#sixty is the troubled child of the three of them

[alaskan-wallflower]

I wanna know ur opinion on self destructive behaviors you think the greasers have aside from the obvious (eg Two-bits alcoholism, Ponyboys smoking) :]

for sure! tw for alcoholism, drugs, addiction, s/h—you can make your assumptions with this post

firstly is pony’s addiction—i believe that pony started taking aspirins as sleep aid after his parents died. it was after his very first big nightmare, and he literally did not sleep for three days. he had taken the aspirin to alleviate the headaches and such caused by lack of sleep but was delighted to find that when he took about five or six, they put him to sleep—a dreamless sleep. hence why he takes so many. he obviously knows it’s bad since in the book he makes a point to say he avoids darry and soda and anyone else in the gang while doing this. he obviously has an addiction to nicotine too, but i don’t think there’s too much to be said on that since literally everyone in the sixties was a nic fiend so it’s not too uncommon.

additionally, may be a hot take but soda’s recklessness is a coping mechanism. obviously he’s probably partially reckless due to his personality and the fact he’s a teenage boy and will do stupid things like any sixteen year old boy would, but something that kinda sticks out to me is the fact he still likes and participates in drag races after his parents died. i don’t know too much about drag races but i feel like that would be something anyone who lost a parent in a car accident would be wary of. soda “getting high on life” is probably soda needing the adrenaline boost, needing that spike of dopamine caused by driving way past the speed limit, or going out drinking with steve, or shagging sandy, or stealing, or causing public disturbances, or getting in trouble with the cops, or whatever. he needs that validation of being able to feel something that isn’t pure anguish because day in and day out he’s tormented by his parents death and then has to come home and play mediator.

darry’s self destructive behavior in my head is good restriction. he used to be a really chubby kid, until middle school or so when he started genuinely working out and got muscular, but he was scared of reverting back to his old body, so he started food restricting. it got better for about a year until his parents died to which he ended up food restricting out of grief. he physically cannot stomach food when he’s upset, and he doesn’t feel worthy of it. he struggles with not feeling worthy. he really does.

two-bit started drinking when he was maybe fifteen. he snuck into the kitchen one night because of teenage curiosity and tried it—and he liked it a lot. a bit too much. it blocked eddy thing from his head and it made him feel more sociable and likable because underneath the alcohol, he is pretty self conscious of himself and doesn’t eek like he can be liked vy the gang or girls if he’s sober, so he uses alcohol as a mask because to him, drunk two-bit is better than sober two-bit. he’s funny, charming, reckless…and when he’s sober he’s just tired, he’s sad, he’s reckless…he doesn’t like himself sober and he doesn’t think anyone else will either.

not really self destructive but kinda goes with the theme—steve’s love language is gift giving and not in a good way. the only love he’s been shown as a child is having his dad give him money as an apology, and he takes that to heart, and whenever he’s fighting with evie, or if soda is upset, his immediate response is to give them money or to buy them something. it’s the only love he knows, therefore the only love he can regurgitate and apply to real relationships

[roanofarcc]

PROJECT SUNSHINE CHAPTER SIXTY THREE → THE FREAKSHOW

summary: steve harrington x oc || Ao3

when another product of Hawkins National Laboratory escaped a long-survived nightmare alongside her sister, she crashed into one unsuspecting teenage boy and dragged him deeper into the dark mysteries that made up their hometown.

word count. 2.7k || masterlist || ocs moodboard

warnings: cannon typical violence, child abuse, horror, gore, and depictions of mental illness. parts of this story were written pre-season 4 release. cannon divergence.

previous chapter ← → next chapter

Tagged. @sattlersquarry, @leptitlu, @two-sides-samecoin

The subdivision was quiet that afternoon. A strange calm had settled over Hawkins that spring, but Steve had learned not to let his guard down anymore. Nothing was ever calm in Hawkins, and his nerves were already pricked with Sunshine a couple of hours away in Indy with her sister. He knew she could handle herself if she ran into any trouble, and he tried to convince himself that she wouldn’t run into any trouble, but there had been a knot of worry tied inside his gut since he was little. He worried about everything, all of the time. The revelation of other dimensions, monsters, and bad men only made that knot worse. But he did his best to distract himself. 

“Turn your elbow like this,” Steve said, moving his arm to mimic the motion of the kid beside him. “It’ll help your aim.” 

Lucas fixed his arm and shot the basketball, putting it right through the old hoop Steve had dug out of his garage. Since Lucas told Steve he was thinking of trying out for the basketball team last fall, Steve had been helping him practice. Between all of his high school highs and lows, basketball had been the only consistent thing for Steve, and something he still enjoyed. It served as a normal distraction for both of them, but especially Lucas. The kid was really good too and made varsity his freshman year. And while he most rode the bench, Lucas had too much potential to stay there forever.

The ball bounced against the cement and Lucas raced to grab it, dribbling it back down the driveway to where Steve stood. He was quieter than normal; Steve was the only person, besides Lucas’s dad, who the kid could have an actual conversation about basketball with. His friends weren’t interested in it, and Steve wasn’t sure of the last time Lucas had a full conversation with Max, to everyone’s dismay. 

“You all right, Sinclair?” Steve asked. 

He shrugged, eyes glued to the ball. “This game’s a big deal, right?” 

“A really big deal,” Steve replied. There were only a handful of times Hawkins High made it to the championship of anything. “But, you know, all you can do is play your best.” 

Lucas snorted a sarcastic laugh. “You sound like Sunshine.” 

Steve smiled. “Occupational hazard.” She had rubbed off on him, even more so since they were dating. Her sunny disposition and pep talks, along with her adoration of the simple things in life. He saw the world differently with her, and not just the bad stuff that crawled out of portals or gates. The world was a scary place, but it also held a lot of good stuff, you just had to look through the weeds and interdimensional vines to see it. 

“I know the pressure can be tough, but you’ll be fine.” 

Lucas held the ball in his hands, slumping his shoulders slightly. “It’s not just that. This game is important to me, but Mike and Dustin want me to skip it for the D&D campaign. I guess Eddie refuses to reschedule.” 

Steve rolled his eyes. He didn’t really know the guy, their paths rarely crossed in high school. Either Steve was running with Tommy and Carol, too busy to notice nerds like Eddie Munson, or he was sulking in his fall from grace and reeling from monsters and bullies. He’d heard of Eddie, in a small town it was impossible to not know everyone, whether you liked to or not. Rumor had it he was some super-senior drug dealer, and that sounded like the last person Steve wanted hanging around the party. But Dustin refuted the rumors and made Eddie out to be some kind of king of the nerds. 

It was embarrassing, and Steve hadn’t even admitted it aloud to Sunshine yet, but he was a little jealous of the Hellfire Club caption. Sure, on paper, he was probably the cooler person to hang out with in the eyes of Dustin because he loved the same game they did, but Steve had thought that he and Dustin were the ultimate duo. He was like Steve’s little brother, annoying and sometimes a pain in the ass, but someone Steve couldn’t see not in his life. But it seemed like Dustin was no longer interested in hanging out with him. 

It made Steve feel even more useless to the gaggle of teens, like he really didn’t have a place in the grand scheme of their monster-hunting team anymore.

“Your friends can’t miss one campaign to come watch you play?” Steve asked, shoving aside his own weird issues with some dude he’d never even talked to before. 

“Guess not.” 

“Well, what about Max?” 

Lucas sighed again, hugging the ball to his chest like he was trying to get some kind of comfort from it. “She still won’t talk to me. She hardly talks to Mike or Dustin. Every time I try, she shrugs me off with some excuse. I don’t know what else to do.” 

Max didn’t like change, which Steve figured out very quickly after getting to know Max. Moving across the country was one thing, but what she’d experienced since being in Hawkins was another beast. No one could blame her, they all just wished she’d let them help her. Sunshine seemed to be the only one who could get through to her somewhat. She shut the party out, caved in on herself. Lucas was the most distraught over it. 

“There’s not much you can do,” Steve said. “You can try to be there for her, but you can’t magically make everything better.” 

“It just sucks. We know people with superpowers and know there’s another dimension, but we can’t, like, fix any of the shit we’ve been through. We just have to take it and pretend like…like it’s fine.” 

It was beyond frustrating, but that had become their lives. Steve’s mind glazed over it, trying hard not to think too much about it until the world threatened to end again. 

“Look on the bright side, you’ve only got four more years here. Then you can play basketball at some D1 school, pretend like Hawkins was some fucked up nightmare or something.” 

Lucas laughed but it was mixed with a little scoff. “Yeah, if I live that long,” he muttered, and Steve’s gut turned uncomfortably. He didn’t like that, jokes like that were too real. “And if they ever let me off the bench.” He tossed the ball at Steve, who caught it despite being slightly thrown off guard. 

Dribbling the ball, back up the driveway, Steve shoved away the pit in his stomach and focused on the task at hand. “Hey, with my help, you might even get to play in the championship.”

“Yeah,” he replied, sarcastically. “I might even win the whole thing.” 

→←

“This feels…unethical,” Will Byers said, chewing nervously on his nails as he stood lookout for Leia. 

She stopped, turning her head to look at him. “Really? I could name ten unethical things that have been done to the two of us alone. This, my dearest brother, is good ole’ fashioned revenge.” She balanced a cup of red paint on the locker shelf with a fishing wire around it. Carefully, she threaded the wire through the slit in the door and fashioned it so that as soon as the locker was opened, the cup would be pulled forward and spill on the unlucky but well-deserving bully. 

“I doubt she’s even read Carrie. Angela and her friends aren’t going to get the prank.” 

Leia sighed, cautiously looking up and down the empty hall. “They don't need to ‘get it.’ All that matters is that Angela is covered in red paint. She deserves a lot worse for laughing at El’s project, but Joyce said we’re grounded if we commit a crime.” 

“Technically, I think she said we’re grounded if we’re caught committing a crime.” 

Leia paused before she shrugged. “If this doesn’t work, then I’ll think of something illegal. Until then…” She dusted her hands off on her paint-stained overalls from an art project gone slightly rouge and clapped Will on the shoulder. He had grown even taller since their move, Joyce said it was probably the sun that was making all of them grow like weeds, but Will still curled into himself and tried to make himself smaller among their new Cali-folk. 

While Leia probably should have been more wary about a new school, but she had a different view of it. She had never attended any kind of school, so she had no expectations. Bullies didn’t bother her because she was good at brushing them off. All of the teasing from Kali’s friends made her skin thick and she had a little voice in her head reminding her she had superpowers and they didn’t; it made her feel better. 

Will flew under the radar too. He was quiet and good at blending in, making himself a small target. Luke followed in his footsteps, spending most of his time tucked away in the library which most kids avoided besides the nerdy and quiet ones. It was El that caught all of the flack. 

By some unlucky chance, she had caught the eye of a blonde-headed all-American mean girl the second she stepped through the school doors. El was kind, she wanted to be friends with everyone but had a hard time picking up on social cues. And the second Angela got a whiff of El’s slight unusualness, she latched on like a hungry shark. How some freshman had a cult following of brightly dressed, rich friends who would do anything she said, Leia had no idea. It was like they stumbled into the set of a movie riddled with cliches that Leia thought weren’t actually supposed to happen in real life. Yet, there Angela was, laughing at El while she tried to present a project she had worked really hard on. Apparently cruelty earned you cheap laughs; Leia wanted to fry Angle to a crisp. 

She had to settle for ruining the bully’s outfit. 

The bell rang, singling the end of class. Leia and Will stood innocently at the water fountain and subtly watched as Angela and her clique waded down the hall, her blonde ponytail swinging with each step. She arrived at her locker, entered her combo, and yanked it open. Out poured the red paint, splashing down the front of Angela’s shirt. She let out a shrill scream that echoed through the hall, causing people to stop. 

Angela wiped her hands against the paint, smearing it into the fabric and getting a layer coating her palms and fingers. It looked like blood, but the smell of paint quickly filled the air, making the hall smell just like the art room. 

Leia hid her laughter under her hand while Will pressed his lips in a thin line, suppressing a smile. They watched as Angela’s friends surrounded her like a flock of birds. She swatted them away and turned out from her locker with her face nearly as red as the paint. Leia couldn’t hear what she said, but without even cleaning herself up, she took off toward the doors that led to the courtyard of the school. 

“Okay,” Will said with a laugh. “You were right; that was great!” 

Leia beamed. “I’ve got more where that came from.” 

He shook his head, a lightness in his tone that only came out from time to time now. “Come on, let’s go find Luke and El. They’ll want to hear about this.” 

Unfortunately, their two siblings did hear about the red paint stunt because El was the first person Angela assumed had pranked her. By the time Leia and Will entered the courtyard, El was sprawled out against the ground with her project in pieces along the sidewalk. Angela was standing the closest to El, her arms crossed and laughing along with the rest of her friends who stood on the sidelines. 

