#and wasting away because this was before prison standard regulations

[rametarin]

Capitalism is not inherently bad.

There’s nothing inherent to capitalism that says it will be only interested in profit, at the expense of everything else. No more than the idea society will always turn you into a prisoner just for society existing.

In fact, it is through good faith regulations and sensible practices in law that capitalism is the superior system. Provided certain parties are not imposing rules and regulation on it that don’t exist for ideologically driven moralism, but practical and pragmatic safety, then the system works perfectly.

However, take the example of the ‘enormous truck’ in the United States. Smaller trucks used to be more popular state-size. Do you know what happened?

People that hate trucks decided those ‘darned truck drivers’ needed to go away. So they made it impossible to affordably have a little truck. In the interests of, “emissions standards,” they had the government penalize truck manufacturers and truck sellers, so if they tried to make and sell small trucks, they had to pay a large fee. They could still sell them, they just had to pay the government more to do so to offset what they were told was some bogus emissions problem.

But the thing is, the charge is bogus. What wound up happening because of shitty, bad faith policy because of people that don’t like trucks, was people decided to get more truck for their money, as the artificial penalty just for selling a truck that they tried to normalize to naturally select out trucks from the market, just meant consumers bought bigger trucks to get more truck for their dollar. The truck buyers and sellers had no reason NOT to push for bigger trucks, which ironically used more fuel to move more truck and more people elsewhere. And were less useful for a working man to move things.

This is why the American truck got so big. It wasn’t “YEE HAW” 10 pound Texas shaped belt buckle Americans just deciding to overcompensate alone, it was helped by people who hated a product and hated the culture of people that consumed it, trying to train them out of having a product by artificially making it more expensive. Not too dissimilar from trying to price out Asian or Hispanic foods, purely to try and “Anglicize” them, or something. Put that way, doesn’t it just strike you as disgusting someone would politicize something that’s supposed to be practical and good faith, like emissions standards, purely to penalize a product that they don’t like and attack both the culture and wallets of people they hate to make them change against their will?

But you can’t call that the fault of capitalism. Small trucks and their consumption existed BEFORE these overly expensive regulations. Expensive automobiles hurt the poor. And they’re used to try and incentivize communities and societies investing (with tax dollars, against their will) in public transport. But expensive automobiles are exactly what a lot of this shit tries to impose, extra-financially. With arbitrary environmental tax.

This isn’t a failure of capitalism, it’s a failure of respecting peoples choices and good faith policy. This is entirely a failure on the civic side, exploiting currency and finances for its own benefit. This is a failure of governance.

In a proper expression of a capitalist system, the government is still there to enact poliies and use bureaus to develop legislation and apply it, but certain people that do not like capitalism wouldn’t be there to punish things that just so happen to align with anti-capitalist ideological values. Like hating automobiles for being personal means of conveyance, and pushing for state or federally owned transportation systems.

Environmentalism itself is not the great big weapon and limiter that certain people hope it will be, necessitating heavy government hands over industry for extra taxation and draconian controls. Because industry can micromanage everything from particulate waste to sequestration. From the forge, to the dump, everything that is produced can be taken apart and recycled without forever lasting byproducts.

It’s not a matter of inevitability, it’s a matter of technology and knowledge to be able to mitigate and transmute, innovate. And then with industry standards and regulatory bodies, there won’t be pollution or environmental contamination to worry about, because one doesn’t need to worry about the radioactivity of a tapioca pudding explosion or the caustic results of a spill of baby powder- because those substances are by nature benign and harmless.

To some, capitalism is synonymous with smog spewing factories and radioactive green sludge on every corner. Those same people have the audacity to moan and whine about “propaganda” and “the red scare” when it comes to anti-capitalism.

Capitalism is the superior system when you have good faith governance that isn’t trying to destroy capitalism or build up enough government capital and power to subvert and destroy capitalism. Because capitalism is financial democracy and liberty, when expressed and respected to its fullest extent.

And any complaint you can have about it can be summed up as, “criminals subverting the law that didn’t account for the manner in which they’re breaking it,” which is true for any system, ESPECIALLY anti-capitalist ones historically, and, “it doesn’t address the things I feel are social problems that society should be solving without money.”

Or the always classic, “I moved for the capitalist company to be corporatized and effectively made federally run, and then it got government protections and sponsorship to just do what it wanted. Therefore proving capitalism corrupts government.”

No. What you’re seeing there is the government wanted something and gave the company carte blanche to make it happen. You’re blaming capitalism for the government’s giving the company infinite resources to make what it demanded happen in regulations, happen, whether or not it was ethically or economically reasonable or possible. And blaming capitalism for that as the corrupting influence. When the reality is, when the government is behind a company, legally and/or financially, that is no longer a company existing in a system of private markets. That’s a socialized business. That’s a business that doesn’t have to adhere to the market economy ecosystem. That’s a bear in a forest with infinite food to grow fat and strong, among bears that have to find their own food and compete with that bear with supplementary fish that can not only eat all they want, but compete with bears that don’t get free protein and springwater. It has an unfair advantage in bear business.

Overly expensive domestic medical equipment? The fault of a socialized monopoly in the US.

Overly expensive pharmceuticals in the US? The results of a socialized corporate monopoly in the US

The necessity of insurance in the US? A symbiotic relationship between hospitals and insurers, necessitating socializing and putting people into programs to make medicine more affordable- and the fake ass “free market” of needing medical care but the price of medical care being tied to what people are capable of paying, changing this to what millions of people could pay.

So hospitals raise their prices to absurd amounts individually and can write their own checks, while insurance companies can talk them down with contracts and collective bargaining and get discounts. Our entire medical system is overly expensive because of this bogus socialist get-around of a buyer’s market designed to make it impossible for an individual to afford medicine, and the intervention came purely because it was signed into legislation that a person could not be turned away from medical help from the ER regardless of whether they could pay or not. So they’d get tens of thousands of dollars of help, whether or not they could pay tens of thousands of dollars for the care.

Multiply that by a few million times a year, over the course of sixty years. It was a change to the system designed to take consumer power out of it and defacto backdoor socialize it.

However, we can fix this. We could even make the necessity of insurance go away. We just need to kind of.. ‘finish’ medical research. Or get it to where the cost of researching the ins and outs of every single chemical and compound, every single new virus, can be mechanically and electronically researched with algorithms and instruments until what used to take years of careful human professional research could be rendered into data in days, hours, or seconds. And derived solutions from that, which then go into manufacturing of everything from retro virals to vaccines to medicines to fix it.

When you really examine the most expensive aspects of American life, they only superficially look like the result of capitalist excess. And attributing corporate greed to capitalism when the government demands results that CAN’T exist without easing the barriers between government and private business and weighs results at the cost of separation between them, thus incorporating the business and giving them economic overtures, is blaming a fat, bratty child for the negligence and abuse of a parent. The kid didn’t get that big and spoiled rotten without being enabled. Which is exactly what socialism is. The state and the government being the ultimate authority over business and capital and deciding where shit goes, and thus, the corruption of the state and those regulators being the ultimate arbiter of exactly how corrupt the system is. They get the demon they see in capitalism, through their own state ambitions.

But so long as we have ideologues that despise private property and despise that any one individual might succeed harder than a company entity with tens of thousands of employees behind it, and sees even the possibility an individual may possess a billion dollars as someone failing to tax it out of them as corruption and evil, we will never have good governance or economy. Their principles are short sighted, spite fueled, and suck. Seeing someone with a million dollars and grousing because they aren’t using that money for someone else is like seeing someone with enormous boobs and being mad that they aren’t letting you fondle them.

Heh. Finan-cels.

[crustaceousfaggot]

Okay someone explain to me why the first non-physical-pain-related thing to make me cry in almost a year was an angsty novella formatted as a love letter written in prison by a half-delirious Oscar Wilde. Like... The guy was kind of definitely a piece of shit, but damn did he know how to write. The emotions here. They are so emotion. One of the most honest and raw things I've read, while still being so evocative and floral. Like no wonder he's gone down in history.

#gross indecency #catch me getting sent to prison for consensual homosexual activity and #and wasting away because this was before prison standard regulations #and my only refuge being my writing #but I'm not allowed to write #so I format the entire thing as a love letter to my boyfriend #because letter writing was allowed #de profundis #oscar wilde #ramblings #wilde tag

[vore-scientist]

Return of the Dragon King pt 1: Prison Break

[A non-sexual high fantasy GT/vore story with both hard/fatal+ other fantasy violence and safe/soft]

This story is a prose adaptation of an RP between @vixen525 and I. It takes place in one of her worlds and features mostly her characters.

Summary/Pitch: Separated from Sophia by the evil (and illegitimate) Prince Nero, Yonah must rescue his princess from Nero's devious clutches. With a collection of quirky fantasy characters as allies, Yonah aims to bring an end to Nero's reign and return the rightful heir to the throne.

But before that, he must escape from one of Nero’s prisons.

Story General Warnings: Return of the Dragon King overall will contain hard/fatal vore (in an intense fantasy violence style) along with soft/safe (the good stuff). Themes of abuse and torture as well. (There may be one instance of soft fatal that if I ever get that far I’ll warn for that specifically but it’s so far off from this it may never get written down)

Chapter Specific Warnings: This chapter contains all the story general warnings. This is NOT the chapter with soft/fatal. It’s hard only. It very much treads the line between hard vore and just standard fantasy violence. This part contains a very brief mention of attempted (and failed) sexual assault.

Onto the story:

----

For the 20th night in a row Yonah was replaying the moment in his mind, and like the 19 times before, this time was slightly worse than before.

It started with merriment, feasting, dancing, joking. Then transitioned to screaming, to blood, to Sophia being dragged away and him unable to stop it. And finally ended with waking up here, on a hard stone floor, in a room with no windows, with cold metal around his ankles and a chain attached to a back corner. With a terrible pounding in his head and an indescribable weight upon his core.

While he wondered why it had happened. Why this diplomatic mission to another world had been under false pretenses, however it wasn’t really worth dwelling on. He wasn't going to get answers here. All that he knew was he had failed. He had failed to protect Sophia. His charge. His friend. His princess. She was taken and he had let it happen!

After his 5th day in the prison cell he had given up trying to escape. Whatever that pressure was, pushing on his core, it stopped his magic. He had woken up without his robe, staff, and hat. For a normal wizard that would be a problem, but Yonah HaEsh was half FireWitch in addition to half giant. He had his own natural magic! Surely he could melt the cuffs and bars.

Nope. He could see the air shimmer with heat around his hands. He was generating magic, but it seemed to be… negated as soon as he tried to release it. All it succeeded in doing was make him tired. And hungry.

He was so hungry. The prison guards were giving him just enough food and water to stay alive for reasons that were beyond him. So he spent most of his time laying on the floor. Conserving his energy. For what purpose? For what event? None at all. He just hoped. And cried. Or at least tried to. His tears had long since dried up.

The screech of the prison bars sliding open grated upon his ears and he drew a harsh breath but did not give the guards the satisfaction of interacting with him. He had tried to rush at them a few times, just to have a little fun. But the chains weren’t long enough to let him reach the bars. All his antics got him was humiliation.

“Oy! Halfbreed Thing, you’re in luck,” came the voice of a nameless guard, “the warden decided to give you a treat tonight!”

Yonah didn’t respond. It was clearly sarcasm.

“He also said if you don’t eat up, you get nothing for a week!” And the door was closed again.

He still did not look. He had decided he wasn’t going to even touch what they had assumedly given him. It was probably poisoned, or drugged. Or both. He drew another breath.

That smell.

He finally looked. His heart racing. They wouldn’t… would they?

Standing with her back against the bars was a young woman with straight black hair, wearing a similar tattered outfit as himself. She must have been cold, and scared, but she was not shaking. Instead she stared right into his eyes. The fear in them was evident.

Now that his ears were no longer ringing he could hear her breathing. She was trying to calm down.

Apparently she succeeded. As she talked first.

"So... I guess they put you in here because you use magic too?" her voice was weak, and her accent thick upon his ears but he understood her well enough.

Yonah did not respond right away. Carefully he sat up, leaning against the back wall where his chains were connected, rattling them as they piled up.

“Well they certainly didn’t throw you in here so you could be my pet.” he snorted steam with his words, happy he could still do that much, and pleased him to see her concern at this display. So perhaps he could have some fun, even as her scent started to permeate his cell, leading his thoughts in another direction.

“No…” she answered, not moving any closer. “I doubt they’ve been feeding you well. I suspect they threw me in here in hope that you’d eat me.”

Yeah no shit. Had she heard the guard? Or was she too scared to listen. He had listened, even if he pretended otherwise.

“Being tossed a person to eat. How barbaric. Do they think I am some sort of feral animal?” His voice was hoarse with dehydration, and conflict. For he was considering eating her. Yonah HaEsh, despite being half giant, was not above eating smallfolk, if necessary. And she certainly smelled…delectable.

She shook her head “Many giants wouldn't hesitate if hungry enough… They may be normally polite to smaller folk but when half starved? All bets are off”

Yonah nodded, “I suppose so… Though I am only half giant.” He couldn't do more than suppose, as he did not know anything about giants of this world, though he remembered seeing one at Prince Nero’s castle. A little less than twice as tall as his own mother, and his mother was over 40ft tall! What he did know was that giants in his world would be tempted just like him, and while they were also normally polite… ish… their own survival was more important than the life of someone they did not know.

So why was he holding back? Well for one thing, she was out of reach. For another… He did not like the idea of being fed a person, it was insulting. The idea was nearly offensive enough to scare his hunger away. Nearly.

“Why you?” he hissed. Trying to chase away the remaining offensive thoughts. The mental images of grabbing her, sinking his fangs into her soft tasty flesh, and using his jaws and hands to rip her apart. The thoughts of how delicious it would be to finally satiate his hunger properly for the first time in weeks.

It took her a long minute to answer “I… keep escaping. I got out the door this time, nearly made it to the outer wall.”

“Ohhhh, curious” he breathed out, glad his ‘treat’ turned out to be interesting enough to distract his thoughts with. “You do not look like an escape artist. Or are you of hidden talents?”

She shook her head “The magic they use to… nullify the magic of others… doesn’t work on me. And my own magic doesnt like that im captive and kept… helping me escape”

Ohhhhh fascinating. He did not say out loud this time. “Sounds like you are a handful. Though perhaps you are rather, a mouthful. Or two in my case.” he smiled with all his fangs.

She swallowed nervously “Y-yes”

“Why don’t they just kill you? Are you important?”

She shook her head again “They are waiting for the execution order. That’s… why I’m here.”

“What do you mean by that?”

She took a breath. “If another prisoner kills me… they don’t lose their capital funding for executing a prisoner without the proper paperwork…”

“That’s where I come in” and he snarled “I don’t like being used as a tool. And I don't really want to eat you”

She nodded “That’s… good”

“But I am hungry.”

“Oh…”

“Why are you in this prison?”

She looked away. “I… killed someone. With magic.”

More fascinating by the second. “Why, would you do that.”

It was an obvious struggle for her to answer “It wasn’t… it wasn’t intentional. He pinned me up against a wall and started tearing off my clothes. My magic just... reacted. The next thing I knew he was dead”

Yonah snorted again “Should have been intentional!”

“I haven't had any formal training! My magic just happens!”

“Shame” he sighed. “Do you know why I am here?” he asked, changing the subject.

“You’re… a mage. A rogue one. Like I am.”

That was new to him, “A rogue mage?”

“Practicing magic is highly regulated, don’t you know?”

“No.” Yonah saw that made her very confused “I am not of this world”

She seemed to accept this easily. This world seemed to be more comfortable with the idea of other worlds than his own, which had only started to make contact with new realities. He had also decided she didnt need to know his story yet. For he had not made up his mind on keeping her alive, or eating her. If he ate her, then it would have been a waste of breath to tell his own tale of woe.

He tugged on his chains to pile them up and keep them from getting tangled. And for the next few minutes he occupied himself with this task.

“They stop-”

Yonah looked at her so fast his neck cricked. She started again.

“They stopped using shackles on me because the chains kept breaking. Perhaps I could” she took a single step forward, and seeing that Yonah did not react, took another. “I’m sure you would appreciate more freedom of movement.” She took another step.

“Well not all of us are so damn talented now are we?!” he growled. She took two steps back.

“Im trying to help you! Maybe I can figure out how to get it to work on you too!”

“A self proclaimed untrained mage!” he spat “and why would you help a monster like me?”

For as much as he wanted to be civil, he was also a monster. And as much as he tried to fight the temptation to be monstrous, he did not know if he could succeed.

“It wasn’t being a monster that got you in trouble! It was magic.”

She sounded very sure of that.

Yonah snorted “That is your own assumption”, and turned around to lay his head on the chains, facing the corner.

After a few minutes he heard her soft footsteps, and he craned his neck to look. She had gotten a lot closer than he expected and was reaching for his chains. She was clearly in the mood to help him. Unfortunately he was in a mood to play with his would be treat instead, and he did not have any confidence that she could help, so why not have fun.

