#currently waiting for permission to name the author of those quotes!!

[smallandangry24]

A Not-So-Brief Character Analysis of one Anakin Skywalker

TW for discussion of Imperialism, Nazis, and events paralleling sh00tings, brief mention of domestic violence and slavery.

Hello there, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of ranting about fascism on the internet (I know, you’re waiting with baited breath): Star Wars Edition, featuring a very beloved character -- Anakin Skywalker, Darth Vader.

Star Wars is many things -- found families. Hope. Rebellion. Democracy. The importance of standing up for what is right, and for those who do not have a voice, even if the world is against you. Holding others and yourself accountable. Corruption. Accidental baby acquisition. And the first space western among them. But at its conception, Star Wars drew a very hard line in the sand (I know, we don’t like sand, but bare with me) regarding a subject that was very relevant at the time, and I would argue still is: Imperialism, Fascism, Slavery, and Nazism.  

“But Mads”, you might ask “why would you get on the internet to rant about such things, probably bringing a very angry toxic fanbase out of the woodworks against you?” For a few reasons, one of them possibly being that I’m a fool. One of those reasons definitely being that sometimes, something needs to be said, regardless of opposition, and you need to be the one to say it, especially if no one else will (and what’s more Star Wars than that?). I hope you’ll find it in yourself to stay with me, but that’s beyond my control. So here it is:

Anakin is a tragedy, in many ways. 1. He could be anyone -- someone’s boyfriend, a brother, a best friend, a son, the guy sitting two tables down in a chili’s in the middle of nowhere Iowa (idk if y’all have Chili’s but roll with it). 2. He cared about his family. 3. He WAS manipulated in fear and put in a situation no child (yes, CHILD) should have ever been put in on the battlefield, nevermind his status as a slave. It is an ESSENTIAL part of his story, but not in the way I see interpreted by so many fans. There is a MESSAGE in his character... a great many!! Sure, he is a type of prodigal son, falling from grace but returning eventually for -- here’s where we disagree. Redemption. Can we call it that? Is he really redeemed? The Prodigal Son, at least in my interpretation, is not about redemption, but forgiveness and mercy -- given because the father, who I think the story is really about, is good -- not because that kindness is deserved (because in it’s context, the story is not about what is deserved, but I digress). Anakin, Vader, can be a story about how people cannot be summed up by good and evil, and instead are made by their choices, and that we have the power to change our choices every day, and that there can be redemption for some. 

But that’s not all there is, or even the biggest part of his character.

There are more messages. Monsters can be anyone, and if we don’t hold people accountable and learn from our past, history will come back to haunt us. My problem is that very few hold him accountable. Let’s go back to the roots. Star Wars isn’t exactly subtle. “The Empire,” “Storm troopers” (the name of Hitler’s private army), the concept of a nationalistic regime taking over under the power of a charming dictator bent on expansion by force, using propaganda to unite his people against a common enemy of a peaceful people who share a religion, etc. It’s about Nazis, and more than their well known atrocities -- about the importance of accountability, uniting in rebellion, how they can come to be, and, most importantly, punching them. 

Back to Anakin. He’s young, under the influence of the man who’s a parallel of Hitler, very stressed because he’s leading an army and just got put in charge of a child, probably needed more talking to regarding healthy levels of attachment and relationships, and he’s been put in a position of power. He’s also played by Hayden Christensen (who did a remarkable job -- this is not a criticism of his performance but an applause. The problem lies in how some interpret it), who, I’ve been reliably informed, is very cute. An increasingly common reaction is “oh it’s not his fault, poor baby,” or  WORSE, “It’s Obi-Wan’s/Padme’s/Ahsoka’s fault -- he/she should have paid more attention/proclaimed his/her love more.” 

*Is violently unimpressed*

Let’s also look at what he did!! *drumroll* He betrays all of his loved ones -- strangling his pregnant wife Padme, who tries to appeal to him numerous times while also stating her love, trying to kill his brother/father figure Obi-Wan, who’s last words prior were about how proud he is of Anakin, and proceeded to tell him he loved him and also tried to bring him to his senses multiple times while Anakin is ACTIVELY TRYING TO MURDER HIM, enslaves the clones, his friends, who fought for him, were willing to die for him, were already struggling with a lack of human rights, further betrayed by Anakin forcing them to turn on their family the Jedi and help him commit mass genocide, made worse by the fact that Anakin used to be a slave, and not only participates and initiates said genocide against his own people (but let’s also not forget the genocide and coverup of the one he committed against the native Tusken people), but cuts down the children who trust him and run to him for help. He his not only a parallel of naziim, but also domestic abusers, imperialists and, currently, school shooters. AND IT’S NOT JUST THESE CHOICES!!! There are more I’m probably forgetting, but it’s the fact that it’s not just ONE time. He makes the choice to be this person over. and over. AND OVER. AND OVER AGAIN. And for what?? To save Padme?? He just choked her out! And after she DIES, he KEEPS GOING. “He was too scared to return, the canonically thought about it,” WELL?? First of all, Obi-Wan was literally begging him to come back and secondly, even if he didn’t “return” he could have stopped, idk, actively hunting down and murdering people and supporting the Empire. Just throwing that out there. 

Yes, Palpatine chose him to manipulate. FOR A REASON: He knew Anakin was powerful enough to turn the tide of the war-- which would have just ended with the death of General Grievous -- in his favor, AND because such power would have been a threat to him. Anakin had the power to threaten Palpatine and the Empire at any time.... but instead, he repeatedly chose to use that power to undo everything he had sworn to protect, everything his friends had fought and died for. And for what purpose? Last time I checked, you don’t strangle people to say “I love you.”

That’s the tragedy of Anakin for me -- the repeated choice to fall, and that he could be any one of us if we allow it. Too often, we let him hide behind a mask and a new name. I get it -- I, too, am a sucker for transformation and cinematic symbolism. But Anakin’s transformation marks the solidification of his choices and the nature being revealed in him -- the corruption of hate and anger and obsession -- but it DOESN’T MAKE HIM A DIFFERENT PERSON. He can’t escape accountability for his actions by hiding behind a fancy new title. Are you a simp, or an apologist? I get it, he’s cute, and there’s an appeal to knowing someone would burn the world for you, but be careful of the line you tread -- with this character, it’s pretty thin.... and quite frankly, my ace ass doesn’t care how hot a Nazi is.

Today, I encountered a new perspective I’ve never seen before, regarding the line, “there’s still good in him.” Iconic, I know. And despite the above... ooops paragraphs, know that I AM A MASSIVE VADER FAN. His character is incredible and complex and (I knooooow) cool. Horribly so, but yes, you can’t deny the dramatics. And I’m an even bigger fan of redemption, hope, the idea that no matter what you’ve done, you can work to be better. I’ve struggled with Anakin -- I’ve wanted to say “YES, in the end, when he choses to overthrow Sidious, he is Redeemed!” .... but it never quite felt right. Today, I encountered the phrase “so what?” Okay, not literally, but someone might as well have written it on a brick and slapped it across my face. There was good in him. So what? He still chose to do those things. And he chose to do them over and over again. Does the fact that he was capable of good excuse the genocide? the slavery? the murder? Does it not make it worse? Do we owe forgiveness to someone who could have been a good man? Are we obligated to -- RESPONSIBLE for bending over backwards to convince someone to be good again? Even at the price of more innocent blood? Or is it HIS responsibility not to spill it in the first place?

The tragedy is in that he was good, once, if a person can be good, but he made those choices anyway. The tragedy is in that he could be anyone. The tragedy is that he is MANY someones today. The tragedy -- what makes a tragedy -- is that anywhere, in all of this mess, it could have been over. It could have been prevented. He could have stopped. The tragedy is that it didn’t need to happen, but it happened anyway.

Today I encountered “It was his choice.” Today, I saw written, “Don’t take that away from him.” 

[fanfic-me-up]

One For The Books || Midoriya Izuku

Synopsis: Kissing you in the middle of a bookstore was worth being late to his own party.

Pairing: Midoriya Izuku x fem!reader

Word Count: 3k

Warnings: None

A/N: This is for @bnhabookclub Celebrating Deku event and bingo event! Prompt: “Kiss me, quick. I promise I’ll explain later.” Bingo Slot: Bookshop AU Thank you @hawks-senseis​ @todoscript​ for beta reading! Tagging: @pixxiesdust​

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Izuku stumbled into the bookstore by happenstance. 

The breeze was particularly strong that day, coming in from the east, and Izuku is naturally attracted to the scent of wilted parchment. The voices of the great authors from before entice him to take a peek into the homely shop. The size and location suggests it’s a family owned business, a hidden gem amongst a sea of overly flashy boutiques. It is the definition of grassroots and Izuku loves patronizing these types of down to earth businesses.

Izuku’s been an avid reader his whole life. He believes everybody has a story to tell and every story is worth being read.

The bell jingles upon opening the door and the place, though small in size, reminds Izuku of a never ending abyss filled to the brim with an infinite amount of stories. He can't wait to dig his fingers into the pages of each and every one of them. He already feels a sense of home with the purposefully decorative clutter - wooden knick-knacks and potted plants mixed with soft acoustic music playing in the background gives the place charm. 

He greets the clerk who smiles politely, greeting him by his hero name. Izuku doesn’t know if he’ll ever get used to being treated as a hero. The fame and fortune never appealed to him, preferring a simple life where he’s free to be himself without the weight of expectation. He feels bad for thinking this, and hasn’t told anyone because he doesn’t want to appear ungrateful. Please don’t misunderstand, he loves being a hero and saving those in need, but sometimes he needs to get away. 

Izuku peruses the numerous aisles, his finger grazing the spines of books waiting to be opened, when he freezes right smack in the middle of the aisle. You’re tucked in the corner with a book in hand, he can’t make out the title no matter how hard he squints. Izuku feels a bit creepy staring at you from the thin opening of the bookshelf, and you must’ve felt someone staring at you because you look up and meet his eyes causing him to whip his head. A flush creeps along the apples of his cheeks from being caught by you. Despite his embarrassment, Izuku chances a glance back up and he breathes a sigh of relief when your eyes have returned to your book. He doesn’t miss the fond smile gracing your lips now.

And that’s how a bookstore that’s two cities away became Izuku’s home away from home.

He tries to convince himself that he’s only going for the books, but he’s such a terrible liar that he can’t even lie to himself. It sounds ridiculous when he’s been on the train already for an hour, alone, on his birthday. He managed to escape for a few hours, finding time to catch a glimpse of you in between birthday traditions with his mother and hanging out with friends later tonight. 

His heart skips at the thought of seeing you tucked in the same corner, a book in one hand and your usual coffee in the other. You dog-ear the pages instead of using a bookmark, and you gasp when you find a quote worth remembering. You dare not take your eyes off the page, like you’re afraid you’ll never feel the same magic you felt when you first read the passage. Izuku always smiles when he sees you have trouble finding your highlighter, feeling your way around the table even though it’s in the same position you always leave it.

He’s talked to you a couple times, if you could call it talking, it’s more like you ask him a simple yes or no question and Izuku proceeds to blubber like an idiot for the next five minutes; your face adorned with a small smile as you wait for him to string words together that make sense. He appreciates your patience. It’s rare to find that kind of patience anymore.

He also appreciates how you don’t openly acknowledge his hero status. Seems like everyone wants something from him nowadays. It’s hard to make friends outside of the hero industry. A part of him wishes to return to the quiet stability, back when he was just Izuku. Maybe that’s why he finds himself constantly coming back to this bookstore, because this is the one place he feels like nobody's watching him and you’re the one person who makes Izuku feel like he doesn’t need to be anything more than himself.

His stomach drops when he takes in the vacant corner. He hoped to catch you today before his party, perhaps he would’ve finally gathered the courage to actually talk to you. This wasn’t how he pictured today would go, but he figures he traveled all this way so he picks up a couple books anyway (a couple to Izuku means a pile that looks ready to tip over) and plops down in his usual spot across from you. 

He barely gets through the first paragraph when the bell jingles, signaling a new customer, and you rush in breathless. The few people roaming the aisles turn their heads, including Izuku, and you look picturesque standing in front of the wide-open door, your hair swaying in the wind. Your eyes scan the bookstore, stopping at Izuku, and you walk briskly towards him. Wait, no, that can’t be right, but Izuku feels dumb glancing behind his shoulder because he’s sitting against a wall.

Izuku feels the breath rush out of him in one swoop.

“Kiss me, quick. I promise I’ll explain later!” 

Izuku chokes. 

“Huh? I- I’m sor-sorry- di-did you- you just- kiss- uhm, I’m sorry, what?” 

Izuku misheard that, right? There’s no way… Yeah, he had to have misheard that. His mind tricking him into what he wants to hear. Strangers don’t normally ask other strangers to kiss. Unless it was New Year’s, but it’s the middle of July, so that can’t be right.

You bite your lip, and it’s the first sign of hesitancy you show since making your grand entrance.

“It’s stupid, I’m sorry, you’re right, it’s not New Year’s-”

You heard that?

Sweat prickles the back of his neck at being caught so openly. He’s always had a habit of thinking out loud, and it manages to happen at the worst times.

“I’m just gonna go now, oh god, I’m so embarrassed, pretend you never-”

Izuku never gets to listen to the end because he jumps from his seat and pulls you in. You gasp, the same way you do when you come across a melodic phrase on a page, when his lips touch yours. You’re frozen in place, eyes wide, like you didn’t expect the kiss despite being the one to ask. Izuku has only kissed a few girls, enough to count on one hand, but he gives it everything he’s got. 

He traces your bottom lip, asking for permission like the gentleman his mother raised him to be, and he barely holds back a smile when you gain your bearings and shyly open up for him. He can tell from the way you kiss that you don’t normally ask random guys to kiss you in bookstores, and Izuku’s relieved at not being the only one feeling a little awkward about this whole situation.

Izuku explores the inside of your mouth, shyly meeting your tongue, and he feels you wrap your arms around his neck, playing with the small curls at the nape of his neck. Izuku doesn’t know how long the kiss lasts for, but long enough to feel like he might pass out if he doesn’t take a breath. He doesn’t completely pull away though - he makes it halfway, only to take a small gasp of air, before he goes back in to peck you one more time, trying to remember how your lips taste in case this is the first and last time he kisses you. 

What is he saying? Of course this is going to be the last time he kisses you. You’re a stranger- a beautiful stranger- but a stranger no less. He doesn’t even know your name! He probably should’ve asked for your name before he stuck his tongue in your mouth. Maybe he’s not much of a gentleman after all.

You open your eyes slowly, still hazy from the kiss. Your fingers are still entangled in his hair, and Izuku doesn’t want to let go of you, but you’re both coming down from the high of kissing one another. You detangle yourselves, stepping back an appropriate distance. There’s a fair amount of quick glances and awkward silence before you both speak up at the same time.

“I don’t normally-” you say.

“S-sorry if that wasn’t-” Izuku says.

Both of you stop at the same time too, laughing off the awkwardness. Izuku rocks on the balls of his feet, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck. You glance around, unable to stay in place, until you set your sights on the towering books in Izuku’s corner. Your eyes sparkle as you bounce over to pick up the current book he’s reading.

“I love The War Within!”

“Y-you do?”

The War Within is one of Izuku’s favorite books. His mother would read it to him all the time as a child. 

“Of course! My childhood is in these pages,” you say as if you can read Izuku’s mind.

You flip through, careful not to lose where Izuku left off even though he’s still on the first page. 

“This story seriously doesn’t get enough love,” you comment after giggling at a passage from the book.

Izuku couldn’t agree more, and the flutter of excitement swirls through him. He finally found someone he can discuss his favorite book with. Although a fantastic book, it’s terribly underrated and anyone he’s mentioned it to looks at him like he has two heads when he gets carried away talking about it, but not you.

“I couldn’t agree more! The struggle between following your head and following your heart is timeless and the author writes it in such a wonderful way, accessible to a younger audience. Everyone comes to that crossroad between choosing to do what is socially expected and going after what you personally want. I can’t believe more people haven’t read this book and-” 

Izuku abruptly shuts up, biting his tongue when he realizes he’s rambling yet again to someone about his favorite book. He’s always been a smart kid, but it wasn’t until later in life when he fully grasped the depth of the message. He’s never related more to the protagonist than right now.

