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tugoslovenka · 5 months

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Warding Bond - Chapter 7

Of Blood and Time

A/N:

Surprise chapter because I really wanted a bit of a fight and tussle! Also happy belated holidays for my American readers. I hope that turkey stuffing was good! This is a bit shorter but hey, I was feeling like posting.

Also posting on AO3!

“Sing for me, Varra.”

The hair sticking to her sweaty forehead blocked most of what she could see underneath her. Her palms were burning from the heat of Raphael’s bare chest. Even after years of the same, rehearsed, vile display of affection she executed perfectly, she never accustomed her human body to the torridity of the Hells. The devil, true to form, clawed her hips, forcefully thrusting her down on his member.

She hadn’t noticed—not that she could have. Instead, Varra’s mouth opened as cries of pleasure escaped, echoing the name Raphael as she screamed into the winds that grazed her skin, spilling in through the open doors of the boudoir.

Haarlep too, mewed. His incubus form was busying himself where his master’s cock met her entrance, lapping away as he was told to.

“Little lamb…” Raphael cooed, removing one hand from her side to affectionately twirl the hardened nipple, which now bore a new accessory, a piercing in the shape of a horn. She had become something of a favorite, though Varra knew others in the House of Hope received similar visits—rewards. He had gifted it to her as a present, to mark the 134th anniversary of her freedom from the clutches of lord Cazador Szarr.

The name held no significance to her anymore. Another face in the swarm that plagued her dreams, alongside the pale elf that seemed to permanently occupy her mind.

Astarion.

“You are remarkable, Raphael...” Haarlep’s muffled voice sounded. “Such power.” The smacking, wet noises of his own ministrations would haveelicited a groan of disgust, were it not for the performance she had to excel in. The devil often conquered Varra while forcing his incubus to watch, allowing him the occasional touch, lick—bite—to satiate his own lust. There was no end to the fiend’s stamina. After all, it was what they were born to do.

“Say it, Varra,” Raphael moaned.

“You are cunning, master.” She raised the pitch of her voice to match the version he requested most often. “The most powerful cambion in all the Hells—”

“—Realms,” he corrected.

“And beyond!” she squealed, wincing as his nails scratched down the soft skin of her nipple, almost drawing blood.

This ritual of perverted love she had to accept.

It was methodical. It was expected. It was required.

Mephistopheles’s visit had unearthed a sentience she had long forgotten existed. It was difficult, explaining the absence of a thing suddenly finding purpose in directionlessness. Every day since the archdevil’s proposal, she uncovered new memories of old, revealed within the tiniest slivers of peace the House of Hope afforded.

One morning, she awoke feeling strange. Her hands touched the wetness underneath her eyes, trying to discern its purpose. The other servants couldn’t explain, but Haarlep’s excitement at the prospect of her return was evident. The incubus had no memory of what transpired when the Lord of the Eighth visited. Haarlep simply continued the act with the same forced benevolence that made Varra’s skin crawl.

She didn’t probe. She didn’t want to, really.

Knowing carried a strange unfamiliarity to her. The state of being that made her aware of her surroundings—of herself—was not an ability she possessed. And yet she found herself requiring, craving, demanding as if she had the will for it. It was smaller things—the smallest things—noticingHaarlep’s hand when they intertwined hers, disliking when Raphael mocked her, detecting the latest guest in the House of Hope.

Varra D’allrnir of Cloakwood, child of Gur, used to aspire. To think. To feel. To be.

What was it like, staring into a reflection and seeing someone she used to know?

Althea slowly rose to her feet, keeping a hand outstretched towards the spawn. His frenzy had turned into anger, which turned into hostility, which turned into indifference. Astarion’s shoulders were slumped in defeat and yet, his eyes were fixated on her.

Detecting his thoughts would have proven useful. Even if he was not a vampire lord capable of instructing legions of spawn to do his bidding, he held an authority over the servants most devils craved. A collective delusion of servitude with no real merits. Althea recognized the fangs. Red eyes. Pale skin. The vampire did not have the magical capabilities to change their compositions at will. Even if he did, the ploy could not have withstood one hundred years.

