#and that they will be punished. and it's this period we see her supporters arrested and interrogated and dismissed from the privy council

[fideidefenswhore]

His 'merciful inclination and princely heart' meant he was always ready to 'take pity and compassion on all offenders repentantly crying'. In the case of his daughter, since she was, 'frail, inconstant and easy to be persuaded,' he would be glad to remit some of his displeasure.

The King’s Pearl: Henry VIII & His Daughter Mary, Melita Thomas

[mariacallous]

When Evgenia Kara-Murza’s husband was arrested in Russia in April 2022, she immediately made it her mission to continue his work from abroad. A longtime anti-Putin dissident, her husband — Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza — had been speaking out publicly against Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Faced with charges ranging from violating wartime censorship to high treason, Vladimir spent a year in pre-trial detention and was sentenced to 25 years in prison in April 2023. Then, in September, the prison authorities transferred him out of Moscow just days before his 42nd birthday. Kara-Murza’s lawyers managed to locate him at a maximum-security prison in the Siberian city of Omsk, where he has been placed in a punishment cell indefinitely. On the sidelines of the Halifax International Security Forum, Evgenia Kara-Murza sat down with Eilish Hart, the editor of Meduza’s The Beet newsletter, to discuss Vladimir’s experience in the Russian prison system, the possibility of a “different” Russia, and the importance of victory on Ukraine’s terms. This interview has been edited and abridged for length and clarity.

In September, your husband was transferred out of Moscow to serve a 25-year prison sentence in Siberia. But initially it was unclear where he had been sent. What were the circumstances surrounding his transfer?

In Russia, when we say that we live in a Kafkaesque reality, it is true. And not only is it Kafkaesque, but it is also a very nasty, evil reality. Vladimir was sent on a transfer two days before his birthday, because I’m sure the authorities knew how many letters of support, encouragement, and solidarity he would receive — including, of course, letters from his own kids. And that is the evil nature of the current regime: They have to break a person by depriving him or her of any means to know that they are loved, cherished, respected, and admired.

So yes, he was sent on a transfer a couple of days before his birthday and that was a very worrying period for us because in Russia, the transfer is one of the most dangerous periods in the life of a political prisoner. A transfer can take months; there is no law that defines the length of a transfer. And the way transfer happens is the person is moved from the [pre-trial] detention center to the place where he or she would be serving their sentence, passing through all these other detention centers along the way. In each of these centers, a person can spend days, or weeks, or months, and the authorities are not required by law to provide any information about a person’s whereabouts, the state of their health, or their needs, to anyone: neither lawyers nor family members. So the authorities can basically make a person disappear for a very long period of time. We know of such cases when people were just lost. 

I believe it is crucial to keep the name of the person who is being transferred in the public eye and continuously demand that the authorities provide information about a person’s whereabouts. It helps, like it helped in the case of Andrey Pivovarov, who has now served over three years in prison for being affiliated with a so-called “undesirable organization,” the Open Russia Foundation, and for just wanting to run in the elections and wanting a different future for Russia, just like my husband. 

It was very worrying to know that Vladimir is one-on-one with those people who tried to kill him twice in the past. We used all the means available and, thanks to the amazing work of our lawyers, we were able to locate Vladimir very quickly, and we tried right away to establish contact with him just to make sure that he’s alive. 

How often are you in communication with Vladimir now? What do you know about the conditions and the treatment he’s experiencing in prison? 

Upon arrival at the strict regime prison colony, he was put in a punishment cell right away. That happened on September 21 and he has not left that cell since. Moreover, he was able to let me know that the neighboring cells in the block where he’s being held were also emptied. So he’s basically being held alone, in solitary confinement, in the punishment block of a maximum-security prison colony in the middle of Siberia. A Kara-Murza can only be sentenced to a quarter of a century in Siberia, it seems; it comes with the name. 

Vladimir is being held in a cell that measures three meters by one and a half meters [roughly 10 feet by five feet], with a bed that is fixed to the wall from morning till night, and a backless stool is the only piece of furniture in the cell. He has no phone call rights, no visitation rights. He still gets to see his lawyer once a week, or once every couple of weeks, so the lawyer can make sure that he’s alive and as well as can be [expected]. He gets an hour walk every day, during which he does not see anyone either. He gets an hour and a half of writing or reading a day, and when these 90 minutes are up, everything is taken from him. So if he receives any letters through the prison correspondence system, those letters are brought to him together with pen and paper. He gets to read them and respond to as many as he can in those 90 minutes and that’s it. 

So if you count an hour walk, an hour and a half of writing, and eight hours of sleep, that leaves him with 13.5 hours of absolute void in that cell. No human communication, no ability to do anything. He’s just sitting between these four walls. 

Is Vladimir in solitary because he’s being quarantined or because of some alleged infraction (like we’re seeing with Alexey Navalny, for example)? Is there a chance that he will be put in with a general prison population?

No, there is absolutely no such chance and that was made clear to him when he was brought to that prison colony. The authorities basically told him — it was never put on paper, of course, they would not put something like this on paper — but they let him know that they would not allow him out of solitary confinement because they didn’t want him to “contaminate” other prisoners with his views. And of course, knowing Vladimir, they were sort of right, because he would.

Of course, there were “violations” that were used as pretexts. Once it was an unbuttoned shirt, another time it was a pillow that was not put on the bed in the correct way. (I don’t know what the correct way was supposed to be.) And the last infraction was [failing to get out of bed on time]. [Then] there were these disciplinary hearings and Vladimir was designated as a “consistent violator” of the rules of [detention] and he was officially put under “SUS,” that’s strogie uslovii soderzhania [“strict conditions of detention,” in Russian]. 

It didn't change much in his situation: he stayed in the same cell, the only difference is he was actually allowed another book (so he has the right to hold two books at the same time now). He is still serving his sentence in this punishment block and the “strict [conditions of detention”] are indefinite. Just as the prison authorities told him, they will not allow him out of solitary confinement. 

You know, when I want to illustrate why they’re afraid of him “contaminating” the minds of others, I always remember the story that Vladimir wrote to me about at the beginning of his detention in Moscow. Initially he was put in a cell with five other guys, petty criminals, and they had a TV. Prison cells [in Russia] often have TVs in them because even behind bars, people have to be under constant influence of propaganda. Otherwise, minds begin clearing up quite quickly and people begin asking questions. 

So Vladimir was sitting in the cell with five other guys; the TV, with propaganda news; and he had a book by [Soviet dissident] Vladimir Bukovsky. After a few weeks in that cell, they had switched to listening to concerts by the Philharmonic Orchestra, they had all read Bukovsky memoirs, and they were discussing the war in Ukraine and repressions in Russia. The authorities realized what had happened and moved Vladimir to a different cell right away, and they kept moving him until he was left alone in his cell. And then he was transferred to the strict regime prison colony. 

Your husband suffers from a nerve disorder as a result of the two poisoning attacks on him in the past. What do you know about the current state of his health? 

I know that his condition is not going to get better under the circumstances. I know that polyneuropathy is on the list of medical conditions that should prevent incarceration in the first place under Russian law — and there is a reason for that. It is considered a serious medical condition that could lead to paralysis.

Following these two poisoning attacks, Vladimir sustained peripheral nerve damage and he’s losing feeling in his extremities. In order to keep these symptoms under control, he has to do physical exercises regularly. He has to have fresh air, regular walks, and he had been able to keep these symptoms under control without medication before his imprisonment because he was leading a very active lifestyle. But because of his imprisonment in those punishment cells where people do not get opportunities for fresh air, walks, and exercise, his condition will deteriorate. 

These punishment cells are actually used as a method of torture by the Russian authorities today. Alexey Gorinov has been in a punishment cell and he’s suffering from a [lung] condition. Alexey Navalny has not left a punishment cell for many months and he is also a survivor of an assassination [attempt] that must have had consequences for his health. Maria Ponomarenko, a Russian journalist, has been held in a punishment cell. Nikita Uvarov, a young boy, was placed in a punishment cell without any explanation given to his parents or his lawyers as to why this happened. Alexey Moskalev—the father of Masha Moskaleva who was imprisoned for refusing to condemn his daughter for making an anti-war drawing — was also put in a punishment cell. So the only conclusion one can make is that this is done deliberately and used as a method of torture. 

Do you think there’s a possibility that Vladimir could be released through a prisoner exchange? 

I believe that when we talk about those political prisoners, for whom it is a matter of life and death, all methods should be used to free these people. I’ve just mentioned a few of them, but there are others. There’s also Yevgeny Bestuzhev or Alexandra Skochilenko, who was just sentenced to seven years [in prison] and suffers from many medical conditions. She should not be kept behind bars. 

Not only are we talking about human lives, but this would also be a powerful message of solidarity with those Russian citizens who refuse to be complicit in the crimes committed by the regime. By standing with these people and fighting for their release, the world would send a very powerful message to both Russian civil society and the Kremlin that it sees [an alternative]. And that is an important message because if we want to see Russia [become] a democracy one day, we need to do everything in our power to make sure that those people who are the faces of that different Russia survive this, so they can be there to rebuild the country from scratch. 

Unlike the other people you’ve named, your husband is a dual citizen, he holds a British passport. Have the U.K. authorities been advocating for his release? 

I was very grateful to the U.K. government for imposing targeted Magnitsky sanctions against Vladimir’s persecutors. It only surprises me a little that it was not the U.K. that was the leader in this, but it was actually Canada. Vladimir has been fighting for the introduction of the Magnitsky legislation since 2010, so using Magnitsky sanctions against his perpetrators is like — not fair justice; it’s not, they should be sitting in prison — but poetic justice, let’s say. 

It also took the U.K. a year and actually the sentencing to make a statement about Vladimir’s illegal detention. Again, I am grateful that it eventually happened, but I don’t understand why it didn’t happen sooner. 

As for more forceful advocacy, I know that the policy of the U.K. government for a very long time has been not to engage, which in my opinion, in the 21st century, is an absolutely unacceptable approach. Because whether they engage or not, the number of political prisoners and hostages taken by terrorist organizations and dictators around the world is growing. And by not engaging, the message they send to those people is, “Bad luck — you’re on your own.” This is absolutely unacceptable because we’re talking about a democratic state that should be interested in fighting for every single bearer of the U.K. passport.

I believe they absolutely will not be able to solve the problem by pretending it does not exist. The more responsible way would be actually admitting that the problem exists and, like Ambassador [Roger D.] Carstens suggested, creating a multilateral approach involving democracies around the world. In the cases of stolen Ukrainian kids or kids kidnapped by Hamas, we’re talking about the literal future of these countries. And when we talk about political prisoners — like in the case of my husband and so many Russian citizens who are sitting behind bars today — we’re very often talking about an alternative to the existing regime. So I believe that solving existing cases is absolutely crucial for tomorrow’s world. But the ultimate goal of such cooperation should be to come up with a set of instruments to prevent such practices from being used in the first place. 

Do you still feel that there’s potential for a political alternative for Russia? Because the conventional wisdom around this question seems to be that people inside Russia don’t see an alternative to Putin or that the alternative could be someone worse, in the sense that they might be even more radical.

Well, if the alternative I talked about — all those Russian citizens who understand what’s happening and are trying to oppose it — if that part of Russian civil society is destroyed, then there will be no other alternative or there will be something worse than Vladimir Putin. So everything should be done to make sure that these people survive. 

I’m not just talking about those political prisoners in Russia, but also about hundreds of thousands of Russian citizens who left the country because they do not want to be complicit in those crimes. I work with the Free Russia Foundation and we do everything to support and encourage Russian civil society activities [and] initiatives, and they are actually popping up everywhere. So we know that this alternative exists. But of course, it’s very much in the interests of Vladimir Putin to create this warped image of reality in which the entire Russian population is like this monolith that stands behind him in the war. 

The fact that detentions continue on a daily basis, the fact that trials are ongoing, that such harsh sentences are being imposed, that torture is being used, and punitive psychiatry has made its return again, shows that there are so many people who protest and reject everything that’s happening. Yes, we do not see mass protests in Russia. In totalitarian countries, mass protests do not happen, and when they do, they end in bloodshed. The 2020 protests in Belarus led to bloodshed and now there are no mass protests in Belarus anymore. Does this mean that these people have just disappeared into thin air? No, they’re there. But conditions in both these countries, in both Russia and Belarus, are such that people cannot go outside en masse because they don’t see any means of changing the situation. 

I believe that everything should be done to weaken the [Putin] regime, both from inside and outside of the country, by supporting Russian civil society and by supporting Ukraine’s war effort and encouraging its victory — not just maintaining the status quo, but its victory. Because I believe that this would weaken the regime, like the war in Afghanistan weakened the Soviet regime in the 1980s. By supporting Russian civil society, we can create conditions that would weaken the regime and when cracks appear, I'm sure that we will see these people in the streets. 

Given the degree of repressions in Russia and the fact that there is a segment of the population that supports the war and/or Putin, many people believe that political change hinges entirely upon Ukraine’s victory and Russia suffering a military defeat. As such, they argue that supporting Ukraine is the best and the most important way to promote political change in Russia. How do you respond to that argument? 

I do believe that victory on Ukraine’s terms is crucial. It’s not just that the Russian army has to leave all the occupied territories, there should be accountability: I’m talking about an international tribunal to bring [to justice] all those responsible for the act of aggression against Ukraine and also for war crimes committed by the Russian army there.

I believe that this would help open the eyes of the Russian population to what was being done. But of course, in order for us to make this information available to the population, which has not had access to one single independent TV channel since 2003, propaganda needs to be fought. And I believe that only when the regime actually collapses will we be able to proceed to this very long, tedious, and difficult process of treating this nation — because it’s not a healthy nation. Not after two decades of stolen elections and propaganda influence. 

Yes, there is a part of Russian civil society that understands what’s happening. But there is this huge mass of people — and we don't know how many — who have been absolutely, utterly brainwashed. And working with that, we will need those public trials. We will need some process of lustration. We will need to disband the Russian security services. We will need to bring to accountability those propagandists who were fueling hatred and disinformation in society.

Do you have the impression that the international community no longer sees the potential for a “different” Russia? 

Well, there are warning signs. The fact that Ukraine is increasingly being pushed towards some sort of negotiations is one such warning sign. Because if Ukraine is forced or coerced into “donating” part of its territory to Russia, then war will not stop. Vladimir Putin will regroup, he will strengthen his power in the country, and he will attack again in just a few years — and if it’s not Ukraine, it might be Moldova, it might be one of the Baltic states. He needs war to continue staying in power. 

Ukraine being forced towards negotiations is a sign that the world is prepared to negotiate with a bully and an aggressor yet again. And I think that by now it should have become clear to the free world that the war of aggression against Ukraine itself is the result of over two decades of impunity and appeasement of Vladimir Putin. So how can we even talk about appeasing him yet again? 

I think it bears repeating that if we want the region to live in peace and security, the only way to achieve that is through making Russia a democracy. As long as there is some kind of [autocratic] regime there, warmongering will continue, aggression will continue, repression inside [Russia] will continue. Yes, repression inside [the country] often does not bother anyone until there is aggression outside [its borders]. But aggression outside will continue, as well. 

Vladimir Putin has shown time and again over the years that he will not stay within his borders: He invaded Georgia, he annexed Crimea, he bombed Syria — he will not stay within his borders. So I believe that there is this danger that the world, having gotten tired of the war and of supporting Ukrainian efforts, might be compelled to negotiate with Vladimir Putin again. And I just think that it bears repeating that then it will have to pay yet again for controlling the damage caused by another war that Vladimir Putin will launch in a few years. 

I’m going to ask one last question, but it’s more so out of my own curiosity. What is your husband reading in prison, do you know? 

I know that he re-read [Aleksander] Solzhenitsyn. I know that he re-read Bukovsky and Natan Sharansky. I think it helps. [Vladimir] knows the story of Soviet dissidents very well because he made a documentary about them [in 2005]. He knows — and knew — many of them personally. Many of them have passed away since then, like Natalya Gorbanevskaya, Yelena Bonner, Vladimir Bukovsky, and Viktor Fainberg. But some of them are still, thank God, living and well — like Natan Sharansky or Alexander Podrabinek — and Vladimir knows them all very well. And I know that to him, the fight of Soviet dissidents is one of the most hopeful pages of our modern history. It shows that a small bunch of people, armed only with the truth and the moral courage to tell the truth, can prevail in their opposition to this absolutely atrocious and seemingly all-powerful state machine.

[doctorstethoscope]

The Right Chapter 27 || Aaron Hotchner x Fem Reader

Hello my loves! Just a reminder that this chapter is posting from the queue as I am on vacation--- I will be checking in periodically but less active than usual and not updating the tag list! Hope y’all enjoy this one :)

Read previous chapters of this fic here! 

contains: food mention, hangover mention, discussion of parenting, canon-typical mentions of violence

wordcount: 2k

When you woke up the next morning, you’re somewhere between completely refreshed and wickedly hungover. You need a bacon egg and cheese on an everything bagel and a big cup of coffee stat if you are going to get anything at all done today. Aaron, of course, must have gotten up hours ago, and has long past left the bedroom by the time you rise at nearly 11. When you roll to get out of  bed, you notice that he’s left you advil, water, and a sleeve of saltines just in case you were feeling nauseous. You smiled, sitting up gingerly to sip at the water and take the pills. Once you were sure your stomach was fine, you slid out of bed and found Jack and Aaron in the kitchen, cooking up bacon and frying eggs while The Beatles played in the background. The boys hadn’t noticed you yet, and you decided not to call attention to yourself-- taking the moment to commit this mental image to memory, of Jack on his father’s hip, Aaron rocking back and forth as he pushed scrambled eggs around a frying pan, smiling and giggling and not thinking about work or serial killers or the next time he’d be pulled away.