El’s face was grief-stricken, and that alone was enough to send Leia running towards her sister. She jammed her shoulder into Angela’s sending the blonde stumbling. El stood and outstretched her hand in a similar way she once did when she used to abilities; it was a reflex, one that would probably take El a long time to shake since she had lost her abilities last summer. Before El did anything to give Angela further ammunition, Leia grabbed El’s arm gently and pushed it back down at her side. 

Angela seemed satisfied with sending El and her project to the ground and turned to leave, her front half still coated in paint. A tear fell from El’s eye as she glanced at her broken project. With a gentle sigh, Leia tried to channel her anger into something more helpful for El; it was what Sunshine told her to do when she felt her anger gain control of her, fueling her abilities and asking for something bad to happen. Leia grabbed a hold of El’s shoulder, making her sister look at her. 

“Are you okay?” 

El frowned, wiping away her tears. She nodded sadly, slumping her shoulders. 

“It’s my fault,” Leia said. “I pranked Angela, but I should have known she’d think it was you. I’m sorry.” 

“It’s okay,” El tried to smile, but it was weak and turned back into a frown when her eyes landed on the pieces of her project. 

Will and Luke started picking them up, placing them back in the slightly crushed shoe box. “We can fix it,” Will said with confidence in his voice. He pinched a squirrel figurine in between his fingers before holding it out to El. She grabbed the squirrel and closed her fist around it. “We’ll all help, and it’ll be good as new, all right?” 

“All right,” El said quietly. She joined the boys on the ground while Leia scooped out the surrounding area in case any pieces went flying off of the sidewalk and onto the grass. She spotted a couple of popsicle sticks and gathered them before she turned around. Directly behind her was one of her classmates, who sat beside Leia in art class. 

Startled, Leia gasped, and the girl’s eyes widened before a sheepish smile fell across her lips. “Sorry!” Abby said. “Didn’t mean to scare you, I just found this.” She held out a small hat that El had made to resemble Hopper’s police hat. 

“Thanks,” Leia said, taking the hat with a small ache in her chest. Not a day went by where she didn’t think about Hopper; she missed him, but Joyce was doing everything she could to make the three of them feel a part of their family. It wasn’t the same though. They weren’t in that little cabin in the woods, eating Eggos and watching black-and-white detective movies. 

Abby shoved her hands in her pockets and rocked back and forth in her busted sneakers. She didn’t dress like most of the kids at school; her shoes were dirty and her clothes were mended with patches of different colors. Her hair was pin straight and black, with thick bangs cut barely above her eyes. She was odd but in a good way. Abby was always bouncing on her heels or tapping her hands against the tabletop. She spoke quickly but with so much enthusiasm it made Leia feel happy too. 

“Angela’s a jerk,” Abby said. “I’m glad someone finally did something, even if it didn’t end super well.” 

Leia pocketed the hat with a sigh. “I should have used real pig’s blood.” 

“You stole the pain from the art room?” 

“Guilty.”

Abby laughed. “That’s amazing! Oh, I would have killed to see her face!” Leia laughed too; it was impossible for her not to. Abby’s laugh was infectious, which often got them into trouble in art when they couldn’t spot giggling in the middle of class.

“Leia, are you ready?” Will called from several feet away. They had cleaned up El’s project and Luke was carrying it in his arms, probably in case Angela had any other ideas. Luke was a little taller and broader, harder to knock down. 

Abby gave Leia a smile before she said, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” With that, she turned on her feet and headed across the yard, leaving Leia with a friendly giddiness bubbling inside her chest. 

Leia rushed over to her siblings, handing the hat off to El. Together, they all walked back into school, El sandwiched between them. The Hopper-Byers weren’t a typical group of siblings, but it was as if they were destined to be family all along. Maybe they radiated the idea that they didn’t belong, slotted pieces of different puzzles that somehow fit, but there was no denying that they belonged together as a family. 

[talia-black]

Nameless! Aventurine Headcanons

I have a million other projects I need to be working on, but this tiny brainworm hasn’t let me go.  :(

TW: Talk of Aventurine’s backstory. Nothing explicit, but his brand is shown and stuff is alluded to. Symptoms of trauma are also explicitly mentioned. Also shirtless Aventurine but nothing sexual. 

Nameless! Aventurine who succeeded in bargaining his freedom from the IPC and became a wanderer. Who always wears a shirt with a high collar to hide his slave tag. Who melted down his sixty tanba and had them made into various accessories for his otherwise nondescript outfit. Who pulled scams and took risks whenever the mood struck him and then skipping out whenever things got dicey for him. Until he runs into the Astral Express.

Nameless! Aventurine who had heard of the Express in passing, and needing a quick passage off-world, offers his help with whatever trouble they’ve managed to get themselves into in return for a ride. Only to be thrown completely out of his element by the attitude of each of its members. None of them are interested in what he can offer them (though it takes him a while to figure that out) and are more than willing to still let him join the Express even when his plan doesn’t pan out the way Aventurine promised. 

Nameless! Aventurine who actually ends up fitting very well into the Astral Express’ dynamic. He is always happy to indulge in March 7th’s antics (You cannot tell me these two wouldn’t have spa days where they do facials, paint each other's nails, and just talk for hours about Robin’s latest album or whatever else is a hot topic for Honkai Star Rail’s version of the internet.) and treats her like a little sister. 

March 7th is also the first to figure out Nameless! Aventurine’s aversion to being touched. He frequently initiates contact, but the first time March came up behind him and touched his arm, the gambler jumped almost a foot in the air. He laughed it off, telling her that she “give a man some warning next time” and pushed the conversation forward. She chalked it up to him being caught off-guard, but then she watched him freeze up when Himeko put a hand on his back, and when Welt patted his shoulder, and whenever March touched him first. 

Nameless! Aventurine who acts like the annoying middle child always pestering the older brother because he secretly admires him. Dan Heng doesn’t warm up to Aventurine nearly as quickly, and is often annoyed when he just waltzes into the room containing the data bank, plops himself in a chair, and talks at him for hours. The first time Dan Heng responded to something he said was actually what got Aventurine to be quiet. Dan Heng turned away from what he was working on to see Aventurine with his mouth slightly agape, not expecting him to actually answer. Dan Heng found it incredibly interesting how the normally smooth talker stumbled over his words for almost a minute before picking up where he had left off. 

Dang Heng is the first to notice how Nameless! Aventurine is always throwing himself in the firing range. Even when there’s absolutely no reason to or nothing to gain from making such a sacrifice. He subtly watched how in every conversation that even verges into dangerous territory, Aventurine pulls all of the attention onto himself with either a comment aimed to provoke, or acting in a way that drastically escalates things. Aventurine had told the Crew about his “luck”, and these instances had certainly liquidated any of Dan Heng’s doubts about that. But if his victory was always certain, why did he smile when he got shot? 

Nameless! Aventurine who Himeko treats like the rest of her kids right out of the gate. Aventurine is the most suspicious of Himeko out of all the Express Crew, but that doesn’t last long. They bond over their love of black coffee and as the two of the only three night owls on the Express (Dan Heng is also one, but he never leaves his room). While he would never say Himeko reminded him of his mother, she gave her own forms of paternal love freely in the way she always made sure he ate at least two meals a day, immediately patched up his various scrapes and scratches herself when he first got on the Express, and offered him his own room without hesitation. He would go to his grave with the knowledge that he had felt his face heat up when she had ruffled his hair after he beat her at chess during one of their 2am coffee drinking sessions. 

Himeko was the first to see Nameless! Aventurine’s hands were in terrible condition. When she checked him over for wounds, she noticed how he was always fidgeting with a coin. Later it would change to a beaten up poker chip, or his bracelet, or whatever odd thing he had picked up. And when she was bandaging his arm, his hands shook with constant tremors. When he was outside the Express, he always stuffed his hands in his pockets, and Himeko frowned late one evening when she saw Aventurine palm’s had scars from where his own nails had dug into them. 

Nameless! Aventurine who loves messing with Welt. Honestly, Aventurine gets along with Welt just as well, if not better than March. Welt is never without something interesting or insightful to say, and combined with Aventurine’s observant and commentative nature, they sometimes end up talking for hours without even realizing time has passed. However, Aventurine cannot live without a little mischief. And Welt’s naivety when it comes to current trends is just too good of an opportunity to pass up. This often manifests in Welt using slang terms in ways they absolutely were not meant to be, and a few interesting videos that have made their way onto the Express’ group chat. Welt has mostly caught on, but he still plays along if only to see the way Aventurine’s eyes light up whenever he successfully “tricks” him. The “kiddo” had gotten more laughs out of the old man than all of the members of the Express combined. 

Welt was the first to notice and tell the others that Nameless! Aventurine was exhibiting signs of severe trauma. During a pit stop, Welt asked Aventurine to go ask around for a certain brand of coffee beans for Himeko before calling the others for a meeting. After sharing what they knew, the group struggled to decide on a course of action. Aventurine was more than entitled to his past, and it would go against everything they stood for to pry for potentially painful details. But it also seemed wrong to let him continue potentially harmful habits without intervention. In the end, they decided to wait until they crossed paths with a specialist who they could ask for advice before taking any particular course of action. 

Nameless! Aventurine who kept making excuses for why he couldn’t get off the Express. He didn’t realize that no one had ever asked him to.

Nameless! Aventurine who upon waking one day to see his name emblazoned on the door of his room refused to come out for an entire day. The rest of the Crew didn’t even know it had happened, and Pom-Pom swore they hadn’t done it. Meanwhile, Aventurine spent most of the morning crying silently into his pillow and the rest of the day deep in the trenches of an existential crisis. He comes out the next day and acts like nothing ever happened, and the new status quo was set in stone. 

Nameless! Aventurine who was with March and Dan Heng when they found the Trailblazer. And immediately became fascinated with them. Especially after they threw themselves in front of March when the Doomsday Beast attacked the space station. He surprised himself with how upset he felt when he saw the Trailblazer was considering staying at Herta’s Space Station as opposed to coming with them. And how happy he was when they ultimately decided to join the Express. 

Nameless! Aventurine and the Trailblazer who get on like a house on fire. Aventurine is persistent and victorious in getting the Trailblazer comfortable with them, and often ends up in a game of tug-a-war with March for their attention. Trailblazer, who at first glance seems like a pretty stoic character, turns out to be quite unhinged, and Aventurine’s lack of self-restraint only enables them once they set foot on Belobog. Aventurine was a man who clung to unpredictability and the mystery of the dice like a starving animal, and the Trailblazer was impulsivity personified. From their out-of-pocket comments at the most inappropriate of moments to their dumpster-diving habits, Aventurine never knew what to expect from them. 

Trailblazer who is the first to discover the truth of Nameless! Aventurine’s past. It wasn’t anything grand; the two had gone out with March and Himeko for a drink and ended up collapsing in the same bed. Trailblazer woke first with an awful headache, a dry mouth, and dots doing pirouettes across their vision. Which is why they thought they were just imagining the brand on Aventurine’s neck. The high-collar shirt that he always wore had been chucked off at some point during the night. Aventurine stirred when a gentle touch carefully traced irritated, scarred skin. 

“You should really be applying some kind of salve to that.”

Reality cut through Aventurine’s hangover faster than a bucket of ice. He leapt out of bed and locked himself in the bathroom. He refused all of the Trailblazer’s attempts to get him to respond, and it was only after they promised they would give him some space and that they wouldn’t tell the others that his heart rate was able to go down. It still took him an hour before he left the bathroom. From there he avoided the Trailblazer like the plague. When the other members of the Crew asked what had happened, the Trailblazer explained it away as “drunken shenanigans” and let the subtext run its course. If only to give Aventurine some initiative to speak to them. This standoff lasted weeks, and probably would have gone on much longer if Aventurine hadn’t taken a dagger to the gut and a crossbow bolt to the knee. And the Trailblazer, out of the generosity of their heart, offered to personally make sure he made a full recovery. And many painful nights later, with the help of a few glasses of whiskey, Aventurine shared a few pieces of his past. He still had enough clarity of mind to keep the less palatable details out of it, but gave more than enough for the Trailblazer to understand what he had been through. Somehow, the bottle was emptied, and the two once again found themselves cuddled up in Aventurine’s bed and drifting off into peaceful slumber. 

Nameless! Aventurine who found a new family, and would continue to protect them with everything he had as he continued his journey starward. 

[cconfusedkat]

Lamb Questions!

