#his desire for it to prosper and earn a good repute again!

[palesweetscherryblossom]

Little Red and Wolves

Warning: General Platonic Yandere nonsense, mostly wholesome fluff, abduction

You’d always been warned of the vicious beasts who supposedly roamed the country side of your prosperous town. Your adoptive father, Lord Keigo had tried making sure that you were safe from the creatures.

But being the naive child you were, you rarely heeded your father’s warnings.

“Bye daddy!” You bid farewell to your dad, who was in the midst of planning another hunt for the wolf men. You were outdoors, where the sun shone brightly and the grass was green.

It had been a plentiful harvest and new livestock had been born. In Keigo’s paranoid mind, the wolves were bound to steal the fruits of their labor. It wasn’t rare to see a few sheep or hens stolen from their pens or produce stolen.

But you remained blissfully unaware. Clad in your favorite red hood and bearing a basket of your necessities, you were ready for a day of adventure! Picking flowers, eating your lunch and maybe having a nap in the flower fields.

Keigo looked up from his plans and gave you a weary but gentle smile.

“Be careful kiddo! Be back before sunset or no dessert today, ‘kay?” You nodded, only to be stopped again by your father’s warnings. “If you see a wolf, scream loudly and yell for help.” You nodded, trotting off to continue your daily activities.

Tomura and Dabi had considered themselves masterful hunters and predators. Both abandoned as pups and learning the harsh ways of survival, they were fearsome, brutish beasts.

Sharp teeth, agile and strong bodies and frightening reputations to boot. But they had a rather simple, sweet desire.

To raise a pup of their own. While the pack they obtained was all well and good, they wanted a little pup. Shigaraki hadn’t considered himself parental by any means but it all changed when he spotted Keigo, that obnoxious lord who would stop at nothing to make them nothing more than fur rugs, reading you a bedtime story.

As inane as it sounded, it struck a chord in the blue-furred beasts. Dabi meanwhile had weirdly dreamt of fatherhood.

His own old man was a cruel, greedy man who stopped at nothing to obtain his “masterpiece.” Even if it meant callous behavior. Dabi was fully on board with his mate’s idea to obtain Lord Keigo’s child. That bastard didn’t deserve you anyway.

They’d caught the familiar scent of buttercups and your favorite scented soap as they slinked out of the dark woods. “Not really wise of the lord to let ‘em out like this.” Dabi grumbled, raising his lips slightly.

“Don’t fret, my ember. This is the perfect opportunity.” Shigaraki practically purred, licking his mate’s muzzle sweetly. “We got their room set up and the pack is ready to meet them. Now’s the perfect time.”

There you were, sleeping soundly. Shigaraki was the first to exit, carefully trotting up to you. He plopped down as he looked down at you. ‘Aww, like a little lamb.’ Shigaraki internally cooed.

His tail thumped happily as he sniffed at your hair, electing a sleepy giggle as you turned.

“Noo, silly puppy..” You whined, pulling your hood farther around your head. Shigaraki let out a low ruff, motioning for Dabi to come closer. Dabi wasted no time, drinking in the sight of you.

“Pup..” He rumbled, giving a gentle lick to your face. Shigaraki was about to ‘scruff’ you and put you on Dabi’s back but you woke up.

“Hmm?” You sat up, rubbing your eyes. Your vision was naturally blurry before you got a closer look. To you, they looked like giant dogs. Keigo had accidentally forgotten to remind you as to what they looked like.

“D-doggie?” You whispered. Shigaraki and Dabi exchanged looks before ultimately playing the part of giant dogs. Shigaraki delivered a few kisses to your face, earning giggles.

“Doggy.” You yawned again. “C-can we play later? I-I’m sleepy..” You whispered, lying back down. “Y-you can stay if you want.” Shigaraki gently placed you on Dabi’s back as you snuggled into the black one’s fur. Gently picking up your basket, Shigaraki and Dabi trotted into the woods.

Leaving nothing behind but the flowers you picked

[whimsicalwritingsandmore]

The Hybrid House | ateez x reader

Pairing: hybrid!ot8!ateez x rich!girl!reader

Genre: fluff, romance, slice of life

Warnings: none

Word Count: 1441 words.

a/n: welcomeeee to my new story! this story will be updated alongside Aurorise! I'm excited to share this with you. <3 If you'd like to be a part of the taglist, please send me an ask or private message, that way I'll be able to see it faster. Hope you enjoy! <333

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Chapter 1

As a child, it was always expected that you surpass your cousins and maintain the family’s reputation. If you didn’t, you were a stain that blotched the beautiful pages in which so much effort and hard-work was put into according to your parents.

Coming from the new money generation, your family was engrossed with relevancy and out-beating everyone. They spent lavishly and focused attentively on expanding the business throughout the world. Your parents had built their legacy from the ground up, and while it was definitely something to admire, overtime they began to lose sight of what mattered and developed an intense desire to earn more and outdo your uncles and aunts who behaved in a similar way.

As such, your childhood included having to be perfect and successful in academics to outdo your cousins. Coming from a family of five siblings and as the youngest, you often found it difficult to relate to your older siblings. Your oldest brother and sister yielded to your parents’ demands ensuring their non-stop praise and favor. And your fraternal twin brother followed suit. Except for your third eldest brother Axel. Only you and Axel disliked your parents’ way of upbringing because it felt inauthentic and ingenuine. Axel included you in most of his escapades such as sneaking out at night to the treehouse in the backyard for a late night frozen treat that was definitely against your parents’ rules or a slight detour on the way home from after-school activities to the street-food cart and arcade. Once the two of you were free, you spent most of your time together breaking the rules and never getting caught. Except for that one time you did because your eldest brother decided to tattle. But Axel took the brunt of the punishment and in return, you helped apply gel to ease the burning sensation in his hands and camped out in his room for the rest of the night, discussing what the two of you wanted to do when you got older. 

He is your best friend and managed to persuade your parents to let you accompany him for the Summer to your Great Aunt’s. He concocted a scheme with your Great Aunt about a good internship opportunity but really, it was an attempt to be able to spend the vacation period away from home. Lucky for you, that Summer had your parents occupied with various business meetings and so, they waved their hands in an disinterested and unconcerned manner and let you and Axel go your way. 

If there was one person out of your venal family that still had their head on their shoulders, it was your Great Aunt. From rags to riches, she’s an eccentric and smart woman who built a successful business after her former husband ran his family business into the ground. She was so good at what she did, she basked in her success and prosperity for years to come, and never had to work a day in her life again.

Surprisingly, she was the opposite of your family - she was warm-hearted and gentle unlike your parents and compassionate, accommodating and patient when it came to others. But she did play along with your materialistic family and took great pride in flaunting her assets like the giant diamond ring her boyfriend at the time gave her or her glamorous semi-bejeweled purse with precious rhinestones to silence your frivolous aunts. 

But her most prized possession that she marveled to everyone was her newly-bought 20 000 acre estate and her enormous and towering mansion that covered part of it outside Seoul in South Korea. It was a property her then-boyfriend suggested purchasing because in later years to come, it would cost a fortune. She called it her wonder of the world. 

And when you arrived that Summer, when the skies stretched wide with wisps of clouds and the air was thick with the golden warmth of the sun descending upon the flower petals and lakes in a shimmering dance of light, you were in absolute awe at what you saw. It was like a palace right out of a fairytale and for the rest of the holidays, you would spin around and elegantly twirl and dance in the foyer and halls and live your Disney princess dreams while your brother played the grand piano.

Your aunt joined you on several occasions, advising you to work hard and don’t solely depend on a man.

"And then you'll have your own palace like me." She giggled.

On the last day of your trip, while picking some flowers you wanted to take back home, you noticed a dug up part of the ground. Further peering into the bushes, there was an elderly squirrel laying there in a semi-conscious state, injured with its fur caked in blood. You immediately called your aunt, whispering reassuring thoughts to the squirrel. She assured you she would take care of him and not to worry.

And on the next summer trip with Axel, who once again schemed with your Great Aunt to tell your parents about an apprenticeship with a well-known firm, you met two new faces on the estate - Hongjoong and Yunho, children of some of the workers on the estate. 

Your Great Aunt also indicated about the elderly squirrel; he recovered well and there was also a baby squirrel and golden retriever she found when she went to investigate the other side of the bush. Unfortunately, the elderly squirrel passed a few months ago. 

You met the said animals later that day after Hongjoong and Yunho went home. They came out of nowhere while you were having dinner in the garden with your brother. But every time you tried to introduce your new human friends to your new animal friends, either one of the other could not be found.

Coincidence? 

You didn’t think anything of it because you had more important things to do - spy on your brother and the pretty girl he visited in the local town and teach Hongjoong and Yunho how to dance in the foyer like you did.

The next two summers followed with you becoming close friends with eight boys, the new additions going by the names of Seonghwa, Yeosang, San, Mingi, Wooyoung and Jongho. Correspondingly, much to your excitement, your aunt also adopted new little animals each year ranging from a rabbit, to a doberman, a capybara, two cats and a little bear. 

Your brother dramatically expressed that you were replacing him.

“As if,” you answered, rolling your eyes, “No one can replace your annoying self.”

“Excuuuuuse me, I am a delight,” he argued back, “I’m glad though, you won’t be alone when I head off to college.”

“I’ll miss you.” you expressed. The thought of not having your brother around as usual felt daunting and scary. He’s the only one you could relate to and talk to about anything. 

“Don’t worry,” he reassured, “No matter how far apart we are, when you need me I’ll be there.”

The golden retriever who decided to finally come out of hiding listened attentively to your conversation under the table.

Your aunt decided to host Thanksgiving that year. But deep down, you wish she didn't because maybe then, things wouldn't have fallen apart. Your family got into a large and heated disagreement when your parents found out about your brother’s girlfriend.

“Don’t tell me how to raise my child,” your Mother sneered, “I know what is best for him and you are out of place to even think about him and that girl.”

“He likes her,” your Great Aunt argued, “There’s nothing wrong with that. She’s well-educated too.”

“She is not one of us. We are high-society people. What would others think if they found out? You are out of your mind!” your Father bellowed.

“I know what is best for my son!” your Mother repeated.

“And yet he never comes to you.”

“You’re corrupting my children! You have all these animals running around and then you have my daughter hanging out with your employees’ children too!?”

“They are people too! Do you hear how you sound?” 

After a lot of yelling and shouting of spiteful words and profanities, your brother retaliated and stormed out with your Father behind him while your Mother dragged you out of the house to the car. From your blurry watery vision, you spotted your friends from afar, Wooyoung and San attempting to run to you but were held back by the others.

In the backseat of the car, you pressed against the back glass sobbing as the car drove off.

That was the last time you had seen your friends. 

[goodqueenaly]

What times do you think were best for the Targaryen reign? Jaehaerys the First's reign was clearly a golden age, Viserys I as well but what about after the Blackfyre Rebellion in Daeron II's reign?

I think the reign of Jaehaerys I is the clear standout, at least in terms of popular imagination, for the acme of the Targaryen dynasty. Whatever criticisms I have of King Jaehaerys personally (which I maintain are valid and substantial, and I direct everyone to my Jaehaerys I tag to read), and however badly I (still!) believe Fire and Blood Volume 1 (and, by extension, GRRM) handled the history of his reign, in-universe Jaehaerys I remains the model of Targaryen kingship, and a representation of a great and glorious period of monarchy. Yandel opines that the “true king” and “wise beyond his years” Jaehaerys “ruled wisely and well for five-and-fifty years”, and if the maester is a bit fulsome in his praise when he declares that “the realm never saw their like again” after the deaths of Jaehaerys and Alysanne, his feelings are not entirely baseless. Gyldayn likewise lauds King Jaehaerys for “the long periods of peace and prosperity that marked his time upon the Iron Throne”, remarking upon the increased productivity, booming population, and long periods of peace. This is the era GRRM very obviously wants readers to believe was the golden age of House Targaryen, a time when a (seemingly) great king and his (ostensibly) beloved queen ruled, as in a fairy tale, over a land of justice and plenty. (Once again, do not forget GRRM’s evident desire to link Jaehaerys to that beau ideal of medieval European kingship, King Edward III of England, especially that king’s representation in The Accursed Kings.)

Indeed, I think that nostalgia for the reign of the Conciliator, and desire to recall the (again, perceived) glory of that period, appears time and again throughout the remainder of the Targaryen dynasty. It was no coincidence, after all, that the future King Aegon V named his second son “Jaehaerys”, recognizing in his great-great-great-great-great grandfather the sort of justice and conscientious rulership that he himself would, so he hoped, eventually go on to implement as king. (We might guess that similarly positive sentiments influenced the double choice of “Jaehaerys” and “Jaehaera” for the twin eldest children of Aegon II, especially as he himself had been explicitly named for the lauded Conqueror, though we get practically no sense of who chose the twins’ names, or why.) Yandel‘s praise of Viserys II specifically compares the king to Jaehaerys I, stating that Viserys “had within him the capacity to be a new Conciliator, for no king had ever been shrewder or more capable”. Dany has herself seized upon the name and reputation of her ancestor to underline her personal grandeur, with the Green Grace remarking that “[o]ft have I heard that yours is the blood of Aegon the Conqueror, Jaehaerys the Wise, and Daeron the Dragon”.

What’s more, while Jaehaerys’ reign certainly was not the only time of peace and prosperity in the Targaryen dynasty, other such periods were marred by political frictions and/or devastating wars. Viserys I might have “reigned over the most prosperous era in the history of the Seven Kingdoms”, but no one save the king himself could have missed the increasingly violent dynastic factionalism that would, almost immediately after his death, erupt into the Dance of the Dragons. Daeron II might have earned the epithet “the Good”, but again, long-simmering tensions came to a head during his reign in the first and likely most devastating of the Blackfyre Rebellions, and even years after the Redgrass Field the suspicions and prejudices around that division lingered ominously with many in Westeros. Life might have been relatively good for common citizens in Westeros under, say, Baelor I (at least for Seven-fearing people the king deemed virtuous enough, anyway) or Aegon V, but neither king achieved the kind of national glory associated with Jaehaerys I - the former because of his zealous confidence in his own executive authority and lack of concern for practical realities (which, I think, prompted his exasperated uncle to eventually assassinate him), the latter because of his almost revolutionary challenge to the established privileges of the Westerosi noble class combined with his failure to cement his aristocratic allegiances. Yandel might assert that “the Seven Kingdoms prospered greatly during the first decade of” Aerys II’s reign, yet even putting aside the motivation to laud Tywin, few would retrospectively call Aerys II’s reign great (especially for the Targaryens) given the king’s descent into paranoid brutality and the outbreak of the rebellion that would end the dynasty altogether.

(And of course, we’re still waiting on information, sometimes significant information, on any number of periods in Targaryen history. Aegon III’s reign as an adult remains somewhat vague, mixing the king’s desire to “give the realm peace and plenty in the wake of the Dance” and his and his brother’s able handling of “the remaining turmoil in the realm” with the decline of the dragons, the appearance of false pretenders, and the king’s own deep melancholy. The reign of Maekar, who ruled for 12 years of seemingly mostly peace, is reduced to a single sentence in TWOIAF, doubtless because of the stories being saved for future Tales of Dunk and Egg. Of course, Aegon V, being the co-protagonist of the Tales, will likely be far more detailed in the future, just as his father probably will.)

[thatmcgwords]

By learning to continuously create value, build your personal brand, and adapt in the face of failure, you'll position yourself to ride the waves of change, all the way to prosperity and lasting impact.

Author Michael Ellsberg argues that your personal brand – what people think of when they hear your name – is significantly more important than your resume. A strong brand can open doors that no credential can. Too many people spend years building up their resume while neglecting to cultivate their brand and reputation.

The secret, Ellsberg argues, is to radiate your unique personality rather than conforming to expectations.

The lesson is clear. What makes you stand out isn't your degree or resume. Lots of people have that. The real key to professional success in the 21st century is to, first, create something original and, second, make sure the world knows about it. Conformity is out. Cultivating a unique personal brand is in.

As Ellsberg puts it, while resumes get lost in the stack, your personal brand stays with you for life. How can you start creating yours? Google is the new resume, and it's time to make sure yours stands out.

At time of writing, his company headsets.com was earning $30 million a year. Faith's resilience and, well, faith is a common thread among the entrepreneurs Ellsberg interviewed. They expect to fail and are ready to dust themselves off on a just course when they do. It's not gambling, but rather a systematic process of learning through trial and error. You've seen the statistics. Most businesses fail.

A key element, therefore, is what Ellsberg calls iteration velocity, trying new things quickly and cheaply, getting feedback and rapidly improving. It's like dating. You're unlikely to find the love of your life on any single date, but that doesn't stop you from putting yourself out there again and again until you find a good match. With each failure comes new wisdom. One way to mitigate risk is to start a service business with low overhead. Even if it doesn't pan out, the consequences are usually minimal.

But the larger lesson is that by immersing yourself in the business side of your passion, you position yourself to win either way. Failures become learning opportunities, while successes fulfil both your purpose and your pocketbook. With the right approach to risk, Ellsberg suggests, anyone can find their own sweet spot between meaning and money.

Marketing is for everyone. Want to make your mark on the world? In an environment increasingly shaped by attention and influence, there's an essential skill you'll need to learn – marketing. And no, it's not just for people hawking dubious products on late-night infomercials.

As entrepreneur and marketer Frank Kern discovered, nothing happens until something gets sold, whether it's a widget, a work of art, or a worthy cause. Kern's journey is a testament to the transformative power of marketing savvy. He went from barely scraping by as a fast-food worker to becoming one of the world's highest-paid consultants, earning millions through his copywriting and product launches. The secret, he says, is learning to tap into people's deepest desires and show how your offering can fulfil them.

Effective marketing starts with a clear understanding of the customer's problem and how your product can solve it. It may sound obvious, but by anticipating and meeting the needs of your target market, you engage potential customers right where it matters most, making them more receptive to your message when it's time to advertise.

This concept extends into the realm of direct-response marketing. When executed with integrity, direct-response marketing is not only cost-effective but incredibly impactful. This type of marketing is designed to elicit a specific action, whether that's making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or donating to a cause.

Traditional brand marketing, often taught in academic settings and used by large corporations, tends to focus on creating a favourable image or feeling about a product without necessarily driving immediate action. But this can consume large budgets without guaranteeing sales. Direct-response marketing is more valuable for entrepreneurs and small businesses looking to make a big impact with limited resources.

It's about selling now. Why does this skill matter so much? Ellsberg argues that traditional education fails to teach the language of money, sales and influence, the very tools needed to thrive in an information economy. Even if you're not an entrepreneur, understanding how to get buy-in for your ideas and inspire people to take action is invaluable. It's the difference between being a follower and a leader in any field. Learning the basics of marketing doesn't take a four-year degree.

It starts with immersing yourself in the work of master copywriters and marketers who've perfected the art of ethical persuasion. By reverse-engineering their techniques and putting them into practice, you can quickly develop your own voice and ability to move people. As you accumulate sales, you can shift focus to building relationships with your customers. This approach has propelled the success of business icons like Linda Resnick, the pom queen behind the pomegranate juice craze.

Thriving in this new landscape requires cultivating a mindset of entrepreneurship, personal branding and continuous self-education. Formal credentials and safe career tracks no longer guarantee security or fulfilment. Instead, you need to take calculated risks, create value relentlessly and build influence through your unique voice and body of work. Whether you're an employee or entrepreneur, success in the 21st century belongs to those who cut their own paths.

[acharya-ramchandra]

Rahu In The Houses Vedic Astrology

In a human being, Rahu represents obsession and desire. In mythology, Rahu is the head of a demon who became immortal after drinking nectar. Rahu represents the things that express the obsession with the house/sign that Rahu is placed in. Although Rahu is a shadow planet, it has a great impact on the lives of all living beings on earth. It is believed that Rahu/Ketu represents the native's past and present karmic desires. Here are the general predictions of Rahu in different houses of a chart.

Rahu in 1st House

Rahu generally gives good results in the first house. If placed in a good sign, Rahu can give wealth unexpectedly. Rahu indicates cleverness and wit. Though such a person may be short-tempered he will be intelligent. If in Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Leo, Virgo and Capricorn it forms Rajyoga which indicates prosperity and charity.- If it is associated with malefic, the face is blemished. Firm, sensual, very sexy and well dressed. This position denies happiness to the wife and sons. Danger and trouble through the water. Biliousness, quarrelsome, extravagant. Favourable, if in own sign.

Rahu In 2nd House 

Rahu in the 2nd house causes problems in earning for the native. He may feel difficulty in finding a stable source of income. He may also have to face situations where he has to depend on others for his existence. If afflicted, Rahu causes loss, and ill repute, one is proud, has thievish nature, unfortunate, lives with low people, and gains from trade in fish. Harsh, averse to friendly advice. Too much hard work, offensive, disagree, untruthful and it denies success. If associated with malefic, loss of family and many opponents may cause family bickering. If auspicious, mark a mole on the chin.

Rahu In 3rd House

He has his own ideas of thinking and always seeks the optimistic side of life. Most of the renowned politicians and actors have this position in their chart. They are clever enough and know well how to use their position to make massive earnings. Rahu indicates bravery, courage, industry, fortune, wealth, state honour, health, many friends, travel, annihilator of the enemy, and Agricultural wealth. Rahu in Leo indicates an imposing personality.

Rahu In 5th house

The only negative aspect of this house is the impact of Rahu on progeny. The person may have no child or there may be difficulty in conceiving. There can also be major differences in time between the births of children. If very afflicted, marriage is denied. Illicit relations. For want of conjugal pleasures. Native is best with welfare programmes.

Rahu in 7th house

In married relations, it is observed that such natives should not marry before the age of 21 to avoid complications in married life. Rahu in the seventh house also creates tension due to the health issues of the spouse. In-laws of natives may also face problems in life. 

Rahu in Gemini, Virgo, Libra or Sagittarius may deny the marriage. Other signs of misfortune through marriage. Sex in feminine signs denotes success, gaining happiness and property through marriage

Rahu In 8th House

Generally, this is the most adverse position for Rahu in the chart. The eighth house is considered to be ruled by Mars which signifies health issues, accidents and obstacles in life. Rahu in this house gives malefic results on account of these matters, Fortune smiles ounces, but losses mock at again and again. Living in a foreign land. Short tempered and not of good temper. It promotes health and grants gifts, legacies, and inheritance from the dead.

Rahu In 10th house

This is a favorable house for Rahu and gives most of the best results. Such people are intelligent and hard-working and will achieve heights of career through their strong will due to their workaholic nature. Native with 10th Rahu may be a prominent personality. If exalted in Taurus in the 10th house, native as a ruler, self-made man due to hard work. Recognition by Govt; power and authority. Pilgrimage. One achieves name, fame, and status through hard work and skill.

Rahu In the 11th house

Though Rahu is considered to show negative results in most of the houses of horoscopes, in the 11th house Rahu would give good results in respect of wealth and earning etc. The results are more effective during Mahadasha of Rahu. The native may get an abundance of money. Rahu in 11th also indicates success and gain through speculations, friends, race, and lottery and it protects against harm.

[magicalforcesau]

Dancing With Ghosts in Your Garden~ Chapter 18 - Year 2: February

(ao3 link)

In lieu of the incident with the sleeping draught, all prefects were mandated to enroll in Professor Palpatine’s brand new weekly Potions seminars. As the misstep with the Vitamix potion along with Maul’s nearing presence showed, it was ideal that all prefects be properly trained in the event that professors were once again subdued. This, they felt, combined with Professor Fisto’s ongoing dueling club, would prepare them.

Obi-Wan’s doubts of how prepared they could possibly be for something so unpredictable grew stronger with each day. Although he was already enrolled in the advanced potions class, he would never deny the opportunity to learn more. If anything, it would at least offer more practice.

“Given that it’s February, I figured it best we start with a common favorite amongst the masses of troublemakers,” Palpatine’s shoes clicked on the ground as he paced at the front of the room.

From what Obi-Wan understood, Palpatine didn’t receive any punishment for the accidental sleeping potion brew. Yoda had, of course, received a rather scathing howler from the Ministry at his supposed flightiness, of which he took the blame for. It seemed Anakin had stepped up and claimed it was he who accidentally knocked the draught in the already brewing potion.

That all certainly added up and did not help Anakin’s reputation amongst his peers.

“Any guesses to what that would be?” Palpatine asked, eagerly taking in the small crowd of Hogwarts’ best with expectant eyes.

Because this was a class full of prefects, each were considerably decent students and wanted to learn. There were exceptions, Obi-Wan realized as he looked over to a nearly snoozing Zeb, but they were outliers.

“Love potions?” Breha Organa said rather dreamily. Obi-Wan didn’t need to turn around to know she’d been looking at Bail as she said it.

“Right you are, Breha!” Palpatine smiled, “Amortentia is the most powerful love potion in the world, at that. Many of you and your students are for the first time diving into the wondrous and mysterious landscape that is romance. Some of you aren’t even aware that you are.”

Did he look at Obi-Wan on purpose? No, that would be silly. Palpatine always took care to rove eye contact throughout the classroom. It was a sufficient method of maintaining focus and Obi-Wan knew this, but he still shifted his gaze immediately elsewhere like he’d been caught copying homework.

“Love and potions aren’t all that different, really.” He continued, “The right and organic combination makes a fruitful and prosperous brew. The wrong and inauthentic combination is bitter and not made to last.”

“And if you’re not careful, you could end up with a wrinkly, scrawny little creature.” Zeb added knowingly, earning a few chuckles throughout the group.

“As if you’ve got anything to worry about there.” Caleb muttered, and much to Zeb’s dismay, acquired a more popular response.

“Boys, please.” Palpatine chastised, “I don’t want word to travel that Gryffindor’s prefects lost them points.”

“Cody would have an aneurysm,” Satine whispered and Obi-Wan only nodded in response. It was no secret to either of them that their friend was less than pleased with how bleak Gryffindor’s odds of obtaining either the House or Quidditch cup were becoming. If he heard that Caleb and Zeb worsened those odds, neither would be awaiting a very pretty conversation.

The troublesome two seemed to recognize this and justly shut their traps.

The class turned back to Palpatine, who seemed rather satisfied with the change in their mood and circled around the cauldron at the center of his desk. From it, emerged a pink fog that resembled a cloud at sunset and judging by the smile its scent drew from Palpatine, it smelled as pleasant as it looked.

“A love potion manufactures the deepest desires from the person who ingests it, manifesting them all at once in an intoxicating fashion that causes them to see the intended target in a different light.” He said almost reverently, “Ironically, it’s called a love potion, when it should really be called an infatuation potion.”

“That’s because you can’t build love from a substance.” Satine muttered from beside him. “Try as some might.”

Obi-Wan stared at the cauldron. He’d heard of amortentia. Evidently, a cheap ineffective version was sold at Zonko’s in Hogsmeade, though he never took much care to notice. He didn’t know much about love, save for the fact that it seemed highly unlikely for anything to recreate something as complicated as attraction.

She raised her hand, “Professor? Aren’t love potions banned at Hogwarts?”

“That they are,” Palpatine said with crossed hands, “Though that’s not to say they haven’t been smuggled in before.”

“Why would they do that?” A familiar high pitched voice from the back called.

Despite his interest in the subject, Obi-Wan couldn’t resist snapping his neck in turning to see none other than Anakin Skywalker sitting at the back desk, looking incredibly small in stature next to Onaconda Farr. Farr, in his defense, looked just as confused by Anakin’s presence as Obi-Wan felt.

“What are you doing here?” Obi-Wan asked him, “This is supposed to be for prefects only.”

“Not to worry, Mr. Kenobi, I did grant Anakin permission to attend.” Palpatine answered before Anakin could muster up a smart response, “Anakin shows a real knack for potions and given the circumstances, I would say it’s best that he be included whenever he could be protected.”

Obi-Wan slumped back in his chair, feeling properly admonished. It wasn’t that he didn’t think Anakin was capable. It was quite the opposite, actually, but there was an order to these things and learning advanced spells before one was ready did not seem indicative of a sound idea. Anakin needed to learn the building blocks still, whether he believed it or not. Despite his talent, he knew there was an absence of maturity to handle heavy source material. Dueling was one thing, as there was an obvious precedence for it right now and it was typically taught to some degree during second year anyway. Teaching Anakin about love potions felt more like giving a dog a steak and telling him not to eat it. He could try to convince everyone that he was over his crush on Padmé all he wanted, but it simply wasn’t true.

“To answer your question, Anakin,” Palpatine continued, “When someone is too blind with desperation to see reason, they will do just about anything to acquire what they want. A love potion, while sounding frilly and fun, occludes all rational thinking from the person it's given to.”

“And typically, it’s not ingested voluntarily.” Satine added.

Obi-Wan frowned, thinking of the potentially dastardly effects such a tool could provide for a desperately lovesick person. It was no different than being under a curse, in a sense, because the poor sap trapped in such a state had no agency whatsoever.

“How does one tell if someone is suffering from the effects of a love potion?” Fenn Rau asked.

“Why, you see them every day in young and happy couples as you walk through these halls. They’re starry-eyed, flushed, unspeakably happy, practically in a trance.”

“How are we to tell the difference then?” Obi-Wan asked.

“These features tend to be a good deal more exemplified and elongated.” Palpatine said, “For instance, while the honeymoon phase is technically normal, it’s really not meant to last. There’s also known to be loss of memory in the person as the potion begins to fade. We advise that you all keep an eye and see if you notice any excessively clingy and almost controlling couples.”

Obi-Wan thought about his parents, finding it very hard to believe they ever had any semblance of a honeymoon phase. They were so professional all the time that he’d rarely seen them even smile in the other’s presence. Of course, he was always splitting up sneaky couples that tried to sneak off to snog, so he supposed he did have some experience witnessing what Palpatine was referring to. Part of him was having a difficult time reconciling with the fact that it was their ancient potions professor who was explaining to them the complexities of romance.

“Because of the dangers that this possesses,” He waved a little pink vial around for all to show, allowing the light to catch it in a way that made it sparkle, “I believe it’s important that you understand these properties quite well and that you take care not to share this information outside of this room.”

There was a warning tone to his voice that was rarely used and Obi-Wan swore everyone sat up even straighter, though he doubted that was possible for Satine, who already appeared quite alert.

“It’s okay to take notes, of course, right?” Hondo asked from the other back corner of the room opposite to Anakin.

“Yes, but-” The older man did a double take as he whipped back around, “Hondo, what are you doing here?”

Obi-Wan thought it was fairly obvious what Hondo was doing and why he was suddenly so apt to take notes. He hadn’t thought to say anything when he originally saw him, seeing as if Anakin was invited, maybe he’d thought to include another unexpected guest. Hondo was possessed for a significant amount of time, after all.”

“Just trying to perfect my recipe is all.” Hondo had the gall to shrug, “What’s so wrong about that?”

“You mean besides intruding upon a meeting where you are not welcome and admitting in advance that you intend to sell an illegal substance throughout the school?” Palpatine asked, “I suppose we could discuss your time management skills, seeing as you have plenty of potion’s homework that you could be catching up on.”