“Are you sure that’s wise little morsel?” he sighed with a fanged smile.

Amazingly she did not back up but touched chains by his ankles.

“No. But sooner or later they will get the execution order signed. So my odds of survival are shit. But they are better if I free you.”

Yonah made his eyes glow with what fire he had left “Are they better? You said you were untrained.”

She looked embarrassed, “I’m hoping I can practice on these chains of yours. My magic does disable the nullification. We can work together to get out.”

“Untested magic is dangerous” yonah growled “Maybe I should just eat you!” he snapped his teeth.

Still she did not leave. Instead she stood up and glared at him “So what? I die and you survive another week until the next council meeting and your execution is approved?”

Yonah narrowed his eyes “Maybe I dont care about that anymore.” but he does not move either. “You dont know why im truly here. Maybe I deserve this!”

His fiery eyes still on hers, she retaliated “I dont care if you do! I need to get free, and I cant on my own. You want to be free to dont you? If I can use my magic, I can break these chains, disable the anti-magic on this room, save us both!”

Yonah rolled his eyes, losing their staring contest. He did not stop her from continuing her investigations of the chains. But his mind wandered, until he exclaimed.

“Maybe you’re a plant! Instead of using me to kill you, you’re here to kill me!” he jerked the chains away from her.

“I’m unarmed!” she insisted and scrambled forwards to maintain contact with the metal.

“You said they cannot chain you, that their anti-magic shit doesnt work on you, so yours does work, and it’s killed someone before!” He knew that this new panic was not helping him in the slightest, and yet he did not care.

“Most of my magic isn’t working! I just somehow break chains and disable the magic nullification! I don’t know how it works or how to activate it! But the fact I can means they want me dead so they stop having to catch me! And magic isn’t allowed and I definitely don’t have the indicator that I have special permission, those are super obvious.”

Yonah blinked “Could be lies! You could be spitting lies! Permission to use magic. How ridiculous”

“Everyone knows that the few legal mages have face tattoos to make them obvious”

Yonah breathed steam again and finally she backed away from the painful heat. “I dont! I don’t know anything about this world! You could say anything and I wouldn’t know if it was truth or lies!”

“Oh… right” she looked at her feet “You aren't from this world. That must suck as much as my own problems with my memory…”

She rambled a little more about how she was definitely a prisoner, it was obvious from her malnutrition, and that despite not being able to be kept in chains she had marks on her wrists and ankles from the failed attempts.

But Yonah was not listening anymore. Once again he turned away and was trying to cry himself to sleep.

So she took the opportunity to touch the chains near his ankles again.

“Careful now!” he hissed without looking at her. “You don’t want to get burned” Hearing her yelp as she touched the chains, which he had put his mind to pumping his fire into. Maybe he couldn’t melt them, but he could make them painful to touch.

He heard her curse, and then the chains rustled again as she grit her teeth and grasped the half giant sized links, whining in pain and holding back tears. 3 seconds were all she could manage before she had to stumble back, sitting on the ground and blowing on her burnt hands.

Yonah sat up and looked at the chains. He did not let his face show any surprise as he found rust and cracks that had not been there before.

“Wow. It didnt work. Big fucking surprise, some help you were, but I guess you were telling the truth about being being put here for me to eat.” he lay back down. “Maybe I’ll do that in the morning.”

Suddenly the pain in her hands was not as important as what the half giant had said.

“It started to work! But I couldnt hold on long enough!” she wailed, “I tried! I really tried, to help you’re sorry ass!”

“And you FAILED” he snorted back.

“Only temporarily!” she insisted

“And look where it got me. Nowhere. I’m going to sleep”

“If the chains were just a little cooler! Then maybe-”

“I told you to be careful. You have only yourself to blame for your failures and your injuries” he stated, fully aware it was his fault. And that he was sabotaging himself. And yet he couldn't stop himself.

“I was trying to help you. You don’t have to be so rude. We are stuck in the same situation and I am trying to make a difference.”

“I dont have to be polite either. Now you’re the one being rude, keeping me awake”

She crossed her arms in defiance of her own fear “You’re kind of an asshole. I thought maybe we could work together to escape but apparently you’d rather stay and be executed.” She stood up, glancing at her hands, “Guess I’ll just try to figure out how to disable the nullification and escape without you if you really are that opposed to working together.” She turned and walked back to the cell bars before sitting down again.

Yonah looked away, no longer amused by her company, for he was too tired, and too hungry, too angry. Mostly at himself for heating up the chains.

Of course, he couldn't sleep, even though he wanted to do so. After about 10 minutes he glanced at the human, who was making hand motions at the bars. He could just barely feel the sparks of magic failing to become embers at her will.

That got boring really quickly, and he noticed that, unlike earlier, she was shivering. Not with fear…

“You’re wasting your time, little one”

She gasped and jumped from her sitting position, nearly toppling over. He was not asleep like she had assumed. And now he was staring at her with those glowing eyes again, full of fire and hunger.

“I am not giving up” she yawned and shook even worse, “I have no desire to be executed, not by the prince, and not by you!”

Yonah’s eyes dimmed with compassion, “You can try again in the morning. You keep this up and you’re going to freeze to death”

To his surprise she snarled at him, “What do you care!? You obviously arent worried about execution, and I dont have much else to do at the moment!”

Yonah rolled his eyes “Do you want a warm place to sleep or not? I’m only offering once. Can’t imagine you’ve had a warm bed in a while”

“I- what?” she paused, processing what he said, “Warmth… sounds wonderful… But you talked about eating me in the morning!” so she did not step near him.

“I said maybe. So you don't have to worry about it until then” He considers for a moment “I’m still making up my mind. I dont want to be used as an execution method, but I am starving. However” he yawned, his fangs looking larger than before, “I promise not to eat you tonight, and I am very warm if you want to sleep in my arms.”

“This room is absolutely freezing…” she admitted, “But I dont like the idea of you waking up before me to have a snack!”

She still looked hesitant so he added “Tiddles won’t be able to bring anything with you still visibly uneaten”

Now her fear was replaced almost entirely with confusion “Tiddles?”

“One of the little guards who did this to us. Sneaks me food most nights. If he comes tonight, I promise that I will let you try again, in the morning, to break the chains, before I resume considering whether or not to eat you. How does that sound?”

“How… likely is this Tiddles to show up?”

“He appears most nights, but not the last, and he never skips more than one night in a row.”

“How about you promise to let me try again, regardless of if Tiddles shows up!” she was not about to take such a chance.

Yonah scrunched up his face “Fine.”

“Alright, that’s much better.” she took a step towards him again “It means you have to let me go, and you wont think about eating me until after I get to genuinely try to free us”

“If you’re not tucked out of sight soon, I dont get fed, and I’ll have have a much harder time not thinking about it” he threatened “Tiddles can’t claim he thought I ate you if you’re standing alive at the front of the cage!”

A few more steps, she was almost within reach… “Fine… I guess… I just want to try a couple more times, it will be quick”

His patience waring thin he made his eyes flash “but I want to sleep, and to get fed”

“It will only take a moment!” she stopped just out of reach.

“Tiddles often manages to get me an entire barrel of crap! I’ll be willing to share” his mind now on the food, he couldnt think of much else.

“Im starting to figure it out though”

Why was she so insistent! This was not the time! “You’re tired, and cold, and hungry. You try any more magic and you’ll just pass out.”

He had gotten to his knees but he deflated a bit, lowering down into a position not unlike a crouching dragon “So I offer one more time than I said I would. A warm place to sleep. A proper meal. Or you refuse, and I get angrier, I get hungrier, and you stay cold and my only option for dinner”

She hesitated and finally sighs, “You are probably right... I just got so close to escaping today... I was gonna use a wind spell to blast open all the doors when one of them tackled me...” She took the step forward that got her within reach, and Yonah slowly reached around her, stopping her rambles. “But maybe after a rest I’ll have better success”

Having held back long enough, yonah scooped her up and returned to his corner to curl around his new teddy bear, thin and cold as it was. In contrast, his own embrace is soft, pillow-like even. And warm. So very very warm. She tensed in his grip for only a moment before calming down and closing her eyes with a deep sigh.

“By the way, I didnt introduce myself. My name is Savina”

Not resisting the urge, Yonah nuzzled her with his face, his normally neatly trimed facial hair overgrown and tangled and in need of a wash. He was drinking in her scent, even if he was resisting getting a taste, “I didn’t introduce myself either. Now shut up or I’ll put your head in my mouth to shut you up. I hear Tiddles”

As he was facing the back wall, it appeared as if he was alone in his cell, as the footsteps got closer, along with scraping noise and soon, a jingling of keys. Unlike earlier, the screech of the door opening was not so bad, knowing what it meant.

“You awake big guy? Damn this thing is so heavy… I managed to get a lot of scraps so it’s not mostly water this time! Probably tastes just as bad as all the rest, worse since I couldn’t sneak any salt in... but better than nothing right?”

The only response Tiddles got was a slight movement of Yonah’s head. His bushy mane of unkempt black hair shifting. Then two orange lights appeared. The giant's eyes locked on him with anticipation and hatred.

The guard, Tiddles, who couldn't have been older than 20, dragged a barrel within reach of Yonah, though the prisoner did not make any move.

“The others were laughing earlier about how you got a decent meal tonight… but I dont see any plate. Not surprised it was a lie. Im sorry again that this is not seasoned. But…” He left and returned before Yonah could investigate the food. Holding a large sack, the smell coming from which made yonah take a very intense breath.

“I did bring these… They were going to be used to torture other prisoners. Tested them on me. Just one bite and I thought my tongue would burn up in my own mouth, I drank so much water I thought I would throw up. But maybe it’s not as intense for giants!”

Through his dehydration Yonah started to drool, the spicy smell of the hot peppers filling his half FireWitch brain.

The display of hunger caused Tiddles to freeze up a moment “Um… I’ll take that as a yes to these. Great Goddess they make my eyes water!” he set the sack down and went to the other back corner where an empty barrel was on it’s side.

“I’ll take this one, yes?” Tiddles didn’t wait for an answer but said “you’re… not as talkative tonight. Usually you threaten-joke about eating me along with the slop. You alright?”

As soon as Tiddles had moved away from the full Barrel and sack of peppers, Yonah Sat up and scooted over with one hand. Revealing the reason he was not talking. Savina was tucked into his elbow, having fallen asleep.

Tiddles seemed briefly transfixed by the woman. If yonah had to describe the expression the closest would be reverence. Before cringing away.

“That’s what they meant by a good meal!?” He shook off his surprise “what a load of dragon crap. You’re not some feral animal”

Yonah didnt respond to this continued attempt to bond with him as he dragged the barrel back to his corner and stuck his finger in, building up his fire to warm up the cold scraps and water. Tiddles made no more small talk and left him to his pitiful “meal”.

Once the contents of the barrel started to steam, Yonah nudged Savina awake. She was not happy about that.

“I was actually sleeping well, what the fuck”

Yonah set her on his lap, the barrel in front of them both. “If you dont eat some of this now, I’ll eat all of it. You wont get a single drop, but if you eat now, you wont make a dent in it noticeable to me”

She nodded, understanding, and put her hands into the barrel. Yelping in pain as the hot slop made contact with her burnt hands.

Grumbling about how she was an idiot, yonah rummaged around in his chain pile for a flat piece of metal. It was a band from a previous barrel that he had broken. That was the only time he had gotten an earful from Tiddles about how if he continued to do that, Tiddles wouldnt be able to sneak him more food. He was able, with some effort, to heat it, pinch it, and bite it into a sort of ladle, which he used to scoop up the scrap soup and hold it to Savina who was very grateful.

Even with his encouragement she ate very little. Yonah had no idea how long she’d been here, but it was likely longer than himself, and it was very probable that her stomach had shrunken, so he eventually gave into his own hunger and stopped trying to get her to eat more and let her slump against his middle and fall back to sleep.

But before he ate any of it he took the peppers out of the sack and crushed them into the prison soup. It took all his self control not to just eat the peppers straight up. So he rewarded himself by licking the juice from his fingers.

He would have downed the contents of the barrel like a shot but resisted as it would have wasted all his patience preparing it for better taste. And even if it was literal scraps in unsalted water, hunger was the best seasoning. And the peppers, made this the best thing he’d tasted in the time since he woke up in this cell.

It made it much easier to not think about eating the woman in his lap as he too lay down to fall asleep.

---

He woke first, and during the hours of the night his stomach had become rather empty again. Though he kept his promise and resisted thinking about eating her. He did not, however, resist tasting her; he never made a promise involving tasting.

“NO!” she yelped and sputtered as he licked her face like a very large dog waking up it’s owner, clearly convinced he was going to eat her, panicking.

He stopped licking her, But he was not listening to her protests. The moment she yelled the world felt lighter. He felt… no, no time to dwell. He tossed Savina aside and focused on generating a lot of fire into his ankle cuffs. It wasnt enough to melt them, but it was enough to make them soft. Soft enough that he could pull and stretch them and get free.

And then the feeling was gone. Back to that soul crushing feeling that had been ever present, as if it was never gone.

“What did you DO?” he snarled as he rubbed his freed ankles, which were red and raw from the previously tight metal cuffs.

Savina got up, looking frazzled with one side of her hair sticking up and out at odd angles due to half-giant spit. “What I was trying to do last night! Hey!”

Yonah crawled to her and picked her up, putting his face close to hers to demand, rather loudly “Do it AGAIN”

Defiantly she took his gaze and his rank breath “I wish I could! Like I said before, and like you just saw, I can’t do this on purpose! It just happens!”

In a rage his eyes flash and he bares his teeth “Fucking useless!”. His urge to throw her against the wall lost out to his being touch starved and instead he sat back down to hold her just a little too tight.

He did not fail to notice that a small hint of the relief of pressure occurred when she gasped at his moment of rage.

“So. Did that count as your morning try? Should I start considering whether or not to eat you again?”

She stiffened in his grasp “that wasn’t intentional! But doesn’t it prove what I was saying, that I am too useful to consider eating, that with practice I can succeed?”

“I already got my legs free. I can reach the bars now. Reckon i can try smashing them… and if I eat you i may have the strength to do it” he huffed. With a small amount of food and a night’s sleep, what he had was the energy to be a massive dickhead again. “So you would be helping me.”

“Those bars are heavily reinforced with the prison magic! They’ve kept giants bigger than you in this prison!”

“I’d still like to try, so you’re lucky I want company more than a proper meal right now,” he chuckled against her. She was so skinny she wouldn't even be a proper meal, maybe half of one.

“Please let me try again later to disable the nullification. Then we can both get out and get decent food” she sounded both desperate and angry.

“I know exactly what I’m eating if I get out” his eyes flashed again and he licked his lips.

Savina shuddered but did not sound disgusted when she said “i think i have an idea of what… or who… that might be”

“So, are you going to try again or what?” Yonah was getting impatient.

“Will you be ready to break down the bars when the magic reinforcement is gone?” she asked.

Yonah backed up against the wall, bracing himself so he could charge. If she succeeded.

Savina went to the front of the cell, grasped the bars and closed her eyes, muttering. Occasionally she let go and made hand gestures.

Nothing.

Maybe she needed encouragement. Yonah growled at her. Low and threatening. Savina stiffened and he felt the pressure lift, very slightly, very briefly.

“Get on with it!” he hissed.

“I’m trying!” she shot back, walking to the center of the cell, it didnt seem to matter where she was.

Then she screamed, her whole body hitting the ground as suddenly Yonah was on top of her, having pinned her under a hand. He snarled in her face “Maybe I should just eat you then! At least my last meal will be a tasty one!”

This succeeded in having the desired effect. Whatever the nullification was, it lifted. However he could feel it coming back.

“NO! I’m trying, give me one more chance, I know I can do it!”

He was not listening to her. He had confirmed his theory. Without hesitation he took her left arm in his jaws. She started crying and screaming, Pushing at his face to pull away. “Stop Stop! You’re hurting me!” Her voice was shrill.

/That’s the idea/ he thought.

With a sickening CRUNCH and a shriek, it was Yonah’s turn to be thrown, against the wall.

Not that he cared. Not one bit.

The magical nullification was gone.

From the entire prison. With no signs of coming back.

Keeping his promise not to eat her, and extending that promise to any part of her, Yonah crawled over to Savina and opened his jaws to release the nearly severed arm, along with at least a gallon of bloody drool. Savina just sobbed. Hmmm she could bleed out. That would also be counter to his promise, in spirit, if not in word. He rubbed a thumb and finger together until they were red hot and pressed the tip of the finger to her shoulder.

The scent of burning flesh filled the air as he cauterized her wound. But there were more important things to take care of now.

Fueled by adrenaline, hunger, and literal fire in his veins, yonah gripped his prison bars, making them red hot. In a few moments he wrenched them apart and he was out. He barely noticed the flash of light behind him as he stepped out of his cage.

