#and silver instead making the right choice to ignore the world. make amends for history past. and show him love instead

[suntails]

true love

[marshmallowprotection]

Cereus

Pairing: Choi Saeran/Reader

Description: You never knew what you wanted to do with your life from day one. It just seemed like there were too many things to pick from and all you knew was that you didn’t want to be bound by the expectations of your parents. So, you decide to head west like the rest of those that are seeking new lives and changes without knowing what to expect or your plan. You just never thought that you would find yourself ensnared in the rope of fate on your journey to find yourself.

Word Count: 2235

Cowboy Saeran x Reader

[Read On AO3]

Previous Chapter

Epilogue 

“Was now really the best time for you to pick up the guitar again?”

“What? Did ya’ want me to change the song to somethin’ more fittin’?”

“How about we travel in silence, instead?”

“That ain’t as fun, Saeran. Ya’ gotta live a little… c’mon, get that sour look off your face! Here, I wrote this one for you!”

“...Great.”

The sounds of a finely tuned guitar were all too prevalent in your eardrums these days. Saeyoung was far too content as the little wagon continued to go along the path, playing along to a song that he had been learning recently since he had so much more free time on his hands lately to explore his hobbies outside of conning and trickery.

While you didn't mind the sound, Saeran wasn't as big a fan of the humming and strumming. It led to a bit of bickering between the twins that was a surprise. The lighthearted argument wasn't unwelcomed. It was nice to see how the two of them interacted when they wanted to show that brotherly bond.

This wasn’t where you thought that you would find yourself but you weren’t going to complain about it in the slightest. 

You just leaned your head against Saeran’s shoulder as he commanded the reigns for both of their horses. He sighed at his brother’s antics and just continued as he was. It had only been a few weeks since everything happened and it was still an adjustment period.

After Saejoong was forcibly removed from power, the sheriff and everyone else that had been working with them were taken down and removed from power. They didn’t need to have a trial for them since it had been proved in front of them with the wave of a hand. They were going to be locked away where they would be unable to hurt anyone ever again.

Saeyoung and Saeran no longer had to live in fear of losing their lives because of him anymore. That was all they ever wanted. They didn’t have to hide their faces anymore. Frankly, there were people in many places that weren’t happy about their crimes as they were, but the boys had been forgiven for what they’d done by countless people.

Most of them, anyway.

It wasn’t like they had been stashing away all that money consistently. They were consistently fueling it to people in need. Anyone who needed to eat was getting paid. Anyone that was living without parents in their life was getting money. Anyone in need of something. They had been taken care of by the twins for quite a while.

The rest of the money had been for trying to control the crime scene to manipulate a load of real crooks into listening to them. Whatever they didn’t need was just put away so they could either give it back eventually or so they would have some money to get by when and if they were free. Not that the people needed to worry about it.

It changed everything in the town for the better.

But, everything changed in a matter of a few weeks. It went from zero to one-eighty. At the very least, it went from bad to better. Which was the greatest thing that anyone could hope for. The gold that was already taken from the wells couldn’t be placed back, but it could be doled out equally and fairly to all of the members of the town thanks to Jumin Han’s family.

Since his father controlled the banks, everyone’s accounts were layered with weekly reimbursements of gold and silver profits. Because of this, the town was able to grow in more ways than one, with more businesses opening up and people moving into town because everyone supported each other.

It was looking to turn around the town that was only a few months away from the brink of collapse.

Once Saejoong was gone, there needed to be a new mayor… and believe it or not, the people wanted Jihyun to take the job.

He had been such a capable man that had worked to protect everyone, and they all trusted him to do the right thing. He was elected in a landslide after everyone agreed on who they wanted to be in charge for the time being. With him and Jumin at the helm, the town was shaping up to be a great place to be and somewhere that you knew would be okay.

Since he was going to be handling matters of the town now, the bar was given to Yoosung. Who was surprised by the event entirely! But, in all honesty, he and Zen had been running the bar for quite a while on their own apart from Jaehee stepping in now and again to help with the books when she wasn’t busy with Jumin.

So, Yoosung was the one that he trusted most.

Yoosung was excited about the prospect. He had a lot of ideas for the bar, too. He wanted to be able to make it into a restaurant that anyone was welcome to. He and Zen were working together to make things work out with both of their capable hands. It would still be Jihyun’s Bar, but it would be more than anyone ever expected it to be.

While you liked your place at the bar and the job you held, you couldn’t deny that call to adventure that had your name written all over it. As things calmed down and you and the rest of the group had worked together to help the town, you had been dutifully recovering from your attack.

You weren’t on the stage to perform, but after a week of being stuck in bed, you had sat at the bar and gave a song to Zen’s performances. Singing didn’t take too much out of you, and it felt nice to be out and about where everyone was instead of worrying about how things were going. As always, this place was a good place to be.

All and all, things were going together in town.

Even better, Saeyoung had joined you at the same time, stepping in when he wasn’t working with Saeran and Jihyun to play some music along with you. He revealed his secret talent, that he was rather skilled at guitar, but he never had the chance to show it off to other people like he wanted to. He was really good!

Even if Saeran said otherwise.

Saeran had been right by Jihyun’s side the entire time, trying to help him make matters right from what happened with their father. He was taking it personally and seriously to make amends for things. You’d been surprised by that, given the history that you had heard about what the twins went through they’d met Jihyun, but the fact that Saeran was calling him “dad” was telling enough.

