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mademoiselle-red · 11 months

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TC chapter 6 reread thoughts, part 2

A rush of old memories went through Laurie like a pain. “I’ve never noticed […] that the competition to take things on was as killing as all that.” I love how Laurie takes Ralph’s side and tells him he’s done nothing wrong. One of my favorite aspects of their relationship is their camaraderie, the feeling that Laurie is playing on Ralph’s team. That’s also what makes the horrible crap he says to Ralph in chapter 16 so terrible: for the entire book, Laurie has been Ralph’s cheerleader, cheering him on when he’s feeling down or when other characters put him down, but then Laurie suddenly joined the others in denigrating his character from a position of superiority 😢

“He was staring at Ralph, who was standing in the thick of the crowd, hard and crisp and gay, laughing at someone’s dirty story, his battle-scars put neatly out of sight. I wonder what the punishment is for heresy, Laurie thought.” Here, his idealized image of Ralph as some otherworldly higher being who is above crude human desires is challenged, and he finds himself so compellingly drawn to Ralph that he can’t simply ignore it and retreat into his fantasy version of Ralph. But again, his revulsion at Ralph laughing at someone’s dirty joke is really the pot calling the kettle: “Gareth. That’s what my stepfather-elect’s called. I suppose he was conceived with Tennyson in limp suede sitting on the po-cup-board.” Reg coughed repressively. […] He sometimes found Laurie’s conversation highly obscene, and would have voiced his disapproval to anyone he had liked less.” Ralph would have laughed at Laurie’s obscene joke and Laurie would have been pleased 🤷‍♀️

My favorite Laurie lines from this chapter: “If you mean Ralph Lanyon […], he’s a friend of mine, I’ve known him for years.” And, “It’s the Odyessey all right. It’s the one where the man comes back from war and finds the flash boys on his pitch and runs them out.” Again, despite many reviews pointing out Ralph’s attempts to insert himself into Laurie’s life, we see here that it was Laurie who made the first move, showing up to the party acting like he is Ralph’s boyfriend in front of all his friends. Like, consider this party from Ralph’s point of view: guy you haven’t seen in seven years and kissed one (1) time crashes your ex-boyfriend’s party to see you and “only you”, follows you around with his eyes like a love-sick puppy, starts telling everyone that he has known you for years (Ralph: um, we had like one (1) conversation, but sure), and declares to your would-be suitors that you are the Penelope to his Odysseus (Ralph: I was not aware of being married with just one (1) kiss, but ok). Just who is being presumptuous and “proprietary to the point of arrogance” here? No wonder people at the party were like, who the fuck is this guy and what the hell happened to Bunny, his actual boyfriend???? Like, Laurie, you can’t just act like a guy’s boyfriend and then be all surprised when he thinks you wanna be his boyfriend 🤣🤣🤣

“[Ralph] went off rather stiffly to the drinks table. Really, he can be awkward, Laurie thought, but he felt no serious discomfort.” Awwwwww Laurie’s thoughts are so tender. And Ralph being awkward in front of Laurie is simply too adorable 🥰

“Now we’ll see something, thought Laurie not without satisfaction.” It’s so interesting to me how Laurie expects Ralph to react to Bim with contempt, but Ralph surprises him by reacting with gentleness and compassion. And this prompts Laurie to see past Bim’s “hard glitter” and see his “feverish and taut” demeanor. Like, Ralph is actually a soft and gentle person underneath that hard layer of self protective roughness.

“Not the Odell?” I love this parallel to chapter 12: not the R R Lanyon? They’ve both been telling their loved ones about each other for years ❤️❤️❤️ (Lucy & Alec: 🤝)

Laurie throws a jealous fit and wants to leave the party because Ralph is driving Bim home. “He’d be up before the major and have his passes stopped for a month; but, he thought bitterly, there wouldn’t be much hardship in that.” We can infer from this line of thinking that Laurie was already expecting to see Ralph regularly and was planning to use his late passes for this purpose. Renault conveys this to the reader in such an indirect way, showing how Laurie is unaware of the desires that drive his thoughts. Consciously, Laurie hasn’t made any kind of “choice” to date Ralph, but unconsciously, he has already committed his future late-pass evenings to Ralph, and this is before Ralph has even asked him out! I think throughout the book, Laurie makes a lot of decisions and choices, especially w.r.t. Ralph, without acknowledging them. And this is one such example. He’s not a passive participant being dragged into a relationship by chance and Ralph’s will.

“What makes me cross about people like Ralph is the way everyone used them. [….] Their life gets like one of those ham spy films where they brief the agent and say, “But remember, one slip and you’re on your own.” This is such an apt description the way Ralph has been abandoned by everyone and every institution his entire life! one slip, and his parents beat him, one slip, and he was thrown out of school and home, one slip, and he lost his naval career, one slip (that wasn’t even his fault), and Laurie seems to have abandoned him too. Until Laurie comes back and becomes the only person to not abandon him when he doesn’t live up to their expectations. Laurie is the only person who loves him enough to allow him to fail ❤️❤️❤️

“Ralph’s tragedy is that he’s retained through everything a curious innocence about it.” It being the idea that “sacrifice uplifts the redeemer and casts down the bought.” I don’t agree with this observation about the nature of sacrifice, but I do think Ralph is unaware of the way his giving nature coupled with his unwillingness to receive help leads to a “trade deficit” in his relationships, which breeds resentment. He showers his loved ones with love, but doesn’t give them the opportunity to dote on him in return.

“You said he’s in a spot. […] Can I do something? […] No, tell me, please, if I can do something. I want to know.. […] I’m not sleepy. When Ralph comes back, if he’s in a fix you’ve got to wake me. No good keep talking about he’s in trouble, and not do anything.. […] I won’t go away. I’ll wait for him here if it takes all night.” All Laurie wants is to be able to do something for Ralph 😭😭😭 like, screw the rules, if Ralph’s needs him to, he’ll stay all night. All Ralph has to do is say he needs him 😭😭😭 (Ralph: I can’t admit I need Spuddy! I need to be strong and brave in front of him! Or he won’t admire me anymore and he’ll leave me 🥺🥺🥺. Me: 🤦‍♀️)

To be continued…

#the charioteer

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darthkruge · 3 years

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Could you write a cute sequel to the Padawan! Anakin and Padawan! Reader oneshot, where they have a secret wedding two years later?

