#and yes i am in love with the 166 rewrite

[rottingraisins]

what’s your favourite scp article?? or a few, if you have such

HELLO PUT TOGETHER A FUCKING. NO PARTICULAR ORDER TOP 15 sorry theres just so many of them.

SCP-3515 “Unearth”

Did you also have that one really specific childhood fear of falling asleep and waking up buried alive?? Yeah??? Then this one is so fucking scary! Its usually the one I recommend to people just looking for a good standalone horror story. Also love the odd sort of sense of nostalgia permeating the piece.

SCP-1958 “Starmobile”

This one really gets to me and i dont know why, sometimes I’ll just sit on the train to uni and think about it. The stars are so fucking beautiful out here man…

SCP-2006 “Too Spooky”

Hehehe I love the ones where the actual gimmicks in the containment procedures and this ones my fav one 4ever its so silly

SCP-5733 “Return of the Suburb Slasher”

This one is kind of hammy and melodramatic down to the twist ending that doesnt make any sense but its supposed to be a hommage to like 80s popcorn slasher flicks and it fits that sort of tone wonderfully, not every scp needs to take itself seriously I think. Also love how crazy the experiment logs get they straight up just teach her magic

SCP-3999 “I Am At The Center Of Everything That Happens To Me”

TALLORAN my friend Talloran… This one hits a lot harder if you’ve read a few other SCPs and especially if youve gotten somewhat entrenched in the community so if you read this one fairly early on and didn’t feel like you really got it I implore you to give it a reread. Normie pick but probably my favorite piece among all these if I had to pick just one it is that good

SCP-4205 “In The Eyes Of The Beholder”

To be fair its been a while since I read this one but I remember it making me really emotional the first time around, scps that are about like tragic little stories happening to people exposed to them are always gonna hit me harder than the most clever out there of concepts tbh

SCP-5320 “The People's Church Of The Fish That Just Goes On Forever “

THIS ONES LIKE THAT A BIT ALSO though its not tragic and more silly but so profoundly human. raddagher in general is rlly good at like. Immersing you in the workplace culture of a setting as inherently bizarre as the foundation and im such a sucker for it

SCP-166 “Just a Teenage Gaea”

LISTEN. LISTEN I wasn’t gonna put any scps on here just bc I like the characters attached to it but meri BARELY appears in anything else than her file tbh and also its a good fucking rewrite I absolutely love all the implied lore about the goc and procedure clockwork blackchild havilah and how they leaned more into the estranged familial relationship between her and clef which was always the emotional core of the piece to me

SCP-0166 “I Was A Teenage Succubus”

The other really good 166 rewrite. Manages to very thoroughly deconstruct the original piece and everything that was wrong with it without being weird abt it and even gets a little meta! I love one (1) tuberculosisgirl yes you should GET to feel righteous anger at how the narrative has treated you!!

SCP-2721 ”Eli and Lyris”

...I used to have really bad internalized cringe @ myself and my dumb fandom shit when I was younger so theres something very very sweet to me about homestuckposting saving the world. Also love the implicit character development in Eli going on to become bones gaw. Whenever its in anything I’m like. Points at it

SCP-2508 “The Long Wait”

Listen I don’t know what’s really going on in this one either but the tone and concept of it never quite let me go

SCP-3001 “Red Reality”

Robert :(

SCP-2000 “Deus Ex Machina”

WHO KNEW A FUCKING THAUMIEL COULD HIDE ONE OF THE WIKIS MOST DEVASTATING COSMIC HORROR CONCEPTS HUH. In a lot of ways feels like a thematic predecessor to yesterday and resurrection as a whole which. I dont know if youve noticed but im not normal about that canon whatsoever. Also shoutout to clef for making a cameo as a decomposing mummy you go girl!!!

SCP-3309 “Where We Go When We Fade, Fade Away “

Leans really heavily on its meta twist but its really a very clever idea to be fair and the emotional writing hits just hard enough to make this another one i like. Sit and think about sometimes

SCP-3002 “Attempt To Assasinate Thought”

Kind of long and all over the place but it somewhat needs to be to keep you from figuring out whats really going on until the end. YES OK this gets bonus points for the author having revealed on reddit that this is an au version of iris/scp-105 on her posthumous final revenge campaign against the foundation which adds another layer of emotional depth to it that it probably wouldnt have made it on here without but its my list. I can do what I want

[meanautisticenbian]

I'm sure y'all are mostly here for my Owl house content, so I wonder how y'all are doing with that fact that I was once in the SCP fandom

[fandom-imagines-for-days]

Little Gestures: Two

Pairing: Peter Parker x Anxious!Reader

Summary: You have generalized anxiety and Peter looks after you a lot.

Warnings: mentions and descriptions of trouble breathing and anxiety. Fluff.

A/N: Hey guys, I hope you are enjoying these. I really like writing them.

Thank you all so so much for 166 notes on my 'Warm' imagine, it means the world to me.

Please feel free to send requests for any kind of imagine for a range of things. Or if you just wanna message me my inbox is always always open.

Imagines ect for:

Supernatural, doctor who, Percy Jackson, Fairy tail, Noragami, Marvel, and a few others. If I cant do something I will let you know but yeah. I hope you enjoy this imagine.

_____

"You okay?"

You inhale sharply and glance over to your boyfriend, Peter, seated beside you. He was looking at you with pinched eyebrows, his soft brown orbs dimmed ever so slightly due to worry. "Yeah, yeah I'm okay." You tell him. "Just... thinking." You explain, giving him a reassuring smile. Peter pauses, gives you the usual once over before smilimg back and turning to his work.

By, 'Just thinking' you really meant that your thoughts were racing at impossible speeds and you couldn't focus on anything in front of you. The room felt slightly warmer than it was before. Your vision swam ever so slightly. You felt your heart beating in your chest. Harder and harder as if it were a squirrel on speed, stuck in a small box. Your hands started shaking and you realized how hard it was to breathe. You cursed yourself slightly and dropped your pen, giving up on the damn math equation in order to sit back in your chair and try to breathe.

Your brain had ultimately decided screw you, so now your chest was tight. You tried to breathe in deeply, fill your lungs properly. That didn't happen. You tried again, still hopeful that it would end soon, trying to allow your diaphragm to drop and expand so that you could breathe again and then go back to work. Your diaphragm did it's job but it did it poorly. You knew this was just a small anxiety thing. It wasn't a proper attack. It would just be a massive inconvenience for five or so minutes.

