#Suzanne Stabile

[coreglia]

Embracing The Sweat

It Is Our Ony Form Of Emancipation “Your bike is a discovery; your bike is freedom. It doesn’t matter where you are when you’re on the saddle, you’re taken away.”  Doug Donaldson I’m back in the saddle again.  Notice, I didn’t say I was grinning from ear to ear as if Julie Roberts in Pretty Woman, because, guess who is already saddle sore, and it’s only been three days!  In preparation for…

[acid-ixx]

young, just us?! (again &. again au)

ft. yandere young justice 98 x gn! reader

reblogs and interactions are encouraged and appreciated.

— masterlist !

off-topic, but i've been hyperfixating so much on the young justice (98 vers), that i've been thinking of another timeline where the entire team falls in love with you during one of their trips to the manor. i mean, who wouldn't? they want to know more about your unshakeable, yet warm presence, but they couldn't due to their teammate's indifference towards the first biological child, you.

so someone assertive like cassie slaps some sense into tim drake for his obvious negligence of you whenever you try to talk to him in front of the team, with her harsh tone and squinted glare, just to make it hurt more, that it just leads you finally catching his eyes—

whilst you're unaware of everything happening in the background scene.

cue his interest being piqued regarding you, his obsessive research that spirals into the need to be a constant in your life, and his attempts at bonding with you before it's too late; but with his team of course, because it's now he realizes just how lonely you truly are, with the lack of friends and hobbies only done by yourself, for yourself, in the ghostly manor— whilst all your siblings are out there fighting crime, socializing, with so many adventures that no normal person could comprehend.

tim is familiar with what it's like living in an empty house, before he became robin.

he trusts his teammates, his friends with his life, so it wouldn't be a problem if you were to be acquainted with them; it would be a problem, though, if he soon doesn't quench their thirst to meet with you yet again.

so imagine, one day, you're just out there gardening, humming tunes as always like routine, the next you're being dragged in impulse's arms of all heroes, his hold on you too intimate for a stranger you met once. tim's voice echoes through intangible earphones, lightly threatening the speedster to keep you safe through your fast travel. you're sped from the manor to places unknown, kissed by the air cutting through your body, until you're at their secret cave, surrounded by his teammates, dumbly looking around until a girl rips you away from impulse's arm to hug you tightly.

she acts as a cushion for you to lay your head on, dizzy from the motion enough to make you nearly vomit. but all she does is coo at your swaying head and push her palm on your nape to have you stabilize in hold.

"you okay, sweetie? i swear, if bart got you sick, i'm going to punch him so hard right now."

you're quite unsure how to reply, mind too numb to register the speedster voicing his complaints, or the disgruntled sigh from your brother who shakes his head, commenting under his breath about "keeping affection to a low, for now."

you've never been held this tightly for years, but she beats you through your disoriented tears right after a moment's beat. through your speechless squeaks, she offers you a soft and warm, "welcome, buddy!" her blonde hair glimmers under the light compared to yours.

she calls herself arrowette, suzanne king-jones her personal identity, but insists just as quickly that you call her cissie with your sweet little voice, you nod hazily. everything's happening at a hasty pace that you couldn't even question why nobody's batting an eye at the identity reveal to a civilian, a stranger that is you.

but just as quickly as she introduces herself, your attention is dragged to an all-too familiar, handsome face, his infamous sunglasses resting on his nose, piercings on his eyebrows, and raven sidepart as he shakes your hands and blows you a kiss. a batarang slices through the air and nearly misses his head, you could tell your brother's seething by now.

it doesn't take much for everyone else to introduce themselves after the awkward tension from superboy telling you to call him "baby".

but your mind is still spinning either way, from the daze of impulse's speed, or all the names being thrown into your head, while they all repeatedly shower you with compliments that has you reeling from the foreign domain of affection you've stepped foot on.

just like that, the team takes advantage of your timidness, your eyes plastered on the ground as your face flushes with blazing heat, fighting each other with verbal insults whilst praising themselves in front of you in a battle to assert who's better. it's tim taking your arms and dragging you off to another room that makes for a perfect distraction, apologizing for the sudden intrusion in your life, and how he's willing to make up for the negligence he's caused you from every since he came to the manor— that these people are going to be your new friends.

he says it all so assertively, like he's done his research and the data he's received are all correct, as if he's sure this is the greatest course of action for your life.

the transition from silence to a room filled with chatters, words all directed to you, rather than from a passing glance, their efforts to communicate with someone inept at socializing yet never giving up... well, you couldn't quite comprehend it yet, but tim could see how your face flushes with warmth and the jitters of your fingers from excitement at the implication of new and better... friends.

the taste of the word feeling so distant yet welcomed, he watches the smile slowly plastered on your face and brings his hesitant palms to pat the crown of your head still turned down, tangling his fingers in each strand to ruffle your hair.

it's totally not a way for him to memorize every detail of your being.

"let's, uh... turn our backs away from the past alright, (name)?" he says with an awkward lilt to his voice. you look up through your lashes, and find his pale face incredulously red while his eyes dart around the room. suddenly, you don't feel so trapped right now, and feel yourself giggling at his unsure words and stooping posture.

he panics and gulps, scratching the back of his neck. his eyes still refuse to stare straight at yours.

"— shit, sorry, 'm still not used to this comforting jig, but i'm serious about all this, about making it up to you while it's still early. so, uhm, i hope my friends aren't too... overwhelming for you. they're too excited, that's it."

it's finally at the end of his sentence that his eyes crinkle at the sight of you. you're still standing awkwardly, hesitant to open up yet still willing to make an effort if what he's saying is true.

there's still a shadow of doubt in your head, that this was all a dream, but everything feels so real. his touch feels so real.

it takes a split second for you to reply, still taking in the events that happened to you.

"it's... alright, maybe i'll learn to... forgive you, tim." your whisper sliced through the silent air, breathless, fiddling with your fingers, stepping closer to your brother. he hesitates, but brings his hands to rest on both sides of your shoulder.

his palms eventually made their way to hover on your face, you don't flinch, but you don't bring them closer to you either. it's an air of neutral comfort you're threading on.

"i'm... real grateful that you're willing to put up an effort for me..." it's as if you couldn't fathom that someone so talented, so important as tim drake could notice you and even apologize wholly without excuses. it doesn't take away the years, all the times he turned his back on you, and even mistakenly calling out the wrong name and flat out ignoring you, but if someone like him was willing to try— to even go as far as to have his friends become your friends.

well... who's to say you could deny the slight flutter in your chest at the sweet gestures?

it was you who initiated the hug, burying your head in his slumped shoulders, tears dampening his costume. your brother pats your back, and awkwardly cradles your body in the silent expanse of the room.

you don't feel the haste of his heartbeats, nor the goosebumps pervading his skin.

"thank you..." you mutter, relinquishing the fear that this was all a sick prank your mind has put you through, and embrace the sounds of the door suddenly slamming while your head still rests on the crook of your brother's neck, giggling through tears from bart's high-pitched squeals, the ghostly sounds of greta's overdramatic gasps and cassie's complaints of tim taking all your attention for himself.

from there on out, your presence kind of becomes a staple for the chaotic atmosphere of the team, a voice of reason whenever tim or cassie is too unhinged to deal with the others, they always kept their arguments light for the sake of your happiness. they like to treat you, finding your praises for each individual refreshing and sweet. you're unaware of just how much they truly loved you from the moment their eyes laid on the shadows of your form in the manor.

and you'd rather it stay that way, too invested in the never flitting feeling of being loved.

there's a saying, ignorance is bliss. you're in a state of happiness because this was the first time you had spent your time with someone you could call your brother. you had friends, welcoming from the start, unafraid to display their affection for you. hugs, cuddle piles, pats on your head, kisses on your cheeks, a target for kon's adorable flirting, bart's endless mumblings, even sitting beside your brother is enjoyable as he sifts through the big monitors in front of you, because at least now there's a hand you could fiddle with every time you become too bored.

how could you want to leave them after all this?

at least, in this timeline, you've willingly stepped into your own cage.

a/n: i'm this 🤏 close to disappearing off of tumblr for a year or two again because of my writer's block despite me posting more and more lately. the lack of motivation to write, and forcing yourself to write out the ideas you have in your head bec you're afraid of forgetting is such a shitty feeling. i'm on the verge of a hiatus, my imposter syndrome is at an all time high and i feel as if my writing has been lacking lately. so apologies, i might just quit if i can't get rid of this feeling. otherwise, i think we need more young justice (not the tv show) content, they're like my favorite hero team. i don't know what to feel about this drabble.

[octoberwitchsblog]

The fact that Suzanne Collins tricks us into thinking that a happy ending may occur when Coriolanus and Lucy Gray are not only inherently different but contradict each other in what they want the most. They both want what they never had in their life, but only Snow is willing to do terrible things in order to get there whereas Lucy Gray would never degrade herself into doing true evil. Tigris' humanity towards the tributes show that Coriolanus' past doesn't entitle him to act this way. He chose it all ; the evil, the torture, the deaths of innocents. Coriolanus is desperate to gain the control from which he thinks he can find stability ; Lucy Gray is a creature of freedom, everything she does aspires to it. The worse thing is, Coriolanus was the only one to fuck it all up between them, with his hubris and his inherent incapability of looking past his traumas to recognize the ones of others.