Anakin Skywalker x Reader ~ Can I Kiss You? (Pt 2)

Summary: Two years after their first kiss, Padawan!Anakin and Padawan!Reader return to the gardens of Naboo for their wedding

Warnings: Nothing. Once again, this is fluff. A bit more emotions thrown in this time, but cute fluff nonetheless!

Words: 1.6k

A/N: I can’t believe someone requested a sequel for one of my fics!! That’s so exciting!! The first part is one of my favorite fics I’ve ever written and I hope I did justice with the second <3. Also! You don’t need to have read the first part to understand this. But I do think it makes it more fun, as I kinda tied them together :)

Part 1

gif credit

“Can you believe we made it?”

Anakin’s voice broke you out of your trance. You were sitting on the grass and leaning against him, head resting on his shoulder with his arms hugging you from behind. The palace’s gardens once again surrounded you; the familiar fresh, flowery scent intoxicating.

You hummed, turning your head up and looking at him. He looked down at you and smiled.

“Hi,” His voice held his laughter, teasing.

“Hi,” You replied, mirroring his happiness.

You connected your lips with his, both of you grinning into the kiss. His metal hand came up, fingers gently holding your jaw as he deepened the kiss. Your mind wandered, remembering your first kiss. Here.

You were pulled back to the present as his tongue gently swiped across your lower lip. You opened your mouth slightly, allowing him access. As he swirled his tongue around yours, your head spun. Your hands wove into his hair and pulled on the back of it lightly, making him groan into you. You smirked, loving the effect you had on him. He grabbed your waist, pulling you around so that you were straddling his thighs. You broke from his lips, trailing kisses up and down the side of his neck.

Missing the feeling of your lips, he pulled you back up, reconnecting them with his own. You kissed and kissed and kissed until you couldn’t anymore, breaking apart only once you were positively breathless. You leaned your forehead against his, chests heaving as you relaxed.

“We’re gonna be late for our own ceremony if you keep distracting me like that”

You lightly smacked his chest, throwing your head back and gaping in mock-offense. “Now who’s the one that shoved their tongue down my throat?”

“Well I guess that’d have to be me… considering you haven’t kissed anyone else…” He trailed off, looking at you somewhat sheepishly to gauge your reaction

“Anakin! That is rude! And unkind! And completely accurate, you kriffing asshole!” You said, laughing the entire time. Anakin joined in, sighing in relief when he realized you weren’t mad at him.

“Rude and unkind? I’d say that’s slightly dramatic, Y/N”

“And where do you think I picked up the dramatic flair, hmm?” You shot back, quirking your eyebrows and glaring at him playfully.

Anakin rolled his eyes but, intelligently, didn’t argue. He just chuckled, pulling you back in for another kiss. You obliged but quickly pulled away, laughing as he pouted at you.

“Now, come on! We’re going to be late for our own ceremony if you keep distracting me like that!” You said, mocking him.

You got up and started skipping away before he could retort, smiling as you heard his footsteps scrambling to catch up with you. He pulled your hand into his, leaning down to press a fleeting kiss against your cheek.

He pulled you forward and you laughed as he stopped to spin you around. Your breath caught as you felt yourself tripping over your own feet and squealed as you came in contact with Anakin’s strong chest.

You buried your face into him and he rubbed up and down your arms. As he peppered kisses into your hair, you did the same on his collarbone. Moments like this were what you wished you could live in forever. Just two people in love. Without the pressure of the Jedi, the Council, any of it. You wished you didn’t need to hide your relationship, your happiness. But you truly believed that any sacrifice would be worth keeping Anakin in your life.

It had taken months of planning to even get the time to slip away with Anakin. Luckily, the Council thought you and Anakin worked well together and frequently allowed you to go on missions together. Granted, you both usually ended up in front of the Council trying to justify why you disobeyed their orders on these missions. Even if it was your idea, Anakin would always try to take the blame, despite you constantly telling him it was unnecessary. However, Anakin did have a point when he said that he was the Chosen One; they wouldn’t expel him from the order because of a series of poor decisions. He said that even if you didn’t have the Council’s protection, you could count on his.

To be fair, he wasn’t wrong. That’s why those fights never lasted. Most of your fights were like that. Silly, stupid arguments that almost always boiled down to the fear of losing each other. And, by the next morning, you were always curled back in bed together, unable to bear the idea of being apart.

“Y/N?”

You looked up, shaking yourself out of your own head.

“Yeah?”

Anakin looked at you quizzically. “You alright, my love?” He asked, concern evident in his voice.

You nodded. “Perfect.”

You were about to marry the most perfect man in the entire world. Kind, beautiful, giving, protective, understanding, flawed, yours. As if “perfect” even began to describe how you were feeling. You weren’t sure anything could. When you joined the Jedi Order, you never thought you’d get this. Love. And yet, here you were.

Anakin leaned in, kissing your nose. “Me, too,” He whispered in your ear.

You walked up to the secluded altar where Obi-Wan, R2D2, and C3-PO stood. You thanked the stars for Obi-Wan; he had done so much to ensure that your secret stayed that way and you could successfully marry the love of your life.

You stood, looking at Anakin. He held your hands and you gave his a squeeze. It was a signal that had developed over the years; whenever one of you needed reassurance or just wanted to remind them that you loved them, you’d squeeze the other’s hand. As per usual, he immediately returned the gesture.

Obi-Wan cleared his throat. “Y/N, would you like to go first?”

You looked at him, mouthing a quick “thank you” and nodding. He smiled right back. Obi-Wan had become a good friend of yours over the years. You were quite grateful that he was here on this wondrous day.

You took a deep breath, looking into Anakin’s deep eyes. “Anakin, when I first met you I thought you were reckless, arrogant at times, insubordinate…” You trailed off as he gave you an amused look, clearly wondering where you were going with this.

