#me...kris... tenacious....

[alienhazy]

a certain animal getting attention (feat. the back of honey's head)

[vvindication]

shakes your hand abt having an oc named vance. also can you tell me abt your oc vance (anything you want to hehe) i'm intrigued

hell yeah another Vance guy!!! make that three with another cyberpunk Vance I know! he's the dude featured on my pinned post <3 courtesy of @necro-hamster that piece still makes me insane

you've unleashed the flood gates I'm gonna info dump everything I can think of abt this man 👍

he's my V from Cyberpunk 2077 - a game I would not have touched with a ten foot pole if not for my aforementioned buddy Kris talking abt his own V Liam. theyre definitely heterosexual friends (not) (theyre dumb and complicated) heres them 💖💖💖

images out of the way, he's a nomad who ended up in Night City after his clan the Bakkers was disbanded into a larger group called Snake Nation that he didnt want any part of assimilating into. stuck out like a sore thumb with hardly any implants/modifications and went all out as soon as he got some money together. mostly to look pretty with the added benefit of blending in a bit better. not foolproof, still a weirdo

so so fucking stupid though. hot-blooded silly impulsive bitch whom I love so much. epitome of "would flip his car for a bit if it wouldnt kill him" (and damage his absolutely precious car). willing to put himself into mass amounts of danger for his friends because hes loyal to a fault, attributed to growing up in a place where everyone in the group was family. cant afford to with NC's common "selling people out" problems, but he's picky with who he trusts. even if that sometimes ends up being a former Arasaka bodyguard who definitely would have sliced him to bits had they run into each other earlier. (Goro Takemura) (hes obsessed with him)

I lied heres another Image. IMAGE BLAST

attention-whore and proud of it. criticism is more likely to make him double down on something rather than give it up because hes a tenacious little shit. clearly. because hes almost died so many times and still keeps crawling out somehow. has at least jumped+fallen through a window a good 20ish feet, been shot in the head, fried electronically by netrunning wizardry, so on so forth. many such cases. a bit par for the course considering the insane city he lives in but the man's stress levels have got to be off the charts

still heavily prefers being in the desert. he hates the city (AND the ocean. terrifies him) and only stays looking for a cure to the Relic problem and to stick by his friends who need him. if he had his way he'd run off with the Aldecaldos - a different nomad clan - into the sunset and never look back. unfortunately he is so so fucked so hes trudging around shitty paved streets instead until he figures something out or dies horribly

[kordeliiius]

This week was such a big win for video games

[marjiandco]

Music Profiles

Rules: For many of us, music is a source of inspiration for our characters, so I want to know what songs inspire and/relate to your muse! Choose between 10-15 songs, compile them into an album and tag some friends to share the beat!

Tagged by: @esme-selah, @juri-ffxiv, @gatheredfates ((thank you guys so much for the tags and the patience!)

Raiku Honaku 

Adventure of a Lifetime - Coldplay

This is in part because this guy would love Coldplay, and another is he’d take it so personally, especially when he started to become an adventurer. He left his family and fortune behind to create his own destiny. In part its thanks to just happening to find an article on the Warrior of Light slaying a primal. A nobody comes in and saves Thanalan, possibly Eorzea with nothing but her wit. It inspired him, and he was so excited to start his own journey from somebody’s shadow to somebody himself.

I’m Only Human After All - Rag’n’Bone Man

Raiku will be knocked down; many times. He was never the strong one, but he’s tenacious and knows how to control a crowd. He’d listen to this song when he needed a moment to himself, and get himself out of his own mindset. He’s a perfectionist, and hard on himself, he just needs to remind himself he’s only human Lalafellin.

Black Coast- TRNDSTTR (Lucian Remix)

Raiku’s a confident guy. He loves himself and the way he looks, and most things that come out of his mouth. When he was working in Eulmore as a dancer he would have this as his personal song. Picking someone out in the crowd to focus on like his coworkers suggested really helped add allure and intrigue to an already intriguing possibility of a dwarvin dancer.

Emperor’s New Clothes - Panic! at the Disco

Okay so this one? One time I had the idea to have Raiku taken over by voidsent and what would he be like? A dramatic, flamboyant demon would work. He would create huge productions and sing at his victims, both to add to their confusion and because it’s fun. Everytime I hear it I think about it, and this kid would 100% be into P!atD

Girls/Girls/Boys - Panic! at the Disco

Speaking of! This would be something he’d sing when he’s in a crowd of friends both to show off his range and because many of his friends are on the LGBT spectrum. Including himself.

Marji Wahluuk

Half God Half Devil - In This Moment

Right now this is her #1 song for me. It embodies so much of who she is and how people perceive her.

I put a Spell on You - Alpines

Everyone needs a slow walk to the right song. Partly because she’s a summoner, partly because I think she’s beautiful not in the traditional sense. She’s captivating on the battlefield for her intensity and finality. Do not be caught under her spell.

Big Bad Wolf - In This Moment

Going from put together to agonizing rage. This song is particularly for her fight with Thordan, when she nearly let her bahamut trance fully take over.  She loved Haurchefant, and to have him ripped from her right after rescuing Aymeric from his father was too much. Her anger caged her. During the fight she was weakened from the battle with the Ascian’s, and Raiku was getting pummeled, and it was too much. A caged animal in dangerous, especially when one of the few members of her pack was in danger.

Flaws - Daughter

She’s someone who tends to bottle her feelings, to the point she has a specific spot to scream out her internal storm. Far away from people she’ll finally let herself fall into her bad moods and melancholy, letting the elements take her shouts and drown them in the wind until she has nothing left but cathartic exhaustion.

Dark Matter - Les Friction

This is a song I use when I was writing about her fight with Hades. How she’s spitting up light and near taken over and turned into a sin eater. The near hopelessness she felt in the white room. Then, she decides to take one more step. One more step to understand the darkness in herself she’s been fighting against for so long. 

Tagging: @claihn @warpstargazer @octophopi @stars-bleed-hearts-shine @kri-babe​ @jancisstuff​ @ anyone who’d like do this!

[wrestlingisfake]

Revolution preview

Chris Jericho vs. Jon Moxley - This will be Jericho’s fourth defense of the AEW men’s world championship.  Moxley is the IWGP United States champion, but that title is not at stake.  Moxley has not lost a singles match since August, and Jericho hasn’t lost a singles match since June, so something’s gotta give.

It was fairy clear that Mox would be getting the next big title shot after he defeated Kenny Omega on November 9.  But the story only began when Jericho invited Moxley to join his heel stable, the Inner Circle.  The championship wasn’t directly brought up, but it was clear Jericho’s goal was to eliminate a potential threat to his title reign.  Moxley ultimately declined the offer on January 8, so on January 15 the Inner Circle beat him down and Jericho attacked his right eye with one of the little spikes on Jericho’s jacket.  Moxley refused to take time off, winning a January 22 match with PAC to earn this title match.  The Inner Circle has attempted to finish him off with matches against Santana, Ortiz, and “hired mercenary” Jeff Cobb, but he’s won them all while wearing an eyepatch.

The big question of this match is the status of Moxley’s right eye.  The injury is just part of the story, of course, and he mostly wrestles like it’s not a factor.  But if any opponent is going to work over the eye for the whole match, it’s gonna be Jericho.  Even if Mox drops the eyepatch, with the idea that the eye has finally “healed,” it’s an obvious target.  If he still has it on, I think the match will be slower, with longer stretches of Jericho clawing at the eye and Moxley in agony.  Either way, though, Moxley should be fighting like a wounded animal, which might lead to at least one big spot that hurts Jericho enough to level the playing field.