Saeran wasn’t trying to become the next mayor, though.

That was the last thing he wanted.

This was just the loose end that had to be tied up for him. Saeran had told you that he wanted to be able to leave the desert for a while, maybe not forever because he knew how much this place meant to you now, but he did want to see the world first.

You knew that feeling.

You knew what it felt like to want an adventure.

Saeran was your adventure now, and anywhere that he wanted to go, you wanted to be. That’s what led to this situation that you were now in. So, when he proposed the idea to you one day if you would be a willing party to go on a trip with him. Of course, Saeyoung was going to be tagging along, but it was a given. He still wanted you to come with him.

Of course, you said yes.

It wasn’t a “goodbye” to the western town that you had come to, but a simple “see you soon.”

Which is how you wound up where you were now, in a little wagon pulled by Begona and Big Dipper, headed out from town and deep along the trails to take you to wherever you wanted to go. Saeran was kind of interested in seeing the ocean since he’d never been able to see that before, well, there were a lot of things that he hadn’t seen before, but…

It was the first thing that came to mind when you asked, “Well, where do you wanna go?”

“I reckon it’d be nice to see the coast?”

“Good choice, Saeranie!”

Saeyoung seemed jazzed about the idea, himself. He had traveled out with Jihyun and seen the coast before, and had described it to his twin with a mystified look in his eyes. It had left a mark on him that Saeran wanted to see. Hilarious, you knew, but it was kind of sweet to see them getting along and sharing these things.

You were happy here with Saeran.

He snorted when you tucked yourself closer to his side, but ignored the urge to make a snide comment to torment you. You’d grown used to him teasing you and pulling your hair now and again. He might have been Saeran now, but he was still your tormentor by all accounts. Which was exactly what you’d wanted, anyway.

“How far do you think we have left?” you asked him, watching as the landscape changed by the minute from the clay and soil, into the greens that you knew very well. “Do you reckon it’s more than a day or two at this rate?”

“I reckon so,” he responded. You’d pay for stealing some of his quirky vocabulary to tease him. But, you liked that little accent of his whether he wanted to agree with that or not. “I ain’t never traveled this far by myself before, so I’m just guessing from what the maps said.”

“It took a while even by train,” you admitted.

“‘Course, we ain’t in no hurry, little Cereus. We’ll get there when we get there… don’t tell me that yer’ gonna start askin’ me that every five minutes. We already got one idiot n’ this car, we don’t need two of ‘em.”

The two of you chuckled.

That seemed to bring Saeyoung’s attention to the scene. He had stopped playing the time being as he leaned forward between the two of you, ignoring the way the wagon bounced against the terrain and could’ve knocked him over. The way that things were changing had caught his eye. Had he traveled in this area before? “I’ll pretend I ain’t hear that. But, hey, do y’all remember when I told ya’ that I met someone when I was gone with Jihyun?”

“...That fake partner ya’ mentioned?” Saeran quipped. You knew what he thought about that person that Saeyoung had brought up now and again. You couldn’t doubt him. Because they all doubted Zen about you! So, who was to say that he was hiding information about somebody just to make some kind of joke?

“They’re not fake!” Saeyoung retorted. He huffed and looked at you for some moral support. “Cereus, ya’ believe me, right? I’m only bringin’ this up because I was wonderin’ if you two would be interested in meetin’ ‘em? After all, they’ve been waitin’ for me to come back n’ see ‘em since I left a few months ago.”

That made you curious.

You raised a brow, “Oh?”

“Absolutely.”

Saeran sighed. He looked back at his twin and shook his head, incredulous. It was like he couldn’t believe that Saeyoung wanted to take a little detour. He wasn’t going to hear the end of it if he didn’t do something about this. “Alright, alright. Ya’ know what? I reckon that I want you to prove that this person is real, then. I’ve heard this spiel too many damn times. Ya’ wanna prove it? Let’s see ‘em, then. Tell me where we’re headed, then.”

“Aw, Saeran, I knew you cared about me!”

“Mainly, I just wanna see if yer’ a liar or not.”

“I’ll admit I’m a little curious, Saeyoung. I’m willing to give you the benefit of a doubt on this one. Be nice, Saeran. Who knows, it might lead us to another adventure!”

“The last thing I want right now  is another dangerous adventure.”

“That settles it, then. To the sea, we go!”

[AUTHOR’S NOTE:] 

Heya Howdy Doodle Doo, don’t let the door close on ya’ because this ain’t over yet.

That’s right. 

This isn’t the end of Cowboy Saeran. Join us soon in the sequel which is going to be a Seven x Reader story. This will be my first long-form Seven x Reader story, and I’m glad to be writing it. I sincerely am going to have to thank countless people for supporting this story and supporting me. I’ve made a lot of new friends that I hope to keep forever thanks to this story. 

My heart is filled with so much love for so many of you fans. 

I’ve received fan art, cosplay, and all kinds of gifts for this story of mine and it means a lot to me that there are people that enjoy something I’ve made so much that they want to play around in my take on the Mystic Messenger characters. So, this isn’t goodbye to you, my loyal cowboy fans.

This is a See You Soon.