“Gorgeous,” You added in, “and, truly, so much more. Now, while I still think of you that way, I’ve grown to love it. You inspire me, you believe in me, you understand me in a way that I thought was impossible for one person to understand another. You’re strong and loving and you always keep me safe. You make me laugh and smile and giddy and… happy. I still remember, two years ago, when you made me choke an apple and kissed me, all in one day. And that feeling I had when our lips first touched, it has remained, constant, since that moment. I want to spend my life with you. And I don’t want to put that off for another second.”

Anakin’s eyes were misty with tears by the time you finished speaking. It was hard for him to fathom -- that he’d found someone who cared about him that much. For once in his life, he believed that there was someone who wouldn’t leave.

Obi-Wan gave Anakin a knowing smile before asking him to begin.

“Honestly, I don’t know what I did to deserve you. You’re perfect, you’re… everything. You challenge me, by the Maker, you challenge me,” Anakin said as you chuckled, nodding in agreement. “And you’re strong and good and selfless. You’ve always seen the good in me, sometimes even when I didn’t deserve it. You sought to know me for who I am, not for what I could bring to the galaxy.” Anakin paused, looking into your eyes. He swallowed, long and hard, before going on.

“And I know this wasn’t the relationship you dreamed of. I know I can’t give you much of anything. But I promise that for the rest of our lives I will be right here, by your side. I will love you for as long as this life allows, and for a thousand after that.”

Tears streaked down both your cheeks, making everything else fade away. The weight of his words sat heavily on your heart; his love for you so powerful it was nearly overwhelming. But that seemed to be a theme in your relationship, didn’t it? Everything right on that edge, so close to falling apart. And yet you and Anakin balanced each other. You wouldn’t crumble.

You once again traveled back to when all this started. You remember thinking, perhaps foolishly, that you and Anakin would make it. That one in a million couple. You thanked the entire galaxy that you were right.

You looked at Obi-Wan only to see that he was grinning at the both of you. He’d had his suspicions about you two for months before he eventually caught you kissing after you returned from a long mission. Anakin swore up and down that he “fell on you” and was “tending to your injuries” but Obi-Wan just brushed away the excuses and assured the both of you he would keep your secret.

“You may now… kiss each other. If you so desire,” Obi-Wan said before averting his eyes.

Anakin looked at you, adoration clear in his vision. He held your gaze and gently cupped your cheek. “So… can I kiss you?”

You rolled your eyes, laughed, and leaned in.

-----

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dailyaudiobible · 3 years

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09/01/2021 DAB Transcript

Job 40:1-42:17, 2 Corinthians 5:11-21, Psalms 45:1-17, Proverbs 22:14

Today is the 1st day of September welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is a joy and a privilege to be here with you today just like it is every day, but it's always nice on these brand-new beginnings. And here we are, throwing ourselves into a brand-new month. Today is the 244th day of the year which means it's the 244th time that we've been able to get together like this and do what we do, take the next step forward together and that next step forward will lead us back into the book of Job. And as we begin this month, we will conclude the book of Job today. And just reminding us, Job's been looking for God, trying to figure out where he could find an audience with God to plead his case. And God showed up yesterday and had unanswerable questions for Job. And God will continue to speak in today's reading as we conclude the book of Job. We’re reading from the New International Version this week. Job 40, 41, and 42 today.

Commentary:

Okay, so we…we concluded the book of Job today and let's remember that Job had an entire case prepared to present to God. He had a significant amount of questions to ask God. He had worked through some of those questions with his friends, but they had no answers and he…he didn't want their human wisdom because he knew what they were going to say. He wanted God to answer him. And then God showed up and started asking really big God sized questions and Job then realized he didn't actually have anything to say after all. And, so, when God is like, “okay, buddy. You got questions and you're spewing them out? Then let's play the game of questions.” And God asks questions that Job cannot answer while God reveals just how involved he is in all of the different aspects of the world. And in many ways this is what the text is leading us toward. There are always going to be questions. There are always bigger questions. There will always be things that we do not understand but when we come into the presence of God all of our pride and arrogance and all of the questions and all of the stuff that we’re going to say, it like…it's just…it’s gone. There’s nothing to say which is what Job said. He said I had only heard about you before, but now I see you and I don't have anything to say…like I put my hand over my mouth and shut up. So, it's interesting because it leaves us with some questions. Like when we find ourselves in a time or season of suffering do we need God to fix it or do we need God? Do we need the answers that we may or may not understand or do we need God? What the book of Job…Job leads us to conclude is that there is way more going on than we ever understand. We get very very self…self-absorbed, especially if we’re in trial, we’re in pain of some sort, we’re suffering in some sort of way, it becomes our obsession. It might even become our dark idol. It's the only thing we’re giving our energy to. It's the only thing we’re giving our life to, this pain-and-suffering and the questions that ensue and swirl around it. And, so, when we invite God into that we certainly invite Him into it, but the idea is that He would fix it. What if He's not gonna fix it? What if there's more going on than we understand? What if all of our questions would only lead to bigger questions that we could never answer? What Job discovers is that he wanted God and he wanted a conversation but when he got into the presence of God he didn't need that conversation anymore. And that's hard. It's really really hard to have that kind of perspective when suffering is upon us, but it’s not likely that we suffer the way Job suffered. And we watched the way that the story went. He…he met with tragedy. He met with morning and terrible suffering in his soul and body. He had questions. He talked to people, right? He got counseling. He was told all kinds of stuff he processed it all, but he still was in pursuit of God because, at least intuitively, he knew that the only person that could answer, the only person that could explain, the only person that held anything that he didn't already know would be God. And, so, he sought God but then in God's presence he realized he had only been operating on a working assumption. All of them had only been operating in a working assumption, like a theological framework about who God is and what God does. But in God's presence, what Job and his friends thought they knew…well…all the conventional wisdom as it turned out, was incorrect. So, the thing for us to contemplate is Job's response once he's in God's presence.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit we invite You into that. We've had all kinds of attitudes. You have seen and heard them all. You have listened to us flail around before You in Your presence all by ourselves. You've heard us talking about the things we’ve been suffering. We've acted like Job before. We’ve gotten all the counsel. We've listened all the answers. We've even dispensed the answers. We've been on both sides of the equation. And the book of Job, ancient as it is, is showing us that this rationale, this kind of way of doing things has been going on thousands and thousands and thousands of years and so we’re simply enmeshed in what we've always been doing is humanity, asking these questions. And we seek wisdom, and we seek answers but so often when we are faced with something that doesn't have an adequate answer, at least to our liking, we start blaming, we start accusing. And it was the accuser. And the accuser in the story of Job is Satan. We have no desire whatsoever to be playing that role. Forgive us. There's more going on than we know, and it is difficult for us to not have understanding and yet at that very point is where our faith begins. So, come Holy Spirit because we need Your comfort. We need Your guidance. We need Your direction. We need Your clarity. We need You. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it's the website, it's where you find what's going on around here. And there's always something or another going on. So, check it out. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can access all this stuff from within the app. So, if you don't already have the app that's the best way to experience the Daily Audio Bible and be able to mark your progress and see your progress and measure your progress. But whether on the web or using the app you can access things like the community section.

