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nonfayth · 3 years

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a deep dive into the home life of bern’s royal family, and why zephiel became the man he does when he grows up. whilst some headcanons are made here, it’s mostly just me extrapolating what we already know in canon.

tw: emotional abuse and toxic parenting under the cut.

king desmond and queen hellene were wed out of an entirely political marriage, and although hellene was excited at the prospect of having the opportunity to be a good wife and mother, she would never have the chance to truly be seen as the former due to the fact that desmond harbored affections for his actual paramour, a bernese woman of common birth. he would never be able to marry the love of his life due to both status reasons as well as how bern sought out the advantages of linking themselves with one of etruria’s most noble families, thus giving them a link to another major power in the continent. it would be foolish, in the bernese court’s eyes, to refuse the marriage offer from hellene’s family then.

though he could not officially be with his paramour, king desmond was allowed to host her within the bernese royal palace, and so he did, making quite public displays of affection with her while electing to not spend more time with his wife than necessary. it was quite obvious who he favored of the two, and desmond was never really a subtle man who kept his emotions close to his chest. servants could describe his behavior towards his lover as amorous to the point of being sickeningly sweet and his behavior towards his wife were dismissive at best, outright hateful at its worst.

desmond’s nasty nature against his wife is what leads hellene’s own dreams to turn away from that of love to one of power. when she bears desmond’s heir in the form of zephiel, she immediately expresses hope for the day that zephiel will take the throne away from desmond. being the mother of the future king, she assumes she will be given more respect around the palace and have a more secure future. zephiel is seen less as her beloved son and more as her winning piece to get back at desmond; zephiel is the constant reminder that desmond’s days in power are limited, and that one day it will be hellene’s own blood taking over.

desmond, upon first seeing zephiel, hates him for the mere fact he is hellene’s son. zephiel is living proof of their a marriage forced onto him, and he cannot stand the living reminder of it, especially if people were going to come and congratulate him on the birth of a healthy heir and then speak about the son frequently now. to avoid the nuisance of being forced to see his newborn child, he banishes both zephiel and hellene to an off-site manse under the guise of claiming that hellene needs more time to be able to relax with the baby. this further enrages hellene, motivating her to make zephiel into a project to spite desmond.

she will make it so desmond must acknowledge their son.

hellene from a young age is both strict and neglectful with her son. zephiel is afforded every tutor he can be given with her own personal funds ( funds that desmond is obligated to give her every month but no more ) and is sent to lessons as soon as he can walk and talk. he is drilled in military arts, history, etiquette, the arts, and all manner of topics to groom him into the perfect heir. luckily for her, zephiel proves to be a prodigy and excels in everything quickly. she spreads this like wildfire, telling every and anyone of how perfect her son is so as to make the general populace enamored with him.

the lessons zephiel devotes himself to is scheduled in such a way as to not afford him much free time if any at all, and when he is given the chance to breathe, he is encouraged to spend it on pursuits that will make him look either handsome or intelligent such as learning to play an instrument or falconry. when he gets the chance to speak with his mother, usually only at meal times, she is quick to ask him of his studies and nothing else before excusing herself. if things are going well, she praises him and finds new topics and limits to push onto him. if things are going poorly, she goes to discuss things with his tutors.

zephiel does not know love, but if he does not know it, then he cannot be sad to be missing it.

these days of aiming to become the perfect heir continue, and when he is old enough, hellene tries to show him off to desmond. hellene waits until she is positive that zephiel is in top form, and she stresses upon zephiel to make sure he impresses his father.

he performs spectacularly. he is polite, he is well-learned, and he endears the knights with both his charisma as well as his talent in martial arts despite his young age.

the sight of everyone surrounding desmond, people devoted to him, being taken by the prince enrages him. hellene’s smug smirk in the corner does no favors either. desmond realizes that the people love the person he has resolved to hate, and he looks bad for not welcoming zephiel into the palace as a result.

stubborn to a fault and envious over how his son is better than him in every degree, especially given how desmond himself is a mediocre man, desmond takes to publicly shaming zephiel. desmond is unable to quell his own ire in order to remain civil, and so he sharpens his words in order to try and chase the boy away. the less time zephiel spends in the palace, the less he can charm the people around him.

desmond also goes on the offensive, calling out zephiel’s behaviors as manipulative. he tries to warp the narrative, claiming zephiel’s attempts to get in his father’s good graces are in actuality calculated moves to make him look bad in contrast, and that zephiel is merely a power-hungry prince who needs to learn respect. desmond is convinced this seemingly perfect son of his is just like the woman who conceived him, and he cannot see zephiel as anything other than someone who plots against him and wishes to see his downfall.

zephiel, confused and distraught by this callousness, struggles to cope with it. his mother and the tutors ensure he is wonderful, but his father openly bashes his character and disapproves of him so vehemently. though hellene is upset by this turn of events, she insists that zephiel continue his studies and attempts to make desmond recognize him as his rightful son.

being treated to verbal abuse every time he visits the palace but encouraged to desire approval from his father, zephiel’s brain attempts to make the reality easier to stomach by twisting his perception of his father’s words as right. if he is to keep trying to curry favor with his father, then it would be difficult to do so while believing he is being unreasonable.

every time desmond scolds him and tells him that he is not worthy of his love nor his position as crown prince, zephiel begins to believe it more and more. the problem lies with him, and he must earn his father’s love. the burden lies on him. he begins to pray to st. elimine every day for this, but his prayers go unanswered as the abuse remains the same.

if even st. elimine won’t help him, then this is proof that zephiel is simply not working hard enough and is not deserving of such a gift as familial love. st. elimine isn’t wrong to not grant his wishes. st. elimine is a beloved religious icon.

the desire for love grows as does the mistreatment when zephiel meets desmond’s second child. she is a little girl named guinivere, born from desmond’s mistress. though desmond attempted to keep guinivere and zephiel from ever properly meeting, guinivere is a bit of a rebellious girl in her youth and desmond is helpless to stop her, too doting and weak to her as the product of his healthier romance.

guinivere instantly loves zephiel, and she begins asking every day to see him again and play with him. she is open with her adoration, and this is the first time zephiel experiences actual love from anyone. he, in turn, loves her too in the purest way a half-brother can, starved for genuine affection all his life, and the two prove difficult to separate.

desmond grows paranoid that zephiel aims to kill guinivere to try and get him where his greatest weakness lies, still convinced that zephiel is as conniving and out to get him as hellene is. desmond grows physically violent now, destroying and killing any gifts that zephiel brings with him as he is unable to physically harm zephiel himself without being criticized even more by the royal court of bern. he shuts zephiel down even more each conversation they have, and his vitriol is even worse than before.

desmond hates his son for not only being the perfect heir but also for being the person guinivere loves the most in the world, even moreso than her own father.

zephiel is given even less leave to be able to visit the royal palace now, giving him more time to reflect upon his perceived mistakes in conduct and more time to prepare for the next time he shall meet his father only to not even be given a chance to impress the man. the more effort he puts in, the more he despairs at the inevitable failures. the more love he receives from guinivere, the more he wishes he could be with her always, and the more he longs for similar affection from his father and mother.

he yearns for a loving, happy family. he tells himself he has not earned the right to have it.

this self loathing and lack of confidence in himself rises to such a point that zephiel refuses to believe other people when they compliment him. he sees praise as ultimately unhelpful to his quest to get his father to approve of him, and he convinces himself that his father’s insults and critiques of his character are his father’s way of trying to groom into someone worthy of his attention. the only correct person, the only person worth listening to, is desmond.

his belief in his father is unshakeable. even when his father hires assassins to get rid of him on the eve of his coming-of-age ceremony, zephiel does not suspect for even a second that it was him who had sent the hitmen in the first place. zephiel merely sees the incident as the universe testing him, seeing whether or not he can weather through what might come for him one day as a royal. it is merely expected of him to be able to fend off such attempts, and anyone could be out to get him.

when his mother goes through an unexpected shift in demeanor after the incident, even telling him that she will try and support his wishes to move back into the palace and live as a family, he believes he has taken a step forward towards his goals.

this would not be true, for desmond would merely wait for another opportunity to strike.

when zephiel grows to be of an age similar to when desmond himself became king, desmond invites zephiel to have a drink with him. zephiel is excited at the prospect; after over two decades of working for this outcome, it looks as if he has finally become a man worthy of love.

it turns out “love” tastes like poison.

for the next ten days, zephiel hangs on the cusp of life and death. he is unable to run away from the truth this time: his father wished to kill him. it was his father who knowingly served him poison, and it was his father who smiled as he was writhing in pain after taking a sip from the goblet. it was no ordinary poison either, but rather a poison meant to incur agony upon its victim as they remained aware of it for more than a week.

desmond wanted him to not only die, but to be suffering a slow death too.

zephiel is only able to survive the incident due to his vassal murdock’s dutiful attempts to filter the poison out of his system, but when zephiel is able to regain his strength, he is completely changed by the experience.

his previous unshakeable faith in his father being the type of man who is secretly looking out for zephiel and trying to make him the best man he could be is unable to cope with the damage and betrayal of trust displayed. the only way for zephiel to stay sane after the experience is to believe that it is human’s nature to be bad people. as zephiel ruminates during his recovery period, he looks back on all the years he had wasted trying to win the favor of a man who would never give it to him, and he evaluates the kind of man king desmond really is.

he looks at the envy, the open love for another other than his wife, and the paranoia. zephiel realizes desmond’s attempts to kill zephiel were all founded on ugly emotions, and in order to accept that the man he looked up to the most secretly had a dark heart, zephiel must then believe everyone can and will succumb to such emotions as well. after all, if desmond was supposed to be the best of them, then what could be said for people zephiel held in less regard?

he turns his personal tragedy into something he believes must be a universal one, and when he kills his own father a few days later, that marks the death of the zephiel who believed in the absolute good of people’s intentions.

it also marks the birth of a zephiel who believes the world would be better off without humans, for if they are all fated to become horrible people, then why bother with them at all?

#// is this the cleanest?? no. next question #// tldr zephiel refuses to accept that his dad is a bad person and assumes the blame for their failing bond instead ---#// -- when it gets to the point of no return he absolutely loses it. Oops #// hate the fact as i was writing this i was like 'dang this is easily the setup to like 500 manhwas i've read huh'#+. / hcs & metas.#long post ---#emotional abuse tw ---#toxic parenting tw ---

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drunk-on-starlight · 3 years

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Oh my God they actually called a quest "civilized man's burden". Who was in charge of this? Did no one stop and go hmmm?

#Fallout #Fallout new vegas #Honest hearts #I know NV is a western but they didn't have to go that type of western

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jackie-american-queen · 3 years

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Vice President Johnson, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, President Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon, President Truman, Reverend Clergy, fellow citizens: We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom–symbolizing an end as well as a beginning–signifying renewal as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forbears prescribed nearly a century and three-quarters ago. The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe–the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God. We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans–born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage–and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world. Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. This much we pledge–and more. To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided there is little we can do–for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder. To those new states whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom–and to remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside. To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required–not because the communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. To our sister republics south of our border, we offer a special pledge–to convert our good words into good deeds–in a new alliance for progress–to assist free men and free governments in casting off the chains of poverty. But this peaceful revolution of hope cannot become the prey of hostile powers. Let all our neighbors know that we shall join with them to oppose aggression or subversion anywhere in the Americas. And let every other power know that this Hemisphere intends to remain the master of its own house. To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations, our last best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace, we renew our pledge of support–to prevent it from becoming merely a forum for invective–to strengthen its shield of the new and the weak–and to enlarge the area in which its writ may run. Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary, we offer not a pledge but a request: that both sides begin anew the quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction. We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed. But neither can two great and powerful groups of nations take comfort from our present course–both sides overburdened by the cost of modern weapons, both rightly alarmed by the steady spread of the deadly atom, yet both racing to alter that uncertain balance of terror that stays the hand of mankind’s final war. So let us begin anew–remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate. Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us. Let both sides, for the first time, formulate serious and precise proposals for the inspection and control of arms–and bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under the absolute control of all nations. Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths and encourage the arts and commerce. Let both sides unite to heed in all corners of the earth the command of Isaiah–to “undo the heavy burdens … (and) let the oppressed go free.” And if a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion, let both sides join in creating a new endeavor, not a new balance of power, but a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved. All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin. In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe. Now the trumpet summons us again–not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need–not as a call to battle, though embattled we are– but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, “rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation”–a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself. Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort? In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility–I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it–and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man. Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, 20th January 1961

(source: https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.phpflash=false&doc=91&page=transcript)

#JFK #inauguration #inauguration day #JFK inauguration #inaugural address #jack kennedy #John F. Kennedy #quote #history #this day in history #US history #today in history #january 20 #1960s #1961 #60s #mine

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iwasnotaslasher · 4 years

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Hello mutuals!

Here are some SamBucky prompts I'd like to fill ASAP. I already have two WIPs and very little time, but I'd really like to write something about them, so feel free to suggest which one you'd like to read.

1. Ladyhawke AU

In which Lord Anthony Stark and his lover Captain of the Guards Steve Rogers are far away to complete an important quest and they had left Bishop Alexander Pierce in charge of the Shield lands. Turns out Pierce is secretly an Asshole™ and a dark magic accolite, but two bold knights want to stop him. I mean, they are constantly bickering on how to do it, but they really have good intentions. Anyway, Pierce spots them and tries to get them killed, but they are hard to die, therefore he curses them: knight Sam Wilson to shapeshift into a hawk during day and knight James Barnes to shapeshift into a white wolf during night. So, we have these two knights that barely stand each others and they have to run away together to find a way to break the curse and return to their land to get revenge. And now they cant even talk. Fast forward a couple of month in their insane journey, they meet a little bratty thief who call himself “Spidey” and, for inexplicable reasons, supposes they are both in love but oblivious, and consequently tries to bring them together feeding them some romantic crap. As if they don't know that neither of them would ever rant about their alleged love with a perfect stranger...

2. (kind of) 5+1

Five times Bucky manage to be touched by Sam, and one time he doesn't need any pretext. In which Bucky is touch starved but he's also burdened with a damn heavy internalized homophobia, so he doesn't know how to deal with his building attraction for Sam and the constant urge to be touched by him. Obviously Sam knows: he can see how Bucky looks at him, how he reacts every time they touch, how Bucky seems to find any stupid excuse to be touched. Sam is already heels over head for the man but he's afraid to push him, so he tries to follow Bucky's rhythm. They find themselves pining on each other, while everyone around them has already understood everything and they start to act like matchmakers. We like cliché and tropes, don't we? Well, get ready for some Christmas fluff with kisses under the mistletoe and a very timing snow storm…

3. A/B/O Alpha/Alpha

This would be a sort of little spin-off from my WIP A/B/O Stony. Sam and Bucky are both Alphas and they feel something for each others, but neither of them has ever been in a relationship with another Alpha, at least not a real one. But they are both from the army, which is full of young hormonal Alphas stuck together, so they both know well how such things go between two Alphas and they unconsciously bring that dynamic in their civil life. They constantly challenge each others, fighting verbally and physically to establish which one of them has to submit, and building up a strong sexual tension which is meant to explode at some time. Of course Bucky would be the stronger thus the more dominant, but Sam is the one more versed into caring and protecting, so they find themselves stuck in a sort of odd balance and the aforementioned tension continue to build with none of them really knowing how to manage the situation. At some time they even start a little silly "tag you're it" game, kind of, and they keep carry on it for months and everyone is just uncomfortably aware of what they are doing. Until thanks (a demi)God, who accidentally sparks some jealousy, the tension finally broke up…

4. Practical Magic AU

Sam never had much faith in the magic that flows in his family blood, but after Riley dies in front of his eyes he resolves to turn to magic to stop himself from suffering again. He made a powerful spell called Amas Veritas, thinking that it'll block any chance to fall in love again. Unfortunately for Sam, every spell can be subverted, as his wise siblings had warned him. In fact, this leads Bucky Barnes into his life, bringing with him all those impossible things that Sam had listed in the spell... including love.

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mrdraws · 4 years

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So I am a fan of New Vegas but I have not played Honest Hearts. I am truly ignorant of how it is racist, would you mind explaining? I tried to look up a synopsis but it isn't enough information. If you don't want to explain, I understand.

I’m white af so I’m probably not the best person to ask, but I will do my best to explain! If any of my indigenous followers have any comments on what to add/what to change in my response, PLEASE let me know.

As far as I can tell the portrayal of the “tribals” (an actual word used in the DLC) is based on racist caricatures of Native Americans. They:

-Speak in a totally nonsense, made-up language without any sort of grammatical structure, and those who can communicate with the player speak broken English in racist accents that have no real basis on any linguistic canon--besides, of course, Waking Cloud and Follows-Chalk, who have been taught “civilized” language by Joshua and Daniel.

-Have names that white people THINK Native American names would sound like, like Follows-Chalk, Waking Cloud, Salt-Upon-Wounds, and Two-Bears-High-Fiving (which I think is the worst because it’s obviously meant to be a joke.)

-Dress in hide loincloths, bikinis, and warpaint. Not joking.

Joshua also advocates for the genocide of the White Legs’ tribe as the only solution to the main conflict of the game--and is portrayed as being in the right, Daniel refers to the Sorrows as “ignorant” and “innocent” in some of his dialogue, and there’s also a quest called Civilized Man’s Burden in which Follows-Chalk wants to go out and see the “civilized lands.”

I’m sure there’s more to it that I’m missing, nuance that I can’t quite grasp as a white person, but those are the major issues with it. My rewrite focuses on removing the stereotypes and option for genocide, makes Joshua a Cool Cat instead of a fucker, and changes the Sorrows, White Legs, and Dead Horses fundamentally so they’re not just racist caricatures of Native American society.

I hope this helps explain why Honest Hearts is a shit DLC, and again, if my Native American followers have anything they’d like to add, please hmu and I’ll post your responses.

#racism #honest hearts #fallout #fallout new vegas #asks #anonymous

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zombiejoepino · 4 years

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The Scavenger. CH: 4 (Cobb Vanth x OC fanfic)

Chapter 4: The Snake

Fandom: The Mandalorian

Word count: 3972

Genre: Space Western

Summary: The Marshal visits the capital and things get tense between him and some strangers. Back in Town, Nathsca is figuring out how to leave just before she gets attached to the small community and its locals.

A/N: Took me longer to write this one, I´ve been busy with work. Hope you enjoy it and please feel free to leave comments if you can :)

...

