#like how many jokes making of catholic n Christian churches

[disneydatass]

Tumblr girlies be like: I absolutely support harassment and murder but I draw the line at being antisemitic!

[dr-chosenberg]

On my recent rewatch I felt the inspiration to design my headcanon for what Dr. Potterswheel's late wife might have looked like! Born Marie-Thérèse Praxineaux, her maiden name is based off of the Praxinoscope which is an animation device that came after the Zoetrope

Voice: https://youtu.be/2MaiJtecGmI?si=H6h5nLCUQsk9039K

CW: Dr Potterswheel's gore fetish, infection, death, miscarriage,

She moved to Moralton because you know The War and was shunned because of the rumors around town of her being a foreigner and France being a place of sin and lust. The librarian there gave her a job because she assumed no moralton man was going to be interested because of her reputation and took pity on her. Oh another reason the moraltons hate her lol, France is a majority Catholic country. Marie was part of the minority there that was Protestant but obviously the Moraltons didn’t care.

In comes a young Quentin.

He was studying for his medical school exams and often came in, staying the often inaccurate statesotan medical books for long hours. Sometimes when it was just the librarian and the two of them she would avoid him at all costs, not wanting to further her reputation.

He was aware of Marie-Therese, she was pretty and always helpful when she knew where to find a book he needed.

One day some kind of accident happened, not serious enough that she was in any real danger but enough that she needed medical assistance. Maybe a bookcase fell on her and she needed some stitches?

M-T was not one to speak up or make a fuss, but Quentin had a handsome deep voice and spoke with so much authority. He did his best to reassure her she would be ok and in a sense it coaxed the words right out of her. She had a way with words and could describe her pain like she was painting a picture, I like to think she enjoyed writing poetry, but you and I both know that’s not why it attracted him so intensely.

Despite the town doing its best to shun her she still attended church every Sunday and every Sunday Quentin would inquire about her wounds progress and ask to see it. One day a few weeks after her wound had healed they were conversing and Marie-Therese joked sadly that they could no longer be seen together as she didn’t have the excuse of being his practice patent.

At which point Quentin proposed. It wasn’t the most romantic affair to most, he said it matter of factly as he does most things. But that was ok, she would have the bedside manner and the way with words for them both.

Their relationship itself….well they had a foot up on many Moralton couples as they were truly in love. Many would consider Marie a fool as he was not the most romantic man. He was soft when she would fuss or worry (think about the way he spoke to Bloberta when she said her wound was bad) but when she really took issue with something he wouldn’t get more emotional, but even less, she found herself at times disheartened at the way he would dismiss her worries and talk down to her. She insisted to her newfound housewife friends that they just didn’t know him like she did, which was *sort* of true.

She honestly didn’t mind his “preferences” she assumed that taking charge was what a husband was meant to do in the bedroom, and that a “little” pain was just what a good Christian woman had to put up with after a life of chastity. When she had other wounds and he would take a bit too much of a vested interest she thought it was just his way of showing he cared. She never understood why he would discourage what he called “unnecessary” medications like, allergy meds, antacids, etc. always feeding her a line about the lord helping those who help themselves.

She tried her best to become more like the other wives of Moralton, she even took up sewing and embroidery. She made a comment once about how she was just like him, sewing up patients. He stroked her head and smiled, “How cute. You’d worry yourself sick if anything important was counting on your little stick ‘n’ pokes.”

Things got better when they got the wonderful news that Marie was pregnant. Her pregnancy was very rough, unlike anything Quentin had ever seen. He would comfort her by telling her of the many strong mothers he had seen in his career so far, if she couldn’t handle the pain of the pregnancy how could she handle the birth? The smile he would give her when she would nod in agreement was all the soothing she needed.

She was nearing the worst of it when she used the last of her energy to embroider a handkerchief for him, with his initials on it. Sometimes he would use it to clean her face when she would cough up one thing or another, or wet it to soothe her forehead.

Of course she wasn’t *just* facing pregnancy complications, she had caught a whole other sickness entirely, an infection. The days went by and Quentin got more desperate. Out of love for his wife? Out of a need to prove his abilities as a doctor? Who knows. He would never admit fault for anything let alone a patient, he sure as hell wasn’t going to take the blame for losing the woman he cares for. He tried everything, except actual medical science.

Finally he relented and began to give her painkillers. I believe it would be more in character if he didn’t tell her. Visitors from the town and a young Reverend Putty suspected it but she was none the wiser. She used to say things like, “Ma moitié having you pray for me and care for me is so healing, I am feeling better already.”

When she could form full coherent sentences.

With the way medicine was at the time while some painkillers are safe for pregnant women these probably weren’t, but they weren’t what took her. It got to the point that she wasn’t herself anymore but spent her days lying in bed in a haze, barely awake.

She swore sometimes that she could see Quentin there at her side, watching her, even feel him stroke her hand. But when she got her eyes to focus he wasn’t there anymore.

One day Quentin went in for a morning check up and the sheets were covered in blood. He had lost his wife and his child in one fell swoop.

It was a horrific scene but she looked so serene. So comfortable. She was clutching his handkerchief.

Notes:

This takes place with the assumption that Moralton is not modern day, I headcanon Quentin to be around 50

This was fun, nothing is set in stone truly as this was part of a stream of consciousness conversation with my friend @cheonsa-n I’m fully up for criticism if anything seems out of character. I’m also happy to explain the reasoning behind certain choices!

I don’t personally buy the idea that Quentin killed his wife on purpose, a man with Quentin’s disposition who actually committed a murder wouldn’t resort to almost stabbing the man who accused him of it, that’s how you get people to think you killed your wife on purpose lol.

I hope you guys enjoy what I came up with. Their relationship isn’t fully this way as he was attracted to her and subjected her to some of the same treatment we saw Bloberta go through, but their marriage in my mind had a bit of a Madonna-whore complex flavoring to it. I also believe this is somewhat of an origin story for his habit of treating everything with almost exclusively painkillers. Marie-Thérèse couldn’t be saved but she was, as Quentin puts it, very comfortable when she passed.

In the AU where she lives she still suffered a miscarriage and Clay calls Dr. Potterswheel a babykiller instead. She is still as sweet as the day she and Quentin met but she isn’t particularly keen on giving Orel the time and attention he needs either, it’s too painful. When she does give him advice she tends to advise him to wait things out and not rock the boat. She tells him that good things come to those who wait.

[heavymetalover]

Heart-Shaped Box (Michael Langdon x fem reader)

Summary: On your way out of the Satanic church, you and an inexperienced Michael share an intimate encounter.

Warnings: smut, dirty talk, slow burn, choking, oral sex (female receiving), sassy reader.

Word count: 3.4k

A/N: thanks to everyone in the ahs/cody fan base for being so kind and reading my shitty writing :) youre all dope mfs