And the Community section of the Daily Audio Bible is the place to get connected. There are links to the different places on social media where…where connections can be made. The Prayer Wall lives in the Community section as well. And man, we talk about the Prayer Wall several times a week just as a reminder because this is a place that's part of the Global Campfire community that we are, a place that is always on and we can always reach out for prayer, but we can always pray for one another. There is no shortage of need in the world or in this community. But within this community we…we have the Prayer Wall, and we can go and pray for one another and respond, and it makes a world of difference to know that others are praying for you. And, so, Prayer Wall is a fantastic vehicle for that. So, check it out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage, and I thank you humbly, humbly thank you for your partnership. We wouldn't be here. We wouldn’t be able to be here if we weren't in this together. So, thank you. I’m so grateful that we are in this together. So, there's a link on the homepage. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the little red button up at the top, or you dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello DAB family this is Anne from Arizona, and it is August the 27th. I am so encouraged to hear Gigi call in and talk about how she's come to the realization that God brought her through these things, through Lyme disease, through all these things that she was going through and that He's a good good father. Be encouraged. As Psalm 95 says oh come let us sing to the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come into His presence with Thanksgiving. Let us make a joyful noise to Him with songs of praise for the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods. God is a good good father. God is great. God is worthy of our praise. He's worthy of our trust. Be encouraged that God is good and that God sees you and hears you. I'm so encouraged, and it gives me so much hope just to hear those words of encouragement from Gigi. Be...

Hi Daily Audio Bible family I wanted to call in for two things today. One is to say thank you to Sparky. I've just listened to the Aug 27th podcast and just loved hearing Sparky's encouragement of how God has changed his life, brought transformation, brought him to be doing a master’s degree when that was something that was just so seems so impossible in the past and how He's brought new life and New Hope. Thank you for sharing that Sparky it really encouraged me, touched my heart and I just think you've got a really powerful story there of God's goodness. So, bless you and I pray God's blessing on your studies and God's blessing on your marriage. And second thing I wanted to ask for is your prayers everyone as I am heading back to England. I've lived in the US for six years and really loved it. Over the past twelve months though I've…I've sensed God's prompting to move back and so I am. So, next week I'm relocating back to England and as you can imagine there's…there’s always lots to do. There's places to live and jobs to find church communities to become part of. So, we'd love your prayers for…for all of that process and for me to no God’s peace and God's provision on the journey. And I'm excited that I'm going to continue to be part of the Daily Audio Bible family. So, I'll be listening, I'll be praying, and you'll sometimes hear from me as well. But I'll become Ben the Brit from Brighton instead of end the Brit…

Hi everyone, it’s Shana your sister from South Dakota. I just wanted to call and offer some encouragement to the dad from Duluth. You see, I was an IV drug addict, alcoholic, pothead, smoker relationship addict among other things, a liar, a cheat, a thief. I really ran my parents through the wringer for over a decade with my behaviors and being in and out of jail. And my mom even had all the jails within a certain distance of our hometown on speed dial. I've been in prison. I…with my last child didn't tone down my partying and my using. Thank God he's a healthy boy. He's now almost 10 years old. But the Lord can heal. He can take away that compulsion to use and I know that without a doubt in my life today and I know it's because of the prayers that came from those that loved me. I'm in school working on my bachelors in counseling. I have one year left. I have a pretty good GPA. I am married now. Crazy! I have relationships with all my children. And I was even given the gift of my parents before they passed away in this last year, some time with them seeing me living right. You and your daughter are in my prayers. It will be done. I believe that. Bye everybody.

Good hot day to you all. I was just listening to the August 27th version of the DAB, and I just wanted to give some shout outs. This is People on the Water from Indiana. First GG from gville my heart is jumping with joy. You said…you talked about the account found in the gospel where the paraplegic was brought by what was it three friends into Jesus so that he could be healed. It was the faith of the friends that brought the healing, that brought healing to the friend. And it was through Jesus that all of that happened. And honestly just your child, your baby, that's your baby. I am so grateful that you see it that way. And the beautiful words that you’d spoken over us, it just sounded like poetry to me and that was just really encouraging. Dana from South Carolina, you're a first-time caller and you're praying for someone who is praying for someone. Like that's just awesome and I'm just lifting up that prayer for that Lady who is in pain and for the lady who lost her son that God walks us through this. And then Mandy from Georgia just talking about how God uses our history, how God uses our history in order to deal with us in our future. I mean God uses our history. God uses our __ in our past to express love in unique and fun ways. And then Sarah from London finishes, “there is nothing too big for our God.” And I'm going to leave that with you. I love you all. And thank you for all that you are doing. In Jesus’ name I pray, and I ask. Amen.

Hey family this is Eyes of a Dove here. I just wanted to jump on and record a quick thank you message to all my friends on the DAB Facebook. The last 24 hours has been the most intense experience as a parent and coparent I think Billy and I have ever dealt with. Izzy went to youth group last night. She was in her mother's custody and instead of attending youth group with my three children she grabbed another young girl who struggles with transgender stuff and the two of them hung out in Snoqualmie all over the town. But Izzy never came home to her mom. So, I queued in her mom that Izzy was missing, and we were unable to locate Izzy until this morning at 8:30 AM. We had the church leadership and pastor staff, we had the police officers and ourselves, all of us scouring the woods and all over the town. And in the morning, she contacted us with a real prideful condescending kind of irritation with us and when she finally made it home, she concocted quite a few lies that it was everyone else's fault that no one was at the church to get her. It was her only option, and it wasn't. So, any who…just asking you guys if you see this message, I'm sure it's already happened but we're heading over to the biological mom’s home. Just pray that I stay peaceful, and I button my mouth and allow those parents to do their parenting and help me to be a prayer intercessor for those two parents as they mitigate their rebellious daughter. And Father I ask that you would enter into Izzy's heart father that she would come to know you and set aside the things of the world that trouble her and give her anxiety and cause her to be selfish Lord and help her to understand other people's feelings and to make right and healthy choices. Thank you, friends for supporting us.

