#Silas is consumed with a thousand thoughts

[pigeon-princess]

The duality of DnD characters. Silas is in the nightmare castle of a thousand rats while Tybalt has no thoughts in his head.

[iviarellereads]

Gideon the Ninth, Chapter 34

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For detail on The Locked Tomb coverage and the index, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

(Third House icon) In which someone has entirely the wrong takeaway from a situation, but we'll forgive them anyway.

Three adepts and three cavs walk the halls of Canaan House. Gideon finds the occasional piles of former bone servants slightly distressing. They've been operating for ten thousand years, and suddenly, pop, and gone. Gideon wonders what she'd feel after a whole myriad of years: bored, probably, and desperate for novelty because she'd have done everything there was to do.

They follow Harrow's map to the door where she'd removed the regenerating bone from the keyhole. There are no wards they can sense. Harrow suggests it's a lure, Palamedes calls it carelessness. Gideon says they probably didn't give a shit, "given that the key is still inside the lock."

The other two labs Gideon has seen were like caves, made barely functional for living and researching. This room "was light and airy once", but three things catch Gideon's attention. On one wall, painted black, is a message reading

YOU LIED TO US

Someone is crying, like someone who had been crying for hours and didn't know how to stop.

And in the middle of the room, Ianthe sits, reclined royally on a cushion, waiting and trembling. The source of the crying is Coronabeth, next to Naberius on the ground. Ianthe confirms he's dead, and she killed him, though it isn't a confession. Palamedes is the only one not rooted to the ground in shock, so he walks over to Naberius, and confirms that he's gone.

At this, Silas and Colum recover their senses, and Colum draws. Ianthe says he can put that away, she's not going to hurt him. She's merely telling them all that she won, as her teeth chatter. She bites her tongue, yowls, spits on the floor. The blood that lands gives off a little smoke. Ianthe admits that "this smarts,"(1) she had a whole speech planned because she didn't need their help, their keys, their secrets. She was better than any of them and nobody ever noticed, except for Harrow, maybe?

Harrow admits she noticed that Ianthe knew about the beguiling corpse, the impossibility. Ianthe continues her speech, saying she specialises in energy transferral, and she's studied the Resurrection. She understood quickly what the Lyctors were telling them, in the labs. What price was paid for the Resurrection? It would have required a displacement the size of the soul of a planet, and what happens when you kill a planet? Palamedes says he thought she was an animaphiliac.(2) Ianthe says that's just a smokescreen for her true interest in the place between life and death, the "place over the river."

Harrow says Ianthe is making it sound much more interesting than it really is, and Ianthe snaps at her to "Stop being such a bone adept," then coughs, lowers her head, and when she raises it… her eyes have gone from a pupil blowout hiding her eye colour, to her eyes being mingled purple and blue and brown.(3) She closes her eyes again, and they're back to purple when she opens them. Palamedes has moved behind Ianthe, though she doesn't seem to notice him.

Ianthe tells the next in singsong, that first you must preserve the soul, then examine it, know it fully, and then absorb it into yourself without consuming it. Harrow cusses and says "The megatheorem." Ianthe continues that you must "fix it in place so it can't deteriorate", the step she wasn't sure of but found in this room. Step five, incorporate it without being overwhelmed. Step six, consume the flesh, though as little as a drop of blood will do the job.(4) And finally, "you hook up the cables and get the power flowing." She guesses that was the Eighth House contribution.

Palamedes protests, saying she never had any keys, never saw a room but this one. Ianthe repeats that she is very, very good at what she does, and she has common sense. The challenge rooms give all the information you really need "if you're the best necromancer the Third House ever produced." She asks Corona for confirmation, then tells her to stop crying before she gets a headache.

Palamedes says he came to the same conclusion, but he discarded it, thought it was too "ghastly and obvious" to be true.(5) Ianthe says those are her middle names,(6) and calls Palamedes a prude. There were sixteen acolytes to God, and then there were eight Lyctors. Where did the cavaliers go? Palamedes opens his mouth to respond, but he's bumped up against the wall with the black painted writing, and goes deadly silent, one of his thumbs tracing the edge of a letter.

Silas says this still doesn't explain why she killed Naberius. Ianthe says she didn't kill him, she ate him. She has become a Lyctor. She makes a sound that's part hiccup and part laugh, and Gideon's skin is crawling with horror. Palamedes says whatever Ianthe thinks she's done, she hasn't done it. Ianthe asks, but hasn't she? She stands, and something shifts in Gideon's perception of the room, like nothing is significant but Ianthe, glowing as though lit from within. She says it all makes sense, even the rapier as the chosen weapon, light enough to be lifted even by an adept's arms. Each challenge, emphasizing the use of the cavalier, not one of them can be completed alone.

Silas asks Corona if this is true, and if Corona ever tried to stop Ianthe. Ianthe tells them not to be too hard on Corona: what can she even do? People see what they want to see. She's never been a necromancer, Ianthe has been pretending for both of them her whole life.(7)

Palamedes is still unwilling to believe this is Lyctorhood, this is the point of the trials. Ianthe says the Emperor helped come up with it, it's very real. Silas, lost in thought, says, "So that is Lyctorhood," and Gideon thinks she sees Colum's throat work a little.(8) Ianthe asks if he understands, and he says, yes, he understands fallibility. If the Emperor came to him now, he would fall to his knees and beg forgiveness for anyone ever failing the test, and betraying the compact between adept and cavalier. Colum says Silas's name, and Silas says he'll forgive Colum, someday, for believing he could have fallen into this temptation.

Ianthe said, contemptuously: "Come off it, you'd drain him dry if you thought it would keep your virtue intact. This is the same thing, just more humane."

Silas brands Ianthe a heretic, and sentences her to death. Harrow says this isn't the time, but Silas is too far on his high horse not to command Colum to fight Ianthe. Ianthe asks them to stop him, she doesn't want anyone else's blood spilt. Harrow tries to reason with Silas, Camilla suggests they stand back.

Colum Asht does not back off. He attacks Ianthe with no hesitation, and Ianthe responds in kind, Naberius's rapier suddenly in her hand. Gideon recognizes Tern's style, his micro movements and posture, recreated in Ianthe's body. It's then that she realizes exactly the depth of what Ianthe has done. She isn't mimicking Naberius, he is fighting from within her.

The only problem is that Naberius's skill can't quite compensate for the lack of strength in Ianthe's weak, necromancer's arm. Soon, Colum finds an opening, disarms her. As he lunges for the kill, Ianthe takes a bite of her own palm and spits it out, building a fleshy cocoon that Colum bounces off. He tries again and again, but can't break through.

Gideon wraps one hand around her sword, slips the other into her gauntlet. Harrow's hand wraps around her wrist, and Harrow commands her not to go near them, and especially don't even think about touching Ianthe. Gideon looks around and sees Camilla watching the fight, but not defensive.

Finally, Silas says that the necromancer must fight the necromancer, and starts siphoning Colum… then tells Colum to stop fighting him. Colum begs not to be put under this time. Silas says "if you cannot believe, then for God's sake obey." Colum makes a sound, and Silas crosses the distance to Ianthe's flesh tent, electricity arcing across his skin, and touches it. The wall sucks his hands in, ripping with teeth. Silas cries out, Colum turns greyer and greyer.

Then, the shield pops, falling to the floor in strips and globs. Ianthe looks up, her eyes pure white, and screams "in a voice that required many more vocal chords than she possessed."

Silas approached her with hands like hot white murder. Ianthe ducked past him and flung herself down onto one of the still-bubbling sheets that had made up her shield. She sunk down into the skin with a splash, peppering the wooden floor with hot yellow fat. The skin blistered and crinkled up on itself like it had been burnt, and then it deliquesced(9) into a viscous puddle, leaving no trace of Ianthe.

Silas touches the puddle, as the silver chains on his white tunic start to buckle and warp. Colum makes a sound "as though he had been punched in the gut." A bloody hand emerges from the puddle and yanks Silas in.

Then the ceiling breaks open and they are all deluged with "bloody, fatty rain". Ianthe lands on her feet and shivers off the "fetid red soup", while Silas lands heavily. As Silas stands, Gideon feels a suction like an air pressure change, and Silas's power visibly warping around Ianthe. Ianthe, for her part, is nearly hyperventilating but says confidently that Silas can't handle her.

Harrow mutters that Silas is trying to drain Ianthe's strength, but his focus is split between the fight and his cav. Colum lifts his sword and starts moving toward Ianthe. He backhands her with his shield, and her head snaps back, but she seems more startled than hurt. He thrusts his rapier, but she wraps her hand around it like it's nothing. Silas clasps his hands together, and Ianthe staggers and lurches away from Colum. She yells to stop doing this to her. Colum slashes her back, but it heals without her seeming to notice. She tells Babs to listen to her.

Silas slams his hands on the ground, and the remaining blood soup burns off the ground, Ianthe's skin withering. Silas is breaking into blood sweat, Ianthe's skin sloughing off her, but she looks at Colum and says, "Well, now you're fucked".

Colum's eyes are as black as Ianthe's had been white. He no longer moves as a human does, but like six people are controlling him who have never seen a human move before. He turns his head around a full hundred and eighty degrees to see what's behind him. A lightbulb explodes. The air grows cold. Harrow throws some bone particles at Colum, and grows them into spikes, holding him still. He kicks them and they dissolve to calcium clouds.

Silas looks up, still glowing "like a pearl in a sunbeam", but his focus is ruined. Ianthe's flesh starts to recover as she steps outside the bounds of his spell. Silas starts to call Colum back to his body, bidding him return. Colum's body raises Colum's sword and stabs Silas Octakiseron through the throat with it, ending the call. Gideon draws her weapons and throws herself at the meatsuit, which has "a strength no human being ever had." When she gets close, she can see that Colum's eyeballs are gone, and the sockets are now mouths, lined with teeth.(10) His tongue extends from his mouth, growing, wrapping around Gideon's throat.

Ianthe declares this enough, kills the beast, and when it falls to the floor, it's just Colum again, or his body at least. It lands sprawled over his young uncle's corpse, "in morbid imitation of the whole of their lives." Their white garments are stained yellow, red, and pink all through.

When the air clears, Ianthe stands in the gore, looking like a moth or a fairy. She shakes her skirts, and the muck falls off like powder. Then she slaps herself gently in the face and says to get it together, because "you(11) nearly lost that one." Then she turns to the group and says there are worse things in the building than her, steps into the puddle of Silas's blood, and disappears.

Gideon lurches toward Corona, out of desperation just to move, particularly away from the gore. Corona looks up and throws herself into Gideon's arms, sobbing silently, "utterly destroyed."

"Are you okay--I mean, are you all right," said Gideon. Corona recoiled from Gideon and looked up at her, her golden hair smeared to her forehead with sweat and tears. "She took Babs," she said, which seemed fair enough. But then Corona started crying again, big tears leaking out of her eyes, her voice thick with misery and self-pity. "And who even cares about Babs? Babs! She could have taken me."(12)

=====

(1) Smarts, presumably, as in a sharp pain. Can be used literally (the feeling after a slap) or figuratively (after an emotional blow). (2) This may look like it's related to "animal" making this a bestiality reference, and there's probably a layer of intentional joke there, but I'm pretty sure it's coming from the latin "anima" meaning breath, soul, wind, and air, and "philia" not in the modern sexual sense but in the sense of a fondness or tendency toward a subject or person, coming from the Greek for a fraternal love. (3) Naberius's eyes were blue and brown. (4) To draw back to Catholicism, Lyctorhood is communion. Technically, communion is consuming the blood and flesh of Jesus to become one with him, but you can't deny the power of the symbolism here: to become a Lyctor, a saint, immortal, one must consume the blood, flesh, and soul of the cavalier. Check out James 6:52-59 or so in your bible translation of choice. Eat of the flesh and drink of the blood, and he will raise you. (5) Palamedes's bond with Camilla is so strong, he cannot fathom ever being able to do this to her. And, there is something horrifying in the idea that you have to kill, not just anyone, but a dear friend to become so powerful… but necromancy has a cost, and the price must be paid, right? (6) And then of course, Ianthe, a true queen, says yeah, it's horrifying, but power's pretty heckin great isn't it? (7) This explains why Ianthe said, way back earlier in the book, that Gideon shouldn't catch the attention of the Third necromancer. (8) Someone's a little nervous that this sounds too easy, huh? (9) Deliquesce - to become liquid. Think of dead bodies liquefying as they decay. (Could I have said "the way lettuce seems to melt if you leave it too long"? Yes, but we're already experiencing all this horror together.) (10) The Corinthian, from Neil Gaiman's Sandman. Look up at your own risk. (11) Presumably, still talking to Babs as a separate entity. (12) Corona has wanted nothing more than to be recognized as her twin's cavalier. You can see it in the way she was organizing the bouts, the way she was so eager to fight Gideon herself, and now her own sister, her very twin, has chosen Babs over her, chose the man who was nothing to them over the person who's been there every step of the way. Which is why I say in my intro that I, at least, will forgive her for having an entirely diagonal reaction to all this.

[mayasaura]

Alecto, The River, and Colum Asht

I’ve been working on a few different Harrow the Ninth meta theories, and I noticed some threads that seemed to pull them together. Maybe you could call this another megatheorum, but I’m not sure it’s comprehensive enough for that.

I think whatever kind of monster Alecto is, the clues we need to guess are in salt water and the death of Colum Asht.

Salt water leads us to the River. @ovrgrwn @sauntering-vaguely-downwards ​ and I were talking about the symbolism of salt water in the series, and Ovrgrwn mentioned both that Alecto is a “saltwater creature” and that the River isn’t salt water. The thing is, I realised later that the River is salt water.

One of the biggest puzzles we were left with pieces of in Harrow the Ninth was "What is Alecto?". She's been called a lot of things, but we know very little abit definitively. There’s a theory that I was discussing with @thunderon and @asimovsideburns that Alecto is something like a Resurrection Beast, in that she and Harrow are both communal souls forged through human sacrifice. There’s a theory that maybe she was someone else before the Resurrection and in trying to pull her soul back John accidentally got a whole bunch of souls instead. Or she could literally be Alecto the First the way Harrow is an entire generation of the Ninth, with every soul that used to inhabit the world of the First packed into her body. I like all these theories—it feels like we’re on the right track, but also like we’re missing something. This by itself doesn’t seem like it would be so viscerally terrifying to Augustine and Mercy, who were present for the creation of Teacher and the revenant constructs in Caanan House. If she’s an overstuffed suitcase of ten billion souls, why is she a saltwater creature? Why does Teacher call her tomb a zoo, and why are her eyes Like That?

[Image: It came down around her in shreds, as light and insubstantial as drifts of spiderweb. The water sprayed through white holes, rushing in with a pounding roar: that brackish, bloodied water that only existed within the River. She was bouyed up by a spray of ice water and filth - but she wasn’t; she seemed to be walking down her long black corridor again-]

In chapter 53 when Harrow tears her way out of the bubble of the false Canaan House, the River is described as “brackish, bloodied water”. Brackish water is the water that’s found at the place where a river meets a sea; too salty to drink, but not as salty as sea water. The River is brackish salt water, and Alecto is a saltwater creature.

Brackish water is mentioned only one other time in either book.

[Image: She appeared behind the grey-thing-that-had-been-Colum. She took its twisted neck in her hands as calmly and easily as though it were an animal, and she tilted it. The neck snapped. Her fingertips dipped inside the skin; the eye-mouths shrilled, and the tongue around Gideon’s neck flopped away, and both those mouths dissolved into brackish fluid. The body dropped to the floor—]

When Colum Asht dies in chapter 34 of Gideon the Ninth, a brackish fluid runs out of his eye sockets. Whatever creature was inside Colum, it came from the River. And then there’s the description - it’s too long and spread out to quote in full here, but the details are that his eyes went liquid black, and he moved “like there were six people inside him, and none of those six people had ever been inside a human being before”. There are lights under Colum’s skin and things pushing and slithering along his muscles as he walks. When he opens his eyes again, they’re toothed mouths with tongues, and Colum’s tongue has become long and prehensile and it wraps around Gideon’s neck like a tentacle.

The stoma at the bottom of the the River, the mouths to Hell that only open for Resurrection Beasts and the Emperor, are described like this:

[Image: It was a huge, hideous, dark expanse, and it had seething, weird edges; it took the lights pattering over them for me to see that the edges of the hole were enormous human teeth. Each one must’ve been six bodies high and two bodies wide, with the dainty scalloped edges of incisors. The teeth shivered and trembled, like the hole was slavering. And that hole had nothing in it; that hole was blacker than space, that hole was an eaten-away tunnel of reality.]

[Image: Streamerlike lingual tentacles emerged—the unassuming pink you got on normal, non-Hell-bound tongues—easily a thousand of them, jostling, questing, blindly thrusting up out of that mouth. Pyrrha flinched.]

Colum’s eyes have become miniature stoma. It’s interesting that while the thing possessing Colum advances on and kills Silas first, the stoma don’t open until Gideon attacks it. It uses Colum’s sword to kill Silas, but draws Gideon in with its tongue, like the tongues from the stoma at the bottom of the River draw her father the Emperor and Augustine in. But that’s another meta post.

Perhaps the stoma are creatures, sentient hellmouths lurking at the bottom of the River, and it’s stoma that are possessing Colum the Eighth. Maybe it’s the river itself possessing Colum, and the lights under his skin are souls. Maybe it’s something from beyond the stoma, something that came out of Hell. It’s an important question, but not one I have an answer to right now. I am confident in the connection between the stoma and the Eighth House. In chapter 36 of HtN Augustine accuses Mercy of not taking the stoma seriously “which is why your whole damned House sucks at it like a grotesque teat-”. Mercy’s House is the Eighth House, so whatever the metaphysical effect of siphoning is, it presumably involves the stoma. What interests me most about Colum’s transformation for now is that his eyes went full liquid black, and that he was possessed by a creature that left salt water behind it.

Still with me? Now we tie it all together with Alecto’s eyes, the eyes currently in the face of God, the Emperor of the Nine Houses. Like the possessed Colum, their sclera are black. Unlike Colum, their eyes have irises and pupils. The irises are “dark and leadenly iridescent - a deep rainbow oil slick, ringed with white.” Even before I had any idea about Alecto, I wondered what sort of soul the God who was once a man had consumed to have eyes like that. The way Ianthe’s eye colors swirled and merged when Naberius was fighting her, I wondered if his dark iridescent irises were the colors of ten billion souls swirling together, but that wouldn’t explain the black sclera. Now I think the Resurrection Beasts, the stoma, and these theories about Alecto are offering an explanation.

Perhaps Alecto is an enormous collection of human souls, like in our theories, but she is not only human souls. Whatever was possessing Colum Asht is also a part of Alecto. The black sclera she gets from the River, and the iridescent irises she gets from thousands or millions or billions of human souls. Depending on how you interpret what possessed Colum, that could mean a few different things. Maybe she's a human stoma, a human soul merged with the mouth of hell. Maybe she's a tributary or avatar of the River, and the power of all of history's death runs through her. Maybe she's partially comprised of a creature from the incomprehensible chaos of Hell.

The stoma option seems like the most likely to me, to explain the fear and disgust that Mercy and Augustine feel toward Alecto. An avatar of the River is terrifying, but also awesome. That's not the right vibe for 'put that thing down before it hurts one of us'. It was implied in the conversation about Hell and the stoma at the end of chapter 36 that nothing had ever been observed coming through the other way, and it's plainly stated by the Emperor that nothing which goes in has ever come back. If Mercy and Augustine were aware that part of Alecto was from Hell, I would expect it to be hinted at in that scene, and it wasn't really. I did notice that Augustine is more scared of Alecto than Mercy. When Mercy thought Alecto had come to kill her, she spoke to her. When Augustine thought he had seen Alecto, he turned and ran. Maybe Mercy is just braver in general, but Mercy is also less afraid of the stoma than Augustine.

As a closing note, evoking the stoma or what might lie beyond it would explain the only line in Annabel Lee as a metaphor for Alecto that puzzles me.

And neither the angels in heaven above,

  Nor the demons down under the sea,

Can ever dissever my soul from the soul

  Of the beautiful Annabel Lee

[remiwarner]

THE BLUE MINOR MISERY

     His father’s house stood, unchanged, on a somnolent, grey street of similar homes, plain and hollow-looking. The past slept there, cocooned in the evening quiet, and, walking down it, Remi felt no time had passed at all. He was seventeen, on his way back from a sweltering day on some corner, to take a shower before heading out for a night at some club, and his father was waiting for him in the living room or in the kitchen, to shove another bundle of baggies at him with that disapproving, impatient look of his. He’d already dropped out of school. His friends would be at home, having dinner with their families, doing homework, playing video games, and he was working. Day in and day fucking out.      Dusk tinted everything purple: the fading paint on the walls of every residence, the flowerless clumps of oleander that in daylight were pops of green in plain flowerbeds at the end of each monochrome yard – rows and rows of stony ochre – framed by the yellow desert grass sprouting around their cobbled edges. Warm light flooded from a few of the windows, and he wondered as he passed, not for the first time, what the lives of the people inside were like. Mundane. Happy? He couldn’t imagine it. Not in Battery – nor anywhere else, for that matter.

     Remi wondered, pacing slowly up the driveway to his childhood home, whether life would always be like this. Thirty-odd years of drawing breath, and he’d lived in shadows – his father’s, the Government’s, the city’s, his own; they crowded around him, untouchable, encroaching, and even the flashes of light that speckled his past – stars glimmering in the void of the black firmament of his existence – never quite chased them away. Flashes of warmth that felt illusory in hindsight, just as fake as any other kind of joy and as easily extinguished. One thing dressed up as another. He unlocked the door and slipped inside, closing it noiselessly behind him out of habit before turning the lock again, leaving the key on the side-table in the hallway. The Arellanos: pity. That poor kid, that poor kid, that poor fucking kid. Silas: necessity. He’d never had an easy time making other friends. And Charlie… A hand dipped into his pocket, a plastic case landed on the worn coffee table in the living room, and he was turning away, headed for the kitchen. He’d bound her to him; sickness and health when it was mostly the former. For better or worse when worse was all shit ever got. She deserves better. Colie deserves better.

