#the fact that even if not higher ranked a nurse is more valued than the copilot

[dykedvonte]

Interesting that the two people Jimmy had the most issues with where the only two with concrete and valued titles as Nurse and Captain…

More interestingly, how he holds those titles above them to stiff arm them into doing what he wants while not really respecting their positions.

[amarriageoftrueminds]

Peggy is not shown teaching Steve anything in the film.

They were at the same place in basic training for only one week, during which time: 

a) they never spoke (so how exactly did she teach him to fight? telepathically?)

b) she is only shown derogatively comparing Steve and his fellow soldiers to women (”Faster, ladies! Come on. My grandmother has more life in her!”) 

That is the full extent of her impact on Steve’s training (the rest of the time she is performing admin; carrying a clipboard. She doesn’t even speak.) 

Also: she is not a soldier. Women were not allowed in combat roles at the time. 

Hypothetically even if she was a spy (which we’re neither shown nor told in CATFA), that is also not a soldier, and the type of espionage-fronted training she would’ve had is not what an infantryman would be given, especially if they only had one week to learn. 

But there is a Drill-Sergeant soldier assigned to train Steve -- more than one soldier, if you count Col. Phillips. 

Phillips repeatedly told Peggy to shut the fuck up as he didn’t value her opinion. Just because he thought it was funny she punched and humiliated one guy, that doesn’t mean he’s fine with leaving the mens’ combat training in her hands. In fact, he took over control of their training off her, as soon as he was present -- twice! 

The idea that he (and all these other higher-ranked 1940s male soldiers) would even let some non-American nobody who’s also a woman teach men hand-to-hand combat -- to their precious Project Rebirth candidates no less -- is absurd. 

(Why would the drill sergeant character even exist, if that were the case? What reason was he there? Where was all this misogyny and doors-closed-in-her-face she banged on about?)

After Lehigh, Steve was with the USO for four solid months. 

(So if there were any women who taught Steve how to fight, outside of his mother, it’s the unnamed sneered-at chorus girls. Funny how calling Steve a chorusgirl coincided with him jumping into the fray. 🤔)

After that one week in which they did not communicate, Steve and Peggy were not in the same place for longer than one or two days for the entire rest of the war. They were only physically in the same place on 7 seperate days, after that time -- which were interrupted by Steve fighting professionally, for 15 and a half months, without her ‘help.’ 

Steve was in the company of seasoned professional soldiers (not deskjockey admins), all of whom were older than him. They are more likely candidates for who taught Steve things. (He and Peggy showed no signs of even communicating.) 

However, the film itself does not show anyone teaching Steve how to fight, period. 

The implication is that if Steve was good at fighting suddenly, it was only because of the serum. 

Ergo, he had the same skill level and habits, before Peggy ever knew of him. 

(See: Steve snatching up a dustbin lid, before he knew Peggy, and doing it again with a taxi door after he knew Peggy, and keeping his shield for the same reason. He fights like an underdog already because he has always been an underdog, before he knew her. If there are parallels in their fighting styles it’s because they both learned how to fight bigger targets than themselves, not because she taught him. Steve fought like this, canonically, before he even knew her). 

But the serum gave Steve the dexterity, durability, endurance, speed and strength to carry it out those skills and habits more successfully.

That being the case, the only canon possibility for who could’ve taught him to fight -- if anyone -- is Bucky, because canonically Steve simply did not have anyone else in his life before who could’ve done that. 

(Unless Sarah had fight experience too. 🤔 I mean, nurses do get attacked a lot. Hell maybe she and Steve could’ve learned together? 🥺)

While it’s not impossible that there was, eg. a random gym-goer in BK willing to teach Steve, we can’t claim that is what happened canonically because it’s not what’s shown, and it’s not what canon frames as a physical possibility either. 

Whereas the film does come closer to showing and implying that Bucky taught Steve, than anyone else. 

The narrative makes it clear that only Bucky was there for Steve, before CATFA, and Bucky is shown throwing a decent punch, so we know he knew how to fight. (The film even parallels Steve’s post-serum skill with Bucky’s (...not Peggy’s) by repeating Steve’s opening fight with Bucky now in Steve’s former vulnerable position, and passing off the ‘I had him on the ropes’ line between them. No such implication is made about Peggy.) 

Also: Bucky had a shown vested interest in Steve being protected from harm, which Peggy did not. When a bully hurt Steve, Bucky jumped in to help. Whereas Peggy did nothing -- even though she was willing to punch the same bully on her own behalf -- and she thought it was great when Steve potentially killed himself by throwing himself on the grenade. 

That is not the behaviour of someone who even wants to teach Steve how to fight, never mind whether or not they are qualified or allowed to do so. 

And, sidenote: Steve never did anything Peggy told him to do (the only time he appeared to, he was actually already doing what she said to do -- because he wanted to -- before she butted in, to tell him to do it). Outside of that they constantly butted heads and disagreed about how to act, tactically. So for consistent characterisation, if Peggy ever told Steve how to fight, his fighting style would be the opposite of whatever she said. 

tell me again about how peggy carter never taught steve rogers how to fight?

you

clearly

aren’t

paying

enough

attention

dear

[andypantsx3]

statistically significant | 1 | bakugou/reader

length: 23,490 words | 7 chapters

summary: You’re the scientist who developed a neural net to model the value of assists. Now that your work is feeding into the hero rankings, pro hero Ground Zero has a bone to pick with your results.

tags: romance, enemies to lovers, sexual tension, reader-insert

warnings: aged up characters, eventual smut, m/f threats of violence, problematic behavior

note: I cannot overemphasize that this interpretation of Bakugou is based on season 1 Bakugou, which means he behaves very questionably at the beginning. Please heed the warnings!

Last year

You had been ferreting snacks out of the Hero Awards when he found you.

In retrospect, the whole idea of attending the Hero Awards had been a bad one from the get go. You’d just been so thrilled by the image of it in your head--getting to see all your favorite pros gathered in one place, dressed to the nines, celebrating their rankings, their wins, their saves, their successes. You’d pictured yourself flitting between heroes, collecting autographs and taking selfies, sitting down at a table with big names like Uravity and Froppy, making fast friends over the complimentary champagne.

But then you’d seen what really went into preparing for and attending an event like this, and the shine had quickly rubbed off.

When your boss at the Commission had extended you the invite, she’d told you that you would be representing the organization, and had advised you to contract a makeup artist and find someone willing to dress you. Her tone had strongly implied that this was more of an order than a suggestion. So you’d done it, but nobody had told you exactly how many hours went into getting your makeup tested, getting fitted and refitted for a dress, and fielding questions on cut, colors, fabrics, and fit.

By the time the Awards rolled around, you’d lost upwards of forty excruciating hours of your life to preparations, and had developed some kind of anxiety-induced Pavlovian response to the modiste’s name on your phone screen, where you immediately wanted to leap into the nearest storage closet and hide. And none of this was even counting the five full hours you spent on the day of the awards getting primped and polished within an inch of your life, then stuffed into some ridiculous scrap of fabric that threatened to fall off of you if you so much as breathed wrong.

By the time the stylists and makeup artist had finished with you, you were starved, cranky, and nursing a small migraine from how enthusiastic the hairdresser had been with you. You’d thought, though, that you would finally be able to enjoy yourself now that the worst was over. All there was left was to attend the ceremony, and get to see all your favorite heroes.

And for an hour or two, the Hero Awards had been just as cool as expected. You lingered on the fringes of the red carpet, gawking as pros like Chargebolt and Pinky swanned their way down the walkway, looking even cooler in real life than they looked on TV. Everyone had clearly gone all out, and they looked unbelievably good, either inhumanly beautiful or inhumanly intimidating. You had been utterly transfixed, as evidenced by the inordinate amount of time you spent accidentally staring at Todoroki Shouto as he gave an interview to the side of the walkway, looking absolutely unreal as he leaned over to speak to the reporter.

When you’d finally managed to snap out of your trance, you’d remembered to cut a beeline for the snack table, and had set about stuffing as many snacks into your dress as you could manage. And that’s where the trouble really started.

The invite to the Awards had come with the option for a very fancy multi-course dinner that you could have chosen. Instead, you’d taken one look at the price and laughed yourself sick, before resolving to sneak a bunch of the free snacks into your dress to keep you occupied during the ceremony. The problem was, the scrap of fabric the modiste had insisted was a dress was so obnoxiously flimsy and could only hold so many snacks.

If your dress had been able to hold a reasonable number of snacks, you wouldn’t have needed to sneak back out to the snack table during the presentation, and he would have never had a chance to catch you on your own. But the dress was lacking snack utility, and so you had gone back out for more.

You kept low in the aisle as you crept out of the darkened theater, keeping a hand over your chest so you didn’t spill out of the thin fabric of your dress, and emerged into the reception hall, where you were almost blinded by the harsh light. You stood for a minute, blinking the spots out of your vision, and touched a hand to your eyes, careful not to smear any of your eyeliner.

And that’s when he struck.

Almost as soon as you raised your hand, a rough hand seized your wrist, wrenching your arm down. A heavy arm went around you quickly, trapping both your arms to your sides, and you barely had time to let out a squeak before a calloused hand clapped over your mouth. Your feet left the floor, and then you were being dragged through a side door into the stairwell.

You twisted wildly, kicking out, trying to catch the wall or the railing to push off of and throw your assailant off balance, but he was strong, and clearly well-versed in combat, as he kept you well away from anything you could use to your advantage. He hauled you out into the stairwell, but instead of heading down the stairs, he moved towards the corner. To your surprise, he tossed you unceremoniously against the wall, letting you go.

You caught yourself on the rough stone and whirled around, only to reel back in shock when you caught sight of your assailant.

Bakugou Katsuki, perhaps better known as pro hero Ground Zero, leaned over you, trapping you against the wall with an arm on either side of you. He, like all the other heroes you’d caught sight of today, looked almost unreal in person, but in stark contrast to all the others, his handsome face was twisted up in unmistakeable fury, blood-red eyes bright with violence and white teeth bared in a silent snarl. Even under the thick fabric of his suit, you could see the hard lines of his body were taught with aggression, and it was all you could do to not shrink back against the cold stone of the wall.

“So,” he snarled, leaning in to put his face close to yours, “you’re the fucking statistics nerd.”

You gaped at him, mouth falling open. Your professional title was data scientist, but statistics nerd was a close enough descriptor that you could tell he knew who you were. Your brows went up, wondering why in the world Ground Zero knew you.

“E-excuse me?” you managed. Your brain rapidly kicked into high gear, running through possible reasons why he would know you, what he could possibly want with you.

Bakugou snarled. “What the fuck is your problem with me?”

You stared at him. Problem with him? Other than the fact that he’d just seized you with no warning and dragged you into a stairwell, you had no problem with him. You’d never even met him--what the hell was he talking about?

“Uh, do you maybe have me confused with someone else?” you asked, trying to shift out from under his arm. Maybe there was another data scientist milling around in the crowds that he’d meant to get his hands on instead.

Bakugou’s red eyes narrowed, and he put a hand to your abdomen to press you firmly back to the wall. “Oh no. You’re not getting out of this, you little brat. Fucking fix it.”

You eyed him warily, checking him for signs of a head injury, wandering over his shock of blonde hair and noting the size of his pupils. Maybe Bakugou had been out on assignment just before the Awards, and hadn’t stopped to get his injuries checked out before coming here. A blow to the head would explain why he was behaving so strangely, and asking for weird stuff.

“Fix what?” you asked, frowning when you couldn’t spot the signs of a concussion on him. His gaze seemed all too focused, all too intent. It was nerve-wracking, actually. You’d heard of his reputation for intensity before, but it was one thing to hear it and another entirely to have all that intensity trained on you.

Bakugou bared his teeth and leaned closer. “Your fucking nerd-ass model. Fix it.”

You froze.

Oh.

Oh no.

Oh, this was about the model. You knew his bone to pick with the model.

The entire reason you’d received an invite to the Hero Awards in the first place was because of your work on the model that calculated the hero rankings. The model had existed for years before you had come along, but this year it was different.

You’d been hired a couple months ago by the Public Safety Hero Commission after you’d contacted them with an idea on how to finally calculate the value of field assists. You’d had a rough prototype of a neural network that you’d trained on video of multi-hero operations, tracking the movements of all the heroes on screen, and had developed an algorithm capable of assigning point values to moves that contributed to but did not directly result in a win or a rescue.

The Commission couldn’t get their hands on your work fast enough, and after only a few months refining your neural net, it was hooked into the rankings model, and it had informed not only the choices for Rescue of the Year and Most Valuable Hero this year, but had entirely changed the hero rankings overall.

And Bakugou’s ranking had been very much affected.

Bakugou Katsuki was a hero very unlike the world had ever seen. Anyone could see from his stats alone that he was incredibly driven, supremely powerful, and almost unmatched by any other hero out there. A few years out from UA, he’d already entered the top ten and had been mere breaths away from the top three -- that is, until your model results had been released.

The thing about Bakugou was that he had a higher percentage of fight wins than any hero in recorded history. He came out on top of almost any situation he entered into, and had one of the highest villain capture stats and the highest villain kill stat as compared to any other hero at this point in their career. The problem was, the new model also now took into account assists, as well as applied slightly heavier weights to rescues, and as good as Bakugou was at winning fights, he was almost equally as terrible at helping others.

So when your model had been worked into the Hero Commission’s official ranking calculations, Bakugou had backslid to sit unhappily at rank number eight.

And apparently, he thought this meant you had a personal grudge.

“Okay, I understand you’re upset, but the results are the results,” you said, watching him carefully. “It’s got nothing to do with you personally.”

His expression darkened thunderously, and the hand on your abdomen grew notably hotter, a scent like gunpowder and burnt sugar rising in the stairwell. “Like hell it doesn’t. Fucking fix it.”

Your brow furrowed. How did regular people think models worked? “There’s no ‘fixing it’, Bakugou. That’s just how math works. If you have a problem with how assists and rescues are weighted then you can take it up with the Commission. I just trained the model with their recommendations, and the results are what they are.”

Bakugou apparently registered none of what you were saying. Rough fingers slid to your jaw, tipping your face up to him. “What is it that you wanted, you damn brat? Did you want to see me humiliated? Or maybe you wanted my attention?” His fingers dug into your jaw. “Well now you have it, you fucking harpy, so show me what you wanted with it.”

