#inmate wages

[firstoccupier]

The Silent Oppression: Wage Slavery in Iowa’s Prisons

By, Cliff Potts, WPS News, Editor-in-ChiefBaybay City | February 15, 2025 In the heartland of America, nestled within the confines of the Iowa State Penitentiary, lies a system that quietly perpetuates a new form of modern-day slavery. Here, incarcerated individuals engage in the cultivation of trees, ostensibly part of a rehabilitation program, yet tethered to an exploitative scheme that deeply…

[kyeterna]

Law forms an alliance with the Straw Hat pirate Luffy. Immediately understands this is gonna cost him years of his lifespan.

Bonus: Law not soon after realises that it's the entire Straw Hat pirate crew.

[bloodmoonlich]

.

[nando161mando]

Slave labor

[ljuerlav]

california (likely) failing to ban slavery is unhinged. pairs really well with the overwhelming 70% in support of increasing sentencing and lowering thresholds on theft+drug related crimes.

[wifegideonnav]

and by the way let’s not forget that almost 400 of the people currently fighting the fires in southern california are inmates, who comprise up to 30% of the state’s wildfire forces and are incentivized to sign up for this perilous job with slightly higher wages (quote from the above link: “when responding to disasters, they may earn $26.90 over a 24-hour shift”); and that a ballot measure to end prison slave labor was defeated during last november’s election.

[frankendykes-monster]

Six people have burned themselves at Virginia’s infamous supermax Red Onion State Prison since the start of the year, the state’s Department of Corrections confirmed in an email to The Appeal. A Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) spokesperson said the men used “improvised devices that were created by tampering with electrical outlets.” Four incidents occurred on or after September 1. The agency said it tracks incidents of self-harm but does not make reports on those incidents publicly available. “To be clear, these inmates did not set themselves on fire or self-immolate,” she wrote. “They were treated for electrical burns at the Department’s secure medical facility at the VCU Medical Center and cleared to return to the facility. All six inmates have been referred to mental health staff for treatment.” For more than two decades, civil rights attorneys, human rights advocates, and prisoners have documented the horrific conditions at Red Onion, which sits in rural Western Virginia near the Kentucky border. According to a 2018 lawsuit, one man allegedly hallucinated and spoke with his dead parents while kept in solitary for more than 12 years. In another case, a man isolated for over 600 days started to speak in numbers, lost more than 30 pounds, and signed his name with a series of random letters. The DOC settled both lawsuits. In October, incarcerated journalist Kevin “Rashid” Johnson broke the self-harm story for Prison Radio, reporting that men had burned themselves in a “desperate attempt” to be transferred outside of the prison. The news outlet posted an audio recording by Ekong Eshiet, one of the men who allegedly burned himself. Eshiet said staff discriminate against him because of “my race, my last name, or my religion.” “I don’t mind setting myself on fire again,” Eshiet said on the recording. “This time, I would set my whole body on fire before I have to stay up here and do the rest of my time up here.”

Last year, six prisoners at Red Onion State Prison, a supermax facility on the state’s rural west side, intentionally burned themselves, prompting scrutiny of the prison from lawmakers and the public. But rather than address the conditions that may have led to such desperate measures, emails obtained by The Appeal show that corrections staff discussed how best to punish those who’d self-immolated. In the documents, which were obtained through a public records request and partially redacted, staff members discussed how to deter further incidents of self-harm. Suggestions included charging prisoners thousands of dollars for medical care and criminally prosecuting them. “I believe on Monday, we pull policy and start charging the inmates thousands of dollars for the hospital and medical treatment,” Red Onion’s chief of security wrote in September. “Once we iron through this, we can send the word through the inmate population that they’re going to be changed [sic] thousands for their medical due to intentional manipulation. Just my thoughts on how to prevent this kind of behavior.” One of the recipients, Assistant Warden Dwayne Turner, voiced his approval. “Yeah, sounds good,” he wrote. “But, the first thing we need to figure out is why? Do they think they will get transferred? If so, we need to make sure they don’t…. obviously they think they can gain something from doing that. We need to make sure they know they won’t gain anything….but making them pay money is good too[.]” The minimum wage for incarcerated workers in Virginia starts at $0.27 an hour. Local media outlet VPM News reported that Turner was promoted to assistant warden after he was accused of choking a restrained prisoner. Turner did not respond to The Appeal’s request for comment.

[metalheadsforblacklivesmatter]

How many prisoners are involved in the firefighting?

Nearly 950 prison firefighters have now been deployed to contain the fires, according to the corrections department.

They are paid $10.24 each day, with more for 24-hour shifts, according to the department. This is lower than California’s minimum wage, which is $16.50 an hour.

Prison reform advocates have long decried the practice as controversial, as the inmates are paid little for dangerous and laborious work.

-fae

[opencommunion]

"The suit describes how incarcerated Alabamians are forced to work for free in prison and paid extremely low wages to work for hundreds of private employers — including meatpacking plants and fast-food franchises like McDonald’s — as well as more than 100 city, county and state agencies. And it alleges that the state keeps the scheme going by systematically denying parole to those eligible to work outside jobs. ... In the case of the government officials, they’re also accused of conspiring to increase the size of the Alabama prison population — which is predominantly Black — through the discriminatory denial of parole so the state can continue profiting from forced labor. '[Prisoners] have been entrapped in a system of ​‘convict leasing’ in which incarcerated people are forced to work, often for little or no money, for the benefit of the numerous government entities and private businesses that ​‘employ’ them,' the suit charges. In Alabama, that charge comes with ugly historical baggage. Convict leasing — a practice of forced penal labor prevalent in the post-Emancipation South (in which incarcerated men were ​'leased' to private employers) — was a massive state revenue driver. Thanks to the Black Codes, a racist program to criminalize petty offenses both real and imagined, Black people were locked up at a massively disproportionate rate to their white neighbors. Many were then sent to work on plantations to fill the labor gap left by Emancipation. ... Convict leasing was formally abolished in Alabama in 1928, but prison labor has remained a significant source of income for the state. ... According to the lawsuit, Alabama reaped a $450 million benefit from forced prison labor in 2023 alone. ... Lakiera Walker worked for Jefferson County doing roadwork for approximately two years and was paid a $2 daily wage to handle large trash removal (including a Jacuzzi). She found out that the non-incarcerated workers on her team were making $10 per hour for the same job. One day, the lawsuit alleges, Walker’s boss attempted to coerce her into unwanted sexual activity; when she refused, he wrote her up on a disciplinary offense for ​'refusing to work.' She was then sent to work unpaid in the prison’s kitchen, and when her family called the commissioner and the warden to demand something be done, no action was taken. ... During Walker’s 15-year incarceration, she held a litany of unpaid jobs throughout the prison itself, too, including in the kitchen, housekeeping and healthcare. She even provided hospice care to dying patients. ​'The nurses really weren’t interested in taking care of sickly or terminally ill people, so they would get the inmates to do it,' Walker says. She says she was regularly required to work seven days a week, and she often had to work two shifts a day. None of these prison jobs were paid, and quitting or refusing work was not a viable option. ​'You can’t say, ​‘Hey, I can’t go to work today,’' Walker explains. ​'You would go to segregation, which was solitary confinement. … People were so tired and just hopeless at that point, they would kind of welcome solitary confinement, just to have a break.'