i only did minimal editing so i hope there arent too many mistakes !!

~~~~

You exhale a long sigh when hanging up your cloak in the empty church. You take in the atmosphere of the church; you’re going to miss being a Satanist. You finally felt like you belonged somewhere, felt like you finally had a home, but things changed once Michael came along. Everyone was on their toes, trying to one-up each other, it was first grade all over again and everybody was the teacher’s pet. Part of you blames yourself for succumbing to the desire of having external support, your own little dysfunctional family. But you blame Michael. He ruined everything for you, and you didn’t want to be apart of his crusade.

You take a seat on the first bench, observing your surroundings for the last time. The mood lighting from the lit-up candles, curtains hanging on either side, the walls painted an ominous blood red, the upside-down cross hanging above the alter… God you’ll miss this place.

Dress shoes click on the polished wooden floors and you stand from your seat, preparing to bolt without having to engage in conversation about why you’re leaving. You know the rest of the members would give you great shame for not kissing Michael’s ass. Fuck him. Fuck the people at this church. They all claim to be different, evil, but they’re just like God-fearing Christians. As soon as their “saviour” came, they kissed his feet. Not you.

You brush past the person who walked in, keeping your eyes glued onto the floors. They grab your arm and you stop, still not turning around to look at them. A sick feeling turning in your stomach suspects you already know who it is. “It’s… y/n, right?” the man asks. His indistinguishable smooth voice sings your name like a lullaby and your heart drops. He hasn’t said two words to you before, the closest you’ve gotten to speaking with him is exchanging glacial stares, so how did he know your name?

“Michael,” you reply. “Sorry, uh, Mr. Langdon,” you redress him. “How do you know my name?”

“You can call me Michael,” he says, “I like to know all the people who have been worshipping my father.” He pulls you by the lacey fabric of your dress, trying to turn you to meet his gaze. You spin around and hold your head high. His body is twisted towards you, carrying himself confidently. He doesn’t scare you, even if he is a head taller than you... and the antichrist.

Your eyes meet his, the candles in the room give him an intimate lighting on his porcelain skin. His blonde feathered hair done to perfection, as always. The princess always has to look damn good, doesn’t he?

“What’re you thinking about?” he asks, cutting your observation short. You open your mouth to speak, but he holds up his finger. “Let me guess… coming up with an excuse on why you just hung up your cloak and were about to leave my father’s church,” he guesses.

You’d rather affirm his assumption than explain what you were actually thinking about. Of course everyone in the church had a crush on Michael, but they openly admitted it. You’re a little more stubborn. You hold your hands up in vanquish, “You got me.” You walk backwards, hoping to leave the conversation as is. “I should head out then,” you add, but Michael takes a step toward you with every step you take back. You stop, annoyed by his tenacity. Maybe he’s more like you than you thought.

“And why is it that you’re leaving?” his voice is surprisingly warm. “I’m not what you expected I’d be? Unsatisfied with my leadership?”

Michael’s never grovelled for anything, not even a lousy reply; you smile at his zeal. “I just don’t want to swim too close to… a drowning man,” you respond, hesitantly choosing your words.

“Oh?” the word immediately slips from his lips, an eyebrow cocked. He turns around to the alter, his silky black cloak flowing behind him. Michael reaches under the podium to grab a chalice and a bottle of merlot. A little inside joke your church had, mocking the blood of Christ in Catholic churches. He fills the glass with wine and hands it over to you, “A drowning man, huh? Did I strike a nerve?”

You take a sip of the bitter beverage, somehow the flavour is both pleasant and unpleasant. When you look at him as he awaits your answer and meet his deep blue eyes, it’s hard for you to answer truthfully. “Nope, no nerves struck,” you lie, taking another big gulp.

“You’re not a very good liar,” he quips. He takes a step back from you and walks around the benches, your eyes follow him around the room. Dragging his feet across the floor, eyeing up the church just as you were. Even as he’s just being observant and not really doing anything, Michael holds a certain hostility to his presence. “What have I done to displease you? I’d like to know,” his voice echoes.

You glance around the room for anything to save you, he’s stopped in his tracks to watch you squirm under his influence. You look at the exit of the room, then back at Michael. “Look, I was just planning on leaving,” you explain with a passive shrug.

He steps away from the exit. “You can if you’d like. I’m only curious… and I wouldn’t want you leaving my father’s church on a bad note,” he answers. He walks towards you and you back up closer to the alter, it feels like he’s intentionally closing in on you to make you feel threatened. You won’t let it work. “Again, just so there are no animosities,” his voice is lower, “what have I done?”

You take the last sip of wine, realizing your lips haven’t parted from the glass for nearly the entire time. It’s much easier to tolerate Michael with a drink in your hand. Although you could easily put it back under the podium, you decide to hand the empty cup back to Michael. At first his eyebrows furrow in confusion, then a moment passes and his lips twist into a cunning smile. If he wants to act dominating, you will too. “You know where that goes,” he says in a mere whisper.

“So do you,” you retort, the alcohol giving you an extra boost of courage.

He walks past you, brushing you with his cloak as he goes and ignoring the cup you hold out to him. You smile to yourself, biting your lip from calling him stubborn. You thought that you were the most obstinate person you’d ever know, but Michael might take the cake. Two can play at that game; you purposely put your cup in the wrong spot.

Michael takes a seat on the alter, still waiting for your response. You sit across him on the first church bench. “It’s not anything you’ve done, it’s what you’re not doing,” you finally respond. He stops fiddling with the pentagram necklace hanging on his chest to glare at you, you got his attention. “Oh, please,” you roll your eyes, “I haven’t seen so much angst in a grown man, you’re practically a child.”

He scoffs. “I don’t think you’d speak with that conviction if you knew what I’ve been through,” he spits.

“Obviously losing people isn’t fair, but you’re literally the antichrist and you’re hiding behind the fact that your friend died,” you rebuttal. You shiver at the thought of all your losses, now this church is also going to be added to the list.

He’s shaking his head, dismissively rolling his eyes at you in dissatisfaction. He’s so much like you, it makes you hate him even more. This boils your blood; maybe it’s the alcohol, but his bullheadedness is sending you over the edge. Before he can answer, you want to ruffle his feathers a little more. “I can’t take over the world because my friend died and daddy doesn’t love me, boohoo,” you tease. “Grow up, we’ve all lost people.”

He takes a moment before responding to you, his eyes trailing down your body in disgust. You freeze under his stare. Then his frigid gaze falls back onto yours. “Maybe you’re just too stupid to realize how miserable you should be,” he responds callously, “Does a dumb harlot like you have no bounds?”

You clutch your legs together, his blistering words cause a tingling in your core; he’s never spoken to anyone like this before. Michael can come across as a contemptuous dick, but he’s never purposely been disrespectful. You try to answer him quickly, making sure he doesn’t notice that he knocked the wind out of you. “I’m far from a harlot, Mr. Langdon,” you keep yourself composed. “Tell me, with everybody’s heads up your ass, do your shits just fall out?”

You’re rewarded with a laugh. “You’re a snappy little thing,” his voice is small.

“I’m merely a confident woman refusing to kiss your ass.”

“You’re merely a confident woman who squeezes her legs together when being degraded by a man,” he barks back, no uncertainty in his voice, “I see how you tense up every time I’m around. Every time you’re on your knees praying to my father, praying to me.” You cement in your seat by his sudden bitterness, taken aback by his personality change. “You’re ashamed of your sexual desires, pretend to be a pure flower, but deep down an insatiable little whore.” Baffled by his vulgarity, your mouth opens to respond, but no words come out. You’ve never been muted by the words of another person, it irks you. He dusts off some of his cloak, still sitting pretty like he hadn’t broken his customary tone. “Have I made an erroneous observation, y/n?” he asks, still refusing to look at you.

Your first instinct is to shrug, but he doesn’t see. He finally stops tending to his clothing and pays attention to you again. You feel a smirk stretch across your lips without your consent, almost like a dark entity moving through you. You’re done trying to piss him off, you want to try something else. “Okay, I’m a whore… and?” you challenge him. He cocks his head in confusion. “I don’t see your hands under that cloak, how do I know you’re not relieving some of your own tension?” your voice drops seductively.

“Impossible,” he snaps.

“Impossible,” you mock him. “Why?”

“Because there is no tension,” he explains, shifting in his seat. You don’t reply, you just watch him uncomfortably try to adjust to the situation. Frustration washing over him when you don’t give him the satisfaction of a response, he stands from his seat. You follow suit.

You step closer to him, his eyes locked onto the floors but find yours in an instant. The cerulean lit by the dancing flames of the candles beside him. You’re only inches apart from each other, Michael makes no effort to step away. “Maybe I was wrong about you, Michael,” you whisper. You take another step closer to him, his body lightly grazing yours. He leans into you, pressing his pelvis against your belly. “Maybe all you need is a good fuck,” you bite your lip.

You feel him growing hard against you. He raises an eyebrow. “How are you doing this to me?” his voice is softer than before.

You exhale a laugh almost mockingly. “You don’t need to question it, Michael. Just find the courage to reach out…” your voice low. You run your hands down your body and lightly massage your breasts, a soft moan escapes your lips, “and touch.”

He leans down, his full lips press against yours. You feel him fumbling, so you take the lead. Giving gentle kisses and slowly making them deeper, you run your fingers through his luxurious blonde locks, pulling slightly. He follows your lead, his hands caressing your back and pulling your body into his even tighter. It takes Michael only a few moments to learn how to kiss before he wants to devour you.

His kisses become aggressive and his tongue pushes its way into your mouth. Regularly you’d enjoy being dominated in such a way, but you’re not letting yourself lose control over Michael. You liked having him at your fingertips.

You pull away from his burning hot body and walk to the other side of the alter. He freezes in place, collecting himself from the kiss. You smirk at the lipstick you’ve stained on his mouth. “Did I do something wrong?” he questions.

You shake your head, “No.” He steps towards you again, reaching out to you for more like a bratty toddler. “No more touching,” you order, “and I want you on your knees.”

He grins. “Aaand what makes you think that you’re in charge?” he asks.

“Because you want pussy,” you suggest. He laughs sardonically and you feel your heart sink into your chest. “Seriously, I think you need to learn to be a bit more flexible with your superiority.”

He pushes some of your hair behind your ear and you shift your head to the side, trying to enforce your no touching rule. “I don’t bend,” he retorts.

You step back from him and reach under your dress to shimmy off your panties. He watches your every movement, greedy to have more of you. “Well, everybody knows what happens to things that don’t bend,” you shove your panties in his mouth.

He spits them out. “I’m the fucking antichrist,” he seethes.

“A shitty one at that,” you spit back.

The force of his hand suddenly gripping your throat hitches your breath. Your hands grab his and he squeezes your neck tighter. “You think I’d take orders from a doe-eyed harlot like you?” his blood boiling. You feel yourself soaking from his words, recalling a sick fantasy you’ve had about this exact situation that you’ve concealed deep in your subconscious.

“Then just kill me,” you test his bluff. Now might not be the best time, but you have nothing else to lose. “Do it,” you press.

He squeezes harder one last time before his hand goes limp along with any faith you had in him. You try to discreetly gasp for air, taking in sharper breaths. “That’s what I thought,” you tease him even more. His nostrils flare out in anger and it makes you smile to yourself.

“Show me,” he lowly moans.

You take a seat on the first church bench, still trying to regulate your breathing. “Show you what?”

“Everything.”

You lean back on the bench and he takes a seat on the alter in front of you. You shake your head; a part of you just wants to leave now and be done with the church, be done with him. But a greater part of you wants to taste every inch of his body. To stick around and feel Michael inside you. This part dominates you, and again you feel yourself being possessed by the dark entity.

You reach down and brush your leg with your fingertips, taunting him by lifting the fabric of your dress only to let it drop back to your shins. “You want a peak?” you ask him. He doesn’t say a word; he only watches your hands. You take his silence as admission to reveal yourself to him.

You squeeze your legs together and lift up your dress, opening your legs up to expose your drenched cunt. Michael drops to his knees in defeat, crawling closer to you on all fours. His necklace hangs in front of him, oscillating like a pendulum. He comes so close that you feel his warm breath against your thighs, intensifying the tingling, rather sending an ache through your core.

When your fingers make contact with your throbbing clit, you let out a deep moan. Giving yourself one last rub before withdrawing your hand from your dripping pussy, you suck yourself off of each finger. Michael only watches you, no longer wanting to reach out in momentary greed.

“Do you want to taste it?” you breathe.

“I do,” his voice is faltering, no longer sounding menacing, instead overflowing with lure.

You lift your legs onto the bench, spreading them as wide as you can. “Then show me how hungry that pretty mouth of yours is.”

He starts on your thighs, wasting no time with each open-mouthed kiss he gives. His mouth inches from your pussy, he disregards it to suck on your thigh. You gasp at his hostility, fervently sucking on the inside of your thigh and leaving a love bite. It makes you want to question where he learnt to do that.

He lays his tongue flat on the entirety of your aching cunt, his lips wrapped around yours and he sucks on your folds. You try keeping in your moans, but they escape bit by bit. You feel yourself getting lost with each lick and every suck brings you closer to God. “Michael,” you groan his name.

He buries his tongue deep into you and a moan escapes your chest, you arch your back and impulsively try to close your legs. He pushes your legs apart again and continues to eat you as if you were his last meal. His moans vibrating into your sensitive cunt sends goosebumps all throughout your body.

