#a poll for the Inklings Challenge

[larissa-the-scribe]

Still figuring out all the details (there are various possibilities for each one in how to incorporate space / portals, and I haven't settled on any yet), but I have vague outlines in my head and the different acts of mercy involved (clothe the naked, drink for the thirsty/food for the hungry, bury the dead/visit the sick)

[matrixbearer2024]

Karaoke Cacophony

Vox x CollegeStudent!Reader

A/N: This song is legitimately the reason why I ended up posting the poll that I did lmao- but if you check the lyric translations- it oddly fits the vibe for both Vox and Reader. Though it's only going to embarrass our resident TV man since our dear (Y/N) has absolutely no idea what the song actually means. Just that it sounds nice and it's something they heard over the radio back then when growing up. Vox has a built-in google translate thing so he can understand others better no matter what language, it just so happens that this hits him like a double-edged sword where he has no idea if he would've been better off not understanding the song and just appreciating the melody of your voice. BTW this interlude features an HC I have for Vox where he cooks sometimes because the systematic way it's done helps calm him down, it's inspired by something I read before but yeah- ALSO ALSO- some part kind of features reader being cracked out of their minds with pickup lines I pulled from one of @voxsremotec0ck's posts LMAO.

A/N: Also my cousin has had a HEAVY hand to play in this song choice, though her reasoning was mostly because of Angel's initial comment that watching Vox and Reader's interactions were like seeing a romcom plot unfold live. So why not go a little bit off tangent and relate them to a romantic fairytale? I also may have sorta kinda written a lot of this chapter while I myself was on a hyperactive streak because of some caffeine- Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this interlude and as always- Happy Reading!

After a while and back and forth of those games, you and Vox eventually stopped joining in despite the others still continuing to play.

You and your partner in crime had become preoccupied with laughing at memes or poking fun at whatever stupid trend was currently a fad online.

You were currently leaning against the technology overlord while he had one arm around you, the other using to poke at your phone every now and again.

The two of you were practically cuddling at this point from how close you both were but neither noticed nor even seem to care.

"They have the tidepod challenge too? Geez, people are kind of-"

"Idiotic? Stupid? Batshit crazy?"

"Pretty much."

"This is hell dollface, I'm not sure why you expected any different."

You just casually shrugged in reply, soon laughing at a dumb video you found whilst scrolling.

Vox couldn't help but subtly stare at you, especially when you seemed to be so cheerful just messing around or doing whatever.

Seeing your smile always made his day just a little bit brighter.

"Hey Vox! Stop being absolutely whipped for a second and help me out over here!"

The overlord in question just sputtered in confusion at Lucifer's words.

He wasn't whipped!

He just- admired you a lot.

Even you had raised eyebrows at the odd word choice, whipped- wasn't exactly what you would use to describe your flatscreen companion.

Not when you kind of had an inkling to what it meant.

"What are you even doing??"

Vox called back, finally taking his eyes off you and your phone to just look over in the kitchen's general direction.

Lucifer did mention about making a snack earlier, but why would the king of hell need his help of all people??

What was he planning this time???

"Something! Just get over here!!"

You just gave your companion a shrug when he looked back to you, encouraging him to just go and get it over with.

Besides, you guys could always just continue doing this and messing around when he was finished with... whatever Lucifer needed him for.

Well, that was until your brain immediately stomped on the brakes when you looked at Vox again.

He'd undone his cuffs to roll up the sleeves of his dress shirt to his elbows, revealing some... bare forearms.

Before he just nonchalantly stood up and walked off towards the kitchen when the king of hell called for him again.

He didn't seem to have noticed your shattered mental-

You had dropped your phone at that point, just blinking and spacing out like an idiot before Angel noticed.

"Woaaah, what happened to (Y/N)?"

"Huh, I didn't think we'd ever see them actually speechless."

"Oooh oooh! Does that mean (Y/N) likes bad boys?!"

You shook your head in an attempt to snap out of it but couldn't stop the blush from creeping up your neck.

Oh. My. God.

You were completely in the gutter now-

Similarly to Alastor, you noticed Vox was always wearing long-sleeves or an outfit that concealed any skin at all.

And while it left you wondering what he had to hide, that consequently would lead you to imagine how he'd look like without a shirt on.

Was he just a mess of wires or something?

Did he conceal so much because he was robotic to a degree?

You had no clue how Vox's biology even worked and you didn't know how to ask without sounding weird.

Not to mention how he's able to wear some kinds of shirts given his obnoxiously sized head-

It's just curiosity is all!

You could only slap Angel's hands away when he started cautiously poking you, and you were practically steaming out of your ears from embarrassment.

It wasn't the fact that your flatscreened friend seemed to show some skin that set you off-

It was the fact your brain somehow went autopilot and registered it as HOT.

You were sure Velvette had fashioned him the outfit so it didn't surprise you that Vox looked all dapper and smart.

Dare you even say the fucking TV looked handsome-

You just didn't think he could look any better.

Until he did that.

And consequently nuked the rest of your sanity with it.

"Yep, they're totally broken-"

"Angel shut up before I beat you to death with a pillow I swear to god-"

"Oh good, you're finally reacting toots."

You merely flipped him the bird and just hid your face in your other hand, why was everything in your body trying to go on overdrive?!

"What's got you all blushy anyway? It's like you've just watched a racy porno."

"What?! No! I just- you- I don't even fucking know-"

Angel was about to continue poking at you before Lucifer and Vox finally returned.

Both chatting amiably while holding what seems to be a plate or two of treats and snacks.

So that's where they both went-

And that was when the spider noticed your gaze practically zero in on your techno-centric friend.

Ha, friend-

Yeah nobody in the hotel with half a brain believed that for even a second-

Though there didn't seem to be any differences with Vox-

His outfit was still the same, just his sleeves were...

Oh.

OH.

"WOW TOOTS YOU'RE SUCH A FUCKING PRUDE OH MY GOD-"

You just shrieked incoherently at Angel and started whacking him with a couch cushion while everyone else kind of just watched you both confused.

Not to mention that you were pretty much a tomato from how red you've become.

The arachnid couldn't stop himself from just devolving into a loud laughing fit.

You had completely lost it because of some forearms, he could only imagine what your reaction would be if a certain technology overlord decided to undo some shirt buttons.

You'd probably just die on the spot!

"Uh... what happened?"

"No idea, but it sure as hell is entertaining."

By the time you were able to relatively calm down, you were still red when Vox just sat down next to you again.

"Soooo, any reason for trying to murder Angel with a pillow?"

"None that concerns you."

"Oh come on, it's gotta be something crazy if you don't tell even me."

You just adamantly shake your head and refuse to say anything no matter what Vox tried.

It was kind of cute seeing you try so hard, despite the fact the overlord knew he could always just ask the others about it later.

He didn't think it was anything too big, after all you would embarrassed by a lot of random things.

So he didn't even bother guessing at this point.

"What did you and Lucifer make anyway?"

"Hm? Chocolate strawberries, do you want some?"

"Seriously? That's what he needed help with?"

"I'm just as confused as you are doll, anyway- open your mouth."

Vox just chuckles when you shyly follow his instructions, forcing himself to look away before grabbing one of the strawberries and placing it into your mouth.

He'd be lying if he said the way you looked didn't give him other ideas.

You seeming insanely kissable being just one of them.

While the overlord knew making the treat consumed more time than just going out and probably buying it-

Seeing your eyes sparkle when you bit down made him consider that it was a little more worth it to put in that extra homemade touch.

"Didn't pin you for a guy that could cook."

You remarked, taking the plate from him and just eagerly chowing down.

Vox just chuckled, watching you so happily munch away.

You were just really cute in your own little way, not that he would ever say so.

Especially when you seemed so pleased at just such a simple snack.

"I'm not surprised, I don't exactly... have that vibe? I can cook though, it's something I do on the off chance to calm down."

"And still you eat that McDonald's garbage-"

"It's not garbage! I'm just too busy to actually cook sometimes! Running a media empire isn't easy dollface."

"The next time you do cook, I wanna try your food."

"Hm? What makes you say that?"

"Dunno, just wanna try it."

The overlord simply raised an eyebrow at you, though he didn't seem to mind your words much.

And as you scarfed down on the strawberries, he noticed a smear of chocolate streaking across your cheek.

How it got there- Vox wasn't entirely sure.

Possibly from your enthusiastic eating but he didn't really care enough at the moment to find out.

"Wait, you've got some chocolate on your face."

You looked at your companion with wide eyes when he gingerly raised a hand to wipe at your face.

The way his gaze was both calm and focused at you made your heart skip a beat.

The plate of treats in front of you now mostly forgotten.

"There. Didn't think you'd be such a messy eater doll."

He didn't seem to notice your mind kind of stall, picking up a chocolate strawberry himself to eat it.

It was a little too sweet for his taste, which was odd considering his already innate knack for deserts.