... Walker did finally make it home after all those years of forced labor, but many others are still trapped in the system. ... By 2022, the parole rate was 11% overall and only 7% for Black prisoners — meaning that 93% of parole-requesting Black prisoners were denied. That’s what happened to Alimireo English, a charismatic 48-year-old Black man who, according to a judge, should not be in prison right now. ... But instead of being back home with his family, at church with his faith community, or visiting his eldest son in New York, English is at the Ventress Correctional Facility in Clayton, Ala. His case did not come before the parole board until November 28, 2023, more than two years after he’d already been acquitted, but he was denied anyway. His next parole date is November 2024. 'They gotta keep me for another year until they can find somebody else on the street that they can pull back in and take my place,' English tells me. ​'If they can’t replace you, they don’t let you go.'

... English works as a dorm representative for the facility’s Faith Dorm, where he is on call 24 hours a day, seven days per week. He is responsible for the safety and well-being of 190 incarcerated men, many of them elderly or medically vulnerable. He handles custodial duties and maintenance, screens dorm visitors and is also the first responder for drug and health emergencies. In his scant free time, he runs a therapy and counseling group for his fellow prisoners. He consistently works 12 to 15 hour days and, for most of the week, he is the sole individual in charge of the dorm; a retired prison chaplain comes in to assist him a few times weekly, but otherwise English is not supervised by any corrections personnel. As the lawsuit highlights, ​'Since Mr. English has been in this position, the Faith Dorm has had no fights, deaths, or overdoses.' The plaintiffs’ legal team estimates that ADOC saves roughly $200,000 a year by not having a corrections officer in that one dorm. Meanwhile, English is paid nothing. ​'The inmates basically run the prison, but the officers are getting compensated for it,' English says. ​'The wages the inmates are paid for their work hasn’t changed since 1927.'

Several of the plaintiffs I spoke to also mentioned ​'institutional need,' a specific designation that plaintiffs have reported is added to certain prisoners’ files to signify their utility to their current facility. According to Walker and her lawyer, institutional need is yet another trick used by the ADOC to keep especially useful incarcerated workers from leaving, so the state can continue benefiting from that person’s skills. ... 'Most people, it stops them from going home or making parole because it says that we need you more in prison than the world needs you in society,' Walker explains. ​'This lady, her name is Lisa Smith, she’s been in prison about 30 years, and every time she comes up for parole, regardless of her crime, she’s an institutional need. She can fix anything in the prison — she can probably build a prison — but she’s not getting paid. Sometimes they won’t even call in a free world contractor because she knows what to do. It’s looking bleak that she will ever make it out of prison, because they need her there.'

... Because of a 1977 Supreme Court decision, incarcerated workers in the United States — including those in ADOC’s work release program — are legally prohibited from unionizing. The Supreme Court decision barring incarcerated workers from unionizing has not stopped organizations like the Industrial Workers of the World’s Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, Jailhouse Lawyers Speak and the Free Alabama Movement (FAM) from organizing labor actions, strikes and protests against prison slavery, or individual prisoners from finding their own ways to dissent. ... One of the founders of FAM, Kinetik Justice, is a plaintiff in the Alabama lawsuit. He has helped organize and lead several high-profile nationwide prison strikes since 2016. He’s been in ADOC custody for the past 29 years, and he has been repeatedly punished, harassed and tortured for his work organizing against forced labor. According to The Appeal, he spent 54 months in solitary confinement between 2014 and 2018 and has been repeatedly sent back into the hole. As he told Democracy Now! in 2016, ​'We understood our incarceration was pretty much about our labor and the money that was being generated from the prison system, therefore we began organizing around our labor and used it as a means and a method to bring about reform in the Alabama prison system.' He is no stranger to filing lawsuits on his own and his fellow prisoners’ behalf against ADOC, so it is fitting that this landmark class action suit bears his name."

[loving-n0t-heyting]

About work for inmates. I'm sorry I understand it can be corrupted, however I live in a country where inmates are nothing but a cost on the common people, we have experienced a growth in vient crimes, narco and gangs... These people are maintained by my taxes (minimum wage employee) and continue to do crime inside of prison because they do nothing all day, they're practically leeches and have no prospects of being re incerted into society. So I'd very much like it if these people got to pay for their needs inside of prison and hope this becomes reality soon...

> theyre practically leeches and have no prospects of being reinserted into society

I am very sorry they have been stripped of their freedom without any realistic opportunity of rejoining society. That sounds very inconvenient for you

[haveyouseenthishorrormovie]

do u have any horror recs for other mediums? tv, podcasts, books, youtube shorts, etc

I'm really gonna show my ass in this regard because most of my recommendations are going to be TV shows or short stories because I haven't branched out much beyond that if I'm honest.

I love The Haunting of Hill House (Nell Crain is my favourite horror character full stop) and The Fall of the House of Usher from Mike Flanagan (most of his shows are incredible but these two are my favourite).

THOHH: Flashing between past and present, a fractured family confronts haunting memories of their old home and the terrifying events that drove them from it.

TFOTHOU: To secure their fortune (and future) two ruthless siblings build a family dynasty that begins to crumble when their heirs mysteriously die, one by one.

The Exorcist (2016) was great!

The Exorcist follows two very different priests tackling one family's case of horrifying demonic possession. Father Tomas Ortega is the new face of the Catholic Church: progressive, ambitious and compassionate. He runs a small, but loyal, parish in the suburbs of Chicago. Father Marcus Keane is an orphan raised since childhood by the Vatican to wage war against its enemies. He is everything Father Tomas is not: relentless, abrasive and utterly consumed by his mission.

I really liked American Horror Story: Asylum, can't say the same for the other seasons.

AHS: Asylum takes place in 1964 and follows the stories of the staff and inmates who occupy the fictional mental institution Briarcliff Manor, and intercuts with events in the past and present.

I also liked a few South Korean shows I saw on Netflix.

Kingdom (2019): While strange rumors about their ill King grip a kingdom, the crown prince becomes their only hope against a mysterious plague overtaking the land.

All of Us Are Dead (2022): A high school becomes ground zero for a zombie virus outbreak. Trapped students must fight their way out or turn into one of the rabid infected.

Hellbound (2021): People hear predictions on when they will die. When that time comes, a death angel appears in front of them and kills them.

I loved Interview with a Vampire (especially because it does everything the movie didn't, which is why I didn't like the movie). it's very gay, it plays heavily into the themes of vampirism and sexuality, and I love Sam Reid and Jacob Anderson as Lestat and Louis.

In terms of other media, I really like the Dead Meat channel (if I haven't said it enough already), I also like the Scream Dreams Podcast with Catherine Corcoran (from Terrifier), James A. Janisse (from Dead Meat) and Barbara Crampton (prolific and stunning horror actor).

I know it's a little over done now, but that original series of 'The Backrooms' by KanePixels was great.

Some other horror channels/channels that explore horror as well as other topics are SpookyRice, MistaGG, Wendigoon, ElvisTheAlien, BionicPIG, Trin Lovell, KennieJD, MertKayKay, and AmandaTheJedi.

With books, I'm such a basic bitch, so I've really only read Stephen King's horror books. I'm not sure of this is horror or just very bleak and depressing but I'm Thinking of Ending Things was an incredible reading experience. And at this point it goes without saying House of Leaves is so fucking mindblowing!

H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe were terrible people, but their short stories are truly so dark and well-written, the cosmic horror Lovecraft is known translates best in his writing. Ambrose Bierce is the father of psychological horror as we know it, his short stories are great. My favourite short horror story is The Yellow Wallpaper. If you are interested in an audio version of it, listen to Chelsea from the Dead Meat channel with headphones (headphones are vital to that experience).