"Y/N, are you sure you're okay? You only do that when-" he cut himself off. "Oh." Peter dropped to his knees beside you and took one of your hands. "Hey, is there anything I can do?" He offers, watching you carefully. You shake your head. "You know there isn't anything you can do Pete." You say, an edge to your voice. Another failed breath.

You tell yourself that as long as you're still breathing you're still fine.

"All we can do is wait." Peter studied you and the surrounding room. You sat back further and continued trying. You had learnt over the years that if you panicked it became worse. So all you needed to do was remain calm and you would be fine.

"Y/N I can't just, stand here idly while you are having trouble breathing." He states firmly. You sigh gently as an idea hits you. "Pete, doesn't May have like, an asthma pump in your first aid box for emergencies or something?" His eyes sparked as you said that.

"Oh my god yes! She does. Maybe her paranoia will come in handy for once." He kissed your hand and fled the room.

The only reason you knew it was there was because a while back Peter had gotten into a fight with Flash at school.

For such an apparently small fight, he had pretty bad injuries: Full blown scratches and cuts as if he was pushed to the ground several times. A black eye, busted lip, fractured knuckles and even a lightly sprained ankle.

Long story short you had to patch him up. It was terrible but a little bit nice since for once you were taking care of him and not the other way rounden again you never saw the fight happen nor did you mention it to Flash. Peter had asked you not to so you didn't.

Part of you always did want to confront Flash but then again your anxiety would problem chew your tongue so you wouldn't be able to get a word out.

Peter ran back into the room with the asthma pump and handed it to you. You placed it in your mouth, pushed the pump and felt the thing dispense as you tried to breathe it in as far as you possibly could. After a few minutes of Peter watching you and holding your hand. You were finally able to breathe again.

"You alright?" You nod in response. "Maybe we should get you one of these." You shrug and try to get back to work, your hands still shaking.

"Y/N."

"Yes Peter."

"Are we gonna go get one?"

"Yeah, after I've finished this." He sighed and took your pen, turning your face to his. "We have all day to finish this. It's ten am on a Saturday. It's due on Monday. You'll be fine." You search his eyes. "But Peter, the sooner we get it done the sooner we can realx." He doesn't let up. "Y\N the pharmacy is literally two blocks away, we'll be back in around ten minutes." Peter gives you this smile. That is what finally makes you cave. "Okay fine Peter we'll go." He grins and takes your hand, leading you out the door.

You two walked to the pharmacy, Peter held your right hand and swung it like a six year old. You smiled gently at that and Peter made a note to continue doing it since he knew it made you smile. You passed the two blocks fairly fast and arrived at the pharmacy. Peter took you inside and you walked towards the counter. You were about to talk but your mouth wouldn't open. You started to ask for an asthma pump but only stuttered like an idiot for about a minute straight until Peter stepped in and purchased it for you. You stood off to the side with your head in your hands, trying to quell your over active mind. When Peter touched your arm you jumped. He rubbed your arm softly as a comforting thing before buying two or three other things.

When you exited the store you took the packet from Peter in your left hand and held his hand with your right. Peter went back to swining your arm and your smile was a bit dimmer.

You were two shops away form his apartment building when Peter suddenly let go of your hand and dropped to the ground. You were about to ask what the hell when you saw he had tied both your shoes for you. He stood up, dusted his hands off and tried to take your hand again.

"Why did you just tie my shoe laces for me?" You didn't know whether to be thankful for that or annoyed that he thought you weren't able to look after yourself. Peter rubbed your hand gently and said "Well I know how particular you are about your shoes being tight and I thought it would be eaiser if I just tied them real quick so you didn't stress about stopping people on the street or anything like that. It's not because I believe you aren't able to do it. I just wanted to try and make your life easier if I could." You took a deep breath, your annoyance easing away.

"Thank you Peter."

"Always my gorgeous." He kissed your temple and you two started towards the apartment again. Both of you swinging your arms.

__

Third time rewriting this because Tumblr hates me today. Finally done. Please tell me of any mistakes or such and I'll fix them. Message me if you need something or have ideas, I'd love to hear them. Goodbye my friends!

🌈Obsession out✌

[llamaloydwp]

All the author questions on the fanfic ask plz! 😊

Okay :) Author Questions21. What was the first fanfic you ever wrote?Hard to say, knowing my dorky 13 year old self it was Kingdom Hearts related XD 22. Is there anything you regret writing?Yeah but Its since been deleted. :) 23. Name a fic you’ve written that you’re especially fond of & explain why you like it.I’m very fond of my one shots, I put a lot of effort into them trying to cram a whole story into one chapter and I think they end up being much more well written somehow. But don’t get me wrong I do love my multichapters. 24. What fic do you desperately need to rewrite or edit?I think I’ve said this before, I love my Teach Me Series but I think I would definitely revise some of Teach Me To Trust if I ever had the time. I’ve also thought about going into Obsession and adding more backstory to Lylah. 25. What’s your most popular fanfic?I’m going to say Stowaway on Ao3 https://archiveofourown.org/works/15010058/chapters/34791848It doesn’t seem like a lot, to the more known fanfiction writers in this fandom but this got almost 2k hits in the first week It was published. Reader beware if you click the link: Stowaway is dark AF. Mind the tags. But Teach Me to Love book One on Wattpad is also pretty popular :) https://www.wattpad.com/story/137786526-teach-me-to-love-part-126. How do you come up with your fanfic titles?Music, or I think about the general plot for the story and come up with a title that plays off of it. 27. What do you hate more: Coming up with titles or writing summaries?Summaries XD 28. If someone were to draw a piece of fanart for your story, which story would it be and what would the picture be of?I honestly don’t know. I’d love fan art for any of my stories to be honest. :) 29. Do you have a beta reader? Why/Why not?Well I mean @storybrookesims reads all my chapters *Most* of the time before I publish them and she tells me when there is a typo does that count? XD 30. What inspires you to write?I get a lot of my inspiration from music or movies, but also @storybrookesims shes the mastermind behind a lot of the angst in my stories 31. What’s the nicest thing someone has ever said about your writing?That my fics were the only ones they read, I was like Awww.. but there are soooo much better writers out there than me XD . 32. Do you listen to music when you write or does music inspire you? If so, which band or genre of music does it for you?Yes. Bittersweet Symphony, the Sequel to my fic Music in Me on Wattpad has song lyrics for the titles of each chapter and a song that goes with the chapter. but over all music inspires me a lot, I always have music on when I write. Genre depends on what fic I am writing :) 33. Do you write oneshots, multi-chapter fics or huuuuuge epics?Multi chapter fics mostly I have a couple of One-shots but I prefer multi-chapter because I love to cliff hang my readers XD I’m evil. I have no idea what an Epic is tho XD 34. What’s the word count on your longest fic?Teach me to Love is 44 chapters and its 78,969 Words. 166 pages. back before I wrote on google docs and used a new doc per chapter, I kept it all together in one Wordpad document. I just transfered the whole thing to a blank document on google docs XD 35. Do you write drabbles? If so, what do you normally write them about?I can barely even write One-shots XD so No. 36. What’s your favourite genre to write?Outside of fanfiction? I write a lot of Supernatural Fantasy, Horror, and Psychological thriller stuff. I have an completely original book that I am writing in between fanfictions when I have time that combines all of that XD But with fanfiction I write mostly AU 37. First person or third person - what do you write in and why?I started writing in First person, but I write mostly in third person now. I’m not sure it just depends on how I feel like telling the story. 38. Do you use established canon characters or do you create OCs?I always write with an OC. 39. What is you greatest strength as a writer?I suck at these questions I literally have no idea lol 40. What do you struggle the most with in your writing?in the back of my mind I’m always worried that my writing sucks and no one likes it, even though people have told me they do. Anxiety is a bitch XD 