[sundaeserenade]

okay! so the pokemas legendary event: father or foe. I have things to say so I will say them. and if you don’t want spoilers, uhmmm don’t read this! okay thanks okay.

first of all, i like how ghetsis just. shows up. like he’s just there. that’s great, A+ Second of all, I know the point of that battle between N, Silver, Brendan and Norman was to showcase how strong Brendan and Norman’s father-son bond was. but it’s so fucking funny to me that they’re fighting against two legendary pokemon. and they’ve got a fucking slaking and a fucking uhh sceptile like. Ho-oh is fucking fire/flying, but Norman and Brendan won??? but whatever, moving on.

glad that they put silver in this. like even with the plot point later on with giovanni, i just like that silver is here. i like silver. i like his way of speaking. because in a world of pokemon protagonists that are naive and idealistic, silver’s realism and straightforwardness is very needed. so thanks silver, for being that bro.

anyway, I love N’s answer to Ghetsis’ proposition for them to be father-son again. He says he just needs time to think. That shows such maturity. And the fact that they put that alongside Nate’s very black and white (lol) way of thinking, is good. Nate is like “Ghetsis did some fucked up shit. get him outta here” but N has history with Ghetsis and is hesitant.

and y’know what, Nate is right honestly, because Ghetsis did some fucked up shit!! I know a lot of people have not played gen 5 but Ghetsis is a BITCH!!! He’s manipulative and abusive, he said some fucked up shit to N, he tried to fuck over unova TWICE, he’s not a good dude. And it’s interesting! bc in bw2, y’know, former team plasma members are trying to make up for their crimes from the first game. and they point out that all they can do is apologize and do better, like they can try and make up for what they did and do what they can to make things right. and that’s what some of them are doing. and they acknowledge that this doesn’t like erase people’s pain or make them entitled to forgiveness.

but on the other side of that, you have ghetsis, who is not at all interested in that shit. he doesn’t think he’s done anything wrong, he doesn’t want to change, fuck unova, fuck everything and everyone! So yeah! Nate is like FUCK GHETSIS and honestly, everyone should be like that but they weren’t there in unova so they get a pass.

and N is just hesitant. Because he sees that father-son bond and he wants that. he wants that connection. and think about how that resonates with so many people playing this game. like it fucking resonated with me! you want a bond with a family member that’s hurt you, and they come to you to try and make amends... and say it’s idealistic or naive or stupid, but there’s hope that it could work out this time.

ghetsis has manipulated and abused N in the past, and N knows this most of all, but he’s willing to move forward with their relationship if Ghetsis has truly changed. DAMN! that hits me hard. too many times we try and give people a second chance when they say they’ve changed, but it turns out they fucking haven’t and they hurt us all over again.

But I like that N takes the time to decide. He talks to Alder and gets his opinion, and I like that Alder is just honest as fuck about it. And N takes that into consideration, but still makes the choice himself, just like Silver advised him to. This is a choice he made after weighing his options and the outcomes.

And honestly, I was like... Ghetsis could go either way. They could keep him evil and have this be him trying to manipulate N again, OR they could pull a lusamine and have the story and the characters just forget about the abuse that he put N through and the chaos he put unova through. And I’m so happy to see that they kept him evil because HE IS evil and! He’s as fucking heartless as ever, being honest about how everyone is a tool to him.

That’s refreshing as fuck to me. After lusamine, i had no fucking hope for this game but DAMN let’s go, okay, Ghetsis staying evil? teaming up with giovanni? nice nice nice. love it.

But also, hold on, because Silver is a hero in this event. I loved hearing what he had to say, but this line that he had is so fucking important.

IM STILL IN SHOCK THAT THEY ACTUALLY SAID THIS LIKE??? idk i just wasn’t expecting it at all, and im SO GLAD they brought it up. Silver? Getting frustrated with Nate that he’s not trying to see things from N’s point of view? Nice. Very Nice. This is why I’m glad Silver’s here, because what other character would have the guts to say this? We need that blunt honesty a lot of the time. We need that straightforwardness to put some harsh truths out there.

I like that Nate stops and considers that now, they he apologizes and is like “I was thinking more about unova than about your feelings, N” and he APOLOGIZES!! LET’S GO!

There’s some good nuggets in this event, it’s so fucking GOOD.

It keeps getting better because with Alder reassuring N and offering advice, he shows that he’s more of a fucking.. father figure than Ghetsis will EVER be but he also just says that N’s grown and he’s got a good heart and N is so shocked...! He is still 100% suffering from what Ghetsis said/did to him before! because that trauma is still there! And he needs to be surrounded by people who really and truly care about him to support him now.

Okay but moving on, the Ghetsis and Giovanni team up was cool. I like how they kept summoning team break members out of nowhere?? fantastic. and of course giovanni was gonna backstab him. fucking. ghetsis you idiot, but anyway! N seeing that ghetsis is about to get his whole ass kicked and STILL stepping up to help him out?

