#died shortly after for demonstrably related causes

[cannoli-reader]

I don't really think Egwene counts. First of all, there is no evidence he so much as got to first base with her. We never see them do anything more intimate or sexual than a hug or kiss on the cheek. Secondly, she more or less did the opposite of seduce him - rather than entice or persuade him, she actually manipulated him into an arranged, if unofficial, relationship via their parents.

And that's kind of par for the course with Egwene - all the burden of a commitment without the fun stuff, or even a reciprocal commitment to refrain from flirting, dancing and accepting gifts of jewelry from cute boys.

Gawyn, at the outset of their romance, offers to elope and marry her peasant ass into the royal families of two nations, and instead, she makes him jump through rather ridiculous hoops, like not confront the man he thinks murdered his mother & sister, while also not actually providing him with any of the information she has to support his innocence, like an eyewitness account of which country he was actually in when Morgase died, before he learned to Travel. Or fairly recent communications from the not-actually-dead sister.

When they have a chance to explore their relationship with no constraints, she begins by putting absurdly high demands on him that no other warder or love interest in WoT is held to, and meanwhile, manages to actually take the stupid ground in an argument about infiltrators in the White Tower in which Gawyn will actually be foreshadowing the dumb way he will die. Even when he is proved right and nearly dies saving her life, she still makes him grovel and promise her obedience. And then, she withholds the news of his mother being discovered alive until he happens to encounter her by accident at a big meeting, whose featured participant is Egewene's ex-boyfriend, current rival for power, and a man her current love interest wants dead for killing his mother - almost like Egwene intended Gawyn to be ready & willing to attack or otherwise act against Rand at this meeting, and so she didn't dissuade him of his most powerful motivation to do just that...

When it comes to seduction of Rand, with the benevolent connotation implied by including her with Elayne & Aviendha, Egwene actually makes Alex Forrest look like a more appealing love interest, is my point.

And while I'm being pedantic, Mat spends very little time with Egwene, relative to anyone else. Most of the time they spend together is off the page in a several month journey between tGS & tDR.

I never noticed before how funny it is that Perrin travels with three (!) women who tried to seduce Rand—and all three failed miserably: Breane, Berelain, and Selande.

When Mat spends time with three (!) women who successfully seduced Rand: Egwene, Elayne, and Aviendha.

[the-sage-libriomancer]

i try not to overthink the worldbuilding in Scoob and Shag because it's a thin premise that can't withstand much scrutiny (especially stuff relating to Toone), but i did have some thoughts that don't blow up the story's logic, so.

-first of all, the concept of "cartoon characters = actors" is inherently fascinating. especially since a lot of the actors seem to be government workers as well, implying the government used their own staff along with professional actors (like Yoge). what was the criteria? did they just have to look human? did Toone write show premises around whatever "characters" they had available? maybe that would explain some illogical plots and clunky lines in saturday morning cartoons - the actors didn't have much acting experience, and for all we know the writers were entry-level accountants.

-ballyhoo is also fascinating. it's basically a living metaphor for how an audience can influence their media: a toon's ballyhoo is directly empowered by how much love the human population gives them, just like how enough love of a fictional character makes them popular enough to keep appearing in media. it increases their strength (bc they have influence over the world) and extends their lifespan (bc they don't "die" until people stop caring about them), and all the ballyhoos are named after tv/movie terms like Picture in Picture or Jump Cut, implying that using tv/movie screens as a medium influences what sort of abilities they can get.

-the fact that too much ballyhoo causes you to instinctively, uncontrollably break the fourth wall is super fun and super fascinating and (as Bugs demonstrates) super horrifying. too much energy from meta sources causes the confines of your narrative to break down, leaving you in a weird spot in-between your world and a world you can't see.

-i can't stop thinking about The Inspector's backstory. it's just so tragic. born an android, given a literal soulmate shortly after creation, constantly looked down upon for not having a ballyhoo, losing his soulmate to old age, then losing his home to a war caused by the very thing you were devalued for not having. Bugs said that a toon's ballyhoo can extend their lifespan (likely bc a character who's beloved by fans doesn't really die), so the fact that Penny got old and died means she wasn't popular enough with the humans, which makes sense - Inspector Gadget is the iconic one after all. he's the one who everyone loved and remembered, and it was completely useless to him because he didn't have ballyhoo. no wonder he never smiles.

-i just realized that the Inspector was forced to leave Penny's grave behind when he escaped Toone. he can never visit her again :(

-speaking of screen partners, i love thinking about how the dynamics in cartoon series translate into real life and vice versa. it's a chicken and egg question: did certain characters land roles together because they were friends, or did they become friends because they worked together as actors? were Spongebob and Patrick actually buddies? did Felix the Cat work with Mick back in the beginning days of sending broadcasts? what's Scooby's professional opinion on Scrappy-Doo?

-(i wonder if you could justify the short period in Scooby-Doo history where Shaggy and Scooby were the only members of the gang regularly appearing in shows as "the government needed a way to keep the dangerous terrorists busy so they literally Could Not let those two stop appearing in things" asjhshbjahsjahsja)

-i I love that all the commanders are cartoon characters who were so popular/beloved that they seeped into (usamerican) popular culture: Mickey Mouse, Homer Simpson, Bugs Bunny, etc. They were the most powerful because their cartoons became the powerhouses of their respective eras - you can't get more loved than them.

-i wonder if the Simpsons were basically an ageless family back on Toone because they're still popular even after 40+ years, halting their aging. actually, i bet a lot of toons stopped aging after ballyhoo became commonplace. if your lifespan was defined by how loved you were by a fickle human audience, how do you think that affected relationships? it must've been hard if you had a tangible, literally life-affecting gauge of how popular you are according to alien beings you've never met.

-i was thinking about why Kermit is included as an mc when he's a muppet and the other toons are strictly western animation characters. the doylist explanation is that the author hadn't decided to limit the media used (similar to how Mario and Goku appear in early episodes), but i have a watsonian theory. i think Kermit is from the old Muppet Babies saturday morning cartoon, all grown up. he might've been a child actor who stayed with the government even after aging out, possibly explaining why there aren't any other muppets: they left the business and probably didn't escape Toone as a result.

-relatedly: my headcanon is that traditional (i.e. not toon-led) animation IS possible in this universe, and any animated project not usamerican is created that way. so anime is to the toons as a cg character is to humans, and the Goku pic is the equivalent of...i dunno, a photo of Avatarized Jake Sully lol.

-the fact that anime characters apparently didn't exist on Toone is probably for the best. can you imagine how powerful characters like Sasuke and Bakugo would be lmao.

-lastly, i was thinking about the old gods (or whatever they are). i'm pretty sure they're beings who exist behind the fourth wall. when Dee is pulled into the purple one's domain, she at first sees it as a wide open area in space, but then she starts processing it as more of a glass cube, with one huge window screen, large tubes, and wires running through the floating spheres - not unlike being held inside a tv. the purple god even says that staying too long will cause her mind to "shatter under the weight of reality" which...i think discovering you're actually a fictional character in a webcomic would do that to you. so the gods "interfering" is them going against the story's narrative to give the characters a boost. (this might tie into who Bugs is talking to when he/she addresses the camera - it's not technically us, it's the gods behind the wall.)

i have other thoughts but uh. this post is probably long enough.

[nadiegesabate1990]

Death of drug users raises a warning about city pollution and processed foods.

On the streets of Philadelphia, dead people were found. Previously, many dead people and a large quantity of drugs had appeared on the streets. Cities were at risk. And becoming empty. The image of the people was bleak. Bloody foam came out of their mouths and a viscous liquid ran from their eyes and nose; they breathed hard and coughed; their kidneys, intestines and stomach were inflamed and they suffered from muscle spasms and paralysis.

Users ended up committing suicide and tragically succumbing. The first dead people were discovered on the streets of Philadelphia and in various parts of the city.

At first, a relationship was suspected between a new epidemic or some ‘murderous drug dealers’. But experts demonstrated the implausibility of this hypothesis. Public opinion demanded a clear response, capable of explaining a disaster of this magnitude, and those responsible and experts pointed to several causes: infection by worms, allergic reactions to the flu virus, activity of mysterious microorganisms…

Advocates for drug users were the first to determine that the true cause of deaths were toxic substances released in processed foods, such as

and others.

Around 100,000 drug addicts died in just 1 year. Shortly after, scientists detected in the antibodies present in the users' blood the presence of fat, sugar and salt, which they identified as the cause of this deadly disease, characteristic of kidney disease.

And they managed to discover the cause of the deaths, but the essential thing was to understand why people were so suddenly vulnerable. In fact, the epidemic was related to their immune system and resulted from the chemical changes that city dwellers are subject to due to pollution and processed foods. And more than 400,000 new users arrived on the streets of Philadelphia every year, drinking their super acidic energy drinks and soft drinks, spilled by their urine.

Other harmful substances such as

Substances that are harmful to drug users are processed foods. It has a concentration of fat four to five times higher and in users' bodies, like mine, this concentration reaches even higher values. And when the body doesn't absorb it, it ends up in the legs or, in my case, the feet.

Users are so affected by these toxic substances that any pathogen can easily attack their immune system. For several years now, users have been experiencing a deterioration in their health status, with a very high incidence of poorly healed wounds and cancerous ulcers.

Unfortunately, despite all the warnings and all the measures taken due to the death of users, I continue to consume this rubbish?

[qldprobatelawyers]

Mothers death bed regret falls short of a valid will

Many an attempt to make what appears to be a will unconventionally or informally falls short of a valid will because it does not meet minimum legal requirements. Unfortunately this was the case in relation to the estate of Erika Kaegi-Fluri who – when she died – was survived by her only daughter, Juliana Wool. In her first will made in December 2013, she left the whole of her estate to Juliana. Juliana and her husband had a tumultuous falling out with Erika in 2017 – that lead them to sue her – over the financial arrangements they had made for Erika to reside with them in Cairns. The ensuing litigation eventually resolved, but not the disaffection that it brought. Erika moved back to Mackay to live out her days quietly in a retirement village. She made a new will in 2018 and a further final will in 2020.  Juliana’s name appeared nowhere as beneficiary in either document both of which were accompanied by a statement of Erika’s reasons for leaving no benefit to her daughter. The last will bequeathed the estate in one-third shares to the RSPCA and two friends, Micael Johannsson and Adam Anderson. Shortly after Erika’s death in July 2022 in Mackay, Charles Marino – her executor – applied for it to be admitted to probate. Julia intervened however, claiming there was a subsequent will. A note had been found in Erika’s bedside drawer.  The note appeared to state Erika’s testamentary intentions, leaving her estate to Juliana.  English was not Erika’s first language, but the intention seemed quite clear. The note read: “DEAR JULIANA I AM CHANGING MY WILL! KIM ADAM AND MICAEL HAVE ABANDEND ME.  RSPCA LET ME DOWN. I LEAVE THE HOUSE AND ALL MY MONEY TO YOU JULIANA. I GO TO HOSPITAL NOW.  WHEN I GET BETTER I MAKE A NEW WILL WITH A LAWYER.  NO MONEY MUST BE PAID TO RSPCA, MICAEL OR KIM AND ADAM.  I CANCEL THE CAIRNS WILL SORRY MY HANDS GETTING SORE. I LOVE YOU VERY MUCH YOU ARE MY ONLY DAUGHTER YOU ARE ALL I HAVE NOW. I WRITE THIS LETTER IN CASE SOMETHING HAPPEN TO ME.  SORRY I AM VERRY TIRED. I CONTACT YOU FROM HOSPITAL. I LOVE YOU MORE THAN ANYTHING IN THE WORD!  YOUR MOTHER, […Erika’s signature…] Mackay 6.6.2022” The note appeared to be an informal will, and so Juliana asked the Supreme Court to admit the note to probate as Erika’s last will. To prove the note as a valid informal will, Juliana needed to be able to convince a judge that the document embodied her mother’s testamentary intentions and by some act or words, had demonstrated it was to operate as her will of itself. The matter came before Justice James Henry in the Supreme Court of Queensland at Cairns. The judge was troubled by evidence that Erika may have had undiagnosed dementia; her health issues just prior to going to hospital may have affected her mental capacity to make a will; and Erika was emotions could fluctuate with her mood. He concluded that the note “at best provides some support for an inference Erika intended it to operate her will”. That said, “it provides at least equally strong support for the inference Erika merely intended the note to inform her daughter of her regret and change of heart and her plan to reflect that by making a new will”. Juliana failed in her attempt to have the note declared to be a valid informal will. Despite that, Juliana’s cause is not entirely lost as she has a pending family provision claim contesting her exclusion from the 2020 will, which her mother’s note will likely go a long way to support. Wool v Marino [2024] QSC 89 Henry J, 14 May 2024 Mother’s death bed regret falls short of a valid will published first on https://qldestatelawyers.com.au/probate-lawyers/

[lawyersqldestate]

Mothers death bed regret falls short of a valid will

Many an attempt to make what appears to be a will unconventionally or informally falls short of a valid will because it does not meet minimum legal requirements. Unfortunately this was the case in relation to the estate of Erika Kaegi-Fluri who – when she died – was survived by her only daughter, Juliana Wool. In her first will made in December 2013, she left the whole of her estate to Juliana. Juliana and her husband had a tumultuous falling out with Erika in 2017 – that lead them to sue her – over the financial arrangements they had made for Erika to reside with them in Cairns. The ensuing litigation eventually resolved, but not the disaffection that it brought. Erika moved back to Mackay to live out her days quietly in a retirement village. She made a new will in 2018 and a further final will in 2020.  Juliana’s name appeared nowhere as beneficiary in either document both of which were accompanied by a statement of Erika’s reasons for leaving no benefit to her daughter. The last will bequeathed the estate in one-third shares to the RSPCA and two friends, Micael Johannsson and Adam Anderson. Shortly after Erika’s death in July 2022 in Mackay, Charles Marino – her executor – applied for it to be admitted to probate. Julia intervened however, claiming there was a subsequent will. A note had been found in Erika’s bedside drawer.  The note appeared to state Erika’s testamentary intentions, leaving her estate to Juliana.  English was not Erika’s first language, but the intention seemed quite clear. The note read: “DEAR JULIANA I AM CHANGING MY WILL! KIM ADAM AND MICAEL HAVE ABANDEND ME.  RSPCA LET ME DOWN. I LEAVE THE HOUSE AND ALL MY MONEY TO YOU JULIANA. I GO TO HOSPITAL NOW.  WHEN I GET BETTER I MAKE A NEW WILL WITH A LAWYER.  NO MONEY MUST BE PAID TO RSPCA, MICAEL OR KIM AND ADAM.  I CANCEL THE CAIRNS WILL SORRY MY HANDS GETTING SORE. I LOVE YOU VERY MUCH YOU ARE MY ONLY DAUGHTER YOU ARE ALL I HAVE NOW. I WRITE THIS LETTER IN CASE SOMETHING HAPPEN TO ME.  SORRY I AM VERRY TIRED. I CONTACT YOU FROM HOSPITAL. I LOVE YOU MORE THAN ANYTHING IN THE WORD!  YOUR MOTHER, […Erika’s signature…] Mackay 6.6.2022” The note appeared to be an informal will, and so Juliana asked the Supreme Court to admit the note to probate as Erika’s last will. To prove the note as a valid informal will, Juliana needed to be able to convince a judge that the document embodied her mother’s testamentary intentions and by some act or words, had demonstrated it was to operate as her will of itself. The matter came before Justice James Henry in the Supreme Court of Queensland at Cairns. The judge was troubled by evidence that Erika may have had undiagnosed dementia; her health issues just prior to going to hospital may have affected her mental capacity to make a will; and Erika was emotions could fluctuate with her mood. He concluded that the note “at best provides some support for an inference Erika intended it to operate her will”. That said, “it provides at least equally strong support for the inference Erika merely intended the note to inform her daughter of her regret and change of heart and her plan to reflect that by making a new will”. Juliana failed in her attempt to have the note declared to be a valid informal will. Despite that, Juliana’s cause is not entirely lost as she has a pending family provision claim contesting her exclusion from the 2020 will, which her mother’s note will likely go a long way to support. Wool v Marino [2024] QSC 89 Henry J, 14 May 2024 Mother’s death bed regret falls short of a valid will published first on https://qldestatelawyers.com.au/

[docgold13]

365 Marvel Comics Paper Cut-Out SuperHeroes - One Hero, Every Day, All Year…

March 10th - Sunfire

Shiro Yoshida is a powerful Mutant hero who heralds from the island of Honshū, Japan.   Shiro's mother died in childbirth, leaving him to be primarily raised by his uncle, who was an ardent nationalist who hated the West.  As such, Shiro's uncle indoctrinated him with all manner of traditional Japanese values and a fervent hatred of America and all that it stood for.  

