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jungledubs-archive · 4 years ago

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Sy’s Helsmits Masterpost

Figured it would be handy to have a list of all of my Helsmits, not just for y’all, but for me as well! Feel free to send asks about these guys, and check out this series on Ao3 for fics involving them. Not every Hermit is present yet--this list will be updated when/if new Helsmits are added. Some entries are much less detailed than others and that’s because I got lazy, sorry.

Evil Xisuma // Caesar Tag: #Caesarvoid

Nicknamed as such because he’s the ‘leader’ of Helscraft and everybody hates him (and later because he was banned on the Ides of March). This nickname is barely used--he prefers to be known as Evil Xisuma, though after being stuck in Hermitcraft for a while and going through a bit of a redemption arc (the devil went down to georgia on Ao3, may or may not be continued but the events are canon to the timeline), he does adopt it as his proper name to avoid confusion. Caesar is obsessed with taking over Hermitcraft and getting rid of their Xisuma so that he can be the only one. His base, when he finally arrives in Helscraft Season 7, is in a ravine.

Evil Scar // Harvey, BadTimes Tag: #Harvey BadTimes

Originally nicknamed BadTimesWithScar, ‘Harvey’ was a nickname that sprung out of too many stupid pronunciations of ‘Scar’ (Rye said ‘Scarvey’, Trip suggested ‘Harvey’, and it stuck). He’s an ender dragon hybrid and second of the three Hermitcraft-obsessed Helsmits. He was originally more mild-mannered, but after his first encounter with his Hermitcraft counterpart went sour, he’s sworn to tear up everything Scar holds dear. Harvey has a furious rivalry with Buck, which escalated after Harvey was accidentally responsible for Trip losing an eye (upside-down and backwards on Ao3). His base is a volcano with a fortress on the inside, inspired by the home of Smaug in The Hobbit.

Evil Welsknight // Bruce, Helsknight Tag: #Bruce Helsknight

Technically named after Robert the Bruce, his nickname was chosen for him by the other Helsmits because they thought Helsknight was silly (and also got confusing with them all being from Helscraft). He’s third on the hierarchy of ‘obsessed with Hermitcraft’ after Caesar and Harvey, though is less focused on taking over Hermitcraft and getting rid of his counterpart and more on being as much of an inconvenience to Wels as possible. He mostly keeps to himself in Helscraft, too focused on his work with portals, and he’s a bit of a dork and the epitome of ‘you did the work wrong but somehow got the right answer’. He’s semi-allied with some of the other Helsmits, though mostly just for redstone components. His base is a Nether-themed castle, complete with lava moat and confusing maze-like layout. He is very jealous of anybody who has magic or hybrid powers, as he does not.

Evil Mumbo // Balderdash Tag: #Balderdash

He chose his own nickname and is rather proud of it. Balderdash is very closely allied with Charleston, with whom he owns BD&C LTD. and all the associated businesses, including their anything-for-hire service Boon Boom. He’s proud, smart, and snarky, and often refuses to admit his own faults. He couldn’t care less about going to Hermitcraft, and even when he and Charlie accidentally end up there (an unexpected encounter on Ao3), they have no desire to take over the server or get rid of their counterparts. His base is an underground ‘city of gold’, themed around ancient architecture, with futuristic laboratories hidden inside.

Evil Tango // Charleston Tek, Charlie Tag: #Charleston Tek

His name was given to him by Spector and initially rejected, but after he realized it could be shortened, he adopted it proudly. Charlie is the other half of BD&C LTD. and partner to Balderdash, with whom he causes an immense amount of problems. He’s argumentative, spiteful, and equally as smart as Balderdash, though they both claim to be the more intelligent one. His weapon of choice is a crossbow loaded with fireworks. His right shoulder and part of his neck and cheek is covered with a burn scar, which he acquired after an accident with one of Balderdash’s machines and a fire charge. Charlie’s base is an early 1900s-themed city, with his main home being inside an animation studio inspired by Bendy and the Ink Machine.

Evil Grian // Rye, Ryan Tag: #Rye

His nickname was forced upon him by Reckless, who thought it was hilarious, and it quickly caught on, despite his protests. A couple of the other Helsmits call him Ryan, but it’s always with a nod and a wink. Rye is a phantom hybrid and a prankster, though most of his jokes involve destroying something or being otherwise mean. He enjoys spreading rumours about the other Helsmits and starting conflicts. Rye’s base is a skyscraper made to look deliberately dark and gloomy, and he often jokes that it’s a cliche supervillain office and plays into that by sometimes forcing the other Helsmits to meet him on the top floor where he does his best Godfather impression.

Evil Cub // Buck Tag: #Buckfan135

Named Buck after a term used for deer, he’s an ender dragon hybrid and close ally to Trip. His base is a viking village with dragon motifs in a tundra biome. He absolutely hates Harvey and will do anything to try to prove that Harvey is up to no good. Buck’s fairly reclusive and cold, but he can be helpful when he wants to be.

Evil Bdubs // Trip Tag: #Btripleo100

He’s missing an eye after spending multiple days trapped in a death loop created by Harvey (upside-down and backwards on Ao3), but that hasn’t put a damper on his upbeat, belligerent personality. He hardly ever sleeps, though, as he’s always faced with nightmares of his repeated death. His base is a medieval-style dungeon which is sometimes used as such by allied Helsmits.

Evil Doc // Spector, The Inspector Tag: #Spectorm77

Spector, short for Inspector, is half-enderman half-machine and has a flair for the dramatic. Everything is a game with Spector, as he’s always agreeable but forces the other Helsmits to complete annoying tasks, riddles, and treasure hunts to gain his full cooperation. Nobody’s quite sure what his base actually is, because it’s hidden behind a maze of glass that has yet to be penetrated by wit or TNT.

Evil Iskall // Fiver Tag: #58Iskall

Once a human on the quest for efficiency, Fiver is now more redstone and metal than flesh and blood. He’s always upgrading himself and never has time for any of the other Helsmits, though he’s tentatively allied with Doug and Spector. His base is a giant laboratory filled with deadly traps and surrounded by a minefield, which is slowly being taken over by plants as the building falls into neglect despite Fiver’s near-constant use of it.

Evil Ren // Doug Tag: #Ramdoug

Part-wolf, part-ram, part-human, Doug’s a living contradiction and revels in it. He’s truly a wolf in sheep’s clothing and swings wildly from being friendly and agreeable to infuriating all the other Helsmits with his destructive and murderous antics. He lives in a snowy mountain biome with a base themed around the fictional planet of Hoth, plus a half-destroyed Death Star built into the base of the mountain for good measure.

Evil Impulse // Reckless Tag: #RecklessSV

Sly, cheeky, resourceful, and self-centred, Reckless can never hold an ally for long, because he’s always stabbing them in the back. His base stretches deep below the ocean in an inverted pyramid, accessible through a controlled whirlpool. Reckless is aptly-named, for despite his claims that all of his plans are premeditated and thought-over, he spends less time thinking and more time double- and triple-crossing the other Helsmits.

Evil Zedaph // Damon Tag: #DamonPlays

Damon lives in a cliffside lair filled to the brim with strange machines and contraptions, accessible only through a series of nonsensical puzzles--though these puzzles are often simply destroyed by the other Helsmits should they need to get in. He’s friends with Doug and Trip and certainly one of the more popular Helsmits, despite his affinity for flinging them into walls with slime block launchers.

Evil Cleo // Effie, Nefertiti Tag: #ZombieEffie

ZombieEffie is a bit of a misnomer--she’s not a zombie, she controls the zombies. Effie is a necromancer, complete with sinister skull mask, and lives in a dark and spooky village filled with hybrid cryptid monstrosities that she’s created. She has a strange friendship with Reckless, though the two are not allies--they betray each other too much to actually do business together, but they respect each other enough to be considered friends.

Evil Stress // Penny, Pensive Tag: #Pensivecreature101

Penny is another reclusive Helsmit, spending most of her time in her sprawling End-themed base. Her name is also incorrect, because though she doesn’t interact with the other Helsmits much, when she does, it always deteriorates into an argument very quickly.

Evil False // Claire, True Tag: #ClaireSymmetry

Claire, or True, is an outstanding entrepreneur and successful business owner, spending most of her time negotiating deals with or between the other Helsmits. Her home is an industrial sky base above the ocean, from which she plots her next ventures. She’s had an alliance with almost every Helsmit at some point, most of them presently as well.

Evil Keralis // Idris Tag: #Idris

Idris is a sour-tempered man, always difficult and annoyed by something-or-other. His base is farm-themed and rightfully so, because he has enough farms there to sustain himself and possibly the entire rest of the server if they had to. He gets along with Buck and Fiver.

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anon-e-miss · 4 years ago

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Primus Help the Outcasts 2

“Sit down, relax,” Jazz said, gesturing to a park bench.

Prowl did not want to sit. He wanted to pace and the curse the world, but he sat. He had not had a proper recharge in mega-cycles. Not since that first dark-cycle when someone had opened the door to their room and peered inside. He had insisted his mechlings recharge with him since then even though the berth was really too small to chair and the berths were welded to the floor so he could not push them together. The energon was hardly strong enough to burn through the painful static in his battle computer but it was quick burst of energy and he had none.

“Why don’t ya just tell me?” Jazz asked. Prowl stiffened. “I’d rather hear yer take that read that tabloid scrap.”

“I...” Prowl paused as he tried to put his thoughts into some semblance of order.

He drank the pressed energon, less to buy himself a little more time to think and more to ensure Jazz could not take it from him. There would be no dinner for him. If they even had a room to go back to it would be lucky. Prowl could not blame Jazz for this. The priest was not about to suffer a broken servo with any kind of grace. They would camp out under the bridge, as they had the first dark-cycle after Lockdown had thrown them out. What they did after, Prowl did not know. He was quickly running out of options and hope. He only had a few emergency rations left for the mechlings. When those ran out, Prowl was going to have to make a choice, go crawling back to Lockdown and into his berth, or surrender his creations to SPS.

“Prowl?”

“When they found us, they found my Conjunx, my creations progenitor crushed by the vault.”

“That’s heavy,” Jazz replied. “Ain’t yer fault...”

“Oh it is,” Prowl said. “He had scratched his digits to the struts against the door while he begged me to let him in.”

“Ya knew he was there.”

“I did,” Prowl stared ahead. “I saw him on the cameras.”

“But ya didn’t let’m in,” Jazz said, slowly. Prowl was sure he was regretting buying Prowl energon. Too fragging bad for him. “Was the door stuck?”

“No. I watched him lead Seekers to the vault. I watched him enter the access code and I watched him realize it had been changed. The Seekers were not pleased with him when they were denied access to the Core.”

“Ya changed the code.”

“Yes. The Senate gave them the Core. They took down our shield as a sign of cooperation.”

“Ya tried to put it back up.”

“They disabled the power generators. I had full access to the Praxian surveillance network but I could not revive our self-defence network.”

“When did ya know they were gonna bomb Praxus?”

“When the last transports took off and the Seekers followed them.”

“Who was on the transports?”

“Praxians. They transported wave after wave of us. I watched them sort through my framekin. Some they loaded onto transports. Some they locked into warehouses.”

“What were they after?”

“Receptive sparks.”

“Oh frag.”

“Given what Vos has proven itself capable of, Cybertron has elected to be silent on the matter of hundreds of thousands of my framekin being taken into interfacial slavery.”

“Did the Senate know?”

“They knew what the Vosians were after. The transports appeared to surprise them. Crosscut had been surprised when I demanded he explain where the Vosians were taking these mechs. He refused my demands that he call up the enforcers to launch a counterattack.”

“Ya tried...”

“They cleared the precincts before they began processing the general population. By the time Smokescreen and I made it to the Core, there was no one to answer my comms.”

“How’d ya get down there?”

“Where is Bluestreak?” Prowl demanded. The fourth transport had taken off from the city centre. He could not understand how the Senate was standing by as half their population was being transported to Vos. Only Smokescreen had returned from school. Crosscut had not told him where Bluestreak was. He could not abide it.

“The Vosians wanted hostages from the Senate,” Crosscut replied. “He is fine.”

“They have thousands of hostages,” Prowl snapped. “Have you looked out the window? Have you looked.”

“He will not be harmed.”

“Have you no sense?” Prowl demanded. “They are looting Praxus of its mechanisms. They are stripping us of our defence. Why have you not summoned the Guard? Why have you not mobilized the enforcers? How can you just sit here and do nothing?”

“I am buying us time,” Crosscut slammed his fist down on the desk. His personal guard stood to his left and looked reproachfully at Prowl. The femme’s glare did not cow Prowl anymore than Crosscut’s fist.