You seemed to like it though, so he didn't say anything.

And that was when Vox also noticed your more than obvious staring.

You weren't even trying to hide it were you?

Admittedly, the overlord got a little embarrassed because of it.

"Take a picture darling, it'll last longer."

"Nah, I think I would much rather look at the real thing. A picture can only do so much."

You smirked when you saw his screen proceed to tinge pink, especially when you heard his fans kick to life.

He never could get the upper hand with you, which was hilariously cute in it's own way.

It didn't take long for you to eventually get used to Vox's charm over the while you've known him.

Even if at times it would strike you when you least expected it.

You simply went back to snacking contentedly.

After a short while, all the treats were gone and you were practically bouncing off the walls with energy.

So what did you do with that sugar rush?

Absolutely torment and flirt the life out of Vox.

Slamming pickup line after pickup line into his already preoccupied mind space.

Well it was preoccupied with you to begin with but let's not mention that-

"Hey Vox- Hey Vox- Hey Vox-"

"What is it dollface?"

"Do you have a bandaid?"

"No...? Why?"

"Because I think I scraped my knee falling for you!"

He buffered a little bit but just played off being flustered with a scoff.

The rest of the hotel crew were not so subtly watching all of this go down just waiting for your overlord friend to crack.

Angel and Husker already made bets on how fast he would go down glitching -

"That was horrible."

"Nah nah nah wait I got another one-"

The overlord didn't really mind it at first, aside from the fact he was a little surprised.

Until the point it got so stupidly suggestive and then he actually had trouble dealing with the provocative ideas he got from you.

"You know, I'm just gonna start calling you my big toe."

"Your... what??"

"My big toe, so I can bang you all over the place."

The overlord had to actually ignore the snickering and hushed laughter from your spectators, why were you doing this to him of all people?!

Though as horrible as the pickup lines were, Vox would be lying if he said they weren't hitting their mark.

He was just... a little better at hiding it.

And that wasn't even the end of your tomfoolery-

Actually far from it.

Vox made a mental note to watch out for your sugar rush episodes from this point onwards.

You weren't ever this bad from what he could remember either-

Well, you would just blitz through nearly everything during a hyperactive episode before the impending sugar crash.

But never tried to flirt the socks off him!

"Are you a fitted sheet?"

"A fitted sheet? What's that got to do with-"

"Cuz you're complicated as fuck but I still need you spread across my bed."

Vox stared at you wide-eyed for a whole ass second-

Before his screen predictably started showing errors and he glitched uncontrollably.

Angel just keeled over from laughter at that point when the overlord's face went absolutely haywire.

He didn't quite bluescreen, but his screen did buffer and spazz a whole lot for a minute or so.

To which you just celebrated and cheered.

"HELL YEAAAAH! I BROKE HIM IN FIVE FUCKING SECONDS!"

That just made your arachnid friend laugh even harder.

You were an unbridled chaotic ball of energy hyped up on sugar-

But Charlie- being Charlie-

Felt a little bad for Vox being the target of your madness- and stepped in and try to direct your hyperactivity elsewhere.

However, because she had done it on a whim- she actually had no ideas what to do with you.

So she just randomly suggested karaoke.

Which seemed to get your attention anyway.

When Vox finally came crashing back into reality, he was surprised to see both you and Lucifer just tormenting a very staticky and clearly very irritated Alastor.

"YOU'RE A LOOOOSER BAMBI- A LOOOOSER-"

What even was that song?

"Huh, you were out for a while."

"What- did I miss something?? What happened?"

"Your hyperactive lover just being a menace to Alastor, other than that nothing much."

"They're not my-"

"Yeah yeah, keep telling yourself that."

Vox doesn't even have the opportunity to fully retort before you suddenly ran over to him with a grin.

Apparently you noticed he was fine again-

This time he was just the slightest bit worried.

You were literally shaking from the sugar rush- oh goodness-

"Oh good you're awake! I wanted to show you something!"

Vox didn't have the option to refuse when you just dragged him over to the couch and plopped him down next to everyone else.

"Okay okay! There's this song I used to listen to because I loved the melody and how nice it sounded but I actually have no idea what it means because it's not in English and-"

Safe to say the overlord spaced out during your rambling, only picking up the important bits of your spiel.

Which TL;DR, was just that you had a song you wanted to sing but didn't actually understand.

He only snapped out of his trance when he finally heard your voice slow down to the soft piano melody.

Well, the words you were saying definitely weren't in English-

So Vox secretly decided to translate what you were saying.

Having the internet being an extension of his conscious mind was a little bit of advantage here.

Then he figured out what the lyrics were.

And almost crashed again.

"I've forgotten how long it's been since I heard you telling me, your favorite story~"

He didn't really know whether his curiosity was a good or bad thing here.

Especially when it hit him that this was a love song.

The overlord was absolutely not prepared for this at all.

"I have been thinking for a long time, I started to panic."

Sure, the lyrics weren't exactly a fit to you-

But for him?

Especially when you had still been alive?

A 100% coincidental match.

Or he thinks it's mere coincidence.

"Have I done something wrong~?"

Oh god no do not look at him like that-

Nope nope nope nope-

It took every ounce of control for Vox to just not crash again right then and there.

"You said to me full of tears: 'Fairy tales are all lies.'"

You'd memorized the song, so it made sense that you didn't need to look at the lyrics to sing.

But could you seriously stop looking at him so fondly?

You didn't even know the words you were saying, this was so unfair.

"I couldn't possibly be your prince."

That just made him think back on all the past times he was trying to be... "friendly".

Well, almost borderline romantic even when he was willing to throw down nearly everything for your sake if you so much as asked.

Not that you noticed, Vox doubted you ever would even if it slapped you in the face.

"Perhaps you won't understand- ever since you said you loved me!"

Angel just smirked when he heard the signature whirring of computer fans.

Though he wasn't sure if it was because the overlord got flustered from your singing or because he understood.

Well, it wasn't his problem-

Because it was downright hilarious how insanely oblivious you were.

"The stars in my sky shine brightly!"

Where you were concerned, that was always the case.

Not at the start of course-

But it became adamantly clear when Vox found himself eager to see what kind of chaos you would stir up next.

"I'm willing to become the angel of the fairytale that you love-"

You extended your hand out to him, a silent invite to the tech overlord asking to dance.

He chuckled and smiled at you.

Of course he'd take up that offer.

"Spread up my hands that become wings to protect you~"

The two of you just swayed and danced around to the melody, becoming engrossed once more in your own little world.

You didn't even know what you were singing, but judging by the fond look Vox had directed at you-

It seemed he was enjoying it.

So you continued to indulge him.

"You have to believe, believe that we can be like in the fairy tale!"

You blushed a little bit when he'd twirled you around, after all-

You'd never really danced like this before.

It was like a... different kind of waltz.

Still, it made you feel so dainty.

His gaze just made you feel like the most beautiful thing in the world.

"Happy and joyful in the ending~"

The rest of your friends were amused seeing the two of you pretty much being the plot to a convoluted romcom.

Especially when they realized you and Vox kind of forgot they were actually there.

Charlie thought your relationship was endearingly cute-

Vaggie just reacted like her theory had been entirely confirmed.

Alastor felt like it was kinda disgusting-

And Lucifer nearly decked him for trying to ruin your moment.

Angel, Husker and Nifty were busy placing bets on who between the either of you would confess to the other first.

Though by the time the song ended, everyone couldn't help but groan or facepalm.

"Soooo- how'd I do?"

"It's okay, I'd say there's still room for lots of improvement."

"Oh fuck you Vox-"

"Like you'd ever actually go through with that."

"HA- don't try me you slutty-waisted lanky TV-"

"I've been called worse by better, get creative!"

You were both fucking idiots.

And at this point-

It was like your romantic dance hadn't even happened at all.

[aquagirl1978]

IKEMEN PRINCE HEADCANONS - SUITOR'S REACTIONS TO RECEIVING A VALENTINE'S DAY GIFT (Chevalier, Clavis, Gilbert)

Thank you for voting in the poll for the Valentine's Day Headcanons - these three suitors received the most votes.

Chevalier Michel

What do you get for a man who values worth over physical items, a man who sees no need or want for "gifts"?

You drove yourself mad with worry, turning these questions over and over in your head. Until, that is, when an idea popped into your mind.

Immediately, you went to Sariel with your idea to see if this was even possible. For your idea was a grand gesture; this was no mere token of affection.

Sariel agreed that it was a splendid idea, surely a surprise for the King of Rhodolite.

"I'll do my part here to help keep him occupied inside the palace," Sariel informed you. it helped to have the Palace's Devil on your side for this task.

It was surely a challenge to keep Chevalier away from your surprise. True to his word, Sariel did all he could to busy the King with paperwork and meetings.

But that did nothing to help in the evenings when Chevalier was ready to stretch his legs.

"What do you mean, we can't go in the rose garden?" he asked one evening.