3. How long was your lamb held captive by heretics before their sacrifice?

6. Who raised your lamb?

7. Where was your lamb raised? A village? A prison? Constantly on the run?

10. How did your lamb feel with their head on the pedestal? Afraid? Relieved? Angry?

(Also love your art and Lamb, here’s the ask list if you wanna see it)

AWAWAWA HAI ,,, Thank u for asking these i was super excited 2 see this in my ask box 🥹🥹 i answered the rest of them in my docs but i didn't get an ask about this til now

3. How long was your lamb held captive by heretics before their sacrifice?

Short Answer: held captive for three months until they just kept biting guards and then that's what led them to their finalized execution ⭐

,,,so basically they were held captive for three months? with their mom? they were held captive in one singular prison while their mom was the only lamb allowed to leave the prison at night time to gather resources. unfortunately since zainab (their mom's name) was older, she was meant to be sacrificed first right beside allure -- right beside them. as zainab was laid to the pedestal next to zainab, they bit off a guards hand , then another guards finger to protest against being executed ,,, this resulted in allure's punishment being executed a day after zainab + being even more humiliated by being locked in a small cage as the second punishment ,,, allure was then sacrificed a day later after jalala failed to open the cage. she got in serious trouble with the old faith and never saw allure again until 200 years later ⭐

6. Who raised your lamb?

Zainab!! Their mother ⭐ She's in her sixties. pardon the old image,, but. zainab's husband died to the genocide as well as the rest of the qabr family,,

(🐏 Qabr is their lastnames! Zainab Qabr & "Allure" Fionn Qabr 🐏)

im kinda projecting what i went through as a child -- my mom didn't want me to know about our genocide and how she used the excuse of our extended family being dead more as like,, they're on vacation to a safe place ,, zainab started running away with allure when allure was 9 and zainab was 50 ,, she didn't tell allure the truth on why they had to be on the run until they were 15

7. Where was your lamb raised?

they were raised in a village :o) on the run after turning 9 years old unfortunately ⭐

since i kinda want shamura and allure to have opposite stories ;; allure grew up in an open minded village until they were nine years old when lamb hunters invaded their village grounds killing each and every one of them. allure and zainab were the only ones to make it out alive. zainab was quick about it because it wasnt the first time she was forced to leave her home ,, she quickly grabbed allure and hid underground for two days ,, then after those two days she picked up allure quickly to start running as fast as she could to get out of the village ,,, she left everything behind. allure left everything behind.

all those important scriptures and pieces of culture are all gone

10. How did your lamb feel with their head on the pedestal?

a mix of wrath, anger, sadness, guilt,,, about all the mixed emotions u would feel if u couldn't avenge your mother and let your emotions override you ⭐

after 200 years they still get flashbacks whenever they have the slightest bit of contact with their neck ,, its why their neck is highly sensitive and why their collar is a little loose ,, the tightness of it reminds them of when the axe hit the back of their neck and how they felt the slow excruciating swing of it cutting their nerves and through the bone

im unable to depict this often but this is actually how big their neck scar is , even after having the ability to self heal as well as the power of the red crown to do anything to their body ,,, the scar never goes away and is a reminder for them every morning when they wake up that they're truly the last of their kind and feel incredibly terrible about it

what was done can't already be undone. you can wait for a millennium and your past will still haunt you

[eretzyisrael]

by David Collier

Mohsen Mahdawi has America eating out of the palm of his hand. The media is salivating for his byline. The camera can’t keep away from his face. Politicians are pretending to be pop stars, shouting into microphones to praise his release on bail.

This is despite the fact that the one available court document shows him being questioned by the FBI for allegedly saying he liked to “kill Jews.” And despite him repeatedly lying about multiple elements of his backstory since 2015, nobody seems to be questioning his version.

Well, we have caught him lying again.

The NYT and the Mohsen Mahdawi back peddle

This latest lie comes in a New York Times ‘guest essay’, penned by Mohsen, that was posted just yesterday.

The difference is – as Mohsen scrambles and back peddles to try to get himself out of trouble because of his collapsing pyramid of lies – he is only digging a deeper hole for himself. In fact – we are now in a position where we can PROVE Mohsen has been lying about his childhood trauma – and all of the material needed to do so – is Mohsen in his own words.

Mohsen’s story begins to collapse

On Friday, the New York Times published a guest essay from Mohsen and the only thing the Grey Lady confirmed with this story was their willingness to publish utter nonsense.

Mohsen’s entire story hinges on two key events: the death of his best friend and the death of his uncle Thayer. These are the two traumatic events that Mohsen has repeated constantly for years – and used to gain credibility and legitimacy as he worked his way into Vermont hearts.

As anyone who reads this research would know, I had shown a major problem with one of those events. Mohsen Mahdawi had said he was ten years old when his best friend was killed – and yet NO CHILDREN were killed in his camp at that time. This made Mohsen’s statement impossible.

Yet Mohsen repeated the 10-year-old line every time he touched on the subject — and this fiction went unchallenged and unchecked all the way through until the end of 2023.

In December 2023 – Mohsen appeared on 60 Minutes – and as part of his fictional but well-worn story – once again claimed he was 10 when the tragedy happened. The trouble was – that it appeared the 60 Minutes fact-checkers had stumbled on the detail that no children died in his camp at that time. Realising that the only child who had died had been killed in 2002 (although not from being shot, as Mohsen had claimed) the narrator of the interview placed the year as 2002.

And Sixty Minutes went out with that glaring error. The narrator says the event happened in 2002 – and 20 seconds later – Mohsen said he was ten years old when it did. Only one of those can be accurate.

Mohsen wakes up

It is likely that Mohsen watched himself on the clip and realised there was a problem. Because three months later he delivered a lecture to a class in Santa Barbara, California and during the speech he acknowledges there had been a mix-up with the dates, and moves the goalposts – now claiming the tragedy happened when he was 12.

One could try to excuse this mix up as confusion from childhood trauma. I would argue that NOBODY would ever forget how old one was when witnessing one’s best friend being murdered and then burying them ‘with your bare hands’ – but whatever the reason, he just changed his age from 10 to 12. 

But we are not finished with this story.

Nailing the dates

After his arrest I published the results of my research – exposing all of these lies (and more) in full detail. My post on X went viral and was no doubt seen by Mohsen and his defenders. At this point it is likely he would then have been aware of the precise dates of the single 2002 killing (of a child) he needed to associate himself with. Which leads us to his release and the NYT article. Now knowing that the 2002 death occurred in June 2002 – Mohsen would have known he would have to have been 11 at the time. And sure enough, in the NYT guest essay he penned Friday, May 2, 2025, Mohsen changes his age once again:

[bluejaysandblackbats]

Keepsafes

Fandom: Batman, DC Comics

Summary: AU where Martha and Thomas survive, and they adopt the batkids.

Chapters: 65/?

Characters: Bruce Wayne, Thomas Wayne, Martha Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Harvey Dent, Dick Grayson, Cassandra Cain, David Cain, Talia al Ghul, Damian Wayne, Jason Todd, Tim Drake

Relationships: Thomas Wayne/Martha Wayne/Alfred Pennyworth, BruHarvey, BruTalia

Additional Tags: Canon Divergent AU, Hurt/Comfort, Bruce Wayne is Not Batman, Angst, Alfred Pennyworth Knows All, Bruce Wayne Only Has One Child, Bruce Wayne is Not An Only Child, Bi Bruce Wayne

Chapter Sixty-Five: Doc

Bruce sat with a patient and his son while he used tweezers to pick glass out of the man’s head. “Are you sure you wanna sit here? Head wounds always look worse than they—.”

“I’m staying here. Besides, I’ve seen worse,” the little boy interrupted. 

“Don’t interrupt people, Jason. Sorry, Doc. He’s just a kid,” the man apologized, “Well, I guess you’re sort of a kid, too… No offense.” 

“None taken… And I think it’s nice that your son cares so much, Mr. Todd. I’ll be lucky if my—. Sorry, I don’t know why I said that,” Bruce whispered.

“Hey. Are you expecting? Well… Not you, but—. You know what I’m getting at,” Mr. Todd smiled. 

“Yeah… But I should be focused on getting you patched up. Mind if I ask how you got all this glass in your head?” Bruce questioned as the gentle tinkling noise of glass hitting the metal pan colored the mostly quiet room. 

Jason stared at Mr. Todd with an almost furious intent. He didn’t speak. He didn’t move his mouth, but he stared almost as if he wanted Mr. Todd to give a certain answer. Without a word or a change in expression, Mr. Todd rustled a hand through Jason’s curls. “You’ll see that my son’s only flaw is that he thinks Gotham plays by conventional rules. He’s a good kid… But you know I’m not gonna give you a straight answer. Don’t you, Doc?” Mr. Todd replied. 

“Yeah, but I can tell from the color of the glass it was a beer bottle. I can deduce what I need to from this situation, but I ask questions to see how bad your troubles outside of the injury are… Jason, it’s not gonna affect the level of care your father receives,” Bruce reassured them. 

“You’re not like other doctors… Are you?” Jason asked. 

“I’m a first-year. So, I’m technically still a student. I am a doctor, but I’m a new doctor,” Bruce explained. 

“Are you gonna be an ER doctor?” Jason questioned. 

“Actually, that’s a good question. When I was in med school, I narrowed it down to three things. Pediatrics. Psych. ER. I didn’t end up choosing emergency medicine, but I still have to do a rotation for my internship... I ended up choosing psych,” Bruce answered. Jason nodded. “Are you interested in working in the ER when you grow up?”

“It takes a bazillion years to become a doctor… And it takes money to go to college. Doesn’t it? I always hear people talking about how expensive it is,” Jason answered. 

“It’s tough, but you can do it if you apply yourself… And there are tons of scholarships out there. My friend is an assistant district attorney, and he wouldn’t have been able to afford law school if he hadn’t gotten scholarships and grants. He doesn’t like help, so he had to do all of that by himself… Anything’s possible when you want it bad enough,” Bruce smiled. 

“What specialty did you pick?” Mr. Todd asked. 

“Psych. It was a last-minute decision. I almost went with pediatrics because I feel like I get along so well with the kids… I’ve got a sister around Jason’s age… You’re what? Nine? Ten?” Bruce asked. 

“I’ll be ten in August,” Jason smiled, “How’d you guess that? Everybody thinks I’m younger than I am because I’m shorter than the other kids.”

“My sister’s short, too. You favor her a little bit,” Bruce smiled. 

**

Six or so weeks after the holidays, Leda and Liza returned to Germany. Harvey continued to work despite Gilda’s insistence that he stay home and recuperate from what seemed to be the flu. “Harvey, honey, you look like—. Actually, you still look cute. I’m not making a good case for myself, but you look really pretty today. I couldn’t tell you a lie,” Gilda whispered. Harvey chuckled as he straightened his tie. 

“Thanks, Gil’, but I’ve gotta go to work,” Harvey replied. 

“Well, call me if you start feeling icky,” Gilda whispered as she held his face. “You feel a tad bit clammy.” 

Harvey held her hands to his face. “You’re gonna drop me off today, right?” Harvey asked. Gilda nodded as she chewed her lip. “What? What’s the matter?”

“Your dad called. He wanted me to tell you he understands,” Gilda confessed, “What does he mean?” 

“Cassie helped me realize something. I can’t buy my father’s love… I wrote him a letter,” Harvey confessed. 

**

Someone from the mailroom brought Harvey a package and a coffee before Harvey sat up straight and stopped him. “Hey, Mark?” Harvey smiled. 

“Yes, Mr. Dent?” Mark asked in reply. Harvey opened a box of donuts and Mark took a napkin and grabbed one. “Thank you.”

“You don’t have to call me, Mr. Dent, Mark. When I was eighteen, I would’ve given anything to have your job. You’ve already got me beat. How are you?” Harvey asked. 

“I’m alright, Mr.—. Harvey… I’m okay. Staying busy. Big case?” Mark questioned. Mark was a short blond with freckles and a round face that made him look more boy than man, but he’d been in the mailroom for almost two years. His eyes always watered behind thick glasses and his nose was usually rosy, but his skin was different lately. A tinge of yellow tainted the almost doll-like boy. Jaundice. That’s what Harvey noticed. That’s what bothered him. 

“Not sure until I open the package… Um, where’d you say you lived, Mark?” Harvey asked. 

“Right by Ace Chemicals. I work overnight security on weekends,” Mark answered. Harvey nodded. Ace Chemicals… The fumes should’ve been enough to have the company shut down or the people relocated to new apartments, but it wasn’t that easy. It was never that easy. That area had a look, as all places do. The people always looked a little worn for wear. Dark circles under watery eyes, small stature, shaky hands, and the smiles… They smiled as if they were perpetually unsure of their feelings, but Thomas explained to Harvey a long time ago that it was involuntary. 

“Hold on. I want to give you two numbers. When you call them, I want you to tell them that I sent you—.”

“Is this about my skin?” Mark asked. Harvey swallowed hard, startled that Mark was aware. Harvey nodded. “Once you look like this, it’s too late… Isn’t it?” 