You gaped at him, unable to help the way your mouth hung open like a fish. Did he think you were blackmailing him? With a fucking statistical model? It was a matter of public record that Bakugou was smart--he was purportedly one of the brightest minds that had ever graced the profession of hero, with strategic skill and combat sense that was utterly unparalleled--so then why the hell was he being so dumb about this? Was he really so self-absorbed that he thought this whole thing was about him?

Your temper flared, rising like the slow heat that was building under his hands. “I know this might be news to you,” you said slowly, “but not everything is about you. The model I trained takes in video as its input, and calculates rankings based on recommended weighting criteria that the Hero Commission gave me themselves. There is no place for me to input my own biases or change the results, so if the output is something that you’re ashamed of, then maybe you should do better.”

Bakugou’s eyes brightened, narrowing on you with an intensity that made you want to curl into the wall. “Say that again, you little fuck.”

You held your ground, ignoring the dangerous way the scent of hot smoke sharpened, leaning forward to bare your own teeth. “Maybe you should do better, you self-centered asshole.”

You were close enough that you could see his pupils dilate with the challenge, like a predator catching sight of its prey. An unsettling grin made its way across his mouth. “I am going to make you wish you’d never even seen a calculator, you smug fucking nerd,” he said, leaning into you.

The scent of gunpowder burned in the back of your throat, and the hands on you flared alarmingly hot, before the door to the hall burst open, and a whirlwind of red and yellow tore into the stairwell.

“Heya Blasty,” a voice chirped, echoing on the stairs, “Found ya.”

The shock of golden yellow resolved itself into the lean figure of Kaminari Denki, aka pro hero Chargebolt. He quickly made his way to Bakugou’s side, seizing an elbow.

“I’m busy, fuckstick. Fuck off,” Bakugou growled.

A large hand reached over Bakugou’s other shoulder to pull him off you, a head of gelled red spikes materializing behind his back, and you blinked up at Kirishima Eijirou, also known as Red Riot.

“Sorry about him,” Kirishima smiled down at you warmly, in direct contrast to the way his fingers dug into Bakugou’s shoulder. His teeth looked incredibly sharp in person, but this fact somehow failed to detract from the warmth of his friendly expression. You blinked, stunned that you were being addressed by Red Riot.

“He’s been a little worked up since the results were released, but he’s harmless,” Kirishima explained, grunting a little as he jerked Bakugou away from you. Bakugou snarled and turned to his friend, a small volley of sparks lighting off of his palm.

“I said fuck off,” he growled.

You let out a choked laugh at the idea of Bakugou Katsuki being called harmless. Just this week he’d perfected a technique where he melted clean through concrete, and you’d seen the replay of him liquifying the side of a skyscraper on the news this morning as you’d been getting your makeup done.

“Harmless, right. Definitely felt that way,” you uttered as Kirishima struggled to get a grip on Bakugou.

“I’ll fucking show you harmless,” Bakugou spat, turning back to you, sparks crackling louder in his palm. Kirishima seized his chance quickly, getting a bulky arm around Bakugou’s chest and lifting him straight off the ground. Bakugou snarled and gripped Kirishima’s forearm, letting off an explosion that would have blown anyone else’s arm clean off, but Kirishima just laughed, ignoring that the sleeve of his suit had caught fire, and hauled Bakugou back through the door.

A litany of swears filtered back through the door before it swung shut again.

Kaminari turned to face you, smiling sheepishly. “Sorry about that. We didn’t realize he was gonna come after you like that, though I don’t think he would have actually done anything. He’s pretty much all talk.”

You waved a hand, still stunned that Chargebolt was speaking to you.

“Uh, it’s okay,” you said. “I just...didn’t expect that kind of a reaction.”

Kaminari chuckled. “He’s usually a little more chill these days--I think he’s just pissed he’s losing to Midoriya now.” He paused, looking thoughtful. “I gotta say, though, he was even more worked up than I expected when we got here. What did you say to him?”

You grimaced, thinking back on the tense conversation. “That if he was ashamed of his ranking, he should do better.”

Kaminari choked. “Oh fuck, he must have been pissed,” he managed, before dissolving into peals of laughter. “Do better. No wonder he looked like he was gonna give himself a hernia. Mina’s gonna wet herself when I tell her.”

You shifted uncomfortably. “He thinks I altered the results to get his attention.”

Kaminari’s chuckles tapered off as he set a comforting hand on your shoulder. “Oh, he’s just saying that. He knows he’s shit at assists. He’s just salty he’s actually gotta do something about it if he wants to be number one.”

You thought back to the feeling of that hard body pressing you up against the wall, the disdain that had twisted his handsome face, the burning heat that had built up under his palms. A shiver went down your spine. It had seemed like he was a little more than salty, but if that’s how his friend wanted to put it, then fine.

“Well, thanks for the save anyway,” you said, giving Kaminari a little smile. “I’d definitely give you and Kirishima Rescue of the Year if I was pre-determining my results.”

Kaminari laughed, turning back to the door that Kirishima had dragged Bakugou through. As if on cue, a small boom sent the door swinging open a little. “Speaking of which, I’d better get back to make sure I don’t have to rescue the rescuer.”

He gave you a casual wave, then crossed to the door quickly. He hesitated at the threshold, then peeked back over his shoulder at you.

“By the way,” he said. “You might want to take a look at your dress. I, um, think Bakugou may have gotten a little carried away.”

He disappeared before you could ask what he meant, but a quick glance down clarified soon enough. Right on your abdomen, where Bakugou had pinned you against the wall, lay a scorched cut out, exactly in the shape of one large hand.

Your mouth dropped open in horror.

That fucking dick.

[merakiaes]

His Treasures - Oscar “Spooky” Diaz

Pairing: Oscar “Spooky” Diaz x reader

Requested: Yes. 

Prompts: None. 

Warnings/notes: Some angst! This doesn’t follow the original plot of the series. Instead of getting rid of Cuchillos in season 3, Oscar deals with it during the time of Cesar’s alienation. This is not proofread so I apologize in advance for any possible mistakes. Please leave some love and let me know what you think xx

Wordcount: 2584

Summary: You find out that you’re pregnant during the whole drama with Cesar and Oscar isn’t very thrilled about the timing. 

Oscar was struggling, big time. Not only with keeping the Santos together, but with his personal life and his entire identity.

He was beginning to question everything he had ever known, partly because he was being forced to push his own brother away, putting him on the streets, but also because you made him feel like he was worth better by constantly and blindly believing in him and his potential.

Before he had met you, his life had been so simple. All he had to worry about back then was the Santos and to have food on the table for his little brother. But now… he wanted to make you happy, whatever it took.

It scared him. The lengths he would go to in order to make sure you were safe and comfortable was terrifying, because he knew it was something that raised eyebrows and suspicions in the gang, more specifically in the higher rankings.

Cuchillos had questioned him about you on more than one occasion, wondering how far he would go to keep you safe.

Would he try to leave the Santos? Would he turn on her? Try to kill her? He declined every question, of course, swearing his loyalty to the Santos. To a start, his claims had been true. He would do anything for Los Santos. They were his family.

But now you were his family, too, and it put him in an extremely difficult spot. 

Things were already tense as they were with Cesar having the Prophets on his ass so to say the timing was bad when you found out you were pregnant was a big understatement, and it was safe to say Oscar wasn’t too thrilled about the big news.

“I can’t have a baby right now.” He shook his head, pulling a hand over his mouth and chin as he paced in front of you where you sat on the couch in his living room, a positive pregnancy test grasped tightly in your hands. “Things would get too complicated.”

“All this love shit is complicated.” You scoffed, putting the test down on the coffee table and standing up from your seat.

“But that’s good, and you know why?” You questioned, walking over to him where he had now stopped. “Because if it’s too simple, you’ve got no reason to try, nothing to fight for. And if you don’t have a reason to try, you don’t.”

He glared down at you, his entire posture rigid and his face screwed up with anger. “It’s too risky!” He exclaimed, but rather than getting scared, you met his glare with one of your own.

“Everything is a risk. Not doing anything is a risk.” You protested. “I know bringing a child into the world will make things difficult for you but you can’t always wait for the perfect time. Sometimes, you have to dare to do it because life is too short to wonder what could have been.”

He turned his head to the side, an angry breath escaping his nose. Your face softened and carefully, you raised your hands up to grab his face, turning it right back toward you.

His fierce eyes met your pleading ones, but no matter how angry and confused he was, he allowed you to bend his head down to yours, standing still as you pressed your lips to his in a chaste, feather light kiss.

You held the kiss for a few seconds and then pulled away, leaning your forehead against his and staring pleadingly into his eyes.

“I’m not going to wonder what could have been, Oscar.” You told him sadly. “I’m keeping this baby, our baby, with or without you. I’ve made my choice and now you get to make yours. Don’t do to our baby what your dad did to you, please. Please, baby.”

He closed his eyes for a moment, leaning into your touch as you caressed his cheeks. Unbeknownst to you, his heart was almost beating out of his chest right at that moment. 

Now more than ever, he was terrified of what he would do for you, or more specifically, what the price would be to pay.

But before he could get too drunk on your touch, he tore his head out of your grasp and opened his eyes, taking a step back.

“Go home.” The words seemed to leave his lips so easily, you swore you could feel your heart breaking into a million little pieces right then and there.

Your stomach churned and you felt like you were going to throw up as the desperation settled in. “Please, Oscar. Don’t do this.” You pleaded, tears starting to build up in your eyes at a rapid pace.

But he only turned his head to the side, staring at the pregnancy test laying on the table for a few seconds, before turning on his heel and heading in the direction of his bedroom.

You took a step forward to follow but before you could get far, the door had already slammed shut behind him, the sound of the lock turning reaching your ears only a second later and officially killing any heart activity you had left.

Your chest was hurting to the point where you actually thought you were going to die as you walked home, your head dizzy, body hot and tears stinging your eyes. 

The second you got home, you locked yourself into your room, ignoring the worried calls of your mother from behind the door, silently crying yourself to sleep.

Back at the Diaz residence, Oscar was nursing a beer where he sat on the couch, the small pregnancy test held tightly in his shaking hand. The plus sign on the small screen was taunting him, and no matter how hard it would be, he knew what he had to do.

Almost a week passed and you hadn’t left your bed during that entire time. You hadn’t received a single call or text from Oscar and you were beginning to come to terms with the fact that you were going to raise your child on your own.

At the same time, you worried that maybe, just maybe, something had happened to him, and that this was the reason for his absence. Either way, you were anxious.

You were heartbroken beyond belief, hurting more than you ever thought was possible, but at least you had your mother. She hadn’t left your side the entire week, trying her very best to get you to eat and drink at least three times a day.

You didn’t want to, of course. It was known that one of the many side effects of heartbreak was the intense lack of appetite. But you knew you had to. Not for you, but for the life growing inside you; for yours and Oscar’s unborn baby.

“Have you tried calling him?” Your mother asked quietly from the doorway of your room, her voice cutting through the thick silent air.

Your eyes didn’t flicker from the ceiling for as much as a second, your lips moving entirely on their own by now. “No, and I’m not going to.” 

Taking a shaky breath, you blinked away the tears that were once again building up in your eyes. “I gave him a choice and he made it.”

“Mija…”

“No, mama!” You reacted immediately, sitting yourself up in your bed and letting your glare meet your mother’s soft gaze. “I won’t beg someone to love me or stay with me. I am too good to chase someone who does not know my worth and acknowledge my value. If he doesn’t want to be in my life… If he doesn’t want to be in our lives, then we don’t want him either. I can do this on my own.”

Your mother nodded her head, smiling sadly. “I know you can, mija.” She agreed and walked over to your bed. Her hand rested at the back of your head, fingers running over your hair soothingly as her lips made contact with your forehead.

“I love you.” Your mother’s voice was soft and heavy with sadness, the older woman hurting with her daughter as she had been in the exact same position when she was pregnant with you.

But if anything, that only showed how strong the women in your family were, and that you would be just as great of a mother as yours had been to you.

As your mother left you alone once again, you slowly fell back onto the bed, the waterworks taking off in no time. 

You were amazed that you still had any tears left to cry with the way you had been crying non-stop for seven days, but didn’t get much time to wonder as you cried yourself to sleep for what seemed to be the hundredth time.

You weren’t sure how long you were asleep for but when you woke up again, the soft rays of sunlight that had been streaming through the gaps of your blinds were gone, your bedroom now pitch black.

It took a minute for you to regain your senses as you awoke, but you soon managed to process your whereabouts and also the source of your awakening.

Your body instantly reacted, sitting up abruptly as your eyes locked with Oscar’s where he sat beside your bed.

It was dark and you couldn’t see his facial features, only the slight glimmer of his eye, but you could recognize the stature of his body any day. 

“How did you get in here?” You asked, eyes narrowing slightly. 

It was sort of a stupid question. You didn’t exactly have the house on lockdown so it wouldn’t have been hard for him to just waltz through the front door.

But all logic was momentarily erased from your head at that moment. You were barely even able to form a coherent thought as a flurry of emotions fought their way through your mind and body.

Oscar looked at you calmly, his elbows resting on his knees. “Your mother let me in.” He informed you. “After she hit me in the head with her slipper and called me a pendejo.”

In any other situation, that’s something you would have found extremely funny and probably would have laughed out loud at, but now you only stared at him, your chest heaving up and down in rapid and ragged motions and your heartbeat rising to your ears.

You couldn’t even believe that he was trying to joke the situation away, after not reaching out to you for an entire week after finding out you were carrying his child.

The air turned thick with silence again, the glare on your face only intensified by the second and Oscar looked down into the floor, ashamed.

“I’m sorry.” He broke the silence then, and that’s when you finally snapped.

“Where the fuck have you been, Oscar?!” You yelled, but you got no reply.

Instead, he wordlessly reached his hand out and flipped the switch of the lamp standing on your nightside table, and it was only then you noticed the cuts and bruises littered all over his face, neck and the parts of his upper body that weren’t hidden behind his black tank top.

A gasp left your lips, the anger melting right off and worry immediately bubbling up in your stomach. You hurried to throw back your duvet and turn your legs over the edge of the bed, standing up on your feet going over to him.