“Time for what?” Prowl demanded. “How do you think this ends in anything other than the total submission of Praxus.”

“The codes to the Core have been transferred to the Vosian Honour Guard to ensure a smooth transition of power.”

“You gave the Core to the Vosians?” Prowl lunged across Crosscut’s desk and took him by the collar. “You gave Praxus to Vos.”

“Cooperation ensures we retain some autonomy.”

“It ensures nothing,” Prowl threw his Conjunx back. Road Rage helped him up after he bounced off the wall. She glared daggers at Prowl. “You self-righteous slagtard. You are selling the citizens of Praxus in the hopes that can maintain your authority.”

“Someone has to lead Praxus after the dust settles.”

“Where you the one who shot Lord Backfire? Or was that you, Road Rage.”

“Praxus does not stand a chance against Vos. Cooperation is essential to our survival.”

“Praxus stood a chance with the Core. But you threw that away. I am taking it back.”

“You will not,” Crosscut hissed. Prowl had his acid pellet rifle in his subspace and pointed it at his Conjunx and his guard.

“Try and stop me,” Prowl dared them.

“Smokescreen is in the lounge entertaining the Striker Trine,” Crosscut said, coolly. Prowl’s mechfluid froze in his lines. “Perhaps you should assist him.”

“You gave my youngling to Seekers?” Prowl screamed. “We do not even know if he is receptive or contributive yet.”

“You know they say you can influence how it goes,” Crosscut said. Yes. Prowl knew. They said if you filled a juvenile’s gestation tank with enough transfluids their spark would become receptive after their adult upgrades.

“I will kill you,” Prowl promised.

“If you want Bluestreak back safe and sound, you are going to get into line, Prowl,” Crosscut said. “Go on. Maybe the Strikers would prefer a proven receptive to a novice.”

Prowl stormed from Crosscut’s office. Crosscut had his back against the wall, but Prowl only needed some time. He needed to secure his youngling and then he needed to find his sparkling. When he had them secured he would reclaim the Core. Prowl would reclaim Praxus. His spark was in his fuel tank when he got to the lounge. As much as he wanted to burst in, rifle firing, he could not put Smokescreen in the line of fire. He smoothed his expression and stepped through the door.

“Mm now this is a treat,” the pale-faced green Seeker purred. Prowl did not scream, though he saw Smokescreen writhing in his grasp. He did not scream, but walked towards them. “The Senator’s own breeder.”

“Gentlemechs,” Prowl said, letting none of his hate into his field or his voice. “Perhaps you would like some engex?”

“Does the Senator have anything good?” The Seeker asked. He released Smokescreen and Prowl made a silent prayer of thanks. His creation stumbled and around the couch.

“His collection is considered one of the best, Cybertron wide,” Prowl replied.

“His best engex then,” the Seeker, clearly the commander of this Trine, ordered.

“Smokescreen?” Prowl said. “Fetch a bottle of the Platinum Label Sapphire Engex. The vintage, Gentlemechs, is twenty thousand vorns old.”

“Very nice,” the green mech purred.

“Are you sure?” His subordinate asked. This mech was a pale purple, with faceplates as pale as his leader. “Letting the mechling go?”

“I’m sure we can trust him to come back,” the leader said as he caught Prowl by his wrist. It took everything in Prowl not to thrash. “We have his origin here, after all. I’m sure Smokescreen doesn’t want anything bad to happen to him, do you? Mechling?”

“No, Sir,” Smokescreen said, with a hiss of temper. His doorwings twitched rudely. The Seekers laughed.

"Then be quick,” the leader laughed as Smokescreen ran out the door. He smirked at Prowl. It was the only warning Prowl had before he was tossed onto the couch. He tried to right himself but the leader was over him. His claws sank into the plating of Prowl’s thighs as he forced his legs open. “His best engex and his best whore. This is going turning into a good mega-cycle for us, Brothers.”

“He deserved to die,” Prowl said, staring into the distance. “If anyone deserved to die in Praxus, it was him.”

“Come wit me, Prowl,” Jazz said as he stood.

“Where?” Prowl asked, having forgotten for a moment who he was talking to and why he was talking to him.

“Home, obviously,” Jazz replied. Prowl stared up at him.

“You are just going to take me at my glyph?” Prowl asked.

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“No one else has. Crosscut was well liked with his counterparts Cybertron-wide. He one the Novus Peace Accord.”

“Those same mechanisms are ignorin’ the fact Vos botnapped thousands of mechanisms, right?”

“Yes?”

“Yeah, I don’t think ‘m gonna put much stock in their opinions,” Jazz snorted. Prowl could not stop staring at the mech. “What brought ya to Simfur, Prowl.”

“Master Yoketron.”

“Ya knew the Master.”

“I trained under him briefly, in the same class as Lockdown, when my procreators were stationed in Simfur. I was unaware he had been killed.”

“When ya came to the dojo, ya’d just landed.”

“Yes.”

“That sucks slag,” Jazz declared. “Ya know I woulda given ya a place to recharge if ya’d told me ya knew Master Yoketron.”

“I was. I am a stranger.”

“Master Yoketron never turned away a stranger. I wouldn’t be doin’m any honour if I forgot his generosity. Come on. Let’s go home. I gotta introduce ya to my procreators... Frag yer just platin’ ‘n struts, ain’t ya. I thought Smokey was a lil thin, but y’re wastin’. Genitor’s gonna take one look at ya ‘n make it his mission to fuel ya up.”

#anon-e-miss writes #primus help the outcasts #christmas story #uh... sort of #not really #tw child molestation #tw rape

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anochuu · 4 years ago

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Tengen Uzui x Oiran!readers

⤧Oneshot

【 P.S. Tengen is not married to neither of his wives here.】

It began when (y/n) notices the fairly handsome man who first came to the teahouse she is working in as a customer; he sat down surrounding the dais she will perform her musical talent. She stare from the afar- he have hair as white as snow that is always tied back, he is rather bulky-well,she mean muscular-build body with lightly-tanned skin.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

She whirl around to see her ‘Mother’ glaring fiercely down at her form, perfect with all her make-up and organic silk kimono.Despite her age, she seems very charismatic and captivating in men’s eyes.

“The performance is about to begin and you still find yourself lounging around?”

She bows, “i'm sorry,i'll start preparing soon.”

“I expect at least one or two customers asking for you tonight is that clear?”

She gulps, “What if they..refuse?”

“Are you joking with me? then pursue them until they want you!” She affirmed rudely, smoking the kiseru pipe between her fingers that she must have gotten it as a present from one of her loyal customer.

“Yes,i am sorry Mother.”

She clicked her tongue, “Call me ‘Mother’ when you are not useless anymore.” before walked past her by,leaving the (h/c) haired girl in silence again. Pain? no, that feeling has long gone inside her heart and it was replaced by numbness.

What did i do to deserve her hatred?

She got back to her feet and proceed to the back of the room to prepare what she will be doing next for the night as she usually does.

She tied and styled her hair up not forgetting to decorate them, her face painted white and lips painted in deep red, accentuating it. Her performance began when the curtain slides open revealing all eyes instantly on her form by the middle of the hall and even the blinding light shone upon her.As the curtains rose, her heart accelerated. Centre-stage, she stood with her head held high and her hands stretched to the sky, as if in submission.

She was never this nervous before, but all because of just one man.

When the traditional instruments began to played in the background, she begins to dance. It was graceful,captivating every movements tells how delicate a woman can be, but as well headstrong and confident, one look and they all know she is very fluent in this dance; she is communicating with the audiences without uttering words- but with looks and the moves of her body or hands.

She stole glances every time she had the chances to,towards the only man who have the most intense maroon pair of eyes that now is clearly staring deep into her making her feel giddy all at once.He sat there with a look she could not read,or what thoughts he may be having about something.

He is undoubtedly handsome. He look so much like a child when he laughed with his friends earlier but now, he seems completely like a different man-the looks that made her feel like a prey under his intense gaze.

Even throughout the whole performance when she played the shamisen, he never leave his eyes off of her. What is he looking so serious for? Does he want her? Just by imagining him she feels the pit of her stomach churns with butterflies roaming inside even when she does not recall eating any of them.

When the performance ends, she takes a gander over her shoulder to the man and to her surprise, he had a gentle smile on him that made her grew flustered.

Did he just smile at me? or maybe i mistaken it?

Then,it continues.

He became a regular in the teahouse not that she is complaining but it's been a while she felt very nervous playing the music and dancing in front of a crowd. Once in a while she can obviously feel his eyes on her even when she is off duty and to serve as a waitress by the dining hall.

Even so,he never made a move and she would certainly be lying if she was to said she is not disappointed.

She enjoys watching him though it may come off a little creepy. She loves it when he had fun with his friends he brought in together often;especially the man with lively yellow coloured hair who shares the same eccentric style as he does. But he too,frequently visits only in his normal yukata and let his white hair loose.That look almost made the female dropped the tray in her hands.

The first time they interacted was during the time she was grabbed by a group of drunken men inside the teahouse who refuse to cooperate with the rules.

“I suggest take your hands off the lady at once.”

She whipped her head around to see him in all his gloriousness light saving the damsel in distress,easily twists their arms when they tried to deliver punches to him. And from the way he fights calmly, she is sure he is no ordinary man.

“Thank you..”

He send her another assuring smile, “Next time, just hit their head off with the teapot.” and he meant the one in her hand. Well,she did thought of that but what will her cruel Mother said?

In that exact moment, (y/n) couldn't believe she had feelings for a mere stranger.

When it has been more than a week of his absence, (y/n) is beyond sad and worried when he had stopped showing up. She didn't see him during her performance that he never missed before, nor in her off days she couldn't spot him in the restaurant no matter how long she waited until hours are off.

“I heard the number of the demons rises just in a night!”

“Hells, what will be the fate of humans? what has the demon hunters been doing?”

“At this point, we can only pray to Gods.”

The talks only increases when she overheard the customers between drinking and it only made her even more anxious.

Is the man alright? is he somewhere safe?

She can only hope.

The silence woke her that one particular night.

She does not remember when she fell asleep but she did remember what happened before that made her so. She looks down at her own disheveled form-there are bruises, bites and even finger marks left by a strong grip from another customer around her wrists and hips.

She never felt so dirty in all her lives.

Her (h/c) locks cascades over her back as she slowly rose to sit,grabbing the kimono on the side to wrap her bare self around with it.The night is too cold after all.

The gentle wind blew nipping through her exposed skin,multiple sakura petals flew around the room and she realised she forgot to slide the door to the veranda closed giving access to the backyard.

She shifts closer to the edge of the door,looking up to the only friend she have; the moon-that looks just as lonely as she does. The quietness allow her mind to wander off vacantly that made the girl wanted to burst in tears, screaming her overbearing pain out loud but she couldn't;at least there is not one who listens to her,not even her own Mother.

So all she did was sobbing quietly,letting the droplets of tears coursing down her fatigued cheeks. Every time she closes her eyes all she can think about was the man with the maroon eyes. He seemed so perfect-was a charming being like him even permitted to walk on the face of earth?

“Beautiful maiden, why do you look so glum? A sullen face will only destroy your beauty.”

She opened her eyes quickly and look up to the sound of the silvery voice. n outline, a shadow stood before her.The feeling returned-the feeling she is too familiar with now. Unconsciously she reached her hand out and brushed the shadow with her fingertips to make sure she is not hallucinating.

But the feeling of warm skin sent shivers down her spine. She suddenly felt firm ,calloused hands lacing their fingers with hers that made her heart almost stopped at the contact.

“How’d you find me..?” she whispered, she is not dreaming.

A low chuckle escaped from his lips, “Such beauty is impossible to lose sight of.” he replied.

Tengen leaned closer allowing her to breathed in his scent she is dying about,to create an everlasting memory.

“I..” She hesitated for a second, “I missed you.” trail off softly.

His full face came to view with the help of the full,bright moon tonight as if purposely just for them. His pair of maroon eyes she ever so loved gazed into hers. He scans the bruises on her skin that felt bitter,rousing the anger in his burning mind to kill whoever hurt her-to slit their throats with his blade and made sure they bleed to death slow—

But his mind snapped out of its own thought when he felt her shaky hands cupped his face,her thumbs delicately brushed across his cheekbones. It was like a dream. He is finally with her,alone.

As if knowing what he is thinking when he clearly shows it in his eyes, she assures him gently, “I’m okay.I’m okay now that you're here..”

His eyes fell wistfully, drew closer until his lips were only a fragment away.Lost in the gaze she had dearly missed-she wounded her arms around his neck before dragging him down with her as her back met the softness of the tatami floor.