When Jericho won the title on August 31, I figured AEW could easily keep it on him for a year or more.  He’s over enough that the fans won’t start losing patience with him until maybe around Double or Nothing II on May 23.  But something about this feud has really clicked, I think, and I’ve been seriously getting the vibe that it’s time for Moxley to have a title run.  Nevertheless, despite all the victories Mox has racked up over the last six weeks, it feels wrong for a guy with a bad eye to score a win over the world champion.  I’m picking Jericho to retain.

Cody Rhodes vs. MJF - MJF refused to take this match unless Cody complied with three stipulations.  First, Cody agreed on January 15 not to touch MJF until the match starts.  Second, Cody had to let MJF whip him with a belt on February 5.  Third, Cody had to wrestle MJF’s henchman Wadlow in a cage match on February 19.  It’s become clear that MJF never expected Cody to agree to, or successfully meet, his terms, and now the match is on and Cody wants to kill him more than ever.

This one has been building almost since AEW was first announced in January 2019, when MJF joined the cast of Being the Elite.  Cody embraced MJF as his protege and best friend, but literally everyone else could see MJF was heeling on him behind his back.  Then, just when people were starting to buy the Cody-MJF friendship, and hoping the turn wouldn’t come, they finally pulled the trigger on the turn.  When Cody face Chris Jericho for the world title on November 9, with the promise that this would be his one and only title shot, MJF seconded him and threw in the towel.  Then, just when you started to wonder if he was genuinely concerned for Cody’s safety, he kicked Cody in the nuts.

MJF is the biggest and most successful project at AEW so far--the only bigger stars in the company are guys that were already over in New Japan or WWE.  So it’s going to be very interesting to see if they let the fans see Cody finally get revenge, or if MJF gets a win to propel him even higher.  While I do think MJF can quickly recover from a loss, they’ve really got something here and it may be worth doing a cheap heel win.  On the other hand, I’m not sure where MJF can go from beating Cody--I can’t see him in the world title picture just yet.  So I expect this match to keep me guessing right up to the finish.  It’s just too close to call.

Kenny Omega & Hangman Page vs. Nick Jackson & Matt Jackson - Omega and Page won the AEW tag team title on January 21; this will be their third defense.  The Young Bucks won a battle royale on February 19 to earn this title shot.  All four men (along with Cody Rhodes) are members of The Elite, the spinoff of Bullet Club that was recruited to create this promotion.

Page has been sullen and combative with the rest of the Elite since Chris Jericho beat him on August 31 to become the first AEW world champion.  I’ve already written at length about the backstory and where I think it’s going.  Basically I think they’ve teased a heel turn too hard for it to actually happen.  It feels to me like the story is less about what it takes for someone to turn than what it will take for Page to accept the other three accept him as an equal partner.  I think the story is designed to get us really worried for Page and them pull him back for a big hug when all seems lost.  (Then again, even if that happens, it doesn’t have to happen on this show.)

It feels too early for the Bucks to win the title.  They obviously have to become tag champs at some point.  But they know they have to build to the perfect moment and outwit everyone who assumed they’d put the belts on themselves right away.  The Bucks need to overcome incredible adversity to finally get to the mountaintop, and beating an ad hoc transitional chmpion team doesn’t cut it.  So they need to convince you Omega and Page aren’t an ad hoc transitional champion team.  The easiest way to do that is to give Omega and Page a successful title defense against the Young Bucks.  Which also happens to be an easy way to blow off Page’s drama without doing a turn.  So I’m going with the champs to retain.

Nyla Rose vs. Kris Statlander - Rose is making her first defense of the AEW women’s world championship, which she won on February 12.  There hasn’t been much of a story here--Statlander just got in Rose’s face during an interview and that was that.

The match should be okay.  Rose is good with the big monster heel spots, and Statlander's alien gimmick sets her apart from all the other women Rose has thrown around.  But I can’t say this is a particularly important match on the card, which is disappointing since I had hoped AEW’s women’s division would be a lot stronger by this point.  It feels like this is just being thrown together at the last minute to be the token women’s match on the card, like WWE used to do.

I like Statlander but it’s just not her time to be champion right now, and Rose is just getting started.  This shouldn’t be a one-sided squash by any means, but Nyla should emphatically win to set the tone for her title run.

Dustin Rhodes vs. Jake Hager - This issue started on October 30, during the build to Chris Jericho vs. Cody Rhodes, when Jericho’s flunky Hager broke the arm of Cody’s brother Dustin.  It took a few weeks for Dustin to stop wearing a cast, and then for some reason it took him until February 12 to demand a match with Hager so he can get revenge.

Hager debuted with AEW all the way back in October 2019, but this will be his first match with the company.  In fact, it’ll be his first match of any kind since he challenged for the NWA title in November 2018.  For the past couple of years he’s been focused on his mixed martial arts career in Bellator; between that and his role as a taciturn henchman, I don’t think we’re going to see much of him between the ropes. 

Both of these guys look enormous now that they’re away from WWE, so this should feel like an impressive battle of the giants.  But the outcome isn’t in much doubt; the smart move is to give Hager a win in his debut match, to establish his credibility as a big enforcer.

Darby Allin vs. Sammy Guevara - Guevara beat up Allin with his own skateboard on January 29, and they’ve been selling the idea that Allin’s throat was injured and he couldn’t speak.  (At this point I’m not sure if Allin’s supposed to still be mute or if he just chooses not to say anything.)   On the February 26 show I thought Allin was going to waffle Guevara with a skateboard to get some payback, but Sammy broke the skateboard over Darby’s head instead, so I guess they’re saving that for this show.

This is a tough match to call because they’re high on both guys and trying to get them both over, but neither is critical enough to be assured a steady string of wins.  Allin is the sort of tenacious twerp that can lose again and again and still be over because he won’t quit, but I think he needs to beat guys like Guevara once in a while or he’ll start to feel like a chump.  Guevara is sort of a chump no matter what since he’s Jericho’s toadie, but it’s good heel heat for the entire Inner Circle if they keep racking up wins.  I could see this one going either way.

PAC vs. Orange Cassidy - Pac was griping about his big loss to Kenny Omega on February 26 when Cassidy randomly came out to get in his face, so now we have a match.  Orange’s whole gimmick is that he’s lazy and can barely work up the effort to hit a guy, so the entire hype for this match is Chuck Taylor’s assurance that “this time he’s gonna TRY.”  I’m very curious what that would look like.

I’m only vaguely familiar with how Orange Cassidy’s gimmick works on the indies.  My impression is that he can turn it on and wrestle an intense, competitive match, but the joke is that he chooses to see how long he can get away with not doing that.  Most footage I’ve seen of him has involved other wrestlers sinking to his level for comedy spots where they exchange strikes in slow motion.  That’s all fine on an indy level, but in AEW it’s settled into “Orange does a couple of weak kicks but then the other guy just destroys him.”  I don’t understand how any of that is going to function in a Pac match.  But I expect to have fun finding out.

Pac pretty much has to win, though.

Scorpio Sky & Frankie Kazarian vs. Evil Uno & Stu Grayson - This is scheduled for the pre-show.  Uno and Grayson have been trying to get people to join their stable for months, and it’s starting to cause tension as Sky and Kazarian wonder if Christopher Daniels will betray SCU to join the Dark Order.  I think they’ve oversold the idea that Daniels is turning, and even if he does turn I don’t expect it to be on the pre-show.  Nevertheless, the Dark Order needs a win here, so I think it’ll come from SCU worrying about Daniels.  I’m pulling for Scorp, though, since I think I saw him on the elevator Friday.

[wishingforatypewriter]

And So it Shall Be

Shokugeki OTP Week: Day 2 (Soulmate) Summary: Erina, Hisako, and Alice get their fortunes read at a carnival

Erina heaved a great sigh as her cousin dragged her from stall to stall at the pop up carnival. It had been only a few days since their middle school graduation, and she had been hoping to have some fun with Hisako before her Elite Ten responsibilities started piling up. But of course, when they were halfway out the door, Alice just had to insert herself into their plans.

