#grateful to be allowed in the country grateful to be allowed to succeed and thrive. and that you're not allowed to speak out | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mrneighbourlove · 6 years ago

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Puppet of Malus

Agahnim panted, coughing up a small amount of water. His mouth tasted heavy with iron. He must have cut his mouth open on the fall. Looking back up, he could barely hear the screeching of the monster so high on the mountain top of where he jumped. He was in a group of twenty-two when they left the country of Malus. They knew it wouldn’t be easy, but they never expected the death that awaited in the mountains. The country seemed to be created by the Devil himself to keep the Mortuus inside. The mountains that surrounded Malus were incredibly high and rocky, and, to their lethal unknowing, full of predators. The group was picked off quickly as they ran and fought to the border. Once they reached it, the surviving members found themselves at a cliff side with a sheer drop, and a river below. It was a leap of faith for all those that took it. Agahnim knew this was destiny. He had a mission after all the carry out. Hopefully, some of the others survived, as it would certainly make the tasks of the future more bearable.

Walking down the river side that fed out of Labrymma, the Mortuus flinched seeing a body float unmoving down the river. He didn’t need necromancy to know they were dead. It was then Agahnim heard coughing around the bend of the beach. “Hello! Did anyone else make it!?”

The Mortuus discovered two other survivors. Norgus and Mahen. They looked absolutely exhausted.

"If you call surviving that monstrosity 'making it', then yes, I suppose I did."

"I think the river saved us."

"It was either the water or that thing back there, and I made the decision for you."

"Yeah, by pushing me first into the water, thanks a lot."

"You wouldn't have jumped, you pansy."

"Well that's three of us so far..." Agahnim saw someone trying to swim in the water. Holy hell, it was Dio. The man watched his companion barely pull herself from the river, her arm torn apart in chunks from the fall, having to crawl to the beach.

"H-help me... out of the water."

Pulling Dio out of the water, Norgus and Mahem were soaking wet. Everyone in the group was exhausted but the mission came first. Looking at Agahnim, the two were at a loss for what to do. This was definitely not going as planned.

Dio panted, and cursed looking at her arm. "Someone... get me a corpse from the water or a wild animal."

Agahnim saw the corpse he witnessed floating down the river finally rest on shore. Going over to drag the body over, he saw it was Migal. Poor bastard had his torso cut apart by the rocks from the fall. When he finished dragging the body, Dio used blood magic to heal her arm by tearing the flesh from Migal to heal her own arm. It was an incredibly painful process, her red eyes glowing from using the magic, and her flesh forcibly being sewed together. "Frakalamos Diakanolo… Agahnim. This is all we have left. It's just the four of us."

"I know."

"Do you even think we'll be able to make it to Hyrule?" Norgus asked Agahnim. "We've had so many setbacks thus far. Not to mention, do you even think this queen of magic will help us?"

"Our people have never had to deal with these Lorleidians before, not to mention, Hylians or Gerudos."

"We've never had to deal with anyone before. We live in hell and no one even knows it. We all sacrificed much to get here. Think about this. We are most likely the first Mortuus to successfully escape the country in ages. You put your faith in me before, so I ask for you to keep it now. They most likely won't willingly help us, but we are survivors. Our magic is incredibly powerful, enough to even convince a Queen of Light to help us. I promise you; we will succeed in our mission. All of our companions’ deaths won't be in vain. We will do a great service in the name of Malus that which has never been seen before."

Dio looked blankly at Agahnim, before looking to Norgus and Mahem. "Alright Agahnim… I'm behind you. How about you two? Any regrets?"

"No, no regrets at all. We have to do this to prevent evil from spreading."

"Whatever the sacrifice, whatever is necessary, we'll do so."

"We'll follow you wherever you go, Agahnim."

"I just hope we'll have luck with this new queen. I've heard her king is something fierce."

"Not to mention, she's sure to have bodyguards."

"We need to plan how to get close."

"We'll do some reconnaissance. However..." Agahnim took a breath of fresh air, already seeing the future play out perfectly for him. "I believe we have the tools we'll need when we arrive in Hyurle. Now pick yourselves up. We have a long walk to Hyrule."

Klinge was not in the mood for this. Grabbing a mace, he swatted Ba'Puu on the nose rather aggressively. "I don't care if you consider yourself a war hero now. You don't get to eat out of the rations. You want fish? Then fly to the ocean. This food is for the people you damn lizard."

"It didn't have this 'peoples' name on it." Ba'puu snorted at Klinge, and then simply snatched the mace out of the undead's hand and tossed it aside, clanging into brick wall of the courtyard. "Besides, Mama said I could have all the fish I wanted."

"Ba'puu... we talked about this." Zarazu sighed as she heard Klinge and her dragon arguing. "I said you could have all the fish that I gave you. These were set aside for the citizens."

"Well, this pest here could have told me that."

"... you can read, Ba'puu."

"... I forgot."

"Ba'puu, my scaley baby, please don't eat the fish rations here, all right?" Zarazu scratched his snout and then kissed it. "Would you be a good boy and go to the ocean to fish for more? To replace the ones you ate?"

"If the pest apologizes for hitting me with a mace."

"You hit him with a mace?!" Zarazu huffed at Klinge. "I talked to you about that too!"

"Leave us child, just like your mother told you." Klinge pointed an arm out for Ba'puu to leave. Turning his attention to Zarazu, Klinge was rather relaxed in his response. "He can handle worse. He has the skin for it."

"Hmph. The only reason you're still here is because my Mama, for whatever odd reason, likes you." Ba'puu grumbled as he took off in the direction of the ocean. "You better be nice to her."

Once Ba'puu began his flight, Zarazu then turned her attention to Klinge. "That still doesn't mean you can hit him with a mace." The queen poked her finger against Klinge's armor. "He might be a stubborn and clingy dragon, but he's my dragon."

"If he's your child, I must wonder how effective of a mother you were with the lack of manners he has." Klinge rested his back against the wall, content to have a long drawn out debate on the woman's parenting skills if need be. War made him restless, and willing to take any conflict for the next year or so, be it fighting to the death or a verbal argument.

"Excuse me?" Zarazu narrowed her eyes at Klinge, and crossed her arms, standing on her tiptoes to look right through his helmet's slit. That comment made her feel highly insulted. "I did a very fine job, thank you very much! I raised Zolori, Zizi, and Ba'puu, all while working to put food in their bellies!" She shook a finger at his face. "You have no room to talk if you've never raised kids! Much less a baby dragon with no help!"

"I helped raise Gerudo children just fine, until they were massacred. I would have raised my own child fine, if she wasn't taken from me. In fact, I helped raise the royal family where I could." Klinge said the words so matter a fact, it came across as utterly chilling. "No, no, no. You should have been stricter with him, sterner. Now he's grown up to be a little shit disturber quite frankly..."

"Oh, and you think you did such a good job raising them?" Zarazu shot back. "Allowing them to get hurt and one to get kidnapped and other to be so ashamed of being homosexual, he left the damn kingdom?! At least Ba'puu knows he's loved and he's not terrified of me!"

Zarazu could suddenly feel death daggers shot down at her, especially when Klinge slowly grabbed her by the arms, and gently leaned down to her. "Don't. You ever. Ever say that to me again you little witch. Or I will have a reason to look the other way the next time the newest threat to Hyrule comes demanding your blood. You don’t get to tell me how I handled the royal family’s safety." Letting his threat sink in, Klinge gave her a shove against the chest to get out of his way as he walked out her presence as quickly as he could without breaking into a jog.

"Or what?! You'd fight me again and lose your other arm?!" Zarazu challenged angrily, not appreciating the fact that Klinge had grabbed her in such a way. More than anything, she hated being threatened in such a manner. Lately, Klinge had been doing just about anything to pick a fight. Well, he certainly was going to get one. "You'd go against your queen?! Figures, since you still hate Zelda's guts. You can't let go of the past, and you certainly can't look toward the future!" She shouted after him, ice forming underneath her feet. "If you ever touch Ba'puu again or threaten me, I'll find you a deep a grave to rot in!!!"

Klinge clenched his metallic fist, doing everything he could to not throw a punch. "Like the graves of the countless civilians you couldn't save from Vul'kar? Go cool off before you say something your blabbering mouth regrets."

"At least I saved my people!!!" Zarazu growled bitterly. "The Lorleidians are still here!" She spun on her heel and tromped toward the ocean. The sea spires would help her gather her thoughts. Maybe Ba'puu would even take her for a flight later... gosh, being queen was difficult.

Zarazu felt a rock hit her in the back of the head. "Be grateful you still have a people that are not only still thriving, but also not hunted down by others, you spoiled little witch!" Klinge was going to lose it, he could feel the hate rising up. The rock was the least amount of damage he was going to do, but it made him expel just enough energy. Going down the one of the intact hallways, Klinge looked furiously at the family portrait Ganondorf had made of him and his children. They won what should be their final war of their lives, yet he was still angry. People still pushed him to anger. Things were never going to get easier. Why the hell did Klinge EVER consider he could have friends, let alone with someone like her. Covarog probably begged Zarazu to be kind to him in the hospital. What a fool he was to opening up to her about his past. "Never again..."

"KISS VUL'KAR'S ASS!!!"

It was later in the day that Ba'puu found his adoptive mother at the sea spires. He always knew where to find her if there was something on her mind. Landing on the rock, he curled around Zarazu and nuzzled her. There was negativity in her mind and a sense of feeling lost. "Mama?" Ba'puu told her. "I replaced the fish I ate. I'm sorry if I made you upset."

"No, Ba'puu, you didn't upset me." Zarazu sighed, running a hand down her face. "Klinge did. I've been trying my absolute best to get along with him, but at every turn, it seems like he wants to pick a fight with me. I lost my temper with him and said some things I shouldn't have said."

"Everyone does that at some point."

"I know... but I want to be a good queen."

"You are a good queen. Everyone knows that Vul'kar wasn't your fault."

"Then why don't I feel that way?"

Ganondorf was tending to one of his old tridents, when he saw Klinge aggressively clawing at the armour plating on his arm.

"Commander. What's the matter?"

"Excuse me sire?"

"Oh come now, I know that habit of yours."

Klinge shook his head in defeat. He couldn't hide anything from Ganondorf. "It's Zarazu. The woman is maddening. I merely wished to discuss her parenting skills over her childish dragon, when she called me out on my failures over my protection of your own children, as well as my failure to save our people."

"Hmmm, and this upsets you?"

"Yes."

"Not because you can simply kill her like any other fool who'd dare say those things to us."

"No... because I thought she was friend."

"Do you want me to speak to Covarog about your altercation?"

"... no. You don't need to do that."

"Is there anything else on your mind?"

"Why isn't it I feel like we'll ever have peace?"

Ganondorf looked up from shining his trident. "Us... or you?"

At that, Klinge didn't answer. "I'm going to make a report to your son about reconstruction..."

"Very well, take care commander..."

"Considering you had no parents, I think you did all right raising Zizi and Zolori." Covarog sat in his shared bedchamber with Zarazu as she combed his long hair. "Ba'puu is... well..."

"I know, I know, Ba'puu is clingy, stubborn, childish, and a headache to you and everyone else, isn't he?" Zarazu huffed as she continued to work on the tangles. "He's such a pain, he should stay out of the way and just let everyone hit him in the nose with a mace."