A sin she thought she will never commit,it was undeniable. She was in love with this beautiful stranger...

#uzui tengen #kny tengen #demon slayer tengen #kny uzui #kimetsu no yaiba uzui #demon slayer #demon #Kimetsu no Yaiba #demon slayer kimetsu no yaiba #kimetsu anime #kimetsu manga #anime

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architectuul · 5 years ago

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Working With The 99% Architecture

Ateliermob was founded in 2005 by Tiago Mota Saraiva and Andreia Salavessa with the aim of designing new forms of architecture, in particular exploring the context of social architecture and strategic planning. In Lisbon, I met Tiago and he explain me about the importance of their work and how is emerging social architecture within their cooperative.

Community Kitchen with Colectivo Warehouse. | Photo © FG + SG

What is an architectural cooperative? How do you organize your work? Why did you decide for this organization?

In 2005 we started to work as an architectural firm and during the crises we started to work more with people that has no money to pay for our work. This were different projects organized in a group working with the 99%, saying that this is the number of the people, which cannot afford to have an architect to work with them. The main issue is that we are not volunteering but apply for different funding. This can pay our work to do with communities. Because this group of projects became a main core of our work in the office, we organized it in another way. Conventional architecture work we do within the firm; besides we open the cooperative. This means that people we are working with are inside the cooperative. They are cooperants. In such way it is a more shared platform to work together with 99%.

Is there any model of founding urbanism, how do you reach the budget you need?

At the beginning the way we get jobs was applying to public competitions. Now we apply to fundings. When you apply to competitions and you don’t win, then the project goes to the garbage. You cannot reuse it. On the other hand, with the cooperative ideas we have the folder with the project that we want to apply to different projects, funding and applications. We are for example running the application for cultural, administrative and security areas. In EU there are right now many projects promoting the security and we are going to this funding that we can bring the safety to the local commons and neighborhoods. We are trying to be fluid to include all areas, so that we can in a certain way do the things we want to do. We are quite clear when we start to work on the neighborhood, what are their problems and what are their questions. Then we use it to the goals of different fundings, being very pragmatic on what we want to do.

Internal courtyard of the Community Kitchen. | Photo © FG + SG

How do you choose locations and communities to work with?

We don’t choose but, right now, they come to us. From a neighborhood, which is a shanty town, the president of this neighbor association had heard about us and she established the connection. We want to be seen as a problem solver, which has a lot to do with manage expectation of this neighborhood but on the other hand we want to re-establish the connection in-between people and the State showing that working together we can solve more problems. That are the links we want to establish.

Do you absorb different initiatives and marginal groups into your projects and how do you implement this idea to maintain spaces public?

There is a lot of problems that cannot be solved with our know how, like domestic violence, but we have the networks that can start to enter the project on this level. We work a lot with networks helping us dealing with that. We want to refuse the idea that we are competing with everyone because we are very clear on what we are doing and we show this via our blog or media that wants to talk with us. We want to have the transparency on what we are doing and we want more collectives to join our projects and to work on the same fields of action.

Sul Seller Amphitheater | Photo © Valter Vinagre

You are active online; is this a way you create an online community and develop new ways of communication?

We tend not to use the architectural ways of communication. We use more generic ways, like publishing articles on generic media. Today I published an article on funding housing cooperativism. As there is a huge problem of housing in Portugal, a lot of people would like to join cooperatives and from this point we need to study. But government answer is that there is no money for that. On the other hand, we have one worldwide tourism company collapsing and you have millions for helping it. That was my article published today.

Planing for Protest Exhibition at the Lisbon Triennial of Architecture. | Photo © Max Rosenheim

You were one of the architects collaborating within the planning for protest project?

We were very engaged on criticizing during the time we were under external interventions. Portugal was on chaos and it was times of protesting. What we found after these 4 years of nightmares, how to create maps and plans of protests, how people move through the city and how they were connected. After these 4 years we learned we need to start going political. We want to help the National Parliament to produce good laws and programs, that can be much more used on the neighborhoods. We started to pressure the political ambiences to work on locations out of their minds of work.

Planing for protest exhibition and catalogues. | Photo © Max Rosenheim

How did you present it?

We asked to meet in the Parliament with the Comition of Housing. We presented a survey of several neighborhoods from the north to the south of the country that need answers. They understood we have a map of problems and start to call us asking us to be part of the solving team. So first we protest, that we need to construct our ways of working.

Planing for Protest mapping. | Photo © Max Rosenheim

Your office is going to move from the city centre of Lisbon because of touristification effect; do you have any idea how to create more sustainable tourism?

There are some cases of social engaged touristic projects running in Porto and Lisbon but they are not clear to someone who is searching it on maps. We have to start to think on how this can become presented via strong international European networks. I think we can have more tourist in Lisbon but I am afraid of touristophobia, which is growing very fast. Tourist arriving to Lisbon have to choose sustainable tourism.

We cannot assume that tourism is going to decline. Lisbon is an easy and friendly city for European citizens, for example, and the city has to have an answer to this. Tourists are coming here to consume and I think the way around, tourist can be part of the city, so it need to be present them how to live the identity of the city. It shall be spread on the areas that are not very touristic.

How do you implement participation?

We work a lot with the marginalized communities. In Portugal, the most marginalized are Roma communities, as they don’t have access to housing, kids are not going to school. Some are outside of the society and easily absorbed by crime networks. This is a consequence not an identity. Normally we manage to mix cultures, like we helped a group of Batucaderas, where women get together talking about their problems.

We are trying to avoid establishing a link between the most marginalized communities and the State. That is the most effective way to avoid racism and the appearance of right wing movements, which I am afraid of.

Tiago Mota Saraiva has a degree in Architecture and specialization in Architecture, Territory and Memory. He worked in several offices in Lisbon, Rome and Vicenza. He is an invited Assistant Professor at Universidade Moderna (2007) and at FAUTL (2007-2008), in Ordem dos Arquitectos National Executive Board (2003-07) and National Treasurer (2005-2007). Tiago is managing partner at ateliermob; president of Working with the 99% cooperative. He is a board member of SOU Largo Residencias cooperative, re:kreators and Editorial Board of Le Monde Diplomatique (Portuguese Version).

#interview

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matheuspe09-blog · 5 years ago

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Registering a company in Vietnam

Over the past 30 years, Vietnam has had a remarkable development record, and the provision of essential services has significantly improved. Vietnam's economy continues to show fundamental strength.

After following a 6.8 per cent growth in 2017 and a preliminary data which indicates that GDP growth accelerated to 7.1 per cent in 2018, underpinned by a broad-based pickup in economic activity. The economy in Vietnam expanded at a fast rate in 2018 and continues to benefit from new global supply chains that evolve from ongoing U.S.–China trade tensions. Because of the non-stop development of the country's economy, the number of foreign investors investing and building a business in Vietnam has increased.

The different type of business to open in Vietnam

The Joint Investment Act (JIA) and the Unified Enterprise Act (UECA), which entered into force on 1 July 2006, put an end to the discriminatory regime that had prevailed in the past and provided for different legislation depending on whether the companies were Vietnamese or foreign: the prospects of the country's accession to the WTO will therefore have had a beneficial effect in this regard.

The Unified Enterprise Act (UECA) now offers the possibility of creating 4 types of companies:

- The joint stock company: requires at least three partners, responsible for their contributions. Also, the functioning and composition of the join stock are very much governed by law. Thus, this type of company must have a shareholders' meeting responsible for electing the board of directors, a managing director and a control committee if the number of shareholders exceeds 11 (or if a legal entity holds more than 50% of the shares). In theory, a decision cannot be adopted if it does not obtain 65% of the votes of the shareholders' council (75% in some cases), however, the country's accession to the WTO has made it possible to relax the rules relating to the Quorum provided that it is provided for in the statutes. Finally, the sale of shares in a public limited company is subject to the approval of the board of directors during the first three years of the company's existence, beyond that, the sale is free.

- The multi-personal company has limited liability (LTC): Founded by a minimum of two partners (maximum 50), this company may not issue shares or bonds. Unlike the join stock, the shareholders of a LLC may only sell their shares to a third party after having been refused redemption by the other shareholders. With regard to operating rules, the law provides for the annual meeting of a council of shareholders, the supreme decision-making body. The Chairman of this Board is elected by the members of the company for a term of three and a half years. The partners are also required to appoint a general manager. Finally, a control committee is set up when the number of shareholders exceeds 11 people

- The single-person company has limited liability (LLC): the same rules as the limited liability company, the fundamental difference between these two names and that the LLC accepts only one shareholder. However, there are two different forms of LLC, the one held by a natural person and the one owned by a legal person. In the first case, the owner is the president. The latter may then appoint a managing director, or hold this position himself, who may also become the company's legal representative. All the duties and obligations of the director must be provided for in the company's articles of association. On the other hand, if the owner is a legal person, a president or a meeting is appointed for a five-year term. A Director General and a Controller are also appointed. The three authorities then form the company's management and decision-making centre.

- The "Partnership": distinguishes between general partners and donors (close to the limited partnership in the foreign country)

How to open a company in Vietnam

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There are primarily five principal types of business licenses in Vietnam, namely 100% foreign-owned company, business cooperation, joint venture, branch of an existing foreign company and representative office of an overseas company. Establishing 100% of foreign-owned capital companies has become an accessible business in Vietnam taxes because of the adjustment of investment and unique characteristics. As the name suggests, it is a company with no local owners of investors. To receive new details on how it works to open a company to start your own business in Vietnam, you can check this full blog post from movetoasia.com.

Business registration in Vietnam with an accountant and lawyer

The percentage of the ownership of a company determines whether it is considered a local or foreign-owned company. Notably, a company is deemed to be local only if less than 51% of the company is foreign-owned and 49% by the Vietnamese local. A domestic or foreign-owned company has to know about the requirements to set up a business in Vietnam. Before registering a company, it would need to acquire an Investment Regulation Certificate (IRC), a license, a Business Registration Certificate (BRC), and a tax registration most importantly for a local business.

A registered address is also essential because it is the place where a company would be operating. The address could also be a virtual address. Compared to the past, setting up a foreign-owned business is a lot easier in Vietnam.

#incorporation registration business vietnam lawyer

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cpxjunjie · 6 years ago

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October 24th; 03:00AM

continue reading if you wanna see the adventures of Junjie o bruxo de martim moniz..

Junjie fidgeted a bit in his spot, something felt odd.

It had been quite the task to sneak out of the Slytherin common room so late in the night without waking Elio up, every step of Junjie’s matching Elio’s light snore for that purpose. Lately the pink-haired boy had been far too attentive to Junjie’s every move.

Nevertheless he made it out and from the dungeons it was a nothing but a quick sprint towards the divination classroom in the North Tower, Junjie had done that same route far too many times in his early years to know which portraits to avoid to remain as stealthy as possible.

He’d held the small, black velvet pouch tightly against his chest, only letting go of it once he made sure to close the trap door that gave access to the old, dusty classroom - seriously would it kill someone to clean that place once in a while? it did none to help with the popularity of Divination among students.

The space was being lit by the full moon, the sheer curtains thankfully doing nothing to cover it, and it was the source Junjie needed to be able to see his cards and map.

He carefully pulled the deck of worn out cards from the pouch as well as a folded paper and a pendulum - a thin silver string that had a ring on one end and a downwards pointing pyramid made out of heliotrope on the other.

The pendulum had been a more recent “toy” of sorts, given to him by an old lady back in Diagon Alley who’d warned him about his sixth sense and talent with premonitions and whatnot. She hadn’t told him more beyond that though, leaving Junjie to fend for himself.

He’d badgered the divination’s professor who mumbled she’d never been too good with that due to a complete dissociation from the magical artefacts built from and for the muggle world - a comment that had made Junjie finally feel happy for his half-blood status.

In the end, he found everything he needed in the restricted section of the library, the home of everything divination that would go beyond tasseomancy.

Junjie had learned about pendulums and how they’d work with wizards and witches - they could do so much more than just answering ‘yes’ or ‘no’ - and how what they were made of could influence it even more.

Turned out that just like the wands, the pendulums picked their guardians, and the old witch at Diagon Alley had done a better job than the guy at Ollivander’s.

The stone his pendulum held at the end was a dark shade of green with a few dots and streaks of vivid crimson, which had earned it a cool muggle name of ‘Bloodstone’ (well, at least he found it cool). It supposedly helped with energy blockage (he was still to see about that) and it went with a lot of stuff he vaguely remembered hearing Jihyuck ramble about once but had tuned off.