The alarms hadn't even started ringing by the time he ran into the first unfortunate guard.

----

It was the alarm bells that brought Savina back to earth. She sat up, and blanched as a sticky arm rolled off her chest and into her lap. She was still covered in blood but the wound had sealed. For all her lost memory she did recall something very important. She should keep her arm. Holding it kept her from trying to touch her shoulder. She had never experienced anything so painful in her life-

No… wait. She had experienced something more painful… Now her head throbbed too! Nevermind any of this! She had to find the half giant mage, he was her ticket out. Even with the magic nullification gone, she wouldn’t get far drained of her own magic and severely injured.

It wasn’t hard to find him. All she had to do was follow the trail of carnage and busted cell doors.

The first guard she found had no head, and a chunk of a shoulder missing. Blood pooled on the ground from the massive bite. Hmmmm. He had a nice sword. Putting her arm down momentarily, She took the sword and a belt to sheath it. It was a bit tricky to get the belt off the person and onto herself but she managed. Before she took her arm off the ground and continued on, not caring to avoid stepping in the blood. .

More dead guards lined the halls as she progressed. Most of them were missing their heads, some of them burned to a crisp. But many were only missing their limbs, or had a bite taken out of the side. Some of those were still living. One in particular had been bitten from the hips down, their guts spilling out onto the floor. She decided not to use her sword to put them out of their misery. Her excuse being that it would be too much effort to put her arm down every time.

Finally she caught up to the large mage. He was in one of the storage rooms where the more dangerous items confiscated from mages were kept. He was ransacking it, shoveling items into something, but finished as she entered and stood up, putting a hat on his head. If he wasn’t so large and didn’t have such a distinct physique, she might not have recognized him.

Dressed in a stunning outfit of mostly blues and golds, with a massive wide brimmed pointed hat to match, his hair now shining and tied back in a segmented pony tail, standing up to his full height and holding a majestic wooden staff, the once brutish creature from the cell was looking more like a person. Except for the fire in his eyes and blood and viscera hanging from his jaws.

With misplaced confidence she walked right up to Yonah and holding the shoulder end of the severed arm she swung to smack him in the ankle. He had on boots now and she wasnt sure he felt that until he looked down at her.

“You FUCKING ASSHOLE!” She bellowed “You TORE my arm off! Why would you do that?!”

He looked at her angry and quizzically “The anti-magic field is gone. It worked.”

She did not back away from his gaze, since he was not currently trying to eat her she figured he wasn’t going to. Clearly he had not hesitated with the guards. She waved the arm around in frustration "you didnt have to BITE IT OFF"

Yonah crouched down to snarl “Clearly I did. You weren’t in enough… danger to disable the field. I’m rather clever you know.” Without asking he scooped her up to hold her up to his face with a cheeky, blood stained grin, “After you told the story of your assault, I started to put the pieces together. Mortal peril seems to do the trick nicely”

“I still dont think you needed TO BITE MY ARM OFF,” she repeated.

Once again she used the severed arm to slap him, now in the face.

He blinked in a kind of shock and then bared his teeth “I think you’ve lost your arm privileges”

His first instinct was to get the wrist between his teeth and gulp the arm down. But… he still felt like he should keep his promise. And now that his belly was half filled with chunks of prison guard he could think clearer.

“WHAT THE FUCK YOU BASTARD!”

Savina shrieked as the giant man pinched her arm, the severed arm, plucking it from her weak grasp. His eyes flashed and it was lit up like a match.

Lost for words she watched as her arm burned into ash before her very eyes, the giant man grinning once again.

Now she was shaking with rage “I COULD HAVE RE-ATTACHED THAT”

His grin became a scowl “How in this reality was I supposed to know that?”

“Weren't you listening, you didnt even need to bite it off in the first place! My magic was starting to work!”

He talked as he placed her onto his shoulder, securing her to the harness he had found with his belongings.

“Didn’t I? We dont know that. Guess we will have to experiment later” he smiled wickedly, marching out of the room “But right now, I’m still hungry and there’s still more guards left alive.”

As he said this a guard rushed around the corner with a crossbow and fired. Yonah, having heard the footsteps just jerked his staff and the bolt exploded. He snatched up the guard, put the poor fucker’s head in his mouth and bit down, while pulling the body away. The sound was similar to when he’d bitten her arm, and blood spurted from the neck onto his face, and Savina’s entire person.

Yonah swallowed the head and tossed the body aside “I can’t eat them all at my size even if I only eat pieces. I can burn them, or crush them” he explained as yet another guard appeared which he simply squashed by slamming his staff down upon, “but I think we need some help. The human prisoners do not seem so eager to get back at their tormentors as I had thought.”

“They are running away from you. If you weren’t on a massacre they would probably be taking the advantage to riot and get revenge.”

“So we need more monsters.”

As he continued through the prison he broke every occupied cell, letting the prisoners run, and killing every guard with an intense savagery. But the most horrific thing, in Savina’s opinion, was when he picked up whole and alive guards and tossed them into his hat.

Eventually he broke into a cell and the prisoner inside did not immediately cower or run, but stood up, eyes reflecting in the darkness. A tall pale man with dark hair smiled with sharp fangs.

“That’s a vampire!” Savina informed him. The vampire bowed.

“A very blood starved vampire, and I could smell the flood coming from the other side of the prison, yet I was too weak to break myself free once I felt the magic nullification just, go away. Was that you?” he stared at Savina, not Yonah.

Savina gingerly touched the raw, burned flesh of her shoulder and looked very annoyed, “Yes. it was me.”

“I’m going to feast now, as I see you have been doing, mysteriously small giant”

“Don’t fill up on the ones I’ve killed, take out the ones still alive” Yonah instructed.

“Wise words,” said the vampire, “though I will take a little of this one, just to gain back my strength.”

Before leaving yonah sniffed at the vampire. Then reached up into his hat and pulled out a fancy, though sadly wrinkled and dirtied, suit. And tossed it at the vampire.

“Smells like you”

The vampire stood up from taking a drink of blood from the guard who Yonah had decided to merely kick against a wall.

“My clothes! You are a gentleman monster!” And with a snap of his fingers swapped out his prison outfit for his old one. “I feel more like myself already!”

Done with the small talk, Yonah moved on. It was time to get out of this place, with hopefully minimal distractions. He would still make a snack, a charred corpse, or a bloody pulp out of any guard he came across.

But it was only a few cells later that again, the prisoner did not immediately scream or flee. Yonah could sense a very eerie magical aura from her, she was pale like the vampire but he suspected she was not one. She smiled at him like the vampire but her teeth were flat.

“My dear emancipator, did you come across a spider necklace during your rampage? I would very much like to have it back.”

That was odd enough that Yonah decided not to ignore it and instead reach into his hat. He did not recall a spider necklace so he could only think the words. An object indeed fell into his hand. Which he tossed to the woman who squealed like a giddy teenager as she caught it.

Putting it on she rubbed the shining black thorax of the obsidian spider inlaid on the silver medallion.

That eerie aura from before increased 100 fold, followed by the chittering, skittering, buzzing of millions of tiny legs and wings. Unlike Yonah’s cell, this woman’s had a window. And through it marched or flew an unimaginable number of insects and arachnids.

Yonah took a step back. But the plaque of bugs was swarming into the prison from every window, every crevice, every crack in the wall, every broken pipe.

“My children will clean out this place” she giggled, though it was closer to a witch’s cackle.

Yonah backed away from her. Deciding that it was now time to leave this wretched place, confident the bugs could take care of the rest. It was by her merciful magic that the bugs avoided him entirely, and seemed to be able to scramble away from his footsteps even as he started down the corridor.

Ah, another guard, coming out of a nearby door, a good distraction from the creepy crawlies. He rushed and shoved the guard up to their torso into his mouth and got ready to bite down. As the ribs started to crack between his teeth the taste of this guard matched up to a familiar smell.

Releasing his jaws he held a gasping, screaming Tiddles.

“If you dont want that one, my babies will happily take him!” The bug witch called from behind him.

Ignoring the creepy aura yonah wheeled around snarling “He’s MINE” and he secured the flailing young man to his shoulder.

“Suit yourself” said the witch, “but he seems to not like you very much, and I am not overly fond of him myself”

Tiddles was indeed trying to free himself, earning him a swift flick to the head. “Probably hurts with those broken ribs to struggle like that, little one. I will keep you safe.”

Without another word Yonah turned back. Enough of this. He pointed his staff at the wall and blasted a hole through, stepping outside. Still in the walled compound he did not take a fresh breath of freedom just yet. He ran for the walls.

Arrows and crossbow bolts rained down at him. Fine. It was time for some big magic. Yonah stopped and took his staff, raising it into the air he found in it the perfect spell. He swirled it around and chanted. The morning sky, which was clear, crackled, and a swirling storm cloud gathered overhead.

The guards on the ramparts screamed as bolts of lightning struck them, leaving Yonah free to take down a section of wall and flee into the forested mountains.

It was after he had been half running half jogging for 15 minutes that he stopped and sat down against a cool boulder shaded by the trees. Or rather he nearly collapsed. One big gorey feast after weeks of starvation would not immediately restore him. That would take time. He had been running on the reserves of his magic, adrenaline, and a bloodlust.

The moment he closed his eyes to rest however, he felt Tiddles renew his struggling.

“Why do you keep this up” Yonah mumbled, not looking at Tiddles, but feeling him freeze.

“I dont want to die!” the young man squeaked. “I saw you eat the other guards!”

“Well then aren’t you in luck that I filled up on them? I had enough to be satisfied for a while.”

That did not calm Tiddles down any more, the struggling was back “You kept me as leftovers!” he shrieked.

“Naw” Yonah said and reached into his hat to draw out an intact, but dead, guard, “I already did that.”

He felt Tiddles faint at that declaration. This did not bring Yonah any joy, as Tiddles’ terror had done before. Being so full Yonah just returned the corpse to the pocket space that was his wizard hat.

“So, where to now?” Savina said after five minutes “We need to get going, surely someone will try to follow! There is more than one shift of guards and they will be looking for all the escaped prisoners, especially you, who was responsible!”

“I think the bug witch will make sure no one does” yonah said, though it was more likely that at least one idiot would manage to slip away. “But I am tired, We need to find a cave or something to hide out in to recoup my… I mean our strength”

“I can help with that”

As if on cue the bug witch stepped out from behind a tree. Yonah eyed her suspiciously. Savina was too hurt and too exhausted to do the same.

“Oh really? And why would you?”

She just laughed “You saved me? And you returned my amulet to me! I owe you big time. By the way, you look just awful. Would you like my children to clean you up?”

“What do you mean?”

Before she answered there was more buzzing in the air as wasps swarmed around her “these little gals are very efficient! I promise they will not sting”

“They cannot hurt my humans either!” he said, nervous about what was about to happen.

“Of course”

He still held his breath as the wasped charged at him and his companions. Savina screamed as well before she smartly held her breath too. Tiddles was the luckiest, unconscious for the whole thing.

It was over in just a minute, thank the gods, as Yonah would have to take a breath. Still, he sneezed and a few bugs flew out. Savina was breathing heavily.

“So, bug witch,”

“Cait!”

“Cait… What’s a nearby place for a big monster to get some rest?”

The woman considered “Hmm… The woods that way are decent. Bears will be scared off by you. Humans should leave you alone. There’s a cave in those woods if you want extra shelter. I want to get back to my home but I can have one of my babies guide you there”

“That would be much appreciated” Yonah focused and gathered up more strength to stand up. And then froze in place as the largest drider he had ever seen came into sight.

“Babe!” he called, ignoring yonah and scooping up the witch into a hug that transitioned into messy kisses.

“I got out of the prison!” she declared, “this nice big fellow helped me! Got my amulet!”

The Drider was a full head taller than Yonah and eyed him over with all 8 eyes before nodding. From between all of his feet a smaller, but large dog sized tarantula, scampered up to Yonah.

“Charlie here will lead you to shelter!” said Cait, “Now I haven't been home in a long time”

And with that, the witch and the drider left.

Charlie made a hissing sound while scraping her feet on a rock to get Yonah’s attention. She led Yonah to a large rocky incline and eventually to the mouth of a cave.It was large enough that if he crawled, he could get in. Which he did without hesitating.

The cave was larger in the inside and he probably could have stood up but he stayed sitting.

The spider stayed at the entrance of the cave, made a little dance, and then disappeared.

“Seems safe enough…” Yonah said. He unharnessed Savina so she could sit in his lap. “Guess what, I was lucid enough during my rampage that I picked up food that wasn’t dead guards!” and from his hat he got out some bread and cheese, and even a barrel of water.

“Um… no thanks” she said.

“You must eat, Savina”

“Im too nauseated from the pain.”

She did look a little green now that she said it.

“I have a healing potion… it should numb the pain a bit.” This he took from a sleeve. A small vial. Just a single ounce. It was like a grain of rice in his palm “It will even help with your shoulder, to at least regrow the flesh around it and stop infection”

She took it, and still looking like putting anything in her mouth would make her vomit, she downed it like a shot.

30 seconds later she felt much better. Or at least, felt less pain… She still felt like complete shit. But took the food with her good arm and started eating.

“I dont know why you brought him along…” she said, referring to Tiddles through a mouthful of bread.

“I doubt someone as kind as him works at an evil prison if he has a happy home to return to. Plus if i had let him go.. The other prisoners might not have been so kind to him. He was still a guard.” Yonah yawned, “Fuck. Im tired. Didnt we just wake up like, an hour ago?” he asked.

“Sure but you just broke a prison” Savina pointed out.

“I did… didn’t I…” Yonah tried to lay down but found that didn’t work with Tiddles on his shoulder. So he resigned himself to sleeping upright for now.

Still half starved, Savina did not manage to eat much. So yonah put the food back. He found a outcrop of rock that he could lean against and put an arm protectively in front of Savina. She put her own remaining arm over his. And they both fell asleep at the same time.

Even through the exhaustion of his over half a month in prison, and the torpor his kind got from a full belly, Yonah HaEsh heard the quiet footsteps of someone entering the cave.

Yet his brain was still slow to react. He opened his eyes and stared down.

Kneeling in his lap, holding Savina’s arm to his fanged mouth, moments away from biting down, was the vampire.

----

[FIN]

UHHHH thanks for reading. If you liked this please let me know. If this fits your blog theme please reblog it!

I hope you enjoyed this. and I hope to have more of it for you in the future. lots more adventure to come!

#sfw vore #hard vore #fatal vore #nonsexual vore #ROTDK #sfw does not mean NON FATAL #there is nothing here that wouldnt be in LOTR #well maybe it's a little more intense than LOTR #I work on a sliding scale of LOTR to GoT and this leans more LOTR

[writingmyheartsout]

I’ll be good..(..for all of the times that I never could)

Another fluff December story...this one is sweet and a bit sad...and long (for my own standards). Although the length, it’s an easy read like the rest of the series...i just get wordy sometimes..

An au where Dogma doesn’t get to prison and gets reassigned to the Coruscant Guards.

There may be errors but @plexflexico​ said it was good so i trust her <3

warnings: sadness, light mention of war, tears

pairing: Dogma x reader

words: almost 2k (so the full story is under the cut)

prompt: standing/sitting quietly together

so anyway, Dogma never had a tag number canonically, so for the sake of the story i made it up.

Flashbacks in italic

__

As soon as the news was made public, the first thing Dogma thought was to see you, to hold you, to be soothed just like you were able to do... so, as soon as it was possible, he left his station, in spite of orders, and ran, ran through the narrow streets of Coruscant, past all the different levels of the city until he found himself in front of your door, but he didn't have time to even knock that you opened the door.

There were no words, you just stared at each other for a moment and the second after he hugged you there on the doorstep, holding you against him as if he was afraid you might disappear at any minute, burying his face in the crook of your neck and finally breaking into tears. He felt overwhelmed, by everyone and everything, and being in your arms right now was the only happy place he could think of wanting to be. Celebrations would surely follow but none of those mattered to him now, he just craved silence and warmth after all the chaos he had suffered.

_

When you two first met it was purely by accident, he was on his way to his reassignment to the Coruscant Guards after the whole mess that was Umbara and you were there to make a complaint. In fact, right after the last sweep on the lower levels, your diner had suffered some serious property damage and you were looking for a solution, even if it meant going up to the ground level and pestering some troopers.

Both of you were in the lounge area, you had just done yelling at some young boy whose armor wasn't quite red enough yet, who assured you that one of the Commanders would come down to talk to you and that he was sorry for the whole thing, he was just waiting to be received by Commander Fox himself, with his new armor as pristine and white as the first time he was off Kamino.

"What did you do?" you asked as soon as you entered the room, bored and tired of wasting any more time.

"Excuse me?" he answered in confusion, barely turning his head to look at you and trying to figure out if he had seen you somewhere before.

"I mean, did you break any laws or ... code that all you guys have?" you repeated, not entirely interested in what he might have to say, you were just looking for something to help pass the time.