[brntout]

❝ 𝙸𝙵  𝙸𝙼  𝚁𝙸𝙶𝙷𝚃  𝙰𝙱𝙾𝚄𝚃  𝚃𝙷𝙸𝚂,  𝙸  𝙲𝙾𝚄𝙻𝙳  𝚂𝙰𝚅𝙴  𝙰  𝙼𝙰𝙽'𝚂  𝙻𝙸𝙵𝙴.  𝙳𝙾  𝚈𝙾𝚄  𝙷𝙰𝚅𝙴  𝙰𝙽𝚈  𝙸𝙳𝙴𝙰  𝚆𝙷𝙰𝚃  𝚃𝙷𝙰𝚃  𝚆𝙾𝚄𝙻𝙳  𝙳𝙾  𝚃𝙾  𝙼𝚈  𝙱𝙾𝙾𝙺  𝚂𝙰𝙻𝙴𝚂?  ❞

 // (  destiny  ryan.  non-binary.  she/they  )  . ⸻ KENNEDY  STUART  ,  a twenty  eight  year  old,  has  survived  another  day  in  red  creek  where  they  have  lived  for  eighteen  years  and  has  been  back  a  couple  of  months . THE  PRODIGY  is   known   for   being  ambitious  and calculative and  is  often  associated  with  murmured  self-affirmations,  a  creeping  curiosity,  doing  whatever  it  takes  to  exceed  expectations,  picture  perfect  smiles,  pristine  trophies  on  full  display .  in   a   small   town   where   they   work   as  a  journalist at  the  register  and  an  author,  word  travels  fast  .     it’s   hard   to   keep   a   secret   ,   and   it   looks   like   the   boogeyman  knows   that   [  REDACTED  ] 

 𝚃𝙷𝚁𝙴𝙰𝙳𝚂 | 𝙼𝚄𝚂𝙸𝙽𝙶𝚂 | 𝙼𝙸𝚁𝚁𝙾𝚁 | 𝙴𝙳𝙸𝚃𝚂 | 𝙿𝙻𝙰𝚈𝙻𝙸𝚂𝚃 | 𝙿𝙸𝙽𝚃𝙴𝚁𝙴𝚂𝚃

𝐀 𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐃𝐘 𝐈𝐍: being the golden child, a gnawing ambition, restless nights, being a pawn in your parent’s game, the need to be ten steps ahead, doing whatever it takes, always comparing yourself to others, when will it ever be enough? 

[ Ⅰ ]  .  .  .  𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐒 

full  name.  kennedy  noelle  stuart.  nicknames.  ken,  kenny, .  age.  28.  race.  black. nationality.  american.  birthday.  may  20th.  zodiac.  taurus.  gender.  non-binary.  pronouns.  (  she  /  they  ).  sexual  orientation.  pansexual.  birthplace.  redcreek,  michigan.  occupation.  journalist

[ Ⅱ ]  .  .  .  𝐅𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐘

mother  :  suzanne  stuart  herrera father  :  marcus stuart   stepfather:  jonathan  ‘jon’  herrera stepbrother:  santiago  herrera

[ Ⅲ ]  .  .  .  𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓

∗  kennedy  was  marcus  and  suzanne's  last-ditch  effort  to  stabilize  the  marriage  between  a  narcissist  and  a  small  town  primadonna.  the  attempt  lasted  for  a  few  years  on  and  off  which  resulted  kennedy  having  to  spend  their  early  years  alternating  between  two  homes ∗  kennedy  was  the  spitting  image  of  the  both  of  them  and  the  two  were  painfully  aware  of  it,  pushing  the  young  kid  to  be  the  best  version  of  themselves . .  .  they  just  had  different  definitions  of  what  that  was. ∗   for  marcus,  it  was  a  sharp  mind.  days  with  him  usually  consisted  of  activities  that  involved  intellectual  improvement  -  playing  chess,  reading  books,  watching  documentaries.  as  for  suzanne,  she  preferred  more  physical  charms  -  sports  &  beauty  pageants  mostly. ∗  the  combination  resulted  in  a  kid  who's  learned  quickly  that  they  earn  most  praise  when  they  are  not  only  good  at  something...  but  better  than  expected.  a  mindset  eventually  turned  to  a  desire  at  being  the  best  in  whatever  they  set  out  to  be. ∗   in  2006  suzanne  started  seeing  a  local  man  named  jon  hererra  and  before  kennedy  had  a  chance  to  process  their  mother's  new  relationship,  they  were  asked  to  pack  their  bags  to  move  in  with  this  stranger  and  his  son,  santiago  herrera. ∗   while  kennedy's  father  was  still  in  their  life,  it  was  apparent  that  he  had  decided  to  take  a  step  back  (  no  doubt  betrayed  by  how  quickly  his  former  wife  moved  on  )  and  began  only  taking  kennedy  on  the  weekends. ∗   life  with  the  herrera's  was  different.  suzanne  had  taken  to  bragging  about  her  child's  achievements.  an  energy  that  their  stepfather  quickly  matched  .  he  became  invested  in  advancing  kennedy's  talents,  perhaps  hoping  that  their  excellence  would  rub  off  on  his  son. ∗  unfortunately,  kennedy  had  a  hard  time  relating  to  santiago.  perhaps  it  was  the  age  difference  or  the  resentment  in  their  parent's  union.  whatever  the  reason,  it  made  building  a  healthy  relationship  difficult. ∗  kennedy  tended  to  focus  on  their  academic  pursuits  instead.  editor  of  the  newspaper,  head  of  the  speech  and  debate  team,  goalie  of  the  girl's  soccer  team...  they  had  their  hands  full!  eventually  they  graduate  with  honors  and  got  accepted  at  NYU  on  a  full  ride  to  become  an  investigative  journalist. ∗   after  college,  they  booked  a  job  at  the  new  york  times  amd  became  a  travelling  journalist,  moving  from  country  to  country  to  write  pieces  about  whatever  was  relevant. ∗   during  their  travels  they  came  across  an  interesting  case  that  was  ongoing  in  italy.  there  was  a  unexpected  string  of  murders  happening  in  a  small  countryside  town  and  with  the  help  of  the  local  police  department,  it  was  determined  that  the  local  catholic  priest  was  poisoning  the  offerings  during  their  mass  and  would  either  pretend  to  heal  them  with  the  power  of  God  or  let  them  die. ∗  the  article  kennedy  wrote  didnt  garner  much  attention  but  they  were  so  invested  in  the  story  they  decided  to  write  a  book  about  it  named  'death  at  the  altar'  and  lo  and  behold  -  it  became  a  best  seller! ∗  it  was  such  a  hit  that  kennedy  had  to  take  a  break  from  their  journalistic  endeavors  to  go  on  a  book  tour.  as  exciting  as  it  was,  kennedy  found  it  awfully  tiresome. ∗  after  some  thought  and  some  nudging  from  their  mother  &  step-father,  kennedy  decided  to  take  a  break  from  it  all  and  move  back  home.  they  took  up  a  job  at  the  local  newspaper  because  they  figured  it  would  be  easy.  some  fluff  pieces  here  and  there  while  they  focus  on  their  next  big  hit.  it's  red  creek,  michigan  after  all.  nothing  ever  happens  here.

𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘 :  a  smart  kid  who  watched  their  parents  divorce  and  was  forced  to  join  another  family  along  with  her  outrageous  mother.  left  town  as  soon  as  she  could  but  recently  decided  to  move  back  home  after  writing  a  best  selling  true  crime  novel  named  'death  at  the  altar'.r'. 

[ Ⅳ ]  .  .  .  𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 ───  all  connections  are  open  to  any  gender  unless  specified  otherwise.

wc  pinterest | wc  tag

[ Ⅴ ]  .  .  .  𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘

＋clever  ＋analytical  ＋curious －unsympathetic  －stubborn  －judgmental mbti  :  ESFJ natal  chart  :  ↑  capricorn, ⊙  taurus, ☾  cancer inspired  by  :  gale  weathers ( scream   ),  nancy  wheeler ( stranger  things ),  monica  geller ( friends )

[hungergamesbookclub]

Poll for THG Book Club's First Read!

What book should we read for our first Suzanne Read? Summaries of each book and how it relates to THG under the "read more" after the poll if you need more info to choose.

Summary: In Thomas Hardy's first major literary success, independent and spirited Bathsheba Everdene has come to Weatherbury to take up her position as a farmer on the largest estate in the area. Her bold presence draws three very different suitors: the gentleman-farmer Boldwood, the soldier-seducer Sergeant Troy, and the devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak. Each, in contrasting ways, unsettles her decisions and complicates her life, and tragedy ensues, threatening the stability of the whole community. One of his first works set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex, Hardy's novel of swift passion and slow courtship is imbued with his evocative descriptions of rural life and landscapes, and with unflinching honesty about sexual relationships.

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

How it relates to THG: "Katniss Everdeen owes her last name to Bathsheba Everdene, the lead character in Far From the Madding Crowd. The two are very different, but both struggle with knowing their hearts." Suzanne Collins, 2010

Summary: Coriolanus is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1605 and 1608. The play is based on the life of the legendary Roman leader Caius Marcius Coriolanus.

Coriolanus by William Shakespeare

How it relates to THG: The namesake of Coriolanus Snow (ft. Volumnia)

Frankenstein by Mary Shelly

Summary: Mary Shelley's timeless gothic novel presents the epic battle between man and monster at its greatest literary pitch. In trying to create life, the young student Victor Frankenstein unleashes forces beyond his control, setting into motion a long and tragic chain of events that brings Victor to the very brink of madness. How he tries to destroy his creation, as it destroys everything Victor loves, is a powerful story of love, friendship, scientific hubris, and horror.

How it relates to THG: Quoted in the epigraph of TBOSAS

Spartacus by Howard Fast

Summary: The story of a slave uprising in the ancient Roman Empire.

How it relates to THG: "There’s a basis for the war, historically, in the Hunger Games, which would be the third servile war, which was Spartacus’ war, where you have a man who is a slave who is then turned into a gladiator who broke out of the gladiator school and led a rebellion and then became the face of the war. So there is a historical precedent for that arc for a character.  But I think I needed the freedom to create elements that I wasn’t going to neatly find in history." Suzanne Collins, 2013

Summary: A plane crashes on a desert island. The only survivors are a group of schoolboys. By day, they discover fantastic wildlife and dazzling beaches, learning to survive; at night, they are haunted by nightmares of a primitive beast. Orphaned by society, it isn't long before their innocent childhood games devolve into a savage, murderous hunt …

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

How it relates to THG: "One of my favorite books - I read it every couple of years." Suzanne Collins

[astragreenwoode]

♡Truest Treasure (Adventure Time Petrigrof AU)♡ PT 4/?

(A/N: Part 4. We're getting into heavy angst territory, so be prepared. Sorry to put you guys through heartbreak.

If you are sensitive to themes such as child loss/miscarriage, suicidal ideation, extreme grief, and hospitals, either proceed with caution or feel free to avoid this part altogether. Remember to look out for yourselves.)