"... you're very touchy when it comes to Ba'puu."

"Yes, I am."

"Why?"

"... because he doesn't have anyone else but me."

"He has your sisters, doesn't he?"

"It's... it's different, Covarog." Zarazu sighed, putting aside the brush and started to braid. "Dragons only bond with one human in their entire lifetime. Once I'm gone, Ba'puu... he..." The queen's shoulders slumped. "He won't be the same. I've seen what happens to dragons without their humans."

"Did you really need to argue with Klinge though?"

"Ugh, Klinge has been looking for a fight every single damn day!" Zarazu groaned aloud in exasperation.

"Did you know he was criticizing my handwriting a few days ago? My handwriting! Of all things!"

"He's picky about that." Covarog ran a hand down his face. "I can almost feel the tingle of the ruler on the back of my hand."

"Whether it's handwriting, sword fighting, posture, speeches, whatever it is, he's becoming worse than Zelda is about corsets!!!"

A knock came at the door, rather heavily. Klinge could hear Zarazu complaining heavily. Hopefully he could blank her out of his mind while he addressed Covarog.

"Maybe you two just need to sit down and talk these things out, love." Covarog suggested. "Klinge has certain expectations of a queen."

"I don't want him to view me just as his queen, I want him to view me as his friend too." Zarazu finished the braids for her husband. "I just don't understand why he insists at continuously picking at my faults or finding something..." She sounded defeated. "Something wrong with me."

"Just give him time, my love." Covarog gave her a kiss. "He's not used to having a good friend, much less a very sassy one like you."

"Sassy?" Zarazu quirked an eyebrow at him. "Says who?"

"Says me." Covarog grinned as his hands ran up her hips. "The sassiest queen in existence. With a perfect ass, and huge boobs, and such luscious curves..."

"Covarog!" Zarazu blushed as he flirted. "You have a meeting with---" The knock at the door interrupted her.

"Who is it?" Covarog asked with an impatient growl.

“It’s me sire.” Klinge knocked again.

"Does he have like a fuck sensor? I swear he always shows up when we're about to do it." Covarog whispered to Zarazu with an annoyed tone.

"I'm starting to suspect he does." Zarazu whispered in reply.

“I have a report to give. Put your clothes on and answer the door.”

"Do you have to give it now?" Covarog grumbled.

"Covarog, go open the door." Zarazu urged her husband. "It's probably important."

Begrudgingly, the king opened the bedroom door.

“Good. You can be faster next time.” Klinge took out a piece of paper, carefully reading off his checklist.

“First things first. Your meeting with the Goron Chief will now take place at Death Mountain instead of here. Chief Datakanuva said his son is ill, and he doesn’t want to go too far. I’d suggest packing a bag and leaving right away. The Goron’s help in rebuilding Hyrule is crucial.”

"Oh, good goddesses..." Covarog felt frustrated. All of his recent meetings had been outside of Hyrule and he was getting tired of traveling. For once, he would like to stay home with his queen and feel comfortable. Yet, as king of Hyrule, he understood that this was part of his role. "My queen, will you be able to handle things here while I am gone?"

"As always, my king." Zarazu was not looking forward to her husband leaving yet again, but she had to be patient and supportive. Rebuilding a kingdom from scratch was hard work, and allies were important. Zarazu pulled out Covarog's suitcase. "I'll help you pack."

“Second. Your mother requests Zarazu’s assistance in helping sew Princess Rinku’s tunic. Both a ‘Queenly’ hobby to pick up and learning the importance of the hero in green throughout the ages. Perhaps you can ask her why it’s rude to bring up genocide as well.” Klinge threw in that last comment, still hurt by Zarazu’s words. “And third Covarog, the carpenters want to know if you’d like new designs to the east towers.”

"At least I don't have to sew myself back together." Zarazu snorted under her breath. "Maybe he should have thought of not bringing up the past in the first place when it was someone's fault that Lorleidi was wiped off the map."

"Klinge, Zarazu, will you two please get along?" Covarog gave Klinge a disappointed look. "Stop goading and insulting my queen. Zarazu, leave Klinge be until he cools off." He then ordered. "Go attend to your other duties."

“Tell your wife to be more considerate. And to think that the genocide of our people, and the plight of your siblings affects what little of a soul I have left.” Klinge gave Covarog the paper and walked off.

"Klinge, leave her alone unless you change your attitude first." Covarog was getting tired of all this fighting. "Zarazu, just... avoid him. Now, did you pack my pajamas?"

"Are you using the right stitch---"

"Zelda, if you ask me that one more time, I'm leaving."

"Testy today, are you?"

"Look, Klinge has already expressed his thoughts about my shortcomings, I don't need you picking at my stitching."

"Hrm, looks like Klinge is following the same pattern with you that he used with me."

"That doesn't surprise me."

Ganondorf rolled his eyes, waiting for Zelda to be finished with Zarazu. They had more important tasks than to sew his daughter’s tunic. “Oh please. He doesn’t have that hate towards Zarazu that he once had for you my dear.”

"Then why does he insist on arguing with me? Picking at every single flaw he sees? And worst of worst, questioning my ability to parent or even be a queen!" Zarazu grabbed a pillow off the couch and released a muffled scream into it. "... I'm finally away from fighting and each time I see him, I feel like I have to put my fists up again."

"I know the feeling." Zelda shrugged her shoulders as she added the golden trim onto Rinku's outfit for extra flare. "He still doesn't care for me, I doubt he ever will."

“You put your differences aside after the War of Fire Zelda. That’s respectful enough given your histories. And as for you Zarazu, the man just wants the best for you. You have to understand he’s not like others when it comes to more relaxed interactions. Perhaps if both of you stopped being so stubborn, you’d make some common ground.”

"He's the one being stubborn!"

Zelda raised a brow at her daughter in law. "... uh-huh. And you're not?"

"... no."

"You sure about that?"

"... fine, I'm a little stubborn. Less stubborn than he is." Zarazu would at least admit that. "Though it's not his place to decide what is best for me. I decide what is best for me and I have to do what is best for the people as well. It's not an easy feat."

“And it’s not your place to decide if he failed my people and my children in the past.” Ganondorf rested his gaze on Zarazu. His daughter in law, just like his son, still had much to learn about the world.

"I suppose you're right about that issue." Zarazu rubbed the side of her forehead, getting a headache. "I shouldn't have said the things I did and he shouldn't have either. We both don't know enough about the other and he certainly has a talent for pushing me."

“I think you rival in that talent yourself towards him.” Ganondorf laughed aloud, watching Zarazu darken in the cheeks slightly. “Never would I thought Covarog would pick such a challenging woman as a lover. It’s only fair that you’d be the perfect candidate as a friend to someone as challenging as Klinge.”

"Hmph." Zarazu pouted, the color on her cheeks darkening. "Covarog did say he liked me sassy."

"And Ganondorf likes me assertive." Zelda rolled her eyes. "Men are complex creatures."

Searching the castle ground, Dio entered quietly undetected. It was then that she sensed something peculiar. Looking through a crack in the wall, she saw a massive man in a suit of armour. His soul radiated undeath. It was then he saw a woman in blue clothing and dark skin walk up to him. The man sounded annoyed as he swung his sword against the practice dummies. “What is it you seek Zarazu?”

"Look, Ganondorf and Zelda want us to talk and 'put aside our differences and find commonalities'." Zarazu was trying to keep from gritting her teeth as she spoke. "As the past king and queen, I promised them we would find a way to get along."

“Is that what you want?” Klinge split a dummy in half with his blade.

"Right now? No. I want to scream obscenities at you and give you that version of just how un-queenly you think I am." Zarazu took a breath, trying to keep her wits. "Yet, I have to think about what is best for everyone else, and that depends on you and I getting along for a change. So the answer is yes, I do want to get along."

“That doesn’t really sound like you mean it.” Klinge places another practice dummy to practice on. “After all, you just said no as your initial choice.”

Moving the dummy aside to get his full attention, Zarazu crossed her arms and gave him a hard stare.

"Do you want me to repeat my last statement?"

Klinge was getting annoyed with Zarazu. If she wasn’t going to be honest with him, he rather not see her. And her attitude was pushing his buttons. “Do you want to think for yourself? Have you even had friends before? Do you want one in the first place?”

"... I'll come back later." Zarazu could feel herself growing angry but wanted to please Ganondorf and Zelda. She pushed the practice dummy back into place before walking into the castle once more.

“So that’s a no then.”

"You don't know me and I won't answer your questions unless we can both be civil." Zarazu said under her breath. "If for whatever reason you need the queen, I will be with my sisters in the kitchen. Good day."

“I am civil. I even gave your child some salmon. So how about you apologize for your attitude?” Klinge sheathed his sword, glaring behind his helmet.

"Just because you're nice to Ba'puu when you feel like it, doesn't give you the right to question my skills on raising my sisters or my dragon." Zarazu did not face him, keeping her back to him. "You might have played a role in guarding my husband and his siblings, but you are not a father yourself. You had no right to criticize me." She then had to bite the inside of her gums to keep from growling. "I will at least admit I had no right to accuse you of past failures. We both said harsh statements."

“You want to be treated with respect? Then stop acting like a child, and look me in the eye with a meaningful apology from the heart.”

"No. This is the best you will get right now, lest I be tempted to start another fight if I look at you."

“Fine. Go sulk off to your sisters than. I don’t want Zolori to burn through valuable cooking supplies, so I’d hurry.”

"At least I have people to talk to." Zarazu grumbled as she walked through the hallways and into the kitchen. There, Chef Sophie was trying her best to teach Zolori how to bake cupcakes. At least this was more peaceful than Klinge slamming into dummies.

Dio went back to her group in the sewer under the castle. “I saw Zarazu. She appears to be unarmed, and under her cycle at the moment. I’m unsure how this will affect our plan in acquiring her help.”

Agahnim shrugged his shoulders. “While you were out, I finished reading the Lorleidian text I acquired. As it turns out, the Queen has two gauntlets of great magic in her body. If she doesn’t comply, we can forcibly take them from her.”

"So the queen of magic has a weakness?"

"You know, that undead guard could be useful, don't you think?"

"I'd hate to have to force her to comply, perhaps she'd see the extent of our cause if we take the time to explain to her what is happening."

Dio and Agahnim exchanged looks, the former wondering if this was indeed an option. The woman looked to her two other companions. “After we restrain her. The undead still has a soul, although twisted. We’ll need to trap him in a powerful binding spell if we wish to use him as a tool.

“Agreed. We go ensnare him now, then use him to get close and subdue the Queen. Keep your distance if you can.”

Agahnim knew that once he had the Queen, all his problems in life would be over. The group cautiously found Klinge alone, putting away his equipment. Together with the others, they waited for Klinge to step into their rune. The Warrior never saw it coming. His nerves spiked in pain, and his mind went numb, as if he was still conscious, but not in control.

Dio conducted the undead like a puppet with hand motions. “I’ll go find this Queen now. The rest of you get in position at the library. I’ll bring the Queen to us.”

Klinge’s body walked to find Zarazu cooking in the kitchen. Dio has an easy time talking through him. “Zarazu. A moment of your time alone.”

