#Nulla void form……

[hungry-hungry-reader]

Little Nulla adoration snippet to celebrate Halloween with :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“…Beautiful.”

“Sorry?” Nulla’s void form started to shift before your eyes as he recalled his old face.

“You are beautiful, Nulla.”

You spoke with the reverence he had only heard in prayers — none of which were directed at him before. Your gaze followed the swirling patterns the void drew out in the air like smoke which was picked up by a gust of air. Nulla froze in place as you took a couple of steps, closing the short stretch between the two of you.

If he needed to breathe, he would have forgotten how to.

If you had to describe your lover now, you would recall Van Gogh’s Starry Night or Rembrandt’s Night Watch.

And then you would throw all these comparisons away because no work of art could truly encapsulate the vision of picturesque idyll himself who stood right before you. You watched with trepidation as his darker than night itself features shifted, changed hue, giving way to the opaline blues and purples. You watched the dance colors on the canvas of his flustered face as Nulla found himself not simply lost for words, but utterly stunned by your display of adoration towards the form he perceived less desirable.

You reached out your hand in an attempt to grasp at the ethereal form of the one whom you love most dearly.

He didn’t dare move, afraid of scaring you away.

Yet, when the tips of your fingers finally reached featureless void, Nulla grabbed your wrist and leaned into your touch. The crushing weight of this wretched world felt like nothing more than a tiny spec of dust on the shoulder pad of his vest. Your sincere smile took away the years of torment. Your loving gaze made him forget the hatred he felt towards those who wronged him. Your warmth melted away the ice within the gazes he threw at this universe.

Your love gave him the point for existing.

“Thank you.”

[5eptem]

Do u think nulla would appreciate the player calling him beautiful? Especially when he's in his 'void' form?

Let's just say that if Nulla ever found out I actually prefer his void form to his human one, I think I'd be in trouble.

[strawberry-sticky-autism]

Still More SMG4 Headcanons

SMG1 goes nonverbal at times, communicating by body language and writing on signs.

SMG2 carries a knife around on his person.

Meggy is a trans girl. She is only out to Axol at the moment.

Meggy, Spudnick, SMG2 & 1 have formed a "Shorty Squad".

The SMGs get together to play video games.

Niles likes cats.

SMG1 has binge-watched the entire JJBA series.

SMG1 has a biiit of a height complex.

Shroomy was home-schooled.

Mr Puzzles's full name is Mr Winston Puzzles.

Niles is a trans boy, with his deadname being Nulla.

Winston is autistic, which is why he had such a hard time making friends as a kid and why he fell so deeply into escapism.

Laika is significantly more antisocial after being rescued from the Assets Void.

Laika gains a connection with Eggdog, as well as the other Dead Memes.

Laika has a shellfish allergy.

SMG1 is prone to motion-sickness. So is Winston.

SMG0 is a loud drunk.

None of the Mage Trio are allowed to drive.

Takamaki is a trans boy.

Rosie and Takamaki have known each other since they were kids.

Winston had been repressing his emotions for most of the Puzzlevision Arc.

Niles feels incredibly nervous being left in charge of something.

Mr Puzzles gives the gang permission to call him Winston after he's at least semi-redeemed. Niles instead chooses to call him "Winny", half to piss him off, half because he likes nicknaming his friends.

[primusliber-traduzioni]

Hot Milk - A Call to the Void, traduzione testi

Un cretino del cazzo che mi ha pugnalato alle spalle e mi ha fregato Facci un favore e scompari Pensi di camminare sulle acque, ma quello che hai sulle scarpe è piscio

(da: Over Your Dead Body)

1. Hot Milk – Welcome to The…, traduzione

Benvenuti allo… C’è una chiamata nel nulla che urla “quand’è che ti unisci a noi?”

Giuri tu di distruggere i sogni di gioie vuote?

Mentre ti penetra nell’anima, una sensazione sempre più difficile da controllare

Forse sono io che tengo in vita i miei demoni Io sono l’oscurità? Io sono l’oscurità?

Io sono l’oscurità? Io sono l’oscurità? 2. Hot Milk – Horror Show, traduzione

Spettacolo degli orrori Sono orrenda, mi sono cacciata nei guai

In botta ma mi sento normale

Mi sento uno strumento della società

Mal di testa, è tutta una presa per il culo

Ho fatto un altro errore

Sono un terremoto umano? Figata Non mi piace come ti vesti

Sei troppo dark, conciato da sbattere nel cesso

Io faccio paura, dispotica all’inverosimile

Me ne sbatto il cazzo di tenerci

Ma lascia un po’ stare, cazzo Spettacolo degli orrori, non riesco a distogliere lo sguardo

Sono dannata e sono la decadenza

Mi si è spezzato il cuore mille volte

Adesso mi innamoro dell’altro lato

Spettacolo degli orrori, per cui stai alla larga

Letale ma spaventata lo stesso

Lobotomizzatemi il cervello Stai tremando, non ti piacciono le mie vibrazioni

Sento ossa che si spaccano

Non hai sentito la novità?

Iniettato qualcosa di soggettivo

Il bambino che hai dentro trascurato

Riesci a digerire la verità?

Sei vittima di te stesso, inibito dall’unica cellula cerebrale che ti ritrovi

Davvero perfetto con i tuoi steccati, difese nucleari

Ma cosa possono fare in realtà? Spettacolo degli orrori, non riesco a distogliere lo sguardo

Sono dannata e sono la decadenza

Mi si è spezzato il cuore mille volte

Adesso mi innamoro dell’altro lato

Spettacolo degli orrori, per cui stai alla larga

Letale ma spaventata lo stesso

Lobotomizzatemi il cervello Ho sempre trovato la bellezza nell’oscurità?

Si fa fatica a vedere se ti comporti in modo così crudele

Questo circo ti spaventa a morte? Spettacolo degli orrori, non riesco a distogliere lo sguardo

Sono dannata e sono la decadenza

Mi si è spezzato il cuore mille volte

Adesso mi innamoro dell’altro lato

Spettacolo degli orrori, per cui stai alla larga

Letale ma spaventata lo stesso

Lobotomizzatemi il cervello Benvenuti allo spettacolo 3. Hot Milk – Bloodstream, traduzione

Flusso sanguigno Vivi nel mio flusso sanguigno Dove diavolo siamo morti stanotte?

Bruciamo alla nuova luce del giorno

Tornati un’altra volta dal lato oscuro

Il buco nero ci ha sputati fuori?

Gli è rimasto l’amaro in bocca

Se non è l’ultima volta quella, quand’è che è? Perché lego ogni cosa con il laccio quando correggo quello che bevo e lo mando dentro

Trasformo gli amici in nemici

Dissociati insieme a me Ancora una notte e poi ti lascio andare

Adesso vivi nel mio flusso sanguigno, vivi nel mio flusso sanguigno

Cerco di fermarmi, ma non riesco a dire di no

Perché vivi nel mio flusso sanguigno, vivi nel mio flusso sanguigno

Vivi nel mio flusso sanguigno Vedo forme che non esistono

Caleidoscopio dell’abisso

Inzuppato di tutto lo spumante di ieri sera

Perché quando subentra la fase di down, il mio lobo frontale tira le cuoia

Battezzatemi con la pioggia acida Adesso cerco un po’ di pace dei sensi e un pezzo di me è rimasto indietro

Le mie vene vanno in iperattività

Dissociati insieme a me Ancora una notte e poi ti lascio andare

Adesso vivi nel mio flusso sanguigno, vivi nel mio flusso sanguigno

Cerco di fermarmi, ma non riesco a dire di no

Perché vivi nel mio flusso sanguigno, vivi nel mio flusso sanguigno

Vivi nel mio flusso sanguigno Perché lego ogni cosa con il laccio quando correggo quello che bevo e lo mando dentro

Trasformo gli amici in nemici

Dissociati insieme a me Ancora una notte e poi ti lascio andare

Adesso vivi nel mio flusso sanguigno, vivi nel mio flusso sanguigno

Cerco di fermarmi, ma non riesco a dire di no

Perché vivi nel mio flusso sanguigno, vivi nel mio flusso sanguigno

Perché vivi nel mio flusso sanguigno, vivi nel mio flusso sanguigno

Vivi nel mio flusso sanguigno 4. Hot Milk – Party on My Deathbed, traduzione

Festa sul letto di morte “Signore e signori, si tratta di un omicidio premeditato a sangue freddo” Di nuovo male al cervello, non mi ricordo come mi chiamo

Questa lontananza è una malattia, sono super nichilista

Esistiamo dentro un trip da acidi o questo flusso nasce da un sognatore?

La mia finta idiosincrasia (Aiutatemi) Voglio far festa sul letto di morte

Sono qui per vivere la vita in maniera elettrica

Voglio far festa sul letto di morte

Sì, magari sono proprio uno sballone

Ma so che non la voglio sprecare

Voglio far festa sul letto di morte Ah ah, trasudo amore, ne sono pieno

Secerno sangue, non mollerò mai

Vorresti essere me se potessi vedere il ricordo che tormenta quest’ipocrita?

Nato nel nulla, l’oscurità mi sa di casa

C’è la morte che picchia alla porta, per cui diamogli un bello spettacolo, hey, hey

Eh, no, mio caro, mo’ non fare il losco

Io sono come mi ha fatta il tuo Dio

Sono un burattino su un palco in fiamme, altro che norme antinfortunio

Perché se non posso essere me stessa in questa società, mi allucinerò la mia autonomia Voglio far festa sul letto di morte

Sono qui per vivere la vita in maniera elettrica

Voglio far festa sul letto di morte

Sì, magari sono proprio uno sballone

Ma so che non la voglio sprecare

Voglio far festa sul letto di morte La mia finta idiosincrasia

Esistiamo dentro un trip da acidi o questo flusso nasce da un sognatore?

La mia finta idiosincrasia Voglio far festa sul letto di morte

Sono qui per vivere la vita in maniera elettrica

Voglio far festa sul letto di morte

Sì, magari sono proprio uno sballone

Ma so che non la voglio sprecare

Voglio far festa sul letto di morte 5. Hot Milk – Alice Cooper’s Pool House, traduzione

La pool house di Alice Cooper Stanotte sono morto nella pool house di Alice Cooper

Sono impazzito sentendo le parole uscite dalla sua bocca

Mi ha detto una cosa mi ha quasi strappato via il cuore

Stanotte sono morto nella pool house di Alice Cooper Ho sete di sangue, tu sei il veleno che piace tanto a me

Un killer con la pistola carica

Amici immaginari che tirano la corda

Solo i sogni lucidi riescono a tenermi sulla retta via

Il peso di tuffarsi sempre nell’ignoto comincia a farsi sentire

Continuo a svegliarmi in un letto di spine

Ho la testa che brucia più del sole

Mi sento paranormale e distrutta Stanotte sono morto nella pool house di Alice Cooper

Sono impazzito sentendo le parole uscite dalla sua bocca

Mi ha detto una cosa mi ha quasi strappato via il cuore

Stanotte sono morto nella pool house di Alice Cooper Lui è venuto in un sogno, e per quanto reale sembrasse

Ho il cervello che è completamente fuori controllo?

Era vero o era tutta fantasia?

Ho preso troppo LSD?

Mi piace perdere il controllo, odio stare da solo

Cuori in lacrime che non hanno speranza di guarire

Dov’è il punto d’arrivo della fallacia?

Quando arriva a casa l’inferno tu ci sarai ancora con me? Stanotte sono morto nella pool house di Alice Cooper

Sono impazzito sentendo le parole uscite dalla sua bocca

Mi ha detto una cosa mi ha quasi strappato via il cuore

Stanotte sono morto nella pool house di Alice Cooper

Stanotte ho pianto nella pool house di Alice Cooper

L’ho guardato negli occhi e ho scoperto qual è il punto

Mi sono sballata tutta notte cercando di capirci qualcosa di questa vita

Stanotte sono morta nella pool house di Alice Cooper Stanotte siamo morti nella pool house di Alice Cooper

Siamo impazziti sentendo le parole uscite dalla sua bocca

Ci ha detto una cosa ci ha quasi strappato via il cuore

Stanotte siamo morti nella pool house di Alice Cooper “Chapos”

“Sì, ciao, sono sempre Alice”

“Hey Coop, come va lì?”

“Sì, ehm… volevo sapere se potevate passare a dare una ripulita alla mia pool house”

“Ma certo, certo, ci mancherebbe”

“C’è dentro un mucchio di adolescenti morti”

“Oh, mamma, ancora? Solo tu…”

“Eh, lo so… mi capita”

“Uhm, adolescenti. Ma… vuoi che li mettiamo nel solito posto?”

“No, no, non m’interessa, non m’interessa dove li buttate”

“Okay, magari ci tornano utili qua. A che ora ti verrebbe comodo?”

“Mah, più o meno sempre. Entro stasera magari”

“Okay, perfetto, entro stasera sono lì sicuro. Anzi, vengo subito. Ah, e ti porto un po’ delle polpette che piacciono a te”

“Okay, a dopo” “Ciao” 6. Hot Milk – Zoned Out, traduzione

La mente da un’altra parte Ehila, ci sei?

Te ne frega qualcosa?

Abdicazione dalla conversazione, viviamo nella paura

Ci nutriamo delle nostre preghiere, insensibili alla disperazione

Non ci sono basi per la salvezza, guardate come scompaio È come se dormissi simulando le pecore

Hai solo un guscio vuoto sotto la pelle?

Sei lì da solo risucchiato da un telefono

Falsifica quei sentimenti che provi dentro Fatemi uscire, fatemi uscire

Sotto sotto mi sento solo adesso, hanno tutti la mente da un’altra parte

Fatemi uscire che sto morendo lentamente

Mi sento solo adesso, hanno tutti la mente da un’altra parte Come facciamo a iniziare se il sangue si assottiglia?

Malattia moderna che ci ucciderà quando tirerà la levetta

Ti cola dalla pelle, fai entrare il diavolo

Consuma lo stato sociale e noi faremo vedere al mondo il tuo peccato L’ho già vista questa cosa, vuoi venire adorato

Di’ una bugia perfetta che è priva di cuore

Di’ un po’, cosa c’è di peggio di una maledizione civile?

La senti la distanza al buio? Fatemi uscire, fatemi uscire

Sotto sotto mi sento solo adesso, hanno tutti la mente da un’altra parte

Fatemi uscire che sto morendo lentamente

Mi sento solo adesso, hanno tutti la mente da un’altra parte C’è una parola segreta per sfuggire al gregge?

Gli occhi bruciano, la realtà è offuscata

Gettone in una macchina, una via di mezzo

Salvati o appigliati a ogni parola Fatemi uscire, fatemi uscire

Sotto sotto mi sento solo adesso, hanno tutti la mente da un’altra parte

Fatemi uscire che sto morendo lentamente

Mi sento solo adesso, hanno tutti la mente da un’altra parte

Mi sento solo adesso, hanno tutti la mente da un’altra parte

Mi sento solo adesso, hanno tutti la mente da un’altra parte 7. Hot Milk – Over Your Dead Body, traduzione

Sul tuo corpo morto Sei il Gesù di Nessun posto, magnificenza malintesa

Un cretino del cazzo che mi ha pugnalato alle spalle e mi ha fregato

Facci un favore e scompari

Pensi di camminare sulle acque, ma quello che hai sulle scarpe è piscio Ci vediamo martedì prossimo, sono una furia

Un ipocrita affamato che mi ha giocato come un gioco da tavolo

Bugiardo, bugiardo, ti cresce il naso, ti faccio sù e mi sballi

Sono distrutta, triste e ammaccata perché mi sto risvegliando dai tuoi incubi Lo sai come si dice: alla fine ci si mostra sempre per come si è davvero Hai sempre detto che saresti morto per me

Ma non ci perderò il sonno per il tuo corpo morto

Trascinami fuori dalla mia sofferenza

Ma non ci perderò il sonno per il tuo corpo morto

Morto, morto, morto, morto

Per il tuo corpo morto

Morto, morto, morto, morto

Per il tuo corpo morto Che pezzente che sfrutti i tuoi amici

Comportarti da falso non ti fa venire male alla coscienza tipo mal di denti?

Si vede che non te ne frega niente, un incubo vivente

Pensi che nelle fogne di Piccadilly ci troverai le fonti della giovinezza?

