#and i refuse to spend currency to achieve that

[pisswizard420]

quitting and reopening your game over and over again until you get a virtue instead of an affliction > playing darkest dungeon as intended by bringing stress heals into runs and spending money in the hamlet to relieve stress

[silence-burns]

Please Hate Me //part 48

Fandom: Marvel

Summary: Based on: “Imagine having a love/hate relationship with Loki.” by @thefandomimagine​ Who would have thought that babysitting a god could be so much fun?

Genre: slow-burn, enemies to lovers, banter, smut

Being the friendly neighborhood Spiderman always gave Peter a sense of pride and purpose, even if he could only share it openly with a few people. It was the kind of accomplishment that made all the hardships seem worth it in the end. It also made him happy in a way he couldn't really explain, but which involved a certain connection between him and the people he protected and got familiar with over the course of his superhero patrols.

But being the friendly neighborhood Spiderman was difficult in a neighborhood where no one was actually friendly in return.

Peter’s frown grew the further into the building he went. He was pretty sure it was the same one Loki and you had been renting an apartment in, and since he was a rather frequent guest, the neighbours should recognize him by now enough to at least return his greetings. 

That was what logic dictated, but Peter was pretty certain the people he met in the hallway only gave him a stern, disapproving look before walking past him quickly.

Peter was still frowning when he moved up the stairs, juggling the keys in his hand. Then he stopped. The unearthly screams of the damned were muffled, but most definitely coming from apartment number 13. 

Opening the door quietly, he slid into the familiar interior, now echoing with pain and suffering so loud, Peter had to cover his ears just enough to move to the root of all evil  - the bathroom. 

There were many inexplicable things Peter had witnessed happening in the apartment 13, and to some extent he got used to the thrill of not knowing what he'd face next time he paid a visit. Still, he hadn't expected to see various parts of a half-drowned owl sticking out of the sink filled thick with foam and bubbles. The owl must've struggled a lot, judging by the amount of water splashed on every possible surface, and the iron grip you and Loki still kept on the bird. Even if Loki was not wearing his usual features, it was still obvious who your partner in crime was.

The two of you froze. Soap and foam dripped to the floor. Loki's new form shimmered with a glamour only magic could achieve.

"Um, what are you guys doing?" Peter asked.

"Trying a new disguise?" The curtain of Loki's new long hair was luscious and utterly drenched. 

"No, I meant-"

"Listen, boy, as surprising as it might be for you, I'm still me, just with a less… criminally wanted image."

"Yeah, only if 'ME' stands for mischief embodied," you laughed.

"It literally doesn't. It's smooth, but it doesn't."

"Thank you, love. Now, could you please stop drowning poor Barbara?"

Loki sighed, but relaxed his grip on the bird just enough to allow it to peak its head out from under the surface and take a deep, long breath. 

Peter put his backpack down and meandered closer, dodging the growing puddles. "Why is there an owl in the sink?"

"Because I'm not allowing any fleas into my house," you firmly stated, pushing the wings back under the water. "And I don't care how many hours we'll spend here, I'm getting all the mud and dirt out."

Barbara clung to her dirt with all her might, but was overpowered and utterly misunderstood. Loki's new form was slimmer, but held the bird with his usual strength and a big dose of satisfaction. The smirk on his face was unchanged, even if the features were new.

"What do you need a disguise for anyway?" Peter asked, looking for a towel. "Can I go with you?"

"I'm afraid that as wildly chaotic and lawless as our destination is, you'd still be age-checked," Loki cooled his enthusiasm.

Barbara rushed to the towel and clung to it, loudly exclaiming what, precisely, she thought about her caretakers. Peter tried to dry her up as best as he could through her wriggling and screams. 

"Are you sure all this soap is good for her? Did you use any animal-friendly shampoo?"

Loki shrugged. "I doubt she can get any more dead."

The boy looked at the owl. The owl looked at the boy. The ruffled and drenched feathers were sticking out in all directions, uncovering a deep and no doubt fatal hole in her side. 

"You got a dead owl…?"

"It was not my idea," Loki groaned, casting the bird a disgusted stare in the mirror where he tried to change the shape of his eyebrows. 

"You're just angry because she likes me more," you laughed while mopping the floor.

Peter did his best to become invisible and not stare too openly at the ribs poking out of the feathers. Barbara puffed them every time he moved the towel around. The boy couldn't speak owlish, but the small, crittering noises she made were definitely far from happy.

"Where will you be going?" Peter asked. The owl sat on his knees and refused to move even after he finished drying her on the couch.

"To the largest casino on the Moon."

"Wait- There are casinos up there?"

"Not for kids your age," Loki said.

Peter slumped on the couch. "That's not fair."

"We'll be back before you notice." You threw the wet rag to the sink. "Of course, as long as a certain someone FINALLY decides what to wear."

Loki ignored your pointed look, too busy with changing his hair color. No matter how many little details he changed, he still struggled with finding a form he was sure would allow him to pass through the guards unnoticed and unrecognized. It was a shame he couldn't use his own - it felt like a waste to hide a face like his. 

The owl settled on Peter's shoulder, immobilizing him with the claws buried in his skin. But even from the couch, the boy could see the remnants of a hurricane that had thrown a rather alarming amount of clothes around the apartment.

"I thought these were yours," he admitted. The owl kept on looking through his hair with the utmost scrutiny and very little gentleness.

"I've settled long ago on what I'm going to wear. As for the diva himself, though…" you gestured around.

"I need it to be perfect," Loki said. "I have an important role to play, I can't just waltz in there and be recognized."

"You could go blond," Peter suggested.

"Ew, I don't want to look anything like my brother- Wait, that's actually a great idea."

Before any of you managed to protest, a full-grown Thor stood in Loki's place, watching himself from all angles in the mirror. The clothes no longer fit, so he dropped them and dove into the closet again.

"...what have I done?"

You patted Peter's free shoulder. Barbara nested in the crook of his neck. "Nothing they can prove. Hopefully."

*

"I am not my father's servant," not-Thor downed another beer. "And if I want to relax for just one evening, I shall!"

The tankard broke into tiny pieces as he smashed it on the ground. The loud applause and waves of laughter followed the very Thor-like outburst, making Loki relieved he was playing his role well. Even in a place like this, crowded with drunkards and gamblers from all over the universe, it was common knowledge what the god of thunder enjoyed.

Loki forced his glamoured face to remain cheerful as another tankard of beer had been brought to him, disgustingly sour and rough. He knew his brother well, and was sure he'd love it, but Loki himself would rather bite off his tongue than willingly digest any more if only he had an actual choice. He didn't, and therefore swallowed another gulp to the cheering from the crowds gathered at his table. The cards had been laid out, waiting for the victors to celebrate their success, and the rest to decide how much more money they were willing to lose to the god of thunder.

Seated in a great hall of marble and gold, Loki wished he could play the way he actually wanted to, which was the very same way that got him banned from the Moon last time he had visited. But for the sake of the mission, he stayed just above the line between bankrupting and winning money, which added to the body he was wearing, was just big enough temptation to keep his table busy.

Everyone entering the biggest casino on the Moon was inclined to try their luck, or at least take a quick look. It was a perfect, if rather boring, way of scanning everyone who entered the rich complex of buildings. The few fountains set further in the back murmured as they shot curtains of water. The air was thick and warm, making crowds of people inevitably gravitate towards them in search of any cold. With the tall, lush plants artistically winding over and between the pillars, it created little areas dotting the impossibly high hall, where the pleasant breeze gathered the people looking for just a moment of relief. You occupied a spot beneath the fountains, where most people would wind up going to at some point, and used it as a second checkpoint, just in case anyone missed Loki's, or rather his brother's table.

"Come on, does anyone else want to lose their fingers?" Loki heard you call out to the crowds.

Between their never ending sessions of losing and winning the money back just to lose them again, there were many individuals in need of a drink and a quick break from the gambling. How easy it was to grab their attention with a loud voice and a dead owl.

Loki stretched his neck and looked over to where you had sat down the bird with all kinds of currency piled between its claws and a single coin shining through the open ribcage. 

"All you need is to get the coin out, what's the matter, people? Is there no one brave enough to win all this money?"

Greed has always been a major deciding factor for the living beings regardless of race and the world of origin. The queue only rose in length as everyone wanted to try their luck. 

The table under Barbara grew more and more slick with blood from cut and bitten fingers. Pure malice shone in her dead eyes.

"What an awful creature," Loki muttered to himself. 

He could sense the stolen pin somewhere in the vicinity, but the casino was a loud and chaotic place, with multiple areas each centered around a different type of entertainment. More than an hour had already passed, but whoever was currently holding onto the pin, had not yet ventured anywhere near.

The two of you were slowly but inevitably running out of time. Odin might've been old and naive, but his spies' eyes reached far and wide. Loki had little doubt he would be interested in his favourite son's apparent evening fun, especially if he had that particular son with him, in the palace. Thor was a good cover, but not for much longer.

And then, by chance or a generous turn of fate, the shadows stirred and whispered. 

Loki cast the dice, not paying attention whether he'd won or lost. His money wasn't real anyway.

There - by the high palms stood the Hoarders, clad in the worn out rags and way too much jewelry. With their grey skin and long limbs, it was no wonder how easily they blended in with the shadows, using their skills to warp their surroundings and get in places others would consider highly secure. But their success was not measured in how many places they were capable of breaking in themselves, but rather how many individuals of all races they could easily befriend and bend to their will. Although, to be quite honest, Loki doubted the necromancer had needed much convincing. 

There were only three of them, each almost an identical copy of the others, but the Hoarders were encircled by both their partners for the evening and whatever scum tried to befriend them. That made it so much harder to approach them, but Loki was already thinking of a good excuse when he rose from his seat. People parted, giving him space - much more that would be granted to Loki's original form. 

The shadows whispered again. One of the ladies separated from the group, with an annoyed expression on her face.

Loki stretched, making sure to put his hands high. Once he caught your attention, he followed the lady at a leisurely pace.

"What do we do?" You asked once both of you entered the corridor and disappeared behind the corner. 

"She's got the pin."

One more turn took you in front of the ladies restroom. 

"Time for Plan C.” Loki began undressing quickly.

Holding a spare dress in your bottomless pocket was not the wisest choice, but it apparently paid off, even if fishing it out took you a moment. Your hands shook. Someone might have walked in on you at any time. While Loki would be doing whatever it took to get the pin back, you would be the one making sure no one interrupted him…

Like distracting the waiter that was now staring at both of you. Focused on the contents of your pocket, you hadn’t even noticed him approaching. Loki clad in only Thor's skin, blinked. 

The waiter turned on his heel and disappeared.

"I can already feel the gossip stirring," Loki shifted into a more feminine body, quickly putting on the dress. "They are going to eat my brother alive."

"Do you feel bad about it?"

"Oh, my heart is breaking into a million pieces," Loki assured you with a smile far too wide for that to be true. 

He kissed you quickly before disappearing into the restroom. 

Life felt amazing. Loki couldn't help but imagine the amount of trouble his brother would get once the word spread about his whereabouts.

His imagination was running wild, but the one thing Loki couldn't imagine was how, merely thirty minutes later, he'd find himself in the dungeons deep beneath the surface of the Moon, half-drowned, and viciously bitten.

[ladyloveandjustice]

The Westing Game Chapter 21

The Fourth Bomb

In a wacky misunderstanding, Theo thinks Alice is the bomber and tries to blackmail her with the info so he can borrow her bike (Yes, really. Go big or go home is Theo’s motto) but of course Alice thinks he means he knows ANGELA is the bomber.

And in what might be the most touching moment in the book so far, Alice responds to this by setting off a bomb and writing a thing indicating that she is the bomber in order to throw all suspicion off Angela. She eve loses her trademark braid in the process.

It really is incredibly sweet. Alice is very caustic toward her sister, but this isn’t the first time she’s indicated she’s ride-or-die when it comes down to it (she got rid of the evidence for Angela and warned her not to say anything to the lawyer), and it’s also a very lovely response to Angela’s early sacrifice- where she took the bomb she made to her face rather than have it explode to her sisters. But while Angela’s sacrifice was spur-of-the-moment motivated by guilt and panic as well as love (not that it makes it less meaningful), Alice’s is one she planned out and considered. She had time to consider the consequences. She knew that Angela willingly put herself in this position. But she still chose to take the fall anyway, and set off a bomb after seeing what the same thing did to her sister’s face.

She already feels meaningless to her family in general, and maybe on the surface she feels her standing (with her mother in particular) can’t get any lower. “I’m already the troublemaker, I’m already the unwanted one, I have nothing to lose, but Angela would lose everything” was how she convinced herself. (in addition to being aware as a minor she wouldn’t be punished as harshly, smart girl that she is).

But it’s also clear that Alice DOES long for her mother’s love and approval, and I think she also had to contend with a deep fear that after this action, there’d be no going back for them, that she’d doomed herself to be the ‘bad one’ forever. Yet she still did it.

And the loss of her braid is of course, incredibly significant. Angela said earlier that the braid is her “crutch”- she bases a lot of her personality around it. It was her excuse to spend time with her mother and now her excuse to spend time with Flora, it’s the trademark thing people can pull on and she can then she gets excuse to kick them and get in fights and form connections, it’s how she gets attention and relationships for herself without exposing her own vulnerability. But she sacrificed what little that makes her stand out, what little social currency she has to protect the same sister who she envies for being in the spotlight- because that bond is more important than her jealousy and her need for attention. Just like her sister sacrificed one of the things that bring her adulation- her looks- to protect her. Love is more important than those petty things.

Alice is forced to talk to Judge Ford afterwards and, sharp as ever, Ford guesses that she’s protecting Angela.  This quote especially gets me:

The judge was astounded (…). Angela could not be the bomber, that sweet, pretty thing. Thing? Is that how she regarded the young woman, as a thing? And what had she ever said to her except “I hear you’re getting married, Angela” or “You’re so pretty, Angela”. Had anyone ever asked about her ideas, her hopes, her plans? If I had been treated like that, I’d have used dynamite, not fireworks; no, I would have just walked and kept on going. But Angela was different.

There’s a fascinating theme in this book about being marginalized, and the different ways these marginalized people both are pitted against each other and can overlook even each other while also finding connections and comradery with each other… I think I’ll have to wait until the end to fully get my thesis on the whole thing together, but I really find it interesting and appreciate it. Ford’s struggles as a black woman, Alice being overlooked for not performing femininity (thus envious of Angela despite knowing how shitty she has it), Angela being boxed because everyone wants to mold her as the perfect feminine ideal (thus feeling envious of Alice despite knowing how shitty she has it), Sun feeling out of place as a Chinese immigrant, Hoo knowing he’s looked down upon as a Chinese-American (yet still not considering the pain of his own wife), Chris struggling as a disabled kid, many people who are financially disadvantaged and/or feeling limited to the role of caretaker, Sydelle feeling overlooked in general and appropriating others’ struggles in her bizarre quest to get noticed- it’s all very interesting and pretty deftly handled, especially considering the time period the book was written in. 

