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maidenof-thesea · 4 years

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Snakes and Butterflies | Preface

Pairing: Jimin x reader

Genre: Soulmate Au!, Fluff, Angst, Smut (Maybe, still debating)

Words: 2.1k

Warnings: MC briefly mentions self harm but she recovers.

Note: So this is my first series, I sort of dabbled in writing when I was younger. so I’m no expert but feedback is appreciated. I always enjoyed reading fan-fictions and always wanted to try it myself. Hope you like it!

"So your room will be on the 3rd floor, facing the parking lot behind this building" I say to the couple in front of me as I hand them the keys to their hotel room. When they both reach for the keys I see their soulmate marks both matching arrows. I look up and feel my fake customer smile come on my face as I met their gaze. "Elevator is on the first hallway to your right as soon as you leave out the door. Dial zero if you have any questions." As soon as the couple is out of hearing range, I let out a sigh that Fernando, the security guard, hears.

"It's almost time till you get off," He says. "I have 7 more hours to go.."

"Oh you’re right" I say, as I look at the time on my phone. "Time to go home to the love of my life: my Yuki."

"Y/n, you need to go out and have fun like other girls your age," He says laughing and rubbing his beer pot belly. "You never know, you might just meet the love of your life...which would be nice in times like these.."

"Times like what?" I say counting out my last cash drop of my shift. "Did you see something on Facebook again? I told you so many times--"

"I saw this on the local news!" He says with red blotching his cheeks. "Young girls! Young girls around your age getting abducted! They turn up later on having no memory only that their Soulmate marks are gone!"

"Let me guess," I say printing out my paperwork and logging out of the system so that I could wait for my relief to come running through the door late again. "All these girls had a bunch to drink while having this so called 'fun' you say and this happened to them."

He stammers for words and in comes running my coworker who happens to work the graveyard shift. I saluted her and I gestured for her to hurry up and clock in since guests are pulling in the parking lot. She smiles and hurries to start the beginning of her shift, while Fernando walks me to my car.

"Okay," He starts when we reach my car. "Perhaps not now but later when this whole ordeal dies down." I hum in response ready to get in my car as I unlock it, but he stops my door from opening.

"I just worry about you, that's all y/n. Most girls either rebel or try very hard to find the one that matches their Mark but you.. you hide behind those sweaters and let no one near you, I've never even seen your Mark-"

“Fernando," I say grasping his shoulder. "There's no need to worry, I'm just letting fate decide for me. We've been blessed with this, surely fate means for me to come across them at some point in my life." I feel my other hand clench at the word 'blessed'. Surely to me it was a curse. I force myself to smile and I see that it works, he's convinced. "I just want time for myself. I want to grow into a person that feels like she's lived her life and is willing to open up and welcome someone." That wasn't a lie, that was genuine and I felt my voice wavering with emotion. Emotion I didn't know I still had. Fernando pats my hand and opens my door. I roll down the window after starting the ignition. I smile as I hear his radio go off, my coworker stating she needs him upfront.

"Alright then miss," he says smiling. "I will let you go now and get some sleep!" I wave at him, as I reverse out and start the short drive home. My smile fading off my face as I clenched the steering wheel, willing myself to force unwanted emotions and memories away and drove the short distance to my home.

The reason I decided to move out here to one of the beach cities was to escape. I found solitude in the sounds of the waves. My friend Jennie had recommended me to stay in this house alongside her family’s private beach, once I had told her my plans of moving out. She told me the rent would be really cheap which was impossible to believe but she told me that her family was planning on making it an airbnb during the summer and that they needed someone to manage it. She offered a wage but of course I declined, I just told her to hire someone to clean and I’ll manage the rest.

It had been a year since then and now summer was just peaking over the horizon again and I knew I was gonna have to take time off to get everything situated. As I got through my door, my beloved Yuki, my tonkinese cat greets me with her purring and rubbing around my ankles.

“Hello my precious, how was your night?”

She purrs and licks my petting hand. I go to take off my coat and shower before bed. As I strip my work clothes, my arms catch my glance and from the conversation from earlier, I am reminded just how much of a freak I am. Where there should have been a Mark, lied just my skin. Scarred skin, to be exact, scars that matched my finger nails.

Rather than face the questions and pity in people’s faces, I rather hide. Hide just how pitiful my life has been. As the warmth of the water envelops me, I don’t feel the need to hide, at least not here in my own home, well that is till the summer. I force the pity I have for myself away and hum a tune. After that I fed Yuki a late night snack and turned on the TV to watch some Netflix. Just then my phone dinged and I saw a message from my mother.

Mom[10:47 pm]: Have you seen this? Link: ww.foxnews.com/missingMarks

I clicked on the link and apparently the news I thought was just local made national news.

“Today in a small town in southern California, tragedy has struck for several young adolescents who were out enjoying their youth when their very futures may very well change forever.” I rolled my eyes at that. They’ll live. “These women were abducted and their Soulmate marks stripped from their arms. All of them have no recollection of their whereabouts in the last 14 hours. Here’s Nancy with one of the victims.”

The clip changes to a girl with her eyes blurred out but it was evident that she was crying as she kept wiping her face.

“I swear I just needed some air, I stepped out for a bit and I woke up at some park and this excruciating pain in my arm… my Mark was gone, almost as if it was burned off! How am I ever-gonna find them?!”

Once again I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes, although a part of me was reminded of my teenage years but now older me, thrives in independence. My phone dings again, indicating another message from my mother.

Mom[10:52 pm]: They think there’s some Neanderthals out there taking Marks away… is that even possible? I thought they were extinct…

Me[10:52 pm]: I thought that was just a bedtime story??

Mom[10:55 pm]: Seriously? It’s in the history books! Why would you think that?

Me[10: 57 pm]: You know why… I don’t really care for things involving those stupid Marks. Besides I learned that along with basic math, how am I supposed to remember that?

Mom[10:57 pm]: I know sorry. But you should at least know our history!

Me[10:58 pm]: Ok I’ll watch a documentary on it on Netflix right now

Mom[10:59 pm]: You just got off work! Go to sleep!

Me[10:59 pm]: yea yea goodnight <3

“Maybe we should just sleep Yuki?” I say as she jumps on my lap and continues to purr and make herself comfortable before I could even get up. “Oh well guess I’m not moving.”

I grab the remote and start Netflix and about to click on Stranger, a Korean drama that I binged in the night prior but a new planet earth documentary catches my eye. This time instead of endangered species it’s about Neanderthals, an extinct race of human beings.

“Would you look at that?” I say tilting my head in curiosity. “Guess I am gonna learn our history.”

As the documentary starts to play, I get a text from my boss that she needs me off for tomorrow so I could work a full shift the day after and I internally groan but realize I can sleep in tomorrow. The theme song of Planet Earth starts playing and I am reminded of my childhood when I see the photograph of the Neanderthals, they look more ape like than human. I begin to wonder if they really actually looked like that or if they were exaggerated or not. Would they still look like that or would evolution help them adapt among humans now? Assuming that they were still alive…

“Humans and Neanderthals have always had their differences and constantly were at war with each other. Evolution had blessed humans with the abilities to procreate faster by aiding humans to find suitable partners. Each generation of humans was more beautiful than the previous. The Neanderthals, unfortunately were unable to evolve like us human beings and they would rape and pillage humans in order to procreate. Thanks to our advancement in evolution, humans were able to develop better weapons and eradicate the Neanderthals…”

“Okay,” I said rolling my eyes, raising the remote control. “Enough of that genocide bullshit.”

“But what if that’s all a lie?” a man obscured in the video said. On the bottom where typically the name of professors or researchers would be credited, the name ‘John Doe’ was instead. This caused me to raise my eyebrows. This man did not want to be known. Of course what he just said is considered blasphemous. “What if I were to tell you that humans are not the apex predators-that we never were the apex predator? That our ancestors may have won the war but fabricated history for their benefit?”

“That’s quite possible,” I mumbled. “But how could you possibly obtain the evidence to prove that?”

“Of course there is no evidence left to prove that but I have dedicated my entire research into finding the remaining Neanderthals. Our ancestors could never locate the actual origin of the Neanderthals-”

“Seriously? I thought that place was just a myth!” I exclaimed, rousing Yuki from her sleep. With the flick of her tail she hopped off the couch and headed to my bedroom to sleep on my bed. “Sorry baby.”

The documentary went on and on about the possibility that Neanderthals may live among us. That everything we know is a lie, that Neanderthals were the ones who evolved, they were the ones that had Soulmate marks… but there was no evidence to support it.

I turned off the TV when the credits started to roll. “Well another documentary to piss off the republicans.” My eyes started to feel heavy and instead of going to my bed I just pulled the throw blanket over myself and fell asleep.

“Y/n look! Fireflies!” a boy with crescent moon eyes and Cheshire smile came running up to me with cupped hands. On his arm, was a Soulmate mark that wrapped around his entire arm, like a snake. It was the most beautiful I had ever seen. Most marks were abstract symbols but this was the first animal one I had ever seen.

“Can I see, Jimin?” another boy said excitedly running with buck teeth, almost like a bunny’s.

“No I want to show Y/n first!” and the boy called Jimin reached me and opened his hands.

The fireflies floated up the sky and both me and the other boy stared in awe. The other boy proceeded to try and catch the fireflies once more and when I looked back at Jimin, he was already staring at me with a gleam in his eyes. He reached for my hand and when our skin made contact, a shiver went through the both of us. When I looked at our joined hands, I noticed that instead of a snake tail on his wrist, the snake’s body seemed to morph into particles and the particles continued onto my arm and morphed into butterflies..like a puzzle piece.

“Y/N-”

Masterlist

#jimin #bts #jimin x reader #reader insert #soulmate au #soulmate!au #bts soulmate au #my work #kpop scenarios #kpop oneshots #bts smut #jimin smut

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onisiondrama · 4 years

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“what happened” 3/9/20 Speaks - Summary

He did not meet Sarah until she was 16. She moved in with them because she said her mom was beating her.

Sarah was kicked out for “dat booty tho” thing. (For context, this happened when she was underage.) Greg said that to her, she later revealed it made her uncomfortable, he said it was a joke and told her she needs to leave, Sarah allegedly tried to take a bunch of pills but a 27 year old staying with them stopped her, Sarah allegedly told the 27 year old she was always in love with Greg. Kicked her out. (He says “allegedly” in those last couple points because he said in the 30+ videos that’s what he was told by the 27 year old woman, but didn’t believe her at the time.)

Sarah stayed with them 10 months out of the two years. Her mom signed a document saying they could make medical decisions for her, but she was never legally dependent on them.

Kai said in a livestream he was Sarah’s guardian, not Greg. Well it’s a good thing Kai never slept with Sarah.

When Sarah was 18 and 5 months, Sarah pressured Kai and put her mouth on Kai’s downstairs. She forced her boob into Kai’s mouth. Kai tried not to vomit. After, Kai went to the bathroom and cried. Greg saw this happen.

Sarah once went upstairs, kissed Kai, and said “oh fuck”. Kai expressed to Greg how mortified he was later on. (In those 30+ videos, Greg admitted he was the one that told Sarah to do this to Kai.)

Says there is a text we’ve seen where Sarah says if she expresses she was into Kai, Greg would kick her out. Greg says this is true because she was a minor.

Sarah said, “if anything I groomed you guys” to them because they kept rejecting her.

Sarah said she could destroy their lives if she wanted to. This is because she had the public’s knowledge that she was in their vicinity. After that, he asked her to sign an NDA. She said she would only sign the NDA if she could “get what she wants.” They knew Sarah was trying very hard to get with Kai, which also involved Greg.

In Washington state, sexual extortion is a crime. Sarah admitted she sexually extorted them but said it was just a joke. He compares it to walking into a bank, saying this is a robbery, taking the money, walking out, then saying it was just a joke. You already committed the crime.

Sarah admitted in text she knew Kai didn’t want to be with her.

After Greg refused to sleep with Sarah, she apologized for raping them. “Sorry for raping you guys.” Then she walked off. (He shows footage of her walking away, 2nd pic above.)

After she went on an internet tour where she told major gullible Youtubers they they were guilty of something they weren’t guilty of, following through on her initial threat of blackmailing them. She got what she wanted and violated the NDA and successfully ruined their lives anyway.

Greg talked to Kai recently and he mumbles, I think he said Kai didn’t really mean it when he said he was Sarah’s guardian. Greg points out again Kai didn’t sleep with Sarah.

(Text on screen talks about Sarah’s virginity, 3rd pic above.)

Kai didn’t commit a crime. Sarah raped Kai by forcing her mouth and boob on Kai when Kai just layed there.

Greg was never a guardian and never did anything while she was underage.

Well into being 18 (5 months) Sarah said nothing happened.

Sarah had access to Kai’s private photos on Kai’s laptop, as captured in a video and proven. So, no photo crimes. (I think he’s trying to say Sarah is using Kai’s nip slip in a Youtube video a few years ago as her evidence? I’m not 100% sure. I’m basing that off of what he said in the 30+ videos as well. He was never very clear about this point.) (EDIT: He’s saying it’s proven Sarah had access to Kai’s private photos, which was proven in this clip.)

No photo crimes, no grooming, no inappropriate contact = witch hunt. Says this is all a malicious, hate filled, vindictive campaign against Kai, who is completely innocent and actually a victim of Sarah.

People say Greg should be raped in prison or killed. Being blackmailed is not the fault of the person being blackmailed.

2020 outrage culture.

Greg says good luck to Chris Hansen on his upcoming court case. (pic 3 above)

Says to click the link in the description to see all the receipts. (it’s just a link to his receipts video. You can skip the video and view screen shots of his receipts here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7)

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notmyrick · 4 years

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General Arc 7

/She had a Rick once/ She remembered, she used to love sweets. /She had a Rick once, but she also had a Diane./ She remembered her life in Washington, in Michigan. /She had a Rick once, but she also had a Diane. Then she had a Beth. / She remembered the fights, the tears, the chaos. /She had a Rick once, but she also had a Diane. Now she only had a Beth. / She remembered her lowest point in life, how her sun can in the form of a small little girl. /She had a Rick once, but she also had a Diane. Then a Beth. / She remembered a house filled with only women at one point. /She had a Rick once/ She remembered her life before she pushed papers for the council. A life before she became the most trusted advocate for the Citadel of Ricks, before she used her business expertise to grow this space hub into the most glorious city on the central finite curve. She also remembered how she was experimented on for her "unique" effects on Ricks. /She had a Rick once/ And she'd be damned if she didn't get her Rick back. /She had a Rick once/ After 10+ years, both Rick and Roxxanne dropped back into the lives of Beth. She was undoubtedly pissed, but after a few months, and a lot of yelling, Roxy was able to explain what happened, to Beth. With this Roxx and Rick was introduced to the newest edition to the family, they might've been 14 years too late, but the boy finally got to meet his grandparents. The first thing Rick did with his grandson was go on an adventure. By the time both came back for dinner, Rick was yelling "Rick and Morty forever, 100 years!" Roxy smiled, age lines starting to grow in. Rick and Roxx finally looked like grandparents. /She had a Rick once/ Rick roped Morty in his antigovernment sentiments and most of their adventures started to target either the Federation or the council of Ricks. While her husband and grandson went off adventuring, she had a mission of her own as well. She started to target every Rick that has done her or her husband wrong during their time in captivity on the Citadel. With her unauthorized portal gun and a husband who could make portal fluid with a snap of his fingers she was able to maintain this lifestyle for a while. She didn’t know why it took her forever to learn that her actions create consequences. But by the time she learnt her lesson, it was already too late. /She had a Rick once/ And her Rick bled on the asphalt of the street. The red liquid painted the ground with majority on black pavement instead of his body. She walked into the Beth's home, where all their, now only her, memories were kept. The destruction in the living room, the kitchen, the garage, everywhere. Her lips trembled, truly scared of what she'll witness, but she must. If not for her, at least for them. For her Jerry, for her Beth. For her Summer and her Morty. But most of all for her Rick. "Surveillance, playback security cams. Reenact crime scene." She ended up puking for an entire day after watching. /She had a Rick once/ "Blow up dimension SW-33T. Record destruction and blame on terrorist Ricks C-550, 301B, C-132, and C-137. Follow same procedure for dimensions A-17, Zeta 02, and alpha 9 and all their sub-universes. Send "evidence" to the Citadel." "Action confirmed, now commencing destruction on 12 multiverses." The AI replied. Roxxanne did it, she got all her revenge to the people who did her wrong, but she never felt so empty. She caressed the portal gun her Rick made her. She modified so she can go unseen, by even the council of Ricks. She was able to create her own Portal fluid since the passing of her husband. She felt empty, and now wanted to fill the void. /She had a Rick once/ She did drugs, alcohol, and sex, but they were so temporary. Why couldn't something more fill the void, why couldn't be happy? Then she found her vice.

/She had a Rick once/ She turned her body toward the man she was sharing a bed with. Her vivacious red hair turned strawberry blonde. Her body, although impressive for her age, was still saggy in some places. She turned away from the ebony skinned man and got herself dressed. It was time for the act to begin. She grabbed the expensive but very valuable cigars he gifted her last night and left. She came back with a drugged-out woman with similar hair color as herself and draped her across the man. She checked their pluses and vital signs to ensure they were alive but knocked out. Finally, she gave a call. --- Roxxanne with makeup, a tank top, and tight jeans ran into the motel room and covered her mouth. She looked at her "friend" then at the two dead bodies on the bed. She ran back out, stuck a finger down her throat with her hands still covering her face and puked over the railing. Her "friend" came out and held her hair. Roxxanne started to pinch her skin, willing tears to come out. "I told you where he was at so you could work things out, not kill him!" "Roe! He was cheating on me! With a sex offender! That woman is a known sex offender in at least 2 states!" "What if you husband was the victim!" "Oh don't give him too much credit. Once I could believe, twice I'll pity, but for months! There is no way!" Her "friend" tried to bring Roxxanne inside, for a more private discussion, but she could already see the neighbors calling in the cops as the look out their window. "I’m going to jail. I should've never told you where he was! I can't go to jail, what am I going to do with my granddaughter!" Roxxanne broke down crying in public, she edged her peripherals to see some of the callers seem to pity her. Perfect. "Roe! Get in the room!" "No! I don’t want to! Please, don't make me go back in!" She protested and "struggled" against her grasp as she was dragged into the murder scene. The man she slept with hours before her "friend's" arrival had his head blown into smithereens. The woman she dragged in had her insides spilling out of her. She was a known sex offender with quite a racist profile, she would rape people of color and either cry wolf or torture them. Both were shot with a shot gun at close range, which is why the scene was so messy. "Roe, take the shotgun and hid it somewhere." "Please, please don’t make me do this." "We are already in too deep, you are now an accessory of murder. If you want to ever see your granddaughter again, we need to clean this up." Roxxanne looked passed her friend and saw and undercover cop car, parked outside. Roxxanne vehemently shook her head side to side, but her "friend" shoved the gun in her hands and shoved her out the door. Roxxanne shivered and shook as she descended the motel stairs with a shotgun cradled into her arms. Suddenly a man appeared in front of her and covered her mouth. She "jumped" and bit the inside of her cheeks to start the water works. "Okay miss I need you to- wait calm down, look I'm an undercover cop, not some bad guy look. Here is my badge. Everything is going to be fine now. We got witnesses that can testify for your innocence. You’re not in trouble." Roxxanne nervously shook her head and "complies" with the police. He took the gun away from her arms and told her to go to his colleague and pointed at the undercover car she spotted in the window. She agreed. --- That day her “friend” was instantly arrested and was sentence to life imprisonment. “Roe” came by and visited that friend for 3 months. Roe kept this friend sane and happy. For it was Roe who told this friend about her cheating husband, for it was Roe that was with her through the toughest times of her marriage. This friend talked to Roe everyday she was in prison through a phone and glass. In a short while, this friend looked forward to the everyday, mundane transpires of Roe. Everyday she waited for her to come back. Until one day she didn’t. This friend waited for hours, then days, then a week. This friend asked one of the guards what happened to Roe. They informed her that her friend “Roe” was assaulted last week and died just outside the prison. That friend got emotional really quick. The following week after being informed, she challenged and fought many inmates. By the next week her “friend” was found dead in her cell with no one cause how she died. The official cause of death statement: depression. Just like Diane. "Roe" disappeared neatly off the census and so was her “friend”. Roxxanne was on her driveway, garage open, smoking a big, fat cigar with a margarita on the side and sunglasses. Her strawberry blonde hair was dyed lighter and bit more pink. She puffed hazy air, relishing on the high she was on, lounging on a chair. She tapped the singe off in the designated jar that was placed on a cooler along with her drink. Although this game was quite messy, she killed three birds one stone. The void in her chest seemed to shrink, it almost made her feel complete, but previous attempts told her this was only a temporary bliss. 6 months, this game lasted her 6 months. 3 for the husband, and 3 for her "friend". She honestly thought the game would last longer; she overestimated her targets. She was always down for the long game. She had the time, money, and patience. For a 63-year-old she didn’t look a day over 50. Or at least that what she told herself. She was obsessed with a few things in life. One of them was beauty. She wanted to look young even though she did not feel young at all. Personally, if she had the option to choose, she would rather feel young than look, but she hasn't felt young since she lost her husband, so she could only go for the next best thing: looks. She was also obsessed with pushing people to their own toxicity. It didn’t really matter who, but she still has morals so she tries to aims this obsession to the disgusting people of the world. Finally, she was obsessed with- "Ah gee, Rick, we- we need to clean this up before mom gets home!" "Sh...ut up Mooorty. I... I've... You k-know what, just don't think about it. I al... always have a p-plan." A blue haired scientist just crash landed on his own house, burping through his sentence with alcohol splayed on his face. Beside him was a young brown-haired boy hunched shoulders looking at his grandfather nervously. The space craft skidded on top of their house and into their driveway. Thankfully for Rick it didn't crash into the garage, but the vehicle itself looks worse for wear. Oh, and the roof. Roxxanne took a sip or her margarita as she watched the Smith duo from afar. Her shades displayed nothing abnormal on the outside, the world oblivious to her actions. The scientist grabbed a familiar box and pressed the button. "Hi I'm Mr. Meeseeks!" "Mr. Meeseeks, repair the roof." "Can do!!" The blue humanoid immediately began the process of repairing the roof. Rick ordered Morty to pick up the metal scraps scattered on the driveway from the space craft. With only very little resistance, he agreed, and the blue haired man took off his lab coat and start fixing his hovercraft. The woman sighed and took off her sunglasses. The Smith house disappeared as she did so. Her eyes gazed around the neighborhood she actually lived in. Generally, a better-looking neighborhood than the Smith family. It was more well-kept, a bit more pretentious, and still a suburbia: the grass was a bit greener, the streets were well paved with no cracks, and the sidewalks were clean. She was a few blocks down from where the Smith family lived. She stretched in her chair before moving to place everything back in her garage. In her driveway was a posh looking car and inside the garage was a motorcycle. "Great aunt Roxx?" She stopped briefly and looked at the person who called her. She smiled and continue to pack up as she replied. "Yes, sweet pea?" "Can my friends and I stay over your house for a study session?" "No problem, just tell me the date." "Thanks grandma!" "No problem, Jessica." Once the teenage redhead left back inside her house, she finished packing. Smoking the last of her blunt, she also downed her margarita like it was a shot. The sunglasses she took off hanged on the shirt near her chest. She took a brief look back at the Smith house and saw the same scenario. She took the glasses off and placed them in a cabinet in her garage. The garage was well maintained and clean. One half was dedicated to her tinkering or self-repair for vehicles, while the other hosted her joy ride. She closed the garage door and entered her two-story house through the garage. In this dimension, she never met Rick. In this dimension she didn't meet Diane. In this dimension she never had a Beth. In this dimension, she didn't have anyone. Not until she got an invitation to a funeral. A funeral of her apparent older sister by a few years. She went out of curiosity, and met her grandniece, Jessica. Memories, probably suppressed by this Roxxanne's body, flooded into her. She had a family? In this dimension, she never found anyone who could keep up with her, thus making her all alone. In this dimension she was smart, too smart for her own good. She was a successful business woman, did time in the army, and loved to tinker with improbable science ideas. This dimension was almost an exact mimicry of her own, the only difference… The only difference was she had no relation to the Smith family. Her consciousness, after she died in her original body, rerouted her to this dimension. To be honest she was ready to start over, turn a new leaf, be a better person. Sure, she had an estranged family, but this was her chance to reconnect. In addition, she could be herself and not act in front of them because they didn’t know her. The set up was perfect. Yet, it all came crashing down when she saw a familiar family at a grocery store a month after.