You’re not looking at him strangely like everyone else. Instead, your face is adorned with that same soft smile Izuku saw the first time he laid eyes on you.

“What’s the famous quote at the end again?” You skip to the end, eyes scanning for the passage Izuku already knows by heart. He answers your question in earnest at the same time you find the passage. You speak together for the second time today, words flowing in unison.

“To win a war within one’s self is the greatest victory of all.”

You lock eyes at the end. Izuku feels electric, adrenaline coursing through his veins, the same feeling as when he uses One for All. How did he get so lucky to bump into you that fateful day? The chances of Izuku choosing to get off the train when he did and stepping foot into the bookstore was slim to none, and for you to be here when he did…

What he would give to kiss you one more time.

The conversation dies, both of you too caught up in one another to say a word. All is left is the occasional murmur from other patrons and the soft music playing in the background. Izuku opens his mouth as do you, like you’re riding the same wavelength.

“I never got your-”

“Happy birthday!” You blurt, effectively cutting Izuku off.

He’s taken aback. He didn’t expect you to know today was his birthday. You never showed any sign that you knew of him, let alone take the time to look up his birthday. 

Oh god. What else did you find about him? The internet is scary and there are plenty of not so pleasant articles about him from media outlets looking to cause a stir. 

“Oh- ahem- I, um, heh…” He awkwardly trails off, a simple “thanks” unreachable to Izuku’s poor stuttering heart beating in double time.

He sincerely hopes only good things came up when you searched his name. 

“Thank you,” he says, bowing his head slightly to hide the flush on his face. 

Neither of you have a chance to continue the conversation when Izuku’s phone pings and he receives a text message from Uraraka that he better not be late to his own party again. Izuku glances at the time, eyes widening; he has to leave in the next five minutes if he wants to make the train home.

“I have to go.” 

You glance down like you’re unsure of yourself, until you take a deep breath and face Izuku head on with fierce determination; the same look of a hero about to make a life or death choice.

“I wanted to kiss you.”

Izuku steps back. Not with distaste, but with admiration for your honesty. 

“There’s really nothing else to it. I like you, and you probably get that a lot, and I know it’s crazy to say that when this is the first time we’ve had an actual conversation, but.. I thought I’d take my shot because, well, why not?” 

You chance a glance up at Izuku who’s staring at you in awe. You shuffle under his intense stare, like you don’t know what to make of his silence after your confession.

Izuku will admit that even he didn’t think he’d have the courage to confess his attraction to a complete stranger; yet here you were in the middle of a public bookstore, putting yourself out there, and opening yourself up to the possibility of rejection.

Or opening yourself up to the chance of a lifetime.

Izuku’s terrified of the strong woman in front of him - and not because he feels his masculinity threatened, but because he knows you’ll push him out of his comfort zone in ways he needs most.

“What’s your name?”

Your eyes flash like you didn’t expect that in the least, but you give him your name like he asks. 

“Do you wanna grab coffee sometime, Y/N?”

“Like a date?” 

Izuku nods and your eyes widen before shyly replying, “I’d love to.”

He laughs awkwardly, feeling like he missed a step. Don’t people usually start out as friends, go on a couple dates, and then kiss? This happened out of order, and not the way Izuku ever expected an exchange with you would go, but for some reason it feels right.

Izuku counts it as a win when he saves your number and can finally attach your name. He has one more question before he takes off though.

“What if I didn’t want to kiss you? What would you have done then?”

You bite your lip in thought, looking around at the endless tales waiting to be read, before smiling at Izuku.

“It’d be a great story either way. One for the books.”

Izuku finds the way you giggle at your own puns absolutely adorable.

He bids you goodbye with an awkward handshake turned hug- he went for a handshake while you went for a hug. Izuku makes it to the door, ready to leave, but for some reason he stops. His body takes over, shutting off his mind screaming what a terrible idea this is, before turning back around. This time, he’s the one to walk towards you with purpose, with intent to open himself up like you did. You inspired him to risk it all for a single moment, and even though it may be the worst decision he makes.

There’s a chance it will be the best decision of his life.

Your small gasp is music to Izuku’s ears, a song he wants on repeat for the rest of his life, as he pulls you in once more. The moment your lips touch, Izuku can’t help the small sigh to escape him, because the risk is totally worth any rejection that may follow. You wrap your arms around his neck, like your body was made to fit perfectly in his, and you run your fingers through his curls. The kiss is rushed, but not sloppy, like you can’t get enough of each other because you both have no idea what tomorrow brings. It’s over too soon for Izuku’s liking, but he enjoys how a single kiss was able to leave you breathless. A tinge of heat graces your cheeks and your kiss-bitten lips are proof that Izuku didn’t make this up in his head.

“S-so coffee next week?” Izuku steps back, running a nervous hand through his hair.

You smile with that same sparkle glittering your eyes.

“Sounds great. Happy birthday, Izuku.”

Izuku’s breath catches at the sound of his first name caressing your tongue. He bids you goodbye for good this time before taking his leave. The clerk winks at Izuku who flushes, ducking his head down, but the beginnings of a fond smile grace his own lips. 

Kissing you was definitely worth being late to his own party.

[midnightmarev]

Hide and Seek

AO3 link.

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Relationships: Platonic everyone. But if you squint, you might see some Loceit and Remile.

Summary: Ever wonder how Virgil always wins in hide and seek? Well, wonder no more, for I have the answer right here!

Author’s note: This is inspired by an incorrect Sanders Sides quote I made on Twitter. That quote was inspired by me writing down cosplay ideas, Virgil and Patton playing hide and seek with each other and Virgil "cheating", finding Patton super quick ;)

This is basically just fluff and Virgil being a sneaky bean.

Hide and Seek

A knock sounded on his door. Virgil groaned. Why couldn’t he just sleep? It was only, what? 11 am?

“Hey, kiddo?” Patton. “Roman and I have arranged a day out in the Imagination. Are you even up?” he added after a moment of hesitation, sounding disapproving.

‘No, I’m not, but it’s not like I can say that to you’ Virgil thought to himself. “Yeah, I’m up. Just, uh, dosing of a bit. I’ll be down in a minute.”

“Yay!” Patton left. Ugh, what did they have planned this time? Horseback riding was bad enough; his rear still hurt a bit, by the way, Princey!

Virgil got out of bed and got dressed before he went to his bathroom to put on his make-up. What? He still liked to keep up his aesthetics even though they weren’t filming. Sure, they were going outside in the Imagination, and it would probably be ruined, but he still liked it, okay?!

It’d been about ten minutes since Patton had knocked on his door when he finally ventured downstairs to the commons. Patton was bouncing on his feet, keeping himself from jumping Virgil with a hug. Logan sat on the couch reading. Looked like he didn’t want to be there, either, but when faced with Patton, one can’t say no. He’ll only give you his puppy-dog-eyes, and you’ll be in a puddle on the floor.

Roman was sporting his outdoor clothes. He always did when they went into the Imagination. Didn’t want to ruin his prince outfit. He looked rather disgusted with something Remus had said before swatting his playfully on the arm. Same old.

What surprised Virgil was that Deceit was there. He usually didn’t want to partake in outdoor activities because of his reptilian traits. Roman and Patton must have made sure it was the perfect temperature. Dee was currently leaning up against Logan, eyes closed, basking in Logan’s body heat.

As Virgil came to a stop in front of Patton, he heard another door open and close. Virgil opened his arms to give Patton permission to hug him. And hug him he did!

“Alright, babes! Save some of him for me, would ya?” Virgil’s eyes widened. Patton invited Sleep as well? Or Remy, as the fanders had dubbed him. A name he now proudly wore.

Patton slowly released Virgil from the embrace. “Heya Remy! So happy you decided to come! Is Emile coming as well?” Wait, Patton invited Emile, too? Who else did he ask to join? Anton, the Critic? Antagonist? October?

“Yep! My boo will be down any moment now. Had to wrap up practising some lines for Thomas’ upcoming Cartoon Therapy episode. Now, as for you, Virgil,” Remy said, turning to look at Virgil. “You better stop pulling those long nights, mister! I am missing out on so many parties because you keep Thomas up all night with me trying to put him to sleep!” Remy exclaimed before pulling Virgil into a hug, this one lighter than Patton’s.

“You stayed up all night again, Virgil? That’s why you sounded so sleepy when I knocked on your door,” Patton chided. Virgil winched.

“Yeah, sorry, Pat. Bad habit,” Virgil said, very apologetically. Time to change the subject, because now all eyes were on him and he did not like that! “So, eh, what are we doing in the Imagination?”

Patton’s eyes lit up. “Hide and seek!” he exclaimed excitedly. Roman’s eyes lit up as well, as did Remus’, mostly because now he had an excuse for getting in the dumpsters. The rest of the sides gave off groans of various lengths and volume, the most pronounced being Logan.

“Ugh, again?” Virgil asked in disbelief. That was just as bad as horseback riding! It was physically requiring! You have to actively do something.

“Awe, come now Emo Nightmare. It’ll be fun! Or are you just scared because you know you’ll lose?” Roman smirked at Virgil. Oh, it was on!

“In your dreams, Princey. I know I’ll win. I always do. Remember?” Virgil snarked back. Virgil had the perfect strategy, one they always fell for no matter how many times they played hide and seek.

“Ooh, sounds like we need to settle some drama in a game of ‘Hide and Seek’,” Remy interjected, always one for drama.

“What’s that about drama and hide and seek?” Emile now entered the commons as well, his usual outfit in place. A young figment at his side was something they weren’t expecting, though. “Oh, this is Qikkie, by the way. I’m training her to become a therapist so she can help the other figments when I’m too busy,” Emile explained at the curious, and confused glances sent their way by the sides. Well, all except Remy, but he had his own young figment under tutorage, so of course he wasn’t surprised by Qikkie.

“Salutations, Qikkie, and welcome to the common rooms of the mindscape. Will you be joining us in the Imagination today?” Logan questioned, speaking up for the first time. Deceit still sat at his side, eyes now open at the mention of a new member to the famILY.

She looked up at Emile, who nodded at her. “I think I’ll skip this time, mister Logan. Reina is getting addicted to coffee,” Qikkie said, giving a pointed look at Remy. “And I’d rather she doesn’t go too far, like a certain someone in this room, right now.” Everyone looked at Remy, giving him variously pointed and disapproving looks.

“What?” Remy drawled, innocently taking a sip from the Starbucks coffee cup in his hand.

“Anygay,” Roman broke the silence. “Now that we’re all here, should we get going on an adventure?”

“Sure, Princey, if you call it an adventure to lose in hide and seek,” Virgil quipped, not missing a beat. That earned him a few offended princey noises. Virgil snickered.

“Play nice, kiddos. Roman, if you would?” Patton asked at which Roman responded with snapping his fingers and they all appeared in the Imagination.

They appeared in a rather large garden out in the country. There was a henhouse built into the messy garage leading out to at rather spacious chicken coop. The chicken coop had half-walls made of large roof tiles dug half into the ground to keep foxes from digging under and getting in. The chickens were outside in the coop. Usually, they would be out in the garden, but there were young chicks amongst them, so they stayed inside the coop to make sure they made it to adulthood — no doubt due to Patton’s presence.

There were fields to each side of the house accompanying the garden, and a small forest in the far end of the garden. Bushes and trees stood spread all over the garden as well as a swingset. One tree, in particular, stood out as it was the biggest of them all and held a treehouse in its treetop. Over-the-top, just like Princey.

All in all, the garden looked like a mess, chaos, but with a system in it, just like Virgil liked it best.

“Alright, Panic! At The Everywhere,” Roman broke Virgil from his thoughts. “If you think you can beat us, why don’t you start counting?” Ignoring the playful nickname, Virgil smirked.

“Gladly, sir Sing-A-Lot. Prepare to lose,” Virgil quipped back, lifting his hands to his eyes, starting to count to one hundred. This was going to be easy.

Virgil heard a lot of rustling while counting from the other sides and two figments finding hiding spots. Oh, this was going to be fun.

“…98…99…100!” Virgil made sure the last three numbers were audible to the entire garden. “Ready or not, here I come!” he sing-songed.

Virgil smirked to himself before shouting one particular fraise. “I HATE MYSELF!”

A distant “WHAT?!” was heard from behind the chicken coop, as well as some rustling. Before long Virgil could see Patton’s head. “I WILL PHYSICALLY FIGHT YOU!”

When Patton saw Virgil staring at his with a smirk on his face, Patton’s face contorted into one of understanding of what had just happened. “Oh, darn,” Patton said with a gesture of his arm before getting up and walking towards Virgil.

“Don’t worry, Pat. It was a good hiding spot,” Virgil smiled at Patton while giving him a pat on the back (pun intended). He then turned in the direction of Logan’s most likely hiding spot and shouted “INFINITESIMAL!”

A faint voice was heard from the henhouse, Logan’s pride, but soon grew in volume. “That was oNE TIME!!!” He always reacted when you mentioned that word, no exceptions.

With a smirk still on his face, Virgil walked to the henhouse and stuck his head inside the door to view Logan in the corner next to the door. “Hey, Lo.”

Logan slightly jumped before narrowing his eyes at Virgil. “Mother fu-” And that was Virgil’s cue to back out. As he walked back out from the garage to Patton, a series of unintelligible swears and grumbles could be heard from the henhouse. Virgil couldn’t help but snicker at that. Logan was no doubt pacing from wall to wall, fuming. Best to let him cool off.

“He’ll be out in a minute,” Virgil said when Patton gave him a questioning look. “Now. I have a pretty good idea where Princey is buuut; I wanna watch his reaction.” Virgil was wearing an evil smile. Oh, this would be so much fun. “DISNEY MOVIE NIGHT IS CANCELLED!”

A pained (and affronted and indignant) cry was heard from the treehouse. Definitely Roman.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! OH, CRUEL WORLD! PLEASE LET IT NOT BE TRUE!!” Roman cried out before his head popped out of a window.

Virgil stood at the base of the tree’s trunk, smirking up to Roman. “Found you, Princey,” he said, and before Roman could react, Virgil had left again.

Patton just sat at the tables and benches set in the middle of the garden field, laughing at their antics. He soon waved Roman to join him so they could chat. Logan still hadn’t come out from the henhouse, so Patton really wanted some company that wasn’t the adorable mix-breed black dog, Happy. She matched his personality so well, but Patton would also like some human company while Virgil worked on finding the rest.

Virgil smiled to himself. This next one should be a piece of cake. Or rather, a piece of deodorant. He lifted his hand towards his mouth to form a trunk and shouted “FREE DEODORANT!! NEW FLAVOUR!!”

Not even a split-second after he had uttered those words, a demonic screeching followed by a loud “WEEEEEEE!!!” was heard from behind the outer walls of the house from the dumpster area. A streak of green was all you could see, and not even a second later, Remus stood in front of Virgil. If he had a tail, he would be wagging it furiously.

He pouted when he realised he had just lost the game and it was just a ruse. No deodorant. Well, he would just have to manage with the two deodorants he had in his shoulder pads.

Logan still hadn’t come out of the henhouse and Roman was taking his sweet, sweet time exiting the treehouse, grumbling to himself. Patton was playing fetch with Happy, and Remus had taken out on of his deodorants from his shoulder pads and went to join them.

Who to choose next? Remy or Deceit? Both were quite easy, after all. He looked over towards Remus who was munching on some deodorant he got from who knows where. Virgil then smirked. “Remy it is, then,” Virgil said, filling his lungs with air. “FREE STARBUCKS IS CANCELLED!!”

Fwump. Something, most likely some wood, fell to the floor in the garage. “Oh, you better be lyin’ hon!” A loud slurp was heard a moment later. Virgil peeked his head inside the garage once again, smirking at Remy. “Oh, you are so dead, Virgie. I’ll get Logan out of the henhouse,” he added when he heard Logan’s grumbling from the henhouse.

Virgil had no doubt that Emile was close. Those two never hid far from each other. But Emile was a bit harder to flush out. He needed to think. What would get Emile super-hyped (cartoons) or make him react in outrage? Hmm… OH! Steven Universe Future was about to air!

Once again, Virgil called out, albeit quieter. “Steven Universe Future just got cancelled!!”

Bump. “What?!” Emile came into his vision with distress on his face. “They can’t! It’s supposed to be even better than the movie!”

Remy had finally gotten Logan to chill and came up Emile. “He’s using dirty tricks, babes,” he winked.