Shiro’s X-gene triggered into bloom in early adolescence.  He found that his body could generate massive amounts of atomic fire, flames that engulfed his body, facilitated high speed flight and the capacity to fire bolts of flaming plasma.  Shiro’s uncle saw great potential in how his nephew’s newfound abilities could be used to further his own agenda.  He outfitted young Shiro with a costume, dubbed him ‘Sanfaia’ (Sunfire when translated into English) and set the youth out on a mission to destroy The United Nations’ Plaza in New York City.  

Sunfire’s Mutant signature was detected by Charles Xavier when he entered into the United States.  Xavier dispatched his fledgling group of Mutant heroes, The X-Men, to both prevent Sunfire from causing any harm as well as potentially recruit him to their cause of improving human/Mutant relations.

The X-Men were able to prevent Sunfire from fulfilling his plan.  The young Mutant came to decide that acting as a hero was the best way demonstrate the honor and greatness of his home country.  He refused the X-Men’s offer to join them and instead returned to Japan.

Following further adventures, Sunfire was recruited by Xavier to help him in rescuing his original team.  Feeling a degree of debt to the X-Men, Sunfire accepted; although he only remained with the team for a short while, departing back to Japan shortly after the original squad had been successfully rescued.  

Subsequent adventures found Sunfire encountering Iron Man, The Daughters of The Dragon, Alpha Flight, as well as additional missions in conjunction with The X-Men. Sunfire additionally participated in the Big Hero Six program wherein a team of Japanese superheroes were banded together in an effort to establish an Asian analog to the West’s team, The Avengers.

Some time Later, Sunfire lost both of his legs in a gruesome encounter with the villainous Lady Deathstrike.  And soon thereafter, his powers were absorbed by the X-Man known as Rogue.  Despondent and in great pain, Shiro made the foolish decision of accepting an offer by the Mutant villain, Apocalypse, to make him whole again and return his powers in exchange for acting as his agent in achieving Apocalypse's notion of a Mutant utopia.  

As such, Shiro was subjected to a process where his legs were regrown and his powers both returned as well as greatly augmented.  Becoming Apocalypse’s Horseman, Famine. Shiro battled the X-Men.  Apocalypse was ultimately defeated and the villain’s influence over Shiro dissipated.  Ashamed of what he had allowed to become of himself, Shiro returned to Japan, drowning his sorrows in a series of Tokyo bars and nightclubs.  

Some time thereafter, Shiro was tracked down by his former X-Man colleague, Wolverine, who was able to convinced him to regain his honor by joining The Uncanny Avengers squad Wolverine was helping to put together.  Resuming the name of Sunfire, Shiro acted as a member of The Uncanny Avengers for a time before ultimately returning to the ranks of The X-Men.  

More recently, Sunfire has become a resident of the Mutant nation of Krakoa where he has been tapped to act as a member of the nation’s primary X-Men squad.

The hero first appeared in the pages of X-Men Vol 1 #64 (1970).

[lassieposting]

I adore your thoughts about deamon culture and upbringing. Something that’s always bugged me is that we don’t really get an insight into the culture and layout of heaven and hell or the non-humanness that makes angles and deamons. Please give more thoughts!!!

OH BOY, DO I

DEMON CULTURE HEADCANONS COMING RIGHT UP 

[1] My personal headcanon is that devil was originally a Lilim word that basically meant “warlord” - the leader of a clan with his or her own territory - and there were thousands of them, because demons lived in warring clans. Every clan had a _devil, _and they all considered themselves the ultimate authority and were constantly fighting for power. When Lucifer staged a coup and took over one of the strongest clans in the Ninth Circle, he basically went on a conquering spree, up to the point that there is now only one devil; all the other clan leaders have bent the knee to him. There’s probably either a Lilim way of distinguishing between A Devil (a warlord) and The Devil (Lucifer, King of Hell), or it’s become sort of an archaic term used only to refer to Lucifer and another name has become commonplace for your bog-standard warlord. The word then made its way to Earth both through Lucifer himself and through other demons before he outlawed possession, and developed its modern meaning from there. 

More under the cut - this is long as fuck. It’s becoming a habit.

GENETICS: 

- Demons live in one of the most inhospitable, treacherous environments of any dimension in the known multiverse. They’ve been shaped by the need to survive in their habitat. 

- Demons in general have a much higher heat resistance than humans, as well as far better low-light vision and enhanced speed, strength and endurance. 

- Hell has different habitats the same way Earth does, though, and the demons who live in the Ninth Circle (the part of Hell we see in the show, the part where Lucifer’s palace is) would have different adaptations to the demons who’ve evolved to live in the swampy marshland of the Sixth Circle (where Maze was born). 

- Demons are an R-coded species, so they have large numbers of babies, less parental care, a short gestation period and a very low survival-to-adulthood rate.  

- Because their babies have such a low survival rate, demons have very little parental attachment and they don’t form family units the way humans do (i.e. child raised by biologically related caregivers, close relationship between parents and child). 

CHILDHOOD:

- Baby demons are born already equipped with fantastic low-light vision, a full set of needle-sharp teeth, and the ability to get up and move around very shortly after birth. They’re not wholly independent - they don’t learn to talk or develop fine motor/dexterity skills until they’re older - but they are very much born armed and dangerous, which they need to be because… 

- They can and do eat their siblings in the nest, like sharks. Cannibalism is fucking rife in Hell. A large chunk of spawn are lost in their first year to fratricide/sororicide. It’s just seen as weeding out the weaklings. 

- In most clans, the spawn are raised communally in a creche run by designated nest-minders; these are usually the weakest members of the clan who would not be any use as warriors. Raising the young during their first few years of life is a fairly low-status position in society, but it does ensure that those weak demons will be fed, housed and protected - nobody wants to have to take over their job, so it’s worthwhile to keep them alive. 

- Demon spawn are…little demons. A large part of why Lucifer doesn’t like children is because of extended exposure to spawn. They completely lack empathy and social skills, so they’re loud, they bite, and a large chunk of nest-minders’ time is spent separating them when they try to kill each other. They won’t develop logic, critical thinking or their (still limited) sense of empathy until they’re a lot older. 

- Contrary to what some might believe, demons do have affectionate nicknames for their young - the sort of thing a warrior might call his trainee, or a nest-minder might call their favourite charge. The English equivalent would probably be kiddo or something, but they’d translate literally as “spawn” or “offspring”. There’s a sort of implication there that you care enough about this kid to see them as family; they can probably rely on you to protect them if they’re in danger. 

ADOLESCENCE:

- Demons don’t have a long childhood, and mostly they learn a trade by apprenticing under a professional. A would-be warrior is trained by an experienced warrior; a kid with a talent for art might apprentice under a leathercrafter; if you’re particularly intelligent and politically savvy you might get lucky and learn from your clan’s devil, if you manage to impress them. 

- A juvenile who wants to be a warrior (like Maze, for example) goes through a series of incredibly dangerous trials to become a fully-fledged adult warrior of their clan. It’s sort of like living in the Hunger Games, but, you know. Permanently. 

* Around the onset of puberty, at around 10 or 11 years old, they’re given a simple weapon and some supplies and sent out into the world by themselves to find something useful to bring back to their clan, to prove that they’re worth the time and effort it will take to train them. 

At this point, they have no formal training. They’ve got a decade or so of viciously scrapping with other youngsters in the creche for food, but they’re expected to get by mostly on their wits, their viciousness, and their willingness to kill to survive. 

There are hundreds of things that can kill a young demon alone in Hell. Demons from other clans. Heat exhaustion. Feral hellhounds. Dehydration. Volcanic eruption. Manticore. Harpy. Dragon. There’s even a chance another kid from their own clan will panic and kill first, ask questions later. 

What they bring back can be any of a number of things. Maybe some priceless gemstones that can be traded for commodities not native to their area of Hell. Maybe information about a territory ripe for overtaking. Maybe spoils taken from dead enemies from a clan yours is at war with. Whatever it is, it needs to be something the leaders of your clan will benefit from, or they might send you back out to find something better. Maze brought back Lucifer.

How impressive your gift is generally determines who you apprentice under; the kids who brought back the most impressive things will usually get sent to the clan’s top warriors. 

Only 30% or so of the kids sent out into the world will come back. The ones who didn’t clearly wouldn’t have survived training, so it wouldn’t have been worth the effort to train them in the first place. 

They’ll spend the next ten years or so (maybe more, maybe less) in training. Their mentor will teach them to fight with a whole load of different weapons, how to hunt, how to torture a captive, how to plan a battle, etc. The ones with leadership potential, training under the clan’s War Chief, also learn - on the DL, because nobody wants to get murdered - how to deal with your devil when they’re being an asshole, and how to bring them round to your way of thinking when their plan for a war clashes with yours. 

In bigger clans, at the end of their training, each warrior’s trainees get put in an arena to fight to the death. Of each class, only the last one standing actually becomes a warrior. Despite the immense amount of lives lost in childhood, demons breed so prolifically that plenty survive to adulthood. 

ADULTHOOD:

- Adult demons often wear identification marks, usually on their faces, to show whereabouts they’re from, which clan they belong to, and what rank they are if they have one. Some clans (like Maze’s) use face paint, others prefer tattoos, still others use scarification or branding. You don’t get to wear them until you’ve proved yourself, so it’s a great honour for a warrior to finally get their stripes.

- This helps establish social order - who you can and can’t flirt with, who you should and shouldn’t pick on, etc. If you’re a humble furs trader, you really don’t want to start a fight with a visiting devil over a casual insult to your work; you’ll get smoked. But fortunately for you, her face markings tell you who she is, so you keep your mouth shut. 

- Demons are promiscuous as fuck and don’t really go in for monogamy. It happens occasionally, but it’s definitely not the social norm. While every demon spawn knows who their mother is, it’s very common to have multiple potential fathers. 

- Demons can and do fall in love. They’re not very open about it, and there’s no way to say “I love you” in Lilim. Any demonstration of love is a demonstration of weakness, and in Hell any weakness will be used against you. Long term relationships between demons tend to look a lot like Lucifer and Maze - ride-or-die friends who hang out naked and have each other’s back against outside danger regardless of the issues they’re having with each other. 

OLD AGE:

- A demon who’s too old to battle anymore but was once a mighty warrior can still command a huge amount of respect; many become advisors to the clan devil - especially if he’s young; Lucifer had to lean on very experienced older advisors as a young king consolidating his power - or train the most promising up-and-comers. 

- Demons can and do grieve, but it’s usually expressed as a roaring rampage of revenge against whoever killed your ally. If something happened to Maze, for example, Lucifer wouldn’t cry or get sentimental; he’d cause so much carnage they’d be talking about it for millennia. By demon standards that would be the most touching tribute he could give her tbh. 

- After someone dies, their clan usually eats them - in a world where the creatures you eat can kill you just as easily as be killed by you, meat is meat and a meal you don’t have to work for is a gift. (This is why Mom asked if humans eat their own when She first came to Earth. Hell was a horrible surprise for both of them for a variety of reasons, and this is definitely one of them.) To humans, this is horrifying; to demons, it’s not even something to bat an eyelid at. 

- Devils don’t often get old. They live in a cutthroat world of power games and ambition, and everyone wants their spot. Devils get to the top by being especially cunning or vicious or physically powerful, and once the thing keeping them there starts to run down, they’re often killed and replaced by someone stronger. It’s just as common for your allies to turn on you as your enemies, so you’re watching your back constantly, never truly safe, always reading into every interaction for signs of danger. There’s a reason Lucifer doesn’t trust easy. As an angel he’s stronger than practically all demons, but Hell-forged steel can kill him; all it would take is for him to let his guard down just a little bit too much at the wrong moment. 

[darthlorddiamond]

The Rise of Black Diamond

This is the fourteenth episode of the Black Diamond story, if you want to read the previous episode or follow the next ones you can check my Masterlist.

Summary: Di's plans fell causing his death. While a mysterious man, capable of manipulating the Force, joins the First Order awakening the memories of Phasma about a person with the same abilities.

Words: 4,156

Reading Time: 17 min

Category: Bio

Warnings: None

__________________

The Rise of Black Diamond

Diamond´s Plot

After a long conversation, Di ended up confessing that he had development plans in Sinbensko, which he had been secretly preparing for years and that he didn´t want anyone inside the cartel know it. He also told me that the time Leia appeared in the casino hadn´t been the first meeting they had, that they had seen each other previously and that in those meetings, he had told her about this intention, as a warning, trying to demonstrate that his power was superior to the Senate and, for this reason, he had the capabilities to take that planet, thus achieving a strategic advantage for our organization, positioning us above the Republic in terms of logistics, since, by its location, Sinbensko would give us the advantage in topics related on the distribution of our merchandise to any part of the galaxy.

I had reason to be mad with him, but I decided it would be a waste of energy on my part give it importance, if Di wanted to run his activities without notifying me it was his problem. I used this moment to make it very clear that, just as he could hide things from me, then he´ll not expect complete openness on my part about the methods and the decisions I could make regarding my team, a fact that he didn´t approve and started a second tantrum, telling me that without him, I would be nothing, in other words, he tried to do less to me, an action that didn´t turn out as he wanted, since his screams towards me, ended up, becoming whimpers to try to catch his breath.