Zarazu was in the middle of munching on one of her sister's cupcakes. It was a little more crunchy than fluffy, but she had to at least applaud Zolori's effort on not burning them black this time. When she heard Klinge's voice, she released an auidible, irritated sigh. "Can this at least wait until I'm done eating?"

“No. An emergency in the private library requires your attention.”

"...? An emergency?" Zarazu set down her dessert. This was odd. Usually if there was an accident in the castle, Captain Kelly or Tulilad alerted her. Klinge had more important things to do than deal with a mishap. "What happened?"

“It’s a messy situation. Best you come with me.”

Something was off... Klinge would have thrown an insult by now, especially since she was indulging in treats. He always had quip about her getting fat if she ate too many sweets. Zarazu had to act carefully... and keep others out of danger. "Very well." Zarazu had to act fast. There had to be a small test of sorts to see if this really was Klinge. There was a tint of... dark magic in the air. "Please summon Captain Kelly and Captain Tulilad to the library. I'm sure we could use their assistance in dealing with this matter."

Dio realized that perhaps she needed to act more in character if she needed Zarazu in a more private area. “I didn’t realize that you wanted to shirk your responsibility. Again. But if you think you want someone else to help you...”

"My responsibility is keeping my subjects safe and governing the laws of this land, not picking up books or tidying a mess, Klinge." Zarazu made a wave of dismissal with her hand, laying out her little trap. "Of course, if you have come to get me because the Widahidosyi Stone broke in the library, that's another matter."

Shit. What the fuck is a Widahidosyi Stone? Dio tried to think of something clever. “Fine. It’s one of your damn hatchling dragons. It found its way in the library and made a mess. I want you to deal with it before I do in my own special way.”

Hatchlings were not allowed in the castle unless approved by the queen herself. The last time it happened, Klinge was on the war path. He would have tossed the dragon out the window instead of coming to her. Something indeed was wrong with Klinge. Very wrong. So one last little test...

"Another one of Ba'puu's hatchlings?"

“I can’t keep track.”

Ba'puu did not have any hatchlings. Klinge was... unsure. "All right. Lead the way."

Klinge lead them to the chamber, and once they did, opened the door for her. “After you.”

"... what's the emergency, Klinge?" Zarazu stepped into the room, the magic gathering at her fingertips. "Or should I inquire to the person behind him?"

Klinge grabbed a lantern and swung it at Zarazu’s head, intent on knocking her out.

Ice rose from behind Zarazu and latched onto the commander, intent on restraining him. She swiftly dodged his blow and kept a thick wall of ice in-between them. The last thing she wanted was to have to take his other arm.

“Be a good girl and stay still.” Klinge wasn’t using any of his weapons or skill, simply using brute force to smash through the ice. The giant man lunged to bear hug Zarazu.

"The hell I will!" Zarazu blasted Klinge with the full force of her icy talent, plastering him to the wall. "Who are you and what have you done with my commander?!"

Agahnim struck Zarazu from behind with a dark energy sphere, shocking her back. Agahnim motioned for Norgus and Mahem to start their rune around Zarazu. They wouldn’t have much time.

Zarazu released a strident shriek when the dark magic intermingled with her own, giving her body quite the shock. Groaning, she tried to keep from falling, stumbling about into the bookshelves.

“Hold her you fools!” Agahnim struck her again. About this time, Dio stumbled from the closet, letting her control of a Klinge go. She actually puked, feeling the affects of Zarazu’s divine magic through Klinge.

"Get away from me!!!" Zarazu screamed and managed to blast Norgus and Mahem against the wall with a strident slam. "GUARDS!!!"

“You froze your guard against the only door out.” Agahnim zapped her again. “Hit her with the paralysis locks!”

"How dare you control Klinge against his will and attack me in my own home!!!" Zarazu spouted at the intruders, thudding to the floor when Agahnim struck her with magic again. She was seeing black spots. As a last-ditch defense, she coated her own body in a layer of ice.

Dio reached out, using blood magic to stretch Zarazu like a doll. “Stay.... still...”

Now that she wasn’t being blasted or thrashing about, the Queen could see that these group of people looked startlingly similar to Leere.

Agahnim smiled fondly at his comrade. “Could work Dio. Hold her there as I charge my spell.”

The Mortuus! Zarazu wondered exactly how these four managed to find their way to Hyrule. There were rumors of the gate keeping anything from going in or out; at least alive. Still, she did not understand what they wanted with Klinge or her, for that matter.

"...? What are you doing?" Mahem asked Agahnim.

"We need to talk to her." Norgus said.

"She simply won't understand our cause, keep focused on making sure some fool doesn't break through the window."

Dio looked sickly, feeling a back lash of Zarazu's holy magic hit her, but she still had some energy to hold on.

"We won't know unless we try!" Norgus insisted. "We came all this way. She defeated Vul'kar, and has helped other nations. Surely if she hears our cause, she will help us! She's not cruel."

"Uh... guys." Mahem gulped loudly, tapping on Dio's shoulder. "There's... there's a..."

"There's what?"

"There's a dragon staring at us through window. And he doesn't look happy."

Agahnim looked to the dragon. No. He would be rewarded by destiny if he completed his task. He continued to charge the spell.

"It's not going to do anything with her in here. Dio, keep the restraints on her!"

Dio tightened her magic, causing Zarazu to scream. Hopefully that would make the dragon back down. Dio's eyes turned from white and red, to black and red, feeling her body give into her blood magic just to stop Zarazu's own magic from harming her. "What are we doing Agahnim? Are we stealing her gauntlets or not? I'd like it if you hurried!"

"GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF MY MOTHER!!!" Ba'puu roared so loudly, the foundations of the tower shook. It was drawing the attention of others. "I'LL RIP YOU ALL TO SHREDS!!!"

"Urg... mmhnn!" Zarazu was struggling against the blood magic. Lorleidians were of magic, were magic. She was fighting against it with all her strength. She could not even speak, but was doing her best to try to move. Suddenly, a finger twitched.

Klinge quickly assessed what was going on in the room. These damn necromancers took control of his body. They violated his mind by speaking through him. They were going to kill Zarazu. He couldn't let them get away with ridiculing him, or with hurting his friend. When he saw Zarazu twitch her finger, the ice shifted, just enough. Unlike his first battle he shared with Zarazu, he lacked the strength to blast himself from the ice on his own. However, now, he was given the opportunity.

Dio watched Agahnim chuckle to himself. His spell turned from yellow, to a dark shade of blue. For whatever reason, he was going to kill Zarazu. "Wait, what are you-"

They were all silenced as Klinge ejected himself from the icy prison. With roar of anger, he stabbed his hand in Norgus' chest. Throwing his body at Dio, her spell over Zarazu ended as she fell back into a bookshelf. With a quick movement, the massive undead Gerudo roundhouse kicked Mahem out the window towards Ba'puu.

"NOOOOO!!!" Agahnim screamed in frustration, launching a stream of dark lightning towards Zarazu.

Opening his mouth, Ba'puu chomped on Mahem's body, ripping the man in half with a crunch. He then forced his huge claw inside the window, knocking into Agahnim and dragging Zarazu toward him, causing the dark magic to miss her by a hair. Norgus was knocked silly, seeing stars, while Dio was shoving him off of her.

"Get... off... you idiot." Dio hissed, pissed at Agahnim. What was killing her going to accomplish?

Agahnim gasped as Ba'puu knocked the wind out of him. Looking to his two remaining comrades, the man screamed at them. "You fools should have died in that mountain if you were going to be so useless! Kill the Queen! If you don't, we'll never return our country!!!" Agahnim charged up another chain of lightning, when he was sucker punched by Klinge. The undead proceeded to beat the shit out of the man, leading him out of the room, away from Zarazu. The Mortuus' blood sprayed across the new carpets as Klinge kept punching him.

Dio felt a massive headache, and charged her hands. "Norgus you idiot. Stop being a fool, and get up."

"I think I broke something..." Norgus squeaked as Dio pushed him off to the floor. Reaching around, he felt the back of his head. There was blood on his fingers. "Well, that's not good."

"Mama! Mama!!!" Ba'puu held Zarazu in his massive claws and watched intently as the ice started to melt away from around her body. "Are you all right?!"

"I..." Zarazu felt like dead weight as her companion held her so gently. "Can't move..." The queen felt a slight panic at the prospect of not being able to lift her head or any other limb. The dark magic really had stunned her numb.

Agahnim felt confused. How could he fail? He was chosen by the master. He was promised luck on his side, and that he was destined to do anything. The queen should have been dead? How was he losing to an undead? Desperately he tried to control Klinge.

The commander could feel the pull of his strings, but he fought through it. Every punch he landed on the Necromancer, he loosened the control the fiend had on him. Finally, Klinge beat the man's face so deeply in that there was nothing but lumps and blood. Gripping him against the wall, Klinge pulled his fist back and smashed forward, turning the Necromancer's face into mush. The group of knights that had come to assist nearly fainted. Klinge quickly turned to return to Zarazu. "Someone clean this filth up."

Dio held Norgus' body, calculating desperately for a plan. "Heal your wounds. Give in to your blood magic damn it! Do something you fool!"

Agahnim was dead. Norgus felt a chill go up his spine. This Klinge, this commander, was definitely bad news if he could break the control over his body. Still, there was one question unanswered; why did Agahnim want to kill the queen? She could help them! It did not make any sense! His only option now was to run, or else, the undead might kill him too.

Dio considered her options. Agahnim tried to kill Zarazu, most likely as an easy way to complete his quest. His way was utterly foolish. And now, because she let his ego take the lead, they had lost all advantages. The woman felt a vein nearly pop as Klinge slowly entered with a near battalion of armed and shielded guards. "D-damn it all to hell. I was lied to. Who'd have imagined this queen would be so powerful in her own abilities and in allies."

"I don't understand, why would he want to kill the queen? She could help us…" Norgus hissed under his breath, knowing the two of them had to escape. "Got a plan B?"

"No one has stepped foot in Malus... no one would do anything to ever cleanse it. It's a place of darkness and evil Norgus. Perhaps the inner tribes are right. Accepting what the land is, and that power is needed to thrive was the only way we could have truly lived..." Dio watched Zarazu find her standing. A plan B, however, was indeed slithering its way into her mind.

"It doesn't mean it can't be done." Norgus argued with Dio. "We have to have hope that the darkness can and will be expelled one day."

Dio looked down at Norgus. He was losing a lot of blood, and was most likely wasn't going to live for long. "I don't think we'll make it out of here. We failed Norgus... so how about a kiss, for the end?"

"What's... going on?" Zarazu's head was absolutely spinning. The dark magic was working its way out of her system, but it still made her feel downright awful. The queen knew she was safe in Ba'puu's claws.

"Klinge... is he okay?"

"When is he not okay?" Ba'puu grumbled. "He's still Klinge."

"Yeah... a kiss would be nice..." Norgus felt like sleep was pulling on him. "What... do you say?"

"I'm here Zarazu. Ba'puu, make sure they don't run out the window." Klinge motioned the guards to slowly approach.