“Huh? Oh, right. I knew that!” Emile went outside with Remy, Logan and Virgil. “Oh, you’ve found everyone already!”

“Nope, not yet. Still missing Dee. And I have the perfect way to get him out of whatever hole he crawled into,” Virgil smirked, lifting his hand. A whoosh was heard, and in Virgil’s was now a bowler hat. Deceit’s spare one.

“Oh, you’re so dead, babes. DeeDee will be piiissed,” Remy snorted.

Virgil just shrugged and called out as loud as he could. “I HAVE DECEIT’S SPARE BOWLER HAT!! AND I CAN DO WITH IT AS I PLEASE!!”

The ground trembled a bit next where Virgil stood. He looked down and noticed a snake hole. Of course.

In 5 seconds, a snake emerged, and Deceit shapeshifted to his normal form to stand next to Virgil. “You WHAT?! I told you not to touch my shit!” Deceit said, grabbing at the bowler hat. It disappeared as soon as he touched it. An illusion. Deceit blinked once. Blinked twice. Then looked around him to see the others. “Oh. I totally didn’t fall for that.”

Virgil coughed to gain the others’ attention. “Found you all. Now let’s go back to bed.” And with that, Virgil turned around and walked away, back to his room, to continue sleeping.

Roman had now joined the others at the tables-and-benches set and had an unreadable expression on his face.

“… why do we keep falling for that?” he asked to no one in particular.

---

Inside the mindscape, Qikkie and Reina were laughing their asses off. They had conjured a mirror that was linked to the Imagination so they could follow the events of this day’s game of hide and seek.

“Oh, my! They are so stupid! I can’t even-” Reina laughed. “I can’t breathe!”

“Those boys are a bunch of idiots, alright!” Qikkie agreed.

Their laughter had calmed down a bit when they saw that Virgil was on his way back. He could’ve easily just sunk out, but - even though he would never admit it - he liked the theatrics of a dramatic exit.

Qikkie still had her focus on the rest of the sides in the Imagination when she heard a slurping sound followed by an “Ah”. She then slowly turned around. And pounced.

“Give me that!” she demanded when Reina evaded her.

“Never!” Reina laughed, running off, coffee cup in hand. “You’ll never get me alive!” she said over her shoulder.

Virgil entered the mindscape, watching the two newest figments chase after one-another, smiling to himself as he closed his door to once again return to the sweet, sweet thing called sleep.

All the while, Qikkie chased Reina all around the mindscape.

Endnotes: Alright. The garden and animals I described, was my garden and animals. I finally found an excuse for writing Patton meeting my dog, Happy. We don't have a treehouse though. But we do have chickens and a garage and a henhouse built into the garage. And the situation with the chickens is what we're facing right now. We lost all our chicks and almost all our hens last year to either the fox or some disease/weak immune system, so we're doing everything to make sure they grow up and such.

Qikkie and Reina are my original characters as well as my Morality and Creativity. In that order.

Please leave a comment/reblog. I would love to hear what you thought about this.

Come check out my Twitter and chat with me, if you want to, that is.

Thank you for reading. Take it easy guys, gals, and non-binary pals!

Ba-bye!

[newmayhem]

Shantel

Disclaimer: None of this is mine, everything was collected from Amelia Atwater-Rhodes’ old websites, the wiki, and the old message boards. Anything written in the first person is a direct quote from Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. For all the entries in the The Den of Shadows Reference series, check the tag or this page.

The Shantel include a mixture of cougars (native to the Americas), leopards (descendants of European settlers), and lions (originally native to Africa) that banded together in the early 1600s. Their powerful magic kept them more protected than other shapeshifter realms throughout Midnight's reign, despite the fact that their lands bordered Midnight's. 

Much of the Shantel's power came from their sakkri, a spirit-witch who, raised nameless in the temple, had great power over the magic woven into their land  and foresaw the rise of Midnight. Through this connection with elementals and other powerful magics, the Shantel formed strong defenses that could boggle even the vampires. 

The History of the Shantel

Relationship with Midnight

When Midnight and the Shantel first began to clash over territory, and it became obvious that neither would be able to force the other to leave, the two groups struck a deal: 

Midnight's people would be able to travel, unharmed, through the outskirts of Shantel land. In return, the Shantel would not be expected to pay tariffs, and were not held to laws about first-choice going to Midnight for trades. Also, if a slave escaped Midnight and found her way to Shantel land, the Shantel had a right to choose whether or not to return her. 

Sometime during the reign of Midnight, one of the Sakkri entered into an affair with one of her students, bringing her into conflict with the Shantel prince. They nearly killed one another but the prince decided it would be bad luck to kill a Sakkri on Shantel land and sold her to Jaguar instead. Eventually her ownership was passed to Lord Daryl. 

Shantel Culture

For the Ignorant Outsider

Shantel are highly territorial, and their lands are guarded by powerful magics. Those intending harm will never reach the Family Courtyard (the central village, where the Royal Family lives, along with the sakkri and other witches), and even those with no assault in mind will find themselves wandering, lost, through Shantel woods until found by a guard. 

An uninvited intruder will often face half a year in a "waiting chamber" before receiving an audience with the prince, to be given pardon for trespassing. The only exception is for royals and other people of importance. 

For the Informed Outsider

Shantel are very physical, even more so than the Serpiente, though at the same time they are more formal about that touch. Greetings and goodbyes almost always involve some form of physical contact, such as: 

Clasped hands: Formal greeting for a respected equal with whom you are not close. 

Clasping both hands, and a kiss on the cheek: Formal greeting for a respected equal, a friend, with whom you are not intimate. 

Clasping forearms or wrists (hand to forearm): Respectful greeting for an opponent. 

Hug: Informal greeting for friends, family, and friendly acquaintances. 

Hug and a kiss: Greeting for a close friend or lover. 

Handshake: Informal greeting for someone you don't like. 

Crossed arms across the chest (no contact): Kind of the same as one of us spitting at someone. 

It is rude not to have some kind of contact while speaking. 

Permission to trade or perform in Shantel lands is a great honor. Merchants, bards, dancers, and scholars all may be invited, but even those who are invited know to go to the edge of Shantel land and wait for an escort. The most common way to earn this privilege is to meet a Shantel trader or performer and ask for an introduction, or travel with another outsider with permission to pass. 

Most of the Shantel lands are forested. Private homes and businesses are set into the forest, occasionally built around trees, so minimal cutting can be done. Outsiders without a guide will usually walk right past buildings in the Shantel Forest, not because they're that hidden physically, but because of the illusion spells on the land. 

At the center of Shantel land is the Family Courtyard. This is one of the few clearings, though again, you'd be amazed at how well people can get lost if, for example, they escape from a waiting chamber. Outsiders get an escort everywhere. 

The Courtyard includes the sakkri's temple, in which outsiders are never allowed, the Family Home (Family = the royal family), and the central businesses, as well as a tented plaza where outsiders can perform or sell their wares. 

No one sees the King. The King does not rule over daily life; his heirs do. Specifically, the Prince. Getting an audience with the King is like trying to get an audience with God. The Prince is always available to the witches, and almost always available to common Shantel, and often available to outsiders. 

For the Shantel

Most Shantel, even without any special training, develop an empathy to the land and those within it. As such, any native-born Shantel can navigate the forest and the Courtyard with his eyes closed, whether in human form or feline. Also, a guard in the Shantel woods will always find an intruder, no matter how well hidden. Many Shantel come to take this sense for granted, to the point where leaving Shantel land can seem bewildering...and the way outsiders stumble about, lost, may seem very amusing to someone of the right temperament. 

Shantel are protective of their land, the Royal Family, and the sakkri. Harming or insulting any of those things will infuriate most of this group. 

Witches

The Shantel's spirit witch, or sakkri (yes, you've seen that word before, in many contexts, meaning many things - it technically translates to "spirits"), is dedicated to the path at the time of his or her birth. She retains her power by never being given or accepting a name, which keeps elemental powers from having any control over her - and in turn gives her authority over them. Shantel spirit witches are experts at illusion magics, and other magics that involve clouding the mind- enough so that they were able to shield the Family Courtyard, the heart of Shantel land, from detection throughout Midnight's reign. Spirit-witches are also highly prophetic, and of all the denizens of Nyeusigrube, their prophecies are the most likely to be true. Shantel witches rarely use their magic for violence or aggressive spells, as they are highly empathic, and will actually be mentally harmed if they use their power to harm others.

The sakkri is the highest figure in their society, but not the only witch. Unlike the sakkri, most of the witches are born and raised normally, and - aside from the sakkri - there is not always one of every type of witch. Sometimes there are several, and sometimes time will pass with a post unfilled, if none is suited. 

At any point in his life, a Shantel can choose to dedicate himself to the temple for a period of time. Some meditate or pray for a day, some for a week, some from new moon to new moon, and some for a year. Those who feel called to stay may then choose to dedicate themselves to magic (if the sakkri approves), and study beneath the current witch (if there is one), or with the spirit-witch. 

Witches keep their names, and are equally allowed to mate and have children; they are treated with a great deal of respect, but as a wise leader in their field, not as a holy individual. 

There are nine types of witch: 

Fire-witch (keeps the central fire) 

Flesh-witch (doctor) 

Death-witch (prepares the bodies for burial) 

Blade-witch (hunter) 

Reap-witch (planting, harvest, crops) 

Hearth-witch (hearth, cooking) 

Bone-witch (crafts, leathers, building) 

Wander-witch (scout, tracker) 

Spirit-witch (sakkri) 

Notable Shantel

Twin Sakkri: One attacked Prince Lucas and was sold into Midnight, eventually becoming Lord Daryl's property, where she was known as "Pet." The remaining Sakkri prophesied the end of Midnight. 

King Pelham: The Shantel King (c. 1810) 

Prince Lucas: A Shantel Prince (c. 1810) who sold one of the Sakkri into Midnight 

Prince Shane: A Shantel Prince (c. 1810) and younger brother of Prince Lucas

[theolddarkmachine]

Must Love Cats- Chapter Two

Levy hadn’t planned on being a pet sitter when she’d moved into the city. She also hadn’t planned on pet sitting for a sex god either, but here she was.

AKA the one where Levy is a pet sitter, Gajeel is her client, and Lily is the glue that binds them together.

This one is a touch shorter than originally planned. I realize it's a bit early to be saying that, and I swear it isn't a cop out! The original chapter plan fell through because it didn't feel like it fit so I had to change the game plan a touch. So as of right now we're looking at 10 chapters-- assuming I don’t just relocate the chapter because it seems it may fit better later-- and hopefully this will be the last of the shorter ones. As always, thank you so much for taking the time to stop by and read what I have to write!

************************************

It had been a few weeks since the fateful meeting with Panther Lily’s owner, and though she’d only met him for a total of five minutes, she’d still managed to dream about him six times since. (Yes, she was aware that was crazy. Trust her, she knew.) Her roommates-- Lucy, Juvia and Erza-- had all jumped at the opportunity to question her about it as soon as she’d returned home, which had caused her to really regret that roommate group chat they had. She’d recounted the story to them, nonetheless, sparing no detail of the five minute encounter with the man that was now widely regarded in their apartment as the Kitty Cat Sex God. The days following had been the worst, as every day when she came home she was asked about him in some measure, and every day she’d reply that she wasn’t watching Panther Lily right now since his owner was home. The questions had ceased more or less now that it was three weeks since, but she was starting to feel a little down about the whole thing. Of course she knew that it could be quite some time before she took care of the Bombay again, and that even when she did take care of him again he would be alone, but all she could think about was his owner’s stupid face.

It didn’t help that that night after their encounter, Gajeel had responded to her latest update saying, and she quoted, “Thank you for taking such good care of Lily! Hopefully we’ll see you again soon.” We’ll. Plural. At the time it had felt almost like maybe something from a movie, which, okay maybe that was just her screenwriter mind running away from her. Now, though, three weeks removed from it all she couldn’t help but feel like maybe it had just felt like a moment because she-- as Lucy had pointed out ever so helpfully-- hadn’t been with someone in years. And that someone had been her screenwriting TA named Freed and a one night stand after a night of terrible alcohol decisions. All which, she’d reminded Lucy, had been the blonde’s doing.

She sighed loudly as she continued her walk with the giant Akita/Mastiff mix she was currently taking care of. If she noticed that he just happened to live a few buildings down from Panther Lily and Gajeel, well, it wasn’t like she would ever admit it. Get it together, Lev, she mentally chided herself as she caught her mind wandering back to the image of the cat owner standing shirtless in his bedroom doorway, shirtless and with his lounge pants slung oh so low. If anyone could read your mind right now they’d not only think you were a creep, but they’d probably never let you watch their pets and then you’d be homeless. If she hadn’t been so deep in her thoughts, she probably would have noticed the large dog eyeing a cat that was ahead of them. Be that as it may, she was deep in thought and suddenly the Akita/Mastiff was taking off at full speed, completely dragging her behind him. A shriek tore from her mouth as she somehow managed to stay on her feet as the near 200 pound dog was running her out towards the beach after the cat.

“Hotdog, stop!” She yelled, both cursing the dog for being so freaking big and also the owner for naming his large mutt something as ridiculous as Hotdog. It wasn’t bad enough to have people staring at her as her small, 5 foot, 100 pound self was literally dragged down the street, they had to hear her yelling “Hotdog, stop!” By some grace of dog walking god, she managed to keep her feet under her as he continued to running, barking the entire way. There was no way for her to gain any traction to try and stop him, and the leash had tightened around her wrist in a way she knew was definitely going to bruise. “Hotdog!” She yelled again, throwing every ounce of authority into her voice that she could muster, to no avail. Thought it had seemed everyone had picked up on the idea that they should get out of the way, she could see a man with their back towards them dead ahead of them and if he didn’t move, they were undoubtedly going to run straight into him. The man was shirtless and wearing basketball shorts, which she was sure meant he’d just been running, as most people tended to do out by the beach. The poor guy probably didn’t expect he’d be run over by a giant dog on his run. His black hair was pulled up into a ponytail, and there was something about the shape of his shoulders that tugged at Levy’s memory.

“Hey!” She yelled out to him. “Hey guy! Get out of the way!” He didn’t budge at all, and she was closing in on him fast. “C’mon, get out of the way!” Right before they hit, she wondered if she could possibly get hit with a charge for manslaughter if they guy got killed. Death by runaway dog. What a way to go. Her body smashed right into his back at full force and hitting him was almost how she imagined it felt to be hit by a car. Everything went black as all the air was knocked out of her lungs and for a second she’d wondered if she’d gone blind from the impact.

“What the fuck?” An oddly familiar voice shouted, the sound filling her ears as she tried to take stock of her limbs. She hadn’t gone blind, she’d realized, she’d just clenched her eyes shut on impact. One at a time, she opened them to see that somehow she was still upright, and thankfully she was standing still. She was sticking to the sweat of the guy’s back but her arm was still attached and Hotdog was still on the leash, so she was going to count this as a win.

“I am so sorry,” Levy said as she peeled herself off his back, not entirely sure how he’d managed to keep them from toppling over but being incredibly thankful.

“Levy?” Every muscle in her body froze as she realized why the voice sounded familiar. Suddenly the idea of being killed in a freak runaway dog incident didn’t seem so awful. Maybe if she just didn’t answer and ran in the other direction as quickly as possible, she could get away with him not knowing she was the person that had just tried to mow him down. Of course, Hotdog was now laying on the ground and panting as if this whole situation wasn’t his fault and he deserved to lay down after that. They were definitely going to have a stern talk when she got him home. “Levy, are you okay?” Gajeel was turning around and honestly, she may have been in shock because wasn’t she supposed to be the one asking him that? At this point he was completely facing her, and dammit she was staring at him in all his half naked glory again. She was wondering if he might have an aversion to shirts. His eyes were on her expectantly, waiting for an answer.

“I’m fine!” She squeaked as she jumped back, the leashing around her wrist tugging against the skin and causing her to wince. Her eyes flickered down to it to see the area under the fabric of the leash was an angry red color that was already starting to turn a fine shade of purple. Gajeel’s eyes followed hers. “It’s you I should be asking that! Are you okay?” Hotdog’s gaze was full of judgment as he stared at the exchange from where he lay a few feet away. As if he knew anything, damn dog.