Stammering, your mind searched for an excuse. "Er, it was raining earlier and the grounds are all wet."

"I was near a window all day and saw no rain."

Sighing, you quickly thought of something else. "Clavis set a trap out there, we should really go back to your library."

Chevalier narrowed his eyes at you. He had an inkling something was up, but wished to avoid any potential traps. And not spoil whatever it was you were plotting.

After that first time, however, Chevalier did not ask to go to the gardens, instead allowing you to guide him back to the library or his bedroom.

Until one night, when you suggested you head to the gardens.

Chevalier looked at your curiously. "The gardens? Are you sure there are no hidden traps?" he asked with a laugh.

Smiling, you slipped your hand through his bent arm. "No, I think it's all clear out there today."

He led you through a maze of familiar hallways until you reached the doors leading to the gardens.

"I assume you're aware what today is." Your voice was quiet, almost hesitant as you looked at him.

"Indeed. It's that ridiculous holiday that couples choose to celebrate their love for one another." Chevalier couldn't understand why there was one day dedicated to celebrating one's love for another; this is something that should be conveyed any day, every day.

Smiling, glad he remembered, you tugged on his arm, leading him towards the gazebo where he liked to read.

Chevalier raised a brow at you when you stopped right before the gazebo. There was more flowers than usual - dahlias and tulips in shades of pink, complimenting the roses that lined the gazebo. There was a new stone walkway leading to the seating area that was now furnished with plush pillows.

Amongst the new flowers, there was a small plaque, raised on a stake, your gaze was fixed on.

"The King's Garden," he read aloud, his fingers tracing the elegant raised letters. "This garden was planted for the King on Valentine's Day by...." His voice trailed off as he turned his gaze to you.

Your firsts clenched, fidgeting with the skirt of your dress, you averted your gaze. "I wanted to give you something that wasn't ephemeral. Somewhere you could go to everyday. Something that would live on, something future generations could enjoy."

"You forgot one thing, simpleton," he said, tilting your chin up with his thumb. Worried he didn't care for your gift, you looked up at him with wide eyes, hoping for acceptance. "There's no mention of the queen on this plaque."

Blushing, you were surprised by his question. "That's because I'm not the queen," you replied matter-of-factly.

"Yet," he said softly, kissing the top of your head. "You're not the queen yet."

Clavis Lelouch

"Oh my, it's horrifying!" Yves shrieked as he stepped away from the table.

"It looks just like his creations, it's scary," Jin observed as he peered at your masterpiece. "It's amazing, you nailed all of the details - the lopsided eyes, the weird ears. To think, it's all made of chocolate."

Jin reached out, ready to steal a piece to satisfy his sweet tooth.

"That's for Clavis!" you exclaimed, swatting his hand away before he could ruin your creation.

"What's for Clavis?" a familiar voice asked.

You spun in your spot, shifting to hide what was on the table. "Um, it's nothing."

Clavis tilted his head, trying to peer behind you. "It doesn't look like nothing." He took a step closer to you, trying to get a better look, but you kept moving, blocking his view.

"I think it's time we head back to the office," Jin announced, hinting to Yves that it was time to go.

"Good," Yves said as he followed Jin. "That thing was looking at me, and I didn't like it."

"Now what was my little brother talking about just now." Clavis stood right in front of you, his amber eyes holding your gaze, as he cupped your cheek in his hand.

Sighing, you stepped away, revealing the creation you were hiding.

Clavis sighed, clearly in awe of what he was witnessing. "It's....it's my bunny cake I make for you. But it's -"

"Completely made in chocolate," you said. "I had heard that chocolate is the traditional Valentine's Day gift, and I -"

"Recreated my masterpiece..." Clavis leaned in, gazing adoringly at the strange bunny cake.

"Shall we eat it?" His golden eyes gleamed with excitement.

"Yes!" you replied, curious to try what you made.

Clavis lifted you in his arms, placing you on the edge of the table.

"It's such a shame to destroy it like this, but then, it would be a shame not to eat it." He broke off one of the bunny's ear; bringing it to your lips, he offered it to you for a nibble.

The chocolate was sweet on your lips; smooth and creamy, it melted on your tongue.

"How is it?" he asked, anticipation alight in his amber eyes.

"So good, so very good." Your eyes drifted closed as you savored the sweetness of the chocolate.

You broke off the other bunny ear, offering it to Clavis to try.

He wrapped his hand around your wrist, as if he was going to guide your hand to his mouth. But instead, he moved your hand away to the side and kissed you, his tongue sweeping your lips, tasting the sweetness for himself.

"You're right, it's delicious."

Gilbert von Obsidian

You were so immersed in your own little world, humming to yourself as you prepared the raisin cakes that you didn't even hear him walk into the kitchen.

His footsteps were soft as he approached you. Without his cane, you didn't hear the tell-tale tapping sound as he stepped behind you.

He caught you by surprise, his arms reaching around your waist.

Without his fur cloak dampening his chill, his body was cooler than usual, his broad chest pressing against your back, his arms firm against your waist.

"You didn't tell me you were baking," he whispered in your ear, nipping the rim of your ear.

"It was supposed to be a surprise," you chided him as you continued to assemble to cakes.

He brushed your hair to one side of your shoulder, his gloveless finger ice-cold on your skin as he traced the ribbon your wore around your neck hiding the love bites he left on your neck last night.

Gently pushing the ribbon down, he found an expanse of unmarked skin. Dipping his head, he left sucking kisses on your neck, before clamping his mouth on your pulse point as he left another mark on your delicate skin.

Placing soothing kisses on your skin, he replaced your ribbon, covering the pale pink blossoms on your neck.

Gilbert rested his head on your should as he watched you prepare the raisin treats he once made for you.

Wordlessly, he placed his hand on yours, guiding your hand as you made his favorite treat, enjoying how your warm hand felt in his.

"Happy Valentine's Day." Twisting in his arms to face him, you held a cake to his lips, letting him have the first bite. "I tried to recreate your recipe from scratch..."

Gilbert bit into the cake; it was everything he remembered them tasting like. Maybe even more. Because they were made by you. Made with love.

"Happy Valentine's Day," he said before biting the tip of your finger.

[thebahwrites]

Based on @beezelarts ‘Hangman may be mildly Dyslexic’ hc poll and @reiverreturns ‘Hangman is a dyslexic menace so that’s where the callsign comes from’ hc

TRYST TRUCK TRUST

“I ain’t stupid.” 

It takes Javy a moment to understand what the blond boy is saying, as they’re sitting across from each other in the boy’s bedroom. He honestly hadn’t thought much when the indication of tutoring a Seresin kid came along — it was good money, he wasn’t so sure if it’d be easy but at the very least, worth the shot. 

“Sorry?” He asks with a slow blink, staring back at Jake. High School Football Team Captain Quarterback Texan All American Boy Extraordinaire Jake Seresin, in all of his blond golden boy glory, green eyed and sitting there in his F-18 Hornet Schematics t-shirt with thick rimmed black glasses that looked a little like he was one of those stereotypical popular kids trying to look the part of a nerd cosplay.

Not like it bothered Javy, he’d been on the team just two years ago, too. The two of them weren’t so removed from each other’s timelines, Jake just happened to be a  Sophomore where Javy had just graduated. 

“I ain’t stupid.” Jake repeats himself and frustration is almost palpable in the words; they’ve been there for an hour already while Javy was going over the guy’s assignments and grades to try and see what exactly he’d been struggling with. It was all a mismatched collection of A pluses, C minuses and F’s that honestly made no sense for a guy with all the money in the world. 

“Yeah, I hear you.” Javy confirms with a nod before Jake repeats himself, he can see the mixed feelings bubbling under the boy’s surface. Picking up on his assignments, then carding through the other subject’s folders; math and science and physics, Seresin was killing it but apparently not where reading was concerned. “I don’t think you are.” There’s an inkling to him that makes Javy think the blond might have heard he was stupid at least a few good times, enough to internalize it. 

“Okay, good.” Jake’s answer is closed off, cagey, giving off the energy of someone who’s trying so hard to save face while also self-doubting like mad. Now, Javy had come here to teach a rich brat he assumed was just fucking around during classes and leave; he wasn’t expecting to find a guy who was genuinely trying and failing. 

“...do me a favor and read this passage for me.” He points out at one of the reading assignments reports, handing it over to the guy, Jake nods. And then he takes precisely five minutes (Javy checks on his watch) until he clears his throat. “Out loud, please.”

Green eyes stare back, blinking in quick succession before he spots a tinge on pink at the tips of the boy’s ears, obviously ashamed even though he tries not to look startled. “Oh, right, sorry.” Noted, clear instructions. 

It takes another minute for Jake to pick up and read the passage, hesitantly.  “I love your daughter fondly, dearly, disin– disin– disinterd– fuck!” It’s almost like watching someone repeatedly run into a wall they can’t walk past and Javy feels bad, so he reaches forward to cover the passage, eyes keeping on Jake’s face, checking for changes.

