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gofundme-friends-of-addie · 10 months

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Update on our GoFundMe page out NOW!!!⬇️⬇️⬇️

Thank you all SO much!!!

First and foremost, we want to thank everyone who has donated to the GoFundMe, and connected us with those who have helped make a true difference for Addie. This outpouring of generosity has been so beautiful to witness. Thank you. Here are a few exciting updates!

Thank you SO much to Marlin and Lisa at Plain Values Magazine for publishing the GoFundMe in their August issue! We are so incredibly grateful to have been featured, and for the opportunity to reach such a wide audience.

Thanks to the generosity of E-Sight, Addie will be sent the first new pair of glasses that comes out in the fall, and she currently has an excellent (and wireless!) pair she is using now.

Through the GoFundMe, we’ve been given access to some items that have been massively helpful while we search for long term medical purchases. Thank you to the folks who have been helping us get a foot (or rather a wheel) in the door with medical suppliers!

So far, we’ve managed to raise $24,480 thanks to the generosity of donations and the sharing of Addie’s story. Now we find ourselves filled with a much-needed hope for the hurtles ahead as we continue our fight by the Graf family’s side.

And finally, we have the next step. We have been given the opportunity to purchase an accessible van for Addie and Tricia. The dealership has been deeply empathetic and flexible to our needs. Thanks to that, they have generously agreed to give us a major discount.

However, we only have 21 days to keep the van & deal on hold, and reach our needed new goal of $65,000.

Thankfully, we are already a quarter of the way there! If we can come together and raise 40,000 more by the end of the month, we will be able to buy that van, and help Adeline explore the world more than she has been able to in years.

We hope you will continue with us on our journey by continuing to donate, share, and reach out for any help you may find.

Thank you again for everything!

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adelinebell · 2 years

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✩ FACE CLAIM: Victoria Pedretti ✩ FULL NAME: Adeline Bellandi (né Oldswell-Bayat) ✩ NICKNAME(S): Addie, Ads ✩ PRONOUNS & GENDER: She/her, cis female ✩ SEXUALITY: Pansexual ✩ RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Widowed ✩ BIRTH DATE: June 17th, 1990 (currently 31) ✩ BIRTH PLACE: Harborne, Birmingham, UK ✩ TIME IN TOWN: Two weeks ✩ HOUSING: The Coast & Pier district, staying with Maryam for now ✩ OCCUPATION: Substance Abuse Counselor at White Heron Wellness ✩ FAMILY: Gianna Oldswell-Bayat (mother), Joseph Bayat (step-father), Maryam Bayat (step-sister), N/A YET (older sibling)

✩ WANTED CONNECTIONS

✩ PERSONALITY: Adeline, referred to as Addie by her friends, is a bit of a handful. Needing to uphold the dignity of her profession, Adeline initially comes off as very kind, friendly and helpful to whomever needs it, but she’s also got a quick tongue, only using a snarky statement when desperately required. Most would consider her a wallflower because she’s got a watchful eye, capable of reading situations easily and knowing how to best handle them; a particular skill comes from working around teenagers her entire life. She isn’t the most extroverted person, but pretends to be, trying to maintain a good attitude during whatever outing she’s likely dragged out to when she would really rather just curl up in bed and read. She puts on the façade of being that person quite well and because of it, she’s become quite guarded. Adeline worries that once people look passed the person she has to be, they won’t like the person she is. She’s perfected the act long enough that sometimes she worries that even she doesn’t know who that person is anymore.

hey friends, i’m lem and use they/their pronouns, i’m 27 and in texas so that means i’m on the central standard timezone. here is a run down of addie’s background until i’m able to write up a full bio for her soon! if you’d like to plot with me, please hit me up on here in dms or on discord at amerilie#0782. this bio is based on the idea that adeline’s other sibling is a girl, but in her wanted connection, the gender is open to player preference!

ADELINE was born in Harborne, England, to parents who never married despite their common addiction and two children together. Their mother got clean before Adeline was born, but their father never did and his company became scarce, the family only seeing him every few months when he would return to “read the girls bedtime stories” under the guise of stealing things from them whenever they dozed off to fund his substance abuse. Eventually, when Adeline is five years old, her mom packed up and moved them to Cotswold once she realized that he was only using the girls for his own personal gain. Little did Gianna Oldswell know that in Cotswold resided a one Joseph Bayat, who she’d come to refer to as her soulmate.

JOSEPH had a daughter, Maryam, and despite their age gap with Adeline being ten years younger, the two became thick as thieves. Addie looked up to Maryam in every way, didn’t even refer to her as a ‘step-sister’ when their parents married and went straight to calling Maryam her sister. Of course, Adeline was heartbroken whenever Maryam left for the states when she was just twelve years old, but they were able to keep in touch and there was no shortage of back and forth visits from the family to the US, as well as Maryam back home to see them.

LIFE went on as normally as it could for a growing girl into a woman, and soon enough Adeline was off to the University of Birmingham to get her Bachelor’s in Psychology. She had a strong urge to help others, and wasn’t sure where it was going to lead her, but she knew that majoring in psychology would put her foot in all of the right doors. During her third year there, she happened upon a man named Gio Bellandi when they were both studying at the library, and it was practically love at first sight.

THEY married after she finished her Master’s three years later at twenty four years old, and though they had their ups and downs, they were the perfect couple. Sure, he wanted to start a family already and she felt like they were too young.. she wanted to wait until she was at least in her thirties, when they’re more settled. But they loved each other, and that was what mattered.

SOON enough Adeline was putting her Master’s to use by getting a job as a Life Coach for teenagers in foster care, and her husband freelancing for multiple different companies over a long period of time. Gio could never seem to hold down a job, which Addie didn’t mind, they both made enough to be comfortable.. but Gio was never satisfied. He looked down on himself because he couldn’t seem to hold down anything permanent, settled into his toxic masculinity and resented himself for not being the breadwinner of the house. They’d fight because of it, and he argued that the reason they weren’t having children was because he was a bad husband.

[ TW SUICIDE / TW DEATH ]

GIO struggled for a while, and Adeline never held it against him. She had a world of knowledge on mental illnesses, and his anxiety and depression were things she thought they could handle.. but unfortunately, she was the only one of the two who thought that. One day, she came home to find his body hanging from their balcony railing when he decided to hang himself and his suffering.

[ END TW ]

ADELINE took a leave of absence from her job, and spent the next three months trying to figure out where her life would go from there. She already had tickets lined up to visit her sister in Merrock, a planned vacation already months in the making with two tickets for herself and Gio, but she took the overseas flight all by herself.

SHE’S been in Merrock for two weeks now and is staying at Maryam’s place, very recently acquiring a job at White Heron Wellness! Hopefully the new scenery and new community that didn’t know about her past, about her late husband, would allow her to step back into normal life again and focus on recovering.

#ABOUT.

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loliwrites · 3 years

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Okay so we’ve met Addie’s parents but what if there was a family event and she took Alex along. Most of my family don’t have a lot of money and the thought of him seeing that side of me is like lowkey embarrassing— how would Alex respond to comfort her?

Shame on society for telling us that we have to be ashamed, embarrassed, etc. because of our socioeconomic status as it relates to others’. Somewhere along the way, we’ve forgotten the simple pleasures. My grandfather was first generation American (1 of 8 kids) and his father died when he was 11. He immediately went to work, then off to war at 17, and came back and spent the rest of his life working. He never had much money. But we have countless photos of him throughout his life and you can just tell he was rich. He knew money wasn’t the end-all be-all. He was surrounded by family and friends, and though he barely had two dimes to rub together, boy was he rich.

I’m actually very intrigued by this concept. One reason is that Addi has become an ✨artist✨. Kurt Vonnegut has this painfully accurate quote that goes a little something like, “if you really want to hurt your parents, go into the arts”. And maybe her going into the arts did really hurt her parents because they feared she’d never make enough money. She’s not a trust-fund baby. She doesn’t come from a blue-blood family. She comes from a hard working, middle-class, blue collar family. Now, their ideas of what enough money looks like maybe be entirely different. But maybe they were less than jazzed when she devoted her life to the arts. Even with the “moderate” success she’s had, her family’s still not entirely sold on it.

Oh and Anony! What if she was trying to keep the family engagement on the down low so Alex wouldn’t ask to come along? And she was doing a good job of it until her phone dinged one night while she was cooking and she asked Alex to look at it. She didn’t think anything of it until he came into the kitchen while she was tossing the salad and flashed her phone at her, revealing a text from her mom. And Alex, looking confused (and maybe even a little hurt) asked, “why didn’t you tell me about your grandpa’s surprise party?” And from that point on, Alex was hellbent on attending.

That’s how they got to where they were now -- walking up the plain cement pathway and into an unassuming, one-story house that looked like it hadn’t been updated since it was built in the 60s. There was a bubbling in Addi’s stomach which she could only attribute to the idea that Alex would be put off by what he saw. His family was of some higher, special echelon... raised with a sort of class that penetrated even the most bohemian parts of him. And as Addi glances around the living room and sees her aunts, uncles, and cousins gathered around, she knows she doesn’t come from that special echelon. Her grandfather’s house is simple, just like the man who lives in it. There’s a part of her that thinks Alex will realize this and move on.

Addi sticks to the outskirts of conversations for most of the day. Nods when it’s appropriate, offers affirming hums to make it look like she’s paying attention. But the only thing she’s paying attention to is Alex and the way he floats from person to person, in casual conversation in that effortless way he does. It’s his training and experience of years and years in interviews. It’s like he barely notices Aunt Sheila, who’s definitely a few years into menopause but still dressing like she’s twenty-five. Or Uncle Scott who playfully punches Alex’s arm every time he thinks he says something funny. Or even the twin cousins, Jasmine and Jacqueline, the debutantes who’re trying way too hard to act like they don’t come from where they come from. And yeah, maybe these people are weird. But they’re her people. And she knows they don’t really match up to Alex’s people.

And then there’s her grandpa. God, Addi loves him to the ends of the earth and back. He’d give his last dollar away without hesitation and wouldn’t think twice about it. And now Alex is talking to him, tucked away in a corner of the den, sitting across from each other in the two white faux-leather armchairs that literally did come out of the 60s. She knows what story her grandpa is telling just by the expression and motions he’s making...

“I’m eleven, man of the house, and y’know it’s cold in Cleveland during the winter. We’re freezing our tokhes’ off at home, so y’know, I go to the railyard, steal some of their coal...” her grandfather always chuckles and waggles his finger at this part. “Lemme tell you, kid, the rail workers didn’t care how old you were. You’re stealing their coal? You’re getting shot at with buckshot.”

Addi walks up behind Alex and sets her hand on his shoulder just as her grandfather is showing off the scar on his arm.

“Genuine Cleveland lead,” Addi smiles and squeezes Alex’s shoulder when he looks back at her. Her grandpa shoots her a loving grin.

Alex looks back at her grandpa, childlike enthusiasm written all over his face, “did you leave with the coal?”

