#stinker jail for life | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

itwas50yearsagotoday · 1 year ago

Text

My Top 125 songs of 1973

12/31/23: Greetings! This is my last annual top songs list, the Top 125 songs of 1973, as I will be retiring the blog when I turn 50 in seventeen days. It's been an awesome journey all-around, but lets stick with '73 on this post. Only one song asterisked this year as a new-to-me song. All of these songs rate 82 out of 100 or higher (see previous post somewhere that describes my rating system). One of the themes I've been discussing over the year is decline, that is the decline in quality of mainstream artists' material--sometimes this is just slightly less, and other times it is a major decline. Probably the worst offender is Deep Purple, who released a huge stinker of a record following arguably their best effort; Yes also is in this category with their four-side ugly behemoth. Then there are just slightly inferior records like Houses of the Holy, Quadrophenia, and Goats Head Soup. That said, there are several artists that released excellent records like Pink Floyd, EL&P, Elton John, Neil Young, Blue Oyster Cult, Paul McCartney (Wings), Genesis, Steely Dan, Roxy Music (x2!), Caravan, Stevie Wonder, Black Sabbath, Mott the Hoople, the Stooges, and, of course, Gentle Giant. Finally, 1973 would feature many newbies including Aerosmith, Bruce Springsteen, and Billy Joel. One may ask 'where are all the women?'… yes, it's a travesty, I know. Thankfully this would get much better over time. But for now, here's my top 125 of the year that was 1973:

10CC 'Rubber Bullets'…like Steely Dan and Sparks, some good old SmArt Rock here… great story song too about a jail riot

Abba 'Ring Ring'…too bad we can't get more into Abba on this blog, but at least you get a taste here

Aerosmith 'Dream On'… song wasn't a hit until a couple years later… probably the one Aerosmith song EVERYONE knows (even my teenage sons)

Aerosmith 'Movin' Out'… as sinister as B.O.C. but they mean it!

Aerosmith 'Somebody'… now there's a dirty-ass opening riff

Alice Cooper 'Unfinished Sweet'… I dig the James Bond shit in the middle; they shoulda used his song for The Man With the Golden Gun

Brian Auger 'Happiness Is Just Around the Bend'… in all the darkness of this year, a more friendly tune

Roy Ayers 'Coffy Is the Color'… blaxploitation fare at its best

Bachman-Turner Overdrive 'Let It Ride'… I like the frequent mood changes in this essential Classic Rock tune

The Beach Boys 'Sail on Sailor'… the last Beach Boys song that we can take as serious art? maybe… but what about 'Kokomo'?

Black Sabbath 'A National Acrobat'… Iommi just tears it UP on this song, probably my favorite Sabbath song ever

Black Sabbath 'Killing Yourself to Live'… an anti-drug song, how ironic

Black Sabbath 'Sabbra Cadabra'… quintessential Sabbath riff and fast-paced melody

Blue Ash 'Abracadabra (Have You Seen Her?)'… Power Pop strikes again--if any interest in this genre, the album is a must-listen

Blue Ash 'Wasting My Time'… doing their Beatles impression, much respect

Blue Oyster Cult '7 Screaming Diz-Busters'… don't know what it means, don't care… the slow-down in the middle is too cool

Blue Oyster Cult 'Baby Ice Dog'… owoooooooo!!!

Blue Oyster Cult 'Hot Rails to Hell'… feels like it says it is

Blue Oyster Cult 'The Red & the Black', 'O.D.'d on Life Itself'… I usually combine these two songs as they flow into each other nicely… great way to open BOC's arguably best record

David Bowie 'The Jean Genie'… classic Bowie blues rock stomp

Tim Buckley 'Stone In Love'… a pretty good place to start with Tim Buckley, but don't expect the rest of his material to be this accessible

Budgie 'Breadfan'… Metallica's cover is great, almost as great as the original by this underrated power trio

Buffalo 'Sunrise (Come My Way)'… the only new song on this list that I didn't know before… it's pretty epic*

Captain Beyond 'Evil Men'… a little bit Sabbath, little bit BOC

Caravan 'C'Thlu C'Thlu'… one of my favorite songs ever, they get the marching of the beast during the bridge just right

Caravan 'Hoedown'… funny, EL&P had their own 'Hoedown' in '72, but a completely different song… not sure which is better, as both are fun little prog workouts

Caravan 'Memory Lain, Hugh Headloss'… this tune sounds like it could be the soundtrack of an epic journey, or maybe a lavish game show

Chicago 'Feelin' Stronger Every Day'… talk about a mood-booster, seriously… the song is an anti-depressant… the band's A.M. apex

Chicago 'Just You 'n' Me'… a Chicago love song before they sucked

Deep Purple 'Woman From Tokyo'… the Purple's last stand… forget anything else that follows it (even on the same album… especially on the same album!)

The Doobie Brothers 'China Grove'… Classic Rock perfectly distilled, I can recall a KSHE rival advertising their station using this song sometime around 1990

The Doobie Brothers 'Long Train Running'… almost didn't make the list, but it just such a seminal Rock tune… plus it feels like a fucking train

The Doobie Brothers 'Without You'… not as well known by the Doobs, but it's a total rocker, and Johnston's singing sounds great

Electric Light Orchestra 'Showdown'… knowing more about the Move now, I can tell this was an evolution from that sound

Emerson, Lake & Palmer 'Jerusalem'… English poetry turned into a song, turned into another song… if I were unabashedly British this would be my song of national pride

Emerson, Lake & Palmer 'Karn Evil 9, 1st Impression (part one)'… the part you probably don't know but should

Emerson, Lake & Palmer 'Karn Evil 9, 1st Impression (part two)'… the part you might know, if you're so inclined

Emerson, Lake & Palmer 'Toccata'… a modern classical music song (1960) turned into prog… it works

Faces 'Silicone Grown'… ode to fake boobs… how did THIS song not get airplay on Classic Rock radio? Seriously, they play the shit out of Rod's solo stuff (from Every Picture), but this is a sloppy, drunken masterpiece

Fleetwood Mac 'Hypnotized'… height of Bob Welch's involvement (he should be in the R&R HOF with the rest of the Mac incarnations, fucking morons)

Funkadelic 'Nappy Dugout'… not enough Black music on this list, but this is a great funk song--quite a title, ahem

J. Geils Band 'Did You No Wrong'… dig the tappy-tap shoes at the beginning

Genesis 'Dancing With the Moonlit Knight'… takes a minute to get going but worth the journey, excellent album opener

Genesis 'Firth of Fifth'… Genesis' best song, bar none… Hackett's guitar solo is something to behold--goosebumps, man

Gentle Giant 'Runaway'… clever intro with the glass breaking to the beat

Gentle Giant 'Way of Life'… progressive rock that defies description… the song's got this frantic, almost-Disco like, drumbeat at the beginning, but turns into a beautiful wall of sound by the end, one of this weirdo band's greatest

Gong 'The Pothead Pixies'… yep, they are

Grand Funk Railroad 'We're an American Band'… yep, they are!

Hall and Oates 'Abandoned Luncheonette'… besides kinda corny lyrics in the verses, it is the chorus that just rules with those faux-Buckmaster strings, holy shit the shiver

Hall and Oates 'She's Gone'… the duo's first hit, and wouldn't be their last (duh!)

Herbie Hancock 'Watermelon Man'… this whole jazz-funk album is uniformly excellent, but this workout is probably the most accessible

Hawkwind 'Brainbox Pollution'… perhaps one of the greatest B-side singles ever

Lee Hazlewood 'Poet, Fool or Bum'… "Bum!" (stole that from a critic describing a contemporary album review)

Billy Joel 'The Piano Man'… where it all started for Mr. William Joel

Elton John 'All the Young Girls Love Alice'… this album rocks, and this is a quintessential number from it

Elton John 'Bennie and the Jets'… a song I've both loved and loathed and loved again, one of EJ and Bernie's best

Elton John 'Funeral For a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding'… an eleven minute epic worth every second… one of the best album-openers of all time

Elton John 'Grey Seal'… don't skip this very 1973-ish gem--crazy coda!

Kool and the Gang 'Hollywood Swinging'… happy slow funk, if that's possible

Led Zeppelin 'Dancing Days'… I think this side opener comes off as generic initially, but it rewards the listener over time

Led Zeppelin 'D'yer Mak'er'… that's "Jamaica" in Cockney… for 'reggae' it's not bad, and it actually reached #20 on the Billboard charts (!!)