Reading the room for a change, Hondo sighed like a great disservice had just been done to him, “You can’t fault a guy for trying.”

“Actually, I can. 15 points from Slytherin.” Palpatine crossed his arms, “And I expect your essay on Felix Felicis on my desk tomorrow morning.”

“My tutor isn’t going to like that.” Hondo grumbled as he walked by Obi-Wan, “He’s not even finished my Charms presentation.”

“Why would you say that to us?” Satine hissed, knowing full well that they were now going to have to look up the legitimacy of Hondo’s new “tutor” in their dwindling free time.  

“I’m honest to a fault!” He shrugged as he fully exited the room and was promptly locked out by Palpatine. He even took the effort of using two padlocks to secure the job. To be fair, Hondo was quite slippery.

“Now,” He said as he clapped his hands together once, “Why don’t we get to the important part? Brewing!”

***

This was a colossal waste of his time, skills, and resources.

While Sidious normally enjoyed when the school devolved into chaos, he did not appreciate when it stood in the way of his plans. Right now, his former apprentice was the obstacle that could feasibly destroy everything he’d worked tirelessly to achieve, all before it could truly start.

He knew he should have killed him when he had the chance, but Azkaban just seemed all the more fitting for the murder machine to waste his days away at the hand of his own failure. He would not make that mistake ever again.

So, it seemed Sidious’ own interests aligned with the rest of his colleagues: get rid of Maul. It felt peculiar- to be on the same side as the enemy, but if he wanted to defeat them, he needed this loose cannon of a pawn to be decimated before it was too late.

And through it all, the putrid “open-minded” community only served to remind him why they needed to be brought to an end. In what world would enlisting the Potions professor to teach love potions be useful? How he managed to seem convincing, he was unsure, because there was no greater waste of time than the frivolous pursuit of love. Well, unless it was being manipulated as a fulcrum for change.

Even with as little soul as he had remaining, if any, he still found the smell of amortentia to be utterly arousing. They certainly wouldn’t enjoy to know what he smelled when he breathed in amortentia: fire, ash, rubble, stained blood.

They should be barricading, sending students out in troves to hunt the demon down, and utilize the muggle-borns as bait in a trap to be sprung. Maul couldn’t resist the hunt. He knew such instincts never changed, not even from the waning sense of purpose that Azkaban reduced men to.

Instead, here he was, giving a pointless lecture on the dangers of love potions. After which, they’ll have another practice dueling session with snowballs. It was pitiful. At the very least, they should be using stones. Children needed to learn pain at an early age. They needed to become so familiar with the sensation that they found home in it. In the hearth of that home, is the power that exists from within. Only then, can they prevail.

He glanced to the back corner of the room and felt his lips twitch. Between this year and the last, Skywalker was becoming quite acquainted with pain. He grimaced as he took in the rest of the lot, noting how soft they all were as they nervously discovered what attracted them when they leaned over their brewing cauldrons. At least he’d been able to kick that waste of blood Ohnaka out. He was spared of that particular headache, especially when just looking at the boy angered him to no end when he considered how deeply that botched experiment failed. Truly, that family couldn’t do anything right- not even when under hypnosis.

He had no doubts that Maul was scoping out the land, realizing just how weak these wizards had gotten since he was in school- that his lessons from Sidious had always reigned supreme and that no one stood in his way, save for Yoda and Sidious, himself. That would be disastrous if anyone witnessed a reunion between the two. They would know instantly.

Then again, if Sidious were to capture and kill Maul, he would only further his popularity amongst the simpletons that allegedly “ran” their community. Perhaps, there could be salvaging of this wreck. Tyranus need not be the only one to pull strings in the wake of Maul’s drama. It was only fitting, since Sidious was the marionettist and this was to be his show.

Not only that, but such a feat would certainly impress the boy, who clearly had a sound reason for disliking Maul. While Sidious loathed the concept of needing to work towards the trust and approval of a child, understood that in due time, it would be worth it.

Even if such a boy nearly killed them all with his own klutziness.

Sidious breathed a steadying breath, just barely turned away from any possible lingering gazes.

He moved over to his desk and opened the top drawer. He needed a drink.

***

Satine, like many of the curious girls in her year, had done fair research on the subject of amortentia. Apparently, it had ruined its fair share of marriages as well as mental health states, making it completely illegal to produce for private or public subsidization. It seemed, curiously, only the aurors could do so with Ministry approval. That, much to Satine’s confusion, was the case for many subjects.

“Because I would hate to have a bunch of little zombies in my class, we’ll just be smelling the potions today.” Palpatine announced.

Despite her knowledge that amortentia affected everyone differently, she still wasn’t quite expecting the drunk-like sensation that filled her up from head to toe as she took a deep breath in from the fumes that emanated off the surface. Everything around her seemed to move in slow motion and her chest rose and fell with the relaxed notion of falling asleep, except she simultaneously never felt more stimulated in her life.

She’d never known that you could smell so many wonderful things at once yet still differentiate them for what they were and more importantly, how it got her flushed in a way that made her shift in her seat.

New books, homemade apple pie, crisp fall air, the lingering remnants of a minty aftershave wrapping around her like a scarf…

She started out of her reverie, blushing too mad to even consider looking to her left no matter how curious she suddenly was. Her heart was beating out of her chest and if she wasn’t absolutely certain of the potency of amortentia, she’d have the decency to be more embarrassed. Instead, she willed herself to calm down and refused to breathe through her nose any further, no matter how warm she felt when she had.

While none of what she witnessed was news to her per say, it wasn’t like she made a habit of lollygagging and daydreaming in the middle of a classroom setting. It was quite disarming to be so vulnerable yet also so close to what (or who, for that matter) was driving her crazy to begin with.

“Problem, Mr. Kenobi?” Palpatine was suddenly standing in front of them, which was at least a little bit of a distraction.

A ringing in her brain wanted desperately to ask him what he smelled, but she felt herself frown deeply when she noticed Obi-Wan was leaning with his entire face in his little cauldron, trying desperately to catch a whiff. Surely, if he got any closer, he was going to accidentally inhale the potion through his nose.

“I might have brewed it incorrectly.” He muttered, echoing a bit from still having his head in the cauldron.

“Let me see,” Palpatine urged him to lift his head and under normal circumstances, Satine might tease him for the little creases that the rim brought to his face.

The professor raised his nose to the fumes that still wafted through the air and smiled dreamily. She wondered if they would ever know what he was seeing when he inhaled the scent. It was none of their business to ask, but she really couldn’t picture Palpatine being in love with anyone.

“No, no, it’s perfectly correct,” He said with the airs of residual glee, “Why?”

Instead of giving him a straight answer, Obi-Wan turned to Satine, “I think I need you to move.”

Any previous concern, as per usual with Obi-Wan, was replaced with a scalding sort of annoyance only reserved for him, “What? Why?”

As she held her own special adverse reaction to him, he had one for her that matched. His eyebrows furrowed as he gestured to his cauldron. Sometimes, he was far too serious for his own good, “As lovely as your perfume is, you don’t need to go so heavy-handed with it! I can’t smell the potion.”

Satine, who initially believed they were going to get into an argument, found that she had no points to be made, because all that came out of her mouth was a little puff of air. Palpatine, if she had the eyes to spare him a look, was equally as surprised, even if not nearly as emotionally invested in such a rebuff.

“What?” Obi-Wan finally asked, growing more annoyed at not being in on the punchline.

Everyone else was suspiciously quiet too, much to Satine’s growing unease, but she could hardly spare a thought other than to say, “I’m out of perfume, actually. I sent Copikla home yesterday so my mum could send me a new bottle.”

Instead of being annoyed, the clouds seemed to clear, if only a little bit, and he flickered back to the potion, “But how-”

“-It smells different to everyone.” Palpatine, who looked between the two of them with his face stretched in discomfort and eyebrows raised beyond physics, clarified with a tone that was clearly meant for only them, “Based on what the individual finds attractive.”

All of the color seemed to wash out of Obi-Wan’s charmingly embarrassed face as his mind worked rapidly to wrap his head around that answer. Even though she hadn’t breathed in her potion again, Satine still swore she was suddenly feeling the effects of it.

“I- Well,” He tried to formulate a response, but to his credit, he had just admitted that he was at the very least attracted to her perfume (which she made the mental note to stock up on more frequently), in front of the entire class of prefects and Anakin.

“Oooooooh Obi-Wan likes perfume.” Anakin, while completely missing the point and a big teasing opportunity, shattered the tension that previously froze the entire room and everyone burst out into a fit of needed laughter. Even Obi-Wan laughed, though nervously, as he flashed Satine the occasional glance here and there through lowered lashes, as if trying to gage her reaction to this accidental admission.

She smiled. Clearly, it was to her benefit to read ahead of him.

“For what it’s worth,” She said in the midst of the uncontrollable chatter that erupted thanks to Anakin’s offhand comment, “You smell nice too.”

He blushed, which she found she quite liked the shade of pink on his face, “Thanks.”

It didn’t address the underlying implications, just as neither of them seized the moment to do so on Christmas Eve. She found it was just as frustrating trying to guess what was going on inside of his head as it was waiting for him to do something about the things she did know.

As much as she wanted the cat to be fully out of the bag, she knew the middle of Palpatine’s potions class wasn’t the time or place.

***

“I believe it’s a mistake to have any more Hogsmeade trips this year,” Qui-Gon said to his other heads of house and to Yoda, who was staring quite pensively out the window, “Not when we know what we know. It’s quite possible that Maul has an entrance to the school if he truly is behind what happened to Bultar Swan.”

“We have no real proof that he is, though.” Shaak Ti said, “It certainly doesn’t seem like his style.”

“While I know the usual term “innocent until proven guilty” is our mantra, I think we should consider being more hesitant with Maul.” Qui-Gon said.

“I agree,” Windu nodded, standing firmly next to him, “Though having more students out of the school would allow us a proper amount of time to sweep the school and see if he had any secret entrances.”

“We have that same opportunity at night.” Qui-Gon said.

“You know this school shifts and changes between night and day,” Palpatine said warily, “It is ever-moving and Bultar Swan was attacked in broad daylight in a common room.”

“Why are we not interviewing more Ravenclaws then?” Windu asked, “We’ve got to do something! Skywalker’s mother is missing and we all know that boy isn’t going to lay down and allow for speculation to simply rise without doing something foolish.”

“I don’t appreciate your assumptions of Anakin.” Qui-Gon said, “He’s a bright, even if impulsive boy, who is going through an unspeakable grief.”

“No one twice his age should have to endure what he’s going through,” Shaak Ti said kindly, “Let alone as young as he.”

“I’m not saying he has no reason to act out.” Windu raised his hands, “I’m merely stating that it is only a matter of time before he takes matters into his own hands.”

“That would make it easier for Maul, unfortunately,” Palpatine agreed, “Perhaps we should motion to shut off the Floo network?”

“Done that, I have.” Yoda spoke up, “Because used it, he did.”

“For what?” Qui-Gon asked eagerly.

“Unknown location, he accessed.” Yoda mused, “Unregistered through the network, it is. Talk to Dooku, I suspect.”

Palpatine frowned, “That can’t be good.”

“No, it can’t.” Windu agreed, “Can you extend your protective charms to Hogsmeade, Yoda?”

“Do that, I did, after we woke up from the sleeping incident.”

“Oh, so it’s safe then.” Shaak Ti shrugged, “The dementors haven’t detected Maul on the inside and he was last seen on Diagon Alley.”

“I’m sure this is quite exhausting for you, Headmaster.” Windu acknowledged.

It was true. Extending his powers over an entire settlement as well as the castle at all times would have drained any normal wizard to death. Yoda, as it were, was not a normal wizard. Even still, it was visible on his worn features that he was exhausted.

“Safe, the students should be,” He said instead, “But careful we will still be. Search the school we will for secret entrances while they are gone, we will.”

***

“Are they gone yet?” Anakin asked, ducking up from where he’d been digging furiously through his trunk. Rex who was sitting on the window sill keeping watch over the massive gates of Hogwarts nodded slowly.

“Yeah I think so,” He confirmed, stretching his arms above his head and yawning, “I dunno mate, don’t you think a nice Saturday in might be nicer than trying this again. Don’t you remember what happened last time?”

“Psh!” Anakin waved a hand, “Well we’re certainly not trying anything like that again. Although I would like to get another look at that sword.”

“I figured you’d seen enough swords in your short life,” Rex rolled his eyes, “Didn’t Dooku intend to sacrifice you with one?”

“It was still cool, but I’m not really trying to go to Hogsmeade, just give off a good impression.” Anakin shrugged before he pulled out his nicest T-Shirt, swiftly pulling the one he had been wearing off and switching them out, “Well how do I look?”

“The same but in green,” Rex deadpanned leaning his head on his hand, “If all we’re doing up here is playing dress up then I’d much rather get this show on the road.”

“Oh come on,” Anakin checked himself out in the dingy mirror on the back of the door. He was really hoping he’d run into Padmé; he thought she’d like it. He’d already seen her leave, but overheard her talking to her friends about Rabé meeting them later and taking the tunnels. His mum had bought it for him over the summer and he tried to push past the rising feeling of sadness, “We had to wait until all the prefects left anyways, I’m not really looking to be caught and dragged back here by any of them and especially not Zeb, who was eyeing us up pretty hard at breakfast.”

Rex shuddered, “Definitely don’t need him tossing us through the portrait hole again. It’s not our fault that the rest of the second years left without us!”

“I’d hate to see what happens if we’re caught alone of our own accord,” Anakin grinned, despite the true statement, such a thing wouldn’t stop them, “Well, let’s go before Windu gets here to babysit.”

“Right,” Rex grimaced, standing up and grabbing his wand. Anakin grabbed his as well, throwing it into his robe, it was much too cold to go around without it, and they headed down and out of the common room. He really hoped no one would snitch on them.

The two traversed the halls carefully. Keeping quiet for once to listen for approaching footsteps and ducking into a few empty classrooms to avoid the ghosts lurking around the otherwise empty halls. It took much longer than they’d have liked to make it down to where the tunnel’s entrance would begin. Luckily, the map showed Rabé’s little figure moving in that direction too, marking a bit of a clear path. She would lead them straight to Padmé.

Anakin’s heart rate increased for more reasons than being caught.

He thought better of it. Obi-Wan would probably kill him on the spot if he slithered out of the tunnel and into Hogsmeade. Not to mention, Maul was lurking around in the area looking for him. Maybe, if they caught up with Rabé in the tunnel, he could simply give her the necklace to give to Padmé.

It didn’t sound incredibly indicative of his house in terms of bravery, but he knew at least Obi-Wan would approve of his method.  

“Almost there!” Anakin grinned at Rex, but almost had his head knocked clean from his body when Rex grabbed his robe and yanked him hard into an empty classroom, “Wha-?”

“Shh!!” Rex was very much alert and his eyes narrowed as they both heard footsteps echoing off the walls. The footsteps paused just outside of the door and Rex cursed under his breath as a shadow moved towards the entrance. Rex glared at Anakin for a few minutes before mouthing, ‘You owe me!’ and straightening.

“Mr. Fett?” Palpatine’s confused voice echoed off the stone walls, “What are you doing here? And all alone?”

“Sorry Professor,” Rex gave Palpatine a rather over the top concerned look, “It’s just, I haven’t seen Anakin since breakfast and he did mention he was thinking about coming to see you.”

“To see me?” The professor sounded a little more surprised than Anakin thought he should, but perhaps he was trying to avoid looking like he picked favorites, “Well I certainly haven’t seen him. I’ll keep an eye out, but I’m going to need to escort you outside with the other second years.”

Anakin winced, of course even Palpatine wouldn’t be willing to overlook a student wandering the halls without an escort. He’d have to bring Rex back something good from Hogsmeade.

“Alright, thank you Professor,” Rex nodded, although he didn’t look very thankful in Anakin’s opinion.

Their footsteps faded away, but still Anakin waited a minute longer before darting from the classroom himself.

He wandered the empty halls, being extra careful to listen and flicker his eyes to the map. Rex was a little more perceptive than he tended to be. Anakin certainly didn’t want to get caught, but at least he knew what story to go with if he did.

Finally, he reached the entrance of the tunnel, looking around carefully, he quickly slipped inside and hurried to close the entrance, plunging him into complete darkness.

Anakin pulled his wand out, lighting it with a, “Lumos Maxima,” They’d been working to improve their maximizing skills in charms recently and Anakin felt it was paying off. The tunnels were rather boring and unremarkable. He remembered them being pretty long, though he’d never made it all the way to the end the last time.

He took his time, kicking away rocks and humming softly. He still didn’t want to give his position away if there was someone scouting the tunnel for mischievous students, but boredom without Rex crept in fast.

He paused a moment at an odd noise and listened hard. It was a soft shuffling noise and despite the echo, it sounded like it was coming from behind him. Could it be another student trying the same thing he was? Unlikely, most of the houses were pretty locked down outside. He wasn’t sure why the professors had been so insistent on a supervised snow day, but most students went for it.

That left the possibility that he was about to be caught.

Letting the fear of boring evenings in detention spur him on, he picked up the pace until he was running rather swiftly. With the way his wand was swinging, the light bounced around enough to make him motion sick so he gave it a quiet, “Nox,” not letting up on the speed of which his shoes pounded the ground.

He slowed when he nearly tripped over something lying on the ground, but wasn’t quick enough to avoid running right into someone.

Anakin fell backwards with an, “oof,” He tried to catch his breath for a moment, “Sorry, Rabé,” He said softly standing up, “While I’ve got you, I’ve got a question for you. Lumos.”

His wand tip glowed again, revealing him face to face with a student’s face frozen in a scream. This was not Rabé. Anakin stumbled back, tripping on what felt like the fabric of a scarf, before he saw the glint of eyes reflecting the light off his wand.

Yellow. Bright yellow eyes narrowing as they realized they’d been caught. Anakin felt his heart leap in his chest. Fear filling his lungs, causing him to nearly choke on a scream. He heard the eyes take a step forward and he scrambled to his feet and fell into a sprint. His wand light faded as his concentration waned and he shoved it into his robes.

He shouldn’t be running from Maul, because that’s who it was, of course. He’d vowed revenge even if Qui-Gon always gave him that sad sort of look when he said it. He should be back there giving that kidnapper a piece of his mind. He was the Chosen One, it was his job to save everyone and take down the bad guys.

Even as these thoughts played in his mind, he continued to sprint, fear pushing him into overdrive. He nearly screeched again when he ran full tilt into something human knocking them both to the ground.

“Bloody hell!”

“Rex!” Anakin was relieved to find someone he knew, but it wasn’t enough to stop the adrenaline that had him back on his feet and pulling desperately on Rex’s arm to get him to move, “We have to go now!”

“Great, I just escape Palpatine only to get caught again. Who is it? Windu?” Anakin nearly growled at the slow pace Rex was moving at.

“It’s Maul! We have to go!” That was enough to get him moving.

They didn’t stop to even breathe again until they burst from the wall and right into Professors Palpatine and Qui-Gon who nearly got bowled over.

“What-” Qui-Gon looked ready to start a lecture and Palpatine even looked like he was ready to dole out a few point reductions, but Rex cut them off quickly.

“Anakin saw him!” Rex was pointing his wand at the entrance to the tunnel like Maul was about to come out right then and there for a fight.

“Saw who?” Palpatine asked head tilting to the side in curiosity and Anakin nearly spat the name out as he joined Rex in his battle stance.

“Maul.”

***

The deafening screech that stretched from Hogwarts through Hogsmeade with painful clarity was one that very few students attributed meaning to. It wasn’t unreasonable that students, particularly younger ones, immediately leapt into disorder, running hither and yon, terrified they were about to be dive-bombed. It was a horrible sight to see, even if it didn’t make his job all the more difficult.

Designed with the vocal cords of mandrakes, the emergency siren was only used in times of utter duress and was a means of warning students and faculty to return to Hogwarts at once. Historically, it hadn’t been officially sounded since the early twentieth century. Even still, prefects were always trained on what to do in the event of hearing the siren.

All the training in the world still didn’t fully prepare Obi-Wan for the very real visceral reaction that the ear-splitting sound brought. Of course, he could not spare a single moment to think, a tough reality for a Ravenclaw, and immediately moved forward with what he’d been taught: gather his house, ensure they were all in company, and get them back to the school.

While not given a direct message with it, everyone seemed to share the same thought as he did. There was only one true reason that the archaic alarm would be used right now accompanied by the dementors that jetted across the sky: Maul was close.

Not only close, but likely in their midst.

Shop owners wasted little time in evacuating their premises and battening down the hatches, effectively snuffing the warm glow of Hogsmeade in a singular swoop. His brain was busy scanning the hysterical crowd that was amid constant motion, searching for every and any blue-robed student that he might come across. It occurred to him now that there was perhaps more meaning to the explicitly placed Hogsmeade dress code than the professors led on to. It certainly made rounding up students a lot easier when they were color-coded.

Moving around on the ice-laden stone walkways? Less easy. He’d not only had to catch his own balance in his haste, but many other wobbly students. Even Satine’s elbow was caught by him a time or two, of which she spared no time to thank him, though he knew otherwise she would. She was just as stern as him in their mission, practically grabbing students and sliding them across the way to the huddle of other students, hardly blinking in the process.

It was with this goal in mind that he was able to develop a razor focus that practically tuned out the alarm. That, or the pounding in his ears did a decent job of it. Silently, he found the space to be relieved that Anakin was safe back at the castle with the other younger students.

It couldn’t have taken more than a couple of minutes to successfully corral all of the students that lingered about. It wasn’t as though any of them truly wanted to sneak off, after all. The horror on everyone’s faces spoke volumes of their concern.

Each of the prefects did their headcounts rapidly, trying not to dawdle for a moment longer than necessary, all praying they reached the same number they started with. He felt capable of breathing again when Ravenclaw reached that quota. Gryffindor prefects, it seemed, had forgotten to include themselves for a moment, which briefly induced a panic that was quickly assuaged by an irritated Mace Windu.

Perhaps it was a bit presumptuous to be relieved that Mace Windu and Kit Fisto were the supervising professors that day, but it certainly helped their odds to have experienced fighters of dark magic alongside them. The sky grew dark above them, not from the descending sun, but from the mere presence of the dementors swarming together like an ominous storm cloud.

No one looked back as they were ushered down through the storm cellar beneath Honeydukes, which remained open only at Windu’s order.

“Move quickly, don’t linger, don’t stop, don’t pause!” He ordered in a booming voice that didn’t even need to be amplified with a charm.

While Gryffindor’s prefects had nobly volunteered to lead the charge of students down and through the tunnel, the others remained on the side, performing last-minute counts to ensure all made it safely while urging them to hurry it up. No one seemed to have a problem with performing the latter, but some were getting a little rowdy in the process.

“Hey, hey, this is not an excuse to push or shove!” Satine chastised a few overeager Slytherins, “The only way this works is if you work together!”

She was right, of course, but Obi-Wan believed it was falling on deaf ears. They were terrified and rightfully so. Perhaps they shouldn’t have allowed the Hogsmeade trip to occur in the first place with everything going on. It was almost like they were trying to lure Maul in. If that was the case, it was a very sadistic choice.

Padmé Amidala as well as her friends had been some of the last people to filter in, surprisingly, and tears stained their cheeks.

“Keep it moving, ladies!” Kit Fisto ordered.

“We can’t find Rabé!” Sabé, the girl who looked most like Padmé, cried.

“I’m sure she’s here somewhere.” Windu said, “Slytherin house reported no missing students based on their earlier count. Now GO!”  

“She came later!” Padmé insisted, pushing back against the hands of Fenn Rau, who was trying to make them descend down the ladder. “We never saw her!”

“Then maybe she never came at all?” Satine tried.

“She came.” Padmé looked between both of them, “I know she did! She wouldn’t flake out on us like that. What if something horrible happened to her? What if-”

“-We can explore these possibilities back at Hogwarts.” Windu said, “If she is indeed missing, I will waste no time in coming back for her. I promise you.”

“That is already a waste of time!” Sabé protested, “What if she’s hurt?”

“I cannot risk all of you, including these prefects, for one possibly lingering student. I need to get you back to safety. The tunnels will be locked behind us.” Windu said and waved his wand to provide a gust of air, sending all of the girls down the tunnel against their own will. Satine looked horrified at the choice and frankly, so did Windu for a moment, before he began insisting the prefects follow.

For Obi-Wan, time began to slow down as his brain methodically and almost mechanically traced back through that day, desperately trying to recall if he’d seen Rabé. She stood out among Padmé’s friends in that she was the only Slytherin and yet it was still odd to see them apart. Before the alarm had turned the world on its head, it had been a rather mundane and peaceful day at Hogsmeade. The weather had been nice, if not quite nippy. He’d popped into Tomes & Scrolls with Satine while Cody lingered around Spintwitches, but none of them bought anything. If they had, surely, it would have been lost in the chaos with many other student’s purchases.

He’d debated getting a box of every flavor beans, since Hondo said he had a game of Russian Roulette, but with the beans, brewing. Cody seemed interested and it sounded like less of a consequential gaming experience than Hondo’s usual ventures. He wasn’t afforded the opportunity to go into Honeydukes, but…

Obi-Wan felt his heart stop altogether in his chest. He hadn’t gone into Honeydukes, but he almost did. And who was lingering by the butterbeer stand when he was busy deliberating with Cody?

Rabé.

He’d only caught a glimpse of her for a fraction of a second before he turned around. Clear as daylight and standing at the far end of Hogsmeade. There were other Slytherins around her, but like Padmé, her hair was always intricately woven and this made her stand out.

Where did she go so that none of her friends saw her?

“She was here today,” Obi-Wan lurched forward, grabbing Satine by the arm on instinct.

“How do you know?” She began to ask, eyes searching his own with growing concern.

“I saw her.” He said and then shoved against the stream of students that were still pouring down the tunnel.

“Ben,” It was her turn to grab him, “Wait!”

He didn’t wait, though. Instead, he slipped out of her grasp, which had been firm enough to take his robe with it, and pushed through the crowd. Windu, never the slouch, noticed him instantly and his eyes widened as he realized what Obi-Wan was trying to do. Unlike Padmé and the girls, he didn’t give him the opportunity to stop him, instead lunging forward and falling into an immediate sprint out the door- the cold wind whipping his face so hard that it caused tears to freeze in their wake.

He vaguely heard his name shouted from behind him, but he could only think of finding Rabé before it was too late. It might have been impulsive and it was definitely foolish, but he wouldn’t be able to leave with a clear conscience unless he did everything in his power to bring every student back safely. He understood that the professors needed to do their duty, but Obi-Wan was to be an auror someday. Running into the line of fire was surely a requirement of such a field.

All he could think of was how he knew what it was like to be forgotten. If there was even a small chance of preventing someone else from befalling that fate, he had to try.

Running across the slick stone walkway proved itself to be even more difficult than walking had, but Obi-Wan was utilizing the forward motion that the ice provided him for acceleration. The sky above him was almost completely black- as though Hogsmeade was at risk for being sucked into outer space. Suddenly, the cold that Obi-Wan felt no longer seemed to be as a result from the climate.

He’d studied dementors a good deal over the years and objectively understood how they drained a person from their hopes and dreams, removing the parts of them that basically made them human, but he realized then that he never really knew. He wasn’t even the target for these dementors and just being in their presence made him feel like all color was depleting from the landscape.

He forced himself through it, focusing on the task at hand and what purpose that gave him. He decided to slide by the (now closed) butterbeer stand at the end, where he’d last seen Rabé. After all, it was entirely possible that he was the last person to see her alive. That certainly didn’t give him much comfort.

He turned his head from side to side, trying with a last stitch effort to see if she’d taken refuge in one of the closed shops. The keepers were kind and would more than likely house a lost student during a crisis such as this.

As dread pooled deeper in the pit of his stomach and his body struggled to fight off the shaky chill that climbed its way up his spine, he dared to look up, noticing that the dementors were no longer searching, but swarming. The snowfall only seemed to thicken, which was rather unfortunate as Obi-Wan had to swipe his arm over his eyes several times to continue seeing.

They congregated at the Three Broomsticks- in front of which, Obi-Wan did not stop, but in his haste, did meet the bloodshot amber eyes of none other than the Dathomirian known as Maul. In their midst, Obi-Wan found he would rather embark on a lengthy stay with a dementor than look another second into the killer’s eyes. He was leaning back in his seat with casual aplomb and raised his stein of butterbeer as though in cheers or celebration, selling the chilling lack of regard for life with a cruel smile curling his black and red lips.

It was if he was saying, “I’ve won.”

Obi-Wan swallowed thickly and averted his gaze immediately, understanding that this might be his final moment. If that were so, he would use it wisely.

“No, you won’t.”

Maul’s smile broadened, resembling the actual devil as he did so.

Yes, Obi-Wan was definitely about to die.

However, the moment ended as quick as it started, for once the dementors dive bombed past Obi-Wan and straight for Maul, he flipped a galleon into the air and caught it, allowing himself to disappear to whatever rock he dragged himself from before.

Obi-Wan only thundered forward until he arrived at the end of the limits of the town, sighing deeply and wincing at the wreath of frost that circled his head as he caught his breath. He was immensely cold and with nothing to do about it and worse, began to feel quite defeated. Part of him wanted to rationalize that Rabé did likely go back to the castle. However, whether it was intuition or simply an unknown magic in the air, he could practically feel the presence of another.

Then, from the corner of his eyes, he noticed something poking out of the snow- just next to an old townhome, and drew closer. His steps were heavy and without hopeful anticipation as he regarded the gray fingers breaking through the massive snowdrift.

He knelt down slowly, and raised his wand to blow away the piles of snow and ice and used his hands to remove the last remnants on his own. Attached to the outstretched hand, which served as much as a warning as it did a signal of distress, was the petrified gray face of Rabé.

***

“You have to go back for him!” Satine demanded as she was practically carried by Fisto all the way back to Hogwarts. It had been the only way they were able to prevent her from slipping after Obi-Wan in a panic-induced gut-reaction. She believed he was an idiot for running off the way he did, but that wasn’t to say she didn’t understand the feeling.

“The dementors are mobilizing, Satine!” Windu turned on her with fire in his eyes, “Had Mr. Kenobi not been so uncharacteristically impetuous, we wouldn’t be here.”

“And there would still be a lost child out there!” She growled, not usually one to ever speak to a professor so brazenly, but this was Obi-Wan they were talking about, and she would always be a bit irrational when it came to him. “It doesn’t seem like anyone really cares about that though!”

“Not care? I would lay down my life for every single one of you. Do you think it pleases me to know that not one, but two students could be suffering at the hands of that animal on my watch?” Windu said hotly, “But I cannot jeopardize the dementors potentially catching a murderous sociopath. Obi-Wan would not want me to do that!”

She knew deep in her bones that he was right, but she didn’t take to it any better, instead feeling bile rise up her throat- only subdued by the way it seemed to constrict at the wretched thought of losing her best friend. The cold weight of pure dread settled on her chest, evaporating her fury and nearly suffocating all logical thought.

Nearly.

She turned on her heels back to Ravenclaw house, who were staring at her with a mixture of sympathy and shock. Satine knew she had the capacity to lose her patience, but she tried to always do so with some semblance of professionalism.