“Disinterestedly.” He offers, calmly, trying not to sound patronizing and somehow wary the guy would simply throw a tantrum or something if he did so. 

“Disinterestedly.” Jake repeats, half annoyed, eyebrow lifted in a mild challenge as if inviting Javy to mock him back. Instead, Javy gives the blond boy a long, puzzled look, letting the gears inside his own brain turn before he speaks again. 

“I’m not–”

“Stupid, I know, I seriously don’t think you are.” Javy almost rushes to say because he can see the way Jake is chewing the inside of his own mouth. “So...trust me to help you?”

Jake stares back. Javy stares back.

“Yeah, alright.”

[taleweaver-ramblings]

2023 Tumblr Top 10

1. 2,160 notes - Apr 14 2023

My turn to make a hyperspecific poll

2. 194 notes - Jan 17 2023

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I was tagged by @cat-dragoness, but the reblog chain was getting long, so new post! Last song: I haven't actually listened to...

4. 103 notes - May 5 2023

5. 90 notes - Oct 21 2023

Inklings Challenge 2023: The Last Immortal of Evitra

6. 79 notes - May 25 2023

The problem with cooking is that, 50% of the time, when I'm in a position where I'm the one cooking, I have a very specific idea...

7. 65 notes - Oct 12 2023

Prayer request: please pray for my grandpa. He's having open-heart surgery tomorrow, and he has two other hospital-worthy health...

8. 64 notes - Sep 26 2023

9. 49 notes - Jun 16 2023

My sister and I are having a disagreement, and I am feeling petty, so I am summoning Tumblr to help settle this question. Is...

10. 34 notes - Dec 25 2023

Merry Christmas, y'all! I hope your day is full of joy and good things! ✨For unto you is born this day in the city of David a...

Created by TumblrTop10

[rowenabean]

so poll: how confusing would it be to change the name of one of my inklings challenge story characters now? I was never really fond of her name and I've suddenly stumbled on a name that feels much more like her, but I've already published half of it...

[lily-blue-blue-lily]

oh 911 hot takes poll, i loved yours!! what price do i get when i agree with all of your hot takes? the only thing that i am mostly neutral about is henren being the best ship, but that's mostly because i enjoy it the same way i enjoy bathena and madney. they're all cute, but not ships i actively ship if that makes sense?

i think there should be more talk about bobby literally lying his way into the position of captain of the 118 and not only facing zero tangible consequences for his actions but also being allowed to keep the fucking job lmfao. y'all be hating on female characters who are career-focused for personal reasons (cough taylor cough) but when it's a white dude, it's because he's such a poor misunderstood soul boohoo <3 the double standards make me sick <3

buck filing the lawsuit had a point, he literally won the case. like, in canon, the show canonized that buck was in the right. buck's doctor had approved him to go back to firefighting so bobby had no legal ground or evidence to just forbid him to come back. an "inkling" or "feeling" is not a reason for an employer to do that? idk why people were pissed at buck for going the legal route – we have unions because of employers frequently use their power to push you out of your job and shit whenever it suits them. bobby is not buck's doctor nor therapist, so why does anyone think that he can just do that? maybe it's an american thing idk about lmao. buck obtaining millions of dollars as damages said enough, and i need people to swallow that pill.

bless, i am not alone in thinking that eddie was (and obv the buddie shippers were) clearly being kind of an ass to ana! people were at her throat for calling him "edmundo" of all things, as if he cannot speak up for himself or isn't allowed to like his first name lmao. how ana was demonized and eddie was babyfied by the fandom is my villain origin story. on that note, i also must point out that the only reason eddie did not face a trial or any other severe consequences after beating up a man is because that man just conveniently dropped the case. could have easily lost custody over chris because of that, but sure, ana was the disrespectful toxic troublemaker. double standard rgrgrgrgrg

also taylor and bucktaylor my beloved <3 the end of the relationship was so abrupt but what else is new with the wonky 911 writing. i still love her, i love that she is clearly thriving after the breakup, and i think the ship could have been developed instead of broken up tbh. their different values were interesting and challenging, finally somebody who did not appear to only play the role of "buck's girlfriend who must agree with everything". i get the breakup, but taylor was willing to change to make things work, so like, big missed chance imo. i'll keep enjoying them in my heart tho <3

omg thanks for typing all this out and validating my opinions haha! its like we share a mind!

honestly i dont have much to add to this, you summed up a lot of my thoughts so well!

in terms of the lawsuit stuff, i dont necessarily completely agree with buck filing the lawsuit, like i get why the others were mad, but i do think that bobbys reaction to it was not great, plus like buck did have a point, he wouldn't have won otherwise and also i think there was a double standard, like other characters who got injured (like when chimney got the freaking rebar through his skull!!) came back to work pretty quick with no issue, but for some reason its different for buck?

my biggest issue with the 911 fandom is how any love interest buck and eddie have are treated. like, dont get me wrong, i love buck and eddie and i do ship them, but also the way fans treat the female characters is gross. i love taylor, like shes not perfect and im not saying she did nothing wrong, but also every other character in the show has fucked up on multiple occasions yet they arent treated with the same hatred she is, i truly dont get it! i do think it was right for her and buck to break up at the point they did, but for the majority of their relationship i did really like them as a couple!

im not gonna go into any more detail here cos this post is becoming insanely long and i have so many thoughts, but like, anon, you get it. thank you!

[pdad58]

A Passover Unlike Any Other

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the Jewish holiday that begins next week will be celebrated in new ways—and gain new meanings.

ILLUSTRATION: RUTH GWILY

By Adam Kirsch

Updated April 3, 2020 12:25 pm ET

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How is this night different from all other nights? That question, which Jews ask every year as part of the Passover celebration, will get a new answer in 2020. When the holiday begins on Wednesday night, for many Jews it will be the first time in their lives that they cannot attend a Seder—the ritual meal that commemorates the Israelites’ journey from slavery in Egypt to freedom in their Promised Land.

According to a 2013 Pew Research Center poll, the Seder is the most widely practiced Jewish tradition in the U.S.: Only 23% of American Jews regularly attend a synagogue, but 70% go to a Seder. In the age of Covid-19, however, bringing together old and young people in a small space to share food is simply too dangerous. In Israel, where all gatherings of more than 10 people have been banned, the Health Ministry has urged Jews to limit their Seders to their nuclear family. Chabad, the international Jewish outreach organization, has posted a list of frequently asked questions on its website, including “Can I at least invite my neighbors?” The answer is “no, no and no!”

This advice is in keeping with the traditional Jewish principle that the preservation of life overrides almost any other duty. And a Seder is a religious duty, not just a chance to see extended family and enjoy holiday dishes.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

How will you celebrate Passover this year? Join the conversation below.

Seder means “order” in Hebrew, and it involves an ordered series of ritual actions, prayers, songs and stories—15 steps in all, which are recorded in the Haggada, the Passover prayer book. The core of the Seder is a long script, usually recited by the guests in turn, which narrates the Exodus and draws out its meaning. One reason why Passover is the quintessential Jewish holiday is that you celebrate it by talking about it. As the Haggada says, “everyone who discusses the exodus from Egypt at length is praiseworthy.”

In fact, the Bible implies that while the purpose of Passover is to remember the exodus, the exodus took place in part so that Jews could celebrate Passover. “And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever,” God tells Moses and Aaron in Exodus 12, on the eve of the Israelites’ flight from Egypt. That Biblical passage is the origin of Passover practices that Jews still follow today—such as eating matzo, unleavened bread, in memory of the Israelites who had to flee before their dough had a chance to rise. 

Over the last 2,000 years, Jews have managed to celebrate Passover in the face of far worse challenges than Covid-19.

Over the last 2,000 years, Jews have managed to celebrate Passover in the face of far worse challenges than Covid-19. In the year 70, the ancient historian Josephus reports, the Roman general Titus besieged Jerusalem three days before Passover, at a time when the city’s population was swelled by the vast numbers of pilgrims who came to offer a Passover sacrifice in the Temple. The result was pestilence—or as we would now say, an epidemic—and famine, which according to Josephus’s estimate killed 1.1 million people. Yet the holiday went on—as it did even in Auschwitz during World War II, where some survivors recalled clandestine Seders conducted without a Haggada.

By comparison, the Passover obstacles of 2020 seem minor. The internet is already full of guides for conducting a virtual Seder, in which guests can read and pray together while eating separately. Orthodox Jews ordinarily don’t use electronic devices on holidays, but this year may be different. Last week, 14 rabbinic authorities in Israel issued a statement permitting the use of Zoom or Skype to connect people during the Seder, provided that the app is turned on before the holiday begins and not turned off until it ends. Other rabbis disagreed, however, and practice will probably vary from household to household.