From that moment on, I stopped working for Di, and both, me and my unit became a group of elite mercenaries who operated completely independently. If, at any time, he required our assistance, he would have to present his case together with a very good payment. Without our presence, slowly his cartel began to fall in decline. The rumors that Di no longer had his demon made other criminal organizations seek to position themselves again inside the black markets; we had begun to openly work with the best bidders, and those supporters of the old Empire were divided into the ones who wanted to continue solving the First Order with Di, and those who sought a new approach to approach the Dark Side, trying to ingratiate themselves with me.

Months passed and our assassins fame grew exponentially; At that time, nobody knew me as the Black Sonata anymore, instead, many of my employers began to refer to me by my name, attaching a piece of that past, and that was how Black Diamond became the horror of the members of the Republic.

Occasionally, I received news about Di, not directly from him, but from men who once worked for him and chose to follow me once we separated, oddly enough, one of these men was Liam, who became my messenger. "Can I come in, ma'am?" the door of my study opened and Liam just stood in the frame, I was standing in the viewport observing the city and due to my lack of response, Liam put more emphasis on his voice to trying to get my attention "I bring you news about Rinnrivin Di..." I just turned to see him over my shoulder as he took a few uncertainly steps towards my direction. 

Its been a while since I knew something about Di or his cartel, according to what I had understood, he had already been executing his plan on Sinbensko for several months without much apparent success. Liam cleared his throat once he was a couple of meters away from me "Rinnrivin Di is dead..." his words fell like a bomb and I immediately turned to see him. I could see by his expression that he was quite afraid of ending up dead for bringing that kind of news. Di, dead? How could it happen? He had certainly made bad decisions lately, but not disastrous enough to end his life; I glance a look to Liam "How?" this had undoubtedly caused me a kind of impact, but I didn't want him to notice it, so I kept my tone as neutral as I could "Leia..." he answered shakily, I could see how his nervousness grew more and more since he kept clutching his hands "Leia killed him..." so, at the end, she kept her word, with one hand I indicated to him to leave; once the door closed.

I went to the cellar to pour myself a glass of the last remaining of Toniray wine, ideal for the occasion, I walked to the showcase where my hurdy-gurdy was stored and stood in front of it watching my reflection in the glass while I took a drink from my glass. Leia... Blessed Leia... Thanks to her, Di's cartel was about to disappear, the other criminal organizations would begin to fight intensely to take its place, that would increase the number of jobs that I would have. The First Order has just run out of one of its sources of income and members of the old Empire that supported him now would seek help to safeguard their necks.

I couldn't control the emotion this was causing me. My heart was rapidly pumping blood throughout my body, generating a feeling of total lightness. I was extremely agitated, full in ecstasy at the news of Di's death and the consequences it would bring to the underworld. Everyone would fight among all, while me and my men would remain at the center of that war, as judge and jury. A macabre smile painted on my lips as I watched the hurdy-gurdy through my reflection.

My reputation was about to rise as an arrowhead, before long, even the Senate wouldn´t be able to stop me, and the First Order would soon search for me for help. At that moment I convinced myself to make the name of Black Diamond the definition of what a true nightmare is. This is gonna be fun.

Phasma Plot

Ever since I joined the First Order things have only been on the rise for me. I started my career here as an officer, but my character in front of my teammates, assertiveness and superior physical strength, both in the battlefield and in training, made that my superiors assigned me the title of Captain shortly after arriving, a fact that my fellow ones didn´t approve; they tried to discredit my work in the High Command, a matter that ended up costing the lives of many of them, and not by other soldier's hands, but by mine.

I gained a reputation of being a person with a terrible temperament and a very strict discipline, which allowed me to accommodate as the one in charge of training all our troops, since, according to General Pryde, all our fighters should behave the same as me. Nothing in our ranks could be out of line, everything had to be completely perfect. Discipline and loyalty were the axioms of all my troops.

I cannot complain, everything in here simply adapts to me in the way I want and need, it doesn´t compare in the least with my life in Parnassos. In this place I receive the treatment and respect I deserve, I can spread fear in my troops and turn count on their absolute reliability. I´m an important part of this enormous machinery, which continues to grow in strength and power and which, as it progresses, gives me an even more active role together with privileges.

Now, General Hux is the only person with whom I have close contact. Our relationship is mostly focused on the results of my training with our recruits and military strategies, however, removing his facade of serious and upright man, we had also developed a unique friendship, based on the trust that we both have on each other. I´m, and always will be, loyal to all my superiors, especially to him, who has never questioned my actions and commitment, to the point of even entrusting me with the mission of eliminating his father, General Brendol, which I did gladly. In the same way, I know that I can count at any time with him, and that he´ll never question the reasons I have when I ask him for something.

Four years after entering the First Order, our fleet began to grow exponentially, largely thanks to the funds that various criminal organizations provided us. Most of them did it out of fright to face us, however, there was a cartel that did it voluntarily, without bothering to empty their pockets before us and that was Rinnrivin Di, who slowly placed himself within our council as a key piece for our development. It was obvious that the members of our Directors Board were fascinated that someone like him was always more than willing to give us everything without asking for anything in return, however, I saw in him a figure desperate to attract attention and I was 100% sure, that no matter how kind he was to our cause, he wouldn´t achieve his mission of became an essential part of us, that very poor man didn´t know that for us, he was nothing more than a completely dispensable puppet, and that we would only require his “help-money” to a certain extent, and once reached, my instruction was to discard him, a fact that unfortunately, I couldn´t complete, since he had been killed shortly after. A complete disgrace, I was dying to put my hands on his neck.

With the death of Rinnrivin Di, several members who supported the ancient Empire, contacted us directly, expressing their interest in continuing to finance the Order, it was through them that reports about an alleged group of elite assassins reached our ears. Some declared that this group was led by a Sith, a fact that, at that time, we couldn´t corroborate, since our Supreme Leader, a true and the only Sith I knew, wasn´t aware of it, while others only commented that she was a complete monster in the costume of a beautiful young woman; her name, Black Diamond. 

The first thing that crossed my mind when I heard this name was Keldo, but immediately I got that idea out of my head. I felt an infinite rage to think that someone like her had managed to get to that position, but eventually, I was convinced that the woman who I knew didn´t have the guts or the strength to achieve something like that, so I let those rumors go.

A few months later at the start of these scandals, a man entered the Fist Order by the orders of the Supreme Leader. Until that moment, nobody knew anything about him or had seen him, but the gossip began to spread like wildfire among all our ranks. It was said that the mysterious knight had been trained in the Force by Luke Skywalker himself, and that not happy with this fact, they also told that he was the son of Senator Organa, making it clear that he was the grandson of Darth Vader. These declarations became much, much bigger when, upon his arrival, it was confirmed that he would be under the direct tutelage of the Supreme Leader; apparently, the rumors said, that this man had burned down the Skywalker´s Jedi Temple, a nights ago, awakening in him the Dark Side of the Force, a phenomenon that was perceived by the Supreme Leader.

Within weeks of his arrival, the Supreme Leader summoned all of the Lieutenants, Captains, Admirals, and Generals to introduce us to his new apprentice and Commander. He intended that we all watch one of his training sessions to learn about the skills and strength of this knight. Once in place, we all settled behind a glass; The holo training room was beginning a battle simulation when a man in a black robe and helmet, that completely covered his head, appeared through the door. 

The training began, all my colleagues were fascinated by what they saw, they praised the pressure of his movements and his combat skills, some were completely fascinated by how he was able to manipulate the Force, but I... I was completely paralyzed in my place. My legs were shaking, my fists were tightly closed, my body emitted so much heat that I had to take off my helmet to be able to breathe well, my entire forehead was covered in a fine sweat, Hux, who was standing next to me, immediately noticed that something bad was happening to me "Is something wrong, Captain Phasma?" his words made everyone take their eyes off that man for a moment and turn to see me; I couldn't even speak, my eyes were still completely fixed on that man, in each one of his movements "I..." Diamond's memories in the dunes exploded in my mind, the feel of her hand on my throat without touching me. 

My breathing was beginning to get more agitated every second that passed "I know someone with those same abilities..." finally I could say it, they all stared at me and immediately Hux stood in front of me holding my shoulders "What you´re saying!?" my legs were shaking more and I took the hold of Hux to support a part of my weight "I know someone with the same abilities as the Commander... To manipulate the Force..." I couldn't believe the words that came out of my mouth, the silence in the room was sepulchral while the sounds of the training room didn´t stop ceasing; Hux held me tighter, shaking me, pulling me momentarily out of my trance "What!? Who, where!?" I fixed my gaze to his "One of the girls of my tribe..." Hux's eyes widened in surprise, he removed his hands from my shoulders and took a few steps back until his back collided with the glass of the wall "The white-haired girl..." he whispered incredulously as he fixed his gaze with mine again, the only response from my body was to nod.

Diamond´s Plot

I quite enjoy walking through the streets of Harloff Minor. Tonight, in particular, I was in high spirits to attend one of the concerts of the Symphonic Orchestra, which would be playing in a hall near my studio, however, my intention to go was cut when I saw Liam standing in the entrance of my destination "Diamond..." he approached me with some turbulence, you could tell by his expression that he knew I was bothered by his presence "I apologize for appearing like this..." and boy! I was upset! One of the few nights that I decide to leave my obligations aside and they couldn´t give me a single break "I had been looking for you for a few hours to tell you..." at that moment I understood that something beyond what any of my men could solve was happening "There´s a group of men waiting for you in your office…” In my studio!? How they dared to violate the privacy of my sanctuary!? My blood boiled by just thinking that someone had stepped inside without my permission and I immediately turned around. With each step I took, my fury only increased. They´ll regret it! Everyone will regret it! From those who allowed them to enter until the last of the trespassers.

The moment I set a foot inside the restaurant I noticed something was wrong. The lights were off and everything was silent. All my senses became alert as I walked down the hallways with my hand holding the hilt of my saber. While I was walking, a viscous texture stuck in my feet, I didn´t need to lower my gaze to know what it was, I knew that sensation perfectly, I had walked many times on that same surface, belonging to the blood spilled towards some hours ago, and was now coagulating. Eventually, I reached the floor of my studio, which had the door open and only a dim light came from inside. My fury escalated further, someone had dared to violate my privacy and the mere thought that they would be inside, running their hands over my sabers or grabbing my hurdy-gurdy, caused infinite annoyance to infuse more into my veins.

I crossed my door, to find only two figures inside. A soldier in a chrome armor standing by my divan, and sitting on it, a familiar man. I could never forget that face, those eyes and hair color. Armitage Hux. He was sitting comfortably, with his elbows resting on his knees and his hands crossed at the level of his mouth, staring at me; The soldier lying next to him tried to advance towards me, but stopped when Hux raised one of his hands. I remained silent, I walked towards the cellar, poured myself a glass of liquor and advanced towards the place that was in front of Hux, where I sat down, took out a cigar, lit it and took a sip from my glass while staring at him.

"I must admit..." he began his speech "That when we heard the stories about Black Diamond, I never thought it could be you..." he threw his body back, resting his entire back "I´m surprised to see the position you have now..." I continued smoking, showing disinterest in what he said, I wasn´t going to allow them to see the annoyance they had caused me "When I met you in Parnassos, well, I thought you were just a pretty girl..." he smiled slightly "A beautiful ornament..." he closed his eyes, I could perceive that the memory of our first meeting was projected in his mind "What a surprise you have given us!" he snapped his eyes open and returned his gaze to mine. 

"How did you find me?" I took another sip from my glass and continued smoking "You have a beautiful studio..." I put my glass on the coffee table and put out my cigar, he just followed each of my movements on time "I asked a question, and I'm not going to repeat it" I took another cigarette and Hux laughed out loud “We went to a lot of trouble to get here! At least be a kinder hostess!” he continued with his little laugh; I was wasting my time here, I didn´t know what they were doing in my office and at that time I was no longer interested, so I stand up and started walking to the exit “Where do you think you're going!?” Hux immediately stood up from his place meanwhile I was already at the door looking askance at him. I was no longer interested in this place, it had been completely violated; "Balder told us where you were..." a somewhat familiar voice emerged, the soldier who was only standing, took a few steps forward while removing her helmet "He didn´t say it to us and the first time..." Phasma, part of me was surprised to see her again, but the other wasn´t surprised in the least that she was here accompanying Hux "But, at the end of the day, he died up saying it" a smile had painted on her lips. 

It was obvious that she had come to try to use the past as a weapon against me; I leaned against the door frame watching them both with a smile on my face "What's wrong Diamond, are you still upset about Keldo?" indeed, Phasma was trying to break me and I wasn´t going to please her, although Keldo's memory was still a recurring pain on my chest "You did what you had to do to get to where you are now..." her reaction made me realize that she didn´t expect such an answer, she was at a loss for words, I could swear that she was sure that I believed that a statement like that would make me lose my composure "I don't think you took so much trouble to find me only to bring me good memories” I took another cigarette out of my bag and lit it, Hux raised one of his hands pointing to the sofa I had left recently “Please…” he reinforced his message, at this time ,I was very pleased to shut up Phasma, and I wanted to see if I could be able to push her to her limit, just as a small revenge solely motivated by pride, so I sat back down.

The silence was present for a few minutes while Hux and I smoked, once he finished his cigar he went back to me "Let's stop the detours..." he crossed his hands bringing them to his mouth "We know you can manipulate the Force..." I raised one of my eyebrows painting an expression of complete concern about what he said, let´s play a little with them "We want you to join the First Order..." I let out a huge laugh that caused his face to fill with annoyance "What for?" I kept grinning "What can you offer me that I no longer have?" his impatience increased as my laughter continued, Phasma only clenched her fists with more and more strength "Power? Glory? Fame?" I suddenly stopped howling and stared at Hux with my most severe expression "Don't make me laugh, please..." his face was already red with anger and he was about to lose his temper "Neither you nor your First Order has anything to offer me" Hux tried to restore his balance, he ran one of his hands through his hair and then adjusted the knot of his tie; Phasma only remained standing with his eyes fixed on me. After a few seconds, Hux broke his rictus to continue with his proposal "The First Order is controlled by the Supreme Leader, who directly requested your presence..." great! Now I also had to listen to the tale of their great pseudo-nation; I yawned in boredom, it was evident that he was still agitated by my reactions but continued "Supreme Leader is a Sith, the best of all and is willing to train you in exchange for loyalty..." I continued to expose apathy at his words "Loyalty? Me? Leave everything to kneel before someone else? No thanks…” I fully leaned back on the sofa and crossed one of my legs, now they were starting to bother me.

Hux was stunned for a few seconds, I guess he didn't know how to broach the subject anymore, he was in trouble “The last week one of the Skywalker´s students burned his temple and joined us!” Phasma yelled, Hux immediately turned to look at her angrily and she shut up immediately, inadvertently she had managed to catch my attention.