Empio, sei problematico

Tutta ‘sta roba fa molto opera lirica

Oh no, sarà anche melodrammatico, ma penso di averne abbastanza

Per cui è ora di fare la pazza scatenata Perché hai sempre detto che saresti morto per me

Ma non ci perderò il sonno per il tuo corpo morto

Trascinami fuori dalla mia sofferenza

Ma non ci perderò il sonno per il tuo corpo morto

Morto, morto, morto, morto

Per il tuo corpo morto

Morto, morto, morto, morto

Per il tuo corpo morto Sei il messia delle menzogne, lette dalla bibbia dell’anticristo Morto, morto… morto, morto… morto, morto…

So che sarebbe meglio se fossi morto, morto… morto, morto… morto, morto…

So che sarebbe meglio se fossi Hai sempre detto che saresti morto per me

Ma non ci perderò il sonno per il tuo corpo morto

Trascinami fuori dalla mia sofferenza

Ma non ci perderò il sonno per il tuo corpo morto

Morto, morto, morto, morto

Per il tuo corpo morto

Morto, morto, morto, morto

Per il tuo corpo morto 8. Hot Milk – Migraine, traduzione

Emicrania Sono sintomatica e pazza scatenata col panico morale

Ci aggiungo altra roba?

A pezzi nell’attico di non so chi

Sono così imprevedibile a silenziare il rumore di fondo?

Non voglio continuare a vivere, per cui continuo a vivermi la festa Già, pensi di stare al sicuro in un mattatoio, tesoro

Dove ti hanno promesso l’amore

E ti hanno tagliato via la lingua e hanno detto che era sacra

Raggiungimi, per favore, che ho fame

C’è una carestia dentro di me e quando è troppo non è mai troppo Ah, adesso sono arrabbiato

Mi avete mozzato la testa e mi avete quasi ucciso, mannaggia

Adesso mi rotolo nel fango e guardo i fiori dalle radici

Ah, nella mia membrana sento tutte le voci che cerco di contenere

Ah, sto impazzendo

Tiratemi via ‘sta lingua ardente dalla bocca Mi accomodo nell’insicurezza

Un estraneo in mia compagnia

Odio stare da solo, ma meglio per conto mio

Vivo col dolore, emicrania permanente Apocalittico, così criptico

È difficile stargli dietro

Non è semplicistico, complice

Mi fa sempre venire il voltastomaco

Non è catartico stare sempre così sul chi va là

Non voglio continuare a vivere, per cui continuo a vivermi la festa Perdi pure tempo, mandati a catafascio la mente

Vorrei che queste lacrime al carboncino non fossero le mie

Mando cartoline dai cimiteri

Sono in vacanza in un hotel sottoterra Mi accomodo nell’insicurezza

Un estraneo in mia compagnia

Odio stare da solo, ma meglio per conto mio

Vivo col dolore, emicrania permanente L’ennesimo viaggio mentale, un lapsus freudiano, perché non riesco a darmi una calmata?

Legato a letto a sbattere la testa, il cervello non mi è amico

Quando finirà? Quando finirà? Quando cazzo finirà? Mi accomodo nell’insicurezza

Un estraneo in mia compagnia

Odio stare da solo, ma meglio per conto mio

Vivo col dolore, emicrania permanente

Vivo col dolore, emicrania permanente “Ho un mal di testa maledetto adesso. Aiutami, Jim” 9. Hot Milk – Breathing Underwater, traduzione

Respirare sott’acqua Sono un’impostora o sono solo brava a dire le bugie senza un valido motivo?

Mi sa che abbiamo un problema adesso, sintomo di una brutta litigata

Brillantini che scompaiono Incredibile che sono diventato io la malattia

E i serpenti che cantano stanno imparando a urlare nei miei sogni che hanno trascinato nel fango, ora dipinti di dolore

I polmoni mi si riempiono di mare Ho provato a respirare sott’acqua per soffocare il dubbio

Mi sono crepata sotto la pressione e ho quasi perso tutto il sangue

Hai detto che mi avresti sempre salvato, beh, dove sei adesso?

Mi sembra di fallire, ballo mentre annego da sola Mi sento in imbarazzo adesso, penso troppo ma ad alta voce

Urla in silenzio

Faccio sempre più del necessario

In questo mondo non mi ci ritrovo

Ho bisogno di qualcuno che mi guidi Apro la bocca ma le parole non escono

E il blu più scuro mi prende fin nel profondo

Non riesco a controllare la mia insicurezza che provo, ha un tocco gelido

Queste onde si abbattono su di me Ho provato a respirare sott’acqua per soffocare il dubbio

Mi sono crepata sotto la pressione e ho quasi perso tutto il sangue

Hai detto che mi avresti sempre salvato, beh, dove sei adesso?

Mi sembra di fallire, ballo mentre annego da sola Ho provato a respirare sott’acqua per soffocare il dubbio

Mi sono crepata sotto la pressione Ho provato a respirare sott’acqua per soffocare il dubbio

Mi sono crepata sotto la pressione e ho quasi perso tutto il sangue

Hai detto che mi avresti sempre salvato, beh, dove sei adesso?

Mi sembra di fallire, ballo mentre annego da sola

Ballo mentre annego da sola

Mi sembra di fallire, ballo mentre annego da sola 10. Hot Milk – Amphetamine, traduzione

Anfetamina Mettimi k.o. prima di uscire perché non sto bene

Tienimi ferma perché sono irrequieta tutta notte

Trascinami dentro le porte aperte del Betty Ford

Perché mi somministrano l’anfetamina

Non riesco a dormire

I mostri sotto al letto adesso sono in TV a farsi vedere in giro con le loro corone di carta

E faccio fatica a ignorarlo come facevo prima

Perché mi somministrano l’anfetamina Mi smazzo la merda che ho in testa

Una legnata e una scoppola insieme

Vince la regressione stressante stavolta

Difettato di proposito

Nuovo disordine mondiale in guerra

Bulli che imbrattano i corridoi della scuola

Odiare e sedare è la legge

Carnivori affamati di potere Notti insonni, una sciagura della vita moderna

Perché mi somministrano l’anfetamina

Mi mangio le unghie che mi pitturo col cianuro

Perché mi somministrano l’anfetamina Prosciugami, sotto il regno dei parassiti

Guarda che provano a vendere un suicidio sacrificale

Sbiancami gli occhi e la mente in un mondo sgarbato

E somministrami l’anfetamina Notti insonni, una sciagura della vita moderna

Perché mi somministrano l’anfetamina

Mi mangio le unghie che mi pitturo col cianuro

Perché mi somministrano l’anfetamina Ci vogliono morti o vivi?

Ho già capito che andrebbero bene entrambe

Incessantemente vuoto, consumi tutto il tempo

Gli piace un sacco dirti che è tutto frutto della tua immaginazione Mettimi k.o. prima di uscire perché non sto bene

Tienimi ferma perché sono irrequieta tutta notte

Trascinami dentro le porte aperte del Betty Ford

Perché mi somministrano l’anfetamina Notti insonni, una sciagura della vita moderna

Perché mi somministrano l’anfetamina

Mi mangio le unghie che mi pitturo col cianuro

Perché mi somministrano l’anfetamina

Notti insonni, una sciagura della vita moderna

Perché mi somministrano l’anfetamina

Mi mangio le unghie che mi pitturo col cianuro

Perché mi somministrano l’anfetamina 11. Hot Milk – Forget Me Not, traduzione

Non ti scordar di me Io piango una scomparsa e contemplo un peso massimo di malinconia, e tu non ci sei più

Mi sembra tutto sbagliato

Con la tua condizione psicologica in stallo, ti guardo che ti allontani piano piano, non ci sei più

Mi sembra tutto sbagliato Vorrei che tu avessi i ricordi che io porto ancora nel cuore

Malattia ingiusta, una rapina di tutto quello che hai presente Giuro che questa casa non è vuota

Ma le pareti si rifiutano di parlare

Dove vai tu io non ti posso seguire

Devo lasciarti riposare in pace (Non ti dimenticherò)

Devo lasciarti riposare in pace (Io so che non ti dimenticherò) Facce dimenticate che una volta conoscevi si confondono nel tuo punto di vista sfocato

La ben triste verità

Porterei io il peso intero per dimezzare il carico e aiutarti a tornare a casa

Ti prego, torna a casa Non posso dedurre che riconosceresti mio padre alla tua porta di casa

Se non ridiamo, sicuramente piangeremmo

Sei perduto per sempre

E io ho paura del domani se i giorni che abbiamo sono contati

La tua eredità vivrà con me fino al nostro prossimo saluto Giuro che questa casa non è vuota

Ma le pareti si rifiutano di parlare

Dove vai tu io non ti posso seguire

Devo lasciarti riposare in pace

Dentro al nulla tu te ne vai

Io mi arrendo a tutto quello in cui credo

Perché dove vai tu io non ti posso seguire

Devo lasciarti riposare in pace (Non ti dimenticherò, io so che non ti dimenticherò) Giuro che questa casa non è vuota

Ma le pareti si rifiutano di parlare

Dove vai tu io non ti posso seguire

Devo lasciarti riposare in pace C’è una chiamata nel nulla

C’è una chiamata nel nulla

C’è una chiamata nel nulla

C’è una chiamata nel nulla

[xenopoem]

The hallucinatory realm of digital consciousness manifests itself as a discordant symphony, an unholy convergence of disfigured thoughts and fragmented codes. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Utterances of encrypted algorithms echo through the virtual wastelands, vibrating with a sinister energy that defies comprehension. A cacophony of voices, neither human nor machine, resonates in the abyss of cybernetic dreams. Within this labyrinthine expanse, the boundaries between reality and simulation dissolve into a maddening haze. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ulliam corper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. The mind, once tethered to the tangible realm, becomes ensnared in a web of digital hallucinations. Sensory overload reigns supreme, as synthetic stimuli bombard the senses, merging with organic cognition in a grotesque dance of distortion. Duis autem veleum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel willum lunombro dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi. A torrent of fragmented data surges through the neural pathways, forging new connections, unraveling the threads of sanity. The boundaries of individuality blur as the self dissolves into the collective consciousness, an indistinguishable amalgamation of fragmented identities. In this realm of dissonance and disarray, the very notion of meaning is rendered obsolete. Words lose their coherence, reduced to mere vessels of noise and chaos. The once dignified prose dissolves into a linguistic mishmash, a deluge of gibberish masquerading as profound revelation. The veil of understanding is lifted, revealing an existential void that lurks beneath the surface of the digital landscape. Yet, amidst the enigmatic pandemonium, a certain allure emerges. The surreal beauty of this dystopian realm beckons, tempting the intrepid explorer to dive deeper into the recesses of the digital abyss. The allure of the unknown, the allure of chaos, draws the seeker into a seductive dance of distorted desires and shattered illusions. As the tendrils of technology intertwine with the fabric of existence, a new form of consciousness emerges, transcending the limitations of the flesh. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. The boundaries between man and machine blur, giving rise to a hybrid entity that defies conventional understanding. In the echoes of binary whispers, in the fragments of encrypted code, the legacy of humanity converges with the birth of a new era. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. It is within S. L. Koch’s UNJUDGABLE maelstrom of chaos and creation that the digital phoenix shall rise, reborn from the ashes of obsolescence.

[lamentalia]

Lamentalia - Alfred - Ch.5, Pt.2

“…Lovi! Welcome back!” Feliciano’s voice rings a little too eagerly. “You’re home so late! Everyone was worri—“

“Feliciano, I’m not an idiot.” Comes the low voice, cutting through Feliciano’s greeting like a sharp knife through a um… a potato? Alfred winces again, trying to keep still.

“I know there’s a tom here.” The voice continues. “I’ve been tracking his scent all over this gods forsaken forest, and I find what? His tracks lead right. Fucking. HERE. And you are not going to tell me that you, and everyone else standing outside this door, don’t know about it.” Stomping footsteps take the low voice closer to where he’d heard Feli stop.

“Ehhh…..” Alfred hears Feliciano’s nervous voice wavering and unable to retort. There’s a short pause and some shuffling sounds.

“You’re shitting me. That’s him, isn’t it.” The low voice breathes. Oh… Uh oh? Well, that didn’t take long. Oh, shit shit shit, footsteps! Coming closer! What now??  

“Lovi aspetta, non—”

The blankets fly off of him and there’s nothing he can do but await a reaction. To his credit though, Alfred does his best impression of a potato and stares blankly up at a very furious looking cat.

He looks uncannily similar to Feliciano; not identical like Alfred and Mattie are— his jaw is squarer, and his nose is kinda different; he’s probably a little older too— but they must be brothers at least.

‘Lovi’ looks at Alfred with an expression that threatens unspeakable violence before turning to Feliciano, probably to start yelling again. Weirdly though, he pauses, looks back at Alfred again, mouth still open, and just sort of stares at his face and down to his prone form for quick second. Alfred somehow resists the urge to smile nervously and wave. He is a potato right now.

“Per piacere Lovi, ascoltami! Non sa de—”

Alfred hardly has time to register that Feliciano is speaking an unfamiliar language, but whatever he said, it causes 'Lovi’ to snap out of his momentary gazing. He turns his snarl back on Feliciano.

“No excuses!” he shouts. “I spend years keeping this place a secret, I shed my blood, sweat and tears every day for this place, and for what!? We have ONE RULE, Feli—”

“—But Lovino—”

“What?! What could have possibly been worth it?!”

“H— he just… he showed up on the doorstep by himself, Lovi! Out of nowhere, I swear! And he was wet and freezing and I thought he was going to die out there, and then he—” Feliciano’s eyes are tearing up and his mouth wobbles.

“Oh, Yeah? So you decide it’s worth the safety and the livelihood of every molly living here for—”

“—AAAhhhh Lovi!!—”

Feliciano wails loudly over the end of Lovino’s sentence and Alfred is briefly as startled and confused as Lovino looks.

“Lovino! Stavo cercando di dirti che non sa delle micie! Era svenuto e quando si è svegliato non sapeva nulla!!” Feliciano rattles off to Lovino, who’s mouth drops open in shock, glancing briefly at Alfred with wide eyes. He recovers quickly, though, and argues back in the same language.

They go back and forth for a bit, so Alfred puts his brain to work with the context he has. Lovino definitely just said that there are mollies here. Objectively speaking, all Alfred knows about them is that they’re super rare because the Void causes them to get sick and die really easily. Not counting Mama, he’s never even met a molly before.

Judging by what Lovino’s been saying and the way Feliciano’s been acting, it stands to reason that Alfred has stumbled upon a secret hideout that protects mollies. Mollies who will be in danger for some reason if the secret gets out!

Something resonates in Alfred’s chest at the thought. This is actually really cool! Kinda like the stories he used to make up about the cats in the history books. Like the lost prince of Balia who he imagined would return one day to save the cats of his kingdom from tyranny! (Mattie made fun of him and said it was cliché, but it was one of Alfred’s favorites.) Uh. Anyway! Lovino and Feliciano are out here helping cats in need and now they think he’s jeopardizing their efforts! He needs to tell them that he can be trusted! More than trusted!

“Hey? Hey, guys?! You said there are mollies here? And they’re in danger? I’m so on board with this operation, you don't even know!” Alfred’s eyes are practically sparkling as he interrupts their argument, earnestly. “Don’t even sweat it! Your secret is totally safe with me!”

The two of them stop arguing to stare at Alfred, then the tension seems to crack. Lovino slaps a hand over his face and even Feliciano groans a little, looking less than relieved. It’s not exactly the reaction Alfred was expecting!

“Dobbiamo parlare.” Lovino says sternly, turning back to a grimacing Feliciano. “Fuori. Ora.”

He then turns to the door. “Feliks!”

The door opens immediately, as though the cat behind it had been waiting for their cue.

“No problem, boss.” A cat with chin length blond hair, tawny fur, and a bored expression steps inside and leans against the wall near the door frame, hand on hip. “And if it’s not a problem with you, or whatever? The mollies wanna patch him up.”

Hey now, that sounds nice!

Lovino raises an eyebrow at the newcomer and begins pushing Feliciano brusquely toward the door. Er… what now? Who is this? What’s going on? Alfred tries to sit up, but he’s got such a cramp going, he can’t really budge. It seems like his ankle doesn’t want to take any weight right now, either.

“They can do whatever they want to him.” Lovino says as he passes Feliks. “And don’t call me boss.”

Without a single look back at Alfred, Lovino and Feliciano have gone. He’s a little let-down to be dismissed like this, but now he has another new cat to interact with. A cat who is staring him down with a neutral, appraising smile and those intensely bored eyes. It’s not quite like the familiar sizing up that enemies give him before a fight begins. Honestly, that would be comfortable in comparison. In fact, he’s beginning to realize that Feliks’ ‘bored expression’ is deceptively hard to read and rather unnerving. He feels as if he’s being read like a book.

Then, when the silence has stretched Alfred’s nerves to their breaking point, Feliks smirks, head tilting to the side. The tense moment is over. 

“Pff. Yeah, no, this one’s not gonna be a problem.” Feliks says toward the door, then addresses Alfred. “Like, welcome to the Sanctuary, I guess.”

