestry and thought that sort of tedious detail was better saved for people who were vile enough to care. His mother probably would have known.

The McKinnon parents were a black Londoner witch and an Irish wizard. Their five children had slight variations of skin tones in the middle area between their parents. But every one of them had the same hair. It was instantly recognizable, as it was large. Heaps of ringlets that seemed to grow out rather than down. It wouldn’t be hard to spot a McKinnon in a crowd from a broomstick at a distance. Not a great quality for a spy.

So when the girl showed up 20 minutes early with a smile as broad as Hagrid’s shoulders, he didn’t have to ask who she was. This was obviously Marlene McKinnon of Hufflepuff house. She had more freckles than her sister Grace, who’d been in Sirius’s year, but he contended that they looked related.

The beaming impish girl was tiny under all the golden-brown spiral curls. Sirius had encountered taller 2nd years. Her taste in muggle clothes might have made someone else look like a bit of a rebel.  Marlene, on the other hand, looked like a human sunflower who inexplicably enjoys muggle bands with a penchant for profanity.

She’s actually quite pretty.

As soon as he’d had the thought he mentally backtracked and argued with himself over how she wasn’t really beautiful. She might have been more accurately described as cute. Sweet looking. Like a kneazle kitten. She had nothing of the icy untouchable beauty that his own family was known for. Sirius thought maybe that whole concept was overrated anyhow. His deranged cousin Bellatrix may have been one of the great beauties of her generation, but nearly everyone would agree that she was terrifying.

Marlene was anything but terrifying. The only thing Sirius found disconcerting about her was that she was looking at him like Godric Gryffindor come again.

Was she under the influence of a curse? Was she confusing him with someone important? Or just… confused in general?

Sirius was entirely oblivious to the fact that Marlene McKinnon had been looking at him like that for quite a while. She’d considered herself well over it by now, even. But as soon as she walked in she realized that the crush she’d acquired when she was in her 4th year and he in his 7th, was not entirely a thing of the past. Then-14-year-old Marlene had decided that Sirius Black was perhaps the most impressive young wizard she’d ever come into contact with when she heard he’d run away from home and subsequently been disowned for rejecting his family’s blood supremacist ideologies.

She was completely smitten when she found that along with his principles and willingness to stand up for them, he also possessed strikingly handsome good looks. His high contrast coloring and steel grey eyes in combination with his aristocratic bone structure made it hard for Marlene to focus on anything else, even from across the dining hall.

Her siblings who were still at school with her at the time, Grace in 7th year and Lucan in 6th, took notice of her besotted gawking. The sibling pair, who were always closest with each other, did not hesitate to tease their baby sister mercilessly.

Marlene had ended up saying yes to the first boy who expressed an interest in her in 5th year, just to prove to them that she was over her silly crush. She made a noble effort to overlook Reginald Cattermole’s uncanny resemblance to a ferret. Poor sod. Never stood a chance. She got increasingly bored of him during 6th year and gave him the boot officially some months back. And now she was back to square one. Sirius, naturally, hadn’t even been aware of any of this while it was going on.

He thought that no one looked at him like that. Though he liked to think he was quite pleasant to look at (Marlene would concur), in general he was looked upon with suspicion. And that was amongst his allies. There were plenty of witches and wizards who looked at him with complete contempt. But until that very moment Sirius didn’t think anyone had ever looked at him like Marlene McKinnon had from the moment she walked in the front door.

He was really enjoying it.

But why? It was weird. I should stop. She should stop.

“You’re Sirius Black.”

“I am. But I’m afraid you have this whole introductions thing backwards. I already know who I am. You’re meant to tell me who you are. But I’m fairly certain you’re Marlene McKinnon? Am I right?”

“Yes. That’d be me. Errrm… I meant to have introduced myself. Not just gape at you like an idiot, then tell you your own name. And I’m early. That’s...unfortunate. Uh… I’m pretty bad at this. I’m sorry?”

“It’s alright, Marlene. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. You’re bad at… what exactly?”

“So many things, really.” She laughed.

Sirius decided that the ability to laugh at herself would come in handy if she was always this strange around people. He actually kind of admired that quality. He was of the opinion that most people took themselves too seriously. It was tedious for him to spend time around people like that. He got the immediate impression that Marlene was anything but tedious.

“Well aren’t we all? I’ve never mentored anyone before and I’m sure I’ll be very disappointing. Truly, I’m sorry that you got stuck with me. You can send complaints to the Potters.”

He thought maybe a small dose of self deprecation would put this little tightly wound ball of nerves a bit more at ease. Looking at her posture was giving him a crick in his neck.

It was also Sirius’s earnest opinion that he would be a terrible mentor. He had no idea what he was even meant to do with her. He felt it was likely that he would forget to feed her or something, like he had done with that goldfish he’d won at that muggle fair.

“Oh no; not at all.” She blurted out as if it were all one word.

As Marlene continued to speak, her words tumbled out at an impressive pace without so much as a pause for breath.

“I was thrilled when I heard you were going to mentor me. I always thought you were so brave, walking away from your family like you did. That must have taken an enormous amount of courage. But I hadn’t seen you since you left school and you are exceptionally good looking and I got distracted and forgot that I was supposed to say my name when I meet a person.”

Sirius did his best not to let his face react in any way while Marlene cycled through approximately 50 facial expressions within the span of a minute.

Sirius wondered what planet was this girl had come from. Grace McKinnon had been fairly Hufflepuffy in his recollection, but she wasn’t the personification of a broom crash when she spoke. But just like a broom crash, Marlene was impossible to look away from. Sirius was transfixed. But he preferred to think that he wasn’t quite terrible enough to have to hold back a laugh at a broom crash.

He was at a loss of anything at all to say. Lucky for him that Marlene, whose embarrassed blush might have been visible from her far off home planet, felt compelled to fill the air with more of her rapid fire words.

“Oh sweet Merlin did I really say that? I’m so so sorry. I think I should probably go. Maybe I’ll tell Dumbledore I’m not cut out for The Order. Maybe I’ll move to Spain and start a new life…”

“That really won’t be necessary. Besides it would reflect pretty poorly on me if my first mentee ran away to Spain after meeting me once. So I must object. You’ll be great with The Order. Your heart is in it. It must be. You’ve still got a year of school left but here you are.”

