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cordeliatnsatlanta · 3 years

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Chapter 2 and 3...

Daniel and the boy sat down at a nearby cafe. He knew it was kind of weird for him to keep hanging out with a stranger who was at least ten years younger than him, but he didn’t feel right abandoning him after the recent events that had just occurred.

“I’m Aiden by the way.” The young boy said as they grabbed their drinks from the counter and went to sit down at a table.

“Daniel.” He responded awkwardly.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” The boy piped up, he was picking at the cardboard sleeve that was around his to-go coffee cup. He had hot chocolate. “Why did you help me? People usually see us and ignore it.”

Daniel scratched the back of his head. “Well, people do this thing where…. They see what they wanna see. To… I guess.. Clear their conscience.”

“What do you mean?”

The young man took a sip of his coffee and sighed a little bit. “The people who turn a blind eye on you, most likely don’t mean to, unless they just don’t care. Most people have gotten used to their dull daily routine that they start to block out the world around them. But when they do happen to see something amiss, their mind tells them what they wanna hear.”

“So, in my situation… when people see my bullies harassing me, they might just think we’re friends roughhousing?”

“Mhm.”

“Oh” Aiden said sadly and continued to fiddle with the cardboard sleeve.

“I-I mean don’t lose faith in humanity completely!” he stammered, “I helped you, that’s gotta be worth something?”

“Yeah… it’s just… I didn't have much faith to begin with. The bullying is only part of it too.” He took a sip of his hot chocolate. “I don’t really have any friends at school and my parents are always working so I don’t have anyone to walk to or from school with.”

Daniel tapped his finger tips against his leg as his concern grew for his new acquaintance.

“I’ve always been kinda lonely, and have basically had to raise myself.. But I still have a lot to learn about how the world works.”

“Well… if you want.. Maybe I can make sure you get to school safely? I know we just met today, but i can’t help but be a little concerned…” Daniel offered.

“I’ll… think about it.” Aiden took another sip. “Wait, don’t you have a job to go to though, like my parents?”

Daniel took a big sip of his coffee, a bit ashamed of his unemployment. It burned his throat immensely but he tried to play it off.

“Oh…. well you should probably get one of those, to get money, right?”

The young man sighed, “You're the second person to nag me about that today, which is probably a sign or something.”

He looked at his camera bag which was resting untouched on the table. “I’ll look into it later then.”

“Well, i guess while you're looking for a job you can walk me to school. You should probably meet my parents first though. They wouldn't want me walking to school with a weirdo like you without meeting first.”

Daniel laughed, “Rude.”

Chapter 3:

2 weeks later…

May sat at her workspace at the local police station staring up at the ceiling, listening to the hum of the air conditioner. She’d gotten very good at identifying sound without looking, the laughs of each of her fellow officers became so familiar as time passed and the sound of footsteps approaching her desk when it was time for her to start a new case.

However, today, something was different. She heard someone else's laughter, someone she didn't know. It was unfamiliar, strange. She swiveled around in her chair and spotted where the unknown voice was coming from.

One of her co-workers was joking around with what seemed to be a new hire. He didn’t look like officer material, but she didn't wanna assume. The co-worker he was with was known to be a pretty crappy guy, he was tasked with finding part-timers since crime had risen the past couple of months. She knew to be cautious of whoever he hired.

“Hey, May.” the officer said, skipping any sort of formalities in front of the stranger she had yet to meet. She rolled her eyes in response.

“Yes?” She stood up from her desk and crossed her arms in a judgemental manner.

“This is Daniel, he’ll be working as a part-time crime scene photographer up until the end of January.”

Daniel held out his hand to shake, as a sign of respect. May eyed him up and down, reluctantly shaking his hand.

“It takes a lot of work to become a full-time crime scene photographer.” She sat back down and looked up at the ceiling again. “What are your qualifications?”

“Oh well.. I graduated highschool at an early age and um... I went to a two year college and graduated with my bachelor’s degree in photography..” He said awkwardly.

She eyed him again. “You?”

“Um yeah..?” he said hesitantly.

“Well, do you have any experience in criminal justice?”

“ I mean, I don't know if this counts, but I did take a course when I was considering being a police officer, but I realized that wasn't what I wanted to do with my life.”

“So why are you here now?” May pressed.

Daniel fidgeted with his jean jacket until he eventually piped up a response. “Well my main job is a freelance photographer, but lately I haven't been getting a lot of commissions or requests for my work. So here I am.”

May got up from her chair again, “Well I can't say you are the most qualified candidate, we usually hire trained officers for the job. But since it's only temporary, I guess you’ll do.”

As she walked past him, she gave him a friendly pat on the back, “You start tomorrow, we’ve got a new case to crack.”

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workingontruth · 4 years

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Our 2 Kings 7 Kind of Life

Don’t you love it when God shows up?

Have you ever missed it when God showed up?

What about now?

Today, opinions are a dime a dozen. Talk to a dozen people, and you’ll get a dozen different angles on any of a dozen subjects. But in spite of our differences of opinion on any of a wide range of topics, I think we all agree on one thing these days; had I interrupted your Christmas celebration this past December (whether or not I were wearing camel’s hair and in need of a good flossing to extract locust legs from between my teeth), telling you the following list of things would all come true in less than 90 days, you would have labeled me a complete crazy man and would’ve told me to go back beneath the rock from which I had come.

“In less than 90 days,…”

1. You, over there in the Free Enterprise motor coach pullover (that would’ve been me) … you will be returning to the University of Indianapolis with the Men’s Lacrosse team from South Carolina before playing the final game of your trip–but oddly enough, both teams will be fully healthy, the weather will be ideal, and the trip will have been coasting along without a hitch. Oh, and the university’s administration will also require the other eight remaining U Indy teams, participating in their various collegiate sporting events from Florida to California and everywhere in between, to immediately return to campus as well. And, once you return, your entire fleet of buses will be emptied of fuel, removed from insurance plans, and put out of service–though all machines are mechanically sound and all drivers are healthy and available to drive.

2. And you, in the red Community Hospital valet shirt (that would’ve be my wife) … you will be in your new role in the front office of the Center for Genetic Health. But having been asked not to congregate with your co-workers in the perfectly suited and newly designed office space the hospital had just finished, you and all of your co-workers will be working from home to reschedule all patient appointments sixty days or more into the future–unless they are willing to conduct their appointment over the phone or via video-chat.