♡ My AU where pretty much everything is the same as in canon except Betty is unknowingly pregnant with her and Simon's daughter when she jumps through the portal.

Italics - A/N

Slashed Text - NSFW

Bold Text - Sensitive Topics

A Bump in the Road

♡ When they got to the Emergency Room, the nurses immediately wheeled Betty to an examination room once they saw the trail of blood behind her and Simon. But they needed him to stay behind. They needed help from the hospital security to practically pry them away from each other so they could treat her.

♡ After an hour of waiting when Betty was finally stabilized, Dr. Olson, came out to give Simon the bad news; Betty experienced a late miscarriage. But during their treatment, they had to strap her down to the bed and give her a sedative so she wouldn’t worsen her injuries.

♡ Betty’s situation was time-sensitive. She was in danger of getting an infection, so after updating Simon, Dr. Olson performed a surgical evacuation immediately.

♡ "Princess, we can have another baby. But I can't have another you."

♡ Given Betty’s medical history, a recorded suicide attempt when she was 13 years old, and how she was so distressed that they had to sedate and restrain her, Dr. Olson put her on Suicide Watch, just to be on the safe side.

♡ Up until this point, Simon didn’t know her struggles with her mental health were this severe.

♡ In the meantime, he called Betty’s mother and told her what was happening. She was at the hospital within five minutes.

♡ Alice Grof had trouble warming up to Simon from the beginning. She never liked how he stopped Betty from going on that trip to the Outback. But her daughter was happy, and that’s what mattered the most. And while their relationship wasn’t the warmest, they respected each other. She comforted Simon whilst Betty was still in surgery.

♡ Betty recovers in the hospital for five more days, drained both physically and emotionally. When she first wakes up following the procedure, she’s unresponsive, almost catatonic, and withdrawn from reality to process all the trauma of the whole situation. Simon and Alice make sure she’s never by herself during those five days.

♡ Alice stays with her daughter one day so that Simon can go to their apartment and bring some of Betty’s stuff to the hospital to help her not be as anxious during her stay.

♡ The day before they were ready to go back home, Alice offered to tidy the place up so Betty could recover in a clutter and stress-free environment. She cleaned the blood off their sheets and carpet, made everything neat, stocked their fridge and pantries with food, and made sure their bathroom had the necessary medical supplies to help the healing process. She also hid all items related to their lost baby in a trunk in their hall closet, out of sight, and waiting for whenever Simon and Betty were ready to try again.

♡ When they came back home, they took three weeks off of work so they could mourn their loss together.

♡ Betty returns to taking all her regular antidepressants and antipsychotics. They stabilize her mood and help keep her focused and ‘normal’ when she returns to work, but she’s still numb and withdrawn for a while.

♡ She visits with her mom more frequently, going over to her and her partner Suzanne’s house once a week. The visits help her in her grief.

♡ When Betty started getting her period again, her heart shattered all over again. Simon asked her mother to come over for a few days. 

♡ Proceeding with caution, Simon asks her about what he discovered in the hospital. He wants to understand her past struggles with her mental health; the suicidal ideation in her childhood, the self-harm tendencies, the OCD, the ADHD, the bipolar disorder she inherited from her mother, her past of pain, all of it. He wants to know so he can fully understand how to help her if she spirals again in the future. 

♡ It’s hard for her to open up about that.

♡ Betty avoids intimate and vulnerable situations with Simon for a while. He doesn’t mind at all and is willing to wait as long as she needs. The farthest she’s willing to go is cuddling with him in her underwear. Two months after coming back from the hospital, they graduate to taking showers together again.

♡ At night, Betty still holds Simon’s hand to her stomach as they sleep in bed.

♡ She can still feel their baby kicking from time to time, like experiencing phantom pain after losing a limb.

♡ In an effort to help Betty heal and get back to her old self, Simon surprises her by taking her on a two-week vacation to Ireland; Betty’s dream trip.

♡ A week into the trip, they retire to their suite early after having dinner at the hotel restaurant along with a bottle of wine. And for the first time since their loss, Betty lets Simon all the way in. That night, they unknowingly conceive their future daughter.

♡ The day before they fly back home to Seattle, Simon proposes. Betty says ‘yes.’ And after three months of sitting with their heartbreak, they feel hopeful for what the future might bring them again.

♡ Two months into their engagement, Simon embarks on a solo journey to follow up on a lead for an especially rare artifact.

♡ We all know what happens from here; what was meant as an innocent and playful gesture sparked earth-shattering consequences.

♡ Betty is absolutely petrified by her fiancee’s abrupt personality switch once he puts on the mysterious crown. That wasn't her Simon. So, when a portal to the future opens showing her the fiancee she knew and loved, she doesn’t think twice before she impulsively jumps through a thousand years and into the land of Ooo.

♡ She's blissfully unaware that she didn't jump through that portal alone.

Reblog, follow me, and come back for Part 5!

[mr-nauseam]

The Case of Lonely Mothers p. 2

A study about the "similarities" between Mrs. Plinth and Mrs. Everdeen and their relationships with their respective children

Read only if you are interested in parallel Sejanus/Katniss. Otherwise just don't read it

For Juli (@julietasgf)

.

Remember I'm doing this for fun. I do not believe that such "parallel" between Mrs. Plinth and Mrs. Everdeen is something Suzanne put in the text with intention, I just notice a lot of coincidences in them

First part here

.

IV. The Conclusion

"You cannot fathom how much I've mourned, what thousands of years of grief has done to me"

(Rebecca Sugar)

Sejanus Plinth and Katniss Everdeen are two teenagers, lacking the skills necessary to navigate the world they live in. They survive as best they can, on their own

Why are them by their own if they are so young? Because they had no one

Their fathers, unable to communicate with them and to guide them properly, either because there is a great Incompatibility that prevents them from being on the same channel or something greater, such as death, creates a barrier between them that is impossible to overcome, are not a option

Their mothers would naturally be the other option to consider to be their guides - and in reality it is socially expected that they are the ones in charge of raising them, and not their fathers, with all that implies. But if they have no one, this mean that their mothers are neither an option?

The answer is yes, and we will now explore this further

Let's pick up where we left off: Mrs. Plinth and Mrs. Everdeen are women with previous stories of trauma, who are re-traumatized by an event of great magnitude that forever disrupts their lives (and their relationships with their children)

In Ma's case, it was the loss of home, of her family upon moving to the Capitol that plunged her into an eternal mourning of longing and sadness

For Mrs. Everdeen, it was the loss of the love of her life and the bleak future she saw before her that plunged her into catatonic depression and death mourning

Their pain ends up impacting and significantly altering their family dynamics

In the Plinth's case, Ma has many advantages that Mrs. Everdeen does not. First of all, her traumas do not have such severe effects on her body (catatonic state) and by having Strabo by her side, she has assured economic stability for her and her son, which alleviates many discomforts (they will never go hungry, they will always be warm), in fact, her privileged position within the Capitol saves her son from one of the most distressing and common experiences that parents live in Panem: the reaping ceremony, which represents the very real possibility of losing their children in a dehumanizing and cruel way

However, this does not prevent her depression, as her more fortunate position in certain respects still lacks important pillars for Ma person

Ma is isolated in a very particular way. Outside of her husband and son, she has no one to talk to, not only that, she lacks the ability to be vulnerable with another human being, as the people around her are hostile to her at every turn

While I don't believe Ma has suffered more than a few incidents of discrimination that were overly explicit verbally or physically, the Capitol is still a world of many delicate social rules, guided by microaggressions and a constant passive aggressive attitude, which makes for a very stressful environment, which for someone like Mrs. Plinth who could never adapt to the ways of the Capitol must be as overwhelming and stifling as it was for Sejanus, if not more so

For she had the responsibility of taking care of him, and having to deal with Sejanus' own trauma and xenophobic experiences (he suffering from bullying for example), placed her in a very complex decision to deal with

Which ended up causing her to become unable to handle it properly or ideally: Making her ends up becoming very dependent on Sejanus. He is her reason for staying in this world (and that may not sound so bad but it is a lot of pressure)

She don't do that with intent - in fact I would like to say that will is not something that intervenes in this analysis- but who else does she have?

No friends. No family. No community. No home. And full of emotions (sadness, frustration, homesickness, etc). She also many emotional needs that cannot be satisfied by anyone

I must say. Her relationship with Strabo doesn't seem to be bad but we know he may not be the best person to go to when it comes to her grieving for her home (he had a very strong opinion about this matter). In the text they seem to have talked about it (the mention of Strabo opining that for Sejanus' children the situation will be better), it's just that his comfort is not in tune with her emotions

But she had Sejanus and he suffers in a similar way to Ma. He can understand her and offer her the comfort she needs. They are each other's unconditional support -for Sejanus has no one to be completely vulnerable with either

The problem is that Sejanus was comforting his mother since he was 8 years old

Ma has been Sejanus' mother, she has been able to be. I'm not deny it, she's not in Mrs. Everdeen situation at the end of the day, but I don't think it's such a stretch to say that she has unwittingly forced Sejanus to meet her emotional needs

If we go with this assumption it is not strange to see why Ma Plinth could not teach her son to survive in the cruel world he was born into. For she does not know how to live in it either

Ma navigates the Capitol in the ways of the district. She doesn't fit in, she mismatches. She doesn't know how to make friends. She doesn't know how to stop the scorn of the people she lives with - or the people she left behind.

She doesn't have the tools so she can't pass them on

Mrs. Everdeen is a difficult case, and while her neglect of Katniss - and to a lesser extent of Prim - is undeniable, her circumstances were too harsh to expect her to get through them without a support system

I reiterate here something I already mentioned: willpower has nothing to do with these stories. It's not a question of if they would have wanted to / if they would have tried harder. Plain and simple, circumstances overcame them or at least impossibly - severely limiting their actions.

And this is essential to understand especially when we talk about Mrs. Everdeen. Let's review her context: she lives in District 12 -one of the most fucked districts in all Panem-, she grew up as part of the merchant class so she had certain privileges and then lost them. This influences the kind of lack she is used to face -how she lives it- and also the knowledge she has of how to survive in difficult circumstances -but let's remember that she is still a smart and capable woman, here I'm talking more about the facilities for adaptability

She falls in love and marries a miner from the Seam. The poorest and most oppressed area of D12. A totally new environment for her in which she does not know very well how to manage but she is fine because she has her husband to help her with the process. Her husband who has a high-risk job where it is possible he get injured a lot

Then they have two daughters. Whom she loves and they bring her joy, but in her world there are the hunger games. That monster on the prowl, threatening to take her daughters away from her; to kill them.