“Aside from thinking I was being jumped, I’m fine,” he-- Gajeel, not Hotdog-- replied, still staring down at her wrist. His gaze met hers for a moment as if looking for permission before gingerly grabbing her hand to examine her wrist. The touch sent a jolt of electricity through her fingers and her heart hammered against her ribs. Maybe she’d actually died on impact and this was her hell. “This is going to be one hell of a bruise, and there’s a bit of swelling already.” His fingers were light as they slowly pushed the leash back. A quick survey of the area around her alerted her to the fact they’d drawn quite a few confused gazes, and she wondered if any of them would have been as helpful if they’d been her and Hotdog’s victim. Of course, if one of them had been who they’d flown into, maybe she wouldn’t be noticing things like the way the sun glinted off the metal of Gajeel’s nose ring, or the way a bead of sweat was rolling its way down the arch of his collarbone. She started to feel her face get hot and she quickly pulled her hand back.

“I’m fine!” Levy said again, switching the leash to her other wrist and then giving it a firm pull to signal Hotdog that it was time to get up and go home. Hotdog did not budge, and the bluenette was certain now that she was in hell. Gajeel shook his head as he turned to the mutt that lay on the ground, and leant forward to let him sniff his hand before patting him on the head.

“C’mon, pup,” he said as he slid two fingers under Hotdog’s collar and slightly pulled upward, leading the dog to a standing position. “Don’t give Levy anymore trouble.” With a quick pat on the massive animal’s head, he stood and turned back to her. “I’ve got some ice packs and binding at home if you want to stop by once you’re done with him.” He said it so easily, as if he wasn’t suggesting something that would only fuel those ridiculous dreams she had, and her ridiculous roommates. The adrenaline was starting to wear off though, and her wrist was starting to throb quite painfully.

“I think I just might,” Levy replied before she even realized what she was saying. Gajeel then nodded to her and started to walk in the direction of his complex.

“See you in a bit,” he replied over his shoulder. She wasn’t sure how long she’d stood there with her four-legged companion, but she did know it was long enough for Gajeel to disappear amongst the other bystanders on the street. What had even just happened? Levy turned to Hotdog, who looked as confused as she felt.

“You should at least take some responsibility,” she said to him, her voice sounding disgruntled. “You are definitely not getting a treat when we get home.” She concentrated on getting one foot in front of the other as her and the dog headed back home.

****

Gajeel’s heart was still racing when he got to the elevator in the lobby. He could still feel the azure haired sitter pressed against his back, which wasn’t actually too shocking since she had run into him at full speed. If she wasn’t so small, he may have actually toppled over. It had been quite the shock to the system to run into her that way, and he certainly hadn’t expected his daily run to end with her hazel eyes and him stupidly telling her she could come over once she was done to be patched up. She probably thought he was some sort of creep for not only offering, but for being able to recognize her voice so easily. He hadn’t been able to get her out of his head since they’d met though, something he was certain he shouldn’t admit. The elevator doors opened, letting him out on his floor and he walked straight to his apartment. He didn’t want to get his hopes up that she would actually show up, but he did at least want to get a shirt on before she arrived. Lily meowed a welcome home-- at least he’d like to think it was a welcome home-- when he walked in.

“We’re might have a guest in a bit, Lil,” Gajeel said as if the black cat could answer him. It made him feel better all the same. The Bombay’s eyes followed him as he walked towards his room. “Keep your judgement to yourself,” the man growled in response.

****

Levy was standing outside the door she knew well, wondering if she should knock. A sharp stab of pain rocked through her wrist. She should definitely knock. Not because of Gajeel, of course, because that would be crazy and weird, but because that ice pack sounded like a total dream right about now. Just freaking knock on the door, she heard Lucy’s voice say in her head. With a sigh, she lifted her uninjured arm and rapped three times on the door.

[letters-from-paradise]

My Journey With Books

We recently enjoyed the hospitality of some dear friends of many years. Shortly after we left, they wrote to me …

We were inspired and uplifted by your energy and hope for the new adventure that is ahead of you. We have felt quite worn out recently . . . There is a sense of having lost our deep connection and strength from God. It feels a long way off, still there, we ‘know it’ but recently feeling it and drawing upon it just isn’t happening. We know spending time in Gods word would make such a difference. And we were wondering what you might recommend to read, or a study to do, something that would give us a new focus, on Gods awesomeness, reminding us that He is our centre and giving us that mental focus and spiritual connection. Something that we just want to dive in to, to look forward to each morning/evening. We’re not sure where to even start, a topic that has been on our minds is gratitude. We hoped contained within your wealth of reading, a book or study might jump out as a suggestion.

Once I’d written a response to them, I thought that what I shared might be helpful for someone else - maybe you. 

What I wrote was a narrative of my spiritual journey of the past ten years, and the books and authors Jesus gave to walk me into a wonderful renewal of my heart for God and people. Here’s my reply …

As I write some of my story, I will mention authors and books that have provided wonderful vigour and spark to my walk with God and with people - in this way I will be recommending the resources that have most touched me, and as you read, the Holy Spirit may just make something stand out to you, as being right for where you are on your journey.

You will find that most of this story and the books that I’ve journeyed with are about seeing the loving Father - his goodness, love and grace - in scope and magnitude and wonder that I had not ever seen before. And they are about how these life changing visions of God have flowed down and renewed my love for Him and for people, and restored wonder back into my own life.

Wm Paul Young

About ten years ago, after some resistance to the idea, I picked up a copy of The Shack by Paul Young. After working through the first chapter or two I came to a part that stopped me in my tracks! The scene was of a man with a great sadness in his life, and some serious anger at God, being embraced enthusiastically and unconditionally by Papa (the authors name for the heavenly Father). It became my own moment of God-embrace, and set off an experience in the love of God … that I hope will never end!

Not only that, but the author surprised me with characters depicting the Trinity that shook my previous imaginings of what God was like to the core. A deliberate ploy by the author to shake us (or maybe just me) out of familiarity with a (too small and predicable) God, to enable this One who St John called “love” to be reimagined and embraced again. And I walked in the glow of this book for months to come.

C. Baxter Kruger

Soon afterwards my eldest son, Toby, introduced me to another author - C. Baxter Kruger. Baxter is an American Theologian whose passion is to reveal the Trinity and God’s love for us and his plan to reconcile a fallen world to Himself. At that time Baxter had started touring with Paul Young, and it was said that Baxter wrote about the theology behind Paul’s allegory, The Shack. Interestingly, they had never met before The Shack was published.

Happily, Baxter’s books are around just 100 pages in length, but packed with a powerful love-soaked message that just blew me away. God is for us was the first of Baxter’s books I read and I loved it: commencing with an unforgettable explanation of St Paul’s astonishment that God had included us in Christ’s resurrection and ascension. Soon I was reading The Great Dance and all the rest of Baxter’s books. Jesus and the Undoing of Adam  was breathtaking! 

As much as anything I was re-learning about the Cross of Calvary, and how God revealed himself there and took us into his saving plan. 

It was just what I needed, because my knowledge of God and His things had become stale and stalled - there was no longer any freshness or progress in my understanding. 

On top of my still current experience from The Shack, Baxter’s books were wonderful!

Rob Bell

By the time I picked up Rob Bell’s book Love Wins I was already comfortable with the art of asking questions, for in finding that which was fresh and new and reinvigorating to me, required questioning some of the old ideas I’d once held. That’s what ‘Love Wins’ was for me, it was permission to keep asking questions. As Rob found out, not everyone likes that, especially if it’s about a sacred cow you’ve protected all your life. 

The questions don’t always lead people to the same answers, but like Rob, I found they led me to see love and to see God through a wonderful new lens.

I’ve read a number of Rob’s books since then, and his podcasts (called the Robcast) have always inspired. What We Talk About When We talk About God and What is the Bible? are two excellent offerings from this master communicator. And, yes, I did get to meet Rob in Auckland just a few years ago.

More from Paul and Baxter

A few years into this journey two really good things happened. First, Baxter wrote his book about Paul’s book, and named it The Shack Revisited. He gave it a tantalising sub-title: ‘There is More Going on Here than You Ever Dared to Dream’. In this book Baxter helped explain the Biblical truths undergirding Paul’s allegory of the Trinity and how a shattered human can find healing and transforming love. I was so taken by this book that I bought a copy for every couple in our church - most of whom were already ‘Shack’ lovers.

The second good thing that transpired was an opportunity to host Paul Young and Baxter Kruger in Auckland … together! 

So in January 2014 Suzanne and I gathered 30 people into a big house in Riverhead and enjoyed the most wonderful day with these two ‘giants’. I have subsequently read all of Baxter and Paul’s books, and apart from those I’ve already mentioned, one stands out - Paul Young’s Lies We Believe about God for which Baxter writes the Foreword (which I thought was worth the price of the book alone). 

This is a very thought provoking, but I found, freeing little book … the bookseller’s blurb says: “33 commonly uttered things we say about God, revealing how they keep us from having a full, loving relationship with God. Using personal anecdotes and drawing on the touching comments from his readers of The Shack, Wm. Paul Young encourages readers to think anew about important issues, including sin, religion, hell, politics, identity, creation and human rights. In the process, he helps us discover God's deep and abiding love.” So true!

Not only was God capturing my affections and awe in new and wonderful ways, but the experiences I were enjoying were changing my message and practice as a pastor. 

Actually, my job was becoming easier simply because the love and grace of God was washing over my congregation - and not just through me. Others were starting fresh journeys, and I’m sure a window in heaven was open and pouring the goodness of God upon us.

Brennan Manning

Along the way, Brennan Manning kept popping up. Dear Brennan passed away a few years ago, but left behind some quotes that completely “undid” me. One favourite: 

“Do you believe that the God of Jesus loves you beyond worthiness and unworthiness; beyond fidelity and infidelity; that he loves you in the morning sun and in the evening rain; that he loves you when your intellect denies it, your emotions refuse it, your whole being rejects it; do you believe that God loves without condition or reservation, and loves you this moment as you are and not as you should be?”

Oh me, oh my.

Two of Brennan books sit side by side on our bookcase: The Ragamuffin Gospel and All is Grace.

Robert Farrar Capon

I must mention Robert Farrar Capon. Sadly this gem of a man passed away in recent years, but like Brennan Manning, left a great legacy in books, and some most enjoyable quotes - yes a man with a wonderful turn of phrase, sense of humour and vision of mercy, love and grace. 

As I write, Robert’s book The Mystery of Christ is on the way. 

"Grace is the celebration of life, relentlessly hounding all the non-celebrants in the world. It is a floating, cosmic bash shouting its way through the streets of the universe, flinging the sweetness of its cassations to every window, pounding at every door in a hilarity beyond all liking and happening, until the prodigals come out at last and dance, and the elder brothers finally take their fingers out of their ears."

(Don’t get me started on Capon quotes - there is just to end to the bliss).

Two other Capon books sit side by side on our bookshelf: Between Noon and Three: Romance, Law and the Outrage of Grace and Health. Money and Love: And Why We Don’t Enjoy Them. And happily there are still many more to buy … including his much acclaimed series on the Parables.

Brian Zahnd

As I have journeyed so have books and their authors journeyed with me. I can easily remember the impact of Brian Zahnd’s book  Water to Wine. It’s by-line is “Some of My Story” and I found I could identify with so much of the testimony I found in Brian’s book, and as the title says, 

it really has been a decade of leaving behind water to discover the wine of a new relationship with an extraordinary loving and grace-filled God.  

I couldn’t wait for Brian’s next book, and after reading Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God I simply wanted to read it again. Brian takes us through a range of topics that lead us away from an “angry God” who is wrathful towards sinners - imbedded in so much of Evangelical theology - and paints a picture of the loving God who is perfectly revealed through Jesus. More stunning, life-changing truth for me. It was a huge privilege to meet Brian and Peri Zahnd in Tauranga last year (a one day prayer school), and of course have him sign my copy of his book.

Brad Jersak

And meet my fellow traveller, Brad Jersak. It was a thrill to meet Brad in Auckland last year, but not before two of his books had lovingly done some rearranging of my spiritual furniture. The first, Her Gates Will Never be Shut had been recommended by Baxter Kruger. The second, A More Christlike God: A More Beautiful Gospel reveals the God who looks like Jesus in every respect, the perfect Incarnation of self-giving, radically forgiving, co-suffering love. 

The One, who by now, had completely captured my heart in a way I had thought I would never know - maybe others, but probably not me. O how marvellous to be found wrong on that little bit of self doubt.

Jessica Kelley 

Jessica Kelley placed a capstone, of sorts, on my understanding of grief and where God is in the midst of tragedy - this was personal for me, of course, having the sadness of loosing our 16 year old son, Regan. In Lord Willing? she tells the story of her five year old son’s suffering and death from cancer, but more than that, Jessica opens our hearts to a vision of God that is far from aloof at such times, and is most certainly not the instigator or ‘allower’ of such sadnesses that befall us. This God walks vulnerably with the vulnerable, he is the lover of our souls.

Richard Rohr

I almost had another “Shack” encounter when I read Richard Rohr’s The Divine Dance. it made me realise that for a number of years I’d been reading and listening and talking about … God himself, the beautiful Heavenly family, this utterly loving Trinity; and it was transforming, it was freeing and it was deeply worship invoking. 

It was changing my heart toward people, ridding me of judgementalism and past elitist dogma.

And I realised that most pastors I knew (and I had been one) didn’t read books about God! They were more interested in learning how to lead a bigger church, or heal more sick people, or get revival, or … but actually not about God. 

All this was going on in my brain as my spirit was being further renewed with Richard Rohr. There are now three other Rohr books in the house, and quite unique in the devotional and contemplative path they chart, as well as the brilliant revelation of truth they bring. Falling Upward is a classic - just had to throw that in.

Rachel Held Evans

Did I mention Rachel Held Evans? Probably not because Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again has only been in the house a couple of weeks and Suzanne has claimed it first! But O … it’s touching her heart and restoring lost treasures - it’s beautiful to behold.

As I write this, it dawns on me that I’ve been keeping company with Catholic Priests, Anglican Vicars, Charismatic pastors, Orthodox Monastery preachers, Presbyterian theologians, itinerant social change-makers … everyone of them captivated by the great Lover himself, everyone of them with a unique and moving story to tell, everyone of them with treasures to give away. 

It makes me think how narrow my band of reference and fellowship had become, and how awful and ill-informed my prejudices had been. But not any more … Jesus had given me, given both Sue and me, not only a brilliantly diverse band of people who write books with whom to journey (and I’ve not covered them all), but also a wonderfully diverse band of friends who read books, who love me and walk alongside me. It’s amazing grace and it’s an amazing life.

_________________________________

Footnote

These days I buy all my books from The Book Depository (good prices and shipping). Should a book not be available from The Book Depository, I then go to Amazon.

https://www.bookdepository.com

https://www.amazon.com

[feltondgdamianaaf21insuranc-blog]

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can you get a car insurance quote without a car

can you get a car insurance quote without a car

can you get a car insurance quote without a car

BEST ANSWER: Try this site where you can compare free quotes :cheap-insure.info

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez parody accounts are all the rage on the right

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Of course, when the phrase first emerged in the 1700s, we didn’t have Twitter parody accounts.

By any measure, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has made an immediate and powerful impact on the American political scene. She has drawn the ire of the conservative media. She has sparred with Democratic politicians and media elites. As all true celebs must do, she appeared on a Twitch stream fundraiser for trans rights. And, oh yeah, she is working on policy.

In this day and age, it is difficult to point to one particular achievement that signals AOC has “arrived” in the pantheon of policial celebrity, but one way to tell that you’ve made it in 2019 is a rash of Twitter parody accounts using your picture as their avi.

Take, for instance, the emerging 2020 presidential field. There are a ton of Bernie Sanders parody accounts, thanks to his 2016 run. Kamala Harris, Beto O’Rourke, and Joe Biden all have their fair share. However, also-rans like Julian Castro, Amy Klobuchar, Sherrod Brown, and John Hickenlooper have scarcely a parody account between them. No publicity is bad publicity, even terrible parodies.

Given Ocasio-Cortez meteoric rise to national prominence, it should come as no surprise that it takes little digging to find at least a dozen parody accounts that tweet regularly in the “voice” of AOC. Ocasio-Cortez parody accounts have become so prevalent that Twitter appears to have made a concerted effort to purge accounts that are being mistaken for AOC’s actual account by users. Two recent accounts were suspended yesterday by the social media giant.