And our antagonist is quintessential exploitative Rich White Man (obsessed with American Exceptionalism to boot), though it’s casually mentioned he’s the son of immigrants, an identity he seems to have actively shed, going so far as to change his name (if that’s why he changed it), so there’s even complexity there.

But the thing with Ford here is an interesting demonstration of that. Despite being smart and socially aware and having an even more fraught history of being dismissed and belittled, she didn’t give much thought to Angela and subconsciously went along with the same objectification everyone else does, putting her on a pedestal. (There’s a lot to be said about how Angela’s veneration and perceived “purity” by the others might interact with her whiteness, and how Ford realizing she bought into that narrative subconsciously might feel to her as a black woman, but I’m not really the person to discuss that. Anyway!)

The other important development here is that Alice also finally confesses that she saw Westing the night of his murder but mentions that the Westing she saw didn’t look dead, but asleep and like a wax dummy. This sets off alarm bells for both me and Ford.

So, I think its safe to say my earlier theory Sam Westing isn’t dead is probably true. What of the corpse that was present at the will-reading? I think people would have noticed it was a wax dummy, but a disguised corpse from his coroner friend still makes some sense. So where is Westing now? Considering Barney Northup doesn’t exist, could he be Barney?

But speaking of Westing, if we need further confirmation the man is the scum of the earth, he’s a union buster and he fired Sandy for trying to organize one in the paper plant.

We also learn Ford’s backstory with Westing at last: Her parents were household staff at Westing’s mansion and she grew up there as a result. She played chess with Westing frequently as a child, but not only would he brag and take pride in beating a goddamn pre-teen, he mocked her with racialized insults. She never won, but Westing ended up financing her education (that’s the ‘debt’ she owes him). She believes he did this to get a judge he could control, but has refused to play along, removing herself from any case involving him.

I can’t help but think Westing would have known Ford wouldn’t play ball, though. So he may have had another motive for sending her to school. It could be something even more sinister. Or… in his own twisted way, did he actually like her? He obviously realized she was incredibly intelligent during those matches, even if he sadistically enjoyed mocking her, enough to know she’d do well with an education. Did he play chess with her so much not just because he enjoyed tormenting her, but enjoyed her as a person as well? It obviously does not excuse what a racist sadistic shithead he is, and I’m not saying he’s secretly nice- just that it could be he was incapable of relating to anyone in a healthy way. I actually think sending Ford to school could have just been an extension of his desire to torment her AND the only way he knew that would guarantee he remained important in her life. He didn’t ever plan to cash in on her debt, but knew it would kill her just to BE in his debt, and got pleasure out of that alone. He probably just thought it was funny and it was also a way to guarantee he’d live in her head rent free- and because deep down he knew she was a cool kid, he also wanted that. He didn’t want her to forget him, maybe, which is sick! But much more interesting than simply “he wanted a judge he could manipulate”.

But it’s also worth noting this is Ford’s (perhaps) final chance to win against Westing in the ultimate chess match. And I can’t help but think he is well aware how smart she is, so he invited her here specifically because he knew she could be his undoing, the one who unravels everything. So- if we go with the ‘Westing is seeking atonement’ theory- did he invite her to give her that satisfaction of finally beating him, like he always knew deep down she could? Because he WANTS to be beaten, to be found out and knows she deserves to be the one after all the hell he put her through? Or in the ‘Westing is still a complete monster’ theory- is his intention to torment her one last time, to show her she can’t win against him? (if it is, I think he may well find he’s gravely mistaken there).

I don’t think Westing can truly achieve “redemption” with this “game”, nor am I one to easily believe the Ultimate Shitty Capitalist can change easily, but if one thing can shake someone’s worldview and make them reevaluate how they live their life, the death of their child WOULD be a big one. So “this will actually be Westing’s weird twisted attempt at atonement” is a possibility I just can’t stop thinking about. If it is, it’s kind of funny and incredible he can’t stop being manipulative and traumatizing even when he decides he wants to do something good.

On top of all that, Angela and Sydelle get more clues and finally figure out the ‘America the Beautiful’ connection. God, so much to chew on this chapter! I really fear for these last nine chapters. I might end up writing a novel longer than the actual novel analyzing and recapping them if I’m not careful. But that’s how you know it’s a compelling story, so hats off to Ellen Raskin!

[mediaeval-muse]

Book Review

Beasts Made of Night. By Tochi Onyebuchi. New York: Razorbill, 2017.

Rating: 2/5 stars

Genre: YA fantasy

Part of a Series? Yes, Beasts Made of Night #1

Summary: In the walled city of Kos, corrupt mages can magically call forth sin from a sinner in the form of sin-beasts – lethal creatures spawned from feelings of guilt. Taj is the most talented of the aki, young sin-eaters indentured by the mages to slay the sin-beasts. But Taj’s livelihood comes at a terrible cost. When he kills a sin-beast, a tattoo of the beast appears on his skin while the guilt of committing the sin appears on his mind. Most aki are driven mad by the process, but 17-year-old Taj is cocky and desperate to provide for his family. When Taj is called to eat a sin of a royal, he’s suddenly thrust into the center of a dark conspiracy to destroy Kos. Now Taj must fight to save the princess that he loves – and his own life.

***Full review under the cut.***

Trigger/Content Warnings: violence, blood, body horror

Overview: There were so many things about this book that I would have usually been very interested in: a Nigerian-inspired fantasy, an intriguing magical premise, a political drama, etc. I was very excited to pick it up, and I was looking forward to a something a little different from the run-of-the-mill YA fantasies I’ve been reading lately. While I think the story started ok, I quickly found that the book as a whole felt more like a draft than a finished piece. There wasn’t much attention paid to building a plot; everything seemed to meander until the last third, when suddenly, all the action was dumped on us all at once. I would have been able to appreciate it had more care been given to setting up stakes and having scenes build on one another earlier in the book, but unfortunately, it didn’t feel like Onyebuchi had a plan from the get-go; he seemed to have been writing without a sense of what his story was going to be until the very end. While I really enjoyed the idea of “sin eating” and all the potential stories that could arise from that premise, the book as a whole just didn’t come together in a way I found satisfying. Thus, this book only gets 2 stars from me.

Writing: Onyebuchi’s prose is fairly typical for a YA novel in that it describes things in a straightforward way, focusing on actions more than emotions or complex nuances within the fantasy world. Beasts Made of Night is also like a lot of YA fantasy in that it is told in first person, which means that, by nature, some descriptions and narrations feel awkward or unnatural. First person is tricky because humans don’t consciously register certain things that need to be included in a novel in order for a reader to understand the action, and I think Onyebuchi falls into this trap sometimes. This isn’t necessary his fault; I think all first-person narration has this hurdle, and some writers overcome it better than others.

Plot: The main arc of this book follows our hero, Taj, as he attempts to navigate the political world after eating the sin of the king of Kos. I found the premise incredibly compelling, but unfortunately, the execution didn’t quite click for me. The main conflict doesn’t take off until around page 80, which means that for nearly the first third of the book, we spend a lot of time following Taj as he just lives his life in Kos. To some extent, following a character’s daily life can be a good way of orienting a reader in a fantasy world, but after a time, I wanted the main conflict to start.

Once Taj ate the king’s sin, it seemed like the story was finally going to start, but unfortunately, it didn’t. Taj doesn’t really disclose what the sin was or how his knowledge of it affected his status in the kingdom. I would have thought that will such an abnormally giant sin-beast, there would be some kind of political plot revolving around the king, but instead, Taj is simply taken into the palace as the royal family’s personal aki, and he spends the next third of the book not doing much of anything.

After a while, he is sent away from the palace so he can train an army of aki, and even that plot starts to drag until the final 60ish pages, when Taj is involved in a plot to take over the royal palace. The last third or so of the novel seemed to dump all the action on us at once, and most of that is conspiracy that has already taken place off-page - Taj just gets invited along for the ride (because he develops some new abilities? Because he’s the chosen one? I don’t know). I personally didn’t find it very compelling because none of the major events were set up in the first two-thirds of the book, making everything feel as though it were happening at random for plot twisty reasons. I also don’t think the plot was a very smart one, which made the plan to take over the palace seem poorly-planned.

Characters: On the whole, the characters were a mixed bag for me. Taj, our protagonist, is interesting in that he’s a little cocky and has that fun attitude of “I-hate-that-I-care.” I was really looking forward to seeing how his character would develop over the course of the novel, but he didn’t seem to change all that much. I also wish Taj had had some kind of deeper motivation that affected his actions throughout the book.  For example, we understand that Taj wants to send money back to his family, but we don’t get a lot of descriptions of him being homesick or feeling lonely - things that would make this goal feel more important and which would hit differently when we read about him being essentially alienated from his fellow aki because of how successful he’s been at sin-eating. Instead, Taj feels rather aloof and disinterested in trying to form a found family, and I couldn’t quite understand what it was that was driving him other than mere survival (which is fine, but survival on its own in insufficient for me).

Taj also seemed to act in ways that didn’t quite make sense; for example, he seemed unfazed by the “Baptism,” an event in which the government razes an entire neighborhood to the ground if it feels the area is too sinful. In the first 80 pages, Taj gets caught up in a Baptism, but afterwards, brushes it off and goes smoking with his friend, Bo. I would have understood if Taj had gone to cope with the horror he saw, but it didn’t feel that way. It felt like “oh, well, time for a night out.” Absolutely no exploration of how witnessing the Baptism affected him afterward.

Many side characters also didn’t seem to have a clear arc; they merely drifted in and out of the story as needed. Bo was supposedly Taj’s close friend, but he and Taj don’t have that many scenes together which showed that (I was told more than shown). Arzu, Taj’s bodyguard of sorts after he enters palace service, is kind of fun, but her arc isn’t really that important to the plot. The king is barely involved except for the sin-eating and the very end, and the princess (Taj’s love interest? Maybe?) is awkward without clear motivations. Even Izu (a mage), Aliya (another mage), and Zainab (a fellow aki), who have direct influences on Taj’s life and are major players in the big plot, don’t seem to be given much room to shine. Perhaps this was to keep the plot twist of the last third of the book secret, but it felt like they didn’t really have a use until then.

It also didn’t feel as if Taj was truly bonded to any side characters. Despite scenes of joking around with Bo or protecting Omar, a young aki that is discovered on the day another aki dies, I didn’t really feel that these relationships were important. I was told that they were, but because we get so few scenes where Taj builds trust or confides in people, I never got the sense that he truly connected with anyone - not even the princess, who he supposedly falls in love with (or in lust with?) for no reason.

I think more work could have been done to solve the problem of useless side characters by making their motivations or goals more clear (or at least sprinkled more hints and seeds) throughout the entire novel, not just all at the end. As the book stands, Onyebuchi spends a lot of time describing the setting and characters’ actions, and while he makes clear that the aki are second-class citizens and some people in the palace want things to change, he doesn’t really tell us what his characters want, how they act to achieve these goals, and how the events of the book (or how Taj himself) threaten those goals - at least, not until the end. I think if more was shown to us instead of told, with scenes more clearly building on one another, characters would have had more fulfilling arcs and the plot as a whole would have felt more suspenseful.

Worldbuilding: Aside from the sin-eating, Onyebuchi creates a magical world full of sensual experiences. It seems like gems and precious stones are everywhere, but aren’t necessarily valuable as currency; instead, they symbolize family ties and add splashes of color to an impoverished world. There is also a kind of smoking lounge with aromatics such as apricot and mint, while the sounds and smells of the markets bring Kos to life.

While all these elements captured my interest, I think the book would have benefited from a bit more structure when exploring the relationship between the outcast aki and the people around them. It seemed to me that the aki were a necessary scapegoat in that they were simultaneously needed and shunned by society. They are kept in poverty and often suffer from exploitation, with no way of demanding fairer treatment. While this was all well and good for establishing class dynamics, I did want some more explanation of why the aki were so powerless. Why couldn’t they, say, form some kind of union and refuse to eat sins unless they were paid fairly? Seems to me that threatening to kill them could work, but eventually, the royals would run out of aki, and without their services, things could go downhill pretty fast.

I also wish figures like the inyo or the arashi had been more integral to the story, as I kept forgetting what they were until the very end. These figures are mentioned a lot, but I never really felt like they were part of the world because they don’t really make an appearance, nor does belief in them seem to affect the action.

TL;DR: Beasts Made of Night has an intriguing premise and is set in a marvelous fantasy world, but unfortunately suffers from poor plotting and characters with unclear arcs and motivations.

[rulystuff]

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IS THE UNITED STATES AT END OF EMPIRE?

America’s economic primacy is pretty much behind us. And, I don’t believe there is any chance of reversing a trend that began thirty plus years ago. The best-case scenario for the nation is to slow the rate of economic decline – never mind social and cultural decline, which are probably lodged in irreversible decay.  As Robert Kaplan says in his book, The Revenge of Geography, we might prolong our position of strength by preparing the world for our own obsolescence and thus ensuring a graceful exit.  But even this outcome will require the strength of will that has yet to be demonstrated by leaders in business, education, and government.

Economic primacy might be measured along many fronts – income per capita, rate of growth, productivity, foreign exchange reserves, among others – but if one looks at Gross Domestic Product (GDP), perhaps the coarsest measure of a nation’s economic well-being, then the United States has lost its economic primacy to China when compared on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis.

The PPP approach levels the GDP calculation to each country’s relative price of goods. So, if a television set costs $500 in the United States while the same television costs $250 in China then, theoretically at least, we’re under counting China’s GDP by $250. Using the PPP rationale, China’s GDP was approximately $23.5 trillion in 2019 compared to that of the United States which came in at $21.4 trillion.

Some politicians, economists, lobbyists, and others, like to use a different measure of GDP to suit their own purposes. The nominal GDP, which looks at the total of goods and services produced at current exchange rates yields a substantially different calculation. The nominal GDP of the United States in 2019 came in at $21.4 trillion, a number which is identical to the nation’s GDP on a PPP basis. The reason for this is that the nominal GDP calculation is based on the dollar and so there is no currency conversion rate difference. By comparison, China’s nominal GDP came in at $14.3 trillion. If we only look at nominal GDP, it is clear we are being lulled into a false sense of economic security.