Mm i have some mixed feelings about it, but N CAN talk to pokemon and he didn’t want anything to happen to Kyurem. And I’m glad that they put that in there and remembered that about N’s character because otherwise i’d be like “why would he help him, Ghetsis has revealed his true colors for like the third time there’s no reason to” but it also ties back into N just feeling sorry for this mother fucker and also just wanting a father figure.

but! after the battle, they leave. and Silver just glares at Giovanni and tells him to fuck off... this poor boy, but! we also have this comparison between silver KNOWING that his father will never change and that he’s not interested in changing, and now N coming to that conclusion with ghetsis. those two are not going to change. they don’t fucking care. they’re terrible people. and it’s a hard pill to swallow but silver’s already swallowed it. and now he’s helping N to get through what he’s already gone through.

so N just saved ghetsis’ ass and now they’re outside. And N says that he knows Ghetsis hasn’t changed, and if he causes trouble N will stop him. And Nate tells Ghetsis he hates him LOL and then is like why can’t you just fucking be a better person to N like for real.

and Ghetsis continues to be a sack of shit. and Nate gets upset and says something really touching, that N just wants a normal relationship with the man he calls his father. and Nate is real sensitive to this stuff, he wears his heart on his sleeve, y’know. but a lot of male pokemon protagonists are like that (gold, brendan i think?) but it’s just touching to have Nate be really invested. to have Nate and Silver both wanting to help N, and Nate is the more sensitive and idealistic of the two and Silver just adds that touch of realism. y’know, black and white?

but N is a bit of both, now. That’s what he gained on his journey, this understanding that problems aren’t so simple and that complexity is a part of life and that sometimes there isn’t a clear right answer. and sometimes things don’t go the way that you want, no matter how much you hope or wish for things to change.

and at the end... N understands that. He understands that while Ghetsis is a piece of shit and will ALWAYS be a piece of shit, he has people and pokemon around him and that’s all he needs. he doesn’t need a father. he’s just fine without one. Silver agrees, everyone fucking agrees. and it’s fucking touching. N’s got people in his life that care about him genuinely and that’s all he needs.

and that’s a real good message because first of all, Alder is right there and found family is abound, but also, it’s not pushing this fucking narrative that you should always, always forgive your family or the people who hurt you. sometimes, your family is shit! and you cut them out of your life for your own well being! many, many people have to do that. and instead of ignoring that every family isn’t the same and that people have shitty relationships with their families, this event is like “hey, everyone’s upbringing is different” and “if people who’ve hurt you aren’t going to sincerely apologize and make the effort to change, they aren’t worth your time” and “fuck ghetsis”

like those are good messages! and im mad because WHERE WAS THIS with the lusamine event??? lusamine abused both lily and gladion, but she’s okay?? she fucking almost drove the alola region into chaos but she’s forgiven?? no. i will never be about that. lily and gladion are both better off without her because i didn’t see an apology in sumo or in pokemas, the bitch just showed up and was like “okay!! we’re family!!” and even with the sumo endgame thing of lily taking lusamine to kanto to give her treatment, i need to SEE an apology and a genuine want to change

and you know what even if there is an apology? lily and gladion aren’t obligated to forgive her. it’s their choice, sure, but i think it was a choice forced onto them instead of it being something that they, as characters, seriously consider. and?? lusamine should be in jail. so.

like there’s no obligation for these kids to forgive their abusive parents. none at all. and N’s speech to ghetsis saying “i don’t think a true father-son relationship can happen between us so easily, but if you’ve had a true change of heart, show me through battle!” is so important because he wants to see for himself if there’s been a real change. N will decide AFTER the battle and after seeing ghetsis’ motivations if they can move forward.

and where was this with lily and gladion?? what did they ask or talk about with lusamine so that they know she’s being sincere?? and y’know what, where is the distrust?? especially for lily, because lusamine did some real fucked up shit!! it’s just not handled as well, and it could’ve been a great example of “kids need to get away from their abusive parents even if they promise change” because N made a choice and was hesitant but we didn’t get to see that development with gladion and lily. i know it’s pokemon, but i definitely think there’s a way they could’ve written them,, cutting lusamine out of their lives and it being like “okay, this is the best for both of us” because lusamine was a shit mother and also gladion and lily have found family in the selene, elio, hau and professor kukui and professor brunet SO.

but this event was pretty good and there were some very good moments in here. I’m glad ghetsis will stay evil and i’m glad they put silver in there as well, thanks. BUT WHERE WAS HILBERT????? WHHHHYYYYYY!!!!!

[silviasutton1989]

T.T.K. Chapter 22 “Say Cheese/You?!”

oA/N: Wow it’s been a while huh? Well in about 4 minutes it will officially be my birthday. Goodness! I remember last year being so determined to finish this be my birthday (insert face palm emoji here lol) Just one quick thing about this chapter the reason it has 2 titles is because I put a bit of an insert from chapter 23 Again hank you all for your support and if you are reading The Guest I should have Ch. 9 up before Monday I also plan to update my Masterlist soon.

Rating: Mature Audience only please

Word Count: 2700+ It’s a read...get comfy lol

Summary: With Mick captured what answers will Olivia and Liam get can they live with what the find out?/ Has Olivia finally found Boss?

The king's sleep were  chancy these days. Since his father's murder the word "betrayal" never meant so much. Now it was like a bad taste in his mouth: static and tormenting. It wasn't until Liam followed his guards into Olivia's dungeon that his nightmares finally became reality.  The sight alone knocked him back a step. There lying on a slab in a dark room was a large man riddled in small cuts from shoulder to ankle. It was the man from the photo, one of the men from the attack and if Bastien's theory was right, the man she hired to kill him. Could Olivia really do this? Could she be this dark? Would it be him on this table next? Then one question he'd been asking himself every night before sleep eventually took him, could she hate him this much?

"Why is he still restrained?"

"We were waiting for you, Your Majesty." Bastien states "He is the Duchess' henchman after all."

