#Allen County Fair

[cardcaptorsakura96]

We're All In This Together-Chapter 6

Fandom: Supergirl, Batman, Superman, The Flash

Characters: Kara Danvers, Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Barry Allen, Barbara Gordon, Leonard Snart, Mxyzptlk, John Stewart, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen

Summary: Kara, Clark, and Barry are taken off guard by a request by the imp Mxyzptlk: watch over and protect the children of their alternate selves from a different Earth. Will our heroes rise to the occasion?

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5

It took four minutes for Clark to get from Metropolis to Gotham. Considering how early it was, he landed at the front door instead of going through the cave. He knocked at the door and waited several minutes until Alfred answered. 

Alfred smiled and said, “Master Clark. It is nice to see you this morning. Will you be joining us for breakfast?”

Clark chuckled and said, “I have already had breakfast this morning but thanks for asking. I just came by to ask Bruce something is all.”

Alfred hurriedly ushered Clark in and said, “He is eating with the kids in the dining room.”

Clark rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and said, “I can wait in the foyer until they are finished eating.”

Alfred scoffed and said, “You will do no such thing. There is plenty of room at the table. We also have more than enough to eat. I know you have already eaten, but I do have some of that raspberry lemonade and strawberry muffins that you like.”

Clark smiled. The raspberry lemonade and the muffins were some of Clark’s favorite treats. 

Clark chuckled and said, “I guess I could have one muffin.”

Alfred smiled and said, “Perfect!”

He ushered Clark to follow them to the dining room. As he edged toward the dining room, his super hearing picked up part of the conversation being held. 

Tim sighed and said, “Are you sure you don’t have any business at WE this morning?”

Bruce sighed and said, “For the last time, I have today off.”

“Then why would anyone come this early in the morning unannounced?” asked Tim. 

Clark winced at that. It was 7:00 am. He had debated whether it was too early to come or not.

Maybe, I should have waited an hour.

Dick sighed and said, “It is probably someone from the League wanting him to look into something.

“Crisis event?” asked Cassandra. 

Damian scoffed and said, “If it is the League, I want to come instead of going to the idiotic event planned for today.”

Tim asked sarcastically, “You mean the county fair?”

Damian scoffed and said, “Of course, I mean the fair. Why would I want to play second-rate games and watch people stuff themselves with unhealthy food.”

Dick chuckled and said, “You know there is more to it than that.”

Jason snickered and said, “Don’t even bother, Dickiebird. Demon brat wouldn’t know fun if it bit him in the ass.”

Damian growled and said, “Take that back Todd!”

Bruce sighed and said, “Jason don’t mock your brother, and Damian, for the love of God, put down the knife. You can’t attack everyone that vexes you.”

Damian muttered and said, “But he started it.”

Jason laughed and said, “Old man, just admit you forgot your promise to take us to the fair. I won’t get mad about coming here this early. Alfie’s breakfasts are definitely worth all the trouble.”

Bruce sighed and said, “Why do you guys have that much little faith in me? I told you multiple times that I took today off  from WE and told the League not to contact me unless there is the end of the world scenario happening.”

Alfred smirked and said, “I always enjoy your visits, Master Clark. They make things so much livelier around here.”

Clark laughed nervously to himself. He wasn’t sure if Alfred was being genuine about that or sarcastic. Clark shook his head. 

Probably sarcastic. 

As Clark entered the dining room, Cassandra saw him first and smiled. 

Cassandra pointed and said, “It’s Clark.”

All eyes suddenly zoomed in on Clark. Dick, Jason, and Tim had smirks on their faces. Damian was scowling. However, that wasn’t anything new. He would be surprised to see a smile on that kid’s face. He looked over at Bruce and nearly melted. He looked so handsome in his red sweater and brown slacks. Bruce was staring at Clark with a soft smile. It wasn’t that often that Bruce smiled and Clark always appreciated whenever he got to see one in person. 

Dick chuckled and said, “I told you it was League business. What is it this time? Is it another invasion or did the supervillains team up again?”

Jason sighed and said, “I hope not. That last crisis we had was a pain in the butt.”

Clark chuckled and as he went and took a seat by Dick and said, “It is nothing like that. I just had something I wanted to discuss with Bruce is all.”

Bruce raised an eyebrow as Alfred placed strawberry muffins and lemonade in front of Clark.

Clark smiled and said, “Thank you, Alfred.”

Alfred smiled and said, “No problem, Master Clark.”

Bruce looked at Clark intently and asked, “Did you want to go down to the cave to talk?”

Clark chuckled sheepishly and said, “It is nothing serious like that. I just have some news to share is all.”

Bruce looked at him curiously and asked, “Oh, what is it?”

Clark coughed while rubbing the back of his neck and said, “I have a child now.”

Everyone went silent. Clark felt like he could hear a pin drop. When he looked back up, he noticed that everyone was looking at him with curiosity.

Before Clark said anything, Bruce smirked and said, “I have two questions for you.”

Clark looked at him surprised and said, “Um, yeah sure.”

“Does this have anything to do with Mxy and does Barry have Kara have children too?”

Clark narrowed his eyes and asked, “You knew, didn’t you? You didn’t bug my apartment again?”

Read the rest on AO3

[ridenwithbiden]

Last June, Supreme Court Justices John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh shocked observers by joining the court’s three liberal justices to reject an Alabama congressional map aimed at diluting Black voters’ power. The ruling marked a (likely temporary) hiatus in the Roberts court’s systematic dismantling of the Voting Rights Act. It also invited a bevy of columnists to opine, See, this court isn’t so bad after all!

On the one hand, some fanfare was warranted. The Allen v. Milligan opinion was a genuine surprise, and as a recent lower court ruling in Georgia demonstrates, its effects will reverberate throughout the 2024 election cycle and beyond. A bad ruling would have been disastrous.

On the other hand, focusing on the decision obscures a disturbing reality: In the decade since it decimated the VRA with its notorious Shelby County v. Holder decision, the court’s right-wing majority has used its docket-setting power to tilt the playing field so sharply against democracy that even the rare “wins” simply preserve a degraded status quo.

A new study published on Thursday and led by my colleague Chelsey Davidson found that since the 2012–13 term, more than 80 percent of election-related cases on the Supreme Court’s hand-picked docket could move the law only in a direction that degraded fair elections.

In that time, the Supreme Court accepted 32 cases involving core democracy issues such as redistricting, ballot access, campaign finance, and VRA enforcement. In 26 of them, the lower court had issued a pro-democracy ruling. This means that the best-case scenario at the court was affirmation of the status quo, while a reversal of the lower court would restrict voter participation. By contrast, the justices picked just six cases where they might reverse anti-democracy rulings.

It’s not quite “Heads I win, tails democracy loses,” but it’s pretty damn close.

[jo-harrington]

Dearest, wonderfulst of them all. I'm coming in here with a monster tucked under my arm.

The Manticore. Please. It's one of my favourite beasts.

<3 <3 <3 for you.

Somna!!! Ok this one I was noodling for a while because I was like “ok. Ren faire ren faire ren faire.” And it was gonna be really special and a little grandiose (I was feeling a type of way with the end of summer.)

But the thing about Eddie and this OC (or Reader character if you’re not reading the series) is that they find heaven in the most simple places together. They find it in each other.

So I hope you enjoy this one. It's not big angsty, it's just a little soft silly thing. Big kisses for you my love.