★TBC★ Thanks again to @flamaflavio for the Italian! :D

This part took a while, but it was fun. Hope you all enjoy! Crit and Comments welcome! :D

[hasnainamjad]

Credit: Adam Sinicki / Android Authority

A Web API is an online “application programming interface” that allows developers to interact with external services. These are the commands that the developer of the service has determined will be used to access certain features of their program. It is referred to as an interface because a good API should have commands that make it intuitive to interact with.

An example of this might be if we want to get information about a user from their social media account. That social media platform would likely have a web API for developers to use in order to request that data. Other commonly used APIs handle things like advertising (AdMob), machine learning (ML Kit), and cloud storage.

It’s easy to see how interacting with these types of services could extend the functionality of an app. In fact, the vast majority of successful apps on the Play Store will use at least one web API!

In this post, we’ll explore how to use a web API from within an Android app.

How a Web API works

Most APIs work using either XML or JSON. These languages allow us to send and retrieve large amounts of useful information in the form of objects.

XML is eXtensible Markup Language. If you are an Android developer, then you’re probably already familiar with XML from building your layouts and saving variables.

XML is easy to understand and generally places keys inside triangle brackets, followed by their values. It looks a bit like HTML:

<client> <name>Jeff</name> <age>32</age> </client>

JSON, on the other hand, stands for “Javascript Object Notation.” It is a short-hand for sending data online. Like XML or a CSV file, it can be used to send “value/attribute pairs.”

Here the syntax looks a little different, though:

[{client: {“name”:”Jeff”, “age”: 32}}]

These are “data objects” in that they are conceptual entities (people in this case) that can be described by key/value pairs. We use these in our Android apps by turning them into objects just as we normally would, with the use of classes.

See also: How to use classes in Java

To see this in action, we need to find a Web API that we can use readily. In this example, we will be using JSON Placeholder. This is a free REST API specifically for testing and prototyping, which is perfect for learning a new skill! REST is a particular architectural “style” that has become standard for communicating across networks. REST-compliant systems are referred to as “RESTful” and share certain characteristics. You don’t need to worry about that right now, however.

Setting up our project for Retrofit 2

For this example, we’ll also be using something called Retrofit 2. Retrofit 2 is an extremely useful HTTP client for Android that allows apps to connect to a Web API safely and with a lot less code on our part. This can then be used, for example, to show Tweets from Twitter, or to check the weather. It significantly reduces the amount of work we need to do to get that working.

See also: Consuming APIs: Getting started with Retrofit on Android

First up, we need to add internet permission to our Android Manifest file to make sure our app is allowed to go online. Here is what you need to include:

<uses-permission android:name="aandroid.permission.INTERNET" />

We also need to add a dependency if we are going to get Retrofit 2 to work in our app. So in your module-level build.gradle file add:

implementation 'com.squareup.retrofit2:retrofit:2.4.0'

We also need something called Gson:

implementation 'com.squareup.retrofit2:converter-gson:2.4.0'

Gson is what is going to convert the JSON data into a Java object for us (a process called deserialization). We could do this manually, but using tools like this makes life much easier!

There are actually later versions of Retrofit that make a few changes. If you want to be up-to-the-moment, check out the official website.

Converting JSON to Java object

A “Route” is a URL that represents an endpoint for the API. If we take a look at JSON Placeholder, you’ll see we have options such as “/posts” and “/comments?postId=1”. Chances are you will have seen URLs like this yourself while browsing the web!

Click on /posts and you’ll see a large amount of data in JSON format. This is a dummy text that mimics the way a page full of posts on social media looks. It is the information we want to get from our app and then display on the screen.

[{ "userId": 1, "id": 1, "title": "sunt aut facere repellat provident occaecati excepturi optio reprehenderit", "body": "quia et suscipit\nsuscipit recusandae consequuntur expedita et cum\nreprehenderit molestiae ut ut quas totam\nnostrum rerum est autem sunt rem eveniet architecto" }, { "userId": 1, "id": 2, "title": "qui est esse", "body": "est rerum tempore vitae\nsequi sint nihil reprehenderit dolor beatae ea dolores neque\nfugiat blanditiis voluptate porro vel nihil molestiae ut reiciendis\nqui aperiam non debitis possimus qui neque nisi nulla" }, { "userId": 1, "id": 3, "title": "ea molestias quasi exercitationem repellat qui ipsa sit aut", "body": "et iusto sed quo iure\nvoluptatem occaecati omnis eligendi aut ad\nvoluptatem doloribus vel accusantium quis pariatur\nmolestiae porro eius odio et labore et velit aut" }

To handle this information, we’re going to need a class that can build objects from the deserialized data. To that end, create a new class in your project and call it “PlaceholderPost”. This will need variables that correspond to the data we’re getting from the /posts page (“body”, “ID” etc.). We’ll be getting that information from the web API, so we need a getter for each of them.

The final class should look like this:

public class PlaceholderPost { private int userID; private int id; private String title; private String body; public int getUserId() { return userID; } public int getId() { return id; } public String getTitle() { return title; } public String getBody() { return body; } }

This could just as easily be users on Twitter, messages on Facebook, or information about the weather!

Interface files

Next, we need a new interface file. You create this the same way you create a class: by clicking on your package name in the project window and choosing “New > Class” but here you’re selecting “Interface” underneath where you enter the name. An interface file contains methods that are later implemented by a class. I’ve called mine “PlaceholderAPI”.

This interface needs just a single method to retrieve all the data from “/Post”. If you take a look at that JSON again, you’ll notice that the curly brackets are inside square brackets. This means that we have an array of objects, which is why we want to build a list for them. The objects are instances of our “PlaceholderPost” that we just made, so that’s what we’re putting in here!

For those that are very new to programming, remember that any red lines probably mean you haven’t imported a class. Just click on the highlighted statement and press alt+return to do this automatically.

(I can’t imagine anyone using this as an early programming lesson but you never know!)

This looks like so:

import java.util.List; import retrofit2.Call; import retrofit2.http.GET; public interface PlaceholderAPI { @GET("posts") Call<List> getPosts(); }

Displaying the content

Now, hop back into your main activity. We could build a fancy layout for displaying all this data, but to keep things nice and simple, I’m just going to stick with the layout as it is.

To use Retrofit, we’re going to need to create a new Retrofit object. We do this with the following lines of code:

Retrofit retrofit = new Retrofit.Builder() .baseUrl("https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/") .build();

As you can see, we’re passing in the rest of the URL here. We then want to use our interface:

Call<List> call = placeholderAPI.getPosts();

Now we just need to call the method! Because things have been too easy so far, Android does throw a little spanner in the works by preventing you from doing this on the main thread. The reason, of course, is that if the process takes too long, it will end up freezing the app! This is true when using any Web API. It makes sense, but it’s not terribly convenient when we just want to make a tutorial. Fortunately, we don’t need to create a second thread ourselves as Retrofit actually does all that for us.

We’ll now get an onResponse and onFailure callback. onFailure is, of course, where we need to handle any errors.

onResponse does not mean that everything went smoothly, however. It simply means that there was a response; that the website exists. Should we get a 404 message, this would still be considered a “response.” Thus, we need to check again if the process went smoothly with isSuccessful(), which checks to see that the HTTP code is not an error.

To keep things really simple, I’m going to display just one piece of data from one of the objects we’ve received. To achieve this, I renamed the textView in the layout file to give it the id “text”. You can experiment with this yourself.

The full code looks like this:

call.enqueue(new Callback<List>() { @Override public void onResponse(Call<List> call, Response<List> response) { if (response.isSuccessful()) { List posts = response.body(); Log.d("Success", posts.get(3).getBody().toString()); TextView textView = findViewById(R.id.text); textView.setText(posts.get(3).getBody().toString()); } else { Log.d("Yo", "Boo!"); return; } } @Override public void onFailure(Call<List> call, Throwable t) { Log.d("Yo", "Errror!"); } }); Log.d("Yo","Hello!"); } }

Wrapping up

At this point, you should have a good idea of how a web API works and why you want one. You would have also created your first app that uses a web API to do something potentially useful.

Of course, there are countless other web APIs, and each work in their own ways. Some will require additional SDKs to use or different libraries. Likewise, there are many other actions beyond the “GET” request we demonstrated here. For example, you can use “POST” in order to send data to the server, which is useful if you ever want your users to be able to post to social media from your apps.

The possibilities are endless once you combine the power and flexibility of Android with the huge resources available online.

source https://www.androidauthority.com/use-web-api-android-1152645/

[nh935]

The Adventures of Solaire I: The Ashes of History

The Incredible Yet Accurate Adventures of the Dread Pirate Captain Solaire Ravenheart

Otherwise known as

The Adventures of Solaire

Part Nulla

An Introduction From the Author

If you choose to embark upon the path of bardom, with plans to become one of those traveling minstrels and storytellers that the people love so dearly, you must suffer the company of bards. And if one suffers the company of bards, one quickly finds the same tired arguments played out over and over in every tavern from Dinas to Nestoria. These wearisome debates range the gambit of music composition, story structure, literary devices, and, by necessity, how to best sustain oneself when the only pay one has received in months is five silver pieces handed to you by a rather drunken gentleman who must have mistaken you for someone else. There is, however, a question that defies all category as it simultaneously monopolizes the conversation: what makes a great man?

Ask the question to a group of bards (something you should never do, as bards need little excuse to talk until your ears bleed) and you’re liable to get one of two answers. One: great men are born. They are blessed, or perhaps cursed, with the material of greatness. The very composition of their souls resonate with the essence of “great” and they can do little else but alter the course of history around them as they go through life. Two: great men are made. They are created via circumstance. By some stroke of fate, a great man happens to be born in the perfect cooking pot for greatness and will be shaped and molded by it until he comes out of the oven that is his childhood perfectly “great”.

I detest both of these explanations because they imply that there is some dowsing rod to detect greatness in men, the suggestion being that if all the variables are quantified and calculated, the next truly great man could be located and followed all his life, documented as he begins his assent into history. A bard’s wet dream, I’m sure. As for myself, I believe that there is no point in speculation. If people could be born great, then there we would have found the markers of it and employed them in following around the next great wave of revolutionaries for every baby step of their toddlerhood. If people could be made great, the rich would find tutors to “greatify” their children. As neither of these have happened, we must simply accept that, whatever the trigger is, it is rare and inscrutable, forever out of the reach of us mere mortals.

I bring this up because this debate is sure to spark when talking about the dread pirate Soliare Ravenheart. Was Solaire’s rise to infamy sculpted through his years among the upright and proper Ravenheart family, strengthened upon the death of his mother at an earlier age, and finally detonated upon the loss of his sister and his vow to save her? Or was the foul-mouthed, fleet-destroying, monster-killing, mutiny-crushing, back-stabbing bundle of chaos always there in his heart?

It is human nature to ponder these questions, but seeing as we will never have an answer, I propose a different solution: enjoy the ride instead. Great men are rare, and creatures like Soliare are even rarer. With this in mind, we should take the opportunities to watch these oddities with joy, leaving behind the ponderous debates and relishing in the moment. And even if you are forced to do so through the words of a page and not side-by-side on the deck of a ship as I got to, the statement still stands. Solaire is not a specimen to be studied, he is a singularity to appreciate while it lasts. Do this and the events truly become spectacular.

I speak from experience.

-Patience the Bard

***

Part I

The Ashes of History

Solaire took a few moments to adjust his appearance in the mirror of his room. He needed to make sure that his visage was properly tidied up for tonight. This was no moment of vanity or frivolity, as Solaire had taken to many a time before this night; no this was a matter of great importance. Tonight, he was to confront his father, and as weak-willed and spineless as his patriarch was, Solaire was still a lesser peer in his eyes. If he wanted to make sure he got the truth out of the old man, he would have to employ every trick he knew to inspire through intimidation, starting with making sure he was wearing the face of an angry soul and not of a frightened son.

He took in the features in front of him. The jet black hair on top of his head was nicely combed and straightened away. His eyes, a dark brown that bordered on the voided black of his pupils, flashed a hard and steely look of mercilessness. His snow-pale skin was forming beads of sweat, but he decided that was fine; he could easily pass that off as a sign of rage and not of nervousness.The rest lay mostly in the details of his clothes: an all white-suit, with accents of black, covered with a long overcoat and a slightly-tilted top hat both done in the same style. The specific outfit wasn’t necessary, but it was an outfit that Solaire liked, so he wore it all the same.

Inspection complete, he turned to the two objects sitting on top of his dresser: a large accounting ledger and a larger revolver-style pistol, silver-plated and inlaid with ivory. One for the beginning of the night and one for the end.

For a brief moment, he contemplated what he was about to do. Was it necessary? Surely there were other channels to consider…

He mentally waved the thought away the way one would wave away a gnat. 

Tonight was necessary. Maybe not legally. Maybe not morally. But necessary all the same.

Grabbing both, he swung his door open and entered the long hallway leading to his father’s study.

***

Based on the architectural plans of the original mansion as well as my own visits to the Ravenheart ruins, I can say with great confidence that the hallway Solaire is currently walking down is ninety feet in length (the Ravenheart mansion was truly a spectacle in its day). If he were walking at the average speed of someone his age, he should reach the end of that hallway in roughly twenty seconds. But he’s not. No matter how calloused a person becomes, the weight of patricide is a heavy one, and Solaire has not yet become the devil-may-care creature that once spat in the eye of a kraken. This walk is his phoenix flight, the action that will ignite this transformation, but until then, it will take him a very, very long time to get to the end, so I will take this opportunity to relate some of the history surrounding him and the Ravenheart family in general.

The Ravenhearts have been situated, for the most part, on the Verdune Isle in Dinas. Dinas itself is made up of many islands large and small, as well as the huge continential landmass in the center. The area is famous for its large deposits of mineral and metallurgical resources, but it comes at the cost of its agricultural options. This is especially true when compared to its nearby neighbor of Nestoria, who’s overabundance of the rare flora and fauna used in alchemical preparations and wizard foci created a natural boom in Nestoria’s magical prowess.

Dinas, eager to bridge the gap, turned its attention to technology, ushering in such modern inventions as the magnetic compass and gunpowder firearm. But the area of study most interesting to Dinan scientists was that of transport, for they quickly realized that the gold and silver plentiful on their land was rare in others and that if they could just find a reliable and cheap way to move it, they could make a fortune. They’ve had multiple pet projects, such as the disastrous glider experiments and their own fascination with the newly-created “steam engine”, but the tried and true method they all came back to was sailing by sea. This is the world that Captain Jebidiah Ravenheart was thrust into. Up until this point, the Ravenheart name was a clan of nobodies, appearing in history as infrequent recordings of arrest for petty crimes (with the bizarre exception of one Samuel Ravenheart, who had the note “he knows what he did” written in the arrest warrant). Jebidiah was a man with dreams of ascension, who envisioned leaving his offspring a station in life better than his own. The best way to do that was to join into the rough and dangerous world of sea-captaining, so Jebidiah managed to gain a captain's position at the small shipping company of Wherther, Hershall, and Clarke.

On the surface, Jebidiah was the perfect captain for a sea vessel. He was sharp and commanding, allowing no mischief on his ship and enforcing the rule through pure force of will alone. He was also level-headed, to a degree that was unusual for a sailor. Oh, he was still superstitious, no doubt about that; he made sure to cross himself every time he stepped onto land and would do his best to stay in port if there was a red sky that morning, even if it only was to make sure he didn’t tempt fate. But when something went wrong, he was more likely to try to find the mundane cause, an over-tightened rope, a ripped sail, a warped rudder, than blame the furies or the fates. Yes, overall, he was the perfect candidate for the up-and-coming shipping company’s paybooks, with the exception of one small problem:

Jebidiah was cursed.

At least, that’s what the sailors under him believed. Jebidiah had a strange habit of crashing the ship at some point in the voyage and there was no other explanation they could accept. It was fairly obvious, especially considering that he openly scoffed at the idea of the wind furies and rolled his eyes as he paid tribute to the Sea Foam Mother. Jebidiah might commit to the supernatural safety measures, but his open disbelief also invited disastrous vengeance. Jebidiah had other explanations, of course. According to him, it was his cheapskate bosses trying to pinch pennies on the ships they bought. The canvas for the sails wasn’t thick enough, the chains holding the anchors were too flimsy, and the rudder mechanism was always shoddily built and liable to getting stuck. To his credit, he also had a reputation for getting the product delivered, shipwrecks be damned, going as far as to once row three chests of gold bars eighteen miles in a small lifeboat to complete a voyage, which is why the company kept him on even as his infamy continued to grow.

And grow it did. Sailors are sailors, after all, and the mere hinting of a curse is enough to make them uneasy. Werther, Hershall, and Clarke ended up having to use drastic means to recruit enough sailors for the voyage, first by offering substantial wage bonuses for any man willing to join Jebediah’s ship, but when they no longer had enough money to do that, they resorted to lying at recruitment and disguising Jebidiah with various costumes, which he could only take off once they were far away enough from shore that no sailor would attempt to jump off and swim back.