"Ha! I'm what now?" Mick wanted to cackle but he thought better to play this right. 

"Are you willing to testify that Duchess Nevarkis hired you to assassinate me?"

"Red? Oh...oh  yeah! That bi-- Boss hired me. Just look at what she did to me after fouling up the job. Just let me go, please and I'll tell you all the things she paid me to do to you." 

"Your Majesty what are you doing?" Bastien cautions watching as his king struggles to unleash the hit man.

"If you all won't release him I will."

Mick tried his best to hide the grin growing.  He was never one to leave a job unfinished and mere breaths away, freeing him no less, was one of his biggest yet unfinished jobs to date.

"Can I touch your belly?" Hana asks her hand already hovering over Riley's stomach .

"Sure but we won't feel her kick till a couple more weeks."

"Her?!!! It's a girl?!!!!!!!!" Hana squeals.

"We don't know that." Drake sits next to them at the breakfast table handing his wife a small fruit plate."Riley here is just wishful thinking, and also setting herself up for disappointment when she finds out my son is in there."

"Oh so who's wishful thinking now?" Maxwell chuckles sitting next to him  "So how far along are you?"

"About 15 weeks. We have a doctor's appointment in 2 weeks to put this debate to rest."

"Well that's just in time for my soiree."

The friends at the table all turn to see Neville standing before them shifting  from one foot to the other."I just---I wanted to invite  you...all of you to my estate for my year end event." 

"Ummm...." someone mutters as the gang all look to each other in confusion.

"Ril--I mean Duke and Duchess Walker. I would like to formally and personally invite you." He hands black envelopes sealed with boar sigil stamp. "You could come and announce whether Cordonia's 1st member of our next generation of royals will be a duke or duchess." 

"You want to throw us a gender reveal?" Riley shakes her head in disbelief "What with the whole duel and--"

"Water under the bridge. Please come. I would like to make amends for how I've treated you...all of you." looking to them with humble eyes.

"Sure. We'll be there." averting from the seething look of her husband Riley focuses on the beaming smile of Neville as he heads to the next table.

"Sure?! Riley we are not going to that party. For as long as I've known that man he's never allowed me anywhere near Cormery Isle much less that party. It's probably a death trap."

"Drake's right." Maxwell chimes in.

"Thank you... Max." Drake's eyebrow raise in surprise.

"Yeah he's going to bore us to death!" Maxwell states opening the invitation to read it while Drake face palms "We'd have more fun spending New Year's in a broom closet. Neville usually only invites 1 st born royals you know those who are next in line to their family's title. He has NEVER invited me. Once I went thinking Bertrand's invitation was for me. BIGGEST mistake of my life. There wasn't even fireworks!"

"Look I hate to say this but Neville's right. This baby, boy or girl, will be the 1st of the next generation of royals and maybe that's why he's extending this olive branch. We can't be outcasts anymore Drake. We have to mingle with these people. We can't spend the rest of out lives cooped up in Valtoria."

Before Drake could argue  Olivia was hovering before them her voice loud enough to command the attention of everyone in the room. Although everything about her outwardly looked in place her eyes seemed to say something entirely different as if her mind was worlds away.

"Good morning I know you all enjoyed the brunch. Look. I want to take a group photo so if you all would just-"

"Seriously Olivia, you could have allowed us to prepare." Madeline takes out her compact mirror checking the bags under her eyes, Tariq who's sitting next to her does the exact same thing. 

"This isn't a cover shoot. I don't have time for ....just...." Olivia lets out a huff "Everyone get up and head over here...please."  This was the courteous she could be given the fact she's spent the entire night carving Mick up like a chicken only to get useless information on Boss. Finally it occurred to her Mick was well aware of what Boss looked like so she came up with the idea of getting a photo of all the royals. 

Everyone follows the duchess to a nearby staircase and  slowly begin to get in place, Olivia moving those who would be hidden.

"Neville you have to come down at least 5 steps."

"But there's only women down there." He mutters

"I don't care I cant see you. Get Down!" 

He reluctantly does, cringing with every snicker he hears deciding to leave the staircase entirely choosing instead to stand near the banister.

"Well since you are all here--except for King Liam, are we going to wait for him?"

"No his guards said he was indisposed.   All right everyone get ready!" 

Neville ignoring Olivia steps out to face the royals "I would like to invite you all to my soiree for New Yea--"

"Let me stop you right there. I'm sure I speak with everyone when I say hard pass Neville. I'd have more fun in a broom closet then at Cormery Isle."

"Hey I said that too!" Maxwell chuckles.

"Well-- well this will also be for our new Duke or Duchess of Voltaria it will be a...a..."

"A gender reveal." Riley aides. 

"Yeah that." Neville looks off in frustration.

"The kid doesn't even have a gender yet and already you're making poor parenting choices." Olivia bites her bottom lip, vexed. It should not be this damn difficult to get a handful of people to stand still for 2 minutes. "I'll see if I can make it. Now quit moving...

"Wait don't forget to tel us when to say "cheese" so we will know to smile." Hana chides

"I don't care if you smile Just-"

"Well what kind of photo will that look like." Maxwell continues.

"1.2.3. Cheese . " Olivia quickly snaps the camera taking a quick look she sees that several men were not facing straight.

"Look. I'm only going to take this shot one more time. EVERYONE. Look this way or so help me I will gouge your eyes out with my stiletto, Got it?"