The voice, as these conservative parodists would have it, is generally a conservative caricature of the left-wing lawmaker: communist, careless, and clueless.

You have @CortezOcasia, who uses their account to retweet other political parody accounts mocking liberal figures like Don Lemon and Nancy Pelosi. You’ve got the more straight-laced @RepOcasioNY14, who tries to make AOC seem even more left than she actually is by retweeting Cornell West videos and posting about doing socialism with Rihanna:

Nice work this election cycle @rihanna. We'll turn this place Socialist at all costs!! #workingman #struggles

— @Rep Ocasio-Cortez (@RepOcasioNY14) November 10, 2018

Then there’s @0casio2018 (that’s with a “zero” not an “O”) who imagines Ocasio-Cortez with a valley girl affect, adding “likes” and “umms” between airheaded comments and pie in the sky redistributive proclamations.

Lot's of talk about Trump like owning the gov't shutdown, how like arrogant, ugh! He's prez for 2 years and like thinks he OWNS gov't, I never like saw a receipt. I know he's rich, but I need like proof he owns the shutdown. #Ocasio2020 @BarrettBrief #socialismsaveslives

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@0casio2018) December 21, 2018

@2018_Ocasio doesn’t offer much actual parody, but rather uses the account to rehash the usual Fox News anti-socialist talking points: Venezuala, government overreach, and the rise of “PC culture.”

pic.twitter.com/4BURHBzfd2

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY14, PAC) (@2018_Ocasio) December 10, 2018

And of course, there’s @Crazy_AOC, who has amassed 12,000 followers with their wild-eyed AOC avi and non-stop shitposting of conservative memes.

Socialism. My precious. pic.twitter.com/M7Ye6HpnJC

— Crazy Ocasio-Cortez (@Crazy_AOC) January 21, 2019

pic.twitter.com/RntclnXVa2

— Crazy Ocasio-Cortez (@Crazy_AOC) January 21, 2019

pic.twitter.com/iav4STyald

— Crazy Ocasio-Cortez (@Crazy_AOC) January 15, 2019

For those not familiar with Twitter parody account culture, you might be asking yourself one key question: Why aren’t these accounts funny?

Unlike parody of accounts of fast food restaurants or meme hats, Twitter political parody accounts have other goals besides viral humor. On both sides of the aisle, many parody accounts are painfully unfunny. Instead, they offer an outlet for the user to anonymously complain about politics in opposition to their own. Not only does the user feel more comfortable posting under their parodic nome de plume, but like-minded users feel more comfortable sharing these posts, as evidence by their massive follower counts.

There are probably a number of reasons that an account named @PelosiLuvsDebt69 could garner orders of magnitude more followers than some random person tweeting political screeds as themselves. But the most obvious (next to mistaken identity) is that even if there are no jokes, the guise of parody makes the posts seem less angry.

It is also undeniable that satirical posts online have the power to sway this discourse. Jokes about AOC’s proposed 70 percent marginal tax rate on those who make over $10 million have morphed the discourse so much that many Trump supporters believe that she actually proposed a 70 percent tax rate on all income of all citizens.  

This betrays the real purpose of political parody accounts: it’s about ideology, not jokes.

Parody accounts prioritize politics over humor on the right and the left. Throughout the last two years, Democrats have gleefully spread tweets from accounts mocking President Donald Trump. Like their conservative counterparts, these are more about political point scoring than joke telling.

Nancy Pelosi is being controlled by the RADICAL LEFT who want to end family separation, pay federal workers and give people healthcare! I'm just waiting for permission to end the shutdown from my dominatrix Ann Coulter.

— Donald J. Drumpf (@RealDonalDrumpf) January 20, 2019

Generally, tweets from these accounts have more in common with an Aaron Sorkin “Have you no decency sir” monologue than a stand-up comedy set.

The tradition of political parody accounts being more about partisanship than punnery dates back well before Donald Trump or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took the national stage. From @MexicanMitt to @InvisibleObama parody accounts have been a way for partisans to take shots at politicians for years.

Popular parody accounts of our current moment follow the same tack of fiery opinion rather than actual humor.

Trump era favorites like @RoguePotusStaff, @AltHomelandSec, and @HoarseWisperer have followed a similarly dry playbook and have been rewarded with similarly outsized follower counts. (Disclosure: The author has been blocked by @HoarseWisperer on Twitter).

If you want further proof that political parody accounts aren’t just about being funny, look at the people who run them. Non-political parody accounts are often thought of as an outlet or even a potential opportunity for professional comedians. The man behind @LosFelizDaycare is a professional comedy writer and the alter-ego of @Seinfeld2000 is a TV producer. By contrast, political Twitter parodists come from all walks of life, including airline copywriters and government bureaucrats. The goal often seems to be blowing off a little political steam than gaining writerly esteem.

All of this is also true of the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez parody accounts. Though the form of the tweets varies from “dank” memes to tossed off one-liners to vitriolic Fox News links, the critiques are the same. An AOC parody account tends to take the same lines of political attack that you see on Fox News. They go after the freshman congresswoman for being too far to the left, too unrealistic, too young, and too female.

The accounts share the same distrust and distaste for socialism, progressivism, and the stereotypical hallmarks of the millennial generation. For these tweeters, AOC stands in for a generation of people looking for a free hand out who don’t yet comprehend the sophisticated machinations of the world around them. 

The Daily Dot interviewed @AlexandraOcasi6 and @aocpress (both user prefers to remain anonymous) about what motivates them to maintain their version of an AOC parody. Since this interview, @AlexandraOcasi6 has been suspended by Twitter, along with other AOC parody accounts including @Cortez4Prez2020. The Daily Dot reached out to Twitter for comment but has not heard back.

With their account, @AlexandraOcasi6 posted a mix of jokes and conservative criticism of the congresswoman. While more explicitly rightwing accounts like @Crazy_AOC often delve into racial and gendered memes, @AlexandraOcasi6 preferred to critique Ocasio-Cortez on policy. Their account often made jokes about Ocasio-Cortez’s tax policies, redistributive/socialist proposals, and mocked her opposition to Trump administration efforts to build a wall on the Mexcian border.

When @AlexandraOcasi6 did make a gendered joke, it was usually in the popular voice common to these accounts, which portrays AOC as a naive millennial, complete with “likes” and “umms.” The jokes were generally more about her age than her Latinx or female identity.

Like many Republicans (the user identifies as “pretty right of center”), @AlexandraOcasi6 dislikes the congresswoman’s policies because they find them unrealistic and believe that her young fan base has more energy than they do coherent politics, they told the Daily Dot:

“AOC is a fun character to parody because most of the things she says are super uninformed and would definitely qualify as gaffes if she didn’t have so much devotion from her fans.  It cracks me up how many insane things I’m able to publish that her followers totally agree with because they’ve already bought what she’s selling.”

Or, up until Twitter cracked down.

I shouldn't have used quotes because you will prove yourself in congress (as if you haven't already and not that you have too). You are absolutely right about the sexism. #meToo

— Peacockblue (@peacockblu) January 6, 2019

@AlexandraOcasi6 admits that they were motivated to create the account partially because they have a fondness for Ocasio-Cortez’s youthful energy. Their thoughts on AOC echo what a conservative might begrudgingly admit about Barack Obama or Beto O’Rourke:

“At the same time, she seems like a really genuine person so I find myself liking her at a certain level.  It’s a lot more fun satirizing someone who makes you smile than someone who makes your skin crawl because being mean-spirited just seems exhausting.”

However, the user behind @AlexandraOcasi6 doesn’t necessarily think that the prevalence of AOC parody accounts will lead to a political future beyond the House of Representatives:

“I think she’s so set on breaking things in Washington, that she’ll eventually make herself a ideological pariah with the Democratic caucus, which will prevent her from influencing anyone outside of her social media sphere.  She’s also deeply naive and I think she knows it. She’s still more of an activist than a legislator so I don’t see her becoming a pillar of our government any time soon.”

@AOCpress takes a similar tone with their account and has similar views on Ocasio-Cortez.

Their tweets paint a picture of AOC as ill-informed and naive, unfit for office and unschooled in political realities. The person behind @AOCpress is a parody account veteran, having run a parody account of Mike Pompeo until being suspended from Twitter. The Pompeo account was sometimes mistaken for the former CIA directors actual account, and was often retweeted by Donald Trump Jr. and Anne Coulter.

PRESS RELEASE: I just drafted an executive order to remove the immoral fencing from around the White House.

— AOC Press (@AOCpress) January 13, 2019

These immigrants wouldn’t be undocumented if ICE didn’t steal their documents.

— AOC Press (@AOCpress) January 9, 2019

Like @AlexandraOcasio6, they shy away from gendered or racial jokes, but like to take on millennials and what they view as the extremity of PC culture.

PRESS RELEASE: AOC announces her decision to go pronoun-free. Please refer to AOC as “your honor.”

— AOC Press (@AOCpress) January 4, 2019

@AOCpress personally views Ocasio-Cortez and her fans as unintelligent. They told the Daily Dot, “I chose AOC because I think she’s dumb as hell and I can attribute any dumb things to her.”

The person behind @AOCpress also identifies as a conservative: “I am an ardent Trump supporter and have been since June 16, 2015.” Prior to starting their AOC account, they ran a Mike Pompeo parody account aimed at promoting the conservative EX-CIA chief.

Unlike @AlexandraOcasi6, @AOCpress sees Ocasio-Cortez as a serious political threat. “I believe AOC is a real threat and if the Country continues on this downward spiral I see a President AOC within the next 25 years.”

Only time will tell if @AlexandraOcasi6’s prediction will come true or if @AOCpress is right.

Will Ocasio-Cortez catapult to the kind of notoriety that leads to immortal parody accounts like @PimpBillClinton (234,000 followers, still tweeting)?

Parody account fame doesn’t necessarily mean enduring political fortunes, just ask @ShitToddAkinSays (RIP) or @TomCoburnsBeard.

While the future remains to be seen, one unassailable fact remains true in the age of politics and social media: if nobody’s parodying you, it’s probably because no one is listening.

from Ricky Schneiderus Curation https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-twitter-parodies/

[torontohypnotherapist]

DECEMBER 25 — GEORGE GURDJIEFF QUOTES

IT WAS THIS THAT WENT STRAIGHT TO MY HEART

The Christmas celebrations were equally unforgettable. For example, even though Christmas trees are usually placed right side up, Mr. Gurdjieff sometimes had them hung upside down, their roots symbolically turned toward heaven. Most years, however, the enormous pine tree in the salon was set up in the usual way and covered with gifts and delicacies. The Christmas dinner was held in the large dining-room next to the salon. It held not only the main table reserved for the adults, but also one for the adolescents and a lower one for the children.

I remember a particularly amusing Christmas Eve when Mr. Gurdjieff’s generosity and devilish provocations were skilfully combined. On certain evenings, important visitors from Fontainebleau and elsewhere were invited to the Prieuré and seated in the places of honour on either side of Mr. Gurdjieff.

On this occasion, however, it was a different story, but I must first explain that an old stonemason from nearby was helping us at the time with certain building projects in the park. When we were busy elsewhere, the old man continued to work by himself, and would even work for several days at a time without supervision. Mr. Gurdjieff very much valued the professional integrity of this good man who, despite his old age, managed to do even more than Gyorgi Ivanovitch expected of him.

Mr. Gurdjieff quickly took to this old mason. He was invited to join us when we went to the baths, and as the man was very attached to his grandchildren, he was allowed to bring them to play with the children of the Prieuré. Because of their sweet nature and good upbringing, the masons grandchildren quickly earned the affection of everyone. On this particular Christmas Eve, the mason had been invited with his entire family. As we were sitting down to dinner, Gyorgi Ivanovitch placed the Mayor of Fontainebleau and a visiting English lord on his left, and, on his right, the mason, the curator of the Chateau de Fontainebleau, and other notables. Right from the beginning of the meal, I felt quite embarrassed for the old mason, given the seating arrangement. In this dignified company, the mason seemed very ill at ease, and I did as well. Now, as often happens before a general conversation gets under way, every one was chatting with his neighbour, talking of one thing or another. Then little by little a general conversation started up on some current topics in the news, and the mayor and the other notables displayed their authority, knowledge, and expertise with a great deal of panache.

It was strange to observe Mr. Gurdjieff taking part in this worldly discourse, and it amazed me to see how adroit he was in entering the conversation. Suddenly, turning the discussion to a subject of his choice, he asked the old mason for his opinion. As soon as the mason began to speak, Mr. Gurdjieff nodded his head in approval and, because of this consideration, the mason became more and more relaxed, seeming to forget where he was. The other guests gradually became aware of his common sense and simple faith, so that the sincerity of his words not only caught the attention, but also gained the respect, of this august assembly. Feeling then at ease, the mason naturally joined the conversation, all the while observing the rules of etiquette and asking permission of Gyorgi Ivanovitch each time he spoke. Mr. Gurdjieff continued to be attentive at every moment to what the mason was saying.

Gyorgi Ivanovitch always maintained a marvellous simplicity even when frequenting the court of the Tsar, and it was this that went straight to my heart that Christmas Eve. An especially pleasant atmosphere pervaded the entire evening.

~ Tcheslaw Tchekovitch “Gurdjieff: A Master in Life ...

HIS EYES OUTSPARKLED THE TREE’S LIGHTS

He [Gurdjieff] celebrated Christmas by the Orthodox calendar, on New Year’s eve, and turned it into a combination Russian Fair and surprise party. He invited all seven of us, giving no hint that it was to be anything special.

Forty or fifty people were already crowded into his apartment when we arrived — in bedrooms, kitchen, dining room and hallway, and in the Christmas-tree salon, the center of gravity for the occasion. Only eighteen adults at a time could fit into it to admire the immense fairy-tale tree hung with rare glass ornaments, colored lights and small Russian costumed dolls. Viewers could stay for so many minutes, then had to pass along to make place for others. Children, exempt from the time limit set for grownups, sat cross-legged beneath the glittering boughs, staring up and piping with delight.

The forty hatboxes we had helped to pack were stacked at one end of the hallway. As reward for our labors, we thought, Gurdjieff was going to allow us to see the distribution to ' his people.” We were familiar with many present — his Fontainebleau family and in-laws, his Russian friends, Dr. Stjoemval, Rachmilevich, the chauffeur and his family, his publisher, the apartment-house manager, all the nieces and nephews and Gabo, his handsome Russian aide-de-camp and faithful kitchen helper for big occasions.

There was an ebb and flow to and from the Christmas-tree room, an undercurrent of excitement as if a large supporting cast were trying out the stage before the star performer appeared. Presently Gurdjieff entered and the hubbub ceased instantly. He held a notebook in which were listed the forty names of those who were to receive a Christmas box. His eyes outsparkled the tree’s lights as they swept the room.

~ Kathryn Hulme “Undiscovered Country” ...

EGYPT WAS CHRISTIAN MANY THOUSANDS OF YEARS BEFORE THE BIRTH OF CHRIST

"The Christian church, the Christian form of worship, was not invented by the fathers of the church. It was all taken in a ready-made form from Egypt, only not from the Egypt that we know but from one which we do not know. This Egypt was in the same place as the other but it existed much earlier. Only small bits of it survived in historical times, and these bits have been preserved in secret and so well that we do not even know where they have been preserved.

"It will seem strange to many people when I say that this prehistoric Egypt was Christian many thousands of years before the birth of Christ, that is to say, that its religion was composed of the same principles and ideas that constitute true Christianity."

~ George Gurdjieff as quoted by PD Ouspensky in "In Search of the Miraculous" ...

THE CHRISTMAS STORY By Annie Lou Staveley (a student of George Gurdjieff)

In the darkest nighttime, in the coldest and most cheerless time of the year, at the season of the winter solstice—the Christ child can be born. It has to be that way—light in the darkness. The Sun dies and the Sun is reborn. It is the same sun that dies and is reborn, but from time immemorial this has represented a mystery. The child that is reborn, the Christ child, is something new, something promised and long awaited, a messenger from another realm for whom the highest part of us waits. And waits in the darkness for the coming light.

Every part of the Christmas story has to do with man. Any man: you, me. It is an account of real man as he could be—the God-Man, the Hu-Man—but it is also the story of man as he is.

