#Since it also involves him setting up a situation to someone's disadvantage with a highly likely specific outcome

[cherrycloy]

The entire fandom probably agrees that Aizawas logical ruse thing on the first day of school was some first class contrived BS that only made him seem erratic and untrustworthy

But I was just thinking about it and. there's no way he was actually lying here

Because later he tells Izuku straight to his face that he has zero potential and isn't going to make it as a hero. Bakugou even lampshades that he is going to be expelled. Aizawa tells him this before he even has a chance to use his quirk and injure himself, confirming that he'd made up his mind before the exercise even started

When Izuku shows that he can use his quirk without completely incapacitating himself, Aizawa is visibly surprised and suddenly, even though there's a clear last place, the threat of expelling a student is off the table

Honestly the panels are vague enough that I have no idea whether this is the intended read, but i could totally see him setting up the situation to put Izuku on display as a bad example and then dramatically expel him. It's a similarly asshole - y approach but at least he's not randomly lying to the kids for shits and giggles

[volepaw]

this is probably a long time ago but i just saw it on my dashboard and if you don’t want to respond that’s fine! I feel so dumb but I really just want to know and I can’t seem to find any ‘explanation’ yet but why what’s thing about the Tribe that makes it racist? Sorry for bothering! (If i’m just being dumb and there is already someone who answered this please let me know)

long post. sorry mobile people

Hey, anon. Sorry this took me a while, my computer died a few months ago and I’ve been using other peoples’ since. Plus I’m just tired of answering questions irt racism but I wanted to actually give you a good answer lol

In universe, frankly, the first issue is the differences from clan cats.

Usually, I’d actually like having groups with different cultures and the like in warriors! I like comparing cultures and seeing differences and effects when it’s handled properly. The problem is how the differences put them at a disadvantage against the clan cats as a whole or show them as strange, primitive, or as something similar to the Noble Savage trope.“The Healer also almost never leaves the cave, because unlike leaders they do not have nine lives and it’s easier for them to be killed.” (x) The fact that the Healer/Teller of Pointed Stones/Stoneteller doesn’t receive nine lives, while indicative of a different culture from the clan cats, clearly places the clans as a more ‘valid’ and legitimate group. This is heightened further when you consider the entire prophecy that they receive during the new prophecy arc.“However, the Tribe has their own prophecy to fulfill: they see Stormfur as their only hope, the silver cat mentioned by the Tribe of Endless Hunting, their spiritual ancestors.“ (x)”A silver cat will come, and rid the Tribe of Rushing Water of the dangerous mountain cat Sharptooth.”(x)While it some will likely argue that this is an unfair comparison considering that they are cats, this harkens back to the White Savior trope/Mighty Whitey trope. Despite the setting becoming more of a fantasy place as production continued, the clans were originally intended to be set in England, specifically in New Forest. (x) Arguably, the original clans can be considered relatively ‘aracial,’ ignoring metaphors such as half-clan kits and the like.This, juxtapositioned with the heavily coded nature of the tribe, creates some unfortunate situations when actually examined. The tribe, with practices including darkening their pelts with mud in order to hide themselves (something that makes me personally uncomfortable) and being able to hunt eagles, harkens back to the Noble Savage trope, with a group doing things that the ‘aracial’ main cast find strange and thrilling to learn and take back with them. Effectively, they use another culture as a backdrop for their own growth and for Stormfur’s story and emotional arc.Stormfur being accused of being the cat of prophecy and Feathertail’s death are just another drop in the bucket of stories of outsiders coming to save indigenous and otherwise non-white groups from problems they can’t solve themselves. There is no reason, truthfully, that a tribe cat couldn’t have dealt with the cougar themselves, given that it took no great skill for Feathertail to kill it. Merely sacrifice. Multiple times over the course of the series, the tribe needs the clan cats to save them from outside threats and every time it feels unnecessary and, frankly, insulting as a Native American myself. A group of cats shown to be able to hunt eagles being unable to figure out a way to drive rogues from their lands is strange, in my eyes, and upsetting at the same time.The argument of subversion could be valid in Stormfur’s case (as he messed it up originally and wasn’t the savior himself at all) if they didn’t go as heavily in the direction of Feathertail being the savior instead. Chosen by the tribe’s ancestors, she even hears voices of the ancestors prior to her death. Feathertail is buried by the tribe with the highest of honors. (x) While in character it’s great for her to have been honored so highly, the fact that the tribe cats had to rely on clan cats to save them is insulting at best.While he wasn’t the actual savior himself, everything with Stormfur and Brook, honestly, is uncomfortable to read when considering the implications of what’s going on. Brook reads like a Chief’s Daughter with four paws. “The Chief’s daughter […] is often the first to befriend Mighty Whitey during his visit to the strange new land. She’ll conveniently be beautiful by Western standards, but with just enough racial traits to be exotic.” (x)“She is the first cat to realize that Stormfur is the cat from the prophecy, and confronts him. Although scolded by Crag Where Eagles Nest, she welcomes the cats if they are not there maliciously.” “This disappoints Stormfur a little bit, since he likes the she-cat’s courage and friendliness. Brook shows up just as the Clan cats are getting ready to sleep for the night. She was sent by Stoneteller to make sure that the cats were comfortable, but Stormfur wonders if it was just him that she was sent to help.” (x)While this seems fine at first, if you just consider it a normal romance, it becomes more uncomfortable to think about. “More often than not, she will fall in love accidentally with the White Man who likes her as well and wants to marry her. Often this can be seen as a litmus test to see whether the white man is worthy of being part of their tribe.” (x)“Rock says that Brook had begun to love Stormfur while she was teaching him the ways of the Tribe. Although cats like her brother, Talon, didn’t care for Stormfur at first, they soon changed their mind because of the love Brook had for Stormfur.” (x)This trope, of a white man coming in and a Native American girl falling for him has been done over and over again, with one of the biggest examples being to Pocahontas. Even looking at the plot for both of these movies, similarities become clear. A young Native American woman, related to either the chief or the future chief, falls for a foreign man while teaching him the ways of her people. Following the conflict, she ends up traveling far from her home to stay in a culture foreign to her, learning their ways. In Pocahontas, there are two different men she falls for. In warriors, Brook leaves the tribe to stay with Stormfur, having become his mate after he elected to stay. Deciding to stay in the tribe, by the way, is almost the epitome of the Going Native trope.“The Going Native trope plays to this fantasy by having a character lifted out of his typical environment and thrust into a new one, only to become a part of that new world. […] As soon as they feel quite comfortable, possibly having fallen in love with a local girl and/or learned big lessons from a mentor figure, count on their old life to come messing with them.“ (x)“As the Clans leave once they have had enough food to eat, Stormfur decides to stay with Brook and the Tribe. Stormfur chooses to stay with the Tribe, with Brook and Feathertail’s spirit. The Clans thank the Tribe and leave.“ (x)The theme of clan cats being more connected to the tribe than the tribe themselves continues with Jayfeather, with him going back to the past using his power as Jay’s Wing. Jay’s Wing urges the group that would become the Tribe of Rushing Water to go to the territory that they’re shown in modernly. (x)The tribe is allowed nothing for themselves. Not history nor their own heroes or successes in the books. Their naming traditions, which are cringeworthy and borderline racist in the books themselves both for normal cats in the tribe and the practice of completely changing the Healer’s name, are mocked by Rock“Rock notes that he finds this method strange, as he perceives that this way of naming kits would cause many kits to be named things like ‘Wall of Cave,’ or ‘Floor of Cave.’” (x) and their first Stoneteller was involved heavily with Starclan (Which, along with the things do with Jay’s Wing, are remarkably similar to the Magical Native American trope in its bare bones), despite the fact that Healers aren’t given the same nine lives as the clan cats. While much of this is likely due to bad writing, it doesn’t excuse the implications that come with what they’ve written. It’s poor writing and an absolute shitshow of racism, with trope after trope being just stacked on top of each other in hopes of making a good story. It doesn’t work and it just shows a lack of care and respect for cultures other than their own. Don’t come onto my post and whine about it being celtic or some shit.

[nidhoggssoultrap]

Headcanon Part 3

Dress up game...one character...inspired all this...wow. But, I was able to dig up some old “flames” because of this, so it’s all good.

Previous “Headcanons”:

https://nidhoggssoultrap.tumblr.com/post/190472389157/my-headcanon-nidhogg-louie-and-yvette-mostly

https://nidhoggssoultrap.tumblr.com/post/190581277697/headcanonsvingettessnippets-part-2

1. Since I have a special fondness for Camaros, I decided that Nidhogg will be driving that. A powerful black one that is a blast to drive. >:) My biases are showing, I know.

2. My "adaptation" is a cross over with Ultima. This is a very old series that has been an inspiration for years. Want an old school RPG to play? Try the Ultima series. The NES port of Ultima IV, Quest of the Avatar is excellent. But, the PC versions are better with Ultima 7 being considered the best and unfortunately going downhill from there. Still, it is an amazing old school series that is worth checking out and they are either free or low cost. Anyway, the Blood Curse problem is solved by instituting a "Virtue System" with Louie as one of the "Avatars", a shining example of virtue. Yvette will be one too as will quite a few others. The "True King" used to be like this, but because of his curse, he lost all virtue and is no longer an Avatar.

Nidhogg had NO idea that Louie was such a thing. No one did until he revealed it after the fight. Nidhogg had been trying for another power and as stated in the second batch of headcanon, he failed. Because of this, he is hit with a second curse, one that is not only painful, but scarring. Unlike the Blood Curse, only an Avatar can alleviate the pain once it flares up and there is no way to free someone from such a curse.

The "Fail Curse" basically means that you must follow the path of the Avatar and live in service to them. Failure to do so means being burned alive. Since Nidhogg isn't stupid or interested in killing himself(he did, however, consider it), he follows that path. The scarring goes from the heart and covers the upper left side of the body, except for the neck, face, and private parts(think heart attack area and that's generally where the scarring is). Still, having such scarring puts someone at a disadvantage in styling contests. The "Scarring" is the term I will be using in my "headcanon".

3. Remember the "He can't keep getting away with this!" Yvette says about Nidhogg? She tells Louie this and he point blank says, "he's not going to." This one came up recently, but I'm going to roll with it. It's based on something that apparently happens in a new Yvette Dreamweaver. After the death of Lunar,  Louie decides to pay her a visit in Lillith due to their mutual connection to Nidhogg. She's seen Louie before in Apple(first while he was on his motorcycle and second at a restaurant bar)  and thought he was "gorgeous." She considered the woman he loved "a very lucky woman". Nidhogg was NOT happy with this, but he acted like it was "no big deal". Anyway, Yvette and Louie tell each other about themselves a bit and he reveals that not everything about the Prime Minister is false, but does confirm that the Colonel is the "genuine article".  Yvette is sorry about Lunar's death and, of course, so is Louie. They agree to work together to stop Nidhogg. This would happen while Nikki and Kimi are in Apple dealing with Reid.

4. Speaking of beach theme in the last headcanon, Nidhogg's idea of "beach theme" is a t-short and boxer shorts. That's it. He's the same way with the Pajama theme.

5. I have another bunny involving Louie taking advantage of Nidhogg's love for him. It's basically a plot to steal back the White Blossom. It's a "date" that ends in "bedtime" and well, Louie succeeds in stealing the White Blossom. Needless to say, Nidhogg is well...displeased at being so used. It does not end for either one of them as they fight at the grave of Louie's father. Yea, mean bunny. I get those sometimes.

6. Nidhogg's parents were high ranking NCOs in the military. His father(I named Liam) was a "King of Cups" sort while his mother(Madam Zosha) was a "Queen of Wands." If one had to choose, it's agreed that Nidhogg took after his father and became "The Page of Swords" and ultimately "The King of Swords." He loved his parents very much and was present when they died. Liam died the same way Micheal Collins did(shot while going between cars). Zosha died soon afterward trying to avenge him. This is quite possibly his most painful memory and won't likely be surpassed. He was eight years old.  He lived for two years on his own before being discovered in Black Rock City by Louie's father. Yea, Nidhogg knows some hardship and knows how it feels to watch someone being accused of things they did not do (Liam was falsely accused of treason) and lose everything because of it.

7. Nidhogg learned to drive when he was 13. Self-taught on a manual shift jeep. He stalled only once, decided that it would never happen again and it didn't(that is, until the very end of the chase when Yvette finally fights back). He was a few years older when he learned to fly, but was quickly surpassed by Louie. However, as stated in previous headcanons, Nidhogg is a better driver.