And Mrs. Everdeen knows better than anyone the suffering the games cause to the tributes and to their loved ones. Her best friend was chosen in the past, and in the midst of her grief she was forced to do interviews, without being allowed to grieve adequately for the hell that Maysilee lived through and then she perished in the arena

That nightmarish fate was more than a possibility for Katniss and Prim. What probably affected their bond, Mrs. Everdeen could not afford to love them too much without thinking about how quickly they would disappear when they reached the age of 12

There is a short time in her life where Mrs. Everdeen is happy, or as close to it as she can get. Her husband is with her. He comes home, her daughters are small and adorable. Her work as a healer flourishes, and it is a bitter reminder of their cruel reality but nothing impossible to cope with

Until a cave-in in the mines kills Mr. Everdeen. And everything falls apart

The man for she sacrificed everything to be with, her life partner, her support and joy is gone. Now only she is left, trapped in the Seam, and her poverty. Not only that, her daughters are also doomed, the girls -especially Katniss- have their own grief to face

Mrs. Everdeen will have to support them as they suffer unbearable pain, while her own will is shattered. And that is only the least of their worries. How will they live now?

Their budget was already limited for sure, but without the money Mr. Everdeen brought: What will happen to the food, to the clothes they will wear? She now has to support them financially on her own. Also her daughters could one day disappear at the games so Mrs. Everdeen is alone

She has no one who can offer her a helping hand, she gets depressed and her body betrays her. Mrs. Everdeen goes into a catatonic state. It's the only way she can cope with what she's going through

There is no treatment she can receive. There is nothing to be done. If Mrs. Everdeen couldn't take care of herself, how could she expect to take care of her daughters? How could she care Katniss? So she is neglectful of her because there is nothing to be done. No one will come to save her family and Mrs. Everdeen just can't do it

And as we know little Katniss has no choice but to be the one who tries. She doesn't want to die. Her little sister Prim can't die either and neither can her mother -even if she looks dead. So Katniss has to do it -and she does it after an act of kindness; she takes back and uses everything her father taught her, she can't ask for guidance from her mother, so she try to figure out the rest. Or as much as she can because she is still a child

Even if Katniss had no choice but to become the mother of Prim (and this is why I mentioned gender earlier, because while Katniss is inclined to follow typically male molds, she cannot escape the work that is expected of her as a woman)

Which reflects the somewhat strange and tragic cycle that surrounds motherhood and its relationship to powerlessness in the world of Panem, but before we delve deeper, let's conclude the case of Mrs. Everdeen

A woman whose grief forced her daughter to take her rightful place as the provider, and primary caretaker of her family after the death of her husband. Mrs. Everdeen was unable to care for Katniss. In fact she was cared by her, receiving her attentions, unwittingly taking away Katniss childhood and making her take care of her emotional needs and even her physical and mental health

Katniss navigate the world of Panem all by her own -before her games, where she ends up getting a strong support system and also we had other people in D12 giving her certain support later but that's another story

I'd like to end this with the theme of impotence /powerless as a characteristic feature of the motherhood that both characters experience

Mrs. Plinth and Mrs. Everdeen can't overcome their traumas, they have no way of doing so and it impacts their parenting. Both faced heavy and crushing circumstances that prevented them from living a better life. Their world is Panem. A world that slowly kills their children

And there is nothing either can do to change the reality in which they live in any meaningful way; The Capitol. The subjugation of the Districts. The Hunger Games. They are institutions that determine their fatal circumstances, and to be changed, or destroyed takes more than they can do

The truth is that they are just powerless mothers

And there is something so brilliant and tragic that in the end Mrs. Everdeen who has lived with all the disadvantages on her side; gives birth to a daughter capable of making that change in her time and Mrs. Plinth who has lived with all the advantages on her side: gives birth to a son incapable of making that change in his time

.

And BYE

[janes-eyebrows]

Waiting for Stephenie Meyer to announce a new Twilight book now that Suzanne Collins is releasing a new Hunger Games novel just like in 2020 when they both single handedly saved my mental stability

[quietblueriver]

Hit with sudden inspiration, so here's a little Avatrice Buffy AU. Now with a part two.

Now with more that can be found here.

--

It’s a trap.

Of course it is. She knows better than to do this. She has made it as long as she has as a slayer by knowing better than to do this.

It was irresponsible, and, she thinks, as she watches two more demons emerge from behind a shelving unit halfway down the warehouse, their knives glinting in the low light, now she’s going to die.

It won’t be the first time.

She hadn’t known any better, then. Had been overconfident and followed her instincts all the way to the bottom of the pool in the school gymnasium, red swirls dancing in her fading vision as she sank. She’d used the last of her strength to bend her knees and press against the bottom, weak but something, enough to get her high enough to hook an arm over a rung of the ladder before she lost consciousness, gasping for air and finding only water and the taste of iron and chlorine.

She woke up heaving and coughing to the impassive face of Suzanne Superion, who moved Beatrice’s own hand to the gauze she’d applied to the wound on her neck before standing and brushing her hands over the fabric of still perfectly-pleated pants.

A grimace. A murmur: “I just had these dry-cleaned.”

Beatrice pushed herself up from the clammy tiles, the sucking sound of her wet cotton shirt pulling free of the floor unnaturally loud without the cover of whistles and shouting and water displaced by the clumsy strokes of her peers.

She swayed slightly, felt Superion’s critical eyes on her until she stabilized. She turned, then, and Beatrice followed, slowed by blood loss and the particularly awful feeling of wet socks squishing in her wet trainers with every step. Superion did not slow for her, calling out over her shoulder, “This is why you should listen to me.”

She should have listened. To be fair, though, she had seen a vampire carrying a screaming child into the gym. Only two weeks in, she didn’t yet have the instincts to understand that the child was a vampire, too.

Beatrice is not generally particularly kind to herself, but she thinks she made an understandable decision at the time.

Tonight, though, she had merely been reckless. A moment. But she knows better than anyone that that’s all it takes.

She’s backed into a corner now, a dozen vampires and demons congratulating each other and sneering at her as she takes stock. They haven’t attacked her yet, despite their numbers, and they’re excited about something. She’s already heard a ritual mentioned in three different languages. Also, blood.

This makes sense given the symbol chalked into the floor nearby—a resurrection spell, if she had to guess, although she can only get a partial view. Most of it is obscured by the jostling bodies of a vampire—most likely newly turned, if his too-bright eyes and muddy shoes are anything to go by—and a Liliiad demon. His face, like all Lilliad faces, looks a bit like a half-melted candle, and she’s unsettled, as always, by its ability to convey its hatred so clearly through gray, blurred features.

A ritual with the slayer’s blood, then. Another one. Far from the first time they’ve tried something like this, although they’ve finally managed to catch her off guard.

She’s well and truly alone, off the trail of her prescribed patrol path, and she has the stake in her hand, the cross on her neck, and her knives. At least she has her knives.

A figure steps forward, tall and broad and dressed in red robes, his face shielded by his hood. Next to him stands the reason Beatrice entered this warehouse in the first place.

His demeanor now is a stark contrast to what it had been an hour ago, his shaking hands and disheveled hair and breaking voice.

“They slipped away,” he’d said. “The same group that got Shannon. Three of them.”

She hadn’t asked any questions. A rookie mistake, letting emotion guide her.

She thinks of the night she found Shannon on the library floor, the crack in Superion’s ever-present armor as she recognized her friend’s broken body. She thinks, very seriously, about using one of her knives to kill him, but she’s not ready to escalate, and he’s not worth wasting whatever chance she might have.

And, of course, she knows that whatever happens here, Superion will figure him out and he will pay. For Shannon, and, maybe, for her.

“Beatrice.”

She says nothing, and Vincent sighs.

“Very well.” His eyes turn to the face of the robed figure. “I’m going to the tomb. You know what to do.”

He steps back through the circle of demons and walks toward the exit. She hears the groan of one of the warehouse doors opening as the robed figure takes another step toward her.

Her fingers move for a moment to the scar on her neck and then she breathes, steady, lets her senses expand, shifts her stance.

She is the slayer. She will not go down easily.

And she doesn’t. The person or demon or creature coming toward her is slow, fumbles when she dodges, and she has somehow caught the rest of them off guard. Two quick stakes and three knives gone and she’s opening up the circle, taking full advantage of their characteristic lack of organization.

Something takes out her knee and she collapses, breath taken out of her when she hits the floor. A shadow, and a boot comes down on her knee with a sickening crunch. She cries out and closes her eyes, only for a moment, before catching herself.

She opens them to the face of the robed figure, hood now pushed back to reveal the raised planes of his vampire form, bright blonde hair and blue eyes and a predatory gaze. He rests his boot on her chest as she tries to think through the pain, moving from thoughts of escape to thoughts of sabotage. They may kill her but she’ll be damned if they use her blood to raise whatever godforsaken creature brought them all here.

“If we didn’t need all of your blood to raise our Lord, little girl, I would rip your throat open right now and have a little taste. I’ve heard slayer blood brings a real high.”

She has had more demonic creatures than she can count tell her that they’d love to rip her throat open. It’s nothing new. But the feeling of satisfaction that comes over her at his words is—he’s given her the information she needs.

She can’t run. Slayers heal quickly, but not that quickly.

But she has a knife left, and he’ll have to carry her or drag her. Plenty of time for her to bleed before he can get her to the symbol. An easy cut to the brachial artery. Her clothes are dark, and she can be quiet. He won’t realize until it’s too late.

The knife is in her boot, but when he moves to drag her, she can…

Before she can finish the thought, there’s an explosion at the symbol, heat from a raging fire reaching Beatrice’s face, and she watches as the vampire above her turns his face to the commotion. In the same moment, a stake lodges itself in his chest, and she hears his final scream of rage and confusion as the boot on her chest crumbles to ash.