ILLUSTRATION: RUTH GWILY

However people connect on Passover this year, they will likely find new resonances in the Seder. Everyone is thinking about the importance of handwashing these days, as a way to prevent transmission of the coronavirus, but washing your hands has been one of the first steps in the Seder for many centuries, as a preliminary to handling food. One Passover meme making the rounds lately rewrites the order of the Seder so that instead of handwashing occurring once, it’s repeated between every stage of the meal.

Covid-19 also gives new concreteness to the section of the Seder dealing with the ten plagues. The Book of Exodus relates that, in order to convince the Pharaoh to “let my people go,” God sent Egypt a series of afflictions: water turned to blood, the land was inundated by frogs and locusts, cattle were killed by disease, day turned to night. Yet each time Pharaoh refused to relent, until the worst plague of all, when every firstborn child in Egypt died on the same night. In this way God requited the genocidal decree of Pharaoh, who had ordered all Israelite boys to be killed at birth.

But the Israelites were spared, since God had sent them into a kind of quarantine: “None of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning,” he instructed Moses and Aaron. The name of the holiday commemorates this event, as the Haggada explains: “It is a Passover offering to the Lord, because He passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians with a plague, and He saved our houses.”

MORE IN IDEAS

A Passover Unlike Any Other April 3, 2020 

The Science of Staying Connected April 2, 2020

Amy Compton-Phillips: A New Frontier for Medical Technology March 28, 2020 

W. Bradford Wilcox: Marriage With Family at Its Center March 28, 2020 

For most people alive today, the idea of a plague that strikes a whole nation—so that “there was not a house where there was not one dead,” as the Bible says—was until recently hard to imagine. Covid-19 is nowhere near that deadly, but it has given us an inkling of the fear of and vulnerability to disease that all human societies lived with until the 20th century. For the Jews of Europe, times of plague were doubly dangerous, since they were often blamed by their Christian neighbors. During the Black Death of 1348, hundreds of Jewish communities in Western Europe were attacked, despite the intervention of Pope Clement VI, who pointed out that Jews were dying from the plague just like everyone else.

The Seder acknowledges the horror of such afflictions with a distinctive ritual. When it comes time to recite the ten plagues, participants remove a drop of wine from their cups after each plague is named, either with a finger or by spilling it. The customary explanation for this practice is that it’s a way of symbolically decreasing the joy of the celebration, in acknowledgment of the suffering of the Egyptians. In the words of the Talmud, God “doesn’t rejoice over the downfall of the wicked.”

Throughout the Seder, in fact, joy and sadness are inseparable. Modern scholars have argued that the Seder is modeled on the ancient Greek symposium, a drinking party in which men would talk, joke and listen to music while reclining on couches. On Passover, likewise, Jews are supposed to drink four cups of wine and recline at leisure (a practice seldom followed today, when people are more used to sitting upright at a table). These are ways of demonstrating that Jews are no longer slaves, as in Egypt, but free people.

At the same time, one of the key ingredients of the Passover meal is bitter herbs—often represented on modern American plates by horseradish—which is eaten as a reminder of the bitterness of the lives of the Israelite slaves. Another dish, charoset, a paste made of fruit and nuts, is meant to resemble the clay used by those slaves to make bricks; and matzo is referred to in the Haggada as “the bread of affliction.” This year, for Jews separated from loved ones in the shadow of a pandemic, the chastened happiness of Passover will have a new meaning and relevance.

[allisonreader]

Because I was curious about how many books I did read after seeing that poll going around. A rough estimate is 30. I'm sure that I'm missing a few, but it's 30 for sure. Not including any fanfiction or Inklings Challenge stories. This is strictly reading either e-books or physical books. Because otherwise it would would be more.

[larissa-the-scribe]

Updates

Y'know, it's funny, I somehow had this idea that "yeah, I will post regularly during NaNoWriMo, I'm going to have plenty of material to mess with." And yet, lo and behold, here we are and I am not really surprised.

So, uh, updates!

I did not end up doing all of Inktober, but I will be posting the drawings that I did end up doing.

I finished writing the first draft for my Inkling's Challenge story, Terrarium Lights! It turned out a bit longer than I anticipated, but I'm pretty happy with how it developed and worked. It still needs editing as I prepare to share it, but the next update will be coming soon.

Besides that, I am working on my next Inkling's Challenge idea, which won second place in the poll (water fae and his dragon end up in Western times). I am having a lot of fun with this reverse portal fantasy idea... and also a lot of questions, so, I am landed in the trenches of research and worldbuilding. I am having fun with it, though. 

The premise has been expanded to include the rules-concerned Scottish fae "child" ending up not just in the Wild West, but running around in an outlaw's gang after he accidentally interferes with a train robbery. I am also toying with the idea of it being entirely "outsider PoV" for extra shenanigans.

Otherwise, some ideas in the works for more writing "career" things, but nothing solid yet.

And that's all for this week's news.

A late Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

[robert-c]

What Should Be Illegal?

For most of human history there have been two sources for what was defined as illegal or prohibited behavior – religion and political power; and often the combination of the two. Whoever is in control obviously wants to stay in control so anything that threatens their power is going to be illegal. Religions can come up with a wide array of things to prohibit; some just to be different and distinctive, some to prove their power (there’s little proof of power in telling people not to do something no one wants to do in the first place), and even some because it makes sense. But this last is never the reason given – because it must be about “because I say so” (where “I” is the priest or other spokesperson for “God”, “Creator”, or whatever).

With this sort of history it is easy to see how we can get misled into believing that there needs to be an “official” (or even “unofficial”) religion of a country. At the risk of offending, let’s just say that believing “God” (by whatever name) is the source of all moral conduct codes is a cop out, an excuse for not thinking these things out on our own. That’s not to say there is no such thing as a divine being, just that ascribing the source of moral conduct for a whole society to a being one must accept on faith is really just accepting the dictates of someone who has successfully convinced you that they are the spokesperson for this ethereal being. Tying right in with the desire for simple certainty, it is easy to buy into this idea. But it doesn’t do much to develop a society that preserves the right of each person to believe as their own conscience dictates.

It’s true that most previous societies have been organized around a common religious or cultural set of beliefs, and it is also true that model has produced most of the oppression and warfare in human history. Surely there is a better way for us to live together.

A society that seeks to make possible the widest range of personal freedom of belief must limit prohibited behavior to the minimum necessary for a society to function. While the concept seems simple, the application can get complicated as the personal beliefs of some inevitably cannot imagine a world in which “x” is not prohibited. Nevertheless, a decent foundation was laid with the ideas that depriving someone of life, liberty or property without the due process of law was wrong and should be illegal. The Founding Fathers of the United States may not have fully understood the ramifications of what they were setting up by forbidding the establishment of a ‘state religion’; but most great ideas end up being grander than their creators ever imagined.

This whole idea that if we believe something we must impose it on others, has a very long history, probably as long as humans even imagined that there was anything “divine” at all. Without getting too far into a history lesson, it wasn’t until Judaism (and later Christianity) came into contact with a wider world that it really became an issue. Most of the so-called pagan religions offered myths about the creation and nature of the world, and little in the way of commandments on moral behavior. The biggest requirement of most of these other religions was providing sacrifices and donations to the priests of the various deities. So when one people with different gods took over another people they insisted that their gods get the sacrifices and the offerings. Many might regard this as a simple racket to get a free ride in society, not perhaps dissimilar to various current day charlatans charging people for cliché advice under the guise of self-help or self-development. I would agree with that comparison. The Romans had the inkling of a very brilliant idea in creating their empire. Rather than replace the conquered population’s gods with their own, they just allowed them to continue with the idea that they were just other names for the same ones the Romans knew. Their “king of the gods” was Jupiter, but if you were Greek that was the same as Zeus and if Egyptian that was Ra, and so on.

Judaism and Christianity were different in that they had a moral code of conduct. So more than just the name of the god that you provided sacrifices to was at stake. Judaism’s prohibition of images of God ends up being an intolerance for images of the other gods. It breaks with the tradition of allowing others to have their own view of who or what “god” (or “God”) is. This is precisely the attitude that we must resist if we wish to live in a free society. Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter, “…in every age the priest has been the enemy of liberty.” I believe this is precisely the point he was trying to make – that enforcement of a single religious world view inevitably must lead to a sort of tyranny over the very minds of people.

Despite these ideals and the mechanism to protect them through the separation of powers in the Constitution, things have never been quite that straight forward. If a majority of the voters imagine something should be illegal (even if just because of their religious beliefs) then it likely will become law. The only hope of striking it down was supposed to be an independent judiciary, but the undue influence of extreme partisan positions has undermined that.

Which leaves only an appeal to those voters who will still use their own minds, instead of the fear and hatred some leaders continually stir up. Imagining a world in which everyone is pretty much like us is not only easy, it’s comforting on many levels. We may never be challenged to question why we think or do things in a certain way. We can feel comfortable in the world, because it is all familiar and understood. But what if we weren’t the only kind of people, what if we weren’t the majority? Now there is a choice to make – some people will see that strict devotion to the principle of many different cultures and beliefs as the only way to safely ensure that we all remain free to believe and act as we wish, no matter which way the popularity of one belief or another goes.

