#he's a career politician so there's a lot to disapprove of but i very much like both of those things about him

[fictionadventurer]

Because @maltheniel has enabled me, I'm going to tell you about William Henry Seward.

If you had the American history education that I had, you might have heard of a thing called Seward's Folly--also known as Alaska. Seward was the Secretary of State who was mocked for buying America territory in what appeared to be a barren wasteland, until he was vindicated by the discovery of oil and gold and a jillion other useful natural resources. If you had the education that I had, this is the only thing you heard about him, but the more I look into the Civil War, the more baffling this is, because this guy is everywhere in the political scene of the time.

Seward was an extremely vocal anti-slavery Whig from New York. He started as a US Senator in 1849, and he became part of President Zachary Taylor's inner circle, influencing him to support measures to keep slavery out of the new territories. After Taylor died, the question of slavery in the territories dominated politics for the next decade, with the conflict getting more heated and the positions getting more polarized. The Whig Party fell apart because of disagreements over the issue; Seward held on for as long as he could, but eventually joined the newly-forming Republican Party, and became well-known for his eloquent speeches against slavery.

When it came time to choose the Republican nominee for the 1860 presidential election, Seward was by far the top candidate. All but a shoe-in. Unfortunately, some of his anti-slavery speeches were a bit too eloquent, and gave him a reputation for being much more radically anti-slavery than he was. A significant portion of the party doubted he could win a nationwide election when slavery was such a divisive issue. This gave Lincoln's team a chance to pitch him as a less-radical option, which allowed him to come from behind and win the nomination.

Seward was extremely gracious about the loss, immediately publishing letters announcing his full support of Lincoln as candidate, and putting his own campaign manager to work getting Lincoln elected. Privately, though, he was seething. He had been in politics for decades, helped to build the party, and then lost his chance at the presidency to a guy who'd been working as a backwoods lawyer for the last twelve years.

But he knew his politics, and knew it was better to support the party's candidate than to oppose him. Lincoln offered Seward the prime Cabinet position of Secretary of State--he was qualified for it and deserved it--and Seward accepted. Seward hoped that he'd be able to help select the other Cabinet members, so he could pick people from his own faction who he'd work well with. Then he, with his extensive connections and political experience, could be the real head of the administration, with Lincoln as a compliant figurehead.

Lincoln was having none of it. He listened to Seward's suggestions, but he'd basically already chosen the people he wanted for his Cabinet, across all factions of the party. While he made use of Seward's expertise and trusted him as Secretary of State, he was going to be head of his own administration and be the one making all the final decisions. After a rocky start, Seward came to recognize that Lincoln had a shrewd mind and good judgement, and he became Lincoln's loyal supporter and a good friend.

But there was a persistent idea that Seward was the real power behind the throne, sparked partly by the prominent role he took in Washington between the election and the inauguration. States started seceding almost as soon aa Lincoln was elected, and Seward was the one who had to hold things together in Washington while Lincoln was tying things up in Illinois. He was getting reports from informants, watching out for Southern spies, and keeping Lincoln abreast of what was going on. He gave a stirring speech to Congress urging the Southern states to keep the Union together, offering all sorts of concessions to mollify them, such as amendments preventing the federal government from interfering with slavery. It was a highly controversial speech, and his wife, Frances, raked him over the coals for it. She understood, earlier than almost anybody, that this crisis would turn into a long war about slavery, and that they couldn't afford to bend on that issue, even to keep the Union together. (Lincoln privately approved of several measures Seward talked about, but publicly said little, preferring to see the public's response to Seward before taking official positions.)

Seward was a little bit like a Civil War version of Evil Chancellor Traytor. Under both Lincoln and Johnson, rumors persisted that Seward was the shadowy figure who was really in charge, secretly manipulating the president into making unpopular decisions, even though most of the time, Seward had nothing to do those decisions, and often disagreed at least partially with what the president chose to do.

Best example of the effects of this misconception is the time Seward came under attack during the middle of the war. The war was going badly, and since people couldn't directly attack the president, they started going after Seward. Chase, the Treasury Secretary, told some members of Congress that Seward was the reason the Cabinet couldn't get along, and that he was always trying to take control. These senators wanted to meet with the president and force him to get rid of Seward. When Seward heard about this, he gave Lincoln his letter of resignation, not wanting to cause problems for the administration. Lincoln responded by allowing the senators to join in a Sewardless Cabinet meeting. When confronted with both the senators and the Cabinet, Chase was forced to admit that his stories had been exaggerated, and the other Cabinet members rallied to Seward's defense, resenting Congress' meddling. Lincoln refused to accept Seward's resignation, and Seward returned to the Cabinet, having been saved by Lincoln's political acumen.

I'm going to skip ahead so I can tell you the craziest part of the story. Four days before the Civil War officially ended, Seward got into a carriage accident that left him bedridden with a broken jaw and a bunch of other injuries. When told of Lee's surrender on April 9th, Seward said (through a broken jaw, after barely surviving a painful accident), "For the first time in my life, you've made me cry." (Which is both touching and an incredibly badass claim, given what he's just suffered.)

Five days later, John Wilkes Booth shot the president at Ford's Theater. Everyone knows (or should know) that part of the story. What I didn't know was that his conspiracy also called for Seward's assassination. Booth knew his Shakespeare and didn't want to leave Seward alive as a Marc Antony to eulogize the dead tyrant. (He also wanted to kill Andrew Johnson, but that assassin chickened out, and it's not really important to this story).

While Booth was at the theater, his co-conspirator went to Seward's house under the pretense of delivering medication. When Seward's son wouldn't let him go upstairs, the assassin tried to shoot him and broke his skull with the gun. The assassin then made his way to Seward's bedroom--where, I need you to remember, Seward was still bed-ridden--and stabbed him five times in the face and neck. Like, sliced away flaps of flesh. The only reason Seward didn't die was because the splint for his broken jaw deflected the blade away from his jugular vein. And because his other son and bodyguard made it into the room and forced the assassin to flee.

Chalk this one up in the "Parts of American History I'm Furious No One Told Me About" column.

While Seward was recovering, they hid the president's death from him, thinking he wouldn't survive the shock. But he figured it out three days later when he saw the flags at half-staff through his bedroom window, and realized that if Lincoln were alive, he'd have been the first to come see Seward after the attack.

Of course, Seward survived (badly scarred) and went on to buy Alaska. Which is an interesting story. But not half so interesting as all the stuff that came before it.

[loren-velazquez]

Is that LOREN ‘LV’ VELAZQUEZ? Wow, they do look a lot like PRISCILLA QUINTANA. I hear SHE is a NINETEEN year old FRESHMEN who are studying BUSINESS AND MARKETING at Luxor University. Word is they are a ARISTOCRAT student. You should watch out because they can be FAKE and IMPULSIVE, but on the bright side they can also be AMBITIOUS and SOCIABLE. Ultimately, you’ll get to see it all for yourself!

hello hello, this is my new college demon, loren. this intro got way out of hand, so there is a tl;dr at the bottom for those of you with short attention spans like myself! 

STATS

BASIC INFORMATION

FULL NAME: Loren May Velazquez

NICKNAME(S): LV or Ren

DATE OF BIRTH: March 28th, 2001

AGE: 19

ZODIAC SIGN: Aries

OCCUPATION: College Student

HOMETOWN: Brooklyn, NY (Cobble Hill)

CURRENT RESIDENCE: Luxor Academy

NATIONALITY: Dual American/Swiss Citizenship

ETHNICITY: Half-White, Half-Mexican

LANGUAGE(S): English, Spanish, French, Italian

GENDER & PRONOUNS: She/Her

RELIGION: Catholic but non-practicing 

POLITICAL AFFILIATION: Liberal Democrat

DISCLAIMER: Priscilla Quintana’s ethnicity has not been confirmed, though it is believed she is half-white, half-Mexican, and I casted FCs for her family (and drafted her backstory) accordingly. If she comes out and confirms her ethnicity, I will take it into consideration and make any appropriate edits.

PHYSICAL INFORMATION

FACE CLAIM: Priscilla Quintana

HEIGHT: 5'5"

EYE COLOUR: Green

HAIR COLOUR + STYLE: Dark brown, usually worn blown out 

TATTOO(S): TBD

PIERCING(S: TBD

GLASSES: TBD

PERSONALITY

MBTI TYPE: ESFP

POSITIVE TRAITS: Ambitious, Sociable

NEGATIVE TRAITS: Fake, Impulsive

GOALS/DESIRES:  Loren wants to be both of the Bush twins wrapped up in one. She wants Jenna’s gig as a news anchor, and Barbara’s political/philanthropic/activism endeavors, with a dash of, like, socialite/influencer thrown in.

FEARS: TBD

HOBBIES:  TBD

HABITS:  TBD

SMOKES?: uses a juul bc of course she does

DRINKS?: yes

DRUGS?: occasionally

FAMILY - to be added

LUXOR UNIVERSITY

Major: Business & Marketing

Minor: Politics

Extra-Curriculars: 

Debate Student Council Ballet (Soloist)

SOME FUN FACTS

only child which explains a lot of her ~ issues ~ 

her parents picked out the name loren for their kid regardless of gender, which is why she’s loren and not lauren or laurel or something similar/more traditionally feminine

loren’s father is a semi high-profile politician. he worked in local new york government for awhile and then when she was 13 (6 years ago) he became a senator for new york. his goal is to either become mayor of nyc or governor of new york, and hopefully make a presidential bid at some point

loren’s mother is part of the manesse family (loren’s cousin is zelda reese) and she lost part of her inheritence when she married her father, which doubled the pressure on loren, since it comes from her father’s political ambitions and her mother’s familial obligations 

her family is definitely upper middle class, though not extraordinarily wealthy, but loren is still a bit of a snob. she puts a lot of weight on people’s careers and standing and ambition. 

loren grew up in brooklyn and has spent her whole life in the city. she attended a private high school in nyc as well. 

she took a gap year to do philanthropic work (it looks so good on her resume!!!!) before enrolling at luxor university as a freshman, so she technically is a year older than your typical freshman

she is very much a fake human being. she will pull the regina george ‘oh my god i love that skirt’ and then turn around and ‘that is the fugliest skirt i’ve ever seen’. she acts to everyone’s face like she is the nicest sweetest person and then turns around and talks some  s h i t  if you are in her inner circle 

loren is very outgoing, extroverted, sociable, whatever word you want to use. she has a politician’s charisma from her father, and really can charm the pants off anyone if she wants to. 

she is a big partier, she drinks, occasionally uses drugs (weed/cocaine at most, she typically wouldn’t do things much harder than that)

because of who her father is, she loves to give fake names when she’s out partying and meets a stranger. she’ll invent a whole character rather than give any real details about herself

in fact she doesn’t really give too many details about herself even when she’s not playing a character. she is intensely private about her feelings/thoughts/emotions/anything personal. partially from her father’s career, partially from her being a fake bitch

once you’re one of her friends, she’s ride or die, yo

she is wildly impulsive. she literally can be talked into any stupid ass scheme or plot or idea if you suggest it to her in the right away, and will not pause for a single second to think any sort of aftermath through. 

loren is a ballerina and was fairly dedicated to it through high school, and even though she’s continuing in college, she never considered it more than a hobby as her parent’s expectations made it obvious that was not a viable career path

she idolizes the bush twins even though they’re republicans and her father hates george w. bush. she’ll literally go out buy every single book recommendation on jenna bush hager’s book club and her goal after college is to work with the global health corp (that barbara bush founded). 

she absolutely loves louis vuitton (because she is extremely vain and has loved that their logo is her initials since she was a little girl and she didn’t really understand WHY it was her initials) and she wears it as much as she can, hence the nickname her friends have given her of LV. 

CONNECTION IDEAS

CURRENT CONNECTION: PROXY DEALER - Loren uses but she is SUPER secretive about it. Her father is a politician, so obviously it would be a big deal if something came out about her drinking or doing drugs. This would be a student she trusted who essentially acted as a middle man between her and a dealer because she wouldn’t want to go to one herself

CURRENT CONNECTION: SHOCK VALUE - This could be romantic or platonic! Loren often has moments where she likes to shock her parents, so this would be someone she would bring around that she KNOWS they would disapprove of, just for the shock value and to get a little giggle to herself. TBD if your muse would be aware of this element to their relationship or not.

CURRENT CONNECTION: ARM CANDY - This could be romantic or platonic! This would be someone Loren would bring around her parents when she knows she needs to be on her best behavior/impress them for whatever reason. It most likely would be someone she doesn’t actually enjoy being around all that much, but she keeps that to herself to be able to use them for these situations. TBD if your muse would be aware of this element to their relationship or not. 

CURRENT CONNECTION: FWB/HOOK-UP -  Loren has two significant exes - her high school sweetheart and then the rebound. They both burned her badly, so she’s not about to start dating someone right away. Instead, she just does the casual FWB/hook-ups.

PAST CONNECTION: HIGH SCHOOL SWEETHEART - Loren had a high school sweetheart that she broke up with at the beginning of senior year. Most of this would be TBD depending on the muse that was filling the connection. 

TL;DR

loren is a high profile politician’s daughter, with a lot of familial pressure to succeed, which in turn makes her an expert at disappointing her parents. she grew up in brooklyn, went to high school for nyc, and took a gap year before enrolling at luxor university as a freshman. she still has a lot of ambition, even with her insanely impulsive wild child side, and personality wise, she’s a complete regina george. do NOT trust her. 

[speakinghistorically]

A lot of public history discourse right now surrounds how historical figures are remembered, especially concerning statues. New discussions are happening every day about how we view statues and ways that we can teach the public about the less savory aspects of some of these historical figures’ lives and provoke a critical understanding of their impact. I find that quite a few colonial politicians have statues of them with no mention of the darker sides of their careers. Some of these statues have been taken down in recent years. There was Cornwallis in Halifax, who had both a large statue and a high school named after him. Edward Cornwallis is credited with founding the city of Halifax. He also was an integral part of the colonial violence against the Mi’kmaq people, issuing a proclamation in 1749 offering a financial reward for any settler who killed a Mi’kmaq person. This is, understandably, not popular with the Mi’kmaq community. So Cornwallis got taken down in 2018.

More recently, the conversation has turned to Canada’s first Prime Minister. John A. Macdonald was indeed an important “father of Confederation”. Many Canadians remember him as the drunk, cantankerous Canadian version of George Washington. He was the politician who showed up to a speech drunk and vomited on the podium. But he was also one of the key architects of the Residential school system. This is just as much a part of his legacy as the creation of Canada as a nation. And there is a statue of Sir John A. Macdonald in the middle of downtown Charlottetown, the capital of Prince Edward Island.

As you can see, the statue is sitting on a bench, perched in a pose that suggests he is in the middle of an interesting conversation. What isn’t immediately clear in the picture is that the statue is on the main thoroughfare in Charlottetown, close to the harbour where the cruise ships dock. There are several similar statues of other “fathers of Confederation” dotted all along the waterfront, all in similar relaxed poses. The unique poses and the central position make these statues very popular with tourists. The statue pictured has a small plaque explaining that this is John A. Macdonald, the first Prime Minister of Canada. It has Macdonald’s years of birth and death and confers him the title of “Father of Confederation”. There is no mention of his involvement in the residential school system. Before the recent controversy about Macdonald, many Canadians who didn’t study history did not know about that part of his legacy. One of my coworkers, a very intelligent woman who is an expert at her job, asked me why people were so upset about Macdonald because she didn’t know anything about him other than that he was the first Prime Minister. She isn’t uneducated, or unwilling to learn Canada’s history (as evidenced by the fact that she asked me, knowing it could set off a twenty-minute long rant about the minutia of Canadian history). She just wasn’t aware of there being any controversy about Macdonald. There was a gap in her knowledge that popular depictions of “the Father of Confederation” had not addressed. That is indicative that there is an issue with how we remember figures of Canada’s past. And because statues are large, visible symbols of that history, they become the targets of a lot of disapproval.

So how do we deal with that disapproval? Some have made their distaste for Macdonald public by vandalizing the statue, which has happened more than once. These vandalisms cost the city thousands of dollars to repair, straining an already tight budget. Yet the city of Charlottetown stands by Macdonald (https://www.theguardian.pe.ca/news/local/charlottetown-council-stands-firm-on-controversial-statue-of-sir-john-a-macdonald-497387/) and refuses to permanently remove the statue. For now. This stance might change as more people become informed about the parts of John A. Macdonald’s career that wouldn’t be so nice to take a photo with.

[tornrose24]

Day-O (a CU Beetlejuice AU one shot)

While I don’t want to do a full on CU Beetlejuice fic, this scene is impossible to pass up, especially considering how the musical added to the original story to begin with. (So this combines both the musical and the movie’s version of this scene... and you might need to listen to the musical version of this scene if you can’t find a bootleg/luck out in seeing it on stage).