“We’ll go find him ourselves then!” Cody, equally as heated as she had been, raged alongside Echo and Fives. All were still dressed for the winter and had their wands at the ready.

“You will do no such thing.” Professor Fisto pulled Cody back by the arm, “Headmaster Yoda is the only one who can save your friend now.”

“What was the point of teaching us all that stuff if we aren’t going to use it?” Cody fired.

“In the event that there is an inescapable situation, Cody.” Fisto said, “I commend your bravery, but there is a line between courage and stupidity.”

“So, that’s it?” Echo chimed in, “We’re just going to run and hide every time a bad guy comes knocking on our door?”

“Yeah, you’re supposed to teach us defense against the dark arts!” Fives added, “I’d say Maul qualifies.”

“Maul is much more than any of you can understand or handle.” Windu’s voice no longer spoke with anger, but from a deep place that teetered on remorse and pity. There was a defeated look in his eyes that Satine would never forget, as though Maul had already won.

“Glad you’ve all been effectively wasting our time then.” Cody snarled, “Propping us up and making us feel as though we’re really doing something all year. What has all of this been? Some show for the Ministry?”

A few other Gryffindors pooled around him and it occurred to Satine just then that if Cody hadn’t been so set on pursuing Quidditch as a career, that he’d make a mighty fine commanding officer. People rallied behind him. They believed in him.

She just wished that call to order wasn’t coming from a place of wishing to fight a dark lord.

“Cody, I highly recommend that you stand down.” Fisto said, “I get that you’re upset, but we need to remain calm. Take your brothers back to the Great Hall and wait for further instructions.”

Cody was teeming with anger- she could tell just looking at him and for a moment, she feared he was going to act brashly. Windu seemed to think the same thing judging by the appraising look he gave him.

He didn’t move, but he did send Echo and Fives back with the Gryffindor prefects and the rest of the house. The other houses and their respective prefects trickled afterwards, each going to the Great Hall for what was surely to be another lockdown.

“Great, another sleepover.” Fives huffed as he went.

“Yeah, telling ghost stories by candlelight altogether will surely keep us safe.” Echo complained under his breath.

“I thought I said-” Fisto began.

“-I’m not leaving until Kenobi is found.” Cody said, “Dead or alive.”

“Don’t you dare talk like that.” She seethed, grabbing his attention instantly and Cody, to his credit, did appear riddled with guilt at her reaction.

“Sorry.” He muttered.

“I expect this level of irrationality from Cody.” Windu said and eyed Satine, “But not you.”

“I’m not leaving either.” She said, clutching Obi-Wan’s robe tightly between clenched fists, “Consequences be damned.”

Where she thought there would be retribution or even more yelling, there was not. Fisto, of the two of them, actually appeared more upset. Windu, instead, nodded slightly. It seemed he understood that this was a battle he would not be winning today.

Satine scanned the area, remembering someone very curious to be missing from the pack. As if it were possible, more horror gnawed at her nerves, “Where’s Anakin?”

That was Maul’s whole purpose for scouting out the school, right?

Windu grimaced, “He did try to sneak out to Hogsmeade earlier.”

Her eyes widened, “But he’s alright?”

“It is to my understanding that young Skywalker is with Professor Jinn.” Palpatine swerved around the corner, dark cloaks flowing behind him dramatically as he reconvened with the professors, “Any update on Maul?”

“No,” Windu said tartly, “But seeing as our students have been debating on staging a coup, it might have been useful to have your presence, Professor.”

The tension, as it was, seemed unbreakable.

“My apologies, Professor Windu, but I will say these students have the right to be upset. All of our efforts to protect the school have thus far failed.” Palpatine said.

Satine also couldn’t blame everyone for being upset. In their effort to make everyone feel safe, they only propped them up with delusions of grandeur. There was a fine line to walk between keeping the student body informed and propagating debilitating fear- at least in this predicament.

“You’re here now.” Fisto said, “That’s what counts.”

Satine wasn’t so sure, but then again, Maul hadn’t broken in yet.

“Surely, it’s not wise to have students so close to the entrance.” Palpatine said.

“Yes, well, it also wasn’t wise to allow Anakin so close to your Vitamix potion.” Windu countered, “I guess we’re all doing things a bit differently right now.”

Palpatine seemed properly slapped by that, because there was little argument that could be brought up to counter the comment. That was, indeed, what happened and it left the school wide open for possible attack.

“Yoda should be back any minute.” Fisto paced the floor, his wet boots making a squeaking noise as he did so, “And hopefully, he has good news.”

“If not?” Cody asked.

“If not, we might have to help him and if that’s the case, you two will stay back.” Windu ordered.

Even Cody didn’t argue with that logic.

Not but a moment later, erratic banging came from the metal door, growing more desperate as the seconds went on. Palpatine leaned forward as if to open it and Fisto grabbed his wrist before he could perform the charm.

“There’s a password.” Fisto said.

“And why would Maul just come knocking on the front door?” Palpatine scoffed.

“Maul is anything but conventional.” Windu reasoned.

Cody and Satine looked between each other as the three professors deliberated. They were beginning to understand why it sometimes felt like it took forever for anything to get done. No one could agree on the simplest things.

“What if it’s Ben?” Satine stepped forward, “You’ve said it yourself that the tunnels are blocked off now.”

“Yoda would have found him and brought him back by apparition.” Fisto said.

“And if he didn’t?”

Windu opened his mouth to respond, but then from a familiar voice, “HELLO THERE? IS ANYONE THERE?”

She glared between the three professors, who were all a bit dumbstruck as they hastily moved to open the door. As it swung open unceremoniously, her heart resumed beating as Obi-Wan Kenobi, pale, drenched and speckled with snowflakes, practically fell through the entryway.

She moved on instinct rather than thought and caught him in a tight hug, combatting the sharp chill that traveled up her spine at his frigid body with the warm relief that he was alive. She only removed herself enough to tightly wrap his robe around his shoulders before pulling him closer.

“Get him some blankets!” Windu ordered while Palpatine was simultaneously brewing a warm beverage from thin air. Satine, for her part, could not let go.

“N-nice t-to see you t-too.” He shivered and did not reject the warm contact.

“You’re an idiot, Obi-Wan Kenobi.” She muttered into his shoulder, but it really didn’t have as much fire as she would have liked it to- not when he looked so pitiful with wet hair in his face, teeth chattering, and a nose and cheeks red from the cold.

“I’m aware.” He said.

“You could have been killed!”

“I know.”

“And you really couldn’t have at least brought your robe with you if you were going to go running off on a deadly mission?”

“You’re right.”

“Stop agreeing with me!” She leaned back and glared at him.

“My apologies,” He smiled ruefully, but it faded almost instantly, “All the trouble I’ve caused, I’m afraid it was for nothing.”

“What do you mean?” Fisto cut in.

“I saw him.” Obi-Wan’s voice was hollow when he said it. His eyes became downcast as he reminisced, “And Rabé. I couldn’t move her on my own… She was frozen in carbonite.”

Windu cursed, scrubbing a hand over his bald head, “And Maul?”

“Gone.” Obi-Wan said, “He used a portkey before the dementors could get to him.”

***

The dementors separated like parting clouds, allowing for remnants of dwindling sunlight to cast a yellow beam onto Hogsmeade. Even with the sunset behind it, the usually buzzing and quaint town looked barren without the lively folk that inhabited it. It was to their best interest to hide, of course, and he knew that once this awful storm passed, they would return again. Yoda moved slowly through the snow, feet unbothered by the crunch of the ice beneath him.

He had no doubt that Maul was here, but held equal assurance that he no longer was. His protective charms were supposed to stop people from getting in, not out.

He grimaced as he knelt to the Slytherin girl’s motionless body- frozen in time with a horrific expression painting her features. She would need to join the growing group that took up beds in Madame Nema’s hospital wing. He just hoped with everything in him that they could make this right.

It tugged at his heart that children always seemed to be the ones to suffer for the choices of adults. This one was not excluded as Yoda and the other professors deemed that it would be safe.

It should have been safe.

He cursed as he thought back to the extensive lengths he’d gone to in protecting the school. He was exhausted, constantly firing off on all cylinders to keep this place safe. Even Hogsmeade hadn’t been exempt from his reach.

Well it had, but it seemed the small window of Maul’s murder in Diagon Alley to Yoda waking up from the botched Vitamix potion was the hole he’d crawled through. The dementors hadn’t detected him, which was a whole other concern that he would need to investigate at a later time.

There were so many ways that they failed.

Yes, well, this girl’s parents will not enjoy a meager response like that, so he ought to think of something better. Either way, he would not be sleeping well for his hubris. Maul might not storm the castle with his being there, but he was not above dancing around it. He was boxed out for now, but there was only so much that could be done. He had managed to convince them to disallow apparition for the time being without Ministry approval. This combined with the monitorization of the Floo network, limited Maul significantly.

However, there were always portkeys, which was the most secure way for a person in hiding to quickly transport. You didn’t need a license for it and you didn’t even leave a trace on your wand in the process.

It seemed Maul was getting significant joy from toying with them by instilling fear. It was just like a dark wizard to play on people’s emotions as such.

And yet…

He looked back down at the girl with a different sort of befuddlement. Not that he was complaining, but why hadn’t he killed her? Was it because it would have drawn too much attention for his liking? That didn’t seem right, though, because he had no problem murdering the guards at Azkaban or that store owner on Diagon Alley. Why utilize this mysterious alternative method now?

It hadn’t been the first time, obviously. There was the first official occurrence in December, not to mention the carbon remnants found in Shmi Skywalker’s flat, and Obi-Wan and Satine’s discovery at the Shrieking Shack.

Maul had certainly developed a predilection for the long con in his time locked away in Azkaban. Yoda would say it was out of character if he didn’t understand how much a man could change from trauma. He’d seen it in his own face and he’d seen it in many other’s. Maul didn’t want to mess up this time. He wanted his target and he wanted it done right.

But why Anakin Skywalker? Surely, Maul didn’t buy into the Chosen One prophecy. And if he did, why the sudden malevolence towards the boy? Nothing from the ancient texts seemed to make any reference to Maul in the slightest. It wouldn’t have affected him in Azkaban.

Would it?

As Yoda waved his wand once to lift the casket of carbon from the ground to float aimlessly behind him, he turned back towards the castle, realizing not for the first time that the more he learned, the more he had to ask.

***

“We were worried you became a popsicle out there,” Cody said as he took off his own robe and coat to also wrap around Obi-Wan. They all sat in the Great Hall with the rest of the student body, each positioned on their own sleeping bag as they faced each other. Despite having been inside for over an hour, Obi-Wan still clutched the blankets that were given to him tightly and didn’t reject Cody’s addition to the pile.

“I’m sure he was more concerned about seeing Maul.” Satine said.

“I’m sure he was.” Ventress sauntered by with her trademark smirk painted on her black-stained lips.

“Come off it, Ventress,” Cody scowled, “Kenobi wouldn’t lie about such a thing. Dementors were there too.”

“They’ve been here the entire time, Fett.” Ventress said, “How many false scares have there been? I’m beginning to believe it’s all conspiracy, myself.”

“It’s that level of thinking that’s going to get someone seriously injured.” Satine said, “Or worse.”

“Maybe then someone will start to take legitimate action,” She sighed almost dreamily, like she was fantasizing about the possibility.

“And I suppose Rabé basically turning to stone was just nothing.” Cody barked.

“A pity, truly.” She inspected her fingernails, which were actually quite noticeably jagged and cracked with chipped black polish, “Have we not noticed that every victim has been pureblood? You don’t hear the Ministry talking about that, of course.”

“What are you getting at?” Satine growled.

“I’m just saying, Duchess,” Ventress displayed her best pout, which coming from her, still had all the appearances of a cat ready to pounce, “I would hate to see a group marginalized by their blood type.”

“Listen here, Ventress-” She clutched his sleeping bag tightly and was surely ready to fire off on a meaningful tangent of her own, but was interrupted by the sound of barreling footsteps coming their way.

Anakin and Rex came sprinting down the aisle and slid onto their knees towards where they sat. Anakin, for his part, skidded right into Obi-Wan and nearly knocked him over by the velocity at which he traveled.

“Where have you two been?” Cody asked.

“We were with Qui-Gon!” Anakin said and looked around to Obi-Wan, “Fives just told us about what happened at Hogsmeade and I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

Obi-Wan’s heart melted at the thought of Anakin’s concern and ruffled his hair, “Not a scratch on me.”

Anakin nodded in relief, “That’s good. It’s crazy that we both saw Maul today and he didn’t even do anything to either of us!”

Obi-Wan, Satine, Cody, and the briefly forgotten Ventress all snapped their attention towards Anakin in surprise.

“I’m sorry, what?” Satine was the first to speak.

“When and where did you see Maul?” Cody followed shortly behind.

“And you lived?” It was unclear whether Ventress was surprised or disappointed.

Obi-Wan, in all fairness, was still processing the small twelve year old boy, who presumably alone, faced the bloodthirsty killer that had it out for him. He knew he must have looked horrified, because Anakin’s own worry seemed to grow by just looking at Obi-Wan.

“I’m okay!” He said first, knowing that this was the most important thing, “And for the record, it wasn’t my fault.”

“It was a little your fault.” Rex winced.

“Rex! You’re supposed to be on my side!” Anakin whined.

“What did you do?” Obi-Wan pinched his brow.

“I already told Qui-Gon and he promised me immunity and while I don’t know for sure what that means, I’m pretty sure it means you’re not allowed to get mad.”

“That’s not what it means.” He said.

“Well, then, who’s got a decent ghost story to share?” He tried, looking around to each of them, “Ventress? I’m sure you’ve got some just by looking in a mirror every day.”

“Anakin…”

“Fine…” He sighed, “I… Might have sort of tried to go give Padmé her Valentine.”

“Of all the foolish and impulsive things to do!” Obi-Wan roared instantly.

“You said you wouldn’t get mad!”

“No I did not!” He snapped, “Do you not realize how incredibly dangerous that was? And the kind of risk you were putting yourself at? What would have happened if he had gotten you? I swear, I know you’re young but you need to think in terms of the long-”

“-Mate, not sure you are in the best position to be giving that lecture today.” Cody said, “Seeing as you also ran right into Maul’s clutches.”

“Yeah, really!” Anakin defended, “I heard all about what you did!”

“To save someone!” Obi-Wan rounded on his friend, “Not to retrieve a pretty trinket for a girl I fancy!”

“Based on your taste that’s a good thing.” Ventress scoffed.

Satine, who was admittedly calmer than Obi-Wan, frowned and looked at Anakin, “What happened?”

“If I’m allowed to continue.” He said pointedly before going on, “I wasn’t actually going to go to Hogsmeade. Believe it or not, I’m not completely stupid.”

“You just said-” Obi-Wan’s voice cracked.

“-Ben, let him finish.” Satine admonished.

“Thank you,” Anakin nodded and the kid really had the nerve to look smug, “I wasn’t going to Hogsmeade, but Rabé was and believe it or not, I get nervous too sometimes. I wasn’t sure I would have the nerve to give it to her in person, so I was going to ask Rabé if she could give it to Padmé for me. So, I used the map to follow her, obviously, and was never going to leave the tunnel system. But then about halfway through, I saw him.”

“Maul?” Cody asked in awe.

“No, the boogeyman. Yes, Maul.” Rex rolled his eyes.

“Seems like the same thing to me,” Ventress yawned, clearly unimpressed, “Seeing as Maul can’t be in two places at once, I would say one of you is lying.”

“I’m not lying!” Anakin asserted and looked to Obi-Wan, “And he’s not either.”

“Rabé didn’t just turn to carbonite on her own.” Obi-Wan said.

Anakin’s eyes widened, “He got Rabé too?”

“What do you mean too?” Satine asked.

“I mean, Tiplee was also frozen in carbonite down in the tunnels. I only managed to get away because I must have caught him off guard. I ran as fast as I could.” He patted his pockets, “Dang! I think I dropped the map in the process. Again.”

“Seriously, no more of those for you.” Satine said.

“Not like it’ll be of much use now that Yoda is closing the tunnels again.” Cody said.

“That’s horrible.” Obi-Wan frowned and stroked his chin thoughtfully, “But I wonder why he wouldn’t have come into the school.”

“He’s afraid of Yoda.” Ventress scowled, “Everyone knows that, but clearly, he’s a fool to be leaving all of these little clues around.”

“There’s got to be a bigger plan at play here.” Satine said.

“Like what? Two Maul’s?” Ventress rolled her eyes, “I could see the creep going after Skywalker as that is clearly his primary intent, but Kenobi? Who would bother to go after someone who cowered at his own shadow at one point?”

The particular incident that Ventress was alluding to happened when they were only five years old, he might add, but even in his head it didn’t pack the same impact that she wanted it to. Instead, Obi-Wan flashed her a disapproving look.

“Rabé is a member of your house.” He pointed out, “I didn’t see you running back to save her.”

“Actually, I didn’t see you at all.” Satine added.

Ventress, nonplussed, rolled her eyes dramatically, “Good to know the two of you are still conjuring nonsense that would rival The Quibbler, but if you must know, I was tutoring in the library.”

“Wait a second,” Obi-Wan allowed some of the blanket to slide off of him when he sat up straighter, trying his best to suppress a shiver that immediately followed. He was grateful that Satine set it back into place, “Don’t tell me you’re Hondo’s tutor.”

Ventress furrowed her brow, “Be wary of the tone, Kenobi. My marks often rival your own.”

She wasn’t wrong. Horrible personality aside, Ventress was an exemplary student. Like him, she sort of had to be, given the reputation their respective families upheld.

“I wasn’t underestimating your intelligence,” He said, because he wasn’t a total fool, “But I never took you for a good samaritan.”

“Surely, he’s paying her.” Satine groaned as she leaned back on her hands.

“I don’t need the money, muggle-born.” She hissed.

“Since when has galleons been his only form of currency?” Satine shrugged, “Everyone has a price, is all I’m saying.”

“Fools,” Ventress shook her head as she walked away, “All of you.”

“Yeah, well, when you turn to stone, it’ll match your heart.” Anakin said and stood up, “I’m going to go apologize to Padmé.”

Obi-Wan watched him sadly as he walked over to where the crestfallen group of usually chipper girls huddled together. At least they were able to comfort each other in this trying time. Obi-Wan looked to Cody and Satine, who were both wearing a considerable amount of concern on their features.

He knew their responsibilities as older students and prefects, alike, were only going to rise as the fear and sense of danger increased. Anakin had nearly come to his end if he hadn’t been so quick on his feet. He supposed those dueling classes did have their uses if implemented properly. As it were, Maul would likely not make the same mistake twice.

***

The atmosphere was much more subdued than most Quidditch mornings. Even Cody found himself sitting quietly across from where Obi-Wan was falling asleep over a plate of pancakes. Ventress was the only one not subdued, she was glaring around at her team, snarling at anyone not paying attention to her. He didn’t think she’d get very far with an attitude like that. As captain, sometimes the best thing you could do was read the mood of your teammates.

Obi-Wan’s head dropped forwards almost landing in the syrup before Satine managed to pull him back without even a glance over. He blinked, looking around like he hadn’t even been aware they were in the Great Hall in the first place.

“Might want to eat something, mate,” Cody suggested, gesturing to his plate that he seemed surprised was loaded even if he had done it himself.

“Right,” He did so without another word. Satine looked fairly volatile this morning, having woken up extremely early for a morning patrol so there wasn’t much conversation for them to be had. He was tired too, having been picking up a few patrols of his own. Palpatine’s accidental sleeping potion may have been an unfortunate idea, but a few extra hands that could take on prefect duties were still welcomed. It’s not like Cody could say no after watching his friends be run ragged.

“You sure you’re going to be awake enough to stay on a broom?” Cody asked as they both watched a piece of pancake fall slowly off his fork. Obi-Wan just nodded looking up with a sigh.

“We’re all tired,” He nodded towards where Koth had passed out at the breakfast table. Aayla and Cin were awake enough to doodle on his face so it maybe wasn’t the entire team, “Hopefully this will make for a short game.”

“Hopefully,” He nodded, but he wasn’t sure he was honest in his statement. Ventress was looking especially poisonous this morning and wouldn’t take anything sitting down, “Maybe we shouldn’t be playing anyways.”

Obi-Wan and Satine both looked at him like he’d just grown a second head and he met their looks with a glare.

“Who are you and what have you done with Cody?” Kenobi squinted at him as if checking to make sure he hadn’t been cursed.

“I think hell must have frozen over,” Satine added with a nod, “I never thought I’d hear Cody Fett, not want anything to do with Quidditch.”

“Hey! Woah!” He shook his head quickly, “I never said that.”

They both raised an eyebrow at him and he rolled his eyes.

“Even I am not enough of a sports fan to look past the elephant in the room,” He jabbed his fork at them, “Maul’s close and we’re just going to take the whole school outside? Again? Plus, morale is down,” Instead of gesturing to the two obvious examples in front of him, he pointed to Koth, who had just woken up and hadn’t figured out why everyone was laughing at him yet.

“When you put it that way...” Obi-Wan flicked his eyes to the professors, who were desperately trying to keep warm inviting facades. He took a sip of pumpkin juice.

“Why go through all this trouble for such a barbaric game anyways,” Satine glowered, “We need a break from potential violence not more.”

Cody knew explaining the dynamics of Quidditch would not change her mind any so he kept his own thoughts to himself on the matter. He thought of Quidditch as a much needed break most of the time. But it was hard to deny the fact that only a few people would be having a good time today and that wasn’t how he felt a healthy Quidditch environment should be.

The screech of an owl alerted everyone to the arrival of the morning mail. It was always a little hectic, but it didn’t stop them from being able to spot one of their three owls if it chose to show up. The only owl Cody could recognize was a large tawny one. Well manicured and, if memory served, sharp talons. Obi-Wan barely avoided getting his letter dropped on his head, his hand flicked up to catch the falling parchment with deft precision. As most letters from his parents, he was careful to shield it so Satine couldn’t see, something that always had her frustrated despite knowing that it was fair given the nature of these letters.

Obi-Wan read the whole thing in lightning speed, eyebrows furrowing the further he got, although he nodded before swiftly depositing it on the table next to his plate. His owl swooped down again landing on his head causing him to wince.

“Alright message received,” He tried to pick up the pesky owl, but it looked rather indignant to be manhandled. Still because he was gentle and fed him a bit of breakfast, the owl allowed itself to be set on his arm, “Tell them they’re early,” He tried saying it quietly enough so neither of them would hear, unfortunately they were both rather intune to his voice. If an owl could show emotions, which Cody had, up until this moment thought untrue, Obi-Wan’s owl would look almost melancholic for a moment. A hard thing to do for a bird that had permanent angry eyebrows colored into its feathers.

It took off in a hurry, nearly taking off a few heads as it went and disappeared back into the flock it had arrived with.

“What did they say?” Satine asked, as she usually did, but he just shrugged.

“Nothing out of the ordinary,” He gave her a smile, but she frowned.

“That never makes me feel better,” She told him sternly. He just shrugged.

There was a loud pop and they all looked up to see Palpatine and Qui-Gon standing at the head of the Great Hall, the two of them would be escorting both teams outside and to the pitch. It was best to have an experienced teacher at the helm and who better than those who had earned their titles as Heads of House.

Obi-Wan stood swiftly, accepting their well wishes and good lucks, before falling into line behind Eeth. Satine was watching them leave with narrowed eyes and Cody wasn’t sure what was going on, but she certainly looked much more focused than earlier. She slid her hand across the table, snatching the note from where he’d left it, clearly for the trash pile, and spread it open.

“Should you do that?” He asked even if he was curious himself, he wasn’t about to get accused of reading other people’s mail.

“It’s a suspicious piece of parchment I found unattended,” She lied as she peered down at it. Her nose scrunched up in disgust as she read it just loud enough for him to hear.

“Obi-Wan Kenobi,

As you are about to turn 17, we remind you once again of your duties and expectations. In one year you will turn 18 and we’ll discuss then your future. Despite your best attempts to undermine our plans we will do what we can to work around your failure.

Don’t expect a gift this year, you received one last year and we’ll be happy to give you one when you turn 20. Consider continuing to go to school despite your constant disappointments gift enough.

-Mother”

Cody felt the grip on his fork tighten as he stared a hole through the paper. A correspondence with Obi-Wan’s family really was never pleasant, but did they have to be so outwardly despicable? What surprised him most was the excitement lighting up Satine’s eyes as she read the letter over again.

“Brilliant!” She grinned and he practically snapped his fork in half.

“What’s so brilliant about those two bastards continuing to tighten the noose around his neck?” Cody growled and Satine looked up, having the decency to look aghast.

“Oh heavens no,” She looked sick at the thought, “That’s not what I was referring to at all. How could you think-?”

“-How could I not? Maybe hell is freezing over,” He ran a hand down his face as she rummaged around in her bag before shoving plates and goblets out of the way, nearly toppling a few over. She set down a massive book-like object with a white exterior and silver rings. It was full to the brim with pages and she opened it up excitedly.

“It’s a binder,” She told him at his look before moving on to what must have been the important thing at hand, “You know how Ben’s rather dodgy about his birthday?” Cody nodded, “Well I’ve been tracking him ever since 2nd year,” She flipped around in the binder and Cody could see so many color-coded graphs it made his head spin.

“You did this? For what?”

“If he won’t tell us, I’ll find out on my own,” She glared sternly at a picture of Ben that blinked up at her from the page, “That’s what I told him,” She flipped through it, pointing at various sections, “I was able to surmise that his parents tend to have a letter pattern. They only send him mail on major holidays or if he’s done something they disapprove of.”

“When is that not the case,” He muttered.

“I was able to narrow it down after a few years to February or March,” She was in the back of the book now where a calendar full of crossed out dates sat, “It was confusing, sometimes they sent him a letter end of February like this one,” She waved the letter at him, “Sometimes it was in March. This is the first time I’ve been able to read one,” She grinned proudly tucking the letter into the back pocket for evidence purposes.

“What good does that do? They didn’t say what day it was,” Cody studied the calendar in interest.

“It does a lot of good!” She pulled a fancy highlighter from her bag, “He said they were early, meaning it can’t be any of these dates,” She ran her finger through most of the month. They only had a few days left until March though, maybe she’d figured out the month, “Most importantly!” She looked at him face as serious as it was when she was taking her OWLs, “They said they got him a gift last year-”

“Yeah a ruddy gift,” Cody frowned, “What good is an antique quill if it doesn’t even work?”

“I agree,” She said impatiently, “That’s not the point. They said they’d get him another one when he turned 20. He turned 16 last year-”

“Your point?” Cody was beginning to get lost and would rather she hurry up her point than leave him thinking.

“He doesn’t have a birthday this year at all!” She announced and Cody straightened, staring at her in shock.

“Well that’s not possible!” He declared, “Everyone has a birthday once a year! Even those who don’t care much like Kenobi.”

“It is possible!” She grinned proudly drawing a line on her calendar right between the 28th of February and the 1st of March, “He was born on February 29th! A leap year!”

Cody blinked. That actually made a lot of sense. Kenobi wasn’t a liar and he was sure he’d asked about specific days and been told he was wrong. He’d only seen Kenobi get a birthday present their first year (a pack of gobstones) and their fifth year (the aforementioned broken antique quill). Cody had just figured they wouldn’t ever figure it out unless he told them himself, so he usually just tried to get him a good Christmas present every year. He had noticed Satine had started to give him a present around this time of year, but now they had the exact day.

“Does this mean his parents use that as an excuse to never get him anything?” He frowned and Satine angered instantly.

“I’m almost shocked they haven’t forgotten the date themselves.”

“So,” Cody looked at the little highlighted line indicating the fruition of 5 years of work, “What are we doing about it?”

***

“I still say we should have gone with March 1st,” Cody said from where he was balanced rather precariously on a ladder taping the end of a streamer, “Then we’d be celebrating him having turned 17.”

Satine, who was holding onto the ladder to make sure she didn’t have to take anyone to the hospital wing today, glared up at him, “Absolutely not! He has a February birthday, we’re celebrating it in February. Otherwise he’s going to assume we’ve forgotten it!”

“He doesn’t even know we know it,” Cody rationalized, but came down from the ladder anyways to admire his work with her.

“Alright,” She looked down reading her list. She’d had years to plan this event, he’d never had a party before that she knew of and she wanted it to be perfect, “We’ve got the streamers and the balloons. The guests have been told what time to arrive...” She checked off the boxes as she went, “Can I trust you to go and get the cake without dropping it?” She looked up at her friend and he grinned giving her a thumbs up.

“Oh yeah definitely,” It didn’t instill in her a lot of hope, but he was at least eager to do it.

“Alright go, but hurry!” She checked the time off the clock in the corner. “They’ll be here soon.”

“On it!” He saluted her and raced out the door.

Satine observed her surroundings once more. They’d chosen an empty classroom rather than something elaborate like the Great Hall or too intimate like Qui-Gon’s office. She’d gotten approval, Qui-Gon was to arrive any minute now to supervise. He’d been the only professor she could think of that would understand how important this was to do. She was sure if she’d talked to Windu or even Headmaster Yoda, she’d have gotten shot down before she even began. Qui-Gon knew about Ben’s family though and like her, seemed to want to give him the best experience he could.

There was a spot for the cake on the teacher’s desk as well as plates, utensils, and napkins. The ceiling was practically drowning in streamers of all different colors and balloons were floating around aimlessly. Her and Cody’s presents to him were sitting in a neat pile on a couple of tables pushed together. She hoped he’d get a few more, but hadn’t explicitly said anything on the invitations. It was rather short notice after all.

“You’ve done a wonderful job,” She turned to see Qui-Gon in the doorway. He was holding a colorfully wrapped package which she gratefully took from him placing it on the table next to the other.

“Do you think it’s too much?” The last thing she wanted to do was overwhelm him, but she’d learned over the years it was hard to figure out what would.

“I’m sure we could all do with a little cheeriness,” He said in lieu of answering. Maybe he didn’t know any better than she did.

It didn’t take much more time before the students she’d invited began to arrive. The entirety of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team poured in along with Stass. They’d been a little downtrodden at being beat so terribly by Slytherin, but seemed happy enough to be there. The clones were the next to arrive with Anakin in tow. Anakin proudly added his gift to the stack before going back over to Rex.

Cody arrived again, loudly kicking in the door gingerly holding the cake. It hadn’t gotten squashed which she was thankful for. Behind him was Breha and Bail, both levitating trays of food and a bowl of punch, letting them settle into place on a row of desks.

More prefects appeared as well as a few other students. Hondo had seemed rather pleased to have been invited, but Satine was a little worried about what he had possibly brought as a present. Soon the room was pretty full and Satine shushed everyone as well as she could without shouting.

“Alright I’m going to get Ben,” She announced, “Be ready.”

“Yes ma’am!” The Fett’s all saluted her and the others in the room nodded keeping their chatter to a minimum.

***

Obi-Wan was growing a little concerned. Satine had been the one to ask him to meet her in the library, but she had yet to appear. He’d kept himself occupied with his textbooks, but he was tempted to go out and look for her. It was no sooner than he closed his textbook and stood that she rounded the corner looking rather flustered.