     Graying white countertops under grayer cabinets – clean, but he could see the drained bottles cluttering the empty surface. The cigarette packs, the lighters, the ashtrays, the baggies, sometimes bricks, the folds of crumpled bills. The dirty plates littered with crumbs or stained with dried sauce or grease, thrown at his head if he left them there too long. It didn’t matter if he hadn’t been home – if his father saw him in the kitchen and there were dishes in or by the sink, it was too late. He flipped the tap on and washed his hands.      Fuck you.      A stray, instinctual thought. Words he’d never gotten to speak to his old man; words he’d spoken to himself every day for… years. His entire adult life. A thousand times he’d pictured it, and it was never the vengeful moment it should’ve been, even in his imagination. Look at yourself. Ungrateful brat. Your ma’d be fuckin’ ashamed. Oh, y’got somethin’ to say? Speak up, kid… The fuck y’say to me? Huh? C’mere. Think you’re a man now, do ya? Y’aint shit. Stop squirmin’, I said come– Remi! Y’get your ass back– Remi! The soles of his sneakers pounding concrete, the door wide open in his wake. His father rushing out to the front yard and then stopping, silent, and Remi knew what he’d see if he turned around – a wordless promise. He wouldn’t go home that night, probably not the next, but he had to eventually, and all he could do then was hope to find his father too drunk, too high, passed out – something, so he wouldn’t remember.      The promise was a grip like a vice on his arms. Screaming that made his eardrums vibrate and sent dull stabs of pain into his head. Punches that radiated heat and sent throbbing waves of hurt far beyond their point of impact, and the taste of blood in his mouth. The promise was a break in the middle of a scolding, a look that he was too slow to recognize followed by fingers suddenly encircling his wrist and yanking, his palm landing on the table with a smack, and the glowing cigarette that had been hanging between his father’s cracked lips a second earlier searing the back of his hand. The promise was plates breaking, cups, bottles – shards of glass flying, razor sharp projectiles that cut when they grazed him.

     And so help him if he made a fucking sound. A shout, a yelp, a whimper, a fucking gasp. He’d been told, for as long as he could recall: he was too old to cry.

     At his side, his left hand was curling in and out of a fist, slowly, forcefully – mindlessly, over and over and over. He’d gotten distracted, and he hated this fucking house. He hated the street, and he hated himself, so he supposed he belonged. Remi could feel all the shit building, expanding, consuming him, and if he didn’t move, he was going to be the one throwing something. Hitting something. Fucking caving in on himself and imploding, exhaustion and hatred decaying him from the inside out.      So he moved. Step by step into the living room, where the windows were shuttered always, thin strips of yellow painted across the furniture and the pale green wallpaper from the lamps outside now that the last of the natural light was gone and the dark of night was creeping in.

     Gone. That’s what he needed. Everything gone for a bit, and he could get his head straight. Just… A rectangular black case. Its contents wrapped individually, in clear plastic.      Ampule of sterile water – cap off, white powder in, cap on (don’t touch the inside), shake. He pulled his hoodie over his head and left it in a pile on the threadbare cushion next to him. Wrapped the rubber tourniquet around his bicep and held it in place with his teeth, tightening it – felt the slight numbing tingle that crackled towards his fingertips. Dragged an alcohol wipe over his skin.      The syringe came out of its packaging, needle breaking the seal in the cap of the ampule before he pulled the plunger back, slowly. Half? Two thirds? What a waste. All of it. He tilted the small capsule, making sure not to draw up any air, but still double-checked when he’d taken the syringe out, a couple of drops landing on the wooden surface in front of him. Angling the needle, he carefully inserted it into a vein on the inside of his forearm, near the crook of his elbow, and nudged the plunger back a little, watching with fascination as his blood seeped into the colorless liquid. Go away, go away, go away, go away… Remi lowered his head, letting the half-twist, half-knot around his arm slip loose, then spat the tourniquet onto the floor next to him and pushed down on the plunger until it touched the bottom of the barrel.

     Needle out. Drop the syringe on the table. Antiseptic adhesive fucking bandage – a white square he pressed to his arm and then forgot to let go of because he was busy melting into a puddle. Indescribable, all-encompassing warmth flowed through him, sweeping every other thought from his mind in its current and dissolving every feeling that wasn’t unadulterated euphoria. He hadn’t registered sinking into the cushions, but he was looking at the ceiling now, and his arm glided slowly across his torso and then dropped, settling limply at his side.      Fuck the fucking neighbors, he thought deliriously, drawing a slow, blissful breath, I know happy.

     It’s this.

[nepalyogateachertrainingsblog]

Meditation in Nepal

Meditation outlines as a practice where a person uses a technique, like focusing their mind on a particular object, thought or activity, to understand a mentally clear and emotionally calm state. according to sacred texts, Nepal is also an area wherever the Hindu gods and ancient rishis are coming to meditate and relax for thousands of years. Meditation in Nepal is very important in the sense that the majority of the Nepalese show high interest in religious activities. They like to do meditation and facilitate folks to progress forward whoever is active meditation. Since any activities concerning meditation think about as divine work in Nepal.

Meditation is also used with the aim of reducing stress, anxiety, depression, and pain, and increasing peace, perception and successfulness. Meditation is below analysis to outline its potential health (psychological, neurologic, and cardiovascular) and different effects.

Spiritual Meditation in Nepal

Nepal is well-liked for its spiritual and nonsecular wealth. Since there are many religious and spiritual places many folks are interested in doing meditation. Meditation can even facilitate us to know our own mind and reduce our stress. Because of that nonsecular meditation in Nepal are attracting folks towards it. Nonsecular meditation has 2 sorts of benefits one is meditation and another is will read the spiritual places. Recently Nepal has become the destination for those that are seeking for spiritual experience and additionally the meditation. Owing to that, we tend to are ready to observe not solely the locals however additionally international tourists who are coming here to meditate.

Tourists come for meditation

In past Tourists visit Nepal for trekking and expedition. But now not only trekking and expedition, they also want to do meditation especially spiritual meditation in Nepal. We can find different types of meditations in the different religion and different institutions. The process of doing meditation is different but the moto is same. All types of meditation will help you to free your mind or clear your mind. It also helps you be live cheerful life.

For mindful meditation, people practice Vipassana meditation of which the founder was Lord Buddha. Due to which the highest number of people got enlightenment during his period in comparison with other periods of history. Among the others, Vipassana meditation is most well-liked. Though it involves a strict, 10-day schedule together with meditating ten hours daily and abstaining from talking. This method teaches the individuals how not to get upset in life.

Vipassana meditation

Vipassana means that to check things as they really are. The technique is that the pure science of mind and matter. It’s also an art of living, a remedy to any or all the stresses and strains of life. It provides a deep pool of peace and harmony within and ultimately finally ends up within the tip of suffering. Though it involves a strict, 10-day schedule furthermore as meditating 10 hours a day and abstaining from talking.

Vipassana meditation in Nepal

Vipassana is an ancient meditation technique and about 2,500 years ago Lord Buddha instructs and practices vipassana. There are, at present, Vipassana meditation centers in twenty-five countries. And in Nepal, Lumbini, Pokhara, Birgunj, Chitwan, Surkhet, and Kathmandu has centers for Vipassana meditation. The aim of this technique is to develop a peaceful mind by perceptive the breath and sensations inside the body to subdue want and aversion.

However, faint-hearted or weak-willed shouldn’t participate in it. as a result of it desires the students to follow five sila (moral rules) that do not appear to be to kill, lie, steal, undertake sexual misconduct or consume intoxicants. They need to in addition avoid making eye-contact, browse or writing and should maintain noble silence except for talking concerning the technique with the teachers.

[fireintheforest]

Home

The apartment above the Den was silent during midmorning and the warmth clings to the body. Rialas was lying on the floor, where he’d been dozing in the sunrays on the mammoth rug that Lillandril brought as a souvenir when he visited the north. The door creaked, being opened slowly, but he didn’t bother to get up. The creaks go on, and the lightest steps start to circle the room from the borders, slowly spiraling closer and closer.

"Do I look like a mouse?" Rialas said, stretching and rolling over, bare chested, but wearing loose silk trousers. The steps stopped, then they moved quicker to one of Rialas’s sides, a shadow covering Rialas’s head.

"You look like a crocodile taking sun, is what you look like." Saufinril's voice rang from above the shadow. One single finger nudged one of Rialas's curls aside from his face. Rialas laughed and opened his eyes, reaching his own hand to take Saufinrils and lightly kiss his knuckles. "I am flattered. Truly the Altmer know how to wield words, hmm?" he purred.

Saufinril grinned back. He was crouched by Rialas’s head, his hair was tied back in a bun and he only retired his hand from Rialas's when the Bosmer finished with the kisses. "We're natural poets, what can one say."

Rialas yawned and rolled fully on his back, a picture of some cheesy Breton novel. "So Silas did not completely forget to feed you hmm?"

"Perish the thought, give him some credit. He only forgot twice." Saufinril sat next to Rialas and turned, lying facedown. The back of his head had a braid that's hiding under his bun

"In whole month?" Rialas chuckled. "He does like you."

"One knew that since the very first day we met. It's not news to one." Saufinril smiled back

“But it is to me." Rialas stretched and sat up. "Do that to my hair." He demanded

"Do what to your hair?"

Rialas rolled his eyes “The braid. Did you lose your brain into the bog?"

Saufinril supressed the smile (by the Nine did he love to tease Rialas), then sat up, got behind the Bosmer and parted the hair, moving the majority of hair forward and over Rialas's face. Rialas laughed and blew his hair inefficiently before moving his hands to hold it from rolling back to Saufinril’s way. "So kynd, did you enjoy yourself?"

Saufinril's fingers meanwhile collected the lower hairs and started to braid them, "One did, it was good. One of your cousins wants to know when will you come back, everything went smoothly, one named a crocodile. You know, the usual." He said in a cheerful tone.

"You're not supposed to enjoy your punishment kynd." Rialas lauged. "But I suppose some people just do.”

"Do you enjoy your-you know what, nevermind." That’s a topic he was not getting into. He tucked the braid, merged the rest of the hair and began to build the bun, "One just, you know, saw the golden lining."

"Kynd should I ever do anything bad in my life, I will tell you I'd I enjoy being punished or not. Alas, so far I have been good, never to blame for anything."

"Sure you were." Saufinril tied the bun and pulled here and there to loosen it up, "You're done"

Rialas chuckles and stands up, walking few steps to take a look on big mirror mounted behind the silk curtain that separates his and Lillandril’s bed from the living area. He tilts his head this way and that, like a bird. Saufinril meanwhile stretched, a smile still on his face even if he doesn't seem to notice he has it, "Like it?"

"I look gorgeous as always." Rialas smiled, blowing a kiss at his reflection.

"One will take that as a yes. So, how was this place without one? Is Muraz our of the kitchens?"

Rialas laughed as he walked back to Saufinril. "Have you seen your atta yet?"

"No. Unless he also has a twin one has never met before too."

"Have you considered that he's over thousand years old and few months is nothing to him?"

"...did he..." the smile on the Altmer’s face fades, "Wh-so soon? How? When?" He scrambled to his feet and to the other side of the curtain, shock evident in his eyes, “One knew he was old but-was it at least in his sleep?”

Rialas raised an eyebrow "did he what? Die? No such luck." Saufinril exhaled with relief as Rialas went on, "Kynd, you really have bog water in your brain. All I meant is he's not going to let Muraz out from kitchen this soon."

"You could've been clearer. One almost thought you were going to tell one he took a vacation faraway or whatever bullshit." Saufinril combed back a flyaway baby hair, "At least he'll keep out of trouble."

Rialas rolled his eyes and tossed his head. "Don't blame this on me. You've grown slow with my sweet brother’s calm lifestyle."

"How your words wound one." The small smile spreads across his face again before asking what had been on his mind for some days, "Rialas, what's the Ooze?"

Rialas blokes in surprise, opening his mouth once, twice. Then he asked "Have you not heard by now? Every Bosmer child grows up with this story, how have your big ears and curiosity not taught you this yet?"

"Uhhh one is not Bosmer? Also one was working while the kids got stories told, so…"

Rialas rolled his eyes again and sat down on the pelt, patting the spot next to himself. Saufinril sat next to him obediently, legs crossed and listening.

"Once, there was nothing but formlessness. The land held no shape, the trees did not harden into timber and bark, and the Elves themselves shifted from form to form. This formlessness was called the Ooze." Saufinril nodded, listening, as Rialas went on, “But Y'ffre took the Ooze and ordered it. First, she told of the Green, the forest and all the plant life in it. She gave the Green the power to shape itself as it willed, for it was her first tale.” Saufinril now rested his head on his hand, the elbow on his knee, as the story continued, “The Elves were Y'ffre's second tale. As Y'ffre spun the story, the Elves took the form they have today. Y'ffre gave them the power to tell stories, but warned them against trying to shape themselves or the Green. Shifting and the destruction of the forest were forbidden. Instead, Y'ffre commended the Wood Elves to the Green, so that they might ask the Green to provide them with shelter and a safe passage, and as long as they respected the Green, it would obey. This is called the Green Pact.” Rialas sighed and looks somewhere far away, face lifted towards the sunlight filtering down through the huge roots the Den is built inside of, "Finally, Y'ffre told of all the beasts that crawl on the land or swim in the rivers or fly in the air. These, Y'ffre gave to the Wood Elves as sustenance. They were to eat no plants but consume only meat. Y'ffre also told that no Wood Elf who is struck down by another Wood Elf should be allowed to sink into the ground, but should instead be consumed, like the beasts. This is called the Meat Mandate. When the stories were told, Y'ffre saw that they had a pleasing shape, but some of the Ooze remained. Y'ffre told a final tale then, and gave purpose to the Ooze. Any Bosmer that violated the Green Pact, either by shifting or by damaging the Green, would be condemned to return to the formlessness of the Ooze. Their names would be scrubbed from the story Y'ffre is telling and replaced with silence.”

Rialas remained silent for a long time before speaking again, "You understand this Saufinril?" He finally asks, voice uncharacteristically serious. Just by watching Rialas look out the window and by being called by his full name he could tell this was serious. "One does." He said, "Thank you, Ria"

Rialas hummed and smiled. He turned away from the ceiling window and reached out to ruffle Saufinril’s hair. "And what do you mean you are not Bosmer? Everyone here knows you're at least half a Bosmer."

"Don't start" he gave a smile, however, as some strands freed themselves, making the bun look more messy as he ducked sideways.

"Start what?" Rialas grinned, "Are you worried people will find out your Amma is better looking than you?"

"Don't you get tired of being one's mother? We don't even look anything alike. Not to mention, you're a boy"

"Don't be discriminatory. If I want to be Amma I can well be. Don't you want me as your mother?"

"You'll still be one's mother no matter what one replies." Saufinril said with a grin

"And you love it even if your uptight Altmer-ness is incapable of saying it"

"Ok, no. One doesn't" Saufinril’s ears, however, turned pink. Rialas glanced at Saufinril’s ears knowingly, with a smug, barely contained smile. Saufinril spoke again as if that hadn’t happened, "Anyhow, what are you doing here? One thought you'd be downstairs getting your makeup or making Lillandril jealous or something."

Rialas arches an eyebrow. "Kynd, the sun is up."

“When has that stopped you?"

"The Den is closed." Rialas pulled Saufinril’s ear and made a show of trying to see inside, "Can you feel the bog water sloshing around your empty head?"

"Again, when has that stopped you?" Saufinril moved his head, "There's waiters, the artists downstairs, the new bartender..."

Rialas let go of Saufinril’s ear and flopped on his back on the floor "They're all boring."

"Poor you" Saufinril rested next to him, a hand in front of Rialas's face and letting a cool ice mist shower on his face, "Surrounded by dull blokes. A snake amidst mere ants. If only someone could give you some morsel of entertainment. Like a stunt or a prank on Lillandril or gossip..."

Rialas huffed and laughed, turning his head away from the mist. "Oh? You saying you know something hmm?"

"Maybe one does." His hand follows Rialas's face, both to tease him with the cold and because of the mesmerizing gaze that was the contrast between the white, delicate snowflakes that landed on the fiery red, wild curls on Rialas’s head, akin to flames. Rialas moved up, snapping his teeth not too far from Saufinril’s fingers. He, however, moved his hand away with a grin, "If you bite one, one won't tell you anything. And you'll have to wait for Silas to remember and tell you."

"Or, I can hold your finger as hostage."

"How will one remember to tell you if one is distressed over a fingernapping? But fine, just because one is nice" he shifted his legs and said, "There's a new baby in your family, and there was a stranger in Lynpar March, all Altmer except for a couple of details."

Rialas narrowed his eyes. "Altmer."

"Lookalike" Saufinril specified, "He had black hair." This earned him a raised eyebrow from the Bosmer.

"Dyed?"

"One doesn’t think so. It wasn’t a glamour, that’s for sure. Lots of beauty marks too"

Rialas raised an eyebrow, then asked, "All over?"

Saufinril stared at Rialas for a second too long, "No." He lied.

"Good for you, kynd." Rialas said, chilling and rolling on the rug like animal looking for comfortable spot. Shit, maybe he knew? Of course he knew. He and Lillandril were impossible to lie to.

"About what?"

Rialas didn't answer, instead curling up into a sunny spot. "As far as gossip goes that is not much." Maybe not, but there was still chance of moving this gossip to another direction, one that didn’t immediately go to private affairs and a failed resolution to stay single until he got his shit together, so Saufinril went on, "Come on, one thought you'd be interested in knowing why a total stranger is in Lynpar March!" he said.

"Perhaps. But it is more of a mystery than gossip. Now, if you had say, said Silas killed him or you slept with him or something, now that would have been something interesting."

There was no use keeping a secret with this godsforsaken Bosmer. Saufinril rolled his eyes, "Fine, it's a mystery and one spent one night at his place."

"At whose place?" Ria yawned like sleepy snake. "He can't have had place if he was a stranger. And there are no inns. And visitors usually stay at tribe house. So. Whose place was he staying? With you. For a night."

"Yep, all over your things.” He couldn’t help the sarcasm, light as it was, “No, he said he had a friend and that's where we spent it. Maybe not his place, but it wasn't in your apartment."

"I don't care about that, kynd. For all I care you can dig roots all over Lillandril’s shirts. What I meant is who's friend he supposedly is?"

Saufinril lied down, eyes narrowed towards the ceiling as he tried to remember. Details of the house floated into his memory like a fog,

"One recalls the house had a pig pen in the back, it wasn't as close to the center, more like in the outskirts...one never got to see his friend, though." He remembered a sickeningly sweet aroma that he'd picked up when he'd arrived, "there was a guava tree nearby"

Rialas had closed his eyes while Saufinril spoke. He was silent for so long it was almost like he had fallen asleep, before he shrugged. "Most people don't have separate houses, they tend to live in tribe house. It could be second cousin Eslion's. Or little aunt Liennas, if she's still around. I don't remember taking her in. I'll ask Silas about it."

"One thought you'd be angrier about this. Also, taking her in?"

"Eaten her at the end of her life." Rialas answered. "And why should I be angry?"

Saufinril shrugged in order to avoid explaining why, "One wasn't supposed to enjoy one's punishment and all that." He grinned.

Rialas rolled his eyes. "I thought we established it already. You like punishment. Was he at least a good lover?"

"You have such a weird way to say things."

"Or maybe you have weird way to listen things, kynd."

I mean, that was true. He sighed and shimmied a bit, putting an arm under his head and thinking for a while. He was going to skip telling him about the letter and his words that night, for now. "Yeah" he nodded. Watching Saufinril shift, Rialas huffed and said, "If you have to think about it, it can't have been that good."

"It's not that, nevermind. He was good. He said he was in, a...circus troop or something like that, one was a little drunk."

Rialas grinned. "My, little kynd is growing up, getting drink and having sex."

"It's not like one hasn't drank or slept with someone before." Saufinril laughed.

"Exactly." Rialas said, "Meaning, you have not grown at all. Soon we will need to find you proper marriage or you will ruin the good reputation of your atta."

"Excuse one, where have you been in the last 200 years?" He pressed Rialas's nose lightly, “And why marriage?" He scrunched his nose, "One's not going to get married. Ever. Sorry to disappoint Lillandril and his reputation, but if one were going to get married one would've taken Kartan's offer or returned to the Isles and had one's stepfather choose a wife"

Rialas hissed and swatted Saufinril’s hand away before replying. "True. When you dragged yourself in the first time you were even more wet behind the ears than Lillandril. And he had just survived shipwreck."

"Well, one was 27 or so."

"As for your stepfather - and I use the word lightly-, he couldn't even introduce the one side of his arse to the other let alone arrange marriage."

"Point is, one doesn't want to get married. Ever. No offense to you or Lillandril, but it's not going to happen."

"As you choose." Rialas shrugged.

"One just," Sau went on, "doesn't see the point in it. With Ondacano, then Kartan, and one's mother, you guys are the exception but otherwise one just doesn't see it as much of a good time as everyone else says it is. One would rather spare oneself and the other person all that."

Rialas laughed and patted Saufinril’s head. "It is true. Not everyone can be as lucky as your atta. When we got married, I was happy. And he was extremely thankful. If I recall, he thanked me repeatedly for several days." Saufinril just gave Rialas an ‘ew’ face, "Something is wrong with your face, kynd?"

Saufinril just stared at Rialas, then said "No, nothing. Glad we're on the same page"

"Kynd, we will never. I am way out of your league."

"Sure." Saufinril stretched, "Why did you chose to get married, anyhow? You could've decided to meet more people"

"I already told you didn't I?" Rialas yawned and stretched in the sun, the scarred pattern and ink moving with the muscles.

"Yes but why didn't you just, what, kill him and moved on? Or just moved away or ignored him? Also, he says it was the other way around."

"You know he lies. But fine. I could have killed him. Or just gone. I could have ignored him. So have you considered this: maybe I actually do love him?"

Saufinril smiled, "Yeah, you both are the one thing that makes me reconsider. Anyhow, before you forget, your cousin wants to know when are you going to go back to Lynpar March." Quieter, he whispered, "Fuck, one missed this stupid Den"

"Which cousin?"rialas asked casually. It was pretty clear he didn't really care much.