“Hey! Hey! Look at this!” the pale haired girl said, and Erina slowly turned her gaze towards a purple tent. The sign out front read, ‘Love. Career. Life and Death. Have your fortune told today.’

“That’s definitely fake,” Erina said with a flip of her honey colored hair. “As a woman of science, I thought you’d know better than to fall for things like this.” 

Alice shrugged. “It’s only for fun. Besides, I know you’re at least a little curious with all that shoujo crap you read.” 

“It’s not crap!” Erina crossed her arms, eyes narrowed. “Yona and Hak belong together. Anyway, if it’s that important to you, I suppose we can stop in for a minute.” 

“Now you’re talking, Er-ri-na,” Alice sang as she made her way towards the tent. 

“Milady Alice, I must object,” Hisako said as she ran after her. “I cannot allow you two to become involved with the occult.” 

“Then it’s fine if you get your fortune told too, Hishoko-chan.”

“I certainly will not!” Hisako fired back. “And don’t call me Hishoko!”

Erina rolled her eyes as she followed them both behind the royal purple flap. 

“So,” the young fortune teller said as the three girls took a seat on the plush cushions in the divination room. She had a white enamel box holding a deck of cards out on the table in front of her. “What would you like to know?”  

“Tell us about who we’re gonna marry,” Alice said. “And tell me when I’m gonna defeat Erina already!”

“The answer is never,” Erina replied. “I just saved you money.” 

The woman smiled at them and removed the cards out from the box. “It works like this: the first card you draw will tell us something about you, the second will describe your soulmate, and the third will predict your future together. So who wants to go first?”

“Wait just a minute,” Hisako said, just as Alice started to claim the first turn. “I demand to know your divination credentials before I allow you to interact with Erina-sama,” 

The fortune teller blinked a few times. “I’m just a college student,” she said. “We’re putting on this carnival to raise money.” 

“I see,” Hisako said, nodding. “Is there any way we can get you to sign a waiver?” 

“Enough already, Hishoko!” Alice groaned. She fixed her gaze on the fortune teller. “I want to know what kind of guy will put up with how uptight she is.” 

With a small smile, the fortune teller shuffled the cards for a bit and then spread them out in front of Hisako, instructing her to pick three. Erina watched intently as her friend hesitated, but then drew three cards. 

The fortune teller waited for a moment before flipping the first one over. “Sacrifice,” she said, with a small nod. “You are a person who always puts the needs of those dear to you above your own. You have a lofty sense of morality and set high goals for yourself.” 

Erina kept watching. So far it sounded spot on, but it didn’t take long to catch on to Hisako’s finer points. 

“Your soulmate is represented by the King of Staves,” the fortune teller explained as she flipped the second card. “The man you fall for will have a regal presence and a keen business sense. He will be someone who inspires others to grow and brings abstract ideas to fruition.” 

“I doubt I’ve met anyone like that,” Hisako said, crossing her arms over her chest. A ghost of a smile lit up Erina’s features when she saw the light pink blush dusting her best friend’s cheeks. “A-and the third one?”

“The nine of pentacles,” the fortune teller said. “You and your love will share a future of great wealth and professional success. After you have accomplished all your goals, you will have many children and grandchildren.” 

Erina was sure her friend’s head was about to explode. 

“Looking good, Hishoko,” Alice said. “You just have to stop being so rigid all the time.” The pale haired girl leaned forward. “Alright, it’s my turn.” 

The first card she picked was the Queen of Swords. “You are a strong young woman possessed of amazing intellect. While you can come off as blunt, you’re very honest.” 

“Sounds about right,” Alice said with a smile. 

“Your soulmate is represented by the seven of swords,” the fortune teller said. “He is an individual with great physical and mental strength, who will go to enormous lengths to defend you. This person will always be by your side.”

Erina nearly snorted; now, whoever could that be?

Alice, oblivious as ever, tapped her chin thoughtfully. “I guess I’d like something like that. Now, what will our future be?”

After the woman flipped over the third card, with ten cups floating over a rainbow, she smiled in earnest. “The ten of cups signifies the greatest happiness. Your family life will be especially fulfilling, and you and your partner will share a lifetime of devoted love.”

Alice nodded along, clearly pleased. “I hope he gets along with Ryo-kun well enough.”

Erina and Hisako shared a long eye roll. When the deck was reshuffled, Erina plucked three cards from the deck without looking. She didn’t expect much. 

The first card was Transformation. “You’ve strayed a long way from your true self, but a major transition is just on the horizon,” she said.

Erina felt her throat go dry. There was no way some stupid playing cards could know about her past, about Nakiri Azami. She suppressed a shudder before motioning for the fortune teller to continue.

“Your soulmate is represented by The Sun,” the woman said, and Erina felt something shift within her. “He will be positive and charismatic, someone who inspires every person that encounters him. He is creative and tenacious, and you will find yourself inexplicably drawn to his energy.”

“No way someone like that would go for Erina!”

“Hush, milady Alice!” Hisako hissed. 

The third card, Tradition, was flipped upside down. Erina hesitated for a moment. “W..what does it mean?” 

“Your future will be anything but conventional,” the fortune teller explained. “You and your partner will live a life that is filled with excitement; expect to travel a lot. It seems that your love will be the harbinger of positive change.” 

As Hisako paid the fortune teller, Erina took a moment to let her predictions sink in. She supposed she would recognize a person like that as soon as she saw him. 

Minutes later, as they walked around the fairgrounds, eating sticks of dango and waiting for fireworks, Erina turned to her best friend. 

“Hisako…”

“Yes, Erina-sama?”

“There’s no way that could have been real…is there?” 

“Certainly not,” the secretary said. “A regal presence?” She rolled her eyes at the thought. “As if.” 

Erina did not think it wise to mention that that was exactly the kind of man she could picture Hisako with. “For me, Nakiri Erina, to go against tradition?” She shook her head at the thought. “That’s just impossible.” 

Later that night, as they rode back to the Nakiri Mansion in a stretch limo, Erina received an email detailing her first official Elite Ten task: proctoring the transfer students entrance exam. It was the kind of work that would require no thought at all.

Author’s Notes: My understanding of the tarot is elementary at best! The deck I used as a reference is called “The Goddess Tarot” by Kris Waldherr. 

[emmaswanchoosesyou]

CSBB: Part of the Narrative (7/17)

Emma Swan just wants to write the follow-up to her bestselling debut novel, that’s all. But when she gets off to a rough start with her new editor, Killian Jones, she knows it’s not going according to plan. Then, an unexpected figure from Emma’s past reappears and life begins to mirror the crime thriller she’s penning. Suspicion and secrets abound–but love might too. A writer/editor AU with a thriller twist.

Rated E. Story warnings: sexual content, kidnapping, some gore, violence, and minor character death–not to mention salty language! On Ao3 here.

Chapter warnings: Some profanity? And accusations of gaslighting.

I hope you all know that your comments and likes and kudos and reblogs have been cherished and squealed over. Thank you to all the wonderful peeps at  @captainswanbigbang for all you’ve done to make this possible, and all the support you’ve given. Sophie @shady-swan-jones made the delightful banner and another photoset that I adore. Kayla @bleebug did some incredible art for the first and sixth chapters, which you can check out here and here. And all the love and thanks to Kris @sambethe for beta-ing this and making it a ton better.

[Ch. 1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Chapter 7

Henry and Emma bond while she drives him back to Maine, but Regina and Emma get off to a rough start.

