#how much power do they hold and how much damage would dismantling that system cause

[just-trying-my-best-everyday]

What no one tells you about plotting post-canon Xing fics is how much political stuff you have to come up with.

[sixsticks]

Trigger warnings for government corruption and censorship. As well as brief mention of suicide and it’s imaginary statistics in this world.

I am using 5E. I’m just using DC for spell’s because it’s how the Dm at my end club did it for us in school to uncomplicate things for us newer players. I’ve used it in my campaign’s because I understand it easier then spell slots haha. My players are all my irl friends so there aren���t any expectations to meet with how we “should” play the game.

This system also helps with the experience tokens I’m trying to implement. (Similar to the system used sometimes on dimension 20 where if you fail a roll you get a token that can bonus a different roll later. (I adjusted it for my campaign so you only gain one either when you crit fail or i explicitly say to take one depending on the situation)

Anyway the mass magic suppression dose not mean that the royals have unrestricted magic. They have powerful magic in their subgroups and they can preform magic outside of the main 5 but find this difficult and only do it in needed situations. they are actively suppressing the magic because of a few reasons.

Those being tradition,war censorship, the ease of just leaving it as it is, and general bigotry.

The past kings and queens of this land have suppressed the magic of others as well. Teaching their children to do similarly. In this world magic outside of the norm is frightening and many more people would have strange uncontrollable magic if they had not been forced into tight boxes.

They also do it so the common people don’t suspect the vile intentions behind the war. Vast magic requires research, education, and intelligence. None of which is wanted when they need to churn out foot soldiers to devote themselves to their country. Intelligent people ask questions that the royals can’t have when fighting a unjust war. The 5 types are the simplest types of magic to preform and master, while still being versatile enough to convince a entire population that they are the best and truest types of magic.

Anyone can do any magic they wish, but those that have conformed to the roles this society puts them in are less likely to go looking for reasons *why* they aren’t as powerful as their ancestors. Evolution is usually a progression forward, so to keep their people weak and submissive in the ongoing war so they won’t question why they are fighting and for so long, they convinced the populace that these categories of magic are the “true forms” of magic.

People that have UDM magic have an easier time dipping into magic outside of what they should be able to do. Their magic is more fluid because it’s harder to master and takes skill to understand. It can spill over to other magic when in practice. It is why there is such a significant discrimination cast at them, trying to force them into molds. People with UDM magic, while generally regarded as threats to the crown for their magic (for a multitude of reasons even outside of

The system has already been implemented for a good chunk of their history. Not only because of the ongoing war, but because of fear that sprouted up in the Victorian era about “devil deal magic” which is just UDM magic that has been suppressed by the user long enough to lash out physically. Similar to an Obscurus in Harry Potter. (I think I spelt that right) trying to dismantle this stigma is “too much work” and “not worth the effort” especially with the war.

And as previously stated there is a lot of stigma and hatred surrounding magic seen as abnormal. And most of the royal family hold these beliefs as well. Enforcing them in their subjects and children.

They bind magic that they believe could bring out these secrets, or could cause significant damage. Originally they would execute these people , but luckily (or perhaps unluckily with how painful having one’s magic bond is) they stopped in fear of the public eventually looking for these missing people and discovering what was happening behind the scenes.

Hey! Do you want to explain your campaign notes and/or hear some webcomic recs? I personally would enjoy both of those things.

You are literally the best person in the history of ever. My campaign is my baby I can and will talk about it for hours. Be warned this will be very long.

So the entire thing is set In a semi-modern fantasy world. With modern appliances that are powered magically (and non magically in some cases) The government is set up similarly to that of Naruto, in that different services are requested by people in the community,ranked by difficulty, and handed out to “ninja” but the ninja in this case are students. The head of the government however is closer to a bloodline monarchy, then the military dictatorship that is in Naruto.

Anyway this allows the players to get room outside of the school, and means I don’t have to develop full curriculums for these fuckers.

Additionally I altered the entire dnd class system to turn them into actual school classes. I had a blast making each individual one and defining how they interact and differ from one another.

Differing even further from traditional dnd is the magic system. Which brings up the topic of what inspired this campaign. A book called “upside down magic” by Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle, and Emily Jenkins. Specifically the first book being I never had the opportunity to read the rest the book series.

The magic system in the books lies in 5 main types of magic. (Fire, Flight, animal shifting, turning thing’s/people invisible, and talking to animals) and the conflict within those that don’t fit these boxes segmented by the society around them. Some of the traditional powers were altered or changed to better emphasize the fantasy vibes or to equal out power levels.

Many elements are taken from the book. But the most prominent being the magic. Restricted casting is applied to everyone, and the party members have “upside down” or abnormal magic. Some examples from their characters being; seeing ghosts, changing their physical appearance to match other people, communicating with animals (and people) telepathically, and more!

There’s also a lot of additional world building and plot stuff but this is already really long 😅 if you want any clarification or further information about it ask!

[agape-philo-sophia]

➝ Deocculting 911, Occult Numerology & Gematria, SpiritualWarfare. ⏰

The spiritual supporting pillars of the world’s societal structure were essentially demolished on 9/11…symbolically, allegorically, ritualistically and literally. It was quite a sinister “stroke of genius” and so exemplifies how these dark controllers operate. This is why the wake up to 9/11 Truth is so shocking to people’s systems and they just can’t handle it. It’s overwhelming, which it was designed to be. And so the vast populace rolls over and buries its head back in the sand... Tell A Big Enough Lie …and you’ll eventually get exposed. So full of lies are these controllers it’s beyond the grasp of normal sentient beings. And they revel in the power of that. It’s amazing they can be so brash yet hidden in plain sight. The Twin Pillars Archetype, The effect of occult (hidden) symbolism on the human psyche is a nicely kept secret. Even though psychologists such as Carl Jung have written extensively on this and it’s clearly pointed out by the esoteric community. People just do not realize they are daily the subject of the sophisticated manipulation of these terribly powerful symbols. Like scientific breakthroughs are garnered by the military, these elite psychopaths have to weaponize everything, instead of using it for the betterment of humanity and our world. “Signs and symbols rule the world, not words nor laws” – Confucius There’s much more to this subject. And it wasn’t just Freemasons involved in all this, but they’re a major arm that encapsulates a belief system much of the Illuminati share. Members of this dark cabal are almost always associated with some sort of secret society or practice like Freemasonry or witchcraft, often under a religious cover like the Vatican, Mormonism or Evangelical groups. Rothschild Zionists use both the religious cover and the financial “institution” to disguise and justify their perfidy. At the occult level the 9/11 event was a ritual, empowered, as is often the case, by performing human sacrifice. War is another such ritual, usually instigated and financed by this same dark cabal loosely labelled the Illuminati. I can’t begin to cover the extent of the symbology and esoteric meaning injected into the 9/11 charade, but I hope this opens up a few things for you to look into further. These same tactics are used constantly on an unwary public at many levels. The lie is exposed, the spell is broken and the illusion loses its power over you. But the secret weapon of 9/11 was this: it was riding high on the amplified occult, symbolic preparation of not just decades, seeing the “twin towers” as a symbol of world commerce and the “triumph of the human spirit”, but seeing “twin pillars of society” throughout architecture and logos and literature for millenia, both conscious and subconscious, being destroyed before their eyes, over and over and over. In Revelation 9:11, and please note the time code as well as the number code of 911, Abbadon is described as the Destroyer, the Angel of the Abyss, the King of Plague of Locusts, resembling horses with crowned human faces, women’s hair, lion’s teeth, wings, iron breastplates, and a tail with a scorpion’s stinger, that torments for five months anyone who does not have the Seal of God on his forehead. It is clear that this is a Demon, Fallen God or Black Star, that is directly connected to powering up the Armageddon Software through the Yahweh Matrix. The Black Star Abbadon in the center of the Milky Way is what holds together the 666 Beast Configuration, along with the Yahweh Matrix that creates the Inorganic Four, the Yod-Hay-Vod-Hay system. This system feeds off of living creatures and sends the life force back to the black hole entities. As we have been discussing the shift that has been occurring with the Planetary Staff, the Planetary Staff of earth was tilted in order to align it to the Black Star Abbadon in the center of the Milky Way. This artificial axial tilt in the planet is shifting its alignment now. This shift has activated doomsday prophets wired into the Yahweh matrix that believe the current events are the sign of the alien God’s narrative, that the rapture is coming or that we are entering into the global Armageddon-Megiddo showdown, when we transition out of the final stages of the Piscean Alchemical Law. The current theme during the Paliadorian Activations is the clearing of the Yahweh Matrix and its blood covenant bindings out of the Human 12 Tribes genetic records, with the transmissions and support of the Blue Feathers of Aquaferion. As a result of dismantling this blood covenant network, those who are controlled by the Yahweh system will be agitated and activated to play out these mind controlled biblical dramas. Because the original 5D Ascension plan was not achievable becasue of the False Ascension Matrix and the damage caused through the False Navel and False White Webbing, it required our evolution through the time fields in the Harmonic Universes in the Universal Time Matrix to be drastically sped up. Those serving the Law of One, are moving through extreme amounts of the future timelines, observing its collapse, in order to arrive at the Gateway Octave where the Organic and eternal light is overriding the Artificial Machinery and replicated alien coding. False Timelines and False Software to Mind Control humanity was used to deter humans from their organic and natural ascension evolution. This is why this planet is called, “prison planet”. Meanwhile the negatives desperately cling on to the artificial timeline programs to influence humans through fear to manifest into their enslaved future selves as Negative Form. (Some examples: Nostradamus Prophecy, Armageddon Software, Pestilence Programming, 911 Military Industrial Complex Revolution, any terrorist and cataclysmic inorganic event generated by the Negative Aliens. None of these manipulated programs are sourced as “natural events”. ) Because the planet is ready to drop and collapse timelines from the previous 3D cycle where the planet is playing out the result of the Luciferian Rebellion from Atlantean time cycle, there is a struggle to dominate upcoming events that would influence these future timelines to be solely in Negative Alien or the NAA control. These groups have infighting, and the two primary groups have infected their headquartered control mechanism in two major stargates and power vortexes on the planet. Black Sun Program have headquartered themselves in the 10th Stargate or Iran Gate of the Golden Eagle Grid and lodged their technologies in Iraq/Iran to gain dominance over the power spots in Giza, Egypt. Most of them are Reptile Insectoid Collectives from out of the Phantom Matrix spaces in the parallel systems, which formed alliances with the Fallen Angelic Annunaki Groups to take control over the earth, which are referred to as the NAA. This is why they chose that area of the planet to dominate, it was easier to invade from the genetic key level. The Sons of Belial, the Nibiruian-Annunaki reptilians of the New World Order crews that engineered the 911 Timeline Agendas, have headquartered themselves in the 11th Stargate area in the United Kingdom, this is also known as Stonehenge. These are the creators of the teeth chomping technology of the Nephilim Reversal Grid (NRG). Comprising primarily of Fallen Elohim genetic lines, this reversal network was a rebellion to the hybridization attempts of Lyran-Elohim races, who were responsible in commissioning Nephilim races for genetic hybridization healing. The failure of that program, the banishment of Nephilim (The Giants) and killing of that race, resulted in Wars, and subsequently, the NRG was placed in the UK to reverse all hybridized genetics, especially any genetic material (like the Krystal DNA Silicate Matrix) that was designed to “unify” or “marry” genetics. The unification of polarity within genetics may evolve to Unity Field consciousness which is a part of achieving the Christos consciousness. There is a consciousness war to stop Krystal Star consciousness from potentially evolving and embodying in human beings on this earth. It also is clear that all matters of Blood Sacrifice, whether human, animal or of any living thing, are made to the conjuring of elemental forces that directly connect into this collective Satanic force of the Baphomet field in the underworld realms. Satanists, witches, Santeria, voodoo, violent religion or other related rituals involving drugs or killing, one is allowing their body to be possessed by lower spirits and are being controlled, addicted or feeding into the spreading of this Satanic force field. It is like an viral infection. The act of feeding this force through ritual offering and Blood Sacrifice is purposed to produce Satanic humans running the earth and to keep enslaved the female Christos-Sophia from reclaiming her body parts and creations in the earth. This is enslavement of the Mother principle. Satanism effectively is the worship of earthly forces through patriarchal domination and their False Father earthly conjured gods for selfish material gain. The world of forces can be ritualized through offerings, Blood Sacrifice SRA and its intentions made manifest through superimposing forces or binding others energies without their consent or free will in physical matter. Apparently, it is believed when the luciferian ritualist opens the portal of Daath, the heart complex and physical heart chambers are filled with life force, which supposedly grows a soul from those sacrificed and harvested, on behalf of those who are soul-less. For those of us aware that the Sons of Belial are behind the New World Order and the 911 Timelines, it becomes clearer that humanity was held captive at a global scale, to witness the sophisticated orchestration of an Adam Belial Luciferian ritual that destroyed the Twin Towers and killed many innocent people for the purpose of Blood Sacrifice for the soul-less. The Belial Program described is one faction of the NAA attempting to force the planet to serve the multiple invading species agenda, through imposing artificially replicated time fields, inverting the system and generating a false reality based upon masterful lies, deceptions and illusions. The NAA effectively declared an edict of war against the Christos Founders, and all of the Maji Grail King lines, Indigos, as well as the earth population on September 12, 2000. Exactly one year later they staged an Adam Belial ritual in order to institute a public ceremony announcing their New World Order plan with the culmination of the tragic events of September 11, 2001 in New York City. The destruction of the Twin Towers and Blood Sacrifice of those killed at the World Trade Center, was intended to be the line drawn in the sand to show the NAA were proceeding with their full domination and slavery agenda of humanity and earth. This event brought forward what became known as the 911 Timelines, the institution of the false reality timelines in order take the planet into AI Assimilation Timeline which is the Fallen AI Timeline Loops that the NAA fully control from within the Phantom Matrix. The day of the attack: 11 The Date of the Attack, September 11 or 9/11 = 9 + 1 + 1 = 11 911 is emergency number = 9 + 1 + 1 = 11 September 11th is the 254th day of the year: 2 + 5 + 4 = 11 After September 11th we have 111 remaining for the end of the year. 119 is the Area Code for Iran & Iraq 1 + 1+ 9 = 11 The first plane to hit one of the buildings was Flight 11 The State of New York was the 11th State to join the Union New York City = 11 letters Afghanistan = 11 letters The Pentagon = 11 letters Flight 11 had 92 passengers, 9 + 2 = 11 Flight 77 had 65 passengers, 6 + 5 = 11 Twin Towers look like an 11 Twin Towers had 110 floors George H.W. Bush’s famous New World Order speech to congress was on 9/11/1990. Exactly 11 years before the attacks. In that speech, Bush encodes another 9-11. “Out of these troubled times, our fifth objective, a New World Order” → 5. “An era in which the nations of the world: east and west, north and south…” → 4. 5+4=9. “100 generations have searched for this elusive path to peace, while 1000 wars waged across the span of human endeavor” →100+1000 = 1100 → 11 Through gematria we see the first plane, American Airlines Flight 11, actually encodes two 11s. A=1, so AA-11 = 11-11. This also hearkens to the spiritual organization founded by Aleister Crowley known as A∴A∴ The North Tower (WTC1) was impacted at 8:46:40 and collapsed at 10:28:22. An interval of ~101 minutes. The South Tower (WTC2) was impacted at 9:03:00 and collapsed at 9:59:00. An interval of 56 minutes, 5+6=11. (Yes, those times times are exactly at the minute marks. 9:03:00 is the impact time given in the 9/11 Commission Report. However, NIST established this time as 9:02:59… Shucks, only one second off.) September 11th was the 254th day of the year. 2+5+4=11 Thus, there were 111 days left in the year. September 11th in the Gregorian calendar is New Year’s Day in the Coptic calendar, the calendar originating in Egypt, traditionally the source of all the Hermetic traditions. Quran (9:11) - "For it is written that a son of Arabia would awaken a fearsome Eagle. The wrath of the Eagle would be felt throughout the lands of Allah and lo, while some of the people trembled in despair still more rejoiced; for the wrath of the Eagle cleansed the lands of Allah; and there was peace". (Note the verse number!)

[nonopi]

my robot’s keeper aka a Tidy Fallout: New Vegas AU

for @sidoopa, my Fallout Secret Santa 2020 giftee

my last gift for you! sorry it’s so late. I saw your post about courier Tidy and I had to do something!! I was so inspired!

---

Tidy could hear the insistent beeps of ED-E behind them, the mechanical whir stuttering every so often. 

“Now is not a great time, ED-E. Keep it together.” 

But they knew how prone the little eyebot was to overheating. Especially in a poorly ventilated and dilapidated building like this one. It didn’t matter how good the scavenging was here, what technical goodies could be found amongst the rubble, if ED-E wasn’t going to make it out with them, then it didn’t matter. 

And Tidy was pretty sure they couldn’t carry a completely powered-down eyebot.

ED-E's beeps sounded pitiful, resigned to its fate. Or Tidy was humanizing the robot a bit too much. Really, anything was possible at this point.

There was a loud clash of something large and metallic hitting the tiled floor up ahead. Fear froze Tidy in their tracks, their ears straining to pick up more sounds and the direction they were coming from. It didn't take long to be rewarded with the thud of footsteps and coarse laughter rolling down the hall, crashing against their body like violent waves on a still beach. Fiends.

ED-E emitted a low, quiet beep as if to spur the courier into action. And the little robot was right, it was move now or move never again. Tidy backed up slowly, corralling ED-E towards the utility closet they passed a few moments before. If they could just hide in there until the Fiends lost interest or moved deeper into the building, they could make a break for it. 

The closet wasn't very large, just enough room for a courier and their robot. But that spelled disaster for ED-E whose cooling fans immediately went into overdrive, rivaling the whoosh of the eyebot flotation devices. The heat generated from ED-E only worsened the situation, even causing Tidy to shed their duster. 

It was clear this was not going to work. They were too noisy for the tiny room right off the main hallway. Tidy didn't even want to think what would happen if the Fiends found them. They definitely weren't the Legion, but Tidy knew trouble when they saw it. It only took a month out of the NCR territory to learn that.

So there was only one thing to do. 

"ED-E, you need to power down."

ED-E beeped back, brushing it off as a joke. The robot knew as much as they did that powering off and then powering on again was never that simple. ED-E might never turn back on. And then where would they be?