"Cheese!" everyone quickly responds.

The photo in her hand felt powerful, like an end to everything that has happened this year. Torturing Mick was cathartic in a since, Olivia had spent months being preoccupied with her mother's history and her own with the men in her life. Giving pain to someone helped release some of her own.

She's practically running through the large doors of the dungeon straight to the table where Mick was---gone.

Mick was gone. The table where he once lay stood there cold and empty. Olivia is frozen deciding that if she blinked hard enough he would still be there.

"Shit he got away!"

"No..he didn't" She jumps at the sight of Liam emerging from a dark corner of the room. "Olivia... we need to talk."

"Where is Mick? Where is he?" Olivia, hysteric and embarrassed, knew she should have came to Liam with Mick and the truth of what was going on but more than anything she wanted to figure it all out herself. To hand Boss to her king on a silver platter. To prove that neither of therm were their parents, or at least they didn't have to be. "He has to tell me who Boss is. Take me to him right now!"

"I can't do that." Liam turned away from her "I'm so sorry Liv. I'm so sorry I believed it was you behind all the attacks.

"Yeah...yeah I get it. My mom tried to kill your dad, your dad actually killed my mom. You'd be an idiot not to suspect me. But can we pause the apologies for just a moment someone in this photo is the actual Boss and Mick is the only person that can pick him out. So please wherever you have him just bring him back."

Liam didn't speak for a moment only staring away at the dark corner he entered from. 

"He's dead Olivia." the kings words slow but powerful, so much so Olivia didn't believe she heard him correctly. Liam went on explaining what happened but nothing registered, her eyes glued to her photo.

"Your Majesty I think you should consider letting the guardsman handle this."

"I think you should mind you own damn business."Mick fires at Bastien then quickly going back to his best performance of a pained man "Come on, Your Honor, let me go. I will tell you everything you didn't know about Red."

Liam's hand stayed on the latch of the restraint. He took a moment to actually look at the man laying below him.

"I'm such an idiot." Liam chuckles  " You think I don't know Liv?"

Mick nervously chuckles with the king shrugging his shoulders.

"Yeah but she has a dark side...as you can see. The Bitch is crazy!"

"Never in a million years would Liv hire you. Even if she did want to kill me, the second you'd call her "Red" would be the second you would have been fired." Liam lets go of the restraint his smile wide and full of joy.

It was Mick's turn to laugh and he did it with ease, as if he wasn't still restrained to the table in a room filled with armed guards. "You know it took Red 2 seconds to look at me and know exactly what I was up to that night. You know she's the reason I didn't get to kill you when I had the chance. Didn't even get to make back into the room because Miss. Spitfire wouldn't settle down.  I knocked her ass unconscious at least 3 times that night."

Mick laughed on as Liam took a step back hanging onto every word breathing them in like knowledgeable fresh air. 

"Now I see why people want you dead. You're a horrible King! Just some some pathetic rich kid who gets to have other men--real men-- do your dirty work. The only person with some balls around here is Red. If your going to have them kill me get it over with I'm sick of looking at you!" 

Mick became frantic, the longer the men watched him in silence the more fear crept in. But they don't move, the guards stand their ground all waiting for their king to command them.

"Oh sir rest assured these men wont harm you unless I order them to. And I have no intention on doing that" Liam states rolling up his sleeves scaling through the torture devices Olivia had left behind."I always knew Olivia had a dark side...I wonder just how dark I can be."

"...one thing lead to another..he... he told me about he did to you...and I..." Liam raised both his hands to show Olivia "I just wanted him to shut up.  I...I didn't even realize what I had done until he stopped squirming in my hands eventually Bastien pulled me off of him. The guards took him away a while ago. I’ve been waiting here for you ever since.”

Olivia takes a long breath "I was going to solve this."

They grew quite again sitting in the dark room, but soon Liam starts to laugh.

"Is it crazy that I can't be upset by this? I mean yes we still don't know who's out to get me but..." He smiles brightly at the Duchess "I know who it isn't. And that means more to me than anything." 

"Finding out I'm not the one behind the attacks is better to you than actually finding the scum?"

Liam nods his head yes as Olivia raises an eyebrow.

"Yeah that's crazy."

Liam chortles pulling her into his arms not wasting a second to crash his lips onto hers. She could feel the kiss growing and took a step back to catch her breath.

"One of these people are actually out to kill you." She shakes the photo in his face trying her best to look serious knowing she was blushing. He takes a second to look at but then tosses it onto the barren table, cupping her face in his hands looking deep within a eyes.

" Yes but it wasn't you. I don't give a damn what miserable person has this vendetta out against me. Probably someone who has been unhappy for a long time and will be unhappy long after me because they have nothing. But I have you.

Liam held her in his arms once more and she let him breath her in. This Liam, this happy person she hadn't seen in months, or ever. 

Happy.

Someone who is unhappy. 

She looked to the photo next to her. This time actually looking at it. There in the photo were all the faces she had known pretty much her entire life. All of them looking towards the camera, all of them smiling  saying "cheese"...all of them but one.

Neville.

"Oh my God! We are fucking idiots! I know who Boss is!" 

"What? Who?"

"Are you going to Neville's New Year's Party?"

"No one goes to that...you'd have more fun in a broom closet."

"Yeah but this year I think Neville is planning something more than just fireworks."