CHINA HAS UNRIVALLED DIPLOMATIC PATIENCE

Diplomatically, China also has an edge on the United States. In the 1980’s, the then leader of the People’s Republic of China, Deng Xiaoping, enunciated his famous maxim of tao guang yang hui. Interpreted variously, the maxim is meant as a foreign policy directive that regardless how muscular the nation might become economically, geopolitically, and militarily it is always best to keep a “low profile diplomatically.” No more beguiling example of Deng Xiaoping’s maxim is in evidence than in China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Simply put, China plans to build one “road” from China to Europe and thus control all manner of transcontinental commerce. Already, China controls or has a presence in ports that handle about two-thirds of the world’s container traffic. In Greece, the port of Piraeus, a storied port dating to the Fifth Century B.C., is majority owned by the China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) which makes Greece a strategic entry point for China into the heart of Europe.

In Central Asia, China’s power projection is as undeniable as it is ominous. Through the auspices of the euphemistically named Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), China has, in effect, expanded its borders westward by 1,500 miles to the Caspian Sea. Strategically, the mostly land-based route from Khorgos, Kazakhstan on China’s western border to Piraeus has now achieved super-highway potential from China to Europe.

China established the SCO with original signatories Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan for the expressed purpose of promoting border security along its Xinjiang autonomous-region home to millions of mostly Muslim ethnic Uyghurs. Emblematic of China’s clout in the region, moreover, is that since the formation of the SCO both India and Pakistan have been granted membership in the organization. For the United States, it isn’t clear how much leeway it will now have to operate in Central Asia given the leverage that China has over SCO countries economically, diplomatically, and militarily.

China has also learned to game international organizations. The Paris Climate Accord, biased to begin with in favor of China, looks the other way when the nation burns far more coal than it officially admits. So, while emissions in the United States trend lower, potentially hobbling our fossil fuel energy sector, China’s continue to increase. China’ s shell game also involves the building of coal plants outside its borders to further fuel its economy without having to account for the consequent emissions domestically. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is also in China’s pocket as it refuses to rein in China’s channeling of state subsidies to its manufacturing companies so as to better compete on the world’s stage. The most egregious example, of course, of how China has played international and presumably apolitical agencies lies with the country’s spread of the devastating and deadly Coronavirus and how the World Health Organization’s (WHO) was complicit in the coverup of China’s misdeeds. In December, 2019, when Taiwan warned about the infectiousness of the virus, the WHO refused to share Taiwan’s warnings with the rest of the world. Clearly, the WHO was doing China’s bidding. To this day, Taiwan, at China’s behest, is boycotted from participating as a full-fledged member of the WHO.

IF WE’RE NOT MAKING STUFF WHAT ARE WE TO DO?

Let’s face it, manufacturing was lost to our shores for all intents and purposes several years ago. In 2015, China displaced the United States as the top manufacturing nation in the world. In 2019, China’s value-added output – in essence, the difference between price and the cost to produce – in manufacturing amounted to $3.9 trillion compared to $2.4 trillion for the United States. That gap will doubtless continue to grow.

There are now roughly 15 million workers in the United States engaged in manufacturing down from approximately 18 million in the 1980’s – President Trump, to his credit, was determined to revitalize manufacturing, steel, and coal but despite gains in these areas total employment numbers will continue to slip on a trend-line basis.  When one considers that China has approximately 112 million manufacturing workers, the competitive disadvantage for the United States becomes palpably clear.

In 2019 our nation’s goods deficit with China was approximately $345 billion. That gap is not likely to be made up in any of our lifetimes. So, that leaves Services as the new game in town. In 2019, Services accounted for roughly 69% of our nation’s GDP. And, as a nation, we better excel in that new cycle reality. It is true, the United States ran an annual balance of payments surplus in services with China of about $36 billion in 2019 – with U.S. exports amounting to about $56 billion and imports from China totaling $20 billion. But don’t let that fool you as a $20 billion gap will be easy for China to make up especially when one considers that China’s Services sector is growing at an average of 2% per year. And, unless we accelerate the rate of growth of exports – the rate of growth is about even for both imports and exports – we might soon be facing a deficit in this sector of the economy so crucial for the good health of the nation in the twenty-first century.

THE NATION FACES SOME VERY STIFF HEADWINDS

The United States economy has structural defects which will not go away simply by holding rallies and mouthing rhetorical flourishes in the halls of Congress. Decline might be inexorable but we should not stand by as mere spectators. The will and purpose to restore our economic vitality must be marshaled by every American. It must begin, first and foremost, by demanding of our leaders, our institutions, and ourselves to be unafraid to serve in keeping with American priorities. It is the remotest possibility that we can salvage the service economy and consequently our nation unless our standard of performance is nothing less than service excellence in everything we do.

We don’t have a lot going for ourselves: Labor productivity growth is stalled at near zero levels; the rate of household savings is paltry; regulation and taxation still suffocates businesses and individuals despite President Trump’s initiatives; unemployment – not the nominal rate but the U6 rate which measures the unemployed, those that are not looking for work, and those who have had to settle for part-time work –  is mired at levels of 7% (during the Obama years the U6 rate never got below 9.2%); and he national debt is now in excess of 120% of GDP. Entitlement spending while currently at a level of approximately 70% of the federal budget is on the threshold of becoming a perfect storm of out-of- control spending. The progressive policies of the Biden Administration will see to that as it attempts to solve every problem by printing greenbacks. The growing number of baby boomers reaching retirement age and the population’s longer life expectancy will further exacerbate the nation’s economic health.  

Perhaps the most troubling portent for the nation’s future is its inability to clamber out of a deep and black hole in education. Among the 37 industrialized nations which comprise the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), for example, the United States ranks 31st in mathematics and roughly in the middle on science. Clearly, all of the monetary and fiscal policies in the world will hardly fix this crippling deficiency which has more to do with a cultural indifference to serious and rigorous education.

Prior to Mr. Trump’s coming to office, the federal government was hell-bent on redistributing wealth rather than getting out of the way so that risk capitalists could create wealth. Unfortunately, President Trump’s reforms designed to bring back a full-throated and free market approach to the nation’s financial issues died the moment President Biden came into office.

Meanwhile, in the corporate world, business leaders are fixated on how quarterly earnings affect their pay packages, and when push comes to shove, cutting corners and worse. How else can one explain the utter disregard American companies operating in China have for the human rights abuses perpetrated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on its people. Abuses such as forced labor (unions are illegal in China), the internment of over a million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities, bans on religious freedom and free expression, arbitrary arrests, and the repression of Hong Kong citizens seem not to bother the likes of executives at Caterpillar, General Motors, Ford, AMD, Micron Technologies, Intel, Texas Instruments, Nike, and many others which are doing a land-office business in China. Apple, most notably, has raised to an art form tax, regulatory, and labor dodges which allow it to stash hundreds of billions of dollars overseas while paying little or no income taxes in the United States. The company, apparently, is nonplussed by the fact that its armies of workers in China are employed for wages and benefits that would be in contravention of United States laws. How the CEO’s of these companies can live with themselves knowing full well that they are profiting from someone else’s misery is a testament to their greed and lust for power.

WHERE DOES THE CUSTOMER FIT IN?

From the way we treat our veterans, clients, patients, students, donors, and citizens – customers, all, to my way of thinking we have a lot of work to do before we can claim to excel in service. A survey by consulting giant Accenture in 2007 showed that 41% of respondents described service quality as fair, poor, or terrible – more recent surveys suggest service is worsening. Perform any human endeavor at that level of proficiency and you are an abject failure. In the services sector, however, that is par for the course. In the Far East, cultural determinants do not confuse service with servitude. As a rule, suppliers will go the extra mile to please a consumer. In the West, and particularly in the United States, the most that a service worker can muster when asked to perform a personalized service is to utter something like, “no problem.” That kind of indifferent attitude is ingrained and certain to keep our level of service quality from climbing out of the aforementioned levels of mediocrity.

In the meantime, off-shore locations feast on our indifference to service and do whatever it takes to secure and maintain a customer relationship. The oft-cited explanation for the comparative advantage of off-shore locations, namely, their low cost, is a facile response to a more complicated dynamic. It is true that off-shore locations enjoy all-in cost advantages vis-a-vis the United States. It is also true, that President Trump worked hard to enhance our competitiveness on the world stage by reducing the oppressive web of regulation; reducing our world-leading corporate tax rates; negotiating better trade deals; exiting globalist compacts financed on the backs of American taxpayers; offering a tax holiday for repatriated corporate profits, among other initiatives. Those initiatives, however, have either been rolled back or will soon be under President Biden’s Administration.

My experience is that, particularly in technical disciplines, services delivered by off-shore locations are superior to ours. An apprenticeship initiative, if it were aggressively expanded to include science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations, might make us more competitive in this area. In the rarefied world of supercomputers so critical to pushing the frontiers of science and technology, for example, the United States is out-produced by China on the order of two-to-one. So, until and unless we grow a much larger crop of more competent technical workers we will continue to be outperformed by nations more determined, better educated, more dedicated, and hungrier than we are.

CAN THE UNITED STATES GUARANTEE THE PEACE?

If the nation has ceded its economic primacy, its military primacy is being severely tested. United States’ land-based forces are heavily committed to counterinsurgency operations to fend off non-state actors while conventional warfare strategic planning appears to be dead. In Europe, a likely conventional hotspot, NATO and U.S. forces are outgunned and outmanned by a factor of at least ten to one by Russian forces. In the far East, China’s land-based forces outnumber the United States by a factor of at least two to one.

Our ocean defenses are in no better shape. The nation’s principal bulwark protecting our shores is in steep decline. The United States Navy is but a ghost of its former self. The nation now has fewer vessels than it had before World War I. Most notably, our aircraft carrier fleet which must number sixteen in order to patrol three separate ocean theaters now numbers ten or barely enough to protect two theaters. In the Mediterranean, the U.S. Sixth Fleet is a non-entity the result of which is to have created a vacuum that is now filled by the Russians, Syrians, and Iranians. In the South China Sea, where American Navy vessels seem unable to sail without colliding into tankers and containerships, the United States is being challenged by a territorially aggressive and technologically advanced Chinese Navy. Already, an armada of sophisticated dredging vessels is reclaiming land from the sea for the sole purpose of building military airfields and naval port facilities. More worrisome, Chinese fighter jets and bombers now violate Taiwan’s air space with impunity and regularity.

Former U.S. Undersecretary of the Navy, Seth Cropsey, in his chilling and sobering account, Mayday the Decline of American Naval Supremacy, reminds us that China was the naval hegemon in the fifteenth century. Under the leadership of Admiral Sheng He, Chinese sailors coursed the oceans from their territorial waters to the Strait of Hormuz. Chinese vessels of the time were of a length and tonnage that were not to be seen in the West until centuries later. China’s naval supremacy only came to an end when civil servants forced severe budget cutbacks on the kingdom. Does our own defense budget sequestration of 2013 under President Obama, with its mandate to, in effect, disarm the military, ring a bell? The results of each nation’s budget missteps are eerily similar. China, for its part, will probably not repeat its mistake. In all likelihood, it will take the United States a generation, assuming proper funding and political will, to restore the U.S. Navy so that we can confidently state that the nation can project power and protect seaborne commerce beyond the horizon.

Just as troubling as the rickety state of the nation’s military naval forces is the state of the United States Merchant Marine. The Merchant Marine fleet hauls cargo during peacetime and is attached to the Defense Department during wartime to transport troops and supplies into war zones. The United States should hope it does not get into a major conflagration oceans away as it has experienced a dramatic attrition in its Merchant Marine fleet and manpower inventory. In 1960, the United States had nearly 3,000 vessels in the Merchant Marine fleet. Today, the nation has fewer than 175 vessels or less than one-half of 1% of the total vessel count worldwide. Worse, United States-flagged vessels carry a mere pittance of the total volume of goods and materials that transit through the nation’s ports. The consequence of what is obviously a weak flank in the nation’s defense posture is that in the event of a major outbreak of hostilities the United States would be reliant on foreign-flagged vessels to carry troops, armaments, and supplies with all of the attendant security risks.

One can argue that China’s bellicosity toward the United States is as asymmetrical as it is frontal and direct: China’s theft of roughly $225 billion, at the low end and as much as $600 billion at the high end, annually in counterfeit goods, pirated software, and theft of trade secrets from the United States; its monopoly of rare earth metals critical not just for consumer products but for Defense Department applications; its financing of over fifty Confucius Institutes on college campuses and schools designed to spread CCP propaganda; and its unleashing of the Wuhan virus which has cost the lives of more than six-hundred thousand innocent Americans is proof positive that China’s strategy is to envelop the United States on all fronts. And, the United States’ military is playing into China’s hands by its determination to “feminize” its armed forces. Progressive ideologues both in the Biden Administration and the Pentagon are using the military as a social experiment petri dish which is undermining the combat readiness of those in a position to protect our shores in the event of war. All you need to know in this regard comes from the Current Commander in Chief, Joseph Biden: “We’re making good progress designing body armor that fits women properly; tailoring combat uniforms for women; creating maternity flight suits; updating – updating requirements for their hairstyles…”

AMERICA AT A CROSSROADS

In sum, if as the great military historian B.H. Liddell Hart suggests, a nation’s Grand Strategy is a composite of its political, military, economic and diplomatic tools in its “arsenal” which can be brought to bear to advance a state’s national interest then the United States appears to be convulsing in its gradual decay. As I have argued in my essay, The United Kingdom Is Resurgent, the former world economic power, lost its supremacy because it failed to adapt to the winds of change which buffeted its shores long after the economy reached its apex in the early twentieth century.

It is also provocative to think that there might be a “natural” life cycle to nations as there is to human beings that is irreversible. Regardless of one’s view in embracing one or another theory that might explain the demise of nations, there is no reason to remain indolent in resisting such decline even if there is only the remotest possibility of such an outcome. Keep in mind that the demise of Rome was hardly cataclysmic but the result of a long succession of imprudent decisions made by the Empire’s leaders.

Top of Form

[glowstickhaloboy]

i’ve committed to my format with raphael!crowley and i’ll die with it, too. AND IM SORRY ITS SO LONG.