"If you overheat, you'll be gone for good. Power down," Tidy paused for emphasis, wondering when exactly ED-E became more of a someone instead of a something. "I promise, I'll bring you back, ED-E."

Tidy waited for what felt like eons, straining to hear the Fiends roaming the building beyond the ambient noises of an eyebot trying to keep itself afloat. Finally, ED-E played its power down tune and slowly lowered to the floor beside the courier, its lights blinking out one by one.

Relief washed over Tidy, but it couldn't replace the fear at being discovered. So they put a protective hand on ED-E's chassis and waited, breath erratic and jaw clenched.

---

The Fiends had gotten bored and left hours ago, leaving Tidy and ED-E's powerless body alone inside the building. But they still hadn't moved from the utility closet, not because the accommodations were stellar or they were enjoying the peace and quiet, but because Tidy's fears were realized.

ED-E was not powering back on and they were too weak to carry ED-E to safety.

Tidy had often thought about upgrading ED-E. They had planned to slowly learn each module and component that made the robot tick and make improvements as they went along, hardware, firmware, and software. But now it had to be different. Tidy needed to identify the problems, troubleshoot them, and then fix them with what was available nearby. No luxurious workbench or items that could be sourced over time. It had to be here and now.

Tidy sighed knowing that they had a long road ahead of them, but it was worth it for ED-E. 

Besides, they had done it once before in Primm and whatever Tidy knew then as a younger, more inexperienced version of themself couldn’t hold a candle to what they knew and were today.

---

The passage of time flows differently when troubleshooting. It was too easy to get lost in identifying the problem and finding the correct solution, not because it was fun to “win” and reap the rewards of hours of work, but because no one could anticipate the journey between problem and solution. It was exploration within a set of confines, learning just as much about yourself as you would about the environment and the systems that dwell within. Addicting, but safe. Nothing like exploring the wasteland. 

But this situation was on the other side of the bottle cap. Tidy was working against time. Tidy was working against the notion that the Fiends would come back. Or something worse. But mostly Tidy was working against the feeling that they would have to choose when to abandon ED-E to take care of themself. 

They were on their last bottle of clean water. Only trail mix that was heavy on the pinyon nuts had sustained them. Their eyes felt dry and heavy at the same time. The situation wasn’t looking great.

But they were so close to figuring it out.

A Programmer’s Digest lay open but discarded on Tidy’s lap in favor of their PipBoy. They had successfully downloaded ED-E’s boot logs and while it was not favorable to stare at text on the tiny PipBoy screen, the logs were infinitely more telling than any article or how-to column that any magazine or book could provide. Maybe with the exception of the Eyebot Duraframe users manual, if that even existed.

After multiple attempts at rebooting ED-E, Tidy noticed that it seemed as though ED-E was beginning to power up. Lights flickered, the hard drive and processor both came to life, it even sounded as if it was routing power to its plasma thrusters. But as quickly as the spark had come, it left. And the logs reinforced this theory. Something was preventing ED-E from completely booting up. Was there not enough power? Was it stuck in some recursive algorithm? A boot loop? Or maybe one of the system checks failed?

As Tidy scrolled through log lines, cryptic wording prevented them from understanding everything that occurred. Weird RobCo jargon. Or weird jargon from people who lived 200 years ago. It was anyone’s guess. But it was enough to see the timestamps and to see the designation of each log line - INFO, WARNING, ERROR, FATAL. Like a weird dance, Tidy followed their perceived steps of how each log line designated ERROR or even WARNING came to be. 

29-04-2282_22:05:55 - ERROR - Unexpected system state. In state CalibrationEnd but tesla cannon 423334 has not been calibrated.

29-04-2282_22:06:02 - ERROR - Position cannot be triangulated. Dumping data to log file: ./logs/duraframe_position/position.log

29-04-2282_22:06:48 - WARNING - Cannot establish outbound connection to RobCo auto-update servers. Please update this unit manually.

29-04-2282_22:06:49 - ERROR - Tesla Cannon custom configuration file is corrupted. Reverting to default configuration.

All of these messages seemed concerning, but not something that ED-E’s software couldn’t recover from. The log file continued, like the software was just moving on, content to resume its boot sequence. Tidy blinked away tiredness and the strain from staring at the screen for far too long. It would be easy to admit defeat here, rest their eyes, rest their mind. But they knew sleep would not come when the mind could still be occupied with possible solutions, so they pushed on.

It was one word they missed on their initial perusal of the log files. FATAL. It would’ve been so easy to find on a terminal, with a keyboard and mouse. But here in the wasteland, in the hollow shell of an old world, Tidy felt lucky for even seeing it at all.

29-04-2282_22:07:33 - FATAL - Plasma thruster position 1 misaligned. Damage to the hull imminent. Powering down. Please contact your local RobCo personnel if this problem persists.

This was the most concrete lead Tidy had seen so far, though the other issues would probably have to be addressed at some point down the road. But they could think about that after realigning ED-E’s plasma thruster. Which was something they had never done before, but could it be harder than plasma weapon maintenance? They were going to find out.

Tidy set to work rummaging around the room to find tools to open ED-E’s chassis. It was apparent that the utility closet they were in was not one for dismantling and repairing delicate machinery. All the screwdrivers that remained were too large for the job, so Tidy settled on trimming down one of their spare bottlecaps using a pair of tin snips they had found in a toolbox. 

It was a delicate process, one that Tidy’s hands were much too shaky for. They could only brace their arm on their bent leg and keep trying because this might be it. Just remove the lower chassis and figure out what a misaligned plasma thruster looks like then figure out how to fix it. That’s all. And don’t lose any screws. Physically or mentally.

One by one, the screws piled up neatly on Tidy’s duster until they were able to shift the rounded metal plate out of its place to reveal ED-E’s innards. They immediately felt elated by the small victory but also disgusted at what they saw. A mess of everything. Tidy was no stranger to seeing the insides of terminals or taking apart their weapons or using the insides of one thing to fix another. But this was something else, clearly designed around things they didn’t understand and maybe the engineers didn’t really understand either. 

But at least the plasma thrusters were clearly labelled 1 and 2. 

They kind of looked like toasters without the chassis flush with their vents. Toasters were familiar. Now it was just a matter of deciding what features number 2 had that number 1 did not. On the outside they looked the same. So that was good, Tidy reasoned. With a few more screws removed, the plasma thruster housings were off and a bunch of warning stickers sat in their place, faded with time but still clearly visible. As if the existence of plasma wasn’t enough of a warning on its own. 

But looking beyond the pale yellow warning signs, it was clearly evident what the problem was. Plasma thruster position 2’s exhaust columns were as straight as ever, a pinnacle of metalwork. Plasma thruster position 1’s exhaust columns were askew, to say the least. No wonder ED-E was prone to overheating. How long had the little eyebot been living this way? 

Tidy grabbed a set of pliers and tried to bend the metal back to its original position. Not as flimsy as they looked apparently. And getting any more forceful might result in broken exhaust columns, a situation Tidy didn’t even want to think about since the end was in sight. Defeat at their own hand was not an option.

But maybe less screws was an option? Removing some screws along the base could allow them to pivot the exhaust columns enough to realign them with the housing. And a well-placed piece of steel wedged between the alignment brackets could secure the new configuration in place, at least temporarily until they could get back to a workbench and Raul’s guidance.

With a rush of adrenaline, Tidy’s hands worked just as fast as their mind to put their plan into place and reset the housing and chassis. They hoped this worked. They didn’t have anything left to give after this. 

After everything was back where it belonged and three extra screws weighed heavily in Tidy’s pocket, they rolled ED-E carefully out into the quiet hallway. They paused to listen again for any signs of life beyond the scuttle of rodents and roaches. Nothing. With a final deep breath, Tidy pressed ED-E’s power cycle button. “This better work.”

Slowly and surely just as it had all the times before, the eyebot began its initialization process. Lights flickered, the processor and hard drive whirred to life, and the plasma thrusters began to calibrate. Tidy held their breath, afraid the outcome of this startup would be like all the other ones. But the plasma thrusters never powered down and neither did the rest of ED-E. After what felt like hours, ED-E played its startup tune. 

Success. 

“ED-E?” 

The eyebot beeped back happily, as if it had just awoken from a nice nap.

[nefariouscryptid]

Durante Timeline

May 2018: assault on Peter Durante. Frikoski and Durante partnership is off.

July 2018: assassination of Ivanoff Frikoski’s wife. SLATE members are laid off, Michelle Wilson is de promoted .

November 2018: Plethora Valentino finally returns home in shambles, Brian Valentino confronts Peter Durante and Jason Byrne. The idea of possible tension is brought to light.

December 2018: Under the radar due to lost job, Michelle Wilson contacts Ivan Frikoski and discusses idea to destroy the Durante empire. Idea escalates to Durante empire and any governments heavily associated such as U.S and other allies

January 2019: Plethora Valentino retires assassin job, put under government surveillance and signs non-disclosure documents prohibiting talk of his job or anything he knows, and will be treated as treason against any governments he has worked for and punishable by torture or death. No longer able to witness any suspicious behavior

Gwen Richman, in offers to redeem herself, is “befriended” by Michelle Wilson and assigned multiple tasks in spying on other SLATE generals and steal documents. She is to use her STEM courses as coverup and tools. In return she is given higher benefits among her peers

March 2019: Aj Richman finds out about Gwen and Michelle’s arrangement, is forced to join said arrangement. Job is to tamper with documents and jobs recruited on without getting caught. Is also given benefits

May 2019: Peter and Jason are alerted of another failed assassination commissioned by Japan, forced to discontinue treaties and associations. Adds to growing agitation among associates. Peter completely stops funding SLATE and cuts all ties from the organization.

July 2019: Gwen assassinates vice president of United States under SLATE orders in commission from an unnamed country. U.S government scrambles for explanation, initially puts blame on Durante. Serves as distraction for Ivan and Michelle to start gathering treaty documents from Durante specifically, gathering info on what to set up as broken rules. Peter proves that he has nothing to do with the assassination of the Vice President. Jason suggests that it has to do with the recent cut ties with Russia due to payments being both delayed and not paid in full at the set time between them and Durante. Peter and Jason investigate correspondents between Russia and America.

October 2019: increasing agitation between Anahii and Peter, resulting in a temporary breakup. Anahii moves out. Peter and Mr. Stanhope become increasingly agitated at each other due to Peter’s new careless attitude to everything that has occurred within the past few months. Stanhope informs American officials that Durante might not be as reliable as they thought due to new careless attitudes. It’s taken into consideration but nothing much comes from it

Cassandra Valentino is approached by Michelle Wilson and proposed to join the efforts in taking down Durante. Michelle used personal information such as mental state of her husband and increasing agitation amongst Durante and other powers as a sign of unsafe possibilities. Alarmed, Cassandra declines, afraid of getting caught or getting into something she doesn’t want to.

January 2020: Anahii Durante is abducted at a Gala, no where to be seen. Peter is alerted, and holds off on a search for her, afraid it is either a trap to compromise any men he might send, and out of general disinterest. Anahii is now in captivity of Ivan Frikoski, and forcefully married to him

February 2019: Cassandra finally informs her husbands of Michelle’s proposition. Still angered at the damage his husband had endured, Brian Valentino seeks after Michelle and takes up her proposition instead. Begins to gather info on politicians and governments distributing drugs to communities. Two birds with one stone, attack of Durante and Governments. Anahii refuses every advance Ivan makes towards her, failed to escape once, breaking both her arms in the process. Peter attempts suicide. Extremely alarmed, Jason forces Peter to go to therapy and take a break. Jason takes over work for the time being.

March 2019: Anahiis arms are removed, told that they were damaged beyond repair. Enraged and horrified, she attempts to kill Ivan, but is too weak to do so. She’s put in a private rehab center. Jason begins to start cracking down on suspicious activity in transactions and sees opened files on drug distribution on dates they shouldn’t have been opened. Jason contacts Brian and threatens to terminate him if he’s had anything to do with it. Alarmed, he assures he had nothing to do it. The Valentino family is now red flagged. Brian cuts off all ties with Michelle.

April 2019: Peter hires a new secretary Meredith to replace Anahii, Jason becomes increasingly jealous over time. Jason temporarily moves in with Peter. Anahii attempts escape once again and fails, is “executed” by Rosalina Frikoski on camera. Doesn’t work because Rosalina is a child and doesn’t wanna kill her so only ends up making a light gash. Ivan has a new found interest in Anahii, seeing she is able to handle pain like he is and heal at “remarkable” pace. Gwen gathers information on other de promoted officials of SLATE after the assassination and finds that most of them are now dead. Majority of them were killed at both request of the U.S and other governments involved with SLATE and Durante for security reasons and to prevent whistleblowers. Those who aren’t killed, like Michelle, are ones that still have jobs within SLATE.

May 2019: Michelle finds out Ivan kidnapped Anahii and is enraged. Ivan assures her that once Peter and Jason find out they’ll think this is the most they’ll do. Aj informs Michelle of a new commissioned assassination deal between England and SLATE. Plans to assassinate the Queen and blame in on North Korea in hopes of producing a new world war, effectively so England could invade the country and gain title of ending that reign. Eases tensions with the public and creates new senses of nationalism as well as increased military strength. Ivan leaks these documents to the public, completely severing SLATE ties from the U.K and causes the U.K and North Korean War. England scrambles for military help, and requests aid from Durante. Peter (back to work) and Jason supply high grade weapons and treaties for nuclear weapons. With the new war, Durante is distracted and redeeming itself.

June 2019: Ivan requests to meet Gwen and Aj, offers deal to get them away from their current lives and lead them to freedom and luxuries. Gwen declines, sensing that his proposition is bullshit. Aj considers, however its unknown if she took it or not. Regardless, she is never seen again. Peter is informed that Ivan has Anahii. Not wanting to send anyone after her due to their relationship issues and the fact they’re technically broken up, he does nothing. Anahii escapes for the final time, and is successful. She calls Peter on a pay phone, and he reluctantly sends men to get her. She is brought back to him and is shocked at her new appearance and what she went through. Reluctantly let’s her live with him until she finds a new place to live. They resume a “relationship” but Peter remains absent while Anahii is longing. Durante begins to keep closer eyes on Frikoski

September 2019: Meredith attempts to kill Peter in their home, breaking in despite every security measure. Unknown as to how. Anahii kills Meredith and call for someone to dispose of the body. Heartbroken and enraged to find they’ve been sleeping with each other, Anahii moves out for good, periodically taking her stuff and moving it into an unknown location.

November 2019: Peter is informed that a strain of COVID had been leaked in Wuhan, China and is requested for aid. He declines. This effectively forces China to break ties with North Korea to focus on COVID. North Korea loses the war and is dismantled. Becomes part of U.K. China no longer works with Durante and tensions increase. Michelle after studying the Durante security system during the time Meredith breaks in, goes to Brian for any information assuming he would know what kind of security he had. He refuses gives her details. Michelle threatens to expose and kill his entire family if he doesn’t resume helping her. He’s already too far in to start backing out now. He knows too much. Terrified, he gives her basic information, however is unaware she is taking notes on his home as well assuming that’s the basis knowledge he’s using. Ivan contacts Chinese officials and requests aid, specifically regarding any hackers and military in taking down Durante. They agree.

January 2020: Plethora Valentino comes out of retirement and is recruited once again as an assassin, and is informed to assassinate the President of the United States at request of the Afghanistan. Ivan and Michelle leaked these requests, however voided Plethora and other assassins names. The assassination is never carried out.

This contributed heavily to the already existing war between the countries, and threats of world war 3 arise. This also kept the U.S distracted and focusing on using their money and power on the military and new war. Heavy tensions spark between Durante and existing powers, everyone sensing low security on Durantes part. Any and all deals have been both temporarily and permanently discontinued. Durante finally heavily cracks down on any treasonous activity occurring. Cassandra notices that stocks are plummeting, not from any activity on her side. They quickly go back up. Still confused, she contacts her boss, who says to report it to Durante. Remembering her interaction with Michelle, wonders if this had anything to do with it. Still afraid of putting her family at risk, especially since they’re now red flagged, she doesn’t bring it up to Peter or Jason. They can’t have any more discrepancies tied to their family name.

February 2020: Anahii meets Jae-Hwa and they hit it off. Michelle abducts both Michael Rivera and Vanessa Saeed and force them to start a plan. They will go to Peter with “evidence” that both Ivan and Michelle have counted that state Michelle Wilson is the one responsible for all of the information leaks and compromised jobs (however they will not be able to trace to any correspondence with Ivan). This will cause both false comfort among Durante and Peter and Jason will send someone to kill her. They are to now create a crime scene, forging that an assassination has occurred. They are to spread her DNA via blood and any other body fluids and hair the spot in which she was “killed”. When Peter and Jason are to come to the scene, there will be no body because it was already disposed and cremated. They will walk in while cleaners are cleaning up the mess. Because recording assassinations is prohibited, all they need is to set up the scene in her home. Pictures are also now prohibited to prevent further leaking in any scenario. Michelle will have successfully faked her death. She will hide with Ivan from that point on. Whatever trouble they get into for disposing the body prior to Durantes orders is what they’re going to have to deal with. Better then dying if they didn’t comply.

May 2020: Anahii temporarily moves back in while Jae- Hwa finishes business with his family company and prepares for retirement. The two are not together yet but agree to move in with each other once everything is settled. Covid is now widespread. All correspondences between Durante and Government correspondences between other countries are delayed. Peter and Jason deal with their own feelings for each other in private, causing both to fall into some depression. Jason being worried Peter is going to attempt again, completely moves in with him.

Both begin working from home, begin to plan on assassinating Ivan. They both agree that with the radio silence from Ivan’s side after Anahii was rescued means danger. Gwen informs Michelle of possible tensions between Durante and Russia after coming across old documents regarding their break up and missed payments. Ivan contacts Russia and requests aid. They agree.

June 2020: Plethora and Cassandra find out about Brian’s correspondences between Michelle. Huge fight ensues. All three agree it’s now best that they just comply with Michelle after being threatened with death if they didn’t. Brian, terrified that he fucked up his marriage, passes out from stress. Wakes up and assured that he didn’t, but what the fuck Brian. All three don’t know the weight of what is going to happen because of their involvement. After some hate sex with Peter (both extremely drunk), Anahii moves out with Jae-Hwa, her now boyfriend. Peter figures out he’s gay.