When the song fades out, Aaron looks up, seeing you leaning against the doorway to the hall. 

“Good morning, sleeping beauty. How are you feeling?” He asks, looking you up and down for signs of a hangover. 

“I’m okay. I’ll be better after breakfast,” you tell him. “And a big hug from my favorite Hotchner!” You add, crossing the kitchen and taking Jack from his father, shooting Aaron a knowing glance that said “I’m pretty sure physical therapy didn’t clear you for that. Especially not after last night.” 

“I cracked the eggs. There’s no shells in them, Mom.” Jack says, and the world stops. He doesn’t even seem to notice that he’s slipped up, but Aaron and you both freeze, whipping your heads to look at each other with equally bewildered glances. 

“I’m sure you did a great job, buddy!” You tell Jack, after a moment that feels like hours, not wanting to ignore him but not quite sure how to address what had happened, and Aaron wasn’t being much help. 

“Breakfast is ready,” Aaron says, handing you exactly what you needed-- a bacon and egg sandwich, along with a hashbrown, some fruit, and a big cup of coffee. 

“You might be the perfect man.” You tell him gratefully, and he smirks at you as the three of you sit down at the table and eat.  

You and Aaron make casual conversation for a little while before Jack poses a question. “Dad, can we take my kite out today?” Jack asks as he spears a sausage link on his fork. 

“It’s not really windy enough to fly a kite today, buddy, but we can go for a bike ride or play some soccer if you want,” Aaron responds before taking a sip of coffee. 

“And we’ll all go?” Jack asks, looking across the table at you. 

“Of course,” you tell him. “We’ll all go to the park with you.” 

“Okay. Can I be excused?” He asks, and Aaron nods. 

“Go ahead, just make sure you wash your hands and your face. You’ve got syrup everywhere,” He chuckles, and Jack scoots out his chair and leaves the table. 

As soon as Jack is out of eyesight, you speak up. “So, are we gonna talk about that, or what?” You say in a hushed tone, not wanting Jack to overhear. 

“I didn’t tell him to do that,” Aaron says. 

“Neither did I,” you assure him. 

“Are you upset?” Aaron asks, a furrow in his brow that just about broke your heart. Silly, silly man. 

“No, of course not. Not if you aren’t.” You assure him. 

“I just… he can’t forget Haley. He’s all that is left of her.” Aaron says with a deep sigh, and your eyes well up in tears. 

“No, Aaron, he hasn’t and he won’t. We won’t let him.” You say, reaching across the table to squeeze his hand. “And if you don’t want him to call me Mom, I understand.” 

“That’s not it. It’s just… bringing a lot up for me, is all.” He says. 

“That’s normal, honey. You should think about it for a while, maybe talk about it just with him. No matter what you decide, you’re not going to disappoint me or him. But it’s okay to need some time with this.” You say, standing up to wrap your arms around his shoulders from behind, pressing a kiss to the junction of his shoulder and his neck. 

“Thank you, for understanding me and for respecting her.” he tells you, raising one hand to cover yours where they met over his heart, craning his neck to leave a kiss on your wrist. 

“Baby, have you seen my phone?” You asked, realizing that you haven’t checked it all morning. 

“It’s charging next to mine on the bedside table. You were having a little trouble with the charger when we got in last night,” he chuckles at the memory of your drunken antics from the night before. 

You go into the other room to grab your phones, noticing that you have two missed calls from Penelope--- you only just missed her. You dial her back as you head back towards the kitchen to help Aaron clean up. 

“Where are you right now?” Garcia asks you as soon as the line connects, and your face twists up in confusion as you put your plate in the dishwasher. 

“I’m at Aaron’s place, where are you?” You ask, not understanding her line of questioning. 

“Is Jack in the room with you?” 

“Garcia, what’s going on?”  You ask, starting to get nervous. Aaron turns to face you, sensing your anxiety and you place a hand on his forearm for support. 

“Last night, when we were all at the bar, a girl was kidnapped, who based on the description, looks a hell of a lot like you. A neighbor saw the guy, and based on the he neighbor’s description--

“It looks like Josh,” you finished Garcia’s sentence, and you felt Aaron tense under your fingers. He puts his palm out, silently asking for your phone, and you pass it to him without even telling Garcia that you were putting him on. 

You were scared, terrified even, but you knew that the best thing you could do right then was be a profiler. You left Aaron to settle the details, and went into his bedroom to find something work-appropriate to wear. By the time you came back out, Aaron was off the phone. 

“I called the rest of the team in, they’re going to meet us at the office. We’re going to get this loser, and we’re going to get him today,” Aaron lets out, and you nod.

“I’ll take Jack over to Jess’s,” you say, turning back towards Jack’s room, and he stopped you. 

“No. You stay with me. Jess is on her way,” Aaron says, and she knocks at the door at the next moment. “I just told her that we got called in,” he tells you as he answers the door. 

“Morning, guys,” she says as she steps in, entirely too chipper for the terror that’s rolling through your stomach in waves. “Duty calls, right?” She smiles at you, and you use all the power you have to muster a smile back. 

“Yeah, even at the worst times,” you’re impressed that you strung that many words together. 

“Any idea when you’ll be back?” She asks, and you shake your head. 

“We’ve really got to go,” Aaron says, coming back into the room with Jack, who gives you and his father both hugs before you have to leave. You squeeze him extra tight before Aaron ushers you out of the apartment and towards the car. 

“I am not going to let anything happen to you.” Aaron tells you after a few moments of tense, silent driving. 

“I know,” you say noncommittally, and it’s back to silence. 

“You can’t go in the field.” You both say after a moment. 

“Darling, you have to understand--” 

“No, Aaron, it’s not even up for debate. You’re out because of your leg, and JJ is pregnant. The team needs me, and I can’t sit this one out because either one of us is emotional about it,” You argue, and Aaron heaves a sigh. 

“I wish Elle were here. Josh wouldn’t even still be a problem.” Aaron grumbles out, and despite yourself, you burst out laughing. Aaron’s shocked at first by your reaction, but after a moment, he lets out a laugh, too. 

“Aaron, that’s awful. You were upset with Elle for months, even after she left. You’re better than that.” You say, still smiling even though it really wasn’t funny at all. 

“Yeah, well, when you hobbled out to my car with a black eye, I think I began to understand Elle a little bit better than I did at the time.” Aaron tells you. 

You think of the girl Josh has taken now-- being punished only for the sin of resembling you. No doubt she had her own black eye to match yours, plus god only knows what else at this point, nearly twelve hours after being taken. You swallowed thickly. After a moment, you speak up again.

“You knew that this was going to happen, didn’t you?” You ask quietly-- it’s a genuine question, not an accusation, but it still breaks Aaron’s heart. “That’s why you weren’t excited or relieved like I was when he got arrested.”

“I knew it was a possibility,” he confirms. “I didn’t want to say anything to you, because there was no way to know-- and I didn’t want you to have to keep living in fear,” he explains.

 “I’m gonna get this son of a bitch,” you whispered, more to yourself than to Aaron. 

The team is already waiting for the two of you in the roundtable room while you arrive, although there’s really no need to brief, so you all launch into a profile while Garcia digs for more information. 

“What do we know about the unsub?” Aaron asks the team.

“He’s a power-seeker. He uses physical force as a method of coercion.” Morgan says, and Reid scribbles his statement onto a whiteboard. 

“He doesn’t react well when challenged--- his demeanor completely changed when he came here and Hotch went after him.” Emily adds. 

“True, but he had no problem going toe-to-toe with Morgan.” JJ contradicts. 

“Based on the message he left with the flowers, he’s displaying early indicators of stalking behavior. If that’s escalated far enough, it’s possible that Josh might really believe that the woman that he’s taken is Y/N.” Spencer says, and you nod. For her sake, you hoped not. He had a hell of a lot of pent up anger towards you, and you didn’t want this poor girl to take the brunt of it. 

“What’s her name?” You asked, quietly, and with everyone talking over you, you almost think no one hears you, until Aaron leans in a little closer. 

“What’s that, darling?” He asks. 

“What’s her name?” You say again, and his brow furrows in confusion. 

“Who’s name?”

“The girl who’s taking the beating with my name on it right now,” you spit out, and the rest of the team stops talking over you. “The least I can do is learn her name and go talk to her parents.” You say, packing your stuff up.

“Her name is Anna Reardon. We’ll send the address to your phone,” Emily tells you, and you turn on your heel and walk out. 

tagging:  @romanogersendgame @wanniiieeee      @zheezs14      @greeneyedblondie44 @angelic-kisses13  @baumarvel @ssamorganhotchner  @ijustwannaread2k19    @rexit-mo @shmaptainhotchnersmain @qtip-blog @averyhotchner  @the-modernmary @itsmytimetoodream @choppa-style @hotforhotchner11 @infinite-tides @isthatme-thatsme @g-l-pierce @bakugouswh0r3 @ssahotchie @sleepyreaderreads @rousethemouse

[cheri-translates]

[CN] S2 Gavin and MC in Chapter 11 (Part One)

🍒 Warning: This post contains detailed spoilers from Season 2 🍒

I’m focusing on the interactions between Gavin and MC, not the plot (because the latter requires extensive time and effort that I can’t spare). So the less essential parts are in bullet-point form :>

Phone calls: First l Second

To investigate an issue related to pathological changes in Evolvers, MC heads to a hospital to talk to the director (who is a genuinely kind man)

While they’re discussing the issue, the alarm suddenly goes off, and two Evolvers barge into the office and bring them to the main lobby

Cutting the drama short: Five Evolvers have taken everyone in the hospital hostage. They don’t have weapons, and are subduing everyone with their Evol. The person leading them is a 43-year-old man called Yang Ping, who has a compression Evol. This means he can exert pressure on surrounding objects at will, and can even destroy a person’s organs

Yang Ping releases the Evolvers, but MC decides to stay because she wants to figure out his plan

MC notices a little girl crying, so she controls her own trembling and comforts the girl:

Girl: T-they suddenly barged in! And they said all of us would become hostages... and that they wanted to negotiate with the STF!

A man without a left hand offers the girl a tissue (this fact sounds really random but it’d make sense later!)

MC tells the girl not to worry because her boyfriend the STF will never lose to someone who isn’t on the side of justice:

MC: As long as that person is around, STF will never cower, and will definitely protect everyone’s safety.

The STF arrives at the scene, and Yang Ping uses a row of doctors as a meat shield while he negotiates with the STF

Gavin is in complete Commander Mode™:

Gavin: Your actions have amounted to “endangering public safety”. Release the hostages right now, and the STF will take this into consideration for leniency in punishment.

The moment I hear Gavin’s voice, I finally heave a sigh of relief.

He seems to be standing among a small formation towards the front. Even though I can’t see his face clearly, I know he’s there.

At this moment, it’s as though all the fear is gently pried open by a gust of formless wind, and the leaves outside sway slightly.

As though it’s saying - Don’t be afraid. 

Yang Ping states that the recent series of Evolver assassinations and Evolvers going missing shows how they aren’t being protected sufficiently. He demands for the STF to promise to change the way Evolvers are managed, and to give them better privileges and protection. If the STF refuses, they’d start dealing with the hostages one by one

MC spots Gavin with his team, and thinks he can’t see her from where he is

The little girl starts crying again, and it annoys one of the kidnappers. MC is worried he’d harm the girl, so MC speaks up, admitting that she’s an Evolver and that she fully agrees with what Yang Ping said. She tries to reason that hurting a civilian would be ruining the entire plan because they’re the bargaining chips to negotiating with the STF. If any of the civilians were to be harmed, STF would never listen to their requests

The kidnapper recognises MC as a suspect of the assassination incidents, which makes MC think that there’s more to this kidnapping situation than merely waiting privileges and protection

After all, aside from a few people in STF, no one should know that she’s a suspect i.e. there might be a spy in STF PLEASE DON’T BE TANG CHAO LOL

-

Now, we switch to Gavin’s perspective of the same events

He has received surveillance footage of what's going on in the hospital, and is discussing the issue with Tang Chao and Eli while figuring out how best to get the hostages out...

All of a sudden, Gavin’s pupils widen slightly, eyes focused on one spot, and he freezes.

In the footage, after a stream of Evolvers have left, a girl remains at the same spot. She glances around her surroundings, then smiles as she says something to a little girl, and appears to be consoling the other party quietly.

At this moment, he feels as though his heart has stopped.

What’s she doing here?!

Gavin realises that his right hand is trembling. He clenches it into a tight fist, fingertips buried in his palm, silently turning white.

His mind is a complete blank. All he wants to do is rush in and bring the girl out safely.

Gavin closes his eyes, taking a few deep breaths. When he opens his eyes again, they are filled with an even colder aura.

The sound of his beating heart in his chest gets louder with each beat, as though questioning his forced facade of calmness.

He watches as MC talks to the kidnapper, and realises that MC is using this method to show that she has faith in him

At this point, a call from the “other side” tells him to give up on negotiations and rescue the hostages using force

But Gavin refuses because there’s still time to negotiate, the hostages would be put at great risk, and STF will only use force when truly necessary

The “other side” says it’s an order. So Gavin says that the STF will handle problems using its own ways and hangs up LOL

Tang Chao: Captain Gavin, no matter what you say, the Special Operations Team will only listen to your orders.

Eli: Same for the STF.

A chilly wind brushes the faces of everyone on the scene, but the trust and determination in their eyes remain resolute.

Eli: Also, we aren’t the only ones in this battle.

Gavin smiles, returning his gaze to the small figures in the footage. The girl is standing before the man firmly, reminiscent of a flower that can never be destroyed. 

Gavin: She’s always been very brave.

The smile on his lips is abruptly tucked away. Gavin leans in closer to the screen, and sees that the girl is being brought closer to the entrance by one of the kidnappers.

--Every nerve in his body tenses up once again.

-

And we return to MC’s perspective

As the negotiations progress, Yang Ping tells the kidnappers to bring all the doctors back inside, except one

MC figures out that all this time, the real objective of the kidnappers is to test the STF

Gavin steps forward:

Ever since Gavin and I parted ways at the STF the last time, I haven’t seen him again.

Even though I’ve been asked to report my activities to STF at regular timings, Gavin has been very busy during this period of time, and I haven’t seen him much.

Looking at Gavin in front of me, it seems as though everything else in the world are kept outside a screen, and I can only see his eyes.

His hair is a little fuzzy, but he still looks unstoppable. It’s just that while his eyes have always been determined, they now carry an almost imperceptible worry.

I smile, wanting to tell him that I'm fine. Gavin’s gaze lingers on my face of a few seconds. When he sees my smile, he blinks, then shifts his eyes to the man.

The man and Gavin exchange glances for a few seconds. The corners of his lips simply tug upwards, pushing me around five metres away from Gavin.

Even though it looks like I’m a supporter whom he has incited, I know that I’m just another hostage.

Yang Ping gives Gavin a choice - If Gavin pushes that one doctor out of the window, the kidnappers will release everyone in the hospital and will turn themselves in. But if he chooses to save the doctor, he’d blow up the entire hospital

Basically, the kidnappers are trying to stir hate towards STF because no matter which option he picks, it’s going to cause public uproar

Gavin is quick to point out that the kidnappers haven’t directly hurt any of the civilians. Because they are representing Evolvers, they can’t hurt anyone or it’d give all Evolvers a bad name

Gavin, who represents the STF, has to find a perfect way to resolve this matter - no one can die, even the kidnappers

What he says are actually hints on what MC should do

MC gets it  - she pretends to fall to the ground, and cuts her own arm with a dagger she’s hidden

The reason for this is because Yang Ping’s plan rests entirely on his status as “helping Evolvers”. If MC manages to show that Yang Ping would hurt Evolvers too, his plan would fail

While Yang Ping is shocked, Gavin rushes forward and flips Yang Ping onto the ground. The Special Operations Team rush out and arrest them using Evol-neutralising handcuffs

Gavin arrests Yang Ping:

Gavin: Evolvers and humans - neither will be sacrificed, including you. If you think there’s only a superficial peace and balance now, and that you can’t see normal civilians and Evolvers walking down a common path, just open your eyes and look. I’ll walk down that path.

It dawns on MC that she barely made it out of this situation alive, and she shivers. Then, she’s drawn into someone’s arms:

Lifting my head, I see that Gavin’s handsome eyebrows are scrunched up. His hand is holding bandages he took from the medics.

Gavin: You were supposed to pretend. Why did you actually cut yourself?

MC: Doesn't this have a greater impact? It’s more realistic.

He sighs slightly, holding my wounded arm gently and bandaging it meticulously.

Watching as Gavin leans over as he helps me with the bandage, the fear I had suppressed earlier suddenly pour out from my heart like a tidal wave.

MC: I won’t be this rash next time.

Gavin: There won’t be a next time.

When our eyes meet, I see the worry and earnestness in Gavin’s eyes. 

MC: Okay, there won’t be a next time.