“How did you survive it?” he finally asked.

“How did you survive it?”

“I didn’t think I did,” he confessed. “It was the most excruciating pain of my life. It probably lasted a few moments, but it felt like days to me. And then it was better. I was better.”

“Better?”

“Stronger. The power—I can still feel it surging through me in all its potency.” He tried swirling his hand to demonstrate, but Althea’s magic kept it at bay.

“And yet he lived.” She pointed to Cazador’s corpse, not dead nor undead.

“I do wish you’d stop saying that,” he sighed, annoyance evident in his tone. “He’s crossing the border to eternal rest, endlessly experiencing his own killing at the hands of, well, me. He can’t fully depart in this state. Someone was missed during the rite.”

Slumber. Rest. Eternity.

The perimeter between the living and the souls they came to be. Some priests called it the bridge to peace, though those who crossed it never came to know. The many Gods across the Planes each demanded a different ritual from those who worshiped them, their reward manifesting in eternal slumber at the end of the line. It was a brief moment, giving a final remembrance to the souls who would return to the pool of circulation. It was said that those who died in killing had the misfortune of experiencing their final breaths one more time.

If those tales rang true, then Cazador Szarr would have been experiencing the hundred cuts Astarion inflicted upon him for over a century; every waking—every dying—second.

“What of the others?” She furrowed her eyebrows.

“What of them?” he chuckled, humorlessly. “Gone to the weave, the Gods, the void—wherever we go when we die.”

While Althea was no cleric to understand the complexities of what the former vampire lord was undergoing in his undead dying, she wasexperienced enough in infernal contracts to know the terms could not be completed without the subjects preordained in writing. This meant the souls tied to the Rite of Profane Ascension could not be consumed by Mephistopheles as promised. The laws of the Hells simply would not allow this sort of breach. It also meant that their new subject could not gain the rights promised in blood and sacrifice.

“In you.” She realized, looking over his body as if she could see the poor sods in there.

Another chuckle, though this one reeked of irony.

“What a clever detective you are, my dear. Maybe offer your services to the Fists.”

Partially ascended. Partially reaping the benefits of the contract while still cursed with the drawbacks of spawnhood. Althea’s head began pounding from the risks associated with this predicament, especially the ones that directly impacted her deal with Mephistopheles. Much like any other subject of a devil—archdevil’s treaty, she was not allowed insight into the fine print. All she knew was that killing Astarion would save her from Raphael.

It was unfortunate, then, that she lost concentration during her conundrum, feeling the weave dissipate from her fingers far earlier than she had wanted to.

A window of opportunity Astarion did not miss.

She didn’t even register the dagger striking the side of her leg, not until searing pain shot up her body, and her vision clouded. When her eyes opened to search for the vampire, he had already disappeared. Like one of the Shadows plaguing the cursed-lands near Moonrise Towers, he blended into the walls of the estate. Or teleported somewhere she could not follow.

The answer came with another sharp pain, this time from behind. The invisible force that struck her left another knife lodged inside her lungs.

“On second thought, maybe don’t join the Fists. I wouldn't want any upstanding citizen dying on account of your lack of skill.” She heard his taunts, but she could not see him.

Spinning around, she frantically scanned the room. If he had turned invisible, her abilities would allow her to locate him. This was not a spell, not one that required focus at least. Her mind searched for solutions to the danger at hand, ignoring the throb in her body that quickened her breathing. Reaching down, she yanked the blade out of her shin, hissing before turning heel for the door of the altar room.

She would not risk the one in her backside. Blood loss was a dangerous condition for any fighter, but blood loss for a vampire spawn meant loss of control. The ringing in her ears also grew stronger. The smell of iron emanating from the droplets of blood on the floor reawakened the desire to feed.

Her muscles seized, constricting fully when the compulsion began taking over. Althea forced her mind—screamed at it—to move, to keep running. Closed corridors and tight spaces were not where she preferred fighting anyone.

And yet, her knees began shaking, hands trembling, mouth drooling with need.

“Poor little vampling...” She heard him chaff, somewhere behind her—yet everywhere all at once. “You need to feed, darling.”

Feed. Food. Blood.