Her grandpa laughs harder; his chest and stomach bouncing, “son, I stole more of it just to spite ‘em.”

Addi squeezes Alex’s shoulder again, this time giving it a little shake. “We should get going, Alex.” She moves around him and approaches her grandpa, leaning down to give him a big hug and a solid kiss to the cheek.

Just as soon as she’s backed away, Alex reaches forward, still sitting as to not be towering over the elderly man. They shake hands. “It was so great to meet you. You've got some amazing stories and I’d love to hear more of them,”

Her grandpa waves his hand, “call ‘round. We’ll play pinochle,”

Alex stands, only because of the urging of Addi pulling on him. She shakes her head with a slight roll of her eyes, “no pinochle.”

And then, like two old friends, both Alex and her grandpa say at the same time, “why not?”

That’s only the tip of the iceberg. It isn’t until they get home later that night, settled in front of the TV to wind down, and Alex asks for her grandpa’s phone number so he can call him up to make plans. That’s when she realizes how deep this river runs.

“It’s fine, you don’t have to do that,” she insists.

“I want to. Look, your family’s great but your grandpa’s awesome. Definitely one of the coolest guys I know,”

Addi chuckles in disbelief, “really, Alex. It’s alright. My family's small potatoes compared to yours.” And she thinks she’s off the hook with that comment, but Alex is so far from letting her off the hook. He’s silent but his eyes bore into her. She dares to look at him again, not in the slightest bit surprised by how upset he looks.

“They’re your family; they make up who you are, kid. Maybe they’ve got some rough edges... my dad was a humble stage actor that walked around the house naked until I was fourteen. How’s that for a rough edge? I love them because they’re a part of you. And yeah, we might not always like some of them... Jasmine tried to take a bite out of me today...” he chuckles and hooks his arm around Addi’s shoulders when she opens her mouth to scream about Jasmine. “Let me tell you, slugger, I’ve never felt like I understood you more than I do now. You’re a scrappy little fighter like your grandpa. And I’d really like to get to know him more because I know how important he is to you.”

Addi huffs because at this point she’s trying to prove a point, but Alex still ends the night having acquired her grandpa’s telephone number. And that’s where she thinks it’ll end.

Until like... four days later when Alex strolls into her apartment later than she was expecting. And he doesn’t look stressed or worried... or anything. Addi subtly asks where he was (only it’s not subtle at all... she’s literally like... where the fuck were you, I was getting worried) and still very casually, Alex mentions that he brought lunch over to her grandpa’s house and they spent the day chatting over food and a little tiny bit of whiskey. For the rest of the night, Alex goes on and on about all the stories her grandpa told him... about growing up, the war, raising a family... even some stories about Addi.

And she’s happy they had a bonding session, because her grandpa is really important to her. Now her two most special and important guys are getting to know each other. But she sure as shit knows her grandpa’s saying some embarrassing stuff about her, and now Alex knows.

#alexander skarsgard drabble #alexander skarsgard imagine #alexander skarsgard #alex skarsgard #asked #anonymous #tokhes is ass in yiddish #also seen it spelled tucchis #meeting grandpa

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addieatkins · 3 years

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I saw [ADELAIDE “ADDIE” WOLFE] at a coffee shop in [BROOKLYN] today. She is a [TWENTY-NINE] year old [B&B OWNER] who’s been in NYC for [TWO YEARS] now. Every time we run into each other, they are always [RESILIENT & ALLOCENTRIC] but I’ve heard people say they can also be [DECEITFUL & TACITURN]. [GROWING PAINS BY ALESSIA CARA] reminds me of them every time it comes on the radio.

tw: child neglect, arson. // @villagestart

hello fellow kids, i am g (aka the dumb dumb behind @soulcfaman here with another character nobody asked for. without further ado, i give you my sweet baby girl, addie:

H I S T O R Y

Adelaide Atkins Savoy is the daughter of Edward Atkins, an English salesman/conman and Ann Savoy, a French teacher that came from a (somewhat) noble family.

The Atkins family moved to Peachtree, Georgia from England when Addie was five years old after a business initiated by Edward, her father, went awry with the Savoys. Addie’s grandpa, who probably lost the most out of the business con but loved Addie to no end and wanted her grandkid to have a decent life, decided to fly the Atkin-Savoy family and bought them a wonderful, luxurious home on Addie’s name.

Her childhood was… an odd one, to say the least. Her parents still acted like they were part of the Savoy family while in Georgia (and with the housing/jobs Addie’s grandpa got them, there was no reason to doubt them) so they fit perfectly with Georgia’s finest, they were living a double life of sorts, socialités in debt who schemed their wealthiest friends without them knowing. Her parents promptly got Addie to work alongside them, either as a distraction or as an active asset in their plans and she couldn’t quite deny her skills to them alas, Addie did stuff she wasn’t proud of, illegal stuff she could get away with because no one suspected the little girl with the ponytails.

Edward Michael Atkins Savoy, Addie’s younger brother was born when Adelaide was around eleven. Ann lost interest on Eddie pretty quickly so Addie pretty much raised the kid as well as she could after she turned thirteen. The two formed an unbreakable bond very quickly.

She learned many skills during her time with her parents: pick locking, html, pickpocketing, boxing, sewing (which served the young woman well when her parents decided to stop buying their kids clothes and she started making them for the two of them instead), whatever her parents required of her and whatever she could learn to make sure her brother was well taken care of, she’d learn.

CHILD NEGLECT TW The worst instance of their parents neglecting both Addie and Eddie happened right after Eddie turned five. Their friends found out about how the couple had played them and the Atkins family lost all respect within the community, so they quickly started to go in debt with banks and strangers to try to live the life Ann and Edward were so used to. By this time, the matrimony had mostly forgotten their kids to the point where they stopped providing for them unless they needed Adelaide for some job, so it was all Addie’s responsibility to not only care for her brother but her parents somehow. She started working (an honest job) when she was fourteen and never truly stopped.

ARSON TW when Addie was seventeen, one year from graduating high school Edward and Ann made a decision: they needed money to pay off credit debts and alas, they needed to burn down the house the Savoys had bought for the family because they needed the insurance money. Addie started to storage as many stuff as she could when she was informed of what was going to happen (was guilt-tripped into staying silent) and the night her parents actually burnt the house down, Addie grabbed Eddie, everything she had gathered, a car a friend had lend to her and flee Peachtree, the two siblings didn’t look back. Adelaide didn’t finish High School.

After the two siblings escaped Peachtree, they situated in New Orleans for about a year, where Addie worked around two, three jobs in order to take care of herself and Eddie. No longer after a friend encouraged her to give her testimony (and all the proof she had gathered that backed up the claim that the fire had been premeditated) and she put her parents in jail for arson and child neglect, gaining her brother’s full custody and whatever money was left from the insurance payment.

By Eddie’s request, the two siblings moved to California in 2011 where she met a young musician called Dillon Wolfe. The couple fell in love shortly after. Six years later, they were getting married, Eddie being the person walking Adelaide down the aisle.

The little Wolfe-Atkins family moved to New York in 2018.

After working as a waitress/bartender/cook/whatever she could get to make a living for her and Eddie throughout her life, Addie got a letter from the Savoy family one day with the news that her grandfather had died and had left behind a trust fund for her, enough money for the two siblings to live off comfortably for the rest of their lives. However, the oldest decided to only use enough to buy a nice house for the two of them and to open a modest, lovely b&b, their major source of income and save the rest as the family wasn’t in dire need for money anymore.

She and Eddy don’t really talk about their past a lot, unless any of the parts truly trust the person they tell their story to.

p e r s o n a l i t y

Most days, Addie is one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, the kind of girl who smiles at everyone she meets and greets strangers with a smile on the daily. She likes making people around her happy. She thrives when people around her shine.

However, she can be very closed off and go as far as to be very deceitful? I mean, she is sharp, even though people don’t think she is because they write her off as a “southern belle” type, but what most people don’t know is she can be cunning whenever she sets her mind on it, she learned from a very young age how to take advantage of everything she had to get what she had her mind settled on.

The one thing she cares the most about in the world is her brother, Eddie. The boy is pretty much her own and has been since the day he was born, she would stop at nothing to make sure he is fine and he is happy.

Her hobbies include painting and sculpting (which she makes some money off of), gardening (the Atkins sibling’s home is a glorified zen garden by now) and designing (she sometimes uses this skill to make clothes for selling to friends and acquaintances).

Loyal to no end, good god. It takes a lot for her to feel comfortable with someone to call them her friend but once she does, she is the most loyal friend. Also the mom friend, no matter how close you are. If it’s even a little bit chilly outside and she sees a stranger shivering she WILL give them her sweater, has medicine and candy on her at all times.

She can be quite impetuous and extremely curious to the verge of being noisy, but never in a malicious way, unless you mess with someone she cares about.

Whatever you throw her way, she’ll land on her feet.

P L O T S

Best friend: Either the best friend who help the Atkins while the lived in Georgia (preferably) or a new friendship they’ve built in the years they’ve been in New york Addie would be nothing without this person. She trusts them more than her own shadow and would kill for them in a heartbeat.

Foreign cousins: Maybe someone seeking vengeance because of what Addie’s father did to the family? Maybe they don’t even know they are related, everyone loves having someone you can tell “well, now i know where the craziness comes from”.

Muse: Whenever she’s stressed or just… inspiration strikes, Addie calls this person to either use them as a model or a canvass. She has every line of their body engraved on her memory and she still finds them fascinating and could spend hours painting them. We can discuss what shape this plot could potentially take.

People she works for: Either her art or the clothes she makes, I’d love to write about any of those.

Friends, enemies, neighbours… just love my baby, she and Eddie will love you back!

so if you read that whole mess ily sm <3 if you wanna plot w/ us please shmash that lke button and i’ll come to you at some point of the day when i don’t feel like crying because everything.hurts. (i’m v sick. like... dehydrated type of sick BUT I’M TRYING NOT TO THINK ABOUT THAT RN)

#villageintro #like for plots maybe?

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izzielizzie · 3 years

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Chapter Five

Here it is! It sucks because I had no idea what to write, but since I made y’all wait so long, I’ll post Maeve’s chapter too. Oh and a big thank you to @natewynoou for getting me through my writer’s block. Enjoy!

“Hey Babe,” Jake says, leaning against my locker. “Hey,” I say back, smiling up at him. He’s wearing his football jacket today, and he looks lovely in it. His arm wraps around my waist as I slam my locker shut. “Ready for gym?” “Ugh, never.” Jake grins at me and pulls me close. I sink into him. This is my favorite part of the day. Being with Jake. I only see him during last block, and I always miss how he’s strong and kind and makes me feel seen for once. I let him lead me to the track, but before we can reach the door, a voice floats out from the overhead speakers. Would Cooper Clay, Nate Macauley, Adelaide Prentiss, and Bronwyn Rojas please report to the main office? Again, Cooper Clay, Nate Macauley, Adelaide Prentiss, and Bronwyn Rojas to the main office. Jake turns to look at me.