3. The NBA post-season will never happen, and the balance of the season itself will be stopped cold in its tracks at half-time of a game in the Mountain Time Zone on Wednesday, March 11th.

4. All NCAA spring athletic events will be cancelled for the remainder of the school year and March Madness won’t happen.

5. There will be no date set to begin the MLB season.

6. Grocery stores will have been unable to keep chicken, ground beef, bread and toilet paper on their shelves.

7. Gasoline will, in some places, be under a dollar a gallon, but few will be filling up.

8. The nation’s restaurants will be closed for all dine-in experiences while the fortunate will try to stay in business by doing carry-out or drive-through business only.

9. All shopping malls, strip malls, barber shops and hair and nail salons will be closed.

10. The Federal Government will be sending $1,200 tax-free cash gifts to the vast majority of American citizens.

11. The world will have a drastic shortage of personal protective equipment.

12. The Down Jones Industrial Average will suffer 3 of its worst days since the “Black Monday” market crash in 1987 in the span of less than a week, losing roughly one-third of its value in a matter of about eight days.

13. State governors will be requesting their citizens “shelter in place” by remaining home but for essential trips for food or health-related emergencies, while in some states it will be a finable offense to travel anywhere but to secure such.

14. The President and VP of the United States will be holding daily, 2-hour press briefings for weeks on end.

15. Frequent air travel will be little but a memory, international travel banned, airfares costing less than a good meal out (which will no longer be happening).

16. The President will sign a presidential memorandum that will require the likes of General Motors to begin manufacturing respiratory ventilators.

17. Dozens of privately held companies like Michael Lindell’s “My Pillow,” will be transformed into N-95 facemask factories.

18. Samaritan’s Purse will have set up and be running a fully-functioning hospital in the middle of New York City’s Central Park.

19. The United States Naval Hospital Ship “Comfort” will have been deployed to New York to help in the cause.

20. Most people will be wearing PPE masks everywhere they go.

21. All public concerts world-wide will be on hold.

22. Churches will be asked not to meet, and nearly all will comply without resistance.

23. Employees representing nearly every U.S. industry will be furloughed, let go or kept on payrolls with forgivable loans from the Fed.

24. People will be asked to stand in lines outside Lowe’s stores at six-foot intervals to ensure active shopper customer quotas are kept while both one-way entries and exits are monitored.

25. Many stores will be required to close down public access to much of their merchandise not deemed “essential,” to help support the cause.

26. Pork, chicken and other meat packing plants in the U.S. will be closing down.

27. U.S. unemployment will be at the highest rate since the Great Depression as new weekly filing claims will be counted not in the hundreds of thousands, but in the millions.

28. The nation’s, and most of the world’s movie theaters, will be closed.

29. People without facemasks will be shunned and avoided by “mask-wearers.”

30. Neighbors will be sitting in their driveways and on FRONT porches again.

31. College students will be home with their families, taking part in online classwork since all university campuses will be closed prior to semesters’ end.

32. In lieu of our celebrating athletes and Hollywood types, doctors, nurses and healthcare workers will be the new heroes.

33. People in some industries will be earning more to stay at home than while working full time.

34. The Fed will be paying the unemployed an additional $600/week over and above the state provisions.

35. All elective surgeries will be halted while hospital ORs remain unused.

36. Online church “attendance” will skyrocket, leading to thousands and thousands of new believers.

37. American celebrity musicians will be holding online “Global Citizen” concerts to raise millions of dollars to give to the World Health Organization which is being held liable for its part in enabling the death of hundreds of thousands in nearly 200 countries world-wide.

Would any of these things been plausible just a few months ago?

Obviously, this is only a partial list, and one to which most of us could quickly add another dozen. And NOTE they’re not all bad! Isn’t it just like God to orchestrate blessing in the face of difficulty?

But in my mind, these “90-days-ago incomprehensible occurrences” are not unlike the similarly baffling predictions that Elisha, in 2 Kings Chapter 7, was revealing to the king and his officer.

Here’s the short version:

Elisha replied, “Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says: About this time tomorrow, a seah [probably about 7 lbs] of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.”

The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?”

“You will see it with your own eyes,” answered Elisha, “but you will not eat any of it!”

The officer was utterly confounded. “Really? How could this be?” And to be sure, there is no way, given their circumstance at the time, they could have concocted such an unlikely series of events.

(Read verses 3-13 to learn how this mystifying prophecy actually took place.)

But then, the verdict is recorded in the later verses...

“So they selected two chariots with their horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army. He commanded the drivers, “Go and find out what has happened.” They followed them as far as the Jordan, and they found the whole road strewn with the clothing and equipment the Arameans had thrown away in their headlong flight. So the messengers returned and reported to the king. Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. So a seah of the finest flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel, as the Lord had said.”

Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house. It happened as the man of God had said to the king: “About this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.” ...but your officer will not eat any of it.

What’s my point?

God often does things in ways no man would ever script. What we deem impossible is a drop in the bucket of God’s immeasurable and endless power and insight. After all, He knows the future!

But here’s what WE do.

If told of how the above-mentioned improbables would come true by late-March, we would have responded, “Oh I see. What a tragic series of events. But I understand now how that will happen. It all makes sense.”

And because it “makes sense” in hindsight, we disregard the overriding variable of the supernatural God into the equation and chalk up the now-plausible circumstance as nothing more than the “natural” occurrence of things.

No matter how crazy things get, when viewing world events on merely the natural plane, most won’t need a God to “see it.” It will all make logical, cause-and-effect sense.

In the same way, I believe much of what will lead up to Revelation 12 and is told us in Daniel 11:31 and following, will likewise “make good sense” to the mind of mankind at the time. Going so far as to think of the Anti-Christ to come, we have to assume he will not come into power forcefully, but peaceably, with the full support of a global community…one that is now forming rapidly. Yes, it will all “make perfect sense,” for the answers and charismatic leadership of the one we know is to come will help to solve what will have become the world’s most pressing and previously unsolvable complexities. And the world community will give him his prominent role.