...

The speeder pulled up in front of a rundown blockhouse on the outskirts of the Capital. Bestine was known for having an expensive but legitimate market compared to smaller cities. Jawas and other scoundrels were not welcome. Anyone with shady intentions would be taken by the law.

The Marshal and his companions made their way across the large market, spotting various strange creatures, beasts of burden, and items for sale, most of them exotic and pricy. Farm folk would feel out of place in the New Republic guarded area. Vanth wondered if the New Republic's real intention to guard this city was because of the economic value, an opportunity to bring out the civilization to Tatooine.

Tatooine didn't seem like other civilized or fancy planets, but they got their own rules and ways to survive. Neither the Empire of The Republic didn't care much about the dusty land and lawless cities. They were aware of slavery going through ages and they didn't do a single thing about it.

He didn't let those thoughts get to him for long. His quest was simple and they needed to leave before the giant twins' suns set down to avoid night creatures or sand people.

Having that armor just gave him enough confidence to face them. Walking around in the rusted beskar made the locals turn around at times, maybe he got more attention than he wanted but, it was safer to show off a little. Even though, little thieves or trouble makers always managed to sneak around and, he wasn't that wrong.

Between the crowded market, he noticed a slim hooded figure walking around with two heavies, both of them with mean faces. They were packed, even the slim figure who didn't look like the one that calls for the shots but, the sneaky ones are always the worst.

The group didn't fit right in the picture, just like the Marshal. People would think of him as a paranoid or mad man, but once the Marshal got a bad feeling about someone, he wouldn't let it go that easy. And it was rare for him to make a mistake about someone's character.

The local marketer kept pushing, trying to sell him a carpet or fine fur. The Marshal just played along for the moment, waiting for them to get close to him.

This small group didn't seem interested in buying like locals or travelers. They were asking around for directions. No town in specific they just asked about the west. He picked on the words mining and old town.

The Marshal scanned the area discreetly looking for Marc and the rest of his companions. The last thing he needed was those strangers talking to them and jeopardize the secrecy of their town.

One of the heavies crashed with the Marshal and stopped to study him. The Marshal mirrored his actions. The heavy spoke in huttese, Vanth didn't understand his words but, he picked on his intentions. The armored man looked back at the heavy stranger. Both of them with their hands near the holsters, ready to pull at any moment. Shoot first or move fast.

Those seconds felt like an eternity until the pale slick jumped in.

"Excuse my companion's behavior. He never saw a Mandalorian before." He flashed his toothy smile. The heavy stranger just spoke gibberish and spit on the floor. Vanth shook his head and walked in the opposite direction. He had no time to pick up fights in the middle of the street.

"And now since we are both strangers in this town." Plog addressed back to him and followed. "Have you ever heard of old mining settling around the west? An old town?"

Vanth just played along, trying not to ask questions or hoping they wouldn't run with his companions. He shook his head. "Sorry, partner. No idea." He kept walking but the pale man insisted and followed.

"Are you sure? I heard you Mandalorians are good at hunting or killing. Perhaps you can help me with my quest. I'll pay handsomely."

"I've got other business to attend." He walked away.

Plog didn't dare to stop the armored figure but he got his attention. He knew what kind of folks stand out in Tatooine. He heard about another Mandalorian that went rogue from the guild but, he never saw this one before.

He spoke to the trawlers, the masked one. He asked him to followed the armored stranger.

...

The giant twin suns shine brightly above the distant dune range. Nath stands watching them. Once the Marshal was gone the day before, the locals felt uneasy and even shy around the young stranger. They were not rude to her but they didn't engage in any kind of conversation either.

That didn't bother her at all. Her leg was feeling way better than yesterday. There was not much to do in the short town, to be honest. They had the cantina, a school, a storage place, houses and, that was all. She checked around the school just to know how many kids were in town. They just sat in the shadow while the droid teacher read something for them.

The teacher noticed the young lady and politely asked her to join. Nath felt uneasy at the start but she was pretty far from the nearest shadow to refuse.

The kids watched her with curiosity and even whispered between them. The teacher continued to read the story about the wars in the Old Republic, far away galaxies, and rebellions.

Nath remembered those stories for what she heard from pilots or other strangers that stop by the town. Scavengers focused on one thing only; stealing. They just taught her how to steal and be faster than Jawas.

One of the curious green-skinned kids scoots towards the redhead. He pointed at her knee and, she shrugged. "Just a scratch," she whispered. The kid nodded and showed her a similar wound on his elbow.

"I tried to ride a Bantha, they are so big." The kid spoke. "Are you the one that crashed the speeder? And then the Marshal saved you?"

Other kids quickly turned their attention to the stranger and she blinked many times. Now she regretted being there. Kids started to ask too much about her accident.

"Yes, I had an accident. Always keep your eyes front if you are driving." She tried to avoid other kinds of details.

"And are you staying too? Are you living with the Marshal? Do you like him? Are you his girlfriend now?" The little ones kept asking over and over. The teacher did its best to stop them. They were too excited to listen to Nath's story.

The redhead just laughed and shook her head. Her cheeks turned a little red as she was trying her best to reply to the kids.

Her story started when she was fixing a speeder in her hometown. The fastest one she could ever put up together, the bad guys showed up, wanting to take her speeder and credits. She refused and, the chase started; A long road across the dunes, both twin suns burning her skin, leaving behind all kinds of terrifying creatures. Her only mistake was that she looked back for a second and crashed.

The rest was vaguely told by the kids. They started to jump with random ideas and heroic deeds from the Marshal and how he took down the bad guys.

She did her best to dodge the last question about being his girlfriend but a dark-haired little girl kept watching her wanting to know.

"I'm just the Marshal's guest. Guests can turn into friends and that's it. I don't think I'm staying longer." She smiled softly at the kids. They pouted with her answer. Nath didn't want to get attached to this community. She needed to move on and even leave the planet if she wanted to escape from everything, and especially him; Qod.

She stood up and excused herself from the class.

...

Cobb and the others made a quick stop in the dunes after the cargo went off a speeder. Their best chance was to drive slow if they didn't want to drop anything else in the middle of nowhere. They had fuel, meat, other weapons just in case the dragon shows up. That damned Dragon, they never knew when it would strike, but they were glad it's been away for the last days. But their problems, never end there.

The Marshal's mind moved to those trawlers and the slick in Bestine. They were asking too much about the west, about his town. If they were after the young redhead, then someone spoke about the town.

Tusken Raiders? There is no way to talk with those savages. Jawas? Maybe if they paid them enough just to spit a few words.

They were taking so much trouble to chase down a girl. He thought carefully about her actions and the mystery around her. Yeah, he had to admit that the young one had a fiery attitude, she knew how to punch and was a thief but, she was still a kid. He didn't want to push her around to tell him the full story. He needed to know the enemy.

Maybe he was getting ideas yet, being paranoid about the strangers but, he never let go of that thought.

For a long time, Mos Pelgo has been off the radar and, the Marshal wanted it to keep all heat away from it. They were practically young as a society after many years as a slave camp. Cobb would never risk the town's safety and freedom.

The speed stopped and, the others looked back in confusion. Cobb spoke to Marc and the rest to get ahead before the suns lower down. He had a bad feeling and wanted to check if no one was following them. His companions didn't ask for more and took off, leaving the Marshal by himself.

The long curved caves and rocky areas covered his path. Cobb looked around, guarding them and watching over the dune sea. If those trawlers came this way, he would put them down.

Cobb waited in the high ground and kept his rifle blaster close. For the next hour, he didn't spot anything out of place, just small creatures running around, trying to find shadow or perish under the sun.

The sweat was running down his temples, his mouth felt dry already. He thought about waiting for another hour but, the sky was getting its peculiar orange color. The suns would set down at any moment and, travel like that was not that smart.

A peculiar sound caught the Marshal's attention when he saw a speeder approaching. The rider was one of the heavy trawlers, the masked one. Cobb pointed the rifle, tracking the moving figure in the dune.

He kept his finger on the trigger and, both eyes studied the moving target. The dust-covered him for a moment.

Cobb took a deep breath.

The trawler moved closer, clear view, no dust around him, moving towards into the caves and, the Marshal pulled the trigger without hesitation.

His target's head went back and, its body slips from the speeder, making it crash against the dune. The smoked covered the whole area around the target. Cobb kept his eyes on the sight, waiting.

The body didn't move in the first seconds and, then, it rolled on its back. He coughed and groaned in pain, started to crawl away from the smoke, trying to get into the caves.

The Marshal put the helmet on and flew down, going towards the heavy that cursed at him in Huttesse when he spots him.

Cobb landed on his feet, pointing at the trawler that tried to reach his blaster. The Marshal quickly kicked it away and looked down at him.

"Why were you following me?" The distorted voice spoke.

The trawler frowned and cursed again.

Cobb shook his head, step on his wounded leg and, the heavy grunted in pain.

"Speak." The Marshal growled.

The masked man spoke in Huttese and death glared at him. "The town..." he spitted the words.

"Why?"

The man just smirked at him and laughed. "You know where she is."

He threw sand at the helmet and quickly stand up. Cobb fired but, the trawler managed to dodge the blaster and knocked it off his hands. He threw a punch at the helmet but quickly regretted it when his hand hit it.

Cobb shoots out a straight punch to the trawler's stomach and then right into his face. The man backs off for a moment and spits blood on the sand, jumps over the Marshal and, both hit the dusty ground.

He takes off the Marshal's helmet and throws some heavy punches right into his face.

"I will take this beskar off your dead body." He yells in huttesse.

Cobb covers, hooks his arm around, and hits him with the elbow. The Heavy throws another punch into Cobb's face. The Marshal feels the blood in his mouth and quickly recover, headbutts the heavy right on the nose.

The man backs off with a bloodied nose, looks up. He pulls out a knife and slashes towards the Marshal, cutting his shirt. Cobb felt the sting on his lower belly and felt the blood sticking to the fabric.

He backs off, doing his best to dodge the sharp blade that the big man kept swinging like a maniac. Cobb catches his arm and trying to take the knife. The big one pushes further, using both hands to take the blade, trying to stab Cobb.

The heavy flashes a wicked smile, almost overpowering the armored man, but the Marshal twists his hand, making him scream and drop the knife. Then, Cobb sucker punches at the trawler, making him roll down the dune.

His body rolls down, hits a rock and, he groans when he stops rolling. He twitches and scans the area. The expression changes when he looks at the Marshal's rifle next to him, picked it up, aimed and, he took the first shot right between the eyes.

Cobb was at the top of the dune holding the smoky blaster. He took a deep breath and fell on his knees. He winced and checked the wound on his arm and belly.

That was close, he thought.

Once he recovers, he picks up the helmet and checks on the dead body. He finds a bag with credits, a knife, and nothing else. He had no puck.

...

The giant twins set down over the dune, painting the sky with pinks and oranges purple clouds. Nath wasn't sure how long she walked, a bit further than the crashing place, into the grimy rocky areas. A farmer noticed her but didn't ask her much. She made up some excuse that he didn't buy at first but his attention shifted when the Bantha ran away from its pen.

Maybe other creatures would be observing her at this point and she didn't mind. She took one of the Marshal's blasters just in case a creature or someone tries to attack her.

She moved around the rocks, digging fast as she could until her hand hit something. She took a silver canister out of the hole and looked at what was inside. An icy color glowed out from the can, standing out in the middle of the sandy area. Nath rushed to cover up the hole until she heard a noise. Her head perked up and, her gaze scanned the area.

"Who's there?" She yelled.

There was a long silence until the small figure came out. Nath took a deep breath and shook her head. It was a little girl from school, the one that asked her those embarrassing questions.

"Hey, sweetie. You shouldn't be here, you know."

"Uh... I was worried that you were leaving."

"No, no, I just came to check... the rocks." She closed the canister and smiled at her.

The little girl bit her lip and made a face. "Shiny ones? We don't have those around here."

Nath smiled nervously but before she could reply a single thing.

"No, I'm... preparing a surprise."

"Oh?" The girl walked towards her and smiled.

"It's a secret thing but..." Before she played along with her lie, Nath heard a hiss right behind them. A medium-size creature slithered its way towards them and hissed, flashing the large fangs.

Nathsca tried to stay calm and move slowly towards the frozen kid. She was shaking nervously and about to cry. The redhead did her best to get the creature's attention. The large snake kept its yellow gaze upon the kid, trying to look taller, studying her movements.

The redhead cursed to herself and lowered down to pick up the blaster. It felt like an eternity, any violent move would piss off the creature.

The little one just backed off slowly but, the snake followed her, flashing his fangs at her. The snake could feel the fear in her whimpers, he could see the horror in her eyes. It kept slithering its way until the blaster roar and hit him.

He hissed in anger, looking at the woman and the smoking barrel. He hissed and changed his attention to the redhead that ran towards the kid.

Nath picked the little one in her arms and fired the snake once more and, this time the reptile dodge the blast. They were pretty far from town to ask for help and the darkness was covering the area. She climbed the rocks, keeping the little one in her arms to protect her.

The little girl clung to her and then screamed when the large reptile jumped towards them. She helped the little one to climb first to the top. The snake attacked again, Nath swung the canister to hit it hard, making the large snake wobbled for a moment.

The snake jumped once more, this time making the redhead fall on the ground and lose the blaster. She looked down at the large snake, whose fangs stuck in the canister but it rushed to slid its body around her legs to keep her still.

Nath looked around quickly for the blaster that was just a few inches away from her. She felt the slippery body squeezing her slowly. The snake kept pushing its fangs trying to set free, shaking its head furiously to remove the silver object. The redhead stretched her arm much as she could.

The large reptile shook many times, sending the canister away. It kept a sinister smile and kept his mouth wide to eat the redhead but, a roar was heard. The snake had a smoky hole right into its head.

The long shape loses the grip from her legs and, she quickly backed off from it and kept the blaster up.

The snake moved a little and, she fired several times until there was nothing left of its head. The kid just covered her ears when she heard the blasters and then opened her eyes, looking down at the redhead.

Nath took a deep breath and rushed to get the little girl.

A peculiar sound approached them in the dark.

A man and woman jumped off the speeder and rushed towards them. The little girl smiled and ran towards her mom. The woman picked her up and hugged her tightly, but her husband walked menacingly towards the young redhead.

"What do you think you are doing? First, you bring strangers, now you put my daughter in danger..." He reached her out from the shirt's hem and the redhead quickly backed off.

"Hey, sir, it's not..."

"You..." he frowned ready to raise his hand.

"Triggar!" Another male yelled at him and hopped off the speeder. He kept the helmet under his arm. "Let her go."

"But Marshal, she..." he muttered gibberish and gave him a helpless look. "my daughter."

"Your daughter is safe because of her." The Marshal got between them, keeping Triggar away from the redhead. "Also, she is my guest. I didn't take you as a fella that would hurt a dame."

"No, sir, of course not." Triggar looked down and back off.

Nath folded her arms and looked away, keeping a frown across her face.

The lone dunes were darker than before, which made it difficult for anyone to see someone's actions. She saw the moving shadows that lighted up with the speeders, all of them drove back to town, except for him. She knew that shape.

There was silence. Darkness or not, she could feel the hazel ones scrutinizing, judging her. She built up the courage to speak.

"I'm leaving now." She started to walk but his hand reached her arm to stop her. She frowned at him.

"What happened?" He spoke softly.

"I... just did something stupid even if you asked me not to." She paused and finally looked up at him. "I didn't mean to hurt anyone or get in trouble."

"Nath..." he spoke.

"I put that girl in danger..." she said.

"Listen, the way I look at it, you did nothing wrong. I mean, it was pretty stupid to leave town by yourself, knowing the suns set down around this time. Second, you barely know the area so, you are lucky that something bigger didn't crawl from the nest. What matters right now is that both of you are safe." He paused. "You protected her."

The Marshall placed his hand over her shoulder. She was so ashamed and didn't say more. She wanted to say everything but that would mean put him and the rest at risk.

Her eyes try to read his expression in the darkness. She wasn't sure, it looked like he had a few bruises on his face.

"Time to go, little lady."

She followed him to the speeder and climbed right behind him. Cobb felt the pressure around his belly and took off. Her slender arms squeezed him tighter as he drove away. He grunted a little, still in pain from the battle.

"Sorry." She muttered.

"It's ok. Hold on." He speeded up and, Nath squeezed him more. That moment all she wanted was to scream. She had no idea where the canister fell, she didn't want him to know about it also, she wanted so bad to stop feeling like this; afraid and guilty.

The rock and sand desert were darker than the sky. None of them even noticed the second trawler spying on them. He only picked a heat signal with his binoculars. That man was not Mandalorian at all and, that woman, he couldn't tell yet but, it was probably their target. He needed to rush back and meet with Plog.

A new deal tailored in the hunter's mind. Deliver the girl, kill the man, and take the rusted beskar for himself. He was glad that his partner was cold now, he didn't like the first idea of sharing the beskar with him. Now, it was all his.

#cobb vanth #cobb vanth fanfiction #the mandalorian #the mandalorian fanfiction #cobb vanth x oc

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thysparrowsdrew · 3 years

Text

I won’t post this on AO3 until the whole fic is done, because I’m sure I’m gonna go back and need to add/change things after writing the ending, but I finally have a full draft of the second chapter

They end up at a 1950s-style diner with the best patty melts in the state. Movie memorabilia lines the walls; above their corner booth, an actress stares out from a glossy poster, pistol in hand. Dean, Castiel, and Sam are piled into one bench, leaving the opposite to Margarita. The table puts two and a half feet of distance between them: not enough for Benjamin, but he bears it without complaint.

The Winchesters take charge of the discussion, reviewing everything they know so far. It isn’t much. Did Mirabel have any enemies? None living. Were there any witnesses to the attack? Same answer as previous. Have there been any other attacks that might be linked? Mirabel is the first angel to die in Arizona in two years.

The first time Castiel addresses a comment directly to Benjamin, Margarita answers for him. There isn’t a second time.

And, Margarita notices, Benjamin isn’t the only one avoiding speaking to Castiel.

When Castiel first rebelled against Heaven, the rumor -- though neither Benjamin nor Margarita believed it -- was that he was trying to claim the Michael Sword for his own use. After Armageddon was averted, the rumor changed: Castiel had indeed laid a claim on Dean Winchester, but as something other than a vessel. In the second month of the civil war, after seeing how Castiel rebuked a soldier for insulting Dean, Margarita decided that the rumor might not be wholly true, but it wasn’t wholly false, either. After the first time Castiel vanished mid-battle to rush to Dean’s side, Benjamin drew the same conclusion.