8. There are four "loopholes" around the Blood Curse: 1. Medicines(Regent 7), 2. Inability to feel pain. 3. The ability to feel pain and pleasure as one. 4. Immune/Highly Resistant to curses. Louie becomes the 4th one due to Avatarhood.

9. It should have gone without saying that Nidhogg is a loner(which was why he was happy that Louie was similar). In fact, Shade was shocked that he would continue desiring Louie. Shade had assumed that Nidhogg didn't need anyone. Nidhogg's response? "Who said anything about need?" A lot of my favorite characters are like this.

10. Confession Bear: While thinking of the car chase story, I kind of laughed at the fact that there are two grown men embroiled in "gay drama" in front of a young woman, two teenage girls, and a talking cat. In the end, pretty much everyone knew what went on between Louie and Nidhogg, not something either of them wanted much.

11. In Headcanon 2, I made it clear that Louie was blinded by hate/rage. Because of this, some of his actions were a bit unbecoming of an avatar(this Ultima, this happens too. The point is that things can get complicated and being virtuous doesn't always work). Like: twisting and turning Nidhogg's words until it suited his purpose, ascribing words/actions to Nidhogg that he didn't actually say/do, using Nidhogg's actual words against him, and well, subterfuge. Louie succeeds in getting a good number of people to defect, but they end up siding with ORLANDO. Either way, League Tyr suffers losses because of it. Part of the reason Louie acted the way he did was due to desperation, but also the rage he felt toward Nidhogg, but it wasn't pure rage as he still loved his elder "brother"/friend.

At the end of their final duel, Louie strips him of his cape, his medals, and his weapons. He tells the girls, "If you have any last words to say to him, say them now because it'll be awhile before you ever see him again, if ever." He also uses Nidhogg's quote about fate against him("This is your fate").   All of this was done while Nidhogg suffered greatly under the "Fail Curse." Louie could have alleviated the pain while before banishing him, but deliberately chose not to.

He's also said this(when Morrison/Grey Raven was captured): "The opinions of others mattered little to your parents. Where are they now?" Er, yea...lowblow. Nidhogg's response? A raised eyebrow and he continued his argument as if Louie had said nothing of the sort and was STILL trying to persuade him to join the Night Order.

During the "chase" he finally does get to Nidhogg when he basically says, "The freedom you will bring is false!" And even worse, "I wish you had died as a child, buried in the snow with no one to give a damn about you. Then, I would have never known you and I wouldn't be cursed with the memories of you!"

He says a lot more, but that's the gist of it. Had it been anyone else, it would have the effect of a sneeze in a tornado, but because it was Louie, it, well, got to Nidhogg in ways no one else was able to. Yvette and Nikki simply angered/irritated him. Louie...well...made him cry. Er, sort of. I mean, this is Nidhogg, after all.  At that point, Nidhogg basically says "you never understood me, you never really tried" and makes a declaration that sends Louie in tears. Soon after that, Nidhogg tells all of them that there is no use arguing anymore because "you will never agree with me and I will never agree with you, so that makes things rather moot, now doesn't it?" When Louie offers a reconciliation, Nidhogg says that it's "too late now."

In the end, Louie regrets all off of it because he knew that Nikki was right: It was needless cruelty. He was also reprimanded by the Seer of the Avatar, who said the same thing and that vengeance had no place for an Avatar. Later on, Nidhogg tells him that he would have never been so cruel had the situation been reversed.

12. Of all those in the Night Order, only Nidhogg faced any real consequences. It was decided that being "Scarred" was punishment enough. Plot twist: He was set up by Ryan all along and Ryan was the one who finally inspired Yvette to become her own White Knight. Remember Ryan?

13. That power Nidhogg so desperately wanted and needed Yvette in order to obtain it? It would have destroyed him completely as his mindset was a bit "reversed" at the time. So really, Yvette and co. saved him and his soul.

14. Nidhogg, imo, is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. If he's poor, he's jealous. If he's rich, then he's a hypocrite. If he's straightforward, he's an asshole. If he sugercoats, then he's a liar. He learned early on not to give a damn what others think for this reason as his parents went through the same thing.

15. The issue is that there was only one way to settle disputes. So, the stylings contests were something that seemed freeing, but it wasn't. It was a sugar coated tyranny. Such a thing created internal turmoil, hence "false peace."

16. Confession Bear: My first impression of him in his uniform other than "OMG HAAAWWWWT" was "OMG FASCIST!" But, then I looked up the Iron Cross and found that it predates any thought of Fascism/Nazism by about 200 years.

17. Nidhogg KNEW that there would be chaos. "Of course there would be chaos! Did you think I wouldn't know that!? But from chaos will come a new order and it will be under my firm, guiding hand!"

18. Yvette looked at all the gifts Nidhogg had given her after all that had happened. While keeping a low profile in Lillith, she wondered how much contempt/disdain/hate he actually had for her. It wasn't the first time she had such "friends", but Nidhogg's deceit hurt her the most. She found that people being honest with where she stood with them was far more preferable.  She thought of throwing the gifts away, but Kiki told her that the gifts didn't do anything, so she shouldn't. Yvette chose not to. She also remembered the "I like me speech" and that she had true friends.

19. Liliana(this is the 'artist' in my fic) works as a cleaner/maid in the capital building. She is a friend of Bobo and ultimately Yvette. She draws all sorts of things, including designs. Nidhogg actually used one of her drawings to make Bunny Stockings ("That's not his style.") Unlike the thief, he gives her credit and thanks her for being able to look at her sketches. After the coup, she thinks that he may have been looking at her sketchbook/photo album to see what she knows.

20. Nidhogg has a "take all you want, but eat what you take" attitude when it comes to food. This is from the military.

[curupiracue]

A Bunch of Unimportant Ramdomness

...That was odd.

It’s true that I, Ienorb Yenruoj escaped with my life thanks to a sudden evolution in my methods… However. There is something quite strange about these events.

First they wanted me away… And then I was attacked. And that person attacked alone: it took a while before those two went after me. A conflict of plans, of interests? Then the three were not working together.

That is good and all, but what about now?

If they didn’t know each other, then they’re definitely working together now. Almost a 100% guaranteed. But… Could it really be, a duo of incredibly powerful psychics discovering evidence of my crimes at the same time another psychic does the same? Or could it be that the second one was just passing by? That doesn’t seem very likely either…

Which means they probably did know each other, but there is some sort of conflict between them that stopped cooperation. Though, well, now that they experienced first hand the consequences of not working together, it might be that they decided to form an alliance… I really can’t say without knowing more.

“And I won’t be able to know more, because they’ve got me cornered in that sense...”

Thank goodness I decided to check that crow and kill it. I couldn’t really see much, but now that I know all about what’s presumably that woman’s construction, I understand my situation much better. Though I ran away, it should be the opposite: since the more time passes, the more they (or at least she) will discover about me, and the more at a disadvantage I’ll be, it should be best to stop them dead on their tracks right now.

Of course, I’m shaking in fear, quite literally. Perhaps because of that, I decided to give it a day or two. Thought it’s also because, if they’re working begrudgingly… then it’s possible that they won’t be staying together.

If so, there is my chance. All I need to do is go after those two… not only do I know where they live already, but I also admit that a bout against that woman is not something that I look forward to.

“But… If they prove too strong… Then I’ll need a plan b. And for that...”

(The prism spins, and senseless light is reflected with a different sense)

“...Wake up, sleepyhead.”

(dreaming...)

“Hey! Nim! Wake up already!”

AAAAGGHGGGGGHGHGHHHHHHHHHHHHRRR!!!

“Ugghhhh… What time is it…?”

“Doesn’t matter. It-”

“If it doesn’t, I can go back to sleep… ahhh...”

“...We have things to do.”

“Uuuuuh… Goddammit...”

Novalue sat in the bed besides me and caressed my hair.

“(sigh...) Come on. You’re taking even more time than I do getting out of bed.”

“Mmmm… fine...” I replied, feeling as if my head was about to burst open, and someone punched me in the stomach. Also, heavy eyelids, but that is SO cliché.

“Hey, Novalue, can you like, open the window?”

“Sure.”

His action was followed by the radiant rays of the sun, alongside a most pristine breath.

“...Lindíssimo!” I said, looking through the window.

“...Stop referencing Dom Casmurro and get out of bed.”

“Oook~ But like… What’s the thing we have to do again...?”

Novalue seemed as if he could facepalm, but then suddenly figured it would be too much of a bother, and just stared blankly at me before answering:

“We’re meeting up with Wims to hear ab-”

“Oh, fuck no!”

“Wh-”

“Yeah, you’re going alone. See- ciao, adios! Hell, why did you even wake me up?! For fuck’s sake! UGH!”

(The prism spins, and senseless light is reflected with a different sense)

...Unreasonable, as always. I thought, while reminiscing over the events of the morning.

...In retrospect, I should have seen this coming.

Well, not like I care.

“Yo!” I’m suddenly greeted by a familiar voice

“...Well, aren’t you in a good mood.” I turn towards it, finding Wims looking at me.

“Well, I don’t have to meet Mr. Imsogreat, so that is certainly a reason.”

“Oh, good. I thought someone had died.”

Wims grimaced in response:

“Mind your tongue!” She said, clearly having took umbrage.

“Journalism is the work of gods! To spread the truth is like a sacred duty passed through universities by those who had mastered it! Life is just one big flow of events, and a society is a flow comprised of all the minor flows of the people living on it! It’s impossible, IMPOSSIBLE I say, to be able to witness the TRUE flow of a society, even when looking at large scale events! However, if you look at the individual flows of enough people living in it, and sum them up, then you’ll be able to reach it! A complete understanding! It’s got nothing to do with merely looking for drama and polemic like a damn vulture!” She then promptly summoned a guitar Hallucinogen, and started playing it:

“We are the fourth power, we rule this world!”

“Ever since people started talking, everything has whirled!”

“But some may seek it, a truth most priiiistiiiiine!”

“And among all of these, I’m the indisputable queen!”

“Oooooooooh YEAAH!”

(Guitar solo)

“Just try and stop it, the endless flow!”

“Fucking hell, go ahead and make a row!”

“But sorry to say this is the status quo!”

“Compared to information, you’re all slow!”

“Slow slow slow slow!”

“To be a journalist, one must dare to be a badass.”

“And this is a test, that not all may pass!”

“Countless obstacles await you...”

“If you wish to be part of the highest class!”

“Journalism! IS! Awesome! Journalism! IS! Awesome! Journalism! IS! Awesome! Journalism! IS! Awesome! WOO-HOOO!!”

…Wow.

“Did you write the lyrics beforehand?”

“Course not, dumbass. I’m a goddess, no, more than that, I’m an entity gods and goddesses envy. Improvising these was child’s play.”

“Ugh… Please, just… stop. It’s bad enough when it’s Nim, but now I have to deal with another egocentric...”

“Bah. We’re different types of egocentric, sucker.”

“Yes, and I much prefer his.”

Wims glared at me for a moment before shrugging.

“Well, look at me. Can’t even stop myself from picking a fight with you. How am I gonna’ cooperate with you two like that? I guess it’s better to just skip straight to business.”

“Indeed.”

“So. I’ve been getting lots of suspicious activities with my crows, but… that’s all par for the course. When I go to read the memories of those involved with Film Tape, I don’t get anything related to the killer.”

“Don’t you know of a little thing called “privacy”?”

“Don’t you know of a little thing called “bullshit”? Anyways, I don’t really have much to report… though that in itself is a report. Seems as if the killer is scared of us.”

“I wouldn’t say that’s good.”

“Because it isn’t. But it’s not all bad either: I’ll find him, eventually, but surely. And without a escape route, he’s doomed.”

(The prism spins, and senseless light is reflected with a different sense)

I, Ienorb Yenruoj, am walking towards work.

...Then all of a sudden, I pass through a trash can, and slip on a banana heel, falling inside.

“WAAAAAAUGH! FUCK!”

(The prism spins, and senseless light is reflected with a different sense)

“Meaning… There are two worst case scenarios. ...If he manages to do something while you’re not looking… or if he decides to attack us suddenly.”

“The first case is possible, but too unlikely. He won’t want to risk himself, and if he does, it’s highly likely I’ll catch him, since I have crows at most points of interest of this city… As for the second one...”

...Yeah.

It can’t possibly work. The obvious counter-measure.

“If we stayed together, the killer would be the least of our worries.”

“Yuuuuup. Glad you’re understanding… Incidentally...”

“?”

“Can’t you track him?”

“...Even a homing missile needs to have a target set.”