"They're called regulations" he pointed out in annoyance..." and I don't think it's any of your business why I'm here" he added then, with a visible frown on his face.

"Alright...okay" you gave up, raising your hands in mock surrender "...it was just a question".

He didn't answer you further, due to the fact that another soldier showed up right after, his armor red from head to toe, who called him into his office.

"CT-5390, Dogma..come with me, I already have your new assignment," he instructed authoritatively, he had his helmet tucked under his arm but he still instilled fear.

Then he turned to you briefly, looking you dead in the eyes.

"I heard about your complaint, I'll let you know that Commander Stone will be here in a minute" and with that, he turned around and left.

Dogma, in response, quickly stood up and followed him but not before looking briefly in your direction and politely saying...  

"good day, ma'am" followed by a slight nod of his head.

_

"Are you okay?" you asked him moments later.

He was still in your arms, hugging you as much as he could, refusing to let go of you and he didn't care how tired he might feel, he needed to feel whole again.

"No..." he cried, another sob slipping from him.

"What else can I do to make you feel better?" you pressed again.

" Just hold me... I don't need anything else right now..." he answered quietly, his words slightly muffled by your shirt.

"Okay... but you might catch a cold out here..." you stated.... " get inside, come sit on the couch at least."

"Okay..." he replied, pulling slightly away from you.

He was tired, you could see it on his face, but there was also some kind of relief underneath, a renewed hope that hopefully would turn into a new beginning with him.

Once he was settled on your couch, you remained up in front of him, arms around his neck, watching him softly.

"So tell me, what exactly happened?"

_

The second time you saw him, he was out patrolling your level with a new squad of troopers, nothing much just overall security, considering that all the main battalions had been sent off to war and two of the Commanders were unavailable, there wasn't much else to do.

You were late for your shift, the second time this week, by this point you already knew that your friend and business partner was going to be very pissed.

It was just a week since you had reopened and things still weren't going so well.

As you tried to send a message while picking up your pace, you didn't notice what was in front of you and soon ran into a hard surface that turned out to be a trooper's armor

"oof...sorry" you quickly apologized..." I didn't see where I was going...I was in a rush"

"Don't worry, ma'am...are you okay?" the trooper in front of you promptly said, taking off his helmet quickly.

"Yeah...I guess," you started to say...but once you got a better look at him, you realized...

"Dogma?..." it slipped out of your mouth even before you could stop yourself, however when you saw his confused expression you added...." I... sorry, I'm good at memorizing names, I remember them very quickly and you probably don't remember me either...".

For the first time in your life, under his curious gaze, you were feeling slightly self-conscious.

"I... I have to say I feel like I know you..." he stuttered out at first, only to regain his composure shortly after"... I'm sorry, I'm still on duty, ma'am... we have to finish our shift for today..." he then said putting his helmet back on.

"Well, yeah sure... I have to get going too anyway, but if you... or the others are tired later, come by my diner, you can't miss it, it's the only one with the bright green sign with a snake on it..." you offered, addressing them all but with your attention still on Dogma, only to run off afterward.

After that he stood there for several seconds more, watching you leave, still baffled that anyone could even remember his name...

That very same night, after they finished their shift, the entire squad came over to your diner and although Dogma was still a little hesitant to let himself go, you still were able to get him to relax a bit.

_

He heartily smiled at your question...

So much had happened since you'd last seen each other, he'd been gone for weeks and everything had changed in a matter of seconds.

"Where do I start?..." he said.

"Wherever you want... anything you want to tell me," you just told him ... "I'm here to listen, Dogma...like I always do."

Oh, how he had missed you, your patience, the way you talked to him, the way you actually listened no matter what he had to said and the love you had for him that he felt like he didn't always deserve.

"The war is over... but you already know that," he stated.... "it seems like it's always been an inside job," eventually adding more, trying to better explain.

You just nodded to his words, giving him the time to process all the things he had been through.

" Alright, are you okay? And how is everyone else?..." you tried for more, without overstressing him.

"I...I'm fine, I guess," he admitted, wrapping his arms around you again and placing his head on your stomach..." as for the others... I actually don't know, I just...I just heard that all battalions had been ordered to return."

"...and that's good...now, what do you need?" you again asked ....  "what can I do for you?"

"I just want to sleep...and keep hugging you, please" he mumbled, eventually calming down.

His pure confession made you chuckle at how honest and lovely it was but watching him relax in your arms made your heart a little tighter.

_

After that, you met again, rather by chance.

It was at the Guard's general offices, the time he was stationed there handling paperwork and you were there with yet another complaint. What had happened was pretty simple, one of your suppliers was blocked just off the planet and had been denied landing, making your job a lot slower and almost impossible. So the best solution you could think of was going straight to the source and asking what was going on.

When you arrived, there was no one around and the offices were mostly empty except for one, so you tried your luck and went to see if anyone could help you out and fix this mess...

"Hi, is there someone I can ask about a complaint?..." you inquired, peeking into the room.

"Nature of the problem? ..." the trooper replied, visibly annoyed...

"Security...I think..." you began to explain and as you quickly stepped inside... "one of my suppliers has been denied access to the planet, I would like to know why" you continued, asking the man in front of you, although his attention was still on the report in front of him.

"Suspected smuggling most likely...but it could be worse" he vaguely stated.... " freighter model and cargo description?" he then added further still without ever looking up.

"A VCX-100, an old model actually, and it was just my monthly supply of Meiloorun juice and Corellian beer" you pointed out...". Roj is not a smuggler, I've known him since he was a little boy" you replied a little more vehemently, putting both hands on the desk and getting closer to the trooper.

"Now, take a good look at me, and help me sort out this little problem... partly because I don't want any more hassle with you."

"Listen, ma'am..." he began, lifting his head and finally looking at you.... going speechless for a brief moment.

It was you once again, and even though he was dead tired... he felt strangely happy to see you.

"Oh..." you yelped, taken aback to see that it was Dogma "...sorry...".

"No, please...I'm...I was just really tired..." he quickly apologized.... "please, take a seat and tell me again about what happened."

Despite the initial rough start, your problem was quickly solved and on that same day, you also learned how, the trooper called Dogma, was indeed nice and quite talkative, despite an initial wariness. You left the office a few hours later with a smile on your face, but not before leaving him your personal contact…

_

Days passed after that night, many others after the day that changed all, things around you were now beginning to shift and improve for the better.

When others only saw a traitor once, someone who wasn’t worthy enough love and attention, you saw a man who loved too much and ended up broken, a man who needed directions and assurance, not just orders and rules, a man who now was free from everything that used to hold him back and ready to live once again.

__

For this personal fluff December i wanted to do more, but time and real life is not by my side...so that means that there will be just another one (i have to choose who..) Unfortunately i don’t cope very well with stress so i usually write small...

Anyway, hope you like it :)

reblogs, comments or just generals interactions are welcome :)

#star wars the clone wars #star wars #current fandom: star wars the clone wars #dogma x reader #dogma needs more love #dogma is underrated #i love him very much your honor #clone wars fanfics #star wars fanfiction #star wars writing #writemyheartsout's writing

[qm-vox]

The Dwelling Gods - Sitting The Table

Previous Chapter: Battles of Gatax-Ob

CW: Maiming, Suicide

Yrull-Gatax ra Vell, 243 Year of Imperium (9/12 2863 Astra Federation Standard Calendar; Approximately 2 months after signing the Terran Covenant)

GSS Chorus of Eyes, in orbit above the planet Gatax

A High Slayer’s ship says a lot about her priorities as a ruler and in turn about the Gataxian peoples’ fortunes. When we knew prosperity, it was not unusual for the soft larvae who called themselves Slayers to cruise the Pure States in yachts, throwing lavish parties for their subjects and throwing offerings of wealth to the people of the planets below. During the attempted cleansing of the wretched spirrans, my predecessor chose for his flagship the GSS Mournful Retribution, a Terravore-class battleship bristling with mass drivers that could crack continents. Powerful. Gaudy. Slow. The Astra Federation and their Revenants defeated it in detail, and all that remains of it now is a charred scrap of hull welded to the skirts of my throne.

Chorus of Eyes is different, almost like a space station; nestled amidst her guns are repair docks, advanced sensors, and hangar bays. It is a capital ship made to support and sustain a fleet, not to destroy one.

You cannot run a slaughterhouse if the workers have no knives.

I adjust myself on the perch of my throne, which has been carefully situated in the dining hall of my ship. There is no room for wasted space on a warrior’s vessel, but a Slayer, even the High Slayer, has political needs; the livery that decorates the place is a concession to those needs, amounting to approximately 100 kilograms of wasted weight on my ship. I tap one sharp fingertip against the metal perch of my throne and then speak into the room, for the benefit of the soldiers guarding myself and my viceroy: “The convicts are summoned into the Presence.”

Two of the soldiers leave their posts to do as they are bid. Beside me, my viceroy - Tiall-Gatax ra Noll, whose loyalty purchases for him an extensive right to back-talk and second-guess me - fidgets with the curved knife he holds in my name.

“The High Slayer is certain?” Tiall asks in a careful tone. I flap my wings just once, filling the air with glittering dust.

“These are uncertain times,” I answer, my voices vibrating softly through my carapace. “But I will follow through.”

We wait in silence that is disturbed only by the slow, drifting flap of our wings, until the doors open once more to admit the procession of convicts. Prison has not been kind to them; their carapaces are discolored, in some cases nearly bleached, and their wings are tattered and rotten, and in some cases have had to be surgically removed. Most are missing at least one finger, very much including the defiant young thing at their head. He is known to me; Professor Faul-Vran ra Rell’s trial had been national news among the Pure Peoples. Being convicted of treason and xenophilia destroyed his career and his life.

The hate in his multifaceted eyes reminds me of the eyes I see in the mirror.

“You stand before the Presence,” the soldiers boom in unison. “All hail Yrull-Gatax ra Vell, High Slayer and Protector of the Pure!”

I hold up a hand. “We will be dispensing with the formalities,” I say to the soldiers. “Release the convicts and escort them to their seats. Inform the galley that we are ready to receive the meal I have ordered.”

The Professor’s voices are a reedy whistle, made high and tight by holes punched in his carapace during his capture - holes which, by custom, were treated for infection only during his incarceration. But for all of that, I can feel his rage. “Why should I drink from any cup the Presence lifts?”

This is what I had been waiting for. I take to the air and come to rest at the head of one of the hall’s long tables, in plain view of the convicts - xenophiles, one and all. Dust scatters into the air from my wings, and soon enough my viceroy has joined me.

“Remind the Presence of the penalty for treason among the Pure,” I prompt, as the soldiers continue to unshackle my prisoners. I can see his pierced carapace trying to swell in anger, and interrupt immediately: “Humor me,” I tell the Professor, in my softest voices.

Professor Faul deflates with a rusty wheeze. “One finger,” he answers. “Removed so that even if the guilty know the mercy of the Presence, all will know their sin for what it is.”

I set my left hand down on the table, as flat as it will go. “Tiall.”

It hurts, when Tiall cuts the smallest finger from my left hand; the blood gushes from the cut, at least until one of my soldiers reaches me to cauterize it. Through it all, though, I have eyes only for the Professor, and at length he takes the high seat he has been offered. I let my soldier fuss over the cut for a long minute before I firmly and finally remind them that I had, in fact, given an order for a meal to be retrieved.

“You were right. All of you were right in your insistence that ignorance of our enemies would be our undoing,” I tell the gathered convicts. “Now the Pure People have been forced into alliance with the terrans and their Astra Federation, and I am neither so proud nor so stupid as to rebuke the knowledge you have to offer to us. As of this moment, you are pardoned formally of your crimes, and all sentences of xenophilia within the Pure States are being processed. The majority of the surviving convicts will be transported to terran space.” The fingers of my right hand curl inward, leaving curling gouges in the wood of the table. “They are not safe among their own people. Our new...friends...insisted, and we are in no position to debate the point.”

Professor Faul cannot draw in enough air for a proper laugh, and the end result of his hateful mirth is a series of pathetic squeaking sounds. “And you have brought us here to tell the grand tales of the High Slayer’s wisdom and mercy? Will you crawl into my cell and serve my long years of labor as well?”

“No, to both points.” I gesture to my viceroy, who takes out his dataslate to begin recording and annotating notes. “Each of you has been brought here because your...offenses...were singular, relating to the gathering of knowledge about xeno culture and technology. Professor, you said during your trial that you love your people and your nation. I believe you still do. The Presence and the Pure Peoples would ask you for that knowledge now.” I pause, letting the wretches before me register their surprise, before I continue. “Once primed and provided with reading material, the Presence would also commission your services in a diplomatic corps, that the Pure Peoples might sit the table of this...federation...we have been so enthusiastically extorted into joining, and make our will known to it.”

Professor Faul seems to struggle with whether he wants to be educational or enraged, but to his considerable credit he settles on the former. “The Presence is wise to understand that she will have much to learn that we cannot cover in a single dinner. Diplomacy with the terrans could be dangerous, especially until we find a counter for their...powers. I believe I can speak for my peers in saying that we require time to confer, and to offer our desires to the Presence in this matter.”

“Forty-eight hours,” I answer. “Starting after dinner. Your freedom and the gift of mercy is surely worth some remedial tutoring.”

“Ha. Even so, High Slayer. Even so.”

First Course: Politics

Luxury dining would be yet more wasted weight on my ship - and worse, weight wasted solely on myself and my advisors - but I can hardly serve my guests naval cuisine after a stay in prison. They would be under the understandable impression that they had never left. The ship’s medic had worked with the galley to draw up three courses that would not shred their digestion, and I waited until they had the chance to eat the first (a sweet nectar soup, made thick with porous noodles and chunks of meat) before I singled out my first topic of interest.

“I am given to understand that this Astra Federation we have so recently joined has similarities to the Pure Peoples’ own governance?” I suggest, as bowls are being cleared away. The way the soldiers assigned to that task cannot seem to decide if they are being honored or punished is most fun I’ve had in more than a year.

Silence greets my question as old instincts assert themselves among the convicts, but at length an elder (Ryull-Mox ra Nuir, if memory serves) shakes her crippled wings and speaks up in weak voices.

“Superficially, High Slayer,” the elder begins. “The Astra Federation does indeed represent a central body, which deals with matters of state which affect its members, regulates trade between them, provides for the common defense, and sets standards of sapient rights. Like the Pure Peoples, representatives are sent to its central body - the Astral Chamber - through democratic means. However, they do not appoint a central executive officer, which is to say, they have no High Slayer or analogous office. Their Admiralty is managed by appointed council instead, one from each member state.”

I keep my eyes on Ryull; my fingers gouge faint lines in the wood of the table as I idly trace patterns in it to keep my hands busy. “I see. And these members? How do they exert their influence?”

Ryull-Mox ra Nuir’s carapace swells in a cough, and then her voices are stronger and more clear. “Excluding ourselves, High Slayer, the voting members of the Astra Federation include the nations of Risen Terra, the United Spirran Communes, the Ibraxian States, and the Assisted Living Complexes ruled by the so-called ‘helper-bots’. Each full voting member sends one representative from each of its developed worlds, and any protectorate states under their influence send one representative total.”

I tap my finger. “I seem to recall those machines having a history of abducting organics.”

“They currently have many newly-founded protectorate states being encouraged to develop into full members,” the elder answers. Do I detect a hint of sass? “In terms of numbers, we are set to become an influential member of this federation, should the Presence choose to do so. Defeating it through force of arms has not historically been an option for the Pure Peoples.”

My wings twitch involuntarily, filling the air with dust. “Don’t remind me.”

Second Course: History

Tiall takes down a long list of reading suggestions on the topic of the Astra Federation and its various cultures while the next course is brought in; the plates of pull-apart bread, stuffed with a gently-spiced slurry of meats and vegetables, almost resemble quivering piles of noodles. From the soft noises of delight the convicts give off, my guess that a childhood favorite would soften the mood seems to have paid off.

There’s absolutely no point in trying to talk during the initial flurry of eating, so I may as well enjoy some myself, admittedly at a more sedate pace. I’ll need the energy for this next conversation in any event.

When the meal has started to calm down again, I turn my attention to the Professor. “Your -” I hesitate for a moment before coming to a decision, “colleague, rather pointedly referenced numbers in terms of our influence. But if this federation is so much like the Pure States, then numbers are only part of the story.”

That reedy wheeze again. “Astute of you, High Slayer. In practical terms, the terrans and their government exercise quite a bit of control over the Astra Federation.” Professor Faul sets down the chunk of stuffed bread he’d picked up in his pointed fingers. “As you well know, terran culture was the focus of my...alternative...research.”

I restrain the angry twitch of my wings. “I am here to learn, Professor. This will be easier if you can think of me as your student for the span of a conversation rather than dragging out your entirely reasonable, but utterly unhelpful, grievance every other sentence. Do me this courtesy.”