“What happened?” You whispered, your hands grabbing his jaw and beginning to twist his head around to get a better look of the damage out of pure instinct.

He avoided your eyes but melted into your touch. Never had it felt as good, as comforting, as it did now.

While you continued to inspect his injuries, your heart turning heavier in your chest for every cut or bruise you laid eyes on, he slowly reached into the pocket of his shorts, pulling out the pregnancy test you had left at his house.

You watched with emotional eyes as he put the stick of plastic on your nightside table, before moving your eyes to his and finding that he was already looking at you.

“I took care of Cuchillos. She’s gone.” He finally told you, and you felt every drop of blood run still in your veins with fear at her name.

Before you could say anything, however, you felt his hands on your stomach. His fingers slid under your shirt with ease, rough fingers brushing over the soft skin and spreading warmth through your entire body.

“I couldn’t let you and our baby living in danger and as long as she called the shots, you would have been in danger every day.” He talked, looking up at you through swollen eyes. Your hands slowly found their way to the back of his head, your fingers beginning to caress the skin. “She saw that you were making me soft and she didn’t like it. She wanted me to get rid of you and I know that if I didn’t, she would have done it for me.”

“But you didn’t.” You whispered, a crease forming between your eyebrows as you thought deeply. “You got rid of her instead.”

He nodded and you sat back down on the edge of your bed slowly. One of his hands instantly found its way to your cheek. 

“I would chose you over anyone and anything, even los Santos.” He mumbled, leaning in closer to your face and scanning your face. “You’re my family now. You have been since we first met and she didn’t like it.”

Your lip wobbled at his words, your eyes starting to burn as a fresh set of tears started forming. “I thought you left.” You whispered, your voice barely even audible.

But he heard you, as clear as day. “You really thought I would abandon my own baby?” He asked, his voice cold and defensive.

“For a moment there, yeah, I did.” You admitted, seeing no point in hiding the truth.

He swallowed, eyes hard and lips pulled into a tight line. He was hurt by your words, you knew it, but still, he only nodded, knowing that he deserved it and that you had every right to doubt him.

A tear rolled down your cheek. “I was so worried.” You cried, shaking your head. “You have to promise me never to scare me like that again. Never.”

He pressed his forehead against yours. “I promise.” He agreed. “I’m here now, mamas. Imma take care of you, and our baby.”

You smiled through your tears, your lover lip still quivering as his eyes left yours and instead landed on your belly against which his hand was now flatly pressed.

“Son mi vida.” He spoke, caressing your belly with his fingers and looking back up into your eyes, his hand cradling your jaw. “Mis tesoros.”  

He looked at you with such admiration, had you been standing up, your knees would have for sure turned to jelly right underneath you. It caused a hot flush to go through your body and your previously broken heart to glue itself back together and swell in your chest.

You could see it in his eyes that he was still stressed and tense about everything that had just gone down and that he was scared of what was to come, but you knew that he had finally made up his mind about what he wanted to make of himself and you knew that he would do anything in his power to keep you and your family safe.

Like he said, you were his treasures, and no one or nothing would ever take that away from him.

[secretariatess]

I can’t promise this is my last post on the matter, because it’s likely I might say something about it again in the future.  But for now I can say it’ll be the last post on this topic for the weekend.

I made a claim in my last post the “motherhood is woman’s highest calling” is more of a reactionary ideal than a return to Christian values.  I want to back my claim, at least the latter half.

The half about it being reactionary is based on observation of today’s culture and church, and a little bit of knowledge of the growth of that idea.  I don’t believe it’s a modern idea, and thus why it’s considered a return to traditional values.  But the point of this post isn’t to pinpoint its origin.

Nowhere in the Bible will you find that this idea is God ordained.

The Bible does stress the importance of being a mother and a father, and talks about the importance of raising godly children.  It also talks about how children should honor their father and mother.  But God doesn’t tell women that the most important thing, that the highest calling for them, and them specifically, is to be a mother.

In fact, I would argue that Jesus was confronted with an ideal similar to this and He shot it down.

Luke 11:27-28: As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.” He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

If the word of God does not lay out a specific command for women to be mothers, then hearing and obeying the word of God does not include the idea that a woman’s highest calling is motherhood.  The highest calling for a woman, as well as a man, is to be a disciple of Christ.

There is another passage in the Bible, located in Matthew, where Jesus is informed His mother and brothers are waiting to see Him.  His reply is, “Who is my mother and who are my brothers?”  He then points to His disciples and says, “Here are my mother and brothers.”  Reiterating the point that the highest calling is being a disciple of Christ.

In fact, in Proverbs 31, when describing a wife of noble character, being a mother is something that is acknowledged through one line (that she has children), but is not the focus of the description.  Her identity is not wrapped up in being a mother.  Close to the end of the chapter, it says: “but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”

So then, is there anything in the Bible that would seem like it would support the idea motherhood is the highest calling?  There is, in 1 Timothy.  But that’s stretching it.  You have the verse that says “women are saved through childbearing,” but in addition to the fact that using that verse would be taking it out of context and ignoring the fact that ‘women’ is also translated as ‘she’ and is referring to Eve, it would call into question the issue of salvation for women.  That salvation works differently for men and women, and that women without children aren’t saved.  There is another part in 1 Timothy where Paul counsels young widows to get remarried and have kids so they won’t be idle, but to take this idea to mean women must be married and have kids would one, ignore why Paul gave that counsel, and two, make Paul contradict himself, as he advised the Corinthians it was better to remain single.

There is also the theme where women in the Bible are concerned about having children.  This does not make motherhood a woman’s highest calling.  Rather, it was a reflection of the times and culture- the purpose of children was different then than it is now.

If a woman feels her calling is to be a mother, then that is between her and God.  It does not make her nobler, or receiving a higher calling, or being more blessed.  It is just one path that a woman can be called to. 

Furthermore, a woman can be a mother, and not have that as her identity.  A Christian woman should have her identity in Christ, and her primary concern should be to follow Christ.  This may very well mean that even as a mother, she is called to other things.

The idea that motherhood is a woman’s highest calling is strictly a cultural idea.  And while motherhood is certainly an honorable position, the Church shouldn’t be espousing the idea that it’s a woman’s highest calling.  By doing so, the Church is rejecting Jesus’s own words and deciding for itself the biggest value of women.

A woman of God is not defined as a woman who is pursuing motherhood.  A woman of God is a woman who is first and foremost pursuing Christ, and what He would have her do.

Don’t devalue that by ranking the family as the first and foremost calling of Christ.  After all, the command Jesus gave His disciples when He ascended was to go and make Christlike disciples of all nations.

[cto10121]

Why Does the Nurse Prefer Paris to Romeo?

After she returns from meeting Romeo, and Juliet desperately asks her what he said about their marriage, the Nurse goes into this humorous but very telling speech:

Nurse. Well, you have made a simple choice. You know not how to choose a man. Romeo? No, not he. Though his face be better than any man’s, yet his leg excels all men’s, and for a hand and a foot, and a body, though they be not to be talked on, yet they are past compare. He is not the flower of courtesy, but I’ll warrant him as gentle as a lamb. Go thy ways, wench. Serve God.

I find this fascinating.

Notice how the Nurse doesn’t really say why Romeo is the dumb choice, or what her problem with him is, but goes into another one of her comic desultory ramblings, this time on Romeo’s hotness that seems to undermine her assertion. The only true criticism or justification she offers is merely that “He is not the flower of courtesy,” and even that is mitigated by a compliment to Romeo’s character (“as gentle as a lamb”). While this is obvious foreshadowing for the Nurse’s betrayal of Juliet and her “Romeo is a dishclout to [Paris]” line, she never offers a good explanation as to why she thinks Romeo isn’t good enough for Juliet, and that she could do better. By contrast, she praises Paris and tells Juliet no less than three times in that same speech that he is better than Romeo.

It’s particularly noteworthy since in the Act 2, Scene 4 scene when they meet, it’s clear that the Nurse likes Romeo. She laughs at and appreciates his roasting Mercutio (“Marry, well said!”). Despite the fact that he is clearly friends with Mercutio et al. who mock her shamelessly, she is unfailingly polite (“Pray you, sir, a word”) and nice, as if she considers him different from the rest. Her warning to him not to toy with Juliet’s feelings is clearly a pre-made speech she would have given anyway. She feels comfortable enough to go on her ramblings—even telling him about Paris and how Juliet hates him and how she ~mysteriously blanches when she tells her Paris is better! So what’s with the sudden Team Paris stuff?

Well, I have my theories, and they may even shed some light not only as to the purpose of this little speech, but what it reveals about the Nurse’s character and her role, ultimately, as Juliet’s foil, in similar ways Mercutio acts as Romeo’s. So let’s speculate.

Theory 1: The Nurse Thinks Romeo Is Too Callow/Immature

While the Nurse clearly doesn’t hold the mockery of hi Romeo’s wily friends against him, she still caught Romeo in his male camaraderie and may have concluded that Romeo, while better than those “scurvy knaves,” is still a callow youth, wet behind the ears. That would explain the use of “simple” (meaning dumb) instead of just “wrong.” She is shocked that he was capable of killing Tybalt (although to her view she would have assumed it had been in cold blood). She isn’t all surprised to see him weeping disconsolately on the floor of the Friar’s cell (although that is because Juliet is doing the exact same thing, and she says so). She also—tellingly—tells him to stand up and “be a man,” so she obviously has bought into the cultural notion of masculinity that does not allow the free expression of excessive emotion from men. Paris is much more self-possessed and composed, even while he’s mourning Juliet, and older besides; that may be enough to prefer him for Juliet, especially if the Nurse thinks a mature man can help Juliet adjust through the trials of marriage and motherhood better.

Against this, however, is the Nurse’s description of Romeo as a dishclout (dishrag) to Paris’ “eagle.” If Romeo’s supposed immaturity was her main objection to him, then she would have said a baby eagle or some equivalent animal or object associated with youth—small, weak, and mewling. Also, Juliet may be smart, but she is still 13. The Nurse no doubt lowkey sees her as still a little girl herself, one she personally raised, so thinking Romeo is too immature for her makes little sense. They both behave in similar ways. Romeo also consistently reads older by at least 3-4 years and his behavior in his play does not mark him as any less mature than his friends or Tybalt—or, frankly, most of the adults in this play.

Theory 2: The Nurse Prefers Paris Because He Is of a Higher Social Rank/Wealthier Than Romeo

Paris is kinsman to the Prince, and Romeo is the heir of Montague; it’s a no-brainer which one has the higher rank. Paris also reads as an older man, though he too dies with the rest of the youths of the play (there is some ambiguity definitely re: his age). The Nurse seems to have some materialistic leanings, as when she rather gleefully tells Romeo at the Capulet ball: “I tell you, he that can lay a hold of her / Shall have the chinks” and social climbing tendencies as when she gives herself airs in front of Mercutio et al. and tells Peter to hand over her fan. She makes only a token resistance to Romeo’s coin offer and accepts it immediately at his mild insistence. There are definite classist vibes in her “Romeo’s a dishclout compared to [Paris]” line. A rag is a low, plain/ugly, used, faded, common item; an eagle is a noble animal that soars the skies. It may emphasize the Nurse’s belief that Romeo is dime-a-dozen in terms of youths go, and that Paris is “rare.”

Against this, however, is the fact that the Nurse doesn’t bring up materialistic or mercenary considerations in her marry-Paris speech even though it would have been apropos. Also, the social difference between Romeo and Paris is probably not even significant; Romeo was able to be friends with Mercutio, also PE’s kinsman, with no trouble, after all. Romeo is the heir of Montague, a family of the same social class with Juliet’s; while the family’s fortunes would not drastically improve, there would be no social shame in a match, and in fact the Friar counts on it in his plans. Paris would be a much nicer match, of course, but not one to overthrow all consideration of Juliet’s feelings. If the Nurse did have class considerations, they must have been unconscious ones. This is an English play, after all, by an English writer writing a lower class character; class is never far behind.

Theory 3: The Nurse Thinks Paris Is Hotter Than Romeo (and Hotter=Better)

The first half at least is definitely canon. The Nurse consistently raises up the question of Romeo’s hotness vis-à-vis Paris. On one side, Paris is consistently her favorite, the one that “excels” Romeo, the one she has stated more than once that she prefers. “An eagle” doesn’t have “so fair an eye” as Paris, and Romeo’s the “dishclout.” Paris is the flower of Verona, Paris is a man of wax, etc. The very first thing she says after telling Juliet that she thinks it’s best to marry Paris is that he is a “lovely gentleman” (although that could also easily refer to his personality).

On the other hand, the Nurse explicitly says that Romeo’s face “be better than any man’s.” (Even better than Paris’? ~Surely not). It is the Nurse, not Juliet, who lewdly blazons Romeo’s body parts; Juliet, even at her most horny in “Gallop apace,” never talks about Romeo in this way. It’s as if the Nurse views the Romeo-Juliet-Paris drama as a YA novel and she is the fangirl resolutely on #TeamParis, writing steadily long meta rants on Tumblr about how Paris is the sophisticated/more mature/nicer option and Romeo is the mediocre/basic/nice guy—all the while writing R/J fanfic because hey, Romeo is super hot too.

Considering the Nurse’s obsession with these men’s looks and physical beauty, she would prefer the one who is most handsome for Juliet or who she thinks is the most handsome. How she eventually did settle firmly on the Team Paris camp is uncertain, since a furious Juliet rages on how she hypocritically trashed Romeo even when she had “praised him with above compare / So many thousand times?” Juliet may have been exaggerating the number in her hurt and betrayal, but we literally do see the Nurse liking Romeo physically—explicitly so in ways she doesn’t do with Paris—and personally. Perhaps her likening Romeo to a dishclout compared to Paris was an exaggerated, blunt way to persuade Juliet to drop him. Conversely, she could have just been humoring Juliet when she praised Romeo “with above compare,” just as she might have been hastily placating Juliet when, in her marry-Paris speech, she says, “O he [Paris] is a lovely gentleman!”