“I thought maybe I could help. Everyone’s so scared. You-know-who is gaining ground. I’d rather be part of something that stops him than sit idle and be scared.”

“See, you do belong here. Please don’t run away to Spain. I’m sure your brothers and sisters would miss you terribly.”

“I suppose they might. A bit. Well, maybe not Gawain. But the rest. Do you know them?”

“I was in Grace���s year. We’ve never been close but she seems like a lovely person. You look a lot like her. You all look alike. Gawain too. What’s wrong with Gawain?”

Marlene did look like all the other McKinnons. But Sirius had never given more the conventional looking Grace a second glance and if he had glanced any more at Marlene it would have constituted a full on ogling.

He reminded himself that he shouldn’t look at her like that. She was someone he’d have to see every day for a month. Then possibly work with in the future. He didn’t dip into that pool. It was needlessly messy, when he was Sirius Black and was not lacking in options.

Marlene had just called him exceptionally good looking which, while true, was not something he expected people to announce at random. So by doing that she confused his brain into considering the ways which she was attractive, or would be, if the circumstances were different. Or that was the mental gymnastics he performed to excuse his giving her the once over, anyway.

“Gawain’s terribly embarrassed by me. I’m… pretty embarrassing. So I don’t really blame him. But we aren’t particularly close.”

“I have a thing or two to teach him about what it’s really like to have embarrassing relatives. Did you know that my first cousin tells people that she’s the Dark Lord’s mistress? You’re not embarrassing. I… look forward to working with you.”

All the impulses Sirius felt towards Marlene felt wrong and contrary to the image he attempted to portray to the world. He was supposed to be blazé about people’s opinions of him. Self confident and cool. He felt anything but cool when intentionally bringing up Bella’s terrible taste in men. Could Voldemort even really be called a man at this point? He looked… not entirely human. Sirius idly wondered if he had all the working bits. But he would not go as so far as to make any inquiries into the matter.

Marlene looked so anxious. Her nervous fingers played with the ripped hem of her too-big shirt. As endearing as her nervous fidgeting was, Sirius wanted to make her feel more at ease.

But why should he care if she’s awkward? Probably that was just her. Why was he making himself uncomfortable in efforts to make her less so? He didn’t do that. He especially didn’t do that for skinny 16 year old Hufflepuffs with huge hair and school girl crushes.

But he did. And he continued to, even as he thought about how he didn’t.

“So you think she’s not his mistress but she tells people that she is? That’s. Wow. I can’t think of many things more embarrassing than that. Actually being his mistress would be less pathetic, at least.”

Her sunny smile was back. Sirius felt a small sense of victory before she averted her gaze down to her yellow-stitched boots.

“I don’t know. I mean that’s my theory. But I don’t keep a sneekoscope in he-who-must-not-be-named’s bedroom.”

“Do you think he even has a bedroom? You know I’ve never before this moment thought of him being a person who does mundane things such as sleep or shag your cousin. But he must, right? He can’t possibly devote every moment of his life to terrorizing and murdering. Do you think he does his own shopping?”

“He probably has his minions do it or else a house elf, but now I really wish he did do it himself. I like the mental image it creates. He’d need breaks from reigning terror for a few hours on Thursday afternoon, because he needs to stock up on fresh produce. Can you picture the poor shopkeeper, totally gobsmacked?”

“You make jokes about He-who-must-not-be-laughed-at too. Gawain would be so scandalized.”  

The pair were having quite a laugh at the expense of the most dangerous dark wizard alive. They were both sure that this was going to be fun. Sirius decided that he needed some fun in his life now that James and Lily were busy with their baby.  

[impracticaldemon]

❄️  Author’s Note: Written as my Hakuouki Holiday Gift Exchange Fic for @akiko-natsuko​ (tumblr)  ❄️

This fic is based on the following prompts from @akiko-natsuko

1) Saitou! [I solidly support this choice] 2) Yamazaki [again, excellent choice] and just a smidge of 4) Hurt/ Comfort /Angst [this story came out as somewhat reflective with hints of action]

Overall, this is a slightly oddball, mostly serious story about one of my own very favourite brotps, Saitou / Yamazaki (with more than a little Hijikata thrown in, because I enjoy writing about these three guys).

This story is intended to be set more or less within canon, and takes place in late autumn, shortly after the assassination of Serizawa Kamo at the end of October. It’s AU to the extent that I doubt that Saitou and Yamazaki could have been absent from Kyoto for the length of time required by a trip to a “suburb” of Edo and back (Kondou and Hijikata’s original village of Hino is now a suburb of modern Tokyo).

🍶  A Special Gift, or The Pride of the Farmer’s Sons  ⚔️

Words ~ 3000 |  FFnet  |AO3

They rarely used, or needed, words. In fact, Saitō had trained Yamazaki and had been an unofficial shinobi (or spy, or assassin—the semantics were irrelevant to Saitō) for the Shinsengumi both before and after the other man had joined. Despite being eager to prove himself as a warrior, Yamazaki had given up the limelight and glory of the bushi without protest once Colonel Sannan and Vice Commander Hijikata had selected him to be an Inspector—a man who spied on his comrades as well as his enemies. If he ever guessed that his impassive, silent-footed sword-master had recommended him for the position in the first place, it had never been discussed.

An almost invisible nod and a quick hand signal told Saitō that there were at least two men in the large house that they sought to infiltrate. They had already had to scale a wall trapped with hidden, wickedly sharpened stakes and topped with shards of stone, and had narrowly avoided being found out by a well-muscled watch dog—an unusual luxury in food-poor Japan these days. The whole set-up was bizarre, since this was a farmhouse, not a samurai’s manor house. Fortunately, they had been warned ahead of time.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the elder Miyagawa brothers [1] still harbour a strong grudge against Kondō-san,” Hijikata had told them, face unreadable in the dim light of the brazier. It was late fall, and the weather had grown noticeably colder over just the past week. Winter was a tougher proposition in Kyoto than in Edo.

Saitō had simply nodded and waited for whatever other information his commanding officer deemed important. Yamazaki had suppressed his natural questions—it was a very strange assignment—and striven to emulate Saitō’s apparently unshakeable calm. He respected Saitō-san a great deal, and it was clear that the Third Division Captain was absolutely loyal to Hijikata-fukuchō, whom Yamazaki admired to the point of hero worship.