Led Zeppelin 'No Quarter'… LZ not necessarily at their hardest, but perhaps their gloomiest

Led Zeppelin 'Over the Hills and Far Away'… I think this has something to do with Tolkien

Led Zeppelin 'Song Remains the Same'… great album opener for a great album, it rocks (surprised it doesn't get more airplay)

Led Zeppelin 'The Ocean'… perfect album closer (okay after their previous album closer)

Led Zeppelin 'The Rain Song'… can Zeppelin actually write a love song?? Yes they can!!

Lynyrd Skynyrd 'Free Bird'… you know it--the ending jam makes this song a bonafide CR standard

Lynyrd Skynyrd 'I Ain't the One'… kind of an unexpected first album opener for what is essentially THE Southern Rock band par-excellence, as it has all that weird Hendrix-like backwards shit, but then it turns swampy and it's awesome

Paul McCartney & Wings 'Band on the Run'… finally, McCartney making some consistent tunes again!

Paul McCartney & Wings 'Jet'… feels like a dinosaur wandering into your living room

Paul McCartney & Wings 'Live and Let Die'… one of the greatest James Bond themes ever

Paul McCartney & Wings 'Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five'… dig the Moog all over this one, and I like how it ties up the album as a loose concept

Mott the Hoople 'All the Way to Memphis'… some little known R&R that should be more well-known IMO (at least it was in that Scorsese movie)

Mott the Hoople 'Whizz Kid'… simple little song about poor twenty-somethings living in NYC… gotta great melody, and it rocks

The O'Jays 'For the Love of Money'… you probably know it as 'money money money mon-ay… MON-ay!', but don't dismiss because the song gets down and dirty quick… I can't believe this groovy funk-pop song wasn't in a Blaxploitation flick

Danny O'Keefe 'Madgalena'… this is just a purty song here… underrated singer-songwriter

Ozark Mountain Daredevils 'If You Wanna Get to Heaven'… yay, Missouri rock

The Pink Fairies 'City Kids'… some proto-punk fer ya, check out Lemmy's version on Motorhead's first album

The Pink Fairies 'Street Urchin'… the last stand for one of the most unknown-but-awesome bands… it even has kind of a finality to it

Pink Floyd 'Any Colour You Like'… a dream on headphones, Wright vs. Gilmour, then combined!

Pink Floyd 'Brain Damage / Eclipse'… perfect ending for a perfect album--turn the volume way up at the very end!

Pink Floyd 'Money'… always one of my top three favorite songs of all-time… I think it is the 7/4 time that just grabs me, and then the change to 4/4 at the bridge, and back

Pink Floyd 'Speak to Me / Breathe / On the Run'… must be heard together for full effect

Pink Floyd 'Time'… fun to scare the kids with the clocks at the beginning

Pink Floyd 'Us and Them'… Floyd would never again sound quite so lush and lovely

Alan Price 'Sell, Sell'… this ex-Animal has a talent for making somewhat unique and timeless music, and this is no exception… more sinister, kinda filthy and in the gutter

Queen 'Keep Yourself Alive'… where it all started for this World-famous band

REO Speedwagon 'Find My Fortune'… the only time the guitarist would sing on an REO tune, and it's totally sweet sounding

REO Speedwagon 'Ridin' the Storm Out'… original lead singer (sorta) is better on this one

REO Speedwagon 'Whiskey Night'…swampy, dig it, like the Doobies but better (usually it's the other way around)

The Rolling Stones '100 Years Ago'… IMO the most underrated Stones song ever--killer jam at the end

The Rolling Stones 'Coming Down Again'… love Taylor's wah-wahs on this one… the ultimate hangover song

The Rolling Stones 'Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)'… zeitgeist, baby!

The Rolling Stones 'Silver Train'… I think they're talking about heroin here… or maybe just trains, I dunno

Roxy Music 'Do the Strand'… look for the awesome video of this track on YT

Roxy Music 'Mother of Pearl'… over time this has been my go-to Roxy song--love Ferry's singing here

Roxy Music 'Street Life'… quintessential Roxy thumper

Roxy Music 'The Bogus Man'… Eno could create some crazy sounds back in the day

Seals and Crofts 'Diamond Girl'… blurs the boundaries of A.M. Gold and Classic Rock

Bruce Springsteen 'Kitty's Back'… kind of an unknown tune (overshadowed on the record by 'Rosalita') but I love the swift changes in tone throughout (whispers, then loud horns, etc.)

Bruce Springsteen 'The E Street Shuffle'… if all of Springsteen sounded like this I might be more interested--one of my favorite codas ever

Steely Dan 'Bodhittsava'… hard not to get swept up in the high-speed excitement on this album opener… LOOK OUT!

Steely Dan 'King of the World'… maybe my favorite Dan tune… has this 'cosmic game show score' feel to it

Steely Dan 'My Old School'… one of the first Steely Dan songs I ever heard (some retro-Bandstand video shown on VH1)--for whatever reason this song did not crack the Top 40, but I think it is probably the most representative song of the band's first three albums… great lyrics, great hook, dig the horns

Steely Dan 'Razor Boy'… some excellent lyrics about a woman who is trying to look classier than she is

Steely Dan 'The Boston Rag'… a slow burn of a song, but the guitar solo by Denny Dias (or it could be Skunk Baxter, not sure) just rips a hole in the pleasantness

Steely Dan 'Your Gold Teeth'… they did 'Do It Again' again, but better… much better!

Iggy & the Stooges 'Gimme Danger'… again, sinister is a theme in 1973 music… but somehow this song seems just a bit out of time, like it could have been made much later

Iggy & the Stooges 'Penetration'… when I first heard this song I didn't like Iggy's breathy growls but they've grown on me

Iggy & the Stooges 'Raw Power'… more proto-punk

Iggy & the Stooges 'Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell (Hard to Beat)'… even more proto-punk

Styx 'Lady'… the guiltiest of guilty pleasures, I absolutely know all the words

T. Rex 'Tenement Lady'… barely made this list, but I really like the groove of this tune

Three Dog Night 'Shambala'… perhaps the best A.M. Gold song of all time… it's that high note: "TELL ME HOW!!!"

The Who '5:15'… one of Keith Moon's greatest drumming performances

The Who 'Bell Boy'… Keith sings too!!

Wizzard 'Bend Over Beethoven'… this tune did not make the album (I think it was a UK single) but it's possibly the most accessible Roy Wood song out there

Stevie Wonder 'Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing'… another out-of-time song, from Stevie's masterpiece record… love the excited Spanish spoken intro

Stevie Wonder 'Higher Ground'… an unending argument in my head is which song is better, this one or the RHCP cover?

Neil Young 'L.A.'… Neil's snarky ode to Los Angeles

Neil Young 'Time Fades Away'… another theme of this year as there are a lot of 'best song by' fill-in-the-blank… here's another one, and I don't care if Neil hates it, it's one of his most depressing yet somehow upbeat songs… works perfectly in the live setting

0 notes

successionmanga · 2 years ago

Text

Chapter 9:

Just a reminder:

Because I am NOT typing it out again.

Anyway, Eco says that even if Dietrich put weird ideas in his head, he hopes his words would keep Belca safe for a while. He knows that Belca might be happier as Dietrich's puppet but...that'll be no fun for a little stinker like Eco. Then he hears a bunch of noise from outside...

But the Captain first! He can't relax in the mansion while the Amontel are attacking so he walks outside the room. Then he sees Belca confront the Amontels outside. When Belca is shot at, he manages to dash down and take the arrow for him, protecting his precious Mariebelle.

Then the captain sees his pendant, finally (actually) recognizing him. Tenrou thinks that, with Belca's fancy clothes, he's the young master of this place so he wants him to take him to where the slaves are. But Shingetsu tells him to wait, saying there's a signal from the bank of the lake and that means Dietrich's men already knows they're there. They do a Pincer attack on them, they're screwed. Tenrou says oh well, they got all the information they need from the maid. They can just take Belca as a hostage instead and get out of Dodge. The Captain tries to protect him but ends up with an arrow through his ankle, courtesy of Shingetsu. Belca tries to protect him but he's outmanned; they give him a choice: come with them or the captain and the maid dies. Despite that throwing a wrench in his "return to Orcelito" plans, Belca agrees, becoming a hostage.

