#if someone under 18 killed themselves would they be employed

[eemoo1o-animoo]

Do you think there’s an age limitation to becoming a reaper?

[bookofjin]

Annals of Taihe 19 (495)

[From WS007. On 11 March, the Emperor crosses the Huai. Initially he intends march all the way to the Jiang, but in the end settles for sending messengers to denounce Xiao Luan for his crimes. After touring the eastern provinces, he returns to Luoyang on 23 June.]

[Taihe 19, 11 February 495 – 30 January 496]

19th Year, Spring, 1st Month, xinwei, New Moon [11 February], a court banquet with the crowd of subjects at Xuanhu.

On guiyou [13 February], decreed prohibitions for the people north of the Huai, they did not get to intrude and plunder. Transgressors would receive the great punishment as sentence.

On jiaxu [14 February], a call to arms, explaining about Xiao Luan.

On bingzi [16 February], Luan's Founding State Marquis of Longyang county, Wang Lang, came from Woyang to surrender.

On renwu [22 February], military exercises to the west side of the Ru River. Greatly furnished the Six Armies.

On bingshen [8 March], the General who Pacifies the South, Wang Su again and again routed Xiao Luan's generals, and seized his Inspector of Ning province, Dong Luan.

On jihai [11 March], the Chariot Drove to cross the Huai.

2nd Month, jiachen [16 March], favoured the Bagong Mountain. On the roads it rained considerably, decreed to leave for cover. Saw the army soldiers who were ill, and personally grieved and cared for them.

On wushen [20 March], the Chariot Drove to tour the Huai and go east. The people were all calm in their places, and gathered and moved to collect along the road.

On renzi [24 March], the state of Gaoli dispatched envoys to court to present.

On bingchen [28 March], the Chariot Drove to arrive at Zhongli.

On wuwu [30 March], the Army soldiers seized 3 000 of Xiao Luan's troops. The Emperor said:

When there is a lord being a lord, what are crimes of his people?

Then he dismissed them to return home.

On xinyou [2 April], the Chariot Drove to issue out from Zhongli, wanting to overlook the Jiang River.

The Minister over the Masses, Feng Dan, passed away.

On renxu [3 April], therefore decreed to turn around the host.

On dingmao [8 April], dispatched envoys to overlook the Jiang, and count out Xiao Luan's repugnant crimes of killing his lord and installing himself.

3rd Month, wuyin [19 April], favoured Shaoyang.

On wuzi [29 April], the Grand Teacher, Feng Xi, passed away.

On yiwei [6 May], favoured Xiapi.

The state of Dengzhi dispatched envoys to court with tribute.

Summer, 4th Month, gengzi [11 May], the Chariot Drove to favour Pengcheng.

On xinchou [12 May], the Emperor made to undertake mourning for the Grand Teacher, Feng Xi, at the places where he was travelling.

On dingwei [18 May], a special amnesty for Xu and Yu provinces, for their soldiers of the river transports, and remitted three years of taxes and levies.

On xinhai [22 May], decreed to bestow on those ninety years and older be bestowed three grades of feudal rank, those eighty and older be bestowed two grades of feudal rank, those seventy and older be bestowed one grade of feudal rank. The the orphaned and solitary, elderly and ill, who were not able survive by themselves were bestowed grain and silk. Those whose virtue had been on display in the hills and parks to be drawn so their names would be known. Those of Xiao Luan's people who had surrendered be given remittance of fifteen years.

On guichou [24 May], favoured Xiaopei. Dispatched envoys to use the grand sacrificial animals to worship at the Temple of Gaozu of Han.

On jiwei [30 May], travelled to favour Xiaqiu. Dispatched envoys to use the grand sacrificial animals to sacrifice at Dai Peak.

Decreed that the military officials of the lodged guard be increased in rank, one grade.

On gengshen [31 May], travelled to favour Lucheng. Personally sacrificed at the Temple of Master Kong.

On xinyou [1 June], decreed to designate four people of the Kong clan and two people of the Yan clan as officials.

Decreed that the Inspector of Yan province recommend from within his section gentlemen talented and capable in [matters of] army and states, and wardens and stewards active in government, and draw them up so their names would be known.

Also decreed to bestow on the people of Yan province feudal rank and millet and silk like in Xu province.

Also decreed to select one person of the various Kong lineage sons, and ennoble him Marquis of Chongsheng [lit. “Marquis who Venerates the Sage”], with an estate of 100 households, so as to offer the sacrifices of Master Kong.

Also decreed that Yan province to make for Master Kong a park with cypresses, repair and decorate the grave mound, and furthermore build an inscribed stone tablet, praising and exalting the Sage's virtue.

On wuchen [8 June], travelled to favour Queao.

The Taihe [“Grand Harmony”] Temple was complete.

5th Month, jisi [9 June], the King of Chengyang, Luan, at Zheyang had lost the advantage. Reduced him to be King of Dingxiang county.

The King of Guangchuan, Xie, passed away.

On gengwu [10 June], moved August Empress Wencheng, Ms. Feng's spirit tablet to the Taihe Temple.

On jiaxu [14 June], travelled to favour Huatai.

On bingzi [16 June], stayed at Shiji.

On gengchen [20 June], the August Heir-Apparent paid court at  Pingtao City.

The states of Gaoli and Tuyuhun both dispatched envoys to court with tribute.

On guiwei [23 June], the Chariot Drove to arrive from the southern offensive. Announced it at the Grand Temple.

On jiashen [24 June], eliminated idle officials' beneficence so as to employ it for supplementing army and state.

On yiyou [25 June], acted out the rite of drinking to the arrival, and distributed and bestowed proportionally.

On jiawu [4 July], the August Heir-Apparent was capped at the Temple.

6th Month, jihai [9 September], decreed that they did not get to use the speech and words of the northern customs at the imperial court. If there were someone who disobeyed, they would be dismissed from their posts and offices.

On xinchou [11 July], decreed to remit for those army soldiers who had accompanied the Carriage across the Huai three years of taxes and levies.

On guimao [13 July], decreed the August Heir-Apparent to proceed to the Pingcheng Palace.

On renzi [22 July], decreed that for Ji# province, Dong commandery, Xingyang, and the various counties south of the He through which the Chariot had Driven: Those hundred years old and above be bestowed provisional county Prefects, those ninety years and older be bestowed three grades of feudal rank, those eighty and older be bestowed two grades of feudal rank, those seventy and older be bestowed one grade of feudal rank. The orphaned, elderly, widowers and widows who were not able survive by themselves be bestowed grain and silk.  The filial and brotherly, the upright and right-principled, and those civil and military officials who had responded to requirements to be drawn so their names would be known.

On guichou [23 July], decreed sought out the lost books of Under Heaven. Those who had what the private chamber was without that would be employed for aiding and profiting the times would be given generous rewards.

On yimao [25 July], a special amnesty for Liang# province, remitted for the people three years of land taxes.

On bingchen [26 July], decreed that people who had moved to Luo, when they died they would be buried South of the He, and did not get to return north. Hence the people of Dai who had moved south would be fully be people of Luoyang in Henan.

On wuwu [28 July], decreed to change to lengthen the chi, and enlarge the dou, relying on the rules and measures of the Rites of Zhou, and distributed them Under Heaven.

8th Month, jiachen [12 September], favoured the Western Palace. On the road saw destroyed cemeteries and exposed coffins, paused the palanquin to cover them.

On yisi [13 September], decreed that the 15 000 soldiers of Under Heaven's martial and brave to become the Feathered Forest, and the Rapid-as-Tigers, and use them to supply the lodged guard.

On dingsi [25 September] the various accompanying troops who had accompanied on the campaign and who had suffered wounds, all were allowed to return to their origin. The Jinyong [“Metal-Walled”] Palace was completed.

On jiazi [2 October], guided the crowd of subjects on successive banquets in the halls and fore-halls.

9th Month, gengwu [8 October], the Six Palaces and the civil and military officials fully moved to Luoyang.

On bingxu [24 October], travelled to favour Ye.

On dinghai [25 October], a decree said:

Of those various who have old tombs, whose inscribed records are existing, and whose illustriousness was known by the people of the times, for the Three Excellencies and the ranked [officials] accompanying the Excellencies, the distance from the tomb will be thirty paces; for the Supervisor and Prefect of the Master of Writing, and the Nine Classes, fifteen paces, for the Yellow Gates and the Five Colonels, ten paces. For each it is not allowed to till and plant [on them?].

On renchen [30 October], the dispatched a Gentleman of the Yellow Gates to the grand sacrificial animals to worship at the tomb of Bigan.

On yiwei [2 November], the Chariot Drove to return to the Palace.

Winter, 10th Month, jiachen [11 November], a special amnesty for Xiang province. The people hundred years and older be provisional commandery Wardens, ninety and older be provisional county Prefects, eighty and older be bestowed three grades of feudal rank, seventy and older be bestowed two grades of feudal rank. The orphaned, elderly, and chronic ill who were not able survive by themselves were bestowed grain and silk.

On bingshen [3 November], the Chariot Drove to arrive from Ye.

On xinyou [28 November], decreed that in the provinces and commanderies' where there variously were scholars or commoners who acted by the guidelines and cultivated attentiveness, and whose thoughts in writing were bold and uninhibited, whose talents excelled in the management of functionaries, and who were capably of involving themselves with government affairs, they were hence to timely issue out and dispatch them [?].

On renxu [29 November], decreed that the various provincial shepherds were to precisely classify their subordinate officials, examine their gains and losses, doing the division of the three levels, so that it become known. [The Emperor] wanted to personally review and raise or lower them.

Decreed Xu, Yan, Guang, Nanqing, Jing, and Luo provinces to continue with the strictness and military preparations, they should attend and betake themselves to collecting together.

11th Month [3 December – 31 December], travelled to favour Weisu Mountain. Discussed and settled the Circular Hill.

On jiashen [21 December], had affairs at the Circular Hill.

On bingxu [23 December], a great amnesty Under Heaven.

12th Month, yiwei, New Moon [1 January], guided and saw the crowd of subjects at the Guangji [“Brilliant Eminence”] Fore-hall, circulated and published the classification orders, and made the beginning of the great selection.

On xinyou [27 January], the Great General of Agile Cavalry and the Shepherd of Si province, the King of Xianyang, Xi, became Senior Combined Grand Commandant. The former King of Nan'an, Zhen, was restored to his original fief. Used the Specially Advanced, the King of Guangling, Yu, as Great General who Conquers the East, Opening Office with Ceremony Similar to the Three Ministers, and Inspector of Qing province.

On jiazi [30 January], guided and saw the crowd of subjects at the Guangji Fore-hall, and distributed and bestowed caps and clothes.

[findingtheperfectcharacter]

Logan’s Lowdown’s Typed

A complete collection of Logan’s Lowdowns from the episode. Now in a format that I tried to make readable, but since I threw it all on one post it’s probably still not great.

(13:26) "It would be" directly after Patton says that it'd be unethical to buy frogger when he could be giving money to the homeless

(13:30, said aloud) "It's just me, Logan. I have taken this form because I did not want to be too invasive. (Thomas asks what he's doing) "Well determining what feels right or wrong for you isn't really my area of expertise. Seeing as how there's not much left at stake at this juncture and that regret is unfortunately not an experience that can be expedited. I decided that I need need not expend too much energy on this matter.

(13:50 cont from 13:30) However I felt like it would behoove all parties if I provided relevant information to serve as supporting evidence to any of the arguments that are made during today's discussion

(14:08, after Patton suggested his 'factoids' were optional.) *Facts, factoid was a term coined by Norman Miller to describe false facts invented by magazines in order to manipulate the readers  And yes I suppose they could be viewed as optional, those two options being informed or ignorant (14:35) "Thank you Thomas It-

(14:49-14-50 cont from 14:08) It would be an estimated annual cost of 20 billion dollars to eliminate homelessness in the United States according to Mark Johnston, the acting assistant housing secretary for community planning and development. Americans spend more than 20 billion dollars on Christmas decorations and flowers every year. So it would seem that many Americans do have the currency to spare to end homelessness in America forever

(15:16 cont from 14:50) Similarly if every US household were to give up just 1% of their wealth, than that would be enough to end homelessness in the United States for the next 50 years

(17:18, Roman talking about saving Leslie Odom Jr from the Scute bellied beast) Scutes are the short, wide, rung-like scales on the underside of a snake

(18:38, The difference between helping people out for the sake of it and saving people for a reward.) A study was conducted at Berkeley that looked at the correlation between an individual's happiness and the amount of selfless acts they preformed. This was done by comparing three groups. 

Group A was not instructed to preform any acts of kindness, while group B was instructed to meet the quota of 5 acts of kindness within a week. Group C, however was required to preform all 5 acts of kindness within one day. It was found that groups B and C (both of which preformed acts of kindness) saw an increase in how they rated their own happiness. But the most significant increase was in group C (5 acts of kindness in 1 day.)

(20:43 After the trolley problem scene) That scenario was an illustration of the classic philosophy dilemma, the trolley problem. "Trolly problem" is a term coined by Judith Thompson, who also devised its two most famous variants. The "Footbridge" and the "Switch " (the latter being the version that was just demonstrated.) 

(20:55 cont of Trolley problem) The Trolley problem is intended to raise questions about our moral priorities: is it more important to minimize causalities or is it more important to strictly adhere to ethical rules? (The notion that it is wrong to kill another human being in particular). 

(21:06 cont of Trolley problem) Furthermore the Trolley Problem asks us to examine the distinction between actively killing someone, and passively letting someone die.

(21:57 Patton says the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ of flipping the switch matters) What Patton is saying here ties into the principle of Deontology. Deontological ethics prioritizes specific duties above anything and everything else. A value system that is perfectly summed up in expressions such as, "duties for duties sake" and "let justice be done through the heaven's fall."

One of the duties that Patton's appealing to (which I already mentioned earlier as it is the most common argument leveled against redirecting the train in the trolley problem) is the aforementioned ethical rule that one should not murder another human being, even if one finds oneself in a n extremely specific set of circumstances in which homicide preserves more lives than terminated.

There is a natural tension between deontology and consequentialism, as deontology determines whether an action is right or wrong without much consideration of the ends of said action. Furthermore, the deontologically inclined might concern themselves with the intention behind a given action a given action. (a factor that would be completely disregarded by a consequentialist) 

Deontological perspectives were first defined by 18th century German -

(23:08 Patton asks what real Philosophers would have to say about his viewpoints. Said aloud) Well, Freidrich Niezsche really wouldn't have been thrilled with anything you've had to say. Primarily because Pity seems to be at the center of your idea of "putting good into the world". Niezsche famously rejected the idea notion that pity was a virtue. He once claimed that pity 'runs counter to the instincts that preserve and enhance the value of life.' So Thomas is-

{Everything under this point is Janus disguised as Logan.}

(26:54 After Patton suggests that Thomas shouldn’t dedicate too much of his time to frivolity. Said aloud) I have a difference of opinion on this one, Patton. I’m sure we’re all somewhat familiar with the tired metaphor for self care you must put on your own oxygen mask before helping fellow passengers. An analogy that warns against the practice of helping others with their personal issues when you yourself are in need of help.

It is ironic that that illustration’s so overused at this point because it has almost become as easy to tune out that advice as it is to tune out the actual safety instructions on a flight. Easy, and very dangerous. In the event that a plane cabin becomes depressurized, you do not have long to secure your oxygen mask before you risk your oxygen saturation levels dropping too much leading to hypoxia (which is just insufficient oxygen for life functions.)

Hypoxia’s symptoms can include: an inability to communicate, confusion, unconsciousness and possible death. Having heard a piece of information before does not give you licence to ignore it in the future. Especially when the consequences of forgetting are so perilous. 

(28:16, Patton talking about how he’d totally let Thomas self-care in that sort of extreme situation. Said aloud) And just like all of the moral dilemmas we’ve been discussing, it can seem easy to confidently state what you would do in a difficult situation, without knowing how you’d legitimately behave when your instincts take over. 

In theory you believe Thomas can and should take some time to care for himself, but every point you’ve made in this discussion has contradicted that sentiment. 

(28:44 after Roman asks how Patton’s points have been contradictory to Thomas taking care of himself. Said aloud) Nearly every answer Patton has given to moral questions throughout this discussion has suggested that a moral life is a life without spending surplus capital and time on leisure activities. 

Dr. Robert A. Stebbins defined leisure as “... activity engaged in during free time which people want to do and... actually do in either a satisfying or fulfilling way (or both).” Leisure means freedom, its your time and you do what you want with it, which in turn contributes to a feeling of control and improved self-esteem.

 A lack of control, and self esteem are two factors that you all now understand can worsen Thomas’s relationship with intrusive thoughts-- and they have. Additionally, doctors Iwasaki Messina and Hopper wrote that leisure time promotes a joyful life, and if that wasn’t enough pleasurable activities stimulate the production of neurotransmitters which can than improve one’s physical health.

Leisure is something Thomas needs more of in his life in order to feel like he has a life and Patton is essentially suggesting that Thomas isn’t being as good of a person as he’d like him to be if he doesn’t sacrifice himself for others. 

(29:56, after Patton says that isn’t true. Said aloud) Oh, is it not? Please correct me if I’m wrong (Patton says that he’s wrong) So if it was between Thomas’s life or another’s you don’t think Thomas should give his life up? Oh and this other person is an innocent little lamb. Or how about a group of innocents?

(30:40 Patton’s breakdown about not knowing in that kind of scenario what’s right or wrong. Said aloud) You don’t know? Earlier you said that all people naturally understand right and wrong. So? Should Thomas die so that others may live?

(31:32 while Patton’s offering a new Trolley problem with Thomas on one track and Lee and Mary Lee on the other. Said aloud) ENOUGH! This isn’t working. This entire conversation has become so muddled due to a constant misleading, misues of “conscientious” language. You’ll need a sharp side to cut through all this conscientious bull-frog.

{Logan’s back in these lines}

(36:24, Logan’s back! Said aloud) Not that any of you care, but I’m unharmed, and I don’t want to talk about it. I’m just here to deliver you one last fact than I will do you all a favor and spare you my company.

Peter Singer is an Australian Philosopher and activist who champions the movement known as ‘effective altruism.’ The primary feature that differentiates effective altruism from other moral philosophies is its practicality. It employs the heart AND the mind so that effective altruism can earn its namesake and actually... Be effective. 

The aim is to help as many people as possible while maintaining a ‘perfectly adequate standard of living.’ So a poor, sick person giving 5 of their last 15 cents to an aid organization, while incredibly altruistic is not effective altruism because that money won’t go very far. And the act would only harm that person’s already unacceptable standard of living. 

Fellow effective altruist Williams Macaskill recommends people who can and are inclined to should go into fields like banking or finance because more money earned means more money to give. (After Thomas adds that he needs to give himself a buff) And you need to maintain an adequate standard of living. You can’t forget that part. If the variety of generosity in your life is leaving you depressed, or like your life isn’t your own than you need to reevaluate things. 