"Be of use to me one last time." As Dio kissed Norgus, she used her blood magic to drain his energy. It would a somewhat peace experience given how close to death the man was anyways. The women radiated sinful magic, and sparks of red lightning sizzled around her. "Goodbye, Queen of Lorliedi. Not many see a Mortuus, so enjoy the last you will ever see of my image."

Reaching down to the ground beneath her, Dio summoned a portal, letting whatever forces of hell take her. It would be better than dying here.

Klinge was too late to stop her, merely slicing at smoke and electricity in the air as her body disappeared.

It took the rest of the day for Zarazu to feel like herself again, but by night fall, she was feeling quite normal. At least her toes and fingers were not tingling anymore. It was a horrid sensation, something akin to her whole body being asleep. Ba'puu refused to leave her alone for long, so he was resting outside her chamber near the balcony.

"Let me see her Ba'puu." Zarazu could hear Klinge being firm, yet soft spoken with the dragon.

Leaning his massive head down, he sniffed the undead. "Yep. Still you." Ba'puu wanted to make sure the commander was not an imposter. "Still smelling of rot and spite. You never change, do you?"

"I just had my entire mind and body pulled like a puppet due to being made of rot and spite. Can you please desist your hostilities towards me? At least for the day so I may check in on my friend?"

"And risk losing my title of being the sassiest dragon on the earth? Klinge, I cannot believe you'd ask me to do such a thing." Ba'puu craned his neck, pretending to be insulted. He moved his tail out of the way to reveal Zarazu resting against his belly. The water dragon was not letting her out of his sight anytime soon. "Very well. She's still tired, so make it quick."

"I'm sorry they let them get to me. That I while I was aware, I couldn't control my actions... and they hurt you because of that." Klinge took a knee, leaning close to the Queen. "How are you feeling?"

"You have nothing to apologize for, Klinge." Zarazu told the commander, looking exhausted. Lorleidian bodies were not equipped to handle such massive amounts of dark magic. Luckily, little by little, her own magic was expelling it from her system. "We had no idea that the Mortuus were even coming, and even if we did, it still would have been a possibility." She closed her eyes, trying to will away the awful headache. "I will be fine. Nothing that hasn't happened to me before. It's you I'm worried about."

"I'm not fine with what happened. Leere alone scares me with her power. Those people had far more malevolent intentions in what sounded like a neutral stance. One wanted to kill you." Klinge held his head downcast, ashamed at the state he allowed Zarazu to fall into under his protection. "My first reaction was looking into how our armies could invade this kingdom of Malus... but I stopped out of fear. How can I ask the men and woman of this country to fight a threat that easily dominated me."

"We do not need another war on our hands, Klinge." Zarazu really did not want to think about having to fight another battle in her lifetime. "I understand what happened scared you, it scared me too. At first, I thought they were here to use you in a bribe against me. There are some who like to exploit the fact that Lorleidians value all life, and I wouldn't put it past them for wanting to use you against me in any conceivable way."

“I hate that. I... I’m sorry I hurt you.”

"This wasn't your fault. If anything, I should be the one apologizing." Zarazu admitted to the commander. "I let my temper get the best of me. Still, you tried to help me."

Klinge sighed. “I didn’t want our last interactions after our fight to be one of us killing each other. I apologize for pushing your temper.”

"I think maybe we need some more time to learn about each other." Zarazu tried to think in a positive manner. "What each of us like, what we dislike... and definitely learn which buttons not to push."

“I’d like to stop fighting...”

"I'd like the same." Zarazu then suggested. "How about we start over?"

“No. I’m going to remember how much of a pain in the ass you are.” Klinge chuckled. “How about we be mature and just be better from now on?”

"I consider it a compliment that I'm the 'pain in the ass', while you're the classic 'perfectionist' and somehow manage to interrupt any alone time I have with my king." Zarazu laughed at his suggestion. "Mature? Now, now, commander, where is the fun in that? Perhaps mature when the time comes for it, but otherwise, I will still be your annoying friend."

“Good grief.” Klinge rested next to Ba’puu beside Zarazu, tapping his chest. “I’m going to keep this situation from your husband. No one know what happened accept for the guard. I think it keeping panic contained would be for the best.”

"Oh goddesses, if Covarog knew, he'd refuse to leave me alone for the rest of my life." Zarazu gave a most unladylike snort. "I love my husband, though he thinks I'm made of glass sometimes. I do think he's forgotten that I was the one who broke his nose and stole artifacts from the castle those few years ago." As Klinge took the spot beside of her, the queen rested her eyes again. She was so tired. "Do you mind if we continue our conversation later, Klinge? I would very much like to rest a little more."

“Very well. So we’re agreed than?”

"Mmm-mhh..." Zarazu mumbled as the lull of sleep pulled her off into dreamland. Her head tilted to one side, resting on Klinge's armored shoulder. Indeed, the queen was exhausted, and even started to snore lightly.

Klinge looked to Ba’puu. He wasn’t going to move an inch from the dragon. Closing his eyes, he rested as Zarazu against him. “Get all the rest you need...”

Dio felt her body burn as she crawled over the dirt she landed in. Her body was in agony, yet she found herself enjoying it. Her body was becoming fueled by it. The pain of the sun ceased as someone stood over her.

“You are not Agahnim, yet you lived where he could not.”

Dio tried to get a good look at him, but her eyes pained her too much.

The figure’s voice was a whisper. “You come from Malus. A wound in creation itself. I’m impressed by your fortitude. Perhaps I should have approached you over your comrade.”

“W-who are you?”

The figure leaned close, and Dio gazed into a masked figure, locking her sight with two black and golden eyes staring back at her. “I am the inevitable destruction that will cleanse this world. Come with me, and I will give you a purpose child.”

Dio watched as this figure raised a frail hand. When she tried to look into his soul with her magic, she found a void vaster than her imagination could handle. The figure gave a light laugh. “Hee, hee... I look forward to you working at my side, Dio of Malus.”

#Crossover!#Older WIP #ridersoftheapocalypse #Klinge #Mortuus #Zarazu #LOZ #And Time Again

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faberquidam · 6 years ago

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Spiraling

I used to have such an amazing imagination, I could entertain myself for hours without even talking or leaving my room. Just me and my thoughts.

I had the power to create entire worlds and characters, each one with their own background, personality and goals. I spent so much time impersonating them and imagining new challenges for them to face. At that time my life was truly filled with awe and adventure and every day felt like a new beginning, an opportunity to grow the universe residing in my head.

I won’t get into the details of why life no longer feels that way; to be honest, I’m not even sure I know the answer. I (as everyone else, I’m sure) just had to accept it because greater things were coming along, or so they said. Plus, playing with your imagination is childish isn’t it? Loving people you made up is weird, right? Boys should have other things in mind, shouldn’t they?

I don’t want to be dramatic, I really don’t. My life is AMAZING, I’m sorrounded by people who love me, I have friends even though I wish I was better at socializing, empathizing and showing emotions, everyone in my family is healthy and relatively happy with their lives which is really good and shouldn’t be overlooked. Most importantly, I’m extremely privileged to be a white middle-class European boy in a country where people are not tortured or killed for their sexuality. For all of this I’m grateful and I probably should be for so many other things I don’t even realize

All I want to say is that I’m scared. I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing, I don’t what I should be doing and telling me there’s nothing holding me back from doing what I want is not going to help because I simply can’t believe that. It doesn’t feel like I’m free. It doesn’t feel like anyone is free. The life that’s ahead of me is scary because it will depend on me and the choices that I will make. I have this irrepressible need to thrive in everything I do and this amount of pressure is breaking me. There are rules in life, there are people who just know how to grab it by the balls and succeed, there are things I should know, things I should do, things I should be.

And that’s why it’s scary. I don’t know what I should do or what I should be. I don’t know anything really. I’m not thriving in everything, not even one single thing and it’s driving me crazy... actually it’s making me miserable.

The only thing I did to become someone that’s good enough for me was getting rid of my imagination. Quite literally. I just put it aside as every passing day I felt more ashamed of myself and dirtier and grosser and less deserving of that kind of happiness. I just wanted to preserve the innocence of it while allowing myself to grow and change so I decided to write down the major plot lines, lore and characters of my daydreams in a journal.

It sounds so stupid and I hate writing this down, but hopefully it’s for the better.

The journal is still here, almost four years later and I wrote down three introductory pages. They were not perfect. They were not making justice to the feeling I had when I would play with my thoughts. They were not good enough. I wasn’t good enough.

So I decided to just stop, literally no one except for me needed that journal to exist at the time and I thought that if writing on it caused me so much stress and pain maybe I was better off without it. I really thought I grew, which by the way i did: of course I am a different person than the one I was four years ago.

The only thing is, it still hurts. Yes, I am anxious about the future and the likely possibility that I will not be extraordinarily successful in life but also my biggest regret right now is not being able to finish that project I cared so much about. It feels like I failed myself and now I will never have anything that will remind me of those days and what I used to dream about.

Also, now I have a terrible imagination: books and movies no longer inspire me to talk with the characters and go on adventures with them; I picture scenarios with difficulty; I can’t imagine myself 5 years from now and clouds look like shapeless water vapour to me.

Sometimes I think I threw away the only talent I had that not only could have distinguished myself from others but most importantly it made me truly happy and grateful to be alive

#adulting #regret #help #stuck #innocence #imagination #career #lurking in the shadows #is probably what i’m gonna do for the rest of my life #hopelessness

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adadevacademy · 8 years ago

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A look back on the last 5 months

It’s been a wild 5 months for our current cohort! 2 weeks ago, they found out where they will be going for their internships. And currently, they are tapping away at their keyboards to get their capstone projects complete. We want to take a moment to reflect on their time here and what they are looking forward to moving ahead. Below are a few of our student’s reflections on their last 5 months here:

Brenna

I was always a big nerd who liked school, so classes at Ada have been lots of fun for me. It is the most safe, supportive learning environment I’ve ever been in, all thanks to the Ada staff and my wonderful classmates. Throughout the classroom portion, I kept a weekly log of what I learned. My first week in February, I learned how to define methods in Ruby and coded a basic console calculator. By the end of April, I built an Etsy clone in a team of 3. My final week, my partner and I built a video rental app using both Ruby, a language I learned in three months, and Javascript, a language I learned one month. That is so cool and makes me feel cool!!

Also during this final week, I found out I’ll be interning at Chef, a cloud software company. I’m quite excited and nervous! The people there seem very nice and I think I’ll learn so much from them. All the same, I’m about to leave the Ada classroom bubble and jump in the deep end. It’s scary! Luckily though, I’m a great swimmer. :)

Emma

I knew coming into Ada that the program would be challenging and fast-paced but what I did not expect was the level of support I will get from both the instructors and staff, as well as my classmates. Everyone at ada is just exceptional, and I am so grateful for being surrounded by such an amazing group of people as I navigate through this journey.

Looking back, I am amazed at how much I’ve learned in such a short period of time, and as we are getting ready to transition to our internships I am looking forward to this new learning opportunity. I know that it will not be easy but I know that Ada has given us the tools to succeed!

Marisol

I was not prepared for Ada. I am saying that with the confidence that I believe Ada prepared me for my internship, and eventually entering the workforce. I expected that coming in with little or no knowledge would be fine, and it totally was, but it would’ve been advantageous for me to have prepared more before entering Ada. Ada is very fast-paced and there is a lot of learning you need to do on your own after class. The curriculum is phenomenal but it goes so quickly, I realized (maybe a month in) that I wasn’t absorbing and retaining all of the information that was thrown at me because of how much information there was.