Still, for those in Christ, let me be clear that these can be days of amazing intrigue and anticipation, not fear and worry.

But, you see, my point is that this is how God usually chooses to bring about his plans, through a course of events that will be laced in the common sense of man … so much so that even the elect would be deceived were it possible (Matthew 24:24).

BUT, He gives light to the eyes of his children. Our great and unshakeable God has let us in on his plans. We are his friends if we do what He commands (John 15:14). And as friends of the Son of God, the Son has made known us to his agenda (John 15:15).

Now, my intention is not to insinuate we are absolutely on the cusp of the rapture of the Church, or teetering at the edge of the Tribulation–though I’m also not saying that we couldn’t be, for the Father alone only knows the day of Jesus’ return for his children (Matthew 24:30-42).

What I am saying is that if we can learn anything from history, and from an acquaintance with the scriptures, we can assume that the initial events predicted in the Bible will likely “make sense” in the moment to the mind of unregenerate man.

So, one last question.

Given our current sermon series at my home church, Northview Church, I am wondering if you are listening, watching and fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit living inside you? It’s something about which I wrote in great length as well in SET FREE.

Do you know the mind of Christ? Do you have the mind of Christ?

If not, it’s time to change that. If not, you may be missing that God himself is showing up right now on planet Earth.

Place your trust in Jesus Christ. He is ready to open your eyes.

Maybe it’s time you learn more about the God who is doing something incredible right now in the midst of this unprecedented time. Maybe it’s time you gain in you the Resource that dispells anxiety and replaces it with a calm assurance the world will never understand.

You can learn more about having a relationship with Jesus here. Or, reach out to a pastor at Northview Church by texting “NEXT” to 85379 and selecting Option 2.

God is showing up right now. Don’t miss him in the details.

Keep watching.

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cynicinafishbowl · 6 years

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For the dvd meme— any bit in the second or third chapter of Politics and Profanity where Lizzy and Evie are flirting. I’m #predictable

I expected no less from you, madame. I have decided to go with Chapter 2 (under the cut)

By about ten the next morning, Elizabeth realised that Darcy had not taken the intended message away from their meeting. This realisation came by way of the five emails he had sent her by then, amending his schedule in some insignificant manner. [Darcy is a petty little shit when he puts his mind to it] By the end of the day, and another seventeen emails, she was sure that he was having his revenge by inundating her with as much minutiae as he could throw at her. Knowing, thanks to his incessant emailing, that he would not be in his office, she walked towards it, hoping to see Mr Fitzwilliam. He was indeed there, and seemed surprised to see her.

“Miss Bennett. To what do I owe the pleasure?” Fitzwilliam asked as she entered the room. A moment later, having seen her expression, he continued, “Wait. Fitz hasn’t been flooding you with emails keeping you updated as to every tiny amendment to his schedule, in an attempt to mete out some kind of schoolyard vengeance, has he?” [They’ve known each other for literally forever, which mean he knows exactly the sort of shit Darcy is likely to try to pull]

“That and sending me the occasional synopsis of a particularly interesting something which happens to be in one of his red boxes.”

Fitzwilliam rolled his eyes. “Would I be correct in surmising that you could probably use a drink?” he asked, opening the door to Darcy’s office and waving her in. “I can offer you scotch, sherry, [Yes Minister - I couldn’t not] or bourbon.”

“Bourbon?”

“He acquired a taste for it whilst on an internship in America.”

“Scotch, thank you.”

“Have a seat, Elizabeth. May I call you Elizabeth?”

“Only if I may call you Evelyn.”

There’s a definite current of flirting between the two of them in Pride and Prejudice before Fitzwilliam backs off, which in my opinion is because Darcy takes him aside and invokes bros before hos. Obviously in my fic, Fitzwilliam backs off for a different reason, but that is neither here nor there.

My initial plan was to actually have Lizzie and Fitzwilliam date for a while, before they realise that they’re better off as friends or some such, but that didn’t end up happening. I can’t recall why I decided against it. Probably the fact that I couldn’t really think of a plausible reason for them to break up, so it was safer never to go there.

“By all means, Elizabeth, otherwise our following conversation about Fitz is going to be far too confusing.” Elizabeth sank into one of the armchairs in the office and accepted the drink Fitzwilliam handed her, murmuring thanks and taking a sip. “So how many emails did he send you?” Fitzwilliam asked, before cutting her off. “No, no, don’t tell me. Twenty?”

“Twenty-two. Twenty-three if you count the one he sent last night.”

“Christ. And I assume that diligence meant that you actually read them all.”

“Indeed it did,” Elizabeth confirmed, “although every so often there was some interesting bit of statistical analysis from a research paper. Or in one case, a picture of a cat as an attachment labelled ‘virus virus Trojan horse plz open plz’.” [I believe that all email attachments should be named in the manner of lolcats]

“And you opened it?” Fitzwilliam chuckled.

“Of course I opened it. If the computer defences aren’t up to any viruses I’m sent, it’s better that we know about it as soon as possible.”

“So I take it from your visits that you think Fitz has potential in the long run?” [he’s not an idiot]

“What on earth do you mean?” Elizabeth prevaricated.

“If you thought him nothing but a passing nuisance, you wouldn’t be bothering yourself with talking to his assistant after he spent the day annoying you after you reamed him for what was, admittedly, not his fault, but, as I pointed out, something which he probably should have explained from the outset, instead of saying inappropriate things to people with arguably more political clout than him. If you thought he didn’t have staying power, you would just let him run his course, and breathe a sigh of relief when he was replaced and went to work for some top tier law firm.”

“You’ve really thought this through, haven’t you?” [Up until now, Elizabeth had thought he was just along for the ride until something better came up]

“It’s my job to think these things through. If I didn’t think Fitz could go all the way, I would be spending my leisure hours looking for more permanent jobs. Instead, I spend my leisure hours conversing with lovely ladies such as yourself,” he pointed out with a slight inclination of his head. [Shameless. Absolutely shameless.]

“Darcy’s problem isn’t that he’s stupid or even bad at politics from what I’ve seen. His problem is that he’s too… I don’t know… idealistic. [She realises that Darcy isn’t a terrible person, he’s just going about the politics wrong] If he weren’t, he would realise that things are less about actually running the country and more about climbing the greasy totem pole. I mean for heaven’s sake. It’s youth and unemployment.”