“Sorry I’m late,” She panted as she flipped her hair back and out of her face. It was down today, which was becoming a bit of a rarity and he smiled.

“It’s no trouble,” He said sitting back down, “Was there something in particular you wanted to work on? I’ve already finished my essays, but I can help you with yours.”

“Actually,” She was fidgeting nervously and he gazed up at her in concern, “I was hoping you wouldn’t mind if we went on a walk first.”

“A walk?” That was an unusual request.

“Yes I- I just think it would be nice, don’t you?” Well, he was hard pressed to deny her anything. Especially something as simple as a walk around the castle.

“Alright,” He agreed, sliding his text book back into his bag. She was scrutinizing him and he looked down to make sure his clothes were straightened, because the last time he’d gotten that look his fly had been undone. Rather embarrassing.

He looked up again, starting in surprise, when he felt a hand in his hair. She gave him an apologetic look as she stepped back.

“Sorry, your hair was messed up,” She told him and he felt his face warm slightly, but she just coughed awkwardly and started walking. He ran to catch up.

He couldn’t help, but to run his own hands through his hair, just to ensure that it wasn’t still a mess, “It’s fine Ben,” She told him as she walked just far enough ahead to force him to follow her path.

“I didn’t think you minded much if it was messy,” He said instead of removing his hands.

“I don’t, I just-” Satine cut herself off with a shake of her head. Obi-Wan was confused, but let his hands finally drop to his sides.

“Well alright?” He wasn’t sure what else to say. She was acting off and he couldn’t pinpoint it. Maybe she was upset? But she didn’t look it. Even if she was, the library was perfectly quiet that evening. His heart beat a little faster in his chest as he remembered another time the two of them had been alone, the Christmas party. Did she- were they going to talk about it? He wasn’t sure he knew what to say about such things.

“Ben?” He looked up at his name and she was frowning at him, “Are you alright? You look pale.”

“I’m completely fine,” He confirmed, “Are you?”

“Yes?” Maybe they were both acting a little off this evening.

“Good,” He smiled at her and she returned it easily.

She turned then and walked towards the door of an empty classroom, disappearing inside. What on earth could she want with him in an empty classroom?

He refused to lose her though and quickened his pace until he was pulling the door open only to be assaulted by many loud cheers. It took him a moment to register what they were saying in the first place.

“Happy Birthday!”

His birthday? He blinked, taking in the scene. Many of his close friends were there, his Quidditch team, Anakin, Qui-Gon. All of them were standing there watching him which made him more than a little nervous. The ceiling was decorated in nearly every color of the rainbow and it was complete with balloons. He gripped the strap of his bag, unsure what was expected of him. He certainly had never had a party for himself before.

“Happy Birthday, mate!” Cody appeared in front of him practically dragging him into the room and pushing him towards the professor’s desk. It broke the tension in the room and chatter resumed much to his relief. There were less eyes on him.

“Uhm, thank you,” He managed a smile.

“Look at your cake! We had it made special.”

He looked down in surprise at a white cake decorated with 17 silver candles. Written in delicate blue icing was, “Happy Birthday Obi-Wan!” He’d never had his own birthday cake before, but he’d seen them when Satine or Cody had celebrated theirs. It was kind of them to think of him, he just wished he knew the proper way to respond. The parties he attended usually had scripts to follow and he had never been instructed for one like this.

“It’s chocolate,” Satine’s hand landed right next to his on the desk and he looked up catching her eyes, “I know it’s your favorite.”

“It is,” he agreed almost solemnly.

“Do you like it?” She asked and he nodded quickly, his face heating up, how rude that he hadn’t immediately offered them a thank you.

“Yes of course! I- Thank you,” He told them both seriously, “I’m sorry, I’m just not at all sure how I’m supposed to react.” Satine’s eyes flashed sadly at him for a moment before it was gone and she smiled at him softly, bumping her fingers into his.

“You can react however you’d like,” She assured him, “Yell at me that you hate it for all I care,” He took a step back and nearly tripped over Cody at the insinuation.

“Absolutely not, I’ll treasure it!” He vowed with a stern expression and she laughed a little, it was a sound he quite liked.

“Don’t treasure it too long,” Cody warned him, “Because after we sing to you we’re all going to eat it.”

“Sing?”

Neither of them answered, but he found himself pushed into the professor’s chair and everyone seemed to gather all around him. He felt his face get warm and he hoped it wasn’t too noticeable. Both Cody and Satine were lighting the candles on the cake and right when they were done a rather off-key rendition of “Happy Birthday” was sung and shouted at him. There wasn’t much for him to do except sit there and try to look less uncomfortable. When Fives and Echo finally finished drawing out the last “you” Satine told him to make a wish and gestured for him to blow out the candles. It took him two attempts and he wondered if he looked as foolish as he felt.

Soon, however, everyone was preoccupied with their slices of cake and mingling with one another. Obi-Wan had to admit despite his embarrassment of having so many eyes on him, the cake was rather good. It was certainly his favorite kind from the Great Hall and he was quietly delighted when Satine offered him another piece.

“You know today’s not my birthday,” He told Satine as she sat down next to him cutting into her own slice.

“I know,” She smirked, “I know that your birthday isn’t today or tomorrow, but is actually February 29th. Despite what anyone else may say about this though, is that it’s still worth celebrating even if the day won’t appear again for a few more years.”

He blinked at her, shocked. He knew she’d been interested in figuring out his birthday, but he had assumed she’d dropped it by now, “How did you find out?”

“Years of observation,” It wasn’t a helpful answer, but he had to admire her intelligence in getting this far, “So am I right?” She leaned in close to him, her eyes searching his for the answer.

“Yes,” He answered quietly.

“Kenobi!” Hondo nearly knocked him into his cake when he slapped him on the back, “Why have you not shared your birthday with me before! Hondo gives fabulous presents that one would not wish for in their wildest dreams!”

“Ah thank you Hondo,” He peeled Hondo’s arm off his shoulders. He was fairly sure Hondo was correct in his assumption that he definitely wouldn’t have wished for whatever lurked in Hondo’s present in any of his dreams.

“You’re welcome, my friend! Only the best for one of my closest associates,” He winked at him before waltzing away back into the crowd. Obi-Wan watched him go as Satine stifled her laughter.

“I assumed you’d want to open your presents later?” She asked.

“I have presents?” He looked around the room until he spotted them and blanched. There had to be at least 10 sitting there in a pile just for him, “I can’t accept that,” He looked at her with wide eyes and she narrowed her eyes.

“It would be ruder for you to reject them,” He looked between her and the presents. A catch 22.

“I’m not opening Hondo’s in front of anyone,” He decided and she laughed again.

Suddenly there was a loud crash and they both looked up to see Anakin sprawled out on the floor. Obi-Wan’s heart flew into his throat thinking of a similar event at the last party he’d gone to at this school. Before he could run over there though, Anakin was sitting up with a dopey smile on his face. He giggled.

Obi-Wan let out a sigh of relief, but something still didn’t seem right. Anakin had Qui-Gon’s help to stand up, but he wobbled. He looked a little bit like he was drunk, but he doubted Satine or Cody would spike the punch at his birthday party. Cody seemed to have a similar guess because he took a sip of his own punch and frowned.

“Don’t you think,” Anakin giggled so hard he almost fell down again, “Don’t you think that Miraj Scintel is the most beautiful girl you’ve ever met?”

The room went silent.

“She’s really beautiful,” He said again giggling wildly. He tripped and Qui-Gon just barely managed to catch him.

Half the room broke out into laughter, it was a ridiculous sight, but Obi-Wan was more worried about what the cause of this was. Qui-Gon was too and immediately slapped a cookie out of Hondo’s hand.

“Someone’s snuck a love potion in,” Satine said standing up, looking particularly mad.

“Miraj Scintel by the sound of it,” Cin Drallig raised an eyebrow as they all quietly set their food down.

“Must have been after you Kenobi,” Fives pointed out, “After all this is technically your party.”

“Me?” He barely talked to the girl and found her quite detestable, they were as different as they came.

“It’s possible any of you were the target,” Qui-Gon frowned as he picked up Anakin to keep him from getting anywhere.

“Hey put me down! I need to go tell Miraj Scintel that I love her!” Anakin cried, “Rex, do you think she’ll like me back.”

Rex was looking at Anakin as if he were contagious, but he just gave him an awkward nod and a, “Sure mate.”

“I’ll take him to Madam Nema,” He told everyone and gave a steady gaze at Obi-Wan, “He’ll be fine. In the meantime I’m sorry, but it looks like we’ll have to cut this party short.”

Before long the room had thinned out leaving just Obi-Wan, Satine, Cody, and a mess to clean up.

“You don’t have to help, Ben,” Satine said with a sigh as she pulled out her wand, “It’s your birthday after all.”

“And leave you to do all the work? I don’t think so,” He stood beside her as they both pulled the streamers off the ceiling with their wands. Cody made short work of sending all their food back down to the kitchens. The three of them moved the desks back to where they were meant to before collapsing together at a section of desks in the center of the room.

“Who knew a party would be so much work?” Cody complained as he picked a bit of streamer out of his hair.

“I did,” Obi-Wan answered quietly, “I really appreciate the thought, but I’m not sure I like having all the attention on me.”

“The point of a birthday party is just to be around those that love you,” She told him, “Yeah it’s a little embarrassing being sung too or opening presents, but there are some things in life you just have to accept.”

“I’m not sure,” He would really rather not make such a big fuss about something as mundane as the day he was born. Satine gave him a rather scathing look for a moment before sighing deeply and reaching into her bag.

“Do you remember when I was late coming back to school?” She asked them.

“Only every day,” He complained and Cody just nodded. She sized them both up before pulling out her wallet and, as if it was physically painful for her she pulled out a thin white card.

“I was late because I was getting my driver’s license,” She set the card down in front of them, revealing Satine in rather bad lighting. On the right was a list of identifying information and quite interested, Obi-Wan picked it up to look at it.

Cody immediately had broken into a fit of laughter, catching the end of Satine’s fiery glare, “It looks like a mug shot!”

“That’s why I wasn’t too interested in telling anyone!” She snatched the card out of his hands and Obi-Wan just blinked looking over at her.

“What’s wrong with it? You look lovely,” That comment just made Cody laugh harder and earned him Satine’s glare as well.

“It’s a bloody terrible photo!” She shouted shoving the thing far back in her wallet and stashing it back where it belonged, “The point is,” She emphasized, “Sometimes you have to suffer through some embarrassment in life, I doubt having a birthday party is as terrible as having that as an identifying picture.”

“I don’t see what’s so bad about it,” He looked between Cody and Satine. It showcased her hair and although she wasn’t smiling, in it he could see the softness in her eyes.

“You are unbelievable, Obi-Wan Kenobi!” Satine’s face had gone red, “I show you the worst picture of me forced to exist and you still think being sung too is worse?”

“Let’s open presents!” Cody changed the subject quickly, shoving a shoddily wrapped gift into his hands and trying to whisper, “Come on mate, open it! She already has a mugshot, what’s going to stop her from murdering us.”

“Cody!”

[mllemaenad]

(Chantry Asker) I don't defend the Chantry because I think is "has to be good", but part of what Dragon Age encourages us to do is consider the difficulty faced by well-intentioned factions. The Inquisition, for example, has problems, becoming vulnerable to infiltration, and depending on how you played the game, may have done worse. It's not easy to help people, but the Chantry TRIES. Many Thedosian groups don't even do that. If not the Chantry, then to whom do the downtrodden and hopeless turn?

But Anonymous person: this is exactly what I mean. Whence comes this desire to treat the Chantry like some kind of beleaguered, underfunded kindergarten teacher?

“She’s trying, okay? She’s trying.”

Do you feel the need to defend Mass Effect’s Cerberus, too? Sometimes an evil organisation is just an evil organisation.

Why on earth do you think the Chantry is ‘trying’? Again: absolutely no one is saying that a particular revered mother (or Chantry brother or sister) may not be a good person who attempts to help people. That’s not in question. But ‘the Chantry’ is a continent-wide political organisation with massive resources and influence. It is led by a divine and by grand clerics, and on the other side by lord and lady Seekers and by knight-commanders of the templars. It has shaped the world. That’s the scale we are working on here.

No one group in history has impacted life in Thedas more than the Chantry. The influence of this church of the Maker prevails across most of the continent’s kingdoms, and the bulk of humanity pays at least lip service to its tenets. Belief in the Maker has started wars and forced those outside the Chantry to the fringes of society.

– The World of Thedas Volume I

So that’s a good start.

"The Keepers, Shaperate, Qun, Augers, Seers, and Shamen don't help. Only the Chantry.”

That’s one of the first things you said to me. And it’s so confusing because ... it reads like you really don’t grasp that these people are not in Lothering because, largely, they have been driven to the margins by Orlais and its Chantry. They can’t be there. They would die. 

Just as an example – can you imagine what would happen to an augur who set up in some Chantry-dominated village? Started summoning his gods, offering guidance and assistance, suggesting spirit possession to help training young mages? The poor bastard wouldn’t live out the day. But that wouldn’t be his fault. His people aren’t the ones practising religious persecution.

How – how – does that demonstrate the virtue of the Chantry? You can’t give someone points for being the only game in town when they’ve killed all the other players.

The Chantry began and has continued to be a predominantly human organisation. Other races are seen to be further from the Maker. The elves have their false pantheon of idols. The dwarves worship themselves. The Qunari are the worst of all, actively crushing worship of the Maker and desecrating Chantry values in the name of the Qun.

–  The World of Thedas Volume I

They have built the racism right into their doctrine, so that’s nice. And the religious persecution. And just ... zero self-awareness in that they hate the Qunari for converting by force when they do the same thing.

But let’s think about your "downtrodden and hopeless”, shall we?

Why is it that most of the elves in Thedas live in abject poverty, and regardless of their skills are effectively barred from bettering their lot? Oh, that’s right. Because the Chantry invaded their homeland, stole it from them, and forced them to live in slums and convert to the Chantry faith.

But you already know that something went wrong. A small elven raiding party attacked the nearby human village of Red Crossing, an act of anger that prompted the Chantry to retaliate and, with their superior numbers, conquer the Dales.

We were not enslaved as we had been before, but our worship of the ancient gods was now forbidden. We were allowed to live among the humans only as second-class citizens who worshipped their Maker, forgetting once more the scraps of lore we had maintained through the centuries.

– The City Elves

Why is it that most mages are dependant on Chantry run Circles to house, feed and clothe them? Oh, that’s right. Because the Chantry kidnaps them as children, prevents them from inheriting their family titles and property, and steals their children in turn should they have any.

Chantry law requires those with significant magical ability to join the nearest Circle and live under its supervision. While Thedosians with extremely low levels of magical talent are generally permitted to go about their lives, they are still closely watched. In most nations, practising magic and not joining a Circle is to be branded an apostate and, thus, a danger to society. Those who survive capture are turned over to the Circle to become students or prisoners, depending on the circumstances.

– The World of Thedas Volume I

So that’s ... pretty great. It sounds as though you’re suggesting – best case scenario – that the Chantry should get points for setting up a soup kitchen for the homeless, when they were the ones who burned down those people’s houses. And built an ugly mansion on the land.

But that really is a ... best case scenario. It doesn’t really fit with the reality of how the Chantry operates. I mean: the Chantry takeover in Kirkwall was a fucking disaster. Meredith had death squads. I mean – death squads. That whole situation was a dystopian nightmare.

And then there’s whatever the fuck is going on in Tantervale:

Chantry law is all but absolute in Tantervale, earning the city its dour reputation. The city guard is obsessed with enforcement. A street urchin would get a year in the dungeon for something that would get him a pat on the back in Orlais.

– World of Thedas Volume I

So ... yay for theocracy? And then there’s the clusterfuck in Jader:

The overpopulation and poor living conditions led to an outbreak of disease that nearly crippled the city, followed by famine in the poorer sections when it was quarantined.

Mother Giselle, whose prosperous chantry was in a wealthier quarter, wrote to Val Royeaux asking for assistance from the Chantry. When help was not immediately forthcoming, it is said that she addressed the clerics of her chantry. “As Andraste herself said, ‘My faith sustains me; I shall not fear the legion,’ then so shall faith sustain the hungry in this time of need,” Giselle told them. “As we have devoted our lives to divine contemplation, such a diet should come to us quite easily.” With that she took the unprecedented step of taking all of her chantry’s food into the poor quarters of Jader, distributing it to peasants who would otherwise have starved to death.

Shocked and shamed by what some in Val Royeaux privately referred to as an ostentatious bullying tactic, Chantry officials coordinated relief efforts. Food arrived quickly, along with instructions on how it was to be distributed: first to the Jader chantry to end the hunger strike, then to the Orlesian peasants, then to the Fereldan refugees, and finally to the elves of the alienages. Mother Giselle famously replied to the orders by saying, “If we believe that some have fallen further from the Maker’s grace than others, then those who have fallen further are in greatest need of our care. We cannot fill their souls until we have filled their bellies.” With the support of Lady Seryl of Jader, who was directing relief efforts of her own, Giselle ignored the directives and fed the poor of the city without regard for race or nationality.

Her actions saved thousands of lives in Jader and made her a beloved figure among the poor in Orlais and Ferelden alike. Those actions also destroyed her chances of any official political advancement in the Chantry, as the grand clerics did not look kindly on being shown up in such a manner.

– World of Thedas Volume II

So, five important points here:

1) Mother Giselle’s actions are ‘unprecedented’. So stepping up like that and forcing the Chantry to give aid in a time of crisis is not actually standard practice.

2) This is a clear example of a person attempting to do good and being stymied by the Chantry hierarchy.

3) The Chantry is, in case anyone forgot, really fucking racist.

4) Ending a famine also ended this woman’s political career, because the Chantry just cannot stop being The Worst.

5) While Giselle is undeniably doing some really awesome stuff here, that bit about not being able to fill people’s souls before filling their bellies indicates that even good people tend to do harm when following Chantry doctrine, because they can’t just ‘do good’. They’re also pushing conversion.

Whenever and wherever the Chantry has real power, they tend to do terrible harm. They do it on such a scale, on such a level of ‘these bloody hands may never be clean again’ awful that ... a few acts of kindness can’t easily redeem them.

To be critical of the Chantry, I don’t need to have another option. I can critique a thing without going further – especially since ‘The Chantry killed everyone else’ is ... pretty much why other people aren’t around to help. But ... it really isn’t as if no one else knows how to do good? 

I mean – look at Alistair. Assuming you made him king, he shows up with ships to bring the Fereldan refugees home, and offers aid to rebel mages. He fights with Meredith about it. That aid continues into Inquisition. While the Chantry is busy tearing Kirkwall apart, Alistair is helping. Anders runs a clinic for the poor and dispossessed in the Kirkwall sewers. He’s so damn popular that a mob turns up to defend him. That���s just one man. Most people like him are locked up, so they can’t help. Imagine a thousand clinics run by spirit healers.

Or ... did ... no one listen to Merrill?

Merrill: What does your Chantry do? I mean, you keep saying how great it is. Anders and Isabela tell me to stay away from it. But what does it do? Among the Dalish, the Keepers teach the children, preserve our history, perform magic. The priestesses here just... sing.

Sebastian: The Chantry does many charitable works. It cares for widows and orphans –

Merrill: Who in the Dalish would just be part of the clan, like everyone else. I just don't get it.

...

Bethany: So, there's no Circle among the Dalish?

Merrill: Any child with the gift of magic is apprenticed to a Keeper... in another clan if there's no need in her own.

Bethany: That sounds nice.

Merrill: Magic is a gift of the Creators. Why wouldn't we use it? It just seems... wasteful for humans to lock their mages away where they can't do any good.

– Merrill Dialogue

The Dalish would regard ‘charity’ as a communal duty, and magic as a tool to help people. She’s not wildly impressed by the Chantry, which is not doing enough good of any kind for her to notice. Merrill lives in one of the poorest parts of the city. So. Maybe her way might be worth a try?

Individuals can do good. Organisations can do good. These things are not in question. But the Chantry is – and I say this again – an imperial religion. Its primary function is to serve the Orlesian empire, which is racist, power hungry and deeply religiously intolerant. Empires are bad news.

I’ve seen the examples you’ve given. They exist. Some of them are real instances of a Chantry official, or a small, local chantry, doing a Good Thing. But I have to ask ...

Can you really look at a set of scales that has ‘genocide’ on one side and ‘helped out a single mum that one time’ on the other and say “Sure, that balances”?

[dwellordream]

I'd love a directors commentary for all of "my heart is a fist of barbed wire", but there's so many chapters (really, really good ones gah) so chapter 32 "ring" would be fascinating to hear your take on, it really ties into the last couple chapters and is still so shocking?! I really enjoyed it, thank youu!! ♥️

thank you!  i remember going into chapter 32 i was just so worn down from the fic (as much as I enjoyed writing it) that I was kind of dreading having to wrap up so many major plot points in just one chapter. the chapter ended up being nearly 10,000 words, which at that time especially was brutal for me to try to get through, so it was kind of tiring to get through, but I ended up being pretty satisfied with it. I wrote it in parts and spent about a day on each ‘section’ since it’s divided by months. I still feel like the pacing is pretty uneven, but it got across Amy’s rapidly evolving emotional state as she figures out what she wants to do with her life. ‘August’ was interesting because this is where Amy takes her first real step towards actively deceiving Tom; we see her come to a series of conclusions pretty much all at once. she knows he is going to find out that she came looking for him in Knockturn Alley. either she can confess that she followed up on the Riddles and knows what he’s done, or she can hide it. her decision to hide is largely due to the fact that she’s now realized this is the *only* advantage she has over him. he’s committed a serious crime- murder!- and is convinced he’s getting away with it. the only way she can keep this leverage over his head is to feed into Tom’s sizable ego and play up his cunning and charisma, convincing him that he’s ‘won her back’. fortunately for Amy, she is perceptive enough to realize that she needs to go about this in a manner that is convincing. he has some massive blind spots, but she knows he will be suspicious if she suddenly seems completely forgiving and accepting of his bad behavior once again. with this in mind, Amy comes up with a haphazard plan to reel Tom back in; she’s going to play coy and distant, feed into his desire to ‘prove himself’ to her, and let him do a lot of her work for her. Tom is very smart but he’s also used to being right, and he relies on a ton of assumptions to live his life. his #1 assumption is that no one is cleverer than him or more cunning than him, and Amy is not an exception to this. he might respect her obvious wits and determination, but he certainly doesn’t want to acknowledge that it could ever be used against him, personally. therefore when Amy is reunited with Tom in ‘August’, she puts on a pretty good act, pretending to slip up and reveal that she still cares for him and his well-being; Tom is only too eager to fall for this, and leaps at the chance to convince her that he’s back on his best behavior; when he wheedles her into a date, she lets him, albeit pretending to still have her guard up. one interesting note about ‘October’ is that despite her obvious animosity and desire to get away from Tom, Amy still worries that he might be drafted after he’s turned eighteen. I think it just speaks to her overall compassion. she has plenty of reason to hate him, but she still wouldn’t wish the war upon him. In ‘December’ we see that Tom and Amy are back to their own tricks; on friendly enough terms to exchange holiday gifts once more, albeit in private. Amy is forced to remain back at Hogwarts for the break due to Wool’s closure, leaving her extremely isolated and vulnerable. Tom, of course, senses an opportunity here and presents her with a very expensive gift of pearl earrings (which Amy infamously speculates over the origins of). there is a whole lot of fucked up stuff wrapped up with this present exchange. Amy bakes Tom cookies almost as a ‘test’ experiment to see how trusting he is of her: the answer is ‘very’. he accepts her gift without question, almost as if it were expected and prompted by him. he presents her with what would ordinarily be considered a very serious and romantic gift; genuine pearl earrings (or really any expensive jewelry) was a major status symbol gift in the 1940s. no normal teenage boy would have been giving a girl he wasn’t even ‘going steady with’ such a lavish present. it would have been more in line for a married couple. this is some obvious foreshadowing of what’s to come. the very first thing Tom does after giving Amy this present is not ask if she likes the earrings or tell her he got her them because he cares about her and knows she’s fond of pearls, but instruct her to put them on. I think this is such a textbook example of his controlling and possessive behavior. it pops up throughout the fic and we certainly see it when he has Matthew attacked out of jealousy and a desire to make Amy suffer, but it’s just super blatant here. it’s almost like he doesn’t really care whether Amy likes the earrings or not. what he cares about is that she is willing to put them on, even if only temporarily, thus demonstrating (in his view) some level of devotion that he’s going to rely on later. in his mind, if she can accept the earrings without rejecting them (or him) she can accept something more serious. we then see him immediately try to kiss her, something he hasn’t done in over a year at that point; they’ve had pretty much no physical contact whatsoever since the Matthew Fiasco. what’s also disturbing here is that Amy senses he’s about to kiss her and decides to ‘let it happen’, without much regard for her own consent. she doesn’t seem to care whether or not she actually wants Tom to kiss her- he wants to, and she’s decided that it’s in her best interests to keep him placated. compared to her earlier trend of usually taking the initiative in their romantic relationship and being very clear about what she wants and doesn’t want, I think this is really sad and concerning.  what surprises Amy (and maybe the reader) is that when Tom does go through with it, he almost immediately realizes that she’s not into it, at all, beyond just not reciprocating right off the bat, and backs off. there’s multiple ways to interpret this. we could argue that Tom still cares about her consent and has no interest in kissing someone who clearly doesn’t want to be kissed. we could argue that Tom realizes it’s in *his* best interests to try to *prove* he can be understanding and patient and so he reluctantly backs off. we could argue that the tender and sweet nature of the kiss itself shows a ‘soft side’ to Tom that is really desperate for love and affection, as opposed to him trying to bully her into reciprocating.  in the end, this is from Amy’s POV, and she just doesn’t know. what she does see is that Tom seems visibly disturbed by her lack of reaction, and is genuinely concerned she’s about to cry. he then apologizes (or as much of an ‘apology’ as we might ever see from him in Barbed Wire) and seems to remind himself that she asked him for some space and time.  Amy latches onto this, and tries to reassure him that she, too, wants things to go back ‘to the way they were’. but the cold reality here is that there is no going back. Amy *can’t* go back. the real dysfunction here is Tom’s insistence on trying to turn back time- to him, the reminder that they are graduating and will soon ‘leave behind’ their school social circles is a comforting one. the irony of course is that literally none of that happens. Tom has no intention of moving on with his life or dropping the fairweather friends he’s cultivated at Hogwarts. he intends to exploit as much as possible from them and the reputation he’s built up as an aspiring pureblood elite. nothing really changes for him, but everything is about to change for amy. finally we get to ‘May’ and ‘June’. I seriously debated giving ‘June’ its own chapter and ending 32 on ‘May’, but I decided at the time it would give readers a false impression of the direction the fic was headed in. I figured there were enough twists already without convincing everyone that we were about to have an ‘unhappy happy ending’ or I guess ‘happy ending for Tom, mediocre ending for Amy’. in ‘May’ of course comes the Proposal. I really debated combining this with ‘June’ and having Tom propose right before Amy springs her trap, but it ended up working out better this way. Amy and Tom yet again meet up in secret, this time above the dueling gallery, and they almost seem to have fully reconciled- Amy enthusiastically reciprocates his kiss, and he presents her with yet another gift: an unexpected letter of recommendation from one Oliver Parkinson, a successful healer guaranteed to ensure her a prosperous career at St Mungo’s straight out of graduation. I think kind of the crux of Amy’s character is her reaction to this gift. even while pretending to be won over, she cannot hide her distaste for this method; she doesn’t want anything she feels she hasn’t earned. to Tom, this is a pointless (if endearing) waste of her pride. he is really patting himself on the back here, going, ‘look how enlightened I am, not only being tolerant of you wanting a career of your own, but going to all this trouble to set it up for you!’. but that’s not what Amy wants. she wants a partner who is going to encourage her to forge her own path, not do the work for her. she doesn’t want an easy life, she wants a meaningful one, and her and Tom’s definitions of ‘meaningful’ just don’t align. it also has to do with his own pride- in Tom’s mind, if they’re going to be engaged, *of course* she needs an illustrious career, especially since Amy has no ‘good breeding’ or lovely country estate to fall back on. he knows it will be much easier to work her into pureblood society if she is a respected protege of a man like Oliver Parkinson; than he can arrange for people to conveniently forget about her wild school days and her muggleborn background, and really shape her into a woman he feels will best suit his goals in life; someone successful in their own right, but still owing it all to him and his connections. he then almost immediately shoots himself in the foot by bragging about his blackmailing of Atticus Greengrass to secure his own career prospects, and then, of course, unveils the fateful Ring, the same Ring Amy immediately spotted on him way back in ‘August’, which has conveniently fit very well into her plans. Tom still can’t be bothered with a more traditional propose, and launches into one final sales pitch to Amy. a lot of people have commented on about how earnest and genuinely compelling they found his speech. I felt like it had to be in order to sell the moment. he needs to *believe* in what he’s saying. it has to be the most open and vulnerable moment of Tom’s in the entire fic for it to seem plausible. he puts it all on the line for one split second of faith... and of course it blows up in his face, but the point is that he seeded his own destruction, more or less. had he been like this with Amy from the start, maybe they could have built a much more positive and open relationship, instead of a dysfunctional mess. “you’re alone,” Tom tells Amy, more or less, “you’ve always been alone, and you will always need me to make you feel less alone” but we know that’s just not true. Amy isn’t alone; she has real friends and passions, she has so much to look forward to, an entire life ahead of her. Tom is the one who’s alone, in the worst possible way. the one person who made him feel less alone, he ended up pushing away with his poor choices and selfish desires.  he brings up her background in this ‘gotcha’ moment- but the joke is that Amy doesn’t care! she’s always known, and she doesn’t care. it’s painful, yes, and she acknowledges that pain, but she has moved on from that part of her life. she holds no rage or even resentment towards her mother for giving her up. she doesn’t resent her mother for being an impoverished sex worker with no means to care for a small child. she has no desire to find out who her father was or ‘confront’ her mother- that doesn’t matter to Amy. where she comes from, her origins, they don’t matter. she doesn’t give a damn about her heritage or ancestry, she just wants to move forward.  and now the only thing standing in her way is Tom. I think ‘June’ pretty much speaks for herself, but I will say this; when I wrote I didn’t really feel any vindictive sense of ‘ah, she’s getting her revenge on him now!’, mostly just sadness. It’s really sad that Amy ends up feeling the only way she can even have this honest talk with Tom... is with him incapacitated and literally unable to respond.  she identifies herself as being selfish, and I think this is a good example of selfishness not always being a bad thing, which I think is very important, especially for girls! (not that I’m condoning drugging anyone or blackmailing them, etc). but learning to put yourself and your wants and needs first is important. Amy is mature enough to realize that this relationship with Tom and her cannot work. she cannot be his moral compass, and she cannot turn a blind eye to his actions. his speeches about ‘letting her win’ and them being happy together are pretty and persuasive but ultimately hollow. there is no happy ending for them. he ruined their chances of that a long time ago. she’s not his enemy- he is.  and I think her parting of “I love you” just really speaks to who she is as well. it’s really hard to recognize that someone you love isn’t good for you, that not all loves are necessarily good things. being with him might feel right in the moment, but in the long-term she knows it would be the exact opposite. she’s able to honestly acknowledge her feelings while still finding the strength to walk away.