Captain is thrown into the waters and the Amontels board a boat with their new hostage. They tell the maid to send a message: they're return with Belca later, offering his life for their comrades.

Later on, Dietrich gets word that Belca was kidnapped, the Amontels cleverly outmanuevering them by going someplace where they weren't expected to show up and thus taking advantage of the lack of guards there. Dietrich's attendant guy says that it's kind of a good thing that this happened before word was sent back that they have the prince in their custody. Dietrich says the prince must be rescued; he can't miss this chance to get a connection with Lord Lagen!

Shingetsu and Tenrou are greeted back at their meet-up spot by another Amontel, Belca in tow. Then the Captain walks up, having swam after them to save Belca. Then he passes out.

Back at the jail, a maid comes with Eco's blanket and heater (Oh, he was serious about that...). Eco recognizes her as Annette, a maid who's been working in the mansion for years. She's happy to be recognized and gives him his blanket...and his missing poem book, knowing how much he missed it. Eco is so happy...which is a feeling he'll want to hold onto as much as possible because Annette then tells him Belca was kidnapped.

Eco demands to be let out to rescue him but Annette says that's impossible. Dietrich has the keys and if she steals them, she won't just be flogged...she'll be subject to the experiments, just like the Amontel!

Wait, what?

Yeah, that's what Dietrich has been using the Amontels for, shooting them up with drugs and stuff like that. Eco asks if he's working with Lagen on that and Annette confirms it, asking how he knows about that. Instead of answering, he asks Annette to do him another favor...

Meanwhile, Hostage!Belca wakes up against a giant fox in a cave somewhere. Shingetsu greets him, currently dressing the Captain's wounds. Belca tries to push him away, thinking he's attacking him, only for Shingetsu to take out a knife and throw it at him...hitting the rat about to pounce on him. Apparently the rats in this setting are venomous...he then tells Belca that because he's their hostage, they're not gonna hurt him because they need him for the exchange. Until then, he should get some rest. His giant fox doesn't bite. Also, the captain's wound is (somehow) shallow and the shot was just meant to scare Belca. Some herbs have been applied on the wounds so he should be fine in 2 to 3 days. Belca is awed that these monsters are behaving in such a surprisingly rational manner. He still wants to leave...but the Captain has a fever so it's impossible to move him. He sighs and calls the Captain an idiot, asking why he had to pull such a dumb stunt for him...

Outside the cave, an Amontel named Izayoi comes in and is briefed on the situation. Then he finds the pendant the Amontel swiped from Belca, horrified that they KIDNAPPED THE FUCKING PRINCE.

Now, at the Royal Prefecture in Neue Favrille, Kiliko and Lagen's men are trying to locate pages from the Rovisco Documents as well as decipher them. Turns out Lagen's family are called the Guardians of History and this is their main duty. Then they find some controversial literature, including some text explicitly speaking out against the royal family. The missing pages were most likely taken out by someone who is against the crown which also means someone else knows about the secret backroom...

Tenrou stomps back into the cave when we cut back to Belca, demanding to know if the latter is actually the Prince. He then comments if he's Hector's brother, he's his exact opposite. That pisses Belca off and he charges him, screaming that it's the Amontel's fault that Hector is dead because he wanted to treat them as human beings and the elders killed him for it. The other Amontels are shocked to hear this...and so is the Captain who just woke up. Tenrou recovers quickly, glad that they can now do a hostage exchange with the Stone Capital's King. Belca laughs at him, saying there's no way that the kingdom will bargain for a troublemaker like him. Sure, the elders want him but that's only because he knows they killed Hector. The Captain tries to get Belca to stop talking but Belca goes on, saying they wasted their time and that the kingdom wouldn't want to negotiate with a bunch of evil disgusting creatures like them anyway.

The Amontel are about to fuck him up but Shingetsu stops them, wanting to ask Belca a question: did he see it? You know, when the Evil Deity that created the Amontel...did it? They were just minding their own business in the mountains and then the Stone Capital guys came in and started colonizing. Being hunted, treated as slaves, eaten like food...they keep calling the Amontel evil but the way the Amontel are treated is evil in of itself!

So...on the Western Trail at the Florel Town Outpost, Musca is being prepared for her stay. While there, she overhears rumors that Orcelito is indeed acting strangely and some think he has been replaced with someone else. Musca thinks to herself: her mom's dead, her dad's sick, Hector's "gone away" and Belca is missing...she's the only one who can save her older brother. But how is she going to get back to the palace?

Enter Ossan.

It's his last day in Florel and he's about to head to Lobnec Peninsula, having already submitted his resignation. The chapter ends with Musca seeing him...

#+c: sword and cornett #plus si #manga #review #i sense an adventure...#or retirony #it's definitely one of those things

0 notes

bahereviews · 5 years ago

Photo

3 From Hell - 6 out of 10

Rob Zombie as a filmmaker has been an interesting thing to witness. From his debut film “House of 1000 Corpses” to his third entry to the Firefly Family series “3 From Hell.” There have been some stinkers and some winners depending on who you ask. Some may despise something others may cherish. Me personally? I sort of sit in the center. While I can certainly enjoy the insanity that Rob Zombie brings to his films, I can also spot the bad things about his films. Especially with “3 From Hell.” Crazed killers Baby Firefly, Captain Spaulding and Otis Driftwood unleash bloody mayhem after escaping from prison. Let’s jump in shall we?

SPOILERS AHEAD

From the moment the film ended, I felt that “3 From Hell” was a wholly unnecessary

sequel. Their violent demise in the finale of “The Devil’s Rejects” was a fitting end to the Firefly Family. More so now considering how they handled the death of Sid Haig’s popular Captain Spaulding. He is killed by means of lethal injection. Off screen might I add. There is only a brief interview between him and a hippie TV reporter in the beginning of the film where he’s able to spew off some of his incessant candor that we’ve come to love. But ultimately, his time on screen on this entry is limited to less than two minutes. Hell, maybe less. Compared to his valiant end in “The Devil’s Rejects,” I much prefer his character to have died there than on death row.

Replacing Captain Spaulding in the Firefly trio line up is the half brother of Otis and Baby. While his character is as sadistic and crazed and his extended family is, there is a noticeable absence; a void that could never be filled; once occupied by the legendary Captain Spaulding. But in real life, actor Sid Haig is getting up there in age. Hell, in the film he looks emaciated as hell. So perhaps it was for the best that his character die so early on in the film. Regardless, the characters of Otis and Baby do a fine job of keeping up the familial carnage on the road to Mexico.

Baby has somehow slipped further into insanity while Otis maintains his cool headedness. If you can call it that. He still enjoys torturing his poor victims both physically and mentally. Ultimately though, Baby takes the cake and steals the whole show. Despite the offensive visage of a white woman donning a Native American head dress during the bloody finale, you can’t help but cheer for our favorite psychotic antiheroes as they leave a bloody trail of carnage behind them. I found myself laughing at all of their maniacal antics.

The one thing that really stood out to me with this film was its color palette. It’s as if the editor turned the saturation up to 100% and then duplicated the effect to really sell it. The effect is so glaring that even the redness of people’s face are painfully and obviously exaggerated. Another thing I noticed was that the plot line of this film follows the plot line to “The Devil’s Rejects” to a certain degree. Especially the last half where a trio of main characters find sanctuary in a place they think is safe only to find that it isn’t safe, at which point they have to fend for themselves and fight their way out.