Emma

Emma awoke with a start, the sound of a loud crash coming through her bedroom door. Taking a deep, heaving breath, she sighed and buried her head in her pillow, remembering Henry's surprise appearance the previous night. She groaned and piled another pillow over her head, delaying the inevitable need to roll out of her cozy cocoon and figure out what he’d gotten into.

She dragged herself out of bed and pulled a sweater on over her pajamas only to hear the sound of something scraping along the floor. Clearly, it was time to investigate whatever Henry was up to in the kitchen.

When she stood in the doorway, he looked up at where she stood on the stairwell and met her eyes. He shuffled his feet and looked away quickly, standing over the remains of one of her mugs. It didn’t look like there had been anything in it, and nothing else appeared broken, so Emma sighed in relief and made her way down.

“I was trying to get a mug for some milk. Or maybe I could make hot chocolate?”

“Sure, kid.” She pushed herself from the doorway. “I’ll make the hot chocolate if you make sure you have your stuff ready. I think we’re meeting your mom for a late breakfast in Portland.”

Henry sighed but nodded. “I’ll go put my stuff in my bookbag.”

Emma attempted an awkward smile at him and grabbed a broom from the pantry. As soon as she cleaned up the mess on the floor, she turned to the drawers and pulled out the necessary items to make their hot chocolate. She echoed Henry’s sigh, reaching for two travel mugs. She really, really didn’t want to be up this early on a Saturday. Especially after the nice date she’d had with Killian.

Killian. God, that had been going so well. Until--well, until the interruption. She felt her stomach knot in guilt thinking about Henry as interruption, but honestly, she was still reeling. Between being completely unprepared for seeing the son she’d given up for adoption, her own ties to his mother, and being forced into a position of having to share some of her most painful experiences with a man she was only just starting to get to know...this was a mess.

She was a mess.

Her stomach twisted further at the thought of what a day this would shape up to be.

&&&

A little over half an hour later, they were on the road. They had hot chocolate and bear claws, and Emma had managed to throw on a casual but pulled together outfit. After all, Regina wasn’t just the mother of her son, she was her boss, in a way. They had met only a few times before, briefly, at book parties and a gala or two.

Her impression had been that Regina was a smart and rather intimidating woman. They hadn’t hit it off, but they’d had no reason to not like each other either. After all, they were making each other boatloads of money.

Emma had known--in that distant sort of way one does with colleagues and coworkers--that Regina had a child. She didn’t remember hearing anything about a significant other, and Henry hadn’t mentioned anyone else either. So it was fairly likely Regina was a single parent. She probably knew all about Henry’s interests, had spent hours upon hours talking to him. He was probably her whole life.

And honestly? Emma had no idea what to say to the kid. Her son. God, this was awkward. Tapping her fingers nervously against the steering wheel as they made their way out of Boston, she finally broke the stilted silence. “So, uh...what movies do you like?”

Henry gave her a knowing look, but decided to humor her. “I like a lot of things, but superhero and time travel movies are my favorite. You know, like Captain America and Back to the Future. Stuff like that.”

“Oh, fun. I like those too. Is Captain America your favorite?”

“I think so. But Spiderman is pretty cool too. I like fairy tales a lot, but more as books. I do a lot of reading.”

“Makes sense,” Emma replied, nodding. “Same sort of stuff in books? And what about the Disney fairy tales?”

“Mom doesn’t like some of them, so I haven’t read them all, but I have this cool book of fairy tales. And we read comics together, even though I’m not allowed to read the current Captain America ones. Mom says the guy in charge of those is a racist and a bad writer,” he said definitively.

“Well, I can’t argue with that. And I guess it makes sense you’d enjoy reading. How about Harry Potter?”

Henry gave her another one of those looks, the ones where she knew he saw way too much for an eleven-year-old. “You don’t have to interview me, you know. We can just talk like normal people.”

It was her turn to feel sheepish, but she acknowledged his point with a nod. “Sorry, kid. I’m kind of out of my depths here. I’ve never…”

“Talked to the long-lost son you gave up for adoption after he showed up on your doorstep?”

“Something like that.” She looked at him, stunned, and then her face relaxed as she answered him. The tension in the car dissipated and they sat in not-uncomfortable silence for a few minutes. Emma finally broke the silence. “So...what made you choose now? Like, why start looking for me now?”

He shrugged and looked out the window.

Emma had always been good about telling when someone was lying to her, and her spidey-senses were screaming that something was bothering Henry. She took her eyes off the road long enough to shoot him a concerned look.

“What is it? You can tell me.”

Henry sighed and let his shoulders sag. “It’s, well, I’ve always wanted to find you, ever since I found out I was adopted. I wanted to ask you about why, and what happened, and all the usual stuff.”

Emma’s hands tightened around the wheel as some of the tension crept back in with Henry’s words. Unsure of how to answer him or how much she wanted to say, she tried to mask her own concern and worry by picking up her mug and taking a sip of her hot chocolate. She took a deep breath, realizing he hadn’t answered her question. Looking over at him, she raised an eyebrow.

“Fine, fine,” he muttered. “Everything is good, mostly. My mom is doing her best for me, but she’s really tense lately and has been kind of...snappish. And whenever I’m alone, I--I feel like someone’s watching me,” Henry said, rushing over his words and dropping his head, turning to face back out the window.

Emma bit her lip. He had obviously been holding this in for a while. Judging from the nervous glances he was giving her, he was clearly afraid she wouldn’t believe him, would think he was making it up. Or worse, was paranoid enough to believe it. And honestly, she wasn’t sure what to think.

“Hmm.”

“I’m not crazy, you know. I go see Dr. Hopper once every two weeks, but that’s because my mom is worried about me being lonely and dealing with being adopted.”

“Oh,” she said lamely, realizing she had no response to offer that would be enough. Or maybe she did. “Henry...I gave you up because I was seventeen and in jail. I had no way of knowing my life would work out at all, and I was a mess. I wanted to give you your best chance.”

“And...and you didn’t think that was with you?”

“Kid, I may look like I have my life together, but that’s only been in the last couple of years. I lived in an extra room behind a diner for a few years and spent time getting bruised chasing down people skipping out on their bail. It wouldn’t have anything like what Regina was able to give you. Comfort, comics, and healthy food? I wouldn’t have been able to do that, not for a long time.”

By now he was looking at her again, and the confusion and pain in his eyes were almost as bad as him not looking at her. “So you don’t regret it, then? Giving me up?”

Emma hesitated. “I thought about you nearly every day. But, Henry--you have a comfortable, happy home with a mother who obviously cares about you a lot. I can’t promise you that either of us would be as well off if I’d kept you,” she said, noting how his face had fallen. She continued, “But I can also tell you I’m not angry you found me, okay? I--it’s weird for me, sure, but seeing you, and how much you’ve grown into a smart, tenacious kid--it’s a good thing.”

As she choked up at the end of her speech, a hint of a smile began to pull at Henry’s mouth. He bit his lip and nodded at her. “Okay.”

“Okay?” She was still in turmoil, but she began to calm down as she blinked away those obnoxious tears that were trying to escape her eyes.

“Yeah. And I’ve never read or seen Harry Potter.”

“What?! Now that is something we need to fix.”

&&&

It was just after ten when they pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant where Emma had arranged to meet Regina. After the earlier heaviness of their conversation, the rest of the ride had been passed in lighter discussion, mostly about things the other needed to watch or read, and who their favorite superheroes were. Emma hadn’t lied--Henry was a cool kid.

As she stepped out of the Bug, she straightened her shirt and tugged at the bottom of her red leather jacket. She so hoped this meeting wouldn’t be as fraught and awkward as she was afraid it would be.

She took a deep breath and asked, “Ready, Henry?”

Holding up his backpack, he nodded. “Yep. Oh, Mom’s here,” he said, pointing at the black Mercedes they passed as they walked towards the restaurant.