[dfroza]

Today’s reading from the ancient book of Proverbs and book of Psalms

for September 10 of 2021 with Proverbs 10 and Psalm 10, accompanied by Psalm 83 for the 83rd day of Astronomical Summer and Psalm 103 for day 253 of the year (now with the consummate book of 150 Psalms in its 2nd revolution this year)

[Proverbs 10]

The wisdom of Solomon:

When wisdom comes to a son,

joy comes to a father.

When a son turns from wisdom,

a mother grieves.

Gaining wealth through dishonesty is no gain at all.

But honesty brings you a lasting happiness.

The Lord satisfies the longings of all his lovers,

but he withholds from the wicked what their souls crave.

Slackers will know what it means to be poor,

while the hard worker becomes wealthy.

Know the importance of the season you’re in

and a wise son you will be.

But what a waste when an incompetent son

sleeps through his day of opportunity!

The lover of God is enriched beyond belief,

but the evil man only curses his luck.

The reputation of the righteous

becomes a sweet memorial to him,

while the wicked life only leaves a rotten stench.

The heart of the wise will easily accept instruction.

But those who do all the talking

are too busy to listen and learn.

They’ll just keep stumbling ahead

into the mess they created.

The one who walks in integrity

will experience a fearless confidence in life,

but the one who is devious

will eventually be exposed.

The troublemaker always has a clever plan

and won’t look you in the eye,

but the one who speaks correction honestly

can be trusted to make peace.

The teachings of the lovers of God are like

living truth flowing from the fountain of life,

but the words of the wicked

hide an ulterior motive.

Hatred keeps old quarrels alive,

but love draws a veil over every insult

and finds a way to make sin disappear.

Words of wisdom flow from the one with true discernment.

But to the heartless, words of wisdom

become like rods beating their backside.

Wise men don’t divulge all that they know,

but chattering fools blurt out words

that bring them to the brink of ruin.

A rich man’s wealth becomes like a citadel of strength,

but the poverty of the poor leaves their security in shambles.

The lovers of God earn their wages for a life of righteousness,

but the wages of the wicked are squandered on a life of sin.

If you readily receive correction,

you are walking on the path to life.

But if you reject rebuke,

you’re guaranteed to go astray.

The one who hides his hatred while pretending to be your friend

is nothing but a liar.

But the one who slanders you behind your back

proves that he’s a fool, never to be trusted.

If you keep talking, it won’t be long

before you’re saying something really wrong.

Prove you’re wise from the very start—

just bite your tongue and be strong!

The teachings of the godly ones are like pure silver,

bringing words of redemption to others,

but the heart of the wicked is corrupt.

The lovers of God feed many with their teachings,

but the foolish ones starve themselves

for lack of an understanding heart.

True enrichment comes from the blessing of the Lord,

with rest and contentment in knowing

that it all comes from him.

The fool finds fun in planning to do wrong,

but the wise delight in having discernment.

The lawless are haunted by their fears

and what they dread will come upon them,

but the longings of the lovers of God will all be fulfilled.

The wicked are blown away by every stormy wind.

But when a catastrophe comes,

the lovers of God have a secure anchor.

To trust a lazy person to get a job done

will be as irritating as smoke in your eyes—

as enjoyable as a toothache!

Living in the worship and awe of God

will bring you many years of contented living.

So how could the wicked ever expect to have a long, happy life?

Lovers of God have a joyful feast of gladness,

but the ungodly see their hopes vanish right before their eyes.

The beautiful ways of God are a safe resting place

for those who have integrity.

But to those who work wickedness

the ways of God spell doom.

God’s lover can never be greatly shaken.

But the wicked will never inherit

the covenant blessings.

The teachings of the righteous are loaded with wisdom,

but the words of the evil ones are crooked and perverse.

Words that bring delight pour from the lips of the godly,

but the words of the wicked are duplicitous.

The Book of Proverbs, Chapter 10 (The Passion Translation)

[Psalm 10]

The Cry of the Oppressed

Lord, why do you seem so far away when evil is near?

Why have you hidden yourself when I need you the most?

The arrogant in their elitist pride persecute the poor and helpless.

May you pour out upon them

the very evil they’ve dreamed up against others!

How they brag and boast of their cravings, exalting the greedy.

They congratulate themselves as they despise you—

these arrogant ones, so smug and secure!

In their delusion the wicked boast, saying,

“God doesn’t care about what we do.

There’s nothing to worry about!”

So successful are they in their schemes

and prosperous in all their plans!

Your laws are far from them;

they scoff at their enemies.

They boast that neither God nor men will bring them down.

They sneer at all their enemies, saying in their hearts,

“We’ll have success in all we do

and never have to face trouble.”

Their mouths spew out cursing, lies, and threats.

Only trouble and turmoil come from all their plans.

Like beasts lurking in the shadows of the city,

they crouch silently in ambush, waiting for the innocent to pass by.

Pouncing on the poor, they catch them in their snare

to murder their prey in secret

as they plunder their helpless victims.

They crush the lowly as they fall beneath their brutal blows,

watching their victims collapse in defeat!

Then they say to themselves,

“The Lofty One is not watching while we do this.

He doesn’t even care! We can get away with it!”

Now arise, Yahweh-God! Crush them once and for all!

Don’t forget the helpless and oppressed.

How dare the wicked think they’ll reject God and escape judgment.

They say to themselves,

“God won’t hold me accountable.”

Lord, I know you see all that they’re doing,

noting their each and every deed.

You know the trouble and turmoil they’ve caused.

Now punish them thoroughly for all that they’ve done!

The poor and helpless ones trust in you, Lord,

for you are famous for being the helper of the fatherless.

I know you won’t let them down.

Break the power of the wicked and all their strong-arm tactics.

Search them out and destroy them

for the evil things they’ve done.

You, Yahweh, are King forever and ever!

All the nations will perish from your land.

Yahweh, you have heard the desires of the humble

and seen their hopes.

You will hear their cries and encourage their hearts.

The orphans and the oppressed will be terrified no longer,

for you will bring them justice, and no earth-dweller will trouble them again.

The Book of Psalms, Poem 10 (The Passion Translation)

[Psalm 83]

God, Don’t Be Silent

Asaph’s poetic song

God, you have to do something! Don’t be silent and just sit idly by.

Can’t you see what they’re doing?

All your enemies are stirred up in an uproar!

They despise you, Lord.

In their defiant arrogance they rise up

to host their secret council against your people.

They conspire together to come and harm

your cherished ones—your hidden ones.

Our enemies keep saying,

“Now is the time to wipe Israel off the map.

We’ll destroy even the memory of her existence!”

They’ve made their pact, consulting and conspiring,

aligning together in their covenant against God.

All the sons of Ishmael, the desert sheiks and the nomadic tribes, Amalekites, Canaanites, Moabites,

and all the nations that surround us,

Philistines, Phoenicians, Gadarenes, and Samaritans;

allied together they’re ready to attack!

Pause in his presence

Do to them all what you did to the Midianites

who were defeated by Gideon.

Or what you did to Sisera and Jabin

when Deborah and Barak defeated them by the Kishon River.

Do to your enemies what you did at Endor,

whose rotting corpses fertilized the land.

Repeat history, God! Make all their “noble ones”

die like Oreb, Zebah, and Zalmunna, who said in their pride,

“We will seize God’s people along with all their pleasant lands!”

Blow them away, God, like straw in the wind,

like a tumbleweed in the wilderness!

Burn them up like a raging fire roaring down the mountainside;

consume them all until only charred sticks remain!

Chase them away like before a mighty storm and terrifying tempest.

O Lord, disgrace them until their faces fill with shame,

and make them acknowledge the glory of your name.

Make them utter failures in everything they do

until they perish in total disgrace and humiliation,

so they will know that you, and you alone,

are Yahweh, the only Most High God exalted over all the earth!

The Book of Psalms, Poem 83 (The Passion Translation)

[Psalm 103]

A song of David.

O my soul, come, praise the Eternal

with all that is in me—body, emotions, mind, and will—every part of who I am—

praise His holy name.

O my soul, come, praise the Eternal;

sing a song from a grateful heart;

sing and never forget all the good He has done.

Despite all your many offenses, He forgives and releases you.

More than any doctor, He heals your diseases.

He reaches deep into the pit to deliver you from death.

He crowns you with unfailing love and compassion like a king.

When your soul is famished and withering,

He fills you with good and beautiful things, satisfying you as long as you live.

He makes you strong like an eagle, restoring your youth.

When people are crushed, wronged, enslaved, raped, murdered,

the Eternal is just;

He makes the wrongs right.

He showed Moses His ways;

He allowed His people Israel to see His wonders and acts of power.

The Eternal is compassionate and merciful.

When we cross all the lines, He is patient with us.

When we struggle against Him, He lovingly stays with us—changing, convicting, prodding;

He will not constantly criticize,

nor will He hold a grudge forever.

Thankfully, God does not punish us for our sins and depravity as we deserve.

In His mercy, He tempers justice with peace.

Measure how high heaven is above the earth;

God’s wide, loving, kind heart is greater for those who revere Him.

You see, God takes all our crimes—our seemingly inexhaustible sins—and removes them.

As far as east is from the west, He removes them from us.

An earthly father expresses love for his children;

it is no different with our heavenly Father;

The Eternal shows His love for those who revere Him.

For He knows what we are made of;

He knows our frame is frail, and He remembers we came from dust.

The children of Adam are like grass;

their days are few;

they flourish for a time like flowers in a meadow.

As the wind blows over the field and the bloom is gone,

it doesn’t take much to blow us out of the memory of that place.

But the unfailing love of the Eternal is always and eternal

for those who reverently run after Him.

He extends His justice on and on to future generations,

To those who will keep His bond of love

and remember to walk in the guidance of His commands.

The Eternal has established His throne up in the heavens.

He rules over every seen and unseen realm and creature.

Adore Him! Give Him praise, you heavenly messengers,

you powerful creatures who listen to

and act on His every word.

Give praise to the Eternal, all armies of heaven—

you servants who stand ready to do His will.

Give praise to the Eternal, all that He has made

in all corners of His creation.

O my soul, come, praise the Eternal!

The Book of Psalms, Poem 103 (The Voice)

[rajat70042]

Effective Home Tuition Service / Academy

The academic guidance of students at their homes is named Home Tuition. The providers of home tuition are often evening academies of assorted types. These academies are coordinated by teachers and non-educators. An educator-driven academy will consider learning of students as her high priority, while an investor-driven academy concentrates primarily on high profit. The quick lucrative return and effective tutoring create a trade off situation, occasionally. The greatest possible gratification of learning demands of students/parents and rational fulfillment of fiscal demands of teachers/organizers is really a crucial success factor of a academy. The paradoxical situation demands, inevitably, a thorough managerial/entrepreneurial approach to get a successful Supportive Learning Environment or Academy.Practically, in-home tutoring, a skilled mentor is delivered straight to your customer's home. Kiddies get individualized guidance, maybe not just a pre determined the one that most children of that age/class reach, but the one that is made specifically for the child's unique requirements. An academy arranges dwelling tutors. Parents/Students assess the final efficacy of their tutor. A house tutor can be called to address almost any exceptional need of a student. Periodically the academy supervises the instruction work to ensure that the pupil is becoming effective learning support in poor areas that need special attention. Broadly speaking, parents supervise the tuition job of a tutor.The requirement for home tuition is generally seasonal work, parents require tutors before exams for better outcome for their children. Home tuition is the part-time activity of educators; they have been available typically in the day time. University graduates are often involved with home tuition. They bill a smaller amount as compare to experienced educators. The tuition earning compensates their educational/non-educational expenses. A few teachers adopt dwelling lodging a fulltime job.Supportive Learning Environment - Individual Perspective Intellect is your insignificant gift of God. At an intellectual level, nature bestows human beings countless mental faculties and abilities. The naturally imparted faculties/abilities are unique and latent in our minds. Typically, they are actualized only through external efforts, both formal and informal. The educational system of a society can be an official way to understand the distinctive latent possibility of students. However, at schools, students find something with varied speed. They're a quick, moderate, and slow learner. A fast learner may divert the learning environment within their favor. The twisted situation can affect badly the poor or weak. Consequently, the latent faculties/abilities of some great number of students remain unobservable or untouched in the unconscious mind. The situation requires the parents for additional assistance; generally, parents obtain the needed support from home tutors/academies.Secondly, individual care and personalized grooming is your inevitable necessity of every student to comprehend uniquely awarded human competencies possible. Generally, individual care that a kid gets in a school is about average 20 to 25 minutes per day. The specific situation makes your home probably the most crucial place of education for kids. Home Tuition or evening academy meets the deficiency of schools and owns the duty of care of child's development, both academic and psychological.Thirdly, in schools, educators are normal as well as superior. A standard teacher sets the learning atmosphere in line with the needs and requirements of quick pupils. The problem is problematic for moderate or weak, however, they could catch the pace through home lodging or academy. The normal instruction approach is a significant factor behind immense house tuition activity or day academies. On the other hand, an excellent teacher prepares educational lessons adapting certain needs of mediocre students. The slow learner could make their deficiencies up through home tuition or evening academy. Even the mediocre-driven approach of instruction is inevitable for teachers due to of mended academic days and specified syllabus. The situation, too, leads unavoidably towards tutoring occurrence for feeble students. Even the paucity of superior teachers and/or prosperity of normal teachers are significant factors behind huge home tuition activity/evening academies.Supportive Learning Environment - Collective PerspectiveAt the collective level, dwelling tuition or instructional guidance is needed due to two reasons - rigorous schooling system and financial constraints. Firstly, academic days are all fixed by the state or local education sections. A child spends time in the home than in school. The value of dwelling is thus an obvious fact throughout learning era. Parents manage the problem through an encouraging learning environment, that can be home tuition or academy. Secondly, nowadays, economic life has gotten very demanding. Toddlers are active in tiresome monetary works. They are active in wealth accumulation for self esteem or rescuing for elephants. They've limited time to get good guidance or training of their children. They want some learning support for their kids. There's actually an understanding vacuüm for proper grooming of dinosaurs; the vacuüm is filled by dwelling tutors/academies, then also there.Toddlers have been emotionally attached to their children. Normally, the priority of parents would be to offer superior education for their siblings, so that low poor or performance outcomes of a kid is trying for parents. A good mentor prevents them out of stress, so, sustainable better performance of students is the actual achievement of a home tutor or home lodging provider. The inviting attitude of tutors advances the confidence level of the parents. Just how it is shaped? It's the emotional intelligence of a tutor that can make considerable room for a mentor or counselling network. An independent learner gives better results in exams/tests. More over, a self-motivated & the self-regulated student is powerful during his/her education livelihood. Effective supportive learning accentuates the confidence level of parents tutors or tutoring systems. The spoon-feeding approach of learning is rewarding for tutors or academies for a while however it is inimical for students' education career. On awareness, parents avert such teachers/academies. In addition, in some cases, the rote-learning technique can be used by tutors for better and quick results. It's notable that the usage of the rote learning procedure tarnishes the image of tutor/academy, finally. A rote student is failed throughout multiple challenges of life. Apart from psychological dressing towards learning an important factor that contours parents' trust is a fair tuition fee. Teachers are usually less paid set of our society. They earn less as compare to their counterparts in the organization sector/civil services. Furthermore, they're badly equipped in financial transactions. They lose their since fiscal share, now and again. The instantaneous and competitive return to teachers during the facilitation process develops the confidence level between educator and home lodging provider. Just how the desired position is shaped? Teachers generally lack implementation skill; it is the execution intellect of the providers that compels parents towards fair dealings or timely yields. The specific situation develops a much better understanding between facilitator as well as tutors. In summary, a target approach towards tuition, payment time, and performance monitoring enhances the confidence level of educators in the academy.Developing Goodwill of AcademyA educational centre is known on consideration of self-study pupils. An academy is an educational institution. Broadly speaking, an academy provides home lodging, arranges group classes, and conducts motivational sessions. An excellent student needs outstanding grades, fair is looking for a competitive advantage and also a feeble student needs a respectable educational achievements. The scholastic incompetency of teachers creates a terrible reputation for the academy one of parents. Even the investor-driven academies embrace just cosmetic or superficial steps towards the scholastic proficiency of coaches, as an example, they are hesitant by telling a lie regarding the notable education career of educators.Generally, teachers of all low-performing associations are busy in evening academies or home tutoring. There are just two reasons for this , first, the low remuneration at school could provoke a teacher towards home tutoring, and second, lust for money might incite a teacher towards home training. Anything may be the reason, teachers pay less attention at school for greater earning home lodging or academy. An investor-driven academy prefers such teachers, while an educator-driven academy avoids/trains them. Practically, an academy could plug the aforementioned loopholes by embracing wise managing approach dependent on the maxim, better performance of students, better go back to educators. It is noticeable that superior teachers of well-performing associations or excellent graduates are successful in evening academies or home tutoring.The fiscal circle of a academy calls for teachers, parents, investors, and organizers. Fair dealing and timely decisionmaking will probably continue the flow of the financial circle in favor whatsoever. Effective decision-making or equity is dependant on data that is accurate. A well-performing House Tuition Service will maintain teachers' data, parents' data, and students' data. Effective matching of teacher, parent, and student is vital for stable linkage. The supportive matching would develop a highly effective communication network among all stakeholders. Effective communication means better financial transactions or much better fee collection without hassle. An productive academy may create a hierarchical network together with all stakeholders through multiple mediums such as mobile messages, emails, meetings, and leaflets.

If You Are Looking For Home Tuition In Patna You can Visit Ashoka Home Tuition Patna Email: ashokahometuition@gmail.com Call?:+91 7485040777 Website: https://bit.ly/2NKQzY3

[tomistalks]

1 Decembrie  La Mulţi Ani, Dulce Românie

I have a few thoughts I’d like to share today, ironically in english as this is a somewhat universal language, at least as far as the tumblr platform goes. Mostly the rambles of a frustrated patriot.

Last year, I celebrated with a few of the things I love about my country. This year maybe it’s time for a little bit of history. The corruption has reached new heights and the shady dealings of our government have pushed more and more people to protest out in the streets. Peaceful protests that made a few people resign only to have something worse replace them. 

Some peaks of prosperity in this country have been during a monarchic rule. In the year 1866 we adopted one of the most advanced constitutions at the time, in Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen‘s rule. Ten years later, Romania was proclaimed independent and ended the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire.

March 15th 1881 is a more important date for me, as our country became a kingdom, with Carol as our first king. The social economic prosperity didn’t last much, as the first world war reared it’s ugly head and this is where it goes downhill, with only a few shallow breaths before the fascist and communist disasters.

I don’t know how many foreigners know about Romania’s fascist power in the 2nd world war (as we’re mostly known as those x-communists), and the whole “betrayal” that lead to the end of the war. Talk about jumping from the frying pan and right into the fire. The red communist fire with a great deal of promises that looked so good on paper. Just like any deal with the devil. 

“ All people are the same and therefore classes make no sense. The government should own all means of production and land and also everything else. People should work for the government and the collective output should be redistributed equally. “

“ From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs. Free-access to the articles of consumption is made possible by advances in technology that allow for super-abundance. “- Sign me up, right? WRONG!

It amuses me to this day that fascism gets the worst reputation, when communism has objectively done more harm. But my theory is: Communism does it internally, so it makes the outside powers look the other way, while Fascism protects it’s own while punishing the “different” and having a more public expansive desire- ruffles everyone’s feathers. They’re just both horrible.

The only way Romania freed itself from the incredibly oppressive regime was trough a bloody civil revolution. There were many casualties, including deaths, as victims were shot, clubbed to death, stabbed and crushed by armored vehicles. 

It’s been about 28 years of democracy. A very questionable democracy. After the power vacuum formed by communism, the winning “party” stole as much as they could, and still are. Even now, some(mostly elders) claim it was better back in the day- at least they had a job and a roof over their head. And to their credit, the first few years of communism did offer some benefits (once again they looked good on paper). But taking from the rich and giving to the poor has horrible consequences as there is no true equality (my family was part of the noble “elite”, on both my mom’s and dad’s side, and had everything taken away by the communist party-house, land, family members killed, etc- things they worked on for generations!) There is only meritocracy- you work it- you earn it. The more you work, the more you get, generally speaking of course. That’s why free market capitalism is such a great system. 

As with all “vents” this is more of a ramble of ideas that have been boiling up in my head. As far as my political views go, i try to believe in democracy, but as I’ve seen in my country, the common folk are the numerous, and the easiest to fool. Our government is the way it is right now because the people that voted were lied to. Constitutional monarchy is something i often think about. Especially while looking at more advanced states in Europe. That and meritocracy. Having quotas in the work place, based on sex, nationality and other is a detriment to production, in favor of political correctness. Having the most qualified person for the job is essential- regardless of external factors.

In the end, we’re still a 2nd world country where most would rather just leave. Romanians are hard workers and assimilate quickly so we’ve had little friction with our emigration. Except when we’re confused with the Romani ethnic group (a.k.a gypsies) because of the name. France and Italy know what i’m talkin’ bout! Where else to deport them- oh yeah- Romania (and sometimes Bulgaria). Great. And now with the refugee crisis we’re supposed to take in a quota we are no where near financially capable of doing- so just call us racists and islamofobs. It’s fine, have some EU money and do your best. AAAAnd it’s gone- right, that corruption problem. Politicians somehow find a way to pocket the money and pretend it was put to good use.

I keep trying to end this godamn wall of text, but more frustration keeps coming out trough various cracks. So we’re celebrating the unification of our territory, but wait, aren’t we forgetting something? 

Oh, right, that chunk of land Russia took from us that keeps trying to unite again- in theory. Ah well, better luck next year, when we celebrate 100 years of unification, maybe we’re keeping it for a milestone.

Alright, semi-educational rand over. If World war 3 starts, the tectonic plates of power will shift around some more and maybe things will change. My only escapism is some sort of apocalyptic scenario where the sun dies out and takes everything along with it. As an atheist, I wish upon you the eternal embrace of nothingness. Just pretend like things matter and enjoy the pleasures of the flesh as long as you can.

La mulți ani, România!  Hai că se poate mai bine...sper.

[junker-town]

Everything we learned from the 2015 NFL Draft, five years later

Todd Gurley, Marcus Mariota, and Jameis Winston were all top-10 picks in the 2015 NFL Draft.

2015 was a bad year for first-round picks. Teams that fail to learn from it may just repeat it.

From a franchise’s standpoint, the first round of the 2015 NFL Draft was one of the worst of all time. Five years later, only seven of the Day 1 picks are settled in for their sixth season with the club that drafted them. That includes just one player from the top 10 — Washington offensive lineman Brandon Scherff.

Yes, the first round of the 2015 draft did something long thought impossible in the NFL. It made Washington look like a stable and well-run organization.

Five years ago, each of these selections was an opportunity. Now they’re a lesson. The first 32 picks of that draft presented themes which can apply to 2020.

1. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Jameis Winston, QB

Winston’s cannon arm led Florida State to a national championship and earned him a Heisman Trophy. He used that unquenchable desire to create big plays to become the NFL’s most turnover-prone player; he had 88 interceptions, 50 fumbles, and zero playoff appearances with the Bucs. He’s currently a free agent.

Lesson learned: Heisman winners are no safe bet ... and extremely hard to quit.

Winston was given five years to stake his claim as Tampa’s franchise quarterback and went 28-42. The Buccaneers were finally willing to let the sun set on the Winston era, in part, because a superior option cropped up in free agency. Bruce Arians is betting Tom Brady is the key to unlocking his team’s potential.

Players it applies to in 2020: Joe Burrow

2. Tennessee Titans: Marcus Mariota, QB

Mariota got stuck at “goodness” and never made it to “greatness.” The Titans finished 9-7 in four of the former Oregon star’s five seasons on the roster — a run that culminated in Mariota losing his starting job in favor of Dolphins retread Ryan Tannehill.

Lesson learned: See above.

Like Winston, Mariota has a Heisman Trophy at home, yet will likely head into a backup role after joining the Raiders.

Players it applies to in 2020: Joe Burrow

3. Jacksonville Jaguars: Dante Fowler, Edge

Fowler was more potential than production at Florida, but the Jaguars liked his power and athleticism enough to make him the centerpiece of their draft class. He missed his rookie year due to an ACL tear, then made one start in 2.5 years for Jacksonville before being traded.

Lesson learned: Potential needs opportunity.

Fowler’s injury wrecked his learning curve, and a slow start kept him trapped in the middle of the Jaguars’ depth chart. The first season in which he played more than 53 percent of his team’s defensive snaps came in 2019. He rewarded that faith with a career-high 11.5 sacks ... for the Rams.

Players it applies to in 2020: K’Lavon Chaisson, Yetur Gross-Matos, A.J. Epenesa

4. Oakland Raiders: Amari Cooper, WR

Cooper was drafted to be a No. 1 wideout in the league. Two Pro Bowl invitations in his first two seasons backed up that claim — though it took a trade out of Oakland to restore his luster after a disappointing 2017.

Lesson learned: Alabama’s Day 1 wideouts live up to the hype.

Julio Jones? Stud. Cooper? Stud. Calvin Ridley? Well, it’s still early to tell, but he’s got 17 touchdowns in 29 career games so far. All were Crimson Tide standouts.

Players it applies to in 2020: Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs III

5. Washington: Brandon Scherff, OL

Scherff played both tackle and guard in college and was the ideal Iowa blocker: big, aggressive, and tough as hell. Fifth overall may have seemed a bit high, but he rewarded Washington with three Pro Bowl honors and was retained this spring via the franchise tag.

Lesson learned: Good blocking is important, wherever it is.

Only one guard has been selected in the top five picks since 1976. Scherff played enough on the edge to narrowly avoid a place on that list, but he’s been used almost exclusively at right guard in Washington. He’s kicked ass doing it, too. With NFL QBs now more mobile than ever before and the value of blocking expanding just beyond a blindside protector, it could soon be time for a full-time guard to return to the top five.

Players it applies to in 2020: Cesar Ruiz, Lloyd Cushenberry III, Netane Muti

6. New York Jets: Leonard Williams, DL

Williams was a projected top-three pick who fell to the Jets at No. 6. He began to reach that potential in a Pro Bowl 2016 campaign, but failed to match that production in the years that followed. He was traded to the Giants last fall.

Lesson learned: Never get your hopes up, Jets fans.

Between 2012 and 2016, New York had 11 first- or second-round picks. Williams, with his lone Pro Bowl invitation, may have been the best of a group that includes Sheldon Richardson (not bad!) but also Christian Hackenberg, Darron Lee, and Dee Milliner (bad!).

The past three seasons have trended in the opposite direction thanks to the brilliance of Jamal Adams and potential of Sam Darnold and Quinnen Williams. Still, as Leonard Williams proved, early success as a Jet is no guarantee of future returns.

Players it applies to in 2020: According to our mock draft database, CeeDee Lamb, Jerry Jeudy, Jedrick Wills

7. Chicago Bears: Kevin White, WR

White was electricity at West Virginia; a 6’3 burner with a nose for the end zone. But he was raw and often injured; he played just 14 games in four years for the Bears and spent 2019 out of the NFL.

Lesson learned: Sometimes the universe just says no.

White’s NFL career played out like a ragged curse. He missed the entirely of his rookie season due to a broken tibia. He broke a bone in the same leg after just four games the following year. He started the team’s season opener in 2017 and promptly fractured his shoulder. By November 2018, he’d become a shell of his former self enough to make him a healthy scratch.

White had the chops to be great. The football gods had different plans.

Players it applies to in 2020: There’s no way of knowing ... but the safe money’s on whomever the Browns pick.

8. Atlanta Falcons: Vic Beasley, Edge

Beasley was a first-team All-Pro in his second season, but hasn’t lived up to that standard in the three decent, but underwhelming, years since. He signed with the Titans this spring.

Lesson learned: Sack numbers don’t tell the whole story.

There was a warning sign that predicted his 15.5-sack season wasn’t sustainable. Despite ranking first in the NFL in sacks in 2016, he was just 45th with 16 QB hits. That suggested his numbers would trend downward — and they did.

Players it applies to in 2020: Zach Baun, Alex Highsmith

9. New York Giants: Ereck Flowers, OT

Flowers was drafted to keep Eli Manning upright. He did not succeed. Flowers was released in 2018, but showed enough with Washington in 2019 l to earn a three-year, $30 million contract with the Dolphins.

Lesson learned: Pay attention to red flags, especially if you’re reaching to fill a position of need.

There were plenty of reasons not to make Flowers a top-10 pick. He was unpolished and undisciplined, eager to draw holding penalties at the first sign of getting beat. He was big and athletic, but the Giants needed someone who could make an immediate impact. Flowers was not that guy, and it’s safe to say this overeager over-reach is still haunting the Giants.

Players it applies to in 2020: Jordan Love, A.J. Epenesa

10. St. Louis Rams: Todd Gurley, RB

Gurley was a gamble — an all-world running back coming off an ACL tear that threatened to hinder his pro career. While he earned rookie of the year honors and would be a two-time All-Pro in 2017-18, those injury concerns sapped his 2019. That, and an untenable contract, led to his release this offseason.

Lesson learned: High-usage running backs with injury histories are just as risky as they sound.

Gurley was a high-risk, high-reward selection who paid off both sides of that adage in five seasons as a Ram. St. Louis/LA would likely make that bargain again — though they’d probably like to rescind his record-setting contract extension.

Players it applies to in 2020: D’Andre Swift, Zack Moss, Darrynton Evans

11. Minnesota Vikings: Trae Waynes, CB

The rangy corner displayed lockdown tendencies at Michigan State to be the first defensive back selected in 2015. He eventually became a steady, if unspectacular, starter in Minnesota.

Lesson learned: Aggression is a double-edged sword.

Waynes built a reputation at MSU as a high-level press corner, thriving by taking risks, jumping routes, and using his recovery speed to clean up messes. That strategy hasn’t paid off for him as well against the NFL’s more athletic receivers. He’s allowed more than twice as many touchdowns (nine) as interceptions (four) in his last three seasons.

Players it applies to in 2020: Jeff Gladney, Amik Robertson

12. Cleveland Browns: Danny Shelton, DT

Shelton was one of the final picks of the Ray Farmer era in Cleveland. Despite having little impact as a Brown, he’s still arguably the team’s best Day 1 pick from 2011-15. After three years and only 11 tackles for loss in 46 games, he was traded to the Patriots.

Lesson learned: You’re probably going to regret trading your draft bust to the Patriots.

Shelton didn’t prosper right away in New England, but his second season with the Pats saw him emerge as an above-average interior lineman. He set personal bests in tackles, sacks, and QB hits as an invaluable piece of the NFL’s top defense.

Players it applies to in 2020: Since there aren’t any notable Rutgers prospects this year, we’ll have to wait and see.