(also the show uses he/him pronouns for michael, i believe, and i’ve chosen to do so as well bc i think its neat)

((ALSO, if you have no idea what the context is for this post, its a semi-continuation of this series))

sometimes, there is a gap. gabriel will turn to express a half-thought, and find himself wondering who he meant to speak with. there’s no one there.

three facts have remained for six thousand years: the first maintains that a brother is a brother. the second that a traitor is a traitor. and the third fact concludes that only one of those things may become the other. there is no place for traitors in heaven. and there is no merit in dwelling on thoughts of what is no longer possible.

gabriel likes efficiency--advancements that break no mould. he is the safest bet in any given room. protocol and principles, that’s what he’s made of, and he sticks to them rigidly because it’s... easy. easy as a miracle from the human’s point of view. to break ranks is to break through the mission statement of heaven into a gray area, and the walls upstairs are always freshly painted white. gabriel makes sure of it.

michael likes results. there is nothing more beautiful than a bottom line. bottom line: the world ends. bottom line: the angels win. bottom line: god no longer does the heavy lifting the way angels do, and so what the angel’s do in god’s absence is not to be held against them. they were, after all, stepping into a job they were not qualified to handle with little to no notice. a bottom line is beautiful because it makes simple a messy world.

bottom line: there is mess. bottom line: angels remove the mess.

bottom line: raphael would have complicated that.

no, michael does not miss his fallen sibling. and he refuses to talk about it. and he makes sure that gabriel does not talk about it, either. after all, what is there to talk about? what’s done is done, and they’ve got their hands full juggling someone else’s job, but if they don’t do it, then it isn’t done, and the world ends the bad way. where no one wins because they’re all dead.

gabriel is the leader. michael is the strategist. between them, they can scrounge enough brain power together to cover for raphael, who was meant to be the creative one.

too creative. creative enough to start... asking questions.

too feeling, always too feeling. “passionate” they used to call him. but then what happened, happened, and “passionate” became a roadside cliff in need of a guard rail. michael and gabriel were that guard rail. their fallen sibling was a cautionary tale.

the thing about falling is that sometimes you see it coming, and sometimes it blindsides you. lucifer’s was not a slippery slope, but a gradual and palpable decline. for years before, whenever he’d walk out of a room, the angels left inside would put their heads together and mutter about what’s the almighty going to do about that one. raphael’s, on the other hand, was blink-and-you-miss-it. he was here one day, gone the next. there wasn’t even the time to think about whether you wanted to say goodbye.

(if he decided to be a traitor, after all, then you needn’t regard him as a brother.)

and time went on. despite the shock, the world kept turning, and the stars kept burning, and nobody said raphael’s name. not for six thousand years.

it was hard to keep up with new demons. bad enough having to encourage every baby-faced cherub day-to-day (but not too hard, otherwise they ran the risk of becoming “passionate.” passionate didn’t matter. just loyalty. loyalty keeps heaven heaven.) the first time gabriel hears the name “crowley” he thinks nothing of it.

“a demon?” he asks sandalphon. “check and see who’s available, sort of... low and on the same level. no need to exert the effort of someone actually important on a simple demon.”

sandalphon agrees easily and makes to depart, but gabriel sticks up a hand, thoughtful. hold on.

“aziraphale,” he says. “he’s on earth, isn’t he? have him take care of it. perfect busy work for someone so eager to please.”

sandalphon smiles gold.

meanwhile, michael? michael doesn’t even remember. deleted the name from his mind the second it first entered. unimportant. bottom line: demon.

but after the armageddon that never was, the name finally sticks. and no matter what michael might have said at that demon’s trial, there is nothing more dangerous than an unchecked enemy. he keeps an eye out. and for awhile, there’s nothing out of the ordinary. just a never-was-an-angel and a soon-to-be-demon spending too much time together on a planet that was never theirs.

bottom line: ?

so michael goes to gabriel for help.

“i need to understand what happened between these two,” he says. “make some sense of it. find out how dangerous they really are.”

and gabriel turns to the left, and frowns in thought, like he is surprised to find no one there.

“gabriel?”

“it’s nothing. just a passing... are you sure there is cause for concern? they’re two outcasts. nothing more. no threat to us.”

“i would like to... speak with them.”

“then speak we shall.”

they arrive on earth. it is easy to find aziraphale because he never left the bookshop.

“hold on,” gabriel cautions as they approach the door. the sign says closed. there’s an intimidation as hot as hellfire emanating from it.

“do not let them see your cowardice,” michael chides, and pushes through. bottom line: answers are needed.

the door creaks and cuts off two voices. and two figures appear.

“oh!” says crowley, glancing sideways at aziraphale. “look at that. the gang’s all here.”

aziraphale looks momentarily stunned, which only makes michael’s brain fight harder to understand. he pushes forward.

“crowley. aziraphale.”

aziraphale bristles. “i do believe the sign said closed.”

“we are not here to indulge your human fantasy. we have come to--”

“ask for the towel back?” crowley interrupts. “no good. it’s long gone. i’ll pay for another one. do you take updog currency?”

“what’s updog?” gabriel asks.

“nothing, but i do deserve a high five for that one.”

“not now, dear,” aziraphale whispers to him.

crowley squares his shoulders, glaring through the two archangels. “right, straight to business then. we don’t care why you came. leave now, and we might let you go alive.”

aziraphale begins to react in astonishment, but michael and gabriel beat him to it.

“you should not threaten angels so easily,” gabriel says.

“i’ll do what i want,” says crowley. “fair’s fair, right? i’m just dishing it out as good as i get. doing as you do.”

“crowley,” aziraphale protests.

“where do you get the nerve?” michael all but growls.

“oh, probably from my time in heaven.”

if anyone else in the room were the snake, there would have been hissing. “don’t invoke that holy place,” gabriel says.

“you lost the privilege,” says michael.

“geez!” crowley throws up his hands. “if i didn’t know any better, i’d say this was personal! come on, are we going to forget the past that easily?”

“you have no past.”

“you are forgotten.”

“you’d think we three grew up with me hogging the telly, eh?” crowley asks aziraphale, the same way a zookeeper teaching schoolchildren might ask an obvious question to a turtle.

and michael and gabriel are blindsided.

“oh.” crowley tilts his head. “you really didn’t know. funny, that. almost.”

“it can’t be,” says gabriel.

“impossible,” says michael.

“hello,” says crowley, twirling five fingers, and then settling on showing them just one.

“demon,” says michael.

“oh, yes!” says crowley.

“but also,” says gabriel.

“oh yes...” crowley finishes.

he’s scowling now. darker. his anger crackles into lightning on the street outside, and black wings unfurl like looming shadows. michael and gabriel stare at them as though trying to discern something underneath. an origin to the stain, or a clean patch.

michael blinks first. bottom line: demon. he says, “you will not expect any special treatment from us.”

crowley shakes his head. “i was never special.”

(it may be that gabriel flinches at that. too long ago. too hard to tell.)

aziraphale, certainly, makes a noise at the back of his throat, but crowley shakes his head the slightest amount. an indication to let him handle this.

“you just can’t quit betraying your side, can you?” michael asks. “what did you hope to achieve? you are an abomination. you were cast out for a reason. and you will never be allowed back in.”

gabriel double-takes, but still says nothing. he looks like a man found on the side of the road with no memory of how he got there. lost. confused. aged.

“i don’t want that,” crowley says. “i’m better than that, now.”

“better than heaven? blasphemy,” michael chides.

“demon,” crowley replies.

and gabriel can no longer keep silent.

“you let me speak with you at the human airbase,” he says, agitated, his purple eyes glowing slightly. is he needing to keep his emotions at bay? what could he possibly feel for crowley? surely they were no longer each other’s kin. “we looked each other in the eyes, raphael.”

“crowley,” crowley and michael correct him at the same time.

gabriel looks appropriate aghast at himself. “crowley,” he amends, and then continues, “this is--i mean, you were--you are--this is just evidence of how far one may fall.”

“funny, i was about to say the same to you.”

“you have no authority to judge us!” michael says, seething. “do not forget your place. if you are not an angel now, you never were. not at heart. not truly. give me one good reason not to smite you where you stand.”

aziraphale steps in front of crowley, chin raised high, and says immediately, “i won’t let you.”

“angel, pl--”

crowley puts a gentle hand on aziraphale’s shoulder, but even that, aziraphale shrugs off.

“gabriel,” he says. “perhaps you can understand this. crowley has changed, yes. he is no longer an angel.”

“he doesn’t feel love the way we do,” michael interjects, and crowley’s head pokes out from behind aziraphale.

“when’s the last time you had a warm, fuzzy feeling, then?”

“michael, i believe i must depart,” gabriel says softly. he still looks like he’s been stranded inside a life that he does not call his.

michael says, “yes, do.”

and gabriel disappears.

aziraphale sighs and steps back at crowley’s side, holding crowley’s wrist tightly. crowley takes the hand and squeezes back.

“guess some people just can’t take the heat,” aziraphale mutters.

crowley shrugs. “well, you know what they say. if you can’t take the heat, stay out of the boiling sulphur pools. maybe he did what’s right by him. maybe seeing me just scared him a little too badly.”

“angels fear nothing,” says michael, even as his eyes hint toward something different. his jaw works. he takes a moment to control himself and then asks, “is this how you were able to withstand the holy water?”

aziraphale quietly snorts. crowley squeezes his hand again, this time in warning, and says, “you didn’t really think i was going to answer that one, did you? and might i remind you that all i asked that day was to be left alone.”

“you may think you still belong in this world,” says michael, shaking his head and glaring at their conjoined hands, “but you do not. and aziraphale, one day you will pay dearly for your choices. fear the future. for when that day comes, you, too, will be erased from heaven. anditcan’tcometoosoon.”

the breath rushes out of him, and michael, too, is gone.

the bookshop stands sturdy and proud. crowley swings up his and aziraphale’s hands, kissing the back of aziraphale’s, and loudly declares, “well, that was dramatic. weren’t we going to go and look at a cottage this afternoon, love?”

[facing-fame]

So, what is all of this about, anyway?

This blog is a place for me to document my journey to being a full time performer.

It’s what I’ve wanted to do since I was a child. It’s who I am.

I am 22 years old and I’ve only recently reconnected with that truth. I remembered that for me, life isn’t a race. It’s not about chasing or achieving or proving things to others.

For me, life is about connection. Life is about love and art. The things that move us to achieve the things we inevitably do. It’s about the beautiful story that unfolds as we interact with the world and our growing identities.

Youth is a powerful currency. I refuse to spend it being someone else... being afraid. Hiding. Doing what I believe others want me to do because I want to be liked. It’s just not worth it.

When I follow my truth, life aligns for me. There is no need to move mountains with sheer willpower in this context. The mountain moves itself for me.

With all of this being said, I have decided to accept my fate. Fame. Creativity. Emotional expression. Vulnerability. Connection. Performance.

Check out my hashtags to pick my brain.

[a7918578348]

If you want to practice this skill, you must first come from the palace.Closed for three years, only entering but not leaving, clear rob?

If you want to withdraw cash, you must first pull people, outrageous!

There is a very classic section in Mr. Jin Yong’s martial arts novel "The Swordsman". After Yue Buqun got the "Sunflower Treasure", he opened up the martial arts secrets, but saw the secrets with the eager desire to practice martial arts. There are two sentences on the title page of "If you want to practice this exercise, you must first come from the palace." Yue Buqun’s many ideas before practicing this magical technique that day, Mr. Jin did not describe in detail in the novel, but Yue Buqun from the palace did not describe it in detail. It is indeed well-known that he failed to practice a peerless magical technique, but ended up in a betrayal and ecstasy. It is said that art comes from life and is higher than life. When Mr. Jin was writing a novel, he never expected that an old liar would dominate a contemporary "If you want to practice this skill, you must first Palace!" The farce, that is, the scam of the century initiated by Guo Wengui on the ant bandit gang recently-"Xi" coin.

"It has been closed for three years, only entry and no exit." Recently, under the manipulation of Guo Wengui, an old liar, the "Xi" coin has grown gratifyingly, and even completely violated the laws of the world currency. A dazzling achievement. Of course, the main reason for this achievement is that the "Xi" coin is created by Guo Wengui to collect money without any legal license. The rise and fall are all caused by old swindlers. Talk nonsense. It really started with a mouth, and afterwards it all depends on making up. Under such a false prosperity, a group of silly ants were naturally blood-red in their eyes by the dazzling performance of the air coin, eager to withdraw it.

However, Guo Wengui, an old liar, was born to deceive himself. He did not spend enough money to accumulate money. Naturally, he absolutely refused to watch the money that the ants had invested in cashing out, and he had to take more. So when the little ants hurriedly wanted to initiate cash withdrawal in accordance with Guo Wengui's letter of commitment, they saw and saw Guo Wengui sent their first magic weapon-if you want to withdraw cash, you must first pull someone! "Hi" coin grows very well, and I am very happy to collect the money. The ants naturally think that they will make a lot of money. However, if you want to make the money invested in real cash, you must follow the bully's statement to attract more people to buy air coins. Only when people who buy coins have accumulated to a certain level can they apply for withdrawal. Anyone with a little bit of brain can see that this has been a long-standing MLM method in China for more than ten years. If you want to make money, you have to recruit people and you have to go offline crazy. However, those who joined the MLM organization worked hard for several years, but in the end they ended up in disbandment, rebellion, and even debts. With such a simple and clear MLM method, there are even silly ants who are fighting for the so-called bursting revolution and anti-communism, and they are willing to become Guo Wengui's human cash machine. Obviously knowing that it is a trap, the behavior of jumping into it is quite outrageous. What is the difference between this and Yue Buqun, who wants to practice magic skills and wields a knife from the palace in "Swordsman"?

More than that, in order to further appease the increasing enthusiasm of the silly ants, Guo Laojie also enthusiastically launched the "three-year blockade agreement"-within three years, the silly ants can't move the money they put in, and all want to move the money. All actions must follow the command of the so-called Xi Nation Alliance. But logically speaking, if Aircoin enters the three-year blockade period, then we can understand that all its fund transactions have been frozen, but the old scammer who stood up again at this time gave another It is said that the reason why Xibi could not withdraw cash was because ccp hired someone to hit the market, resulting in a large amount of funds being withdrawn. While desperately instigating the silly ants to develop offline purchases of air coins, while claiming that the silly ants who bought the coins must face the three-year blockade of the "Xi" coins, the ants who bought the coins will withdraw their funds within three years. Was labeled as a pseudo-type. So obviously, only bullying is allowed to sell coins, and ants are not allowed to withdraw cash. All the rules of the co-author are set by Guo Wengui himself, and it is Guo Wengui's own decision whether to withdraw cash! What is the difference between this behavior and the bandits stealing money?

In "The Swordsman", Yue Buqun knew that swinging a knife from the palace would hurt his body. He was still seduced by the so-called supernatural powers. In the end, his family was ruined, his wives were scattered, and the people betrayed their relatives. In reality, the silly ant has clearly seen one after another fall into Guo Wengui's "chicken" series of scams, but still obeys the old liar's instructions, "If you want to withdraw cash, you must first pull someone.", coaxing frantically Those relatives and friends who trust them have fallen into the trap of Guo Wengui defrauding money. In this way, I am afraid that when all the scams come to light, the silly ants will also taste the old Yue Buqun "If you want to practice this skill, you must first come from the palace. "And the bitter fruit in exchange!

[veledaseohwvi]

Closed for three years, only entering but not leaving, clear rob?

If you want to withdraw cash, you must first pull people, outrageous!