Very few, like the Cherubinic Wanderer of the Middle Ages recognize that “I must myself become Mary and give birth to Christ.” But all of us owe a debt for the gift of our lives, a “tax” that will one day have to be paid. Sometimes we remember that.

In the way we at present live, each of us is the Inn, where there is no room for the Christ child to be born. The Inn is too full, too busy, there is too much coming and going, getting and spending. It has its own life and knows no other.

And so the Holy Family who have come to pay their tax can find no place for the child to be born except in the manger, the place where the animals eat. Bethlehem also means, “the house of eating.”

Who are the holy family? The as yet unborn Christ child, and Mary, his mother. Mary is called the Virgin and the meaning of virgin is unused. Mary is also the name for the sea: the living water in which higher forms can exist.

Mary represents the unused energies in us. These are the higher energies we disregard and waste during the course of our lives. Joseph is not actually a part of the Holy Family. He is that part of us that is able to recognize and care for them, value, guard and keep them. This he does in the story.

There are only two animals present at the birth of the Christ child, the ox and the ass. They are alike in that they spend their lives in patient, unremitting toil for others. They have nothing of their own.

In that dark night all the world was oblivious and asleep, save for some shepherds in a higher place—“the hillside,” where they watched their sheep by night.

Because they were awake they could be present to a mystery beyond their understanding—they heard the angels rejoicing at the birth of Man.

Something of the magic and mystery of this story has rung down through the ages and we can hear it still. Children are not strangers to this starry night, this night of lights and music emerging from the darkness. Even now there is still that child in us which is not buried totally under the grossness, the sentimentality, and the lies with which we at Christmas fill our “Inn.”

The three wise men followed a star—the inner light reflected from above—and travelled from the East, where the sun rises. They brought gifts for the divine child. Gold incorruptible for the King; frankincense, which when burns ascends in fragrance, for the God; but for the man, Jesus, a bitter herb. For any who would really be like Jesus must taste that bitterness.

But the wise men could not remain and they were obliged to return to their source “by another way.” They needed to avoid Herod, the Tetrarch who wished, and will always wish, to destroy that which threatens the status quo. He is also part of us.

The story is told, the year is ended. Tomorrow the ordinary light of day will be a fraction more, the dark a fraction less. But for a moment the vault of heaven opened and the wonder and the glory could be sensed.

Now we are asleep again. Herod is safe. The cock crows, the dog barks, the donkey brays. The noisy, busy life of the Inn begins all over again. ...

MAN IS AN EXACT REPLICA IN MINIATURE OF THE EARTH. THE LAWS FLOW FROM THAT

PA: Mr. Gurdjieff, is it possible to escape the law of polarity?

GURDJIEFF: It is possible if you cut off your limbs and put others in their place, if you put the right on the left and the left on the right. No. How are you going to change this? It is impossible. On the earth, there is a South and a North. It is a law. We depend on the sun. There are always influences, always responses, always an equilibrium. How can you make the North Pole into the South Pole? It is impossible. Man is an exact replica in miniature of the earth. The laws flow from that, the laws of polarity.

~ “G. I. GURDJIEFF — Paris Meetings 1943”

[lindawfowler101010]

​Dr Seuss FAQ - Common Dr. Seuss Questions

Are Dr. Seuss books considered poetry?

Although not traditionally thought of as poetry, you could consider Dr. Seuss' work to be poetic in nature. The unique rhyme and rhythm patterns of a Seuss book make it somewhat similar to poems. However, they are ultimately thought of as illustrated narrative stories that happen to rhyme. Most poetry classes you take in college will not introduce students to Seuss' work. You will instead be studying writers like Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman.

With that said, a 'poem' is a debatable term that many in the literature world argue about. A poem could be just considered an alternative type of writing that expresses strong emotions and feelings. With this in mind, some of Dr. Seuss' more lyrical works could be considered poetry.

Are Dr. Seuss books public domain?

Unfortunately, Dr. Seuss books are legally not public domain. Current laws in the US established in the late 1970s determine that they are copyright property. Therefore, they are not free to the public. This won't be forever though!

After 95 years of publication, the books are required to become public domain. That means The Cat in the Hat will be within the public domain by 2053. It used to be that the public only had to wait 56 years for this to happen. However, that all changed on January 1, 2014 when Congress voted to extend that time period. This was a very disappointing measure for the literary world that was looking forward to bringing Dr. Seuss' magical texts to the public at no cost.

Are Dr. Seuss quotes copyrighted?

Dr. Seuss Enterprises owns the copyright property for all quotes from the author's works. They will definitely enforce these rights as well. Using these quotes without permission has resulted in legal action.

This is done not to just be a 'grinch.' The reason for imposing these copyright infringement laws is to ensure that the quotes are used properly. Using Dr. Seuss quotes in a way that is in-line with how the author would have wanted is important.

What are Dr. Seuss characters?

Dr Seuss is known best for his wonderfully strange characters in his stories. From a giant talking cat in a hat to the little Whos of Whoville, this is an author that had an endless imagination. Supposedly, the author modeled two of his most famous characters off of himself: the Grinch and the Cat in the Hat.

Other than that, many of his characters simply came from daydreaming. The author has claimed in previous interviews that they just appear in his brain and he brings them to life on the page.

Did Dr. Seuss win any awards?

Yes, the author won many awards in his lifetime (and beyond it). The most prestigious one awarded to him was the Pullitzer Prize. Dr. Seuss received this honor back in 1984. It was specifically for his contribution to children's literature. However, literature is not the only thing Dr. Seuss received awards for. He also helped make many films and television shows from his work. He received an Oscar, 2 Emmys and 2 Peabody awards for those. Dr. Seuss was a beloved author, illustrator, and producer in his lifetime. He will always be remembered for the contributions he made to culture.

Did Dr. Seuss go to college?

Dr. Seuss (a.k.a. Theodore Geisel) graduated from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, in the year 1925. Growing up in Springfield, Massachussetts, the school was only a couple hours from his childhood home. This is where he first combined his talents in writing and drawing. Naturally, he graduated with a degree in English and was a very successful student at the college. He began working on his first works at the campus' popular humor magazine entitled Jack-O-Lantern. It was here that he had his first works published.

Did Dr. Seuss get married?

Yes, he married Helen Palmer in 1927. They met in a class at Oxford University. Also a writer, she had a great influence on her husband's life. She is the one credited with encouraging him to make writing and illustrating children's books his career. Sadly, the marriage didn't end well. Helen had a series of cancerous illnesses flare up between 1955 until her death. Unable to handle the pain, she eventually committed suicide in 1967 by overdosing on barbiturates.

Did Dr. Seuss have any pets?

Although best known for his book about a cat, the author was more of a dog person. His very first childhood pet was a Boston Terrier named Rex. He had a few different dogs he was close with throughout his life. However, it isn't apparent that he wrote any of them into his books. Later in his life, he had a dog he was very close with: an Irish setter named Cluny. Cluny lived with the author in his home in La Jolla, California where they would often take walks on the beach.

Did Dr. Seuss have any siblings?

Dr. Seuss had two siblings. His younger sister, Henrietta, was born 2 years after him in 1906. Sadly, she was struck with pneumonia at the early age of 18 months and died. Ted was only 3 years old at the time, but it is a memory that remained with him for his entire life. His older sister was named Margaretha, but everyone called her Marnie. They were very close and only a few years apart.

Did Dr. Seuss have any other jobs?

Dr. Seuss worked for various publications before he was able to make a career out of his own work. In the early parts of his career, he worked for a humor magazine called Judge where he created cartoons. When the Great Depression hit, Dr. Seuss had to find another line of work. He turned to making illustrations for advertising companies like NBC and General Electric. This helped him get the attention of many big name people. He was able to save the money he made from this job to make his own creative work.

Did Dr. Seuss do his own drawings?

Dr. Seuss was a dedicated artist and drafted every single one of his published drawings. He loved to draw and did it his whole life. His signature color palette, active pen strokes, and surreal landscapes have made him a memorable artist that no one can recreate.

Do all of Dr. Seuss' books rhyme?

All 48 of Dr. Seuss' books have rhyming patterns in them. This is what makes them so memorable. Each line gallops across the page like a horse trotting through a field. When there wasn't a word to rhyme with, Dr. Seuss would simply make it up. He was known for throwing in creative words like 'shloppity-shloop' and infinite others. His readers loved his magical array of nonsensical rhyming words. The author never strayed from this pattern. One must wonder if the man thought in rhymes, too.

Why do Dr. Seuss books rhyme?

With a rhyme comes a reason. Rhymes make something memorable. They also make for a fun read. Although no one can be certain why the Doctor was so taken by rhyming patterns, it is clear that he whole-heartedly loved rhyming in his books. It is said that rhymes especially help children learn language. The musical pattern of a rhyme sticks in a child's memory and makes reading more fun.

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[littleshopofreaders]

What inspired you to write your first book?

My first book was a collection of erotic short stories with various supernatural and fantasy themes, and I was inspired to write them after a friend gave me a Black Lace collection and I realized “WOW! You are allowed to write this sort of naughty stuff!”

The first book of this trilogy, Cover Him With Darkness, started life as a short story that appeared in Mitzi Szereto’s collection Red Velvet and Absinthe, and the publisher at Cleis loved it so much that she asked me to write what happened next.

Do you have a specific writing style?

Madeline Moore called me “hardcore and literate.” I love that!

How did you come up with the title of your current book?

“In Bonds of the Earth” is a quote from The Book of Enoch, which is an apocryphal BC text not included in most Bibles, but which is all about fallen angels: “And from henceforth you shall not ascend into heaven into all eternity, and in bonds of the earth the decree has gone forth, to bind you for all the days of the world.”

Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

Right and wrong is not about following any set of laws, it’s founded on empathy.

How much of the book is realistic?

It’s a contemporary paranormal about fallen angels, but I put a LOT of effort into making the settings and details accurate. A big chunk is set in Ethiopia for example – so I went to Ethiopia for 20 days. The description of the rock-hewn churches is bang-on accurate…right up to the end of Chapter 9.

Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?

My real life is not that eventful, believe me!

What books have most influenced your life most?

“The Lord of the Rings.” I’m a geek; I started playing Dungeons and Dragons when I was thirteen. I think everything else has come out of that.

If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?

Angela Carter influenced my writing style and themes from the start.

What book are you reading now?

“The Tiger and the Wolf” by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It’s an excellent fantasy with a really unusual setting.

Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest?

Samantha McLeod and Sonni de Soto.

What are your current projects?

I’m writing the sequel to In Bonds of the Earth, and the final part of that trilogy: The Prison of the Angels.

Name one entity that you feel supported you outside of family members.

I’ve found the erotica writing community (which is mostly female btw) incredibly supportive, intelligent, and friendly.

Do you see writing as a career?

No – I see it as a vocation, and as my purpose in life.

If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?

I wish I’d made it clear that all fallen angels are left-handed. Too late now, lol.

Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?

I always wanted to write, I think.

Can you share a little of your current work in progress with us?

Egan came up behind me without a word and slipped his arms round my waist, kissing the top of my head, breathing the scent of my hair. Goddamnit; to cut him some slack, I’m fairly sure he didn’t know the effect that had on me– my insides were doing that flip-flop thing that hurt so good. “We need to talk,” he murmured. I knew it! Here it comes. Mr. Rationality. Mr. Consequences. My stomach tightened up like a knotted fist. They were so different, my two loves. Azazel was a creature of appetite and the moment, living for his desires—but Egan lived in the battlemented ivory tower of overthinking, fending off the armies of his libido. Only when he was undermined by illness or exhaustion or drink did he ever fall into recklessness. And me? I was much more like Azazel. I went with my gut instinct. None of this would have happened if that hadn’t been the case.

Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?

After 15+ years of writing erotica, the most challenging thing is writing orgasms without just repeating myself!

Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?

I have many favorite authors, all wildly different, but the one thing they all have in common is that they have their own creative vision and they don’t compromise it or write to a market formula.

Do you have to travel much concerning your book(s)?

I LOVE travelling, and use the places I’ve been to all over the world as settings or inspiration for many of my stories and novels – even ones set in imaginary worlds.

Who designed the covers?

The cover of In Bonds of the Earth is by Deranged Doctor Design and I’m delighted with it! The publisher and I put a LOT of discussion into getting something we’d be proud of. In fact, input into cover design was my first stipulation in my contract!

What was the hardest part of writing your book?

Writing the main antagonist/villain, in a way that makes it clear they’re awful, yet understandable.

Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?

Every time you think you know your characters, they suddenly reveal another layer of complexity.

Do you have any advice for other writers?

If you have an uncomfortable truth to tell about your protagonist, put it in the mouth of an antagonist.

Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?

Read critically. Don’t assume that everything a protagonist says is correct, or is projecting the author’s own opinion. We sometimes write characters that we think are getting it badly wrong.

What were the challenges (research, literary, psychological, and logistical) in bringing it to life?

I was brought up in a Christian (born-again Protestant) family but I’ve had to do a lot of research for this trilogy into other Christian theologies – Catholicism and Serbian Orthodoxy in particular, since my two main human characters belong to those traditions. There are surprising and significant differences that affect how they see the world.

Rapid Fire

Coffee – Tea: BOTH, IN STRICT TURN Boxer – Briefs: BRIEFS Jeans – Sweats: JEANS Silk – Cotton: COTTON iPhone-Galaxy: I DON’T OWN A SMARTPHONE! Rightie – Leftie : LEFTIE Soda-Water: TONIC Cake-Pie: CAKE Rock n roll – Country: ROCK Mountains – Beach: MOUNTAINS Cat -Dog: DOG

Favorite Movie: A Muppet Christmas Carol Favorite TV Show: Game of Thrones Favorite Car: Anything that can fit two greyhounds in the back Favorite Color: Midnight blue Favorite Male Film Star: Tom Hardy Favorite Female Film Star: Eva Green Favorite Fast Food: Chinese Favorite Cocktail: Mojito Favorite Musical Band: Rammstein Favorite Singer: Freddie Stevenson Favorite Song: “Solsbury Hill” by Peter Gabriel

Excerpt from In Bonds of the Earth:

Wrapping the cheap cotton throw from the foot of the bed around my bare body, I padded through to the doorway. The Archangel Michael stood in the middle of my small apartment, looking about him at the book shelves and the pictures. A paperback copy of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo slipped from his hand back onto the low table. “Hello, Milja. Nice place. Has he moved his toothbrush in yet?” It was like waking to find a giant bird of prey in my tiny living room; he looked wildly unsuited to a domestic setting and way too big for it, even with wings furled. In fact, with that Roman nose and those unblinking amber eyes, there was something distinctly golden eagle-like about him. If he stretched out he could knock over walls, I thought. “What do you think you’re doing?” I asked. “This is my home. You can’t just come barging in!” “You’re right,” he said, looking startled. “I have to have your permission. No, hold on, wait…that’s vampires. Shame.” I pursed my lips. “Well, God certainly did not hold back on the sarcasm when he made you guys.” He smirked. If you’re that good-looking, even a less-than-warm smile can be a weapon of devastating charm. Turning to the couch, he sat down with arms draped over the back and knees spread. It was not so much an invitation as a claiming of territory. “What do you want?” I kept my voice hard, even as I thought of the icon of Saint Michael that had stood guard over the key in my father’s church. That holy painting had always made me feel nervous as a child, and he was no less intimidating in the flesh. His piercing gaze rested lightly upon me, with all the gentleness of a sword-point. “Nothing.” His rigger boots were caked in dried mud, I noticed, and flaking on my rug. I wished he would blink. It still creeped me out, even though Azazel should have inured me to it. “Angels aren’t supposed to lie. What are you doing here?” “Waiting.” “So, what…you’re sitting guard over me until Azazel comes back? Is that your plan?” “He’s too much of a coward to face me. Runs every time.” “If that’s the way you want to call it.” He looked at the kitchen door. “I see you have a kettle. You got any tea? I like that Earl Grey stuff. Tastes like flowers.” “I know the rules, you know. You can’t actually do anything to me.” “True enough. And I’m not stopping you leaving, if that’s worrying you.” “I can move out. Get a new place.” “That’s fine, I’ll find you. This apartment’s a bit small for the two of us, to be honest.” I clenched my jaw, weighing my options. “Okay,” I said, and dropped my wrap to reveal my naked body, in all its post-coital salty glow. That wiped the smile off his lips. “Don’t play those games,” he growled, sitting up and looking away from me. Love is Azazel’s weak spot. Shame is theirs. They’re terrified of their own human flesh. “What? Does this make you uncomfortable? That’s a pity, seeing as how it’s my house and I like to walk around it naked.” “You are shameless.” His gaze was sliding all over the place, not daring to settle on me. “I’ve got nothing to be ashamed of.” I hefted my breasts and jiggled them. “They’re my tits. In my apartment. If you don’t want to see, clear out.” “Put your robe back on,” he rasped. “Oops,” I said. “Did I drop it?” Turning my back to him, I spread my feet and, straight-legged, bent over to pick the fabric up again. Nice and slow… He moved so fast he’d launched me across the room and onto my bed before I even realized he was out of his seat. The abused mattress twanged in alarm. It knocked the wind out of me—and more than that, shocked me half to death. I wasn’t in the least bit hurt, not even bruised, but I hadn’t expected him to touch me at all, under the rules. Maybe the Boatman sailed closer to the wind than I’d bargained for. “Don’t do that, whore!” he barked, leaning into my face. He looked furious. I knew why. It takes a human decades to learn how to deal with all the things that come with an adult body—all those hormones and instincts—without losing control. Angels never had the advantage of a gradual introduction. I had two choices: surrender or fight. I bared my teeth and snarled right back at him, matching his rage and contempt. “Or what? You’re going to rape me? ’Cause I think that might just count as a fall from Grace, don’t you? And then you’d be royally fucked, Mister Michael.” He recoiled, drawing himself up in undisguised horror. I took advantage of the gap between us to roll over and pull the drawer of my bedside cabinet open, pulling out the silicon rabbit sex toy I’d been given at my graduation party. I hadn’t used it in months, I couldn’t even remember if there were any batteries in it, and I certainly wasn’t feeling horny, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. “Wanna watch?” I asked, spreading my legs wide. “Because that’s what us girls do when we’re home alone these modern days. You can go into the other room if it squicks you out to see. Then you’ll only have to listen to the noises I make.” He turned on his heel and stomped away, slamming his hands into the doorframe hard enough to crack the wood. But he didn’t leave altogether. He was just that bit too stubborn.