Dean’s sway over Castiel had been the civil war’s worst-kept secret. Now, the man sits shoulder-to-shoulder with Castiel, pressed closer against his side than propriety allows for-- and at the same time, he pointedly avoids speaking to Castiel except through Sam. Margarita idly wonders if it’s any less bewildering for Castiel than it is for bystanders.

“So what now?” asks Dean, around a mouthful of hamburger. The disgusted look his brother shoots him is either unseen or ignored. He was the Michael Sword, destined to bring about the end of the world, and Margarita is watching him rudely stuff his face at a diner in Phoenix on a Tuesday afternoon. “We got no leads and no witnesses.”

“We do have a witness,” says Benjamin, reluctantly. “Mirabel’s vessel.”

“Didn’t we rule that out at the morgue? She’s dead, and she ain’t coming back.”

“To this plane. You’ve only been dead a few dozen times, so you’ll be shocked to learn there are others.”

“You’re talking about visiting her in Heaven,” says Sam.

“No, I’m talking about visiting her in Tahiti. Unless anyone has any other ideas?”

Margarita feels Benjamin hope that someone will provide an alternative. No one does.

“He’s right,” says Castiel. “This is our best option.”

“Is one of you gonna...?” Dean waves his hand vaguely in the direction of the ceiling.

/I was hoping to avoid this,/ says Benjamin. /If we were closer to the portal--/

/I know,/ says Margarita. If they had twenty spare hours to drive to the portal, or if Benjamin’s wings hadn’t burned, he would take her with him to Heaven. But they don’t have time, and he doesn’t have his wings. /I’ll be fine. Will you?/

Warmth floods Margarita’s veins as Benjamin fills them with extra grace. /As long as I have you to return to./ Out loud, he says, “It has to be me. From what I understand, Castiel is unpopular in Heaven at the moment. I can’t imagine why.”

“Benjamin--” starts Castiel.

“This shouldn’t take more than an hour.” /Volveré pronto a ti, amiga de mi corazón./ Benjamin tilts back her head, opens her mouth, pours out of her in a radiant cloud of shimmering blue-white, and disappears through the diner door.

The comedown hits like a hammer to the skull. It always does, no matter how hard she tries to brace herself, no matter how many hundreds of times she’s been through it before. The physical world jolts into sickening focus: the lights are too bright; the booth is too hard; the air is too cold. Margarita slumps over, elbows on the table, a headache building behind her eyes. Tightness burns in her chest. Oxygen: her body again needs oxygen. Her lungs stutter before finding their rhythm, in-out, in-out.

Benjamin’s grace swells up to soothe her headache, but she pushes it back. Mirabel’s killer is still out there somewhere. If anything happens before Benjamin comes back, Margarita will regret wasting grace on something as small as a headache. Despite herself, Margarita half-expects to hear Benjamin scold her for this: You’re in pain, he would say. That isn’t small. But his voice doesn’t come, and the silence is as deafening as standing inside a church bell.

She has it easier than most, she knows. She could be one of the many vessels whose angel never eats or drinks. A more careless angel might let her wake in a strange place, no way to get home, thirst scraping her throat and hunger clawing her insides apart.

Castiel inhales sharply.

When a vessel is inhabited, their thoughts are shielded from other angels. Margarita is no longer inhabited. If she connects that line of thought to the sound Castiel made, she’ll throw up, so she instead focuses on building a shield in her mind. She pictures a game of Tetris (never one of Benjamin’s favorites, but always one of hers). She pictures a J-block falling. In her mind, she moves the block to the right.

“I apologize,” says Castiel, his voice sad and lost. “You don’t need to do that.”

His tone startles her into looking at his face; his expression makes her look away. It’s wrong, that tone in that voice, that expression on that face. Too human. The last time she saw Castiel in this body, he was a granite-eyed whirlwind of flashing silver, cutting down soldier after soldier (vessel after vessel) to keep the relics of Saint Demetrios out of the hands of Raphael’s army. The fight left sixteen pairs of wings burned into the red carpet of the Patriarchal Cathedral in Bucharest. Castiel, God’s Chosen, was responsible for eight.

“Do what?” asks Sam, confused.

She’s focusing on positioning the block, not guarding her words, and so she answers Castiel in blunt Enochian: “I have no reason to trust you."

Seven years ago, Castiel put out the clarion call for angels to join his war for free will. Eight months later, Margarita was in Bucharest, feeling her hands sink a blade to the hilt in Ammiel’s chest. She remembers light pouring from Ammiel’s eyes as angel and vessel both died. Remembers glass raining down. Remembers a voice shouting, and Benjamin spinning just in time to parry--

An O-block appears at the top of the screen. Left. Left. Her headache throbs behind her eyes. Again, Benjamin’s grace swells to soothe it; again, she bats it away. Sam is asking another question, she thinks, but the words don’t reach her.

Two booths over, someone’s knife scrapes against their plate.

Margarita’s feet answer without consulting the rest of her. The Tetris game falls apart. Before she knows it, she’s standing, heart pounding in her ears. Her head throbs and throbs. “Need some air,” she manages to say. “I won’t go far.” A bell rings as she pushes the door open, high and tinny. The sound digs into her like a scalpel.

A wall of desert heat hits her the moment she steps outside. Palm trees dot the parking lot; Margarita takes shelter in the shade of the nearest, sagging against it, pressing the heels of her palms against her eyes. Without Benjamin, her body is no different from the body of any regular mortal. Sweat forms beads on her forehead and dampens her palms.

The voice that saved her in Bucharest didn’t belong to one of Castiel’s soldiers, but the vessel of one of Raphael’s. He took control just long enough to shout: Kill me.

His name was Rémy Samson, Margarita learned later. His body was returned to his family (who would never learn how a librarian from Ottawa wound up dead on the floor of a church in Romania), and when his wife and three children buried him, Margarita and Benjamin were there, hidden from sight. One of Rémy’s daughters had an undetected tumor in her bone marrow that would have turned into stage four lymphocytic leukemia within a year. Benjamin cured it with a touch, and Rémy’s mother’s arthritis, and another daughter’s torn ACL.

After his family left, Margarita laid flowers on Rémy’s grave with the same hands that killed him.

He prayed for death, Benjamin said, staring down at the hydrangeas and gladioli. Why do I regret granting it to him? I don’t understand. Rita, please, help me understand.

Benjamin’s grace again rises to soothe her headache. Margarita is less successful at denial than St. Peter; this third time, she allows the grace to do as it will. It brushes against her like a cool breeze; it rinses away the pain like a bath rinses away dirt. The memory of Bucharest doesn’t fade, but the grace blunts its edge enough for Margarita to breathe again.

If she asked him to, Benjamin would take those memories away entirely. He would erase Bucharest, and Zipaquirá, and Marrakesh, and all the others. Every fight he fought with her body, every drop of blood he spilled with her hands-- he would wipe it all clean, if only she asked. He alone would remember, he alone would carry the burden, and he would do it without complaint.

She has never asked.

“Sister Margarita?” asks Sam Winchester’s voice from behind her. The Boy with the Demon Blood, the breaker of the sixty-sixth Seal, Lucifer’s true vessel, is looking at her with open concern. She’s heard enough stories of the Winchesters that his kindness shouldn’t surprise her, but it does, and she feels a twinge of guilt for it. “Are you okay?”

“I will be,” says Margarita, once she finds her voice. “The first few minutes are always difficult.”

“You don’t mind him possessing you?” blurts Sam. From the look on his face, it wasn’t the question he meant to ask.

With her headache gone, Margarita can manage a reassuring smile. She understands why he would be concerned: he was an unwilling vessel to Lucifer for a time, and Gadreel too, if rumors are to be believed. “If I wanted him to leave, he would. I’m his partner, not his prisoner.”

Sam looks thoroughly unconvinced.

“Benjamin is my best friend,” Margarita continues. “You’re kind to be concerned, but you should save it for a vessel who needs it.” More somberly, she adds, “Most of them do.”

Her thoughts go to Josephine, unwilling Josephine, and the vessel who killed her. Was that vessel asleep? Locked in a fantasy world? Awake, watching her hands murder another innocent human, feeling the blade sink into flesh, begging the thing inside her to not make her do it, please, I don’t want to do this, just let her go, this is wrong, stop, no, please--

Sam’s voice jolts Margarita from her thoughts: “Cas said Benjamin was an old friend.” It’s a question wrapped in a statement.

Margarita sighs. They aren’t even a hundred feet from the table; if Castiel isn’t trying to tune them out, he’ll hear every word. “What else did he tell you?”

“Just that they were in the same garrison. From before Cas had his own.”

She takes a moment to compose her answer, knowing an extra ear might be listening. “Castiel was an old friend. When he asked angels to join his war against Raphael, Benjamin answered. He believed in him. He bled for him. And after Raphael was dead--” Wings charred into grass. Be obedient, children, or this will be your fate. In the back of her throat, Margarita tastes bile. “Those were bad days. Castiel broke Benjamin’s trust in ways I didn’t know it could be broken.”

“You need to know Cas wasn’t himself when he did that. He was sick from taking in Purgatory.”

“Was he sick from Purgatory when he made a secret alliance with the King of Hell?”

Sam winces. “He thought he was doing what he had to do. I didn’t like it either -- I still don’t like it -- but he was trying to do the right thing.”

“I know. He was trying to do the right thing when he joined forces with Crowley, and he was trying to do the right thing when he did the same with Metatron.” Two days after the Fall, Margarita woke up in a hospital in Madrid. The doctors told her she’d had a seizure. She could barely hear them over Benjamin sobbing apologies. “Sam, the only reason we’re here is to find Mirabel’s killer. If that requires working with Castiel, then Benjamin will work with Castiel through me. But you need to understand: If there was any bridge left to rebuild after Raphael, and I don’t know that there was, it burned in the Fall. This doesn’t end with them reconciling.”

Benjamin hadn’t been the only soldier left devastated by how the war ended. Margarita remembers a conversation with Jehoel two years ago: even then, she and Benjamin could barely begin to speak about what they’d seen.

Jehoel, who was also part of that original flight.

Jehoel, who would have heard the distress signal.

Jehoel, who lives seven hours away.

“What’s wrong?” asks Sam, but Margarita is already striding past him, back to the diner.

When Margarita enters, she sees that she didn’t need to be concerned about Castiel listening to her conversation with Sam. Dean has moved to the other bench so that he’s sitting across from Castiel, and all of Castiel’s attention is focused on him, glaring with such intensity that the diner is fortunate to still have windows. Uncharitably, without bothering to shield her mind, Margarita thinks of how unsurprised she is to find Castiel occupied with Dean Winchester while angels are dying.

If Castiel hears the thought, he doesn’t react to it.

“--cosmic consequences,” Dean is saying. Margarita is immediately determined to neither learn about nor get involved with whatever he’s talking about. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but--”

“Castiel,” interrupts Margarita, without apology. “What was the last news you heard about Jehoel?”

“I haven’t heard anything since the Fall.”

“When Benjamin talked to her two years ago, she was living in Santa Fe.”

Castiel’s head cants to the side. “You believe something happened to her since then.”

“Santa Fe is a seven hour drive. She should have been here before any of us.”

“People move,” says Dean.

In that conversation two years ago, Jehoel had talked about the house she’d moved into. How she was slowly restoring it with her (vessel’s) hands, just hands, no grace involved. “Jehoel wouldn’t have. Not by choice.” Margarita takes her phone from her pocket, Googles “santa fe” cult murder, and scrolls through the results.

“What’s going on?” asks Sam, approaching the table.

“Sister Rita’s worried about an angel friend,” answers Dean.

Towards the bottom of the first page of results, Margarita finds the article she hoped she wouldn’t. She zooms in on the crime scene photo and holds out the phone for Castiel to see. “I don’t recognize the vessel. Are those--”

“Jehoel’s wings,” Castiel confirms.

Margarita hates to pray standing, but kneeling in the diner would draw too much attention, so she makes do with a bowed head and clasped hands. For the Winchesters’ benefit, she prays in English: “Holy Ishim the Angel, Holy Kadmiel the Angel, hear this prayer. Mirabel is dead, and only Castiel and Benjamin have arrived at the location of the distress signal. Jehoel was killed four months ago. If you’re still alive, please call--” and Margarita recites her phone number, which she’ll have to change after all this is done. “Amen,” she finishes.

“What now?” asks Sam.

Castiel’s mouth is a grim line. “We wait.”

After a minute of drumming her fingers against her leg, Margarita’s phone starts to ring. She answers before the third note of Baka Mitai hits the air. “You’re speaking to Benjamin’s vessel.”

“Why am I speaking to his vessel?” asks a voice that Margarita recognizes as Ishim’s. Even if he wasn’t still possessing the same vessel, his disdain for her, beyond that of anyone else in the flight, would be identification enough. “Put a person on the line.”

Margarita holds the phone out to Castiel. “Ishim wants to talk to a ‘person.’”

“Sounds like a charmer,” says Dean.

Castiel holds the phone up to his ear. “This is Castiel. ... He went to Heaven to ask Mirabel’s about the attack. ... What? When? ... Why didn’t I know about this? ... I would have. I do. ... We’ll be there. Be careful.” He ends the call, the look on his face promising bad news, and hands the phone back to Margarita. “Kadmiel was killed last year.”

Fear clenches Margarita’s stomach. Angel deaths have gotten rarer in the past two years: when a species is nearly extinct, the survivors tend to be good at surviving. And for three of their flight's six members to be killed in that time-- that doesn’t say coincidence. Again, she bows her head to pray. “San Benjamín Ángel, amigo de mi corazón, escucha mi oración. Kadmiel y Jehoel también fueron asesinados hace unos meses. Lo lamento mucho, querido. Ishim sigue vivo. Estoy sana y salva, no te preocupes por mi. Ten cuidado y mantente a salvo. Amen.”

“Did Ishim say anything else?” asks Sam.

“He has a safe house outside the city. He wants to meet there.”

#prayer of the possessed tag

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corinthbayrpg · 4 years

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NAME. Sebastián Cavallero AGE & BIRTH DATE. 519 & April 9th, 1501 GENDER & PRONOUNS. Male & He/Him SPECIES. Phoenix OCCUPATION. Doctor FACE CLAIM. Theo James

BIOGRAPHY

( tw: death ) Sebastián Mateo Alejandro Cavallero had always been an inquisitive one. From the very moment he could speak, he was asking his parents why. Why was the sky blue? Why couldn’t animals speak in the same way that they could? Por qué, por qué, por qué. It was as if the words were ingrained into every sentence he ever spoke. And for the most part, his parents appeased their son’s curious mind. But the answers weren’t always what Sebastián wanted to hear, never quite fulfilling the need for knowledge. So he started looking elsewhere, finding it in the older generations within their village. And when his mother became sick, with an illness that could be placated with herbs from their garden, he turned to the village physician.

For years, he remained by the man’s side, learning every trick and trade he could of the medicine available to them. He learned which herbs mixed with which to create a salve, or to create a broth that when consumed, eased the afflictions of the stomach. He wanted to learn everything he could from this man, so that when the next mother or father or sibling became ill, he would know how to ease their burden. Unlike he could for his own mother. His time with the physician was cut short, when his twin came to him with a better idea of a future. Francisco Pizarro, a man ideally destined for greatness. Or that was how the story was painted. As he wanted to travel to the new world, to conquer and bring back its treasures to their country. If only Sebastián had not always promised to remain by his brother’s side.

At only twenty four, he boarded a ship with the intention of seeking out this new world only so that he could broaden his own knowledge. So that he could bring back the means of medicine to their world. If only that was how the story could have remained. For over the course of the next six years, Sebastián would find himself with more blood on his hands than he ever would have in his short life. When the understanding of what Pizarro had always intended for the new world came to light, he threw himself into defending those that could not defend themselves. While mending his own people of spear wounds and ailments, he snuck away in the middle of the night to tend to the sword wounds and afflictions the Incas had suffered. Gaining their trust had been difficult, and Sebastián had almost found himself with his own spear wound several times over. But eventually, when he continued to bring medicine and food, they accepted him for what he was: a kind soul. So he treated them, and they taught him their language, their mixes for his medical knowledge. But nothing could make up for the destruction of their civilization at the hands of his own people.

Abandoning this quest had never been in Sebastián’s cards. He could never --- would never leave his brother to Pizarro’s pursuit in ruining the new world. So he remained, treating the conquistadors during the day, and the Incas during the night. He was constantly tired, infinitely covered in blood that was not his own. Yet when a man came to him, in the middle of the night as Sebastián was making his way back to his own camp, he barely questioned it. The man’s name was something he had never heard before, but what he had referred to himself as sparked a curiosity in Sebastián’s head. Phoenix --- it was something that his brother had once brought up, when they were nothing more than boys. Talk of Greeks and their understanding of the Gods that had created this world. He had never believed the stories to be true, having always relied upon science to be the answer to everything. But before he could fall back into old habits, the man was placing a hand upon his chest and gifting him with what he thought never to be possible.

The questions hardly ceased when he awoke to his new life, to the new abilities and powers that now rest at the tips his fingertips, that found themselves in the very tears that he shed. A favor had been granted to his brother and he; yet fate sought to separate them in these times of understanding and questioning. While his brother escaped into a blissful life with a woman he had encountered, Sebastián sought to fulfill his quest of learning all that he could of the medicine of the world. All while healing those that he could with the gift that he had been given. And thus he traveled the world, moving from one new place to the next, taking in all that he could.

He loved and he lost. He gave life and he watched it be taken away. Days felt like minutes, months like days, and eventually years felt like they were slipping by him in a blink of an eye. Soon, he understood that he would never find what his brother had, a blissful life with the one that death could not touch. So he buried himself in his work, learning of what he could of the developing medical field. He became knowledgeable in disease and ailments, learned how they could be treated so that when he shed a tear for a mortal, it was not questioned beyond a miracle. He focused upon the task that had been given to him from his maker, to protect those that could not protect themselves. It was his brother, however, that he had let slip through the cracks.