That's all I can think of off the top of my head for now! I'm sure others will give their own recommendations.

[dr-futbol-blog]

Condemned, Pt. 7

The leader was correct in suspecting that the best way to motivate McKay to do something is to threaten the people close to him. Left alone in the jumper with the savant inmate, he is trying to run diagnostics to see what is even possible to do with the jumper at this point. The local man seems interested both in him and in the technology he has never seen before, unable to resist fiddling with the systems while trying to get to know what kind of a man McKay is:

Eldon: The technology on this ship is far more advanced than the Olesians'. McKay: How ironic, then, to have been shot down by the cast of Braveheart. Eldon: Well, I'm surprised we were able to shoot you down.

Note that Eldon too makes the observation that they should not have been able to take down the jumper. Their level of technology should not have been sufficient for the task. It supports the notion that they may have been aided by Sheppard's subconscious mind, Sheppard overreacting to the perception that McKay was in danger through the neural link he had with the jumper.

McKay mentions the cast of Braveheart, unable and perhaps even not wanting to disguise the disdain he feels for the locals. The film featured Scottish freedom fighters from the late 13th century, and the gist of what McKay is saying that it is ironic that technologically inferior and barely civilized natives managed to take them down. It is interesting that he is again disparaging something Scottish (as he recently had by calling Zelenka Dr. Fumbles McStupid) which again invites the question of what his childhood had been like and why it seems as though he feels the need to belittle his own ancestry (or at least a part of it), given also that his best friend is Scottish. McKay was an adult when Braveheart came out, so the reference to the film itself has no bearing on his childhood. But the fact that he feels the need to denigrate his ancestry by using it to belittle others does at the very least communicate some level of self-hatred, of internalized disdain.

Now, in the film the Scottish resistance fighters are pitted against the English, and where the former have been depicted as more savage as opposed to the more civilized Englishmen, especially in English sources, the reference does not really work here, as the Scottish troops represented the spirit of the common man striving for freedom against oppression. In popular retellings of the historical events, the English are seen as the oppressor and the men of William Wallace as virtuous, as having the moral high ground. However, Wallace commanded an army and was a strategist waging warfare, not a tribal chieftain leading a band of scruffy misfits. McKay's analogy, while again meaning absolutely nothing to the local man, seems off. The situation is much more reminiscent of the Ewoks getting one up on the Rebels, having no idea that they are there actually to fight the Empire on their behalf and pose no danger to the primitive but well-meaning natives. Of course, the Ewoks were cute and cuddly which the prisoners are not, but they do seem fairly simple, curious and fumbling to understand the technology of the newcomers.

McKay elaborates on what he meant, and the low-tech versus high-tech argument certainly applies to the Ewoks as both against the Rebel Alliance and opposing the Empire:

McKay: It's the old low-tech versus high-tech argument, I suppose. Eldon: We've been working on those weapons for years-- McKay: Yes, well, well done, good for them, huh? Now, are you gonna continue talking, or... Thank you. Eldon: ... McKay: Oh, give me that! See, where did that come from?

Once again we see the man who never says thank you say thank you. McKay is actually well aware that he is taking his bad mood out on this man that seems perfectly harmless, and he is starting to feel sorry for him. A small and timid man, he is not unlike Zelenka. And McKay is actually interested in how they had managed to do what they did. Especially if it means they might have something around that could help him fix the jumper. So he continues engaging the man who seems to be developing something like a crush or a type of hero-worship on him:

McKay: Those cannons. Your design? Eldon: No, no, no... well, I chose the material and helped calculate trajectories... the ignition mechanisms... and the fuses, of course... but most of my efforts went into fashioning the explosive shots.

It is clear that Eldon is very intelligent, especially for his environment. McKay is starting to feel begrudging respect for him for having managed to do all that with basically Stone Age technology. At first glance, Eldon seems like the opposite of McKay, timid and self-depreciating, like his self-esteem has been intentionally destroyed just to keep him loyal, to keep him in line. While we do not learn a lot about him, Eldon does not seem like a bad guy. Appearances can be deceptive, however. While he may seem confident, McKay does not have good self-esteem and many of his characteristics, his abrasiveness and being a know-it-all, stem from having had to fight for his spot in every social environment he has been.

Eldon is modest, seeming to want to share credit where there is none to share, but he does seem self-aware, knowing what his skills are and what they are not. He is not being particularly helpful when it comes to fixing the jumper but he does seem to want to share information with McKay that may come in handy, that might be useful down the line. And while McKay is seldom interested in other people, this man does seem curious. He wants to know more. Especially if by learning more about this man he might learn more about their offensive capabilities, to get an idea of just what they are up against.

McKay: Ah, explosives. Is that how you killed a man? Eldon: No, I didn't kill him. I'm innocent. I don't belong here. McKay: Hmm, really? I wonder if there's ever been a convicted felon who didn't claim he was innocent? Eldon: I don't care if you don't believe me. I just want off this island.

We never learn if Eldon is telling the truth, and it doesn't matter. The choice he makes in the current circumstance is much more important than what he may or may not have done in the past. Having this conversation with McKay makes him decide to help them, and the fact that he had managed to establish this rapport with McKay is not a small part in why Sheppard later decides to allow him to accompany them to Atlantis. Sheppard has a lot of gratitude for anyone that looks after McKay when he is unable. Also, the way McKay is able to focus on the technical side of what he is doing and still have a relatively deep discussion about morality with someone standing next to him as he works is definitely a skill McKay has perfected with Sheppard at his side. McKay, however, has a lot more on his mind than the personal history of this stranger:

McKay: Oh no. Eldon: What is it? McKay: I assume there's no DHD beside the stargate? Uh, the ancestral ring. Is there some kind of a dialling device that turns it on? Eldon: No. Nothing. McKay: Ah, of course. Why give the prisoners such an obvious means of escape?

To McKay's credit, he seems to have a lot less respect for the civilized Olesians than he has for the cast of Braveheart, given that the latter never chose to become chow for the wraith.

Eldon: What's wrong? McKay: Look... the main power distribution conduit's been damaged. It effectively cuts all the power to the primary systems: drive pods, cockpit controls, DHD. Eldon: Can you fix it? McKay: Easily, if I had a replacement. Without one, you and your friends aren't going anywhere. Eldon: Neither are you. If you don't fix the ship, Torrell is going to make sure you're the first the wraith find at the next culling.

We finally learn the name of the leader of the prisoners, Torrell. Torrell is devising a plan to use the walkie-talkies to eavesdrop on our heroes, again displaying his cunning. Now, as McKay figures out what the main problem with the jumper is, it is notable that he actually explains the problem to Eldon as though the man was his new apprentice. This, actually taking time to verbalize the problem in a way that someone who is intelligent but does not have his engineering experience could understand is definitely Sheppard's influence. Had he not learned to explain things to Sheppard, he very likely would have told Eldon to leave the moment it seemed he would be able to contribute nothing useful, if only to be able to concentrate better.

The fact that McKay actually is able to concentrate when someone is talking his ear off and fiddling with pieces of electronics that they probably shouldn't be touching is testament to how much time Sheppard has spent watching him work--which, to be sure, seems to have been one of his favourite occupations at least since the end of Home (S01E09). The question "What's wrong?," probably spoken to him by Sheppard countless of times, may in itself be something that triggered McKay to do as he always does with Sheppard.

Regardless, McKay seems to reach an impasse with the jumper and the next we see him, he is once again bound and being brought back into the shack where the others appear to be on the edges of their proverbial seats, waiting to see what happens next. They are not moving, quietly observing the scene unfolding before them.