Find Hymns of Heaven here.

And find the Master List for As Above, So Below here.

August 1984

“So what are we looking for again?”

“Rick's birthday is coming up so anything Green Bay Packers—”

“Ew.”

“—and maybe some flannels for Wayne. How about you?”

“Maybe some books. Some records for the both of us?"

"No Van Halen though."

"I swear to God," you muttered under your breath. "I mention them one time."

"Hot for Teacher is a bullshit song and you know it," Eddie grinned mischievously as he slammed the door of the van shut.

He knew just what it took to get under your skin sometimes; pick at the tiniest throwaway thing you'd say and turn it into a whole to-do. Keep pushing and pushing until you tried to tell him off because then he'd get to emphasize "but you love me" until your hard stare turned soft and you'd agree because...you did.

You did love him. Loved him for all the good things and the bad; loved him because he was an idiot.

He was your idiot. Proudly.

Today, though, was not about mischief.

You were both on a mission.

You'd driven all the way up to Fort Wayne for the Allen County Flea Market at the Fairgrounds. It was a once-a-month event where hundred of people brought their prized possessions, their antiques, and their trash to try and offload it for as much cash as possible. And he had plenty to spare, after he'd made his appearance at all of the end-of-summer parties that had been thrown by everyone of college-going-age in the tri-county area.

So why not have a little day out, treat the most important people in his life to something nice, if...a little worn. Worn was ok.

He was a little worn too. So were you. And Wayne and Rick. His friends. He'd never felt such a sense of belonging as he did with all of you. All sorts of pieces that seemingly didn't fit together or belong...that had been patched together to create something epic. Unstoppable.

His family.

After perusing a few booths together, you parted ways to hunt for your own treasures, and he greedily accepted the soft farewell kisses you pressed to his lips.

One, and then another for the road, and a third for good luck.

He prompted it, but it was typically your saying as you stole a few smooches before you left him for the night or for work, and hearing him say it made you beam brightly.

It made him glow from deep within.

Once you were out of sight, he clapped his hands and let destiny take him where it would.

Got a couple things for himself and Wayne, enough that he could convince his uncle that they didn't need to go back to school shopping for much of anything outside of the obvious pens, pencils, and notebooks from Kmart. No new shoes or shirts.

He could keep the that overtime pay from the plant tucked away for a rainy day, or maybe fix the heater on his car that he'd been hemming and hawing about since February.

He even found Wayne a sturdy denim jacket with a suede collar that, he was sure, would be perfect once the cool weather rolled in.

He got Rick's birthday gift and continued to peruse the booths along his path, finding a few useful items along the way: a coil of guitar strings still in the packaging, a set of cooking knives that might have been chipped and dull but still probably more useful to cut vegetables with than the set of steak knives that were tucked away in a kitchen drawer back home, and a plan black sweatshirt with some moth holes that could, realistically, be saved by some strategically placed band patches.

He had been contemplating whether he was willing to endure your wrath if he surprised you with a copy of Women and Children First from a pile of old vinyls--

A grander gesture would be to convince the guys to add Could This Be Magic to the setlist of Corroded Coffin 2.0's first outing at the Hideout. Jeff could test his mettle on acoustic and Eddie could dedicate the song to you.

--when he found the jackpot.

It was a dusty book with worn edges, title on the front cover printed in a heavy gothic script and embossed with gold foil.

A Modern Bestiary for the 20th Century by Professor Hellen Magnus and Doctor Pellinore Warthrop

Eddie's hand shot to it immediately, intrigued, and he spent a good few minutes flipping through the pages. He vibrated as he went page by page, eyes scanning over one creature or another.

Harpies and gargoyles and sea serpents.

He thought of all the Hellfire sessions that would benefit from this book. It really felt like an ancient tome with all of the scientific diagrams and breakdowns of each creature's skeleton, brief summaries of associated myths, and place of origin. References to other books that he made a mental note to ask about at the library.

And then, right in the center of the book, there was a fold out spread that featured a full color illustration of a Manticore.

His favorite.

He'd seen it in a book about heraldry once upon a time when he created a Munson Family Crest for the Middle Ages unit in 6th Grade History. And he'd been obsessed ever since.

The ultimate protector and most dangerous foe with the head of a human and the body of a lion, and a venomous scorpion tail. Symbolizing undefinable strength and power. So it was funny, how he had been thinking of the way his family was patched together earlier when this was waiting for him just hours ahead.

Fate was funny that way.

And funnier still...when he drew his eyes across the page once again and saw, scribbled in the corner in...colored pencil or crayon...he couldn't say for sure...was your name.

"No..." he squinted and pulled the page closer to his face. "Can't be."

It was a child's handwriting for sure, wobbly and unsure, but that was you.

For a second, Eddie didn't even...consider the implications of this being your book or how the book ending up here of all places. Stranger things had happened. Fate worked inn mysterious ways and all that.

He just felt...triumphant.

"Finally I'll get a leg up on you sweetheart," he said as he dug into his pockets for the cash to buy the book. "No more telling me about mysterious monsters and creatures. I'll know more than you soon enough."

You found Eddie sitting in the back of the van after you finished your shopping, the tote bag that you had the foresight to bring with you overflowing with books and records and even a rolled up poster that you were sure he'd like for his bedroom. His legs were crossed and he was flipping through the pages of a book that vaguely looked familiar to you.

"So, success?" you began to announce your presence. Eddie jumped a bit, startled and he shoved the book off to the side. You narrowed your eyes in suspicion. "What? Is that like...some like...weird book with sex positions in it or something? Studying to surprise me later or..."

"No! Well...studying yes, but not...I mean if you wanna..." he trailed off and raised his eyebrows suggestively. You slapped the back of your hand against his arm and laughed. "No, it's just this really interesting book I found. I'll tell you all about it on the drive back."

"Ok," you marveled at his enthusiasm. "I can't wait to hear all about it."

You dumped your bags in the back and slammed the doors shut as Eddie did his typical gentleman's act by racing around to open the passenger's door for you.

He bowed deeply and kissed the back of your hand, luxuriating in your giggles.

You wouldn't be laughing for long.

Once he was settled behind the wheel and he was sure of the directions back to Hawkins, he got the most devious look on his face. Positively devilish. His head dropped lazily to his shoulder and he dragged his eyes from the road to look at you.

"So, sweetheart, angel, cheese on my burger, love of my life," he buttered you up. "Tell me what you know...about The Manticore."

[blxckdragonfly]

Finding You (Darkness Finds You Universe #5-- Part 1)

(Song: "Finding You" by Kesha.

Warning: Slight smut on the page, other than that none! And also fluffy af shit.

Pairing: Chris Motionless & Lycia Winters "Pronunciation of her name: Lai-shuh" (Played by Ana De Armas), featuring Lyra Crowe Büdgen (Lilith Czar-- Played by Mothica) & Malakai Black.

Synopsis: Lyra receives the news from MB that Chris and Lycia's relationship has been leaked to the public and she has to be the one to deliver the message to them.

Word Count: 3,059

A/N: And we're back! This is a two parter piece because it's super long. Myself and @blackrose-92 had written so much that I had to break it up into parts on it's own! We hope you enjoy it. x Tiger

Spotify: Linked Below!)

Allen County War Memorial Coliseum– Fort Wayne, Indiana: September 9th, 2022. 