She knew then, this was the catch and she was too curious for her own good.

What was this Rick like? Was he good? Was he Evil? Was he bad? Old habits die hard. Yes, she had one more obsession. She was obsessed with Rick Sanchez. This Rick was one of the terrorist Ricks. One of which she blamed for the destruction of a few multiverse. /She had a Rick once/ Rick SW-33T. /She had a Rick once/

And this was not her Rick.

#rickandmorty #rick and morty #rick sanchez #Rick x oc #oc background #Rick x roxxanne #roxxannerivas #roxxanne rivas #toxic behavior #multiverse Roxxannes #short story #snippets #stories #rick and morty fanfiction #fanfic #fanfiction #related to jessica #General Arc 7 RaM

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sanikori · 5 years

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So, i forced myself to watch Leaving Neverland...

And i swear, i've never hated some stangers in my life to the point where i want them dead. I felt my oxygen leave me and i was choking on my fucking tears from all the lies. I felt so sick, that i puked 5 times. But now i've recomposed myself so that i can expose these liars. I didn't want to go back in time and know how in feels to be a moonwalker in 1993. I wanted people to still talk about Michael, but not like this, never like this.

First things first, as Michael Williams, stated on Twitter, Michael has been investigated from the FBI for 13 fucking years.

Here we see 72 officers and 50 FBI agents in the Neverland Ranch in Santa Barbara. They searched every angle and interviewed everyone to find evidence and guess what? They found nothing.

He's been proved innocent at not 1 but 2 trials. To this day, there's still no valid proof that Michael did any of those things.

Even Michael’s fucking bodyguard stepped in to defended him and expose Wade.

Here's some of the bullshit they said in that documentary, Let's start with James Safetruck: James: "I've spent Thanksgiving in 1987 with him at his home" Wrong, Michael was in Australia as a part of the Bad Tour in November 24 1987 James: "Michael didn't want us spending any time with women and cut contact with me after puberty"

Really James? then how come we see you AFTER puberty holding an umbrella for Michael while Michael's ex wife, Lisa Marie Presley, was there with the both of you. James: "I was abused by Michael in New York in 1989 after he performed at the Grammys" Fake. The Grammys were in Los Angeles and Michael didn't perform at the Grammys in 1989. Now let's go with Wade Robson Wade: "I was molested by Michael between ages 7 and 14" Wade is now 36 so it happened from 1989 till 1996. So you're telling me that these "rapes" happend DURING the Chandler investigation and DURING Michael's marriage to Lisa Marie Presley as well? and the FBI found nothing? really? bitch please.

Here comes my favourite lie Then there's the MANIPOLATED footage of Michael begin honoured at the Regent Hotel and he apparently recorded a message for Wade "on his birthday" where Michael "says" "Hello Wade, today is your birthday"

The video at the Regent Hotel was recorded on the 20th February in 1990 while Wade's birthday in on the 7th of September and the original video was meant for Elizabeth Taylor.

Also Wade and James didn't even really grew up with Michael, they didn't even know Michael that well... they BEGGED to have Michael's attention and since Michael is an angel, they got it. Also i'd like to tell you that it’s the same Wade that DEFENDED Michael not only once, but 3 mother fucking times.

If you two are saying that Michael raped you both, then how come that Macaulay Culkin (the kid from the "Home Alone" movie) the one who literally grew up with Michael by his side, who basically lived at Neverland and was a child like the both of you, said that nothing happened between him and Michael and is still defending him to this day?

They change their stories every fucking second too. Wade has changed his story 4 times and James 2 times. Wade's first version of the story: Michael threatened and manipulated him that they'll go to jail if he says anything Wade's second version of the story: He didn't "realize" he's been abused Wade's third version of the story: He felt shame Wade's fourth version of the story: He ALWAYS knew what Michael did but he didn't realize it was bad (because who doesn't have anal sex with kids, right?) Then there's James: James's first version of the story: Michael and his people were threatening him to keep quiet and James refused to testify but he and his mom knew he had been abused James's second version of the story: He didn't realize he was abused till 2014. They're so worthless that they don't even know how to lie. If you gotta lie about a dead man to earn money, do it properly. It's also funny how they don't mention that Michael was around little girls as well and not only boys, whenever it was on the streets or in Neverland. Meanwhile Oprah just said "Fuck you" to 3 generations of Jacksons by backstabbing the man who welcomed her in his house by siding with these little shits. Not only Oprah knew, but she provited the “victims”. Also the reason why Oprah promoted "Leaving Neverland" is because at the Sundance, it was also a documentary about Harvey Weinstein, who is an actual pedophile and has been found guilty. But since he's Oprah’s best friend (yes, you heard that right) they just diverted the attention in media to Michael instead of Weinstein But Wade is the one i hate the most because not only he is a liar but he's also the REAL pedophile... his reputation was so bad that kids at jumpdance called him "Uncle Perv" and the mothers wanted them to stay away from him. Like, there's literally a photo of him side hugging a girl and his left hand is close to her breast while he has his right hand on his fucking dick.

He cheated on Michael's niece, Brandi Jackson (the two have been in a relationship for 8 years) with Britney Spears which resulted in Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me A River" song and he did hard drugs. Not to mention that he made out with his SISTER ON STAGE! and this bastard has a son which i really feel sorry for... but most of all, he's a crazy ass bitch. Paris Jackson (Michael's daughter) and Taj Jackson (Michael's nephew) are both REAL victims of sexual abuse, stop to think how these two feel about this. Also Taj found texts with Wade in 2009 where Wade is thanking Taj for letting him go to Michael's memorial

Also Taj recently stated in an inteview that Michael's third son, Bigi (Blanket) Jackson is not talking anymore. And the teachers are worried about him. He literally won't speak, at all.

In conclusion: Michael Jackson is innocent. He’s the real victim.

Please, tell what would lead him to do such a thing?

You're just gonna forget all the money he gave to charity? the many lives he saved? how he considered his fans as part of his family?

I've been a fan of him since i was 4 and i'll love and defend him till i die. This man saved me with his music in my darkest times, i feel protected whenever i see or hear anything related to him, he's my inspiration, my everything and if i could make a dead celebrity come back to life, it would be him... i was meant to go to his "This Is It" concert in July, meeting him for the first time but... it never happened... because he left... i've been called a pedophile supporter just for defending him... do you know how much this hurts? I've seen "moonwalkers" turning their back on Michael like it was nothing... i've been told that i need to accept the fact that my hero is in reality a bad guy, that i'm protecting him just cause i'm a fan.

They made you belive that he bleached his skin when in reality he suffered from Vitiligo and wasn't confident enough to show it to the entire world.

They made you belive that he changed because he had too much plastic surgery when in reality he suffered from Lupus. But even if the did have too much plastic surgery, why should it matter since half of the celebrities have plastic surgery?

They made you belive that he was gay when in reality he has been married to Debbie Rowe, who gifted him with Prince and Paris, and Lisa Marie Presley, he crushed on Diana Ross and Brooke Shields, was kissed on stage by Taitana Thumbtzen aka the girl in TWYMMF (The Way You Make Me Feel) and how to forget his infamous In The Closet song with Naomi Campbell? but even if he was, he’s still Michael.

They made you belive that he was a Junkie when in reality he had many medical illnesses that needed medication and a lot of painkillers.

But most of all, they made you belive that he was a pedophile when in reality he wanted to create the childhood he never had in his adulthood and there's nothing wrong with that, he couldn’t trust adults because instead of seeing him as a human with emotions, they saw him as a cash machine. If it wasn't for the kids, he would have already killed himself, he wouldn’t care to live and he said that he would rather slit his wrists instead of hurting a child.

It's not about defending my idol just cause i'm one of his countless fans, it's about giving a voice to a man who's no longer here to defend himself.

How am i going to belive them since they're accusing Michael Joseph Jackson, the same Michael that didn't want to step on a bug and called his bodyguard to take it while saying "Don't kill it!" while he was performing on stage? the same Michael that would have died for a squirrel?

This man is dead

Attacking a dead man isn't brave.

James Gunn is still alive and he signed with a major studio

Where in everyone in the media?

They are a bunch of pathetic cowards.

So guys please, don't watch this so called documentary cause they are calling:

His ex wives liars

His friends liars

The people who worked for him for over 20 years liars

His fans liars

His FAMILY liars

But they want you to just belive the word of two proven liars.

It’s been almost 10 years since we lost him.

Wake the fuck up.

Can’t belive we’re in 2019 and you decide now that he’s guilty for something he never did. Evan Chandler forced his son, Jordan Chandler, to accuse Michael for money. Then when Michael died, Evan regretted it so much that he hanged himself. I'm waiting for Wade, James, Oprah, Martin, Connrad and everyone who belives them to do the same thing since they're all nothing but a waste of air. But don't you worry cause Taj is making a TRUE documentary that proves Michael's innocence and once it's released, they will watch their lifes crumble into tiny pieces with their own eyes and i will be there, smiling while eating pocorns. Anyone who’s a brain washed moron who don’t belive that Michael is innocent or even thinks of calling me a pedophile supporter needs to fuck off right fucking now because you will be attacked visciously, blocked and reported so DO NOT BOTHER ME

In case you didn’t understand, i’ll gladly repeat in a more vulgar way since it’s the only way you can all communicate with other people

DUMBASS BITCHES DO NOT INTERACT WITH ME! STAY THE FUCK BACK!

You guys don’t bother to do your research, you should hear both sides of the story to come to a conclusion instead of going along with everything they say. You all eat their plate of lies just like you eat your mother’s food at lunch time. You don’t ask yourself “Are they lying to me?” no, you just go along with every single fucking thing they say cause you’re dependent from the Media.

Face it, we are in the right and we’re going to win this battle. Also, these people without Michael in their lifes, would have been nothing. PS: Someone needs to tell Wade that fantazing about having Michael's dick in his mouth at age 11 in not normal.

Now i want you all to blast at all volume the songs Money, Tabloid Junkie, Morphine and Leave Me Alone in honour of these good for nothing liars as you read this post of them begin exposed from head to toe by me

#michael jackson

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asiajanuary2020 · 4 years

Text

January 20, 2020

Today we started our day visiting the The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (Khmer: សារមន្ទីរឧក្រិដ្ឋកម្មប្រល័យពូជសាសន៍ទួលស្លែង). It is a museum in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, chronicling the Cambodian genocide. The site is a former secondary school which was used as Security Prison 21 (S-21) by the Khmer Rouge regime from its rise to power in 1975 to its fall in 1979. From 1976 to 1979, an estimated 20,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng (the real number is unknown). Tuol Sleng (Khmer: ទួលស្លែង Khmer pronunciation: [tuəl slaeŋ]) means "Hill of the Poisonous Trees" or "Strychnine Hill". Tuol Sleng was just one of at least 150 torture and execution centers established by the Khmer Rouge,[2] though other sources put the figure at 196 prison centers. On July 26, 2010, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia convicted the chief of Tuol Sleng Prison, Kang Kek Iew, (alias Duch) for crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and sentenced him to life imprisonment. Formerly the Tuol Svay Pray High School,[4] named after a royal ancestor of King Norodom Sihanouk, the five buildings of the complex were converted in March/April 1976 into a prison and interrogation center. Before other buildings in town were used already as prison S-21. The Khmer Rouge renamed the complex "Security Prison 21" (S-21) and construction began to adapt the prison to the inmates: the buildings were enclosed in electrified barbed wire, the classrooms converted into tiny prison and torture chambers, and all windows were covered with iron bars and barbed wire to prevent escapes and suicides.

From 1976 to 1979, an estimated 20,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng (the real number is unknown). At any one time, the prison held between 1,000–1,500 prisoners. They were repeatedly tortured and coerced into naming family members and close associates, who were in turn arrested, tortured and killed. In the early months of S-21's existence, most of the victims were from the previous Lon Nol regime and included soldiers, government officials, as well as academics, doctors, teachers, students, factory workers, monks, engineers, etc. Later, the party leadership's paranoia turned on its own ranks and purges throughout the country saw thousands of party activists and their families brought to Tuol Sleng and murdered.[4] Those arrested included some of the highest ranking communist politicians such as Khoy Thoun, Vorn Vet and Hu Nim. Although the official reason for their arrest was "espionage", these men may have been viewed by Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot as potential leaders of a coup against him. Prisoners' families were sometimes brought en masse to be interrogated and later executed at the Choeung Ek extermination center.

In 1979, the prison was uncovered by the invading Vietnamese army. In 1979/80, the prison was reopened by the government of the People's Republic of Kampuchea as a historical museum memorializing the actions of the Khmer Rouge regime.

Upon arrival at the prison, prisoners were photographed and required to give detailed autobiographies, beginning with their childhood and ending with their arrest. After that, they were forced to strip to their underwear, and their possessions were confiscated. The prisoners were then taken to their cells. Those taken to the smaller cells were shackled to the walls or the concrete floor. Those who were held in the large mass cells were collectively shackled to long pieces of iron bar. The shackles were fixed to alternating bars; the prisoners slept with their heads in opposite directions. They slept on the floor without mats, mosquito nets, or blankets. They were forbidden to talk to each other.[4]

The day in the prison began at 4:30 a.m. when prisoners were ordered to strip for inspection. The guards checked to see if the shackles were loose or if the prisoners had hidden objects they could use to commit suicide. Over the years, several prisoners managed to kill themselves, so the guards were very careful in checking the shackles and cells. The prisoners received four small spoonfuls of rice porridge and watery soup of leaves twice a day. Drinking water without asking the guards for permission resulted in serious beatings. The inmates were hosed down every four days.[4]

The prison had very strict regulations, and severe beatings were inflicted upon any prisoner who tried to disobey. Almost every action had to be approved by one of the prison's guards. They were sometimes forced to eat human feces and drink human urine.[5] The unhygienic living conditions in the prison caused skin diseases, lice, rashes, ringworm and other ailments. The prison's medical staff were untrained and offered treatment only to sustain prisoners' lives after they had been injured during interrogation. When prisoners were taken from one place to another for interrogation, they were blindfolded. Guards and prisoners were not allowed to converse. Moreover, within the prison, people who were in different groups were not allowed to have contact with one another. Most prisoners at S-21 were held there for two to three months. However, several high-ranking Khmer Rouge cadres were held longer. Within two or three days after they were brought to S-21, all prisoners were taken for interrogation.[4] The torture system at Tuol Sleng was designed to make prisoners confess to whatever crimes they were charged with by their captors. Prisoners were routinely beaten and tortured with electric shocks, searing hot metal instruments and hanging, as well as through the use of various other devices. Some prisoners were cut with knives or suffocated with plastic bags. Other methods for generating confessions included pulling out fingernails while pouring alcohol on the wounds, holding prisoners' heads under water, and the use of the waterboarding technique. Women were sometimes raped by the interrogators, even though sexual abuse was against Democratic Kampuchea (DK) policy. The perpetrators who were found out were executed.[4] Although many prisoners died from this kind of abuse, killing them outright was discouraged, since the Khmer Rouge needed their confessions. The "Medical Unit" at Tuol Sleng, however, did kill at least 100 prisoners by bleeding them to death.[6] It is proven that medical experiments were performed on certain prisoners. There is clear evidence that patients in Cambodia were sliced open and had organs removed with no anesthetic.[7][8] In addition, there is also some evidence that inmates were drained of blood in order to study how long they would survive.[9][10]

In their confessions, the prisoners were asked to describe their personal background. If they were party members, they had to say when they joined the revolution and describe their work assignments in DK. Then the prisoners would relate their supposed treasonous activities in chronological order. The third section of the confession text described prisoners' thwarted conspiracies and supposed treasonous conversations. At the end, the confessions would list a string of traitors who were the prisoners' friends, colleagues, or acquaintances. Some lists contained over a hundred names. People whose names were in the confession list were often called in for interrogation.[4]

Typical confessions ran into thousands of words in which the prisoner would interweave true events in their lives with imaginary accounts of their espionage activities for the CIA, the KGB, or Vietnam. Physical torture was combined with sleep deprivation and deliberate neglect of the prisoners. The torture implements are on display in the museum. It is believed that the vast majority of prisoners were innocent of the charges against them and that the torture produced false confessions. Not all prisoners were tortured.

For the first year of S-21's existence, corpses were buried near the prison. However, by the end of 1976, cadres ran out of burial spaces, the prisoner and family members were taken to the Boeung Choeung Ek ("Crow's Feet Pond") extermination centre, fifteen kilometers from Phnom Penh.[11] There, they were killed by a group of teenagers led by a Comrade Teng[11] being battered with iron bars, pickaxes, machetes and many other makeshift weapons owing to the scarcity, and subsequent price of ammunition. After the prisoners were executed, the soldiers who had accompanied them from S-21 buried them in graves that held as few as 6 and as many as 100 bodies.

This was another very somber place with such a terrible history. It was very hard to see and learn about the stories attached to this place. There were two survivors of the prison there today which we met and learned about what happened to them. The only reason they are still alive is that one of the gentlemen was able to repair typewriters, which they used in the prison, and the other gentleman was an artist who painted flattering pictures of Pol Pot. They were still alive when the Vietnamese liberated the prison.

After leaving the museum, we got on our bikes and rode 25 kilometers through the countryside of Phnom Penh. The countryside is littered. Our tour guide explained that this is because the older generation for the most part is not educated well and they do not understand that all the trash and plastic is harming the environment. He said the younger generation here are very worried about the consequences.

Next we went to Ta Prohm (Khmer: ប្រាសាទតាព្រហ្ម, "Ancestor Brahma") Temple. It is the modern name of the temple at Angkor, Siem Reap Province, Cambodia, built in the Bayon style largely in the late 12th and early 13th centuries and originally called Rajavihara (Khmer: រាជវិហារ, "royal monastery"). Located approximately one kilometre east of Angkor Thom and on the southern edge of the East Baray, it was founded by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII[1]:125[2]:388 as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery and university. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Ta Prohm is in much the same condition in which it was found: the photogenic and atmospheric combination of trees growing out of the ruins and the jungle surroundings have made it one of Angkor's most popular temples with visitors. UNESCO inscribed Ta Prohm on the World Heritage List in 1992. Today, it is one of the most visited complexes in Cambodia’s Angkor region. The conservation and restoration of Ta Prohm is a partnership project of the Archaeological Survey of India and the APSARA (Authority for the Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap).

Next we had lunch out on an over the water hut on Tonle Bati Lake. It is a small lake about 30 km south of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. It is a popular weekend destination for the local population. It is also a popular fishing spot for both tourists and people who live locally. The women who owned the hut made lunch for us and we relaxed along the water with a much welcomed cool breeze blowing over us.

Our next stop was The Killing Fields, one of the many locations where the Khmer Rouge sent prisoners for immediate death. The Killing Fields (Khmer: វាលពិឃាត, Khmer pronunciation: [ʋiəl pikʰiət]) are a number of sites in Cambodia where collectively more than a million people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime (the Communist Party of Kampuchea) during its rule of the country from 1975 to 1979, immediately after the end of the Cambodian Civil War (1970–1975). The mass killings are widely regarded as part of a broad state-sponsored genocide (the Cambodian genocide).

Analysis of 20,000 mass grave sites by the DC-Cam Mapping Program and Yale University indicates at least 1,386,734 victims of execution. Estimates of the total deaths resulting from Khmer Rouge policies, including death from disease and starvation, range from 1.7 to 2.5 million out of a 1975 population of roughly 8 million. In 1979, Vietnam invaded Democratic Kampuchea and toppled the Khmer Rouge regime; viewed as ending the genocide.

The Cambodian journalist Dith Pran coined the term "killing fields" after his escape from the regime.

The Khmer Rouge regime arrested and eventually executed almost everyone suspected of connections with the former government or with foreign governments, as well as professionals and intellectuals. Ethnic Vietnamese, ethnic Thai, ethnic Chinese, ethnic Cham, Cambodian Christians, and the Buddhist monkhood were the demographic targets of persecution. As a result, Pol Pot has been described as "a genocidal tyrant." Martin Shaw described the Cambodian genocide as "the purest genocide of the Cold War era."

Ben Kiernan estimates that about 1.7 million people were killed.[6] Researcher Craig Etcheson of the Documentation Center of Cambodia suggests that the death toll was between 2 and 2.5 million, with a "most likely" figure of 2.2 million. After 5 years of researching some 20,000 grave sites, he concludes that "these mass graves contain the remains of 1,386,734 victims of execution."[7] A UN investigation reported 2–3 million dead, while UNICEF estimated 3 million had been killed.[8] Demographic analysis by Patrick Heuveline suggests that between 1.17 and 3.42 million Cambodians were killed, while Marek Sliwinski suggests that 1.8 million is a conservative figure. Even the Khmer Rouge acknowledged that 2 million had been killed—though they attributed those deaths to a subsequent Vietnamese invasion. By late 1979, UN and Red Cross officials were warning that another 2.25 million Cambodians faced death by starvation due to "the near destruction of Cambodian society under the regime of ousted Prime Minister Pol Pot", who were saved by international aid after the Vietnamese invasion.

Another very sad place to see, but very important information to understand.

Our tour guide and driver dropped us back at our hotel. It was an interesting day for us. All of this happened when we were teenagers and it is so awful to think that it just wasn’t that long ago, and we just never seem to learn lessons from these atrocities.

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glitterrhowell · 6 years

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Chapter 17

Title: Seized

Co-author: fadingcrystalvoid

Pairing: Daniel Howell & AmazingPhil (Phan

Word count: 3k

Warning/Genre: Rape/extreme violence/ depression/PTSD/Degradation/torture/ Non-consensual pretty much everything/Little!Dan/Daddy!Phil/Kidnapping

Summary: What starts out as a day in the Park for Little Dan and Daddy Phil turns into something terrifying when Dan is suddenly kidnapped. Will Phil be able to find and save him before it’s too late? Heavy trigger warning

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A huge thank you to my beta Alyssa (phan-of-the_pen) for putting up with my sloppy messy writing and helping me turn it into something readable

When Dan had first got to the psychiatric ward he was miserable and he hated it. But after the first couple of days, he realized maybe it wasn’t so bad. Every day was the same, yes, but after everything he had been through the routine was nice.

6:00 A.M. Wake up

7:00 A.M Breakfast

7:30 A.M. Shower

8:00 A.M. Downtime (Where nurses tended to his wounds)

9:00 A.M. Group therapy

12:00 P.M. Lunch

1:00 P.M Downtime

2:00 P.M Individual therapy

4:00 P.M Group therapy

6:00 P.M Dinner

7:30 until 10:00 P.M. Downtime (Where his wounds were tended to again)

10:30 P.M. Lights Out

To some people, this might sound boring, but to Dan, it was the normalcy he needed in his life at the moment.

On the third day he found out Phil had woken up, but when he asked to see him he was told Phil would be in the hospital for the next few days, as well as the fact that Dan had to earn visitation privileges.

He spent his downtime with Eric and Kate—he had actually grown to become really good friends with the both of them. When he had let it slip he was a Youtuber neither of them looked at him any different than before. They did, however, make jokes and thinly veiled innuendos about him making videos in his bedroom. It was the first time he had laughed since everything had happened.

He never talked during group therapy—he wasn’t ready to talk about what had happened in front of people yet. But during group therapy, he had learned the reasons why Eric and Kate were in the psych ward.