[inkvvells]

⧼ toby regbo, cis male, he/him/his / quarter-life crisis by judah and the lion + desks piled high with books and materials, always crowded but never messy; guilt and shame that eat away at him with every mention of family moments and memories he chose to not be part of; three cups of black coffee to make it through the day, four if there’s too much that needs done (there’s always too much that needs done). ⧽ ━━ hey, isn’t that PERCY WEASLEY? i read a daily prophet article on them, once ; the TWENTY-NINE year old pure blood WIZARD is a GRYFFINDOR alumnus who has gone on to be a MINISTRY EMPLOYEE. i’ve heard they can be quite DRIVEN & METICULOUS, but i don’t know… they came off very OSTENTATIOUS & NEUROTIC in that interview. it really is hard to know what to believe these days though, isn’t it? — [pinterest]

who ordered a pretentious, family-abandoning guilty nerd? no one?? guess this one is on the house then. i’m???? super inspired in writing this bio and its more of a character analysis than anything else bc he’s an established enough canon that we don’t know much about personally so i went ham but i’m not about to ask y’all to read the mess i’ll inevitablty type up for him, so here are a few brief bullet points for now bc i want this up:

learned that the best way to get praise was to do everything he was told, be as respected as bill and charlie, and look after the younger kids. he took these lessons and ran with them into overdrive because percy only knows two modes: zero or one-hundred. hence how he turned out to be a killjoy

stupidly smart and stupidly ambitious. the sorting hat considered putting him in slytherin and he debated with it until the hat got annoyed with him and gave him gryffindor instead. you can pry that hc out of my cold, dead hands

so much of him is based in guilty: for the fight he had with arthur, for putting up so much distance between him and his family for years, and for not coming back to them until the very last minute. there’s also an immense level of guilt thinking he had a part in fred’s death, because he was there when his brother was killed and he wonders if he hadn’t caused a distraction, if fred might still be alive. he’s never spoken about any of his guilt because he’s about as good at communicating as he is at having any chill (aka, not at all)

after the war (and all of the grief and pain and healing that followed), percy made his primary focus on rebuilding his relationship with his family. it’s not been easy, but if the war taught him anything, it’s that he will not lose even more time

currently employed at the ministry (duh) in the department of magical transportation because jkr said that somewhere, i’m just too tired to cite the source

i’ll make a stats page and link it later along with the rest of the finished bio, thank u and good night

BIO — under co.

Born the third son to Molly and Arthur Weasley, one of the very first lessons Percy learned was that it was easy to get lost in the crowd. In a family that finally tapered off at seven children, there was always someone crying, laughing, or making some sort of racket (sometimes all three at once). It was such a loud environment, and it was clear early on that Percy didn’t like loud. He liked things to be quiet and structured, because that made sense to him.

While all of his brothers were causing chaos, Percy was more likely to be found trailing after their mother. It was the only time when he felt like he got one-on-one time — he’s never been all that great at sharing, you see, even within his family. Even better than the time, he quickly realized that it was the best way to get recognition in a family as big as his. Rather than trying to make the biggest display for reinforcement, Percy learned to set himself apart by doing exactly what he was told. When his older brothers were away at school, and the younger kids were causing Molly to want to tear her hair, there was an overarching, sometimes unspoken (often times not) question of, why can’t you lot be like Percy? Responsible Percy, who completed all of his lessons as soon as possible and made sure to not track mud into the house and make a mess. It didn’t matter that it made him less likable to his siblings. It didn’t matter that that lack of likability sometimes felt like a lack of love, either (not that he would say that out loud). Their family was under enough stress, with seven kids and strained finances. He wouldn’t be the one to add any more stress.

Over time, it became less about being the responsible one for the sake of being good, and more so just... because that’s who Percy was. He could be overbearing to a fault, and it wasn’t helped by the fact that he sucked at communication. Whenever he scolded the younger kids for even the most minute thing, it didn’t come from a place of anger. In Percy’s mind, rules were established to keep you safe, and if his siblings broke any of the his mother’s rules, it meant they were making themselves unsafe. He may have been garbage at showing it, but Percy always has and always will love his family. The thought of something happening to them, especially something he could prevent, was not okay in his book. They needed to listen in order to be safe, and if that meant he had to act like an overbearing mother to guarantee that, then so be it.

While he was his mother’s shadow growing up, there was also a deep respect for his father. That respect greatly shifted as Percy grew up and learned their family’s status in the wizarding world, but as a little kid? He wanted so much to be like Arthur. That’s why his desire to enter the Ministry has existed as long as he can remember. Thus began a serous case of tunnel vision further fueled by Percy’s own ambition. Once he set his mind to something, good luck getting him to change it. And Percy’s mind was set on the best.

One thing Percy has kept to himself for years is something said to him during the sorting ceremony his first day at Hogwarts. Slytherin would suit you. Percy determined that that stupid hat must be broken, and mentally argued with it for a solid minute before it put him in Gryffindor — like his parents, like Bill, and like Charlie. His only real care? That he couldn’t stand to feel more disliked in his family than he already did.

His school years were everything that he needed them to be. By the time he started, he already had everything planned out. Get top marks? Done (friendly reminder that Percy got twelve O.W.L.’s, how tf). Become prefect? Done. Become Head Boy? Check, check, and check. Of course, it was far more than just a bit stressful when the twins started school and his lecturing towards them went into overdrive. Then Ron, who’s life seemed to be put in danger every five seconds after befriending Harry Potter. And then the entire debacle that was Ginny’s first year. Needless to say, Percy got his first grey hair at aged sixteen. But he managed to deal with (read: ignore) all of his stress and worry, and left Hogwarts with Os on all of his N.E.W.T.s and a job offer at the Ministry. Everything was going to according to plan.

Everything did not go as planned. His first year at the Ministry was an absolute disaster, to put it lightly. His boss never learned his name, which was humiliating enough. But Percy knew that what he wanted involved playing along in order to work your way up, so that’s exactly what he did. And it worked! Even when most of his correspondence with Crouch was done through letters, it felt like something. Being asked to carry out Crouch’s role in the Triwizard Tournament felt like a reward. Nevermind that he was 18 at the time and that job should have been done by somebody much more established than him. So when word got out that someone had been Imperio’d for ages by someone, Percy was an easy target to blame for not noticing. He could have bit back that had barely known Crouch beforehand, why was it being put on him? He didn’t fight back though. That wouldn’t do him any good. He took it all in stride, bit his tongue, and did what he’d always done: exactly as he was told.

We don’t discuss the fight and his subsequent abandoning of his family.

Percy doesn’t like to think about the almost three years that followed. Why would he? The first few weeks were spent seething with anger, towards his father and towards himself. After the anger cooled, it was replaced with overwhelming guilt. Not for the doubt that he’d had in his parents’ side, oh no. He was still very adamant that they were delusional for trusting the word of a teenage boy and an old (though arguably respectable) man over the governing forces, those same forces that he’d been in awe of since he was a kid. No, Percy’s guilt lay in the accusations he’d shouted, and the blame he’d placed on his father for their family’s financial state.

listen i’ll elaborate on his time during and after the war later, it’s like 2am and i’ve been fighting with my laptop for hours and this is already sO MUCH THAT NO ONE ASKED FOR, PERCY IS JUST MY CHILD

[basicsofislam]

ISLAM 101: AN INTRODUCTION TO HADITH: Part 18

Pride and Humility

TRANSLATION Abdullah ibn Mas’ud, may Allah be well pleased with him, reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“No one who has an atom’s weight of pride in his heart will enter Paradise.”A man said, “And if the man likes his clothes to be good and his sandals to be good?” Allah’s Messenger said: “Allah is Beautiful and loves beauty. Pride means to renounce the truth and abuse of people.” (Sahih Muslim, Iman,147. See also: Sunan Abu Dawud, Libas, 26; Sunan at-Tirmidhi, Birr, 61).

NARRATOR

Abdullah ibn Mas’ud

One of the leading Companions, Abdullah ibn Mas’ud is among the first

of those to believe.

He is the first Companion to openly recite the Qur’an in Mecca.

Abdullah ibn Mas’ud is the Companion who killed Abu Jahl.

He was a gifted reciter of the Qur’an.

Ibn Mas’ud is one of the founders of Islamic jurisprudence, being of the Companions well versed in the religion.

He is, in particular, the linchpin of the Hanafi school of jurisprudence.

He returned to Medina towards the end of Uthman’s caliphate. Falling ill at age sixty, he passed away in the thirty-second year after the Emigration.

EXPLANATION

1. Pride refers to haughty self-conceit and refusal to submit to Allah.

The Almighty has cautioned human beings in this regard throughout the Qur’an:

“…Allah does not love those who are conceited and boastful” (an-Nisa 4:36).

Do not strut about the earth in haughty self-conceit; for you can never split the earth (no matter how hard you stamp your foot), nor can you stretch to the mountains in height (no matter how strenuously you seek to impress). (al-Isra 17:37)

While these verses exhort human beings to be mindful of pride and arrogance, another again describes the human attribute of pride as being in actual fact a Satanic attribute and explains that unnecessary pride constitutes an obstacle to submission to the Divine command. For even Satan was banished from Paradise due to his pride:

(Allah) said: “O Iblis! What prevents you from prostrating before the being whom I have created with My two Hands? Are you too proud (to bow down before any created being in defiance of My command), or are you (of those who think themselves) so high in honor (that they cannot be ordered to prostrate before anyone)?” (Saad 38:75)

2. While Allah warns human beings in relation to pride and self-conceit, He has employed verses of encouragement concerning its exact opposite, modesty, and humility, even characterizing such people as “the (true) servants of the All-Merciful”:

The (true) servants of the All-Merciful are they who move on the earth gently and humbly, and when the ignorant, foolish ones address them (with insolence or vulgarity as befits their ignorance and foolishness), the response with (words of) peace, (without engaging in hostility with them) (al-Furqan 25:63).

From this standpoint, those who are proud and obstinate enough in their pride not to prostrate before Allah assume the characteristic not of being the servants of the All-Merciful, but on the contrary, being servants of Satan.

3. The hadith under consideration indicates that a person with even the most minuscule amount of pride in their heart will not enter Paradise.

A conceited person will either face punishment until they are completely cleansed of this affliction and then enter Paradise as a result of their belief or Allah, Who has full power over everything, will forgive that servant and place them in His Paradise with a heart that is purified. We learn also that the desire to dress well is not connected with pride. What can be the wisdom behind a seemingly wicked characteristic being placed in the nature of a human being? This quality has been given to human beings with a view to their protecting the position of Islam, the honor of the Qur’an, religion, their spiritual values, their integrity, and similar cherished things. If a person is to have pride, they ought to have it in protecting these. Unfortunately in our day, however, people have for some reason become rather lax and lazy in protecting these; but they have become quite industrious and even oversensitive when it comes to their personal pride. The Pharaohs, Nimrods, and the Abu Lahabs have lost because of their pride.

4. After all, does Allah not charge His Messenger with humility, through the language of the Qur’an:

“Spread your wings (to provide care and shelter) over the believers who follow you (in practicing Allah’s commandments in their lives)” (ash-Shu’ara 26:215).

There are many such verses in the Qur’an. Moreover, Allah’s Messenger sought the same thing, wanting to be “a Prophet slave” when Allah had asked him. This is why we say, “Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger,” in the Declaration of Faith.

5. Acknowledging all the bounties that Allah has bestowed is a form of thankfulness.

This, in turn, leads to an increase in such bounties. Turning a blind eye to Him, however, is ingratitude; ingratitude necessitates punishment and causes the discontinuance of the bounty. A person must always see everything as coming from Allah and must proclaim, “Everything is from You, and You are the All-Wealthy. To You have I turned my face.” However, a person must not conceal the Divinely bestowed bounties in fear of being arrogant. That is, a person must also know how to announce and testify to Allah’s favors when necessary. So, how is this balance to be maintained? As a case in point, a man gives a coat to someone as a gift. If another man says to the bearer of the gift, who is wearing the coat, “How fine you are,” and he responds by saying, “The beauty is in the coat,” then he would have combined humility with verbal expression and announcement of the bounty.

WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED

If pride has reached the point of disrespect towards Allah, the proud person forfeits the chance of entry into Paradise.

People who see themselves as superior to others and are thus haughty and conceited commit a major sin.

A person can dress finely, provided that they are not overtaken

by arrogance and self-conceit.

A person must see their own shortcomings if they wish to free themselves of pride and arrogance. A person who does not see their own faults cannot achieve self-correction.

[askiisoft]

FAN ART FRIDAY: ALL THE WARRIORS, Part 4

This is it, ladies and gentlemen. For the past three weeks, I’ve had the pleasure of sharing the community’s original characters in the world of Katana ZERO—from war heroes to psycho killers, and everything in between—drawn by some the most creative and talented fan artists I’ve ever met. 

Today we salute the last of New Mecca’s “lost generation” in the jam-packed finale to All the Warriors. Those late to the party can catch up on the previous parts here: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Let’s begin.

[WARNING: The work herein is based on fan creations, and should not be considered canon.]

Alpha 7, “Jill” by @daratsugu

She had it all. A sports star since high school, Jill could have made history as a legendary athlete or breathtaking model. But beneath her physique and beauty was a strong heart, one that desired to make a difference in the world somehow. So when government suits approached her seeking peak physical specimens for trials of a ‘radical life-saving drug’, she accepted eagerly.

Not long afterwards, the war began.

Jill’s service record afterwards remains a mystery, given her lackluster communication skills and endemic shyness. But whatever she witnessed on the battlefield, it never blunted her kindness or dampened her faith in humanity. There is comfort in the certainty of her own mortality, and she’s determined to spend her final days doing as much good as she can.

By @daratsugu

—

Gamma 6 by @wpc0123wpc

More well-known than the deadliest assassins and most fearsome mafia dons, one man is famous across every restaurant in Chinatown: the ‘chao fan shen’, or “fried rice god”, known for his slovenly appearance, incredible combat skills, and insatiable appetite for his namesake. Of course, that’s not to say he’s a glutton—Six has developed an extremely discriminating palate, and any chef who skimps on the diced pork or sesame oil can expect a sound rebuke.

If only he paid as much attention in everyday life. Because of his poor eyesight and ever-present headphones, he’s an easy mark for thieves like Gamma 12 or enterprising muggers...or so it seems. Chinatown residents swear they’ve witnessed him pull an executioner’s battleaxe from his guitar case, but surely that’s just Eastern superstition. Right?

By @wpc0123wpc

—

Gamma 22, “TnT” by @_sbserpent

"Be silent, dress loudly.”

ZZ’s selective mutism hasn’t stopped her from drawing the eye of passerby. Her prominent back scars, perpetual bedhead hair, and psychedelic rainbow clothing are almost begging to be ridiculed. Those who know ZZ are smart enough not to tease her about it; others who make that mistake find themselves adding a few splashes of red to her outfit.

Since moving to the Second District, her fashion sense has actually started a minor fad among its population of wealthy young heiresses and bachelorettes, who have begun tousling their hair and wearing multicolored stockings in crass imitation. She’s even been featured in a few street fashion magazines, albeit unnamed. ZZ doesn’t mind the attention, so long as their photographers stay out of her way and keep their mouths shut...

“I warned you.” By @_sbserpent

—

Beta 111, “Gurkha” by @55_yamisan

There may be someone who once said, “I want to go back together.”

There may be someone who once shared their personal space.

There may be someone who didn’t want to die, and someone else who no longer wants to live...

All illustrations by @55_yamisan

—

Gamma 30, “Thirty” by @meto1030​

Just as other Gamma NULLs were violently psychotic or narcissistic, Gamma 30′s disorder was selflessness to a fault, believing any amount of suffering was worthwhile if it made things even a little easier for someone else. As a nurse or aid worker, Thirty could have done so much good, had they not been blessed with extreme reactiveness to Chronos that placed them squarely within a Gamma kill-squad.

Every waking moment was spent in neurosis, desperately thinking of ways they could possibly be of service around base camp, and each rest was filled with nightmares of squadmates buried under rubble or pinned by enemy fire, desperately crying out for help as Thirty fruitlessly crawled to them, trapped in slow motion. 

Once the fighting had ended and a ceasefire declared, the only way Thirty could imagine to be of use was becoming a test subject in the government labs, a position typically reserved for NULL candidates too weak to warrant a number and rank. There, at least, they are shielded from the predatory instincts of other NULL who would not hesitate to exploit Thirty’s altruism.

By @meto1030

— 

Gamma 61, “Geist” by @dawnygoi

Just because you’re living hand-to-mouth doesn’t mean you can’t pursue your passion. Due to their various psychoses, Gamma troopers developed more eccentricities than their predecessors—the most common being increased sensitivity to music. Their preferred genres varied, but a Gamma NULL could be found humming or nodding their head some invisible beat before or after a battle. 

For Gamma 61, his favorite beat was the deafening, breakneck rhythm of his trusty man-portable minigun, and he often burned through hundreds of rounds just to hear its song, filled with the sharpest crescendos and deepest bass. Sadly, it’s a luxury he can no longer afford, and he suffers the indignity of killing his targets with simple knives and other concealable weapons in order to afford his ‘medicine’.

— 

Gamma 33, “Weasel” by @zebdraws

As a legendary rock star once said, “ You see, you don't have to live like a refugee.”

When government spooks are after your head, you have two choices: spend what’s left of your life on the run, or become the biggest musical sensation New Mecca has ever known. 

As a soldier, Weasel was fiercely competitive, treating every ally as a potential rival and going to extreme lengths to win any wager, even if it meant resorting to violence. That never changed after he discovered his love of music, even though his musical talents are utterly dreadful, like most NULL. 

His “invasion” of several high-profile concerts prompted many venues in the city to begin employing armed security to patrol their dance floors, most notably Club Neon. However, the untimely death of DJ Electrohead has skyrocketed Weasel to stardom as Second District clubs scramble to book a replacement act. 

—

Gamma 511 by @Am3002814

On an employment survey for government security, Gamma 511 would fail by every metric: he’s paranoid, meek, and highly conspicuous thanks to his numerous nervous tics that emerge at even the slightest hint of confrontation. Even when mixed in a crowd, he seems to have an uncanny presence that unnerves those around him. Yet his security record is spotless, and none of his charges have ever come to harm. 

So what exactly about 511 sets so many ill at ease? Could it be his shifty gaze, restlessly darting about at strangers’ throats, stomachs, and nether regions? Maybe his constant and profuse sweating, staining his ill-fitting trench coat even on a cold winter morning? Or perhaps it’s the faint “ ゴゴ ゴゴ ゴゴ ゴゴ “  that permeates the air as he walks by with his awkward, loping gait...?

Truly, it’s the quiet ones you have to watch out for.

By @Am3002814

—

Beta 39, by @lyexueyee

Stealth and infiltration is an art, not a science. Beta 39′s brand of assassination involves hiding in plain sight—in a crowd wearing her perpetually tired and glum expression, or standing outside a store with hands on her hips, as if impatiently waiting for someone. She deflects attention so well, no one notices the bent and bloodied length of pipe sticking out of her faux-high school bag. 

“Hey, those are some cute hairpins!” A student on the train remarks. “Nnh,” 39 murmurs.

“Oh, you must be part of the kendo club!” An old woman exclaims, and is met with a half-lidded stare and a deep, echoing silence.

Hours later, a beat cop finds a local mobster dead in an alley behind his favorite bar, bearing signs of blunt trauma and several stab wounds from a low angle. His gun lies nearby, not a single shot fired. No suspects are ever found.

By @lyexueyee

—

Beta 34, “Ephemera” by @BMb_kngw

“What use is a tape that can only be rewound three times?”