In any case, the Nurse’s valuing physical beauty shows her shallowness, which is part-and-parcel to her role as Juliet’s foil. Notice how Juliet doesn’t go into detail as to Romeo’s appearance and neither does Romeo for Juliet. This is partially logistical, as Shakespeare, being trained for the theater, learned to avoid specifying character appearance. But the absence also indicates that R&J’s love are not based on trivial details such as hair or eye color, much less body type. They obviously find each other physically attractive, but it’s more what they mean to each other. The Nurse doesn’t understand that, and Juliet’s irritation and impatience when she goes on a tangent on Romeo’s excelling leg: “But all of this I have known before.” Yes, my Romeo is hot and the sky is blue, can we move on?

Which Theory?

Barring more information from the text, I feel Theory 3 is the most supported and the most likely, although 1 and 2 have their strong points. A little bit of all three wouldn’t be out of the question. The main problem is that the Nurse doesn’t bring up potential valid objections, like Romeo’s killing Tybalt (!!), which Presgurvic’s RetJ did, only the logistical difficulty of Romeo being in Mantua and Juliet in Verona “and [her] no use of him” in the sense that Juliet can’t enjoy Romeo sexually. The emotional callousness the Nurse displays here is part-and-parcel with the Capulets’ overall emotional callousness and shallowness, especially towards Tybalt’s death (see Capulet’s “Well, we are all born to die”—compare that to Romeo’s genuinely regretful, “Forgive me, cousin” speech to Tybalt’s tomb).

In that sense the Nurse’s emotional shallowness is obviously meant to contrast with Juliet’s love and commitment to Romeo and even her lewd praise of him contrast with Juliet’s rapturous praise.

In sum: While the Nurse is much more supportive of R&J than the Friar, she prefers Paris and not only doesn’t hesitate to tell Juliet of it, it also informs her advising Juliet to marry Paris. This creates a bit of a mystery since she never goes into any explanation as to why she prefers Paris or even why Romeo would make a poor choice. Most likely she is just playing YA love triangle games and going back and forth as to which one is hotter/which one Juliet should date (the verdict? Team Paris).

(P.S. Another, slightly nerdy addition—on the Nurse’s “He is not the flower of courtesy, but I’ll warrant him as a gentle as a lamb.” Gentle in Shakespeare is almost always used in the sense of being well-regarded, honorable, virtuous, or simply having the qualities of a gentleman. The Nurse’s use of it to mean “soft or sweet” is the first time I’ve seen Shakespeare employ the word in the modern sense. To make absolutely sure, I checked David and Ben Crystal’s Shakespeare’s Words: A Glossary and Language Companion, and sure enough there was no definition close to “soft/kind/sweet” under the gentle entries (noun, verb, adjective). It could be that this was a small oversight and the dictionary has been updated since then, but the entries looked comprehensive enough. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time Shakespeare employed a word in what we would recognize as its modern sense. (Any Shakespearean nut remembers any other time Shakespeare uses gentle in the modern sense? Hit me up if you find anything.)

Anyway, my personal headcanon is that the modern sense of the word could have been extant, if not widely used, a sort of slang that a lower-class character like the Nurse, when she is not putting on airs, would employ. If so, perhaps Shakespeare could have intended a small malapropism (the Nurse commits many of them) his mainstream audience would find amusing. Because of course, if Romeo were gentle, lamblike or not, then he would de facto be courteous—a key part of gentility is courtesy! So it would seem, to Elizabethan audiences, that the Nurse, in employing some peasant slang, accidentally employs a ridiculous contradiction. Cue laughter—oh that Nurse!

As for “gentle as a lamb”…Romeo is indeed lovely and sweet to Juliet and even his Mercutio roasts are more fond than cutting, but while he is patient and considerate with the Nurse—he insists on giving her some coin for her trouble—he reads mostly bemused by her. Not so much “gentle” in the modern sense of the word. But the Nurse herself is not very observant nor very emotionally perceptive, so it lends a little more credence to Theory 1 in that she thinks of Romeo as just a kid, nothing more.)

[theboardwalkbody]

So I wanna learn about Mandalorian culture and (before I dive into some YouTube videos and scour the internet) I kinda have a few things I hope to learn about in particular though I don’t feel I’ll find that information so if anyone knows LMK. (PS 90% of my info comes from The Mandalorian and it will be abbreviated TM to save my fingers).

1. Clothing: So all I know is that armor is Very Important and Valued. (and especially so in TM to the point where like no one takes off helmets or anything - which I understand is new). But that leaves me to wonder - recreationally? Like do they go swimming? IDK but I don’t imagine swimming in armor is leisurely. What do you wear when you’re just At Home. Coronavirus got me forgetting WTF pants are, so what do they like, just lounge in. 

I do believe there is information regarding marriage and helmet removal? Or maybe that is fanon I saw and I am misremembering. But even still it didn’t really shed light on anything.

2. Music. I always love to imagine what music I could introduce people in media to. Would elves like Indie? Would dwarves like Heavy Metal? Would Picard totally be into Hamilton? So of course I have to ask where Mandalorians fall in my iPod. 

3. Tattoos. Is body art a thing? Especially if one isn’t supposed to remove their armor for anyone? Branding VS Tattooing? Piercings? I don’t imagine anyone is wasting time going around coloring their hair if no one except maybe their S/O will see it but maybe?

4. What the hell DO they do for fun because so far I have seen just the very Strict and All Work No Play information but I haven’t gotten into the like Life in a Regular Day stuff.

5. Beauty standards? America is (*&^ed when it comes to Telling People How They Should Look to Be Attractive™. I assume Mandalorians are more Personality VS External and more Yeah We’re Compatible or Beneficial. But I’m still curious if there are physical standards as well. Other than, you know, not being filthy. 

6. State of Affairs. Take a Mandalorian. Stick them next to you. Tell them the current state of affairs in the US. Are they wondering WTF is wrong with the country for Being That Way? or are they wondering WTF is wrong with the PEOPLE for Being That Way? 

From what I have gathered of the very little I have gotten into history they have a very complicated one. Their own planet was destroyed. From what I understand there were a lot of political and power changes. A lot of infighting. A lot of people choosing their Own Side. But then of course you read other things and it seems very ALL FOR THE COUNTRY militarism. But I am wondering if it’s more so ALL FOR THE PEOPLE instead. Like - it’s not the location, the land, the country, its the creed, its the people, its the way of life. Is it the Gov is never wrong, fight the people or is it the Gov is wrong and support the people. I am beginning to feel like it is the latter but maybe that’s personal bias?

~SELFISH - Below this line are things I wanna know just because I struggle with my own identity and always wonder where I would fit among the characters I find interesting.~

A. I assume all occupations are very important. Naturally there is a need and someone needs to provide. I can’t help but wonder - Nurses/Doctors/Medics? Are they all ranked the same? Is there division among medical professionals? Would they all be considered of high caliber due to being beneficial not only to the community in general but also on the battlefield?

B. In the SW universe I have always wanted to “pick a side”. Jedi/Sith was what I was presented with. Or like Grey Jedi and stuff. But no matter how much I read into everything and analyzed neither fit. Sith? No, I’m not that violent and brutal. Or mad. Jedi? Nope, I have extreme emotions and strong bonds to people and things. Grey Jedi? I GUESS but it still doesn’t feel right.

And then I was introduced to Mandalorians. And I went ... Hey, I think there’s something for me here.

I highly connect with their value on Family - AND most IMPORTANTLY to me - the fact that your CHOSEN family is what has a higher meaning rather than your BLOOD family. (I have LITERALLY said to an abusive family member “you are misusing that quote the FULL quote is actually The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb” and gave them a verbal middle finger.) Adoption, caring for children especially, accepting those who are willing to learn. All of those things hit incredibly hard for me.

Value on education. I teach. Not professionally but I try and teach children. I am never going to answer a “but Why?” with a “because i said so now go away”. I try and educate people on topics if they ask me. If I don’t know I will help them find out. Education in general - if school was free (higher education incl.) I would go just to learn things. Yeah - I have a degree for my career, but hey, I want to learn History and Marine Biology and take more classes for subjects unrelated to my field but that I find interesting. 

Language? From what I read it is not only important to speak Mando’a but it is also important to learn other languages? Which is pretty awesome, if you ask me. I may not know, myself, how to speak a multitude of languages but I do highly respect those who teach their children or themselves multiple languages. It’s hard. But it’s important and it helps you connect with more people.

And (this ones super personal) but I struggle with my identity and place WAY too much value on my independence. I have been told by multiple (yeah you guessed it -) men that I am short and therefore weak. I am ugly therefore weak (idk how that translated but ok). I am a GIRL therefore weak. I am single. Therefore weak. However, as a victim of child abuse and having to Grow TF Up by the time I was 13.... well.... I may get viciously angry at anyone who calls me weak or says I can’t do something because of who I am or how I appear to them. I will 99% of the time NOT ask for help and angrily REFUSE it when it’s offered even if I need it because I don’t want to seem weak or Like I Need Help. I don’t like to be called Cute. I don’t like to appear Delicate or Fragile. I don’t know if any of that would make sense to anyone else or if someone with that kind of thinking even has a place among Mandalorians because of I guess the subconscious lack of confidence but I think it would be nice to know where I would stand with them? Idk

If anyone’s got any other info please please share. :) 

@izzyovercoffee  @mykingdomforaneraser

(I hope you don’t mind I tag you just I don’t know anyone else on this site who would have insight.) *Ignore the rhyme. lol

[cela-astral-projection]

Have you been fast asleep And have you heard voices, I've heard them calling my name,

Is this the sweet sound that calls The young sailors, The voice might be one and the same. I've heard it too many times to ignore it It's something that I'm supposed to be.

Celeste was up before dawn. Hell, she had been up most of the night, too. Today was the day. No longer under lock and key. A fully vetted member of the medical staff. No longer subject to long, torturous lessons. She was free to practice medicine without the scrutiny of the Quaestor or the Doctor. She was free to leave the palace.

One whole year.

The morning air was cool, and dew slicked every surface. Glittering in the blue morning light, catching the first rays of the sun.

She was wearing a plain white button-down and a blue linen skirt. A knit shawl around her shoulders, more than sufficient coverage for the early morning chill. She stood at the grand gates, waiting for them to be opened for the day along with a smattering of other staff.

She could hear hoofbeats and carriages approaching. It was a part of the morning ritual. You came to the gate if there were errands to be run, or if you were off duty, and you went into town, and the utility carriages would ferry staff back and forth throughout the day.

As the line of carriages started picking up passengers, Celeste hung back, looking for Aedan. He had agreed to meet her and give her the lay of the land. Save for their initial walkthrough of the city when they arrived, she hadn't seen much of it. Whereas he was on regular patrols in the city.

But he was nowhere to be found. She worried, a bit. But then, that was a constant state. Worry. That something had gone wrong.

After the carriages were gone, she sighed, resigned. She would have to wait for someone to return, or walk on her own. She wasn't opposed. She wasn't staying here. She was free, and, by the gods, she would take advantage of it.

She made to leave but heard another carriage approaching. This one, decidedly not utilitarian. Gilded, opulent, with white horses, bedecked in finery.

Lucio's carriage.

The horses slowed to a stop, and the carriage door swung open. A tall, blonde man emerged, beaming. Dressed in his guard's uniform. He gestured grandly. "Milady, your carriage awaits!" Aedan called out, looking very pleased with himself.

Celeste stared at him, then closed her eyes, slowly, swearing under her breath. "Fucking idiot." She shook her head, but steeled herself, and stepped forward.

He bowed to her, reveling in it. She fixed him with a hard, cold stare. He looked up and winked, undeterred, offering his hand to help her in. She took it and stepped inside.

It was all red velvet and gold filigree. Golden roses on the walls, embedded artfully in the luxurious fabric. She sat, marveling at the ostentatiousness. Aedan stepped in behind her and sat heavily, kicking his feet up on the far seat.

"Congratulations, Sissy. You made it!" He said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and leaning in to peck her cheek affectionately. She did smile, then, shaking her head.

"You are an absolute fool, Vernersson. You know that, right?" she chided, playfully.

"Ah, fuck it. The guys in the stables owe me a favor. But, hell. If we go down, at least we're going down together. In style." He squeezed her and released her, crossing his arms behind his head, reclining. "Besides, I can always play it off that we were checking the carriage for signs of sabotage. I might get a promotion."

"Oh, there's a rank higher than lapdog?" she teased, sitting back.

"You wound me." he rolled his eyes. "Speaking of promotions, I heard that you were begrudgingly awarded the rank of Nurse Practitioner. Good on you."

She swirled her finger in the air, dismissive. "All it means is that I don't have to have Valdemar leering at me constantly. Nothing of value has changed."

"That's a blessing," he replied. Valdemar wasn’t someone he’d like to run into in a dark corner. And he knew that’s all his sister had done for the last year. After a beat, he decided to continue. "And what about the Doctor? You still working...under him?"

She shot a dark look at him but didn't reply. Aedan laughed.

Word was fully out. And, thankfully, it had been fallen more on Julian than her. He, the "superior" and she, his "subordinate". Even so, it had mostly been to Julian's embarrassment. There hadn't been any real consequences besides a little shame and a whole lot of blushing.

She had all but hardened her heart to Julian. He had been so contrite, trying his damnedest to get back into her good graces. She had rejected him roundly, and vehemently, each time. Every time it stung. But, she couldn't relent.

"You like the stupid motherfucker. Just...get over it. You don't gotta marry him. He's there. Screw him every once in a while. Helps pass the time." He said, reaching over to tug her hair playfully. She reached back to slap his hand.

"I do not need to take love advice from you. Thank you very much."

They rode in silence for a while. The voices around them rose as they came into the city square, circling the fountain at the center. Even this early, there was quite a gathering of people moving from building to building. They all looked up at the carriage, alarmed. Aedan looked out the carriage windows. "Ooh, yeah. I bet they are shocked. Lucio doesn't get up before noon on most days. Bet this is a surprise."

When the carriage came to a stop, the coachman yelled for Aedan "to get the hell out". He escorted Celeste out onto the street, then went to settle up with the man, the both of them chatting. Friendly. People relaxed, realizing the Count, was not, in fact, in their midst.

She stood in the center of the square, looking at the various avenues. The buildings. The colors. The people.

Aedan came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders, giving a squeeze. He bent down to whisper in her ear. "Welcome to the big city. You're gonna love it."

----

"It's fucking hot," Celeste gasped, leaning against the wall, under an awning. It was sticky. Damp. She hadn't seen the sun much in the past year, and at this moment, she wondered what she had missed about it so much.