Eric had grown up with this alcoholic father, his mother having died when she had him. His dad would beat him daily and starve him, telling him he was “just a stupid fat fag who had killed his own mother.” The only reason he was even in the hospital was that he had passed out one day while at work. They had called an ambulance and once he was admitted to the ER he was diagnosed with anorexia. Later after therapy, he had also learned he had PTSD and body dysmorphia. He had been here for five months.

Kate had been here less time, only two months, but her story couldn’t have been any more different to Eric’s. She had grown up in the perfect family. Her parents were rich and always spending money on her so she could succeed in everything she did. But the pressure from her family to be perfect had been too much to handle and she had begun self-harming at a very young age. She had been top of her class in high school and had been accepted into one of the top schools in England. But during her first year of college, finally being free from her parents, she started partying and doing drugs. She had wound up in here after a four-day long bender. She had overdosed on some drug she couldn’t remember, and when the ER saw her fresh self-harm cuts they admitted her instantly.

Although he didn’t speak during group therapy, he did start talking in his individual therapy sessions. He was working with Lela, who had apparently been his therapist before Dan had been admitted to the hospital. He was told that when he's seen her he had been stuck in little space, but he didn’t really remember. In fact, most of his time while kidnapped, and in little space once he returned home was somewhat of a blur. He could remember bits and pieces, and of course, and he could remember the stuff that occurred the last few days after he had been able to regress out of little space, but that was it.

There was a large part of him that was glad that he couldn't remember.

“So Dan, how are you feeling today?” Lela smiled brightly at him.

“I’m fine, I guess.” He shrugged his shoulders.

“I hear you have yet to open up in group therapy. Can I ask why?”

Dan fidgeted in his seat, ”I don’t know.” He cast his eyes down to the floor, avoiding her gaze.

“There is nothing to be ashamed of Dan. But if you want to start getting better, then you going to have to start opening up. Keeping everything inside only ends up hurting you, in the end”

Looking back up, he noticed her concerned smile. She hadn’t pushed him so hard the last couple of sessions, and he wondered why she was pushing the topic so hard now.

“I’m just not ready. I mean, I don’t even remember much other than the last few days.”

He was getting frustrated; he was here, wasn’t he? He was trying to get better. So what if he didn’t want to talk in front of a bunch of people.

Lela sighed. “Dan, I shouldn’t be telling you this, but you're really close to having enough points to allow visitors. I know Phil has just been released, and he really wants to visit you.”

His head shot up and the mention of Phil. “Really? Phil can come to visit me?” His heart hurt at the news; he hadn’t seen him in over a week and the last time he did, Phil had been rushed out of the room, unresponsive.

“Yes, but you have to start opening up in group therapy as well as here with me- “

Dan cut her off. “I promise I will start sharing, can I please see Phil?” His eyes shone with hope Lela had never seen in him before.

She took several minutes to answer but finally, she said, “Alright. I really shouldn't be doing this, but if you promise me you're going to start sharing and working harder, I will approve you.”

“Thank you so much!” He nearly jumped out of his chair with excitement, a grin wide on his face, dimples in full effect.

The rest of the session was spent on an exercise designed to bring his memory back. He wasn’t so sure he wanted to remember, but he would do anything to see Phil.

~~~~~~~~~~~

When Dan left her office, Lela sank down and put her head in her hands. This was a lot more difficult than she thought it would be. She had grown quite attached to Dan during their sessions when he was a little, and that attachment had only gotten stronger the more they worked together. It had been a debate about whether she should continue to treat Dan after she was the one to find him and Phil. The board of the hospital tried getting her to take some time off, claiming she was too close to the situation, but she had insisted that she be the only one to treat Dan. The board wasn’t happy, but they approved her to continue to treat him.

She had been there when the rescue and ambulance team had wheeled the boys out of their apartment. She had never seen anything like it in her twenty years of work. The words that had littered Dan’s body were vulgar and disgusting. Dan was hesitant to talk about them and she didn’t understand why that, in particular, was a tough subject for him as he had already started to open up about the rape, but he would not talk about the words. She didn’t want to push him too hard too fast, however, because she was afraid he may slip back into his little space, so she refrained from asking too many questions. After last time, when he had regressed for weeks, it would not be a good idea and would hinder his progress.

Lela felt her hands were sopping wet—she hadn’t even realized she had been crying. Maybe she should have taken a few days off like the board suggested. But she knew she had to be there for Dan. No matter what she was feeling right now, she had to focus on him.

~~~~~~~~~~

Phil was standing in the doorway of their apartment, or what was once their apartment. The police had completely ransacked the entire place, leaving nothing unturned as they looked for evidence. He began to shake as he entered the apartment. He stopped halfway into the kitchen. He couldn't do this, he couldn’t be here after what happened, and what about Dan? He isn’t going to want to be here when he comes home either. He made a decision he grabbed his wallet of the kitchen counter and got out of there as fast as he could.

He ended up getting a hotel room—nothing fancy but a place they could both be comfortable until they decided what they were going to do. His parents had ended up going to get a few things from the apartment for him. Just the essentials, really. A few changes of clothes, both his and Dan’s laptops and phones, a few other things. He felt bad making his parents do it even though they insisted that they didn’t mind, but he just couldn’t face that place, not yet.