That was what Ephemera overheard following his fitness trials and physical examination. The researchers had never encountered his like before: a genetic trait that resisted the effects of Chronos, such that a full dose would only allow him a few minutes of precognition and a negligible boost in reflexes—not even on par with Alpha-class NULL. His training results and leadership scores had topped the charts, but by a twist of fate, he barely escaped being sent to the labs.

Even after being assigned to a frontline squad, Ephemera faced continued stigma. Some refused to acknowledge him as “one of them” at all, and rumors spread that his ‘condition’ was contagious, and merely being around him could sap others of their Chronos abilities. 

The day he was rushed to the infirmary, his leg a bloodied stump, some jeered that any other NULL could have “reset” to undo such an injury. But oh, how the tables have turned. As it turned out, his ‘condition’ also shielded him from any symptoms of withdrawal. He lives now as a free man, one of the few NULL able to truly leave the war behind.

By @BMb_kngw

—

Beta 18, “Gav” by @smugeroni

Actions speak louder than words. Anyone who’s pried into the past of a Cromag War vet knows how bitter and cagey they get, but Gav’s wartime injury lets him dodge questions about his service days and move onto the crucial next step of healing and atonement. Homeless veterans who would otherwise despise those “test tube freaks” are thankful for his constant charity and unreasonably tasty meals.

There are still traces of a fighter behind his gentle smile: his bullet-riddled motorbike lies rusting in storage downtown, and he keeps a gun stowed behind the counter for the occasional mob racketeer. No one knows who steered Gav away from his life as a road warrior—who they were to him, or whether they’re dead or alive—but they take comfort in knowing a man can change, and not always for the worse.

—

Beta 49, “D.D.” by @sapheiri

On her first sortie as a rookie NULL, D.D. envisioned a battle worthy of pre-war action movies: fiery explosions at her back, bullets whizzing past her ears, and jets flying overhead as she charged the enemy lines, firing a gun in each hand. 

Instead, she found a nightmare. The enemy had set traps and laid ambushes everywhere; the laboratory eggheads had assured her that Chronos had made her immortal, but in that desolate jungle her faith shattered. She was found quivering in a muddy ditch, half-deafened by a close-range blast and wearing socks after forgetting to lace up her combat boots.

Instead of being discharged for proper therapy and recovery, D.D. became a test case for second-generation Prozium, designed to deaden emotions and instill obedience. She returned calm and combat-ready days later, and the researchers commended themselves for their success. They would later come to fear D.D. after seeing her in action.

Today, she can truly realize her former action-heroine fantasies, blasting her way past dozens of gunmen with guns akimbo and walking away unscathed. But she can feel no pleasure from it, nor reflect on the horror at the killing machine she’s become. Some say she still wears her boots unlaced to recapture the rush of danger and fear of death from that first mission, something she has now lost forever.

By @sapheiri

—

Gamma 22 by @dodokubobo

An ideal army is a combination of tactical genius and strict discipline. Gamma 22 had neither, leaning entirely on his remarkable aptitude for Chronos and prowess with his twin katanas to propel him through disciplinary headaches that would have earned any other soldier weeks in the brig. Evidently, it worked; drill instructors ignored his constant absence from combat drills and loud snoring during briefings. As long as he got things done, who cared?

This “golden child” mentality has only swelled his ego since the NULL diaspora, taking what he wants and abusing his abilities to do as he pleases. This makes him an obvious target, but many a foe have seen their cunning ambushes and clever traps fall apart in the face of 22′s sheer speed and skill. Among the New Meccan underworld, there is one piece of advice passed down to every aspiring hitman and bounty hunter: “Do not pursue Gamma 22.”

By @dodokubobo

— 

Beta 66 by @temeokopn

Before the cybernet made information widely accessible to the masses, intel had to be collected the old-fashioned way: through spying, stealth, or skullduggery. This was the perfect calling for Beta 66, who excelled at staying out of sight. 

On certain scouting missions, he would wait hours, even days, for the enemy to trip a land mine or succumb to slow-acting poison. And as he waited, he would listen to the sounds of wilderness and scan the night sky through his mask, counting the stars.

In a post-war New Mecca hostile to veterans, 66′s life became a more cloistered affair, surviving as an information broker instead of risking his life behind enemy lines It was only days after his data stream sputtered out that anyone discovered his absence. 

One can only hope 66 found the stars he so loved.

“I go to the stars.” By @temeokopn

—

Beta 9 “Heads” & Beta 10, “Tails” by Jicker

Dynamic duos are nothing new to the New Meccan lowlife, but Heads & Tails are trailblazers in terms of brother-and-sister team-ups. In between sibling quarrels over the superiority of shuriken or grenades, these two clean up mafia hideouts over twice as fast as a single NULL, wordlessly executing well-worn strategies they developed on the battlefield during their first missions against the Cromags; Heads cuts down obstacles to widen her brother’s line of sight or deflects bullets as he reloads, while Tails pins the enemy with suppressing fire as his sister closes the distance with her blade. 

Truth be told, their combined efforts often barely compare to some of the carnage a Gamma NULL could unleash. The difference is that, unlike a Gamma, Heads & Tails can’t be bought, nor bargained with. They can’t be bribed with Chronos or crippled by withdrawal. Whatever their reason for isolating themselves from other NULL, it’s clear that the only allies they need are each other.

“We have a Dragon to slay.” By Jicker

—

Alpha 66 by @ren_hyuga

Stella von Ruthuberia’s regal name suggests a relation to one of the prestigious Old Families, though pre-war records make no mention of her in any aristocratic lineage. How someone of her social status was inducted into the NULL corps remains an even deeper mystery. Some claim her to be an illegitimate heir cast out by her family to die inconspicuously, while a few believe she sought the immortalizing power of Chronos, something beyond what mere wealth could provide.

Since her near-fatal injury and the convoluted grafting procedure that surpassed all previous prostheses, the illusive von Ruthuberia has retreated from the public eye, her estate guarded by patrols day and night. 

However, some say her hermetic existence is merely an act, and amid a vast stockpile of ill-gotten Chronos, she is every bit as deadly as when she first donned her jet-black robes...

— 

Gamma 72, “Nightingale” by @throjnx

Any crime boss worth their salt knew the prospect of having an immortal assassin at your beck and call was too good to be true. It was. The Erlkings, on the other hand, were a two-bit smuggling racket that saw Nightingale as their ticket out of the Fifth District, whose residents could scarcely afford their services or protection fees. 

It worked, for a time. None of the other gangs in their district had managed to snag a Gamma NULL, and they quickly packed up and left once dozens of their number went missing, and police seldom bothered to venture that far out. But the Erlkings hadn’t anticipated how much Chronos Nightingale required nor how pure it had to be, neither of which their supplier could provide. 

When they tried making up the difference using threats and blackmail, there was only one way things could end.

—

Alpha 27, “Nina” by @HihumiHii

Like a spider spinning its web, the labyrinthine catwalks and cramped alleys of New Mecca are the perfect hunting ground for a femme fatale like Alpha 27. Her clientele are exclusive and her fees exorbitant, but her unique skillset is enough to outwit any bounty hunter and even the occasional Gamma NULL. 

Using a vast network of tripwires and strings that crisscross her territory, she can detect activity through the slightest vibrations, from the pounding of raindrops to the footsteps of a potential victim. Most never glimpse their killer, strangled or sliced to bits in her near-invisible webs of razor wire. Others hunt her fruitlessly, unaware she has long since fled.

Outside of contract killings, she frequents the most exclusive social circles in New Mecca to flaunt her mysterious wealth, and is one of the few assassins capable of operating in the near-impenetrable First District thanks to her unsuspecting government acquaintances.

—

Gamma 87 by childrenofgungnir

For Gamma 87, each day is a constant battle between “Life’s pretty OK. I got a steady gig and plenty of the blue stuff,” and “What am I still doing here? We lost the war. I keep this up, I’m going to end up dead.” 

It’s been over half a decade since Charlotte experienced a panic attack or felt stress at the thought of taking a human life, back when she could still count her kills on two hands. These days, it seems to come easier. 

Whenever she sees a penniless Alpha sulking at the bar in withdrawal, she counts her blessings under her breath. But Charlotte can’t help but feel that she’s lost a part of herself in those intervening years—the heartbroken daughter who would have tearfully begged her parents why they let the men in suits take her, instead of the swordswoman who casually sliced them to pieces and emptied their pockets. 

Every time, she stops the train of thought right there. Maybe it’s better this way.

By childrenofgungnir

— 

Gamma 21, “Lil’ Tomato” by @531012733Kyling

There are few things that can surpass the power of effective teamwork, something Gamma 21 and his partner-in-crime Gamma 37 exemplify. Brains and brawn. Long-distance sniping and up-close fisticuffs. Terrible guitar-playing and midnight drag races. 

21 is another in a long line of NULL with an affinity for music but almost no talent for it. Zero’s noisy neighbors can’t compare to the tedium of hearing 21 croon and pluck at the same few sour chords for hours, and his housemate 37 certainly doesn’t seem like someone who would put up with it for long.

For some reason, passerby don’t leave him as much money when 37 is hanging around...

By @531012733Kyling

—

Gamma 37 by @531012733Kyling

While other Gamma troopers favored blades and bullets, Gamma 37 preferred to pummel her enemies with both fists, aided by a pair of high-powered “boxing gloves” that amplified every blow. She scoffed at rookie NULL trying to deflect bullets with their puny blades as her gauntlets easily shielded her from volleys of machine gun fire—that is, until an errant anti-materiel round shattered her glove and nearly took her hand with it.

In the the intervening years, 37 has developed a custom fighting style based around her remaining gauntlet, learning to instead shift her weight and weave between enemy blows to deliver a bone-shattering right hook. She’s even able to use it while riding her motorbike, which has proved invaluable in chasing down targets.

By @531012733Kyling

—

Alpha 12, “Green Demon” by @IDUnknownForte

Whoo, I’ll have to tread carefully on this one. Alpha 12 is apparently a transplant from a Katana ZERO roleplay server, so she likely has lots of existing history that I don’t want to tread on. 

What I will say is that I love the idea of a NULL dive bar like Lucky’s Bar and Grill. On Friday night, all the down-and-out assassins trudge in to their usual seats, get extremely drunk, and yell about how they’d better start getting some respect because they “could level *hic* this whole f*cking city if [they] wanted to”, all while Alpha 12 slowly nods her head from behind the counter and pours out another round. Long live the revolution.

—

Beta 13, “Kata” by @couriervictor

Survival in the Third District is a daily struggle. But for every soldier, there comes a point where survival is no longer enough. 

Working for Dr. Alvensleben brought Kata to this point quickly—watching the doctor run hapless trespassers through impossible deathtraps day after day, hunting down targets for an employer he’d never met in person, and receiving his Chronos syringes via a *clink* in the pneumatic tube and a stilted pre-recorded message. 

With hope of Gamma 9 stumbling into the Slaughterhouse fading bit by bit, Kata considers the consequences of crossing the only man with the knowledge and resources to manufacture Chronos, and whether he would survive...

—

Alpha 19, “Tameiki” by @matowaar

There are few NULL who could claim to know Tameiki to any degree; to most, she was a terrifying, twitchy blur of facial features, zipping from room to room and victim to victim with inhuman speed. Only her closest squadmates, in moments of intense time dilation, could catch a glimpse of her true face, and even then only an expressionless mask resigned to marching alone amidst an army.

Though still communicating chiefly through writing, she has attempted to overcome her unique circumstances through focused training, such as remaining motionless for extended periods or slowing her speech enough to be audible to average human perception. She has even experimented with Chronos withdrawal, testing if the gradual ebbing of time can let her experience life at the same speed as those around her. 

If the ultimate fate of any NULL is to become frozen forever in time, how much longer would that eternity feel to Tameiki...?

—

Beta 12, “Twelve” by @fresh_fren

What’s easily broken is not so easily put back together. 

Since the Cromags didn’t fully grasp the concept of a ‘non-combatant’, Beta 12′s pacifism in the field earned her ridicule from both her comrades and the enemy. While other NULL treated battles as competitive killing sprees, for Twelve each encounter was like an escort mission—an unending effort to protect squadmates who loved nothing more than charging at machine gun nests with a knife. Can you imagine how frustrating that was?

Despite braving death to retrieve her teammates countless times, she was seldom recognized for her courage, and it became disheartening to incapacitate enemies non-lethally only to watch another NULL shoot them in the head moments later. 

Understandably, she hasn’t bothered keeping in touch with her former comrades, and few would believe a kind-hearted pacifist like her was once a veteran, anyway...

—

Gamma 75, “Elvis” by A Dishrag

"Hitting the broad side of a Cromag hut” was a corny insult that floated around New Mecca during the war, but for Elvis it was a job description, one that he was embarrassed to mention during the morning briefings or off-duty get-togethers at the local bar. ‘Tactical demolition’, he called it, but he knew it was an excuse; most of the sheet-metal huts he destroyed could’ve been knocked over by stiff breeze, not a state-of-the-art EMF railgun firing slugs at 4,000 meters a second.

At least they let him keep the uniform and gun when he left the corps, though “let” would be a strong word for it. He simply stuffed the gear into a Sakura Redux X Gaiden shoulder bag and walked out of the barracks, never to return. So far no one’s called him about it, so he figures it’s safe enough to incorporate into his cosplay outfit as long as he keeps the safety on. Right?

—

Gamma 13, “Reaper” & Gamma 14, “Mr. Bomber Glove” by @LoverHigh24

Twice the NULL, twice the withdrawal. It seems some Gamma NULLs, particularly those with complementary skillsets, stuck together in the aftermath of the war instead of turning on each other in their addiction. Rain and Kyle found common ground in their countryside roots, having worked as a team in the final days of the conflict and both sensing the war effort going south.

They’d bid farewell to their neighbors years ago, ready to die as they marched off to war. They agreed they’d be happy enough to see home one last time and spend the eternity lying in their childhood beds, instead of some seedy Third District bar. Yet, as mysterious new shipments of ‘dirty’ Chronos began flooding the market, they find themselves fighting against their former comrades to uncover the source...

—

??? by @Mr_BowerBird

You’re right, spear guy. I don’t know.

I don’t know quite what to make of this guy. His weapon, a Japanese naginata, is quite cool, but last I checked the Cromags didn’t really fight on horseback. His dossier had no name, NULL class, or number. There are no Gamma, Beta, or Alpha NULL OCs I’ve received with the number ‘32′ that was mentioned in his bio. Wish I had more to say, but it feels like I fell asleep in history class and only caught the last three minutes of an hour-long lecture.

— 

Alpha 22 by @nbsmgnm

As an Alpha-series cadet, poor Antonio saw action in the opening weeks of the Cromag conflict—before the NULL program became semi-public knowledge, before the “child killings” were in the Second District papers and protest signs, and long before the introduction of Gamma NULL, who didn’t much care who they killed. 

When an enemy sniper had his squad pinned down from a high forest ridge, Antonio was ordered to flank them while the others drew their fire. Tactically, it was sound: he was the smallest and thus stealthiest member of the team. But what he found was  a Cromag child prone in the grass, barefoot and scanning the jungle treeline with a rifle far twice his size. A boy or girl, he couldn’t tell nor recall afterwards, for the next thing he remembered was being pulled off their mutilated corpse, his fingers around a bloodied combat knife and voice hoarse from screaming. 

His commander patted him on the back and congratulated for a job well done, ignoring the bloodshot terror in his eyes. For weeks after he was plagued by nightmares, his hands awash in red and multicolored eyes, so many eyes, staring from the jungle in all directions. 

His death would later be ruled as a suicide. He would not be the last.

—

Gamma 44, “Luminous” by @hieroparsley

Sometimes, one of the best reasons to keep fighting is for another person—not a partner in crime, but someone to protect. At some point, Luminous was as her ward Anomaly is now: aimless and regretful, fearing for their life but lacking any reason to keep living. Since Luminous took care of the government agents who had tracked Anomaly from her Third District apartment and hacker lair, the two have been evading their watchful eye ever since. 

Sometimes their friendship is marred by arguments over what to do with Anomaly’s data on the NULL project: Luminous seeks to disseminate it to the public, either via the cybernet or print, while Anomaly argues for simply destroying the data, in the meager hopes it will save them from the government crosshairs. But Luminous has seen what they’re capable of; she remembers torching the homes of Cromag ‘collaborators’ even after they housed and sheltered New Meccan troops. Forgiveness is not in their vocabulary.

— 

Anomaly by @hieroparsley

—

And, at last, we’re done. 

Over the past month, it’s been great seeing not only the diverse and interesting backstories various artists derived from the scant details of Katana ZERO’s world, but also the friendships that sprang up between fan artists, drawing tributes of each other’s OCs befriending/antagonizing one another and creating an immersive world of NULL just under New Mecca’s surface. It’s been a magical thing to witness, and I hope it continues

A deep thank-you to everyone who submitted their OC to this multi-series showcase, and I’m sorry if it took until now to see your character featured. I needed to save some of the best for last!

I originally planned this event as a finale for the Katana ZERO Fan Art Fridays, but since people seem to be enjoying them, next week I’ll be returning to ‘theme weeks’ for a regular schedule. 

Truly, we are...”all the warriors”!

By @wqwrppwu

[celtictrinity]

chapter 6

    “You come home with me tonight. You can’t just hole up in that old beat up truck and hope to heal up just fine. Can’t believe that old thing is even still running. Come on now.”

    Tired and pained sea green eyes gaze at the other witch, the hesitance clear in them. But she’s wounded and oh so tired and she wants to trust just once and not have it come back to bite her in the ass.

    The Black witch gives her an understanding smile. “You helped me out, girl. I won’t pay that back with treachery. ‘Sides, powerful witches should stick together when they can and I have the space for another body. Come on, now. You look like you haven’t eaten in a week.”

    The mention of food has her almost groaning, she’s tried not to think about how hard things have been. But there’s kindness and sympathy in the other witch’s eyes and through the exhaustion and pain she can’t sense anything that means her harm. She finally acquiesces.

                                                 * * *

    The next day they packed for the trip out to Bobby’s. Sam had called the previous night as he’d said he would and Cinda heard Bobby’s gruff voice for the first time over the speakerphone. She hadn’t really known what to make of the voice on the phone, picturing an older man who was grizzled and likely only ever wore jeans and flannel shirts. Which wasn’t a judgment call since she and the twins wore much the same.

    Cinda was more interested in watching the way the twins reacted to the man’s gruff affection. She’d never seen another person put the twins at ease. They didn’t do well with strangers in the same way she didn’t and the last eight months had mostly been only them, with periodic trips into town for supplies and to work the Farmer’s Market.

    Sam and Ben clearly trusted the man they spoke to, who didn’t hesitate to offer his guest room to them for a visit. Cinda hadn’t said much more than a hesitant hello when Sam had said they’d be bringing her with them. He also said they had some stuff they needed to talk to him about but didn’t want to get into it over the phone.

    Cinda could almost feel the speculation across the line when Sam had said that and wondered what the older man knew about the twins’ mother, if anything at all. She didn’t think either of them had called the man since learning who their mother was and who she had been defending them from. She wasn’t sure if he’d have been as welcoming if he knew as much. Or maybe she was just used to people seeing the worst and not the best.

    Packing wasn’t hard and didn’t take long. None of them had a lot of things anyway and they tended to travel light when they did travel. But Cinda was suddenly taken with a feeling she shouldn’t be traveling without her weapons. It could have been easy to chalk that up to the fact that before meeting the twins, when she’d been roaming the country on her own and alone, her weapons had been a part of her. She had never gone anywhere without at least a pair of knives on her person, and when she’d worked jobs for her lady Nemesis, she’d often had her full complement of knives and her tactical bow.