[vivianscurrentmoods]

Curretn Moods/Apple Top 200 Week of 7/16

1.In My Feeling E- Drake 2. You Say- Lauren Daigle 3. Girls Like You E- Maroon 5 ft Cardi B 4. I like it- Cardi B, Bad Bunny, J Balvin 5.Natrual- Imagine Dragons 6. In My Feelings - Drake 7. Better Now E- Post Malone 8. Simple- Flordia George Line 9. God is a women E- Ariane Grande 10. Whatever it takes- Imagine Dragons 11. Youngblood- 5 seconds of summer 12. Mercy- Brett Young 13. no tears left to cry- Ariane Grande 14. Delicate- Taylor Swift 15. Jumpsuit- Twenty one pilots 16. Desprate man- Eric Church 17. Tequila- Dan +Shay 18.Eatside- benny, blanco, Halsey & Khalid 19.Drowns the Whiskey- Jason Aldean/Miranda 20. Havana- Camila Cabello Ft Young Thung 21.Get Along- Kenny Chesney 22. Thunder- Imagine Dragons 23 Love Lies- Khalid & Normani 24. Psycho- Post Malone ft Ty Dolla $ign 25.Taste- Tyga 26. Back to You- Selena Gomez 27. The Middle- Zedd, Marren Morris 28.I Like It- Cardi B. 29.Girls Like You- Maroon 5 ft Cardi B. 30. In My Blood- Shawn Mendez 31. Meant To Be- Bebe Rexha & Flordia Gerogia Line 32.Lucid Dream E- Juice WRLD 33. Perfect- Ed Sheeran 34. One Kiss- Calvin Harris, Dua Lupa 35. Sit Next To Me- Foster the People 36. Summertime Magic- Chidlish Gambio 37.Beautiful Crazy- Luke Combs 38. Level Up - Ciara 39. Boo’d Up- Ella Mai 40. Life Changes- Thomas Rhett 41. When the Curtain Falls- Greta Van Fleet 42.Nice For What E- Drake 43.Connection- One Republic 44.FRIENDS E- Marshmello & Anne- Marie 45.Africa- Weezer 46.SAD!- XXXTENTCAION 47.Up Down- Morgan Wallen ft Florida Georgia Line 48vSunrise, Sunburnt, Sunset- Luck Bryan 49.High Hopes-Panic! At The Disco 50.Beleiver- Imagine Dragons 51.Love You Too Late- Cole Swindell 52.Heaven- Kane Brown 53.Mine E- Bazzi 54.Never Be The Same- Camila Cabello 55.This is Me- Greatest Show Man Cast 56.you should see me in a crown-Bollie Elish 57.Zombie- Wolves 58.I Like Me Better- Lauv 59.Born To Be Yours- Kygo & Imagine Dragons 60.Don’t Go Breaking My Heart- Backstreet Boys 61.You Make It Easy- Jason Alden 62.Africa- Toto 63.Babe- Sugarland ft Taylor Swift 64.Take Back Home Girl-Christ Lane ft Tori Kelly 65.Have it all- Jason Alden 66.Hotel Key- Old Domminion 67.Feels Like Summer- Childish Gambino 68.Lose It- Kane Brown 69.Everything’s Gonna Be Alright- David Lee Murphy& Kenny Chesnen 70.Wait- Maroon 5 71.Joy- KING & Country 72.Nico And The Niners- twenty one pilots 73.Tennessee Whisey- Chris Stapleton 74Gods Plan E- Drake 75.CAN’T STOP THE FEELING!- Justin Timberlake 76.Solo- Clean Bandit ft Demi Lovato 77.Never Enough- Loren Allred 78.changes- XXXTETACION 79.Yes Indeed E- Lil Baby &Drake 80.Nice For What E- Drake 81.This Is America E- Childish Gambin 82.APESHIT E- THE CARTERS 83.Speechless- Dan+Shay 84.One Number Away-Luke Combs 85.Drunk Me- Mithcell Tenpenny 86.Nonstop E- Drake 87.Say Amen (Saturday Night)-Panic!At the Disco 88.The Breakup Song- Francesca Battistelli 89.Fr Fr- Wiz Khalfia ft Lili Skies 90.Better Boat-Kenny Chesney ft Mindy Smith 91.Coming Home - Keith Urban ft Julia Michales 92.Better Now- Post Malone 93.Everything- TobyMac 94. Love it if We Made It - 1975 95. Stone- Whiskey Myres .96 Moonlight E - XXXTENTACION 97. I Was Jack (You Were Diane)- Jake Owen 98. Big Bank- YG ft 2Chainz, Big Sean, & Niki Minaji 99.Done For Me- Charlie Puth ft kehlani 100.Bohemni Rhapsody 101.Broken- lovelytheband 102.Feel It Still- Portugal. The Man 103.Rockstar E- Post Malone 104.Nevermind- Dennis Loyd 105.Radioactive- Imagine Dragons 106.I Fall Apart E- Post Malone 107.no tears left to cry- Ariana Grande 108.Remind Me to Forget-Kygo & Miguel 109.I’m a Mess- Bebe Rexha 110.Don’t Stop Belevi’n- Journey 111.Grace Got You- MercyMe 112.Drunk Girl- Chris Janson 113.The Night We Met- Lord Huron 114.lovely- Billie Eilish & Khalid 115.Reckless Love- Cory Asbury 116.Shape Of You - Ed Sheeran 117.Jackie Chan E- Tiesto& Dzeko ft. Preme &Post Malone 118.I Can Only Imagine- MercyMe 119.Don’t Matter To Me- Drake ft Michael Jackson  120.Road To Happiness- Cam 121.Uptown Funk- Mark Ronson ft Bruno Mars 122Downtown’s Dead- Sam Hunt 123.I’m Upset E- Drake 124.Rewrite The Stars- Zac Efron &Zendaya 125.Bed E- Niki Minaji ft Ariana Grande 126.Body Like A Back Road- Sam Hunt 127.The Greatest Show- The Greatest Showman Cast 128.Bodak Yellow E- Cardi B. 129.Dinero- Jennifer Lopez ft Dj Khaled & Cardi B 130.Cry Pretty- Carrie Underwood 131.Freaky Friday E- Lil Dicky ft Chris Brown 132.What if- Kane Brown ft Lauren Alania 133.Break Up in the End- Cole Swindell 134.Perfect Symphony- Ed Sheeran & Andrea Bocelli 135.Broken Halos- Chris Stapleton 136.NO EXSCUSES- Meghan Trainor 137.Kiss Somebody- Morgan Evans 138.To Bote’- A lot of Rappers lol! 139.I Wanna Know- NOTD ft Bea Miller 140.In Case You Didn’t Know- Brett Young 141.The Champion- Carrie Underwood ft Ludacris 142.Take Me Home, Country Roads- John Denver 143.Psycho- Post Malone ft Ty Dolla $ign 144.Be Careful E- Cardi B 145.Like I Used To E- Tinahshe 146.LET YOU BE RIGHT- Meghan Tranior 147.Thinking Out Loud- Ed Sheeran 148.24k Magic-Bruno Mars 149.Something Just Like This- Chainsmokers 150.A Thousand Years- Christina Perri 151.Alone- Halsey ft Big Sean & Stefflon Don 152.A Million Dreams- The Greatest Showman 153.Despacitio- Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee ft Justin Biber 154.Most People Are Good- Luke Byran 155.Demons- Imagine Dragons 156.Shake it Off- Taylor Swift 157.Marry Me- Thomas Rhett 158.IDGAF-Dua Lupa 159.Who You Say I Am (live)-Hillsong Worship 160.Walk It Talk It E- Miggos  ft Drake 161.Dancing Queen- Abba 162.New Light- John Mayer 163.Self Care- Mac Miller 164.Take You Out Of It- Flordia Georgia Line 165.God’s Plan E- Drake 166.Good Old Days- Macklamore ft Ke$ha 167.We Will Rock You- Queen 168.Finnese (Remix)- Bruno Mars ft Cardi B. 169.Must’ve Never Met You- Luke Combs 170.New Rules- Dua Lupa 171.Smile E- Lil Duval 172.Burn The House Down E- AJR 173.Fear Is a Liar - Zach Willams 174.The Sound Of Silence- Disturbed 175.When It Rains It Pours- Luke Combs 176.There Nothing Holdin’Me Back- Shawn Mendes 177.All Night E- Big Boi 178.Born To Love You- LANCO 179.Hide the Wine- Carly Pearace 180.Congartulations E- Post Malone ft Quavo 181.Silence- Marshmello ft Khalid 182.MOVE TO MIAMI- Enrique Igeasiaiss ft pitbull 183.Party in The U.S.A- Miley Cyrus  184.I Hate Love Songs- Kelsea Ballerini 185.Happy- Pharelle Willams 186.Let You Down- nf 187.Sober Up- AJR ft Rivers Cumo 188. Chicken Fried- Zac Brown Band 189.OTW E- Khalid, 6LACK & Ty Dolla $ign 190.Familiar- Liam Payne & J Balvin 191.No Matter What- Ryan Stevenson ft Bart Millard 192.Bad at Love- Halsey 193.All of Me- John Legend 194.Sour Diesel- ZAYN 195.Hooked- Dylan Scott 196.Wagon Wheel- Daruis Rucker 197.I Lived It- Blake Shelton 199.Mammia Mia- Mamma Mia 2 (OUT IN THEATERS NOW) 200. Stresssed Out- twenty one pilots 