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ur-not-reddie · 4 years

Text

The Deal

a/n: frat boy richie and cheerleader eddie

pairing: reddie

word count: 1550

warnings: nsfw, underage drinking

aged up to 19

“Seriously, Bill? Why the hell are you dragging me to this stupid party? I have cheer practice in the morning!” Eddie yells over the loud music as the two enter the party.

“Y-you don’t have to get dr-drunk, Eddie. Just loosen up a-and have some fun for once in your life.” Bill shrugs, just wanting Eddie to let loose.

“Ha ha, very funny.” Eddie says, sarcasm dripping behind his words. “Now what’s the real reason for you dragging me here?” Bill smiles guiltily as he laughs sheepishly. “Bill!”

“O-okay, okay.” Bill throws his hands up in defense. “I think if you j-j-just get dicked down then maybe you’ll feel better.”

“Feel better?” Eddie furrows his brows.

“You h-ha-haven’t been yourself lately, E-Eddie. I figured if I brought you out, g-got you a little tipsy and hook you up with so-some good dick then you’ll feel much better.” Eddie rolls his eyes at Bill’s explanation.

“More like you want to be here because Stan is here,” Eddie crosses his arms.

“W-well, yeah,” Bill admits quietly. “And S-Stan has found someone for you to p-p-po-potentially hook up with for the night.”

“Who?” Eddie furrows his brows more.

“Well, he’s a-a-a frat boy-”

“Nope,” Eddie cuts the other off. “No fucking way. You know I don’t do frat boys, Bill.”

“Okay, b-but hear me out. He’s not all that b-ba-bad. He’s super funny and nice, really ch-chill.”

“Who is he?” Eddie just stares at Bill, Bill slightly afraid to answer the question. “Who is he?!” Eddie asks louder.

“R-Richie,”

“Richie? As in Richie Tozier Richie?” Bill nods slowly. “No way, no fucking way.”

“Oh c’mon, E-E-Eddie. It’s not like it’s going to mean any-anything! It’s just a quick fuck for the n-night. Plus, I heard he’s a good fuck t-t-too, so you won’t be disappointed.”

“No,” Eddie huffs in frustration.

“Well, that su-sucks because him and Stan a-are headed our way right now.” Bill nods his head in the direction Stan and Richie are coming from.

“Great,” Eddie says through gritted teeth.

“Stan M-My Man,” Bill says as he kisses Stan on the lips.

“Big Bill,” Stan kisses him back. “Oh, Eddie, this is Richie. Richie, Eddie.” Stan introduces the two.

“Yeah, I know who you are.” Eddie raises his eyebrows at Richie in a cold manner.

“You do?” Richie asks, tilting his head in confusion.

“W-well, you two have fun n-n-ow.” Bill says quickly before dragging Stan away by his shirt. Eddie stares at Richie with dangerous eyes.

“So you know who I am, huh?” Richie smirks.

“Everybody does,” Eddie sighs, clearly not interested in the conversation whatsoever.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Richie asks, acting offended.

“I know you’re a douchebag who fucks a lot of girls,”

“Woah, woah, woah.” Richie shakes his head. “Completely not true. I, for one, have a heart of gold and don’t fuck that often, especially girls.”

“Oh, is that so?” Eddie laughs. Richie nods with a wide smile painted across his lips.

“Mmhm,” Richie winks. “Now why don’t you let me get you a drink and we can get to know each other better.”

“I think I’ll pass you up on that one,” Eddie rolls his eyes.

“You know you don’t have the best rep either, Kaspbrak.” Eddie’s taken aback by Richie’s words, surprised that Richie knows his name.

“Meaning?”

“You’re the arrogant asshole cheerleader,” Richie smirks, giving an I-just-one-upped-you attitude. “Although you do have a nice ass.” Richie adds.

“Oh my god,” Eddie mutters.

“Since I’m a douchebag and you’re an arrogant asshole, I say we’re the perfect match and we should fuck. We both know that’s what we came here for. So, I say let’s get a little drunk, go back to mine and let me rock that sweet ass of yours.”

“You think I’d let you fuck me? That’s cute, but it’s the other way around, babe.” Eddie says in a way that’s half threatening and half mockingly. Richie snorts with laughter.

“Now that’s cute,” Richie laughs some more.

“I’ll tell you what, if you can make me cum more than three times, then I’ll consider giving you a chance.” Eddie challenges.

“Oh you’re on, Eds. Your whole world is about to get fucked.” Richie slips his hand into Eddie’s walking him over to where the drinks are. The two down a couple, enough to make them pretty tipsy, but not drunk. They head back to Richie’s, Eddie surprised at how nice Richie’s place is.

“Wow,” Eddie whispers as his eyes dart around the inside of Richie’s abode.

“Come here,” Richie says in Eddie’s ear, turning him around by his hips. Richie’s hand slides up Eddie’s inner thigh as he crashes his lips onto the other’s. Eddie moans into Richie’s mouth out of surprise and lustfulness. He slides his hand further up Eddie’s thigh and lands on his clothed dick. “Hard already?” Richie smirks against Eddie’s lips. “You obviously have a thing for me, baby, otherwise you wouldn’t be this hard this fast. Hmm?”

“Maybe,” Eddie says and nips Richie’s bottom lip. He massages Eddie’s clothed front, causing jagged breaths to slip from his throat. Richie unbuttons Eddie’s jeans and slides down his zipper slowly, his hand reaching all the way down Eddie’s pants, Eddie’s dick in Richie’s hand.

“Fuck,” Eddie moans and leans into Richie’s touch.