It was a common belief that twins shared a special bond, a connection that couldn’t quite be explained. How he had felt there was something wrong was beyond him, but he knew that his brother needed him more than ever. And despite the distance that had grown between them, Sebastián never once lost sight of his brother. So he was there, when his brother awoke from his rebirth, to draw him back to the land of the living. He waited with him, kept his eyes and ears open for any news of a vampire woman. Yet, none came. And when his brother came to terms with it, he brought him along as they ventured once more into the new world. They spent years by each other’s side, pleasing the task that had been given to them. While Sebastián learned of new sciences, his brother wrote down the historical facts as it happened around them. It was them that contributed to the ways of the new world.

So when the time came, to be called back to their maker’s side, the brothers came with apprehension and questions mingled between them. Corinth Bay, it had been nothing more than a blimp on Sebastián’s radar. A city that boasted no more than the next little Greek getaway. Yet when they arrived, when the supernatural were damn near palpable, Sebastián knew that this was much more than what they had anticipated.

PERSONALITY

+ adaptable, dutiful, methodical - blunt, cynical, secretive

PLAYED BY MAL. PST. She/Her.

#mal

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theorynexus · 4 years

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We now begin 51, which will likely take us to an entirely different perspective. Thanks, Monty Python!

On a random note, though...

Man, this is fricking crazy, from a dramatic irony perspective. I do appreciate that Homestuck is written such that that spreads from not only the author’s possession, but to that of the audience via rereads. As... macabre as this particular example is.

Finally, Dorothy is gone, and all that is left is the Witch (and her little dog too)?

Well, maybe not even that. Certainly, Bec’s powers are muted, and I wouldn’t be too terribly surprised if his instincts are too; on the other hand,they could be strongly contributing to this. This sequence strongly reminds me of the sequence wherein Jade’s destiny to become fused with him was first alluded to. “You eat a weird bug, and don’t even care,” and whatnot. Certainly,

Words slough from the busy mind like a useless dead membrane as a more visceral sapience takes over. Something simpler is in charge now, a force untouched by the concerns and burdens of the upright, that farcical yoke the bipedal tow. It now drives you through the midnight brush ... as you and your new friend must claim the night with piercing howls moonward.

seems reminiscent to me of all of her thoughts of her former existence fading as she is beckoned by the call-- not of a moon, but of another reflection of the light of the sun: the Void-y remains that come with its demise. Obviously her “new friend” in this case would seem to refer both to Bec (who is a part of her, now, thus explaining the uniform motion) and through allusion, to the Alt!Calliope that her other version of herself had already befriended, who would be the one beckoning in the first place. It should also be said that shoes could be taken as a symbol of civilization, in this case, beyond just the obvious symbolism that is being pointed out to the viewer. Regardless, whether this similarity was intended or not doesn’t actually matter. It’s just that this scene vaguely made me think of that.

What irony, considering this is coming from the one who just bewitched the Seer (which, I would just like to say, is honestly some nice narrative symmetry, considering this is almost exactly like what Doc Scratch did before him [not that I don’t still feel disgust toward him, even if this might turn out in Rose’s favor, in the long run]). Oh, yes, and by the way... very nice confirmation of the fact that the Green Sun Black Hole is Void-oriented. I appreciate that coming from an in-story source. (Even if you don’t connect emptiness with Void, which you should, the fact that the Ocean is connected with it is almost indisputable. That’s part of the reason why Rose’s quest was to bring life to the dead ocean by Playing the Rain. It was about using her inner Light to counteract her tendencies toward its equal opposite.)

Which is part of the reason why Alt!Calliope and Jade get along so well, and why there’s a connection between them, I’m sure. (Both of their lifestyles/life histories emphasized thematically their inner Space orientation. [This may also be why Kanaya lived in them middle of a desert, with no one but her Virgin Mother Grub to directly keep he company.])

Yes, way to downplay one of the core Aspects of reality just because it doesn’t necessarily always function in the way that perception would suggest it does. This doesn’t make it illusory, nor does it invalidate the continuum aspect of it: that it is intrinsically relevant to how life persists and interacts with the world itself demonstrates the importance of this part of Time. It’s like suggesting an iceberg is an illusion just because you can’t see the depths hidden away below the surface (Void hides it from your eyes [read: Light is blocked]). Gah, you are so bloody irksome and pride-projecting in your demeanor just because you managed to pick something up that the Trolls basically illuminated to the Beta Kids way back when they were all 13. Congratulations.

Fool. (Oh, and I would argue that time continuing to be relevant conceptually, despite its non-linearity, helps to emphasize its importance as a pillar of reality. That it is an existence persisting independent of its consequent internal signifiers [entropy, {temporal} causality, direction] allows for it to play the very important role of acting as a medium for general interaction and consequence; particularly, it allows for the persistence and simultaneous activity of all possible states of being within its domain [e.g.: reality or the meta-narrative Existence within the context of MSPA, or whatever set of other works which would necessarily include all relevantly connected miscellany] which are additionally allowed for via the logical intermingling it has with the other Aspects. In other words: Time is one of the two necessary present architectonic forces that undergird the Narrative. Your suggesting that it is given disproportionate attention and that loneliness is therefore an illusion is just the sort of insulting, crass, and perspective-locked claptrap that I’d expect from someone who’s so enthusiastically embraced a departure from humanity, and who thus has lost mooring in the solid, political existence which sapient, physically-connected beings dwell in by nature. I suspect that your distraction and loss of perspective will eventually come back to haunt you. ) Yes, I realize that the Ultimate Self is a timeless construct, but this does not mean time is irrelevant to it or the limited forms it girds itself with when connecting to physicality. (On a random note: I do appreciate his decision to call Aspects ideas.)

Along with the creepiness with regards to Dirk pushing thoughts into Jade’s head (which is honestly par for the course in Homestuck, and at least he’s mostly trying to remind her of something he believes she already knows, so it’s somwhat benevolent), we get this interesting snippet. Seems he wants to foreshadow difficulties between Dave, Jade, and Karkat in the future. I suppose the only logical question is whether Jade will break their hearts in turn. Love is hard. It’s hard and everybody (with actual experience) understands.

Ha ha, “How much of Homestuck was actually illusion seen in the perspective of the characters involved, a la the kids’ rooms before Gamzee’s Chucklevoodoo curses were disrupted,” ha ha. On a more important note: I very much appreciate Dirk’s well-arranged metaphors relating to time, to Calliope’s Muse-inspired-powered Spatial-influential music. Dirk is indeed quite bad at distracting hyper-focused people with thoughts he thinks they will reasonably find seem similar to thoughts she might have.

Hey, man, don’t give up. Your breaking from the narrative of trying to help her is making it seem like your nervousness is throwing you off, meaning we won’t know if your attempts to help her had any chance to succeed in general! Way to go, “hero!”

“Time is an illusion,” you say? Yet here’s your narration, there’s Jade. Oh! There she goes, persisting to fly off into the dead sun, just as linear time would demand of her! What’s wrong? Couldn’t make the time to properly put your thoughts together or try until you got it right? Gasp! My word! It’s almost like Time is pretty fricking important to the narrative and reality of the story!

HEEHEEHAHAHAHA!!! Serves you right, getting spooked like that, you incompetent, over-confident knave!

... Now, let’s see how the rest of this goes, now that I have a better handle on my humours.

You’re dealing with the Grim Reaper, inspirer of great woe and terror, as well as happy children drawings and stories everywhere. Obviously, you were overmatched. Perhaps you should have tried focusing on Jade initially, rather than John? That might have given you a little bit more time. I am reminded of a group of trolls who didn’t properly think through their attempts to mock and cajole those they perceived to be the artificers of their downfall. Perhaps this will turn out as well.

Demiourgos, your pride showeth. Your composure runneth down and streaketh thine face like free-flowing ichor. Hubris, doth it become thee? Thou reflecteth thine flaws, and by thy own hand. Revealeth thou not the weakness of thine breast with Rage-filled uproar? A lion in thine face we see, but at this flickering of that glamour, a snake in masquerade is spotted. Foul wretch, I pity thee: for it is truly painful to behold the disheartening of the ambitious, and the glorious in the midst of downfall. What do you fear? What compels such panic into one normally so serene?

I suppose I should have known. A mechanist always fears uncontrollable variables. (I do wonder if his fear is truly warranted, though. Certainly, things aren’t as bad as they could be, but there is much to be depressed about in these outcomes as they have emerged so far, you know?)

And thus, a new star was born? Well, we’ll see. I certainly do appreciate the physics of black hole mechanics being involved, though I am not 100% sure that this is accurate to how such an ultra-massive construct would actually work. I know super-massive black holes effect objects differently than normal ones, when they approach the event horizon, so it seems rather reasonable to guess that one the mass of multiple universes would behave a bit differently from either. I do not know, however. ... All in all, a pretty great page, I guess. It was nice to see the Narrator lose control so badly. A bit sad that the consequences of that were as they were, but I knew that this would likely be the case, regardless. I wonder when John and Terezi will be back in focus~ ... P.S.: I am pretty sure that subtle interference with the narrative is the normal role of a Muse, and that her Mastery over Jade in particular makes a great deal of sense, given who Jade is. I wonder what has compelled her to speak in such a manner that her voice is actually visible in the text, rather than subtly bending it to her will as presumably has been the case over the course of Homestuck, generally. Could it be that she did this specifically to teach the Narrator a lesson? Shall we ever find out?

#Homestuck Spoilers #Homestuck Epilogue #Unreliable Narrator #Homestuck Theory #Homestuck Liveblog #Homestuck Aspects #Aspect Theorization #Alt!Calliope #The Narrator #Jade Harley #Green Sun Black Hole #Time Aspect

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isaaceuphoriawriting · 3 years

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Tales of Tartys. Pt 1

In the south nearing the sea borders of the Kingdom Glenarm, stood pristine in solitude one of the few remaining Elvish Citadels. Ages ago the Elves and their civilizations were widespread and dominant in the world; however, that was long ago. Now was the age of man, or so they proclaimed. Still the citadel Am’nallyn found itself placed in position to shape Glenarm’s future for many generations to come. The Elvish citizens here retained their former power and glory of the centuries passed, and with this power they could with some semblance of ease bring the war, which plagued Glenarm, to a favorable end. Though there were those within Am’nallyn’s council who preferred to leave the outside world to its own devices. These were those who remembered only the cruelty and crudeness of the humans and wanted nothing more to do with them. However and luckily, not everyone shared these sentiments.

Decided in secrecy, Am’nallyn would send to the aid of the people of the realm - its greatest elders Tartys Lucian Zoroaster had been, from childhood, groomed to be amongst the greatest warriors of all time, but in the hands of The Church he had become even more. As a paladin, Tartys was a symbol of hope and an example of the power of god. Though this reputation was not one that preceded him here in Glenarm or even in the neighboring countries. For the last few hundred years, Tartys had been active only on the continent on the other end of the vast sea. Only recently returned to his homeland the paladin had now been sent on a new quest.

Northward his trek was headed. It was with some fortune that the majority of the land between Am’nallyn and his first destination was a level plain. Tartys had not returned from the far continent with his war horse and so was reduced to traveling on the only other beast of burden available which could accommodate his stature and make such an extended trip - a mule. The towering Elf rode atop the hybrid creature with only light gear and without his signature armour; he wore instead only the raven colored tunic of his Order - the crimson insignia sewn into each shoulder. It was an awkward sight to be sure, but a second look at the rider would leave most with no doubt he was not one to be taken lightly.

The days were long, but they were also familiar; they reminded Tartys of his own warring days - marching from one battlefield to the next. Though, it seemed those days never truly came to an end. Nearly a month had come and gone, and only now had the paladin arrived at the Kingdom’s Inner City, the capital called Dorren. During the time of his travel, it appeared the tension amongst the citizens had risen to a boiling point. The outer streets were empty, but even from there the clamoring hoard could be heard. A riot had broken out and as Tartys approached the fringes of the mass he could see the focus of everyone’s frustrations. He remembered the young, crude face of the prince King who currently reigned - as it was shown to him through a magiked image produced by those who had sent him here.

It was clear from the words of the arrogant King, this nation’s government had fallen far. With grim seriousness he watched as the guardsmen faltered for only a moment and the bloodshed began. In most circumstances Tartys would have been the first to stop the senseless killings, but with the king here it would bring unfavorable results. Subconsciously he had gripped the pommel of the blade hanging at his waist with enough strength to snap a neck. After all, it was against his nature to stand idly by as the innocent died, but he was sent to bring the war to an end - not slay the king and his men. Recovering with a renewed sense of calm, Tartys released his death grasp and prepared himself to turn away. There was nothing he could do here, not now at least.

Just at that moment when the paladin motioned his body to turn he caught sight of something significant, something faint and only for a second, but he knew he had seen it. Moving out of the crowd there had been a pair of piercing yellow eyes. Scanning through the hundreds of bodies pressing and passing and falling on each other, Tartys again picked out the singular one who walked away. Without hesitation the Elf followed. It wasn’t long before he had fallen in stride behind the seemingly female body, and not until they had fully cleared the mob would it be likely he would be noticed. However, he had no intention of remaining concealed. Tartys only wanted somewhere more private to talk.

“Excuse me.” He spoke loudly, but not aggressively. In the time he had spent behind her, only steps away, he had sensed power from her; the extent of which was unknown. The sensation it gave was not human that much was sure, and somewhere deep inside it felt familiar. Who was this person, and why were they here? Could it have been that there were others who had come with objectives similar to his own, or was this someone with vile intentions. Again he spoke. “I would like to speak to you.” Vague as his words were, there was no doubt in who they had been directed toward.

#high fantasy #fantasy #writers #my writing #literature #creative writing #short story #original story

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tomorrowedblog · 3 years

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Friday Releases for April 30

Friday is the busiest day of the week for new releases, so we've decided to collect them all in one place. Friday Releases for April 30 include Limbo, Yasuke, New Pokémon Snap, and more.

Limbo

Limbo, the new movie from Ben Sharrock, is out today.

Limbo is a wry and poignant observation of the refugee experience, set on a fictional remote Scottish island where a group of new arrivals await the results of their asylum claims. It centers on Omar (Amir El-Masry), a young Syrian musician who is burdened by his grandfather’s oud, which he has carried all the way from his homeland.

Without Remorse

Without Remorse, the new movie from Stefano Sollima, is out today.

In a war-torn region of Syria, an elite team of Navy SEALs led by Sr. Chief John Kelly (Michael B. Jordan) rescues a CIA operative taken hostage by ex-Russian military forces. Three months later, in apparent retaliation for his role in the mission, Kelly’s pregnant wife Pam (Lauren London) is murdered in the U.S. by a squad of masked Russian assassins. Despite being shot multiple times himself, Kelly manages to kill all but one of the attackers before being rushed to the hospital.

Meanwhile in Washington D.C., Kelly’s friend and former SEAL team member Lt. Commander Karen Greer (Jodie Turner-Smith) meets with CIA agent Robert Ritter (Jamie Bell) and Secretary of Defense Thomas Clay (Guy Pearce) to discuss their response options. Leaked news of Russia’s unprecedented attack on American soil has caused the already-strained relations between the two nations to sour further. If something isn’t done soon the result could be a full-scale war.

Healed from his injuries, a rogue Kelly tracks down the corrupt Russian diplomat who issued the passports to his wife’s murderers, and forces him at gunpoint to give up the name of the surviving assassin. Sent to prison for the crime, Kelly bargains his way out by revealing the escaped operative is one Victor Rykov (Brett Gelman), an ex-Special Forces officer currently hiding in Murmansk, Russia.

With Secretary Clay’s reluctant approval, Kelly joins Greer and Ritter on a top-secret mission to capture Rykov and bring him back to the U.S. to face justice. But en route to Murmansk, their plane is shot down by the Russian Air Force and plummets into the Bering Sea. Using their SEAL skills to survive the crash, they eventually make their way to Rykov’s location, only to discover that the murder of Kelly’s family was part of a vast international conspiracy orchestrated by powerful political figures. Torn between personal honor and loyalty to his country, and with the fate of nations hanging in the balance, Kelly has no choice but to expose the truth, no matter the cost.

About Endlessness

About Endlessness, the new movie from Roy Andersson, is out today.

ABOUT ENDLESSNESS is a reflection on human life in all its beauty and cruelty, its splendor and banality. We wander, dreamlike, gently guided by our Scheherazade-esque narrator. Inconsequential moments take on the same significance as historical events: a couple floats over a war-torn Cologne; on the way to a birthday party, a father stops to tie his daughter’s shoelaces in the pouring rain; teenage girls dance outside a cafe; a defeated army marches to a prisoner-of-war camp. Simultaneously an ode and a lament, ABOUT ENDLESSNESS presents a kaleidoscope of all that is eternally human, an infinite story of the vulnerability of existence.

The Outside Story

The Outside Story, the new movie from Casimir Nozkowski, is out today.

While on a tight deadline, an introverted editor (Brian Tyree Henry) is locked out of his apartment. In order to find his way back inside, he’s forced to interact with… his neighbors.

Four Good Days

Four Good Days, the new movie from Rodrigo García, is out today.

A long-estranged mother and daughter navigate the most difficult four days of their lives together in a heartbreaking and hopeful story based on real-life events.

The Mitchells vs. The Machines

The Mitchells vs. The Machines, the new movie from Michael Rianda and Jeff Rowe, is out today.

The Mitchells vs. The Machines is an original animated comedy about an everyday family’s struggle to relate while technology rises up around the world! When Katie Mitchell (voiced by Abbi Jacobson), a creative outsider, is accepted into the film school of her dreams, her plans to meet “her people” at college are upended when her nature-loving dad Rick (voiced by Danny McBride) determines the whole family should drive Katie to school together and bond as a family one last time.

The Virtuoso

The Virtuoso, the new movie from Nick Stagliano, is out today.

Danger, deception, and murder descend upon a sleepy country town when a professional assassin (Anson Mount) accepts a new assignment from his enigmatic mentor and boss (Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins). Given only where and when along with a cryptic clue, the methodical hit man must identify his mysterious mark from among several possible targets, including a local sheriff (David Morse). Meanwhile, a chance encounter with an alluring woman (Abbie Cornish) at the town’s rustic diner threatens to derail his mission in this noir-style cloak-and-dagger thriller.

The Disciple

The Disciple, the new movie from Chaitanya Tamhane, is out today.

A musician’s unadulterated devotion, a mirage-like quest for divinity, and the courage to fight your own mediocrity. The Disciple is the tale of an Indian classical vocalist, Sharad Nerulkar, searching for the traditional absolute in a contemporary city that never stops hustling.