Thinking that the matter has been settled, MC waves at the hospital’s director from afar, and he smiles at her

A red dot suddenly appears on his forehead, and Gavin tries to rush to the director... but he’s too late, and the director is shot by a sniper... T^T

MC is dumbfounded as she takes in everything that’s happening - shrill cries from the crowd, the STF members who are once again on guard, and the director on the ground

Gavin kneels behind the director. Perhaps if he made it a second earlier, he could have prevented this tragedy.

The STF uniform, which has always been white, is now dyed completely red. There are specks of blood on his face, and droplets of blood roll down the sides of his face slowly.

He kneels in place, and doesn’t turn back for a very long time. The hands at his side tremble slightly, and he quickly balls them into fists. 

After a long while, Gavin turns his head expressionlessly, looking at a shocked Yang Ping.

Yang Ping shakes his head repeatedly, muttering softly as he backs away.

Yang Ping: No... this isn’t right...

He stops backing away, as though something dawned on him. Then, he suddenly bursts out laughing.

Yang Ping: ...looks like the people from GRAY RHINO are even better.

In the next second, the sound of a gunshot once again fills the air.

Yang Ping is standing in position, and I watch as blood spatters from his temple.

His eyes are wide open, is in a daze for a moment before toppling to the ground.

Another patch of crimson spreads on the ground. Yang Ping’s twitches slightly, as though saying something, yet no sound comes out.

His eyes remain open till the end, staring at Gavin.

I’m in a state of shock as I take everything in, and feel unsteady on my feet.

An incredibly icy aura exudes from Gavin’s body. He stands up slowly, like a silent volcano.

Gavin: Who was it... who fired the gun?!!

I seem to hear something which had been crumbling finally caving in.

-

MC gets home somehow and falls asleep LOL same

At the STF office, the Special Operations Team are gathered and there’s a really heavy atmosphere in the air

Tang Chao verifies that the bullet that shot Yang Ping wasn’t from the STF’s sniping team. Another member pipes up and adds that even so, it belongs to STF

Gavin asks for further details, but another officer reports that there are no leads. There’s a possibility that an Evolver did it

Gavin orders them to investigate properly

And sounds really fierce (つω`｡)

Afterwards, Gavin walks along the street and some random man without a left hand steps out of an alley and greets him with: “Captain Gavin, this is the first time we’re meeting.”

-

By the time I’m roused awake from the heavy downpour, it’s already late at night.

With a sigh, I get up from the sofa and decide to draw the curtains. 

Large droplets of rain continuously pelt onto the ground. I stare outside the window in a daze. When my eyes focus, I see a familiar figure downstairs.

MC: ...Gavin?

Taking an umbrella, I rush downstairs. Gavin’s profile enters my vision -- and my heart is tugged.

I have no idea how long he’s been standing in the rain, and his entire self seems to be soaked in it.

The rain has soaked his entire body. Drenched hair sticks to the sides of his face, water droplets continuously sliding off his chin.

The STF uniform is in a mess, sticking to his body. The organisation’s emblem on his chest has been washed till it has lost its metal shine. 

I step out of the apartment building slowly, rain pouring down.

I suddenly recall the night he spent accompanying me in the rain a very long time ago.

--it’s as though he’s lost his drive, removed all his defences, and it gives one heartache and sadness.

I have no idea why Gavin is standing here right now, but across the curtain of rain, I seem to once again see that careful heart.

Gavin seems a little surprised by my appearance. His unfocused pupils constrict slightly, and his shoulders tremble imperceptibly.

Gavin: ...why aren’t you asleep?

MC: ...if I were asleep, were you planning to stand in the rain for an entire night?

I walk over slowly, lifting the transparent umbrella over our heads. Rainwater patters against the surface of the umbrella, becoming the only sound in this silence. 

Gavin doesn’t speak. His eyes, which have always been shining with light, seem to be layered with the colour of the gray clouds overhead, and an unspeakable dullness. 

There’s neither grief nor anger in them. All that’s left is helplessness.

Very slowly, his lips finally twitch slightly, breaking the silence.

Gavin: Aren’t you going to ask?

MC: Nope. If you want to talk, I’ll listen and resolve the problem with you. If you don’t want to talk, I’ll keep you company as we stand here, then...

Gavin: Then?

MC: Trust you.

I smile as I reach out, brushing the drenched fringe in front of his forehead, revealing his beautiful amber eyes.

MC: No matter what happens, I’ll always trust you.

Gavin’s eyes widen slightly. The hands beside him are clenched into fists, trembling slightly.

Gavin: ...you once said that every single one of my bullets are for justice. If you were to find out that perhaps I can’t really do that... 

Gavin: ...what would you think?

I’m stunned.

Gavin’s voice is faint, a solid darkness hidden in his words.

His entire self seems to be encumbered by a layer of thick sheet of iron. His back is straight, as though waiting for a final judgment.

MC: I’d look for the truth behind it.

Gavin purses his lips and doesn’t say a word. But I know that he’s waiting for my answer solemnly.

MC: Even if there was really such a bullet, I’d want to further verify why that bullet strayed from its course. And whether, at that point of time when the situation happened, there was really a violation of justice?

Gavin watches me quietly, and I smile as I look at him.

MC: No matter what reason you had for standing there, and for shooting that bullet, you would have done so based on what you saw, heard, and the result of thinking. And I believe in it, and I believe in your judgment at that point of time. That bullet definitely has its meaning.

I say these things instinctively, hoping to give him even the slightest bit of support and courage.

The dim streetlights meld into the water droplets, reflecting into Gavin’s eyes.

The rain gradually lightens. The air Gavin breathes out turns into a white patch of mist in the air. 

Gavin: I’ll find the truth behind this matter. I can’t use “I don’t know the true state of affairs” as an excuse. If it’s something I’ve done, I should take responsibility.

Gavin takes the umbrella in my hand, his eyes carrying with them resoluteness and certainty.

Gavin: I don’t want to fail to live up to your trust, but I... have to face up to the truth. To give you, and to give those who no longer have a voice, a genuine explanation.

-

Two days pass after that rainy evening

Even though MC doesn’t know what Gavin is up to, she can tell that it’s something important and dangerous

She’s at STF to give her regular report, and Gavin walks into the room. His eyes are bloodshot, and he looks thinner and more pallid, and she knows that he’s been working very hard to live up to that promise

I think of comforting him, wanting to tell him not to overdo it, and to take care of his health.

However, the moment I open my mouth, all my emotions morph into a dry greeting.

MC: Gavin, have you been really busy lately?

Gavin doesn’t respond. He simply places his palms on the table between us, his expression solemn as he comes closer to me.

Gavin: Are you investigating the Evol assassinations?

MC: Of course. I’m still a suspect, so I need to think of ways to clear myself of suspicion.

Gavin: This matter could be even more serious than you imagine.

Looking at Gavin’s somewhat resigned expression, I smile.

MC: Things have already reached this stage. What could be even more serious than this? Don’t worry, I know what I'm doing. But are you going to do something dangerous again? You’ve got to take care of yourself. If you need my help, just say it. After all, I’m Nox from Black Swan!

I deliberately use a light-hearted tone, and the corners of Gavin’s lips tug upwards as well.

Gavin: Proudly saying that you’re from Black Swan in the STF - you don’t want to leave, do you?

MC: ...

I freeze. Only when I see the teasing glint in Gavin’s eyes do I realise that he’s toying with me. 

At the same time, I release a sigh of relief. At least Gavin is still in the mood for jokes.

Gavin: To be honest, what I need to do is indeed very dangerous, and I need more people whom I can trust completely. With your help, my investigation will definitely progress much more smoothly.

He lifts his head to look into my eyes directly. The light in his amber eyes reveal trust and sincerity.

I’m left astounded. Receiving such an invitation from Gavin for the first time makes my mind lag a little.

MC: Gavin, what you're saying is... that you’re letting me help you?

Gavin: You didn’t mishear.

The faint scent on his body fills my surroundings. In my trance, I even think that a gentle breeze brushed my cheek. 

Gavin: ...of course, from my personal perspective, I wouldn’t want you to be involved in such matters. So, you’re free to reject.

MC: Why would I reject! I’m really happy to be of help.

Gavin stares deeply at my smiling face. After a long time, he reveals a somewhat relieved and resigned smile. 

Gavin: Thank you, MC.

Part two: here

[matthiasschoenaertsdaily]

Matthias Schoenaerts full interview for De Morgen Magazine (original in Flemish, translated into English by @matthiasschoenaertsdaily​)

Interview by Els Maes, published on November 28, 2020

Even a global pandemic will not destroy the optimism of actor Matthias Schoenaerts (42). Because he knows from his own experience how much beauty can emerge from the most hopeless situations. "I've had my back against the wall often enough, I'll always find a way out."

A bleak autumn day on a concrete square. There is lukewarm coffee, lukewarm Chimay and rolling tobacco. At dusk we see the silhouettes of fat rats that shoot past our ankles. And yet Matthias Schoenaerts will tell us in a glowing argument that this, here and now, is the very best place to be. That there is so much beauty to discover, he says. Le paradis c'est ici. As long as we want to see it.

"It's strange to say in this unpleasant period, but I've enjoyed the past few months enormously. It's the first time in ten years, since Runskop actually, that I'll be home for a long period of time. This is so beneficial: I am photographing, painting, writing. I can devote time and attention to the very simple things we'd otherwise race past."

"Seriously, look at that," he says, picking a leaf off the ground. "Those colors, that pattern. I can spend hours looking at the pure beauty of the things that surround us."

Above us a pigeon is wreaking havoc between the thinned out foliage. "While you are singing about the wonderful beauty of nature, that animal is going to shit on our heads," I say. "And that too will be a s-p-l-e-n-d-i-d moment," Schoenaerts answers.

Matthias Schoenaerts is Belgium's most successful international film star. But here and now, on a bench in his hometown, he is a technically unemployed actor, an all-round searching artist, but above all: fighter of cynicism. "I refuse to go along with all negativity and fear. The true battle today is cynicism versus courage. And I always choose the latter."

We're on the Oudevaartplaats, the square that everyone knows as the Antwerp Bird Market, and where Schoenaerts' childhood memories are waiting to be picked up. It comes into the conversation just like that: Brando, the cute chow chow that little Matthias got from his mom on this square, when here on the bird market puppies were still sold. "My dogs were my great loves. The home situation was often difficult, and with my dogs I found security. We had three chow chows, those fluffy lion dogs with a blue tongue. Brando was the first, I loved that animal."

"We lived in a small apartment with three dogs, anything but ideal. One day we let them go, to people with a large estate. That was heartbreaking."

There is a beautiful lesson in that, about love and letting go. It would have been selfish to keep your dogs if you could give them a nicer life elsewhere, wouldn't it?

"Absolutely, but I obviously didn't process that departure properly. Brando still appears in my dreams, after all these years. Then he returns home unexpectedly, and am I mad with joy.

"I often dream about my parents too: that reunion is so intensely beautiful and warm. Oh, there you are, finally! Those dreams are true to life, and the awakening is rock-hard."

Is that one of the reasons why you like being here in Antwerp, because here you feel more connected to the people that you loved?

"This is my home, my zero, I can't imagine a place in the world where I would rather live. When my mom was alive, and especially when she got sick, in between filming I tried to be with her as much as possible here in Antwerp. In the meantime I have an apartment here, my first permanent place of my own, but I've hardly been there in recent years. Now I can finally enjoy my home, I find peace, tranquility and inspiration there. I have seen fantastic sunsets on my roof terrace in recent months. So much beauty, and you can just admire it there, every day, for free. As long as you take the time to enjoy it.

"Normally I would have started filming again in April, and left for a hectic ride of at least two years, with projects that would follow each other quickly. I was at my limits, sooner or later I was going to bang my head against the wall. I feel how beneficial it is to slow down for a moment. David Lynch said that: 'Just slow things down and it becomes more beautiful'.

"As an actor you have to work in a big machine, according to a tight schedule. I have now discovered the pleasure of creating things for myself very spontaneously in my own cadence."

Is that work something you ever want to go public with?

"I want to do something with my photography someday, but I'm in no hurry. I'm also writing a film script, I've had an idea for a trilogy for a long time. It's a very personal project, and it takes time for it to crystallize into something very pure and proper. Maybe those films will come within ten years, maybe never.

"The most important thing is to keep busy. You have to look for something, anything, on which you can focus your passion, love and attention. Of course I would like to return to set, and those projects will come back later. But if I can't change anything about a situation, why worry about it?

"From a very young age I learned that there are not many certainties in life, I adapt easily to unexpected circumstances. There is one thing I can't stand, and that is feeling powerless. I never want to be the victim of a situation, I will always think: what can I do myself? Which way can I go? I have often enough stood with my back against the wall, I will always find a way out and take matters into my own hands."

So Schoenaerts decided to use this period to put Zenith - his artist name as a street artist - to hard work. Since the lockdown he has already created nine impressive murals, including one in the courtyard of the Oudenaarde prison, and one at the beginning of this month in the Antwerp Begijnenstraat, on the bare walls that form their furthest horizon for the prisoners. A moving event, he says. Not only by the touching conversations with inmates, and the forty-minute applause with which the prisoners welcomed him. "The mural contains a poem by my father. While I am there painting those beautiful words of my dad on the wall, I suddenly remember that my mom used to give meditation lessons to the prisoners there in the Begijnenstraat. I had completely forgotten about that until I stood there. How beautiful that is. Suddenly I felt my parents very tangible, very close to me."

It's a bit funny: a long time ago you were arrested for graffiti, now they invite you to prison to make a mural.

"I used to tag a lot, but I really don't like the vandalism that sometimes comes with graffiti. Defacing a facade, that's just ridiculous. But trains, bridges, tunnels.... frankly I think that's the max. Soon I'm going to do another oldskool graffiti wall, with some friends, back to the roots. But with permission, yes."

Scary dudes

The problems of the Belgian detention system are well known: outdated infrastructure, overcrowding and a system of pre-trial detention which means that some people are innocently stuck for years. Schoenaerts: "These are human lives that are destroyed by the Belgian state, isn't that scandalous?"

Schoenaerts' engagement started years ago, after meeting Hans Claus, prison director in Oudenaarde, who contacted him when he wanted to organize a screening of Le Fidèle, the film by Michaël R. Roskam starring Schoenaerts. Claus has been fighting for many years for a reform of our detention system, among others with the non-profit organization De Huizen, small-scale centers that are more focused on rehabilitation and reintegration of the detainee. How does Schoenaerts see his role? "Those murals are a kind of lubricant for me, to get attention for this problem. I am not the expert and I am certainly not a politician. This injustice touches me as a human being, and my message is clear: please listen to the people who have been working hard for decades to reform the system from the inside."

In The Mustang, your last feature film to be seen here before the lockdown, you take on the role of a prisoner who learns to tame wild horses and his demons. Has that role changed your vision?

"That rehabilitation program with mustangs really exists, and the chance of recidivism is almost zero percent. I had a conversation in the Begijnenstraat with the minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne (Open Vld, ed.), and he told me that the chance of relapse here is 40 to 50 percent. Isn't that madness?

"That's what fascinates me most of all: what do we do with those detainees while they're stuck? How can we help to break the destructive patterns that put them in prison? Imprisonment is a punishment in itself, but someday we'll send those people back into society, so let's mainly support them in their self-development.

"In preparation for The Mustang, I visited prisons in the U.S., and talked to men who had been detained for 20, 30 years. Heavy guys: Aryan Brotherhood (powerful crime syndicate of neo-Nazis in American prisons, ed.), Mexican gang leaders... real scary dudes. You know what those say to me? That they live in fear every day, but they must not show weakness. Psychological counseling and things like that have their value, but that's often very cerebral. I especially believe in the healing power of art. Imagine that inmates can express all those fucked up emotions through art: I think that there is an enormous potential in this."

I heard you're playing with the idea of giving acting lessons to inmates?

"That's not a concrete plan yet, but I would love it if people from the creative sector would commit themselves to this: musicians, sculptors, dancers. Or writers who help prisoners put their own story into words.

"The cultural sector needs to start sticking its neck out. The sector is lying flat, and that's terrible. But we have to keep moving. We can all do something for the community, without being paid for it. Planting small seeds, doing something good for your fellow man, something beautiful always comes out of it."

Had you been to a prison before The Mustang?

"To visit friends, yes. In Merksplas, Hoogstraten, Hasselt, Dendermonde... We shouldn't talk about that any further. A prison is deep tristesse. Who dares to call that 'a hotel', shame on you."

This summer you painted an impressive mural in Paris in honor of George Floyd, murdered by American officers. And in Ostend last week a new mural was unveiled, with a 'decapitated' Leopold II. Is activism an important part of your street art?

"Graffiti used to be more of a style exercise for me, you want to create things that get noticed within the scene. But gradually I felt like communicating with a wider audience. I like to incorporate a lot of symbolism in my paintings, such as the cracks I photograph all over the world and then magnify them in another place. And the praying hands, a universal image of hope and faith in yourself. Art has the power to speak to our deepest emotions, and that is what binds us to the other. Connectedness, empathy, harmony, solidarity, that's the essence for me."

The corona crisis is one big exercise in empathy and solidarity. Sometimes we seem to lack that.