“Cool, great,” Emma replied, holding the door open for Henry. They craned their heads until they finally saw Regina. She met their eyes as soon as they found her at the table, obviously having watched them make their way in from her seat by the window.

She stood and made her way over. “Henry!” She did a surprisingly graceful little jog over and wrapped her arms around him while Emma stood by watching. Henry patted her back awkwardly and stepped away.

Regina finally turned to Emma. “Miss Swan.”

“Ms. Mills?” She hated the note of uncertainty in her voice, as she’d always been “Regina” before, but then, they’d never met in a context quite like this one.

“Shall we go to the table? I imagine we have a lot to discuss,” she said, standing up straighter and remaining expressionless.

Emma envied her her composure. “Sure.”

They all slid into their spots in the booth, Henry next to Regina and Emma across from them.

She took a deep breath. “First, I’m so sorry for any distress you might have had to deal with last night and this morning. I can’t imagine…”

“I’m sure you can’t,” Regina shot back, gesturing for the servers to bring over coffee. As they filled Emma’s mug and re-filled Regina’s, she turned to Henry. “Sweetie, what were you thinking? How did you get the money?”

Henry muttered in a barely audible voice, “I might have borrowed your credit card.”

Regina sniffed. “And lied to me, your teachers, and Mrs. Canfield.”

He dropped his head sheepishly. “That too.”

Emma met Regina’s gaze without flinching as she looked to her again. “And you? You didn’t know about any of this?”

“I didn’t,” Emma said, staring Regina down, anger bubbling at the unspoken accusation. “I agreed to a closed adoption eleven years ago and have held to the terms of that. I had no idea Henry was in the northeast, let alone that he’d show up at my doorstep in Boston. Or that he was your son,” she added.

Regina stared back, weighing her words. Then she nodded. “While you cavorted with your editor.”

Emma bristled. “We’re both adults, and there’s nothing in our contracts forbidding it.”

“Relax, Ms. Swan. While I’m not thrilled about Henry’s little escapade,” she said with a quelling glance at him that had Emma fighting down a giggle when he looked between the two of them. “At least he was with two people I’ve run background checks on.” She paused. “Though yours certainly was missing a few details.”

“The beauty of sealed court records,” she replied with a tight smile.

The server came back to take their orders, and Emma gave an internal sigh of relief at the reprieve. Yes, eggs benedict was just what she needed to make it through this breakfast.

Taking a deep drag of her coffee, she did her best to smile a real smile. “Henry was really polite and a great guest. You’ve clearly done a good job with him.”

Finally Regina’s tough veneer cracked and she softened almost imperceptibly. “Thank you.” With a fond glance at Henry, she continued, “he...he’s everything to me.”

He looked back up at her. “Mom, I promise Emma didn’t know. About any of it. I just always kind of wanted to know--”

“Why she gave you up?”

Emma gritted her teeth at the blunt question. “Which I answered.”

“Henry, would you mind giving Ms. Swan and me a moment?”

“Uh, nope. I’m just going to run over to the lobby and look at the flyers real quick.” His raised eyebrows and awkward expression as he fled would have made her laugh in any other setting.

Emma turned to face Regina as soon as Henry was out of sight. “Okay, what’s your deal? I handled the situation to the best of my ability. When your son, the son who I gave up over a decade ago--and who was given to you, as per legal agreement, showed up on my doorstep out of the blue, I told him to call you and did what I could to get him back to you.”

Regina eyed her suspiciously. “And I’m supposed to believe that you had no knowledge I was the one who adopted Henry? That you didn’t work to get published by my company to get closer to your son? What are the fucking odds?”

“I don’t know about the odds, but I had no idea. I’ve mostly worked with August, and he was the one who brought me on. I’ve met you a grand total of what, four times? I kind of knew you had a kid, but had no idea he was adopted or anything,” Emma spat out, her arms crossed tightly.

The servers interrupted the moment, bringing their food. They hurried away as quickly as they could, but the moment allowed both women to compose themselves.

“I--perhaps you’re right, Ms. Swan--Emma. I have a hard time believing in this kind of coincidence, but maybe--well, you strike me as an abysmal liar, so I think you’re telling the truth.”

She blinked in surprise that Regina seemed to believe her, but then continued. “And you didn’t know? I’d have thought with your resources...I don’t know, maybe you wanted to keep an eye on me?” It was blowing her mind to think that all of this, all these ties, was a coincidence.

Regina snorted. “No, I’d have kept you far, far away, if I could have. If I had known.”

Emma raised an eyebrow, her arms still crossed over her chest.

“Look, I wasn’t lying, Henry is the most important person in my life. I enjoy my job, and I’m good at it, but I have no one other than him. When my husband passed away, I was all alone.  Until Henry came along. I...I love him, and I don’t want you to take him away.” Regina stared at her, her vulnerability clear in her eyes.

Emma loosened her hold on her arms, softening a little. “I can kind of understand that, but I didn’t even know anything about him until last night. I’m not going to try to take him away from you.” She stopped and looked down at her plate a moment before looking back at Regina again. “I wouldn’t mind getting to know him, though, but maybe we should eat first.”

Regina nodded, composing herself. “You’re right. An empty stomach is never a good thing. Henry,” she called, motioning him over.

Hopefully he hadn’t seen the, uh, tiff, Emma thought with an internal sigh.

Henry slid back into the booth and they all started in on their meals, silence overtaking the table as they dug in. Maybe the tension had been hunger, after all, she thought

When they were almost done, Regina finally broke the silence. “If Emma agrees, Henry, would you like to exchange phone numbers so you two can chat? Get to know each other?”

Henry looked up, his eyes gleaming. “Really? Yeah! I’d love that!”

Emma chuckled, and even Regina smiled a little as Henry slid his phone over to Emma.

“Okay, kid, here’s my number. And maybe I’ll be able to see you around, if your Mom agrees to it.”

Regina shrugged, gritting her teeth and glaring at Emma pointedly. Don’t push it, her eyes seemed to say.

Henry hugged Emma briefly when they said goodbye for the day and then went to Regina’s car. Regina paused before following him, turning back to where Emma stood at the diner entrance. “I may...I’m willing to let you and Henry talk, and if things go well, spend some time together. But I need to know more, to know that there’s nothing worse in those court-sealed records.”

She tensed, annoyed that Regina continued to assume the worst. “I’ll tell you what I need to for Henry, but I’d appreciate it if you’d stop threatening me,” Emma said, walking toward the Bug briskly. This conversation was over.

&&&

The conversation may have been over, but the emotional exhaustion of the day had only started to take its toll. Emma had to stop at one of those shitty roadside Starbucks on her way back to Boston, and she considered stopping for a nap but she just wanted to get home. As soon as she got to her apartment, she shucked off her jacket and changed back into lounge clothes.

She needed to relax, she needed to think...and she needed to call Killian. Picking up her phone, she pulled up his number and waited for him to pick up.

“Swan? How’s it going?”

Emma let out the breath she was holding, smiling even though he couldn’t see her. “Hey. It’s been...a day. How are you?”

“Enjoying my Saturday, though saddened not to be spending it with you,” he said, and she blushed at his low, intimate tone.

“I wish I’d been able to do that instead of talking about...past stuff with my son and his mother.”

“That does sound tiring. Anything I can do to take your mind off of it?”

She could practically hear his grin through the phone. “As delightful as that sounds, I’m going to have to take a rain check on that today .I’m exhausted, and I want a nap. And then to get a little writing done,” she said.

“Ah, especially if we have a conversation of our own to have.”

“Yep. Listen, are you free Tuesday? Or maybe Wednesday?” She wasn’t thrilled at the idea of the upcoming conversation, but if they had any hope of exploring this...thing between them, she knew they had to. She just wished sharing thoughts and feelings came more easily to her.