I feel like I learned a lot and I’m happy where I am now, but something common that I feel we don’t talk about enough is how it can feel like you’re drowning. But that feeling is not because of inability, it’s just because you have A LOT to learn! I am really appreciative of the instruction / learning process that Ada set up for us. We not only learn the very basic stuff, like what things are and what they’re called, but the philosophies associated with different languages. It’s almost like learning an actual language, where you need to go to a country where that language is spoken to really learn the language and the culture; Ada did that for me.

In my internship, I’m looking forward to starting my real-world training as a Software Developer. I am really hopeful that it will be a really good learning experience that will allow me to learn and hone my coding skills, while teaching me the customs of my newly adopted culture. In my future, I am looking forward to forgetting that I didn’t plan to become a software developer and just doing it without an afterthought. I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to get more people like myself into the field so that I can see more people like me everyday when I’m at work. I’m really excited to see where in tech I end up, because I am interested in a lot of different fields within tech, so I’m excited to see what else I get to experience.

Allison

To put it bluntly, Ada is rigorous. Though I expected going back to school would be an adjustment (particularly making the career transition from writing words to writing code), I didn’t anticipate the mental and emotional strain that would come with the full time school and project hours. In hindsight, the 5 months leading up to capstone , I not only know how to code, but feel confident calling myself a software engineer. Ada equipped me with the tools to thrive in a field that requires adaptability, precision and continuous learning.

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revlyncox · 8 years ago

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Our Young Nation

This sermon was prepared for the UU Congregation of York, July 2, 2017, by Rev. Lyn Cox.

The soundtrack to the Broadway show, Hamilton, has given me a new way to embrace my country and, by extension, Independence Day. I love America, I am glad to be American and I am staying put. The love I have for my country is so strong that it demands honesty, and I think there are honest truths in song and story that are worth hearing. Today’s offertory, “Dear Theodosia,” is from Hamilton. In the song, Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton sing to their newborn children.

You will come of age with our young nation

We’ll bleed and fight for you. We’ll make it right for you.

If we lay a strong enough foundation

We’ll pass it on to you.

We’ll give the world to you And you’ll blow us all away

Someday, someday.

In Hamilton, the roots of America are brought to life through a multiracial cast. The presence of diverse speakers and singers reminds us that people who have non-Western European ancestors have been here as long or longer than people whose entire claimed ancestry comes by way of Western Europe. The exploited labor, stolen land, and unattributed genius of People of Color and Indigenous people is soaked into the walls of the most cherished shrines of our country. Our country was built by people whose descendants are at risk in this climate of racism and xenophobia. History is more complex than some of us have been led to believe, and it is a history that we all share.

There’s a line in the play just before the Battle of Yorktown, where Lafayette, born in France, and Hamilton, born in the British West Indies, observe, “Immigrants. We get the job done.”

I’m told that the line never fails to bring wild applause from audiences. It has become the title for a coalition of immigration justice organizations for which Hamilton creator Lin Manuel Miranda is helping to raise money and awareness.

The line, “Immigrants, we get the job done,” reminds us that some of the best things about the United States are contributed by its newest residents. Suspicion, harassment, and discrimination against immigrants does not become us, nor does help our country succeed. In particular, people of faith remember that it is a spiritual and moral imperative to welcome the stranger.

The premise of the show echoes Langston Hughes’ point that America has never fulfilled the fullness of its promise to African Americans, Native Americans, the poor, and the oppressed; and yet we have an opportunity to embrace what America can be, which is liberation for all of us. The idea of America is exciting, and we have had the chance to achieve great things in this ongoing experiment. Yet we also have to acknowledge that neither the work nor the reward of building this country have been distributed equitably.

I am grateful that the values I believe to be at the core of our shared national identity lend themselves to change and growth. I see courage every day among Americans of every generation. It is this courage that will give us the strength to face the mistakes of the past, the structural oppression we live with today, and the repairs necessary to bring us closer to the American dream of liberty and justice for all.

Within the narrative of the show, Burr and Hamilton say they are starting a new nation. They see themselves as starting fresh. Yet we are always building on the past. There are errors that we are compounding or reacting against, there are elements of progress that we are trying to advance further, there is a culture that we enter into that is open to reshaping, yet in no case is there ever a blank slate. The good news is that each moment in the story of a government or a people or a community is a new moment. It’s not a moment divorced from the past, but a chance to take what we have been given and to come into closer alignment with our deepest values. We are always a young nation.

Another thought that makes the song, “Dear Theodosia,” so poignant is that these two men, who disagree on a great deal, both want to leave behind something that will allow their children to flourish. They both want so much to give the world to their children.

I think this is the common ground for many people who put their hearts and souls and minds and bodies into activism or government or service to this country. Whether we are parents or not, there are people we care about coming up behind us, and we want to make room for them to live to their fullest potential, to be part of something larger than themselves that they can be proud of.

For me, knowing that younger people need us to expand liberation and equality as much as possible prevents me from exercising the privilege of willful ignorance. I can’t ignore how much there is left to do, I can’t retreat into my own fortress, I do not want to sleep through the revolution, because the next generation is counting on me. I pledge to stay present to the struggles of our young nation.

When we’re in a reasonable-people-can-disagree kind of discussion about what’s best for our country, coming back to the question of what we want for the next generation and why might be the thing that keeps us at the table. That’s not possible in disagreements where one or more sides fails to acknowledge the human rights or worth or dignity of one or more of the other sides, but if you’re in a place of mutual respect and dialogue, it’s worth a try. What is it that you want to pass along to the next generation? Who do you love that motivates you to help this country become the best it can be?

On the other hand, this question can reveal where we are holding on to “us vs. them” thinking. Who are we including in the next generation we want to pass the best possible legacy on to? Who are “our” kids? My personal answer certainly includes my own children, but it doesn’t stop there. I’ve told the story before of visiting the U.S. Capitol building with Dreamers, young immigrant students who are undocumented and unafraid. Hearing them sing the national anthem brought home to me viscerally that the Dreamers are our kids. They are in our churches and our classrooms and our scout troops.

When we are strategizing for our collective liberation, we need to be especially attentive to those who are not valued in society at large. Let’s lay a strong foundation and pass it on to immigrant children, whether they are documented or not. Let’s make the world safe and sound for Black children, whose lives matter. Let’s do whatever it takes to welcome and include young people with disabilities. Let’s give the world to all of our children, making sure every child has security of food and housing and education. Let’s swear to be around for the kids who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, agender, asexual, gender fabulous, and every variety of queer and questioning. All of these are our kids. These are our family and neighbors and students and loved ones. We see you. We value you. We celebrate you. I’m dedicating every day to you. We’ll bleed and fight for you.

This is the America I love and the America that I want to grow in strength and purpose. The young people who are “our kids,” this diverse and creative and powerful young generation, they are losing patience with built-in societal obstacles to their full thriving. Our young nation is ready for change. The American promise says that we can do better. I believe we will do better, and we will get there more completely when we lift up the voices and leadership of those who are most impacted by structural oppression. As Langston Hughes wrote:

Who made America, Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain, Must bring back our mighty dream again.

We need each other. Every kind of liberation is bound up with every other kind of liberation. We have said and sung and taught for over two hundred years that we want America to be the land of the free. This is a worthy goal. Listening to the people who are most affected by the not-yet part of the dream will help us get to the place where everyone is free. We cannot get there except together.

There will be mistakes. We will mess up. As a Universalist, truly I say to you that making a mistake does not mean that you are a mistake. I believe that we are all beloved of the Divine, and that humanity will find reunion and harmony with the Eternal and each other in the fullness of time. It is that unconditional love that frees us to admit when we have missed the mark and allows us to choose a different direction.

When we perpetuate the myth that America is already perfect, or that it was perfect once and we have to turn back the clock to a more homogenous and cruel time to restore that perfection, we disrespect one of the greatest fundamental values of our country, which is that we can grow and change. A process of amendment was built into the constitution. Participation of citizens in the regular transfer of power is integral to the concept of democracy. Learning and adapting are treasured elements in our national DNA.

Another myth, one that we are sometimes entranced by even here, is that all of history is a continual and inevitable march toward progress. We act as if victories are permanent, and tell the story of our nation as a straight line, onward and upward forever. Yet we know that there are setbacks. I don’t have to tell the civil rights workers of the fifties, or the peace activists of the sixties, or the women’s liberationists of the seventies, or the anti-nuclear marchers of the eighties that sometimes you move forward and sometimes you find your movement fighting the same battles over again. I say this so that we remember not to dwell in discouragement. Carla Christopher was here last week, sharing some spiritual practices for maintaining joy when a world of liberation, health, and safety for everyone seems far away. I urge you to listen to it on our website if you missed it.

We’ll need those spiritual practices. There is room for joy, even knowing pursuing the dream of what America can be will involve challenges. I’m going to borrow a few more words from another song in Hamilton, “History Has Its Eyes on You.” The song is a speech from General Washington to Alexander Hamilton. Here’s the second verse:

Let me tell you what I wish I’d known

When I was young and dreamed of glory

You have no control

Who lives who dies who tells your story

I know that we can win

I know greatness lies in you

Just remember from here on in

History has its eyes on you

People live and people die as we try our best to become the America that can be. Even our youngest activists have lost people. We all have. People I have marched with and strategized with have gone on to be part of the cloud of witnesses too soon. Some of them didn’t have access to the care they needed, or the daily stress of oppression was too much for their heart, or violence cut them down, or the demons that told them they were not welcome in this world finally got to them. The love I have for these ancestors fuels my energy for making this world better just as much as the love I have for the generations to come. I want to honor the work they have done, and I don’t want others to suffer in the way they did.

There will be losses and setbacks, but that does not mean all is lost. You have no control what happens to your story, but you do have some influence when you tell your story for yourself, when you write and draw and paint and drop verses and quilt your truth for others to see. Honoring the generations from the past and living your story to the fullest will help keep the flame alive during losses and setbacks. I know greatness lies in you.

Let us be unafraid of our mistakes and our imperfections and the enormity of the task before us. Let us hold on to the vision of what we can be together, even when there are setbacks. We will fail, and we will try again, and we will get there together. Let us be moved by love for all of our children to lay a strong foundation, and upright and true foundation to support a house of abundance and hope and joy. Let us celebrate the idea of America, one that leads us onward to the day when we may fulfill our dream of liberty and justice for all.

So be it. Blessed be. Amen.

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unfilteredpatriot · 5 years ago

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New Post has been published on Unfiltered Patriot

New Post has been published on http://unfilteredpatriot.com/tucker-carlson-stands-firm-against-mob-trying-to-cancel-his-show/

Tucker Carlson Stands Firm Against Mob Trying to Cancel His Show

On Monday night, Fox News host Tucker Carlson – one of the very, very few pundits who aren’t afraid to stand up and tell the truth about the various elements causing destruction and chaos throughout the country – shared some uncomfortable facts about the Black Lives Matter movement. Refusing to kowtow before the official narrative, Carlson explained that BLM has about as much to do with saving black lives as Antifa has to do with fighting Nazis.