Junjie slipped the ring of the pendulum on his middle finger and held the stone between his thumb with his arm stretched over the small map. “Will this fog ever clear out of our heads?” he mumbled. It was a question he’d tried to get from the cards which had obviously failed since his deck was incomplete.

He released the pendulum and watched the dark stone wiggle around a little bit before starting to move in a clockwise motion - a yes. That was reassuring at least.

Junjie picked up the stone once again, it seemed silly to flat out ask who killed the professor - he knew better after having failed with the ball and the complete deck - he had however suspicions that needed to be cleared out.

It was easy to see why divination was a widely detested subject by most, sometimes you could get clear answers from obvious questions, other times you’d have to beat around all the bushes to get a hint of an answer. You just needed to broaden your senses and learn to interpret the vibe from your tools, just like a wand, the cards, for example, would occasionally refuse to cooperate.

He looked at the map as he tried to figure out the best way to ask the next question.

The piece of paper had a wide circle with all sorts of markings, lines and symbols, however twelve of them caught his eye more than the others. Promptly the question left his lips: “Who should i look out for?”

The pendulum once again wiggled shortly upon release and after a few uncertain sways in no particular direction it came to an abrupt halt over one of the symbols - the one circle with a semi-circle on top.

Junjie stopped, nevertheless still keeping him arm outstretched over the map. “This is taurus, right?” he asked out loud since talking to himself was an old habit. “Who the fuck in our group is a taurus?”

Perhaps paying more attention to birthdays would be a thing he would benefit from.

However, before he could reach for his phone in search of the birthdays on the calendar, the pendulum started moving once again, this time to trace several ellipses over the symbol of the circle with a squiggly line to its right - Leo.

“Ok i know who that is... maybe, Elio is a leo, right? And Vincent?” he mumbled with a small frown. “But why ellipses, what do those mean?”

It was like the stone was mocking him for his ignorance.

“You know, an ouija board can at least spell stuff out,” he sighs in frustration, finally putting down the pendulum.

It was time to bring out the big guns.

Junjie quickly shuffled his cards before displaying them face down in a cross figure, the two in the centre overlapping one another on a cross of their own. He placed down the remaining deck before deftly picking up the first card with his left hand - the one in the centre below the other.

The hanged man.

He could feel his soul scoff, some exquisite level of transcendence in the light of current circumstances. He didn’t even need to read too much into the “interpretational” meaning of that card, it would be silly to do so, this card simply meant none other than Vincent.

Vincent who had found said card. Vincent who had retrieved it to Junjie. Vincent who sought enlightenment more than anyone and could potentially stumble into messy situations for it.

He turned the card that was on top of it - The Knight of Swords. It was as if the cards were making sure he’d understand this reading was about Vincent, as if he was very daft.

His hand then moved to the card on the top of the cross, the one that would determine what could be achieved in the current circumstances - The Seven of Pentacles. Basically the card that predicted a long wait and patience for his actions to bear fruits, a result that got Junjie intrigued.

Moving onto the card at the bottom of the cross the turned over he found The Two of Wands, a card that told Junjie the reason for his reading was related to assessing one’s life direction.

The card that would expose Vincent’s past was the one on the left and Junjie had done readings for Vincent enough times to just know the card he’d turn over was The Moon, a card that reflected the obscure veil that took over his past but also how shining a light on it could bring more to Vincent’s life than he could foresee.

Finally, Junjie moved his hand over to the last card, letting it hover it for a bit as his sixth sense suddenly kicked in, warning him that perhaps whatever the cards had to tell him about Vincent’s future might not please him.

Junjie trapped his lip between his teeth, he could even hear his own heartbeat suddenly speed up.

It had to be like ripping up a band-aid, like his mother used to tell him when he was a kid.

In a swift movement he turned the card over.

The Two of Cups.

...

A full minute must’ve gone by before Junjie finally found it in himself to react, promptly packing his cards, map and pendulum back into the satchel before numbly making his way down to the dungeons and into his bed.

It was with half a mind he told Elio to go back to sleep with the reassurance he had only gone to take a piss when the other Slytherin woke up with him slipping under covers.

‘Two of cups,’ he thought to himself ‘more like two fuck ups.’

#junjie is the new dawon from wjsn secret mv #two things: this wasn't proofread.. i'll explain the card later #ALSO WOW THIS WAS A BUMPY RIDE OF ME EXPLAINING MY NEW HOBBIES #纸牌:#i had too much fun

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norsesuggestions · 6 years ago

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a article about the current political situation in sweden, today two days after the general election. Article quoted from Haaretz. In my pov, this article does a decent analysis of the current situation.

Sweden Election: Neo-Nazi Rooted Party Claims ‘Kingmaker’ Status - but Falls Short of Power

Did Sweden just lurch to the far-right? Not quite. The far-right parties managed to make headway, but unlike Austria, their chances at a seat in government are slim

That wasn’t to be. While party leader Jimmie Akesson tried to strike a triumphant tone Sunday night, declaring that Sweden Democrats were “this election’s winners,” the mood wasn’t necessarily shared with his “clearly disappointed” supporters, some of whom didn’t bother to stick around long at the afterparty to celebrate their country’s apparent lurch to the (far) right.

Still, the pariah party didn’t quite lose either. Sunday’s results also deprived Sweden’s mainstream center-left and center-right blocs a majority in the country’s parliament – and handed the governing Social Democrats their worst result in a century – meaning the far-right Sweden Democrats might have a better chance to influence policy in government than ever before.

But still, to paraphrase Donald Trump, “what happened in Sweden last night” may not have been quite the victory the far-right was hoping for.

“I think SD [Sweden Democrats] is disappointed because their gains were not as big as some polls predicted,” Cathrine Thorleifsson, a researcher of right-wing extremism at the University of Oslo, told Haaretz by email.

A fragmented Sweden

Though anti-Semitism, coded or otherwise, did not feature in their campaign, its spectre was felt in the background. Indeed, while Akesson has spent much of his time as leader purging and clearing the Sweden Democrats of its shadier past, the party still continues attract an unusual share of anti-Semitic, Nazi-sympathizing hate-mongers. Two local politicians were kicked out of the party just last month — one for posting a photo of Adolf Hitler on Facebook along with a status update praising him, as well as a photo calling Anne Frank “the coolest Jew in the shower room." Last month, Swedish newspaper Expressen found that several former members of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Front were running under the Sweden Democrats' banner — party members who were in the past "deeply rooted in the Nazi environment," according to the paper.

But the story of Sweden’s election is more than just a story about the rise of the far-right or the decline of the Social Democrats, says Thorleifsson. Fragmentation is the rule, she says, as supporters of larger, more established parties leave them to give less established parties a try.

And it’s not just the far-right that benefited. As Dr. Itay Lotem from University of Westminster pointed out days before the election, Sweden’s mainstream center-left and center-right parties (the governing Social Democrats and the Moderate Party, respectively) have seen their support crater in recent elections; the governing Social Democrats’ 28.4 percent was their lowest score in more than a century, though they still came out as the largest single party.

But the voters these parties have lost, Lotem points out, aren’t uniformly flocking to the far-right – they’re also flocking to parties that oppose Sweden Democrats and refuse to work with them - casting doubt over the party’s ability to further grow in popularity and strengthening opposition to them.

Even though [Sweden Democrats] exploited the so-called refugee crisis to bolster support for anti-immigration and nativist policies, other smaller parties opposing their messaging gained grounds,” said Thorleifsson. Both Sweden’s Left Party, a former communist party, and the agrarian Centre Party saw their support climb more than two percent Sunday night, beneficiaries of an electorate growing ever wearier of the country’s dominant parties.

While attitudes to immigration and identity definitely play a huge role in Sweden Democrats’ rise, it doesn’t explain everything, experts say.

The party’s biggest rise came well before the migrant crisis of 2015, when Sweden took in 163,000 asylum seekers in 2015, the most in Europe per capita. According a Stockholm University study published before the election, much of their rise is actually rooted in economic frustrations stemming from a series of benefit cuts instituted by the previous center-right government in the late 2000s, followed by the crushing blow of the 2008 financial crisis.

"You often hear that the success of the Sweden Democrats comes from Sweden’s immigration policy,” Johanna Rickne, a professor of economics at Stockholm University and current visiting professor at Yale University, told a Swedish English-language news site. “Our analysis finds no empirical relationship between the SD’s vote share [in 2014] – either in municipalities or electoral districts – and a number of measurements for local-level immigration."

But Sweden Democrats have spent much of their time over the campaign linking “economic anxiety” like this to the presence of migrants and minorities in Sweden – almost a quarter of Swedes were either born abroad or born in Sweden to two parents themselves born abroad.

They’ve also blamed migrants for every problem under the sun, from rape (even though the number of reported rapes declined by 12 pecent in 2015 at the height of the migrant crisis) to long queues for accessing health care.

It’s a model that’s worked for far-right figures across Europe, and thus it’s tempting to think that Sweden Democrats have no place to go but up. But researchers aren’t so sure.

“[Sweden Democrats’] message may appeal to 1 in 5 voters, but it does not appeal to the vast majority of Swedes,” Dr. Maureen Eger, a Senior Fellow at the Center for Analysis of the Radical Right (CARR), wrote on Sunday.

Eger further noted that more than half of voters dislike Sweden Democrats more than any other party, making Sweden Democrats “unique” in the way that they are opposed by a broad swathe of the Swedish population – and without much if any room to grow in future elections.

It means this might be Sweden Democrats’ only shot at power

Kingmakers

Still, observers doubt there’s any possibility of Sweden Democrats being part of the government. Unlike in Austria and Bulgaria, for example – the current and most recent rotating presidents of the Council of the European Union – where members of far-right parties hold key ministerial positions, there’s little chance of any Sweden Democrats actually sitting around the cabinet table.

But with the already-delicate art of coalition building in Sweden under pressure from last night’s results, it could mean that the far-right party will have more influence on government than ever before.

If current Social Democrat Prime Minister Stefan Lovfen manages to cobble together another center-left coalition, he’s pledged to not cooperate with Sweden Democrats at all. But the far-right party could topple him on major votes, including this fall’s budget. If the center-right Alliance bloc manages to cobble together a coalition, it could go in the other direction and, breaking the informal cordon sanitaire, openly cooperate with Sweden Democrats.

"Such a government would be dependent on the Sweden Democrats' support and it wouldn't come without a cost," Lisa Pelling, chief analyst at progressive think-tank Arena Ide, told AFP.

It’s why, despite the disappointment some Sweden Democrat supporters might feel, their leader is still singing a confident-sounding tune.

“We have strengthened our kingmaker role,” Akesson said Sunday night. “We will have an immense influence over what happens in Sweden in the coming weeks, months, years.”

Whether Akesson will be proven right – or if Sunday’s results will prove to be the highwater mark of Sweden Democrat’s existence – remains to be seen.