“Surely you don’t mean to say that some portfolios are more important than others. Miss Elizabeth, I am shocked,” exclaimed Fitzwilliam in a tone which implied that he was anything but.

“You might very well think that,” Elizabeth paused in her response to take a drink, “but I couldn’t possibly comment.” [Two of my favourite things - that quote from House of Cards, and the Victory Sip, where you punctuate your statement with an exceedingly smug sip of something]

Fitzwilliam chuckled. In response to Elizabeth’s curious look, he said “You know, if you were a bit taller, and significantly more Tory, you’d be exactly his type [He’s essentially describing Caroline Bingley, who is, but for the fact that she’s utterly uninterested in men, exactly his type]. And before you start getting all sardonic, I am in no way implying that that is at all your intent.” [He fails to mention that she is also very close to his type: compact and filled with rage]

Elizabeth, entirely ready to reply with something sardonic, after all, she had hardly come to Westminster to secure some rich, conservative husband [lol surprise bitch, that’s what you’re getting], instead burst into laughter [He’s hot and he’s funny. Such struggle]. “And what, pray tell, was the sample size from which you drew this conclusion?”

“I will admit that my scientific method was somewhat less than rigorous.”

Elizabeth glanced at her watch, and saw that she had another forty minutes until Darcy was due to return to pick up his red boxes for the evening. As such, she was more than slightly surprised to look up from her watch to see him walk into his office [I do enjoy having characters ambush other characters]. He looked, quite rightly, somewhat confused. “You’re not meant to be back for another forty minutes, Minister. You’ve been quite diligent in that respect haven’t you?” she pointed out.

“I emailed you from the car.” [This bitch, am I right?]

Elizabeth pulled out her phone and saw that that was indeed the case. [She has to commend his diligence and commitment to pettiness] Standing, she excused herself. “Indeed you did. Evelyn, it has been a pleasure. Minister, that cat picture was most droll.” [tfw your workplace nemesis is hot as shit, and his homie is super cute and funny. #relatable]

As she left, she heard Darcy ask “What was that about?” [I love having the start of the next conversation happen while its subject is still within earshot.]

Fitzwilliam’s response of “You being a prat,” made her smile as she walked back to her department, where promptly was she greeted by Mr Gardiner. “Where the fuck were you?” [Ah, my Malcolm Tucker homage]

“Drinking scotch with the assistant to the person whom I’m pretty sure just became my nemesis.” [So that’s what the kids are calling it these days]

“I’m sorry fucking I asked,” he muttered as he stalked off.

I love the ‘question, overshare answer, look of disgust’ structure. I use it a lot.

Waiting for her, when she arrived at her computer, were three emails. The one Darcy had sent from the car, updating his schedule, along with a second, newer, email; and one from Mr Fitzwilliam [when did I drop the ‘Mr’ and just have him as ‘Fitzwilliam’? Clearly some time after chapter 2]. She clicked on it.

Elizabeth,

You must come for another chat some time soon. Fitz keeps you pretty well informed of his comings and goings, and I’m invariably always around.

I feel that our chat this afternoon was cut short. [Yeah you do. He thinks she’s attractive, she’s fiercly intelligent, he’s starting to like her]

Yours &c,

Evelyn

Attached to the email was a virtual business card with his details. A smile playing across her features [she is also in the beginning of liking him], she opened the newest email from Darcy.

Ms Bennet,

I hope that my correspondence today has been of a satisfactory level of detail. I have attached my agenda for tomorrow.

Regards,

Fitzwilliam Darcy, MP

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. If he wanted to continue on this line of childish behaviour, that was entirely his prerogative [later on, she comes to enjoy this vague spite-flirting. She has not yet reached that point]. With her work done for the day, she packed her things into her bag and made her way home. It was only when she arrived, to find Jane absent (in her being flooded with unnecessary details of Darcy’s schedule, she had forgotten the altogether more relevant fact of Jane having a date). Elizabeth made herself some eggs, opened her laptop, and poured herself some wine. [All good life choices, like google stalking someone, tend to be motivated by wine]

Having an evening to herself, without the risk of Jane seeing what she was googling and reproaching her for it, Elizabeth opened Chrome and typed ‘Fitzwilliam Darcy’ into the search bar. The first couple of results were official governmental sites, a number of news entries, including the one for which she had been sent to disabuse him, something from a law firm website, and a number of other results which offered no insight into the gentleman. It was on the third page of results [aka Dark Google - if it’s not on the first page, tweak your search term. Things get weird once you’re past that first page of results] that she found something interesting. An obscure Cambridge publication showed a photograph of a young Darcy along with two young men and a young woman, and the caption ---- [Why bother deciding where he went if I can just go the ---- route of Austen?] College University Challenge Team.

Elizabeth very nearly spat out the wine she had just imbibed [spit-takes are never not hilarious]. Here was Darcy, unmistakeably, but over a decade ago. He couldn’t have been older than nineteen, and he was still in the throes of boyhood [the awkward teenage years we would rather forget], his body seeming too tall for his frame [stringbean Darcy], as if he had just completed a growth spurt, which, she supposed, he probably had. Armed with a new search phrase [Good decision, Lizzie. Don’t just keep going deeper], she returned to Google.

She had barely opened the first video when she opened her email to see if Fitzwilliam had seen fit to include his mobile phone number in his set of details. Elizabeth was delighted to see that he had [totally for professional reasons]. She typed the number into her phone and dialled.

“This is Evelyn.”

“Evelyn. Hullo. This is Elizabeth Bennet.”

“Elizabeth! To what do I owe this delight? I hope Fitz hasn’t been pestering you [that’s a lie. He hopes Fitz has been pestering her, because then she’ll keep chatting to him].”

Elizabeth laughed. “No more than the usual. Although it is about him that I called.”

“Oh really?” Fitzwilliam said, with some real intrigue in his voice. “Do go on.”

“I was doing some googling,”

“Of course.”

“I can sense judgement, and I will not have it.” [I swear, the flirting wrote itself]

“Not at all. Please continue.”

“I found a video of Darcy as some lanky teenager on Univeristy Challenge.”