The clouding had begun taking hold. Any tactical maneuvers she had in mind were lost to the insatiable craving to sink her teeth into soft flesh and extract its vigor. Luckily, she still held a small semblance of direction, even if it was bordering on instincts.

A mist had formed from the very wood she was standing on. It rose, filling the space until it created a perfect shadow replica of Astarion. It looked at her, tutting in disapproval and—disappointment.

Althea opened her mouth to scream.

Any words that came to mind failed her.

“How sad.” It spoke in his voice, though muddled with a choir of many others who spoke in unison.

Shoulders. Core. Foot. Heel. Toe. Think.

She repeated the desperate cries coming from the woman that pleaded for her life once Althe—Varra lost control beneath the infamous glacier of T’chemox. The same mind toxin now coated itself in her spine, instructing her movements towards the poisoned well that was inevitability.

Forcing her muscles to yield, she slowly rounded one shoulder, twisting her body painstakingly slowly while screaming, willing her tissue into obedience. One foot slid forward, which prompted her shoulder to hit the mists of Astarion.

It was corporeal.

The mists of vampirism.

A spawn, Astarion Ancunín was not. A full vampire, Astarion Ancunín was not.

“Impressive.” The figure moved, gently nudging her shoulder with his own. “Even still, incomplete.”

The pale elf appeared from the shadowed fog, studying her with a rather unimpressed expression. The clothes he wore were different—a black vest replaced the charred burgundy leather that she burned during their dine. A cape now cloaked his shoulders, ruby in color to match his eyes.

Althea let out a shriek as, without warning, the blood-soaked blade retracted from her back. The vampire raised his palm, beckoning it into its grasp. In an instant, her mouth began to water. Her saliva foamed at the crimson essence spilling from her flesh.

“I wonder…” he pondered, pointer finger slowly caressing the edge of the blade until she heard the slice of skin. The curse allowed her taste buds to pick up the most subtle tang of injury even when a booming fuzziness overwhelmed her. Slowly, he moved his hand towards her, watching with interest as Althea began snarling.

Shoulders. Core. Foot—Food. Feed. Blood.

A smile. He knew.

Any semblance of restraint dissipated as soon as his finger made contact with her upper lip. Any concentration she may have held onto was whisked away at the drop of blood that painted her skin. Her canines became fangs. Her brown eyes turned bloodshot and reddened. Her skin began paling to snow. Astarion’s finger had already pushed past her lips, and she now began suckling at the pooling blood like a newborn calf would her mother’s milk.

The sweetness from it was unlike anything she had ever tasted before. It was rich, complex, as if concocted with the intention to keep her addicted.

She drew with a moan, hands involuntarily finding themselves holding onto his wrist, nails digging into the firm leathers of his coat. Having sustained on nothing but animal blood for over a year, she felt the nerves in her body splitting and reforming at unnatural speeds. Pleasure turned into pain once her fangs ached at the intensity of his flavor. Her stomach began to growl and sore from the fullness.

A loud smack at the back of her head interrupted her feast, propelling her knees to connect with the hard planks below her. The side of her face planted against the wood, and she crained her neck, panic overwhelming her body when she couldn't sustain her bloodlust.

Astarion was now standing over her, bearing the same bored expression as he suckled on the self-inflicted wound to nurture it.

“I imagine you taste delicious, my dear. Let’s see, why don’t we?”

The sole of his boot, hovering exactly above her cheek.

And then, darkness.

#astarion fanfiction #astarion x tav #astarion x original female character #astarion #baldur's gate 3 #my fics #wb

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lambda-complex · 2 years

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Ayee could I request some soft™ WolfHox, thank you🤘🏻🇬🇧🐺

They're absolutely watching Heat for the 134th time

#love drawing soft lads #they may be mass murderers #but. i do not care.#triggerhappyart #payday the heist #payday 2 #payday hoxton #payday wolf #wolfhox #payday requests

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didanawisgi · 5 years

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WILLIAMS, Egbert. c.l876-1922. Comedian Born in the Bahama Islands and brought to the U. S. of A. as a child. He was a partner to George William Walker in vaudeville from 1895-1903 and musical comedy from 1903-09. After 1909 he was a leading comedian with the Ziegfeld Follies. He was initiated in Lodge Waverley, No. 597, together with nine other theatrical colleagues (see below). On his death the New York newspapers, of 6th March 1922, carried a notice of the funeral of 'Bert' Williams which was to be held in the Masonic Temple, New York, under the auspices of St Cecile Lodge, No.568, at the request of the Grand Lodge of Scotland.