"It was...Tago? Tagal? One with a scar on his head."

"Oh Tagmal. He can wait all he wants." Saufinril supressed a laugh, "What does he want anyway. Pah. I'm sure he's after Lillandril."The silence falls for two seconds before Sau incorporates himself and looks at Ria, "Wait, hold up. What?" he asked

"Hmm?" Rialas had closed his eyes and leaned back, looking like he was ready to nap in the sun again

"He's after Lillandril?"

"Why not? My husband is most handsome."

"One just thought he wouldn't be into him."

"You think many things."

“It's one's many talents"

"Don't you mean bad habits?"

"No, one meant excellent talents."

"Oh? You sneaky little thing." Rialas said, "Keeping all those talents so well hidden."

Saufinril laughed at that, then pat his own hair and undid the bun and braid he had. Rialas murmured and shuffled into more comfortable position under the golden rays and over the deep brown pelt. Saufinril began to do a fishtail braid, working on his long, long hair in silence. At least for a couple of seconds, "Sleepy?" he asked

"It's warm" rialas murmured, eyes closed. "And you are home."

Saufinril didn’t expect Rialas to mention him as a positive reason to find sleep now, so he involuntarily stopped and turned to look at Rialas, eyes focused on the Bosmer's face and a warm flush of gratefulness for Rialas flooding his chest. He observed Rialas for some seconds, then resumed his braiding, acting nonchalantly so as to not show the moment he had, "The Isles are warm. This is an oven." He said offhandedly.

"The Isles" Rialas hummed, "smell like fish."

"They are surrounded by sea, yes. What part of the Isles did you go to?"

"I dont know what it was called. They all have way too long weird names anyway."

"But the weird names sound different. Was it Lillandril?"

“Maybe. But I’ve been in Lillandril many times.”

He chose to ignore that joke. “Lillandril is so ugly.” To be fair, he’d only been there once.

“How dare you say that about my husband?”

“One meant the city. One’s stepfather took one and one’s brother there once, to stay at his batshit crazy sister’s house for some days, one hated it.” By the time Saufinril finished the braids, he laid by Rialas and both continued the conversation well until they fell asleep on the ground, the sun resting on both brown and gold skins.

[yukiwrites]

Battle Against What Was Forgotten

The time was nigh -- Kamui’s and Xander’s efforts to rouse up the hoshidans, nohrians and vallite under a single banner with the intent of defeating their nemesis finally reached its purpose: There was only Anankos, the Forgotten Dragon, standing between them and true peace. They would all do whatever it took to win. No matter what had to be sacrificed, or whose help they had to get.

Part 1 - Part 2

No legends could have prepared Kamui's army to what was happening right before their eyes: A thousand-eyed dragon the size of the moon had launched some sort of magic at the center of the world once known as Valla, which consumed everything it touched.

Buildings, trees, clouds and even stars. Nothing escaped the black hole which grew bigger and bigger with each passing second.

"We can't give up! Not now!" Were Kamui's words before the Forgotten Dragon set its sights on her -- pursuing her, it threw its dissolving magic left and right in an attempt to erase its closest family and worst enemy.

The battle seemed hopeless: although Kamui's Seal of Flames dealt considerable damage to the dragon's ancient scales, being able to get it close enough to them without destroying the entire structure they were on proved to be their hardest challenge. Not to mention, of course, the fallen vallite soldiers Anankos summoned the very moment it lost sight of its enemies.

They couldn't fall back and regroup.

They couldn't attack head on without fearing losing their footing and falling to oblivion.

They couldn't keep that up for much longer, either. Exhaustion was starting to wear them all off.

"We need to press on -- let's go hide inside that crumbling chapel, it seems far enough from the borders of this floating island-" Kamui huffed, using the Seal of Flames as a support to help her up, her entire body aching.

"Big Sister!!" Elise and Sakura both pointed in horror to something behind the dragon princess' back, but she turned one heartbeat too late -- Anankos' magic hit her head-on. Ryoma threw himself over his little sister and his wife-to-be, protecting them from the blow at the same time Xander pulled Kamui's hand to him, close to the one standing wall that protected them from the dragon's might.

Her Yato shone with the brightness of a thousand suns, covering both her and Xander in its light, negating Anankos' dissolving magic; though not being able to protect her from its physical damage.

Consciousness slowly slipped away from the dragon princess' grasp. "X-Xander- take everyone away from here-" she didn't hear her voice say, but her lips managed to think of others before herself even without enough strength to keep her eyes open.

Kamui could hear her name being called as though through a thick glass -- the sound became farther and farther as she felt her grip on Yato lessen, the last noise she heard before passing out was the loud clang of her blade hitting the destroyed stone floor.

Xander felt his heart beat cold blood to his entire body the moment he saw Kamui being hit by that blow -- it was as though he was seeing everything in slow motion.

The way the distorted purple ray managed to dissolve the remains of the half-standing wall Kamui had just been leaning in moments before; the way he saw his hand pulling hers before his own mind could process what was happening.

The way Kamui's body felt unbearably hot due to the Yato's protection for only half of a second, then increasingly cold in the next moment -- it all wrought his entire body in physical pain.

The way she weakly raised her hand to touch his cheek, asking him to lead them while she couldn't.

The way she thought of others even during such a critical time for herself -- she was losing consciousness in the middle of battle, for the Gods' sake! -- and how she exhaled calmly as though she was falling asleep in his arms once she finally passed out.

The way her limp arms let her sword fall to the ground, the clanging sound ringing through all of their ears, making their hearts fall: every wielder of a Divine Weapon could feel their power diminishing rapidly.

Without Yato -- alas, without Kamui -- there was no power that could unite them all to bringing out their weapons' full potential. There was no 'full potential' to be brought out in the first place.

They needed her.

She was crucial.

Xander quickly adjusted Kamui in his arms, "move!!" He vociferated, the rush of battle exploding all around them, despite the stillness that invaded their bodies with the loss of Kamui. "Camilla, take Kamui's Yato; let's move quickly to the chapel she just mentioned -- we shall be safe there while she's unconscious." He ordered quickly, placing his beloved over his horse, mounting it right after. "We've no time to mourn -- Kamui will wake up in time; we must survive until then!"

"... Right!" Elise sniffled, still lying in shock as she hugged Sakura in Ryoma's arms. "C'mon, Sakura, Ryoma, I'll take you two on my horse!"

Camilla rushedly took the Yato, running towards her wyvern. "Dearie, Marishka can carry me and your sweetheart much better than your horse. Come now, Prince Ryoma."

"Of course, Princess Camilla." Ryoma finally snapped out of the desperation that had hit them all, quickly helping his betrothed to get on her feet. "Take my sister with you, Elise. I'll monitor the skies with Lady Camilla."

"And you're coming with me," Leo pulled Takumi by the arm, shoving him towards his horse.

"I'll scout the area, but we still need someone to stay behind to lead the troops!" Hinoka jumped on her pegasus and took off, not waiting to hear Silas' volunteering to take on the role.

"Proceed!" Xander held Kamui with one arm, taking out his Siegfried with the other, pointing forward. "We will survive this!"

"...my. H-... c-... hea... e? ...my!" A childish and far, faraway voice called, scratching the back of Kamui's consciousness.

Though her head throbbed a bit, her body felt light. It was as though she could feel a newfound power coursing through her veins, despite having no idea where that power came from, or how she found it.

She felt the tips of her fingers tingling; overflowing with energy -- if she so much as clenched her fists, she would feel like she were controlling the sun and the stars, making them burst into flames.

"Flames...?" Her voice groggily said, not noticing how she shook her head ever so slowly, delirious.

"The Seal of Flames, Mommy." The childish voice whispered, so close to Kamui's ear she could feel its breath. "It's right here."

A small, so very small hand held Kamui's, its tiny fingers eagerly holding two of hers.

"I didn't know I could have all this power, honestly." The voice went on, too insecure about itself, but overflowing with pride from its ancestry. "But it's all because of you and Father, Mommy. Because you two are my parents, I can reach this potential."

Kamui felt a warm tear itching down her cheek, wanting more than anything to be able to open her eyes. "You're-" she choked her breath, squeezing the baby's hand on hers. "Siegbert?"

The voice was silent for a beat, but Kamui could almost see the little boy nodding, smiling proudly. "Mhm. I'm with you, Mommy. Please, don't give up now; I want to meet you so badly."

The princess breathed heavily, the chains of unconsciousness pinning her down with an almost inhuman strength.

But her longing to meet her child; to meet hers and Xander's child was so, so very much stronger. She broke through the stillness holding her body and reached out to her stomach with her free hand, using the last of her forces to sit straight, quickly opening her eyes to finally look at her child's. "Siegbert!!"

The stillness broke.

Cold wind swept Kamui's hair apart, slapping her face. She huffed for breath, her wide eyes looking at where the child had been just a second ago, his warmth still tingling her hand.

"Hah... hahh..." The princess blinked, finding that her hand was indeed being held -- by Xander's own. She trailed her gaze from his long fingers to his arm, shoulder, neck and finally to his eyes, which met hers with surprise and relief. "X-Xander... he's here with us."

The Crown Prince opened and closed his mouth, the perpetual frown over his brow growing deep, even after lessening just as Kamui had woken up. "You are pre-" he choked on the word, widening his eyes further. "Siegbert-" he breathed out, slowly reaching out to the hand Kamui never took from her stomach.

The moment his fingers brushed on hers, they both felt a surge of power so intense and sudden, they almost jumped out of their skins.

"He's here... He's here with us!" Kamui smiled widely, her eyes shining with tears.

She looked all around herself -- all of her family looked at her in differing levels of happiness and confusion. She reached out to her Yato, properly laid beside her, and clenched its hilt. "We're going to win this, everyone! I have the blood of another one of Yato's chosen inside of me!"

The wielders of Divine Weapons felt the breath leaving their bodies, most of them crumpling on the ground due to the intensity of power coursing through them the moment Kamui brandished her Yato. It was as though their weapons had gained a heart that beat in sync with their own.

Leo, Takumi and Ryoma could barely hear the calls of their concerned family members, their astonished gazes leaning on their weapons. The samurai took out his Raijinto, staring at how it crackled with power -- the lightning surrounding it jumped from the blade to his hand, entering his body and filling it with vitality.

The mage closed his eyes, placing one hand over his tome -- he could see himself wielding it with his mind eye; he could see the power of creation he had in his hands. Minuscule roots bound the book to his hand, infusing him with the wisdom of millennia.

The archer felt his bow crackle, the magical bowstring fizzing by his ear. He but tapped on it, and the resulting sound sent waves of energy around them, breaking any remaining glass windows the ruined chapel had. He could see the bluish arrow dig deep into his hand, binding the bow into it and tackling him with the strength to shoot a thousand arrows.

The King held his beloved's hand, Siegfried pulsating by his hip -- calling for its master. He looked deep into Kamui's eyes, feeling the power of Yato coursing through her body towards his, seeping even more into his own weapon. The dark blade exhaled energy, its purple glow merging with Yato's golden light -- the moment he took it off of its scabbard and pointed it upwards, the world went still.

A barrier  big enough to cover the entire chapel seethed from Siegfried, as though its overflowing energy physically dripped out of it. The blade dug deep into Xander's hand, binding itself to him as he squeezed Kamui's hand on his. Yato did the same to her, red and yellow veins popping out of her arms so as to accommodate the overpowered sword, ready to integrate it into her own body for as long as it took to accomplish its mission.

They got up, exchanging meaningful glances. "Never leave my side, my Little Princess." Xander's voice dug into Kamui, showering her with warmth.

"I wouldn't have it any other way, Xander." She smiled back at him, squeezing her hand on his. Blind to the world around them, they didn’t notice how Leo got up from his crouching position, one hand under his chin in thought.

"You know what, I think I know how to defeat that overgrown lizard now." Leo said a ways behind them. "Prince Ryoma, Prince Takumi? If you may?"

Takumi was holding back a smirk. "This power should be freaking me out, but I think I'm too high strung to realize that my bow is PHYSICALLY BOUND TO MY ARM to care right now. You had a plan?"

"I'm all ears, Prince Leo." Ryoma nodded, approaching.

“Good. So, for starters, we should lure it back to where we were first…”

The wind howled, its sound the only remaining thing that felt somehow real for all the players in that deadly -- undoubtedly their last -- game. Even the breeze was being sucked into the dark void Anankos tore in the sky, which grew ever closer to the island they stood on.

The thunder of their army's cavalry broke the sound of the world being torn asunder -- under Silas' command, the soldiers roared towards the invisible vallite soldiers. "Don't break formation! Keep them on us!"

"Draw their attention!" Hinoka barked orders to her pegasus knights, covering Silas' left flank while Camilla commanded the wyvern brigade by the right flank.

"Let us be the last thing they see!" The nohrian princess lifted her overgrown axe in a battle roar.

Mages, archers and lance throwers kept to the rear, encircling the battle formation so as to make sure no vallite escaped their pincer attack.

Barriers exploded; arrows hit their targets; lances pierced through their enemies -- flashes of magic left and right rang into their ears. The soldiers' utter and raw will to survive made each and every of them fight as though possessed, raising dust, spilling blood and dripping in sweat.

From above the battlefield, atop a borrowed kinshi, Ryoma raised his divine blade, thunder crackling in the distance. "Kamui!" His voice travelled like the lightning itself towards the dust which kept on growing amidst the battlefield.

"Do it, Ryoma!" A dignified, confident yet desperate voice rose itself from the chaos into which it mingled, but the sound of it brought a smirk to the hoshidan prince's lips.

He pierced his gaze to the far-away thousand-eyed dragon, "you die, NOW!" He vociferated, thrusting his swords upwards to the vortex of clouds that followed his command.

A lightning bolt as large as the dragon's claws thundered from Raijinto to the clouds, ramifying into thousands more -- they followed their master's command, from the clouds to the void whence the Dragon made its home, far from their reach -- but not from Ryoma's thunders.

"Get here, you coward!" Takumi yelled from below, sharing Leo's horse as they pierced through the vallites towards the edge of the island.

"One more time, Ryoma!" Kamui dispelled the dust around herself with but a wave of her Yato -- nay, of her Seal of Flames -- as Xander steered his horse under them both.

They shone with a purple glow, the barrier Siegfried emanated highlighting them from the battlefield.

"You underestimate me, Sister!" Ryoma smirked with the fervor of battle, his lightning quickly making its way to the void which Anankos protected itself into. "Look this way, beast! We are not done yet!" He bellowed, once again raising his Raijinto above his head.

Then, there was silence.

A heartbeat of a moment inside a millisecond of silence before the explosion.

Friend and foe alike had to cover their eyes for the burst of light blinded any and all who could see, the following shockwave blowing away those who hadn't their feet solidly planted on the ground. The island itself shook as though a boat amidst a storm, the ear-piercing screech the Forgotten Dragon released making soldiers hold their heads lest they split in half.

"Overdoing it, much?" Leo felt cold sweat itching down his temple, betraying his excited smirk as he got his horse into position. Behind him, Takumi kicked his feet in excitement.

"That's my Brother! I bet he could single-handedly-"

"Let us focus, yes, Prince Takumi? Your turn approaches." Leo turned his horse to the abyss a thousand meters ahead of them, his frown deep but his mind blaring with all the possible outcomes of his insane strategy.

"Sheesh, no need to tell me twice." Takumi groaned, though he wore the same smirk as his sibling, carefully aiming his Fujin Yumi before pulling its magical string.

Wind revolved around them, lifting hair and mane alike as the blue arrow started to form itself -- bigger than Takumi had ever seen it. Merely the tip was large enough to cover both him, Leo and their mount.

He laughed nervously. "This power is freaking amazing; I can feel it literally inside my veins."

"Don't get carried away! Though I do understand what you mean -- I can now remember things I read only once in my life, as though the book is filling me with magical and intellectual potential."

"No time for idle chatter, you two!" Xander steered Bucephalus towards his younger brother's position, Siegfried's purple glow tapping into the Fujin Yumi's power and engulfing inside its protection. "We have its attention, now!"

Recovering from the stunness Ryoma's thunder brought into its body, Anankos once again screeched to the head-splitting level, words long forgotten being sung in the background as though the souls of the fallen were playing the Forgotten Dragon's tune.

Azura's pendant pulsated with power, her own blood feeling like fire inside her veins -- her voice echoed louder than the damned souls driven to sing for Anankos, her words delivering the true meaning behind the ancient song.

"¡ǝɯ ʇsuᴉɐƃɐ -פNOS ʎW -ƃuos ǝɥʇ ǝsn noʎ ǝɹɐp ʍoH ¡∩Oʎ NW∀p" A voice clashed into their consciousness, ramming its way into their minds.

Breathing heavily, Kamui lifted her Seal of Flames. "This ends TODAY, Anankos!"

"¡∩Oʎ NW∀p" The dragon rolled its thousand eyes to make way for a monstrous teeth-filled mouth, getting ready to shoot its dissolving beam.

The world blinked as the light flickered into the dragon's mouth, its ray as blinding as Ryoma's lightning had been moments before.

But none of them moved.

Kamui kept her Seal of Flames raised, not flinching as the ray approached.

Takumi kept his bow apeak and ready to shoot, unblinking.

Leo hovered his hand over his open book, ready for an opening; his mind focused on what would come next.

Ryoma flew overhead of his family, his eyes unfaltering.

Xander slowly raised his blade, his frown deep as the lowest caves of Nohr's underground, unmoving. "I WON'T allow it!" His low voice shattered the world like a wave breaking on the shore.

Siegfried's barrier pulsated, strengthening with the extent of Xander's feelings -- his protectiveness over Kamui and their unborn baby, his resolve to protect their people from whatever had been controlling his beloved Nohr for so many years, his own hopes for the future, borne only after embracing his love for Kamui and opening his own eyes to a path laid by their happiness.

A mere dragon's rage would never topple Xander's resolve to protect what he held dearest into his heart -- and into his arms. He held Kamui with his free arm, never letting go of the reins, as he lifted his sword with the other hand, the barrier completely withstood the impact of Ananko's previously-dreaded dissolving blast.

"HAH!" Takumi and Leo sneered in unison. "Take that, you lizard!" The hoshidan prince laughed as he shot the overgrown arrow the moment the impact of the dragon's attack lessened in Xander's barrier. The arrow flew, straight and true, towards one of Anankos' arms, entangling itself around his claws as though a sailor tied a tight knot around his ship's anchor. "And another, and another!" Takumi panted, shooting one more magical rope to tie itself between the first and the very ground they stood on -- followed by another two to do the same with the dragon's right arm. "Bind!" He bellowed, his voice echoing with the hoshidan mages and ninjas so very far behind them as they finished the hand seals necessary to strengthen the binding spell, physically pulling and constricting Anankos to the edge of the island they stood on.

Once again the ground shook as though in a seaquake, the island infinitely smaller than the gargantuan dragon bound onto it. The ground level started to slanten, forcing the soldiers to hold themselves into any walls or trees so as not to fall into the nether right below.

Not giving the Forgotten Dragon any time to understand what was going on, Leo chanted under his breath before thrusting his book upwards. "We'll erase you!" He roared, the very island trembling in the rhythm of his breathing -- it not only stabilized itself due to the power of Brynhildr’s roots , but the forest itself rose from the ground, entangling itself around Anankos’ claws and filling the space between them, proceeding to go upwards.

"Form a path!" He panted, the strain of using so much of his weapon's power seeping into his life force, but he wasn't about to stop -- not when the roots acted as he commanded.

Not when the path was almost visible -- the stairway he willed to be unravelled itself in front of their eyes, his hands coordinating it as though a maestro guiding an orchestra.

The strain to keep Anankos stunned made Ryoma clench his teeth, as did the burden of keeping him bound drove Takumi out of his breath.

Yet, like Leo, they wouldn't stop. Not when victory lay so very close to their eyes -- the nohrian prince had but to carve the path for Kamui to reach her nemesis' head.

The Seal of Flames would do the rest.

"Onward!!" The dragon princess vociferated at the same time Xander whipped the reins, Bucephalus himself receiving much of the Yato's power to be able to withstand the shocks and explosions of that battle.

"Sister! The stairs aren't ready yet-" Leo huffed, his vision blurring and his breathing failing him. He was at least thankful that the book was physically bound into his skin, otherwise it might've fallen as well.

"I have faith you can do it, Leo! Keep going!" She smiled at him before turning to the still-forming path ahead in the split of second their mounts crossed paths.

"Hah! Failure is no option!" He renewed his breathing by sheer willpower, straightening his back to resume his conduction of Brynhildr’s roots.

"Fly, Bucephalus!" Xander spurred his horse to its limit as they ascended towards the Forgotten Dragon's head.

Without wasting any time, Anankos once again turned its thousand eyes so as to open its nightmarish mouth, ready to cast his dissolving blast at point blank.

"The path -- we are almost at its end." Xander whispered gravely by Kamui's ear, making her hurried yet attentive eyes switch from it to their goal right on ahead.

"Jump, Bucephalus! Don't falter!" She breathed out, getting ready to jump herself. Xander held onto her abdomen for support as she crouched on the horse's back -- at the very moment the stairs under them ended and the void started.

Anankos once again shot its blinding light, clashing immediately with Siegfried's force shield. "Think again, worm!" Xander made use of the very last bits of strength he had to throw Kamui upwards, aiding her in her jump.

"This ends now!" She yelled as she pointed Yato towards the still open mouth of the Forgotten Dragon, throwing herself inside -- cutting everything open in her path.

For a moment, there was nothing.

No one could remember when they had closed their eyes, but they quickly opened them again to witness the fall of the World Eater.

As though the sea before a quake, the wind was sucked into the nothingness that Anankos had become, tearing the grass from its roots towards the black hole so far up in the sky.

Stillness.

"Kamui! Xander!" Leo yelled desperately for the first time in his life, reaching out to the spot where his siblings had disappeared at, uncaring about appearances.

"Big Sister! Big Brother!!" Elise cried from behind the lines, theis voices being mirrored by one and all who still stood around them.