July 2020: Plethora is informed that he will be assassinating Ivan when the time comes, because despite the last failed assassination he has an incredible record. Further stress between the Valentino family ensues. He accepts reluctantly, having their family already be red flagged from tampering on their jobs, denying will most likely result in either loss of power or death. The three desperately hide the correspondence from Michelle. Michelle successfully fakes her death. Peter and Jason are convinced, however expectedly pissed that the “body” was disposed of prior to their arrival at the scene. Both Michael and Vanessa are then killed to prevent whistleblowing by Ivan. Their deaths are unreported, covered up by them being fired by SLATE. Gwen is promoted and now no longer working with Michelle. Peter and Jason finally confess to each other and are now in a relationship. All attention to any treasonous behavior between any party is now ignored.

August 2020: after all info against neighboring countries, along with already obtained info between correspondences regarding sex trafficking, media, and organ trafficking with Ivan, aid from China and Russia, everything is set. Ivan and Michelle mark a date to kill Durante, the Valentino’s, and to leak all known data and take over the world. They begin recruiting soldiers under the radar, along with Ivan’s already existing militia

November 2020: Plans to assassinate Ivan continue. Peter and Jason get a surrogate for their child. They’re informed Anahii is 4 months pregnant immediately after. Anahii and Peter object to get an abortion, however Anahii does not want to care for the child. Peter and Jason agree to raise the child. They prepare for two kids. They begin to bundle up on security for their home and identities.

December 2020: Cassandra Valentino is pregnant. All tensions between Durante and Michelle seem to have dissipated due to the radio silence on both parties.

January 2021: the stock market crashes. America is sent into another Great Depression. American and allied powers are in financial shambles. Cassandra, petrified that this now confirms the beginning of the end, rushes to Peter and Jason and tells them everything. Enraged, they put the assassination of Ivan into full effect. They send Plethora out immediately, the job to be carried out as soon as he gets there. Brian and Cassandra scramble to boost security. Anahii is confronted at her home by Michelle, whom Anahii is shocked that is still alive, however delighted to see her friend. Michelle informs her of what is going to happen, and that she encourages Anahii to go under witness protection with her. Shocked, Anahii declines as she doesn’t want to get involved with any of this kind of thing ever again. She is also angered, realizing she now has to care for a child. However she doesn’t object, her hatred for Peter and Jason already brewed, they bid their farewell to each other.

End: Peter and Jason are assassinated. Ivan and Michelle’s forces break into the Valentino home, assassinating them as well. Their men are informed to preserve the fetus in Cassandra. Plethora Valentino is assassinated upon arrival where he was supposed to kill Ivan. The Whitehouse, Pentagon, and other American facilities are breached by both Ivan’s, Russia’s, and Chinas military. The same occurs amongst European, Middle Eastern, and other neighboring countries. The world is sent into a WW3. The Frikoski empire has begun.

(may be periodically updated. Not every event/change is included.)

[rohad93]

Green Thumbs

It started with a few tiny, golden, colored flowers that Blue had given her on a return trip from one of her former colonies that had needed her intervention in dismantling some of the more complicated systems. 

It had long petals that tapered into near razor-sharp points and nearly matched the hue of the glimmering gem in her chest. 

She’d accepted the gift with thanks and a look that no doubt spelled out her confusion to her partner. At least she assumed by the way Blue laughed quietly at her under her breath with that fond look that seemed to be reserved only for her, different from the look she would gaze at Steven or Spinel with. 

“They reminded me of you.” was the simple explanation for the plant. If nothing else, that made her hold the tiny organic fauna all the tighter.  

Later she had placed the flowers in her personal rooms and would look at them often, but within a few rotations, they had started to sag down, their brilliantly colored leaves beginning to wrinkle and coil at the edges. 

She reached out and ran her fingers gently over the petals that had begun to pucker and shrivel and frowned.

Her knowledge of regular organic life was limited, except for ways to destroy it. In terms of fauna, she knew even less, but she did know someone who was more than knowledgeable on the subject. 

The diamond line didn’t ring long before the youngest diamond appeared on screen, surprised by her call no doubt. 

She held the plant up for him to inspect and explained the situation.

“A gift from Blue, huh?” He smiled knowingly and Yellow only huffed but didn’t argue.

Steven was happy to explain how to keep the plant alive, even sending her several digital copies about how to care for all manner of plants. He wasn’t confident it would survive though since his area of expertise was earth plant life and this had come from a faraway star system he had never even heard of, but hopefully, the same principles would apply.

She watered it and it did perk back up after a few cycles, color, and plumpness returning to its soft petals and stems.

Yellow smiled to herself as she ran a gentle hand over the reinvigorated petals and then couldn’t help but notice how empty the large shelf looked with the single plant sitting on it.

Which was really how it started.

That one plant eventually became two and three and before she knew it Yellow’s rooms had become a veritable garden of plants and flowers that ranged from every size shape and color imaginable, even having stepped shelving build into the room to hold the plethora of fauna that now took up so much of the once cavernous space. 

Since most of the plants had come from far off places in the galaxy Steven’s advice on caring for them could only take her so far, instead, she dove into her extensive library of notes about every planet that she took a plant from, careful to only take plants that lived on worlds that had similar atmospheric conditions to Homeworld after the first plant that all but exploded after only a few cycles on the planet’s surface.

Apparently, unlike the gems that were created out of these plants’ mineral resources, the organic life was a bit more… sensitive. Something she kept in mind, carefully monitoring each new addition to her growing greenhouse for a while after its introduction, though she found the word to be lacking as there was a plethora of colors now splattered through the room, though if she were honest with herself, there was more than a handful of blue and pink toned plants and flowers dotting the room. 

She didn’t need to look too deeply into what that meant. She was nothing if not self-aware.

Even with Steven and Spinel to help fill the void, there were times when her gem ached fiercely at the sight of anything with those bright magenta hues, but as sharp as that pain sometimes was, it was more often than not a dull warmness. A fleeting thought, and sometimes not so fleeting, at how pleased Pink would be with everything as it was now.

Yellow snorted to herself as she gazed down at a plump, blush-colored flower with an uncountable amount of tiny layered petals making it up, even as that pain tried to ignite itself in her core.

The once smallest diamond would have been absolutely beside herself to see the three of them now, perhaps herself especially. 

Tearing her gaze away from the plants in question, her eyes immediately found what she might say was her personal favorite. 

A flower from a faraway world on the edges of the once empire

It’s six nearly symmetrical petals were a pale almost violet color at the center, darkening toward the tips into rich cobalt, where they the curled ever so gently under.

They were small, considering all the plants around her that dwarfed them in size and grandeur, but it fit in the palm of her hand and the deep, complex colors and simple beauty reminded her so much of Blue that she’d planted a number of them to make up for their lack of size and presence. 

While she could visit her counterpart anytime she wished Yellow still had many things to make up for and an immeasurable amount of damage to fix as far as shattered gems and her experiments were concerned, such as the cluster, luckily she had an eternity to correct it, in fact she often lost track of the time and Spinel was forced to come and fetch her when she had worked past an appointment time.

She could spend long amounts of time at her desk, carefully piecing together even the smallest nearly microscopic shards until she had a whole gem. Sometimes though, she just didn’t have all the pieces. Those were not good days. Those were days she would have to walk away, with the air crackling with the unspoken threat of an electrical storm. 

Today was just such a day. 

She had gone through every bubble in her possession and couldn’t find the last pieces she needed to fix the gem she was currently working on. These bubbles had been early, smaller prototypes of the cluster, so none the gems here were part of the cluster, meaning that the pieces she needed were simply gone, lost.

A frustrated noise worked its way out of her throat as she carefully placed the incomplete gemstone, with its jagged, splintered edges back in her bubble and looked at it for a long moment before setting it specifically to the other side of the room, where several other similar gems sat, incomplete, for always. 

A grim reminder that while she could work nonstop till Homeworld ceased to exist, that she would never be able to completely erase all the mistakes she had made, nor fix all the pain she had caused. 

The longer she stared at her failures the more energy began to burn and sizzle across her skin in little sparks but then in jumping arcs or brilliant yellow light.

Her jaw set and electricity buzzed around her closed fists. She turned, ready to unleash the pent up energy when the sight of all the vibrant plants helped her reign it in, as one wrong placed firing of her powers could send the whole room up in a blaze and she had worked much too hard carefully cultivating all the fauna to let her temper send it all up in flames within mere moments. 

She lowered her raised hand and sighed, letting her powers fizzle out as quickly as they had reared their head.

She could still feel the pent up energy crackling beneath just beneath the surface and set about watering and pruning the plants, losing herself in the calming monotony of the tasks, much like when she put gems back together. The frustrated energy bleeding out with every snip of her tiny shears and pruning of a wilted leaf or flower as she knelt on the floor, the remains becoming ash nearly instantly in her hands.  

She became so engrossed in the task that she never heard the doors slide open with a quiet hiss, nor the quiet rustling of fabric.

"I very much like what you've done with your rooms." 

Yellow jerked, looking over her shoulder to find Blue, standing behind her, admiring all the plants that littered every available space that wasn’t needed for walking or working. 

“Blue! I didn’t hear you come in…” She stood, brushing any specs of soil, imaginary, or otherwise from her form. 

“So I noticed.” She smiled a hint of laughter in her voice. “It’s beautiful, Yellow. Whatever made you decide to take this up?”

“Thank you.” She set the shears down and clasped her hands behind her back. “It wasn’t something I planned…It just happened, I suppose.” Her eyes looked over the dozens of plants, easily finding the source of the indoor garden. Blue followed her gaze and saw what she was looking at. 

The golden flowered plant that she had given her nearly a month previously, a bright spot, nestled between two of Yellow’s favorite blue, flowering plants.

“Oh!” Blue walked quickly over to the plant and ran her fingers over the bright, healthy leaves. “You still have this?” She looked surprised and Yellow looked affronted.

“Of course,” she huffed. “I never dispose of a gift.”  

Blue leveled a long look at her and she scoffed.

“I never dispose of a gift from you,” she clarified, and Blue smiled.

“I know you don’t, but to be honest, I didn’t expect it to live this long,” 

She was doing her best not to laugh in the face of the scandalized look Yellow was now making. 

“I’m glad I was wrong though, and I very much like all the additions. It adds some much-needed cheer in here.” 

Yellow only grunted, turning to look at the flowers instead of Blue, who walked up beside the quiet gem, adamantly refusing to look at her and laid a gentle hand on her arm, stopping at her side.

“I didn’t mean anything by it, darling, only that caring and nurturing organic life is just so… different from what you did before it’s surprising is all. It is very beautiful,” she insisted.  

Yellow hummed in acknowledgment, diamond-shaped pupils finally sliding over to meet Blue’s, who smiled at her when she did, tightening her hold on the golden gems arm.

“Considering how adept she was at breathing life into all manner of things, I think Pink would be very proud of what you’ve done as well.” She hummed, laying her head on Yellow’s shoulder as she looked at all the brightly colored plants, eyes drawn to the brilliant fuchsia ones just behind the ones she had given Yellow.

A hand reached up to lay itself gently over the one she had curled around Yellow’s arm and she looked up to find golden eyes fixed on her. 

“I think she would be proud of all of us.” The tone left no room for argument and Blue only smiled, laying her head back on Yellow’s shoulder.

“Yes, I think you’re right.” 

[antoine-roquentin]

The anti-male and anti-White rhetoric of the new left is extreme. The racial attacks on whites in particular approaches exterminationist propaganda seen only in, e.g., the Hutu against the Tutsi in 1990’s Rwanda.

For anyone who doubts this, consider the following few examples, which are far from complete:

A columnist for the Huffington Post, a major leftist publication, wrote an article titled “Towards a Concept of White Wounding,” apparently calling for racial violence.

The New York Times hired a columnist who had repeated vulgar racial attacks on whites, calling “whiteness” “awful,” whites “only fit to live underground like groveling goblins,” expressed great joy at “being cruel to old white men,” and declared that whites will be “extinct soon.” The Paper of Record stood by her when these attacks were exposed, and only quietly let her go recently when she supported a boycott against her own employer.

Symone Sanders, currently a senior adviser to Joe Biden and previously the national press secretary for Bernie Sanders, mocked a disabled white teenager who was tortured on camera in 2017 by a black mob screaming “Fuck Trump! Fuck white people!” and otherwise called cases of antiwhite political violence “a protest.”

The New York Times—again, hardly an unknown blog—published an opinion column by Michelle Goldberg with the eliminationist title “We Can Replace Them,” ostensibly against “white nationalism,” but in fact directed against a demographic white majority as such, which the author seeks to replace with nonwhites for what she imagines to be political advantage.

Kevin Drum at Mother Jones, a major organ of the Left that pushes the security establishment’s Russia Hoax conspiracy theories, called this summer for “a literal or figurative war” on whites and a “race war” that the DNC must be willing to get “Lincolnesque” about.

Major leftist and establishment media such as Newsweek publish cover stories titled “Is Your Baby Racist”; major publishers promote books titled White Fragility, or The Dying of Whiteness, and CNN—not white nationalist outlets—runs graphics on “The Vanishing White American.”

Again, all this is par for the course these days; as everyone knows, state-funded universities routinely hold “white privilege” seminars and orientation sessions, promoting a concept the plain meaning of which is to dispossess people of property and civil rights based on their biology.

the thing that really gets me about BAP is that he’s done enough study of past genocides to realize that ideological terrain must be laid to entice people to perform the requisite actions, and yet he has no idea how this is done at best, and is trying to convince people that generic academic writing is call to genocide for his own obscene purposes at worst. like, i am somebody who has been obsessed with the notion of genocide since kindergarten, when my mom described in her blue collar view the nature of the nazi regime to me (which was in the news around that time over the former yugoslavia), and i questioned how people could perform those actions and, to the extent that i could as a child without internet access, researched this, mostly by asking my mom for holocaust books in the scholastic book catalogue. and ever since, i have read and read and read about genocide, because if there is one goal i have above all else in live it is to prevent violence. and when somebody says that absurdly sterile sociological language like

Importantly, the effort to break up white supremacy posthaste requires a diversity of tactics, efforts, people, organizations, opinions, and so on. What’s suggested here is hardly meant to encompass that range, and it is not meant to demean or necessarily render an opinion on most of the tactics other white people are using in this fight. It is to critique a misguided focus on creating a version of whiteness that seems more akin to escapism than a realistic possibility, and one that we believe diverts us from the real work at hand.

More than anything it’s a thought. A notion. One that’s being worked out on these pages as it’s typed. As such, it will be missing key pieces. It will likely be wrongheaded in certain (hopefully not all) aspects.

is going to drive anybody to commit any action whatsoever, much less a violent one, i’d say that person is a fucking moron. like, when an article says

Whoever had the occasion to be an eye-witness during the slaughtering of animals or to see at least a truthful film on the slaughtering-will never forget this horrible experience. It is atrocious. And unwillingly, he is reminded of the crimes which the Jews have committed for centuries on men. He will be reminded of the ritual murder.

History points out hundreds of cases in which non-Jewish children were tortured to death. They also were given the same incision through the throat as is found on slaughtered animals. They also were slowly bled to death while fully conscious

that’s the roth test of genocide support right there. that’s emotive language designed to inspire people to take violent action. in contrast, is

Beyond this, if the goal is dismantling a system of white supremacy, changing our personal sense of whiteness misses the mark. Systems of power can and will exist regardless of the individual or even group mentalities or feelings of those operating within them. By educating ourselves on the damage caused by whiteness, and the system of white supremacy that undergirds it, and then turning to find a version of whiteness at-odds with this system, we don’t tear the system down. Instead, perhaps counter-intuitively, we create actors within that system who no longer believe they are perpetuating it, which does exactly that. 

supposed to inspire college students to pick up ak47s and uh, kill their parents? cause i know college students, and if they have to do an assignment they were given a month ago without an extension, they will shit themselves. everybody else in america would stop reading about five words in. (christ, i’ve looked at this paragraph a dozen times and i still haven’t done anything more than skim it)

this is the same sort of tribalistic language he supposedly deplores, except by calling it tribalistic he pretends to be above the fray and thus gains cache as a supposed independent observer of this shit. in reality, he’s just taking advantage of the fact that some people have noted a tired media cliche and, being largely insulated from politics in general, have built their entire political worldview around it. trust me, i’ve met them, i know them, and for the most part, they’re fairly quickly dissuaded if you talk to them as human beings for a few hours. BAP wants to take advantage of their limited knowledge and attention spans. don’t let him.

[ganymedesclock]

I think one of my biggest issues with a certain amount of fanon around Lotor is that even if you count Lotor as an antagonist- which you can make a good argument for- he’s clearly measured with a different standard than other antagonists.

For example people really like to use the term “murderer” when they’re trying to shut down any insinuation that Lotor could be a good person. In my experience this often involves ascribing kills to Lotor that he didn’t actually do or that are very shaky.

For example? Zethrid’s comment that they tried to send ships into the rift, and the vessels exploded, which was “fun for me, not fun for your pilots.” I’ve seen this interpreted as “Lotor sent people into the rift to their deaths.”

We have to consider with very rare exceptions, the smaller fighter ships that both the empire and Lotor uses? Are piloted by robots. And what we see of Lotor’s subordinates in s4e3 shows us mostly drones- maybe a handful of actual flesh-and-blood galra. And it’s fair to assume it’s not those galra who are being sent out in fighter ships by Lotor- otherwise in s3e2 the paladins committed a massacre and they are our Y7 show heroes so that’s not a thing.

And even if I was a fan of your conclusion, you have to recognize that “these ships that we have a single line of reference to definitely contained real people when it’s very likely in this setting they didn’t, and Lotor definitely sent a large number of those people to their death when he’s not known to attempt the same thing futilely over and over and he doesn’t appear to have that many followers to sacrifice.”

You could make a much better argument for the two fleets that Acxa called in at the end of s3e3 to cover Lotor’s escape, which we know were manned by living people, but even then, given Voltron was the killing weapon, I’d hesitate to make that your triumphant stand of “this proves that Acxa’s a rotten person and by connection, Lotor”.

Yes, Lotor has killed. Raht, Narti, and Zarkon. (it’s also possible that he killed his first opponent in the gladiatorial ring in s3e1) All three individuals, to his understanding, posed an immediate threat to his own life.

The most ambiguous and nasty case in this one is definitely Narti- there are other ways Lotor could have handled that situation. Narti was not a willing spy- Haggar set her up and Lotor cut her down. S5e6 analyzes this thinking, however, and frames it as:

Lotor tends to self-sabotage...