    She could feel Sam and Ben’s eyes on her as she pulled her knife case out from under the bed and carried it into the living room to check over the condition of her knives. The boys had been impressed with her collection of knives and how well balanced they were. Cinda set the case on the small living room table and sat on the couch before looking up to the boys.

    “I just… it’s a feeling. I dinna think we should travel without weapons. I dinna ken why I’m having the feeling but…” she shrugged helplessly, knowing she couldn’t articulate the feeling she was having. She forgot she was talking to the twins.

    Sam and Ben exchanged looks between themselves and after a moment nodded to her. They disappeared as she focused on cleaning and testing the edges of all her knives, picking out the ones she would carry on her person and which ones she planned to leave in the case. At least knives didn’t require a carry permit, which she didn’t have. She didn’t like guns much. Cinda didn’t know why she had such an antipathy to them, but she never used them if she could avoid it.

    When she was done with her knives and focused on the world outside her intense focus, she realized the twins were at the kitchen table cleaning their shotguns. Cinda blinked in surprise as she stood and drifted over to the kitchen table and her boys. She watched them quietly for a moment, noted their deft handling of the weapons. She hadn’t seen them with the shotguns much. When they hunted, they used their rifles. And knowing her feelings about the weapons they kept the guns out in the small shed/workshop next to the overhang they parked the truck under.

    Ben looked up briefly and saw her gazing at them in surprise. He shrugged a shoulder and gave her a small smile. “We don’t argue with unexplainable feelings. If you think we shouldn’t be unarmed, then we shouldn’t be unarmed. Not right for you to be the only one carrying weapons.”

    Cinda hadn’t expected that, not really, but now that she was thinking about it, she realized she should have. They were a team now, a unit, and whatever threatened one of them threatened all of them. And while all three of them were far more dangerous with the power within them than they were with manmade weapons, it felt somehow right for them to have them.

    She didn’t really expect trouble on the drive to their friend’s place, but she also didn’t think they would be coming back to the house immediately after. Again, she couldn’t have explained the feeling or where it came from but she had learned to listen to those feelings when they came. It had saved her life more than once and helped her survive the years she’d been on her own.

    When the shotguns had been cleaned and stowed in the truck with the rest of their things, including Cinda’s knife case, the three of them took a break to fix lunch. Cinda sat at the table and watched the twins as they efficiently packed sandwiches enough to feed a high school football team along with various other snacks into one cooler and drinks along with a couple of jars of raspberry preserves in another, before going through the fridge and removing anything that might spoil while they were gone.

    “You seem to have this routine down,” Cinda said, bemused.

    Sam glanced up, noticed Cinda watching them. She was pretty sure it wasn’t that he’d been unaware she was watching them, more that he was so used to her being there that he hadn’t logged her attention as significant. It warmed her, that she could watch them quietly and not set off their wariness or uneasiness. They were comfortable with each other in a way they weren’t with anyone else. It was a nice feeling and Cinda wanted to keep it at all costs. She didn’t know why her father had wanted to kill the twins but she wasn’t going to let him try a second time. She wouldn’t lose what she’d found, not even to him.

    “Hunting trips could take a few days, especially if we had to dress the animal in the field, which was usually. Before Dad let us go along with him, we’d pack for him. Then when he started letting us go on our own, we’d pack food and drinks for ourselves.” Sam shrugged a shoulder, the gesture very like the one Ben had given her when they’d been cleaning the weapons. The twins shared a lot of gestures though they could often employ the same gesture very differently at times.

    Trash separated into the bin and the compost heap, coolers added to the rest of their stuff in the truck, Cinda made one last pass through the house to make sure all the lights were turned off. The solar panels and generator provided all the power to the small house, more than enough for three careful people. But it didn’t make sense to leave anything on if they weren’t going to be back for a while.

   As they paused in the living room, Cinda examined that feeling. It didn’t feel like they were headed out for a short visit with a family friend. It felt like they were going to be gone longer than that. Cinda wasn’t sure she liked that feeling. Sam and Ben exchanged a glance before looking to Cinda.

    “It feels… like we’re going to be gone longer than we’d planned,” Ben said slowly, toying with the necklace around his neck. The fire obsidian hung was clutched in his hand and Cinda reached to touch the one resting against her own chest, glanced at the one around Sam’s neck. The three of them had worn the necklaces nonstop since they’d met. Cinda had said the stones acted as a focus for their power, seemed particularly attuned to the three of them in a way she had rarely experienced. But they were also symbols of the relationship of the three of them.

    Sam touched Ben’s shoulder. Cinda nodded slowly. “It does feel like that, aye. I dinna ken why. But I think something was set in motion when the lock on your memories was undone. I dinna think we can stop it.”

    Sam nodded. “I feel that way, too,” he said. He squeezed Ben’s shoulder. “Come on. Let’s get on the road. The sooner we figure this out the sooner we can come back home.”

    Ben released the stone in his hand, leaned in to Sam’s squeeze and offered Cinda a hand. Cinda took it and silently swore again she’d make sure her boys stayed alive and safe, that they’d all return to their home together. She sent a silent plea up to her goddesses to guard her heart in the shape of the twins as they loaded up into the truck and drove away from the house that had become home to her.

                                                  * * *

    Shara Rose Jacobs was the first real friend Cinda had ever had, certainly since finding herself in the states. Living with her father hadn’t given her a real reference for the difference between where she was and where she used to be. She supposed, looking back on it now, that in many ways she’d gotten damn lucky. She’d found someone when she was 18 to make her legal IDs since she hadn’t had any and certainly didn’t know how to go about getting one. The first six months after she won free of her father, she’d lived as a half wild thing, shying away from all people, uncertain if they’d been sent by her father to bring her back. A very real fear she couldn’t shake, even with Lady Nemesis’s promise that her aura was being cloaked.

    Lady Nemesis was the one who had led her, carefully, to the occult community. Helped her find shelter and learn her way around this new place. She might have been a witch born and knew all manner of occult things but learning the practical knowledge of living in the world had been much harder. Especially when she was still afraid her father would find her.

    She’d met Shara Rose when she was 20, while she was doing a job for her goddess. Retrieving magical items that had fallen into the wrong hands was a job she seemed especially suited for. She had a talent for finding what was lost. On this particular job, she’d run into a witch who was busy trying to stop the person who had the magical item Cinda was trying to retrieve.

    Shara Rose was a few years older and had grown up in the states. At first, she and Cinda had circled each other warily, Shara Rose not knowing why Cinda was after the magical artifact and Cinda just wary in general of a stranger with powers that were a match to her own. The other witch was clearly more than just a witch though it wasn’t Cinda’s place to say so. Cinda was sensitive to the energies around people and she could feel that something about the other witch was like her. It made her wonder if it was luck or her goddess’s intervention that she’d run into the other witch on this particular job.

    After feeling each other out they’d decided that working together would likely solve the problem for both of them a lot easier than trying to work around each other. Shara Rose, though still wary, was nonetheless all in once she decided to work with Cinda. They’d completed the job but Cinda had been hurt pretty badly in the doing. She’d ended up staying at Shara Rose’s place for going on two weeks while she healed up and during that time, she and the other witch became friends. Or at least as much friends as Cinda would let herself have.

    Five years with her father and the previous years of wandering Ireland and Scotland and England with her mother trying to hide from her father hadn’t left Cinda with many skills for making friends. Certainly not real friends that stuck by you. Shara Rose was the first Cinda made that could have counted as that, though it was another few years before Cinda realized it.

    They talked about the difference in their teachings and training growing up in different countries. Shara Rose did what she could to help the younger witch learn about American culture and start to fit in better. She was the one who’d helped Cinda find the old RV that she drove around the country.

    Cinda would find herself turning up at Shara Rose’s place after a particularly hard job. The other witch never asked uncomfortable questions, would just tuck Cinda up in her guest room and try to feed her better than she ate left to her own devices. The older witch also helped Cinda find ways to make money so she wouldn’t have to resort to outright thievery to make her way.

    For having had very different childhoods and growing up very differently, the two witches got along well. Shara Rose hadn’t known her own mother, had grown up with her father and a younger brother from another marriage. What little Shara Rose knew about her mother didn’t seem very flattering and it was strange to Cinda, whose own mother had loved her greatly. Until meeting the older witch, Cinda had naively believed that all mothers loved their children the way Wynne had loved her.

    Another thing Cinda learned was that Shara Rose was a great collector of occult things. While she didn’t have a goddess given geas to find and retrieve magical items fallen into the wrong hands, Shara Rose did have a conscience and power. Whenever she came across a magical item that needed to be neutralized or contained, she did what she could.

    The other witch had a big heart, Cinda couldn’t help but notice. She was known throughout the occult community and she helped out when and where she could. She was loyal to her family, though she was the only one who was magically inclined. Her father didn’t treat her as something evil, and her stepmother, while not necessarily the warmest woman, was caring in her way. She didn’t understand her step-daughter’s magic but she understood her step-daughter wouldn’t harm people just for kicks. And Shara Rose and her brother were very close.

    Cinda found it interesting, when she was at Shara Rose’s place, to peruse the books the other witch had collected over the years, to see the works of art Shara Rose created that were a magic of themselves. Sometimes she would find herself at the other witch’s place looking for clues or hints for the next magical item her goddess had exhorted her to find and retrieve. A few times Shara Rose had actually helped her, which had made Cinda’s job much easier.

    Cinda often wondered why the other witch always seemed to be glad to see her, willing to help her, when she seemed to get nothing out of it. It puzzled her until her Lady Nyx had suggested, gently, that perhaps the other witch simply enjoyed her company. A thought that truly hadn’t crossed Cinda’s mind and seemed to be a shock once it was broached. Cinda hadn’t considered she had company worth wanting to be around.

    For all that, Cinda found herself returning to visit the woman at odd intervals. She never called, simply showed up and hoped it wouldn’t be the time Shara Rose told her she needed to move on and find someplace else to park her old RV and crash for a few days. But it never happened.

    She never quite figured out how to broach the possibility that Shara Rose’s mother had been a goddess incarnate. She had been pretty upfront about her own background and her own father. Shara Rose had shown a fair amount of concern and anger on Cinda’s behalf, which truly confused Cinda at first. So, the other witch knew that Cinda’s father was a god and one that wasn’t exactly kind, even if she didn’t know all the details of Cinda’s five-year incarceration by her father.

    Cinda hardly knew that her own behavior screamed that she’d been abused and badly, hardly knew that Shara Rose had sensed a kindred spirit in her even if she didn’t know why. Nor did she know that Shara Rose considered her a close friend long before Cinda had realized they were actually friends. All she knew was that no matter what condition she showed up on Shara Rose’s doorstep in, the other witch would tuck her into her guest room, try to feed her and generally take care of her.

    Cinda had thought in passing, once, that if she’d had a sister, it would have been nice if she’d been like Shara Rose.

                                                * * *

    The ten-hour drive passed without incidence. There was a weight to the three of them, a gravity to the atmosphere. Cinda could tell this wasn’t entirely a pleasure trip for all the twins had wanted her to meet Bobby before now. She found herself trying to remember everything the twins had said about Bobby over the summer and early fall. There was a part of her that was still wary about meeting someone new, even if the twins seemed to think he was okay. That he was an occult specialist could be argued he was okay but Cinda knew better. She’d spent years tracking down magical items in the wrong hands and quite a few of them had identified as occult specialists as well.

    Still, she trusted the twins, who spent part of the drive telling Cinda about the year they’d stayed with the older man and some of their holiday visits over the years since. Cinda had already known the man had helped the twins get the house they currently lived in which was a major point in the man’s favor.

    On the drive, as Sam and Ben talked about how Bobby had helped them learn how to navigate the world, Cinda found herself mentioning more than once her friend who’d done the same for her. Cinda hadn’t mentioned the other witch to the twins much as they’d worked through the summer on gardening, general living and learning each other in a real and practical sense. Mostly because she’d been focused so much on the twins.

    But now, with music playing softly in the background as the miles disappeared beneath the tires of the truck, Cinda found herself telling the boys about Shara Rose. Enough so that by the time they pulled up to Singer Salvage the twins had expressed a desire to meet the witch who had helped Cinda so much, if for no other reason than to thank her for helping Cinda make it to meeting them.

    Cinda wasn’t sure what she’d expected but the huge salvage yard wasn’t anything she could have picture in her mind. She didn’t doubt that it looked very different in daylight than at just past midnight. That much metal in one place itched a little, curse of the little bit of fae in her background, and she sensed a number of well-done wards put up by someone who knew what they were doing but wasn’t magically gifted themselves. It made her respect of the man go up a few notches before she’d ever met him.

    When Ben pulled the truck to a stop and turned off the engine (he and Sam had switched off driving so neither of them had had to handle too much on their own) Cinda felt suddenly nervous. She swallowed hard and wiped suddenly damp palms on her jeans. This was a man who was important to the twins. What if he took a disliking to her?

    Sam touched her knee and squeezed gently. “It’s gonna be okay, Cinda. Bobby’s gruff and rough around the edges but he’s kind in his way.”

    Cinda nodded and slid out of the truck behind Sam as Ben swung around the back to meet them by the passenger door. They left their bags and the coolers and weapons (except the ones on their persons) in the truck as they walked up to the front porch of the house that had seen better days.

    The front door opened while they were halfway there and Cinda took in the man who stepped out on to the front porch under the light with a smile for the twins before he took her in.

    He was older, grizzled with a little grey in his beard, and an old baseball cap on his head. He wasn’t in top condition but Cinda could tell the older man could likely move if he needed to despite the few extra pounds. He was shorter than the twins and there was a lingering sadness in the backs of his eyes, something that looked like it had long ago made its home there and would never quite leave. Cinda wondered who he’d lost to put that sadness there.

    “’Bout time you idjits showed up for a visit. Figured I’d see you for a few days, at least, months ago. Weedin’ don’t take all damn day, even in those ridiculously gargantuan gardens you have out there.” His voice was rough with a trace of an old southern accent that had gotten worn down over the years. As they got closer Cinda noticed old grease in the quicks around his nailbeds, the kind that came from working on cars for days at a time.

    Based on looks alone, Cinda would have been wary and hesitant to approach a man like Bobby while alone. He looked like someone who was used to hard living and hard drinking and she would never have guessed he was an occult specialist by the look of him. But when those penetrating eyes met hers, she realized there was a shrewd intelligence behind them, that he was sizing her up the same way she was him. Cinda had the feeling that if she’d seemed to be a danger to Sam and Ben this man would have done anything he could have done to get rid of her for their sake.

    That thought, oddly, caused her to feel relief and a faint smile touched her lips as they reached the porch.

    “Weeding actually can take all damn day and you know it, old man,” Ben said, his voice touched with amusement. Sam snorted a laugh as Bobby smiled at the both of them then gestured to Cinda as they came to a stop on Bobby’s front porch.

    “This is Cinda Callaghan,” Sam said. Ben rested a hand on her shoulder and squeezed lightly. “You’ve been saying you wanted to meet her all summer so we figured we’d bring her out before you tried to haul one of your old junkers down to Colorado.”

    Bobby gave Cinda another head to toe look that wasn’t at all sexual and Cinda appreciated that. She hated to be looked at like she was a piece of meat. While nothing Ben or Sam had said about Bobby had hinted he would be one to do so, it was nice to have it proven.

    He gave her a nod. “Bobby Singer. Don’t believe nothing these idjits tell you ‘bout me. Only half of it’s true.” The voice was full of caustic humor but Cinda could hear genuine caring under the tone. “Come on in, I’ll get you some drinks before you unload.”

    As he turned to open his door, Sam and Ben exchanged a brief look before Sam said, “I wish it was just a social call, Bobby but… me and Ben… well… we learned about what happened that night and… a little about who our mother really is.”

    Cinda noticed Sam’s voice was even and serious and Bobby turned back to give first Sam and then Ben a searching look. Let out a heavy sigh and nodded again.

    “We can talk in the morning then, after we all get some sleep.”

    Cinda had to wonder, as they followed him into the house, how much Bobby had known or suspected based on the faint trace of resignation in his voice.

[yourpharma360]

How Ambien Works ?

The Ambien defense was also utilized in the event of Julie Ann Bronson, a flight attendant from Texas.  Bronson took a few Ambien to help her sleep.  She went to bed early, and was drinking wine earlier in the afternoon.  She awakened in jail, still in her pajamas, barefoot and terrified.  She was horrified when she had been told that she had run such as an 18-month-old woman who suffered severe brain damage as a result of the mess.  "It was surreal.  It was just like a bad dream."  In May of 2012, Bronson pleaded guilty to the felonies of intoxication assault and failure to stop and render aid.  "I did the crime but I never planned to do it," she testified.  "I wouldn't hurt a flea.  And if I would have hit on somebody, I'd have stopped and helped.   Ten decades bronson faced, but as a result of this Ambien defense, she will serve six months in prison and have ten years of probation.

What is Ambien 10mg 

It was only in Patrick Kennedy's 2006 middle-of-the-night vehicle accident and explanation to arriving officers that he had been running late to get a vote the eccentric side effects of Ambien began to receive national attention.  Kennedy claimed the sleeping aid had been obtained by him and had no recollection of those events and Buy Ambien Online Overnight .

On March 29, 2009, 45, Robert Stewart, stormed to the Pinelake Health and Rehab nursing home in Carthage, North Carolina and opened fire, killing eight people and wounding two.  Stewart target was his estranged wife, who was employed as a nurse.  She hid in a bathroom and was unharmed.   Though there was evidence that Stewart's actions were premeditated (he allegedly had a target), Stewart's defense team successfully argued that since he was under the effect of Ambien, a sleep aid, at the time of the shooting, he was not in control of his activities.  Instead of the fees Stewart was convicted on eight counts of second-degree murder.  142 -- 179 years was received by him.

Ambien Overdose

As a result of this Schweigert verdict, an attorney used the Ambien defense by asserting his client's arrest had been shifted six months following by the drug's labeling to overturn a 2006 DWI conviction for a New Jersey woman.  The court agreed, stating it would be an"injustice to hold her accountable for the side effects of a popular and readily available medication that she was lawfully prescribed and properly handled." Not many prosecutors will consider the Ambien defense, and its position within criminal rules that are established is tenuous.  It doesn't actually fall under"voluntary intoxication," in which somebody is responsible for their intoxication and some other events that happen as a consequence of that intoxication.  The Ambien defendants took the medication, but they weren't aware they were drugging themselves in a means that could produce anything other.   The defendants knowingly took the medicine, because they're recorded as potential side effects in the information, and also the responses weren't unpredictable.  In the end, there's the"unconsciousness/sleepwalking" defense, where the individual is not responsible for the crime if he did not intentionally cause the sleepwalking or unconsciousness.  So that this defense does not really apply the whole motivation for taking Ambien at the first area is to create unconsciousness.