I feel Rob Zombie was trying to make a trilogy of different genres with each entry in his Firefly Trilogy. “House of 1000 Corpses” embraced the horror genre, “The Devil’s Rejects” embraced the thriller/killers-on-the-road genre, and “3 From Hell” embraced the western genre. Because that’s what this film feels like, a western. There’s a jail break, a shanty western town, and even a Mexican standoff that end brutality. Hell, Baby even dons a Native American head dress and takes down a few baddies with a bow and arrow. In the end though, “3 From Hell” is a totally unnecessary entry into a series that had its proper ending in the second film. But that doesn’t mean we won’t welcome our favorite psycho killers back to the big screen for more mindless violence. Mega fans will go see this film in theaters, casual movie goers will wait for its home video release. Which are you? :)

#3 from hell #rob zombie #house of 100 corpses #the devil's rejects #film #movie #review

4 notes · View notes

the-firebird69 · 2 years ago

Text

Sorry that's good it is part of our agenda to get you some funding and we did and we'll see what the result is so it's a positive test and it gets us working. A little bit of money is enough for us to work for a few days solid and we understand it and what you're saying and he set up I don't have to work anyways so we're going to go ahead and do it more often and we need you to hang on cuz you might be getting a bunch of money and then pressure and we mean it too pressure to go north I know what you say. And we're going to help I do it I just hear what you're saying. We do need a whole lot of something. And we do mean it too in other words I've been instructed to start cutting checks and getting them to and that means we're just going to force it based on what happened with the hundred bucks and they were cruel to Ken. It's mostly the warlock and he knows I just don't know what to do with us they should be doing scams and stuff like that on them not us they have a different plan so okay you're welcome and thank you work pretty good. There are a lot of sources out there you say and one of those Kia the other one is a class action you had in your drawer and there's several class actions like that when is risperdal when is the mesh and there's a bunch of them but really the car was a big one and that should be coming and there's more too answer just basic stuff that you don't care about Kia you know so it works and we're going to proceed that's a lot of money and I know how you hold on you ask Hera and she helps you with a list and helps you to prioritize and that's good and she's having fun doing it she likes to spend money when she was Jen she's spending a lot of money it made it look like you had money cuz you're giving us some money some manly thing she smiled and said thank you very much and she's going to buy food excuse me buy food sometimes cigarettes and you say buy some food. So we're supposed to ask me well I talked to her and then it's probably all ironed out when we make sure and it will come to you so don't waste your time actually right and then people go over it it's a good idea I need to take care of essentials even by personal insurance, some better clothes some furniture some transportation perhaps the freezer and some other stuff to make life a little more tolerable the grill maybe this is power oh a whole bunch of stuff. That was her son the last three lines with Hera, true too thanks a lot of money to live here I just got barely making it with as bed as on The Fringe and more. And something's work okay that really is going to need new stuff soon. And he doesn't have Wi-Fi he doesn't have the cable with it wouldn't use Wi-Fi and he doesn't have a bed that is a decent you know all that stuff I mean it's going to be a real money and I guess you're right we're going to ease you into it and see what you're saying like 700 bucks isn't enough for 10 grand you need 25 Grand and still spend a little and save the rest feel like 250 g and probably spend 50 on things that can take with you that's true too as it is we're starting to see what people are saying this place isn't that great but the race is not too bad it's kind of high but the clientele is horrible what are you going to do. Tell you what, his stinkers are acting like they already gave you the money to try and do stuff when you get the money to you. So you're right we should get you some more and more and then get more people here kind of calm down already you have stuff for it and they can see it and they just don't do anything so now we know what to do

Bitol and Goddess Wife

This morning I went over with the court did and said the sign off and all of them they sent them to the Magistrate and it's with them now and they tried getting checks and they're about to print them and the printer went down no and send out for it the checks come from somewhere else. Justice from the court so the letter says if they interfere with it they go to jail so we're on track and thank you for thinking of me and calling it's a good idea when you say it is getting cut off to your head the only thing is a little bit in the cherries that's what it is from. We shoot a lot of people over the bridge for slander. They're in court not going to jail lots of go to prison the chair not the cherries. Now it looks like there's a storm there is something California and that's what's been up there and it's all the way up there in Oregon no it's not the British Columbia and it's where the diamonds are and that's why the storm's there in California is a mess and I'll send that building a deck with Tommy f and Dan said I've had enough of this guy stalking us like you're stalking Chris and I can hear and say f*** they see what it's like they got really mad and said you're out of here you p**** boy Tommy has got mad and said you're in my s*** so I can be in your s*** and they turned around said I don't think so you're ruining my name the slandering your cousin Storm still and people aren't doing anything you should rough you up and then start getting ready and he ran into his car so start getting ready for him to arrive and he started sending people one by one at first then groups of 10 and 20 and 50 and 100 and then this was swamped with them by that time is there people came out they came in a big barrage of people snuck up on their position and hit them all they're starting to get intel

The cases are going pretty good the judge said for them to issue checks and they sent it out like within 20 minutes to their second payroll company but it's not it's more like a government ranch it's the State Treasury but the check will have the courthouse symbol. Returned and what age was received by the company that doesn't or government branch it's not Terry cheesman it's not trying to read the Lord and it's not tell me if so welll see if they can do it

0 notes

jfastereft · 7 years ago

Photo

“FRIENDS!” April 5, 2018 THOR’s Day

Be careful, be careful - of who you befriend,

“Cause they might just use you - ”tire-you-in-the-end!”

They-might-want-your-car,

To go-on-rides-of-joy,

Or - to-the-marketplace -

Or-Recycling-Center, boy!

They might just want,

To-do-an-estate-sale,*

Or’ll ask for liquor, as-they-trap-you-in-their-”jail!”

They’ll take advantage of you -

TAKE YOU ALL FOR GRANTED,

AND “THESE,” the folks you’re sure,

GOD HAS KINDLY “PLANTED,”

To make your life (more) fun and gay,

To send all-of your “blues” away!

Well, “BROTHERS’ KEEPERS,”

FRIEND(LESS) WEEPERS,

(pause)

JUST-CONSIDER WHAT- C O U L D- BE, WITHOUT NO FRIEND(S) AT ALL!

NOT-A-FRIEND-TO-CALL-ON-YOU, OR GRIPE - OR TAKE-YOUR-”BALL!”

FOR -

FRIENDS MIGHT BORROW YOUR-BALL-AND-MOWER AND CARS,

AND CLOTHES,

And “skip-out-on-you,” For-all-anyone-knows -

Or - BE “THE SOWER OF BAD THOUGHTS AND DREAMS,

TO AMPLIFY YOUR TEARS AND SCREAMS! BUT -

Come ON! Wha-wha-what’s-A-FRIEND?

We’re-ALL-just-“stinkers,”- IN-THE-END!

WE ALL JUST STEAL AND BORROW AND GRIPE,

AND TRY TO AMPLIFY O U R “LIGHT,”

Thus,

CLEAVE-TO-YOUR-”FRIENDS,” THE ONES YOU KNOW - OR, HAVEN’T GOT! - ALL PEOPLE (are) JUST SO,

HERE TO DRIVE YOU QUITE INSANE,

BUT - WITHOUT THEM, IT’S B O R I N G! WELCOME “THE RAIN!”**

fin. <3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Niu9Zmrx0p8

* - and ask YOU to help - Ahhhhhhh! Estate sales! Ahhhhhhh! :)

** - IT (Them - Friends) gives you something to do - to get OUT - get a little sunshine - and fresh air - {OR RAIN} AND GET YOU AWAY FROM YOUR TV!! :)

4 notes · View notes

go-redgirl · 4 years ago

Photo

The public swallowed a story of the wayward president’s son who cleaned up his act to take his place in the White House. Kitty Kelley exposes what really lurks in George W Bush’s past

On November 6, 1997, the exclusive club of America’s current and former presidents and first ladies gathered at a college campus in Texas for a celebration. President and Mrs Clinton arrived on Air Force One to join President and Mrs Ford, President and Mrs Carter, Nancy Reagan and Lady Bird Johnson.

They were there to honour President George Bush, who had raised $83m to build his presidential library at Texas A&M University.

His eldest son, George W Bush, governor of Texas, welcomed the 20,000 guests. With a few words, W smashed the bonhomie of the occasion: “I’m here to praise my father as a man who entered the political arena and left with his integrity intact . . . A war hero, a loving husband . . . and a president who brought dignity and character and honour to the White House.”

Spoken at the height of Clinton’s personal scandal in front of a predominantly Republican crowd, the assault on the current president’s integrity was not lost on anyone.

The Bush family had never accepted Clinton as a worthy successor, and they delighted in his unfolding scandal. They e-mailed one another ribald jokes about Monica Lewinsky and Paula Jones’s sexual harassment suit against Clinton.

When it was reported that Jones claimed she could identify a “distinguishing characteristic” of Clinton’s anatomy, George Sr did not rest until he discovered what she was talking about. He then e-mailed his sons and friends: “His Johnson curves to the left.”