...Via his incredible difficulty trusting others and tendency to assume that anything opposing him at the moment must hate him and want him to die...

...Which is almost definitely rooted in the trauma he disclosed to Allura that would mean he doesn’t have healthy emotional connections to draw from the idea that people don’t all inevitably hate him.

As an audience, a certain amount of us do have a reflex of “C’mon dude, Narti is your friend. She wouldn’t do that to you. Can’t you see that she needs help, not your sword in her chest?” because we’re detached, we have more information than he does, and we have an emotional investment in seeing Narti get that help.

And the white lion is used narratively to show us that it’s not an isolated incident and it had nothing to do with Narti personally- it’s Lotor’s problem. When the point of the lion trial is you have to realize the attacking beast won’t hurt you and isn’t your enemy, Lotor literally can’t win because everything he has ever known has taught him that he doesn’t have friends. At best, he has people who he’s useful to, and as soon as he’s not useful, they will turn on him.

And I feel like this is about the point people’s eyes glaze over because “come on Clockie I don’t care about Lotor’s sad backstory I care about the fact that he killed someone” but my point is these things are relevant.

Because otherwise it sure looks weird and inconsistent how after Narti and Zarkon both, Lotor goes really quiet, nearly unresponsive, and in the case of Narti, spends a long time genuinely not planning for his future at all that we can tell.

For me, the entirety of s4e5 and s4e6 is a huge red flag that Lotor didn’t want to do that. He did it, yes, because see the three points that are clarified for us in s5e6- but there’s a lot of difference between Lotor killing Narti and the way that Zarkon has Prorok disposed of in s2e1.

Lotor versus Narti, the team is in danger, he has seconds to make up his mind because if he’s wrong they’ll never shake their pursuers and any safe haven they seek out is going to be compromised, they’re on a ship under attack and everybody is panicking.

Zarkon versus Prorok, nothing is going on, it’s an ordinary Tuesday at the office, there is no pressure besides the vague, if he doesn’t catch a spy it might happen again, and there’s also no misunderstanding- Prorok immediately and clearly protests, and by the time Haggar’s carrying out his execution in s2e3, they know that Prorok isn’t even the guilty party. And Haggar makes it clear she just really doesn’t care.

And I mean there’s also the fact that we can list three people that Lotor killed (or had killed, in Raht’s case, the torn edge on his severed prosthetic suggest to me that Zethrid was at least involved) by name.

It’s flat-out disingenuous to insist Lotor’s three-man kill count is directly comparable to, oh, say, the two different inhabited planets Zarkon has been attributed with razing and conducting genocide on the inhabitants of (Altea in s1e1, the unnamed colony in s5e6) and his policies of torture, imprisonment in awful conditions, extended slavery, and carelessly disposing of his subordinates for, again, crimes they didn’t commit, would tell us that there are a huge number of other deaths on Zarkon’s head.

When, surprise surprise, all of those systems are things that Lotor would either have no need of the way he operates, or is shown to actively dislike. Taking new planets? He’d rather talk to them and even if he’s taking what he wants at swordpoint, he genuinely didn’t want to hurt the Puigians any more than bare minimum necessary and his soldiers went in under orders to kill no one. They didn’t even cause any property damage.

The system imperialism which relies on the galra owning everybody else? Lotor wants to dismantle it by giving power back to the occupied people (s3e1 and s3e2). 

(I have. seen too many people call Lotor an unapologetic imperialist when the one time he confesses he was interested in keeping a colony, he was put in charge of it by Zarkon and did everything he could to familiarize himself with the local culture and create good diplomatic rapport and not hurt their planet for his own exploitation. 

And Zarkon said “no” and burnt it down and didn’t put Lotor in power again, in which case it doesn’t matter how sincere Lotor is, the reason why Lotor hasn’t made progress dismantling the empire in the last ten thousand years was because Zarkon was using his much greater influence and power to make sure Lotor had nothing to show for his work)

Even the racism at the heart of the empire’s destructive policies, a point is made time and time again that Lotor very strongly lives and perceives himself as a mixed-race galra first. Most of his public appearances to the empire’s elite (s3e1 and s5e4) come with people hurling slurs, racist rhetoric, and death threats at him.

Even Lotor’s interest in the rift has a very different context than Zarkon and Honerva’s fascination with it if you consider the latter were experimenting with it in the heart of a populated planet that withered and died because of their work, they not only left it wide open but worked to make it bigger, and ignored the dangerous creatures living in there as well as the averse effect that it was having on, again, the heartland of the galra empire.

Lotor’s interest in the rift is as a way to decisively break the imperial system once and for all by basically flooding the market with so much quintessence nobody will ever need to forcibly take it from other planets and Zarkon’s system will be financially worthless. Which might sound callous unless you consider Lotor is going to need a callous argument since you can’t take someone like Throk and sit them down through the annotated power point of “Today, I will explain to you why you should care if other people are suffering.”

And the first thing Lotor does with the rift is basically put such a dense mechanical lock on it that he can’t actually figure out how to get in there himself. He’s building countermeasures for things that he quite possibly doesn’t even know about (the rift creature) with this.

But not only does Zarkon have a massive kill count, if you look at Zarkon killing Alfor, Trigel, Gyrgan and Blaytz, and compare that to Lotor killing Narti...

Lotor struck Narti down quickly under duress, and when it became clear the other generals were also betraying him, Lotor specifically chose not to kill them as well even though that left him in a very bad place tactically- it ended up meaning that now Haggar has one of the two Sincline ships, the one that had tested and proven itself as able to hold off Voltron in single combat, and the generals know about the rift gate, and they’re all devastatingly powerful fighters.

Sure, Acxa and Ezor might have been able to fight him off, but Lotor could have at least shot Zethrid off the hull of the first Sincline ship and they wouldn’t have been able to do anything to stop him. But Lotor even basically tells them to take care of themselves before he leaves and has shown no interest hunting them down afterwards.

Because “hunting them down” is exactly what Zarkon did to his old team. Even when the only threat Alfor posed to him was that if he insisted on continuing to selfishly chase the rift that he didn’t need (Honerva was alive again, so even his initial reason wasn’t there)- and Zarkon’s basic first act of reanimation was to declare war on Altea.

Which is contrasted by this shot, which would sure seem to suggest that the reason why his people were still alive and there to hear him was because Altea took them in as refugees after the destruction of Daibazaal.

Zarkon planned, carefully, and made up his mind and went and hunted down all four paladins and killed them. If there’s barely a handful of living Alteans left after the destruction of its home planet, even though they were advanced spacefaring people, it’d suggest that Zarkon deliberately hunted down the survivors, and both his attitudes towards Allura in s1e1 and the way he talks about being able to wipe Lotor out in s5e2 would sure line up with that.

So like... can we not suggest that the three people Lotor killed when two of the three of them he’s shown to be unhappy about are somehow analogous to Zarkon’s multiple counts of systematic genocide?

Even if you think Lotor’s an antagonist, he’s not as bad as Zarkon and he’s definitely not worse than Zarkon. And when most of our main antagonists in the setting are much closer to Zarkon’s level (Haggar’s also a planet-killer via the Komar and her plan at Naxzela would have wiped out a large number of inhabited planets, Sendak makes a comment about invading Earth specifically because of the paladins’ resistance against him) Lotor stands out as a guy who’s moral enough that the paladins, including Shiro- a man of very potent personal morals- find him palatable company.

[stairstab]

[EDIT: I wrote this a very long time ago, and I’d like to revisit it. I revised a lot of it and I’d appreciate if y’all took a moment to read it. I’ve added lots of paragraph breaks and font flourishes to allow for easier reading.]

On: Neoliberal Feminism and the Co-opting of the Struggle Under Capitalism

Note: I am drawing a dichotomy, for a moment, between ‘neoliberal feminism’, which represents capitalistic endeavors to co-opt and market a defanged, watered down version of feminism, and ‘marxist feminism’, which represents the historical revolutionary leftist movement to abolish both patriachy and wage slavery. 

The Marxist feminism I will discuss here will deal with the conglomerate, or as I like to call it, the hydra. By contrast, the neoliberal feminism I discuss here will view oppression in a more diluted, individualist sense and will market itself around ‘woke progressivism’ in an attempt to make money, create a cultivated identity, and/or general social capital. 

There is one subject that reveals the massive gap between mainstream feminist ideals and marxist ones, and that is: 

Ending the wage gap vs. ending wage slavery completely.

It is one of the most pervasive and widely discussed subjects regarding feminism today, and it so expertly shows the shallow, privileged lines of thought that go into neoliberal feminism. It is about getting what is yours, about being critical when it suits you, but not too critical. 

You can judge a makeup company for testing on animals or not using vegan or fair trade ingredients or for using a racist model in an ad and cause massive liberal outcry, but don’t you dare question the very foundation of the makeup industry. Don’t talk about how makeup is used to capitulate and objectify women, don’t talk about the effects that the industry has on womens body image and self esteem, don’t talk about how exploitative of an industry it is or how it relies on multiple different hierarchical power structures to even exist. 

So, when we see corporations using feminist/leftist imagery to appeal to liberal women, we aren’t seeing a shift in the overton window or a new horizon for progressivism, we are seeing the commodification of our struggles. 

When Cheerios has a multiracial family in their ad, they’re targeting a specific audience to buy their product. When McDonalds has a gay couple in their ad, they’re targeting a specific audience. It is the exact same as when their are elderly people or moms or athletes in a commercial. It is targeted advertising.

You are being convinced that buying a product is a revolutionary act. You are being manipulated into forming a cultivated identity around this product. 

It is Feminist(tm) sponsored by Sephora(c)!

We’ve learned to identify this useless form of feminism very easily, without having to view it in a very marxist way at all. We knew that Kendall Jenner handing a Pepsi to a cop was the dumbest shit we’ve ever seen. We know that appealing to our oppressors is just victim blaming horseshit, we know that corporations do not give a shit about civil rights and that they only do this shit to make money off of stupid neoliberals. But what happens when we go past what we know? How much deeper can we go into why this shit is stupid and doesn’t work? 

For starters, we need to realize something:

Companies will pat themselves on the back for basic human decency, when if you peeked behind the curtain, they are the orchestrators of our tribulation and we recieve scraps compared to what they have stolen.

(water bottle companies “sponsoring” Flint is one example)

When we apply a magnifying lens to basic feminist ideals, what should we find but a deep trench where we once saw a crack in the pavement. Take, for instance, abortion. In mainstream feminism, abortion is heralded as a tool of freedom that is necessary for true bodily autonomy. Perfectly agreeable. But let’s go deeper. How is the pro-choice movement funded? How is it affected by capitalism? By racism? How do poor and/or marginalized women get access to these abortions? What about the deep history of eugenics that’s tied to it? What would abortion care look like under Socialism and how would that be different to how it is now, under Capitalism? These are all questions we need to ask in order to look deeper into these problems.

We talk about the glass ceiling, we talk about the wage gap. We pay lip service to ideas like equality and justice and the destruction of conservatism and fascism. but thats as deep as it ever goes. And it’s another problem altogether that a lot of so-called feminists are barely left-leaning at all, and often converse with, empathize with, or even believe fascist ideals

(And by the way, this includes TERFs. anyone who looks past the curtain of transphobic reactionary ideology can see they hold no actually radical beliefs. They abuse hatred of neoliberal mainstream feminism to pull people into a just-as-shallow iteration of it with a spicy transphobic twist. They are neoliberal feminists in their own right, with superficial explanations for profound problems and a lack of actual materialist analysis.) 

Neoliberal feminism is the form of feminism that took hold in the mainstream because it poses very little actual threat to the status quo. 

The mainstream movement does everything it can to ignore and even actively avoid the very foundations of its cause. Much like how unions and other leftist institutions ousted the reds and pretended shallow reformation and centrist garbage was responsible for their great feats, feminism has cut any ties with any actually revolutionary ideas and is now pretending that twitter hashtags about pink lattes or commercials for Gay Rights or ANYTHING having to do with hillary clinton have changed or helped anything. and anyone who does manage to make feminist news with any sort of actual revolutionary ideas has those ideas hidden away or watered down. 

or, god forbid, made into merchandise.

we’ve become comfortable with critiquing certain aspects of neoliberal feminism, like the glorification of the “female drone operators”, but we need to fundamentally understand that nothing that comes from neoliberal feminism is worth putting weight behind. every aspect of it can be improved by changing its very core focus to the root causes of our struggles. 

capitalism being the most important one of them all, the one that binds us not by nation or creed, but by our subjugated position among the exploited masses and below the tyrannical hand of the bourgeoise. 

There are other heads to this hydra though, of course. Nationalism and xenophobia, white supremacy, historical negationism, patriarchy, etc. Any hierarchical structure is a friend to capitalism and that all of these structures are heavily weakened with the abolition of capitalism. Racism, ableism, transphobia and homophobia are all friends of capitalism. and you cannot diminish or destroy these things without eliminating the greatest generator of their power structure.

But there are other institutions that uphold cruelty and injustice. Emma Goldman once wrote:

“Religion, the dominion of the human mind; Property, the dominion of human needs; and Government, the dominion of human conduct, represent the stronghold of man's enslavement and all the horrors it entails.”

Here, she represents her own version of the hydra. Religion, property, and the government. They all work together, each a heel in our collective spines. She goes on to explain that religion (specifically Christianity in America) works to quell rebellion and skepticism, property is capitalism, and the government represents unjust law and the American governments monopoly on violence. Goldman knew that oppression is not just one beast, that it exists as a conglomerate of ideas that each work with hierarchy of power.

These are fundamental understandings that one cannot achieve within neoliberal ideas of feminism. Capitalism is not good in any capacity, it is not morally justifiable. Ayn Rand did not have ‘girl power’. Benevolent corporatism will not save us. Yes, you can criticize things within capitalism in a feminist context without criticizing capitalism itself, but it takes a certain amount of privilege, bigotry, and/or ignorance to do so. (And remember that ignorance is a weapon of oppression)

-

TL;DR: more good could be done on a massive scale if we shifted our focus away from petty neoliberal feminist critiques of society and into more fundamentally widespread and damaging structures such as capitalism, which neoliberal feminism by definition either supports or ignores. 

Stop letting corporations co-opt our struggles. stop letting the privileged few speak for the marginalized many. stop treating the symptoms, and treat the cause. 

There is no true freedom for women under capitalism.

[lovehaswonangelnumbers]

The 11:11 Magic Unfolds ~ Expanded Soul Life Plan

The 11:11 Magic Unfolds ~ Expanded Soul Life Plan,

FCGCT Commentary: We are moving from the mind, to the Heart... not the balancing of the two. The mind conflicts with the Heart, and is the cause for imbalance, pain, fear, suffering and more. It is the Heart and Brain which work in harmony together. The mind... the ego, blocks the Heart, as it Edges God Out. It is the Heart and Brain which work in harmony to allow Balanced Harmonics, your Divine Blueprint. Let go of the mind, and solely flow from the Heart, connected to the Unified Heart in Unity Consciousness.

The 11:11 Magic Unfolds ~ Expanded Soul Life Plan

By Meg Benedicte

Hello ,

Since the powerful 11:11:11 Activations last Sunday, the energy feels different. We experienced a massive shift into a much higher bandwidth of frequency and expanded Soul Life Plan. This was a HUGE shift! We are just starting to discover what that shift is bringing us. I’ve been feeling held in a potent void space the past few days, as the triple 11 upgrades enter my system. It is still streaming in.

This morning as I hiked in the wooded park along the creek, I felt like I stepped into a potent field of magic. It was vibrating all around me and streaming into my chakra channel. I was giddy with waves of magic! We are still receiving 11:11 activations and upgrades all through November. Be in mindful silence and absorb the cosmic waves into your field.

As I worked with clients since Sunday’s big shift, I started noticing common clues to how 11:11:11 affected us. Every time we pass through a powerful Stargate threshold more of the enslavement Matrix loses control. The Triple 11 Gateway created a new wave of awakening. More and more beings will become aware of the collective oppression.

 In 2012 the Time simulation unlocked, opening our perception beyond time and linear sequencing. The Matrix lost hold of the collective mental programming, as we see people’s minds now roaming in parallel realities. When mind control dissolves, there is a period of disorientation. Therefore, we are witnessing an infusion of alternate facts and explosion of conspiracy theories. Being drawn into disclosure of ETs, the Secret Space Program, or the Qanon alt-right propaganda is more evidence of the Awakening phenomena. But it is NOT Ascension!

It is this reversal of mental lockdown that is unleashing your capacity to explore alternate holographic realities and timelines. As the Time Matrix dissolves, the quantum field of all possibilities opens before us. Also the hidden trauma of early childhood and past incarnations start rise to the surface of our awareness for healing. Now the Ascension process begins. Everything is being revealed in the intense Light for transmutation.

As the hidden rises in global awareness, I’m observing a collective ripple effect into the lost Atlantean Armageddon timeline occur.  All Souls with incarnations during this highly charged timeline are being triggered to heal and clear deeply embedded Atlantean conflict patterns, misuse of power, toxic masculinity, stuck trauma and emotional heartbreak. The United States is in the throes of ancient Atlantean conflict scenarios, power grabs, paranoid conspiracies, and false realities. The Cosmic Ascension Plan is triggering all of this to be transmuted to Light.

Not only are we clearing traumatic timelines from our field, but many Light Bearers have incarnated into Elite/cabal bloodlines to be dismantled on the planet. Since 11:11:11 I’ve been receiving guidance that I can now remove the Hapsburg bloodline code from my system.  As we dissolve these parasitic bloodlines from our field and the global power system, we start the process of reversing the damage and destruction of rampant colonialism, slavery and the parasitic stealing of resources from all around the world. The New Earth timeline is replacing it.

This past week I’ve also witnessed the crystalline Soul Star activating in clients 3rd Eye and Heart Center. This is extraordinary progress as our Merkaba Light Body is appearing and activating. This is what the Ascension is all about! It is a very powerful internal transformation of our biofield. Each Galactic Gateway event is contributing to the gradual transfiguration of our physical body into luminescent Light.