The Beetlejuice AU was originally proposed by @jackie-sugarskull  and Esme belongs to @princeasimdiya12 .

(Contains some cursing. Note to those with a trigger warning: the suicide joke from the original film was included here).

A group of people gathered around in the school’s cafeteria to decide the building’s fate. It had been arranged so that they had a table right in the center of the room, yet the food and drinks were both well above cafeteria food standards. On one end was former student turned politician Erica along with Esme, the school’s current Principal. On the other was former student turned top scientist  Melvin, along with his colleague Professor Poopypants. In between were potential investors and the school district superintendent Mr. Pointe who never seemed to take a stand on the current issues.

“So we hope that your support and donations would not only keep the school open, but encourage support for extra curricular activities as well as better supplies, new recess equipment, text books, and learning conditions.” Erica concluded as Edith took goblets of cocktail shrimp of the cart to give to everyone else as they ate deviled eggs and drank wine.

“Except nowadays, science and mathematics is demanding more bodies for the expanding career options in that area.” Melvin countered. “Trying to keep Jerome Horowitz alive as it is would be like heading towards suicide at this rate.”

“And you know what they say,” Poopypants cracked. “Those who commit suicide become civil servants in the after life.” This earned a round of chuckles from everyone except Erica, Esme, or Edith. The latter in particular winced at this. “Then again, who knows how many children will end up as civil servants as adults?”

“Oh that reminds me,” Melvin glanced to Edith and smirked at her. She had recently changed from her dark clothes and into a flattering lemon yellow dress, and her hair was pinned back from her face, so she was a bit more noticeable than usual. “One of our old classmates claims that the ‘ghosts’ of this school don’t approve of my ideas. Apparently they’re with Erica’s side of things.” This caused Edith to freeze up and turn around.

“B-but it’s true!” Edith admitted. “They think school should be about fun and enjoying childhood–!”

“Next she’ll tell us the ghosts are our old classmates who died all those years ago!” Melvin laughed and some others joined in. Erica frowned at Edith, but only Esme showed an interest in what the woman had to say–it made her think back to all those pranks and those mysterious comics that happened without any explanation.

“Anyway, I don’t want to talk about something you can’t prove without science, and I don’t mean the junk machines on those ghost adventure shows!” Melvin continued. “I think I’d rather talk about–DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY–O!” Without any warning, he bursted into singing with his arms bursting out into the air.

All eyes glanced on in confusion except for Edith, who waited patiently. Melvin realized what he just did and grabbed his neck as his eyes widened in shock.

“Sorry, what?” Erica raised an eyebrow.

“Well, that’s uh... quite a subject.” Mr. Pointe blinked.

“Uh, sorry!” Melvin let out a nervous laugh. “I don’t know where that came from! I meant–ME SAY DAY ME SAY DAY ME SAY DAY-O!” He bursted into song again like he was a big time singer at a performance.

“Is this going somewhere?” An investor asked.

Melvin panicked. It was like he was unable to control himself! “L-listen!” He pleaded. “I just feel like–DAYLIGHT COME AND ME WAN’ GO HOME!” He felt compelled to jump out of his spot and sing once more. The moment he regained control of himself, he panicked. “What is happening to me?!”

Most everyone let out nervous giggling. “Well, Melvin.” Poopypants chuckled. “I guess you mean to tell us–WORK ALL NIGHT TO THE DRINK OF RUM!” He suddenly leapt onto his spot on the bench and threw his arms out as he sang next and, as if on cue, the music from the player nearby switched from soft jazz to a classic upbeat piece of music.

“DAYLIGHT COME AND ME WAN’ GO HOME!” Everyone except Edith suddenly got out of their spots and started to sing.

“Stack Banana ‘til de mornin’ come!” Melvin sang as his body moved in time to the music. “DAYLIGHT COME AND ME WAN’ GO HOME!” Everyone sang in response.

No one knew what was going on. It was as if something overtook them as they all found themselves dancing in time to the music while singing to a song that very few of them even knew. Yet no one saw what Edith saw when she heard childish giggling and she looked up with a smile. Floating in the air were the spirits of two children, with each one waving their hands as if conducting or moving them like they were controlling a puppet.

“I can’t wait until the finale!” Harold laughed.

“I know!” George happily replied as Edith continued to watch with a huge smile.

Everyone danced around behind their seats. All but three adults, with Erica and Esme shooting each other confused looks while Edith herself hummed to the delightful song. It then got to a point where everyone was bending over and sticking their rear ends out and shaking them around in time to the music, which made both boys laugh even harder.

“Day, me say day-o! Daylight come and me wan’ go home!”

“Daylight come and me wan’ go home!”

After awhile, the music came to an end and they were all forced to sit down, yet there was one more surprise in store for Melvin. The shrimp in his cocktail suddenly turned into a monstrous hand that reached up, causing everyone to shout or gasp and Melvin screamed but was unable to jump out of his seat in time as the hand grabbed his face and pulled him into the table, all the while his screaming increased.

George and Harold laughed even harder. “There’s no way he’s going to turn this place into a snore-fest now!” Harold gleefully declared.

“SOMEONE GET THIS THING OFF OF MY FACE!” Melvin screamed. With a lazy wave of the hand, George freed the red head, who pulled back with a gasp as all eyes stared in concern at him.

“Wh-what was that?!” He demanded.

“It’s like I said.” Edith told Melvin. “They don’t want you to turn this place into your kind of school. If you don’t want to have this happen again, you better do what Erica wants.” Erica herself was stunned at this to the point that she was unable to immediately say anything. Yet when she was ready to ask Edith what on earth she was doing, Melvin grinned.

“So you’re saying that there are real ghosts here?!” He then turned to Poopypants “You saw that all right?! No parlor tricks, mechanisms or weird gases, right?! Forget funding this stupid place, I’m going to buy it off the school district’s hands!”



“What?” Erica and Esme asked in confusion.

“What?” Edith asked with dread.

“What?!” George and Harold shrieked.

“I can’t get the school to be what I want it to be, but a location that’s haunted?! Do you have any idea how much that could help out with research and inventing new things?! Screw the school, I’m turning this place into a new research center!”


“WHAT?!” George and Harold screamed.

“That’s an excellent idea!” Poopypants grinned as he rubbed his hands. “I’m already thinking of the possibilities such supernatural energy can grant us!”

“It’ll make Piqua more than just a city of narrow minded simpletons!” Melvin added.

“No!” Esme yelled. “Mr. Pointe, you can’t allow this!” She pleaded to the school’s Super Intendant, but he gave her a nervous smile. “Where will the children go?!”

“W–w–well, I don’t see how this place can be safe with ghosts roaming around them.” Mr. Pointe stammered and let out a sheepish smile.

“It wasn’t any better without them!” Erica roared as Edith tried to speak her own thoughts, but was overpowered by the politician. “Do you have any idea how much of a danger zone this place was becoming over the years?!”

“Erica, I like you a lot, but this place was below standards in academics since day one!” Melvin butted in. “What good’ll it do to keep it open any longer?!”

“You can’t tear this place down!” Edith finally protested as loudly as she could. “The ghosts don’t want that! None of the children will want that! You–!”
 “No one cares what you say Edith, you aren’t holding the money or power like us!” Melvin snapped at Edith. “Can’t you get it through your simple, messy-haired, four year college degree head?! Don’t you realize how much money we’d all get from this?! Or are you too depressed over mommy and daddy kicking the bucket to even bother taking care of yourself?! This is reality, so either get on board with life or move along!”

Edith felt as if she was slapped across the face as Melvin went back to the others to talk of his plans. She felt Erica’s disapproving look as well as those from the people who were trying to save the school and she barely saw the boys when they now stood before her with worried looks.

“Edith?!” Harold pleaded. “Look, we didn’t realize Melvin would do this! We should have seen it coming!”


“We can still fix this!” George added.

“How?! Nothing works! Apparently pranking everyone isn’t enough! Do you have any ideas, Edith?!” The blonde turned to the woman. “Edith?” He asked in concern when he saw the woman staring at the ground with her face barely in view.

When her parents died, everyone ignored her to the point that she might as well have been invisible. When she tried to help support the school, no one listened to her ideas and expected her to be a ‘yes man.’ When she finally succeeded in that, it blew up in her face and she was still being treated like she didn’t really matter.

“You want to do something about all of this? Then all you got to do is say my name!”

“There’s still one thing I can do.” She realized as she remembered him from earlier. “Three times spoken, unbroken, right?”

“My real name. The one that hag cursed when she cursed me. Say it three times spoken, unbroken.”

The boys instantly understood what she meant.

“Edith no!” George protested as he and Harold began to panic.

“Benjamin.” She quietly spoke, and no one else heard her say it except the two boys who knew what was coming and flinched the moment he arrived.

“Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, YES!”

Edith heard some movement and was startled to see the familiar large figure standing right beside her. He still wore the same black and white stripped suit, the toupee was still black with touches of green and yellow, his skin was still a pale lavender as if his body lacked any air, and his shark like smile was wide with glee. “I knew you’d come around and see things my way! I swear you won’t regret this!”

“Edith stop!” Harold pleaded, earning him a dirty look from the adult ghost.

“Benjamin.” She spoke louder which went unheard over the arguing of the other adults. The ghost grinned even more as he adjusted his sleeves.

“That’s it! That’s it!” He was like a kid at Christmas about ready to explode with anticipation as his hideous grin only widened as he coaxed her. “We’re going to have a lot of fun! Come on! Just give me one! MORE!” He looked at her pointedly.

“EDITH NO!”

“DON’T SAY HIS NAME!”

She took a breath. She was tired of being invisible–tired of being treated like a joke–she wanted to be heard!

“BENJAMIN!” She screamed at the top of her lungs, causing all eyes to turn towards her in confusion, while those of the boys were filled with dread, and those of the ghost-demon’s were filled with satisfaction as he became surrounded by white light and smoke.

“It’s showtime!” He grinned as he threw this hands out.

The music came to a halt and everything went dark, causing almost everyone to scream in confusion and blindly stumble around. Moments later, the lighting of the room came on and became an ominous green as Krupp stood before them all.

“Can anyone see me?!” He demanded.

His response was a series of screams at the sight of the unexpected, hideous looking being.

“Now that’s what I want to hear!” He gave them an evil grin and rubbed his hands together. “God I missed that sound!”


“What the hell is that thing?!” One of the investors screamed and pointed.

“Yeah, who the hell invited you?!” Melvin demanded.

“I did!” All eyes turned to Edith as she felt a surge of confidence that she hadn’t felt in quite awhile. “I warned you and you didn’t listen!” Each word made her feel stronger until she was practically shouting. “You all never listened to me! Never took me seriously! And now this is what you get!”

“Yeah nerd, this is what you get!” Krupp sneered at Sneedly. “And I’m someone whose about ready to have a game I’d like to call ‘instant trauma!’” He threw his hands into the air and suddenly chaos began to ensue.

FIre bursted from the ground as if out of nowhere in random parts of the room, causing the gusts to scream and flee. Those who managed to get to the doors were only further startled by what appeared to be ominous glowing monsters with green eyes, mouths and sharp teeth that proceeded to chase after them (had they looked again, they would of seen that they were just possessed toilets). Anyone who tried to escape into the safety of the kitchen found more fire bursting from the stoves, causing them to run away.

“THIS WAS A MISTAKE!” Poopypants shrieked as he and Melvin tried to pull at some doors that refused to budge.

“Hey Little Man!” The scientist felt something crawl up on his back. He turned around to see a puppet version of Krupp with unsettlingly realistic looking eyes looming over his shoulder. “Ya’ want to play with me?!”

“NIEN!” Poopypants screamed in German and ran off as he tried to take the hideous abomination off him, but it only laughed with sadistic glee and tightened its hold on him.

“HEY DON’T RUN OFF!” Melvin screamed at Poopypants when suddenly he found himself getting hoisted into the air by something long and thick. He screamed and thrashed until suddenly he came face to face with a snake like monster that had Krupp’s head attached to it.

“Feeling like having this place all to yourself now, Sneedly?” He sneered at him. The man screamed and the snake like out a laugh as he thrashed him back and forth through the air.

“Ok that’s it, they get it!” George angrily yelled at the snake as he and Harold tried to approach him. “You can stop now!”

“Ah shut it, you two no longer have the power around here anymore!” The dead adult sneered at them, stopping them in their tracks. “Why don’t you two go to detention in the Neitherworld? You’re in for a long overdue visit!”

“Oh like heck we’ll go!” Harold yelled back, though neither he and George saw a piece of chalk draw a circled on the ground around them.

“WELL TOO BAD, YOU’RE GOING ANYWAY!” The snake snapped as the ground opened up under the boys and they were sent screaming through it as all the other guests were attacked by more supernatural elements.

“SOMEONE HELP ME!” Melvin shrieked.

“PUT HIM DOWN!” The snake turned his head around to see Erica with Esme standing right behind her. The latter looked like she was going to faint and she stammered out prayers in Spanish, but the other just stared at the abomination before her in disbelief.

“Yeah, no.” She shook her head as Melvin screamed. Not satisfied with her reaction, the snake threw Melvin into Erica and grinned as the man screamed the whole way until he crashed into her.

The pandemonium grew worse as everyone found themselves getting chased down or screaming for their lives as things latched onto them, yet the only one who stayed calm was Edith who found herself not horrified. There was a strange, oddly enjoyable catharsis in seeing most of these people finally taken down several pegs.

“And now I’d like to play a little game I call–RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!” Her diabolical assistant’s voice boomed over them all.

She watched as all the creatures and all the fire chased the others out through the doors–none of them ever realizing she wasn’t among them–and they slammed shut behind them, causing everything to vanish and for the silence to fall as everything returned to normal as if nothing ever happened.

“They’re gone.” Edith’s stunned voice broke the silence. Realization kicked in. “You  made them leave the school. You made them listen to me!” She let out an amazed laugh as Krupp–back in his ‘normal’ appearance–walked up to her with a pleased grin.

Seeing her smile–knowing that he made her happy–delighted him (and made him feel a little strange, but in a good way). “Yup! Looks like we aren’t invisible anymore!” He declared and hung an arm around her shoulders.

And that’s it–just something I felt like working at once in awhile.

[makeroomforthejolyghost]

proust’s narrator also contrasts the conversation of bergotte (the writer friend his description of whom i quoted in the last post) with that of his dad’s friend norpois:

I let myself go in telling him what my impressions [of a recent performance of Phèdre] had been. Often Bergotte disagreed, but he allowed me to go on talking. I told him that I had liked the green light which was turned on when Phèdre raised her arm. “Ah! the designer will be glad to hear that; he’s a real artist, and I shall tell him you liked it, because he is very proud of that effect. I must say, myself, that I don’t care for it much, it bathes everything in a sort of sea-green glow, little Phèdre standing there looks too much like a branch of coral on the floor of an aquarium. ... [A]fter all Racine isn’t telling us a story about love among the sea-urchins. Still, it’s what my friend wanted, and it’s very well done, right or wrong, and really quite pretty.” ... And when Bergotte’s opinion was thus contrary to mine, he in no way reduced me to silence, to the impossibility of framing any reply, as M. de Norpois would have done. This does not prove that Bergotte’s opinions were less valid than the Ambassador’s; far from it. ... It is to ideas which are not, strictly speaking, ideas at all, to ideas which, based on nothing, can find no foothold, no fraternal echo in the mind of the adversary, that the latter, grappling as it were with thin air, can find no word to say in answer. The arguments of M. de Norpois (in the matter of art) were unanswerable simply because they were devoid of reality. (2.185-6)

norpois is a career diplomat; the narrator’s other big implicit criticism of him is that he talks about everything the way he talks about politics--namely, like this:

M. de Norpois entertained us with a number of the stories with which he was in the habit of regaling his diplomatic colleagues, quoting now some ludicrous period uttered by a politician notorious for long sentences packed with incoherent images, now some lapidary epigram of a diplomat sparkling with Attic salt. But, to tell the truth, the criterion which for him set the two kinds of sentence apart in no way resembled that which I was in the habit of applying to literature. Most of the finer shades escaped me; the words which he recited with derision seemed to me not to differ very greatly from those which he found remarkable. ... All that I grasped was that to repeat what everybody else was thinking was, in politics, the mark not of an inferior but of a superior mind. (40)

so basically the reverse of how bergotte talks. Good Politics Talk rephrases a familiar maxim or demand in a persuasive way; Good Art Talk shows us reality from a new angle. when i put it that way these seem really similar? but i think this is behind the difference the narrator perceives btwn disagreeing with bergotte and disagreeing with norpois. like: the goal of political argument is either a. for your opponent to endorse your view instead of the one they held previously and/or b. to show those on your own side that you agree with and understand their opinion. so, unanswerable is good; making all other ways of seeing the issue look stupid is kind of the goal. (is this why slogans often posit oughts as ises? “gay rights are civil rights”--not “should be considered.” or like, “black lives matter,” instead of, “american cops need to stop killing black civilians.” stating an obvious fact in order to imply an imperative.) whereas bergotte wants to enable his interlocutors to understand and acknowledge the validity of his view also--not instead.

i think this is why i feel uncomfortable around people who talk about politics a lot. ime, the habit bleeds into how they talk about other things too. like the way norpois talks about bergotte’s work. he begins by saying to the narrator’s parents, “I do not share your son’s point of view”--meaning his admiration of bergotte. but the I statement is... kinda fake? he goes on,

“Bergotte is what I call a flute-player: one must admit that he plays very agreeably, although with a great deal of mannerism, of affectation. But when all is said, there’s no more to it than that, and that is not much. ... At a time like the present, ... you will allow me to suggest that one is entitled to ask that a writer should be something more than a clever fellow who lulls us into forgetting, amid otiose and byzantine discussions of the merits of pure form, that we may be overwhelmed at any moment by a double tide of barbarians, those from without and those from within our borders. I am aware that this is to blaspheme against the sacrosanct school of what these gentlemen term ‘Art for Art’s sake,’ but at this period of history there are tasks more urgent than the manipulation of words in a harmonious manner.” (61)

notice the passive tense, the pleas of objectivity, the way he has to turn his personal dislike into an argument as to why we should disapprove. you can’t frame an effective counterargument to this? all you can say is “yeah well i like art for art’s sake,” or, worse, “actually bergotte has an important social message about x.” either you agree to disagree (which ends the conversation) or you’re reduced to arguing that the thing you like is important, quite possibly for reasons that have little to do with what you like about it. (n.b. the narrator, who at this point knows bergotte only from his books, originally brought him up in hopes of learning more about him from someone who’s met him in person--not of learning merely norpois’ opinion of him.)