A new figure looms. Small. Familiar. And Beatrice feels a new kind of pain as she’s offered a hand and a crooked smile.

“Sup, Bea? Sorry I’m late to the party.”

[dailyanarchistposts]

A History of Money

Davies, Glyn. A History of Money: From Ancient Times to the Present Day [1994]. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2003, third revised edition, 720 pages. This is an esteemed, comprehensive, scholarly, general history.

The Nature of Money

Ingham, Geoffrey. The Nature of Money. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2004, 254 pages.

Next. Ingham (together with a small group of economists clustered mostly at the University of Missouri in Kansas City) has been revolutionizing the study of money. They have proved that money did not originate from barter, but was instead invented by states, as a means of collecting taxes. This casts an entirely new light on the prospects of getting rid of money: if you get rid of states you might be able to get rid of money too (although they do not draw this conclusion themselves; they argue that since money reflects the power relations in the society, if you equalize the power, money would not be a problem -- to which I raise a very skeptical eye.) This book presents an excellent overview of the debate, as well as being a good introduction to various theories of money.

This new theory of money, the State/Credit theory, is also summarized in:

Wray, L. Randall. Understanding Money: The Key to Full Employment and Price Stability. Northampton, Massachusetts: Edward Elgar Publishing,1998, 198 pages.

Wray, L. Randall. Credit and State Theories of Money: The Contributions of A. Mitchell Innes. Northampton, Massachusetts: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2004, 288 pages.

Knapp, George Friedrich. The State Theory of Money [1905]. San Diego: Simon Publications, 2003 (A reprint of the 1924 translation and abridgement of the 4th German edition of 1923), 306 pages.

Other references on money:

Marx, Karl. "Money," Chapter One, pages 115-238 in the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. Middlesex, England: Penguin/Pelican, 1973, 898 pages.

De Brunhoff, Suzanne. Marx on Money. New York: Urizen Books, 1976.

Bonefeld, Werner, and John Holloway. Global Capital, National State, and the Politics of Money. London: Macmillan Press, 1995, 232 pages.

Hutchinson, Francis, Mary Mellor, and Wendy Olsen, The Politics of Money: Towards Sustainability and Economic Democracy. London: Pluto Press, 2002, 248 pages. This book has an extensive bibliography on money, pages 230-241.

Smithin, John, editor. What Is Money? New York: Routledge, 2000, 276 pages. This is a collection of essays which explores various theories of money.

Arthus, Christopher. “The Concept of Money,” Radical Philosophy, No. 134, Nov/Dec 2005. Abstract online at: <http://www.radicalphilosophy.com/print.asp?editorial_id=19782>

Hess, Moses. “The Essence of Money,” [1845], online at:

<http://www2.cddc.vt.edu/marxists/archive/hess/1845/essence-money.htm>.

Simmel, Georg. The Philosophy of Money [1907]. London: Routledge & Kegal Paul, 1978, 512 pages.

Money and Finance in Capitalism

Arrighi, Giovanni. The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power, and the Origins of Our Times [1994]. London: Verso, 2010, updated edition, 416 pages. This is an outstanding, scholarly account of the role of money during the past five hundred years of capitalism. It covers the four great cycles of capital accumulation, those based in Genoa, Amsterdam, London, and New York City. Each cycle has two phases: the first based on real production, and the second on financial speculation. This is an absolutely essential read.

Chossudovsky, Michel. The Globalisation of Poverty and the New World Order: Impacts of IMF and World Bank Reforms [1997]. Pincourt, Quebec: Global Research, 2003, second expanded edition, 346 pages. This is a thorough study of how the policies of the IMF and World Bank impoverish the world in order to enrich the capitalist ruling class.

Marazzi, Christian. The Violence of Financial Capitalism. Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2011, 136 pages.

Toussaint, Eric. The World Bank: A Critical Primer. London: Pluto Press, 2008, 314 pages.

Payer, Cherl. The World Bank: A Critical Analysis. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1982, 414 pages.

Foster, John Bellamy, and Fred Magdoff. The Great Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences. New York: Monthly Review Press, 2009, 160 pages.

Hudson, Michael. Super Imperialism: The Origin and Fundamentals of U.S. World Dominance [1972]. London: Pluto Press, 2003, second edition, 425 pages.

Harvey, David. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, 247 pages.

Bonefeld, Walter, and John Holloway, editors. Global Capital, National State, and the Politics of Money. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995, 232 pages.

MacEwan, Arthur. Debt and Disorder: International Economic Instability and U.S. Imperial Decline. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1990, 147 pages.

Bello, Walden, with Shea Cunningham and Bill Rau. Dark Victory: The United States, Structural Adjustment, and Global Poverty. London: Pluto Press (with Food First!), 1994, 148 pages.

Peet, Richard. Unholy Trinity: The IMF, World Bank, and WTO. London: Zed Books, 2003, 250 pages.

Hilferding, Rudolf. Finance Capital: A Study of the Latest Phase of Capitalist Development [1910]. New York: Routledge, 1981, 466 pages.

Debt

The Debt Resistors' Operations Manual. By Strike Debt / Occupy Wall Street, with Common Notions. September 2012, 122 pages.

Graeber, David. Debt: The First 5,000 Years. Brooklyn: Melville House, 2011, 534 pages.

Lazzarato, Maurizio. The Making of Indebted Man: An Essay on the Neoliberal Condition. Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2012, 199 pages.

Hudson, Michael. The Bubble and Beyond: Fictitious Capital, Debt Deflation, and Global Crisis. Dresden: Islet-Verlag, 2012, 481 pages.

Hudson, Michael. Finance Capitalism and Its Discontents: Interviews and Speeches, 2003-2013. Dresden: Islet-Verlag, 2012, 274 pages.

Payer, Cheryl. The Debt Trap: The International Monetary Fund and the Third World. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1974, 251 pages.

George, Susan. A Fate Worse Than Debt: The World Financial Crisis and the Poor. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990, revised and updated, 300 pages. A Food First book.

Danaher, Kevin, editor. 50 Years Is Enough: The Case Against the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Boston: South End Press, 1994, 207 pages.

Hudson, Michael, editor. Debt and Economic Renewal in the Ancient Near East. For references to many more interesting articles on money, go to Hudson’s web site at:

[http://www.michael-hudson.com/biography.html]

Collinge, Alan Michael. The Student Loan Scam: The Most Oppressive Debt in U.S. History – and How We Can Fight Back. Boston: Beacon Press, 2009, 167 pages.

GATT-Fly, Debt Bondage or Self-Reliance: A Popular Perspective on the Global Debt Crisis. Toronto: 1985, 84 pages (letter-sized).

Usury

Kenneth Couesbouc, “A Short History of Lending and Borrowing Money, It’s a Gas,” online at Counterpunch, September 21, 2007.

Local Currencies

There is a lot of action now around local or alternative currencies. Here are several web sites dealing with this, most of which list other resources and references. Community Currencies. online at: [http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/cc/]. Local Currency Resources, online at: [http://yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=894]. Reinventing Money. established by Thomas H. Greco. [http://reinventingmoney.com]. Complementary Community Currency Systems and Local Exchange Networks. Online at: [http://www.transaction.net/money/community/index.html]. Local and Interest-Free Currencies, Social Credit, and Microcredit. Online at: [http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/local]

Douthwaite, Richard. Short Circuit: Strengthening Local Economies for Security in an Unstable World. Devon, England: Green Books, 1996, 386 pages. This is probably the most comprehensive overview.

Greco, Jr., Thomas H. Money: Understanding and Creating Alternatives to Legal Tender. Vermont: Chelsea Green, 2001, 295 pages.

Boyle, David. Funny Money: In Search for Alternative Cash. London: HarperCollins, 1999, 228 pages.

Dobson, Ross V.G. Bringing the Economy Home from the Market. Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1993, 235 pages. This is mostly about the Letsystem.

Meeker-Lowry, Susan. "The Potential of Local Currency," Z-Magazine, July/Aug, 1995, pp. 16-23.

Witt, Susan. “Printing Money, Making Change. The Promise of Local Currencies.” Online at: [http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/cc/promiseOfLC.html]

Cohen-Mitchell, Tim. “Community Currencies at the Crossroads.” Online at:

[http://www.newvillage.net/2commcurrencies.html]

Glover, Paul. “Grassroots Economics.” Online at: [http://context.org/ICLIB/IC41/Glover.htm]

Gifts

Graeber, David. Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value. New York: Palgrave, 2001, 337 pages.

For those who are interested in establishing an anarchist world without money, this is a good place to begin. Graeber tackles the question of the how humans assign value to things (and where prices come from and what are they based on), relying on his extensive knowledge of the anthropological literature to help answer it. A key part of the book is his long chapter on “Marcel Mauss Revisited” (the author of The Gift). Thus the book is directly relevant to the current revival of interest in the so-called "gift economy." It is an extended examination of the “value” question in non-market situations.

Mauss, Marcel. The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies [1950]. New York: Norton, 1990, 164 pages.

A lot of work is now being done on the idea of a gift economy. Here are some references:

Graeber, David. “Give It Away,” online at:

[http://www.freewords.org/graeber.html]

This essay also includes an account of the group formed in France, of which Graeber is a member, to build off the theories in Marcel Mauss’ The Gift.

Call, Lewis. “Anarchistic Gift Economies in Contemporary Science Fiction,” Anarchist Studies, Vol. 10, No. 2, 2003

Leahy, Terry. “Sociological Utopias and Social Transformation: Permaculture and the Gift Economy,” online at:

[http://www.octapod.org/gifteconomy/content/utopias.html]

See also the links on his web site at:

[http://www.octapod.org/gifteconomy/left.htm[

Brouillet, Carol. “Reinventing Money, Restoring the Earth, Reweaving the Web of Life,” online at:

[http://www.womenswork.org/articles/reinventing.html]

Cheal, David J. Gift Economy. 1988

Vaughan, Genevieve. For-Giving: A Feminist Criticism of Exchange. 1997

Titmuss, Richard M. The Gift Relationship: From Human Blood to Social Policy. New York: Pantheon, 1971, 339 pages.

A Moneyless Society

Nelson, Anitra, and Frans Timmerman. Life Without Money: Building Fair and Sustainable Economies. London: Pluto Press, 2011, 256 pages.