Your breath gets caught in your throat as you feel yourself starting to come. “Micha-” you can’t finish saying his name, you interrupt yourself with a pornographic moan. Your moans echo through the church, it crosses your mind that the people walking by this cheap backwater building could probably hear you as well. You don’t care, if anything, the uncertainty turns you on even more.

You come undone, screaming all the moans you were previously neglecting. Michael’s glossy eyes look up to you, begging for your come. “You’re so fucking good,” you sigh, your fingers pulling his hair again. The way his tongue ravages your cunt restores the modicum of faith you had in him, if only he brought the same kind of dedication to world sovereignty.  

You try to even out your breathing, but fail every time he gives an unexpected lick. Your legs are trembling, you feel your whole body acting on every little whim. Even the sounds you’re making refuse to be silenced. You’re no longer in control of your own actions. You grind yourself on his face and he presses your hips hard against the bench, putting you in your place for messing up his rhythm. You finally feel yourself coming onto him, screaming his name one last time. Continuing to ride out the transitory ecstasy, your pussy incoherently spews your juices and Michael attempts to drink down every drop he can.

The wetness from your soaked cunt pools on the bench, but Michael ignores it to finish off with gentle kisses along your thighs again. “Michael, please fuck me,” you hear yourself beg. Even if the tables have turned and now it’s you pleading for him, you’re too detached to care. “Fuck me like the whore I am,” you continue, emotionally divorced from the words leaving your lips, the only goal is to appear irresistible to him.  

“No,” he responds, wiping your lipstick from his mouth. You study his expression hard, now wondering if it was you that had done something wrong. Why wouldn’t he want to fuck you? You’ve gotten this far… “Y/n, just because we came this far, doesn’t mean we have to rush things,” he explains.

You shut your legs, “Did you just hear my thoughts?”

You’re both interrupted by somebody entering the room; the priest of your church, Hannah, saunters in wearing her red robe. Your visceral reaction is to stand from your seat, but Michael stays on his knees. You step away from the bench, leaving behind the mess you two made. “What’re you doing here?” she asks.

“Just leaving,” you mutter, beelining to the door before anybody can stop you. A voice booms in your head, not your own, but Michael’s. His familiar, smooth voice leaves you a message. Tomorrow. Same place, same time. I’ll give you what you need.

You want to question how he can project himself into your head, too, but it would be redundant to keep inquiring his powers. You look back, he doesn’t pay you attention, he’s busy putting your cup back under the podium. You smile to yourself while exiting the church.  

[tinyshe]

Classical Catholic Education

Please note: I am copy-n-paste/sharing for personal use. I am not endorsing nor have I explored this site in its entirety but have it here as a point of interest (so don’t yell at me if you don’t like it but if their is something heretical then please let me know exactly where/what. Thanks! Please read their preface near the bottom of the post.

Understanding Classical Catholic Education

Note:  If you are here after requesting a free PDF copy of the book, check your email for a link.  If you’d like to read online, continue below.

Preface (below)

Introduction As we begin our study of the classical liberal arts, we will first consider the philosophy behind this ancient system of learning. We will see that modern educational philosophies are not alternatives to the ancient system but errors leading men away from sound philosophy and ultimately, true happiness.

The Arts in Ancient Israel In this second lesson we will connect two important points in the history of the classical liberal arts curriculum. We will consider the development of the arts after Moses up to the time of the development of the famous Greek schools.

The Arts in Ancient Greece In this third lesson we will consider the liberal arts curriculum as it continues to develop among the Greeks, demonstrating that the wisdom of the Greeks was in their honoring the ancient wisdom of Egypt and Israel. We must begin by recalling the testimony of Scripture that Solomon’s wisdom filled the nations. We will see that, while many modern scholars admire the Greeks yet despise the ancient religious traditions, the Greeks were themselves eager to preserve and practice the wisdom of the ancients.

The Arts in Ancient Rome In this fourth lesson we will consider the liberal arts curriculum as it continues to develop among the Romans, demonstrating that the Romans added the language of the curriculum and the art of Rhetoric. Once again, the essence of the liberal arts curriculum (the goal of which is true Wisdom) is not changed, but the beauty of the program is enhanced and the systematizing of yet another part is completed.

The Arts in the Hellenistic World In this fifth lesson, we consider the inter-testamental history so as to rightly understand the relationship between classical liberal arts education and Jewish society around the time of the life of Our Lord.

The Arts in the First Century In this lesson, we continue to follow the development of the classical liberal arts in the early Christian Church, and see the foundation of classical Catholic education.

The Arts in the Early Middle Ages In this lesson we will consider the next important page in the history of the classical liberal arts: education in the medieval world.

The Arts in the High Middle Ages Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Boethius, Cassiodorus, Alcuin and others gathered and preserved the wisdom of the Patristic age, but also sowed the seeds that would give birth to the age to come. The developments of this era were caused not so much by the conscious effort of the period’s scholars to bring in something new, but were forced upon them by the new challenges of the spread of Christianity through Europe. Most importantly, they highlighted the centrality of Dialectic in Christian education and set the stage for the flowering of Scholasticism.

The Renaissance & Reformation In this lesson, we will jump ahead to the first great assault made on classical Catholic education. This assault took place over a period of time, from the 14th through the 17th centuries and is contained within two events identified by historians as the Renaissance and the Reformation.

The Scientific Revolution In this lesson, we will look at the Scientific Revolution, which like the Protestant Reformation, is another manifestation of the dark side of the Renaissance. In this lesson we will get at the core principles of the Scientific Revolution, which have caused great confusion in the Church, have provided for several embarrassing moments in Church history and continue to cripple Christian people today.

American Public Education After the establishment of a federal government in the United States, the ability to collect taxes gave educators and lawmakers a means of ramping up this mission. In Europe, the increase in secular power that followed the Reformation inspired rulers to create public school systems for the indoctrination of children in the interest of social obedience.

The Dawn of Modern Education In this lesson we will look deeper into the philosophical and historical context of the American public school system to understand how it evolved from a Protestant endeavor to create an anti-Catholic American citizenry into a secular machine for cultural change.

Catholic Schools in America   The history of Catholic schools in America is only understood when we consider the schools in light of the history and experiences of the Church in America.

The Classical Liberal Arts Academy In this course, we have covered the history of education from the ancient Egyptians through to the Catholic schools of the 20th century. In this lesson we will look at the misguided efforts some have made to “repair the ruins” and the founding of the Classical Liberal Arts Academy.

The Goal of Classical Catholic Education What you should realize at this point is that our challenge in the Classical Liberal Arts Academy is not one of discovery or invention, but a challenge of restoring what was lost. Nevertheless, we must begin with a careful examination of the goal of the classical liberal arts curriculum.

The Means to True Happiness We learned that this true happiness is available to all human beings, but is available in heaven, not necessarily on earth. On earth, we have four objectives to focus on that will enable us to enjoy God forever in heaven.

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Preface

We live at an amazing moment in history.  Society is violently divided and bring driven further apart by political controversies.  Technology is making schooling and publishing obsolete.  Catholic schools are closing, parishes are being consolidated, religious communities are selling their empty facilities, families are failing to raise children who remain in the Church.  Yet, in the midst of this decline, the restoration of classical Catholic education has begun in the Classical Liberal Arts Academy.

I was an ex-Catholic teenager who felt the distress of being left to the world.  I knew that the teachers and religious leaders around me were not sincerely interested in my happiness, and that I needed to find answers for myself.  I had a girl I wanted to marry, but I had no idea how to do anything as a Christian adult.

Christian churches, schools and families, are not supposed to produce lost teenagers like me, and Christian children cannot afford to learn the way I did—most of them never will.  The problem modern Christian teenagers face is not a joke, or “just the way it is”.  It is a systemic failure of Christian society.

My long and expensive search for answers led me to classical Catholic education.  I’ve been working on this research, all day, every day, for over 25 years.  In this book, I’m sharing lessons I wrote for a course for Christian parents in 2009—and I am sharing this book with Christian parents who want to save their children’s souls.

Classical Catholic Education

The greatest challenge Christian parents face today is that they have no access to the history that I share in this book.  This ignorance has left them vulnerable to false teaching by a “classical education” movement that is a living example of sophistry—pretending to be wise to get money.  We have to see through this and move forward with real, classical Catholic education.

We can fix these problems. We don’t need to become experts or earn degrees to to give our children the education they need.  Parents don’t need to become teachers because the teachers have already given us what we need.  We need to work together, as parents, to help our own children learn the truth, which their souls will recognize. Let’s get that work started—there’s no time to lose.

God bless,

William C. Michael Classical Liberal Arts Academy www.classicalliberalarts.com

[crue-sixx]

Always A Bridesmaid, Never A Bride

Title: Always A Bridesmaid, Never A Bride

Fandom: The Dirt

Summary: The reader is Vince's long time friend (who he's had a crush on forever), who he is very fond of and who is fond of him as well.  It's been a few years since they last seen each other and is indeed a shock at how much she's changed.

Warnings: swearing, mentions of abuse, murder and suicide, suicide attempt

In high school, things were much easier.  You had your life all set out for you-meet a nice young man at church, marry him and have his babies and get a part-time job to help care for the kids and upkeep the house.  As with any school, it did have the cliques and yours was the religion club that everyone dubbed "The Jesus Freaks" but that wasn't entirely true.  The club welcomed people of all religions, most of them just happened to be Christian or Catholic with a hint of Jewish people in there.  The purpose of the club was to research other religions to help the members understand the main aspects of them rather than make ignorant assumptions.

It was there you had met a surfer boy-brunette, a natural tan who had a very good singing voice.  He was in a band, making him irresistible to the ladies.  Well, saying that you met him in high school wasn't accurate.  You actually met for the first time in third grade where he acted like a gentleman with you.  He held open doors and kissed your hand whenever he led you through them.  The teachers thought it was the cutest thing and informed both your parents. 

As you grew up, he changed-not for the better either.  You and him always stayed friends and since your families lived next door to each other he mistook your house for his when he was trying to sneak in.  The layout was identical so where your bedroom was on the ground floor near the back of the house was where his room was in his own house.  More than a few times he'd climbed through your window thinking it was his and flopped down on your bed next to you in a drunken or drugged up stupor, and you were a heavy sleeper by nature so you didn't feel him crawl into bed with you until you woke up to start your day.

The first time it happened, you let out a yelp in surprise and your father started banging on your door with "Y/N?!  What's going on in there?!" the noise had scared Vince awake and it took him a minute to realize where he was. 

You motioned for him to stay quiet and you answered "Just a spider, Daddy!" you then thumped your foot and shouted "Got it!"

Your father sighed in relief and said "Sweet Jesus girl, I thought that Wharton boy was in there!" Vince gave you a look and you mouthed that you'd tell him later at school. 

However, when school did come around and you tried to talk to him, he wouldn't give you the time of day.  This got you sneers from the other girls that hung around him and he caught the look of hurt in your face and he closed his eyes in frustration.  He was being a horse's ass to the one girl he actually liked romantically.  He was always attracted to your innocence, to him you were like Bambi.  After school he walked you home, but just because it was on the way to his house too.  "Hey...about earlier..." he started, but you cut him off.

"So now it's okay to talk to me when your whores aren't around?" you said sarcastically.  He winced, knowing full well he deserved it.

"Y/N, I have a reputation to uphold!  I'm a ladies man!" he laughed, but you didn't think it was funny.

"We've been friends since the third grade and THIS is how you treat me?" you turned to go into your house when you added "Maybe the next time you climb into my bedroom I won't be so willing to lie to my father!" you then slammed the door in his face.  He was kicking himself as he awkwardly went to his own house to brood over it.

The next week he mistook your room for his again, but you were awake working on a project for class when you heard your window open.  He wasn't that drunk, just a little buzzed when you helped him inside so he didn't make noise and wake up the whole house.  If your father knew a boy had snuck into your room the wrath of God would have fallen upon both you and Vince.  "What are you doing here, Vinny?" you softly asked him.

He giggled a little and said "I wanted to say sorry for being a jackass last week..." he gave a salute and said "sorry".

You rolled your eyes knowing he was sincere but you pitied him because he thought he needed alcohol to gather up the courage to talk to you.  "Apology accepted" you smiled at him and settled him back on your bed.  "Now sleep it off and I'll see you in the morning" you then kissed his forehead and he rolled over and began snoring softly.

He wanted so bad to kiss you that night, but he didn't.  He knew you weren't that kind of girl that he was used to fucking then leaving.  You were virtuous and beautiful in a baby deer kind of way, you still had childlike features to your face and personality.  He didn't want to corrupt that in you so he buried his feelings under booze and whatever substances he could get his hands on.  He wanted to know the feeling of you beneath him, him actually sober and making slow sweet love to you instead of a messy tumble of fucking he did with his groupies. 