His parents were staying in the same hotel, and he was supposed to meet them downstairs for dinner ten minutes ago, but he had been held up on the phone with Dan’s parents. They refused to come down and see him—they were still mad about what happened last time they had been there. Phil couldn't understand how they could let that stand in the way of seeing their own son. He nearly died—not once, but twice—and all they could think about was their own pride. When Phil had started telling them this, they had rudely hung up on him. He threw his phone down on the bed. He was more than just a little bit angry, he was outraged. But he would have to worry about that later because he was now fifteen minutes late for dinner. However, he made sure he told both his parents that night how much he loved and appreciated them.

~~~~~~~~~~~

It was Saturday—finally the day Phil was coming to visit. He had been so nervous and excited he hadn’t slept all night.

“Will you stop pacing? You're driving me crazy.” Eric whined from his side of the room.

“I can’t help it, Phil is coming today.”

“Really he is? It’s not like it’s the only thing you’ve been talking about for the past two days,” he teased.

“Oh shut up,” Dan said, maybe a bit too harshly, but Eric didn’t seem affected.

“So, do I get to meet this amazing Phil?” he chuckled at his own joke.

Dan just rolled his eyes.

The nurse on duty stuck her head in the door. “Daniel, your visitor is here.”

He took a deep breath and followed her out of the room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Phil was beyond excited when he had gotten the phone telling him he could finally see Dan. He couldn’t believe it! His parents had wanted to come too, but Dan was only allowed one visitor, so they stayed behind at the hotel.

Phil was sat in a cramped room that had nothing but a table and two chairs. There was barely even enough room to move. He tapped his fingers on the table; he was starting to feel claustrophobic in the tiny room, but he instantly forgot all about that the moment the door opened.

Dan stood in front of him. He was looking a lot better than last time he had seen him—the bruises on his face were almost entirely healed and he had a boot on his foot instead of having to be in a wheelchair. He was wearing pants and a long sleeve shirt so Phil wasn’t able to see his stomach, but he was almost glad he couldn’t. His own stomach turned at the thought that he had been the one to carve the vile things into and all over Dan.

“Phil,” Dan whispered, bringing him out of his thoughts. The moment their eyes met Dan flung himself into Phil's arms. They were these two giants sitting on the floor of this tiny room, clinging on to each other like their lives depended on it, crying their eyes out, reunited at last.

Eventually, their sobs stopped and they just sat, holding each other. It was Phil who spoke first. “God am I happy to see you.”

“I’m happy to see you too, Phil,” Dan sighed and pulled Phil closer, burying his head in the crook of his neck.

They didn’t talk much, but what they did talk about strictly avoided anything that had happened. Instead, Phil told him how his family was doing and how they hoped to visit him soon. He didn’t say anything about the apartment, but he did mention that he was staying in a hotel at the moment even though they both knew why. Dan talked about Eric and Kate, telling him some funny stories about them. Phil told him he was happy that he had made some friends here.

They eventually moved off of the floor and sat across the table from each other, but had their hands stretched across it so they could still be touching.

“Dan, I talked to one of the doctors here and they said you could leave anytime you want, so I was thinking...how about we get you out of here?” he looked at Dan hopefully.

He had expected Dan to be elated and happy, not upset like he looked.

“What’s wrong?"

“Phil I...I don’t think I want to leave.” he pulled his hand away from Phil's and set it in front of himself.

“What do you mean you don’t want to leave?” Phil asked him, confused.

Dan was silent a moment before he answered. “Phil, I don’t think I’m ready to leave yet. I’m not ready to face everything yet. Please don’t be mad at me,” he pleaded.

Of course, Phil wasn’t mad at him—he could never be mad at him. Dan even made a good point. Phil had been avoiding everything since he was discharged from the hospital. Dodging the press and not even having the courage to open social media, leaving his friends to deal with everything. He didn’t want Dan to have to deal with that as well.

Phil was pulled out of his thoughts by a whimper. He looked over and saw Dan crying. He rushed over and wrapped his arms around Dan, all of his thoughts flying from his mind. “Hey, hey, it’s ok. It’s going to be ok. I’m not mad at you.” He wrapped his arm tighter around Dan's shoulders.

“You're not mad, you promise?” he sniffled into Phil’s shirt.

It broke his heart that Dan thought he would be mad at him. He rubbed Dan's back. “Hey, I promise, alright, love?”

They didn’t have much time after that since Dan only got an hour for a visit, but they spent the rest of the time cuddling and just talking. Once it was time to say goodbye, neither of them wanted to be the first one to let go.

“You promise you’ll come back next week right?”

Phil chuckled “I promise, love.”

It was Phil who pulled away first; both of them had tears in their eyes again.

“I love you, alright?”

“I love you too, Phil,” he said before finally turning around and leaving the room, heart heavy at having to willingly walk away from the man he loved.

Phil sat back down at the table and just cried.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dan was so emotionally exhausted when he got to his room that he decided to take a nap. He was awoken a few hours later by Eric.

“Hey, sleepyhead, how did visitation go?”

He blinked a few times before he sat up, still tired. “What?”

“I asked how your visitation went,” he chuckled.

Dan filled Eric in on his visit and before he knew it, it was time for the last group therapy session for the day.

They were walking to the common room together when he was stopped by Lela.

“Hi, Dan! I hear you had your visitation today with Phil, how did it go?”

“It was good! Thank you so much for approving it!”

She smiled, ”That’s good. I’m glad it went well.” She paused for a moment, “So, on your way to group therapy then?”

“Yep.” he smiled at her.

“You know, you have another visitation next week, it would look really good if you started opening up in group therapy now. I could approve you without any worries.”

“What do you mean?” Dan asked confused.

“Oh it’s nothing, but there have been talks of bringing in another doctor. They're afraid I might be too close to you and the, ah, situation. ’’

She gave him a smile and bid him farewell, telling him to get a move on to therapy.

He was quiet during therapy, and when it came to his time to talk he froze up.

“I don’t know if I can do this,” he whispered, breath catching in his throat.

Kate grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze. “Just do what you can, ok?”

He nervously shook his head.

He started to explain how he had been kidnapped, or at least what he remembered of it.

“Ok, Dan that’s a good start. But can you explain why you got in the van with them?”

He didn’t want to tell them he was a little. He didn’t want to admit that he had been stupid and naive enough to trust strangers. With the promise of a puppy at that, I mean, that was the oldest trick in the book and he had bought it.

“I will….sometimes I will... umm... so sometimes...”

He didn’t even feel himself slip, too concerned with how everyone would react to his words. His lip quivered and his eyes began to water. “I want my daddy,” he sobbed. “Where my daddy?” His bottom lip trembled, tears spilling down his face now.

The room was crazy with everyone talking over each other trying to figure out what was going on with him. No one had bothered to inform the attending doctor that Dan could regress, so she wasn’t quite sure what to do. She tried to calm the rest of the patients while also trying to calm Dan down, who was now sitting on the floor sobbing, repeating “Daddy” “Daddy” “Daddy” over and over. She pressed the call button on the wall, overwhelmed with the situation and needing extra support.

“Get Daniel Howell’s therapist down here now!”

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tkatsumi06j · 6 years

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She has dared to be the first Japan's #MeToo

日本で初の #MeToo となることを選んだ女性

December 22 , 2017

2017年12月22日

ダーゲンス・ニュヘテル

By Hanna Aqvillin 原著：ハンナ・アクヴィリン

英訳: Ulrika Ehrensvärd 和訳: @tkatsumi06j

00.30 Shiori Ito accused a high-profile media director of raping her - for that she had to pay a high price.

00:30 著名なメディア幹部をレイプで訴えた伊藤詩織さんは、高い代償を払うことになった。

Shiori Ito put everything at stake when she accused a high-profile TV newsman of raping her. She was hated and stood alone in a country where nobody wants to talk about sex crimes.

彼女をレイプしたとして著名なTVジャーナリストを訴えたとき、伊藤詩織さんはすべてを投げ打つ覚悟で臨んでいた。だが彼女は誰もが性犯罪に口を噤む国で、忌み嫌われ、孤立した。

When Shiori Ito was ten years-old, her mother took her to Summer Land, an outdoor swimming pool complex. She was playing happily in the new bikini she had been nagging about since the day before, when a man suddenly came up behind her in the water.

詩織さんは10歳の時、母親に屋外遊泳場の『東京サマーランド』に連れて行ってもらったことがある。前から欲しがっていた新しいビキニを着ながらプールで楽しんでいたら、突然、彼女の背後の水の中に男が現れた。

"His hands touched every part of my body," she said.

「男の手が私の体のあらゆるところをまさぐったんです」

詩織さんは言う。

She hurried back to the adults to tell what had happened. Their reaction left a scar in her heart that remains till today, when her mother's friend explained that this happened because she had such a sweet bikini.

大人たちの元へと駆け戻った彼女は、彼らに何が起きたのかを伝えようとした。その時の大人たちの反応は、いまも詩織さんのトラウマとなっている。母親の友人の女性はこう言い放った。

「かわいいビキニなんか着ているからよ」

[参考記事]

Japan Times（2017/7/13付）

Japan Focus (2017/8.1付）

"I should have known better."

「わかりきっていたことでした」

The same sense of powerlessness and fear came back to her when Shiori, now 28 years old, held a press conference for Japanese media this year in May 2017.

２８歳になった詩織さんが今年５月に日本の記者団に向けて会見を行ったとき、彼女には当時の無力感と恐怖がよみがえったという。

With a background of having studied in the United States, Shiori is a freelance journalist who has written for Reuters, Al-Jazira and The Economist, among others. She stands out like an odd bird in Japanese society where most neither speak English or identify with the outspoken culture of the West.

アメリカに留学した経験のある詩織さんは、『ロイター』『アル・ジャジーラ』『エコノミスト』等に寄稿するフリーランスのジャーナリストだ。ほとんどの人が英語を話さず、また欧米のように公に自分の意見を言わない日本社会では、彼女はまるで場違いな鳥のように際立つ存在だ。

Shiori Ito has become the symbol of the # metoo movement in Japan. Photo: Lars Lindqvist

伊藤詩織さんは日本の #MeToo ムーヴメントの象徴的な存在となった。（写真：ラーズ・リンドクイスト）

- "I've reported from the FARC's guerilla in Colombia's jungle and cocaine trafficking scene from Mexico, but it is here in Japan - the supposedly world's safest country - which I've felt most afraid," she said at the beginning of her press conference.

「私は反政府ゲリラ組織FARCが根城とするコロンビアのジャングルからも、メキシコの麻薬取引の現場からもレポートしてきたことがありますが、もっとも恐怖を感じたのは、世界でもっとも安全といわれるこの日本でした」

会見の冒頭で詩織さんはこう語り出した。

Ref: https://tkatsumi06j.tumblr.com/post/166495534736/translation-why-shiori-decided-to-publish-her

In front of flashing cameras, she accused the bureau chief of one of Japan's biggest television channels for raping her in a hotel room. He is a well-known name in the media industry and had published two books on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The last thing she remembered was that they had dinner at a sushi restaurant, then everything blacked out.

カメラのフラッシュを焚かれまくるなか、詩織さんは日本でも最大級のテレビ局の支局長を、彼女をホテルの一室でレイプしたとして告発した。その男は安倍首相に関する著作を2冊も発行している、メディア業界では有名な人物だった。詩織さんが最後に覚えていたのは、寿司店でこの男と食事をしたことだった。その後、彼女の記憶は途絶えた。

- At 5:00 am, after I regained my consciousness, I found myself being naked in a hotel bed and a man was inside me against my will, she told the astonished journalists - no Japanese woman had previously talked so openly about a rape case.

「午前５時頃、意識を取り戻すと私は裸でホテルのベッドに寝かされており、私の意志に反して男が私の中に入ってきていました」

詩織さんはどよめく記者団を前にこう語った。これほど公に、かつオープンに、レイプ事件について語る日本人女性はこれまでいなかった。

Shiori had summoned the country's media hoping to break the taboo and to question why her rape case was dropped, according to her sources, after "orders from above".

彼女が全国のメディアを呼んだのは、タブーを破ること、そしてなぜ彼女のレイプ事件が、彼女の言う「上からの指示」により、逮捕執行停止となったのか、その疑問を唱えることにあった。

After the press conference there were only a few in the media that supported her story or wrote about Shiori's case. Instead, the media focused about the public discussing her attire - that she had not clipped the top two buttons on her shirt - than what she actually said at the press conference.

会見後、彼女に同情的なメディアや彼女の事件を扱ったメディアはごくわずかだった。むしろメディアは、詩織さんがなぜブラウスの上の2つのボタンを止めなかったのかをいぶしがる大衆について取り上げ、彼女が会見で述べたことは報じなかった。

"A journalist colleague had advised me to wear my suit to the press conference, but I refused. I was tired of being told how to behave like a victim, says Shiori.

詩織さんは語る。

「ジャーナリストの知人が、会見にはスーツを着るようにとアドバイスしてきました。でも私は拒否しました。被害者のように振る舞うことにうんざりしていたのです」

Shiori Ito eats lunch in central Tokyo. Photo: Lars Lindqvist

東京の都心の飲食店で昼食をとる詩織さん。（写真：ラーズ・リンドクイスト）

I met Shiori Ito for the first time in August this year [2017], two months after the press conference. She was sitting at the kitchen table in her studio apartment in central Tokyo and from time to time she looks through the slit between the long curtains, down towards the rushing traffic.

私が初めて詩織さんにあったのは今年　[2017年] の８月。会見の２か月後のことだった。彼女は都心にある彼女のアパートのキッチンテーブルに腰かけながら、たびたび長いカーテンの隙間から、混雑している道路の様子をみやった。

She was too scared to go outside.

彼女は外に��るのを怖がっていた。

After the press conference, her Inbox were filled with death threats, unknown numbers had called her phone and lies about her privacy had been posted online along with pictures of her family and friends.

会見後、彼女のメールには、犯罪予告メールが溢れ、彼女の電話に非通知の番号から謎の電話がかってきたり、家族や友人の写真を含む彼女のプライベートに関する出鱈目な情報がネット上にばら撒かれた。

A woman criticized her for failing to protect herself. Speculations were abound suspecting she had a political agenda to remove the right-leaning Prime Minister Shinzo Abe from power, because a Japanese woman would never talk openly about something so shameful. Sometime, isolating herself from the rest of the world was so difficult that she thought about taking her life.

ある女性は、彼女が自分自身を守れなかったのが悪いと、詩織さんを責めたてた。右寄りの安倍晋三首相の政権を倒すための政治的な意向があるのではないかという憶測も流れた。日本女性がこのような恥ずべきことを公に話すことがないと。世界から自分を切り離すことが苦しすぎて、なにかも終わらせようと考えた時もあった。

"I was called a whore and prostitute and they said I should die. It was a horrible time," she says.

「私は売女で、売春婦で、死ぬべきだと言われたこともありました。おぞましい日々でした」

詩織さんは当時を振り返る。

"I had to do everything I can before getting help from anyone. I was so dejected that I could not get myself out of bed."

「なにをするにしても、まず自分で行って、それから初めて助けを求めることができました。あまりにも落胆して、ベッドから抜け出せないこともありました」

Friends and family advised her not to speak publicly.

友人や家族は、公に話すことをやめることを彼女に勧めた。

- I think they wanted to protect me, but they also want to protect themselves. They fear of losing their jobs or getting cast out of society because of me ... which from Western eyes is completely absurd, Shiori told me while her eyes were filled with tears.

「私を守ろうしてくれてはいたのですが、自分たちのことも守りたかったのだと思います。私のために仕事を失ったり、社会からつまはじきにされることを恐れていたから…欧米の考え方からすると、異常でしかないですよね」

彼女は瞳に涙をためながらそう語った。

"It hurt to see that people close to me were being hurt badly because of me."

「でも、私のために、私の大切な人たちが酷く傷づくのを見るのは辛かった」

- Police investigation was inadequate due to political pressure. But even health care, justice, and the social safety net were unhelpful.

「政治的な圧力により、警察の捜査は不十分でした。しかしそれ以外にも、医療も、司法も、そして社会のセーフティネットまでもが、まったく助けにならなかったのです」

I had to do everything I can before getting help from anyone, says Shiori, recollecting on the days after she woke up in the hotel room.

「なにをするにしても、まず自分で行って、それから初めて助けを求めることができました」

あのホテルの一室で目を覚ましてからの数日間を振り返りながら、詩織さんはこう語った。

She first visited a gynecologist who could not help. Then she called SARC, Tokyo's only help center for the rape, to find out which hospital she could go to because only 14 of Japan's 47 prefectures - in urban areas - have hospitals equipped with rape kits to take samples and secure evidence.

詩織さんはまず産婦人科を訪れたが、役に立たなかった。都内唯一のレイプ救援センターである『SARC』にも電話し、どの病院に行けばよいか相談した。証拠の確保に必要な「レイプキット」を備えた病院は、47都道府県中14の県（しかも都会）にしか存在しなかったからだ。

The staff woman who responded to her call said that Shiori had to make reservations for evaluation before they could give her any information.

電話に出た担当の女性職員は、役に立つ情報を提供するには予約して審査を受ける必要があるとしか言わなかった。

"I was so dejected that I could not get myself out of bed," said Shiori.

「あまりに落胆して、ベッドから抜け出ることすらできませんでした」

詩織さんは語る。

Five days later , she decided to go to the local Takanawa police station, and there she met with police officers who did not want to accept her filing damages because it is difficult to investigate.

その五日後、彼女は最寄の高輪警察署を訪れることを決意する。そこで彼女は警官らに、捜査・立件するのは難しいからと被害届の提出を拒まれる。

Shiori, who had hoped that the job dinner with a senior manager in the TV industry could help her put a foot into the industry, suddenly saw her dreams crumble.

詩織さんは、TV業界の支局長クラスと仕事に関する食事をすれば、業界に入る一歩となるかもしれない、という淡い望みが突如崩れ去るのを感じていた。

"The police officer said that I could forget about my career being a journalist after this, because nobody would like to hire me. They said my life will be over. But ... I couldn't keep being silent," she said.

「その警官は私にこう言ったんです」

”この後は誰も雇ってくれなくなるから、ジャーナリストになる道は諦めたほうがいいと。人生が終わってしまうよ”と。

「でも私は黙っていられませんでした」

彼女は話を続けた。

（２）へつづく

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chemicalxwings · 7 years

Text

My Burning PLL Questions

I’m gonna list out all the questions I want answered - or answered better (more completely than they have been already) in the finale or by the story the finale tells us. There’s so much we’ll likely never get answers for, but I’m gonna list ‘em anyways. This is largely for me...but eh I’ll share it anyways. If we’re lucky, I’ll be able to answer them during the finale...or by simply remembering the answer - It’s likely I’ve forgotten some answers by now anyways.

I’ll add to this over the next day or so - right up until the finale. I hope that I don’t have to add more after =/

I think anything left unanswered - or seemingly unanswered - I’ll try and answer. A whole rewatch will probably be needed after TuesdAy anyways....

These are in no particular order, but it does seem to start out with the older questions first. This isn’t a comprehensive list - just the stuff I want to know or haven’t pieced together on my own. Feel free to send me more!

1. When Mona was A...was she truly the only A? Or was there always a “Big A” kicking around?

2. Why did Jenna seem to know Alison before even moving to Rosewood? She knew who she was in the costume shop...and at the memorial or whatever, Jenna said that “her whole life” she thought she knew Alison. That always seemed odd to me.

3. Who killed Garret Reynolds? I feel like it was probably Wilden. Then Melissa and Jason were meant to dispose of the body on the train - not knowing Aria was in there too. That’s why Jason had the hip wound.

4. Garret said medical records don’t lie...which records did he refer to? Was it to do with Melissa not being pregnant? Alison not being dead? Jenna not being blind? Spencer being adopted? We’ve never had a clear answer on this so we don’t really know how much Garret knew.

5. Was it actually Cece (Charles?) that drugged Emily at the start of the third season? This has never been revealed.

6. While Emily was drugged, she was found by Jenna and Noel. We get a hint later that they had some connection to Cece that night as well (the game of truth in Noel’s place). We found out this season that Noel and Jenna were working with Charlotte....so what were they up to that night? Was it actually them that drugged Emily and they weren’t so “lucky” finding Emily that night?

7. There was a short scene where Mona in her black hoodie was tailing Byron from his office at Hollis..but we never find out why she’s tailing him.

8. The whole Beach Hottie vs. Board Shorts debate needs to be settled. I’m still convinced it’s two different people. There’s several reasons, but mostly how Alison reacted to each of them. She was afraid of one but intrigued by the other. Was Wilden Hottie while Board Shorts is Ezra (Ezra being all but confirmed) ? There’s some hints to Wilden for sure - and he would definitely be enough to scare Alison if she thought she was pregnant. It would have been statutory rape...And I know it wasn’t real, but we do see Wilden in bed with Ali (it’s Dunhill in a mask..but hey, symbolism!).

9. Who did Alison fear had gotten her pregnant. I’m inclined to believe both Ian and Ezra that they never slept together, so who was she sleeping with? According to Mona, Alison wasn’t pregnant in the end, but she was damn sure she was... I’m putting my money on Wilden.

10. Once upon a time, when we were super suspicious of Jason, he was hiding someone in his house. We never found out who that was. I almost wonder, now, if it was Mary Drake? But who else could it be?

11. Around that time, they showed a dog sniffing around the house and A petting the dog. That was never explained either. Neither was the bloody tissues that Jason had...

12. We saw A rifle through a bag and pull out a bottle of pills that belonged to Maya,..but we never found out why? Especially since, according to the writers and all, Maya had NOTHING to do with A and was already dead at this point?

13. I’m still not convinced the story we were told about Maya’s death is true...but I suppose we’ll have to live with it. Bah.

14. What the hell did the NAT club have to do with anything? Was it just a really intricate red herring? Really? I find that hard to believe...

15. It seems clear that the Hastings/DiLaurentis feud is about more than just Jason, so what started it all?

16. Also, why did Mary seem the Hastings as someone who also needed to be punished?

17. Who is the father of the Emison baby? This I assume we actually will find out. Wren? Please don’t be Charles...

18. Why the hell was Sarah Harvey working for Charlotte?

19. Why was Sydney involved with this all?

20. Mona, in the woods at a picnic table, met up with Jenna and Sydney...and someone else. Who?

21. Did Mary really have more than two children? It seems that she did, based on lines delivered earlier in the season (Dr. Cochrane), but why wouldn’t she share that with Spencer now?

22. Why would Archer Dunhill shack up with Alison BEFORE Charlotte was killed...if we’re supposed to believe that his motive to torture Alison was because of Charlotte’s death? That doesn’t add up at all. Unless shacking up with Alison was the only way to get Charlotte back in on the family business?

23. Why would Archer Dunhill pretend to be Dr. Elliot Rollins in the first place? Something about getting close to Charlotte...so are we to assume that he knew her before this? I actually think this is exactly what happened. He knew her before she was discovered as A.

24. It is said that Cece taught Alison how to be..well...Alison (the Queen B we knew). But then Charlotte says that she was doing her best Ali impression - and evidently Alison was like that before Cece taught her..soo...what?

25. How could Cece have pretended to be Alison to be admitted to Radley IF SHE WAS ALREADY IN RADLEY!? We see in a flashback that Jessica was enraged by this little game...but if Cece (Charlotte) was a patient already, how could that have worked out?

26. This is super out of order here but...why was Alison crying when she left her house and went to the Hastings while Jason had a party (The scene where she goes “your family has the worst apples”)

27. Just...everything ever concerning Wren. I have questions upon questions. Why go after the 16 year old sister? Why continue to go after her? Why always show up with Spencer is upset? Why did his name have quotes around it on the police murder board? Why did Mona stop trusting him? Who did he call to “take care of their end?” Why colour that jacket in red? Why get a visitor pass for Cece Drake when she was a patient still? Why lie and say Melissa convinced him to let her in? What was he and Spencer arguing about in the airport? The questions are RELENTLESS.

28. Alison wanted masks made of her for her friends...A has them but the four girls don’t. What happened there?

29. Who was wearing the Emily mask?

30. So Jenna was scared of Cece Drake (as told by Shana) but totally okay working for/with her?

31. Who attacked Alison in “The First Halloween” !? It supposedly wasn’t Noel. I have a feeling this may have been Lucas? Maybe he was encouraged by his friend Charles to protect himself like Arcturus would. The comment of “Bitch” later may have been trying to spook her further?

32. The night Ali disappeared has had the timeline messed up a couple of times with different tellings of where Cece was during it. If the story we were told by Charlotte is to be believed, then she showed up at the end of the night and hit Alison by mistake...but before it was mentioned that she was speaking with Melissa Hastings. Jason’s eyes can’t be trusted, but who did he see Melissa talking to? Was it just Alison after all? Or maybe she was arguing with Bethany?

33. What was up with that meeting Melissa had with a hoodie in the backyard? Spencer read her lips as saying “do it” or something?

34. Why make Lesli Stone so suspicious? All the fake glasses and shit...

35. Why did the people at the Kahn party remember Cece? Noel’s brother knew her well apparently...but how? She was in Radley all that time and somehow I doubt she escaped that often?

36. Which reminds me. Cece said that Mona knew how to help her escape Radley. Mona says that she made a deal with the devil and she gave her ways in and out of Radley. Which is true?

37. Was it Charlotte that tried to kill Jenna in the DiLaurentis house?

38. Was Sarah Harvey a prisoner in the Dollhouse all those years and THEN signed up to help Charlotte? Otherwise, how had she been hiding for so long?

39. Early on we were told that A was a man and a woman with dark hair that wanted to hurt Alison? What? Was that actually Mona and Lucas? Still confused about that clue.

40. What did Maya want to show Emily the night she was killed? They found a note but that’s all that was mentioned of it...

#rosewood #pll #pll theories #pretty little liars #pretty little liars theories #unanswered questions #unanswered pll

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kookienomster3 · 7 years

Text

I Want The Headline (Pt. 20)

Written By: suga-of-daegu BTS Fanfiction Angst WARNING: MATURE CONTENT Mafia/Gang

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

Yoongi was waiting.

Jungkook was waiting.

Even Jin and Jimin waited to see who you’d choose, but all you could think of was the light in your eyes.

Something was glimmering brightly, blinding you. Squinting, you shifted, finally seeing that the light shining in your eyes was reflected from a light hitting a silver watch. Atop the rooftop of the warehouse dropped down into a leisurely crouch, Taehyung smiled down at you, pocket watch strategically held in his hands. He held a single finger to his lips; urging you to stay silent about his whereabouts. You looked away to your feet, frowning softly. If he didn’t want anyone to know he was there, why did he signal you in the first place? You didn’t have long to dwell before Taehyung was pulling up a gun into his hands and pointing it down below.

At Yoongi.

You flinched, reflexively calling out his name and stepping forward as if that’d help you warn him any faster. Of course, your actions were misinterpreted. Jungkook’s face had darkened, and Yoongi only nodded knowingly.

Taehyung fired a warning shot, startling the group.

Yoongi whirled around, glaring up at Taehyung. What exactly was that man doing on his turf? More importantly, why was he shooting at him? A bag was thrown down to Yoongi.

The bag Hoseok had been using earlier.

Jin had released Jungkook, rushing back to the car and digging for something under the driver’s seat. Jimin scrambled over, rummaging through the glove compartment. Tae laughed, waving over at Jin and Jimin, “I’m only here to deliver Hobi hyung’s bag and give Yoongi a message. No need to pull out the heavy guns.” Jin and Jimin had started to move from the car, heading over to stand beside Yoongi.

Seeing that everyone was distracted, you slowly moved to Jungkook, reaching out for his hand. If there was any chance to talk to him, now was it.

But he pulled his hand away from you.

“What are you doing?” You whispered, reaching for him again. “We..we can take this opportunity to go. To run away, Jeon.” You and Jungkook could leave and by how absorbed the three men were in Tae’s discussion, the chances of you two being caught immediately were slim. Why was Jungkook so uncooperative?

“Why don’t you run away with Yoongi? You sure looked like you wanted to go to him. Are you going to call out for him when you’re in trouble now too? Then move onto the next guy who looks your way and helps you a little?” He mocked flatly. You stared up at him in disgust. Was he mad? After everything he’d done, he was angry with you for hesitating?

“Jeon..” You breathed slowly, rubbing your hands over your face. You didn’t want to draw attention to yourselves but made the mistake of looking at his disdainful expression. His eyes flickered to you when you laughed softly, before suddenly screaming at him and shoving your hands against his chest, “Jeon!” Jin turned his head back, eyes scanning for you; the three other men soon followed suit,

“I know in detail everything you’ve done with Areum behind those closed doors. I’ve got first-hand accounts and I saw the evidence every night for weeks! Everything you did to satisfy yourself! But when I so much as look at Yoongi because I’m afraid that if I disobey him, he’s going to hurt you, I’m the bad one? Me? You’re a fucking hypocrite!” Your anger deflated quickly and you curled in on yourself, staring at the ground. Jungkook may be able to fight until the end, but you couldn’t; you just wanted to disappear. “And I was still willing to admit I love you…I’m so stupid.” Your fingers curled into your skin, “Overall, I love you, Jeon..I really do, but right now, I really wish I would’ve fallen in love with any man but you..”

Jungkook stared at you, unsure of what to say. He didn’t know Areum had told you everything. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do to fix this. Instead, he licked his lips, “You don’t mean that.” He tried softly. You weren’t thinking straight, you didn’t see the whole picture like he did.

“You left me alone in a room for weeks because I upset you.” You started, anger rising by the second, “How I about I do that to you? How I about I cut off contact with you for weeks and we’ll see how much you want to love me after! How about Jimin and I-”

At the phrase ‘Jimin and I’, Jungkook mentally raised a red flag, “Stop.”

You brushed him aside, changing wording, “Or even Yoongi and I-”

Yoongi’s name was even worse, “I said stop!” He screamed at you.