13. New Orleans Saints: Andrus Peat, OL

Peat was drafted as a high-ceiling offensive tackle, but struggles forced him to guard for the bulk of his career. It’s worked out well in spurts. He was one of New Orleans’ most valuable blockers from 2016 to 2018, though he backslid in 2019 (despite earning a Pro Bowl invitation).

Lesson learned: A position change doesn’t mean admitting defeat, so find someone versatile.

Like Scherff before him, Peat’s best work came as a guard. That might not have been what the Saints drafted him for, but a good team (and also Washington) finds a way to maximize talent.

Players it applies to in 2020: Any OT prospect who struggles as a rookie.

14. Miami Dolphins: DeVante Parker, WR

Parker was a reliable presence at Louisville, but his senior season — 43 catches, 855 yards in SIX games — made him a top-15 pick. He didn’t meet expectations until 2019, however, because ...

Lesson learned: Adam Gase cannot be trusted.

Parker’s value plummeted in his three seasons playing under Gase. Freed from his underachieving head coach and catching passes from a freewheeling Ryan Fitzpatrick, Parker sprang for career highs of 72 catches, 1,202 yards, and nine touchdowns last season.

Players it applies to in 2020: Whichever skill players the Jets draft. Sorry, Jets.

15. San Diego Chargers: Melvin Gordon, RB

Gordon earned two Pro Bowl honors in his five seasons as a Charger. However, his tenure there may be defined by the 2019 contract holdout that proved an undrafted free agent, Austin Ekeler, could do his job better than Gordon could.

Lesson learned: Healthy first-round running backs are risky, too.

Gordon was a workhorse at Wisconsin, playing 41 games (and taking 611 carries) over his final three years. Even though he was good for the Chargers, he never quite reached the level of greatness ascribed to a top-15 pick.

Players it applies to in 2020: D’Andre Swift, J.K. Dobbins, Jonathan Taylor

16. Houston Texans: Kevin Johnson, CB

Johnson made 10 starts for Houston as a rookie, but injuries limited him to just 19 games the following three seasons. While he played every week of the 2019 season for the Bills’ dominant defense, he played just 32 percent of the team’s defensive snaps.

Lesson learned: Even safe picks blow up sometimes.

Johnson looked every bit a star cornerback at Wake Forest. He put together a stronger college resume than almost anyone else in his draft class. Even if players like Waynes and Marcus Peters had boom-or-bust tendencies, Johnson appeared to have the lower ceiling but higher floor. Instead, he struggled as a rookie and then injuries robbed him of having a major impact in Houston.

Players it applies to in 2020: Jeff Okudah, Chase Young, Tristan Wirfs, Derrick Brown

17. San Francisco 49ers: Arik Armstead, DL

Armstead played a supporting role early in his career before moving into a full-time position on the defensive line for an ascending Niners team. After posting nine sacks in his first four seasons, he broke through with 10 last fall to help bring San Francisco an NFC title.

Lesson learned: Supporting cast matters.

Armstead came along slowly, but he blossomed when teammates like Nick Bosa, DeForest Buckner, and Dee Ford were there to soften up offensive lines and push quarterbacks into his path.

Players it applies to in 2020: Jeff Okudah, Chase Young, any Day 1 pick expected to prop up a bottom-third unit.

18. Kansas City Chiefs: Marcus Peters, CB

Peters came into the league as a high-upside coverage corner who could turn mistakes into turnovers (and allow opposing QBs to turn his mistakes into touchdowns), though his off-field record tarnished his draft stock. He’s enjoyed an up-and-down pro career that reached new heights after three pick-sixes in 2019 for the Ravens.

Lesson learned: Don’t have a knee-jerk reaction to a few bad plays.

Peters tends to gamble at corner, leading to big swings in coverage. His 25 touchdowns allowed since joining the league are second-most in the NFL in that span. That helped lead to two different low-cost trades for a two-time All-Pro with more interceptions than scoring plays given up.

Players it applies to in 2020: Jeff Gladney, Amik Robertson

19. Cleveland Browns: Cameron Erving, OL

Erving lasted just two seasons in Cleveland before being traded to the Chiefs, where he’s been a useful, if unessential, swing tackle ever since.

Lesson learned: The Browns can’t win.

Cleveland had two first-round picks and beefed up both sides of the trenches. Each pick garnered mostly positive reviews (Shelton more than Erving), but neither player lasted more than three seasons with the Browns.

The poor, poor Browns.

Players it applies to in 2020: Whomever gets the call to wear these swank-ass uniforms.

20. Philadelphia Eagles: Nelson Agholor, WR

Agholor was supposed to be the perfect playmaker for Chip Kelly. Instead, his career got off to a rough start before briefly stabilizing and then, in 2019, returning to disappointment. He’ll try to live up to his first-round status as a Raider in 2020.

Lesson learned: Some flaws don’t get fixed.

Agholor is an electric athlete and an occasional savior from the slot, but his college tape showed a player whose lapses in concentration led to frustrating drops. As an Eagles fan will tell you, that’s a problem that didn’t go away in the NFL — he had 21 drops the past four seasons.

Players it applies to in 2020: Jordan Love, Jalen Reagor

21. Cincinnati Bengals: Cedric Ogbuehi, OT

Ogbuehi was a big, quick lineman who played both guard and tackle at Texas A&M, but a torn ACL meant he brought injury concerns with him to the NFL. He never quite rounded into shape. He has appeared in only 16 games (zero starts) over the past two seasons with the Bengals and Jaguars.

Lesson learned: Maybe trust the All-Pro who says he can still play in his mid-30s?

Ogbuehi’s arrival made Andrew Whitworth expendable — and when the Bengals weren’t willing to pay his market value, he moved on to the Rams. He was an All-Pro immediately after leaving Cincinnati, then the blindside protector for a Super Bowl team at age 37.

Players it applies to in 2020: The players drafted to replace Tom Brady, Greg Olsen, Philip Rivers, or Jason Witten.

22. Pittsburgh Steelers: Bud Dupree, Edge

Dupree started his career in more of a supporting role for Pittsburgh, but 2019 marked his ascension to the spotlight. His 11.5 sacks were a career high and made him a potent cantilever to T.J. Watt’s edge rush.

Lesson learned: Trust productive guys from overlooked Power 5 teams.

Dupree turned himself from a three-star recruit to All-SEC pass rusher at Kentucky, en route to 23 sacks in his final three seasons. He was still only the fourth pass rusher selected in 2015. Five years later, he looks like the best first-round edge rusher of his class.

Players it applies to in 2020: Ke’Shawn Vaughn, A.J. Dillon, Jake Luton, Justin Strnad, Markus Bailey

23. Denver Broncos: Shane Ray, Edge

Ray was supposed to be the explosive counterpunch to Von Miller’s tackle-shredding pass rush. But he had 14 sacks in four seasons for Denver. He spent the 2019 season out of the league.

Lesson learned: Tread lightly with numbers that look too good to be true.

Ray turned himself into a first-round pick with a breakthrough 14.5-sack junior season — 10 more than he’d had in his career to that point. It also turned out to be more than he’d have in his entire NFL tenure.

Players it applies to in 2020: Joe Burrow, Alex Highsmith, Brandon Aiyuk

24. Arizona Cardinals: D.J. Humphries, OT

Humphries has been a mostly fine blocker ... when he’s on the field. He was inactive his entire rookie season and has only played 43 total games, though he showed enough in 2019 to earn a three-year, $43.75 million deal.

Lesson learned: Injury reports matter.

Humphries only spent two seasons as a starter at Florida and missed at least two games due to injury in both of them. While his five-star potential was too much for the Cardinals to ignore, second-round tackles like Donovan Smith or Rob Havenstein would have been more productive blockers in Arizona.

Players it applies to in 2020: Tua Tagovailoa, Julian Okwara, Laviska Shenault Jr.

25. Carolina Panthers: Shaq Thompson, LB

Thompson is a do-it-all inside linebacker who’s been able to stand up against the pass and the run as an NFL gap-plugger. Last season was his best year: 109 tackles, three sacks, and 11 tackles for loss despite the inherent crappiness of the 2019 Panthers.

Lesson learned: Don’t overthink things.

The Panthers took a proven, athletic young talent to fill up an unsexy position. Thompson’s versatility is a godsend for his defensive coordinators. He’s poised to carry Luke Kuechly’s torch into 2020 and beyond.

Players it applies to in 2020: Jeff Okudah, Antoine Winfield Jr., Zack Baun

26. Baltimore Ravens: Breshad Perriman, WR

Perriman was a mess for the Ravens. Injuries robbed him of his rookie campaign, and he posted just a 42.7 percent catch rate in the two years after. His value has rebounded in recent years, though he’s still never caught more than 36 passes in a season.

Lesson learned: NFL development isn’t a straight line.

Perriman looked like a bust after flaming out in Baltimore, but the past two years have provided flashes of brilliance. Redemption has come in fleeting moments with the Browns and Buccaneers (seven games with at least 70 receiving yards). The Jets are betting he can fulfill his first-round destiny after signing him to a one-year, $6.5 million deal this offseason.

Players it applies to in 2020: Everyone.

27. Dallas Cowboys: Byron Jones, CB

Jones went from UConn standout to one of the league’s top cover corners in his five years with Dallas. A salary cap crunch allowed him to hit the open market. The Dolphins obliged by handing him a then-record $82.5 million contract to head up their rebuild.

Lesson learned: Bet on the guy who set a world record at the combine.

Investing in combine stars doesn’t always pay off, but when a guy goes out and produces such an outlier performance — like Jones did with a 12’3 broad jump — he’s probably worth a bump up the draft board.

Players it applies to in 2020: Mekhi Becton, Carlos Davis, Netane Muti

28. Detroit Lions: Laken Tomlinson, G

Tomlinson was one of the more surprising selections of the first round; the useful interior lineman was expected to be a Day 2 pick. Although he struggled in Detroit, he’s since developed into a steady starter for the 49ers.

Lesson learned: Be patient, even with a polished prospect.

The Lions didn’t have a left guard on the roster when they drafted Tomlinson, which led him to be thrown into the fire as a rookie. Detroit ended up trading away a still-developing starter on a low-cost rookie contract to San Francisco for ... a fifth-round pick. That trade looks like one the Lions would like to have back.

Players it applies to in 2020: Every fifth-year senior out there.

29. Indianapolis Colts: Phillip Dorsett, WR

Dorsett was a burner at Miami, averaging 23.3 yards per catch his final two seasons. He also had only 49 catches those two years — setting the stage for a career that’s seen him be vital in spurts and anonymous elsewhere between the Colts and Patriots.

Lesson learned: Deep-ball speed can be a tough transition to the NFL.

Dorsett has had the chance to play with two top-tier quarterbacks in his career (Andrew Luck, Tom Brady) and didn’t evolve into anything more than a reliable third option. While valuable, he’s never had more than 33 catches in a season.

Players it applies to in 2020: CeeDee Lamb, Tee Higgins, Quez Watkins

30. Green Bay Packers: Damarious Randall, DB

After three decent seasons in Green Bay, Randall was traded for DeShone Kizer, which is one of the most disrespectful sentences one can write about a football player. Randall moved to safety and was a versatile player for the Browns.

Lesson learned: Don’t trade for DeShone Kizer (or anyone who throws twice as many interceptions as touchdowns).

Kizer undoubtedly had his growth stunted by a rookie season starting for an awful Browns team, and shipping a player Green Bay wasn’t interested in re-signing wasn’t a bad idea in theory. But the Packers still sent a 25-year-old starter to Cleveland for a quarterback who went 0-15 and posted an 11:22 TD:INT ratio in his debut season.

Players it applies to in 2020: Whomever gets traded for Jameis Winston in 2022.

31. New Orleans Saints: Stephone Anthony, LB

Anthony played through his second stint with the Saints in 2019 after being traded to the Dolphins two years earlier. Unlike Tomlinson, he failed to rebound; he started all 16 games for New Orleans as a rookie but has just four starts in the four seasons since.

Lesson learned: An all-rookie team appearance is no indicator of success.

Anthony was an all-rookie selection, but he’s been primarily a special teams player since 2016. While teams have been eager to kick the tires on him, the fact the Jets, Falcons, and Dolphins all either released him or let him walk away is an indicator of just how little that potential means now.

Players it applies to in 2020: Each of the upcoming season’s rookie stars.

32. New England Patriots: Malcom Brown, DT

Brown spent four seasons in the center of the Patriots’ defensive line, then last year with the Saints. In both places, he’s done his job well enough to be mostly unnoticeable while his teammates largely benefitted from the disruptions he caused.

Lesson learned: Don’t let a potential top-20 pick fall to Bill Belichick.

Brown was expected to land in the top half of the draft, but his slide to No. 32 convinced Belichick to tamp down his basest urges to trade the pick. The Texas star filled an immediate need for New England and played a key role on two Super Bowl champion teams.

Players it applies to in 2020: Zack Baun, Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs, Andrew Thomas, Tristan Wirfs, Mekhi Becton, etc.

[angevinworld-blog]

Death of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Duke of Brittany

On this day in history in 1186, Geoffrey Plantagenet died in Paris. He was the fourth of five sons born to Henry II, King of England, and Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine. He died unexpectedly at the age of 27, in the prime of his life. There is also evidence that he might have died on the 21st of August, 1186.

Geoffrey is one of the forgotten Angevin royals: he is rarely the focus of historians because he died young and was the only son of Henry and Eleanor who survived to adulthood, yet never wore a crown. In Angevin history, he has been called “a duke among kings.”

He was born at Beaumont Palace, Oxford. In her biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Marion Meade wrote of his birth:

“On September 23, 1158, without fuss or fanfare and almost seeming to be an afterthought, she [Eleanor] gave birth to another son, Geoffrey.”

Geoffrey’s Personality

There are no portraits of Geoffrey Plantagenet at any age known to exist. According to contemporary chronicles, Geoffrey was dark-haired and short of stature; he had an average appearance and was not considered good-looking, charming, or charismatic. He was probably the most intelligent son of Eleanor and Henry, but he used his talents for selfish schemes.

                              Geoffrey in the movie “Lion in the Winter”

It’s likely that the young Geoffrey was often overshadowed by the towering personalities which dominated the royal family.  His father ruled vast lands and was one of the wealthiest and most successful kings of his time.  His mother had been Queen of France before becoming Queen of England, and through the strength and determination of her personality, she maintained control over the vast, prosperous, and strategic Duchy of Aquitaine.  Geoffrey’s two older brothers were the ambitious Henry the Younger and the man who would become famous as Richard the Lionheart.

Participation in “The Great Revolt of 1173-74”

These internal family tensions and ambitions led to what is today called, “The Great Revolt of 1173-74.”

                                Events in Normandy, summer 1173

At the age of fifteen, Geoffrey found himself swept up in this revolt against his father, although it is doubtful that he played any significant role in the events of the time.  Eventually, Geoffrey and his brothers reconciled to Henry, and a truce was reached at Gisors in 1174.  Unfortunately, this uneasy peace within the Plantagenet royal family was not destined to last.

Duke of Brittany

In July 1181, Geoffrey became the Duke of Brittany and Earl of Richmond upon his marriage to Constance, Duchess of Brittany.  It was a marriage that had been carefully orchestrated by Henry II.

                                    Constance, Duchess of Brittany

Years earlier, Henry had helped Conan IV, Duke of Brittany put down an uprising.  Duke Conan might have assumed that Henry was helping him maintain control over the Duchy of Brittany, but Henry’s motives were much more mercenary:  Henry decided that Brittany’s location on the western border of Normandy made it a desirable addition to his expansive kingdom.

After putting down the revolt in Brittany, Henry forced Conan to abdicate his title to his five year old daughter, Constance, and then he betrothed the little duchess to eight year old Geoffrey. According to Everard, Henry needed Conan’s abdication to prevent any son of the duke from inheriting the duchy in the future.

Geoffrey Plantagenet and his wife, Constance, had three children:

Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany, (1184–1241);

Maud/Matilda of Brittany (died in May 1189);

Arthur I, Duke of Brittany (he was born in 1187, after Geoffrey’s death, and was presumably killed in 1203 by his uncle, John I of England).

Another Revolt

By 1182, Plantagenet family tensions were once again reaching a boiling point.

Henry the Young King grew increasingly frustrated that his coronation had brought him relatively little wealth and no real power.  Meanwhile, Richard ruled Aquitaine, where disgruntled nobles were able to exploit the tensions between the three brothers.  Geoffrey joined Henry the Young King and threatened Richard.  King Henry was required to intervene in an attempt to cool the tempers of his fractious brood.

                                         Revolt against Henry II

It is the resolution of this second revolt where historians get their first glimpse of Geoffrey’s nature and temperament.  Henry II and his sons all met in Anjou, at Mirabel, and the three sons took oaths that they would be obedient to the rightful King of England, their father, and would not rebel again.

Soon after taking this oath, Henry the Young King contracted dysentery in June 1183 and died in the Castle of Martel, near Limoges.

Following this second revolt, we get our first glimpse into the nature and personality of Geoffrey from a chronicler of the time, Roger of Hoveden:

“But the said Geoffrey, utterly forgetful of God and of respect for his father, and unmindful of his commands, did not bring peace, but the sword, and, slighting his oath, his homage, and the fealty which he had so often sworn to his father, entered into a compact with the enemies of his father, for the purpose of harassing him, and induced a sacrilegious race, and one detested by the Church of Rome, to ravage the territories of his father.”

Geoffrey allied himself with John Lackland, his youngest brother, against Richard.  Later he joined with young Philippe Augustus, the King of France, against both his father and Richard. In response, Henry II made increasingly violent assaults upon any castle or fiefdom allied with Geoffrey, and, eventually, Henry and Richard captured all the rebellious castles, some of which they razed to the ground.

According to contemporary sources, Geoffrey didn’t have Richard’s great military talent, but he was a ruthless warrior who was capable of terrifying acts of violence. He was best known for his propensity to do anything to get his way.  If he needed to raise funds for his campaigns, he attacked and robbed monasteries and abbeys, and it was this lack of reverence that earned him the displeasure of the Church.

Historians about Geoffrey

Roger of Hoveden called Geoffrey ‘that son of iniquity and perdition.’ In her book “Eleanor of Aquitaine: By the Wrath of God, Queen of England,” Alison Weir writes:

“Geoffrey’s life would be that of an ambitious and opportunistic robber baron. Ruthless in warfare, he plundered at will, not hesitating to sack abbeys and shrines. He had few scruples, and confronted his critics with devious and shameless excuses.”

          Geoffrey with his mother, Eleanor, in the movie “Lion in the Winter”

In his biography of Henry II of England, Richard Barber says:

“Geoffrey, though skilled in military affairs, eloquent and astute, never won men’s hearts or admiration as his elder brothers had done; he took after his Angevin grandfather, in whose dry and ambitious nature these three qualities predominated.”

Geoffrey Plantagenet was a good friend of Philippe Augustus, the son of King Louis VII of France. He spent time at the French court in Paris, and Philippe even made him his seneschal (a royal steward overseeing the entire country), much to the displeasure of the English monarch. Philippe and Geoffrey acted in alliance against Henry II in the revolt of 1183-1184. Some evidence supports the claim that the two men were planning another rebellion against Henry II in the summer of 1186, but Geoffrey’s sudden death precluded them from launching it.

Having conspired sometimes with and sometimes against his elder brothers and his father, Geoffrey Plantagenet, Duke of Brittany, acquired a reputation for treachery and perdition.

A Cambro-Norman archdeacon of Brecon and historian, Gerald of Wales was a royal clerk to the king and two archbishops. He often traveled and wrote detailed chronicles. He wrote the following of Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany:

“He has more aloes than honey in him; his tongue is smoother than oil; his sweet and persuasive eloquence has enabled him to dissolve the firmest alliances and by his powers of language able to corrupt two kingdoms; of tireless endeavour, a hypocrite in everything, a deceiver and a dissembler.”

Death in Paris

At the time of his death, Geoffrey Plantagenet was at the French court. There are two alternative accounts of his death. The most popular version is that the Duke of Brittany was trampled to death in a jousting tournament. According to Roger of Hoveden, Philip was so grief-stricken and devastated that he attempted jumping into the coffin – this is likely an exaggeration, although other chronicles also give some details of Philip’s hysterical grief.

                                      Geoffrey’s tombstone

According to the chronicle of the French Royal clerk Rigord, Geoffrey died of sudden acute chest pain in his chest, which was said to be his punishment for plotting against his father and for his lack of respect to the Lord. In this chronicle, it is said that Geoffrey was struck by that illness immediately after boasting to Philippe of his intention to lay Normandy to waste.  It is typical of this time period for chroniclers to invent a manner of death that provides a sense of justice for the sins of the person who has died.  Most historians doubt the veracity of this account of Geoffrey’s death.

Likewise, some historians think that the story of Geoffrey’s death in a tournament was invented by Philip in order to keep Henry II from learning about a new plot against him.

However, it is known that Geoffrey Plantagenet enjoyed tournaments and did participate in them.

Because he drew his last breath in France, Geoffrey’s body was not taken to England for burial. He was put to eternal rest in the choir of Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral, but his tombstone was destroyed in the 18th century, before the French revolution.

All images are in the public domain.

Text © 2017 Olivia Longueville and J.C. Plummer

[sobeardtastemaker-blog]

33 Things I Would Have Paid Money to Know Before I Started in Online Marketing

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33 Things I Would Have Paid Money to Know Before I Started in Online Marketing

If you’re just starting out in Internet Marketing, beware: There are lessons you’ll need to learn one way or the other. The easier way is find an old marketer like me and pick my brain. The hard way is the method I’ve used many times in my years as a marketer – making the mistake and THEN learning the lesson. But it’s been worth it. Here 33 things I wish I’d known when I started in online marketing.

1. Your most valuable asset is your customer list. Not your prospect list, your customer list – people who have spent at least a dollar with you. Do everything you can to grow this list, because once someone trusts you enough to hand you a dollar, they’ll hand you $50. And once they hand you $50, they’ll hand you $500, but only if you treat them right.

2. Your second most valuable asset is your affiliates and JV partners. I’m talking about the affiliates who promote your products time and again, the ones that stick by you because A) They believe in you B) They believe in your products C) You treat them like the royalty they are. Your affiliates can make you more money in one day than most people earn in a year. Find them, nurture them, be amazing to them and take care of them.

3. Your third most valuable asset is really your most valuable, but until you’ve been in this business for awhile I’m afraid you won’t believe it, so I placed it here at number 3. But think about this – if you don’t treat your customers right and your affiliates right, what happens? You get a bad reputation. And once you have that, you might has well hang it up and go get a job at Walmart. Your reputation is EVERYTHING online. Protect it the way you would protect your own child, because you only get one chance to do it right. This goes for your brand as well.

4. Other valuable assets in no particular order are: Your prospect list, your outsourcers and your products. Focus on moving people off of your prospect list and onto your buyers list, even if it’s only a $1 purchase. Treat your best outsourcers well – you don’t want to have to find and train new ones every 6 weeks. And products, well…

5. Your products speak for you. Make them awesome and be sure they deliver on every promise you make. And do create products – lots of them. The more the merrier, so long as each one is filling a real customer want. It’s much easier to break into the 6 figure realm when you’re creating your own products. My most prosperous years are the ones where I’m creating the most solutions and products.

6. Keep things simple. I see aspiring marketers trying to over-complicate things all the time. Find a want, create the product, sell it to those who want it. Simple. As Steve Jobs said, “That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” When you reduce the clutter and noise, you can do less and get more from it.

7. Focus. Pick a niche and focus on that niche. Let nothing distract you, including all the other niches. Make a list of things to do. Do each one. This sounds so simple, yet people try to go in several different directions at once and of course wind up going absolutely nowhere. This is one I got right from the start – I chose the IM niche and never looked back, and I’ve never regretted it.

8. Use systems. With a finely tuned system you can do anything. When they build a car, do they reinvent the engine each time? No. When you start an IM business, you don’t have to reinvent the mechanics of how to run it, either. Get a system and you’ll be free to focus on making money while the system runs your business.

9. Do 15 minutes of concentrated, positive thinking every morning. Do affirmations in the mirror, read something inspiring, look over and read aloud your goals, etc. Whatever it is that lights your fire, do it first thing in the morning and it will fuel you for the rest of the day.

10. Send out ships. Thinking positive is the first step, but it’s not enough. You’ve got to climb those stairs, not just look up at them and hope you somehow get to the top. So each day, send out ships. Make contact with someone in your niche. Build alliances. Email a dozen prospective affiliates. Skype with your best prospects. Whatever it is that brings in the business and makes you money, do it daily.

11. Use deadlines. Work inevitably expands to fill the time allowed, so only allow enough time to get it done. Then cut that time in half. You’ll be astonished at how fast you can work and what you can achieve.

12. Screw perfection. Really. You’ve got to take that attitude or you’ll be working six months on a product trying to get it perfect. When you finally do launch it, the window has passed and the desires of the community have moved on.

13. Build a real business. A blog is not a business, nor is a list. Those are components of a business. Decide what business you’re in and then treat it as seriously as any brick and mortar business.

14. You are the CEO of your business. Act like it. Outsource as much as possible so you don’t get bogged down. You can’t captain a ship while you’re swabbing decks. Focus on the big picture and outsource the details.

15. When you receive payment for a product, that’s when your work begins. Remember, it’s easier to keep a customer than to get one, but if you don’t continually take care of your customers, you’ll lose them.

16. Stand for something. No successful business has ever been all things to all people.

17. Pre-sell your products. This way you know for a fact if there’s a market for it, PLUS you have a huge incentive to get that product out the door FAST. And if there’s no interest in the product, you’ve just saved yourself the work of creating what would have been a loser anyway.

18. Make connections. Every day make one new connection and then maintain that connection forever. Yes, forever. Or until you retire. You can never have too many connections, too many friends in the business, too many customers, too many affiliates and JV partners, etc.

19. Be an idea magnet. What’s an idea? Often it’s a combination of two old things into something new. Look for ideas everywhere and write them down. WRITE THEM DOWN. Writing them ensures you don’t forget them, it frees your mind to think of more ideas, and it trains your mind to be ever watchful for the next big idea.

20. You can’t email your list too often. There’s a belief that if you send out an email everyday to your list, you’ll burn the list. And this is true if all you’re sending is ads. But if you’re also sending tidbits of good information or even just something to brighten their day, they will welcome your messages. In fact, emailing every day ensures you stay in their memory. Email once a week and they’ll forget who you are.

21. Grow your confidence. This will happen naturally as you experience success in your business, but you need to be confident from Day 1 that you can do the business in the first place.

22. Use to-do lists. Write down goals big and small. Write down what needs to be done this month, this week and today. Prioritize your list. Then do it.

23. Get an accountability partner. Tell each other or email each other each morning with your to-do list. Then tell each other in the evening what you accomplished.

24. Join a mastermind group. If you can’t find one, start one.

25. Outsource the bulk of your content and product creation. Then focus 80% or more of your time on marketing and building your business. This boils down to ‘Working ON your business rather than IN your business.’

26. Ask for the sale. That’s right, ASK for the sale. I once went to a car dealer and the guy helping me was brand new. I found the car I wanted, but he couldn’t gather up the courage to ask for the sale. Finally another salesperson came over and asked if I was ready to buy. “Yes!” I said. The young sales person looked astonished, but when he had to split his commission with the sales person who asked for the sale, I could see the new guy had learned his lesson.

27. Always have an upsell. If you’re selling a $7 product, offer a $27 on the backend. If your product is $97, offer a $997 on the backend. If you don’t, you’re robbing your customers who want more and you’re robbing yourself.

28. Continuity rules. Always look for ways to introduce continuity into your business, from the $7 a month membership to the $5,000 a month coaching program.

29. Passive income is the result of hard work, not passively sitting on your butt. How many rich couch potatoes do you know?

30. Hire a business coach. You’ll get a fresh perspective you sorely need, as well as good advice and someone to push you to new levels. For every dollar you spend on quality business coaching, you can expect to make $10 or more in just the first year, as long as you ACT on the good advice.

31. Invest your profits, don’t spend them. Buy real estate, good stocks or anything of lasting value. Don’t squander your money on ridiculous cars and nights out – there could come a day when you’ll deeply regret it.

32. Think of your mother. Would you be embarrassed to show her your marketing methods? If not, you might want to rethink your strategy. Another thing: Would she tell you that despite how busy you are, you should still eat right, exercise and take a little time off each day? Then be smart and do it. Mom does know best.

33. Have fun. If you’re miserable, you’re not doing it right. Yes there are going to be challenges, but half the fun is overcoming those challenges and persevering. If you hate what you’re doing, you’ve already failed. Do something else. I learned this in my previous profession prior to the Internet, but it holds true no matter what your business.

There you have it – 33 things I wish I’d known when I started. Some of these would have been handy five years into my IM career as well. I hope it helps.

One word of advice – when you do learn a lesson, either the hard way or the easy way – make a note of it. It’s best not to repeat the same mistakes any more than you have to.