All were Initiated on 2nd May, Passed 16th May and Raised 1st June 1904. All were proposed by Brother James Halliday (centre) and seconded by Brother William Gordon (extreme left).

Egbert Austin Williams,127 West 53rd St., New York. Age 30, George William Walker, 505 Sixth Avenue, New York. Age 31, Henry Troy, 250 Stewart Street, Montgomery, Alabama Age 28, John Edwards, 910 Sciato Street, Indianapolis, Indiana Age 36, George Catlin,100 West 23rd Street, New York Age 37, Peter Hampton, 329 West 35th Street, New York Age 33, Green Henri Tapley, 3428 Dearborn Street, Chicago Age 33, John Lubrie Hill, 505 Sixth Avenue, New York Age 30, James Escort Lightfoot, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Age 30, Alexander Rogers,18 West 134th Street, New York Age 28.

Source: http://www.vrijmetselaarsgilde.eu/Maconnieke%20Encyclopedie/RMAP~1/ritualenGO/famous.html

“George Walker (1872 or 1873 – 1911) was an American vaudevillian, actor, and producer. In 1893, in San Francisco, Walker at the age of 20 met Bert Williams, who was a year younger. The two young men became performing partners. Walker and Williams appeared in The Gold Bug (1895), Clorindy (1898), The Policy Player (1899), Sons of Ham (1900), In Dahomey (1903), Abyssinia (1906), and Bandanna Land (1907). Walker married dancer Ada Overton, who later also was a choreographer.

The two men set up an agency, The Williams and Walker Company, to support African-American actors and other performers, create networking, and produce new works.” - Wiki

#Freemasonry #freemasons #scotland #george walker #bert williams #vintage #history #black history month

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theteddyblaze · 5 years

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An #UnapolegeticallyBlackPR @unapologeticallyblackpr #REPOST from @haberdasherynyc - Save The Date! Join Us For Our 7th Annual Derby Celebration #TheHarlemDerbyHH You're Cordially Invited To Join Us For The 145th Renewal Of The Greatest Two Minutes In Sports. Help Us Celebrate Our 7th Year Anniversary Saturday, May 4th, 2019 As We Present Our Annual Celebration "The Harlem Derby" ⏰ 4PM-9PM At Harlem Haberdashery 245 w Lenox Ave. Bet. 122nd & 123rd St.Harlem, NYC 10027 Our HH Seventh-year Anniversary Coinciding w/ The 2019 Kentucky Derby. The HH "Harlem Derby" Also Celebrates Harlem Equestrian History By Honoring Marcus Garvey Park [formerly The Benson Family Farm] Which Served As A Former Harlem Trotting Course; A Race Track That Extended fr 120th To 134th Street Between Madison & Fifth Avenue. Our Fashionable Anniversary Celebration Continues To Bridge The Historic Past of Harlem Recognizing The Rich History Of Mount Morris’ Past As A Race Track, Tying In Local Retail & Style With Sports & Family. Fashionable Kentucky Derby Requested. The Festivities Include Day Into Evening Programming At HH. #TheHarlemDerbyHH #harlem #harlemhaberdashery #derby #kentuckyderby #anniversary #shopsmall #Derby #CincoDeMayo #derbyhats #derbyattire #derbyparty (at New York, New York) https://www.instagram.com/only1sirjones/p/Bwj9nKVFgGb/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=lvfe42tpno41

#unapolegeticallyblackpr #repost #theharlemderbyhh #harlem #harlemhaberdashery #derby #kentuckyderby #anniversary #shopsmall #cincodemayo #derbyhats #derbyattire #derbyparty

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bharatiyamedia-blog · 5 years