"I refuse to surrender to cynicism, and I surround myself with positive people who do beautiful things for others. This period would lead us to insights: how do we deal with each other? Do we help each other, or is it every man for himself? A human is such a wonderful creature, but we mess it up so much for ourselves.

"Yeah, I know. Some people who read this will think: this guy is smoking too many joints. (laughs) I don't smoke joints, and I'm not an unworldly idealist. But I will always focus my attention on the good, in spite of everything."

If you always want to see the good in people, are you sometimes disappointed?

"Yes, of course. I'm not a naive brat, I've learned to guard my boundaries. I can't please everyone all the time, and I don't let anyone rush me. I react badly when people put pressure on me because they want things from me. The perception of me that others have of me, I can't control. I don't let myself put out of balance easily anymore."

I saw that on your Instagram Stories you warned about fake profiles on social media, of people pretending to be you. That made you visibly angry.

"Really, that makes me angry. Every day I receive screenshots from people who have been tricked by crooks who approach innocent victims with my name and my pictures. There are stories of fans who have paid thousands of euros because they were promised a meet-and-greet with me. How disgusting is that? One person has transferred 14,000 euros to someone who pretended to be my manager.

"Of course, that raises questions about how gullible some people can be. But I've seen those chat conversations for myself: those criminals are terribly sneaky. They know how to play on the vulnerabilities of their victims in a very cunning way. This is manipulation and swindle of the filthiest kind.

"Really, I get physically unwell when I think about it. How can someone be so mean? If I ever catch these guys, I'm gonna bash their skulls in, I'm not kidding. Sorry."

Or: those crooks get a jail sentence, where you're going to give them acting lessons.

(laughs) "Okay, let it be clear that I think everyone should be punished for their crimes. My commitment to the prison system is not a plea for impunity, and I certainly don't want to romanticize crime.

"But when someone abuses innocent people's trust in such a cunning way, the question is: how did you derail so morally? And above all: how can we initiate a transformation in that person? Surely you can't lock someone up and expect that person to suddenly make better choices years later? First such a person has to take responsibility for his own actions."

Do you have something criminal on your conscience?

"No." (Thinks for a second) "No. Thank God. I couldn't live with that.

"I've probably hurt people in my life, like everybody else. Sometimes we just hurt people because of who we are, or because we can't fulfill what others want from us. But I have never harmed anyone consciously or criminally, no."

As a teenager you sometimes came into contact with the juvenile court, for vandalism. Do you think you could have ended up on the other side of the bars?

"Probably, a life can take strange turns sometimes."

What made you sit here today, and not get on the 'wrong' path?

"Wait... that's a good question. There's the one terrible dramatic event that caused a total turnaround in my life: when my dad went into a coma after a psychosis, and I was told he only had 24 hours left to live.

"I was 21 then, thrown out of school for the umpteenth time. I was doing graffiti and wanted to find my way creatively. But I was messing around, going with friends who... Anyway, there was latent danger, it threatened to go a little bit the wrong way.

"And then I got that phone call: come and say goodbye. Bam. The relationship with my father had been sour for years, we hardly saw each other. Until I stood there at his deathbed in intensive care... I only felt love, a wave of emotions that I had pushed down very deeply. That realization was rock-hard: this was it. My father and I will never get the chance to figure shit out, I thought.

"Long story, the rest is known: after 72 hours my father woke up from a coma against all odds. Like a plant: he could not speak, reacted to nothing or nobody. According to the chief psychiatrist, we had to accept that his condition would never improve. That was without the fighting spirit of my mother and me.

"It's because of that unlikely event that I've changed my whole lifestyle. For eight months, my mother and I went to visit my father every day. We talked to him, but he seemed to look straight through us. For hours we sat with him at the psychiatry department of Stuivenberg, how desperate those first months were also. We continued to fight, taught him to talk, to eat, to walk. A miracle, the doctors called it. Bullshit of course. It was love, dedication and stubbornness. Especially thanks to my mother, the lioness who kept fighting for him. And see how much beauty came out of it. My life then received an entirely different impulse.

"I suddenly think of an anecdote I've never told before. After a while we were allowed to take my father to the cafeteria once in a while, or to the garden. But he was absolutely not allowed to leave the hospital. Fuck it. I hid a bag of clothes for him, secretly dressed him in the toilet and took my father to the city. By bus, because I didn't have a driver's license. I wanted to stimulate his senses, test if any memories would come back. He was fond of Our Lady's Cathedral, so that's where I wanted to take him."

Matthiaske, why am I crying?

He plays it out. The written version here is only a dead script compared to the lived-through performance, right there on that dark square, just around the corner of the Arenbergschouwburg, where Matthias made his stage debut as a 9-year-old boy next to father Julien, as The Little Prince.

Matthias shows how he supported his frail dad, and how they shuffled in small, careful steps towards the cathedral. Dad looking at the ground to be sure not to fall. "I say, 'Dad, look up'. He looks up, and I see the tears rolling down his cheeks. I had never seen my father cry. 'Matthiaske,' he says, 'can you tell me why I'm crying?'

"I had already decided then that I would take my father into my house. Overconfident, yes, at that age, but they have become the most beautiful years of my life. Mom came by every day to help. Suddenly we were a bit of a family again, something we had only been for a short time when I was young."

It was at that time that you decided to become an actor. Why did you decide to become an actor?

"I had always resisted following in my father's footsteps. In my youth I mainly wanted to break away from my father, and seek my own path. I didn't want to have anything to do with him and all those loudmouths around him in the theater world. But most of all I was terrified that compared to the great Julien Schoenaerts I would never be good enough.

"Only now do I understand why I then decided to go to the conservatory. Not to become an actor, but to understand my father. We had so many years together, and now that we had been given a second chance, I wanted to get to know him as well as possible. By acting, maybe I could get closer to him." (pauses)

Sentimental fuss

He banishes the tears. It's one of the many things he has in common with his father, he says: they're both very emotional, but they hate sentimental fuss. "Come on, Matthias: breathe," he commands himself.

"Voilà, see how much beauty can come out of misery. What a chain of beautiful things came out of the fight my mother and I put up in the most hopeless situation. Who knows how differently my life would have turned out?"

"There are so many lessons in that. If we just talked about the rehabilitation of detainees, for example. It takes commitment. Not a workshop of two hours. You have to persevere, even in the event of a setback, with no guarantee of a happy ending. That's why I think it's so important to keep telling that story about my dad. Those are the values I believe in: dedication, stamina, attention, love. You can apply that to everything in life. Love is the fuel."

You often talk about your parents as if you want to keep them alive with your words.

"Because my mom and dad are the people I've loved most. With them I shared the most important moments, built the most beautiful memories. That loss is enormous. Life has been really fucking tough since they've been gone.

"That's what grabs me so much in this period. How many people have died of corona in Belgium?"

According to Google, today, on the day of the interview, the counter stands at almost 14,000 deaths.

"Fourteen thousand! Imagine how many people that has an impact on? How many people have suddenly lost their mother, father, brother, sister, best friend or neighbor? Behind those figures lie tens of thousands of poignant stories, of people who see a loved one torn from their lives. That is a mountain of unresolved grief, and far too little attention is paid to it."

Earlier during our conversation a guy had walked past coughing and maskless. It pissed Schoenaerts off: "And whining about masks or strict measures. Grow some fucking balls. Having to say goodbye to a loved one, that's the worst thing."

"Isn't that what this period teaches us? That our time here is limited? And what really counts in life: sharing moments of beauty with the people you hold most dear. All the rest is wallpaper. Having success, making movies, that's all fun. But the day you lie on your deathbed, you really don't think about the professional successes on your resume. No way."

[goddamnitkastle]

The Ring

Happy Valentine’s Day!

So I finished my binge watch of the CW’s Nikita and well, I think we all know by now that I just love ripping off scenarios from other media and making Kastle fics. It’s my schtick and I’m gonna run it into the ground.

So here is an unconventional marriage proposal Kastle fic. Honestly this is probably how it would go anyway so it’s not like it’s beyond the realm of reality.

But first I want to give a huge thank you to my beta reader and editor, the amazing @joanofarkansass. This fic was initially, um, rough to put it nicely. But like a fairy godmother, she made it happen with incredible insight and gentle critique. I am literally indebted to you and I cannot thank you enough.

I also want to thank @evilbunnyking for reading the final draft, their awesome support, and catching every misplaced period and comma. Thank you!

And just a heads up, the canon in this is really screwy. Foggy and Karen know that Matt is Daredevil and Daredevil Season 2 is canon but basically just ignore the rest of the Daredevil/The Punisher Netflix/MCU timeline lol. Frank is a free man and clear of all charges here (yes that is unbelievable but just go along with it please and thank you). This is canon divergence borderlining on AU and slightly self indulgent and well, I don’t care ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Enjoy!

Karen pulls up right behind the police cruiser, about a block away from the 15th Precinct. She gets out and knocks on the windshield window, making Detective Sergeant Brett Mahoney jerk his head up at her in fear for a fraction of a second.

But once he sees her he lets out an annoyed sigh and gets out. Karen crosses the front of the cruiser to get out of the street and onto the sidewalk, trying to hide her laughter from scaring Brett.

“What’s got you nervous, Mahoney?” Karen asks as he joins her and pockets his keys.

“What’s got me... oh, you know, about to watch Frank Castle walk out and be a free man. Again.”

“Nelson and Murdock won the case. Unfortunately this was not the sequel to The People vs. Frank Castle that New York City was hoping for.”

“That you were hoping for?” Mahoney cracks, raising an eyebrow at her.

“No. Well, maybe Ellison was hoping for it, but… look I’m just glad he was acquitted and that justice prevailed. It’ll be a more positive ending to write up.”

Mahoney shakes his head and starts walking toward the precinct. Karen follows and falls into his stride.

“Look, I know he didn’t kill that mobster,” Brett starts. “As crazy as that sounds, given his track record. But he gave us a hell of a time when we arrested him…”

“Do you blame him? In the span of two years, he has been charged and put on trial for murder twice,” Karen says pointedly.

“Well, you didn’t hear me say this but… the guys did a great job convincing everyone that Frank Castle was a changed man.”

“He is a changed man, Brett.”

“Believe me Karen, I know. I thought Frank Castle was scary as a man who had nothing to lose. I was wrong. Apparently I needed to deal with Frank Castle when he’s got someone he cares about…”

Now it’s Karen’s turn to jerk her head up at him.

“What did he say?” she asks.

“Nothing incriminating, your reputation is safe... I guess. But it’s all over the man’s face Karen. He really…”

“I know.”

It’s a tense silence but the look Mahoney gives Karen is more perplexed than judgmental.

“Do Nelson and Murdock know?” he asks.

“Yes.”

“Jesus…”

“We kept it quiet for a while but when he was arrested we had to tell them. They’re… slowly coming around to it. Should only take another couple years for them to be sort of okay with us.”

“Yeah I doubt that,” Brett replies sarcastically.

Karen chuckles half heartedly in response.

He quickly sobers up again though. “Well if you’re both happy then… I am glad. You both deserve some happiness after this shit show.”

“Thank you, Brett. That’s really sweet of you.” Karen says, just barely able to hide the emotion in her voice.

“Like I said, you didn’t hear any of this from me. Alright, let’s go get him.”

Just then, the front doors of the precinct building burst open with Matt and Foggy dragging Frank away from a horde of pissed off cops.

“Shit,” Mahoney mutters. He jogs ahead toward the mob with his hands up to stop their hot pursuit.

Karen takes her .380 out of her purse and speed walks toward the commotion. She honestly hopes she’s not gonna have to use it but she’s glad to have the comforting weight of it in her hand. She catches up to Matt and Foggy as they let go of Frank. Matt tilts his head toward her, then lets out a deep sigh.

“Come on Karen, that’s not…” he says as he gestures towards her hand that’s holding her gun.

“It’s just Mahoney, Matt. They’re gonna kill him. We have to help,” Karen insists ardently.

“No, we have to get out of here,” Matt dismisses with a wave of his free hand.

“I’m with Matt on this one, Karen,” Foggy agrees. “You have no idea how lucky we got with this case. And that none of those cops tried to kill him just now.”

“Exactly, because of Brett.” She turns her attention back to Matt, who has his walking stick in a vice grip. “We can’t leave him behind.”

“The cops are just upset. They’d be stupid to try anything. He is their boss, and at the end of the day they have to follow his orders.”

“How can you be sure of that?” Karen argues.

The frustration is palpable between the three of them. Karen just then notices Frank’s silence. She turns to him and takes in his clenched jaw and that trigger finger of his tapping away against his thigh.

“Frank? Are you…”

Just then several loud shouts catch everyone’s attention. Mahoney is on the ground now and a cop has his gun drawn.

“Oh, that’s not…” Foggy gasps.

“Come on Foggy.” Matt grabs Foggy’s arm, leaving Frank and Karen alone.

“Let’s get to the car, Frank. Before this gets a lot worse…”

Frank’s expression had barely changed so when he whips his head toward her she can’t help but take a step back.

“Give me the gun,” Frank commands quickly.

“What? Why?”

“Give me the damn gun, Karen!”

He snatches it from her hands and runs back toward Mahoney and the cops.

“Where are you going?!” Karen shouts incredulously.

“To get your engagement ring!” Frank shouts back.

Karen is stunned and suddenly, the last month comes into focus for her. The jumpiness of his movements whenever she entered a room before he was arrested. His trigger finger tapping away more than usual during the trial. How his bottom lip began to tremble out of nowhere each time she kissed him.

Karen smiles as Frank bolts past Matt and Foggy. He takes on several cops at once, knocking them down like bowling pins. Karen makes her way to the boys as Foggy raises his arms in disbelief while Matt tries to pull him away.

“Unbelievable! Are you kidding me, Castle?!” Foggy yells. “Matt, can’t you do something?”

“I’m in the wrong suit, Foggy.”

“Damn it.”

“Matt is also technically blind Foggy. Do we really want to open that Pandora’s box tonight?” Karen reminds him.

“Come on, let’s get to the car. Looks like we’re gonna have to make an escape. And figure out how we can keep this quiet...” Matt muses.

“We almost got through this damn trial without issue, I swear on the Nelson name…” Foggy groans as he runs his hand over his face.

“Karen, come on,” Matt says as he passes her.

Brett is the last man standing and both men have their guns pointed at each other. Karen is about to join the standoff when Brett holds his hand out and reaches into his back pants pocket. He reveals a ring box. Frank takes it and starts running toward her.

“Go! Go! Go!” Frank hollers at her.

Karen bolts to the car, makes a beeline for the driver’s seat and slams the door shut. Frank joins her a moment later in the passenger seat, flushed pink and his hand wrapped around the ring box.

...

“I’m surprised you didn’t take me to Metro General. Or get us back in that service elevator at the hotel…”

Frank laughs and Karen is relieved that the last 24 hours haven’t deterred Frank.

“Seriously, what was your proposal plan?” She teases as she pokes him in the arm.

“Just... trust me Karen. Okay?”

The Williamsburg Bridge is shadowed by a deep orange sunset as they walk hand in hand. Frank suddenly stops and Karen’s stomach drops. He turns to her, tears in his eyes as he exhales a shaky breath.

Suddenly Karen can’t catch her breath, everything is about to change and she isn’t sure she is ready for it. “Frank, you don’t have to do this…”

“Yes I do. It’s tradition and I’m a traditional man. And the hell I went through to get this ring to you... I want to do this right.”

He gets down on one knee and Karen covers her mouth with her hand. Frank produces the ring box in his hand and opens it. It’s simple; a small, oval diamond on a silver band. It’s perfect.

“Karen. A long time ago now, in some diner, I told you that you had everything with a man that I thought you deserved to be with. I told you to hold onto it, use two hands, and never let go. But the truth was he didn’t deserve you. And I honestly don’t either. But I will spend whatever remaining days I have to be worthy of someone like you. I love you. Karen Page, will you marry me?”

Karen hoists Frank off the ground, holding his face in between her hands. Any doubt she was holding onto is gone now.

“You had me at ‘Give me the damn gun, Karen.’”

They both laugh as Karen holds out her left hand. Frank takes the ring out of the box, caresses her hand before sliding the ring into place. They crash into each other, their hands wrapped around each other’s necks.

“I love you too, Frank Castle,” she says when they finally break apart. She takes his hand as the darkness settles in around them. But the ring doesn’t feel like the weight of her .380. Rather it feels like it has always been there. Like home. And she’ll fight like hell to keep it that way and so will Frank. They’re in this together now.

[scotianostra]

On January 8th 1697 Thomas Aikenhead was executed in Edinburgh.

So who was oor Thomas, a villain?, a murderer?, a smuggler?, or some enemy of the state? No Thomas's crime was blasphemy who took the lord's name in vain.......this would be comic if it wasn't for the tragic fact that he was executed, unlike the man in Life of Brian, who uttered the words Jehova, Thomas complained that he wished he was warming himself in hell rather than that chilly night walking past the recently built Tron Kirk on Edinburgh's Royal Mile. Well that's the simple story that the tour guides that take you round the Old Town will tell you, there is a bit more to it so I will bore you with a bit more of the detail.

Thomas Aikenhead came from a well-to-do family in Edinburgh, his father being listed as a surgeon but more probably an apothecary, a dispenser of herbs and potions. Both his parents were dead by the time he became a student at Edinburgh University at the age of 16 or 17.