(Lyra’s POV) 

“Thank you, Indiana! I am Lilith Czar! Goodnight!” I say as myself and my bandmates take our bow after playing our last song of our set, which was Buzzkill. Tonight’s show was a blast, we had the audience singing every word of the setlist back at us. We’d been flown in for the second half of the Trinity of Terror tour after We Came As Romans had caught a bad case of COVID. 

The boys in Ice Nine, Black Veil and Motionless are going to have so much fun tonight. I walk backstage after my drummer, Lindsay and I grab a water bottle to soothe my hurting voice. When I grab my phone, I see that there are a few texts from Malakai and a missed call. I raise a brow and swipe through my phone. 

Malakai: Uh, wife? You might want to get a hold of Chris and let him know about this. 

He attached a link to an article which I open and my jaw drops at the words I read: 

Motionless In White Frontman’s New Flame? 

The photos in the article show Chris and his new girlfriend, Lycia, kissing as she was helping him with his stage makeup. I was shocked but also above all, mad and upset that their relationship had been leaked to the press and media. I get up after draining my water bottle and I respond to his text. 

Lyra: On it, Shadow. Thank you for the heads up, husband. 

I put my phone in my pocket and I started walking further backstage, stopping when I saw Chris with Lycia. The sight makes my heart melt and I think of my own relationship. She’s leaning against him in his arms and he moves in to place a soft kiss against her cheek. 

My heart. I thought. I shake my head and get my focus back as I slowly walk up to them. 

“Hey, you two,” I say, as Chris pulls away from Lycia, keeping an arm around her. “Malakai messaged me. He wants me to show you this, Chris. It’s not good.” 

I pulled up the article on my phone and I showed him the leaked photos of him and Lycia. I saw anger cross Chris’s face and he grits his teeth. 

“Are you fucking serious?!” Chris growls as he kicks at the wall behind him and Lycia. 

“... That’s why I kept my phone.” I said with a sigh and I saw Lycia let out a huff in frustration. 

“Well, I knew that was going to happen to us. Sooner or later,” Lycia says and Chris pauses with a look of shock and he raises both of his eyebrows raised. My jaw hits the floor in shock. 

“What?” Chris says and Lycia shrugs as she looks at Chris in the eyes. 

“I’ve been around my fair share of celebrities as a photographer,” Lycia explains. “It, sadly, comes with the territory.” 

Chris looks flabbergasted at how well his own girlfriend is taking the news that their relationship is out in the world, not in the way they wanted to announce their relationship and I don’t blame him. I was in the same thought process as he was. 

“Sure, babe,” Lycia continues. “I’m a little bit mad about the whole thing. But that’s part of dating a celebrity and it’s almost as certain as death and taxes. The paparazzi following you.” 

I glance over at Chris, who’s still frozen in shock with his jaw on the floor. It made me amused. 

“Dude, you should see yourself,” I said. “You look like you just saw Corey Taylor run out of the bathroom naked.” 

As soon as I said that, Chris’s facade cracked and he started to laugh, shaking his head. 

“That’s fucking disgusting, Lyra,” Chris says. “Don’t ever say that again.” 

I start to laugh at myself. “What? It’s the best thing that I could come up with.” 

“Ugh. Thanks to you, I need to be fucking baptized,” Chris mutters and he hears Lycia start laughing before glancing over at her with a devious smile. “Or maybe I can settle with a shower.” 

“Ew.” I put both of my hands up in the air. “Alright. I’m out of here.” 

I turn and walk away as I hear Chris laughing and I find a quiet place in the venue to call Malakai and have a talk because I’m sure he’s wanted to hear from me since I got off stage. 

_____________________________________________________________

(Lycia’s POV) 

Chris takes my hand and he walks me back to Motionless’s dressing room after making sure the room was empty, he shuts the door behind us and locks it. He backs me against the door, meeting his lips with mine in a deep kiss. I start to giggle after a few minutes and pull away, staring at him. 

“What’s got you so eager, babe?” I ask as I see a grin cross his face. 

I wanna feel you tonight like the very first time

Let's run away, baby, drive straight into the moonlight

Kiss me and tell me you're mine like no one’s watching

Like time is stopping

“I’m really impressed with how you were able to handle our relationship being leaked like that,” Chris murmurs, the seductive change in his tone making me shiver– my heart starts to race. “All I want right now… Is you.” 

I gave him a touched look as I knot my dark red acrylic nailed fingers into his blonde hair, eliciting a soft groan from his lips, I smiled at the sound. My heart starts to flutter and pitter patter in my chest at the sight of him. 

“Do we even have time?” I say. “Lyra just got off stage.” 

I hear a soft chuckle from him. “Oh, believe me, honey. When it comes to loving you– I will always make time.” 

I melted in his arms and I gave him a seductive smile of my own.

“Mm. Is that so, babe?” I pushed him onto the couch beside the vanity, I moved to straddle his hips as I wrap my arms around his neck. He nods at me as I lean forward into his lips. “Well, then. Give me all you’ve got, Motionless.” 

I feel his fingers knot in the strands of my hair as his lips meet mine in another kiss, this kiss being so passionate that it takes the breath out of me. He and I take as little time as possible to get ourselves undressed, he places subtle but loving kisses across my skin and scars. 

“God, you’re so fucking beautiful,” Chris murmurs as his hands run along my exposed skin, caressing my tattoos and scars. “How did I end up being so worthy to be able to fall in love with such a gorgeous woman like you? I love you so much.” 

I know forever don't exist

But after this life, I'll find you in the next

So when I say "forever," it's the goddamn truth

I'll keep finding, finding you

Tears fill my eyes as I look at him, seeing the warmth and the strength in his chocolate brown eyes, heart beating at every word he speaks to me. 

“I can say the same about such a wonderful man like you,” I whisper. “I love you more.” 

I close the gap between us and I meet his lips with mine, the feeling of wanting him pushing me over the edge, I sink myself onto him. A gasp full of pleasure escaping me as I break the kiss that we share. I dig the nails of my right hand into his shoulder and my left is in his blonde hair. 

His hands found their way to guide me, he met my lips deeply and passionately. 

“Fuck,” I whimper into his skin as he kept our momentum going.  

His hand moves to silence me so we don’t get caught. The way his hand covered my mouth was so hot.

"Baby. Sh." He whispers as a grin crosses his face before he moves his hand away, meeting my lips again, my nails scratching into his skin and I hear him growl softly, his warm breath against the side of my neck. My eyes closed at the pleasure. 

Fifteen to thirty minutes later, I awakened from the most intense bout of making love that I’ve ever had with Chris. I feel his fingers running through my caramel brown hair and I look around to still see that we’re in the dressing room together. He feels me starting to stir in his arms, I let out a soft whimper as I stretch my now sore body from gripping onto him and the couch, my eyes meeting his. 

I'm gonna search for your love, right through Hell and Heaven

Millions of years yet to come and in all dimensions

I know that you'll always be my happy ending

My happy ending

“There she is,” Chris murmurs with a soft smile on his face. “Hi, baby.” 

“Hi,” I whisper and he places a gentle kiss onto my forehead. My fingers tracing across his tattoos on his arms. “Well, I think we should do that more often.” 

I hear a soft chuckle from him. “Don’t tempt me, Lycia. It might start happening.” I giggle as his fingers move along my skin, tickling me. 