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World Archery Appoints Abhinav Bindra In Panel To Choose Indian Groups

http://tinyurl.com/yyjcc5j5 The World Archery on Thursday appointed celebrated shooter Abhinav Bindra as an “unbiased individual” in a variety panel which is able to decide Indian workforce for the World Youth Championship, to be held in Madrid in August. IOA secretary general Rajeev Mehta and a consultant from the Sport Ministry will even be a part of the panel. The event comes a day after the world physique de-listed the Archery Affiliation of India for violating the structure by unanimously electing two parallel our bodies in Chandigarh and New Delhi. “World Archery have appointed an unbiased one who is Mr Bindra (sic) who’s a extremely revered athlete as you nicely know,” WA secretary common Tom Dielen wrote in a mail to Indian Olympic Affiliation president Narinder Batra. Dielen additionally looked for a gathering with the IOA chief on the sidelines of the 134th IOC session at Lausanne from June 24 to 26. “World Archery do respect and have all the time revered the selections of the Hon. Supreme Court docket,” Dielen additional wrote in his letter. Batra had earlier condemned WA for giving a deadline to the Supreme Court docket of India. Whereas de-listing the AAI on Wednesday, the WA has acknowledged that if the Supreme Court docket doesn’t give a verdict on the controversial elections by July 31, the world physique would go forward with suspension. The suspension would stop Indian archers from collaborating at any world occasion, together with the Asian Archery Championships, an Olympic qualifying occasion. Condemning WA’s menace, Batra had earlier stated: “This type of behaviour by World Archery by giving timeline is very disrespectful and discourteous in the direction of the Hon’ble Courts in India and World Archery be requested to chorus from displaying disrespect to the judicial establishments in India. “Like World Archery is ruled by Swiss Legal guidelines equally AAI is ruled by Indian Legal guidelines and mutual respect must be maintained.” “Additional the way in which World Archery is forming the Fee’s/Committee’s exhibits that World Archery is compromising with the Autonomy of the Archery Sports activities Physique in India and why they’re doing that is finest identified to them,” Batra wrote to IOA secretary common Mehta, directing him to work together with Dielen. Source link

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douglasacogan · 5 years

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Tennessee completes execution using electric chair

As reported in this lengthy local article,"inmate Edmund Zagorski died at 7:26 p.m. CDT Thursday after Tennessee prison officials electrocuted him with the electric chair." Here is more:

He is the 134th person put to death by Tennessee since 1916 and the second person this year after Billy Ray Irick’s execution by lethal injection on Aug. 9. He is the first person to die by electric chair since Daryl Horton's execution in 2007.

Zagorski was convicted in the April 1983 murders of John Dale Dotson, of Hickman County, and Jimmy Porter, of Dickson. Prosecutors argued Zagorski lured them into the woods in Robertson County with the promise to sell them marijuana, and then he shot them, slit their throats and stole their money.

Two minutes before it was set to begin at 7 p.m., the U.S. Supreme Court denied Zagorski's appeal on the grounds of the unconstitutionality of choosing between the electric chair and lethal injection....

Eight people believed to be family members of the victims entered the prison to witness the execution. They waited in front of a covered large window that looked into the execution chamber where on the other side of the glass Zagorski sat pinned in the electric chair, held down by buckles and straps with electrodes fastened to his feet.

The blinds opened for the rest of the witnesses to see Zagorski dressed in his cotton clothes, smiling and grimacing to the group. Zagorski pronounced his last words: "Let’s rock." He sat smiling in the wired chair as prison staff placed a wet sponge, which had been soaked in salt, and a metal helmet on his freshly shaven head.

Zagorski raised his eyebrows, appearing to be communicating with his attorney Kelley Henry. She sat while nodding and tapping her heart, looking at Zagorski. “I told him, when I put my hand over my heart, that was me holding him in my heart,” Henry told The Tennessean. She said Zagorski smiled, to encourage her to smile back. Then his face was covered with a black shroud.

The warden gave the signal to proceed. Zagorski lifted his right hand several times in what looked like attempts to wave, before he clenched his hands into a fist as the first current ran 1,750 volts of electricity through his body for 20 seconds.