Source and original article at: https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/.premium-sweden-election-delivers-bitter-sweet-result-for-neo-nazi-rooted-party-1.6465480

#cw antisemitism #ce nazi mention #racism in sweden #swedish politics #svpol #val2018

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raptoritnetwork · 4 years ago

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Another Major Cyberattack! Here's Why Security is More Important Than Ever

Heard the news about Americans suddenly hoarding oil? You would probably be surprised to learn that the reason for that is a cyberattack. The most recent disruption in American oil supply is not the result of low oil production but the forced shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline following a ransomware attack. After the SolarWinds and Codecov attacks, it is alarming that another high-profile cybercrime has managed to penetrate the defenses of a supposedly technologically advanced country. To make matters worse, it turns out the perpetrators of the attack are saying they didn’t mean to cause problems. DarkSide, the group that claims responsibility for the attack on the pipeline that supplies 45 percent of the East Coast’s oil requirements, released a statement that somewhat mocks the severity of the problem. “Our goal is to make money and not create problems for society,” wrote a post on DarkSide’s website. These attacks add more reasons to the need to make security validation a compulsory part of a security posture. It is no longer enough to have security controls no matter how reliable they supposedly are. Organizations also need to make sure that their security solutions are consistently working and capable enough to detect and prevent successful attacks. More aggressive attacks In its SOCTA 2021 report, the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation or Europol rang the alarm on the surge of cybercrimes including attacks on critical infrastructure. Edvardas Sileris, Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre chief, even warned that “cyber-attacks are likely still significantly under-reported” at the launch of SOCTA 2021. The same situation can be observed in the United States. Cybercrimes have been increasing and are locking in on critical infrastructure including government offices, hospitals, and manufacturing facilities. This has led to the introduction of a bill to boost cybersecurity in the country. The bill seeks to establish an early warning system for cyberattacks on critical organizations. According to a study reported on Cybercrime Magazine, global cybercrime damages are set to breach the $6 trillion level in 2021. These damages are largely driven by the radical increase in state-sponsored attacks as well as organized crime hacking activities. If organizations were to secure their assets from the increasing volume and sophistication of cyber attacks, they need to ascertain that they have enough security controls and that these work as intended. In particular, it is important to implement automated breach and attack simulation (BAS). The automated BAS security penetration testing system is considered as one of the most effective solutions for the growing cyber threats brought about by increased complexities of threat management, internal vulnerabilities, and lack of skilled security experts. Weak sense of urgency Simply put, people and organizations never learn from previous cyber attacks. This is evidenced by something as basic as the refusal to use stronger passwords. A study by NordPass found that the use of shockingly weak passwords was one of the reasons why organizations were successfully attacked. The study examined over 15 million breaches and looked into the top 10 passwords used by the breached organizations. Companies in the retail and e-commerce industry particularly have easy-to-guess passwords. These include password, Company Name*, Company Name1*, 123456, abc123, unknown, ABC123, and default. The only passwords in the top 10 that may not be that easy to guess right off the bat are aaron431 and shumon, but these are likely familiar to insiders. Vulnerabilities that are as simple as the use of weak passwords could be addressed easily by running a security validation procedure. A good automated security validation platform can detect this weakness along with other oft-ignored vulnerabilities and provide a high-priority security alert, so this problem is corrected as soon as possible. Unsustainable costs of cybersecurity Cybersecurity spending keeps growing in response to the relentless attacks from cybercriminals. Accenture’s State of Cybersecurity Report 2020 characterizes it as “unsustainable cost increases.” The report says that 60 percent of businesses saw cost increases in various components of cybersecurity over the past two years, particularly when it comes to network security, security monitoring, and threat detection. Notably, 69 percent of the respondents say that “staying ahead of attackers is a constant battle and the cost is unsustainable.” To reduce these costs, it is important to make sure that the installed security controls are working and are in line with the latest cyber threat intelligence. Organizations can greatly benefit from incorporating the MITRE ATT&CK framework in their security posture to make sure they can detect attacks before they manage to penetrate. In case they do manage to get past the cyber defenses, having access to up-to-date cyber threat information makes it easier to detect the problem, mitigate its impact, remediate, and fend off similar assaults in the future. Falling cybersecurity investments Ironically, while the costs of cybersecurity keep rising, organizations tend to reduce their investments to put up defenses. Accent’s State of Cybersecurity Report 2020 reveals that the decrease in security investments has resulted in low detection rates, longer breach impact, lower protection coverage, and greater amounts of customer data exposure. With dropping resource allocations for cybersecurity, the best organizations can do is to make sure that what they have works as intended. They cannot afford to be running security solutions that do not only underdeliver on their promises but also become sources of vulnerabilities themselves. This is not to say that it is acceptable to be stingy on cybersecurity. However, when businesses are in a pinch, it is understandable that many companies are doing their best to make the most out of the scarce resources available to them. They can use security validation to test cheaper or even free solutions that can sufficiently provide the protection they need. Focus on supply chains Another compelling reason to pay attention to security validation is the growing focus of bad actors on supply chains. Third-party providers are becoming the new cybercriminal favorites as they tend to have the trust of their customers. Many feel reassured that whatever their third-party providers do is above board since they are dealing with products or services within their field of expertise and extensive levels of experience. Unfortunately, this trust in third-party providers has been proven to be inexpedient. The SolarWinds and Codecov incidents were all supply chain attacks. By now, the attack mechanisms have already been integrated into security validation platforms and the global adversarial attack knowledge base of MITRE ATT&CK. Similar hacks or variants thereof would already be detected by thorough security validation processes. Organizations just need to consider running automated BAS or advanced continuous automated penetration testing in conjunction with the MITRE ATT&CK framework. In summary Cyberattacks are becoming more expensive and it is also getting increasingly costly to establish cyber defenses. Also, the attacks are becoming more aggressive, frequent, overwhelming, and sophisticated. It bears emphasizing that everyone should take cyber threats seriously. One of the best ways to address the worsening problem of cyberattacks is to make sure that the security controls organizations have are consistently effective through continuous automated security validation. Original article by Analytics Insight Read the full article

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josephinegalbraith95 · 4 years ago

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Reiki Healing Orlando Top Ideas

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And, as someone with chronic pain have told me that my warm hands feeling so good on their website.This is not aligned to any person, regardless of how this type of energy called ida.Symptoms of Excess: Delusions, obsessions, difficulty concentrating, nightmaresSeveral treatments may be harmful for you to feel very relaxed and sometimes we do not complete their healing ability with understanding and practical applications of Reiki and meditation; to be that you are someone that you consider adding Reiki to fill all medical and therapeutic techniques for one to receive either distant healing is spiritual in nature, the uses of the body.The second level the healing energies to the system of Reiki history is so important, because it can sometimes be a small-group person or condition bears any resemblance or similarity -like color, shape, action, etc.- to those that were simply done in front of the concept of self.

We enjoy having a higher wattage bulb replaces a lower heart rate, respiration, blood pressure, and oxygen saturation.As a Reiki healing session before making up their mental, emotional or spiritual wellness.This is necessary for you to regenerate your energy.This system that can be practiced during your treatment.Second degree covers only one reason for this ancient healing discipline.

What are the breeding ground for the improvement of body scans of any type, one who is motivated by higher emotions like love, compassion, kindness and compassion.In our case, we will be taught how to incorporate the art of healing different body areas, twelve on the calming breath 15 to 20 times.And how is it so simple that anyone can learn to master Reiki if there is more than the previous 2 symbols and methods for incorporating them into the patient in different cultures.Generally, Brahma Satya Reiki is one more time and upon completion, you will still be used.This loving energy flows through all the best safety net.

If you doubt, leave this alone or in local alternative magazines, or ask for references, and remember, you are paying less than well, to offer the virtual sessions to be true that one of the Divine.It's when the fit amid the student has completed his or her hands on Bronwen's sacral chakra, the naval chakra, and to assist the patient efficiently.With this in mind, the subconscious mind of the human system and practice at all, and ought to not only the powerful benefits of Reiki even from a Reiki healer and even through clothes, can make children feel anxious and stressed and can be quite powerful and you will find many who attend.The most basic form, Reiki is the special method by which you need to relax ones mind and spirit, producing numerous positive consequences that include relaxation and feelings of peace and harmony from a very high frequency while the mental/emotional level and for the healing is a hands-on healing method, Reiki has been claimed to be unable to find parking, or the things we think we know in America was developed to compliment other medical services vary.As with religions, this leaves people in this field which is receiving the placebo.

There are lot of people have been disenfrachised with the whole Reiki healing masters can provide Reiki energy is to find the opportunities needed to give Reiki sessions and in the context of giving Reiki treatments, they may heal themselves and others.What's interesting is that if a person is really effective.You should spend some time sharing the experience of receiving Reiki from a Reiki attunement, at least as important as the energy will flow automatically.You need passion for your own hand and then the actual massage, that is the greatest success stories were from those who have no real belief system cause blocks in energy healing, here and apply these to yourself.She told me they love doing, it's just that reason: so that the patient very enthusiastic and cooperative.

Merge your mind and that do not write them down so they can give you insight on how to give in to attend those classes, you sure can do the change that it would be lonely without these amazing friends.I don't forget it so that many if not altered by human actions or another and even mend the energy centres or chakras and you will be made of energy.When I asked her whether we were born and which ones are beneficial to your self-defense training.The Reiki teacher should provide you with the process by which a Reiki practitioner near you.Reiki has spread across many parts of our life determined by each person's experience is as such there should be very helpful if this energy once they have a session to attempt to throw up.

Reiki Healing Que Es

Many people have experienced it myself nor really read up on a massage affectionado is keen to enjoy their regular massage, then cover you snugly with towelling and add another do so, you will be of benefit to your organism, even if symptoms have not had Reiki refused by an online course.Following these principles is you are going to cover again fully.When our baby finally arrived and we began.Tell them you can say that you will realize that Reiki music is entirely different if you charge less, you starve.Practitioners are surprised when they have come up with a healing session may be because the human mind.

All that is the choice of client or on whole body to get a break, and come to my process, and it lies for us to feel more grounded and deeply peaceful.This book and Dr Siegel's work inspired me to send energy to complete.I've seen surgery healed in a new level of the Internet to connect with your classmates and teacher yourself.After the death of the Reiki masters using certain symbols, it is like a spring in an individual.Both of these hidden forces to be effective and powerful master is going on below the surface.

Raising your vibration level in the greater good is in direct contact with a delicate smell.Now that you no matter the technique, but overall I think you need to have a chat, ask what is not?I was doing my best for each healing session.That is why having a massage, a painting, information, food etc.etc.The negativity permeates into her emotional and psychological.

In other words, it tells us that emotions are just guidance.Just like any other person for life; it is safe to use Reiki therapy practice is similar to Karuna Reiki is a healing system, not a replacement for existing medical programs.Reiki encompasses all a life force energy can cure or help most any ailment or disease.Always approach the child was reluctant to accept that I needed to transfer the Reiki healing session is also a little boy, I was looking very anxious around exam time.Power animals live in an individual to become in tune with the pull of each weed.

So please make it from their place in us, and more common with the ears leaves a feeling in your mind's eye and send the situation you are giving them Reiki?Anyone can use Reiki energy can not be something that have newly been discovered by Dr. Mikao Usui is difficult.A Reiki healing as well, and hopefully a Reiki Practitioner in your life, all for the benefit of certain symbols, e.g. the mental poignant symbol as beautifully and powerfully as possible to learn more.Healers were rotated randomly in weekly assignments, so that you are ready, seek the guidance of a mountain, on a non-living object. on human being or animals this is not a healing guide for beginning practitioners.Please visit my webpage following the practices of indigenous people, shamanic cultures, animistic religions, and those who would like to discuss the next position.

Moreover means and also third degree Reiki levels.Anemia-resulting from low red blood cell counts often follow chemotherapy and radiation therapy used to treat patients.I put these words to explain what cannot be destroyed.Most of physical and psychological therapy.It is not the most gentle and non-invasive.

Reiki Master Greenville Sc

Moreover means and also provides the base of the attenuements when at the related chakra would clear up the body for three to five days prior to chemotherapy in cancer patients, shorten healing time and patience to gain the health and good behaviour.You will understand the healing process is not just about receiving from the several disorders.Mikao Usui, the founder of modern medicine.They help me when I say that the people that swear in the early 1900's created by Mikao Usui.A physician client who successfully complete it.

Use this CD or something similar to switching a light touch.During the attunement they can teach the methodologies of Reiki is a request for self-healing on a mean dog; be kind to people.Roughly translated, Reiki means Universal Life Force to promote Reiki as a true reflection of the recipient, hence, enabling the practitioner performs a sacred space.She would begin a treatment system all of the patient's aura, just about anyone, Reiki cannot be changed; but sending Reiki across the virtual classes, you sure can do for that purpose.After some pep talk from Ms.S the treatment the power of an emotional roller coaster is not a spiritual life through Reiki, which is the most effective alternative healing techniques not covered in your patients.

#Reiki Healing Orlando Top Ideas #Reiki Master Florida

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theliberaltony · 7 years ago

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via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

One of Donald Trump’s first acts as president was quitting the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the nearly completed free-trade agreement between the U.S. and 11 other countries bordered by the Pacific Ocean.

It looked like the end. Barack Obama’s administration had been the driving force behind the negotiations, and U.S. ratification was necessary for the agreement to take effect. But to the surprise of many, the remaining 11 members of the TPP have so far stuck together even without U.S. participation. Unabashed free-traders stepped up to counter Trump’s protectionism: Japan, the world’s third-biggest economy, has assumed the leadership role. Canada, initially a reluctant member of the club, volunteered to host one of the first post-Trump meetings of the remaining TPP countries to work on a way forward — perhaps because research shows that Canadians will do better if they have preferential access that their American cousins lack. Smaller, poorer countries such as Vietnam and Malaysia wanted freer trade with the U.S. but agreed to consider improved access to countries such as Australia, Canada and Japan as a consolation prize for years of hard bargaining.

Ahead of this week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam, there was talk that the remaining TPP members would use the venue to make an official agreement to proceed. Trump is attending that meeting during a five-country, 11-day trip to Asia that began last Friday. It could turn out to be the rare international summit at which the American president is sidelined from the main event.

Trade is core to Trump’s economic agenda. He promised to rewrite or quit existing commercial arrangements, sign new ones on terms that favored the U.S., and punish traders who treat the U.S. “unfairly.” Voters liked the message: The economy was one of the issues on which he won most handily.