“Mm. Aren’t you supposed to go on stage with Motionless?” I say and I hear a faint laugh from him. 

“No, not yet,” He moves the dampened strands of my hair that have stuck to my forehead aside. “Black Veil’s still playing. They usually have a pretty long set, so we’re okay. I can hold onto you a little bit longer. No need to worry.” 

I breathe a soft sigh and I rest my head back on his shoulder, I feel him caress my back softly as I shiver and move closer to him for warmth, wrapping my arms around his waist. “Jesus, it’s freezing in here.” 

“Mm. Well, I could warm you up some more.” I feel his fingers moving toward my skin again and I start to giggle. 

“As much as I would love that, what happened to you not being tempted?” I chuckle as I see a smirk cross his face. He keeps his pattern on my back going, before he reaches over for his discarded Cyberhex bomber jacket, draping it around both of us to keep me warm. I smile as I settle myself against his chest. 

“So, what are we going to do about the article?” Chris asks as I start tracing the haunted house piece tattooed on his chest. I shrug at him. 

“There isn’t much we can do other than confirming it and embracing it,” An idea crosses my mind. I reach for my own phone, which is in the pocket of my faux leather jeans. 

No, I know forever don't exist

But after this life, I’ll find you in the next

So when I say "forever," it’s the goddamn truth

I'll keep finding, finding you

I open up the camera on my phone, he looks at me with a raised brow which makes me giggle as I take his hand in my own, intertwined our fingers together so the jack o’ lantern he has tattooed on his hand is showing and the moon I have on my right wrist is showing too. I took a photo of our hands together. I open up my Twitter and I tweet out that same photo with a simple caption and tagging him in it– 

LyciaRose: 🖤  

Suddenly I hear his phone get that notification, he saw it and a soft smile crosses his face, he not only following my Twitter back but responding to me: 

ChrisMotionless: 🖤 

As soon as that happened, my phone blew up with responses from his fanbase, some of them already in support of us and congratulating us on our relationship. 

"Let the madness begin," I murmured. I see a look of worry cross his eye but in a reassuring gesture, I lean in and kiss him softly. I feel him relax under me and melt into me. We break apart and his hand caresses the side of my face. 

"I'm not going to be surprised if I get asked about you in interviews from now on." He breathes a sigh. 

"Baby, you can say as much or as little as you want," I bring our intertwined hands up to rest against my chest. "It doesn't bother me." 

He leans in and meets my lips in a sweet and tender kiss. 

"You're so incredible, you know that? You truly, truly are." He whispers into my lips. 

The fingers of my free hand brushes the blonde of his hair, before lying against his face. My thumb tracing the tattoo under his jawline. I watch as his eyes close at my touch. 

"As sweet as that statement is, and it is," My voice stays honeyed and soft. "I'm not. I'm happy and in love with the man of my dreams. I won't even let the public eye take that away from me." 

His hands cup my face as he kisses me again, with a love I've never felt before. 

“Come on, babe. It’s only a matter of time before they find out we’re gone,” I reluctantly pulled away from his warm arms, as much as I would have loved to be in them. 

“You’re probably right.” I hear a sigh from him as he watches me put my clothes back on as he moves to do the same, I put on my red strappy crop top from Pretty Little Thing, my faux leather jeans from Fashion Nova and my black heeled boots. I take his Cyberhex bomber jacket and put it on, running my fingers through my hair quickly. 

“I’m taking this by the way,” I glance at him with a soft smile. I hear him chuckle softly, kissing the top of my head as he puts his own clothes for the stage back on.

“I shouldn’t expect anything less, even though it’s very cliche,” He murmurs as he places a soft peck on my lips. “But you always look fucking adorable in my stuff anyway.” 

I blush and look away from his eyes. “Why, thank you.” I giggle as he unlocks the door to the dressing room and offers me his hand, which I take. We walk back out of the room together, hand in hand. 

I get my camera gear out of its case and put my camera around my neck as I watch Chris get ready for the show, offering to help him with his makeup before heading out to the pit before Motionless hits the stage. I take my photos of him and the band throughout their set. 

Towards the end of their set, when they played Eternally Yours– I watched as Chris took one of the roses that was taped to his mic stand. I still have my camera and see it in my lens as I see him knelt down in front of me, he reaches out for me to take the rose. 

“Baby? What– What’s this for?” I say as I shrug my camera back around my neck. Chris leaned closer to my ear and I heard cheering from the audience. 

“This is me apologizing again for bringing up those bad memories,” He says. I give him a confused look for a moment. 

“What do you–” It hits me, he’s mentioning the day when we were on set of the Masterpiece music video, and when I spoke of my drug issues and losing Marcus. “Babe, you didn’t know.” 

“I still want to make it right, honey,” He murmured as I took the rose from him. He places a warm and loving kiss on my lips, I hear “aww’s” from the audience before I realized that I forgot to take photos of him handing out the roses to the audience. I tuck the rose behind my ear and I get back into shooting the photos. 

After their set, Chris and I walked backstage together, hand in hand and the first person we see is Lyra, who has just gotten off Facetime with her husband. 

“Aww, who would have thought that Chris Motionless was such a romantic?” Lyra teases. I hear a sigh from Chris. 

“Let me guess, you saw that?” Chris says as Lyra shows him the photos she took of him handing me the rose during Eternally Yours. 

“Don’t worry, Malakai and I won’t say anything,” Lyra says with a shrug. 

“You told Malakai?!” I hear Chris’s voice raise as he glares at Lyra. 

“Maybe…” Lyra shrugs her shoulders with a devious grin. Chris rolls his eyes at her. 

“Motherfucker,” Chris mutters. “As long as you didn’t tell anyone else about that…” 

“Or what?” I see Lyra turn her head to the side, her voice taking on a darker tone as Chris starts to brace himself at seeing her blank expression. “Malakai and I can easily kick your head off, you know.” 

“Fine. I’ll fucking shut up now,” Chris mumbles and Lyra’s face becomes normal once more, a friendly smile gracing her face. Chris flinches. “Goddammit, Lyra. I hate it when you do that.” 

I take on a look of pure confusion, more so a look of “What just happened?” and Lyra chuckles. 

“What you just saw is a small glimpse of my work in House of Black,” Lyra says. I glance over at Chris. 

“Well, baby. She’s definitely one of your weirder friends, I’ll tell you that.” I say and I hear Chris chuckle and Lyra laughs. “No offense.” 

“None taken, Lycia. I take it as a compliment,” Lyra says with a smile. Chris pulls me closer, wrapping his arm around my waist, I lay my head on his chest as he speaks to Lyra about a proposition of her husband’s, that one of their friends come up on stage with him and do Slaughterhouse which he had no problem with. Quite frankly, all I wanted was to get back to the bus and get some sleep after Ice Nine’s set. I was exhausted but at least I knew that as long as I had him, this whole matter about our relationship being leaked will go away. I hope.

I know forever don't exist

After this life, I'll find you in the next

When I say "forever," it's the goddamn truth

I’ll keep finding, finding you, oh…. 