Hello Everyone this is the charts for the week of July 16th 2018! I hope you enjoy

disclamier/ sorry if all the artist names aren’t spelled correctly I treid the best I could :)

[revivedandabandonedkids]

Writing Tag Game

 I was tagged by @vraberika literally just now holy cheese and puddings I am somewhat remembered and wow I was pleasantly surprised.

Seriously thank you so much/// You’re? The actual sweetest?

What is your total word count on AO3?

113153

Since? October of 2015 wow I write slowww

But to be fair I have tons of abandoned wips haha.

Pretty sure a huge chunk of it was from the DEH series I completed a while ago.

How often do you write?

When I get the time to do it. Between school and the translations I do on another site, there isn’t nearly enough spare time for writing than I’d like. Then there’s the writers’ blocks and those are always fun amiright

I really really wish I can write more though... at least finish up my previous wips hnggggg I’m very very sorry I’ve been so inactive but I just don’t have the time and effort to manage everything.

Do you have a routine for writing?

Not really? I just go with the flow mostly. Idk what you mean by “rountine”... I’m pretty...un-routinely.

What are your favorite kinks/tropes/pairing?

Enemies to friends/lovers probably. I don’t know why it’s always intrigued me!! I also love fantasy AUs <3

As for pairings... I have a bunch? But for the Ina fandom it’s afufubu (no surprise there)

Do you have a favorite fic of yours?

I automatically hate every fic I write because I’m never really “satisfied” with them. I mean yeah they probably took days, weeks, even months of planning and rewriting, but there’s always room for improvement, because I’m obviously not the best writer. I always get this feeling aw darn I ruined that idea. I bet [insert random fanfic writer] could do amazing things with this idea but I had to sabotage it.

As you can see I don’t have the highest self-esteem.

But if we’re really talking here.....

Probably either Freshly Drugged and Ready to be Slaughtered, which I wrote for the Haikyuu fandom, because I got to explore my version of the characters when put under the harsh environments that is the Hunger Games (and also I love writing angst AHAHA)

Or Tips to Teen Angst, Friendship Maintenance, and the Art of Matchmaking, which I wrote for the Dear Evan Hansen fandom. I got to write a bunch of fun texty dialogue. (I made them swear a lot whoops) I don’t know I really enjoyed the pacing of this one.

If we’re talking about the Ina fandom though- I’ve actually written a bunch of fics I never posted online. My favorite has got to be the one titled 吹雪（敦也）on my blog, which literally just means Fubuki (Atsuya). I like to sound sophisticated. Fight me.