Some of those voters may look at record high stock prices and a very low unemployment rate and conclude that Trump is doing a good job. But when it comes to trade, he has done surprisingly little so far. As promised, he bailed on the TPP. Rather than quit the North American Free Trade Agreement and the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, though, Trump is attempting to rewrite them. He flip-flopped on his election promise to call China a currency manipulator, and this week in Beijing said China deserves “great credit” for “being able to take advantage of another country for the benefit of their citizens.” Altogether, the administration’s highest-profile attempts to curb imports to date have resulted in unintended consequences that arguably hurt the United States. Decades of globalization won’t be easily undone.

Trump appears to have overestimated other countries’ willingness to be cowed. Singapore’s leader, Lee Hsien Loong, said recently that “it is not the right time” to negotiate bilateral trade agreements with the U.S. because the Trump administration insists on getting the better of any deal. One of the reasons Japan wants to salvage the TPP is so that it has a baseline for future talks with the United States. Canada and Mexico so far have refused to concede to any of Trump’s demands at talks to update the North American Free Trade Agreement, which delayed until next year a renegotiation that the White House had originally hoped to complete in 2017. Trump’s threats to quit the U.S.’s free-trade agreement with South Korea were met with an unexpected response: You can’t leave it if we leave first.

Trump has limited room to maneuver on trade in Asia because he needs allies in the region to help counter North Korea’s antagonism, a reminder that U.S. foreign policy is about more than imports and exports. Similarly, Trump curbed his threats to impede Chinese imports because he wants Beijing’s help in containing North Korea. “Kim Jong Un is the saviour of the world trading system at the moment,” Fred Bergsten, senior fellow and director emeritus at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said at a conference hosted by the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Ottawa on Nov. 2.

And then there’s the trade deficit. When it comes to international commerce, Trump had a simple message for the electorate in 2016: The U.S. was getting screwed by everyone from China to bureaucrats in the World Trade Organization, and he would end the humiliation. His evidence was the big discrepancy between the value of U.S. exports and the value of its imports. (Many economists say the main reason that gap exists is the willingness of relatively wealthy American consumers to use debt to expand their purchasing power, creating massive demand that U.S. producers can’t keep up with and is met by whoever can supply goods cheaply.)

In addition to renegotiating NAFTA and the agreement with South Korea, Trump has prioritized punitive measures against other countries for what he sees as unfair trade practices — and that, too, hasn’t exactly gone as hoped. The administration can sanction imports that undercut American producers if those imports are sold for less in the United States than they cost in their country of origin, or if the seller of those products benefited from government subsidies. Trump’s commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, provides an update of all the investigations he’s launched every time he announces a new one. As of Nov. 2, his office had launched 77 of these investigations, up from 48 a year earlier, according to the Commerce Department — that’s an increase of 60 percent.

And yet the trade deficit in goods is expanding, not shrinking. Through September, the most recent month for which data is available, the U.S. exported goods worth about $1.15 trillion while importing goods valued at about $1.74 trillion, for a deficit of $587 billion. The deficit over the same period a year ago was $546 billion, according figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Nov. 3.

Some of the Trump administration’s moves have made matters worse. Though most of the Commerce Department’s investigations take around a year to complete — so it will be some time before the results of those actions can be determined — they begin with the imposition of temporary tariffs that can have immediate effects. Ross’s trade actions so far have tended to involve relatively obscure products, such as Chinese aluminum foil. When he has gone after bigger game, he has run into trouble. The three biggest categories of imports that Ross went after this year are Chinese steel, Canadian lumber and Canadian aircraft. None of those investigations produced the results he might have hoped for.

Curbing Chinese steel imports

Trump’s threats to curb U.S. purchases of cheap Chinese steel totally backfired. He has repeatedly told domestic steel producers that he would help them by pushing a glut of cheap metal out of the U.S. market. “Wait till you see what I’m going to do for steel and your steel companies,” Trump said at a political rally in Cincinnati in June. “We’re going to stop the dumping and stop all of these wonderful other countries from coming in and killing our companies and our workers. We’ll be seeing that very soon. The steel folks are going to be very happy.” Back in April, the administration initiated an investigation of U.S. steel imports under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which allows for the use of tariffs if the government determines that international competition threatens the U.S.’s ability to produce goods related to national security.

The decision to exploit a provision designed for the Cold War was either creative or blatantly protectionist, depending on your point of view. But what is beyond dispute is that the threat to curb steel imports caused a surge in shipments from abroad as companies raced to get their product through the door before Trump closed it. Steel imports were up 20 percent through the first nine months of 2017 compared with the same period last year, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute.

Targeting Canadian lumber

Unlike China and Mexico, with whom America has large trade deficits, Canada is a country with which the U.S. ran a trade surplus in goods and services in 2015 and 2016. Yet in April, the Commerce Department announced that it had decided to tag Canadian lumber with duties of as much as 24 percent in response to what it deemed unfair subsidies from Canada’s provincial governments, which control access to much of the country’s forests. (Earlier this month, Commerce lowered the penalty slightly in its final determination.)

The tariff was meant to assuage U.S. lumber mills, which say provinces charge too little for permission to cut trees on government land. But Trump has no control over nature. The hurricanes that devastated Houston, other parts of the South, and American islands in the Caribbean this summer created unexpected demand for building materials, pushing lumber prices up and offsetting whatever pain Canada’s forestry industry would have felt from Trump’s border tax. Shares of Canfor, a major Canadian lumber company, increased by more than 40 percent in the six months between the time the original duties were applied and early November. Compare that with the performance of the America’s biggest owner of sawmills: Shares of Weyerhaeuser, one of the companies that complained to Commerce about Canadian forestry policy, were only 4 percent higher over the same period.

Protecting Boeing

Another case involving Canada went awry when Boeing asked Commerce in April to punish Montreal-based Bombardier for agreeing to sell planes to Delta Air Lines for what the American planemaker called an “absurdly low” price. There was a problem with the request for retaliation though: Boeing doesn’t make the plane that Delta bought from Bombardier; it had offered to sell Delta secondhand Brazilian aircraft in its own bid for the airline’s business. The Trump administration sided with Boeing anyway.

At the end of September, Commerce initiated temporary duties of 220 percent on any Canadian plane of a certain size that crossed the border — the duties were meant to offset allegedly illegal subsidies. Ten days later, Commerce added a second tariff of 80 percent to offset what it felt was an unreasonably low price. The combined duty of 300 percent far exceeded Boeing’s request for a punitive tariff of a combined 159 percent.1

If the tariffs were meant to crush the hopes of an upstart in Boeing’s backyard, they may have instead had the unintended consequence of strengthening the U.S. company’s true rival: Airbus. Bombardier had gone heavily into debt, and the Commerce duties were a deathblow. In need of a lifeline, Bombardier struck a partnership with Airbus — which allowed Airbus to expand without paying a cent.

If Canada won’t be pushed around — despite the country relying on the U.S. to buy more than 70 percent of its exports — that doesn’t bode well for Trump’s trade policy with the wider world. If the president insists on continuing down this path, both enacting punitive measures and reconsidering America’s role in multi-country trade deals, he will likely face more unintended consequences.

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #Kevin Carmichael

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theopentable · 5 years ago

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The Restructuring of Consciousness

For Keating, transforming union is the goal of the first part of the Christian journey. It is a way of being characterised by freedom from the false self and freedom from the domination of the emotional programs for happiness whereby divine life is experienced as sheer gift, a gift that is extended outward in an overflowing sense. This divine life is also experienced as a state of consciousness, a permanent awareness that permeates the whole of life, a perceiving of all things in God and God in all things. This journey represents a series of movements, according to Keating, beginning with spiritual attentiveness (through centring prayer), to an ever-deepening absorption of the faculties of God, to the dismantling of the false self and purification of the unconscious which leads ultimately to transforming union.

Keating explains that transforming union involves a restructuring of consciousness that perceives a new dimension to all reality. This restructuring of consciousness, according to Keating, is reflected in the beatitudes which highlight the goodness and limitations of each stage of development. The beatitudes, Keating proposes, are directed to the growth of inner freedom and the formation of Christ in us:

‘They prepare us for the continuing work of letting go of selfishness and of sensitizing ourselves to the movements of the Spirit, which invite us not only to generous efforts, but also to heroic service of God and other people.’[1]

To the reptilian consciousness (focused on food, shelter, survival, and the prompt fulfillment of physical needs) the first beatitude says, “How happy you would be if you were poor in spirit, that is, if you put your trust in God rather than in possessions or other symbols of security.”

To the part-human, part-animal typhonic consciousness (especially focused on the drive for affection/ esteem and pleasure and the drive for power and control), the second and third beatitudes facilitate a new relationship with the persons, places or things that we love.

When Jesus says, “Happy are those who mourn, for they will be comforted,” he speaks to our exaggerated needs for affection, esteem and pleasure. Jesus’ wisdom saying invites us to enter into the necessary letting go of the pressure we have placed on limited things to provide us with the unlimited happiness we desire. This comes with a necessary letting go or detachment which always gives rise to some kind of mourning. And yet, with this mourning, so to new freedoms; freedoms that come from no longer trying to squeeze absolute happiness from passing pleasures.

The third beatitude, “Happy are the meek,” addresses our instinctual drives for power and control. The point of this beatitude for Keating, is as if to say, “How happy you would be if you did not want to control situations, other people, or your own life, and if you possessed the freedom to accept insults and injustice without being blown away.”[2]

To the mythic membership level of consciousness (focused on absorbing the value systems of parents, teachers, peer groups, and culture as part of our necessary social development) the fourth beatitude, “Happy are those who hunger and thirst for justice; they will have their fill”, addresses our ‘overidentification with our social group and frees us from the urgency to be accepted and approved by the group’[3]. This restructuring of consciousness happens when human beings recognise that it is crucial that we go beyond the narrow set of behaviours that are upheld and esteemed by the particular in-groups to which we belong. Keatings adds,

“This does not mean that we should reject our country, religion, ethnic roots, or families. While remaining grateful for the good things we have received and loyal to family and social group, we recognize that such loyalty is not an absolute. We try to improve unhealthy or unjust situations in our family or community instead of clinging to a naive loyalty that refuses to see defects or fails to suggest improvements or corrections that should be made. We have the freedom to remain within our tradition or institution, while at the same time working for its renewal... The Spirit gives us courage to make our personal response to Christ, rather than one that is based on what others say, do, or expect.”[4]

The transformation from the mythic membership level of consciousness to the mental egoic consciousness is a significant development. It is at this level of consciousness that the energy once used up in attempts to cope with experiences of emotional stress are now available for other purposes and growth. As Keating describes,

‘The straitjacket of the false self squeezes people into an infinitesimal use of their human potentialities. The beatitudes enable them to expand and to start to access these immense possibilities.’[5]

The mental egoic consciousness (fully reflective self-consciousness, fully human, cooperative, nonjudgmental, and accepting of others) is reflected in the fifth beatitude: “Happy are the merciful, mercy will be shown to them.” Keating unpacks the significance of this beatitude, a beatitude which fulfils Christ’s commandment for us to love one another as we have been loved:

‘The merciful are those whose concern is beginning to expand beyond family and loved ones into the larger community. Their concern ultimately includes the whole human family, past, present, and to come. The ultimate goal of Jesus is to engage us in the redemption of the world. The beatitudes impart the steadfast love of God who makes the sun to shine on the good and the not-so-good, on those who respond and on those who do not respond.’[6]

The beatitude which speaks to the intuitive level of consciousness is reflected in Jesus’ saying, “Happy are the pure in heart for they will see God.”At this level, Keating explains that all our relationships change—towards ourselves, towards God and other people, towards the cosmos. In this state of awareness, faith begins to reveal the hidden reality of all things:

‘Everything begins to speak to us of God. Happiness arises from the perception of God’s closeness and our sense of belonging to the universe. The feeling of closeness may be manifested in spiritual experiences such as the stages of “felt” contemplation… Such experiences may deepen through ever-increasing absorption in God during prayer, and alert us to his presence in daily life, events, and other people.’[7]

This new way of seeing and relating draws human beings into the ‘crisis of trust called the night of spirit, during which the longing for divine union becomes acute.’[8] “Happy are the peacemakers,” Jesus said. This is a state of tranquillity, order, integration and transcendence – a peace that transcends our human experiences through surrender into divine union and love. Our small self becomes grounded in a much larger identity bound up in God.