There is a very classic section in Mr. Jin Yong’s martial arts novel "The Swordsman". After Yue Buqun got the "Sunflower Treasure", he opened up the martial arts secrets but saw the secrets with the eager desire to practice masterpiece magic. There are two sentences on the title page of "If you want to practice this skill, you must first come from the palace." Yue Buqun’s many ideas before practicing this magical skill that day, Mr. Jin did not describe in detail in the novel, but Yue Buqun who came from the palace did not describe it in detail. It is indeed well-known that he failed to practice a peerless magical technique, but ended up in a betrayal and ecstasy. It is said that art originates from life and is higher than life. When Mr. Jin was writing a novel, he never thought that an old liar would dominate a contemporary "If you want to practice this skill, you must first Palace!" The farce, that is, the scam of the century initiated by Guo Wengui on the ant bandit gang recently-"Xi" coin.

"It has been closed for three years, only entry and no exit." Recently, under the manipulation of Guo Wengui, an old liar, the "Xi" coin has grown gratifyingly, and even completely violated the laws of the world currency. A dazzling achievement. Of course, the main reason for the achievement is that the "Xi" coin is created by Guo Wengui to collect money without any legal license. The rise and fall are all caused by old swindlers. Talk nonsense. It really started with a mouth, and it all depends on making up afterwards. Under such a false prosperity, a group of silly ants were naturally blood-red in their eyes by the dazzling performance of the air coin, eager to withdraw it.

However, Guo Wengui, an old liar, was born to deceive. He did not spend enough money to accumulate money. Naturally, he absolutely refused to watch the money that the ant had invested in cashing out, and he had to take more. So when the little ants hurriedly wanted to initiate cash withdrawal in accordance with Guo Wengui's letter of commitment, they saw and saw Guo Wengui sent their first magic weapon-if you want to withdraw cash, you must first pull someone! "Hi" coin grows very well, and I am very happy to collect the money. The ants naturally think that they will make a lot of money. However, if you want to make the money invested in real cash, you must follow the bully's statement to attract more people to buy air coins. Only when people who buy coins have accumulated to a certain level can they apply for withdrawal. Anyone with a little brain can see that this has been a long-lasting MLM method in China for more than a decade.If you want to make money, you have to recruit people, and you have to go offline crazy. However, those who joined the MLM organization worked hard for several years, but in the end they ended up in disbandment, rebellion, and even debts. With such a simple and clear MLM method, there are even silly ants who are fighting for the so-called bursting revolution and anti-communism, and they are willing to become Guo Wengui's human cash machine. Obviously knowing that it is a trap, the behavior of jumping into it is quite outrageous. What's the difference between this and Yue Buqun, who wants to practice magic skills and wields a knife from the palace in "Swordsman"?

More than that, in order to further appease the silly ants' increasing enthusiasm for cash withdrawal, Guo Laojie also enthusiastically launched the "three-year blockade agreement"-the money invested by the silly ants within three years cannot be moved, and everything wants to move the money. All actions must follow the command of the so-called Xi Nation Alliance. But logically speaking, if Aircoin enters the three-year blockade period, then we can understand that all its fund transactions have been frozen, but the old scammer who stood up again at this time gave another It is said that the reason why Xibi could not withdraw cash was because ccp hired someone to hit the market, resulting in a large amount of funds being withdrawn. While desperately instigating the silly ants to develop offline purchases of air coins, while claiming that the silly ants who bought the coins must face the three-year blockade of the "Xi" coins, the ants who bought the coins will withdraw their cash within three years. Was labeled as a pseudo-category. So obviously, only bullying is allowed to sell coins, and ants are not allowed to withdraw cash. All the rules of the co-author are set by Guo Wengui himself, and it is Guo Wengui's own decision whether to withdraw cash! What is the difference between this behavior and the bandits stealing money?

In "The Swordsman", Yue Buqun knew that swinging a knife from the palace would hurt his body. He was still seduced by the so-called supernatural powers. In the end, his family was ruined, his wives were scattered, and the people betrayed their relatives. In reality, the silly ant has clearly seen one after another fall into Guo Wengui's "chicken" series of scams, but he still obeys the old liar's instructions, "If you want to withdraw, you must first pull someone." Those relatives and friends who trust them have fallen into the trap of Guo Wengui defrauding money. In this way, I am afraid that when all the scams come to light, the silly ants will also taste the old Yue Buqun "If you want to practice this skill, you must first come from the palace. "And the bitter fruit in exchange!

[scrumptiousfanarcade]

Closed for three years, only entering but not leaving, clear rob? If you want to withdraw cash, you must first pull people, outrageous!

There is a very classic part of Mr. Jin Yong’s martial arts novel "The Swordsman". After Yue Buqun got the "Sunflower Treasure", he opened up the martial arts secrets and saw the secrets with the eager desire to practice the martial arts. There are two sentences on the title page of "If you want to practice this exercise, you must first come from the palace." Yue Buqun’s many ideas before practicing this magical technique that day, Mr. Jin did not describe in detail in the novel, but Yue Buqun from the palace did not describe it in detail. It is indeed well-known that he failed to develop a peerless magical technique, but ended up in a betrayal and ecstasy. It is said that art comes from life and is higher than life. When Mr. Jin was writing a novel, he never expected that an old liar would dominate a contemporary "If you want to practice this skill, you must first Palace!" The farce, that is, the scam of the century initiated by Guo Wengui on the ant bandit gang recently-"Xi" coin.

"It has been closed for three years, only entry and no exit." Recently, under the manipulation of Guo Wengui, an old liar, the "Xi" coin has grown gratifyingly, and even completely violated the laws of the world currency. A dazzling achievement. Of course, the main reason for this achievement is that the "Xi" coin is created by Guo Wengui to collect money without any legal license. The rise and fall are all caused by old swindlers. Talk nonsense. It really started with a mouth, and it all depends on making up afterwards. Under such a false prosperity, a group of silly ants were naturally blood-red in their eyes by the dazzling performance of the air coin, eager to withdraw it.

However, Guo Wengui, an old liar, was born to deceive himself. He did not spend enough money to accumulate money. Naturally, he absolutely refused to watch the money that the ants had invested in cashing out, and he had to take more. So when the little ants hurriedly wanted to initiate cash withdrawal in accordance with Guo Wengui's letter of commitment, they saw and saw Guo Wengui sent their first magic weapon-to withdraw cash, they must first pull people! The "Hi" coin grows very well, and I am very happy to collect the money. The ants naturally think that they will make a lot of money. However, if you want to make the money you invest in real cash, you must follow the bully's statement to attract more people to buy air coins. Only when people who buy coins have accumulated to a certain level can they apply for withdrawal. Anyone with a little bit of brain can see that this has been a long-standing MLM method in China for more than a decade. If you want to make money, you have to recruit people and you have to go offline crazy. However, those who joined the MLM organization worked hard for several years, but in the end they ended up in dissolution, rebellion, and even debts. With such a simple and clear MLM method, there are even silly ants who are fighting for the so-called revolution and anti-communism, willing to become Guo Wengui's human cash machine. Obviously knowing that it is a trap, the behavior of jumping into it is quite outrageous. What is the difference between this and Yue Buqun, who wants to practice magic skills and wields a knife from the palace in "Swordsman"?

More than that, in order to further appease the increasing enthusiasm of the silly ants, Guo Laojie also enthusiastically launched the "three-year blockade agreement"-within three years, the silly ants can't move the money they put in, and all want to move the money. All actions must follow the command of the so-called Xi Nation Alliance. But logically speaking, if Aircoin enters the three-year blockade period, then we can understand that all its fund transactions have been frozen, but the old scammer who stood up again at this time gave another It is said that the reason why Xibi could not withdraw cash was because ccp hired someone to hit the market, resulting in a large amount of funds being withdrawn. While desperately instigating the silly ants to develop offline purchases of air coins, while claiming that the silly ants who bought the coins must face the three-year blockade of the "Xi" coins, the ants who bought the coins will withdraw their funds within three years. Was labeled as a pseudo-category. So obviously, only bullying is allowed to sell coins, and ants are not allowed to withdraw cash. All the rules of the co-author are set by Guo Wengui himself, and it is Guo Wengui's own decision whether to withdraw the cash! What is the difference between this behavior and the bandits stealing money?

In "Smiling Proud Jianghu", Yue Buqun knew that swinging a knife from the palace would hurt his body. He was still lured by the so-called supernatural powers. In the end, his family was ruined, his wives were scattered, and the people betrayed their relatives. In reality, the silly ant has clearly seen one after another fall into Guo Wengui's "chicken" series of scams, but he still obeys the old liar's instructions, "If you want to withdraw, you must first pull someone." Those relatives and friends who trust them have fallen into the trap of Guo Wengui defrauding money. In this way, I am afraid that when all the scams come to light, the silly ants will also taste the old Yue Buqun "If you want to practice this skill, you must first come from the palace. "And the bitter fruit in exchange!

[newstfionline]

Wednesday, March 10, 2021

Many in US still face COVID-19 financial loss (AP) Roughly 4 in 10 Americans say they’re still feeling the financial impact of the loss of a job or income within their household as the economic recovery remains uneven one year into the coronavirus pandemic. A new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research provides further evidence that the pandemic has been devastating for some Americans, while leaving others virtually unscathed or even in better shape, at least when it comes to their finances. The outcome often depended on the type of job a person had and their income level before the pandemic. The pandemic has particularly hurt Black and Latino households, as well as younger Americans, some of whom are now going through the second major economic crisis of their adult lives. The poll shows that about half of Americans say they have experienced at least one form of household income loss during the pandemic, including 25% who have experienced a household layoff and 31% who say someone in the household was scheduled for fewer hours. Overall, 44% said their household experienced income loss from the pandemic that is still having an impact on their finances. The poll’s findings reflect what some economists have called a “K-shaped recovery,” where there have been divergent fortunes among Americans. Those with office jobs were able to transition to working from home while those who worked in hard-hit industries such as entertainment, dining, travel and other industries have continued to struggle.

Los Angeles Schools Remain Closed and Families Wonder: How Much Longer? (NYT) It has been almost a year since the coronavirus pandemic virtually emptied public schools in Los Angeles and sent students home to take classes from their bedrooms. Families in the Los Angeles Unified School District are coming to terms with a bittersweet truth: With the spring term scheduled to end on June 11, only a sliver of their pandemic school year is likely to take place face-to-face. District officials say a deal with its powerful teachers’ union to resume in-person learning seems close, and might happen this week. But the superintendent, Austin Beutner, has estimated that, even with an agreement in place, it will take at least until mid-April just to welcome back elementary and special needs students. Older students would be phased in over the next couple of weeks. Of the nation’s 10 largest school systems, Los Angeles is the only one that has yet to resume in-person teaching for significant numbers of students.

US offers residency to Venezuelans and will review sanctions (AP) The Biden administration said Monday it is offering temporary legal residency to several hundred thousand Venezuelans who fled their country’s economic collapse and will review U.S. sanctions intended to isolate the South American nation. President Joe Biden’s administration announced it would grant temporary protected status to Venezuelans already in the United States, allowing an estimated 320,000 people to apply to legally live and work in the country for 18 months. Trump resisted repeated calls from Republican and Democratic lawmakers, primarily from South Florida, to grant temporary protected status to Venezuelans though he issued an order deferring deportation for a smaller number on his final day in office. The Trump administration also significantly tightened U.S. economic sanctions on Venezuela, most notably on its crucial oil sector, to try and force President Nicolas Maduro to give up power after an election in 2018 that the United States and other countries believe was fraudulent. A senior Biden administration official portrayed that as a failed strategy. “The United States is in no rush to lift sanctions,” the official said, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss the policy. “But we need to recognize here that unilateral sanctions over the last four years have not succeeded in achieving an electoral outcome in the country.”

Brazil justice annuls Lula’s sentences, enabling 2022 run (AP) A Supreme Court justice on Monday annulled all convictions against former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a ruling that potentially would allow him to run again for the presidency next year. The decision also laid bare the country’s political divisions, with leftists celebrating their 75-year-old leader’s return to the political arena as conservatives said the rulings were tantamount to impunity. Da Silva’s lawyers issued a statement welcoming the decision, saying it “is aligned with everything we have said for more than five years in these suits.” But Brazilian media reported that the country’s prosecutor-general Augusto Aras, an ally of conservative President Jair Bolsonaro, is preparing to appeal the decision.

Indian activist’s arrest spotlights crackdown on dissent (AP) To her friends, Disha Ravi, a 22-year-old Indian climate activist, was most concerned about her future in a world of rising temperatures. But her life changed last month when she became a household name in India, dominating headlines after police charged her with sedition, a colonial-era law that carries a sentence up to life in prison. Her alleged crime: sharing an online handbook meant to raise support for months-long farmer protests on Twitter. “If highlighting farmers’ protest globally is sedition, I am better (off) in jail,” she said in court two weeks ago. Going after activists isn’t new in India, but Ravi’s saga has stoked fear and anxiety. Observers say what happened to Ravi—a young, middle class, urban woman—hit home for a lot of Indians, who suddenly feared they could be jailed for sharing something on social media. The incident has raised questions over India’s democracy, with critics decrying it as the latest attempt by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government to mute dissent and criminalize it. “They targeted someone not usually targeted by the Hindu right-wing—a young girl from South India, who doesn’t have a Muslim name and is not linked to left-wing student politics,” said prominent historian Ramachandra Guha. “The message they wanted to send is that they can go after anyone.”

Victims of Myanmar’s Army Speak (NYT) The soldiers from Myanmar’s army knocked on U Thein Aung’s door one morning last April as he was having tea with friends, and demanded that all of them accompany the platoon to another village. When they reached a dangerous stretch in the mountains of Rakhine State, the men were ordered to walk 100 feet ahead. One stepped on a land mine and was blown to pieces. Metal fragments struck Mr. Thein Aung in his arm and his left eye. “They threatened to kill us if we refused to go with them,” said Mr. Thein Aung, 65, who lost the eye. “It is very clear that they used us as human land mine detectors.” The military and its brutal practices are an omnipresent fear in Myanmar, one that has intensified since the generals seized full power in a coup last month. As security forces gun down peaceful protesters on city streets, the violence that is commonplace in the countryside serves as a grisly reminder of the military’s long legacy of atrocities. During decades of military rule, an army dominated by the Bamar majority operated with impunity against ethnic minorities, killing civilians and torching villages.

New option for quarantine in Thailand (Foreign Policy) Wealthy visitors to Thailand now have the option of spending their 14-day mandatory quarantine on a yacht as part of a new program to boost tourism to the country. Prospective seafarers will be equipped with an electronic wristband that will track the wearer’s vital signs as well as GPS coordinates—even when at sea. Thailand’s tourism minister proposed a separate plan last week to allow tourists to spend their quarantine period in the country’s beach resorts. The need for unique approaches is particularly acute in the southeast Asian nation: Only 6.7 million foreign tourists visited Thailand in 2020, following a record 39.8 million tourists in 2019.