Berlin Alexanderplatz

Berlin Alexanderplatz, the new movie from Burhan Qurbani, is out today.

An African immigrant struggles to make a new life for himself in the big city in writer-director Burhan Qurbani’s audacious, neon-lit reinterpretation of Alfred Döblin’s 1929 novel. After surviving his perilous journey, Francis vows to be a good man, but he soon realizes how difficult it is to be righteous while undocumented in Germany– without papers, without a nationality, and without a work permit. When he receives an enticing offer for easy money from the psychopathic gangster Reinhold, Francis initially resists temptation, but eventually he is sucked into Berlin’s underworld and his life spirals out of control.

Eat Wheaties!

Eat Wheaties!, the new movie from Scott Abramovitch, is out today.

Sid Straw (Tony Hale) leads a dull life until he accidentally stalks famous college friend, Elizabeth Banks, on social media. With each failed attempt to prove he knows her, he rediscovers more of himself and the true meaning of friendship.

The Innocent

The Innocent, the new TV series from Oriol Paulo, is out today.

An accidental killing leads a man down a dark hole of intrigue and murder. Just as he finds love and freedom, one phone call brings back the nightmare.

The Mosquito Coast

The Mosquito Coast, the new TV series from Neil Cross and Tom Bissell, is out today.

A brilliant rebel (Justin Theroux) and his wife (Melissa George) take their family on the run to protect them, but end up exposing them to more danger than ever. At every turn of their adventure, they encounter increasing threats and intensifying moral choices from which there’s no turning back.

Yasuke

Yasuke, the new TV series from LeSean Thomas, is out today.

In a war-torn feudal Japan filled with mechs and magic, the greatest ronin never known, Yasuke, struggles to maintain a peaceful existence after a past life of violence. But when a local village becomes the center of social upheaval between warring daimyo, Yasuke must take up his sword and transport a mysterious child who is the target of dark forces and bloodthirsty warlords.

Returnal

Returnal, the new game from Housemarque and Sony Interactive Entertainment, is out today.

After crash-landing on this shape-shifting world, Selene must search through the barren landscape of an ancient civilization for her escape. Isolated and alone, she finds herself fighting tooth and nail for survival. Again and again, she’s defeated – forced to restart her journey every time she dies.

New Pokémon Snap

New Pokémon Snap, the new game from Nintendo, is out today.

Welcome to the Lental region, whose islands hold everything from dense jungles to vast deserts! New Pokémon Snap is an all-new game inspired by the 1999 Nintendo 64 game Pokémon Snap. This Nintendo Switch adventure will take you from island to island on an ecological survey, photographing Pokémon and building your own Pokémon Photodex!

Parallel World

Parallel World, the new album from Cadence Weapon, is out today.

#Games #Movies #TV #Music #News

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scoutshonor56 · 6 years

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Light The World

Inaugural Address of President John F. Kennedy Washington, D.C. January 20, 1961

“We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom--symbolizing an end as well as a beginning--signifying renewal as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three-quarters ago. The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe--the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God. We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans--born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage--and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world. Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. This much we pledge--and more. To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided there is little we can do--for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder. To those new states whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom--and to remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside. To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required--not because the communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. To our sister republics south of our border, we offer a special pledge--to convert our good words into good deeds--in a new alliance for progress--to assist free men and free governments in casting off the chains of poverty. But this peaceful revolution of hope cannot become the prey of hostile powers. Let all our neighbors know that we shall join with them to oppose aggression or subversion anywhere in the Americas. And let every other power know that this Hemisphere intends to remain the master of its own house. To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations, our last best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace, we renew our pledge of support--to prevent it from becoming merely a forum for invective--to strengthen its shield of the new and the weak--and to enlarge the area in which its writ may run. Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary, we offer not a pledge but a request: that both sides begin anew the quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction. We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed. But neither can two great and powerful groups of nations take comfort from our present course--both sides overburdened by the cost of modern weapons, both rightly alarmed by the steady spread of the deadly atom, yet both racing to alter that uncertain balance of terror that stays the hand of mankind's final war. So let us begin anew--remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate. Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us. Let both sides, for the first time, formulate serious and precise proposals for the inspection and control of arms--and bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under the absolute control of all nations. Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths and encourage the arts and commerce. Let both sides unite to heed in all corners of the earth the command of Isaiah--to 'undo the heavy burdens . . . (and) let the oppressed go free.' And if a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion, let both sides join in creating a new endeavor, not a new balance of power, but a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved. All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin. In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe. Now the trumpet summons us again--not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need--not as a call to battle, though embattled we are-- but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, 'rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation'--a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself. Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort? In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility--I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it--and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man. Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.”

It wasn’t that long ago - within just my short lifetime - when real men walked the halls of Washington. Smart men. Well-read men. Brave men who felt they could make a difference, even if just a small one. Men who thought beyond themselves and shouldered the burden and responsibilities of real public servants. Men who respected our history and could see the big picture of the human condition. Men who understood the complexities of governing and politics and the necessity of compromise for the greater and collective good. Such was John F. Kennedy.

This is my official ruling that the current petty, vainglorious, bloated, and intellectually lazy impostor who now disgraces the Oval Office and everything it once stood for is from here on banned from my blog. I simply no longer care. You let him in the game America - you wanted him, well, you got him. And no, I don’t want to hear any shit about a “stolen election”. The fact that he was ever even seen as a viable candidate speaks volumes about our society today.

I just did a count and see that I have written about this buffoon 20 times, both humorously and critically - and I have nothing left to say. There are better things to write about.

I originally started this post with a more pointed and detailed summation of my disgust, but then tonight I was watching a great special on PBS covering the photography of Rowland Scherman, who took many iconic and famous pictures during the early 60′s. Among his subjects were the likes of Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King Jr., and John Kennedy. Early in his career Scherman was the photographer for the Peace Corps (which Kennedy started), and during this part of the show the voice-over featured a short clip of the above inauguration speech. Finding it moving and inspiring, I later looked up the entire oration.

Reflecting on American politics today, it made me want to weep; to throw up. So in closing, my farewell characterization of Chief Cheetobrain Assclown is simply that he is the complete and total antithesis of John F. Kennedy. The shallow, distorted, and flip-side reflection of Kennedy in a warped fun house mirror. A sideshow barker promising the big stuffed teddy bear to any suckers stupid enough to pony up.

*oh yeah - one final caveat: I will bring him out of retirement under one condition - when America has finally had enough of this reality horror show and Donny is thrown out of office in shame and disgrace – a bonus if it’s in handcuffs, for a long and sordid list of federal infractions. When the people who represent us in government finally say, “no, YOU’RE FIRED!”

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disneyhistoryblog · 4 years

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Walt Disney is known for making high-grossing animated movies before and after the death of its founder Walt Disney himself. Usually, there is something to be seen in many Disney movies ranging from the 1930’s to the 1990’s. Some of them were darker than others with Hunchback of Notre Dame usually taking the cake, some even putting Black Cauldron and Sleeping Beauty up on that special pedestal. However, one Disney movie sets itself apart from the rest. It took enough liberties with their storytelling to an extent that even the artists behind the Hunchback of Notre Dame did not dare to attempt. No Disney movie dared to attempt what Pinocchio did. Pinocchio is probably the darkest of all Disney films.

Pinocchio is known, far and wide as the puppet who strived to become a boy, who learned to live up to the qualities required of a real boy: to be ‘brave, truthful and unselfish.’ His quest is the primary plot with deviations and digressions, telling the story so realistically it puts modern kids to shame. What is the first thing that comes to mind about Pinocchio? ‘Don’t lie’ or something along those lines, perhaps his status as a puppet, and it is a shame because there is so much more to that movie. That movie, for its lesson, tells a whole pack of truths to an extent it hurts. The truth hurts, especially when it is implicit. In Pinocchio, the truth does hurt and partly because its messages are not implicit at all. In some cases, they are in the open.

To see this, every last truth, lie, lesson, virtue and villain Pinocchio has to offer must be examined. When the movie starts, it begins with the famous When you Wish Upon a Star sequence and skip to Gepetto finishing his latest wooden creation. This creation is a puppet he names Pinocchio. But the man who lives alone with his cat and goldfish has the craziest wish ever. He wishes that his puppet would come to life. The wish is granted by none other than our basic deus ex machina, the Blue Fairy. She decides that Gepetto deserves to have his wish granted, and gives Pinocchio the gift of life. However, this is as far as she goes before laying the burden on Pinocchio to prove himself before being made of flesh and blood. This is what leads us to the first lie of the movie and ironically it is not told by Pinocchio.

The Blue Fairy

Disney’s first Fairy might actually be a liar.

“Prove yourself brave, truthful and unselfish, and someday you will be a real boy.”

“And always let your conscience be your guide.”

And our favorite little cricket, Jiminy explains in eloquent words…

“that still small voice that people won’t listen. That’s just the trouble with the world today.”

These lines hold, from the beginning till the end as the most important and oft-spoken lines in the movie. And these lines are lies. Not in the conventional sense but lies nonetheless, lies in the sense that the Blue Fairy tells Pinocchio to prove himself in ways no other person in the movie could. What was it Jiminy said about a conscience? People do not listen to their conscience, the vast majority of humans in the movie are terrible, even kids Pinocchio’s own age go astray, and Pinocchio is nonetheless asked to become the lone light in a sea of darkness. The Blue Fairy gives Pinocchio what is basically to be seen as the model for a live human being, which is a lie. No human in the movie acts like this so it must be assumed that the Blue Fairy wants Pinocchio to be that model. In other words, Pinocchio must complete a task which is perhaps more impossible than any protagonist has ever had to complete in a Disney movie.

Is it impossible that a Prince armed with a sword and shield and backed by three fairies can defeat a dragon? Is it impossible that seven angry dwarves can defeat an old witch who unfortunately lacks her usual Potions? Is it impossible that a street rat can trick a mad sorcerer into becoming a genie by taking advantage of his pride? Last but not least, is it impossible that Paris successfully revolts against a crazed judge who decided to bring the fight to their most precious cathedral in the square? In Pinocchio, it only gets harder.

"Oh, sword of truth fly swift and sure, that evil die and good endure."

“Oh, sword of truth fly swift and sure, that evil die and good endure.”

The rest of the lies are told by Pinocchio. Or are they? Pinocchio has every intention of going to school. In fact, he is well on his way until the first two villains we meet take him away and convince him to become an actor in the theater. He is lured away by Mr. Honest John Foulfellow whose very name screams of irony. Pinocchio is an instant success in the theater to such an extent, Jiminy Cricket starts to doubt himself. Perhaps Jiminy was wrong. The temptations the fairy warned against seem to be affecting even our guide. But when the Puppet master Stromboli locks Pinocchio in, Jiminy pops in to help and the wooden puppet realizes where he went wrong. This, in that sense represents the very first lesson we are taught with another coming shortly. Acting is not a distinguished career no matter how much press they get. They get used, abused and thrown away and Pinocchio was no different. He is locked, the cage is rusted, and Jiminy is incapable of helping.

Enter: The Blue Fairy for the second time. Her first action was giving Pinocchio life, now she meets him again for another talk, another lesson, and some last bit of magic. She asks him why he did not go to school and Pinocchio starts with the truth.

“I was going to school till I met somebody.”

Unfortunately, his nose starts growing as he continues to emphasize that he met two monsters. This was perceived as a lie, of course but the audience knows better. Was it really a lie? Was Honest John not a monster? Was Stromboli just being innocent? Was John’s sidekick just there? Many could very well perceive those two characters (three counting the sidekick fox) as monsters, making Pinocchio’s first words a truth. As the movie portrays it as a lie, here again is the second lie told by either the movie or Pinocchio himself, depending on how it is spun.

It does not end there either. The Blue Fairy plays along and questions Pinocchio as to whether he was afraid. Pinocchio insists he was not afraid but he was tied in a sack. Yet again, his nose grows but depending on how it is perceived, the lie is told by the movie or the character. Pinocchio was not exactly tied in a sack but when he is clearly in a cage at the time, it is not the worst lie to tell either. In fact, it is a sort of truth. Pinocchio was trapped, tripped, sent to the theater, used, abused, and locked up. Unfortunately, it is not big enough of a truth and he is humiliated once more. (Though in all honesty, the real lie was when he said Jiminy was tied too.) Pinocchio and Jiminy start noticing the large nose.

The Fairy questions him further and asks how he escaped. Pinocchio says he did not escape, which is the complete truth when related to the previous ‘lie’ but he was chopped into firewood. This is perhaps a real lie. But it is worthy to mention what Stromboli said after he locked Pinocchio in the cage/sack.

“When you are growing too old, you will make good firewood.”

The threat to be made into firewood was certainly there. In fact, in a way none of what Pinocchio said was a lie. He did meet two monsters, he was tied up, and he was threatened with being chopped into firewood. Maybe the truth was stretched a little bit but by no means a complete lie. Or of course, the Fairy counts stretched truths as lies and nonetheless grew his nose to warn him against such trickery. They were lies nonetheless told by either Pinocchio or the movie itself. The very idea that the movie may be the one telling the lie is astounding.

“A boy who won’t be good may just as well be made of wood.”

Thankfully, Pinocchio swears to never lie again and the Fairy forgives but warns that this would be the last time she could help. She thus far served as the solution to two problems: She gave Pinocchio life and freed him from the cage/sack he was so clearly trapped in. She proceeded to warn Pinocchio that the rest of the journey must be taken alone. Was this in fact the last time the fairy helped and served as the solution to all problems? It is also worthy of note that in this scene, everything is grey except Pinocchio, the fairy, and Jiminy. This ties in with the point that Pinocchio is the sole light in a world of evil.

"Very well, but this is the last time I can help you."

“Very well, but this is the last time I can help you.”

Thus far, the movie has been fine. No dark messages or meanings. By this point in Hunchback, a death has already happened. This scene, with its grey background and colored characters also marks the transition from bright colors earlier and simple problems to serious problems and dark demeanors. The next scene starts with Mr. Honest John and a new villain. A plump man in a red suit spills piles of gold provided Honest John gets him ‘stupid little boys’ to take to a place called ‘Pleasure Island,’ a place John implies is illegal, fearing the law might come after them. But the Coachman insists there is no risk because…

“They never come back as boys.”

This scene alone is screaming of dark, implicit messages a child might never understand. Later, there are explicit messages dark enough for a child’s mind and darker for an adult’s mind. The Coachman lays out his plan to traffic stupid little boys. Taking children from one area to another completely cut off from civilization is child trafficking. He offers gold to his pawns who now seem completely terrified of him as he whispers his plan to traffic the kids off to a nice little place called Pleasure Island. Honest John was not nearly as terrified of Stromboli. The way that scene played out was a clear indication of the power of the wealthy and what they do.

Once again, Honest John lures Pinocchio into his clutches under even more false pretenses. He convinces him he is ill and tells him to take some time off at Pleasure Island. Labeled by the movie as one of the ‘stupid little boys’ the Coachman was after, Pinocchio takes him up on the offer. Unbeknownst to them, Jiminy follows him secretly. Things get absolutely crazy, even for a Disney movie here. The first glimpse of Pleasure Island is maddening. One wonders how adults let children watch this movie?

Coachman

Go on. Tell me this is NOT child trafficking.

Pleasure Island is an amusement park where kids can do whatever they want. They can eat whatever they want, drink whatever they want, ice cream, dil pickles, beer, cigarettes, cigars, picking fights for the fun of it, destruction… all of them were mentioned explicitly.

“Smoke your heads off. There’s nobody here to stop you.”

Tobacco Row

They actually showed this!

And behind these already dark explicit overtones the movie makes, it cleverly hides something darker, even for adults. The best way to hide something dark is to coat it with something dark. Seeing a dark coat makes many think that there is no need to look behind something already so explicit. But there is something notorious about the evil Coachman. He is not just some big wealthy guy who puts kids to work in salt mines after turning them to donkeys which apparently symbolizes their stupidity. He is also a pedophile.

We already established that the Coachman is responsible for illegal child trafficking, transporting them to a Fun land called Pleasure Island, (a word that many adults associate directly with sex) and luring them there with fun, candy, anything a kid could want. In one scene, just before the Coachman talks with a small donkey named Alexander, he stripped clothes off of another donkey? It was not directly dealt with but implicit messages rarely are. Earlier, he insisted there was no risk in illegally trafficking children to an island cut off from civilization because…

“They never come back. As BOYS!”

Evil Coachman

It is no coincidence that this monster happens to have green eyes. And he looks like the devil himself in this shot.

There are two possible meanings to these words. Both are important to think about and no one said they are mutually exclusive. One is explicit and means that that they leave and when they come back, they are donkeys incapable of speech. He even gets rid of the ones who can talk, those who inexplicably still retain the power of speech such as Alexander, and only God knows what happens to them. But behind the explicit meaning is yet another meaning. Once a boy is abused by a pedophile, they are no longer boys in the sense that their innocence has been violated. Pleasure Island violates their innocence badly. They drink, they smoke, they fight, they destroy stuff… and then they become donkeys and therefore, scarred for life. Pedophilia does tend to scar the victim for life. Pinocchio is the best example. He survived the torture and escaped before it got too bad but his ears and tail and even random bray still remained, he was ashamed to speak of it to his father, was scared of even mentioning it because he was scarred from the experience.

As he sits on the beach, recovering from his painful ordeal, he gets a message from a dove sent by none other than the Blue Fairy. It is never explicitly stated it was in fact her but it can be no one else. It certainly was not the entrapped Gepetto and the dove was glowing white which reminds us of a heavenly figure. The Blue Fairy. The one who promised she would never help him again. The fairy, who told Pinocchio not to lie, lied. And she sets many things in motion, thankfully she is benevolent. She informs him that Gepetto was swallowed by a whale named Monstro. After a brief reunion and a smart attempt to orchestrate an escape, Pinocchio is ultimately killed saving his father from the whale.

Dead Pinocchio

Willingly gave his life to save his father… “Prove yourself brave truthful and unselfish and someday you will be a real boy.”

Killed. The first Disney main character who is definitely and certainly dead on-screen. The cat cries over his corpse, the fish, the cricket, Gepetto, the audience, everyone. We’re all miserable because Disney only ever had a character fall into an eternal sleep to be awakened by true love’s first kiss. Now, the half-donkey character is explicitly dead. The boy who was scarred from an experience was given a release from it and the movie seems set to take a tragic turn for the worst. Until… the Blue Fairy decides to resurrect him as a real boy, flesh and blood. Very benevolent on her part but it contradicts her promise to never help again. She is the definition of a Deus ex Machina. She is the solution to all problems presented: lifeless puppet, overgrown nose, locked cage, man-eating whale, or death. She is the benevolent solution and in so doing, provided Pinocchio with the rebirth he needed (notice his donkey ears and tail are gone) and he is set to live happily ever after.