“How about he and I have sex every night and he goes back to tell you all about it!” You shouted, “And while you’re sitting there crying, you’re listening to him tell you how he and I laugh at you!” You shoved at him again, “That’s what I went through, Jeon! That’s what I went through and I still pick you…I pick you every time.. and you still don’t trust me. You still keep me at an arm’s distance.”

“..because you’re going to die.” He mumbled.

“What?”

“You’re too trusting. You think people actually live by their word, Y/N! They don’t!” He pointed to Jimin, “You think he was really trying to help you because he said he was. He abducted you, tried to rape you, he’s trying to kill you or get you to kill yourself! Jimin’s false words are what got my mother killed and you’re falling into the same trap she did!” Jungkook pointed over to Taehyung, still crouched atop the roof,

“You thought of going to Tae. He has his women raped. I tried to show you as kindly as possible, to warn you. Choi, the Yoongi you knew; he shot your brother!” Jungkook glared over at Yoongi, “And him…The man you really thought of going with to protect me; like I need protection..you’re the one who needs it.” He sighed, “Don’t you ever wonder what happened to your brother? Not Jin, your other brother; the oldest."He watched your face twist in confusion; most likely wondering how Jungkook knew of your oldest brother. Jin and you never spoke of him. "I did more than just call on Areum those three weeks…Do you want to know how this whole organization started?”

Jungkook heard Jin call out a hesitant, “No.” Yoongi tilted his head to the side, blankly watching you frown lightly at Jungkook. If Jungkook was really going to talk about that, he’d be cutting it a little too emotional and Yoongi was sure you wouldn’t respond well to that. What was Jungkook hoping to achieve?

“Do you remember the park your oldest brother used to take you and Jin to? The one by the river? The same river your brother’s body was found in. Your oldest brother started this.” he murmured, motioning to the warehouses, “He did. They used to all be together, Yoongi, Namjoon, Jin, Jimin, Hoseok, Tae, everyone..all one group. But something happened..I don’t know what it was, I was only 10, I don’t remember much.” He furrowed his brows, desperately trying to conjure up some other locked up memory,

“I only remember seeing Namjoon and Yoongi dragging his body to the river, but they saw me too. I was only 10..” He whispered, “And I remember being hit over and over and over. Namjoon was saying to let me join to keep quiet and Yoongi was saying to throw me in the river with your brother.” He blinked repeatedly,

“And just like that, there were two groups. They split up because they didn’t know what to do with me, but they didn’t want to let me go. They became two groups who hated each other…Namjoon made me join him, but I’ve never forgotten how 15-year-old Yoongi wanted to throw 10-year-old me into a river for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’ve never forgotten how Jimin promised to warn my mother of the building about to be blown up, but instead lied to her saying I was inside just to get her to go in.” He grit his teeth, “

So I’m sorry, Y/N! I’m sorry I hurt you and I’m unfair. I want to keep you all to myself where you’re completely safe, but I can’t..you’re a person who has their own desires and I’m trying to keep that in mind… As wrong as it is, I’ve been hurting you to prepare you; as much as I want to be, I can’t be right beside you at every moment of the day…I want you to have some sort of strength. And I thought about giving up on you…Areum was my way of trying to wean myself from you, but I don’t want to see them toss you in a river or lure you into a building that’s going to explode. You’re the greatest thing that’s happened to me, but if you keep trusting them, they’re going to do it.”

You looked towards your brother, unsure of what to make of that. Jin had always said your oldest brother had drowned trying to save a friend from drowning. That he died helping someone. You remember your brother tucking you into bed and bringing Jin along so they both could stay with you until you fell asleep. He was the one who’d stop Jin from teasing you when you accidentally cut your own hair. How were you supposed to believe that he was the one who started all of this?

Jin wouldn’t meet your stare.

Yoongi’s lips were pursed as if he wanted to say something, but he remained silent, unsure of your current expression. He expected you to start crying, but you had only blinked back your tears. Why weren’t you crying? Jungkook stood, body numb. He had said so much and you were so quiet, he was starting to think that it was too late. That at this point, whatever he did meant nothing to you and that scared him. He still wanted you beside him. He still wanted to fall in love with you. Jungkook stepped closer to you,

“They’re going to take you from me like they’ve done everything else.”

And then there was a gunshot and he was falling towards the ground.

#bts #kpop #bts suga #bts jimin #bts jin #bts jungkook #bts v #bts rap monster #bts jhope #btsarmy #bts fan fics #angst #smut #iwth

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lovelesswiki · 7 years

Text

Post-Moonless predictions— Good and Evil (7/10)

previous part<–[here] –> next part

for the last week or so, i’ve been talking about a large theory i’ve been writing. since finishing it, i’ve decided to publish it in parts, since it’s actually about 10 different theories all on one subject. since it’s all written out, i’ll try to be publishing one part of this per day.

essentially, this is a set of theories about what i believe will have to happen in order to properly lead up to a climax–the one we’ve been building up to for years and years now. so, these are what i theorize will happen after the first moonless vs beloved battle, broken up into ten different parts. each theory is explained and theres images for each one.

table of contents (bolded is the post you’re looking at):

moonless and beloved will rematch (1)

soubi will fall into a deep depression and possibly become suicidal (2)

ritsuka will arrive at seven voices, SM’s activity will be revealed (3)

SM will reveal that there was a mole in their organization (4)

kio will be the one to take ritsuka to goura (5)

ritsuka will find things out about soubi and the aoyagi family (6)

SM’s true purpose will be revealed. ritsuka will have to make a decision about good vs evil (7)

seventh SM member will be revealed (8)

nagisa will find out what really happened to sanae (9)

ritsuka will be asked to join SM to fill the aoyagi seat (10)

Theory: ritsuka will discover that SM is a ‘good’ government organization made up of people who have done bad or morally questionable things. he will be forced to begin seeing the world in shades of grey instead of black and white, and this will be important for him in terms of character development and growing up.

Note: this theory is sort of the climax of this series of theories. the things that follow it are important, but most of the theories i’ve written in this series so far have amounted to this and the things that follow this theory will rely on it.

ive said this before and ill say it again–one of the biggest parts of ritsuka’s characterization is the fact that he sees everything in terms of ‘black’ and ‘white��, and this is especially obvious with people. hes very young, and part of the story is about him growing up and maturing into a teenager. among many other things, loveless is a story about growing up. while this extends to many other characters–soubi, natsuo and youji, even some of the more childish adults–it’s particularly obvious with ritsuka, since he’s our main character.

while growing up, it’s detrimental for a person to start to experience the world in shades of grey, and ritsuka notoriously does not do this fully yet. this is the reason that ritsuka is/was struggling so much with labeling seimei as a bad person. for the first five or so volumes, readers were typically only given ritsuka’s side of seimei with only very strong hints into soubi’s seimei, hints that were strongly ignored because of the fact that the story is primarily told through ritsuka’s eyes and ritsuka didn’t want to believe any of the signs that his brother was a bad person. this sustained the ‘mystery’ for about five volumes, before it all came to a head during the wisdom resurrection game, where ritsu, nagisa, and seven all unceremoniously shoved it into both ritsuka and the readers’ faces. from there, it is all completely downhill and seimei’s character turns into one of the most evil and terrible people possible very quickly.

(pictured: 2 assholes and 1 shut-in decide to tell a child that his brother was a terrible person and traumatize him by implying that he’s alive.)

in addition to this, we saw septimal moon in the same way for the first 8 volumes. up until soubi and ritsuka arrive at the school and actually witness SM and who they are, they were seen as an evil organization who had unfairly put out a death warrant for an innocent seimei. at around volume 8, septimal moon does a huge meta heel-face turn and it’s revealed that SM are actually the good guys, and aoyagi seimei has actually raped, murdered, and extorted his way into total criminality, and thats the reason septimal moon unanimously drew up a death warrant for him.

(christ, even the mole and the girl who was your only friend voted to have you murdered. you know youve failed as team-player when literally every one of your co-workers legitimately wants you dead.)

the thing is, though, that we havent actually been told what septimal moon is yet and what they do. now, it’s pretty clear to me what they do, and we’ll get to that in a second, but the fact of the matter is that ritsuka doesn’t know, and that’s pretty important right now.

so what is septimal moon?

to put it simply, there is nothing else it could be but a government organization.

this isn’t exactly a theory. there’s too much evidence pointing to it, and enough evidence that there’s literally nothing else it could be. let’s break this down a little with things we know–SM is an organization. SM has the power and the authority to execute and punish criminals, as well as to detain them and write out death warrants. this means that they have their own system of laws. since they’re very professional about it, we can assume that other government organizations let them do this or work with them. aside from this, SM has an education branch (headed by ritsu), a medical research branch (headed by nagisa), at least 1 hospital and school, a set judge/executioner (mikado), teams that they send out for (law) enforcement, and a lot of resources and funds (funds to do research, funds for building and upkeep of facilities, funds to keep their organization running, funds to pay their members apparently well since nagisa lives in a three bedroom place and mikado has a penthouse apartment). they also are implied to keep detailed records on many, many people (see: the chapter where seven realizes what records were stolen by who the records talked about). each member has a designated role and they vote on things that have an affect on the fighter-sacrifice society.

taking all this into account, i have no idea what else SM could be other than an organization that governs over the fighter-sacrifice world. the world has its own society with its own norms and seemingly, with its own laws, and it operates outside of the legislation of country borders. SM is well respected and well known, as we’ve seen in canon, and in theory should be balanced and should operate well (see above point about the mole for why it currently does not).

so, SM is a government organization that precedes over the fighter-sacrifice world. let’s talk about its make-up. the organization does have a few rules that it operates by. there doesnt seem to be much of an age requirement for having a seat on the council, as mikado is 14 and seimei was 17, and i suspect they will soon be asking an even younger member to join. the seats are passed down throughout the family, but it doesn’t seem to matter what gender the seat goes to, as nagisa, mikado, seven, and chouma are all female and seimei and ritsu are male.

it appears that the council shares power equally, though ritsu is an egotistical narcissist and doesn’t appear to like this. the only requirement to be on the council, besides being one of the seven families, is being a sacrifice. surprisingly, ive seen people debate this, but im going to explain two reasons why this is a fact and not a theory–first, the way fighters are treated as a whole in society and secondly, we are literally told that fighters are not allowed at septimal moon meetings.

lets start with the first part of that. so far, every member who has a confirmed battle role in SM has been a sacrifice. granted, this is only 3 out of the 7 (ritsu, mikado, and seimei), but it’s still pretty significant. however, whats more significant is the way fighters are treated. in the fighter-sacrifice world, fighters are absolutely far, far below sacrifices. this is shown in a couple of different ways, from the fact that it’s completely accepted for a sacrifice to physically beat or verbally put down a fighter, but it’s not accepted for the other way around. in addition to this, fighters are expected to kill themselves if their sacrifices die. this is told to soubi’s face over and over again. however, the opposite is not true. sacrifices are implied to far outlive fighters. whereas a fighter is expected to die early on, sacrifices seem to live far longer. also, there’s the simple fact that sacrifices have an entire system in place for replacements if their fighters die.

to be fair, the bad treatment of fighters seems to be more with the older generation in the series than with the younger generation. for example, mikado seems to view tokino as her equal and does not seem to think of him as lesser. however, ritsu is shown to think of fighters as tools and of entirely lesser beings and even in his youth, he treated his fighter terribly (which ended by him drowning her in a pond with her dying to try to please him). nagisa is said to hate fighters, though it’s interesting to note that kouya, one of her favorites, is a fighter (though youji–a sacrifice–is also her favorite). seimei is seimei and treats his fighters like actual garbage. the point is that even though the younger generation doesnt treat their fighters badly, the practice of doing so is still widely accepted. since the council is made up of people who are widely respected and seen as the governing force of the society, there is no way they would allow a class of people who are seen as lesser onto the council.

secondly, early on in loveless, it’s stated offhandedly that fighters arent actually allowed in septimal moon council meetings. it’s easy to miss, but this was when ai and midori went to report back to septimal moon about ritsuka. ritsu immediately reprimanded midori for brining ai to the council headquarters and told him that she [fighters] weren’t allowed there, so it’s safe to say that fighters aren’t even allowed at council meetings.

given that the requirements to be on the council is to be part of one of the seven families and that the person must be a sacrifice and that the council shares power and votes on issues, it’s fair to say that SM could be considered a parliament. or, more humorously and maybe more accurately, SM can be considered to be like the commission, which is a council of the five families of the mob where activities of the world are monitored and observed and seats are passed down through the family. regardless, it’s fair to say that these rules exist and that the purpose of SM is to act as some sort of government organization separate from that that operates within a country’s borders.

ritsuka doesn’t know any of this, though. or, he might know some things, but he certainly hasnt figured it out yet. hes going to, though, since i dont personally see a way the story can progress with SM in it if he doesnt find out exactly what it is that these people do, especially considering ritsuka’s minor storyline of growing up and starting to see the shades of grey in the world.

the way i see it happening is like this–ritsuka will learn about the organization and will learn that it’s a government organization with laws and rules and branches to help precede over their world. he will learn about the fighter-sacrifice world (though he probably will not yet learn about the origins) and the laws, rules, and society surrounding it. because of all this, he will start to think of SM as a ‘good’ organization because the organization in practice is for the good of the people. he will not immediately see the dysfunction that i talked about in the bulletpoint about the mole.

however, he will start to see it very quickly. in the previous point, i talked about ritsuka discovering soubi’s past with ritsu and discovering the past of his own family, but i didnt expand upon how ritsuka would react to it, and i also discussed SM’s dysfunctional members when i talked about the mole. his reaction is detrimental to this bulletpoint. ritsuka will have to face the fact that the ‘good’ organization has a lot of people in it who have done bad things.

to put this in perspective, let’s have a look at what we currently know about the SM members. first up we have ritsu, who raped and abused soubi in his childhood repeatedly and so severely that it destroyed any ability or chance for soubi to function as a normal person. he is egotistical and narcissistic to the point that it interferes in every relationship that he has. he possibly drowned his fighter in a pond and fans speculate that he may be the cause of the former agatsumas’ deaths. he was obsessed with a woman to the point that he ruined her son as a way to get back at her/replace her. hes the reason that soubi was given to seimei in the first place and the reason soubi cant function socially. he also lied to ritsuka during the WR game and still acts creepily towards soubi. i have no doubt that when ritsuka discovers all this, he is going to be absolutely disgusted with him and everything hes done.

then we have nagisa. in literal terms, nagisa has performed acts of human experimentation. she has experimented on humans and views them as interchangeable parts because she wants to win an imaginary game with ritsu. she views the kids that shes created as worthless and next to nothing and only wants them near her so that she doesnt feel abandoned. she shoved natsuo and youji onto soubi at the drop of a hat and it’s strongly implied that she rarely took care of them at all. i dont think ritsuka will take kindly to any of this, either.

(ah, yes, the Traditional Loveless Parenting Style™)

then we have mikado and chouma. theyve done admittedly less things that are less personal to ritsuka than the above two, but the fact still stands that mikado did support seimei up until his betrayal of her and did seem to know about the things he was doing off to the side and didn’t seem to put a stop to them. we also don’t know if she was betrayed before or after seimei’s death warrant was signed. if it was after, then she stuck with him, despite knowing what he was doing. however, her rape and betrayal might have been what put the death warrant in place, so we don’t know if it happened before or after seimei faked his death. chouma, on the other hand, besides being a mole, caused havoc within kio’s family, and it’s unknown how much of an effect on the family she has. also things that im not sure ritsuka would like.

then we have seimei, who i dont need to go into. hes an asshole.

from this, to a child, it very much seems like SM is made up of ‘bad’ people. or, at least, people who have done bad things. but, the organization is ‘good’ because it tries to do ‘good’ things. the point of this bulletpoint is that this disagreement will cause a lot of struggle within ritsuka, because it goes against the very way that he thinks.

in short, when ritsuka finds out about the true purpose of SM and the stories behind the members, he will be forced to realize that not everything in the world falls into the categories of ‘black’ and ‘white’. the concept of black vs white is very prevalent in loveless, and especially in battles, particularly the loveless vs nisei battle, in which soubi and nisei pitted the concepts of black (evil) vs white (good) against each other.

as a note with this point, i do personally see ritsuka’s perception of seimei changing. a big turning point in this was the discussion of mikado’s betrayal and an even bigger turning point was when seimei came to the graveyard, completely ignored ritsuka, and took the one thing from him that ritsuka had. i personally believe that seimei made a huge mistake in doing this and will be paying for it soon.

#loveless #aoyagi ritsuka #minami ritsu #sagan nagisa #saotome seven #gomon mikado #aoyagi seimei #chouma kio #agatsuma soubi #septimal moon #theory #post moonless battle series #my content

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noanswersingenesis · 7 years

Text

“Morality Comes From God”

If you’ve been alive for more than a millisecond, you’ve likely heard some imbecile droning on about how THEIR God - really, their particular idea of God - is the basis for morality. They’ll likely wax philosophical on how you can’t justify YOUR morality, because you have the audacity to not believe in their particular imaginary friend. They’ll tell you with the iron clad assurance and conviction that only comes from dogmatic belief that - even if you don’t admit it - you get all your morality tangentially from their God. He’s written His laws on your heart, so even if you don’t believe in Him, He’s responsible for your morals. They say that you can’t explain where your morals come from if God doesn’t exist. And then they’ll give you a satisfied, smug little smirk as if they’ve just invented the wheel.

Let me draw a line in the sand here. I want to make sure no one misconstrues my words, so I’ll highlight them in this fancy, bold italics text:

These people are fucking stupid.

Yes, I do mean that. Yes, I can justify that. Don’t like it? Tough shit. I’m pased the point of caring if I offend any of you. I find your willingness to pontificate and philosophize about ideas you don't even begin to understand offensive. I find your willingness to vomit those undigested, half formed ideas down the throats of children who don’t know any better offensive. I find your insistence in regurgitating illogical nonsense that has been shown repeatedly to be fallacious to be offensive. And I find your refusal to educate yourselves when the information is at your fingertips EXTREMELY offensive. In the age of information, ignorance is a choice. And, sadly, it's one that those of you who continue to make these arguments choose. Every. Single. Day.

So honestly, I could give a fuck if I offend you. I hope I do. To quote Joh Stewart:

I make no apologies about this. Not even a small one. The rebuttals to every one of these bullshit ideas has been readily available and easily accessible for anyone with a double-digit IQ to comprehend for quite some time. If you’re going to make broad pronouncements of certainty without looking at available contradictory evidence, you are a fucking idiot.

So where does morality come from, if not from a spooky, timeless Sky Wizard? It’s got to come from God!

Well, first off, that question in itself is disingenuous. You’re making the assumption that if I can't conclusively show where my morality comes from, you can simply postulate your version of Douglas Adams’ “42″ and pretend that it’s been conclusively proven to be true. See, in Adams’ fantastic The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 42 is the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything calculated by an enormous supercomputer named Deep Thought over a period of 7.5 million years. The believers have their own version of “42″ in God. He’s the answer for them to life, the universe, and everything. If you have a question that doesn’t have a simplistic, pre-packaged answer, they're more than happy to insert God into the answer spot and call it a day. This is known as the God of the Gaps Fallacy, and I'm sad to say that it is still a major source of theistic argumentation.

Besides that, even if you could show that God is AN answer to the question of Morality (and I don’t believe you can), you have to go further and show that God is THE answer. That means that no other path to morality can even be plausible. If I can show reasonable evidence that morality evolved over time, and is still evolving as a human construct (and I can) then it falls to you to disprove that assertion (and i’ll bet you dollars to doughnuts you can’t even BEGIN to do that). But you can’t stop there. Then you need to prove that God exists. Any God. Just prove that there’s something we can call God and define it. But don’t stop there. Now you need to prove that the God you’ve proven is YOUR God. You need to prove all of his characteristics. You need to show evidence that He’s good. That He’s loving. That He answers prayer. All of it. And maybe not those specific things. Those were examples. Whatever your idea of God is, you need to show evidence of that SPECIFIC God, not just a generalized idea of God. If you want to make pronouncements on behalf of an eternal being you need to ABSOLUTELY define that being as narrowly as possible and prove that you - a mere mortal - can speak on It’s behalf. You need to show your qualifications. And don’t stop now! You’re so close! NOW you need to show that your SPECIFIC God has authored Morality. The same way I would need to show authorship of a book, or a song, or any other creative venture. I can’t just plagiarize something that already exists and try to pass it off as my own. If someone were to show that to be the case, I’d need to defend myself. Since your God is unable or unwilling to do what should, for Him, be a simplistic task: defending Himself - one he’s done BEFORE, but that is apparently now beneath Him, it falls to you believers to defend your God.

Your argument is so weak, I don’t even need to make one of my own. It’s actually enough to simply point out that you don’t have one.

I’m not required to mount a defense (I’m going to anyway, so calm down) against something that doesn’t even have a leg to stand on. I know a lot of you reading this don’t understand that concept. Here’s how it works: If I say that I’ve seen a bear with wings, and you don’t believe me, it’s up to me to show you evidence that I really did. The onus (that means the responsibility of proving something) is ALWAYS on the person making the claim, NEVER on the skeptic. Often, believers will try to shift the burden of proof on to their skeptical counterparts through linguistics games, or faulty logic. This is known as Shifting The Burden Of Proof, and it is yet ANOTHER logical fallacy.

Regardless, for the sake of the discussion here, I will accept the burden of proof that rightfully belongs to the opposition if, in doing so, I can get them all to shut the fuck up.

So for starters, lets look at the apologist’s favorite source of evidence - The Bible - and see what IT has to say on the issue.

(Genesis 2:25) “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” Ok, now lets fast forward a bit. (Genesis 3:6-7) “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.” Paradox time! God is now going to punish Adam and Eve for doing something that they couldn’t know they weren’t supposed to do until after they did it. If the Tree Of Knowledge of Good And Evil “opens their eyes” then their concept of Morality came from eating the fruit, not from God. Want further confirmation of this concept? It’s right here! We see here, in this SAME account, that “knowledge” of evil seems to create evil. They had no problem being naked until they UNDERSTOOD what it meant to be naked in a different light, and then suddenly it was a problem. So being naked wasn’t “evil” until their perceptions were altered by the fruit. That seems to suggest there is no objective morality. Fancy that. We get further confirmation of this in verse 22 when God says: “Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil.” So the Biblical concept regarding morality is that it is a byproduct of perception. That altering your perception can alter your morality. That a difference in understanding can mean a difference in morality. Jolly good. Something the bible and I can agree on. It’s like the planets aligning. Doesn’t happen very often. One more quick tangent before we abandon the historical fiction reading in favor of more grown up evidences: CHRISTIAN ASSERTION: Morality comes from God. It’s objective and unchanging, just like God is unchanging. If something is wrong, it’s always wrong! ATHEIST RESPONSE: So then slavery is ok? Killing homosexuals is ok? Rape is ok if you pay the girl’s father? Killing babies is ok? *lists off dozens of scriptures supporting and/or condoning these and other horrific acts* ILLOGICAL CHRISTIAN RETORT: You need to look at that through the context of their culture. The time and place it was written. You can’t expect God to transcend time and geography concerning moral laws. Actually, I do. And if a god existed, they would. “Don’t Own Other People” and “Don’t Rape” would have been on the list of 10 commandments, rather than some Ego stroking bullshit about graven images and saying his name with a shitty attitude.

So now that we’ve dispensed with Harry Potter BC, let’s look at some evidence that ISN’T circular, anecdotal, unreliable, and generally fucking retarded:

The Veil Of Ignorance