"May this not be the end of our Queen!" Remaining vallite people cried for their chosen ruler, echoing their nohrian counterpart's words.

"Long live King Xander!" The nohrians clamored, tears falling down their tired faces. "Long live Queen Kamui!" Their voices thunder in the stillness, their words spurred the gears of time to move again.

From far ahead them all, the black hole started dissolving itself into hundreds of thousands lights -- each one of them a single thing it consumed.

The light felt gentle, albeit far, though it didn't raise the worry from the soldier's wrung hearts. The very spot Anankos had been -- where its carcass still lay, unmoving but undoubtedly dead -- still stood, Kamui and Xander nowhere to be found.

The wind started to gush, first as a slight breeze, gaining momentum as though it brew a hurricane -- bringing the flocks of light closer.

They shone over the people's heads, flying towards this or that specific place so as to restore it to its former state -- before the Forgotten Dragon had absorbed it, but not to its former glory from time immemorial.

Islands appeared in the sky one after the other, as did half-collapsed buildings all around where they stood -- the magical display to take one’s breath away.

The world was being rebuilt all around them, but they couldn't feel happiness -- if bringing the world back meant the sacrifice of their heroes, then perhaps they should have left it to oblivion.

Too tired to even move his eyelids, but still resolute in his faith, Leo gripped at the reins, ready to climb the still-standing staircase he managed to finish after Kamui dealt the final blow.

But in that moment, breath was taken from his lungs.

Takumi and Ryoma felt it right there and then as well -- the pulsating power from the Seal of Flames telling its shield-siblings that it still lived; that its wielder still stood, all the while severing their physical binds with their hosts.

A single flock of light touched the empty carcass, quickly making it dissolve into another thousand lights. From within, one could see a purple yet gentle glow enveloping three silhouettes, protecting them from without and within.

Differing levels of surprised gasps roamed around the troops, starting from Kamui and Xander's family.

Siegfried's barrier lifted its future King, Queen and their mount towards the edge of the staircase, slowly dissolving alongside the Forgotten Dragon's dust.

On his feet, Xander pulled Bucephalus' reins as he let Kamui ride it, allowing her an early rest.

The rumble of the soldiers' clamor started as a huff of breath, quickly evolving into a quake that shook the very sky. "Long live the Queen! Long live the King!" They roared, clapped and laughed, finally feeling the high of victory.

Kamui covered her face with emotion, holding her stomach with the other hand. "T-they're calling me your Queen-" she whispered, leaning on the horse's neck so her beloved could hear.

"As they should -- for I will not allow another moment to pass without making you my lawful wife." Xander smiled softly, his heart filled with warmth.

"Oh, Xander..." Kamui's voice shook, her eyes itching with tears. Reality that they had finally beat their nemesis was yet to sink in, but to be there, beside her beloved; to be standing in front of the future whence they would be husband and wife made Kamui quickly accept it as true.

"There is much to do after a war -- for ourselves, that means our coronation. You, as my Queen-"

"And you, Xander, as my King."

[kommahana93]

Just A Dream C1.1

∞ Ŧ ∞ Ŧ ∞ Ŧ ∞

The air was hot, burning everything in its path. The suffocating smoke and ash blocked out the stars, turning the night sky into a black abyss. The earth trembled, rumbling with ferocious agony, shattering apart as if the jaws of hell were opening to consume the innocent. The agonizing screams of the dying echoed through the stifling atmosphere and scared the misfortunate survivors. A shout, a scream, a wail; dozens, hundreds, thousands of voices all sounding at once. Ancient beautiful buildings contorted into odd and terrifying shapes, looking like demons rising from the underworld ready to devour everything in fire and ash. Despair consumed the survivors; reverberating through their souls for years to come. A single man dressed in deepest black walked through the fire as if it couldn’t touch him. In his hand a single blade gleaming as if forged from light. His eyes, dark as the night, were shining like onyx gems. His hair, like blood stained wind, flowed wild and free.

His lifeless eyes glared ahead furiously, his steps sure and silent as if he was death itself.

∞ ☿ ∞ ☿ ∞ ☿ ∞

The night was cool and crisp, as it always is after an autumn rain, the thunderheads floated away to reveal an eerie blue moon. The moon washed out everything but the brightest stars in the navy blanket of the night sky. Everything was peaceful; everyone was asleep in their beds. It was a night that not even owls remained awake. However, the tranquility of the beautiful night could not last forever. A shrill wail pierced the night air, waking animal and human alike. The scream itself sounded so painful and scared it seemed to have come from a tormented banshee. A dark form was sprinting through her home in blind memory, twisting around objects like an expert gymnast. The terrified screams amplifying the closer she got to her child’s door, she threw open the door and launched herself at the wailing child, who was thrashing wildly in the confines of her blankets. Her youngest child, her baby, continued screaming wildly. While trying to comfort her terrified daughter her arms were clawed in her daughter’s desperate attempt to escape the vision plaguing her peaceful sleep. Tears pricked the edges of her eyes and her teeth clenched tight as the feeling of fire crawled across her skin. She continued to clutch her hysterical child, trying desperately to ignore the pain and focus on her sobbing baby.

“It’s okay,” she whispered into the girl’s dark locks. “It’s just a dream. It’s okay. You’re safe. I’m here. It’s just a dream.” She repeated relentlessly. Loud footsteps and stumbling had her looking up to see her eldest appear in the doorway panting heavily, her tanned cheeks were flushed, and her bright orange hair was frizzled and wild, like she had stuck a fork in an electrical outlet.

“Take him and go,” she ordered harshly, wincing as her youngest sank her teeth into her arm. The twelve-year-old was at the end of the bunk bed faster than her mother could blink and was quickly pulling her little brother out of his bed before sprinting out of the room. She tried to ignore the terrified look in her son’s eyes. The fear he showed as he reached out to his older sister. The panic twisting his face as he clung to her tightly and the terror in his golden eyes as the girl sprinted back to her room to comfort the boy.

“It’s okay,” she whispered, rocking her still hysterical child. “It’s just a dream, everything’s okay, it’s just a dream, it’s just a dream, it’s just a dream…” A single tear slipped down her cheek, wetting the skin and fading before it reached her jaw. All she could do was rock her wailing child and continue whispering that it was just a dream, and everything was okay. The weight in her arms lightened, silence filled her ears, movement stilled, and her eyes slowly fell as her child awoke and she slipped into a dreamless sleep. The next thing she knew sunlight was streaming in through the window and warming her face. Her arms were empty, the bed was empty, the room was empty. Just to double check she looked in her children’s closet — empty. She turned to check the 'L' shaped bunk bed when she heard humming.

Wondering briefly why she didn’t hear it before, she approached the doorway of the room and the kitchen beyond it. Sitting at her large oak table were her two youngest children, her daughter drawing with her back turned and her son was sitting opposite, as if afraid of his own sister. Her eldest was humming cheerfully at the stove, scrambling eggs and pouring milk with expert precision. Her youngest, five-year-old Sitara, was swinging her tiny pale legs over the edge of the chair, the pale sleeves of her cherry-printed nightgown pushed up past her elbows while her wild black curls looked like black wisps around the old gown. Her son, eight-year-old Silas, appeared half-awake in his slump against the table, his wavy umber waves curled about his dark chocolate face like whispering secrets to his haunting golden eyes. His baby-blue and teddy-bear button up pajamas appeared two sizes too large, the collar of his shirt looping around one tan shoulder as he stared sleepily at the pictures his baby sister was drawing. Her eldest, pampered preteen Silva, was dressed in a simple pastel pink-floral patterned cotton t-shirt and matching capris; her waist long copper locks were left to tumble down her back like silk thread.

“Mom, she’s doing it again,” her son whined as she stepped into the doorway, revealing herself to her three children.

“Doing what?” She asked as she reached the table and started to stroke Sitara’s unruly hair, careful not to create more knots.

“Drawing monsters,” her son whispered as she landed a kiss to her daughter's head. She gave him a disappointed look, knowing Sitara could still hear him even if she was oblivious to most things. She reached down and lifted one of the finished pictures, staring at the messy shapes and strange assortment of colors. Sitara was usually so organized with her drawings; it was strange to see them so messy and so…childish. Then again, Sitara is five, it didn't matter if she'd been drawing since she was two years old, the girl is bound to have moments where she just wants to scribble. Besides, these messier images of color were more fitting for her age.

“About time you woke up, Mara,” Silva jabbed rudely. She set down a plate of food in front of her brother and then gently slid aside the papers in front of Sitara to set down the girl’s breakfast. Sitara eagerly replaced her pencil with her fork; scarfing her food in such a hurry it suggested they had little time left to catch the school bus. Which meant a fight was going to occur at the bus stop, again. At least it was a new school year that brought with it a new uniform design; she shouldn’t have to worry about a hospital visit. Well, Silva might put someone in the hospital but that was different. At least she didn’t have to worry about having to visit her children in the tall white tower; none of the other military academies would dare to travel so close to the nation’s top Military Academy.

“It’s ‘mom’ or ‘mother’,” She ordered with a tone of warning as she shook her head out of her thoughts. Silva made a face that expressed her dislike of their relation and mockery of the hierarchy in their home. She followed Silva towards the stove, smacking Silva across the back of her straight, coppery locks as she went to finish up the last of the eggs instead. “Not in front of your siblings, Silva.” She warned softly with a glare at her ginger child, “I don’t need them thinking it is okay to disrespect me.”

“So, you can disrespect yourself and others, but can’t handle a taste of your own medicine?” Silva asked her voice thick with sarcasm, her hands moving from the frying pan to her own plate of food. “Great lesson; I’ll make sure to remember that one.” Silva walked away before she could retaliate, leaving the woman standing at the stove and glaring in annoyance at Silva’s back.

“Morning mommy!” Sitara turned and smiled brightly at her, as if noticing her for the first time and forgetting her nightmare had ever happened.

“Morning baby,” she greeted, quickly covering her glare with a smile and hoping Sitara wouldn’t notice. The small five-year-old giggled and at the tap near her plate from Silva, she returned to eating breakfast as quickly as any eager child could.

“Easy little piggy,” Silva chuckled as she sat down at the table with her own plate. “You don’t want to choke do you?”

“I wish,” her son murmured into his cup of milk. Only to wince as Silva slammed her foot into his leg, shaking the table and making him spill his drink down his front. He scowled furiously at Silva but she only smirked back at him, reaching for her own utensils to begin eating while he grumbled under breath.

“Is nas iggy!” Sitara suddenly shouted defiantly with a mouth full of food, bits of scrambled egg falling out of her round pink cheeks, as if she just realized what Silva had called her a moment before.

“Don’t speak when your mouth is full,” Silva replied with an annoyed look as she wiped the ketchup off the girl’s cheek with a napkin. She stared at her children over her cup of coffee. Realizing, not for the first time, that she didn’t have a place inside her own home; not even among her own children. Silva was the mother in the house and she was just the authority figure they had to listen to; Silva is twelve and already doing a better job of being a parent than she ever was.

“So, you’re a squirrel then?” her son questioned with a raised eyebrow, bringing her back from her darkening thoughts. “I mean pigs roll in their food, but squirrels stuff their cheeks ’til their lips can’t touch.” To make a point he pointed his fork at Sitara’s bulging pink cheeks. The younger girl growled, swallowing her food so fast she began to choke; thankfully Sitara turned her face away from the table, so she wouldn’t spray everyone with half chewed food.

“Easy baby,” Silva said, reaching out to pat the girl’s back but stopped when Sitara took in a deep breath. Sitara then turned back to point her fork at her brother, in a perfect mimicry of his previous action, the only problem was that Sitara’s fork was dripping ketchup.

“You’re mean Saly!” Sitara shouted, her cheeks flushed in all the anger a five-year-old muster.

“It’s Silas! Sigh-less! just like its SIGH-TRA!” Silas snapped angrily as he wiped the red splatter from his cheek. “You’re five, Sitara! Learn some big kid words already!”

“Enough!” They both stilled, turning into little statues as they looked at her. "Silas, you know Sitara has issues, quit teasing her.” She ordered as she once again attempted to fix up her own breakfast plate, she got a spoon full of scrambled eggs on her plate before her children decided to be defiant again.

“If she’s mentally unstable maybe she should be in a clinic,” Silas shot back, his golden eyes glinting as he glared at Sitara. “Hear that, creature? Those were some big kid words. Maybe you should learn them some time.” Sitara screamed an unintelligible word then planted both hands on the table and lifted her feet onto her seat, as if she was going to launch herself at him.

“I said enough!” Her voice echoing louder than Silva’s simultaneous shout of ‘no’. The children cringed, their ears burning as they all turned to look at her in surprise and fear. “Silas you know your sister isn’t mentally handicap, she has a speech impediment. You know the difference!”

"Maybe you should have taught her sooner," Silva murmured as she took a drink of her milk. She took in a deep steadying breath, trying her best to not show her anger for her younger children’s sake. The last thing she needed was to make their day any harder than it already was.

"Alright, morning bickering is done," She said, dropping her plate onto the counter with a loud clatter. "All of you get ready for school, NOW!" Her son got up silently, putting his perfectly cleaned plate into the sink; Silva was another story entirely. Silva grabbed her plate and Sitara’s, walked to the sink, dropped them into the sink loudly, and walked away as if she didn't possibly break something.

"You know if you didn't drink every day, you'd know what day it is." Silva drawled, turning to glare at her over her pink sheathed shoulder, one hand on her bedroom doorway. "Today is a late start." Silva wasted no time in slamming the door, causing the remaining relative’s eyes to snap to the wall separating the dining room and living room. The pictures rattled on the wall, before settling against the pale blue paint, their smooth surfaces reflecting the morning light streaming in from the window above the kitchen sink. Sighing in relief, she leaned heavily against the counter next to the stove; her shoulder’s slumping as her tired golden eyes drifted towards her son and Sitara. Both children were still as they stared at the large picture in the center of the wall as if the numerous smiling faces could come back to life. She took in a deep breath, trying to keep back the burning in her eyes and push past the throbbing pang inside her heart. There were some wounds that didn’t heal, no matter how many years passed. Her son bit his lip and hurriedly left the table, rushing into his shared room while Sitara’s eyes remained on the photo a little longer.

"Hurry up dork! You have to get dressed too!" her son shouted from their room. Sitara ran straight to their room, giggling when the older boy tossed a skirt in her face. Rubbing at her brow to distract herself quickly, she grabbed her coffee cup and walked toward the table, so she could clean up the papers Sitara left behind. Most of the images were odd shapes of brown and black and some were blurs of orange and red, as if her young daughter couldn't get the shapes quite right. They were a good distraction for her, letting her mind drift to possibilities while her eyes wandered from picture to picture. Then suddenly she found herself staring at an image covered in pencil markings, not something Sitara normally did. Sitara normally drew pictures with markers, crayons or colored pencils. The five-year-old hardly ever used a normal pencil unless it was for writing, something Sitara still wasn't very good at.

This image made in pencil didn't even look like Sitara’s normal drawings; it was too well done, almost perfect, almost professionally made. The picture was of a tall male figure, his clothes were a little odd looking in their many shades of black-shading, revealing only his long dark coat that seemed to be whipping around him in a hidden wind. Surrounding him were smooth light smudges depicting flames. In his right hand was a sword almost as long as he was tall. It was tipped with a single dark line and bulging slightly at the end as if something was dripping off it. His hair was depicted as long swirls and gentle curves of the simple pencil used to depict his wind-swept hair. Over the black and gray lines outlining the man’s long locks were smooth strokes of scarlet, maroon and hot-pink. His long wild crimson locks hid everything but his eyes. His black eyes curved gently under the thick sure line of his brow, making it appear as if he had cat eyes: onyx cat eyes.

Why did she only color his hair and make it look so ominous around his devilish eyes?

"Mom?" She felt a hand touch her shoulder gently, making her jump and drop the picture. Realizing that at some point she had collapsed into the seat of her youngest, she snapped her head up; staring at her eldest with teary frightened eyes. Silva could only manage a sympathetic smile as a look of tiredness entered her bright blue eyes. "I got the glass. Go get dressed before they come out." She looked down at her purple gown, realizing slowly that at some point in her staring she had dropped her cup of coffee spilling it down her front and shattering it on the tile floor beside her feet. She nodded slowly as she got up and carefully walked around the mess to leave the kitchen.

"It’s just a dream, it's just a dream, it's just a dream," she whispered as she sped down the hall, passing the living room and entering her bedroom. "It’s just a dream, it's just a dream, it's just a dream." She thumped her back against the door and stared at her bare feet, ignoring the scarlet strands of hair tumbling into her vision, staring at the blood slowly beading around her polished toes. "It’s just a dream, it's just a dream, it's just a dream." She looked about her room for a moment but all she saw was dark bottles, some laying on their sides and dripping familiar amber liquid while others sat up proudly and unopened.

"It's just a dream," she told herself softly, her golden eyes sweeping out over her messy room, searching for something to ground her. Something, anything, anything that was her crimson hair, her golden eyes, the whispering in her mind, the laughter beyond her walls. "It's just a dream... it'll always just... just be a dream..." A tear dripped from her eye and slid down her cheek, raising her left hand to whip it away she flinched back as a bolt of golden light shinned in her eyes. "Everything will be okay," Sniffing, she pulled her hand back from her face and out of a beam of morning sunlight. "It’s... it's okay..." On her wrist was an assortment of charms and beads, between the multi-colored glass beads sat small cylinders of glass firmly enclosed in silver etchings. Inside of the six glass and silver cylinders was a white-gray dust, looking like silver glitter in their tiny sunbathed containers. She could see her scarlet hair reflected in those silver etchings, looking like dripping blood, and her golden eyes reflected back to her in that glass looked like the devil’s smug leer.

“It’s just a dream, it's just a dream, it's just a dream, it's just a dream." She murmured again, fresh tears spilling from her eyes as she wrapped her hand around her dangling bracelet. Desperately fighting back the memories of terrified screams and rivers of blood; the warmth that bathed her skin, the voices echoing in her ears, the horror etching her heart. "It’s just a dream, it's just a dream, it's just a dream, it's just a dream."

Except it wasn't a dream and that one horrifying realization brought forth an agonizing scream from her throat and in a fit of tortured agony she grabbed up the nearest bottle and threw it across the room.

[ibangtanthings]

Bonnie & Clyde - pt 16

Another one. Silas poured shot after shot, you drank to forget, to enter a state of unawareness.

You two were the only ones in there.

“I’m leaving soon sweetheart.”

“No don’t go.” You mumbled, sitting up on his lap and caressing his face.

You let a finger trace down his cheek and then his lips. “I’ll miss you.”

“Give me one last dance then.” He said with a dangerous glare.

You kissed him, trying to convince him to stay, and then crawled onto the table to hug the pole.

Closing your eyes, you moved with the music and you felt like a butterfly. Light and beautiful, admired by Silas’ eyes.

You took off the flimsy skirt and feathered boa that did little to cover your bra from his eyes.

It was just a coincidence that you wore his favorite lingerie, a dark satin blue set that went well with the lighting.

Barely five minutes later he grabbed your waist with cold fingers and you loved the rare gentleness in his grip.

Happily, you straddled him and drank the shot he offered.

Unable to keep still, your placed your hands against his chest and brought them up to his shoulders, feeling his muscles through the shirt that probably cost thousands.

“Did you ever love me?” You asked him somberly.

“Almost darling.” He held your cheek in his hand and stared at your lips.

Sitting up, he brought his lips against yours and you clutched onto him, pressing your body into his.

You could feel his pants through the thin fabric between your legs.

Undoing the buttons on his shirt, you moved against his pants and he grabbed your face, holding onto your waist tight before flipping you onto the couch.

The music and lights still blaring but it didn’t matter. You heard his groan clearly.

Immediately he kissed and sucked your neck, and you pulled him closer, wrapping your legs around him.

Pulling the bottle off the table, you took a sip and let it fall to the floor. Silas didn’t care, he just kissed your skin and caressed your legs.

He sucked hard until it hurt but you whined with pleasure, probably giving you the biggest hickey ever.

The he placed the softest kisses down the center of your body and he was getting close so close to your panties.

Your breathing increased with each inch until you heard his voice boom across the room.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?!”

Yoongi shoved Silas off of you, hard, and he fell back but the weirdest thing was that he kept still. He didn’t hit Yoongi back and he didn’t call the guards.

When you got up the world shook and you fell onto Yoongi. He dragged you to the car, the cold air hit your body and making your head spin.

He practically threw you into the car. You fell asleep before getting back to headquarters.

_______

You woke up in the car with a hauntingly clear recollection of what happened last night.

Of course he left you in the car. He probably didn’t even want to touch you, or even look at you.

What were you supposed to do?

After he pretended to choke you, you guys were even, as messed up as it was you guys were even but now you just messed everything up again. How could you beg for forgiveness for something like this? Nothing happened but everything could have happened.

As you entered the building the guards didn’t seem surprised, more like pleased, with your outfit.

Glaring back at them didn’t help either.

You tried to clean up as best as you could and took of your heels. Still in your bra and panties, you opened the door and saw him sitting there, staring at himself in the mirror. He looked up at your reflection, met your eyes and returned to his own glare.

He was drunk.

“Did I hurt you that bad Y/N? Or did I hurt your pride? If you love him just tell me.” He blinked slowly.

He took another sip of the bottle and you approached him.

“I don’t. I-”

“Don’t touch me.” He ordered, leaning away from your touch.

“Yoongi.” You reached for his hand and he quickly stood up, “Stay away!” he yelled, throwing the things in front of the mirror to the floor, including the huge bottle.

You jumped back and avoided the shattered glass.

“Tell me!” He growled, stepping right through the mess and grabbing your face, backing you up until your calves hit the bed. Pure anger in his eyes.

You pushed him away but he just pinned you flat onto the bed. Your arms on either side of your head. His grip on your wrists unforgiving.

“Yoongi you’re hurting me.” You whimpered.

“No I’m protecting you!” He yelled into your face, tears falling from his eyes.

You felt like you broke him, like this was his breaking point.

But the only thing you could do was cry, unable to meet his eyes, feeling disgusted with yourself.

“I’m sorry Yoongi.” You said. "Sorry?" He laughed and let his head fall onto your shoulder.

