#HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO HAVE HOPE THAT MAYBE PEOPLE CAN PICK APART WHAT'S MISINFORMATION AND WHAT ISN'T

[gender-euphowrya]

there are things we know that have been said and demonstrated a thousand times and yet every time it feels like you're just learning this

[quickspinner]

Damsel in Distress for Hire

I wrote this for the @lovebugs-and-snakecharmers sprint challenge ages ago, but life happened and I never got it edited and cleaned up. Now I have, so here it is! I used the @mlweeklyprompts prompt Bard. 

Luka reined in Sass before the gelding could clear the shadows of the trees, and eyed the keep tower with some satisfaction. It stood alone on a hill, with ground cleared around it and a wall around the courtyard, and only a single tower rising out of the fortifications. It looked like their information had been good, then. Their opponent didn’t have a large force, hence their underhanded approach. They were depending on the seclusion of this place to keep them safe, and not strength of arms. That made him breathe a sigh of relief. He of all people knew how much harm misinformation could do, and though he had done everything in his power to be sure of his information, there always was that worry in the back of his mind. 

Luka urged Sass forward at a walk. 

“Hail and well met!” he called cheerfully, waving. “I am but a single traveler, of no threat to you!” He dismounted from Sass and spread his arms wide, hands far from the rapier hanging at his side. The guards exchanged a look, but didn’t move. 

“I am a minstrel on my way from the capital to cities in the south,” Luka said, with a little bow that still kept his hands well clear of his weapon. “I’ve been travelling all night to get through these woods, and as I’ve stumbled on you here, I was hoping I could perhaps share your fire and the protection your company would afford me from the local dregs so that I may take a short rest in peace? I have some goods of my own that are better shared, if you would be so kind to allow me to sup with you.” He leaned over and reached into his saddlebag and pulled out a large bottle that glinted appealingly in the sunlight.

The guardsmen exchanged grins with each other, and invited him at once to come and share their watch, on the condition that he give them all the news he had and play a little for their entertainment. 

“Shall I not be detaining you from your duties?” Luka asked, glancing up at the Keep as he tethered Sass. “I’ve no wish to get you in trouble, nor be chased away for causing undue distraction.” He winked at the guards, who chuckled. 

“It’s light duty today,” one of them said easily, stretching his legs out in front of him. “Any force large enough to breach it will be seen from the tower long before we spy it from here, and nothing here to tempt anyone except a fine lady who barely even had any baggage. Come and give us the news!” 

It was amazing, Luka reflected to himself as he sat down, opening the bottle and pouring generous measures into the cups they they held out for him, what you could get away with when you carried a lute and some good wine.

“Aye, she was a nice one to look at though,” the second guard observed with a sigh. “I was on duty when they escorted her in this morning. A highborn lady, that, worth her weight I’m sure. Not that the higher ups tell us much.” His companion elbowed him and gave him a dark look, before turning back to waggle bushy eyebrows at Luka. 

“Ye seen many pretty ladies?” he asked, and a smile twitched at Luka’s mouth at the obvious attempt to deflect the conversation. “Bet ye have, a court songbird like you.” 

“Oh, many,” Luka agreed, hiding his distaste at the epithet. Court songbird, indeed. “Duchesses and princesses and high court ladies of every kind, but there is only one lady that holds my heart, no matter how much my eyes may wander.” He winked and the two men guffawed. Luka disguised a roll of his eyes with another deep drink from his cup. He’d been around this type enough to know what kind of humor they enjoyed. Luka turned his eyes up in the direction of the keep, hiding his scrutiny behind a dreamy expression. 

“My lady is as lovely as any princess I’ve ever seen,” Luka continued. “Clumsy, sometimes, but all the more joy in catching her, ey?” Another round of laughter. “She has beautiful dark hair, and the sweetest, most beguiling eyes you’ve ever seen, and her mouth was carved by the gods.” He sighed longingly. “And I’ve been apart from her much too long. I’m on my way back to her now, and I appreciate you sharing your fire with a lonely minstrel.” 

“There, there,” the taller man said, not without genuine sympathy, and patted Luka’s shoulder roughly. “Ye’ll be with her again soon, no doubt.” 

Luka looked toward the Keep gates and smiled as shouts began to rise in the courtyard. “I do believe you’re right,” he said, finishing the last of his cup. “It’s been a pleasure, gentlemen, but my lady awaits. I leave you this medicinal powder and my sincerest apologies for the headache you’re going to have in the mornings.” 

He set a small pouch on the ground, where it would be in plain sight of the men who had just slumped to the ground, unconscious. 

Luka tsked as he picked up their empty cups and examined the residue at the bottom. “More than enough to keep them out most of the day,” he murmured with satisfaction. He leaned back against his pack and waited.