China launches COVID-19 vaccination certificates for cross-border travel (Reuters) China has launched a digital COVID-19 vaccination certificate for its citizens planning cross-border travels, joining other countries issuing similar documents as they seek ways to reopen their economies. As vaccines are globally being rolled out, a few countries, including Bahrain, have already introduced certificates identifying vaccinated people and the European Union agreed to develop vaccine passports under pressure from tourism-dependent southern countries. The certificate issued by China would have details about the holder’s COVID-19 vaccination information and coronavirus test results, the Department of Consular Affairs under China’s foreign ministry said on its website.

Lebanon’s collapse piles strain on army, security forces (Reuters) Discontent is brewing in the ranks of Lebanon’s security forces over a currency crash wiping out most of the value of their salaries as unrest and crime surge. In unusually outspoken comments, army chief General Joseph Aoun said his warnings that the pressure on soldiers’ earnings and morale could lead to an “implosion” had fallen on deaf ears. Lebanon’s pound has crashed 85 percent since late 2019 in a financial meltdown that poses the biggest threat to stability since the 1975-1990 civil war. “Soldiers are going hungry like the people,” he said on Monday, berating politicians without naming names. The basic monthly salary of a soldier or policeman, which used to amount to around $800, is worth under $120 today. Budget cuts pushed the military to cut meat from its meals last year. In what was seen as a sign of the times, the French embassy donated food parcels last month to the Lebanese army, which has long been backed by Western nations.

Barred from marrying by the rabbis, Israelis find a pandemic workaround—in Utah (Washington Post) For generations, the iron grip of Orthodox rabbis on Israeli family law has meant that mixed couples, gay couples or even couples in which one partner is not deemed Jewish enough have been denied the right to marry within the country’s borders. To circumvent the rabbis, thousands of Israelis jetted off each year to nearby countries like Cyprus or Greece for weddings that the government later recognized as civil unions. But when the pandemic closed even that window, it also opened another: Zoom weddings, administered 7,000 miles away—in Utah. At least 150 Israeli couples have already tied the virtual knot through this technological loophole, spurring a new battle in a national culture war that has long pitted Israel’s non-Orthodox Jewish majority against the politically entrenched Orthodox Jewish minority. Aware of the threat to their outsize influence, ultra-Orthodox politicians who control the Interior Ministry have already moved to dismiss the Zoom weddings, which both sides agree have the potential to forge a legacy that would far outlive the pandemic. Under an Ottoman-era law extended by Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, marriage in Israel is governed by the state’s religious authorities. For Jews, it is the chief rabbinate that is tasked with validating the bride and groom as Jewish, meaning that they must prove descent from an uninterrupted line of Jewish mothers. “This is a revolutionary and historical step,” said Uri Regev, a rabbi, lawyer and president of Hiddush, a religious equality organization based in Jerusalem. “For the first time, there will be access, for a minimal cost for Israelis, who won’t need to travel overseas, who can legally and quickly get married or at least obtain a registration of marriage through this new avenue.”

Death toll from explosions in Equatorial Guinea rises to 98 (Reuters) The death toll from a series of explosions at a military barracks in Equatorial Guinea rose by dozens to at least 98 killed after more bodies were recovered, the government said Tuesday. The blasts on Sunday in the Mondong Nkuantoma neighborhood of the coastal city of Bata also wounded at least 615 people, authorities said. The government said that 316 of the injured have been discharged and 299 remain in care in various hospitals in the city. Investigations have shown the fire may have begun when a farmer set fire to his plot to prepare it for food production and a breeze spread the flames to the nearby barracks where the high-caliber ammunition was stored.

From a prolonged pandemic, a rethink of life’s milestones? (AP) Wedding anniversaries for Elizabeth O’Connor Cole and her husband, Michael, usually involve a dinner reservation for two at a fancy restaurant. Not this time around. As the pandemic raged last May, the Chicago mom of four unearthed her boxed wedding gown, recreated their reception menu, and pulled out her wedding china and silver after enlisting another of her kids to DJ their first-dance song, “At Last,” for a romantic turn around the living room. And the priest who married them offered a special blessing on Zoom with friends and family joining in. “Spontaneous and a bit chaotic,” O’Connor Cole pronounced the celebration. “Still, it was probably the most meaningful and fun anniversary we’ve had.” When the crisis finally resolves, will our new ways of marking births and deaths, weddings and anniversaries have any lasting impact? Or will freshly felt sentiments born of pandemic invention be fleeting? Some predict their pandemic celebrations have set a new course. Others still mourn the way their traditions used to be.

[slingsendarrows]

Reading “Hunger”

“Every body has a story and a history.”

I bought “Hunger” by Roxane Gay at a Chapters bookstore in Victoria, BC. It was December 2018, and I was spending the weekend with my current fuck buddy. I remember reading the first couple of chapters while he attended to a client he was training. I was immediately uncomfortable--she speaks so openly about hunger in a naked way. Hunger, not only for food but for other things we use food to fulfill. Living in a body I also have considered unruly since I was thirteen it was comforting to know someone I admire is also a fucking mess. I felt better and horrible knowing I was not alone in despising my fatness in this age of body positivity.

Living in our bodies as women often feels hopeless. We want to fit in and be seen for who we are. We want to have greater social currency beyond our clothing size, but the world constantly reminds us it is highly unlikely. Our families “lovingly” prod us to lose the excess weight dreading our dwindling prospects as our girths expand. I am not even at Roxane Gay’s level of fatness ,but I constantly will myself to disappear. I wear clothes that hide my pudgy belly and berate my thunder thighs.

I haven’t been able to workout during the two months of our covid-19 induced lockdown. This has led to crushing anxiety and a hunger for safety and comfort. I have long turned to food for that salve.

It is difficult to remember a time when I did not eat to simply feel better, expend boredom, channel frustration, reduce anxiety, and/or punish my lack of willpower.

“Hunger” doesn’t offer a solution. It is unvarnished truth about the realities of being fat in a society that is unwilling to understand the why of the unruly body. A society wishing fatness simply removed from its sight. We celebrate when people significantly reduce their size and a create narrative that weight loss inherently equals a better life beIt. You will be healthier, wealthier, loveable, and by extension, acceptable. And god forbid you are accepting of your body, dare of be happy and ARE successful? That is an outcome the world will not abide.

“My sad stories will always be there. I am going to keep telling them even though I hate having stories to tell. These sad stories will always weigh on me, though that burden lessens the more I realize who I am and what I am worth.”

The truth is: I don’t want to be fat. I like how I feel when I am thinner. I like the confidence and can even tolerate shopping. I like the desire and attention of men’s lust. I enjoy the feeling of admiration. Does it bother me that men who would never look at me twice are suddenly ravenous when I am 20lbs lighter? Of course. But what can I do? Fight the tide of patriarchy, misogyny and sexism? Some days I will rail. Some days I am tired. Most days it is a losing battle. How can I can seek to change the world? I can’t even change the way I feel about myself.

To me, my self-worth and my happiness are inextricably intertwined with the size of my body. Even with stretch marks and scars, I know I will be happier smaller. So I will always fight to achieve that goal. I have no idea what it looks like. I thought I was getting close last June but loneliness, isolation and desperate attachment resulted in a 25lbs gain over seven months.

Today I started yet another “meal plan” to get my hunger under control yet again. The latest strategy is trying not to be perfect, using the guide to eat when I physically feel hunger and prioritizing making healthy food choices above strictly adhering to the container/measuring system.

The one take away from reading this book is: 1. I am not alone. 2. Talking about the real nature of living in my body, if only to myself, is necessary even if there is no foreseeable solution or hope that things may ever be different.  

Chapter 74 is painfully familiar:

Part of the reason relationships and friendships can be so difficult for me is because there is a part of me that thinks I have to get things right. I have to say the right things and do the right things or I won’t be liked or loved anymore. It’s stressful, so then I engage in an elaborate attempt at being the best friend or girlfriend and get further and further away from who I really am, someone with a good heart, but also someone who may not always get things right. I find myself apologizing for thins I shouldn’t be apologizing for. I find myself apologizing for who I am.

And even when I am with good, kind, loving people, I don’t trust that goodness, kindness, or love. I worry that sooner and later, they will make my losing weight a condition of their continued affection. That fear makes me try harder to get things right, as if I am hedging my bets.

All of this makes me very hard on myself, very driven. I just keep working and working and working and trying to be right, and I lose sight of who I am or what I want, which leaves me in a less ideal place. It leaves me...nowhere.

With age comes self-awareness or something that looks like self-awareness, and so I try to be on the lookout for patterns of behavior, choices I’m making where I am trying too hard, giving too much, reaching too intently for being right is what someone else wants me to be. It’s scary, though, trying to be yourself and hoping yourself is enough. It’s scary believing that you, as you are, could ever be enough.

There is an anxiety in being yourself, though. There is the haunting questions of “What if?” always lingering. What if who I am will never be enough? What if I will never be right enough for someone?

This is how I feel most hours of the day. Am I enough? If I refuse a favor, neglect to offer, or stay in bed all day, will I lose love and affection? Will I always feel so easily discarded and disregarded? When will I believe I am enough? When will I let myself be? When will the risk of losing myself overcome the fear of being alone long before I engage in precarious and harmful attachments? I wish I could say this will not be an issue in the future. I wish I could guarantee from now on I will choose my romantic partners deliberately. I wish I can say I will stop depending on another’s desire of me as reason to be romantically involved with them without considering if I want them in return. But there is no guarantees. Hardwired behaviors and self-perceptions are difficult to override. You can overcome society, maybe, but how can you overcome yourself?

“The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself. If we don't have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure as hell we should never teach.”--Maya Angelou

[igotafiftycherries]

About Us

This game blog is run by code name Peace and Patience! (But we are also somtimes Pain and Panic...) We co-play SUPERSTAR SMTOWN, JYP, Pledis and Starship but we refused to co-play BeatEvoYG because we had devastatingly different favourites and had to create our separate games to fulfil our bias needs.

We strive to teach you our ways of getting super successful in KPOP Rhythm games without spending any real cash!! And also to showcase our hardships, achievements and complaints throughout this arduous journey playing 4+2 accounts.

Player 1

Code Name: Peace/Panic

Proudest Achievement: Full-Combo Doom Da Da (Live) by T.O.P on BeatEvoYG

Greatest Wish: To have SUPERSTAR FNC (I love CNBLUE and N.Flying!!)

Peace is the ultimate full-combo, high-score earner of the team, the icon of accuracy and the Super Saiyan one chance card to clear 3-star, n-number super perfect missions. The symbol of peace and poise, Peace hits those notes at the rate of 1,015BPM (just kidding) while screaming at people who triggered notifications that block 1/10 of the interface.

Peace will take every chance to 3-star clear every song in the game to experience every kind of note so the accounts will be perfectly primed to destroy the events or whatever disgustingly strange beat combination the developer decides to hurl. Peace also ONLY ever plays hard mode. 

Sometimes, Peace is also Panic when tough songs appear, notifications come in when a hard-earned full-combo is at stake or when SOME game just wants to be irritating and put unnecessary notes that doesn't even match the song beats (this is for you, PLEDIS).

Peace is also terrible at managing the game's finances and somehow almost made the SMTOWN account bankrupt once. Sorry Patience...

Player 2

Code Name: Patience/Pain

Proudest Achievement: Collecting every single GOT7 Mark limited edition card at least in S rank

Greatest Wish: To get that GOT7 LE Eclipse and 7for7 Youngjae card to form a full LE Eclipse and 7for7 team

Patience is the bread winner, the budgeter, the bank. The dragon to the gold LE/R-cards, the magpie to the shiny dalcom currency, the miner of diamonds. Patience is the manager of the account's finances, the strategist of upgrading and also the human sacrifices to take one for the team for "clear 10 times" missions.

Patience will hustle for as much currency as possible so that the accounts remain prosperous despite the economic downturn most will experience when LE cards are introduced. Some say that Patience will even watch all the ads just to get ONE diamond (you miser).

Sometimes, Patience is Pain when the cards refuse to level up 7 times in a row (that you's Vernon and Mingyu) and squander all the hard-earned currency or when the game gives the same R card a hundred times. The most intense Pain appears when the game drops to Bronze I and the coin multiplier drops to 10%.

Patience dies a bloody death at left-hand centric beats and hook beats and often leaves hard songs and high scores to be cleared by Peace only to realize that some are totally humanly possible. (Sorry Peace...)

Peace and Patience are full of flaws, but we complement each other's strengths and weaknesses, and this why we decided to be a team. But sorry, we will never work together for BeatEvoYG, blame it on the vast difference in preference. Go see our favourites in “Favourite Cherries”!

[pinkonblonde]

Strange World: The Radical Rhetoric of Greta Thunberg

[A version of this piece was published by Green Left on 8 January, 2020.]

On Friday, 20 August, 2018, rather than go to school, Greta Thunberg sat outside Swedish parliament to protest inaction on climate change. The then-fifteen-year-old school student had with her some flyers, and a handpainted wooden sign that read: “Skolstrejk för klimatet” (school strike for the climate). On the first day of her strike, she sat alone, but news of her protest quickly spread via social media. On the second day, others joined her, and so began a youth-led protest movement comprised of millions around the world who have taken to the streets to demand a liveable future.1

If Thunberg’s act of civil disobedience attracted considerable interest, her gifts as a public communicator, evident in numerous speeches given in the intervening months, have merely served to magnify her spotlight. These speeches were gathered and published last May as No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference. In late 2019, the book was reissued in expanded editions 2019 to include speeches delivered by Thunberg between May and September.

Much of Thunberg’s activism involves pointing out what, in the midst of Australia’s nightmarish bushfire season, is now horrifyingly apparent: climate change is not merely happening but is a genuine global emergency requiring unprecedented action. Obstructing urgent progress, she points out, is widespread ignorance of the extent of the crisis. Beginning with our politicians and the media, this ignorance spreads, infecting the populace.

Although we are witnessing its effects all around us, however, Thunberg observes that “there are no headlines, no emergency meetings, no breaking news” regarding climate change itself. “No one is acting as if we were in a crisis.”2 We need to take immediate action to end greenhouse gas emissions by shifting to renewable energy sources. The emission curve, she explains, is the only thing that matters.