“A World Without Money,” Socialist Standard, July 1979. Editorial Committee.

Rubel, Maximilien, and John Crump, editors, Non-Market Socialism in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1987, 187 pages.) "In the nineteenth century, socialists as different as Marx and Kropotkin were agreed that socialism means a marketless, moneyless, wageless, classless, stateless world society. Subsequently this vision of non-market socialism has been developed by currents such as the Anarcho-Communists, Impossibilists, Council Communists, Bordigists, and Situationists." (from the publisher). Included are essays by Adam Buick, Stephen Coleman, Alain Pengam, and Mark Shipway, which ferret out this thin thread of revolutionary thought. There is a postscript describing other resources for each of the five currents discussed, as well as a four-page bibliography. This is a very important book.

Miscellaneous Works

Galbraith, John Kenneth. Money: Whence It Came, Where it Went. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1975, 324 pages.

Polanyi, Karl, Conrad M. Arensberg, and Harry W. Pearson, editors. Trade and Market in Early Empires: Economies in History and Theory. Glencoe, Illinois: Free Press, 1957, 382 pages.

Henwood, Doug. Wall Street: How It Works and For Whom. London: Verso, 1997, 372 pages.

Anarchist Economics Series, compiled by Jon Bekken. List of articles published in the Libertarian Labor Review (which became the Anarcho-Syndicalist Review), with additional references, plus introductory remarks. Online at:

[http://www.syndicalist.org/theory/anarchist_economics.shtml]

Also relevant is the long standing debate over the labor theory of value. The basic question of course is how we are to determine the value of something, in comparison to something else, to serve as a basis for exchange? Or is determining value even necessary for exchange? What about gifts and mutual aid? To begin with, see:

Rubin, I.I. Essays on Marx's Theory of Value [1928]. Detroit: Black and Red, 1972, 275 pages.

Meek, Ronald. Studies in the Labor Theory of Value. New York: International Publishers, 1956, 310 pages.

McNally, David. Against the Market: Political Economy, Market Socialism, and the Marxist Critique. London: Verso, 1993, 262 pages.

This is a brilliant reconstruction of the decades-long dispute between Marx and Proudhon over the market. Marx rejected the market, McNally claims, while Proudhon didn’t. This is an insightful book, and is very helpful in getting a handle on so-called market socialism, of which Proudhon's theories were the first example, McNally claims.

Caffentzis, George. “The Power of Money: Debt and Enclosure,” online at the Commoner, No. 7, Spring/Summer 2003 [http://www.thecommoner.org]. Originally published in Altreeragioni: Saggi e documenti 4, 1995, 23-28. Reprinted in his book, In Letters of Blood and Fire: Work, Machines, and the Crisis of Capitalism, pages 236-240. Oakland: PM Press, 2013, 289 pages.

Birrell, Neil. “Some Notes for an Anarchist Theory of Trade,” The Raven, No. 31, pp. 247-261. Online in Spunk Archive at:

[http://www.spunk.org/texts/pubs/freedom/raven/sp001755.html]

Two books building on the ideas of Henry George are:

Michael Hudson, et.al., A Philosophy for a Fair Society. 1994. And

J.W. Smith, Money. A Mirror of the Economy. 2006

Life Beyond the Market. Special issue of Greenpepper Magazine, out of Amsterdam. See the web site at:

[www.greenpeppermagazine.org]

Bohannan, Paul, and George Dalton, editors. Markets in Africa: Eight Subsistence Economies in Transition. New York: Doubleday,1965, 372 pages.

Sahlins, Marshall. Stone Age Economics. Chicago, Aldine Publishing, 1972, 348 pages.

Hacker, Andrew. Money: Who Has How Much and Why. New York: Scribner, 1997, 254 pages.

Caffentzis, George. Clipped Coins, Abused Words, and Civil Government: John Locke's Philosophy of Money. Brooklyn: Autonomedia, 1989, 246 pages.

McMurtry, John. Value Wars: The Global Market versus the Life Economy. London: Pluto Press, 2002, 277 pages.

Dodd, Nigel. The Sociology of Money: Economics, Reason, and Contemporary Society. New York: Continuum, 1994, 211 pages.

Mandel, Ernest. Power and Money: A Marxist Theory of Bureaucracy. London: Verso, 1992, 252 pages.

Perlo, Victor. The Empire of High Finance. New York: International Publishers, 1957, 351 pages.

Greider, William. Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987, 798 pages.

Douthwaite, Richard. The Ecology of Money. Devon: Green Books, 1999, 78 pages.

[summerstrash]

one thing I'm mad about vis a vis the krakoan era is the fact that it only remains implicit that moira's deadly genesis team were, in hindsight, a sort of proto-Five focused around the creation of a mutant state prior to having Krakoa itself on the board.

Like,

proteus was always going to be in her back pocket, trapped as he was. he's the only one to make it to the actual Five, in part because he was never a part of the initial team-building with the others. he's a reality warper and energy vampire, and if I'm not mistaken, omega-level as well.

petra is a geomorph who can generate diamonds with her powers; prior to the entry of krakoa and its flowers into the plan, she could've been absolutely pivotal to the physical and economic stability of a mutant state.

sway is a time manipulator who can replay things she has witnessed. she would be in the role of eva bell, if resurrection was on the table, and/or she could serve as an "objective" observer in a justice or surveillance system.

darwin is evolution itself; his powers appear to have no upper bound, though he is not "officially" classified as an omega-level mutant. I believe he would be a primarily political agent, as a symbol of the nation, given that he is a visible mutant who cannot be killed, but I also believe that his survival powers could perhaps be pushed, maybe with proteus or gabriel in a circuit with him, to create life.

vulcan is an omega level energy blaster with a deep wellspring of rage directed at the shi'ar empire, AND he's the lost summers brother. aware as Moira would likely have been of this, she would have seen the purpose of that blood tie between her team and charles' — the X-Men would have been less likely to cross her team if it holds a member of the summers family.

I also believe that Moira was planning from the beginning to hedge her bets — and this team is perfect for that, too, given that four of them would always be primarily loyal to her, the mother figure who pulled them from the gutters of grief, oppression, poverty, and self-loathing and gave them a new family.

a circuit between these five mutants might be just as potent at terraforming as the Twelve were — Gabriel providing the raw energetic reactions you'd find at the dawn of spacetime, the star at the center of the circuit, Petra giving it physical form and stability and blessing it with untold physical wealth and elemental resources, Suzanne giving it the time it needs to grow, and Proteus and/or Darwin giving it life.

imagine the devotion a populace might give the beings that created their home out of nothing. Imagine, in turn, the loyalty they'd pay to their dear mother.

and Moira, even, familiar as she is with the narrative of the history of mutantkind, would likely have been planning for that, too — by withholding her son from the others at first, she creates a divide that will make it psychologically easier for the rest of the team to sacrifice him for the cause, if he cannot be brought to heel, or if he threatens her all-important life. the tragedy of mutant x is a narrative you can build sainthood or demonization around, and countries and communities need their foundational myths, don't they?

I think it's a devilishly elegant plan, on her part, to find mutants who need her, mutants who can't clean up as well for the cameras or the judgment of a bigoted america as charles' beautiful lily-white teenagers do, and turn them into her own personal nation-building engine.

I also wonder deeply about the Destiny of it all — is sway on the team because, as a time-manipulator, she could move directly against the prophecies of Irene Adler in a way the others can't?

At what point does Moira choose to fully betray the cause? Is it maybe at the moment that her carefully-laid plans and carefully-chosen teenagers are torn out from under her? Did she, in her way, truly love them, like Charles, for all his foibles, loved his original five X-Men?

I don't think I'll ever know for sure, and it deeply rankles at me that it's so.

[redstringraven]

an excruciatingly long ramble about the '03 turtles and the enneagram 🐢 pt1

i’ve been working on this ‘project’ on/off for a year, and i need to get it out of my system. this is me posting the first part to force myself to stop fidgeting and hit the ground running.

i love the enneagram. i think it’s a useful tool not only for self-growth but also for character-writing and understanding. since 'typing' the boys, i've referred back to this tool while writing them or rewatching the series, and it's infuriating how much sense certain things start to make. to me, anyway!

as a heads up? this is going to be a big analysis over a series of posts. i have a lot to say fldjsfkl (i'm so sorry). i will try to keep it organized and understandable.

consider this the introductory post! posts will be linked below as i finish them. [ raph ], [ leo ], [ don ], [ mikey ]

some small disclaimers before we get started:

this is concerning the 2k3 incarnations of the boys only, and seasons 1-4 are given the most weight. 

i don’t take “”birth order”” into consideration. no one--not even them--knows the order they were born/hatched in. i won’t be referring to leo as ‘the oldest child’ nor mikey as ‘the youngest’, etc. when it comes to ‘filling a role’, sure, they do that just fine, but i tend to avoid referring to them in an actual birth order or approaching them from a birth order mindset. they step into roles rather than there being an established order. the 03 boys will frequently ‘switch roles’ depending on their circumstances and company.

these are also, obviously, my own thoughts/observations, and i’m not any sort of professional. I’ve just done reading and research and thinking. whether you agree or not is up to you, i’m not your mom, go--do whatever you want, it’s fine it’s good, i don’t care, blah blah blah, etc.