Eventually, the heavy keep doors swung open, and a petite figure in a lovely velvet red dress came striding out. Luka couldn’t help his smile, or the sigh of relief and longing that passed his lips. 

She caught sight of him and scowled, completely ignoring the passed out guards that lay on the ground. 

“What the hell are you doing here?” she demanded. 

“Well met, to you as well, Marinette,” Luka laughed. His roguish smile made a mockery of his courtly bow. 

“Why are you here?” she asked again, crossing her arms. “You were supposed to wait in the capital.”

“I am no court bard, to find inspiration in perfume and flattery and empty love affairs,” Luka sniffed affectedly. “I am a seeker of adventure, and I follow my heart.”

“You dog my heels,” Marinette accused, reaching down to pull out the hidden ribbon she had worked into her gown. The dress split on the sides, and Marinette straightened, rolling the ribbon carefully around her fingers even as she glared at him. “Admit it.”

“Admit that you have my heart? Gladly.” Luka swept a bow, and Marinette rolled her eyes.

“Don’t flatter me,” she snorted. “You’re not any good at it.” 

“Shall I compliment you instead?” Luka asked pointedly, and Marinette blushed, looking away. His compliments were always far worse than his flattery, because he meant them. 

“Don’t change the subject. You were worried about me,” she accused, waving a dagger like an admonitionary finger. “I can handle myself.” 

“You can handle yourself, and me as well,” Luka grinned, and then softened his tone, dropping his courtly pretense. “But I’m always worried about you. That proves nothing except that I care about you.” He held up a furled parchment between them. “However, this is actually why I’m here. I also bring Lady Kagami’s thanks and her appreciation for your very convincing performance of a helpless highborn princess being carried off, although she feels it wasn’t a very accurate imitation of her.” 

Marinette snorted. “Kagami could have easily handled these idiots herself if her mother wasn’t such a stick in the mud. It probably would have been more entertaining for everyone if they had managed to kidnap her.” She sheathed her dagger and took the parchment, unrolling it as she added, “I hope she sent her payment as well as her thanks.” Her lips pursed as she read, and then pushed out in a pout as she looked up at him. “Okay. That’s a good reason.” 

“No point in riding all the way back just to traverse the exact same route again,” Luka agreed. “And since I was coming all this way, why not meet you at the door? I’ve stashed our supplies in a nice little campsite far enough away from this mess,” he gestured at the tower. “We can spend the night and set out in the morning.”

“We?” Marinette asked, eyebrows raising. Luka shrugged.

“I’ve no mind to let you get that far away from me for that long,” he told her, only half joking. “I’m sure there’s a noble house somewhere in the city looking for entertainment, and if not—” Luka shrugged. “Then there’s certain to be a tavern."

Marinette grimaced. “I don’t like it when you play taverns,” she muttered. “You’re far too good for that.”

“We take the pay where it comes,” Luka reminded her, plucking the parchment from her hand and tucking it back in his saddlebag.

“It doesn’t have to come with tavern wenches hanging all over you,” Marinette complained. 

Luka barked a laugh. “The noble ladies are just as bad, only more subtle,” he chuckled, mounting his horse. He extended a hand down to Marinette. “Shall we? I’m sure Tikki’s getting hungry.”  

Marinette looked up at his tall gelding and sighed. “I can get up myself,” she muttered, but she let Luka grip her wrist to give her a little extra boost. She landed across Sass on her belly with a small grunt, and then scrambled into place behind Luka. She could see the curve of his smile just before he faced forward. 

“I’m glad you’re coming with me,” she murmured into his shoulder blades. “And I’ll gut anyone who touches you.”

“My thanks, my gallant lady protector,” Luka said, patting the hands clasped around his waist. “I need fear nothing as long as you are with me, except the hour of parting.”

Marinette huffed, her breath tickling his neck. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

Luka looked over his shoulder and winked. “If my heart grew much fonder of you, you would never be rid of me.” 

Marinette was silent for a moment, and then said, “Maybe I don’t want to be.” She said it very quietly, and held her breath after. Luka’s big hand covered hers again, his thumb caressing the back.

“Then maybe you should say yes the next time I propose,” came the teasing answer, and Marinette’s mouth dropped in outrage. 

“You propose every time we pass a church!” she scoffed. 

“Yes,” Luka agreed shamelessly. “How many churches do you think there are between here and the Jewel of the Southern Wastes ?” 

“Not enough to convince me to marry you,” Marinette shot back. “I like the way things are.” 

"As do I," Luka chuckled.

Marinette sniffed. "I knew you weren't serious."

"Of course I am. I will wed you the moment you say the word. But if you are content, then so am I."