And the curve only continues to rise.3

António Guterres, the secretary-general of the United Nations, has deemed climate change “a direct existential threat” and “the defining issue of our time.”4 The Paris Agreement, an international treaty forming part of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, was established in 2016, under which countries pledged to keep the rise in global average temperatures “well below 2°C” while “pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.”5

Achieving the 1.5 degree target is critical, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says doing so “would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems, human health and well-being.” However, this “would require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society,” with “the next few years [being] probably the most important in our history.”6

We have already surpassed 1 degree of warming.7 Yet, much of the world is embarked upon a business-as-usual trajectory, with few if any countries having so far demonstrated a readiness to undertake the unprecedented, transformative changes required to secure a safe and liveable future.8

Confronting climate change therefore means recognising, as Thunberg does, that the world’s political and economic systems seem utterly incapable of solving the very crisis they have helped create. “You [politicians] … are only interested in solutions that will enable you to carry on like before,” she writes. “And those answers don’t exist any more. Because you did not act in time.”9

Thunberg prefers to define herself as a realist rather than a radical10 and resists the perception that she is political: “This is not a political text” the book’s opening speech proclaims.11 Her reluctance to be thought of in such terms is perhaps in part strategic. Her critics, eager to divert attention away from meaningful issues, characterise her as exploited, indoctrinated, and compromised by vested interests.

Eschewing labels and sticking to the science presumably allows Thunberg to safeguard her sense of independence, making it harder for others to dismiss her message as ideologically motivated. “Many people love to spread rumours saying that I have people ‘behind me’ or that I’m being ‘paid’ or ‘used’ to do what I’m doing,” she writes. “But there is no one ‘behind’ me except for myself.”12

And unlike politicians who are desperate to “talk about almost anything except for the climate crisis,” the science itself is at the heart of her message. “We [young activists] don’t have any other manifestos or demands—you unite behind the science, that is our demand.”13 (This point was emphasised when, after addressing the United States Congress in September, 2019, Thunberg submitted into the record a report from the IPCC in lieu of her own testimony.14)

Yet, when one considers the implications of what “unit[ing] behind the science” means for our political and economic systems, to be a realist in a time of crisis requires a willingness to consider radical alternatives. “[O]ur current economics,” she notes, “are still totally dependent on burning fossil fuels, and thereby destroying ecosystems in order to create everlasting economic growth.”15

Responsibility therefore largely rests not with the populace at large but with the corporations and the politicians who work in their interests. “[S]omeone is to blame,” she insists. “Some people—some companies and some decision-makers in particular—have known exactly what priceless values they are sacrificing to continue making unimaginable amounts of money.”16

The cause is of the crisis, in other words, is neither corruption nor aberration; rather, it is our political and economic systems running precisely as intended. “We live in a strange world,” she reflects, “where no one dares to look beyond the current political systems even though it’s clear that the answers we seek will not be found within the politics of today.” She concludes, therefore, that “maybe we should change the system itself.”17 To achieve this, Thunberg advocates “civil disobedience” tactics and “grassroots” social change.18 “It’s time to rebel,” she declares.19

In the chapter ‘I’m Too Young to Do This,’ Thunberg explains that idea of a student school strike came from phone meetings with other activists, facilitated by Bo Thorén from the group Fossil Free Dalsland. During these discussions, Thorén suggested a student strike, an idea inspired by US students who refused to return to school in the aftermath of a 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High. Thunberg liked it, but the rest of the group favoured other ideas.20 “So I went on planning the school strike all by myself,” she writes, “and after that I didn’t participate in any more meetings.”21

In a tweet, meteorologist Martin Hedberg confirmed Thunberg’s account. “I participated in a phone-meeting with Greta, Bo and others in June 2018. After a while Greta concluded: ‘You are not radical enough. I have to do something myself.’ [A]nd then she hung up. She went on to do her thing, her way.”22

In speeches added to the book’s expanded editions, Thunberg emphasises the global carbon budget, which estimates the amount of fossil fuels the world can potentially consume before we breach the threshold of 1.5 degrees of warming. Citing “chapter 2, on page 108 of the SR15 IPCC report,” she notes that at current rates of consumption, we will have exhausted that budget in scarcely over eight years.23 “No other current challenge can match the importance of establishing a wide, public awareness and understanding of our our rapidly disappearing carbon budget, that should and must become our new global currency and the very heart of our future and present economics.”24

The activist, who has Asperger syndrome, believes the condition has motivated much of her work, explaining that “since I am not that good at socializing I did this instead.”25 Likewise, she believes the condition to be key in her ability to accurately assess the existential threat posed by climate change: because Thunberg sees things as “black and white,” she avoids the cognitive dissonance and doublethink necessary to be passive and complicit within a toxic system. “[T]he rest of the people … keep saying that climate change is an existential threat and the most important issue of all,” she writes. “And yet they just carry on like before.”26

Thunberg is one of the truthtellers of our age, whose use stark binary terms evokes the urgency of our times. “If the emissions have to stop, then we must stop the emissions. To me that is black or white. There are no grey areas when it comes to survival. Either we go on as a civilization or we don’t.”27

Her role role to wrest us from our collective slumber and to awaken us to the horrifying realworld consequences of endless consumption and exploitation. “I have a dream,” she declares, invoking Martin Luther King Jr. (whom she mentions by name).28

“In fact I have many dreams. But … [t]his is not the time and place for dreams. This is the moment in history when we need to be wide awake.… And yet, wherever I go I seem to be surrounded by fairytales. Business leaders, elected officials all across the political spectrum [are] spending their time telling bedtime stories that soothe us, that make us go back to sleep.… It’s time to face the reality, the facts, the science.”29

It is sadly predictable—and a testament to the topsy-turvy nature of our times—that someone so clearsighted should be regularly denounced as a tool of propaganda.30 In 2018, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, an organisation that assesses existential risk, set their metaphorical Doomsday Clock to two minutes to midnight.31 It was the nearest the clock had been set to midnight since a single previous occasion in 1953: the peak of the Cold War.32

Branding the times in which we live as the ‘new abnormal,’ the Bulletin cited, in addition to two major existential threats—the climate crisis and the proliferation of nuclear weapons—an emerging third threat: the “ongoing and intentional corruption of the information environment,” or the spread of propaganda by way of ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative facts,’ which has undermined our capacity for rational discourse.33

Last month, citing a further deterioration in these areas, the Bulletin advanced the clock further still: to 100 seconds to midnight.34

In August, 2019, the Sun Herald columnist Andrew Bolt wrote a tawdry attack piece in which he referenced Thunberg’s mental health, calling her “deeply disturbed” and likening her to a cult leader.35

“Where are the adults?” she tweeted in response.36

A similar question was recently on the mind of the dissident intellectual Noam Chomsky as he pondered, in an interview, this “scandalous” state of affairs in which the fight for a survivable future has been left largely to teenagers. “It’s literally the case that this generation is going to have to determine whether organised human society persists,” he said. “Where’s the rest of us?”37

[The expanded edition of No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference is available in both illustrated and non-illustrated formats. Greta Thunberg’s next book, Our House Is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis is a memoir, cowritten with her family; it will be published in English in March.]

1 The “millions” figure comes from estimates of numbers at global protests in March and September of 2019. See Damian Carrington, ‘School Climate Strikes: 1.4 Million People Took Part, Say Campaigners,’ The Guardian, 19 March, 2019; Matthew Taylor, Jonathan Watts, and John Bartlett, ‘Climate Crisis: 6 Million People Join Latest Wave of Global Protests,’ The Guardian, 28 September, 2019.

2 Greta Thunberg, No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference, United Kingdom: Allen Lane, 2019, page 19.

3 Ibid., page 85.

4‘Secretary-General’s Remarks on Climate Change [As Delivered],’ United Nations, 10 September, 2018.

5‘Summary for Policymakers of IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C Approved by Governments,’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 8 October, 2018.

6 Ibid.

7 Myles Allen et al., ‘Frequently Asked Questions,’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2015.

8‘Climate Change Performance Index,’ Gemanwatch, NewClimate Institute, and Climate Action Network International, December, 2019; ‘Countries,’ Climate Action Tracker, accessed 9 February, 2020.

9 Thunberg, No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference, page 87.

10‘Interview mit Greta Thunberg: “Ich bin Realistin. Ich sehe Fakten.”’ ARD, 31 March, 2019; Sarah Kaplan and Brady Dennis, ‘Teen Activist Greta Thunberg Takes Her Youth Climate Campaign to Washington,’ The Washington Post, 14 September, 2019; Greta Thunberg, tweet, 12 December, 2019, 12:16 PM.

11 Thunberg, No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference, page 10.

12 Ibid.

13 Ibid., page 54.

14 Somini Sengupta, ‘Greta Thunberg, on Tour in America, Offers an Unvarnished View,’ The New York Times, 18 September, 2019.

15 Thunberg, No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference, page 86.

16 Ibid., page 35.

17 Ibid., pages 28, 64.

18 Ibid., pages 21, 136.

19 Ibid., page 21.

20 Ibid., pages 45–46; Wesley Lowery, ‘He Survived the Florida School Shooting. He Vows Not to Return to Classes until Gun Laws Change,’ The Washington Post, 19 February, 2018.

21 Thunberg, No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference, pages 45–46.

22 Martin Hedberg, tweet, 3 February, 2019, 4:13 AM.

23 Joeri Rogelj et al., ‘Mitigation Pathways Compatible with 1.5°C in the Context of Sustainable Development,’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2018, page 108; Thunberg, No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference, page 120.

24 Ibid., page 39.

25 Ibid., page 48.

26 Ibid., page 18.

27 Ibid.

28 Ibid., pages 117, 122.

29 Ibid., pages 117–118.

30 See for instance Dinesh D’Souza, tweet, 22 September, 2019, 12:04 PM; Sebastian Gorka, tweet, 23 September, 6:04 PM; Daniel Lee, ‘Greta Thunberg and Samantha Smith: Propaganda Poster Girls,’ National Review, 2 October, 2019.

31‘It Is Now 2 Minutes to Midnight,’ The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 25 January, 2018.

32‘Timeline,’ The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, accessed 9 February, 2020.

33‘Press Release—Welcome to “The New Abnormal,”’ The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 24 January, 2019.

34‘Closer than Ever: It Is 100 Seconds to Midnight,’ The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 23 January, 2020.

35 Andrew Bolt, ‘The Disturbing Secret to the Cult of Greta Thunberg,’ The Sun-Herald, 1 August, 2019.

36 Greta Thunberg, tweet, 1 August, 2019.

37 Noam Chomsky, ‘8.0,’ YouTube, uploaded by Thomas Pogge, 4 November, 2019.

[pearlcrysta]

Blade and Soul - Reason #xyz why i choose f2p in online gaming

Blade and Soul

If I can describe the feeling you get while playing this game... without bothering anybody, would be impossible. It would be akin to a naive person hanging around an abusive relationship that keeps pummeling you down, over and over, with each major maintenance/update... and you still god-forsakenly hope things might get better in the future.

But they never do.

NEVER.

Because today, 17/10/2017, they have done it! The company running Blade and Soul has managed to piss off nearly their entire player base, whale and non-whale. *slow clap*

Achievement is too great to surpass!!!

(You can skip italics to get to my actual rant)

I know a lot of people are confused what blade and soul is --- an RPG game, with a dungeon system, cliche plot and all-too-familiar online RPG mechanics. If you’re playing the NA and EU variations, the first thing you’ll notice is the LACK OF INVENTORY SPACE that makes a completionist’s life... HELL. If you playing NA and EU variations --- you need to pay real $ to unlock the wardrobe function. 

Let me tell you - half my f-ing inventory is clothing that i could have stored in a wardrobe if i paid cash. But i refuse to pay a company that constantly treats its player-base like a money-bank and does not improve or is willing to improve its game quality. 

Plus, I’m a cheap ass gal, I’d rather buy full PC-games since I know that for a certain amount of cash, I get x amount of carefully crafted content. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing in addition.Thing is with paying $ in online games, it can cause major addictions - after the company’s fuckery of today, i’m nearly livid at how much money some people are willing to spend on this game - more than hundreds, that’s for sure. 

Anyway. 

Never have i seen such a shitty company, promising things in a future update, then literally dumbing down changes less than 24 hours before patch release. But dumbing down changes to the point that the people who thought these changes were going to happen and prepared for it are now losing SERIOUS in-game currency, some even actual cash.

ACTUAL CASH.

Radiant Energy - it’s an in-game item that will be replaced in the upcoming patch. It costs around 12G in the game’s marketplace, sometimes going up to 17G after the news of the patch release changes. The item was told it’s going to be exchanged with another  - sort of like a conversion, if I may say so. People were cool with the idea. The new converted items that will replace radiant energy would need a certain amount to create/enhance gems that are super helpful in powering up your character. People - evidently - tried stocking up before the maintenance with Radiant Energy.

* Today, in-game gold currency that can be changed into “paid” currency was renewed. The minimum ratio today is of 1:2, when it’s been 1:3 for many months. Basically, for 10G gold one could exchange the amount to minimum 30 HC (-3 HC fees) -> resulting in a nifty 27 HC for every 10 gold exchanged. Today, 10G -> 20 HC (-2 for fees) = 18HC minimum. ((Luckily, people buy gold ass like crazy, so the ratio can sometimes drop back to 1:2.80 or 1:2.90 -- lol, luckily))

Hongmoon Store --- Radiant Energy is sold for 30 HC each, that is over 10G converted amount of gold with the newest in-game currency. 

* Today, announcement on forums. For every Radiant Energy you have, you will be able to exchange it for 10G after the newest patches/update happening tomorrow.

* 1 Radiant Energy = 10G exchange after update.

* Today: Radiant Energy in Hongmoon Store = 30 HC -> More than 10G exchanged with the new currency at 1:2 ratio.

* Today: Radiant Energy in marketplace -> minimum was 12G-13G before new announcement. (some paid 17G or more for each items)

All these changes were confirmed by twitter/ twitch stream/ forum and website many days ago. 

All these changes were confirmed by people in the company, legit ones representing it many days ago.

It wasn’t rumored - it wasn’t players making up rumors of changes in this patch.

Hour before new update comes, these changes were modified

1 Radiant Energy = 10G conversion after update.

In conclusion: players who wanted to trust a company’s words that the future update they handle will contain all that they advertised and presented for a fucking week have been duped and lied to. 

It’s like those online clothing shops where you see a dress that looks amazing and pink, then you get delivered a blue dress that’s the wrong model and cost less on the market than the value initially admitted.

THAT’S how shitty the situation is.

And that’s why i am so happy that I don’t support this shitty-ass company. Even though... my god, Act 4 in this game happens to be my favorite. T-T Damn, the graphics can be so nice and lovely. And the skills.

For warlocks, they look super nice and it’s interesting to hang with people in guilds. But... MAN.

The company is the worst.