His mother had been a daughter of the manse, and you would think that would have made Aikenhead wary of challenging the established religion of the time, namely the all-powerful Church of Scotland, especially while still a student and under the constant gaze of professors, lecturers and, as it turned out, his fellow students.

These were the dying days of a curious period in Scottish history. Aikenhead would have been four when the ‘Wizard of the West Bow’ Major Thomas Weir was executed in 1670. Weir was by day an extreme Calvinist but by night an incestuous Satanist and it takes no great leap of reason to see that an impressionable young boy might well have been affected by the trial and execution of a local celebrity that lived not far from him.

The 1680s was also the ‘killing time’ for the Covenanters when many died because of they worshipped their same god in differing ways!

Thomas was a keen student and an avid reader, he may or may not have known and Edinburgh bookseller,  John Frazer, who had been prosecuted after admitting either reading, or being in possession of Charles Blount’s Oracles of Reason a book I know nothing about but gather it relates to Deism, which questioned the existence or more importanyly, non-existence of God or Satan, Frazer had repented ad as it was a first offence was sackclothed and jailed in the old Tolbooth for a number of months.

Anyway, Thomas had a friend, well he thought he had a friend, Murdo Craig, but Murdo, on the sly had been keeping notes on Aitkenhead, and his dalliances with blasphemous ideals, we know that because they formed a large part of the indictment against Aikenhead.

“Nevertheless it is of verity, that you Thomas Aikenhead, shakeing off all fear of God and regaird to his majesties lawes, have now for more than a twelvemoneth by past, and upon severall of the dayes within the said space, and ane or other of the same, made it as it were your endeavour and work in severall compainies to vent your wicked blasphemies against God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, and against the holy Scriptures, and all revealled religione, in soe far as upon ane or other of the dayes forsaid, you said and affirmed, that divinity or the doctrine of theologie was a rapsidie of faigned and ill-invented nonsense, patched up partly of the morall doctrine of philosophers, and pairtly of poeticall fictions and extravagant chimeras, or words to this effect or purpose, with severall other such reproachfull expressions.”

That was just for starters. Sir James Stewart of Goodtrees, the Lord Advocate of the day, had taken a personal interest in the case and he decided to throw the whole lot of Craig’s testimony at Aikenhead who was arrested in November, 1696, and charged under the Blasphemy Act of 1661 which carried the death penalty.

He also charged Aikenhead under a more recent act, which made it a criminal offence to ‘deny, impugn or quarrel’ about the existence of God.

The prosecution papers go on to record

“You have lykwayes in discourse preferred Mahomet to the blessed Jesus, and you have said that you hoped to see Christianity greatly weakened, and that you are confident that in a short tyme it will be utterly extirpate.”

For Mahomet, read Muhammad, could young Thomas be an Islam convert in 17th century Edinburgh, I very much doubt it, they just needed to make an example of the young student, and he knew by now that he was in very great trouble and protested in effect that he was guilty only of the sin of being youthful and had been led astray by the books he had read. He also pleaded and repented of his anti-Christian beliefs and was once again a good Presbyterian.

In this way he seems to have thrown himself upon the mercy of the court. There was none. On Christmas Eve, 1696, a jury found him guilty. Sir James Stewart asked for the death penalty and it was granted and “pronounced for doom,” as Scottish judges were still saying well into the 20th century in capital punishment cases.

Aikenhead pleaded for his life to the Privy Council emphasising his youth, his dire circumstances, and the fact that he was reconciled to the Protestant religion. There was some support for the death sentence to be commuted from at least two councillors and two Church of Scotland ministers, but the General Assembly of the Kirk intervened, demanding that Aikenhead suffer “vigorous execution to curb the abounding of impiety and profanity in this land”.

In his last letter to friends, written in the Tolbooth prison in Edinburgh as he awaited execution, Aikenhead at last gave a plausible explanation for his conduct – that he had been a disappointed seeker after truth.

He wrote: “It is a principle innate and co-natural to every man to have an insatiable inclination to the truth and to seek for it as for hid treasure. So I proceeded until the more I thought thereon, the further I was from finding the verity I desired.”

In truth, in a repressed society the student had just gone too far in rejecting the doctrines of Christianity calling it “feigned and ill-invented nonsense”

Aikenhead went to this day 1697, hanged on the scaffold at Shrubhill between Edinburgh and Leith. It is said that before he died he proclaimed that moral laws were the work of governments and men.

In his hand as the noose was placed around his neck was the Holy Bible.

The execution angered some people for many years afterwards. The great English historian Thomas Babington Macaulay wrote an account of the hanging and called the execution “a crime such has never since polluted the island.”

He continued: “The preachers who were the boy’s murderers crowded round him at the gallows, and, while he was struggling in the last agony, insulted Heaven with prayers more blasphemous than any thing that he had ever uttered.”

There was other evidence of church authorities being present as Aikenhead died. He was the last man in Britain to be hanged for blasphemy.

According to Arthur Herman in his book How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe’s Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It the execution of Aikenhead was “the last hurrah of Scotland’s Calvinist ayatollahs” before the dawning of the age of reason in the Enlightenment.

Now we can all rejoice in The Enlightenment but a full 30 years later in the small town of Dornoch in Sutherland, Janet Horne was put on trial for the “crime” of having a daughter whose feet and hands were misshapen and who had herself given birth to a son with disabilities. She was the last woman in Britain to be burned at the stake for being a witch, her death bringing to an end the “burning time” when perhaps 4000 Scottish women were executed for the crime of witchcraft.

[spurgie-cousin]

So @gothkrispies​ and @totallyrobophobic​ reminded me of some female cult leaders that I’d forgotten existed, and I thought a good way to kill time would be to make a post about some of the most insane ones. Mostly just because I want too, but also because they’re often overlooked in the cult world. There’s a few I want to cover and I have a short attention span, so this is part 1 of maybe 3? Or two. We’ll see how it goes...here’s Cult Ladies! Part 1:

Gwen Shamblin Lara - The Remnant Fellowship

So, it’s been awhile since I’ve checked in on the bouffant prophet of Tennessee Gwen Shamblin, now known as Gwen Shamblin Lara after her 2018 marriage ‘90s tv Tarzan Joe Lara. If you are unfamiliar with her, she’s a former nutritional specialist turned church cult leader that began her ministry with a weird combination of diets and Jesus, or her preferred term, ‘faith based weight-loss’. Her teachings have often been criticized for being too focused on weight loss at the expense of health, to the point of encouraging eating disorders.

The Remnant Fellowship has also been criticized by families of current members, who say that they use ‘cult-like’ tactics to manipulate their congregation, and that they are told Gwen Shamblin Lara is a prophet of God who they can be punished for contradicting. In 2007 the church also came under fire for their rules regarding child discipline, when the child of a couple who professed to be Remnant members died due to what medical examiners referred to as "acute and chronic" abuse. Gwen Shamblin has denied all claims and taken media outlets to court over this accusation on the ground of slander. Allegations could never be definitively proven by the court, so all charges were dropped.

J.Z. Knight - Ramtha School Of Enlightenment

This one has a personal twist for me, because 5 of my family members have been balls deep in this bullshit for over a decade. In fact one of them, my great-aunt Linda Evans (by marriage, who is pictured in the 2nd photo) is not only the one who introduced my other family to it, but is responsible for converting hundreds of people at the very least.

J.Z. Knight (born Judith Darlene Hampton) was working in TV in Washington state when she claims to have had a revelation given to her by a 40,000 year old spirit named Ramtha, who she claims is one of the first human spirits to have ever experienced enlightenment. According to her, this spirit told her that it came back to tell her that her calling was to spread the message of enlightenment through the (obviously bullshit) method of ‘channeling’, which supposedly involves Ramtha inhabiting her for temporary periods of time and then providing the secrets to the universe. Kind of like a seance, where the channeler is doing a really bad ‘Apu’ impression, spitting out frothy new age nonsense and charging thousands of dollars a year in tuition. 

The Ramtha School puts huge importance on the apocalypse, and their followers are in constant preparation for the end times, leading many people to label them a doomsday cult. I can attest to this, as all of my family members in the cult all have under ground bunkers and nonperishable food supplies to last them for years. 

Also I think it’s worth noting that of 2019 J.Z Knight was (and as far as I know, still is) a big supporter and funder of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

Anne Hamilton-Byrne - The Family

So we wrap up part 1 with Anne Hamilton-Byrne (born Evelyn Grace Victoria Edwards), a narcissistic ex-yoga teacher from Australia. Anne mixed traditional Christian teachings with just the right amount of Hinduism to make it appealing to ‘60s religious defectors looking for a new way to worship. Like many similar religious experiments around that time, the group began to form a cult mentality, with Hamilton-Byrne asserting more and more control over the growing number of followers.

Hamilton-Byrne eventually acquired a remote property called Kai Lama where she housed 14 children, who were either birthed by members of the church or acquired by illegal adoption. In an effort to create better people more pliant church members, she did weird things, like dye all of their hair platinum blonde and give them her surname, and straight up sadistic things like punishing them with starvation diets and giving them hallucinogenic drugs, while isolating them from the outside world and indoctrinating them with The Family’s strict doctrine.

Other completely insane shit associated with her cult included the incidents at Newhaven Hospital, which was a psychiatric hospital run by one of the cult members in the ‘60s-’70s (the cult was then known as Santiniketan Park Association). Many employees were also members. After a 1992 investigation it was found that patients were treated with excessive hallucinogenic drugs, lobotomies, and electro-shock therapy. 

The Kai Lama compound was eventually raided in 1987, after one of Hamilton-Byrne’s adopted children was expelled for behavior and later contacted a private investigator, as well as the Victoria police. Hamilton-Byrne and her husband fled to New York state, where they were eventually arrested in 1993. Victims of her cult have since received compensation for their experiences. Oh, and she’s dead now unlike the others, which is good. 

[roselightfairy]

Don’t know if this is helpful to anyone, but I got mad and sent some emails to reps. Probably won’t do anything, but if anyone wants my templates, I’m putting them below a cut. You’re probably fine to send the exact same template as long as it’s going to different people, but a) I don’t want to assume that my words are worthy of being a template and b) you might want to alter for your own reps. (Mine are Democrats, so the emails are more about pushing for decisive action than decrying their own actions. If you have Republican reps with some shreds of conscience left, some parts of these letters might still work for them. If neither of those things apply...I dunno. You might just want to send them some strong words for your own cathartic satisfaction.) But there’s also one for Nancy Pelosi in her capacity as Speaker, asking her to keep Congress in session so people can be held accountable.

List of senators

Find your representative

Contact Nancy Pelosi

To my senators and representative, asking them to hold elected officials, insurgents, and law enforcement accountable:

Dear [Representative],

Like many Americans, I am shocked and heartbroken by the insurrection attempt in the Capitol building yesterday. I know that facing such an experience in person must have been far more terrifying than hearing about it on the news, and I hope that you are able to recover from the experience.

As Sen. Schumer mentioned in his speech last night, we all know that this coup would not have been attempted if not for the inflammatory rhetoric of the President, which has led to building fears for weeks - even years - of just such an event occurring. But I feel that it is also important to acknowledge that the President's rhetoric and encouragement of this dangerous rage would not have been so effective if it had not been enabled - indeed, continues to be enabled - by many of your Republican colleagues in the House and in the Senate. Even last night, after their very lives were threatened and their building ransacked, over a hundred Republican representatives still voted against certifying the results of a legitimate election. This stoking of fear and distrust cannot be left unchecked, or further violent displays will occur against the Capitol, and in other states, against vulnerable communities and Democratic voters. I am legitimately fearful of a civil war due to this threat, and I worry that the only thing that can prevent it is decisive action to hold those responsible to account for their actions - the president and the members of Congress who have enabled him.

Representatives such as Rep. Omar have announced the intent to impeach and remove the president from office, and Rep. Bush has announced an intention to put forth a motion for the expulsion of the Congresspeople who have enabled him throughout this process. I urge you to support those or any other efforts towards removing those responsible for this and holding them to account. I say again: a failure to acknowledge and punish these serious crimes against our democracy and the people of our nation will only embolden these domestic terrorists in their agendas, and the worst of that suffering will fall on the shoulders of marginalized communities.

Further, I want to ask you to support efforts to hold both the violent mobs and law enforcement accountable for what happened yesterday. We witnessed far more vicious and brutal police responses in multiple cities across the United States over the summer against peaceful Black Lives Matter protestors than we saw against a mob which stormed the Capitol - the heart of our government - and attacked our lawmakers. Fewer arrests were made, and the mobs were allowed to enter and vandalize the Capitol building, a far more serious offense than anything committed anywhere over the summer, even protests that did not remain peaceful. This is absolutely inexcusable - it is an offense to Black protestors and other marginalized communities throughout our country to have been terrorized and brutalized over the summer in protesting for their lives, and now to watch violent mobs parade Confederate flags through the Capitol building with the tacit permission of law enforcement and many Republican lawmakers who still will not speak out against them. Law enforcement and these lawmakers must all be held accountable for this threat to the foundations of our democracy and the insult added to the many, many injuries that our country has already committed against our Black communities.

Again, I hope you are well after yesterday's events. I thank you for your votes to uphold our free and fair elections, and I ask that you continue to vote to defend our democracy by holding to account those who threaten it.

Sincerely, [My name]

...

To Nancy Pelosi, asking her to keep Congress in session so that the above can be done:

Dear Speaker Pelosi,

You aren't my representative in that I don't live within your district, but as Speaker of the House, I feel you represent all of us in some ways. I have admired you for a long time and am grateful for your efforts to stand against the rising tide of anti-democratic sentiment that, as we have seen yesterday, has real consequences. I'm hoping you will continue to stand up for what is right and challenge those who would threaten our democracy.

Like many Americans, I am shocked and heartbroken by the insurrection attempt in the Capitol building yesterday. I know that facing such an experience in person must have been far more terrifying and violating than hearing about it on the news. I am so sorry for what you and your colleagues experienced, and I hope that you are able to recover from the experience.

As many of your colleagues have acknowledged, we all know that this coup would not have been attempted if not for the inflammatory rhetoric of the President, which has led to building fears for weeks - even years - of just such an event occurring. But I feel that it is also important to acknowledge that the President's rhetoric and encouragement of this dangerous rage would not have been so effective if it had not been enabled - indeed, continues to be enabled - by many of your Republican colleagues in the House and in the Senate. Even last night, after their lives were threatened and their building ransacked, over a hundred Republican representatives still voted against certifying the results of a legitimate election. Again, I'm sure that you understand the truth and the threat of this better than I ever could, but I am afraid of what could happen if this stoking of fear and distrust is not left unchecked. I'm afraid of further violent displays against the Capitol, and I'm also afraid of displays in individual states and smaller communities, particularly as other would-be insurgents see how much they are able to get away with. I have never in my life thought I would have to be fearful of a civil war, and yet now I am afraid - and I'm afraid that this violence will fall disproportionately on vulnerable communities and Democratic voters without the means to protect themselves. The only thing that can prevent this is decisive action to hold those responsible to account for their actions - the president, the members of Congress who have enabled him, and those who have taken their words to heart.

I have heard news about representatives announcing intent to draw up articles of impeachment to remove the president from office, and others intending to put forth a motion for the expulsion of the Congresspeople who have enabled him throughout this process. But I have also heard that Congress is not to resume until after the inauguration, and I beg you to reconsider that decision. These next two weeks may well be the most volatile period in our democracy, and I predict that even more violence and domestic terrorism will occur if decisive action is not taken. Please support any impeachment and removal efforts, any expulsion efforts, and accountability for everyone involved in this monstrous act. Please call Congress back into session so that you can be prepared to take action against further displays and demonstrations. A  failure to acknowledge and punish these serious crimes against our democracy and the people of our nation will only embolden these domestic terrorists in their agendas, and the worst of that suffering will fall on the shoulders of marginalized communities.

We the people are terrified. We are afraid for you, for ourselves, for the most vulnerable in our communities, and what might happen next. We cannot afford to wait for the next two weeks and hope that everything remains peaceful, not when so many people have been emboldened to take action and our country has been shamed in the eyes of the world. We don't have the power to do it ourselves, so we have to beg you: please, please take action. Please move forward to remove all of the people in power who have enabled and encouraged the actions that led to yesterday's events. Even if these efforts are not successful, the attempt alone will send a strong message. We cannot afford to let this pass. There needs to be retribution - there needs to be justice - or our country may never know peace again.

Sincerely, [My name]

[morganaofcamelot]

Robin Hood BBC Commentary/Rant - Season 1, Episode 1 - “Will You Tolerate This?”

‘Tis the second time I’m watching the series. During my initial viewing, there were a lot of things I’ve missed, and frankly, I ignored. So I will take it step-by-step, focusing on the four main characters of the show - Robin, Marian, Guy & the Sheriff - as well as their interactions with the others. You must forgive my english, I am afraid, as it is not my first language and some things may get lost in the translation. I won’t go into much of a technical issues (camera angles, unneeded slow-mo’s, not period appropriate costumes etc, but I will mention some that caught my eye. And, expect memes and references thrown in there, cause if my life is a joke, then I will make jokes of others’ lives, too.

Fair warning: some slight cussing, I guess. Thirst over Guy of Gisborne, some distain for Marian. The usual. Enjoy, under the cut!