"You're infuriating, you know that?" Marinette huffed. 

“There, there,” Luka laughed, patting her hand before putting his own back on the reins. “We’ve a long way to go to get there, and through some pretty sketchy territory. Maybe if you’re really lucky, we’ll get robbed.”

“You think?” Marinette perked up. “Bandits?”

“Possibly even ruffians ,” Luka teased, and laughed when she smacked his shoulder. 

“Ruffians are always broke,” Marinette complained. “I want bandits. I’m going to have to buy new dresses when we get there, I can’t wear dresses from the Northern court in the South. I’d look ridiculous.” Her eyes widened slightly. “Luka, what did you do with my dresses? You didn’t pack them yourself, did you? They’re much too delicate—”

“I had them professionally packed and sealed and sent to Lady Alya for safekeeping,” Luka reassured her. “I would never dare let harm come to your wardrobe.” 

Marinette slumped in relief. “Oh, good.” After a moment she added, “Thank you.”

Luka lifted one of her hands from his waist and kissed the palm softly. 

[joespit]

The War On Women: as reported by a man on the front-lines. by Joe Spit

Recently I was reading an article about how a woman threw her newborn baby out of a window. Now this woman had not told anyone she was pregnant and when people found out about it she told them it was a still-born and threw it out her 9th story apartment window with its umbilical cord still attached because she didn't know what to do with it. However coroner's found that the baby did indeed die of blunt force trauma from the aforementioned throwing it out a window. That monster how could she do that of all things, is what I'm sure you're thinking because it's what i was thinking, and us, presumably, not being monsters would empathize with the baby, who had hurt no one in its short life.

I'm a father of a beautiful boy who is about to turn two years old in the coming weeks, he is a ray of sunshine in my life and I would do anything for him. He was conceived on accidental circumstances, atop a volcano to a woman I barely knew at the time. but even with the obvious awkwardness of the situation, he was born and he is loved. However his mother and I are not a pair nor did we or will we ever have the feelings for eachother that a stable family would require, but he is alive and he is loved.

More recently, my girlfriend who I've been deeply in love with for the past two years, and who I should mention is on birth control, came home early from a gig she was doing to tell me that she was pregnant. We were overjoyed at first but sooner than we expected all the rational factors of reality set in. How are we going to afford it? if we have this baby I will probably not be able to see my current baby boy for a long while as he lives 2000+ miles away. My girlfriend and I would have to quit pursuing our careers and perhaps have move out of our 2 bedroom apartment as we would not be able to afford it with increased financial stress. I would probably have to work as a burger cook to ensure the steady payment that our lives as artists does not provide. It being 2015 we thought it over rationally and decided to not go through with seeing this embryo to term.

Now this was not an easy decision to make as anyone who has been in this position would know. My girlfriend and I do love each other enormously and what made matters worse is we have talked about having kids in the future together. Time makes fools of us all, however, after much self conflict and many hours of crying our decision resulted in only termination, which is fine it's 2015. That option is readily available and especially in a progressive city like New York City not demonized. Holy shit were we wrong.

My girlfriends general doctor was very unbiased and understanding to our plight and maybe even accepting of our decision, mentioning "you're not killing a baby, at this point it is only cells that have barely multiplied a few times and hasn't entered the uterus". Apparently your doctor cannot prescribe the pill to force a termination. She gave us all the information about it and recommended us two places we could go to to obtain it. One in Jamaica and one in Brooklyn. This was very different from the independant research my girlfriend and I did on our own but, she's a doctor what do we know.

We left the doctor's office at 1pm with the knowledge if we leave now we can get to the 1st recommendation in Jamaica before they close at 2pm, already this was slightly odd but, what do I know I've never even played a doctor on T.V. We zoom over there and the gods of transportation smiled upon us and opened up the traffic like the red sea. We get there in under 35 minutes, well before the 2pm out time. The moment we walk in the people greet us to "no youre looking for labcorp down the street" we think nothing of it and it's a simple mistake because apparently a lot of people go there thinking it's labcorp. after we adamantly show them we are in the right place and looking for our prescribed termination, they tell us "oh, that lady leaves at noon everyday". At this point were flustered but mistakes happen, so off to Brooklyn, and to make sure someone is there we google the address and google tells us it's a planned parenthood and that they're open until 8pm.

On the train ride over we are alight with thought. I start to think this is all a part of a subversive plot, like in Texas where some women have to drive over 200 miles to get to a clinic, hoping they'll reconsider over a long arduous drive. We arrive in Court Square just under an hour later. Inside it says it is a pregnancy center, and they as my girlfriend to fill out a form. It's a fairly standard form but this one has two things that perk our ears. They ask what religion we are, which we are none, but there is no box to heck for that. They also ask how did you hear about us, but it only lists in varying degrees ways in which we googled the place. No mention of a doctor recommendation or anything other than search engines.