Fitzwilliam let out a hoot of laughter [he remembers stringbean teenager Darcy]. “I’d no idea that was on the internet. Hang on.” Elizabeth heard some shuffling and then frenzied typing, followed by another hoot of laughter. “I am so glad you called. I was making do with occasionally recalling it and chuckling. I never even thought to see if someone had uploaded it. That has absolutely made my evening. I’m going to spend hours making GIFs of this just so that I can send them to him at inopportune moments.” [He totally would]

“Surely you have better things to do with your time,” Elizabeth protested.

“Indeed I do not, for you see, unlike you, I am wildly unqualified for this position and very much did get the job entirely through nepotism [This statement is more or less entirely true]. I take phone calls when he’s out of the office, but let’s be entirely honest, Fitz doesn’t need me around [Not quite true, but definitely not untrue]. A partially trained chimpanzee could do my job [very true]. He hired me because I was an unemployed cousin with a PhD [in retrospect, the timelines make more sense if it’s a Bachelor’s. This was written back when I hadn’t planned for him to have spent quite as long in the military. That changed] in maths so pure that numbers weren’t even involved any more, which of course meant that my job prospects were infinite, and he happened to need a glorified receptionist, and since we always got along well as lads, he gave me the job.” [definitely one interpretation of events]

“Don’t sell yourself short. You could engage in the vicious cycle of academia and teach bright-eyed young things skills which are wholly unusable in the real world so that they too can’t get jobs and so go into academia.” [I wonder what my opinions of professional academia are]

“If I could tolerate youths, then maybe, but ugh, can you imagine?”

“I hate to break it to you, Evelyn, but if they’re at university reading pure maths, I can guarantee that they are about as far from being ‘youths’ as is humanly possible.”

“Excuse you, Miss Elizabeth, I will have you know that there was many a debauched escapade as we dealt with n-dimensional hypercubes.” [debauchery is relative]

“I’m sure.”

“Tell you what, once the GIFs are done, I’ll send you a couple for your own amusement.” [that’s totally not just an excuse for them to keep corresponding at all]

“You are a prince among men,” Elizabeth informed him.

“I know. Feel free to drop by any time Fitz is out of the office, or indeed whenever he isn’t. I’m finding that I enjoy our chats, and nothing worries Fitz more than me chatting about him with terrifying women.” [especially when Fitz worries that he’s going to fall madly in love with them]

“It’s been a pleasure, as always.” [yeah it has]

Elizabeth marvelled at how someone could be so resolutely upper-class, and then read anything other than Classics at university. [really though. I just wanted something that would make him super unemployable, and it was Maths or Classics. Since I decided that Tristan read Classics, Maths it was]

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prorevenge · 7 years

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I was doing you a favor by playing the long game...

I too was playing yet another long game by holding on to this for so long.

SO I had read earlier today the owner of a previous job of mine passed away. This was a place that tried to screw me pretty hard and I took some pro revenge on. It drug up some angry old feelings, so why not take an equal dose of catharsis?

WARNING: This is a doozy so strap in if you dare, no TL;DR it wouldn't do justice.

So this takes place almost a decade ago. I was working as a department manager for a fairly large privately owned pest control company. Their color scheme was black and yellow, much like the taxi's the owner's dad used to drive. Since the taxi industry would be around for ever(hello Uber/Lyft) so would this pest control company, (this is important later) or so the owner used to parrot constantly. My job was to over see the techs doing treatments and set their stops and generally manage assorted insect control services, inventory, payroll for that dept, etc etc. I had taken the job from the owners son who took it from the previous manager who they demoted and yet stayed in the dept...this is important later. The owners son was a late 30's early 40's man child. I mean if he had dialed it back a few degrees he would have been an awesome guy, but anytime booze was involved he was a mess. If it was weed, he turned into the stereo typical obnoxious stoner making nothing but bad Jamaican accented jokes. He also hit on anything younger than him that moved...while being married w a pregnant wife. But I digress, the owner was a piece of work too, old Jewish guy who was as racist as he was old, not with any kind of seething hatred. Just a "this is the way it is" type attitude. My fave line of his, "The sky is blue, Ch#@ks know math, N@&ers are lazy, Jews know gold. What else is new" Like it was the most clever thing of all time. Finally now on to the revenge and need for such.

I had been at said job for about two and a half years, while there I had gotten engaged about 6 month earlier. Due to the awesomeness of my staff I invited about 10 employees to my wedding(it was going to be big due to the wife's family and mine's tiny so..) including the owner his son and the previous manager. I should have felt the ripples in the water when I had planned the trip to propose. The day before I go the owner comes in to do something with a big job and I tell him of my vacation plans as he is looking at the schedule. After I tell him of the somewhat expensive accommodations (I was proposing to my then gf), he literally says, "that's a great idea I haven't been there in years, I think I'll go tomorrow too!" I think he is joking, but he immediately tells his son who was taking over my work that he needs to take over for him and be a presence at the job site. Then tries to demand I clear a day out of my booked vacation schedule for us to meet up with him so he can take us out to some expensive place or some crap. On that one day during the trip he ended up no call no show-ing after we invited him to meet and hang with our family. We spent about an hour trying to call/message/email the guy and he never responded the entire trip. I get back he starts cracking lame jokes about how I ditched him to get engaged...that really pissed me off.