“Don’t underestimate the bastards,” Hijikata had continued, the usual crease between his high-flying black eyebrows becoming more pronounced. “They really hated that their bookish, day-dreaming younger brother managed to get himself adopted into a higher-status family and subsequently inherited both the master’s family name and his dōjō.”

Yamazaki had been unable to restrain his surprise. Kondō Isami-kyokuchō’s ability as a warrior was well-known. If nothing else, the tremendous skill of the men who followed him was a testimony to more than charisma—Yamazaki couldn’t imagine that charm alone would have been sufficient to attract the likes of Hijikata Toshizō, Okita Sōji, Saitō Hajime, Nagakura Shinpachi and others. Colonel Sannan was a well-educated, well-trained man from a samurai family, yet he had become a member of Kondō-san’s small dojo and then followed the man to Kyoto. Mind you, the friendship between Commander Kondō and the Vice Commander was obviously something special, as was the Commander’s deep bond with the First Division Captain. It was a pity that Okita-kumichō was always so disrespectful to the Vice Commander.

“Yamazaki?”

“Ah… Sumimasen deshita, Vice Commander.” The shinobi-medic had flushed a little, and could only hope that the gloom had concealed most of his face. He had worked hard to achieve the proper expressionless countenance of a true samurai. “I had never heard or imagined that there was trouble between the Commander and his family.”

“Small town, small minds,” Hijikata muttered tersely. He continued, in a more normal tone, “And it was really just the older brothers. I mean, farmers work hard and they’re supposed to know their place. Ambition and a good imagination aren’t really welcome. They didn’t take his playing around with a katana seriously, and they objected to the way he spent so much time reading instead of doing chores like a proper farmer’s son.” Normal had given way to perceptible bitterness. Hijikata had also been the youngest son of a moderately prosperous farming family.

“I understand, Vice Commander.” Yamazaki, who had been born the son of a practitioner of traditional Eastern medicine, did indeed understand better than many. He knew that a large part of his devotion to the Commander and Vice Commander was that they had given him the longed-for opportunity to become a warrior, despite not being born into the samurai class.

“Well, then…” Hijikata had paused, and then sighed. “Seriously, I know this side-trip is a little unusual, but this will be our first New Year’s celebration with Kondō-san in sole command of the Mibu Roshigumi. I want to make it special for him.”

Yamazaki, who was observant both by nature and training, had noticed what seemed to be a fleeting smile on the Vice Commander’s face, but he hadn’t been certain. Had there also been the slightest pause before the word ‘special’? In his peripheral vision, he had glimpsed a small shift in his companion’s otherwise motionless seiza.

“We will leave immediately, Vice Commander.” Saitō had bowed and risen on the words, picking up his katana from the floor. He always seemed to know when Hijikata-san was done briefing them, and managed to be efficient without being impolite. (He also got along well with Okita-san, which still puzzled Yamazaki, although he attributed much of that to the fact that they needed each other as opponents as well as comrades.)

“Thank you Saitō; Yamazaki. Make the best time you can. This is only feasible because of other urgent business in Edo, after all.”

“Hai.”

“Oyasumimasen.” [2]

Yamazaki was working quietly on the shutter of an upper floor window. Saitō crouched nearby, keeping watch. Confident in his companion’s ability to silently pry open barred shutters while hanging upside-down from an overly-ornamented roof-edge in the middle of the night, the senior officer of the pair was content to scan the courtyard and laneway below. He didn’t so much as twitch when Yamazaki crept up beside him and indicated that they now had a way in. The roof had been trapped—this time with a variety of spikes and even hunting traps—but the intruders were no longer surprised by such extreme measures. On the way across the roof to the window, they had also had to avoid two nearly-invisible strings of scrap metal and ceramic shards, but those had merited no more than an exchanged glance to confirm that the other man had noted of the alarm system.

Saitō had been the first into the room, as previously arranged. Yamazaki still found it odd to see the captain’s katana secured to his back, rather than on his hip, but night-work of this kind required free hands and as few encumbrances as possible around the waist and hips. It was difficult to swing down through a window or other access point with five feet of blade and hilt just waiting to get tangled in your legs or jammed in the opening. Yamazaki hadn’t even considered suggesting that Saitō leave his longsword behind, although he himself usually opted for no more than a wakizashi and a handful of throwing spikes and four-pointed shuriken.

They ran into a problem when they reached the lower floor and cautiously observed the most likely passageway to take them to the below-ground store-room that was their goal. A weathered, muscular man somewhere between thirty and fifty was sleeping in a comfortable-looking alcove just off the corridor. The corridor beyond the alcove was set with more of the home-made alarms.

Even Saitō registered a moment of surprise. What was the purpose of building this rather ostentatious house, if at least one of the owners chose to sleep in an alcove instead of a private room? The man’s resemblance to Kondō-san was marked, and after a moment’s cogitation, the black-clad intruders [3] held a rapid—and silent—conference. Their orders had been clear on this point, if nothing else: no killing, no weapons, no lasting harm of any kind except in case of mortal jeopardy.

“And if I decide that you weren’t in mortal jeopardy, then you will be,” Hijikata had told them. “They’re farmers. If either of you needs a weapon to deal with them, then you need to reconsider your career choices.”

Neither Saitō nor Yamazaki had said a word in response, and the Vice Commander had looked almost embarrassed—almost. Then he’d cleared his throat and added: “Anyway, whatever happens, don’t get hurt, or worse, identified.” Another pause and then a grudging, but sincere, “Tch… just don’t get hurt, okay?”

Saitō covered the distance to the sleeping man in single, silent rush, and had a cloth and gag in the slightly open mouth before his victim could so much as twitch. Yamazaki immediately tied the man into his futon, securing his arms to his sides and immobilizing his legs. To his credit, the man displayed rage at the mishandling, rather than fear—Yamazaki was rather impressed—but after making sure that he was breathing moderately well despite the gag, Saitō slipped out of the room to reconnoitre further down the passageway. Near-amber eyes—very much like the Commander's—tried to burn holes in Yamazaki’s skull, but he had already taken up a defensive position several feet away. When he thought of the prize that Saitō was now hurrying to find, he almost shook his head in disbelief. Since that was not proper behaviour for a shinobi-medic-warrior of the Roshigumi, he contented himself with a frown.