As part of his long, effective monologue, Carlson dropped in this tidbit: “Here’s the new rule and it defines everything: You are not allowed to question Black Lives Matter in any way. Full stop. That rule has been enforced without mercy everywhere and not just in this country.”

Well, Tucker definitely hit the nail on the head there, because the mob came for him big-time after his show on Monday, threatening his advertisers and demanding that Fox News remove him from the airwaves. A weaker network might have succumbed under the pressure. A weaker host might have been compelled to issue a lame apology. Thankfully (so far), we haven’t had to watch either indignity.

“The only way to defeat the mob is to say exactly what you believe,” said an unapologetic Carlson on Tuesday night. “The mob came for us, and they spent the last 24 hours trying to force this show off the air for good.

“They won’t succeed in that, thankfully,” Carlson continued. “We work for one of the last brave companies in America and they’re not intimidated. We’re grateful for that. But the whole thing did get us thinking that we should be more specific about who this mob is, and what they’re doing.”

Carlson said it was past time to take a close look at the leftists perpetrating chaos from coast to coast.

“Who are the people trying to take over your country, cancel your rights, eliminate our centuries-long tradition of tolerance – yes tolerance – and of free expression?” he asked. “And the truth is, we often don’t know their names. They’re mostly faceless political agitators who exist primarily online. They are trolls who thrive on cruelty. And yet suddenly they have immense power over all of us. Weak leaders now reflexively bow to their demands, no matter what those are.”

Carlson said that the aims of these agitators have little or nothing to do with achieving such benign goals as “equality.”

“Racism no longer has anything to do with race,” he said. “It’s a way to control disobedience.”

Exactly. See the left’s efforts to cancel people like Terry Crews and Candace Owens who don’t fall neatly in line with the narrative. See the pictures of white women flipping off black police officers out on the protest line. See the left’s total antipathy for black thinkers like Clarence Thomas, Shelby Steele, and Thomas Sowell. You’re either on board with the revolution…or you are to be silenced.

It’s getting increasingly difficult to picture everything turning out okay.

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businessboostertoday · 6 years ago

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Kornelia Müller – Accelerate your success with mindfulness

Short Biography : Kornelia Müller

Kornelia Müller is a mentor, leadership- and high- performance coach.

She accompanies people on their way to allow themselves to let go of their limitations. She gives Workshops on topics such as “Mindfulness”, “Higher Consciousness and Awareness” and works internationally.

She helps people to understand the interrelations of their life and shows them new perspectives to take the next steps or to get better results in their life or business.

She stands for a togetherness. She believes that together we create a “wonderful” colorful world.

She started as a Health Coach and Mentor and achieved numerous certifications as a healing practitioner for psychotherapy, Gestalt therapy and Trauma therapy.

Kornelia is also a certified systemic consultant and Access Bars Facilitator. She has traveled for almost 10 years to India to get a deeper wisdom about spirituality and consciousness, which she helps others apply in life and business.

Personal Info & Preferences:

Name: Kornelia Müller Country: Germany Title: Leadership & High-Performance Coach

Interview

Give us a brief background of what you are doing?

As a Leadership and High-Performance Coach, I am specialized in building high performance teams. Most companies have a problem that the people working together as teams are not working together in the best possible and efficient ways. Employee engagements is often very low and people do not effectively use the best forms of communicating with each other.

I work with this teams and leaders, open the channel of communication and give them tools and systems that will allow them to perform optimal for better results and efficiency.

In relation to your business what are the biggest challenges inside the companies?

Lack of and wrong communication

Interpersonal conflicts

Ineffective stress Management

Lack of self-awareness

What do you think has to change?

We have to learn to handle each other with more care and cultivate mindfulness. We are at a turning point. Our brain is running at too high of a frequency, and as a result, we no longer see things as they are, but become entangled in ideas and thoughts that show no efficiency. In order to cooperate efficiently again, an attentive way of working together is indispensable.

What motivated you to launch a business?

I want to see happy people around me and I know from personal experience that that is possible. We take our problems into the companies and do not get along with them.

From my own experience, I know that working life and private life can be so easy and so satisfying, but a lot of people do not know how to achieve this. CEOs are stressed, leaders are at the edge and employees are unsatisfied, unappreciated and often undervalued. I can help them achieve a working atmosphere are create a space where leaders understand these challenges, become aware of their own behavior and help them improve the way they communicate and are seen in order to build a leadership style where employees thrive, where people work with each other and not against each other. I love to see happy people, and I help management achieve happiness within themselves and around them. If I can impact one leader a day that has the power to impact the lives of their own organizations and employees constructively and empower employees to grow and be happy employees, then I have reached my goal.

Name 3 business principles that are of core value to you.

Integrity

Loyalty

Humor

How important is it to have a business coach & what significant role in change has your coach played in your business journey?

Very very important. A business coach will help you to define your goals correctly; he/she will show you your blind spots and he/she will keep you accountable. He/she helps you to stay in the right energy to succeed faster. It is very important to always have a coach at your side, who will take you out of your comfort zone and coach you to your next level.

I still have coaches and it helps me to catapult myself higher and higher. I am very grateful to all my coaches. I would not be where I am today if I did not have these coaches.

How do you stay motivated and what keeps you going?

I constantly listen to videos and audios from successful entrepreneurs, which helps me stay in the right energy and inspires me to implement new ideas.

My goal is to create a more beautiful colorful world with happier people. Together we are strong and together life makes us happy.

A life without conflicts is impossible, but getting or rather resolving conflicts and stepping into the beautiful life of finding solutions is what we need.

Name 3 top business influencers that you follow and why?

JT Foxx

= He stands for implementation and never gives up. Through him, I have really understood what business is. He has the gift of really doing good and inspiring people.

Sigrun

= She is the absolute role model for me in the online area. Like JT Foxx, she is very focused and very professional.

Blair Singer

= he embodies the true leader for me, because he is very successful and at the same time has a very high level of consciousness. For me, a very old soul.

What does success mean to you?

To be happy and balanced in all areas, to keep checking and balancing at all levels.

To ask myself:

Am I in balance in all areas?”

Does what I do really make me happy?

Do I enjoy what I do?

Am I learning every day?

How can I improve without losing myself?

Am I still on the right track?

What is the key to business success?

In order to progress and succeed as a business owner and leader, we have to understand what the market is doing at any given time. We need to observe and evaluate our own products, our own organizational needs, and the need in the market and offer something of deep value in order to help others grow and succeed.

I urge my clients to ask themselves:

Is there a market for your product?

Are you convinced of your product?

Do you 100 % believe that your product works?

Are you determined enough to never give up, no matter what gets in your way?

The biggest challenge I see business leaders in Europe struggling with is that they are waiting too long. I ask them: Are you implementing fast enough? The faster you implement something inside your company or bring to the market, the more successful you are. Something most business owners struggle with, because they want to wait until it is perfect. Nothing is perfect in this world, and we only create better products, better teams and better working environments if we take action instead of waiting, or having too many meetings where leadership is too slow to create and implement solutions.

I urge companies to take action, even if it is mini-steps but to rather MOVE and DO than to discuss and analyze forever.

My motto has become: “Lets do this together today rather than wait for tomorrow!”

Contact Details:

www.kornelia-mueller.com

https://www.facebook.com/kornelia.muller.528

Business Photos

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westernmanews · 7 years ago

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Thursday, Governor Charlie Baker delivered his second inaugural address from the House Chamber of the Massachusetts State House.

“Mr. Speaker. Madam President. Members of the House and Senate. Fellow Constitutional Officers. Members of the Governor's Council. Mr. Chief Justice and Members of the Judiciary. Members of the Cabinet and my Administration. Sheriffs. District Attorneys. Mayors. Local Officials. Reverend Clergy. Distinguished Guests.

To our Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito, my partner in leading this administration. I want to take a moment to extend gratitude, on behalf of all of us here today for your commitment to this endeavor and the sacrifices your family has made.

Members of my family who are here this afternoon, my brothers, Jonathan and Sandy. Our Dad, the best and smartest guy we’ve ever known, thanks for being an incredible role model for us. Our wonderful children, Charlie, AJ and Caroline. And my wife Lauren, the first lady of the Commonwealth, the love of my life for the past 31 years.

And to my Fellow Citizens. Let me begin by thanking the people of the Commonwealth for giving the Lieutenant Governor and me four more years to serve them. We remember election night in 2014. It was so close, it ended the next day. We had a lot to prove to the people of Massachusetts. About our vision for the Commonwealth. Our approach to governing. Our priorities. Our work ethic. And our capacity to get things done.

We said we’d work to build a state government that was as thrifty, hard-working and creative as the people of this great state. And we’re grateful for your continued faith in us.

To the lawmakers returning to this chamber, we say welcome back. And we look forward to building on the partnership we’ve established and the progress that we’ve made.

“And a special welcome to those of you who are embarking on a new journey here on Beacon Hill. I’m quite sure you’ve heard about the good work that goes on here, as well as those areas in which we fall short. We all strive to build a Commonwealth of hope, opportunity and possibility.

And we seek to do so in a way that ensures people are heard.

My advice? Spend time outside of the State House. Listen to your constituents. Lead with your head and your heart. And make the best decisions you can for those you serve.

And in this era of snapchats, tweets, Facebook and Instagram posts, putdowns and smack-downs, I’d ask you all to remember that good public policy is about perseverance and collaboration.

Many times, it is a story written frame by frame by many players who write it over time, relentlessly pursuing an objective.

Think about the Commonwealth’s leadership on national issues.

We have the highest rate of health care coverage in the nation. But the story was written across two decades, ten legislative sessions, five governors and four Presidents.

We have best in the nation gun laws, a story that was written across multiple legislative sessions and several Governors and was almost always bipartisan.

We have a K-12 education system that, despite its limitations, is the envy of the country.

This story was written by a large cast of leaders and contributors across decades of deliberation and action.

As we approach the third decade of the 21st century, we’re engaged in a number of difficult policy issues. Some will be with us long after our time on Beacon Hill is done.

But it’s incumbent on us to pursue these tasks with foresight, intelligence and commitment, so that we can rest assured that when our time is done, those who come after us will be able to build on the foundation we’ve established.

As I look forward, I’m grateful that we’re taking on difficult policy issues from a position of strength.

Massachusetts no longer has a structural budget deficit. In fact, we ended last year with a major budget surplus. Deposited over $650 million into our Stabilization Fund. And anticipate making another major deposit to that Fund at the end of this fiscal year. And we did it without raising taxes.

When we took office the annual growth rate in Medicaid spending was in the double digits, drastically reducing what funds were available to support other important programs.

Today, it’s growing at a rate that is more in line with the increase in overall state spending.

We added 4,000 seats to our superb vocational and technical schools. And we invested $50 million in capital grants to upgrade equipment and expand programs in high demand fields.

With your help, the Department of Children and Families has made tremendous progress serving some of the Commonwealth’s most at risk children and families. Caseloads are at historic lows and virtually all of our social workers are licensed.

The Registry of Motor Vehicles implemented a new technology platform and the federal Real ID program at the same time. This was a big lift, and there were some bumps along the way.

But this past fall, the Registry served 90 % of its customers in under 30 minutes and virtually everyone else in less than an hour.