I really love writing that one because I got the explore the dynamic between Aphrodi and Atsuya, who have never actually interacted onscreen!! It’s just so interesting!!! (Hi I’m a professional rarepair shipper. Romantic/platonic/rivalry we have it all!)

Your fic with the most kudos?

I don’t know what to say here because I’ve literally never put any of my Ina Eleven fics on AO3........ pysch!

How Do Friendships Work Again (Dear Evan Hansen), with 166 kudos. Which is strange. Because yes, I spent a lot of time and thought on that fic, it’s really not one I struggled with. It was not one of those ideas that I carry with me everywhere, it was not one of those stories that I spend forever revising and replanning. It was quick, it was written on a whim. I still cherish it very very much, but it just comes to show how the popularity of certain fandoms affect the stories’ feedback. I could spend grand lengths of time and devotion to this one, well thought-out fanfic I wrote of a rarepair, and get completely dismissed. I could spend a few hours to write this short, sweet fluff piece that doesn’t really hold much lore or depth, and get a bunch of attention just because people like that particular pairing.

Anything you don’t like about your writing?

Everything lol.

I have so much to work on.... The flow, the pacing, the vocabulary, the list goes on and on and on.

The only thing I can write is dialogue, and it’s not like I can make my characters talk forever.

Or maybe I could.

I should experiment it sometime.

Now something you do like about your writing?

Oops already answered that one above.

The dialogue, because I am a certified Trash-TalkerTM So I’m constantly applying that skill onto the sassier characters.

I mean people have told me that I write really fun dialogue and honestly I trust their tastes over mine.

Imma tag @ozrockbitway I guess? If you’d like? *hides behind a pillow*

I’m a huge.... outsider......... actually............because I’m always...........disappearing randomly....................and I apologize for that..............................I’malsoreallybadatmakingfriendssotheresthathaha

I’ll... try to be more active in the fandom but honestly? No promises. I love Ina Eleven because it made up a huge part of my early cringe teen years, and I always will love Ina Eleven, but I have school, I have other fandoms, I have other projects I’m working on and I don’t know how to divide my time fairly anymore. Especially recently I’ve been pushing myself to update things that I’m not really feeling, but because my followers are really looking forward to them, I update anyway. Not the healthiest, I know. I have no idea what I’m doing with my life anymore.

I honestly have a lot I’d like to say about the new Ina Eleven series, but I haven’t found the time to put them into words yet. I’d say keep a lookout if you’re interested in my piece of mind.

Thank you all so much for the support you’ve shown me in the past. You are all amazing, no matter what you might think or what others might say, every single one of you!! I hope you all have a wonderful day!!! And oh boy how in the world did this turn into a self-reflection post I thought this was a light and happy tag game.

[island-delver-go]