“You like that, huh, baby? Got you so fucking weak, don’t I?” Richie speaks, dirty flirtiness behind his words as he strokes Eddie even harder. “I know you like it, so don’t try to resist it.” Eddie stares Richie dead in the eyes as his mouth hangs wide open.

“I’m gonna cum,” Eddie speaks softly.

“Are you? Am I gonna make you cum? Then why don’t you cum for me, baby? Show me how good I’m making you feel. Come on, cum.” just as Richie commands, Eddie cums hard, soaking his boxers. “That’s one, sweet boy.” Richie says and kisses Eddie’s lips. “Now get on your knees,” Eddie does as told and drops hard on his knees. He unbuckles Richie’s belt and slides his pants down, cock springing hard and free.

“Shit,” Eddie gasps lightly. He takes Richie in his hands, swirls his tongue around the tip before taking him all the way in.

“Just like that, baby boy. Just like that.” Richie throws his head back as his fingers wrap around in Eddie’s silky hair, tugging. “Relax your throat, I’m gonna fuck your mouth.”

Eddie relaxes as Richie thrusts hard and fast in his mouth. His dick hitting the back of his throat, leaving it hurting and burning. Bill doesn’t pull away for air until Richie cums, a bit of it dripping onto his chin. He wipes the cum on his fingers and puts it in his mouth, swallowing it.

“That was so fucking hot, so good for me.” He picks Eddie up and strips him completely along with himself. “Turn around, pretty boy.” Eddie turns around and grabs the wall. Richie wets his fingers with his saliva, sticking two in Eddie before sliding his dick in.

“Oh fuck!” Eddie cries as he throws his head back.

“Fucking hell, you feel so fucking good, baby. So damn good.” Richie wraps one arm around Eddie’s stomach, his other hand latched to Eddie’s throat as he pounds into him. Eddie becomes a bundle of moans and cries as Richie hits his prostate perfectly. “Mmm baby, baby. So sweet.” Richie coos and thrusts even harder.

“Richie, I’m gonna cum again.” Eddie says as best as he can through his closed off throat.

“Go on, cum like the good boy you are.” Eddie falls apart at Richie’s words and his cum drips down his shaking legs as he pants heavily.

“That’s two,” Richie states as he pulls out of Eddie. “Now ride me. I want to watch that beautiful face of yours as I make you cum even more.” Richie walks over to the bed, laying down as he sits Eddie on his cock. Eddie closes his eyes and hums as he starts to bounce. “Fuck baby, look at you.” Richie grabs Eddie by the waist and helps him bounce faster. Eddie’s face twists in pleasure as a mess of gibberish words float out of him. “Wanna cum again, sweet boy?” Richie asks as he thrusts hard up into Eddie, his hips hitting hard against Eddie’s ass.

“Yes please,” Eddie moans. Richie slams Eddie down hard a few more times, cumming on Richie’s stomach. “That’s three, baby, let’s make it four.”

“I-I can’t,” Eddie’s shaky voice says.

“Mmhm, you can.” Richie ignores Eddie and continues to slam and thrust into the other, Eddie on the verge of tears. Eddie cums again screaming out in pleasure. “Just a little longer, Eds. I’m so close.” Eddie flops over onto Richie as Richie cums inside of him. “Oh fuck,” Richie moans as his cum fills Eddie’s insides. “Look at me, gorgeous.” Richie grabs Eddie’s jaw and forces him to look at him. “You did so well. You took my cock so good for claiming to be a top.” Eddie laughs lazily at that. “How do you feel?”

“Amazing,” Eddie’s words are mushy.

“Let’s go to the shower and get cleaned up, maybe go for another round?” Eddie nods, loving the sound of that idea.

#reddie #reddie fic #reddie fanfiction #richie tozier #eddie kaspbrak #the losers club #losers club #losers club fanfiction #losers club fanfic #it 2019 #IT FANDOM #it fanfic #it stephen king #top!richie #bottom!eddie

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tev-the-random · 5 years

Text

Why I Love... Lord Shen

Warning: it might sound a bit comedic, but that’s how I generally sound when I’m excitedly exposing my discoveries.

Warning 2: I took about 99.9% of the images directly from the film, most of them are for illustrating whatever I’m affirming, I DO NOT OWN THEM AT ALL!

Warning 3: this is long. Reeeally long.

Kung Fu Panda 2 has a special place in my heart: one of my favorite movies, possibly my favorite animated movie ever! Everything in this movie is downright amazing: the animation, the score, the relationship between the characters, the development they had from the previous movie, all the fight scenes, the way they treat certain subjects of family and identity, the new characters... And, of course, the villain.

Let me tell you, Lord Shen is quite the antagonist. The peacock was quick to steal my heart and become one of my favorite characters. That struck me as odd: what makes him so fascinating? I was determined to find out, so I started analyzing! And oh boy: this is one complex character. Much more than I initially thought!

I re-watched Kung Fu Panda 2 three times in a roll: first casually, second with production commentary, and third with my own analytical look. I might have a problem.

Here you have my notes from that adventure:

First of, he’s Gary Oldman. Gary Oldman is an impeccable actor and the voice he gave Shen was simply perfect, so yeah.

“He isn’t obviously physically strong, but he’s very cunning, very smart...”. Let’s give it to him: he’s got to be really intelligent. He created his own massively destructive weapon from scratch, he orchestrated this whole plan by himself, he’s (almost) always one step ahead of everybody... And he couldn’t possibly have all those wolves and gorillas working for him for years if he at least didn’t know how to convince people.

He’s a leader. He’s a boss. He’s an emperor. He knows what needs to be done and he expects it to be done.

But hey, even like that, he still believes in hard work and doing things on his own - say what you want, but making strategies actually takes a lot of work. We can also say that he acknowledges there are certain things in life only he can do for himself.

He has this “peacock thing” where he’s “sort of proud, entitled (...) in spades!”, like a person who would say ‘Don’t you know who I am?!’ upon meeting someone. He has this sense of importance. He thinks his goals and himself are so important, Heck, he literally likes to tower over the city!