It gets better. Over the course of the next few months strange shit starts happening. I am forced to let go of a few of my techs for BS reasons like the 3 strike rule of attendance randomly being enforced without writ-ups or even verbal warnings. One guy had a 3 month old kid with his GF and I had to let the guy go because of a 3rd lateness of over 5 min from almost 90 days earlier and the previous two being almost 2 years old with the notes of in-climate weather and no routes that day (they also denied him unemployment and tried to enforce a 90 day no compete clause that would have stopped him form getting a job w the competition). Then I get a high priority job of going through back logs of unpaid services and start trying to preform collections with me receiving a % of what I collect(that I was never paid). Over the next month or two I keep getting odd things thrown at me to make money which don't have much to do with my regular job. Till one week where the entire office gets the flu. The owners son, previous manager(now just an officer worker), my assistant and about half the techs call out over the course of the week. I still come in with a 102 fever and goddamn doctors note in case I need to bail, just to get everyone set up and do as much as I can before almost passing out 3 days in a row. I get the entire day's work done by 1pm and leave all with the boss's son's approval. He was thrilled things were still working while the plague rampaged on. But not the owner apparently. I got pulled into the office and yelled at about not taking initiative and calling out all these days...he sounds like he is about to fire me before he asks me if I have anything to say for my self. So I correct him and he looks really shaken and then tells me some BS about the EPA stepping in and making us reduce the number of services we are allowed to do from quarterly (4x a yr) to a trimester schedule (3x) all while paying the same price. Guess who got to call almost every paying customer and try to get them to swallow that? ::raises hand::. So I take care of that over another two weeks and once again get called in to the office. Saying we cannot have this anymore and the EPA is crashing down hard on us and I just keep giving out too many services because the EPA really said we are not allowed to treat more than 2x a year and they lied to me throwing me under the bus(turns out that was a lie too they were trying to get up to stop treatments all together). Knowing I never had the power to authorize a single extra service without consent from the owners. So they had to let me go...only 4 month before I was going to get married. It got a bit intense as emotions ran high, the asshole of a son tells, "My dad told me to fire you a while ago for attendance but I knew you were getting married and I didn't want to mess that up so I played the long game for you man...." In an office with no strict punch schedule for the office workers as we were salary and constantly did things like get food for the office or have to run errands for the business and get stock from another location. Along w/ the EPA bullshit he tells me he just couldn't have a dept with two other managers in it who made less than I do doing the same job. They also tried to block my unemployment with falsified paperwork, claiming unsatisfactory attendance. Tons of bullshit and I never got a strait answer as to why I was let go till I did some investigating. Turns out the old manager who was just an office hand was being put back in the spot she was fired form because she offered to take a 33% pay cut form her old salary and the son just didn't want the extra work.....So they tried to scapegoat me for EPA violations and tried to tell the rest of the office my fuckups were the reason people were let go and the department was going to close.

So now that you've read all that you may have a bit of a feel for why I took my revenge so far and for so long. Luckily I had snapped a few pics of the paperwork I signed upon leaving stating it was due to the EPA infractions. That gets printed out and sent to the department of labor with the rest of their awesome tactics(shorting over time and flat out not paying for paid vacations, time card edits). That lead to tens of thousands of dollars lost in pack pay and fines being levied. The guy w/ the 3 month kid I had to let go told me he eventually settled for almost 35k in back pay... My next stop was the EPA, who much to their surprise didn't even know the company had kept doing the treatments at all as it was supposed to be stopped altogether. Luckily they knew the deal and that it wasn't just me making treatments all willy nilly like. More fines, for each and every treatment performed by them from about 3 months before they fired me. That had to be in the 6 figure range as there was well over 1.5k treatments done in the time and the fine was supposed to be over 1k each. The problem with the treatments were they were too effective, and were wiping out the type of insect that has beneficial and necessary environmental roles. So the mfers were actually hurting the ecology of our goddamn state for their own profit. I created a few fake FB profiles to still be able to follow the owner and his son on FB and find out not 30 days after their EPA issues my department closed down.

Okay so that was 2006ish, two years pass and I keep seeing my POS old boss, speeding around the area (I lived near the place) in his old ass little red Mercedes. Guess who called the cops worrying about the safety of those on the road around this dangerous car? Guess who eventually got caught for DUI at 2pm in the afternoon?

Fast forward a few years to 2011. Mr Whiz Kahlifa drops the song Black and yellow. Decent track. But remember how my old boss was a super racist fellow? Remember the business' color scheme? So I spent about a month sending him different youtube links to that song, from random email accounts. And finally one of a commercial for the company with Whiz's song over it vs the lame jingle they used. Not two weeks after I stop they change the goddamn color scheme of the place to a horrible red white and blue one. But not exactly red white and blue like the American flag more like the Blue white red of the French one. I wait about a month after the Black and Yellow attack and send him a vid of the French national anthem while a the flag is waving in the background. The next goddamn day the place is covered in that cheesy car dealer red white and blue American bunting and American flags everywhere.

Fast forward again to about 2014 and fuck me if I am not out for a walk, and see that company's sign in a lawn advertising that same old treatment on the same old signs from 06'...guess who got sent yet another email to the EPA w pictures? That one got them in major and local news as being "no friend to the environment".

Last time I went by their place they seemingly had half fleet of what are now used blue white and red covered mini trucks. Plus their call center building was emptied of furniture. Unfortunately they are still in business but are sitting at about a 3 star rating on Yelp and that was after they did the damage control to get it back from 1.5 stars.

Sorry(not sorry) guys, I was just playing the long game for you....

(source) (story by StendhalSyndrome)

#pro revenge #by StendhalSyndrome #prorevenge #pro revenge stories #revenge stories #pro #revenge

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jswdmb1 · 4 years

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Old Man

“Old man

take a look at my life

I'm a lot like you”

- Neil Young

I seemingly have no skin in this dumb “OK boomer” thing, but I would argue that I have the most right to be offended by this generational nonsense. You see, no one has bothered to ask my opinion even though I, as a proud member of Gen X, am in the current position of what I like to call generation stuck in the middle. It’s like being on a bus in between two screaming lunatics who don’t even notice that I am there. Yet, no one is better equipped to help referee this dispute other than us in Gen X since we are the only ones who have actually talked among all of the current generations. If you talk to anyone from Gen X, I think most would tell you that we are actually OK being left alone. I mean, since we are the parents of Gen Z, bosses of Millennials, and the adult children of boomers, they all need us way more than we need any of them. Now, I’m not trying to start a fight here, my point is that every generation thinks theirs is the best when it’s always somewhere in the middle. Since middle is my game now, I am here to present the pros and cons of all our current generations:

The Greatest Generation: born before 1946

Pros: Sadly, this generation is leaving us more and more each day, and we need them more then ever. For me, this is the generation of my grandparents that was born in the 20′s and 30′s, lived through a depression and a world war, and then did their best to raise the next generation in a way that allowed them to succeed without ever having to go through what they did ever again. Their bravery and willingness to sacrifice were at levels we will never see again. We need to take as much advantage as possible of those that remain to gather whatever wisdom we can from them that can be applied to the troubles we face today and moving forward. We cannot also forget to thank them for everything we have and generations of the future will have because of their efforts.