Torrell: Choose. McKay: Choose what? Torrell: Which one of them dies first. Do it. McKay: I can't do that. Torrell: Well then I'll choose for you. Either way, one of them dies unless you change your mind about fixing that ship.

McKay had his own life threatened first by Torrell and then by Eldon telling him that Torrell would make sure that he was the one the wraith would get to first unless he does as he was ordered, and both times McKay attempted not to show any kind of reaction. Torrell, however, had correctly intuited that the lives of his friends would be more precious to him than his own. Now, the order in which McKay would choose, if push really came to shove, would likely first be Ronon, whom he has known the least amount of time, followed by Teyla and then he would choose to give up his own life rather than give up Sheppard's. This much is clear, there is nothing esoteric about McKay's priorities.

However, his experiences with Acastus Kolya has taught him that giving a bad man any leverage is not a good idea and if McKay did make a choice, who ever he did choose, it is entirely possible Torrell was going to do something contrary just to spite him, from a false belief that they were playing a game of wits of some kind. If he got any inkling that Sheppard means something to him, that is the lever he would use. He might not kill Sheppard right away but there are so many screws he could tighten to get McKay to do what he likes, if only he discovered the screw to turn in particular.

And so, McKay refuses to make a choice at all. And Sheppard was never going to let him do it, either. We can see how Sheppard looks down and worries his lip in his self-soothing way as he hears Torrell's command, trying to think fast on what he should do here. He had been glad to see McKay alive and in one piece but the situation was clearly starting to go south and fast. It was clear to him that this was a form of psychological torture and he knew that McKay was not equipped to handle something like this. Having to watch McKay's anguish over being forced to make an actual Sophie's Choice pained him. The reason why he cast his eyes down was because he did not want McKay to be able to read his thoughts just by looking at him. Sheppard was not going to let them kill either Teyla and Ronon, and if push came to shove, he would draw the fire to himself somehow. He also knew that McKay would not be able to live with himself if his actions had lead to the death of any one of them. And yet he didn't want to die. He very much didn't want to die. For one, it would be impossible for him to protect McKay and to make sure he gets out of here alive if he were dead. He had also not given up hope that they might be able to fix things between them, and he was not ready to give up on that.

McKay: I'm sorry, but there are some things beyond my capability. Torrell: I don't believe you. McKay: I know it is hard to believe, but... Torrell: No, I mean I think you're lying. McKay: I'm not! It's broken! Do you understand broken?

McKay's voice breaks here and given what we find out later, he actually is a very good liar. However, because Torrell needs McKay to be lying, he attempts to profile him psychologically a little more.

Torrell: I know your type. You whine and you complain and you see to it that your every task is viewed as some impossible achievement so that when you do succeed, your gargantuan efforts are viewed as all the more heroic. McKay: That may be true in some cases, but this is not one of them. You are asking me to do the impossible. Torrell: Your friends' lives are in your hands. I'll give you some time to choose.

Sheppard narrows his eyes as he listens to this, and because we heard Sheppard say something similar to Weir in The Storm (S01E10) ("You know McKay will come up with something. He's just setting himself up to be a hero"), some people interpret his look here as communicating displeasure that this man would have McKay's ticket like that while silently agreeing with him. He's not. Regardless of what he said, Sheppard never thought that about McKay.

With regards to Sheppard's exchange with Weir, I wrote:

Sheppard continues to have perfect trust in McKay. Again note that he's masking it in flippancy; when ever he talks about McKay to other people (and he seems to do that a lot; when you have a crush on someone you naturally want to mention them by name all the time because you are thinking about them all the time, but you try to be smooth about it like it's no big deal), he's downplaying it, he gives off the impression that he both cares for and regards McKay as less than he actually does. He tells Weir: "You know McKay will come up with something. He's just setting himself up to be a hero." [...] Sheppard does actually view McKay as a Big Damn Hero, and while here, talking with Elizabeth, he's making it sound like he's ribbing on McKay and his big ego, he does actually honestly believe those two things: that McKay will save them, and that he is a hero.

Thinking that Sheppard agrees with the man about McKay is to misread his character. He narrows his eyes because he hates this man, and being reminded of what he had said previously himself, having his own words thrown back at his face, he hates himself a little bit too. Sheppard has gotten to know McKay intimately since. Even though he admired McKay and trusted his abilities back when he said this to Weir, a lot of water has passed under the bridge since that day. He knows McKay better than he has ever know anyone. He had let McKay get closer to him than he had ever allowed anyone to get. Sheppard knows about his childhood, he knows about his fears and dreams, he knows the good parts of his character and he knows the bad all the way to the downright nasty, and nothing he had learned had ever made him love him less.

Sheppard knows how insecure McKay is. He knows how much pressure McKay is under, and how much more pressure he puts on himself than even other people, most of whom expect him to deliver miracles as from a conveyor belt. We saw Sheppard spend the latter part of the first season trying to ease McKay's burden so that he wouldn't have to feel like it was all on him, like it was his responsibility alone to save everyone. What Torrell says here is not what Sheppard thinks about McKay at all, but it is something McKay may think about himself. He does frequently downplay the odds of something working because when he isn't sure, telling people it's not going to work and it then working is infinitely better than making promises he can't keep, of writing checks he might not be able to cash. It is a way of trying to relieve the immense pressure he is under, most of all from himself. So McKay knows that he does do that, sometimes. But at this point, Sheppard seems to have much better insight as to why he does it. And he wants to protect McKay from this too, from being psychologically dissected by someone that doesn't know him at all.

Torrell seems to give McKay a moment to decide but he is actually working on his plan to use the walkie-talkies to eavesdrop on his captives while they are alone. Whether he was ever actually going to kill one of them or was doing this just for show is unclear but whether the threat was real or not, its effects were devastating all the same.

While it does not seem as though Eldon is in on Torrell's plan, he is doing what he can to help these strangers with the hopes that he might be able to secure his own freedom by betting on them. It seems as though Eldon had seen something in McKay that he wanted to believe in:

Eldon: Listen to him, McKay. He's killed eleven people. Eight before he was sent here, and three since he's been on the island. McKay: Eleven, huh? You've got some catching up to do, don't you? He's only killed one. Sheppard: Who, him? Eldon: I told you I'm here because of a mistake.

Now, while McKay is clearly taking his frustration and anger out on Eldon, the fact that he actually remembers a personal detail about this man and felt that it was important enough to share tells Sheppard that McKay had been getting along with this man. Had it not been for McKay's assessment of his character, Sheppard would probably not paid this man any attention, but now he is curious. Ronon, on the other hand, seeming to be sure that McKay is going to pick him first when Torrell returns and that his days may be numbered, takes some of his bitterness out on this man:

Dex: I'm sure everyone here on this island says that. Eldon: Well, as a matter of fact, some of us are innocent. Only a few like Torrell are actual murderers. Teyla: You mean they put all their criminals here, regardless of the crimes they commit? Eldon: Once only the worst of the worst was sent here, but the punishment proved to be such a successful deterrent that crime rates in Olesia plummeted, which meant fewer and fewer prisoners. Teyla: Less food for the wraith. Eldon: Exactly. Sheppard: So they lowered the bar.