                             2 and a half weeks later

He was watching her.

she hadn't thought about that fact until she was already deep within Neville's mansion The faint music from his from his party a noticeable reminder that she is no where near safety. But she follows on making sure to stay a good distance from the masked man.

He was watching her.

She hasn't thought to question how long. How long has he been in the dark corner staring at her. Her only thought when seeing that mask, when their eyes finally did meet was that this man was Boss, it had to be.

As he turns down towards another wing of the home Olivia braces herself  realizing the man knew she was fallowing him.

She could turn back around, run and get the guards..

No. 2 weeks of trying to convince Bastien Neville is Boss was enough. She needed proof and if it wasn't  Neville, Boss sure as hell was at this party and tonight would be the very last night she'd call this coward behind a mask that name. Olivia was getting damn sick of that name. 

The man quickly turns a corner and before the duchess trails behind she freezes. This is it. Once turning this corner she would face him. Breathing in deep her feet move before her mind. She edges around the corner taking in the full sight of him standing, waiting at the end of the hallway looking directly at her.

Hiding her gasp with a gulp she walks toward him forcing down ever fear that dared to creep upon her. "Who are you?" She asks.

Without hesitation he removes his mask and at the sight her heart stops. 

"You?!" is all she can muster as if his face knocked the wind out of her. 

 His words the final nail into her makeshift coffin.  "Hey, Cherry.".

Tagging: I tag randomly so if you would like to say tagged let me know if you never want to be tagged again let me know.

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[rolandfontana]

Beware the ‘Professional’ Reformer

James Doyle

It is a little startling to confront the sheer number of people who now earn their living as “criminal justice reformers.” This month saw the launch of the Council on Criminal Justice, the latest collection of “experts, innovators and influencers” intent on rethinking the justice system.

Reform has professionalized, and the profession is organized around discrete tasks that can be expressed in grant announcements, awarded, completed, evaluated, and (when promising) publicized.

Has this process fostered a vision of criminal justice change no individual participant would completely endorse, and which many participants would repudiate? Will it take on a life of its own?

Water is wet, but you can’t see “wetness” in any single molecule of H2O. Wetness is an “emergent” property that is visible only on the system level.

A similar principle can be applied to analyzing the emergent properties of the broad range of initiatives being advanced in criminal justice reform today.

The reform dynamic can amount to a one-way conversation, directed at practitioners. The practitioners will always need reforming; the reformers will always provide it.

This is not inevitable, but it bears watching.

A case in point: Risk assessment tools have emerged as a major element of efforts to to mobilize data as a means of reducing pretrial incarceration.

One such tool, developed by Arnold Ventures, has been the focus of recent debate. Attacked in a recent New York Times op ed column, it has also been vehemently defended.

Arnold promotes the Public Safety Assessment (PSA), an actuarial tool that it has developed and tested as a mechanism for safely minimizing pretrial detentions. Like other predictive tools, the PSA relies on a series of risk factors ( 11 factors and sub-factors),  all derived from the defendant’s past interactions with the criminal justice system, to estimate the danger of a failure to appear or a new crime.

Unlike many of the new predictive tools, the PSA’s assumptions, algorithms, and mechanics are available for public review.

The hope is that the PSA will filter out racial biases and lower pretrial incarceration rates—more specifically, that judges who substitute the PSA’s objective factors for their own preconceptions will discover that release is the right choice (or at least will have their backbones stiffened to do what they are afraid to do without numerical cover).

The PSA is an element of Arnold’s $48 million investment in the National Partnership for Pretrial Justice. 

The list of Arnold’s partners (“grantees” would be another word) in that effort reads like Homer’s epic catalog of the Greek ships drawn up before Troy.

An armada of grant-seeking, grant-executing, grant-evaluating, criminal justice institutions is represented in the National Partnership. Just to name a few of the individual vessels: RAND Corporation, Vera Institute of Justice, Urban Institute, Stanford University, RTI International, the National Center for State Courts, and the New York City Criminal Justice Agency.

Arnold’s website provides a comprehensive list of the individual research projects being undertaken by the think tanks. There is an astonishing amount of useful research underway.

Still, although many worthy efforts can be listed, the shape of the struggle—of the “greater than” zone in “greater than the sum of its parts”—hasn’t been given very much attention.

Will this really come down to an effort to prescribe, from the heights of the think tanks, in detail, and in advance, the steps to be taken by people on the distant frontlines?

Portraits in Risk

The signature tool of a contemporary reformer is data. But despite the heroic efforts of pioneers such as Amy Bach, the reformers frequently find themselves making do with the data they have rather than utilizing the data they need.

In PSA and similar efforts, the data is supplied by a system of portraiture that reduces the African-American men who are the intended beneficiaries of the actuarial approach to history-based scores.

There is a grim irony in the fact that the group whose experience in America is characterized by a unique and acute vulnerability will now be depicted exclusively in terms of the risk they present to others.

In this scoring, defendants are all past, no future; the only relevant aspect of their pasts implicates decisions (Arrest? Convict?) made about the defendants by the criminal system itself.

Meanwhile, the history-based scoring eliminates any need to take account of the iatrogenic injuries (loss of job, loss of children, disrupted treatment, loss of housing) that detention will inflict.

And since it considers only “static” historical factors, and not “dynamic” factors (such as treatment possibilities or employment counseling), the scoring also releases the system’s architects and operators from any need to consider their own problematic failures in risk reduction practice.