Sadly, there are many others who take that scenario as the reason they should “call to arms” and suppress the other ideas. This is the key point, the desire to suppress the expression of any other view point or lifestyle. I often feel that these efforts stem from a realization that public exposure to these other people and ideas will reveal the unreasonableness of their prejudices. That is what happened for most people with the mixing of the races. And it is what should happen with other groups as well.

All too often the proponents of free speech and diversity give too much respect to these folks for “merely defending their ideals”. While free speech does mean they get to express their opinions, we should call them out for what they are – people less defending their own ideals than trying to end liberty for any who disagree with them. They aren’t patriots or defenders of “traditional American values” – they are petty little wannabe tyrants who will wave the flag at the same time they trample every principle it ever stood for. It ultimately ends up where every dictatorship does, where dissent or disagreement is called treason.

It does seem that our civics classes (and our progressives) ought to spend more time promoting the idea that our “right to swing our fists ends at the other person’s nose” as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said (btw he was a Republican!). For that matter, I am continually amazed that no one calls out the hypocrisy of those who call for smaller, limited government while at the same time thinking it should regulate private, personal behavior on the basis of their own personal view of morality.

The Founders of our republic were rightly suspicious of the sort of direct democracy where a majority vote of the people decided everything. It was more than just the impracticality of conducting timely polls in the 18th and early 19th century; they knew that demagogues would play to the fears of the mob and that could easily subvert the rights of the minority. Unfortunately technology and the mechanism of elections have essentially eliminated the safeguards they thought they built in by having our republic be a representative democracy – one where the majority elect representatives to handle the passing (and rejecting) of laws.

I think the only potential answer is a campaign to educate the voting public about the true nature of liberty, and the dangers (and hypocrisy) of attempting to regulate and protect a particular “culture” or set of religious beliefs. I think we need to stress the idea that even though I wouldn’t personally want to participate in or view some behaviors, the only reason to outlaw them is if it would limit my legitimate rights (as opposed to my imagined “right not to be offended”).

We have done too little to express this ideal and far too little to call out the cries for censorship and suppression of beliefs that contradict the so called “traditional” values of some of the most extreme elements of our society. In every age there are those who are more comfortable with the way things are, even if they have reservations about the rightness of them. I believe failure to call them out for this behavior is what Edmund Burke meant when he said “for evil to triumph all that is required is for good men to do nothing.”

There is another test for what should be illegal, and I think it is a relatively simple test, though not necessarily easy in practice because of people’s denial and devotion to their ideas. If the primary reason for making something illegal is a moral or ethical claim, then it should be suspect. In other words, don’t tell me that it is wrong because of your ethics or morals, tell me how it deprives someone else of their right to life, property, liberty or their own pursuit of happiness. And I don’t mean some “domino theory” of how it will undermine society. It may not be without its own gray areas, but if we exposed the religious underpinnings of the belief behind the moral code it might become more obvious that the proposed law has more to do with legislating someone’s religious beliefs than it does with protecting the liberty of others.

There is an illustrative historical example in the “blue laws” that used to exist in Texas and other southern states. Basically these laws sought to prohibit certain items from being sold on Sundays. It began as prohibiting the sale of “non-essential” items, but quickly became the farce it was always meant to be. Baby food could be sold, but not diapers. Hammers but not nails (or vice versa, I can’t remember). It was clear to all that the point of the law was to make everyone respect the idea that Sunday was “God’s day” and not just another shopping day. In order to mask the nature of what they were up to, the supporters of the blue laws said that they couldn’t sell the prohibited items on consecutive Saturday and Sundays, or Sundays and Mondays. This was supposed to make it seem less like a religious law. As people from the north moved to Texas a growing movement to repeal these laws started. The supporters tried to couch the law as protection for time off for workers, despite the fact that Federal laws already regulated pay and hours, and that the blue laws did nothing to protect workers from abusive hours in the rest of the week. In the last referendum before their abolishment, support of the blue laws was equated to support for local, family owned businesses, against national chain stores, as if the sales on one day of the week could bankrupt small locally owned businesses. But the most telling news came when the referendum abolishing the blue laws was passed. One of its most outspoken supporters got emotional and lost his phony mask of rationality. He said that they weren’t done yet, and that while they might not be able to force people to go to church, they would continue their efforts to make sure that there was little else they could do on Sunday. And so, what most of us already knew all along, was finally admitted. We don’t often get to see it so clearly, but look closely at the folks who “coincidentally” want to regulate something that just happens to mirror their religious beliefs.

I am also persuaded to be suspicious when there is gross inconsistency. On the one hand someone wants to object to regulations of businesses and their dealings with the consumer public, arguing for more limited government, but at the same time thinks the government ought to be regulating private choices because of some larger moral or alleged societal impact.

If we think about it in these terms a lot of the objections to laws and regulations are ridiculous and the regulations are necessary to protect us from the greed and short-sightedness of some people: e.g. regulations about product and workplace safety, regulations to preserve the opportunity for competition to exist in industries dominated by a few companies, and of course laws prohibiting using age, race, gender, religion, etc. as reasons to disqualify someone from employment instead of their actual capabilities. And other regulations are simply enforcing a personal belief; regulating personal medical choices (whether it’s to carry a fetus to term, or to die with dignity), who you can marry, and even personal appearance.

We simply MUST stop imagining that this country is, was or ought to be a single religious or cultural place if we are to continue to enjoy its true uniqueness in the world, as a place where people are free to believe as they will.

[chiseler]

Imagine Electing Pete

On September 12, 2019, during the Democratic Primary debate in Houston, Texas, something strange, even epiphanous occurred. At least for me. The current Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, one Pete Buttigieg, evidently (for this was by no means visible to the eye) fell into a trance-like state and began to channel a voice that was, oddly, not of the spirit world.