They had walked miles together. but Aedan was still just as chipper as ever, chatting with every vendor he came across. A man of the people. Generous and well-liked. She had never gotten to see this side of him. He had embraced Vesuvia in a way she had never been able to.

It felt liberating, but overwhelming all at once to her. So many things to see.

Her father had taken them traveling as children and teenagers, as often as he could. But he hadn't taken them here. Verner had always preferred smaller villages and cities. He loved nature, and could never fully embrace these big meccas. They were never gone terribly long, being so needed at home. She and her mother weren't able to be spared for long stretches, the village's primary sources of medical care.

Aedan was engaged with a girl selling flowers, talking animatedly. She watched him, waving her hand inconsequentially in front of her face, trying to generate some sort of breeze. After a while, he broke away and walked over to her.

"So, I have some business I need to take care of over in Goldgrave. It's a construction hell hole right now. Some stupid project Lucio is working on. I just need to check-in and make sure everyone is on task. You're in the market district. It's fairly self-explanatory. If you have any questions, the baker up the road is a pretty solid guy, he'll point you in the right direction. Here..." He reached into his satchel and produced some coins. "Just in case. There are vendors all over the damn place. Just...be careful. Dock kids are mucking about. They're all pretty harmless, but they're pickpockets. It's a whole thing." He gestured vaguely. "Just...remember, the gates do close the palace at dark. If you're out, you're out."

She put the coins in her pocket, looking up at him, curious. "What's Montag building?"

He rolled his eyes. "Damn sports arena. I don't know. Some stupid bullshit. Wants to watch people knock heads. The thing is ancient, he's just doing some renovations to get it back up and running."

She shook her head. That sounded very on-brand for Lucio. Watching poor fuckers fight...and, for what?

He gave her arm a squeeze. "I'm not sure when I'll see you again, Sis. The schedule's looking a little erratic. But, I'll try to duck in and see you soon."

She smiled, reaching up to pat his cheek. "Love you."

He gave her a half-smile. "Love you more. And if I find out you went to the South End without me, I'm gonna be pissed. I'm taking you to the Raven first." And then he turned to go.

Leaving her to her own devices.

---

She wandered down the narrow streets. It was shadier, here. The buildings and awnings blocking much of the sunlight. She had stopped at the kindly bakers' stall and picked up a few boules, and a pumpkin bread he had all but insisted she take.

She was mid-stride when she felt something fall on her shoulders. Heavy. And...moving. Slithering.

She froze, and a pair of red eyes came into her view. A skinny tongue, darting out.

She closed her eyes. What was this? Dehydration? Heat exhaustion? No fucking way.

When she reopened them, the little face had tilted, observing her. The damn thing looked amused.

She looked up slowly at the sign above. An apothecary's mortar and pestle, with a serpent wrapped around.

A woman walked past, and she shot her arm out to stop her. "I'm...sorry. Do you know if this..." she jerked her head, trying to indicate her new neck accessory "...belongs here?" she jerked her head towards the shop.

The woman laughed. "Oh, yes! That's the magician's snake. He'll be glad someone's found her." The woman reached, out, rubbing a finger affectionately under the snake's chin. "Oh, you silly thing! Getting Asra all in a dither."

And then she swept away, leaving her alone, again.

With a snake.

Around her neck.

She backed towards the door carefully and reached out to knock, stiff, fist still wrapped around a sack with various baked goods.

Someone called out, muffled, from behind the door. "It's open!"

She pulled a face, annoyed. "Yeah, no. You're going to need to come here, please!" she called back.

She heard rustling, and then the door swung open.

Asra blinked, unsure of what he was seeing. It was the woman from the Masquerade.

"Celeste?"

She wasn't quite facing the store's owner, afraid to move. But, the fact that they knew her name was almost as unsettling as the damn snake. She swallowed hard, staring ahead.

"I believe this belongs to you." She said, shaky.

"Oh, Gods. Faust." he scolded, reaching his hand out to collect her. The snake coiled around his wrist and up his arm. "I'm sorry. She likes to...fall."  He gave the snake a halfhearted glare, to which she responded by pressing her snout against his cheek.

"Sorry..." Faust replied, flicking her tongue out. A little kiss.

As it disengaged from her, she shuddered. She still felt like it was on her. The sensation of slithering. It sent chills up her spine. She closed her eyes, trying to regain her composure.

She turned to face the snake's owner and was immediately met with another shock. That hair. Those eyes.

"The mask maker." She said, appraising him. She hadn't seen him in full before. His face obscured by the fox mask when they had met previously. But, there was no mistaking those eyes. He was lithe, and his hair was fluffy. Curls and waves giving it volume, but it fell into his eyes. Shaggy, but somehow not unpolished. It looked just as pearlescent as it had the night of the Masquerade. He looked effortless. He wore a white dress shirt, unbuttoned to the navel, sleeves pushed up. He was swathed in various brilliant scarves. That wide, golden collar at his throat.

"Asra," he said, his hand still extended from reclaiming Faust. "And you're Celeste."

She reached up to take his hand, tentative, shaking it. "I'm sorry, I don't recall being formally introduced before."

"That's because you ran away." he teased. "I caught your name from the guy chasing you, knocking over party guests in his wake."

"Ah. Yes. Vocal, that one is." she said, rolling her eyes. "Well, I guess it's nice to meet you. And your...pet. Asra. Faust."

Their hands were still connected.

And neither felt the need to release the other.

Their eyes were locked, and they stood, quiet. People bustled past, going on about their business.

After a beat, Asra shook his head. "I'm sorry...do you want to come in? It's a slow day. I have tea?"

She nodded enthusiastically.  "Yes, tea sounds lovely. I had some pumpkin bread foisted on me. We can share."

He had almost expected her to protest but was delighted she didn't.

He pulled her in after him, and she shut the door.

The shop was cluttered and dusty. Trinkets, vials, jars, boxes, and shiny bits covered every surface. There were beautiful swaths of fabric hanging in the doorframes and in the windows, paired with cobwebs.

She turned to look at him, eyebrow raised. "You are a magician, are you not?" Her eyes glittered, challenging him.

"As are you, if I recall."

"And you let your shop look like this?" She released his hand and gestured vaguely.

His eyes darted around, and he lifted an eyebrow, not sure what she was implying.

She fixed him with an incredulous look. "Come now. At least glamour it so it appears presentable. A couple cleaning spells would put it right."

When he still looked bewildered, she sighed and dismissed him with her hand. "Go, make tea. I'll fix it."

He gave a laugh as he moved towards the doorframe behind the counter, going to settle Faust in and make their drinks.  "You don't have to fix anything."

"Oh, I'm afraid I do," she called after him as he swept out of the room. She couldn't let him go about dispensing herbs...medicine...like this. No wonder business was slow.

When Asra returned, he blinked, taken aback. The room was brighter than when he had left. The haze on the front windows cleared. Everything looked fresh and new. It even smelled different. Everything was still scattered around the room, but Celeste was shuffling through things on the countertop, examining the contents, moving them into distinct categories.

"What did you do?" he asked, eyes still fluttering around the room.

"I cleaned. You're an apothecary. You can't dispense out of here like this." she scolded, not looking up from her task.

"I’m sorry...you know this is my shop, yes?" he said, pushing some of the boxes aside and setting down the teacups. "I have a system. It works fine."

"You have an attack snake and dust. I see no system." she countered.

He wandered the room, examining her handiwork. He hadn't seen such color in the place for years. Not since he had set everything up. It did look...nice. Very nice. He hadn't even noticed that it had fallen into disrepair until he saw it illuminated like this, restored to its glory. He blinked, shaking his head. "Thank you. It's...great."

He turned to look at her. She had a box in the palm of her hand and was rubbing dried herbs between her fingers, bringing them to her nose to sniff.

"Lavender," he said, recognizing the box.

"Well, maybe at some point it was. It's stale. You're not going to get anything out of it. Some poor heartsick son of a bitch is going to be desperately disappointed if you put this in a love charm. I don't even want to think about the insomniacs, begging for sweet relief, putting this ancient stuff under their pillow. It's inhumane."

His eyes went wide. She knew her stuff.

She put the box down and put her hands on the countertop, tapping her fingernails on the surface, looking down, disappointed. "You know, at some point, I'm going to refer someone to you and I need to know that you have what patients need."

"Patients?" he asked, not comprehending.

"Yes, my patients...I...oh. Sorry," she realized, she hadn't properly introduced herself. That was a bit awkward. Especially now that she was taking inventory of his storeroom as she did at the palace. "Nurse Practitioner Celeste." She pressed her hand to her chest. "Palace Nurse Practitioner. Doctor Devorak's...Assistant." She said, struggling with the last word a bit.

"Ahh." He said, everything clicking into place. "So you're a magical doctor. Intriguing."

"I'm a healer. And a midwife. There isn't much call for midwifery in the palace. The Count and Countess don't seem to be in a hurry to produce any heirs. And...I don't practice magic in the palace if you recall." she lamented. "But, we go where we are called. Serving some greater purpose."

He approached the counter and pushed the tea saucer over to her. "How long have you been in Vesuvia? I don't think I've ever seen you in town before."

"Three hundred and sixty-five days as of today." She said, taking the cup. She blew across the top as a precaution and sipped. She lowered the cup, closing her eyes. Making a low "Mm." Obviously pleased.

Asra bit his lower lip, watching her face. She was lovely. Deep Chestnut hair in a halo around her face, feathering out at the edges. A forelock of blonde.  Long, dark, heavy eyelashes. Pointed eyebrows. Sharp cheekbones and a tapered jaw. A long, graceful neck. And those sea-green eyes. Muriel's eyes were vibrant, but hers were hazy. Misty. And, somehow, familiar. Equally beautiful.

"A whole year, and this is the first time I'm seeing you in town?" he asked.

She relayed rudiments of her employment and the year of sequestering in the palace. He listened, seemingly enthralled. When she concluded, he questioned her a bit, trying to suss out the details.

She was as honest as she could be. It felt wrong, withholding from him. She wanted to spill all of it out. But, she didn't know him. She couldn't know that he was trustworthy. Not yet. And, even if he were, would it be worth it to compromise him?

"Sounds like you've had a rough go of it."

She nodded. "All uphill from here, I hope."

He extended his cup to her. "Cheers to that."

She tapped her cup gently against his and raised it to drink. He mirrored her.

She looked into the cup, swirling it, then surveying the tendrils left behind once it was drained.

"Tasseography?" he questioned, skeptical.  "There are better methods of fortune-telling." He reached into his satchel and produced the cards, extending them to her.

She looked up at him, then down at the cards. "Six in one hand and a half dozen in the other."

He laughed, disbelieving.

She shook her head at him. "I'm serious. It all comes from the same place, doesn't it? It's all open for interpretation. Yours just has pretty pictures. Mine is damp leaves."

"Ahh. I'd say mine has a bit more weight." the corner of his mouth was turned up.

She sighed, resigned. "Fine. Read me, Magician."  She lifted them from his hands and cut them a couple times, then handed them back, tapping the top of the deck when he'd taken it back.

He flipped the top card down onto the countertop.

They both stared at it, then up at each other. Her cheeks went red, and the tops of his ears did.

"Well. Hard not to read into that," she said, low.

The Two of Cups.

Asra cleared his throat. "Indulge me for a second." He said, picking up the card and shuffling it back into the deck. He cut the deck for himself and handed it to Celeste, tapping the top of the deck, just as she had. She flipped the card down.

The Lovers.

Celeste a rush of cold that flooded from the top of her head, creeping down her spine. The cards felt like they were vibrating in her hands. She thrust them towards Asra, and he put them down on the counter, staring at them. Looking betrayed.

"...Well, if it helps. I didn't actually see anything in the cup?" she choked out.

[amatchforyourmadness]

How to you feel about each of Henry's wives?

Are you ready for a huge text? Cause you getting it.I’ll be giving my thoughts in the order in which the marriages took place, but I’ll be putting their ranking in my affections by their name just in case I talk too much without saying anything.

Catherine of Motherfuckin Aragon (#2 ) → I do not have words enough to express how much I respect and admire this woman, despite how many things I disagree or am not overly fond of on her behaviour/way of thinking. And I don’t mean just being a Queen until her very last day or enduring what Henry put her through with grace and poise, I mean even before she walked out of that judgment without Henry’s permission, I mean managing to thrive despite having her father-in-law against her after the death of Arthur. This woman was the first female spanish ambassador to England. This woman, after marrying Henry, when he decided to go fight in France and left her to rule his kingdom, C R U S H E D a rebellion with the same effort someone would take to make a sandwich. AND THEN SHE SENF THE LEADER OF THE REBELLION’S BLOODY CLOAK TO HER HUBBIE IN FRANCE ALONG WITH A LOVE LETTER IN WHICH IT’S IMPLIED SHE SAID SHE WAS PREGNANT. THIS WOMAN DESERVES SO MUCH MORE PRAISE, @ EVERYONE STOP MAKING HER AN OLD WOMAN AND A PRUDE, THIS BITCH HAD CLAWS FOR AGES—

Anne Boleyn (the baddest bitch that you can’t even) ( #1 ) →Despite my passionate rant about CoA, Anne is still (how my quotes and my fic may suggest) my favourite from all of the wives and I feel terrible about her more than undeserved fate. This girl had the brains, had the looks, had the sharp tongue and had the temper that would have made her an icon of our age, had she only been born in our times. The Other Boleyn Girl and other period pieces as well as some historians tend to make her the ‘whore’ of the early triangle that was formed when Henry (the true whore) decided to get rid of Catherine in favour of his younger beloved, but she was far from it. This girl brought a nation to it’s knees, she was the alleged reason for a King to break with the church of Rome and had a full reformation on the country without opening her legs until they were married and that’s a fact. She was very kind and attentive of her friends, ladies-in-waiting and family and I think this is unfortunately lost in the Whore Narrative in favour of overexagerating the jealousness she was sure to feel in the latest years, putting her against every female character one could to have some more conflict in a book and make her more of a lustful, cruel she-devil (Yes, I see you Philippa. I see you. You too, Wolf Hall). However, I do think her role often times is exaggerated in another aspect: She was by no means the leader of the Boleyn Faction, although she had some considerable half of the decisions made to get them where they rose to, the head of the faction were Thomas and George (I can make a whole rant about how this boy doesn’t get half of the value he’s supposed to get) and she wasn’t the whole reason behind any of what Henry did either, she was used as an excuse. I think we shouldn’t either make her the epitome of a Mary Sue with underlines of a bad temper or the scheming bitch that got the crown; She was a human being, and I intend to write her that way as the chapters of The Wives’ Club progress.