“What’s that about?”

I shrug. “I’ll see you later.” I stand on my toes and give him a quick kiss before turning in the opposite direction. I’m nearly at the office when someone falls in step with me. “What do you think this is about?” Nate asks me. I shrug again. “Hopefully nothing.” We reach for the door at the same time, and I step back. Nate pulls the door open for me with an exaggerated bow and I enter the room as I giggle. The giggle stops suddenly though, when I see perfect little Bronwyn Rojas frowning at me from her seat next to Cooper. I slink into the seat across from Cooper as Nate drops next to me. “‘Sup?” Nate asks, tipping back his chair. Bronwyn gives him an exasperated look. “You’re going to crack your head open Nate,” Bronwyn snaps. “Bold of you to assume that’s not my intent,” Nate fires back with a smirk. Bronwyn rolls her eyes. “What are we doing here?” Cooper asks suddenly. He looks a little restless. Bronwyn opens her mouth, but before she can answer, the door flies open, and about an eighth of the girl’s soccer team comes marching in behind their coach. I can see Vanessa smirking at all of us, and behind her is Maeve Rojas. Maeve catches sight of the four of us and tilts her head questioningly, but doesn’t say anything as the coach turns to her. “Rojas! Stay here and see if you can find Gupta. This is absurd.”

“Sure thing Coach.” The coach leaves with the rest of the girls, and Maeve rolls her eyes at the closed door. “Hi, Maeve,” Bronwyn says. “Hey,” Maeve responds. “What’s going on?” “Gupta didn’t provide the school van for our soccer game.” Maeve pauses. “Again.” Bronwyn smiles a little. She looks uncomfortable, almost as if she doesn’t know what to say to Maeve, which is weird considering they once practically shared a brain. Before she has to say anything though, the door opens again, nearly hitting Maeve in the face. She steps back as Luis Santos steps in. He looks around at the people in the room and pauses. “Um, hi?” “Hey,” Cooper says. “What’s happening here?” “Family reunion,” Maeve says sarcastically, and Luis smiles at her. Maeve glares back. I’ll never understand why Luis keeps treating Maeve nicely when it’s obvious his crush is one sided. Or at least, it’s obvious to everyone but him. As it always has been. “What?” He asks hesitantly. “Nothing. Obviously. We’re all waiting for Principal Gupta. She’s MIA.” “Just like our football van.” “You guys have a football game?” I ask. Luis nods. Huh. Jake didn’t tell me about that. Usually he tells me when he has a game so I can get a ride home from a friend. Maeve ignores me and tilts her head at Luis. “Our soccer van is missing too.” Luis nods slowly, stuffs his hands in the pockets of his sweatpants with a contemplative look and twists so he’s leaning against the wall next to Maeve. “You going to the captain’s charity event?” The captain’s charity event. The event of the year after prom. Basically, ten years ago some rich football captain created a fund for the school that benefited the sports teams, as long as a dinner and dance was held for all the captains. Being invited is the greatest honor this school has. I’ve been once, with Jake, in my freshman year as his date. Sophomore year, though, Luis got the title of football captain and he and Olivia took our place. Cooper goes too, with Keely, to represent the boy’s baseball team. And from what I gathered, Maeve and TJ went together last year. Not that they will this year.

“Yeah, but I don’t have a date this year,” says Maeve as she twists her braid over her shoulder and wraps the end around her finger. “Are you?” “Yeah, I’m dateless too though.” Maybe Luis was expecting something from Maeve. Maybe a simple “we should go together”. Judging from his face, he didn’t expect Maeve to shrug, toss her braid over her shoulder and say: “Well, that sucks.” Luis’s shoulders slump right as Principal Gupta walks into the office with a harried look. She pushes open the door, and right before it can hit Maeve, Luis tugs her towards him. She falls against him. I catch sight of Bronwyn and Cooper’s small smiles before Gupta starts talking. “Sorry I’m late. Mr. Santos, Ms. Rojas, what are you doing here?” Luis and Maeve explain their van problem, and Gupta follows them to sort it out. She returns nearly forty minutes later looking exasperated and muttering about sports teams. She looks at us, and drops into a chair at the head of the table. “I’m sorry to keep you all waiting, but we had some difficulties with our sports teams today.” As if she had to tell us that. I zone out as she talks to us about how she understands we’re shaken up about Simon’s death (I’ve heard this enough times before) until I hear Cooper’s saying “With all due respect ma’am,” (Why is he so polite anyway? He only lived in the south for two years) “It sounds like you’re accusing us.” My head snaps up. “What?” Everyone turns to look at me. Nate’s smirking at me. “I was just saying that the four of you are well known students, and all four of you have a history with Simon.” I flinch a little. “So you think we killed him?” I ask. “We are simply following threads Addy, no need to be defensive.” “With all due re-” Cooper stops at the smirk on Nate’s face and then continues. “We’re being accused of something ridiculous, I think we have the right to be defensive.” “There’s no probable cause for investigation, is there?” Bronwyn asks. “It was an accident, and in a court of law, following threads wouldn’t convince a jury.” I roll my eyes. She always sounds older than she is. And like she knows more than everyone. Gupta opens her mouth the answer, when the bell rings, singling the end of school. “Are we free to go?” Nate asks. “Yes, but-” We don’t let her finish her sentence, because we’re too busy standing up, swinging our bags over our shoulders, and marching out of the room.

Maybe I shouldn’t have agreed to go to Glenn’s diner with Bronwyn, Cooper, and Nate, but I’m filled with pent up anger at Gupta for suggesting something that might mess up our lives that I said yes. Now I’m sitting in a booth next to Cooper picking at my salad. “Want some fries?” Cooper asks me. I shake my head even though I do really want some. The faster I get out of here, the better. I’m not really listening to the conversation around me until I hear Nate saying my name. “What?” I ask. “Did Simon have anything against you?” I pause before I shake my head vehemently. I look at the unconvinced faces staring at me. “Nothing. Absolutely nothing against me.” Bronwyn raises an eyebrow. “What did you do?” “Nothing!” “You really want us to believe that?” Nate asks. “I mean, I might have… hooked up with TJ last summer,” I say, the last words a whisper. I jump when Bronwyn slams her glass down. “What the HELL, Addy? You hooked up my sister’s boyfriend?” “I,” I can’t say anything more as the shame I’d pushed down resurfaces. “Addy, seriously?” Cooper asks me. “I didn’t know,” I say, shrinking away from him. “That’s bullshit you saw them together at every party we went to.” “He told me he wasn’t dating anyone.” “But you had a boyfriend.” Bronwyn’s glaring at me now, her arms crossed. Cooper’s staring at me like he’s never seen me before. Nate’s smirking, like always, and I’m pretty sure that if he wasn’t in the booth, he’d be tilting his chair back. “I know, I just-” “Addy Maeve is miserable.” “I’m sorry. If I could take it back I would.” “But, you can’t, can you?” “No, I can’t.” “Addy, do you really think it’s fair to Jake and Maeve?” Cooper asks me. “No, but-” “Seriously, Addy, that it the bitchiest thing anyone could do.” I don’t even know what to say anymore. I’ve ignored my actions for months because I didn’t want to think about what I did and how it might hurt people. And I can’t relive it now, here with people I’ve hurt more than once. I shrink into myself as Nate starts talking. “Funny how you left us for a guy you cheated on, Ads.” That’s it. I can’t. I pull my bag out from under the table and stand through my tears. I push my way through the diner until I step outside and breath in the fresh air. I look down at my phone when it starts ringing. It’s Vanessa. “Hey,” I say, praying to the trees in front of me that Vanessa can’t hear the tears in my voice. “Oh my god. Have you heard the news?” “What news?” “The Tumblr post? Saying you guys killed Simon?”

#multi-chapter fic #when we didn't need to lie #sorry it took so long #izzielizzie's fics

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fourdaysofrain · 4 years

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Butterflies and Dahlias

Summary: Tony helps Peter with his crush on MJ.

(Just a little fluff to help those of us going into midterm season!)

Read on AO3

Peter had been texting someone on his phone since the moment he set his bag down in the lab. Not that Tony minded, he was too busy with his current project: restoring his dad’s old radio. It normally sat on his nightstand, but recently it had taken to playing random stations from Norway a few hours before sunrise. Tony wanted to blame Thor, but it was more likely a side-effect of a past upgrade gone wrong. Whatever the issue was, Pepper was not a fan. That meant Tony had to fix it.

Out of the corner of his eye, Tony saw Peter look up from his phone and glance out the window of the compound’s lab. He squinted a bit at the sun shining into his eyes.

“MJ says that commuting to your workplace is an example of economic privilege,” he said, apropos of nothing.

“Yeah?” Tony looked up from his desk to assess the teen across the room from him. “Why’s that?”

“It’s something about how it makes you need enough money to buy a car, and the ability to pay for gas, and free time, I think?” Realizing that Peter was just rambling in his excitable teenager way, Tony turned back to his desk and continued to work on fiddling with the radio. ”‘Cause you need to be able to have time to commute instead of like, take care of your kids or something. I told her that Happy drove me here.”

“She sounds like a peach. What else does she say?” Tony replied distractedly, searching for the right size screwdriver.

“She also says that me wearing Ben’s old work shoes is closer to the original spirit of Doc Martens than the people at our school who buy them new.” Peter put his phone down on the table and started moving his hands in time with his words. ”She told me the history of them, it’s really interesting!”

The damn screw was such a weird size. “Is it?”

“Yeah, ‘cause it’s like, they were the working class of the 50s and 60s’ work shoes, and then the workers’ children would get them as hand me downs, and that’s the generation that started rock music and all that, so they have a rebellious history.” Peter jumped up to sit on a nearby table and continued to talk excitedly. ”She also told me about the racial history of a bunch of music genres. Did you know salsa music has a lot of African influence? I never knew that! It’s something about the syncopated beat structure, I don’t know.”

“Tell me about it,” Tony said mindlessly. He finally found the right size screwdriver and successfully started to reattach the back panel of the radio.

“Even the definition of syncopation is ‘the disturbance to the normal pulse of meter.’ Like, what’s the normal meter then? Whatever a bunch of old European white guys decided on?”

Tony noticed the lull in the conversation and gave a quick, “Mhmm.”

“There’s just so much whitewashing in our culture! Like, so much.” Peter paused for just a second to quickly check his phone. ”I really should be more aware of that stuff, especially because Queens is so diverse. And Spider-Man’s trying to be inclusive of everyone.”

“Is he now?” Tony asked, his attention still on the radio in front of him.

Peter nodded as he continued to speak. “I worry that I come off as too white savior-y when I’m saving people, but I brought up Spider-Man being white to MJ and she said she thinks he’s doing pretty good. So, it can’t be that bad, right?”

Tony finally dragged his attention away from his desk and looked over at Peter. He looked a little deranged, with his hair askew and cheeks slightly flushed.