“You’re my everything Y/N. You’re the only one that can hurt me. I love you more than anything else in this world but why does it feel like you don’t love me enough?” He breathed.

“That’s not true.” You whimpered. “I swear that’s not true.”

“Don’t lie to me Y/N. Are you falling for him now?” he said, taking you back to before.

Maybe it was the adrenaline in both of you, but he the alcohol wasn’t affecting him so much in this moment. His words clear and urgent.

You remembered how many time he used to say those words, "Don't lie to me."

“I’m not. I’m not lying.” You said, but he got off of you and began walking away.

“Yoongi look at me.” You begged, getting up and grabbing his arm, then freezing when the glass entered your feet.

Before you could fall down and get glass stuck in your ass, he picked you up and sat you down onto the bed again.

In that moment you saw the pain in his eyes turn into worry. You wanted to scream at him to keep yelling at you, for him to keep hating you, so you could justify the guilt consuming you. Instead you kept quiet and yelled at yourself internally.

He didn’t deserve this.

“Why aren’t you crying?” He asked as he picked out the glass from your skin.

“I deserve it. The pain.” You answered.

You held onto his sleeve and pushed through the pain. It was nothing, you told yourself. Nothing, compared to what you both felt inside.

“I love you.” He said casually.

“Why are you saying that?” You asked, holding back the tears and swallowing the lump in your throat.

“You used to do this all the time you know?” He pointed at your fingers curled into his sleeve.

Memories flooded your mind. School, Neverland, the house you lived in and the exact spot where he kissed you for the first time.

“I love you too. Even if you don’t believe me Yoongi, I would die for you.”

“But how could you do that to me? Tell me Y/N, did I really hurt you that much?”

You looked down at your hands, tears escaping and landing between your fingers. “Yoongi…you turned into him…for a moment, I couldn’t recognize you. That scares me more than anything. He makes people go crazy because he likes to watch them suffer. He enjoys ruining people. I’m not making an excuse for what I did, because it wasn’t him, it’s was me. I ruined us. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be scared. I’m the last person you should be scared of. I’ll never turn into him, I promise. I’m sorry I hurt you, and I’m sorry you hurt me, but you didn’t ruin us. Babydoll, I’m willing to put this behind us if you promise to trust me more. I know what he’s like. I understand why you’re afraid but remember who I am. Remember who you are.” He tapped your chin up and you met his gaze.

There was no fear in his eyes. You saw only your reflection.

“Min Yoongi.” You whispered.

“I’ve killed…countless lives to save you. I’ll do countless times again.”

“I’ve killed too. To save you…”

He grabbed your cheeks in his hands and leaned in to kiss you.

“Then we’ll do it again to get out of here.” He whispered against your lips.

Watching his dark eyes, you nodded. “Tell me how.”

_________

Of course Silas was being reckless.

He just wanted to mess everything up, for show, for fun, just for the sake of ruining you two. A part of you wanted to hate him, to want to pull the trigger but somehow you couldn’t.

Strange how you didn’t feel like wanting him dead….

On the other hand it made some sense. You were his favorite before and he could have fallen in love with you.

A part of you felt grateful that he had some connection to you, even though he just barely treated you better than the other girls. You were special to him.

Admittedly enough, you wanted to think that he wanted you for a moment, to give into his curiosity and old feelings. That was easier than believing he just wanted to hurt you and Yoongi.

You had thought there was at least some kind of mutual understanding between you and Silas. If things were so bad you might have been able to call him a friend. Maybe that was too much though.

But even this hope was evil, a stab at Yoongi and your love for him.

Silas had a gift for bringing out the dark in everything. He managed to splinter your loyalty for each other.

His reign would end soon though. You and Yoongi were used to things going bad. It was going to take a bit more to break you two apart.

This whole time you were afraid and focused on Silas’ every move, Yoongi was learning everything he possibly could to help in your escape.

The girl was the only mystery though.

“She’s locked up on the other side of the building. Silas doesn’t want people there. The other guards don’t talk about it.”

“He loves her.” You realized.

“He’s smart. Outside he has a totally different image. No one knows who he really is. They admire him.”

“What do we do? We can’t even get near her.”

Yoongi sighed, bit his bottom lip for a moment and held your hand.

“You have to do it again Y/N. Get him alone and distract him. I’ll kill him quietly.”

“Are you sure?” You asked, frowning.

“Friday. I’ll kill the other guys on the way back from the drop off, get here quickly while he’s unguarded and I’ll find you guys. When you have him…preoccupied, then I’ll stick a knife in his throat.”

“Until then we have to keep hating each other.” You said somberly.

“Until then we really have to be on edge. No mistakes. No feelings.”

He was right. Silas had to believe that you and Yoongi were still mad at each other. Whatever you had to do, whatever he had to do, it was for each other’s sake.

“I understand…but baby please be careful.” You begged. “I love you.”

He nodded “I’m going to get you out of here Y/N. I promise. Now go.”

You kissed him, savoring his lips and you didn’t want to stop. He gently pushed you away.

“I love you.” He said.

Giving him one last smile, you hesitatingly walked out of there and headed to find Silas.

__________

“Tell me what’s wrong darling. Stop crying.”

“I can’t stay in there with him anymore. I can’t. That bastard just makes me cry every night. Let me stay with you Silas please.” You wailed.

“I can’t have that. I’ll give you a separate room. Do you really hate him now? You’re so crazy sweetheart. Didn’t you beg me not to hurt him? I like him very much but if you want me to hurt him for you, I can.”

“I just don’t want to see him anymore.” You whimpered.

“There, there. I’ll give my princess her own room. Now come. Tonight we have a full house. I need to show you your new outfit and I have a little job for you.” He said, pulling you towards the dressing room.

Sheer, glittering and custom made. You felt like an ice skater getting ready for the Olympics. The leotard covered only your nipples and bikini area with a sheer glittering mesh. It was beautiful and it didn’t seem like it was made for dancing on a table.

“What am I going to do?” You asked.

“The rooftop has been remodeled just for this.” He said circling around you but keeping his hands to himself.

“What’s so special about tonight?”

Silas didn’t answer.

The elevator went all the way up and opened into the small path led the way to a glassed rooftop.

The sky was settling and the moon was out early. The stars would appear and the view would be beautiful.

Even more breathtaking was the bar top. The table top was long, from one end of the room top to the other with a space down the middle that seems to be a lengthy rectangular tank being filled with water as you stared.

“You’re going to swim princess.”

You saw that there was a chair, no a throne at one end of the bar. That’s where he would surely be seated tonight.

Admittedly a small burst of excitement hit you. This was pretty cool.

But was he trying to impress someone?

No…he would of told you who was coming.

Night came fast. The rest of the girls worked as bartenders tonight. While you got ready, Silas was making sure everything was prepared for when the patrons would arrive.

He fetched you from the dressing room and brought you back up again, helping you onto the table and into the water.

“Swim from this end to the other. I’ll be right there.” He pointed to his chair.

You nodded and played around before the rooftop opened.

Silas left top open the doors downstairs. A few minutes later Yoongi appeared suddenly when you came up for air.

You gasped. “You scared me.”

He looked downright irresistible. His hair midnight black now and a suit to match. He glanced at the other girls being the drink stations.

“They won’t talk. They’re so scared of Silas they avoid him.” You said, pulling him closer and wetting his suit a bit.

He grabbed your wrists and gently pushed them away from him. “You look gorgeous.”

“Then kiss me.” You pleaded.

He conceded.

“I’ll be guarding tonight. He’ll be watching us.”

“Okay. Go before he comes back.” You kissed his hand.

“I love you babydoll.” He said before walking away.

“I love you too.” ________________

[dailychapel]

Dear Lord, draw my thoughts upward toward You every minute of every day, but especially this Easter. Help me resist the temptation to focus on the painful things of this earthly life and learn to control my thoughts so they don’t sink my faith or joy in You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Exodus 24:1-18 NLT - "1 Then the LORD instructed Moses: "Come up here to me, and bring along Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of Israel's elders. All of you must worship from a distance. 2 Only Moses is allowed to come near to the LORD. The others must not come near, and none of the other people are allowed to climb up the mountain with him." 3 Then Moses went down to the people and repeated all the instructions and regulations the LORD had given him. All the people answered with one voice, "We will do everything the LORD has commanded." 4 Then Moses carefully wrote down all the LORD's instructions. Early the next morning Moses got up and built an altar at the foot of the mountain. He also set up twelve pillars, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 Then he sent some of the young Israelite men to present burnt offerings and to sacrifice bulls as peace offerings to the LORD. 6 Moses drained half the blood from these animals into basins. The other half he splattered against the altar. 7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it aloud to the people. Again they all responded, "We will do everything the LORD has commanded. We will obey." 8 Then Moses took the blood from the basins and splattered it over the people, declaring, "Look, this blood confirms the covenant the LORD has made with you in giving you these instructions." 9 Then Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel climbed up the mountain. 10 There they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there seemed to be a surface of brilliant blue lapis lazuli, as clear as the sky itself. 11 And though these nobles of Israel gazed upon God, he did not destroy them. In fact, they ate a covenant meal, eating and drinking in his presence! 12 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain. Stay there, and I will give you the tablets of stone on which I have inscribed the instructions and commands so you can teach the people." 13 So Moses and his assistant Joshua set out, and Moses climbed up the mountain of God. 14 Moses told the elders, "Stay here and wait for us until we come back. Aaron and Hur are here with you. If anyone has a dispute while I am gone, consult with them." 15 Then Moses climbed up the mountain, and the cloud covered it. 16 And the glory of the LORD settled down on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day the LORD called to Moses from inside the cloud. 17 To the Israelites at the foot of the mountain, the glory of the LORD appeared at the summit like a consuming fire. 18 Then Moses disappeared into the cloud as he climbed higher up the mountain. He remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights."

Psalm 68:1-35 NLT - "1 For the choir director: A song. A psalm of David. Rise up, O God, and scatter your enemies. Let those who hate God run for their lives. 2 Blow them away like smoke. Melt them like wax in a fire. Let the wicked perish in the presence of God. 3 But let the godly rejoice. Let them be glad in God's presence. Let them be filled with joy. 4 Sing praises to God and to his name! Sing loud praises to him who rides the clouds. His name is the LORD--rejoice in his presence! 5 Father to the fatherless, defender of widows--this is God, whose dwelling is holy. 6 God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy. But he makes the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land. 7 O God, when you led your people out from Egypt, when you marched through the dry wasteland, Interlude 8 the earth trembled, and the heavens poured down rain before you, the God of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel. 9 You sent abundant rain, O God, to refresh the weary land. 10 There your people finally settled, and with a bountiful harvest, O God, you provided for your needy people. 11 The Lord gives the word, and a great army brings the good news. 12 Enemy kings and their armies flee, while the women of Israel divide the plunder. 13 Even those who lived among the sheepfolds found treasures--doves with wings of silver and feathers of gold. 14 The Almighty scattered the enemy kings like a blowing snowstorm on Mount Zalmon. 15 The mountains of Bashan are majestic, with many peaks stretching high into the sky. 16 Why do you look with envy, O rugged mountains, at Mount Zion, where God has chosen to live, where the LORD himself will live forever? 17 Surrounded by unnumbered thousands of chariots, the Lord came from Mount Sinai into his sanctuary. 18 When you ascended to the heights, you led a crowd of captives. You received gifts from the people, even from those who rebelled against you. Now the LORD God will live among us there. 19 Praise the Lord; praise God our savior! For each day he carries us in his arms. Interlude 20 Our God is a God who saves! The Sovereign LORD rescues us from death. 21 But God will smash the heads of his enemies, crushing the skulls of those who love their guilty ways. 22 The Lord says, "I will bring my enemies down from Bashan; I will bring them up from the depths of the sea. 23 You, my people, will wash your feet in their blood, and even your dogs will get their share!" 24 Your procession has come into view, O God--the procession of my God and King as he goes into the sanctuary. 25 Singers are in front, musicians behind; between them are young women playing tambourines. 26 Praise God, all you people of Israel; praise the LORD, the source of Israel's life. 27 Look, the little tribe of Benjamin leads the way. Then comes a great throng of rulers from Judah and all the rulers of Zebulun and Naphtali. 28 Summon your might, O God. Display your power, O God, as you have in the past. 29 The kings of the earth are bringing tribute to your Temple in Jerusalem. 30 Rebuke these enemy nations--these wild animals lurking in the reeds, this herd of bulls among the weaker calves. Make them bring bars of silver in humble tribute. Scatter the nations that delight in war. 31 Let Egypt come with gifts of precious metals; let Ethiopia bow in submission to God. 32 Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth. Sing praises to the Lord. Interlude 33 Sing to the one who rides across the ancient heavens, his mighty voice thundering from the sky. 34 Tell everyone about God's power. His majesty shines down on Israel; his strength is mighty in the heavens. 35 God is awesome in his sanctuary. The God of Israel gives power and strength to his people. Praise be to God!"

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 NLT - "1 This letter is from Paul, Silas, and Timothy. We are writing to the church in Thessalonica, to you who belong to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May God give you grace and peace. 2 We always thank God for all of you and pray for you constantly. 3 As we pray to our God and Father about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds, and the enduring hope you have because of our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 We know, dear brothers and sisters, that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own people. 5 For when we brought you the Good News, it was not only with words but also with power, for the Holy Spirit gave you full assurance that what we said was true. And you know of our concern for you from the way we lived when we were with you. 6 So you received the message with joy from the Holy Spirit in spite of the severe suffering it brought you. In this way, you imitated both us and the Lord. 7 As a result, you have become an example to all the believers in Greece--throughout both Macedonia and Achaia. 8 And now the word of the Lord is ringing out from you to people everywhere, even beyond Macedonia and Achaia, for wherever we go we find people telling us about your faith in God. We don't need to tell them about it, 9 for they keep talking about the wonderful welcome you gave us and how you turned away from idols to serve the living and true God. 10 And they speak of how you are looking forward to the coming of God's Son from heaven--Jesus, whom God raised from the dead. He is the one who has rescued us from the terrors of the coming judgment."

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, send us out with confidence in your word, to tell the world of your saving acts, and bring glory to your name. Amen.

[turnbackquotes]

Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 1829

Page 173: 7. Yet did that Antiochus, who was called Dionysus, become an origin of troubles again. This man was the brother of Demetrius, and the last of the race of the Seleucidae. Alexander was afraid of him, when he was marching against the Arabians ;so he cut a deep trench between Antipatris, which was near the mountains, and the shores of Joppa; he also erected a high wall before the trench, and built wooden towers, in order to hinder any sudden approaches. But still he was not able to exclude Antiochus; for he burnt the towers, and filled up the trenches, and march on with his army. And as he looks upon taking his revenge on Alexander, for endeavoring to stop him, as a thing of less consequence, he marched directly against the Arabians, whose king retired into such parts of the country as were fittest for engaging the enemy, and then, on the sudden, made his horse turn back, which were in number ten thousand, and fell upon Antiochus’s army, while they were in disorder, and a terrible battle ensued. Antiochus’s troops, so long as he was alive, fought it out, although a mighty slaughter was made among them by the Arabians; but when he fell, for he was in the forefront, in the utmost danger in rallying his troops, they all gave ground, and the greatest part of his army were destroyed, either in the action or in the flight; and for the rest who fled to the village of Cana, it happened that they were all consumed by want of necessaries, a few only excepted.

Page 283: 7. It then happened that Cestius was not conscious either how the besieged despaired of success, nor how courageous the people were for him; and so he recalled his soldiers from the place, and by despairing of any expectation of taking it, without having received any disgrace, he retired from the city, without any reason in the world. But when the robbers perceived this unexpected retreat of his, they resumed their courage, and ran after the hinder parts of his army, and destroyed a considerable number of both their horsemen and footmen; and now Cestius lay all night at the camp which was at Scopus, and as he went off farther not day, he thereby invited the enemy to follow him, who still fell upon the hindmost, and destroyed them; thy also fell upon the flank on each side of the army, and threw darts upon them obliquely; nor durst those that were hindmost turn back upon those who wounded them behind, as imagining that the multitude of those that pursued them was immense; nor did they venture to drive away those that passed upon them on each side, because they are heavy with their arms, and were afraid of breaking their ranks to pieces, and because they saw the Jews were light, and ready for making incursions upon them. And this was the reason why the Romans suffered greatly, without being able to revenge themselves upon their enemies; so they were galled all the way, and their ranks were put into disorder, and those that were thus put out of their ranks were slain; among whom were Priscus, the commander of the sixth legion, and Longinus, the tribune, and Emilius Secundus, the commander of a troop of horsemen. So it was not without difficulty that they got to Gabao, their former camp, and that not without the loss of a great part of their baggage. There it was that Cestius staid two days, and was in great distress to know what he should do in these circumstances; but when, on the third day, he saw a still much greater number of enemies, and all the parts round about him full of Jews, he understood that his delay was to his own detriment, and that if he stayed any longer there, he should have still more enemies upon him.

Page 294: 2. These Jews, therefore, out of their anger, marched faster than ordinary, and, as if they had come but a little way, approached very near the city, and were come even to it; but Antonius, who was not unapprized of the attack they were going to make upon the city, drew out his horsemen beforehand, and being neither daunted at the multitude nor at the courage of the enemy, received their first attacks with great bravery; and when they crowded to the very walls, he beat them off. Now the Jews were unskilful in war, but were to fight with those that were skillful therein; they were footmen to fight with horsemen; they were in disorder to fight those that were united together; they were poorly armed to fight those that were completely so; they were to fight more by their rage than by sober counsel, and were exposed to soldiers that were exactly obedient, and did everything they were bidden upon the least intimation: So they were easily beaten; for as soon as ever their first ranks were once in disorder, they were put to flight by the enemy’s cavalry; and those of them that came behind such as crowded to the wall fell upon their own party's weapons, and became one another's enemies; and this so long till they all were forced to give way to the attacks of the horsemen, and were dispersed all over the plain; which plain was wide, and all fit for the horsemen; which circumstance was very commodious for the Romans, and occasioned the slaughter of the greatest number of the Jews; for such as ran away they could overrun them and make them turn back; and when they had brought them back after their flight, and driven them together, they ran them through, and slew a vast number of them, insomuch that others encompassed others of them, and drove them before them whithersoever they turned themselves, and slew them easily with their arrows; and the great number there were of the Jews seemed a solitude to themselves, by reason of the distress they were in, while the Romans had such good success with their small number, that they seemed to themselves to be the greater multitude. And as the former strove zealously under their misfortunes, out of the shame of a sudden flight, and hopes of the change in their success, so did the latter feel no weariness, by reason of their good fortune; insomuch that the fight lasted till the evening, till ten thousand men of the Jews' side lay dead, with two of their generals, John and Silas, and the greater part of the remainder were wounded, with Niger, their remaining general, who fled away together to a small city of Idumea called Sallis: some few also of the Romans were wounded in this battle.

Page 331: And the were the hard circumstances the people of Gamala were in. But now Vespasian went about another work by the by during this siege, and that was to subdue this that had size upon Mount Tabor, a place that lies in the middle between the great plain and Scythopolis, whose top is elevated as high as thirty furlongs, and is hardly to be ascended on its north side; its top is a plain of twenty-six furlongs, and all encompassed with a wall. Now Josephus erected this so long a wall in forty days time, and furnished it with other materials, and with water from below; for the inhabitants only made use of rain water: as, therefore, there was a great multitude of people gotten together upon this mountain, Vespasian sent Placidus with six hundred horsemen thither. Now, as it was impossible for him to ascend the mountain, he invited many of them to peace, by the offer of his right hand for their security, and of his intercession for them. Accordingly, thy came down, but with a treacherous design, as well as h had the like treacherous design upon them on the other side; for Placidus spoke mildly to them, as aiming to take them, when he got them into the plain; they also came down as complying with his proposals, but it was in order to fall upon him when he was not aware of it: however, Placidus’s stratagem was too hard for theirs; for when the Jews began to fight, he pretended to run away, and when they were in pursuit of the Romans, he entice them a great way along the plain, and then made his horsemen turn back; whereupon he beat them, and slew a great number of them, and cut off the retreat of the rest of the multitude, and hindered their return. So they left Tabor, and fled to Jerusalem, while the people of the country came to terms with him, for their water failed them, and so they delivered upon the mountain and themselves to Placidus.

Page 354: 5. Now Placidus' concern was to exclude them in their flight from getting into the village; and causing his horse to march continually on that side of them, he then turned short upon them, and at the same time his men made use of their darts, and easily took their aim at those that were the nearest to them, as they made those that were farther off turn back by the terror they were in, till at last the most courageous of them brake through those horsemen, and fled to the wall of the village. And now those that guarded the wall were in great doubt what to do; for they could not bear the thoughts of excluding those that came from Gadara, because of their own people that were among them; and yet, if they should admit them, they expected to perish with them, which came to pass accordingly; for as they were crowding together at the wall, the Roman horsemen were just ready to fall in with them. However, the guards prevented them, and shut the gates, when Placidus made an assault upon them, and fighting courageously till it was dark, he got possession of the wall and of the people that were in the city, when the useless multitude were destroyed; but those that were more potent ran away, and the soldiers plundered the houses, and set the village on fire. As for those that ran out of the village, they stirred up such as were in the country, and exaggerating their own calamities, and telling them that the whole army of the Romans were upon them, they put them into great fear on every side; so they got in great numbers together, and fled to Jericho, for they knew no other place that could afford them any hope of escaping, it being a city that had a strong wall and a great multitude of inhabitants. But Placidus, relying much upon his horsemen and his former good success, followed them, and slew all that he overtook, as far as Jordan; and when he had driven the whole multitude to the river side, where they were stopped by the current (for it had been augmented lately by rains, and was not fordable,) he put his soldiers in array over against them; so the necessity the others were in provoked them to hazard a battle, because there was no place whither they could flee. They then extended themselves a very great way along the banks of the river, and sustained the darts that were thrown at them, as well as the attacks of the horsemen, who beat many of them, and pushed them into the current. At which fight, hand to hand, fifteen thousand of them were slain, while the number of those that were unwillingly forced to leap into Jordan was prodigious. There were besides two thousand and two hundred taken prisoners. A mighty prey was taken also, consisting of asses, and sheep, and camels, and oxen.