Sheppard is absolutely disgusted by the Olesians. Maybe he could understand putting murderers on death row but condemning innocent people to die to keep the wraith "satiated" so that the Olesians could continue living in luxury really rubs him the wrong way. He is also not comfortable thinking too closely on how they may have lowered the bar. He looks at McKay as Eldon explains how the system became corrupted. Because Teyla looks at Sheppard after speaking, some might interpret Sheppard as exchanging a look with Teyla, but that is not what happens. Sheppard and McKay have been exchanging glances over Teyla's head ever since Home (S01E09), and that also happens here, confirmed by McKay returning Sheppard's gaze after Teyla has spoken. They look at each other, once more communicating something between them that others are not invited to understand, and they seem to be on the same page as to how horrifying they find this.

Beyond that, it is clear as day to Sheppard that this man had taken a liking to McKay because it takes one to know one. It is obvious to him that they had done some bonding when McKay had been away. He hoped that he was wrong about what he started to suspect the crime of some of these men on the island might have been but he certainly was glad that it seemed like someone had been looking after McKay when he could not. The fact that he was warning them now also told him about the man's good intentions. And this man would be much easier to manipulate from the literal bind they were in than their leader, besides.

Continued in Pt. 8

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Shortfall in Brazil’s prison system capacity exceeds 174 thousand

Brazil has a deficit of 174,436 places in its prison system. The figure can be found in a report from the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, which says the country’s prison population currently totals 663,906 inmates, while the capacity of cells stands at 488,951 spaces.

The data cover January through June 2024 and also show that nearly all prisoners are men—634,617. Women add up to 28,770, of whom 212 are pregnant and 117 are breastfeeding. The text also states that 119 children of female detainees are in jail.

In addition, only the families of 19,445 prisoners receive prison aid. The benefit (one minimum wage, BRL 1,412.00), is aimed at the dependents of low-income people who have been imprisoned and who have contributed to the social security system.

Continue reading.

[nando161mando]

Did you know slavery is still legal in the US its legal everywhere and they call it CAPITALISM & FASCISM!

I recently discovered this and was shocked. The 13 Amendment says

>

neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime

There are 800 000 prison slaves in the US and more than 4100 companies profit out of their work. As Linda Evans and Eve Goldberg stated on “The Prison Industrial Complex and the Global Economy”:

>For private business prison labor is like a pot of gold. No strikes. No union organizing. No health benefits, unemployment insurance, or workers’ compensation to pay. No language barriers, as in foreign countries. New leviathan prisons are being built on thousands of eerie acres of factories inside the walls. Prisoners do data entry for Chevron, make telephone reservations for TWA, raise hogs, shovel manure, and make circuit boards, limousines, waterbeds, and lingerie for Victoria’s Secret, all at a fraction of the cost of ‘free labor’.

In 8 states the prisoners earn 0 for their labour, in the other 42 they are wage slaves like us except they earn abysmally less, 13 to 52 cents an hour.

There is an estimate that prison labor generates a value of 11 billion dollars per year.

>Public officials have acknowledged that the work of these unpaid and poorly compensated incarcerated laborers is crucial: “There’s no way we can take care of our facilities, our roads, our ditches, if we didn’t have inmate labor,” Warren Yeager, a former Gulf county, Florida, commissioner said to the Florida Times-Union.

>More than 75% of workers told ACLU researchers if they can’t work or decline to do so, they are subject to punishment ranging from solitary confinement to the loss of family visits to denials of sentence reductions.

>Most incarcerated workers are not provided with skills and training for their work that would help them secure jobs when they are released, Turner said; 70% said they did not receive any formal job training, and 70% said they couldn’t afford essentials such as soap and phone calls with their wages.

>Incarcerated workers are stripped of even the most minimal protections against labor exploitation and abuse. They are paid pennies for their work in often unsafe working conditions even as they produce billions of dollars for states and the federal government

It is interesting that the word slavery is not used to describe this, the US government owns almost 1 million slaves. Do you think this is right?

I always thought that the US had a problem of criminality and hence why so many prisons... but as twisted as it may sound, criminality also generates profits. I am not american so I just found out this today, that the prison industrial complex is also a thing.

[aizenat]

Also queerios and libs need to have a real and honest talk about how trans ideology being attached to liberals and the Democratic Party was a huge reason for people to vote for Trump. No one wants to say it (I’m surprised the radfems haven’t made that point yet, but wait, they’re too busy trying to come up with excuses for why they—white women—voted for Trump in the majority), but exit polls had ppl saying they thought Kamala was “too leftist/progressive.” DESPITE her running a very conservative campaign that was just two talking points away from being a straight up republican campaign.

The trans ad (Kamala cares about they/them, not you) was running almost nonstop in PA—as someone who lives in south Jersey, meaning our local tv programming is based out of Philly, every time I turned my tv on this ad was running. And it’s a good and effective ad. SO MUCH SO THAT I HAD A COWORKER BRING IT UP AS A “MAJOR” THING SHE DISAGREED WITH KAMALA ON THE MORNING OF THE ELECTION.

Libs and tras can pretend the trans stuff wasn’t on ppls minds but it was. Literally up until they stepped into the voting booth. When ppl voted for trump saying he was better for the economy, that’s not based on actual policy. You can tell that because AFTER he was announced the winner, google searches for tarrifs went up. If ppl cared about the economy and how tarrifs would work (Kamala literally referred to them as essentially a tax on all goods to simplify them and yall just said herp durp this won’t hurt me financially at all), they would have been goggling that BEFORE the election.

So why did they think Trump was better for the economy? Because he doesn’t want to send aid to Ukraine, and he doesn’t want to use taxes to fund for trans inmates gender reassignment surgeries. That means fiscal responsibility to them.

When chappel roan got on an interview and said that the biggest “concern” she had was trans rights, people heard that and associated that with the party (democrats) who protect laws allowing for children to medically transition. In my state, hormones and gender reassignment surgeries are covered by most employers’ insurance, but cancer treatments and medically necessary surgeries are not (at least not automatically). THAT signals to the average person that politicians are not prioritizing the right things. Because trans ppl are (per their own words) less than 1% of the population, but they get so much more consideration than the average person. Companies care more about pronouns in their employees’ email signatures than they do about employees feeling like the work environment is racially insensitive or hostile towards women (etc).

And I’m sorry, but you can affirm a child’s gender reasonably without medically transitioning them. And most people, most PARENTS, are not going to be okay with the idea of fearing their child being taking away because they don’t want to pay for or facilitate medical transition until they’re at least 18 and had time to really reflect on if that’s what they want. And they don’t want to be labeled abusive for that.

THAT’S what a lot of people going into the booth were thinking about. That Kamala and democrats would prioritize THAT over raising wages and bringing down inflation and costs. Most working class ppl don’t care about gender identity and stuff: so anyone prioritizing that in a time of financial (and political) strife doesn’t look like someone who is going to prioritize what they need to survive and get by.

Tras need to really sit down and think about 1) how they go about lobbying for their rights (calling people genocidal for messing up a pronoun ain’t it cuz) and 2) what rights are worth lobbying for. For example, it’d be hard to argue against third spaces for gnc ppl in public spaces (bathrooms, changing rooms, etc). Same with third/coed sports leagues IN ADDITION TO mens and women’s leagues. Maybe lobby for your own safe spaces instead of demanding to be on spaces not in alignment with your born sex. Because that push back is only going to get worst and it’s not a battle even most liberals agree with. Especially when you also lobby for self identification over any proof of socially and medically transitions. What’s to stop a man who has no intentions of transitioning to go into a woman’s bathroom or changing room or enter a women’s sport league and claim he has a right to be there because he’s trans and we can’t question it?