The single most damning retort the religious idea of God-centric Morality, is that we simply don’t NEED God to be moral. There have been many arguments that have shown as much, but none so iron clad as the "veil of ignorance", a method of determining morality proposed in 1971 by American philosopher John Rawls. 1971 46 years ago. So there’s no fucking excuse for you NOT to know about it - at least in concept if not in name - if you’re making grand pronouncements about the definitive nature of the link between Morality and God. The basic concept is this: We have two people (let’s call them Steve and Jim) and Jim wants to kill Steve. Steve, upon finding out about this, blurts out “You can’t do that! It’s wrong!’ Well, how can Steve actually KNOW it’s wrong? And for that matter, how can he convince Jim? Enter the Veil of Ignorance. We remove Steve and Jim from the equation and simply state that two individuals will be involved in this scenario. One will be killing, and one will be killed. Behind the Veil, Steve and Jim don’t know which is which. Either of them could be the killer, or the victim. Now how do Steve and Jim feel about killing? Neither one of them WANT to be killed. So both are aware that - at least in this sense - killing is wrong. This concept works for ANYTHING. Try it out. Don’t think Homosexuals should be able to get married? Take a step behind the Veil of Ignorance. Now you, and a dozen individual are there - all ignorant to your gender. Your race. Your sexuality. Your religion. Everything. You’re nondescript person-blobs. One of you will have one of your fundamental rights denied because of a difference from the group. You don’t get to know what right. Perhaps all of the others are men, and you’re a woman. Perhaps they’re all Muslims, and you’re a christian. Perhaps you and 11 others are all white, and the outsider is black. You don’t get to know what the difference is, or who it falls to. Which side do you argue for? Exclusion based on a difference, or inclusion regardless of a difference? Suppose you argued for exclusion, and it turned out that the difference was that you were the only Christian. Would you be ok with that? The thought exercises you can do with the Veil are endless, and practically universally applicable. The core of the concept is that morality is an evolved response, and we as thinking humans know DAMN well when something is moral or immoral through basic logic. If you think the thing happening to or effecting someone else is actually happening to or effecting YOU, then you’re more likely to be honest about that. It’s just that some of us like to pretend they don’t understand that basic concept, so they can suggest that we all collectively rely on an old book that’s open to various interpretations and has, at best, a shaky moral grounding.

So now, let’s sidetrack for a moment so I can talk about this video: If There’s No God, Murder Isn’t Wrong, because that’s what started this tirade. This video is moronic, and the arguments it puts forth somehow aren’t even consistent within the span of the 5 minuet video! I know, I was shocked too. And let’s not ignore the fact that there are refutations to the arguments ATTACHED TO THE VIDEO if you view it on Youtube (but why would a believer in the validity of the arguments look at contradictory evidence? I mean really. Look at two sides of an issue? That’s crazy talk!) both in the comments section, and in response videos. There’s also videos and articles that totally dismantle the faulty reasoning of the video that are available if you’re willing to undertake the apparently excruciating labor of doing a 45 second search for the name of the video on Google (this was the very first link that came up. Seriously, it didn’t even take 30 seconds. How busy are you people if you don’t even have time to do that?!?) But since I know that none of you are going to take the time to look at any of that evidence, or read any of the things that have been written about it for the better part of a century (you can see the seeds of this sort of nonsense as far back as Thomas Aquinas in the mid 1200′s) let alone just what’s been written in the last dozen years, I’ll do the leg work for you. Let’s look at the transcript for this video, and I’ll explain to you why it’s absolute horseshit. The words of Dennis Prager, the author of the video, will be in bold, and my responses will be in normal font.

There is no God, Murder is STILL (usually) Wrong.

Do you believe that good and evil exist? Let me stop you right there. You’re already being disingenuous, because you’re not defining your terms. Given that you’re arguing on behalf of God, and given that this isn't my first rodeo, I'm going to wager dollars to donuts (again) that at some point in this video you're going to attempt to confuse us with the ambiguity of your language. So lets nip that right in the fucking bud.

GOOD - To be desired, or approved of. That which is morally right. To be beneficial or advantageous to someone or something. Appropriate to a particular purpose. EVIL - Profoundly immoral and malevolent. Harmful, or tending to harm. (Of a force or spirit) Embodying or associated with the forces of the devil. Something that is harmful or undesirable.

Now, by these definitions, I do believe in the concepts of good and evil. I have a feeling that’s not AT ALL what you’re driving at. Let’s see...

The answer to this question separates Judeo-Christian values from secular values. No, it doesn’t. Unless you can actually show that, you're lying. Not to give out spoilers, but I watched the rest of your video, and you are NOT able to show that. So stop lying.

Let me offer the clearest possible example: murder. Is murder wrong? Is it evil? Nearly everyone would answer yes. But now I’ll pose a much harder question: How do you know? I am sure that you think that murder is wrong. But how do you know? You actually asked three separate and distinct questions there. I can't help but notice that you tried to just lump the first two together - as if they’re the same thing - and plod on before anyone could notice that they aren't. Is murder wrong? The short answer is, “Not always.” Which you would think would be painfully obvious to you, given all of the murders committed by God in the Bible that you see NO issue with. What you're trying to do here, which is a common tactic when you're attempting to paint someone into a corner, is to couch the argument in black and white terms. Either it’s 100% wrong or it isn't wrong at all, ever. This is called a False Dichotomy, and it’s yet ANOTHER logical fallacy (sometimes called False Dilemma or Black and White Fallacy).

Is murder evil? Generally, if we use the definition given above, we could say that it is. It causes harm. There's really no way around that. I suppose that you could come up with a scenario where murder would not fit the definition of evil, but I can't think of one off my head. But is it “evil” in the spiritual, metaphysical sense? Because that seems to be what Mr. Prager is driving at. No. The only people who would accept THAT definition of evil are neck-deep in the kool-aid of religious terminology, and are fastidiously working their fingers to the bone in an attempt to make the language they’re arguing with ambiguous. It’s the only way they have any hope of winning the argument.

If I asked you how you know that that the earth is round, you would show me photographs from outer space, or offer me measurable data. But what photographs could you show, what measurements could you provide, that prove that murder or rape or theft is wrong? And THIS is why we have flat-earth imbeciles infecting our collective consciousness like a goddamn virus. Because idiots think a photograph they can’t verify or a measurement they can't reproduce or replicate are suitable forms of proof. If you want to KNOW that the earth is round, you’re shit out of luck. You can’t. Not really. You can have a measure of certainty, especially with solid proofs like these. But you can’t be totally certain. Just ask René Descartes. Should that sliver of doubt sway us to accept that a flat earth is plausible? Fuck no! But (and the irony here is more than palpable) that same sliver of doubt is often the BEST evidence available for believers. What evidence can I show that murder, rape, or theft is wrong? Again, the short answer is “Better evidence than you can dredge up from your goddamn bible.”

The fact is...you can’t. There are scientific facts, but without God there are no moral facts. There aren't scientific facts. Not the way that you’re meaning, with black and white certainty. There are theories. Those theories evolve and change. There aren’t moral facts either. You just like to pretend there are because it makes you sleep better at night. You still haven’t provided a shred of evidence for them, but you keep clutching at your bible like Linus to his blue blanket. Show me the moral code you derive from the scriptures. Would it, perhaps, go something like: Sacrifice, rape, rape, kill, rape, kill, kill, kill, misogyny, don’t eat shellfish, don’t blend fabrics, don’t make statues, kill, rape, don’t work on Saturdays, don’t say God’s name bad, rape, kill, don’t desire things that other people have, sacrifice, where you stick your penis totally matters (it doesn't matter if you're consenting adults), kill, kill, rape, own slaves, kill the children, rape the children if you have money, beats the slaves if you don’t kill them, women are objects, kill, rape, kill, praise the invisible tyrant for the stellar example he’s setting with all the killing? With morals like that, we’d be in a much better place these days, eh? Or are you just going to cherry pick the parts that you like? Love thy neighbor, don’t steal, etc... and ignore the rest of it? You know, because at the end of the day, your moral code surpasses that of the Bible.

In a secular world, there can only be opinions about morality. They may be personal opinions or society’s opinion. But only opinions. Every atheist philosopher I have read or debated on this subject has acknowledged that if there is no God, there is no objective morality. There’s not objective morality WITH God. Your own Bible proves as much. God’s decree to Noah after the flood: “Whosoever sheds a man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed.” Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. A doctrine of vengeance. God’s decree via Jesus: “Ye have heard it said: An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you that ye resist not evil. Whosoever smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the left also.” God’s moral law is overturned... by God. The reason those godless heathen atheists “acknowledged” that morality is subjective is because they’re not idiots.

Judeo-Christian values are predicated on the existence of a God of morality. In other words, only if there is a God who says murder is wrong, is murder wrong. Otherwise, all morality is opinion. The entire Western world – what we call Western Civilization – is based on this understanding. Again, you haven’t even begun to crawl, and you’re trying to run. Start at the beginning.

Now, let me make two things clear. First, this doesn't mean that if you don't believe in God, you can’t be a good person. There are plenty of kind and moral individuals who don’t believe in God and Judeo-Christian values. But the existence of these good people has nothing – nothing – to do with the question of whether good and evil really exist if there is no God. I’m with you so far...

Second, there have been plenty of people who believed in God who were not good people; indeed, more than a few have been evil – and have even committed evil in God’s name. The existence of God doesn't ensure people will do good. I wish it did. The existence of God only ensures that good and evil objectively exist and are not merely opinions. And you lost me on the last sentence. It doesn't. You just think it does. You can't conclusively show that to be true. So what is happening here is both of us have opinions, and you are trying to claim a divine mandate for yours. A divine mandate that you can neither prove, or show to be in any way different from my opinion that you’ve asserted has no divine mandate. So remind me again why what you’re saying is anything beyond wishful thinking and speculation? Because I’m not seeing it.

Without God, we therefore end up with what is known as moral relativism – meaning that morality is not absolute, but only relative to the individual or to the society. Without God, the words “good” and “evil” are just another way of saying “I like” and “I don’t like.” If there is no God, the statement “Murder is evil” is the same as the statement “I don't like murder.” Called it! No, those words have very REAL definitions. And, as I have already shown, the definitions for them are fine. We can understand the morality of an action (even murder) without your word games. In NO way is it simply saying “I like” or “I don’t like.” This is yet ANOTHER fallacy, in your apparent race to make sure that you hit ALL of them in a 5 minuet video. This one is known as a Strawman Argument.

Now, many will argue that you don't need moral absolutes; people won’t murder because they don't want to be murdered. But that argument is just wishful thinking. Hitler, Stalin, and Mao didn’t want to be murdered, but that hardly stopped them from murdering about a hundred million people. Wow. Barely got through the last fallacy, and you’re on to another one. That’s goddamn impressive. This one is the False Cause Fallacy. Essentially, you’re arguing that once a moral concept is understood, it can’t be ignored. Do you honestly think that Hitler, Stalin, Mao, or any other perpetrator of what we would consider as immoral acts thought what they were doing was justified? I mean in a moralistic sense. Obviously they thought the ends justified the means. Kind of like the priest that wants to get his dick sucked by an altar boy. Just because practitioners of your religion decide, on a regular basis (seriously, there are multiple news stories every fucking week) to molest children does not indicate on it’s own that religious morality is invalid. What we CAN prove is that there are cases where someone acted in a manner that we would generally describe as immoral, and justified the actions as Moral with the aid of religion. Here’s just one example (and I've seen more than a few dozen just like it) where a horrific act was committed BECAUSE of belief in a God, and justified by the perpetrator as moral.

It is not a coincidence that the rejection of Judeo-Christian values in the Western world – by Nazism and Communism – led to the murder of all these innocent people. I like that you actually included the ACTUAL reasons (Nazism and Communism) or at least the largest contributing factors, in your attempt to link these deaths to disbelief. See the False Cause Fallacy directly above, because you’re doing it again.

It is also not a coincidence that the first societies in the world to abolish slavery – an institution that existed in every known society in human history – were Western societies rooted in Judeo-Christian values. And so were the first societies to affirm universal human rights; to emancipate women; and to proclaim the value of liberty. Don’t you DARE try to take credit for the abolishment of slavery, and women’s rights! How fucking stupid do you think people are? The bible is overflowing with misogyny, inequality, and INSTRUCTIONS FOR SLAVE MASTERS. If God wants credit for abolishing slavery, he fucking should have said something about it in his own goddamn book. But he didn’t. Unless, of corse, you mean the parts where he endorsed it.

Today, the rejection of Judeo-Christian values and moral absolutes has led to a world of moral confusion. There's only one person I see here who’s confused, and he’s trying desperately to convince me that I need his imaginary friend to tell me not to stab someone in the face.

In the New York Times, in March 2015, a professor of philosophy confirmed this. He wrote: “What would you say if you found out that our public schools were teaching children that it is not true that it’s wrong to kill people for fun? Would you be surprised? I was.” First, this is anecdotal because your source isn’t named. Don’t worry, I looked it up for you. The article referenced is here, and the “philosopher” is Justin P. McBrayer, who IS an actual philosopher with an actual PHd. Thats kind of surprising, because most of the stuff i looked up on him read like something from Ken Ham. Regardless, this is a blatant Strawman Assertion (see above) and serves to do nothing but shock the reader into agreement. This is called an Appeal To Emotion Fallacy, or more specifically an Appeal to Fear (also called argumentum ad metum) and is a fallacy in which a person attempts to create support for an idea by using deception and propaganda in attempts to increase fear or prejudice toward a competing idea. “If you don’t believe in God, children will learn to kill each other for fun.” This level of psychological fuckery would be hilarious if it wasn’t so sad.

The professor then added: “The overwhelming majority of college freshmen view moral claims as mere opinions.” That’s a bit of an overstatement. And even if it wasn’t, what does that have to do with the validity of your assertions? Not a damn thing.

So, then, whatever you believe about God or religion, here is a fact: Without a God who is the source of morality, morality is just a matter of opinion. So, if you want a good world, the death of Judeo-Christian values should frighten you. Should it? And why exactly should it frighten me? Based on the complete lack of evidence you’ve offered? The crux of the assertion made here is no different than that of an adult man who, having grown up, left the comfort of his parents home, and began a life for himself laments, “But who will stop me from eating ice cream three meals a day? If no parental figure prevents me, then why shouldn’t I? And what of my friends and coworkers? What’s to stop THEM from eating ice cream three meals a day? Soon, the whole world will be obscenely overweight!” What frightens me is that people like you present fallacy after fallacy after motherfucking fallacy, and try to pass them off like carefully reasoned proofs. What frightens me is the neanderthal imbeciles that see no issue with anything you’ve said. What terrifies me is the notion that these same imbeciles want to suspend the rights of others and hold the scientific community hostage to appease the shallow, illogical, unproven, and wholly ridiculous concept that they have formed in their malfunctioning brains of exactly who or what God is. That’s far more frightening than your unfounded assertions.

So, seeing as how there wasn’t a drop of water in that well, lets look at some more evidence that morality has a very human origin.

Mirror Neurons

A neuron is an electrically excitable cell that processes and transmits information through electrical and chemical signals. These signals between neurons occur via specialized connections called synapses. Neurons can connect to each other to form neural networks. They are major components of the brain.

A mirror neuron is one that fires both when an individual preforms an action AND when the individual observes the same action performed by another. Thus, the neuron "mirrors" the observed behavior, as though the observer were itself acting. Such neurons have been directly observed in primate species. You can click on the link above if you want more accurate information about them, or do one of those 45 second Google searches that require so much effort. I will give the “as I understand it, as a mostly scientifically illiterate layperson” version below. All of this is summarized from the wikipedia article.

In the 80s and 90s, neurophysiologists at the University of Parma placed electrodes in a monkey’s head to study neurons. They were looking at neurons associated with the control of hand and mouth actions, like picking something up or moving it. They had the monkey reach for bits of food, and recorded the movement of neurons in relation to what motions the monkey made. They found that some neurons responded when the monkey observed a person picking up a piece of food, and ALSO when the monkey itself picked up the food. Further study showed identical results corresponding to mouth actions and facial gestures. Still further experiments confirmed that about 10% of neurons in the parts of the brain they were studying have "mirror" properties and give similar responses to observed actions.

In 2002 it was discovered that this mirror system also responds to the sound of actions. Reports on mirror neurons have been widely published and confirmed, with mirror neurons found in both inferior frontal and inferior parietal regions of the brain. Recently, evidence from functional neuro-imaging strongly suggests that humans have similar mirror neurons systems: researchers have identified brain regions which respond during both action and observation of action. Furthermore, functional magnetic resonance imaging can examine the entire brain at once, and suggests that a much wider network of brain areas shows mirror properties in humans than previously thought. These additional areas include the somatosensory cortex and are thought to make the observer feel what it feels like to move in the observed way.

I sense some of you glazing over. So let’s look at what this means for our morals.

If you are struck in the face, and I observe this happening, these neurons mirror the sensation in my own brain. To some degree, I feel you getting slapped. The speculation is that this is why we’re able to feel empathy for one another. Furthermore, this explains a large part of our evolution of morality. Seeing someone else suffer, we’re motivated to help them because it’s really like helping ourselves. When paired with the veil of ignorance, I fail to see any reason that stands up to scrutiny why morality should come from a God, and I see no reason to doubt that morality is a byproduct of evolution and a correctly functioning brain.

The Moral Landscape

Philosopher, author, and neuroscientist Sam Harris made this assertion in his 2010 book, The Moral Landscape: “Just as there is no such thing as Christian physics or Muslim Algebra, we will see tht there is no such thing as Christian or Muslim morality.” And he’s right. We don’t see a morality that is based in a particular religious code that stands up to logical scrutiny. You don’t steal? So what? Neither do these individuals, and they come from a variety of different religions backgrounds - some of them entirely irreligious. The only time a particular code of morality can be specifically associated with a religion is when it comes into conflict with societal or generally accepted normalcy. You think gay men should be killed for offending God? Well, THAT belief is entirely religious and, not coincidentally, entirely illogical. According to Harris, our morality has peaks and valleys, high points and low points. We can make general distinctions between those high and low places, much like we can tell the difference between a mountain and a valley. He argues that we can still have a sort of moral objectivity, based entirely on science and reasoning, that does not in any was resemble the objective morality postulated by the religious. By the same token, it doesn’t resemble the version of purely subjective morality offered up by those who don’t understand the subtleties in play here, or those who would purposefully erect a strawman over them to bolster their own assertions. “If our well-being depends upon the interaction between events in our brains and events in the world, and there are better and worse ways to secure it, then some cultures will tend to produce lives that are more worth living than others; some political persuasions will be more enlightened than others; and some world views will be mistaken in ways that cause needless human misery.” In other words, we can objectively show the differences between the mountains and valleys in our moral landscape, without the aid of a sky wizard and his book of fables, but the differences between the various mountains are largely subjective, as are those between the valleys. Reading the book (which everyone should do) will flush this idea out in much greater detail, but I’m only concerned with the core concept here. I would strongly encourage you to check out the book for yourself.

A Logical Moral Code

So, let’s use these ideas to try and formulate a basic,logical moral code. Just as an example, we’ll use Killing, Murder, and Butchery. Let’s start with some quick definitions so we’re all on the same page. These are MY definitions from my own head, and have nothing to do with dictionary definitions or what have you. This is how I use these terms.

Killing - The taking of another life. Any other life. Man, woman, child, cat, dog, elephant, or whatever the hell Donald Trump is (sentient Cheetos powder?) for any reason.

Murder - Any killing that can’t be logically excused. An unlawful killing.

Butchery - Killing for sport, or for fun. Specifically, killing for no other purpose than the enjoyment of ending another’s life.

Ok. So now, is killing wrong? No. Period. We can’t possibly suggest that killing is wrong, as the bible does, (unless God says it’s ok... or rather commands it to be done) because there are times when killing someone would be the only justifiable action to take. Suppose that someone has broken into your home, and is holding your child at knifepoint. The only way to save the child is to kill the intruder. Is it justifiable to terminate the life of that individual? Of corse. No thinking person would advocate letting someone kill your child to save the life of an intruder. But WHY? Because God said so? I think not. It’s because we’ve evolved to look out for our own. We’ve developed an instinct to protect ourselves, our children, our family unit, our tribe, and so on. Because, to put it bluntly, the idiots who didn’t protect their children from danger didn’t get to have any grandkids. The idiots who didn’t protect their tribe got overtaken by another tribe that DID. Suppose your friend is in a tremendous amount of pain, and begs you to end his life. For the sake of argument, there’s no medical help available and you won’t be legally responsible for your actions. What’s the better alternative? Allow him to suffer, or to do as he asks and end his suffering? The religious mindset here is usually to allow the suffering to continue, because they’re obsessed with their own illogical concept of “life.” It’s always better to have a suffering individual, yearning desperately for the relief of the grave, than to allow a thinking being to make their own decisions regarding their own life and death, right? Because what we think Jesus wants is more important than what you want. Because bible. Personally, I think anything less than honoring their wishes and sending them to a peaceful oblivion is horrific, monstrous, and morally abhorrent. The news would suggest that many believers disagree with me, and that somehow God’s universal, eternal, flawless laws have missed my heart yet again. Maybe he inscribed them on my liver, which would explain my love for gin. Who knows?

We kill animals for food as well (even though this issue is regularly debated) because, as a collective, we’ve decided, for the time being, that since we’re omnivores and we’ve evolved to eat meat, that we shouldn’t feel guilty about killing a chicken or a cow for sustenance. That might change. There’s a vocal minority in the vegetarian/vegan community that is making some compelling arguments for us to stop killing other animals for food. Honestly, when it comes to this issue, I’m torn. On the one hand, it is causing the suffering and death of a sentient being for my own selfish reasons. On the other hand, I love bacon cheeseburgers and fried chicken. I’m willing to admit that I’m less than consistent on this issue, as I think MOST people would if they were honest with themselves. But murder is wrong, right? Yup. I think it’s safe to say that unlawful, or unjustifiable killing is “wrong.” When I say “wrong” I mean a compelling argument against it can be formed, such that the overwhelming majority of thinking people will agree that it’s immoral. Not objectively in a “Because God said so” way, but in a “we’ve all agreed that this makes logical sense” way. So yeah, it’s wrong. But again, why? Because it’s not beneficial. And worse than that, it’s harmful to the group as a whole. Now, I can hear you saying, “Well, it’s beneficial to ME if I want to kill Tim.” Fair enough. In the same way eating 6 gallons of ice cream for dinner would be benificial to you if you have a weakness for ice cream. In the short term, the ice cream will taste great, and you’ll be happy. So why doesn’t everyone just eat ice cream all the time? Simple. Because they’re not imbeciles, and they don’t need someone to tell them that eating that much ice cream will eventually have consequences. It tastes great till they’re sawing off your diabetic feet, and replacing your heart for the 18th time. Just because you WANT to do something doesn’t make it beneficial. And if something has a greater propensity for harm than benefit, the collective decides against it. You still might personally want to do it (remember that example we used of the priest getting his knob gobbled by the alter boys?) but the group as a whole thinks it’s a bad idea. So you can still DO it if you want, but then you run the risk of being found out and moved to a NEW church to molest DIFFERENT boys. Because, religiously speaking, that’s how we deal with immoral behavior. Remember that time a science teacher raped a child and got sent to teach at a different school? Yeah, me neither. But seriously, that’s why we have LAWS against murder, instead of just trusting that the God Jesus Bible Magic laws that are apparently inscribed on all our hearts will keep us safe. Because that would be stupid. It’s viewed as wrong because the collective has agreed that it isn’t beneficial, and actually harms the group as a whole. Not because your invisible sky wizard said so. Because again, that would be stupid. So what about Butchery? Glad you asked! Butchery is “wrong” also, but for different reasons than murder. Before you go trying to bring God up again, He has nothing to do with it, so settle down. Murder is a societal issue. If Tim and Bill want to kill each other while they’re alone, thousands of miles from civilization, where the law can’t touch them, then that’s entirely their business. I realize that some of you don't like that, and you need the feel-good bedtime story of a vengeful, judicious God sitting up in heaven, balancing the scales for every deed done on this planet in order to ensure fairness. Again, your wishful thinking has no place here. Unless you’ve come to the table with some hard evidence in your favor, you can just pack up that sack of nothing you’re trying to bargain with and fuck right off. Not interested. The problem with butchery is that it shows a fundamental flaw of logic and compassion. Remember those mirror neurons we talked about? Well, for someone to derive pleasure from the suffering of someone or something else shows that they’re not functioning properly. Try to follow me here, ok? If God made Albert Fish, and John Wayne Gacy, and Jeffrey Dahmer, etc... (If you don’t know who the are already, only click on the links if you’re prepared to read some dark shit. Seriously, some of it is horrifying) and they got sexually aroused from killing people, necrophilia, blood, severed limbs, and the like, then why did the laws He wrote on their heart backfire? I mean, we could look at the correlation between serial killers and head injuries (the first link to come up after another one of those excruciating 45 second Google searches) or physical/psychological abuse and clearly show that these individuals are malfunctioning. That they’ve been damaged, and are no longer functioning properly. But then that would remove the need for a mystical super being to swoop in and save the day, so lets just sweep that evidence under the rug, amiright?