OKAY. an introduction and briefing:

we’ll start with some ground-work since the enneagram seems to be unfamiliar territory to a lot of folks i’ve spoken to. feel free to skip over the next two paragraphs if you’re already in the know. i’m not going to spend too long on it, but i feel like i need to spend some time or everything else that follows might get muddy.

while there were a few books i read in preparation for this, it was careless and neglectful of me not to mention the two i referenced and heavily pulled from in the more enneagram-focused sections of this project (the parts where the enneagram itself is explained rather than how it applies to the turtles) to aid in creating a baseline. i went into this excited to analyze and discuss the turtles specifically, but i should have treated both the sources and my own posting with more respect. i apologize for that massive oversight. i feel pretty damn stupid since i usually consider myself good at that sort of thing, but i'll continue trying to do better! the two books i referred from were:

the wisdom of the enneagram by don richard riso & russ hudson

the road back to you by ian morgan cron & suzanne stabile

and i recommend them if you have any interest in exploring the enneagram further!

the enneagram is a tool used to develop self-knowledge, self-understanding, and to grow beyond self-defeating aspects of our personalities, as well as improve the relationships with those around us and to grow in compassion.

one of my books uses colors to illustrate how the nine enneagram types work: there are an infinite number of variations of the color ‘red’, but they are all still variations of the same hue. similarly, there are an infinite number of ways a person may express their enneagram type. another thing to keep in mind: your number is not determined by how you behave, moreso why you behave. It’s less reliant on traits and focuses more on the motivation that drives you.

i also feel it’d be a breach in etiquette if i didn't say the enneagram should be used to type yourself, not others. these are fictional characters; please don’t go trying to type the people around you. don’t use it to justify your own questionable behavior, and please don't feel the need to adopt a more rigid personality if you see yourself in a type. again: this is a tool, not a rule book.

if you want my opinions immediately, and without further exploration or analysis, here they are:

Raph is an 8 and has a 7 wing Leo is a 1 and has a 2 wing Don is a 5 and has a 4 wing Mikey is a 7 and has a 6 wing

but if you want more details (including what the heck a ‘wing’ is), come along with me while i do some giant ass posts on the boys and how they align with their core numbers.

i'm especially excited to talk about "City at War" from the perspectives of an 8 and a 1, how mikey is a complicated combination of a lotta moving parts and almost stupidly self-aware, as well as "Same as it Never Was" and don's 5 and the fact this boy never talks about his goddamn horrors. like i warned: these are gonna be quite lengthy, but i’ll be breaking it up as neatly and in the most digestible way possible. as well as keep the meme-ing to a minimum. …but i make no promises.

stay tuned. i have an order i'm going in, and raph's up first.

[alwaysspeakshermind]

Who was the worst in The Hunger Games, snow or coin?

Why?

Thank you. @curiousnonny

Oh, man.

I have a *lot* of feelings on this particular subject (one of my favorite things about THG trilogy is that it places in the antagonist role two good examples of my most loathed types of villains: politicians kidding but not really), so thanks for the ask!

Coin:

While I personally despise her subtle, lay-low/don't-strike-until-you-see-the-whites-of-their-eyes approach, I respect her commitment to winning, and I love that she was the one who got to unseat Snow.

That being said...I can't forgive her for the win-at-all-costs mindset that led her to use some of the most morally-reprehensible tactics I can think of when it comes to fighting (torturing citizens, trying to send a possible political rival to their death, sending the family member of said possible rival to an all but certain doom simply to eliminate the rival's will to live, treating The Other Side's children as expendable, etc.). I think she represents one of the most dangerous types of villains you see (both in fiction and in real life) because she presents herself as the sane, moderate, People's Champion type of leader who stands in opposition to oppression and brutality, but the regime she presents is simply severe and restrictive in different ways she's not advertising, and she is every bit as willing to sit back and watch people die as long as they are not her people...also, she truly doesn't care who she steps on, kicks aside, or ruins in her (quiet) quest for power.

[I also have this theory that she's named Coin because she and Snow have this two-sides-to-the-same-coin duality and we're meant to understand that while she's coming at things from a different angle than Snow, she has the same hunger for power and ruthless desire to maintain stability no matter the human cost.]

Snow:

[Another quick side note: I am a huge proponent of TBOSAS. It's my favorite villain origin story (Marissa Meyer's Fairest is probably the only other book that comes close for me), and I personally think it's Suzanne's Collins' best work and everyone should read it because it shows the fine line/slippery slope between a mindset of understandable self-preservation and the sort of arrogance-driven inhumanity that leads people into committing atrocities against each other or standing back and allowing the atrocities to happen. I will literally never NOT recommend this book but, that being said, I'm not going to reference Snow's actions in this book as they occur outside the realm of THG trilogy.]

While I allow a grudging respect for his logic, strategic efficiency, and commitment to being straightforward/open with Katniss about his dislike for her, I hate Snow's cruelty with a burning passion, and his utter contempt for people he deems "lesser" makes my blood absolutely boil. Yes, pragmatism is a thing. Yes, it is difficult being a leader. Yes, leaders do sometimes face a choice between saving the lives of many at the cost of a few.

But the thing about Snow is that he is simply intent on maintaining power whatever the (human) cost and to me, that crosses a line. No, he isn't the creator of the Games, but he does hold the power to end them. Does he end them? No. Instead, he not only chooses to keep them going, but deliberately finds ways to change the rules in his own favor, thus making an already-unfair, practically hopeless situation that much more unfair and hopeless. To intimidate the districts/instill fear in all citizens outside the Capitol, he makes sure they remember that they are only allowed to exist because of the Capitol's mercy, and that if they want to be allowed to keep that existence, they will have to abide by the Capitol's terms. Sending children into the Games as a form of punishment would be barbaric enough if it were just after the districts' uprising but, as we know from the books, that's not even the case...the children who are being killed in the games are the descendants of the original rebel districts, so forcing them to pay for the supposed sins of their grandparents/possible great-grandparents is beyond evil.

Also, there's this other thing his actions ultimately engineer/shape, and that's the twisted Capitol reality. Like all smart-but-evil dictators, he doesn't just rely on the weeding out of his enemies/the intimidation of the group he has declared "lesser." He also uses the Capitol citizens and their (very natural, very human) desire for peace and prosperity to create allies for himself by reinforcing this idea of Us vs Them, by drawing a distinction between Capitol children (precious, must be protected at all costs) and District children (expendable, animalistic, Other™ ). It's not a new tactic; it's one all kinds of groups/armies/organizations/governments use to engender hate and distrust, but it's a highly effective one in a world like the Capitol, where everyday life is so shiny and fun and distracting that it's easy for people to detach themselves from the reality that they're watching 24 children murder each other every year. And the thing about that, even if the Capitol citizens don't know it (or pretend not to know it), is that Snow encouraging them to celebrate the Games and view the districts as less than human is also costing the Capitol citizens their humanity in return (aka, panem et circenses, where you shelve or hand over your morality in exchange for food/comfort/entertainment etc.). So, altogether, while Snow is not actively getting his hands dirty by killing people himself (excluding those poison deaths, possibly), he is routinely arranging the murders of innocents, recruiting and corrupting (or destroying) everyone he possibly can, and he's doing it all in the name of peace.

All of those things combined pretty much enrages me, so ultimately, my opinion boils down to this:

Both Coin and Snow are effective leaders and terrible people whose desire for power and control push them into crossing lines that should not be crossed. But out of the two, Snow is the worst.

[enneagram-reblogs]

Intro to Movement Points. From NineTypesCo by Steph Barron Hall.

The Movement Points refer to the arrows between the Enneagram numbers. These are commonly represented by the lines that connect each type. Each Enneagram type has a “Growth” or “Security” arrow and a “Stress” arrow. Each type can tap into both positive and negative aspects of each movement point. Today we’ll focus on the positive and negative aspects of stress as well as the positive aspect of the security arrow. These differ from the levels of development (healthy, average, unhealthy) in that those tend to be more seasonal and these are generally more situational. Sometimes people who have experienced trauma live in their stress number for an extended period of time. It is possible that in the current crisis you’re finding yourself in your stress number more than usual, and that’s okay. If you’re unhealthy in your core type (or you haven’t done a lot of self-work yet), you’re more likely to tap into the negative aspects of your stress number. If this is true of you, observe without judgment and stay curious about how you can grow so that you can find healthier aspects of your personality. Enneagram teacher Suzanne Stabile says we can’t protect ourselves without our stress number, and I agree! Pay special attention to the positive aspect of your stress number - that’s something we all need to work on tapping into.

For more information, head to https://ninetypes.co/blog/enneagram-movement-points

[icbiwf]

It's Reaping Day! May the odds be ever in your favor.

Do you think it’s significant that the Reaping is on USA's Independence Day? Why do you think Suzanne Collins choose this date?

Do you think Reaping of 74th Hunger Games is rigged? Yes/No? Why?

If the Reaping could be rigged. Who do you think participate in this process?

Thank you.

@curiousthg

Oh boy @curiousthg this is just asking for all my spiciest takes. Buckle up.

Now, I haven't read TBOSAS, so take all of this with that grain of salt, but I kind of hate that Reaping Day is July 4. It's just a little too cutesy of a reference for me. Like, if the first Hunger Games were taking place in like the year 2050 and the cartoonishly evil government made Reaping Day July 4 that would be one thing, but THG takes place far, far, far into the future. After an environmental collapse that led to a societal collapse that led to a population collapse. Or maybe an environmental collapse that led to a population collapse that led to a societal collapse? Whatever, that detail isn't super important right now.

There was a collapse of nearly everything - governments broke down, social systems broke down, wars were fought over the little that was left to fight over. Eventually things stabilized, and then eventually something new rose from the ashes. And then that status quo existed for a while before the Dark Days rebellion. That doesn't all happen in a decade or two, that takes hundreds of years. When Katniss recounts the history of Panem she refers to the land as "a place that was once called North America." The United States isn't even a memory for her. And yet the date of July 4 is still important enough that they made it the new Reaping Day? I'm sorry, that's a flying snowman moment for me. It's like the book is breaking the fourth wall and winking at the audience.

Anyway, enough of me insulting a detail in a book I haven't read, let's move on to the part where I insult my fellow fans! "The 74th Reaping was rigged" is one of the worst fan theories I've ever encountered. Seriously, "Katniss should have become the new president of Panem at the end of MJ" is a better idea. In fact, "The Reaping for District 12 in the 74th Games was rigged" placed second on the recent poll of terrible THG takes, beaten only by "Katniss isn't really in love with Peeta, she settles for him after the war." So I guess I'm not the only one who thinks this is a terrible theory.

We're supposed to believe that the rebellion was powerful enough to rig the reaping, but weak enough that they still needed a figurehead before they moved against Snow? And as their figurehead they pick a girl of no consequence from District 12? Because the rebel leadership in the Capitol and District 13 are aware of a particular girl of no consequence from District 12? And even then they don't rig the reaping for her, they rig it for her sister? When Katniss herself says people don't volunteer for their siblings? Do they also rig the Games, to make sure she survives? (When they couldn't even successfully protect Peeta in the 75th Games even with the help of the Head Gamemaker and half a dozen rebel operatives inside the arena.) Do they also somehow force her to treat Rue and Peeta the way she does, the things that actually make her stand out to the audience?