“Not always. Give Dr. Thompkins a call first… For me. You’re the best person in our mailroom, and we’d be lost without you here,” Harvey answered, “You’re a good kid, Mark.” 

“Thank you, Harvey,” Mark whispered as he took the numbers from Harvey and nodded as he left the room. 

**

Thomas received a call from Dick at lunch and answered the phone while he watched a movie with Alfred, Martha, and Talia. “What’s the matter?” Thomas asked. 

“Nothing. I was thinking. If I move to the room on the other side of Cassie’s, the baby can have my old room—.” 

“Dick, Bruce, and Talia already decided to move to the west wing. We’re putting a little window in there and eventually, we'll remodel the second floor and make it so we’re all close again,” Thomas explained, “You’ve been thinking about this at school?”

“I’ve been thinking about this baby nonstop,” Dick replied.

“Well, Dick… The baby’s not due for another six months. I think we can wait a minute before we start worrying too much. And trust me, I’m just as excited as you are,” Thomas replied, “I love you… And eat your lunch, young man. My goodness.” 

“Love you too, Dad. Give Alfred and Mom a kiss for me,” Dick replied. 

“I will. See you later on,” Thomas smiled.

[modkatisbacc]

I ain't done talking about the Elemental Alliance Actually (And some Predecessors)

This post is for the timeline of how things happen in my stories *Unless told otherwise, like in a crossover or if they setting is wildly different* and is most likely ( A Girl can dream) not canon compliant.

This is just for the main elements as no one else is really fleshed out yet. I'm getting there.

Putting this under a read more because I will eventually turn these into like short stories after noticing im... writing their entire backstory... uh oh Im going in too deep.

Man if I could draw ya'll would be getting so many doodles... one day.

We're just going back a generation and a half, since some of the Elemental Alliance that we see get their powers sooner/later than others.

The oldest in the EM Alliance, besides Garmadon, Wu, and Misako (I'll talk more about Misako later on in this post, as a treat. She's part of the Alliance too, after all <3) is Whint, Master of Ice.

Whint is in his late nineties when we see him in flashbacks, with Elemental Masters having expanded life spans.

People did not like the idea of Elemental Masters for a LONG time, and actively sent out people to hunt them. Either to kill them out of fear, or take their power for themselves.

When Whint found out about his powers as a young teen, he knew he was in trouble. Like every master of ice before *and after* him, he had visions and the gift of sixth sense. He would run on for several decades, trying to live in small villages and towns, and then in the Birchwood Forrest and the surrounding area when he noticed that his presence put people in grave danger.

He would leave pure devastation in his wake when he knew he was being followed by enemies. This is actually how Garmadon found him. He had been trailing Whint for nearly a week, trying to find the right time to show himself, as he had transformed into a falcon to follow him. After being nearly overwhelmed by enemies, Garmadon decided to show himself and save Whint.

After a lot of convincing, Garmadon finally got Whint to follow him back to the Monastery.

Whint is in his late sixties when he joins the brothers and some of the other elemental masters.

The Master of Lightning was just as tricky to find as Ice, if not more so. The Masters of Lightning never stayed in one place long, always retreating back into the desert. They never tell anyone their name, they never reveal their face, and they never reveal their intentions.

On average, the brothers and Misako have noted that the Masters of Lightning seem to have the shortest lifespan of the four main elements. With Lightning being the hardest to control, and with little to no training, by the time the three finally found a living master, several had already died mere years between each other.

A young teen by the name of Edna Walker had found the Master of Lightning herself. He was extremely tired, and had accidentally used his power in front of her while fixing up a vehicle he planned to steal.

Instead of ratting him out, as the town was full of people willing to do anything to get their hands on an elemental master (for money), she just grabbed him and drug him out of town.

While Edna thought on how to get him away from the desert safely, the two ended up forming a bond, with her being the first person to not actively try to hurt him.

Edna noticed that he never told her his name, only to be told he didn't have one, that he knew of. With that, the boy decided that his name would be Ed. The two were inseperable after that, and when Edna heard rumors of the brother's monastery, she took him there.

Imagine their surprise when they see an extremely skinny, very tired Master of Lightning show up on their doorstep.

*This is in order, they recruit Ed a few years after they recruit Whint, so Ed and Edna are... Hm... in their late 70's now?*

Years later, the two have a child and name her Libber. She receives the power of Lightning when she is thirteen years old.

During the time at the monastery together, Whint and Ed become close friends, and Whint is named the Godfather of Libber.

She is absolutely spoiled by her parents and you KNOW IT. She has such a bubbly and energetic personality and her parents are just so happy for her,, they know she'll be safe with the others.

Her and Lilly become best friends when she joins, as they are the youngest in the Offically Formed Elemental Alliance. (She is 19 and Lilly is 12, if the timeline is timelining thanks Ninjago Timeline)

Cole (Sr.) was the easiest next to Ray and Maya to find and recruit. He tended to hang around the monastery but was uncommitted to the cause. After much persuasion over the years, he finally commits to it.

He and Whint have to deal with a bunch of traumatized kids by the time they join. He helps build defenses around the monastery with his power and is the reason the Mountain of a Million Steps is Like That Somewhat (TM), actually.

He and his wife have a daughter, Lilly, and then his wife (Not named yet I'm sorry) dies from an illness.

He brings her around the monastery from time to time to get her adjusted to seeing other elemental masters, and then dies when she is twelve.

(I already spoke on Lilly. She got her own post Lets gooo)

Ember Smith, mother of Ray and Previous Master of Fire, led her own monastery not too far from the brothers. She was extremely strict on her teachings, and taught both Ray and Maya when they were young. Ray recieved her powers when he was still quite young, and she taught him how to harness them through brutal training.

*Ember wasn't apart of the EM Alliance but she is still quite important to its development*

She was killed in an apparent 'accident' at her monastery, with no one really knowing the truth behind it.

With Ray taking over, he and Wu were already quite close friends alongside Maya. Ray and Maya did Not start dating until their early 20's, though they did grow up together. (They did not have Kai and Nya until their late 20's-early 30's)

Ray had been surrounded by elemental masters and others who knew how to fight his entire life so settling in was much easier for him, although he was still grieving his mother.

Went to work forging weapons for the team, alongside Maya. With their Craftsmenship, they were practically unbeatable.

Practically.

Maya received her powers when she was six years old. She did not have her power passed down by a parent, as the previous master of water never had children, never really communicating with anyone else, let alone another elemental master.

They were so much of a recluse that the brothers and Misako could never discover who they were. Ember, however, seemed to know something that the others didn't and trained her alongside Ray. She learned how to harness how power quickly and how to be a destructive force.

Despite her strict upbringing she actually isn't very strict herself, and goes with the flow. "Oh I have these elemental powers now. That's cool! Ray and I match now!"

Little Maya definitely didn't have to put out fires around Ember's monastery when Ray's powers got out of control No Sir.

Now onto the Brothers.

These two classify their powers as elemental, though since they're the sons of the First Spinjitzu Master, everyone is pretty sure it's more than that.

When going to recruit Elemental Masters for the past few hundred years, Garmadon would go after the more estranged, dangerous, people while Wu would go after the ones that could be easily convinced.

Destruction and Creation are what their elements are listed as, though they tend to not use their powers in fear of causing more harm than good.

With the EM Alliance they let their Oni and Dragon features show out more, with Wu having a tail and more draconic features, while Garmadon had more Oni features. They usually used them to fight, as both had long sharp claws and teeth.

The two gave each other confidence, whenever they strode into battle or any distressed event, but with Garmadon's venom and the situation at hand, the relationship still was very stressed.

(The letter doesn't happen in any of my aus or stories btw. Im just... so sick of Love Triangles Please)

Misako is the one that tended to keep everyone together. She would accompany elemental master on missions that they needed to know more information about, and could fight very well.

Now, on to the... Misako Backstory.

She is effectively immortal, for reasons I cannot go into here as it will be explained a story I plan to write... somewhat soon. The brothers met her when they were children themselves.

Due to tragic circumstances, unfortunately.

Though this does help when she has to deal with booby trapped sites and the like, as even if they hit her she would just heal pretty quickly.

(Ala Salem from RWBY, but not evil. Actually a Lot Like Salem's situation from RWBY, if this gives any hints.)

Now here's the tragic run down in bullet points!!!

I have put Morro's whole ordeal about a Hundred years before the EM Alliance was formed. Garmadon was also off with Chen at the time *Dark Magic increasing Life Span as well* Wu hasn't stopped thinking about him even for a day.

The brothers/Misako were all teens when they started searching for their first generation of elemental masters, as their father had just died and they were desperate to find people to help them protect Ninjago.

The order of the EMs dying goes: Ember, Cole (SR) Libber (Technically but not really <3) Whint (Right after Libber) and then Lilly. (With the other Ems either dying as well or scattering after the war/time twins)

Ed and Edna have forgotten all about Libber somehow, and most of their past has been... replaced... by different memories.

Lilly got to visit Ray and Maya Twice before she got very sick. This means Cole and Kai technically DID meet, but lol ain't no toddlers remembering that. Ray and Maya also go missing shortly after and!!! No one knows!!! Because they've all distanced themselves by force or by fear

Misako wanted to raise Lloyd on her own so badly that it still eats her up inside that she left him at Darklys. She wanted to save her family so badly and technically she did and then in the end it didn't matter anyway and now it matters again all of a sudden and the last she saw of her husband he tried to murder her and *rambles*

Whint ran off when Libber was reported missing. He went to her parents first, only to learn that they don't remember him, and they definitely do not remember their own daughter.

This was made worse when he realized that his suspicions of Cliff selling her out were true when Ed And Edna showed him Jay, now thinking that the woman must have been the one to leave her child at their doorstep.

While going back to report to Wu he notices that he is being followed, and in an act of desperation runs into the Birchwood Forrest to try and lose them.

He's never heard of again until Wu comes to Birchwood Forrest himself and finds Zane.

Wu, in the beginning did NOT want to recruit The Main Four (Kai, Jay, Zane, Cole) as he believed they would be better off doing whatever they were doing before being unaware of their history and their true power.

In the end his fear of losing Ninjago to his brother and Misako convincing him that their parents/predecessors would not want them to live ignorant of their power/lives, he sets off to find them. Deadset on atoning for what he believes are his mistakes.

Anything I didn't put here are way too spoilery for the EM Alliance fic I plan on writing (and I haven't mentioned the time Twins/some of the others in the alliance for the same reason)

In my stories I DO make the Emperor and Empress like straight up evil, trying to keep the EM's under their thumb, or else.

"They're very private people" and the fact that we don't really have a clear timeline of Ninjago's history... like it skips from the FSM being around to the EM Alliance. And thats all we really see, because yeaah it's not relevant but what if its because it was kept a secret what if... (Things that will be talked about more in an offical au post when... when I actually get a cohessive plot down) and Mystake even filling in some of the FSM's history and how Ninjago actually came to be... Considering no one knew of the... civilization in the sea that predated Ninjago. And the Keepers.

Anyway they are so interesting and tragic to me and *twirls hair* why can't I write this much in fics that I am currently working on I'm crying.

[haggishlyhagging]

Miss [Susan B.] Anthony's first campaign on behalf of her new cause was for signatures to a petition addressed to the New York legislature, asking for three reforms: (1) control by women of their own earnings; (2) guardianship of their children in case of divorce; (3) the vote. Her method of work is a commonplace today; then it was a spectacular innovation. She chose sixty women, one from every county in the state, to serve as "captains," and in midwinter of 1854 they started out to get names.

Although more women were ready for such labors than twenty years earlier, they encountered many of the same obstacles—the prejudice, hostility and apathy—which had plagued Lydia Maria Child. Moreover, Mrs. Child was canvassing in her home town of Northampton; these women had to travel, and women who traveled alone were still unusual. Conditions for all but the affluent traveler were primitive, and for solitary females the problems of securing decent food and respectable accommodations were staggering. The women had no money except what they might themselves possess (an infrequent occurrence) or get from friends; they had no organization behind them; under such conditions to arrange local meetings, have broadsides printed, and secure notices in the local paper was enough to daunt all but the indomitable.

As for their reception by those on whose behalf they toiled:

Like itinerant tin pedlars or book agents they tramped the streets and country roads, knocking at every door, presenting their petitions, arguing with women who half the time slammed the door in their faces with the smug remark that they had husbands, thank God, to look after their interests, and they needed no new laws to protect their rights. After each rebuff the women simply trudged on to the next street, the next row of houses, the next grudgingly opened front door.

Yet in ten weeks they collected six thousand signatures. As still another demonstration of the new tactical sense which had been added to the women's armory, Miss Anthony had planned a New York state woman's rights convention to be held in Albany while the legislature was in session; the petitions would be used to try to gain a hearing for the bills the women were supporting.