Blurb:

“I will free them all.” When Milja Petak released the fallen angel Azazel from five thousand years of imprisonment, she did it out of love and pity. She found herself in a passionate sexual relationship beyond her imagining and control – the beloved plaything of a dark and furious demon who takes what he wants, when he wants, and submits to no restraint. But what she hasn’t bargained on is being drawn into his plan to free all his incarcerated brothers and wage a war against the Powers of Heaven. As Azazel drags Milja across the globe in search of his fellow rebel angels, Milja fights to hold her own in a situation where every decision has dire consequences. Pursued by the loyal Archangels, she is forced to make alliances with those she cannot trust: the mysterious Roshana Veisi, who has designs of her own upon Azazel; and Egan Kansky, special forces agent of the Vatican – the man who once saved then betrayed her, who loves her, and who will do anything he can to imprison Azazel for all eternity. Torn every way by love, by conflicting loyalties and by her own passions, Milja finds that she too is changing – and that she must do things she could not previously have dreamt of in order to save those who matter to her. In Bonds of the Earth is the second in the Book of the Watchers trilogy and the sequel to Cover Him With Darkness.

Buy links:

Ebook: Amazon: http://hyperurl.co/cu1pe0 Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/in-bonds-of-the-earth/id1201654085?mt=11 Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/in-bonds-of-the-earth Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Janine_Ashbless_In_Bonds_of_the_Earth?id=HZMSDgAAQBAJ&hl=en Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/in-bonds-of-the-earth-janine-ashbless/1125264279?ean=9781910908099

Print: Support your small publisher and buy direct: https://sinfulpress.co.uk/product/in-bonds-of-the-earth-by-janine-ashbless/ Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/in-bonds-of-the-earth/janine-ashbless/9781910908082 Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/in-bonds-of-the-earth-janine-ashbless/1125264279?ean=9781910908082 Amazon: http://hyperurl.co/fuqprg

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32996475-in-bonds-of-the-earth Author bio:

Janine Ashbless is a writer of fantasy erotica and steamy romantic adventure. She likes to write about magic and myth and mystery, dangerous power dynamics, borderline terror, and the not-quite-human.

Buyer beware! If you like dark romance and a hard-won Happily Ever After, try “Cover Him with Darkness,” “Heart of Flame,” or “The King’s Viper.” If you prefer challenging erotica, go for “Red Grow the Roses” or “Named and Shamed” instead. All her other books lie somewhere on the spectrum between.

Janine has been seeing her books in print ever since 2000. She’s also had numerous short stories published by Black Lace, Nexus, Cleis Press, Ravenous Romance, Harlequin Spice, Storm Moon, Xcite, Mischief Books, and Ellora’s Cave among others. She is co-editor of the nerd erotica anthology ‘Geek Love’.

Born in Wales, Janine now lives in the North of England with her husband and two rescued greyhounds. She has worked as a cleaner, library assistant, computer programmer, local government tree officer, and – for five years of muddy feet and shouting – as a full-time costumed Viking. Janine loves goatee beards, ancient ruins, minotaurs, trees, mummies, having her cake and eating it, and holidaying in countries with really bad public sewerage.

Her work has been described as: “Hardcore and literate” (Madeline Moore) and “Vivid and tempestuous and dangerous, and bursting with sacrifice, death and love.” (Portia Da Costa).

You can find Janine on Facebook or at her website or blog.

Author picture credit to David Woolfall.

*****

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In the Bonds of Earth by Janine Ashbless What inspired you to write your first book? My first book was a collection of erotic short stories with various supernatural and fantasy themes, and I was inspired to write them after a friend gave me a Black Lace collection and I realized "WOW!

[marybarbara1]

Pushback Against DeVos: Public Schools Are Our Best Future AlterNet

Photo Credit: Photo by Ismael F. Armendariz Jr.

On a wet Thursday morning at Edna Brewer Middle School in Oakland, Calif., mother and father dropping off their youngsters on the final day of Barack Obama’s presidency have been greeted by an uncommon sight.

An energized mixture of academics, Glen View neighborhood residents and an Oakland Unified School Board member, Roseann Torres, who co-sponsored a decision final month making OUSD one of many state’s first “sanctuary” districts, have been holding protest indicators praising public faculties and rejecting Donald Trump’s marketing campaign pledge to deport tens of millions, goal Muslim-Americans and strip LGBT and reproductive rights.

“We’re passing out flyers, telling parents we are out here because we believe in public schools,” Ismael F. Armendariz Jr., a particular schooling instructor and “walk-in” protest organizer stated. “We believe in fully funding public schools and we also want to remind parents that our school is a safe school for students.”

Despite the moist day, a small crowd grew amid what’s usually a rush to lockers and lecture rooms. The Oakland protest was amongst 1,000 actions in 200 cities throughout the nation Thursday led by the three million-member National Education Association, with NEA president Lily García showcasing faculties in Los Angeles and Las Cruces, New Mexico.

In Oakland, Rich Johnson, 72, stood amid pink, white and blue posters from the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools and NEA saying, “The schools all our children deserve,” and a handmade one saying, “Todos Pueden Estudiar Aqui”—all can research right here.

“I’m just a neighbor, not a PTA member. I think the schools are important,” he stated, saying he was impressed by what he noticed—a core group of 100-to-200 mother and father in an 800-pupil faculty that actively supported their youngsters and the neighborhood center faculty. He appreciated their values and what he noticed its academics doing.

“When I saw a leaflet with a walk-in, I said I’m going,” Johnson stated, including he shortly emailed others. “Walk-in day, not walkout day, where you go on strike. This is a very positive response that bunches of kids or their friend might be picked up by ICE [federal immigration police] because their paperwork is not in order. I like the name of that, walk-in… We don’t want ICE picking up parents either.”

The National Walk In marked the beginning of a brand new NEA push to interact and stand with communities by showcasing the successes and values of conventional public faculties as they’ve come beneath escalating assaults. The threats started with ongoing efforts by tremendous-rich entrepreneurs to denationalise faculty operations, slender curriculum to emphasise check preparation and retain academics based mostly on check scores. That was all earlier than Trump’s assaults on minorities, which might attain into public faculties and snare college students.

While conventional public faculty advocates in Washington, D.C., spent this week displaying how astoundingly unprepared Betsy DeVos, the Secretary of Education designate, is for that cupboard publish, actions like Edna Brewer’s stroll-in have been a deliberate counterpoint, stated Trish Gorham, Oakland Education Association president.

“In Oakland, our theme is SAFE: public schools are for everyone,” she stated. “It is coming off of the sanctuary resolution that certainly is uppermost in our minds, but immigration is not only where our students need to be protected. They need to be protected with immigration status, gender status, religion, ethnicity. All of these are possibly being targeted and that’s where we are going to protect our students in all of those areas.”

Standing with college students and their households was the precedence on the eve of Trump’s inauguration, Gorham stated, not bashing DeVos, a billionaire who by no means attended public faculties or despatched her youngsters to any, nor served on a regionally elected faculty board, and whose household basis has given multi-hundreds of thousands to Okay-12 privatization entrepreneurs.

“We decided that we would not create this external target, but we would try and strengthen our community,” Gorham said. “Because it is in strengthening our community and bringing our community together around our schools that ultimately will save our public school system.”

The strengths of conventional public faculties, together with what number of are deepening ties with different native public businesses to assist tackle well being, housing and providers that help poor households and their college students, is the “untold story” in Okay-12 schooling, stated NEA president Lily García.

“It’s not uncommon. It’s the untold story,” García stated. “Privateers need a narrative that public schools are bad schools and privatized schools are good schools. Research belies that. Some of the best public schools in the world are American public schools. Those are usually the ones that are well resourced and that have programs and staff built to develop the whole student’s diversity, talents and interests and needs. Our best public schools should serve as our model of where to go. They’re our North Star.”

The ‘Anti-Privatized School’

García, who many years in the past started her profession in eduction as a faculty lunch woman after which a grade faculty instructor in Utah, was en route Thursday to Las Cruces, New Mexico, for a day ribbon-slicing ceremony and scholar-led dialogue in a district that the NEA sees as modeling one of the best of conventional public faculties. The district was increasing packages at a “community school” in coordination with native companies and social businesses, and it has a brand new superintendent who informed academics to show youngsters the place they’re and cease worrying about check prep and their profession prospects based mostly on check scores.

“Las Cruces looks more and more like America—suburban with a mix of rural kids bused in, a large immigrant population, income disparity,” García stated. “What makes this school unique is that they’re not waiting for some politician to give them permission to innovate. They don’t want privatized charters. They want to hold these kids in the arms of the whole community.”     

Earlier this week on Tuesday night time, the board assembly of Las Cruces Public Schools started within the humdrum means most regionally elected faculty boards do throughout America, gaveling the assembly to order, amending the agenda and getting ready the night’s enterprise. But then board chairwoman Maria Flores turned the rostrum over to a number of members of the viewers who privately sponsored and ran an ongoing scholar essay and poetry contest, who in flip, launched their newest winners to learn what they wrote.

First was Andrew Angel, a Centennial High School junior who stated in his essay that his grandparents had been crushed by whites for talking Spanish once they attended Las Cruces faculties, but his grandmother turned the varsity district’s first Hispanic nurse. He stated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in solidarity with Cesar Chavez, impressed a imaginative and prescient of racial justice and nonviolent protest that has helped his household and impressed him.

“We were allowed to come to something from nothing, as equals to any other Americans,” Angel learn. “Dr. King helped me not only as a Hispanic but a member of a more tolerant generation, both on acceptance and non-violent expression… I intend to live my life this way and give my country in my thoughts and my actions the only thing that was ever needed: love. Love drives us all toward progress and love is the only truth that transcends race, religion and gender.”

Then got here Mireya Sanchez-Maes, a freshman at Mayfield High School. Her essay described what the Mahatma Gandhi quote—“Be the change that you wish to see in the world”—meant to her, which was discovering her voice, together with difficult “overtesting” and urging extra music and know-how courses.

“So what’s my voice?” she learn. “It is knowledge in the face of ignorance. Light in the face of darkness. My voice is standing up for someone who can’t stand up for themselves… My voice is fighting for what’s right, even when the battle is one fought uphill. Martin Luther King Jr. said our lives begin to end when we become silent about the things that matter. I have never felt more alive.”   

Gregory Ewing, the brand new superintendent, beamed and responded, echoing what most of the stroll-in protesters at Oakland’s Edna Brewer Middle School have been telling the scholars and group—that he would use all of his legal authority to guard college students from the worst threats posed by the incoming Trump’ administration.     

“I would just like to say how proud I am to see these students come up and speak,” Ewing stated, noting he was a member of ALAS, Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents and MALDEF, the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund. “As the superintendent, I say to the scholars within the faculty system, so long as I’m your el hefe, I pledge to you you’ll all the time be protected, not solely beneath my management however the management of my whole staff. We are right here for you. We consider in you.”

This small however stirring scene wasn’t the one dramatic pronouncement from Ewing on Tuesday. He addressed the considerations of scholars and academics that current state and federal legal guidelines are excessively and harmfully targeted on standardized exams, to the detriment of serving to college students extra holistically and giving academics leeway to deal with particular person scholar difficulties.

“I am in the first 90 days of the look, listen and learn tour. And here’s what I am hearing,” he stated. “There’s a lot of anxiety with students about all the testing that’s taking place in schools and in classrooms. There’s also anxiety with teachers. So I would like to say to you as your superintendent, with the powers invested in me by the state, I say to all teachers in the district, you have my permission to take charge of your classrooms… I want you to stop worrying about all these national and standardized tests. I want to say to our teachers and I want to say to our students, return to teaching, return to learning.”

The strains drawn by Ewing and heartily endorsed by his superiors, Las Cruces’ elected faculty board, are indicative of the fault strains dealing with conventional public faculties throughout America. The struggle towards privatization just isn’t new however takes totally different types. In Las Cruces, it’s seen in testing regimes imposed by appointees of a former Republican governor with deep ties to a nationwide testing regime that was underwritten by Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Like many rich social entrepreneurs, he needs Okay-12 faculties to be extra like metric-pushed company America. In Oakland, many rich entrepreneurs—and never simply in tech—have been underwriting constitution faculties, which has led to multimillions in funds diverted from conventional faculties, and to more and more segregated faculties in a proud, combined-race group.   

“I began the morning in one of America’s largest public school systems and will end it in a small one,” NEA’s García stated Thursday. “It doesn’t matter—urban, suburban or rural. American public schools have the answers. We’re not waiting for permission. We will proceed until apprehended to design the schools our children deserve… We’re creative about pulling communities together to make sure kids have what they need, whether that’s a meal or an Advanced Placement math class.”

Emphasizing these options was why García went to Las Cruces and why the NEA organized nationwide stroll-in protests at 1,000 faculties throughout the nation in 200 cities, she stated.

“They are cutting a ribbon at the Lynn Community Middle School [in Las Cruces]. The superintendent is calling for a moratorium on testing! The parents want this and are part of designing this,” she stated. “It’s the anti-privatized school. It’s the community standing up and saying our school belongs to all of us and is not a commodity on the market. It’s a public trust—and we’re the public.”        ‘People Were Crying on November 9’

Meanwhile in Oakland, the place dozens of neighbors turned out for the Thursday stroll-in, particular ed instructor Ismael Armendariz pointed to a faculty board member, Roseanne Torres, who confirmed up with a hand-lettered signal, “Todos Pueden Estudiar Aqui”—all can research right here.

Torres, a lawyer who works with many Latino households, not solely drafted and co-sponsored the sanctuary district decision handed by the OUSD in December, however gained re-election in November regardless of greater than $160,000 in adverse advertisements from a number of the nation’s richest and greatest-recognized professional-constitution faculty advocates. That record consists of former New York City mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg, California’s constitution commerce affiliation and a brand new group, Go Public Schools, underwritten by the household that when owned Dreyer’s Ice Cream, an area chain that’s now a subsidiary of Nestlé.

The battle over preserving, funding and enhancing Oakland’s conventional Okay-12 faculties was already very heated, Armendariz stated, and that was earlier than Trump campaigned on pledges to focus on undocumented immigrants, which strikes deep fears on this group.