Page 375: 4. Now, when hitherto the several parties in the city had been dashing one against another perpetually, this foreign war, now suddenly come upon them after a violent manner, put the first step to their contentions one against another; and as the seditious now saw with astonishment the Romans pitching three several camps, they began to think of an awkward sort of concord, and said one to another, “What do we here, and what do we mean when we suffer three fortified walls to be built to coop us in, that we shall not be able to breathe freely? while the enemy is securely building a kind of city in opposition to us, and while we sit still within our own walls, and become spectators only of what they are doing, with our hands idle, and our armor laid by, as if they were about somewhat that was for our own good and advantage. We are, it seems (so did they cry out,) only courageous against ourselves, while the Romans are likely to gain the city without bloodshed by our sedition.” Thus did they encourage one another when they were gotten together, and took their armor immediately, and ran out upon the tenth legion, and fell upon the Romans with great eagerness, and with a prodigious shout, as they were fortifying their camp. These Romans were caught in different parties, and this is in order to perform their several works, and on that account had in a great measure laid aside their arms; for they thought the Jews would not have ventured to make a sally upon them; and, had they been disposed so to do, they supposed their sedition would have distracted them: So they were put into disorder unexpectedly; when some of them left their works they were about, and immediately marched off, while many ran to their arms, but were smitten and slain before they could turn back upon the enemy. The Jews became still more and more in number, as encouraged by the good success of those that first made the attack; and while they had such good fortune, they seemed both to themselves and to the enemy to be many more than they really were. The disorderly way of their fighting at first put the Romans also to a stand, who had been constantly used to fight skillfully in good order, and with keeping their ranks, and obeying the orders that were given them: for which reason the Romans were caught unexpectedly, and were obliged to give way to the assaults that were made upon them. Now when these Romans were overtaken, and turned back upon the Jews, they put a stop to their career; yet when they did not take care enough of themselves through the vehemency of their pursuit, were wounded by them; but as still more and more Jews sallied out of the city, the Romans were at length brought into confusion, and put to flight, and ran away from their camp. Nay, things looked as though the entire legion would have been in danger, unless Titus had been informed of the case they were in, and had sent them succors immediately. So he reproached them for their cowardice, and brought those back that were running away, and fell himself upon the Jews in their flank, with those select troops that were with him, and slew a considerable number, and wounded more of them, and put them all to flight, and made them run away hastily down the valley. Now, as these Jews suffered greatly in the declivity of the valley, so, when they were gotten over it, they turned about and stood over against the Romans, having the valley between them, and there fought with them. Thus did they continue the fight till noon; but when it was already a little after noon, Titus set those that came to the assistance of the Romans with him, and those that belonged to the cohorts, to prevent the Jews from making any more sallies, and then sent the rest of the legion to the upper part of the mountain to fortify their camp.

Page 376: 5. This march of the Romans seemed to the Jews to be a flight; and as the watchman that was placed upon the wall gave a signal by shaking his garment, there came out a fresh multitude of Jews, and that with such mighty violence, that one might compare it to the running of the most terrible wild beasts. To say the truth, none of those that opposed them could sustain the fury with which they made their attacks; but, as if they had been cast out of an engine, they brake the enemy's ranks to pieces, who were put to flight, and ran away to the mountain; none but Titus himself, and a few others with him, being left in the midst of the acclivity. Now these others, who were his friends, despised the danger they were in, and were ashamed to leave their general, earnestly exhorting him, “to give way to these Jews that are fond of dying, and not to run into such dangers before those that ought to stay before him; to consider what his fortune was, and not, by supplying the place of a common soldier, to venture to turn back upon the enemy so suddenly; and this because he was general in the war, and lord of the habitable earth, on whose preservation the public affairs do all depend.” These persuasions Titus seemed not so much as to hear, but opposed those that ran upon him, and smote them on the face; and when he had forced them to go back, he slew them: he also fell upon great numbers as they marched down the hill, and thrust them forward; while those men were so amazed at his courage and his strength, that they could not fly directly to the city, but declined from him on both sides, and pressed after those that fled up the hill; yet did he still fall upon their flank, and put a stop to their fury. In the meantime, a disorder and a terror fell again upon those that were fortifying their camp at the top of the hill, upon their seeing those beneath them running away; insomuch that the whole legion was dispersed, while they thought that the sallies of the Jews upon them were plainly insupportable, and that Titus was himself put to flight; because they took it for granted, that if he had staid the rest would never have fled for it. Thus were they encompassed on every side by a kind of panic fear, and some dispersed themselves one way and some another, till certain of them saw their general in the very midst of an action, and, being under great concern for him, they loudly proclaimed the danger he was in to the entire legion: and now shame made them turn back, and they reproached one another that they did worse than run away by deserting Caesar. So they used their utmost force against the Jews, and declining from the strait declivity, they drove them on heaps into the bottom of the valley. Then did the Jews turn about and fight them; but as they were themselves retiring, and now, because the Romans had the advantage of the ground and were above the Jews, they drove them all into the valley. Titus also pressed upon those that were near him, and sent the legion again to fortify their camp; while he, and those that were with him before, opposed the enemy, and kept them from doing farther mischief; insomuch that if I may be allowed neither to add anything out of flattery, nor to diminish anything out of envy, but to speak the plain truth, Caesar did twice deliver that entire legion when it was in jeopardy, and gave them a quiet opportunity of fortifying their camp.

Page 416: 8. But there was one Julian, a centurion, that came from Bithynia, a man he was of great reputation, whom I had formerly seen in that war, and one of the highest fame, both for his skill in war, his strength of body, and the courage of his soul. This man seeing the Romans giving ground, and in a sad condition, for he stood by Titus at the tower of Antonia, leaped out, and of himself alone put the Jews to flight, when they were already conquerors, and made them retire as far as the corner of the inner court of the temple: from him the multitude fled away in crowds, as supposing that neither his strength nor his violent attacks could be those of a mere man. Accordingly, he rushed through the midst of the Jews, as they were dispersed all abroad, and killed those that he caught. Nor, indeed, was there any sight that appeared more wonderful in the eyes of Caesar, or more terrible to others, than this. However, he was himself pursued by fate, which it was not possible that he, who was but a mortal man, should escape; for as he had shoes all full of thick and sharp nails, as had every one of the other soldiers, so when he ran on the pavement of the temple, he slipped, fell down upon his back with a very great noise, which was made by his armor. This made those that were running away to turn back; whereupon those Romans that were in the tower of Antonia set up a great shout, as they were in fear for the man. But the Jews got about him in crowds, and struck at him with their spears and with their swords on all sides. Now he received a great many of the strokes of these iron weapons upon his shield, and often attempted to get up again, but was thrown down by those that struck at him; yet did he, as he lay along, stab many of them with his sword. Nor was he soon killed, as being covered with his helmet and his breastplate in those parts of his body where he might be mortally wounded: he also pulled his neck close to his body till all his other limbs were shattered, and nobody durst come to defend him, and then he yielded to his fate. Now Caesar was deeply affected on account of this man of so great fortitude, and especially as he was killed in the sight of so many people; he was desirous himself to come to his assistance, but the place would not give him leave, while such as could have done it were too much terrified to attempt it. Thus, when Julian had struggled with death a great while, and had let but few of those that had given him his mortal wound go off unhurt, he had at last his throat cut, though not without some difficulty, and left behind him a very great fame, not only among the Romans and with Caesar himself, but among his enemies also; then did the Jews catch up his dead body, and put the Romans to flight again, and shut them up in the tower of Antonia. Now those that most signalized themselves, and fought most zealously. in this battle of the Jewish side, were one Alexis and Gyphtheus of John's party, and of Simon's party were Malachias, and Judas the son of Merto, and James the son of Sosas, the commander of the Idumeans; and of the zealots two brethren, Simon and Judas, the sons of Jairus.

Page 463: It had been proper, indeed, for us to have conjectured at the purpose of God much sooner, and at the very first, when we were so very desirous of defending our liberty, and when we received such sore treatment from one another, and worse treatment from our enemies, and to have been sensible that the same God who had of old taken the Jewish nation into his favor had now condemned them to destruction; for had he either continued favorable, or been but in a lesser degree displeased with us, he had not overlooked the destruction of so many men, or delivered his most holy city to be burnt and demolished by our enemies. To be sure we weakly hoped to have preserved ourselves, and ourselves alone, still in a state of freedom, as if we had been guilty of no sins ourselves against God, nor been partners with those of others; we also taught other men to preserve their liberty. Wherefore, consider how God hath convinced us that our hopes were in vain, by bringing such distress upon us in the desperate state we are now in, and which is beyond all our expectations; for the nature of this fortress, which was in itself unconquerable, hath not proved a means of our deliverance; and even while we have still great abundance of food, and a great quantity of arms, and other necessaries more than we want, we are openly deprived by God himself of all hope of deliverance; for that fire which was driven upon our enemies did not of its own accord turn back upon the wall which we had built: this was the effect of God's anger against us for our manifold sins which we have been guilty of in a most insolent and extravagant manner with regard to our own countrymen; the punishments of which let us not receive from the Romans, but from God himself, as executed by our own hands; for these will be more moderate than the other. Let our wives die before they are abused, and our children before they have tasted of slavery; and after we have slain them, let us bestow that glorious benefit upon one another mutually, and preserve ourselves in freedom as an excellent funeral monument for us. But first let us destroy our money and the fortress by fire; for I am well assured that this will be a great grief to the Romans, that they shall not be able to seize upon our bodies, and shall fail of our wealth also: and let us spare nothing but our provisions; for they will be a testimonial when we are dead, that we were not subdued for want of necessaries, but that, according to our original resolution, we have preferred death before slavery.

[mcdouglecompany-blog]

Prager University Part 37.

Prager University Part 37.

  Father Absence Is the Biggest Issue Facing Black America.

Left vs. Fact: Rent Control Hurts Renters.

The Beatles' Ringo Starr: Brexit Is Good for Britain Why I Don't Want and Don't Deserve Reparations.

Trailer: The Candace Owens Show Featuring Douglas Murray.

Tolerance Is a Conservative Value.

Climate Activists Use Kids to Fuel Hysteria.

Is College Worth It?

Sports & Politics.

How the Government Made You Fat.

Trailer: The Candace Owens Show Featuring Vice President Mike Pence.

Left vs. Fact: Male and Female - What's So Confusing?

Trailer: The Candace Owens Show Featuring Nathan Latka

    Father Absence Is the Biggest Issue Facing Black America.

https://youtu.be/ENprGZXlXUk

PragerU

Which poses a bigger threat to black communities: Racism? Or absent fathers? Children who grow up without a father are: - 5 times more likely to live in poverty - 9 times more likely to drop out of school - 20 times more likely to end up in prison Candace Owens and Larry Elder show just how important black fathers are in turning boys into responsible and happy men--and how their absence has had a tragic impact on millions of black Americans.

    Left vs. Fact: Rent Control Hurts Renters.

https://youtu.be/vZyeNFTje2A

PragerU

Think you support rent control? This might change your mind. Rent control sounds like a great way to make affordable housing more available. Unfortunately, these laws have the opposite effect. Nicole Gelinas of the Manhattan Institute shows why price ceilings on apartments hurt those it intends to help.

    The Beatles' Ringo Starr: Brexit Is Good for Britain.

https://youtu.be/_XE1SYsDoFM

PragerU

Is the European Union good for Britain? Or would the British be better off without it? "I think it's a great move...to be in control of your own country is a good move." - Ringo Starr Nigel Farage, a member of the European Parliament and a leader of the UK's Brexit movement, also shares his view.

    Why I Don't Want and Don't Deserve Reparations.

https://youtu.be/18tGOIvotFE

PragerU

The Reparations Movement — a government payout to descendants of slaves — is making a comeback. Super Bowl star Burgess Owens, who happens to be black and whose great grandfather was a slave, finds this movement both condescending and counterproductive. He wants no part of it. In this video, he explains why.

Script: My great-great-grandfather, Silas Burgess, came to America shackled in the belly of a slave ship. He was sold on an auction block in Charleston, South Carolina, to the Burgess Plantation. Orphaned by age 8, he was, fortunately, surrounded by elder slaves who, though physically chained, mentally envisioned themselves as free men. They escaped, taking young Silas with them, making their way to West Texas. Silas worked hard and saved his money. Eventually, he became the owner of 102 acres of farmland, which he cultivated and paid off within two years. I proudly carry the name of my first American ancestor—who, like millions of others drawn or brought to our country, struggled past overwhelming obstacles to live the American Dream. Silas founded the first black church, the first black elementary school in his town. He was a Republican, a Christian, and a pillar of his community. He was proud and industrious and taught his children to be the same. Now, because great-great-grandpa Silas was once a slave, so-called “progressives” want to give me money. Never mind that, like him, I am an entrepreneur who received an excellent education, built businesses, raised a remarkable family and, unlike most white Americans, earned a Super Bowl ring. Because of work I’ve never done, stripes I’ve never had, under a whip I’ve never known, these progressives want to give me money I’ve never earned. The fact that this money will be forcibly taken from others who also dreamed, worked and sacrificed for it, I’m told is not my concern. But it is. At the core of the reparations movement is a distorted and demeaning view of blacks and whites. It grants superiority to the white race, treating them as an oppressive people too powerful for black Americans to overcome. It brands blacks as hapless victims, devoid of the ability which every other culture possesses to assimilate and to progress. The reparations movement conveniently forgets the 150 years of legal, social, and economic progress obtained by millions of American minorities. It also minimizes the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of white Americans and a Republican president who gave their lives to eradicate slavery. I think Grandpa Silas would have seen this loss of American lives as payment in full. Every grateful black American, then and now, would feel the same. The reparations movement also reinforces a view of racial relationships that undermines America’s Judeo-Christian foundation. It defies the ideals of forgiveness and second chances and scorns individual accountability. Proponents of reparations believe that black Americans are incapable of carrying their own burdens, while white Americans must bear the sins of those who came before them. Proponents do not take into account the majority of white Americans who never owned slaves, who fought to end slavery, or who came to America long after it was ended. For the complete script, visit https://www.prageru.com/video/why-i-d...

    Trailer: The Candace Owens Show Featuring Douglas Murray.

https://youtu.be/iIm3j8p8zlQ

PragerU

The Left is obsessed with race. It gives them purpose. And it is harming society—creating more problems, which also gives them... more purpose. 😤 Stop it. Don't miss author/ journalist Douglas Murray on The Candace Owens Show this Sunday. Find out more about his devastating new book The Madness of Crowds here: https://amzn.to/2nWgf77

    Tolerance Is a Conservative Value.

https://youtu.be/up-p0-Wm430

PragerU

Are you tolerant? You probably think so. But who is tolerant in America today? Is it those on the left, or those on the right? Presidential candidate Marianne Williamson was caught on a hot mic swallowing a big red pill 💊Leftism makes people mean. It does.

    Climate Activists Use Kids to Fuel Hysteria.

https://youtu.be/nHmsaAAdn2Y

PragerU

Leftists are telling children that climate change is going to kill them and everyone they know—and then place those terrified kids in front of cameras to beg for their lives. Want some "propaganda"? Here you go.

    Is College Worth It?

https://youtu.be/nFIMiQ5eApk

PragerU

Is college a good investment? It’s getting harder and harder to make that case. Student loans have suckered a LOT of students into massive debt, with little more than a useless degree and a hangover to show for it. 🤕

    Sports & Politics

https://youtu.be/ZTR_3ylevwM

PragerU

Journalist says black athletes should leave 'white' colleges. Um. What? Sports have a unique ability to unite our communities and our nation. Until recently, that is. How did sports get so politicized? Clay Travis, host of Outkick the Show, tackles the country’s cultural divide and its effect on our favorite pastime.

    How the Government Made You Fat.

https://youtu.be/Q7vJZAYoFPk

PragerU

Ever since the introduction of the Food Pyramid in the early '90s, the average American has gotten fatter and sicker. Has this government-approved nutritional guideline — the basis of the modern “healthy diet” — led us astray? If so, how did this happen, and what can we learn from it? Cardiologist Dr. Bret Scher offers some food for thought on this very weighty issue.

Script: Here’s a riddle: How is it that ever since the government began telling us what to eat, we have gotten fatter and sicker? In 1977, when the government first set dietary guidelines, the average American male weighed 170 pounds. He now weighs 197. It’s not any better for women —145 to 170. And you don’t need an academic study to know the same thing is happening to kids. Just look around. The weight gain has real-life consequences: the percentage of Americans diagnosed with type 2 diabetes—a condition that can lead to severe medical issues—has risen from 2% in 1977 to over 9% in 2015. In hard numbers, that’s five million people to over 30 million people. How did this happen? It all started innocently enough in the 1950s, when President Dwight Eisenhower had a heart attack while in office. Suddenly, the issue of heart health became a national obsession. Keep in mind this was an era when scientists had harnessed the power of the atom, unlocked the secrets of DNA, and cured once incurable diseases like polio. Surely, there had to be a scientific solution to heart disease. There was. And a charismatic medical researcher from the University of Minnesota named Ancel Keyes had it. Cholesterol, Keyes claimed, was the villain of the heart disease story. His now famous “seven countries study” determined conclusively—in his mind, at least—that people who consumed high amounts of fat—specifically, saturated fat—had higher cholesterol levels and thus, higher rates of heart attacks. Lower your fat intake, and you would lower heart disease risk. The ever-confident Keyes spread the gospel. As an influential member of the American Heart Association, he was in a very strong position to do so. There was only one problem: Keyes’s study was bad science. The sample size was so small, the data collection integrity so shoddy, and the life-style variables between the countries he studied so great, that his research had no scientific validity. In other words, he asserted a conclusion he couldn’t prove. When other scientists questioned Keyes’s conclusions, they were invariably met with stern responses like: “people are dying while you’re quibbling over data points.” And, “there are great benefits and no risks” to adopting this new way of eating. In 1973, the American Heart Association set the dietary limit on saturated fat at 10%, and in 1977, the US government followed suit. Where did the 10% value come from? It didn’t come from any scientific data. It was merely a government committee’s best guess. This was despite contrary evidence like the 1957 Western Electric Company employee study showing no difference in heart attacks in those who ate more or less saturated fat. A longer-term study of the same Western Electric subjects in 1981 reached the same conclusion. But again, no one wanted to hear it. To make this all easier to understand and to spread the message to schools, “the food pyramid” was created. That’s the chart you first saw in third or fourth grade with all the supposedly good foods at the bottom—meaning, “eat a lot of those,” and the bad foods at the top—"eat those ones sparingly.” What our kids are fed in school, what our military troops are fed on bases, what sick people are fed in hospitals; what crops we plant and how we raise our cattle, are all predicated on this deceptive nutritional concept. For the complete script, visit https://www.prageru.com/video/how-the...

    Trailer: The Candace Owens Show Featuring Vice President Mike Pence.

https://youtu.be/OT7jGEUQYFM

PragerU

This Sunday, Candace Owens sits down with Vice President Mike Pence to discuss family, faith, and growing opportunities for black Americans. Tune in for a very special episode of The Candace Owens Show at the White House! Never miss a new episode! Get notified here: https://www.prageru.com/candace/

    Left vs. Fact: Male and Female - What's So Confusing?

https://youtu.be/n3Wsp66QSyE

PragerU

Singer Sam Smith has come out as gender non-binary, identifying as they/them. It's all very woke but it doesn't change the fact that he's still biologically male. Ashley McGuire, author of "Sex Scandal: The Drive to Abolish Male and Female," explains the confusion surrounding gender identity.

    Trailer: The Candace Owens Show Featuring Nathan Latka

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In this Sunday's episode of The Candace Owens Show author and self-made millionaire, Nathan Latka, shares tips on how to gain wealth, why you should avoid the blame mentality, and why capitalism is the only system that lifts people out of poverty. Tune in! Sign up for notifications so you never miss a new episode: https://www.prageru.com/candace/

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[marymosley]

TURKEY TORTS (2018)

In celebration of Thanksgiving, I give you our annual Turkey Torts of civil and criminal cases that add liability to libations on this special day (with past cases at the bottom). Many criminal defense attorneys and torts attorneys give special thanks for a holiday that can involve copious amounts of alcohol, strained family relations, over-the-hill amateur football players, “Black Friday” sale stampedes, and novice cooks.  These cases are why Johnny Carson said “Thanksgiving is an emotional holiday. People travel thousands of miles to be with people they only see once a year. And then discover once a year is way too often.”

Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving!

A recent survey of New York doctors found that 60 percent saw an increase in ER visits for cooking wounds and turkey carving accidents. Some 47 percent saw an increase in gastrointestinal complaints from food poisoning or overeating. Some 42 percent saw an increase in burn wounds related to cooking, including deep frying of turkeys. Finally, 15 percent reported increases in orthopedic injuries from Thanksgiving-related activities, such as the annual “Turkey Bowl.”

Thanksgiving Day is generally the leading day for home cooking fires with 1,550 across the country — 230 percent above the average number of fires per day.

The cases from injuries last year are just now being filed under the statute of limitations, but it has been another bumper crop of Thanksgiving torts.  In 2018, roughly a couple hundred salmonella cases were already reported before Thanksgiving morning even arrived this year.

We have yet to see a filing over the emotional distress caused by this year’s microwave Turkey prank where college kids are texting their parents to ask how long to cook their turkeys in the microwave.  Some things are happily left out of the courts.

We have a slew of unwanted guests at Thanksgiving dinner cases. Last year, David Williams was arrested after he argued with his sister because she did not want the 56-year-old Williams to bring his girlfriend to Thanksgiving dinner.Williams  preceded to attack his sister’s 54-year-old boyfriend with a knife after the boyfriend tried to step in and defend her.  The result was Thanksgiving dinner paid for by the state with hundreds of other inmates.

That is still better than the 2018 Thanksgiving dinner where a dispute over the contribution of a crack to the meal resulted in a bizarre series of events from an assault with an antenna to a vacuum being thrown through a window to an eventual murder charge.