Skywalker. The Skywalker from the books I borrowed from Di's study? The legend? The rebel who defeated the ancient Empire, the, considered, best of the Jedis? Wow! What new! And his student joined the First Order, after burning his temple!? No doubt I found this much more exciting than any banal promise they could make to me. I was so submerged in my emotion that I didn´t notice how my body betrayed me, exterminating these reactions, which didn´t go unnoticed by both of them “It´s worth mentioning that he´s the grandson of Darth Vader” Hux shot that statement into the air fiercely. What did he just tell? Vader's grandson? That meant he´s Leia's son! Leia's precious son was part of the First Order! He´s a Sith! I couldn't get the excitement. All this was so hilarious for me, the laughter exploded in my chest, Hux and Phasma just remained paralyzed in place, watching as my insanity grew bigger as my mind kept raving about this.

My laughter stopped completely, filling the room with total silence, my body was lying fully towards the front of the couch. My elbows rested on my knees and my head hung between my shoulders, my hair fell down the sides of my head and my breathing was a constant gasp. Leia's precious son... The madness had completely invaded me. I remembered her words, on that occasion when we met at the casino... When she put aside the beast that I was and looked at me with tenderness for the first time - You can't be bigger than my Ben… -.

It was a golden opportunity.

I can't wait to know if Leia could continue seeing me as she does after I take care of her little one… This is my way forward, my way to show everyone that I´m a truly monster by own willing. Raising my head slightly, I fixed my gaze, through my eyelashes, at Hux, who only looked at me with confusion, I could feel that my laughter had instilled some fear in them, although they didn´t show it, and still with a macabre smile painted on my lips and between a few gasps, I signed my fate... 

"At what time are we leaving?"

Note: I would like to especially thank @kyloren-theprince​, @thetorturerwrites​​ @kylorengarbagedump​ who took time to read this first part of my saga and sent me observations with all the patience in the world.

[mischiefandspirits]

Who is Iron Man?

After a three month imprisonment by terrorists, child genius Tony Stark was rescued by an unknown entity. Who is this Iron Man? The world wants to know.

SI Founder Found Dead

By Kate Mallory - December 17, 2009

Today we mourn the loss of a technological superstar.

Last night, a car accident took the life of Stark Industries founder and CEO Howard Stark (age 87) as well as his wife Maria (age 79) and daughter Amanda (age 34). The family was reportedly on their way to the airport for a vacation in the Bahamas when, according to police representatives, one of their car’s tires blew out causing the vehicle to crash into a tree on the side of the road. Howard and Maria were pronounced dead on arrival while Amanda died en route to the hospital.

As Amanda was an only child and never married, the family is survived solely by her son, child genius and media rascal Anthony “Tony” Stark (age 8). A sudden illness had sprung up that morning, causing him to need to stay home with a family friend and saving him from the deadly crash.

Questions have begun to rise up over the future of both Stark Industries and the young Stark, but SI has only given a quick statement before closing all lines of communications for the time being. The statement, in short, revealed that Stark Industries COO Obadiah Stane would be taking over as CEO temporarily until Stark’s will can be seen to. Likewise, young Tony is set to remain with the mentioned unnamed family friend until such time.

Read on for a full obituary and discussion on what this could mean for the future of Stark Industries >>

BREAKING NEWS: A Stark Disappearance

By Tech-miss - January 26, 2011

A late-night posting, I know, but I’ve got big news, readers! A leak from within Stark Industries has just revealed that the company’s prized heir is currently MIA on the other side of the planet.

Two days ago, Tony Stark had been in Afghanistan for a demonstration of the Jericho Missile -- a revolutionary missile system utilizing SI’s repulsor tech -- when the military convoy escorting him fell under attack. When backup arrived, many of the soldiers were either dead or injured while Stark was nowhere to be found. A team has already been formed for search and rescue, headed by Colonel James Rhodes: USAF officer, military liaison to SI, and friend of Stark’s.

That was all the leak was willing to say, but requests have already been flooding in for further comments from the airforce, SI, and Stark’s legal guardian Obadiah Stane so I’ll be sure to update you all the moment I get more information!

Comment down below with your thoughts and theories my fellow techies!!!

The Child of Death Back From the Dead

By Ryan Prince - May 2, 2011

The business and technology worlds are in a stir today and unsurprisingly it’s all due to Tony Stark.

The nine-year-old returned to the states today after having been rescued less than a week earlier from his three-month imprisonment at the hands of the Ten Rings terrorist organization. True to form, he immediately made a scene.

Mere moments after Stark was reportedly supposed to have stepped off his plane, his minder and personal assistant Virginia “Pepper” Potts reached out to the Stark Industries public relations department to call together a press conference for Stark. Bolts&Blogs was on the list and I was lucky enough to be free to represent the site even with the short notice.

Stark opened the conference without the usual flare that has become his signature over the past year, though he did start it by sitting down in front of the podium with a cheeseburger and asking everyone to join him on the floor. He explained it away as an attempt to make everything less formal, but the boy was (justifiably) visibly exhausted by recent events.

Little information has been revealed about Stark’s imprisonment, but it’s hard not to imagine what he might have gone through and his appearance only makes it worse. He was thin with malnourishment and the rush makeup job he had gotten hadn’t managed to completely cover the bruises across his face or his sunburned flush. One of his arms was tucked into a sling and his artfully styled hair was now long and limp. There was also a seriousness about him that looked alien on the formerly excitable and mischievous boy.

Once everyone but those operating cameras had sat, Stark then proceeded to greet his legal guardian, Stark Industries CEO Obadiah Stane (Why Stane hadn’t been at the airport to greet his ward sooner is unknown at this time), before setting into a monologue about his grandfather, the late founder of Stark Industries Howard Stark (More information here). He wondered over what Howard had thought about the company, if he had doubts or was as confident in everything he did as the news painted him.

He then mentioned the soldiers from his escort that had died due to, as reports have hinted, Stark Industries made weaponry, stating that the company had “grown from arming the knights into arming the dragons.”

When questioned about what had happened in Afghanistan, Stark answered as such:

“I had my eyes opened. I came to realize that I have more to offer this world than just making things that blow up. I know I have no power to change the company until I’m legally declared an adult and can claim my inheritance, so that is why, effective immediately, I am leaving the weapons manufacturing division of Stark Industries until such a time as I am capable of deciding what the future of this company will be, what direction it should take and is consistent with the highest good…”

Whatever more he had to say was lost as Stane escorted him off the stage into Potts’ waiting grasp. The man, despite his ever-present smile, had clearly been caught off guard by his ward’s statement and quickly concluded the conference.

As anyone who knows anything about technology could tell you, nothing worth talking about comes out of Stark Industries without the tiny fingerprints of the company’s resident genius on it, which begs the question of what this means for their weapons department? Will they still be able to stay ten steps ahead of their competitors without Stark’s designs? Where will Stark’s focus go now as Stark Industries has always been first and foremost a weapons manufacturer? I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.

[Subscribe] to Bolts&Blogs for the most up to date information from the world of technology and feel free to join the discussion down below!

Hidden Hero

By Tech-miss - June 27, 2011

New information has come out regarding Tony Stark’s rescue, readers, and it’s a doozy.

For starters, it wasn’t the USAF that did the rescuing.

According to the report published early this morning, an “unknown entity�� (Let’s call him Uno) launched an attack on a Ten Rings base which the air force later realized was being used to hold Stark as well as a second unnamed prisoner (aka Doc) who had been brought in to treat the injuries he’d gained during his kidnapping. Uno then staged a rescue, freeing Stark and Doc before destroying the base. Afterwards, they watched over the two until a USAF chopper began to close in, at which time they took off and disappeared.

As far as anyone can tell from the report, the USAF doesn’t appear to have any idea who the rescuer is. Stark apparently didn’t have a clue and if Doc did, we’ll never know as he, unfortunately, fell unconscious shortly after being picked up due to wounds he received protecting Stark and died not long after while in surgery.

Of course that means theories abound. Everything from a secret SI black ops team to the stereotypical ALIENS!!!! have flooded the forums. I’m particularly interested in one such theory that posits Captain America was the one to save them, if only because all the OP said to justify it was “Cap could do it!!!!!” and I find that hilarious.

Hopefully, we’ll get some more information soon. Here’s hoping Zombie Cap didn’t save Stark for his brains.

Comment down below with your thoughts and theories my fellow techies!!!

Who is Iron Man?

By CamicsComics - October 27, 2011

Hey there CamComs! Today’s post is going to be different from my usual stuff, but that’s because we’ve got confirmation that a real-life superhero is flying around!

Some background that you might be missing if you live under a comic book-lined rock like I do: Five months ago child celebrity and genius Tony Stark was rescued by an unknown person after he’d been kidnapped in Afghanistan. If you’re wondering who would think sending a nine-year-old into an active war zone is a fine idea like I was, then I’ve got two words for you: attempted murderer. But we’ll get to that.

Theories have flown about regarding who might have saved him, and today the world got its answer.

Well, at least we got his alias.

See, while the kid was in Afghanistan he found out his company’s weapons had ended up in the hands of the very guys who were keeping him prisoner. Since most of the weapons were his own designs, the kid understandably decided to leave the weapons business. Honestly, the kid shouldn’t have been there in the first place, but again, his legal guardian was super sketch.

Said guardian was Obadiah Stane. He’d been a partner to Stark’s grandfather Howard Stark and took over as CEO after the man’s death. He’d allegedly been a pseudo uncle to Stark’s mother so people said it made sense the man was given guardianship. Apparently those people never considered the millions of stories about evil uncles killing off their nephews to become king.

Honestly, from what I’ve read, I’m surprised Colonel James Rhodes wasn’t given custody. The guy was friends with Stark’s mother, had a rapport with his grandparents, and is still close with Stark.

Stane had never even met Stark until he was given custody!

I’m getting off track though.

Today during a press conference, Stark revealed that he’s been looking into the dirty weapons. A few days ago, his assistant Pepper Potts found evidence on Stane’s computer that not only has Stane been dealing under the table, but he had put a hit out on Stark. When Stane realized he’d been found out, he decided to finish the job. He attacked Stark and nearly killed him before using an experimental piece of SI technology to try to kill Potts and the agents (they didn’t say who the agents were with, just that they were agents) that had accompanied her to arrest Stane.

Which brings us to the reason for this post.

Apparently the person who had rescued Stark from Afghanistan had been looking into the weapons too and arrived at the mansion Stane and Stark shared just in time to save Stark. Using information the boy gave him, he then flew over to SI to take down Stane.

And yes, I did mean flew. Because this mysterious person the media had dubbed Iron Man is exactly what you’d expect from a name like that. He’s got a high tech suit of armor that can fly and shoot lasers!!! Like I said real-life superhero! Not only that, but he’s got a team of robots to back him up.

Don’t believe me? Look it up! Stark leaked pictures online of said Iron Man taking down Stane to prove he’s not just some kid telling stories, which was quickly followed up by a bunch of different people posting their own pics all over social media to back him up.

When questioned on Iron Man’s identity, Stark refused to comment. However, he did admit that the rumors about Iron Man being his bodyguard were false.

“Although IM came to Afghanistan for me, it was because he’s was a good friend and not because he was being paid as some rumors have suggested. Also, any and all rumors that I created the suit or bots are not only untrue, but also super insulting. The suit is a work of art straight from IM's genius mind and he deserves all the praise for it.”

Of course, people picked up on the “good friend” comment when it comes to trying to figure out the man behind the suit. A theory that Col. Rhodes was Iron Man seemed the most likely as he is close to Stark, headed the search and rescue unit, and graduated MIT with degrees in engineering and physics. However, as some have pointed out, there are photos and videos showing Rhodes with Stark and Potts during the fight between Stane and Iron Man.

That’s it for the past, but what about the future?

For Iron Man’s future, it seems like he’s going to be working with the US military to track down all the dirty SI weapons. For little Stark, things are still up in the air.

Since his legal guardian is out of the picture and he has no living relatives, there is some debate on where he’ll go. Both Rhodes and Potts are trying to get custody. I’ve covered the good on Rhodes, though I should point out his position as SI’s military liaison does put him in an awkward place. Potts is in a similar position as she’s currently Stark’s employee. That said, there’s no denying Potts knows how to take care of him as she basically became his nanny after Stane took control and shifted her from her former position (the PA to the CEO) to being Stark’s PA and minder, which basically means she took care of the paperwork aspect of his job, made sure he was on time for appointments, got him to eat and go to bed, kept him out of trouble, and other such things his legal guardian should have been doing instead of plotting to kill a nine-year-old.

She’s also clearly fond of the kid. There are pictures all over of her and the kid together and even at her most scolding she never really seems to be angry with him (such as in these pictures from a gala where Stark apparently decided to set off a CONTROLLED EXPLOSION!?!?! “For some entertainment”! And apparently this is typical behavior? No one’s ever been hurt, but seriously kid?). In fact, she’s often caught indulging in his more playful mischief (such as these pics that show the two of them dancing at the recent Firefighter's Family Fund benefit where Stark apparently gate-crashed his own party).

We also know she has no fear telling off her boss no matter what considering we’ve got multiple sources to prove that the reason the woman got her job in the first place was because she -- and I’m not kidding here -- forced her way into Howard Stark’s office back when she was just a financial jocky to make him correct an error he’d made on some paperwork. She’d earned a face-full of pepper spray, a job, and a nickname for her bravery, the last courtesy of Tony Stark himself.

Well, sweet CamComs, as much as I’d love to keep talking about this, unfortunately, that’s all I got for now. I’ll be keeping a close eye on Iron Man and Stark (because there’s zero chance that kid won’t get caught up in something again. Heck, maybe he’ll even build his own suit and become the hero’s sidekick. Seems right up the kid’s alley) and keep you updated, but unless something else happens, I’ll be back to my usual content on Tuesday.

Subscribe, like, and share, CamComs! Until next time, be the hero you want to see in the world!

Iron Tweet

By Ryan Prince - November 12, 2011

Does the mysterious superhero Iron Man have a Twitter? It would seem so!

Two days ago, @1r0n_M4n opened with the name 0111 01 1011. At first glance, one might think it was just a fan account, but the accounts first Tweet -- “Is this how I do it @ Tony?” -- was not only liked by Tony Stark, Virginia “Pepper” Potts, and Col. James Rhodes, but Stark also replied to it with “Yeah, but you actually have to use my thing, @1r0n_M4n”. Rhodes followed suit with “Was Iron Man spelled out normally seriously taken already?” and Potts responded with “Yes, but @1r0n_M4n wanted it spelled like that to begin with.” By that point, many had taken notice of the account and it only increased when the account became verified late last night.

While the account has since been flooded with questions about the hero and suit, none have been answered. However, when someone jokingly asked for help with a math homework problem, Iron Man responded with a picture of the problem worked out. This began a slew of people asking for Iron Man’s help with their varying homework problems until Potts spoke up with “@1r0n_M4n you can’t just do people’s homework for them. They need to learn how to do it themselves.” Iron Man immediately apologized and afterward only responded to such tweets with links to varying sites that proved to have useful information for whatever the problem might be. While most gave up afterward, some --usually college-age -- continued to request assistance with grateful thanks afterward.