Jane Seymour (#6 )  → You can imagine very well why she’s my lowest ranking wive and why I won’t have much to say about her. I deeply dislike Jane and I make no attempt on hiding it. Her reputation being almost sanctified when she had a worse behaviour than Anne during her courtship of the King is deeply infuriating, even more when I think Anne and five other innocent men had their head chopped off due to untruthful allegations only so Henry could place a crown on her head (which actually never happened, she never got a coronation. That makes me slightly happier). She did not have much attractive qualities to redeem their role on the suffering of the previous wive like others did and her decisions weren’t hers as much as they were her brothers’. I dislike her son, finding Edward the most dislikeable of Henry’s kids, her attempts of bringing Mary back into favour were okayish, she all but ignored Elizabeth’s existence and her reign was short and unremarkable. Overall, my least favourite, no doubt.

Anne of Cleves (#3 ) → BABY GIRL. BABY. ICONIC. BEAUTIFUL. ASTOUNDING. SHOW STOPPING. WHAT ELSE CAN I SING OF PRAISE, IDK. ANNE VON KLEVES IS THE WOMAN YOU SHALL RESPECT OR YOU SHALL RESPECT, THERE’S NO OTHER WAY. Let’s start setting one thing straight, this woman was b e a u t i f u l. An absolute snacc. Henry can go fuck right off. You made two of your wives whores, another a sinner and a liar and now you make this one the ugly one? Why don’t you marry a sex doll then, you piece of shit? “The king was so stout that such a man has never been seen,” reported a visitor to court. “Three of the biggest men that could be found could get inside his doublet.” She had waaay more reason to complain than you! He claimed she was not a virgin, yet she asked if he kissing her good night and good morning in her chambers was not enough to be considered consumation of the wedding! At least she didn’t ever need to be under that giant glob you called belly! Okay, I’m going to chill. Anne was undoubtedly the most successful of Henry’s wives, yes, even more than Parr. She was not well versed in singing, dancing or music, due to her education in the Cleves fashion, not in the English, being a pragmatic woman versated in needlework and house management. When the short time of their marriage came to an end and they were declared not truthfully married, she wrote a letter of compliance to the King, knowing full well she was being cast out because Henry lusted her lady-in-waiting, Katherine Howard, and, differently of CoA, setting herself as a faithful servant of Henry’s will. What did that mean? It meant that Henry had finally stepped out of a marriage without a fuss to it and he was more than thankful. She got money to spare, all of her jewels, inumetous mannord and castles and an income that could make us cry over our petty salaries, she was held up as his sister, having only he, himself and his children take precedence to her and she had the most amicable of relationships with him and KH after the whole thing. They visited her and she visited them, all was well. She ended outliving Henry, Katherine Howard, Catherine Parr and Edward Tudor, having died a calm death in one of her castle’s after living a Queen’s life without having to be married to no King at fucking all! Even Mary, that opposed her Protestant views held her in such high regard she gave the woman a royal funeral. This bitch had held a mini-court in all of her residences and she honestly had the best live of all of the wives. I can only congratulate her. Anne of Cleves was the most successful wive, fight me.

Katherine Howard ( #5 ) → Oh, this poor baby. Poor, poor baby. I would rank her higher in the list if I could solely because of how people view her to this day. She was but a teenager that got executed by a love affair that I’m not even sure if really took place because,,,, everyone knows Anne’s story by then??? It’s recent history???? It’s known???? Why would you do this????? But there is so much proof??? Kitty baby, why???? and is called an empty-headed fool by many, and I mean MANY, people in the most unfair of ways. She wasn’t a remarkable queen either in the matters of her reign, but she was kind and gentle and an absolute joy for what’s written in the records of our history. She and Mary did not go along so well (probably because Mary was probably having Anne flashbacks), but Elizabeth and Edward did quite enjoy her as a stepmother. I don’t forget either how she and Anne of Cleves remained friendly after the divorce, having danced all through the night of the day it was made official as Henry retreated to his chambers to sleep, writing each other letters, visiting and lunching with each other. The dignity with which she faced her death is also uncanny, leading me to believe bravery and unfair fates are both traces of the Howard blood she and Anne shared. I wished she could have had a happier life and is not a random choice have her be the center of the TWC’s plot.

Catherine Parr (#4 ) → I confess I did not read or had as much interest on her as the others, although I have read more of her than I read of Jane. She was a smart woman and, although she married the Seymour Fuckboy and people single her out as the Nurse of Old Henry ™, she was one of the best Consorts an english king could have had, no doubt. She managed to strike a good relationship with all the three kids, she was fair and justice-driven, Elizabeth’s life was brightest with her and I can only say that she is the one to be called saint if she put up with Henry Tudor as an old overweight man nearing death and with paranoias swirling around his head like fishes in an aquarium. I will read more about her to have a better portrayal to the fic, but she’s still earned my respect and admiration.

Well… I warned it would be long hahahaha!I hope it was somewhat revealing to you and that I didn’t got you bored in the meantime.Any other questions you may have, feel free to ask them!

[nexus-hr]

Clean Your Doubt And Hire A Nurse

You're well aware of how difficult it is to find qualified people in today's healthcare business. Hospitals, nursing homes, and other organisations are having difficulty filling vacancies due to a rising skills gap and record low unemployment. If you're trying to hire a nurse, the problem becomes even more complicated.

With a projected 1.2 million nursing deficit by 2022, we wanted to learn more about what healthcare organisations are doing to recruit, retain, and expand nursing talent.

Here are some of the most interesting and noteworthy things we discovered:

Population Alterations

In 2018, natural demographic shifts in the workforce are making it harder to retain and hire a nurse. Healthcare is no exception to the issues of an ageing baby boomer population, with more than 30% of respondents reporting that their teams are largely in their mid- or late-career stages.

Only around 40% of respondents thought their team was well-balanced in terms of age. Healthcare organisations will be unable to fill senior positions from within if their workforces do not have a sufficient mix of ages. As a result, businesses must devote significant efforts to finding, motivating, and hire a nurse.

Furthermore, nearly 35% of respondents report that millennials or recent graduates make up the bulk of their nursing staff, implying that these organisations may lack the resources to successfully train and supervise such a youthful workforce. Future recruiting attempts may be more difficult due to the fact that professional growth is still a top employer value proposition for millennials and Gen Z.

Development and Learning

Because demand is high and unemployment is low, hire a physician assistant may be more picky about the companies they want to work with.

Despite the fact that career advancement is a top employer value proposition, the poll's findings show that businesses aren't doing enough to promote learning and development as a selling point in job descriptions.

Provide outstanding patient care.

Medications, immunizations, and fluids must all be provided.

Temperature, blood pressure, and pulse rate should be monitored at all times.

Examine and maintain track of the patient's complaints, symptoms, and progress.

Recognize warning indicators and alert the patient's doctor about their condition.

Medication, treatment regimens, and at-home care education should all be supplied to patients.

What are the current state of affairs for the nursing profession?

Knowing the different sorts of nurses might help you decide which one you need. Hire a nurse practitioner at different levels have different obligations, with higher-ranking nurses having extra responsibilities like supervising other nursing staff. The criteria for each degree can also vary. From top to bottom, below are some frequent nurse rankings:

Nursing director or chief nursing officer: These nurses are in charge of all nursing services inside the organisation or a specific unit as supervisors or administrators.

A nurse manager or supervisor is a role that combines patient care with administrative duties such as scheduling and supervising staff nurses.

Advanced practise registered nurse (APRN): APRNs hold a master's degree and give treatment alongside physicians; however, certain states allow APRNs to practise independently.

For more information contact Nexus Hr.

[readingtrotskyisfunandfree]

Why I don’t tell people to “unionize”

On Wednesday afternoon, President Joe Biden gave a Labor Day speech that presented a fairy tale version of the role of the contemporary trade unions.

The trade unions, Biden said, are the principal defenders of the rights of working people today. They have secured “healthcare, a pension, higher wages with a safer workplace that protects us from discrimination and harassment…the eight-hour day, a weekend, time-and-a-half overtime, safety standards, sick days, victories for us all.”

Biden, who has spent his entire adult life cutting social programs and advancing the interests of the banks and Delaware credit card companies, gave his remarks before a White House gathering of executives from the UAW, USW, SEIU, AFT and many other leading trade unions. These officials, who have annual salaries of $200,000 to $500,000, all agree that life within a union is fantastic. “Workers who join unions gain power…In a simple word, a union means there is democracy,” Biden told his captive audience. “You gave workers a voice, you honor the dignity of the American worker.”

As the president concluded his fairy tale and mingled with the assorted bureaucrats, the UAW “honored the dignity” of 3,500 Dana workers by ordering them to continue working after the workers rejected a sweatshop contract by a nine-to-one margin last week. The “no” vote was a courageous rejection of the UAW and USW, which spent the last two weeks showing workers what “union democracy” looks like by threatening them, lying to them, and in one case even allegedly assaulting a worker in an attempt to force the contract through.

The two-sentence “get back to work” order expresses the contempt that the unions have for the workers they suppress. After telling workers nothing about the contract and negotiations for weeks, the UAW notice reads, in its entirety, “The Tentative Agreement (TA) was rejected and we’re continuing to work under a day-to-day extension. We are starting to meet with the locals to identify issues.” The company simultaneously ordered workers to work mandated overtime this weekend in order to stockpile parts in case of a strike.

As Biden praised the trade unions from the commanding heights of economic and political power, Dana workers angrily denounced the UAW and USW for conspiring with the company against them. These workers view the announcement as a slap in the face. They view the UAW and USW not as liberators, but as oppressors. As for the claim these organizations protect the eight-hour-day and 40-hour-week: at Dana, the UAW and USW actively oppose these demands.

The UAW and USW force workers to labor under conditions worse than the 19th century. Many work for 12 hours a day, or 84-hours a week, for weeks or even months on end without an unpaid day off. Constant speed-ups are demanded to make driveshafts, axles and other critical parts for corporations like Ford, General Motors, Stellantis, and John Deere, as well as the US military. Many plants are dirty, hot, and dangerous. Injuries are common, and the company sends workers to company doctors who tell them they are fit to work. Workers describe Dana alternatively as “hell,” “a prison,” or “a slave ship.”

The plants are petri dishes for the coronavirus and the UAW and USW have kept workers on the job throughout the entire pandemic while corporate profits soar. There are 63 active cases at Dana’s plant in Dry Ridge, Kentucky, a fact which places the population of the town and entire region at risk.

Some plants worked skeleton crews even in spring of 2020 when the Big Three plants were shut down. It was the UAW that ordered workers back to work after wildcat strikes shut down production in March and April 2020, making it possible for the corporations to end restrictions and restart production. Dana workers now fear their children are being sent back to school as more and more evidence emerges that the Delta variant is deadly for children. The main teachers unions, the American Federation of Teachers and National Educators Association, are forcing teachers back to school with deadly consequences. Dozens of teachers and young children have died as a result and millions more are getting sick.

The same is true of the trade unions in every industry and in every country. In Germany, the head of the main union federation is denouncing striking train drivers who have been forced to bear the brunt of the pandemic. In Brazil, the trade unions call off strikes and hold the industrial working class back as the country’s fascist president, Jair Bolsonaro, threatens to establish a dictatorship. In countries like India that are too poor to have mass access to the vaccine, the unions force hundreds of millions to work as the pandemic devastates the working class. The unions rely on violence, deception, and isolation to force through the diktats of the governments and the corporations.

The problem is not poor leadership and the solution is not internal reforms and new officials. Rather, the trade unions have transformed from workers’ organizations into pro-corporate organizations of the capitalist state, inseparably integrated into the capitalist parties and imperialist armed forces. They engage in outright naked criminal activity against the workers. This week, two former UAW presidents, Dennis Williams and Gary Jones, began serving sentences at “club fed” minimum-security prisons for accepting corporate bribes in exchange for selling out workers. Many Dana workers noted their prison sentences are much shorter than the five-year prison sentence they confront in the proposed Tentative Agreement.

The trade unions are not pursuing a mistaken policy. They are pursuing the class interests of the affluent social layer that comprises the trade union bureaucracy. These are not so much “unions” as they are corporatist Labor Fronts, state organizations aimed explicitly at controlling the workforce and suppressing the class struggle.

The trade unions as a whole employ thousands and thousands of affluent people who occupy key positions in the Democratic Party, the corporate media, government bodies and academia. They control immense fortunes, acquired through decades of workers’ dues money. The United Auto Workers (UAW) has over $1.1 billion in assets and employs 450 people who make over $100,000. The United Steelworkers (USW) has assets over $1.5 billion, a 600 percent increase since 2000, a period over which USW membership has drastically decreased.

This layer of the richest top 10 percent benefits from the heightened exploitation of the working class, from cheap labor, from reopening factories and schools in the pandemic. The union VEBA slush funds and their own personal stock portfolios depend on increasing profit margins at the expense of the mass of working people worldwide. These people have as little in common with the workers they “represent” as the workers do with the CEOs themselves.

The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) could not muster even 15 percent of Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama to support a union drive. That is not because the workers in the area are backwards: in recent days, high school students in Bessemer walked out demanding COVID-19 safety, and nurses in neighboring Birmingham went on strike over pay and COVID-19 health protocols. It is because workers view the trade unions increasingly as obstacles, and not vehicles, for social progress.

The growing militancy in the working class makes the ruling class and the affluent upper middle class extremely nervous. IMF reports warn of the growth of strikes and the economy is on a knife’s edge, pumped up with free money from the central banks. In Biden’s Labor Day speech, the president warned that if there was a strike movement, “we’d be in real trouble.” He added to the gathered union executives: “You guys sometimes underestimate the incredible value you bring to the safety, security and growth of the economy.”

The pseudo-left plays a critical role in this operation, propping up the trade unions and blacklisting out or denouncing workers who take independent action. Groups like the Democratic Socialists of America and Socialist Alternative, as well as publications like Jacobin and Left Voice, present the trade unions in glowing terms. These organizations have prioritized the PRO Act, which will facilitate AFL-CIO union drives, and they support Biden’s demand that “the government should encourage unions.”