There was a short pause before the second jolt was administered for 15 seconds. The doctor overseeing the death appeared in view to check on Zagorski’s vitals. Zagorski was dead. The blinds into the chamber closed....

Zagorski was set to die three weeks ago. His request to die by electric chair saved his life — at least for a few weeks, when Gov. Bill Haslam granted reprieve three hours before his scheduled execution on Oct. 11. The move bought the state time to prep the chair during last-minute legal wrangling.

Zagorski requested death by electric chair with hope that death would come instantaneously — the “lesser of two evils” compared to lethal injection, argued federal public defender Kelley Henry.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8247011 https://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2018/11/tennessee-completes-execution-using-electric-chair.html via http://www.rssmix.com/

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benrleeusa · 5 years

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Tennessee completes execution using electric chair

As reported in this lengthy local article,"inmate Edmund Zagorski died at 7:26 p.m. CDT Thursday after Tennessee prison officials electrocuted him with the electric chair." Here is more:

Zagorski requested death by electric chair with hope that death would come instantaneously — the “lesser of two evils” compared to lethal injection, argued federal public defender Kelley Henry.

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allineednow · 6 years

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<p>Shares message of hope and survival</p>

Brendan McDonough (Photo: Troy Colson/KTVB)

BOISE - The lone survivor of a wildfire that killed 19 people in Arizona continues to spread his story.

Brendan McDonough lost his hotshot team and it has turned into a major motion picture to be published. McDonough now advocates for firefighter safety and helps others.

It has been over four years since the Granite Hotshot Crew reacted to the Yarnell Hill Fire in Arizona. One of the 19 members lived: Brendan McDonough.

"You know I believe injury is just a lifelong process," said McDonough.

While on the healing journey he says he aims to help others do the same by focusing on hope, recovery and survival.

"The general message is to continue my brothers' legacy and to honor them and to inspire trust and what that looks like is trying to help people understand you can overcome great," said McDonough.

He's also proud that the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce requested him discuss his message during the 134th Annual Gala Dinner of it and to come back to Idaho.

McDonough has served on the Wildlife Firefighter Foundation, based in Boise.

Hundreds came out to see him and listen to his words.

"You know you can get through it, there are people that love you, care about you, and that is what I love to talk about," said McDonough.

McDonough's experience losing 19 of his firefighters and working on the Yarnell Hill Fire will be told on the big screen. "Granite Mountain" opens on Thursday. He's also the author of the recently-published memoir called "My Lost Brothers."

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flauntpage · 7 years

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Sports Diplomacy in the Age of Trump

Within view of the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial, in an annex right across from the State Department headquarters, a small group of people is on a mission to help the U.S. build better international relations, not through treaties or peacekeeping forces but with tools like soccer balls and basketball hoops.

The Sports Diplomacy Division of the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs employs only five staffers and spends only .0001 percent of the Department budget. And yet, it has still managed to recruit some of the country's most celebrated athletes to the cause, and its programs have reached thousands of people in more than 100 countries over the past 15 years.

"We are a small team, but we like to believe we punch above our weight," said Trina Bolton, a program officer for the division. "Our program opens doors in hard-to-reach spaces, all the way from really grassroot levels and all the way up to the governmental level at home and abroad. Through our exchanges, Americans and international participants from all walks of life connect through the shared interest in sports."

Under President Donald J. Trump, however, the Sports Diplomacy Division (also known as SportsUnited) now faces a unique set of challenges, and a new level of uncertainty. Even before the election, Trump was earning "rock-bottom ratings" in countries outside the U.S., and things have only got worse since he's taken office. From intelligence sharing to the climate agreement to Qatar, Trump has stumbled from one diplomatic gaffe (or worse) to the next since his inauguration.

Perhaps this might highlight the continued need for sports diplomacy, but the White House relationship with the State Department hasn't been going so smoothly, either, and now Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson are proposing to slash the department's budget by 32 percent.