...of course i’m not saying art shouldn’t be political, lmao--and neither is proust, who, for example, goes on a lot of long digressions later in these books about why anti-semitism and homophobia are bad. i just really like his argument that art-motivated eloquence and politics-motivated eloquence have different interests, and different effects on conversation. it helps me understand why i get so frustrated in classes when people spend the whole discussion time trying to persuade each other that x character is or isn’t evil

[the-stick-scribblers]

The Womb

Crime is up five hundred percent since the Academy opened The Womb.

Twenty years ago, some newish academics who were still in their first century and therefore still hopeful, published a groundbreaking study on crime. They said the problem was simple: people committed crimes because somewhere in their past or current reality, they lacked security and love. Becoming a criminal was simply a call for help, too late. That part wasn't groundbreaking, but it bore repeating (and repeating, and repeating - hit the boring nail on the head, they did). Here's the important bit: they then asked what would happen if criminals could return to their childhoods and start from scratch, supported by the state? The ultimate rehabilitation program? 

Instead of prisons, they imagined a system of homes with specially trained and vetted "parents" to provide love; instead of cells, there would be small rooms they called nurseries filled with safely approved enrichment toys and lots of soft things for squeezing; there would still be community service opportunities and classes and career preparation, but capital punishment was firmly nixed.

It hinged on some pretty wild de-aging technology, but once they'd made the proposal it was only a couple of years before the tech caught up and then it was all hands-on deck "for the future of all children" and other such meaningless shit. There were some modifications - the cells are simply called rooms instead of nurseries, for example - but when they rolled out The Womb it was pretty much as presented.

Let's say you commit a crime. It's a little one, like maybe you didn't pay a traffic ticket, or some dick egged your apartment and you told them where they could shove it in front of the wrong soccer mom. The judge says hey, okay, that wasn't very good. But it was probably just a little lesson you forgot to learn along the way that led you to your Mistake, so you're sentenced to be de-aged a year and you're given a counselor who's supposed to help guide you onto a better path this time around.

But let's say the crime is bigger. You threw a major party and then drove drunk and high on heroin and ran over someone's dog. You commit armed robbery. Someone got seriously hurt, repeatedly. A guidance counselor for a year isn't going to cut it, so that's when the jury steps in and tries to figure out where your life went wrong. Was it at sixteen the first time you shoplifted and got away with it? At ten, when your teacher told you your work would never be any good? At eight, when your mom started working three jobs because she was suddenly raising you alone? And then you get zapped back to the pivotal age and placed in The Womb so you can be Reborn.

Somehow in all their planning the academics and the politicians forgot to bank on the allure of avoiding all those five hundred-year-old wrinkles and arthritis for a couple hundred extra years. Most people when they hit four hundred rob a bank at fake-gunpoint. That's the biggest crime that's least likely to get them killed rather than de-aged. That, or they get involved in some sort of tax fraud scheme. What's losing access to a couple million when you're going to die soon anyway? A second chance at life has got to be worth at least that.

The worst offenders get de-aged all the way back to babies, but that doesn't happen very often. It can seriously shorten your life if you end up a repeat offender, and anyway raising babies is more resource-intensive than the other kids. You have to kill a whole lot of people in a whole lot of lives to make it worth the parents' time.

The years you de-age get borrowed off the end of your life. As long as you avoid any more Mistakes, you get those years back and get to live out your original life span in full, with the bonus of a second childhood thrown in. But if you make another Mistake, you lose them forever, and have to live with it. That's how come I've only got two years left to take over the world.

I have been twelve years-old seven times. The last time I was Reborn, I'd made it all the way to age three hundred and fifty before I made another Mistake.

"You gonna eat that?"

We Reborn may have to use our manners, but for some reason the Womb Workers are exempt.

I sit up straight, elbows off the table, and look at my pudding. "My spoon is dirty."

They pick up the spoon, squint at it, rub it on their apron, then return it to the table. "You going to eat that now?"

The pudding looks delicious, actually, full of real chocolate shavings and cherry jam and cream liquor. If I let myself look at it any longer, I might cave. So I look at the Worker instead. They look like they could use some prune juice.

"This spoon is dirty. I would like a new spoon." 

The Worker opens their mouth, probably to tell me where I can shove the spoon, when Ren interrupts in a tiny voice, "You've got to say please."

This is Ren's second time Reborn. She's six years old now. When she was twenty-one she was sent back for planting an eco-bomb, and for again stealing an entire corporate farm when she was ninety. She's got an impressive file; we could be a good team eventually. I like her. But, regretfully, I no longer have the time.

"Please," I say, and smile real sweet.

The Worker takes the spoon from my hand with a measured precision that means they would much rather stab me with it, and give a little bow.

"Tell Jeremy he needs to pay more attention; the spoon was dirty!" I holler after them after they've passed into the kitchen, to everyone else at the table's disapproval.

Because this is my seventh time in The Womb, I've been placed in a high-security house, with experienced Grandparents rather than normal Parents and bars on all the windows under the cheerful blue and yellow curtains. I've also only got five siblings rather than the usual nine; Ren is the littlest, and Matthew is the oldest at seventeen. The rest of us hover around the dining room table in the throws of those terrible years right on the cusp of puberty, and we've all got the lanky self-awareness to match. Really, the jury should have forgiven me the second they realized my pivotal moment was at twelve, or at least written me off as a lost cause. What preteen doesn't want to take over the world? How was living through that desire again and again supposed to make me desire it any less? But we've established the establishment isn't very smart about the details of redemption. They just want to Save the Children, or at least look enough like they are to appeal to the constituents a couple times a year. Statistics to the contrary are handily swept aside as anti-love.

Everyone here has taken a wood chipper to someone else's moral fabric, most more than once. Even the Grandparents have been Reborn once each, although they won't tell me how come. Just that it's part of the job requirement, so they can relate to where we're at on our journeys or something disgustingly syrupy like that. I'll miss them the least.

The Womb Worker reappears at my left elbow. Another little bow, definitely sarcastic this time, and then they hold out a silvered fork. "Jeremy says all the spoons are dirty, but he offered an extra fork. The pudding is thick; this should serve just as well."

Finally. I accept the fork and dig in with an admirably restrained glee, I think. The pudding tastes sweeter knowing that it will be my last meal in this place.

Jeremy is old hat, been with the place since it opened basically, and is the only Worker authorized to visit every Home because he's worked his way up from day cook to Head of the Households. The first time I met him (on accident, during a poorly planned slip during my first sentence, involving a new bouquet of flowers every day until the home was buried in chrysanthemums and little baby's daisies and Womb Workers had to come and confiscate them all) he told me about his First Home, in Libya. It's taboo to talk about First Homes, not because it's illegal or anything or even really frowned upon. It just makes people sad. But Jeremy smiled as he told me about the fried dates and bsisa, the ironic wetlands and sprawling steppes and the big sky full of birds over everything all the time, the migrations. About the little lizards, the way they sashayed when he chased them down the streets. He made me forget almost everything and believe I'd grown up in Libya too. I volunteered for kitchen duty every night after in hopes he'd be that night's cook.

He climbed the ladder and I followed behind him to each new role, begging for stories about Libya, and about The Womb too, since he knows everything there is to know about it. Including, of course, how to get out. It wasn't hard to bribe him. Just two more rebirths of a little bit of smiling, a little bit of begging, and I've now had six life cycles to practice my hand at money laundering. Jeremy is four hundred and ninety-five this year. It's time for him to bail.

The pudding is gone too soon, and I lick my lips and immediately wish I had some Vasoline. They’re dry, and they sting. "I'm not feeling well. May I please be excused?"

Ren's tiny face looks doubtful and a couple of the other kids look intrigued, but Grandnanna is a warm, benevolent rock. "Do you need me to grab a basket?"

"I don't think so. I think I just need to lie down."

"Let me feel your head."

"It's my stomach," I protest, but go to her nonetheless. I'm up from the table, which means I'm almost in the clear.

She puts the back of her hand against my forehead and cheeks, then turns to rattle in the credenza behind her seat at the head of the table. "Richard, can you grab me the thermometer please? I forgot I moved it to the study when that cough went around last month."

"I'm kind of dizzy. I just want to lie down." I cross my arms and hunch my shoulders and do my best to turn excitement into flush agitation. Grandnanna (what a laugh; she's younger than me by a century, at least) purses her lips.

Then she steps back, and sighs. Good for her – she’s learned how to pick her battles. Probably why she’s still only been reborn once. "Grab a clean towel from the cupboard on your way up."

I finished my part of our plan this morning - digging out each of the security features in the home and bypassing them with a wire or a code I custom-wrote before my latest de-age debacle. The bars are just a formality now. But that's the most I could do on my own. It was up to Jeremy to arrange the rest - reaching out to my old contacts, setting up the weekend lecture series, making sure the Grandparents are out, finding a Sitter with enough moral ambiguity to agree to pack their overnight stuff in over-large luggage and to not ask questions. It was a lot of work, and he hasn’t said it but he’s going to negotiate for a better cut once we're free and clear. At least fifty percent. That's a cliché, but it’s fine. I can do those too. Not everyone makes it to five hundred. There won't be any questions when he’s never heard from again.

The corridor to my room is lined with photos doctored to look original, of the seven of us in this home, and each door has an initial painted in well-meaning green that comes off as military in the dim light. I dutifully grab a towel from the closet and go to my room, draping the towel over my pillow and curling up under the fluffy comforter. Once I bust out there will be no niceties, at least for a couple of months. Definitely no pudding. I close my eyes and sink into the bed. I dream myself a feast.

~D.E. Scevers

[openamenta]

a summary of in color, by lintamande

{I have trouble reading long things where I don’t know what will happen. @theunitofcaring, who is great, wrote this summary of in color. I appreciate it a lot and would like it to be available to more people who might have my or other things} ((edited by Alicorn to have paragraphs and a cut and fix a couple small errors))

In Anitam, a medium-sized country in Amenta with patrilineal caste inheritance, Afen (a Fëanor), son of a powerful politician, chafes at being blue instead of green like his dead mother. He runs away from home and bluffs his way into a green university. He’s good at it. Between his obvious suitedness and his powerful friends, no one wants the fuss that’d go with prosecuting him; he gets several degrees and a tenure-track job, marries green and buys green credits for his kids.

His firstborn is Aitim (a Maitimo), about as miserable green as his father was blue. Aitim starts maneuvering to get acknowledged as blue very nearly as soon as he can walk, pulls this off again partially on his own merits and partially with his grandfather indulgently pulling strings. He is very quiet about his unusual background, though everyone important knows it, and starts training for national political office with a impressive diplomatic career. His secondborn is Makel (a Macalaurë), who becomes a phenomenally successful pop star, tours internationally, makes millions, buys his parents more child credits, and goes around being somewhat careless with his wealth and extremely careful with his image. He’s the best and he knows it.  Third one is Telkam (a Tyelcormo). He’s dyslexic and not particularly good at any green skills and becomes an actor in low-budget action thrillers. He’s depressed and insecure and spends a lot of time pretending to be anyone at all but the disappointing son of an extraordinary family. At story’s start he is sleeping with his stunt coach, dyeing his hair grey, and mostly out of touch with his family. 

3422

A blue in Voa (the second-largest country in the world, a major food exporter) arranges for all of the nation’s food distribution to pass through red hands. He does this in the hopes that everyone’ll get over their fear of pollution and be able to integrate with reds. It doesn’t happen like that; people go hungry, make themselves ill with disgust, spend all their time showering. Even worse, all of the countries to which Voa exports food declare war on Voa for poisoning their food supply. The objective of the war is to conquer a bunch of Voa’s farmland and use it to produce food themselves, so they can be independently food-secure. 

Telkam’s boyfriend enlists, and coaxes Telkam into enlisting also. Anitam joins the war. Telkam learns Tapap from the Tapai soldiers they’re serving alongside, and teaches his father back at home. Camped out during a ceasefire, Telkam hears a girl sobbing on the phone and begging her mother to steal money for something. He goes over to be nosy.  The girl is Peka (a Rebecca), a Tapai red enlisted alongside the unit to handle the dead. She enlisted because her family is leasing a child credit for her daughter Katin, and if they fail to pay it off then Tapa will euthanize Katin. She’s terrified the war will end and they won’t be able to make the payments. Katin was unplanned; the father was an orange boy who raped Peka. 

After trying unsuccessfully to get Makel’s secretary to give him the money to pay off Katin’s credit, Telkam suggests Peka bleach her hair and come back to Anitam with him, where he will get Aitim to give her citizenship papers. Peka, once she realizes he’s serious, agrees to this. (This is several capital crimes at once; desertion, pollution violations, disguising oneself while red). Peka and baby Katin (who doesn’t need to dye her hair, it’s naturally orange) get smuggled into Anitam under cover of a concert by Makel for the troops. Telkam does not tell his family that they’re red, just that they’re illegal immigrants.

Elsewhere the nation of Orvara runs a pilot program in which purples do red jobs and decontaminate afterwards, in a rotation so none of them get irrevocably unclean. Reds are driven out of the city where the pilot program occurs and left to die. This pilot program of Orvara’s is greeted by enthusiasm internationally; everyone wants to be rid of their reds. A peace agreement is reached in the war.  Peka starts doing sex work (which is grey in Anitam) out of Telkam’s apartment. She also hits it off with Makel, because she’s an enthusiastic fan of his and has a great singing voice and musical ear herself. He invites her to his recording studio and eventually asks her out; they start dating.

With Peka’s suggestions Aitim starts a program to reach out to Anitam’s reds and improve their living conditions. His cousin Isel (an Aredhel) spearheads it, and tries with very limited success to get cops prosecuted for murdering reds unprovoked and so on.  Peka and Makel’s relationship gets serious; they start discussing marriage. Peka deflects; she’s scared the kids would have red hair and give her away. Katin gets settled at an orange school learning to become a daycare worker and is very happy.

Winter comes. There’s a blizzard. Lots of reds are stranded unable to get back to their districts; most of them freeze to death. Aitim hears about a couple and invites them into his office to not freeze; he is discomfited by being confronted with how terrified reds are of everyone else. He’s more discomfited when Isel shows up and the reds know her and adore her, just because she occasionally gave half a shit about horrible injustices.