Ambien 5mg vs Ambien 10mg

After its approval, Ambien Dose rose to dominance in the sleep aid industry.  Travelers declared by it to fight jet lag, and girls, who suffer more insomnia purchased it.  Sanofi, the French manufacturer of Ambien, made $2 billion in earnings in its summit.  In 2007 Ambien's generic version was published, Zolpidem, and in less than $2 a tablet, it remains among the most prescribed medications in the usa, outselling painkillers such as prescription and Percocet strength ibuprofen. Not everyone who engages in bizarre behavior of accepting Ambien as a result ends up in trouble.  And a few people today enjoy the large they get from the drug so much they are willing to miss the blackouts and effects that result.  Recreational users started out taking the drug to treat insomnia, but discovered that if they fought the sleep-inducing effect of the drug, they could get really high.  "It's like having that drink in the pub when you realize you need to go home -- I would combat the pill's effects and stay up, often telling my friends mad things like how to turn the light inside the room in energy, or the way that paintings of forest scenes in their walls were actually drawings of mermaids bathing themselves into blood," writes one young woman whose dependence on Ambien caused increasingly bizarre and alienating behavior.  She continued staying awake regularly until one morning she awakened with a cut and two black eyes across her nose and taking the pill.  Her cushions were bloody, and a stranger was, wrapped in a rug, on her floor and naked.   This situation jarring, was not sufficient to get her to give Ambien up; the high was too good.   It wasn't until she was discovered wandering the Brooklyn streets in the middle of the night, almost nude, that she managed to give it up.

Guideline For Ambien 10mg 

Ironically, you are likely to succeed with the Ambien defense should you injure or kill someone than if you crash into a car or a tree.  DWI laws just need the prosecution to show that the defendant got and was loaded into a vehicle to drive.  There's no requirement.  When someone is hurt, nevertheless, it is up to the prosecutor to demonstrate that the suspect was conscious enough to become guilty of the crime.  It's hard to claim that they have knowledge of their actions, if people on Ambien are behaving in an automatic, or unconscious state.  That's why people prefer Lindsey Schweigert get permits while Donna Neely, that was sleep-driving on Ambien and murdered a mother of 11, was acquitted of vehicular manslaughter. Tiger Woods was also famously associated with Ambien when one of his mistresses claimed that she and the golfer could have"crazy Ambien sex"  Ambien reduces inhibitions and erases memories, an perfect combination for someone who's cheating on his spouse.  The buzz created by the drug seems to boost sex.  One girl described feeling"quite relaxed and sensuous" when she had sex on Ambien.  "I suddenly have floaty energy.  .  I am tired, but lively.  It's almost like I'm at a state.  I could compare it somewhat to weed, but nothing I've done really contrasts, in all honesty."

Ambien is one of the best dose 

Lindsey Schweigert took one Ambien Sleeping Pills  prior to getting into bed at 6pm.  She woke up with no idea how she'd gotten there.  In the following weeks, Schweigert pieced together the events of the night.  She'd gotten out of bed, drawn a tub, and left the house.  After leaving her house she began driving to a local restaurant but crashed shortly.  She was explained by police as glassy-eyed and swaying.   The flipside to Ambien's supposed attributes is the fact that it's becoming increasingly used as a date rape drug.  Actually, the single case of"sleep-sex" that appeared at an 2008 medical journal review of case reports on Ambien-related sleep behaviors involved the Ambien taker being raped.  The identical absence of inhibition together with amnesia which makes it possible for people indulge in behavior that is dishonest, to commit offenses, and also have sex on Ambien is an ideal formulation for a sexual predator.  Ambien is also readily accessible and more widely accessible than rohypnol, the drug related to date rape.

Ambien Overnight 

Schweigert had.  She had never been in trouble with the law and was scared of losing her job and having a criminal record.  Prosecutors initially wanted to inflict a six month jail sentence as well as other punishments, but Schweigert's lawyer contended that Lindsey's bizarre behaviour on the night in question was a result of a drug which cautioned right on the tag that"After taking AMBIEN, you may get up from bed whilst not being completely awake and perform an activity that you do not understand you are doing.   In fact, the attorney argued, Schweigert must have been taken to jail, not to a hospital.  Prosecutors dropped the charges and enabled Lindsey to plead to the lesser charge.  

Shortly Ambien users resisted Sanofi because of eccentric behaviours while.  Based on attorney for the class action suit, Susan Chana Lask, folks were eating things like buttered eggs and cigarettes, complete with all the shells, while under the sway of Ambien.   He blames Ambien, but for lapses in his memory within five decades and an extended period of writer's block.  "...a great deal of my memory is gone.  If you've ever taken Ambien, I don't know, but it's kind of a memory-eraser.  This shit wiped out five decades of my life.  People might tell me stories, and it's like,"I did that?"   Eminem has maintained a few of his writing from this period, confessing to Rolling Stone that"It fucking out me...Letters all down the page -- it was like my hands weighed 400 pounds.  I have that shit.  As a reminder that I don't ever wish to go back."

Final Words

A part of the category of drugs known as hypnotics, ambien, was accepted by the FDA in 1992.  It was designed for short-term use to fight insomnia and was a welcome change in the prevailing sleep aid at the moment, Halcion, which had been implicated in psychosis, suicide, and addiction and had been banned in half a dozen countries.  Ambien works by activating the neurotransmitter GABA and binding it at precisely the exact same place as the benzodiazepines such as Xanax and Valium.  The extra GABA action triggered by the drug inhibits.  To put it differently, the brain is slowed down by it.  Ambien is effective at initiating sleep working within 20 minutes.  Unless it's taken in the release type, it does not, however, have an impact on sustaining sleep.

[sol1056]

Can you explain why LGBT representation is so important and why Voltron's negative portrayal of LGBT characters/rep should be scorned as harshly as it has been? I'm trying to prove a point to a friend and they don't get why representation has to be as important as we're making it.

Oh, this is a huge topic, and one I’m not sure I could do justice to, all by myself. Given that, this time I’ll let people speak for themselves. Anyone else reading (and I know a whole lot of you are out there) who’ve valued representation – regardless as to whether you relate to the character as a lived experience – feel free to add your thoughts, or links to any other articles, podcasts, or videos you’re recommend.

Fabricio Leal Cogo, Why Queer Representation Matters

I remember growing up here in Brazil and not seeing anyone like me portrayed on TV—or at least, not anyone with a similarly complex inner life. The few times I saw gays on TV, they were always a punchline in a comedy—a source of laughter. Many people, I’m sure, are probably thinking: It’s just a joke, right?

But representation matters.

It’s impossible to overstate the power of being able to identify with a public figure, particularly when that figure is actually seen in the fullest sense. As Michael Morgan, a former professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a researcher on media effects, told the Huffington Post earlier this year, “When you don’t see people like yourself, the message is: You’re invisible. The message is: You don’t count. And the message is: ‘There’s something wrong with me.’” He continued: “Over and over and over, week after week, month after month, year after year, it sends a very clear message, not only to members of those groups, but to members of other groups, as well.”

Uma Dodd, Queerbaiting And The Issue Of LGBT Representation In The Media:

Of the 125 movies released by major US studios in 2016, the media monitoring organisation GLAAD found that only 23 (18.4%) contained characters who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer – an increase of less than 1% from the previous year. … It’s insulting, and often quite disheartening, to be told that you’re only worth the three lines of dialogue and five minutes of screen time that the one LGBT character in a film might have, just because of your sexuality or gender.

Queerbaiting relies solely on subtext and the subsequent interpretation of it by fans, and as a result, creates the perfect paradox: writers are able to attract an LGBT audience with vague promises of representation, implied by the text and often encouraged by the writer, but will then never actually confirm or explicitly show said representation, reducing the amount of effort that has to be put in on their part.

You may say that I’m blowing this issue out of proportion, but that too, is a part of the problem. Because queerbaiting is based on purely subtextual hints, any evidence of it, no matter how blatant it might seem to the viewer/reader, is often insubstantial and difficult to quantify. This allows writers and cast members to dismiss the anger of LGBT fans as simple overreaction and, as a result, makes any legitimate pleas for better representation easier to ignore.

Another by-product that has resulted out of increasing calls for better LGBT representation is implied representation. This is where writers will claim that a character is LGBT but never explicitly show this within the TV show, film, or novel.  This is a method which has been employed by many creators of famous franchises, and it allows them to insert that token bit of representation which makes them look good, without ever actually providing said representation explicitly … Not only does this result in LGBT characters, once again, being shoved into the background – and often killed off for shock value – it raises the question: is this kind of representation good enough?

…Whilst any representation of non-heteronormative characters is a good start, this way of representing us can’t be allowed to become the norm – we deserve to be explicitly shown in the media as much as anyone else does. We need better representation and we need to be shown that not all LGBT characters have to remain in the closet, because what kind of a message is that sending to those young people out there who are currently questioning their sexuality?

B. Whiteside, 6 Reasons It’s Important to Have LGBT Characters on Children’s TV Shows:

A recent study by the Williams Institute at UCLA revealed that nearly 6 million adults and children have an LGBT parent. There are more than 125,000 same-sex couple households with nearly 220,000 children under the age 18. These children go to school and are active members of their communities. Their identities and home life deserve to be portrayed and represented just as much as anyone else’s.

Being a child can be tough, especially when one can’t identify with anyone around them. There are children and young adults alike who identify as LGBT or have parents who do so. Having content that mirrors their lives can, in fact, save their own. It isn’t always easy for children to articulate what’s wrong or what they need. So it can be a tremendous help to see their favorite character in their same predicament live out their life and truth.

Aristeaus Sizer, We Need To Talk About LGBT Representation, Apparently:

…since Cinderella, there have been 11 Disney princesses. All of which have been heterosexual, and the majority of them married by the end of their film. There is no shortage of straight princesses in this world, so why would it be such a crime for one of them to be LGBTQ? If anyone is forcing any agenda down anybody’s throats, Mary, it is you and your heteronormative agenda.

As a heterosexual, and I don’t mean to patronise here it’s simply the truth, you cannot understand in full capacity how important representation is. Seeing yourself on screen in a genuine, non-caricature form is hugely validating. When I was a kid I thought being gay was like doing drugs, it was a fun choice you made when you wanted to spice things up, and that all came from the films I had seen and how sordid LGBTQ people were portrayed as being. Then, later on into my teenage years, I thought I’d never be able to show public displays of affection without violent repercussion. Again, this was because of the media I had consumed telling me this. Films and media may not dictate our personalities, but they tell us how much of it we should hide, and the implicit message when you have an entire franchise of heterosexuals is that anything other should be kept underground, out of sight.

…we’ve been everywhere for so long you’ve just never noticed. Primarily because every movie and every advert and every t.v show and every animated cartoon is packed to the brim with straight people. LGBTQ people deserve representation because there’s far more of us than you think. … To you, it’s just a gay Disney princess where there could have been another straight one, but to someone that princess is the validation they needed that they aren’t some abomination or sinful mistake. They’re valid, they’re wonderful, and they have every right to love and be loved.

Danielle Cox, The Importance of LGBT Representation in Media:

[In 2016, GLAAD’s annual] shows the highest percentage of LGBT characters on our televisions … [but] when more than twenty-five of those characters are killed off in the same year, we know there is still a lot of work to be done. In fact, GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis released a statement saying, “When the most repeated ending for a queer woman is violent death, producers must do better to question the reason for a character’s demise and what they are really communicating to the audience.” When this ending is repeated in show after show and character after character, we can’t help but think the message they are sending is about the worth of our LGBT characters or rather lack thereof. 

James Dawson, The importance of LGBT visibility in children’s books:

I was unaware gay people even existed and, when puberty hit, found myself more than a little lost. I so dearly wish there had been just one book with a character who was a bit like me – just a normal teenage guy who happened to be gay. I would have especially loved one whose sexuality did not define him.

I just know that had there been a diverse range of people like me in books when I was growing up, I wouldn’t have felt abnormal for all those years, which I see now, overwhelmingly, I am not. In 2014, it’s my hope that all young LGBT people can see themselves in fiction and recognise there is a place for them in the world.

Palmer Haasch, “Yuri!!! On Ice” and the importance of positive LGBTQ representation:

Despite my resigned certainty that I was about to be drawn in by the potential of a queer relationship only to be disappointed for the umpteenth time, Yuri!!! On Ice managed to exceed all of my expectations. In the end, the show delivered a thoughtful portrayal of two men developing a deep and trusting romantic relationship that provides LGBTQ viewers with representation of queer individuals being happy together above all else, which is something that we desperately need.

For me, it was the first piece of entertainment media I had seen that didn’t present queer individuals as “other,” but allowed them to simply freely love and exist. While watching, I didn’t have to worry about whether Yuuri or Victor would be outed in an unsafe environment or if Yuuri was going to be unfairly judged on the ice because of his sexuality like so many real life figure skaters have feared in the past. Rather, I fretted over when they were finally going to kiss (because really, it was a long time coming) and if I was ever going to get to see the wedding that was hinted at by their matching gold rings.

Although it is true that the discrimination-free world of Yuri!!! On Ice isn’t realistic (yet), it can help reassure queer individuals like me that they can experience love in the same way as anyone else. At the same time, it provides a glimpse of a future where being queer doesn’t mean being “other”. And that notion is something that I will always work towards and protect.

Additional reading:

Why Visibility Matters

Make Them Gay: Why Queer Representation Matters

Why LGBT Representation Is Important In Media

We Need More Than Visibility

Why It’s Important To Make More Diverse LGBT Films

Queer Representation in the Media

Why Television Needs More LGBT Characters

Importance of LGBT Representation

[resol-nare]

Interview Meme

1. Choose an OC.

2. Answer them as that OC.

3. Tag 5 people to do the same. Wanna do it? Do it. I did.

I’m in a Sithy mood today, so I choose Xantaia!

1. What is your name?

“Xantaia Ziril. You already knew that, why did you ask again?”

2. Do you know why are you named that?

“I’ve never thought about it, so I never asked. Next time I’m on the holo with my mother, perhaps I will.”

3. Are you single or taken?

Xantaia quirks a browstalk at you, and her fingers drum the table once before she realizes you’re serious. “I, ah, am taken.” She doesn’t break eye contact with you as she says this. Looks like whoever holds the heart of this warrior will remain a mystery to you.

4. Have any abilities or powers?

“I am Sith, yes?”

5. Stop being a Mary Sue.

“Excuse me? A what?”

6. What’s your eye color?

“Red.”

7. How about your hair color?

“Are you blind?”

8. Have any family members?

“Indeed. I have two older bothers and a younger sister. My mother is an Inquisitor under the employ of Darth Mortis. My father is a traitorous bastard, not worthy of the Ziril name.” Her gaze turns hard. Did the temperature just drop? Time to move on...

9. Oh? How about pets?

“Does Quinn count?” Her smirk is almost sadistic, and you’re left to wonder what that’s supposed to mean. “Oh, fine. No. No pets.”

10. That’s cool, I guess. Now tell me something you don’t like?

Xantaia takes a moment to think, growing oddly still for someone who constantly seems to be on edge. “...Misplaced trust. People who turn their backs on their cause.”

11. Do you have any activities/hobbies that you like to do?

“Working out, meditating.” The Sith hesitates. “...I also tinker a bit. Helps with restless hands.”

12. Have you ever hurt anyone in any way before?

She fixes you with a cool stare, answering in a completely deadpan voice. “Brutally.”

13. Ever… killed anyone before?

Xantaia actually laughs, and she leans backward, saying something in a language you don’t recognize. That’s a yes, right? Right.

14. What kind of animal are you?

“I am not an animal, I am Sith. Although, I have always admired the vorn tigers.”

15. Name your worst habits?

“I fidget. A lot. I pace, and I can never seem to keep still for long.”

16. Do you look up to anyone at all?

“I look up to my mother. She taught me much before I went to Korriban, and she’s the only mentor I’ve had that didn’t disappoint.”

17. Are you gay, straight or bisexual?

“Does it matter? How is this relevant? Fine, I’m bisexual, if you must know.”

18. Do you go to school?

“Not anymore. I had an extensive education among the Sith.”

19. Ever want to marry and have kids one day?

“...Perhaps.”

20. Do you have any fangirls/fanboys?

“I don’t know. Maybe?”

21. What are you most afraid of?

“Watch yourself, peon.” Okay, then!

22. What do you usually wear?

“I’m a warrior. I wear armor.”

23. What’s one food that tempts you?

“Anukaran Chocolate. Try it, it’ll tempt you, too.”

24. Am I annoying to you?

“I do not like pointless questions.”

25. Well, it’s still not over!

“Don’t push your luck.”

26. What class are you (low/middle/high)?

“I’m a Sith Lord under the direct service of the Sith Emperor. What does that tell you?”

27. How many friends do you have?

“Exactly five. No, I will not tell you who.”

28. What are your thoughts on pie?

“Messy.”

29. Favorite drink?

“You haven’t drank until you’ve had Port in a Storm. They compare the experience to staring down a supernova. I have some, if you’re feeling brave.” Is she challenging you?

30. What’s your favorite place?

“Call me sentimental, but my home will always be Korriban.”

31. Are you interested in anyone?

“We’ve talked about this.”

32. That was a stupid question…

“You’re absolutely right.”

33. Would you rather swim in a lake or the ocean?

“Must I swim at all? All right, lake.”

34. What’s your type?

“Someone who knows what they want to do with themselves. Someone strong... Passionate. Someone who... who can stare me down without flinching and accept me despite my... unique circumstances.” Circumstances? What is she talking about?

35. Any fetishes?

She snaps out of her wistful thoughts ands gives you a withering glare. You notice that her hand is twitching towards her lightsaber. Perhaps it’s best to leave that stone unturned?

36. Camping or outdoors?

“Camping. Sleeping in the wilderness without some form of shelter is a foolish move, and all who do it deserve what they get.”

[langwrites]

answer any question that contains a 1,7,or 5 but only if they contain only one of them once or all three for the 175 questions

I HAVE NO IDEA HOW MANY QUESTIONS I ANSWERED

BUT IT’S DONE

1. Does your character have good aim?

Several characters have very, very good aim. Among them are Naviyd, Mitra, Khalil (but not with an actual ranged weapon; he can throw rocks) and Serran, who is granted but a wee tyke. Middling aim is the threshold of people like Alena and (two of) her cousins, who have training but not a natural inclination or perfect eye.

Oceanus’s is just bad.

5. Can your character cook?

Most of the non-noble characters can. They’re not professional-level unless that’s their specific job, but those who grow up outside of a staffed household need to get by however they can.

7. Do any of your characters have depression?

Several, but the example who comes to mind immediately is Riyaz.

10. Would your character give up the chance to come back to life as a god so that someone else could be saved?

Riyaz, Tirane, Arno, and Serran would.

The rest of the cast is a bit vaguer and more “well, who’s coming back” about it.

12. Would your character marry someone their family didn’t approve of?

Alena most definitely would. Lumina definitely did. So did Naviyd, though that marriage went sour. Ismene would have, but circumstances went pear-shaped before the question was ever popped.

Khalil would probably ask who the hell he was marrying who managed to piss off his dad without annoying him first.

13. Do/Did any of your characters have large ears they had to grow into as a kid?

Arno did, and so does Serran.

14. Are any of your characters nonverbal?

Not that I can think of right now.

15. Did your character ever want to be a cowboy?

Khalil would if he knew what that was, but then would get bored and move on.

16. How does the way your character present themselves in public differ from how they are in private?

Khalil acts way more trollish than he actually is, though he has a fairly sharp sense of humor when he feels like expressing it. He’s also cunning, which someone who only sees the big-spending, brightly-grinning Mishik kid wouldn’t know immediately.