[networkingdefinition]

Leisure Quotes

Official Website: Leisure Quotes

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• A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man’s life as in a book. Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars. – Henry David Thoreau • A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man’s life as in a book. – Henry David Thoreau • A healthy man, with steady employment, as wood-chopping at fifty cents a cord, and a camp in the woods, will not be a good subjectfor Christianity. The New Testament may be a choice book to him on some, but not on all or most of his days. He will rather go a-fishing in his leisure hours. The Apostles, though they were fishers too, were of the solemn race of sea-fishers, and never trolled for pickerel on inland streams. – Henry David Thoreau • A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. There will be sleeping enough in the grave. – Benjamin Franklin • A society that gives to one class all the opportunities for leisure, and to another all the burdens of work, dooms both classes to spiritual sterility. – Lewis Mumford • Action is the music of our life. Like music, it starts from a pause of leisure, a silence of activity which our initiative attacks; then it develops according to its inner logic, passes its climax, seeks its cadence, ends, and restores silence, leisure again. Action and leisure are thus interdependent; echoing and recalling each other, so that action enlivens leisure with its memories and anticipations, and leisure expands and raises action beyond its mere immediate self and gives it a permanent meaning. – Salvador de Madariaga • All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast. – John Gunther • All intellectual improvement arises from leisure. – Samuel Johnson • All this time I lived with my parents, and wrought on the plantation; and having had schooling pretty well for a planter, I used to improve myself in winter evenings, and other leisure times. – John Woolman • Americans will listen, but they do not care to read. War and Peace must wait for the leisure of retirement, which never really comes: meanwhile it helps to furnish the living room. – Anthony Burgess • Any notion of the serious life of leisure, as well as men’s taste and capacity to live it, had disappeared. Leisure became entertainment. – Allan Bloom • Any reading not of a vicious species must be a good substitute for the amusements too apt to fill up the leisure of the labouring classes. – James Madison • Anyone can see that to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin on the knee in the kitchen, with constant calls to cooking and other details of housework to punctuate the paragraphs, was a more difficult achievement than to write it at leisure in a quiet room. – Anna Garlin Spencer • As to that leisure evening of life, I must say that I do not want it. I can conceive of no contentment of which toil is not to be the immediate parent. – Anthony Trollope • As Western nations became more prosperous, leisure, which had been put off for several centuries in favor of the pursuit of property, the means to leisure, finally began to be of primary concern. But, in the meantime, any notion of the serious life of leisure, as well as men’s taste and capacity to live it, had disappeared. – Allan Bloom • As work weeks get longer and leisure time shrinks, people are becoming sicker, more distracted, absent, unproductive, and less innovative. – Brigid Schulte • At the root of our civilization, there is the freedom of each person of thought, of belief, of opinion, of work, of leisure. – Charles de Gaulle • Australians are coffee snobs. An influx of Italian immigrants after World War II ensured that – we probably had the word ‘cappuccino’ about 20 years before America. Cafe culture is really big for Aussies. We like to work hard, but we take our leisure time seriously. – Hugh Jackman • Automation and technology would be a great boon if it were creative, if there were more leisure, more opportunity to engage in raising a family, providing guidance to the young, all the stuff we say we need. America will work if we’re all in it together. It’ll work when there’s a shared sense of destiny. It can be done! – Jerry Brown

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  jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'Leisure', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_leisure').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_leisure img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); ); • Basically, particularly in Britain, it’s a hegemonic thing that people who write tend to come from the leisure classes. They can afford the time and the books. – Irvine Welsh • Celebrating the future is about celebrating a better world: a world in which everyone’s life is easier and their health is maintained longer. It’ll be a life where there’s more time for leisure – for enriching each other’s lives rather than just running to stand still. In other words, more holiday time! So a holiday is absolutely the appropriate way to help us focus on it and make it a reality soon. – Aubrey de Grey • Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure. – Thorstein Veblen • Convent – a place of retirement for women who wish for leisure to meditate upon the sin of idleness. – Ambrose Bierce • Creativity is an innate function in a human being, as we see in tribal peoples, who spent their considerable leisure time making religious artifacts and sacred art. That is what I would call a direct culture, in that everybody in it is directly in touch with all the elements, both of the culture and of the environment. – Michael Ventura • Cultivated leisure is the aim of man. – Oscar Wilde

[clickbank-storefront-bestselling] • Destroy our leisure and you break love’s bow. – Ovid • Detest it [a certain difficult mathematics problem] just as much as lewd intercourse; it can deprive you of all your leisure, your health, your rest, and the whole happiness of your life. – Farkas Bolyai • Do not love leisure. Waste not a minute. Be bold. Realize the Truth, here and now! – Sivananda • Do not mistake a crowd of big wage earners for the leisure class. – Clive Bell • Do not say, ‘When I have leisure, I will study,’ because you may never have leisure. – Hillel the Elder • Do you know that conversation is one of the greatest pleasures in life? But it wants leisure. – W. Somerset Maugham • Eat good dinners and drink good wine; read good novels if you have the leisure and see good plays; fall in love, if there is no reason why you should not fall in love; but do not pore over influenza statistics. – Jerome K. Jerome • Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure. – Benjamin Franklin • Everybody was saying we must have more leisure. Now they are complaining they are unemployed. – Prince Philip • For men who had easily endured hardship, danger and difficult uncertainty, leisure and riches, though in some ways desirable, proved burdensome and a source of grief. – Sallust • For mothers who must earn, there is indeed no leisure time problem. The long hours of earning are increased by the hours of domestic labor, until no slightest margin for relaxation or change of thought remains. – Katharine Anthony • Friendship is a very taxing and arduous form of leisure activity. – Mortimer Adler • From Alexander the Platonic, not frequently nor without necessity to say to any one, or to write in a letter, that I have no leisure; nor continually to excuse the neglect of duties required by our relation to those with whom we live, by alleging urgent occupations. – Marcus Aurelius • Good will, that curious product of consciousness, of leisure and energy to spare and share. That thing we put out against the forces of interest. That extra thing. Religions and nations and political parties have taken it and used it as coinage, have said you must only give it in exchange for value. – Naomi Mitchison • Happiness is thought to depend on leisure; for we are busy that we may have leisure, and make war that we may live in peace. – Aristotle • He enjoys true leisure who has time to improve his soul’s estate. – Henry David Thoreau • He hath no leisure who useth it not. – George Herbert • Hospitality has never been about having House Beautiful with perfectly coordinated accessories and the most up-to-date equipment, nor is it dependent upon having large chunks of leisure time and a big entertainment budget to spend, nor does it require special training in the culinary arts or event planning. Hospitality is about a heart for service, the creativity to stretch whatever we do have available, and the energy to give the time necessary to add a flourish to the ordinary events of life. – Dorothy Kelley Patterson • How to use your leisure time is the biggest problem of a ballplayer. – Branch Rickey • I am an inveterate homemaker, it is at once my pleasure, my recreation, and my handicap. Were I a man, my books would have been written in leisure, protected by a wife and a secretary and various household officials. As it is, being a woman, my work has had to be done between bouts of homemaking. – Pearl S. Buck • I am in musical theatre, but it isn’t necessarily what I listen to in my leisure time, do you know what I mean? – Patti LuPone • I am moreover inclined to be concise when I reflect on the constant occupation of the citizens in public and private affairs, so that in their few leisure moments they may read and understand as much as possible. – Marcus Vitruvius Pollio I believe in manicures. I believe in overdressing. I believe in primping at leisure and wearing lipsitck. – Audrey Hepburn • I could do whatever I liked to do during the day. I didn’t have to work in an office. I could work at home. I could work at my leisure. I worked ’til four in the morning. I worked with the TV and radio on – it was a great setup. I was a night person and still am. – Jack Kirby • I hate leisure, except reading. I’m really a person made to work, if sketching is considered work. – Karl Lagerfeld • I hate to mention age, but I come from an era when we weren’t consumed by technology and television. My mother insisted that her children read. To describe my scarce leisure time in today’s terms, I always default to reading. – Jimmy Buffett • I have an inability to relax. I try to make every day a work day. I get pleasure from work… I try to think of sketch ideas, stand-up pieces. I am incapable of leisure and leisure time. – Fred Armisen • I have no leisure to think of style or of polish, or to select the best language, the best English – no time to shine as an authoress. I must just think aloud, so as not to keep the public waiting. – Isabel Burton • I keep telling people I’ll make movies until I’m fifty and then I’ll go and do something else. I’m going to be a professional gentleman of leisure. – Eddie Murphy • I love the joy of mountains Wandering free with no concerns Every day I find food for this old body There’s leisure for thinking, nothing to do Often I carry an ancient book Sometimes I climb a rock pavilion To look down a thousand foot precipice Overhead are swirling clouds A cold moon chilly cold My body feels like a flying crane – Hanshan • I remember in that red leisure suit I sort of felt like a Pizza Hut employee, and the white one was the ultimate, with the white turtleneck collar, that was the ultimate in bad taste. – Johnny Depp • I sort of leave the character at the end of the day. I don’t carry anything around with me – no excess baggage or unnecessary thoughts. I think it’s too exhausting to do that. To put things into perspective – your work is your work, and your leisure time is something else. – Sean Bean • I think this dichotomy or opposition between work and play, between leisure and serious stuff, is definitely a bad way of thinking about the useful insights that play provides. – Ian Bogost • I wish you could arrange your life so as to have a little more leisure. I do not want you to be lazy, but the passive conditions of the mind are quite as valuable as the active conditions. – Elsa Barker • I would not exchange my leisure hours for all the wealth in the world. – Honore Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau • I’d rather spend my leisure time doing what some people call my work and I call my fun. – Jared Diamond • If I am doing nothing, I like to be doing nothing to some purpose. That is what leisure means. – Alan Bennett • If I myself dominate myself, if my thoughts revolve round myself, if I am so occupied with myself I rarely have “a heart at leisure from itself,” then I know nothing of Calvary love. – Amy Carmichael • If the individuals who compose the purest circles of aristocracy in Europe, the guarded blood of centuries, should pass in review,in such manner as that we could, at leisure, and critically inspect their behavior, we might find no gentleman, and no lady; for, although excellent specimens of courtesy and high-breeding would gratify us in the assemblage, in the particulars, we should detect offence. Because, elegance comes of no breeding, but of birth. • If the life-supporting ecosystems of the planet are to survive for future generations, the consumer society will have to dramatically curtail its use of resources – partly by shifting to high-quality, low-input durable goods and partly by seeking fulfillment through leisure, human relationships, and other nonmaterial avenues. We in the consumer society will have to live a technologically sophisticated version of the life-style currently practiced lower on the economic ladder. – Alan Thein Durning • If there is such a thing as a workaholic, I’m it, and that’s what passes for leisure. – Steve Earle • If work and leisure are soon to be subordinated to this one utopian principle – absolute busyness – then utopia and melancholy will come to coincide: an age without conflict will dawn, perpetually busy – and without consciousness. – Gunter Grass • If you are losing your leisure, look out! You are losing your soul. – Logan Pearsall Smith • I’m never less at leisure than when at leisure, or less alone than when alone. – Scipio Africanus • In itself and in its consequences the life of leisure is beautiful and ennobling in all civilised men’s eyes. – Thorstein Veblen • In life, as in Chess, ones own Pawns block ones way. A mans very wealth, ease, leisure, children, books, which should help him to win, more often checkmate him – Charles Buxton • In the year 2000 you’re going to have a problem…Leisure time will be a problem in the year 2000. I just want you to realize, I just want to make sure that you know of it now. – Edie Sedgwick • Increased means and increased leisure are the two civilizers of man. – Benjamin Disraeli • It is already possible to imagine a society in which the majority of the population, that is to say, its laborers, will have almost as much leisure as in earlier times was enjoyed by the aristocracy. When one recalls how aristocracies in the past actually behaved, the prospect is not cheerful. – W. H. Auden • It is dainty to be sick if you have leisure and convenience for it. – Ralph Waldo Emerson • It is in his pleasure that a man really lives; it is from his leisure that he constructs the true fabric of self. – Agnes Repplier • It is just this rage for consideration that has betrayed the dog into his satellite position as the friend of man. The cat, an animal of franker appetites, preserves his independence. But the dog, with one eye ever on the audience, has been wheedled into slavery, and praised and patted into the renunciation of his nature. Once he ceased hunting and became man’s plate-licker, the Rubicon was crossed. Thenceforth he was a gentleman of leisure; and except the few whom we keep working, the whole race grew more and more self-conscious, mannered and affected. – Robert Louis Stevenson • It is most important that we should keep in this country a certain leisured class. I am of the opinion of the ancient Jewish book which says there is no wisdom without leisure. – William Butler Yeats • It may be said that an education which does not succeed in making poetry a resource in the business of life as well as in its leisure, has something the matter with it. – John Dewey • It takes application, a fine sense of value, and a powerful community-spirit for a people to have serious leisure, and this has not been the genius of the Americans. – Paul Goodman • Jupiter has no leisure to attend to little things. – Ovid • Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles. – Samuel Johnson • Leisure and the cultivation of human capacities are inextricably interdependent. – Margaret Mead • Leisure is a form of silence, not noiselessness. It is the silence of contemplation such as occurs when we let our minds rest on a rosebud, a child at play, a Divine mystery, or a waterfall. – Fulton J. Sheen • leisure is an attitude of mind, not simply remission of work. – Nan Fairbrother • Leisure is gone,–gone where the spinning-wheels are gone, and the pack-horses, and the slow wagons, and the peddlers, who brought bargains to the door on sunny afternoons. – George Eliot • Leisure is one of the three greatest rewards of being a teacher. It is, unfortunately, the privilege which teachers most often misuse. – Gilbert Highet • Leisure is pain; take off our chariot wheels; how heavily we drag the load of life! – Edward Young • Leisure is the handmaiden of the devil. – Branch Rickey • Leisure is the most challenging responsibility a man can be offered. – William Russell • Leisure is the Mother of Philosophy. – Thomas Hobbes • Leisure is the time for doing something useful. – Benjamin Franklin • Leisure is the time for doing something useful. This leisure the diligent person will obtain the lazy one never. – Benjamin Franklin • Leisure may be defined as free activity, labor as compulsory activity. Leisure does what it likes, labor does what it must, the compulsion being that of Nature, which in these latitudes leaves men no choice between labor and starvation. – George Bernard Shaw • Leisure only means a chance to do other jobs that demand attention. – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. • Leisure was the sine qua non of the full Renaissance. The feudal nobility, having lost its martial function, sought diversion all over Europe in cultivated pastimes: sonneteering, the lute, games and acrostics, travel, gentlemanly studies and sports, hunting and hawking, treated as arts. – Mary McCarthy • Leisure with dignity. – Marcus Tullius Cicero • Leisure without study is death, and the grave of a living man. – Seneca the Younger • Leisure, the highest happiness on earth, is seldom enjoyed with perfect satisfaction, except in solitude. – George Zimmerman • Leisure, the highest happiness upon earth, is seldom enjoyed with perfect satisfaction, except in solitude. Indolence and indifference do not always afford leisure; for true leisure is frequently found in that interval of relaxation which divides a painful duty from an agreeable recreation; a toilsome business from the more agreeable occupations of literature and philosophy. – Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann • Like every other good thing in this world, leisure and culture have to be paid for. Fortunately, however, it is not the leisured and the cultured who have to pay. – Aldous Huxley • Literature is, in fact, the fruit of leisure. – Amelia B. Edwards • Manuscript: something submitted in haste and returned at leisure. – Oliver Herford • Many people know how to work hard; many others know how to play well; but the rarest talent in the world is the ability to introduce elements of playfulness into work, and to put some constructive labor into our leisure. – Sydney J. Harris • Men love in haste, but they detest at leisure. – Lord Byron • Mend when thou canst; be better at thy leisure. – William Shakespeare • Much work is merely a way to make money; much leisure is merely a way to spend it. – C. Wright Mills • My hobbies and leisure activities include cars and golf. – Michael Strahan • NCL … stands to achieve greater success under the Carnival Corp. umbrella, which will provide NCL with economies of scale, greater access to capital, marketing and operating expertise and stronger credibility in the leisure and vacation industry. – Micky Arison • News-hunters have great leisure, with little thought; much petty ambition to be considered intelligent, without any other pretension than being able to communicate what they have just learned. – Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann • No blessed leisure for love or hope, But only time for grief. – Thomas Hood • No country can reach a high stage of civilization without a leisure class. – Gertrude Atherton • No man has a right to be idle. Where is it that in such a world as this, that health, and leisure, and affluence may not find some ignorance to instruct, some wrong to redress, some want to supply, some misery to alleviate? – William Wilberforce • No president who performs his duties faithfully and conscientiously can have any leisure. – James K. Polk • Nothing increases the number of jobs so rapidly as labor-saving machinery, because it releases wants theretofore unknown, by permitting leisure. – Isabel Paterson • Nothing is as certain as that the vices of leisure are gotten rid of by being busy. – Seneca the Younger • Nothing makes God more supreme and more central in worship than when a people are utterly persuaded that nothing – not money or prestige or leisure or family or job or health or sports or toys or friends – nothing is going to bring satisfaction to their sinful, guilty, aching hearts besides God. – John Piper • O Holy Spirit of God, abide with us; inspire all our thoughts; pervade our imaginations; suggest all our decisions; order all our doings. Be with us in our silence and in our speech, in our haste and in our leisure, in company and in solitude, in the freshness of the morning and in the weariness of the evening; and give us grace at all times humbly to rejoice in Thy mysterious companionship. – John Baillie • One needs both leisure and money to make a successful book. – Frances Harper • One of the problems of the future world will be the use of leisure time. How will it be filled up? Maybe drugs will be distributed free of charge by the government. – Michelangelo Antonioni • One person may need (or want) more leisure, another more work; one more adventure, another more security, and so on. It is this diversity that makes a country, indeed a state, a city, a church, or a family, healthy. ‘One-size-fits-all,’ and that size determined by the State has a name, and that name is ‘slavery.’ – David Mamet • Our leisure is the time the Devil seizes upon to make us work for him; and the only way we can avoid conscription into his ranks is to keep all our leisure moments profitably employed. – James Ellis • Oxford lends sweetness to labour and dignity to leisure. – Henry James • People are often quite surprised by the sport and leisure activities practised by the blind. For example, tandem cycling is very popular. – Andrea Bocelli • People have become shallower. They view spending, entertaining, seeking leisure and enjoying as the main objectives of their life. – Zhang Yimou • People who know how to employ themselves, always find leisure moments, while those who do nothing are forever in a hurry. – Madame Roland • People without imagination are beginning to tire of the importance attached to comfort, to culture, to leisure, to all that destroys imagination. This means that people are not really tired of comfort, culture and leisure, but of the use to which they are. – Raoul Vaneigem • People would have more leisure time if it weren’t for all the leisure-time activities that use it up. – Peg Bracken • Pleasure seizes the whole man who addicts himself to it, and will not give him leisure for any good office in life which contradicts the gayety of the present hour. – Richard Steele • Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness. – Aristotle • Remove but the temptations of leisure, and the bow of Cupid will lose its effect. – Ovid • Reverend Fathers, my letters did not usually follow each other at such close intervals, nor were they so long…. This one would not be so long had I but the leisure to make it shorter. – Blaise Pascal • Society of leisure perhaps? Indeed, the most remarkable aspect of the transition we are living through is not so much the passage from want to affluence as the passage from labour to leisure. Leisure contains the future, it is the new horizon. The prospect then is one of unremitting labor to bequeath to future generations a chance of founding a society of leisure that will overcome the demands and compulsions of productive labor so that time may be devoted to creative activities or simply to pleasure and happiness. – Henri Lefebvre • Solitude is the surest nurse of all prurient passions, and a girl in the hurry of preparation, or tumult of gaiety, has neither inclination nor leisure to let tender expressions soften or sink into her heart. The ball, the show, are not the dangerous places: no, ’tis the private friend, the kind consoler, the companion of the easy vacant hour, whose compliance with her opinions can flatter her vanity, and whose conversation can sooth, without ever stretching her mind, that is the lover to be feared: he who buzzes in her ear at court, or at the opera, must be contented to buzz in vain. – Samuel Johnson • Some by experience find those words mis-placed: At leisure married, they repent in haste. – William Congreve • Some people get the impression that Buddhism talks too much about suffering. In order to become prosperous, a person must initially work very hard, so he or she has to sacrifice a lot of leisure time. Similarly, the Buddhist is willing to sacrifice immediate comfort so that he or she can achieve lasting happiness. – Dalai Lama • Spend your leisure time in cultivating an ear attentive to discourse, for in this way you will find that you learn with ease what others have found out with difficulty. – Isocrates • Sweet is the pleasure itself cannot spoil. Is not true leisure one with true toil? – John Sullivan Dwight • Take away leisure and Cupid’s bow is broken – Ovid • Technology affects everyone, from agriculture to broadcasting to automotive to content to travel to leisure to everything, so we’re seeing an incredible array of CEOs from every different industry. – Gary Shapiro • Temptation rarely comes in working hours. It is in their leisure time that men are made or marred. – William Taylor • That god forbid, that made me first your slave, I should in thought control your times of pleasure, Or at your hand th’ account of hours to crave, Being your vassal bound to stay your leisure. – William Shakespeare • The artist is a member of the leisured classes who cannot pay for his leisure. – Cyril Connolly • The basis on which good repute in any highly organized industrial community ultimately rests is pecuniary strength; and the means of showing pecuniary strength, and so of gaining or retaining a good name, are leisure and a conspicuous consumption of goods. – Thorstein Veblen • The best in business spend far more time on learning than in leisure. – Robin Sharma • The best intelligence test is what we do with our leisure. – Laurence J. Peter • The best test of the quality of a civilization is the quality of its leisure. – Irwin Edman • The challenge of screenwriting is to say much in little and then take half of that little out and still preserve an effect of leisure and natural movement – Raymond Chandler • The coming peril is the intellectual, educational, psychological and artistic overproduction, which, equally with economic overproduction, threatens the well-being of contemporary civilisation. People are inundated, blinded, deafened, and mentally paralysed by a flood of vulgar and tasteless externals, leaving them no time for leisure, thought, or creation from within themselves. – Gilbert K. Chesterton • The end of labor is to gain leisure. – Aristotle • The fight against unfair scheduling is like the fight for a regulated work day – it’s people fighting for reasonable conditions at work and to have a life, so you can have some leisure. – Rachel Holmes • The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time. – Henry David Thoreau • The goal of war is peace, of business, leisure – Aristotle • The idea that leisure is of value in itself is only conditionally true. The average man simply spends his leisure as a dog spends it. His recreations are all puerile, and the time supposed to benefit him really only stupefies him. – H. L. Mencken • The idea that the poor should have leisure has always been shocking to the rich. – Bertrand Russell • The importance of the Beats is twofold: first, they act out a critique of the organized system that everybody in some sense agrees with. But second-and more important in the long run-they are a kind of major pilot study of the use of leisure in an economy of abundance. – Paul Goodman • The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he’s always doing both. – James A. Michener • The more we do, the more we can do; the more busy we are, the more leisure we have. – William Hazlitt • The most desirable thing in life after health and modest means is leisure with dignity. – Marcus Tullius Cicero • The only thing one can give an artist is leisure in which to work. To give an artist leisure is actually to take part in his creation. – Ezra Pound • The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not. – George Bernard Shaw • The poet needs a ground in popular tradition on which he may work, and which, again, may restrain his art within the due temperance. It holds him to the people, supplies a foundation for his edifice; and, in furnishing so much work done to his hand, leaves him at leisure, and in full strength for the audacities of his imagination. – Ralph Waldo Emerson • The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter. – Blaise Pascal • The preservation of parks, wilderness, and wildlife has also aided liberty by keeping alive the 19th century sense of adventure and awe with which our forefathers greeted the American West. Many laws protecting environmental quality have promoted liberty by securing property against the destructive trespass of pollution. In our own time, the nearly universal appreciation of these preserved landscapes, restored waters, and cleaner air through outdoor recreation is a modern expression of our freedom and leisure to enjoy the wonderful life that generations past have built for us. – Ronald Reagan • The primary purpose of a liberal education is to make one’s mind a pleasant place in which to spend one’s leisure. – Sydney J. Harris • The real problem of leisure time is how to keep others from using yours. – Arthur Lacey • The really efficient laborer will be found not to crowd his day with work, but will saunter to his task surrounded by a wide halo of ease and leisure. – Henry David Thoreau • The safe and general antidote against sorrow is employment. It is commonly observed, that among soldiers and seamen, though there is much kindness, there is little grief; they see their friend fall without any of that lamentation which is indulged in security and idleness, because they have no leisure to spare from the care of themselves; and whoever shall keep his thoughts equally busy will find himself equally unaffected with irretrievable losses. – Samuel Johnson • The slaves in Rome were incapable of leisure and so their masters gave them entertainment to keep them pacified. – Oliver DeMille • The thing that I should wish to obtain from money would be leisure with security. – Bertrand Russell • The trouble with the Internet is that it’s replacing masturbation as a leisure activity. – Patrick Murray • The walking stick serves the purpose of an advertisement that the bearer’s hands are employed otherwise than in useful effort, and it therefore has utility as an evidence of leisure. – Thorstein Veblen • There are moments when all anxiety and stated toil are becalmed in the infinite leisure and repose of nature. – Henry David Thoreau • There can be no high civilization where there is not ample leisure. – Henry Ward Beecher • There is room enough in human life to crowd almost every art and science in it. If we pass “”no day without a line””-visit no place without the company of a book-we may with ease fill libraries or empty them of their contents. The more we do, the more busy we are, the more leisure we have. – William Hazlitt • They talk of the dignity of work. The dignity is in leisure. – Herman Melville • Those who decide to use leisure as a means of mental development, who love good music, good books, good pictures, good plays, good company, good conversation – what are they? They are the happiest people in the world. – William Lyon Phelps • Thus grief still treads upon the heels of pleasure; Married in haste, we may repent at leisure. – William Congreve • To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level. – Bertrand Russell • To describe my scarce leisure time in today’s terms, I always default to reading. – Jimmy Buffett • To encounter Christ is to touch reality and experience transcendence. He gives us a sense of self-worth or personal significance, because He assures us of God’s love for us. He sets us free from guilt because He died for us and from paralyzing fear because He reigns. He gives meaning to marriage and home, work and leisure, personhood and citizenship. – John Stott • To work, to work hard, to see work steadily, and see it whole, was the way to be reputable. I think I always respected a goodblacksmith more than a lady of leisure. – Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward • Tourism, human circulation considered as consumption is fundamentally nothing more than the leisure of going to see what has become banal. – Guy Debord • Traditional education focuses on teaching, not learning. It incorrectly assumes that for every ounce of teaching there is an ounce of learning by those who are taught. However, most of what we learn before, during, and after attending schools is learned without its being taught to us. A child learns such fundamental things as how to walk, talk, eat, dress, and so on without being taught these things. Adults learn most of what they use at work or at leisure while at work or leisure. Most of what is taught in classroom settings is forgotten, and much or what is remembered is irrelevant. – Russell L. Ackoff • Unemployment diminishes people. Leisure enlarges them. – Mason Cooley • Unless we regain the art of silence and insight, the ability for nonactivity, unless we substitute true leisure for our hectic amusements, we will destroy our culture and ourselves. – Josef Pieper • Up until the middle of the nineteenth century, men of science were all believers. Most of the great early English naturalists were also ministers; they were the only ones who had education and leisure for such pursuits. Darwin himself almost became a minister. God’s power was always thought to be most easily and obviously revealed in the majestic works of nature. – Elizabeth Gilbert • Virtuous people are simply those who have not been tempted sufficiently, because they live in a vegetative state, or because their purposes are so concentrated in one direction that they have not had the leisure to glance around them. – Isadora Duncan • War should be the only study of a prince. He should consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes as ability to execute, military plans. – Niccolo Machiavelli • We are assailed by the temptation of the love of money. If you wish to acquire riches ? they are the bait of the fishers hook ? by greed, by trafficking, by violence, by ruse or by excessive manual work that deprives you of leisure for the service of God ? in a word by any other means ? if you have desired to pile up gold or silver, remember what the Gospel says, ‘Fool! They will snatch your soul away during the night! Who will get your hoard’ (cf. Lk. 12:20)? Again, ‘He piles up money without knowing to whom it will go’ (Ps. 39:6). – Pachomius the Great • We are closer to the ants than to the butterflies. Very few people can endure much leisure. – Gerald Brenan • We are in hot haste to set the world right and to order all affairs; the Lord hath the leisure of conscious power and unerring wisdom, and it will be well for us to learn to wait. – Charles Spurgeon • We give up leisure in order that we may have leisure, just as we go to war in order that we may have peace. – Aristotle • We must beat the iron while it is hot, but we may polish it at leisure. – John Dryden • We seldom enjoy leisure we haven’t earned. – H. Jackson Brown, Jr. • What being at leisure means is more easily felt than defined. – Vernon Lee • What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures, to make manhood more noble, womanhood more beautiful, and childhood more happy and bright. – Samuel Gompers • What happened in the interim is, billions of records have been digitized. Historians and scholars have always used genealogical records to tell the story of American history. It takes months and years of research. I can’t even tell you how laborious that is. You have to be somebody who has a lot of free time, like a professor who can take tenure or someone with a great deal of leisure. – Henry Louis Gates • What is the benefit of fasting in our body while filling our souls with innumerable evils? He who does not play at dice, but spends his leisure otherwise, what nonsense does he not utter? What absurdities does he not listen to? Leisure without the fear of God is, for those who do not know how to use time, the teacher of wickedness. – Saint Basil • What the banker sighs for, the meanest clown may have-leisure and a quiet mind. – Henry David Thoreau • What was more needed by this old man who divided the leisure hours of his life, where he had so little leisure, between gardening in the daytime, and contemplation at night? Was not this narrow enclosure, with the sky for a background, enough to enable him to adore God in his most beautiful as well as in his most sublime works? Indeed, is not that all, and what more can be desired? A little garden to walk, and immensity to reflect upon. At his feet something to cultivate and gather; above his head something to study and meditate upon: a few flowers on the earth, and all the stars in the sky. – Victor Hugo • What we do during our working hours determines what we have; what we do in our leisure hours determines what we are. – George Eastman • What we lack is not so much leisure to do as time to reflect and time to feel. What we seldom “take” is time to experience the things that have happened, the things that are happening, the things that are still ahead of us. – Margaret Mead • What with making their way and enjoying what they have won, heroes have no time to think. But the sons of heroes – ah, they have all the necessary leisure. – Aldous Huxley • When Culture Club broke up, I hadn’t been going out a lot because we’d been working all the time, so I suddenly had this period of leisure. And it was just around the time that the whole acid house thing kicked off in London. – Boy George • When you write an essay, of course you’re going to get pushback, but you’re going to be allowed to make your case at leisure. You’re going to be allowed to take into account possible objections and to fully humanize your reader. That feels to me like a much more sane thing to do. – George Saunders • Who will free me from hurry, flurry, the feeling of a crowd pushing behind me, of being hustled and crushed? How can I regain even for a minute the feeling of ample leisure I had during my early, my creative years? Then I seldom felt fussed, or hurried. There was time for work, for play, for love, the confidence that if a task was not done at the appointed time, I easily could fit it into another hour. I used to take leisure for granted, as I did time itself. – Bernard Berenson • Who wooed in haste, and means to wed at leisure. – William Shakespeare • Whoever is to acquire a competent knowledge of medicine, ought to be possessed of the following advantages: a natural disposition; instructionl a favorable place for the study; early tuition, love of labor; leisure. – Hippocrates • Why should any of these things that happen externally distract thee? Give thyself leisure to learn some good thing: cease roving to and fro. – Marcus Aurelius • Wisdom and penetration are the fruit of experience, not the lessons of retirement and leisure. Great necessities call out great virtues. – Abigail Adams • Work! labor the asparagus me of life; the one great sacrament of humanity from which all other things flow – security, leisure, joy, art, literature, even divinity itself. – Sean O’Casey • You can give men food and leisure and amusements and good conditions of work, and still they will remain unsatisfied. You can deny them all these things, and they will not complain so long as they feel that they have something to die for – Christopher Dawson