And finally, the cosmos is still digging deep into the hidden unconscious, flushing more and more to be revealed. This week Jupiter moved into Sagittarius for a year, Mars entered Pisces, and Venus turns direct in Libra while Mercury turns retrograde in Sagittarius today! Wow! That is a lot of movement in the ether. More is being dug up for review as a 2nd 11:11:11 occurs on November 29th. It is not as explosive as last Sunday’s Gateway, but it is another pass-through to receive additional activations. While the Gateway is open, focus and receive the divine inflow of Christ Consciousness into your heart. We are being blessed with the Christed codes for becoming Divine Humans!

I will be joining Manette for our New Earth podcast on Wednesday, November 28th to assist with integrating all the magical 11:11 upgrades and activations. We will take questions from the listeners. Join other Gridworkers, Gatekeepers, and Star Beings from all around the world, as we form a ‘group mind’ and receive Christ Consciousness into our being.

The show is recorded for replay.  If you would like to participate, register here: https://newearthcentral.com/?p=206997

Lovingly, Meg

Copyright (c) 2018 Meg Benedicte * All Rights Reserved * You may copy and distribute this material as long as you do not alter it in any way, the content remains complete and you include this copyright notice.

~~~~~~~~~

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[master-sass-blast]

Strong as Stone -Part Twenty-Two

WELCOME BACK!

Last week we got a lovely, fluffy, light-hearted vacation/one year anniversary celebration with Okoye and M’Baku.

This week marks the conclusion of the “Klaue’s Associate” plot line! Yes, babes, this is it! Part Four of ‘Cat and Mouse,’ as I’ve been calling it on Ao3, is here!

Rating: T.

Warnings: Language, suspense, mentions of cancer, and mentions of death.

Pairings: Okoye x M’Baku and T’Challa x Nakia.

@the-last-hair-bender, @skysynclair19

See everything you can through to the end. You won’t be able to see everything through --and there will be things that you shouldn’t see through--but what you can, do.

Try to keep your heads out of the clouds though, my dears. We have the tendency to get caught up in our ideas, our fantasies, of how things ought to conclude. We often craft out the perfect ending, or anticipate things down to the most minute detail.

Stay away from it, if you can help it. The results will often disappoint your preconceptions.

It’s been a lot of effort. A lot of patience. A lot of consecutive missions that required rotating the Dora Milaje and War Dogs to keep everyone from growing over tired. A lot of Shuri going in tearing out the associate’s invisible hand in their system.

Which kept growing back. Every two to three days it would register on the security scans, almost full size and intact despite Shuri continually increasing the protective measures in every way she could conceive of.

Okoye had decided, after the third time that Shuri had to tear our the associate’s tap strand by strand of code, that Klaue’s associate was a great deal smarter than he had been.

But, in the end, it paid off. Keeping the associate moving on a near constant basis meant that Okoye’s teams kept recovering more and more materials from the safe houses --and that Shuri had time to track the associate back to the main base of operations.

A two bedroom apartment Central London. Shuri had traced the root of all the associate’s coding back to there.

When Okoye had heard the news, she’d let out a victory cry of relief.

She’d spent idle moments over the past few months imagining it, imagining what it would feel like when it came, and it was finally here.

They’d found the associate and were ready to capture them.

The first thing she did, candidly, was call M’Baku.

He answered on the third ring. “‘Koye? Is everything alright?”

“We found Klaue’s associate! They’re in London. We’re moving in tonight to capture them!”

M’Baku grinned. “Well done, my love. Go kick their ass.”

Okoye smiled and blew him a kiss before she ended the call. She took a deep breath, then pumped her fist as satisfaction flowed through her. It’s all coming to an end.

“We need to assume that Klaue’s associate will be armed and heavily dangerous,” Okoye said as she manipulated a three dimensional holographic display of the apartment building they were heading to. “We’re going in fast. Take out the associate and whatever technology they’re using to hold us back as quickly as possible. We want to minimize the damage caused and our mission time. I don’t think I need to explain why a serious mess would not be in our best interests.”

They were flying over the Atlantic ocean, headed straight for the United Kingdom. T’Challa was already wearing his Black Panther suit --sans mask--and Nakia stood at his side in her usual War Dog gear. Four other Dora Milaje stood at the other side of the table, dressed in their armor. At the end opposite where Okoye stood, Shuri watched the display spin and shift.

The King, albeit reluctantly, had deemed it necessary that his sister accompany them on their mission. As Wakanda’s foremost mind and innovator with all things vibranium, they needed Shuri present to make sure that they collected and dismantled all the weapons properly.

Admittedly, he’d demanded that Shuri make herself a suit of vibranium armor as well, which was a choice Okoye wasn’t complaining about. Shuri was smart, yes, but she was incredibly new to the outside world --to say nothing of missions like these.

“All due respect, General Okoye,” Shuri said with a nervous, pinched expression, “but I doubt we’ll encounter that much resistance. If Klaue’s associate was making weapons, wouldn’t we have seen them hit the market by now --or seen a greater demonstration of their capabilities than the detonators they’ve used at various warehouses?”

“You could be right,” Okoye said, using the same calm, non-condescending voice she used with new trainees and recruits. “But it’s wiser to prepare for the worse.”

“We’ve talked about this before, Shuri,” T’Challa said in slightly exasperated tone. “This is not a social call. Klaue’s associate is a danger to Wakanda and the rest of the world; they need to be taken down before they amass too many weapons.”

“Yes, except they aren’t because they haven’t been making weapons,” Shuri retorted. “None of what we recovered matches any weaponry designs I’ve ever seen.”

“You can’t know for certain, Shuri.”

“Actually, yes, I can!”

“We have to assume Klaue’s associate is dangerous for our own safety and the safety of any innocent bystanders,” Nakia interjected before the two siblings could start arguing. “He only worked with certain kinds of people --thugs, ex-convicts, the morally gray or black. We have good reason to assume that the associate is dangerous because all of Klaue’s other friends and associates have been.”

Shuri let out a huff, looked away, and crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, I still think you’re wrong.”

Night had fallen over the city of London by the time they’d found a good place to hover over the roof of the associate’s apartment building. 

Once everyone was off, Shuri cued the ship to cloak itself. “What now?”

“We could kick down the door,” Djabi said with a smirk.

“Or just pick the lock,” Nakia fired back as she knelt in front of the door to do just that.

Okoye took the lead as she treaded down the flights of concrete stairs towards the twelfth floor.

“Are you ready, Okoye?” T’Challa asked, right on her heels, in a teasing tone that belied the seriousness of the situation.

“You have no idea, my King.” She checked to make sure the hall just off the stairs was clear, then stepped out of the stairwell.

The hall was lined with doors stained to a dark walnut color. It was eerily silent; not even a shred of noise emanated from behind the closed doors. No footsteps, no music, no conversation, nothing.

Okoye narrowed her eyes as the others stepped into the hall behind her. “I seriously doubt, even though it’s late, that absolutely everyone is already asleep for the night.” She lived in apartment complex, for Bast’s sake; she knew from experience that some people kept odd hours. Having everything be one hundred percent quiet meant something was wrong. Seriously wrong.

“You’re right,” Nakia agreed as she took stock of her surroundings. “It’s not even midnight. People should be returning from evening shifts, getting ready for night shifts, going out to clubs, or just be staying up late. Something’s wrong.”

“Maybe they’re not sleeping,” Djabi suggested with a dark grimace. “Maybe they’re dead.”

T’Challa shook his masked head. “Killing an entire floor of people would be a severe departure from what we’ve seen out of the associate thus far.”

“Or maybe they’ve finally completed whatever they were trying to build,” Aneka offered. “Maybe they’re trying to show us just how powerful they are.”

“I don’t think it’s that,” Shuri interjected, “but I am only picking up one life sign other than ours.”

Shit. “Spears out. Be at the ready for anything.” Okoye walked up the door with the correct number plaque and glanced at T’Challa. “Do we knock or kick it in?”

Before he could answer, the electronic lock on the door made the ‘key accepted’ chirp. There was the snapping sound of the bolt sliding back, then the door swung open to reveal an empty, dimly lit room.

“Well, that’s auspicious,” Djabi said dryly.

“They know we’re here,” Nakia whispered. “They’ve probably been watching us the whole time.”

“We can’t abort the mission now,” T’Challa said as he crept towards the door. “We need to retrieve the stolen vibranium.”

Okoye managed to edge past him, spear in hand, and peered around the edge of the door.

The space was one large room that ran the entire length of the hall. Various desks and tables dotted the room; the desks and tables themselves were littered with machine parts, computer pieces, and a variety of desktop screens, computers, and laptops. A giant display screen interface --like the largest iPad Okoye had ever seen--ran along one wall, showing various calculations, research read outs, and files in almost every language conceivable.

And, in the center of the screen, was a video feed of them crouching by the door.

“We’re on camera,” Okoye muttered as she swept her gaze around the room in search of the recording device. “And I know why there aren’t any other life signs. This is just one giant room. The other doors in the hall are fakes.”

“Any sign of the associate?” Nakia asked.

“Not yet. It looks empty, almost abandoned.”

They all filed in one by one, on full alert and ready to strike whatever flew at them.

Well, except for Shuri, who immediately pulled on a pair of sterile gloves and started rifling through the technology on the tables. “It’s exactly what I suspected...”

“What are we looking at?” T’Challa asked as he surveyed the space.

“Junk. Stripped and harvested for whatever was needed.”

“If it’s junk, then why keep it?” Aneka asked.

“My best guess is that it’d look suspicious to have so much electronic trash coming out of the one building all the time. They probably have a special disposal service remove everything for them to keep a low profile.”

From across the room, in the darkest of the shadows, someone started clapping their hands.

Okoye whirled towards the noise, ready to face down whoever was waiting for them.

The lights flicked on, one by one, until they could see who had been clapping.

Okoye gasped. “You!”

An Indian woman with long, wavy black hair smirked back at her. “Me.”

“You know this woman, General?” T’Challa asked.

“She interviewed me at the dinner after President Trump’s non-apology speech,” Okoye spat out. “And she posed as a scientist during Shuri’s lecture on Wakandan science and technology.”

“That’s right!” Shuri exclaimed. “Dr. Khatri!”

“Not your real name, I take it,” T’Challa added.

She shrugged, expression impeccably unruffled. “It can be, if you want it to.”

“I’m not referring to you by a fake alias.”

“All my aliases are fake. But, if you’d like something for this conversation, you can call me Jhanvi Singh. That’s the name I’ve been using most recently.”

“I assume you know why we’re here, Ms. Singh.”

“What, you mean this isn’t a house warming party?”

“Your little game is done,” T’Challa said flatly. “Surrender yourself and whatever weapons you’ve created.”

Jhanvi chuckled as she turned away from them, walking towards an empty desk at the back of the room. “Mm, I think not.”

“That wasn’t a request.”

“No, I’m not saying I won’t.” She spun and hopped up onto the edge of the desk, sitting there. “I’m saying I can’t.”

“You’ve already sold the weapons,” Nakia concluded. “We’re going to need the list of your buyers.”

“I don’t have one,” Jhanvi said as she tapped at her phone.

“Enough of this,” Okoye growled. “She has no weapons with her. There are eight of us versus her.”

“Oh, I didn’t say I didn’t have any.” Jhanvi looked up, hazel eyes glowing a faint shade of copper.

Two panels in the ceiling opened, allowing two massive artillery style guns to drop down and take aim.

Okoye gritted her teeth as the guns deployed --then gasped when her spear retracted into its storage capsule, seemingly of its own volition.

Next to her, T’Challa’s suit shut off, retracting into the necklace Shuri designed and revealing the shirt and slacks he was wearing underneath. He stared levelly at Jhanvi. “That’s why you were so unconcerned over our presence.”

Jhanvi smirked triumphantly. “Well, would you look at that. The deck was stacked in my favor after all.”

“You have mental control over the technology in the room, right?” Shuri asked. “How do you manipulate everything? Is it an implant?”

Jhanvi shook her head. “I’ve always been like this. No one knows why, but you have to make the most of what you have.”

“And you can mentally control any technology?”

“As long as I’ve had enough time to interface with it or the mother technology it stems from.” She paused, blinked, then raised her eyebrows. “Except your shielded jacket. Holy shit, you actually made something I can’t break into! That’s amazing!”

Shuri grinned. “I’ve had several weeks to get familiar with your capabilities. You’re extremely adept at evading my firewalls.”

“Don’t take it too hard. Security measures are the easiest to get past; you just have to figure out how to climb the wall --by the way, the Pentagon ought to contact you for an upgrade. Their defense measures are feeble compared to your most basic stuff.”

“I’m guessing that when you infiltrated the conference, you had enough time to get into enough of our systems so that you could always regrow whatever I tore out? It’s the only explanation I can think of.”

“Basically. Your coding is gorgeous, by the way. I practically wept every time I crawled through it.”

“Can we save the love fest for a later date?” T’Challa asked with an annoyed expression at his sister. “If you don’t have the weapons, and you don’t have a list, what can you give us to help us track down your buyers?”

“Nothing, I’m afraid. And there won’t be a ‘later date,’ either.”

T’Challa frowned. “I’m not following.”

“She has a brain tumor,” Shuri said softly. “Don’t you? I picked up on some irregularities in your coding, but I wasn’t sure...”

Jhanvi’s smirk turned into a sad smile and she tapped the spot just above her left eyebrow. “Cancerous. Inoperable because of excessive entanglement in the blood vessels. Based on the prognosis I was given, I’ve got... three hours left. At the most.”

Okoye felt disturbed as she processed Jhanvi’s statement. This isn’t a round up. It’s a last good-bye. “If you’re dying, why let us find you?”

Jhanvi shrugged. “Like the King said. The game’s up. I’d like to be recognized for my efforts in evading you, instead of only existing as a faceless figment of your imaginations. I mean, how many of you thought I was a woman?”

Okoye shared a silent glance with Nakia. Even though they’d never assigned a gender to the associate during their efforts to track them down, she’d assumed --they all had assumed--it was a man. It just made sense, given Klaue’s background.

“Exactly. I’d like to be remembered accurately, even in the official ‘pain in the ass’ records of Wakanda’s justice system.”

“Miss Singh, I’m incredibly sorry that you’re in your current predicament, but we need anything you can give us about the weapons you designed,” T’Challa said urgently. “Vibranium weaponry could devastate the world --and undo all our efforts to integrate ourselves with the rest of the world. We’d lose our abilities to help those that need us most.”

“Very compelling --but no.”

“Why not?”

“Because she hasn’t made any weapons,” Shuri said.

Jhanvi grinned and made a clicking noise with her mouth as she pointed double finger guns at Shuri. “Boom. There it is.”

T’Challa let out an annoyed sigh. “If you haven’t made any weaponry, then what have you been doing with the vibranium?”

“She’s been making medical technology.” Shuri fiddled with her kimoyo beads and images of some of their salvages from the safe house and warehouse sites flashed on the screen embedded in the wall. “Prosthetic arms and legs. Implants to reverse Alzheimers and memory loss. Nano technology blood clotting injections to help hemophiliacs. You’ve been using the last of Klaue’s vibranium to help people. Your random jumping around was you going where you were needed.”

“Having a tumor in your head gives you perspective. Trying to spend your life coloring inside the lines only limits how much you can help people.”

“So you teamed up with Klaue to get access to the materials that would let you help people quickly,” Nakia surmised.

“He needed someone to help him fly under the radar after you branded him,” she said. “I needed vibranium so I wouldn’t have to wait for the outside world to catch up with you.”

“You helped a man that killed our people,” Okoye hissed, disgusted. “Men, women, children!”

“You aren’t any better!” Jhanvi snapped. “You’re sitting on a mountain of technology and research that could do so much good for the world, but you refuse to release any means to make your results tangible for everyone else because of your paranoia! Do you have any idea how many people would benefit from having access to medical centers with vibranium technology? Cancer patients. Auto-immune disorder victims. People with cystic fibrosis. Prematurely born babies. Your death count is higher than Klaue’s could ever be!”

“We haven’t always made the right choices,” T’Challa admitted. “But we’re working on fixing that.”

“Yeah, you released your research, but ninety percent of it is fucking useless without vibranium! You gave the world a cart without a horse!”

“Wait.” Nakia held up her hand. “I agree we can do more, but I don’t understand something. Why let us think you were building weapons when you weren’t? We could’ve helped you.”

“Right. Because you’d absolutely let someone have a vibranium powered prosthetic. Sure. Besides, I’m dying in three hours. I’d like to have a little fun before I go.”

“You don’t have to.” Shuri stepped forward. “We have the ability to operate on tumors like yours. We can take you back to Wakanda and perform brain surgery on you.”

Jhanvi smirked bitterly. “Right. Because you’d absolutely perform surgery for a thief and known associate of criminals.”

“I would,” Shuri said. “You could be a major asset to us.”

“Asset!” Jhanvi let out a harsh laugh. “All my life I’ve been asset! Everyone wants to use my abilities! I can disable enemy satellites, guide unmanned crafts to carry out airstrikes, take down an entire country’s communication system! Everyone wants a piece of me without ever considering if I’m okay with what they’re using the pieces for! No, Princess, I would rather die than let you use my abilities for your own ends!”

“Your ability to control technology is not your greatest asset!” Shuri exclaimed. “And it’s not what Wakanda needs most right now.”

“Isn’t it?”

“No. Your humanity is. Your perspective. We’re trying to help the world become a better place, and we don’t even have the awareness to realize that most our medical procedures are unattainable without vibranium technology; it’s such a commonplace thing for us that we forget that we’re the only ones that have it. We need someone like you to help us focus our efforts in the right areas. Otherwise, all our work will be in vain because we’ll never reach the people that need us most.”

Jhanvi hesitated, glancing between Shuri and T’Challa warily. “You’re not the King. You can’t make that kind of decision.”

Okoye watched as T’Challa mulled the idea over. It wasn’t, technically, the safest option, but...

There were a lot of technicalities in Jhanvi’s favor. She hadn’t stolen the vibranium --Klaue had, and she’d actually kept his cache from falling into the wrong hands by using it to make medical technology.

She also hadn’t directly killed anyone. An extremely fine line --not one the council was likely to walk--but a line nonetheless.

Okoye watched as T’Challa looked to Nakia --who nodded--then took a moment to regard Jhanvi when he looked over to her. She hasn’t built any weaponry. She just wants help people.

She pursed her lips together as another thought occurred to her. She’ll die in three hours if we don’t help.

Ayo wasn’t going to like this. At all.

Ayo is an adult. The risks are minimal --at the very least, we can save her from the tumor, then incarcerate her. She looked back at T’Challa and nodded.

“I think we can come to an arrangement,” T’Challa said.

Jhanvi was quiet for a moment --then nodded. “You’ve got a deal.”

Okoye yawned and tried to rub the exhaustion out of her stinging eyes as she wrapped up the mission report. Almost done. Then you can sleep.

Shuri had used a neural stabilizing helmet to medically induce a coma and ‘freeze’ the cancer once they were back on the ship. As soon as they landed in Wakanda she whisked Jhanvi off the ship on a stretcher; three doctors were already waiting on the platform, and Shuri disappeared in the palace with them in seconds.

Ayo had been waiting for them, too. She glared at Jhanvi’s stretcher, her expression a rare picture of unmitigated fury.

Fortunately, Aneka had been able to coax her partner back inside the palace. Okoye trusted that the youngest soldier would be able to talk Ayo down --eventually.

She looked up when the door to her office opened and gasped softly when M’Baku stepped in. “What are you doing here?”

“Emergency council meeting. To talk about the fate of Klaue’s associate.”

“Right.” Okoye yawned again. “I forgot. I should get some sleep before that happens.”

“It’s in the evening. Don’t worry.” M’Baku kissed her forehead. “Dewani said Shuri was performing surgery on the associate?”