Oh, almost forgot! @maxkiki @antigonemorris

1.       Robin makes his heroic entrace, saving Allan A Dale. This first scene sets the tone of the series - Allan is poaching, the guardsmen are relentless and want to punish him, clever Robin has conjured a plan of smoke and mirrors. The guards actually believe that there are more than two people surrounding them. A plan that goes well, until Much opens his mouth. (I loved Much btw, but I think they sidelined him later on).

2.       Their escape and the business at the barn(?). Here, we get a better glimpse of the kind of man Robin is, the irresistible womanizer that he is, the dashing rogue! What we learn for Much is that he likes food. The daughter of the man that offered them food for labor, is taken straight out of a dance-pop music video (again, I will not go into detail, but I just had to say it, because it almost made me stop watching the first time). As Robin snogs the girl, Sarah, her father explains to Much (and us) that there’s a new sheriff in town and he is BAD. The father sees them, and goes to fight for his daughter’s honor, and Robin showcases his agility and finesse (the sword fight is silly, to say the least) and his love for flair and flirt.

3.       Locksley, at last. Sentimental Robin walks around the village, sees that the villagers are frightened. Dan Scarlett is the only one who isn’t afraid. He explains the situation even more – that Guy of Gisborne runs Robin’s estates, that he works for the sheriff, and that the punishments have been harsh for anyone stepping out of line.

4.       Fabulous Gisborne enters the scene. Nothing short of a diva, Guy of Gisborne rides into the village, inquiring about stolen flour. Now, this is where it gets interesting. Gisborne is “quiet menace” incarnate. He talks quietly, but threateningly all the same. He asks for the perpetrators, and when no one comes forth, he gives the order to take the one he had already caught back to Nottingham. This is where Robin steps in, there’s a hint that he and Gisborne know each other, but nothing more. When Robin reveals his identity, Gisborne takes it like a champ, even though he is humiliated in front of the peasants.

5.       The manor. Robin tells us that Much is a free man now. Gisborne enters the manor and welcomes Robin, saying that he ran the estate at the behest of the sheriff. Robin, for reasons unbeknownst to us, acts like a prick. Then Guy asks him about the Holy Land, and Robin replies the good old “oh, show me an argument that was ever settled with blood” and Gisborne calls him out on his bullshit, as he should. But Gisborne isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, and lets slip that he has seen Robin fight, and Robin wonders ‘where?’ Where, indeed, sir Guy? Don’t stress over it, we will learn about it somewhere further down the line. Gisborne informs Robin of the sheriff’s feast, and Robin decides to lord it over Guy, saying that he will demand the prisoners to be released. Guy says, ‘I don’t get paid enough to deal with your bullshit, take it to the sheriff’ and thus ends the confrontation.

6.       ‘She’s still unmarried’. So. Robin tells Much that he will pay a visit to the old sheriff, Much wants to get some rest, although out of obligation and love towards Robin, he concedes. Robin offers the food of the feast his servants were preparing to the villagers of Locksley, to Much’s dismay. Now, Edward of Knighton, seems like a man that has lost his mind, he doesn’t recognize Robin and behold! Marian, with a bow and arrow and ringless fingers (as Robin will comment later), telling them to go to hell. Robin tries to work his charm on her – seemingly it doesn’t work. Then it’s the ‘bless you Robin for feeding us’ scene, which is kind of wholesome and cute and I don’t mind it.

7.       They’re taking the hobbits to Isengard They’re taking the sons to Nottingham.: Sorry, I couldn’t resist the joke. Remember Dan Scarlett? His sons have been arrested for stealing that flour Gisborne made a fuss about, and so they were taken to Nottingham, to await the sheriff’s judgement. Nottingham is a shitty place, by the looks of it. Robin promises he will plead their case.

8.       The BIG BAD. My boy Gisborne is pacing around the room, frustrated. The sheriff pulls a Shredder on us for a little while (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reference, because I got range) and laughs in his face because Gisborne didn’t force his claim on the manor, besides having 24 men and Robin only had Much. It’s safe to assume most of the peasants wouldn’t get involved in the fight. See, Guy is taking the high ground here. The sheriff assures him that the manor will be Gisborne’s by the end of the month. (Keith Allen is a scene stealer and he is phenomenal in this role, I love him.) The way he plays the next scene, which is the meeting of the lords of Nottinghamshire, is marvelous. He mocks them in their faces, and nobody bats an eye. Robin makes his entrance, Marian and her father are present, they exchange some ‘pleasantries’, and then Robin throws shade at the Pope (not present), and asks to abolish the taxation policies in favor of free market capitalist schemes (yes, I went there). The sheriff, being an old-fashioned chap, is pro-feudalism, and I imagine him that in modern-day, he would be a Brexit enthusiast/Trump supporter.

9.       The birds. The sheriff is upset and goes to his birds to find some peace. Oh, I thought, he loves animals, there’s a redeeming quality! Oops, he accidentally crushed a bird. Nevermind

10.   Marian & Robin creep me out, part I: Marian asks Robin to drop by her house after midnight, because the house is being ‘watched’. Robin goes into insta-flirting mode, hitting on her, which she likes, despite what she says. (and question: Robin was gone for five years (Marian tells us), the betrothal happened when Marian was sixteen, but people say she is supposed to be nineteen at the start of the series(!) Was Marian fourteen when she got betrothed to Robin, and Robin was like, twenty-five, I guess? Not creepy at all.)

11.   Honey, you’ve got a big storm coming: Robin interviews the flour thieves. We learn that the punishment is for them to hang. Allan A Dale lied to get an audience with Robin, only to learn that his lies would lead him to the hangman’s noose.

12.   The Sheriff owns Robin. Oh, the shade! The sheriff is a straight up savage, one of the original gangsta’s of medieval England. My boy Gisborne is in the back, doing what Gisborne does best; looking hot in leather. Marian walks in and smirking, my boy Gisborne steals her away.

13.   Grow up, Robin. Alright, next scene. (Obviously one of those shot into broad daylight, but made it look like nighttime) Robin and Much visit Knighton and Marian tells them to step in, because they will be seen. Robin decides to be a snarky, jealous bitch. Edward of Knighton explains how the new sheriff got in power, and begs him to play the long game, which we know that Robin won’t do, because Robin is, as Robin does. But he thinks on it.

14.   The hanging #1. Robin walks amongst the peasants, inconsolable. The sheriff and Gisborne come to the courtyard, and commence with the hanging. The sheriff has Much, to prevent Robin interfering with the punishment. A “clergyman” asks for the prisoners to be released and let join the Church. Robin smirks, which means it is his plan. The sheriff’s not buying it. The drum rolls…and the stools gets kicked. Robin goes into Avatar state and starts kicking butt, freeing the prisoners, whilst the whole castle watches and does nothing, before the prisoners are free. Silly battle ensues, Robin saves Much by throwing his sword. A bowman is aiming at Robin, but doesn’t fire. Marian does her ninja trick, saving Robin’s life. My boy Gisborne relishes the fact that the manor will now belong to him.

15.   The gang escapes and makes it into Sherwood where they are ambushed by Little John and his twenty men, who in later episodes disappear.

[whitehotharlots]

Liberal cruelty has consquences

This semester is winding down. As I am desperate to avoid grading student papers, I’ve spent the morning reading longish-form online articles. I just came across one that I feel very conflicted about. The online reaction to it as been troubling. So I don’t know if I have anything particularly coherent to say, but I’d like to talk about it.

The anonymously written piece is titled “What Happened After My 13-Year-Old Son Joined the Alt Right.”  It documents a young man’s journey from a garden variety, liberal-leaning goon to a frothing neo nazi mutant.

The piece is understandably sympathetic, seeing as it was written by the boy’s parent. The writer’s whiny and heavy handed tone caused me, and most of my e-pals, to dismiss it. If anything, the essay showcases an immense failure of parenting. If my child were to ask me to take him or her to a “Traditional American Culture” rally, I would slap the everloving shit of them. Lord knows how many times the kid’s parents had dropped the ball before it ever got to that point.

But then I re-read the start of the article, in which the parent identifies the trigger point for their son’s downward slide:

One morning during first period, a male friend of Sam’s mentioned a meme whose suggestive name was an inside joke between the two of them. Sam laughed. A girl at the table overheard their private conversation, misconstrued it as a sexual reference, and reported it as sexual harassment. Sam’s guidance counselor pulled him out of his next class and accused him of “breaking the law.” Before long, he was in the office of a male administrator who informed him that the exchange was “illegal,” hinted that the police were coming, and delivered him into the custody of the school’s resource officer. At the administrator’s instruction, that man ushered Sam into an empty room, handed him a blank sheet of paper, and instructed him to write a “statement of guilt.”

No one called me as this unfolded, even though Sam cried for about six hours straight as staff members parked him in vacant offices to keep him away from other students. When he stepped off the bus that afternoon and I asked why his eyes were so swollen, he informed me that he would probably be suspended, but possibly also expelled and arrested.

If Kafka were a middle-schooler today, this is the nightmare novel he would have written.

At a meeting two days later with my husband, Sam, and me, the administrator piled more accusations on top of the harassment charge—even implying, with undisguised hostility, that Sam and his friend were gay. He waved in front of us a statement from the girl at the table and insisted that Sam would need to defend himself against her claims if he wanted to prove his innocence. But the administrator refused to reveal the particulars of the complaint (he had also blacked out identifying details, FBI-style) and then hid the paperwork under a book. He declared that it was his primary duty, as a school official and as a father of daughters, to believe and to protect the girls under his care.

Eck… who edited this? It would have worked so much better without a fucking Kafka reference.

So, maybe it was the tone. I dunno. But most readers seem to regard this section as exaggerated, possibly fabricated.  The takeaway was “boo hoo, the nazi kid got punished for sexually harassing  a girl.” Heck: If a reader is truly dedicated to the #BelieveAllWomen mantra, then this description doesn’t warrant sympathy even if it’s entirely true. The kid said something that upset the girl. It wasn’t directed to her and it wasn’t about her. But still, he upset her, and she’s a girl, so he is bad and deserved whatever punishment was doled out to him.

And this got me thinking about my experiences in high school, as a student in the late 90s and a teacher in the mid-aughts. Administrators seemed to always be adopting some or other policy of harsh punishment for bad behavior: zero tolerance toward weapons, drugs, hats, disrespectful posture, electronic devices, swearing, Simpsons t-shirts, and mentally unhygenic reading materials. During dances and social gatherings, my middle school allowed students to bring in CDs from home. That was a decent policy, but anyone who attempted to play a “hip hop” track would receive an immediate suspension for “endorsing violence,” regardless of the track’s lyrical content. My high school adopted a firm anti-bullying policy, but once a boy came to school wearing a gothic dress as some kind of vague transgressive statement, and two separate male teachers called him a fag--out in the open, in front of everybody, as part of the official business of teaching.

Once, in 8th grade, two kids were caught taking over-the-counter caffeine pills. They didn’t get sick or anything; a girl saw them and she narced. They were arrested by the school resource officer, taken in a cop car to the hospital to have their stomachs pumped, and then summarily expelled, their young lives effectively ruined over 50 milligrams of a safe and legal stimulant. At an emergency assembly held the next day, the frog-faced principal croaked out a dire warning that the use of such drugs was strictly forbidden and we would all be subjected to the same fate, should we attempt to sneak in any No Doz. As he issued his stern warning, he slurped gluttonously from a 22-ounce mug of gas station coffee.

The point is, zero tolerance never really means zero tolerance. Rules are always--always, literally always, without exception in the whole of human history--enforced arbitrarily. Harsh policies rarely make anyone safer. They are employed instead to further humiliate and brutalize those who have already been rejected by the system. In my last two paragraphs, I cited the dumbest and most conspicuous examples of arbitrary cruelty that happened to pop into my head. This doesn’t cover the everyday, petty cruelties that teachers and administrators would exact upon kids they simply didn’t like. Without exception, these were the kids who were already marginalized: effeminate boys, masculine but unathletic girls, kids who dressed poorly, kids who spoke with accents, black kids, kids with learning disabilities or behavioral problems. These kids would be given detentions or even suspensions for minor infractions--looking away from the chalkboard, slouching, sneaking in candy, laughing at importune times, etc. It wasn’t the teacher’s fault, of course: zero tolerance and all that. But, strangely, the zero tolerance policies never seemed to apply to the popular, athletic, and/or well-connected kids. If Suzie Creamcheese was caught sneaking some Starburst during Algebra--well, she’s probably hungry, seeing as she works so hard. If Raul, Roofus, or Sheena were caught doing the same? God help them.

Some teachers were nicer than others, of course. Some were downright supportive. Others were simply evil. There was one, when I was in 7th grade, who was particularly repulsive and cruel--no kidding, his admiration of Rush Limbaugh was formative in my early-adopted hatred of American conservatives. He had matted red hair and teeth like a cracked picket fence and would wear a leather jacket out to lunch. Anyhow, he would prattle on about his hatred of kids who “Just. Refuse. To. Learn.” These kids were almost always black. Pure coincidence, I’m sure. He’d make a show of tossing them out of class--sometimes physically--for infractions as minor as getting an answer wrong when called upon. One time, a twitchy white kid who wore the same t-shirt every day called him out: It’s unfair, he said, that I’m getting thrown out of class for getting an answer wrong, when right before me another kid got several chances to respond.

The teacher turned beet red. He got on his knees and put his face two inches in front of the twitchy kid’s eyes. 

“I’m not throwing you out because you got the answer wrong,” he explained. “I’m throwing you out because you are you.”

Again, these are the conspicuous examples. The everyday stuff is harder to describe twenty-five years after it happened.  Most people were not brutalized and they didn’t have a single moment that ruined their life, but they were still exposed to a deeply unfair and cruel system, and such exposure naturally engenders feelings of betrayal, hopelessness, and anger.

Here’s my story--it’s particularly stupid. 9th grade. One day,  I walked into Spanish class, and the large woman who teaches in that classroom before my section grabbed me by the collar, physically lifted me out of my chair, and shoved her moist biscuit of a hand into my face. “What is this,” she demanded.

This was all very sudden. I could see nothing but her hand, which had a distinct fecal aroma.

“I don’t know,” I said.

She removed her hand. I looked down toward desk. She stood silently. I had no fucking idea what she was talking about.

“You’re gonna tell me what you did, right now, or I’m gonna double the detentions.”

I was still silent. Seriously, no idea what was going on. This enraged her. She began to count upward, starting at 3 detentions and stopping at 10, by which point tears were welling up and my face was flushed. I said I seriously did not know. She pointed to a small pentagram someone had engraved into the desktop. The desks, by the way, were movable. Anyone could have done it. She blamed me because she didn’t like me. I served 10 detentions and had to pay over a hundred dollars (a shitload of money for a 13-year-old) to get the desk refinished.

This isn't the end of the world, obviously. But it really, oddly broke me. Before, I had thought that so long as I did was I supposed to and didn’t break any rules, I’d be okay. Now I realized that was bullshit, that any vindictive cunt with a few ounces of power could punish me for any reason, at any time, and I wouldn’t be allowed to mount a defense. That’s the sort of thing that fucks with a kid’s head.  I mean, christ--it’s 23 years later and I’m still kinda pissed about it. I hope that woman is dead.

I regained a sense of control by stealing books from the woman’s classroom. A few times a week, I would grab a textbook when I came in, use it during class, and walk out with it. At the end of the school year, some friends and I burned them in a glorious bonfire along the banks of the Mississippi.

My response was petty and destructive, but I don’t feel any pengs of guilt or shame in remembering it. I had to do something to reassert agency, to feel like I had some control, and I managed to find a way to go about doing it that didn’t hurt anybody or get me into trouble. Regardless of the morality of my particular response, we can agree that kids are now much more surveilled than they were 20-odd years ago, and that minor mischief is now much more harshly criminalized. If a kid finds themself on the outs within their school, there’s really no way they can push back. Their only available avenue of asserting control over their lives is to wander into welcoming communities elsewhere…

One more anecdote then I’m done….

My sister was in high school during 9/11. The attacks were on a Tuesday, and the whole rest of the week was assemblies and talking circles and other such activities meant to assuage fear and gin up the hatred of the dirty brown bastards that done this. Two of my sister’s friends, older boys, were the sort of kids who read Howard Zinn and listened to Jello Biafra’s spoken word records. During one meeting, they expressed exasperation at a girl who was sobbing because she just, like, didn’t know why anyone would do that. The boys certainly didn’t approve of the attacks, but they tried to explain the whole concept of the US being an unhinged and murderous imperial power that had done much worse stuff all over the globe. The audience gasped. The boys were hauled into the principal’s office. They were charged with verbally assaulting the crying girl. One was suspended. The other expelled.

So, I dunno… go ahead. If you think due process is evil, that all victimhood claims are valid and should be taken at face value, and that kids of lesser social status should be demonized and made into criminals for upsetting members of the fair sex, then you do you. That’s fine if that’s what you believe. But please don’t be so naive as to think that the bulk of these newly criminalized behaviors are going to actually be malignant, or that the genuinely malignant behaviors of secure kids will be curbed in any way. Please respect yourself enough to realize that school admins aren’t magic sages with mature moral compasses--a plurality of them were business majors in college, for fuck’s sake. And most importantly, don’t be surprised if the kids you dismiss wind up doing some crazy or awful shit in response.