Elsewhere the blizzard strands Peka at Makel’s without her hair dye; she tries to dye it with not-intended-for-hair bleach in the middle of the night, gives herself a chemical burn. Makel figures out she’s red, yells at her that he thought he loved her and runs off to have a breakdown in the shower. Peka tries to convince him not to have Katin killed/packed off to the red district and then curls up in the bathroom crying. Eventually he pulls himself together and comes back to inform her that he’s not going to have her killed. Things are awkward. He calls Telkam to complain about Telkam not telling him. They have an argument. He apologizes to Peka. Things remain awkward.  He decides that he still loves her and will keep the secret.  —– It’s

3423

. Orvara, happy with the results of their trial program, expels the reds from the rest of their cities and switches over to using rotating purples for red tasks. The reds mostly flee to an abandoned mining town in the mountains, where they slowly starve to death. Isel and her family lobby to get some of them imported to Anitam. It’s a politically costly and protracted fight, because Anitam pretty much never takes immigrants, but they get a few visas. They go out to the abandoned mining town to let the reds know. Isel asks Telkam to come as security (because she thinks actual greys might hurt the reds) and Telkam recommends Peka.

A few of Orvara’s reds come back to Anitam. One of the reds is a very premature and very sick newborn baby with purple hair; Telkam grabs the kid and shows up at a hospital in Anitam claiming it’s his by a purple mother, gets the kid medical treatment, and adopts him. His name is Ladah.

Makel and Peka talk about getting married. Summer arrives. In the southern hemisphere, the nation of Biyan issues their reds no child credits. The reds panic, successfully burn down one city’s blue district and are killed attempting the same thing across the country, and balk en masse at teaching their replacements to do their jobs. Biyan takes hostage (and tortures, though this is barely hinted at in the text) all the red children to have leverage to force the reds to do what they’re told. The Anitami government can not be persuaded to object to this beyond writing a disapproving letter.  A Biyan red gets a gun somehow, breaks into where the kids are being kept, and shoots them all, then herself. There’s a mass suicide (with probably some murder of recalcitrant participants) of all Biyan’s reds. Biyan has no way to do anything about pollution and scrambles frantically.

Makel and Peka get engaged and have a very fancy wedding optimized for the money they can make selling picture to tabloids; they are worried they’ll need it with current events going the way they’re going. They’d been planning a baby in the spring but put it off in light of the international situation. Aitim hears that Evalee and Cene are contemplating doing a transition to purples also. Telkam asks him this and he tells him.

Telkam gets a job in a gun shop and starts buying weapons out of their inventory. He goes to Evalee. He leaves working pocket everythings with messages for the local reds in the trash, coordinates to leave them guns and explosives in the trash, does that. The reds shoot all the Evaleen purples training to replace them and start taking out blue politicians as well. Evalee scrambles to figure out who gave the reds guns but can’t find anything because they’re not checking the garbage. Evalee cuts off food to its red districts. Telkam enlists help from his father in deleting Evaleen government training videos for replacement purples. Evalee limps along by feeding only the reds who show up for work and only when they show for work. Everybody else, seeing what a mess this is, declines to go ahead with it themselves.

When Peka and Makel get back from their honeymoon Peka’s sister is waiting for her. Inspired by Peka’s success she pretended to be grey and snuck out also.

Nertel writes a paper proposing a procedure by which reds could be made clean. It takes six months and involves chemotherapy and blood transfusions and bone marrow transplants. —–

3424: 

With an alternative to ‘sit around waiting for the reds to all die’ in hand, everyone desperately tries to convince Telkam to return home before he’s caught. (Evalee is looking really hard for him, but they don’t have a good way to check the garbage.) Telkam agrees, throws out all of the food in all of the apartments in his building so the reds have something to eat, and goes home in time for clinical trials of the reds-cleaning thing.

Three reds go through it. Isel gets them jobs working in her vacation home. The neighbors are unhappy and skittish around them.  Politicians try to get Evalee to back down on starving its reds. Evalee doesn’t back down. Biyan flounders, having no reds to do red work, and international sanctions are imposed because of their pollution problem. No one else tries it.

Kantil (fourth son of Afen and Nertel’s, a caste-abolitionist economist) decides that he wants to marry a purple business owner because he’s really into the skills involved in business ownership. He gets a meeting with Isama, the CEO of Amentan!IKEA (called Assemble), asks her tons of questions about the regulatory environment and how she got her company working, decides he’s in love, and asks her out. Together they lobby the government to have better worker protection laws; she knows what’s needed and he knows how to phrase things so blues will listen.

Makel and Peka tell Katin, now a teenager, Peka’s backstory (which implies that Katin, too, is red). She’s deeply upset and spends a lot of time showering but keeps it secret.

At a family dinner Isama hears about the red decontamination thing, and is very unimpressed that Anitam is planning to let the reds turn purple, which she thinks reflects an attitude that purples are just your dumping ground for people who aren’t good at anything else. Aitim thinks this is reasonable and they start pushing to let ex-reds match into whichever caste matches what they did when they were red. They get a batch with some prospective yellows and oranges and greens.

Aitim, Kan, and Isel decide to set up a red with their cousin Inlad, who is well-intentioned but a bit clueless and condescending and has an absolute fascination with the plight of Oppressed Peoples. The reds produce a candidate who wants to become a blue and is willing to put up with all the weird fetishizing required. Her name is Shasali and she’s a community organizer for the reds - coordinates work schedules and riots and stuff, though she doesn’t advertise the latter. She goes through decontamination, gets set up as an intern to a judge in yellow criminal, deals with vague hostility and a lot of skepticism, and marries Inlad in the fall (they want a baby in the spring, to cement the thing as soon as possible.)

Kantil and Isama also get married.  Makel and Peka, Kantil and Isama, and Inlad and Shasali all buy credits for the spring. 

3425:

Persons with credits get pregnant. Shasali’s a star judicial intern and after three seasons gets promoted to a judge in yellow criminal. Babies are born and much doted on. Makel and Peka’s daughter Ana is born with red hair; they pretend she has immunodeficiency problems which prevent visitors until she’s old enough to hold still while they bleach it.

Aitim pulls strings to get some blue-involved financial fraud and embezzling cases to come up on Shasali’s docket in yellow criminal; Shasali then takes bribes to drop the cases in the form of support for red decontamination. Someone accuses Aitim of doing this but there is of course not the slightest of evidence.  Anitami reds aggressively organize themselves to make the decontamination thing a success. They push through people who’ll be great candidates for clean castes first, monitor each other to avoid anyone getting in trouble, do all their work promptly, and raise money to pay for more decontaminations (which are still being funded through private charity).

Evalee is trying to arrange to hire Orvaran purple plumbers and sanitation workers to train their purples so they can replace their reds. Isel frantically tries to figure out how to prevent this from happening. Eventually, in desperation, she goes to Telkam, who is vague about whether he might be able to do anything but requests a lot of money.

One of the ex-red purples confides in a coworker, who murders her and then immediately calls the police to report a pollution violation. The Anitami courts initially shrug. Shasali panics; she and her husband hire private security but aren’t sure those will protect them either. Appropriate pressure is brought to bear and the Anitami courts execute the murderer, albeit with a little bit of ‘not that we don’t see where he was coming from’.

Telkam goes to Makel and asks that Makel do an impromptu foreign tour through a list of countries where he wants to establish contact with the local reds the same way he did it in Evalee, by leaving working computers in the garbage and trusting the reds to sometimes salvage them, finding a message with an email address. Makel discusses this with his wife and goes ahead and does it.  Telkam leaves the pocket everythings around and gets directed to an out-of-date wiki for a unpopular TV show. In the talk pages of the wiki there’s discussion and coordination of how reds can survive events. They contemplate various forms of terrorism to prevent Evalee from moving ahead with the transition. The possibility of taking blue children hostage is discussed. Telkam calls Isel to indirectly ask for information about which Evalee blues could back down if they saw fit. Isel asks Aitim and reports to Telkam. Telkam posts the information.

Evalee reds take six uncannily well-chosen blue babies hostage, dye their hair red and keep them among the rest of the Evalee reds. They demand their government pay for decontamination and safe passage to Anitam.  Anitam doesn’t want insane murderous hostage-taking reds; the demand actually fractures the tentative coalition in favor of decontaminating Anitami reds, who have not been involved in any recent riots or troublemaking. Evalee asks for Anitam to pretend to take the deal and then shoot the reds once the hostages have been safely returned. Anitam considers it.  With much frantic scrambling from politicians Anitam rejects that plan and says they’ll take the reds for an exorbitant decontamination fee if there’s somewhere to send them afterwards, maybe Evalee should buy up some rainforest.

Under lots of pressure from their upset blues, Evalee buys some rainforest, going deep into debt to any country who will loan them money. Anitam accepts the reds for decontamination. The blue toddlers are returned home. The reds expect to be murdered at that point; they aren’t. Anitam diligently chemotherapy-and-bone marrow-and-blood-transfusions them.  Kantil starts figuring out a structure for trade deals and so on for the new country; Isama makes plans to open a factory there. They send stuff to the reds, who change it around mostly because they want ownership of the situation themselves.  Evalee is openly planning to bomb the rainforest once the reds are there. Isel sells off most of her assets in order to fund vacations to the rainforest for tons and tons of Anitami greens to ‘study the process of a new country being founded’ and serve as human shields. —–

3426 

- Tapa sends Anitam a trial batch of Tapa reds to decontaminate. Biyan continues to flounder. Isama opens a factory in Miolee. Anitami greens parade around being human shields. An Anitami ex-red murders the police officer who killed her brother. She is executed. There is now a significant population of ex-reds raising money for more decontaminations.

A boat of Orvaran reds, who have somehow survived since their expulsion a few years back and were now trying to get to Miolee, wash up in Calado. Isel throws herself into trying to convince Calado to send them over to Miolee, which will decontaminate them. She sells the rest of her assets to buy Miolee a decontamination facility with adequate procedures and Anitami supervision. Eventually Calado agrees to send the reds over; Miolee retrieves them. Makel and Peka talk and decide to get Peka, Katin, and baby Ana decontaminated in the Mioleen facility in the winter, just in case this helps convince anyone not to execute them should the truth come out.

A Tapai ex-red is viciously assaulted by a grey who notices his roots showing; the grey gets a minor ticket for damaging the window he smashed the red’s head through. Anitam tried to persuade Tapa to actually prosecute crimes against ex-reds, but Tapa thinks this is absurd. Grey stalks and attempts to murder another ex-red in her home; she fights back, he dies, and she’s arrested for murder. Anitam protests. She’s acquitted of murder but convicted of improper use of lethal force in self-defense, and the grey’s families retaliate by burning down an entire red district and killing everyone in it. Tapa is worried that reds will riot over this; they cut their reds off from the internet, shuffle them around to make it harder for them to coordinate riots, and impose stringent security and curfews.  Peka is worried about her family; Makel schedules a tour in Tapa and she goes, waits for the garbage crew after a concert, contacts old friends, and confirms that her family is still alive but terrified. She and Makel agonize over whether there’s any way to get Peka’s little brother out. They can’t come up with anything.

Cene conquers Biyan. This is by international norms perfectly reasonable (Biyan wasn’t managing their pollution) and everyone acknowledges the new government.  Winter comes around. Peka and her children go off to get decontaminated. Makel sends the family photoshopped images of them all on a beach vacation elsewhere and frets. —–

3427

- A blue political intern working on gun control policy stumbles across evidence that Telkam gave the Evaleen reds their weapons. He decides to use this to blackmail Aitim. Aitim convinces him to help cover it up (since the blackmail will be less useful if other people have it too), pays him off, and periodically does him favors.

Anitam finishes transitioning away from reds. Ex-reds still do the red jobs, but now just decontaminate at the end of a shift, like the Orvaran approach. Makel and Peka have another baby, Elemi.This one thankfully has green hair. Shasali (the ex-red blue) and Inlad and Kantil and Isama also have babies. Katin graduates from school and looks for an ex-red boyfriend since she knows she’s running some risk of a red-haired kid. She starts dating one.

That summer Aitim runs for office. He runs a highly successful series of political ads making a point of his cross-caste family and particularly his purple sister-in-law. He wins.  The country of Rivik has their reds train purples, promising to send the reds to Miolee when they’re done. Instead they murder them. This causes a little bit of international annoyance, mostly because it means no one else’s reds will trust them if they try to do the same thing. They form a coalition to threateningly imply Rivik’s leadership should retire. Rivik’s leadership instead doubles down instead. There’s a coup and they’re all shot.

One of the ex-red blues asks Isel out. She observes that she is not a very desireable blue marriage prospect because 1) some borderline-treason activities 2) flat broke 3) universally known as That Reds Person. He thinks she’s perfect and he owns the former red district, now prime downtown land. They start dating. 

3428

: Ladah has his first spring. He has bad springs. He acquires a girlfriend who is transparently using him for access to his famous family; he’s fine with that. Aitim and Kan have kids with a lesbian blue couple in a similar situation.  Tapa cleans Peka’s little brother. He goes purple and gets married to his girlfriend who also marries her girlfriend.

Katin’s ex-red boyfriend is beaten nearly to death on the street by someone who overheard a conversation and figured out he was ex-red. The judge lets her off; Aitim pulls strings and forces the culprit to at least pay his medical expenses. Katin’s boyfriend is completely baffled that Katin’s family would do that for him.

Voa starts cleaning its reds. More countries want to do the thing, but there are trust problems after what Rivik did. Miolee offers to take hostages; no one takes them up on that. Miolee offers to take money and return it when the reds arrive safely. One country has a logistics fuckup and the reds panic and a massacre ensues. Miolee doesn’t return their money. There is international brinksmanship over this. Aitim tells the ex-red Anitami ambassador to Miolee that Anitam isn’t going to back Miolee in a war. They scheme to change that. They come up with a plan for Intal Neli’s obnoxious great-granddaughter to marry an ex-red blue so he’s invested in Miolee’s continued wellbeing. Ex-red blue and obnoxious great-granddaughter hit it off. Intal Neli acquires a little bit of a monetary interest in Miolee. War is avoided.  Afen figures out a warp drive. —–

3429:

Anitam bumps credits while they secretly work on warp. Most sets of parents in the story have children. Anitam’s mysteriousness makes everyone else nervous and Anitam strategically leaks things to defuse tensions. They have a successful test and then go public with everything. Aitim uses the leverage to make malingering countries transition their reds. Amenta goes to space.

[godgiftcd-blog]

cause im a fckin Slut™ for this verse lately, here’s the full disclosure about what actually happened and how I imagined it all played out with Jean in a modern setting featuring headcanon galore and badly arrangement of how things built up as I’ve imagined in my head that may or may not have the potential to change as I go on with my portrayal of him. Of course, some aspects of this settings may be modified according to specific AUs. 

AGE 00.  Jean Kirstein was born to the Kirstein couple in Germany, and was christened by the name “Jean” which gave the meaning of “a gift from god” by his father. He was also named Jean partially because his dad was a big fan of Les Misérables, both the novel and the musical adaptation. 

AGE 02.  Jean was that fat baby (who’s hella cute) but is far too attached to his mom. Like, the kind that would cause a scene if his mom wasn’t around and is generally a difficult child to get along with. He began speaking at this age, and played a lot with his papa while the man planted away in their small garden. (His dad is a botanist.)

AGE 03.  His family moved to France, and papa got a bigger garden. His mama is probably that person who bakes a lot for the neighbours and sometimes during the holidays she made it into a business but overall they’re a very close-knit and happy family. Jean loves his omelettes, and papa tried breeding chicken for Jean but they stepped on a lot of papa’s plants and that made papa sad. Mama laughs, kisses papa’s cheeks and said it’s fine. They sold the chickens, fixed the garden and everything turned out okay.

AGE 04.  Jean started reading for papa, and he remembered being difficult and causing tantrum a lot and mama always had this pinching sort of look to her face that means she disapproved, and she yells a lot too because Jean would throw books and stuff, but papa was always patient, never yell. He would always pet Jean on the head with this small smile, says that it’s fine, it’s okay. “Jean is still a good boy,” he’d say and Jean would sniffle, calm down, watched as Mama went away with a huff and picked back up the books he threw. He read.

AGE 06. Mama said, “be good” on his first day of going to school and Jean kept bouncing up and down because school sounded so fun even though papa doesn’t talk much about it. School ended up terrible, because nobody seemed to like Jean and he came home crying lots because kids around always picked on his hair and took his bag and one day they even poured milk all over Jean’s stuff! Jean hated school, and sometimes wished — like the chickens he remembered stepping all over papa’s plants — could be sent away. Jean destroyed papa’s plants, just to see if it’ll work, and mama yelled so much and papa was so sad and Jean just didn’t stop crying and everything was so, so, so, so terrible.

AGE 07.  Jean came home and there’s a dog in the living room. Papa told him, “it’ll be okay from now on” and said the dog’s name was Javert. Javert is so silly and it drooled a lot and it pooped everywhere too, and mama made faces a lot when it did that. But one day Javert just didn’t poop anywhere like it once did and Jean was lying on the floor with him and he’s smiling a lot because Javert would bark sillily every time Jean played with his norse and mama said, “there you go, my sweet boy finally smiled” and Jean felt - better. For that moment. School still sucked, and going there was still a hassle. Most days, he just didn’t. Papa taught him most stuff, anyway. It was fine.