“Removing a malignant tumor. It’s a long story.”

“I gathered.” He rubbed his hand up and down the back of her neck. “Are you almost done?”

“Basically.” Okoye filled out the last few requirements, then submitted her mission report. She sighed tiredly and let her head drop to her desk. “I hate night missions. They always take the longest. Always.”

M’Baku chuckled and gently tugged her out of her chair. “Come on, Okoye. Let’s get you back to your quarters.”

“I’d rather sleep in your quarters.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

She nodded sleepily. “Yes. Sleeping with you sounds like heaven right now.”

He carried her to his room --at her request; the palace was basically dead right now anyway, and walking felt downright impossible--and gently set her on his bed. “I’ll find something for you to change into,” he murmured as he pressed his lips against her brow.

“One of your sleep shirts, please,” Okoye mumbled as he rifled through the dresser. Once she had a shirt, she pushed herself off the bed and shuffled to the bathroom. “I’m changing and washing my face, and then I’m passing out.”

Even having the water one at the coldest temperature the sink cold go did nothing to kick-start her system. I’m getting too old for this.

And, admittedly, that was a reality of her job. Being the General was a highly physical task. Most women retired between the ages of thirty-five and forty to start working as trainers for the Dora program or advisers to the Council, tribes, or War Dogs program.

Right now, all it meant was that she’d start shifting more of the night missions to Ayo, who was set to become General when Okoye stepped down.

Candidly, it wasn’t a choice that Okoye felt any particular grief over. Night duties of any kind had never been her favorite.

She dropped on the bed next to M’Baku and nestled against him as he pulled the blankets up over her. “Good night.”

“Technically, it’s morning.”

“Shut up and let me sleep.”

“Miss Singh.”

“Not anymore. But you can still call me that, if you like.”

Okoye narrowed her eyes at Jhanvi and crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m pleased to see your surgery went well.”

“So am I. Still have the magic touch, which is nice.” She flicked at glance at Ayo, who was glaring stonily at her. “I don’t think she likes me much.”

“You killed two of my friends with your ‘harmless detonators,’” Ayo spat out.

“And your country could’ve prevented the deaths of millions with your technology.”

Ayo clenched her teeth together. “You should be rotting in a prison cell.”

Jhanvi smiled, expression indicating that she was fully aware how badly she was pissing off Ayo. “And yet, here I stand. Free as a bird and an unofficial consultant for the Wakandan outreach program.”

Aneka latched on to Ayo’s wrist. “Come on, babe. Leave her alone. She’s only having fun pissing you off.”

Jhanvi watched the two women leave, edgy smile unfaltering. “Shame. Anger looks good on her.”

“You’d do well to leave the Commander well alone, should your paths ever cross again,” Okoye lectured in a stern, threatening tone.

“Or?”

Okoye took a step towards Jhanvi and leveled her fiercest, most intimidating glare at the woman. “I don’t need technology to kill you. Remember that.”

The edgy smile didn’t even wobble. “Duly noted.”

Okoye watched as two of the Honor guard members escorted Jhanvi to the landing platform. I’ll be watching you, associate. One misstep on your part, and I won’t hesitate to take you out.

[k-renne]

CHAPTER THREE - LOVE REIGNS

SUMMARY: Ben Solo loved you, well maybe he still was in love with you but he tried to shove that aside, that was in the past. Now he had to worry about finding a wife, a princess that he’d marry to rule by his side on Alderaan. His days of Jedi training were over, and it was time to play the part of a prince.

TAGS: @kyloholic, @daisysridrey, @cryxlowrites, @little-miss-ren

MASTERLIST

Ben’s eyes fluttered open as he felt the warm sun on his face, looking up to see you smiling down at him. His head was resting in your lap as you combed through his hair, placing little flowers you found in the field amongst his locks. Ben smiled back at you, reaching his hand up to touch you face. Just as soft as he remembered, wherever he was he didn’t want to leave.

“My sweet princess,” Ben hummed, sitting up to capture your lips. They were even softer, Ben smiled into the kiss as he felt the flowers you placed fall from his hair. He wrapped his arms around you tightly, afraid that if he didn’t you’d just drift away. The kiss grew more intense as you opened your mouth to him, your moans music to his ears. As his heart raced he felt everything fade away, his mind waking from his dream. He tried holding on to tighter, trying to go back to sleep and to the land of dreams. “No!” He woke with a shout, alone in his bed all hot and bothered.

His chest ached as reality set in, you were long gone and most likely hated him. He cursed his body for betraying him, still aroused even when all he wanted to do was wallow in his misery. It wasn’t even light out yet, but he didn’t want to go back to sleep. As always he’d dream of you, and though in the past he’d welcome it now it’d only bring him heartache, reminding him of something he could no longer have.

Maybe if he just stayed in bed today nothing bad would happen, Ben felt too depressed to get up. Of course, that was his plan until he heard a knock on his door.

“Oh, hello Master Ben. Your mother requests that you meet her in the dining room for breakfast,” C3PO addressed Ben.

“I think I’m going to pass on breakfast today C3PO,” Ben moves to close the door.

“Please Master Ben, your mother has important business to discuss with you regarding a mission. I urge you to go,” C3PO presses.

At the opportunity of a mission Ben perked up, that’s just what he needed. To get away from this whole marriage business and practice his skills as a Jedi once more was everything he wanted right now. It was just the thing to cheer him up. Ben got dressed in his Jedi robes in a hurry, rushing past people to meet with his mother.

“Hey Mom,” He waved, before stuffing a piece of bacon into his mouth. Leia shook her head, just like his father she thought.

“About the mission, you won’t be going alone,” She began, bracing herself for Ben’s reaction.

“Is it with Poe?” Ben asked. He hadn’t been on a mission with his friend in a while, busy training Padawans at the Jedi Temple.

“No, it’s with Y/N.”

Ben put down the toast he was about to eat, shoulders slumping. “Mom I can’t go with her, she hates me. It’ll never work,” Ben shakes his head.

“She doesn’t hate you, she’s just stubborn,” Leia counters.

“No kidding,” Ben scoffs.

“Look, you two used to work great together and if you can put aside your differences you’d be perfect for this mission.” Leia explained.

“I don’t know...like you said, she’s stubborn. And what even is this mission?” Ben asked.

“The Resistance is making a move to hit the First Order where it hurts, the Dreadnaught. It needs to be taken out before it does any more damage.”

“And how will we do that?” Ben questions.

“You’ll see, I have a plan for you but I just need to wait for Y/N.”

“She’s agreed to this,” Ben said incredulously, now that he couldn’t believe.

“Y/N is one of my most committed officers, of course she agreed.” Ben sighed, he knew his mother was right. It only reminded him of last night, how you only came because of his mother. You were loyal, but not to him.

“Of course…” He sighed. Every ounce of hope he ever had with you always was diminished by your loyalty to his mother and the Resistance. “Let’s hope we can work as a team and not enemies.”

“You two are not enemies, Ben. You both are on the same side.” Leia shook her head.

“Yes, but with the way things have been going lately, she clearly hates me.” He crosses his arms as he leaned back, the food no longer interesting him.

“If she hates you so much, why would she buy you that calligraphy set?” Leia asked as Ben blinked, sitting up straight and unfolding his arms.

“How do you know that?” He questioned as Leia shook her head with a small smile.

“She asked me where it was that your room was. Well, where you had been staying. She wanted to deliver it there rather than amongst everyone else.”

“Now that I think about it, she probably did that so no one knows she got me something.” He rolled his eyes but Leia sighed.

“No. She did it because she knew that that would be your favorite gift out of anyone else’s.” She leaned forward. “In my opinion, I think she wanted to make it more intimate and personal.”

Looking up at his mother and taking in a deep breath, he blushed. “Intimate…” Thinking about the dream he head, he lowered his head. “Yeah.”

Finishing up breakfast with his mother before the to retracted to the command room, Leia stood at the center as Ben stood to a side. Waiting. He knew you’d be coming in in any given second and he honestly didn’t know what to expect. After what happened last night, he was sure you were going to keep your distance after the revelation.

But a part of him, the one that always hoped and never gave up on it, prayed that you’d feel the least bit of sorry and want to stay close to him. He didn’t care for an apology, he knew deep down you must’ve felt something still. Whether as friends or lovers. It had to be there.

“Welcome, Y/N.”

“Good morning, Leia.” You bowed your head, only to see Ben. “Ben.”

Sucking in a small breath, he simply bowed his head towards you as he watched you stand across from Leia, furthest from him. He couldn’t help but frown.

“I send my two best to do this. I know you two can. It’s a simple mission, but you two have to work as a team and not get caught.” Leia said, eyeing either of you. “The Dreadnaught is one of the most powerful First Order ships. I need you two to get inside and take down the power or shields of the canons temporarily so we can lead our attack. Make it quick and do not linger for too long. There are plenty of powerful First Order officers in that ship and will be willing to capture and kill both of you. You two are well known, from royal families and carry high titles. I trust you two will keep eachother safe.”

“Yes, general.” You nodded, Ben looking at you. If anything, he wanted to keep you safe. He was the one with the Force.

“And, Ben.”

“Yes, mother?” He quickly turned his head.

“Be limited on the Force, only use it when you know you have no other options. I don’t need Snoke sensing you out.” Leia commanded as he nodded.

“What about my lightsaber?” He questioned.

“I rather you stick to a blaster just in case. I don’t need anyone knowing they have a Jedi aboard their ship.” She breathed. She more worried about Snoke than anyone else. She knew how easily her son could defend himself from lousy First Order officers and troops… but Snoke? She knew he was strong but she didn’t know how strong, and she didn’t want to risk Ben just to find out.

“Will do.”

“Wonderful. I know you two can do this. I have hope.” Leia eyed either of you. “May the Force be with you.”

“May the Force be with you.” You and Ben echoed, only to look at each other before walking away, aiming for the hangar.

You watch as Ben flips a few switches of the stolen aircraft, preparing the ship for its jump to hyperspace. Getting inside the Dreadnaught would prove to be a difficult task but you had a way to slip through their shield undetected. Ben watched in admiration as you worked, you always had a knack with coding.

“Missing your lightsaber already?” You teased, seeing Ben staring sadly at his blaster.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ben narrowed his eyes. He knew that him choosing to train as a Jedi had some part in making you break up with him, and he was still resentful.

“Nothing, why are you being so moody?” You rolled your eyes. This was not the time or place, Ben was acting so unprofessional.

“I’m moody? That’s rich coming from you,” Ben shot back.

You knew you shouldn’t be fighting with him, not now as you were sneaking through the Dreadnaught. You hold your tongue until you get into the system which controls the canons, as you work to dismantle it you can’t help but reply to Ben. “Why must you always make me angry?” You shook your head.

“What did I do to anger Y/N, the perfect spoiled princess?” Ben’s voice is laced with sarcasm.

“Oh, do you want to go there? Do you forget why we even broke up?” Emotion was high as you raised your voice.

“I remember exactly why you left me,” Ben said bitterly.

“Really? Cause I don’t think you do.”

“You left me when you should’ve tried fighting for this!” Ben lays his grievances on the table. There was so much more you could have done, you could have given him a chance but he didn’t even get that.

You remembered when you broke up all too well, as much as you tried to forget it. The memory was as clear as day. You were giving Ben a surprise visit to the Jedi temple, you had missed him and hadn’t heard from him in months. But when you got there you weren’t greeted by the excitement that you’d come to expect, Ben seemed much more interested in working on his new lightsaber than talking with you.

“Ben, can we please do something together?” You asked your boyfriend.

“Princess please, I’m kind of busy with this,” Ben was growing impatient with you, he was almost done with his new lightsaber and you had come at the worst time. Normally he’d be beyond elated to see you, but he was just about to have a major breakthrough with his crossguard design.

You huffed, not liking the way he said princess. You came all the way out here in the middle of the outer rim to see him and he was completely ungrateful. “But you already have a lightsaber,” You pointed out. You didn’t understand his fixation, and his distance from you was beginning to feed into your worst fears. He doesn’t love you anymore. He cares more about being a Jedi, he finds you boring. Your thoughts tormented you.

“Not like this one, you wouldn’t understand but I can’t talk right now.” Ben responded

You hated that, he never wanted to talk to you about anything with his new Jedi life and it made you feel closed off to him. Worse he never answered your calls, cancelled holo dates, and when you did talk he was distant--not truly listening.

“I can’t do this anymore,” You got up. You needed to leave before Ben broke your heart any more. Ben missed the tears in your eyes, simply thinking that you just were impatient and going back to work on his lightsaber.

“How can I fight for it when you were never there to listen!” You reply.

Ben remembers when you left him, he thinks about it often. It’s the stuff that makes up his nightmares, your voice taunting his dreams. He still didn’t understand it, his only justification being that you hated him.

“Ben, I think it’s time that we end this.” You say, as you pack your stuff.

He was just about to tell you the good news, that he completed his new lightsaber and he was excited to show you. He stiffened, what did you mean? Why were you packing, were you leaving him? A thousand thoughts raced through his mind in a panic.

“What? Why? Everything was going perfectly,” He shook his head.

“You truly are oblivious if you think that,” You slammed your suitcase shut.

“Oblivious, what’s this about? Is this about me leaving to train as a Jedi? You said you were okay with that…”

“It doesn’t matter Ben, nothing I say to you matters anymore.”

Ben grabbed your wrist, preventing you from leaving his room. “That’s not true,” He shook his head.

“As long as you’re a Jedi, it will never work between us.” You blamed his training, it changed him. He didn’t seem to care about you anymore, before he called you almost everyday and now he didn’t even send letters to you anymore. You knew it was over and you wouldn’t let him drag it on any longer.

“You really are mad about me training, I thought you were the reasonable one,” Ben scoffed. He was frustrated with you, that you didn’t understand his one passion in life. He felt like he was losing you.

“That’s not-you know what forget it, I’m leaving,” You pushed past Ben, storming out of his hut.

“Hey! Come back here, this isn’t over Princess-” Ben called out to you.

Ben is brought back to the present by your voice, “You hurt me Ben, I thought you would’ve known that. You’re the one who can read minds.” And it still hurt, it hurt that he didn’t even know what he did wrong.

Ben opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted as the door opened, revealing stormtroopers and General Hux himself.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the traitorous prince and princess. It’s like you were just asking to be caught, the whole ship could hear your arguing,” Hux chuckled. Before he could do anything, you quickly finished the code-successfully shutting down the exterior canons.

“Seize her,” Hux commanded, pointing to you.

Taking a defensive step forward, as if to prevent them from taking you, one of the stormtroopers slammed their blaster against his jaw, sending him down as you shouted, “Ben!” Feeling their hands wrap around your arms, you tried to thrash around, to get them to let go so you could reach for Ben, but they pulled you away. “Ben!” You called out again.

Rubbing his jaw and standing back up, Ben was just about ready to rush to you, that is until a pair of troopers blocked his path. “Y/N!” He yelled, watching in fear. This wasn’t supposed to go this way. This was supposed to be a simple mission, for either of you not to get caught. But your emotions got the best of both of you… And here you were, being dragged away as Ben watched, unable to do anything. “Y/N!”

“Oh…” Seeing the look on Ben’s face and the tears forming in his eyes, Hux faked a gasp. “Oh, I see…”

“What?” Ben spoke through a clenched jaw, eyes bouncing between you and Hux. “WHAT?!”

“You two… Is she your… girlfriend?” Hux asked with a small tilt in his head, a fake look of worry spreading across his face. “Oh, no… you love her, don’t you?”

“What do you want?!” Ben snapped. “What are you going to do?! Take me instead!” He begged, teeth tight as he thrashed.

“No, no… I have a far better idea.” Hux grinned, “An idea you will very much enjoy, I promise you that.” Waving his hand for the stormtroopers to fall, Ben shifted his eyes between the troops and Hux, confused.

“W-what, what are you doing?” He asked, looking back ahead and seeing you being forced into a room. “Where are you taking her?!”

“You will see.” Hux grinned, aiming for the same room, approaching it as Ben’s face scrunched up, knowing very well he couldn’t use the Force but he had to sense out Hux’s intentions… And just by the grin on his face, and the look in his eyes, Ben knew nothing good was ahead.

“Let go of me, let go of me, filthy bucket brain!” You exclaimed, “I said let go!”

Shoving you back onto a metal chair, clamping your wrists and ankles with tight restraints, your heart skipped a beat. “As you wish, princess.” One of the troopers spoke, standing on either side of you as Hux entered, Ben following.

Looking into the room and seeing you being restrained, Ben thrashed again, trying to free himself to release you from being held captive. “Y/N! Get her out of there!” Trying to snatch his arms away, Hux grew impatient and knocked the wind right out of Ben as his fist came into contact with Ben’s stomach.

“BEN!” You cried out, hating the situation you were in. As much as you claimed to have disliked Ben, you never wanted to see him in harm's way. You didn’t want him getting hurt, but the deeper you were falling into the situation, the more you blamed yourself for it all.

“Putting a death sentence on either of your heads is far two easy. With a swift shot of a blaster is too… kind. Especially for the princess and prince who help guide the Resistance. Let alone, a lousy Jedi.” Hux spoke as Ben’s fists balled up, jaw tighter than before, almost as if his teeth would shatter with the anger that was burning within her veins. “I’ve decided something more… cruel.” Turning to look at Ben, Hux grinned, “I think you may like it.”

“What are you going to do to her?!” He lunged, but the stormtroopers held him back.

Turning away, Hux moved over to where a small, metal table had sat. “Torture, of course.”

Watching Hux reach for a taser like weapon, Ben flinched in his spot, lunging forward and nearly bringing the troopers with him. “Stop! No! Hurt me instead! Not her! Please!” Ben begged, but Hux ignored and powered the small weapon as your body began to shake in fear.

You were terrified, you felt yourself breaking out into a sweat as Hux’s hand grew closer and closer to your neck. “This will only hurt a lot.” Hux grinned, your body being sent into a jolt as the shock ran throughout your body from the contact, leaving you whimpering in pain.

“Stop! Stop, please!” Ben wailed, the sight of you being tortured while he couldn’t do anything, breaking his heart. “STOP!”

“Aw, do you hear him begging for me to stop?” Hux asked you as your body vibrated, your tears becoming more and more prominent as you panted. “He really must…” Shocking you again, you yelled, “Love you to…” Shocking you a third time, you cried even louder, “Want to switch places.”

“STOP IT!” Ben yelled, throat aching. “PLEASE!” Feeling his chest heave as he watched Hux shock you more and more, Ben couldn’t take it. The sounds of your yells, the feeling of your pain surging through him and the sight of you crying was sending him over the edge. He was reaching his breaking point… His tipping point. “ENOUGH!”

Falling still as the weapon fell from his grip, Hux choked out. Without realizing it, Ben had reached into the Force and stopped Hux’s breathing. Choking him. Choking him until the man couldn’t breathe any longer.

Yes, choke him. Feel the rage run through you. Turn that anger into hate! Let it control you! Finish him off! The power of the dark side is strong with you, young Solo.

Instantly snapping out of it, Ben panted, afraid of what he had done. Using the dark side of the Force, something he had been warned to never use… But you were suffering, you were in pain and it angered him that he couldn’t do anything… And his anger got the best of him.

You are weak. Foolish. You can not protect her. You never can and you never will. You thought you lost her forever then? You are about to lose her forever, now.

Opening up his palm before forcefully closing them, the four troopers in the room were sent against the walls with a harsh bang!, leaving Hux to be the only one conscious. Hearing the sounds of his heavy breathing fill his ears, Ben used the Force to open up your restraints, you falling limp in his arms as he instantly picked you up. Exiting the room quickly, he used the Force to lock the door so neither of the five could chase after the two of you. “I’m going to get you home safe, I promise you.” Ben said, holding you close to his chest as you had tears still slipping down your cheeks, your body too weak to move. “We’re going to get out of here.”