We enacted the BRAVE Act and broke ground on a $200 million rebuild of the Soldier’s Home in Chelsea, proving once again that no state is more committed to delivering for its veterans than Massachusetts.

We doubled the earned income tax credit for 450,000 low income working families, invested over $100 million in new funding into our early education system and reduced the use of hotels and motels to shelter homeless families by over 95%.

We also worked with the Legislature on two procurements that will lead to 50% of our electricity being generated by clean resources. And then delivered a bid process that came in far below the prices people anticipated.

Think about that! We delivered huge environmental benefits and lower energy prices. And now everybody wants to duplicate our process.

Our regulatory reform project reduced the complexity of state government across the board, allowing our small businesses to become more competitive in a dynamic economy.

And our ‘get stuff done’ approach with public private partnerships in economic development, advanced manufacturing, robotics and smart materials has created jobs and opportunity across the Commonwealth.

As a result, our economy is booming.

We have more people working than at any time in state history. Over 200,000 jobs have been created since we took office. Our labor force participation rate is at an all-time high. And people are moving to Massachusetts because we offer good jobs and opportunity.

Thanks to the hard work of so many, the state of our Commonwealth is strong!

By putting the public interest ahead of partisan politics, we’ve made our Commonwealth a better place to live for our residents. But there’s always much left to do.

Twenty-five years ago, Massachusetts wasn’t a national leader in public education.

Since then, we’ve achieved remarkable success by working together on a series of education reforms. As a result, Massachusetts students have scored number one on the National Assessment of Educational Progress exams in English and math for much of the past decade. And last year finished first on the Advanced Placement exams as well.

But when it comes to the difference in performance between urban and suburban school districts, we can and must do better.

The Foundation Formula needs to be updated and we’ll propose updates when our budget is filed later this month.

But progress isn’t just about money.

Education Commissioner Jeff Riley proved during his time as Receiver in Lawrence that significant progress can be made in improving school and student performance by changing the way our schools operate.

Before that, he transformed the Clarence Edwards Middle School in Boston from the lowest performing middle school in the city into one of the best.

With that success in mind, our budget will also include opportunities for underperforming school districts to invest jointly with the Department of Education in proven best practices like acceleration academies, professional development, after school enrichment and leadership development programs.

We all have an opportunity to give our kids their best chance to succeed in a 21st century economy. It’s up to us to come together and seize this opportunity and lay the groundwork for their success.

There’s also much to do in transportation.

I’ll begin with a quick shout out to our Transportation Futures Commission. Predicting a future where there is so much possibility is difficult. They did great work and I want to highlight some of their recommendations.

First, continue to invest in public transportation.

This is an area in which the Commonwealth sat on its hands for far too many years and we’re all paying the price for it.

Over the course of the next five years, the T plans to spend over $8 billion on infrastructure, much of which will be invested in its core system. This is more than twice what has ever been spent in any 5-year period.

This will be no small task.

One of the reasons previous administrations didn’t invest in the core system is the complexity of upgrading and modernizing a system that operates 20 hours a day, seven days a week.

The constant tug between getting people where they need to go and disrupting that system to make it better is a big challenge. But it’s one that must be identified, scoped and overcome.

The T also needs to leverage its automated fare system once it’s in place in 2020. For the first time, that system will give the T real time data on how its riders use the system. That creates huge opportunities to improve service. To think differently about fares, routes and pricing. And to modernize operations to better serve customers.

Second, we must make the investments in public infrastructure that will enable the next generation of zero emission and autonomous vehicles to thrive here in the Commonwealth.

Getting this right will require unprecedented collaboration with local government and our New England neighbors, as well as innovative partnerships with the private sector.

Third, reduce greenhouse gas emissions within the transportation system.

The work we’re poised to do with other Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states should produce a cap and investment system for transportation that mirrors our successful model for energy.

It will create the largest program of its kind in US history.

Finally, we need to more fully appreciate the relationship between where people live and where they work and how state and local government policies affect their ability to get from one to the other.

I’ve spoken before about this housing crisis.

For over 20 years, we’ve produced less than half the new units of housing that we produced like clockwork in the previous forty years.

As a result, we have limited inventory. And the inventory we have gets priced out of sight, forcing people to live farther and farther away from where they work.

I believe that our housing bill was a strong step in the right direction to deal with this. It respected the need for communities to plan for themselves, but created incentives to tie development more closely to overarching strategies concerning transportation and land use generally. In the end, it failed because it was too much for some and not enough for others.

We shouldn’t let the perfect become the enemy of the good.

Building a stronger, more equitable, more resilient and more successful Commonwealth rests on several pillars. But one of the most important ones is delivering a big increase in housing production. We need to get this done.

We have also made progress on criminal justice.

Three years ago we enacted legislation that prohibited sending women who’d been civilly committed due to an addiction to prison.

And two years ago we brought the curtain down on 30 years of shame and reformed the operations of Bridgewater State Hospital.

Last year, we worked together on an ambitious, comprehensive criminal justice reform package. One that among other things, gives us more tools to help the men and women who’ll someday return to our communities get the training, life skills and support they need to succeed upon their release.

But our work here is not done.

In deciding whether or not it makes sense to hold a dangerousness hearing, current law requires a judge to ignore any previous criminal history and to focus only on the crime before the court. Moreover, the list of crimes for which a prosecutor is allowed to make that request is quite narrow.

Too often, dangerous career criminals are arrested only to be released as soon as they appear in court. This sort of revolving door serves to undermine people’s faith in law enforcement and the courts. And it’s a threat to public safety.

Nobody wants to see someone’s life ruined over a small-time lapse in judgment. The law we worked on together last year addresses many of those issues.

But, we still need a common sense approach that provides the system with the ability to schedule a dangerousness hearing when individuals with violent histories come before the court.

Yarmouth Police Sergeant Sean Gannon, Weymouth Police Sergeant Michael Chesna, Auburn Police Officer Ron Tarentino and State Trooper Thomas Clardy all gave their lives carrying out their sworn duty, protecting the people of this Commonwealth.

Here with us today are Yarmouth Police Chief Frank Frederickson, Weymouth Police Chief Richard Grimes, Auburn Police Chief Andrew Sluckis and Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police Colonel Kerry Gilpin.

We owe it to them, to their brothers and sisters in law enforcement and to our citizens to ensure that we’re doing all we can to keep dangerous people off of our streets.

Massachusetts is also a national leader in health care. We’re one of the healthiest states in the nation. And we have the highest rate of health care coverage.

Our health care cluster is a wonder, economically and clinically. It’s constantly delivering solutions to some of the most urgent and challenging problems facing patients and their families.

The flip side is the price we pay.

Small businesses in Massachusetts have among the highest health insurance costs in the country. The price for the same medical service can vary by as much as 300% depending on where it’s provided.

Our community hospitals continue to struggle. And, ironically, some of the Commonwealth’s rules make it tough to practice modern medicine.

Later this year, we will file legislation to address these issues. By expanding the use of telemedicine, rethinking some of our scope of practice guidelines and dealing with the parity issues that have negatively affected individuals and families dealing with mental health issues.

On opioid addiction we’ve made great progress. But we didn’t get into this crisis overnight and we won’t get out of it overnight either.

The members of this Legislature have been true partners on this issue, enacting two major bills that build on our four pillars of reform: prevention, education, treatment and recovery.

Not all that long ago, families, providers and first responders had virtually no hope. Today, we’re one of a handful of states that can say that overdose deaths have dropped since 2017.

There are interventions and policy changes that have worked and others that show promise.

We also added initiatives like credentialed recovery coaches that will be coming online throughout 2019 and beyond.

Dealing with opioid addiction is enormously difficult. Relapse is an inevitable part of the story. Helping people avoid becoming addicted in the first place remains a challenge.

And defusing the presence of fentanyl, which is now present in 90% of all drug overdose deaths, is an enormous challenge.

On behalf of the people of this Commonwealth and especially the families and family members who deal with this addiction every single day, thank you for your support as the Commonwealth battles this deadly disease.

On the afternoon of September 13th, a series of explosions rocked Greater Lawrence resulting in one of the biggest disasters in the history of the Merrimack Valley. Dozens of house fires broke out across the region and one young man tragically lost his life.

Fire and police teams from across Massachusetts and New Hampshire raced to and spread out across Lawrence, North Andover and Andover, putting out fires and directing and re-directing traffic. They worked closely with the Red Cross, local non-profits, state officials and the leadership of the three communities to get people safely out of their homes and if they had no place to go, into a shelter.

For the next 90 days there was an army of operators, tradespeople, first responders, inspectors and state and local officials working throughout the three affected communities: to lay down 50 miles of new mainline pipe, replace thousands of service lines into houses, businesses and apartment buildings and repair or replace thousands of hot water heaters, stoves, dryers and boilers.

It was an enormous and complex undertaking.

Throughout this ordeal, homeowners, families and businesses affected by this disaster showed a tremendous amount of patience, resilience, flexibility and fortitude.

There were hundreds of local officials and elected leaders who went above and beyond the call on this one.

But I want to give special mention and thanks to several local officials that are here with us today, Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera, Fire Chief Brian Moriarty and Police Chief Roy Vasque. Andover Town Manager Andrew Flanagan, Fire Chief Michael Mansfield and Police Chief Patrick Keefe. And North Andover Town Manager Andrew Maylor, Fire Chief William McCarthy and Police Chief Charles Gray.

These leaders really delivered and we’re honored to have them here with us today.

It’s in moments like this that everyone remembers why committed and creative public service matters.

At the same time, the day to day work often goes on without much notice.

The fact that 351 cities and towns in this Commonwealth have worked with state government on over 800 best practices and now use that program to spread the word on other smarter ways to deliver services doesn’t make much news.

The work we’ve done together to invest billions of dollars in housing, downtown and regional economic development and public/private partnerships in communities across the Commonwealth are stories that come and go.

The 16,000 trees we’ve planted and thousands of LED lights we’ve installed with our colleagues in local government is just doing our job.

Each day, the wheels turn, and when they turn well they build strong communities. Support great schools. Grow the economy. Clean up the environment. Promote justice. And give people a chance.

Those wheels create hope, opportunity and possibility.

Sure, there’s noise. Tons of it. Most of the time that back and forth is positive. It’s people offering a point of view with heart and intelligence in a democracy designed to encourage it.

But these days, too much of what pretends to be debate is just rhetoric or character assassination. And every time someone joins that chorus they steal time, attention and focus away from finding common ground, creating solutions and doing the work that matters.

Whether it’s the grind of the day to day, or a crisis, we all need to work together because that’s what great public service is all about.

During the winter of 2015, I saw firsthand during the snowstorms how amazing this nation’s mutual aid programs between states can be. Other states bailed us out as the snow kept falling with no end in sight.

And during the first chaotic and terrifying 24 hours of the Merrimack Valley disaster, the number of first responders who just dropped whatever they were doing and headed there was amazing.

That’s public service and people appreciate it.

Over the past four years, the Lieutenant Governor and I have heard time and time again that the way we all work together is a model for the nation.

People like our collaborative approach to governing. And they say they’re proud to be from Massachusetts!

And so am I!