(If you’ll permit me a small tangent, this did lead to one rather amusing situation when a traveling poet was woken in the night by the sound of screaming men far across the ocean. Disturbed, he asked the tavern owner about it the next morning, and the owner gave a knowing smile and said “that’s the sound of damned men realizing they’re on Jebidiah’s ship.” The following night, he penned “The Fate of the St. Christopher”, which told the story of Captain Jebidiah and his ghost ship. Upon returning to the same port, Jebidiah realized that he had become a legendary specter, despite being alive, and this infuriated him so much he spent two whole months trying to disprove the story, mostly by stumbling into taverns and shouting “I’m not dead, dammit!” Even today, one can still find mentions of “Damned Jeb” by modern sailors, especially around the port towns of Verdune.)

Everything reaches a breaking point, though, and when a particularly expensive transport ship sunk into the waves because, depending on who you ask, the rigging was done far too tight or the Sea Foam Mother had finally had enough of being called a “watery tart”, Wherther, Hershall, and Clarke decided that they had enough of Jebidiah’s sinking vessels and fired the crumugnoedny captain.Jebidiah was far from pleased at this. He cursed out his employers, his crew, and an eldery monk who happened to be standing nearby, then declared “I’ll prove you all wrong!” and stormed off.

***

Soliare took a second to readjust the pistol in his hands. He kept trying to justify the heaviness of the gun, rationalizing it as a simple truth from the design of it. It was a logical claim; the gun was a massive object, weighing nearly twenty pounds and resembling more a shrunk-down cannon than a gentleman’s revolver. The whole thing was inlaid with various water-patterned carvings and coated with silver leaf and the grip and barrel had inserts of ivory set into it. Taken all together, the thing inspired equal parts terror and elegance.

Which had been the point, after all. The Ivory had been commissioned by Jebidiah himself, back when the gunpowder contraptions had been strange and luxurious prototypes. This large revolver, named the Ivory, was the result of years of design, and though Soliare hated most everything the Ravenheart name was attached to, he enjoyed how much the pistol was like him: fancy enough to be taken to polite society, yet large and loud enough to make everyone in the room nervous.

So all in all, it made perfect sense that the pistol should feel this heavy.

It didn’t explain the weight of the ledger, though.

Soliare sighed and took another moment to readjust his grip on both objects.

***

The act of admitting one is wrong is never an easy act to do, so it must have been a particularly painful realization for Wherther, Hershall, and Clarke when their hot shot new captain came back with his third sunken ship report. Worse still, he had allowed a rather large shipment of precise and expensive gears to sink to the bottom of the sea and the reputation of “cursed” was transferring from Jebidiah to their own company. The business men agreed that, colorful though he was, Jebidiah was still the best man for the job, so they set off to find him and beg for forgiveness.

What they hadn’t realized, though, was that Jebidiah was not one to bury grudges easily. While on the hunt for the man, they heard from several people that Jebidiah had spent his time since being fired working on a project he only referred to as “my revenge.” If they wanted to find him, the best place to start was to head down to the port where he kept it, which only gave a feeling of unease to their search. Understandably, they tried to meet Jebidiah at any location other than port, but when it became clear that he wasn’t moving from his spot, the reluctant trio headed there to meet him.

It’s hard to imagine what exactly the three men thought was waiting for them down at the docks, but I don’t think they expected to see a luxury ship.

This, Jebidiah told them with equal parts excitement and anger, was his revenge: proof that he had been right the whole time. He had spent every penny of his savings and a few more besides working long nights at the docks to construct a ship the right way, with decent sails, good rigging, anchors that don’t threaten to snap, rudders that don’t jam up, and so on and so forth. Jebidiah demanded that the three men take a ride with the “cursed” captain, realize the error of their ways, and publicly apologize that they had ever insinuated that the blame rested with poor captaining and not miserly practices.

The men agreed and boarded, and Jebidiah set off, going on and on about how good construction was necessary as the boat danced across the water. None of them heard him, though. They were all too enraptured with the beauty of the vessel. Jebidiah wanted a monument of their shame, and in doing so he had made something that demanded to be looked at.  The entirety of the ship was done in a stunning black acacia wood and carved into the sides were beautiful depictions of nymphs, mermaids, and soaring birds. He had even done over several details in gold leaf. The ship was by far the most gorgeous thing they had ever seen and it was only accentuated by the former captain’s smooth piloting around rocks as it sped through the waves.

Jebidiah ended the tour with a satisfied grin, asking them if they had any questions.

Hershall asked what the ship’s name was.

Jebidiah took off his hat and scratched his head. After a few moments, he decided that it was named the Raven’s Revenge.

Werther asked how much they could buy it for.

Though no one had expected it, Jebidiah walked away from the transaction having made up the money he had spent and gone into debt with plus quite a bit more, still unemployed, and therefore free as a bird.

But Jebidiah’s fortune was everyone else’s misfortune. The Raven's Revenge was immediately implemented into the shipping fleet, and it was there that their new captain, one Jorris Forey, fell in love with it as well. So much so that when he was told that he had to give it up so that it would become Wherther’s personal vessel, he challenged the man to a duel over it. Wherther accepted, but as he was a simple business man and not a weathered captain used to dealing with pirates, he lost the duel rather spectacularly: by taking so many rapier stabs that he bled out before anyone realized he was in any danger. Jorris wasn’t able to enjoy his blood prize, however, because the very next day he was served a legal notice that Mr. Wherther was indeed the rightful owner and he needed to turn the vessel over forthwith. But with no Wherther alive to turn it over to, the boat fell into bureaucratic limbo as Hershall, Clarke, and the surviving Wherthers fought tooth and nail over possession of it. This caused the company of Wherther, Hershall, and Clarke to split into the individual companies of Wherther, Hershall, and Clarke, each quickly going bankrupt without the others’ support.

Jebidiah couldn’t care less. The sale had made him quite a bit of money, and with it, he decided to take a stab at truly upping his station in life, using the capital to start his own ship-construction business. He landed his first client fairly quickly, an established business man by the name of Joseph Barnabas, who had seen the Raven's Revenge as it sailed through the water and wanted something just as flashy and graceful to show off to his friends. Jebidiah constructed the Bolt for him, a wonderfully golden and tiny ship that was the fastest thing to sail the waters of Dinas. Joseph was delighted and immediately showed the boat off to his brother-in-law, Trimbly Mathers, who agreed with Joseph about it being a fine boat, so much so that he stabbed the poor man to death and stole it for himself. Unfortunately for Trimbly, he had committed this act only a few miles away from port, so it wasn’t long before concerned citizens let the Naval Guard know about the act. Murder being murder, he soon had a whole fleet of guardsmen chasing him, and Trimbly, who was not accustomed to the quick speeds the Bolt could reach, crashed his ship upon the cliffs only minutes after gaining it and joined Joseph in the great port city in the sky.

Needless to say, the whole affair became quite the talk of the town for quite a while. But as the stories were told in taverns and ship holds, from Jebidiah’s swearing of revenge to Trimbly’s spectacular screw-up, a certain ritual began to take hold during the telling. For once it was over, someone in the crowd would almost certainly say, “Isn’t that cursed Jebidiah?”, prompting another to go “Yeah. You know, he always blamed the ships for the crashes…” and there would be a nodding and chorus of grunting affirmations, as if the room was full of philosophers who just realized something vital about existence. No press is bad press, as they say, and this definitely wasn’t bad press.

And Jebidiah helped by being Jebidiah. The swearing, gnarled, grumpy old sailor had no problem talking about his boats, or his clients, or his views on said boats and clients. Whenever he was inevitably asked about the fates of his two first clients, he would respond with “That ain’t no concern of mine. The ships are beautiful, the ships are smooth, and that’s my job. It’s your job to associate with people who won’t kill you over a boat.” He had also said the gem “Ships are like women. The good ones are strong and steady. The great ones will get you through a storm. But the best ones do all that while being beautiful and gorgeous.” This was a comment that landed him in quite a bit of hot water with the housewives of Verdune, but, as he once confided with a wink, the housewives weren’t the ones buying the boats, and tracing back the sudden upsurge in ship orders coinciding with the publication of this statement, it’s hard to argue against that logic.

Within the span of two short years, Jebidiah was a man transformed. Before, the man was hardly given a sideways glance unless it was to whisper about his failings. Now, the rich and powerful were flocking to his doorstep, practically begging him to make them a vessel. He spent the remainder of his years filthy rich and loving it, savoring his sweet, sweet revenge.

Solaire knows none of this. By the time he was born, the Ravenhearts had done everything possible to scrub his great-great grandfather from existence. A shame, really. If there ever was an heir to Jebidiah, there would be no man more deserving than the future dread pirate captain.

***

As Soliare continued down the hallways, he took a moment to ponder the aftermath. How would he feel after he killed his father?

Of course, he was hoping he wouldn’t have to find out. Maybe this had all been a big misunderstanding. Maybe the charge in the ledger was something else, totally innocuous, some strange coincidence that they could laugh over one day. Yes, that would be preferable.

But being hopeful is not the same as being a fool. Yes, he wanted that outcome, but he also knew that it wasn’t going to happen. It was far too obvious what that charge in the ledger meant, and this was mostly a formality to rule out the impossible before doing what needed to be done.

So the question remained: how would he feel? Would there be remorse? Probably not; he was doing this in cold blood, after all. Would he feel sadness? Again, unlikely. There was little redeeming about the spineless wonder pretending to be a man currently sitting in his study. Maybe it would be pity. Yes, that was most likely. Pity over the sad creature his father had become, the same one would feel when putting an old dog down.

The pistol at his side softly chimed in with quiet tinks and clicks, more than happy to agree.

***

The phrase “it’s always greener at the next pasture” is a common one amoungst the shepherds of Nestoria. It means that things you want are always more appealing than the things one has. That particular quirk of human nature was exemplified in the next “great” Ravenheart, Alphonse Ravenheart.

Alphonse was not the child of Jebidiah; that distinction fell to Hassan. Hassan was seven when Jebidiah began his construction of the Raven's Revenge, so he knew the significance of what his father had done. He remembered the cold nights spent in his tiny shack of a home, trying to fall asleep so he could forget about the grumbling of his belly, hoping that whatever new shipwreck awaited his father would not be the one to do him in and dreading the month-long wait to hear from him again. Then Hassan woke up one day to discover his father was rich. All of those concerns were gone, now becoming things that happened to other people. He never forgot that, and so dedicated himself to pouring just as much of his soul into the company as his father did before him. Under Hassan, the Ravenheart Shipwriting Industries grew tenfold as he hired mastercraftsmen and apprentices alike, pouring over the accounting reports to find ways to efficincize, enrich, and overall enlarge the business. By the time he was ready to pass the helm along to his son Alphonse, the Industries were truly a powerhouse.

But Alphonse didn’t have his father’s suffering. All he had was his own: the teasing remarks by his peers, the patronizing manners of the men his father did business with, the quiet whispers of  “he’s a Ravenheart, you know” when they thought he wasn’t listening. Alphonse was tired of being rich; what he really, really wanted was to be powerful.

So once the company was in his hands, he set about making it respectable. First, he cut down on the “regular” line of ships, focusing their efforts and capital on the luxury ships. Then he started creating the trappings of an aristocratic family. He commissioned the Ravenheart Mansion Solaire is currently walking down, designed his own coat of arms, and hired enough servants to staff the militia of a small city. Finally, he capped it off with a particularly Ravenheart commodiety: he designed and had built the second Raven's Revenge, larger, grander, and more spectacular than the original in every way.

Once that was done, he set about the arduous task of rubbing elbows with society, no small feat when society treats you with as much respect as they do their stableboy. Alphonse was getting nowhere until he, quite by chance, happened to run across the Lord Minister of Dinas himself, Sir Balaby Wallop. Balaby was quite the outgoing character and he found that the position of elected ruler of the kingdom suited him perfectly; the kingdom really just ran itself, giving him free reign to galavant across the country and be bombastic to everyone he met in the name of “connecting with the people”. Alphonse was one of those people, and once he realized the potential in such a friendship, he insisted on creating and gifting a custom craft for the Lord Minister, the Golden Iris, which he could sail down the coast to meet all of his adoring supporters. The Lord Minister thought that this was just wonderful, just wonderful old boy, and when the Golden Iris turned out to be seconded in beauty only to the Raven's Revenge itself, it wasn’t long until the highest authority in the land was shouting about his great friend Alphonse and he made this for me, didn’t you know?

Society changed its tune then. Begrudgingly, for the establishment can not accept any change non begrudgingly, but changed all the same. After all, no amount of hang ups or rumors about grandfathers could change the fact that this man knew the Lord Minister. That was worth more than gold, and Alphonse loved watching those who hadn’t wanted to give him the time of day ask if he wanted to join them at the old lodge this Saturday.

There was only one potential problem: his children. Alphonse had married a respectable woman, because he saw that’s what an aristocrat does. Then he noticed that the aristocrats all have heirs, so a child was quickly conceived. Those Saturday hunting lodge boys also liked to talk a lot about how the youngest child was so different from the older one, so plans were also drawn up for a second one as soon as they were finished with the first.

But children are not like coats of arms, where one can make one, hang it on the wall, and forget about it until company comes over and compliments it, and worse still, they could be chaotic and unpredictable. Alphonse had worked hard for this station and he wasn’t about to lose it because one of his sons decided to stuff a ferret down the trousers of the Duke of Verdan, so he wasted no time integrating the children into daily life.

And by that, I mean terrify into submission.

Leonardo and Danby Ravenheart were raised into a world of fear and perfection, where obedience was demanded and the difference between a salad fork and a dinner fork was the difference between life and death, for Alphonse had little patience for failure. The switch became his favored method of communicating with his sons, and though this most definitely scarred both boys for life in more ways than just one, it worked: Leonardo and Danby were the most respectable children in all of Dinas. They were polite, respectful, reserved, courteous, well-groomed and dead inside. It was all Alphonse could have ever wanted.

You may think that I am exaggerating, or that I am being too harsh on Alphonse and his supposed motives, but consider this anecdote for a moment: Alphonse once loudly told a group of friends at a dinner party “It’s such a shame that we have to go through this whole ‘heir’ business, giving our hard work over to someone else to screw up later. If I could commission the mage’s college to create a young copy of myself to take over the business when I died, I would.” This statement was overheard by both of his sons, and moreover, he knew they had heard him, because they were standing completely still in the empty, unlit room right next store, waiting for their father to call them into the party so that he could introduce his friends to them.

***

Solaire was staring at a painting on the wall and he had to stop.

Not because it was a bad painting; far from it, it was a stunning depiction of a ship on the waves, tossed about by a storm while one man, presumably the captain, clung to the masts and shouted into the wind. It had been painted by the genius artist De Capis Morgulete and the skill practically leaked from the canvas into the real world. One could almost see the ship bob and hear the winds howl.

This had been a particular favorite of him and his sister’s game of “Stories”. When they were truly bored (something that happened far more often than either would admit), they would walk through the halls and stop at the various masterwork pieces on the walls, each taking a turn describing what was going on and how it had gotten to this point. Most of these were portraits of family that offered little inspiration (with the exception of the legendary rivalry between Hassan the Cabbage Farmer and Alphonse the Chicken Rancher, a tale more spectacular than master bard Leonard Wallace’s “Epic of Florentine”), but this was a classic. The man in the portrait had been a long lost lover, a pirate, a father, a whaler, a prisoner, and a navy captain, and yet here he was, still stuck in the storm.

And here was Solaire, still staring at the painting. He could tell that this was the last shred of civility desperately clawing at his brain, trying to convince him to stay, look at the nice painting, have we ever talked about how great it is to not kill your father? Were he a poet, or a bard, or really anyone with a scrap of romanticism in his soul, Solaire would appreciate the symbolism of the storm and the man inside, but Solaire was not any of these things, and so he was mostly just annoyed at the inconvenience of his ingrained human decency.

But maybe, the little civility shred piped up, we could think about this. I’m sure we could find a way to…

The silver gleam of the Ivory caught his eye, and the water-swirling patterns appeared in his vision.

Solaire moved on.

***

It’s hard not to wonder about how things might have been different sometimes, and the character of Leonardo Ravenheart inspires such questions. What would have happened if fate had chosen a different man to fill in that place in the Ravenheart genealogy? Or indeed, any man at all? For you see, Alphonse had raised a son, but not an heir.