(couldn’t find many GIFs, but oh well. The camera backs away from him to show the full perspective of this freaking peacock on the top of the tower, towering over the city)

“He doesn’t have to hide”: He’s a big, theatrical, dramatic show-off. He just comes back to Gongmen from his exile and takes “his own tower” thinking ‘Ok, I’ll make my entrance right through the front door at a moment when all the masters can see me and know for sure that sh*t’s going down, but I’ll be completely calm and collected as I do so.’ Even when he’s supposedly won, as he’s crossing the city with his boats full of weapons, he clearly enjoys making quite the scene.

(Look who’s talking!)

So much of a show off, his cannons are actually designed as this fire-breathing demon, so people would know to fear him and the kind of power he had. It’s intimidating in a ‘LOOK AT MY CANNONS!’ kind of way.

He’s a perfectionist. No other words needed.

He’s also tremendously arrogant. Because he created this “unstoppable weapon” and has all weaponry at his command, he thinks he’s outdone everyone else. He thinks that his plans are fail-proof; he underestimates everyone.

Despite that, he’s not completely stupid to assume he can do everything on his own. He knows he needs help to succeed sometimes, even though he will take all the credit; that’s why he has his little army.

His arrogance also shows when he tries to get the Soothsayer to tell him his fortune, and yet, he still insists that she’s wrong - even when she’s clearly oh so right! Although, this also shows his fear of the prophecy and how he won’t admit his own mistakes (more on that later).

Speaking of the Soothsayer, he does seem to be rather fond of her. Even if he tries to insult her and breaks her fortune-telling-magic-smoke-bow every now and then, he did keep her around mostly for company and for being petty proving her wrong. He didn’t harm her or lock her up like he did with the masters; he put up with her mannerisms even if they were annoying; he reflects at least a little on her words, which he doesn’t with anyone else; and he even “sets her free” when he’s about to begin his crazy conquering scheme, giving her time to settle somewhere safe. I mean, as far as things go with this peacock, this is really sweet.

Still about the Soothsayer, she said something quite interesting at one point: she said Shen wanted more than just ruling Gongmen City... What did she mean? What more? Did he want to conquer more territory? To innovate the city? Was he doing this (whatever she meant he was doing, specifically) for his own ambitions or only to impress his parents? Maybe both? I honestly can’t answer these specific questions...

Another little important something the Soothsayer said: she could never have foretold that Shen would do something like that, to massacre an entire people... Seeing how this was a very unpredictable move on his part, I find it safe to say he wasn’t like that when he was young; he wasn’t this completely violent, ruthless peafowl we see now...

We can say that Shen is a rather curious peacock: he tried to find something different about the fireworks; him finding about how dangerous they could be might as well have been some sort of breakthrough for him, some new, fascinating theory to be explored... Besides, he did want to have the Soothsayer tell him his new fortune, now that he “proved the old one wrong”.

The guy thought he had everything right. Finding out there was still a panda alive was like... getting punched in the face... really hard.

He’s terrified of his own destiny, really.

Shen’s expectations about Po before meeting him are terrifying, specially as he thinks - with reason - that this panda is here only for his neck.

Needless to say, he was kind of disappointed with the result of the meeting. And relieved. But really disappointed, he was ready for a fight!

For most of the time, he’s a no-nonsense kind of guy, but he has his fun.

(Gotta love how he just cracks laughing and swiftly gets back his composure. Gary Oldman, ladies and gentlemen)

Much like any other villain in this franchise, he is quick to underestimate Po due to his silliness. This does give our panda some advantage.

Some adjectives the production crew gave to him: “very twisted, demented guy”, “intense”, “intimidating”, “really cruel” and “so mean!”. He doesn’t hesitate to hurt people physically or emotionally. So, even if he regrets his actions a little bit - again, more on that later -, that doesn’t keep him from being amused around others’ pain. He’ll use whatever means he can to achieve his goals.

I’ll say it: the years of exile made him quite the sadistic b*tch. In a way, he just wants to see it all burn, like ‘blood, heck yeah!’.Yeah, he’s a goddarn maniac for the most part.

What makes him more remarkable as an antagonist than Tai Lung or Kai - don’t get me wrong, I love them both! But I’m setting a perspective, just bare with me here - is that he makes this personal in a much deeper way. Neither Tai Lung nor Kai had anything against the protagonist personally; they had something against the Dragon Warrior, which so happened to be Po. But Shen? Oh no, he didn’t give a crap about this Dragon Warrior thing, he wanted Po.

Not only that, but Po wanted him. Our sweet big panda had no personal correlation with the other two antagonists: he was out to stop them mainly because it was right - and to protect his friends, of course. But when it came to Shen, he had something Po desperately needed to know, he directly and indirectly affected Po’s life. Shen makes this a personal mission for the protagonist and for himself.

Once he’s finally managed to emotionally throw Po off - which makes it all so much more amusing for him - he gets “more out of control” and he’s “growing in his instability and sense of power”, which makes him mad and excited at the same time. He starts to sound like me when I find a really good plot idea for a story, but then a PANDA COMES AND RUINS EVERYTHING, so he notices he has no more time to fancily fool around and they need to ‘GET TO WORK NOW!’

At this point in life, he clearly mocks his parents’ memory. ‘F*ck the tapestry, f*ck the throne, f*ck the tower, f*ck their eternal peace after death.’

He is a walking contradiction: he’s nostalgic, yet he mocks the past; He wants to tend to the future, yet he’s stuck in the past...

(You know how he says scars don’t heal? I believe he looks at his “scars” a lot...)

He desperately wants to prove himself. To himself. And to his parents. And to his opponents. And to the Soothsayer. Ok, he wants to prove himself so bad, he actually needs all of China to know what he can do.

This all means a lot to him. Even if he plays some of it as a dark joke, it really means to him almost as much as it means to Po - albeit with different meanings.

He did his whole genocidal thing at the beginning solely to stop the prophecy from happening. This, however, had many intertwined objectives to fulfill:

It would guarantee he could keep doing his firework research - what other fascinating things could he discover? Apart from “fireworks can kill”, that is.

It would quite literally save his life - for all he knew, “defeated by a warrior of black and white” could mean anything from getting his gunpowder taken away from him to actually getting murdered. I’d say he took it as the latter.