Amid the turmoil, the fortunes of a small division dedicated to sports has not attracted much attention, but between growing tensions with U.S. allies on one hand and within the government on the other, it's fair to wonder what the future of American sports diplomacy will look like—or if it will exist at all.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. State Department photo/ Public Domain

The use of sport as an instrument of foreign policy is nothing new for the U.S. government. Probably the most famous example took place during the Nixon Administration, when the People's Republic of China invited the U.S. table tennis team to visit in 1971. They were the first Americans to enter the country since the Chinese Revolution, and the gesture helped open Sino-American relations after nearly a quarter-century standoff.

"Probably never before in history has a sport been used so effectively as a tool of international diplomacy," TIME Magazine wrote at the time.

It wasn't until after September 11, 2001, however, that the State Department created an official office for it. Recognizing that the U.S. needed to improve its image in the Muslim world, then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sought to revamp public diplomacy at her department (even as George W. Bush was starting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq).

A major component of outreach to Muslim youth—one that Rice later described in her memoir as "near to my own heart"—was through sport. These efforts revolved mostly around exchange programs that brought athletes and coaches to the U.S., such as Iraqi archers in 2003; grants to fund outside initiatives; and a new sports envoy program that sent professional athletes like Michelle Kwan and Cal Ripken Jr. overseas to promote American interests.

The initiatives appeared to be an effective form of outreach. A State Department evaluation of SportsUnited programs from 2002-09 found that they had a "profound impact" on participants who were surveyed.

"The vast majority of Sports Visitor and Sports Grants survey respondents reported that their views of the U.S. Government and the American people (87% and 92%, respectively) were more positive after participating in the program," the 2013 report said. "In particular, more than half of the respondents (58%) characterized their views of the American people as 'much more favorable' after the program."

Hillary Clinton, Cal Ripken, Jr., and youth baseball and softball players from Japan in a 2011 exchange. State Department photo/ Public Domain

The division's work expanded further under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who once called sports exchanges "the most important exchanges that we do." During her tenure, Sports Diplomacy more than doubled the number of countries and participants its programs reached, and introduced new initiatives like the Global Sports Mentoring Program, a partnership with espnW that focuses on empowering women in developing countries.

Since 2012, GSMP has paired women from around the world with Americans like Deborah Stroman, a professor at the University of North Carolina and the director of UNC's Center of Sport Business. Last year, Stroman advised a young sports journalist and athlete named Pamela Akplogan from Benin, which ranks 134th out of 152 countries in the UN's Gender Inequality Index. The goal of the program is to give women like Akplogan the tools to make an impact in their communities by increasing opportunities for women and girls through sport.

"[Pamela] is now going through the steps of the action plan we created for her, and that involves empowering the young girls using soccer and basketball," Stroman said. "Her goal is to have a camp where she does not only character-building and teaching the technical skills of the sport but also giving them a foundation to dream and inspiring them to dream."

Kate Markgraf plays with Ethiopian girls in 2012. USDoS/ECA photo

Uniting the various programs is a common goal, one the Sports Diplomacy Division has historically shared with the State Department at large: to build better relationships between the U.S. and the rest of the world.

"All of our programs have a foreign policy priority, whether it's conflict resolution using sports, women's empowerment, disabilities rights, entrepreneurship in sports, or economic empowerment," Bolton said.

The Sports Diplomacy Division has also tended to reflect the priorities and interests of whoever is currently in power. Secretary Clinton, for example, placed a special emphasis on women's rights around the world; under Secretary John Kerry, a State Department-wide focus on environmental issues in 2013 led to a sports and sustainability initiative in the ECA.

More recently, the Sports Diplomacy Division sent former NBA star Shaquille O'Neal and American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Misty Copeland to Cuba in the midst of President Barack Obama's historic rapprochement with the country.

"Both Shaquille O'Neal and Misty Copeland are these larger than life personalities," said Matt McMahon, the head of the Sports Diplomacy Division, "and to have them engage in a personal way with Cuban youth through the lens of basketball or through the lens of dance and ballet, I think it did a lot to kind of humanize the United States for Cuban audiences."

The Trump Administration has represented a dramatic departure from its predecessors so far. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is a former oil executive whose diplomatic experience is limited to representing shareholders' interests, not the public at large. Women's empowerment? Combatting climate change? The Trump Administration has already aimed to reduce funding for programs that benefit women abroad, and pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement.