[adapembroke]

Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition (Poly Sci Edition)

I have gotten requests for a version of my essay “Jupiter/Saturn Conjunction: Nobody Expects the Inquisition” with the astrobabble removed. I have also made some small changes to the three suggestions in response to feedback.

-AP

I recently had the opportunity to listen to a lecture by Christof Niederwieser, who discussed the similarities between the 13th century and today.

The 13th century was a wonderful time for knowledge in Europe. Many of the most illustrious colleges in Europe opened. The church stopped being the gatekeeper of knowledge, and education became accessible to people who were not clergy for the first time since the fall of Rome. Literacy rates soared. Cities boomed. Europe dropped roman numerals in favor of Arabic numerals making math much less cumbersome. All of these developments represent an amazing moment for intellectual freedom, but this time period also gave us the inquisition, making this simultaneously a time of sparkling wonder and terror for free-thinkers and intellectuals.

The Inquisition was a judicial branch of the Catholic Church tasked with trying and prosecuting heretics. It was concerned with thought crimes. People were not put on trial for things they did but for things they believed.

One of the more famous victims of the Inquisition was Galileo who was put on trial twice for the crime of believing in heliocentrism (that the earth orbits the sun). The first time, he was forced to recant and was released on the condition that he promised not to talk about heliocentrism anymore. The second time, he was threatened with torture during interrogation and was sentenced to house arrest. All of his works were banned, even works that he might write in the future. He lived under house arrest until he died nine years after his second trial.

I don’t think I need to make a prolonged argument for why the 13th century resembles our time. We have the rise of the internet, the urbanization of society, and the transportation-oriented gig economy. Gatekeepers are being put out of business, and calculators have become so ubiquitous there is serious debate about whether it’s worthwhile to teach children to do math by hand anymore.

Mirroring the Inquisition, we also have totalitarian movements, cancel culture, and internet flamewars.

Intellectual freedom matters.

The idea of living in a society that criminalizes heretical thought is distressing on many levels to me. I am a person with an emotional need to swim up stream and think for myself. A society that punishes divergent thought has the potential to be deadly for me.

Intellectual freedom is, also, the cornerstone of a free society. It’s not an accident that totalitarian regimes are infamous for banning books. Writing tends to make people better thinkers. Journaling is such a powerful practice because physically seeing your thoughts on paper (or screen) forces you to confront and evaluate them in the physical world.

Reading the thoughts of others challenges your assumptions. A well-formed argument (or an emotionally impactful one) can change people’s minds. It can even help them to be better people.

As the critical theorist Hannah Arendt pointed out in her analysis of the rise of totalitarianism in Nazi Germany, the inability to think allowed ordinary human beings to commit crimes against humanity at a gigantic scale. Without the ability to reflect on the reasons for their actions, they had no need to justify their actions to themselves. They functionally lacked the ability to tell right from wrong.

There is value in reading ideas that are uncomfortable, or even problematic. Developing critical thinking, or the ability to evaluate arguments, necessarily requires you to engage with ideas you don’t like. The brain is like a muscle. It needs to be exercised in order to be at its best. If you are surrounded exclusively by people you agree with, it is easy to become intellectually lazy. Problematic ideas are like resistance training for the mind. They give you the opportunity to think hard, to wrestle with nuanced arguments, and (most importantly) articulate exactly why you think the ideas in question are right or wrong.

This isn’t just important for people who want to think of themselves as intelligent. The ability to evaluate ideas and articulate why certain ideas are right and wrong is necessary if you are going to have a consistent moral system. Feelings are flighty and group-think is easily mistaken for intuition. Evaluating morality based on feelings alone is not enough.

Even if you are certain that you’re right and have weighed the arguments carefully, the choice to use violence or intimidation to force your will on people is problematic. The Inquisition used those techniques, too. It also canceled people.

Ultimately, intimidation isn’t even effective. Punching Nazis in the face isn’t enough. If it was, World War II would have settled the issue. The only way to kill an idea is to slay it with a better argument.

What are we going to do about this?

At this point, you may be panicking. When I realized the implications of potentially living through another Inquisition, I was not at my emotional best.

However, one of the reasons history is worth studying is because it gives us the ability to choose how we are going to respond consciously to the issues of our time.

Not many of us have the power to overthrow despots single-handedly, but we can still make choices about the types of behavior we will put up with in the communities we belong to.

These are some of the things I’m doing to make sure that I don’t support the next Inquisition:

Learn (and practice) critical thinking. Having a college degree (or even a graduate degree) does not guarantee that you learned critical thinking, even if you studied the liberal arts. I know many people with graduate degrees whose preferred way to solve arguments is with verbal intimidation and social violence. There are better ways to fight bad ideas. If you don’t know how, learn.

When you disagree with someone, fight fair. If you are not able to fight fair, and you are able to escape, walk away. It is better to be a noncombatant than to fight without honor. An honorable fight over ideas means engaging with ideas, not insulting people.

Cancel ideas, not people. The enemy that fights the fiercest is the enemy that is trapped and has no path to retreat. I have seen more people become extremists because they were humiliated by people who thought they were wrong than for any other reason. People can change their minds. They should always be given the opportunity to do so without losing their dignity or social standing. Even the Inquisition gave people that right (occasionally).

[sensoriella]

CANON DIVERGENCE: CRIME SORCIERE’S PARDON.

disclaimer: please note that this analysis does not necessarily reflect any personal out of character opinions. people who have murdered and committed violent crimes are obviously bad and deserve punishment. whether i think people like that can be redeemed in a realistic setting is a concept i don't even feel like fathoming in a casual roleplay setting. it’s simply incomprehensible to me because well, i don’t know any murders or criminals in real life. and if i did, i would probably pick the sensible answer and say no, or that it would take an immeasurably long time and probably lots of psychiatric council. ( much longer than the span of the fairy tail series ) BUT, i didn’t major in human psychology or criminal justice unfortunately, so i’m going to work with this pardon thing in a fictional sense the best i can.

it’s difficult to understand how exactly the justice system of fiore works. but given the amount of excused ‘crimes’ and disregarded acts that have occurred for other mages ( not in dark guilds ), the crime sorciere pardon isn’t that hard to believe. also please consider the fact that fiorian royalty isn’t exactly clean of non-violent acts themselves. i mean, they have a group of mage executioners than kill people ( maybe brutally, for all the royals know ) on their behalf! 

mind you, crime sorciere is not pardoned easily. per plotting with other crime sorciere muses, these former dark guild wizards participate in a series of ethic / criminal trials to answer for their sins and past crimes. their trials go on for weeks to months. after the alvarez war, they were held under strict probation ( via magic resistant trackers ) and were not allowed to leave the city of crocus during those trials. their pardon does not occur absent of conditions. so be aware that their freedom doesn’t come without a price, and their lives do not necessarily become easy nor more peaceful.

so how did this become possible ? why were ex-criminals and former fugitives allowed to walk free ?

firstly, why would crime sorciere wizards agree to the pre-trial terms at all? why would they all consent to magic trackers and even bother facing the trials ? they could’ve ran again, fled the country even, in the smoke of post-war chaos. yet it’s hard to believe that a guild who took arms against an enemy in support of fiore would abandon their home now. they could’ve just left the country ages ago, before the war got ugly at least. i personally theorize that they want their voices to be heard. they want to be forgiven in the eyes of the public in pursuit of a better future, because they do not enjoy the fugitive life! isn’t it the main purpose of crime sorciere to atone for their sins and find peace within themselves–––to be able to lead lives where they don’t have to feel shunned and hated by the world? one could argue that defeating zeref was the main purpose, but i truly can’t see that being a strong enough reason for them to risk their lives for years in service of fiore, when they can just leave and forget everything–––let the dark wizard be the light guilds’ problem! it’s always been about a bigger picture for them, whether it be survival, redemption, or just simply being able to live with themselves after all their lives hit rock bottom. it’s also possible that many, if not most, of them had no intention of returning to jail if things went sour. they are tired of running nonetheless. 

going into the trial period, they’re smart enough to know that their participation in the war helped the country immensely ( yes, i do believe they helped. even if most of what canon shows us is members being K.O.ed by august. ) every action, every collaboration, and their appearances at the war, some members making a bigger impact than others, made a difference in bringing down the common enemies. members of crime sorciere are smart enough to know that fiore can’t just ignore that.

so let’s go back to the beginning, to remember the extent of their past transgressions. jellal deceived fiorian leaders, abused his council authority, kept a slave operation afloat, murdered, and attempted to destroy many lives–––all under the influence of a higher manipulator. ultear did . . . most of the same, on top of her allegiance with grimoire heart who were involved in the destruction of various villages and mass killings. meredy was associated with grimoire heart, and it’s likely that she too took part in violent crimes. ( whether she personally killed mages or not ) the oracion seis also participated in the destruction of various guilds and mass killings. the oracion seis members, and this is canonly mentioned, killed for money or as a result of completing jobs. were those deaths warranted? does that make things better? not really, but it makes them slightly more manageable than the others, i’m sorry to say, with the proper conditions. the problem with the oracion seis, is they haven’t been freed from prison for very long, so they appear more unpredictable than jellal, meredy, and ultear. whereas, the original crime sorciere members proved that they are able live ‘peacefully’ in fiore for at least seven years. again they didn’t attack innocents only dark guilds, and they exclusively carried out their work in a non-public manner, for their own sake.

now, breaking convicts out of prison is definitely frowned upon. ultear and meredy participated in the prison break of jellal, freeing him well before the end of his sentence time. in regards to the oracion seis ‘prison break’, please note that one wasn’t even a prison break! the oracion seis was set free per official order of a man of the magic council. if anything, he should’ve been penalized for the same crime that ultear and meredy committed. but he wasn’t because justice is twisted in fiore. so these crimes are also hard to overlook, but with enough persuasion and the right ‘connections’, not impossible.

crime sorciere was always meant to be a stealth operation. they were quiet and lived under the radar. they didn’t disturb the innocent public, or interact with anyone else unless it was absolutely necessary. there main targets were always dark wizards and dark guilds, which provided more help than harm through the council’s eyes. meredy and ultear watched the grand magic games from a mountain, because they didn’t want to be within sniffing distance of the rune knights. it’s clear that they probably spent most of their crime sorciere years that way. while in crime sorciere, the oracion seis didn’t commit violent crimes under jellal’s rein. not just because of jellal watching their every move, but because they were smart enough to keep their heads down. given that fact, one of the platforms that they used to argue is that they have not truly committed any illegal acts after ‘disbanding’ from their original designated dark guild, under their original leader ( re: jellal participating in the gmg. since that act more so involved the grand magic games society, it’s not really within the jurisdiction, or concern, of the magic council. basically, cheating is bad, but it doesn’t warrant incarceration. ) this is assuming that it’s not necessarily an imprisonable offense to be an unofficial guild, so long as they don’t accept illegal jobs or disturb the innocents. which they hadn’t. i assume it’s not warranted to arrest to be in an independent guild, because crime soricere operated for seven years, while the council knew of their existence, without being caught. either the rune knights are terrible at their job ( probably ) or they didn’t care enough if said guild wasn’t bothering anyone innocent.

a huge argument that can be made in favor of their freedom, is their ‘community service’ to fiore that extended for up to 2 years. ( 7 years for some members ) yes, their actions were very ‘vigilante’ like, but their acts were more annoying, yet helpful, to the council than wicked. they also argued on how it would be unjust to criminalize them for being quiet and non-destructive as an independent guild, when some legal guilds are capable of demonstrating unethical and destructive results of their behavior, without receiving arrest. ( tips hat to fairy tail ) 

when it came to past transgressions, some could argue that they had received punishment. most of them were imprisoned for seven years. others were forced to live life in solitude, forcibly exiled from fiorian cities and towns. is that a suitable punishment? not really, but something is better than nothing. 

during their trials, individuals may have testified against or in favor of the pardon. it's safe to say an array of opinions came flooding in.

parents of children, whom which erik had saved from human trafficking, were in favor of the conditional pardon. human trafficking is a huge issue in fiore and often slips under the council’s nose. some found that this was an example of demonstrated acts of good will and capabilities of change. 

those affected by the nirvana incident, were not in favor. nirvana’s awakening specifically affected three official guilds. blue pegasus and lamia scale took the most damage at the hands of the oracion seis. unfortunately for them, some could say that having the original proprietor and mastermind of the nirvana plot, Master Brain, left behind bars was sufficient justice ( hey this headcanon where Brain was left alive came in handy! ) especially since many of the other oracion seis members were under the age of 18 during that crime. ( i’m not saying this is adequate justice nor does it excuse the oracion seis of their crimes. trust me, it’s a brutal situation and many people would’ve been rightfully angry. but it's a small detail that helped them down the road to granted redemption. )

some fairy tail members were also in favor of the pardon, due to personal / professional ties with certain members of the guild–––and due to lack of suffering by the guild. yes there’s biases were involved unfortunately! but this happens all the time in fiore canon, so why can’t it work here too? fairy tail may have fought all of these members at one point, but since they didn’t receive grave injuries ( and some even bonded with / forgave them after ) they simply didn’t feel the need the vote against a pardon. and unfortunately for some, fairy tail is a very powerful guild both physically and politically. fairy tail’s guild master has pulled enough strings in the past to make their voice exceptionally influential.

villagers, non-mages, mages, and anyone else who suffered as collateral damage at the hands of grimoire heart and the oracion seis would not have been in favor. it might not have been personal for the dark guilds, but it was personal to them. but given the amount of many years that have passed since their conflicts with those guilds ( both of which were disbanded, guild masters either dead or imprisoned ), and it’s difficult to place designated blame on ex-guild individuals. those witnesses may have to settle for probationary terms and certain pardon conditions. 

other guild members personally affected by some crime sorciere wizards like kagura, who have valid reason to hate jellal for the death of her brother, for example, may have also taken part in the trials. complicated opinions may have been made in favor or opposition of the pardon. ( i will not go into too much detail about this, as decisions of certain character opinions rests with those who write as them. ) 

unfortunately for anyone else who didn’t favor the pardon, most enemies of members of crime sorciere and the oracion seis were also dark guild wizards, or dead. so their input could not be presented before a judge as reliable input. yes, this is a loophole that really benefited crime sorciere the most. 

after the rigorous trials and ethnic screenings, crime sorciere was granted a conditional pardon. several terms had to be abided by for this to come to pass. the independent guild of crime sorciere, under the rule of jellal, was forced to disband. the council just couldn’t bring themselves to allow a guild, run by a man who betrayed the council in the past, to exist. per a idea thought of by jana and marcy, the crime sorciere members had to participate in a reintegration program. following disbandment, former crime sorciere members were made to enter this program if they wished to remain in fiore, otherwise leave the country in exile. the reintegration program was a means to encourage those ex-convicts to learn to live in the fiorian society as model citizens. members were not allowed to pursue jobs without supervision of approved s-class mages of legal guilds. the ex-cons of crime sorciere had to demonstrate ethical behavior and were forbidden to accept jobs without a ‘mentor’ consent. this probationary period may last between months to years, depending on the behavior of said member. crime sorciere ex-members were not allowed to pursue any independent jobs, until the probationary period was complete. of course, the mages of crime sorciere were not happy with this arrangement, but the outcome would far benefit the possibly of incarceration and, for some, banishment. crime sorciere ex-members were also held financially responsible for any transgressions they caused in the past ( ex: medical expenses of mages they harmed ). another condition would be that psychiatric / cognitive counsel ( aka. therapy!! ) is also a necessity in order for the ex-crime sorciere members to be confidently released independently back into society.

after the conditional period was completed successfully by all members, a new crime sorciere was eventually allowed to be legalized, providing a more trusting and suitable master ( in the eyes of the council ) would lead. meredy, a former crime sorciere / grimoire heart member with mostly misdemeanor crimes ( all of which occurred under the age of 13 ) was permitted to reform the guild under certain guidelines and close monitoring. meredy would present the idea before the council ( perhaps a year or so later ) and inform them of the benefits crime sorciere could have on the country. it was meredy’s goal, inspired by jellal and ultear, to rebuild the guild so that it would be recognized by the council to help reformed convicts and troubled mages to rehabilitate and integrate into society. most new members would most likely be those who recently served their debt to society, but were not trusted enough to be left alone. it would be the renewed crime sorciere’s aspiration to help future problematic mages become functional members of fiore. while other wizards may have been suitable for the role of acting master, meredy would demonstrate the most ethical improvement in character, the cleanest record ( of previous crime sorciere wizards ) and pose as a model mentor for mages who previously strayed from a moral path.

[mega-reaver-pan-90-2-16]

Peppered Sprayed 9 year old

https://youtu.be/3ouq54ABGKk

sigh. Ok listen I completely support the Blue, the Police are here for a reason alright. There job is not to opress anyone or put anyone in there place.There job is to protect people and enforce the law and arrest those who break the law.

With that said I can never support Police Brutality especialy in this day and age. Your a cop that means you are to be HELD TO A STANDARD! It’s like being a super hero ok, your job isn’t  just to go fight people or attack people and keep in mind crap like this is all certain people want to look at when regarding the police  but there are good cops out there! So the problem isn’t having police the problem is the type of people you trust the citizens with, it’s the type of people you hire as cops. You have to have cops who are going stop the bad guys but will treat people most of the time with respect. They are cops and they have authority so we need to always respect them but they are only in that position to protect us and if they can’t treat us like human beings they don’t need to have that badge.