The maneuver was successful; Elizabeth Cady Stanton appeared before a Joint Judiciary Committee of both legislative houses, the first woman to do so in New York. Her speech dealt with the legal disabilities of women, and its eloquence and careful documentation (not for nothing was she a judge's daughter) might have been expected to impress her audience, not only with the validity of her argument, but as a proof of woman's intellectual capacities.

The bill was not passed, of course; that would have been expecting too much too soon. More signatures were needed, and Miss Anthony went after them. The epic of her tour of New York State during the winter of 1855 is a saga in itself.

She started out on Christmas Day, 1854, with a bag full of literature, petitions, and $50 loaned to her by Wendell Phillips. In each town she had to make all arrangements for her meeting: engage the hall, see to the lights and ushers, and get throwaways printed and distributed, announcing the meeting. Sometimes audiences were friendly and openhanded, coming from miles around despite bitter weather, and she was able to pay not only her expenses but make a small surplus, which would be promptly swallowed up at the next stop, where the audience might be negligible, or where perhaps she could find no proper meeting place.

The physical hardships alone, in what was one of the worst winters in living memories, were major obstacles:

The snowdrifts are over the fences in many places and the roads are so badly blocked with snow that vehicies have to take to the ice-covered meadows. Susan's feet, frost-bitten no doubt, begin to give her serious trouble. She soaks them in cold water, then wraps them in woolens, but the pain merely transfers itself to her back. All the way to Malone she has to sit doubled over, clinging to the seat in front in order not to groan aloud. She holds her meeting in spite of suffering, gets to Ogdensburg, then to Canton. But when the time arrives to leave this point, she has to be carried to the stage. Ten miles from Watertown she changes to the train, barely able to walk, and arriving at the hotel in the late afternoon, she determines to give the "water cure," sovereign remedy of the age, a final test. She sends for the chambermaid, orders two buckets of ice-water, and sitting in a coffin-like tin tub, has both buckets poured over her aching body. Wrapped in hot blankets she sleeps through the night and, believe it or not, wakes in the morning as good as new.

-Eleanor Flexner and Ellen Fitzpatrick, Century of Struggle: The Woman’s Rights Movement in the United States

[dr-spencer-reids-queen]

The Angel Maker: Final Part

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~2.3k

Summary: You still feel guilty for what happened to you and Hotch even though you shouldn't. If you had seen that bomb before getting blasted back, then maybe you wouldn't have so many problems with your "abilities".

Warnings: canon violence, canon language, canon talk of death, methods of kill

Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Criminal Minds. All credit goes to their respective owners. If there are any warnings that exceed the normal death/kills from the show, I will list them. If you’ve seen the show, then it’s the same level of angst unless otherwise stated

x

Hotch and Emily headed over there while the rest of the team stayed back to work on the case. It turns out that the unsub wasn't the one who committed the crime, but Shara, the woman you and Rossi talked to. She figured if this killing spree could work for the unsub, then it could work for her.

It's already late, so you'll have to pick this up in the morning. The comment Emily made is stuck in your head for some reason. Why you're upset at this, you're not sure. You're sitting in the conference room and staring at Emily who is outside getting some coffee in the break room. You have a small pout on your face, and Spencer notices this when he enters the conference room.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," you say and look away.

"Is it your head? Are you okay?"

"Spencer, I'm okay. I took my pain meds before we left the hotel, so I'm good."

The rest of the team filters into the conference room while JJ is on the phone with Pen. Penelope is working her magic in trying to find out who this unsub could be. According to her, four hundred and sixty-three children were born in the lower Canaan area between 2006 and 2008, so you'll have to narrow the list a bit more to get accurate results.

One of the letters Spencer decoded says, "I knew even before they told me that the future had taken root", which can only mean that it was the date of conception. The date of that letter was January 7th, 2007, so Pen had to look between August to September of the same year. With that, she came up with nine names, which is a lot more manageable.

After she sent over the names, your team got to work eliminating them. The Sheriff would know more about these names than you would, so you bring him in to try and help.

"Hannah Dreyfus was in an auto accident. She could barely walk. Shannon Conway moved away when the plant closed a year ago," the sheriff goes down the list.

"Any other names you recognize?"

"No, I'm sorry." The sheriff does a double-take and grabs the paper when he recognizes another name. "Well, this one here sounds familiar but I can't really place it. Chloe Kelcher."

"Chloe Kelcher. That is familiar," Spencer says and grabs the file for Cortland. "She was on the jury."

"That makes sense. She would have been exposed to the case evidence and seen firsthand what he did to his victims. That's when she fell in love with him, sitting across the courtroom every day."

"Well, it's one thing to have a relationship with a killer, and it's another to become one," the sheriff scoffs.

"There might have been an incident that prompted the transformation," Spencer says and looks into Chloe's file. "There's a death certificate here. Microvesicular steatosis. Her baby died at the hospital."

It looks like Chloe is your unsub, so your entire team heads over to her house, but like you assumed, she isn't home. The judge signed the warrant very quickly, so you're allowed to enter her house without getting into trouble. After a thorough search, everyone gathers in the kitchen.

"All right. We all know what the end game is. She's looking for her final victim. She may have already chosen one. Let's tear this place apart and look for anything that might tell us who she's targeted," Hotch says.

You, Hotch, and Derek head toward the bedroom and come across a child's nursery with glow-in-the-dark stars stuck to the ceiling.

"Daddy's watching," you say and point to the stars.

"It must have devastated her to think that she could hold on to Ryan by having his child and then lose the baby. Completing his murders became the only way she could hold on to him."

Something isn't right. The second you entered the house, something felt off about the atmosphere. You pause and look around the room until you see it.

Cortland Ryan is sitting on top of some kind of chest located underneath the window.

"What is it?" Derek asks after he sees the look on your face.

Without saying a word, you grasp the end of the chest. As soon as you open it, Cortland mists away. Lying there inside is Cortland's rotting body.

"That's not the only way she's holding onto him," you gag.

"I assume that's who I think it is," Spencer says when he walks into the bedroom. "I have an appointment book here. There are meetings with Delilah Grennan and Maxine Chandler on the day of each murder."

"Sheriff, have you found her tools or the gun?" Hotch asks.

"Nothing yet."

"She has something for this morning: Faye Landreaux."

"She's a CPA," the sheriff sighs. "She does my taxes. She works out of her home."

"Let's go."

Your entire team heads over to Faye's house. As soon as you get there, you can feel how scared she is and also another energy: the unsub.

"My team's ready. Let's get in there," the Sheriff says eagerly.

"Sheriff, we didn't recover a gun at Chloe's house. We have to assume she's armed."

"So are we."

"If you storm in now, she'll shoot, and she'll start with Faye. We need to be smart about this," you say.

"What do we do?" Derek asks.

"I think you should look for an open window," Hotch takes charge. "Sheriff, I need you to bring all your vehicles around to the front, facing forward with lights off, and I need a megaphone."

The sheriff does what he's told, and Derek creeps around the house to try and find an open window to get inside. Chances are, she's locked all the doors so no one can get inside so Derek's only shot it getting through a window without alerting her.

"Hotch, you won't be able to get through to her," you say.

"No, but maybe you can," he says and hands the megaphone to you.

"Sir, the profile is clear. We won't be able to talk her down."

"No, but we can occupy her. If we're right about the MO, she's left a window open somewhere. Morgan will find a way in. We just need to buy him some time. Hit the lights," Hotch says to the sheriff.

Seconds later, lights flood the front of the house, no doubt letting Chloe know that you're here. You take a deep breath and clear your head.

"Chloe, this is the FBI. We know you're in there, and we know what you're trying to do. I know you think that finishing what Cortland started will bring you closer to him, but first, you should know who he really was. I know you thought you were special, but the truth is, he wrote the same things he wrote to you to other women. I've seen the letters." Hotch hands you copies of the letters for you to read to her. "Dozens read the same lines: 'Without the flesh, there is only the soul. You don't need to touch me to feel the love I have for you.' Does that sound familiar? Cortland wasn't who you thought he was. He was a narcissist, Chloe. He wasn't capable of loving anyone but himself.

"To Carla Kettinger, he wrote, 'Ever since your visit, I am crazed with thoughts of you. Already, you have entered my dreams. Each time you appear to me, I am embraced by a feeling of trust and belief as if I've known you all my life. It's clear to me now that you are my fate. We are destined to be together, and when I am gone, that will not change. I will live on in you. In death, our union will be eternal. All appeals are lost. Possessions matter little to a condemned man, but I cannot leave this world without seeing your face one last time.' 

"It isn't your fault that he made you feel these things, Chloe. It isn't your fault your baby died."

That gives Derek enough time to get Faye out of the house because as soon as you're done speaking, you see Derek usher Faye to safety. Second later, you hear Chloe yell out in anger.

"It's over, Chloe. We have Faye. You have nowhere to go," you say into the megaphone.

Still, she doesn't respond. 

"I think we got some tear gas. I'm assuming it's still good," the sheriff says.

"We're not gonna need it. She doesn't have any place to go."

"Well, maybe she'll do us all a favor and put herself down."

"She's not gonna do that, either. She's not done."

Just then, Chloe comes out of the house with the gun in her hand. All officers and agents draw their guns and point them at her, and she stops at the bottom step of the porch.

"Chloe, drop the gun!" Hotch orders, and repeats himself when she doesn't listen.

"I'm coming to you, baby," she grins at the sky.

She raises her gun to shoot knowing that everyone will shoot to stop her. She goes down in two shots, and you back away in pain from the gunshot. Rossi and Emily rush over to her, but she is already dead. Emily notices blood seeing from her jacket, and she lifts it to see the markings of the final constellation.

If we took her victim from her, then she became the last one.

With the case solved, your team gets ready to head to the airport. Hotch is in the police station finishing up, so everyone is waiting by the car for him.

"Hey, are you okay?" Spencer asks.

"Yeah, just tired," you sigh.

"Did anyone get directions back to the airstrip?" JJ asks when Hotch comes out with his bag in hand.

"This town's only got one road. We'll find it," Derek shrugs.

"Yeah, Morgan doesn't like to follow directions. You didn't know about that?" Emily laughs.

"Yeah, he likes to vibe it," Spencer smirks.

"Okay, smart ass. You drive," Derek says and tosses Spencer the keys.

He unlocks the car, and you're the first one in. The car has a row of seats behind the back seat, so that's the one you take. Spencer sees how much pain you're in, and he looks down at the keys in his hands. He likes driving every once in a while, but you clearly need him.

"Not this time," he says and hands the keys to Emily who takes them with a smile.

He sets his bag in the back before climbing in next to you. After putting both your seatbelts on, you shift and rest your head on his chest. He wraps an arm around you and kisses the top of your head.

You're always able to fall asleep a lot better when it's in his arms.

"The past is our definition. We may strive, with good reason, to escape it, or to escape what is bad in it, but we will escape it only by adding something better to it." - Wendell Berry

x

Follow my library blog @aqueenslibrary​​​​​​​​​​ where I reblog all my stories, so you can put notifications on there without the extra stuff :)

[bethanydelleman]

Philip wandering around Monkshaven late at night in Sylvia's Lovers reminded me so much of Sydney Carton from The Tale of Two Cities:

Philip, in spite of himself, recovered and grew stronger; and as he grew stronger hunger took the place of loathing dislike to food. But his money was all spent; and what was his poor pension of sixpence a day in that terrible year of famine? Many a summer's night he walked for hours and hours round the house which once was his, which might be his now, with all its homely, blessed comforts, could he but go and assert his right to it. But to go with authority, and in his poor, maimed guise assert that right, he had need be other than Philip Hepburn. So he stood in the old shelter of the steep, crooked lane opening on to the hill out of the market-place, and watched the soft fading of the summer's eve into night; the closing of the once familiar shop; the exit of good, comfortable William Coulson, going to his own home, his own wife, his comfortable, plentiful supper. Then Philip—there were no police in those days, and scarcely an old watchman in that primitive little town—would go round on the shady sides of streets, and, quickly glancing about him, cross the bridge, looking on the quiet, rippling stream, the gray shimmer foretelling the coming dawn over the sea, the black masts and rigging of the still vessels against the sky; he could see with his wistful, eager eyes the shape of the windows—the window of the very room in which his wife and child slept, unheeding of him, the hungry, broken-hearted outcast. He would go back to his lodging, and softly lift the latch of the door; still more softly, but never without an unspoken, grateful prayer, pass by the poor sleeping woman who had given him a shelter and her share of God's blessing—she who, like him, knew not the feeling of satisfied hunger; and then he laid him down on the narrow pallet in the lean-to, and again gave Sylvia happy lessons in the kitchen at Haytersbank, and the dead were alive; and Charley Kinraid, the specksioneer, had never come to trouble the hopeful, gentle peace.