[senilthesynth]

Controls Systems Suck

This is just a compilation of a very long thread I made on Mastodon so I can share this better. For more context, this is all in reference to my replies to Soatok's ongoing responses to the Matrix dev team re: Soatok's responsible disclosure of security flaws. The TL;DR is Matrix was using an educational implementation of a thing, that explicitly said to not use it in production, and didn't do anything about that for seven years until Soatok found it. Here's a link to my first of the reply chain directly talking about that here: https://furry.engineer/@senil888/112964632462775370

This is why I think the way I do, and why I ultimately distrust the Matrix team and will distrust anyone who behaves similarly. This is 100% copy-paste from my long thread, so it's clunky.

Someone remind me tomorrow morning to talk about the dam project I worked on so I can discuss some of the bullshit that happened there that we could never test in the office, but why what we were able to test still let everything surrounding the bullshit run smoothly enough. Because oh boy there is a lot to talk about. The field I work in leads to all sorts of weird shit that you will never expect until you go on site. I'm kind of surprised some if it worked as well as it did.

never mind I can't fall asleep so you're getting some of it now.

so. The main project I had with my (now former) company in my short time there was for a hydro dam up in the Idaho panhandle. Literally in "Boundary County" lol. That's not important though.

What is important is that this hydro dam - a small one, maybe outputs 4 megawatts during peak spring runoff - helps power the nearby towns via the city-run utility. While it's not the end of the world for the dam to be offline, them being offline means the utility has to buy even more power than if it was running.

Which costs the city a fair bit more money than running the dam themselves, because you have the power generation places that need their money to run their facilities, the transmission companies that need to fund their projects...

So, it's pretty important to help them get back on their feet. And we had a big task - we were to replace their old Allen-Bradley PLCs with our own, and toss in a SCADA system too.

The SCADA system is fairly straightforward when it comes to data inputs - I could just take the data, label it, maybe do some conversions as-needed, and toss it up the chain. For this system, it went generator-connected PLCs to a beefier PLC running more sophisticated software as well as a basic HMI, up to the control house computer that ran a Zenon HMI we developed as well.

The hard part comes in when we actually add in the controls. Which is, y'know, important since we're replacing everything their old PLCs did with our own system and solution. Which meant we needed reference code, since the customer knows their system the best (mostly, we talked with the operators who knew how to run the thing, but didn't 100% know the backbones).

What we got? Was in ladder logic. Which looks very different to structured text, aka what you think of when I say "what does a programming language look like typed out?" So... not only did we need to re-create that, we had to "translate" it into ST as well. Fun!

This is where the controls joy comes in. Each PLC acts mostly the same when it comes to general operations. These outputs are for lights, this output needs to do this thing and get this signal for some time back before another thing can even think about asserting, etc.

Spinning up a hydro generator takes a decent bit of time. Not forever mind you, but there's a lot of steps involved. First you need to get water to, y'know, the thing itself. But you can't just send water straight from the turbine inlet valve (TIV) to the turbines. You need to balance the water pressures between everything because if you don't? Congratulations you just broke the turbine and this generator has to be rebuilt.

Once the TIV bypass does its thing for a while, we can actually open the TIV and start to send water to the turbine. Once water is getting to the turbine, we open up the wicket gates which actually finally let water to the turbines. They're controllable, so we can define exactly how much water gets to flow.

Then it's the usual generator stuff. Get the thing up to speed and, once it's up to speed and stays there for a little while, ya gotta sync the generator phases and frequency to the grid phases and frequency. If the phase angles are off too much, you end up kicking the generator forwards or backwards when the breaker closes to the grid.

That can be... you know... a little violent. So we need that to be as precise as possible, and to close as soon as we're confident it'll safely kick in without breaking anything. So that's the gist of the start-up sequence at the dam. However.

There's a bit of a fail over system with the Zenon HMI. See, the two powerhouse PLCs gather all available data in this system as a form of redundancy. This is fine when it comes to inputs, but again we run into problems with outputs. Zenon can only fully connect with one of the PLCs at a time.

Unfortunately... it's possible for a switchover between the powerhouse PLCs to happen when an operator is trying to send a command.

The absolute last thing we need is for a command to be sent twice during this switchover, because data might not be 100% shared between the two. Some data does only go to one of the powerhouse PLCs, which means the other one is totally clueless as to what that device is up.

Our first main problem was fixing this control switchover problem, brought upon the very nature of our design scheme and how Zenon works (which I think they've fixed but I never worked on Zenon myself). Again, we have to account for every possible problem which means figuring out how to make sure a command sent from Zenon "syncs" between devices, since Zenon also controls analog outputs as well. Digitals are fine and easy, but analogs have to be preserved.

I had set up a... bit of a clunky solution, but ultimately it worked and kept that data in sync. One major problem resolved. Of course, this is the real world still, so a problem came up again. There wasn't anything we could do, but our system working as it should let us test it.

What ended up happening was one generator - which was being rebuilt and some different sensors were added - wouldn't report how far the wicket gates were open. This is obviously bad, because now we have no idea if those things are opened, and we can't act on it anymore.

The sensor was a hall effect one, made of steel. There is a window above it. This is a dam, close to the river and a waterfall. I hope you can guess what the problem is. Hint, it involves steel not liking moisture. We cleaned out a COPIOUS amount of rust, and hey look the sensor was finally working again, we got wicket gate data. So we could finally spin up this generator. Which we were able to do...

Except, y'know. Problem time. The generator was vibrating, and vibrating a LOT. Consistently. Every time it started up, a piece of logic I had adapted would run through and trigger an emergency stop. It basically monitoring vibration data, and if ANY input measured over some threshold for more than a few seconds? E-stop time.

So something is still wrong with this generator. We trust the sensors since we're getting good data as the generator spins up, it just... shakes too much. We actually temporarily disabled the logic that trips the generator to monitor its behavior if it didn't e-stop in time.

It kept vibrating, more and more. It would probably shake itself apart if you let it keep going. It also did it consistently, and it was one bearing's sensor that was consistently tripping. (aside: that bearing had also seized up TWICE during prior trips to commission this generator. It also did it again after we left the site)

The only reason we were able to check this case is because what I had written worked and we knew it worked. In part because that same logic was on three other generators, but we were able to accidentally prove that hey, if this happens it'll work.

It turned out the people rebuilding the generator didn't balance the flywheel when they fixed the bearing before, so oops! You can't spin that thing up just yet.

Imagine how bad this whole thing could've been if we weren't as rigorous as we were. Generators could've broken apart. People could've been hurt. Expensive equipment could've gotten seriously damaged. Hell, it might not even have started up because of how much other equipment we had to interface with that we couldn't investigate ourselves.

That client trusted us to get their dam up and running with new hardware that would treat them well for many years to come, and to build a partnership with a firm they could trust. In the end, we delivered and they're supposedly working on more (smaller) projects with them.

I don't know the specifics, but BECAUSE we were persistent in making sure every edge case we could think of was resolved, and fixing everything in real-time as problems came up (and making sure our fixes wouldn't introduce NEW problems)... we were able to tell them "you can trust us." Because ultimately, "n one is obligated to buy from you. You can go out of business tomorrow if everyone decides to never work with you."

It's largely because of my experience with the hydro project that I just can't trust companies, projects, and teams that hide vulnerabilities and failure points and hope nobody finds them. It makes me question how many they actually have hidden when someone does find one.

How many defects does their thing have, if some of the most obvious ones are let through? If this obvious error got through their QA checks, what else is lying under the hood that we don't know about yet? Can I trust this system to be robust enough in the event of a catastrophic failure?