The family was looking towards its restoration to power through the presidential candidacy of George W. His mother, Barbara Bush, referred to him as “the Chosen One”. There was a problem, however. After eight years of Clinton, the American public “want to elect a statue”, as Oklahoma’s Republican governor Frank Keating put it. “They want a hero, an unblemished and untarnished guy in the White House.”

Karl Rove, the political adviser with the task of shaping W’s image, knew he had to present his candidate as the anti-Clinton: fresh (no drugs, no alcoholism), religious (acceptable to evangelicals) and faithful to his wife (majority of voters: women).

Fanning out across the country, Rove and the Bush team began to tidy up the governor’s past. Rove wanted no potentially devastating revelations to emerge that might portray W and Laura, his wife, as anything but an ideal and idealised couple. But to present W as pure and pristine was hypocritical and untrue.

George W Bush wasn’t Bill Clinton, certainly not in terms of sexual excess. But Clinton is not the standard to which he should be held. He must be compared with his own declarations on morality and his own carefully crafted public image — the image that the entire Bush family has cultivated for so long.

THE first hurdle facing the tidy-up team was to deal with W’s past drug use. As governor of Texas, he took a hard line on drugs. He supported increased penalties for possession and signed legislation mandating jail time for people caught with less than a single gram of cocaine.

Yet, as the claims of Sharon Bush, his sister-in-law, show, he could have been subject to jail time himself had he been caught “doing coke” with his brother Marvin at Camp David during his father’s presidency.

In the midst of an unfriendly divorce from Neil, another of the Bush brothers, Sharon told me last year: “He and Marvin did coke at Camp David when their father was president and not just once, either.”

As governor, George W had been very careful not to lie about doing illegal drugs himself, because he knew there were too many people who could testify to the truth. “When I was young and irresponsible,” he would say, “I was young and irresponsible.”

So what was his drugs record? When they were young, both he and Laura used to go down to the island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands where they attended and enjoyed heavy pot-smoking parties. Smoking pot was hardly a sin but it did not mesh with the strait-laced image the Bushes were now presenting to the voters.

Then there were the allegations about cocaine. When W was at Yale in the mid-1960s, it was the most popular drug on campus. One contemporary, who insists on remaining anonymous, admitted years later to selling cocaine to W at the university.

Another man who was at Yale’s graduate school recalled “doing coke” with George, but he would not allow his recollections to be used on the record. This was not simply through fear of retribution. He said he did not feel right about “blowing George’s cover because I was doing the same thing”. A confirmed Democrat, he also said that although he could not stand George’s Republican politics, he liked him as a person.

Alcohol, the more familiar thread in W’s life story, started at Andover, the exclusive school W attended.

Andover stressed athletics as part of its regimen. Unable to live up to his father’s legacy as one of Andover’s most outstanding athletes, George W played his own kind of sports and won a reputation as a prankster.

“He loved stickball, which is baseball played with a broomstick and a tennis ball and funny hats,” recalled his contemporary, J Milburn “Kim” Jessup. “George made himself the high commissioner of stickball, which was a joke job.”

Alcohol was absolutely forbidden on or off campus, but the high commissioner of stickball figured out a way to beat the system. He designed an official stickball membership card that seemed to carry the imprimatur of Andover. He distributed the cards as fake IDs.

“People took the cards and started slipping off campus to go to Boston so they could get drunk,” said Jessup.

When W moved on to Yale at 18, with the Vietnam war at its height, he felt alienated on the liberal campus because of his father’s conservative politics and his own Texan childhood.

“George was definitely not on the popular side of the war issue, but he stood his ground,” said Robert Dieter, his Yale roommate. “Saying someone was conservative back then almost had a moral sting. I remember him coming back to the room and telling me that someone had been in his face about his father’s position. There was a certain arrogance that the left conveyed back then. It was hurtful.”

As a result, George spent most of his time carousing at the Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE) fraternity house or “the drinking jock house”, as it was known. Some classmates remember him as a “hard-drinking good-time guy” and “a jock sniffer” who “loved to raise hell”.

Ken White, a DKE contemporary, told me: “My wife remembers him roaring drunk one night at a DKE party without a date doing the Alligator; that was some sort of dance back then when you fell to the floor on all fours and started rolling around.”

In the spring of 1972, after graduating from Yale and while serving part-time in the Texas Air National Guard, George W embarked on what he would later describe as his “nomadic years”. Seeing him adrift, his father got him a job with the Republican campaign in a Senate race in Alabama.

Those who worked with George at that time remember him as an affable social drinker who acted much younger than his 26 years. They recall that he liked to drink beer and Jim Beam whiskey at the Cloverdale Grill in Birmingham, Alabama. They also say he liked to sneak out the back for a joint of marijuana or into the bathroom for a line of cocaine.

According to their recollections, he tended to show up for work “around noon”, prop his cowboy boots on a desk and start bragging about how much he had drunk the night before.

Spending Christmas in Washington with his parents, W went out drinking with 16-year-old Marvin. Driving home, he smashed into several dustbins. He swaggered into the house with the bravado of someone who had drunk too much, and there was his father, sober and unsmiling.

“You want to go mano a mano right here?” George junior challenged.

Big George called John White, a former footballer with the Houston Oilers. Bush wanted his son to perform community service with a mentoring programme for inner-city youth started by White and his teammate Ernie “Big Cat” Ladd.

Young George reported for work in January 1973 at a warehouse in a tough district where kids up to 17 years of age were offered sports, crafts, field trips, free snacks, rap sessions, tutoring for those who had been expelled, and big-name mentors from the athletic, entertainment, business, and political worlds.

Ladd recalled young George as “a super, super guy . . . If he was a stinker, I’d say he was a stinker. But everybody loved him so much. He had a way with people . . . They didn’t want him to leave.”

W stayed only seven months before he was accepted at Harvard Business School — a more hostile environment. It was the height of Watergate and his father was running the Republican National Committee for Richard Nixon, who was considered the Antichrist at Harvard. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, the town that surrounded the college, only 400 people were registered Republicans.

“I remember seeing Georgie at the Harvard Business School,” said Torbert Macdonald, an old classmate from Andover, “but he looked so lost and forlorn I didn’t have the heart to say hello.”

Others were less sympathetic. “I can still see him in his cowboy boots and leather flight jacket walking into macroeconomics,” recalled a classmate. “He sat in the back of the class, chewing tobacco and spitting it into a dirty paper cup . . . He was one red-assed Texan who made sure he was in your Yankee face and up your New England nose.”

Most of his contemporaries at the business school headed for Wall Street after graduation but W moved back to Midland, his boyhood home town in Texas, trying to become an oilman. He lived above a garage in an apartment that was piled high with dirty clothes that his friends’ wives periodically washed. Most of his nights were spent in bars, drinking with buddies in the oil business.

In July 1977, soon after his 31st birthday, friends introduced him to his polar opposite, Laura Welch. “We were the only two people among our friends who had not yet married,” she later joked.

Nobody expected the introduction to ignite, but George and Laura were married within three months at the First United Methodist Church in Midland.

Laura, the only child of a Midland builder, is remembered by some former students at Southern Methodist University in Dallas for not being as conservative as most. She had smoked marijuana and backpacked through Europe after graduation. A Democrat, she had also supported the anti-war candidate, Senator Eugene McCarthy, for the presidency in 1968.

In the early years of their marriage Laura joined her husband in his revels. “George and Laura ran in a much faster and fancier crowd than we did — their friends were all hard-drinking and drugging. That was part of the oil business scene then,” said Robert Whitt, a Midland lawyer.

But after a hard struggle to conceive and a fragile pregnancy with twins, Laura pulled back from the hellraising while he charged on, leaving her behind.

“I suppose there were strains in her marriage, just because he’s so difficult and high-energy and . . . she isn’t, but she never talked about it . . . Just read paperbacks and smoked cigarettes,” said Sharon Bush.

The couple kept their distance from the Bush family for several years in the 1980s, staying in Midland and even skipping the big surprise party that George Sr — by then vice-president of the United States — threw for his wife on their 41st wedding anniversary. “It’s a long way,” Barbara said, “and too expensive.” But family members confirmed that she had stopped speaking to her son, whose drunken outbursts had become a source of unending embarrassment to his wife and parents. The last eruption at a family gathering had been a tactless crack to the wife of one of his parents’ friends at her 50th birthday party: “So, what’s sex like after 50, anyway?”