And:

In a city dominated by the axe, alone at night, with natural sorrow rising in him for the sixty-three who had been that day put to death, and for to-morrow’s victims then awaiting their doom in the prisons, and still of to-morrow’s and to-morrow’s, the chain of association that brought the words home, like a rusty old ship’s anchor from the deep, might have been easily found. He did not seek it, but repeated them and went on.

With a solemn interest in the lighted windows where the people were going to rest, forgetful through a few calm hours of the horrors surrounding them; in the towers of the churches, where no prayers were said, for the popular revulsion had even travelled that length of self-destruction from years of priestly impostors, plunderers, and profligates; in the distant burial-places, reserved, as they wrote upon the gates, for Eternal Sleep; in the abounding gaols; and in the streets along which the sixties rolled to a death which had become so common and material, that no sorrowful story of a haunting Spirit ever arose among the people out of all the working of the Guillotine; with a solemn interest in the whole life and death of the city settling down to its short nightly pause in fury; Sydney Carton crossed the Seine again for the lighter streets.

Few coaches were abroad, for riders in coaches were liable to be suspected, and gentility hid its head in red nightcaps, and put on heavy shoes, and trudged. But, the theatres were all well filled, and the people poured cheerfully out as he passed, and went chatting home. At one of the theatre doors, there was a little girl with a mother, looking for a way across the street through the mud. He carried the child over, and before the timid arm was loosed from his neck asked her for a kiss.

“I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die.”

Now, that the streets were quiet, and the night wore on, the words were in the echoes of his feet, and were in the air. Perfectly calm and steady, he sometimes repeated them to himself as he walked; but, he heard them always.

The night wore out, and, as he stood upon the bridge listening to the water as it splashed the river-walls of the Island of Paris, where the picturesque confusion of houses and cathedral shone bright in the light of the moon, the day came coldly, looking like a dead face out of the sky. Then, the night, with the moon and the stars, turned pale and died, and for a little while it seemed as if Creation were delivered over to Death’s dominion.

[orthodoxydaily]

Saints&Reading: Friday, July 19, 2024

july 6_july 19

VENERABLE SISOE THE REAT OF EGYPT (429).

Saint Sisoes the Great (+ 429) was a solitary monk, pursuing asceticism in the Egyptian desert in a cave sanctified by the prayerful labors of his predecessor, Saint Anthony the Great (January 17). For his sixty years of labor in the desert, Saint Sisoes attained to sublime spiritual purity and he was granted the gift of wonderworking, so that by his prayers he once restored a dead child back to life.

Extremely strict with himself, Abba Sisoes was very merciful and compassionate to others, and he received everyone with love. To those who visited him, the saint first of all always taught humility. When one of the monks asked how he might attain to a constant remembrance of God, Saint Sisoes remarked, “That is no great thing, my son, but it is a great thing to regard yourself as inferior to everyone else. This leads to the acquisition of humility.” Asked by the monks whether one year is sufficient for repentance if a brother sins, Abba Sisoes said, “I trust in the mercy of God that if such a man repents with all his heart, then God will accept his repentance in three days.”

When Saint Sisoes lay upon his deathbed, the disciples surrounding the Elder saw that his face shone like the sun. They asked the dying man what he saw. Abba Sisoes replied that he saw Saint Anthony, the prophets, and the apostles. His face increased in brightness, and he spoke with someone. The monks asked, “With whom are you speaking, Father?” He said that angels had come for his soul, and he was entreating them to give him a little more time for repentance. The monks said, “You have no need for repentance, Father.” Saint Sisoes said with great humility, “I do not think that I have even begun to repent.”

After these words the face of the holy abba shone so brightly that the brethren could not look upon him. Saint Sisoes told them that he saw the Lord Himself. Then there was a flash like lightning and a fragrant odor, and Abba Sisoes departed to the Heavenly Kingdom

SAINT BARNABAS, ELDER OF GETHSEMANE SKETE OF St SERGIUS LAVRA ( 1906)

Saint Barnabas was born on January 24, 1831 in the village of Prudishchi of the Venevsky district of the Tula province. His name in the world was Vasily Ilyich Merkulov, the last of seven children born to pious peasant parents Ilya and Daria Merkulov.

On December 23, 1857 he became a novice of the Gethsemane Monastery of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and only after almost ten years, on November 20, 1866, he took monastic tonsure under the name of Barnabas.

In 1871 Barnabas was ordained a hierodeacon, on January 10, 1872 a hieromonk, and some time later the abbot of the Lavra approved him as the Spiritual Confessor of the Caves of Gethsemane. From this moment the fame of Barnabas increased among believers. In 1890 he became the confessor of the whole monastery.

Pilgrims from all over Russia came to the clairvoyant Elder Barnabas. He helped people to repent, gave soul-saving advice, and through his prayers the suffering were healed.

Pilgrims noted a special spiritual sobriety, gentleness and caution in his pastoral practice. Through the prayers of the ascetic, family troubles were resolved, and many healings took place. He advised to heal minor illnesses by strict fasting (“bread and water will not do harm”), and in severe illnesses he sometimes recommended certain doctors.

He would receive from five hundred to a thousand people every day. According to legend, in January 1905 Emperor Nicholas II went to confession to Barnabas, and in return the Elder prophesied to him his impending martyrdom.

Elder Barnabas further prophesied about the future of Russia: "The persecution against the faith will constantly increase. Hitherto unheard of grief and darkness will seize everyone and everything, and the temples will be closed. But when it becomes intolerable, liberation will come ... The temples will be erected again. There will be a flourishing before the end."

In January 1906, the elder showed an acute catarrh of the respiratory tract, and his vision was weakened. He died on February 17 of that year. In 1995 he was officially canonized by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Source: Orthodox Christianity Then and Now

ROMANS 11:25-36

25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; 27 For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins." 28 Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. 29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30 For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, 31 even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. 32 For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all. 33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! 34 For who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has become His counselor?" 35 Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?" 36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

MATTHEW 12:1-8

1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, "Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!" 3 But He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? 6 Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. 7 But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.

[charlenasaxen]

Son of the Dawn Quotes

“Little did they know of other worlds as close to their own as the next room, or of the demons trying to find a door through to them, and the Shadowhunters who barred those doors”

“Brother Zachariah had been coming to Shadow Markets for a hundred years, on a long quest that even he had begun to believe would be fruitless”

“He was lingering not because he was enjoying this Shadow Market but because he remembered enjoying Markets once”

“The woman whistled. “Now I see why we might want him. Helloooo, Brother Mackariah.”

“I certainly hope so,” said the vampire. “I am Raphael Santiago, second in command of the New York clan, and I dislike useless people.”

“The boy’s hair was curly, his face sweet, and his air disdainful”

“Nobody sneered like a vampire, and this vampire was particularly adept”

“when they made us the punishment of the Lightwoods. We do not have any dealings with the New York Institute now.”

“I have no moral objection to the Lightwoods,” said Raphael in deeply moralistic tones. “I do have strong objections to my head being cut off.”

“Of course it would,” said Raphael. “I fully recognize this is not an ideal situation.”

“waking up as a child with all he loved dead, and silver fire burning in his veins”

“Nor do I intend to let that stuff be freely available in my city.”

“that a Downworlder with conservative views had heard about it was sheer luck”

“He dreaded being forbidden to meet with Tessa this year, but when he did meet her, he wanted to face her with no stain upon him”

“shoved past Raphael, shouting, “Awoooo!” Raphael turned to look at him, and the werewolf backed away with his hands up, mumbling, “Uh, sorry. My mistake.”

“He’s another colleague!” Raphael protested”

“Good for you,” snapped Raphael. “Revel in your hobby of liking and trusting everyone.”

“Love charm for the handsomest Silent Brother?” asked the faerie woman for the fifth time, leering”

“Lily snorted. “I hardly think Brother Beast-with-two-backs-ariah needs a love charm.”

“Oops, never mind! Didn’t see you there, Raphael.”

Raphael’s thin eyebrows went up and down like a guillotine.”

“The work of the Circle is not done yet. The Morgenstern legacy will claim more victims. I do not intend to be one of them.”

“the ship was carrying cargo from Idris. I believe some Shadowhunter brat is on board.”

“thinking of a child on a ship with deadly cargo, and the potential of more victims”

“Isabelle Lightwood was not accustomed to feeling nervous”

“A boy older than Isabelle was being dumped on their doorstep”

“If Jonathan Wayland was as much fun and as good a fighter”

“wondered whether they had been mixed up in the same trouble as their tutor, Hodge”

“Jonathan had nowhere else to go, Dad insisted, and he belonged with them. That was what being parabatai meant.”

“Isabelle heard Dad say, “I owe Michael this.”

“Alec poked his head around the door. His blue eyes were sparkling.”

“Isabelle heard her mom say something to the Silent Brother that sounded like “Yogurt! Unbelievable!”

Maybe not “yogurt.” Maybe it was a different word.”

“On the ship with Michael’s son!” Dad said.

It couldn’t be “yogurt,” unless Jonathan Wayland had a very serious allergy to dairy.”

“He looked like a kid, hardly older than they were, and he would have been almost as handsome as the Silent Brother if not for his sour expression”

“Get a load of the vampire. Can you believe that?”

“I know!” Alec whispered back. “Isn’t he amazing?”

“a thousand-yard stare that suggested a thousand yards was too close up and the vampire wished he were enjoying blissful solitude in the far reaches of space”

“How long have you been fifteen?”

Raphael said flatly, “I’m sixty-three.”

“Wait,” said Robert. “Of course we will help. I will meet you at the drop-off point”

“Anyone sensible would know you could always count on her dad”

“DAWN TRADER was painted in dark blue letters against its gray side”

“Oh no, Brother Hop-in-the-sack-ariah,” Lily whispered”

“nodded to Raphael. “I’ve had it longer than I’ve had him. He’s from the 1950s.”

“I will not. Once you go Zachariah, you never go backariah.”

Raphael and Robert Lightwood both looked appalled”

“a boy’s voice came from outside the door.

“I’m not frightened of anything,” he said.

Jonathan Wayland, Zachariah presumed.”

“I was only curious,” said Jonathan.

He was clearly doing his best to sound airy and aloof, and his best was not bad. His voice almost swaggered.”

“Solid man. I’m sure he’s ready to be a father to you.”

“I had a father,” said Jonathan, cold as the night wind.”

“She’s already got three kids. Four’s a lot to handle.”

“I’m not a kid,” said Jonathan. “I won’t bother her.”

“Werewolves are a fact of life, unfortunately. Creatures are everywhere. Go to bed, Jonathan.”

“He would not allow himself to forget.

Tessa, he thought. Will.”

“He looked to Lily.

Raphael was standing in front of her. His arm was flung out to shield her”

“the staff rolled to the feet of a boy who had just stepped out into this space of chaos and blood.

The boy who must be Jonathan Wayland stared around him”

“The boy turned his head, hair bright gold in the silver moonshine, and picked up Zachariah’s staff. Small and slim”

“he charged at the snarling teeth and bared claws. He struck her down.”

“the boy spun and struck the other. When he twisted in the air, Zachariah thought not of shadows, as he had with the vampires, but of light.

When the boy landed on the deck, feet spread wide and staff twirling between his hands, he was laughing. It was not a child’s sweet laugh, but a wild exuberant sound that rang out stronger than sea or sky”

“He sounded young, and defiant, and joyful, and a little mad”

“swiped at the boy, and Zachariah heard him make a small sound between his locked teeth”

“tying the material around his arm. She was crying.

“Raphael,” she said. “Raphael, you shouldn’t have done it.”

“What would I do if something happened to you?”

“Something practical, I hope”

“almost touch his curly hair. Her hand moved as if she might stroke the shadows over his head, then curled into a fist.”

“Lily and Brother Zachariah carried the box up between them, Lily clearly ready to make a scene if Raphael tried to help.”

“What if we end up with glowing silver alligators in the sewers? Nobody will be surprised, but I will know it is your fault”

“I never let anyone have any fun,” said Raphael, and looked smug”

“He recognized her expression from a time when he had been able to feel that way himself. She looked sick with love.”

“Lily sighed. “He’s Catholic. So very, very Catholic.”

“Brother Sixpackariah,” she said. “It’s been a pleasure.”

And for me”

“She had, at least, given him the woman’s name. Brother Zachariah could take her back to her family and the City of Bones, where she could rest and he could not.”

“Ave atque vale, Catherine Ashdown”

“I can’t imagine why,” said Raphael. “Those names Lily came up with were very bad.”

“The prospect of not being joked around with made Raphael look wistful”

“Of course she was joking, said Brother Zachariah. She is in love with you.

Raphael’s face twisted. “Why do Shadowhunters always want to talk about feelings? Why can nobody ever be a professional?”

“his voice still distant. “I led my gang to his lair to stop him. None of us survived.”

“I was the leader,” said Raphael, his steely voice brooking no argument. “I was responsible. Well. We did stop the vampire, and my family lived to grow up.”