AGE 09. Jean took a test at this school where people kept saying how they knew Jean’s dad — “Your dad was an excellent student!” — and the school there was bigger and looked older and it smelled funny (like old books and old everything), and it turned out Jean’s a pretty smart kid, which was nice to hear, because mama seemed so proud. They said more that Jean performed just as well as his father did on the test, and they’d be excited to welcome Jean into their school from now on with a “scholarship” and Jean didn’t know what that meant, but mama said that maybe this is good. Maybe Jean can start over again, and “wouldn’t it be great, Jeanbo? You can make new friends! And studied where papa once went to.” Papa is awful quiet during the whole ordeal, and Jean didn’t really understand anything, because he didn’t think a new school would’ve made much of a difference, but he remembered how excited mama was — how hopeful — and, honestly, even at that age Jean knew he didn’t have anything to lose. So he said okay and continued to play with Javert. Life went on.

AGE 11. It didn’t get better. Turned out, people at that school didn’t like chubby kids nor students on a “scholarship” much. Said that Jean was poor, Jean was fat. Like his mama. Jean got angry a lot, the rage spilling and overflowing, and some days Jean didn’t know how to make it stop. It got much, much worse when the year was almost finished — and Jean got into trouble with these kids who kept pushing Jean around, shoving, taking his bag away, and calling mama “fat” and Jean “ugly” and Papa “retarded” and the next thing Jean knew he was caught with his body on top of the boys and his knuckles stained with blood. It wasn’t his. Jean didn’t remember much of what happened next, just that mama cried a lot and papa was quieter than usual and Jean felt like crying too but didn’t, and this kid’s father turned out to be “important” but he agreed to not press any charges as long as Jean didn’t go to that school and meet his child anymore. Papa said, “Okay.” Jean never looked at his parents the same anymore.

AGE 14.  The teacher at the public school insisted that Jean could “do better than this” in exams, but it’s whatever. Jean didn’t care, nobody does. He lost so much weight, tasted his first cigarette this year, and pierced his own ears with needles. Mama yelled some more when she found out, but Jean didn’t care. HE DOESN’T! So the old hag should just shut up and let him be. They screamed a lot, and Papa mustn’t like that very much, because whenever they do, he retreated to his garden or room — alone. It’s the first time Jean thought Papa was a coward. 

AGE 15.  Jean spent a lot of time with a street artist, Old Man Toni, who paint beautifully with anything he could touch. Old Man Toni was okay — he wasn’t rough or demanding or stupid like the group of people Jean would somehow found himself spending time with during recess or after school — and didn’t ask too much questions even though he probably should. Jean brought Old Man Toni warm bread a lot, and sometimes warm milk. He seemed to appreciate that. So much that one day he gave Jean a paper and a pencil, told, “I’ve seen the way you’ve been looking at the way I paint, Jean.” Jean learned how to sketch.

AGE 18.  Jean finished school, and signed up for the French Military Armed Force ( possibly would change it to Air Force though? ) — partially just to get away from his parents. Army was fine — difficult — but fine. Somehow, Jean never felt all that content.

AGE 23.  Due to a shoulder-chest injury that he’s sustained during his army career, Jean was honourably discharged. He was shipped back home and for the first time since years, cried when he saw mama and papa standing by the edge of his hospital bed. Almost three months later, papa accidentally brought home leaflets for colleges, told it’s a mix-up from by the mailman, probably. Jean looked up Political Major, and Mama laughed, “Finally somewhere where you can yell and people will actually hear you, Jeanbo.” Jean grinned, and signed up for it.

AGE 23, FALL.  College began, and while Jean didn’t particularly care much about what he’s going to be in the future — it was fun. The talk of assignments give him something to do, and the lecturers give him something to think about. Jean started working at a local art shop, just to make himself feel useful, and there he helped sell art supplies and art work by college students online (the art shop’s website became a platform). It was nice.

EXTRA NOTE: 

Yes, when Jean was a child, he went to a private school — but only because his father was an alumni, and his dad was this freakishly genius child who skipped like two grades or whatever. The school thought that Jean might be the same, so they were fine offering Jean a scholarship.

Jean isn’t a genius, just to make it clear, but he’s relatively smart for a kid who supposedly ditched the first years of school like, a lot. But he’s entirely logical and actually very quick in grasping stuff — so passing anything academically is generally easy for him. In later years, he just didn’t try hard enough and his academics suffered.

Jean went into Politics & Law because he likes the topic that he’s studying. He’s aware that he might never be a politician or whatever job he’s able to do with the degree. And, considering he just got wounded, his folks didn’t mind paying for it despite knowing he was just in college for the sake of just wanting the experience. In a way, everybody felt guilty that Jean never really had a good childhood and the parents weren’t able to help, as well as Jean felt guilty that he gave his mom and dad such a hard time growing up — which was why college seemed like a good thing to compensate for all of that. Jean went to school happy, and his parents didn’t have to worry as much. It works out.

Jean’s papa has high-functioning autism (which is exaggerated, I know, but I have this whole debate and argument to sort of back up why I favour this storyline which I will link later if I’m up for it) but it really means that his dad is... different, but is able to function rather well in mainstream setting as well as he’s able to fairly pick up on social cues. But, still, his dad has these characteristics — and is fairly quiet, doesn’t get mad if ever, and also doesn’t really like looking at people in the eyes and is generally a jittery person in nature (Jean inherits that). It sorta irks Jean when he’s a kid, but he’s also very used to the guy so it doesn’t really matter. What I meant to say is: this is a feature I specially headcanon for Jean and, from my point of view, it contributes partially to why Jean grew up the way he did and how he reacts to people talking about his parents now. (Again, it’s all in the argument and debate that I will hopefully link soon lol.) Still, should you disagree, I’m fine with not specifying this part of Jean’s father.

Jean doesn’t have an anger management issue. He just has a serious attitude problem (more so when he’s a kid) and a natural dickhole. The gizz of it that he’s a very blunt person and tends not filter whatever he wants to say. This doesn’t always make him popular, which he knows, and sometimes it even gets him into terrible fights. When he’s much younger, he fights dirtily and clumsily, having all of his experience of fighting limited to what he had to learn from the bullying he got. As he grew older and out of the army, his fighting became more accurate and sharp — but he tends to avoid that because sometimes overworking his muscle hurts his wounds.

Jean can’t draw all that prettily (mainly because he’s a beginner), but he has an eye for catching exquisite drawings / arts / photography. He’s very hipster-like, but not overly stylish; his clothes usually a button-up with fitting jeans and boots / or a sweater and a shirt — overall a clean and simple get-up. He has three holes for piercing on each of his ears and possibly a tattoo.

[luciusmalfov-blog]

Under the cut is my full application for Lucius, minus the ooc info!

CHARACTERS NAME:

Lucius Septimus ‘I’m a Grade A Asshole but I’m pretty chill about it’ Malfoy

SECONDARY CHOICE:

Pssh.

CHANGES:

FC change to Sam Claflin!!

THREE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE TRAITS:

good leader

Lucius is very responsible and a good planner, and due to his natural confidence he’s a really good leader. He’s good at being in control of situations and deciding which direction to take things in. This really shines through in what he’s like as a prefect.

family-oriented

This is a very deeply rooted trait for Lucius, and one that will continue to determine his steps for the rest of his life. He chooses to become a Death Eater for family (and because he agrees with the cause, of course, but if him becoming a DE would bring his family in danger he’d not do it) and turns away from the Death Eaters for family. He’s not necessarily warm to his family and won’t be warm to his family in the future, but his family is still the most important for Lucius. This family also includes people he’s not related to, like Rod.

meticulous

Lucius doesn’t do many things in an impulsive way, most steps he takes are carefully thought out. He’s a strategist, a planner, and good at looking at details and fixing them if they’re wrong. This makes him a very strong student and is someone he’s constantly growing in. He believes that it’s better to do things that will have long-term results, rather than do something that’ll only have a result for merely a moment.

entitled

Lucius was taught this trait, in a way, but he had no trouble learning it. Being raised spoiled and with the idea that he was better than most, both because of his blood status and his surname, Lucius feels entitled to many things. He’s basically a spoiled brat. Loml.

bigoted

I think this trait fits any purist, but this is a very big part of Lucius and so I am mentioning it. His bigotry is something that defines him in many ways, after all, something that motivates him to do a lot of things, like joining the Death Eaters or becoming a School Governor who tries to get Dumbledore fired like 10 times a year. What a dick, honestly.

cold

This is one of the few negative traits that Lucius does not like about himself — most others he’s okay with, or he doesn’t see a problem with, but this one he does. After all, his coldness creates distance between him and people he loves, makes it hard for him to act on his ability to care, which he DOES have. His mother hated his father’s coldness so very deeply, and he’s always carried a lot of respect for her and so he doesn’twant to be that, but he is. On the other hand, however, he knows being cold is for the best.

THREE HEADCANONS:

violin

Lucius started playing the violin when he was eight years old and still does so — it is, however, a hobby that he keeps mostly to himself. He’s not a performer, doesn’t do it for compliments or praise (unlike with many things), but does it because it relaxes him. When he’s playing, he can think more clearly and look at things from a different perspective, and sometimes thinking clearly and a new perspective are incredibly needed.

education

Lucius has always valued education very much. While he doesn’t agree with many things Hogwarts stands for and with some of the teachers at the school, he’s always been a hardworking student with a lot of interest for his subjects. He would really want to improve education, though, and would like to see Hogwarts as a school that fits his ideals more and focuses more on teaching the right kind of wizard.

Outside of Hogwarts, Lucius has always been interested in learning, too. He learned French as a child, his paternal grandfather being a frenchman who went to Beauxbatons, and he started learning Latin once he was eleven. He’s also been learning more about Dark Arts, being educated by his father on this subject and practicing with friends every now and then. Lucius was also taught many things about politics from a young age.

parents

Abraxas Malfoy is a skilled, high ranking Ministry official with many ideals and ideas, as well as a set of brains that’s hard to match. He’s strategical and cold, merciless and someone who executes plans perfectly. With high expectations and a great lack of warmth, he’s a strict parent and one who doesn’t show affection in a traditional sense, but more in one where he shares his knowledge. He’s got great plans for Lucius, wants his son to become like him and play a big role in the war that is raging on.

His mother, Hemera Malfoy néé Rowle is a socialite witch, whose love was more sincere and simple than his father’s. The woman, while a big supporter of blood purism, is a warm woman who doesn’t love widely, but does love very deeply. She’s loyal and caring, and in all honesty a goodmother.

The two never really got along, Hemera finding Abraxas too cold and Abraxas finding his wife too warm, and their marriage was a fully political one. Hemera loudly disapproved of Abraxas and the way he was raising their son – preparing him for war in a cold and strict manner – but wasn’t louder than her husband. Abraxas was never truly abusive towards Lucius, but he did view him as a thing at times, as a pawn to further his career and his own name. Lucius never really minded this much — he doesn’t like it, don’t get me wrong, and isn’t all too fond of his father, but he knows Abraxas is doing it so he can be successful, and he can hardly blame him for that, now can he?

Lucius is, however, quite fond of his mother, and holds a deep respect for her. From her, he’s gained his loyal and family-oriented nature, and he even knows how to be caring if the people around him need him to be. Because of Hemera, and how unhappy she was in her marriage, he has promised himself that he would never disregard his wife and her opinions like his father does.

She fell ill when he was thirteen and has been ill ever since, and it has been something that Lucius continues to struggle with immensely. Hemera becoming ill caused a greater wedge between his two parents, and the only times they are together is at celebrations and holidays, and only if his mother is well enough. His mother’s sister moved in with the Malfoys half a year after his mother became ill, as his father was becoming more and more absent. At this point, it still looks like Hemera won’t recover as there is no cure for her illness, and both she and Lucius know it’ll be a matter of time — and whether it’ll be months or years no one knows.

SHIPS/ANTI SHIPS:

Lucissa and chemistry!

ALLIANCE:

Purity.

Because that is what’s right: purebloods are above anyone else, especially those who are not blood traitors. Lucius believes this fully and completely, and even blindly, and is willing to enforce his beliefs very strongly. He’s willing to do it with violence, willing to do it in a more lawful way through politics —- he just wants to see the world change for the better.

He’s already involved with Death Eaters, having been there on the night Matthew McKinnon died. He doesn’t feel much remorse – it wasn’t hisstupidity that killed the kid after all – but it was a good lesson for him. In all honesty, Lucius thinks John Belfort is a tool, someone who shouldn’t be part of an organisation such as the Death Eaters if he’s going to make mistakes like those: he knows he’s better than him, knows that he thinks before he acts and watching Matthew get hit with that curse only made him realise that even more.

BIOGRAPHY:

Lucius’ parents had very little in common, except for the fact that they loved their son deeply. Even that love, however, wasn’t the same: his mother’s was unconditional and simple, his father’s more complicated. Abraxas Malfoy, after all, was a politician, and from the day Lucius was born he was seen as a pawn, a part in his great journey to make the Malfoy name even greater, and he loved the idea of Lucius more than he actually loved him. But the Malfoy heir turned out to be quite a perfect one: Lucius inherited his father’s natural charm and leadership abilities, as well as his sharp tongue and dark mind. What he didn’t anticipate, however, was that he’d inherit his mother’s loyalty and ability to care — how he has to handle these skills, he’s not quite sure yet. He’s a mix of his parents, cold and calculated as well as family-oriented and loyal, and it’s something that makes Lucius that much stronger. And so, Lucius grew up spoiled and loved, but not perfectly; he noticed the absence of love between his parents at a young age and accepted it as a fact, even though he didn’t quite understand it. He also didn’t understand his mother’s disapproval of his father – which she didn’t voice to him, of course, but which he overheard – and the way he saw Lucius. After all, Abraxas only wanted Lucius to become a great person and a respectable heir, and there was nothing wrong with that, was there? Lucius didn’t necessarily like his father either, as he was cold and distant, but he learned many important things from him and he did respect him very much for that. Lucius learned many things in his youth, was taught about history and languages and even some art — his mother introduced him to violin, an instrument he turned out to be quite good at. Because of all this, Lucius has always been quite knowledgeable and has always valued education very much, and so he was quite thrilled to be attending Hogwarts once he turned eleven. There, he was sorted into Slytherin, along with Rodolphus – who was the brother he never had, even then – and flourished into a perfect student with a bright mind. The world was changing around Lucius as he grew up, and he followed every development closely, with great interest. His father encouraged this, even letting him in on his plan to cause the minister at that time, who was muggleborn, to become unfortunately ill, which would force him to step down. Lucius greatly admired this plan and when his father succeeded and got away with it. That was when he learned that if you want to influence the world around you so that it fits your needs and views, you have to do it in a way that’s not impulsive, but thought out carefully. This was in his third year, which also was the year in which his mother fell incurably ill, causing Lucius’ aunt to move in with them, as she did have enough time to care for her, in contrast to Abraxas,  who started working more. Her illness shook Lucius, and at this point she is still suffering, and the feeling of powerlessness that it causes makes him feel more than frustrated. Lucius has been living up to his father’s dreams as he’s growing older, but not because they are his father’s, but because they have become his own. He’s thought of great plans for himself, has many ideas for his future and wants it to be filled with success, and he’s on his way there. Having been made prefect in his fifth year and receiving nothing but good grades, Lucius is close to a model student and that’s exactly the way he likes it: his plans to join the Death Eaters and contribute to the chaos in a meticulous and well-thought-out manner are kept quiet, but they are there. He knows he could do well for the cause and doesn’t plan to waste his talents. Besides, joining the ranks will keep his family safe and will put them in a good position, and that is most important to him, in the end. Lucius demands respect but doesn’t give it to most people, as he’s entitled and spoiled and thinks himself above a large amount of people. There are a few he does hold a lot of respect for, though, and he’s endlessly loyal towards them — cross them, and you cross him, and once Lucius gets angry, he doesn’t back down easily. The Malfoy heir might come off indifferent to many things, but in reality he does feel most things quite deeply: he’s simply learned how to compartmentalize his emotions perfectly and to use them to his advantage, rather than have them control him. Now in his seventh year, he’s ready to graduate and start his career (which is already looking more than promising) as well as take the Mark. He’s not questioning whether he should join the ranks, knowing that he has no choice and that even if he did, this would be the right one.

BONUS INFO!