The account currently has 500k+ followers and growing, but only follows six accounts. Stark, Potts, and Rhodes are obvious, but people have become curious over the other three: @GirlFriday, @Uuuuuuuuuu, and @DUM_E.

@GirlFriday (named F.R.I.D.A.Y.) appears to be a graphic artist. The account boasts no personal tweets, but many designs have been posted, some of which are said to have been sold to different companies. A few Stark Industries logos have even been found on the site, including the current one.

@Uuuuuuuuuu’s (named U) account consists entirely of retweeted music videos with genres ranging from classical to rap with the only comments being a sad or happy emoji for each to apparently give the account owner’s approval or disapproval.

@DUM_E (named Butterfingers) is a more wildcard account. It mostly consists of retweeted recipes and cooking videos, but there are also links to recipes on what appears to be @DUM_E’s own personal cookbook website as well as original cooking videos featuring far less appetizing mixtures (such as the one which features what appears to be motor oil being blended with strawberries, a banana, and almond milk). This seems to be the most curious account though as it is the only one with personal comments, though they are all coded in an odd mix of binary and morse code. Most of the comments either review recipes they’ve tried out or complain of annoying brothers and sisters without giving any names, but that’s not the curious part.

You see, those that put in the effort to decode @DUM_E’s comments realized that the same code was used for @1r0n_M4n’s name. Translated it reads Jay. Although that’s not much to go on, it is more than we had before. That’s not all though, because people have compared pictures from Stark’s workshop to screenshots from @DUM_E’s videos and website to show that the videos were filmed at the kitchenette in the lab. This has led some to believe the account might be a “shitpost” account of Stark’s, though others have argued that the comments about siblings wouldn’t make sense for him. When questioned, @DUM_E responded with a pair of tweets that, when translated, read, “Tony could not make good food like me.” and “If I didn’t make him food and bring it to him, he’d never eat.”

Before anyone else could respond, @1r0n_M4n added, “The recipes in @DUM_E’s videos are his more experimental ones and @TStark rarely partakes in them. @DUM_E usually feeds him the recipes from his site.”

Stark’s Twitter was immediately bombarded with questions of which of the video recipes fell into the “rarely” column, which Stark refused to reply to. Rhodes, however, posted a none too subtle tweet a short time later about how Tony and he agreed motor oil tasted better with bananas than chocolate.

Who could these mystery accounts belong to and how are they connected to Stark and Iron Man? How are Iron Man and Stark connected in the first place? Could these mystery accounts be the key? How many times has Stark eaten motor oil? Time will tell.

[Subscribe] to Bolts&Blogs for the most up to date information from the world of technology and feel free to join the discussion down below!

[creepingsharia]

Saudi Muslim kills 3, wounds 8 in shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida

Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani was shot dead but not before killing 3 and wounding 8 others.

PENSACOLA, Fla. — A Saudi man training at the Naval Air Station Pensacola opened fire on the base early Friday morning with a handgun, killing three and injuring eight before deputies fatally shot him, authorities said.

President Donald Trump, who spoke with King Salman of Saudi Arabia shortly after the shooting, said the monarch called the attack "barbaric."

The shooter was identified as Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, a member of the Saudi military, a U.S. Defense official told USA TODAY. The official wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. A motive for the attack is unknown. 

Alshamrani was one of 852 Saudi nationals in the United States training under the Pentagon’s security cooperation agreement with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, according the Defense official. Alshamrani, began his three-year course in August 2017 with English, basic aviation and initial pilot training.

The shooting began around 6:30 a.m. CT and the suspect was halted by two Escambia County sheriff's deputies, who arrived on scene in less than five minutes, Sheriff David Morgan said. One of the deputies fatally shot the gunman, he said.

An official who was not authorized to speak publicly told USA TODAY that the Saudi national did not use his military-issued service weapon.

One of the officers was shot in arm and treated at a local hospital. The other was shot in the knee and was undergoing surgery. Authorities expected both to survive. The shooting happened on two floors of the building.

"The best of our community was on scene today and that's why it turned out the way it did," Morgan said of the deputies who responded. "They ran to the fight, not from the fight."

Morgan said his deputies train regularly with base personnel for the type of attack that they encountered.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he and others are watching the situation closely.

"I've spoken with the Secretary of the Navy, and Deputy Secretary (David) Norquist and am considering several steps to ensure the security of our military installations and the safety of our service members and their families," Esper said. "I'm grateful for the heroism of the first responders and law enforcement who helped confront both situations and kept further loss of life from occurring."

The FBI has taken the lead in the investigation, though there has been no immediate determination on whether the shooting was terror related, two sources told USA TODAY.

The shooting was the second in a week at a U.S. Navy base.

Navy Adm. Mike Gilday, chief of naval operations, said it has been "a devastating week for our Navy family."

"Our hearts break for those who lost their lives in Pensacola and the wrenching pain it causes their loved ones," he said. "When tragedy hits, as it did today, and Wednesday in Pearl Harbor, it is felt by all."

Like most military installations, personal firearms are not normally permitted on the base, which provides a wide variety of training to both U.S. and international aviators, dating back to the British Royal Air Force during WWII.

The Pensacola base is also home of the Blue Angels, the Navy's Flight Demonstration Squadron, and the National Naval Aviation Museum.  Located in the far western Panhandle, the base employs more than 16,000 military and 7,400 civilian personnel.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Navy veteran, asked all Americans to remember the dead and wounded, along with their families: "They need your prayers and they need your comfort."

Eight patients, including the deputies, were taken to nearby Baptist Hospital. One of the victims died at the hospital, and two died on the base. The shooter also died on the base. The names of the victims will not be released until the next of kin have been notified, authorities said.

"Walking through the crime scene was like being on the set of a movie," Morgan said. "This doesn't happen in Escambia County. This doesn’t happen in Pensacola . . . So now we’re here to pick up the pieces." 

The shooter was in aviation training at the base, along with "several hundred" other international airmen, authorities said. DeSantis said the shooter's nationality will complicate the investigation.

"Obviously, the government of Saudi Arabia needs to make things better for these victims," DeSantis said in a press conference. "They’re going to owe a debt here."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is it not past time to end training foreign Muslims on U.S. soil at taxpayer expense? Is this an America First policy?

via In the 2018 fiscal year, the U.S. trained 1,753 Saudi military members at an estimated cost of $120,903,786, according to DoD records.

In the 2018 fiscal year, some 62,700 foreign military students from 155 countries participated in U.S.-run training, the total cost of which was approximately $776.3 million, according to DoD records. 

Among them is a contingent Saudis who recently arrived at Naval Air Station Pensacola.

In recent weeks, 18 naval aviators and two aircrew members from the Royal Saudi Naval Forces were training with the U.S. Navy, including a stint at Pensacola, according to a November 15 press release from the Navy. 

It was not clear if the suspected shooter was part of that delegation.

The delegation came under a Navy program that offers training to U.S. allies, known as the Naval Education and Training Security Assistance Field Activity.

A person familiar with the program said that Saudi Air Force officers selected for military training in the United States are intensely vetted by both countries.

The Saudi personnel are 'hand-picked' by their military and often come from elite families, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they did not have permission to speak to a reporter. Trainees must speak excellent English, the person said.

Saudi Arabia's embassy in Washington did not respond to questions. 

Saudi Arabia, a major purchaser of U.S. arms, accounts for a massive portion of America's spending on foreign military training.

In the 2018 fiscal year, the U.S. trained 1,753 Saudi military members at an estimated cost of $120,903,786, according to DoD records. 

For fiscal year 2019, the State Department planned to train roughly 3,150 Saudis in the U.S. 

---------------------------------------------

One Florida Senator has requested a review - but is it just reactionary posturing? via Twitter:

DEVELOPING: Sen. Rick Scott has called for a review of military programs for foreign nationals, saying he is "extremely concerned" about the military training foreign nationals following today's shooting that left four people dead at Pensacola Naval Air Base in Florida - The Hill

[causeiwanttoandican]

I think I hear he sound of shattering glass coming from Vancouver.

The Telegraph

Kate steps up: The making of a future Queen

Revealed: The crack team building and shaping the Duchess of Cambridge's royal future

By Camilla Tominey, Associate Editor

7 February 2020 • 9:00pm

It has been exactly a month since Harry and Meghan announced that they were stepping back as senior members of the Royal Family. For the past eight weeks, column inches have racked up about the ‘Megxit’ bombshell and its impact on the institution of monarchy.

Yet amid all the hysteria and hullabaloo, one of its most important members has been serenely going about the business of keeping calm and carrying on.

Until now this kind of understated behaviour may have been most closely associated with the Queen, but it is her modern day equivalent, the Duchess of Cambridge, who has been quietly putting duty first with increasing visibility.

A recent UK tour to launch her landmark survey on early childhood, combined with well-received visits to Bradford and Mumbles, may at first look like Kate making a conscious effort to fill the void left by her brother and sister in law.

Yet as has ever been the case with the middle class girl from Bucklebury who married into the Firm almost a decade ago, that would be to underestimate a woman who has never made a show of her royal role.

Motherhood to monarch

Having discreetly spent the past eight years beavering away on the causes closest to her heart, Kate has finally found her voice and is determined to use it. No longer willing to be seen but not heard, sources say she is now ready to commit the rest of her working life to raising awareness of the importance of childhood - and its impact on adult life.

Although she never took the credit for being the inspiration behind the Heads Together mental health campaign spearheaded by William and Harry - having witnessed its extraordinary impact, there is a sense that the Duchess has finally realised just how much she is capable of.

“The Duchess has worked quietly away in the background for years,” said one well-placed royal insider, “And now she knows that people want to hear from her”. No longer as fearful of public speaking, and fast carving her own path out of the shadows, Kate’s landmark online survey '5 Big Questions on the Under Fives’, will mark the start of decades more work on the subject, according to aides.

“It’s much easier to speak out when you know what you’re talking about and passionate about your subject,” added the insider. “She has become an expert in early years learning, she understands the science and is respected in the sector because she has spent the past eight years working it out. But she also wants to find answers. This is about evidence based research.” The first results of the childhood survey are due next month.

Kate’s gentle yet inquisitive manner was never more on display than when she met wheelchair-bound Harvey Bentley, 90, in Mumbles on Tuesday. The warm exchange was filmed by Mr Bentley’s son-in-law Mike Sutton-Smith

This kind of reaction is certainly welcome after arguably the most testing period for the monarchy since Diana’s death. With two of the so-called ‘Fab Four’ poised to set up their own projects in North America, the focus for the Cambridges will not only be on putting duty first but in a non-partisan, but an extremely effective way.

As one observer noted: “It is a bit of a paradox, having such a naturally introverted person in such a high-profile position. I think that’s what people find endearing about the Duchess. She’s not a showy person. It’s a deeply British trait.”

And one which she certainly shares with Her Majesty who also has a quiet confidence and sense of reserve when interacting with the public.

Of course, accession may still be decades away, but preparations for the royal couple to become the next Prince and Princess of Wales were already well underway before Harry and Meghan’s move to Canada.

Yet while efforts had previously been ploughed into elevating the status of the man who would be king - there is a new, and arguably even more compelling project now fully in progress at the palace: the advent of Queen Catherine.

So much so in fact that team of academics have been drafted in to help the mother-of-three shape her royal future, with input from the highest echelons of government and even the security services.

Likened to a modern-day version of the Way Ahead Group, set up to rebuild the monarchy in the aftermath of the Queen’s ‘annus horribilis’ of 1992, the Duchess’s steering group of experts has informed her focus on early years learning and helped her to grow in confidence in her royal role.

Working royals putting duty first

As the royal couple prepare to celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary next year, 2020 is set to be momentous for the Cambridges.

Projecting themselves as a family unit - and a relatable one too - has become a priority and was behind them agreeing to the prime time Christmas TV special with national treasure Mary Berry, which saw the royal couple cooking souffles while discussing the work of their Royal Foundation, the philanthropic vehicle for all their charitable endeavours.

With talk of trips to Ireland, Chile and Columbia already in the offing, and both having recently launched major charitable initiatives - including William’s Earthshot Prize - a multimillion pound project to ‘repair the planet’, the next 12 months will see the pair try to bring what one palace insider describes as the ‘calm after the storm’.

The source added: “What you are going to see with the Cambridges is a couple carved very much out of the Queen’s mould: Duty first.”

Having had three children in swift succession and with Prince George, six and Princess Charlotte, four, now in school and Prince Louis turning two in April, Kate’s priorities have shifted.

According to one well-placed source: “Over the last 12 months they have realised the potential power of their platform. They understand that by launching these long term projects they can genuinely make a big difference. They’ve been told clearly by people the impact that they can have if they pick the right spaces - things they care passionately about.”

Just this week we have seen William discuss diversity at the Baftas and his mental health initiative Heads Up, tackling the issue through football, has been well received. As with Earthshot, described by one aide as “the biggest thing the Duke has ever undertaken”, it’s about saying ‘we can do this’, rather than ‘this is too daunting’”, said a source.

“The Royal Foundation has been going for 10 years now. What they want to do is a smaller number of things on a bigger scale. For the Duchess, the early years work is something she will lead for the rest of her life. It's easy to dismiss it as nice and cuddly, but the focus is going to shift from how much childhood issues affect adult mental health and on the social side, it's as significant as climate change.”

While both projects and their recent visits to Yorkshire and South Wales had been in the diary for months, there is no doubt the ‘Sussex situation’ has escalated matters. “A hell of a lot of responsibility rests on their shoulders and they’ve just got to get on with it,” said royal author Phil Dampier. “I think they are both resigned to spending the next 30, 40, 50 years as heavyweight royals.”

A formidable asset

Government hopes are also being pinned on William and Kate flying the flag for post-Brexit Britain. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) was “delighted” with their highly successful visit to Pakistan last year, which helped to demonstrate the Cambridges’ worth to UK Plc. There emphasis will be on ‘youthful yet dependable royalty’ - demonstrating the power of the Royal Family both home and abroad as a formidable ambassadorial asset.

This was certainly on show last month as William hosted his first major state occasion - a reception for the UK-Africa Investment Summit - on behalf of the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

Standing alongside his wife, many royal watchers noted how much more publicly demonstrative William had become towards Kate. During the reception he was uncharacterstically nostalgic, saying: “The African continent holds a very special place in my heart. It is the place my father took my brother and me shortly after our mother died. And when deciding where best to propose to Catherine, I could think of no more fitting place than Kenya to get down on one knee.” When a wellwisher in Mumbles complimented William on Charlotte, he replied: "Yes, she is lovely - just like my wife."

And it is this kind of gentle encouragement and support which is intended to propel his wife to the next level - where her dependability turns into the kind of ‘soft power’ which can affect real change.

Or as one insider put it: "They are going to be doing what politicians can't do, with such a comparatively shorter shelf life. Only royals can think about this scale of change on a generational basis - and that is what the Cambridges are determined to bring about."