“Pfff, useless as always.”

“Yes, perhaps.”

Unexpectedly, Wims seemed to feel a bit bad.

“Oh, come on. Don’t say that. You’re an amazing person, and not a dick.”

I simply shrugged. This wouldn’t lead me anywhere.

“There’s something else that I wanted to ask you.”

“Hmm?”

“Do you have a crow around us?”

“Nah, I don’t. Ni- that stupid little shit, I mean, already does the crow’s job, and probably better. Or… are you saying you two would need my help?”

“I wasn’t saying anything. I merely asked.”

“Hah. Well… anyways, I don’t have enough crows for that. I need to spread them out and keep them as sentinels at various points, as well as have them conduct ordinary research. Speaking of that, Shiva found a demolition man slacking off on his job to go have sex.”

“Why is that important?”

“Well, it tried to peck the guy to death, as usual, and I had to stop it.”

“...Again, why is that important?”

“Ah, whatevs. Go away, shoo. Gotta’ feed some crows.”

Craa!

“See? I bet Nim’s waiting for you, too.”

(Time passes...)

“Oh hey!” Nim greeted me.

He was enjoying the armchair while drinking what I think was grape juice. Though, once he saw me, he immediately went out of his relaxed position. Almost seemed like he would get up.

“I’m back. Nothing new, before you ask.”

Nim frowned.

“Man, c’est una desgraça. How much time will grand me have to wait before I get to the most awesome interview ever?”

“If I’m going to be honest…” I start saying while I sit in the armchair “I think you already did it that one time with radio host. You’re not topping that.” Nim perked up:

“Mm! True that. Hey, want some juice?”

“...You know I hate grapes.”

“...And I also know that my knowledge of the gustatory arts is ultimate and supreme. Here, drink!”

“Sigh… Fine- ! ...!” Nim suddenly forced the cup on my lips “...Huh. Ignoring you being you being you, that was actually pretty good...”

(The prism spins, and senseless light is reflected with a different sense)

“Viu? I told you, Novalue. Jeez, I’d figure eating my cooking every day would create an- H-Hey, don’t drink it all! I wanna’ drink too!”

“? You’ve already drank thou-”

“Shut up!” I picked the cup out of his hands and downed the rest of the juice. “Pronto! Nada más, nihil grape juice! Now let’s get to work!”

“It isn’t work, though?”

“Novalue, do you want me to defenestrate you?”

“Hah.” He gave his usual joyless, poker faced laugh “Should I start boarding up the windows?”

“No, you should start stopping the string of stupid dumb shit coming out of your mouth just to tease me!”

“Nah. You’re adorable when you’re mad. ...Well.” He added in consideration “Assuming you’re not ACTUALLY mad.”

“I am gonna’ be, if you keep this u-gah!” Suddenly, he hugged me.

“See? Not mad anymore.”

“...That’s cheating.”

“When you’re actually mad, this doesn’t work. So, not really cheating.” he said, letting go of the hug to my disappointment.

“Anyway…! We should get going. Though we don’t have a construction useful for this, we still need to prove our superiority! March!”

“Where to, though?”

I opened the door, jumped outside, opening my arms and laughing maniacally.

“Worry not, my little disciple! For I, the great Nim, whose greatness is uninterrupt, devoid of any and all transience, have a ploy that will breach the heavens, teaching to all who is the almighty being in this world, and striking a most deep fear in the depths of that vile killer’s mind!”

“...What’s your plan?”

“Secret~ Just follow meeeee~!”

I could tell Novalue was bothered, but he still followed me when I started walking.

(The prism spins, and senseless light is reflected with a different sense)

I could tell that Nim could tell that I was bothered, and he probably could tell that I could tell that. Yet he still went on walking… Sigh… So selfish…

Well, for now, I might as well follow him.

On our way, we passed through a large building which I barely recognized. And just a few more steps afterwards, we came face-to-face with a man.

He was of average, though quite healthy build, with above average height. Blond hair and green eyes, the very epitome of bishounen, wearing an ordinary white suit, a striped green and red tie, a wristwatch and a horrified expression.

(The prism spins, and senseless light is reflected with a different sense)

...Oh…?

This is…

“Hey, you’re the killer, right?” I asked. In response, the man dropped his jaw even more and ran away. “Yup, sure is~ So, Novalue, let’s drop the ploy that will breach the heavens, teaching to all who is the almighty being in this world, and striking a most deep fear in the depths of that vile killer’s mind and instead run after him!” I started running after the killer, but a hand grabbed me:

“Hold on. Shouldn’t we communicate with Wims?”

Communicate with her… Neither of us has her cellphone number (if she even uses one) and any psychic messages will be too flimsy and random: these can probably be intercepted by the killer, and he could even use them to pinpoint her location.

A crow? But, alas, there were neither a crow nor a drunkard in sight.

“Damn. Guess not.” Novalue said, having followed my train of thought and started running after the killer.

“H-Hold on!”

(The prism spins, and senseless light is reflected with a different sense)

...Out of all the moments! Out of ALL the moments!

But then again… This could be good. I’ll have my opportunity to take them out. I might be a little inexperienced in combat, but I’m stronger than both of them. And inexperienced I may be, but uncreative I am not. Just wait and see… I won’t be running away to escape you… I’ll be running away to make sure you can’t escape me…

I already have a plan. And the first step…

...Is to enter this apartment building uninvited!

(The prism spins, and senseless light is reflected with a different sense)

“Where is he?”

“D-Dumba-”

“Save your breath.”

“...He went... in there...” ...How… How the hell can people keep this up…?

“That apartment? That’s odd...”

We bust the front door open and looked at the attendant.

“Wher-” Novalue started.

“Upstairs, room 216” I finished for him.

“I know it’s efficient, but you sure are lax with mind reading...”

“Shuuush. He can’t... escape now...!” Then again… Why would he come here if he can’t escape? ...Better stay cautious…

We ran up the stairs, with me feeling like I would collapse at any moment, although, mercifully enough, room 216 was just after a turn in the corridor near the stairway. I could also feel a presence inside it, and the door was evidently unlocked. With that obvious fact, Novalue moved his hand towards the doorknob… but…

(The prism spins, and senseless light is reflected with a different sense)

I put my hand on the doorknob to open the door, but I am suddenly interrupted by a screaming Nim:

“Don't!” I looked at him to find his face filled with panic “That doorknob is a trap!”

I look back at the doorknob, confused, and find that the doorknob was actually a knife.

And looking back at my fingers, I discover that they were bleeding.

“...What...? ...He... Took out the doorknob, put a knife on the then empty hole and created an illusion…”

“Yeah... I only realized it because of the design. The door had a very distinct design that was quite famous 40 years back, but the doorknob, while following the design, was flawed. The lines were too thick, and it's body too big…”

Perceptive. But more impressively...

“...Though he could only do it because it was a small sensorial thing, he still infiltrated an illusion on our minds... What power... And this knife... Looks like a pretty sharp butcher knife. If you hadn't warned me... I might have lost these four fingers…”

“Yeah, no shit dumbass! Try and pay more attention for fuck's sake! I'd pummel your head in if that were any other situation!”

...Yeah, as if. Still, he's got a point... This serial killer is way more than I bargained for. I can't keep underestimating him...

“What? You worried?” ...though that wouldn’t stop me from having fun.

“I’m not worried! You should be worried! UGH, shut up!”

“Um, if you didn’t fall for my trap, can you get a move on? It’s not really time for romance and all, and I’m afraid I might end up being late to my night shift...” we could hear the serial killer’s voice coming from the other side of the door.

“Oh, shut up.”

“Oh, shut up!”

[talabib]

How To Be On Top Of Your Game At Work

Most of us can probably picture one of those great days at work when we’re at the top of our game: we’re bubbling over with ideas, can handle any problem and even get along with that one especially surly coworker. Of course, not every day can be as smooth sailing as this. But if you follow the advice offered here, you can turn almost every day into at least a good day; you’ll feel good about yourself because you get things done, focus without too much effort and bravely withstand the urge to procrastinate. You will learn

How to get a lot done in the day,

Manage workload and beat procrastination,

Surround yourself with pleasant relationship

Address decision systematically by using thinking routines,

Give great presentations and

Deal with challenging situation at woork

If you feel concerned that you have completely wasted your day or you are not getting a lot done before the day runs out , here are a few tips to help minimize that feeling

First, clearly set out your intentions for each day and try to eliminate any activities you know tend to distract you from achieving them. Instead of turning to distracting habits like checking news websites whenever you feel overwhelmed with your daily tasks, increase productivity by identifying what those distracting habits are for you and put extra focus on avoiding them. Keep your sights on the day’s goals

Second, frame your goals in positive language. Goals framed positively can also be called approach goals – that is, goals that state the positive outcome you’re hoping to achieve, such as “make my product irresistible.” The contrast to this would be an avoidance goal, like “stop losing customers.” There is research to back up the benefits of this strategy: a 1997 study found that students using approach goals improved their performance, whereas the opposite was true for those using avoidance goals.

Third, make a when-then plan to prepare for obstacles that could come between you and your goals. For example, say you decided to start a consulting firm and you are naturally not an early bird. Since you don’t have a boss expecting you at work at nine in the morning, you can be tempted to sleep in and while away the morning.  You can commit to a when-then plan to overcome this obstacle: when I wake up, first I’ll take a short walk, then I’ll check my e-mails. This little rule will help you get out of bed and face each day in a good mood.

Another way to be on game at work is to manage overload, beat procrastination and stay focused by making a plan and scheduling enough breaks. Crammed calendars and full to-do lists at work make it easy to feel overwhelmed. Let’s look at some of the ways to deal with these situations.

First, the physical: lean back on a couch, exercise ball or even your office chair for a few minutes and focus on your breath until you’ve calmed down enough to think clearly. Then, to order your chaos into manageable chunks, make a plan and decide where to start. First, write down everything you need to do in the next few days or weeks. Mark the most important tasks and take one step toward completing that task today, no matter how small it is.

Let’s take Crystal as a case study. Crystal was an attorney who wanted to run for a post in her company, which self-elects rather than appoints managers. However, the task of “start election prep” always felt too daunting. The enormity of those three words gave her anxiety, so she kept avoiding the task and procrastinating. What eventually worked for her was splitting the task into smaller steps, breaking it down into something like, “have a talk with my boss about my idea.” Once she’d split up the big task into small, manageable steps, “election prep” became much less overwhelming and she was able to tackle it.

Another essential prerequisite for focus is scheduling breaks at least every hour and a half. Focus inevitably wavers throughout the day and needs to be recharged periodically. Over the course of 90 minutes, our brains go from highly focused to scatterbrained, which is why we end up doodling or playing on our phone if we’re forced to concentrate for longer. When famed psychologist K. Anders Ericsson studied people at the top of their fields, like world-class violinists, athletes and chess players, he found that they also practiced in blocks of 90 minutes or less, with short breaks in between.

Surround yourself with pleasant relationships by building rapport with the people you meet and resolving tensions directly. Getting along with the people around you is essential for getting the best out of your day. Here’s how to kick-start those relationships!

First, build rapport when you interact with someone at work. Don’t just awkwardly slip by them in the office kitchen when you’re both reaching for a mug – engage them and ask open questions like, “how are you spending your holidays?”

Find commonalities or shared areas of interest by showing a genuine curiosity in your coworkers, as well any other people you meet. Creating this sense of connection is important because it creates a culture of trust and collaboration in the workplace. Highlighting shared interests is also important when looking for work, as employers are more likely to hire people they share similarities with.

Let’s take a look at a study conducted by sociologist Lauren Rivera from Northwestern University, where she asked recruiting managers about their most recent hires. She found that 74 percent admitted feeling some similarities with their new hires, whether it was based on a shared interest in sports, technology or something else. This indicates that managers prefer to hire and be around people with whom they share commonalities.

To have a great day, it’s also important to address and resolve any tensions with coworkers, as they can really sap your enthusiasm. The best way to go about this is to openly explain to your coworker what you’re feeling and why in a polite but firm manner.

For example, let’s take Jeff, a real estate advisor who was annoyed with a client who kept promising him specific assignments but rarely followed through with them when the time came. Instead of reproaching his client or bottling up his frustration, Jeff was up-front and communicated how he felt: “I’m confused because I received positive feedback from you, but didn’t get the project. Would you mind telling me what you were dissatisfied with and what I can do better next time?” This approach helped his client understand him without feeling attacked and getting defensive, and they ended up having an in-depth discussion about what the client was looking for.