When morning did come and he went into your bathroom with you to take a shower, you were alone in the house with him.  Your parents were on a mission trip with the church and your siblings were at your aunt's house.  Your parents trusted you to be alone and take care of the house without throwing a wild party.  "Don't you have any soap that isn't girly?" he snorted and poo-pooed at your lavender vanilla scented soap.

"Well I would have stocked Irish Spring if I knew I'd have a gentleman caller" you joked back to him.  You didn't even hear the front door open and your little brother David come in, until he was at the bathroom door.

"Y/N?" he called out "It's David!  I left my toothbrush in there!  I just need to get it!" the bathroom door didn't lock so you panicked and jumped in the shower with Vince, who had his back to you

"Come on in Dave!" you called back, making Vince jump and go wide eyed that you were in the shower with him, you putting a hand over his mouth to keep him quiet "Just don't look at your sister naked!"

David came in and remarked "I would wash my eyes in bleach if I saw you naked, Y/N..." you were still in your pajamas, which were now getting soaked and your brother continued "Now don't be late for school!  You have a presentation today!" he then walked out of the bathroom, closing the door behind him and you waited until you heard the front door close and lock when you released his mouth.

Vince went rigid when he saw you in the shower with him, this was one of the many wet dreams he had that contributed to his morning wood most days.  You two would be making passionate love among the steam and hot water and just when he was about to admit his feelings for you, he woke up and he'd have to take care of the tent he'd pitched in his sleep.

"Someone's getting bolder" he chuckled and shut off the water, grabbing a towel before she noticed his hardening length.  If it were any other girl, he'd wear his erection loud and proud but you were more than a one night stand.

"Not really" you said, hopping out and getting the floor wet from your dripping clothes "just if my brother caught me in here with a boy, he'd tell our dad and there would be hell to pay" you turned around to give him some privacy.

"You got a point there" he laughed, putting his clothes back on, hiding his growing erection in the waistband of his pants until he got home to deal with it.  "So I hear some rumors you finally got yourself a boyfriend?"

You blushed at that, having met your first love Jeremiah at the youth group at church. "Yes, his name's Jeremiah" you smiled at the thought of him.  He was a sweet boy, from a good family and had the same virtues you did.  He also wanted to wait for marriage to have sexual relations.

Vince's heart sank when you confirmed it.  He had waited too long and let his 'friends' influence get in the way of him revealing his true feelings for you.  "O-oh...." he went silent a moment and asked "Is he good to you?"

"The best" you answered truthfully.  He was the perfect gentleman in every way-he opened doors for you, pulled your chair out and in at meals and even paid when he took you out, despite your protests that you could pay sometimes too with your part time job at the grocery store.

Vince looked down only a moment and excused himself to his own room, where he relieved himself of the sexual frustration and cursed himself for not telling you how he felt sooner.  It was after school when he was done fucking his baby mama Tammi that he heard something that made his blood boil.  After they had fixed their clothes, Tammi asked him "You love Y/N, don't you?"

He paused only a moment and admitted "Yeah..."

"I know it's not my business, but I have lunch period with her about 1:30" she said nervously, stroking her pregnant belly.

"What does that have to do with anything?" he looked at her confused.

"Well, I have a morning class with her too" she twitted her fingers "And it wasn't until lunch that she had a fresh goose egg over her eye..."

This had his full attention "What? What happened?"

"She wouldn't talk about it to anyone" she shook her head "Just kept crying and saying she was sorry" Tammi was somewhat acquainted with you and from what she saw she did like you.  She had noticed the way Vince gave you longing glances in the halls at school, but he dared not speak to you with his friends and groupies around him.

He only had to think a second before he hissed "Jeremiah..."

What had happened was that Jeremiah was more than in love with you-he was obsessed.  He kept watch over your house nightly, making sure you were faithful to him.  His mind was at rest for the first week but when he saw that no good Wharten kid sneak into your window and stay the night he was more than livid.  When he finally got you alone at school before lunch he asked "Did you fuck him?"

You were taken aback, Jeremiah never cursed in front of you much less AT you.  "What are you talking about?" you asked honestly, you not knowing he'd been watching your house.

"That brunette surfer kid" he growled "I saw him sneaking into your house last night and he didn't leave until this morning!"  he was showing aggression where he had none before.

"You mean Vince?" you laughed "He's just a friend.  We live next door to each other and sometimes he mistakes my room for his and I let him sleep it off" it was an unexpected thing for him to punch you in the face.

You fell back and your eye started swelling right away.  He wasn't apologetic and he just said "Next time I see you with him, I'll make you regret ever knowing him..." in a dark tone.  He left you to pick yourself up and took yourself to the nurse, where you told your first lie.

"I fell into a doorknob" you said, trying to smile "I'm just really clumsy..."  the nurse didn't believe you for a second but she wrote what you said in the file none the less, gave you an ice pack and sent you on your way.

You had lunch next and you just broke down in tears when people asked you about it.  You couldn't say anything other than "I'm sorry" repeatedly like a lunatic. Even Vince's baby mama Tammi was concerned, but she got the same words as everyone else.

After school you were walking by yourself, your eye a scarlet letter on your face.  You held your books to your chest and walked quickly home.  You heard your name being called and when you saw Vince coming towards you, you walked quicker.  He sped up to keep pace and you ran the rest of the way home, him hot on your heels.  When you fumbled with your house key he caught up to you and spun you around.  He paused a moment when he saw your black eye, and his facial expression changed from shock, to sadness and finally rage as he asked "Did Jeremiah do that to you?"

"I can't talk to you anymore" you quickly opened the door and slammed it in his face.  You didn't want to, but you were afraid of what Jeremiah would do if he found out about even that small exchange.  Of course he was watching from the bushes across the street.  He had heard everything and what you had told him, a swell of pride filled his heart. 

The two of you graduated and moved in together, him proposing to you after graduation and you graciously accepted.  You had almost forgotten about the black eye he'd given you, until you caught a glimpse of Vince looking totally crushed a few feet behind him.  That summer is when all things went to Hell.

Four years later, you had moved to Los Angeles to get away from everything.  The constant nagging from your mother and the memory of your wedding day still haunted you-the police had returned the wedding video from the evidence locker, you having requested it back so you had a reminder that the best way to survive was all alone.

You had moved in with some friends that lived in a crack den, who were more than happy to show you the unhealthiest ways of coping with trauma.  You started hitting the bars and clubs with abandon, your whole appearance changing from the pristine good girl image to the dirtiest hooker on the Sunset Strip.  A new up and coming rock band named Motley Crue was frequenting the Troubadour and you just so happened to see one of their shows and were surprised to see that you knew their front man.  When their set was done, they all hit the bar and you saddled up next to the now blonde Vince and said "Long time, no see Vinny" he looked you up and down.

"Have we met?" he looked like he was desperately trying to remember your name, like you were a one night stand that was trying to get another round with his dick,

"We only lived next door to each other since third grade, goofball" you smiled at him, you having lost a considerable amount of weight.  You looked more like a dying person than a woman with your features sunken in.

His eyes widened as he realized "Y/N?!" he got off his stool and took you into a corner to talk to you "What are you doin' here?!  This isn't a place for someone like you!"

"You mean a Bible Thumper?" you laughed, then coughed a smoker's cough.  "I put that life behind me, babe" you were already sloshed and falling over yourself.

He began to tear up and said "What happened to you...you never were like..." he motioned to your whole frame from your hair dyed black to the bottom of your high heeled shoes "this?"

You sobered up a moment and gave the best answer you could "Life" and you went on talking with him, not giving up any details about the past four years.  He asked where you were staying and when you answered he looked even more disheartened.

"That's a crack den, Y/N..." he said, even he didn't mess with crack at that time. 

"I know" you giggled "why do you think I live there?"

"Please Y/N...come with me" he pleaded.  Him and his friends still partied and did drugs, but with people they knew would call an ambulance if the shit hit the fan.

You grew defensive and said "I'm not that same scared Bambi I used to be Vinny.  She's long dead" you gathered your things but he grabbed your arm and insisted on giving you their number to the apartment in case you needed to get a hold of him.  You took it, secretly wanting to be close to him too.

After the party had winded down and everyone left, Nikki asked Vince "Who was that chick you were talking to at the bar?"

Vince paled and said "Someone I used to know.  I've been in love with her since the third grade.  She used to be someone who I wouldn't even give a second glance to now, one of those good girl types..."

Tommy stumbled into the living room with "Dude, if you had feelings for her why didn't you ever tell 'er?"

"I was afraid it'd mess up our friendship" he put his head down, it pounding from the hangover he was nursing "besides, I heard she got married to her high school sweet heart" he pouted.

"Well what the fuck went wrong?" Nikki asked.

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out" he was determined to do just that.  He had kept contact with you almost every day when he'd go to the crack den to check on you, to which you assured him that you didn't need to be babysat like a child.  He was even more pissed off when he found out how you were funding your habits.  One of the guys who owned a bar down the street said that you'd been prostituting yourself for cash, drugs and booze (which was true).

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" he scolded "What happened that made you change so much?!"

You were just as angry with him getting into your business and you said "Why are you getting so mad at me?!  You're just as bad as I am!"

"You used to be such a good girl, Y/N!" he started to sound like a square and he didn't care.  He loved you even after all this time.

"You know you're starting to sound like my father-" you stopped and then broke down in tears.  He tried to comfort you but you pushed him off.  "If I wanted someone to yell at me, then I would have stayed with my fuckin' mother!"

That night, you needed a hit of the good crack.  You took more than you were used to and had a very bad trip.  Jeremiah came back, his skin colored like a corpse and the bullet hole where he shot himself at the alter was in full view.  "You don't deserve to wear white" was all he was saying to you, the word echoing in your head.  You just wanted it all to stop so you tried to end it all.

The next morning the phone in the apartment blared and Tommy picked it up with a groggy "Hello?"  when the caller asked for Vince, he thew one of his drumsticks at him, hitting him in the eye.

"Tommy!  What the fuck dude?!" he jolted awake.

"Phone" he handed over the phone and Vince listened intently.

"Ummm...this is gonna sound really bad...Y/N tried to kill herself last night..."

"What?!" Vince was now fully awake "How?!  Where is she?!"

"She slit her wrists and let herself bleed out in the tub" he caller said "we called the paramedics in time.  She's at L.A. General, on the crazy floor.  She kept screaming for you while they were taking her away..." he hung up the phone and tossed a pair of shoes on, sprinting to the hospital in nothing but pajama bottoms.

He demanded that they let him see you, but they said that you'd be in detox at least a week and then in the regular ward for a month, then he could see you during visiting hours.  The only rules he had to follow was that he couldn't bring anything in and that he couldn't be fucked up on anything.  He obliged and visited you every change he could when he wasn't hammered or high.  "Why'd you cut yourself Y/N?" he asked gently, his warm hand recoiling when he felt your icy cold ones.

"I don't want to talk about it" you said, getting uncomfortable.  The only think you wanted now was your fix of crack. 

"We're going to have to eventually" he put his hands on your shoulder and rested his head on top of yours.  Him fucking you was the last thing on his mind right now, a first for Vince about any woman.

You turned to face him and looked up, a shadow of your former self seeping through "I will tell you, someday" you hugged into his chest and nuzzled there "but I'm not ready anytime soon...please be patient..."

He smiled and hugged you close to him "Okay Y/N" even after all this time, you still smelled like lavender vanilla.

When you were finally discharged, you went to live in the apartment with Vince and his friends, who knew well enough not to ask about the bandages on your arms.  You did slow down on the drinking and drug use, but didn't stop cold turkey.  It was a pace that Vince approved of, that he could keep an eye on you.

It was a few weeks into living with them that you'd left your wedding tape out on accident.  You were looking for something else in your luggage and forgot to put it back.  Tommy saw it on the counter and said "Hey, It's Y/N and Jeremiah's wedding video!  Let's watch it!"  you were sleeping deeply in Vince's room, where you had recently agreed to become a couple.

Mick was there too, him being over to make music with them.  He had met you a few days ago, him wondering about the bandages on your wrists but not daring to ask.  Vince had told him all about you and how he never shut the fuck up about you.  He could see why the blonde was so enthralled with you.  He said "Come on, guys.  Leave it alone..."  Nikki and Vince agreed with Tommy and popped it into the VCR.  None of them were ready.

You looked beautiful in your white wedding dress, flawless hair and make-up.  This was the day you'd been dreaming of since you were a little girl, and even more so when Jeremiah asked for your hand.  You spent all summer planning for an early fall wedding and everything was in place.  Your father walked you down the aisle to your husband to be, where he was looking rather annoyed.  You figured it was just nerves on his end, you couldn't say anything against him about that.  You were nervous too. 

You held hands and did your vows, but instead of him saying his vows to you, he said "Did you fuck my brother?"

The whole crowd gasped and looked at you.  His brother James was the best man, and he too looked just as shocked as you did.  The accusation wasn't true and you said as such.