But just him.

Pinocchio can live. The other boys… not so much. And this is where Pinocchio does what no Disney film has ever done and will ever do in the future, they allowed the tragedy to continue. All other Disney villains were punished accordingly, facing justice in one way or another. Pinocchio features more than one villain and they all got away with it. Only Pinocchio got through the ordeal. More unsuspecting kids will be taken away, the rest of the donkeys are set to work as slaves in the salt mines and that is just the ones who can not speak. The ones who still speak like that poor little Alexander (the one donkey in all of fiction that probably wrenches hearts just thinking about him), are unaccounted for

Alexander

“Take him back! He can still talk!”

We do not know what happens to them. But if the Coachman intends to keep them silent, the only way out is death. Even by the end, the Coachman is not punished, the donkeys are never freed and Stromboli is still out there to abuse other actors and actresses that come his way, Honest John and Gideon will continue luring stupid little boys into their traps, and that’s just how the world is. The Coachman got away with slavery and possible pedophilia and murder. So realistic, isn’t it?

Disney tends to give a happily ever after, not just for the main character but for the entire Kingdom it is set in, if not the world. Even Hunchback had the decency to give a showy happy ending with singing and dancing for all of Paris after the fiery, infernal battle with Judge Claude Frollo. Pinocchio is the one and only exception. The slaver, child-trafficker, pedophile, murderer, or all four is still out there and till now remains the only Disney villain to get away with what he did. And what he did is pretty terrible and tragic. Tragic enough when looked at on the surface, more so when one looks under the dark coat. Who could be called by some as the most truly evil Disney villain who caused massive and unrepaired damage got away with it. These days, if Disney even tried that, they’ll have the kids they so explicitly and implicitly insulted camping out in protest.

In conclusion, this movie is a truly a fantastic, dark work of art. The movie tells the biggest truth of them all, and in so doing lives up to its name. While all other Disney movies flaunt the lie that is happily ever after, Pinocchio gives it to the audience straight. Happily ever after only for some people. Not for everyone. And for those who do manage, it takes lies to get there. It takes pain, blood, sweat, tears and abuse before you get there and once you do, you are scarred. The rest… they are put to work like slaves and those who have even the capability to protest the conditions they are put in are silenced. The movie does a good job of hiding it because the darkest story ever told by Disney is covered with darkness itself. In the end, the only happy people are Pinocchio and Gepetto. Everyone else is miserable.

And here’s a picture of Disney’s version of Pinocchio the second movie from Disney!!

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chicagoindiecritics · 5 years

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New from Every Movie Has a Lesson by Don Shanahan: MOVIE REVIEW: Ad Astra

(Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox via EPK.tv)

AD ASTRA— 4 STARS

There are competing dichotomies between performance and narrative in James Gray’s Ad Astra that are incredibly fascinating. The beginning of the film presents a focused pragmatic protagonist whose voiceovers are clear and stern about his impervious state of mind. That man is Brad Pitt’s veteran astronaut Roy McBride and he endeavors in a not-too-distant future that couldn’t be wider with ambition. Then, when the storyline strikes the catalyst that calls for preventing impending calamity, everything slowly shifts in competing directions.

The presented mission increases Roy distance from home and its securities. With each jaunting step into the solar system, the claustrophobic closeness of cinematographer Hoyte van Hoyema’s camera increases as well. What settings were once towering and broad become gradually more constricting and perilous. The same happens to the man. His compartmentalization skills begins to fail. The further Roy journeys, the narrations of the unfeeling and unrattled spaceman reveal hurt and pain that will not go away as easily as before. The global perils shrink to hinge on the simplistic fate of a father and his son.

That throbbing level of staggering aura occurring parallel to poignant familial intimacy in Ad Astra is remarkably captivating. This is an accomplishment of contemplative science fiction that is felt in your core as much as it pours wonderment in your eyes. The high concept space opera vibes and the melancholic musings have been stretched and exploited further in other cinematic offerings within this fictional discipline. Nevertheless, the sharpness of execution here is something to behold with plenty of profundity to absorb and impress.

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Major Roy McBride is an unflappable ace in his services with the U.S. Space Command. Exactitude and mission discipline drive him at the expense of external joys and attachments, including his ever-disappointed wife Eve (Liv Tyler). When Earth begins to suffer crippling waves of electrical surges caused by antimatter bursts coming from Neptune, the only piece of machinery left orbiting that final gas giant planet of the solar system is the culprit. That space station probing for extraterrestrial life beyond is the farthest any human astronaut has reached. The man who reached that milestone was Roy’s father H. Clifford McBride (Oscar winner Tommy Lee Jones) and he hasn’t been heard from in nearly three decades.

If these bursts are the actions of Clifford, they must be stopped before the damage wipes out mankind. Cloaked in top secrecy and fearing that very worst, U.S. Space Command enlists Roy as a mouthpiece to communicate with his estranged pioneer father. The cover story is to learn about the threat when the real undertaking is to talk the man down. What looks like search and rescue could easily be flipped to seek and destroy. The only communication hub not damaged by these surges is a subterranean base on Mars run by the facility administrator Helen Lantos (Loving Oscar nominee Ruth Negga). By way of off-the-books rocket travel from the very commercialized Moon, Roy will be escorted by one of his father’s former teammates, Colonel Pruitt, played by Jones’ equally ancient Space Cowboys co-star Donald Sutherland.

Once urgency triggers impetus, those aforementioned dichotomies begin to engulf the viewing experience. The first knockout sensory trait is the electronica-tinged dirge of Max Richter’s musical score playing alongside a fantastic sound mix of active silence and science. It devours your cochleas. The superlative production values and canny special effects, both new heights of capability for James Gray following 2016’s The Lost City of Z, create a foreboding sense of suspense and an atmosphere fitting this hazardous pursuit orchestrated by Richter’s tenor. The colors and created surfaces created by Oscar-winning set decorator Karen O’Hara and production designer Kevin Thompson for this ascent into a Heart of Darkness for the heavens add to the intrigue mightily.

The truest ambience in this movie comes from heady and instinctual allegories emanating from the original story written by Gray expanding on the work of co-screenwriter Ethan Gross (TV’s Fringe). The director is no stranger to tales of exploration where the lofty external destination is dwarfed by a far more pressing internal one for the explorers. What waxes plenty poetically is still a tight and efficient 122 minutes with little waste. With either stronger measures of incongruity (think Kubrick) or a looser discipline of musing meditation (think Mallick), this could have turned out very obscure and far less compelling. The balance of quickening tingles and throat-clenching emotions is very well done.

All the sheen and shine of Ad Astra matter not without Brad Pitt’s committed lead performance. He’s been described often as a character actor inside of a body of a leading man. Pitt has always been a very economical actor where nuance plays right off of his charisma, where his mere presence can overwhelm. He merges both here perfectly for Gray’s ponderous material. Through each gruff dismissal and frozen pause of internal conflict, Brad Pitt makes immersion look so natural and easy. The character’s unraveling never buckles the actor’s command underneath. The soon-to-be 56-year-old star of Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood just doubled his Oscar chances for next February.

LESSON #1: WHAT WEARS ON MEN — Men have a distressing tendency where they bottle up and hide internal and external problems until they burst. The list of stresses that sink a man’s shoulders, heart, and spirit tends to be an eclectic one that should not cause the stigma of shame. It’s proof you’re human and need help. To highlight one specific, there is a taxing sense of unrealized resentment that pervades throughout many characters in Ad Astra, a crisis made to feel bigger than the potential extinction being faced. Born of untreated pain and anger, it is the heaviest weighted character chain. Relieving that is key.

LESSON #2: UNFULFILLED PROMISES — To the general public, Clifford McBride is a legend with greatest attached to his name. He is the inspirational reason so many, including his own son, have entered the dream fulfillment of space exploration. But, to Roy, he’s the father that left him in his youth with a mountain of unanswered questions. The inquiry becomes whether Clifford’s hermetic quest was worth the broken bonds and repeated failures it caused.

LESSON #3: SHARED BURDENS — There’s a line in this film that ripples with multiple meanings. It’s the assertion of “we’re all we’ve got.” You can take that chestnut to mean several things, from the limits and scarcity of family to our entire civilization’s interdependence with this one precious planet we occupy. Piggybacking from Lesson #1 of what wears on men, that line becomes more of an omen than a rallying call. The tip-of-the-spear dreamers in Ad Astra need to be mindful of the necessary “we” for managing needs and challenges. The expansion of knowledge, glory, or fortunes without prepared conditioning or thought of consequence for the greater good does not work without some level of togetherness.

LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#824)

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1baddmouthcrown · 7 years

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1900 Booker T. Washington founds the National Negro Business League.

Washington publishes his first autobiography The Story of my life and work editor of the New York Age Timothy Thomas Fortune.

October Washington invited for dinner at the White House by President Theodore Rosevelt.

Du Bois attends the First Pan-African Conference in London drafts letter ”Address to the Nations of the World” to the European heads of states.

Seay becomes certificate as an educator teaches in Mayan village of Xcalak in Mexico.

1901 Garvey becomes apprentice to printer Alfred ‘Cap’ Burrowes in his native parish of Saint Ann.

W.E. B. DuBois with his wife Nina and daughter Yolande ca. 1901

Washington publishes his autobiography Up From Slavery.

Washington recieves honorary decorate from Dartmouth College.

1903 Du Bois publishes his 14 essay book The Souls of Black Folk.

1904 Garvey relocates from his native parish of Saint Ann 25 miles away to Alfred Borrows branch in Port Maria, Saint Mary.

1905 Garvey moves to Smith Village, Kingston at 13 Pink Lane in begins working for P. A. Benjamin and exceeds to the position of foreman.

Booker Washington and Theodore Roosevelt at Tuskegee Institute, 1905.

December Du Bois buys printing press and publishes Moon Illustrated Weekly.

1906 January 23 Washington giving a speech at Tuskegee Institute Silver Anniversary Lecture Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Du Bois and American Civil Rights activists meet in Canada write declaration opposing Washington's Atlanta Compromise and form the Niagara Movement.

August Second Niagara conference West Virginia Harpers Ferry John Brown raid.

September Atlanta riots 10 thousand whites, 25 deaths.

Du Bois publishes his “A Litany at Atlanta” essay.

1907 Hubert Harrison begins working at the United States Post Office.

Garvey elected vice president of the compositors branch of the Kingston Typographical Union.

Du Bois publishes The Horizon: A Journal of the Color Line.

Philadelphia Quaker Anna T Jeanes donates one milion dollars to Booker T washington.

1908 November 28 Garvey participates in Jamaica Print worker strike.

18 March Garveys Mother Sarah Richards passes away at age 56.

1909 Washington tours southern Virginia and West Virginia.

May Du Bois attends the First National Negro Conference in New York where National Negro Committee is created chaired by Oswald Villard.

Orientalist Dr. Carl Bezold publishes his edition of the Book of the Glory of Kingswith a German translation.

1910 Du Bois attends the Second National Negro Conference Committee where they create the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Du Bois becomes Director of Publicity and Research for editor of its monthly magazine the Crisis.

Harrison writes two letters to the New York Sun critical of Booker T Washington which cost him his job at the United States Post Office.

Garvey travels to Costa Rica where he is employed as a time keeper on a Banana plantation.

20 April Garvey elected first assistant secretary of the National Club and Wilfred Domingo Apprentice Tailor, second assistant secretary. Fortnightly journal Our Own. Garvey and Domingo The Struggling Mass pamphlet.

Garvey enrolls for elocution lessons with Jamaican Dr. Robert J Love monument George William Gordon.

Garvey publishes three issues of his Watchman journal namd after George William Gordon’s journal the Watchman.

November Du Bois publishes the first issue of The Crisis.

1911 Harrison begins work at Socialist Party of America becoming Americas leading black socialist.

Du Bois attends First Universal Race Congress in London, publishes his Quest of the Silver Fleece novel and joins the Socialist Party of America.

Garvey becomes editor of daily newspaper La Nacionale in Costa Rica and later travels to Colon, Panama.

July 26 Universal Races Congress among its attendees Harry Johnston of the Royal Geographical Society, Sir Sydney Olivier Governor of Jamaica.

April 25, 1911 - The Nation (edited by Marcus Garvey) Cover Page.

July 26 Universal Races Congress among its attendees Harry Johnston of the Royal Geographical Society, Sir Sydney Olivier Governor of Jamaica.

1912 Julius Rosenwald begins serving on the board of directors of Tuskegee Institute.

February 7 Blyden passes in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Harrison campaigns for Industrial Workers of the World founder Eugene V. Debs, presidential candidate, writes the Negro and Socialism for the socialist newspaper the New York Call as well as the socialist monthly the International Socialist Review, also founds the Colored Socialist Club and speaks at Broad and Wall Street in front of the New York stock exchange on socialism.

Garvey sails to London where he attends evening classes at Birkbeck College.

August Garveys sister, Indiana, joins him in London.

Du Bois supports the Democrat Woodrow Wilson in presidential campaign forcing him to resign from Socialist Party of America.

Julius Rosenwald begins serving on the board of directors of Tuskegee Institute.

1913 Garvey begins working for Dusé Mohamed Ali at the African Times and Orient Review office at 158 Fleet Street as messenger and handyman, in October issue writes The British West Indies in the Mirror of Civilization essay. Dusé Mohamed Ali was also later to become the foreign secretary for Garveys Universal Negro Improvement Association.

Garvey travels to Scotland.

Garvey granted month long readers pass to the British Museum library, where he reads Edward Wilmot Blyden’s Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race as well as Booker T Washington’s autobiography Up from Slavery.

Claude Mckay attends Tuskegee Institute.

W.E.B. DuBois and members of the New York State Commission on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1913.

Organizers of the 1913 Silk Strike in Paterson, New Jersey. Front row, from left: Hubert Harrison, members of the Industrial Workers of the World Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, and “Big Bill” Haywood. Back row: unknown, Patrick L. Quinlan, unknown, and unknown. Photographer unknown. Courtesy the American Labor Museum, Haledon, New Jersey, and Jeffrey B. Perry.

Six new small schools in rural Alabama funded by Rosenwald built and opened.

1914 Crisis magazine article 2,732 lynchings from 1884 to 1914.

Marcus Garvey founds the Universal Negro Improvement Association at 12 Orange Street, Kingston.

August Garvey meets Amy Ashwood at the Queen Street Baptist Literary and Debating Society U.N.I.A. moved to 20 Orange Street, Kingston.

October Tsar Nicholas II October manifesto freedom of speech and suffrage.

The Russian army invade Germany.

Alfred Charles Sam Akyem Abuakwa Gold coast Texas, Oklahoma.

1915 Harrison publishes The Black Man’s Burden Rudyard Kipling.

Du Bois publishes The Negro and “The African Roots of the War” essay, Atlantic Monthly and fights with the NAACP to band The Birth of a Nation film, the Crisis magazine also publishes article 2,732 lynchings from 1884 to 1914.

135th Street Lenox Avenue Harlem speakers corner.

Tsar Nicholas assumes Commander in Chief.

1916 Crisis magazine April issue lynching of six in Lee County, Georgia and June issue “ Waco Horror” article lynching of mentally impaired 17 year old Jesse Washington in Waco, Texas.

March Garvey departs from Jamaica to New York on the SS Tallac.

April 25th Garvey heads to the NAACP offices at 25 695th Avenue in search of Du Bois.

May 9, Garvey holds his first public lecture in New York City at St Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery where he becomes overwhelmed whilst speaking and falls off the stage.

The Star of Ethiopia a pageant of the history of black people from 50,000 B.C to 20th century wrote, produced, and directed by WEB Du Bois.

Lucien B. Watkins poem The Star of Ethiopia.

December Grigori Rasputin murdered by Prince Yusopor.

1917 Garvey and thirteen others the Harlem, New York branch of the UNIA,

Asa Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen also found the Messenger monthly magazine, earlier the same year A Philip Randoph had stepped down from his stepladder in Harlem to let Garvey speak.

March Tsar Nicholas II resigns.

April Vladimir Lenin returns to Russia from exile in Switzerland flee to Finland.

Harrison founds the Liberty League and Voice newspaper.

12 June Harrison and Marcus Garvey speak at Harrisons Liberty League of Negro Americans meeting at the Bethal African Methodist Espicopal church.

July 1 East Saint Louis riots, white drive by and fire shots, journalist and two police men drive by Blacks open fire on car killing one officer, thousand of whites begin rioting. women, blacks lynched Congressional Investigating Committee reports 39 blacks, 9 whites dead although thought to be more like hundreds, 6 thousand Blacks left homeless after their neighbourhood burned.

July 8 Garvey at Lafayette Hall speaks on the East Saint Louis riot The conspiracy of the East St. Louis Mayor Mollman migration riots printed pamphlets.

July 28 Du Bois and NAACP organise and lead a “Silent March” of 10,000 black New Yorkers down Fifth Avenue to protest the East St. Louis race riot, Du Bois also travelled to St. Louis to report on the riots and publishes the article "The Massacre of East St. Louis" in September.

October 16 Lenin returns to Russia.

October 24th/25th Bolshevik Provisional Government Petrograd Soviet.

1918 Garvey on his birthday founds the Negro World weekly newspaper.

Garvey holds UNIA meetings at Palace Casino Theater 135th Street Madison Avenue.

Harrison works with the American Federation of Labor and serves as chairman for the Negro American Liberty Congress co-headed by Monroe Trotter, the AFL also submits petition to the U. S. Congress for federal anti-lynching legislation.

According to the Hymn From Greenlands Icy Mountains had been adopted by the UNIA and sung at this meeting it is also used by the RasTafarite Ethiopia Black International Congress.

August 4 Randolph and Owen in Cleveland at Social Party leader Walter Bronstrups meeting arrested by Department of Justice official to be trailed on the charge of violating the Espionage Act.

“unlawfully, knowingly and feloniously, the United States being then and there at war with the Imperial German Government, willfully print and cause to be printed, publish and cause to be published, circulated, in a certain language intended to incite, provoke and incur resistance to the United States and to promote the cause of its enemies in a certain publication known as the Messenger.”