Another way to be top on top of your game at work is to address decisions systematically by using thinking routines and breaking down complex problems into an issue tree.The next time you feel overwhelmed because you are struggling to make difficult decisions, try the following simple steps:

First, develop a versatile routine that helps you reach sound decisions in all manner of situations. The routine might be as simple as asking yourself a set of questions like, “what are the alternatives and potential disadvantages to this choice?” or “what would the worst-case scenario be, and what are some of my options if that happens?”

Peggy is an advertising art director who developed a routine that works for her. Her trick is to always invite colleagues to give her feedback about her current work. While she doesn’t agree with them all the time, their input often helps her catch potential problems in her campaigns, thereby improving her decisions. Remember, good advice can come from anyone, not just experts. Peggy once received valuable feedback from someone in customer support about an air freshener campaign. The support representative had on-the-ground knowledge suggesting that customers didn’t understand the visuals of the campaign, and Peggy was able to adjust accordingly.

Another tip for optimizing your problem-solving skills is to break down a complex problem with an issue tree. Start by jotting down the key issue – let’s say your business is doing poorly, which might make your central question, “how can I increase profits?” That question is now the trunk of the tree. Now, write down the two possible options that form the branches of the tree, in this case increasing revenues or reducing costs. Then, think of concrete actions that would help you realize those options; for instance, you could dismiss employees to decrease costs, or launch a new product to increase revenue. These suggestions make up more branches of the issue tree, until eventually you’ll have systematically mapped out many potential next actions you can take to tackle your problem.

A bad presentation can throw you off your game. To get your message across, involve your audience and make your presentation memorable. Have you ever been giving a presentation, only to look around and see that most of the audience wasn’t actually listening? To avoid this in the future, just follow these simple techniques.

First, remember that your audience will be much more receptive if you involve them and make them feel as if they’re choosing what to learn.

For instance, Emma organizes training programs covering new pedagogical techniques for teachers. In the past, it was hard to get any of the participants to deviate from their own, entrenched methods, thus making it difficult to get anyone to actively listen during the training session. So Emma tried a new type of meeting, in which ten teachers each presented their own methods at different stations around the table. Participants were then free to walk around and stop by the stations they were interested in. Emma’s strategy gave the teachers more agency in terms of what to learn, which in turn made them much more enthusiastic about the training.

Second, make your presentation interesting by incorporating videos or posters that will keep the audience on their toes. Make sure to utilize a whiteboard if there is one; people will internalize much more of your message if you draw and write in real time, rather than just using prepared slides. An experiment at Stanford University showed that people will recall nine percent more of a chart’s content if they see how it comes together as it is drawn, rather than just seeing the completed chart on a slide.

And throughout it all, make sure to use short and simple sentences in a fluid manner to hold your audience’s attention and emphasize why your audience should care about what you’re telling them.

How you deal with challenging situations at work will determine how great your day will be. It’s Monday, you’re tired and longing for the weekend already – but you’ve got a meeting with a dissatisfied customer first thing in the morning. What do you do?

First, keep your cool by taking some distance from the situation. Imagine it’s not you but a friend who has to face the client. What advice would you give? You can take this even further by talking to yourself in the second person to gain a more distant perspective.

Next, think of a past situation you handled well and ask yourself what resources helped you then. Maybe it was your wit, fearlessness or supportive friends, all of which can probably help you through the present situation, too!

Let’s take Jacquie, a college PR officer, as an example. Once, an earthquake cut off her college’s power and water supplies. But instead of seeing it as a disaster, Jacqui spun the earthquake into a positive PR story for the school. The school still managed to hold a graduation ceremony amidst destroyed buildings, a story that the national media covered as a success story of perseverance and community – thanks in large part to Jacqui’s attitude and skills in dealing with the media.Thinking back to how she managed that situation continues to make Jacquie feel like she can handle anything.

Turning to positive thoughts in challenging times is another surefire way to inject some energy and cheer into your day. Try out these tricks next time you’re in a tough situation. Start by identifying the mental, physical and temporal patterns and triggers that affect the ebb and flow of your energy. Maybe, for example, you always feel lethargic after lunch. Then, find ways to boost your energy during the energy lows. Maybe it’s getting up to make a cup of tea, having a five-minute chat with a coworker or taking a walk around the block.

You can even try a gratitude exercise: think of three things that happened to you today that you’re grateful for, even if it’s just a small thing like remembering your umbrella – or forgetting it, and running like a little kid through the rain! Even small thoughts like this can make a big difference.

[acommonrose]

Lost Mine of Horncrest Session 2

So as I mentioned last week, I’ve been running a highly adapted version of Lost Mine of Phandelver for my ongoing campaign, which I’m discussing here. This week, I’ll be discussing their exploration of the Redbrand hideout, reworked as the basement of the Alpha Lambda frat house. For information on how I recontextualized this and got them there, check out last week’s description here.

As I mentioned, they decided that their best bet for finding where the frat boys were taking people would be to use the two least conspicuous members of the party as bait. This happened to be the warlock and the wizard, since the paladin’s a noblewoman (who had at that point already figured out that the frat might have ties to her cultist family) and the bard and rogue recently had a very public fake fight to throw off suspicious enemies/for fun. Mostly for fun. The three non-bait members each picked a person to watch (bard watching the warlock, paladin watching the wizard, rogue watching a random person who seemed to fit the profile, I believe), and I gave the party a chance to talk to people or play drinking games. Only the bard took up that offer, and after failing a DC 10 con save while playing beer pong, I decided she was drunk and under the effects of the poisoned condition.

I then had one of the frat boys approach the warlock (chosen over the wizard because the warlock’s had less to do in recent sessions) and offer her a drugged drink. The warlock drank it without much question, went unconscious, and was taken into the basement. The bard did notice, turned invisible, and followed, but due to the exact sequence of events and rolls, the rest of the party didn’t catch up for another moment or two. This turned out to be nearly fatal. I had the bard roll two stealth checks (advantage from invisibility + disadvantage from drunkenness led to it being straight rolls), first in the cellar area (to see if either the frat boy taking the warlock or the frat boys waiting in the barracks area heard anything) and then again after circumventing the pit trap (which she saw the frat boy avoiding and therefore didn’t have to search for) and entering the crypts area. She passed the stealth check by a significant margin in the first room, so I gave the frat boy disadvantage on the perception check, which took it from a nat 20 to... a 17. (This guy had no modifier, and I have fudged no rolls lately, so it was a stroke of incredibly bad luck for the bard’s player, who had a decent modifier and got a 16.) Because of it, I determined that the frat boy retreated to the “slave pens” to lock up the warlock but pointed out the bard to the arcane squirrels I had replaced the skeletons in the adventure with (because I had previously joked about the frat experimenting on squirrels), which happened to beat the bard on initiative and were enough to take her out in one round of attacks. I decided that the squirrels didn’t attack her while she was down, and she passed the death saves, but she was unconscious and taken into the holding pens with the warlock, which definitely led to some player weirdness during he rest of the session, since the bard had actually died (and been revived) the previous session. The rest of the party arrived, fought the squirrels (whose stat blocks can be found here, along with my revised “ruffian” frat boy and my powered up nothic), and that was the end of the first session, because the players were clearly not happy with how things had gone and it was not worth it to push the session longer, given that they were likely going to have to spend another full session on the dungeon.

I picked up with the players rescuing the captured party members, which was a pretty easy fight - there were only two frat boys, and each was roughly equivalent in power to one of the PCs. The bard was healed some during the fight, and the warlock (who was drugged but otherwise at full everything) was woken shortly after the fight. At that point, they were low on basically everything, and I let them consider the time they took regrouping and deciding what to do next as a short rest, which let them regain enough hit points that they didn’t just run away immediately. This also gave them the chance to deal with 2 NPCs. First, they rescued Mirna Dendrar (who plays a pretty similar role, though she is a college student with no children or husband) and got rough information from her about what she had overheard from the frat boys. It wasn’t very detailed, and they didn’t talk to her at length, but they did turn her invisible and let her sneak out through the frat party and sent her off to go talk to their favorite mom friend bartender. They did catch up with her later and got some of the Thundertree plot hook, but they didn’t talk to her much. To get more information, they woke up one of the frat boys guarding the cells (who I, on the spot, named Jeff). After some pretty grisly torture (and a great intimidation check), they found out that the people taken by the frat went to two places. Some were fed to a monster (and, thanks to a very good arcana check, they found out that it was a nothic and got some cool Vecna-related nothic lore that will probably come back later). Others were taken elsewhere, but Jeff didn’t know where.

What the party does with redbrands (or in my case frat boys) is something I’d really be interested in hearing about from other people who have run Lost Mine of Phandelver. I think this is something where, almost by coincidence, I set the players up to taking a nonlethal approach. In the adventure, it’s pretty clear that local law enforcement is just completely outclassed by the redbrands, and killing them would likely be a service to the town. In my game, law enforcement is sometimes morally ambiguous and disliked by the party (and possibly considered incompetent by the party), but they are reasonably powerful, and in the end, the party did turn over Jeff, as well as the names of the rest of the frat, to the church of the god of law (which is effectively in charge of law enforcement in my world). While that did give motivation for the players not to kill the frat boys (because murder is murder and the church of law is pretty strict), the players also chose to do nonlethal damage because at least two party members would have taken strong exception to outright killing of people, which seems like something other parties would have too. Or are D&D characters generally just too murder hobo-ish? In any case, taking one prisoner effectively and forcing him to be a guide is something that I didn’t really anticipate but makes a lot of sense, and I wonder if that’s an approach other groups have taken.

The group then proceeded to the nothic with a quick detour through the armory to thoroughly loot it. (Will they ever sell the armory they’re now carrying around in the bag of holding? Will they ever sell the random books, gems, and pillows that are in there from months ago? Who knows?) Jeff’s guidance made it so they didn’t have to search for the secret door, and the nothic battle was pretty straightforward. My only tip to DMs trying to run it is that, time permitting, you should write out the nothic says to each player if it succeeds on its weird insight against them. I think weird insight could be really cool, especially with a secretive party like mine, but I didn’t pre-write anything, and some of the wording was off. (My tired rogue player didn’t even realize that I was referencing her super traumatic backstory and was just confused.)

After dispatching the nothic, the party debated whether or not to leave straight away (since Jeff had told them about the tunnel out of the crevasse area). They determined, ultimately, that the guard barracks/common room areas were worthless to them, but did want to go into the wizard’s workshop and quarters (though the relevant person is... not a wizard in my game exactly) to get more information about where the girls were being taken. In this case, I replaced “Glasstaff” with Bran Galhyde, a noble previously introduced in the game as a member of the cult that the paladin’s parents are in. Bran’s involvement (and resultantly the cult’s involvement) had been suggested before, since said paladin had spoken to him before going to the frat house, and he had suggested that he had some involvement with the frat (though confirmed nothing). They had also found out from Jeff that Lord Galhyde (who I decided didn’t have reason to go by a pseudonym given the already secret nature of the operation) was organizing and paying for the transport of the captives, though this name didn’t mean anything to anyone but the paladin, who chose not to share what she knew. Hoping to get more information on where people were being taken, the bard and rogue embarked on a stealth mission, turning invisible and sneaking into the the workshop, where they rolled a good enough stealth roll that they weren’t noticed by the rat and a good enough perception roll to tell that there was one person in the next room. Deciding that the best way to handle the situation was to surprise attack (since even invisible people would be noticed rifling through papers on the desk someone was sitting at), the rogue sprung an attack and the bard cast silence. Since the individual (a well-dressed individual the party suspects but isn’t sure is Bran) was a spellcaster, he recognized the silence spell, drank an invisibility potion.

As far as relevant information the party got from this little expedition, they were able to get the Dwarvish book about the Forge of Spells in Wave Echo Cave, which was especially of interest to the wizard (conveniently the only one who reads Dwarvish), since I recently introduced an artificer NPC who is a friend/potential love interest of the wizard. They also found a letter to Lord Galhyde signed from “The Watched One” (my replacement for the Black Spider for reasons that will become clear anyways). I completely changed the content of the letter, since the one in the adventure doesn’t make sense with either my setting or the order in which I’m presenting plot hooks, but the letter they did get mentioned “the cave”, so the players are pretty set on finding Wave Echo Cave and stopping whatever horrible ritual might happen there.

Of course, they need to find it first, and there lies the plot of the next few sessions.