PATRONUS:

Lucius cannot produce a Patronus — he’s not tried, either, and he’s simply not happy enough to cast one. I think it would be a fox, though! In folklore, they’re known for being tricksters and very cunning beings. They’re very devious and able to twist the truth, able to make themselves look the way they want to be seen, and I think that this is something Lucius is very good at. You see this especially if you look at how he is during Hogwarts, as a Death Eater and after the First War: during Hogwarts, he uses his charm to make himself look like a model student for teachers, hiding his dislike for them under polite smiles; during his time as a Death Eater for the first time he’s confident and shows more of his darkness and cleverness, knowing it’s acceptable and welcome there, and during his time after the First War, he pretends to be innocent, pretends to return to the ‘light side’ because he was under influence of the Imperius. He’s able to play any situation and very manipulative, and most definitely a trickster, but maybe not in the way you might expect.

BOGGART:

At this moment, Lucius is feeling quite confident and doesn’t fear much; the war is in his favour, and he knows this, and so he doesn’t fearMUCH. Irrational fears don’t fit him — he’s overly confident, arrogant, thinks himself greater than most things, and so his Boggart takes form of a very real fear: his mothers dead body. He’s dreamed about it, seen it in his mind, pictured the way she would look once the illness had completely taken over and left a shell of who she was, and it’s something he doesn’t think about too much because it takes his focus away, and thus something he suppresses.

The fact that her death is coming and that it is inevitable is something that really haunts him; Lucius wants to be in control. In control of the things around him, in control of his feelings, and this particular thing in his life is something he cannot control, something that makes him feel powerless, and his mother dying would mean the end of it all, but it’s still a day he dreads deeply.

WAND:

Elm, Dragon Heartstring, 18 inches, unyielding.

WHAT DID THEY BRING IN THEIR TRUNK TO HOGWARTS? (FAVORITE POSSESSIONS):

Music sheets & his violin.

Books on Greek mythology & wizarding history.

A ton of cash.

Bottles of liquor, namely vodka and scotch.

DID THEY BRING A FURRY FRIEND?

An owl, which he called Mercury.

CHARACTER PLAYLIST:

Clique by KANYE WEST – because it’s the most slythersquad song ever, and kanye west is someone i base lucius off of. i’m only half kidding. picture this: lucissa as kimye au.      Ain’t nobody fuckin’ with my      Clique, clique, clique, clique, clique      Ain’t nobody fresher than my motherfucking      Clique, clique, clique, clique, clique      As I look around, they don’t do it like my      Clique, clique, clique, clique, clique

Run by DAUGHTER– because it’s lucissa in the first war and post first war. look it up. you will cry.      While I powder my nose,      He will powder his guns.      And if I try to get close,      He is already gone.

RIP 2 My Youth by THE NEIGHBOURHOOD – because what is a childhood if you’ve been groomed to be a perfect heir from the day you were born?      And you can play this at my funeral      Wrap me up in Chanel inside my coffin      Might go to Hell and there ain’t no stopping      Might be a sinner and I might be a saint

Everybody Wants To Rule The World by TEARS FOR FEARS – because why wouldn’t he want to, if ambition streams through his veins and a hunger for power shines in his eyes?      It’s my own design      It’s my own remorse      Help me to decide      Help me make the most

Always Gold by RADICAL FACE – because his family is bigger than just those he shares blood with, because his brothers are the most important part of him.      We were tight knit boys      Brothers in more than name      You would kill for me      And knew that I’d do the same

ANYTHING ELSE?

His pinboard.

[thisdaynews]

Can Trump Win Governor of Louisiana?

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/can-trump-win-governor-of-louisiana/

Can Trump Win Governor of Louisiana?

Getty Images

Jessica Rosgaard is a journalist who lives in New Orleans. She covers politics at the local, state and federal level for WWNO, and is editor of Capitol Access, Louisiana’s statewide legislative report.

From their matching red ties to their matching rhetoric, President Trump and Eddie Rispone, the Republican challenger to Louisiana’s incumbent governor, John Bel Edwards, have tried to erase any distinction between them.

“You need to fire your far-left governor,” Trump told the crowd of nearly 14,000 on Thursday night in Bossier City.

“We have to fire our liberal, socialist-leaning governor, John Bel Edwards,” Rispone said when Trump gave him the microphone at the CenturyLink Center.

While it is Rispone’s name that appears on the ballot Saturday for governor of Louisiana, in many respects it is Trump’s reputation on the line, and that is by choice. Trump has injected himself into the governor’s race with unusual vigor, hoping for a state-flipping win that he can take credit for. Unseating Edwards would do a lot to erase the sting of the public impeachment hearings and the news that the incumbent Republican he had backed in the Kentucky governor’s race had earlier Thursday finally conceded defeat. “ I really need you … to send a message to the corrupt Democrats in Washington,” a somewhat subdued Trump urged the audience. “So you’ve gotta give me a big win, please. OK?”

But as voters head to the polls Saturday with the race in a virtual dead heat, the risks of Trump’s strategy to make the runoff election a referendum on his own popularity had already become apparent. Early voting turnout in key Democratic districts set records, suggesting that while Edwards has scrupulously avoided tangling with a president who won this conservative state by 20 points in 2016, Democratic voters seem well0-motivated to deliver a rebuke to Trump.

It’s even more challenging for Trump because of an awkward set of electoral facts, starting with the obvious one that Edwards, the so-called socialist Trump wants fired, is actually a deeply conservative Democrat. In fact, he’s a West Point graduate who earlier this year signed one of the nation’s most restrictive “fetal heartbeat” abortion bans, a move that angered progressive Democrats in the state but earned him some credit with conservative Republicans. Add in some Republican softening in the suburbs and a humming economy, which Trump himself praised, and that explains why Edwards approval rating is at 52 percent and his disapproval is in the 30s, more or less mirroring Trump’s own numbers in the state.

“By and large, I think Edwards’ record is an enormous help, and I think it’s why he’s doing as well as he is for a Democratic governor in a deep red state,” said Pearson Cross, associate professor of political science at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette. “His record with regard to getting Louisiana out of endless budget crises, his record in terms of criminal justice reform, giving teachers their first pay raise in years, increasing funding for early childhood education—he can point to these wins and say, ‘Look, I’m making life better for people on the ground here, I have a record.’”

Trump has tried to seize that record, specifically on the economy, for himself, but Edwards is not letting go that easily.

Earlier this month, the White House tweeted: “‘The Pelican State’ is booming—boasting its lowest unemployment rate since 2008, bringing back 5,000+ manufacturing jobs, and becoming one of our Nation’s leading states in natural gas exports!”

Edwards tweeted in reply, with only trace levels of sarcasm: “Thank you, I agree. It’s taken a lot of hard work, but we’re much better off than we were four years ago when I took office. And when I’m re-elected, we’ll keep moving our state in the right direction.”

In some respects, Edwards is the only figure in this race who seems determined to frame the race on statewide terms rather than national ones. On top of Trump’s visits (Vice President Pence came before the primary in October), the Republican National Committee this week pumped an extra million dollars into the race. The Louisiana Democratic Party is happy to do what Edwards won’t, running ads on Facebook warning voters: “If Rispone wins, Trump wins.”

***

Edwards’ strategy throughout the racehas been to rebut Trump’s acid attacks with heaping spoonfuls of Southern graciousness, at least where the president is concerned. When he was asked at a recent event what he thought of Trump’s regular forays to the state, he maintained his policy of nonaggression.

“This is the political season, and he is coming here because his party expects him to, he’s doing what’s expected of him, and its a very political trip into Louisiana,” Edwards said. “Obviously, he’s the president, he’s welcome here any time.”

And then just to remind voters how close the working relationship is with the administration, Edwards talked about the nine times he was invited to the White House to meet with Trump on issues like transportation infrastructure, the opioid epidemic and criminal justice reform.

“Edwards has been an elusive target in terms of being someone President Trump can attack,” said John Couvillon, who worked on Republican Rep. Ralph Abraham’s congressional campaigns as a pollster in 2014 and 2016. “He has totally shied away from any kind of mention about President Trump and impeachment, and he has avoided picking any overt fights with the White House.”

That goodwill is quiter a bit less evident when Edwards talks about his challenger.

On Wednesday, Edwards met with voters and artists at Studio BE, in a warehouse in New Orleans’ Bywater neighborhood. He touted his local successes: Medicaid expansion, funding for education, low unemployment. He made a point of reminding his audience about Rispone’s previous criticism of New Orleans, an anti-urban talking point that Trump has made a staple of his attacks on Democratic leaders.

“[Eddie Rispone] asked me at our one and only debate in the runoff, ‘Why do you support New Orleans which is a sanctuary city?’ And my response was, ‘that’s a stupid question,’” Edwards said. “You support New Orleans because it’s a city in Louisiana that’s incredibly important to our state.”

Orleans Parish, which went 80 percent for Clinton in 2016, is one of the four parishes where early turnout has hit record levels for a nonpresidential year. Perhaps it is a chance to exact some political retribution against Trump that has motivated those voters. Edwards, though, has stuck with a critique of Rispone that hearkens back to recent Louisiana history, not national history.

“[Eddie Rispone] is trying to nationalize this race because that’s the only shot he has,” Edwards said. “He cannot win this race based on Louisiana issues because he hasn’t demonstrated any knowledge about how state government works, he doesn’t have any vision for the state of Louisiana, and to the extent that he has spoken in any specificity about his policy proposals they sound an awful lot like warmed-over failed policies of [former Governor] Bobby Jindal that ran our state so deep into the ditch.”

That ditch included a $2 billion dollar budget deficit and cuts to higher education funding—both of which Edwards reversed in his first term. Louisiana now has a budget surplus, and education funding has been restored.

Perhaps the most significant item on Edwards’ score sheet is expanding Medicaid. After Edwards’ predecessor, Republican Governor Bobby Jindal, refused to accept the Medicaid expansion offered by the Affordable Care Act beginning in 2014, it was one of the first things Edwards did when he was sworn in to office in 2017.

“And, bang, around 480,000 people who didn’t have health insurance got it. That’s unbelievably huge, that’s over 10 percent of the state population,” said Pearson Cross. “Not to mention roughly $12 billion in federal money coming to Louisiana as a result of Medicaid expansion. It was a no-brainer. You look at, well, we had a Republican governor who didn’t do that—Bobby Jindal—you want to go back there?”

Rispone has said, if elected, he would “freeze” Medicaid enrollment—potentially affecting the coverage of seasonal or shift workers, and effectively killing the program. In Kentucky, outgoing Governor Matt Bevin also threatened to cut Medicaid expansion in the state—which would have likely cost 400,000 people access to health insurance. Democratic Governor-elect Andy Beshear has promised to protect Medicaid in Kentucky (and, like Edwards, has promised a pay raise for teachers).

The scarlet letter on Edwards’ résumé is that he’s a Democrat in the deep red South. Successful record or not, he belongs to the wrong party—something Rispone and Trump hope to capitalize on. Rispone “says he wants to do what Donald Trump has done for the nation here in Louisiana,“ Cross said, “and that’s a message that resonates.”

Rispone—like Trump—is a businessman. His engineering and construction firm has made him one of Louisiana’s wealthiest citizens. He takes every opportunity—at debates, in commercials and at campaign appearances—to remind voters that he is not a career politician.

“Rispone doesn’t have a public profile, and he’s never held public office before, so when he announced [his candidacy] and released his first set of commercials, he made it clear that he was an ardent supporter of President Trump,” said Dr. Silas Lee, professor of public policy at Xavier University of Louisiana. “And considering this is a very red state that is very conservative on many issues, that made sense.”

“To the extent that Rispone has been successful at claiming the Trump mantle,” Cross adds, “I think he will be successful with many Republican voters in Louisiana, and conservative voters and people who like Trump.”

***

In the end, the race will likely be decidedby supporters of Republican Rep. Ralph Abraham, the man who finished third in the October primary.

The final results of the October 12 primary had Edwards at 46.6 percent. Rispone, at 27.4 percent, edged out Abraham at 23.6 percent, to qualify for the runoff. Cross says those results indicate that Edwards is exceeding expectations for a Democrat in Louisiana.

“The baseline for Democrats in Louisiana, regardless of who’s running, is around 39 percent,” Cross said. “That was about what Barack Obama got; that was almost exactly what Hillary Clinton got; that’s typically what candidates get in statewide elections when you have one Republican and one Democrat.”

You could also look at those numbers and assume that, if the two Republican candidates hadn’t split the vote, one of them could have pulled 51 percent and won the election outright.

But Michael Henderson, director of LSU’s Public Policy Research Lab, says this election is not all about partisanship. “If it was, Edwards would have plummeted all the way down to about 40 percent of the vote, instead he’s still able to be in the upper 40s, so it’s within reach for him to get a win,” Henderson said. “So that appeal, that messaging that he’s doing, has worked to some extent so far. He can’t get that close to the 47 percent vote that he got in the primary without crossover support. The question is can he now build on that and get some of folks who might have voted for Abraham in the first round to switch their vote to him in the second round—and that’s a harder thing to do.”

Many of the people who voted for Abraham in the first round live in Louisiana’s 5th Congressional District. This rural district covers most of the northeastern and central portion of the state; it is also Abraham’s home district.

“In a rural district, people know their elected officials personally,” said John Couvillon. “In the case of Ralph Abraham, he was the vet who treated their animals and the doctor who treated their children,” before he became their elected representative.

The predominantly Republican district went for Trump by a margin of 29.4 points in 2016 (by comparison, Trump won Louisiana by 19.6 points), and provided a strong bloc of support for David Vitter over John Bel Edwards in the 2015 gubernatorial race.

With Abraham out of the race, the big question is: Where do his voters go? Do they go to Rispone, switch support to the conservative incumbent, or do they stay home?

That could depend on whether or not Rispone’s actions in the primary remain fresh in voters’ minds.

“There were some pretty bitter feelings between Rispone and Abraham. Many people thought that Rispone broke the Republican rule by directly attacking a fellow Republican in a race against a Democrat,” said Cross.

The political attack ads came in the weeks leading up to the primary, with Rispone trailing Abraham in the polls. Rispone painted Abraham as a liar, a Trump critic and a supporter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“If you’re attacking Ralph Abraham, the people who are his constituents are much more likely to take umbrage because they know Ralph enough to where they don’t believe for a second that he’s a Nancy Pelosi clone or he’s opposed to the president,” Couvillon said.

After the primary, Abraham quickly stepped in line and announced his support for Rispone—but he appeared with Rispone at only two campaign events: in Abraham’s hometown of Monroe with President Trump and on Thursday with most of Louisiana‘s Republican members of Congress.

“There’s the question of how much lingering resentment there is against Rispone’s attacks on Abraham,” Couvillon adds. “Rispone needs 90 percent of the Abraham vote [to beat Edwards], which is a pretty tall order.”

Meanwhile, Edwards needs only about 10-15 percent of Abraham’s voters to win reelection. Analysts don’t expect those votes to come from one specific part of the state.

“You can’t really make generalizations about which area is going to go more for Edwards,” said Cross. “I think it’s going to be an individual voter thing.”

Edwards will be looking to pick up some of those individual voters in St. Tammany Parish, a traditional Republican stronghold that sits across from New Orleans on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain where he performed well in the primary.

“The classic Republican constituency is this one that we’re seeing nationally start to shift—suburban, college-educated, middle class voters. That’s St. Tammany Parish now,” said Michael Henderson. “They’re more for Edwards than you might have guessed.”