“This MJ gal,” Tony said, pointing at Peter with the screwdriver. ”You like her?”

“What?” Peter’s mouth stayed partly open, his train of thought evidently derailed by Tony’s question.

“You like MJ.”

Peter laughed nervously and ran a hand through his hair. “No! I mean like, yeah, I like her, she’s one of my friends. But like, like like her?”

Tony leveled him with a steady look. “Do you?”

There were a few beats of silence as Peter leaned back until he was laying down on the table and looking upwards. Tony could hear his sigh from across the room.

“I think I like MJ,” he said, staring desolately at the ceiling.

Tony took off his tinted glasses and set them carefully on his desk. “Hey, good for you.”

“No, what?” Peter pushed himself up from his position until he could make nervous eye contact with Tony. “This is bad!”

“C’mon, kid, brighten up! You’re 16, the world is your oyster, and so on and so forth.” Tony waited for a reaction from Peter, but none came. “Have I told you about when I knew I was in love with Pepper?”

Tony had always held his cards close to his chest when it came to his personal life, so Peter perked up at the prospect of learning more about him.

“When’d you know?” he asked.

“Besides seeing her after I got the new ticker,” Tony said, tapping his shirt where his scars from the arc reactor were with the screwdriver he still held. “There was a night after I got it removed, nothing special about it, where I just looked at her and knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.”

Peter rested his head in his hands. “Why that night?”

Tony looked off into the distance and smiled, lost in thought. “I had just given her a necklace that was made with the shrapnel they yanked out of my heart. I’m not normally big on romance, so that sealed the deal for me.”

“Just like that?” Peter asked. “It just took a necklace?”

“It wasn’t just a necklace, it was a…” Tony trailed off as he searched for the right words, waving the screwdriver in lazy circles near his ear. “It was a culmination of years of tension.”

Peter scrunched his nose. “Gross.”

“It’s not gross, it’s romantic.” Tony sniffed and set the screwdriver back on his desk. “You’ll get it when you’re older.”

There was just a moment of silence before Peter started talking again.

“So,” Peter said, starting to swing his legs off the side of the table, “I need to buy her a necklace, then.”

“It’s not about the necklace, kid.” Tony waved away the remaining holograms and gave Peter his full attention. ”It’s about what it represents.”

Peter sighed and fell back onto the table. “I don’t have any shrapnel in my heart, man.”

“What’s something, anything, she’s told you about that you can make lovey-dovey?” Tony asked, barely holding back an eye-roll.

“I don’t know.” Suddenly, he lifts his head up and looks at Tony. “Wait, she mentioned the Black Dahlia murder the other day, that’s a flower, right?”

“That’s a flower,” he confirmed, pointing at Peter. “What can you do with that?”

Tony waited while Peter thought.

After a few seconds, Peter cringed and smiled awkwardly before saying, “I can get her a necklace of a black dahlia?”

Tony ran his hand through his hair. This kid. He sighed, then clapped his hands together.

“Alright, kid. If you’re going to do this, you’re doing it right.” He pulled his phone out and started tapping as he rambled. ”I know a great glassworker in Italy who can fix you up with something real quick. I’ll cover the cost and shipping, of course.” He ignored Peter’s muffled squawk of surprise. ”Unless you want to get it yourself, in which case I can loan you a private jet. Or, just make a healthy donation to fund a field trip for your AcaDec team to go to Europe--”

Peter cut him off by waving his hands. “Woah, woah, woah! Mr. Stark! Italy? We’re going to MoMA next week, I can’t go to Europe!”

“Alright, I hear you. No Europe.” Tony clicked his phone off and slid it back into his pocket. He saw the forlorn look on Peter’s face and tilted his head towards him. “Look, kid. You like her. Just be your normal dorky self. Don’t pretend to be anyone you’re not.”

Peter sighed and shoved his fingers into his hair. “Mr. Stark, I spend half my free time pretending to be someone I’m not.”

“Oh, kid.” Tony couldn’t hold back a chuckle at the sight of Peter unraveling over a girl. “You want the easy way?”

Peter jerked his head up to look at Tony. “Yes, please.”

Tony could see the desperation in his eyes. Oh, to be a teenager again.

“There is no easy way,” Tony said as he slid his tinted glasses back on. “Get used to it now.”

Peter groaned and laid back down on the table, hitting the back of his head on the surface a few times for good measure.

Tag List: @ironfamjam @addi-is-amazing @mysterio-is-a-little-bitch @wellplacedbanana @night0seven @unfathomable-universe @bibbidi-bobbity-booyah @spideynamu

#hey my confidence is back!#art writes #irondad #iron man #spider-man #spiderman #mcu #marvel #spideychelle #peter parker #michelle jones #peterxmj

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mindlcssartist · 4 years

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is that [LAURA HARRIER]? no, that’s just [ADELAIDE 'ADDIE' ATKINS]. [SHE] is [TWENTY-SEVEN] years old and is a [B&B OWNER]. rumor has it they’ve been in town for [FOUR YEARS]. on a good day, they’re [RESILENT & ALOCENTRIC]. but watch out! they can also be [DECEITFUL & TACITURN]. [GROWING PAINS BY ALESSIA CARA] plays in my head whenever i think of them. can’t wait to see them around springhill!

tw: child neglect, arson, cheating.

hello hello hello! you all can call me g and i invited myself to this party to introduce to you my baby addie SO, without further ado, let’s do it shall we?

H I S T O R Y

Adelaide Atkins Savoy is the daughter of Edward Atkins, an English salesman/conman and Ann Savoy, a French teacher that came from a (somewhat) noble family.

After the two siblings escaped Peachtree, they situated in Arkansas for about a year, where Addie worked around two, three jobs in order to take care of herself and Eddie. No longer after a friend encouraged her to give her testimony (and all the proof she had gathered that backed up the claim that the fire had been premeditated) and she put her parents in jail for arson and child neglect, gaining her brother’s full custody and whatever money was left from the insurance payment.

The Atkins have lived in: Florida, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, New York and now New Jersey, always trying to make a home out of these places to no avail.

In one of these cities, Adelaide met a dark, mysterious man who she quickly fell in love with when she was no more than twenty-three years old and for the first time in her life, she opened her heart and mind, fully, to someone else other than her brother and close friends. However, not everything was a fairytale: it didn’t take long until Addie discovered the man she had fallen in love with was engaged to be married to another woman, and their relationship ended as abruptly as it started, leaving her completely shattered and heartbroken and thus, the Atkins siblings arrived to their final destination: Springhill because it was their next point in the map. they’ve lived in the city for a little over four years now.

After working as a waitress/bartender/cook/whatever she could get to make a living for her and Eddie, Addie got a letter from the Savoy family one day with the news that her grandfather had died and had left behind a trust fund for her, enough money for the two siblings to live off comfortably for the rest of their lives. However, the oldest decided to only use enough to buy a nice house for the two of them and to open a modest, lovely b&b, their major source of income. They have a nice life.

She and Eddy don’t really talk about their past a lot, unless any of the parts truly trust the person they tell their story to.

P E R S O N A L I T Y

She has fleeting relationships that never take to anything serious (committing issues plus a ton of other issues let’s be honest), but it doesn’t mean she isn’t opposed to the idea. She simply believes it’s not in her destiny to find the one.

She can be quite impetuous and extremely curious to the verge of being noisy, but never in a malicious way, unless you mess with someone she cares about.

Whatever you throw her way, she’ll land on her feet.

P L O T S (*will be a wc on main)

Ex-boyfriend*: There could be many ways to go with this, many reasons why he never told her he was engaged in the first place or why he lead her to believe he was equally in love with her, but boy do we love the angst in this household and I would love to see what this connection could bring.

Best friend: Either the best friend who help the Atkins while the lived in Georgia (preferably) or a new friendship they’ve built in the years they’ve been in Springhill Addie would be nothing without this person. She trusts them more than her own shadow and would kill for them in a heartbeat.

People she works for: Either her art or the clothes she makes, I’d love to write about any of those.

Hook-ups: past, present, ended in good terms, ended in bad terms, one-sided infatuations that couldn’t go over due to Addie’s commitment issues… I want it all!

Possible love interest who will make her want to commit for once and open her heart again??????

Friends, enemies, neighbors… just love my baby, she and Eddie will love you back!

Okay, wow, if you made it through… honestly bless you and you deserve a freaking award. if you read this mess (i literally haven’t slept AT ALL because i wanted to binge the politician and idk if it makes any sense) and you still wanna plot, hmu of like this post and i’ll come to you!

#springhillintro

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gofundme-friends-of-addie · 9 months

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Here we are… another medical road bump per se that demonstrates the need for this vehicle.

Addie is currently having difficulties with her central line ballooning and she needs to see a vascular specialist who is not at the hospital or in the ER.

Insurance denies the medical necessity for Addie to be able to get to the appointment by ambulance and so now we wait to see if her Medicaid will cover the transport which can take days.

Adeline cannot be transported by just any accessible transport vehicle because her medical complexity.

This line is what keeps Adeline alive… so, there once again is the most likely option to have to call 911 and get an ambulance to take her to the ER in hopes of getting a vascular consult who can fix the line instead of replacing it. Going to the ER is a risk in itself on Adeline’s fragile body.

While we wait to find a specialist, there is a risk of the line breaking which would mean an emergency situation, surgery, long hospital stay, and a high risk of infection which could be months in the hospital. Due to Adeline’s visceral nerve pain and complex regional pain syndrome, any surgical procedure sets her body on fire. A fire that cannot easily be extinguished. There are always complications in many of Adeline’s systems that does occur with every medical procedure.

With this van, we could transport Adeline to a vascular specialist before the emergency and risk to her life happens. This is why we need help.

Adelines medical expenses far exceed insurance and Medicaid. So many of her treatments and medications are not covered. Having this van will help Adeline to get to appointments with specialists before an emergency takes place.

We have two more days to purchase this vehicle for Adeline.

Please help by praying, sharing, and if you are able, donating. Thank you, we are forever grateful for your help in giving Adeline this life changing medical need!

Donate now at:

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onestowatch · 4 years

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Teddy Swims on His Upcoming Debut EP, Writing Process, and Metamorphosis [Q&A]

It’s Spring time in Snellville, Georgia and the year is 2019. Teddy Swims is living in a spacious abode with his producer, his manager, his videographer, his photographer and all of the musicians from his former rock band (the Elefvnts). This was more than just a typical living arrangement in a party atmosphere. It was a bonding experience that lasted for about one year. And it was a pivotal time period where Teddy Swims developed a songwriting formula that would help him blend his love for R&B and Soul with heavy components of Country Rock and Pop music. The writing sessions at this house spawned the release of an original composition called “Night Off” and a series of cover songs that would go on to help Teddy Swims garner the attention of legendary mainstream recording artists like Shania Twain.