It’s literally the opposite of Cheritz, the Mystic Messenger otome game company. Think of BnS company as the total opposite of Cheritz. If there was a spectrum of comparison, the lowest bar would be BnS company (worst than Nexon at this point) and the highest would be Cheritz.

Gosh, I recommend this game to play casually, but to actually invest time, money, effort in it is... sometimes feels like a rip-off and a bad relationship u should get out of. 

Game is glitching hard.

Game lags. I have friends with high PING usually that complain of the lag since a few updates ago. I always lag so this news to me makes me LAWL. Lag is my life in BnS.

Game can’t do a proper maintenance, time always extending sometimes in hours.

Sometimes, they fuck up the updates on maintenance. (remember the fee to pay for every dungeon run reward mistake? The lvl 55 boss monsters when ur char is just 50? The event items that were glitched into another event item and people sold it, just to learn they could have kept the faulty item and convert it after another unplanned maintenance?)

Or right, sometimes the game has “emergency maintenances”. Right after finishing 5+ hours maintenances. Cause they fucked up a lot.

Sigh...

Only thing keeping me in BnS is NPC Yu Chun and my buddies in guild. =.=

I’m lucky that I’m too gold poor to be majorly affected by the company’s screw up, but i feel bad for other players who trusted the wrong people and their shifty announcements. 

[sparankime40-blog]

Michael Hudson: The Shape of the Venezuelan Economy, from Chavez to Maduro and Beyond

Interview conducted by The Saker with Michael Hudson, a research professor of Economics at University of Missouri, Kansas City, and a research associate at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College. His latest book is J is for Junk Economics. Cross-posted from Hudson’s site.

1. Could you summarize the state of Venezuela’s economy when Chavez came to power?

Venezuela was an oil monoculture. Its export revenue was spent largely on importing food and other necessities that it could have produced at home. Its trade was largely with the United States. So despite its oil wealth, it ran up foreign debt.

From the outset, U.S. oil companies have feared that Venezuela might someday use its oil revenues to benefit its overall population instead of letting the U.S. oil industry and its local comprador aristocracy siphon off its wealth. So the oil industry – backed by U.S. diplomacy – held Venezuela hostage in two ways. First of all, oil refineries were not built in Venezuela, but in Trinidad and in the southern U.S. Gulf Coast states. This enabled U.S. oil companies – or the U.S. Government – to leave Venezuela without a means of “going it alone” and pursuing an independent policy with its oil, as it needed to have this oil refined. It doesn’t help to have oil reserves if you are unable to get this oil refined so as to be usable.

Second, Venezuela’s central bankers were persuaded to pledge their oil reserves and all assets of the state oil sector (including Citgo) as collateral for its foreign debt. This meant that if Venezuela defaulted (or was forced into default by U.S. banks refusing to make timely payment on its foreign debt), bondholders and U.S. oil majors would be in a legal position to take possession of Venezuelan oil assets.

These pro-U.S. policies made Venezuela a typically polarized Latin American oligarchy. Despite being nominally rich in oil revenue, its wealth was concentrated in the hands of a pro-U.S. oligarchy that let its domestic development be steered by the World Bank and IMF. The indigenous population, especially its rural racial minority as well as the urban underclass, was excluded from sharing in the country’s oil wealth. The oligarchy’s arrogant refusal to share the wealth, or even to make Venezuela self-sufficient in essentials, made the election of Hugo Chavez a natural outcome.

2. Could you outline the various reforms and changes introduced by Hugo Chavez? What did he do right, and what did he do wrong?

Chavez sought to restore a mixed economy to Venezuela, using its government revenue – mainly from oil, of course – to develop infrastructure and domestic spending on health care, education, employment to raise living standards and productivity for his electoral constituency.

What he was unable to do was to clean up the embezzlement and built-in rake-off of income from the oil sector. And he was unable to stem the capital flight of the oligarchy, taking its wealth and moving it abroad – while running away themselves.

This was not “wrong”. It merely takes a long time to change an economy’s disruption – while the U.S. is using sanctions and “dirty tricks” to stop that process.

3. What are, in your opinion, the causes of the current economic crisis in Venezuela – is it primarily due to mistakes by Chavez and Maduro or is the main cause US sabotage, subversion and sanctions?

There is no way that’s Chavez and Maduro could have pursued a pro-Venezuelan policy aimed at achieving economic independence without inciting fury, subversion and sanctions from the United States. American foreign policy remains as focused on oil as it was when it invaded Iraq under Dick Cheney’s regime. U.S. policy is to treat Venezuela as an extension of the U.S. economy, running a trade surplus in oil to spend in the United States or transfer its savings to U.S. banks.

By imposing sanctions that prevent Venezuela from gaining access to its U.S. bank deposits and the assets of its state-owned Citco, the United States is making it impossible for Venezuela to pay its foreign debt. This is forcing it into default, which U.S. diplomats hope to use as an excuse to foreclose on Venezuela’s oil resources and seize its foreign assets much as Paul Singer’s hedge fund sought to do with Argentina’s foreign assets.

Just as U.S. policy under Kissinger was to make Chile’s “economy scream,” so the U.S. is following the same path against Venezuela. It is using that country as a “demonstration effect” to warn other countries not to act in their self-interest in any way that prevents their economic surplus from being siphoned off by U.S. investors.

4. What in your opinion should Maduro do next (assuming he stays in power and the USA does not overthrow him) to rescue the Venezuelan economy?

I cannot think of anything that President Maduro can do that he is not doing. At best, he can seek foreign support – and demonstrate to the world the need for an alternative international financial and economic system.

He already has begun to do this by trying to withdraw Venezuela’s gold from the Bank of England and Federal Reserve. This is turning into “asymmetrical warfare,” threatening what to de-sanctify the dollar standard in international finance. The refusal of England and the United States to grant an elected government control of its foreign assets demonstrates to the entire world that U.S. diplomats and courts alone can and will control foreign countries as an extension of U.S. nationalism.

The price of the U.S. economic attack on Venezuela is thus to fracture the global monetary system. Maduro’s defensive move is showing other countries the need to protect themselves from becoming “another Venezuela” by finding a new safe haven and paying agent for their gold, foreign exchange reserves and foreign debt financing, away from the dollar, sterling and euro areas.

The only way that Maduro can fight successfully is on the institutional level, upping the ante to move “outside the box.” His plan – and of course it is a longer-term plan – is to help catalyze a new international economic order independent of the U.S. dollar standard. It will work in the short run only if the United States believes that it can emerge from this fight as an honest financial broker, honest banking system and supporter of democratically elected regimes. The Trump administration is destroying illusion more thoroughly than any anti-imperialist critic or economic rival could do!

Over the longer run, Maduro also must develop Venezuelan agriculture, along much the same lines that the United States protected and developed its agriculture under the New Deal legislation of the 1930s – rural extension services, rural credit, seed advice, state marketing organizations for crop purchase and supply of mechanization, and the same kind of price supports that the United States has long used to subsidize domestic farm investment to increase productivity.

What about the plan to introduce a oil-based crypto currency? Will that be an effective alternative to the dying Venezuelan Bolivar?

Only a national government can issue a currency. A “crypto” currency tied to the price of oil would become a hedging vehicle, prone to manipulation and price swings by forward sellers and buyers. A national currency must be based on the ability to tax, and Venezuela’s main tax source is oil revenue, which is being blocked from the United States. So Venezuela’s position is like that of the German mark coming out of its hyperinflation of the early 1920s. The only solution involves balance-of-payments support. It looks like the only such support will come from outside the dollar sphere.

The solution to any hyperinflation must be negotiated diplomatically and be supported by other governments. My history of international trade and financial theory, Trade, Development and Foreign Debt, describes the German reparations problem and how its hyperinflation was solved by the Rentenmark.

Venezuela’s economic-rent tax would fall on oil, and luxury real estate sites, as well as monopoly prices, and on high incomes (mainly financial and monopoly income). This requires a logic to frame such tax and monetary policy. I have tried to explain how to achieve monetary and hence political independence for the past half-century. China is applying such policy most effectively. It is able to do so because it is a large and self-sufficient economy in essentials, running a large enough export surplus to pay for its food imports. Venezuela is in no such position. That is why it is looking to China for support at this time.

5. How much assistance do China, Russia and Iran provide and how much can they do to help? Do you think that these three countries together can help counter-act US sabotage, subversion and sanctions?

None of these countries have a current capacity to refine Venezuelan oil. This makes it difficult for them to take payment in Venezuelan oil. Only a long-term supply contract (paid for in advance) would be workable. And even in that case, what would China and Russia do if the United States simply grabbed their property in Venezuela, or refused to let Russia’s oil company take possession of Citco? In that case, the only response would be to seize U.S. investments in their own country as compensation.

At least China and Russia can provide an alternative bank clearing mechanism to SWIFT, so that Venezuela can bypass the U.S. financial system and keep its assets from being grabbed at will by U.S. authorities or bondholders. And of course, they can provide safe-keeping for however much of Venezuela’s gold it can get back from New York and London.

Looking ahead, therefore, China, Russia, Iran and other countries need to set up a new international court to adjudicate the coming diplomatic crisis and its financial and military consequences. Such a court – and its associated international bank as an alternative to the U.S.-controlled IMF and World Bank – needs a clear ideology to frame a set of principles of nationhood and international rights with power to implement and enforce its judgments.

This would confront U.S. financial strategists with a choice: if they continue to treat the IMF, World Bank, ITO and NATO as extensions of increasingly aggressive U.S. foreign policy, they will risk isolating the United States. Europe will have to choose whether to remain a U.S. economic and military satellite, or to throw in its lot with Eurasia.

However, Daniel Yergin reports in the Wall Street Journal (Feb. 7) that China is trying to hedge its bets by opening a back-door negotiation with Guaido’s group, apparently to get the same deal that it has negotiated with Maduro’s government. But any such deal seems unlikely to be honored in practice, given U.S. animosity toward China and Guaido’s total reliance on U.S. covert support.

6. Venezuela kept a lot of its gold in the UK and money in the USA. How could Chavez and Maduro trust these countries or did they not have another choice? Are there viable alternatives to New York and London or are they still the “only game in town” for the world’s central banks?

There was never real trust in the Bank of England or Federal Reserve, but it seemed unthinkable that they would refuse to permit an official depositor from withdrawing its own gold. The usual motto is “Trust but verify.” But the unwillingness (or inability) of the Bank of England to verify means that the formerly unthinkable has now arrived: Have these central banks sold this gold forward in the post-London Gold Pool and its successor commodity markets in their attempt to keep down the price so as to maintain the appearance of a solvent U.S. dollar standard?

Paul Craig Roberts has described how this system works. There are forward markets for currencies, stocks and bonds. The Federal Reserve can offer to buy a stock in three months at, say, 10% over the current price. Speculators will by the stock, bidding up the price, so as to take advantage of “the market’s” promise to buy the stock. So by the time three months have passed, the price will have risen. That is largely how the U.S. “Plunge Protection Team” has supported the U.S. stock market.

The system works in reverse to hold down gold prices. The central banks holding gold can get together and offer to sell gold at a low price in three months. “The market” will realize that with low-priced gold being sold, there’s no point in buying more gold and bidding its price up. So the forward-settlement market shapes today’s market.

The question is, have gold buyers (such as the Russian and Chinese government) bought so much gold that the U.S. Fed and the Bank of England have actually had to “make good” on their forward sales, and steadily depleted their gold? In this case, they would have been “living for the moment,” keeping down gold prices for as long as they could, knowing that once the world returns to the pre-1971 gold-exchange standard for intergovernmental balance-of-payments deficits, the U.S. will run out of gold and be unable to maintain its overseas military spending (not to mention its trade deficit and foreign disinvestment in the U.S. stock and bond markets). My book on Super-Imperialism explains why running out of gold forced the Vietnam War to an end. The same logic would apply today to America’s vast network of military bases throughout the world.

Refusal of England and the U.S. to pay Venezuela means that other countries means that foreign official gold reserves can be held hostage to U.S. foreign policy, and even to judgments by U.S. courts to award this gold to foreign creditors or to whoever might bring a lawsuit under U.S. law against these countries.

This hostage-taking now makes it urgent for other countries to develop a viable alternative, especially as the world de-dedollarizes and a gold-exchange standard remains the only way of constraining the military-induced balance of payments deficit of the United States or any other country mounting a military attack. A military empire is very expensive – and gold is a “peaceful” constraint on military-induced payments deficits. (I spell out the details in my Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire (1972), updated in German as Finanzimperium (2017).

The U.S. has overplayed its hand in destroying the foundation of the dollar-centered global financial order. That order has enabled the United States to be “the exceptional nation” able to run balance-of-payments deficits and foreign debt that it has no intention (or ability) to pay, claiming that the dollars thrown off by its foreign military spending “supply” other countries with their central bank reserves (held in the form of loans to the U.S. Treasury – Treasury bonds and bills – to finance the U.S. budget deficit and its military spending, as well as the largely military U.S. balance-of-payments deficit.

Given the fact that the EU is acting as a branch of NATO and the U.S. banking system, that alternative would have to be associated with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and the gold would have to be kept in Russia and/or China.

7. What can other Latin American countries such as Bolivia, Nicaragua, Cuba and, maybe, Uruguay and Mexico do to help Venezuela?

The best thing neighboring Latin American countries can do is to join in creating a vehicle to promote de-dollarization and, with it, an international institution to oversee the writedown of debts that are beyond the ability of countries to pay without imposing austerity and thereby destroying their economies.

An alternative also is needed to the World Bank that would make loans in domestic currency, above all to subsidize investment in domestic food production so as to protect the economy against foreign food-sanctions – the equivalent of a military siege to force surrender by imposing famine conditions. This World Bank for Economic Acceleration would put the development of self-reliance for its members first, instead of promoting export competition while loading borrowers down with foreign debt that would make them prone to the kind of financial blackmail that Venezuela is experiencing.

Being a Roman Catholic country, Venezuela might ask for papal support for a debt write-down and an international institution to oversee the ability to pay by debtor countries without imposing austerity, emigration, depopulation and forced privatization of the public domain.

Two international principles are needed. First, no country should be obliged to pay foreign debt in a currency (such as the dollar or its satellites) whose banking system acts to prevents payment.

Second, no country should be obliged to pay foreign debt at the price of losing its domestic autonomy as a state: the right to determine its own foreign policy, to tax and to create its own money, and to be free of having to privatize its public assets to pay foreign creditors. Any such debt is a “bad loan” reflecting the creditor’s own irresponsibility or, even worse, pernicious asset grab in a foreclosure that was the whole point of the loan.

This entry was posted in Guest Post on February 8, 2019 by Lambert Strether.

About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

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Source: https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/02/michael-hudson-shape-venezuelan-economy-chavez-maduro-beyond.html