He was 40 by the time he gave up tobacco, alcohol and drugs in 1986 and became a born-again Christian. In his memoir, A Charge to Keep, W credited his family’s good friend, the Reverend Billy Graham, with planting “a mustard seed in my soul”. He did not mention that he actually came to Jesus in a coffee house conversion with a much more flamboyant evangelist, Arthur Blessitt, who was known among born-agains as the man who had wheeled a 96lb cross of Jesus into 60 countries on six continents, winning a place in the Guinness Book of Records.

W figured, perhaps, that Graham was more palatable to churchgoing voters than Blessitt, who came to Midland after the bottom dropped out of the oil boom and fortunes crashed overnight. In a desperate effort to rescue lives and restore morale, some church elders invited the evangelist to stage a revival in the town. Loudspeakers exhorted the populace “to experience the love of God, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the holy spirit”.

George, who had already begun attending a men’s Bible class, asked a friend to arrange a meeting at a hotel coffee shop. As Blessitt recalled, George began with a few pleasantries, and then plunged in: “I want to talk to you about how to know Jesus Christ and how to follow Him.”

“I was quite shocked at his direct and sincere approach,” said Blessitt. “I slowly leaned forward and lifted the Bible that was in my hand and asked him about his relationship with the Lord: ‘If you died this moment do you have the assurance you would go to heaven?’” “No.”

“Then let me explain to you how you can have that assurance and know for sure that you are saved.”

“I’d like that.”

The evangelist read from the Book of Romans. He quoted Mark, John and Luke to the vice-president’s son, who held hands, repented his sins, and proclaimed Jesus Christ as his saviour.

Conversion and abstinence did not affect W’s machismo, however. He still swaggered and cursed constantly. When a friend accused him of taking the Lord’s name in vain, George exploded: “That’s bullshit. Total bullshit.”

Whether talking to reporters, congressmen, or heads of state, George made no effort to curb his trash mouth. Israel’s prime minister Ariel Sharon was taken aback to hear, “I said you were a man of peace. I want you to know I took immense crap for that.”

Those closest to George agreed that the key to his new persona lay in his steely discipline. His sister Doro described him as a fat boy who deprived himself to stay thin. His mother depicted a drinker who denied himself to stay dry. Both acknowledged that the effort to control these appetites was monumental.

In order to maintain his rigid discipline, George imposed an inflexible order on his life. Like any addict in recovery, he needed a regular schedule, rising early and retiring early. He prayed daily from his One-Year Bible, which was divided into 365 readings, each from the New Testament, the Old Testament, Psalms and Proverbs.

Edgy and impatient, he exercised at least one hour, sometimes two hours, a day. With martinet punctuality, he started and ended meetings exactly on time. The routine became the core of his developing political career, first as governor of Texas and then as president.

He refused to read memos longer than two pages. He thrived on making quick decisions. His religiosity allowed him to live in a black-and-white world of absolutes with no bedevilling in-betweens. His decisiveness sprang from his need to control and to establish order amid chaos. Once he made a decision, he rarely looked back.

Despite his quick temper, he was capable of nice gestures, as he showed on the presidential trail. Ruth Gilson, an estate agent, recalled a touching moment during a $1,000-a-head fundraiser in a Washington hotel in 1999.

She was one of very few women to attend the event. “All the men looked to be lobbyists in expensive suits with huge stomachs. The room filled up fast and we were all squished together. I was at the front of the rope line. A little old lady about 85 years old crept in beside me. She said she needed to see the governor. ‘I just have to talk to him,’ she said.”

The elderly woman was frail and wearing clothes that looked worn and dated. “She looked like a church lady from the 1950s.”

George W arrived and started working the crowd. The old lady stepped forward and asked if she could say something.

He reached out and took her hand. She whispered in his ear to please do something about the price of prescription drugs for the elderly.

He nodded. “I’ll try,” he said. Then he stepped back to look at her. “Did you pay $1,000 to come here?” “Yes, sir, I did.”

“Well, I want you to get your money back.” He turned to the man with him. “Get her name and address and see that she gets a cheque for $1,000.”

The little old lady shook her head. “No, I want you to have it all, Mr Bush. I want you to win.”

“Well,” said George. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll keep $100 and you keep $900 and we’ll both win. That’s what we’ll do.”

She smiled gratefully.

“It was such a sweet gesture on his part,” recalled Gilson. “Others might have seen it as patronising, but I didn’t. In a crowd of fat-cat lobbyists that little woman in her tattered coat looked like someone’s poor grandmother, and he responded sensitively.”

Extracted from The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty by Kitty Kelley.

Refs HOME Cocaine Resources president-bush.com When Is It Best to Take Crack Cocaine? Bush Tars Drug Takers With Aiding Terrorists

0 notes

tricksterlizard · 7 years ago

Note

1, 2, and BONUS BECAUSE I'M A STINKER, 10!

Omggg thanks dude!! NUMBER TEN, IM YELLING, this’ll be fun

1. an overheard conversation about your OC

*for context, this is a whispered conversation*Lander: “Psst, hey Kieran. Can you uh- can you keep a secret?”Kieran: “Yeah man, of course. Is somethin’ wrong?”Lander: “Oh not at all. You know that I’m not one for keeping secrets or anything but- I heard from the Captain that it’s Nox’s birthday tomorrow and no one has any plans so. Do you think you could help me get the Autumnweavers together for a sort of uh- surprise celebratory dinner? I don’t know what she would like, but I mean- yeah.”Kieran: “Aw, well ain’t that sweet! Sure, I’ll gladly help! Though... you’re trying to keep a secret from Nox? The Rogue? The one who found out I accidentally ate Her cereal after about 5 minutes?”Lander: “I know, I know! But I figure we’re the most efficient adventuring party out there! Combined with the all the knowledge and wisdom of the Autumnweavers, we can surely throw a little surprise party. This time we’ll be the stealthy ones!”Kieran: “Yeah, you’re probably right. One more thing, do you really think Zarra will help?”Lander: “...”Kieran: “I’ll bring drinks.”Lander: “Ah perfect! Thank you so much! I can’t wait to see- Is that? Is that Clementine over there?”Kieran: “Shit.”2. a letter written by your OC’s family memberYo sis!Long time, no see! I hope you’re doing well wherever you are! I would say come visit more but I’ve been seeing your wanted posters around the streets. It’s like I know a celebrity, ha! Othain has been pretty poppin’ since you left, and not in the Faekton way. There are more guards on the street than I’ve ever seen, and some of the outer districts have a curfew... So I guess only come visit if you really want a challenge. Though if you can’t make it, at least tell that nice friend of yours in the purple to come back. She bought three things last time! THREE! Nah, for real she was really nice, along with that other chill dude that stopped by. I’ll be honest that I feel relieved that you’re hanging out with some pretty competent people. I know it’s classic big brother stuff but I worry. Speaking of sibling stuff, when were you gonna tell me that you STOLE MY BOOK??? Did you even know I was looking for that for like 3 years? I mean you can keep it but jeez, you think you can trust someone. Anyway, I’ve got to open shop soon, but I love you and PLEASE try to stay out of the newspapers. And tell me when I can come to Courdray’s! I want to meet this Hair Lung because that HAS to be a made up person. From your bro,Riz3. a description of your OC by someone who hates them“Nox? Do I know Nox? Blazing hell, do I! She is the bane of my existence and a plague to this town! Sheeee thinks she’s so sly and that she can get away with everything! You know that my inventory goes down every time she visits my shop? And she NEVER BUYS A THING! Always tryin’ to swipe the tip jar too, I don’t know why I try anymore! All you can ask for in life is to try to run an honest business and then you have thievin’ hooligans tryin’ to ruin it for ya! I don’t know why Captain Kennecke puts up with her. If I were in charge, she’d be rotting in jail for 10- no! 20 years! That damn dragon, I tell ya, it makes me angry just looking at her. I hope she can’t sleep at night because of all the trouble she’s caused me. I just don’t know what to do anymore. That girl is a curse, an absolute terror to my livelihood!” -Jaskin, probably

#thank you!#all of these were a trip lmao #(I hope they turned out okay!)#asks #nox talks #ask meme #merrigelblogs

3 notes · View notes

high5nerd · 5 years ago

Text

Alone Together---Chap. Fifteen

I was awake before the sun rose over the horizon. Sadie and Alice still were fast asleep in their colored sleeping bags, cradled close to each other like puppies. I couldn't just lay there and not celebrate Misery's riddance…

Besides, I wouldn't pass up a beautiful sunrise, either.