6 October 1918 Amy Ashwood arrives from Panama.

According to the Hymn From Greenlands Icy Mountains had been adopted by the UNIA and sung at this meeting it is also used by the Ras Tafarite Ethiopia Black International Congress.

1919 January 18 the year long Versailles Peace Conference is held in Paris France. Treaty of Versallies Germanys possessions Hiltler re militarization June 28 and creation of the League of Nations.

WEB Du Bois with the help of Senegalese deputy to the National French Assembly Blaise Diagne organized the First Pan African Congress to be held in Paris.

The 20 year old Haitian Elizier Cadet elected as a delegate, interpreter, main negotiator and later high commissioner to the Conference, presents the resolutions of the UNIA that Germanys confiscated colonies be governed by Negroes educated in America and Europe, to the President the French PM Georges Clemenceau, Cadet also camped outside the offices of the Parisian newspapers of the Liberal La Matin editor, as well as the editors of La Presse and L’Instansigeant newspapers who promised to publish the articles.

Ida B. Wells and Randolph were also elected as delegates but were unable to obtain passports and visas.

German East Africa Tanganika designated to Britain, South West Namibia Cameroon, and Togo to France and Britain, Urundi Burundi to Belgium and Namibia South Africa

January 21 Seattle Shipyard Strike 35, 000 workers go on strike. Unions in Seattles shipbuilding industry demand pay increase for unskilled workers, the yard owners offer to give a pay increase to skilled workers, the union reject the offer and go on strike.

February 23 Third Irish Race Convention Philadelphia.

Soldiers of the 369th (15th N.Y.), awarded the Croix de Guerre for gallantry in action, 1919. Left to right. Front row: Pvt. Ed Williams, Herbert Taylor, Pvt. Leon Fraitor, Pvt. Ralph Hawkins. Back Row: Sgt. H. D. Prinas, Sgt. Dan Storms, Pvt. Joe Williams, Pvt. Alfred Hanley, and Cpl. T. W. Taylor.

Pvt. Henry Johnson nicknamed “Black Death”.

Pvt. Needham Roberts.

Johnson who using his broken rifle as a club and Roberts with a 9 inch bolo knife defeat a 24 German in France awarded.

$10, 000 $35, 000 steam paddle ship SS Shadyside SS Kanawha.

The UNIA property located at 114 West 138th Street, New York City which had previously been the Metropolitan Baptist Tabernacle and which would now become the first of many of the UNIAS Liberty Halls.

The Black Star steamshipping line was also established.

Garvey and the UNIA investigated by the FBI then the BOI. Major Walter Howard Loving Negro World Probable Bolshevik Propaganda.

Bolshevik meaning majority, referring to the Marxist majority of the Russian Social Democratic Party of which Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky came into power in October 1917 and the influence of its socialist, communist and Soviet regime.

Supported by German or Bolshevik money.

February 4 U.S. Senate votes to Overman Judiciary Subcommittee for more investigation of German spies and Bolshevik propaganda. committee month hearing February 11.

February 6 to 11 Seattle, Washington General Strike. Head of Emergency Fleet Corporation sends telegram mistakenly to Metal Trades Council rather than Metal Trades Association withdraw contracts of any given wage increase, the workers appeal to Seattle Central Labor Council for the strike.

General Strike Committee formed to provide essential services throughout the city during the strike, Army Veterans form Labor War Veterans Guard to ensure order throughout the city although.

“Russia Did It” pamphlet overthrow.

Mayor Hanson police and military order federal troops, stations 950 sailors and marines February 7. 600 hires men to the police force hires 2, 400 deputies.

February 8 The executive committee of the General Strike Committee by AFL and international labor organizations to end the strike at midnight but voted against by the General Strike Committee.

February 9 Mayor Hanson “sympathetic strike was called in the exact manner as was the revolution in Petrograd”.

February 10 The General Strike Committee vote to end the strike the next day.

39 Industrial Workers of the World members arrested ringleaders anarchy.

April bombs mailed to Government officials, businessmen such as John D Rockefeller, Mayor of Seattle Ole Hanson receives mailed packaged bomb opened at the wrong end by member of his office staff William Langer, who then takes the bomb to the police and notifies Post Office.

Police officers turn up at the UNIA headquarters with a search warrant after an anonymous tip of that from the office of the Negro World. At Garveys Carnegie Hall meeting agents of the Lusk Committee also turn up with a bomb squad.

J Edgar hoover begins to hold suspicions of the Harlem offices of the Negro World and the Messenger being the Russian organ of Bolshevism in New York. Garvey papers II page 674. 642 of the Russian organ of Bolshevik from one memo J Edgar Hoover special assistant to Attorney General to Frank Burke Washington D.C. August 12 1919 Garvey papers I page 480.

May Day Boston Police attempt to stop unpermitted march, fight for socialist Soviet Union Red Flags, one policeman fatally stabbed, socialist HQ attacked by mob, 114 arrested.

At the Russian Peoples House social club, soldiers burn printed material and force emigrants to sing Star Spangled Banner.

Cleveland, Ohio protesting the imprisonment of Eugene V. Debs and promoting the campaign of Charles Ruthenberg the socialist candidate for Mayor plan march.

Nationalist group Victory Loanworkers try to block marchers, Ruthenbergs HQ attacked by mob, police mount with trucks and tanks, tank driven into crowd, two dead, 40 injured, 116 arrested.

June 2 Bombs judges sentenced anarchist to prison, Attorney A. Mitchell Palmer targeted for the second time, Carlo William Valdinoa editor of Galleanist publication Cronaca Sovversiva Luigi Galleani, delivers the bomb, trips up, the bomb detonates leaving his body parts on Palmers lawn.

Flyer traced to anarchists Andrea Salsedo, who commits suicide and Robert Elia.

June Attorney A. Mitchell Palmer Carlo William Valdinoa Galleanist trips up bomb detonating body parts lawn.

Senator Lusk chairman of committee anarchy socialists troops office of Industrial Workers of the World and Rand school for racial propaganda Socialism Imperilled, or the Negro a Potential menace to American radicalism article by Wilfred Domingo editor of the Negro World who worked with Garvey in 1910 at the National Club.

Flyer traced to anarchists Andrea Salsedo, who commits suicide and Robert Elia.

July 28 Garvey charged with criminal libel against Richard Warner, Edgar Grey and the District Attorney Kilroe, Garvey incarcerated in Tombs prison and bailed for $3,000.

A Red Summer.

The Red Summer racial riots were a series of riots 38 which occurred between May and October 1919.

December Crisis issue Omaha, Nebraska.

Will Brown, Victim of Omaha, Nebraska violence.

Mary Turner.

May 10 Charleston, South Carolina

May 10 Sylvester, Georgia May 29 Putnam County, Georgia May 31 Monticello, Mississippi June 13 New London, Connecticut June 13 Memphis, Tennessee June 27 Annapolis, Maryland June 27 Macon, Mississippi July 3 Bisbee, Arizona July 5 Scranton, Pennsylvania July 6 Dublin, Georgia July 7 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania July 8 Coatesville, Pennsylvania July 9 Tuscaloosa, Alabama July 10 Longview, Texas July 11 Baltimore, Maryland July 15 Port Arthur, Texas

July 19 Washington, D.C. July 21 Norfolk, Virginia July 23 New Orleans, Louisiana July 23 Darby, Pennsylvania July 26 Hobson City, Alabama July 27 Chicago, Illinois July 28 Newberry, South Carolina July 31 Bloomington, Illinois July 31 Syracuse, New York July 31 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania August 4 Hattiesburg, Mississippi August 6 Texarkana, Texas August 21 New York City, New York August 30 Knoxville, Tennessee September 28 Omaha, Nebraska October 1 Elaine, Arkansas

Elaine, Arkansas, arrested and tried for conspiracy in the Moore v. Dempsey case.

28 July Garvey charged with criminal libel against Richard Warner, Edgar Grey and the District Attorney Kilroe, Garvey incarcerated in Tombs prison and bailed for $3,000.

28th September Garvey, Reverend Eason, Amy Ashwood and Henrietta Davis Illinois south for meetings at the 8th Regiment Armoury the home of the all Negro infantry Garvey was arrested by detective George Friend of the Chicago Constabulary on violation of the Blue Sky Law turned out to be a private detective from Keystone Detective Agency who was hired by Robert Abbott editor of the Chicago Defender and taken to Harrison police station.

September Henrietta Vinton Davis that there were 7, 500 members in New York alone and branches in 25 states of Union.

11 October memorandum from J Edgar Hoover to special agent Ridgely.

October 1 Elaine, Arkansas 200 African Americans murdered, arrested and tried for conspiracy in the Moore v. Dempsey case.

11 October memorandum from J Edgar Hoover to special agent Ridgely.

14 October Garvey shot by George Tyler, grazed on his temple and caught in the leg. Tyler commits suicide the next day, Tyler was also the only witness for the criminal libel charge against Garvey.

October Garvey speaks at Philadelphia Peoples Church again.

The Negro World seized in British Guiana and Honduras, according to the Saint Vincent Gazette October 1919 anyone bringing the paper into the colony to serve six months prison sentence, possibly with hard labor.

November Second anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution BOI agents police raid Union of Russian Workers in 12 cities.

Garveys name put forward to Louis F. Post at the Labour Department for deportation on unsubstantiated grounds.

December Du Bois in the Crisis covers lynching in Omana, Nebraska.

December Guianse Edward Green Smith founding member, Secretary UNIA and accountant who previously worked at the ammunition factory in Trenton, New Jersey shot during robbery, pregnant wife dies from shock BSL principal negotiator.

December 25 Garvey marries Amy Ashwood two week honeymoon in Canada Toronto and Montreal.

Garveys name put forward to Louis F. Post at the Labour Department for deportation on unsubstantiated grounds.

December 1919 Guianse Edward Green Smith founding member, Secretary UNIA and accountant who previously working at the ammunition factory in Trenton, New Jersey employment shot during robbery pregnant wife dies from shock BSL principal negotiator.

The Belize branch of the Universal African Black Cross Nurses established in 1920 by Vivian Seay.

Seay survey infant and maternal recruits nurse trainees.

Garvey and Green without Cockburn charter the SS Frederick Douglas at the rate of $11, 000 as opposed to $100, 000 with repairs amounting to $11, 000 and fail to include limited indemnity clause in contract with Green River Distillery making them liable damages to whisky company prohibition deadline 16th January confiscated.

Cockburn receives $2,000 commission from Green River Distillery to load the and sail the ship.

1920 January 15 Frederick Douglas sails from the U. S. to Havana, Cuba with 20, 000 cases of whiskey, 500 cases of champagne and 350 barrels of wine 500 cases of whisky, caught in storm off the coast of Cape May, the cargo shifts in its Hull making its starboard list heavy, tossed aboard in order to prevent it from capsizing and has to be towed back to New York .

neglect to making docking arrangements cargo cant be unloaded because of the shoremans strike, left to face penalty of thousands every day for 32 days.

Chief Officer Hugh Mulzac and UNIA delgation meet arrive at Havana, Cuba meet President Menocal and are given banquet at his palace.

The SS Frederick Douglass at Colon Panama carries 500 Caribbean laborers to Cuba.

The SS Frederick Douglass makes a ceremonial stop at Bocas del Toro in Costa Rica.

In Kingston, Jamaica the SS Frederick Douglass cargo of 700 tons of coconuts which rot on detour to Boston.

Du Bois publishes the first of his three autobiographies Darkwater: Voices From Within the Veil containing his “The Damnation of Women” essay as well as The Brownies Book, a monthly children’s magazine co founded by Augustus Granvil Dill and Jesse RedmonFauset.

1920 Du Bois publishes the first of his three autobiographies Darkwater: Voices From Within the Veil containing his "The Damnation of Women" essay as well as The Brownies Book, a monthly children's magazine.

January Harrison becomes editor of the Negro World and also contributes to the Declaration of Rights of Negro People’s of the World.

August the first UNIA Convention was held for the whole duration of the month of August in Madison Square Gardens, New York City. It was at this convention that the Bill of Rights the Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World was drafted and adopted. https://tmblr.co/Z9elId2ORVqcw

It was at this event where he was duly elected Provisional President of Africa at the convention Garvey reportedly read two telegrams one from Irish Republic leader Eamon de Valera Provisional President of Ireland and the other from Zionist in Califonia Louis Michael.

Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir? Amos 9:7

10. We protest against segregated districts, separate public conveyances, industrial discrimination, lynchings and limitations of political privileges of any Negro citizen in any part of the world on account of race, color or creed, and will exert our full influence and power against all such.

12. Against all such inhuman, unchristian and uncivilized treatment we here and now emphatically protest, and invoke the condemnation of all mankind.

17. Whereas the lynching, by burning, hanging or any other means, of human beings is a barbarous practice and a shame and disgrace to civilization, we therefore declare any country guilty of such atrocities outside the pale of civilization.

24. We believe in the doctrine of the freedom of the press, and we therefore emphatically protest against the suppression of Negro newspapers and periodicals in various parts of the world, and call upon Negroes everywhere to employ all available means to prevent such suppression.

25. We further demand free speech universally for all men.

33. We vigorously protest against the increasingly unfair and unjust treatment accorded Negro travelers on land and sea by the agents and employee of railroad and steamship companies, and insist that for equal fare we receive equal privileges with travelers of other races.

35. That the right of the Negro to travel unmolested throughout the world be not abridged by any person or persons, and all Negroes are called upon to give aid to a fellow Negro when thus molested.

39. That the colors, Red, Black and Green, be the colors of the Negro race.

40. Resolved, That the anthem “Ethiopia, Thou Land of Our Fathers etc.,” shall be the anthem of the Negro race… adopted by the RasTafarites Universal Ethiopian Anthem.

Signatories of the Declarations of the Rights of Negro Peoples of the World capture the moment during the 1st International Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World.

Negro World editor William Ferris spots WEB Du Bois at the convention.

18 January Negro World SS Kanawah Antonio Maceo to sail for Bermuda, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Panama. Sir Willocks governor general British Secretary of State for the Colonies Winston Churchill prohibit landing.

Advert Negro World Architects and Contracting Builders to sail to Liberia between January 25 February 20.

1921 Haitian Elie Garcia auditor general produce two reports on Liberia.

Son of Liberian President Hilary Johnson, Mayor of the Liberian capital, Monrovia, Gabriel Johnson, UNIA Potentate Leader of the Negro Peoples of the World along with George O Marke, Supreme Deputy Potentate in charge of the Sierra Leone division of the UNIA and accountant and stenographer, Resident Commissar Cyril A Crichlow sent to acquire land and property in Liberia 30 40 miles away from Monrovia farm owned by local Mrs.Moort however land quality.

Johnson previously a Brigader, his brother Attorney General, first cousin was also married to the later President D. B. King.

Edwin Barclay Liberia Secretary of Sate French and British bordering colonies of Sierra Leon and Ivory Coast.

February Garvey tours the West Indies and Central America also with the initiative of raising funds.

Hoover alerts immigration in Florida so that the Labour Department ports refuse his reentry however Hoover could not provide them with grounds.

28th February Garvey Amy Jacques and her younger brother Cleveland take the train to Key West where they board the USS Governor Cobb to Havana, Cuba.

7 March Liberia President Charles D. B. King arrives on the USS Panhandle in New York harbor, UNIA delegation meet hom at Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

Charles Latham American consul in Jamaica instructed to refuse Garvey a visa to Panama as well as a reentry visa into America.

Costa Rica 10, 000 people to see Garvey at Limon according to United Fruit company manger G. P. Chittenden one meeting two scrap baskets and one suitcase full of United States gold notes were collected and at another he stood beside a pile of gold notes which reached above his knees possibly as much as $50, 000.

Garvey introduced to President Julio Acosta in the capital.

Garvey granted visa by Panama visits the cities of Bocas Del Toro and Almirante in Panama although the response he received was not so much of an enthusiastic one but more.

Garvey travels to the city of Colon by submarine where he is greeting by the biggest crowd he has ever seen, they brake the windows of his train carriage and carry him out into a car but there are so many people on top of the car that the tyres puncture and the car has to be pushed.

May 31 June 1 Tulsa, Oklahoma riot Dick Rowland assault elevator in Drexel building, mob jail shots, Greenwood little Africa.

May June Tulsa, Oklahoma riot Dick Rowland assault elevator Drexel building mob jail shots Greenwood little Africa.

25th May the ship the SS Kanawah/Antonio Maceo, sets sail for Panama. boilers three days Kingston.

Garvey denied reentry visa generals voted counsellor general William Matthews sent to Washington to lobby the state department. staff visa control. Garvey advised by lawyer for the American consul to send a cable to state department requesting a visa in which event the visa was granted.

At the annual convention in August 1921 literary editor William Ferris and journalist John E Bruce knighted with order of the Nile, George Tobias with the order of Ethiopia and Henrietta Vinton Davis with Lady Commander of the Sublime order of the Nile.

Marcus Garvey quoted Psalm 68:31 on numerous occasions including in his Christmas message to the Negro Peoples of the World December 1921 as well as in his Emancipation day speech made at Liberty Hall New York city on 1 January 1922. https://tmblr.co/Z9elId2OPQ-fq

1922 January Garvey arrested for mail fraud but bailed for $2, 500, Garvey was brought to charge with mail fraud on the basis that the BSL had advertised the ship the Orion as SS Phyllis Wheatley which they did not yet actually own but were still in the process of negotiation for, Thompson, Garcia and George Tobias were also investigated, however, only Garvey was prosecuted.

May 22 UNIA Commissioner Robert Moseley invited to speak at Baptist church’s, arrested and fined for vagrancy in Jacksonville, Texas and separately also taken to the woods and horsewhipped.

Garvey Los Angeles local division and others parade Oakland California Frisco. Commander J.J. Hannigan San Francisco 400 new members.

May 27 Garvey marries Amy Jaques in Baltimore.

June 25 Garvey travels to Atlanta for a meeting with the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

Garvey meets with and is interviewed by Hutson on his first visit to Belize 5 July Huton sent transcript of the recorded interview to Secretary of the Colonies the British PM Winston Churchill.

July office Harlem building floor above UNIA Publishing and Printing House the Messenger editorial Chandler Owens and A Philip Randolph William Pickens and Detroit preacher Robert Bagnall Garvey Must Go campaign.

Garvey and Amy picture.

May 27 Garvey marries Amy Jaques in Baltimore.