Fast forward to the year 2020. Teddy Swims has moved to Atlanta and he’s now signed to Warner Records. With the studio release of “Picky” firmly notched under his belt, the brand new artist has set out for greener pastures. We spoke with Teddy Swims about his upcoming debut EP, his writing process and his metamorphosis from rock singer to to hip-hop/R&B artist.

Ones to Watch: With the help of your band, the name Teddy Swims has generated quite the buzz on the internet. Especially after releasing a series of covers that range from hit songs by The Weeknd and Luther Vandross to Shania Twain and Vanessa Carlton. Who’s responsible for coming up with the arrangements of these renditions and how do you determine what songs to cover?

Teddy Swims: It’s all my guys man! When we did the first cover [“Rock With You”] by Michael Jackson, it was ten years after the day he died and that’s what started us doing covers in the first place. And then sometimes we’ll do a new song that’s out and we’ll try to kind of get ahead of the curve and maybe get a little play off of something that’s number one of the charts right now…but we rarely do it like that.

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What kind of reaction have you gotten from musicians whose songs you’ve covered?

We recently re-cut and put out a new version of a Shania [Twain] record. We did that with Dave Cobb. He knows Shania and he sent that to her. So just hearing that she loved it and is a fan now--that’s what it’s all about!

You lived in a compound with your management team and all twelve members of your band for about a year. Tell me a little bit about the song selection process when it came down to finalizing tracks for your upcoming debut album. Was that something that you included the core members of your team in on or did you make those decisions on your own?

At the end of the day, I’m never going to say that my way is always the right way… We built this ourselves…I always say: ‘If there’s twelve of us here it’s not a democracy—it’s a jury.’ We can all figure out why we have to make a decision. But if there’s two or three people that don’t have the same answer as us, there’s always time to make sure that everyone can get on the same page. Because we trust each other and we have each other’s best interest at heart.

Your music videos seem to be just as charismatic as your live shows. Tell me a little bit about the inspiration behind the music videos for Picky (directed by Kevin Johnson) and Broke (directed by Joel Chivington).

We do it all in-house. This whole past year we’ve been in a house in Snellville [Georgia] that had all twelve of us living there. My band, my producer, my manager… our whole team. So, what we wanted to capture with those is the story of family. Everything that we filmed in most of the music videos is right here in our hometown of Conyers, Georgia. Which is like everything that you see from the bar and the candy store in “Picky” to the coffee shop. It was right here in Conyers.

I looked up some throwback photos of you on MySpace, your fashion sense has evolved so much over the past decade. I noticed a lot of Rock influenced clothing during your high school years, but then you slowly gravitated towards hip hop attire. How has your sense of style influenced your music and which genre are you truly the most comfortable in?

Sometimes we’ll write a song and it will come out so Country. And sometimes we’ll write a song that will come out so Hip-hop….I genuinely don’t know if I’ll ever find out what my [genre] is. I think we’re getting to a place with music where genres are absolutely fluid and [music] can be whatever you want it to be as long as it’s honest. As long as it feels like soul, that’s all that matters to me.

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If you had to pick one genre for the rest of your life--which one would it be?

Soul music man…baby making music. I think that could be any genre. There’s soul in Country, there’s soul in Hip-hop and soul in R&B. I love to listen to a song and if you feel that nostalgic feeling even though you’ve never heard the song…that’s what I chase, no matter what the genre.

You’re from Conyers, Georgia, but you’re currently based in Atlanta. A lot of great musicians have come from your home state. You’ve mentioned in the past how much your home means to you. Who’s on your Mt. Rushmore of recording artists from Georgia and why?

Andre and Big Boi [from Outkast], Ray Charles, James Brown and Otis Redding.

I read that the SWIMS in your last name is actually an acronym that means: Someone Who Isn’t Me Sometimes. Give our readers an in-depth description of the personal meaning of that acronym for you. At what moment did Jaten Dimsdale become Teddy Swims?

Last year in March, my buddy Addy Maxwell (producer, guitarist, trumpeter) was building beats and sending them to rappers around the area in Atlanta and they would send stuff back. So back in March, we ended up creating this SoundCloud rap song. The next thing you know we had the opportunity to go on tour. So, we built thirty minutes of music and went on my very first tour, after ten years of being in bands—we went on tour as Teddy Swims. At that time, when we started the rap thing I was going by “Swims” which is an acronym that I saw on forums and it just meant someone who isn’t me. So, I thought that I could just kind of be whoever I wanted to be in rap and never really take it seriously. It was just going to be a little rap thing for me to not take seriously. And then, we took it on tour…and it just kind of stuck that way.

The coronavirus has caused recording artists who are signed to major record labels, like yourself, to drastically change their plans for 2020. But what about your plans for 2021? Are we going to get a debut album out of you next year? And if so, can you tell us a little bit about it?

I can’t say for sure but that’s the plan. We plan on having an EP out at the beginning of next year and an album out sometime next year…At this point we’re writing right now, so I don’t want to tell you what something’s going to be about and then change my mind…I’m scared to commit something. Maybe the album will be about my fear of commitment (laughs).

What events in your life have made you a better songwriter? Heartbreak? A tragic loss? Falling in Love?

I’ll definitely say that I tend to put myself in situations to sometimes get hurt, to write better songs. Some of my worst heartbreaks have been the best songs…it’s definitely been super inspiring in making me deal with some things that I don’t like dealing with and focus on some matters that I didn’t know that I needed to focus on.

What’s a typical writing session like between Teddy Swims and Elefvnts?

We have a B Room Studio and an A Room Studio in our old house. So I might be tracking vocals on something from yesterday and (the band) might be working on something or maybe Jesse [Hampton] has his own laptop and he’s recording a guitar and he just drops [the track] in the dropbox and the next day Addy [Maxwell] pulls it up and hears some piano and puts a beat behind it. And the next day I might pull it up on my laptop and then get an idea and write and then we all get together and kind of piece it together. So, we just put a bunch of files in a dropbox and people will just pick songs and say: “Oh I have an idea for this!” We are able to sometimes be in the same room and just jam and write. But before (Covid-19) we were able to just jam as a band and always be playing, which was great.

Not including anyone that you are currently working with, who would be your dream executive producer and why?

I would always have to say my best friend in the world, Lee Rouse (the band’s producer and engineer). But if it was someone that I wish I could work with? I’d have to say Timbaland. A record with Timbaland would be crazy! Pharrell would be crazy too…And Dr. Dre of course.

What kind of music do you think you and Dr Dre. could make together?

I don’t know (laughs). I’d do whatever he tells me to do. I’d be like: “You’re the man, whatever you say. Let’s go!” I would die to meet him, just to pick his brain and get the wisdom because I’m always a student to it. I would want to learn the mindset from producer to CEO to everything. Because that is everything that I want to be.

You donated the proceeds of What’s Going On (a song originally recorded by Marvin Gaye) to the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. Why’d you decide to donate to that cause in particular?

When we did it, I put a grand in to five different [social causes]. I wanted to give to something that was a bigger conglomerate in that way…I am so strong of a believer in the Black Lives Matter movement. Here we are, two hundred years later and we can’t open our eyes. I think that “What’s Going On” is perfect song written at the perfect time and it still just as powerful today! I think that says a lot about us as a society…We always hear about the Breonna Taylors and the George Floyds, but there’s so many people like that who are getting brushed under the rug. In my hometown, there was a kid two years ago named Shali Tilson. He was having a mental health episode and he was arrested. When he got in the Rockdale County Jail, they put him in solitary confinement for nine days with no food or water and he died. A 22-year old black man. Nothing has been done about it…. So, if I could say anything, I encourage people to look into what’s going on in your small towns. There are small towns like Conyers where this has been happening for years and it just gets brushed under the rug.

youtube

#Teddy Swims #R&B #Soul #Q&A #Broke

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x-addison-xx · 4 years

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ADDISON ALLOWAY. the SEVENTEEN year old SENIOR. what do you mean, you don’t know them? They’re CLEVER, CONFIDENT , VAIN and RASH and some even think of SKINNY DIPPING, FAIRY LIGHTS, DRINKING CHERRY VODKA when they hear their name.

Addison was born and raised right here in Paradise Hills, where she, for the most part, had a fairly normal childhood. Both of her parents worked grueling jobs, her father, a hedge fund manager and her mother a publisher, to provide for Addison and her younger sister, Allyson. Because of their demanding jobs, Addy’s parents spent a majority of their time at work, but the girls hadn’t minded too much. They hadn’t really known anything else. For most of their childhood, the sisters had been close.

Life had been grand until she was around 10. That’s when things started to fall apart. The arguing between her parents increased not only in volume, but also in intensity. Her father argued that her mother worked too much and she in turn argued that he drank too much. The two decided on the only plausible option…divorce. As if that wasn’t bad enough, about a year later, Addison received the shock of her life. Her father had passed away.

From then on, in between school and extracurriculars, Addison basically raised her younger sister. Although the sisters were once close, a rift of resentment formed between them as the years went on. The two hardly speak anymore unless it’s absolutely necessary.

Addy has been playing soccer since she was a child and is hoping to get a soccer scholarship to college because with the single parent income, that’s the only way she’ll be able to afford to go. Her grades are decent, but probably no where near what they should be, even though she tries her hardest.

She’s a people pleaser almost to an extreme. She enjoys making others happy and often times puts other ahead of herself. It’s something she’s working on, but isn’t very good at. The word “no” rarely comes out of her mouth.

Because after her father’s death she felt that she had to be strong not only for her sister, but also for her mother, she tends to bottle up her emotions. A happy face is normal for her, until she just can’t any longer.

Addison is actually a bit of a daredevil. She has no qualms about things like skinny dipping, bungee jumping, dirt bike riding and any other adrenaline inducing activity one could think of.

Connection Ideas:

I would love to have some of Addy’s family members around, give me cousins!

Classmates of course, this one is a given. Maybe someone who helps tutor her? She needs all the help she can get.

Revenge/Rebound/Regret(?) - although she and Zeke are constantly on/off again, it could be fun to have someone she turns to when they break up (again). Revenge, rebound, regret, they could be the same person, different people. Let’s brainstorm it out.

Bros- exactly what it sounds like. I was hoping to give her a good guy friend she can vent to, pal around with, kick a ball around with etc.

Squad- her group of friends that always have each others backs

Neighbors/childhood friends- people she’s grown up with, they know the ins and outs of everything that’s happened in each others lives

Absolutely anything else! If anyone has any suggestions or thinks that she could fit something you’re looking for, lets doooo it.

#paradise.intro

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msmoonicorn · 5 years

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Simon didn't say...

omg, you guys... OK. So. I've started playing D&D regularly, right? Probably haven't updated you on that...because..I'm the worst.

Anyway!

So, I've been playing with decent regularity since February. Every Tuesday, I'm at a local Magic Arena that also hosts tabletop gaming nights. They ask you which game you want to play and tell you who's meeting at what times/days for that game. So if you want D&D 5e, this is when they play. If you want Pathfinder, this is when they play, etc, etc. It's a $5 charge every time you show up to game, and $1 goes to the DM and the rest goes into a party fund. That way if we want to do something special with party funds, we can!