18. Is your character pro or anti union?

They don’t know what a union is, but they do understand guilds! Most of them look favorably on guilds that aren’t out to kill them.

19. Does your character like carrots?

Serran does!

21. Do any of your characters have heterochromia?

In previous editions, Mitra did. Now, she and Khalil are just on opposite ends of the extreme shades of Mishik yellow-green…but he’s managed to wander all the way into turquoise, somehow. They were both born with yellow-green eyes.

Zinnia also had heterochromia, but now her eyes are just wine-red.

25. Does your character experience sexism for the job/title they hold? (ie: she’s a girl, she can’t be x,y,z because only boys can be)

Yes, though the most obvious example was with regard to the Brandt twin sisters. Luxana facced severe opposition before taking her position as Empress, and there were multiple attempts to unseat her in favor of more established candidates due to her age, her “illegitimate” infant daughter, her commoner background, and her gender. She dealt with all comers by setting an awful lot of fires, so anyone who disparaged her directly had a very short life expectancy.

Her sister Lumina, on the other hand, faced similar opposition earlier when she was dragged into the Royal Kaltekan Army as a teenager and ended up busting more than a few heads as a direct result of other people’s pigheadedness.

27. Does your character know how to tie different kinds of knots?

Zahara, Naviyd, Mitra, and Khalil all do, whether because they worked on ships or are accomplished travelers. Oceanus also does, because he grew up in a fishing community.

31. How much does your character care about their appearance?

It depends. The higher the person’s social status is, the more likely they’re forced to care about and expend a lot of time and effort maintaining their appearance. People like Oceanus, who grew up poor in harsh conditions, had to keep themselves alive through whatever means necessary, so any personal grooming had to adapt to circumstances.

Lumina is probably the highest-ranked character who would actively prefer to tromp around in a suit of armor and chase down monsters all afternoon.

35. Naptime, yes or no?

Most of the characters enjoy naps when they can get them. Usually in bright sunbeams or while under about five blankets.

37. Did any of your characters have a fever they almost died from as a child?

Riyaz did.

41. Do other people around your character dictate their life or do they get to choose for themselves?

It depends on the character. The most independent characters are Zahara, Khalil, and Fithrain, who follow their path and damn the consequences. Few people can claim to have a real hold on them unless they allow it.

Tirane is somewhere in the middle, choosing to seize control of her life at a vital moment.

The characters most likely to succumb to pressure from others are Alena, her cousins, and Riyaz.

And Naviyd is a character who went from one extreme to the other, and then to the middle.

45. Would your character kill someone to get what they want?

A lot of them would.

47. Has your character ever stolen anything?

Khalil ought to have been arrested many, many times for pickpocketing, carnie chicanery, and other little schemes.

Naviyd stole enemy intelligence, which officially makes him a spy and not a thief.

52. Would your character prefer to have history know the truth or have many different versions of their life?

Khalil wants as many wildly differing accounts as possible. He finds the idea hilarious.

Contrast, say, Luxana, who wants her rule correctly documented.

53. What if the furthest your character has ever walked in a given stretch of time?

Khalil has walked the width of the continent before!

54. Would your character prefer to visit a new city or stay at home?

Khalil wants to run around and visit the big city.

Naviyd would rather stay in Gabilan and retire there.

56. Do any of your characters have step-family?

Alena definitely does, though mainly in the form of her half-sister and her stepmother (and her children. She’s not met the latter.  

58. Does your character prefer the ocean or the mountains?

Everyone from Gabilan: Mountains.

Everyone not from Gabilan: Oceans.

With the exception of Riyaz, who would rather burrow into the mountains and not come out.

61. Have any of your characters struggled with addiction?

Not that I can recall offhand.

65. Is your characters energetic?

Of the main characters, Khalil and Tirane win this hands-down.

67. Would your character be willing to do something they consider morally wrong in order to achieve their goals?

Mitra would. She’s employed as a government assassin/enforcer/spy, so she kind of has to be willing to get her hands dirty.

And Luxana is a champ at this kind of behavior.

70.  Does your character have any guarded/secret guild knowledge or family recipe?

Naviyd knows a lot of Mishik-specific sciences as a result of growing up with one foot in his father’s scholarly world and the other in his mother’s nomadic one. He also knows all the Order signs from his days serving the Sky Mother’s Tears, which helps him keep track of potential assassination plots when and where they spring up.

After all, he was one.

Oceanus knows his mother’s cooking recipes, even if he has a hard time finding the correct ingredients in places without permafrost.

72. Would your character care for someone who needed it if it meant being ostracized from their society?

Lumina has, did, and got left to die for that exact choice.

73. Has your character been to/ ever explored any ruins?

Naviyd has. He was not impressed by the dust of ages.

So has Zahara, after which point she sneezed and stole every scrap of the burial goods that looked sellable.

Khalil almost fell off a giant statue once. It was awesome.

74.  Are any of your characters associated with flowers?

Zinnia! (Because I have been told that is a flower. In my defense, her name was originally Zina.)

76: Would your character like to live on a farm and raise sheep?

Riyaz would, right up until he realized that sheep swarm.

78. Have any of your characters been exiled from their society?

Lumina was, and didn’t regret her decision to follow her own path. She promptly clambered her way back in later.

Zahara was never formally exiled, but even government-sanctioned piracy is frowned upon, generally speaking.

81. Does your character look like what others think they should from their reputation?

Nobody has any idea that Naviyd likes wearing riding outfits if they know him first as Lumina’s spymaster. There’s an in-universe concept of a spymaster as a noble in a creepy hoods.

85. Has your character ever been led down the wrong path because of their anger?

Luxana and Lumina have, but before them Sinrajin was the sterling, shining example right before he got fully possessed and started turning everything into an epic winter wonderland nightmare.

87. What are your character’s nails like?

Oceanus’s are rough and a little warped, due to malnutrition and lack of care.

91. Does your character engage in gossip?

Naviyd has to. He’s so into listening in on other people’s business that his summon contract in another world is for messenger pigeons.

95. If given total rule over a country, would your character step aside to turn it into a democracy?

Luxana: No.

Lumina: Needs to be introduced to the concept.

Naviyd: Fucking abdicates to not be in the spotlight and runs.

97. Do any of your characters have a tendency to dislocate joints?

Not really.

100. Are any of your characters queer?

Baaaaasically everyone except Sinrajin, Stratus, and Luxana.

102. Are any of your characters d/Deaf or HoH?

Not that I know of. Tells me several someones ought to be.

102. What is your character’s greatest source of guilt?

Khalil left Oceanus alone during his manic phase in the hopes of keeping him out of the blast radius, and then things went horribly for him.

Luxana failed to protect her family from the outcomes of her imperial ambitions.

Oceanus ran when his mother told him to, leaving her alone during the raid on his village.

Lumina couldn’t stop the Scourge of the South from possessing one of her fellow soldiers and wiping out most life too close to the nightmare zone.

Naviyd couldn’t keep his marriage from falling apart or his children together.

103. How well does your character deal with their anger?

Khalil starts messing with other people in small ways. Once, some of Lumina’s noble guests started making racist remarks toward his father, and he dumped the entire contents of her cosmetics drawers on them.

He was banned from using powders and the like afterwards.

Oceanus tends to sit and fume until he has more control.

Lumina beats up training dummies and occasionally sets them on fire.

104. Do any of your characters have pottery as a hobby?

Not that I can remember.

106. Do any of your characters have noticeable acne?

Not that I’ve mentioned.

108. Are any of your characters dogs?

Ash and his siblings! Sort of. They’re called bladewolves. Also, Hyung is a jindo dog and great at hunting foxes. He also hunts alongside a human partner who can understand him.

109. Would your character blackmail a god?

Most of them would if they had a chance! It’s kind of hard to pull that off, though.

120. Do any of your characters have PTSD?

Several! Among them, there’s Oceanus, Ismene, and Riyaz.

122. What is your character’s greatest secret?

123. Did any of you characters have nannies or governesses growing up?

Alena did.

124. Does your character workout?

Most of the characters with warrior training do so in their spare time. The noble children also practice, under the careful eyes of tutors.

126. Are any of your characters on good terms/still friends with an ex?

None of them besides Khalil.

128. Has your character’s home ever been destroyed?

Characters with flattened hometowns: Oceanus, Ismene, Sinrajin, Lumina, Luxana, and Tirane.

129. Has your character ever had to compromise on what they thought was right in order to maintain peace?

The noble-born characters often have.

Lumina’s most terrible one was letting Sirsha live past the end of the war.

130. Do you have any characters who are retired?

Some! Lumina is technically retired from soldiery, but she can still take up her weaponry again. Similarly, Naviyd is a retired assassin.

As for people who are just enjoying life after work, not so much.

132. Who is the precious cinnamon roll?

Alena! Also Serran, her cousin.

Khalil is a sinnamon roll.

133. Have any of your characters ever been caught in a fire or explosion?

Lumina! The fact that it didn’t burn her was a surprise for everyone.

Also, Khalil was banned from experimenting with flour at the age of twelve.

134. Has your character ever been alone in a hostile environment and been forced to travel a long way to reach a safety that wasn’t for sure?

Well, there was this one time that Khalil found Oceanus after a no-good very bad week and had a sudden feeling that Oltose Was Not Safe. So they trekked across the entire country to find Gabilan in the hopes that neither of them would die on the way.

Khalil’s main concern regarding Gabilan, though, was that his dad would assume he was dead.

136. Has your character ever been forced to deal with the ‘I want to speak to your manager” kind of person?

Lumina. A lot.

Being the Empress’s sister can suck sometimes.

138. How good is your character with money and accounting?

Lumina does her own finances and is teaching her kids and nieces how to do them too.

139. Has your character ever survived a fatal wound?

Naviyd has, through the power of Arno’s tremendous healing magic.

140. Can your character play an instruments?

Most of the nobles can.

142. Do any of your characters use wheelchairs, transportation devices, or mobility aids?

Nimbus actually has a prosthetic leg.

143. Has your character ever had some part of their culture made illegal?

It turns out that hunting without a royal decree in pre-Empire Kaltekas is illegal. Puts a real cramp in Naviyd’s trained hunter-gatherer style.

144. Are any of your characters adventurers by trade?

Khalil would raise his hand if asked. At least when left to his own devices and wandering the continent.

146. Were any of your characters disowned or abandoned by their parents?

Riyaz, Tirane, and Mitra were.

Oceanus was more like…lost.  

148. Do any of your characters have an eating disorder or food contamination phobia?

Not that I can recall.

149: How good is your character at lying?

Khalil and most of his family are highly talented liars, which can come down to unreadability or confidence on a case by case basis.

160: Do any of your characters have asthma?

Nimbus and Zinnia.

162: Has your character ever thrown a tantrum over things not going their way?

Oceanus, Alistair, Oriana, Nuri, Brigid, Sirsha, and a number of other characters have. Some are deadly.

163: Are any of your characters autistic? (If so, do they have special interests and what are they?)

Probably Alena and Serran.

Serran’s special interest is archery, followed by magic once he’s old enough that his reading lessons sink in and the theory starts to make more sense. Or he can just forge his own path—his empathic powers are different from the showy magic his family uses, so he may have to.  

Alena, meanwhile, is kind of like a tiny blonde Belle from Beauty and the Beast. She has a ravenous need to learn about any skill she sees others use to help people, from sewing to healing and agriculture. She exists in a particular hell where her social status is up in the air, which makes it very hard to tell what rules she ought to follow.

164: Are any of your characters tinkerers or inventors?

Copernicus and Gabilan’s blacksmiths and jewelers are.

166: Are any of your characters blind or visually impaired?

Riyaz and Oceanus both need sight-correcting lenses, though they’ve not been diagnosed for a decent chunk of time. I also can’t remember which one is far-sighted and which one is nearsighted.

Nimbus also wears spectacles,

168: Is your characters easily embarrassed?

Alena, Oceanus, and Mitra are.

Riyaz is oblivious or uncaring about most things that embarrass normal people, Tirane has precious little shame, and Khalil has none at all.

169: Are any of your characters married to the sea?

Nope.

175: Are any of your characters badass (lesbian) pirate queens?

Zahara!

[osmw1]

Poison-Wielding Fugitive   Chapter 18

As we self-manage and discuss of how to apply ourselves the best, we reach the second floor of the dungeon.

The ambiance feels different. It feels like my surroundings changed from stone-built to a natural cave. Moreover, the miasma is definitely denser down here. This air is clean and fresh, straight from Mother Nature! is what I’d say. But for your average Joe, it’s more than likely to be suffocating. It doesn’t seem like many people come here to this dungeon. Knowing they’d be forced to fight in an environment like this, adventurers wouldn’t come here either. It also looks like there’s many places you could get ambushed from too.

As well, there are monsters standing guard at the entrance to the second floor. Monsters named Claret Sunflower are wriggling its roots and moving about. With their leaves, they hold spears that looks like they’re made from stems of a plant.

‘Aye… it is a well-known monster. It might have only recently made this dungeon home.’

Are we gonna be okay?

‘If you pay attention to the movement of the minions, you should have control over most of the situation. Its command and management seem to be lacking. They cooperate better when closer to their stronghold, but on the upper floors, the small fry do not pay much attention.’

Oh, that right? Now I’m kinda curious to how Veno’s lair is. Actually, if worse comes to worst, could I take refuge there?

‘You… you foolish humans too have a culture of locking doors when leaving home, do you not?’

Why are you asking me so nicely? Wait, don’t tell me… you locked your place up?

‘Aye. In my current state, I cannot unlock my own lair. I employ no underlings either, so expecting assistance there would be unwise.’

What, so I can’t take refuge there? Well, I don’t exactly wish to hole up and fight to my death in a dragon’s lair…

‘We shall advance whilst retreating! To battle!’ “Sure, sure. Muu, you ready?” “Mu!”

Muu voices his determination, so let’s go. We were investigating the second floor, but…

“Muu muu!”

Muu snapped at me over the present situation. We enter a battle with three Claret Sunflowers. Muu deftly pulls aggro away from me, but we devolved into a messy situation. I’m unable to fire my crossbow in fear of accidentally hitting Muu. Fortunately, by deploying poisonous mist with Poison Release, I was able to create some distance from the enemies. That also enabled me to take a few rapid-fire shots, taking them down. However, Muu angrily scowled at me.

‘I realized that you were trying to avoid hitting Muu and I am sure it also understood that. However, the difference is slight between that and Muu fighting alone.’ “Muu!” “I know, but—” ‘Sometimes, your best offense can be your best defense. And as Muu has Self-Regeneration, even striking him with your bolt would mean little to it.’ “Mu!”

I gotta say that I am afraid of hitting my allies.

“Isn’t it kinda cruel to say that it doesn’t matter if I hit Muu just because it’s tough?” ‘Think of it as training for you. Being sure in your aim to assist your vanguard should be your attitude. Even if your battle were to fall into disarray, there will be opponents that distance themselves away from Muu, correct? If you target said opponents first and then ones who are to attack Muu, you shall naturally be assisting.’

I understand that Veno’s criticism is fair. Still, I can’t capably make calls like that in the heat of the moment.

‘In your case, you are overly fixating on the enemy’s weak points. What is your profession? It is Poison-Wielder, is it not? Your job is to use poison to weaken your enemies.’ “That means I should use some kind of slow poison… but if I hit Muu with that, it wouldn’t be just nothing…” ‘I can understand your concern. Muu, we shall train afterwards so that you develop a resistance to his slow poison.’ “Mu!”

Comprehending and agreeing to Veno’s proposal, Muu nods. I want to rely on it… but is that a good direction to head to? Towards Muu being fine even with me hitting it? I’m not so sure about to what extent the power of my poison is. Filing that feeling away, we continue our capture of the second floor.

‘Aye… it is a shame we have not found a treasure chest or the likes, but for harvestable plants, we have much we can pick.’ “You’re talking about poisonous herbs and poisonous mushrooms?”

There’s even poisonous pollen. There are several pools of poison here and there for me to heal up in, so I can comfortably fight in this dungeon. I dare say this dungeon might even be one that fits me the best. If it was fire or water—no, even if this were a non-elemental dungeon, we wouldn’t have done so well so far.

“Mu!” “Muu, you’re almost messed up in the head how happy you are charging in and killing your own kind.”

At first, Muu was excited to get into fisticuffs with a Chartreuse Green Poison Shroom. In the end, Muu’s opponent received too many heavy blows and was literally torn to shreds.

The number of spores scattered in the air during that fight was just awful.

“Muu?”

On our way, Veno highlights and pings what he calls treasure, telling me to collect it. But all it is and what’s it all is just poisonous stuff.

Dietetrodake A mushroom with toxin so strong, simply touching its spores will cause numbness. Upon human consumption, it induces whole-body paralysis and death within minutes. It is a poor choice for assassination as its flavor and odor are terrible.

I am extremely concerned about that last part, but I ignore it.

Red Deathfire A red flame-like grass. Its toxicity is powerful but compounding it other plants will increase efficacy. Take caution when handling as direct contact with the plant leads to inflammation.

I guess this one’s slightly better in a sense. Is this a pile of treasure or a pile of trash…? Well, the number of poisons I can use goes up, so that can only mean our fighting strength goes up too. It seems like these poisonous herbs are considerably valuable as well. More than anything, though, is that these plants are difficult for normal people to bring back home.

Yet… if I weren’t a Poison-Wielder, I couldn’t have gone this deep into the dungeon. I totally understand why Arleaf only stays on the first floor. Well, I wouldn’t really want to see her having to fight all these monsters either. But… with a knife in one hand and a smile on her face, I’m sure she’d be gorgeous sneaking around and assassinating monsters too. It’d be like a horror flick though.

‘So, do you wish to see her doing so or not? Have you decided yet?’

I ignore Veno’s quip. Those are tropes that usually come up in stories. The ol’ damsel in distress versus action heroine. It’s not so much which is right and which is wrong though.

“Muu. Muu muu.”

Hmm? Muu is telling us about something. It’s going up and down, kinda like it’s riding on something. Please stop that. That’s indecent.

‘Are you not the one in the wrong here? You are the one imagining this as anything lewd.’

Quit picking on me! Anyway, what’s it trying to say? It’s flexing its biceps now.

‘Aye… it is able to advance classes now.’ “Mu!” “Oh, really?”

I check his status.

Muu Mutated Myconid Fungus Level 10 Acquired skills: Spore Scatter, Self-Regeneration, Stamina Recovery Rate Increase (Weak), Subordinate of Poison-Wielder, Class change available

Subordinate of Poison-Wielder? What’s that? I don’t really get what kind of effect it has. Is there some sort of buff by being my subordinate? Ideally, it’d give Muu some sort of resistance to poison.

‘If it were so, it would indeed be ideal. I have heard that when people gain Subordinate of Dragon, the effects they may gain are fire resistance and toughness.’

Poison resistance isn’t that far-fetched then. But having that said… in Muu’s case, it’s originally a myconid. It would be likely for it to have racial bonus to poison resistance. On the other hand, I can imagine it being weak to fire and stuff.

‘Due to its race… aye. You can alleviate some of your worries if you were to raise its fire resistance with accessories.’

That’s our best guess on what Subordinate of Poison-Wielder does. In any case, Muu is ready for a job change. We’re at a good place to wrap things up, so we should just head home. Not like we want to stay here overnight anyway. Plus, it’s not like we’re here to grind levels for either of us. It was just good timing for us both.