"Then why was my brother at our house all night when I was gone?"

"You know it's bad luck to see the bride 24 hours before the wedding bro" his brother stepped up, telling the truth "I was only there to help her write her vows to you dude!"

It was then Jeremiah pulled out a gun and shot his brother in the chest, him bleeding out right in front of you.  You screamed and stepped away from him. Your father rushing to him to try and wrestle the gun away.  He shot your father too, him being dead before he hit the ground.  The church was in pandemonium, the people running around to get away from the madman with the gun.

He then turned to you, hugging you close to him and whispering something in your ear before blowing his brains out, spattering your pure white dress with his blood and brain matter.

You had gotten up because you heard something familiar and went to see if what you thought was going on actually was.  You weren't ready to talk about it yet, but the cat was out of the bag now.  You waited until the camera shut off and said "You don't deserve to wear white" causing all the them to jump and look at you, all of them with horrified expressions on their faces.  "That's what he whispered in my ear before he shot himself" you pressed rewind and took the tape out when it was finished.

"He thought I was screwing his brother behind his back" you explained "but I wasn't.   I only called him over to help me write my vows and he was tired so I let him sleep on the sofa" Vince then wished he had waited until she was ready to tell him herself, but that was impossible now.

"Killed his brother, and my father" you then sat down and started softly crying "my mother and brothers wouldn't even talk to me after that.  I spent a year in a psych ward, then wandered around until I got to L.A.  Found all the drugs and booze that could numb the pain" you then went to the kitchen to get yourself a snack like nothing happened.

Vince got up and could only hug you softly "I'm sorry" was all he could say, you feeling him crying on your shoulder.  You touched his arm and cried with him.  Tommy, Nikki and Mick vacated the apartment to give you some privacy.

"That man broke me, Vinny" you turned and hugged into his chest and he looked down at you "even after death, he still broke me...all it took was time and pressure..."

"You know" he pulled away and said "time and pressure make the most beautiful diamonds"  you couldn't help but snort laugh at him and slapped his arm playfully.

"I should have waited until you were ready to tell me" he admitted "I'm sorry for violating that..."

"I don't know if I would have ever told you" you said honestly.

"I wouldn't have asked anyway" he stroked your hair and began kissing you breaking it off to say "I love you.  I always have, and always will..."

"I love you too, Vince"

[thatfairyfangirl]

Blind Date Chapter 3

“Bless me father for I have sinned.” Matt said ceremoniously as he sat in the small confessional. “It has been a week since my last confession.” He paused as he gathered his thoughts, attempting to find the right words for this.

“Matthew how many times do I have to tell you that the confessional is not for your personal therapy sessions?” Father Lantom half scolded as his eyes rolled behind the separation screen.

“No, I promise, this time it's actually a religion thing.” He assured him. “You see I've been seeing this girl and well she's kinda wonderful. We have fun and we seemed to really be working as a couple.”

“Seemed?” Lantom asked accusingly. “A girl willing to overlook your nightly hobby and you let her go?”

“You know you're really bad at this no judgement thing.” Matt quipped back. “And I don't know...the thing is she's not exactly a Catholic…”

“And?”

“Or even a Christian in general.” Matt added.

“And?” The priest so far was failing to see the problem here, then again knowing Matt as well as he did the girl could be an actual devil and there'd be little he could say.

“She's a Pagan father.” He clarified.

“Well now look who's judging.” He quipped back with a chuckle.

“Her words. She's very proud of it. She even  found a way to show me her tattoos of her gods.”

“And?” Matt blinked surprised, never did he dream father Lantom would approve of this.

“I'm pretty sure the bible is very clear on the subject of witches.”

“Matt, over the last few weeks i've been seeing much less of the devil out and about. I assume this girl has something to do with it.” Matt nodded, he's been so preoccupied with you that he hasn't been going on patrol as much as he used to. “This girl could be the daughter of satan himself but the fact is she is bringing out the best in you. At the end of the day that is pretty much the basis of any of all this. So stop acting like a moron and go be with her.”

“I may have really upset her.”

“Then bring flowers.”

~ ~ ~ ~

Matt drew in a deep breath of the floral aroma that flooded the small flower shop he knew. He couldn't count the amount of times he had passed by it on his way to work, never feeling a need to stop in until now.

“Matt right?” The girl behind the counter asked in a voice he found all too familiar, watching him perk up at the mention of his name. “Its Dana… from last night…”

“Shit.” He dropped his head realizing his poor luck. “Umm about last night… I'm really sorry for ruining your wedding and beating up your brother.”

“Please,” she said waving off the incident, “don't, Johnny is an asshole and deserved it. Honestly, if he wasn't my brother he wouldn't have been there.”

“Then maybe you can help me?” He asked with a sheepish smile. “I kinda fucked up.”

“Oh god...what happened?” She asked with a sigh knowing how you can be.

“Well uhh… I'm a Catholic and-”

“And (y/n) gets incredibly defensive about her religion.” Dana said with a nod, knowing exactly where this is going. “Even more so after my Evangelical brother started beating her for her heathanistic ways.” She let out a regretful sigh. “Wait right there.” He does as he is told, and soon he feels her wrap his hands around a bouquet of flowers. “They're hyacinth, her favorite,” she explained as a relieved smile brushed across his face.

“I think I smelled these at her place the other night?” Matt asked as he gave them a sniff.

“More than likely, she always keeps fresh flowers.” She explained with a smile, glad to see you found one that took the time to care.

“How much do I owe you?” He asked reaching for his wallet.

“With the way you jumped up to defend (y/n) last night? On the house. She could use a guy like you in her life.”

“You are an angel. Thank you.”

“By now she's definitely at her bakery, its on the corner of 10th and 48th, right across from Hells Kitchen Park.”

The bell above your bakery's door chimed softly as he entered. “Welcome to Magicakes! I'll be right out!” You called from the back, elbow deep in honey cake batter. Matt smiled hearing your cheery voice as he breathed in the sweet confections you surrounded yourself with every day. In a rush you grabbed a towel, wiping the batter from your shirt as you hurried out, stopping in your tracks once you saw who it was. “Oh...what do you want?”

“I want you to hear me out…” he held up the bouquet, “and I brought you these.” You silently folded your arms over your chest. “They're your favorite...right.”

You couldn't help feel your heart softening for him as he held the beautiful purple blooms out for you. “They are.” You moved to take the flowers from him. “Thank you.”

“Look, (Y/n), I'm not what one would call a good Catholic. I drink, I swear, I fight... Actually come to think of it I'm a pretty terrible Catholic.” He paused chuckling to himself. “But the last thing I ever wanted to do was offend you for your religion.” He held his hand out for you. “Please forgive me?”

You stood with a sigh as you looked him over before taking his hand, reaching behind him to flip the sign from open to close. “Come with me.. I have something I probably should have told you about ages ago.” You said as you lead him into the back, shutting the door to the kitchen behind the both of you. Once in private you lifted your shirt before taking his hand and running it over your back. He found the sin the be rough and striped with scar tissue.

“What happened?” He asked softly as he traced the small slashing scars running up and down your back.

“Johnny happened.” You admitted as you lowered your shirt.

“He did this to you?” Matt's voice lowered as rage for this guy began to boil in him. You nodded. “Why?” It didn't matter much to him. There is no reason to do this to a woman as sweet as you. But even he could see the abuse still affected you.

“Because I am proud to be Pagan, and very actively practice. He said he was trying to save my soul because he loved me.”

“(Y/n) I swear I would never…” he couldn't even bring himself to say it, just gently wrapped his arms around you. Your face burrowed into his chest as your arms wrapped around his waist.

“I know. I'm sorry. I just got scared.” You sobbed.

Matt pulled away from you, removing his glasses so you could see the sincerity on his face. “I promise I will do my very best to be as supportive of your religion choice as possible.” His words pulled a smile through your tears as his fingers gently brushed them away. “Well, there goes my plans of inviting you to Mass with me next week.” He joked, hoping to make your smile grow. “I think Father Lantom would really like you.”

You half heartedly laughed. “Well if you think I won't burn on church property maybe one day...but not next week. That's Litha.”

“Litha?” Matt asked curiously, wanting to show every effort to at least learn, to make you feel more comfortable.

“It's one of our holidays, the summer solstice, longest day of the year. Actually I was planning on inviting you. We stay up the night before singing and dancing around a fire, watch the sunrise. Then we spend the day honoring the sun gods and eating honey everything…” He smiled seeing your face light up being able to speak so freely about your religion. “This year is extra special since the Honey Moon falls on the same day.” You added with extra excitement as you made your way from the kitchen into the shop to flip the sign back to open. “I'm willing to bet the kids will make honeysuckle crowns.” You added with a chuckle.

“Wow sounds more fun than any of the holidays I got growing up...just meant an extra long service and sometimes a present to unwrap.” He said with a half laugh as he leaned against one of your glass display cases. “But I guess that's what you get when you're raised by nuns in a Catholic school.”

“Ugh that sounds horrible.” You both couldn't help laughing as he agreed.

“Oh! Here,” you paused rushing back into the kitchen, coming back with a small honey cupcake, “try this!” You exclaimed as you held it out to him. He popped the small dessert in his mouth savoring every sweet flavor of summer it had to offer.

“This is amazing! Is this for your celebration?” You nodded with excitement. “So how about after your done here we go get that lock changed and get some ice cream?”

~ ~ ~ ~

“Ok...ground rules.” You stated as you handed Matt his vanilla come. He nodded signalling he was ready to start negotiations as you took your raspberry swirl. “First and foremost...I'm only sticking around if I can start calling you my boyfriend.”

“Is this- Are we going steady?” Matt joked as he gently took hold of your arm, laughing as you childishly answered with a yes. “Good. Ok no guilt to the other for not wanting to take part in religious events.”

You nodded as you meandered through the city heading nowhere in particular. “Wouldn't have it any other way.” You paused for a moment, recalling everything about your last relationship that made you uncomfortable. “You can pray for me only if I can cast for you.”

“I'm not much for prayer.” He chuckled lightly. “Oh, here's a good one..you can't get pissed at me for my ignorance.”

“Hmm ok...but expect me to invite you. You don't have to say yes but its always a lot of fun.” You said as you reached up to give him a soft gentle kiss.

[dilfhakyeon-moved]

yO i was abt to write to you abt the new modc ep (what's going on with the weird cuts at the beginning jcbjfbjb im crying) but i saw your post so!!!! tell me abt your dream bro i wanna hear abt it!!!!!! -✨

OH I HAVENT SEEN IT YET RIGHT I FORGOT IT CAME OUT TODAY!!! Let me watch it then we can talk abt it !!

And well my dream is pp long so bear w me 😔 i don't have the 'read more' function on mobile so i apologise in advance for everyone who comes across this !! I'll edit the 'read more' into it when I can 😊 ( i hav edited it hehehehe )

SO . actually there are several parts to this dream and I woke up between the first two parts but ... YEA.

At first I was home but a cat had gotten inside my house, I already had two cats ( my current cat and the one that will have died one year ago exactly tomorrow... yes five days after my birthday december is a cursed month for me. but if u wanna know abt him just search 'tchoupi' on my blog ) and I don't think my girl was okay w that new cat ? also new cat looked wonky sjhsjsh ? I wasn't sure abt its behaviour bc it seemed like it cld get irritated fast. In the end my mother told me to throw it out so I did against my will but when I saw it walk away... it had a missing leg.... I was like oh shit dude no come back... so I went and opened the front door and it came back running !!! I couldn't leave it like that w/o food if it already was incapacitated in a way. so that was my new cat. everything ends well ( I'm pp sure I forgot a part of that part but it's not the one I'm interested in )

SECOND PART... THE CÅSTLË. i was in a castle that was more medieval than renaissance styled or whatever the fuck i didnt study architecture but yes this. it had a courtyard with a fountain and that courtyard had a beautiful view on The Unknown ( aka fields and forests and stuff yknow just. The view ) but there were also bridges ( not the rock kind the "we use it in movies to make a character dramatically fall after the villain cut the rope" kind ) and little paths to go to The Unknown. there was a built-in church ( not a christian but i guess that was a smart choice given most attendees were fire emblem characters and they were definitely christians ) and also stables i guess ? but the front stables were empty and i didn't get to see the actual stables. the front stables had a pathway going around them ( there was a front stable on the left and on the right, with the courtyard being a little pushed back ? like if you left the end of the stable pathway you were already past the courtyard )

so now picture all ot this but suddenly the sky is super dark and everything is grim and gloomy. like a typical halloween movie. everything that was neat feels now worn out and the pathways are definitely scary, nobody wants to go there !

i was looking for my friends ( aka mercedes from fire emblem three houses ) but somehow couldn't find them, a fight broke out between ingrid and annette ( also fire emblem three houses ) and i don't like rich horse girls nor do i like racists so i was about to beat ingrid's ass. this big dude comes in and threatens me so i scold him and he and ingrid both go away. i win. i talk to more people but they're all acting weird except annette i guess. whatever weirdos i'm out

next i keep looking, but now i'm not alone - i'm not sure of whether it's a real presence or just a spirit until the end of this sequence where this boy tells me where to go and what to do to fix things a little, so i go into both stable pathways and end up being possessed twice ( demonic possession isn't as bad as they tell you i turned out fine ) so when the boy tells me where to go next i'm like "are we getting possessed a third time ?" he chuckles. ( i am gay so that was cute )