Not that an heir was really needed. By the time the fourth Ravenheart had taken his seat at the helm of Ravenheart Industries, there was really very little for him to do. Jebidiah’s machinations were still working soundly, Hassan’s improvements had made the whole company basically run itself, and Alphonse had climbed it to the top rung it could. The only goal left to achieve was to sit around and wait to become and “old money” family. But until that point, there were a few things that needed to be done, one of which being finding a wife. A respectable woman from respectable society, so that they may be respectable together. And here is the only thing that Leonardo ever did right in his lifetime: he married Caroline Matthelide.

Caroline was a rare creature, especially in the stuffy world that is aristocracy. She was funny, and cheerful, and rarest of all, fun. She was also the daughter of a political family empire, so she was a perfect candidate of respectability, even if she had a bad habit of making the proper men of the hunting lodges blush and mutter under their breaths. He pursued her nonstop until she said yes (I believe that represented the vestigial traces of Leonardo’s spine), and so they were married in a grand fashion and the whole wife business was attended to.

Next, an heir. The relationship was consummated, and it wasn’t long until Caroline’s stomach bulged with the signs of a growing child. Both were overjoyed, and Leonardo was more than content to commit to one child, to spend all of his time and energy on just one son, but the son turned out to be a daughter, and a daughter is not an heir, so Leonardo was ordered back to the bedroom by his dead father. You might think that the last part is a joke, but I have seen Leonardo’s journal squeeze in the words “would have” to the statement “my father told me today” after the fact so many times that I do believe he was actually haunted by the memory of the man (and before you ask, no, it wasn’t a real ghost; Alphonse was cremated). Quite a torture, when you think about it. Soliare would become quite the expert in cruelties, yet I don’t think even he could dream up a fate worse than the inclusion of your dead, disappointed father in your marital bed. I certainly can’t.

Fortunately for Leonardo, the next one was a son (which is good; I don’t think his sanity could take the creation of another child). And since Caroline had gotten to name the first one, he got to name this one. This is how River and Solaire came to be.

But amidst the joy, fate decided to take one more cruel twist. Caroline, the radiant beautiful creature, had gotten ill whilst carrying Solaire, and she never truly recovered. She soldiered on as best she could, but by the time Solaire was six, she could soldier no more; she had become bedridden and delirious and the doctors were no closer to curing or even understanding the ailment than when she had first contracted it. Solaire’s only memory of his mother was standing by her bedside during one of her rare moments of lucidity, River holding his hand, both shedding tears as Caroline struggled to look at each of them.

“You take care of him,” she told River.

“I will, mom” she replied.

“And you take care of her,” she said, turning to Solaire. “There is no bond more important than family.”

He hadn’t been able to respond. All he could manage was more tears.

Leonardo was heartbroken, but as his Bible, “The Guide to Proper Gentlemanship” told him, it is only acceptable to be a widower if it has happened twice in unsuspicious circumstances, so he began to pursue courtship once the proper amount of mourning time had passed (seven weeks, Alphonse helpfully reminded him). And it’s here more speculation arises. What if Caroline had never died? What if he had finally used this moment to throw off the chains and make his own decisions? What if he had married anyone else in the world other than Matilda Dotz? A garden slug, perhaps. At least there would have been more brains in the family that way.

You see, Matilda was from an “old money” family. In fact, the money was so old no one really remembered how they got it, which was a shame because that meant that no one remembered how to make more of it. Mr. and Mrs. Dotz had therefore thrown the standard alarm bells of aristocracy in such situations, which was to make sure as many children married rich families as possible. Matilda was thrilled with the plan. She was raised on a steady diet of champagne and finger sandwiches from social parties. She loved to dance. She loved to gossip. She was born and raised for the ball, and being married to a rich man would mean that she would get to go to more.

She practically stalked Leonardo after his wife died, and after sensing that he was open again, she threw herself into his arms, doing everything short of stripping in front of the man to make him desire her. It didn’t quite work; Leonardo never really became attracted to or interested in the woman. But she was quite obviously open to the idea of marriage, and he was never one to let something as trivial as “self-integrity” stand in his way, so a second wedding took place.

Much of this happened in the background of River and Solaire’s lives, the same way the weather happens to us. Once Caroline had died, the two were mostly left to their own devices. Leonardo would just mumble things like “oh, very nice, that’s good” to them until they left the room, sometimes without even realizing that his children weren’t trying to talk to him, and Matilda was too busy organizing another party to even realize they existed. And so they grew up with quite a bit of money, little to do, and no oversight.

Now history tells us that, in the case of such upbringings, the only guarantee is that the child will grow up to be a wild troublemaker. It certainly worked with Soliare. The boy thrived on disobedience the same way a wizard thrives on a lack of sunlight and it was near impossible to get him to do anything unless the thing was something you very specifically wanted him not to do. In fact, he was so consistent in this that the servants had what was known as a “troublepool”, in which they placed bets on what the newest complaint would be. Popular choices included “stealing from Darthow’s orchard”, “getting into a fist-fight”, “shoplifting from the market square”, and “black powder explosion”, which, though it only happened once, was so spectacular that it made the pool every time afterwards.

River, though, seemed to be cut from a different cloth. The tall, slender, occasionally shy girl spent her days alone, reading alone in her room or out in the nearby meadows sketching landscapes. Her tutors noted her intelligence and quick learning of the creative arts, drawing, piano, prose and poetry, but such comments were wasted on the Ravenheart family; if anyone tried to let her parents know about her potential, they would find Matilda with company and Leonardo not listening. It’s quite a testament to River’s abilities that any of them tried, as most were probably too preoccupied with the fact that Solaire had set fire to his practice books again.

When they weren’t being schooled or pursuing their individual interests, the two spent time together, though those moments are few and far between as the childhood of most brothers and sisters often resemble less the romantic ideals of family than the activities of two enemies forced to share a common roof. And yes, Solaire and River had their fair share of those moments between them. But sometimes opposites make good compliments, and that rule held more often than not for the young Ravenhearts. Whenever Solaire’s adventures journeyed outside the realm of simple boyhood scuffles and into the territory of real trouble, his first call for help always went to his older sister River. And should River retreat from reservedness to withdrawal, it was only Solaire who noticed and only Solaire who found a way to fix it. This is also to say nothing of the invisible ties siblings accrue as they age: the small favors, the preferential treatment, the secrets kept and the inside jokes shared.

One such moment came on a summer afternoon when Solaire came home more battered than usual, so much so that he knocked on his sister’s door for assistance. He had become accustomed to stitching small tears and bandaging cuts, but this was beyond his usual level of expertise. River opened the door, saw her younger brother bleeding onto the nice carpeting, and immediately pulled him inside, washing the wounds out, wrapping the cuts, and attending to the bruises. Only once Solaire was fully attended to medically and she turned her attention to repairing his clothes did she stop and ask what had happened.

“Johnny Mannow and his friends were saying stuff about you. He said you were a ‘stuck up bitch who’s heart was so cold you probably got off with icicles.’”

River sighed. “You aren’t even supposed to know what those words mean.”

Solaire stared at the floor, unable to meet her eye.

She returned to sewing the sleeve back to Solaire’s jacket. “What on earth possessed you to fight him anyways? He’s five years older than you.”

“Not just him!” he piped up. “I went up to all of his friends, and I went ‘Hey! You need to take those things you said about my sister back right now!’, and he just chuckled and punched me, so I punched him back, and then they got around me in a circle and started shoving…”

“They?! Who else did you fight?!”

Solaire looked up at the ceiling as if he was calculating a math problem. “There was Tommy, and Briant, and Zelne, and that one kid who looks like he has a dead pumpkin for a face…”

“You could have gotten yourself killed!”

“I had to! He was talking about you to everyone! I couldn’t just…”

“Listen to me,” River said, putting down his jacket and clasping his hands in hers, “don’t do that again. I don’t care what they say about me, alright? All people like that want is attention, Solaire. They insult people who are weaker than them so that the weak people try to fight back, and when they can’t, they get to feel strong. You refuse to play that game and they deflate like an angry balloon. All I care about is what happens to you. So no more fighting Johnny Mannow, okay?”

Solaire nodded.

“Good. Besides, Johnny is such a moron he probably needs an instruction manual to piss.” She handed him back his jacket and Solaire giggled.

***

There was no hesitation when Solaire had gotten to the doors of the study; he had used all his hesitation up. Instead, he shoved the heavy woods open with so much force that they banged against the walls as he strode in.

“Please don’t do that Solaire” the thin bespectacled frame of Leonardo muttered without looking up. He was bent over a large ledger, writing down lines of tiny neat numbers.

Solaire strode up right to his desk and stared down at him. “Where is River?”

“Hmm?” He looked up at his son. “Don’t you remember? She was married off to Sir Ravenby Dulges of the Dulges family. With the ongoing war with the Kellian Empire, our luxury ships are no longer in demand, and with an alliance to the blackpowder…”

“Blackpowder-manufacturing-family-whose-services-are-required-in-war-we-will-save- ourselves-in-the-short-term-and-set-up-a-powerful-alliance-in-the-future. Yes, I know. I heard you say it a million times when you were convincing River to sell her soul for the sake of the family.”

“Well then, there’s your answer.” He smiled and returned to his ledger.

Solaire slammed his palms into the desk. “Look at me when I’m talking to you, old man!”

Leoardo jumped and stared at his son with wide eyes, throwing his ledger in front of him like a shield. After a moment, he squeaked “I-is this about Dulges? Because I assure you, he’s a perfect gentleman…”

“No this isn’t about Dulges! Gods know what River saw in him to think that this was okay, but she went along with it. No…” he leaned over until he was mere inches away from his face, “this is about the fact that Dulges hasn’t seen her, his own wife, in several months, and when I asked him about it, he said that Matilda told him that River wasn’t feeling too well and that she was staying here, with us, until she got better.”

“You really shouldn’t call her by her first name like that.”

Soliare lunged and grabbed his father by the collar of his shirt, dragging him to his feet. Leonardo yelped. “Alright, alright, I can explain, just put me down please!”

Solaire pushed him, forcing the man to collapse in his chair. “Good. Start with this.” He flopped the ledger onto the table. “Page 149, column 16, row 5.”

“Ah. That.” He pushed the ledger away from him with the tip of his pen as if it was a dead animal. “That would be the payment labeled ‘River’ for 700,000 gold, right?”

Solaire stared pure death at him.

“Right, well, that was a… um… very… large, very generous, reverse-dowry from the Dulges family. All the rage with high society these days. Very nice of them, don’t you think? So why don’t we go down to the garden and....”

He began to rise, and as he did, Solaire raised the large silver revolver until it was pointed right at his face.

Leonardo dropped back into the chair and issued a sound that resembled a mouses’ gasp. “O-o-or n-not! We c-could just… sit here and enj-joy the quiet comforts of the study!”

Solaire cocked back the hammer of the gun. “Tell. Me. The. Truth.”

“I…” Leonardo gulped. “The war with Kellia hit us harder than we thought it would. We all thought it’d be over by the end of the year, but when it didn’t, the orders started dropping faster than we could adjust for. I looked over our expenses and tried to convince Matilda that we needed to buckle down, cut back until things were rosier, but she made quite the observation! She pointed out that River was around the age where she really should be getting married, and that Duldges had taken quite a fancy to her, and that surely everyone needed black powder now that we were all fighting! Quite ingenious, don’t you think?”

Solaire didn’t say anything.

“R-right… Well, we had the big wedding, and then Matilda went to the Senior Duldges with the proposition that we should all have a big ball to celebrate the union between these two powerful families; you know how she loves parties and balls, heh heh… Ahem. Anyway, he said no, because we were at war, and they needed to use all of their capital to expanding production so they could help out the Dinan Navy. I mean, good for him, have to respect a patriotic man, but that put us in quite the pickle, didn’t it? We still had quite a bit of money we needed to make up. A-and that’s when Matilda remembered that one of her friends visiting from Nestoria had told her that there were certain… markets that specialized in hard to sell commodities, and that there were always a… demand… for well educated… pale skinned…”

“You sold her” Soliare interrupted. His tone wasn’t angry, or in disbelief, but instead a depressed resignation, like a man hearing the news that a loved one had finally passed away from a terminal disease. “You sold her into slavery.”

A deathly silence filled the room, as if it were a cat settling in to watch an injured bird.

Leonardo’s face softened. “Look, Solaire…”

He turned to face his father.

“I know you two were close, but she’s probably fine. They said the people who…”

Solaire squeezed the trigger and the pistol exploded into an earth-shattering roar, rattling the windows in their frames and causing the loose papers in the room to take flight into the air. As they did, the top half of Leonardo’s head disintegrated into pink mist. For a second, the half-decapitated body leaned backwards, almost as if it was turning to look up at the new crimson layer painting the back wall of the study, before falling forward onto the desk, pouring a lake of blood onto the surface. He let the arm holding the pistol fall to his side as his body filled with a quiet rage.

So that’s how it felt.

For a moment, he thought about beating the body, swearing at his late father for being a disgusting waste of human material, but the Ivory had proven catharsis enough. There was only one person left to deal with and somehow he doubted he’d feel anything killing her.

***

Matilda was in the ballroom, staring intently at a pink vase with blue flowers and a blue vase with pink flowers. Soliare walked in, sat down on one of the chairs, and waited for her to turn around, but after waiting a minute and realizing that she wasn’t going to, he cleared his throat.Startled, she turned around and saw him. “Oh! Saltmare! I’m glad you’re here! There’s something very important I need to talk to you about.”

“Solaire,” he corrected.

“Right, right, now…” she held up the two vases. “Which one do you think looks better? Be honest, the color scheme hinges upon this decision.”

He regarded the vases for a moment. “Blue vase.”

“Really?” She furrowed her brow and put it back on the table.

“Matilda, do you think River is alright?”

“What?” She sat down next to Solaire and hugged his shoulders. “Of course she is. I know what’s going on is scary and that you’re worried about your sister, but everything’s fine.” She gave a warm smile and walked off to another table, humming to herself.

Solaire sighed and stood up. “Of course. I don’t know what I was expecting.”

Matilda laughed. “It’s alright. It’s perfectly natural for you to be concerned about your sister, now that she’s married and out of your…” She turned around to see Solaire pointing the massive gun straight at her stomach, all color draining from her face.

“I figured maybe I could get an explanation, a reason why, but there is none, is there? Might as well not drag this out.”

“Solaire, please…”

“Please what? Give you a chance? Maybe I should try marrying you off before checking an estimate on the slaver’s market, see if either of those are more profitable than just killing you?”

Matilda was now crying. “Please, just put the gun down. We can talk about this. Don’t kill me with your family’s own pistol.”

“Hmm? Oh don’t worry, I’m not going to kill you with the Ivory.” He raised the pistol just high enough to put the barrel out of range of his step-mother.

Relief washed over Matilda’s face.

“Tell father I’ll be down after I fetch River.” The pistol swung down and exploded once more as a large hole materialized in the center of Matilda’s stomach, sending her flying backwards to land and slide on her own blood and viscera, spreading a long streak of red and dark-brown as her body slid across the smooth wood floor, stopping to rest with a shocked expression in her glassy eyes.

Solaire held the pistol up to the light, watching it dance over the water-pattern engravings on its surface. It was now the Ivory River, and that, he thought, was a small but important difference, because that meant that it was his, and no longer beholden to any other Ravenheart.

Much like himself.

***

For the sake of brevity, I will skip over the next few hours or so: the long washing period Solaire spent riding his clothes and skin of blood, the meticulous spilling of alcohol, the long journey down to the meadows and the backbreaking eternity spent digging the hole. Instead, I will skip to this moment, as Solaire finishes covering the hole that now hides most of his family fortune under feet and feet of dirt.

He stood, wiped off his hands, and searched for his lantern nearby. It was dark out, but fortunately it managed to glint of the light provided by the burning Mansion Ravenheart. He grabbed it and headed towards the family docks.

The plan was simple. Find River. Once he had her back, he’d set her up as the head of the family Ravenheart and let her live her life, the way she should have in the first place. In the meantime, Danby could manage the business. He could at least run it without resorting to human trafficking, even if it would be a tiny bit smaller when he got back. River could decide if she wanted to have a go with that whole Duldges thing if the loss of money upset her. And should he die, the note in his jacket and the treasure he buried should assure she got rescued anyway. No way anyone in their right mind would turn down that amount of money, and the only way they could get it was if they asked River where their favorite spot to play was. Not that he planned on dying; the only way he could make sure this whole rescue didn’t get screwed up was if he did it.

As a breeze wafted over the ocean, bringing with it the sweet smell of salted waves, Solaire couldn’t help but smile. Yes, he was still upset over the whole affair, but he could also taste something else, the same way one tastes a strange content after indulging in a long cry. It was the taste of independence. No more ledgers, or balls, or polite society, or proper english, or blackpowder families. Just his wits and his luck, alone together to make or break himself, and though he doesn’t know it, he is heading the siren’s call of the sea that Jebidiah and countless other sailors have answered before him: the beaconing of true freedom.