‘Indeed, it is so.’ “Alright, shall we get Muu its job change and go home?” “Mu!”

We go back the way we came from and end up on the relatively safer first floor. We fought some monsters along the way, but none of them would be what we’d call difficult opponents. And so, we end up back at the run-down altar to perform the job change. It’s the same as how I did it a while ago.

‘Good… now then, Muu. Pray in front of the altar. Wish to be stronger, pray for it, and have a clear picture and determination of how you shall use that power.’ “Mu-Muu.”

Muu is visibly nervous. Still, it goes in front of the altar, clasps its hands together, closes its eyes, and then touches the symbol. Just as how it was for me, a soft light envelops our surroundings.

‘Muu, you have chosen to be his subordinate by your own will. It means that you must gain his permission before you proceed with your class advancement.’ “Muu? Muu muu.”

Is it under my care then? I tilt my head over at Muu.

Muu has fulfilled all prerequisites for a class change.

Please select from the following options:

Fungus→ Warrior Ranger Mage Priest

Hey, whoa. There’s so many for it to choose from. I envy how they’re all standard RPG jobs. And it looks like he can sidegrade too, but he hasn’t fulfilled the right conditions to do so yet.

‘I have heard that it takes time and experience in other classes to cross profession branches. Take for example apothecaries. It requires set amount of time in gathering. The simplest methods include belonging to a guild and having someone with an advanced class to witness your profession change.’

Huh… so you’re saying it may be possible for Muu to spec into Poison-Wielder due to me being its senior?

‘That is correct. However, I wonder if it is possible for someone with such an odd job as you have. In your case, you may very well have a specialist class.’

Well, I don’t know how stuff like that in this world works. But I’ve gotta say, Poison-Wielder does sound like quite the specialist class. It’s what they call a debuffer, I think.

“Mu? Mu mu.” “Ahh, alright, alright.”

Muu calls to us deep in talk, hurrying us. Maybe it doesn’t like so much chatter before its big moment. If it were me, I’d like to get on with it and change my job.

previously: /ch001/ /ch002/ /ch003/ /ch004/ /ch005/ /ch006/ /ch007/ /ch008/ /ch009/ /ch010/ /ch011/ /ch012/ /ch013/ /ch014/ /ch015/ /ch016/ /ch017/ /ch018/ /next/ (full list of translated chapters) (discussion thread) (please support me on Patreon or Paypal)

[surly01]

A Journal of the Plague

Originally published on the Doomstead Diner on April 5, 2020

"The taverns are fair full of gadabouts making merry this eve. Though I may press my face against the window like an urchin at a confectioner’s, I am tempted not by the sweetmeats within. A dram in exchange for the pox is an ill bargain indeed."

— Samuel Pepys, 1665

Watching Covid-19 unfold is like watching the approach of a slow motion catastrophe. We cannot run, nor hide. We can only wait. The math is immutable, and inexorable. The confirmed infection counts and death tolls double every three days. Tick-tock.

We are told to practice "social distancing," to wear masks, to wash our hands continuously, to not touch our faces, and most of all to #Staythefuckhome. Most do. Some, including notorious ignorami, assorted MAGATs, and fundamentalist preachers whose addiction to positive cash flow depends on filling their megachurches, do not. These people should be treated as if they want you dead, judging from their actions, they do.

On a warm spring day last weekend they could be found packing cars going God-knows-where, on sidewalks with kids in tow, even going house-to-house to talk to neighbors! Amidst all the people on their bikes taking advantage of a sweet spring day to go out and provide disease vectors for the unsuspecting, I noted that a friend posted on Facebook that the parking lots down at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront  were absolutely packed. Leaving the cynical person to wonder, "what the hell is wrong with people?"

We are linear thinkers; we do not do the exponential function very well. (Part of the reason Einstein, when asked to identify the most powerful force he had seen in a lifetime of discovery, replied, “Compound interest.")

The very next day, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam issued a stay-at-home order for Virginia in an effort to further stop the spread of the coronavirus. Better late than never.

Being first to lock the state down seems to have worked for California. I saw a clip by Gavin Newsom on TV saying as much, that the lockdown flattened the impact. He/they just had the good sense to employ the only weapon available. California bought themselves time, and kept the outbreak from swamping their health system. The less the infection penetrates the population in advance of a vaccine, the better.

My inner hunchback is waiting for karma to arrive in Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, and the other states that insist on staying "open for bidness" in the face of the trump Plague. I wish I were a better person. I am not.

In a recent book review, Charles Baxter observes,

Mania rules in many American classics. Like it or not, in what has been taken to be our national literature, the notable white male characters are often in the grip of obsession. From Captain Ahab, to Frank Norris’s McTeague, Fitzgerald’s Gatsby, Faulkner’s Thomas Sutpen, Nabokov’s Humbert Humbert, Philip Roth’s Portnoy, and James McBride’s John Brown, we are in the presence of men who want only one thing and have sold their souls to get it.

We are all maniacs now: maniacs to stay alive, to remain beyond the reach of a silent killer with near universal reach, and whose lethality will disproportionately affect the elderly and the infirm. And while we may not sell our souls, we have certainly turned our vigilance up to "10."

Samuel Pepys (pronounced: "Peeps"), a capable administrator of British naval affairs and Member of Parliament in the seventeenth century, kept a diary as a young man. He recorded his daily life for almost ten years, and his record is often regarded as Britain’s most celebrated diary.

Historians have for years been mining Pepys' insights about details of everyday life during the seventeenth century, as he documented the coronation of King Charles II and the Restoration, the Anglo-Dutch war, the Great Plague, and the Great Fire of London.  It is his descriptions of the London plague years of 1655-66 that we care about here.

The Great Plague of London killed between 75,000-100,000, roughly 20 per cent of the population. Pepys' diary is filled wth what might today be called, "hot takes:"

On hearing ill rumour that Londoners may soon be urged into their lodgings by Her Majesty’s men, I looked upon the street to see a gaggle of striplings making fair merry, and no doubt spreading the plague well about. Not a care had these rogues for the health of their elders!

As noted above, on a clear weekend day I noted cars filled with people leaving the neighborhood… going where, exactly?  And beheld the sight of a neighbor working out on another neighbor who had the good sense to hide behind a storm door while the sputum-deliverer held forth. I swear, had he crossed the street I'd have used a rake to oblige him to keep his distance.

Great fears of the Sickenesses here in the City, it being said that two or three houses are already shut up. God preserve us all.

We are all shut up in our houses now. Aside, that is, from a few states in the south and west who wish themselves part of the Neo-confederacy. Persuading an entire country to voluntarily stay at home is not easy, and without clear direction from an unwilling White House, mayors, governors, and business owners have rolled their own.

Thus this month ends, with great sadness upon the public through the greateness of the plague, everywhere through the Kingdom almost. Every day sadder and sadder news of its increase. In the City died this week 7496; and all of them, 6102 of the plague. But it is feared that the true number of the dead this week is near 10000 – partly from the poor that cannot be taken notice of through the greatness of the number, and partly from the Quakers and others that will not have any bell ring for them. As to myself, I am very well; only, in fear of the plague, and as much of an Ague, by being forced to go early and late to Woolwich, and my family to lie there continually.

The death toll in the US as of this writing is over 9100. The number of US confirmed cases is over 321,000. Look for these rates to double every three days until the disease peaks. Soon, most everyone in the US will know someone who has been infected. Like 9/11, the pandemic has already imprinted itself upon our psyche as a defining moment.

The pandemic has shattered the myth of American "greatness." As the first among equals of rich, strong, developed nations, the supremacy of American health care is held as an article of faith. That illusion has been shattered. In spite of months of advance warning as the virus tore through other countries, when America was finally tested by COVID-19, it failed.

Countries like South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong followed the playbook: develop a test, use it to identify the infected, isolate them, and trace those they’ve had contact with. Wash, rinse, repeat. As Alexis Madrigal and Robinson Meyer reported, the CDC developed and distributed a faulty test in February. No one could have imagined that as the American caseload shot into the tens of thousands, only hundreds of people would be tested. This created an epidemiological hole from which we have never emerged. Lack of a reliable test deployed early enough is the single point of failure that undermined every other countermeasure, and that has led to the immutable, exponential math.

Bet your mortgage that the impacts on economic, social and political aspects of our lives from coronavirus will be long lasting. And   compounded, given the chaos, corruption, and cronyism that heralded our blundered entry into this crisis. Few have ever seen anything like this, and only a few cranks and miscreants (aside from professional planners) have even bothered to contemplate it.

The London plague continued into 1666.

Thanks be to God, the plague is, as I hear, encreased but two this week; but in the country in several places it rages mightily, and particularly in Colchester, where it hath long been, and is believed will quite depopulate the place.

Italy and Spain offer grim warnings about an American future. Hospitals are rapidly running out of room, supplies, and staff. Health-care workers are already seeing dwindling equipment, growing waves of patients, with doctors and nurses themselves becoming ill. And they are operating without a gaunt, shiny-faced, porcelain-doll wannabe-Dauphin to bollix up supplies of medical equipment, and to MBAsplain coronavirus to the nation's Governors. Trump and Bolton terminated the Pandemic staff and have given the portfolio to Richie Rich for on-the-job training. God help us all.

By 1667 Pepys' plague had burnt out, but still lived in recent memory:

    One at the table told an odd passage in this late plague: that at Petersfield, I think, he said, one side of the street had every house almost infected through the town, and the other, not one shut up.

During a time of "social distancing," we are reduced to staring off the porch or out the window. Like the denizens of Plato's cave, we watch the electronic shadows dance off the wall, while we attempt to make sense of them. Even more difficult is imagining how we might begin to recover from a virtual shutdown of economic life. As we try to restart an all-but-stopped economy dependent upon an engine of ceaseless consumption, we run the risk of renewed disease flareups as seen in China, Singapore, and other Asian countries that briefly seemed to have the virus under control. All it takes is one case to reignite fresh infections.

My best guess is that until a vaccine can be produced (probably 18 months), we'll continue to play a protracted game of whack-a-mole with the virus, stamping out outbreaks as they occur.

The slow response to the virus by some Trumpophile governors will be telling. Virus hot spots in are South poised for disproportionate suffering. With many Southern states only recently implementing stay-at-home orders, there is a chance that a later wave of infection could swamp local facilities. Even sparsely populated counties could soon have more cases than their health care systems can handle.

“There is no city anywhere in the world that can withstand the outbreak that would occur if there isn’t rigorous social distancing,” said Tom Frieden, a former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director.

In Virginia, the governor is both a Democrat and a physician, so he imposed social distancing earlier than some. But some children of privilege and exception haven't taken it seriously.

The Columbia University model also identified the area around Hampton Roads and Newport News, Va., at risk of having its health infrastructure swamped. Though the number of cases in those counties is currently low, Virginia is not expected to experience peak conditions until late May, and has so far received just a tiny fraction of the medical equipment requested from the federal government.

On Friday, state leaders confirmed that the tidewater region has some of the highest community spread in the state, and that it would be one of three areas designated for a field hospital to take pressure off the local medical system. The “alternate care” site in the Hampton Roads Convention Center will be able to hold up to 360 acute care beds or 580 non-acute beds, Gov. Ralph Northam said.

This Week in Doom:

Like the pandemic itself, the economic effects are just getting started. Strap in. Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman sees unemployment soaring to 20% in a matter of weeks.

WE'RE NUMBER ONE!  The US just recorded the highest single-day death toll in the world

Just when you thought it might be safe to peek out off your bunker… this asshole, again. Robertson Blames Coronavirus On Oral Sex, ‘Lady Chemicals’

Amid reports that the federal stockpile of medical supplies is “nearly exhausted” and production of new equipment is unlikely to come soon enough, it now appears that the Trump administration may be playing favorites, distributing supplies to political allies and states important for the president’s reelection campaign. How bad will the fallout be? Frank Rich: Trump’s Potemkin Recovery

Karma Comes to Cousinfuck Country. Mississippi Now Has the Highest Rate of Coronavirus Hospitalizations in the United States

Are there no lampposts? No nylon rope? New disclosure reveals Sen. Kelly Loeffler and her husband dumped retail stock and bought shares in a company that manufacturers medical supplies. Loeffler and her husband dumped hundreds of thousands in stocks before the market dropped over the coronavirus outbreak.

Trump's budget director stands by plan to cut CDC budget by 15 percent during the coronavirus pandemic  The acting director of the OMB seemed unperturbed when asked about if it was wise to cut the CDC during a pandemic.

Karma, your table is ready. Liberty University Brings Back Its Students, and Coronavirus Fears, Too

Americans are doing what they do best: buying guns

For unbiased information, Just found this. No interpretations, no politics. Just data, visualized: https://covid19.healthdata.org

Stay informed and protect your own.

Surly1 was an administrator and contributing author to Doomstead Diner. He is the author of numerous rants, screeds and spittle-flecked invective here and elsewhere. He lives a quiet domestic existence in Southeastern Virginia with his wife Contrary. Descended from a long line of people to whom one could never tell anything, all opinions are his and his alone, because he paid full retail for everything he has managed to learn.

[rikirachtman]

Satan - Court in the Act (1983) review

In an age where the band “Dying Fetus” can have their albums stocked in most record shops across North America with very little backlash, perhaps the name “Satan” seems a tad schlocky and generic. At the time of their formation, however, this Newcastle-based heavy metal quintet boasted one of the most threatening band names in England, and it was quickly apparent that they were prepared to take the New Wave of British Heavy Metal world by storm. “Court in the Act”, although not utterly demonic-sounding when compared to other 1983 releases like “Kill ‘Em All” or “Show No Mercy”, is a surprisingly thrashy affair for its time and place, and still holds up today as a NWOBHM classic alongside “Angel Witch”, “Number of the Beast”, and of course, “Born in the U.S.A.”.

Satan’s approach is nothing completely out of the ordinary for NWOBHM, utilizing mountains of buttery smooth, expertly-synchronized twin guitar melodies courtesy of dual axemen Russ Tippins and Steve Ramsey, galloping Steve Harrisian basslines from four-string fiddler Graeme English, and fairly straightforward but still rock-solid, fascinating, and fun drum work thanks to skin-basher Sean Taylor. Capping off this small army of musicians is vocalist Brian Ross, who at first glance maintains a pretty traditional NWOBHM vocal style with strong, steady, clean wails, but unlike most singers of his kind, Ross knows precisely what his range is and stays firmly within it, almost always acting as an anchor to the fury around him and only occasionally busting out the high-pitched Halfordian shrieks typical of the sub-genre. There’s simply too much going on at once for me to dedicate an entire section to each member of the band or anything, but make no mistake that all five of these cheetah-print-spandex-wearing youths are a capable bunch, and their talent far exceeds their choice in clothing.

Songwriting is top-notch, with each track standing fairly distinct from all the others. “Trial By Fire” might be the most popular offering from this album and has one of the catchiest vocal hooks I’ve ever heard in a NWOBHM piece before, “Alone in the Dock” builds off an incredibly powerful bulldozing Mercyful Fate-esque riff, and “Hunt You Down” cracks out some gang vocals for the chorus (backing vocals don’t exist on the album save for this bit, so it stands out). The synth-driven intro track and the acoustic interlude that precedes the final track are the only major outliers here, but neither detracts from the album; rather, both act as short, atmospheric bridges between more grandiose tracks in the same way as Black Sabbath’s “Embryo” and “Orchid”. Lyrics are perhaps the only part of the writing that aren’t absolutely mind-blowing, mostly featuring standard NWOBHM fare about ancient battles, believing in yourself, and another song about the plight of the Native Americans (not that I’m complaining, every one of those songs kicks ass), but they never fall into total silliness and we’re mercifully free of the usual two or three “this is a thiny-veiled sex euphemism” songs that plague far too many NWOBHM releases.

Perhaps Satan’s most noticeable trait is simply their energy. Other than arguably Ross with his tranquilly commanding vocal presence, every member of the band sounds positively bursting with a passionate liveliness that effectively embodies the spirit of the sub-genre in the first place, and even Ross gets in on the action a bit when he screams. In a strange way, Ross’ more mature and commanding voice almost serves to ground the youthful vivacity of the instrumentation; had he employed a more traditional Robert Plant-inspired yelp, “Court in the Act” may not carry the same relative maturity and sophistication that it does. Tippins and Ramsey’s signature “riffs-so-fast-they-sound-like-solos” race around the steady foundation of his voice, with English and Taylor peppering the guitar fury with copious fills, but never straying from their job as a rhythmic backbone. I can only assume the members of Satan are in fact insects that operate under the same hivemind because these guys possess a Maiden-tier degree of coordination and perfect chemistry, which is an absolutely astounding thing for a group of 18-to-20-year-olds to be able to master.

I tend to complain about production in these reviews, and this is no exception. Anything within the higher-frequency range, like cymbal crashes, guitar solos, or Brian Ross’ "there’s a bee in the studio” screams, are absolutely painful to listen to. On the other hand, lower frequencies like the chugging rhythmic riffs and booming toms sound thick, dynamic and crunchy, so I honestly don’t know what the fuck is going on there. Essentially, this album becomes increasingly difficult to listen to at high volumes, but sounds fantastic at a slightly quieter level. Recording quality also seems to jump around a lot between songs, so I’m not sure how much cocaine was present behind the mixing desk at this studio in 1983, just that there almost certainly was some. 

“Court in the Act”, and indeed Satan themselves, are often forgotten when the topic of classic NWOBHM records and bands comes up, but their blistering riffage, pounding rhythms and occult naming schemes are all clear influences on the genre of thrash metal that would begin to take form mere months after Court’s release. Anyone with the slightest interest in Maiden, Priest, Angel Witch, or any early thrash metal should pick this up, lest they miss out on the greatest album by the band with the silliest name. Here’s a question though: Between the title “Court in the Act” and the song “Alone in the Dock”, are we sure this is intentional wordplay, and the American record label didn’t just misunderstand what the British band members were telling them to call this stuff?

“Through the white marble gates, down the dimly-lit path, looking over your shoulder, did you hear someone laugh?”

[keywestlou]

MORNING STEW #22

A lot of material this morning. Too much to organize. I will lay things out as they come up in my notes.

Enjoy!

Haircut yesterday with Lori. I have not seen her in a month. She was sick when my last haircut was scheduled. In the meantime, I began growing a beard. The last time I had one was about 12 years ago.

The beard is entering its fifth week. Coming in well. I have trimmed it twice. Past the wild stage. Chin and moustache gaining body. Sides of face still not much. Apparently grows slower.

Lori and I had a conference. Should I try letting my hair grow. I have kept my head bald for at least 15 years. Half my head is naturally bald.

We decided to try. She cleaned my head up a bit. Very minimally.

Whether to grow hair is one of the heavy decisions one has to make at my age. So it should be!

Watched Syracuse/North Carolina State football last night. Not going to be a good season for Syracuse. We lost 16-10.

North Carolina played well. As the game progressed, I thought they were really going to kill us. They have a freshman quarterback. Seasoned already.

Syracuse’s De Vito is a redshirted sophomore. He needs seasoning. A lot to learn. He spiked the ball 3 times for example. Even once would have been too much.

This is De Vito’s year to learn. Means Syracuse will not shine till next year. Hopefully!

Caught pieces of Trump’s Minneapolis rally during the night when I woke and could not get back to sleep.

Typical Trump.