Read More

[courtneytincher]

The Sleazeball Peddling Russian Girls to Billionaires

Photo Illustation by The Daily Beast/Photos Getty; AlamyODESSA, Ukraine—Disgust flashed across Kristina Goncharova’s delicate features when she heard the name Peter Listerman. In Odessa, Ukraine’s graceful Black Sea resort, every local fashion agency and beauty contest organizer knows Listerman, a man always looking to hire Russian and Ukrainian models for his VIP escort agencies. And to 24-year-old Goncharova, Listerman’s name brings a whole storm of associations with dubious big-money characters treating teenage girls as if they were animals at a pet store. Even back in 2016, sources familiar with the beauty business were not surprised to see a report on the New York Post’s gossipy Page Six site connecting Listerman to Jeffrey Epstein: “Instead of having his assistants troll local high schools, the billionaire money manager—and registered sex offender—is importing his playmates from Russia.” The article suggested Listerman had been seen visiting Epstein’s apartment and noted a TV interview in which Listerman said he introduced many oligarchs to Russian models, but insisted: “I’m not a pimp, just [a] matchmaker.”Now Epstein is held in a federal lockup in Manhattan, facing up to 45 years in prison for molesting and trafficking minors. And Listerman appeared to be running scared as soon as we started asking questions.Jeffrey Epstein Arrested for Sex Trafficking of MinorsEarlier this month, celebrities arrived here from all over the world for the 10th annual Odesa International Film Festival. Young Ukrainian models took part in the Fashion Weekend events, with photo shoots on the beach. And sure enough, Listerman showed up as well. We found him drinking in the company of some young women by the pool at the Palace Del Mar hotel. (He was easy to track: he kept posting bawdy videos of himself at the Del Mar or the Dacha restaurant talking about... sex.) When asked about his dealings with Epstein, Listerman tried to turn his activities into a joke:  “I invented myths and fairy tales to entertain people,” Listerman told The Daily Beast. But when pressed to explain the details about the alleged traffic of teen models, he declined to answer and subsequently blocked a reporter on his Instagram and Facebook pages.   What’s certain is that Listerman’s pursuit of potential “matchmaking” talent is notorious, and for decades the activities of Listerman, a Russian citizen, were an open book. He often bragged about his business on Russian TV, referring to the women he hooked up with rich men as “chickens” or “tyolki,” which means heifers, young cows that have never been bred. He also called women his “shaggy gold,” alluding to pubic hair.Here is how he described the type he is searching for in an interview with a Russian tabloid, Komsomolskaya Pravda, during his visit to the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk in 2009: “My Hollywood clients and oligarchs are sick of emancipated Muscovites, European and American women, who resemble robots. Everybody is sick of these evil women, they want gentle and romantic!”Russian and Ukrainian organizers of beauty contests try to distance themselves from Listerman as if from a contagious infection. Earlier this year Listerman was noticed outside the luxurious Borvikha concert hall in Moscow right before the Miss Russia 2019 beauty contest. “The scandalous matchmaker was not allowed even to cross the threshold,” Komsomolskaya Pravda reported.In the early 2000s, Moscow’s glamorous world of wild oil money embraced the cynical philosophy of “Uncle Petia,” as Listerman is sometimes called: “God created 50 percent of people who are ready to sell their guts and 50 percent of those who just pretend they cannot but secretly they are ready for anything,” he said in one of his interviews. In a 2007 movie, Gloss, by Andrei Konchalovsky, a procurer seemingly modeled on Listerman is named Petia. He checks if young women’s feet are gentle and agile enough before sending them off for consideration as mistresses for “a very serious client in Sardinia.” One of the models Petia sells to an English lord is a virgin.* * *The Beauty Queen Machine* * *For years, Tatiana Savchenko, the founder of Odessa’s first modeling school, has seen the real-life Listerman cruising for her students at fashion shows and beauty contests. “I have heard him approach women at our agency with his usual, ‘Hey, beautiful, I have a client for you!’” Savchenko told The Daily Beast. “It took a lot of work to keep him from tricking our teen models in his traps.”Goncharova, who was one of Savchenko’s students, actually trained from the time she was five to become a beauty queen. She attended ballet, singing, painting and chess classes; she learned to speak French and English, to move gracefully, and answer questions about her ambitions. In a recent interview with The Daily Beast, Goncharova said that “the world’s famous seller of young models to oligarchs”—Listerman—had been writing “What’s up, Bride-to-Be?” messages to her for years. The young model won the Miss Teen Ukraine contest in 2010 and her dream came true: she was invited to take part in Miss Teen World in Houston. That was when she received the first, “Hey, Beautiful,” message from Listerman, who wanted to meet with her. She was 14 years old. Goncharova, a tall, long-limbed Ukrainian model with big doe eyes is gentle, romantic—and horrified to hear about Epstein’s case with such details as the “orgy island” and the alleged connection to Listerman. “I had enough of a brain to turn him down when I was a minor but many girls look for a chance to meet with him, say yes to his offers, as he is paying them much more than €300 [$334], the average of what we make per day working as professional models in Europe,” she said. And Listerman is relentless. In 2016, he sent her private messages on Facebook every few months. “Hi, Mama, how is Odessa?”; “Is Leonardo DiCaprio with you now?” and then four months later: “Hi, Bride-to-Be, have you been successful?” He knew that as a beauty queen she was. In 2017 Goncharova won Miss Tourism International, a contest of models from 20 countries. But clearly Listerman had another notion of success—hooking up with someone very rich.Today, Goncharova says, she realizes that she has been surrounded with girls obsessed with dreams of American wealth and luxury since her childhood. The daughter of a model, when she came to Savchenko’s school, Savrox Models, at the age of five her first teacher was none other than Oleksandra Nikolayenko, who won Miss Ukraine in 2001.Later that same Nikolayenko met Donald Trump’s friend, casino and hotel owner Phil Ruffin. “Ukrainian models and American billionaires found their way to each other at beauty contests,” Savchenko, who had met Trump and Ruffin at several international competitions, told The Daily Beast. “Not everybody needed Listerman’s services.”Made Desperate by War, Odessa's Women Look to Model's Cinderella StorySavchenko went to the Nikolayenko-Ruffin wedding at Mar-a-Lago and remembers vividly her encounter with the future U.S. president: “Donald grabbed me by my waist and whispered compliments that made me blush.”Teenagers from poor Ukrainian regions, where five years of war and economic crises have wrought widespread devastation, imagine themselves escaping to a modeling career, maybe marrying a political leader, a rich businessman, or a foreign sugar daddy.On a recent scouting trip in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, the managing organizer of Miss Ukraine Universe, Aleksey Diveyev-Tserkovny, announced the organizers could turn any woman into a model. “When 2,000 beauties showed up, we decided to just let them quickly go past us so we could pull the most beautiful ones from the crowd,” Diveyev-Tserkovny said last week. “But there were so many beautiful girls that my head was spinning.” When asked about Listerman and Epstein, Diveyev-Tserkovny shook his head in disapproval. “To speak to me about Listerman’s hunt for girls is the same as to speak about porn films to an expert in art-house film festivals,” he said. “Listerman has been chasing me, trying to make friends for a long time, since the beauty contest we organize is No. 1 in Ukraine.” * * *The Instagram Pageant* * *Awareness of the role procurers play in Russia and Ukraine is slowly on the rise. Some young women have spoken out about sexual abuse and suffering.  But others are posting their nude and semi-nude pictures on Instagram. “I am not sure how to stop girls flocking into escort agencies—just search for love in Odessa or in Ukraine and you will see tons of young women revealing their bodies,” said Savchenko. “The number of girls interested in beauty contests is shrinking, replaced by an Instagram race for popularity.” Modeling schools organizing beauty contests check every participant’s page on social media. “We play the role of a filter: if some girl posts her nude pictures on Instagram we immediately reject her,” Savchenko added.Boris Nemtsov, the opposition politician and critic of Vladimir Putin assassinated in 2015, wrote about Listerman in his book Confession of a Rebel. Soon after Putin’s first election in 2000, Nemtsov, a Russian parliament member at the time, stayed in the same hotel as Putin and businessman Vladimir Potanin in the French ski resort of Courchevel. “We come downstairs and see around 10 long-legged girls. Potanin and I were in shock. It turns out Petia Listerman, a famous ‘promoter’ brought them.”  Nemtsov asked Listerman why he brought the women to the hotel: “But you are also men, after all,” Listerman said, assuming that explained everything.The “promoter” has bragged in multiple interviews about finding Russian model wives for big name stars, claiming soccer champion Cristiano Ronaldo and NHL star Alex Ovechkin met their spouses through him. He claimed he had a contract with Tatiana Akhmadova for half of all her divorce proceedings after introducing her to billionaire Farkhad Akhmadov. None of those claims have been substantiated in any detail.In any case, there’s more—or less—than matrimony on offer for a prospective "bride-to-be."“Listerman’s business is surely not just about marriage—we are aware that there is an international market of models supplied to escorts around casinos, yachts and resorts,” Savchenko told The Daily Beast. It’s doubtful that any of the Russians or Ukrainians that Page Six noticed around Epstein were there to be life partners.The problem of human trafficking from and through Ukraine is huge, and not limited to would-be models. According to the International Organization for Migration, 230,000 Ukrainian women, men and children have become victims since 1991. But Goncharova, for one, thinks that Ukraine’s new first lady Olena Zelenskaya could do great service leading the anti-sex-traffic campaign and increasing awareness among young people. As for Goncharova herself, after a lifetime of modeling, at 24 she is disillusioned and says she is planning to quit the business.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines

Photo Illustation by The Daily Beast/Photos Getty; AlamyODESSA, Ukraine—Disgust flashed across Kristina Goncharova’s delicate features when she heard the name Peter Listerman. In Odessa, Ukraine’s graceful Black Sea resort, every local fashion agency and beauty contest organizer knows Listerman, a man always looking to hire Russian and Ukrainian models for his VIP escort agencies. And to 24-year-old Goncharova, Listerman’s name brings a whole storm of associations with dubious big-money characters treating teenage girls as if they were animals at a pet store. Even back in 2016, sources familiar with the beauty business were not surprised to see a report on the New York Post’s gossipy Page Six site connecting Listerman to Jeffrey Epstein: “Instead of having his assistants troll local high schools, the billionaire money manager—and registered sex offender—is importing his playmates from Russia.” The article suggested Listerman had been seen visiting Epstein’s apartment and noted a TV interview in which Listerman said he introduced many oligarchs to Russian models, but insisted: “I’m not a pimp, just [a] matchmaker.”Now Epstein is held in a federal lockup in Manhattan, facing up to 45 years in prison for molesting and trafficking minors. And Listerman appeared to be running scared as soon as we started asking questions.Jeffrey Epstein Arrested for Sex Trafficking of MinorsEarlier this month, celebrities arrived here from all over the world for the 10th annual Odesa International Film Festival. Young Ukrainian models took part in the Fashion Weekend events, with photo shoots on the beach. And sure enough, Listerman showed up as well. We found him drinking in the company of some young women by the pool at the Palace Del Mar hotel. (He was easy to track: he kept posting bawdy videos of himself at the Del Mar or the Dacha restaurant talking about... sex.) When asked about his dealings with Epstein, Listerman tried to turn his activities into a joke:  “I invented myths and fairy tales to entertain people,” Listerman told The Daily Beast. But when pressed to explain the details about the alleged traffic of teen models, he declined to answer and subsequently blocked a reporter on his Instagram and Facebook pages.   What’s certain is that Listerman’s pursuit of potential “matchmaking” talent is notorious, and for decades the activities of Listerman, a Russian citizen, were an open book. He often bragged about his business on Russian TV, referring to the women he hooked up with rich men as “chickens” or “tyolki,” which means heifers, young cows that have never been bred. He also called women his “shaggy gold,” alluding to pubic hair.Here is how he described the type he is searching for in an interview with a Russian tabloid, Komsomolskaya Pravda, during his visit to the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk in 2009: “My Hollywood clients and oligarchs are sick of emancipated Muscovites, European and American women, who resemble robots. Everybody is sick of these evil women, they want gentle and romantic!”Russian and Ukrainian organizers of beauty contests try to distance themselves from Listerman as if from a contagious infection. Earlier this year Listerman was noticed outside the luxurious Borvikha concert hall in Moscow right before the Miss Russia 2019 beauty contest. “The scandalous matchmaker was not allowed even to cross the threshold,” Komsomolskaya Pravda reported.In the early 2000s, Moscow’s glamorous world of wild oil money embraced the cynical philosophy of “Uncle Petia,” as Listerman is sometimes called: “God created 50 percent of people who are ready to sell their guts and 50 percent of those who just pretend they cannot but secretly they are ready for anything,” he said in one of his interviews. In a 2007 movie, Gloss, by Andrei Konchalovsky, a procurer seemingly modeled on Listerman is named Petia. He checks if young women’s feet are gentle and agile enough before sending them off for consideration as mistresses for “a very serious client in Sardinia.” One of the models Petia sells to an English lord is a virgin.* * *The Beauty Queen Machine* * *For years, Tatiana Savchenko, the founder of Odessa’s first modeling school, has seen the real-life Listerman cruising for her students at fashion shows and beauty contests. “I have heard him approach women at our agency with his usual, ‘Hey, beautiful, I have a client for you!’” Savchenko told The Daily Beast. “It took a lot of work to keep him from tricking our teen models in his traps.”Goncharova, who was one of Savchenko’s students, actually trained from the time she was five to become a beauty queen. She attended ballet, singing, painting and chess classes; she learned to speak French and English, to move gracefully, and answer questions about her ambitions. In a recent interview with The Daily Beast, Goncharova said that “the world’s famous seller of young models to oligarchs”—Listerman—had been writing “What’s up, Bride-to-Be?” messages to her for years. The young model won the Miss Teen Ukraine contest in 2010 and her dream came true: she was invited to take part in Miss Teen World in Houston. That was when she received the first, “Hey, Beautiful,” message from Listerman, who wanted to meet with her. She was 14 years old. Goncharova, a tall, long-limbed Ukrainian model with big doe eyes is gentle, romantic—and horrified to hear about Epstein’s case with such details as the “orgy island” and the alleged connection to Listerman. “I had enough of a brain to turn him down when I was a minor but many girls look for a chance to meet with him, say yes to his offers, as he is paying them much more than €300 [$334], the average of what we make per day working as professional models in Europe,” she said. And Listerman is relentless. In 2016, he sent her private messages on Facebook every few months. “Hi, Mama, how is Odessa?”; “Is Leonardo DiCaprio with you now?” and then four months later: “Hi, Bride-to-Be, have you been successful?” He knew that as a beauty queen she was. In 2017 Goncharova won Miss Tourism International, a contest of models from 20 countries. But clearly Listerman had another notion of success—hooking up with someone very rich.Today, Goncharova says, she realizes that she has been surrounded with girls obsessed with dreams of American wealth and luxury since her childhood. The daughter of a model, when she came to Savchenko’s school, Savrox Models, at the age of five her first teacher was none other than Oleksandra Nikolayenko, who won Miss Ukraine in 2001.Later that same Nikolayenko met Donald Trump’s friend, casino and hotel owner Phil Ruffin. “Ukrainian models and American billionaires found their way to each other at beauty contests,” Savchenko, who had met Trump and Ruffin at several international competitions, told The Daily Beast. “Not everybody needed Listerman’s services.”Made Desperate by War, Odessa's Women Look to Model's Cinderella StorySavchenko went to the Nikolayenko-Ruffin wedding at Mar-a-Lago and remembers vividly her encounter with the future U.S. president: “Donald grabbed me by my waist and whispered compliments that made me blush.”Teenagers from poor Ukrainian regions, where five years of war and economic crises have wrought widespread devastation, imagine themselves escaping to a modeling career, maybe marrying a political leader, a rich businessman, or a foreign sugar daddy.On a recent scouting trip in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, the managing organizer of Miss Ukraine Universe, Aleksey Diveyev-Tserkovny, announced the organizers could turn any woman into a model. “When 2,000 beauties showed up, we decided to just let them quickly go past us so we could pull the most beautiful ones from the crowd,” Diveyev-Tserkovny said last week. “But there were so many beautiful girls that my head was spinning.” When asked about Listerman and Epstein, Diveyev-Tserkovny shook his head in disapproval. “To speak to me about Listerman’s hunt for girls is the same as to speak about porn films to an expert in art-house film festivals,” he said. “Listerman has been chasing me, trying to make friends for a long time, since the beauty contest we organize is No. 1 in Ukraine.” * * *The Instagram Pageant* * *Awareness of the role procurers play in Russia and Ukraine is slowly on the rise. Some young women have spoken out about sexual abuse and suffering.  But others are posting their nude and semi-nude pictures on Instagram. “I am not sure how to stop girls flocking into escort agencies—just search for love in Odessa or in Ukraine and you will see tons of young women revealing their bodies,” said Savchenko. “The number of girls interested in beauty contests is shrinking, replaced by an Instagram race for popularity.” Modeling schools organizing beauty contests check every participant’s page on social media. “We play the role of a filter: if some girl posts her nude pictures on Instagram we immediately reject her,” Savchenko added.Boris Nemtsov, the opposition politician and critic of Vladimir Putin assassinated in 2015, wrote about Listerman in his book Confession of a Rebel. Soon after Putin’s first election in 2000, Nemtsov, a Russian parliament member at the time, stayed in the same hotel as Putin and businessman Vladimir Potanin in the French ski resort of Courchevel. “We come downstairs and see around 10 long-legged girls. Potanin and I were in shock. It turns out Petia Listerman, a famous ‘promoter’ brought them.”  Nemtsov asked Listerman why he brought the women to the hotel: “But you are also men, after all,” Listerman said, assuming that explained everything.The “promoter” has bragged in multiple interviews about finding Russian model wives for big name stars, claiming soccer champion Cristiano Ronaldo and NHL star Alex Ovechkin met their spouses through him. He claimed he had a contract with Tatiana Akhmadova for half of all her divorce proceedings after introducing her to billionaire Farkhad Akhmadov. None of those claims have been substantiated in any detail.In any case, there’s more—or less—than matrimony on offer for a prospective "bride-to-be."“Listerman’s business is surely not just about marriage—we are aware that there is an international market of models supplied to escorts around casinos, yachts and resorts,” Savchenko told The Daily Beast. It’s doubtful that any of the Russians or Ukrainians that Page Six noticed around Epstein were there to be life partners.The problem of human trafficking from and through Ukraine is huge, and not limited to would-be models. According to the International Organization for Migration, 230,000 Ukrainian women, men and children have become victims since 1991. But Goncharova, for one, thinks that Ukraine’s new first lady Olena Zelenskaya could do great service leading the anti-sex-traffic campaign and increasing awareness among young people. As for Goncharova herself, after a lifetime of modeling, at 24 she is disillusioned and says she is planning to quit the business.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

July 29, 2019 at 10:14AM via IFTTT

[theconservativebrief]

Kanye West is an enigma — or perhaps he just wants to be perceived that way. The fact that the public can’t quite figure him out may be part of his enduring appeal. In 2004, he released his debut album, The College Dropout, and despite how many outbursts he’s made, microphones he’s commandeered, or Twitter beefs he’s started since then, Kim Kardashian’s husband remains a fixture in entertainment.