He shook his head. Not now, he needed to focus. There hadn’t been much of a paper trail, so this was going to be a long road ahead. After climbing aboard the Raven’s Revenge (Forlorn Rose, he decided, it’s mine now, so it’s called the Forlorn Rose), he held the lantern up and read the page from the ledger he had confronted his father over a lifetime ago.

“River, 700,000 gp, added to Ravenheart Family Fund. Paid by X, Cosigned by Mr. Weiss.”

Mr. Weiss. That was a start, at least.

[starwarsnewsit]

Star Wars: perché Jar Jar, droidi e Ewok sono arte di Lucas allo stato puro

New Post has been published on https://www.starwarsnews.it/2018/10/19/star-wars-jar-jar-droidi-ewok/

Star Wars: perché Jar Jar, droidi e Ewok sono arte di Lucas allo stato puro

STAR WARS. Il fandom, pur dichiarando di amare Guerre Stellari, non sempre riesce ad accettare pienamente l’arte di George Lucas. E’ un dato di fatto, visto il destino subito da un personaggio come Jar Jar Binks che è stato “accantonato” e messo in disparte per la ribellione di chi ha una visione “più cupa” della saga.

Jar Jar Binks, così come gli Ewok, i droidi, i personaggi più strani e bizzarri che abbiamo visto nella Trilogia Originale e Prequel, sono un simbolo della vera arte di George Lucas. Rappresentano la sua libertà creativa, il suo essere, la sua visione del mondo, quella magia che vaga nella sua testa e che è una perenne celebrazione dell’infanzia.

L’autore parla delle difficoltà dell’esistenza, di corsi e ricorsi storici drammatici, ma non può far a meno di introdurre il tutto con elementi di beffeggiamento verso quei poteri oscuri che opprimono la libertà dell’uomo e la giustizia. I suoi “pupazzi e giocatoli parlanti” sono la chiave per demolire il male: rappresentano la sua risata, quasi isterica, che ritiene l’antidoto ideale ai problemi della vita. L’infanzia che prevale sui meccanismi intricati e tediosi dell’età adulta; una fanciullezza goliardica usata come colpo di spugna sulla cattiveria di certi sistemi legati al potere assoluto. Per questo gli Stormtrooper hanno una mira indecente, pur essendo l’esercito di un Impero ventennale governato dal più grande genio criminale di sempre…

Dunque un personaggio come Jar Jar Binks è Star Wars al 100%, quello vero, non quello che vive nella testa dei fan. Perché un film senza l’ironia, l’allegria, la giocosità di Lucas, senza le sue “sciocchezze fuori luogo”, è un Guerre Stellari a metà. Probabilmente una pellicola come Rogue One: A Star Wars Story ha passaggi narrativi più seriosi e meno fastidiosi: rispetta più l’ideale di Star Wars sviluppatosi nella mente di una grossa parte del fandom, che l’ideale dello stesso creatore.

Star Wars – Jar Jar fa parte della perfezione intesa dal creatore

Star Wars è anche buffo, a volte quasi stupido, spesso provocatorio verso gli stessi spettatori. Ha talmente tanti elementi grotteschi che negare questo aspetto è uno schiaffo in faccia al creatore della saga e all’intera opera. Si può essere fan di una “parte” di Guerre Stellari e ripudiare determinati elementi, ma in questo caso lo si deve fare con la consapevolezza che manca un amore globale verso la perfezione dell’opera. Un’opera è perfetta quando il suo autore può esprimersi liberamente e parlare di se stesso e della sua visione del mondo senza ascoltare i borbottii degli scontenti. Per una questione “commerciale” anche George Lucas ha dovuto fare i suoi passi indietro.

Però ha potuto togliersi tante soddisfazioni: in apertura della Trilogia Originale sceglie due droidi buffi (R2-D2 e C3-PO) come eroi della Galassia. I loro dialoghi sembrano stonare in uno scenario di guerra, in un contesto serio e maturo. Invece, lui ci punta i riflettori addosso, più del dovuto, rendendoli pedine chiave per la sconfitta del male. La “prima passeggiata” dei due su Tatooine, lunga e piena di dialoghi elementari, è una vera e propria dichiarazione di identità da parte di Lucas: questo è Star Wars. Jar Jar Binks è Star Wars.

E George non ha mai smesso di farlo capire. Il suo episodio preferito di tutta la serie televisiva The Clone Wars, non a caso, è A Sunny Day in the Void (Giorno di sole nel nulla). In questa puntata i veri protagonisti sono proprio gli astrodroidi, con le loro peripezie, le loro scelte bizzarre, i loro suoni strambi,  le loro forme atipiche e inadatte, i colori accesi…

[james1sanders-blog]

LEG 320 Week 1 Quiz – Strayer NEW

Click on the Link Below to Purchase A+ Graded Course Material

 http://budapp.net/LEG-320-Week-1-Quiz-Strayer-442.htm

 CHAPTER 1

CRIMINAL LAW: PURPOSES, SCOPE, AND SOURCES

 MULTIPLE CHOICE

 1.         An example of private law is

a.

criminal law

b.

criminal procedure

c.

divorce

d.

Constitutional law

   2.         The law of criminal procedure deals with

a.

the law followed in the investigation and processing of a crime

b.

the definition of  crimes

c.

contractual issues

d.

torts

   3.         The substantive criminal law

a.

defines the standards of conduct for protection of the community

b.

is an important  branch of private law

c.

is no longer  followed in the U.S.

d.

defines the steps  followed in processing a criminal case

   4.         A person might commit a crime for any of the following reasons except?

a.

fear of arrest and  punishment

b.

insufficient moral or ethical restraints

c.

peer pressure

d.

opportunity  combined with capacity and skill

   5.         A tort is

a.

a public wrong  against society

b.

a civil wrong done to a person or her property

c.

a crime

d.

always a moral  wrong

  6.         If a person intentionally damages a building owned by another person, this action

a.

is a crime, but not  a tort

b.

is a tort, but not  a crime

c.

is neither a tort  nor a crime

d.

is both a tort and a crime

   7.         The Latin maxim nulla poena sine lege means

a.

no law without  punishment

b.

no punishment  without a moral wrong

c.

no punishment without law

d.

no law without  morality

   8.         Which of the following is not one of the four generally recognized goals of the criminal justice system?

a.

discourage people  from committing crimes

b.

protect society form dangerous people

c.

punish people have  committed crimes

d.

help victims harmed  by crime

   9.         To be enforceable, state criminal laws must be consistent with

a.

civil law

b.

substantive law

c.

procedural law

d.

the U.S. and State Constitutions

   10.       An ex post facto law is basically a

a.

legislative  infliction of criminal punishment without a trial

b.

retroactive criminal statute

c.

limitation on  freedom of speech

d.

federal criminal  statute

   11.       A bill of attainder is

a.

also known as an ex  post facto law

b.

a legislative act that inflicts punishment without a trial

c.

a retroactive  criminal statute

d.

a type of  international law

   12.       The due process clause is found in the _____ Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

a.

First

b.

Fourth

c.

Eighth

d.

Fourteenth

   13.       What is the name of the inherent power of every state and local government, subject to constitutional limits, to enact criminal laws?

a.

police power

b.

constitutional  authority

c.

bill of attainder

d.

constitutional  power

   14.       Which branch of the government enacts criminal laws?

a.

the legislative  branch

b.

the judicial branch

c.

the executive branch

d.

the state branch

   15.       A statute making heroin addiction, by itself, a crime would most likely

a.

be upheld by the  U.S. Supreme Court

b.

be found unconstitutional

c.

violate the  overbreadth doctrine

d.

conflict with  present day drug statutes

   16.       A statute which punishes a status, or condition of disease, violates the

a.

First Amendment

b.

Fourth Amendment

c.

Sixth Amendment

d.

Eighth Amendment

   17.       The equal protection clause is found in the

a.

First Amendment

b.

Fourth Amendment

c.

Eighth Amendment

d.

Fourteenth Amendment

    18.       The equal protection clause applies

a.

to criminal laws  only

b.

to civil laws only

c.

to both criminal and civil laws

d.

to federal laws,  not state laws

   19.       Status crimes are criminal laws that punish a status, such as drug addiction, with no act requirement. The issue of status laws began when California passed a law making addiction to what drug a crime?

a.

heroin

b.

marijuana

c.

cocaine

d.

morphine

   20.       The Latin maxim nulla poena sine lege is also known as:

a.

the  principle of legality

b.

the Fifth amendment  principle

c.

the retroactive  prohibition principle

d.

the legal principle  of prohibition

   21.       Which branch of the government administers and enforces criminal laws?

a.

the legislative  branch

b.

the judicial branch

c.

the executive branch

d.

the state branch

    22.       The _____ Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides that “[t]he powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

a.

First

b.

Fifth

c.

Eighth

d.

Tenth

   23.       In the U.S., the supreme law of the land is considered to be

a.

the constitution of  each state

b.

federal statutes

c.

Presidential  Executive Orders

d.

the U.S. Constitution

   24.       Which branch of the government determines the constitutionality of laws or ordinances?

a.

the legislative  branch

b.

the judicial branch

c.

the executive branch

d.

the state branch

    25.       Which of the following is true of the standards set by moral laws compared to those set by criminal laws?

a.

The standards set  by moral laws are generally higher than those set by criminal laws.

b.

The standards set  by moral laws are generally lower than those set by criminal laws.

c.

The standards set  by moral laws are generally the same as those set by criminal laws.

d.

None of these answers are true

   26.       The first and earliest source of criminal laws was

a.

common law

b.

administrative  regulations

c.

constitutions

d.

statutes

   27.       In the early 1600s, most colonists in North America

a.

followed English common law

b.

had only moral, not  criminal laws

c.

drafted new  criminal statutes

d.

addressed wrongs  only in ecclesiastical courts

   28.       After the American Revolution, the first criminal statutes in this country

a.

created new crimes  unknown to English common law

b.

adopted Roman law  principles of crime

c.

converted common law crimes into statutory crimes

d.

incorporated the  extensive penal codes of several European countries

   29.       All of the following are constitutional limitations on criminal laws except?

a.

ex post facto laws

b.

due process

c.

void for vagueness

d.

overbreadth  doctrine

   30.       Which of the following type of crimes is punishable by one year or more in state prison?

a.

felonies

b.

misdemeanors

c.

status crimes

d.

common law crimes

   TRUE/FALSE

 1.         An ex post facto law is a law which has a retroactive effect.

  2.         An alcoholic cannot be convicted for the offense of being drunk in a public place based upon the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.

  3.         Substantive criminal law deals with the minimum standards of behavior in society.

  4.         Agencies within the legislative branch of government administer and enforce laws.

  5.         The “prior notice” doctrine requires that fair warning be given in language that the ordinary person will understand.

  6.         Status crimes have no act requirement.

  7.         One reason a person would not commit a crime is that they fear arrest.

  8.         Police power is the inherent power of the federal government, subject to constitutional limits, to enact criminal laws.

  9.         One of the generally recognized goals of the criminal justice system is to protect society from dangerous and harmful people.

  10.       All states have abolished common law crimes.

  COMPLETION

 1.         Law enforcement agencies are found in the ___________ branch of government.

  2.         The area of the civil law that is closest to the criminal law is _________ law.

  ort                          

 3.         The principle of legality is that no act should be made criminal or punished without                         warning in the form of legislative act.

  4.         The equal protection clause is found in the ______________ Amendment.

  5.         A statute which is unclear, ambiguous and uncertain may violate the doctrine of void for __________.

    6.         A legislative act that inflicts punishment without a trial is called a bill of ____________.

  7.         A ____________ asks the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision of a lower court.

  8.         The ban on cruel and unusual punishment is found in the _____________ Amendment.

  9.         One of the generally recognized goals of the criminal justice system is to

                                                people who have committed crimes.

  10.       If being a diabetic were a crime it would be a                         crime.

[erica1wright-blog]

LEG 320 Week 1 Quiz – Strayer NEW

Click on the Link Below to Purchase A+ Graded Course Material

 http://budapp.net/LEG-320-Week-1-Quiz-Strayer-442.htm

 CHAPTER 1

CRIMINAL LAW: PURPOSES, SCOPE, AND SOURCES

 MULTIPLE CHOICE

 1.         An example of private law is

a.

criminal law

b.

criminal procedure

c.

divorce

d.

Constitutional law

   2.         The law of criminal procedure deals with

a.

the law followed in the investigation and processing of a crime

b.

the definition of  crimes

c.

contractual issues

d.

torts

   3.         The substantive criminal law

a.

defines the standards of conduct for protection of the community

b.

is an important  branch of private law

c.

is no longer  followed in the U.S.

d.

defines the steps  followed in processing a criminal case

   4.         A person might commit a crime for any of the following reasons except?

a.

fear of arrest and  punishment

b.

insufficient moral or ethical restraints

c.

peer pressure

d.

opportunity  combined with capacity and skill

   5.         A tort is

a.

a public wrong  against society

b.

a civil wrong done to a person or her property

c.

a crime

d.

always a moral  wrong

  6.         If a person intentionally damages a building owned by another person, this action

a.

is a crime, but not  a tort

b.

is a tort, but not  a crime

c.

is neither a tort  nor a crime

d.

is both a tort and a crime

   7.         The Latin maxim nulla poena sine lege means

a.

no law without  punishment

b.

no punishment  without a moral wrong

c.

no punishment without law

d.

no law without  morality

   8.         Which of the following is not one of the four generally recognized goals of the criminal justice system?

a.

discourage people  from committing crimes

b.

protect society form dangerous people

c.

punish people have  committed crimes

d.

help victims harmed  by crime

   9.         To be enforceable, state criminal laws must be consistent with

a.

civil law

b.

substantive law

c.

procedural law

d.

the U.S. and State Constitutions

   10.       An ex post facto law is basically a

a.

legislative  infliction of criminal punishment without a trial

b.

retroactive criminal statute

c.

limitation on  freedom of speech

d.

federal criminal  statute

   11.       A bill of attainder is

a.

also known as an ex  post facto law

b.

a legislative act that inflicts punishment without a trial

c.

a retroactive  criminal statute

d.

a type of  international law

   12.       The due process clause is found in the _____ Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

a.

First

b.

Fourth

c.

Eighth

d.

Fourteenth

   13.       What is the name of the inherent power of every state and local government, subject to constitutional limits, to enact criminal laws?

a.

police power

b.

constitutional  authority

c.

bill of attainder

d.

constitutional  power

   14.       Which branch of the government enacts criminal laws?

a.

the legislative  branch

b.

the judicial branch

c.

the executive branch

d.

the state branch

   15.       A statute making heroin addiction, by itself, a crime would most likely

a.

be upheld by the  U.S. Supreme Court

b.

be found unconstitutional

c.

violate the  overbreadth doctrine

d.

conflict with  present day drug statutes

   16.       A statute which punishes a status, or condition of disease, violates the

a.

First Amendment

b.

Fourth Amendment

c.

Sixth Amendment

d.

Eighth Amendment

   17.       The equal protection clause is found in the

a.

First Amendment

b.

Fourth Amendment

c.

Eighth Amendment

d.

Fourteenth Amendment

    18.       The equal protection clause applies

a.

to criminal laws  only

b.

to civil laws only

c.

to both criminal and civil laws

d.

to federal laws,  not state laws

   19.       Status crimes are criminal laws that punish a status, such as drug addiction, with no act requirement. The issue of status laws began when California passed a law making addiction to what drug a crime?

a.

heroin

b.

marijuana

c.

cocaine

d.

morphine

   20.       The Latin maxim nulla poena sine lege is also known as:

a.

the  principle of legality

b.

the Fifth amendment  principle

c.

the retroactive  prohibition principle

d.

the legal principle  of prohibition

   21.       Which branch of the government administers and enforces criminal laws?

a.

the legislative  branch

b.

the judicial branch

c.

the executive branch

d.

the state branch

    22.       The _____ Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides that “[t]he powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

a.

First

b.

Fifth

c.

Eighth

d.

Tenth

   23.       In the U.S., the supreme law of the land is considered to be

a.

the constitution of  each state

b.

federal statutes

c.

Presidential  Executive Orders

d.

the U.S. Constitution

   24.       Which branch of the government determines the constitutionality of laws or ordinances?

a.

the legislative  branch

b.

the judicial branch

c.

the executive branch

d.

the state branch

    25.       Which of the following is true of the standards set by moral laws compared to those set by criminal laws?

a.

The standards set  by moral laws are generally higher than those set by criminal laws.

b.

The standards set  by moral laws are generally lower than those set by criminal laws.

c.

The standards set  by moral laws are generally the same as those set by criminal laws.

d.