I know cryptography and E2EE in particular aren't remotely comparable to what I've worked on... but what I've worked on is super important. Lives are at stake with these projects. I need to be confident that what I do isn't going to hurt people. Isn't going to break equipment. Isn't going to fail in two years because of an oversight.

I need projects in critical fields that take themselves seriously to ACT like lives are at stake, because maybe some are.

I know this is a giant thread that I'll probably compress into a tumblr post so it's easier to share, but I just. Need to finish with a final thought.

I know lives aren't at stake in a lot of places. But if you're taking yourself seriously, in something as important as cryptography, something that is increasingly important every single day in every field - critical infrastructure included - you need to act like lives are at stake if you fuck up.

I know some of this shit is just a chat protocol, "why are you so pressed" blah blah blah. A lot of people herald E2EE services as a secure way to also talk about protests and labor organization without significant risk of getting caught. Of course, if you don't regularly use E2EE normally the fact you use it might implicate you.

When it comes to organizing? If a court requests data from some service, as little data as possible should be sent out. Because people get jailed or imprisoned for organizing. Those lives are on the line if your system isn't up to snuff.

This isn't to say "just pick any E2EE service it's fine" because it's not fine to do that. People need a service they can trust, that's reliable, that takes security seriously and does everything in their power to make sure what they do is as secure as possible. From what they know is a fail point, and what they later find out is a new possible fail point.

People need services they can trust that has their best interests in mind. Clients need businesses they can trust that can hold up their end of the contract and deliver a quality solution that fits their client's needs.

Why should anything like this be any different?

EDIT: I wanted to add something else I added.

People die when we fuck up in this industry. We can't allow that to happen, ever. Our trust is built upon proving a track record of quality work done timely. Work that stands the test of time as systems operate. I know a lot of shit is nothing compared to critical infrastructure, but I wish more folks took it remotely as seriously as people in my industry have to. Because if we fuck up, people get hurt. People lose power. Facilities get damaged. Industry stops.

Everything today revolves around power. If the power goes out... so does everything else.

[backyardchickennews]

What You Need to Know Before Attending the Ohio Allen County Fair Poultry Show? What Fun Awaits at the Ohio Allen County Fair Poultry Show? Are You Ready for the Ohio Allen County Fair Poultry Show? If you are planning to enter the Ohio Allen County Fair Poultry Show, there are some important things you should know about it. This event is a great place to display your birds. In addition to showcasing beautiful birds, the fair also features donkey rides, pedal car races, and crafts with Miss Allen County. https://backyardchickennews.com/what-you-need-to-know-before-attending-the-ohio-allen-county-fair-poultry-show/?feed_id=6922&_unique_id=66aa19e31c6eb

[dankusner]

george allen

donna barrance — jury manager

pam hart — jury room clerk

Call of duty: Dallas County wants jury service seen as an honor, not a burden Knowing that most people don't want to go to jury duty, Dallas County officials are trying to make it easier for them to fulfill their civic obligation.

This is the Central Jury Room where residents report when they are summoned for jury duty. This is the Central Jury Room where residents report when they are summoned for jury duty.(File Photo / Staff ) By Tasha Tsiaperas

9:00 AM on Dec 31, 2017

Former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama had to do it. Oprah Winfrey once did, too.

Cops, teachers, school bus drivers can't avoid it.

So what happens when that dreaded piece of mail — the jury summons — shows up in your mailbox?

If you're registered to vote or have a driver's license, chances are you will be summoned at some point.

Jurors are "doing a great service, and they're needed," said Donna Barrance, jury service manager in Dallas County.

"Some people think jury service is meaningless," she added. "It's a very important privilege to serve your county or your city."

Only about 20 percent of Dallas County residents summoned to jury duty show up. Some have moved or are disqualified from serving, but many just skip it.

Knowing that most people don't want to go to jury duty, Dallas County officials are trying to make it easier for them to fulfill their civic obligation.

You can set up text or e-mail reminders confirming the jury service date. You can fill out your questionnaire online. Or you can postpone the day for a more convenient time within six months.

"Our criminal justice system is only as strong as our pool of jurors," state District Judge… "Our criminal justice system is only as strong as our pool of jurors," state District Judge Brandon Birmingham says.(David Woo / Staff Photographer) Juries serve a vital role

Jurors settle civil disputes. They can decide whether an employer is responsible for an employee's workplace injury.

They might determine whether someone was wrongfully fired. Or they can determine guilt in criminal cases and whether someone should be sent to prison for life.

"Our criminal justice system is only as strong as our pool of jurors, individually and collectively, said state District Judge Brandon Birmingham, the presiding criminal judge in Dallas County.

"No judge, no lawyer can tell the jurors that they're wrong. As such, they are the most powerful group at the criminal courthouse," Birmingham said.

It's a lot of sitting and waiting

Expect to spend the day at the courthouse — either the criminal courthouse or civil. It takes time to filter everyone to the correct courtrooms, where jurors are selected.

Your job isn't an excuse to skip jury duty. You can only be excluded if you have been convicted of a felony or theft charge, you aren't a U.S. citizen or don't have a sound mind. Employers can't fire or threaten someone who serves on a jury.

Those sitting among the first rows of potential jurors in the courtroom are most likely to be picked.

There's a food court inside the Frank Crowley courthouse, along with a snack shop on the… There's a food court inside the Frank Crowley courthouse, along with a snack shop on the second floor.(David Woo / Staff Photographer) It's not like drafting a fantasy team. Attorneys don't get to pick their favorites. The first 12 people who qualify are picked. When Bush was called for jury duty, he was No. 27. All jurors had been picked by No. 23.

If picked, most cases will take a couple of days. A complex civil dispute or a murder trial with a lot of witnesses may take a week or longer. Be prepared.

Be fair and honest

Attorneys know most people don't want to be there. Don't make up an excuse to get out of jury service, and don't lie to get on a jury.

Answer questions honestly, and be prepared to follow the law, regardless of personal feelings.

"The best jurors are those who pretend that if they were sitting in the defendant's chair, they would want themselves as a juror," Birmingham said.

Court proceedings are public. Drop by and see how it works.

There are signs and directories throughout the Dallas courthouse to get you where you need… There are signs and directories throughout the Dallas courthouse to get you where you need to be.(David Woo / Staff Photographer) What to wear and what to bring

Showing up in sweatpants and a tank top is frowned upon. Court officials suggest attire you'd wear to a job interview.

They also ask that you bring the jury summons you received in the mail, or at least the top portion of it. At the very least, you'll need to know your juror number.

Potential jurors are paid $6 for their first day of service. Those picked to serve on the jury are paid $40 a day.

While parking isn't free, the discounted jury rate is $3. Bring cash to pay for parking and food.

The courthouses are often cold. Some jurors bring scarves or jackets to stay warm while listening to testimony.

Other than people-watching, there is little entertainment in the courthouse. Bring a book or a magazine or a game.

Most judges don't allow cellphones, even on silent, in their courtrooms, but you can use cellphones during breaks or in the hallways.

What if I don't — or can't — show up

In some jurisdictions, not showing up for jury duty could result in a fine or a bench warrant being issued for your arrest.

Not in Dallas, though. There's a two-week grace period for no-shows, during which you can send the Jury Services Department a letter explaining your absence.

After that, your jury date will be rescheduled, and you'll receive a new summons a few weeks beforehand.