The Professor is silent, and at length takes a drink of the water before him, as if to get more time to think. Finally, he bobs his agreement. “What would the Presence know of the Children of the Phoenix?”

I take off from my seat to hover back from the table; it helps me think. “I want to know how they got here, what they believe, and why they believe it. The summary, for now, but if we’re being honest it is my intention to appoint you in particular as our emissary to them. The other...experts...have mainly died in captivity.”

Professor Faul attempts to inhale in order to begin his response, and instead wheezes for nearly a minute. I signal for a medic to be brought in - one will be needed for him sooner rather than later in any event - but he finds his breath before a serious emergency can develop. “This topic...” he wheezes deeply again, steadying himself, “is as complex as our own history. Any summary I can offer the Presence will be criminally simplified. With that caveat given, I will proceed. Would the Presence be able to supply a display?”

I nod to Tiall, who gets on the comms to see it done. The wait gives everyone time to finish this course and rinse their tongues with water, to say nothing of the medic arriving. The death glare I’m given by the physician would have gotten her shot by my predecessor, and I respond to it with dignified indifference. The professional dedication I seek in my personnel is, after all, what breeds such attitudes.

At length, the Professor leaves his seat (still attended by my oh-so-dedicated medic) to fuss with the display wheeled in by whichever luckless soldiers answered the comms. I can hear him muttering to himself about old equipment and throttle the urge to snipe back. Excuse the Presence for not wasting her people’s money on cutting-edge media technology for her military vessel, civilian.

With the display arranged to his liking, the Professor taps the side of it to get the attention of what is now his class. I briefly glare at the soldiers trying to surreptitiously lean around so they can see better, and they snap back to attention at their posts.

“The people who now call themselves terrans are not natives of Risen Terra,” Professor Faul begins; he swiftly sketches and obscures a crude planet on the display. “Much like the early days of gataxian interstellar colonization, they began aboard a sub-light ship, in their case pitched through an unstable wormhole. This would prove to have grave consequences on their development, as they were cut off utterly from their original homeworld.” He writes something in their strange script beneath the obscured planet and pronounces its name with great difficulty, “Earth, or more literally, ‘Dirt’. This would have been roughly 1850 to 1890 Pre-Imperium, around the time the Pure Peoples began our own sub-light colonization of neighboring systems.”

Tiall can’t seem to help himself: “Is there a reason they chose to go such an unknown distance with so few certainties?”

“All sapient life has reasons for behaving as it does,” Professor Faul says in that rusty wheeze. “But thus far my main theory is that they are insane.”

“There will be ample opportunity for you to ask them yourself,” I interject sharply. “Stay on-task please, Professor.”

“As the Presence demands.” Professor Faul begins writing a list of book names with one sharp finger. “The intervening history is written of extensively by the terrans, but in summation their early years were marked by strife over the perception of limited resources on their new home world, culminating in a thermonuclear war that decimated their culture. From the ashes of that conflict rose the original form of their current government, the Phoenix Council, which began the grueling project of uniting and caring for the disparate survivors. Access to knowledge from their original culture softened the technological blow of the devastation, and space colonization efforts followed. During this time period, the first terran psychics were confirmed, as we can see in the debates recorded in -”

I scrape my claws down the table, and the Professor stops. “The first?”

Professor Faul bobs his agreement. “The current state of nearly total saturation of psionic power was the result of deliberate cultural and religious cultivation of the power, coinciding with the rise of a sort of animistic faith that syncretized with many of their prior religions. The culmination of that being, of course, their faith in the so-called ‘Dwelling Gods’ that they believe exist in symbiosis with their own minds, whose worship has since become the dominant terran religion since its inception. Terrans credit these gods with providing the knowledge and insight needed to defeat the previous hivemind.”

“Why make such a covenant? What drives their...” I force the word ‘degeneracy’ down before my voices can give it life, “inclusive belief system?”

At this the Professor hesitates. One pointed finger idly traces at the corner of the display, leaving swirls and loops. “A combination of xenophobia and xenophilia, I believe,” he begins at last. “Terrans fear those who are not part of their family-groups or national identities, but they will readily absorb even inanimate objects into such groups or identities as long as they conform to a minimum amount of cultural touchstones. They do not seem to have any innate psychological fear of other species, the way gataxians do, and will readily bond even with animals they consider prey - up to and including those they intend to kill and eat themselves later.”

“Disgusting,” another of the convicts notes.

“Be silent in class,” I snap, before I return my attention to the Professor. “Will they keep their word?”

“Without a doubt,” he answers immediately. “Even at a disadvantage to themselves. To break a covenant is as unthinkable to a modern terran as...as it would be to imagine you, High Slayer, breeding with xenos. If you will forgive my crudity.”

Silence reigns in the dining hall, without even the beat of wings to disturb it.

“This time,” I answer, and everyone starts breathing again. “We will take a brief recess so that we can clear our minds,” I continue. “Professor, walk with me.”

“Will the Presence require an escort?” Tiall asks.

“The Presence is more than capable of defending herself,” I answer, perhaps more curtly than I ought to have. To his credit, my viceroy acquiesces with no further comment, smoothly moving to manage my other guests. Professor Faul falls in with me, and we move sedately towards one of the ship’s few lounges, which contains an equally rare resource: a damn window. Discreet texting on my comm device ensures that the lounge is emptied of my soldiers when the two of us finally arrive, many minutes later.

Just out the window, Gatax - my homeworld, and the heart of the Pure Peoples - turns slowly. We watch it wordlessly, the silence broken only by the wounded wheezing of my guest.

“You despise us still, High Slayer,” Professor Faul says at last. “Why did you call for us?”

I rest my freshly-maimed hand against the glass of the window and suck a deep breath in through my carapace. “There are many titles given to the head of the Gataxian Pure States, Professor. ‘High Slayer’ is the most venerated, yes, naming me as the greatest war-maker of a people who worship carnage, but I question its validity. I am no mere Slayer, to be fired at our enemies and forgotten. I am the Protector of the Pure, the Speaker of Many Tongues, the Eyes of the Wise. Our people are boxed in by this...Astra Federation, by powerful cultures who see us not as equals or even rivals but as an unruly attraction to be kept in our nation like an elaborate zoo. It becomes clear to me that we must change or die.”

Professor Faul gives me a curious look, his multifaceted eyes glittering in the reflected light from our shared homeworld.

“...Yes, Professor, I hate you. You and the others I have brought here. But if your knowledge could save even a single gataxian life, and I spurn it? Then the only titles I am worthy of are Traitor and Fool.”

Admiral Alekto Molteira, 9/14 Astra Federation Standard Calendar; Approximately 2 months after sponsoring the Gataxian Pure States into the Astra Federation

“Marathon” Strategic Coordination Relay (Assisted Living System space), Solace system

The last of the aides filters into the secure meeting room, and We take a deep breath. Those gathered before Us represent the highest echelons of the Astra Federation’s navy; all of them are beings of long experience and solemn duty, just as We are, but even so what We bring before them today...well.

“We won’t waste your time,” We begin, the moment the doors close and the security systems engage. “Two months ago We engaged Doctor Alexandra Orlstasz, an archaeologist and one of Terra’s most skilled psychometrists, to assist the Admiralty in gathering intelligence on the hivemind. They died in the line of duty after attempting a direct read on one of the hivemind’s drones.”

“Gods Within,” Our closest neighbor - Admiral Agammemnon Eslirit - breathes. “What were they hoping to accomplish?”

“Hope? Admiral, the Doctor succeeded in giving us a broad but disjointed snapshot of the hivemind’s past and activities. What little we have been able to filter safely has been invaluable in anticipating its strategy and slowing its advance into gataxian space.” We take a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Further translation of the impressions is underway as fast as can be safely accomplished, but one piece of information in particular is the cause for this meeting. We know the name and precise location of the hivemind’s home world, and therefore the epicenter of its controlled galactic space.”

“Well?” Admiral Villistiaiv, representing the Spirrans, prompts in the psionic voice that serves those fungal folk in lieu of vocal chords.

We’ve had all day to prepare for this moment, but We still barely get the words out.

“Earth,” We tell them. “In the Sol system.”

#dwelling gods #fiction #critique welcome #soft sci-fi #maiming #violence #suicide

[fishdavidson]

Dream Journal 2017-11-29: An Alternate Universe Where Chris Pratt’s Origin Story Is That He Went To Prison For Bank Robbery Before Becoming A Celebrated Actor

Back in the day (in the fictitious sense), I ran with a bad crew. This was the summer of 1988 in the dream, in what appeared to be a run-down part of Chicago. I was part of a gang that specialized in robbing armored cars. There were four of us, but I only remember the name of one guy in our gang: Chris Pratt.

This was a time before he was famous. Back when we were punks who were chronically unemployable, and our only source of income came from whatever we could steal. We worked as a team and our thieving skills rapidly advanced to the level where we could consistently rob armored cars. That was where the money was, and if you planned things out and timed it right, you could get a year’s worth of money in an afternoon (even after splitting it four ways).

When you’re young and dumb on the streets, this sort of success makes you cocky. We thought we were untouchable and we ended up getting sloppy. Our next heist would prove to be our undoing.

An armored van was left unattended outside a convenience store. On the opposite side of the street was a basketball court surrounded on three sides by tall brick buildings. The location wasn’t ideal from a getaway standpoint, but the allure of easy money was too much for us. We busted in there and grabbed sacks of cash only to emerge from the van with two cops pointing guns at us.

OH, NO! A STING OPERATION!

One of our companions tried to overpower one of the cops and was promptly shot dead. The remaining three of us were in a standoff with no real chance of escape. Now at this point in the alternate timeline, Chicago was trying out some novel ways of doling out justice. The Chicago PD implemented this system that was supposed to minimize incidents involving deadly force by having a sliding numeric scale that would be consulted in standoffs like this one. The lower the result on the scale, the more justified the cop would be in shooting.

Think of it like a credit score, but a bad score would get you murdered. The numeric ranges were pretty close to standard FICO scores, actually, so this comparison is pretty apt. The threshold for a justifiable use of deadly force on this scale was 640, and any number less than that meant the cops could potentially open fire on you at any point. But 640 was a bright-line number, and numbers above 640 were never supposed to result in shootings.

At this point, I started feeling a little more lucid in the dream and thought it might be fun to hop into someone else’s consciousness for a bit. So I jumped into the body of our other companion (the non-Chris Pratt one). Unfortunately for all parties involved, my companion was black. Even though the situation was rated a sold 680, the nearest cop with a gun panicked and accidentally pulled the trigger.

My companion (and me, by proxy) got shot in the head. He was killed instantly. Dying feels weird, man. There was a flash of light and a loud sound as my consciousness was forcibly ejected from my companion’s body and back into my own. The cop is freaking out because he violated the regulations for justifiable use of force, but the other cop assures us that he’ll report that the situation was definitely in the 630 range and therefore we deserved to get shot.

With literally half of our crew now dead, Chris and I decide that it is best to surrender to the police. Flash forward a bit and the justice system kicks into overdrive. It moves fast in dreams, and now we’re serving a decade-long sentence in a medium-security prison.

By this point in the post, you may be wondering what the heck the video referenced at the top of this post has to do with anything. I shall explain!

I found this song in real life a few days ago and have listened to it an unhealthy amount of times. I literally listened to it upwards of 15 times the first night, and the play count has probably doubled or tripled in the two days since then. Since most of my listening for this song happened right before bed, it should come as no surprise that the song made an appearance in my dream.

While Chris and I are going through the prisoner intake process, a siren/klaxon starts going off. It’s got a pretty bangin’ beat to it, and it sounds familiar but I can’t quite place it. Then it hits me: it sounds like the bassline to Run-DMC’s “It’s Tricky (DJ Fresh Remix).” I mention this to Chris and we both scream “It’s tricky!��� and attempt to dance to the beat while waiting to be processed. This act of mirth is not appreciated by the prison guards, and we are told to get our asses back in line or face the consequences.

Once we actually become inmates, though, Chris decides prison is a good place to attempt to turn his life around. He manages to get into a work-release program that allows him to work an actual job outside the prison. Somehow a big Hollywood talent scout stumbles upon Chris making some jokes while at his job and the wheels of the Hollywood production machine starts gaining speed.

“This guy is amazing!” the scout says of Chris. Not only is Chris a talented actor, but he’s also phenomenally cheap to get a contract for because he’s in prison. He improves his life and advances at an ever-increasing pace. By the time he’s released from prison (slightly earlier than expected because of good behavior), he’s a mega-successful actor starring in multi-million dollar movies.

I, on the other hand, took a job as a prison librarian and kept my head down. I ended up serving my whole sentence, but I just spent a decade reading, so it really didn’t bother me. Remember, I had been shot in the head at the start of this dream and I really didn’t give a flying fart about wasting away in prison because as far as I was concerned I was 100% immortal.

Chris and I stayed in touch, though, and upon my release, he offered me a position as a stunt choreographer on one of his new films. He’s a pretty cool guy and good friend.

#chris pratt #dream journal #run-dmc #it's tricky #dj fresh #dreams #fishdavidson #music #prison #crime #robbery #acting #hof

[lost-carcosa]

President Trump has repeatedly argued that he’s done more than any other recent president. That’s not true, as measured by the amount of legislation he’s been able to sign. It is true, though, that Trump has undone a lot of things that were put into place by his predecessors.

Since Jan. 20, Trump’s administration has enthusiastically and systematically undone or uprooted rules, policies and tools that predated his time in office. Below, a list of those changes, roughly organized by subject area.

The economy

Withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The trade deal would have established a trade partnership between the United States and countries on the Pacific Rim.

Revoked a rule that expanded the number of people who could earn overtime pay.

Reversal of a rule that would mandate that oil and gas companies report payments to foreign governments. The Securities and Exchange Commission will no longer receive this information.

Stopped a rule that would require large companies to report worker incomes by race and gender. The rule was aimed at reducing pay disparity.

Reversed an interpretation of the Civil Rights Act that provided protection to transgender workers.

Ended limits on the ability of states to drug test those seeking unemployment benefits.

Reversed a policy allowing states to develop their own work requirements for welfare recipients.

Revoked an executive order that mandated compliance by contractors with laws protecting women in the workplace. Before the 2014 order, a report found that companies with federal contracts worth millions of dollars had scores of violations of labor and civil rights laws.

Repeal of a rule allowing states to create retirement savings plansfor private-sector workers.

Canceled a rule mandating that financial advisers act in the best interests of their clients.

Potentially broke an agreement with the E.U. to maintain European privacy protections for customers doing business with U.S. tech companies.

Repeal of a bill that mandated that employers maintain records of workplace injuries.

Removed information about worker injuries from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration website.

Killed a rule mandating that government contractors disclose past violations of labor law.

The justice system

Rescinded a President Obama effort to reduce mandatory sentences. Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered that prosecutors seek the most stringent penalties possible in criminal cases.

Canceled a phaseout of the use of private prisons.

Reversed restrictions on providing surplus military gear to police departments. Those restrictions were implemented by the Obama administration after the unrest in Ferguson, Mo.

Reversed a ban on civil forfeiture. Law enforcement officials are now once again able to seize assets from suspects who haven’t been convicted of any crime.

Reversed the government’s position on a voter ID law in Texas.Under the Obama administration, the Justice Department argued that the law had discriminatory intent. Under Sessions, Justice withdrew that complaint. On Wednesday, a federal court threw out the law.

Reviewed Justice Department efforts to address problematic police departments. An effort to address concerns in the Baltimore Police Department was delayed.

The environment

In August, Politico reported that some representatives of oil and gas companies are worried that Trump’s moving too quickly to reverse regulations on their industry. “[Y]ou don’t need to roll things back so far that it opens an opportunity for outsiders to criticize, or something bad happens,” one analyst said.

Withdrew from the Paris climate agreement.

Blocked the Clean Power Plan. The plan implemented under Obama focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. In October, The Post reported that the administration would seek to repeal it entirely.

Ended a study on the health effects of mountaintop-removal mining. The process involves blasting away the tops of hills and mountains to get at coal seams under the surface.

Rescinded a rule mandating that rising sea levels be considered when building public infrastructure in flood-prone areas.

Reversed an Obama ban on drilling for oil in the Arctic.

Reviewed the status of national monuments for possible reversal or reduction. In April, Trump signed an executive order ordering a review of monuments added in the past 20 years, opening up the possibility that some areas previously set aside would have that status revoked. In August, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke made formal recommendations to the president.

Withdrew a rule regulating fracking on public land.

Announced plans to reconsider controversial protections for the sage grouse in western states. The bird’s habitat has been reduced as sagebrush has been removed in places that are being developed, often for oil and grass drilling. While not officially endangered, conservation groups worry about the sage grouse’s fate.

Postponed an EPA rule that would have had chemical plants better evaluate and inform the public about possible safety issues. This decision, made in June, drew new attention after Hurricane Harvey floodingled to an explosion at a facility near Houston.