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Leisure Quotes

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• A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man’s life as in a book. Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars. – Henry David Thoreau • A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man’s life as in a book. – Henry David Thoreau • A healthy man, with steady employment, as wood-chopping at fifty cents a cord, and a camp in the woods, will not be a good subjectfor Christianity. The New Testament may be a choice book to him on some, but not on all or most of his days. He will rather go a-fishing in his leisure hours. The Apostles, though they were fishers too, were of the solemn race of sea-fishers, and never trolled for pickerel on inland streams. – Henry David Thoreau • A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. There will be sleeping enough in the grave. – Benjamin Franklin • A society that gives to one class all the opportunities for leisure, and to another all the burdens of work, dooms both classes to spiritual sterility. – Lewis Mumford • Action is the music of our life. Like music, it starts from a pause of leisure, a silence of activity which our initiative attacks; then it develops according to its inner logic, passes its climax, seeks its cadence, ends, and restores silence, leisure again. Action and leisure are thus interdependent; echoing and recalling each other, so that action enlivens leisure with its memories and anticipations, and leisure expands and raises action beyond its mere immediate self and gives it a permanent meaning. – Salvador de Madariaga • All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast. – John Gunther • All intellectual improvement arises from leisure. – Samuel Johnson • All this time I lived with my parents, and wrought on the plantation; and having had schooling pretty well for a planter, I used to improve myself in winter evenings, and other leisure times. – John Woolman • Americans will listen, but they do not care to read. War and Peace must wait for the leisure of retirement, which never really comes: meanwhile it helps to furnish the living room. – Anthony Burgess • Any notion of the serious life of leisure, as well as men’s taste and capacity to live it, had disappeared. Leisure became entertainment. – Allan Bloom • Any reading not of a vicious species must be a good substitute for the amusements too apt to fill up the leisure of the labouring classes. – James Madison • Anyone can see that to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin on the knee in the kitchen, with constant calls to cooking and other details of housework to punctuate the paragraphs, was a more difficult achievement than to write it at leisure in a quiet room. – Anna Garlin Spencer • As to that leisure evening of life, I must say that I do not want it. I can conceive of no contentment of which toil is not to be the immediate parent. – Anthony Trollope • As Western nations became more prosperous, leisure, which had been put off for several centuries in favor of the pursuit of property, the means to leisure, finally began to be of primary concern. But, in the meantime, any notion of the serious life of leisure, as well as men’s taste and capacity to live it, had disappeared. – Allan Bloom • As work weeks get longer and leisure time shrinks, people are becoming sicker, more distracted, absent, unproductive, and less innovative. – Brigid Schulte • At the root of our civilization, there is the freedom of each person of thought, of belief, of opinion, of work, of leisure. – Charles de Gaulle • Australians are coffee snobs. An influx of Italian immigrants after World War II ensured that – we probably had the word ‘cappuccino’ about 20 years before America. Cafe culture is really big for Aussies. We like to work hard, but we take our leisure time seriously. – Hugh Jackman • Automation and technology would be a great boon if it were creative, if there were more leisure, more opportunity to engage in raising a family, providing guidance to the young, all the stuff we say we need. America will work if we’re all in it together. It’ll work when there’s a shared sense of destiny. It can be done! – Jerry Brown

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  jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'Leisure', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_leisure').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_leisure img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); ); • Basically, particularly in Britain, it’s a hegemonic thing that people who write tend to come from the leisure classes. They can afford the time and the books. – Irvine Welsh • Celebrating the future is about celebrating a better world: a world in which everyone’s life is easier and their health is maintained longer. It’ll be a life where there’s more time for leisure – for enriching each other’s lives rather than just running to stand still. In other words, more holiday time! So a holiday is absolutely the appropriate way to help us focus on it and make it a reality soon. – Aubrey de Grey • Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure. – Thorstein Veblen • Convent – a place of retirement for women who wish for leisure to meditate upon the sin of idleness. – Ambrose Bierce • Creativity is an innate function in a human being, as we see in tribal peoples, who spent their considerable leisure time making religious artifacts and sacred art. That is what I would call a direct culture, in that everybody in it is directly in touch with all the elements, both of the culture and of the environment. – Michael Ventura • Cultivated leisure is the aim of man. – Oscar Wilde

[clickbank-storefront-bestselling] • Destroy our leisure and you break love’s bow. – Ovid • Detest it [a certain difficult mathematics problem] just as much as lewd intercourse; it can deprive you of all your leisure, your health, your rest, and the whole happiness of your life. – Farkas Bolyai • Do not love leisure. Waste not a minute. Be bold. Realize the Truth, here and now! – Sivananda • Do not mistake a crowd of big wage earners for the leisure class. – Clive Bell • Do not say, ‘When I have leisure, I will study,’ because you may never have leisure. – Hillel the Elder • Do you know that conversation is one of the greatest pleasures in life? But it wants leisure. – W. Somerset Maugham • Eat good dinners and drink good wine; read good novels if you have the leisure and see good plays; fall in love, if there is no reason why you should not fall in love; but do not pore over influenza statistics. – Jerome K. Jerome • Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure. – Benjamin Franklin • Everybody was saying we must have more leisure. Now they are complaining they are unemployed. – Prince Philip • For men who had easily endured hardship, danger and difficult uncertainty, leisure and riches, though in some ways desirable, proved burdensome and a source of grief. – Sallust • For mothers who must earn, there is indeed no leisure time problem. The long hours of earning are increased by the hours of domestic labor, until no slightest margin for relaxation or change of thought remains. – Katharine Anthony • Friendship is a very taxing and arduous form of leisure activity. – Mortimer Adler • From Alexander the Platonic, not frequently nor without necessity to say to any one, or to write in a letter, that I have no leisure; nor continually to excuse the neglect of duties required by our relation to those with whom we live, by alleging urgent occupations. – Marcus Aurelius • Good will, that curious product of consciousness, of leisure and energy to spare and share. That thing we put out against the forces of interest. That extra thing. Religions and nations and political parties have taken it and used it as coinage, have said you must only give it in exchange for value. – Naomi Mitchison • Happiness is thought to depend on leisure; for we are busy that we may have leisure, and make war that we may live in peace. – Aristotle • He enjoys true leisure who has time to improve his soul’s estate. – Henry David Thoreau • He hath no leisure who useth it not. – George Herbert • Hospitality has never been about having House Beautiful with perfectly coordinated accessories and the most up-to-date equipment, nor is it dependent upon having large chunks of leisure time and a big entertainment budget to spend, nor does it require special training in the culinary arts or event planning. Hospitality is about a heart for service, the creativity to stretch whatever we do have available, and the energy to give the time necessary to add a flourish to the ordinary events of life. – Dorothy Kelley Patterson • How to use your leisure time is the biggest problem of a ballplayer. – Branch Rickey • I am an inveterate homemaker, it is at once my pleasure, my recreation, and my handicap. Were I a man, my books would have been written in leisure, protected by a wife and a secretary and various household officials. As it is, being a woman, my work has had to be done between bouts of homemaking. – Pearl S. Buck • I am in musical theatre, but it isn’t necessarily what I listen to in my leisure time, do you know what I mean? – Patti LuPone • I am moreover inclined to be concise when I reflect on the constant occupation of the citizens in public and private affairs, so that in their few leisure moments they may read and understand as much as possible. – Marcus Vitruvius Pollio I believe in manicures. I believe in overdressing. I believe in primping at leisure and wearing lipsitck. – Audrey Hepburn • I could do whatever I liked to do during the day. I didn’t have to work in an office. I could work at home. I could work at my leisure. I worked ’til four in the morning. I worked with the TV and radio on – it was a great setup. I was a night person and still am. – Jack Kirby • I hate leisure, except reading. I’m really a person made to work, if sketching is considered work. – Karl Lagerfeld • I hate to mention age, but I come from an era when we weren’t consumed by technology and television. My mother insisted that her children read. To describe my scarce leisure time in today’s terms, I always default to reading. – Jimmy Buffett • I have an inability to relax. I try to make every day a work day. I get pleasure from work… I try to think of sketch ideas, stand-up pieces. I am incapable of leisure and leisure time. – Fred Armisen • I have no leisure to think of style or of polish, or to select the best language, the best English – no time to shine as an authoress. I must just think aloud, so as not to keep the public waiting. – Isabel Burton • I keep telling people I’ll make movies until I’m fifty and then I’ll go and do something else. I’m going to be a professional gentleman of leisure. – Eddie Murphy • I love the joy of mountains Wandering free with no concerns Every day I find food for this old body There’s leisure for thinking, nothing to do Often I carry an ancient book Sometimes I climb a rock pavilion To look down a thousand foot precipice Overhead are swirling clouds A cold moon chilly cold My body feels like a flying crane – Hanshan • I remember in that red leisure suit I sort of felt like a Pizza Hut employee, and the white one was the ultimate, with the white turtleneck collar, that was the ultimate in bad taste. – Johnny Depp • I sort of leave the character at the end of the day. I don’t carry anything around with me – no excess baggage or unnecessary thoughts. I think it’s too exhausting to do that. To put things into perspective – your work is your work, and your leisure time is something else. – Sean Bean • I think this dichotomy or opposition between work and play, between leisure and serious stuff, is definitely a bad way of thinking about the useful insights that play provides. – Ian Bogost • I wish you could arrange your life so as to have a little more leisure. I do not want you to be lazy, but the passive conditions of the mind are quite as valuable as the active conditions. – Elsa Barker • I would not exchange my leisure hours for all the wealth in the world. – Honore Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau • I’d rather spend my leisure time doing what some people call my work and I call my fun. – Jared Diamond • If I am doing nothing, I like to be doing nothing to some purpose. That is what leisure means. – Alan Bennett • If I myself dominate myself, if my thoughts revolve round myself, if I am so occupied with myself I rarely have “a heart at leisure from itself,” then I know nothing of Calvary love. – Amy Carmichael • If the individuals who compose the purest circles of aristocracy in Europe, the guarded blood of centuries, should pass in review,in such manner as that we could, at leisure, and critically inspect their behavior, we might find no gentleman, and no lady; for, although excellent specimens of courtesy and high-breeding would gratify us in the assemblage, in the particulars, we should detect offence. Because, elegance comes of no breeding, but of birth. • If the life-supporting ecosystems of the planet are to survive for future generations, the consumer society will have to dramatically curtail its use of resources – partly by shifting to high-quality, low-input durable goods and partly by seeking fulfillment through leisure, human relationships, and other nonmaterial avenues. We in the consumer society will have to live a technologically sophisticated version of the life-style currently practiced lower on the economic ladder. – Alan Thein Durning • If there is such a thing as a workaholic, I’m it, and that’s what passes for leisure. – Steve Earle • If work and leisure are soon to be subordinated to this one utopian principle – absolute busyness – then utopia and melancholy will come to coincide: an age without conflict will dawn, perpetually busy – and without consciousness. – Gunter Grass • If you are losing your leisure, look out! You are losing your soul. – Logan Pearsall Smith • I’m never less at leisure than when at leisure, or less alone than when alone. – Scipio Africanus • In itself and in its consequences the life of leisure is beautiful and ennobling in all civilised men’s eyes. – Thorstein Veblen • In life, as in Chess, ones own Pawns block ones way. A mans very wealth, ease, leisure, children, books, which should help him to win, more often checkmate him – Charles Buxton • In the year 2000 you’re going to have a problem…Leisure time will be a problem in the year 2000. I just want you to realize, I just want to make sure that you know of it now. – Edie Sedgwick • Increased means and increased leisure are the two civilizers of man. – Benjamin Disraeli • It is already possible to imagine a society in which the majority of the population, that is to say, its laborers, will have almost as much leisure as in earlier times was enjoyed by the aristocracy. When one recalls how aristocracies in the past actually behaved, the prospect is not cheerful. – W. H. Auden • It is dainty to be sick if you have leisure and convenience for it. – Ralph Waldo Emerson • It is in his pleasure that a man really lives; it is from his leisure that he constructs the true fabric of self. – Agnes Repplier • It is just this rage for consideration that has betrayed the dog into his satellite position as the friend of man. The cat, an animal of franker appetites, preserves his independence. But the dog, with one eye ever on the audience, has been wheedled into slavery, and praised and patted into the renunciation of his nature. Once he ceased hunting and became man’s plate-licker, the Rubicon was crossed. Thenceforth he was a gentleman of leisure; and except the few whom we keep working, the whole race grew more and more self-conscious, mannered and affected. – Robert Louis Stevenson • It is most important that we should keep in this country a certain leisured class. I am of the opinion of the ancient Jewish book which says there is no wisdom without leisure. – William Butler Yeats • It may be said that an education which does not succeed in making poetry a resource in the business of life as well as in its leisure, has something the matter with it. – John Dewey • It takes application, a fine sense of value, and a powerful community-spirit for a people to have serious leisure, and this has not been the genius of the Americans. – Paul Goodman • Jupiter has no leisure to attend to little things. – Ovid • Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles. – Samuel Johnson • Leisure and the cultivation of human capacities are inextricably interdependent. – Margaret Mead • Leisure is a form of silence, not noiselessness. It is the silence of contemplation such as occurs when we let our minds rest on a rosebud, a child at play, a Divine mystery, or a waterfall. – Fulton J. Sheen • leisure is an attitude of mind, not simply remission of work. – Nan Fairbrother • Leisure is gone,–gone where the spinning-wheels are gone, and the pack-horses, and the slow wagons, and the peddlers, who brought bargains to the door on sunny afternoons. – George Eliot • Leisure is one of the three greatest rewards of being a teacher. It is, unfortunately, the privilege which teachers most often misuse. – Gilbert Highet • Leisure is pain; take off our chariot wheels; how heavily we drag the load of life! – Edward Young • Leisure is the handmaiden of the devil. – Branch Rickey • Leisure is the most challenging responsibility a man can be offered. – William Russell • Leisure is the Mother of Philosophy. – Thomas Hobbes • Leisure is the time for doing something useful. – Benjamin Franklin • Leisure is the time for doing something useful. This leisure the diligent person will obtain the lazy one never. – Benjamin Franklin • Leisure may be defined as free activity, labor as compulsory activity. Leisure does what it likes, labor does what it must, the compulsion being that of Nature, which in these latitudes leaves men no choice between labor and starvation. – George Bernard Shaw • Leisure only means a chance to do other jobs that demand attention. – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. • Leisure was the sine qua non of the full Renaissance. The feudal nobility, having lost its martial function, sought diversion all over Europe in cultivated pastimes: sonneteering, the lute, games and acrostics, travel, gentlemanly studies and sports, hunting and hawking, treated as arts. – Mary McCarthy • Leisure with dignity. – Marcus Tullius Cicero • Leisure without study is death, and the grave of a living man. – Seneca the Younger • Leisure, the highest happiness on earth, is seldom enjoyed with perfect satisfaction, except in solitude. – George Zimmerman • Leisure, the highest happiness upon earth, is seldom enjoyed with perfect satisfaction, except in solitude. Indolence and indifference do not always afford leisure; for true leisure is frequently found in that interval of relaxation which divides a painful duty from an agreeable recreation; a toilsome business from the more agreeable occupations of literature and philosophy. – Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann • Like every other good thing in this world, leisure and culture have to be paid for. Fortunately, however, it is not the leisured and the cultured who have to pay. – Aldous Huxley • Literature is, in fact, the fruit of leisure. – Amelia B. Edwards • Manuscript: something submitted in haste and returned at leisure. – Oliver Herford • Many people know how to work hard; many others know how to play well; but the rarest talent in the world is the ability to introduce elements of playfulness into work, and to put some constructive labor into our leisure. – Sydney J. Harris • Men love in haste, but they detest at leisure. – Lord Byron • Mend when thou canst; be better at thy leisure. – William Shakespeare • Much work is merely a way to make money; much leisure is merely a way to spend it. – C. Wright Mills • My hobbies and leisure activities include cars and golf. – Michael Strahan • NCL … stands to achieve greater success under the Carnival Corp. umbrella, which will provide NCL with economies of scale, greater access to capital, marketing and operating expertise and stronger credibility in the leisure and vacation industry. – Micky Arison • News-hunters have great leisure, with little thought; much petty ambition to be considered intelligent, without any other pretension than being able to communicate what they have just learned. – Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann • No blessed leisure for love or hope, But only time for grief. – Thomas Hood • No country can reach a high stage of civilization without a leisure class. – Gertrude Atherton • No man has a right to be idle. Where is it that in such a world as this, that health, and leisure, and affluence may not find some ignorance to instruct, some wrong to redress, some want to supply, some misery to alleviate? – William Wilberforce • No president who performs his duties faithfully and conscientiously can have any leisure. – James K. Polk • Nothing increases the number of jobs so rapidly as labor-saving machinery, because it releases wants theretofore unknown, by permitting leisure. – Isabel Paterson • Nothing is as certain as that the vices of leisure are gotten rid of by being busy. – Seneca the Younger • Nothing makes God more supreme and more central in worship than when a people are utterly persuaded that nothing – not money or prestige or leisure or family or job or health or sports or toys or friends – nothing is going to bring satisfaction to their sinful, guilty, aching hearts besides God. – John Piper • O Holy Spirit of God, abide with us; inspire all our thoughts; pervade our imaginations; suggest all our decisions; order all our doings. Be with us in our silence and in our speech, in our haste and in our leisure, in company and in solitude, in the freshness of the morning and in the weariness of the evening; and give us grace at all times humbly to rejoice in Thy mysterious companionship. – John Baillie • One needs both leisure and money to make a successful book. – Frances Harper • One of the problems of the future world will be the use of leisure time. How will it be filled up? Maybe drugs will be distributed free of charge by the government. – Michelangelo Antonioni • One person may need (or want) more leisure, another more work; one more adventure, another more security, and so on. It is this diversity that makes a country, indeed a state, a city, a church, or a family, healthy. ‘One-size-fits-all,’ and that size determined by the State has a name, and that name is ‘slavery.’ – David Mamet • Our leisure is the time the Devil seizes upon to make us work for him; and the only way we can avoid conscription into his ranks is to keep all our leisure moments profitably employed. – James Ellis • Oxford lends sweetness to labour and dignity to leisure. – Henry James • People are often quite surprised by the sport and leisure activities practised by the blind. For example, tandem cycling is very popular. – Andrea Bocelli • People have become shallower. They view spending, entertaining, seeking leisure and enjoying as the main objectives of their life. – Zhang Yimou • People who know how to employ themselves, always find leisure moments, while those who do nothing are forever in a hurry. – Madame Roland • People without imagination are beginning to tire of the importance attached to comfort, to culture, to leisure, to all that destroys imagination. This means that people are not really tired of comfort, culture and leisure, but of the use to which they are. – Raoul Vaneigem • People would have more leisure time if it weren’t for all the leisure-time activities that use it up. – Peg Bracken • Pleasure seizes the whole man who addicts himself to it, and will not give him leisure for any good office in life which contradicts the gayety of the present hour. – Richard Steele • Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness. – Aristotle • Remove but the temptations of leisure, and the bow of Cupid will lose its effect. – Ovid • Reverend Fathers, my letters did not usually follow each other at such close intervals, nor were they so long…. This one would not be so long had I but the leisure to make it shorter. – Blaise Pascal • Society of leisure perhaps? Indeed, the most remarkable aspect of the transition we are living through is not so much the passage from want to affluence as the passage from labour to leisure. Leisure contains the future, it is the new horizon. The prospect then is one of unremitting labor to bequeath to future generations a chance of founding a society of leisure that will overcome the demands and compulsions of productive labor so that time may be devoted to creative activities or simply to pleasure and happiness. – Henri Lefebvre • Solitude is the surest nurse of all prurient passions, and a girl in the hurry of preparation, or tumult of gaiety, has neither inclination nor leisure to let tender expressions soften or sink into her heart. The ball, the show, are not the dangerous places: no, ’tis the private friend, the kind consoler, the companion of the easy vacant hour, whose compliance with her opinions can flatter her vanity, and whose conversation can sooth, without ever stretching her mind, that is the lover to be feared: he who buzzes in her ear at court, or at the opera, must be contented to buzz in vain. – Samuel Johnson • Some by experience find those words mis-placed: At leisure married, they repent in haste. – William Congreve • Some people get the impression that Buddhism talks too much about suffering. In order to become prosperous, a person must initially work very hard, so he or she has to sacrifice a lot of leisure time. Similarly, the Buddhist is willing to sacrifice immediate comfort so that he or she can achieve lasting happiness. – Dalai Lama • Spend your leisure time in cultivating an ear attentive to discourse, for in this way you will find that you learn with ease what others have found out with difficulty. – Isocrates • Sweet is the pleasure itself cannot spoil. Is not true leisure one with true toil? – John Sullivan Dwight • Take away leisure and Cupid’s bow is broken – Ovid • Technology affects everyone, from agriculture to broadcasting to automotive to content to travel to leisure to everything, so we’re seeing an incredible array of CEOs from every different industry. – Gary Shapiro • Temptation rarely comes in working hours. It is in their leisure time that men are made or marred. – William Taylor • That god forbid, that made me first your slave, I should in thought control your times of pleasure, Or at your hand th’ account of hours to crave, Being your vassal bound to stay your leisure. – William Shakespeare • The artist is a member of the leisured classes who cannot pay for his leisure. – Cyril Connolly • The basis on which good repute in any highly organized industrial community ultimately rests is pecuniary strength; and the means of showing pecuniary strength, and so of gaining or retaining a good name, are leisure and a conspicuous consumption of goods. – Thorstein Veblen • The best in business spend far more time on learning than in leisure. – Robin Sharma • The best intelligence test is what we do with our leisure. – Laurence J. Peter • The best test of the quality of a civilization is the quality of its leisure. – Irwin Edman • The challenge of screenwriting is to say much in little and then take half of that little out and still preserve an effect of leisure and natural movement – Raymond Chandler • The coming peril is the intellectual, educational, psychological and artistic overproduction, which, equally with economic overproduction, threatens the well-being of contemporary civilisation. People are inundated, blinded, deafened, and mentally paralysed by a flood of vulgar and tasteless externals, leaving them no time for leisure, thought, or creation from within themselves. – Gilbert K. Chesterton • The end of labor is to gain leisure. – Aristotle • The fight against unfair scheduling is like the fight for a regulated work day – it’s people fighting for reasonable conditions at work and to have a life, so you can have some leisure. – Rachel Holmes • The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time. – Henry David Thoreau • The goal of war is peace, of business, leisure – Aristotle • The idea that leisure is of value in itself is only conditionally true. The average man simply spends his leisure as a dog spends it. His recreations are all puerile, and the time supposed to benefit him really only stupefies him. – H. L. Mencken • The idea that the poor should have leisure has always been shocking to the rich. – Bertrand Russell • The importance of the Beats is twofold: first, they act out a critique of the organized system that everybody in some sense agrees with. But second-and more important in the long run-they are a kind of major pilot study of the use of leisure in an economy of abundance. – Paul Goodman • The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he’s always doing both. – James A. Michener • The more we do, the more we can do; the more busy we are, the more leisure we have. – William Hazlitt • The most desirable thing in life after health and modest means is leisure with dignity. – Marcus Tullius Cicero • The only thing one can give an artist is leisure in which to work. To give an artist leisure is actually to take part in his creation. – Ezra Pound • The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not. – George Bernard Shaw • The poet needs a ground in popular tradition on which he may work, and which, again, may restrain his art within the due temperance. It holds him to the people, supplies a foundation for his edifice; and, in furnishing so much work done to his hand, leaves him at leisure, and in full strength for the audacities of his imagination. – Ralph Waldo Emerson • The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter. – Blaise Pascal • The preservation of parks, wilderness, and wildlife has also aided liberty by keeping alive the 19th century sense of adventure and awe with which our forefathers greeted the American West. Many laws protecting environmental quality have promoted liberty by securing property against the destructive trespass of pollution. In our own time, the nearly universal appreciation of these preserved landscapes, restored waters, and cleaner air through outdoor recreation is a modern expression of our freedom and leisure to enjoy the wonderful life that generations past have built for us. – Ronald Reagan • The primary purpose of a liberal education is to make one’s mind a pleasant place in which to spend one’s leisure. – Sydney J. Harris • The real problem of leisure time is how to keep others from using yours. – Arthur Lacey • The really efficient laborer will be found not to crowd his day with work, but will saunter to his task surrounded by a wide halo of ease and leisure. – Henry David Thoreau • The safe and general antidote against sorrow is employment. It is commonly observed, that among soldiers and seamen, though there is much kindness, there is little grief; they see their friend fall without any of that lamentation which is indulged in security and idleness, because they have no leisure to spare from the care of themselves; and whoever shall keep his thoughts equally busy will find himself equally unaffected with irretrievable losses. – Samuel Johnson • The slaves in Rome were incapable of leisure and so their masters gave them entertainment to keep them pacified. – Oliver DeMille • The thing that I should wish to obtain from money would be leisure with security. – Bertrand Russell • The trouble with the Internet is that it’s replacing masturbation as a leisure activity. – Patrick Murray • The walking stick serves the purpose of an advertisement that the bearer’s hands are employed otherwise than in useful effort, and it therefore has utility as an evidence of leisure. – Thorstein Veblen • There are moments when all anxiety and stated toil are becalmed in the infinite leisure and repose of nature. – Henry David Thoreau • There can be no high civilization where there is not ample leisure. – Henry Ward Beecher • There is room enough in human life to crowd almost every art and science in it. If we pass “”no day without a line””-visit no place without the company of a book-we may with ease fill libraries or empty them of their contents. The more we do, the more busy we are, the more leisure we have. – William Hazlitt • They talk of the dignity of work. The dignity is in leisure. – Herman Melville • Those who decide to use leisure as a means of mental development, who love good music, good books, good pictures, good plays, good company, good conversation – what are they? They are the happiest people in the world. – William Lyon Phelps • Thus grief still treads upon the heels of pleasure; Married in haste, we may repent at leisure. – William Congreve • To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level. – Bertrand Russell • To describe my scarce leisure time in today’s terms, I always default to reading. – Jimmy Buffett • To encounter Christ is to touch reality and experience transcendence. He gives us a sense of self-worth or personal significance, because He assures us of God’s love for us. He sets us free from guilt because He died for us and from paralyzing fear because He reigns. He gives meaning to marriage and home, work and leisure, personhood and citizenship. – John Stott • To work, to work hard, to see work steadily, and see it whole, was the way to be reputable. I think I always respected a goodblacksmith more than a lady of leisure. – Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward • Tourism, human circulation considered as consumption is fundamentally nothing more than the leisure of going to see what has become banal. – Guy Debord • Traditional education focuses on teaching, not learning. It incorrectly assumes that for every ounce of teaching there is an ounce of learning by those who are taught. However, most of what we learn before, during, and after attending schools is learned without its being taught to us. A child learns such fundamental things as how to walk, talk, eat, dress, and so on without being taught these things. Adults learn most of what they use at work or at leisure while at work or leisure. Most of what is taught in classroom settings is forgotten, and much or what is remembered is irrelevant. – Russell L. Ackoff • Unemployment diminishes people. Leisure enlarges them. – Mason Cooley • Unless we regain the art of silence and insight, the ability for nonactivity, unless we substitute true leisure for our hectic amusements, we will destroy our culture and ourselves. – Josef Pieper • Up until the middle of the nineteenth century, men of science were all believers. Most of the great early English naturalists were also ministers; they were the only ones who had education and leisure for such pursuits. Darwin himself almost became a minister. God’s power was always thought to be most easily and obviously revealed in the majestic works of nature. – Elizabeth Gilbert • Virtuous people are simply those who have not been tempted sufficiently, because they live in a vegetative state, or because their purposes are so concentrated in one direction that they have not had the leisure to glance around them. – Isadora Duncan • War should be the only study of a prince. He should consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes as ability to execute, military plans. – Niccolo Machiavelli • We are assailed by the temptation of the love of money. If you wish to acquire riches ? they are the bait of the fishers hook ? by greed, by trafficking, by violence, by ruse or by excessive manual work that deprives you of leisure for the service of God ? in a word by any other means ? if you have desired to pile up gold or silver, remember what the Gospel says, ‘Fool! They will snatch your soul away during the night! Who will get your hoard’ (cf. Lk. 12:20)? Again, ‘He piles up money without knowing to whom it will go’ (Ps. 39:6). – Pachomius the Great • We are closer to the ants than to the butterflies. Very few people can endure much leisure. – Gerald Brenan • We are in hot haste to set the world right and to order all affairs; the Lord hath the leisure of conscious power and unerring wisdom, and it will be well for us to learn to wait. – Charles Spurgeon • We give up leisure in order that we may have leisure, just as we go to war in order that we may have peace. – Aristotle • We must beat the iron while it is hot, but we may polish it at leisure. – John Dryden • We seldom enjoy leisure we haven’t earned. – H. Jackson Brown, Jr. • What being at leisure means is more easily felt than defined. – Vernon Lee • What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures, to make manhood more noble, womanhood more beautiful, and childhood more happy and bright. – Samuel Gompers • What happened in the interim is, billions of records have been digitized. Historians and scholars have always used genealogical records to tell the story of American history. It takes months and years of research. I can’t even tell you how laborious that is. You have to be somebody who has a lot of free time, like a professor who can take tenure or someone with a great deal of leisure. – Henry Louis Gates • What is the benefit of fasting in our body while filling our souls with innumerable evils? He who does not play at dice, but spends his leisure otherwise, what nonsense does he not utter? What absurdities does he not listen to? Leisure without the fear of God is, for those who do not know how to use time, the teacher of wickedness. – Saint Basil • What the banker sighs for, the meanest clown may have-leisure and a quiet mind. – Henry David Thoreau • What was more needed by this old man who divided the leisure hours of his life, where he had so little leisure, between gardening in the daytime, and contemplation at night? Was not this narrow enclosure, with the sky for a background, enough to enable him to adore God in his most beautiful as well as in his most sublime works? Indeed, is not that all, and what more can be desired? A little garden to walk, and immensity to reflect upon. At his feet something to cultivate and gather; above his head something to study and meditate upon: a few flowers on the earth, and all the stars in the sky. – Victor Hugo • What we do during our working hours determines what we have; what we do in our leisure hours determines what we are. – George Eastman • What we lack is not so much leisure to do as time to reflect and time to feel. What we seldom “take” is time to experience the things that have happened, the things that are happening, the things that are still ahead of us. – Margaret Mead • What with making their way and enjoying what they have won, heroes have no time to think. But the sons of heroes – ah, they have all the necessary leisure. – Aldous Huxley • When Culture Club broke up, I hadn’t been going out a lot because we’d been working all the time, so I suddenly had this period of leisure. And it was just around the time that the whole acid house thing kicked off in London. – Boy George • When you write an essay, of course you’re going to get pushback, but you’re going to be allowed to make your case at leisure. You’re going to be allowed to take into account possible objections and to fully humanize your reader. That feels to me like a much more sane thing to do. – George Saunders • Who will free me from hurry, flurry, the feeling of a crowd pushing behind me, of being hustled and crushed? How can I regain even for a minute the feeling of ample leisure I had during my early, my creative years? Then I seldom felt fussed, or hurried. There was time for work, for play, for love, the confidence that if a task was not done at the appointed time, I easily could fit it into another hour. I used to take leisure for granted, as I did time itself. – Bernard Berenson • Who wooed in haste, and means to wed at leisure. – William Shakespeare • Whoever is to acquire a competent knowledge of medicine, ought to be possessed of the following advantages: a natural disposition; instructionl a favorable place for the study; early tuition, love of labor; leisure. – Hippocrates • Why should any of these things that happen externally distract thee? Give thyself leisure to learn some good thing: cease roving to and fro. – Marcus Aurelius • Wisdom and penetration are the fruit of experience, not the lessons of retirement and leisure. Great necessities call out great virtues. – Abigail Adams • Work! labor the asparagus me of life; the one great sacrament of humanity from which all other things flow – security, leisure, joy, art, literature, even divinity itself. – Sean O’Casey • You can give men food and leisure and amusements and good conditions of work, and still they will remain unsatisfied. You can deny them all these things, and they will not complain so long as they feel that they have something to die for – Christopher Dawson

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