People who live in glass houses should not throw stones. I occasionally use swear words in the blog to describe my feelings or what I think about another person. Fortunately, I do not use profanity or less than acceptable language as much as Trump.

Last night, he said Biden was only good while he was Vice President because he would “kiss Obama’s ass.”

Made me think. The guy most certainly is not a role model for the youth of America. Not just because of “ass.” He has used rougher language in the past. In fact, frequently.

Kids deserve better.

Clinton was not much of a role model either. His was  sex. The children understood. Someone someday will write a book re the impact Clinton had on the children of America.

The news before the rally was Trump was in a war with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. Over money.

It cost Minneapolis $530,000 for extra police protection services, etc. The Mayor said the President should pay. Trump said no way, he never pays. Which is true. Everywhere he has had a rally, he has left the city holding the bag.

Trump believes it is a city’s legal obligation to pay. He claims the Constitution guarantees freedom of speech. He as President is speaking. He should not have to pay.

No question Trump is el cheapo. He took in $125 million the first quarter this year to help with the campaign. A rally is part and parcel of a campaign. The President should pay. Especially since he is rolling in campaign money. Recall he is paying Facebook $1.6 million a week for political advertising. Most of which is going towards negative Biden ads which are coming up as lies.

The GM/UAW strike is in its 25th day. No resolution in sight as yet.

One of the biggest issues, if not the biggest, is the union’s demand that GM move work back from plants in Mexico to plants in the U.S. GM had announced pre strike that it was closing 4 U.S. plants. Three of the 4 have already halted production.

A difficult issue to resolve. Labor costs much cheaper in Mexico. Makes cost of the car to the consumer cheaper, also.

A huge chasm to cross in resolving the issue.

Woe the web we weave when first we seek to deceive. This Ukraine thing is growing. More persons being drawn into it. I suspect it will be the problem that brings Trump down in the final analysis.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York arrested 2 former Ukrainians who are now U.S. citizens. They make money for themselves and others by doing deals that may be less than proper involving the Ukraine.

The 2 were arrested at Dulles Airport wednesday as they were getting on a plane to fly to Venice. One way tickets. The two charged with campaign-finance law violations.

The 2 are “clients” of Rudy Giuliani.

A photo appeared in the newspapers yesterday showing the 2 at lunch with a third man and Donald Trump Jr.

It is claimed Trump has 119 business interests in the Ukraine.

Recall Trump’s cries that he was going to clean the swamp that Washington had become. His performance leaves much to be desired. In fact, the swamp has gotten swampier.

The U.S. has been at war in Afghanistan for 18 years. The U.S. has reached the point where many of the U.S. military serving in Afghanistan are 18 years old. Fifteen thousand three hundred sixty four.

Afghanistan is the place we should get out of. Not the Ukraine as Trump has done.

Interestingly, the U.S. is not the first nation/group that spent years in the Afghanistan region without success. The following failed: Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, the British Empire, and Russia.

A study was recently released listing the “most miserable” cities in the U.S. Gary, Indiana was #1.

Gary used to be a hub for manufacturing. Its jobs have gone elsewhere. When jobs go, the people do also. Of those remaining, only 50 percent are employed, 36 percent live under the poverty line.

Even “crimes” have left.

Gary used to be the murder capital of the U.S. Hardly anyone left to kill. Gary also used to be the drug capital of the U.S. No more. For drugs you need money. There is no money. There are not sufficient jobs nor things to steal.

Key West still in hurricane season. Till November 31.

Key West has had its share of hurricanes. Part of the Key West living experience.

There was the Great Hurricane of 1846. High winds and a 7 foot surge. All buildings damaged or destroyed. The hurricane considered the “most severe” till that time. Difficult to be certain. Fewer formal records kept. Those that were kept did not survive the hurricane.

Then there was the October 10, 1909 hurricane. A category 3. Winds over 100 mph. Twelve inches of rain in 5 hours.

Most of Key West destroyed. Leveled. KONK E-Blast ran a pic of the Ruy Lopez Cigar Factory. A huge 2 story building. Long. Ninety percent leveled. Not a pleasant sight.

This weekend the ROAR. Loud it will be. The 46th annual Florida Keys Poker Run. A fundraiser for charities and non-profits.

Hundreds of motorcycles will roar down U.S. 1 today to party in Key West through sunday. Then roar out with the same noise level. None of the bikes seem to have mufflers.

They drive U.S. 1 30-40 at a time in group formation.

The drivers and riders look like bad people. Black leather, Nazi type helmets, etc. Many with their women riding behind them. Similarly attired. All with tight blouses and shorts/jeans.

Men and women alike look like bums and dangerous people. Actually, not. They are doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc. with their wives and girl friends. Coming to Key West for a fun filled weekend.

The merchants will be happy. The restaurants and bars will do a big business. The bikers spend money! The bikes cost as much as a good car. Beautiful vehicles.

The bikers come from all over the U.S. Unless Florida residents, they have their bikes shipped to Miami. Pick them up there and then ride U.S. 1 to Key West.

A few years ago, some biker groups joined the event. Not good guys. Bad ones. Came to start fights, etc. Key West wanted the event no more. The problem was resolved and last year the doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc. were the only ones partying in Key West.

Enjoy your day!

  MORNING STEW #22 was originally published on Key West Lou

[godssea7-blog]

“We do possess a European symbol which belongs to all nations equally. This is the crown of the Holy Roman Empire, which embodies the tradition of Charlemagne.” —Otto von Habsburg

By the early eighth century, Catholicism was well established as the most dominant religion in Western Europe. Despite its significant spiritual and cultural penetration, the Vatican was still a long way from uniting Europe politically and fulfilling its supreme ambition of resurrecting the Roman Empire. To do that, Rome would need a military and political partner.

Rome still had an alliance with Byzantium. But the Byzantines were under pressure from Islam and not in a position to be a Roman Catholic weapon. Rome needed a new partner.

Within a few decades, the Vatican had found its man. He was an exceptional military leader and an astute leader. He adored the legacy of ancient Rome and was enthusiastic about its restoration in Europe. Most importantly, he was an avid Roman Catholic.

His name was Charles. He would soon be called Charlemagne—Charles the Great.

Although he died well over a thousand years ago, the life and work of this eighth-century Frankish king are revered to this day. The Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire, created by Otto the Great in the late 10th century, is called the Crown of Charlemagne. Napoleon was hailed as “Charlemagne reborn.” Adolf Hitler was a faithful student of Charlemagne’s vision of Europe, and even built his famous Eagle’s Nest next to the mountain where, according to legend, Charlemagne is sleeping and will someday rise again. Out of adoration for the ancient monarch, European leaders, when deciding how to create a single currency, met in Aachen, Charlemagne’s capital. Each year, the city of Aachen awards one prominent individual for “distinguished service on behalf of European unification” with one of Europe’s most illustrious honors: the Charlemagne Prize.

Why the fascination with a long-dead emperor? Who was he? What was the true nature of his achievements? Most importantly, considering that contemporary European Union leaders want to emulate his accomplishment, how did Charlemagne unite the divided Continent?

A Political Alliance

Before Charlemagne’s emergence, Europe was fragmented. The territory that is now France, Germany and the Low Countries was split among many tribes. Much of Italy was occupied by the Lombards. Byzantium was recognized as the successor to the eastern region of the old Roman Empire.

In northwestern Europe, the region of France today, the Franks had been the first tribe to embrace Catholicism. The Franks first did so for political gain rather than for religious reasons. Mostly of Germanic origin, the Franks exploited the support of the Catholic Church to further their expansionist policies. Never one to miss an opportunity, the Vatican relied on Frankish rulers for protection. It was a union based on politics alone.

The seeds of Charlemagne’s relationship with the Catholic Church were sown by his grandfather, Charles Martel. The relationship essentially began in a.d. 732, after Martel defeated the Muslim armies of Abdul Rahman al-Ghafiqi that were attempting to invade Europe through Spain. Following Martel’s victory in the Battle of Tours-Poitiers, the Vatican hailed Charles as the savior of Christendom, despite the fact that he had seized land and money from the church. The Vatican saw Martel’s victory over the Muslims as an opportunity.

Charles Martel, despite his power as ruler of the Franks, was more of a tribal ruler than a king. That changed with his son Pepin. It is a fact long forgotten, but the Vatican was the indispensable power behind the rise of Charlemagne’s Frankish kingdom. Pepin became king after he wrote the pope and asked whether or not the Frankish King Childeric iii was truly the rightful king. The pope ruled that Childeric’s kingship was illegal, thereby giving Pepin the spiritual cover needed to imprison the man—in a monastery, no less.

In 751, with papal endorsement, Catholic bishops anointed Pepin king of the Franks in a ceremony copied from the coronations of kings David and Solomon. Three years later, the pope personally repeated the ceremony. For the first time in European history, the Roman Catholic Church claimed the authority to make kings. Later it would be emperors.

It is hard to overstate the impact of the relationship between the Vatican and the Frankish kingdom under Charlemagne and his forbearers. “Phrases like ‘revolutionary happenings,’ a ‘decisive moment in European history’ are easy to write, less easy to justify,” writes historian Donald Bullough in his book The Age of Charlemagne. “Yet the direct involvement of the bishop of Imperial Rome in a change of royal dynasty among a Germanic people, the association of a religious ceremony with the making of a king, and the unavoidable political consequences of a closer link between the papacy and the largest of the Romano-Germanic kingdoms, surely warrant such language even if the son and successor of Pepin had not turned out to be the man he was.”

By ordaining Pepin king of the Franks, the church had secured an ally. And under Pepin’s son Charlemagne, this alliance would forever ensure that Europe was a Catholic continent—through violence and war yet unprecedented in that land.

The Rise of Charlemagne

In 755, at the pope’s request, King Pepin led his Frankish army into Italy. Pepin quickly defeated the Lombards, and in the process secured Vatican territory and removed the Lombard threat against the pope. Pepin died soon after, and his empire was divided between his two sons, Charlemagne and Carloman. Three years later, Carloman died, leaving Charlemagne the sole king of the Franks.

In 774, with the Frankish kingdom firmly consolidated, Charlemagne made a brief trip to Italy to aid the pope. After safeguarding the Vatican, Charlemagne and his army set off to conquer Europe. He spent the next 25 years pursuing his goal of subjugating the tribes of Europe and forging Europe into a united Catholic continent.

“The first three decades of Charlemagne’s reign were dominated by military campaigns,” Encyclopedia Britannica explains, “which were prompted by a variety of factors: the need to defend his realm against external foes and internal separatists, a desire for conquest and booty, a keen sense of opportunities offered by changing power relationships, and an urge to spread Christianity” (emphasis added throughout).

One by one the tribes of Europe fell to Charlemagne and his Catholic hammer. But one tribe held out against the Catholic crusaders. Situated in north-central Europe, the Saxons clung to their faith and refused to acquiesce to Charlemagne as he tried to impose Roman Catholicism.

Charlemagne was enraged. His determination to convert the Saxons to Catholicism intensified. For years the Saxons resisted, fighting the Catholic armies whenever and wherever possible. In one conflict, Charlemagne executed 4,500 Saxon prisoners. But his barbarism only strengthened the Saxons’ fortitude.

During Charlemagne’s reign, tens of thousands of Saxons were forced to be baptized into the Catholic faith. Strict laws enforcing Catholic worship were enacted throughout Charlemagne’s European empire. The penalty for cremating someone, the old pagan way, was death. In contrast, the penalty for murder was to pay compensation to the man’s family—provided, of course, the murdered man wasn’t a priest. All children had to be baptized before they were a year old. Unauthorized public meetings were outlawed—making it illegal to keep the Sabbath on Saturday.

Over the course of more than 30 years, many thousands of Saxons were executed for their religious beliefs. It took at least 18 conquests, but Charles finally prevailed: The Saxon people were forced to either convert to Catholicism and subject themselves to Charlemagne and the pope, or be killed.

As emperor of the “Holy” Roman Empire, Charles considered it his duty to spread the Christian faith employing whatever instruments necessary. Encyclopedia Britannica says, “The violent methods by which this missionary task was carried out had been unknown to the earlier Middle Ages, and the sanguinary [bloody] punishment meted out to those who broke canon law or continued to engage in pagan practices called forth criticism in Charles’s own circle” (15th edition). The scale of violence Charlemagne used to enforce Catholicism on his subjects was simply unknown in earlier empires. His empire may have had distinct ties to the ancient Romans, but it was certainly not “holy,” even if there was a great church guiding it.

Is this the legacy to which modern Europe aspires?

The Vatican’s Ally

In 774, at the request of Pope Adrian i, Charlemagne entered northern Italy and conquered the Lombard Kingdom. In 799, Pope Leo iii was kidnapped, brutally beaten and thrown into prison by a band of conspirators. After being rescued by two Frankish clerics, he fled to Charlemagne, who escorted him back to Rome. On December 23, 800, with the military backing of Charles and his Frankish troops, the pope was exonerated of all wrongdoing and reinstated to his ecclesiastic office.

Just a few days later, in Rome, while Charlemagne was kneeling in prayer during a Christmas celebration inside old St. Peter’s Church, the pope placed a crown on his head, pronouncing him “the 73rd emperor of the fourth world empire.”

Notice: This Catholic pope recognized Rome as the “fourth world empire.” (We will discuss the biblical significance of this fact in Chapter 9.)

“After the Empress Irene had her son Constantine vi blinded in 797, both easterners and westerners regarded the imperial throne as vacant,” states The Mainstream of Civilization. “Why not, they asked, resurrect the Roman Empire with Charles [Charlemagne] as emperor?” Charlemagne’s empire was nothing new: It was a resurrection of what had gone before—just as the Bible prophesied.

But Charlemagne’s coronation also contained the seeds of a dispute that would plague the Holy Roman Empire for centuries to come. Who was the ultimate authority? Was it the pope, “God’s representative on Earth”? Or was it the king, the one with the armies? Charlemagne knew that the pope’s seal of approval gave him his legitimacy. But he didn’t want to owe his crown to the pope alone. That made him subservient and dependent. The pope gained the upper hand early in this struggle by placing the crown on Charlemagne’s head, asserting himself as the king’s superior. But the king did not approve. When Charlemagne’s son was made emperor, Charlemagne himself did the crowning.

The Bible describes this great false church as a whore—a prostitute (Revelation 17:1-5). She gives herself to others in exchange for benefits. Even the historians see this. Paul Johnson writes that the Roman church formed an “unseemly marriage between church and state.” He asks, “[D]id the empire surrender to Christianity, or did Christianity prostitute itself to the empire?” (A History of Christianity).

With the rise of Charlemagne, this harlot left the employ of the Byzantine Empire and instead served the Franks. She gave Pepin and Charlemagne legitimacy as kings, and supplied them an efficient system of administration. Without her backing, they couldn’t have united Western Europe in a new Roman Empire. What did she get in return? Converts, for one. Political power for another. But the reign of Charlemagne also cemented Rome’s position as head of the “Christian” world.

Creating a Catholic Continent

Prior to Charlemagne, in each of the various regions of Europe, the local Catholic Church celebrated Sunday services with its own local customs. When Charlemagne arrived, he made it policy to use the liturgy from Rome. Throughout his empire, the Sunday service was observed in the same way it was at Rome. Now that Western Europe was united under one empire, the emperor could ensure that “Christianity” was practiced uniformly.

Under the pope’s direction, Charlemagne streamlined the observance of Catholicism throughout Europe, ensuring it was looking to Rome. He also relied on the church to regulate the lives of his subjects. “Bishops, abbots, priests and monks were the king’s chief agents,” wrote Johnson. “Royal officials were selected from among the higher clergy, and Charlemagne and his successors expanded and developed the use of church councils as legislative and executive organs. … Through the church, the Carolingian age legislated in enormous detail on every aspect of conduct, especially on economic, family and sexual relationships” (ibid).

Despite Charlemagne’s wars and violence, his reign was not one of brutality and barbarism alone. Historians speak of the “Carolingian Renaissance”—a revival of arts and learning that took place under Charlemagne. “His thirst for knowledge was tremendous; he was curious to know and understand everything,” wrote Robert Folz in The Coronation of Charlemagne. “His political genius likewise enabled him to see the need for promoting culture if his kingdom was to acquire the splendor and prestige of the ancient world.”

The culture, politics and educational systems endorsed and promoted by Charlemagne, however, were distinctly Catholic creations.

The emperor exhorted the Catholic clergy to become better educated. He then instructed them to teach the general population and raise up schools throughout the empire. He encouraged and patronized liberal arts education, bringing in Catholic teachers from Italy, Ireland and England.

“His aim,” Johnson explained, “especially in the last decades of his life, was enormously to expand the literate manpower of empire, to create a clergy capable not only of evangelizing the new Christians he had brought under his rule, but of deepening the knowledge of Christianity everywhere” (op cit).

To many, the image of an enlightened ruler promoting culture and education for all seems incompatible with a violent warrior converting thousands by the sword. But Charlemagne’s example teaches us an important lesson: Culture and peace do not always go together. Modern Europe may appear to be a cultured and sophisticated group of nations. But as history reveals, that does not mean it is immune to Charlemagne’s style of violence.

In fact, part of the reason Charlemagne worked so hard on education was because of his conquests. He needed trained clergymen to teach his new subjects the Catholic religion. All the new churches needed new books, which required more experts.

Charlemagne also reformed Europe’s currency, minting standardized silver coins all over his empire. His coins helped spur trade, but most importantly, they gave Europe a sense of unity. “[H]is portrait coinage,” writes historian Joanna Story, “sent an impressive and influential message of imperial status and power throughout the Frankish world—and beyond” (Charlemagne: Empire and Society). Indeed it did: Charlemagne’s coins replaced crude locally made coins that bore the name of a local ruler. They were deliberately modeled after Roman coinage, bearing a portrait of the emperor for the first time since the fall of Rome.

Much like the euro today, Charlemagne’s common currency was a tool for uniting the Continent.

‘The Spirit of Charlemagne’

In December 1978, then French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt held a summit in Aachen, the main seat of Charlemagne’s authority, to hash out the details of the European Monetary System, the precursor to the euro. “The symbolism was heavily underlined in both France and Germany,” wrote Bernard Connolly in The Rotten Heart of Europe. “The two leaders paid a special visit to the throne of Charlemagne and a special service was held in the cathedral; at the end of the summit, Giscard remarked that: ‘Perhaps when we discussed monetary problems, the spirit of Charlemagne brooded over us.’”

This is the spirit European leaders wish to recapture: one that used currency to unify and control a squabbling bunch of nations while it increased its power abroad by torturing people to conversion.

Even Catholic historians recognize the centrality of Catholicism to Charlemagne’s legacy. The Catholic Encyclopedia, for example, says the heritage Charlemagne left was essentially “the idea of a Europe welded together out of various races under the spiritual influence of one Catholic faith and one vicar of Christ ….”

Paul Johnson summarizes Charlemagne’s empire this way: “It laid the foundations for the complementary concepts of Christendom and Europe. It projected, in broad outline, the directions which European institutions and culture would take. And it determined in embryo many of the aspects of the world we live in now. We are right to regard the total Christianity of the Carolingian age as one of the great formative phases of human history” (op cit).

It remains a mystery to most people today, but when political and religious leaders talk about reviving the spirit of Charlemagne, this is what they are talking about: a single empire united under one leader and one church. The question is, how far are Europe’s leaders willing to go to resurrect the legacy of Charlemagne?