None of these organizations or publications has mentioned the struggle of Dana workers because it cuts across their anti-socialist and anti-working class political agenda. These groups speak for the same affluent social layer that runs the trade unions. They support the trade unions not despite their never-ending attacks on the working class, but because of them.

Nevertheless, in their emerging struggles against the global corporations and the policy of “social murder” carried out by all capitalist governments in response to the pandemic, the working class is coming into a head-on clash with the trade unions and their nationalist perspective. To confront global corporations, workers need to unite internationally. From Paris, Tennessee to Paris, France and Lima, Ohio to Lima, Peru, new organizations—rank-and-file committees—will emerge to link workers across the lines of race, nationality, industry and continent in a common, unified struggle against social inequality.

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I’m not familiar with the UK, but I know that understaffing is a very general problem with the healthcare field. What do you think drives this besides the overwhelming stress causing people to leave voluntarily? Is it just lack of interest in the health profession itself? The competition of schools/ programs for the number of people wanting to get into medicine? The gov’t? Where do you see the problem stemming from and what can be done to help? Thank you so much.

That’s an interesting question, though I suspect that given the complexity of the answer, it remains without an easy fix. You’re right to suggest stress plays a huge part. Understaffing, dissatisfaction with lifestyle, pay, progression and training can all play a part. The rise of litigation culture is another key factor; we’re receiving a lot more complaints than we used to, as patients and relatives expect more, sometimes to unrealistic or unfeasible degrees. I know your question suggests glossing over this bit, but I really think this is the crux of the matter; the working conditions in healthcare are probably, in a lot of systems, where the problem arises. Getting into medicine is competitive in I imagine every country. Because it’s thought of as a good job; secure, well-respected. Relatively well-paid. Lately in the past few years, doctors and nurses have been in the press more than usual, and usually for negative reasons. Recent contract disputes, protests, strikes etc have played a role, as have all sorts of high profile cases which are poorly understood by the public at large.  Although still voted the most trusted professions, that position comes at a price; people expect a lot of us, and when you’re put on a pedestal it’s very easy to be knocked off it. If any doctor or nurse is thought poorly of, that can have a knock on effect on the whole profession, even if the reasons aren’t entirely justified. It extends  I don’t think there’s a lack of interest in healthcare, though I suspect that interest could be higher. Now that going to university is much more expensive. In the UK; it’s gone up from being free about 10 years before I went to university.  Tuition was £1000 per year the year before I started university. In my time at university it was £3,000 a year, now it’s over £9,000 a year. That change happened in the space of about ten or so years. The government didn’t even wait a couple of years to see if my generation, the first with fees of £3K, could even afford to pay that back. Students are going to have to think more carefully about what they choose to study, and how to shape their career. By getting rid of the nursing bursary, I do think that some people were put off studying nursing; applicant numbers are objectively down. I don’t know if increasing the number of places available to study nursing would even help, becase I’m not sure that all the current places are being filled. Nursing and medicine also suffer from the reality that though there will almost always be work of some sort, it may not be where you want to go. Jobs are sprinkled throughout the UK, through cities and towns right down to small villages. Whilst working in and around London remains competitive, relatively few people want to uproot themselves to a village on the other side of the UK; therefore the most likely people who’d want to work there might be locals, or foreign-trained staff who are starting afresh with few friends and family anyway and are happy to work there. A lot of people who are from the UK already have roots; they might not want to uproot themselves to a village on the other end of the UK, and that’s OK. But it leaves a situation where some places will always have less people applying because they are remote. The foundation training system combats this by forcing us as junior doctors to rank EVERY possible part of the UK; do badly and you could get sent to the outer Hebrides or Northern Ireland or wherever your last choice was. You can choose to refuse that job, but then you’ll have to wait months, maybe a year, to reapply. But you can’t do that throughout training; after foundation training we have the choice of where we apply and if we continue at all. In reality, a lot of systems are probably propped up by foreign labour; the fact that there will always be lots of people willing to move to Western countries to fill the gap. This is usually advantageous for the receiving country; they take none of the cost of training highly skilled staff and receive a ready-made workforce. However, it’s a huge burden on the training country; their system will have to pay to train more people, only to find that probably more of them will flee abroad. Unfortunately, in the long run this isn’t an ethical situatioin; we shouldn’t be causing a ‘brain drain’ on other nations in order to staff our healthcare service. We, as the NHS rely a LOT on foreign labour; on people trained abroad. On doctors from Pakistan, nurses from the Philippines and Ireland, and on both doctors and nurses (and let’s be honest, domestic staff, catering staff etc) coming from the EU in recent years. This wasn’t usually a problem, but now the government have started making it harder for even people offered good jobs (because those posts were lying empty) even as doctors and nurses, to be allowed visas to work here. Many recent stories suggest that government policies are trying to make it fundamentaly harder for anyone to come here, or to remain if they are already here. I have friends whose choices were complicated by whether the government would let them stay to work as doctors, and know people who had to leave because their visas would not be extended, despite having secured a job and paying taxes. The government may want to show its more conservative voters smaller immigration numbers, but at what cost if we’re making it impossible for the health service to hire the people it needs? As the government make it harder and harder for overseas doctors and nurses to be employed, staffing will drop further. And there’s evidence to suggest that more of our staff who came from the EU are leaving. Create a culture of hostility towards foreign workers, and they will feel unwelcome and decide to go somewhere else. When it comes to med schools, I used to get the impression that the number of graduates are enough; there used to be a good chance of getting an FY1 post when you applied, even despite a number of foreign applicants. I think that’s still probably true. If we don’t have enough FY1s, then yes, increasing the number of places to study medicine would be helpful. However, for further up the ladder it gets… more complex. Medicine is heirarchal and based on years of experience. So if you are short of SHOs or registars, having lots of FY1s won’t help you in the near future (though it might help you in the long term). And if you increase the number of trainees in general, you’ll have to make sure you increase the number of FY1, FY2 etc posts all the way up. You can’t just ‘find’ ready made GPs or consultants, or even registrars; either you get them from abroad, or else you have to train them ALL the way up. Otherwise, you’d be dooming a bunch of people to pay £9K for 5-6 years through med school only to tell them that there aren’t enough places for them to start working as a doctor, I feel that would be unfair. Granted, they might well find work elsewhere, but it’d waste both our money as students and as a society to do that, given that studies are subsidised by the government. So you need a balance.In all honesty, it’s always going to be difficult if you’ve got a leaky pipeline; the system may be set up to deal with a certain amount of staff lost but if the pressure is too high, you’re still probably going to lose too many people. And the people we are losing, they aren’t comparable to the shiny new graduates med schools pop out; it’ll take years for them to be comparable in experience to the SHOs and registrars we are losing. The doctors in the middle; worn down by the system and realising life is just too short to be miserable. Many of these people really wanted to be doctors, and many would probably have remained if conditions were different. Whilst some of us realise that we just weren’t cut out to be in healthcare, or that perhaps what we want and need has changed, I feel that many struggle with leaving precisely because some part of them loves medicine, even if it is making them ill. Occasionally, some smartass politician suggests tying in doctors to work in the NHS for a set number of years, but I don’t think this’d be either helpful or desirable. Medicine, due to the pressures and situations faced, is a field with a higher than normal rate of mental illness and suicide. It’s a risky field with significant effects on our health as a group. I’d go so far as to suggest than anyone who forces those who feel they need to leave, to stay against their will would soon have blood on their hands. The people I know who left medicine did so for their mental health, and if they were not allowed to leave, I’d be very concerned that they might risk a more… final way of leaving. I don’t believe anyone should be bound to a job they can’t stand or which makes them ill. I also think that it would do the field more harm than good; rather than showing medicine to be a desirable job, it would suggest that it is so bad that you have to force everyone to stay. With prospects like that, who would want to join? When you could be a vet, be a dentist, be any number of things where you aren’t forced to do it against your will. The key is to improve conditions so that people want to stay, and can stay without destroying their health and mental wellbeing. So that people feel valued, and respected, and feel that their issues with the health service have been taken on board. That those who are running the service understand the issues we raise and the problems we face That, for me, is the only real longterm solution. but I fear that it might be too expensive, and that few would care enough to try.

[orbemnews]

How the Relief Bill Will Help Struggling Americans: Live Updates Here’s what you need to know: The American Rescue Plan, which was passed by the Senate over the weekend and is now back before the House of Representatives, would put pump $1.9 trillion into the economy. The New York Times’s personal finance experts, Ron Lieber and Tara Siegel Bernard, combed through the bill to explain what it means in real terms to real people. Here are some of the questions they answer: Christine Lagarde, the president of the European Central Bank. The bank’s policymakers begin a two-day meeting on Wednesday where they may discuss increasing the pace of its bond purchases.Credit…Pool photo by Olivier Matthys U.S. stock futures fluctuated on Wednesday while most European stock indexes rose. Ten-year Treasury bond yields rose before the latest inflation data is published. Investors and policymakers have been closely watching inflation and expectations about where it will go next. After years of very low inflation, some economists and investors argue that too much fiscal stimulus during the recovery from the pandemic could cause the economy to overheat and send prices surging. But many central bankers say there are long-term disinflationary forces and an increase in inflation is likely to be temporary. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg forecast the February inflation data will show that prices rose at an annual rate of 1.7 percent, from 1.4 percent the month before. U.S. stocks, especially shares of tech companies, have been rattled by higher bond yields for various reasons, including the fact that higher interest rates increase borrowing costs and eat into the value of a company’s future earnings. The S&P 500 index rose 1.4 percent on Tuesday. It has risen on only seven trading days over the past four weeks. Nasdaq futures declined on Wednesday. Europe Just Eat Takeaway, the online food-delivery service, was one of the biggest gainers in the FTSE 100 index in Britain, with its shares rising as much as 5 percent after the company said revenue increased 54 percent last year. It also said it expected to keep gaining market share this year, even as restaurants reopen, and expects its acquisition of Grubhub to be completed in the first half of the year. The European Central Bank begins its two-day policy meeting on Wednesday. Like in the United States, bond yields are rising in Europe. German 10-year yields are at minus 0.3 percent. Policymakers have been debating whether they will need to take action to stop yields rising too high. Some analysts say the central bank on Thursday could announce a plan to pick up the pace of its bond purchases in order to push down yields. Asia The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong closed 0.5 percent higher and the Nikkei 225 in Japan ended the day little changed. Cathay Pacific shares fell after the Hong Kong-based airline reported a $2.8 billion loss for 2020. The company’s share price has dropped about 30 percent since the end of 2019. Last year, the airline cut 8,500 jobs. Patrick Healy, the chairman, said it had been the most challenging year in the airline’s seven-decade history. “Market conditions remain challenging and dynamic,” he added. “It is by no means clear how the pandemic and its impact will develop over the coming months.” Buffalo Bayou Park in Houston last week. Some experts have raised concerns about intensifying the spread of the virus while the vaccination process is underway.Credit…Mark Felix for The New York Times HOUSTON — Orders requiring masks and limiting the occupancy of restaurants and other businesses were lifted across Texas on Wednesday, a move that some medical experts said was premature while the state was still in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic. Businesses are still allowed to require employees and customers to cover their faces and limit the number of people they allow inside. Cities can choose to keep limits in place in municipal facilities, and they remain on federal property. When Gov. Greg Abbott announced the changes last week, he argued that he was pushing back against the economic devastation wrought by months of limitations on movement and commerce. In a news conference at a restaurant in Lubbock, Mr. Abbott, a Republican, noted the hindrances for workers and small businesses. “This must end,” he said. “It is now time to open Texas 100 percent.” Moments after Mr. Abbott’s announcement, patrons at Barflys in San Antonio removed the plexiglass dividers separating themselves from the bartenders. At Barflys on Tuesday, an hour before the mask mandate was to expire, Amber Jowers, 32, was the bartender on duty. She welcomed the policy change. From now on, she will no longer wear a mask at work, she said. “And we’re taking the sign down at midnight,” she added. “We have to get back to normal now.” Barflys is a softly lit pub with a pool table, dartboard, and a slot machine. Metallica, Salt-N-Pepa, and the Texas Tornados play from the sound system. On the smokey back patio, Sophie Bojorquez, 47, sat at a table with friends. She is a vaccinated nurse and a self-proclaimed anti-masker. “I’m happy about the governor’s decision. The masks impeded the herd immunity we need. Now they want to vax so fast,” she said, shaking her head. The patio bartender, Britt Harasmisz, 24, said that most of her customers didn’t wear a mask even before the mandate ended. And though her employer decided that Barflys would no longer require face covers, she said that she would continue to wear one while working. “A lot of people have been vaccinated, Governor Abbott was vaccinated, but a lot of us on the front lines have not,” she said. “I’m going to wear a mask everywhere I go.” The move to open Texas has faced intense resistance. The governor’s medical advisers have said that they were not involved in the decision. And some experts have raised concerns about intensifying the spread of the virus while the vaccination process is underway. Texas, which is averaging about 5,500 new cases a day, has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country. Lina Hidalgo, the county judge in Harris County, which includes Houston, has argued that lifting the mask mandate means workers must be the ones to enforce rules in retail establishments and restaurants. “We know better than to let our guard down simply because a level of government selected an arbitrary date to issue an all-clear,” Ms. Hidalgo, a Democrat and a persistent critic of Mr. Abbott, said in an op-ed column published this week by Time magazine. “I am working to clearly explain to the residents of my county that we will spare ourselves unnecessary death and suffering if we just stick with it for a little bit longer.” Bert Rossel, 39, stopped in for a drink at Barflys on Tuesday evening. He said he had known the pub’s owner for many years and worked for him at one time. Mr. Rossel is in the insurance business nowadays. He said he believed that the pandemic had been hyped on social media as another distraction, or as he calls it, “the latest hot topic.” “It’s survival of the fittest,” Mr. Rossel said. “My B.M.I. is higher than normal. Obese people are more susceptible to corona, but it’s been over a year. I would have gotten it already.” As the evening advanced, the patrons at Barflys drank beer and downed shots, smoked and gossiped, enjoying each other’s company. No one paid attention when, at midnight, Ms. Jowers pulled the sign from the front door that read, “MASKS REQUIRED UPON ENTRY.” — Rick Rojas, James Dobbins and Dave Montgomery Joe Donlon interviews President Donald J. Trump in September on “NewsNation.” The show has since grown into a network. The highest ranking editor at NewsNation, a newcomer to cable news that markets itself as delivering “straight-ahead, unbiased news reporting,” has resigned. She is the third top editor to quit in recent months as some staff have complained of a rightward shift at the network. Jennifer Lyons, NewsNation’s vice president of news, had decided to depart the channel, effective immediately, the company’s staff were told at a meeting on Tuesday. Sandy Pudar, the news director, left on Feb. 2, and Richard Maginn, the managing editor, resigned on March 1. Ms. Lyons did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the Texas-based Nexstar Media, which owns NewsNation, said in a statement that it was Ms. Lyons’s decision to leave and that the search for her replacement was underway. At Tuesday’s staff meeting in Chicago, Perry A. Sook, the chief executive of Nexstar, sought to reassure staff of his commitment to NewsNation after several employees raised concerns about its editorial direction and the involvement of Bill Shine, a former Fox News co-president who was hired to lead communications for the Trump White House. The concerns among employees were detailed in a New York Times article earlier this week. “Despite reports to the contrary that you may read, we’re committed to the vision of unbiased reporting,” he said during the meeting, according to a recording of the comments obtained by The New York Times. “But obviously along the way there will be growing pains. In order for us to establish our product and to grow our viewership we’re going to have to try new things to gain some traction.” Mr. Sook, asked by a staff member about Mr. Shine, said he had not been in the NewsNation building and did not dictate content. “This guy was in the room where it happened 25 years ago and helped to build the channel to where it is,” Mr. Sook said of Mr. Shine’s experience at Fox News. “Why would we not avail ourselves of his expertise?” “NewsNation” launched on Sept. 1 as a prime-time national newscast on the cable channel WGN America. It promised an antidote to the more partisan programming of CNN, Fox News and MSNBC. On March 1, WGN America was rebranded as NewsNation and more news shows were introduced. Lina Khan, an associate professor at Columbia Law School, wrote an influential 2016 paper accusing Amazon of abusing its power.Credit…Lexey Swall for The New York Times WASHINGTON — President Biden is expected to name Lina Khan, a law professor and leading critic of the tech industry’s power, to a seat on the Federal Trade Commission, a person with knowledge of the decision said on Tuesday. An appointment of Ms. Khan, the author of a breakthrough Yale Law Journal paper in 2016 that accused Amazon of abusing its monopoly power, would be the latest sign that the Biden administration planned to take an aggressive posture toward tech giants like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. Last week, the administration said Tim Wu, another top critic of the industry, would join the National Economic Council as a special assistant to the president for technology and competition policy. Ms. Khan recently served as legal counsel for the House Judiciary’s antitrust subcommittee and was among aides who conducted a 19-month investigation into the tech giants’ monopoly power. The committee produced a report advocating major changes to antitrust laws. Before that, she served as an aide to a member of the Federal Trade Commission, Rohit Chopra, a champion of her ideas on antitrust policy. Ms. Khan, an associate professor at Columbia Law School, would fill one of three Democratic seats on the five-member F.T.C. In December, the commission sued Facebook, accusing it of antitrust violations, and called for breaking up the company. The agency is also investing Amazon for antitrust violations. Rumors of Ms. Khan’s appointment, which were reported earlier by Politico, immediately sparked strong reactions on Tuesday. Public Citizen, a left-leaning nonprofit public advocacy group, cheered the possibility. The organization and many progressive groups have denounced the F.T.C.’s history — particularly during the Obama administration — for lax enforcement of technology companies. They argue that the federal government’s permissive attitude toward mergers by the tech giants, including Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014, helped the Silicon Valley companies grow quickly and dominate their rivals. “The F.T.C. has failed to take on corporate abuses of power including rampant antitrust violations, privacy intrusions, data security breaches and mergers, and Khan’s appointment as a commissioner at the agency hopefully will herald a new day,” Public Citizen said in a statement. Senator Mike Lee of Utah, the ranking Republican on the Senate antitrust subcommittee, said Ms. Khan would be a bad fit for the job, however. “Her views on antitrust enforcement are also wildly out of step with a prudent approach to the law,” Mr. Lee said in a statement. “Nominating Ms. Khan would signal that President Biden intends to put ideology and politics ahead of competent antitrust enforcement, which would be gravely disappointing at a time when it is absolutely critical that we have strong and effective leadership at the enforcement agencies.” Source link Orbem News #Americans #Bill #Live #relief #struggling #Updates