Rejected a proposed ban on the pesticide chlorpyrifos. The month after this decision, a group of farmworkers were sickened by exposure to the chemical.

Reversed a ban on plastic bottles at national parks.

Repealed a ban on lead bullets. The bullets were banned under Obama because the lead can poison wildlife.

Rescinded a limit on the number of sea animals that can be trapped or killed in fishing nets.

Delayed and potentially rolled back automotive fuel efficiency standards.

Repealed the Waters of the United States rule. This rule expanded the definition of water bodies that were protected by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Ended a rule banning dumping waste from mining into streams.

Reversed a rule banning hunting bears and wolves. The ban applied to federal refuges in Alaska and prohibited hunting predators using certain methods.

Repealed a rule that would have overhauled the federal land management process.

Removed a bike-sharing station at the White House.

Foreign policy and immigration

Intends to decertify the landmark agreement with Iran aimed at limiting that nation’s ability to develop nuclear weapons. Such a declaration would force Congress to decide whether sanctions should again be imposed on Iran.

Plans to phase out a policy under which people who immigrated to the U.S. illegally as children could work legally and avoid deportation. The program, begun under Obama, is called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA.

Cut the number of migrants and refugees allowed from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

Repealed a rule allowing transgender individuals to serve in the military.

Rolled back of Obama’s outreach to the Cuban government.

Ended the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents program. DAPA extended protections for some immigrant parents whose children were citizens of or residents in the United States.

Education

Reversed a policy instituted by the Obama administration to expand punishments for campus sexual assaults.

Rolled back school lunch standards championed by Michelle Obama.

Withdrew federal protections for transgender students in schools.Under the rule approved by Obama, transgender students could use school bathrooms that corresponded to their gender identities.

Canceled a partnership with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau aimed at policing student loan fraud.

Reversed a rule that mandated how achievement is measured in schools.

Repealed a rule mandating certain requirements for teacher-preparation programs.

Guns

Reversed a rule that would ban gun sales to those deemed “mentally defective” by the government.

Reconsidered a ban on carrying firearms on Army Corps of Engineers land.

Narrowed the definition of “fugitive” to reduce the number of people allowed to own guns.

Other areas

Halted or canceled hundreds of other minor regulatory actions.

Revoked a ban on denying funding for Planned Parenthood at the state level.

Determined that claims of violations of religious freedom wouldtrump protections for gay and transgender people. This is the cake-for-a-gay-wedding issue; the Trump Justice Department takes the position that the religious beliefs of a business owner can take precedence over the civil rights of employees or customers.

Began the process of undoing the Johnson Amendment. The law bars religious institutions from taking positions on political candidates.

Repealed a rule mandating that Internet service providers seek permission before selling personal information.

Cut outreach aimed at bolstering enrollment in Obamacare.

Limited the Obamacare mandate that birth control be covered in health-care plans. The administration will give employers and insurers the right to exempt such coverage on religious or moral grounds.

Slow or nonexistent staffing at the Senate-confirmed and management level across administration agencies.

Repealed a rule mandating consolidation of transit planning authorities.

Ended the declaration of June as Pride Month and the practice of recognizing the end of Ramadan with an iftar dinner.

Canceled public reporting on visitors to the White House and other online data.

#the trumpocalypse #trump is an absolute fucking moron #he has no policies #except undo everything obama did #petty little manchild

[dailyofficereadings]

Daily Office Readings February 09, 2020 at 11:00PM

Psalm 80

Psalm 80

Prayer for Israel’s Restoration

To the leader: on Lilies, a Covenant. Of Asaph. A Psalm.

1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock! You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth 2 before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh. Stir up your might, and come to save us!

3 Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved.

4 O Lord God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers? 5 You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in full measure. 6 You make us the scorn[a] of our neighbors; our enemies laugh among themselves.

7 Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.

8 You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. 9 You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land. 10 The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches; 11 it sent out its branches to the sea, and its shoots to the River. 12 Why then have you broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit? 13 The boar from the forest ravages it, and all that move in the field feed on it.

14 Turn again, O God of hosts; look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine, 15 the stock that your right hand planted.[b] 16 They have burned it with fire, they have cut it down;[c] may they perish at the rebuke of your countenance. 17 But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand, the one whom you made strong for yourself. 18 Then we will never turn back from you; give us life, and we will call on your name.

19 Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.

Footnotes:

Psalm 80:6 Syr: Heb strife

Psalm 80:15 Heb adds from verse 17 and upon the one whom you made strong for yourself

Psalm 80:16 Cn: Heb it is cut down

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Psalm 77

Psalm 77

God’s Mighty Deeds Recalled

To the leader: according to Jeduthun. Of Asaph. A Psalm.

1 I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, that he may hear me. 2 In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted. 3 I think of God, and I moan; I meditate, and my spirit faints.Selah

4 You keep my eyelids from closing; I am so troubled that I cannot speak. 5 I consider the days of old, and remember the years of long ago. 6 I commune[a] with my heart in the night; I meditate and search my spirit:[b] 7 “Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable? 8 Has his steadfast love ceased forever? Are his promises at an end for all time? 9 Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?”Selah 10 And I say, “It is my grief that the right hand of the Most High has changed.”

11 I will call to mind the deeds of the Lord; I will remember your wonders of old. 12 I will meditate on all your work, and muse on your mighty deeds. 13 Your way, O God, is holy. What god is so great as our God? 14 You are the God who works wonders; you have displayed your might among the peoples. 15 With your strong arm you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.Selah

16 When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid; the very deep trembled. 17 The clouds poured out water; the skies thundered; your arrows flashed on every side. 18 The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind; your lightnings lit up the world; the earth trembled and shook. 19 Your way was through the sea, your path, through the mighty waters; yet your footprints were unseen. 20 You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Footnotes:

Psalm 77:6 Gk Syr: Heb My music

Psalm 77:6 Syr Jerome: Heb my spirit searches

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Psalm 79

Psalm 79

Plea for Mercy for Jerusalem

A Psalm of Asaph.

1 O God, the nations have come into your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins. 2 They have given the bodies of your servants to the birds of the air for food, the flesh of your faithful to the wild animals of the earth. 3 They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them. 4 We have become a taunt to our neighbors, mocked and derided by those around us.

5 How long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealous wrath burn like fire? 6 Pour out your anger on the nations that do not know you, and on the kingdoms that do not call on your name. 7 For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his habitation.

8 Do not remember against us the iniquities of our ancestors; let your compassion come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very low. 9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake. 10 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants be known among the nations before our eyes.

11 Let the groans of the prisoners come before you; according to your great power preserve those doomed to die. 12 Return sevenfold into the bosom of our neighbors the taunts with which they taunted you, O Lord! 13 Then we your people, the flock of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise.

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Genesis 25:19-34

The Birth and Youth of Esau and Jacob

19 These are the descendants of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham was the father of Isaac, 20 and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, sister of Laban the Aramean. 21 Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord granted his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived. 22 The children struggled together within her; and she said, “If it is to be this way, why do I live?”[a] So she went to inquire of the Lord. 23 And the Lord said to her,

“Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger.”

24 When her time to give birth was at hand, there were twins in her womb. 25 The first came out red, all his body like a hairy mantle; so they named him Esau. 26 Afterward his brother came out, with his hand gripping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob.[b] Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.

27 When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents. 28 Isaac loved Esau, because he was fond of game; but Rebekah loved Jacob.

Esau Sells His Birthright

29 Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was famished. 30 Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stuff, for I am famished!” (Therefore he was called Edom.[c]) 31 Jacob said, “First sell me your birthright.” 32 Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” 33 Jacob said, “Swear to me first.”[d] So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. 34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank, and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

Footnotes:

Genesis 25:22 Syr: Meaning of Heb uncertain

Genesis 25:26 That is He takes by the heel or He supplants

Genesis 25:30 That is Red

Genesis 25:33 Heb today

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Hebrews 13:1-16

Service Well-Pleasing to God

13 Let mutual love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. 3 Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.[a] 4 Let marriage be held in honor by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled; for God will judge fornicators and adulterers. 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” 6 So we can say with confidence,

“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?”

7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings; for it is well for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by regulations about food,[b] which have not benefited those who observe them. 10 We have an altar from which those who officiate in the tent[c] have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood. 13 Let us then go to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. 15 Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

Footnotes:

Hebrews 13:3 Gk were in the body

Hebrews 13:9 Gk not by foods

Hebrews 13:10 Or tabernacle

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

John 7:37-52

Rivers of Living Water

37 On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, 38 and let the one who believes in me drink. As[a] the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart[b] shall flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit,[c] because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Division among the People

40 When they heard these words, some in the crowd said, “This is really the prophet.” 41 Others said, “This is the Messiah.”[d] But some asked, “Surely the Messiah[e] does not come from Galilee, does he? 42 Has not the scripture said that the Messiah[f] is descended from David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?” 43 So there was a division in the crowd because of him. 44 Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

The Unbelief of Those in Authority

45 Then the temple police went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why did you not arrest him?” 46 The police answered, “Never has anyone spoken like this!” 47 Then the Pharisees replied, “Surely you have not been deceived too, have you? 48 Has any one of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this crowd, which does not know the law—they are accursed.” 50 Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus[g] before, and who was one of them, asked, 51 “Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?” 52 They replied, “Surely you are not also from Galilee, are you? Search and you will see that no prophet is to arise from Galilee.”

Footnotes:

John 7:38 Or come to me and drink. 38 The one who believes in me, as

John 7:38 Gk out of his belly

John 7:39 Other ancient authorities read for as yet the Spirit (others, Holy Spirit) had not been given

John 7:41 Or the Christ

John 7:41 Or the Christ

John 7:42 Or the Christ

John 7:50 Gk him

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

#February 09 #2020 at 11:00PM

[cumbersome-apparatus]

Ughhh, I finished it like forever ago, but my soul won’t rest until I finally say it once and for all... What I fucking thought of 1984.

I thought it was... Bad. I disliked it. I knew I would. But I said that already and it can’t be my WHOLE ENTIRE THOUGHTS.

So I guess I’ll say it had its good points, and that, actually, its good points could be really interesting. It’s just a shame they had to be part of 1984, which was written by a guy who wanted to gloss over that stuff as quickly as possible to get back into the “but what if the government was... Bad? Bad like This? Hmm?” stuff. Which I found insufferable. Tbh, it’s one of my bottom five tropes and nothing turns me off a story faster. Which doesn’t mean Bad Governments are a trope I dislike. I just don’t like stories that are about them and seem to only exist as a Dire Warning. I hate stories as Dire Warnings and Bad Examples (or even Good Examples) in general. (It’s why my eyes roll all the way back into my head when people start up with that “As LoNg As YoU CoNdEmN iT iN tHe TeXt” bullcrap. No! I won’t! I’ll write bad situations and unlikable people and let the audience sort it out and there’s nothing you can do to stop me!)

One thing I did really like was the prison arc near the end of the book, or at least a lot of the aspects of it. I mean, most of the book listlessly oscillated between hokey and dry, and then, holy shit, the writing got really viscerally emotional and evocative right the fuck out of nowhere. This is a weird thing to say about a book I don’t even like, but the descriptions of both physical suffering and complete no-exits hopelessness, and the depiction of knock-down-drag-out person-on-person dehumanization, actually stick out as standards to hold myself to when I’m writing awful things. And like... Okay. I’ve never been a naysayer in a dystopia, and have never experienced anything to that degree, but I was an autistic kid in abusive educational and therapeutic settings, so a lot how the nuts and bolts of behavioral conditioning were written about and explained rang really true to me. There was an exchange that went something like “look at yourself!” “what are you talking about? You did this to me.” that punched me right in the gut. And my favorite part of the whole book was probably the line about how it isn’t enough that people obey you, they have to suffer while they do it, or else you can’t know they’re following your will and not their own. It honestly felt like time stopped when I read that, because, holy shit, that’s spot fucking on, it’s intentional and it always has been. That concept was an unthought known of mine, I’m pretty sure. And it probably also was for people who did all that shit to me, too, or maybe they actually were aware of it, at least in some awful euphemistic sense, and holy shit, I’m so not surprised I came out of that with probable PTSD.

...But even the really insightful parts of that leg of the story were kind of ruined because they came out in the context of one guy standing over another guy and ranting like a cartoon villain, because this goddamn book is fucking extra at all times.

The other Surprisingly Good Prison Arc revelation is why I’m not the kind of person who likes this kind of book. I’m not really all that interested in Bad Societies to Avoid on a macro scale as the meat of the story, but I am interested in interpersonal violence and trauma in stories, which might require a Bad Society or might not, but either way, the system itself isn’t the interesting part of the scenario, except as context and motivation for the individuals involved. And the wider context/specific scenario wires just never quite connected properly. The one guy was just... A cartoon villain. Talking up the whole system as if he was the one who instated it and wrapping it up with an overwrought metaphor about a boot.

ANYWAY.

A minor quibble, before I go off on a whole other long tangent about the next thing: this book seriously could not make up its mind about whether it’s good or bad to be stupid. The only conclusion it came to is that lower-class people are the stupid ones, but that makes you either docile sheeple or salt-of-the-earth noble savages who are going to save the world. I guess? Whatever it is, I don’t like it.

ONWARD.

I’ve said before that this book jumps right over the most interesting concept in the whole thing, which is the thought/language relationship. YOU INVENTED THE CONCEPT OF A LANGUAGE SPECIFICALLY CREATED TO ATTENUATE THOUGHT AND THEN DIDN’T GET INTO THE WEEDS WITH IT AT ALL. Which, duh, this a book about how attenuating thought is evil and we shouldn’t do it, not a sink-your-teeth-in exploration of cognition and semiotics. That involves open-ended conclusions on your part and would make it harder for George Orwell to smack you with a ruler!

But then there’s the thing where it did kind of start to delve deeper, which is actually a current pet fascination of mine and relevant to my goddamn Solarpunk thing: the whole premise around creating a tightly self-regulating society by manipulating social norms and letting herd mentality do the rest. Which I always think of as the “all lines are curved in the Velodrome” theory of soft authoritarianism. Like basically weaponizing the Overton Window? It’s actually really fascinating! But (there’s always a but with this book) it kind of loses some of its punch when the society portrayed is also just a regular old dictatorship where people kick the shit out of you and Make You Disappear. It’s like the author took the core concept of the book and didn’t even use it! And I guess you can argue that the setting was in a transitional phase, which is fair, and that actually could be really interesting, but it... Wasn’t. And that’s the whole problem I had with the story, pretty much. Not only was it preachy and hokey, but it was full of wasted potential.

ADDITIONAL GARBAGE THOUGHTS:

-How the heck did the other three Improbably Large Nations keep up the “we’ve only ever been at war with those guys and not the other ones” illusion? I can suspend my belief a little bit for Oceania, where the other two are three letters apart from each other and at least some people would probably just shrug and assume they read something wrong yesterday, but I don’t buy it for a second when it comes to the E*asia countries. People would damn well remember that the guys they were mad at yesterday started with an O and then the whole system would fall apart. People aren’t geniuses as a rule, but they usually damn well know if they read an O.

-Also, how is the whole “thoughtcrime” thing even enforced? I know it has to do with analyzing facial expressions, but... How? You can’t tell me that people know how to tell “bad thoughts about our overlord” from “itchy,” “smelled sour milk,” “intrusive thought about stepping on a nail,” “have to pee,” or “wondering where I put that thing” on every single individual face.

-Oh look, it’s another book that ends with a fictional document talking about the Bad Bad Government in the past tense. Where have I seen this before? Perhaps in another hamfisted trainwreck of a book. Perhaps in one that involves color-coded robes.

-Was it better than The Handmaid’s Tale? Eh. It was less-worse, for sure. But mostly just in ways that pissed me off because there were multiple interesting things ruined by being part of this Aesop Fable from hell, not just the one interesting thing with the vague threats of being sent away to clean up radioactive waste until your nose falls off.

-Did I ever tell you that I’ve considered making a blog where I read and dunk on every book in the “transparently didactic dystopian novel that somehow isn’t usually factored as genre fiction” genre? Because I have, but honestly, I don’t know when I’ll be able to bring myself to do this. Partly because I’d have to slog through THT a third time and 1984 a second, which is bad enough, but also because I’d probably eventually have to read Ayn Rand, and have you seen the size of those things? 1984 felt like it rambled on forever, and those are, like, three 1984s stacked on top of each other and there’s at least two of them. I’m willing to go through a lot if I get to make fun of something, but that’s really pushing it.

[benrleeusa]

[John K. Ross] Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court Decisions

Feeding the homeless, drawing the Prophet Muhammed, and Kim Kardashian's plea for executive clemency.

Please enjoy the latest edition of Short Circuit, a weekly feature from the Institute for Justice.