A crucial appointment for Kate will be her next private secretary following the departure of Catherine Quinn, the Oxford-educated right hand woman who has helped to chart the past two years. The Telegraph understands a replacement is yet to be found and the Duchess is continuing to be supported by her assistant private secretary and Simon Case, the former civil servant who has been William’s closest adviser since July 2018. Case previously worked for former Prime Ministers David Cameron and Theresa May and that they are taking their time, searching for someone of Case's calibre for Kate is certainly telling.

The couple arguably have another, equally pressing legacy project: the future survival of the monarchy. William has certainly been working in ‘lock step’ with his father and grandmother to find a solution to his brother and sister-in-law’s desire to leave the Firm.

The Telegraph can reveal that the second-in-line was also much more involved in the decision for the Duke of York to step back from public life last November than has previously been reported.

When Prince Andrew travelled to Sandringham to hold talks with Prince Philip and Charles - he also held a meeting with his nephew, believed to be at Anmer Hall, the Cambridge’s Georgian country house on the Queen’s estate in Norfolk. According to a source: “William spoke to Andrew for about an hour. They met separately. The Queen and Prince of Wales both agreed he should be fully involved in the discussions - he is very much a part of what has become a triumvirate of decision-making these days.”

No Fab Four Anymore

As Joe Little, editor-of-chief of Majesty magazine points out, there needs to be a shift in focus now that Harry and Meghan have handed in their notice. “Prince Charles had hoped to have a slimmed down monarchy with his own children and grandchildren as the major players, but he has had to revise that masterplan in light of recent events.

“The House of Windsor was riding high for such a long time with weddings, babies and jubilees, William and Kate have got to restore some of that magic.”

Agreeing that the Duchess’s role will be key to ensuring a modern-day monarchy is fit for purpose, he added: “There’s a mystique about Kate like there has always been about the Queen.”

While Harry and Meghan appear intent on politicising their future role, for William and Kate it is going to be all about the three S’s: stature, strength, and stability

[thelightofthingshopedfor]

2018 post because I still want to and it’s on my to-do list

I'm sure at this point no one but me cares considering we're fully two months into 2019 but whatever, I want to record it for posterity, because there were a lot of things in 2018 that I did for the first time and that's kind of important. (”this will be brief!” I said, you know, like a liar.)

I finally got a tattoo. I've been talking about it for years but never figured out exactly what I wanted or where, and even once I figured out what I wanted ("all we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us," which has been important to me in different ways for years) I didn't know exactly how I wanted it to look, because it can be tough to make text tattoos look good and I’m not an artist or a graphic designer. and then Scully was diagnosed with kidney disease and I realized, oh yeah, his paw print, there's an obvious one. my tiny little semi-colon (of which I apparently never took a decent picture) was also pretty obvious once I started looking for something small I could do as a test tattoo, although the way things worked out I got them both at the same time. the whole process was...kind of odd? but instead of just talking about it I finally actually made it happen, and it hurt but not, like, unbearably, and now I have a piece of my furry little boy that goes everywhere with me, which was especially important after he died.  

I did way more political volunteering than I ever have before. I always feel like I'm not doing enough and compared to people who volunteered with campaigns every single day, I guess I'm not, but I still did a lot in 2018 compared to any previous year: lots of donations to multiple Democrat candidates and progressive organizations, textbanking for several candidates across the US, sign-waving and even phonebanking for the Alaska Democrats, poll watching on election night for the Alaska Democrats, at least a few hundred handwritten postcards to voters for a few more candidates, data entry for the campaign against a local bathroom bill last spring (I keep forgetting that happened in 2018 too because, you know, 2018 was about a decade long), going to several local anti-Kavanaugh demonstrations and the like, leaving lots of voicemails for my legislators and bugging other people to do the same (with varying levels of success), and maybe other stuff I'm forgetting. which is all good, because actually doing shit is vastly preferable to just going "wow everything is terrible and we're all gonna die" both in terms of actual impact and my mental health. the unfortunate part is that after doing as much as I did for the 2018 midterms--whether or not I really actually did enough, whatever "enough" might be--I got pretty well burned out, especially because...all the candidates I did the most work for DID NOT WIN so that made it feel kinda pointless (even though we took back the House and I was so relieved about that I could’ve cried). especially locally where Alaskans did the stupid thing and 1) kept Don Young and 2) elected a Trump wannabe with almost no experience as our governor because he made promises that any idiot should've been able to see he wouldn't be able to keep. but...I still worked hard for causes and people I care about, and I devoted a pretty significant amount of time and money, and I got out of my comfort zone with last-weekend phonebanking, and none of that is nothing.

I joined a gym and started going there fairly regularly. as usual I want to qualify this, because "30 minutes on the elliptical once or twice a week" is not exactly an amazing workout, and I haven't been as good at going regularly since I finished TAZ: Balance, but like...it's still a new thing that I went out of my way to do, and it was a positive change toward taking care of myself physically.

related: I...finished a podcast? I'm bad at podcasts (see also: I'm two or three years behind on Welcome to Night Vale, the only other podcast where I've listened to more than one or two episodes), but the Balance arc of The Adventure Zone is amazing and it basically let me trick myself into wanting to work out so I could listen to more. (unfortunately, Amnesty and MBMBAM haven't been as effective this way, I think because MBMBAM is hilarious but there's no narrative and therefore no "oh shit what's gonna happen next" suspense, and Amnesty is great but it's just...less zany, I guess. constant zany goofs are great for distracting me from the fact that I'm doing generally unpleasant physical activity.) now maybe if I could find a site like GoodReads for podcasts, which apparently doesn’t exist yet, maybe I’d do better at remembering and then listening to all the podcasts I’ve heard of that interest me...although I still don’t know what would be useful for workouts to give me that all-important combo of zany goofs (made by people who are not horrible) and suspenseful narrative. 

I got back into conventions and cosplay for the first time in six years, which is kind of dumb because I was never that deep into cosplay in the first place and I'm still not, and the vast majority of cons I've attended have been tiny local ones...but I did do several attempts at varying levels of quality starting back in college, and I put together some complicated-by-my-standards outfits for SDCC 2012, and then I didn't do any cosplay at all until last year when I semi-spontaneously decided to go to ECCC. I only did two for that one (AoU Wanda, and Avengers Academy Loki) but they involved more actual work than any previous cosplays and I was pretty proud of how they turned out. and then I kind of went "oh hey, cons and cosplay are fun, I forgot", so I did a very simple cosplay for one tiny local con and two that were much more complicated (Stuttgart Loki and The Final Pam) for our larger local con, and it was a lot of work and I'm not 100% happy with how I looked as Pam but the handful of people thrilled to recognize me made it worthwhile. also my Loki staff is damned cool and I look great in suits.

I got contacts! for the very first time! LITERALLY JUST FOR COSPLAY! I've worn glasses since I was about two so I don't remember my adjustment period and I've never had much desire to try contacts, and with past cosplays I just kind of shrugged and wore my glasses anyway, but after ECCC I wanted to Do It Right so...I got contacts. it kind of sucked actually! after the week or so where I was supposed to wear them to get used to them, I literally have not worn them except for the local convention! it turns out contacts will never be a great idea for me because astigmatism is wacky! but now I have contacts I can use for future cosplays, and it's another new thing outside my comfort zone where I went "you know, actually, I could do this thing" and then I made it happen, which is...sort of a big deal for me.

I played Silent Hill 3 and 2, in that order, which is not that big of a deal but still feels like something of a milestone for me, because a) actually finishing a game is embarrassingly rare for me and b) I feel like...they're so well known and such a part of gaming canon, so to speak, that finally playing a couple classic games I previously only knew by osmosis is sort of significant actually. also I love them both in different ways, and discovering a new favorite game series is always fun.

I said goodbye to Scully. this was...not a fun one, obviously, and in fact those last few days were completely fucking awful. but, well, it was a big thing that happened, and it was new in my experience. like I said (a lot) at the time, I realize it's a sign of how lucky I've been that Scully was my hardest personal loss so far, but that doesn't change the fact that it was, and...of course it was hard and horrible. he was my furry little boy, he was unquestionably family, he was a huge part of my life every day for 9 years.  I took care of him as well as I could for as long as I could, and then I made the most compassionate decision I could, and for the most part I was able to focus on remembering the joy he brought me instead of just how much it hurt to lose him. (I've also said this before but I think dealing with Loki in Infinity War helped with Scully, because I'd already done some work on my unhealthy tendencies toward hopelessness in the face of, you know, things ending.) and then I found Hazy, and that's been hard in different ways but she's also worth it, and I think I can train her enough that other people will actually get to see how silly and adorable and sweet she is instead of just BARK BARK BARK.

I more or less kept up with my writing goals of posting at least one new thing a month? I guess this is an accomplishment rather than a first, since it's something I've been mostly successful in doing for the last few years, but it's still notable. also it does involve a first, because until I will kiss you till your breath is found I'd never written anything even semi-explicit (well, I very vaguely described a couple sex scenes in my Crimson Peak fic a few years ago but that was...VERY vague) and then I wrote several thousand words of fucked-up dubcon sort-of-p0rn and fairly shortly followed it up with another one. so that's a thing I've done now I guess. (is it actually explicit if you never really, directly reference anyone's genitals but it's still obvious what's happening and also it's fucked-up sex stuff? I don't know but at this point I'm definitely still too squeamish to use certain words in my fics. is that because I'm hella ace or because I grew up hella repressed in purity culture? BOTH PROBABLY)

and then there are my goals for 2019! or rather the rest of 2019 but it's cool because I got started on a couple of these pretty much right away!

cut my hair real short. already done! in fact this was basically the first thing I did in 2019, because I made the appointment Jan. 1 and got my hair cut Jan. 2! kind of like the tattoo, this is something I've been wanting to do, and talking about wanting to do, for ages and I've never actually gone for it; the shortest I've gotten my hair cut was basically chin-length, more than once, because I'd go in like "I kind of really want a pixie cut or something similar but idk if that would work on me without adding a bunch of time and Product to my morning routine so maybe I shouldn't?" and the stylists were always like "yeah you shouldn't, a good pixie for your face shape is not wash-and-wear hair" so I never did it even though I kept wanting to just...cut all my fucking hair off. and then this December I kind of went, wait, I got a TATTOO with less angst than this and that's permanent. I CAN CUT MY HAIR. IT GROWS BACK. so I got all my fucking hair cut off. it's not perfect because a short cut really does take more maintenance, from what I'm told (I got it cut the first week of January, so...probably I should have scheduled a trim by now), and I really would prefer to continue paying almost no attention to my hair while still looking generally okay, and the bits in front fall in my eyes and piss me off if I don't pin them back (I did buy the hair wax stuff the stylist suggested that was supposed to sort of lightly anchor it in place but it just never worked for very long, so...pins), BUT it is very nice not constantly catching my hair in my purse strap and stuff like that, and also I'm more visibly queer with short hair and that's definitely a plus.

train Hazy. this is a work in progress. it took a while to get signed up for an actual class and then I had to go with one for reactive dogs specifically, and so far I've only been to two sessions, just one of which involved Hazy, and then I've been trying to do other stuff at home, and...well, it's a work in progress. but she's a good dog who just needs to learn to chill a little bit, and I should've trained Scully and didn't so I'm trying to do things right this time.

specifically, I would like to get her trained enough that she can accompany me to Pride in June, wearing her adorable Wonder Woman harness and cape. given that she is not great with individual strange humans and strange dogs, taking her into a big crowd of both would definitely result in a screaming meltdown if I did it now and it may or may not be realistic to hope I'll be able to get enough improvement on that in time. but that's the goal. if it doesn't work, there's always next year, I guess.

also, I want to make myself a flying ace costume for Pride. this may or may not be much more complicated than I anticipate.

speaking of costumes, I'm planning to go back to both local conventions this year, and I imagine I'll reuse my Stuttgart Loki outfit at least once but it would be nice to do at least one other new cosplay. Heather/Cheryl from Silent Hill 3 seems like it should be straightforward but Value Village hasn't provided me with any of the pieces yet so who knows.

post more to @alaska-gothic​ because I have a bunch of cool photos I'd like to have a place to show off (and I've taken a lot of new pictures, some in VERY cold weather, for this exact purpose)

finish more games. in practice this might turn into "play more short games while continuing to neglect long games" but I want to make my list of completed games longer and I also want to PLAY MORE GAMES in general because it's a thing I really like, and it's possibly the only thing I do that's purely for my own enjoyment, and I want to make more time for that. also I want to finish SWTOR’s existing singleplayer content because, I mean, it’s an eight-year-old(!!!) MMO so its remaining time is probably limited by default and it’s fucking ridiculous I’ve been a subscriber for at least seven years without even finishing all the class storylines, what the actual fuck Past Me. (I also want to make more time for console games specifically, because those are almost definitely easier on my body and I can do them while cuddling with Hazy on the couch. unfortunately this also generally requires me having the place to myself, which is kind of a rare thing that is also necessary for comfortably working on customs or writing, so...opportunities are limited.)

speaking of games: finish buying the parts to upgrade my computer and then upgrade my fucking computer, and also back up my fucking files

finish a long fic? or honestly if I can even finish more short fics that would be great. really just...make progress on the WIP list. especially if I can finish some IW-specific fics before Endgame comes out. that would be super cool of me.

get another tattoo. I still want that LotR quote but I don't know how I want it to look so who knows when that might happen. HOWEVER, I've been wanting something queer, and I very much loved Foxflight Studios’ "we fight as one" design, and when I asked the designer if she was okay with me getting it as a tattoo she said yes. so at least with that I wouldn't have to figure out a design. I do of course have to figure out a) where I want it (ideally, somewhere normally covered by clothes but where I can see it if I want to, and where a person might conceivably keep a real dagger) and b) how much more it's going to hurt/cost than the paw print considering it would have to be bigger and it has a lot more colors and linework.

do some travel around Alaska. I've lived here for nearly my entire life and I really haven't seen that much of my own state. more importantly there are a few extremely cool places within theoretical driving distance, like Kennicott, Igloo City, and abandoned military installations near Seward, and I want to visit them. @erlkonigstochter and I had vague plans to do this last year and it never materialized (although I did visit Nike Site Summit on my own), so...this year I intend to try harder to make that happen, especially since I have no current plans of traveling out of state.

put more stuff on Etsy (and figure out how to advertise them?). in particular there are a bunch more things I want to repaint in various Pride colors, in part because those are way easier than custom Funko figures. of course, a lot of these things are kinda technically copyright infringement which means somehow I have to figure out how to make more sales of the easier things without drawing the attention of any corporations (and/or shift my focus to things that aren't under copyright of some kind but that's probably more complicated).

but also do more personal projects. I have so many partially finished custom figures, and so many other figures I bought specifically to customize but haven't touched since, and it would be cool to actually...do something with some of those. especially because several of my WIPs/plans are more Lokis, and I need all the Lokis, and there are not many more left that I can buy.

figure out how to motivate myself to work out more and keep up with PT exercises, see above re: needing a  better replacement for the magic of TAZ Balance whoops

get a therapist and work on ADHD issues, because I'm increasingly convinced that ADHD issues are at the root of the vast majority of my other issues (depression, anxiety, etc.), and that I would be immeasurably improving every aspect of my life if I could make some progress on that aspect. the difficulty, of course, is that finding a therapist is kind of complicated and difficult, and also I don't really want to add yet another regular appointment to my schedule when I already don't have enough time after work to do all the things I want and/or need to do, but...this one thing could go a long way toward helping me actually do all those other things, so obviously this is a time investment I really need to make. although probably not until I've made serious progress with Hazy's separation anxiety because that also makes it hard to go places after work. so uh, I guess we'll see. in the meantime it might be smart if I tried to figure out some kind of self-guided therapy thing I could do. I'm sure there's...something.

just, like, be more intentional about...things. in general. this is a bad goal because it's very nonspecific but it is slightly more specific than "generally do better FFS" so at least there's that.