Thank you for coming. The soul of our beloved City is deeply rooted in a history that has evolved over thousands of years; rooted in a diverse people who have been here together every step of the way – for both good and for ill. It is a history that holds in its heart the stories of Native Americans: the Choctaw, Houma Nation, the Chitimacha. Of Hernando de Soto, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, the Acadians, the Islenos, the enslaved people from Senegambia, Free People of Color, the Haitians, the Germans, both the empires of Francexii and Spain. The Italians, the Irish, the Cubans, the south and central Americans, the Vietnamese and so many more. You see: New Orleans is truly a city of many nations, a melting pot, a bubbling cauldron of many cultures. There is no other place quite like it in the world that so eloquently exemplifies the uniquely American motto: e pluribus unum — out of many we are one. But there are also other truths about our city that we must confront. New Orleans was America’s largest slave market: a port where hundreds of thousands of souls were brought, sold and shipped up the Mississippi River to lives of forced labor of misery of rape, of torture. America was the place where nearly 4,000 of our fellow citizens were lynched, 540 alone in Louisiana; where the courts enshrined ‘separate but equal’; where Freedom riders coming to New Orleans were beaten to a bloody pulp. So when people say to me that the monuments in question are history, well what I just described is real history as well, and it is the searing truth. And it immediately begs the questions: why there are no slave ship monuments, no prominent markers on public land to remember the lynchings or the slave blocks; nothing to remember this long chapter of our lives; the pain, the sacrifice, the shame … all of it happening on the soil of New Orleans. So for those self-appointed defenders of history and the monuments, they are eerily silent on what amounts to this historical malfeasance, a lie by omission. There is a difference between remembrance of history and reverence of it. For America and New Orleans, it has been a long, winding road, marked by great tragedy and great triumph. But we cannot be afraid of our truth. As President George W. Bush said at the dedication ceremony for the National Museum of African American History & Culture, “A great nation does not hide its history. It faces its flaws and corrects them.” So today I want to speak about why we chose to remove these four monuments to the Lost Cause of the Confederacy, but also how and why this process can move us towards healing and understanding of each other. So, let’s start with the facts. The historic record is clear: the Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and P.G.T. Beauregard statues were not erected just to honor these men, but as part of the movement which became known as The Cult of the Lost Cause. This ‘cult’ had one goal — through monuments and through other means — to rewrite history to hide the truth, which is that the Confederacy was on the wrong side of humanity. First erected over 166 years after the founding of our city and 19 years after the end of the Civil War, the monuments that we took down were meant to rebrand the history of our city and the ideals of a defeated Confederacy. It is self-evident that these men did not fight for the United States of America, They fought against it. They may have been warriors, but in this cause they were not patriots. These statues are not just stone and metal. They are not just innocent remembrances of a benign history. These monuments purposefully celebrate a fictional, sanitized Confederacy; ignoring the death, ignoring the enslavement, and the terror that it actually stood for. After the Civil War, these statues were a part of that terrorism as much as a burning cross on someone’s lawn; they were erected purposefully to send a strong message to all who walked in their shadows about who was still in charge in this city. Should you have further doubt about the true goals of the Confederacy, in the very weeks before the war broke out, the Vice President of the Confederacy, Alexander Stephens, made it clear that the Confederate cause was about maintaining slavery and white supremacy. He said in his now famous ‘Cornerstone speech’ that the Confederacy’s “cornerstone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery — subordination to the superior race — is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.” Now, with these shocking words still ringing in your ears, I want to try to gently peel from your hands the grip on a false narrative of our history that I think weakens us and make straight a wrong turn we made many years ago so we can more closely connect with integrity to the founding principles of our nation and forge a clearer and straighter path toward a better city and more perfect union. Last year, President Barack Obama echoed these sentiments about the need to contextualize and remember all of our history. He recalled a piece of stone, a slave auction block engraved with a marker commemorating a single moment in 1830 when Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay stood and spoke from it. President Obama said, “Consider what this artifact tells us about history … on a stone where day after day for years, men and women … bound and bought and sold and bid like cattle on a stone worn down by the tragedy of over a thousand bare feet. For a long time the only thing we considered important, the singular thing we once chose to commemorate as history with a plaque were the unmemorable speeches of two powerful men.” A piece of stone – one stone. Both stories were history. One story told. One story forgotten or maybe even purposefully ignored. As clear as it is for me today … for a long time, even though I grew up in one of New Orleans’ most diverse neighborhoods, even with my family’s long proud history of fighting for civil rights … I must have passed by those monuments a million times without giving them a second thought. So I am not judging anybody, I am not judging people. We all take our own journey on race. I just hope people listen like I did when my dear friend Wynton Marsalis helped me see the truth. He asked me to think about all the people who have left New Orleans because of our exclusionary attitudes. Another friend asked me to consider these four monuments from the perspective of an African American mother or father trying to explain to their fifth grade daughter who Robert E. Lee is and why he stands atop of our beautiful city. Can you do it? Can you look into that young girl’s eyes and convince her that Robert E. Lee is there to encourage her? Do you think she will feel inspired and hopeful by that story? Do these monuments help her see a future with limitless potential? Have you ever thought that if her potential is limited, yours and mine are too? We all know the answer to these very simple questions. When you look into this child’s eyes is the moment when the searing truth comes into focus for us. This is the moment when we know what is right and what we must do. We can’t walk away from this truth. And I knew that taking down the monuments was going to be tough, but you elected me to do the right thing, not the easy thing and this is what that looks like. So relocating these Confederate monuments is not about taking something away from someone else. This is not about politics, this is not about blame or retaliation. This is not a naïve quest to solve all our problems at once. This is, however, about showing the whole world that we as a city and as a people are able to acknowledge, understand, reconcile and, most importantly, choose a better future for ourselves, making straight what has been crooked and making right what was wrong. Otherwise, we will continue to pay a price with discord, with division, and yes, with violence. To literally put the confederacy on a pedestal in our most prominent places of honor is an inaccurate recitation of our full past, it is an affront to our present, and it is a bad prescription for our future. History cannot be changed. It cannot be moved like a statue. What is done is done. The Civil War is over, and the Confederacy lost and we are better for it. Surely we are far enough removed from this dark time to acknowledge that the cause of the Confederacy was wrong. And in the second decade of the 21st century, asking African Americans — or anyone else — to drive by property that they own; occupied by reverential statues of men who fought to destroy the country and deny that person’s humanity seems perverse and absurd. Centuries-old wounds are still raw because they never healed right in the first place. Here is the essential truth: we are better together than we are apart. Indivisibility is our essence. Isn’t this the gift that the people of New Orleans have given to the world? We radiate beauty and grace in our food, in our music, in our architecture, in our joy of life, in our celebration of death; in everything that we do. We gave the world this funky thing called jazz; the most uniquely American art form that is developed across the ages from different cultures. Think about second lines, think about Mardi Gras, think about muffaletta, think about the Saints, gumbo, red beans and rice. By God, just think. All we hold dear is created by throwing everything in the pot; creating, producing something better; everything a product of our historic diversity. We are proof that out of many we are one — and better for it! Out of many we are one — and we really do love it! And yet, we still seem to find so many excuses for not doing the right thing. Again, remember President Bush’s words, “A great nation does not hide its history. It faces its flaws and corrects them.” We forget, we deny how much we really depend on each other, how much we need each other. We justify our silence and inaction by manufacturing noble causes that marinate in historical denial. We still find a way to say “wait, not so fast.” But like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “wait has almost always meant never.” We can’t wait any longer. We need to change. And we need to change now. No more waiting. This is not just about statues, this is about our attitudes and behavior as well. If we take these statues down and don’t change to become a more open and inclusive society this would have all been in vain. While some have driven by these monuments every day and either revered their beauty or failed to see them at all, many of our neighbors and fellow Americans see them very clearly. Many are painfully aware of the long shadows their presence casts, not only literally but figuratively. And they clearly receive the message that the Confederacy and the cult of the lost cause intended to deliver. Earlier this week, as the cult of the lost cause statue of P.G.T Beauregard came down, world renowned musician Terence Blanchard stood watch, his wife Robin and their two beautiful daughters at their side. Terence went to a high school on the edge of City Park named after one of America’s greatest heroes and patriots, John F. Kennedy. But to get there he had to pass by this monument to a man who fought to deny him his humanity. He said, “I’ve never looked at them as a source of pride … it’s always made me feel as if they were put there by people who don’t respect us. This is something I never thought I’d see in my lifetime. It’s a sign that the world is changing.” Yes, Terence, it is, and it is long overdue. Now is the time to send a new message to the next generation of New Orleanians who can follow in Terence and Robin’s remarkable footsteps. A message about the future, about the next 300 years and beyond; let us not miss this opportunity New Orleans and let us help the rest of the country do the same. Because now is the time for choosing. Now is the time to actually make this the City we always should have been, had we gotten it right in the first place. We should stop for a moment and ask ourselves — at this point in our history, after Katrina, after Rita, after Ike, after Gustav, after the national recession, after the BP oil catastrophe and after the tornado — if presented with the opportunity to build monuments that told our story or to curate these particular spaces … would these monuments be what we want the world to see? Is this really our story? We have not erased history; we are becoming part of the city’s history by righting the wrong image these monuments represent and crafting a better, more complete future for all our children and for future generations. And unlike when these Confederate monuments were first erected as symbols of white supremacy, we now have a chance to create not only new symbols, but to do it together, as one people. In our blessed land we all come to the table of democracy as equals. We have to reaffirm our commitment to a future where each citizen is guaranteed the uniquely American gifts of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That is what really makes America great and today it is more important than ever to hold fast to these values and together say a self-evident truth that out of many we are one. That is why today we reclaim these spaces for the United States of America. Because we are one nation, not two; indivisible with liberty and justice for all, not some. We all are part of one nation, all pledging allegiance to one flag, the flag of the United States of America. And New Orleanians are in, all of the way. It is in this union and in this truth that real patriotism is rooted and flourishes. Instead of revering a 4-year brief historical aberration that was called the Confederacy we can celebrate all 300 years of our rich, diverse history as a place named New Orleans and set the tone for the next 300 years. After decades of public debate, of anger, of anxiety, of anticipation, of humiliation and of frustration. After public hearings and approvals from three separate community led commissions. After two robust public hearings and a 6-1 vote by the duly elected New Orleans City Council. After review by 13 different federal and state judges. The full weight of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government has been brought to bear and the monuments in accordance with the law have been removed. So now is the time to come together and heal and focus on our larger task. Not only building new symbols, but making this city a beautiful manifestation of what is possible and what we as a people can become. Let us remember what the once exiled, imprisoned and now universally loved  Nelson Mandela and what he said after the fall of apartheid. “If the pain has often been unbearable and the revelations shocking to all of us, it  is because they indeed bring us the beginnings of a common understanding of what happened and a steady restoration of the nation’s humanity.” So before we part let us again state the truth clearly. The Confederacy was on the wrong side of history and humanity. It sought to tear apart our nation and subjugate our fellow Americans to slavery. This is the history we should never forget and one that we should never again put on a pedestal to be revered. As a community, we must recognize the significance of removing New Orleans’ Confederate monuments. It is our acknowledgment that now is the time to take stock of, and then move past, a painful part of our history. Anything less would render generations of courageous struggle and soul-searching a truly lost cause. Anything less would fall short of the immortal words of our greatest President Abraham Lincoln, who with an open heart and clarity of purpose calls on us today to unite as one people when he said: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to do all which may achieve and cherish: a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” Thank you.