The sun crept over the valleys in the distance, and the faraway lakes and ponds glimmered gold and aqua. The sky burned like fire, flaming reds, yellows and shades of pinks that crawled across the dome of Earth. One by one, stars faded out at the approach of the sun's rays, and the moon soon disappeared behind me. This was the one time I could look at the sun and admire it's God-given beauty without cringing at the brightness, that would occasionally burn my retinas.

I heard the swishing of grass behind me and stop next to me, so close I could feel their covered shoulder brush my arm. I felt my smile grow a tiny bit wider, glad to have Alice's presence by my side.

"You know," I sighed, "If I still had that mindset of controlling the world, and destroying the Guardians...I'd probably make you my queen of darkness."

"Thank goodness for a different mindset, because that sounds so overly cliché." Alice giggled lightly, still waking up at such an early time.

I chuckled as I wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close. Her sleeping bag was still wrapped around her shoulders for warmth from the chilly winds of the morn.

That got me thinking. We both admitted to wanting each other in our lives...but our love was forbidden from the spirit world. I didn't know what they'd do to me. Lock me up? Prevent me from seeing her again? Or worse ones that I couldn't even think up. Sooner or later I'd have to find a way...and right now I had no clue.

"You've got your thinking face on, honey." Alice said.

I smirked at her for her chosen pet name, and she immediately blushed and looked down, biting back a grin.

"What? It's only fair because you call me princess."

"Because you are," I kissed her forehead and took her into my arms, "I'm a king, and that makes you my princess. You are my shining star, my one and only."

Alice smiled against my chest, bunching her hands up closed at my words. I would always tell her that.

As long as Sadie doesn't hear, because I know that little girl would tease me for days about it.

"Love you, Pitch." Alice mumbled, and I could feel the heat of her cheeks against my chest.

"I love you, too." I murmured while kissing the top of her head, gently rubbing her shoulders.

By the time the sun was up higher in the sky, Sadie woke up. Alice prepared a delicious breakfast called Eggs in Jail, which are french toast slices with round holes in them, that are filled up with a fried egg with a hint of pepper. I only eat food in a celebratory manner or when something special is going on, preferrably something like wine and a fancy appetizer, but this beats tomato basil crostinis any day.

...What? A guy like me cannot enjoy a few delicacies in life? I fully deserved that right. You haven't tried good hors d'oeuvres until you eat the real ones from France.

Sadie wasn't too happy about going back, and was in a particular cranky mood once she and Alice got into a little bicker over her not being responsible with her sleeping bag. This event led to a moment I realized with more in depth attention that Sadie can be a little trickster, and quite impishly at that.

She threw the snow globe to the ground after muttering their home address, and the intended location was the living room of their quaint little home. But...Sadie was still slightly cranky at Alice, so she gave her a little treat.

Alice wasn't dressed properly for the winter on our way back. I warned her to at least put on the jacket, but she just wrapped it around her hips and said all will be well.

Well...not really.

We landed right in the backyard, and it was absolutely freezing. Not to me since temperatures don't bother me, but I could tell it was absolutely frigid because Alice screamed bloody murder and Sadie laughed maniacally before running inside.

"That's for making me fold your own sleeping bag!" Sadie shouted over her shoulder as she whipped open the back door.

Alice's body was shivering, and her nose and fingers were already cold. I was worried for a second. If it was that cold she should immediately get inside, but nonetheless she sprinted after her.

"Sadie you little spoiled-!" Alice scolded so loudly, I was sure the neighbors would hear.

But Sadie, being that immature and childish ten year old, slammed the door shut. I could hear her running down the hallway and saw her through the window head towards the bathroom to run a hot shower, and that made me feel bad for Alice.

Her jacket fell off into the snow while she was running, which now was wet and solid frozen. There was no point in wearing it, and all she had on was a t-shirt to cover her upper body. Alice tried opening the door, but it stuck in its place, as if Sadie locked it.

"Ugh! Sometimes I hate this house." Alice snapped, kicking the door.

"Just pull it open." I pointed to the door, but Alice sighed at that.

"The door gets f-frozen to the lock when it's b-below fifteen degrees outside. This house is so damn old...o-or at least this door and porch is. F-fucking…" Alice muttered, her words becoming shaky with her violent shivering.

"C-Can't you f-f-find a way i-into the house u-using shadows?" Alice stuttered with begging eyes, rubbing her arms frantically.

I winced at that. "I can't. There aren't any shadows around here for me to use...it's pure daylight."

"Oh, f-fuck." Alice cursed, her breath puffing into the air.

"Stop swearing," I said, pulling my arms out of my robe sleeves, "I'll try the door."

Alice's eyes widened when I took off my robe and wrapped it around her. She looked quite honestly shocked into absolute silence. She wouldn't look directly at my face either, just my collarbone.

"Aren't you freezing? You're n-not wearing anything but your pants under t-this!" I could tell she was warmer a bit because her shivering and stuttering decreased slightly.

I shrugged, wrapping both hands around the doorknob, "No, not really. Spirit, remember?"

"Oh...right…" Alice trailed off, lost in her thoughts.

Her silence was welcomed as I concentrated my strength onto the door, of course, without breaking it in any way. The positive to this predicament was that the doorknob was still easy to use, but the opening of the door was solid shut from snow and ice. I tried jiggling the handle a bit but that soon failed. Certain attempts led me to put my foot on the side of the house and pull as hard as I could. I felt my muscles in my arms flex at the resistance the door was giving me.

"This is one crap door!" I grunted, and finally, the door flew open, almost knocking me over completely.

"Ah, there we go!" I smiled, putting my hands on my hips in proud victory. Hey, it's not every day you get to assist a lady and finally have something work thanks to you, "All you have to do is just insult it and it'll open."

I looked back to Alice, who stared at my torso. I looked down, thinking something might be there. What was so fascinating? I looked back up at her, and she immediately glanced away, biting back a smile.

"What?" I asked.

"I...nothing...I just," she smiled sheepishly, "I wasn't expecting abdominals like those under your robe."

I raised a brow and smirked at her, "You've fantasized what's under my robe?"

Alice blushed at that, including the fact her cheeks were bitten from the frigid cold. I shut the door behind us and glanced at her as she struggled for an answer.

"Not all the time...just, sometimes." Alice said quietly, hiding her smile behind my robe I gave her.

I grinned, "You thought that I was a skinny, lanky person, huh? No muscle? Please, I'm a warrior. Even if I'm locked away in the Earth's core I'd still retain some physical strength."

I stalked behind her before grabbing her hips and brushing my lips against her neck, making her shiver and freeze up in shock. "And if you're that curious as to see what's under my clothes, you're allowed to look and touch it all...it's all yours. Because what lies underneath is nothing but pure, animalistic, tantalizing sex-"

"Oh God." Alice blushed as her neck relaxed at my voice.

I would have taken it further, trust me. But as soon as that bathroom door opened and a little ten year old came out in her flannel pajamas, we both turned to her in sync, not a trace of teasing flicking from our eyes. Instantly we remembered that Sadie was in some hot water.

Sadie looked guilty enough, but that wasn't going to change her punishment. She winced, nervously working with her fingers until they turned white at the knuckles. "Um...Sorry. I really am. I forgot that the door-"

"Go to your room." I said as I pointed in her direction.

"Twenty minutes. Think about what you did." Alice added.

Sadie nodded, her head limp like a rag doll's. She muttered an "okay" before sulking over to her door and closing it shut, making sure it didn't slam. Alice sighed, taking off my robe and giving it back to me.

As I put it on and Alice went to take her turn to use the shower, I heard Sadie's door open.

I looked over, thinking she was trying to sneak out now that her sister had the water running in the closed bathroom, but I only saw a little arm come out from the crack of the door, pin a large, square piece of light green paper on her door before closing it again.

That made me want to see what she put up. I've never seen this trick in the book with kids before. What'd she do?