Ratified 150 years ago, the 14th Amendment has been called America's "Second Founding." On September 21, IJ and the Law and Liberty Center at Antonin Scalia Law School will co-host a symposium to celebrate, discuss, and debate the Amendment's dramatic history, contemporary significance, and contested future. Please join us! The event features an all-star lineup of historians, legal scholars, and federal and state appellate judges—and a re-argument of the Slaughter-House Cases. Register here.

New on the podcast: Ignorance of the law is no excuse, immigration deference, war deference, and Honey Badger does care about copyright. Click here for iTunes.

In 2015, the EPA released new regulations for the storage of hundreds of millions of tons of toxic coal ash in hundreds of massive waste pits around the country, many of which do not have sufficient lining to prevent groundwater contamination. D.C. Circuit: The rule, which permits insufficiently lined pits to keep accepting waste (until operators are unable to successfully repair a leak), is arbitrary and capricious.

After a change in administrations, the EPA enacted the "Delay Rule," delaying enforcement of the Obama-era "Chemical Disaster Rule" that required safety audits of chemical storage facilities, better communication between such facilities and local first responders, among other things. D.C. Circuit: Which both exceeded the agency's authority and was arbitrary and capricious. Not to mention, it "makes a mockery of the statute."

Advocacy group submits proposed subway advertisement proclaiming a First Amendment right to draw the Prophet Muhammed; the ad itself depicts the Prophet Muhammed. In response, D.C. transit authority adopts a policy banning "issue-oriented" advertisements. D.C. Circuit: The transit authority's policy seeks to avoid controversy, but it has swapped controversies for lawsuits. We remand to consider whether the policy provides the kind of objective, workable standard required by the Supreme Court's recent Mansky decision.

ATF agents point guns at father and his 17-year-old son outside Coto Laurel, P.R. post office, detain them for 20 minutes. Yikes! The shipment of illegal firearms that agents were monitoring was picked up by someone else. Can father and son sue for false imprisonment? The First Circuit says no.

Three defendants are jointly tried and convicted of 2000 murder of Harrisburg, Pa. cab driver. Third Circuit (2013): One defendant gets habeas; improper evidence (involving jailhouse informants) was admitted at trial. (He's released in 2013.) Third Circuit (2018): But the second defendant, who challenged his conviction on the same grounds, doesn't get habeas because of a 2004 Supreme Court holding (that the 2013 Third Circuit panel did not consider) mandating that result.

Newark, N.J. officials did not violate taxi medallion holders' constitutional rights by allowing the value of taxi medallions to drop (from over $500k in 2013 to under $220k in 2016) or by regulating ridesharing companies differently than taxi companies, says the Third Circuit.

Allegation: Coraopolis, Pa. officer investigating sex assault takes photos of victim with his personal cell phone, touches her, badgers her into unnecessarily revealing her vagina, fails to document the clothing she provided, and lies about his conduct. District court: Qualified immunity. Wasn't clearly established that kind of thing is unconstitutional. Third Circuit: Reversed.

Allegation: Harris County, Tex. officer tases half-naked, incoherent man (5'3" and 154 lbs.) who ignored officers, wandered away from them on frigid night. The man falls, fractures his skull, suffers life-threatening brain damage. Police say he adopted a fighting stance, but there's no video; they didn't turn on their cameras. Fifth Circuit: The officer who fired the taser violated the man's Fourth Amendment right to be free from excessive force. But the man can't sue. Wasn't clearly established that kind of thing is unconstitutional.

Teen is imprisoned for 16 months awaiting trial for murder. The jury acquits after 29 minutes of deliberation. Can the then-teen sue a San Jacinto County, Tex. officer who allegedly omitted and misstated key facts on an arrest warrant affidavit? Yes, says the Fifth Circuit, and with great dispatch, as this has been pending for over seven years. (Click here and here for more on the case from the National Registry of Exonerations.)

"Handcuffs are supposed to hurt." So says a Michigan police officer, when he arrests a driver during a roadside stop. Driver sues, claiming the cuffs crushed a nerve. Sixth Circuit: Our precedent put the officer on notice that handcuffing violates the Fourth Amendment if an arrestee complains the cuffs are too tight, the officer ignores the complaint, and the arrestee suffers injury. No qualified immunity here.

Seasoned Louisville, Ky. criminal defense attorney is indicted for failing to file tax returns, represents himself for 21 months (between indictment and trial). On eve of trial, he asks for continuance so he can find counsel; the judge denies it. He's convicted of failing to file tax returns, sentenced to three years. Sixth Circuit: There's no evidence in the record he was ever informed of his right to counsel. New trial.

Man serves 21 years of 35-year sentence for nonviolent drug offense, is released early based on new sentencing guideline. He comports himself admirably for the two years he's on supervised release (as he did during his incarceration). But prosecutors appeal and win reversal of his sentence reduction. Sixth Circuit: Which is the correct legal outcome. "Executive clemency provides [him] another avenue for relief." (Click here for Kim Kardashian's take.)

USA Gymnastics national team physician molests dozens of children over 20-year period. Separately, he amasses collection of over 37,000 images and videos of child porn. Sixth Circuit: No reason to reconsider his 60-year sentence for the child porn. (Via Sixth Circuit Blog.)

Man takes generic antidepressant, commits suicide. His widow sues not the manufacturer of the generic drug, but the manufacturer of the brand-name version, Paxil, which was responsible for the warning label. Widow: The harm wasn't taking the drug; the harm was that the warning label failed to warn the drug was linked to suicide in adults. Drugmaker: We tried to include that on the label, but the FDA wouldn't let us. Seventh Circuit: Case dismissed.

Criminal defendant starts to speak at a sentencing hearing, but his lawyer tells him to be quiet. Later, with new counsel, defendant argues district court made various procedural errors at the hearing. Seventh Circuit: These claims were waived, as the lawyer did not raise them. It's irrelevant that the lawyer stopped the defendant from speaking, as it's not the court's job to interfere in the attorney–client relationship.

In wake of the housing crisis, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, a new federal agency that "supervises" lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, forces them to turn their profits over to the U.S. Treasury instead of investors. Investors: We want our money back! The FHFA's "net worth sweep" regulation is unlawful. Eighth Circuit: No, it's lawful. Judge Stras, concurring: The investors "make a compelling case that the FHFA … has grown into a monster. But judges are not superheroes; we cannot run to the rescue every time danger looms."

Medford, Ore. police identify bank robbery suspect. They have no address for him on file, but they learn his girlfriend has a no-contact order against him. They search her home without a warrant (and, it is presumed, without her consent) and find their man. A Fourth Amendment violation? Not a bit of it, says the Ninth Circuit. He didn't have a reasonable expectation of privacy at her place. But, in a separate order, his conviction is reversed for unrelated reasons.

After serving 17 years in prison for a murder she did not commit, woman sues LAPD detective for withholding evidence that the prosecution's star witness was a serial liar who had already been deemed an "unreliable informant" five years before the murder trial. Detective contends that no reasonable officer would have understood that disclosure of this evidence was required. Ninth Circuit: Well then you and I have different understandings of the word "reasonable." (Click here for more on the case from the National Registry of Exonerations.)

Railroad tank car carrying harmful chemicals springs a leak, permanently disables workers. They try to get different jobs at the railroad company but are rejected from all (more than 20 each). They say these rejections are discriminatory and file claims with the EEOC. Railroad company: Aha! The court can't hear most of this because you didn't file a separate EEOC claim for each rejection. Tenth Circuit: Not so much. Even though our old precedent said that, it was wrong, so (upon polling the rest of the court but without formally going en banc) we're going to overrule it. (The court also has some words (and imposition of costs) on why attorneys shouldn't skimp on the appendix.)

Disney theme parks accommodate individuals with cognitive disabilities by allowing them to skip the line for all rides with wait times of less than 15 minutes (which is most rides) and to schedule appointments at rides with longer wait times. They are never required to wait in lines. Parents (in 30 separate lawsuits): Not good enough. Our kids still have meltdowns. Eleventh Circuit: Disney might not be complying with the ADA.

Alabama abortion law prohibits dismembering living 15- to 18-week-old fetuses; rather, fetuses must first be killed in utero and then dismembered and extracted. District court: The state's proposed methods of fetal demise are not feasible. The law is unconstitutional. Eleventh Circuit (reluctantly, and with two concurrences): That's so.

Activists host sit-down weekly dinners with free food in public park where homeless tend to congregate. Fort Lauderdale, Fla. officials impose permitting scheme that restricts such meals. Eleventh Circuit: The meals are expressive conduct; the activists' constitutional claims should not have been tossed.

"Consider two people, one who has money and the other who does not. They are arrested for the same crime at the same time under the same circumstances … [and] would have the identical bail amount …. The person who has money pays it and walks away. The indigent can't pay, so he goes to jail." Which is a serious deprivation of liberty, writes Judge Martin, dissenting from the Eleventh Circuit's rejection of a preliminary injunction over Calhoun, Ga.'s money bail policies.

Since 1873, Maine school districts have paid for students who live in towns too small to support a public school to go to a school of their choice, whether private or public, in state or out of state. But parents have not been allowed to select religious schools for their children since 1980, which violates equal protection and religious freedom, argues a new IJ lawsuit on behalf of three families. Last year, the Supreme Court, in a 7–2 decision, ruled that excluding religious groups from public programs for which they are otherwise qualified "is odious to our Constitution … and cannot stand." Maine's discrimination against religious families cannot stand. Click here to read more.

[indigo-ra]

Application for Enlightenment

OIL

If man is truly the master of his domain, then we should not be fighting over resources at this juncture of humanity. While I cannot say that oil/petroleum/gasoline is unimportant to our current economic structure, I can say that the dependence on it is easily replaced.

 I would like for the entire world to enter an enlightened state of consciousness, starting with world leaders and their corporate counterparts alike. If we are to continue to rely on petroleum for fuel, we need to be cautious of  pollutants and considerate as to how we procure them. If this is executed with tact and the utmost respect for life and nature, then it really is not a problem at all.

 The biggest issues are underscored in continuing conflicts with the suppliers of this particular economy. They rely on the trade of oil to bring water to their deserts. If you can step outside of your own ego and put yourself in the mind of your enemy, understand the type of life, history, land and culture they’re fighting for, you will realize that hubris has no place in treaty negotiations.

 The issue with pollution is that there are not enough trees to scrub the air. Solution: Plant more trees. Make the roofs of all the buildings into canopies. There should be bushes, cacti, bamboo, flowers or grass EVERYWHERE THAT THEY CAN GROW!

 Now that we’ve figured out how to filter the dirty air, lets tackle the soil and water.

 If the soil and water are irreversibly contaminated, humanity’s true natural wealth in resources will be damaged and depleted beyond repair.

  WATER

There are natural ways for filtration of rivers and lake water with charcoal stones, mussels, insects and certain bacterium. That’s not a band-aid, though. We, first, need to actively clean up our rivers and lakes to the best of our evolved human ability BEFORE we introduce other means to filter the water.  

 I strongly believe that our sewage should not touch our water. PERIOD. It’s been this way for nearly 1,000 years, but since we’re evolved enough to realize it and technologically advanced  enough to CORRECT it, it would be better for the whole of humanity to not sh*t where we drink. We could gradually taper off the traditional plumbing system and septic tanks with an organic, compost-making alternative. Just getting organized is the key to saving the entire world. Excrement does not belong in the water. It belongs in the soil.

 When you are a child and your parents make you clean your room, you know to put things away, where they belong. That does not change as an adult. You are expected to know better and, though the task seems monumental, there are ways to delegate and make the transition. I know it’s possible because when all analog TVs switched to digital, it was a smooth transition.

 While I do realize all the toilets are connected to intricate and complex subterranean sewage and waste pipes and drains, the solution is as simple  as swapping out the toilets themselves. There are composting toilets now. Though, not everyone likes that alternative, the market is open to inventing other types of flushing toilets that to do not taint our WATER!

 Of course resistance within the general population will be met, but just as EVERY TV signal eventually turned digital. The toilets will eventually gradually stop flushing to the sewers. The parts to replace them will no longer be made or sold and the only market for them will be for composting and other varieties that will just make that plumbing hole in the floor obsolete. It’s simple.

 After that, the water, will be half clean before it even reaches the treatment facility. From there, exercising conscious disposal and recycling practices with solids, alkaloids, chemical and synthetic materials becomes as simple as sending out 2 different garbage trucks. One truck picks up the synthetics (plastics, batteries, cleaning solvents and everything inorganic) for disposal (nuclear disposal byproduct is steam!) OR drilling a magma quarry and letting it be melted down into its basic elements( probably less safe if stuff is super flammable….(come back to this)

 Fracking needs to stop. It’s too toxic to justify. If the need for natural gas and oil is great enough to drive the need for fracking then we need to rely on other renewable and eco-conscious energy sources such as wind turbines, solar panels and geothermal energy. Car engines can be designed of intricate cogs that are entirely automated like wind-up toys. Until a time comes that coal is not the primary source of electricity, electric cars are still relying on a secondary pollutant for power.

  SOIL

Pesticides are the main culprit in polluting the soil. For large, major crops like corn, oranges, and apples it is the  most cost efficient way to prevent pests like mice, birds or locusts from overtaking the crops. BUT  there are other solutions. Like, ants, snakes, frogs and foxes. Chemicals are not the answer to every little thing. There are flora and fauna that are evolved to do things even better than chemical agents and you don’t even have to pay them.

 I’m sure there are natural pesticides that don’t contaminate the soil as well. SO let’s focus on making that the standard.

  CRIME

 Wherever there is a concentrated, population of humans, crime will follow. Generally, most crime occurs when a criminal is discontent and trying to fulfill or satisfy a basic need or desire. The best way to minimize crime and discourage criminal activity is by creating a thriving economy where all basic needs are met.

 Low or no income individuals should always have shelter to sleep, a place to cook, wash(clothes) and bathe.  Public Shower/Laundromats with outside seating and grilling areas should do the trick. And as for the shelter (Tubo hotel) Concrete tubes with basic bedding. All of this should be free of charge (mostly) because the laundry facilities may need regular maintenance so if it’s possible there could be an aluminum can and glass bottle recycling at the door, which can cover the cost of entry and allow full use of the facilities. 50 cents or even a dollar is attainable in pennies, cans or bottles. That’s in addition to taxpayers money, of course, which, in the case of lowering crime rate is a worthy cause to pay.

 For individuals who make less than is sustainable in urban areas. Low income, manufactured freight car homes should be organized in LEGO rental parks that give special rental discounts to students, seniors, disabled, and hard-working, blue-collar people who have goals and ambitions to advance their living standards.

 [ Freight container mobile home park community]  

 Because of their mobile and utilitarian design, the Freight container home is infinitely customizable. For those who prefer more a nomadic lifestyle, these tiny traveling homes could serve as a key component in a more independent economy and provide the opportunities for fair trade to be cultivated within its communities. Because the population will be mostly low income students/workers/families, anyone who can work, but is unemployed for any reason will be able to work in the community greenhouse(s) maintaining and growing the crops that feed its inhabitants.

 Of course, creating a supply and demand for cheap, sustainable and eco-friendly housing is the key to the beginning of this endeavor.

 [Apt building with freight container homes loaded in]

 Once every one has a home, crime rates will fall, but it is always a possibility for Crazy Daisies to pop up in the genetic pool, like weeds.

Mental Health

As it currently stands, the mental health facilities and practices funded by the government are extremely poor. Even private institutions are comparable in their poor treatment of the mentally ill. It’s uncomfortable to talk about, especially when more and more people are ending up homeless and living on the street, because of their mental instability.

 Therapy, psychiatry and social work are all fields that inevitably take a toll on the mental stability of its practitioners. The stories and situations of the patients, objectively, leave their marks on the listeners, albeit less detrimental. Over time, anyone would crack, if subjected to this on a daily or weekly basis for years at a time.

 Healthy mental health professionals will result in healthier, more productive mental patients, or at the very least more accurate diagnoses and facility placements.

 I think all mental health professionals should be tested and reviewed by an unbiased third party annually to gauge their mental fitness and determine whether they are fit to continue their practice. We can succeed in this by sending mole patients (like undercover detectives) to see them in action without them actually knowing they are under scrutiny. This will weed out the corrupted and support the efforts of the best practitioners with awards, accolades and milestone achievements encouraging them to keep up the good work. But ALL of these professionals should be removed after a  period of time (to curb unhealthy patient/doctor attachment) and promoted to more administrative or corporate level positions, where mental instability still exists, but the causes are different and  building from the bottom of the economical ladder UP, will qualify them to handle a plethora of mental and emotional conditions while still advancing pay, benefits and gradually addressing higher and higher socioeconomic classes of patients.

  Prison

Prison is a necessary part of society to maintain a civil population. The rising trend of corporate prisons is alarming,  because they are not federally regulated to meet government standards, nor do they care to understand what it takes to run a mass facility manned by people who were prosecuted under the law/public, yet are now subjected to private corporate slavery. It COSTS more money to run a prison than to profit from one. But there is a much larger hierarchy that needs to be reorganized  before  the penal system can be perfected.