NOLA Mayor Landrieu via http://pulsegulfcoast.com/2017/05/transcript-of-new-orleans-mayor-landrieus-address-on-confederate-monuments

[chchcherish]

Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s Address on Removal of Four Confederate Statues

Thank you for coming.

The soul of our beloved City is deeply rooted in a history that has evolved over thousands of years; rooted in a diverse people who have been here together every step of the way – for both good and for ill.

It is a history that holds in its heart the stories of Native Americans: the Choctaw, Houma Nation, the Chitimacha. Of Hernando de Soto, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, the Acadians, the Islenos, the enslaved people from Senegambia, Free People of Color, the Haitians, the Germans, both the empires of Francexii and Spain. The Italians, the Irish, the Cubans, the south and central Americans, the Vietnamese and so many more.

You see: New Orleans is truly a city of many nations, a melting pot, a bubbling cauldron of many cultures.

There is no other place quite like it in the world that so eloquently exemplifies the uniquely American motto: e pluribus unum — out of many we are one.

But there are also other truths about our city that we must confront. New Orleans was America’s largest slave market: a port where hundreds of thousands of souls were brought, sold and shipped up the Mississippi River to lives of forced labor of misery of rape, of torture.

America was the place where nearly 4,000 of our fellow citizens were lynched, 540 alone in Louisiana; where the courts enshrined ‘separate but equal’; where Freedom riders coming to New Orleans were beaten to a bloody pulp.

So when people say to me that the monuments in question are history, well what I just described is real history as well, and it is the searing truth.

And it immediately begs the questions: why there are no slave ship monuments, no prominent markers on public land to remember the lynchings or the slave blocks; nothing to remember this long chapter of our lives; the pain, the sacrifice, the shame … all of it happening on the soil of New Orleans.

So for those self-appointed defenders of history and the monuments, they are eerily silent on what amounts to this historical malfeasance, a lie by omission.

There is a difference between remembrance of history and reverence of it. For America and New Orleans, it has been a long, winding road, marked by great tragedy and great triumph. But we cannot be afraid of our truth.

As President George W. Bush said at the dedication ceremony for the National Museum of African American History & Culture, “A great nation does not hide its history. It faces its flaws and corrects them.”

So today I want to speak about why we chose to remove these four monuments to the Lost Cause of the Confederacy, but also how and why this process can move us towards healing and understanding of each other.

So, let’s start with the facts.

The historic record is clear: the Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and P.G.T. Beauregard statues were not erected just to honor these men, but as part of the movement which became known as The Cult of the Lost Cause. This ‘cult’ had one goal — through monuments and through other means — to rewrite history to hide the truth, which is that the Confederacy was on the wrong side of humanity.

First erected over 166 years after the founding of our city and 19 years after the end of the Civil War, the monuments that we took down were meant to rebrand the history of our city and the ideals of a defeated Confederacy.

It is self-evident that these men did not fight for the United States of America, They fought against it. They may have been warriors, but in this cause they were not patriots.

These statues are not just stone and metal. They are not just innocent remembrances of a benign history. These monuments purposefully celebrate a fictional, sanitized Confederacy; ignoring the death, ignoring the enslavement, and the terror that it actually stood for.

After the Civil War, these statues were a part of that terrorism as much as a burning cross on someone’s lawn; they were erected purposefully to send a strong message to all who walked in their shadows about who was still in charge in this city.

Should you have further doubt about the true goals of the Confederacy, in the very weeks before the war broke out, the Vice President of the Confederacy, Alexander Stephens, made it clear that the Confederate cause was about maintaining slavery and white supremacy.

He said in his now famous ‘Cornerstone speech’ that the Confederacy’s “cornerstone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery — subordination to the superior race — is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.”

Now, with these shocking words still ringing in your ears, I want to try to gently peel from your hands the grip on a false narrative of our history that I think weakens us and make straight a wrong turn we made many years ago so we can more closely connect with integrity to the founding principles of our nation and forge a clearer and straighter path toward a better city and more perfect union.

Last year, President Barack Obama echoed these sentiments about the need to contextualize and remember all of our history. He recalled a piece of stone, a slave auction block engraved with a marker commemorating a single moment in 1830 when Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay stood and spoke from it.

President Obama said, “Consider what this artifact tells us about history … on a stone where day after day for years, men and women … bound and bought and sold and bid like cattle on a stone worn down by the tragedy of over a thousand bare feet. For a long time the only thing we considered important, the singular thing we once chose to commemorate as history with a plaque were the unmemorable speeches of two powerful men.”

A piece of stone – one stone. Both stories were history. One story told. One story forgotten or maybe even purposefully ignored.

As clear as it is for me today … for a long time, even though I grew up in one of New Orleans’ most diverse neighborhoods, even with my family’s long proud history of fighting for civil rights … I must have passed by those monuments a million times without giving them a second thought.

So I am not judging anybody, I am not judging people. We all take our own journey on race. I just hope people listen like I did when my dear friend Wynton Marsalis helped me see the truth. He asked me to think about all the people who have left New Orleans because of our exclusionary attitudes.

Another friend asked me to consider these four monuments from the perspective of an African American mother or father trying to explain to their fifth grade daughter who Robert E. Lee is and why he stands atop of our beautiful city. Can you do it?

Can you look into that young girl’s eyes and convince her that Robert E. Lee is there to encourage her? Do you think she will feel inspired and hopeful by that story? Do these monuments help her see a future with limitless potential? Have you ever thought that if her potential is limited, yours and mine are too?