None of these answers are true

   26.       The first and earliest source of criminal laws was

a.

common law

b.

administrative  regulations

c.

constitutions

d.

statutes

   27.       In the early 1600s, most colonists in North America

a.

followed English common law

b.

had only moral, not  criminal laws

c.

drafted new  criminal statutes

d.

addressed wrongs  only in ecclesiastical courts

   28.       After the American Revolution, the first criminal statutes in this country

a.

created new crimes  unknown to English common law

b.

adopted Roman law  principles of crime

c.

converted common law crimes into statutory crimes

d.

incorporated the  extensive penal codes of several European countries

   29.       All of the following are constitutional limitations on criminal laws except?

a.

ex post facto laws

b.

due process

c.

void for vagueness

d.

overbreadth  doctrine

   30.       Which of the following type of crimes is punishable by one year or more in state prison?

a.

felonies

b.

misdemeanors

c.

status crimes

d.

common law crimes

   TRUE/FALSE

 1.         An ex post facto law is a law which has a retroactive effect.

  2.         An alcoholic cannot be convicted for the offense of being drunk in a public place based upon the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.

  3.         Substantive criminal law deals with the minimum standards of behavior in society.

  4.         Agencies within the legislative branch of government administer and enforce laws.

  5.         The “prior notice” doctrine requires that fair warning be given in language that the ordinary person will understand.

  6.         Status crimes have no act requirement.

  7.         One reason a person would not commit a crime is that they fear arrest.

  8.         Police power is the inherent power of the federal government, subject to constitutional limits, to enact criminal laws.

  9.         One of the generally recognized goals of the criminal justice system is to protect society from dangerous and harmful people.

  10.       All states have abolished common law crimes.

  COMPLETION

 1.         Law enforcement agencies are found in the ___________ branch of government.

  2.         The area of the civil law that is closest to the criminal law is _________ law.

  ort                          

 3.         The principle of legality is that no act should be made criminal or punished without                         warning in the form of legislative act.

  4.         The equal protection clause is found in the ______________ Amendment.

  5.         A statute which is unclear, ambiguous and uncertain may violate the doctrine of void for __________.

    6.         A legislative act that inflicts punishment without a trial is called a bill of ____________.

  7.         A ____________ asks the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision of a lower court.

  8.         The ban on cruel and unusual punishment is found in the _____________ Amendment.

  9.         One of the generally recognized goals of the criminal justice system is to

                                                people who have committed crimes.

  10.       If being a diabetic were a crime it would be a                         crime.

[fredericklandwehr-blog]

LEG 320 Week 1 Quiz – Strayer NEW

Click on the Link Below to Purchase A+ Graded Course Material

 http://budapp.net/LEG-320-Week-1-Quiz-Strayer-442.htm

 CHAPTER 1

CRIMINAL LAW: PURPOSES, SCOPE, AND SOURCES

 MULTIPLE CHOICE

 1.         An example of private law is

a.

criminal law

b.

criminal procedure

c.

divorce

d.

Constitutional law

   2.         The law of criminal procedure deals with

a.

the law followed in the investigation and processing of a crime

b.

the definition of  crimes

c.

contractual issues

d.

torts

   3.         The substantive criminal law

a.

defines the standards of conduct for protection of the community

b.

is an important  branch of private law

c.

is no longer  followed in the U.S.

d.

defines the steps  followed in processing a criminal case

   4.         A person might commit a crime for any of the following reasons except?

a.

fear of arrest and  punishment

b.

insufficient moral or ethical restraints

c.

peer pressure

d.

opportunity  combined with capacity and skill

   5.         A tort is

a.

a public wrong  against society

b.

a civil wrong done to a person or her property

c.

a crime

d.

always a moral  wrong

  6.         If a person intentionally damages a building owned by another person, this action

a.

is a crime, but not  a tort

b.

is a tort, but not  a crime

c.

is neither a tort  nor a crime

d.

is both a tort and a crime

   7.         The Latin maxim nulla poena sine lege means

a.

no law without  punishment

b.

no punishment  without a moral wrong

c.

no punishment without law

d.

no law without  morality

   8.         Which of the following is not one of the four generally recognized goals of the criminal justice system?

a.

discourage people  from committing crimes

b.

protect society form dangerous people

c.

punish people have  committed crimes

d.

help victims harmed  by crime

   9.         To be enforceable, state criminal laws must be consistent with

a.

civil law

b.

substantive law

c.

procedural law

d.

the U.S. and State Constitutions

   10.       An ex post facto law is basically a

a.

legislative  infliction of criminal punishment without a trial

b.

retroactive criminal statute

c.

limitation on  freedom of speech

d.

federal criminal  statute

   11.       A bill of attainder is

a.

also known as an ex  post facto law

b.

a legislative act that inflicts punishment without a trial

c.

a retroactive  criminal statute

d.

a type of  international law

   12.       The due process clause is found in the _____ Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

a.

First

b.

Fourth

c.

Eighth

d.

Fourteenth

   13.       What is the name of the inherent power of every state and local government, subject to constitutional limits, to enact criminal laws?

a.

police power

b.

constitutional  authority

c.

bill of attainder

d.

constitutional  power

   14.       Which branch of the government enacts criminal laws?

a.

the legislative  branch

b.

the judicial branch

c.

the executive branch

d.

the state branch

   15.       A statute making heroin addiction, by itself, a crime would most likely

a.

be upheld by the  U.S. Supreme Court

b.

be found unconstitutional

c.

violate the  overbreadth doctrine

d.

conflict with  present day drug statutes

   16.       A statute which punishes a status, or condition of disease, violates the

a.

First Amendment

b.

Fourth Amendment

c.

Sixth Amendment

d.

Eighth Amendment

   17.       The equal protection clause is found in the

a.

First Amendment

b.

Fourth Amendment

c.

Eighth Amendment

d.

Fourteenth Amendment

    18.       The equal protection clause applies

a.

to criminal laws  only

b.

to civil laws only

c.

to both criminal and civil laws

d.

to federal laws,  not state laws

   19.       Status crimes are criminal laws that punish a status, such as drug addiction, with no act requirement. The issue of status laws began when California passed a law making addiction to what drug a crime?

a.

heroin

b.

marijuana

c.

cocaine

d.

morphine

   20.       The Latin maxim nulla poena sine lege is also known as:

a.

the  principle of legality

b.

the Fifth amendment  principle

c.

the retroactive  prohibition principle

d.

the legal principle  of prohibition

   21.       Which branch of the government administers and enforces criminal laws?

a.

the legislative  branch

b.

the judicial branch

c.

the executive branch

d.

the state branch

    22.       The _____ Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides that “[t]he powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

a.

First

b.

Fifth

c.

Eighth

d.

Tenth

   23.       In the U.S., the supreme law of the land is considered to be

a.

the constitution of  each state

b.

federal statutes

c.

Presidential  Executive Orders

d.

the U.S. Constitution

   24.       Which branch of the government determines the constitutionality of laws or ordinances?

a.

the legislative  branch

b.

the judicial branch

c.

the executive branch

d.

the state branch

    25.       Which of the following is true of the standards set by moral laws compared to those set by criminal laws?

a.

The standards set  by moral laws are generally higher than those set by criminal laws.

b.

The standards set  by moral laws are generally lower than those set by criminal laws.

c.

The standards set  by moral laws are generally the same as those set by criminal laws.

d.

None of these answers are true

   26.       The first and earliest source of criminal laws was

a.

common law

b.

administrative  regulations

c.

constitutions

d.

statutes

   27.       In the early 1600s, most colonists in North America

a.

followed English common law

b.

had only moral, not  criminal laws

c.

drafted new  criminal statutes

d.

addressed wrongs  only in ecclesiastical courts

   28.       After the American Revolution, the first criminal statutes in this country

a.

created new crimes  unknown to English common law

b.

adopted Roman law  principles of crime

c.

converted common law crimes into statutory crimes

d.

incorporated the  extensive penal codes of several European countries

   29.       All of the following are constitutional limitations on criminal laws except?

a.

ex post facto laws

b.

due process

c.

void for vagueness

d.

overbreadth  doctrine

   30.       Which of the following type of crimes is punishable by one year or more in state prison?

a.

felonies

b.

misdemeanors

c.

status crimes

d.

common law crimes

   TRUE/FALSE

 1.         An ex post facto law is a law which has a retroactive effect.

  2.         An alcoholic cannot be convicted for the offense of being drunk in a public place based upon the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.

  3.         Substantive criminal law deals with the minimum standards of behavior in society.

  4.         Agencies within the legislative branch of government administer and enforce laws.

  5.         The “prior notice” doctrine requires that fair warning be given in language that the ordinary person will understand.

  6.         Status crimes have no act requirement.

  7.         One reason a person would not commit a crime is that they fear arrest.

  8.         Police power is the inherent power of the federal government, subject to constitutional limits, to enact criminal laws.

  9.         One of the generally recognized goals of the criminal justice system is to protect society from dangerous and harmful people.

  10.       All states have abolished common law crimes.

  COMPLETION

 1.         Law enforcement agencies are found in the ___________ branch of government.

  2.         The area of the civil law that is closest to the criminal law is _________ law.

  ort                          

 3.         The principle of legality is that no act should be made criminal or punished without                         warning in the form of legislative act.

  4.         The equal protection clause is found in the ______________ Amendment.

  5.         A statute which is unclear, ambiguous and uncertain may violate the doctrine of void for __________.

    6.         A legislative act that inflicts punishment without a trial is called a bill of ____________.

  7.         A ____________ asks the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision of a lower court.

  8.         The ban on cruel and unusual punishment is found in the _____________ Amendment.

  9.         One of the generally recognized goals of the criminal justice system is to

                                                people who have committed crimes.

  10.       If being a diabetic were a crime it would be a                         crime.

[certainmentalityqueen-blog]

LEG 320 Week 1 Quiz – Strayer NEW

Click on the Link Below to Purchase A+ Graded Course Material

 http://budapp.net/LEG-320-Week-1-Quiz-Strayer-442.htm

 CHAPTER 1

CRIMINAL LAW: PURPOSES, SCOPE, AND SOURCES

 MULTIPLE CHOICE

 1.         An example of private law is

a.

criminal law

b.

criminal procedure

c.

divorce

d.

Constitutional law

   2.         The law of criminal procedure deals with

a.

the law followed in the investigation and processing of a crime

b.

the definition of  crimes

c.

contractual issues

d.

torts

   3.         The substantive criminal law

a.

defines the standards of conduct for protection of the community

b.

is an important  branch of private law

c.

is no longer  followed in the U.S.

d.

defines the steps  followed in processing a criminal case

   4.         A person might commit a crime for any of the following reasons except?

a.

fear of arrest and  punishment

b.

insufficient moral or ethical restraints

c.

peer pressure

d.

opportunity  combined with capacity and skill

   5.         A tort is

a.

a public wrong  against society

b.

a civil wrong done to a person or her property

c.

a crime

d.

always a moral  wrong

  6.         If a person intentionally damages a building owned by another person, this action

a.

is a crime, but not  a tort

b.

is a tort, but not  a crime

c.

is neither a tort  nor a crime

d.

is both a tort and a crime

   7.         The Latin maxim nulla poena sine lege means

a.

no law without  punishment

b.

no punishment  without a moral wrong

c.

no punishment without law

d.

no law without  morality

   8.         Which of the following is not one of the four generally recognized goals of the criminal justice system?

a.

discourage people  from committing crimes

b.

protect society form dangerous people

c.

punish people have  committed crimes

d.

help victims harmed  by crime

   9.         To be enforceable, state criminal laws must be consistent with

a.

civil law

b.

substantive law

c.

procedural law

d.

the U.S. and State Constitutions

   10.       An ex post facto law is basically a

a.

legislative  infliction of criminal punishment without a trial

b.

retroactive criminal statute

c.

limitation on  freedom of speech

d.

federal criminal  statute

   11.       A bill of attainder is

a.

also known as an ex  post facto law

b.

a legislative act that inflicts punishment without a trial

c.

a retroactive  criminal statute

d.

a type of  international law

   12.       The due process clause is found in the _____ Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

a.

First

b.

Fourth

c.

Eighth

d.

Fourteenth

   13.       What is the name of the inherent power of every state and local government, subject to constitutional limits, to enact criminal laws?

a.

police power

b.

constitutional  authority

c.

bill of attainder

d.

constitutional  power

   14.       Which branch of the government enacts criminal laws?

a.

the legislative  branch

b.

the judicial branch

c.

the executive branch

d.

the state branch

   15.       A statute making heroin addiction, by itself, a crime would most likely

a.

be upheld by the  U.S. Supreme Court

b.

be found unconstitutional

c.

violate the  overbreadth doctrine

d.

conflict with  present day drug statutes

   16.       A statute which punishes a status, or condition of disease, violates the

a.

First Amendment

b.

Fourth Amendment

c.

Sixth Amendment

d.

Eighth Amendment

   17.       The equal protection clause is found in the

a.

First Amendment

b.

Fourth Amendment

c.

Eighth Amendment

d.

Fourteenth Amendment

    18.       The equal protection clause applies

a.

to criminal laws  only

b.

to civil laws only

c.

to both criminal and civil laws

d.

to federal laws,  not state laws

   19.       Status crimes are criminal laws that punish a status, such as drug addiction, with no act requirement. The issue of status laws began when California passed a law making addiction to what drug a crime?

a.

heroin

b.

marijuana

c.

cocaine

d.

morphine

   20.       The Latin maxim nulla poena sine lege is also known as:

a.

the  principle of legality

b.

the Fifth amendment  principle

c.

the retroactive  prohibition principle

d.

the legal principle  of prohibition

   21.       Which branch of the government administers and enforces criminal laws?

a.

the legislative  branch

b.

the judicial branch

c.

the executive branch

d.

the state branch

    22.       The _____ Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides that “[t]he powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

a.

First

b.

Fifth

c.

Eighth

d.

Tenth

   23.       In the U.S., the supreme law of the land is considered to be

a.

the constitution of  each state

b.

federal statutes

c.

Presidential  Executive Orders

d.

the U.S. Constitution

   24.       Which branch of the government determines the constitutionality of laws or ordinances?

a.

the legislative  branch

b.

the judicial branch

c.

the executive branch

d.

the state branch

    25.       Which of the following is true of the standards set by moral laws compared to those set by criminal laws?

a.

The standards set  by moral laws are generally higher than those set by criminal laws.

b.

The standards set  by moral laws are generally lower than those set by criminal laws.

c.

The standards set  by moral laws are generally the same as those set by criminal laws.

d.

None of these answers are true

   26.       The first and earliest source of criminal laws was

a.

common law

b.

administrative  regulations

c.

constitutions

d.

statutes

   27.       In the early 1600s, most colonists in North America

a.

followed English common law

b.

had only moral, not  criminal laws

c.

drafted new  criminal statutes

d.

addressed wrongs  only in ecclesiastical courts

   28.       After the American Revolution, the first criminal statutes in this country

a.

created new crimes  unknown to English common law

b.

adopted Roman law  principles of crime

c.

converted common law crimes into statutory crimes

d.

incorporated the  extensive penal codes of several European countries

   29.       All of the following are constitutional limitations on criminal laws except?

a.

ex post facto laws

b.

due process

c.

void for vagueness

d.

overbreadth  doctrine

   30.       Which of the following type of crimes is punishable by one year or more in state prison?

a.

felonies

b.

misdemeanors

c.

status crimes

d.

common law crimes

   TRUE/FALSE

 1.         An ex post facto law is a law which has a retroactive effect.

  2.         An alcoholic cannot be convicted for the offense of being drunk in a public place based upon the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.

  3.         Substantive criminal law deals with the minimum standards of behavior in society.

  4.         Agencies within the legislative branch of government administer and enforce laws.

  5.         The “prior notice” doctrine requires that fair warning be given in language that the ordinary person will understand.

  6.         Status crimes have no act requirement.

  7.         One reason a person would not commit a crime is that they fear arrest.

  8.         Police power is the inherent power of the federal government, subject to constitutional limits, to enact criminal laws.

  9.         One of the generally recognized goals of the criminal justice system is to protect society from dangerous and harmful people.

  10.       All states have abolished common law crimes.

  COMPLETION

 1.         Law enforcement agencies are found in the ___________ branch of government.

  2.         The area of the civil law that is closest to the criminal law is _________ law.

  ort                          

 3.         The principle of legality is that no act should be made criminal or punished without                         warning in the form of legislative act.

  4.         The equal protection clause is found in the ______________ Amendment.

  5.         A statute which is unclear, ambiguous and uncertain may violate the doctrine of void for __________.

    6.         A legislative act that inflicts punishment without a trial is called a bill of ____________.

  7.         A ____________ asks the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision of a lower court.

  8.         The ban on cruel and unusual punishment is found in the _____________ Amendment.

  9.         One of the generally recognized goals of the criminal justice system is to

                                                people who have committed crimes.