[unitedbydevils]

Match Review: Derby County U18s 2-2 Manchester United U18s

Well, you can't win them all... would have been nice though.

The typically close game between United and Derby was exactly what happened when the two sides met in the league recently, with County getting off to a flier thanks to an early goal from Cruz Allen in the third minute.

An end to end game saw United draw level in the 25th minute through Jack Kingdon, who smashed home a half volley from Biancheri's won ball into the top left of the net.

Derby actually shaded the game in all fairness, and took a deserved lead through captain Luke Banks and a big header from deep at the edge of the box from a corner - an unusual goal but a top effort.

United's efforts were close but not enough - especially one for starlet left back Harry Amass - but the Red Devils hung on in until a 92nd scorcher from Jim Thwaites swung its way into the top left corner from 20 yards out; a beautiful finish from the substitute.

A great last-ditch tackle from Jaydan Kamason at right back kept Derby from stealing the win in the last few seconds of the game, and keeps United's invincible season alive.

Next up - Nottingham Forest.

[aficsblog]

College District Property Tax Rates In Texas By County

The District Commissioners are committed to levying solely the taxes needed to meet these obligations. Fort Bend County calculates the property tax due primarily based on the fair market worth of the house or property in query, as decided by the Fort Bend County Property Tax Assessor. Each property is individually t each year, and any enhancements or additions made to your property may enhance its appraised value. Property taxes in Fort Bend County are calculated by the Appraisal District based on the appraised worth of your property. The tax rate is about by the assorted taxing entities, such because the City, County, School District and others. Your tax invoice is then calculated by multiplying the appraised worth of your property by the tax fee.

Help us hold this listing a fantastic place forpublic information information. The Boards generally meet on the second Monday of the month at the places of work of Allen Boone Humphries Robinson LLP at Southwest Freeway, Houston 77027. The Board typically meets on the fourth Monday of the month at the offices of The Muller Law Group, PLLC, 202 Century Square Boulevard, Sugar Land, Texas 77478. House Bill 621 of the 80th Texas Legislature amends the Tax Code and the Government Code to add an exemption from advert valorem taxation for goods-in-transit. This property does not have agricultural/timber use value; the appraised value shall be equal to market worth. Market worth has been outlined by The Supreme Court as the sale price of actual property as agreed upon between a willing buyer and willing vendor, with neither being under duress to buy or sell.

Property index maps are drawn to scale and contain mapping data for every property. When a property is liened, a creditor has an interest in it as a result of the owner owes them money. Fort Bend County, Texas, may have a mixed gross sales tax fee of 8% in 2022.

So if your house is price $150,000 and you receive the homestead exemption, the varsity district tax price will solely apply to $125,000 of you home worth. There are a quantity of exemptions that assist lower your property taxes in Texas. The commonest is the homestead exemption, which is out there to householders in their main residence. The average effective property tax price within the Lone Star State is 1.60%, nicely above the nationwide common of 0.99%.

Fort Bend County Tax Assessor . The average yearly property tax paid by Fort Bend County residents amounts to about 4.66% of their yearly income. Fort Bend County is ranked 113th of the 3143 counties for property taxes as a proportion of median income. Fort Bend County has one of many highest median property taxes within the United States, and is ranked 57th of the 3143 counties in order of median property taxes.

Compare that to the national common, which at present stands at 0.99%. Located simply southwest of Houston, Fort Bend County is the tenth largest county within the state of Texas. Founded in 1837, Fort Bend County is called for a small navy blockhouse at the bend of the Brazos River. According to the 2017 US Census, the county population is about 765,000, and Fort Bend is certainly one of the wealthiest counties with a median household revenue of greater than $100,000 per yr.

Fort Bend County property tax protests have been successful for 83% of informal and 56% of appraisal evaluate board property tax protests . Homeowners saved $14 million at Fort Bend CAD in informal protests and $7 million in appraisal evaluate board (ARB) property tax protests. The county can alter varied features of the payment or delinquency process as a result of issues outdoors of their management. For instance, in 2020, there have been quite a few operational changes because of COVID-19. Most of those are associated to well being protocols for in-person interactions.

U.S. policymakers, including the President of the United States, make coverage decisions informed by the knowledge we offer. For additional Budget information, please click on on the above Approved Budget link. The Board usually meets on the second Thursday of the month on the places of work of Allen Boone Humphries Robinson LLP, 3200 Southwest Freeway, Houston, Texas 77027. It is also worth noting the Board recognizes and values our disabled veteran residents and grants a deduction from value amounts depending on the incapacity ranking of the veteran. Appealing to voters, Katy ISD argued state funding for Texas public colleges "remains stagnant" whereas Fort Bend ISD said its federal pandemic funds "would be applied to the shortfall hole as a substitute of learning loss."

FORT BEND COUNTY, Texas — A small group in Fort Bend County addressed an enormous concern for lots of homeowners Tuesday at the Cinco Ranch Library during a town corridor assembly. A determination on cuts, security, and employees compensation is now within fort bend property tax the arms of voters who will select between decrease taxes, or about an extra $200 on their annual bill. Many analysts first expected the COVID-19 pandemic to crater the economy and lead to a drop in home values.

[cardcaptorsakura96]

Is Destiny All It's Cracked Up To Be?

Another Writing Prompt!

"The prophecy said that you were destined to sire thousands of children. So how is it that at middle age you have yet to find a successful partner, much less raise even a single child?"

Everest Jones went to the county fair like he did every summer. He always enjoyed the food, the rides, and the people watching. He used to go with his family every year, but they all live on opposites sides of the country. As he moved through the fair, he came across an attraction that he hadn’t seen since he was a boy: Madame Belinda’s Fortune Telling Shop. It was just an automated attraction. Madame Belinda would say that she knew your future and print out a small paper with your fortune. Everest stopped and stared at it for a moment and shook his head.

“I remember when I ask you my fortune. You said I would sire thousands of children. Yet I am 50 with no kids or a wife. Guess it’s true that you animatronics are hacks,” mused Everest.

As Everest started to turn around, he noticed that the animatronic light up even though no one activated it.

“Madame Belinda tells no lies. Your future has already been fulfilled” bellowed the animatronic.

Everest jumped back startled. He looked around and saw no one around that could be controlling Madame Belinda. He was about to laugh it off until a piece of paper printed from the animatronic. Everest stared at it for a minute before grabbing it. He frowned at the paper.

“Check the top story in the Omni City Chronicle” muttered Everest.

He looked around again to see if he was being set up for a prank, but saw no one.

“This has to be some promotion of some kind” murmured Everest.

He eyed the animatronic warily as he walked away to continue his day at the fair.

By the time he got home for the day, he was ready to go to sleep. As he started to go through his pockets, he saw the message from Madame Belinda. He stared at it a minute and decided to go to the town’s newspaper on his phone. When he open the page he was shocked at the headline he saw.

“Local doctor arrested for illegal cloning.”

Everest recognized the doctor, Dr. Allen. He had came to his college to talk about the importance of donating sperm and how it can help a create a family for a couple. Everest made one donation, but hadn’t thought about it since. Intrigued by the headline, Everest read further and became mortified on what he saw. The doctor wanted to increase his fertility clinic in the area, but wasn’t getting enough sperm. He did testing on the sperm he had and was able to successfully clone it. However, he didn’t tell the donators or the recipients of the sperm that these were clones. At the bottom of the article, it had a number for donors and recipients to call to see if they were affected by the doctor’s malpractice. Everest quickly called the hotline in the paper.