My DM's an awesome guy, and we were playing his homebrew, but then... Saltmarsh came out. And we were all really into the idea of doing Saltmarsh. SO. We used party funds to buy Saltmarsh, and at a point when we were kind of lulling in our regular campaign, the DM was like, "Hey, let's do Saltmarsh". We all made characters for Saltmarsh, and it's been a ride.

Tonight, I'm writing, because zomg the stress.

So, here's the roster, ok?

Zach - 42. A Warforged monk with no memory of his past before he arrived with us at Saltmarsh. We call him Captain Salty Seafist, because he spent a lot of his free time working the docks and has a bit of a sea-dog accent(?) now. He was the captain of our first ship, but we now have two ships so... I guess he's the admiral.

Addy - Fey. A fey. She's.... she's just a fey. They homebrewed her a race to play and she has a bunch of abilities, but nothing for combat...except she can summon creatures that help her by fighting. Other than that, she's all healing, utilities, and reaction.

BP - Frovax. Dragonborn warlock, hexblade. I don't know this guy's name.. Still. He's been playing with us for a few weeks. But I still can't remember his name. His wife used to play with us...

Wifu - Kvisa. Barbarian woman. Bloodythirsty ditz. Really intent on killing Lizardfolk because they whiped out her tribe and she's the last of them. She was playing with us regularly, but then classes started up, and now her Barbarian girl is just...gone. Whatever. She was going to be a problem because she wanted to kill all the Lizardfolk. It's probably better this way.

Bear - Fresca Goosberry, the Inquisitor of Kelemvor...really he's a deluded warlock that thinks he's a cleric. He has a cult now, because he's been proselytizing, and the converted become his cultists. Three of those cultists actually survived our hydra fight, though, and they have class stats now :)

New Guy - a tiefling ranger... he's so new, we literally met him today. He has no name for his character, but his big-play seems to be that he wants to cover himself in some form of alcohol and light himself on fire since he's fire resistant... I've tried to explain that resistance doesn't equal immunity, but whatever. Rule of cool I guess.

Me - Simon. Half Drow bard, college of whispers. Bit of a man-whore, but he's into that free love thing. Usually sends letters with extra gold back to his dads. Yes. Dads. More on that later (maybe). I've described him as having a leather vest over a poofy white shirt and really tight pants... rocking that David Bowie vibe from the Labyrinth (if you know what I mean [you know what I mean]). He got a long oil-skin green coat with lots of pockets from one of the adventurers. One of my favorite lines thus far...

So we meet this guy right? He says if he's staying with us he'd like a weapon to defend himself. 42, the warforged, detaches his pinkie and gives it to him since every part of his body is a weapon. The guys looks at the pinkie and asks what he's supposed to do with that, and Simon says, "Well... I've done a whole lot more with a whole lot less ;)"

So, I'm Simon, right? He hasn't necessarily fit in well with the group, but he hasn't rocked the boat (lol).....I mean, he's been neutral enough to go along for the ride. But joy of joys...tonight, we transitioned from Murder Hobos(TM) to actual negotiators. Simon really likes having friends on all sides, so that was definitely more his speed. Don't get me wrong, he enjoyed straddling a ballista and bullseyeing a Hyrdra with 40+ damage, but this is the sort of group that usually wants to attack everything before finding out what's going on. Anyway. Tonight, we talked to the Lizardfolk. Right away, our swamp druid, Bog, tries to just fight them outright. The new guy, a teifling ranger who hasn't even decided on his name yet, also was in to fight. But Frovax our Dragonborn Warlock stepped up and talked everyone down with a mixture of common and draconic and his high-ass charisma. While we were being escorted by the soldiers to a holding area, hatchlings came up and clung to Simon, and he gave them piggyback rides and played with them. It was great. Finally, the Queen shows up(we later learned that she's Queen Othokent), and we convince her that we'er here from Saltmarsh, because they're worried that the Lizardfolk building up weapons means they're about to attack. Simon mentioned that he heard that they're having problems with the Sahuagin. She got suspicious, but we managed to convince her that we boarded a ship that was full of smugglers and they mentioned the sahuagin. Bog even added to it by saying he killed the men on the ship for what they did to the Lizardfolk, pulling out an arm and returning it to the tribe. As a druid of the swamp, his main concern is with the swamp. Something he said in Druidic. This struck a chord with..I think he was like a wiseman or shaman or something, but he functions like a druid enough to understand it... I think his name was Sauriv. So, we were allowed to stay with the Lizardfolk in their lair for the night to prove ourselves. So, Fresca (a warlock who thinks he's a cleric) is trying to proselytize...but he doesn't speak the language, so no one understands him even if he is captivating with his high charisma. The Ranger and Frovax brought some of the soldiers to our ship to supply them with weapons. Bog bunkered down with Sauriv (Wiseman?), and taught some of their people the ways of a swamp druid. And Simon found the ladies that were taking care of the hatchlings and made himself useful as a baby sitter. He has this pipe that he got; it's called a pipe of remembrance. When he uses it, he can make smoke images of his greatest deeds, right? So between his story-telling, performing, and the pipe (showing off the hydra fight), he had the kids (about 18 of them) captivated. The following day, the Queen asked us if we would consider doing something for the tribe. She said a crocodile named Thousand Teeth had been behaving aggressively lately. He's killed many lizardfolk that tried to patrol near his home. If we could find a way to deal with him, she would be grateful. So. We set out. We kill two wandering ogres on our way. I think they were lost, but it's probably a random encounter or whatever. Anyway, we get to Thousand Teeth's lair, and we're set up by two giant constrictor snakes. Simon and Frovax were grappled by the snakes. Simon... wriggled free, losing his pants in the process (still not sure how that happened, but whatevs). The crocodile attacks, first Ranger and then Simon. Fresca gets some distance between them and him, because he works best at range. Then Simon gets attacked again by one of the snakes and falls unconscious....and then is dragged into the water by the snake. Which attacks him, trying to eat him...and he fails 2 death saves.

ಠ_ಠ

Luckily I rolled a 19 for his initial death save, and it kept him from dying outright. The guys finally killed the snake, and Bog cast Lesser Restoration on the mad crocodile, who calmed down. Of course, he also healed Simon, and he had a minimum of 11 HP. He also didn't get poisoned from being in the swamp water because he passed his con save. Bog spoke with Thousand Teeth, determined that he had rabies (convenient), and made peace between him and the lizardfolk.

So, that's all handled, but man! The stress was real. I was about to be very very sad. I mean, maybe these guys are like, "Meh, just make new characters" or whatever, but I don't play characters that I don't like. And I like my blue boy.

But yeah. TLDR: that's the story of how we become ambassadors to the Lizardfolk and rescued an ancient crocodile.

#Lost Post #MsMoon's DnD #DnD #Gaming #Simon Cheramie #Half Drow #Bard #College of Whispers #Ghosts of Saltmarsh #42 #Kvisa #Frovax #Bog #Fey

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frghten · 5 years

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guess who’s back from the dead and ready to party !! ( hint: it’s me ) but i’m a giant weenie about messaging people unprompted to plot so if you’d be interested in plotting with any of the babies below the cut, please give this a LIKE & i’ll jump into your ims !!!

lucian “angel” rosetti. 34. career thief. what happens when a spoiled rich kid gets dethroned? in angel’s case, they become a high profile thief to fund the life they’re so accustomed to living. angel is a danny ocean wannabe with a career to boot. started with small-time bank robberies, and now he has a crew that pulls full on heists (blows a kiss @ adelaide and maddox). still acts like the spoiled rich kid he was before his family cut ties with him. kinda nuts, gets giddy really easily, throws grown adult temper tantrums, will hold a gun to someone with a grin on his face (though things never get that messy). that tweet abt that dude in starbucks calling his wife and being like “do you want your iced coffee, or are you still being a bitch?” that’s him. the perversion that could have been a happy ending to “paul’s case”, gatsby with none of the discipline, hopelessly romantic in a literary sense.

adelaide marlowe. 33. career thief. the second third of angel’s crew !! grew up in rural tennessee, got mixed up with some bad characters and even ended up dating one. got roped into doing her first job by her boyfriend who promised to use the money to get her out of the shithole she grew up in. they did good, became infamous, started off knocking over a couple convenient stores, then soon were working their way across the country bank after bank. they took in the cash, eventually settled down. but apparently settled didn’t work well for him. the first time he laid a hand on her, she set their mansion ablaze with him inside of it and ran. later recruited by angel, now makes p much all the plans for any jobs they work. super smart. that harley quinn type of giggly crazy. a bubbly and lively presence, total sweetheart. stubborn and entitled. will go from saccharine to Bitch Mode in 0.1 seconds if you test her. angel’s best friend. chaotic neutral, loves making messes.

maddox shah. 26. getaway driver. the last third of angel’s crew !! grew up in a super tight knit family with three siblings. started drag racing to send money back to them, while they were under the impression he was bartending. built a reputation for himself, and was later connected to addie who convinced him to work a job with them. it was supposed to be a one time thing to rake in some cash, but it became a regular gig. now he’s pretty much a permanent fixture of the crew, a getaway driver or transporter depending on the job. tends to get a lot of attention from the ladies and he Ain’t Complaining, kind of a womanizer. went from being working class to having everything he could ask for almost over night, doesn’t take it for granted but definitely likes to splurge lmao. big ass goofball. likes last minute adventures to do dumb shit. considers himself an ameteur photographer which really just means he takes instagram too seriously.

willa rosetti. 21. university student. the younger of the two rosetti children, the one who never had the silver spoon so rudely snatched away from her. in her third year of undergrad, studying forensic anthropology. incredibly intelligent. hopelessly and endlessly infatuated with death. all tucked away underneath the image that her parents perscribed to her. wouldn’t dare to let herself go unnoticed, has something to say about everything ( even things she doesn’t know anything about; she’ll make you believe she does ), will talk a strangers ear off if they let her. secretly keeps in touch with her brother against her parents wishes, often daydreams about running away to join him on his grand adventures.

luca de leon. 38. hitman. the softest killer you ever did meet, but he’d never let it show. raised by a single father with the same profession, taught to be a soldier as soon as his little arms could bear the weight of a gun. keeps a stoic, no-nonsense front to hide serious loneliness. very rigid, quiet gentleman kinda presence usually, but gets sassy when he’s peeved adfvsdf. real bad guilt complex. likes to talk about philosophy despite believing that most of it is a crock of shit. owns his label as the typical stone-face criminal tbh.

jensen reed. 35. bar owner. another character involved with angel’s bullshit but not an actual member of his crew. owns a bar that he uses to launder money for criminals. charismatic, funny, a great sweet talker. but also foolhardy, impulsive and incredibly short sighted, probably doesn’t fully grasp how deep he’s gotten himself in, but chooses to forgo worrying about the future and concern himself with whatever the reward is in the moment. a flirtatious dummy. greasy, hole-in-the-wall bar aesthetic. hums a lot and likes to play the guitar but isn’t great at it. probably wants to be ur friend.