[scotianostra]

Victoria Helen McCrae Duncan was born on November 25th 1897 in Callander.

Known as Helen Duncan, in 1944, she became last person in the UK to be tried, convicted and imprisoned under the 1735 Witchcraft Act.

Hellish Nell, as she became known, was actually a medium, and by all accounts not a very good one, the way she earned her living was to hold seances and charge plenty for her services, but she was rumbled several times as a fraud.

Nor was she the last person convicted under the 1753 Act – now repealed and replaced with the Fraudulent Mediums Act of 1951 – because in fact three other people were on trial alongside her and one of them was sent to prison, too. Yet somehow the “last witch” nickname has stuck, though records clearly show that some months after her trial and imprisonment in September 1944, one Jane York, 72, from Forest Gate, East London, was charged under the same act with seven counts of pretending to conjure up spirits of the dead. Incredibly, York was simply bound over for the sum of £5 to be of good behaviour for three years.

Ah, but that happened after D-Day, and there is no question when you examine the evidence that the authorities wanted to make an example of Helen Duncan and put her away for the summer of 1944.

From an early age her own family saw her as fey, and her mother was mortified when the child’s behaviour became impossible – she would predict doom and destruction for all sorts of people and was given to outbursts of hysteria.

Her early life was otherwise normal. She moved to Dundee and worked at the Royal Infirmary where she met Henry Edward Duncan, a wounded war veteran and a cabinet maker. They were married in 1916, and Duncan would eventually have six children by Henry who saw a great way of making money from his wife’s talents in clairvoyance – she read tea leaves and made predictions and earned a few shillings for doing so.

By 1926 she had become a fully-fledged medium giving seances during a time when spiritualism was all the rage. Moving to Edinburgh, her seances were soon the talk of the town – even the ghost of that local man turned Sherlock Holmes creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a great believer in spiritualism, was said to have materialised at sittings.

A prominent feature of her seances was her apparent ability to produce “ectoplasm” from her mouth during her trances when she was transformed into her spirit partners Albert or Peggy, a young girl whose voices “spoke” through Duncan. She had grown quite obese and the contrast between this 20-stone woman and the childish voices was part of the reason why people believed in her.

It was at a seance in January 1933 that Peggy emerged in the seance room and a sitter named Esson Maule grabbed her. The lights were turned on and the spirit was revealed to be made of a cloth undervest which used as evidence that led to Duncan’s conviction on the Scottish offence of fraud at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in May 1933.

The conviction does not seem to have harmed her career. Duncan was by then making a good living by conducting seances throughout Britain at which “the spirits of the dead were alleged to have appeared, sometimes talking to and even touching their relatives”.

Duncan began to get more famous but also began to be more scrutinized. Director Harry Price of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research examined her. He deemed her ‘ectoplasms’ to be made of cheese and eggs which she would regurgitate up. Price was less than impressed by what he felt was a show woman, exploiting people for money.

“Could anything be more infantile than a group of grown-up men wasting time, money, and energy on the antics of a fat female crook.”

During World War Two, Duncan lived in Portsmouth, the home of the Royal Navy. In 1941, the spirit of a sailor reportedly appeared at one of her seancés announcing that he had just gone down on a vessel called the Barham. HMS 'Barham' was not officially declared lost until several months later, its sinking having been kept secret to mislead the enemy and protect morale.

Unsurprisingly, Duncan's activities attracted the attention of the authorities and on 19 January 1944, one of her séances was interrupted by a police raid during which she and three members of her audience were arrested.

Duncan was remanded in custody by Portsmouth magistrates. She was originally charged under section 4 of the Vagrancy Act (1824), under which most charges relating to fortune-telling, astrology and spiritualism were prosecuted by magistrates in the 20th century. This was considered a relatively petty charge and usually resulted in a fine if proved. She was eventually tried by jury at the Old Bailey for contravening section 4 of the Witchcraft Act of 1735, which carried the heavier potential penalty of a prison sentence.

In particular, the medium and her three sitters were accused of pretending 'to exercise or use human conjuration that through the agency of Helen Duncan spirits of deceased persons should appear to be present'. Duncan was also charged with offences under the Larceny Act for taking money 'by falsely pretending that she was in a position to bring about the appearances of the spirits of deceased persons'.

The trial caused a media sensation and was extensively covered in the newspapers, many of which revelled in printing cartoons of witches on broomsticks. At one stage, the defence announced that Duncan was prepared to demonstrate her abilities in the witness box. This amounted to conducting a séance in the court while in a state of trance and the offer was refused.

Duncan was found guilty as charged under the Witchcraft Act and sentenced to nine months in Holloway Prison, London, but she was cleared of the other offences. She was the last person in Britain to be jailed under the act, which was repealed in 1951 and replaced with the Fraudulent Mediums Act following a campaign by spiritualist and member of parliament Thomas Brooks.

There are two common misconceptions about Duncan's conviction. The first is that she was the last person in Britain to be convicted of being a witch. In fact, the Witchcraft Act was originally formulated to eradicate the belief in witches and its introduction meant that from 1735 onwards an individual could no longer be tried as a witch in England or Scotland. However, they could be fined or imprisoned for purporting to have the powers of a witch.

The second misconception is that she was the last person to be convicted under the Witchcraft Act. Again this is incorrect. Records show that the last person to be convicted under the Witchcraft Act was Jane Rebecca Yorke in late 1944. Due to her age (she was in her seventies) she received a comparatively lenient sentence and was fined.

Additionally, it has often been suggested that the reason for Duncan's imprisonment was the authorities' fear that details of the imminent D-Day landings might be revealed, and given the revelation about the Barham it is clear to see why the medium might be considered a potential risk. Nonetheless, then prime minister Winston Churchill wrote to the home secretary branding the charge 'obsolete tomfoolery'.

Helen Duncan was released from prison on the 22 September 1944 and seems to have avoided further trouble until November 1956, when the police raided a private séance in Nottingham on suspicion of fraudulent activity. No charges were brought and shortly afterwards, on 6 December in the same year, the woman who is sometimes remembered as the 'last witch' died.

A campaign by her descendents to clear her name continues to this day.

Find our more about this strange tale here https://www.prairieghosts.com/duncan.html

[anastpaul]

17 November, Blessed Memorial of St Gregory Thaumaturgus “the Wonder-Worker” (c 213-c 270) Bishop, Confessor, Miracle-worker, Writer, Preacher – also known as Gregory of Neocaesarea, Gregory the Wonder-Worker, Theodorus – born in c 213 at Pontus, Asia Minor (in modern Turkey) as Theodorus and died in c 270 at Pontus, Asia Minor (in modern Turkey) of natural causes.   Patronages – against earthquakes, desperate causes, floods, forgotten causes, impossible causes, lost causes.

Gregory was born around 213 to a wealthy pagan family in Neocaesarea.   His surviving theological writings are in an incomplete state, thus this lack of knowledge partially obscures his personality, despite his historical importance and his memorial title Thaumaturgus meaning  “the wonder-worker” in Latinised Greek, casts an air of legend about him.   Nevertheless, the lives of few bishops of the third century are so well authenticated, the historical references to him permit a fairly detailed reconstruction of his work.

Originally he was known as Theodore (“gift of God”).   He was introduced to the Christian religion at the age of fourteen, after the death of his father.   He had a brother Athenodorus (who later also became a Bishop) and on the advice of one of their tutors, the young men were eager to study at the Berytus in Beirut, then one of the four or five famous schools in the Hellenic world.   At this time, their brother-in-law was appointed assessor (legal counsel) to the Roman Governor of Palestine;  the youths had therefore an occasion to act as an escort to their sister as far as Caesarea in Palestine.   On arrival in that town, they learned that the celebrated scholar Origen, head of the Catechetical School of Alexandria, resided there. Curiosity led them to hear and converse with the master.   Soon both youths forgot all about Beirut and Roman law and gave themselves up to the great Christian teacher, who gradually won them over to Christianity.

In his written oration on Origen, Gregory describes the method employed by that master to win the confidence and esteem of those he wished to convert, how he mingled a persuasive candour with outbursts of temper and theological argument put cleverly at once and unexpectedly.   Persuasive skill rather than bare reasoning and evident sincerity and an ardent conviction, were the means Origen used to make converts. Gregory took up at first the study of philosophy, theology was afterwards added but his mind remained always inclined to philosophical study, so much so indeed, that in his youth he cherished strongly the hope of demonstrating that the Christian religion was the only true and good philosophy.   For seven years he underwent the mental and moral discipline of Origen (231 to 238 or 239).   There is no reason to believe that his studies were interrupted by the persecutions of Maximinus of Thrace, his alleged journey to Alexandria, at this time, may therefore be considered at least doubtful and probably never occurred.

Before leaving Palestine, Gregory delivered, in presence of Origen, a public farewell oration in which he returned thanks to the illustrious master he was leaving.   This oration is valuable from many points of view.   As a rhetorical exercise it exhibits the excellent training given by Origen and his skill in developing literary taste and the amount of adulation then permissible, towards a living person, in an assembly composed mostly of Christians and Christian in temper.   It contains, moreover, much useful information concerning the youth of Gregory and his master’s method of teaching.   A letter of Origen refers to the departure of the two brothers but it is not easy to determine whether it was written before or after the delivery of this oration.   In it, Origen exhorts his pupils, to bring the intellectual treasures of the Greeks to the service of Christian philosophy and thus imitate the Jews, who employed the golden vessels of the Egyptians to adorn the Holy of Holies.

Gregory returned to Pontus with the intention of practising law.   His plan, however, was again laid aside, for he was soon consecrated bishop of his native Caesarea by Phoedimus, Bishop of Amasea and metropolitan of Pontus.   This fact illustrates in an interesting way the growth of the hierarchy in the primitive Church – the Christian community at Caesarea was very small, being only seventeen souls and yet it was given a bishop.   Ancient canonical documents indicate that it was possible, for a community of even ten Christians, to have their own bishop.   When Gregory was consecrated he was forty years old and he ruled his diocese for thirteen years.

Nothing definite is known about his methods but he must have shown much zeal in increasing the little flock with which he began his episcopal administration.   An ancient source attests to his missionary zeal by recording a curious coincidence, Gregory began with only seventeen Christians but at his death there remained only seventeen pagans in the whole town of Caesarea.   Presumably the many miracles which won for him the title of Thaumaturgus were performed during these years.

St Gregory of Nyssa (c 335-c 395) wrote the Life and Panegyric of Gregory drawing on family traditions and a knowledge of the neighbourhood, the facts for which, were supplied to the writer by his grandmother, St Macrina the Elder (c 270-c 340).   He relates that before his episcopal consecration, Gregory retired from Neocaesarea into a solitude and was favoured by an apparition of the Blessed Virgin and John the Apostle and that the latter dictated to him a creed or formula of Christian faith, of which the autograph existed at Neocaesarea when the biography was being written.   The creed itself is important for the history of Christian doctrine.

St Gregory of Nyssa describes at length the miracles that gained for the Bishop of Caesarea the title of Thaumaturgus.   It is clear that Gregory’s influence must have been considerable and his miraculous power undoubted.   It might have been expected that Gregory’s name would appear among those who took part in the First Council of Antioch against Paul of Samosata;  probably he took part also in the second council held there, for the letter of that council is signed by a bishop named Theodore, which had been originally Gregory’s name.   To attract the people to the festivals in honour of the martyrs, Gregory organised amusements that might appeal to pagans, who were accustomed to religious ceremonies that combined solemnity with pleasure and merrymaking.

When the persecution of Decius began in 250, the bishop counselled his faithful to depart and not expose themselves to trials perhaps too severe for their faith and none fell into apostasy.   He himself retired to a desert and when he was pursued, was not seen by the soldiers.   On a second attempt, they found him praying with his companion, the converted pagan priest, now a deacon – they had mistaken them the first time for trees. The captain of the soldiers was convinced this had been a miracle and became a Christian to join him.   Some of his Christians were captured, among them Saint Troadus the martyr, who merited the grace of dying for the Faith.   The persecution ended at the death of the emperor in 251.

It is believed that Saint Gregory died in the year 270, on 17 of November.    The death of St Gregory took place in the seventieth year of his age and the 270th of the Christian Era. Shortly before closing his eyes, he asked if there were yet some in the city who had not received holy baptism.   ” Seventeen,” was the answer.   The Saint, already in his agony, raised his eyes to heaven and said:  ” Thanks and praise to God!   When I took possession of my See, I found only seventeen Christians.   May God preserve all in the true faith, and give to all infidels, in the whole world, the light of the Saviour’s divine Word!”

St Gregory’s remains were translated to Calabria, Italy, where many miracles once more occurred and continue so, as St Gregory intercedes for impossible causes.

Some of the many miraculous events in Gregory’s life:

Saint Gregory of Nyssa writes that the Wonder-Worker was the first person known to receive a vision of the Mother of God.   The Virgin and Saint John the Baptist appeared to him in a vision and gave him what became a statement of doctrine on the Trinity. Gregory had the power of healing by laying on of his hands.   Often the healing was so powerful that the patient was cured of his illness, and became a fervent convert on the spot. During the construction of a church for his growing flock, the builders ran into a problem with a huge buried boulder.   Gregory ordered the rock to move out of the way of his church and it did. In order to stop the River Lycus from its frequent and damaging floods, Gregory planted his staff at a safe point near the river bank.   He then prayed that the river would never rise past the staff.   The staff took root, grew into a large tree and the river never flooded past it again.   This act led to his patronage against floods and flooding. Two local pagans, hearing that Gregory was an easy target for obtaining money, decided to con the bishop.   One lay beside the road where Gregory was travelling and pretended to be dead.   The other stopped the bishop, pleaded poverty and asked for money to bury his dead friend.   Gregory had no money with him, so he took off his cloak and threw it over the “dead” man, telling the “live” one to sell the cloak and use the funds.   When Gregory had moved on, the “live” con-man found that his friend had died. Two brothers in Gregory’s diocese had inherited a piece of land that contained a lake. Unable to decide how to divide the lake, the two settled on armed combat to settle the matter.   On the night before the battle, Gregory prayed for a peaceful solution to the matter.   The next morning the brothers found that the lake had dried up leaving easily dividable farm land.   This is one of the miracles which led to his patronage of impossible causes. When returning from the wilderness, Gregory had to seek shelter from a sudden and violent storm.   The only structure nearby was a pagan temple.   Gregory made the sign of the cross to purify the place, then spent the night there in prayer, waiting out the storm.   The next morning, the pagan priest arrived to receive his morning oracles.   The demons who had been masquerading as pagan gods advised him that they could not stay in the purified temple or near the holy man.   The priest threatened to summon the anti–Christian authorities to arrest Gregory.   The bishop wrote out a note reading “Gregory to Satan:  Enter”.   With this “permission slip” in hand, the pagan priest was able to summon his demons again. The same pagan priest, realising that his gods unquestioningly obeyed Gregory’s single God, found the bishop and asked how it was done.   Gregory taught the priest the truth of Christianity.   Lacking faith, the priest asked for a sign of God’s power.   Gregory ordered a large rock to move from one place to another – it did.   The priest immediately abandoned his old life and eventually became a deacon under bishop Gregory.   This ordering about of boulders, led to Gregory’s patronage against earthquakes.