This state is bursting with talent, humor and decency. Boldness and common sense. Our abiding sense of patriotism, belonging and community has made us strong and has carried us forward for almost 400 years.

Let others engage in cheap shots and low blows. Let’s make our brand of politics positive and optimistic, instead of cruel and dark.

And instead of the bickering and name calling that dominates much of today’s public debate, let’s build on the work of those who came before us.

And make our work about how we can make this great state better for the people who call this glorious place ‘home.’

God Bless This Commonwealth.

God Bless the United States of America.”

#Western MA news #westernmanews

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katrinratto · 7 years ago

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Telling Your Brand Story Through Packaging Design: These 3 Businesses Are Doing It Right

We all like to acquire new things.

Every new item arrives fraught with the unspoken possibility that this thing could make your life better.

But, a new phone, snack food, lipstick, or computer is made even better when it arrives in awesome packaging.

If you sell products, invest in good packaging design (the packaging for your product) and package graphics (the graphics/content on the product packaging) to help your company succeed.

Product packaging has the power to inspire us to purchase a product and can make us feel even better about the purchase we’ve just made.

Product packaging accomplishes this by helping tell your brand story in an expanded format. Victoria Greene of BrandPackaging.com explains:

The way a product is packaged can create a dynamic, engaging story about your brand, drawing upon a multitude of features. These include the design itself, the shape and size and technical features, and the copy used on the packaging. It also extends to how it links with wider marketing campaigns… It even encompasses the materials used to create it: Is it recyclable or reusable? Vintage or contemporary? Each aspect of packaging works together to silently speak volumes about the product.

To build a strong brand, you must tell compelling brand stories. As we wrote previously:

Effective product packaging does more than merely set the stage for a product. The experience of unpacking a product is part of a customer’s experience with a brand, much like a company’s name and logo.

The need to tell compelling brand stories will grow in importance in the years to come. Millennials and Generation Z are taking on bigger and bigger roles in the marketplace. As we see in current packaging design trends, these consumers value authenticity and seek out brands striving to make a genuine connection.

Let’s take a closer look at three businesses who do a great job telling their brand story through product packaging.

Divine Chocolate: Featuring Brand Promise

Your brand story – as we’ve already mentioned – covers a lot more ground than just your company’s name, logo and tagline. And, your brand promise is a particularly integral part of your overall brand story.

Your brand promise is the commitment your business makes to its customers.

Lee Fredericksen, Managing Partner at Hinge Marketing explains:

A brand promise is an extension of a company’s positioning. If you think of positioning as the fertile ground that allows a brand to germinate, grow and thrive, the brand promise is a brand’s fruit—it’s the tangible benefit that makes a product or service desirable.

Divine Chocolate promises its customers delicious chocolate. But, that’s not all.

Divine Chocolate

Image courtesy of Divine Chocolate

You may remember Divine Chocolate and its managing director Sophi Tranchell from 11 Entrepreneurs Who Are Changing the World.

Divine is a UK-based chocolatier. But, they’re so much more than that.

Divine has made it their mission to “make the world a place where chocolate is cherished by everyone, including the family farmers who grow the cocoa.”

How do they do this? By putting their money and their business where their mouth is.

Divine’s chocolate is farmed by the Kuapa Kokoo cooperative in Ghana. The 85,000 farmers in the cooperative are co-owners in the company.

The farmers receive a share of the profits and have a voice in the business. Divine is following through on their promise in a very real way.

Their brand promise – luxurious fairtrade chocolate that you can feel good about enjoying – is an extension of this mission.

And, they’ve done an excellent job of prominently showcasing their brand promise within their larger brand story on their chocolate packaging.

The Packaging

Image courtesy of Divine Chocolate

The packaging for Divine’s chocolate bars prominently features their opulent gold script logo. This reminds customers of the high-quality and decadent chocolate experience awaiting inside.

The logo is printed in raised metallic ink, providing a tactile experience for the consumer as well as a visual one.

And, surrounding that logo is a pattern of adrinka symbols. These symbols derive from Ghanian culture – and are still embraced by the farmers of the Kuapa Kokoo cooperative.

Each symbol represents a virtue that is valued by the brand. You can learn more about them in the graphic above.

These symbols pack quite a bit of visual information in just the small amount of real estate available on the packaging. But, even if you don’t know what each symbol means, they remind consumers of the chocolate’s Ghanian roots.

And, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the color scheme, an important psychological element in product packaging. Bright colors on a rich black or smooth, chocolatey brown background. The vibrant Ghanian-inspired colors layer over the chic luxury of the neutral background to communicate the two most important elements of their brand story.

And, that’s just the outside of the wrapper. The inside of Divine’s wrappers includes copy and graphics explaining their story.

Liz Miller, Divine’s Senior Marketing Manager, explains,

Consumers love discovering that the Fairtrade cocoa in our chocolate is grown by family farmers in Ghana and that they receive 44% of Divine profits… This empowers people to become a part of our story by treating themselves and others to Divine Chocolate.

Divine has masterfully communicated their brand story to their customers in an eye-pleasing and effective package.

What You Can Learn

Feature your logo prominently to increase brand recognition. And, make sure that your company’s logo is the best possible representation of your brand.

Make thoughtful choices about the graphics that will best communicate your brand story. Dig deep and be selective – use the images that pack the most meaning possible while also jiving with the overall design concept and brand story.

Charlotte’s Web: Brand Perception

As much as we try to control the narrative around our brand, there is one element that we can influence, but never truly control. And, that’s our brand’s perception.

Brand perception is how your audience perceives your brand. And, it’s as much a part of your brand story as the elements you can control, like your brand promise, brand personality, and your branding style guide.

The Stanley brothers – founders of Charlotte’s Web – know this well.

Charlotte’s Web

The Stanley Brothers (Charlotte’s Web) – Image courtesy of LA Weekly

Charlotte’s Web, a manufacturer and retailer of high-quality CBD hemp oil, must walk a fine line.

Cannabis has quite a reputation in this country. Ever since President Nixon declared a war on drugs in 1971, cannabis has gotten some pretty bad PR.

But the Stanley brothers, founders of Charlotte’s Web, have worked hard to ensure that their product is “The World’s Most Trusted Hemp Extract.”

Their product is perceived as safe, legal, and of high quality. This is quite a feat considering the overwhelming stigma attached to the plant from which their product is made.

So, how do these legal sellers of medicinal hemp oils create such a positive brand perception?

They lean hard on their brand story of a dedicated family-run business and their heart-warming origins helping the real-life Charlotte become healthy enough to live like a normal kid.

And, their packaging design and package graphics help, too.

The Packaging

Image courtesy of Charlotte’s Web Hemp

Charlotte’s Web products are packaged to inspire confidence.

They use bold, but trustworthy neutral colors that create the perception of sophistication – a far cry from the red, green and yellow Rastafarian colors usually associated with cannabis.

There are no mushrooms, hookah-smoking caterpillars or Grateful Dead bears here. The minimalist design is elegant, professional and understated with clean sans serif typography and simple line art.

But look closer – they’ve also modeled their design after traditional medicinal packaging. They mention the number of milligrams of active ingredients contained in the product. And, language like “balm,” “extract,” and “dietary supplement” create further associations with health and medicine.

In addition to that, the inclusion of the Charlotte’s Web logo and brand name links back to the fuller brand story of how their product was able to help young Charlotte – after whom the company was named.

And, finally, their branding is consistent throughout all of their products. From their hemp oil extracts to their capsules and their balms, all of the packagings shares consistent visual branding. This gives the whole line an air of professionalism and reliability.

What You Can Learn

If your brand story is counter to popular perception, visually align your packaging design and package graphics to show the story that you do want to tell. Be careful to avoid references that might accidentally conjure the undesirable story with which you don’t want to associate.

Consistently brand your product packaging so that consumers can get to know and trust your visual brand. Repeat interactions with your visual brand will build familiarity and confidence.

PoopBags.com: Brand Personality

Image courtesy of Packaging of the World

Every brand has a personality that is integral to who they are.

Investopedia defines brand personality as:

…a set of human characteristics that are attributed to a brand name. A brand personality is something to which the consumer can relate; an effective brand increases its brand equity by having a consistent set of traits that a specific consumer segment enjoys.

These traits usually come from the person in charge. But, they can also be determined by the business culture.

And, if you’re aiming to create an authentic brand with a genuine brand story, it’s important that your brand personality comes from an honest source.

Enter PoopBags.com…

PoopBags.com

Image courtesy of Packaging of the World

The folks at PoopBags.com are trying to solve a problem, help the planet, and have fun doing it.

In 2003 owner Paul Canella began selling biodegradable dog waste bags and he’s never looked back.

Dogs will always poop. And bags for cleaning up dog waste are in constant demand for city-dwelling dog owners. But, no one is really excited about the topic of dog poop bags – except for Paul “Mr. Poop Bags” Canella.

He felt bad using non-biodegradable bags to collect his dog May’s waste, knowing that they were not good for our planet. So, he set out to create an Earth-friendlier biodegradable version to solve this issue.

But, even though Canella is driven by a high-minded and worthwhile purpose, he’s never lost touch with his sense of humor:

Poop Bags! When you typed some keywords into your search engine of choice, you may have laughed when you saw the link for http://bit.ly/2Lw8VG9 come up. Well, when I was walking my dog in the summer of 2003, I laughed too when I first thought about the idea…

PoopBags.com has a distinct personality that shines through in their product packaging.

The Packaging

Image courtesy of Packaging of the World

PoopBags.com’s packaging design keeps things light and playful, showcasing their fun personality.

Their products come in boxes featuring a range of bright, exuberant colors juxtaposed with a neutral background. The raw cardboard color shows through beneath the cheery, saturated pastels to remind consumers of their dedication to using and creating biodegradable materials.

Their logo embraces the light and humorous personality of their brand with a gently rounded font and a cute flower to remind consumers of their eco-mindedness and provide a cheeky nod to poop’s role as a fertilizer.

They complete their brand story with a seal claiming that they have been “Saving the Earth Since 2003”. This seal features their dedication to helping the planet with their product.

PoopBags.com’s packaging unapologetically owns their role as purveyors of potty accessories and has fun with it. But, they also manage to deftly remind their audience of their enthusiasm for protecting our planet, all in one cohesive and attractive design.

What You Can Learn

Choose colors, imagery, and fonts that reflect your brand’s personality. And don’t forget to use an appropriate voice for your packaging copy. You can communicate so much about your brand by showing instead of telling.

Share what your brand is all about. Do you have a cause or mission that you’re passionate about? What motivates you? Feature that in your packaging design.

Wrapping Up

Product packaging offers a tangible way to help your company connect with your customers and prospects. They can see, touch, and (if appropriate) smell your packaging.

It’s rare that you’ll have this much of a customer’s attention.

So, take advantage and share through your product packaging as much of your brand story as possible.

This is your chance to help your audience really get to know you – and make a lasting positive impression

Is it time for you to re-evaluate your product packaging? Or, maybe you need packaging design or package graphics for a new product line? Let crowdspring’s team of over 210,000 designers help tell your brand story with amazing packaging design or package graphics. Click here to start your packaging design project or request a free, no obligation design consultation for a new logo, business card, or any other type of design, with one of our design experts today.

from http://bit.ly/2L6QWcY

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