June 25 Garvey travels to Atlanta for a meeting with the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

Garvey meets with and is interviewed by Hutson on his first visit to Belize 5 July Huton sent transcript of the recorded interview to Secretary of the Colonies the British PM Winston Churchill.

July office Harlem building floor above UNIA Publishing and Printing House the Messenger editorial Chandler Owens and A Philip Randolph William Pickens Detroit preacher Robert Bagnall.

The Messenger. 6.9 (August 1922). William Pickens NAACP Detroit preacher, Robert Bagnall Messenger.

August Trinidadian pilot Hubert Fauntleroy Julian dubbed the Black Eagle of Harlem by H. Allen Smith because of his parachute jumps, flys biplane over UNIA parade and becomes head of the organisation’s new Aeronautical Department.

September 5 Randolph at 2305 7th Avenue receives package calls the police bomb squad open package containing a severed human hand.

November 9th Esau Ramus Philadelphia branch UNIA janitor New Orleans William Phillips.

Reverend Eason Baptist Church, St John 1st Street, shot in the back and forehead, dies from wounds on January 1923. William Shakespeare and Fred Dyer charged with Easons murder. Claude McKay in Kremlin, Russia.

November Max Eastman Fourth Congress of the Communist International Petrograd.

Otto Huiswould and Claude McKay, two leading early members of the Communist International (Comintern). They both addressed the Comintern in Moscow in 1922.

Claude McKay with Arthur Holitscher and Clara Zetkin in Russia - December, 1923.

Claude McKay and International Group in Russia - December, 1923

McKay with Grigory Zinoviev and Nikolai Bukharin in 1923.

McKay also meets communist Leon Trotsky.

Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey by Amy Jaques Garvey 1923 Chapter 3 The Image of God

If the white man has the idea of a white God, let him worship his God as he desires. If the yellow man’s God is of his race let him worship his God as he sees fit. We, as Negroes, have found a new ideal. Whilst our God has no color, yet it is human to see everything through one’s own spectacles, and since the white people have seen their God through white spectacles, we have only now started out (late though it be) to see our God through our own spectacles. The God of Isaac and the God of Jacob let Him exist for the race that believes in the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. We Negroes believe in the God of Ethiopia, the everlasting God — God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, the One God of all ages. That is the God in whom we believe, but we shall worship Him through the spectacles of Ethiopia.

Ras Nasibu Emmanuel Oganden Hindenburg Wall Poem.

Edwin Barclay Liberias secretary of state French and British bordering colonies of Sierra Leone Ivory Coast disapproval.

Hilary Johnson clerk office Crichlow pulling weight 24 March sent cable ship $5, 000 steamer for sawmill.

1 December UNIA delegation departs for Liberia via Lisbon, Portugal on the Cunard vessel SS Britannia.

1923 December Mc Kay Arthur Holitscher and Clara Zetkin in Russia. International Group in Russia. Grigory Zinoviev and Nikolai Bukharin.

1924 11th February UNIA delegation meets with President 3, 000 immigrants land in three colonies Cavalla, Sino and Grand Bassa as well as in Cape Mount.

16 March Robert Poston fever lobar pneumonia dies on board SS President Grant.

April 19 send material artisan technicians carpenter builder and mechanical engineer.

Seay 24 trained nurses to Belize Town as volunteers parenting teaching, sanitation, midwifery services.

May 19 Du Bois with Professor Wendell Phillips Dabney finally comes face to face with Garvey for the first time at the elevator in Sheraton Hotel, Cincinnati.

11th February meet with President 3, 000 immigrants land in three colonies Cavalla, Sino and Grand Bassa as well as in Cape Mount.

23 June 1923 Garvey sentenced to five years in prison for mail fraud. Garvey spends three months in the Tombs Jail Manhattan detention center and would be bailed for the sum of $15, 000 which was raised in campaign by Amy Jacques by September.

Bishop Alexander Mc Guire the first black archdeacon of the Protestant Episcopal Church ‘We have reasons to believe that his enforced solitude has clarified his vision’ 'Moses came back to Israel with new Revelation’ 'Negro everywhere will be the beneficiaries of the new ideas he has gained during his vacation’.

16 March Robert Poston fever lobar pneumonia dies on board SS President Grant.

April 19 send material artisan technicians carpenter builder and mechanical engineer.

Seay Twenty four trained nurses.

May 19 Du Bois with Professor Wendell Phillips Dabney finally comes face to face with Garvey for the first time at the elevator in Sheraton Hotel, Cincinnati.

June 4 mining engineer Wallace Strange.

1924 July 4 UNIAS Hubert Fauntleroy Julian to make transatlantic flight from New York to Liberia via Atlantic city, New Jersey and the West Indies. Purchases seaplane christened Ethiopia I, crashes into Flushing Bay after one of the planes pontoons comes off.

Robinson diploma in auto mechanics, Tuskegee civilian pilot training program there Melaku Beyan Ethiopian Army shot in the arm and exposed to mustard gas.

10 July Liberia Consul General in US press release stated that anyone from the UNIA in the US would not be allowed to land in the republic of Liberia the Liberian Consuls in the US instructed not to permit them visas. Wallace Strange Monrovia arrested and deported equipment auctioned Chief Justice J. J. Dossen of Liberia President ports refuse entry. given preference to the Firestone Rubber Plantation Company 1 million acres of land 5 to 10 cents per acre.

The Most Honorable Marcus Garvey is accompanied in the rear seat of his shiny 1920 Pierce Arrow Limousine by the Rev. R Van Richards at the 4th International Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World Opening Parade in Harlem, NY. His Secret Service (aka Knights of the Roundtable) ran alongside the President-General’s parade vehicle. Although its not visible in this photo, Mr. Garvey is also flanked in the rear by a banner reading Parent Body Division. (Negro World August 16, 1924, p.10)

Uniformed Universal African Motor Corp marching up 7th Ave in Harlem, NY during the opening parade of the UNIA sponsored 4th International Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World in 1924.

Universal Motorcorp In Parade - 1924

Executive Council Reviews Parade From Observation Deck and Universal African Royal Guard Parade Drill in Harlem, NY.

Contingent of the Detroit Division #125 in the opening day parade of the 1924 International Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World, hosted by the UNIA in Harlem, NY. USA. President Joseph A Craigen is seen leading the march with his Red, Black and Green Flag draped over his shoulder.

Dinner Scene at the Third Royal Court Reception of the UNIA at Liberty Hall, NY (Negro World August 30,1924, p.10)

Marucs Garvey in 1924 by James VanDerZee.

Marcus Garvey (right) with George O. Marke (left) and Prince Kojo Tovalu-Houenou. 1924. James VanDerZee (American, 1886-1983). Te Dahomean protonationalist Kojo Tovalou-Houénou declared at the same convention that “your association, Mr. President … is the Zionism of the Black Race.”^ Les Continents, 15 October 1924.

Big Negro Excursion [January 3, 1925, advertisement in the Negro World announcing the sailing of the S.S. Booker T. Washington to Central America, the West Indies, Panama, and the South of the United States.

Amy Jacques Garvey, Henrietta Vinton Davis and Marcus Garvey during the renaming of the ship from the 'General G.W. Goethals’ to the S.S Booker Washington.

Marcus Garvey (center), President General of the African Republic, leaves court handcuffed to a deputy, Marshal Hecht, at left being taken into custody to begin serving his sentence at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary on 8 February 1925.

African Fundamentalism

From the editorial by Marcus Garvey orinted in the Negro World, 6 June 1925, as a front-page editorial; written in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. Original headlines omitted. Creed reprinted in slightly revised form, under the title “African Fundamentalism,” as a UNIA poster, sold by mail order through the Negro World by Amy Jacques Garvey, 1925.

Fellow Men of the Negro Race, Greeting:

The time has come for the Negro to forget and cast behind him his hero worship and adoration of other races, and to start out immediately, to create and emulate heroes of his own.

We must canonize our own saints, create our own martyrs, and elevate to positions of fame and honor black men and women who have made their distinct contributions to our racial history. Sojourner Truth is worthy of the place of sainthood alongside of Joan of Arc; Crispus Attucks and George William Gordon are entitled to the halo of martyrdom with no less glory than that of the martyrs of any other race. Toussaint L'Ouverture’s brilliancy as a soldier and statesman outshone that of a Cromwell, Napoleon and Washington; hence, he is entitled to the highest place as a hero among men. Africa has produced countless numbers of men and women, in war and in peace, whose lustre and bravery outshine that of any other people. Then why not see good and perfection in ourselves?

Marcus Garvey at Atlanta Federal Prison in December 1926.

Garvey was released in November 1927 and boarded in New Orleans to be deported to Jamaica where he arrived at Orrett’s Wharf in Kingston.

1928 October 7 Ras Tafari Makonnen Crown Prince and Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia is crowned Negus (King) Empress Zawditu daughter of Emperor Menelik II seated to his left.

Julian at the Emperor Haile Selassie’s pre coronation show, parachutes landing in front of the Emperor, the Emperor grants him citizenship, the rank of colonel as well as the highest honour in Ethiopia, the order of Menelik.

Julian at the Emperors coronation dress rehearsal crashes the Emperors personal plane de Havilland Gipsy Moth into a Eucalyptus tree, the plane was given to the Emperor as a gift from Selfridge’s department store in London.

18th August 1930 performance of Garveys play Coronation of an African King, King Cudjoe of Sudan.

These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. Revelation 17:14

And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it iscalled Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war.

His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.

And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.

November 2 Negus Tafari coronation as Emperor Haile Selassie Time weekly magazine. National Geographic Magazine monthly Volume LIX Number 6 1931 June.

1932 E.A. Wallace Budge publishes his second edition of the Ethiopic Book of the Glory of Kings.

1933 Leonard Percival Howell began to preach about the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie in the parish of Saint Thomas at largely attended meetings accused of ‘Blantant swindle selling pictures at 1s per piece to boost the sale of King RasTafari of Abyssinia son of King Solomon by the Queen of Sheba. Howell held meetings in Trinity Ville and Seaforth of 300 and in 1934 was trailed and sentence for two years sedition and even blasphemy and Robert Hinds ‘his disciple’ led astray by evil doctrine sentenced to one year at the Saint Thomas Circuit Court in Morant Bay by Chief Justice Robert Lyall Grant.

Du Bois resigns at The Crisis to work at Atlanta University.

Meanwhile the second ItaloEthiopia war began over the Italo Ethiopia Treaty of 1928 similarly to the first ItaloEthiopia war in 1895.

The Italians built a military post on within the border of Ethiopia in 1930 which caused the WalWal incident in 1934.

The members of the League of Nations especially France and Britain failed to comply with Article X of the covenant and did not act to assist Ethiopia under Italian aggression, they wanted Italy as an ally against Germany, it was Italys plan to make Ethiopia an East African colony along with Eritrea and Italian Somalian.

1935 January Pierre Laval and Benito Mussolini sign the Franco Italian agreement which gave Italy a part of bordering French Somliland (now Djibouti) as part of Eritrea as well as the Aouzou strip in French Chad in Italian Libya.

Du Bois publishes his Black Reconstruction in America.

During the Ethiopian Crisis people from all other the world rallied support for the Emperor including The International African Friends of Ethiopia among whos members included Amy Ashwood Garvey, Jomo Kenyatta, C. L. R. James and George Padmore.

July

August

The Honorable Amy Ashwood Garvey speaks before a London crowd at Trafalgar Square, denouncing the Italian invasion of Ethiopia.“No race has been so noble in forgiving, but now the hour has struck for our complete emancipation. We will not tolerate the invasion of Abyssinia.“ Mrs. Garvey said: "In this struggle, the black women are marching beside the men. You white people brought us out of Africa to Christianize us and civilize us, but all the Christianity and civilization you gave us for 320 years was slavery. You have talked of ‘The White Man’s burden.’ Now we are carrying yours and standing between you and Fascism.” She warned the British Government that if this became a struggle between the “Blacks” and the “Whites” that three quarters of the people of the Empire are colored. Jamaica Gleaner, September 11, 1935.

August 12 Ethiopia also pleads for the embargo to be lifted.

October 5 Italian I Corps take Adigrat.

October 6 Italian II take Adwa.

October 15 General Emilio De Bono forces advance from Adwa occupy Axum Bono loots Obelisk.

October Saint Lucia Clarkes Theatre International Friends of Ethiopia Foreign Enlistment Act.

November The League of Nations places sanctions.

December Samuel Hoare Pierre Laval Pact was secretly agreed to sign OgadenTigray and Southern parts of Ethiopia away to Mussolini when this was found out they were forced to resign.

December 30 Red Cross unit at Dolo bombed, Egyptian ambulance at Bulall attacked, Egyptian medical unit at Daggah Bur.

1936 January 12 to 16 Battle of Genale Doria.

January 20 to 24 First Battle of Tembien Ras Kassa Phosgene gas makale.

February 10 to 19 Battle of Amba Bradam Ras Mulugeta.

February 27 to 29 Second Battle of Tembien Ras Kassa and Ras Seyoum.

March Red Cross camp Quoram.

Hitler militarisation of Rhineland.

March Battle of Shire Ras Imru. 969 Italian

March 22 Regia Aeronautica bomb Harar.

March 26 March of Iron Will Dessie to Addis Ababa.

March 31 Battle of May Chew.

Stresa Front.

April 4 mustard gas Lake Ashangi Regia Aeronautica.

April 14 Graziani Ras Nasibu Emmanuel Battle of Ogaden.

May His Imperial Majesty boards the train from Addis Ababa to Djibouti, with the gold of the Ethiopian Central Bank. According to Barker, A. J. (1971). Rape of Ethiopia, 1936. New York: Ballantine Books, Graziani suggested to Mussolini that he have the train bombed which however he didn’t see fit to do so.

The Emperor and hunting party in Ethiopia before the Italian invasion drove him into exile. It was taken on the Addis Ababa to Djibouti railway line in the early 1930s just after he’d been officially crowned as Emperor.

May 4 H.I.M. sails from Djibouti in the British cruiser HMS Enterprise.

May 5 Addis Ababa taken.

May 8 arrives at Haifa.

from Mandatory Palestine sails to Gibraltar on the way to Britain.

May 5 after the fall of Addis Ababa the sanctions are dropped.

Benito Mussolini also used poison gas and mustard gas which were exposed by International Red Cross.

June 30 The Emperor himself addresses the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.

Howell marries Teneth Bent.

Du bois visits Nazi Germany, China and Japan.

July 4 The League of Nations votes to lift sanctions imposed against Italy.

July 15 Sanctions lifted.

Mussolini and Hilter become allies during the Spanish Civil War, Mussolini declares war on Britain and France attacks British in Egypt Sudan, Kenya, British Somaliland.

1937 the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and the pullman company enter contract together.

Marcus Garvey (seated in dark suit with fan) and the Port of Spain Trinidad City Council, 1937. Mayor Alfred Richards is to Mr. Garvey’s right.

Tubal Uriah Buzz Butler strike policeman set alight and died colleagues riots. George Padmore International African Service Bureau C. L. R. James author of The Black Jacobins

1938 January strike for higher wages at Serge Island in the parish of Saint Thomas 1, 400 workers, armed 24 injured, 60 arrested.

April 29 Westmoreland strike 4 killed, 13 injured and 105 arrested.

May 23 Kingston strike.

Howell sent to Bellevue Asylum.

1939 April Howell founds the Ethiopian Salvation Society and purchases 485 acres in the hills of Saint Catherine, 5 miles on the road to Sligoville, the free community founded by English Reverend Baptist Minister James Mursell Phillippo in 1843, named after the 2nd Marquess of Sligo, Governor of Jamaica, Saint Catherine also being the parish with the most number of active sugar plantations at the time Howell established this settlement which became to be known as Pinnacle.

1941 July 14 Pinnacle raided for first time 72 arrested.

Randolph Madison Square Gardens.

July 24 Howell arrested sentenced to 2 years released 1943 April.

December 23 Howells Wife Teneth Bent Howell dies, Howell accused of murdering her and arrested but is acquitted 1944 April 6.

1948 Ganja Dangerous Drugs Act began to be used against Rastafarite.

1948 January 8 Howell 6 months in prison.

1950 Randolph, Roy Wilkins, Executive Secretary of the NAACP, and, Arnold Aronson, of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council found the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR).

1951 January 18 Howell sentenced to 2 year in prison for Ganja.

1954 April Howell arrested for illegal practice of medicine. May two of Howells adolescent sons arrested under false pretense. May 27 biggest Ganja raid as of that time £3, 000 seized.

1957 Randolph Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom with Martin Luther King Jr.

1958 Pinnacle burnt by Police members disburse.

Randolph Youth Marches for Integrated Schools in Washington, DC.

1960 Howell arrested for Ganja Tredegar Park and sent to Bellevue.

1961 21 April Bob Marleys teacher Nyahbinghi elder Mortimer Planno visits Ethiopia meets His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie, April 26 visits Nigeria meets NnamdiAzikiwe, May 10 visits Ghana meets Kwame Nkrumah, May 16 visits Liberia and May 21 visit Sierra Leone meets I.T.A. Wallace.

12th April 1963 Bad Friday Coral Gardens Massacre.

May 25th the Organisation of African Unity was formed with the Emperor Haile Selassie as its chairman and its headquarters in Ethiopias capital Addis Ababa.

1966 April 22nd Groundation day Haile Selassie Jamaica visit H.I.M. with Mortimer Planno.

December 22, 1967 Kampala, Uganda- The heads of state and the leaders of governments of East and Central Africa are pictured prior to the opening of their summit conference. Standing in the front row are (L-R): Mr.Kayibanda, President of Rwanda; Mr. Jean B. Bokassa, President of the Central African Republic; Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia; Dr.Jomo Kenyatta, President of Kenya; Mr. El Azhari, President of the Sudan; and Lieutenant General Joseph Mobutu, President of the Republic of the Congo.

Nigeria & Tanzania reconciled at Africa Hall.

Mediating between Senegal & Guineain Monrovia, Liberia.

Settling differences in the internal crisis in the Sudan.

1978 March arrested for Ganja.

1979 Gunmen terrorize Rastafarites at Pinnacle.

1980 April 18th Bob Marley performs his Zimbabwe song in Zimbabwe at the Independence celebration in Rufaro Stadium Harare.

1986 July 14th - 27th Ras Boanerges Rastafari Focus Conference at the Commonwealth Institute in London.

6 notes · View notes