“Aye, I can do Tuesday evening. Shall we do dinner again?”

Emma climbed into her bed. “Sure, as long as we keep it casual and do take-out. My place?”

Killian chuckled. “Deal, but make it my place and I’ll prepare something for us.”

“I can do that. See you around 7?”

“Indeed. Enjoy your rest, Emma.”

“Later, Killian,” she said, hanging up, a goofy smile on her face.

The momentary joy faded, though, when she thought back on her talk with Regina. She could tell Regina wasn’t lying to her about not knowing of their connection, but she didn’t trust her. Between Henry’s concerns and her busy life, she bore watching.

[alienhazy]

happy evening with the two loves of my life

[junker-town]

Kris Dunn is a dying breed in today’s NBA. That’s why he’s so fascinating

Kris Dunn has remade himself as a premier defensive stopper.

The Bulls guard can be the Tony Allen of his generation in the right setting.

On the night Kris Dunn suffered a knee injury that will likely end his season, I sat by his locker to chat about defense. Considering no guard in the NBA has been better at it this season, the topic made sense.

We talked about how he tries to thrive off his own aggression instead of being punished for it:

“The league is kind of wanting the offense to play more free, it allows the game to not be as physical. But at the same time that’s who I am. Sometimes the refs allow Patrick Beverley to be who he is. That’s what I try to build, that’s what I’m going to keep building on throughout my years. So once year seven hits, I can get away with some stuff.”

The dark arts that go into learning his opponent’s specific tendencies:

“A lot of guys who are righties like to go left to be able to get to their jump shot, and a lot of people who are righties like to go downhill to their right side. But if you’re a righty, most likely you like to go left. I just feel like you just have, you know, more in your bag of tricks going left. If you’re a lefty, most of the time they like going right. It’s just how they do it.

I like to break down to see what’s their go-to move. Some people when they come down the court, if they have the ball in their left hand, they’re getting ready to shoot. If they have the ball in their right hand, they’re ready to drive.”

The power of fear:

“I think the body language says it all. I could read somebody’s body language and know if they’re confident, know if they’re feeling themself. And I can read the body language if they’re showing fear. And once I see the fear, that’s when I try to take it.

From my perspective, I fear no one. That’s kind of my niche. I fear no one and I actually like the challenge. Even if someone’s scoring on me. You know because there’s going to be guards that have a great day. They’re talented. But I like that. And I’ll be ready the next time we play against each other. I just like it. It gets me going.”

And player comparisons:

“I feel like Tony Allen, he just fits what I do. He’ll pounce on you. He was strong, physical. I think he could guard 1 through 3, even fours. I feel like I can guard some fours sometimes. I feel like that’s a good comparison because he’s got that dog, he’s got that bloodhound in him.”

Dunn’s season-long defensive impact was, to be frank, spectacular. He thrived in Jim Boylen’s tight-rope-walk of a defensive scheme, torpedoing passing lanes, living in his man’s jersey, and never giving up on a possession.

For most defenders, including Dunn, a majority of his defensive possessions are spent off the ball, and it’s here where his knowledge, instincts, and timing swirl up into a typhoon that the offense then has to navigate.

“He’s an all-defensive defender if I’ve ever seen one, and I’ve seen a few of them,” Boylen said right before the injury. “Paul George, Kawhi Leonard. He’s an All-Defensive guy.”

Here’s a brief statistical summary of Dunn’s season:

• Dunn is second overall in defensive real plus-minus, trailing only LeBron James. Which means he’s first among all guards.

• 538’s catch-all RAPTOR—an on/off metric that factors tracking data into its calculation—also has him first among all guards on the defensive end, and first among all Bulls overall.

• The Bulls allowed 6.4 fewer points per 100 possessions with Dunn on the court, and when he played they had the league’s second-best defense.

• He’s fourth in deflections per game, and the only player in the top 11 who averaged fewer than 25 minutes a night.

• He held pick-and-roll ball-handlers to 0.71 points per possession, one of the best marks in the league.

• Among all players who logged at least 20 minutes per game, Dunn led all in the percentage of his points that came off a turnover, at a whopping 29.3 percent. It’s reminiscent of prime Allen—who used to live near the top of the league in this category—and more than doubled his production from the previous year.

All this was wonderful, but there was something else worth unpacking that made Dunn’s evolution worth keeping an eye on: Not only was he a lock to make his first All-Defensive team and maybe even collect a few votes for Defensive Player of the Year, but before Thaddeus Young’s head collided into his knee, Dunn was also starting to epitomize a once-beloved, increasingly scarce character in NBA circles: the rugged ball hawk whose offensive flaws often overshadow everything else.

Circling back to the Tony Allen comparison for a second, he’s a fascinating likeness who gets at the heart of Dunn’s place in a sport that, for the most part, is evicting players who don’t space the floor for their teammates. Regardless of how great any guard or wing is on defense, their contributions on one side of the ball can’t inoculate their team from a broken jump shot.

As a restricted free agent-to-be, this deficiency is where the rubber meets the road for Dunn. Since he was drafted, only eight players have a worse three-point percentage (minimum 400 attempts); right now he’s only at 24.1 percent when wide open. Opponents ignore him as dramatically as any perimeter player in the league. So do his own teammates.

Going forward, it’s hard to reward someone who’s an obvious minus on offense. Dunn was drafted in 2016 but is also way older than you probably think (26 in a couple months, aka two weeks younger than Marcus Smart, who was drafted in 2014.) There’s reason for that delay, but it still doesn’t help his case for inevitable improvement.

This year was also the first time Dunn’s team was A) good on defense with him on the court and B) better on defense when he played vs. when he did not. It’s not that he came out of nowhere on that end, but some of his tenaciousness had yet to result in play that actually affected his team’s bottom line.

Without an outside shot there’s a cap on how good he can be. But that doesn’t mean he can’t find the right situation at the right price this summer. His field goal percentage at the rim spiked to 65 percent this year, which should raise some eyebrows around the league even if some of that improvement is thanks to gimmes created by his own defense.

Dunn also cut back on the pull-up jumpers that infested his shot profile earlier in his career, which matters. He can be useful in a role that realizes what he is, and what he can and can’t do.

For Dunn, defense is about survival. For minutes, a role, a career. The tone-setting havoc he lets loose in every second the opposing team has possession is what can make him valuable to a good team—less one in Chicago’s perpetually hopeless condition—that either has faith in rehabilitating his shot or can play him in lineups that have plenty of shooting elsewhere.

There are playmaking chops that might have use as the general of a capable bench unit, too. At the mid-level exception, he’d be an intriguing investment for several teams that boast a solid infrastructure, confidence in its player development program, and thirst for more/some defensive fervency, including the Toronto Raptors, San Antonio Spurs, Portland Trail Blazers, and Denver Nuggets.

Dunn won’t ever be the player Chicago thought it was getting when it acquired him alongside Zach LaVine and Lauri Markkanen in a franchise-stunting blockbuster that shipped Jimmy Butler to the Minnesota Timberwolves. He was supposed to be their point guard of the future but, instead, his faulty shot motivated upper management to look elsewhere. They took Coby White with the seventh pick in last year’s draft, and any further investment in Dunn probably wouldn’t make any sense.

There’s always the chance he signs a qualifying offer and re-enters free agency as an unrestricted free agent in 2021, but that path is rare for a reason. As someone who’s injury prone, Dunn may want to take as much guaranteed money as he can get this summer, in a marketplace with very few legitimate options at his position. Fred VanVleet, Goran Dragic, D.J. Augustin, Reggie Jackson, Rajon Rondo, Jeff Teague. These are the most notable free agent point guards available this summer. VanVleet is already priced way out of the mid-level exception and even though Dragic’s situation with the Heat may be more delicate than it seems—assuming he wants multiple years on his deal—let’s say they come to an agreement. Everyone else on this list is either on the downslope of their career or trending in the wrong direction.