(via Saint of the Day - 17 November - St Gregory Thaumaturgus "the Wonder-Worker" (c 213-c 270))

[bffhreprise]

Entry 255

 “Son, what happened to you?” I asked after a time, having wanted to think through what my son had been telling me.  I knew he wasn’t always like this.  If he had been superhuman as a youth, I would have noticed.  Children don’t have that much restraint.

 “Well, I learned that I was capable of doing magic shortly before I graduated.  Regina and I were practicing together.” replied James.

 “What!?  Regina knew about this?” asked Rachel, sounding alarmed.

 “I found out she was capable of using magic when we attended Prom, though I suspected as much a little sooner.” replied James as if that explained everything.

 “But son… how did you find out that you were a… magic user?” I pursued, at a loss for the right words for this absurd situation.

 James looked over to Lady Pendreigh, who nodded slightly.  He then said, “Emma tested Jarod and me after demonstrating her own abilities.”

 “Emma is on this as well?” questioned Rachel.

 “Everyone who works for me knows about magic, though not all of them can use it.” stated James.

 Everyone knew?  No.  “I refuse to believe there can be that many people throwing spells around.  Everyone would know about it.”

 “There has always been a fear in such people that they would be persecuted if they should show their power.  I assure you the fear is quite valid.” insisted Lady Pendreigh.

 First glancing at her, my son said, “Even if they would be accepted by most of the world, there’s a group that actively seeks out the more dangerous types of people you’d deem to be supernatural.  Draw too much attention, and they will intervene.”

 “Back up a minute.  You said Jarod could do magic, right?” I inquired, wanting something more tangible to grasp.  I knew Jarod, had watched him grow with my son.

 “No.  Emma tested him, but he can’t do a thing with residual energy, much to his chagrin.” replied James.

 “Residual energy?” I questioned, wanting to understand.

 James nodded and said, “There are different types of magic.  The type I use takes leftover energy from different types of magic and forms it into spells.”

 “So you can only do magic when someone else is casting spells around you?” I asked.

 “Well, no.  There’s a great deal of energy in the world.  A great deal more is available throughout this house now that I’m not living here.  I was born a bit unusual in that my body will actually absorb the energy and create a potent spell around me.” he replied, seeming a touch embarrassed.

 I frowned, not liking his claim to have always done magic.  “What sort of spell?”

 “James emits a type of enchantment that causes those in his vicinity to be endeared to him.” explained Lady Pendreigh.  “I took notice of him primarily because of it.”

 I looked at my wife to see if she was finding this as hard to believe as I was.  If what they were saying was true, we had been under a spell for James’ entire life.  Squeezing back as Rachel took my hand, I knew she was thinking the same thoughts.  James always had a way with people…

 “Trust me, the news came as a bit of a shock to me as well.  I inadvertently affect everyone and don’t have a reasonable way to stop it.” he reaffirmed.

 “There is a way though?” questioned my wife.

 He shrugged and nodded slowly.  “Well, yes, to an extent.  If I want to walk around completely defenseless, I could.”

 “James would be in grave danger if that were to happen, so he doesn’t really have a choice.” insisted Lady Pendreigh.

 “James, dear, how did Regina… how did she... die?” inquired Rachel, staring up at him.

 I squeezed her hand more, wishing to comfort her.  Rachel had taken Regina’s death very hard.

 Looking serious, James stated “She was killed by a werelion.  Regina died saving my life.”

 “A werelion!?” I asked, wondering why he would say something so ludicrous.

 “Yes.  You’ve surely heard myths about werewolves.  Think of a similar creature related to lions instead of wolves.” explained Lady Pendreigh matter-of-factly.  “There are many types of therianthropes.”

 Ignoring her, I said, “Son, you can’t possibly expect me to believe this.”

 James smile looked sad as he said, “You’ve seen some of what I can do.  Is there really no room for werewolves and werelions?  What about vampires?  I know a couple.  I can introduce you if you like, assuming they don’t mind.  Would you like to meet a fairy?  My little friend spends a great deal of time around me.”

 “James… what were you doing near such a creature?” questioned Rachel, sounding worried.

 “Luke, my trackmate, was one of many werelions.  He killed Nathan at school in a fit of rage, and I came across them.  We hadn’t known there were so many…  We wouldn’t have stumbled into their trap if we had.” insisted James, sounding sincere.

 “I’m sorry, son, but why would you pursue such a creature?  What were you planning on doing?  Kill him?” I asked, knowing my son wasn’t a killer.

 “If necessary.  We couldn’t exactly tell the police.” he stated with a grim solemnity.

 No…  Hesitating slightly, I asked “Son, did you…”

 “No.  I’ve never killed anyone.” he replied, cutting me off.

 “Then they’re still out there?” asked Rachel, her voice rising slightly in pitch as she spoke.

 James shook his head and said, “No.  They’re dead.  The entire group is dead.”

 “What?” I questioned, trying to wrap my head around this dangerous group’s death.

 “This will probably be the hardest thing for you to accept, but Death is real, scythe and all.  I had nightmares for that entire month after seeing her.  When Regina fell, Death appeared.  She lifted her scythe, and they were gone.  There weren’t even bodies left.”  There was a haunted look to my son’s eyes as he spoke.

 What had he really seen?

 Rachel nodded and told him “I remember you being out of touch…  I just thought you were taking Regina’s death hard.”

 “I really was, but the nightmares were beyond the death of a friend.  You don’t ever want to know how terrifying Death is.” he assured her.

 “Son, people often have terrible dreams after the death of a loved one.  I know you don’t want to hear this, but you probably imagined it.” I told him, looking for a rational explanation.

 “He didn’t imagine anything.  Even I…”  Lady Pendreigh stopped, seeming to be remembering something.  She was shaking.  “Even I am terrified of her.  Meeting her was the single worst moment of my life.  There are accounts of people literally dying of fright just from seeing her.  Do not take this so lightly.”

 I stared at her long and hard, shuddering involuntarily.  Lady Pendreigh was an incredibly competent business woman with absolutely no mercy as I had found out.  Seeing her so shaken from a memory was shocking, but I still had my doubts.

 “I’m sorry, son, but this is hard to accept.” I admitted.  I took a little while to sort my thoughts, trying to fit the pieces together without being too critical.  Things weren’t fitting properly.  “With you being so fast, how could the werelions best you?  Are they equally fast?”

 “Oh.  I wasn’t actually this fast when I faced them.  I doubt they could even scratch me now.” he explained with a casual tone that surprised me.

 “They couldn’t.  You took fifty caliber rounds with ease.” insisted Lady Pendreigh.

 “What!?  You were shot?” I asked, shocked that that hadn’t been mentioned.

 Nodding, he said, “Yes, actually.  I can’t say that was a pleasant experience, but the injury didn’t last.”

 Lady Pendreigh rolled her eyes as she smiled at him.  “The bullets didn’t even pierce his skin.  I’d hardly say you were injured, James.”

 “Well, I did feel a little bruised at first.” he argued.

 “James, dear, why would someone shoot you?” asked Rachel, still sounding worried.

 “Oh… umm…” he started, looking as if he was trying to find the words to explain.

 “There are people who don’t want to see James and me be wed, so they’re protesting.  The abduction attempt against you was also a result of this.”  stated Lady Pendreigh as if quoting common knowledge.

 I knew that she was extremely wealthy and influential, but I didn’t think she was someone whose presence put others at risk.

  Continuing, she said, “As you are aware, I am Lady Alma Lucy Pendreigh V of the United Kingdom, but my estates and influence stretch well beyond my country’s borders.  In marrying me, your son will gain lands, titles, and influence, making him the envy of any other potential suitors.  They don’t take such things lightly.”

 “You’re… engaged?” questioned Rachel.

 “Well, no.  Her family has some unique customs, but there is a strong possibility of that happening in the near future.” replied James.

 “Be sure to tell us when you are, but isn’t this rushing things a bit?” I asked him, knowing the two had only known each other for half a year.

 “The laws of her family are a bit rigid, father, and you and mother should know that I will most definitely tell you when the time comes.” he assured us.  Then, seeming a touch annoyed, he said, “I feel that we’re avoiding the point here.  If, by some twist of fate, you happen to come across something you feel to be supernatural, don’t investigate.  Your lives depend on it.”

 “Investigate?  Why would we do such a thing?” asked my wife, brushing the thought away as she spoke.

 “Mother, you attempted to touch the first magic you saw.” stated James.

 “James, dear, it was just a light.” she replied.

 Letting his annoyance into his voice, he told her “I feel I’ve demonstrated that things aren’t always what they seem.  Since finding out about magic, I’ve seen minotaurs and zombies right here in the city.  Though the minotaurs stood out, the zombies were disguised in illusions that made them pass as living people.  I’d be incredibly impressed if you’d recognize a vampire.  You can’t trust things to be safe based simply on what you see.”

 “What would you have us do, son?  Are we supposed to be scared of everything?  I’ve lived here for my entire life without encountering anything like what you’ve described.” I argued, not wanting the shut-in life I imagined.

 “Before even being trained in magic, Regina could alter luck to her favor.  Did you ever find it strange that she won at so many board games?” questioned James.

 “You won just as many, dear.” insisted Rachel.

 “Regina did a great deal for me without me knowing.” he replied, now sounding a little sad.

 Approaching us on the couch, Portentia smiled and said, “You don’t have to be scared.  Just be careful.  Though there aren’t any other superheroes to my knowledge, many of the creatures out there aren’t so bad.  Your son’s always just a call away, and I try to look out for everyone.  Feel free to call me as well if you need help.”

 James reached out and rested his hand on her shoulder.  “Thank you.”

 I trusted my son as well as my own eyes.  I knew he meant well and could tell he was legitimately concerned.  We were almost abducted, but I was still struggling.  I couldn’t deny his speed or Portentia’s… strangeness.  Believing that I had missed so very much was still a struggle.  If all this was true, I… I didn’t know what to think of my life.

[joyfuldelusionchaosvaliant]

Science and Chemistry Classes

Immunotherapy before liver cancer surgery can kill tumor, and likely residual cancer cells

-The Mount Sinai Hospital

Immunotherapy given before surgery caused liver cancer tumors to die off in one-third of the patients enrolled in a first-of-its-kind clinical trial, Mount Sinai researchers reported in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology in January.

The phase 2 trial results suggested that the neoadjuvant immunotherapy—therapy given before surgery—may kill not only the tumor, but also microscopic cancer cells that surgery would miss and that could later cause the cancer to recur or metastasize, the researchers said. In effect, the therapy teaches the immune system to fight off any recurrences.

"Ultimately, we think it's better for the patient to receive immunotherapy before surgery because people are healthier before metastases, and their immune systems are in better shape to fight off the cancer," said senior author Thomas Marron, MD, Ph.D., Director of the Early Phase Trials Unit at The Tisch Cancer Institute and Associate Professor of Medicine (Hematology and Medical Oncology) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "This study, together with neoadjuvant immunotherapy trials in many other types of tumors, supports the need for continued evaluation of perioperative immunotherapy to decrease recurrence rates."

Dr. Marron added: "Typically when cancer recurs it is no longer a curable disease. Larger trials in the future will aid in defining the utility, safety, and survival of neoadjuvant immunotherapy, specifically this type of PD-1 blockade."

Liver cancer, the most common type of which is known as hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), is the third-leading cause of cancer-related deaths globally. While immunotherapies have changed the prognosis of patients with advanced HCC, the majority of patients still die from this disease. Although liver cancer surgery often appears successful, in more than half of patients the cancer comes back, due to either residual micrometastatic disease, or in some cases an entirely new tumor, highlighting the potential benefit of neoadjuvant therapy to improve survival.

This study's findings are important because to date, no therapy given before or shortly after surgery has demonstrated any real improvement in survival for liver cancer patients.

Researchers gave 21 early-stage liver cancer patients two rounds of the immunotherapy agent cemiplimab, an anti–PD-1 antibody, before their surgery in late 2020. Doctors studied tumor death and cancer-fighting immune system activation via magnetic resonance imaging and blood, tumor, and stool samples.

They found that in one-third of the patients, much of their tumors died before surgery. Patients whose immune system was already working against the cancer tended to have more of a response to the immunotherapy, which suggests that the immune system was further activated and would kill any microscopic remnants of cancer. Tumor death in response to neoadjuvant therapy is an indication for improved outcomes in many cancer types, and the researchers are currently following the patients to assess if this rings true for HCC as well.

This study was able to measure the immune system response in a novel way. Dr. Marron and colleagues used a new collaborative approach between researchers and clinicians: The neoAdjuvant Research Group to Evaluate Therapeutics or TARGET, which maximizes the useful information that can be gleaned from smaller neoadjuvant clinical trials. The TARGET platform focuses on coordinating detailed, real-time profiling of the immune system's response in patients receiving cancer immunotherapy as a neoadjuvant treatment.

The TARGET platform showed how the PD1 blockade boosted the number of activated immune cells that invade HCC tumors, induced tumor necrosis, and shrank tumors prior to surgery. The platform helped researchers determine that PD1 blockade is likely beneficial in HCC, but because only some patients had a robust response, the immunotherapy may need to be used in combination with other treatments. The aim of the in-depth analysis of tissue samples is to identify biomarkers—biological identifiers—that will help show who will and will not respond well to a therapy. The aim of TARGET is to identify the optimal therapy for each patient, and decrease the likelihood that suboptimal treatments go into large phase 3 trials, wasting resources and the time and efforts of patients.

"You normally don't get to study how drugs work in humans in such a detailed manner," said Dr. Marron. "When you do simple biopsies, you get very little tissue and the analysis often doesn't produce detailed information about the cancer or the immune system's response. With this platform's analysis, you get several biopsies before treatment as well as blood and stool samples. Then when the tumor is removed in surgery, we analyze that as well as more blood and stool samples, so we have a lot of detailed information on what is going on microscopically than ever before. This is an exciting platform to study in that level of detail."

21/01/2022