And yall REFUSE to answer that honestly and then wonder why people don’t fuck with it. It’d be one thing if there was a barrier of entry, but y’all did away with that. So what are people going to do? At least when black ppl were lobbying for desegregation, it was in coed spaces. And if it was gendered, only the black ppl of said gender would participate (ie, only Black women would be on bathrooms with White women; not Black men as well). But you guys are trying to do away with that. And do away with any determinative way to know who the “real” trans people are vs someone just saying so to get access to a spot. And then if someone pushes back, you call THEM a bigot?

Like, women in Korea just about can’t piss in public because of how widespread hidden cameras are in bathrooms. And all I can think is what will stop an epidemic like that happening here if males can walk in easily and women aren’t even ALLOWED to question him because he MAY be trans?

If yall actually knew anything about Black literature (lol as if yall would read black authors and writers and poets lol), you’d see how all throughout our existence in our country, we have had to defend ourselves from the common perception of us. This is why Black people (well, the educated amongst us lol) are so GOOD at arguing against racist ideas. This is why every time I call a white radfem (or really any white feminist) out in their racism, they go for ad hominem attacks and straw men to try to discredit what I’m saying. And they fail because I straight know what I’m talking about lol.

Y’all’s language and concepts change each year. An argument or talking point is literally thrown away and seen as problematic within 5 years. We used to say that trans ppl are treated how they’re “read,” which helps to explain how their perception of how well or poorly they are able to conform to that read gender affects how others treat them, but now that’s transphobic to say. I literally have no idea what ppl mean when they say transmisogyny these days because it’s SO different from how it was used in 2010-2013. I have no idea what yall are talking about anymore!

Yall have to sit down, LISTEN TO PEOPLE’S CONCERNS instead of writing any pushback as transphobic, and really solidify what trans identity is, the actual signs and symptoms, how to treat it without medical intervention, and be honest on the lack of information and studies on medical intervention. Especially long term; a study following up with ppl who transitioned 50 years ago means nothing because the very concept of what a trans identity is has changed dramatically since then. Especially in the last decade alone!

Yall can’t be super counterculture and then expect the mainstream to rock with you. That’s not how that works. You need to pick a lane and at least come up with a better strategy on how to present the less counterculture aspects to the mainstream so they can understand what trans identities are outside of the radical. Outside of the clickbait titles. But honestly that means YALL coming to at least SOME consensus on what it even means to be trans because all the vague language around it isn’t helping. And when yall refuse to define yourselves, it means anyone else can go out there and define you for the world. This is why yall are losing the war on this. Yall have work to do to fix this shit.

[evenhisfacewasanalias]

Fragments of Eros (Part 9)

Lady Jane Grey/Guildford Dudley

Rating: Adult

The last of the embers turned to ash, and something brushed her hand. She let out a small cry at the brief touch, the anticipation of claws or teeth that followed. But none did.

Only the feel of a warm circlet of gold slipped around her ring finger by human hands. The sound of a man’s voice, gentle, and not a beast’s.

“With this ring, I thee wed.”

A Cupid and Psyche/(Beauty and the Beast) AU, inspired by and encouraged by schokoleibniz.

Part 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Chapter 9: The Queen

At the sight of Guildford, human still and helpless against the flames that threatened them both, Lady Jane lost all remaining caution. She turned and thrust both sword and torch back at Lord Seymour, setting his velvet doublet alight and slicing at his hand. His sword she took for herself.

Seymour, at the double blow of disarmament and conflagration, ran from the passageway back to his Queen above. Many of his men followed as smoke rose from the bonfires behind them. Those few that remained held fast to their prisoners, as Jane and Guildford battled to liberate father and son. Another battle was waged within Jane herself, who wished only to look upon her newly freed husband and take him in arms. But the way ahead was still treacherous, and there were many obstacles yet to face.

Greatest among them was her own heart, which would not allow her to leave their fellow prisoners trapped down here. With all of the regal authority left within her breast, she commanded the freed Dudleys in pulling the pins from the cell doors, and freeing the inhabitants, even as smoke and ash began to fill the remaining passages. They would face the remaining guards side by side.

Several among the inmates, thankful for their freedom, aided Lady Jane and the Dudleys in freeing their neighbors. Others simply fled, desperation and fear hardening their hearts toward the plight of all but themselves. Some, who had been there so long they could no longer remember what freedom meant, remained within their cells, and welcomed their fate.

Even with their new band of merry rogues to aid them, Jane dreaded what they might find as they ascended the steps of the dungeon to the outer world above. Surely Queen Mary and her men awaited them there, to witness the final capture of her prey. Though Lady Jane was often quite clever, she only recognized the trap for what it was in hindsight, her love of Guildford having been played against her doubly in the setting of it.

And Jane's thoughts proved true, for Mary with the entire Kingsland guard and a cadre of Spanish soldiers awaited them on the Tower Green.

But Jane needn’t have feared, for the three armies of their allies had already begun waging in war against Queen Mary above, and the battle was well underway by the time of her arrival.

First among them were all manner of Archer’s creatures, the birds that swooped and the beasts that clawed. Archer himself had helped to tear down the gates of the tower, and Jane easily spotted the darkly furred shape of him at the center of the fray, his fearsome growl quaking the ground below.

The second, she saw, were Wyatt’s men, as they shouted death to Bloody Mary, and death to the Spaniards in their midst. They fought side by side with the beasts, and with equal ferocity though they were but men.

The third was her cousin Elizabeth’s own army, wearing her colors as they marched into battle. Elizabeth herself sat resplendent as a Queen atop her silvery gray mare in the moonlight. These were the least fierce among them, for Elizabeth was fighting not an old enemy but a beloved sister.

Lady Jane had long since lost any tender feelings toward her cousin Mary, she was only held back by her desire to protect her husband from further peril. But Guildford himself leapt into the fray as soon as they left the dungeons behind, even weakened as he was by a week’s harsh imprisonment. 

From some deeper strength gained at this proof of Jane’s love, he transformed himself at his own will for the first time. No longer a ghastly bloodied monster, but simply as a dark chestnut stallion - ordinary though powerful. His visage no longer struck terror into the hearts of Mary’s men, but with Jane still wielding her sword in full armor sat astride him, they made for a fearsome pair in battle.

The battle waged on for many dark hours. But finally Elizabeth, in Queenly manner, cried out for mercy for her sister Mary. Jane saw the reason for her plaintive cry - her oldest friend, in falcon form, had clawed at Mary's eyes, while other birds pecked at her soft flesh. The soldiers bearing Elizabeth’s golden crest shielded her from a worser fate as they held her captive - along with Lord Seymour and many of his men, ending the battle among the English. For the Spanish among them, Wyatt’s mens would not rest till they had chased them from England’s shores, and they ran to spare their own lives.

Several among the dungeon’s inmates who had also entered the fray were now embraced by brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters found within the triumphant armies. Others - those less innocent among them - fled with the Spaniards.

The two lovers were happiest among all those gathered at the battle’s end. The two reveled not only in their triumph over Mary, but also in Guildford’s own salvation, his freedom from his curse. He pulled Jane within the circle of his arms, and they looked upon one another with eyes full of love and wonder at the dawning of a new day.

****

Elizabeth was named Queen, as Mary’s successor and as triumphing monarch in the Battle of the Tower. Her crowning was as it always should have been, and all were to be united under Queen Elizabeth’s gentle and patient rule. Human and beast, Catholic and Anglican, all were named equal under her reign, and they accepted her gladly, for all had witnessed what Mary’s cruelty had wrought. The once Bloody Queen herself was sent to live out her days in exile in the North, with her once paramour Lord Seymour, both of them left greatly marred by the battle.