“Hello, This is Gina with Quality Hospital Assurance. How can I help you today?”

“Hi, I just read an article in today’s paper about Dr. Allen and his illegal cloning.”

“Are you a donor or a recipient?”

“Donor. I would like to know if Dr. Allen cloned my sperm.”

“I can definitely look into that for you sir. If you could tell me your name, date of birth, and social security number.”

Everest quickly rattled off the information. Gina put him on hold while she searched through her database to see if he was one of the affect.

While waiting, Everest thought, “There is no way this could be happening. He couldn’t have cloned that many sperm from the one deposit I made. What are the odds?”

Finally, Gina came back on the line.

“Mr. Jones, I was able to look into this issue for you. It looks like Dr. Allen did clone your sperm. It looks like over the last 20 years, your sperm has help impregnated 5000 women.”

Everest stared at the phone stunned. How can he be a father to so many children that he doesn’t know? What should he even do about this?

As he started to spiral, Gina asked, “Mr. Jones, are you still there?”

“Yes, I am still here. This is just a lot to take in” said Everest stuttering.

“Well, I have more news for you.”

“What more news can you possibly have for me?’ asked Everest sarcastically.

Gina hesitantly said, “Well, about 400 of the children have made request on wanting to meet you. Would you be interested in meeting any of them?”

Everest quickly hung up the phone and threw the phone away from him.

“I never should have asked about my future” muttered Everest.

[accidentattorneynewportbeach]

Accident attorney Newport Beach

accident attorney Orange County

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Allen Flatt Ballidis & Leslie provides comprehensive information and legal guidance for individuals involved in auto accidents, helping them understand their rights and obtain fair compensation.

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[revolutionarywarhistory]

Benjamin Murdoch's life after the war [Part 3]

Continued from part 2

Coming into the 1810s

Benjamin petitions the House of Delegates about his military service. This is discussed later in this section.

In 1810, a man named C[harles?] Murdock was living in Frederick, Maryland with seven enslaved people. A W[illiam?] Murdock in living the same location with two enslaved people. It is not known if either of these men is related to Benjamin. There are also two tracts called Murdoch's Mount Resurvey but it is not known if this is his tract or not. There, is, however, strong evidence, once again, that he was living in Frederick county.

Reprinted from my History Hermann WordPress blog.

In June 1811, Benjamin was paid $3,120 by Allen and Sarah Farguhar (if I have that spelling right) for the resurveyed Hickory Plains tract which is still 454 acres. As readers may recall, he paid Abraham Plummer $2,000 for this tract back in 1803, eight years earlier. [11] While the relative value of the $2,000 he had paid had decreased to $1,490 due to inflation and other factors by 1811, he still had gained a $1,120 above from the original amount, and $1,630 above the amount adjusted to values that year. Hence, he garnered an almost 200% profit from this transactions, using the adjusted figure, so he was more than willing to sell the land to the Farguhars.

Three years later, in 1814, he was appointed as commissioner, along with Edward Owings, Jesse Wright, Samuel Hobbs, and Ed Brashears, to "assess the damages" to Nicholas Hall's land, which sat in Frederick County. The act specified the following aspects of this situation:

...[the] appointed commissioners...are hereby authorised and empowered to view and assess the damages if any, which in their judgment the said Nicholas Hull shall have sustained by the locating and making of a road through his lands...a road from near the old glass Works called New Bremen in Frederick county, to intersect the Baltimore and Frederick-Town turnpike road, at the town of New-Market in the said county, and...the said commissioners or a majority of them shall make out...a fair valuation of the damages

Nicholas was a man who was allowed by the Maryland General Assembly to raise money for a lottery for $2,000 dollars and noted that he owned land in New Market, Frederick County. Hence, it is possible that Benjamin knew this individual. It is also clear that this was not payment for "devaluation" of his land due to the British campaign in the military operations from 1812 to 1814 in the Chesapeake Bay but was rather a consequence of the changing nature of US society from an agrarian one to a more urban one, with "internal improvements." Benjamin's role as a commissioner could also imply that he was a Federalist since such individuals pushed forward this idea, and was later picked up by Henry Clay of the Whig Party.

A couple of years later, the Murdoch family gained additional land. More land was patented under the name of "Murdoch's Fancy" which was not unusual as land had been patented under the names of "Murdoch's Mountain Resurvey" and "Murdock's Inheritance" years later. There is no record that Benjamin was involved in any of these land agreements, although it is possible he was somehow tied in.

In 1817, Benjamin petitioned the Maryland General Assembly to be paid for his war service, and the legislature agreed with him. Hence, he was to be paid the half-pay of a lieutenant until his death:

"That the treasurer of the western shore be and he is hereby authorised and directed, to pay, annually, in quarterly payments, to Benjamin Murdock, a lieutenant in the Maryland line during the revolutionary war, the half pay of a lieutenant during life."

Almost a year later, Benjamin petitioned the Maryland House of Delegates over the same issue. His petition was reported favorably by Mr. Hawkins in the Maryland House of Delegates as the Maryland Gazette noted later that month.

And his petition related to his military payments as the journal of the House of Delegates makes abundantly clear:

It should be no surprise that it turns out that Mr. Hawkins, or Thomas Hawkins, was one of the four delegates representing Frederick County that year in the House of Delegates. The other delegates were Joshua Cockey, Thomas C. Worthington, and John H.M. Smith.

© 2016-2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

[passinnotesinsecrecy]

i’m gonna be honest…i had never heard of jimmie allen until this year when he was supposed to play at my county fair and cancelled 2 hours before the show started and now he’s literally everywhere all the time

[pikapikachupikachu]

Random Savage Garden fan attending the said Australian duo's concert at the Allen County Fair in Lima, Ohio - August 19, 2000

[dankusner]

George Allen

(The following excerpt is the recollection of George Allen, the first Black man elected to the Dallas City Council and the namesake of Dallas’ George Allen Dallas County Civil Court building, as told to reporter Steve Kenny.)

Excerpt from “Dallas when Jim Crow was king”

Byline: Steve Kenny

Originally published Sep. 14, 1980.

“One Saturday we were riding on the Second Avenue streetcar. The State Fair of Texas was in session then, and my youngest kid said, ‘Dad, can’t we go ride on that ferris wheel?’ You could see the big ferris wheel going around, and you could hear the calliope playing.

“And it was the worst feeling, I’m sure, that a father has ever had to have to try to explain to his children without having them feeling inferior, why they couldn’t ride on that damn ferris wheel that day.

“Only one day a year could they ride. Negro Day at the Fair was the name of it. I finally, as a cop-out, I told them that Dad just didn’t have the money.

“That was the first time it was brought home dramatically to me. If I hadn’t had kids, I probably wouldn’t have worried about it as much.”

[lindaseccaspina]

Mr. Allen's Chickens-- Appleton

Mr. Allen’s Chickens– Appleton

Newspapers seemed to control our local towns and it wasn’t hard to sway the townsfolk into some sort of rabble rousing. Take in point some fine fowl, over 325 to be exact, that resided in Appleton belonging to the Herald’s Mr. Sam Allen. The joke was that Mr. Allen’s chickens were so well esteemed they had taken their fair share of prizes at the Almonte Fair. In fact too much so– as there were a…