“All but one, Brother Zachariah thought”

“then had come a laugh, and the sound had woken things inside him”

“though they did not save you when you were a child trying to fight monsters”

“We all got what we wanted. The Shadowhunters and I are done.”

“There are more kinds of love than stars, said Brother Zachariah. If you do not feel one, there are many others.”

“What we keep sacred keeps us safe. Consider that by trying to cut yourself off from the possibility of being hurt, you shut the door on love and live in darkness.”

“I heard Silent Brothers were withdrawn. I was looking forward to withdrawn!”

“His face was pallid as moonlight, ice white as the cheek of a child long dead”

“The shadow of his hood fell across the scar of a cross on the vampire’s throat.

Have faith, Raphael. I know you remember how.”

“waited, enjoying the sensation of the light of a new day on his face”

“You’re sure you’re all right?” Robert said.

“Yes,” said Jonathan.”

“No,” said Jonathan. “I always wished I did.”

Zachariah could see the boy’s thin back. He seemed braced to be a disappointment.

Robert said, “I am sure you’re a good boy.”

Jonathan did not look sure.”

“Zachariah was startled when young Jonathan advanced across the deck to where Zachariah himself sat”

“He did not want to distress the boy, either way.

Jonathan carried Brother Zachariah’s staff back”

“laid the staff with a respectful bow on Zachariah’s knees. The boy moved with military discipline”

“Brother Zachariah briefly wished he could have been the Silent Brother who oversaw the rite of passage for this child”

“the boy repeated slowly. “I should’ve known. You moved differently. I just thought it might be, since you rolled your staff to me.”

“struck Zachariah as a sorry thing, that the child would not have expected even the smallest mercy from a stranger.

“Thank you for letting me use it,” Jonathan added.”

“The boy’s glance up at his face was shocking, the flare of twin suns in what was still almost night. They were not the eyes of a soldier but a warrior.”

“Zachariah would put his hands on them when he fought. So, in a way, they would always be fighting together.

The letters were W and H.”

“his voice low and a little timid. “Back when you were a Shadowhunter, like me?”

“he was always James Carstairs when he spoke of what was dearest to him”

“Not mine. My parabatai’s.

W and H. William Herondale. Will.”

“Jonathan said the word “weakness” with horror. Jem wondered what a man who had drilled a boy to fight like that might have considered weakness.”

“did not choose to insult an orphan boy’s dead father”

“This boy was so alone. He remembered how precious that new link could be”

“He remembered traveling across the sea, having lost his family, not knowing that he was going to his best friend”

“Jonathan Wayland, the child who fought like a warrior angel, looked intrigued”

“Now I have to go and live with the man my father was sorry about. I don’t want to be weak, and I don’t want to be sorry. I want to be the best.”

“We battle hardest when that which is dearer to us than our own lives is at stake, said Jem. A parabatai is both blade and shield. You belong together”

“A slow smile broke across the boy’s face, like sunrise bursting”

“He flung his head back in a sudden, hasty assumption of arrogance, as if he and Jem might both have imagined he meant that he would like to belong to someone”

“The vampire, holding every friend at bay. All of them had their wounds, but Jem could not help resenting them, for even the privilege of feeling hurt.”

“While Jem would have given every cold tomorrow he had for one more day with a warm heart, to love them as he once had”

“Jonathan was a child, still trying to make a distant father proud even when death had made the distance between them impossible”

“He thought of the boy’s speed, his fearless strike”

“I’m sure you will be a great warrior, said Jem.

Jonathan Wayland ducked his shaggy golden head to hide the faint color in his cheeks.”

“he would have chosen death rather than the awful severing from love and warmth. If only he could have had a death in Tessa’s arms, holding Will’s hand. He had been robbed of his death.”

“His parabatai’s name had been a shout into the abyss, a cry that always received an answer”

“He would not accept that parting. My Will. Those words meant something different”

“Jem had not looked for any kindness from this hurt child. It made Jem think that Jonathan Wayland might grow up to be more than a great warrior.”

“Jonathan would have a parabatai one day, to teach him the kind of man he wanted to be.

This is the link stronger than any magic”

“Remember them. Remember why. Remember the only answer to the only question. Do not forget.”

“Jonathan Wayland was gone. He wished he could thank the child, for helping him remember.”

“The wind played with the gold locks of the boy’s hair. The boy’s back was straight and slim as a rapier.”

“And there was blood on them. He had actually been part of the fighting.”

“found him staring at the new arrival with wide eyes as though beholding a revelation with the morning.

“Wow,” Alec breathed.”

“Jonathan Wayland had gold hair and gold eyes”

“The boy was looking back at her. “I’m Jonathan,” he told her intently.

“Hello, Jonathan,” said Isabelle’s mother. “I am Maryse. It’s nice to meet you.”

“She reached out and touched the boy’s hair. Jonathan flinched but held himself still, and Maryse smoothed back the shining gold waves”

“He had the faint air of a stray animal, fur rough and one breath away from a snarl”

“Mom winked. “Then you will be even more handsome.”

“Is that even possible?” Jonathan asked dryly.

Alec laughed. Jonathan looked surprised, as if he had not noticed Alec”

“Max stared up at Jonathan in awe. He dropped his stuffed rabbit on the cement floor, shuffled forward, and hugged Jonathan’s leg.”

“Hello, Jonathing,” said Max, muffled in the material of Jonathan’s trousers.

Jonathan patted Max on the back, very tentatively.”

“Isabelle’s brothers were so not showing sibling solidarity on the issue of Jonathan Wayland”

“Jonathing can sleep in my room because we love each other,” Max proposed”

“They both watched the silhouette of Jonathan Wayland creeping down the corridor. Isabelle made a complicated series of gestures to determine whether Alec wanted to follow him together.

Alec stared at her in total bafflement.”

“Jonathan had his shirt pulled up, and he was dabbing a wet dish towel along the red cut running up his side.”

“Alec left Isabelle’s side and ran to Jonathan. He examined the cut, then shepherded Jonathan toward a stool, making him sit”

“I’m a good fighter,” Jonathan protested sharply”

“Isabelle would have thought he was worried they might send him away for being an inadequate soldier”

“You’re obviously great,” said Alec. “You just need someone to have your back.”

He put his hand lightly on Jonathan’s shoulder”

“Jonathan Wayland went perfectly still at his touch, as if he was afraid the tiniest movement would scare Alec away”

“perfectly clear Jonathan Wayland would claim having his leg cut off did not hurt”

“leaving Isabelle and this weird bleeding boy alone together”

“So . . . I guess you’re going to be parabatai,” Jonathan ventured”

“I don’t like the idea of giving up my independence”

“I don’t know. I’m not really anyone’s anything.”

Isabelle bit her lip. She had never realized before that she took feeling secure for granted.”

“Jonathan Wayland had lived in their home for less than three hours, and he was already trying to lock down a parabatai”

“if Jonathan’s expressionless face was to ward them off or protect himself, but he was hurt. Alec was still shy with strangers, and Jonathan was a closed-off human being”

“It’s fine,” said Jonathan quickly. “It’s great. Thank you, Isabelle.”

Isabelle glanced up and grinned at him.”

“She imagined they would have objections to her and Alec playing doctor with the new kid. Strong objections.”

“Alec announced anxiously, ranging himself in front of Jonathan’s stool”

“I applied to the Iron Sisters, but they sent me a hurtful and sexist refusal.”

“Jonathan looked briefly startled again, then pleased, before he shut away his expressions as if slamming a lid down on a treasure chest”

“Jonathan?” Maryse remarked. “Does anyone ever call you anything else?”

“My father used to tell a joke about having another Jonathan, if I wasn’t good enough.”

“sad that Jonathan thought they would do that, give him a different name as if he were a pet, or sad that he would have let them”

“her mother was watching Jonathan in the same way she had watched Max when he was still learning to walk”

“Jonathan was obviously here to stay”

“Maybe a nickname,” Maryse proposed. “What would you think of Jace?”

“he offered her a smile, faint and cool as the light in early morning, but growing warm with hope.

Jonathan Wayland said, “I think Jace will work.”

“As a boy was introduced to a family, and vampires slept cold but curled together”

“a long, living song. Brother Zachariah could not sing the song, but he could listen.”

“The boy did not really have anything to do with Will”

“Jem was used to seeing his lost and dearest Shadowhunter in a thousand Shadowhunter faces and gestures”

“Never the beloved head, never the long-silent voice, but sometimes, more and more rarely, something close”

“You are not lost to me on some forever distant shore. Life is a wheel.”

“it will bring you back to me. All I must do is keep faith.”

“Light on water had not rivaled the boy’s blazing contradiction of a smile, somehow both indomitable and too easily hurt”

“as Will and the boy Zachariah had been had once traveled in lonely sorrow to the place where they would find each other. Jem hoped Jonathan would find happiness.”

“Jem smiled back at a boy long gone.

Sometimes, Will, he said, you seem very close.”

[monkeyssalad-blog]

Marisol by Truus, Bob & Jan too! Via Flickr: Spanish postcard by Postal Oscar Color S.A., Hospitalet (Barcelona), no. 287. Photo: Manuel J. Goyanes. Marisol (1948) was a Spanish child star in the sixties. When she became an adult, she remained a popular actress and singer under her real name, Pepa Flores. Maria Josefa Flores González was born in Málaga, Spain in 1948. She has an older sister, Victoria, and a younger brother, Enrique. From early on, she demonstrated a great love for singing and traditional flamenco dance. Her future producer Manuel J. Goyanes discovered her on Spanish Television in the show Coros y Danzas de Málaga/Songs and Dances of Malaga in 1959. Her cinema debut as Marisol was in the musical Un rayo de luz/A Ray of Light (Luis Lucia, 1960). She became an international sensation, from Spain to Japan. She won the Best Child Actress award at the Venice Film Festival in 1960. In the following decade, she starred in a dozen musical comedy dramas. She also made records and did concerts and TV shows. The title song of her third film, Tómbola/Lottery (Luis Lucia, 1962), became a Spanish classic. Other of her film vehicles were Marisol rumbo a Río/Marisol Is Bound For Rio (Fernando Palacios, 1963), a Spanish variation on The Parent Trap with Marisol playing both the poor teenager from Madrid as well as her estranged sister in Rio De Janeiro, and La nueva Cenicienta/The New Cinderella (George Sherman, 1964) with Robert Conrad and Fernando Rey. Mel Ferrer directed her in Cabriola/Everyday Is A Holiday (1965) where she sang one of her most beautiful songs: Cabriola. The child star became a stunning beauty and in 1967 she starred as a grown-up opposite Jean-Claude Pascal in Las 4 bodas de Marisol/The Four Weddings of Marisol (Luis Lucia, 1967) as a film star with man trouble. She continued to make popular films, including Carola de día, Carola de noche/Carola during Day and Night (Jaime de Armiñán, 1969), a Spanish variation on Roman Holiday about a princess, who secretly goes out by night to find out how Spaniards live. That year she married Carlos Goyanes, the son of her discoverer. Marisol started to appear in more serious films. She played the title character in the thriller La corrupción de Chris Miller/The Corruption of Chris Miller (Juan Antonio Bardem, 1973) opposite Jean Seberg. She also appeared in Bardem's (the uncle of awarded Spanish actor Javier Bardem) El poder del deseo/The Power of Desire (Juan Antonio Bardem, 1975) opposite British actor Murray Head and in Los días del pasado/The Days of the Past (Mario Camus, 1978) with flamenco dancer and choreographer Antonio Gades. She was awarded the Best Actress prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival for her role in the latter film. In 1982 she married Antonio Gades in Cuba. The best man at their wedding was Fidel Castro. She acted with Gades in Bodas de sangre/Blood Wedding (Carlos Saura, 1981) based on Federico García Lorca's revenge play, and Carmen (Carlos Saura, 1983). She worked then under the name Pepa Flores. She appeared in the title role of the Spanish national television series Mariana Pineda in 1984, in which she played a Liberal Party hero. In 1985, when she was still at the height of her career, she left show business. Her last film was the political film Caso cerrado/Case Closed (Juan Caño Arecha, 1985) with the young Antonio Banderas in a small role. She returned to her homeland, Malaga. She received many invitations to return and requests for TV interviews, but she declined all of them. In 1986 she and Gades divorced. They have three daughters: Maria, Tamara, and Celia. Her daughter Maria Esteve is now a well-known actress in Spain, and her youngest daughter, Celia, is a pop flamenco singer. Pepa Flores still lives in Málaga with her partner Máximo Stecchiny and works as a humanitarian activist. Forty years after her retirement, she is 'un mito', a living myth in Spain. She was the subject of a TV miniseries, Marisol (Manuel Palacios, 2009). In the wake of the Me Too movement, the claims Marisol made to Francisco Umbral and Interviú in the late 1970s about the sexual abuse she underwent as a child star resurfaced in Spanish Vanity Fair in 2018. Sources: Miguel A. Andrade (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb. And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

[almaqead]

"Perfectly Formed." Introduction to Surah 19, Surah Maryam, "The Mother of the Dawn."