Dunn won’t make sense everywhere — he needs the right role, the right system, and a team at the right stage of their development — but a good fit will exist somewhere, one that can hopefully showcase his defensive tools in a winning environment.. Dunn isn’t perfect, but before his season all but ended in Brooklyn, he altered his own trajectory by steadying a once-promising career that up until now was too rocky to bet on.

[sarcasticjuiceboxes]

@squishy-do tagged me. Bless you <3 

Rules: Answer the 10 questions I give you. Tag 10 people and give them new questions to answer as well. I honest to god can’t think of any questions or people right now, I’m sorry.

Who would you have a duet with in exo?

(I may have a list of songs I’d like to sing with PCY)

What are your favorite EXO performances?

This, this, this, and this , but then again, they slay every song live soooo 

Who is your Bias in Exo and name one thing you really love about them

Because I’m a hoe I can’t make up my mind, so I’ll be fair

First bias: Sehun; What I love about him: his sense of humour

Current bias: Yixing; What I love about him: everything. You can’t not love everything about this boy

Life ruiner: Chanyeol; What I love about him: I will spare you the read because I’d write over 100k words

What’s your favorite anime/manga and movie

Anime/manga: Durarara (everyone should watch this and then rewatch it and then rewatch it again)

Movie: Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny, closely followed by Kingsman

What’s your favorite Exo song

Probably The Star, although I’m trash for like...their entire discography

What’s your favorite Exo dance move?

When the beat drops in Dancing King and they drop with it. Amazing beautiful fantastic breathtaking

Did you watch Hyung? Other movie/drama that you watched with an exo member

I did watch Hyung and I thought it was going to be a cutesy comedy and then the feels hit and I cried my ass off. Soo’s acting didn’t help at all. 

Other stuff I watched (OT12):

I Remember You/Hello Monster with Ksoo

EXO Next Door

Cart also with Ksoo

xXx: The Return of Xander Cage with Kris

Railroad Tigers with Tao

The Great Wall with Luhan

Missing 9 with Chanyeol

I still have to watch the rest of Ksoo’s stuff, Scarlet Heart Ryeo, Andante (when it airs), and Seondal: The Man Who Sells The River with Xiumin

Favorite Exo album

Exodus

Favorite kdrama

I can’t choose so I’m gonna name the ones which messed me up the most: Goblin, 38 Task Force, I Remember You, Defendant

Who’s your dream Exo subunit?

Chansoo or ChanSeKai

[ixvyupdates]

We Need to Keep Talking About Serena Williams and the Dignity of Black Children

By now we’ve all seen the headlines after the most recent U.S. Open in which Serena Williams lost to Naomi Osaka. Yet the headlines weren’t about the match itself, they were about the courtside dispute between Serena and a referee.

During that moment I held my breath as the camera zoomed in on Serena, close enough to hear her demanding an apology, which she rightfully deserved. As she shouted over the crowd, I thought, “Don’t lose control, Serena! They’ll only peg you as an Angry Black Woman!”

That inevitable accusation came anyway, in a torrent of tweets immediately following the showdown, as well as in a racially charged cartoon.

Educators can learn a lot about themselves from this controversy, particularly how they succeed—or fail—in empowering Black children to advocate for themselves with dignity.

The backlash following Serena’s controversy boils down to one thing: a very real fear of Black people having too much dignity.

By dignity, I don’t mean arrogance, just self-respect. Any bit of dignity a Black person displays can be seen as a threat to the legacy of a racial hierarchy wherein Black people have a “place” at the bottom of the totem pole.

When a Black person’s self-esteem seems unscathed by the messages of racial inferiority all around them, many perceive their tenacious confidence as aggressiveness or pretentiousness. Even the most modest and personable Black folks are still liable to get humbled, if their self-assuredness garners too much praise or recognition. The relentless attempts to undermine Barack Obama’s presidency proved this.

As Kris Kristofferson says in the song “Jesus Was A Capricorn,” “Everybody’s got to have somebody to look down on, who they can feel better than at any time they please.”

At a young age, Black children internalize this idea that they aren’t worthy of loving and being proud of themselves. Yet, despite this, Serena’s father made it a point to shield her dignity and self-esteem.

In this clip from a 1995 interview, a journalist presses 14-year-old Serena for any sign of self-doubt concerning the friendly sibling rivalry between herself and Venus, her older tennis champion sister—and her father shut him down.

“You think you can beat her?” the reporter asks.

“I know I can beat her,” Serena responds.

“You know you can beat her? Very confident,” he says.

She nods, replying, “I’m very confident.”

“You say it so easily. Why?” Without missing a beat, Serena snaps back, “’Cause I believe it.”

Suddenly, Serena’s father emerges from behind the set. “All right, stop right there if you don’t mind. And let me tell you why. What she said, she said it with so much confidence the first time, but you keep going on and on an on.”

“But we can’t keep interrupting…,” the frustrated reporter says, cutting off Serena’s father. A big mistake.

“You’ve got to understand that you’re dealing with the image of a 14-year-old child. And this child gon’ be out there playing when your old a– and me gonna be in the grave,” Serena’s father shouts, pounding his chest and hovering over the reporter.

“You’re dealing with a little Black kid, and let her be a kid. She done answered it with a lot of confidence. Leave that alone!”

You See It in the Classroom

In my work, I’ve witnessed a number of situations where educators have spoken negatively about Black children—or spoken down to them—with the exact same patronizing tone.

An academic advisor persuading an ambitious but struggling Black student to drop advanced courses, without first identifying their strengths or devising an academic support plan.

A Black parent requesting that a teacher recalculate a report card grade, only to be told that their child should be happy to have earned a B.

A teacher encouraging a Black student to “be realistic,” by applying to more safety schools than dream colleges.

Popular Black athletes stereotyped as self-absorbed jocks with a chip on their shoulder, despite being congenial and respectful.

In all of these circumstances, Black students confronted pushback—just like Serena—for having the dignity to strive to be exceptional, or to advocate themselves.

Whether these educators—as well as Serena’s referee—were aware of their motives or not, their negative assumptions and expectations derived from implicit biases about the status of Black culture and Black people’s “place” in society.

These educators conflated the ambition, dignity and self-respect of their Black students with feelings of superiority. Yet many of them admired and encouraged White students for displaying these same aforementioned traits.

The Problem for Black Girls

Specifically in regard to Black girls, I’ve observed implicit bias play out in disciplinary disputes that left a mark on their permanent records.

One recurring example involved authority figures declining to resolve conflicts between Black girls with mediation or restorative justice—just severe punishment for all parties involved. If Black girls challenged this verdict, they were reprimanded for having an attitude or talking back.

“Push Out: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools,” as well as a plethora of educational research, substantiates this stereotyping of Black girls. They pay a price for speaking up in schools.

Furthermore, because the majority of research on the school-to-prison pipeline focuses on Black boys, most educators don’t know that Black girls are 5.5 times more likely to get suspended than White girls, and are also more likely to receive multiple suspensions, compared to students of any other gender or race.

This reality is the same reason why many people exaggerated Serena’s assertiveness, despite a long history of White male tennis stars going ballistic on referees, without half as much press or scandal.

A recent video from Rebel Girls that proves this double standard.

On top of stereotypes about Black girls being confrontational, school dress codes often punish Black girls most severely, and there a number of cases of Black girls who have gotten suspended or expelled for wearing cultural hairstyles.