[omgktlouchheim]

Word Vomit Wednesday - Stop Kavanaugh

 Welcome to Word Vomit Wednesday! A series of blog posts where I attempt to process thoughts and feelings, usually about a specific topic from current events that I, and sometimes the rest of the Internet, ruminate obsessively about. All thoughts/opinions/experiences are my own (unless otherwise indicated); I don’t claim anything that I write to represent anyone other than myself.

CW: Sexual Assault

As with pretty much all the news about our current state of affairs, the Kavanaugh nomination and hearings for SCOTUS have been extremely triggering and stressful. Even before Professor Christine Blasey Ford came forward with her story of being sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh, this nomination indicated an even darker America to come, as if the one we’re in now isn’t dire enough for women, the LGBTQ+ community, and BIPOC. And, as with so much of the news we’ve been contending with since 2016, I’ve felt a need to pull back from watching it, reading tweets and articles almost ritualistically just so I can take care of myself physically, emotionally, and psychologically. Staying on top of everything going on takes a tremendous toll and I constantly find myself thinking about how the well-beings of marginalized people are constantly looked over and dismissed.

This came up for me again the other night when, after having a pretty relaxed evening watching The Emmy’s with my parents, my dad turned the news back on and that sense of simmering rage and hypervigilance that I’ve learned to just deal with existing as a woman in the world, came bubbling right to the surface. I had to leave almost immediately because that was not the way I wanted to end my day feeling. If I’m going to be active and helpful in any way, even in small ways like writing this blog, I need to be able to sleep at night. But one thing that came up in the few minutes of watching the Kavanaugh coverage that I have not been able to stop thinking about was a quote from someone in the nominee’s camp saying something along the lines of not even knowing the story or who the woman could possibly have been until Ford revealed herself. This narrative is offered over and over again as a way to dismiss women when they come forward in these situations. A narrative that continues to portray women and our experiences as insignificant.

That killed me. The fact that this woman not only went through a trauma where her personhood was never considered from the get-go, has been affected by it for decades, is risking her life for this country (she and her family have since had to leave their home due to death threats) to share her story and make her identity known, to again, be told by men she is not worthy of consideration is devastating. And that seems to be a major key in all of this. Women are not considered. At all. Kavanaugh probably didn’t recall the assault because he got what he wanted out of it. He never considered Ford or her feelings, needs, or wants. He couldn't have cared less. He still couldn’t care less. The GOP, who should care about putting an alleged rapist on the bench of the highest court in the land, but instead made a publicity stunt of having 65 women sign a document (all but two seemingly had no idea what they had signed) that stated they would vouch for Kavanaugh, definitely don’t see a problem if they’re willing to manipulate women to get their man through the confirmation process.

I saw a tweet the other day from @laurenthehough, who shared this sentiment: “You know what would be fucking weird to hear? ‘I did that. It was fucking terrible. I’m sorry. I did years of therapy and soul searching and work and I changed my behavior. I can’t change what I did. But I made damn sure I never did it again.’ Why is that never the statement?”

Why is that never the statement? I cannot tell you how healing it would be if those were the statements that we started hearing. Real accountability. Real apologies. Real work put into an individual’s growth and education. Would those statements start solving all of these problems? No, of course not. But they would at least indicate that these people recognize that the women they’ve hurt are people. And that they understand that they have caused harm, sometimes a lifetime’s worth, to another person. That would create a powerful shift. Because one of the reasons we don’t hear these statements is because these people don’t consider what they do to women to be of any significance. That unless you’re related to a woman by blood or marriage or if you find them attractive, they don’t matter. It’s probably inconceivable to Kavanaugh and his ilk that a situation that was so forgettable for him because “boys will be boys,” had been burned into Ford’s mind. She never mattered to him, he felt entitled to her and her body, and our culture allowed that.

As I’m writing this, I realize that I will be posting it on arguably the most important Jewish holiday of the year, Yom Kippur. Which couldn’t be more fitting for this topic. Yom Kippur translates to Day of Atonement. It comes ten days after Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, wherein those ten days are meant to give us time to reflect on the past year. All the great and terrible experiences and the things we wish we did better or hadn’t done at all. What we are sorry about and who we need to apologize to and when Yom Kippur finally arrives we are supposed to take full accountability for ourselves. Now, one day to hold ourselves accountable for our actions (as well as inactions) and how they’ve caused harm and suffering to others and actively make amends is not enough. Especially if the damage we have caused has had a prolonged traumatizing effect on person’s life and livelihood. Going to shul once a year and reciting prayers are not going to fix things or provide the healing that’s actually necessary. But at least the holiday is there to jumpstart the conversation. To hopefully get us thinking outside of ourselves and give the apologies that we wished we’d been given when we’ve been wronged and make necessary and lasting changes.

I’m pretty sure Brett Kavanaugh is not Jewish, probably has no idea what Yom Kippur is, and, like most cis-het white males, doesn’t think he's done anything wrong and that he's entitled to whatever the fuck he wants. But for those men who do genuinely want to make amends and be better people and because we very rarely have a framework for how to get started with that, I’m going to offer a few suggestions (mostly for men to combat rape culture and inequality, though some of these skills definitely apply in many other areas and for most people) on some things to start focusing on that would be incredibly helpful. This is by no means a complete and comprehensive list, and there is no significance to the order, but a few things to get people started.

Listen to women and believe them. We know our own experiences, so please do not come at us with “what if she’s lying” bullshit. There’s a reason men are conditioned to believe that women are liars and that reason is to keep women oppressed. Learning how to listen, really listen, is one of the most valuable lessons anyone can learn. When you check your egos at the door, unlearn your social conditioning, and learn to center and hold space for someone else and their feelings, especially when they’re in need, it validates their humanity. We all need support and knowing someone is in our corner who’s not going to question our motives, interrupt us as we process whatever we’re going through in the moment, or lash out at us is basic common decency that we are rarely shown, but (as women) are expected to provide for others. It’s also invaluable for the listener because you will get to understand someone else’s world a little better and hopefully gain more perspective on the one you inhabit.

Start asking “What do you need” and “How can I help you.” Practice those questions so much until they become second nature. No one is asking you to bend over backwards for other people, only you know what your limits are and it’s your responsibility to be honest about what you can or cannot do, but this is another small gesture, just like listening, that goes a long way. On the flip side of that, asking for help when you’re struggling is an important skill as well. People will typically show up for you if you give them a chance, especially if you’ve shown up for them.

Hold other men exhibiting toxic behavior accountable. Show by example how a good man acts and let those who are extremely problematic know that you see them and what they're doing and are not here for it. Men listen to other men (bc toxic masculinity, but that’s a post for another day), so you pointing out that some behavior or thought-pattern is problematic or shameful is effective.

Vote for and support women. Not just the ones you’re related to or find attractive. If you can only make room for the former, you're only performing ally ship and you don’t actually support women.

Men built the glass ceiling, therefore it’s your job to dismantle it. Do not put the extra weight of men’s work on marginalized folx who are already carrying and navigating too much.

Go inward and start tackling your own internalized patriarchal proclivities. Do your due diligence to understand toxic masculinity, sexist/racist double standards, and your privilege and the ways in which you help perpetuate a system that gives you benefits at the expense and suffering of others. Ways to start doing that: go to therapy, get a group of your boys together and actually start talking about and identifying your feelings and asking each other questions, read books or watch films/tv by people who come from very different backgrounds than you. You’ll hopefully learn a lot about yourself and the world. And you’ll learn how to take responsibility for your own feelings in a healthier way, rather than putting and projecting that emotional labor on the women and other marginalized folx in your lives.

If you have realized that you have done something wrong or hurtful or it was brought to your attention that you have, you may want to get defensive. Acknowledge the feelings you're having to yourself, but to the appropriate parties try saying something like this: “I did that. It was fucking terrible. I’m sorry. I did years of therapy and soul searching and work and I changed my behavior. I can’t change what I did. But I made damn sure I never did it again.” If you haven’t done the work yet, don’t say you have unless you do actually plan on following through. And then follow through. These are also great growth opportunities for utilizing those new listening and offering assistance tools from #s 1 and 2.

*BONUS*: Do not, under any circumstances, attempt ANY of the above with ulterior motives. You do not get a gold star for being a “good guy.” This is just how people should be treated. Decently, respectfully, and without any expectation of owing you anything in return.

Obviously, this is a very simplified list but when you start opening the door to one of these items, more and more doors begin to appear. As hard as it may be at times, it is worthwhile work that benefits everyone. Also, if you’ve made it this far, please call your senators and tell them to not confirm Kavanaugh to SCOTUS. We, the people, deserve someone on the bench who considers all of us.

Katie Louchheim seriously doesn’t know how she functions on a daily basis with all this bullshit. CALL YOUR SENATORS TO #StopKavanaugh: 202-224-3121.

[gretamclaughlin]

The Waste Dilemma

This week’s materials speak about the prevalence of chemicals in our environment due to agriculture (like last week’s blog), manufacturing, and other human activities, as well as how people aggravate natural hazards. The readings and videos further talk about the production of solid waste and methods of handling it.

In our world, there are biological hazards, chemical hazards, and issues that come about as a result of lifestyle choices. Biological hazards include viruses and diseases, which we can see with the COVID-19 pandemic. These dangers often worsen due to humans. Today, a prominent health issue is the growing antibiotic resistance of diseases. In addition, antibiotics used with livestock are linked to greater antibiotic resistance in humans. The warming climate will also cause diseases to spread to new areas. Unfortunately, those living in poverty and in less developed countries suffer more from biological hazards. Developing nations do not have the resources to treat or prevent the spread of diseases, and the issue persists with impoverished people in the U.S. According to the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, COVID-19 disproportionately kills those living in poverty (Juergen et al. 2021). This can partially be attributed to poor health care, more frontline workers, and decreased ability to self-isolate. Today, India faces the rapid spread of COVID-19 without access to vaccines. If climate change and capitalism continue, this inequality will only grow.

Chemical hazards also threaten human health and have been linked to cancer, fetal developmental issues, and other illnesses and defects. Unfortunately, our bodies are full of trace amounts of toxins, and links between chemical hazards and illnesses, like those mentioned above, suggest they are dangerous. A study published in Environmental Science and Pollution Research indicates the connection between metallic pollutants and neurodegeneration, specifically speaking about autism spectrum disorder (Kaur et al. 2021, 8989). These impurities “play a significant role in altering the basic neuronal pathways and degenerating the neural processes,” and “environmental factors might activate and aggravate the genetic mutations responsible for the neuronal alterations” (Kaur et al. 2021, 8991).

Those who generate these pollutants and those who profit off medical treatments lead various health organizations. “Cancer, Inc.” paints a bleak picture of breast cancer awareness initiatives. For example, AstraZeneca, which manufactures fungicides, herbicides, and carcinogenic pollutants, leads efforts. The American Cancer Society has a history of opposing policies that would protect people from carcinogens in favor of those that protect corporations. I am usually not one to believe conspiracies, but this just seems like the actual state of corporate America and the health care system. The fact that people are profiting from cancer is disgraceful. Polluters place the burden on their victims (encouraging mammograms, breast checks, etc.). Although breast cancer awareness initiatives have helped many people, it is disheartening to think about how much more could be done if these companies focused their efforts on reducing the chemicals they release.

Some companies have taken initiative when it comes to pollution prevention. The corporation 3M reformulated products, decreased raw materials, gives solid waste to other companies, and more. These efforts have both reduced 3M’s environmental impact and saved the company money. Nike recently set the goal to become zero carbon and zero waste, but I wish its website and impact report provided more detailed steps (Nike, n.d.). Still, it is a move in the right direction. Janine Benyus’ TED Talk advocates for using biomimicking design approaches. The ultimate solution for environmental degradation is to dismantle capitalism; however, as I often say, this will not happen in time to preserve the planet. Therefore, we should lean on sustainable business models to reduce environmental degradation.

Current methods to reduce solid and toxic waste encourage both individuals and companies to preserve the planet. The four Rs model (refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle) emphasizes refusing certain waste-creating products or practices, reducing the amount of material one uses, reusing this material over and over, and, when done, recycling it into a better form, the same form, or an equally valuable form. Another method, Cradle to Cradle, focuses on circulating materials to reflect the natural cycling of nutrients. In this mode, inorganic and synthetic materials are reclaimed, and organic materials decompose. Dangerous technical nutrients are removed, and products are cheaper because one is only paying for part of synthetic materials’ use. Resource exchange webs are also important in reducing waste, which 3M participates in. C2C has the potential to save companies and consumers money. Shrinking resources may allow for C2C to gain popularity as people reuse and recycle what they have, rather than creating everything from scratch. A society completely based on C2C principles seems unlikely, or at least doubtful before ecosystems collapse. However, if more companies and people begin using the C2C approach, their output of toxic and solid wastes will reduce dramatically. Nike is trying to institute circular design in some of its products, and its impact report includes goals to increase sustainable material in footwear, reduce emissions, and divert waste going to landfills (Nike, n.d.). Currently, the company uses 100% renewable energy at owned or operated Nike sites in the U.S. and Canada.

There is a debate over whether or not recycling economically makes sense, and some believe that it is too costly. However, this position is simplistic. Recycling creates jobs. Additionally, it reduces emissions and pollution, which saves money regarding health costs, pollution cleanup costs, and more. The actual price of not recycling is more than just monetary value. Furthermore, we need to stop only paying attention to the economic costs of environmental issues. Ecosystems are dying, and we have the means to preserve our planet, yet people do nothing because of the up-front costs. I would argue that there is nothing more expensive than losing life on earth.

There are many steps that individuals can take to reduce their impact on waste production. Eating organic foods decreases pesticides. Refusing single-use bags and packaging is also important, and it is simple to bring your own bags and containers when shopping or eating out. Farmers markets offer more sustainable solutions to supermarkets, and they provide local food options that do not need to be transported long distances. Accepting food stamps at farmers markets, which the South Bronx Farmers Market does, is important in giving low-income communities access to this food. Shopping at yard sales, flea markets, and secondhand shops and donating used goods also helps reduce the waste we produce and saves money. If more communities establish shared use initiatives, less waste will be produced because fewer goods are purchased; this can be done for tools, books, and essentially any other item that one uses.

Municipalities should require people to separate their garbage and should implement centralized composting facilities. This way, more waste is recycled and does not end up in landfills when it could be put to good use. The compost can be sold back to residents or used in parks and community gardens to improve soil. Fee-per-bag collection services will also encourage recycling. People should push their local governments to implement these systems since they are more concerned with daily issues. If fee-per-bag systems are implemented in communities across the country, there will be a significant reduction in the amount of waste produced, and more people will follow the four Rs.

However, pre-consumer waste makes up a large amount of waste, so governments should regulate corporations more than individuals. Officials should adopt standards similar to the European Union’s REACH regulations, which require the registration of untested and unregulated chemicals, and hazardous substances cannot be used if there are safer alternatives. REACH requires companies to show if chemicals are safe rather than the government, and it is a possible solution for waste issues in our capitalist system. If companies want power, they must also deal with the consequences. Like those in New York City, local and state laws should require electronic companies to take back their products and properly dispose of them; this is an example of the C2C system in action. These policies follow the same principles as the REACH system; companies need to take responsibility for their damage. Further C2C policies should require companies to pass on their waste to other companies who can put it to use. Limits on the amount of waste a corporation can produce will also be critical. To pass these laws, we need to vote for candidates who have a history of caring about the environment and then hold them accountable once they are in office. It is not enough to simply recognize the scope of environmental degradation; we need policies that actively combat the pollution and practices that are hurting us all. Working to pass laws at the municipal and state levels will be more efficient and effective. Democracy, especially at the federal level, is slow, so perhaps local officials will be more responsive and face less resistance.

Customers must vote with their wallets and purchase from more sustainable companies to bypass the inefficiency of the government. Walmart’s shift to carrying more organic products (as featured in Food, Inc.) displays the power that customers have over companies. Therefore, if we can show businesses that it is in their best economic interest to implement C2C systems, they are more likely to do so. After all, if they do not, they may lose significant revenue. Some C2C options include companies taking back used clothing and shoes and repurposing the materials, recycling electronic waste from products, and sharing waste with other corporations and industries. Creating products with more recyclable materials, like Nike, enables consumers to sustainably dispose of waste. Installing recycling facilities on-site can allow for some waste to be used again in production.

Grassroots organizations will be integral in implementing these changes, and by organizing the population, we can have a significant impact on government and company policies. Both entities derive their power from the people, and we need to remember this in order to make change through protests, phone calls, and more. Grassroots organizations will also help when it comes to community education, and they will have to take on the responsibility of teaching people about the toxins that exist in the environment and what needs to be done to fix the issue. Education initiatives will also help in mobilizing people.