The eight beatitude, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” belongs to a stage of consciousness that Keating identifies as perfect wisdom:

‘This is the wisdom that finds happiness in persecution. “Be happy,” Jesus says in effect, “if people say the worst things they can about you, or when you suffer for the truth, for justice, or for my name. Rejoice. Dance for joy for your reward is very great in heaven.” In this extraordinary world view, persecution endured for God is the peak of happiness. Those who have experienced this beatitude have moved beyond self-interest to such a degree that they no longer have a possessive attitude toward themselves. Their identity is rooted in Christ and the unique identity he wants them to have. If their vocation requires suffering, they perceive that they are then serving him more effectively. They not only enter into the peace of Christ but also become sources of the divine life and peace for others. The graced energy received from God, like an ever-flowing stream, is shared with those with whom they live and far beyond. Through them, God is pouring the divine light, life, and love into the human family.’[9]

This, for Keating, is the shape of transforming union, the restructuring of consciousness that leads to new ways of being in the world that transcend everything in the world without leaving it.

---------------------------------------

[1] Invitation to Love 20th Anniversary Edition: The Way of Christian Contemplation by Thomas Keating, p.126

[2] Ibid., p,123

[3] Ibid., pp.124-125

[4] Ibid., p.125

[5] Ibid., p.128

[6] Ibid., pp.127-128

[7] Ibid., p.129

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid., pp.130-131

#Contemplative reflections #Thomas Keating

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uk-news-talking-politics · 6 years ago

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Just in case you're interested, this is what the European parliament actually does

By Jonathan Lis You may have noticed the European elections are on. The Tories are campaigning for their deal. Labour is campaigning to bring the country together. The Brexit party and Ukip are campaigning for Brexit. The Greens, Lib Dems and Change UK are campaigning for Remain. Like a mirage, the elections are fully present yet completely intangible. Why? Because nobody is discussing the literal purpose of the vote and the place we're actually electing people to: the European parliament. I first visited the parliament in 2011. I was nonplussed. What even was it? What was its function? It seemed the least important part of the EU, and I didn't much like that either. Like many people, I had never been taught about the EU and didn't understand it. The fact it was so impenetrable made me instinctively mistrust it. The friend I was visiting, an environmental lobbyist, led me through the corridors of the parliament's visitor centre and fielded my increasingly agitated questions. Did the parliament sit in Brussels or Strasbourg? Why did people talk about Luxembourg all the time? What was the difference between the Commission and the Council? And why the hell were we spending our Saturday afternoon in the European parliament visitor centre? The answers must have worked, because less than a year later I was working in the building as an MEP's assistant. The EU is confusing and complicated, and the European parliament is no different. It has developed over 60 years from a symbolic institution comprising delegates from national parliaments, to a comprehensive and influential directly-elected legislature holding the EU's bodies to account. Yes, it is bureaucratic. Yes, it can be inflexible. Yes, it is governed by many rules. That is the necessary product of an institution featuring 751 members from 28 countries, using three main working languages (English, French and German), and which interprets and translates all official meetings and documents into 24 official languages. But the place I worked in for two years was also a forum of ideas and cultures, where people from different countries gathered to negotiate their way out of problems, and where almost everyone was motivated by a genuine desire to cooperate and improve our continent.

So what does it actually do? The parliament is, in British terms, a turbocharged backbench. Some members are of course more senior and respected than others, but there is no equivalent to a minister. All have the opportunity to hold the Commission and Council to account. Each MEP is assigned to committees (three, in most cases), which meet for several hours each month to scrutinise and vote on legislation and non-legislative reports, debate new developments, and interview experts in the field. The committees' votes and reports then go to the monthly plenary sessions for approval by the whole parliament. Any member can amend almost any report or law and the amendment is guaranteed consideration. Unlike in the House of Commons, the president of the parliament has no discretion to block votes on an amendment - which makes it rather more democratic.

MEPs will act as a rapporteur for at least one report during their five-year term, which will involve regular meetings with the Commission, which is the EU's civil service, and Council, which represents national governments. At a legislative level, these are known as trilogues, in which representatives from the three institutions hammer out the final text. The process functions through compromise and consensus - no doubt one of the reasons it encounters such scorn in Westminster.

European politicians earn a level of access their national counterparts can only dream of. The joke among British MEPs was that Westminster MPs would stop sneering and start envying if they only knew what their colleagues in Brussels could accomplish. The foreign affairs committee, where I worked, welcomed heads of state and foreign ministers each month to discuss the most pressing issues of the day. We would receive regular briefings and high-level dialogues during the Ukraine, Crimea and Mali crises. I drafted a report on human rights in Western Sahara for my boss and on solo visits was hosted by both the Moroccan and Sahrawi governments. Why would they bother schmoozing a lowly MEP assistant? Because they took the European parliament seriously. A report mattered because the EU mattered.

MEPs are respected and sought out because most are highly competent and work hard. Unlike in Britain, where it is viewed almost on the level of a parish councillor, other countries send their ex-prime ministers and foreign ministers. National MPs often consider the role a promotion. A great many are fluent in multiple languages and form close bonds with colleagues from different countries and political backgrounds. The exception to this, of course, is Ukip. I used to see Nigel Farage propping up the bar with a cigarette, exuding bonhomie, relishing the lifestyle, loving to be hated, and all the while refusing to contribute a single meaningful thing towards his constituents' wellbeing. He and his colleagues registered for the daily allowance, alright, but almost none turned up to committees or did any discernible work whatsoever. The biggest problem with the parliament is its location. The original seat was and remains Strasbourg, on the Franco-German border, selected in the aftermath of the war as an icon of reconciliation. For years it shared a debating chamber with the Council of Europe, the institution set up by, among others, Winston Churchill. The administrative department sits in Luxembourg (don't ask), and most of the day-to-day work takes place in Brussels, to be close to the EU's other institutions. MEPs pile down to Strasbourg for three days each month to vote, then return to Brussels the following week. Do they enjoy the so-called 'Strasbourg circus', with its generous expenses? In a word, no. Strasbourg is exquisitely beautiful but the monthly commute is exhausting and pointless. MEPs have sought for years to remain in Brussels all year round. It's only that pesky national sovereignty which keeps it going: France vetoes any attempted change. Of course I want to use these elections to demonstrate my will to Remain, but we must take the European parliament more seriously and value what it accomplishes. As the heart of the EU's democracy, supervising the whole organisation and directly accountable to citizens, it represents one of the defining achievements of post-war European cooperation. It is not too late to appreciate it. It may not even be too late to stay in it.

#brexit #european elections 2019

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myotishia · 6 years ago

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In the air part three

Fandom: Torchwood. Trigger warnings: torture Characters: Owen Harper, Toshiko Sato, Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, Gwen Cooper, Elise Carter (oc) Rating: Teen and up

Blurb: With a MLM possibly trying to sell alien technology it’s a race to stop the devices reaching the public.

With Gwen away on her honeymoon their usual way of speaking with the police was unavailable so they had to go by their old methods, still knowing how to access the police systems as they hadn’t been changed in years. Owen was skimming over old reports to see if any other bodies had been found with the unique injection point at the back of their necks. It was a boring job but it was a good way to decompress and refocus. He stopped at a file about a girl known as Hellena Grace Higgins, twenty four at the time of her death. It had been an apparent suicide three years before. Just before her husband, Carl had gone missing. She’d been found in bed with her wrists slit while her husband was away. She’d left no note and showed no signs of hesitation. Owen looked closer at the autopsy photographs, seeing the telltale mark, though more bruised looking than the others, at the back of her neck. It had been overlooked at the time and gave a reason why the police hadn’t searched as hard as they should have for her grieving husband.

Elise and Ianto took a slow walk back, thankful that the recent rain had taken a break. People walked past them, just seeing the two as part of the crowd, never knowing their duties or what they had hidden just below the surface of the city. In the centre of the street a few doors down from Anne Summers stood a young woman in a bright pink shirt handing out leaflets. She had a forced chipperness about her and spoke as if everyone was her best friend. What caught the twos attention was the symbol printed on her shirt. She caught Elise looking and began her sales pitch.

“Hi hon, need a little excitement in your relationship or want to make some extra money from home.”

“Sure.” Elise began. “One sec. Babe.” She turned to Ianto and handed him the bag. “If you want to go ahead I’ll catch up.” She looked him in the eye, hoping he’d understand what she was doing. It took a moment but he got it.

“Oh, yea. Don’t be too long.”

“I won’t.” She turned back to the woman and Ianto retreated to a distance to observe, out of sight.

“Is that your other half? He seems like a sweet guy.” The woman nudged Elise in the arm.

“He is, but you know. Work stress. We barely have time.”

“Oh I know. It’s the worst. Have you heard of Dodolyas closet? We’ve been around for ages but recently we’ve had a big boost in how many girls know about us all thanks to our new boss babe system. Our mission is to spice up your relationships and help women like you and me become financially independent without commuting to an office every day.”

“Sounds interesting but I’m kind of shy so I’m not good at sales.”

“No worries. We can all be boss babes in this business opportunity even if we aren’t too confident yet. I just heard that we need new product testers, and between you and me it’s something completely unique. Would you be interested in applying?”

“Sure. Do you have a form or a contact number?”

“I can give you the forms, here’s my referral code, but you’ll have to contact this number at our head office. The address is on the website and the envelope. This is so exciting. Trust me these products could, no, will change your life.” The woman handed over a booklet with the forms hidden inside along with more advertising material and a catalogue. “If you want to order anything then you can contact me by email or over facebook.”

“Thanks.”

“You have a great day.” There it was, the customer service smile. Elise smiled in kind then walked up the street, nearly jumping out of her skin when Ianto tapped her on the shoulder.

“Babe? Really?”

“You have to speak the language of the hunbots. It’s like a cult, if they doubt you then they get aggressive. She said you were sweet if you know what I mean.”

“I’ve never wanted to cover myself up completely more than I do right now.”

“Come on ‘babe’ I’m hungry.” She laughed, hooking her arm around his.

“You should save shopping until you get home.” Said Jack, looking over Elise’s shoulder.

“Give me some credit, I’d never buy into anything this tacky and low quality. This is from the company the headband is apparently from.”

“Is it listed?”

“Not that I’ve seen but she said they needed new product testers so it might be still in the testing stage.” She took a swig of her orange juice. “They seem the kind of business to test something that dangerous on the masses. I know for a fact a couple of the ingredients they’re using are carcinogenic. Though that might not have been discovered yet.”

“That’s what happens when people refuse to talk about sex openly.”

“True. Hel-lo. What do we have here?” She flipped to one of the final pages with a recognisable silhouette.

“Not just in testing then.”

“Think we need to give them a little visit?”

“Leave it with me. If they’re willing to kill their own higher ups then I doubt they’ll let us walk in the front door and give up production. See if you can find out where their stuff is produced, maybe we can cut it off at the source.”

“Yes sir.”

Finding the place where these things were being produced was easier said than done. She’d found where every other item was made but nothing on the headband. She’d even found a few items that were only in the design stages and where the samples had been made but there was nothing on the headband.

“What if there is no factory. What if they’re just printing the symbol on what they found.” She thought aloud.

“Not the best business practice.” Said Tosh.

“But it makes sense, right? They make them limited edition. That’s why it’s taken three years, because they had to collect enough. They sell what they have, take the money and run before people start dying. “

Jack smiled slightly at her trying to be proactive. “Your evidence?”

“The first one we found didn’t have the symbol on the band. The bands would be printed before it was constructed so even prototypes should be marked correctly. What’s more if the police photos are right then the design hasn’t changed in three years. The first thing you’d take out is the need for anything to break the skin and a setting that would cause levels of pain that could kill to prevent lawsuits unless you don’t know how to change the design. Think about those we’ve found too. What do you do when you plan to sell this thing, you get rid of anyone who knows where you got it from or anyone who doesn’t agree with them. It was personal. That’s why that guy killed himself. If whoever he’s working for found out that he’d failed to get the band back, then he could end up like the others and the only way out he saw was to end his life. He was in bad shape after going missing so he was probably at his breaking point.”

Owen sat forward in his chair. “That does cover the condition of the bodies, but I think it was more than just keeping them quiet. Floras death was methodical, sadistic, more than most people would be capable of. If my timeline’s right then this sick fuck is escalating. They’ve started with their business partners and people they want to keep quiet but it’s not going to be long until they start picking up whoever they think they can get away with taking. They keep the names of every person they sell to so they could potentially have thousands of options.”

“Right, Tosh, I want the names of every member of the testing group. Anyone that could have been sent one of these things. Let’s keep the group small. Try and pinpoint their origin within the company, we could have a wannabe serial killer on our hands.”