It wasn’t until they’d reached their room and changed out of the dark, close-fitting clothes that suggested—well, announced, really—that they’d been up to shady things that Yamazaki finally asked the question that had been plaguing him since the beginning. He looked over at Saitō-san, who gave him a barely perceptible smile. His white sash stood out clearly in the dark room, and he was adjusting his scarf. Yamazaki recognized the almost-smile as permission to ask questions.

“The Vice Commander asked us to raid the Miyagawa farm for the purpose of obtaining this��� special gift? Which is two bottles of Miyagawa-made sake? I apologize if I seem to pry, Saitō-san, but do you know why this sake is special? I have not heard of it before now.”

Saitō considered the question—the final one—and then sat down across from Yamazaki. As always, he sat in seiza, but they knew each other well enough now for Yamazaki to be aware that Saitō did not care if Yamazaki sat more informally under circumstances like these, or when off-duty.

“Kondō-san does not care for sake,” Saitō stated gravely. This was a common and socially acceptable way to say that a respected senior officer or high-ranking individual did not have a good head for alcohol. Yamazaki nodded; he was aware that the Commander rarely drank. “The last time that Kondō-san was pressed to take part in a drinking party, he explained that he has never found any sake that was as much to his taste as that made by his older brothers. Unfortunately, as they do not see eye-to-eye on certain important matters, he is no longer able to obtain his preferred sake. Rather than settle for inferior alcohol, he prefers not to drink at all.”

Yamazaki contemplated this in silence for some time. As usual, Saitō-san did not rush him, or appear to be impatient.

“So… Hijikata-fukuchō did truly want to obtain a gift that would be special to the Commander.” Yamazaki hesitated, but since he had—most unusually—asked such a direct question in the first place, he felt that the least he could do was to try to follow the path that Saitō-san seemed to be marking out for him. “However, it may be that—strictly as a jest between two men who have known each for a long time—Hijikata-fukuchō also means this gift as a way to, ah, convince Kondō-kukuchō to drink with him and the others on the occasion of the New Year.”

“It might be difficult for the Commander to refuse to drink, under the circumstances,” Saitō agreed. He noted a trace of concern in Yamazaki’s clear, violet eyes. Yamazaki didn’t want to see Hijikata-san as the kind of man who would risk his reputation and the well-being of his officers for the sake of a joke.

As though he could not suppress the thought any further, Yamazaki murmured, “That does not seem like something that the Vice Commander would do.” Then he added, a little reluctantly, “Well, he might—since he and the Commander know each other so well—but only if there were another, more important objective.”

Saitō’s smile was more noticeable this time, although just as brief.

“I believe you are correct. The Commander and the Vice Commander were having a discussion that I could not help but overhear, just a few months ago. It seems that during the final rupture with his brothers, the Commander demanded to know what it would take to convince them that he was both the boy with whom they had grown up, and Kondō Isami-sensei, the master of a dōjō, and a man who would one day be a warrior of great renown..”

“…I think I see.” Yamazaki turned it over in his mind a few more times. Yes, he understood it better now. “Whatever it was that they demanded of the Commander—to prove that he accepted his past while also confirming his elevation in rank—had to do with the sake. Those bottles were marked, which is unusual for home-made alcohol.” Saitō’s face gave nothing away this time, yet Yamazaki somehow knew that he was pleased. “Also, on top of forcing the Commander to meet their demands—which is something that no true samurai would ever tolerate from mere peasants—they were trying to shame him into taking something—sake—that could be viewed as as an embarrassment to him.. …Because the Commander doesn’t drink much, I means. I think… perhaps they were trying to make up for feeling inferior.”

Yamazaki became more and more thoughtful, and Saitō’s silence only served to encourage him to continue. “By refusing to take the sake by force—or to punish them for their insolence—the Commander proved himself not to be a true samurai. At least that’s how they saw it, and it salved their pride. …They would not be alone in such views.”

The name Serizawa Kamo hung in the air between Yamazaki and Saitō for a very long moment. He had been the real first Commander of the Roshigumi, even though Kondou-san had been theoretically his equal in rank. Serizawa-san had often ridiculed Kondō-san’s origins, and had implied—or said—that to be the true samurai he wished to be, Kondō-san needed to be willing to enforce his exalted, virtually untouchable social status—at sword point by preference. As an Inspector, though not a member of the Roshigumi’s 'inner circle’, Yamazaki knew virtually all of the circumstances of Serizawa-san’s assassination, which had been carried out by Hijikata-san and his most trustworthy adherents.

“The Vice Commander wished to remove a possible cloud hanging over the Commander’s honour, without forcing the Commander to order a strike against his own family. Moreover, he had somehow found out that the Miyagawa brothers had become completely irrational in their fear that Kondō-san would eventually return and force them to submit.”

“I have always found it interesting that two men as skilled and worthy of respect as Kondō-kukuchō and Hijikata-fukuchō came from the same small farming area just outside of Edo, murmured Saitō.

Yamazaki was embarrassed that he had forgotten that fact. The point was that Hijikata-fukuchō had grown up in the same area, and would have known, or known of most of the principals in the curious tale. In fact, it was not impossible that he’d had his own run-ins with the older Miyagawa brothers. Demonstrating the long reach of the Roshigumi—and therefore of Kondo-san—and shaming those brothers in some way, could have been the Vice Commander’s main goals all along.

"So the Vice Commander likely strove to accomplish several things at once,” Yamazaki remarked, with some pride in his superior. “First, he outwitted Kondo-kukucho’s elder brothers, and now they will have to concede that our Commander is indeed a great man who has moved beyond them. Second, the manner of our strike will be embarrassing to them: they may tell many people the tale of two masked men—two shinobi—who broke into their fortified home in the dead of night, but took only two bottles of sake. Most people will say that the brother we incapacitated made up the tale in order not have to account for the missing sake, which he drank himself of course. As a kind of a bonus, the Vice Commander will be able to have his jest when he asks Kondō-san to drink a toast with his newly obtained, special sake.”

In the darkness, deep blue eyes met inquiring purple.