Humans created the system, and humans can get out of it. We have degraded the environment for centuries, and we must make a shift soon before the environment is completely broken down. In other words, the world’s resources are being drained at an astounding rate, and we are then dumping everything back into the earth in an unsafe manner. It is up to us to fix the issue of waste before it is too late, and everyone dies. The clock is ticking; what will you do?

Word Count: 1792

Question: How will Biden’s American Jobs Plan affect the health of Americans when it comes to industrial pollution?

Diagrams:

Visual representation of the C2C system, which does not produce waste

Effect of poverty on COVID-19 deaths in NYC

Growth of antibiotic resistance in England

Works Cited:

Jung, Juergen, James Manley, and Vinish Shrestha. 2021. “Coronavirus infections and deaths by poverty status: The effects of social distancing.” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization: 311-330. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7756168/.

Kaur, Ishnoor, Tapan Behl, Lotfi Aleya, Habibur Rahman, Arun Kumar, Sandeep Arora, and Rokeya Akter. 2021. “Role of metallic pollutants in neurodegeneration: effects of aluminum, lead, mercury, and arsenic in mediating brain impairment events and autism spectrum disorder.” Environmental Science and Pollution Research. 28 (8): 8989-9001. EBSCOhost.

Nike. n.d. “FY20 NIKE, Inc. Impact Report.” Accessed May 8, 2021. https://purpose-cms-preprod01.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/30191535/FY20-NIKE-Inc.-Impact-Report_Executive-Summary1.pdf.

[bendegroeve]

Free will relativism - A middle ground between Free will absolutism & Fatalism

According to some research, denying the existence of free will - such as claiming that our choices are determined since the beginning of the Big Bang - causes people to develop more fatalist, irresponsible attitudes. However, I think one needs to be careful with interpreting these results, because free will is an ambiguous concept. In this essay, I will first introduce some science about decision-making. Then I will talk about two extreme modes of thinking about decision-making: free will absolutism and fatalism. I will argue that both modes of thinking are plausibly harmful and fallacious. Finally, I will bring this dichotomy together in a cohesive, realistic whole: free will relativism, which is compatible with the science of decision-making. The Science of Decision-making According to science, we do the things we do because of continuous interactions between our bodies and our environment, which are both quite stable, yet ever-changing. Without the environment, there is no playground to act. Without our bodies, there is no act. The basic evolutionary function of the central nervous system is to coordinate the body in its environment, which is important to satisfy biological needs for survival, development and reproduction. Conciousness - one's ongoing experience - can be seen as an enhanced function of the central nervous system to allow a (more) flexible response mechanism (FRM) to coordinate the body in its environment. Through evolution, we developed the capacity to experience pleasant feelings toward what generally satisfies our needs and unpleasant feelings toward what generally threatens them. As a result, we as sentient beings experience problems subjectively. Decision-making, a part of the FRM, can be regarded as a problem-solving activity, which is terminated by a solution that is satisfactory to solve the problem at hand (f.e. find food). Conciousness provides the input data for decision-making, which is integrated information from the senses about the body and its environment and from memory based on past experiences. During the decision-making process alternative beliefs or courses of actions are identified, weighed and selected, which may or may not result in an action (defined as intentional, purposive, conscious and subjectively meaningful behaviour). It has been theorized (by Kahneman D.) that a person's decision-making involves two kinds of cognitive processes: an automatic intuitive system that is a bottom-up, fast, and implicit system of decision-making, and an effortful rational system that is a top-down, slow, and explicit system of decision-making. This theory is consistent with the idea of bounded rationality (Herbert S.), according to which people are only partly rational, and are irrational in the remaining part of their actions. People experience limits in formulating and solving complex problems and in processing (receiving, storing, retrieving, transmitting) information, and make use of mental-short cuts (heuristics) to make decisions (f.e. affect heuristic, availability heuristic, familiarity heuristic, representativeness heuristic). Free will absolutism Free will is oftentimes conceived as the idea that people ultimately cause their own choices, and are therefore ultimately responsible for their own actions. Although this idea - which I call free will absolutism - can be a powerful motivator to act and solve problems, it is bound to overestimate the role of choice and responsibility in the natural world, which may lead to: - magical, counterfactual thinking ("person X could have acted otherwise", “you can always control your own actions”) - negligence of problems ("the poor ultimately choose to be poor") - retributive punishment ("person X choose to behave badly, so s/he has to suffer") I believe free will absolutism is an extreme mode of thinking about decision-making and responsibility, and I think the idea is fallacious, because it artificially seperates ourselves from our environment, and assumes some kind of vague, magical “self” driving our behaviour. It obscures the fact that our choices are bounded by factors that aren’t within our control. People don’t cause their own choices ‘ultimately’, but only to a degree, depending on the information present in their brains, and the environment with which they currently interact. Fatalism The other extreme mode of thinking about decision-making and responsibility is the antipode of free will absolutism: fatalism. Instead of assuming that we are ultimately responsible for our own choices, fatalism assumes that we are ultimately irresponsible, and don’t cause any of our own choices. Fatalism allows to easily forgive oneself and others. Assuming that you don’t have a choice, can also be a powerful motivator to act in a certain way (“I have to do this, I have no choice.”). On the other hand, fatalism is bound to underestimate the role of choice and responsibility in the natural world (in a way that is relevant for humans), which may lead to: - negligence of problems (“we can’t control our own actions”) - prejudice about future actions (“person X will not be able to act otherwise”) - moral nihilism (“our choices don’t matter”) I think fatalism also artificially seperates ourselves from our environment. Everyday experience and science shows us that people are able to control their behaviour to a limited extent, although not in a magical or ultimate sense as described above. Even if all our choices are determined since the beginning of the Big Bang, it does not follow that we should be prejudiced about our future actions, because we can not know for sure what our choices will be in the future. It also does not follow that our choices wouldn’t matter, because (1) harm and suffering are bad by definition, so it matters to avoid them irrespective of one’s notions of free will, and (2) because we are bound to make decisions according to our needs, preferences or values. Fatalism only follows from a denial of free will if one resorts in black-and-white thinking about decision-making, where free will absolutism (“we always have a choice, we are ultimately responsible for our actions”) and fatalism (“we don’t have a choice, we can’t take responsibility”) are as two sides of the same coin: extreme modes of thinking about decision-making and responsibility. Free will relativism: a sensible middle ground A relativist notion of free will assumes that people have an ability to make choices and behave responsibly, but that some factors that influence their decisions are beyond their control. Therefore, we are not ‘ultimately’ free to choose (in the sense of autonomous or self-controlled) or ‘ultimately’ responsible for our actions, but only to a degree. I propose to conceive free will and responsibility as natural abilities (and not as magical givens), and to align these concepts with the science of decision-making. Free will relativism implies conceiving free will as the ability to make autonomous, self-controlled decisions, an ability that depends on circumstances, but which can also be improved. Similarly, responsibility can quite be conceived as follows: “I suppose responsibility is quite simply ‘the ability to respond’: when you question the things you do, you can give sensible reasons as to why you are doing what you are doing. Responsibility requires you to realize the consequences of what you do and the decisions you make. To me, responsibility really is an ability. As with other abilities, you can be(come) better or worse at it, and as with all abilities, responsibility is limited by natural factors. More knowledge and awareness commits us to more responsibility, despite the notion that our responsibility is bounded by the limited information we have, the finite amount of time we have to process this information and the cognitive limitations of our minds.” (one of my previous notes) I think this idea of ‘bounded responsibility’ (analogous to the idea of ‘bounded rationality’ has a couple of personal and social benefits. (1) It dismantles thinking black (fatalism) and white (free will absolutism), a cognitive distortion that may perpetuate the effects of psychopathological states such as depression and anxiety (fatalism assumes too little responsibility which may be depressing; free will absolutism assumes too much responsibility which may be terrifying). It also forms a buffer against moralistic judging about the decisions of oneself and others, and it enables forgiving oneself and others more easily. Moreover, it allows to focus on what’s more important: to prevent more harmful, irresponsible acts from happening (again) in the future. Blame and punishment should only be used if functional and needed to meet this goal, rather than being used as weapons to ‘fight evil’ or ‘compensate’ damage already done. A final note In this piece I proposed how to understand free will in a realistic way. Free will relativism is a form of compatibilism (the idea that free will is compatible with determinism). However, as I said in my introduction, free will is an ambiguous concept: based on one’s notions of free will, one may hold a different attitude towards it. Semantics matters. For example, Sam Harris asserts that free will does not exist and his view is also compatible with determinism and the science of decision making. Using the terminology in this piece I wrote, I would say he rejects free will based on an ‘absolutist’ notion of it. Resources If you are interested, this is a selection of resources that inspired me in writing this piece: Wikipedia: Bounded rationality, cognitive distortion, compatibilism, decision-making, fatalism, free will, ignosticism, magical thinking, retributive justice ... Books and articles: - Dennett, D. C. (2013). Intuition pumps and other tools for thinking. WW Norton & Company. - Earl, B. (2014). The biological function of consciousness. Frontiers in psychology, 5, 697. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25140159 - Gigerenzer, G., & Selten, R. (2002). Bounded rationality: The adaptive toolbox. MIT press. - Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Macmillan. - Verplaetse, J. (2010). Zonder vrije wil. Uitgeverij Nieuwezijds. YouTube: - Sam Harris on Free will

[aestheticsharry]

Alabama Apprentice Auctioneer or Auctioneer Bond

The listed below article is an excellent intro to bid bonds. Bid bonds, as you understand, are bonds utilized in the building industry. These bonds ensure that if somebody bids on a job, and is granted the contract, then they will move forward with performing under the regards to the agreement.

See the below short article for more great info. You can see the original article here: https://swiftbonds.com/license-permit-bonds/apprentice-auctioneer-or-auctioneer-bond-alabama/

Alabama Apprentice Auctioneer or Auctioneer Bond

What is a Apprentice Auctioneer or Auctioneer Bond in Alabama?

A Apprentice Auctioneer or Auctioneer Bond is a type of license bond. The purpose of the bond is to protect the state or governmental entity for certain things, such as the payment of taxes.

To get this bond, please see our Apprentice Auctioneer or Auctioneer Bond Application Form. Fill this out and mail to mike@swiftbonds.com

You can also Apply On Line by clicking on this link.

How Much does a Apprentice Auctioneer or Auctioneer Bond Cost in Alabama?

Just fill out the form below and we’ll have you a quote in a few hours – at the absolute best possible rate.

How do I get a Apprentice Auctioneer or Auctioneer Bond?

We make it easy to get a Apprentice Auctioneer or Auctioneer Bond in Alabama. Fill out the form above and we’ll get right on this for you.

How Does this Process Work in Alabama?

Once we get the Apprentice Auctioneer or Auctioneer Bond application back from you, we process it right away. We typically have an answer within a few hours. Once you get approved, we’ll let you know the exact fee. Then:

You send us the fee

We send you the bond

For certain bonds, we may send you original forms to fill out (depends on the type of bond)

Then we’ll get the Apprentice Auctioneer or Auctioneer Bond right out to you. Easy.

Alabama Apprentice Auctioneer or Auctioneer Bond Application Form Fill this out and mail to mike@swiftbonds.com

Apply On Line

Find a Apprentice Auctioneer or Auctioneer Bond Near Me

We’ll work as hard as possible to get you the bond that you need in Alabama.

Find out more about our Permit and License Bonds

Comparing The Most Beneficial Techniques For Considering Contractor License Bonds

It’s highly important to a lot of professional services and construction corporations to acquire license and permit bonds. It is because the government often requires permit bonds to all business methods involving a customer. You have to acquire the bond to acquire the license or permit for your business. The government will use this bond as assurance that the holder obeys all laws and delivers as expected. In this case, any contractor who is unable to supply the required project result shall face possible quandaries. In this article, you are going to learn more about the essential facts about how to get a permit bond.

Identifying License And Permit Bonds

There are different kinds of license and permit surety bond. Fundamentally, the type of bond that you need may depend upon the nature of your business. It generally differs on its purpose and to how it may protect the client.

Types of Surety Bonds

Some of the most typical kinds of surety bonds include:

What is the purpose of license and permit bond? The key function of permit bonds is to ensure the consumers and the government any projects entered into could be delivered accordingly. In case the contractor default, for instance, he or she will unquestionably face legal action due to non-compliance in governmental rules and regulations and the mutual agreement into with the clients. As a result, you must consider not violating any laws for this may result in considerable loss for your business since you have to satisfy the financial damages done by your actions. Never try to violate any laws.

Performance bonds are another common type of surety bonds. Its primary purpose is to help the consumers have an insured project. It’s essential for contractors to supply result on the agreed date in cases of infrastructure projects. Part of the quality services is meeting all specifications requested by the consumer. If you fail to meet your client’s expectations, the consumer will get settlement for the lost funds and another professional will take your place. Particularly, the contractor has no apparent reason not to be able to supply the project result prescribed in a contract agreement, which is secured by the performance bond. It is because he or she has the skills, knowledge and tools to execute the operation. But, in some cases, contractors fail to supply. Fortunately, the client will not incur substantial loss.

Importance Of License And Permit Bonds

This section details the essential advantages that you are going to enjoy when you employ an expert who holds a license and permit bonds.

Flawless Systematic Work

The government requires that professionals follow a specific system while doing their things. For a construction project, for example, license bonds define the step-by-step procedures of the different processed to be done. When you hire a contractor, he or she has to follow this system.

Insurance

Permit bonds serve as an insurance to customers who engaged professional help. Should the project breaks down, the consumer will get considerable amount of compensation because of the quandary caused by the professional’s failure to deliver. It is done by filing a case against the professional who failed to supply, thereby giving the consumer an opportunity to recover certain sum of money as stated in the bond.

Obtaining A License And Permit Bond

Obtaining a license and permit bond is actually easier than most individuals would expect. It is a simple procedure offered only by approved government bodies. When getting a license and permit bond, here are some of the actions that you must follow.

Online Form

Authorized issuing company has a secured login website. As a result, you must get an access first if you choose to get it online. You’ll need a device that has an internet connection and a browser to gain access to the form. In going through these online forms, however, it’s usually advisable to use a computer instead of a mobile device. You could fill out a form quickly when you have accessed the platform. It’s not challenging to fill out the form. It’s because there are instructional guides that indicates whether the fields are necessary or optional.

A Quote

You will get a quote within seconds. This quote will define the payment that you have to pay for the bond. It also indicates whether the application is successful or if there are still fields that you have to fill out.

Payment

Using the available payment channels in the issuing company’s website, you must then make the payments after getting the quote. Now, you’re guaranteed to have an insured construction project.

Important Facts About The License And Permit Bonds

Payment Rates

As mentioned earlier, the rate that you’ll pay for the bond will depend upon its type. Even so, you will only be asked to pay particular amount based on the insured portion of the whole project cost. In most cases, you will only be asked to pay a minimum of 1% of the insured portion.

Licensing Power

In case of non-compliance to provide what they need, the bond allows your consumer to file a case against you. This is why you must pay money for a surety bond in behalf of your clients to protect their right in getting a sufficient service or project result.

There are only approved issuing company so do not forget to consider that when acquiring a bond. You might resort to specialist help if you’ll need additional information on which kind of bond is appropriate to your company operation.

See our Alabama Automotive Dismantler and Parts Recycler Bond page here.

A Deeper Take A Look At Bid Bonds in Building And Construction A Quote Bond is a kind of surety bond used to ensure that a contractor bidding on a task or job will participate in the agreement with the obligee if granted.

A Quote Bond is issued in the amount of the agreement bid, with the identical requirements as that of an Efficiency Bond.

All About Quote Bonds in Building The origins of our organisation was closely connected with the arrangement of performance bonds to the contracting industry. Somewhat greater than one a century earlier, the federal authorities grew to become alarmed worrying the high failure fee amongst the personal firms it was using to carry out public building and construction projects. It discovered that the personal contractor generally was insolvent when the task was awarded, or grew to become insolvent earlier than the obstacle was finished. Appropriately, the federal government was continually entrusted to unfinished efforts, and the taxpayers had been required to cover the additional prices arising from the contractor's default.

The standing of your surety company is important, due to the fact that it ensures you that when you have difficulties or if even worse includes worst you'll have a reputable partner to rely on and get aid from. We work just with T-listed and a-rated business, most likely the most trustworthy corporations in the industry.

Usually no, they are separate. Quote bonds mechanically turn into performance bonds in case you are granted the contract.

What Is A Construction Surety Bond? The origins of our organisation was thoroughly linked with the provision of performance bonds to the contracting industry. Even if some tasks do not require expense and performance bonds, you will need to get bonded finally since most of public initiatives do require the bonds. The longer a small contractor waits to get bonded, the more long lasting it will be given that there will not be a observe report of meeting the compulsory requirements for bonding and performing bonded work.

It's your pre-authorized bond limits. Bond pressures accept single and mix limitations. The only restrict is the biggest bond you may get for one specific job. The aggregate limit is the whole quantity of bonded work offered you possibly can have without hold-up.

The Importance Of Bid Bonds near You Arms, generators, radio towers, tree removal, computers, softward, fire alarms, decorative work, scaffolding, water towers, lighting, and resurfacing of current roads/paved areas. Bid bonds furthermore work an additional assurance for task owners that a bidding professional or subcontractor is qualified to perform the task they're bidding on. There are 2 causes for this.

https://swiftbonds.com/license-permit-bonds/apprentice-auctioneer-or-auctioneer-bond-alabama/