but we don't get any time to do that third thing ! we get out of the pathways and everyone is planning to go fight whatever is beyond The Unknown ! i look at the boy and awake me now pictures him as kraam from the stranded. cool i have a nice partner in crime i'm okay with that. the others leave, there's a lot of them but a second group is getting ready ! so kraam-but-not-quite grabs my arm firmly but like he doesn't hurt me or anything and we start going into The Unknown as well. im like hey wtf do we do now. and he tells me oh these two groups are going mad that couldn't be us let's go find the stray kids ( awake me now realises this is ~cringe~ but dream me was like whoa a solitary group of ppl who fight bigger evils ! BC YES THAT WAS WHAT SKZ WERE DOING IN THIS DREAM but i never met them ) so we can join forces w them and defeat these ppl. i look back. i see the second group from afar bc they have torches. im like wow this is like beauty and the beast.

something happens, idk what, but kraam starts running ! i'm a slow runner so i thought oh fuck not again but i ran after him anyway, the next bit is us running through a sort of jungle ( the sky is clear again ) and like its CRAZY i fucking loved that bit bc WOO ADVENTURE !! ( im a sagittarius )

then we slip between two trees' leaves and end up in a facility. we keep running bc if we stay there We Will Die. suddenly i am slowed down ( which leads me to believe before that he was holding my wrist but released my wrist when he slipped between the trees ) but he checks on me which i appreciate because that means he would rather die with me than survive without me, romance luv

his father ! the bastard. tries to kiss me in front of his mother. im like lmao dude thats disgusting die n go to catholic hell. i push him away and tell him off, he gets pissed but i cant go look for kraam bc his brothers r telling me abt how we're gonna go on a road trip. im like ? the world is abt to end tho ? but apparently my dream rly wanted a drama plot so fine.

his brothers have, allegedly, caught on to an alleged potential relationship between us. no im not gonna complain abt it im lonely and sad and gay so my dream fills in for me. theyre talking abt how theres not enough room for all of us in the van unless i sit on kraam for the trip but they ( specifically the one brother who oddly reminds me of dbk rain ) somehow make it into a sexual joke ? being me tho i didnt get it KSBSKDH... they were like talking abt legs ?? i remember it was abt how it wouldnt work with smth with four legs 'unless i could go with three' and like i dont even know what the hell that was supposed to mean we're talking abt a van not a horse ygwim ?

idk if i woke up after that but my brain did picture both me complaining to kraam abt his dad doing that and him getting quietly angry and just telling me to not come close to him again just in case hed try it again AND the beginning of the 'road trip' where i was indeed using kraam as a seat. and i was sleeping bc idk maybe i was tired from the running ! i hope my next dream is the continuation bc boy that was a whole drama episode

also i gave up and started calling him just kraam but it wasnt kraam ofc he just had kraams face from what i remember ! but he wasnt kraam at all

[toldnews-blog]

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/world/united-states-of-america/joe-biden-facebook-n-f-l-draft-your-thursday-briefing/

Joe Biden, Facebook, N.F.L. Draft: Your Thursday Briefing

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.)

Good morning,

We’re covering Joe Biden’s long-awaited campaign announcement, the brewing fight between the White House and Congress, and a potential $5 billion fine for Facebook.

Mr. Biden, 76, is set to offer himself as a moderate and a trustee of former President Barack Obama’s legacy, which he will hope can attract a broad cross-section of voters who want to move on from President Trump. But his long political record is expected to face intense scrutiny, particularly from younger, more progressive Democrats.

The details: We examined where Mr. Biden stands on the issues, and how his views have changed over nearly 50 years in Washington.

Closer look: The Democratic Party has grown increasingly progressive and diverse since Mr. Biden first ran for the Senate in 1972.

President Trump vows to fight “all the subpoenas”

The Trump administration has made a series of moves this week to block multiple investigations, which could redefine Congress’s power to conduct oversight of the executive branch as well as presidents’ power to keep government affairs secret.

Citing the end of the special counsel’s investigation, Mr. Trump said on Wednesday that he had been investigated enough. “These aren’t, like, impartial people,” he said. “The Democrats are trying to win 2020.”

Closer look: Past administrations have also been reluctant to comply with congressional requests, but Mr. Trump’s actions are unusual, our chief Washington correspondent writes.

News analysis: The president once welcomed the special counsel’s report as a “total exoneration,” but he has shifted to calling it a “total ‘hit job’” produced by “true Trump haters.” Our chief White House correspondent examines Mr. Trump’s increasingly incongruous messaging about the findings.

Another angle: The special counsel’s report also revealed that Mr. Trump repeatedly sought to have the Justice Department reopen an investigation into Hillary Clinton and her use of a private email server.

The timing of a potential fine was unclear. Facebook has been in negotiations with the F.T.C. over a financial penalty for claims that the company violated a 2011 privacy consent decree.

American regulators have been criticized as lacking scrutiny of tech giants, even as their European counterparts have moved aggressively against the companies.

Quotable: “This would be a joke of a fine — a two-weeks-of-revenue, parking-ticket-level penalty for destroying democracy,” said Matt Stoller, a fellow at the Open Markets Institute, a think tank that is critical of tech companies’ powers. Facebook had $56 billion in revenue last year.

Sri Lanka faces new threats

Imams in the country are being encouraged to cancel Friday Prayer services after the police said that they had information that Sufi Muslims could be attacked by Islamist extremists. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo, the capital, has suspended services for Roman Catholic worshipers through the weekend.

The American ambassador to Sri Lanka, Alaina Teplitz, said on Wednesday that there were “ongoing terrorist plots,” days after suicide bombers killed more than 350 people at churches and hotels across the country.

Another angle: After the Easter Sunday attacks, Muslims in some areas of Sri Lanka are facing a backlash from gangs of Christians. The two faiths are small minorities in the country, which is predominantly Buddhist.

If you have 5 minutes, this is worth it

Working in the weed industry

While cannabis is still illegal on a federal level, it’s allowed at least for medical purposes in 33 states. And that’s creating hundreds of thousands of jobs, ranging from farm work to executive positions to “budtenders,” who help customers decide what kind of cannabis they want.

But working in the industry comes with caveats, including stigma and a pay cut.

Here’s what else is happening

North Korea-Russia meeting: The North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, met with President Vladimir Putin in Russia today. Mr. Kim is seeking support for sanctions relief and a gradual approach to nuclear disarmament that the Trump administration opposes.

Measles outbreak: The number of cases has risen to 695 — the highest annual number recorded since 2000, when the disease was declared eliminated in the U.S. The virus mostly has affected families that do not vaccinate their children.

White supremacist’s execution: John William King was put to death in Texas on Wednesday for the murder of James Byrd Jr., who was chained to the back of a pickup truck and dragged to his death in 1998.

Snapshot: Above, the Grand Organ at Notre-Dame in Paris last year. The cathedral’s three primary organists initially feared that the instrument — which has five keyboards and almost 8,000 pipes — had been destroyed in the fire that devastated the building last week, but technicians have confirmed that it is safe.

N.F.L. draft: Here’s a preview of the first round tonight. A talented class of rookies is led by the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Kyler Murray.

“Jeopardy!” champion: James Holzhauer has won more than $1 million in just 15 games, putting him second on the all-time earnings list. The Times spoke to him about his aggressive strategy.

Late-night comedy: Several of the hosts noted a meeting in which President Trump reportedly asked Twitter’s chief executive why he had been losing followers. “It’s like breaking the news to a child that Santa isn’t real,” Trevor Noah said. “It’s like, ‘Sir, you’re 72 now, so I think you’re old enough to know the truth: @MIKHAIL_62875 isn’t a real person.’”

What we’re watching: This TED Talk by Mariah Gladstone, a member of the Blackfeet Nation. “She’s also a cook with a degree from Columbia,” says our national food correspondent, Kim Severson, “who started a cooking show called ‘Indigikitchen’ to help people remember what food was like before colonization: locavore paleo.”

Now, a break from the news

Cook: Korean barbecue flavors inspire this easy meatball recipe.

Listen: In his “Ring” cycle, Wagner uses musical themes to create a world of gods, heroes, dwarves and giants. Here’s how.

Go: With few exceptions, musical comedies today are comedic only in the sense that the protagonist doesn’t croak, and musical only in the sense that he does. The new “Tootsie” is an exception, one of our critics writes.

Read: The humorist Dave Barry describes emulating his dog’s grace in “Lessons From Lucy,” which is new this week on our hardcover nonfiction and combined print and e-book nonfiction best-seller lists.

Smarter Living: Apologies are complicated. The urge to be polite undermines your confidence, critics say, and underscores your own insecurity. But context matters, and saying sorry isn’t always a bad thing.

And eating better can change your mood.

And now for the Back Story on …

He-he-helium

This is the International Year of the Periodic Table, so named by the United Nations to honor what is considered the 150th anniversary of a crucial discovery by a Russian chemist, Dmitri Mendeleev.

In 1869, he published the first recognizable periodic table, arranging the 63 elements then known by increasing atomic number — the total number of protons in an atomic nucleus — and in vertical stacks that corresponded to recurring patterns or properties.

That concise organization revealed and predicted many elemental dynamics, and the table became the foundation for chemistry, nuclear physics and other sciences. The periodic system is considered one of modern science’s most important achievements.

But it can also help to explain the chemistry behind a popular party trick: inhaling helium from a balloon to make your voice sound funny.

Helium is lighter than oxygen, enabling the vibrations of your vocal cords to travel more quickly, which shifts the resonant frequencies in your vocal tract to the higher end.

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Chris

Thank you To Mark Josephson, Eleanor Stanford, Chris Harcum and Kenneth R. Rosen for the break from the news. Katie Van Syckle wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S. • We’re listening to “The Daily.” Today’s episode is about accusations against a Navy SEAL leader. • Here’s today’s mini crossword puzzle, and a clue: Operator of the world’s largest cargo airline (5 letters). You can find all our puzzles here. • “Caliphate,” a Times podcast series that followed our reporter Rukmini Callimachi’s work on the Islamic State, won a 2018 Peabody Award.

[djrelentless]

“2014...Friend Or Foe?”

December 23, 2014 at 3:08pm

Well, another year has come and gone. And what can be said about the year that bought usThe Ice Bucket Challenge, Lumberjack Beards and The Battle of Celebrity Silicone Parts. 2014 cemented history for some and unraveled it for others. We watched the product of racism grow into an epidemic of police brutality and learned a lot more about ourselves than we wanted to know. So, let's jump right in and do a recap!

I can't think of anyone else who deserves this cover more than President Obama.

Politics is one of those subjects that we are told never to discuss at a dinner party, but this year I don't think any of us could escape this topic. In the United States, President Obamahad a roller coaster ride that I don't think any otter president has ever had to face. His uphill battle with the Republicans just got nastier as they continued to be "The Party Of No". It amazed me that their hatred for the first Black President would drive them to put in place rezoning laws to secure the elections later in the year. Republicans cunningly said "no" to many ideas just to later blame Obama for things not getting done. This hatred and racism would spill into other areas later in the year.

Here in Toronto, we started out the year with Mayor Rob Ford being defiant by not stepping down after admitting that he smoked crack on The Jimmy Kimmel Show. His arrogance would make him believe that he would win the next election. But as my grandmother used to say….."God don't like ugly (and he ain't too fond of pretty either)." Health issues would eventually take him out of the mayoral race and have his brother take his place in the running. But the good folks with common sense had the good taste of send the message to the Ford brothers that they are not welcomed in City Hall anymore. And although the gay community were really hoping that Olivia Chow would have been our next mayor, the inner core of downtown could not out voted the conservative suburbs and John Tory was voted in.

It was really interesting to watch the blogs and twitter-sphere talk about what was going to happen and what should have happened. I was surprised to see how many conservative acquaintances I had on my facebook friends list. I even had someone in my circle who is super-gay and a Ann Coultier fan. Talk about a walking contradiction…..I mean….who knew we had gay republicans in Canada? And one of my favorite things (….this is sarcasm), is watching some Canadians who only know what is sensationalized on the internet and on TV talk and post about life in the states. As if what they read or heard is the only life for Americans. Everyone has guns, everyone voted Bush in office in both elections and all Americans are stupid. That's no different than the Americans who think Canadians live in igloos and say "a-boot". I guess that's why many Canadians believe that the racial problems that happen in the states are not here in their own backyard. I often joke with my husband that I now know why Canadians get mugged and shot in The Big Apple. They go in with preconceived notions and carry their Canadian philosophies with them when traveling (like walking directly behind New Yorkers instead of giving a little breathing space while walking down the street…..definitely a good way to get shot or at least cursed out).

2014 could be described as history repeating itself. With the re-election of President Obama came more racial divide in the world. Remember….what happens over here effects over there. In his first term, the Republicans accused him of going on an Apology Tourthrough Europe. But Obama realized that in order to fix the US's standing in Europe, he had to repair relationships. Recently he began speaking about fixing things with Cuba. As an American (especially from Florida), I was surprised when I came to Canada and saw commercials for vacationing in Havana. This would never happen in the states. But with the Democrats' big loss in the Senate election this year, Obama lost any power in Congress. And try as he might to reach out to work with the Republicans……they are not having it.