Lady Jane was glad as well to relinquish her claim to the crown to her beloved cousin, having never herself wished to rule the Kingdom. In turn, Elizabeth restored Jane and the Dudleys to their former ranks and places at court, and she herself presided over their second wedding, attended this time by all their friends and relatives - including among them the newly wed Katherine and William Seymour. 

Their wedding was a joyous occasion for all, filled with friends and family, old and new. The nuptials took place within the gardens of the Greys’ ancestral home, still a site of such happy memories for Jane, and far more comfortable for her beastly guests. Though many took human form for the occasion, the celebration was made even more magical by the attendance of birds of every shape and color, and all manner of creature that walked on four legs or more - even a delightful miniature pony that so resembled Guildford’s own chestnut coloring that Lord Dudley nearly named him son.

Jane’s new wedding gown was even more beautiful than her first had been. Rabbit had crafted it for her in the ancient style, which Jane herself had also grown to love for its freedom and history. The silken fabric was of a pale gold, woven through with delicate embroidery and fine pearls, the long, voluminous sleeves split over a diaphanous underdress beneath. At its hem, Rabbit had embroidered the scenes of their courtship and victory - embellished of course, by Rabbit’s own imagination - with each of their friends and family represented. Jane had nearly wept to see the faces of her family, the falcon at her shoulder and the small rabbit at her feet, and the many forms of her husband so lovingly stitched into the silk. 

Atop her loose curls she wore a circlet of flowers made by her sisters. She laughed to see the bright red poppies and small white clusters of hemlock, the various medicinal herbs, woven in among them. A far more fitting crown for the Lady Jane.

All eyes were on Jane as she walked down the garden pathway. She looked as though a faerie queene in the soft afternoon light, surrounded as she was by bright blooms and scattered rose petals, but her eyes were only for her bridegroom. She knew she would never tire of looking on his face, so much more dear to her for having so long been denied its sight. He was dressed handsomely as well, in a suit of velvet and golden leaves, but his eyes too were focused entirely on her. Warm brown eyes met with hazel as they had always longed to, and familiar hands held her own as the priest again read them their vows.

“I plight thee my troth.”

How much sweeter the words sounded from the lips of her own dear husband, and how much more easily the words fell from her own lips at this second vowing. Cheers could be heard from all around them as they sealed their vows with a tender kiss.

The lavish celebration of their marriage lasted well into the night, all in attendance glad to honor Jane and Guildford as well as their new Queen. Jane spotted Lord Archer, newly restored to his Barony, among those who congratulated her cousin.

“It seems your schemes worked out even better than you hoped, with Elizabeth now on the throne.” She smiled at her friend when she chanced to speak with him alone.

“It was as we had always intended,” he smiled back.

Jane puzzled at these words. She had not realized Elizabeth long planned to take back the throne, nor that Archer already knew of this. What role could she have played with the line of succession right restored?

“Then you never had any need of me at all?”

“For myself, no.”

Understanding suddenly filled her. “You knew how I might help Guildford - but why did you not simply tell me?”

“Susannah and Elizabeth spoke much of you before you came to us. I knew that had I revealed to you from the very beginning that your love could break his curse, neither of you would have believed me. Nor then would he have been so open with you, and you so accepting of him. You are both far too stubborn for your own good. This fatal flaw within you both was why we felt the match might prove true.”

Shock and no small amount of indignation passed over Jane at his words, but the truth of them was undeniable. 

“I take it back - you are no politician at all. You are a romantic,” she accused, her smile one of good humor.

Lord Archer laughed at the recrimination. “I cannot deny the charges, my lady.”

Guildford too met word of this kindly meant trick with equal parts indignity and humor, though Lord Dudley heard it with greater sadness.

“Perhaps, if I had spoken earlier, told you that I-”

But the words still did not come easily to the man, though Guildford now seemed to understand them all the same, and embraced his father heartily.

Jane embraced her mother too, for she was beginning to understand her better as well. Her sisters she kissed, and saved a kiss for her new brother too. He did not resent her for the hurt and exile she had caused his father, and in him she saw a member of her own family and not of Lord Seymour’s.

After much feasting, the party all danced until the dawn had nearly risen, human and beast hand in hand as the music played on. Jane was loath to leave her place at Guildford’s side, and he from hers, so all rearranged the dance so that the happy couple might remain together. They only party briefly, to share a dance with her sisters and Susannah. For a brief step a smiling Lord Archer caught her hand, but she was swiftly whisked away once more by her bridegroom, and Lord Archer was rejoined with his own Susannah. Stanley begged a dance from her Lady mother, while the elder Lord Dudley and Rabbit sat on the sidelines and watched the younger people promenade. 

Many of the gathered Lords offered their hands to Queen Elizabeth to join in the dance, but she gently eschewed them all to watch the festivities from her seat at the head of the party. She smiled at Jane and Guildford to see a love she knew she would not find for herself.

Thus was Jane married to Guildford with all the proper ceremony.

****

In lieu of a second honeymoon, and with Elizabeth’s blessing, Jane was sent forth to bring learning to the Kingdom, alongside her husband and a great deal of gold and silver. But they took this, the dawn of the second wedding, to revisit the site of their first.

How different it was now, the ancient sarsen monument of the White Horse Stone bathed in morning light. No more the tomblike qualities she had once thought to have seen in it - now it seemed only an altar of nature’s own making. The trees no longer loomed, tall and shadowy overhead, but stood as gentle sentries of their peace of solitude here.

Guildford brought with him a soft quilt to lay across the stone altar, so unlike the funereal black velvet of before. The morning was temperate and dewy, and with a light breeze that carried the fresh scent of oak and moss. The forest had just begun to wake, and everywhere was the gentle buzzing of insects, and the songs of the morning birds.

But the greatest difference was in Lady Jane herself. No more were her fears and uncertainties in this place. She had come unbounded, of her own will. And she came alongside her beloved, whose heart she knew as well as her own. That she could now see him with unmasked eyes was a privilege she meant to take full advantage of. 

Guildford too, seemed to relish the opportunity to see her out here in the open, where she could look back at him readily in the dawn light. In the days following the Battle of the Tower, they had been kept busy each day with tending to the wounded, and the heavy work of reuniting the kingdom. Each night they had held each other close, greatly exhausted and still bruised from the battle themselves. It had been many weeks since they had last enjoyed one another beyond the simple gratification of their sight - something they had both yet to tire of.

And their eyes hardly left one another as he moved to set aside her floral coronet and her wedding jewels as they stood before the stone. As he had on their first night together, he carefully loosened her laces at the back of her gown, allowing it to slip free from her shoulders. The long underdress she wore was nearly sheer, the pale gossamer crepe covering her form from ankles to wrists but hiding little. Only her shoulders were left entirely bare, and he pressed a kiss to the tops of each, mindful of the lingering bruises that lay just below. He moved to kneel at her front, slipping the shoes from her feet. Jane’s breath hitched at the sudden change in his position, as she looked down at him bowed before her. She watched as his gaze drifted from the teasing outline of her breasts, to the faint dark triangle of her sex, barely obscured beneath the silk. She would not allow herself to blush, no matter how naked she felt beneath his regard. 