#1 The Judicial due process of law should not be a debate club. Right now, lawyers just tell the best stories to sway juries (who are all oblivious, disgruntled spectators) to land on a verdict. It’s like a pinball table. Once a person is in that courtroom, the odds of coming out of it free and clear are slim, just by design.  

 Judge jəj/

noun

1.     

a public official appointed to decide cases in a court of law.

If a jury is important to due process, the judge should hold much more responsibility than they currently do. At this point, they act as little more than a referee between the lawyers and unfortunately, the more aggressive the lawyer, the better their reputation.

Sitting in court for long hours is boring and irritating for everyone involved except for the person(s) on trial. The jury will take any entertainment they can get, and I hate to say it, but people are more prone to conforming to a hive mentality when subjected to these types of displays.

[Examples: Sports and other competitive events, Spectators when traffic slows to a crawl when there are accidents on the highway]

When the majority of a mass of strangers land on a verdict, in the rare incident that a minority percentage of them do not agree, they are more LIKELY to end up being swayed to the majority opinion for entirely selfish reasons of convenience. Being FORCED to take off work and sit in a boring court room all day, listening to strangers tell the same story over and over again, is not a great way to get an unbiased opinion from anyone, especially if they care nothing about the individual on trial!

If nothing else, at least one person who is close to and knows the defendant and one person who represents the victim/plaintiff, should be in that jury. THEY should be the ones who negotiate the terms of the verdict and sentence/punishment with the jury and give the final suggestion to the judge. Otherwise, get rid of the jury. If a judge were to do their actual job by dictionary and biblical definition that you like to operate under oath and swear by, they need more practice in  “judgment”. Perhaps even a jury of judges would be more appropriate, since a practiced judge can tell the difference between an innocent or guilty person as soon as they enter the room. I believe a lot of prisoners serving long term stints in prison for minor offenses will be granted more amnesty, fitting punishments and better facility placement dependent on the nature of their crimes rather than treated like clusters of zoo animals. If judges were more like Shark Tank or American Idol, it would make more sense. I hate to say that, but the dramatic display between lawyers at this point is just as ridiculous. There’s just less confetti. Maybe you should add confetti and balloons when they’re proven innocent and everyone will leave court with a smile on their face, because judicial stuff is a drag!

Juvenile, Minimum Security, Maximum Security, and Mental Institutions, cover the main placements of incarceration. They could be better organized, though. For instance, violently criminally insane people don’t fit in any of these places. They belong in Hell. But for the sake of being civilized, I don’t think caging or locking up a person who has no hope for rehabilitation is an option either. It’s a waste of money, resources, and a hazard to prisoners and guards alike, not to mention the quality of life for a person who is constantly restrained is no life at all. Some people need to be put out of their misery, which brings me to my next point.

Ethical Euthanasia/Fight or Die

A lot of states have gotten rid of the Death Penalty because they may feel it is uncivilized, outdated or primitive, but only their execution methods were. Death by lethal injection is still pretty rude, since even cats and dogs get put to a calm sleep. I strongly believe criminally insane people driven by their id (the disorganized part of the personality structure that contains a human's basic, instinctual drives.) are more animal than human. To me, it seems fitting that we have some fun with these, since they are cause for more pain and suffering in a string of families lives who have lost loved ones to murders, rape and kidnappings, can count. If you want to just delete an anomaly of human being, by all means, put them down. But do it quickly and ethically. Personally I think that’s a little too tame of an end for these types of criminals and I think they should, instead, be subjected to the untamed elements they project and forced to fight for survival. If their life is worth anything to anyone, they must at least prove it to themselves.

 I’m talking spectator bloodsport.

 It’s really quite logical if you think about it. The Romans had the Coliseum, and that worked pretty well up until they began throwing innocent people into it. We could make Hunger Games type courses, put a tracking device on them and drop a bunch of these wild murderous, rapist, cannibalistic predators on the top of Mt Everest  or something with each other and see how they respond. It will also tell us more about the psyche of such individuals. This is the part of the criminally insane mind that has socially eluded us for generations. We, as civilized people tend to take a passive stance on the aggressive transgressions of serial murderers by turning our backs on them and locking them away. Or we deal a tawdry death sentence without ever unraveling what makes them so evil and driven in the first place. We are now in a time where we can actually privately televise and monetize these types of events, in which the proceeds could be given to the victims’ families.

 Placing them in the proper wilderness settings with blunt objects or tools and watching whether they can learn how to be civilized or fight to the death would be entertaining AND educational. Either way, the information is invaluable to ending the cycle of these types of criminals from cropping up in the first place.

 We have to also remember to remain civilized ourselves. We can indulge in this only for as long as it is a necessity; but I have faith that seeing what the darkest and most evil transgressors of humanity, have to endure as a result, will eventually be enough to stop it from happening. At the very least it may even create other bloodsport arenas in which these types of animals can express themselves (death matches and cage fights to the death, maybe with motorcycles and lead pipes in a Mad-Max dystopian sand pit or something) so that they even have a way to rise to some meaningful notoriety in their short, otherwise meaningless, lives is better than them kidnapping, raping and murdering innocent people. Some people place minimal value on their own lives, but if we allow them to do that, instead of trying to place the same existential “all lives matter” label on everyone, they will only hurt themselves  and each other instead of the truly innocent lives of people who do value theirs.

 What you are left with after that, is prisons that eliminate the need for life OR death sentences, as well as a variety of punishments that fit the crimes so that we rehabilitate criminals instead of creating recidivists, because they are bad for businesses everywhere!

 For Example:

 Tony is a 21-year-old white male who broke and entered into a house and stole a bunch of jewelry and sold it to the pawn shop for drug money.

 Today if this person was caught and indicted, depending on the state, judge, jury, and prosecutor, Tony could end up in jail for a VERY long time or not at all depending on if they’re dealing with a good-ol-boy racist white supremicist on the legal board. The racial bias in anyone who has a hand in legal proceedings makes them unfit for that duty and they should be terminated. End of story.

 But the point is, there is no set length of time that is guaranteed to rehabilitate this 21 year old poor kid who got addicted to drugs while hanging out with the only people who ever treated him like family since his own parents abused and emotionally abandoned him.

 Each individual’s story is as unique as their crimes, and the judicial system is prone to vehemently ignoring the circumstances that drive people to doing crime in the first place by locking them away from civilized humanity and making them worse off than when they went in. When they finally re-emerge back into the world with no prospects or options, of course they will return to the same life they’ve only EVER known to work.

 Tony obviously needs rehab, the support of a group home to sleep in and get used to having domestic stability and the support of others who are also committed to staying clean (NA/AA officials) and a JOB. A job is so important. If a person has to work 8 hours a day, you’ll find they prefer being productive rather than destructive in 9 out of 10 cases.

 I hear a lot of budget talk and raising taxes and so on, but the truth is the government doesn’t have to do EVERYTHING. Non-profit sectors and religious organizations do good work in these areas already. If the government actually gave them material donations as well as funding (building and maintenance supplies, food, and basic living provisions as they provide to prisons!) the government wouldn’t have to worry about re-inventing the wheel.

 Eventually the point is to put Tony on the path to pursuing prosperity so that he will become successful and independent enough to support himself. If that program was a well oiled-machine, no one would be left behind...and the ones that choose the life of laziness have to sleep in tubo beds and shower in laundromats. Get it?

   Police

All over the world, the definition of this is different. The Police in Germany are much more tolerant than Police in Virginia-by historic design, of course. It only really means that police are human beings of flesh and blood too; wielding guns as weapons. A racist, rapist junkie that wakes up every morning and puts on the police hat, is really just a polished turd, with a gun.

I emphasized the need for better mental health practices and I cannot emphasize it enough here by saying it should be absolutely MANDATORY  to stage regular psychological screenings apart from just drug tests. A gun is a serious weapon, so having a license to kill by a hair trigger that is enforced by the LAW is no place for folly of any sort. Police should take this part of themselves as serious as a Royal British Palace Guard, but also as a public protector, be the hero you are when people are giving you love.

It’s a fine line, because it is the difference between confident and cocky. Confidence is sexy while Cockiness starts wars.  Military Police are Police for the Military. The entire Military is just a percentage of a nation’s people with different skill-sets and almost a nation within the nation itself. That being heard, understood and acknowledged means that Wars are fought and won by the military’s police.

The biggest ongoing conflict that everybody wants to quit, other than the videogaming drone stoners, is the middle east conflict. It’s displacing people and ruining EVERYONE’S economies.

What now needs to be understood, is that guns have a place. The desert is of blood and sand, and always has been. Now, the best place to profit from buying and selling guns in every currency should be there. The people who are stationed and want to stay should set up hobby shops selling all kinds of guns, paintball, airsoft, water, nerf and so on. Then divide your camps into your hobby lobbies. What you’ll come to find is that there are people of all lands and cultures that will gravitate to your bazaar communities and create their own cultures there and unite the (Fire Nation).

Like yogurt or wine, the culture, with age, will eventually develop your creole language and you’ll notice that war is just a game you play. Even the real guns still have purpose if we let those Crazy Daisies play Call of Duty: Real World.

The private owners of guns have an opportunity to create armories, like libraries, where people can check out guns, this way they are easily tracked, and gun violence will eventually taper off into nonexistence by obsolesence.

 Now that I have addressed the most urgent, pressing and dire matters of Earth. Let us enter into a responsible economy by investing in beauty. It is no longer a race for money, but material wealth in loveliness.

Trading between human beings does not have to be ugly or slavery. If a person wants to be a slave, let them. Owning a slave should be a contract negotiated between two people.

Not everyone is comfortable being a leader or independent. If a man wants a harem of wives that wash, cook and clean for him, but also is willing to provide for them all, then the legality of these terms must be discussed between contracts.

Human trafficking is also a gold mine. People have beautiful snowflakes of babies they don’t want every day. People could buy AND trade THESE CHILDREN like Pokemon cards and breed them (as adults). Again, buying the rights to people calls for the accommodations to take care of them all. Obviously the drive to love them will yield the best crops.

Children are the most inexpensive, yet MOST valuable resource on this planet.

Now…that creates new problems… because then people will start having kids just for the sake of trying to profit from this model, and overpopulation will end us all before long. So in that same vein, if a Crazy Daisy gets caught doing this, they should be sterilized. It’s only fitting and fair, if they willingly subject their offspring to a life they never intended to cultivate, themselves.

Do you like my future model so far?  Would you like to be a part of this from a shareholders stake? Well allow me to introduce myself:

I am DOCTOR Princess Rhonda Bear.

[dailyofficereadings]

Daily Office Readings February 04, 2018 at 11:00PM

Psalm 80

Psalm 80

Prayer for Israel’s Restoration

To the leader: on Lilies, a Covenant. Of Asaph. A Psalm.

1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock! You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth 2 before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh. Stir up your might, and come to save us!

3 Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved.

4 O Lord God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers? 5 You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in full measure. 6 You make us the scorn[a] of our neighbors; our enemies laugh among themselves.

7 Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.

8 You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. 9 You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land. 10 The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches; 11 it sent out its branches to the sea, and its shoots to the River. 12 Why then have you broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit? 13 The boar from the forest ravages it, and all that move in the field feed on it.

14 Turn again, O God of hosts; look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine, 15 the stock that your right hand planted.[b] 16 They have burned it with fire, they have cut it down;[c] may they perish at the rebuke of your countenance. 17 But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand, the one whom you made strong for yourself. 18 Then we will never turn back from you; give us life, and we will call on your name.

19 Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.

Footnotes:

Psalm 80:6 Syr: Heb strife

Psalm 80:15 Heb adds from verse 17 and upon the one whom you made strong for yourself

Psalm 80:16 Cn: Heb it is cut down

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Psalm 77

Psalm 77

God’s Mighty Deeds Recalled

To the leader: according to Jeduthun. Of Asaph. A Psalm.

1 I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, that he may hear me. 2 In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted. 3 I think of God, and I moan; I meditate, and my spirit faints.Selah

4 You keep my eyelids from closing; I am so troubled that I cannot speak. 5 I consider the days of old, and remember the years of long ago. 6 I commune[a] with my heart in the night; I meditate and search my spirit:[b] 7 “Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable? 8 Has his steadfast love ceased forever? Are his promises at an end for all time? 9 Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?”Selah 10 And I say, “It is my grief that the right hand of the Most High has changed.”

11 I will call to mind the deeds of the Lord; I will remember your wonders of old. 12 I will meditate on all your work, and muse on your mighty deeds. 13 Your way, O God, is holy. What god is so great as our God? 14 You are the God who works wonders; you have displayed your might among the peoples. 15 With your strong arm you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.Selah

16 When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid; the very deep trembled. 17 The clouds poured out water; the skies thundered; your arrows flashed on every side. 18 The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind; your lightnings lit up the world; the earth trembled and shook. 19 Your way was through the sea, your path, through the mighty waters; yet your footprints were unseen. 20 You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Footnotes:

Psalm 77:6 Gk Syr: Heb My music

Psalm 77:6 Syr Jerome: Heb my spirit searches

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Psalm 79

Psalm 79

Plea for Mercy for Jerusalem

A Psalm of Asaph.

1 O God, the nations have come into your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins. 2 They have given the bodies of your servants to the birds of the air for food, the flesh of your faithful to the wild animals of the earth. 3 They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them. 4 We have become a taunt to our neighbors, mocked and derided by those around us.

5 How long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealous wrath burn like fire? 6 Pour out your anger on the nations that do not know you, and on the kingdoms that do not call on your name. 7 For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his habitation.

8 Do not remember against us the iniquities of our ancestors; let your compassion come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very low. 9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake. 10 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants be known among the nations before our eyes.

11 Let the groans of the prisoners come before you; according to your great power preserve those doomed to die. 12 Return sevenfold into the bosom of our neighbors the taunts with which they taunted you, O Lord! 13 Then we your people, the flock of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise.

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Genesis 25:19-34

The Birth and Youth of Esau and Jacob

19 These are the descendants of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham was the father of Isaac, 20 and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, sister of Laban the Aramean. 21 Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord granted his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived. 22 The children struggled together within her; and she said, “If it is to be this way, why do I live?”[a] So she went to inquire of the Lord. 23 And the Lord said to her,

“Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger.”

24 When her time to give birth was at hand, there were twins in her womb. 25 The first came out red, all his body like a hairy mantle; so they named him Esau. 26 Afterward his brother came out, with his hand gripping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob.[b] Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.

27 When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents. 28 Isaac loved Esau, because he was fond of game; but Rebekah loved Jacob.

Esau Sells His Birthright

29 Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was famished. 30 Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stuff, for I am famished!” (Therefore he was called Edom.[c]) 31 Jacob said, “First sell me your birthright.” 32 Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” 33 Jacob said, “Swear to me first.”[d] So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. 34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank, and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

Footnotes:

Genesis 25:22 Syr: Meaning of Heb uncertain

Genesis 25:26 That is He takes by the heel or He supplants

Genesis 25:30 That is Red

Genesis 25:33 Heb today

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Hebrews 13:1-16

Service Well-Pleasing to God

13 Let mutual love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. 3 Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.[a] 4 Let marriage be held in honor by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled; for God will judge fornicators and adulterers. 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” 6 So we can say with confidence,

“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?”

7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings; for it is well for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by regulations about food,[b] which have not benefited those who observe them. 10 We have an altar from which those who officiate in the tent[c] have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood. 13 Let us then go to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. 15 Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

Footnotes:

Hebrews 13:3 Gk were in the body

Hebrews 13:9 Gk not by foods

Hebrews 13:10 Or tabernacle

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

John 7:37-52

Rivers of Living Water

37 On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, 38 and let the one who believes in me drink. As[a] the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart[b] shall flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit,[c] because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Division among the People

40 When they heard these words, some in the crowd said, “This is really the prophet.” 41 Others said, “This is the Messiah.”[d] But some asked, “Surely the Messiah[e] does not come from Galilee, does he? 42 Has not the scripture said that the Messiah[f] is descended from David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?” 43 So there was a division in the crowd because of him. 44 Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

The Unbelief of Those in Authority

45 Then the temple police went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why did you not arrest him?” 46 The police answered, “Never has anyone spoken like this!” 47 Then the Pharisees replied, “Surely you have not been deceived too, have you? 48 Has any one of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this crowd, which does not know the law—they are accursed.” 50 Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus[g] before, and who was one of them, asked, 51 “Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?” 52 They replied, “Surely you are not also from Galilee, are you? Search and you will see that no prophet is to arise from Galilee.”

Footnotes:

John 7:38 Or come to me and drink. 38 The one who believes in me, as

John 7:38 Gk out of his belly

John 7:39 Other ancient authorities read for as yet the Spirit (others, Holy Spirit) had not been given

John 7:41 Or the Christ

John 7:41 Or the Christ

John 7:42 Or the Christ

John 7:50 Gk him

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

#February 04 #2018 at 11:00PM