——————————————————————

There is one Good Samaritan that will hopefully have a less eventual holiday this year. A Connecticut man was thrown off a bridge on Thanksgiving last year after he intervened to protect a woman in an argument with her boyfriend.  The victim and his friend told Gregory Rottjer (left) to “chill out” and allegedly Rottjer and his friend Matthew Dorso became enraged.  Rottjer then threw the Good Samaritan off the Derby-Shelton Bridge — a 45 foot plunge that almost killed him.  What is unbelievable is that the woman, Jennifer Hannum, was also charged in the case in resisting one of the officers who came to find her boyfriend.  The Connecticut Post reported that the three fled the bridge but one of them dropped a cellphone at the scene.  Rottjer allegedly admitted to police “I did it. I threw him over the bridge.”  Rottjer was charged with criminal attempt at murder, first-degree assault, and first-degree reckless endangerment.  Dorso was charged with third-degree assault and Hannum was charged with interfering with an officer. This is clearly a new plot twist on Luke 10:25-37.

David Williams, 56, finally resolved who will not be invited to Thanksgiving.  He is clearly off the list.  The Queens man in 2017  became angry about who would be invited, specifically whether his girlfriend would be included.  When his sister Dianna Gadson, 66, objected, he grabbed a knife.  The rest is Norman Rockwell meets Jerry Springer.

Williams allegedly got into a shouting match and then shoved Gadson, prompting her boyfriend, Silas Stewart, 54, to intervene.  Williams is quoted as saying “I want you the f–k out of here” before stabbing Stewart in the chest with a kitchen knife.  He then fled.

———————————————————

Last year, the Kellem family started early by bagging a 30-pound wild Turkey in Indiana when it went smashing through their rental car window. Indeed, this year saw repeated warnings of aggressive wild turkeys during mating season causing accidents and injuries.  The result is a horn of plenty for litigators.

Of course, some accidents have happy endings. For example, the Macy’s parade (as discussed below) has had its share of balloon accidents but last year’s parade featured Miss Piggy saving singing icon Tony Bennett from a potentially disastrous slip and fall. 

Likewise, no one was hurt when a wife reportedly varnished her turkey.  Her husband decided earlier to put some varnish in a container in the refrigerator.  The wife proceeded to baste the turkey with it. The guests remarked on how picture perfect it looked but then discovered that beauty is only skin deep.

A combination of the criminal and civil sides of Thanksgiving can be found at the Brooklyn House of Detention.  The inmates were served Thanksgiving dinner by the guards only to have 16 collapse incapacitated.  Guards and jail kitchen workers are accused of deliberately tainting the carrot cake with rat poison.

The lawsuit alleges that the defendants tried to cover up the crime by getting rid of the leftovers from Thanksgiving but several samples of the defiled dessert were preserved.  The inmates required stomach pumping and emergency room treatment.  They are seeking $1 million for “the negligent, intentional, careless and reckless conduct” from the city, the Correction Department, the jail’s correction officers and named staff.  This is going to make this year’s dinner . . . well . . . awkward.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

The 2017 cases include a Georgia company that is likely to conclude that no good deed goes unpunished.  The TOYO Tire plant arranged for a catered Thanksgiving celebration over two days in White, Georgia.  The result was devastating its workforce after the catered meal produced a salmonella outbreak in its ranks.  Some 1,800 ate the catered meal.

  The Golden Ponds restaurant in Greece, New York is still being hit with new cases in the litigation stemming from last year.  Some 260 people became ill over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend after celebrating at the Golden Ponds Restaurant and Party House.

  The cause  was later traced to the gravy at the buffet at Golden Ponds.

 _____________________________________________________________________

According to some reports, James Graham, 48, was upset with how much his 16-year-old nephew was eating at Thanksgiving.  He response was to go up to his room, retrieve a shotgun and shoot his nephew to death. According to his brother, Graham told Freland Pridge “You know you better slow down after all that eating.”  Pridge reportedly responded “My grandmother made this for me and I’m going to eat this.”  That is when Graham went for his shotgun.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Butterball is a company familiar with lawsuits that are part of producing a large share of the some 44 million turkeys sold each year for the holiday. However, Butterball this year is the plaintiff rather than the defendant in a lawsuit against an Australian company.  The North Carolina-based company is suing a small wine outfit, McWilliam’s Wines, for one of its wines labeled Butterball Chardonnay.  The lawsuit in North Carolina claims a violation of its trademark and that the use of “Butterball” as a mark will undermine “The consumer goodwill associated with the BUTTERBALL Marks is one of Butterball’s most valuable assets. Accordingly, the integrity of the BUTTERBALL Marks is extremely important to Butterball and crucial to the continued vitality and growth of Butterball’s business.”

Of course, no one would confuse a bottle of Chardonnay with a Turkey, but that does not seem to matter under our increasingly absurd copyright and trademark laws.

————————————————————

Last year, Shawtaine Hayes, 37, was charged with aggravated assault and aggravated battery charge for threatening one woman and stabbing a man. Last Thanksgiving, Hayes stabbed a man on the morning of Thanksgiving after some holiday drinking. Her defense? She said that she “thought he was a turkey.” She also threatened another woman with a carving knife. Hayes admitted that she started early celebrating the holiday with “Four Loko” but later insisted that they man stabbed himself in his stomach and right shoulder.

On the torts side, this year saw litigation in O’Connell v Macy’s Corporate Servs., Inc., 2016 NY Slip Op 31716, in which Keri O’Connell sued the parade sponsor for injuries from the famous balloons. She was one of the handler for one of the balloons and another employee was assigned to trail the balloon handlers in an all-terrain-vehicle. She was injured while handling the Buzz Lightyear balloon when a golf cart rolled over her foot, causing a fracture. It was not Buzz that was the culprit however. Rather it was the guy in the golf cart. The Court granted summary judgment this year due to the fact that the Plaintiff “knowingly and voluntarily consented to the Release via an electronic consent as part of her online Application, and that the Plaintiff would not have been able to complete her online Application without checking off on the Release as part of said application.” In other words, she waived being run over by a golf cart.

Of course, the balloons themselves have been tortfeasors in past parades. In 1997, high winds pushed giant displays of the Pink Panther, Barney, Cat in the Hat, and others from side to side. The 43 mph winds brought down various balloons, with Barney, Pink Panther, Quik Bunny, and Cat in the Hat succumbing along the course of the parade. A police officer actually took a knife to the Pink Panther. Around 72nd street, the Cat in the Hat hit a lamppost and Maria Clohessy and Kathy Caronna both suffered head injuries during the incident. Caronna sued after spending a month in a coma after being hit by falling debris.

This year saw more Black Friday lawsuits from injuries in prior years (generally subject to a two-year statute of limitations). One such case now in court was brought by Amanda DuVall, 28. DuVall got into line on Thanksgiving evening for the Walmart sale in an effort to get a $49.99 tablet. She was one of the first in line but was knocked to the ground and stomped by other customers pushing to get a $49.99 tablet. DuVall said she waited three hours. She argued that Walmart violated the Consumer Protection Act by failing to tell customers that the store did not have enough tablets for demand — causing the stampede. She is asking for $75,000 but Walmart moved the case to federal court and is contesting the case.

While proximate causation is often cut off by the intentional torts or criminal conduct of third parties, courts have extended liability in some cases. For example, in Weirum v. RKO decision holding a radio station liable for injuries caused to a third party when teenagers drove recklessly to find The Real Don Steele in his marked van. The court held that the reckless driving was a foreseeable response of teenagers to the promise of free concert tickets. Of course, these were not teenagers but Black Friday fatalities are infamous. ________________________________________________________________________

Michael Hobbins was shot after being mistaken for a wild turkey by a fellow hunter in Union County, Pennsylvania in 2010. Leroy Miller was following a turkey when he heard a noise and took the shot. He bagged Hobbins who was blinded and suffered aneurysms due to the injury.

To make matters worse, Miller is a convicted felon and is barred under state law from possession of a firearm for hunting or self-defense. Accordingly, Miller was in violation of a statute in addition to being negligent.

_______________________________________________________________________ Brian and Christa Caponi of Gulf Breeze Florida was not trying to bag a Turkey but raise a pet. However, her neighbor, Jacob Hayden Provo, 18, saw something more tangible: a Thanksgiving dinner. Joshua Warren Anderson, 19, and Provo used a bow and arrow to kill Tom. While the Caponi’s have 50 dogs, cats, chickens, and other animals, “Tom the Turkey” was like a dog to their family. They have been charged with armed burglary, armed trespassing, theft of livestock and animal cruelty.

The crime was captured on the surveillance system of the Caponi family. When police pulled over Provo, he allegedly lied and said he killed the bird in a nearby city. He later confessed.

These cases are difficult in torts because such pets are valued at their replacement costs rather than their sentimental value. In the eyes of the law, Tom is simply an Eastern wild turkey worth $300. To capture the pain and suffering in such acts, plaintiffs will often proceed on negligent or intentional infliction of emotional distress claims.

___________________________________________________________ Thanksgiving means one thing for personal injury lawyers: food poisoning. The problem is that the larger the case the more difficult the causation. A case in point is the aftermath of the potluck dinner this year at a Mormon church in Logandale, Nevada. Not sooner had people finished their meal that they began to run for bathrooms with vomiting and diarrhea. The food poisoning sent over a 100 people to clinics and hospitals. Officials are trying to determine what dish was responsible for the poisoning but the evidence may have been lost. In a similar case (Samson) below, the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur was applied. However, for such a large gathering with different dishes, the factual cause of the poisoning would have to be found. An alternative approach would be to pursue the Church itself for failure to supervise or monitor such food services. However, it was clearly understood that this was a potluck by those gathering at the church.

________________________________________________________________

Putting aside the food, the company at Thanksgiving can be lethal. Last year, we had the assortment of family members arrested in brawls, including a sister who stabbed her brother with a fork over Thanksgiving dinner. However, none of these cases prepared the guests at the dinner with Paul Merhige who snapped at a Thanksgiving dinner in 2009 and killed four family members. Merhige later pleaded guilty in the deaths of his 73-year-old aunt Raymonde Joseph, his cousin’s 6-year-old daughter Makayla Sitton, and his 33-year-old twin sisters Carla Merhige and Lisa Knight.

His parents were later sued by his cousins Muriel and Jimmy Sitton. The dinner was held at the Sitton house with the Merhiges and their son Paul. They alleged that the Merhiges knew that their son was unstable and hide the danger from them and the other guests. The lawsuit therefore advanced a novel negligence claim. Normally, criminal actions will cut off legal causation, though not always. In some cases, crimes have been found foreseeable. However, a court recently dismissed the case. Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Meenu Sasser ruled that the parents are not responsible for the actions of their adult children. In other words, you eat Thanksgiving dinner with adults at your own risk. While they can clearly sued Paul Merhige, he is likely judgment proof. __________________

We have the usual array of Thanksgiving burn cases that overwhelmingly involve deep-fried turkeys. One such case Serafino Alfe, 30, outside of Chicago who described his accident as a case where “I basically fried myself” when he was frying a turkey for an annual fundraiser and tripped right into the deep fryer. No lawsuit have been filed in such cases where negligence only injures the negligent party.

Source: Huff Post

________________________________________________________________________

Also from my home town was the hospitalization of 7 people in a Thanksgiving dinner. The host used a charcoal grill inside the home and served up heaping helpings of carbon monoxide poisoning. Twenty people reported feeling sick. The case remains within the statute of limitations, but a negligence action would appear an obvious possibility (even with plaintiffs’ conduct).

Source: Pantagraph

_______________________________________________________________________

One fairly straightforward tort and criminal case from 2011 is from Omaha, Nebraska where Cindy Kellogg, a grandmother making Thanksgiving dinner, was shot in the arm. The man, however, can defend himself that this was accidental . . . he was aiming at the fleeing children. Her 14-year-old grandson fell fleeing the man who starting shooting at playing children for no apparent reason. Incredibly, however, there is still no record of an arrest of the man.

Source: KETV ______________________________________________________________________ Brian and Christa Caponi of Gulf Breeze Florida have a potential tort claim against their Panhandle, Florida neighbor who (with a friend) used a bow and arrow to kill their pet Turkey. While the Caponi’s have 50 dogs, cats, chickens, and other animals, “Tom the Turkey” was like a dog to their family.

The two arrested teens said that they saw a 30-pound Thanksgiving dinner rather than a pet. They have been charged with armed burglary, armed trespassing, theft of livestock and animal cruelty. As we have discussed, these cases are difficult in torts because such pets are valued at their replacement costs rather than their sentimental value. To capture the pain and suffering in such acts, plaintiffs will often proceed on negligent or intentional infliction of emotional distress claims.

Source: FOX

_______________________________________________________________________ 2011 Listing A company in Fremont, California is facing a hostile work environment over ridiculing an employee for her celebration of Thanksgiving. Promila Awasthi, an Indian-born American citizen works at Infosys as a computer consultant, alleges that she faced a hostile work environment for celebrating Thanksgiving and was refused compensation for overtime hours worked. Infosys is a large India-based technology outsourcing company with offices in the United States. She alleges that her bosses made fun of her celebrating an “American” holiday because she is Indian and insisted that she work on Thanksgiving Day. She said that they responded to her request to celebrate Thanksgiving by calling her an “ABCD,” which stands for “American-Born Confused Desi.”

Source: Eboss

——————————————————————— Greenberg Smoked Turkeys, Inc. v. Goode-Cook, Inc., No. 10-621, (Complaint filed November 23, 2010, E.D. Texas)

A Texas court is looking into whether copying Turkey cooking instructions is a copyright violation.

Greenberg Smoked Turkeys has sold turkeys with some simple instructions composed of three short paragraphs. It also posted those instructions on the web. Later it found the same or similar instructions appearing on its competitor’s website for Goode-Cook. The case will turn on the “merger doctrine” and the principle that, while ideas are not copyrightable, it is possible to copyright how those ideas are expressed. Here is the challenged instructions:

Our turkeys arrive at your door ready to eat. Refrigerate immediately. The turkey will keep in the refrigerator for 6-8 days. If you do not plan to use it in that length of time, it should be frozen.

We recommend that our turkeys are eaten chilled or at room temperature — just slice and enjoy!

If heating is required, follow these instructions: place turkey in a Reynolds® Oven Bag, which can be bought at your local grocer. Do not add flour to the bag. Cut 6 to 7 small slits in the top of the bag. Heat at 300 degrees for 6 minutes per pound.

That is some pretty generic information to be placed under copyright protection, in my view.

Source: 

————————————————- In Florida, a major tort action has been filed two years after a massacre at a Thanksgiving dinner where a six-year-old South Florida girl and three others were killed. The lawsuit alleges that Michael and Carole Merhige were negligent because they knew their son was planning to attend the Thanksgiving event, even though he was unstable and uninvited. It was filed by Muriel and Jim Sitton, and Antoine Joseph, whose wife was killed by Paul Merhige. The complaint alleges that his parents were aware of his violent propensity and did nothing to warn them that he would be attending their Thanksgiving dinner in 2009. It includes an alleged statement by his mother to her daughter that she hoped her son wouldn’t “come and kill us all” in advance of Thanksgiving.

There is also an intriguing claim that since Paul Merhige’s father was a former CIA agent and he had particular skills and training to prevent the massacre.

The case resembles the famous 1976 ruling in Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California. and the imposition of liability on a university. See Tarasoff opinion. In that case, Prosinjit Podder, a graduate student at Berkeley, fell in love with Tatiana Tarasoff. When she stated that she wanted to date other men, Podder went to counseling at the University Health Service and is treated by psychologist, Dr. Lawrence Moore. When he told Moore that he wanted to get a gun and kill Tarasoff, Moore sent a letter to campus police who interviewed Podder and decided that he was not a risk. Podder then went ahead and murdered Tarasoff. Podder was found legally at fault.

Here the parents are being accused of failing to warn or act in light of Merhige’s history of emotion and mental problems. Adding to the alleged failure was the careful planning of their son who acquired 4 guns and ammunition, taking $12 thousand out of the bank, and buying a cover for his car that he used to hide it.

Source: CBS

_______________________________________________________________________

GEORGIA v. BARTELS AND MARSH (2010) Our winners for the worst Thanksgiving celebration last year was the dinner held at the Georgia home of Patty Jo Marsh and her husband, who decided that the best activity after Thanksgiving dinner was to give their seven children tattoos using a home-made tattoo device.

The parents borrowed a tattoo machine from a friend and used a needle made from guitar strings to give six of their seven children tattoos after Thanksgiving. The children range in age from 10-17. The ten year old was spared the experience.

The tattoos were spotted by their biological mother when they returned home (much like the earlier Fresno case). She was not pleased and called child welfare. In Georgia, it is illegal to give tattoos to children under 18 and it is illegal to give tattoos to anyone without a license.

The couple insists that they did not know it was illegal and only gave into the demands of the kids that they wanted small cross tattoos like their own.

They have been charged with cruelty to children, reckless conduct and tattooing without a license. They also could face a lawsuit from the biological mother since the children were too young to consent to tattoos and such tattooing of children is legal in most states. Absent legally recognized consent (as opposed to actual but invalid consent of a minor) the parents can be charged with battery. They cannot use substituted consent in such a circumstance for their children in most states.

________________________________________________________________________ SEILER v. JIMMY JOHN’S (2009) A tort action in Chicago presents a somewhat novel dispute over the proper way to eat a sandwich. Mackenzie Seiler went to Jimmy John’s restaurant for a Turkey Tom sandwich. He went into anaphylactic shock after he bite into the sandwich, which turned out to be tuna and filled with cheese and mayonnaise. A person with severe allergies, he had specifically told them to hold the cheese and mayo — let alone the tuna. However, the restaurant says it was his fault for failing to properly unwrap the sandwich before biting into it.

He is now seeking more than $50,000 from Jimmy John’s after going into shock.

Seiler’s attorney, Richard Egan, insists that his client ate the sandwich in a traditional way: by peeling back one end of the wrapped sandwich and eating it like “a burrito.”

Jimmy John’s says that his eating habits are contributory negligence and that he is responsible for his three days in the hospital. The restaurant insists that a reasonable person removes the sandwich from its wrapping, inspects it, and only then bites into it. (I also tend to weigh the sandwich on an atomic scale to confirm proper weigh and measure the sandwich to guarantee that it is properly proportioned . . . but that is just me).

Once again, I do not get why the restaurant wants to fight this one. How many jurors does the restaurant think actually unwrap a sandwich completely and do an inspection before chomping down? This fight occurred because the restaurant refused to pay his hospital costs.

I am particularly interested in the experts that will be called by either side in this dispute. The EU must have a rule on this. Of course, there may be some raw regionalism in the case with the restaurant accusing Seiler of eating “like a New Yorker.” I would suggest the sandwich truck guys and the guys at the Billy Goat Grill as obvious choices for experts on sandwich tactics and customs. Of course, as shown in the case of TJ Hooper, industry custom is not always controlling, so the court could articulate a new standard for sandwich consumption.

_____________________________________________________________________

FLORIDA v. SMITH (2009) Thanksgiving holidays are notorious for bringing out family stress and divisions, but know family does it quite like the Smiths of Hudson, Florida who ended up having Thanksgiving in jail over a disagreement involving the proper way to stuff a Turkey. Along the way the committed a variety of torts and crimes. Elizabeth Smith, 21, was shocked when she woke up at 7 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day to stuff her turkey — only to find that her father-in-law Donald “Junior” Smith, 49, had beat her to it. It was not how she wanted it stuffed and, to make matters worse, he used celery which her husband Tristan Smith, 21, is allergic to. A shouting match erupted.

Junior blamed Elizabeth as incompetent and said that no one was helping him cook. Elizabeth said that she wanted to cook but no one woke her. Tristan intervened in defense of his wife. It soon turned physical as the men rolled around the house and ended up in the room of Tristan’s 3-year-old son and 5-month-old daughter. Then Tristan’s mom, Joan Ethel Brewster, 54, grabbed Elizabeth by the hair and scratched her — pulling her hair out and causing bleeding on her face.

Joan called the police and she and Junior were arrested and booked . . . wait for it . . . at the Land O’Lakes Jail. They were held for Thanksgiving and had dinner in jail — presumably properly prepared by others. After the arrests, Elizabeth finished cooking the meal and held Thanksgiving for the remaining relatives. In the ultimate happy ending, she insisted that “[i]t still turned out all right.”

The result was both criminal and tort helpings of assault and battery.

____________________________________________________________

IN RE JEAN KASPER (2009)

Last year, we also had a curious product liability and negligence allegation. When Lisa Blair’s mother, Jean Kasper, died, she wanted to carry part of her mother with her. She consulted with a funeral home on the use of heart-shaped lockets for carrying the ashes. She filled identical lockets for her seven daughters and stepdaughters. She alleges that she dropped off the lockets to be sealed and tested by the funeral home.

At Thanksgiving dinner, Blair noticed that the mashed potatoes had small flecks in them, but continued to eat. After consuming most of the potatoes, she looked down and realize that her mother’s ashes had fallen into the mashed potatoes and that she had consumed them. She also discovered that the lockets on her daughters and stepdaughters had also leaked into their food.

Cresmount funeral home will not discuss the allegations. Blair could allege an assortment of torts from negligence to negligent infliction of emotional distress. If the funeral home represented that the lockets were sealed, it might be able to survive a motion to dismiss. There is also the possibility of a products claim. However, these lockets were not made for this purchase and this is not likely a case for foreseeable misuse against the manufacturer.

For the full story, click here. ———————————————————–

APONTE v. CASTOR 155 Ohio App. 3d 553 (2003)

Guests can bring potential liability for alleged attractive nuisances found during a Thanksgiving dinner. At least that is what Michael and Deborah Castor discovered. They invited their niece, Teresa Aponte and her daugher Erica (age 7) to share a Thanksgiving feast. According to the court, “[f]ollowing dinner, accompanied by her cousin, Erica went outside and crawled under/through an electric wire fence that enclosed appellees’ horse paddock area. Erica was subsequently kicked in the face by appellees’ horse, sustaining injury.”

The niece sued her uncle and aunt. The question was Erica’s status as trespasser or an invitee. The case also explored the meaning of an attractive nuisance.