#me: here's 5 characters related to angel and also uhhhh luca #indie rp #indie crime rp #its late so if this flops i may repost it tomorrow afternoon we'll see

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dawgyears · 5 years

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Yeah, yeah. You know the song and dance. Life. Busy. Blog. Nada.

Okay, so there’s been big developments around the Gray family residences the past few months.

In November, on my birthday, I got a box from Casey and Taylor while we were all at the obligatory birthday gathering (Cracker Barrel) which, upon opening, I was a little stumped.

Out of the clear blue sky, whilst I was just sitting there, being old, I got informed via the baby gown in the box that I was going to be a grandma soon!

YES, PEOPLE! After giving up, and saying so, that we were gonna just go traveling and not worry about what the kids were doing or whether they’d ever make us grandparents, there they up and do it!

We are thrilled, of course! We found out the last of January that we’re getting a little girl and her name is Adeline Grace.

Right now, I’m busy helping plan a baby shower that will consist of mostly our church family, our Emmaus family and other people they know from work and school. My mother wanted to have a small shower, one with “just family”, so she’s hosting that one herself. She thought I was being ridiculous trying to host something so big and let me know real quick she didn’t want to help.

Not in those words, of course, but anyway. My mom is just weird that way. She keeps track of who came to what and who gave gifts and how many times she’s showered them/their kids and decides who should be invited to the current shower. Its weird and always stresses me out the way she is about that stuff, so really, it’s just better this way. No one has hard feelings, at least as far as I know. She may be mad at me, I dunno. But it doesn’t really matter because she and Taylor picked a date when I will be out of town anyway, so I can’t even attend or help with last minute stuff anyhow.

The shower I began planning is now being co-hosted (or whatever you call it these days) by four other ladies involved with our church and/or from Emmaus, so it’s not all on me to pull it off. I think there are like eighty-some people invited via Facebook and I’ll have to call or text a couple of people I know. Taylor’s aunt is doing another shower for her side of the family, so I have no doubt they’ll be well-covered with baby paraphernalia.

I’ll let you in on a secret. I’ve had grand babies in the back of my mind for many years now and while I have wanted them for certain, I’ve always worried about how we would “afford” to be grandparents. Like around Christmas I’ve wondered how in the world we would compete with like my own parents or Taylor’s family in gift-giving.

I know. That’s just sad, isn’t it? But it’s true. I’ve always had a hard time around Christmas especially because we’re always ALWAYS broke by December. Tommy and I don’t buy gifts for each other and buy very minimally for our family mainly because we just can’t afford to. I do get a few small things for Tommy usually and always in the months before Christmas. I’ll find something he needs or wants on sale and get it in the summer or fall. He never does anything like that and really, he’s always been terrible about holidays. His family never did much for holidays, so it’s like he just ignores them. I used to get mad that he didn’t even do something small or even make something for me. To me, that would show that he cared about me, but he doesn’t and I realize that’s just how he is.

But ANYway…back out of my rabbit hole…I’ve always thought we could never keep up with buying whatever::: toys, clothes, etc for any grandkids compared to what the inlays could or my own parents. That kind of thing bothers me because it hurts when someone feels I didn’t buy for them because I didn’t want to, or I didn’t give them something nicer because I was just being cheap. I would LOVE to be able to give lavish gifts. Any time we have extra money, I’m looking for gifts for whoever has the next birthday or holiday coming up. Given the funds, I would be a cheerful gifter, I think.

But as it stands, I am learning to get over that harsh comparison mindset and to be more creative about what gifts I can give that are homemade or cheap-but-dressed-up, like a basket of stationery, ya know?

As of now, I helped my mom purchase a slightly used bassinet that Taylor wanted. We’ve also purchased three more nice pieces from someone at Tommy’s work…a high chair, stroller/carseat and a motorized swing. I also bought a baby book, a milestones blanket and a big stack of Little Golden books.

I need to get our old high chair down out of the attic. The one both boys used was a Jenny Lind style wooden chair. I assume it’ll need to be refinished so I’ll get to work on that soon as it’s warm enough to work in the shop. We also have a little crib/play pen sorta thing that we bought when we were living with my parents and Casey was just a baby. It kept him corralled until he was about three. We will be able to use it for a crib for Addie Grace for awhile.

So anyhow…yeah, I’m finally gonna be a grandma and I am so anxious for this baby to be born! I think Casey will be the best little daddy and Taylor is going to be a great little momma. They’re reading Baby Wise right now and taking notes from their many friends who’re new parents.

So gone, so long Yeah, yeah. You know the song and dance. Life. Busy. Blog. Nada. Okay, so there's been big developments around the Gray family residences the past few months.

#baby #baby shower #birthday #changes #family #grandbaby #news

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orbemnews · 3 years

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On the frontline with Britain's new feminists, fighting for women's rights “Did women get the vote by waiting for it to be granted to them?” activist Steph Pike bellowed into a loudspeaker. “No! they fought for it,” she said. “We’ll come back time and time again to fight for our rights. And,” she roared towards lawmakers across the road, “you can’t stop us!” As the crowd cheered, I thought of how lonely Fawcett’s statue seems on calmer days in Westminster, facing down the UK’s still largely male-dominated seat of democracy across the road. The monument to the leading women’s suffragist carries a banner emblazoned with one of her most famous quotes: “Courage calls to courage everywhere.” Until Fawcett’s statue was unveiled here three years ago by, among others, Britain’s second female Prime Minister Theresa May, the green patch outside Parliament had only commemorated men. Yet on a windswept Monday in March, despite Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, this traditional protest site was filled with hundreds of women clutching signs and slogans under Fawcett’s protective gaze. “We demand the proper funding of services that women need and women rely upon every day,” shouted Helen O’Connor, a representative of the UK’s GMB union. “The government has spent billions on this pandemic. My members are health workers and mostly women. Where is the pay rise they deserve — and need — during this pandemic?” she asked. Expectations vs. reality Readers outside Great Britain may wonder where this upswell of resentment has come from in a nation normally known for its mild manners and modern values. As a major world economy, the UK often makes interventions with other countries on human rights, including for women. Women here have had the right to vote for a century, while equal pay legislation has been around for half of that time. Even the UK’s head of state — the Queen — is herself a woman. However, what many British women — of which I am one — will privately concede is that there remains a big difference between the liberties they are awarded in principle and what they can expect in practice in many aspects of their lives — from the right to feel safe on the UK’s streets to the right to expect equal treatment in the workplace. Igniting a national debate This issue came to a head last month after the disappearance of 33-year-old Sarah Everard while walking home from a friend’s house in the peaceful south London suburb of Clapham. The suspect charged with her killing is a serving officer of the UK’s largest police force — London’s Metropolitan Police. Everard’s death prompted an outpouring of grief, culminating in a vigil around a local park bandstand — which the same police force then aggressively broke up, ostensibly because it posed a danger to public health. A review ordered by the Home Secretary vindicated the Met’s handling of the vigil. But to those of us who were there that night, the response, given the occasion, felt decidedly uncomfortable. When scuffles broke out as women were handcuffed a few meters away, my all-female film crew was asked to show credentials five times and urged to move on, almost disrupting our ability to document the events unfolding. It was amid these scenes that Pike and O’Connor met at the vigil. Also there was Alia Butt, a psychotherapist for the UK’s National Health Service. What they all saw prompted them to form a pressure group called “Women Will Not Be Silenced,” under whose banner they spoke at the protest days later next to Fawcett’s statue. “It just ignited a deep-seated anger, which I think we all recognized,” said Pike, speaking in an interview with CNN in April. “This violent culture against women in the UK isn’t new to women, but it’s come on top of years of austerity that has disproportionally affected women,” she said. “I see it in my job as a welfare rights adviser: women who are single mothers may need access to services more, yet those services they need are often the ones being cut.” Butt told CNN she witnesses the effect of this trend every day as well. She’s seeing more and more patients who are younger and younger suffering from the effects of psychological or sexual violence, perpetrated either in person or online. She has even had to change her job to focus solely on minors due to the increased caseload of teenage girls presenting with mental health problems caused by violence against women. “There are so many different forms of violence,” Butt says. “It can also be institutional and economic. The threat of that can have a huge effect on people’s mental health.” For O’Connor, who suffered abuse while growing up in her native Ireland, this is about standing in solidarity with other women who have shared similar experiences, advocating for what they are entitled to. ‘Rape culture’ Since Everard’s death, women across the country have come forward with their stories of daily sexual harassment and mishandled cases of serious sexual assault. There has even been a debate about a pervasive ‘rape culture’ in some of the most elite schools and universities. Women took to the streets again over the Easter weekend to protest police brutality and the need to “police themselves” by avoiding the streets and public transport after dark. At those marches I met Daphne Burt, wearing the pinkest outfit she could find in her wardrobe. Burt claimed she had survived rape, reported it, and never seen the case pursued. Another woman, who did not wish to be named, carried a sign saying she could get more years in jail for protesting during the pandemic than her rapist got for what he did to her. Also among the crowd, thousands strong, was photographer Lily-Rose Butterfield, who said her sexual assault experience had prompted her to tattoo parts of her body to demarcate her “physical boundaries.” She showed me some of them, including a Venus de Milo on her leg. Crime bill What had brought these women together was not the hope of being able to secure more of a say in their country, as Fawcett and her fellow suffragists had done, but a fear they were losing their voice. Everard’s death occurred just as a controversial policing and crime bill began to pass through Parliament — legislation which critics say would curb Britons’ ability to protest and hand more powers to police at a time when they should be facing tougher scrutiny. Covid restrictions mean fines of up to around $14,000 for those found to be organizing or participating in large gatherings, even if the UK courts have ruled that people’s right to protest should be protected. That risk has pushed some of Britain’s more radical feminists underground. “D” would only go by her first initial when we met via video call. An activist for the group called “Sisters Uncut,” which campaigns for the rights of women and non-binary people to live in safety, she is among some of its organizers who now feel compelled to hide their identity. Wearing a mask, hood and glasses, she also sat so far away from the camera it was impossible to tell who she was. “We’ve had to go online to keep our movement going,” she said. “There are real risks to our members for being identified. The fine is a lot of money and we are conscious of the risks of being documented as organizing a protest one maybe two years down the line.” Sisters Uncut have drafted a 10-point “feministo” demanding an overhaul of the UK’s domestic violence services, of its immigration and family courts systems and campaign for more welfare funding to be made available to women and the LGBTQ community. Statues vs. sex offenses The UK’s new crime legislation also contains a clause introducing a maximum 10-year sentence for those who deface a statue. Critics note that, in comparison, the average sentence for rape is just under 10 years. “What message does this send to victims?” Bell Ribeiro-Addy, a Labour Member of Parliament for the South London suburb of Streatham, told CNN in an interview in Clapham after coming to pay her respects to a makeshift floral tribute in memory of Everard. “What example does it set of us as a country?” It was while contemplating the irony of Fawcett’s stone likeness being potentially awarded better protections than her flesh and blood sisters, that I noticed something all too familiar. She has been interrupted. Her quote — “Courage calls to courage everywhere” — should also read, “and its voice cannot be denied.” CNN’s Lauren Kent and Li-Lian Ahlskog Hou contributed to this report. Source link Orbem News #Britains #feminists #fighting #Frontline #Rights #womens

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ininterestingtimes · 3 years

Video

youtube

OLA fighters captured Qellem village of western Oromia

Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) is not living up to its name

By Nagessa Dube

From the day I arrived in Ethiopia from the U.S. in late February, I began collecting information about the strife in the two Guji zones of southern Oromia. Even among those at Bole Airport to welcome me, some had relatives in the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA). They were in tears as they told me of the atrocities being committed against civilians by the rebels.