Besides—unlike a drug treatment program, or mental health counseling—PSA is free. The temptation for a local system under pressure to hope (or pretend) that it is a silver bullet that resolves all pretrial problems is substantial.

In the end, you are left with the mock-learned taxonomy of subject peoples that the British developed in London and then applied in colonial India through the Criminal Tribes Act.

 The Message in the Numbers

Debating the PSA’s statistical elegance won’t quite address all of the issues.

The risk here is that we will think the work is done when we eliminate the creation of false differences (assumptions based on racial stereotypes, for example).

But there is another mistake we can make about difference: we can ignore genuine differences (in law enforcement activity, or individual family, medical, or employment histories) when they exist.

The actuarial process says to the defendant, his family, and his community, “We see you (or your son, or your neighbor) as an integer, not a person.”

In fact (since everyone involved in the bail hearing knows everyone else’s race) it says to one vulnerable group, “We see you as one of the African-American integers.”

Would they choose to be depicted that way? Has anyone asked them?

It is hard to believe this approach doesn’t eventually erode trust in the law.

A research report by the Center for Court Innovation tactfully explains why no criminal history score can escape the influence of the racial weighting of the pre-existing determinations that constitute its data pool, and suggests workarounds to mute the effect.

No one actually believes that reformers generated a pure numerical tool that is then transmitted and faithfully mobilized on the front lines. PSA is explicitly not a substitute for judges.

As Prof. Mona Lynch has shown in a February, 2019 article in the American Bar Foundation’s Law & Social Inquiry journal, instead of transforming defendants into a set of criminal history points that help determine sentence assignment from a table, the quantified criminal histories simply provide a starting point: another opening for the frontline practitioners’ development of their own “narrative of the number.”

There is no reason to be confident that (with or without a score) the race of the defendant has no impact at an arraignment. For example, experience with Kentucky judges who were asked to employ a precursor risk assessment tool showed a heightened willingness to override risk scores where moderate-risk black defendants were evaluated.

Whatever biases the scores’ stylized representations of the defendants bleed out of the process, the practitioners can put right back in. In a context where a “false negative” (the release of a Willie Horton) terrifies the judge and a “false positive” (the detention of a Kalief Browder, who would not have committed a new crime) will never be discovered, at least one gravitational pull is baked in.

Judges care about community safety; they care about their own job security too.

It is a truism that “culture eats strategy for lunch.” You should expect courthouse culture to gnaw at your algorithm.

Frontline practitioners are not a transparent medium through which the message from the researchers and policy-makers passes; they refract the message to the community, and they refract the message back from the front.

People in Systems

Recently Jeremy Travis, Arnold Ventures’ Executive Vice-president for Criminal Justice, writing in The Crime Report, called for a new lens. He argued that the reform world needs, “a more expansive research agenda [that] would be focused on people, families and communities, not systems.”

That welcome observation might call for a friendly amendment.

The question isn’t people or systems; the question is people in systems. That means we have to spend some time understanding what sort of system people are entangled in.

Travis is quite right that a linear, sequential, model of a system and the research it attracts are inadequate. The criminal system is not a Newtonian mechanism of springs, gears, and switches where every action has an inevitable reaction that can be known in advance. It can’t be fixed by optimizing an individual component. It probably can’t be permanently “fixed” at all.

But criminal justice is a system: it is a complex socio-technical system. Its operators and the people whose lives they affect are subject to swirling clouds of influences which are not “causes” with inevitable effects. These influences impact the probabilities; they do not flip a switch. They are often over-lapping and sometimes conflicting. Everyone’s work is affecting everyone else’s work, all the time.

The work that is done often has to be very different from the work that can be defined in advance. Workarounds, triage, covert work rules, and “practical drift” adjustments multiply.  Very often “workmanship”—not simply following the rules laid down in the researchers’ grid—is what matters.

A great deal can be learned from measuring outputs, but it would be good to remember that outputs cast at best an oblique light on processes.

And there is a reading of the outputs that suggests that the frontline practitioners could be treated as a resource to be mobilized, rather than an audience to be instructed.

For example, a careful study of the “holistic” defense practices of the Bronx Defenders—which, in their highly individualized approach to defendants and their issues constitute a mirror opposite of the actuarial scoring solution—showed an 8.6 percent reduction in pretrial detention. As Silicon Valley De-Bug’s Participatory Defense initiative shows, there is every reason to think that the community, if it were treated as an element of the frontline, could make an important difference too.

My argument here is not that all researchers everywhere are always ignoring the realities of frontline life. I realize that there are numerous contacts between the research and the practice communities.

And my argument here is not for ignoring the researchers’ data-derived vision of the justice system in favor of the frontliners’ narratives.

The argument is for an explicit, determined focus on recognizing that we need both lenses, and that their two approaches are in tension. We can try to make sure that inevitable tension is a productive one.

There’s a lot to be learned, but it can’t be learned (or taught) top-down. Everyone got into this situation together; together is the only way we will get out.

We should do what we can to nourish the capacity for everyone to learn from each other— and all of the time.

James M. Doyle is a Boston defense lawyer and author, and a frequent contributor to The Crime Report. He welcomes readers’ comments.

Beware the ‘Professional’ Reformer syndicated from https://immigrationattorneyto.wordpress.com/