Instead, Trump and Tillerson's overarching focus appears to be twofold: putting "America First," and gutting the State Department. In its budget request for the 2018 fiscal year, the White House has proposed slashing funding for State and other international programs by nearly a third, among the steeper cuts for any agency. The Department of Defense, meanwhile, got a proposed $52 billion increase.

"This budget request reflects the President's 'America First' agenda that prioritizes the well-being of Americans, bolsters U.S. national security, secures our borders, and advances U.S. economic interests," Tillerson said in a statement last month when the budget was released.

According to the Washington Post, the ECA was "originally slated for extinction" entirely; instead the final White House budget cuts the bureau's funding to $285 million, less than half of the $590 million appropriated for 2016. Should that kind of drastic cut actually happen, the ECA's focus would shift to programs like the Fulbright and International Visitor Leadership program, still making the Sports Diplomacy Division vulnerable. The office has little room to absorb cutbacks—it employs only five people, and its budget this year is just $5.5 million, or .0001 percent of the State Department and USAID's overall funding.

"We recognize that we are in a tight fiscal environment and we are always having to look again and again at how we're managing our programs," McMahon told VICE Sports. "We are conscious that we are overseeing taxpayer money and we're trying to be as efficient and effective as we can be."

The division also partners with a number of leagues and organizations, including the NBA, the U.S. Olympic Committee, U.S. Soccer, and other national governing bodies.

"The private-public partnerships help, along with the athletes who donate their time and cover their expense. That's why I'm surprised at the generosity of these sports envoys, because we can't compensate them beyond the airfare, the per diem, and hotel," McMahon said.

For former MLS player Tony Sanneh, who has served as an envoy on multiple trips since 2010, the importance of the mission is obvious. "I think sports diplomacy provides an avenue and a language that everybody understands," he told VICE Sports. "At a minimum, everyone is seated at the table together, and actually celebrating and appreciating our differences, but also recognizing some things that we can change together."

Tony Sanneh and Secretary of State John Kerry in 2014. State Department photo/ Public Domain

Fortunately for the Sports Diplomacy Division and others, the White House budget proposal is unlikely to be passed in its current form by Congress. The suggested cuts have received widespread pushback, and senators from both parties grilled Tillerson about the matter in hearings earlier this week. "This budget will cost influence," Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said. "It's going to put lives at risk."

For now, Sports Diplomacy's programs continue to run; just last week, a couple of Team USA judoka went to Marseille as envoys. Still, the looming threat of any budget cuts and other State Department issues have created uncertainty for Bolton and McMahon, who don't know how their programs and initiatives may be affected, or if their division will receive the support it had under previous secretaries and presidents.

(It's worth noting at least one potential supporter in the Trump Administration: Dina Powell, Trump's current deputy national security advisor, helped launch the sports envoy program as the Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs from 2005 to 2007—a position that Trump has yet to nominate anyone to fill 146 days into his presidency.)

"Our main challenge is being able to respond to the positive demand we have in our department and at our embassies around the world who really do see the value of engaging," Bolton said. "There are even more opportunities out there, so it would heartbreaking to miss them."

Boxers from Kazakstan visit TKO Boxing in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2016. USDoS/ECA photo

Sports diplomacy "has created hundreds of new friends for the United States in countries where we need friends," George Mason University professor Craig Esherick said in an email. He is also the associate director of the university's Center for Sports Management, which has developed programs with funds from the Sports Diplomacy Division. "Public diplomacy programs bring 'real people' together and help to create a new narrative about the United States. We have a great country that Americans are proud of and any interaction with sport diplomats enables our visitors to see the pride we have in the United States and also why we feel the way we do about our system of government."

Working as a mentor for the State Department's program, Stroman said, "helped me realize how our government is using … sport as a tool to help around the world, through cultural exchange and through conflict management.

"Right now, more than ever, I think the United States needs to wave a flag of peace, inclusion, and the empowerment of people, and I don't know if there's a better way to do it than sports diplomacy."

Sports Diplomacy in the Age of Trump published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

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