As I learned during nearly two months on the ground in my home district of Negelle, where I was a parliamentary candidate in 2010, both the government and the rebels are committing abuses.

I met fathers whose sons and daughters are fighting with the OLA and many others who were involved in the group. A childhood friend said his father joined the rebels because local officials wanted to confiscate his gun. He preferred going to the bush rather than give it up. My friend arranged a phone conversation with his cousin who is with the rebels and gave me the phone number of his uncle. I was able to talk with the rebel leaders, which helped broaden my understanding of them.

The OLF faction led by Daud Ibsa returned from Eritrea in 2018 as part of Ethiopia’s political liberalization and is now a registered party, although facing considerable government harassment. It has renounced armed struggle. The group that has remained separate calls itself Waraana Bilisummaa Oromoo (WBO), which translates to OLA.

When the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) was the dominant party in the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition, it was difficult for any opposition group to operate in Ethiopia. Many of those who joined the OLA during that time were former protesters and exiled rebels, some of whom had been victims of torture, and who had fled. Their training base was in northern Kenya districts inhabited by the Borana and Gabra people. The number of army troops operating in Borana, East and West Gujii zones during the EPRDF days was small, less than 500 according to my informants. However, their number dramatically increased after Abiy Ahmed became prime minister in April 2018.

Rumor has it that the ranks have swelled as former rebels and people with criminal backgrounds joined the OLA to escape liability. For instance, in my birthplace, Jidola, a small town in Goro Dola Wereda in East Guji, which is the center of the insurgency, a great number of people facing prosecution signed up for training after April 2018. By January 2019, the addition of new recruits had raised the average number for each zone to 1,300, totaling approximately 4,000 in the three zones. The reasons for this increase are: When Abiy came to power, people welcomed every group that had opposed TPLF hegemony, and therefore supported them regardless of political differences. The intelligence structure built under the TPLF was partially dismantled under Abiy, so the security apparatus was not able to act effectively against the OLA. Informants told me that some officials who were guilty of corruption under the former regime began funding and supporting OLA militants in the face of allegations of past wrongdoing that were being raised by the Qeerroo—the citizens’ vigilante group that has been demanding investigations into past corruption. Therefore, according to my informant, a number of officials had managed to remain in power by funding OLA gunmen for protection.

From conversations with OLA fighters, they emphasize terms such as Wolabummaa (independence), Bilisummaa (Liberation), however, I found they have no particular preference between a fully independent state of Oromia or greater autonomy within Ethiopia. The conclusion I drew is they want the OLF to be in power in Oromia, one way or the other.

At a minimum, they want a genuine, negotiated process of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR). They repeatedly mentioned to me that “the government is not ready for genuine, negotiated DDR; it rather wants us to surrender.” These hardliners will demand that any negotiation with the government be done through third-party mediation.

From my January 2019 discussion with the top OLA commanders in Gujii such as Jima Reba, aka (Jaal Waaqumsaa) Darara Gumo aka (Jaal Magarsaa) and Umar Basa, I learned that the split between OLA and OLF is tactical. The OLF leadership in Addis has connections with them and they operate with the knowledge of the political leaders. The fact that the deputy chair of OLF, Dhugaasaa Bakako, left the party in Addis and joined OLA soon after the attempt to disarm OLA by Oromo Abbaa Gadaas and the 71-member technical committee supports this conclusion. Dhugaasaa was on the committee. After he left the party based in Addis, he was appointed commander-in-chief of OLA, and was leading the OLA from bases in Uganda and Kenya.

Along with him another Executive Committee member Huseen Dhenge left the OLF and joined the OLA. To quote word-for-word what the rebels told me: “We don’t want to commit the same mistake that was committed in 1991.” At that time, during the transitional government, the TPLF outsmarted the OLF leadership. The TPLF provoked them to announce their withdrawal from the transitional government, then waged war against them. The OLF army was defeated and dispersed.

The government have trained local militia in every kebele to fight the guerrilla forces.

West Gujii has now been largely liberated with residents and local militia playing the primary role in fighting the OLA amid a coordinated effort by the government. The same is true in East Guji, the local militia at kebele level is the one that is fighting the insurgents more than the police and the defense force/military. The military plays the least role according to residents. This makes people believe that the defense forces and OLA have communication.

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Ethnic violence in Tigray has echoes of Ethiopia’s tragic past

Violence has engulfed northern Ethiopia and, as traditional, it’s the civilians caught in the midst of this bitter ethnic battle who’re paying the very best value. Amnesty Worldwide reported on November 12 {that a} brutal bloodbath had taken place within the city of Mai Kadra within the northwestern province of Tigray. Scores – possibly a whole bunch – of individuals, described by Amnesty as seasonal labourers, had been killed with knives and machetes.

Combating has additionally been reported close to the border city of Humera the place the Ethiopian military is known to have wrested management of the airport from the Tigray Folks’s Liberation Military (TPLF). To date an estimated 25,000 folks have fled to Sudan, together with from the Humera space, an space that may be seen as a microcosm of the tensions which might be pulling on the complicated ethnic material throughout Ethiopia.

Ethiopia’s ‘Casablanca’

Again in 1993, whereas I used to be casting round on the lookout for potential PhD analysis websites, a good friend and colleague advisable I’m going to Humera, a city within the far northwest nook of Ethiopia. “It’s like an Ethiopian Casablanca,” he instructed me. I duly went to test it out. What I discovered held not a lot the mystique of an previous Islamic metropolis however a bustling group of Tigrayan former refugees who had just lately been repatriated after a decade in camps in japanese Sudan the place that they had sought refuge through the civil struggle that raged in Ethiopia from 1974 to 1991.

Initially highlanders, they had been resettled into the fertile lowlands round Humera with the expectation that they’d change into smallholder farmers, supplementing their incomes engaged on the business sesame and sorghum farms within the space. Humera itself was a war-ravaged, dusty city that was simply coming again to life after years of neglect. Remnants of the civil struggle might nonetheless be seen: within the partitions of buildings that had been pockmarked by bullets and shrapnel, the carcasses of previous deserted tanks, and a neighborhood administration that was largely run by the previous cadres of the TPLF, as a civilian administration had not but been put in.

Though they had been repatriating to Ethiopia from Sudan, the Tigrayans weren’t returning to their highland communities of origin. They had been settled by the brand new regional administration into an space of northwest Ethiopia that had as soon as been a part of the Gondar province, however had been newly included into the Tigray area in a means of redistricting that passed off as quickly because the Tigrayan-led authorities took energy in 1991.

Repatriating 25,000 Tigrayans to those western lowlands turned a means of laying declare to the land. Most had been settled onto plots that had made up the unsuccessful state farms beneath the Marxist “Derg” authorities that had managed the realm from 1974-91 within the areas referred to as Mai Kadra, Rawayan and Adabai.

Life within the first years for newly repatriated refugees was troublesome. They needed to rebuild their lives from just about nothing and be taught to farm new crops utilizing completely different strategies than that they had been accustomed to of their unique properties. The Tigray area was confronted with huge post-war reconstruction wants, and lots of the returnees in these three websites felt that that they had been forgotten by the regional authorities as soon as they returned. They obtained solely meagre meals and money help for the primary few months after returning after which had been anticipated to change into independent. Progressively, nevertheless, folks got here to think about this place as house.

Tigray is at odds with Ethiopia’s central authorities. Laura Hammond, Writer supplied

At first, folks within the native space bought together with one another moderately effectively. Amhara, Tigrayan, Welkait and different ethnic teams coexisted peacefully. The strongest resentment to the redrawing of regional boundaries to include the realm into Tigray area appeared to return from additional away – from town of Gondar a day’s drive to the south and the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa within the centre of the nation. In these locations the symbolism of shifting regional boundaries and seizure of land fed right into a rising narrative of resentment in opposition to the Tigrayan-dominated central authorities.

Explosion of violence

These tensions have escalated through the years. The Humera space was largely remoted by the Ethiopia-Eritrea border struggle which lasted for 20 years from 1998 to 2018. The primary route for transporting sesame, its largest money crop, out of the realm – via Eritrea – was closed, and the city’s location alongside the banks of the Tekezze River which separates the 2 nations within the west was inside the militarised zone.

Since coming to energy in 2018, Abiy Ahmed, the primary Oromo prime minister, has made overtures to the Eritrean president, Isaias Afewerki, in search of to finish the border battle with that nation and implement the peace treaty initially agreed in 2000. His efforts helped him safe the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize.

However internally he has been focusing his efforts on weakening the Tigrayan-led authorities. He has changed the previous ruling get together with a brand new Prosperity Occasion, which the previous Tigrayan management has refused to affix. When nationwide elections had been postponed, citing the dangers posed by COVID-19, the Tigrayan regional authorities went forward and held their very own election on September 9. The central authorities refused to recognise the outcomes and declared its intention to put in an administration of its personal selecting, thereby ramping up the tensions between the centre and the area.

Learn extra: Residual anger pushed by the politics of energy has boiled over into battle in Ethiopia

The actual losers on this political disaster are, in fact, the civilians caught in the midst of the combating. For the folks of Humera and its environment, who fled civil struggle through the 1980s, then lived via the border struggle with Eritrea and are actually once more on the entrance strains, the combating brings again the trauma of previous wars and displacements.

The grievances of every aspect are actual and legit. However the violence that’s now spreading throughout Tigray and into Eritrea and neighbouring areas is just not resolving them. It’s only including to them, heaping ache and outrage onto a harmful bonfire that’s already burning uncontrolled.

Laura Hammond receives funding from the European Union. She is Crew Chief of the Analysis and Proof Facility for the Horn of Africa. She can be International Problem Chief for Safety, Protracted Battle, Refugees and Pressured Displacement for UK Analysis and Innovation's International Challenges Analysis Fund.

from Growth News https://growthnews.in/ethnic-violence-in-tigray-has-echoes-of-ethiopias-tragic-past/ via https://growthnews.in

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