She anticipated he would next remove this final barrier between them, but instead he rose to his feet, and guided her gently to lay back across the stone. Her hands stretched above her head, not quite as they had been before, but enough to position herself at the greatest advantage. Jane knew she had been successful at the darkening of her husband’s eyes, the way they ran over her form before locking with her own again. Jane could feel a familiar heat already beginning to stir throughou her body as his gaze burned through the sheerness of her dress. She heard a similar warmth in his voice as it rumbled over her.

“When I first caught sight of you here, your lovely gown had grown damp with mist, and your veil as translucent as your shift is now,” he recalled, his voice low and reverent, his hand reaching out to cup her cheek.

Jane could not resist teasing him for the rosy tint of his memories, “I was half frozen that night, and nearly drowning in my veil. And I did not see you at all.”

“I came here as Archer bade me too because he told me that I might save you, and that your cleverness might save me in turn.” His words reminded her that they were both of them in a less than fortunate position that night. “But then I saw you, not only beautiful, but like a great Queen prepared to face down an entire army of foes. You were completely fearless, as if you already knew you’d win.”

“I was very much afraid that night,” she admitted.

“You hid it well.”

“And any resolve I displayed was mere stubbornness. I’ve been told it is my greatest flaw.”

“And it is my favorite of yours. When you turned that heated iron on me I believe I was already halfway to in love with you.”

“Only halfway?” She laughed, though she can feel an answering tenderness swelling in her heart at his words. Jane remembered well her brazen attempts to defend herself before she had realized she was safe with him. “Was that when you decided to seduce me?” 

“As I said, you were also quite beautiful.” 

His fingers traced over her features, slipping down the long line of her throat to run along the edge of her dress. His eyes left hers but for a moment as his warm hand cupped the soft swell of her breast through the silk, thumb teasing across the peaked tip of it. Jane shivered at the work of his fingers, arching into the touch and growing desperate for more.

“And that was enough to sway you?”

He grinned. “Was it not enough to sway you? I seem to recall you warming to me after you held my face and learned my features.”

Jane knew she could not argue this, and did not try.

“If only your manners had been as handsome.” She says instead.

“Had I been so docile and well-manned, I believe you would have eaten me alive that night.”

“Perhaps I may still do so.”

At this she sat up to capture her husband’s mouth with her own. She nipped at his grinning lips and the strong line of his jaw. Her hands pushed at his clothing, for she no longer wished him alone to have the advantage of her. She slid the unbound velvet double down over his arms, and tugged at the undershift beneath.

“I seem to remember your hands being bound to this stone before,” he jested, though he did not shy from her touch.

“They are not bound now, so you will have to face their liberty.”

“I will gladly submit to them.”

And gladly he did, as she ran her hands beneath his linen shirt, teasing him as he had her, before freeing him from the garment. Jane drank in the soft flush of his newly revealed skin, framed only by the necklaces her fingers had traced so many times before.

“Then lie back, for I have gone far longer than you without being able to look upon my lover.”

Together they finished undressing him before her bridegroom was pushed none too gently to lay across the stone altar as she had, and Jane moved over him to look down upon the sight of him below. This dramatic alteration in their positions allowed Jane’s eyes and hands to trace over the visage of her lover, at once so familiar and yet so long remained unseen. 

The dark curls she had so often threaded her fingers through were now badly mussed by her hasty removal of his shirt. His eyes were darkened with his desire but ringed with a thin edge of deep brown as they looked back at her. Miles of skin, long unseen, faintly seemed to glow in the early morning light, as her hands traced the musculature of his arms and chest that she had become so acquainted with. She numbered each previously unknown freckle, the small scars that had healed so nearly as to be invisible to her fingertips. He was not so thin as he had been when he had been freed from his captivity, his ribs no longer so starkly pronounced. The bruises had faded from both of them, though her eyes still sought the memory of their purples and greens, his fingers ever mindful of remaining scars. But her hands pressed more firmly against him, and his answering groans were no longer of pain but of delight at her touch.

Jane imagined for a moment that their roles had been reversed that night, that it had been Guildford laid out across the sacrificial altar for her to take as husband, knowing that they might save one another. She pictured being able to see him first, without him seeing her. She knows she would have felt a little as he did - not love, at first, but sympathy, and certainly desire. Her husband was handsome, and she discovered she rather liked having him like this. Would she have seduced him that first night, as he had her? She had not known how to at the time. But now…

“If our positions had been reversed, at our first wedding -” she began.

He smiled at the recognition of her train of thought. “I recall we were neither of us free to make our own choices that night.”

“Yes, but had you been lying here in the dark, unable to see me?”

The low rumble of his laughter buzzed through her own body.

“Had you sat astride me as you do now, you could have had me on this very stone - even without your beautiful face to tempt me.”

Jane could feel her lover’s body responding beneath her to their conversation and to the work of her hands, the tiniest movement of her hips. Each touch drew out a small shudder, and an even sweeter sound. He kept his hands from her as if bound, as hers had been, and let her do as she willed to him. Her fingers threaded through the faint dusting of dark hair at his chest, before trailing lower. As her hands shifted, his breath quickened. When she gently took the hardened length into her small hand his eyes slipped shut, hiding them briefly from her view. Jane commanded them open again, smiling as he did as he was bid and rewarding him with a firmer touch.

Though after only a few moments, Guildford halted the work of her hands, turning her so that she lay below him once more. “I think I was always fated to adore you, no matter how we began.”

He pressed a kiss of apology to her lips, and nosed along her jaw, breathing her in. With his lips he mapped her form through the thin gossamer of her dress, placing tender kisses across her breasts, her belly, the damp curls of her sex, before freeing her from the final barrier that remained between them.

For many long moments, the two lovers lay side by side, simply drinking in their fill of one another, seen for the first time by the full light of day with nothing to obscure their vision. The soft whisper of their hearts’ confession filled the space between them, no longer held back by either. “I love you,” whispered again and again, the three words having not yet lost their power.

By now the sun’s chariot had passed well into the highest point of the sky, and the sun grew warm against their bared bodies. Jane might have been tempted to fall asleep then and there - having danced the whole night with all those she loved - were it not for the thrumming of her body, the urge to bring herself ever closer to her lover. She met his lips once more, drawing herself closer and pressing into the hard planes of his body, further augmenting her desire rather than satisfying it. Their kiss deepened, the sweet taste of his tongue sweeping past her lips as his fingers clung to her. Jane guided her lover to lay back across the stone altar, softened as it was by the quilt below them, and moved to settle herself astride him. She breathed out his name as she took him inside herself once more. She had dearly missed this. 

Jane savored the sight of her husband below her again, flushed and breathing labored as his hips rose up to meet hers in a familiar rhythm that promised pleasure for them both. She studied his expression as she moved over him, the furrowed brow, the parted lips. She traced them with her fingertips, and smiled when he drew them into his mouth, nipping at them with blunt white teeth. With damp fingertips she followed the pink flush of his cheeks and throat down to his chest and belly, watching the muscles there as they flexed with each thrust up into her. She memorized the shape of each of his fingers as they gripped at her sides, or dipped between them where she was most sensitive. 

Jane leant down to kiss him once more, relishing the feeling of their bodies pressed tightly together. Here she could catch the familiar scent of him, taste the sweetness on his tongue. The movement between them grew with their renewed urgency. They were moving ever closer to the precipice, the rolling of her hips and the circling of his fingers against her pushing them higher. Guildford clung to her as they tumbled over the edge, never pulling back even as he shuddered out his own release.

With trembling limbs she fell easily into his arms, and he tucked her close to him as he had even that first night of their strange nuptials. As now again, as Guildford held her within the circle of his arms, Jane began to believe in fate too.