The Ebola Crisis, Russia, North Korea, the Israeli-Palestine Conflict, the missing Malaysia aircraft, Healthcare Enrollment, "The Interview"……..whatever Obama said or did was not good enough or was not soon enough. But I guess the Republicans were not counting on him to remain so level-headed. Just once I wanted him to explode and show full anger for all the shit that he has had to endure as the first Black President. But he knows that he has to remain focused and stay on course. When it is all said in done after he leaves office, his legacy will out live the assholes who tried to sabotage him every step of the way. Let's just hope that Hillary Clinton really does throw her hat in the ring for the 2016 election (I wanna see the US make history again as Bill Clinton becomes the First Husband). So far, the Republicans have not presented a viable candidate.

Unfortunately for Obama, his presidency has brought up the old "Jim Crow" mentality. Just as the US took two steps forward, bias crimes and hatred slowly started to rise and knocked us four steps back. We are still recovering from the Zimmerman Verdict. Paula Deen andDuck Dynasty are still on the air (and I just got back from a trip to Florida where I was surprised by how many Redneck reality shows are in production). Chick-fil-a became the fast-food headquarters for homophobia while some gays tried to turn the situation into black people and the n-word situation nothing changed.

In July, I heard a report about a mentally challenged black man named Milton Hall being shot 46 times in Detroit. And then we watched on YouTube as Eric Garner died in a police choke hold because it was believed that he was selling loose cigarettes (known as a "lousy" on the streets) on Staten Island. Shortly after that came the news of Michael Brown being shot and left in the street in Ferguson. The  reports of 12 year old Tamir Rice being shot and killed by police in Cleveland left me stunned. Earlier in February, I wrote a blog called"Hunting Season Is Open In The U.S." which talked about the rise of hate crimes against black youth. Little did I know that this blog would become a prelude to a summer of killings by the police. And all of these shootings would open a huge debate about what is excessive force. Of course we want to support the law enforcement officers who are really out there to protect our communities, but something has to be done about the percentage of cops who are hunting down people of color while the judicial system seems to not be holding them accountable. Yes….there are bad people and bad cops. Out of all the names I mentioned above, there were no cigarettes found on Eric Garner. The rest had probable cause to be stopped…..but not killed.

And while the internet can be the perfect place to see the world and learn new things, it can also be the breeding ground for hate and misinformation. It's scary to think what and who is lurking behind the keyboards out there. Agendas to start a race war and spread propaganda is at every turn. Folks writing sensational articles and blogs to get hits to their sites (without regard for who they hurt or discredit). For every positive article or blog there are probably hundreds to counteract that message. And unfortunately, many people don't check the sources or credibility of these sites and articles and then just accept them as truth. Look before you leap, people.

With the rise of cyber-bullying, teen suicide is slowly becoming common place. Many deaths happened in 2014 (including the death of Bill Cosby's image). And although we lost quite a few celebrities and icons this year (Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Williams, Joan Rivers, Jan Hooks, Maya Angelou, Ruby Dee, Casey Kasem, Shirley Temple) there was one particular non-celebrity death that struck me really hard. It was the suicide of 16 year old Sergio Urrego. His story really got me because he did not kill himself because of bullying by classmates. No…he killed himself because of the faculty at his Catholic School in Colombia found a photo on his cellphone of him kissing his boyfriend and began harassing them both. Forcing the boyfriend to out himself to his parents about his sexuality then forcing him out of the school. Then they went as far as not releasing Sergio's records so he could not transfer to another school. The poor child posted the lyrics and the YouTube clip of Pink Floyd's "Goodbye Cruel World" on his facebook page on August 4th and then killed himself.

This is the danger of allowing religion into politics. People kill in the name of religion. And now people are killing themselves because of religion. And with idiots like Andrew Caldwellproclaiming that he is not gay no more and dancing around with the holy spirit on YouTube, it's hard to believe that in this same year Pope Francis in the vatican declared that "homosexuals need to be welcomed…..and have gifts and qualities to offer the Christian community." But the majority of black churches are not following the Pope's words. In the communities of color, there remains homophobia (which is completely silly because there are plenty of gay people in the church). When will everyone understand that we are not free until everyone is free. It is hard to break down the years of institutionalized hatred, racism and homophobia. We must first look at ourselves and ask the question…."how would I like to be treated?"

Another topic that has risen since the summer is the appropriation of Black Culture. One of the great things about the United States is the concept of making something out of nothing. Ideas being turned into reality fuel the imagination and the economy. So, the concept of Hip Hop and Ballroom Culture being repackaged and marketing under white artists has come under fire. Since the Eric Garner choke hold, many of the black community have asked where is the outrage from folks like Miley Cyrus, Robin Thicke, Justin Timberlake, & Iggy Azalea. And it seems that since Iggy's sales have been through the roof and she has been deemed the new Elvis of Urban Music, she has been the subject of complaints. Rivals Nicki Minaj and Azealia Banks have voiced their distain for the gal from down under. Because I am leery of most things I read nowadays on the internet, I don't know what to believe about Iggy. I like her music and her flow, but is she really stealing thunder from other black artists? I mean….Kendrick Lamar seems to have moved on since the Grammy's. And it's funny that we haven't heard very much from Macklemore since all his accolades. The argument is that "everybody wants to be black to sell records", but when it comes down to actually being down for the cause of fighting for justice no one is around. Don't use our music and culture for record sells and then turn your back on us when we need your voices as much as ever. And don't think because you adopt black children that it gives you card blanche to say the word "nigger"….I'm talking to you Madonna. Even though you are about to drop your new album, I haven't forgotten your Instagram comment on your son, Rocco back in January.

And the continuation of Ballroom Culture appropriation continues as many gay white men love to ki-ki and duck walk to RuPaul's "Sissy That Walk" (which is another kind of appropriation since Ru was never a Ballroom kid either). But the funny thing is watching"Paris Is Burning" and seeing all the appropriation of the 80s rich Republican Culture as they aspire to be all the things they watched on "Dynasty". And today's Kardashians don't help either. Getting rich off of poor people's lust for power and fame. So, who's wrong and who's right. Should we take this opportunity to adapt and accept each other's culture instead of pitting black women against white gay men? I mean….we can all be "Gone With The Wind Fabulous" if that's what we aspire to be. We are all guilty of admiring something about another race or culture. Some imitate it and others try to destroy it to make themselves look superior. Everyone wants to point the finger, but no one wants to look in the mirror.

So, as this year comes to a close I am grateful for a few things. One of the things I am most proud of for 2014 is that I received the 2013-2014 "Friends Of The Foundation Award"from the Toronto Peoples With AIDS Foundation for my fundraisers, POZ-TO andSUNDAY NIGHT FEVER. My husband and I have worked really hard to create a space for the HIV+ Community and raising awareness. My "HIV/AIDS IS EVERYONE'S BUSINESS" Campaign has brought a lot of people together to raise their voices in the fight. And we celebrated our second year anniversary of the POZ-TO event on World AIDS Day(December 1st). Another is the sense of community that rallied together to help me after my bicycle accident in October that left me with a fractured cheekbone and jaw accompanied with a chipped tooth. It was amazing to see how many people cared and came out to perform, donate and support me in my time of need. I am also grateful for reconnecting with my family. I know too many gay people who do not have the support of their biological family (and there is nothing wrong with our adopted family, but there is something really special about being connected to those who are in our blood line). And lastly, I am forever grateful for my loving husband, John Richard Allan. I have never met anyone who has understood me or supported me as much as this man. I am truly blessed.

I don't know what 2015 will hold. But I do know that our conversations and debates about justice and racism will probably be more intense until we change some laws and outlooks in the United States. I know that Bill Cosby needs to address all of the rape accusations against him. It's tough watching the death of another black man. I know that not all cops are bad. I know that not all black youth are bad. I know that shooting police officers just because they are cops is not going to help the solution of fixing what is wrong with the relationship between communities of color and the law enforcement. I know that there are still some good people out there who are working to make their immediate worlds better (and honestly….that's all we can do on a personal level). I know that if you can't see passed the bubble you live in, you are not gonna go very far in life. And as for me….I am looking forward to seeing what else I can do to make my immediate world a better place.

[prodigiumstuck]

Gamzee Makara || Accepted

Be wary of your sins, brother. Make sure you listen to your mother because there is a beast that hunts in the night. You have one week to make your blog.

OOC:

Preferred name: Mahj, Mahjling, Bel, Rum. Anything.

Pronouns: He/Him

Age: 22

Discord: REDACTED 

IC:

Character Name: Gamzee Makara

Why do you want to play this character?: The short version is: I love Gamzee. The long version is: I love Gamzee in the sense that I love characters that have a dichotomy to them, warmly sluggish in conjunction with the violent snap. More than that, I love characters with a religious bent to them of any kind, as someone who grew up entrenched in a deep variety of religions {Some of my closest family members, and thereby the religions I grew up with, include; The worship of Santa Muerte, Christian, Candomblé, Asatru, A closed native american religion, and perhaps most importantly to this particular character, Vodou. Among others}, for this reason, I feel Gamzee is a character that resonates with me to an extent that I can easily muse for him.

What type of creature are they?: Rougarou:

The rougarou (alternatively spelled as roux-ga-roux, rugaroo, or rugaru)

The stories of the creature known as a rougarou are as diverse as the spelling of its name

The rougarou legend has been spread for many generations, either directly from French settlers to Louisiana (New France) or via the French Canadian immigrants centuries ago.

In the Cajun legends, the creature is said to prowl the swamps around Acadiana and Greater New Orleans, and possibly the fields or forests of the regions, Often the story-telling has been used to inspire fear and obedience. One such example is stories that have been told by elders to persuade Cajun children to behave. According to another variation, the beast will hunt down and kill Catholics who do not follow the rules of Lent

Other stories range from the rougarou as a rabbitlike beast to the rougarou as a wolflike creature, to the rougarou being derived from witchcraft. In the latter claim, only a witch can make a rougarou. Either via casting the curse on another, or by transforming themselves into a Rougarou.

Another legend, and my favorite, is that if a person looks into the eyes of a rougarou, that person will be transformed into one. Thereafter, the unfortunate victim will be doomed to wander in the form of this monster. Such folklore versions of the rugaru vary from being mild bigfoot creatures to cannibalistic Native American or Native Canadian wendigos. Author Peter Matthiessen argues that the rugaru is a separate legend from that of the cannibal-like giant wendigo. While the wendigo is feared, he notes that the rugaru is seen as sacred and in tune with Mother Earth.

Some myths state that when the curse is lain upon a person, it begins with hunger, first for anything, then for raw meat, and then for human flesh. If the cursed person can resist falling prey to cannibalistic urges for 101 days, the curse will be lifted, if they give in however, they will be transformed into a Rougarou.

In Louisiana, they hold a festival known as The Rougarou Fest, a festival that celebrates the folklore of the Louisiana bayous. It takes place on the last Saturday of october.

Reasoning for this type of creature?: Returning to my original ramblings on Gamzee, I enjoy the Rougarou’s dichotomy, seen as some by a monster and by others as something sacred. No one however can deny that the Rougarou, in most tellings of the myth, is a monster, which I feel resonates well with this character (and can be seen as a little tongue in cheek jab at the fandom’s arguing over him). The Rougarou also has an undeniable religious slant to it, as both a beast that can be considered the aftermath of witchcraft, or a creature who stalks those who are not dutiful to their religion and have lost its protection. Despite what some modern interpretations state, the Rougarou is so much more than ‘one more werewolf, or werewolf-like’ legend, it has a deep, rich history within the legends of the very setting this AU was created in. I’ve chosen it because I believe it fits not only the character itself, but the very setting.

If human, why?: N/A

Any headcanons pertinent to mods?: Not many that I can think of at the moment, though perhaps one: Gamzee considers himself relatively apolitical, not truly on anyone’s 'side’. My reasoning for this being that I would like to draw from Vodou tradition, but also Candomblé traditions, which does not include the duality of a concept of good opposed to evil. Each person is required only to fulfill his or her destiny to the fullest in order to live a 'good’ life, regardless of what that destiny is. For this reason, Gamzee’s allegiances and actions will be more dependent on personal relationships than overarching 'sides’. If this is unacceptable, please tell me so I can change this!

Gamzee is a practitioner of a Vodou-like religion, for reasons of respect, given that this character is going to have some inevitable dark slants to him, I would like to decline calling it true/actual Vodou {or actual/true anything in regards to existing practices}, while much will be borrowed from that particular practice in order to stay true to the character, I will also, if it is acceptable, be pulling things from the following religions/practices which I also feel fit in line with Gamzee’s canon in order to make a unique, but still familiar practice: Vodou, Candomblé, The worship of Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte, as well as occasional Christian/Catholic imagery {though admittedly likely little of the actual religion(s)}

Any headcanons you would like for this AU? [Optional]: None that I can think of.