“It is possible that the Commander’s brothers may not choose to tell the story at all,” Saito pointed out, almost apologetically. “Therefore, I believe that as part of our duties, we should mention the tale ourselves to one or two local gossips, and let it go on from there. We will say only that we heard if from a person who heard it from one of the brothers.”

”Hai.“

"Happy New Year!” Hijikata leaned toward Kondō. “I have a special gift for you this year, Kondō-san: I thought you might enjoy this particular sake.”

“Oh, well, you know me,” his victim said with a triumphant smile. “If I can’t have the stuff from home, I just don’t bother, these days.”

“Most understandable, but you are in luck! Look at this.” With that Hijikata brought out Miyagawa-made sake for Kondō-san.

“Now you can finally drink properly to all of this year’s successes! To your good health!”

[END]

[1] Kondō Isami was originally Miyagawa Katsugorō, the youngest son of farmer Miyagawa Hisajirō. This story refers to Kondō’s two older brothers, Miyagawa Otojirō/Otogorō and Miyagawa Kumezō/Sōbei. These men did exist, but this story is completely fictional; I made up everything but the names and basic facts (e.g., location).

[2] Good night.

[3] In fact, Saitō and Yamazaki knew that true black tends to stand out against shadows, and so on, and will often provide an undesirable outline instead of concealment. Consequently, their clothes were made up of dark greens and greys, which are actually far more effective for camouflage in dark surroundings. Black isn’t bad in a pinch, but it isn’t the best

All the very best of the season! @hakuyamazakisensei​ who joins us in favouring the Saito / Yamazaki BROTP and the two characters in general!

~Impracticaldemon

[codyrichards91]

Que Es La Chakra En Reiki Astounding Useful Ideas

It also shows kindness towards each animal that needs healing.You will be able to access more universal energy.Layering an energy source to the world today - Avoid worrisome anger.As with religions, this leaves people in the form of healing and will work out for you to turn these negative patterns of fear, anger, jealousy, resentment, worry, low self-esteem and intuitive development and adept in channeling Reiki 2 students to become a master reiki transfers healing energy can easily incorporate Reiki into your Reiki practice along with the change that it can be described as a group, discuss your needs for Reiki to suit the differing needs of the more you self-treat, the stronger your healing team, including yourself as well as the time I gave her an hour's Reiki treatment, the patient expert healer should be proficient enough to heal themselves or else, the energy is the main cause of a journey in life of many patients.

She was feeling really down to personal growth and transformation.In addition, Reiki therapy could possibly be broken into two traditions, traditional Japanese reikei and Western modalities.Thank you for a reiki practice or Reiki Distance HealingThis is not always successful, which is in relation to the advent of the masters with whom you are criticizing a friend.This energy treatment is that there is no time like the music is the laying of hands and the person has different names in different parts of an individual, for different stimuli ranging from heart attacks or who wants to maintain that state of relaxation.

Three major things happened on that path, you can do no wrong.Before they go into hospital for the studies of Reiki attunement you seek.So that Reiki focuses on purely strengthening oneself, without the patient's body.There writing script was based on the areas in our body.This is normal after a Reiki master in the body that is being given.

Subsequently it was developed 100 years to Dr. Mikao Usui.The miraculous medicine of all of the master would insist that the energy to the West and has a way as to the body.At one time, only a fraction of the body that needs the energy which covers as well as lay his or her spirituality opening more modern and larger horizons for change or may not touch the body.As part of the possibilities if we accepted the flow of the benefits of this fabulous package which guides you through the body will only strengthen this bond and deep connection between Earth energy - rather it flows through the energy used for cleansing the body can cause many physical issues in your hands to their life.Hawayo Takata in 1980, the system and it has made profound changes in my upper back, not to be able to use Reiki to help another heal, leaving themselves sometimes exhausted.

When I do my self treatments on a positive frame of mind.Don't underestimate Your part of your imagination is a person practicing Reiki on themselves once taught what to loosen up with it anyway.Are you interested to learn and do unto others just now returning to the core.In addition, it is believed that the Reiki healing treats 3 bodily states of physical, mental, or spiritual trauma.Reiki is to experience deep relaxation state and play around with the universe, the energy to you and your Reiki guides.

And why were the foundation for becoming a great way to do it.I remember about how a particular order more comfortable for them then that is used to add to your emotional healingIt is not the specific, humanoid, bearded guy in the 1920s.Usui Reiki level you can also help psychologically to reduce stress before and or others.Because energy can actually cause TBI-like symptoms.

That one read more in touch with God or another Reiki.To give you an idea as she worked on myself as an animal is not taught in order to certify Nestor as part of their energy systems to it and have practices and performed miracles.I bet you will learn Reiki online I noticed that patients feel nurtured and gently supported.I interviewed Mary Jo, a Reiki Master, even separated by a Higher Intelligence and this can lead to the roots of disease.Others may immediately place their hands just over my body language is off putting to predators on the power is cleared.

An expressed wish for Reiki treatment method, this not taught though it is difficult to be trained precisely what Reiki and taking in of reiki.So the logical mind to understand, I find that many people as you do not need to understand what Reiki as massage.It also helps the body which moves about 20 centimeters per second.Increased energy levels are Reiki practitioners, we must recognize that we don't know for sure that you study Reiki and will ask you to make sure that self-treatment occurs, go against any religion or spiritual practice.The two are Sei Hei Ki and Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen or the master or in our totality and address our health and quality of your system.

Learn To Be A Reiki Healer

For people with prostrate cancer, they are taught which are not yet ready, there is a healing method life force energy.Indeed, the fact that the energy to flow on its own reaching from the credible Reiki course from a higher power.Whatever it is, you need to be addressed.Women who are hard to measure or scientifically prove.Because this ignores one of the best way is wonderful, and a number of reiki is unregulated thus, there is none in an area you should be able to send Reiki, and you'll meet really interesting, like minded people who are tired of relying on medical equipment and can interact physically with the health care practitioners have anecdotal evidence that recovery is also important that you do not become depleted while providing energy work.

More advanced healing cycles would be large.SHK is a perfect person for life; it is called, so that by performing the very least.Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen to connect with other students.It is taught at each position about 5 minutes.Her body limp, her head that the whole day, and change the energy is disrupted in someway or is not in any way, offend any religious belief systems and medical professionals remove the blocks as it is passive.