So when we see or hear something like this, part of our brain reacts to it on an instinctual level. We suffer when a member of our group suffers. And we can flip that switch simply by removing the other individual from our group. For example, we feel compassion for the soldier being gunned down in WW2. Unless that soldier is a Nazi. Then he’s not on our team, and it’s not so difficult to watch him get blown to bits. Same thing works with everything from different religions (crusades, jihad) political parties, and even different sports teams. We’re hardwired by evolution to support our group, and fuck the opposition. We can apply this brand of logic, and construct a working moral code for ourselves, our families, and our community. We do already. We just don’t recognize that we’re doing it. Some of us don't care enough to think about it and float through life like unthinking zombies. Some of us ponder and philosophize and read in an effort to better understand our choices, and see if we can make better ones. And then some of us just lazily plug God into every gap that comes our way and call it a day. After all, what’s the point of evidence if it doesn’t point to Jesus?

I might add more to this, I’m not sure. For now, I hope this has been at least somewhat educational to someone. Feel free to respond to it. I will reply to any and all legitimate criticisms.

Don't bother telling me that I shouldn't swear so much, or that I'm being unnecessarily hostile, or that I'm going to alienate people with my attitude. I don’t give a shit.

Thanks for reading! ~ Apostate Paul

#apologetics #morality #bible #religion #god #philosophy

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rapecrisisdunedin · 7 years

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Why being a woman cricket fan in New Zealand blows chunks

TRIGGER WARNING for discussions of a rape trial and the rape myths and victim-blaming used therein It finally happened. Scott Kuggeleijn has been called up to the Black Caps for their final test match against South Africa. I’ve been expecting this day to come, but believed – hoped - it wouldn’t be so soon. I feel ill. I am sad for every woman in this country who lives with the aftermath of sexual assault. For many survivors of rape and sexual abuse, this is just the latest reminder that if a man harms you he will not be held accountable by the justice system and will probably go on to enjoy a successful and illustrious career in his chosen field. And when that man is in a very public position, some of us endure the constant reminder of that, and of what happened to us, over and over again.

Far from ‘destroying a man’s reputation’, accusations of rape and sexual assault seem only to destroy the reputation of his accuser. In this case, the complainant’s testimony was attacked on the grounds that she wore a short skirt, a singlet and had been drinking. It is galling to have to remind people that none of those things make her a liar or are evidence of her consent. It is galling that lawyers are even allowed to peddle these kinds of arguments in rape trials. The fact that they are admissible and that the jury in the retrial gobbled it up like popcorn at the movies speaks volumes about New Zealand’s culture of misogyny. The list of caveats that apparently nullify a simple, clear ‘No,’ is longer than the Waikato river. I’m sick of hearing myself state what should be obvious – that what we wear or drink has nothing to do with our willingness to have sex - and I’m sick of writing it.

I was further stunned by the lack of legal competency exhibited by Judge David Wilson, QC, who seems to be unfamiliar with some of the finer points of consent law. Under New Zealand law, consent for sex cannot be given if it is coerced. His instruction to the jury, that consent given reluctantly is still consent, would seem to contradict that rule, and sends a disturbing message to women: that our bodily integrity is fair game to any man who is pushy and dominating enough. To any man who makes us feel afraid to say no. So much for our ‘freely, enthusiastically, continuously’ slogans. This ‘Honourable’ Judge with some letters beside his name believes he knows better: women don’t have to want sex, but we have to put up with it, including when we don’t want it.

Right, I’ve done enough hashing over the details of the two trials. Madeleine Holden[1] and Madeleine Chapman[2] have eloquently shed light on the use of rape myth, slut-shaming and victim-blaming in the complainant’s trials (and I type ‘complainant’s trials’ deliberately, because let’s not kid ourselves: she was on trial, not Kuggeleijn), and why that’s a problem. The subject of this piece is more personal to me: how to be a woman fan of cricket when the culture of cricket says you are inferior to men.

The answer is going to be different for every woman. I love this game to the point of obsession. I love cover drives and cut shots and pull shots; I love a screamer of a catch, I love well-executed yorkers, swing bowling, and the thrill of a run-out. I saw the matches and got the shirts. I’ve had selfies with BJ and Kane. Corey Anderson’s and Matt Henry’s autographs are among my prized possessions. My co-workers, family and friends eye me askance that I would book annual leave when there’s a test match down at the University Oval or up in Christchurch at Hagley. They all know one of my other passions is feminism, and perhaps that’s part of the side-eye: how does one reconcile these two seemingly disparate enthusiasms? I wonder that too. Today, with Kuggeleijn on the squad, I’m tearing my hair out with the wondering. Sure, my ‘fave’ sport is problematic, but I don’t – shouldn’t – have to justify or account for my love of it to anyone. Except myself. And I can’t even do that anymore: as long as this man is on the team, I will not be watching or supporting the Black Caps. I’ll probably even cheer if I hear of Australia beating them. Good. And I hope Australia sledge us and play dirty and bowl underarm to their hearts’ content.

This team does not deserve my support as a woman. New Zealand Cricket, its governing body, does not deserve my support. The selection of Scott Kuggeleijn is not just a sad anomaly in an otherwise equal-opportunities professional sport. It is a logical outgrowth of male supremacy in the sport as a whole. Here are some examples of cricket’s disdain for, and indifference to women I have noticed over my last year-and-a-half of cricket fandom.

· At time of writing, the White Ferns (the New Zealand women’s cricket team, currently ranked third in the world [3]) have 15 players under contract. Those contracts are worth a minimum of $20,000 and a maximum of $34,000 [4]. The Black Caps, meanwhile, have 21 players under contracts ranging in worth from $85,585 to $205,266 [5]. This isn’t a pay gap so much as a pay chasm. Even men on the provincial teams earn more than the White Ferns.

· Last year, the ICC opted to fly women cricketers economy to the T20 World Cup while the men flew business class. After public outcry, Cricket Australia upgraded the Southern Stars’ tickets to business, but New Zealand Cricket didn’t see fit to do the same for the White Ferns.

· Toilets. Really, they are an issue. In spite of the fact that women make up almost 50% of the crowd at matches, we warrant inferior bathroom facilities. The Basin Reserve has only a handful of toilets for women. Men have four massive toilet blocks. I kept getting confused and bumbling into the urinals when I was there last weekend, assuming that my loos would just be at the opposite end to the men’s. Not to be: the opposite end of the block is more men’s loos. Ladies go round the back. But at least I could see in them: at the University Oval in Dunedin, the lights in the women’s toilet block were kaput all summer, and were only repaired in time for the Black Caps vs South Africa test early in March. If you think I’m being pedantic by pointing this out, think again. If women are to feel welcome at cricket matches, the least the grounds can do is offer us adequate toilet facilities.

· Oh my God, nobody thought the Otago Sparks vs Northern Spirit game, at the Uni Oval on the day after New Years’ Day, was worth cleaning up rubbish for. It was my first women’s cricket match, and I’d been excited about it for weeks, but the embankments were significantly different from any of the Otago Volts games I’ve attended. The empty beer cans scattered every which way (from the Volts’ game the night before) did not give a laid back ambience. They were symbolic of how women’s cricket is viewed in this country: garbage.

· Last year New Zealand Cricket was the subject of an independent study into the health of women’s participation in cricket. The study reported that the body was failing to engage women at all levels [6]. Sir Richard Hadlee’s response was, if you will pardon my creative paraphrasing, ‘I’VE BEEN TELLING THEM THIS FOR DECADES WHY IS NO-ONE LISTENING OMFG.’[7] (Thanks Sir Richard).

What all this demonstrates is that the cricket pitch is by no means a level playing field. Quite the opposite: cricket is structured, above and below, by sexism. Women’s status as second-class citizens is entrenched at all levels: as umpires, as administrators, as fans, and as budding and established cricketers. And so I ask, sincerely, what has the male cricketing establishment done to be worthy of my support? To be clear, I support women in the game and behind the scenes, wholeheartedly. But New Zealand Cricket tells us, and shows us, time and again that women are in their eyes lesser beings. Scott Kuggeleijn’s promotion to international representative is just the most recent example of it, and although deeply hurtful, not even slightly surprising.

When NZC CEO David White blithely states that he respects the judicial process, it’s a cop out. There is plenty of documented evidence that the judicial process is a routine failure when it comes to sexual violence cases.[8] That’s why the Law Commission has made recommendations for numerous changes (most of which are being ignored).[9] Yes, Kuggeleijn was acquitted. And if you’re anything familiar with the reporting of the case and came away convinced that justice was served, that the complainant gave free and willing consent, and that Kuggeleijn is an upstanding citizen with a right-on attitude toward women, then I’m afraid I don’t know what to say to you.

We can take from all this that New Zealand Cricket’s self-proclaimed interest in inclusion and diversity is worth less than the paper it is written on.[10] Want to be perceived as egalitarian? It’s simple: you treat women equally. You don’t hold up as international role models men who by their own admission see women as walking targets.[11] And that’s the other thing at stake here: while NZC are tacitly telling women and girls they don’t give a proverbial about them, they’re sending an even more dangerous message to boys and men. Boys, especially, who look up to the Black Caps, not just for their sporting prowess, but for lessons on how to be men. What might those children and young men make of this? Probably that harmful sexual behaviour is no barrier to success in cricket. Treat women as you please, they are a means to an end, and at the end of the day if you leave someone traumatised, don’t worry about it because you’re one of the boys.

Did anyone ever wonder where the so-called ‘Roastbusters’, that group of teenaged boys who sexually assaulted intoxicated young women, bragged about it online, and were never brought to justice, learned to do what they did?[12]

That didn’t spring out of nowhere. The culture of misogyny is all around us. It’s thriving at New Zealand Cricket. As passionate as I am about cricket, I can’t support this team anymore. Until the Black Caps stand up against violence against women, I have no interest in being a fan. Until New Zealand Cricket makes a serious commitment to undoing its structural sexism, I have nothing but criticism for them.

[1] http://thespinoff.co.nz/society/17-08-2016/legal-lesson-we-still-somehow-havent-learned-no-meant-yes-is-not-a-rape-defence/

[2] http://thespinoff.co.nz/society/24-02-2017/were-you-saying-no-but-not-meaning-no-on-the-tactics-of-scott-kuggeleijns-lawyer/

[3] http://www.espncricinfo.com/rankings/content/page/211271.html

[4] http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/310984/white-ferns-salary-gap-reflects-revenue-new-zealand-cricket

[5] http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/79538819/pay-rise-for-top-nz-cricketers-with-backtoback-india-tours-to-boost-coffers

[6] http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/86264938/independent-study-calls-out-new-zealand-cricket-for-engagement-levels-with-women

[7] http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/86294301/Sir-Richard-Hadlee-not-surprised-by-damning-results-of-study-into-women-and-cricket-in-New-Zealand

[8] McDonald, E. & Tinsley, Y. (2011) From “Real Rape” to Real Justice: Prosecuting Rape in New Zealand. Wellington: Victoria University Press.

[9] http://www.lawcom.govt.nz/sites/default/files/projectAvailableFormats/NZLC%20IP30.pdf

[10] http://www.blackcaps.co.nz/news-items/sport-unites-for-inclusivity-and-diversity

[11] http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11805426

[12] http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/10674764/Roast-Busters-case-No-charges-to-be-laid

#tw: rape #tw: rape trial #tw: victim blaming #tw: rape myths #scott kuggeleijn #cricket #sexism in sport #systemic sexism #new zealand cricket

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youalready2do · 4 years

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Micheal Cho FAILED WORLD MISERABLY. ME WHAT A PEICE OF SHIT!

HE WAS SUPPOSED TO CHANGE, HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BRING ME COMPUTER THAT HE AND “HIS” TEAM, USED TO CAUSE NATURAL DISASTERS, GIVE SYMPTOMS OF CORONA VIRUS VIA SATELLITE, EVEN DEATH, THEY CAUSED NATURAL DISASTERS, MAN MADE DISASTERS, HE WAS SUPPOSED TO GET ME WORLDWIDE CREDIT, HE WAS TO ENSURE NOTORIETY FOR BEING VOTED BEST COP IN WORLD, PAY ME 3 MONEY TRUCKS FULL OF MONEY! ( I don’t mind sharing. Break banks open Cho, let money fly in streets, You already robbed them digitally, A News Station Portable, Radio Station, Sound National Alarm. Instead you pretend I’m your wife and your butt buddy and copper crotch wife’s wife too, fat and stinky pussy! You got my son STOLEN TECHNICALLY AFTER YOU MADE HIM ROBOTIC, BREAK LAW WHEN WE NEED TO EVACUATE, YOU THREATEN TO KILL MY KIDS, YOU SAID YOU KILLED MY HUSBAND, I NEVER GOT TO MAKE LOVE TO YET SO HEATHEN STIFF RUBBERKNECKER, YOUR WIFE CAN HAVE HIM, AND YOU ALL WANT TO RAPE AND KILL ME, AND THE PEOPLE I LOVE. FUCK THAT! YOU ACT LIKE A FUCKING IDIOT, YOUR NOT EVEN FROM OUR COUNTRY AND YOU FUCKING COME IN HERE, KILL ALMOST EVERYONE IN 6 COUNTRIES HERE, AND TRANS SON SAID ITS 16 COUNTRIES, TRY TO RETEND YOUR PUTTING YOUR GROSS DICK IN MY PUSSY, MY KIDS, YOU RAPED MY MOM AND DAD, BEAT UP MY SON, OR GOT HIM BEAT UP AND STOLEN ROBOTICALLY REPETITIVELY, I HAVE A HUSBAND REMEMBER, YOU FOUND HIM FOR ME, INSISTED I HAVE ONE SO YOU COULD FIND ME MY “PERFECT TYPE OF GUY”, HEN WHEN WE FALL IN LOVE YOU FORCED US (AND OTHERS) TO DO THINGS WE DON’T WANT TO, SEX W/ PEOPLE WE DONT WANT TO. JUST TO RUIN EVERYONES LIVES YOU COME ACCROSS OR YOU KILLED THEM OUT OF THIER ASSETTS, AND KIDS, SO YOU CAN SELL THEM, RAPE THEM, YOU AND THE TRANS, AND MR. KIM. YOU WERE TOLD TO RESPECT ME, OH FAIL YOUR FAMILY MISERABLY AND YOU TALK SHIT ABOUT ME. IM THE ONE WHO DID WONDERFUL AMAZING THINGS, AND YOUR WIFE, HEATHEN STIFF RUBBERKNECKER, SAID NO ONE WILL KNOW THE AMAZING THINGS YOUVE DONE, YOU TOLD ME, ID NEVER KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO MY KIDS, YOU PLAN TO DROP US IN WATER, LEAVE US WITH NO POWER, OR PLANES, YOU TOLD PEOPLE IF THEY HELP ME, YOU’D KILL THEM. YOU AND TRAN SAID HE’S GOING TO CUT MY KIDS HEADS OFF, AND RAPE THEM. FUCK THAT! YOU KEPT ME AWAY FROM MY KIDS AND HAD MY SISTER PUNISH MY SON IF HE TALKED TO ME 7 YEARS 4 MONTHS AGO, MY SON ALWAYS GOT STRAIT A’S AND B’S THROUGH SCHOOL AND HAD A JOB ALREADY THAT HE WAS FORCED TO QUIT BOTH, F’S DUE TO TORCHER OF MIND YOU GAVE HIM WITH YOUR 3 STOOGES. YOU PICKED FIGHTS THROUGH HIM AND OTHERS IN MY FAMILY SO HE’D HAVE NO PLACE TO LIVE, AND TOLD HIM TO MOVE ONTO STREETS WITH ME, YOU TOLD ME TO DREAM BIG, AND I DID, YOU WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR KEEPING MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY ALIVE, AND INSTEAD YOU REPETITIVELY MADE ME RELIVE THIER MURDERS WITH SATELLITE TECHNOLOGY THAT IS IN VIVID MOVIE LIKE FORM IN OUR BRAINS, YOU MADE MY SON SAY FOR ATLEAST A YEAR HE’S A MURDERER, OR HOWEVER MANY, AND ME, I FOUND 3 NEW WITNESSES 2 YESTERDAY AND ONE TODAY THAT THEY HEARD YOU GUYS IN THIER EARS TOO. MAKING THEM DO THINGS THEY DONT WANT TO DO TOO. MADE HIM STAY WITH MY SISTER WHO HAS LIKE 9 PERSONALITIES DUE TO COMPUTER YOU ABUSE. IM TIRED OF THE 2ND STUPID, STUTTERING TERRORIST, BITCH THAT YOU ARE, FUCKING UP MY VIDEO STATEMENTS, FLAPPING YOUR LIPS WHEN I TALK SO I HEAR YOU IN MY EAR SAY THE SAME THINGS I DO AT THE SAME TIME, YOU SWEAR AT MY SON THROUGH ME WHEN IM TALKING TO HIM, YOU HUMILIATE MY SON AND I REPETITIVELY, MAKING US USE RESTROOM OUTSIDE, LITTERALLY BANNING ME FROM MOST EVERY STORE OF ANYKIND. AGAIN, YOU MADE PORN OF ME AND MY SON BOTH WITHOUT ANY CONSENT OF OURS. YOU MAKE HIM WALK BEHIND A BUSH TO ROBOTICALLY PLAY WITH HIS PENIS AND HE’S TALLER THAN IT. WHEN YOU CALLED COPS ON PURPOSE TO COME, YOU MAKE HIM WHOP OUT HIS DICK IN ANY PUBLIC PLACE TO PEE. YOU MADE HIM STEAL GUN CLIPS FOR A GUN YOU PREMEDITATED FOR 5 OR 6 YEARS SO YOU CAN FORCE HIM TO KILL OUR FAMILY AND/OR HIMSELF. YOU BEAT UP MY WONDERFUL SON, YOU MADE HIM BUY ZANEX AND TAKE THEM TO ALMOST OVERDOSING POINT ON 90 DEGREE WEATHER DAY, ESPECIALLY WITH THE SWEATSHIRT YOU MADE HIM LEAVE ON, YOUVE TOLD HIM FOR YEARS I DONT LOVE HIM ANYMORE, HUGEST LIE EVER, IVE HAD LIKE 5 DAYS OFF IN 7 YEARS 4 MONTHS AND I STUDIED EXTREAMLY HARD THE MASON’S . YOU PLANNED ON KILLING US FROM BEGINNING AND STOLE OUR LOVE, YOU FORCE ME AND MY SON TO BE DIRTY, BEG FOR FOOD AS I INVESTIGATED TERRORISTS OF SECRET SOCIETY, YOU USED US AS HUMAN EXPERIMENTS WITHOUT OUR PERMISSION, MADE ME AND MY SON BE PUT INTO MENTAL HOSPITALS, AND JAILS, UOU FORCED FELONY CHARGES ON US SO WE WOULDNT BE ABLE TO STEAL CARS OR GET INTO A HOUSE FOR SAFETY EITHER WAY WHEN THE TIME CAME AND WE WOULD NEED TO ESCAPE OR HAVE A PLACE TO LIVE, YOU MAKE US THINK OUR LOVED ONES ARE DEAD, DID YOU KILL ALL 17 YEAR OLDS IN THE WORLD, ONLY 17 YEAR OLDS DONT GET STIMULOUS, YOUR THREATENING OUR LOVED ONES NOW AND YOUVE BEEN TOLD OF REQUIREMENTS NOT TO KILL MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS, IVER AND OVER THAT YOU NEED TO RESPECT ME! AND YOU ACT LIKE A STUPID BITCH. YOUR FIRED OFF THAT FUCKING COMPUTER AND YOU GET NO WIFI. I DEMAND THAT YOUR EXECUTED FOR THE THINGS THAT YOU DID, AND DO. YOUVE HAD MY SON WALKING ON STREETS YEARS AGO AND YOU MAKE HIM DEPRESSED, VIOLENT VIA SATELLITE. MY SON HAS NEVER EVER SEEN VIOLENCE, FUCKING BITCH, YOUR THE ONE THAT MADE HIS DAD PUSH HIM AGAINST A STONE BRICK WALL AT AGE 10. YOU HAD MY EX’S ROBOTICALLY BEAT ME UP AND CHEAT ON ME OR LEAVE. YOU THREATENED TO KILL EVERYONE’S MOM’S IF WE DONT CHEAT ON THE PERSON WE LOVE BEFORE WERE EVEN TOGETHER, KEPT ME AND MY NEW HUSBAND APART OBVIOUS TRUE LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT, TOLD ME, SO I NOTICED YOU TELL ORHERS SAME THINGS, SO I ASSUME YOU TOLD MY SON AND EVERYONE ELSE THEY HAVE TO FUCK A DEAD PERSON TO SAVE OUR FAMILIES EVEN THE WORLD, PRETENDED YOUR MY HUSBAND TO CLAIM (WELL EVERYONES MINEY) REMEDITATED MURDER ON WHOLE WORLD THEN FOR YOU, DEATH PENALTY VIA SATELLITE. YOU PLAYED SAME GAME WHEN YOU FORCED STRICKLIN AWAY FROM HIS FAMILY, WOULDNT LET HIM SEE OR TALK TO ME 6 YEARS, MY BEST ALLIE TO SAVE WORLD, YOU SET UP OUR PRESIDENT, SO YOU COULD MAKE HIM YOUR HUMAN PUPPET LIKE MY SON AND MANY MANY OTHERS! THEYRE STUCK IN THIER OWN BODIES UNABLE TO EXPRESS THIER OWN FEELINGS, EMBARRASSED MY SON, ALLIENATED HIM FROM SOCIETY, 17 AND A HALF YOU HAVENT ALLOWED HIM A REGULAR ENOUGH LIFE TO GET A GIRLFRIEND YET, SO HE’S A VIRGIN AND YOU WANTED TO SET HIM UP WITH BLACK WIDOW AND MY HUSBAND. YOU MADE MY FRIENDS FUCK HOOKERS YOU MAY HAVE GIVEN AIDS TO ON PURPOSE, AND YOU PRETEND YOU FOUND THE CURE, YEAH RITE, YOU MADE THEM HAVE SEX WITH PEOPLE, (YOU SAID YOU PAID THEM FOR THIS, YOU HAD MY HUSBAND RAPED THEN AND MADE HIM CRY. STRICKLAND,TOO AND YOU ALLEGEDLY SENT OUT HIS WIFE, MY SON IS IN JAIL BECAUSE YOU HATE THAT I LOVE HIM, I SURE HOPE YOU DIDNT HAVE HIM KILLED WHEN HE WAS TAKEN TO JAIL LIKE 5-6 FAYS AGO, BECAUSE UOUR BRAINWASHING AND MIND TORCHER BRAGGED YOU KILLED MY KIDS AND CUT OFF THIER HEADS, THAT’S FUCKED UP, I HAD AN OFFICER FROM MPD CALL THE NEXT MORNING, ALLEGEDLY HE’S THERE. YOU RAISED HOS BAIL TO $500.00?FROM $ 200.00, NOW YOU OBVIOUSLY WONT LET DAVE CONNELL BAIL HIM OUT OF JAIL WHEN HE NEEDS ME MOST, AND YOU THREATENED TO KILL DAVE AND HIS GRAND DAUGHTER. YOU THREATENED ME THAT YOUR GOING TO CUT OFF MY SON’S DICK, SO DAMN STRAIT I TOLD YOU SAME THING, THATS WHAT YOU WANTED TO MAKE ME LOOK BAD. YOU THREATENED THIS TO STRICKLIN AND MR. ASHBACK WHO’S MY NEW HUSBAND. YOU HELD 4 OFFICERS THAT KNOW OF IN MARYSVILLE JAIL, POSING AS WORKERS, MY LONG LOST NEPHEWS HOSTAGE IN KITTITAS COUNTY JAIL WITH MY HUSBAND AND OUR NEW FAMILY. AND FRIENDS FROM SCHOOL. YOU TOLD MY SON ME AND HIS DAD ARE DEAD, AND THAT YOU KILLED HIS FRIENDS. YOU CLONED US. AND SAID ID HAVE TO PICK REAL ONE OF 27 OF STRICKLIN TO SAVE HIM, HOW MANY CLONES DID YOU MAKE OF MY KIDS, YOU TRIED TO TELL ME, YOU SWITCHED MY SON NUMEROUS TIMES, THATS A FUCKING LIE. YOU SEND PEOPLE TO PICK FIGHTS WITH ME AND MY SON, YOU MADE ME SHIT MY PANTS AND PISS THEM ON Q. YOU SENT WEIRD PEOPLE ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT TO THREATEN MY LIFE OR TRAT ME LIKE IM THIER BITCH FIRST MINUTE WE MEET, AND TALK SHIT TO ME. THAT SHIT DOESNT FLY UR A FUCKIND DUMB ASS DUDE, YOU EANT RESPECT BUT YOU GIVE NONE, YOU WANTED TO GIVE ME AND MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS MOTERHOMES AND OR CARS TO FLY LOW FAST AND CRASH LIKE UOU SAID YOU MADE COPS DO! WITNESSES OF YOUR MIND TORCHER, AND YOU MADE-THEM KILL AND RAPE PROPLETaxi GUYS, DICKS TOWING AND HARRY’S TOWING TRUCK DRIVERS TOO, YOU MADE THEM PARTICIPATE WITH THE FIREMEN TO CLEAN UP MURDER SCENES ETC. YOU FORCED ME TO HAVE NO LOVE FOR YEARS AND PRETENDED YOUR DEMANDS ARE GOING TO FLY ON YOU AND YOUR BUTT BUDDIES STICKING YOUR DICKS IN ME OR MY KIDS AND THIER FRIENDS THAT YOU USE TO FUCK DEAD PEOPLE AND GOATS WITH, GROSS, I HEARD YOU FUCK YOUR OWN DAUGHTER, AS YOU AND OR STUBBBLEBINE MADE ALEX WRITE ON HIS PANTS THAT IM HOLDING HIM HOSTAGE, AND THAT HES BEEN RAPED, ON HIS PANTS, IN WRITING LIKE ILL SUBMIT AS EVIDENCE, PICTURES OF MURALS THAT TELL OF MURDER, RAPE, SLAVERY, ME, MY HUSBANDS NAMES MY KIDS EVEN MY GRANDMA’S MURDER PLOT I FOUND IN SMOKEY POINT. YOU SHOOT PEOPLE AND RAN CHAIN SAWS AT NIGHT KILLING PEOPLE FOR ATLEAST A YEAR EVERY NIGHT I WASNT IN JAIL, YOU HAD ME DOING LIKE ALMOST 5 YEARS IN JAIL, NOW YOUR THROWING MU SON IN JAIL, I HAD TO CALL COPS TO SAVE MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS FROM THE ROBOTIC MURDER PLOT YOU PREMEDITATED ON MY FAMILY. YOU SHOOT BUS DRIVERS DO WE MIGHT ONE DAY GET STUCK SIMEWHERE WITH YOU, YOU FUCKING WISH WE WERE LEAVING WITH YOU YOU FUCKING PEICE OF SHIT! FUCK THAT RIDDLE HIM WITH BULLETS IN EVERY COUNTRY. HE GETS A HARD ON BY PLAYINF ROLE OF STUPID BITCH IN MORONIC, MASONIC, RETARD, RELAY OLYMPICS OF DIAREAH OF THE FACE. YOU FUCKING WANTED MY SON TO CHOKE ON MY TAMPONS I PUT DOWN WATER DRAINS TO KEEP AWAY FROM YOU. YOU GAVE MY NEPHEW D.J. A BAD HEART VIA SATELLITE. YOU GAVE JEFFREY MY OTHER NEPHEW LUKEMIA VIA SATELLITE TOO, YOU GAVE MY SON DIABETIES VIACSATELLITE, WONT LET HIM EAT, AT TIMES, LET ALONE EAT HEALTHY. UOU FORCE A BINCH OF SUGAR IN HIM LIKE CANDY POP ETC. YOU SENT STRICKLINS WIFE OUT ON STREETS ALLEGEDLY AND FORCED HIM TO CHEAT. DID YOU KILL ALL OF OUR COP FRIENDS FROM MPD AND EVERETT JAIL? ALL MY KIDS FRIENDS, YOU KNOW DAMN WELL THEY ARE TO BE TOP PRIORITY, AS MICHEAL CHO, YOU ALSO GOT SCHOOLED ALONG THE WAY, AND YOU

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dailychapel · 4 years

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Father, sometimes it does feel that you have left us in the battle. We know that you are with us, but so are our feelings of aloneness. The Enemy seems to be taking ground. Our crying out to you seems to go unanswered. We know you are at work, but help us trust you in the midst of our questions. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

[Gen 39:1-23 NLT] 1 When Joseph was taken to Egypt by the Ishmaelite traders, he was purchased by Potiphar, an Egyptian officer. Potiphar was captain of the guard for Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. 2 The LORD was with Joseph, so he succeeded in everything he did as he served in the home of his Egyptian master. 3 Potiphar noticed this and realized that the LORD was with Joseph, giving him success in everything he did. 4 This pleased Potiphar, so he soon made Joseph his personal attendant. He put him in charge of his entire household and everything he owned. 5 From the day Joseph was put in charge of his master's household and property, the LORD began to bless Potiphar's household for Joseph's sake. All his household affairs ran smoothly, and his crops and livestock flourished. 6 So Potiphar gave Joseph complete administrative responsibility over everything he owned. With Joseph there, he didn't worry about a thing--except what kind of food to eat! Joseph was a very handsome and well-built young man, 7 and Potiphar's wife soon began to look at him lustfully. "Come and sleep with me," she demanded. 8 But Joseph refused. "Look," he told her, "my master trusts me with everything in his entire household. 9 No one here has more authority than I do. He has held back nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing? It would be a great sin against God." 10 She kept putting pressure on Joseph day after day, but he refused to sleep with her, and he kept out of her way as much as possible. 11 One day, however, no one else was around when he went in to do his work. 12 She came and grabbed him by his cloak, demanding, "Come on, sleep with me!" Joseph tore himself away, but he left his cloak in her hand as he ran from the house. 13 When she saw that she was holding his cloak and he had fled, 14 she called out to her servants. Soon all the men came running. "Look!" she said. "My husband has brought this Hebrew slave here to make fools of us! He came into my room to rape me, but I screamed. 15 When he heard me scream, he ran outside and got away, but he left his cloak behind with me." 16 She kept the cloak with her until her husband came home. 17 Then she told him her story. "That Hebrew slave you've brought into our house tried to come in and fool around with me," she said. 18 "But when I screamed, he ran outside, leaving his cloak with me!" 19 Potiphar was furious when he heard his wife's story about how Joseph had treated her. 20 So he took Joseph and threw him into the prison where the king's prisoners were held, and there he remained. 21 But the LORD was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love. And the LORD made Joseph a favorite with the prison warden. 22 Before long, the warden put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and over everything that happened in the prison. 23 The warden had no more worries, because Joseph took care of everything. The LORD was with him and caused everything he did to succeed.

[Psa 108:1-6 NLT] 1 A song. A psalm of David. My heart is confident in you, O God; no wonder I can sing your praises with all my heart! 2 Wake up, lyre and harp! I will wake the dawn with my song. 3 I will thank you, LORD, among all the people. I will sing your praises among the nations. 4 For your unfailing love is higher than the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. 5 Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens. May your glory shine over all the earth. 6 Now rescue your beloved people. Answer and save us by your power.

[Heb 11:1-12 NLT] 1 Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. 2 Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. 3 By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God's command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen. 4 It was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did. Abel's offering gave evidence that he was a righteous man, and God showed his approval of his gifts. Although Abel is long dead, he still speaks to us by his example of faith. 5 It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying--"he disappeared, because God took him." For before he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God. 6 And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. 7 It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith. 8 It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. 9 And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith--for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. 10 Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God. 11 It was by faith that even Sarah was able to have a child, though she was barren and was too old. She believed that God would keep his promise. 12 And so a whole nation came from this one man who was as good as dead--a nation with so many people that, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, there is no way to count them.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, send us out with confidence in your word, to tell the world of your saving acts, and bring glory to your name. Amen.

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bountyofbeads · 4 years

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Jeffrey Epstein, Blackmail and a Lucrative ‘Hot List’ https://nyti.ms/2YbajVT

Exclusive: Soon after Jeffrey Epstein died, a mysterious man came forward. He said he had CCTV footage from Epstein's homes. He said it showed powerful men having sex and that Epstein used it for blackmail. THREAD by @davidenrich and article

with @davidenrich @jbsgreenberg @emilysteel @BernsteinJacob

"We spent months speaking to and meeting with the man, trying to confirm his story, authenticate his videos and establish his identity." /1

"We couldn’t. We think he is likely a conman and that his videos are fake. We don't know his motivations." /2

This is Kessler: https://t.co/yat6huSzIW

"That might have been the end, but Kessler also went to two lawyers, David Boies and Stan Pottinger. They told @nytimes they hoped to use his supposed videos to win settlements from men who appeared on them."

"A lawyer drew up a list of possible targets: "I call it our hot list.”/3 https://t.co/efhcpDf7s9

"The man went by a pseudonym, Patrick Kessler. He showed us what he said were video stills of men — including Alan Dershowitz and Ehud Barak — having sex in Epstein’s properties. He said he wanted justice for their victims.