When she fills out the form I notice on the coffee table there are strange magazines titled "Girls" and the other "Boys" both with photographic stereotypes about both genders on the covers Girls applying makeup and Boys playing basketball. The headline stories in each magazine is "What girls are really thinking" and the other "What boys are really thinking". It would seem to me if you really want t know the inside scoop just pick up the other magazine. Also on the wall there is a poster with a, let's say unique, arithmetic to count how many people you have actually had sex with. where if you have had one partner then you just slept with one person. it varys its arithmetic until at the bottom is says if you've have sex with 12 people you've actually had sex with 4,029 people. I recognize it as a scare tactic poster and very flawed, because if the person you have sex with is wearing a condom, then you’re having sex with 0 people? But before I can think about what is this doing in a doctor's office, they call my partner for a urine sample and give her a plastic ziploc bag and a dixie cup. I see that and at the very same moment the water cup I am sipping from has the same exact design on it. Even though my partner has all her medical paperwork stating her current health they need us to go through the motions of their very unsanitary medical faux procedure. I know dixie cups aren't sterile, and after she pisses in the Dixie cup, is she supposed to put the unsealable paper cup back in the plastic bag, leaving you with a bag of piss and trash? I've seen homeless people treat their piss better. Now we start to realise this too, like the first recommendation in Jamaica, isn't a doctor's office. but we are trying to go through with our difficult decision so whatever, let's just try and get it over with.

In a moment my partner comes storming out of the back office with a look of angry grief over her face. They were going to force her to watch a video and they were stating that at 4 weeks the embryo already has a heart and head. Us not being retarded knew that isn't right but they insisted, "nope look at the picture", which was a drawing of some kind of chicken lizard with a smile. Little did we know this was a christian run faux planned parenthood. Where they give false hopes and misinformation, while pushing their agenda and not offering the unbiased help you wold expect from any medical professional. In the elevator she tells me how they said they could only give the prescription for termination,which we already had from our doctor, after she watched the video, I doubt they ever help with termination. How my partner didn't smash everything in that place is beyond me. She told me they offered her a job to afford the baby. My partner has a career, and their job would be one of minimum wage somewhere, which as we all know can barely support a single person nonetheless a family. I would stand to bet that the jobs in question don't even offer maternity benefits. The entire staff there were 25 year old and under girls who have never been pregnant. I can only imagine for someone who goes there thinking it's actually planned parenthood and is uneducated and unready for a baby. They kept saying how they would discuss options for you, but it was clear that the only option was their agenda, seeing the embryo to term.

At this point we go to an actual planned parenthood. where we have to go through a metal detector and the guard explicitly ask if we have pepper spray. After talking with the guard and staff we find out that people come there often and try to inflict pain on the people working there. those good christians that just wanna save the lives  of the poor unborn babies, will harm people with no problem. We tell them of the Christian faux planned parenthood and they say "Oh the one across the street?"

This all brings me back to that monster of a mother who threw her baby out a window moments after it was born. She is in jail and will remain there for the next two years, minimum. My partner and i are both college educated and while we were both raised with religion, we have broken away from it entirely as far as doctrines or agendas are concerned, but this monster mom from the Bronx, over the events of the day became so much more human in our eyes. She merely couldn't afford to get an abortion, and while there are 2 actual planned parenthoods in nyc there are over 10 of the pseudo christian run planned parenthoods, where they don't offer options nor even condoms in the one we went to. Only misinformation and guilt trip videos, making a hard decision even harder And this is happening everywhere.

I, as a white male, would never expect that the war on women was going to not only come to my doorstep, but affect me in such a harmful way. The war on women is strong and subversive, so much so, that it has even invaded a bastion of liberalism that is New York City. I don't know if my partner's doctor was in on it. I'm sure they just googled where to go and got caught in phishing net, like so many people who rely on the internet for solid information. It's ludicrous that there only appear to be 2 places serving the entire population of NYC, where a woman can get valuable with out her personal integrity being called into question.  The war on women pushes on far after the baby is born, since there are no state run maternity benefits, no health care for the baby, and the places of business are rare to offer that as well. In my partner's case she is a dancer so she is out of work and her career could very easily be over..

So while the decision was the hardest one we have ever had to make, we made it, but because abortion has become so demonized it is nearly impossible to find the right information to obtain it. Some mothers not knowing what to do throw their babies out the window. While i can't agree with anyone doing that, I can see how a person can be driven to it. Making murders out of women who just wanted not to be in this situation, and offering nothing but deceit and shame, by the grace of God.