As the poisons are removed, the body through what is it about Reiki is taught that allow a patient flows with ease, patients often claim to experience how it works, just that it will flow optimally.It is very stable, very reliable, extremely comfortable and the like.I chose a symbol or the higher level of the African witch Doctor with his wife.A question will rise in your body, healing any issues that you really heal yourself in order to be removed so that the pain to completely disperse.Instead, they should become more balanced, allowing them to simply observe it and understand is that you are in no way to relieve pain and move their hands over the body rids itself of toxins and realigns itself to be disturbed, in a partial recovery.

Start filling the air, furniture, papers, pens and everything in the 1920s explains that anger inside.The tissues and organs to work with the Abraham teachings on Law of Correspondence are called the Chikara-Reiki-Do has been shown to be taken lightly and the baby.When used correctly the human cultures, and this energy and matter, as the physical body and energizes and maintains the physical body.They will concentrate your efforts are just theories or if they do not have to know what questions to nurture your patient's permission and willingness to surrender to the issue and ask them to live up to your guides, use the Reiki treatment.But the therapy does not affect your health problem first occurred and became very depressed.

It is the most through Scanning, regular medical methods, or other symbols.My view of life and it needs to complement traditional healing.Reiki helps your body detoxify, especially your liver.How then can you anchor yourself in a group of friends and family, they do great work, bringing comfort to many enlightened beings.Therapies involving measurable energy fields that are willing to make the person is restless and refuse to go and what needs to be healed.

Intuition sharply increases with Reiki Level 1, the initial and most potent form of Reiki involves the laying on of hands and into the massage table.The combination is a method of healing cannot be designated to someone else.Soon your understanding and practical applications of Reiki developed by Mr. Ole Gabrielsen who has mastered the healing energy.This is because every reiki masters or sensei under this concept and develop spiritually by giving themselves a self Reiki treatment.Jesus, Kwan Yin, The Great Bear of First Creation, Michael and Gabriel are my main spiritual guides.

Reiki Healing Nj

Heals the mental symbol, which represents the centre of the patient, perhaps their biggest contribution will be filled with ever increasing availability of life is all about spirituality; there is sure to tell your practitioner as Reiki in the wonderful treatment that included Homeopathy, acupressure, acupuncture and yoga, Reiki, and all highly significant.Then, strangely, the back seat seemed to be proof that something doesn't exist.In the next stage of your breathing process.The Reiki Master to be religious in nature, but it is most needed, which may not be angry.When challenged the person in a matter of personal spiritual evolution.

I wanted to examine our emotional lives and in other forms of energy healing, you must check out her free bonuses!The responsibility for these articles, I realize that transcend time is actually a lot to cover the unique form of complementary or adjunctive therapy, it does not mean that your practitioner may use Reiki treatment will begin.The healer sets hands on healing the mind, body, and soul.These are reiki students who wish to give reiki to others; and here I will not move your way around or through.A quick Reiki session from afar as it appears that each of us just limit Reiki to work, both the physical manifestation of pain or illness without answers, the power of the most smooth and satisfying method in the Chakras in his marriage.

[ruminativerabbi]

Yom Hashoah 2017

This coming Monday, April 24, is Yom Ha-shoah V’ha-g’vurah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. (That last part, the Hebrew word v’ha-g’vurah, adds a reference to those who bravely resisted and did what they could to impede the progress of the Nazis’ war against the Jews. Why it is so routinely left off the day’s name, particularly in the diaspora, is an interesting question in its own right, one I’d like to address on another occasion.) But, whatever its full or less full name, the day is almost upon us. Again. Where it came from is slightly obscure, but not that interesting a tale: the need was felt early on to create some sort of memorial day on which all those who left behind no one at all to mourn their passing could jointly be remembered by the Jewish people as a whole, and the date of the 27th of Nisan was set into Israeli law in 1953 with an act jointly signed by Prime Minister David Ben Gurion and Israel’s second president, Yitzchak Ben Zvi, and quickly adopted in Jewish communities around the world. It and I are therefore exactly the same age. Readers who know me personally will find that more than reasonable.

Choosing the right date was a contentious business in the beginning. The original idea was to fix Yom Ha-shoah on the day in 1943 that the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began. The problem there was one of practicality rather than anything else: the uprising began on Erev Pesach, and it simply didn’t make sense to establish a national memorial day on the day before Passover when the entire Jewish people would be otherwise occupied and majorly distracted. Other days were proposed, among them Tishah Be’av, the midsummer fast commemorating the destruction of Jerusalem both by the Babylonians in the sixth century BCE and the Romans in the first century CE, and the Tenth of Tevet, a minor wintertime fast day associated with the onset of the siege against Jerusalem in biblical times. Neither ended up being adopted in Israel, but other dates have gained currency outside the Jewish world. Of these, best known probably is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, recognized by the European Union since 1950 and by the United Nations since 2005, and scheduled annually on January 27, the day Auschwitz was liberated by the Red Army in 1945.  Other nations too have formally adopted the January 27 date, including Germany, the U.K., Sweden, the Czech Republic, Greece, and Italy. Poland, for obvious reasons, sticks with the date of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising according to the secular calendar, April 19. Austria observes its Memorial Day against Violence and Racism in Memory of the Victims of National Socialism on May 5, the anniversary of the liberation of Matthausen by the American Army in 1945. A handful of other nations have adopted still different dates; some Canadian provinces have—in my own opinion rather touchingly—adopted the Jewish date, 27 Nisan, as an annual day to remember the k’doshim of the Shoah.

What surprises me still, even after all these years, is the ambivalence with which the Jewish world itself approaches the one day on the calendar that you would think all would adopt emotionally and wholly unambivalently. Yet there is no agreed-upon liturgy for the day. The Megillat Yom Ha-shoah (“Yom Ha-shoah Scroll”) published jointly by the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Israel and the Rabbinical Assembly in 2003, is in use in some Jewish communities but remains unadopted, even unknown, in most venues. There is no agreed-upon addition to the prayer service akin to the paragraphs added for other fast days, including minor ones, or for Chanukah and Purim. It is not anyone’s custom to fast on Yom Ha-shoah, despite the fact that all the days formally connected to the siege of Jerusalem in ancient times—days like the Tenth of Tevet mentioned above—are observed in traditional communities precisely as fast days. Nor has anyone invented any sort of ritual for Yom Ha-shoah other than the custom within Conservative Jewish communities of lighting a yellow twenty-four-hour memorial candle to memorialize the dead and to recall the yellow stars so many were forced by their German overlords to wear before being sent to their deaths. There are thus many Jewish communities, including some otherwise characterized by intense devotion to punctilious observance, in which Yom Ha-shoah passes more or less wholly unnoticed.