Cons: The greatest title unfortunately comes with an asterisk. While this country fought oversees against bigotry, hatred and oppression so that all could live freely, many Americans were not so fortunate back home. People were excluded from the “American Dream” based on race, ethnicity, gender and/or sexual orientation. Often, this exclusion was carried out in brutal ways designed to oppress individuals of their rights not just as Americans but as human beings. I am certainly not suggesting that every member of this generation is a racist or intolerant, but the significant pain caused in this country during the time that this generation was in full power cannot be ignored.

The Baby Boomers: born between 1946 and 1964

Pros: The contributions that the boomers have made to our world are almost immeasurable. Where would we be without the technological advances that came along in the 70s, 80s, & 90s that set the stage for the world as we know it today. Boomers were on the cutting edge of social change as well demanding the generation ahead of them include all Americans in the nation as full and equal members. My parents were on the edge of the boomer generation, but I consider them a part of it and I identify now what they went through as a “sandwich” generation during the 70s and 80s. People make fun of it now, but those days had a lot of stresses and pressures. I would love to see how today’s world would react to the inflation and real unemployment of the late 70s or early 80s. What would you do if gas prices doubled tomorrow? They also took care of parents with many less resources and much poorer health than our older generation has now. They were truly instrumental in the massive transition this country made to get us where we are at this point, and that should not be forgotten especially as many like my dad are leaving us far too soon.

Cons: Boomers made a lot of mistakes. Even as kids, we knew it and wondered what exactly were they thinking sometimes. Personally, I don’t fault the boomers for all the choices they made nor do I think that all our current problems are squarely on them. What I think irks the younger generations is their general unwillingness to concede that they made mistakes which prevented them from learning how to help fix the messes they made. Our president is a perfect example with this, and he is just a reflection of the group that was largely responsible for electing him. The other issue with Boomers is that they refuse to step aside and give up the notion that this world is theirs forever. The most ridiculous thing I heard with this OK Boomer thing was that is was bigoted and would hurt the prospects of many boomers who plan to be around for a lot longer (living off of Medicaid and Social Security we can’t afford, but I digress). Boomers just can’t get that it is not all about them anymore. Remember though, that they were initially part of the “Me” generation in the 70′s so we can’t be surprised by their behavior. The problem now is that their unwillingness to cede power is hurting us. That is why I think their should be an age cap on running for political office of any kind of 65 years old. Agism you say? I guess maybe, but I call it self protectionism. It’s the same logic that sets floors to the age limits to prevent people from being too young to hold such important responsibilities. I say, if you are between 25 and 65, you can be in politics, and after that step aside and let the generation who has everything at stake drive for a while.

Gen X - born between 1965 and 1980

Pros: It’s hard to point to exactly what we in this generation have done so far, but I think as the current “sandwich” generation, we are doing our best to advance the concepts of inclusiveness and awareness of our impact on this Earth to the generations below us that we are either mentoring or raising. I don’t think history is going to look back at us as the “greatest” and we don’t have the same flair as the boomers did, but I think we will be remembered as the generation that quietly did our part to set the table for those coming up behind us to be successful. I also think many in our generation will gladly step aside much sooner than the boomers to let those we have nurtured take over. I envision being the generation that really provides the mentoring and support needed to hopefully get us to the point where hope is restored in our younger generations. Maybe the best thing we bring to the table is empathy and we can use that to bridge between a generation that seems to have lacked it and ones coming up that crave it.

Cons: Our cons are the same as our pros. We have been too benign and let the boomers get away with far too much when we had a chance to stop some of the nonsense they are spewing now. Protests and social activism were unheard of when I was in college in the early 90s and our focus was too much on being good students to get good jobs to become good corporate citizens when we needed to move out of our comfort zone more. I also think we are the generation who is to be blamed most for the current state of the climate. We are the main generation fueling the economy right now and have been for the past decade or so, yet we have not made the changes or demands to turn ourselves towards green practices. The barriers to green technology have come down greatly during this time period and we have been slow to adapt. We also didn’t put pressure on those above us when we were younger and science presented evidence that our earth was being destroyed, which they dismissed. That goes way back and we were asleep at the wheel on what arguably is the most important issue facing us today. That may stain our generation in a way that can never be repaired.

And the rest... - born after 1980 -

I know there are distinct generations within this group, but as an old fogey I get to lump them all together because those damn kids are all the same to me! Besides, kids don’t use Facebook or read long-form essays on Tumblr so they’ll never see this anyway. And, I’m not doing pros and cons for them because everyone gets the same grade in the post Gen-X generation: “meets expectations”. That last part isn’t a joke as if I were evaluating the generations behind me that is the grade that I would give them. I think they are doing a good job so far, but their immaturity and lack of experience holds them back from being great. I actually see many of them fitting more into an “exceeds expectations” category if they continue with their true embrace of inclusion of all people and their commitment to the environment. It is also a very service oriented generation, and I would argue far less materialistic than generations before them going back to the boomers. They need to work on communication skills for sure and definitely need to learn how to develop a bit of a thicker skin, but I see a lot of hope in this group. I am particularly excited to see them start taking control in politics and I hope it is sooner than later. We cannot afford to wait for their innovation as our future lies in the balance with little hope if the status quo stays in place. Let’s face it, whether I believe any of this or not, don’t we have to? I mean if this is a horse race, I’m certainly putting my money on these kids to get the job done over anyone else.

And, I guess that’s the conclusion that I have come to as I reflect on this particular essay. It’s that the youngest generation is always the most important as they have the most promise as well as the most at stake. At the age of 47, I don’t plan to sit on the sidelines or not help out, but I can acknowledge that even at that relatively young age the spotlight is no longer on me. Whether it be my music, or education, or technology skills (or lack there of), my opinions and tastes don’t matter anymore. The other day, someone gave me an “OK Boomer” in jest and at first I took offense. Mostly because I am not that old, but it initially stung to hear it directed at me even as a joke. I soon realized though, that it is just that - a joke and that brings me to the best thing I think Gen X has going for it - our sense of humor. So, if I have any advice for the Gen Zs or whatever they are called and the Boomers is to work together and laugh while you do it. And quit yelling over Gen X while you fight. I’m trying to watch Seinfeld reruns.