The sign she put up said, I stink. I'm really sorry. I mean it. I'm a poophead stinker.

I accidentally snorted at that when I tried resisting a bark of laughter, and I smothered it into my hand, trying to make the sound less loud. Never, ever, have I heard the words 'poophead stinker' in a sentence. Oh my God, and that it came from a ten year old that didn't know one single swear in the world made it funnier than hell.

But I knew I shouldn't laugh. She was in trouble, even if she was sorry. Granted, I felt bad.

For like a second. Ha ha!

Soon, Alice came out of the shower wearing sweatpants and a long shirt with her hair in a towel, and her eyes caught me laughing into a pillow to muffle the noise so Sadie wouldn't hear.

"You okay, Pitch?" She asked, walking over slowly.

I leaned up, gasping for air. She saw I was laughing at something, and she started chuckling. "What? What happened?" she pressed.

"Sadie's note. On her door. Word choice is exceptional." I could only use fragments than sentences since my sides were splitting.

It took Alice a second before she zoomed back over and whacked the back of my head gently with her towel, making me stop. "What? It's funny!"

"It is not!" Alice scolded quietly, "She's feeling bad. Go talk with her."

"You do know I'm not her father, right? What in God's name do I say?" I asked, standing up abruptly.

Alice shrugged, "I don't know. You figure it out."

"What about that twenty minutes you punished her with?" I folded my arms.

Alice raised a Don't-Argue-With-Me brow. I sighed, my head leaning back in a mini-tantrum before briskly walking over to Sadie's room.

Sadie was on her stomach across her neatly made bed, her feet swinging in boredom in the air. She looked up at the sound of her bedroom door dragging across the carpet, her small mouth still in a disappointed frown.

"I swear I didn't mean to lock her outside." Sadie blurted, sitting up as I closed the door behind me.

"I know. She knows that. But do you know why you're in here?" I asked, folding my hands behind my back.

Sadie watched her feet dig into the carpet, nodding slowly. I sat down next to her, my hands folded neatly on my lap to show I meant business and was completely serious, despite laughing my ass off at the note she left on her door.

"It was dangerous leaving you guys out in the cold." Sadie muttered, looking up at me under her light brown bangs.

I nodded, "It's almost negative three degrees Fahrenheit out there. She could have caught frostbite, and you sent us outside in the means of revenge for something you didn't agree with her on."

"Alright, I get it." Sadie huffed as she looked away. I could tell by her voice she's heard it all enough.

"Do you?" I raised a challenging brow.

"Yes!" Sadie said, honestly looking at me. Her lower lip was out for an extra dramatic effect.

"Good," I stood up and headed towards her sticker decorated door, "You've got fifteen more minutes to think."

Just as I opened the door and stepped through the threshold into the hallway, I turned to look at her. She stared at her feet again, watching them sway back and forth and hit each other. I cleared my throat, making her look up at me.

"Not that I'm supporting you with the intention of revengeful acts, but if you do feel the sudden urge to do something like that...it has to be subtle," I raised a finger to my lips and winked, "Trust me, I would know. Don't tell your sister."

Sadie beamed at that, and as I closed the door, I felt successful that she both learned her lesson and was in a better mood. I felt no guilt for telling her that. Besides, Sadie isn't one to go out and seek revenge on people. She's too soft and kind, much like her sister.

Alice stood in the living room, staring out the window at the glittering snow on the ground and trees that stood out against the bright blue sky. She glanced at my entrance and smiled, but then raised a curious brow when I came over to her and picked her up bridal style.

"What are you doing?" she asked, her hands holding my shoulders to stay upright.

"You're cold still, I'm going to warm you up." I grinned, heading towards her room.

Alice laughed, playfully hitting my chest, "Pitch, I took a hot shower! I'm not freezing anymore. No hanky panky!"

"I wasn't thinking of that, but if you're insisting-" I smirked at her as I kicked open her door and gently placed her on her feet.

"Not yet. What are you planning?" she giggled as I rolled back the sheets and jumped in.

"You humans call it cuddling. For many years I thought it was strange and honestly inferior, but now I want to try it, because I finally have someone worth...cuddling." I awkwardly said, gently taking her hand in mine and coaxing her into joining me.

She immediately flashed a happy smile and nearly leaped into the bed. She wrapped her arms around my shoulders and her legs around my waist, her head nestled in the crook of my neck. I laughed and pulled up the covers to our chins, gently kissing the top of her head.

"I think I may grow used to this form of affection." I honestly said, watching her weave her fingers with mine.

"Me, too." Alice smiled, and kissed me, a kiss full of tender and honest love.

#rotg fandom #rotg fanfiction #rotg fanfic #rise of the guardians #rise of the guardian fanfics #pitch black #pitch black x oc #fanfiction #fanfics

0 notes

insidethemarble · 7 years ago

Text

“Who’s Fault is it Anyway?” The Blame Game!!

Spoilers: It doesn’t matter! Let’s be honest. Sometimes, (pardon my language) life just sucks. Naturally, when things go wrong we want to find out why. In small settings, such as finding out which co-worker ate your lunch or disciplining the correct child for leaving legos foot-wreckers on the floor, that tendency can be noble. We want to find out where and why the problem started so we can fix it; We play the Blame Game! But while the world certainly could use more children who clean up their own legos, nobody actually wins the Blame Game.

When faced with real and challenging issues in life we often turn to the Blame Game as the easiest way to deal with deep, unresolved pain: She made me do it! It’s her fault for being controlling; My alarm clock didn’t go off; It’s my boss’s fault, he doesn’t pay me enough; It’s the devil’s fault for tempting me; It’s my dad’s fault for not being there. The list goes on. It’s just easier to offset our pain by making it someone else’s problem, an attitude that’s run in the family since the beginning. [See Genesis 3] Sometimes we blame satan: If he just hadn’t tempted me, I wouldn’t have sinned; If he hadn’t caused that guy to be an alcoholic, the crash never would’ve happened; The devil sent that disease; He made me lose my job; He’s making me depressed; etc. When we do that, we either become helpless prey to the big bad wolf, or we embarrass ourselves by shadowboxing imaginary devils everywhere. While I’m certain that this wicked being initiates all sorts of trauma and heartache, making him the focus results in ascribing to him more power than he has. Then we end up with more faith in the devil than in God. Bad plan. Sometimes we blame ourselves: If I had just said what I needed to say, she wouldn’t have left; If I had just worked harder, my business wouldn’t have tanked; If I had just been stronger, he wouldn’t have hurt me like that; If I was more handsome, I wouldn’t be so lonely; if I was a smarter kid, my parents wouldn’t have separated; If I was born the other gender, my mom wouldn’t have said those things. This heart-wrenching category of shame is terminal. It kills. Thinking this way turns you into the source of the problem, the victim of the problem, and ultimately the solution to the problem. Spoiler alert, it’s a trap. There’s no jailbreak when it’s “all your fault”. I’ve struggled with versions of this and let me tell you, blaming yourself never results in anything good, or hopeful, or true. Finally, we sometimes end up blaming God for either causing bad things to happen (which makes him sadistic, manic, and untrustworthy) or allowing bad things to happen (wherein he’s guilty of negligence, or he’s aloof, or he’s simply not as powerful as he claims). I don’t have time here to unwrap the nasty layers of this ‘lil stinker, but for now let’s suffice to say that it isn’t God’s fault, and even if it was blaming him doesn’t help. To put it bluntly, only victims play the Blame Game. You can play all day if you want, but you'll never heal the hurt or solve the problem that way. In fact it will make things worse.

So what then? How do we re-process painful experiences in life if we can’t default to blame? How do we get our legos cleaned up? Let me tell you!

Jesus initiated his ministry by proclaiming his messianic mandate, his “royal agenda, with these beautiful words: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” [Luke 4] No matter the source of your hardships, Jesus wants to be the solution. He wants to replace the casualties of circumstance with comfort, healing, redemption, forgiveness, hope, joy, freedom, love, and favor. He offers his death on the cross and resurrection from the dead to you as a “get-out-of-jail-free card”, and with it comes the closure and healing you’re looking for. Stop playing the Blame Game. It doesn’t matter who’s fault it is. Jesus is the solution, and if you seek him, you will find him. This is a sort of messy introduction to a larger topic. More thoughts pending! Stick with me. :)

1 note · View note