The voice was that of Disc Jockey Glenn Beck, and the words were from a 2009 Mission Statement that he had composed for some extraordinary thing he'd started called the 9/12 Movement; a kind of protest/support group for those citizens longing for the rare fragrance of unity and togetherness which intoxicated all of America, we were told, on September 12, 2001; just one day after that thing happened in Lower Manhattan. "We were not obsessed with Red States, Blue States or political parties, the color of your skin, or what religion you practiced. We were united as Americans, standing together to protect the greatest nation ever created. We want to get everyone thinking like it is September 12th, 2001 again." Beck continued. "On September 12th, and for a short time after that, we really promised ourselves that we would focus on the things that were important -- our family, our friends, the eternal principles that allowed America to become the world's beacon of freedom." Amen. I suppose. Of course, how formidable the words, and how entirely sincere (or not) the sentiment may have been -- one cannot, I suspect, locate much nostalgia for that moment beating in the hearts of this country's Muslim communities, ever since marked for harassment (and frequently far, far worse) at the hands of those basking 'neath freedom's beacon -- it seems to have been a uniquely durable one. Personally, I had completely forgotten that . . . anyone . . . had told ev'ry little star just how sweet they thought everything was on that day. What I remember most Is the kind of unusually animated daze people were walking around in. The American Imagination was in high style that day. All anybody could talk about was What Happens Next, with many of these people consumed with their own, homemade fantasies of national vengeance toward those responsible. Their hearts were full, and grim. The Mayor of South Bend, as I say, appears to remember things rather differently, and one cannot question it. Six years later -- the clear sky of American unity having, for the rest of us, clouded over once more -- Buttigieg would remain so enthralled by this singular hour in Our American Story that he would leave his two jobs (it was, yes, that kind of economy) as a consultant for McKinsey & Co., and as a Fellow at the Truman National Security Project. He would enlist, voluntarily, in the United States Navy, jumping into our ongoing war of military aggression against the country of Afghanistan with both feet for a period of fourteen months. He ran numbers and drove officers around. Not exactly Audie Murphy in 'To Hell and Back' . . . or Abbott & Costello in 'Buck Privates' for that matter (if he triple-tapped an elementary school or watched our drones wipe out a house party or two, he has not admitted to it) . . . but it provided this future Presidential candidate a chance to build character (and, naturally, his resume). So, unlike a professional grifter such as Glenn Beck, when Buttigieg waxes nostalgic for those days of unity, one doubts his sincerity at one's peril. Buttigieg, during the debate in Houston, stated "All day today, I’ve been thinking about Sept. 12, the way it felt when for a moment we came together as a country. Imagine if we had been able to sustain that unity. Imagine what would be possible right now with ideas that are bold enough to meet the challenges of our time, but big enough, as well, that they could unify the American people. That’s what presidential leadership can do. That’s what the presidency is for." He concluded, of course, with, "And that is why I’m asking for your vote." To someone like Buttigieg, September 12, 2001 is a day that, I'm certain, he wishes could have gone on forever. But whatever he wants people to think, it was a day when the entire country was crouching as one, it seemed, gazing at everyone around them in fear and outright bafflement; a day that our rulers could have done (and in some senses did do) anything they wanted with us, and we probably would have gone along with all of it because we didn't know what else there was to do; a day, in other words, when our empire was never more firmly in the grasp of those who own it. Despite the loftiness of his rhetoric on the debate stage -- a mode of high school valedictorian speech he is often given to -- Pete Buttigieg is, underneath it all, a born technocrat; a classic, Eisenhower-era Republican; a creature of our institutions. He is not Franklin Roosevelt (that Bolshevik). He does not aspire to lift a frightened nation out of its slough of despond and keep its people safe from Capitalism's consequences and depredations; or anything, by all evidence, more inspiring  the citizenry than the 'Shut Up and Shop' society finally urged upon us in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. He is only here to apply for a job to manage this empire of ours, nothing more. But I can't help feeling there's something quietly monstrous about his true, evident nostalgia for that time when unity was accessible to some Americans and not to others. I had my first inkling of this a couple months back when he had to get off the campaign trail for a day or two because the cops in South Bend had been for too long conducting themselves like Cossacks under Nicholas II, rampaging with too much impunity through that city's Black neighborhoods (safely separated from the more upper class College Town South Bend is known for being), finally dropping too many bodies with too little pretext. After pleading to the national press that he had essentially no control, no control at all, over the police in his city, and every poll showing that Black voters utterly despise him, he headed over to the part of town in question to inform the residents to please stay on the line, as it were; their questions and concerns were important to him. In full Damage Control mode, Pete Buttigieg read his statement through a bullhorn to a group of women, members of a grossly victimized community, all of whom had had enough and were giving their Mayor the earful his White ass deserved. And he stood before them, this diminutive block of American cheese in shirtsleeves, collar and tie; the guy who blankly tells you he's sorry, but you're being let go and there's nothing he can do about it; standing with a bullhorn in his hand and not a hint of emotion in his voice as he droned into the instrument to his city's Black community: "I'm not asking for your vote." Some people in this country, you see, are asked for their vote; others are not. Matters of race aside -- and not much good can be said on Buttigieg and that subject; which is not to suggest, I hasten to add, that the man is racist. With his background he's probably never had to think very much about race -- one thing was clear to me: He's a real calm customer, this guy; doesn't break a sweat. Everyone says so. Smart as a whip, too. You hear that one constantly from his supporters: swooning over his credentials, his evident intellect, his grasp of languages ("Norwegian! Can you believe it?!"). It all feeds into the overarching perception of his ability to handle crises with the right character of detachment. Our media adores him, largely for this reason; and why shouldn't they? He's perhaps the closest thing to a polar opposite in this race to the dread Donald Trump without his skin being at all darker. With Pete Buttigieg as President, I have been told, we won't have to think and worry so much about what's going on in the world, the way we do now. We won't be on pins and needles, waiting to see what the President of the United States does next. We can, at long last, relax again; get some sleep. He's got this. I can understand the enthusiasm for Buttigieg on the part of those who wish to see him elected President (there aren't too many of them, if polling has anything to say about it, but they do make themselves known). I even can find it in me to share it. To some extent, anyway. There is, after all, true intrinsic value in the election, should it happen, of the first (openly) gay President of the United States; just as Barack Obama's election possessed similar intrinsic value; just as the election of our first Woman President will when it happens. It's the only, unambiguously good thing about a prospective Pete Buttigieg Presidency. But beyond that, and the fact that most of what is claimed for him is probably true, I actually dread his ever being President (that he is not the only candidate currently in the race who I can say this about does little to ease my anxiety). Last night's single file march down 9/12 Memory Lane tore it for me. I know what he is now, and no mistake. He is a living, breathing, competent, talented, educated, cultured (no Alfred E. Neuman for this guy), credentialed throwback to the brain trusts and planners of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, Rostow, McNamara, Bundy; every Ivy League war criminal Halberstam wrote about in 'The Best and the Brightest', who cooly, carefully ran the numbers, made their calculations, and executed a wholesale genocide in Southeast Asia. Buttigieg has the potential to be precisely the kind of cool, detached, analytical monster that will tell us, sorry, but entitlements have to be cut (numbers don't lie) or, worse, successfully oversee the ongoing, unending US war on Islam while our once again fat, dumb, happy country sleeps an untroubled sleep. In that sense (if no other), Pete Buttigieg is the most dangerous of all the candidates currently in the race. He's what Noam Chomsky warned us about fifty years ago.

by R.J. Lambert

[got7-texts]

hum idk I'm loving these aus away too much! but why don't you post a few drabble and texts? I think I like aus more lmao but idk if everybody ship the members, you know? anyways it's amazing how you keep bringing good stuff to post here! you really are the best got7 scenario blog out there ^^

Ah, you’re too sweet, thank you so much And I agree, I think I’m going to go back to drabbles and texts for a little while. I still have to finish the 100 day drabble challenge (omg I’m so behind). I may do another MemberxY/N with a different member (there have been some inklings towards Youngjae…but maybe I’ll put up a poll and let everyone decide?)

[usnewsaggregator-blog]

A Rebuke to Kleptocracy

New Post has been published on https://usnewsaggregator.com/a-rebuke-to-kleptocracy/

A Rebuke to Kleptocracy

Nobody knows how Monday’s indictment of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, and the disclosure of a plea deal by George Papadopoulus, fits it into Robert Mueller’s broader investigation of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign. But Mueller’s filings stand on their own as an important rebuke to global kleptocracy. That’s because the American face of the problem is Paul Manafort.

As an international political consultant, Manafort built a career trying to soften the reputation of corrupt rulers. He spent decades shuttling to the palaces of exploitative dictators (Ferdinand Marcos, Sani Abacha, Mobuto Sese Seko) and then presenting them to the press and lawmakers as friends of western democracy, perfectly acceptable citizens of the global order. And, today’s indictment alleges, Manafort also attempted to make his fortune by joining the heist.

I first started writing about Manafort in the April of 2016. But I had never had an inkling of the entirety of his efforts until today: Federal authorities put it at $75,000,000. The sum of money he is alleged to have surreptitiously moved around the world is staggering—and perhaps evidence of how little the global system actually cares about the curse of money laundering. The scale, however, shouldn’t distract from the source. He received his money for rendering a very important service to Kremlin-aligned oligarchs.

Related Story

Did Manafort Use Trump to Curry Favor With a Putin Ally?

In 2004, in the shadow of the Orange Revolution, Manafort first went to work in Kiev. He was brought there by one of the oligarchs closest to Vladimir Putin, Oleg Deripaska. Manafort’s initial task was to assess the protests against the Ukrainian regime, to gauge its possibilities for spreading to other countries and tearing down the entire corrupt post-Soviet order. That order was rightly terrified—and it wanted a state-of-the-art American strategist to help it understand the risks, and how to combat them.

Part of the reason that dictators have always liked Manafort is that he can read a poll. Until relatively recently, polling was primarily an instrument of American politics, with few sophisticated practitioners beyond our borders. So Manafort could waltz into a country, send out a survey, and then enter into a meeting with a deeper understanding of public opinion than any native consultant. Because he managed to correctly predict the outcome of political events in Ukraine, he acquired the aura of a guru.

In Kiev, he took on a tough assignment. His client was Viktor Yanukovych. The Orange Revolution had been directed at him. He had rigged an election and was drummed into self-imposed exile in a Czech resort. Few held out much hope for his political future. But Manafort had good reasons for taking him on as a project.

Good-government types often talk of Mafia States—and that can seem like an exaggeration. But in Ukraine, a group from the old industrial, metallurgical powerhouse of Donetsk attempted to take over the country through its influence in a new political apparatus, the Party of Regions. (The party was founded in the late 90s—and a U.S. diplomatic cable described it as a “a haven for Donetsk-based mobsters and oligarchs.”) They attempted to recreate themselves as more honorable captains of industry. They craved the respectability of being able to shake hands at Davos, where Manafort escorted Party of Regions honchos to parties. They wanted a reputation that would enable them to park their money in Manhattan and Mayfair without hassle. (As Oliver Bullough has argued, “The aim…is to so thoroughly embed a kleptocrat into the upper-crusted life of his adopted country that he becomes part of the scenery, as unremarkable as any garden-variety extremely wealthy person can be.”)

Their rehabilitation became Manafort’s grand project. Their party was his primary client. Other political consultants would skip into Kiev, take a meeting, stay a night at the Radisson, and then depart. But during the parliamentary elections of 2006, Manafort resided in the country for months, according to those who worked with him on the campaign. He used polling to refine the party’s message. He cultivated a sense of victimization among Russian language speakers, emphasizing ethnic differences that no politician had effectively tapped. It worked. The Party of Regions succeed beyond its stalwarts’ most grandiose hopes.