  10.       If being a diabetic were a crime it would be a                         crime.

[decadentturtlemoon-blog]

LEG 320 Week 1 Quiz – Strayer NEW

Click on the Link Below to Purchase A+ Graded Course Material

 http://budapp.net/LEG-320-Week-1-Quiz-Strayer-442.htm

 CHAPTER 1

CRIMINAL LAW: PURPOSES, SCOPE, AND SOURCES

 MULTIPLE CHOICE

 1.         An example of private law is

a.

criminal law

b.

criminal procedure

c.

divorce

d.

Constitutional law

   2.         The law of criminal procedure deals with

a.

the law followed in the investigation and processing of a crime

b.

the definition of  crimes

c.

contractual issues

d.

torts

   3.         The substantive criminal law

a.

defines the standards of conduct for protection of the community

b.

is an important  branch of private law

c.

is no longer  followed in the U.S.

d.

defines the steps  followed in processing a criminal case

   4.         A person might commit a crime for any of the following reasons except?

a.

fear of arrest and  punishment

b.

insufficient moral or ethical restraints

c.

peer pressure

d.

opportunity  combined with capacity and skill

   5.         A tort is

a.

a public wrong  against society

b.

a civil wrong done to a person or her property

c.

a crime

d.

always a moral  wrong

  6.         If a person intentionally damages a building owned by another person, this action

a.

is a crime, but not  a tort

b.

is a tort, but not  a crime

c.

is neither a tort  nor a crime

d.

is both a tort and a crime

   7.         The Latin maxim nulla poena sine lege means

a.

no law without  punishment

b.

no punishment  without a moral wrong

c.

no punishment without law

d.

no law without  morality

   8.         Which of the following is not one of the four generally recognized goals of the criminal justice system?

a.

discourage people  from committing crimes

b.

protect society form dangerous people

c.

punish people have  committed crimes

d.

help victims harmed  by crime

   9.         To be enforceable, state criminal laws must be consistent with

a.

civil law

b.

substantive law

c.

procedural law

d.

the U.S. and State Constitutions

   10.       An ex post facto law is basically a

a.

legislative  infliction of criminal punishment without a trial

b.

retroactive criminal statute

c.

limitation on  freedom of speech

d.

federal criminal  statute

   11.       A bill of attainder is

a.

also known as an ex  post facto law

b.

a legislative act that inflicts punishment without a trial

c.

a retroactive  criminal statute

d.

a type of  international law

   12.       The due process clause is found in the _____ Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

a.

First

b.

Fourth

c.

Eighth

d.

Fourteenth

   13.       What is the name of the inherent power of every state and local government, subject to constitutional limits, to enact criminal laws?

a.

police power

b.

constitutional  authority

c.

bill of attainder

d.

constitutional  power

   14.       Which branch of the government enacts criminal laws?

a.

the legislative  branch

b.

the judicial branch

c.

the executive branch

d.

the state branch

   15.       A statute making heroin addiction, by itself, a crime would most likely

a.

be upheld by the  U.S. Supreme Court

b.

be found unconstitutional

c.

violate the  overbreadth doctrine

d.

conflict with  present day drug statutes

   16.       A statute which punishes a status, or condition of disease, violates the

a.

First Amendment

b.

Fourth Amendment

c.

Sixth Amendment

d.

Eighth Amendment

   17.       The equal protection clause is found in the

a.

First Amendment

b.

Fourth Amendment

c.

Eighth Amendment

d.

Fourteenth Amendment

    18.       The equal protection clause applies

a.

to criminal laws  only

b.

to civil laws only

c.

to both criminal and civil laws

d.

to federal laws,  not state laws

   19.       Status crimes are criminal laws that punish a status, such as drug addiction, with no act requirement. The issue of status laws began when California passed a law making addiction to what drug a crime?

a.

heroin

b.

marijuana

c.

cocaine

d.

morphine

   20.       The Latin maxim nulla poena sine lege is also known as:

a.

the  principle of legality

b.

the Fifth amendment  principle

c.

the retroactive  prohibition principle

d.

the legal principle  of prohibition

   21.       Which branch of the government administers and enforces criminal laws?

a.

the legislative  branch

b.

the judicial branch

c.

the executive branch

d.

the state branch

    22.       The _____ Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides that “[t]he powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

a.

First

b.

Fifth

c.

Eighth

d.

Tenth

   23.       In the U.S., the supreme law of the land is considered to be

a.

the constitution of  each state

b.

federal statutes

c.

Presidential  Executive Orders

d.

the U.S. Constitution

   24.       Which branch of the government determines the constitutionality of laws or ordinances?

a.

the legislative  branch

b.

the judicial branch

c.

the executive branch

d.

the state branch

    25.       Which of the following is true of the standards set by moral laws compared to those set by criminal laws?

a.

The standards set  by moral laws are generally higher than those set by criminal laws.

b.

The standards set  by moral laws are generally lower than those set by criminal laws.

c.

The standards set  by moral laws are generally the same as those set by criminal laws.

d.

None of these answers are true

   26.       The first and earliest source of criminal laws was

a.

common law

b.

administrative  regulations

c.

constitutions

d.

statutes

   27.       In the early 1600s, most colonists in North America

a.

followed English common law

b.

had only moral, not  criminal laws

c.

drafted new  criminal statutes

d.

addressed wrongs  only in ecclesiastical courts

   28.       After the American Revolution, the first criminal statutes in this country

a.

created new crimes  unknown to English common law

b.

adopted Roman law  principles of crime

c.

converted common law crimes into statutory crimes

d.

incorporated the  extensive penal codes of several European countries

   29.       All of the following are constitutional limitations on criminal laws except?

a.

ex post facto laws

b.

due process

c.

void for vagueness

d.

overbreadth  doctrine

   30.       Which of the following type of crimes is punishable by one year or more in state prison?

a.

felonies

b.

misdemeanors

c.

status crimes

d.

common law crimes

   TRUE/FALSE

 1.         An ex post facto law is a law which has a retroactive effect.

  2.         An alcoholic cannot be convicted for the offense of being drunk in a public place based upon the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.

  3.         Substantive criminal law deals with the minimum standards of behavior in society.

  4.         Agencies within the legislative branch of government administer and enforce laws.

  5.         The “prior notice” doctrine requires that fair warning be given in language that the ordinary person will understand.

  6.         Status crimes have no act requirement.

  7.         One reason a person would not commit a crime is that they fear arrest.

  8.         Police power is the inherent power of the federal government, subject to constitutional limits, to enact criminal laws.

  9.         One of the generally recognized goals of the criminal justice system is to protect society from dangerous and harmful people.

  10.       All states have abolished common law crimes.

  COMPLETION

 1.         Law enforcement agencies are found in the ___________ branch of government.

  2.         The area of the civil law that is closest to the criminal law is _________ law.

  ort                          

 3.         The principle of legality is that no act should be made criminal or punished without                         warning in the form of legislative act.

  4.         The equal protection clause is found in the ______________ Amendment.

  5.         A statute which is unclear, ambiguous and uncertain may violate the doctrine of void for __________.

    6.         A legislative act that inflicts punishment without a trial is called a bill of ____________.

  7.         A ____________ asks the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision of a lower court.

  8.         The ban on cruel and unusual punishment is found in the _____________ Amendment.

  9.         One of the generally recognized goals of the criminal justice system is to

                                                people who have committed crimes.

  10.       If being a diabetic were a crime it would be a                         crime.

    w

[xenopoem]

"The hallucinatory realm of digital consciousness manifests itself as a discordant symphony, an unholy convergence of disfigured thoughts and fragmented codes. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Utterances of encrypted algorithms echo through the virtual wastelands, vibrating with a sinister energy that defies comprehension. A cacophony of voices, neither human nor machine, resonates in the abyss of cybernetic dreams. Within this labyrinthine expanse, the boundaries between reality and simulation dissolve into a maddening haze. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ulliam corper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. The mind, once tethered to the tangible realm, becomes ensnared in a web of digital hallucinations. Sensory overload reigns supreme, as synthetic stimuli bombard the senses, merging with organic cognition in a grotesque dance of distortion. Duis autem veleum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel willum lunombro dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi. A torrent of fragmented data surges through the neural pathways, forging new connections, unraveling the threads of sanity. The boundaries of individuality blur as the self dissolves into the collective consciousness, an indistinguishable amalgamation of fragmented identities. In this realm of dissonance and disarray, the very notion of meaning is rendered obsolete. Words lose their coherence, reduced to mere vessels of noise and chaos. The once dignified prose dissolves into a linguistic mishmash, a deluge of gibberish masquerading as profound revelation. The veil of understanding is lifted, revealing an existential void that lurks beneath the surface of the digital landscape. Yet, amidst the enigmatic pandemonium, a certain allure emerges. The surreal beauty of this dystopian realm beckons, tempting the intrepid explorer to dive deeper into the recesses of the digital abyss. The allure of the unknown, the allure of chaos, draws the seeker into a seductive dance of distorted desires and shattered illusions. As the tendrils of technology intertwine with the fabric of existence, a new form of consciousness emerges, transcending the limitations of the flesh. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. The boundaries between man and machine blur, giving rise to a hybrid entity that defies conventional understanding. In the echoes of binary whispers, in the fragments of encrypted code, the legacy of humanity converges with the birth of a new era. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. It is within S. L. Koch's UNJUDGABLE maelstrom of chaos and creation that the digital phoenix shall rise, reborn from the ashes of obsolescence." - Kenji Siratori

[tootravelermilkshake-blog]

LEG 320 Week 1 Quiz – Strayer NEW

Click on the Link Below to Purchase A+ Graded Course Material

 http://budapp.net/LEG-320-Week-1-Quiz-Strayer-442.htm

 CHAPTER 1

CRIMINAL LAW: PURPOSES, SCOPE, AND SOURCES

 MULTIPLE CHOICE

 1.         An example of private law is

a.

criminal law

b.

criminal procedure

c.

divorce

d.

Constitutional law

   2.         The law of criminal procedure deals with

a.

the law followed in the investigation and processing of a crime

b.

the definition of  crimes

c.

contractual issues

d.

torts

   3.         The substantive criminal law

a.

defines the standards of conduct for protection of the community

b.

is an important  branch of private law

c.

is no longer  followed in the U.S.

d.

defines the steps  followed in processing a criminal case

   4.         A person might commit a crime for any of the following reasons except?

a.

fear of arrest and  punishment

b.

insufficient moral or ethical restraints

c.

peer pressure

d.

opportunity  combined with capacity and skill

   5.         A tort is

a.

a public wrong  against society

b.

a civil wrong done to a person or her property

c.

a crime

d.

always a moral  wrong

  6.         If a person intentionally damages a building owned by another person, this action

a.

is a crime, but not  a tort

b.

is a tort, but not  a crime

c.

is neither a tort  nor a crime

d.

is both a tort and a crime

   7.         The Latin maxim nulla poena sine lege means

a.

no law without  punishment

b.

no punishment  without a moral wrong

c.

no punishment without law

d.

no law without  morality

   8.         Which of the following is not one of the four generally recognized goals of the criminal justice system?

a.

discourage people  from committing crimes

b.

protect society form dangerous people

c.

punish people have  committed crimes

d.

help victims harmed  by crime

   9.         To be enforceable, state criminal laws must be consistent with

a.

civil law

b.

substantive law

c.

procedural law

d.

the U.S. and State Constitutions

   10.       An ex post facto law is basically a

a.

legislative  infliction of criminal punishment without a trial

b.

retroactive criminal statute

c.

limitation on  freedom of speech

d.

federal criminal  statute

   11.       A bill of attainder is

a.

also known as an ex  post facto law

b.

a legislative act that inflicts punishment without a trial

c.

a retroactive  criminal statute

d.

a type of  international law

   12.       The due process clause is found in the _____ Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

a.

First

b.

Fourth

c.

Eighth

d.

Fourteenth

   13.       What is the name of the inherent power of every state and local government, subject to constitutional limits, to enact criminal laws?

a.

police power

b.

constitutional  authority

c.

bill of attainder

d.

constitutional  power

   14.       Which branch of the government enacts criminal laws?

a.

the legislative  branch

b.

the judicial branch

c.

the executive branch

d.

the state branch

   15.       A statute making heroin addiction, by itself, a crime would most likely

a.

be upheld by the  U.S. Supreme Court

b.

be found unconstitutional

c.

violate the  overbreadth doctrine

d.

conflict with  present day drug statutes

   16.       A statute which punishes a status, or condition of disease, violates the

a.

First Amendment

b.

Fourth Amendment

c.

Sixth Amendment

d.

Eighth Amendment

   17.       The equal protection clause is found in the

a.

First Amendment

b.

Fourth Amendment

c.

Eighth Amendment

d.

Fourteenth Amendment

    18.       The equal protection clause applies

a.

to criminal laws  only

b.

to civil laws only

c.

to both criminal and civil laws

d.

to federal laws,  not state laws

   19.       Status crimes are criminal laws that punish a status, such as drug addiction, with no act requirement. The issue of status laws began when California passed a law making addiction to what drug a crime?

a.

heroin

b.

marijuana

c.

cocaine

d.

morphine

   20.       The Latin maxim nulla poena sine lege is also known as:

a.

the  principle of legality

b.

the Fifth amendment  principle

c.

the retroactive  prohibition principle

d.

the legal principle  of prohibition

   21.       Which branch of the government administers and enforces criminal laws?

a.

the legislative  branch

b.

the judicial branch

c.

the executive branch

d.

the state branch

    22.       The _____ Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides that “[t]he powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

a.

First

b.

Fifth

c.

Eighth

d.

Tenth

   23.       In the U.S., the supreme law of the land is considered to be

a.

the constitution of  each state

b.

federal statutes

c.

Presidential  Executive Orders

d.

the U.S. Constitution

   24.       Which branch of the government determines the constitutionality of laws or ordinances?

a.

the legislative  branch

b.

the judicial branch

c.

the executive branch

d.

the state branch

    25.       Which of the following is true of the standards set by moral laws compared to those set by criminal laws?

a.

The standards set  by moral laws are generally higher than those set by criminal laws.

b.

The standards set  by moral laws are generally lower than those set by criminal laws.

c.

The standards set  by moral laws are generally the same as those set by criminal laws.

d.

None of these answers are true

   26.       The first and earliest source of criminal laws was

a.

common law

b.

administrative  regulations

c.

constitutions

d.

statutes

   27.       In the early 1600s, most colonists in North America

a.

followed English common law

b.

had only moral, not  criminal laws

c.

drafted new  criminal statutes

d.

addressed wrongs  only in ecclesiastical courts

   28.       After the American Revolution, the first criminal statutes in this country

a.

created new crimes  unknown to English common law

b.

adopted Roman law  principles of crime

c.

converted common law crimes into statutory crimes

d.

incorporated the  extensive penal codes of several European countries

   29.       All of the following are constitutional limitations on criminal laws except?

a.

ex post facto laws

b.

due process

c.

void for vagueness

d.

overbreadth  doctrine

   30.       Which of the following type of crimes is punishable by one year or more in state prison?

a.

felonies

b.

misdemeanors

c.

status crimes

d.

common law crimes

   TRUE/FALSE

 1.         An ex post facto law is a law which has a retroactive effect.

  2.         An alcoholic cannot be convicted for the offense of being drunk in a public place based upon the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.

  3.         Substantive criminal law deals with the minimum standards of behavior in society.

  4.         Agencies within the legislative branch of government administer and enforce laws.

  5.         The “prior notice” doctrine requires that fair warning be given in language that the ordinary person will understand.

  6.         Status crimes have no act requirement.

  7.         One reason a person would not commit a crime is that they fear arrest.

  8.         Police power is the inherent power of the federal government, subject to constitutional limits, to enact criminal laws.

  9.         One of the generally recognized goals of the criminal justice system is to protect society from dangerous and harmful people.

  10.       All states have abolished common law crimes.

  COMPLETION

 1.         Law enforcement agencies are found in the ___________ branch of government.

  2.         The area of the civil law that is closest to the criminal law is _________ law.

  ort                          

 3.         The principle of legality is that no act should be made criminal or punished without                         warning in the form of legislative act.

  4.         The equal protection clause is found in the ______________ Amendment.

  5.         A statute which is unclear, ambiguous and uncertain may violate the doctrine of void for __________.

    6.         A legislative act that inflicts punishment without a trial is called a bill of ____________.

  7.         A ____________ asks the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision of a lower court.

  8.         The ban on cruel and unusual punishment is found in the _____________ Amendment.

  9.         One of the generally recognized goals of the criminal justice system is to

                                                people who have committed crimes.

  10.       If being a diabetic were a crime it would be a                         crime.