[thisdaynews]

Why Biden caved on super PAC cash

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/why-biden-caved-on-super-pac-cash/

Why Biden caved on super PAC cash

“Joe Biden has not raised as much money as the others through his own campaign efforts. But you have to understand, that’s basically how it works. Bernie Sanders had, what, 20,000 people at an event in New York? Suppose each one of those people gave $100,” said Joe Cotchett, a major Bay Area bundler for Biden. “Does Joe have the ability to have 20,000 people at a rally right now? The answer is no. But hopefully for Joe, it will come.”

Harold Schaitberger, head of the International Association of Fire Fighters, which has already endorsed Biden, said it would likely commit to a Biden super PAC.

“We would be in a position to support that effort,” said Schaitberger. “We’re certainly capable of spending in the six figures.

Donors’ willingness to up the ante is exactly what the Biden campaign was counting on, fretting that it can’t manage both a primary campaign against 18 rivals as well as a fusillade from Republicans trained almost solely on him. On Thursday, it tookthe risky step of embracing a super PAC in a primary where nearly all of his rivals reject the fundraising vehicles as emblematic of the pernicious influence of big money in politics.

The campaign’s bet is premised on the idea that the benefits of accepting super PAC support outweigh the likely blowback from rivals and reform-minded primary voters.

A super PAC could saturate the airwaves with ads that amplify the campaign’s message on Ukraine, pushing back against Donald Trump’s relentless attacks about the Biden family’s alleged corruption, or boost Biden against his better-funded Democratic foes.

Without a robust online fundraising operation that can match top-tier rivals like Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, the Biden campaign still could run low on money as the long, costly primary season drags toward Super Tuesday. And it’s not yet clear how much money a potential vehicle backing Biden could raise.

But the prospect breathes new energy into his effort, some donors say, giving more certainty that it will have the resources to move forward.

Cotchett noted that donors are also looking ahead to the massive amounts of cash needed to compete on Super Tuesday, when 14 states hold contests on the same day, and predicted that by then, nearly every candidate will be cash-strapped, and perhaps even ready to accept outside support.

Another top Biden fundraiser, John Morgan, said he’s ready to give but would like to see how the super PAC spends its money and expressed concerns that his money could be used to underwrite consultant fundraisers.

“I don’t like to pay commissions,” Morgan said.

Morgan said he’s confident Biden will win the primary, in part because Warren and Sanders will continue to divide the progressive vote.

“Bernie isn’t leaving the race even if he’s in ICU,” Morgan said, referring to the 78-year-old’s recent heart attack. “We’ve all got life expectancy, planned obsolescence. It’s just how life is.”

While a Biden super PAC is not yet established, the idea to form one began weeks ago — and it faced initial opposition from Biden’s campaign. On Thursday, the campaign sent a signal that it would drop its opposition.

The donors and consultants involved in discussions surrounding the creation of a super PAC, some of whom would speak with POLITICO only on background, insisted that they haven’t discussed their plans with the campaign and therefore did not run afoul of laws prohibiting coordination with an outside entity funded by unlimited contributions.

The campaign’s statement, they said, was released without their knowledge, which the campaign said as well.

Underpinning the prospective Biden super PAC is a circle of highly regarded operatives. Longtime Florida operative Steve Schale, a Barack Obama alum and frequent Biden booster, is in talks to help lead the effort.

Schale declined to comment for this story.

Also involved is Julianna Smoot,who served as Obama’s national finance director in 2008 and his deputy campaign manager in 2012. Mark Riddle, a strategist who this cycle has helmed the outside spending group Future Majority, will also take on a leadership role, sources say, and Larry Rasky, a longtime Biden friend who worked on the former vice president’s 1988 and 2008 presidential bids will play a major role.

One source with knowledge of the effort said potential donors are poised to get more information next week.

The campaign has insisted that it had the necessary funds to compete through the early state contests, pointing to some polls showing Biden holding his own or gaining traction. But some critics panned Biden’s move as a cry for help.

“If they are going to have one, at least disavow it so you can pretend to be reform minded,” said Brian Fallon, a former communications director for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. “That they are blessing it means they are desperate for it to happen and want donors to know they want them to give to it.”

Biden himself has said he’s not concerned about having the resources to compete.

“We’re on a course to do extremely well,” Biden said in a60 Minutesinterview set to air Sunday. “I’m not worried about being able to fund this campaign. I really am not, truly.”

In a statement, the campaign framed the situation confronting Biden as unique and daunting.

Anti-Biden spending from Republicans is “pouring into this race with one goal: ensure Joe Biden is not the nominee that faces Donald Trump in 2020,” the campaign said, adding that “no Democratic contender has ever faced this kind of onslaught from Republicans while still having to win the party nomination. It is simply unprecedented.”

The former vice president’s reversal was welcome news to donors who talked to POLITICO. Some had grown frustrated with the campaign, especially after itreported spending more than it took induring the third quarter of the year.

“That was total malpractice,” said one donor, who did not want to go on record criticizing the campaign. “I’ve given and raised money, and it’s like, ‘what the hell? I did my job right. Do yours.’ I’m not the only one who feels this way. And some of us think Biden needs the help, we know it, whether he wants it or not.”

While Biden drew criticism from Sanders and Warren for his decision, allies said the benefits for him are worth the expected pummeling from the left and the right.

“There is always a risk to appearing too much like the status quo candidate or taking too much money,” said Steve Westly, a former California state controller and a Biden supporter. “As someone who has run for office myself, there’s a bigger risk of showing up without enough money to get your message out.”

Michael Adler, a Miami developer and Biden donor who has been friends with Biden since the 1972 Democratic National Convention in Miami Beach, said Biden shouldn’t unilaterally disarm by renouncing a super PAC, considering super PACs aided Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. And, he pointed out, Trump has loads of outside help as well.

“With what the president is doing in raising money, it would almost be malfeasance for any candidate that wins the nomination to be in a competitive disadvantage to make an ideological point about who’s funding them,” Adler said. “There’s nothing wrong with small-dollar contributors. But $5 contributors shouldn’t determine the whole election. The whole electorate should determine the election. And people who can make larger contributions should be able to express themselves.”

Read More

[thefaithfulexecutioner]

Hero Killer: Stain / Blood Type Character Analysis

There are already plenty of video and written essays and analysis of Stain’s character, so I was wondering what else there was to put on the table. Then I thought: has anybody looked at Stain’s character through the lens of blood type personality theory?

Maybe someone has. But heck, I’m writing this anyway. This is happening. Hope people like it :) Comments/critiques/debates are all welcome :)

Below cut are SPOILERS for the Boku no Hero manga/anime and ESPECIALLY for the Illegals spin-off.

The Hero Killer’s fight with Deku, Todoroki and Iida demonstrated that his Quirk, Bloodcurdle is most effective against those with Type B blood - like the hero he attacked, Native - and the least effective against those with Type O blood, like Deku. 

This fits Stain’s ideology perfectly: his Quirk is most effective against the kind of people he wants to purge from society (selfish and lazy heroes who do or don’t do their work for money or fame) and least effective against the kind of people he wants to see become true heroes (strong-willed, agreeable/kind individuals who save people selflessly like Deku).

The irony is that Stain himself also has type B blood. Whether this makes Stain a hypocrite, a self-hating or self-aware and introspective person is up for debate. Here I’m only going to analyse the specific traits that are attributed to Type B individuals and see how they reveal themselves in Stain.

Let’s start with the best.

Best traits

Passionate

Seriously? You wouldn’t have Stain if he didn’t have passion! Passion runs through him like a stick of rock. It encases his unflinching moral code and drives him every waking moment of the day. It’s what makes his charisma so powerful, even to complete strangers.

His passion remains a product of his steadfast will, morals and idealism. Before he walked the path of a vigilante and serial killer, Stain was more than likely a sincere, self-sacrificing and highly moral individual who would aspire to emulate the just and selfless heroics of All-Might. He must have exuded the same sincere passion when he made his soapbox speeches, only to be entirely ignored or rejected. Currently a not so insignificant portion of his passion is likely fueled by the despair he felt then.

You could argue that Stain is so devoted to the example set by heroes like All-Might, the ideal hero, that he is willing to destroy himself for the sake of the greater good. From the apparent dissociative attitude towards his alter-ego Stendhal in the Illegals spin-off, where Stain refuses to view himself and the blood-stained killer as the same person, and unyielding commitment to his reasons for killing as Stain - taking every opportunity given to him to justify his methods to others - Stain seems to be fighting a constant battle against himself. 

The notion of killing the very people whom he had once idolised and wished to become, who he would most likely be far happier being right now, may account for his crazed tenacity and bloodlust. By convincing himself it is the only way to bring about change, Stain has trapped himself in a life of killing. The young man who onced dreamed of being a hero has become a murderer  - no amount of conviction can wipe away the inherent despair, rage and self-destruction that entails.

Stain is not your typical maniacal villain, who derives happiness and satisfaction from killing. In fact, the only time he ever really smiles is when he is confronted by Deku in the alley, and perceives All-Might’s selfless heroism in him. Though the smile appears crazed, I believe it was genuine. Stain has dedicated at least twenty years of his life to bringing about a world where true, noble heroes like Deku exist. Seeing one in front of him, believing most others are nothing but fakes, must have elated him. 

Not only does he see Deku as someone worthy of being kept alive, but Stain actively goes out of his way to save Deku when he could have easily escaped.

Active

If you dedicate your teenage years to making speeches in the name of reforming what you believe to be a corrupt society, crying out for a revival of heroics and return to a more just and selfless world, then dedicate your twenties and thirties to making that a reality through action, researching and disciplining his body and mind through self-study in order to achieve this... you are not lazy by any stretch of the imagination.

This man has been nothing but active for his entire thirty-one years of living, for better or worse. Since childhood he has always set himself a goal and done whatever he thought was best to achieve it. Even his enemies comments on his drive. It is unfortunate that this extreme drive and tenacity was poured into become a murderer, however.

Creative

This trait is evidenced by Stain’s fighting style. Though he is not as clever as Deku or powerful as other heroes, he is a thinker. He analyses Deku’s movements during their fight, comes up with a strategy to get close to Shota and paralyse him all in the space of a few seconds, and utilises his weapons in a multitude of different and inventive ways. His weapons are all specially utilised to facilitate and accentuate the effectiveness of his Quirk.

Even when severely injured and having only just come to after being knocked out, Stain is able to act to save Deku from the clutches of a Nomu when nobody else can even move. He thinks outside the box, using his Quirk resourcefully, albeit creepily, by licking the blood off a Pro Hero’s cheek in order to paralyse the Nomu before charging in for the kill.

His creativity in battle is lost, however, when he is pushed too far against the wall and he becomes more and more violent and erratic as the battle with Deku and co. drags on. 

Animal-loving

As far as I know there is no canon evidence for this, but this adorable fanart by @ghostalebrije of Stain with a kitty friend gives me life. Maybe before his killing days Stain had a pet. Hell, maybe even as Stain he still had animal friends. He had to live somewhere in-between his hero-hunting, right?

Flexible

Physically, very. In battle we see that he gives it his all even in disadvantageous situations and combats multiple Quirks and battle styles, often at the same time. By analysing them as he fights, Stain proves himself a formidable opponent. 

Personally, not so much. He is so driven and committed to his beliefs that anything outside the confines of his own moral code and ideals is rejected. For instance, he rejects Iida’s commitment to changing his ways, insisting that Iida will “always be a fake”. 

This flaw in his methods/logic could be said to reveal a defensive mechanism that Stain employs to keep himself going. For example, if he were to admit that heroes he despises, like Iida, could change, then years of training and bloodshed and despair would have all been for nothing, in Stain’s eyes. If he admitted his methods were wrong, or that he could have gone about it all differently, Stain may not be able to psychologically deal with it.

This black-and-white view of heroism does not account for those who wish to attain hero status for selfish reasons, but those reasons involve benefiting the lives of others (e.g.: Ochako) and which will not interfere with their duty towards society.

Cheerful & Optimistic

In his younger days Stain was more like Deku, a starry-eyed kid dazzled and inspired by All-Might and dreaming of nothing else but following his example and helping others. If he had followed that path, Stain would have been happier for it.

The reality, unfortunately, is that Stain has become a bitter, rage-filled adult consumed by his ideology, hating the hypocrisy and vanity of pro heroes. He takes no joy in killing, though he perceives it as a necessary evil (he never smiles or laughs like maniac when killing or facing opponents). His conviction and killing intent were born from the despair and hopelessness he felt as his words and ideal view of a hero were ignored by society at large. He generally comes across as a very, very unhappy man who has all but killed himself for the sake of others. 

Once he was a cheerful youngster, full of promise, but no longer.