The whole point is that Katniss isn't special. We get to know three people from the Seam - Katniss, Gale, and Haymitch. All three come from single-parent homes, having only their mothers. All three have younger siblings they take care of. Katniss isn't special.

Katniss meets Gale in the woods, because Gale is already out there. Gale learned survival skills beyond the fence from his father, just like Katniss learned from hers. Katniss isn't special. Unusual, but hardly unique.

What makes Katniss special is what she does after the Reaping - starting when she volunteers. How she takes care of Rue after she dies, how she takes care of Peeta after the rule change, the way she forces the Gamemakers to let them both live at the end - those are the things that make her special, and none of them were known to anyone before the Reaping, not even to Katniss herself. And even after, the people in charge of the rebellion - Plutarch and Coin - still didn't understand what made her special. They still treated her like a chess piece they could use however they wanted, when the thing that made her stand out was when she acted against authority. They still put her in a studio with fake smoke effects when the thing that endeared her to the public was how she instinctually reacted in the middle of things.

These people who even in the middle of Book 3 still didn't understand her appeal supposedly singled her out as important before Book 1? These people who never understood how she reacted to things, right up to the very end when she killed the wrong President, supposedly knew her reactions well enough that they didn't even reap her directly and trusted her to wind up in the Games anyway?

No, that's ridiculous, the very idea is absurd. "Peeta made up the crush and was just using Katniss to survive" is a more coherent theory. "The toastbabies were actually Gale's" is a more coherent theory. "Katniss's father was rebel operative and abandoned his family to starvation as part of a rebel plan and was secretly living in Thirteen the whole time" is a more coherent theory. Actually, now that I think of it, that last one is often part of the "rigged the Reaping" theory.

The 74th Reaping was not rigged. Katniss is not the super special Chosen One who was selected to be the savior of Panem. She's just a girl who was too compassionate and too stubborn for her own good, who was used and exploited by nearly every adult in her life, and wound up paying an enormous price for those things. There are 10,000 other stories about people who have A Destiny and must become The Savior. THG is a story about people making choices.

[brntout]

❝𝙸𝙵  𝙸𝙼  𝚁𝙸𝙶𝙷𝚃  𝙰𝙱𝙾𝚄𝚃  𝚃𝙷𝙸𝚂,  𝙸  𝙲𝙾𝚄𝙻𝙳  𝚂𝙰𝚅𝙴  𝙰  𝙼𝙰𝙽'𝚂  𝙻𝙸𝙵𝙴.  𝙳𝙾  𝚈𝙾𝚄  𝙷𝙰𝚅𝙴  𝙰𝙽𝚈  𝙸𝙳𝙴𝙰  𝚆𝙷𝙰𝚃  𝚃𝙷𝙰𝚃  𝚆𝙾𝚄𝙻𝙳  𝙳𝙾  𝚃𝙾  𝙼𝚈  𝙱𝙾𝙾𝙺  𝚂𝙰𝙻𝙴𝚂?❞

// (  destiny  ryan  .  non-binary.  she/they  )  . ⸻ KENNEDY  STUART  ,  a twenty eight year  old,  has  survived  another  day  in red  creek where  they  have  lived  for eighteen  years and  has  been  back  a  couple  of  months . THE  PRODIGY  is   known   for   being ambitious and calculative and  is  often  associated  with murmured  self-affirmations,  a  creeping  curiosity,  doing  whatever  it  takes  to  exceed  expectations,  picture  perfect  smiles,  pristine  trophies  on  full  display .  in   a   small   town   where   they   work   as a journalist at  the  register  and  an  author, word  travels  fast  .     it’s   hard   to   keep   a   secret   ,   and   it   looks   like   the   boogeyman  knows   that   [  REDACTED  ] 

𝚃𝙷𝚁𝙴𝙰𝙳𝚂 | 𝙼𝚄𝚂𝙸𝙽𝙶𝚂 | 𝙼𝙸𝚁𝚁𝙾𝚁 | 𝙴𝙳𝙸𝚃𝚂 | 𝙿𝙻𝙰𝚈𝙻𝙸𝚂𝚃 | 𝙿𝙸𝙽𝚃𝙴𝚁𝙴𝚂𝚃

Ⅰ   .   .   .   𝙱𝙰𝚂𝙸𝙲𝚂

full  name  : kennedy  noelle  stuart nicknames  : ken,  kenny age  : 28 birthday  : may  20 gender  : non-binary ( she  /  they ) sexual  orientation  : bisexual occupation  : investigative  journalist,  recently  turned  author fc  : ryan  destiny

Ⅱ   .   .   .   𝙵𝙰𝙼𝙸𝙻𝚈

mother  :  suzanne  stuart  herrera father  :  marcus  stuart stepfather  :  jonathan   ‘jon'   herrera. step  sibling  :  santiago  herrera

Ⅲ   .   .   .   𝙰𝙱𝙾𝚄𝚃  tw:  mention  of  murder  &  religion

∗  kennedy  was  marcus  and  suzanne's  last-ditch  effort  to  stabilize  the  marriage  between  a  narcissist  and  a  small  town  primadonna.  the  attempt  lasted  for  a  few  years  on  and  off  which  resulted  kennedy  having  to  spend  their  early  years  alternating  between  two  homes ∗  kennedy  was  the  spitting  image  of  the  both  of  them  and  the  two  were  painfully  aware  of  it,  pushing  the  young  kid  to  be  the  best  version  of  themselves...  they  just  had  different  definitions  of  what  that  was. ∗  for  marcus,  it  was  a  sharp  mind.  days  with  him  usually  consisted  of  activities  that  involved  intellectual  improvement  -  playing  chess,  reading  books,  watching  documentaries.  as  for  suzanne,  she  preferred  more  physical  charms  -  sports  &  beauty  pageants  mostly. ∗  the  combination  resulted  in  a  kid  who's  learned  quickly  that  they  earn  most  praise  when  they  are  not  only  good  at  something...  but  better  than  expected.  a  mindset  eventually  turned  to  a  desire  at  being  the  best  in  whatever  they  set  out  to  be. ∗  in  2006  suzanne  started  seeing  a  local  man  named  jon  hererra  and  before  kennedy  had  a  chance  to  process  their  mother's  new  relationship,  they  were  asked  to  pack  their  bags  to  move  in  with  this  stranger  and  his  son,  santiago  herrera. ∗  while  kennedy's  father  was  still  in  their  life,  it  was  apparent  that  he  had  decided  to  take  a  step  back  (  no  doubt  betrayed  by  how  quickly  his  former  wife  moved  on  )  and  began  only  taking  kennedy  on  the  weekends. ∗ life  with  the  herrera's  was  different.  suzanne  had  taken  to  bragging  about  her  child's  achievements.  an  energy  that  their  stepfather  quickly  matched  .  he  became  invested  in  advancing  kennedy's  talents,  perhaps  hoping  that  their  excellence  would  rub  on  on  his  son. ∗  unfortunately,  kennedy  had  a  hard  time  relating  to  santiago.  perhaps  it  was  the  age  difference  or  the  resentment  in  their  parent's  union.  whatever  the  reason,  it  made  building  a  healthy  relationship  difficult. ∗ kennedy  tended  to  focus  on  their  academic  pursuits  instead.  editor  of  the  newspaper,  head  of  the  speech  and  debate  team,  goalie  of  the  girl's  soccer  team...  they  had  their  hands  full!  eventually  they  graduate  with  honors  and  got  accepted  at  NYU  on  a  full  ride  to  become  an  investigative  journalist. ∗  after  college,  they  booked  a  job  at  the  new  york  times  amd  became  a  travelling  journalist,  moving  from  country  to  country  to  write  pieces  about  whatever  was  relevant. ∗  during  their  travels  they  came  across  an  interesting  case  that  was  ongoing  in  italy.  there  was  a  unexpected  string  of  murders  happening  in  a  small  countryside  town  and  with  the  help  of  the  local  police  department,  it  was  determined  that  the  local  catholic  priest  was  poisoning  the  offerings  during  their  mass  and  would  either  pretend  to  heal  them  with  the  power  of  God  or  let  them  die. ∗   the  article  kennedy  wrote  didnt  garner  much  attention  but  they  were  so  invested  in  the  story  they  decided  to  write  a  book  about  it  named  'death  at  the  altar'  and  lo  and  behold  -  it  became  a  best  seller! ∗  it  was  such  a  hit  that  kennedy  had  to  take  a  break  from  their  journalistic  endeavors  to  go  on  a  book  tour.  as  exciting  as  it  was,  kennedy  found  it  awfully  tiresome. ∗  after  some  thought  and  some  nudging  from  their  mother  &  step-father,  kennedy  decided  to  take  a  break  from  it  all  and  move  back  home.  they  took  up  a  job  at  the  local  newspaper  because  they  figured  it  would  be  easy.  some  fluff  pieces  here  and  there  while  they  focus  on  their  next  big  hit.  it's  red  creek,  michigan  after  all.  nothing  ever  happens  here.

𝚂𝚄𝙼𝙼𝙰𝚁𝚈   : a  smart  kid  who  watched  their  parents  divorce  and  was  forced  to  join  another  family  along  with  her  outrageous  mother.  left  town  as  soon  as  she  could  but  recently  decided  to  move  back  home  after  writing  a  best  selling  true  crime  novel  named  'death  at  the  altar'.

Ⅳ   .   .   .   𝙲𝙾𝙽𝙽𝙴𝙲𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽𝚂  -  all  connections  are  open  to  any  gender  unless  specified  otherwise.

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Ⅴ   .   .   .   𝙿𝙴𝚁𝚂𝙾𝙽𝙰𝙻𝙸𝚃𝚈

＋clever  ＋analytical  ＋curious －unsympathetic  －stubborn  －judgmental mbti  : ESFJ natal  chart  : capricorn, ⊙ taurus, ☾ cancer inspired  by  : gale  weathers ( scream   ),  nancy  wheeler ( stranger  things ),  monica  geller ( friends )