And it seems that they can’t win, no matter what. There are Black girls who stay home from school, out of embarrassment about their natural hair, when they can’t get an appointment with their beautician over the weekend. They don’t go back until their hair is “done.” Even then, it’s often “done” in styles that some schools have banned, like braids and twists, which smooth down curly, kinky and afro-textured hair.

The price that Black girls pay for taking pride in their appearance is often written off as being rebellious or unruly, even considering that assimilation and conformity to Eurocentric beauty standards is almost always the goal. It’s a lose-lose situation.

Wake Up, Teachers

Educators must realize that so many of us make assumptions about Black children that strip them of dignity and innocence. A recent study even explored how adultification causes adults to see Black girls as less innocent and less worthy of protection than White girls.

Another study among kindergarten teachers found that the faces of Black boys could activate the same region of the brain associated with rapid detection of danger.

Based on what I’ve seen in schools and on the news, Black children aren’t afforded a childhood, because adults, whether cops or teachers, fear them and rarely handle them with care. Adults play hardball with Black children, whether or not they follow the rules.

So many educators fail to realize that Black children do not have thicker skin. By undermining Black students’ self-esteem—by either putting them down or punishing them—educators are only compounding the relentless indignity that Black children and youth face out in the world, at an age when they have yet to develop the coping skills to process the psychological toll of racism.

It’s no wonder, then, that so many Black students feel disconnected.

Fellow educators, it should disturb us that so many Black children feel humiliated by us, silenced by us, stereotyped by us, underestimated by us, undermined by us. They deserve so much more than we are offering them.

A conversation about how schools perpetuate a culture that disempowers Black children and youth, within and outside of school, is long overdue. At the heart of that conversation should be our own self-reflection about how we are often the culprit.

And if it takes Serena’s bold example to start that conversation, then let’s begin now.

Photo courtesy of Serena Williams/Facebook.

We Need to Keep Talking About Serena Williams and the Dignity of Black Children syndicated from https://sapsnkraguide.wordpress.com

[inbonobo]

The #Winnipeg #Police Service won’t say why it didn't lay #charges in the cases of 10 #lawyers referred to police by the #law society.

The Law Society of Manitoba referred 10 cases involving lawyers who wrongly took money from clients to the Winnipeg Police Service over a six-year period, but not one resulted in criminal charges.

All 10 lawyers were disbarred because of their conduct. In total, they misappropriated more than $1.9 million, in amounts ranging from $5,000 to nearly $1 million.

Lawyers misappropriated millions from clients' funds but few faced criminal charges

Click to see 10 Manitoba lawyers whose discipline cases were sent to police

The Winnipeg Police Service declined an interview.

"If they were the subject of a criminal investigation and no charges resulted then we would be legally bound to not divulge this," the police service said in an email statement.

There are many ways lawyers can misappropriate money from a client, including helping themselves to clients' trust funds, keeping money that belonged to a deceased client's estate, mishandling client funds, charging for services not provided and charging fees that were so unreasonable they constituted misconduct.

"The law society reported these matters to the police because it is our statutory responsibility under the provisions of the Legal Profession Act to report possible criminal activity," Law Society of Manitoba CEO Kris Dangerfield wrote to the CBC in an email.

Howard Tennenhouse is among the disbarred lawyers the law society referred to police. He misappropriated $960,000 from 55 residential school survivors. Many of his clients were unaware of the misappropriation, the law society said.

Law society records say Tennenhouse intimidated clients who complained to the law society about his conduct, lied about continuing to meet with clients after he was suspended and, in one case, walked into a bank with a client and instructed the client to take out a bank draft of $27,607.50, which Tennenhouse then deposited into an account in Tennenhouse's wife's name.

In the end, Tennenhouse pleaded guilty to seven counts of professional misconduct and was disbarred in February 2012.

The law society repaid the residential school survivors almost all of the nearly $1 million Tennenhouse had overcharged. It later recouped those payments in full from Tennenhouse, the law society said.

"I've nothing to be ashamed of, to be afraid of. I committed no crime. And no charges have been laid," Tennenhouse told the CBC. "It was a civil matter, a fee dispute. And it was very political in nature, the whole fee dispute, and I don't want to go into it."

Native school survivors' lawyer disbarred

Lawyers exploiting native school survivors, says group

The law society first delivered a copy of its discipline decision file to then Winnipeg police Chief Keith McCaskill in April 2012, two months after Tennenhouse was disbarred.

A second copy of the paperwork was sent to Winnipeg police by the law society in November 2012, after police told another media outlet the file had not been assigned to the commercial crime unit.

The law society said it did not hear anything further about the case until October 2016, when the Crown's special prosecutions unit asked the law society for copies of the documents it sent to police in 2012.

Tennenhouse said he was contacted by police late in 2016 about the matter, nearly five years after he was disbarred.

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10 Manitoba lawyers misappropriated nearly $2M but face no criminal charges2:52

'There was a mess-up'

"Why didn't you do it five years ago when I was disbarred, or after that? But for whatever reason it appears to me that it got lost in the shuffle," Tennenhouse said. "There was a mess-up. There was obviously a mess-up."

It's unclear whether charges will be laid, but Tennenhouse said after meeting with police, he's confident there will be no criminal charges.

"They said their investigation was ongoing. It was apparent to me that ... they did not have this file in their hands for very long, and what they had in their hands was not much," he said.

A CBC analysis of lawyer discipline records over six years, from 2010 to the end of 2015, shows 220 lawyers across Canada were disciplined for misappropriating $160 million. Only 19 faced criminal charges in that time period.

John Sliter, the former head of the RCMP white collar crimes unit, isn't surprised.

"What happens is they simply rely on regulation to solve the problem for them. In other words, if they've been dealt with by the law society, political masters and police managers will feel that will suffice," said Sliter, who was a police officer for 35 years.

John Sliter, former head of RCMP commercial crime unit, says it takes the most tenacious and motivated police officer to follow through on complaints against lawyers. (CBC)

"With lawyers it even gets increasingly difficult. First of all, there's that veil dealing with solicitor-client privilege. And for the investigators, when they are matched with perpetrators who are better educated, have more expertise, legal expertise, and more financial resources, the challenge becomes that much more daunting," Sliter said. "It takes the most tenacious and highly motivated officer to follow through."

Sliter believes change must come from the victims.

"I think the victims in those cases should be stepping forward and demanding justice, and that's what it would take — stepping forward and saying, 'Hey, I don't care if they are well-dressed, sophisticated business people. They are criminals and I want them to go to jail.' "

Three of the disbarred Manitoba lawyers said police have never contacted them.

'Police should investigate': lawyer

Lawrence Cherrett, one of the lawyers whose discipline file was sent to police by the law society, said police should get involved.

"My view is the police should investigate and make their own determination," he said.

"They have to prove all the elements of a crime and they have to have a strong case. I feel there are some people who haven't been prosecuted who probably should have been."

His own case, however, did not merit criminal charges, he said, which he believes is why he was not contacted by police about it.

He was disbarred in 2015 for purposefully misappropriating $20,000 from a client's trust funds. Cherrett said he fought the disbarment because it was not an intentional act but something that happened when he was not functioning properly due to health issues he was suffering.

Winnipeg lawyer David Bradley disbarred

David Bradley was disbarred in 2016 after the law society found he misappropriated more than $21,000.

"It appears he did not do so in the sense of putting the money into his own pocket, but he clearly did so as a means to cover up his previous lies," the discipline committee said in its decision.

Bradley said he was never contacted by police.

There is one Manitoba lawyer who was criminally charged in the last six years for stealing money from a client.

Robert Fisher was sentenced to seven months in jail in 2015 after forging documents and stealing $75,000 from a client's estate. In that case, it wasn't the law society that brought the case to police, but the family of the victim.

(via 10 Manitoba lawyers misappropriated nearly $2M but face no criminal charges - Manitoba - CBC News)