As for optimism... it depends. When it comes to individuals, Stain is pessimistic. His black-and-white morals guarantee that those heroes he sees as immoral/fake will always be so. 

On the other hand, Stain believes that an ideal world can be achieved, and that through heroes like Deku the corrupt hero system/community can be reformed, and that this will in turn benefit wider society. He does have confidence and hope in the future... but only he and people who share his ideals can act upon it. Stain’s optimism is, therefore, narrow.

Worst Traits

Irresponsible

If anything, Stain puts far more responsibility on his shoulders than any human being out to. While he may not be under the illusion that he alone can purge all the ‘fakes’ in hero society, he places himself as the one whose sole duty it is to make society see the ‘fakes’ the way he does and acknowledge his worldview.

He wants to be the giant red stain that makes society realise just how dirty it has become. It is a path to self-destruction that no human mind and body can take for long, and while his actions did have some short-term benefits (e.g.: lowering crime rates in the places he was active due to hero awareness) in the long-term they, however unintentionally, caused more misery and danger than before.

Forgetful

Stain literally forgets Deku’s recovery time as he becomes more and more stressed and pressed for time, costing him the battle. 

It’s difficult to attribute this trait to him with solid evidence otherwise. You could say that Stain has become so obsessed with his goals and motivations for killing that he has forgotten who he used to be (someone very similar to Deku) and has lost a sense of perspective that could have helped him see alternative ways of promoting his ideals (like Deku does).

Selfish

Nobody asked Stain to take action on their behalf. Stain mutilated himself and stained his hands with blood, robbed himself of the chance of ever becoming a hero like All-Might (of which he had dreamed), committed himself to saving people from the darkness of alleys by killing heroes he sees as neglecting or outright abandoning their duties to the people.

I would argue, however, that Stain’s actions are selfless in the way Ayn Rand understood the word.

Rand writes, "[A]ltruism permits no concept of a self-respecting, self-supporting man—a man who supports his own life by his own effort and neither sacrifices himself nor others…it permits no concept of benevolent co-existence among men…it permits no concept of justice".

Stain has sacrificed his own body, mind and life on the altar of his ideals for the sake of a better society. Through his actions towards this goal, he eviscerates any opportunity of ‘benevolent co-existence among men’ and sacrifices others on a regular basis for the greater good. 

This is directly opposed to Deku, who can in this way be seen as selfish. Both live by All-Might’s quote: “Meddling when you don’t need to is the essence of a hero”, but while Deku supports his life and that of others in order to achieve his dream of succeeding All-Might and helping people, Stain does it without any thought to himself or the individuals he deems sacrifices to his cause.

Stain never asks for alternative opinions and outright rejects any notion different from his (like Iida’s). In the Illegals spin-off, his final words after cutting off his nose show that he has entirely ceased to view or respect himself as an individual but instead as an ideology, calling himself “one without an existence who takes action” and a “colour which dyes the world”. 

He is neither self-respecting or self-supporting (achieving his end goal appears to be the only thing he lives for and his bloody methods are “proof of his significance” - meaning he literally has no reason to exist unless ‘fake’ heroes give him that reason).

Stain has murdered his own sense of self for others. Personally that’s the most destructive example of altruism I can imagine.

Lazy

See ‘Active’ Best Trait. This man is only ever inactive when he is asleep.

Impatient

Stain is so desperate to revive the values and ideals of heroism that have been lost on the majority of heroes he has encountered that he is willing to kill to force society to pay attention. He has committed his life to be the “guiding bloodstain that cannot be wiped away”. He perceives killing (”purging”) fake heroes as the fastest route towards his end goal, abandoning his former, peaceful method of public speaking.

Unreliable

This is a tricky one, as so far I don’t think we’ve seen a moment where Stain was actually relied upon for anything. At a stretch you could say Tomura was relying on him to accept his invitation into the League of Villains, which Stain rejected. 

Stain works alone, and neither society or any individual relied on him to push for change.

Deku has, however, come to understand the Hero Killer’s motivations and ideals, and has defended him from the force of wanton destruction and chaos that is Tomura. Deku knows that Stain abides by his strict moral code and strives towards his goals at detriment to himself (as seen when Stain saved Deku from the Noma). In this way, it could be argued that Deku in particular could rely upon Stain to adhere to this code and his ideals no matter what.

‘Going own way’

Stain’s passion has become so intense and obsessive that it has almost entirely lost his ability to think of any other way of being and acting, and at its worst is expressed through bloodlust and a killing intent Deku and his friends know too well.

He works alone, and though he was initially intrigued by Tomura’s offer he rejects it due to a complete conflict of motives and end goal. He believes he alone has the strength and commitment to make society see the problems he feels they are ignoring.

[legalseat]

Cree Law and Canadian Criminal Law- Tales of Risk Assumption, Duties to Assist and Responsibility

Self-determination over criminal justice remains an aspiration of Indigenous peoples to this day. But so far the dialogue remains fixated around perceived parallels between past Indigenous traditions of justice and restorative justice. The dialogue in its early years often presented those perceived parallels in a rather romanticized way, holding out Indigenous justice as a gentler, more benevolent and ultimately more effective form of justice that could end the problem of Indigenous over-incarceration.1 The dialogue has gained more complexity and nuance since its genesis. Most notably, feminist authors have brought to our attention potential concerns around inequities of participant power, coercion against victims, and re-victimization of crime victims.2 Others, myself included, have tried to introduce a meeting at halfway of sorts, trying to realize the benefits of restorative justice while seeking ways to address the concerns raised by the critics.3

This dialogue remains ongoing and needs to continue. However, to focus only on the perceived parallels to restorative justice loses sight of the fact that those parallels constitute only one aspect of Indigenous justice systems that were complex and sophisticated, and in ways that may not be readily apparent to Common Law jurists. Indigenous societies, like every other society, have had to grapple with questions of what is acceptable conduct and what is not. Much of Canadian criminal law is bound up with questions of defining criminal behaviour through the constituent components of actus reus and mens rea, as well as defences to criminal charges. Indigenous societies, while not drawing upon precisely the same concepts, have also had to engage with the need to delineate what is sanctionable behaviour and what is not. Examples of these emerge from the traditional stories of Indigenous societies if you listen to them carefully and with an open mind.

To what extent should the omission to act, to refuse to help someone who needs help, be punished as a criminal offence? The answer to that question depends on who you ask. Canada, and many other Common Law jurisdictions, do not impose a general duty to assist. Canadian criminal law will only punish a passive state when there is a specific duty to assist that is precisely delineated and narrow in scope in comparison to a general duty, and where there is an omission to act in accordance with that duty. An example is s. 18 of Manitoba's Child and Family Services Act, which makes it offence not to report to authorities when a person is aware that a child is in need of child welfare intervention.4

Several Contintental jurisdictions impose that general duty to assist, embodied in what are known as Bad Samaritan laws.5 Cree law imposed a general duty to assist as well. The Swampy Cree near James Bay have a traditional story that features the Giant Skunk as an antagonist. Giant Skunk was mortally feared because of its great size and its smell. It eats other animals, and has a fearsome reputation akin to the Kraken from Clash of the Titans or Fenrir the Great Wolf in Norse mythology. The Giant Skunk notices that another character, the Weasel, has crossed its path and feels insulted. The Giant Skunk decides to pursue and kill the other animals. The other animals initially decide to flee, but the children and elderly are becoming tired. Giant Skunk will catch up, so the animals convene another council and decide they have to make a stand. They make their stand in a large valley lake in the mountains. They make no effort to hide their trail in order to lure the Giant Skunk into a trap. The women, elderly and young children are led away further into the mountains. Only the adult males participate in the coming battle. The other animals also seek Big Cat's help in killing the Giant Skunk. But Big Cat initially does not want to get involved, and just wants to rest in his cave. Big Cat does eventually decide to help though. He agrees to help on the condition that the other animals prepare a place from which he can jump onto the Giant Skunk. Giant Skunk begins his assault. Wolverine jumps on Giant Skunk’s anus and holds the tail down to prevent Giant Skunk from using his spray. The other animals jump down on Giant Skunk to try and kill it. They finally succeed when Big Cat, albeit reluctantly and taking his time to do so, jumps on Giant Skunk’s neck.6

There are some definite contrasts that emerge here. A key reason for the Common Law's refusal to impose a general duty to assist is a pronounced reluctance to insist that citizens take on the risk of potentially very dangerous situations onto themselves. It is easy of course to say that only those who can handle certain risks should have the expectation placed on them, while those less capable would only be expected to act with less risk (e.g. simply calling for help). The problem, and part of Common Law's ongoing refusal, is how do you delineate what is an acceptable level of risk and what is not, or who has the capabilities of handling a given risk and who does not? That is an exercise fraught with uncertainty and bound to generate divisions of opinion.7

Cree law, however, embraced that exercise. The animals initially tried to flee, to avoid the risks. Once it became apparent that the Giant Skunk was going to catch up, the women, children and the elderly did not have the expectation placed on them. And yet once that sorting out had occurred, the healthy adult male animals were fully expected to take very real and mortal risks upon themselves.

As another example, Canadian law treats attempting to commit a crime as a punishable crime unto itself. If the accused fires a gun at his intended victim and misses without any physical harm, the accused will still be guilty of attempted murder.8 Various actors in the Canadian justice system, particularly Crown prosecutors, will be highly concerned that there will be public safety ramifications if the shooter is not prosecuted, if a message is not sent out to the rest of society, even if the attempt was ultimately successful.

Cree law offers a quite different perspective through the stories of conflict between Wesakaychak and his father-in-law, Weymesosiw. Weymesosiw was initially possessed of a very homicidal spirit, seeking to murder all that came near his camp who were not of his own family. Although Weymesosiw had given the outward appearance of consenting to Wesakaychak's marraige to his youngest daughter, he immediately and for some time thereafter set about to commit several attempts on Wesakaychak's life. All of them are unsuccessful. At some point, Wesakaychak has Weymesosiw at a distinct disadvantage when he tricks Weymesosiw into burning his own clothes, instead of Wesakaychak's as Weymesosiw originally intended. Wesakaychak has Weymesosiw at his mercy, but decides neither to kill him nor to aid the latter in reaching home. Wesakaychak decides to leave Weymesosiw to his own devices so that he has to reach home the hard way, without any clothes to protect him from exposure. Weymesosiw eventually manages to accomplish this by keeping a large rock heated long enough, and rolling it along, so that he can make the journey back.9

Weymesosiw had learned a lesson in life, as Wesakaychak had intended. Weymesosiw had become a kinder and gentler man for the experience, and the two eventually departed with a newfound respect and admiration for each other. What is implicit in the narrative is that if Wesakaychak had insisted on punishment or vengeance for past attempts on his life, it would have been counterproductive. Would it have undone the progress that Weymesosiw made with his own personal and spiritual growth? Would it have undone the greater state of harmony and co-existence that had been reached?

And these stories should not be treated as past relics with no present significance. Indigenous peoples may well want to make use of laws grounded in their historical past for application in the present. But there are certainly difficult questions of adaptability and application that need to be explored, not just by academics like myself, but also by Indigenous communities themselves.

Would it be a helpful positive if the general duty to assist in Cree law was revived in Cree communities? An affirmative answer to that question is not necessarily a given. There is something to be said for requiring community members to come to one another's aid, especially in Indigenous communities plagued by violence, especially against women and children. But what if the problems are so severe that it forces community members to take what may seem like unreasonable risks upon themselves? What if an Aboriginal woman who is suffering from domestic violence has no one to turn to because domestic violence is so prevalent to the point that it is normalized, and where the abuser is connected to and supported by the local power structure that accountability seems like a fantasy?10 What if almost everyone in the community is a Giant Skunk, and there are no Big Cats and Bears and Weasels to help you? Is the revival of Cree law premature or even impossible in such a setting?

Gang violence and shootouts as rivals struggle with each over for territory remains an epidemic problem for Cree First Nations surrounding Hobbema, Alberta.11 Certainly the activities of Aboriginal youth gangs can be extremely dangerous for the communities they operate in, including for community members who are not themselves involved with the gangs. And yet the Aboriginal youth who find themselves in gangs come from very troubled backgrounds that include poverty, substance abuse, neglect, lack of supervision, and physical and sexual abuse.12 Imagine that an Aboriginal youth in Hobemma shot at a member of a rival gang member and missed. Now imagine that he's been able to get help and make progress with his problems and behaviour. Is it better to insist on a punishment for his unsuccessful attempt on somebody else's life? Or does making that insistence threaten to undo the progress that he's made, especially if sending him to prison only promises to reintegrate him with gang life? Different people will come up with different answers to those questions, including within Cree communities themselves. Some members of Indigenous communities may be so fearful of youth gang activities that they want incarceration, punishment and permanent expulsion to further community safety. Others may regard that reflexive insistence as a lost opportunity, at least in instances where rehabilitative progress is possible.