“We’ve done a few walk-ins at our schools and it’s been mostly centered around public school funding and supporting public schools,” he stated, recounting the current activism. “In Oakland this school year, what’s happening is a lot of people are more on edge or more hyper-aware because during the school board elections, late in the election there was a lot of investigation into the funding of our school board candidates… And then Trump got elected, and he ran on the same message that the Go Public Schools people run on, ‘We need options.’ ‘We need school choice.’ That’s where it all ties together.”

“It all translates. People were crying on November 9th,” Torres stated, saying she shortly drew on language beneath evaluate on the Latino School Board Association to create OUSD’s sanctuary district decision. “By law, our children have every right to be in school. We had to act fast. I know how immigrant communities think. They don’t know the law. They don’t know the language.”

But whereas Trump’s threats could also be a tipping level that may ignite activism and resistance in contrast to something seen in America in many years, Torres stated there was a wider set of challenges from privatizers that have been ongoing and accelerating—particularly with the Trump administration’s professional-privatization crusaders.

“That kind of [campaign attack ad] money doesn’t get spent” for no purpose, she stated. “That is all connected to the Trump-type people. DeVos, Bloomberg, the billionaires… Go [Public Schools] is DeVos and DeVos is Go. For people to think anything else is because they are being misled by their very slick marketing.”

“It’s not that all charters are bad,” Torres continued, “but they disrupt district programs, lead to cuts in music, arts, teacher layoffs, and are especially disruptive with special education. The biggest challenge there is rising costs. You need classes with six-to-one student-teacher ratios, or 12-to-one classes, and nurses. Charters don’t offer support at that level… We need to talk about what is really happening in public education.”

“It is a direct attack on public schools,” stated Trish Gorham, Oakland Education Association president. “Some have misaligned or misdirected priorities. Some are purely out for plunder. That’s kind of the problem. There are people calling for school reform out of a deep concern and out of good intentions. But their solutions are wrong. And they’ve been proven to be wrong. And have they been proven to divide our cities and segregate and schools more than in the last 40 years… Creating these unique boutiques does a disservice to what our schools are about, which is the foundation of a democracy.”

And that’s the divide the NEA is looking for to underscore on the native and nationwide degree, the place on their aspect are native communities, regionally elected boards and conventional public faculties that embody democratic values and resist commercialization and a damaged—and probably worsening—federal justice system.

“While so much changes… with the change of administration, nothing changes for educators and parents and advocates for public education,” García stated. “Our students will need us more than ever before to protect them and fight for them. Today, we put on the battle gear. We will not permit billionaires and profiteers to hurt our students. We will stand in the gap. To hurt them, you’ll have to go through us first. And there are millions of us.”

Steven Rosenfeld covers nationwide political points for AlterNet, together with America’s democracy and voting rights, campaigns and elections, and lots of social justice points. He is the writer of “Count My Vote: A Citizen’s Guide to Voting” (AlterNet Books, 2008).

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Pushback Against DeVos: Public Schools Are Our Best Future – AlterNet

Photo Credit: Photo by Ismael F. Armendariz Jr.

On a wet Thursday morning at Edna Brewer Middle School in Oakland, Calif., mother and father dropping off their youngsters on the final day of Barack Obama’s presidency have been greeted by an uncommon sight.

An energized mixture of academics, Glen View neighborhood residents and an Oakland Unified School Board member, Roseann Torres, who co-sponsored a decision final month making OUSD one of many state’s first “sanctuary” districts, have been holding protest indicators praising public faculties and rejecting Donald Trump’s marketing campaign pledge to deport tens of millions, goal Muslim-Americans and strip LGBT and reproductive rights.

“We’re passing out flyers, telling parents we are out here because we believe in public schools,” Ismael F. Armendariz Jr., a particular schooling instructor and “walk-in” protest organizer stated. “We believe in fully funding public schools and we also want to remind parents that our school is a safe school for students.”

Despite the moist day, a small crowd grew amid what’s usually a rush to lockers and lecture rooms. The Oakland protest was amongst 1,000 actions in 200 cities throughout the nation Thursday led by the three million-member National Education Association, with NEA president Lily García showcasing faculties in Los Angeles and Las Cruces, New Mexico.

In Oakland, Rich Johnson, 72, stood amid pink, white and blue posters from the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools and NEA saying, “The schools all our children deserve,” and a handmade one saying, “Todos Pueden Estudiar Aqui”—all can research right here.

“I’m just a neighbor, not a PTA member. I think the schools are important,” he stated, saying he was impressed by what he noticed—a core group of 100-to-200 mother and father in an 800-pupil faculty that actively supported their youngsters and the neighborhood center faculty. He appreciated their values and what he noticed its academics doing.

“When I saw a leaflet with a walk-in, I said I’m going,” Johnson stated, including he shortly emailed others. “Walk-in day, not walkout day, where you go on strike. This is a very positive response that bunches of kids or their friend might be picked up by ICE [federal immigration police] because their paperwork is not in order. I like the name of that, walk-in… We don’t want ICE picking up parents either.”

The National Walk In marked the beginning of a brand new NEA push to interact and stand with communities by showcasing the successes and values of conventional public faculties as they’ve come beneath escalating assaults. The threats started with ongoing efforts by tremendous-rich entrepreneurs to denationalise faculty operations, slender curriculum to emphasise check preparation and retain academics based mostly on check scores. That was all earlier than Trump’s assaults on minorities, which might attain into public faculties and snare college students.

While conventional public faculty advocates in Washington, D.C., spent this week displaying how astoundingly unprepared Betsy DeVos, the Secretary of Education designate, is for that cupboard publish, actions like Edna Brewer’s stroll-in have been a deliberate counterpoint, stated Trish Gorham, Oakland Education Association president.

“In Oakland, our theme is SAFE: public schools are for everyone,” she stated. “It is coming off of the sanctuary resolution that certainly is uppermost in our minds, but immigration is not only where our students need to be protected. They need to be protected with immigration status, gender status, religion, ethnicity. All of these are possibly being targeted and that’s where we are going to protect our students in all of those areas.”

Standing with college students and their households was the precedence on the eve of Trump’s inauguration, Gorham stated, not bashing DeVos, a billionaire who by no means attended public faculties or despatched her youngsters to any, nor served on a regionally elected faculty board, and whose household basis has given multi-hundreds of thousands to Okay-12 privatization entrepreneurs.

“We decided that we would not create this external target, but we would try and strengthen our community,” Gorham said. “Because it is in strengthening our community and bringing our community together around our schools that ultimately will save our public school system.”

The strengths of conventional public faculties, together with what number of are deepening ties with different native public businesses to assist tackle well being, housing and providers that help poor households and their college students, is the “untold story” in Okay-12 schooling, stated NEA president Lily García.

“It’s not uncommon. It’s the untold story,” García stated. “Privateers need a narrative that public schools are bad schools and privatized schools are good schools. Research belies that. Some of the best public schools in the world are American public schools. Those are usually the ones that are well resourced and that have programs and staff built to develop the whole student’s diversity, talents and interests and needs. Our best public schools should serve as our model of where to go. They’re our North Star.”

The ‘Anti-Privatized School’

García, who many years in the past started her profession in eduction as a faculty lunch woman after which a grade faculty instructor in Utah, was en route Thursday to Las Cruces, New Mexico, for a day ribbon-slicing ceremony and scholar-led dialogue in a district that the NEA sees as modeling one of the best of conventional public faculties. The district was increasing packages at a “community school” in coordination with native companies and social businesses, and it has a brand new superintendent who informed academics to show youngsters the place they’re and cease worrying about check prep and their profession prospects based mostly on check scores.

“Las Cruces looks more and more like America—suburban with a mix of rural kids bused in, a large immigrant population, income disparity,” García stated. “What makes this school unique is that they’re not waiting for some politician to give them permission to innovate. They don’t want privatized charters. They want to hold these kids in the arms of the whole community.”     

Earlier this week on Tuesday night time, the board assembly of Las Cruces Public Schools started within the humdrum means most regionally elected faculty boards do throughout America, gaveling the assembly to order, amending the agenda and getting ready the night’s enterprise. But then board chairwoman Maria Flores turned the rostrum over to a number of members of the viewers who privately sponsored and ran an ongoing scholar essay and poetry contest, who in flip, launched their newest winners to learn what they wrote.

First was Andrew Angel, a Centennial High School junior who stated in his essay that his grandparents had been crushed by whites for talking Spanish once they attended Las Cruces faculties, but his grandmother turned the varsity district’s first Hispanic nurse. He stated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in solidarity with Cesar Chavez, impressed a imaginative and prescient of racial justice and nonviolent protest that has helped his household and impressed him.

“We were allowed to come to something from nothing, as equals to any other Americans,” Angel learn. “Dr. King helped me not only as a Hispanic but a member of a more tolerant generation, both on acceptance and non-violent expression… I intend to live my life this way and give my country in my thoughts and my actions the only thing that was ever needed: love. Love drives us all toward progress and love is the only truth that transcends race, religion and gender.”

Then got here Mireya Sanchez-Maes, a freshman at Mayfield High School. Her essay described what the Mahatma Gandhi quote—“Be the change that you wish to see in the world”—meant to her, which was discovering her voice, together with difficult “overtesting” and urging extra music and know-how courses.

“So what’s my voice?” she learn. “It is knowledge in the face of ignorance. Light in the face of darkness. My voice is standing up for someone who can’t stand up for themselves… My voice is fighting for what’s right, even when the battle is one fought uphill. Martin Luther King Jr. said our lives begin to end when we become silent about the things that matter. I have never felt more alive.”   

Gregory Ewing, the brand new superintendent, beamed and responded, echoing what most of the stroll-in protesters at Oakland’s Edna Brewer Middle School have been telling the scholars and group—that he would use all of his legal authority to guard college students from the worst threats posed by the incoming Trump’ administration.     

“I would just like to say how proud I am to see these students come up and speak,” Ewing stated, noting he was a member of ALAS, Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents and MALDEF, the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund. “As the superintendent, I say to the scholars within the faculty system, so long as I’m your el hefe, I pledge to you you’ll all the time be protected, not solely beneath my management however the management of my whole staff. We are right here for you. We consider in you.”

This small however stirring scene wasn’t the one dramatic pronouncement from Ewing on Tuesday. He addressed the considerations of scholars and academics that current state and federal legal guidelines are excessively and harmfully targeted on standardized exams, to the detriment of serving to college students extra holistically and giving academics leeway to deal with particular person scholar difficulties.

“I am in the first 90 days of the look, listen and learn tour. And here’s what I am hearing,” he stated. “There’s a lot of anxiety with students about all the testing that’s taking place in schools and in classrooms. There’s also anxiety with teachers. So I would like to say to you as your superintendent, with the powers invested in me by the state, I say to all teachers in the district, you have my permission to take charge of your classrooms… I want you to stop worrying about all these national and standardized tests. I want to say to our teachers and I want to say to our students, return to teaching, return to learning.”

The strains drawn by Ewing and heartily endorsed by his superiors, Las Cruces’ elected faculty board, are indicative of the fault strains dealing with conventional public faculties throughout America. The struggle towards privatization just isn’t new however takes totally different types. In Las Cruces, it’s seen in testing regimes imposed by appointees of a former Republican governor with deep ties to a nationwide testing regime that was underwritten by Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Like many rich social entrepreneurs, he needs Okay-12 faculties to be extra like metric-pushed company America. In Oakland, many rich entrepreneurs—and never simply in tech—have been underwriting constitution faculties, which has led to multimillions in funds diverted from conventional faculties, and to more and more segregated faculties in a proud, combined-race group.   

“I began the morning in one of America’s largest public school systems and will end it in a small one,” NEA’s García stated Thursday. “It doesn’t matter—urban, suburban or rural. American public schools have the answers. We’re not waiting for permission. We will proceed until apprehended to design the schools our children deserve… We’re creative about pulling communities together to make sure kids have what they need, whether that’s a meal or an Advanced Placement math class.”

Emphasizing these options was why García went to Las Cruces and why the NEA organized nationwide stroll-in protests at 1,000 faculties throughout the nation in 200 cities, she stated.

“They are cutting a ribbon at the Lynn Community Middle School [in Las Cruces]. The superintendent is calling for a moratorium on testing! The parents want this and are part of designing this,” she stated. “It’s the anti-privatized school. It’s the community standing up and saying our school belongs to all of us and is not a commodity on the market. It’s a public trust—and we’re the public.”        ‘People Were Crying on November 9’

Meanwhile in Oakland, the place dozens of neighbors turned out for the Thursday stroll-in, particular ed instructor Ismael Armendariz pointed to a faculty board member, Roseanne Torres, who confirmed up with a hand-lettered signal, “Todos Pueden Estudiar Aqui”—all can research right here.

Torres, a lawyer who works with many Latino households, not solely drafted and co-sponsored the sanctuary district decision handed by the OUSD in December, however gained re-election in November regardless of greater than $160,000 in adverse advertisements from a number of the nation’s richest and greatest-recognized professional-constitution faculty advocates. That record consists of former New York City mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg, California’s constitution commerce affiliation and a brand new group, Go Public Schools, underwritten by the household that when owned Dreyer’s Ice Cream, an area chain that’s now a subsidiary of Nestlé.

The battle over preserving, funding and enhancing Oakland’s conventional Okay-12 faculties was already very heated, Armendariz stated, and that was earlier than Trump campaigned on pledges to focus on undocumented immigrants, which strikes deep fears on this group.

“We’ve done a few walk-ins at our schools and it’s been mostly centered around public school funding and supporting public schools,” he stated, recounting the current activism. “In Oakland this school year, what’s happening is a lot of people are more on edge or more hyper-aware because during the school board elections, late in the election there was a lot of investigation into the funding of our school board candidates… And then Trump got elected, and he ran on the same message that the Go Public Schools people run on, ‘We need options.’ ‘We need school choice.’ That’s where it all ties together.”

“It all translates. People were crying on November 9th,” Torres stated, saying she shortly drew on language beneath evaluate on the Latino School Board Association to create OUSD’s sanctuary district decision. “By law, our children have every right to be in school. We had to act fast. I know how immigrant communities think. They don’t know the law. They don’t know the language.”

But whereas Trump’s threats could also be a tipping level that may ignite activism and resistance in contrast to something seen in America in many years, Torres stated there was a wider set of challenges from privatizers that have been ongoing and accelerating—particularly with the Trump administration’s professional-privatization crusaders.

“That kind of [campaign attack ad] money doesn’t get spent” for no purpose, she stated. “That is all connected to the Trump-type people. DeVos, Bloomberg, the billionaires… Go [Public Schools] is DeVos and DeVos is Go. For people to think anything else is because they are being misled by their very slick marketing.”

“It’s not that all charters are bad,” Torres continued, “but they disrupt district programs, lead to cuts in music, arts, teacher layoffs, and are especially disruptive with special education. The biggest challenge there is rising costs. You need classes with six-to-one student-teacher ratios, or 12-to-one classes, and nurses. Charters don’t offer support at that level… We need to talk about what is really happening in public education.”

“It is a direct attack on public schools,” stated Trish Gorham, Oakland Education Association president. “Some have misaligned or misdirected priorities. Some are purely out for plunder. That’s kind of the problem. There are people calling for school reform out of a deep concern and out of good intentions. But their solutions are wrong. And they’ve been proven to be wrong. And have they been proven to divide our cities and segregate and schools more than in the last 40 years… Creating these unique boutiques does a disservice to what our schools are about, which is the foundation of a democracy.”

And that’s the divide the NEA is looking for to underscore on the native and nationwide degree, the place on their aspect are native communities, regionally elected boards and conventional public faculties that embody democratic values and resist commercialization and a damaged—and probably worsening—federal justice system.

“While so much changes… with the change of administration, nothing changes for educators and parents and advocates for public education,” García stated. “Our students will need us more than ever before to protect them and fight for them. Today, we put on the battle gear. We will not permit billionaires and profiteers to hurt our students. We will stand in the gap. To hurt them, you’ll have to go through us first. And there are millions of us.”

Steven Rosenfeld covers nationwide political points for AlterNet, together with America’s democracy and voting rights, campaigns and elections, and lots of social justice points. He is the writer of “Count My Vote: A Citizen’s Guide to Voting” (AlterNet Books, 2008).

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