The court held as follows:

In this case, it is undisputed that Erica was invited over for Thanksgiving dinner and that she did not obtain permission from appellees or any other adult to exit the house or visit the horse penned in the paddock. Moreover, it is uncontested that Erica was never permitted by appellees to roam freely in “any part of the subject property without both parental supervision and permission.” Upon a thorough review of the record, and finding no genuine issues of material fact, we find that Erica was only invited to appellees’ home for Thanksgiving dinner and was not invited to freely explore the property. Accordingly, we find that once Erica left the house and entered the horse paddock area, she exceeded the scope of appellees’ invitation and became a trespasser or a licensee on appellees’ property.

Normally, a landowner would only owe a trespasser or licensee the duty to refrain from wanton, willful or reckless conduct which is likely to injure the licensee or trespasser. . . .However, the Ohio Supreme Court has held that the amount of care required of a landowner to discharge a duty owed to a child of tender years, who is exposed to danger on the landowner’s property, is greater than that required to discharge a duty to an adult exposed to the same danger. Di Gildo v. Caponi (1969), 18 Ohio St. 2d 125, 47 Ohio Op. 2d 282, 247 N.E.2d 732, paragraph one of the syllabus; and Bennett v. Stanley (2001), 92 Ohio St.3d 35, 39, 2001 Ohio 128, 748 N.E.2d 41. The rationale for this rule is that HN7″‘Children of tender years, and youthful persons generally, are entitled to a degree of care proportioned to their inability to foresee and avoid the perils that they may encounter ***. The same discernment and foresight in discovering defects and dangers cannot be reasonably expected of them, that older and experienced persons habitually employ; and therefore, the greater precaution should be taken, where children are exposed to them.’” Di Gildo at 127, citing 39 Ohio Jurisprudence 2d 512, Negligence, Section 21. “Even child trespassers are accorded special protection in Ohio tort law.” Bennett, 92 Ohio St.3d at 40.

In recognizing that “children are entitled to a greater level of protection than adults,” the Ohio Supreme Court in Bennett adopted the attractive nuisance doctrine, contained in Restatement of the Law 2d, Torts (1965), Section 339 . Bennett set forth the attractive nuisance doctrine as follows:

“A possessor of land is subject to liability for physical harm to children trespassing thereon caused by an artificial condition upon the land if:

“(a) the place where the condition exists is one upon which the possessor knows or has reason to know that children are likely to trespass, and

“(b) the condition is one of which the possessor knows or has reason to know and which he realizes or should realize will involve an unreasonable risk of death or serious bodily harm to such children, and

“(c) the children because of their youth do not discover the condition or realize the risk involved in intermeddling with it or in coming within the area made dangerous by it, and

“(d) the utility to the possessor of maintaining the condition and the burden of eliminating the danger are slight as compared with the risk to children involved, and

“(e) the possessor fails to exercise reasonable care to eliminate the danger or to otherwise protect the children.”

In determining a landowner’s duty to a child, Bennett held that “whether an apparatus or a condition of property is involved, the key element should be whether there is a foreseeable, ‘unreasonable risk of death or serious bodily harm to *** children.’” Id. at 42, citing Restatement, Section 339(b). However, “even when a landowner is found to have an attractive nuisance on his or her land, the landowner is left merely with the burden of acting with ordinary care” and “does not automatically become liable for any injury a child trespasser may suffer on that land.” Id.

. . . Appellant argues that appellees’ horse created an attractive nuisance and, as such, appellees owed Erica the duty of ordinary care. We, however, find no authority in Ohio law which establishes that an animal is “an artificial condition” which invokes the doctrine of attractive nuisance. Accordingly, we find that the attractive nuisance doctrine is not applicable in this case. Nevertheless, based upon the holdings and rationale in Bennett and Di Gildo, we find that “children of tender years, and youthful persons” are generally entitled to a degree of care commensurate with their inability to foresee and avoid dangers, even when trespassing.

In considering whether appellees breached their duty to Erica, we must first consider whether it was foreseeable to appellees that Erica would trespass into the horse paddock area while on their property. Appellant argues that it was foreseeable that Erica, a child guest at Thanksgiving dinner, would wander out to the horse paddock. We, however, find that the undisputed evidence is to the contrary.

First, neither on the day in question, nor during earlier visits, was Erica ever given unfettered access to appellees’ property; rather, permission and adult supervision was required. Second, at no time was any child guest allowed “to roam freely around the subject property or enter the area in or around the horse paddock area.” Third, according to Mr. Castor, on previous visits to the property, Erica “never unilaterally left the house or entered the area in or around the horse paddock area.” Fourth, the horse was enclosed with an electrified wire fence, which, according to Erica, she was warned to avoid. Based on these undisputed facts, we find that it was not foreseeable to appellees that Erica would trespass upon their property into the area of the horse paddock.

Assuming arguendo that a genuine issue of material fact exists regarding whether it was foreseeable to appellees that Erica would trespass into the horse paddock, we note that the degree of care owed by appellees only would have to be proportionate to Erica’s inability to foresee and avoid the perils that she may encounter and, in no event, would appellees’ duty to Erica extend to dangerous conditions that were obvious and realized by her. See Bennett, supra at 43.

In this case, it is clear that Erica had an appreciation that horses presented a risk to her. Erica testified that she had been told “never to go behind a horse”; she knew that she was not allowed to be around horses, appellees’ horse, or in the corral, without a parent or adult supervision; and that, although she did not remember anyone ever telling her specifically not to go into the corral, she was “pretty sure that *** [appellees] thought that [she] had the common sense not to go there” and that “they knew that if [she] were going to that [she] would ask for an adult to come with [her].”

Appellant, however, argues that appellees should have warned Erica and her parents regarding this horse’s history of aggressive behavior toward a sheep that entered its enclosure. However, based on Erica’s own testimony, we find that she knew horses presented a risk, that she was not to go near the electric fence, and that an adult was supposed to accompany her around horses. Accordingly, we find that the potential danger any horse posed to Erica was both known and obvious to her. We therefore find that appellees owed no duty to Erica or her parents to provide additional warnings regarding this horse in particular.

Based on the foregoing, we find that there are no genuine issues of material fact and that appellees are entitled to summary judgment as a matter of law. Erica was a trespasser on appellees’ property and, therefore, appellees were only required to refrain from willful, wanton and reckless conduct. However, to the extent that Erica’s age would entitle her to a greater degree of care than that normally afforded a trespasser, we find that appellees breached no duty to Erica insofar as she fully realized the obvious risk that horses presented, and proceeded at her own peril. Accordingly, we find appellant’s first and second assignments of error not well-taken.

On consideration whereof, the court finds substantial justice has been done the party complaining and the judgment of the Williams County Court of Common Pleas is affirmed. Appellant is ordered to pay the court costs of this appeal.

————————————————————

DENNIS V. DENNIS 2001 Del. Super. LEXIS 11 (2001)

The Dennis case shows why a good lawyer requires relatives to sign waiver forms before the start of any holiday. Here are the facts from the case:

FACTS

On November 16, 1998, Plaintiff [*2] Crystal Dennis (“Crystal”) and her thirteen-month-old son, Velvin Morgan, Jr. (“Velvin”)(collectively, the “Plaintiffs”) went to the home of Mr. Dennis, who is Crystal’s father and Velvin’s grandfather. Defendant Stephanie Dennis (“Stephanie”), who is Crystal’s sister, was also present at her father’s home. The sisters had gathered at Mr. Dennis’s residence in order to clean it for Thanksgiving dinner. While the daughters were cleaning, Mr. Dennis babysat Velvin. While all three adults and Velvin were in the kitchen prior to eating breakfast, Stephanie warmed water in the microwave for hot tea. She took the cup out of the microwave and placed it on the counter. Velvin, who was sitting on his grandfather’s lap, got up and walked over to the counter, reached up and poured the scolding water on himself. As a result, he sustained first and second degree burns on his neck and chest. The Plaintiffs filed suit against Mr. Dennis and Stephanie (collectively the “Defendants”), alleging that the Defendants’ negligence was the proximate cause of Velvin’s injuries.

The issue was whether the daughters could claim to be business invitees in coming their father’s house — in order to get around the state’s Guest Statute. The Delaware Guest Statute, 25 Del. C. § 1501, provides:

No person who enters onto private residential or farm premises owned or occupied by another person, either as a guest without payment or as a trespasser, shall have a cause of action against the owner or occupier of such premises for any injuries or damages sustained by such person while on the premises unless such accident was intentional on the part of the owner or occupier or was caused [*4] by the wilful or wanton disregard of the rights of others.

The daughters, however, claimed that “since Crystal would have been unable to perform the cleaning [*6] services for her father unless she could bring Velvin with her and have Mr. Dennis babysit him, he has received a benefit. Further, the Plaintiffs assert that Crystal was a business invitee 10 and that status should be imputed onto Velvin.”

Outcome: The Court was not convinced and found the lawsuit against the father to be properly dismissed.

————————————————————- SAMSON v. REISING 62 Wis. 2d 698 (1974)

The underlying facts show that on Tuesday, February 6, 1968, Pearl Samson attended a luncheon, which was put on by the Wauwatosa High School Band Mothers Association (an organization organized to give support to the high school band) at the Wauwatosa Trinity Episcopal Church. Pearl Samson paid $ 1.25 and ate a luncheon consisting of turkey salad and dessert. On Wednesday evening she became nauseated. She was unable to work on Thursday and Friday.

The symptoms subsided, and she returned to work on Monday, February 12th. A few days later, however, she again was obliged to miss work because of her illness. After these symptoms recurred every few days, she visited her doctor, who was unable to help her, and in the nine-month period following the luncheon she lost 22 pounds and periodically suffered from diarrhea, vomiting, cramps, and stomach pain. Eventually she was referred to a specialist, who determined that Pearl Samson’s condition was the result of salmonella food poisoning and that, as a consequence, she suffered a deficiency of the lactase enzyme in her intestinal tract.

This enzyme is necessary to properly digest foods with a lactose base, such as milk and dairy products. She claims that her illness recurs whenever she ingests foods which contain milk products. There was testimony that she found it impossible to be sure that the food she ate contained no such products and that she became severely ill sometimes twice a month. Her physician testified that this condition is permanent.

There is evidence that the turkey salad eaten at the luncheon was contaminated with salmonella bacteria. Dorothy G. Wood, one of the defendants, testified that she had taken some of the leftover salad home for her family to eat. Her family ate some of that salad and had no ill effects. When she received reports that some of the guests at the luncheon had become ill, she notified the chief sanitarian of the Wauwatosa Health Department. He submitted the sample of the remaining salad to the Milwaukee Food Laboratory. The report from the laboratory indicated the presence of the salmonella bacteria.

There was testimony by Dorothy G. Wood that she and Marjorie E. Borror were co-chairmen in charge of the luncheon, that approximately a month before the luncheon they purchased nine frozen turkeys from Kohl’s and had them stored in Kohl’s freezer until they were needed. Before the date of the luncheon, Dorothy Wood picked up the frozen turkeys and delivered them to other members of the luncheon committee. She named eight members of the committee to whom she delivered the turkeys to be cooked in their own homes. She stated that she delivered the turkeys to Margarette H. Hoffman, Charlotte G. Soleski, Violet E. Gullicksen, Betty Randa, Grace A. Kerler, Marjorie E. Borror, Ruth E. Johnson, Jane Frances, and one other. Each of these persons are defendants in the instant lawsuit. In addition, Audrey Riesing and Phillis Gill, together with Dorothy Wood, are named as defendants.

Dorothy Wood stated that she did not cook a turkey, but that nine ladies, one of whom she could not name, cooked them sometime between the day she delivered the turkeys and the afternoon of February 5, 1968, when the ladies brought the cooked turkeys to the Trinity Episcopal Church kitchen. The turkey salad was prepared in the Trinity Episcopal Church kitchen.

After the salad was prepared, it was taken to a refrigerator located at the Methodist Church. The turkey salad was returned to the Trinity Episcopal Church at 10 a. m. on Tuesday, February 6th. The salad received no refrigeration from the time it was taken from the Methodist Church. Prior to the time of serving, the turkey salad was held in large containers, which had been obtained from the Methodist Church. Dorothy Wood testified that the church kitchen in which the salad was prepared was “clean.”

At trial, Joseph D. Gorski, the chief sanitarian for the Wauwatosa Health Department, testified that salmonella is a bacteria common to the intestinal tracts of fowl. He said that food containing salmonella bacteria can be rendered safe for eating by exposure to heat and that a meat temperature of 146 degrees Fahrenheit for thirty minutes or 161 degrees for thirty seconds would kill the organism. Properly cooking a turkey would render it free from salmonella bacteria.

However, even though a turkey were properly cooked, it could be contaminated if it came in contact with utensils or other objects which touched the raw contaminated turkey. Gary V. Doern, a bacteriologist, also testified that some individuals are unknowing carriers of the salmonella bacteria and can contaminate food products by touching them.

. . . In this case nine turkeys were cooked, each by one of nine defendants, but not all of the 11 defendants cooked the turkeys. It does appear, however, that all of them participated in the preparation of the salad.

Outcome: This case ultimately turned on the court’s interpretation of the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur used to prove such cases with a paucity of proof. The doctrine requires “(1) The event or accident in question be of the kind which does not ordinarily occur in the absence of someone’s negligence; and (2) the agency or instrumentality causing the harm must have been within the exclusive control of the defendant.”

The court found that first criteria satisfied but ruled that it failed on the second criteria of exclusive control. They could not prove which of the band mother’s Turkeys was the culprit so all of the band mothers walked.

Jonathan Turley

TURKEY TORTS (2018) published first on https://immigrationlawyerto.tumblr.com/

[davemoon]

Sinking into the Casper Mattress Story

The cofounders had been meeting at a co-working space for a while. They were thinking through business ideas, but they always kept coming back to mattresses. Philip Krim, Casper’s cofounder and CEO, had started an ecommerce business while he was at UT. The mattress category was surprisingly successful. He always had his eye on it, and it looked like he was going to be able to convince his four cofounders to consider it.

Buying a mattress is a terrible experience. The brands are staid and unloved. The process seems designed to lure you into a showroom with a commissioned salesperson who is trained to extract as much money from you as possible. You walk out with a five-thousand-dollar mattress that you qualified by laying on it for five minutes after it’s been abused in a showroom by countless other customers.

Tempurpedic was the last innovation in the mattress industry, and it’s decades old. The first cracks in the market predicated on choosing spring-counts, foam content, and myriad other qualifiers for the variety of mattresses pitched by mattress showrooms appeared when hotels started selling their own branded mattresses. Unlike the showroom experience, hotels stock one mattress. It’s designed to be comfortable for everyone. Why couldn’t a mattress company do that? There was a void in the landscape.

In March 2014, they raised a small seed round of $1.6 m to begin tackling the idea in earnest. They spent the first nine months doing research and development. The product had to provide a universal improvement in sleep quality. One of Philip’s cofounders, Jeff Chapin, was an industrial designer at IDEO. He brought his deep experience with the materials, the problems, and the packaging to sleep. It needed to be the best, to fold in a box, and provide a high degree of value per consumer dollar.

For a business that was virtual at its core, they thought a lot about the customer experience. The customer experience – the customer journey – would be central to Casper. They saw the whole customer experience as a brand-building opportunity. They thought about unboxing. What does the mattress do as it expands? How does the customer experience it? They wanted to personalize the brand. They wanted to make buying a mattress enjoyable and rewarding – through the process and the product. The answer started with the patented combination of latex and memory foam with iconic a white top with a grey side-panel.

What Philip and the team didn’t expect was, though designing a mattress for a good night’s sleep was hard, getting a manufacturer online was going to be at least as difficult.

The mattress industry hides fat margins and a cycle of private equity buyouts, recaps, and bankruptcies. Simmons Serta and Tempur Sealy control most of the manufacturing and have been largely protected from low-cost imports by virtue of just how colossally inconvenient and expensive it is to freight them in from Asia.

The remaining manufacturers often operated under the scrutiny or discretion of the controlling duopoly. For Casper, it meant that they had to fight to even get a manufacturer. Most manufacturers wouldn’t talk to them. The initial volumes were either deemed too small or they were too colored by the perspectives of the incumbents.

Casper, from the start would change how manufacturers work with a mattress brand. Typically, a Simmons Serta, for example, will request a large production run, warehouse their inventory, in a region, and merchandise it at local showrooms. Casper, on the other hand, maintains a just in time inventory process that essentially asks manufacturers to make mattresses to order for customers. Rather than warehousing the finished product, they ship it directly to customers via UPS from the factory. It’s far more capital efficient and keeps them customer focused.

Casper started selling on April 22nd, 2014. With three new hires, they had grown to eight people, all sitting in a small office on Bond Street in Noho. Casper did $1m of sales in the first twenty-eight days. They weren’t just selling to friends and family. Something else had happened. Something big.

They needed to get ahead of the supply chain. Early on, they were always running out of product and posting delays. The supply chain in the first 12-18 months was a big challenge. They have IT infrastructure supporting just-in-time ordering and deliveries now, but it wasn’t always so reliable or easy. Philip and the team, however, turned it into an opportunity. They over-communicated with customers, learned about who they were, and established the foundation for long-term relationships. While the traditional mattress buying experience was derelict and disappointing, Casper would further separate themselves through service. They introduced the 100-day trial.

Customers began posting the unboxing videos Philip and the team had speculated about. The videos became part of the virality of the Casper sale that the team didn’t expect, and they were rapidly becoming the fastest growing consumer business ever.

The flipside of growth, however, was scale. They needed to grow headcount. They needed more money. Casper raised a Series A in August  2014 and brought in new investors, such as NEA and Silas Capital. They used part of the capital to expand into Canada. In June 2015, they raised from IVP and Pritzker. They closed 2015 –just over eighteen months into production—with $100m in sales. Nonetheless, Philip found time to get married in October, along the way.

By the end of 2015, Casper had dramatically grown its customer base. Unlike a traditional mattress company or retailer, Casper knows their customers. Not only did they sell and ship them a mattress, with no retailer intermediary, they focused on establishing a long-term relationship. It starts with saying, thank you. For their first customers, Philip and his team went to the Strand and bought crates of leather-bound books. They brought them back to their office, wrote personal messages of thanks on the cover pages, and shipped them along with the mattress to each customer. A mattress and a Tale of Two Cities, perhaps.

If imitation is the greatest form of flattery, then Casper has many admirers. Not only has their innovation and success inspired copy-cats like Leesa, Karma, Lull, Tuft & Needle, Purple and many others, but the incumbent mattress brands have taken Casper’s lesson to heart. Tempur Sealy launched Cocoon, as a direct to consumer brand at the price scale of Casper. The incumbents, such as Tempur Sealy, however, must face a problem unique to their situation: channel conflict. Some 90% of their revenue derives from retail sales at higher price-points, so Cocoon can only succeed at the cost of their traditional retail channel as they turn individual $2.5k sales into $800 sales. It effectively begins to cannibalize their market.

The upstarts, on the other hand, have proven to be plucky competitors, nipping at their heels. While Consumer Reports rated the Casper mattress the number one foam mattress on the market for 2018, the field is now rife with players. The 2018 Wirecutter reviews work to provide a more balanced field of options and provide plenty of space for other manufacturers through a variety of categories: side-sleepers, rotators, back-sleepers, etc. Indeed, everyone has an opportunity to shine in their review.

But Casper has continued to set itself apart. Casper has responded through new products and their interplay with subtle and effective marketing strategies. They launched the dog mattress in August of 2016, which not only drove sales, it also drove an enormous rise in consumer generated content about Casper, mattresses, and their dogs. What started as a product launch became a free marketing campaign based on fan-media on social media. It was carefully tuned to drive fan-contributions and promotion to further entrench and spread the Casper brand.

Investments in content marketing to spur their fan community and consumer interest have led to Van Winkles and its latest evolution: Woolly, a wellness magazine, which focuses on wellness and comfort. They even launched a 1-800 number campaign that encouraged people to call in for ways in which they could fall asleep -- by listening to forest sounds, waves, or a monotone voice, droning on. Now, Casper  has opened more than 20 retail stores across North America that reimagine the sleep shopping experience. All of this has kept the community talking about Casper and what it will do next.

These investments and market adoption have led to strong indirect channels through merchandising relationships. In May of 2017, they announced a retail partnership relationship with Target, through which they would be the key mattress provider for all Target stores. Meanwhile, they partnered with American Airlines in which they became the branded lay-flat-bed provider, as of mid-2017.

The team and team dynamic that Philip has developed, has been key. Seasoned, strong candidates from big, successful brands are drawn to Casper. The team includes executives fro Kate Spade, Apple, Google, Uber. He’s also introduced a sleep lab in San Francisco that counts more than fifty  researchers and engineers focused on advances in sleep science and technology in the interest of product innovations. Of the more than 350  that work at Casper, nearly none have turned over. He attributes much of this to his and his team’s deep commitment to the underlying mission – to deliver everyone a good night’s sleep. It’s simple and seems obvious, but it’s exactly the kind of rallying cry that binds the team together, focuses everyone on the market, and separates Casper from its competitors. Casper is a compelling place to make a career bet -- a place that competes with the strongest brands in the world.

The mission-driven approach to Casper informs every aspect of the business. Philip shifted the business to a B-Corp, so he could score themselves and their suppliers on their social impact. He continues to be a key contributor, supporter and partner to Charity Water, and he takes the time to make additional, spontaneous contributions, such as donating mattresses to firehouses in NYC.

Casper entered 2016 with more than 100 employees, a $200m revenue goal, and the prospect of market launches in Europe alongside their third anniversary. By the end of 2016 , they had met their goal, counted more than 200 people on the team, and were planning for even more growth through global expansion into new markets. And 2018 promises more of the same.

It’s been a remarkable rise for Casper through Philip’s leadership. He continues to attract the most prestigious job candidates. The core business continues to grow and has benefited from the expansion of product categories, distribution channels, and new markets. And he continues to press his team on the core mission and responsibility of the business - sleep, for all. Thanks to Casper, we’ve come more than a long way from uncomfortable showrooms with aggressive salespeople in bad suits.