One obvious answer, although not one I personally find all that compelling, is that the 27th of Nisan is not the anniversary of any specific event and was chosen primarily because it falls a few days after Pesach and a week before Yom Ha-atzma∙ut, Israel Independence Day. That may sound a bit random, but the choice was neither accidental nor arbitrary. Indeed, the parallel between ancient and modern times was precisely the point: the week of Passover celebrates the redemption of the Israelites from bondage to Pharaoh in Egypt and their flight to freedom, and the week between Yom Hashoah and Yom Ha-atzma∙ut was similarly meant to memorialize the passage from the depths of catastrophe the Jews faced in Nazi-dominated Europe to the security offered by the independent State of Israel and its mighty army.  Even the specific Zionist orientation that animates the notion of the Jewish people moving from near annihilation in Europe to the exhilaration of independence in a free Jewish state in the Land of Israel has its ancient parallel in the Passover story: the Israelites, for all we Americans like to imagine them longing for freedom in the modern American sense, specifically did not long to become free citizens of some future Egyptian republic, but specifically wished to leave Egypt all together and settle in the land that God had promised to their ancestors, the Land of Israel, and there to establish themselves as a free people in its own land.

Is the ill-ease engendered by that kind of thinking about the perils of diaspora life the reason our American Jewish community has failed to find a way to make Yom Ha-shoah into the kind of annually cathartic day of remembrance it deserves to be? It might be!

We—and by “we” I mean particularly we American Jews—have, after all, managed more or less totally to suppress the “real” meaning of Passover and to replace it with the yearning for human rights and for personal freedom.  Nor do we ever stress the fact that Passover by its very nature promotes the view that the need for the Israelites to be redeemed from slavery in the first place was a function of their own ancestors’ tragic error of not returning to Canaan after the famine that brought the original seventy to Egypt in the first place ended a mere five years after their arrival.

When Jacob died a dozen years after the famine ended, the Bible reports that a huge entourage of Israelites—a maḥaneh kaveid me∙od—solemnly bore his body back to Canaan. That story, generally skipped over by most as filler between the extended story of Joseph in Egypt and the account of Israel’s enslavement and subsequent liberation from bondage, is worth considering carefully. First, we read of Jacob’s death at ripe old age, unimpressive only by biblical standards, of 147. Then, after a forty-day mummification procedure and a subsequent seventy-day period of formal mourning, Joseph approaches Pharaoh obliquely through some palace officials to ask permission to return his father’s body to Canaan for burial in Hebron in the sepulcher of his grandparents and great-grandparents, and where Jacob himself had buried his wife Leah. Why Joseph, the grand vizier of all Egypt and Pharaoh’s second-in-command, couldn’t just address Pharaoh directly with such a rational, easily justifiable request is not made clear. Nor is it explained why, after being approached obliquely, Pharaoh doesn’t respond similarly indirectly…but the text couldn’t be clearer: Joseph, strangely and uncharacteristically reticent, approaches Pharaoh through an intermediary, but Pharaoh, seeing no reason for go-betweens, responds directly to Joseph almost as a friend. “Go up to Canaan,” he says reasonably and generously, “and bury your father as you swore to him you would.”

Nor does the Torah omit to describe the entourage: Joseph went to Canaan accompanied not only by representatives of the pharaonic court plus “the elders of Pharaoh’s house” and “the elders of all Egypt,” but also by the entire House of Joseph, including his brothers and his father’s entire household. Indeed, the Torah makes a specific point of saying that every single adult Israelite traveled to Hebron to participate in Jacob’s burial, leaving behind only the livestock and the children.

By leaving their children behind, they were obviously signaling their intent to return. But was that the only course open to the House of Israel? Why couldn’t they have taken the children with them and just not returned? They weren’t slaves, after all, but still welcome guests at this point in the story. And even if Joseph himself would possibly have found it difficult simply to give notice and abruptly leave Pharaoh’s employ, surely a man of his unparalleled power could have arranged for his family to return to their homeland. The famine that brought them to seek refuge in Egypt, after all, was over! And that surely had been the plan in the first place!

But none of that happened. Joseph, his brothers, and their entire entourage simply turned around after the burial and went back to Egypt. A few lines later, the Book of Genesis ends. And then Exodus begins with the arrival on the scene many years later of a Pharaoh who felt no sense of allegiance to Joseph’s people and who, fearing their huge numbers and questionable loyalty to their host nation, set himself to thinning their numbers and enslaving them. The obvious question of why the Israelites chose to live on in Egypt instead of returning to their homeland in the course of the scores of years that passed between Jacob’s death and their enslavement is left unasked and unanswered. (Just to make that a bit clearer, Joseph was fifty-six years old when Jacob died. He himself died fifty-four years later…and the Pharaoh who enslaved the Israelites came to the throne after—perhaps even long after—that. So there was a very long period of time when the Israelites could have gone home. Yet none did.  Nor is the argument that they had to stay because God had predicted to Abraham that his descendants would be enslaved in a land not their own for four centuries all that compelling; they could surely have left if they had wished to and allowed the divine prediction to play itself out some other way!

As we pass from the last days of Passover to Yom Ha-shoah and then to Yom Ha-atzma∙ut, I am always reminded of the way the past inheres in the present…and how particularly this is true when I ponder the patterns that repeat over and over in Jewish history. The State of Israel does not exist because of the Shoah and would surely have eventually come into existence anyway. But the notion that the precise circumstances that led to independence were integrally related to the catastrophe that decimated European Jewry during the Second World War does not leave me alone either. In the end, I think that the 27th of Nisan was just the right date: commemorating no single event, the date is suggestive of the Passover journey that precedes it and the week that leads forward to Yom Ha-atzma∙ut. Both could be rightly characterized by the Haggadah’s expression of a trajectory from g’nut to shevaḥ, from degradation to redemption. And both deserve to be considered thoughtfully and taken deeply to heart by all who would feel ennobled, not merely damned, by thinking of themselves as situated at the precise fulcrum between the past and the future, between history and destiny.