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does aflac have life insurance for a person of the same age who is living at home. The benefit you receive from the life insurance may vary based on the person’s current health conditions and may be based on a range of factors such as your hobbies and current job. Your parents, as well as your siblings or any other beneficiaries who are currently in a state of constant education, may require you to get life insurance with no waiting period. If you don’t qualify for their waiting period, or you don’t want to wait very long (typically as long as one year), or if you live outside of the waiting period they have the ability to buy life insurance, then a is a solution to your life insurance needs. If your parents don’t intend to live in the same household but intend to live in a separate home or home of their own the Aetna life insurance company can help to cover any premiums you might owe out. If you’re currently living and working in. does aflac have life insurance plans for children? There are plenty of reasons why you may want to add children to your life insurance policy and be sure to have them covered for the years to come! In general, you may only want to add children to a policy if your life insurance coverage for children is low. You can often afford insurance while still a young person, but it can cost you now. How much life insurance do you have? Life insurance can cover your children, but many can’t even obtain affordable coverage because their families and other dependents won’t be covered. There’s one key piece of advice here that many don’t know - what happens when you don’t have life insurance. If you or a family member is in a nursing home and are in a waiting hospital, you may want to consider ending your coverage when the hospital is shut down. This may include some sort of hospital stays. Sometimes, insurance can be used to pay for care in your nursing home. does aflac have life insurance, they also have a small amount of money left over from the first check out period. The last question is “what can be done?”. The last piece of this question comes from that we all need to be ready to shop for a policy in the future. With insurance, the market is constantly changing and companies are constantly looking at your individual circumstances and needs. When a new company comes to you, they have a variety of things to consider. Your insurance provider has the opportunity to provide you with new and different types of coverage that you don’t normally think of and that makes it easier to find the right fit, depending on your particular situation. Insurance is a form of financial protection that has advantages over other forms of protection. While your credit score may affect the price of your insurance premium, the extent of your credit history may also affect your premium. It is possible to find coverage that only your credit score can provide coverage for. For example, if you are looking for.

Aflac’s Insurer Ratings and Better Business Bureau Grade

Aflac’s Insurer Ratings and Better Business Bureau Grade (BBA) are also rated A+, B+, and A+, and can also be an independent or subsidiary of Amica. In addition, because Amica offers a large variety of products and services (mobile tools, personal auto and home systems), the company feels it’s a legitimate insurer. As a member of the Amica Family, you benefit from an A-rated rating; if you have a bad driving record, Amica is a good option as it’s considered more of a risk. When looking for the best car insurance companies, there are some questions that need to be answered. Before choosing any of the companies, make sure to check out their ratings and coverage types and discounts and consider these top picks to ensure you’re getting the best cheap car insurance in Florida: Amica s auto insurance discounts can be found at the Plus level, The Plus and The Best deals, and Amica’s individual car insurance discounts from the Plus and Best category include.

The History of Aflac Life Insurance Company

The History of Aflac Life Insurance Company has existed for over 100 years. In fact, it stands for American International Group. It’s a full time insurance company that offers a selection of with over 60 top agents to meet your needs. We provide many different products to help you save money each month, including life insurance, , umbrella coverage and commercial policy coverages. Aflac is a global insurance provider that is not only dedicated to the insurance products , but also the . Aflac’s life insurance products include , , and , to name a few. There are no product lines mentioned on the Aflac website. For the least expensive plan, choose . When looking for or universal life insurance, make sure to read the terms and conditions mentioned above. The following are the terms and conditions mentioned in an Aflac Life Insurance company’s website. When looking for or universal life insurance, choose . Aflac offers both universal life, and universal life. It is a very personal and.

Life Insurance Products Offered by Aflac

Life Insurance Products Offered by Aflac Life Insurance Company Inc. Affordable life insurance prices on top of a massive range of coverage options such as term, whole, universal, and indexed universal. The savings could be even $10 per month if your health is at high risk. –  How can I save time and money? Discover how AccuQuote can help you save time and money by helping you understand your insurance policy and get the right coverage to meet your needs. This free type of insurance review, administered by American Independent Agents, is available to policyholders who have a life insurance policy with American Independent Agents, through an independent agent network. Learn how you can take AccuQuote s unique, online-based insurance-rating program to save time, money, and stress. The first step in taking the first step towards a comfortable life when it comes to paying for life insurance. AccuQuote is an accredited, peer-to-peer insurance rating agency that ranks a variety of different insurance providers on financial competency,.

Aflac Life Insurance Company

Aflac Life Insurance Company, Inc.; Citizens Property Casualty Insurance Company, Inc.; Fines & Penalties Life Insurance Company of New York, Syracuse, NY. The information displayed is for educational purposes only. A person injured by alcohol, drugs, or alcohol-like effects may seek damages from his or her alcoholic beverage when he or she is not present in the circumstances specified in this report. The alcoholic beverages involved in a lawsuit against a defendant alcoholics may involve substances like heroin or crack cocaine. The alcoholics can also use drugs as well. Under United States Code § 7-7-104(a), alcoholic beverages and/or crack cocaine are used by a person who has had an alcohol-like reaction, as such. Additionally, the alcoholic beverage may be used by an alcoholic [in] [a] attempt to obtain a judgment, a settlement, or any result related thereto. See also Code Section, § 7.1-103 , and, 9, Section 4.4-103 of this.

Compare Aflac to Other Life Insurance Companies

Compare Aflac to Other Life Insurance Companies: Banks Standard Term Life: $100,000 Sovereign Bankers Life: $100,000 Bankers Life & Annuity: $10,000 Bankers Life & Annuity Company: $10,000 Bankers Life & Annuity: $10,000 Life Insurance Company of the Southwest: All Biologic: None Banker s Gen Inc.: All C.W.A.P.: None Compound Life and Accident & Health Insurance: No Guardian Life: $100,000 Liberty Mutual: $100,000 Mutual of Omaha: $100,000 Multi-Policy: $50,000 Medical Life, Accident, and Health: $25,000 Medi-Share: $1 million per policy Medi-Share: $5,000 Medi-Share.

How to Get the Best Quotes on Life Insurance Coverage

How to Get the Best Quotes on Life Insurance Coverage. How to get the right quotes for Life Insurance coverage is the key to gaining the best life insurance quotes. In order to learn more about Life Insurance policy options, we’ve laid out the most common reasons that people want to know about. Life Insurance quotes that sound low will be a good time to get on the road. You want to know how much you need to be paying. You’ll get a number that can work in your favor. There may be information that you don’t want to have to use. In general, the person looking for life insurance needs one of those number, a value that’s a few hundred dollars to more than $10,000, or something like that. That’s because that insurance policy is about to expire and is worth almost $10,000 or more. Your could be as low as $20,000. Some insurers will only insure you higher. Some are more expensive than others, but you�.

FREE Life Insurance Comparison

FREE Life Insurance Comparison Enter your ZIP code below to view companies that have cheap auto insurance rates.  Secured with SHA-256 Encryption Most financial people will say that they want their life insurance protection or death benefit funds. But they don’t necessarily mean they want it. With a life insurance policy, a beneficiary can receive money or gifts that are tax-free. Most companies have a separate or division to report the death benefit if the beneficiary is injured, becomes disabled, is in a car accident, or is a stray animal. Many customers are asking about the benefits of paying for the insurance. If they don’t have any life insurance or don’t want any type of money, some of the people who request life insurance can just apply online and purchase the entire policy. There is a variety of life insurance policies to choose from. But which one is the one to buy first? There are three life insurance brands that offer various products.

Top Quote Life Insurance Has You Covered

Top Quote Life Insurance Has You Covered By Your Employer?  This guide explains how the employer’s employees can qualify for a life insurance policy without having to be a working spouse. With this guide, you’ll learn about the various ways that you can qualify for a life insurance policy without having your spouse’s life insurance. If you’ve made the decision to buy life insurance as a working spouse yet, it’s important that you know what you can expect to pay in premiums for a life insurance policy. Your premiums, if received in advance your life insurance policy could be less than you can expect after buying a life insurance policy. As the age of getting a new policy is of great importance in how your coverage age is evaluated, any policy that can “purchase” during your working years, is likely to require you to take a medical exam to get approval. Most of the life insurance policy options you may apply for, such as , may require a medical exam. Life.

Aflac Life Insurance Policies

Aflac Life Insurance Policies: The term Insurance Life Insurance allows you to get back into your health and life history more easily. The Insurance Policy is meant for you to be able to look back in time to the past, to get back to your life and home. Insurance is a very popular consumer technology and there are many companies which offer life insurance products which are very similar to health insurance. An Insurance Policy Policy is a term life insurer that is meant to provide you with peace of mind and you want it that way is affordable for you. Insurance is a popular consumer technology and there are many companies which offer life insurance products which are very similar to health insurance. An Insurance Policy is a term life insurance policy that is intended for you to be able to look back in time to the past, to get back to your life and home. Insurance is a very popular consumer technology and there are many companies which offer life insurance products which are very similar to health.

Aflac Life Insurance Products Available

Aflac Life Insurance Products Available With ETFs and SPOs. ETF and SPO can become an additional source for investors who want to cash out a life insurance policy. Some investors who want to invest cash on an annuity may choose to invest directly instead of ETFs. For example, many financial professionals refer to . All of the fund types have one primary purpose – to either pay the life insurance company s interest on a deceased insured s principal account or return a portion of the cash value of the fund. Investors should consider whether they want the same investment options or return options that the fund types offer, as they may be beneficial. All insurance products advertised on are underwritten by insurance carriers that have partnered with , LLC. HomeInsurance.com, LLC may receive compensation from an insurer or other intermediary in connection with your engagement with the website and/or the sale of insurance to you. All decisions regarding any insurance products, including approval for coverage, premium, commissions and fees, will be made solely by the insurer under.