Manafort didn’t just enjoy the prestige that followed his successes, which culminated in Victor Yanukovych’s election to the presidency in 2010. He attempted to leverage them for his own purposes. Anyone in his position could see the possibilities. He worked for oligarchs who used their political connections to amass profitable businesses. In 2006, he tapped Rick Gates, an old intern from his D.C. firm, to join him. They created a new private-equity firm called Pericles. It set out to use Manafort’s newfound political connections to buy small regional companies that they would turn into national powerhouses.

After having spent so much time around Ukrainian oligarchs, after having earned their trust, Manafort set out to join their ranks. He even attracted funding from Oleg Deripaska himself. This was quite an endorsement: Manafort had become such a political insider in Ukraine that one of the most powerful, best-connected Russian oligarchs wanted to do business with him there.

The charge that Manafort sought to launder his earnings from Ukraine is unsurprising; it would have been challenging for him to render a full accounting of his income. One Manafort associate described to me how his boss would slap a massive, seven-figure price tag on his services. Yanukovych would approve the bill. Then one oligarch would go to the other oligarchs to collect the money. Party of Regions officials like to plead poverty, but their group constituted an informal network that set out to obscure its own machinations.

At bottom, the riches of the party’s patrons had been originally amassed in the chaos of the transition from communism—and they had been preserved through shell companies and tax havens and the complicity of unfastidious regimes. (As the Ukranian scholar Taras Kuzio has explained, “Ruling elites expropriate as much as they can because they can do so with unrestrained impunity.”) Once he had chosen to operate in this environment, Manafort would likely have been compelled to adopt local customs for moving money.

Perhaps Paul Manafort thought he could repeat that success by going to work for Donald Trump. He may have seen him as a familiar figure, another oligarch, who could help him amass greater business opportunities for himself. A connection to a Trump regime would have proved fantastically lucrative for the political consultant who engineered its unlikely triumph. That, of course, never came to pass; Manafort resigned in disgrace long before Election Day. And perhaps the American system would have proved more resistant to Manafort’s greedy maneuvers, even if he somehow had managed to stick around.

But Manafort spent decades profiting from kleptocracy with impunity. He worked to improve its international reputation without reproach. And Mueller’s indictment charges that top-drawer Washington firms were complicit, abetting Manafort’s work in potential violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Even before today, it had been publicly reported that Manafort enlisted the help of the Podesta Group, Mercury Public Affairs, and Skadden, Arps, three influential outfits in town. The business of laundering reputations and money isn’t just the work of rogue actors. It’s the stuff of Big Law and Big Banks.

Whatever happens next in Mueller’s investigation, Monday provided an unambiguous sign that the United States won’t quietly accede to the creep of kleptocracy.

Original Article:

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[ralphmorgan-blog1]

5 things to watch in Georgia’s high-stakes House special election

(CNN)Democrats have been desperate to deal President Donald Trump a real setback at the ballot box for months -- and all their hopes are riding on Tuesday's House election in Georgia.

In what's become the most expensive House race in history, both Democrats and Republicans have tons at stake.

A win by Democrat Jon Ossoff will give his party a crucial proof point that Trump's unpopularity is damaging Republicans up and down the ballot -- and make it much harder GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill to tie their own political fortunes to Trump on health care, tax reform and more. It would also give progressives who pumped $23 million into Ossoff's campaign something to celebrate.

A win by Republican Karen Handel, meanwhile, would give Trump and Republicans confidence in their agenda. And it would deliver a sharp blow to Democrats who had seen the race as their last, best shot at a special election win that would pump their base up and help them draw top-notch candidates for the 2018 midterms.

Ossoff and Handel were the top two finishers in an April 19 primary, and advanced to the June 20 one-on-one runoff. The polls in Cobb, Fulton and DeKalb counties -- the three where the sixth district House seat is located -- close at 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

Here are five things to watch in Georgia's special election:

Will Republicans show up? Would they vote for Ossoff?

In ordinary years, this is no swing district. Former Rep. Tom Price -- whose departure to become Trump's health and human services secretary opened the seat up -- won by at least 23 percentage points every time he was on the ballot since 2004. Mitt Romney carried the district by 23 points in 2012.

The only reason Democrats have even an inkling it could be competitive is that Trump collapsed here, besting Hillary Clinton by just 1.5 points last fall.

That all means there are many more people who typically vote Republican in the district than Democrats.

It's created a rare scenario where the huge early vote turnout -- 140,000 people have already cast their ballots, including 36,000 who didn't vote at all in the April primary -- could actually benefit Republicans.

The question is whether these scores of what have historically been reliably GOP voters are separating this race from their distaste for Trump and sticking with Handel -- or have been turned off more broadly by the Republican brand under Trump and are willing to back Ossoff.

The 36,000 voters who did not participate in the primary are perhaps the most baffling to both parties. Both sides have placed major emphasis on turning out voters who participated in Georgia's presidential primaries last year but did not vote in April -- and there are more Republicans than Democrats in that pool of potential voters.

What it all means: No one is quite sure what to expect, aside from a close race.

Democrats' focus: African-American turnout

Democrats have placed a particular emphasis on turning out Atlanta-area African-American voters. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has pumped hundreds of thousands into ads on black radio stations and digital ads, as well as $325,000 for get-out-the-vote mail pieces targeting those voters.

The makeup of the electorate is critical to watch. Ossoff has endorsements from two leading African-American Georgia Democrats -- Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights icon, and Rep. Hank Johnson. But he is also just 30 years old and does not have long-lasting political connections through the district.

To win, Ossoff will need something approaching presidential-level turnout from Democratic base voters -- and African-Americans are a crucial component of that base.

If Ossoff wins: Democrats will eye a majority

Ossoff's campaign has been a testing ground for Democrats' hopes that Trump's unpopularity will allow them to compete for GOP-held seats in suburban areas across America.

Many of those districts are actually less Republican than Georgia's sixth district. What they tend to have in common: Relatively highly educated, wealthy and diverse populations, plus people who -- like thousands in Ossoff's district -- voted for Mitt Romney in 2012 and then backed Hillary Clinton in 2016.

An Ossoff win would be a proof point suggesting that Democrats are on the right track.

It would also be important in two other significant ways: Online, small-dollar fundraising has shattered records so far this year, and an Ossoff win would likely keep that money flowing in. And Democrats are deep into recruiting their crop of challengers for GOP seats in 2018; an Ossoff victory could embolden more top prospects to jump in.

If Handel wins: House GOP leaders can breathe easy

The outcome of Georgia's contest is likely to become a prism through which congressional Republicans view Trump -- a reality with major policy and political implications.

A spate of retirements from nervous incumbents who lack the stomach for a bitter re-election battle could be avoidable: A Handel victory could show worried party members -- particularly those in suburban districts that Democrats are targeting -- that they can still rely on a strategy of turning out their base in Republican-leaning districts, even if Trump is unpopular there. She'll have even helped write the playbook, after relentlessly working to tie Ossoff to Nancy Pelosi and hitting him on national security.

It would also make life easier for congressional GOP leadership, which can't afford to shed many votes from nervous members if it is to advance tax reform and health care legislation in the coming months.

But make no mistake: Republicans are closely watching the results to see just how much of a drag Trump is on Handel. Even a razor's-edge win in a district where GOP congressional candidates typically top 60% would be a stark reminder of the wave potential of the 2018 midterms. After all, 71 incumbent Republicans sit in districts that are -- per the Cook Political Report's partisan voter index -- less GOP-leaning than Georgia's 6th District.

A clear Handel win could show Republican lawmakers that there's no need to distance themselves from Trump -- but anything short of that could send them scurrying from the President.

Was Ossoff too liberal or too moderate?

Ossoff became a fundraising phenomenon because he represented progressives' best chance of swiping a House seat from Republicans early in the Trump presidency. He raised more than $23 million that way.

But if you watch Ossoff on the campaign trail or in TV ads, you'd never know it.

Through the campaign, Ossoff was hesitant to even say Trump's name. Instead, he sold himself as a moderate who would happily work across the aisle, who fretted about deficit spending and who wasn't even sure he'd vote for Pelosi for House speaker.

This reality has Sen. Bernie Sanders' liberal wing of the party concerned that the Democratic establishment is recruiting and running too many moderates -- and the establishment worried that Sanders' insurgency could view a loss as proof the party needs to embrace a much more aggressive, populist, Sanders-like message.

Sanders himself fed this narrative when he pointedly answered, "I don't know," when the Wall Street Journal asked him this spring whether Ossoff is a progressive. "Some Democrats are progressive, and some Democrats are not," Sanders said -- though he later clarified that he does support Ossoff.

This could worsen tensions that already exist between the Sanders-aligned left, which fumed over the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's refusal to spend heavily on races in Kansas and Montana, and the DCCC.

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