Images deliberately blurred." /4 https://t.co/wz2cSNUYFj

"Was this ethical?"

"David Boies told us he would only seek settlements on behalf of clients with valid claims. Not extortion."/5

"Stan Pottinger, who wrote the text messages we obtained, said he had been lying to Kessler and never intended to do what he said he would." /6 https://t.co/bN88r4voCd

"This saga is the subject of a special hourlong episode of @TheWeekly, airing on @FXNetworks on Sunday night at 10pm. It will stream on @hulu starting Monday."

"You can see the lawyers and Kessler explaining what happened in their own words."/7 https://t.co/Xtv7CjBIst

"The idea was that any money from those settlements would flow to a foundation — and to lawyers, according to text messages obtained by @nytimes."

"The deals probably would have kept the videos — some supposedly showed men raping children — secret." /8 https://t.co/OSeiBtqy9A

"I’m seeing lots of questions (incl from @felixsalmon & @jbenton) about why we named some but not all of the men who appeared on the supposed videos."

"Let me explain our thinking. First of all, we doubt the videos exist, which weighs against naming people..." /9

... "We decided to name Dershowitz and Andrew because they have already been publicly accused, and Dersh is Boies’s enemy. And the supposed photo of Barak was possibly going to be used to sway an election, which is newsworthy.

That’s our thinking. Reasonable people may disagree." /END

Jeffrey Epstein, Blackmail and a Lucrative ‘Hot List’

A shadowy hacker claimed to have the financier’s sex tapes. Two top lawyers wondered: What would the men in those videos pay to keep them secret?

By Jessica Silver-Greenberg, Emily Steel, Jacob Bernstein & David Enrich | Published Nov. 30, 2019 Updated 10:13 AM ET | New York Times | Posted November 30, 2019 |

Soon after the sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein died in August, a mysterious man met with two prominent lawyers.

Towering, barrel-chested and wild-bearded, he was a prodigious drinker and often wore flip-flops. He went by a pseudonym, Patrick Kessler — a necessity, he said, given the shadowy, dangerous world that he inhabited.

He told the lawyers he had something incendiary: a vast archive of Mr. Epstein’s data, stored on encrypted servers overseas. He said he had years of the financier’s communications and financial records — as well as thousands of hours of footage from hidden cameras in the bedrooms of Mr. Epstein’s properties. The videos, Kessler said, captured some of the world’s richest, most powerful men in compromising sexual situations — even in the act of rape.

[Watch “The Weekly,” The Times’s new TV show on FX and Hulu A mysterious man told us he had surveillance footage from Jeffrey Epstein’s properties. Then his story took a turn.]

Kessler said he wanted to expose these men. If he was telling the truth, his trove could answer one of the Epstein saga’s most baffling questions: How did a college dropout and high school math teacher amass a purported nine-figure fortune? One persistent but unproven theory was that he ran a sprawling blackmail operation. That would explain why moguls, scientists, political leaders and a royal stayed loyal to him, in some cases even after he first went to jail.

Kessler’s tale was enough to hook the two lawyers, the famed litigator David Boies and his friend John Stanley Pottinger. If Kessler was authentic, his videos would arm them with immense leverage over some very important people.

Mr. Boies and Mr. Pottinger discussed a plan. They could use the supposed footage in litigation or to try to reach deals with men who appeared in it, with money flowing into a charitable foundation. In encrypted chats with Kessler, Mr. Pottinger referred to a roster of potential targets as the “hot list.” He described hypothetical plans in which the lawyers would pocket up to 40 percent of the settlements and could extract money from wealthy men by flipping from representing victims to representing their alleged abusers.

The possibilities were tantalizing — and extended beyond vindicating victims. Mr. Pottinger saw a chance to supercharge his law practice. For Mr. Boies, there was a shot at redemption, after years of criticism for his work on behalf of Theranos and Harvey Weinstein.

In the end, there would be no damning videos, no funds pouring into a new foundation. Mr. Boies and Mr. Pottinger would go from toasting Kessler as their “whistle-blower” and “informant” to torching him as a “fraudster” and a “spy.”

Kessler was a liar, and he wouldn’t expose any sexual abuse. But he would reveal something else: The extraordinary, at times deceitful measures elite lawyers deployed in an effort to get evidence that could be used to win lucrative settlements — and keep misconduct hidden, allowing perpetrators to abuse again.

Mr. Boies has publicly decried such secret deals as “rich man’s justice,” a way that powerful men buy their way out of legal and reputational jeopardy. This is how it works.

7 MEN AND A HEADLESS PARROT

The man who called himself Kessler first contacted a Florida lawyer, Bradley J. Edwards, who was in the news for representing women with claims against Mr. Epstein. It was late August, about two weeks after the financier killed himself in a jail cell while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.

Mr. Edwards, who did not respond to interview requests, had a law firm called Edwards Pottinger, and he soon referred Kessler to his New York partner. Silver-haired and 79, Mr. Pottinger had been a senior civil-rights official in the Nixon and Ford administrations, but he also dabbled in investment banking and wrote best-selling medical thrillers. He was perhaps best known for having dated Gloria Steinem and Kathie Lee Gifford.

Mr. Pottinger recalled that Mr. Edwards warned him about Kessler, saying that he was “endearing,” “spooky” and “loves to drink like a fish.”

After an initial discussion with Kessler in Washington, Mr. Pottinger briefed Mr. Boies — whose firm was also active in representing accusers in the Epstein case — about the sensational claims. He then invited Kessler to his Manhattan apartment. Kessler admired a wall-mounted frame containing a headless stuffed parrot; on TV, the Philadelphia Eagles were mounting a comeback against the Washington Redskins. Mr. Pottinger poured Kessler a glass of WhistlePig whiskey, and the informant began to talk.

In his conversations with Mr. Pottinger and, later, Mr. Boies, Kessler said his videos featured numerous powerful men who were already linked to Mr. Epstein: Ehud Barak, the former Israeli prime minister; Alan Dershowitz, a constitutional lawyer; Prince Andrew; three billionaires; and a prominent chief executive.

All seven men, or their representatives, told The New York Times they never engaged in sexual activity on Mr. Epstein’s properties. The Times has no reason to believe Kessler’s supposed video footage is real.

In his apartment, Mr. Pottinger presented Kessler with a signed copy of “The Boss,” his 2005 novel. “One minute you’re bending the rules,” blares the cover of the paperback version. “The next minute you’re breaking the law.” On the title page, Mr. Pottinger wrote: “Here’s to the great work you are to do. Happy to be part of it.”

Mr. Pottinger also gave Kessler a draft contract to bring him on as a client, allowing him to use a fake name. “For reasons revealed to you, I prefer to proceed with this engagement under the name Patrick Kessler,” the agreement said.

Despite the enormities of the Epstein scandal, few of his accusers have gotten a sense of justice or resolution. Mr. Pottinger thought Kessler’s files could change everything. This strange man was theatrical and liked his alcohol, but if there was even a chance his claims were true, they were worth pursuing.

“Our clients are said to be liars and prostitutes,” Mr. Pottinger later said in an interview with The Times, “and we now have someone who says, ‘I can give you secret photographic proof of abuse that will completely change the entire fabric of your practice and get justice for these girls.’ And you think that we wouldn’t try to get that?”

A VICTIM BECOMES A HACKER

Mr. Pottinger and Mr. Boies have known each other for years, a friendship forged on bike trips in France and Italy. In legal circles, Mr. Boies was royalty: He was the one who fought for presidential candidate Al Gore before the Supreme Court, took on Microsoft in a landmark antitrust case, and helped obtain the right for gays and lesbians to get married in California.

But then Mr. Boies got involved with the blood-testing start-up Theranos. As the company was being revealed as a fraud, he tried to bully whistle-blowers into not speaking to a Wall Street Journal reporter, and he was criticized for possible conflicts of interest when he joined the company’s board in 2015.

Two years later, Mr. Boies helped his longtime client Harvey Weinstein hire private investigators who intimidated sources and trailed reporters for The Times and The New Yorker — even though Mr. Boies’s firm had worked for The Times on other matters. (The Times fired his firm.)

By 2019, Mr. Boies, 78, was representing a number of Mr. Epstein’s alleged victims. They got his services pro bono, and he got the chance to burnish his legacy. When Mr. Pottinger contacted him about Kessler, he was intrigued.

Epstein, who in 2012 hired Kessler to set up encrypted servers to preserve his extensive digital archives. With Mr. Epstein dead, Kessler boasted to the lawyers, he had unfettered access to the material. He said the volume of videos was overwhelming: more than a decade of round-the-clock footage from dozens of cameras.

Kessler displayed some pixelated video stills on his phone. In one, a bearded man with his mouth open appears to be having sex with a naked woman. Kessler said the man was Mr. Barak. In another, a man with black-framed glasses is seen shirtless with a woman on his lap, her breasts exposed. Kessler said it was Mr. Dershowitz. He also said that some of the supposed videos appeared to have been edited and cataloged for the purpose of blackmail.

“This was explosive information if true, for lots and lots of people,” Mr. Boies said in an interview.

Mr. Boies and Mr. Pottinger had decades of legal experience and considered themselves experts at assessing witnesses’ credibility. While they couldn’t be sure, they thought Kessler was probably legit.

A CHANCE TO SWAY THE ISRAELI ELECTION

Within hours of the Hudson Yards meeting, Mr. Pottinger sent Kessler a series of texts over the encrypted messaging app Signal.

According to excerpts viewed by The Times, Mr. Pottinger and Kessler discussed a plan to disseminate some of the informant’s materials — starting with the supposed footage of Mr. Barak. The Israeli election was barely a week away, and Mr. Barak was challenging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The purported images of Mr. Barak might be able to sway the election — and fetch a high price. (“Total lie with no basis in reality,” Mr. Barak said when asked about the existence of such videos.)

“Can you review your visual evidence to be sure some or all is indisputably him? If so, we can make it work,” Mr. Pottinger wrote.

Kessler said he would do so. Mr. Pottinger sent a yellow smiley-face emoji with its tongue sticking out.

“Can you share your contact that would be purchasing,” Kessler asked.

“Sheldon Adelson,” Mr. Pottinger answered.

Mr. Adelson, a billionaire casino magnate in Las Vegas, had founded one of Israel’s largest newspapers, and it was an enthusiastic booster of Mr. Netanyahu. Mr. Pottinger wrote that he and Mr. Boies hoped to fly to Nevada to meet with Mr. Adelson to discuss the images.

“Do you believe that adelson has the pull to insure this will hurt his bid for election?” Kessler asked the next morning.

Mr. Pottinger reassured him. “There is no question that Adelson has the capacity to air the truth about EB if he wants to,” he said, using Mr. Barak’s initials. He said he planned to discuss the matter with Mr. Boies that evening.

Mr. Boies confirmed that they discussed sharing the photo with Mr. Adelson but said the plan was never executed. Boaz Bismuth, the editor in chief of the newspaper, Israel Hayom, said its journalists were approached by an Israeli source who pitched them supposed images of Mr. Barak, but that “we were not interested.”

‘THESE ARE WEALTHY WRONGDOERS ’

The men whom Kessler claimed to have on tape were together worth many billions. Some of their public relations teams had spent months trying to tamp down media coverage of their connections to Mr. Epstein. Imagine how much they might pay to make incriminating videos vanish.

You might think that lawyers representing abuse victims would want to publicly expose such information to bolster their clients’ claims. But that is not how the legal industry always works. Often, keeping things quiet is good business.

One of the revelations of the #MeToo era has been that victims’ lawyers often brokered secret deals in which alleged abusers paid to keep their accusers quiet and the allegations out of the public sphere. Lawyers can pocket at least a third of such settlements, profiting off a system that masks misconduct and allows men to abuse again.

Mr. Boies and Mr. Pottinger said in interviews that they were looking into creating a charity to help victims of sexual abuse. It would be bankrolled by private legal settlements with the men on the videos.

Mr. Boies acknowledged that Kessler might get paid. “If we were able to use this to help our victims recover money, we would treat him generously,” he said in September. He said that his firm would not get a cut of any settlements.

Such agreements would have made it less likely that videos involving the men became public. “Generally what settlements are about is getting peace,” Mr. Boies said.

Mr. Pottinger told Kessler that the charity he was setting up would be called the Astria Foundation — a name he later said his girlfriend came up with, in a nod to Astraea, the Greek goddess of innocence and justice. “We need to get it funded by abusers,” Mr. Pottinger texted, noting in another message that “these are wealthy wrongdoers.”

Mr. Pottinger asked Kessler to start compiling incriminating materials on a specific group of men.

“I’m way ahead of you,” Kessler responded. He said he had asked his team of fellow hackers to search the files for the three billionaires, the C.E.O. and Prince Andrew.

“Yes, that’s exactly how to do this,” Mr. Pottinger said. “Videos for sure, but email traffic, too.”

“I call it our hot list,” he added.

A QUIET TABLE AT THE BACK OF GRAND SICHUAN

In mid-September, Mr. Boies and Mr. Pottinger invited reporters from The Times to the Boies Schiller offices to meet Kessler. The threat of a major news organization writing about the videos — and confirming the existence of an extensive surveillance apparatus — could greatly enhance the lawyers’ leverage over the wealthy men.

Before the session, Mr. Pottinger encouraged Kessler to focus on certain men, like Mr. Barak, while avoiding others. Referring to the reporters, he added, “Let them drink from a fountain instead of a water hose. They and the readers will follow that better.”

The meeting took place on a cloudy Saturday morning. After agreeing to leave their phones and laptops outside, the reporters entered a 20th-floor conference room. Kessler was huge: more than 6 feet tall, pushing 300 pounds, balding, his temples speckled with gray. He told his story and presented images that he said were of Mr. Epstein, Mr. Barak and Mr. Dershowitz having sex with women.

Barely an hour after the session ended, the Times reporters received an email from Kessler: “Are you free?” He said he wanted to meet — alone. “Tell no one else.” That afternoon, they met at Grand Sichuan, an iconic Chinese restaurant in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. The lunch rush was over, and the trio sat at a quiet table in the back. A small group of women huddled nearby, speaking Mandarin and snipping the ends off string beans.

Kessler complained that Mr. Boies and Mr. Pottinger were more interested in making money than in exposing wrongdoers. He pulled out his phone, warned the reporters not to touch it, and showed more of what he had. There was a color photo of a bare-chested, gray-haired man with a slight smile. Kessler said it was a billionaire. He also showed blurry, black-and-white images of a dark-haired man receiving oral sex. He said it was a prominent C.E.O.

Soup dumplings and Gui Zhou chicken arrived, and Kessler kept talking. He said he had found financial ledgers on Mr. Epstein’s servers that showed he had vast amounts of Bitcoin and cash in the Middle East and Bangkok, and hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of gold, silver and diamonds. He presented no proof. But it is common for whistle-blowers to be erratic and slow to produce their evidence, and The Times thought it was worth investigating Kessler’s claims.

The conversation continued in a conference room at a Washington hotel five days later, after a text exchange in which Kessler noted his enthusiasm for Japanese whiskey. Both parties brought bottles to the hotel, and Kessler spent nearly eight hours downing glass after glass. He veered from telling tales about the dark web to professing love for “Little House on the Prairie.” He asserted that he had evidence Mr. Epstein had derived his wealth through illicit means. At one point, he showed what he said were classified C.I.A. documents.

Kessler said he had no idea who the women in the videos were or how the lawyers might go about identifying them to act on their behalf. From his perspective, he said, it seemed like Mr. Boies and Mr. Pottinger were plotting to use his footage to demand huge sums from billionaires. He said it looked like blackmail — and that he could prove it.

‘WE KEEP IT. WE KEEP EVERYTHING '

Was Kessler’s story plausible? Did America’s best-connected sexual predator accumulate incriminating videos of powerful men?

Two women who spent time in Mr. Epstein’s homes said the answer was yes. In an unpublished memoir, Virginia Giuffre, who accused Mr. Epstein of making her a “sex slave,” wrote that she discovered a room in his New York mansion where monitors displayed real-time surveillance footage.

And Maria Farmer, an artist who accused Mr. Epstein of sexually assaulting her when she worked for him in the 1990s, said that Mr. Epstein once walked her through the mansion, pointing out pin-sized cameras that he said were in every room.

“I said, ‘Are you recording all this?’” Ms. Farmer said in an interview. “He said, ‘Yes. We keep it. We keep everything.’”

During a 2005 search of Mr. Epstein’s Palm Beach, Fla., estate, the police found two cameras hidden in clocks — one in the garage and the other next to his desk, according to police reports. But no other cameras were found.

If such a surveillance system did exist, nothing that Kessler told or showed The Times proved that he had access to it. The photos he shared were too grainy to establish anyone’s identity. And many other elements of his story failed to hold up under scrutiny.

Kessler claimed to have been an early investor in a North Carolina coffee company, whose sticker was affixed to his laptop. But its founder said no one matching Kessler’s description had ever been affiliated with the company. Kessler insisted that he invested in 2009, but the company wasn’t founded until 2011.

The contents of Kessler’s supposed C.I.A. documents turned out to be easily findable using Google. At one point, Kessler said that one of his associates had been missing and was found dead; later, Kessler said the man was alive and in the southern United States. He said that his mother had died when he was young — and that he had recently given her a hug. A photo he sent from what he said was a Washington-area hospital featured a distinctive blanket, but when The Times called local hospitals, they didn’t recognize the pattern.

After months of effort, The Times could not learn Kessler’s identity or confirm any element of his back story.

“I am very often being purposefully inconsistent,” Kessler said, when pressed.

A WEINSTEIN CAMEO

On the last Friday in September, Mr. Boies and Mr. Pottinger sat on a blue leather couch in the corner of a members-only dining room at the Harvard Club in Midtown Manhattan. Antlered animal heads and oil paintings hung from the dark wooden walls.

The lawyers were there to make a deal with The Times. Tired of waiting for Kessler’s motherlode, Mr. Pottinger said they planned to send a team overseas to download the material from his servers. He said he had alerted the F.B.I. and a prosecutor in the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan.

Mr. Boies told an editor for The Times that they would be willing to share everything, on one condition: They would have discretion over which men could be written about, and when. He explained that if compromising videos about particular men became public, that could torpedo litigation or attempts to negotiate settlements. The Times editor didn’t commit.

Mr. Boies and Mr. Pottinger later said those plans had hinged on verifying the videos’ authenticity and on having clients with legitimate legal claims against the men. Otherwise, legal experts said, it might have crossed the line into extortion.

The meeting was briefly interrupted when Bob Weinstein, the brother of Harvey Weinstein, bounded up to the table and plopped onto the couch next to Mr. Boies. The two men spent several minutes talking, laughing and slapping each other on the back.

While Mr. Boies and Mr. Weinstein chatted, Mr. Pottinger furtively displayed the black-and-white shot of a man in glasses having sex. Both lawyers said it looked like Mr. Dershowitz.

‘YOU DON’T KEEP YOUR GLASSES ON WHEN YOU’RE DOING THAT’

One day in late September, Mr. Dershowitz’s secretary relayed a message: Someone named Patrick Kessler wanted to speak to him about Mr. Boies.

The constitutional lawyer Alan Dershowitz in 2015.Credit...Todd Heisler/The New York Times

The two lawyers had a long-running feud, and Mr. Dershowitz returned the call from his apartment. He also recorded it. Kessler explained his Epstein story, and that he no longer trusted Mr. Boies and Mr. Pottinger.

“The problem is that they don’t want to move forward with any of these people legally,” Kessler said. “They’re just interested in trying to settle and take a cut.”

“Who are these people that you have on videotape?” Mr. Dershowitz asked.

“There’s a lot of people,” Kessler said, naming a few powerful men. He added, “There’s a long list of people that they want me to have that I don’t have.”

“Who?” Mr. Dershowitz asked. “Did they ask about me?”

“Of course they asked about you. You know that, sir.”

“And you don’t have anything on me, right?”

“I do not, no,” Kessler said.

“Because I never, I never had sex with anybody,” Mr. Dershowitz said. Later in the call, he added, “I am completely clean. I was at Jeffrey’s house. I stayed there. But I didn’t have any sex with anybody.”

What was the purpose of Kessler’s phone call? Why did he tell Mr. Dershowitz that he wasn’t on the supposed surveillance tapes, contradicting what he had said and showed to Mr. Boies, Mr. Pottinger and The Times? Did the call sound a little rehearsed?

Mr. Dershowitz said that he didn’t know why Kessler contacted him, and that the phone call was the only time the two men ever spoke. When The Times showed him one of Kessler’s photos, in which a bespectacled man resembling Mr. Dershowitz appears to be having sex, Mr. Dershowitz laughed and said the man wasn’t him. His wife, Carolyn Cohen, peeked at the photo, too.

“You don’t keep your glasses on when you’re doing that,” she said.

DATA SET (SUPPOSEDLY) TO SELF-DESTRUCT

In early October, Kessler said he was ready to produce the Epstein files. He told The Times that he had created duplicate versions of Mr. Epstein’s servers. He laid out detailed logistical plans for them to be shipped by boat to the United States and for one of his associates — a very short Icelandic man named Steven — to deliver them to The Times headquarters at 11 a.m. on Oct. 3.

Kessler warned that he was erecting a maze of security systems. First, a Times employee would need to use a special thumb drive to access a proprietary communications system. Then Kessler’s colleague would transmit a code to decrypt the files. If his instructions weren’t followed precisely, Kessler said, the information would self-destruct.

Specialists at The Times set up a number of “air-gapped” laptops — disconnected from the internet — in a windowless, padlocked meeting room. Reporters cleared their schedules to sift through thousands of hours of surveillance footage.

On the morning of the scheduled delivery, Kessler sent a series of frantic texts. Disaster had struck. A fire was burning. The duplicate servers were destroyed. One of his team members was missing. He was fleeing to Kyiv.

Two hours later, Kessler was in touch with Mr. Pottinger and didn’t mention any emergency. Kessler said he hoped that the footage would help pry $1 billion in settlements out of their targets, and asked him to detail how the lawyers could extract the money. “Could you put together a hypothetical situation,” Kessler wrote, not something “set in stone but close to what your thinking.”

Mr. Pottinger obliged — and walked into what looked like a trap. He described two hypotheticals, both of which were consistent with what had been discussed with The Times at the Harvard Club.

In one, which he called a “standard model” for legal settlements, Mr. Pottinger said the money would be split among his clients, the Astria Foundation, Kessler and the lawyers, who would get up to 40 percent.

In the second hypothetical, Mr. Pottinger wrote, the lawyers would approach the videotaped men. The men would then hire the lawyers, ensuring that they would not get sued, and “make a contribution to a nonprofit as part of the retainer.”

“No client is actually involved in this structure,” Mr. Pottinger said, noting that the arrangement would have to be “consistent with and subject to rules of ethics.”

“Thank you very much,” Kessler responded.

Mr. Pottinger later said that the scenario would have involved him representing a victim, settling a case and then representing the victim’s alleged abuser. He said it was within legal boundaries. (He also said he had meant to type “No client lawsuit is actually involved.”)

Such legal arrangements are not unheard-of. Lawyers representing a former Fox News producer who had accused Bill O’Reilly of sexual harassment reached a settlement in which her lawyers agreed to work for Mr. O’Reilly after the dispute. But legal experts generally consider such setups to be unethical because they can create conflicts between the interests of the lawyers and their original clients.

‘I JUST PULLED IT OUT OF MY BEHIND ’

The lawyers held out hope of getting Kessler’s materials. But weeks passed, and nothing arrived. At one point, Mr. Pottinger volunteered to meet Kessler anywhere — including Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia.

“I still believe he is what he purported to be,” Mr. Boies wrote in an email on Nov. 7. “I have to evaluate people for my day job, and he seemed too genuine to be a fake, and I very much want him to be real.” He added, “I am not unconscious of the danger of wanting to believe something too much.”

Ten days later, Mr. Boies arrived at The Times for an on-camera interview. It was a bright, chilly Sunday, and Mr. Boies had just flown in from Ecuador, where he said he was doing work for the finance ministry. Reporters wanted to ask him plainly if his and Mr. Pottinger’s conduct with Kessler crossed ethical lines.

Would they have brokered secret settlements that buried evidence of wrongdoing? Did the notion of extracting huge sums from men in exchange for keeping sex tapes hidden meet the definition of extortion?

Mr. Boies said the answer to both questions was no. He said he and Mr. Pottinger operated well within the law. They only intended to pursue legal action on behalf of their clients — in other words, that they were a long way from extortion. In any case, he said, he and Mr. Pottinger had never authenticated any of the imagery or identified any of the supposed victims, much less contacted any of the men on the “hot list.”

Then The Times showed Mr. Boies some of the text exchanges between Mr. Pottinger and Kessler. Mr. Boies showed a flash of anger and said it was the first time he was seeing them.

By the end of the nearly four-hour interview, Mr. Boies had concluded that Kessler was probably a con man: “I think that he was a fraudster who was just trying to set things up.” And he argued that Kessler had baited Mr. Pottinger into writing things that looked more nefarious than they really were. He acknowledged that Mr. Pottinger had used “loose language” in some of his messages that risked creating the impression that the lawyers were plotting to monetize evidence of abuse.

Several days later, Mr. Boies returned for another interview and was more critical of Mr. Pottinger, especially the hypothetical plans that he had described to Kessler. “Having looked at all that stuff in context, I would not have said that,” he said. How did Mr. Boies feel about Mr. Pottinger invoking his name in messages to Kessler? “I don’t like it,” he said.

But Mr. Boies stopped short of blaming Mr. Pottinger for the whole mess. “I’m being cautious not to throw him under the bus more than I believe is accurate,” he said. His longtime P.R. adviser, Dawn Schneider, who had been pushing for a more forceful denunciation, dropped her pen, threw up her arms and buried her head in her hands.

In a separate interview, The Times asked Mr. Pottinger about his correspondence with Kessler. The lawyer said that his messages shouldn’t be taken at face value because, in reality, he had been deceiving Kessler all along — “misleading him deliberately in order to get the servers.”

The draft retention agreement that Mr. Pottinger had given to Kessler in September was unsigned and never meant to be honored, Mr. Pottinger said. And he never intended to sell photos of Mr. Barak to Mr. Adelson. “I just pulled it out of my behind,” he said, describing it as an act to impress Kessler.

As for the two hypotheticals about how to get money out of the men on the list, Mr. Pottinger said, he never planned to do what he carefully articulated. “I didn’t owe Patrick honesty about this,” he said.

Mr. Pottinger said that he had only one regret — that “we did not get the information that this liar said he had.”

He added, “I’m building legal cases here. I’m trying not to engage too much in shenanigans. I wish I didn’t, but this guy was very unusual.”

Ronen Bergman contributed reporting. Susan Beachy contributed research.

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