The rapper is a walking contradiction. He supports Donald Trump, a president with a long history of racial discrimination allegations. But after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, West accused President George W. Bush of not caring about black people due to the government’s slow response to the African-American communities decimated by the disaster.

Fans have marveled at the fact that the man who took on Bush is now one of Trump’s most ardent fans. And just last week, West wore a MAGA hat along with a sweater bearing the words “Colin Kaepernick,” the kneeling athlete Trump famously described as a “son of a bitch.”

Over the weekend, West broadcast his love for Trump during an appearance on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.” He not only wore a MAGA hat but also discussed why he backs the president.

“It’s so many times I talk to, like, a white person about this, and they say, ‘How could you like Trump? He’s racist,’” West said. “Well, if I was concerned about racism I would have moved out of America a long time ago.”

His comments elicited boos from the audience and disapproval from some cast members, but it’s a safe bet they won’t appreciably hurt his career. Since West sparked outrage in May for suggesting that “slavery was a choice” for African Americans, he’s been criticized, cursed out, and canceled. He sparked a similar controversy recently by tweeting that the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, should be overturned. Yet his Yeezys and music continue to sell. West announced plans to release his next album in November. In fact, West might even headline Coachella in 2019.

That his career appears to be Teflon stems from a combination of factors. Many fans are still attached to the entertainer they regard as “the old Kanye,” the one who only got political to stand up for the oppressed. Some simply regard him as a troll trying his best to be provocative; West, after all, has branded himself as an eccentric genius. And countless consumers genuinely like his clothes, shoes, and music.

I spoke with Erik Bernstein, vice president of Bernstein Crisis Management, a PR firm featured in the New York Times, USA Today, and other publications, about how West has sparked and deflected one controversy after another. Is he the rare invincible celebrity?

Kanye West performs with Lil Pump in the 44th season opener of “Saturday Night Love.” NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Nadra Nittle

How would you explain Kanye West’s enduring appeal? He’s always in the news for making some wild comment, and yet these controversies haven’t hurt his career.

Erik Bernstein

He has been in the news every single day for the last two weeks. We didn’t [recently] hear a lot about him before then. Kanye doesn’t do crazy things until he’s about to drop a new project. I think some of his behavior is more calculated than people think. I really believe he’s leaning into this for publicity. There’s a rarefied air that only major celebrities, athletes, movie stars, live in. As long as he keeps delivering his product, pretty much nothing else matters.

It’s not exactly that any publicity is good publicity. If he had something like #MeToo allegations, that would be a problem, even for Kanye. But his controversies really don’t harm his career.

Nadra Nittle

Is it surprising that his Trump support hasn’t hurt him more?

Erik Bernstein

Many of the people buying his products aren’t Trump fans, but his support is not such a big deal, given that he’s not in control of anything he’s talking about. He’s not a politician. He’s not a lawmaker. He doesn’t work with [the Trump administration] in any way to influence anything.

He’s also quite wealthy and may like the moves Trump has made politically because they tend to benefit the wealthy. His Trump support hasn’t hurt because some fans just want to know: “Where’s the album? Where are the shoes?”

Nadra Nittle

Do you think Kanye’s age has anything to do with his antics? After all, he’s 41, and rap is largely a young person’s game, unless you’re Jay-Z or Eminem. Are these controversies a way for him to stay relevant when many other rappers bow out of the industry after a certain age?

Erik Bernstein

Yes, especially when you have kids coming into rap who are 16 or 18 years old, blowing up the charts left and right. So, the level that Kanye stays in the news is impressive. He stays trending on social media. He posts videos of himself. That is far more strategic than most people think. A lot of people say Kanye is crazy, but he’s being strategic.

If Kanye were to come out in a sweater vest and quietly make a statement, people would wonder what’s wrong. Kanye was just at a college jumping on a table, talking about flying cars.

Nadra Nittle

I haven’t asked about Kanye’s marriage to Kim Kardashian. Has this union just amplified everything he does?

Erik Bernstein

Oh, 100 percent. He and his wife amplify each other’s presence on social media in particular. They’ve been extremely successful at what they do and getting in the news when they have something to push.

Kanye West with actor Adam Driver and comedian Keenan Thompson during the 44th season opener of “Saturday Night Live.” NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Nadra Nittle

People expressed shock that Kanye grabbed the microphone to discuss Trump as “SNL” ended on Saturday. But how shocking is this? How many mics has he wrangled at this point to make an outburst?

Erik Bernstein

I think one thing that’s shocking about it is that “SNL” does have a mystique about it, and there’s certain behavior that’s expected, and he broke that mold a little bit. But the cast members saying they’re so shocked are also getting publicity. I agree that I wouldn’t be so shocked if he grabbed the mic at an event I was at.

Nadra Nittle

What’s next for Kanye? Should we expect more of the same, more shenanigans right around the time he’s dropping a new album or collection of Yeezys?

Erik Bernstein

At this point, these controversies have been very effective for him. Anything he does will get news coverage, and it goes wild, and it’s free. You get the kind of publicity that you can’t buy.

The news, but shorter, delivered straight to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and European users agree to the data transfer policy. For more newsletters, check out our newsletters page.

Original Source -> How Kanye West’s brand survives his controversies, explained by a crisis PR expert

via The Conservative Brief

[theaverageotundergrad-blog]

Pop Culture Has Left us , New OTS , No Place for Politics:

83% of Millenniums in South Africa that are within 16-35 years of age have not directed their energy into engaging in Political activities outside that of voting. This study was done by AudienceNet to comprehend why Millennium South Africans are showing decreased interest in politics. I am, unfortunately, part of this 83%.

 Within my four years of studies, I have used many models to guide intervention in Occupational Therapy. Such as Bronfenbrenner and Ecological systems theories, which see political and government influence as forming a major part of the environment for an individual. If I am being entirely honest, I have never integrated this deeply unless the client’s context directly inversely impacted their intervention.

 Politics have only ever interested me when it hit close to home.  For example ; when my childhood babysitter had her informal house demolished and a flat in Cornubia taken away from her because of a tyrant who threatened her life in exchange for signing over her new residence to him. Left homeless and afraid, I felt a new found interest in politics. This time it manifested in rage. I called over 12 different people that day in futile attempts to help a woman I held as dear to me as a mother. In the end we were looping between departments all sending us on a goose chase not even trying very hard to hide the fact that this was an inside job manifested from corrupted politicians.  I finally understood what it was to be unsheltered from the political tyranny in the country. I finally understood why it was so important to play a political role, in any career.

 Before we came into MR , we were told about the protests and political instabilities noted over the last few weeks about their Housing Issue. There are a lot of untold truths about this, and as an outsider we heard both sides of the story. Until today I am unable to decide who I side with. I feel that both communities were wrong but still not truly accountable. Would you also be angry if your house was burned? If your family was threatened? If your land was taken away?

Housing; this topic is a fundamental basic need of every person that has been grossly violated for generations in South Africa.  We cannot expect people to act differently when it’s a norm to deal with political un-satisfaction in protest that so often have to turn violent to gain momentum.

 As I explained earlier, I was never one for politics. I formed part of the 83%. My political view-points were so shallow, and TBH based on my twitter feed. If the issue was not trending that I had ZERO opinion on it. In an attempt to grow as a person, I decided to leave my pop-culture teaching and learn about my role in politics.

 Well, first I listened to The Script- Hall of Fame to motivate and inspire me. Click the link so that you have some background music to set the theme for this post.

 https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/script/halloffame.html

Occupational Therapists are known for their work with the sick and disabled. Before this blog, I was uncertain about our political role and not entirely sure if I saw a personal fit between me and political driven OT. I am not often impressed by work when I feel like my efforts are futile. This is a characteristic with politics. A lack of persistence is one if my biggest weaknesses. I therefore had a glimpse at Occupational Therapy without Borders and read some of the chapters just to gain a better understanding of what I was supposed to be reflecting on.

 “For those of you who are not yet familiar with OTwB, it represents an emerging international movement of proactive occupational therapy practitioners who are committed to making our profession available as a relevant resource to the benefit of all people. This vision requires its stakeholders— educators, students, practitioners, scholars—to deeply understand the complex political nature of occupation and their engagements with the world. Politics here refers to an aspect of human occupation and human relationships that can be found everywhere, in contrast to big-P Politics, which is defined as a particular sphere of human relationships, indicated by terms such as the state, government, public administration, and political parties (Kronenberg & Pollard, 2005b). ”

 This therefore describes how politics are not only related to the government and that we as occupational therapists, are required to look at its impact even within individuals in order to ensure progression of our profession.  The borders that they describe in this article are not physical demarcations but rather borders represented by politically negotiated agreements that are man-made. An underplay occupational therapy role is not ensure that within communities you are able to play a role of advocacy , protection of ethical codes and being able to renegotiated political agreements that are unjust.

 In the Marrianridge community, unjust have extended there for over 40 years since its inception.  The occupational therapist has infiltrated this community for nearly 7 years bringing political change that the community have noted. A simple Google search of this community will show you the works that the UKZN students have accomplished over the years. We were able to put this small community on the map. We were able to stand up for them and be their voice to unjust health issues even if we just ignited their ideas.

 We sometimes see the protests and shake our head in disapproval. Why are they burning their own houses if they want houses? What we fail to understand is the history behind these rebellions.  My housekeeper was able to return to her community because they protested until the man who was threatening her life was arrested and HIS house was demolished. That day her community in Burnwood Road, stopped many schools from operating and stopped people from going to work. They only did this because they were afraid. Afraid of being homeless, afraid for their lives, afraid of the future.

 And these exact feelings are what the Marrianridge community feels about their housing issues. This is what sparked the protests. Fear and Frustration stemming from political failure to the community. On August 23’rd, our friends in Marrianridge painted imagery similar to that of a war-zone. “Rocks and tear-gas and bullets “, were the words they used to describe the ammunition during their protests. They were angry because since 2012 , the residents were promised housing to overcome the over-crowding that was occurring in the infamous Marrianridge Flats.  In 2017, foreign nations and other people in search of homes found the empty land and began to establish an area called New City where they build informal housing in an attempt to shelter their families. Now, the two communities are killing each other because the government did not deliver on promises. 

Most of their protests are to grab the attention of those I power. That is where we could have assisted. The housing problem has had so many negative health problems within this community. A role of advocacy could have been played to establish to assist the community. We are thrown the terms Occupational Apartheid, Occupational Deprivation and Occupational Justice way back in first year. Today I understand that these terms are directing our energy into being activists within our profession.  In April 2004, these terms were just emerging concepts (WFOT,2004). Today, only we Millennium OTs have the potential to make them ACTION.

In Marrianridge, the community has been subject to occupational apartheid. Until today , there persists to be a segregation of groups of people , if it’s the Group Areas Act of the 70’s or this year’s protest on land invasion. This has restricted their ability to partake in meaningful occupations of daily life due to their race, or origins. In the quotes we see this segregation that has impacted the communities’ ability for cohesiveness and their ability to function at their optimal functional levels. The very nature of occupational apartheid is its stem from political forces, its social, cultural, and economic consequences which in term jeopardize health and wellbeing as experienced by individuals and communities (POLLARD, 2014). We see this in the violence, in the poverty and unemployment, in the manner in which sickness infiltrate the community and in the manner in which they act out on the above social issues.

 “It started as a peaceful protest on Friday,” he said. “It was non-violent. We wanted to hand over a memorandum to the relevant departments to get us our housing that was promised. We were told the building would start in December 2016, then again in March and again in July. If you go and look at the land, nothing has started.” (Male, 2017)

 According to OTwB , they question what does  occupational therapy stand for and stand up for in communities such as Marrianridge? They answer is profound and meaningful, especially to a new generation of South African Occupational Therapists.

‘If we aspire to leadership in promoting the value of occupation, referring to people’s capacity and opportunities to influence their health and well-being

Through dignified and meaningful participation in daily life, this requires us to be a more values- or principles-driven agent of change.”

‘ Evidence-based practice seems to mainly focus on what it means to be effective, but it doesn’t seem to be concerned as much with what it means to be socially responsible. This calls for a strong commitment to making sure that we are raising the right kind of questions, doing the right thing in the decisions we make and in the way we act. How then do we know what is right? (Kronenberg, 2006)‘

This requires us to be deeply connected in the culture of our communities and to have well-established ethical and moral codes that we can use as a catalyst to cause positive political reactions within the communities. It has emerged as a consistent theme in my blogs thus far, the comment that to truly take political roles within the community we are required to be more value and principle drive. I hold these words true. I see how the social construct can impact political issues in the communities.  Values and principles are the source to power in many issues.

 Quote from a New City residents about the MR Residents; “I had to be rescued by fellow residents from being beaten up,”

“The situation makes me very angry. I have been living in fear and have been forced to run from my house due to the threat of violence. These people are saying this area is theirs,” (Male, 2017)

 The above leads me to believe that the Occupational Deprivation has been occurring in this community. People in both MR and New City have been precluded from opportunities to engage in occupations such as work , family and their general roles due to factors outside their control.

 In Marrianridge, the people are not ‘bad’. They sometimes do bad things because they are frustrated with poor service delivery. They have emerged from generations of marginalized people who fought off their political oppressors in similar manners. Violence is seen as power still, as the only way to be heard. This is where I feel OTs can be impactful, even if these attempts are small or seem futile. But I have begun to see the importance of inspiring the community positively by encouraging a restructure of values and integrating firm moral codes especially into their millennium generation, the driving force of future change.

 Earlier this year a MR Community leader said; ““We have had many marches based on these social ills. We stand united against drug use and abuse; rape and poverty, we stand united against human trafficking and we will stand united against anything that tries to stop us from showing our Ubuntu.” (Male, 2017) (Bongani, 2014)

 As OTs we need to continue to establish occupational justice within the community. It is our responsibility to challenge the occupational barriers within MR and our role is underpinned in the right to engage in diverse and meaningful occupations to meet people's individual needs and develop their potential.

 If we can find a way to establish these same codes into the millenniums in the community, we can ensure that for generations to come they community will be able to challenge political instability in a manner that reflects the communities’ morals. As HCP we play a role in ensuring that policies don’t place too much emphasis on legislation and biomedicine as the dominant routes to improve health. OT’s need to represent themselves through their works by ensures the consideration of the social determinants of health and the complexity associated.

 According to Bongani (2014), the 20 year old challenges in SA are around bridging the gap between wealth, health and education in the populous and to

generate opportunities for many more people to survive childhood, reach their full human potential, and lead healthy, productive lives.

This , I understand as being such a fundamental aim of occupational therapy which we need to integrate into our communities.

 It took me a few days to gain an understating of our political role and I feel like many new OTs will not appreciate its involvement in their work. We need to find a way to motivate Millennium OT’s to care past their instagrams and find a way to invest some of their time in current events. Last year I got most of my news from Trevor Noah on the Daily Show, which I guess is an improvement at least my world-orientation is now on point. But I have developed an eagerness for activism and I feel like awareness of our impact is the only method of getting other young HCP involved in movements greater than ourselves.

 References:

 Bongani. (2014). Health and Health Care in South Africa — 20 Years after Mandela. N Engl J Med, 1344-1359.

Kronenberg, F. (2006). Political Dimensions of Occupation and the Roles of Occupational Therapy. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 617-626.

Male, H. (2017, August 23). Mariannridge community stands united. (L. Resident, Interviewer)

POLLARD. (2014). The occupational therapist as a political being. Cad. Ter. Ocup, 643-658.