We all know the answer to these very simple questions.

When you look into this child’s eyes is the moment when the searing truth comes into focus for us. This is the moment when we know what is right and what we must do. We can’t walk away from this truth.

And I knew that taking down the monuments was going to be tough, but you elected me to do the right thing, not the easy thing and this is what that looks like. So relocating these Confederate monuments is not about taking something away from someone else. This is not about politics, this is not about blame or retaliation. This is not a naïve quest to solve all our problems at once.

This is, however, about showing the whole world that we as a city and as a people are able to acknowledge, understand, reconcile and, most importantly, choose a better future for ourselves, making straight what has been crooked and making right what was wrong.

Otherwise, we will continue to pay a price with discord, with division, and yes, with violence.

To literally put the confederacy on a pedestal in our most prominent places of honor is an inaccurate recitation of our full past, it is an affront to our present, and it is a bad prescription for our future.

History cannot be changed. It cannot be moved like a statue. What is done is done. The Civil War is over, and the Confederacy lost and we are better for it. Surely we are far enough removed from this dark time to acknowledge that the cause of the Confederacy was wrong.

And in the second decade of the 21st century, asking African Americans — or anyone else — to drive by property that they own; occupied by reverential statues of men who fought to destroy the country and deny that person’s humanity seems perverse and absurd.

Centuries-old wounds are still raw because they never healed right in the first place.

Here is the essential truth: we are better together than we are apart. Indivisibility is our essence. Isn’t this the gift that the people of New Orleans have given to the world?

We radiate beauty and grace in our food, in our music, in our architecture, in our joy of life, in our celebration of death; in everything that we do. We gave the world this funky thing called jazz; the most uniquely American art form that is developed across the ages from different cultures.

Think about second lines, think about Mardi Gras, think about muffaletta, think about the Saints, gumbo, red beans and rice. By God, just think. All we hold dear is created by throwing everything in the pot; creating, producing something better; everything a product of our historic diversity.

We are proof that out of many we are one — and better for it! Out of many we are one — and we really do love it!

And yet, we still seem to find so many excuses for not doing the right thing. Again, remember President Bush’s words, “A great nation does not hide its history. It faces its flaws and corrects them.”

We forget, we deny how much we really depend on each other, how much we need each other. We justify our silence and inaction by manufacturing noble causes that marinate in historical denial. We still find a way to say “wait, not so fast.”

But like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “wait has almost always meant never.”

We can’t wait any longer. We need to change. And we need to change now. No more waiting. This is not just about statues, this is about our attitudes and behavior as well. If we take these statues down and don’t change to become a more open and inclusive society this would have all been in vain.

While some have driven by these monuments every day and either revered their beauty or failed to see them at all, many of our neighbors and fellow Americans see them very clearly. Many are painfully aware of the long shadows their presence casts, not only literally but figuratively. And they clearly receive the message that the Confederacy and the cult of the lost cause intended to deliver.

Earlier this week, as the cult of the lost cause statue of P.G.T Beauregard came down, world renowned musician Terence Blanchard stood watch, his wife Robin and their two beautiful daughters at their side.

Terence went to a high school on the edge of City Park named after one of America’s greatest heroes and patriots, John F. Kennedy. But to get there he had to pass by this monument to a man who fought to deny him his humanity.

He said, “I’ve never looked at them as a source of pride … it’s always made me feel as if they were put there by people who don’t respect us. This is something I never thought I’d see in my lifetime. It’s a sign that the world is changing.”

Yes, Terence, it is, and it is long overdue.

Now is the time to send a new message to the next generation of New Orleanians who can follow in Terence and Robin’s remarkable footsteps.

A message about the future, about the next 300 years and beyond; let us not miss this opportunity New Orleans and let us help the rest of the country do the same. Because now is the time for choosing. Now is the time to actually make this the City we always should have been, had we gotten it right in the first place.

We should stop for a moment and ask ourselves — at this point in our history, after Katrina, after Rita, after Ike, after Gustav, after the national recession, after the BP oil catastrophe and after the tornado — if presented with the opportunity to build monuments that told our story or to curate these particular spaces … would these monuments be what we want the world to see? Is this really our story?

We have not erased history; we are becoming part of the city’s history by righting the wrong image these monuments represent and crafting a better, more complete future for all our children and for future generations.

And unlike when these Confederate monuments were first erected as symbols of white supremacy, we now have a chance to create not only new symbols, but to do it together, as one people.

In our blessed land we all come to the table of democracy as equals.

We have to reaffirm our commitment to a future where each citizen is guaranteed the uniquely American gifts of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

That is what really makes America great and today it is more important than ever to hold fast to these values and together say a self-evident truth that out of many we are one. That is why today we reclaim these spaces for the United States of America.

Because we are one nation, not two; indivisible with liberty and justice for all, not some. We all are part of one nation, all pledging allegiance to one flag, the flag of the United States of America. And New Orleanians are in, all of the way.

It is in this union and in this truth that real patriotism is rooted and flourishes.

Instead of revering a 4-year brief historical aberration that was called the Confederacy we can celebrate all 300 years of our rich, diverse history as a place named New Orleans and set the tone for the next 300 years.

After decades of public debate, of anger, of anxiety, of anticipation, of humiliation and of frustration. After public hearings and approvals from three separate community led commissions. After two robust public hearings and a 6-1 vote by the duly elected New Orleans City Council. After review by 13 different federal and state judges. The full weight of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government has been brought to bear and the monuments in accordance with the law have been removed.

So now is the time to come together and heal and focus on our larger task. Not only building new symbols, but making this city a beautiful manifestation of what is possible and what we as a people can become.

Let us remember what the once exiled, imprisoned and now universally loved  Nelson Mandela and what he said after the fall of apartheid. “If the pain has often been unbearable and the revelations shocking to all of us, it  is because they indeed bring us the beginnings of a common understanding of what happened and a steady restoration of the nation’s humanity.”

So before we part let us again state the truth clearly.

The Confederacy was on the wrong side of history and humanity. It sought to tear apart our nation and subjugate our fellow Americans to slavery. This is the history we should never forget and one that we should never again put on a pedestal to be revered.

As a community, we must recognize the significance of removing New Orleans’ Confederate monuments. It is our acknowledgment that now is the time to take stock of, and then move past, a painful part of our history. Anything less would render generations of courageous struggle and soul-searching a truly lost cause.

Anything less would fall short of the immortal words of our greatest President Abraham Lincoln, who with an open heart and clarity of purpose calls on us today to unite as one people when he said:

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to do all which may achieve and cherish: a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

Thank you.