This Surah has 98 verses divided into 6 Rukus/Sections. This Surah was revealed in Mecca almost six to seven years before Prophet Muhammad’s migration to Yathrib (Madina). This was the time when the opposition of Meccans turned from verbal accusations and abuse to physical and socio-economic torture and bans. This is the time when many Muslims migrated to nearby country of Abyssinia.

Today's context is not much different than the one before. The US Government is refusing to dissolve the Republican Party or put an end to the possibility Donald Trump or those like him will be allowed to cause harm to the world on the basis of its false dogmas. Clarification of the correct messages the world needs to hear during this deeply troubling time in human history is why we are reading the Quran in this forum.

Members of the United States Government have begun a new intifada against Jews and Muslims on global scale in order to unseat civilization. Those terror tunnels that have cored Israel and other locations are of American origin. Of this there is no doubt. So long as the Quran remains a dirty secret, persons and governments like Donald Trump, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Islamic Republics will be able to oppress their people and meddle in world affairs right under their feet. The truth of God obviously must exist in three hundred and sixty degrees.

The human race is depending on persons who believe the angel Jibril, "the reality checker" visited Muhammad of the Quraysh with a series of verses designed to rescue humanity from itself to stand up for the truth of their faith. Abuse of Muslims must be curbed, and the issues where they are meant to live must be resolved.

The international community has been too confused about this because of the efforts made by the United States Government to alienate them. Octover 7, perpretrated by masterminds in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and Donald Trump are the lastest examples. There must not be war in Israel or Iran because of this, there must unity around the core beliefs of the Mosque instead.

Thus begins the Surah; a tale of another revelation by the god Jibril to the human race for the sake of its lasting happiness. The Surah opens with a banner called a Fatihah:

19:1-22:

Kãf-Ha-Ya-’Aĩn- Ṣãd. "A spoonful of food."

˹This is˺ a reminder of your Lord’s mercy to His servant Zachariah,

when he cried out to his Lord privately,

saying, “My Lord! Surely my bones have become brittle, and grey hair has spread across my head, but I have never been disappointed in my prayer to You, my Lord!

And I am concerned about ˹the faith of˺ my relatives after me, since my wife is barren. So grant me, by Your grace, an heir,

who will inherit ˹prophethood˺ from me and the family of Jacob, and make him, O  Lord, pleasing ˹to You˺!”

˹The angels announced,˺ “O Zachariah! Indeed, We give you the good news of ˹the birth of˺ a son, whose name will be John—a name We have not given to anyone before.”

He wondered, “My Lord! How can I have a son when my wife is barren, and I have become extremely old?”

An angel replied, “So will it be! Your Lord says, ‘It is easy for Me, just as I created you before, when you were nothing!’”

Zachariah said, “My Lord! Grant me a sign.” He responded, “Your sign is that you will not ˹be able to˺ speak to people for three nights, despite being healthy.”

So he came out to his people from the sanctuary, signalling to them to glorify ˹Allah˺ morning and evening.

˹It was later said,˺ “O John! Hold firmly to the Scriptures.” And We granted him wisdom while ˹he was still˺ a child, as well as purity and compassion from Us. And he was God-fearing, and kind to his parents. He was neither arrogant nor disobedient.

Peace be upon him the day he was born, and the day of his death, and the day he will be raised back to life!

And mention in the Book ˹O Prophet, the story of˺ Mary when she withdrew from her family to a place in the east, screening herself off from them. Then We sent to her Our angel, ˹Gabriel,˺ appearing before her as a man, perfectly formed.

She appealed, “I truly seek refuge in the Most Compassionate from you! ˹So leave me alone˺ if you are God-fearing.”

He responded, “I am only a messenger from your Lord, ˹sent˺ to bless you with a pure son.”

She wondered, “How can I have a son when no man has ever touched me, nor am I unchaste?”

He replied, “So will it be! Your Lord says, ‘It is easy for Me. And so will We make him a sign for humanity and a mercy from Us.’ It is a matter ˹already˺ decreed.”

So she conceived him and withdrew with him to a remote place."

Commentary:

After Kahf, which I said must result in "equipoise" towards all that happens inside and outside the mind, Allah tells Muhammad through the angel of the reality check, Jibril also called Gabriel, that the fruits of the actions of the Kahf must be made into a way of life. He chooses the story of Mary and the Immaculate Conception to illustrate how equilibrium, social equity and uprisings against the proud and the vile are vital matters of mercy for the world.

His name was called Isha. He was the product of the mating interactions of the heavenly host "perfectly made" and the womb of Mary, who gave the world a great blessing because God asked her and without asking for anything in return.

The world must feel to us as it did to Zechariah, who did not think it could change. We must all think by now, this is it, ruthless, insecure, weird criminals are going to subsume the world and there is no way out. If we look at the meaning of Zechariah, we might find we can are able to purchase a glimmer of hope:

"The verb זכר (zakar) means to remember, to deliberately review, or to cause to remember or review — by means of public oration, urging and pleading, physical memorials, and so on.

Noun זכר (zeker) means remembrance, memory, memorial or invocation. Noun זכרון (zikkaron) or זכרן (zikkaron) denotes a memorial or token — a memorial day, altar-plates, stones, crowns, books, proof of citizenship, even spoils of war. Noun אזכרה ('azkara) refers to a memorial-offering.

Noun זכור (zakur) and noun and adjective זכר (zakar) mean male. This noun denotes the male of humans and animals, and marvelously illustrates the parallel between sexual reproduction and the learning process, which is so overly prevalent in the Bible."

It's hardly Christmas time but we can still remember why God sent Himself to us in the form of Isha. We are on the cusp of trying to crown psychopaths and put them in charge of the Sacred District of Israel and this is not its destiny.

Israel is the gate to heaven, it is where our modern lives took their first footsteps. We are faltering to place our feet in them within this generation. But the Surah says "hold fast to the scripture, be compassionate, do not be arrogant" and life on earth will be one day be raised up.

Every possible effort to end the threats of the Republican Party and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and bring peace to all Israel including everywhere Muslims dwell, but espcially in the Holy Land, where this sacred story began.

[stardust-in-my-mind-blog]

just another star pilot

Larque pouted, elbow on the table and left hand holding her cheek. Her right hand reached over to twirl her straw around in her water. The ice clicked together.

"I don't know. I guess it's all strange. I'm used to playing sixty three different characters depending on the situation. Kind of an occupational need in the smuggling business. You have to get people who aren't trusting people to trust you quickly. I must have a lot more mirror neurons than most people. Mimicry and being disarming has gotten me out of quite a few sticky situations..." her voiced faded and she smiled at her glass.

Her smile tilted more to the left now. She almost had a dimple. She'd always wanted to have a dimple. Dimples were really cute. She bent to drink from the straw.

"It didn't carve me out much of an identity. I don't think I ever had one. I think I've been running away from myself since I was a child. I never really got to have an identity then, either. I was always playing a role, rarely able to even wear what I wanted. Sure, everything was provided for... provided I behaved in the way others wanted me. No one wanted me, they wanted me in the role they had of me in their head. I had to choose between survival or painful liberty. I chose faking my own death and getting lost in the galaxy. Now I'm realizing I never chose anything. It's all been surviving or playing a role or escaping yet another mess I got myself into. I've always kind of been lost. It's hard to find yourself when you never made yourself. Maybe that's what I'm learning now."

The droid bartender had no expression, and was obviously programmed to pretend to listen and care about its human patrons. It even had a sympathetic tilt to its head as it blankly washed the counter. She was comforted by emotional unavailability, and when she thought about that for a second, she realized there was a problem there.

Add it to her tab. She had about half a hundred problems to solve and absolutely no energy to do it tonight.

"I have two dominant mental states. I have one where I am clever and charming and completely delighted by everything and easily inspired. Then I have the empty one. The one where I just observe everything and absorb the situation to process later. I'm fearless, but I'm also looking for trouble. I talk without thinking and make situations awkward and people are either fascinated for good reasons or attracted for bad ones."

She looked over at the droid. He'd finished with the counter cleaning so he just stood there with the tilted head. It was deepened in angle. He almost looked silly and it warmed her heart. "But I don't think either of those is me. Or maybe it is. I think I'm jealous of you, Ten-Zen. All these emotions and biochemical responses they inspire in my blood stream which then fire off the lighting of my nervous system and impact the heart that keeps beating even though I don't know how it ever started. Sometimes my heart feels dense like stone and sometimes it feels hollow like a drum. You don't have to deal with any of that. But you're also at the mercy of whatever being buys you and programs you. You don't get to choose. I get to choose."

Her arms folded themselves on the bar and she placed her head into them. Her voice was muffled when she spoke again. "Thank you for listening, Ten-zen. Can you get me another plum wine? I'm going to drink it and stare blankly off into the distance until I figure out a plan. One that will actually maybe work."

The droid said something about the service being a pleasure and walked stiffly over to where the assortment of multi-colored bottles of spirits were kept. Larque spun around on the bar seat. She didn't know it did that. She looked to her left and to her right before giving it one more spin just to experience it consciously. By the time the droid came back to place the glass of wine in front of her, she'd already gotten out her pens and journal and was furiously scribbling away.

[bobelblogger]

Laurana met with the speaker of the stars Alhana Starbreeze in silence both entranced sat amid the exiles of their conquered homes among the last of their race. Kagonesti, Qualinesti and Silvanesti all refugees fleeing the Dragon Queens rule who betrayed the peace promised by treaty in favor of new settlers brought to replace them, in all three hundred sixty four souls remain, horrific slaughter. Dargonesti Demeresti "Why have the fates turned so cruelly, have we not given our due to the stars for--." "What have your ears and eyes learned of our company, Goldmoon, Riverwind, Tika, Flint, Caramon, Raistlin, Tass or Tanis, and what of Gilthanas?" "Flint is holed up in Godshome, Tasselhoff is in Kendermore with the remains of his people building ships to sail, nor Riverwind or Goldmoon were seen or talked about, Gilthanas and Raistlin and Caramon and Tanis and Tika have ventured to Taladas in hopes of gathering renewed force, it will take some time, many think continued resistance is futile and the dragonarmies unstoppable." "Then I must obtain unstoppable power to match them, aimed at the heart of evil itself with such ferocity they never rise again." "How, such magics and vessels to hold it are left to the gods and goddesses alone, and the price for it steeped in suffering." "Then I've paid my fare hundreds of times over, my person and name soiled and mocked, betrayed and humiliated, if there is such a vessel I will take it and if not forge one, ascend the steps to my waiting place in the heavens and temples a red a white and black day shall herald it, the tortured souls of my foes will flood the underworld." "Laurana, what shall you do without our friends? my love for Sturm, it didn't bring his return, love is all we have." "Love is a childhood infatuation of foolish ideas cursing our minds, between us it's more trouble than help." "Then we must love ourselves to move onward to lift this evil net snaring our world, before the cataclysm returns." Alhana, I am the Cataclysm, this is the Age of the Golden Goddess, bow down and worship me now." Without a thought Alhana did and soon the rest followed, their old gods did nothing, all faith realigned on her, they were Lauranesti now,

---------- Aloft with his Wing over Kendermore, Emperor Ariakas hunts for sport, with only the dwarves and a few bands of escape elven slaves, all Ansalon was in his thrall and Takhisis had full sway over the land. ARIAKAS SUCKS COCK spelled out in a field, flying lower and realized it was made of slain dragonarmy men. Red Wing, fan out over the area and burn everything, no survivors,

Ariakas, by drowning in dragon blood, piss, sperm and shit.

----------- Kitiara's body ached from her strenuous sparring practice, she needed to stay swift and sharp even with a pacified region to rule, her spies in Taladas brought news of Tanis and his friends, soon she would have him in her bed and in marriage, Steel would bring him back, willing or unwilling. Steels life for the whereabouts of my child, no lies, come on cunt, I'm not asking nicely again, feel the lance you ugly slattern.

Kitiara, by Lance with castrated sons cock

----------- Barnesby wasn't given the rulership of Palanthas before its ruin but his harem of elven widows and a vast fiefdom on the Solamnian coast more than made up for it.

Barnesby, by rats in a barrel tossed down a hole.

----------- Kreiss found his castle more dark and joyless than usual as he stalked through the halls, it's only been two weeks.

----------- Suleiman ordered a race of his finest horses was set to begin soon, with his favorite called Godswill, in a bet against his

Suleiman, by trampling with stallions mating.

A not finished sequel to Euchers Laurana Whore General.