These are difficult questions, and there no cut and dry or easy answers to them. But if Indigenous peoples are to have true self-determination over criminal justice, then it has to include the right to tackle those questions and find their own answers to them, and not be limited to just stereotyped notions of restorative justice. Imagine that an Indigenous community begins the process of creating their own laws and institutions, delineating what is criminal and what is not, and answering the difficult questions that arise. It may well be that the Indigenous community finds its own answers that work for its members, and provide solutions for its problems. Part in parcel with Aboriginal self-determination is that mainstream Canadian society has to accept that it is how the Indigenous community wants to do things for itself, even if the results are uncomfortable to behold from a mainstream perspective. For mainstream Canadian society to say, "Indigenous peoples shouldn't be allowed to use that law because it's different from our law and we don't like it" is the very essence of colonialism.

Endnotes

1 Rupert Ross, Returning to the Teachings: Exploring Aboriginal Justice (Toronto: Penguin Books Canada, 1996)

2 Annalise Acorn, Compulsory Compassion: A Critique of Restorative Justice (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004); Carol LaPrairie and E. Jane Dickson-Gilmore, Will the Circle Be Unbroken?: Aboriginal Communities, Restorative Justice, and the Challenges of Conflict and Change (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005).

3 David Milward, Aboriginal Justice and the Charter: Realizing a Culturally Sensitive Interpretation of Legal Rights in Canada (Vancouver: U.B.C. Press, 2012); Declane Roche, Accountability in Restorative Justice (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).

4 Child and Family Services Act, C.C.S.M. c.C80.

5 Ken Levy, "Killing, Letting Die, and the Case for Mildly Punishing Bad Samaritanism" (2010) 44:3.

6 Louis Bird, Telling Our Stories: Omushkego Legends & Histories from Hudson Bay (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011) at 69-78.

7 Miriam Gur-Arye, "A Failure to Prevent Crime - Should it be Criminal?" (2001) 20 Criminal Justice Ethics 3.

8 R v Ancio, [1994] 1 S.C.R. 225.

9 Edward Ahenakew, "Cree Trickster Narratives" (1929) 42:166 The Journal of American Folklore 309 at 315-319.

10 Anne McGillivray and Brenda Comaskey, Black Eyes All the Time: Intimate Violence, Aboriginal Women and the Justice System (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999).

11 "Gangs, violence, alcohol part of growing up in Hobemma, Alta. say killers" (C.B.C. News: May 15, 2013).

12 Annie K. Yessine & James Bonta, "The Offending Trajectories of Youthful Aboriginal Offenders" (2009) 51:4 Can. J. Crime. 435.

Cree Law and Canadian Criminal Law- Tales of Risk Assumption, Duties to Assist and Responsibility published first on http://ift.tt/2vSFQ3P

[legalroll]

Cree Law and Canadian Criminal Law- Tales of Risk Assumption, Duties to Assist and Responsibility

Self-determination over criminal justice remains an aspiration of Indigenous peoples to this day. But so far the dialogue remains fixated around perceived parallels between past Indigenous traditions of justice and restorative justice. The dialogue in its early years often presented those perceived parallels in a rather romanticized way, holding out Indigenous justice as a gentler, more benevolent and ultimately more effective form of justice that could end the problem of Indigenous over-incarceration.1 The dialogue has gained more complexity and nuance since its genesis. Most notably, feminist authors have brought to our attention potential concerns around inequities of participant power, coercion against victims, and re-victimization of crime victims.2 Others, myself included, have tried to introduce a meeting at halfway of sorts, trying to realize the benefits of restorative justice while seeking ways to address the concerns raised by the critics.3

This dialogue remains ongoing and needs to continue. However, to focus only on the perceived parallels to restorative justice loses sight of the fact that those parallels constitute only one aspect of Indigenous justice systems that were complex and sophisticated, and in ways that may not be readily apparent to Common Law jurists. Indigenous societies, like every other society, have had to grapple with questions of what is acceptable conduct and what is not. Much of Canadian criminal law is bound up with questions of defining criminal behaviour through the constituent components of actus reus and mens rea, as well as defences to criminal charges. Indigenous societies, while not drawing upon precisely the same concepts, have also had to engage with the need to delineate what is sanctionable behaviour and what is not. Examples of these emerge from the traditional stories of Indigenous societies if you listen to them carefully and with an open mind.

To what extent should the omission to act, to refuse to help someone who needs help, be punished as a criminal offence? The answer to that question depends on who you ask. Canada, and many other Common Law jurisdictions, do not impose a general duty to assist. Canadian criminal law will only punish a passive state when there is a specific duty to assist that is precisely delineated and narrow in scope in comparison to a general duty, and where there is an omission to act in accordance with that duty. An example is s. 18 of Manitoba's Child and Family Services Act, which makes it offence not to report to authorities when a person is aware that a child is in need of child welfare intervention.4

Several Contintental jurisdictions impose that general duty to assist, embodied in what are known as Bad Samaritan laws.5 Cree law imposed a general duty to assist as well. The Swampy Cree near James Bay have a traditional story that features the Giant Skunk as an antagonist. Giant Skunk was mortally feared because of its great size and its smell. It eats other animals, and has a fearsome reputation akin to the Kraken from Clash of the Titans or Fenrir the Great Wolf in Norse mythology. The Giant Skunk notices that another character, the Weasel, has crossed its path and feels insulted. The Giant Skunk decides to pursue and kill the other animals. The other animals initially decide to flee, but the children and elderly are becoming tired. Giant Skunk will catch up, so the animals convene another council and decide they have to make a stand. They make their stand in a large valley lake in the mountains. They make no effort to hide their trail in order to lure the Giant Skunk into a trap. The women, elderly and young children are led away further into the mountains. Only the adult males participate in the coming battle. The other animals also seek Big Cat's help in killing the Giant Skunk. But Big Cat initially does not want to get involved, and just wants to rest in his cave. Big Cat does eventually decide to help though. He agrees to help on the condition that the other animals prepare a place from which he can jump onto the Giant Skunk. Giant Skunk begins his assault. Wolverine jumps on Giant Skunk’s anus and holds the tail down to prevent Giant Skunk from using his spray. The other animals jump down on Giant Skunk to try and kill it. They finally succeed when Big Cat, albeit reluctantly and taking his time to do so, jumps on Giant Skunk’s neck.6

There are some definite contrasts that emerge here. A key reason for the Common Law's refusal to impose a general duty to assist is a pronounced reluctance to insist that citizens take on the risk of potentially very dangerous situations onto themselves. It is easy of course to say that only those who can handle certain risks should have the expectation placed on them, while those less capable would only be expected to act with less risk (e.g. simply calling for help). The problem, and part of Common Law's ongoing refusal, is how do you delineate what is an acceptable level of risk and what is not, or who has the capabilities of handling a given risk and who does not? That is an exercise fraught with uncertainty and bound to generate divisions of opinion.7

Cree law, however, embraced that exercise. The animals initially tried to flee, to avoid the risks. Once it became apparent that the Giant Skunk was going to catch up, the women, children and the elderly did not have the expectation placed on them. And yet once that sorting out had occurred, the healthy adult male animals were fully expected to take very real and mortal risks upon themselves.

As another example, Canadian law treats attempting to commit a crime as a punishable crime unto itself. If the accused fires a gun at his intended victim and misses without any physical harm, the accused will still be guilty of attempted murder.8 Various actors in the Canadian justice system, particularly Crown prosecutors, will be highly concerned that there will be public safety ramifications if the shooter is not prosecuted, if a message is not sent out to the rest of society, even if the attempt was ultimately successful.

Cree law offers a quite different perspective through the stories of conflict between Wesakaychak and his father-in-law, Weymesosiw. Weymesosiw was initially possessed of a very homicidal spirit, seeking to murder all that came near his camp who were not of his own family. Although Weymesosiw had given the outward appearance of consenting to Wesakaychak's marraige to his youngest daughter, he immediately and for some time thereafter set about to commit several attempts on Wesakaychak's life. All of them are unsuccessful. At some point, Wesakaychak has Weymesosiw at a distinct disadvantage when he tricks Weymesosiw into burning his own clothes, instead of Wesakaychak's as Weymesosiw originally intended. Wesakaychak has Weymesosiw at his mercy, but decides neither to kill him nor to aid the latter in reaching home. Wesakaychak decides to leave Weymesosiw to his own devices so that he has to reach home the hard way, without any clothes to protect him from exposure. Weymesosiw eventually manages to accomplish this by keeping a large rock heated long enough, and rolling it along, so that he can make the journey back.9

Weymesosiw had learned a lesson in life, as Wesakaychak had intended. Weymesosiw had become a kinder and gentler man for the experience, and the two eventually departed with a newfound respect and admiration for each other. What is implicit in the narrative is that if Wesakaychak had insisted on punishment or vengeance for past attempts on his life, it would have been counterproductive. Would it have undone the progress that Weymesosiw made with his own personal and spiritual growth? Would it have undone the greater state of harmony and co-existence that had been reached?

And these stories should not be treated as past relics with no present significance. Indigenous peoples may well want to make use of laws grounded in their historical past for application in the present. But there are certainly difficult questions of adaptability and application that need to be explored, not just by academics like myself, but also by Indigenous communities themselves.

Would it be a helpful positive if the general duty to assist in Cree law was revived in Cree communities? An affirmative answer to that question is not necessarily a given. There is something to be said for requiring community members to come to one another's aid, especially in Indigenous communities plagued by violence, especially against women and children. But what if the problems are so severe that it forces community members to take what may seem like unreasonable risks upon themselves? What if an Aboriginal woman who is suffering from domestic violence has no one to turn to because domestic violence is so prevalent to the point that it is normalized, and where the abuser is connected to and supported by the local power structure that accountability seems like a fantasy?10 What if almost everyone in the community is a Giant Skunk, and there are no Big Cats and Bears and Weasels to help you? Is the revival of Cree law premature or even impossible in such a setting?

Gang violence and shootouts as rivals struggle with each over for territory remains an epidemic problem for Cree First Nations surrounding Hobbema, Alberta.11 Certainly the activities of Aboriginal youth gangs can be extremely dangerous for the communities they operate in, including for community members who are not themselves involved with the gangs. And yet the Aboriginal youth who find themselves in gangs come from very troubled backgrounds that include poverty, substance abuse, neglect, lack of supervision, and physical and sexual abuse.12 Imagine that an Aboriginal youth in Hobemma shot at a member of a rival gang member and missed. Now imagine that he's been able to get help and make progress with his problems and behaviour. Is it better to insist on a punishment for his unsuccessful attempt on somebody else's life? Or does making that insistence threaten to undo the progress that he's made, especially if sending him to prison only promises to reintegrate him with gang life? Different people will come up with different answers to those questions, including within Cree communities themselves. Some members of Indigenous communities may be so fearful of youth gang activities that they want incarceration, punishment and permanent expulsion to further community safety. Others may regard that reflexive insistence as a lost opportunity, at least in instances where rehabilitative progress is possible.

These are difficult questions, and there no cut and dry or easy answers to them. But if Indigenous peoples are to have true self-determination over criminal justice, then it has to include the right to tackle those questions and find their own answers to them, and not be limited to just stereotyped notions of restorative justice. Imagine that an Indigenous community begins the process of creating their own laws and institutions, delineating what is criminal and what is not, and answering the difficult questions that arise. It may well be that the Indigenous community finds its own answers that work for its members, and provide solutions for its problems. Part in parcel with Aboriginal self-determination is that mainstream Canadian society has to accept that it is how the Indigenous community wants to do things for itself, even if the results are uncomfortable to behold from a mainstream perspective. For mainstream Canadian society to say, "Indigenous peoples shouldn't be allowed to use that law because it's different from our law and we don't like it" is the very essence of colonialism.

Endnotes

1 Rupert Ross, Returning to the Teachings: Exploring Aboriginal Justice (Toronto: Penguin Books Canada, 1996)

2 Annalise Acorn, Compulsory Compassion: A Critique of Restorative Justice (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004); Carol LaPrairie and E. Jane Dickson-Gilmore, Will the Circle Be Unbroken?: Aboriginal Communities, Restorative Justice, and the Challenges of Conflict and Change (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005).