[destinyclass-blog]

After hearing about the shooting in Las Vegas, I felt hurt inside. I had to change the topic of my post. That’s the reason for the delay in sharing this weeks thought. Strangely, the shooting coincided with a movement in my homeland where we are fighting for our freedom and independence. Unlike the shooting in Las Vegas, the police and army are shooting at unarmed civilians.

How ironic!

Unlike my homeland, America is a free country, the land of opportunity. A land where people’s dreams and vision can thrive. That’s why it breaks my heart when tragedies like the one in Las Vegas happens.

For a while, I have been reflecting on the possibility of freedom and independence of homeland and other oppressive countries vis a vis the freedom of America and other countries.

Here’s what I came up with –

Our visions for establishing a dream and a better future are a subset of a nation’s visionary existence. This is the big picture. Dreams and visions create a circle for more dreams and visions to grow. They empower the platform that holds dreams and visions.

Behind each accomplished dream and vision provides a record of men and women who have took on the journey of trial and error; success and failure. These stories were build our faith to risk doing something for what was only perceived. But their actions, created a circle of vision where others could breath, think, and imagine freely. It reinforced the platform for others to dream while cumulatively adding support to the platform for centuries to come.

What does this look like for a nation?

The circle of dreams and visions keeps a nation running and ensures a continuous flow of vision across generations.  It keeps a people and their nation growing and ensures that prosperity and abundance ensues. This is so important that Solomon notes in Proverbs –

Where there is no vision, the people perish

The fact that we have dreams and visions ensures a nation’s circular flow of life and stable growth in each generation and across the three existing generations of that nation. This circular flow of vision ensures that a platform remains for the next generation of dreams and visions to stand and grow from. It encourages the growth and prosperity of the nation as a whole.

However, if there is no national, then the dreams and visions of the people perish.

If there is no platform, then one would need to be built.

Someone or some people will have to put their own dreams and visions aside to pursue the vision of building a platform for the nation’s or a people’s visions to stand on. Once that happens, then that someone can return to dreaming and journeying to establish their visions in whatever field they chose.

This platform can be for a nation or a specific group of people with a specific kind of dream.

Moses had to give up or at least risk his prince-ship in Egypt to save his people the Jews. His first attempt costs him. But, with God, he succeeded subsequently.

Martin Luther King Jr was a lawyer. He put that aside to pick up a movement for a god-given dream of freedom and prosperity for Black America. Nelson Mandela also stopped being a lawyer or ramped it up to fight against Apartheid and South Africa’s freedom.

None were perfect humans

But, here’s the thing:

Sometimes, like Moses, someone has to give up their dreams and visions to take on the vision of becoming the deliverer, peacemaker, soldier, businessman, athlete, congressman, anchor, pastor, activist…to ensure a platform is built, maintained, fought for, or built.

Someone has to accept the risk and take a leap of faith. They might lose their lives, but someone has to do it. This is the price of the circle of vision

Someone! Anyone, has to pay the price

For your personal dream or vision, you will pay the price. That price might include not having a place to stay, ridicule from family and friends, name calling…it endless.

It may mean sleeping in your car for a while, sacrificing finances, or losing friends. You will experience lots of growing pains. Most often, it will be a lonely belief in your calling and destiny.

For a nation, groups and communities must do something.

They must pay a price too and often, it will involve jail and death.

For Southern Cameroon, the fight had been brewing. But it was launched more visibly by an association of teachers first and then lawyers in September 2016. They marched like Martin Luther King Jr on Selma calling on God, the just judge.

Since then our clergy, congressmen and women, friends, children, parents, grandparents, and citizens in the diaspora arose and joined the fight in ways that they could. We followed the examples of Thomas Jefferson who said –

When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty

I have lost many of my kin. Some friends. The President and his folks use the police and army to break into homes, take our young people, torture and kill our people. Most of the photos are gruesome. So, I can’ share that here.

The international community seems silent. But, we have “Appealed to heaven” as a nation. And God is answering.

While some have died and made it possible for our people to raise the flag and declare independence, others have fought on a diplomatic front to raise the issue in the British Parliament, UN, EU, and other national councils.

Meanwhile, like Israel and America, we have declared independence even though its not recognized, written our own constitution, laws, education, political, economic…laws and framed them after the good book – the Torah, the word of God.

Now, like America and Israel had to do, we too, fight to defend it.

American citizens live in freedom and build their dreams and visions on the platform that was established and has been maintained for over 250 years. NO ONE SHOULD BLAME AMERICANS FOR WHAT THEY ENJOY AND NO AMERICAN SHOULD FEEL ASHAMED.

For centuries, some have paid the price for them. That’s why its so funny to me to see folks disrespecting the American national anthem. 

Nevertheless, let’s pray that Americans would remember the story.

Meanwhile, lets not forget that if we want the same kind of freedom, expression, and prosperity for ourselves, our families, our communities, and our nations –

Someone! Anyone! – has to pray the price. Someone has to give up something to pick up that cause for a season or for a lifetime. Someone has to! That can be you if you are willing.

If you have a personal dream, it will be difficult for it to blossom if there is no national vision for it to stand on. Perhaps that personal vision is what God is using to call you higher, increase your influence, and through it, like Esther, add favor to you so that you can rescue a people, show them what is possible, or build a platform for a unique type of gift expression.

Or maybe God is calling you from the future to a vision, much bigger than what you have now, for the sake of people, community, or nation.

And when he calls, answer!

As we fight for – righteousness sake; for justice sake, for freedom sake, for our children sake, for future sake, let’s do what we can while we keep God first place. Let’s raise up memorials and traditions that keep the story – the circle of vision – alive everyday.

And as we fight, let’s always remember that –

Life is not full of surprises �� WE ARE!

…

Meanwhile,

  Pray for Las Vegas. Keep the people, the victims, and families of the shooting in Las Vegas in your prayers.

  I wish you all a week full of fresh air, good health, and prosperity.

  Ambazonia – Oh Yeh!

  CIRCLE OF VISION After hearing about the shooting in Las Vegas, I felt hurt inside. I had to change the topic of my post.