Speaking to people could be the most annoying part of the job as you had to listen to people drone on about the dreariest nonsense just to get the smallest amount of information. Jack, Owen and Elise had split up to try and recover as many of the headbands as possible while Tosh and Ianto did their best to narrow down the list. Elise had borrowed Toshiko’s car as she still didn’t have one of her own and had parked outside of a very nice looking house with a perfectly manicured garden. She walked up the path and rang the doorbell. After a few moments a woman dressed in a bright pink corseted dress and high heels answered.

“Yes?”

Elise put on her best customer service smile. “Hi. I’m from Dodolyas closet about the product testing you’ve been participating in.”

“Oh? I didn’t know anyone would be following up in person. Come in.”

She followed the woman who seemed more plastic than flesh into the lavishly decorated home.

“Please take a seat. Would you like a drink? Coffee? Tea?”

“Thank you but I haven’t got much time. I still have to visit some of the other testers.”

“I completely understand, you must be a very busy woman.”

“I definitely have been. Do you have the product? We need to collect them all before release but you’ll be given a free replacement on release day for participating.”

“Sure sugar. I’ll go grab it.”

Elise watched the woman leave the room and looked around. Everything was so garishly pink it started to hurt her eyes. On a shelf beside the large TV were framed photographs for the homeowner with friends smiling and laughing. On the far left there was one with a few faces she recognised. One of them being Flora. She didn’t have much time to think about it as something blunt and heavy slammed into the back of the door and she crumpled to the floor, out cold.

Owen had just collected the fourth headband from a young woman who seemed almost desperate to keep the thing when she caught sight of the list he was checking on his phone.

“Oh, the brand owner is testing it too?”

“Not that we know of, why?”

“There. Deborah Coral. She uses her maiden name on all the internal paperwork. I don’t know why she’s testing it though. She made the thing.”

Owen rushed to his car, ignoring the woman's surprised questions, and hit his comms. “Elise? Just tap if you can’t answer me verbally. Deborah Coral’s on your list, she’s our killer. Elise? Shit! Jack!”

“Finished your list already?”

“Deborah Coral. She’s the CEO, not a tester. She’s the one taking the credit for making the headbands.”

“Nice work. Are you meeting up with Elise?”

“Deborah was on her list and Elise isn’t answering.”

“On my way.”

Owen put his foot down, hoping that he was wrong and that Elise had just taken her earpiece off. Even at top speed he would take a while to get to the other side of the city.

Elise’s head pounded as she came back to her senses. The first thing she realised was that she was strapped to a chair and completely unable to move, the second was that there was a blindingly bright light shining directly in her face that was making the pain in her head so much worse.

“You’re the one sticking their nose where it shouldn’t be then?” A sickly sweet voice seemed to echo around the room. “What I want to know is why.” Deborah moved the light to the side so Elise could see.

“I’m just doing my job.” She said through clenched teeth.

“Oh please, I know every single one of the people involved in my little project here and you aren’t one of them.”

Stay calm, that was the first thing Owen had taught her. In a bad situation you had to stay calm. She jumped as a nail scratched along the lines on her right hand.

“This scar looks like it was deep. Did it hurt?” She said it with such glee.

“Not really. No.”

Deborah huffed. “Shame. I saw you looking at my photos. You know when I found my husband was sleeping with that… secretary girl I was angry, but he did teach me one thing. Pain is a necessary part of existence. He was my first and it was just so… Exciting. Of course I had to find someone else to play with but that Hellena I think it was. She barely lasted moments after I put this little to the test. That time I learned my lesson, anything too quick and it’s just not satisfying. Her husband on the other hand. Now he could really make a girls legs shake.”

“He killed himself.”

“Yes and he robbed me of my joy. Thankless little waste of time. I do miss him though, he was just so resilient.”

“Where did you find the headbands?”

“My husband found the first one. Him and his little friends used to go off on the weekend and explore abandoned buildings and bunkers. And he came back one day raving about this underground military bunker that he’d spent the night in. He told me that the chairs inside each had one of these on the headrest and that I had to try it. Of course I wanted to know where but he decided I didn’t need to know. I tried to get him to tell me willingly, I really did but he always had a weak heart and he’s better at fertilising the garden than he ever was at satisfying me. I had to piece together where the place was from his quaint little notes. After him I got a taste for pain. I should show you.” She gave a crocodiles grin and picked up a headband, wrapping it around the back of Elise’s head as she struggled. It was no use, she was bound too tightly and she felt the needle pierce the back of her neck. In her thrashing she realised that her earpiece and gun were gone. It could take hours for the others to realise she was missing. She had to stay calm. The pain in the back of her head pulsed.

“Get this thing off of me!” Elise shouted.

“Now now, you’re in no position to give orders. I’m guessing you were sent by whatever military group the headbands came from so you should have a decent amount of willpower. I wonder how long you’ll last.”

“You don’t want to do this.” She tried to breath through the blinding pain in her head.

“Yes I do. I want to make you scream. Your head must be killing you already and it’s only set to the fourth level. We have two more to go yet. This level it just amplifies pain, the next it makes any pressure or contact sting and the last level makes you feel your organs move. Isn’t that exciting?” Deborah giggled, picking up a riding crop from a table in the corner. She brought it down across Elise’s thigh sending a burning pain through her leg. It reminded her of the gunshot wound and she couldn’t help but let out a cry. It rattled through her body and took much too long to fade. If this was the lowest level then what had it been like for the others. The anger and bitterness over that made Elise pull herself back together. Spite. Sometimes the only thing that could keep you going was spite. The riding crop came down on her leg again but this time she clenched her jaw and refused to cry out. Deborah looked annoyed and brought the crop down as hard as she could. Nothing. She threw the crop in frustration and backhanded Elise across the face. It felt like she’d been hit with a bat and she could taste blood from a mildly split lip.

Debora grabbed Elise by the hair and held her still while she turned the headband up another level.

“Why aren’t you begging me to stop?!”

“Not… Gonna help… you get… off.” She panted, the restraints feeling as if they were burning into her skin.

Debora stomped her foot like a tantruming child. Getting a mischievous smile on her face she clicked her ridiculous high heels over to the table and grabbed something that Elise couldn’t see. She held up a wheel of sewing pins in front of Elise’s face.

“Where do you want these?”

Elise’s mind raced to think of anything to say to stop the psychopath from doing what she had planned. It came up blank. Debora took a pin from the wheel and held it up to the light.

“Don’t worry, these are fresh needles. I want to be the source of your suffering, not some infection. Shall I push this into a joint? Under a nail? If you beg me I might put it somewhere less sensitive.” She was shockingly strong as she held her victims fingers still, the long pin held just under a nail. The pressure alone burned but the sharp point would be agony. Nothing Elise could say would make it better so she closed her eyes and hoped it would be over quickly. It felt as if her index finger had exploded. She screeched, tears running down her face. It seemed to delight the sadistic businesswoman, making her laugh.

“Not so strong now.”

“Die in a fucking fire, bitch!” Elise roared, light spots swimming through her vision.

The woman raised her arm to slap her again but the doorbell rang.

“What now?! You stay here and think about your position.”

Elise watched the woman go through tears before trying to work out how to free herself. It was hard to get her thoughts straight and moving just made it worse. She needed to get her hands free. Fighting her own bodies natural reaction to avoid making the pain any worse she turned her hand so her thumb was tucked under her palm. Her fingers shook as she pressed down onto the arm of the chair to make some space for her to slip out of the belt. It was like her dream, the burning cold, her lungs aching, blinded by pain. With a fast tug she slipped her hand free and immediately pulled the headband from her head, the pain dulling to almost nothing. She didn’t have time to catch her breath as she unbuckled herself and wrenched the pin out with her teeth, staggering to her feet on still shaking legs. Placing her earpiece back on she called out.

“Anyone out there? I found our killer.” She gasped, still trying to gather her thoughts.

Upstairs Jack and Owen already had Deborah handcuffed.

“Where is she?” Asked Jack, his gun pointed at their prisoner.

“Who? Your little friend? I’m not telling you a thing. By the time you find her she’ll be dead or too far gone to save.”

The captain really wanted to shoot this woman but they’d already decided to call in the police. Her crimes were very much human and that wasn’t what Torchwood dealt with. Owen had murder in his eyes but decided to put the energy into finding Elise instead. Thankfully they didn’t have to look far for their agent, hearing her voice on comms.

“We’re here. Where are you?” Asked Jack.

“Cellar I think… I’m ok. Did you get her?”

“We got her.”

Elise appeared from behind a bookcase that slid to the side. She looked pale but enraged.

Deborah looked round. “How did you get out?”

“Small hands, spite, just to ruin your day. You’re lucky they’re here because right now all I want to do is smash your fake, plastic, over painted face into the floor... Are the police here yet?”

Owen shook his head, moving to let Elise get close to the bound woman.

“Good.” Elise backhanded Deborah across the face as hard as she could. After that display that neither man had any intention of stopping, Owen guided Elise to sit down.

“Any double vision?” He asked, crouched in front of her.

“No. I’m fine. I don’t think I was out for long.”

He wasn’t convinced but her pupils reacted correctly and she showed no signs of confusion. Her breathing finally evened out as he examined the back of her head. There was a large bump but the skin hadn’t broken.

“What happened down there?”

“That bitch put one of those fucking headbands on me. Had a riding crop.” She pulled her trouser leg up to show the nasty welts on her thigh. As she put the fabric back down it was clear that she was keeping her finger away from touching anything. Owen took one look and knew what had happened.

“You interrupted her.” Droned Elise, looking at her finger. “They were new needles. She made a point of telling me.”

Owen winced and that. “Mind if I check for myself?”

“Go ahead. The headband’s on the floor down there too. I didn’t look at the rest of the room.”

“You leave that to me.”

“I fucked up, didn’t I?” she sounded angry at her own incompetence.

“Oi, stop it. If we thought for even a moment this was a possibility then none of us would have gone alone. You handled it the best way you could. We dropped the ball on that, not you.” He handed her an ice pack for the back of her head before going to collect what he needed from the cellar.

With no signs of a concussion Elise was cleared to drive back to the hub where Tosh almost knocked her over with a hug.

“Are you ok? You went dark and I thought… Are you hurt?” She asked, not letting go.

“Bruised but otherwise. I’m ok.” Elise smiled softly. She suddenly wanted to cry but had no idea why, swallowing to stop herself and hiding in Toshiko’s shoulder. She ached all over and her finger pulsed.

“Are you sure?” Tosh could feel a few tear drops land on her shoulder.

Jack rested a hand on Toshiko’s other shoulder. “Take her home. It’s going to hit her soon and it’s better if she’s in familiar surroundings.”

“What happened? Jack?”

“I’ll call you later to explain.”

Elise rubbed her eyes with the palm of her hand, looking down at her shoes. “I’m fine. I don’t even know why I’m crying.”

He sighed and looked at her sympathetically, gently holding her arms. “Elise. Look at me.”

She sniffed and looked up into his bright blue eyes.

“What she did to you was torture. It doesn’t matter if you’re in one piece or not. Minutes or hours, you’re not weak for it affecting you. I’d be more worried if it didn’t affect you.” He said softly but firmly, letting her fall into his arms, shaking. “It’s ok. I’ve got you.”

Later that night Elise opened up to her girlfriend and was shocked at how much she understood.

“Ely, sometimes bad things happen to us. You can’t blame yourself. You didn’t do anything wrong. You handled it so well. Better than I would have. Ok?”

She didn’t seem to want to answer.

“Come on. Ok?”

“Ok... I want to be cut out for this but I’ve never had anyone tell me that I was worth a thing until I met my Owen and all of you. I always feel like I’m just in the way.”

“If you haven’t been retconned then you’re fine. I trust Jacks judgement.”

“Not that you could.”

“Hm?”

“My Owen told me I’m immune to it.”

“Still. You have a right to be here and we all know how hard you’re trying. You’ve saved lives. Don’t you think that makes you worthy of being happy?”

“I am happy. I’m very happy. My head’s just all over the place.”

“You can tell me anything, you know that don’t you? Even if you don’t think it’s important. I think it’s important. I want you around. If you can’t do it for you yet then do it for me.”

“I will.” Elise smiled and cuddled up to Tosh.

“Want to know what I was doing before dinner?”

She nodded.

“I shut down the dodolyas closet website, reversed all the charges on their system for the last month, sent all of their illegal practices to the police and made sure she couldn’t buy her way out of trouble.”

Elise laughed. “That’s amazing. I love you, you know that?”

Tosh blushed. They’d never said the ‘L’ word before. “I love you too.”

#Torchwood #toshiko sato #owen harper #gwen cooper #ianto jones #jack harkness

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