Cheers,

Jim

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musickmorley0814 · 5 years

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Proposal for the Yearly Construction then Destruction of Modern Skyscrapers

Who has not marveled at a skyscraper rising into the night? They seem to bring down the heavens and organize its stars. These stars often read out encouraging messages or solicit funds for charity. Two workers in offices on the thirtieth floor leave their lights on, four in the floor above them, six in the floor above them, and so on down the line, and the result is a ribbon appearing on the side of the building, as a reminder to the late night worker: “May is Cancer Awareness Month”.

Nothing besides the ocean is more capable of stilling a modern heart – it reminds us of our minor position, which is something we need, given as we are to placing our desires and feelings at the center of everything. We look up at it and say to ourselves, “I will never be as tall or as put together as those sheets of glass.” The bright boxes are temp workers filling in for Christian humility. They sway dangerously in the wind – but the engineers have anticipated this problem with new kinds of flexible foundations. Every building is no less a miracle for having been calculated. Each stands as the achievement of man’s earliest and most powerful dreams.

During the daytime, everything is different – the boxes fit us into the narrow roles that run contrary to our true universality; they make it such that Man the rightful plural becomes man the accountant, man the sub-accountant, man the secretary, man the number cruncher, man the telephone, man the stapler, man the three-whole-punch… and of course there is the corner office man, coaxing and cooing half of the time, shouting the other half, just to make sure that man the stapler remembers his place, and that man the telephone knows she cannot groan about it, at least not while on the phone. These boxes drive us into therapy boxes and make us buy protest merchandise, which rails against work while being paid for and used at work. (But remember weary worker - that this purchase animates bigger, stricter boxes of persons who must shape your protest product, fire it in a kiln, paint it with carcinogens, and sleep in a cage just to have the privilege to do so!) Very occasionally, you will see eggs thrown at the side of tall buildings – there is nothing sadder and less effectual and more poetic to do in an American city.

The border between humility and powerlessness is there in the sand, but the crashing waves of daily life obscure the boundary constantly. The destruction of tall buildings is a response to powerlessness, which comes only when enough of them are built, when enough wealth is smuggled from foreign lands, extracted, melted down, built up, and organized into big disastrous boxes. Put another way: All the world’s treasures have come to these building somehow, and in this process it is not only our secretaries who get robbed of a decent way of life. It can come as no surprise, but it is a horror anyway, when someone wishes to tear down our skyscrapers.

Everyone said it was like the movies until they saw well dressed people leaping from windows. Now there is a hole in the earth where the building stood; when you look in, you cannot see to the bottom of it. It is a black square extending into the earth, the opposite of the Haj. But we know this story.

We also know how a spirit of brotherly love swept through the country and how our people, given to standoffishness on all other occasions, waved to each other in the street. Then America seemed a communal feeling rather than a compulsory abstraction.

In sight of the spiritual advantages and disadvantages of modern skyscrapers, and in sight of the spiritual advantages and disadvantages of their destruction we propose the following: the yearly construction and then conscious destruction of skyscrapers in every American city. This pattern of activity would lend balance and purpose to American life. What we now lack – intention, belief in our activity, community, fellowship, religion within the bounds of reason, decent living conditions – could all be brought back by this simple, and, so far as things go in this cash-rich nation, cheap solution. It is the combination of everything that is worthwhile from the old world with everything that is worthwhile in the new.

We envision the following: a yearly architectural competition, followed by construction, and then a chanting, singing and fully conscious attack on the great gifts to the world.

Rendered dreams are mailed in from around the world; there are designs of spirals, lipstick cases, rivers, birds, and all the other elemental, godless here-today-gone-tomorrow things which consume our attention. We immortalize a dream for a few years, with something that looks like a phallus no matter what it is supposed to represent, and then we tear it down.

The skyscrapers should be built as quickly as possible. Their construction should employ ½ of the city’s poor, their destruction should employ the other ½, who will man hundreds of wrecking balls and remotely operated planes. What each half is to do during times of unemployment is none of our business.

The offices are to be filled with new jobs, designing and marketing new products, new dreams, and new ways of managing human life. Sciences we have never dreamed of will be born inside of the great buildings. The research departments will exist just as long as it takes for them to become discredited – it goes without saying that it will be impossible to believe in anything for long. In no time at all, bastard lay-about artists, bastard lay about critical philosophers, whose laziness stinks like a foul pit, and more importantly the employees themselves will dismiss the building and its contents as so much gas; mood barometers, placed nearby the water-coolers, should indicate how many days are left before people choose to throw themselves from the windows.

At the end of this period of diminishing returns, we will invite the entire region to gather around the building to watch its destruction; the workers will stand nearby, waving banners from their bankrupt corporations, and then they will light them on fire. Around these bonfires, people will sing and dance to the company’s advertisement songs in an ironic spirit. The building’s top brass will empty out as a chain gang, forced to sing its advertisement songs earnestly. Discredited motivational speakers will stand at the front and exile themselves into nearby forests, where they can shout about the importance of intentions to frogs, for all we care.

The CEOS will also be exiled for a short time – but they will have to return later, transformed by a false education, in which all of their previous ideas are re-confirmed in the language of ancient religions.

But for now the jubilee. The lowliest secretary gets to lead the procession, she gets to know what it is like to be the big man. She sings and pushes people around; she lays them off, she tells them about where she’d like to stick their inspiration and synergy. She forces the boss to play digital solitaire for a year. She wears a golden crown.

Then the wrecking-balls; the cage of every machine has a horn-players on top. They swing away at the base of the building, as if hacking at a tree, while the remotely operated planes crash into the top of the structure. Everything will be done in the safest way but the destruction will be total.

And millions will be there, though there is no way they will all be able to get up close to the action. Enormous televisions will show them the falling building. And then these televisions will be destroyed as well, in order to free us for a moment from that which enslaves us. Everyone will sing and embrace. There will be work for a while, a little dancing, a little comfort, some wine and forgetting. The heat from the fire will warm the hearts of men and a new building competition will have already begun.

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