3 David Milward, Aboriginal Justice and the Charter: Realizing a Culturally Sensitive Interpretation of Legal Rights in Canada (Vancouver: U.B.C. Press, 2012); Declane Roche, Accountability in Restorative Justice (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).

4 Child and Family Services Act, C.C.S.M. c.C80.

5 Ken Levy, "Killing, Letting Die, and the Case for Mildly Punishing Bad Samaritanism" (2010) 44:3.

6 Louis Bird, Telling Our Stories: Omushkego Legends & Histories from Hudson Bay (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011) at 69-78.

7 Miriam Gur-Arye, "A Failure to Prevent Crime - Should it be Criminal?" (2001) 20 Criminal Justice Ethics 3.

8 R v Ancio, [1994] 1 S.C.R. 225.

9 Edward Ahenakew, "Cree Trickster Narratives" (1929) 42:166 The Journal of American Folklore 309 at 315-319.

10 Anne McGillivray and Brenda Comaskey, Black Eyes All the Time: Intimate Violence, Aboriginal Women and the Justice System (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999).

11 "Gangs, violence, alcohol part of growing up in Hobemma, Alta. say killers" (C.B.C. News: May 15, 2013).

12 Annie K. Yessine & James Bonta, "The Offending Trajectories of Youthful Aboriginal Offenders" (2009) 51:4 Can. J. Crime. 435.

Cree Law and Canadian Criminal Law- Tales of Risk Assumption, Duties to Assist and Responsibility published first on http://ift.tt/2fPSFkQ

[legalseat]

Cree Law and Canadian Criminal Law- Tales of Risk Assumption, Duties to Assist and Responsibility

Self-determination over criminal justice remains an aspiration of Indigenous peoples to this day. But so far the dialogue remains fixated around perceived parallels between past Indigenous traditions of justice and restorative justice. The dialogue in its early years often presented those perceived parallels in a rather romanticized way, holding out Indigenous justice as a gentler, more benevolent and ultimately more effective form of justice that could end the problem of Indigenous over-incarceration.1 The dialogue has gained more complexity and nuance since its genesis. Most notably, feminist authors have brought to our attention potential concerns around inequities of participant power, coercion against victims, and re-victimization of crime victims.2 Others, myself included, have tried to introduce a meeting at halfway of sorts, trying to realize the benefits of restorative justice while seeking ways to address the concerns raised by the critics.3

This dialogue remains ongoing and needs to continue. However, to focus only on the perceived parallels to restorative justice loses sight of the fact that those parallels constitute only one aspect of Indigenous justice systems that were complex and sophisticated, and in ways that may not be readily apparent to Common Law jurists. Indigenous societies, like every other society, have had to grapple with questions of what is acceptable conduct and what is not. Much of Canadian criminal law is bound up with questions of defining criminal behaviour through the constituent components of actus reus and mens rea, as well as defences to criminal charges. Indigenous societies, while not drawing upon precisely the same concepts, have also had to engage with the need to delineate what is sanctionable behaviour and what is not. Examples of these emerge from the traditional stories of Indigenous societies if you listen to them carefully and with an open mind.

To what extent should the omission to act, to refuse to help someone who needs help, be punished as a criminal offence? The answer to that question depends on who you ask. Canada, and many other Common Law jurisdictions, do not impose a general duty to assist. Canadian criminal law will only punish a passive state when there is a specific duty to assist that is precisely delineated and narrow in scope in comparison to a general duty, and where there is an omission to act in accordance with that duty. An example is s. 18 of Manitoba's Child and Family Services Act, which makes it offence not to report to authorities when a person is aware that a child is in need of child welfare intervention.4

Several Contintental jurisdictions impose that general duty to assist, embodied in what are known as Bad Samaritan laws.5 Cree law imposed a general duty to assist as well. The Swampy Cree near James Bay have a traditional story that features the Giant Skunk as an antagonist. Giant Skunk was mortally feared because of its great size and its smell. It eats other animals, and has a fearsome reputation akin to the Kraken from Clash of the Titans or Fenrir the Great Wolf in Norse mythology. The Giant Skunk notices that another character, the Weasel, has crossed its path and feels insulted. The Giant Skunk decides to pursue and kill the other animals. The other animals initially decide to flee, but the children and elderly are becoming tired. Giant Skunk will catch up, so the animals convene another council and decide they have to make a stand. They make their stand in a large valley lake in the mountains. They make no effort to hide their trail in order to lure the Giant Skunk into a trap. The women, elderly and young children are led away further into the mountains. Only the adult males participate in the coming battle. The other animals also seek Big Cat's help in killing the Giant Skunk. But Big Cat initially does not want to get involved, and just wants to rest in his cave. Big Cat does eventually decide to help though. He agrees to help on the condition that the other animals prepare a place from which he can jump onto the Giant Skunk. Giant Skunk begins his assault. Wolverine jumps on Giant Skunk’s anus and holds the tail down to prevent Giant Skunk from using his spray. The other animals jump down on Giant Skunk to try and kill it. They finally succeed when Big Cat, albeit reluctantly and taking his time to do so, jumps on Giant Skunk’s neck.6

There are some definite contrasts that emerge here. A key reason for the Common Law's refusal to impose a general duty to assist is a pronounced reluctance to insist that citizens take on the risk of potentially very dangerous situations onto themselves. It is easy of course to say that only those who can handle certain risks should have the expectation placed on them, while those less capable would only be expected to act with less risk (e.g. simply calling for help). The problem, and part of Common Law's ongoing refusal, is how do you delineate what is an acceptable level of risk and what is not, or who has the capabilities of handling a given risk and who does not? That is an exercise fraught with uncertainty and bound to generate divisions of opinion.7

Cree law, however, embraced that exercise. The animals initially tried to flee, to avoid the risks. Once it became apparent that the Giant Skunk was going to catch up, the women, children and the elderly did not have the expectation placed on them. And yet once that sorting out had occurred, the healthy adult male animals were fully expected to take very real and mortal risks upon themselves.

As another example, Canadian law treats attempting to commit a crime as a punishable crime unto itself. If the accused fires a gun at his intended victim and misses without any physical harm, the accused will still be guilty of attempted murder.8 Various actors in the Canadian justice system, particularly Crown prosecutors, will be highly concerned that there will be public safety ramifications if the shooter is not prosecuted, if a message is not sent out to the rest of society, even if the attempt was ultimately successful.

Cree law offers a quite different perspective through the stories of conflict between Wesakaychak and his father-in-law, Weymesosiw. Weymesosiw was initially possessed of a very homicidal spirit, seeking to murder all that came near his camp who were not of his own family. Although Weymesosiw had given the outward appearance of consenting to Wesakaychak's marraige to his youngest daughter, he immediately and for some time thereafter set about to commit several attempts on Wesakaychak's life. All of them are unsuccessful. At some point, Wesakaychak has Weymesosiw at a distinct disadvantage when he tricks Weymesosiw into burning his own clothes, instead of Wesakaychak's as Weymesosiw originally intended. Wesakaychak has Weymesosiw at his mercy, but decides neither to kill him nor to aid the latter in reaching home. Wesakaychak decides to leave Weymesosiw to his own devices so that he has to reach home the hard way, without any clothes to protect him from exposure. Weymesosiw eventually manages to accomplish this by keeping a large rock heated long enough, and rolling it along, so that he can make the journey back.9

Weymesosiw had learned a lesson in life, as Wesakaychak had intended. Weymesosiw had become a kinder and gentler man for the experience, and the two eventually departed with a newfound respect and admiration for each other. What is implicit in the narrative is that if Wesakaychak had insisted on punishment or vengeance for past attempts on his life, it would have been counterproductive. Would it have undone the progress that Weymesosiw made with his own personal and spiritual growth? Would it have undone the greater state of harmony and co-existence that had been reached?

And these stories should not be treated as past relics with no present significance. Indigenous peoples may well want to make use of laws grounded in their historical past for application in the present. But there are certainly difficult questions of adaptability and application that need to be explored, not just by academics like myself, but also by Indigenous communities themselves.

Would it be a helpful positive if the general duty to assist in Cree law was revived in Cree communities? An affirmative answer to that question is not necessarily a given. There is something to be said for requiring community members to come to one another's aid, especially in Indigenous communities plagued by violence, especially against women and children. But what if the problems are so severe that it forces community members to take what may seem like unreasonable risks upon themselves? What if an Aboriginal woman who is suffering from domestic violence has no one to turn to because domestic violence is so prevalent to the point that it is normalized, and where the abuser is connected to and supported by the local power structure that accountability seems like a fantasy?10 What if almost everyone in the community is a Giant Skunk, and there are no Big Cats and Bears and Weasels to help you? Is the revival of Cree law premature or even impossible in such a setting?

Gang violence and shootouts as rivals struggle with each over for territory remains an epidemic problem for Cree First Nations surrounding Hobbema, Alberta.11 Certainly the activities of Aboriginal youth gangs can be extremely dangerous for the communities they operate in, including for community members who are not themselves involved with the gangs. And yet the Aboriginal youth who find themselves in gangs come from very troubled backgrounds that include poverty, substance abuse, neglect, lack of supervision, and physical and sexual abuse.12 Imagine that an Aboriginal youth in Hobemma shot at a member of a rival gang member and missed. Now imagine that he's been able to get help and make progress with his problems and behaviour. Is it better to insist on a punishment for his unsuccessful attempt on somebody else's life? Or does making that insistence threaten to undo the progress that he's made, especially if sending him to prison only promises to reintegrate him with gang life? Different people will come up with different answers to those questions, including within Cree communities themselves. Some members of Indigenous communities may be so fearful of youth gang activities that they want incarceration, punishment and permanent expulsion to further community safety. Others may regard that reflexive insistence as a lost opportunity, at least in instances where rehabilitative progress is possible.

These are difficult questions, and there no cut and dry or easy answers to them. But if Indigenous peoples are to have true self-determination over criminal justice, then it has to include the right to tackle those questions and find their own answers to them, and not be limited to just stereotyped notions of restorative justice. Imagine that an Indigenous community begins the process of creating their own laws and institutions, delineating what is criminal and what is not, and answering the difficult questions that arise. It may well be that the Indigenous community finds its own answers that work for its members, and provide solutions for its problems. Part in parcel with Aboriginal self-determination is that mainstream Canadian society has to accept that it is how the Indigenous community wants to do things for itself, even if the results are uncomfortable to behold from a mainstream perspective. For mainstream Canadian society to say, "Indigenous peoples shouldn't be allowed to use that law because it's different from our law and we don't like it" is the very essence of colonialism.

Endnotes

1 Rupert Ross, Returning to the Teachings: Exploring Aboriginal Justice (Toronto: Penguin Books Canada, 1996)

2 Annalise Acorn, Compulsory Compassion: A Critique of Restorative Justice (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004); Carol LaPrairie and E. Jane Dickson-Gilmore, Will the Circle Be Unbroken?: Aboriginal Communities, Restorative Justice, and the Challenges of Conflict and Change (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005).

3 David Milward, Aboriginal Justice and the Charter: Realizing a Culturally Sensitive Interpretation of Legal Rights in Canada (Vancouver: U.B.C. Press, 2012); Declane Roche, Accountability in Restorative Justice (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).

4 Child and Family Services Act, C.C.S.M. c.C80.

5 Ken Levy, "Killing, Letting Die, and the Case for Mildly Punishing Bad Samaritanism" (2010) 44:3.

6 Louis Bird, Telling Our Stories: Omushkego Legends & Histories from Hudson Bay (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011) at 69-78.

7 Miriam Gur-Arye, "A Failure to Prevent Crime - Should it be Criminal?" (2001) 20 Criminal Justice Ethics 3.

8 R v Ancio, [1994] 1 S.C.R. 225.

9 Edward Ahenakew, "Cree Trickster Narratives" (1929) 42:166 The Journal of American Folklore 309 at 315-319.

10 Anne McGillivray and Brenda Comaskey, Black Eyes All the Time: Intimate Violence, Aboriginal Women and the Justice System (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999).

11 "Gangs, violence, alcohol part of growing up in Hobemma, Alta. say killers" (C.B.C. News: May 15, 2013).

12 Annie K. Yessine & James Bonta, "The Offending Trajectories of Youthful Aboriginal Offenders" (2009) 51:4 Can. J. Crime. 435.

Cree Law and Canadian Criminal Law- Tales of Risk Assumption, Duties to Assist and Responsibility published first on http://ift.tt/2vSFQ3P