Questions? [Optional]: Are there any bayou/swamplike areas around Dupet? If so, would it be an acceptable place for Gamzee to reside? If not; Would it be acceptable for Gamzee to reside in the deeper forests around Dupet? There are many many legends about how the Rougarou looks when transformed, everything from Wolflike to Rabbitlike to something entirely unique. How much creative control am I allowed to have over this, as I would like to design something I feel is true to the Rougarou in multiple legends, as well as with a few unique spins that I believe are fitting to tie back into Gamzee’s design in general. For the sake of readability, I would like permission to use Gamzee’s sober quirk. Both for others, and as a kindness towards the fact that on bad days, attempting to type in his high quirk can aggravate my OCD.

How was your day?

Writing example (2-3 paragraphs):

He likes this form.

When he slides his tongue between his teeth, he can feel the heat of it in his skull, skin stretched in fine skeins across it, when he sinks his teeth into the throat of doe or pig or wandering child, he can feel them bubbling up around his jaws crying out in celebration, in finality; It screams Life. It screams, take me far away. It screams, often, in general.

But only for a moment.

His limbs, powerful as they are, move with effortless grace over the boggy ground among the trees, their near submerged roots play home to a mixture of fish and so-many scuttling insect larvae, both of which he has eaten in handfuls when his proclivities bid him do so. Even the carcass in his jaws does little to stay his pace.

There is an art to the change; To and from.

Muscle and bone, sinew and vein twisting from monster to man, clothing is wholly unnecessary in the Louisiana heat, even now he can hear the buzzing of flies drawn in by the hot, humid scent of blood, the scurrying legs across one of his hands as he takes up his kill in long, grasping fingers to haul it up behind him, uncaring of the shallow thumpity-thump as its not yet rigor-touched limbs are drawn up the splintering wooden stairs.

He shoulders the door open before him, yawning with teeth still sharp from an incomplete transformation, he feels little need to play human entirely in the comfort of his own damn home, when he scratches idly at the crook of his own jaw, he leaves sloppy lines of deer’s blood. He’ll clean it up later.

For now, he’s more concerned with the doe. Under the blade of a well loved knife her entrails scatter like fleeing birds from her gut, and he curls the ropy lengths about his fingers seeking secrets in the offal, looking for the truth in a kidney and the future in a pancreas. He was not born of Roman rule, but he considers himself a decent Haruspex all the same.

“Well shiiit”

He has a voice like a crow’s laugh, mocking, genuine, even more mocking because of its sincerity. He licks his wrist clean of crimson with a long, dark tongue. “Ain’t even dressed none for guests.” it’s joking, to himself, to the deer, to whatever powers that be are listening. But he rises from his place all the same, makes his way over to the door and reaches it just as the knock comes. When he tries to meet his guest’s eyes, they avert their gaze, and he laughs for their cleverness, watches the blood drain from their face at the gore spilled across his floor, seen in flashing flutters when they dare look past him. He draws their attention back to his sharply featured face with a click of the tongue, with words smooth as honey wine.

“Ain’t no need to be scared none.”

He doesn’t consider himself a business owner, his home is a pain to get to, not something that serves a regular customer base. But when some sorry sinner needs to speak to a God other than the one they’ve been abandoned by, when some mother with a sick child needs prayers from a God that doesn’t live in suburban churches, he’s been known to open his door, to find deities in organs or some mixed brew of herb and blood; Come unto me children and be saved saved saved.

Like mice unto foxes, however, not everyone leaves. Fewer leave the same as they came in. These things have prices, after all.

[spirit-science-blog]

Is 2020 the New 2012?

“Judgment day and the end of the world is in our minds..and our minds are a dangerous place to be” -Kelly Cutrone.

Hey, hey, Remember when everyone said the world would end in 2012 and they made a movie about it and everything? And everyone was saying that there would be cataclysmic events like Massive fires, World War 3, plagues of locusts, floods, and mass civil unrest...leading to complete shutdown of all society?? Yeah, so uh funny story while we all know that didn’t happen in 2012, cause we’re all still here almost every prediction people made about how the world would end back then has pretty much come true for 2020. Wildfires exploded across Australia at the tail end of 2019 and were most influential in January. WW3? In January, after the assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, tensions between the US and Iran were at an all-time high, with attacks on the US Embassy in Baghdad sparking fears the next war could happen pretty soon. Swarms of locusts eating 1000s of crops and causing famine? February in Kenya. Flooding March in the UK. Civil unrest and anarchy in the streets? Mark another one-off for Apocalypse Bingo! Still wondering if we’ll get our hoaxed alien attack this year.

You really would be forgiven for thinking the Maya just got the math wrong on their calendar. Maybe the stonemason just had too much Peyote that day, who knows, But believe it or not, there is a conspiracy about this going around. Our current year 2020 is 2012, and it all has to do with the time that we adopted the Gregorian Calendar as opposed to older Julian one. Now Before we start, let’s just say, there are a few significant issues with this theory, the least of which is that different parts of the world adopted the Gregorian calendar at different times, so it wasn’t a universal thing that you can just calculate the math on and BANG - you’ve got yourself a day to lock yourself in your doomsday bunker with your mask and your Kool-ade... but we’ll get there soon.

So what is this whole thing about? Last month, a man named Paolo Tagaloguin, who claims to be a researcher/Fulbright scholar took to twitter (in a now-deleted post that he claimed was a joke) and did some somewhat questionable math and came up with a theory that said:

“We were technically in 2012. The number of days lost in a year due to the Gregorian Calendar shift is 11 days. For 268 years using the Gregorian Calendar (1752-2020) times 11 days = 2,948 days. 2,948 days / 365 days (per year) = 8 years”....

Which according to him, put Apocalypse II: Nibiru Boogaloo on the 21st of June 2020.  Now it’s July, so that didn’t happen. As we said earlier, there are quite a few issues with his calculations that prove him wrong.  To start with, Let’s get some background info.  The Gregorian Calendar is essentially the most widely used calendar and dating system used in the world today. It splits a canonical year into 12 months, and spaces leap years to make the average year 365.2 days long, focusing predominantly on Earth’s revolution around the sun as a means of keeping time. If you live in the world today, chances are you at least know this dating system.

It was invented by Pope Gregory XIII and gradually replaced the much older Julian Calendar that was in use at the time, which some people say gave us April Fools day!  See, aside from Christian influences - like changing how the lunar cycles were calculated by the church to get a more accurate date for Easter, and the time of the New Year, the Gregorian Calendar also shortened the average year by 0.0075 days to stop the drift of the calendar concerning the equinoxes. The Julian Calendar, though, was proposed by Julius Caesar around 46BC and was invented with the help of Greek Mathematics and astronomy and had been used up until 1582.  

This is where we see the first issue with Tagaloguin’s theory. Not only does it not take into account leap years, but the date he used for its adoption (1752), is only the date that the New Calendar was adopted in Britain and its colonies (otherwise known as the area of the United States east of the Appalachian Mountains).  Much of Europe (including a lot of Catholic countries), such as France, Spain, Lithuania, and much of the not-so-Holy Roman Empire had adopted it right from the start, though, in 1582.  Some of the first records showed a funny glitch in the dates where Thursday 4th October 1582 was followed by Friday, 15 October 1582, the next day - seriously! Go on a calendar app and check it out. It’s amusing.

Arguments between Protestant Christians and Catholics, though, led to a delay in the Calendar taking off in the rest of the world, with some countries not even changing until the 18th Century! Which meant that they had to observe an additional leap year, which is where we get the 11 days to change from. The French and Spanish colonies in the US adopted the change when their home countries did in the 1500s, so, in short, the math is entirely wrong…

The other thing to consider is that the whole 2012 phenomenon was a huge misunderstanding.  We’ve covered this on the channel before, but in a nutshell, the world was never going to “end,” at least, not in the sense of the movie cataclysms or anything. See, the calendar would reset at the end of the 13th Bak'tun - rather than end life on Earth entirely. If anything thinks of the Maya calendar like a car’s mileage counter, once it reaches 99,999,99, it just resets to 0...or 1 since we can’t have a year 0. The thing about the Maya is.. they LOVED their cycles. They thought everything was a cycle, which - if you’ve seen our episode called Cycles n Sine Waves, or ever read any of the Hermetic Writings - it makes sense that as things naturally move in waves, cycles appear to be built into the fabric of the cosmos. In Mesoamerican mythology, even the world itself went through 4 creations and re-creations before the gods got it right. Something about raining jaguars or giant floods kept messing everything up. Enlil, what have you got to say for yourself?

Anyway, my point is, did the Mayan calendar end on December 21st, 2012? Yeah technically. But they didn’t see it as an “ending,” once the Bak’tun reached its end, it would merely transition into a new phase, and trigger a kind of Rebirth for all of our cultures, the beginning of a new massive cycle of time. A lot of New Age beliefs saw this rebirth as a dawning of a new age of consciousness, where people would go through a period of great transition, leading to an overall higher knowledge for all of humanity, and we would eventually move into a new heart-centered age, and this was the beginning of that shift. Would this have been a period ending the Maya thought was wicked cool? You bet! The most significant period endings they experienced were Bak'tun endings. So it was a huge deal, just not a world-ending huge deal. Well, maybe it depends on how we describe it. Is it the end of our old way of life as we know it? Yeah, we could probably say that!

Given our current climate in 2020, it’s easy to look for energetic or spiritual excuses for everything that’s happening, and maybe there is something to be said about how we account for time. The energy is coming back around to clear out old ways and paradigms before moving into a new one. It’s interesting to see that almost everything that we thought would happen in 2012 is happening now. Almost like we didn’t learn the first time around, so we’re repeating the energy until we finally break through and change for the better.

You might be wondering why a crazy theory like this took off so quickly, despite its questionable math, well part of it also lies in Astrology.  We covered the Astrology of Coronavirus earlier in another video, so definitely go check that out for some relevant Planetary Gossip..but the thing is Astrologers have been hyping up 2020 as a year of radical change for many many years now, thanks to the rare alignment of Saturn and Pluto on the 12th January, which was made more prominent by Jupiter coming in shortly after that, which is the angle we looked at in our COVID Astrology episode. While no one could have predicted how epic a catastrophe Corona would be, we did get at least one apocalyptic cataclysm! Many Astrology charts predicted that this year would mark history by challenging us in some pretty extreme ways.

This is one of those things that I’d love to see some scientists take more seriously. At the same time, Astrology is often ridiculed as a superstition. How is it that so many astrologers have been telling us about the significant change of 2020 for decades in advance, hitting the nail on the head perfectly?

According to Chani Nicholas, right from the beginning, January’s conjunction was a scary start, as it’s episode coincided last time with both World Wars and the economic recession of the 80s, so we were in for it from the starting line along with 2 Mercury retrogrades this year, and the latter being during the next election some more stuff is bound to go down before we’re through the 2020 woods. It’s not all doom and gloom, though, given Neptune's position, which suggests we’re entering a period where we will feel more interconnected and understanding of each other than ever before. And with Venus’ recent retrograde in Gemini, we have an energy of renewal and reassessment with relationships, both with others and ourselves. This is a time of apocalyptic matters - and if you recall from one of our flagship original spirit science episodes - apocalypse translates to a “lifting of the veil.” So 2020 is a time where the truth is coming out, we see all of the chaos of human consciousness with crystal clear vision, as the truth comes to the surface, for it to be healed.

Even better though… 2021 is supposed to be GREAT. With the conjunction of Saturn and Pluto in Aquarius on the winter solstice, we’ll be entering a period of a fresh start, especially about science and innovation. Chani seems to think that the new energy will probably guide many industries to change in ways that will make them practically unrecognizable. Some new and surprising concepts and innovations will be coming out in how we live in harmony with the Earth and her resources. Maybe we’ll even see the electric human blackfly drone machine come to the market and Hey, we might even start laying the groundwork for our Spirit Center next year, we’ve got some huge plans for that, but we’ll have to save that discussion for another time.

So, If the 21st of June 2020 wasn’t the end of the world. Did anything interesting happen on that day at all? There wasn’t anything as dramatic as tidal waves or volcanos going off and destroying everything around it, But it was world Yoga day! And world selfie day, and world optimism day, and indigenous peoples day (yay) and well you get the picture, we made it into a lot of different things. Astronomically it was pretty cool too; there was a solstice new moon solar eclipse in cancer! Only parts of Central and Eastern Africa and some parts of southwest Asia could see the eclipse, But still, someone somewhere probably thought the world was ending.

So long story short Is 2020 the new 2012? If we see 2012 as a time where the energy shifted and brought us into a new age, then Kinda! A lot of what’s going on at the moment in the world is dramatically changing our cultural climate and collective consciousness. The riots especially are uprooting long-held old systems of oppression and making way for new, more progressive energies and mindsets, which is fantastic. Is the world going to end at some point this year? No more than it did 2012.

When a cycle ends, the calendar is meant to be reset to the beginning and start. It's intended to be a time of change and renewal, which 2020 certainly is.  Spiritually speaking, perhaps the new energies introduced to us in 2012 have finally integrated into our society and are shaking things up, and we’re only just feeling it now. Like in 2012, we are presented with a great opportunity, if 2020 is the actual 2012, let's rebirth some stuff for real this time.

And if you need some help getting your cosmic rebirth on, allow me to share the 7-Day Transformation with you. It only takes a week to shift your entire reality completely! Here’s what someone else said when they went through it!

Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you next time!