Ok now I’m going to adress the bigger issue here and no the issue is not race it’s age.  However I will say this, you can’t asume that this proves all white cops are racist or thugs but  you can say it would contribute to the stereotype. I will agree with you there and these cops should be held accountable for straight up putting themselvesin that possiton. Be you a Black cop or a white cop though never BE CAUGHT mistreating someone of another race, especialy in this day and time. I’m warning this sort of thing would be held against you by baised Media. Now right now Media sides against white people but they have sides against blacks before and so long as they are pushing a narrative that one racist is inherantly racist because skin then THEY CAN THE SAME TO THE OTHER REAL EASILY! This sort of thing is a double edged sword everyone.  Never think it can’t happen in reverse because it can!

Now time for Age. THE GIRL IS 9 YEARS OLD AND SCARED! I don’t care if your a cop or not, if your bigger than them you can easily pick them up and shove in them in the car. If your objective is to help the child keep in mind if she is acting in defiance and acting scared out of her mind you need to handle her with care not treat her like she’s a threat! That’s someone’s child your handling, imagine if that was your own kid. and I’m sorry but if you can’t handle a kid with respect and care then you don’t need to be an officer. In the least You should never be a thug to a kid! You don’t threaten children, you don’t try to scare kids! and right now people are painting cops as vilians and if think of it this way super heroes like Spiderman have also been painted as a vilian before and when they have to put up with that they have to keep a cool on. I know Cops are humans and have flaws but here’s the thing those flaws need to be kept in check because any wrong action you commit won’t just be held on your reputation alone but it will be held on your Badge as well. I can not  condone this sort of behavior. Heroes, Saints and people or a Moral or Law ground should always hold there standards and respect for for fellow human beings and life is one of those Standards. When your job is to take a child to their parents, if they refuse to get in the car and their being stubborn , you need to handle with grace, a level head, le them know...no SHOW THEM your friendly. You don’t PEPPER SPRAY THEM IN THE EYES WITH THEIR HANDS TIED BEHIND THERE BACK!!! This isn’t how you treat anyone your trying to help! Especially a child who can’t pose you any harm and is to helpless to help herself in such a harmful predicament!

Again I back the Blue, but I can not support needless harm to  a child. There is time for discipline but this is not how you handle kids period! a Smack on the butt is punishment enough but this is cruel an unusual for a child! Cruel and Unusual is unconstitutional! This child will be Scarred for life because of this and any ugly rumors she has ever been taught or will be taught in the future that portrays police in an ugly light will only be confirmed and supported by this traumatic experience! THAT’S JUST PEACHY! AGAIN not all cops are like this, but all it takes is the actions of  a few to strengthen a bad image of a whole. That’s why some people go to great lengths to pose as people they hate to commit acts that could mudsling an entire group! This wasn’t a fake incident though, oh how I wish this was just some fake cops trying to  make a poor girl terrified of cops. If only this had just been an Antifa ruse. The again if these were fake cops they would of never been called out by the police chief they would of been arrested for impersonating an officer instead. and I’m not going to assume that this is some big rude and that the police chief is somehow in on it. That would require proof. No this stupidity mixed with brutality! I won’t say it’s racist however because the color of skin is not evidence of that and to assume it is would be racist. We would need actual confirmation that this was intentional race on race hate crime. Thing is these people were here to help the girl but they sure did screw up on that job! You  don’t protect a child by hurting them! for peat sake did  you even NEED TO CUFF THEM?! forget insult to injury this is Literally Injury to Insult! This is Child terrorizing, child endangerment!

I’m very angered as a conservatives. I’m angered as a supporter of the Blue. of Law and order. This is disgraceful and this is not how the job is supposed to be done. And its not because there are people who want to mudsling good people, no that’s just Insult to injury but stunts like this is shooting yourself in the foot!

I expect better rom our Police force and I pray these people and others who are to rough look at this, self reflect and try to self inprove and move on and be better. Because SOMEONE has to self improve and be better. someone has to be the good guy and there are people out there who honestly think andclaim their heroes and they go around take the law into their own hand and act like this, being a bunch of thugs! Cops should  never EVER act like this! be BETTER THAN THIS! that’s your job! Hates can say what they want I DON’T CARE about your opinions! You people live in an echo chamber and don’t understand reality. My message here is for those Who have to go and do the actual job, the ones who have a load to carry and are supposed to know better. Your free to taunt and scold and slander and as long as these people behave like you they deserve it! because What I Have seen from CERTAIN people is how hypocritical and double standard they are! Do not think these people are how good people should behave. Good people need to walk the walk not just talk the talk! It’s one thing to be given a responsible position, it’s another to actually live up to that responsibility! These aren’t mere words ,they aren’t made up out of thin air. Language is like Law they are made with a purpose to hold up a system that holds up everyone else! The girl was a child, you need to talk to her gently, calmly, make sure she knows your not there to hurt her , make sure she knows your on her side and that your not a threat! I am disgusted to see this, to see such mishandling of someone so tender an age. That’s another probel I have with day and age how people seem to have no sympathy or respect for children. and no trusting a child with a life changing choice they aren’t ready for isn’t showing respect it’s being reckless and stupid! Adults need to always keep a child’s safety in mind. Because they harm that can befall them if permenant is something they will live with FOR THE REST OF THEIR CHILDHOOD and the rest of their life! To Quoate a classic Meme that people should take more seriasly “OH WILL SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!

Seriasly over all this was Child Abuse!

[coldasyou]

Idk if my ask got eaten or not but what do you think Malcolm's childhood was like after Martin was arrested? Like I imagine he was bullied a lot. Also do you think it ever got bad enough for him that he was institutionalized?

hi! thank you for resending this bc I think tumblr did eat the first ask. I have SO many thoughts on malcolm’s childhood, it’s one of the most interesting aspects of the show to me, I love talking abt it and hope the show explores it more (and not to self promo but I wrote two fics abt malcolm and the family right after martin’s arrest check ‘em out)

I’m guessing his childhood was…difficult to say the least lmao. like we know malcolm didn’t speak for months after martin was arrested and in his own words, the trauma almost “shut him down completely.” the first year was definitely the hardest, not just on malcolm but on everyone around him, and was probably when he started having night terrors, getting diagnosed with C-PTSD, depression, anxiety, ect. and seeing gabrielle and other doctors, since he uses the plural when talking about it to issac. I agree he was definitely bullied bc middle schoolers are horrible as a rule and being the son of the man who was probably the most hated person in the country atm would not HELP. the interrogation scene in episode 10 also made me realize adults were probably cruel to him as well; at best, they gossiped about how “strange” he was and made back-handed remarks about his mental state to jessica, at worst, they basically flat out said he knew or he was as crazy as his father. I imagine the press LOVED the children of the serial killer angel and harassed both him and ainsley when they were in public, despite gil and jessica’s best attempts to keep them shielded. malcolm was probably very lonely, I think the only relationships he had were with his family, gil and jackie, and gabrielle. and the fact that he kept visiting his father just made everything worse; he struggled with his self-esteem and basically hated himself for still loving his father after all that he had done and he thought he deserved to be hurt and punished for it. of course there was a lot of healing too, especially with gil and jackie; they were very supportive of all his interests (see gil taking a CHILD on a stakeout fdkjkjfdssd) and he felt like he could tell them anything, something he definitely didn’t feel with jessica or even ainsley at times. most of his best childhood memories post-arrest revolve around being with them. and we know he did his best to protect his sister from what he had gone through, so I know they had a great relationship as well, which made him feel better abt not really having any friends bc ainsley was all he needed. so things did get better in a lot of ways, but ofc trauma and mental illness never really go away and there were periods where he got a lot worse, especially when he became a teenager. 

which goes to your next question dear god this is getting long but ANYWAY…. yes I do think he did, probably more than once. I headcanon that he was suicidal and self-harmed as a teen, and attempted suicide at least once. that could be a whole other post but Yeah. it was either some really nice, discreet, “resort” kind of place bc of jessica’s money and status and she sent him there when she just felt like she couldn’t deal with his problems anymore bc she couldn’t even deal with her own, or he was transferred to one following a suicide attempt. or both. but it ended up helping him. so yeah TLDR jessica wasn’t overexaggerating when she said martin “ruined” malcolm’s childhood, but it also when he started healing from what happened and he did have plenty of support to help him get through what happened.  

[scotianostra]

On January 8th 1697 Thomas Aikenhead was executed in Edinburgh.

This is a crackin, if sad tale, and shows you how religious beliefs can be a blight on our history.

So who was oor Thomas, a villain?, a murderer?, a smuggler?, or some enemy of the state? No Thomas's crime was blasphemy who took the lord's name in vain.......this would be comic if it wasn't for the tragic fact that he was executed, unlike the man in Life of Brian, who uttered the words Jehova, Thomas complained that he wished he was warming himself in hell rather than that chilly night walking past the recently built Tron Kirk on Edinburgh's Royal Mile. Well that's the simple story that the tour guides that take you round the Old Town will tell you, there is a bit more to it so I will bore you with a bit more of the detail. Thomas Aikenhead came from a well-to-do family in Edinburgh, his father being listed as a surgeon but more probably an apothecary, a dispenser of herbs and potions. Both his parents were dead by the time he became a student at Edinburgh University at the age of 16 or 17.

His mother had been a daughter of the manse, and you would think that would have made Aikenhead wary of challenging the established religion of the time, namely the all-powerful Church of Scotland, especially while still a student and under the constant gaze of professors, lecturers and, as it turned out, his fellow students.

These were the dying days of a curious period in Scottish history. Aikenhead would have been four when the ‘Wizard of the West Bow’ Major Thomas Weir was executed in 1670. Weir was by day an extreme Calvinist but by night an incestuous Satanist and it takes no great leap of reason to see that an impressionable young boy might well have been affected by the trial and execution of a local celebrity that lived not far from him.

The 1680s was also the ‘killing time’ for the Covenanters when many died because of they worshipped their same god in differing ways!

Thomas was a keen student and an avid reader, he may or may not have known and Edinburgh bookseller, John Frazer, who had been prosecuted after admitting either reading, or being in possession of Charles Blount’s Oracles of Reason a book I know nothing about but gather it relates to Deism, which questioned the existence or more importanyly, non-existence of God or Satan, Frazer had repented ad as it was a first offence was sackclothed and jailed in the old Tolbooth for a number of months.

Anyway, Thomas had a friend, well he thought he had a friend, Murdo Craig, but Murdo, on the sly had been keeping notes on Aitkenhead, and his dalliances with blasphemous ideals, we know that because they formed a large part of the indictment against Aikenhead.

“Nevertheless it is of verity, that you Thomas Aikenhead, shakeing off all fear of God and regaird to his majesties lawes, have now for more than a twelvemoneth by past, and upon severall of the dayes within the said space, and ane or other of the same, made it as it were your endeavour and work in severall compainies to vent your wicked blasphemies against God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, and against the holy Scriptures, and all revealled religione, in soe far as upon ane or other of the dayes forsaid, you said and affirmed, that divinity or the doctrine of theologie was a rapsidie of faigned and ill-invented nonsense, patched up partly of the morall doctrine of philosophers, and pairtly of poeticall fictions and extravagant chimeras, or words to this effect or purpose, with severall other such reproachfull expressions.”

That was just for starters. Sir James Stewart of Goodtrees, the Lord Advocate of the day, had taken a personal interest in the case and he decided to throw the whole lot of Craig’s testimony at Aikenhead who was arrested in November, 1696, and charged under the Blasphemy Act of 1661 which carried the death penalty. He also charged Aikenhead under a more recent act, which made it a criminal offence to ‘deny, impugn or quarrel’ about the existence of God.The prosecution papers go on to record

“You have lykwayes in discourse preferred Mahomet to the blessed Jesus, and you have said that you hoped to see Christianity greatly weakened, and that you are confident that in a short tyme it will be utterly extirpate.”

For Mahomet, read Muhammad, could young Thomas be an Islam convert in 17th century Edinburgh, I very much doubt it, they just needed to make an example of the young student, and he knew by now knew that he was in very great trouble and protested in effect that he was guilty only of the sin of being youthful and had been led astray by the books he had read. He claimed to have repented of his anti-Christian beliefs and was once again a good Presbyterian. In this way he seems to have thrown himself upon the mercy of the court, but there was no mercy.  On Christmas Eve, 1696, a jury found him guilty. Sir James Stewart asked for the death penalty and it was granted and “pronounced for doom,” as Scottish judges were still saying well into the 20th century in capital punishment cases. Aikenhead pleaded for his life to the Privy Council emphasising his youth, his dire circumstances, and the fact that he was reconciled to the Protestant religion. There was some support for the death sentence to be commuted from at least two councillors and two Church of Scotland ministers, but the General Assembly of the Kirk intervened, demanding that Aikenhead suffer 

“vigorous execution to curb the abounding of impiety and profanity in this land”.

In his last letter to friends, written in the Tolbooth prison in Edinburgh as he awaited execution, Aikenhead at last gave a plausible explanation for his conduct – that he had been a disappointed seeker after truth. He wrote: 

“It is a principle innate and co-natural to every man to have an insatiable inclination to the truth and to seek for it as for hid treasure. So I proceeded until the more I thought thereon, the further I was from finding the verity I desired.” In truth, in a repressed society the student had just gone too far in rejecting the doctrines of Christianity calling it “feigned and ill-invented nonsense”

Aikenhead went to his death on January 8, 1697, hanged on the scaffold at Shrubhill between Edinburgh and Leith. It is said that before he died he proclaimed that moral laws were the work of governments and men. In his hand as the noose was plced around his neck was the Holy Bible. The execution angered many people for many years afterwards. The great English historian Thomas Babington Macaulay wrote an account of the hanging and called the execution “a crime such has never since polluted the island.”He continued: “The preachers who were the boy’s murderers crowded round him at the gallows, and, while he was struggling in the last agony, insulted Heaven with prayers more blasphemous than any thing that he had ever uttered.”

There was other evidence of church authorities being present as Aikenhead died. He was the last man in Britain to be hanged for blasphemy.

According to Arthur Herman in his book "How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe’s Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It", the execution of Aikenhead was “the last hurrah of Scotland’s Calvinist ayatollahs” before the dawning of the age of reason in the Enlightenment.

Now we can all rejoice in The Enlightenment but a full 30 years later in the small town of Dornoch in Sutherland, Janet Horne was put on trial for the “crime” of having a daughter whose feet and hands were misshapen and who had herself given birth to a son with disabilities. She was the last woman in Britain to be burned at the stake for being a witch, her death bringing to an end the “burning time” when perhaps 4000 Scottish women were executed for the crime of witchcraft.

I thought I would add a wee bit more about Shrubhill in Leith, as most of us usually only regard Edinburgh's Old Town, The Tolbooth, and Grassmarket as sites where executions took place. I can't find out why Aikenhead was taken to, at what at the time, was a different town for his executions I did however find records  of several taking place at the site, now student accommodation, but the site of Edinburghs tram workshops and powerstation, but beforehand not many know that it was the site of he gibbet known as the Gallow Lee, literally the "field with the gallows",

Bodies were buried at the base of the gallows or their ashes scattered if burnt. The most famous of those that met their end here was perhaps Major Weir, the Wizard of the West Bow.

1570- Two criminals strangled and burned to death.

1570 (4 October)- Rev. John Kelloe minister of Spott, East Lothian (near Dunbar) strangled and burnt for the murder of his wife

1664- Nine witches strangled and burnt

1670- Major Thomas Weir, the self-confessed warlock, strangled and burnt for witchcraft (almost the only self-confessed witch executed).

1678- Five witches strangled and burnt

1680- Part of the body of Covenanter David Hackston was hung in chains after his execution at the mercat cross in Edinburgh for the murder of Archbishop Sharp in 1679.

1681 (10 October)- Covenanters Garnock, Foreman, Russel, Ferrie and Stewart hanged and beheaded. Their headless bodies were buried at the site and their heads placed on the Cowgate Port at the foot of the Pleasance. Friends reburied the bodies in the graveyard of the West Kirk (St. Cuthberts). The heads were retrieved, placed in a box and then buried in garden ground at Lauriston. They lay there until 7 October 1726 when the then owner, Mr Shaw, had them exhumed and reburied near the Martyrs' Monument in Greyfriars Kirkyard.

1697 (8 January)- Thomas Aikenhead, a 19-year-old theology student at Edinburgh University became the last person to be executed under Scotland's blasphemy laws (and the last in Britain to be executed for that crime).

1752 (10 January)- Norman Ross, a footman, hanged for the murder of Lady Baillie, sister of Home, Laird of Wedderburn. The body was left to hang in a gibbet cage "for many a year" and became a local ghoulish tourist attraction.

Post mid 18th Century the Nor’ Loch was drained and the city expanded to the north by the building of the New Town with stone quarried from nearby Craigleith quarry. In such building sand was needed to add to the lime mortar and Gallow Lee proved to be just what was needed. The owner of Gallow Lee charged the builders to cart away the sand, containing the ashes and other remains of thousands of victims. The sandy mound of the Gallow Lee has gone I wonder how many New Town residents are aware that the very fabric of their building is bound together with the remains of  these poor women convicted of being witches, covenanters and criminals?