It would, at least in his mind, make his parents proud - I can see him getting back from the panda village with something similar to ‘Mother! Father! I cheated destiny! I cheated death! I led my men to success, I shall be a great leader, one that can’t be stopped!’. Yes, he was proud of what he did back then.

This does not change the fact that it was ruthless and brutal and horrible, but is his perspective, he was on a mission. In his mind, he wasn’t wrong. His parents didn’t want to listen to him, they were being unfair! He truly believes he’s been wronged, and now the world owns him something.

This led him to believe - probably along with other past conflicts - that his parents absolutely hated him, their only child, and that he was banished as to be gotten rid of. It hurt.

He won’t admit it, but he doesn’t know what he’s doing anymore. I mean, he wants to prove a point, but he has no idea where to go next. He lost himself in his pursue for power and vengeance, when actually...

... He’s hurt. He’s felt betrayed for a long time and he bases himself on that to justify further mistakes on his part. Thanks to the Soothsayer, we get to see that he knows he’s made mistakes, he knows the path he’s following is not the only - and probably not the right - way for him to go, he knows he can change his course right here, right now. But he won’t do so...

The moment he learned that his parents actually loved him and that he actually misunderstood their actions, it throws him off balance. This is him realizing - and still not admitting - he’s hurt, he hurt people who cared about him and that it was his own actions that brought him to that. Right at this moment, with the Soothsayer extending her hand, he’s faced with a choice.

He had a choice. He chose this path. He’s so far gone into his own hurt, revenge and fear, he won’t ever admit he’s the one who’s been wrong this entire time. He takes a path he knows is wrong because he can’t admit his own fault, he has to blame someone else.

He doesn’t want to be redeemed, he wants to be justified.

After he’s consciously made that choice, he sort of comes to terms with it. That’s his goal and he’s going to see it to the end, he’s not going to stop.

He learns from his enemies, so most of the time he knows what to expect from them. When he learns from Po, he gets confident and doesn’t even try to put that much of a fight; he knows Po is basically fighting himself - although, Shen will try to give him a hand at it whenever possible.

(With the wings behind his back, what a beast...)

Hey, he knows what he did, and he won’t hesitate to use it against Po, as, once again, he learned from their previous encounter.

(’Oh, does my tail disturb you? Cool, I’ll make sure to keep that in mind every time we meet.’)

He projects. When he claims to Po that “Your parents didn’t love you”, he’s actually talking about himself and his own pain in regards of his own parents. He wants to hurt Po by saying that, yes, but that’s one of the first times he’s actually been able to “put voice to what he’s been feeling” until now.

Once he thinks he’s finally won, he gets waaaay too excited. And waaaaaaay too confident. He rubs his victory in everybody’s faces! Now, he sure is peacocky, eeeeey!

That seems to be a constant characteristic of him: he gets too confident when he’s winning and absolutely desperate when he’s losing.

Either all people are with him or against him, and whoever is against him shall perish, even if they were previously on the same team - the only exception to this, maybe, being the Soothsayer.

(He freaking killed his own second in command just because the guy refused to fire at their own men!)

He takes what he can - again, he’ll do whatever it takes to reach his goals: ‘Can’t fire? Send the armies! My armies are losing? I’ll fire on my own! They’re destroying our cannons? Well, do what, KEEP FIRING! Everything went down in literal flames? I’ll fight until the end!’

If he sets his mind to something - be it revenge, killing Po or conquering all China - he won’t give up until he’s either victorious or dead (he went for the latter).

“See, that’s the thing, Shen. Scars heal.”

“No they don’t. Wounds heal.”

I believe what Shen really means here is that some problems are too harmful for people to let go of them. He thought his problems were a scar that could never be healed, so he had cope with the pain by himself with revenge, but he could never find peace. He thought the problems he caused Po were a scar that couldn’t be healed, too; he thought that Po, too, would seek revenge to deal with his pain, that Po, too, would never find peace. But he did. And Shen found himself amazed... and afraid; more afraid than he was of Po’s vengeance.

A little something before I say my final notes: let’s quickly analyse Shen’s fighting style, because the animators deserve attention for their wonderful job - also, it connects to the next note, so...

He uses his opponents moves against them;

He uses height as an advantage;

PROJECTILES!

Use them weird bird knees for some curious yet efficient movements;

He uses his sword - which is actually a weird looking yanyuedao/guan dao - a lot;

He uses his claws a lot, too;

Block-attack movements;

He uses his tail as both distraction and a defense in quite the clever way;

It’s like a dance: agile, swift, smooth, precise with a lot of twists.

He fights more for self-defense than anything. He has cannons and an army, why bother taking offence on his own?

The exception to this is during his last battle with Po, where he attacks on close combat: here, Shen lost his mind completely. He starts attacking recklessly, he loses precision, he uses every last bit of strength he has in him. He’s just... He’s really mad.

(I’d have to put the whole fight here to illustrate exactly that, but unfortunately, there’s not such GIF... Oh well, I’ll trust you know what I mean)

One final note to this analysis, about Shen’s last moments:

I’ve seen lots of people discussing what his final scene meant, when he closes his eyes and quietly accepts his death - he even turns to face the falling cannon in the last second - and most of them seem to think that that’s Shen finally finding his inner peace. But I don’t think that’s quite it. Taking everything I described here, it doesn’t seem to align too well...

What I think happened - and of course, I could be totally wrong - is that this is when Shen finally takes the blame for himself. Here, to his face, is the final undeniable proof that his actions can have negative consequences for him. He’s been facing those consequences for years, but only now can’t blame someone else. He cut all the strings that held the cannon. It wasn’t Po, it wasn’t the Five, it wasn’t his men, it wasn’t his parents, it was him.

It’s all over: his men are dead, all his cannons just exploded, he can’t win anymore, even if he kills Po. He caused his own defeat already, why keep fighting? So now, as the last thing he does in his life, he’s facing consequences forward in the most honorable way he can in those few seconds; either that be a way of saying sorry and finally admitting he was wrong or a way to set his own destiny, not defeated by a panda, but by himself. It’s a bit of both, I think.

So, why do I love Lord Shen? Between his mannerisms and evilness, he’s a very complex, deep character with an underestimated mind and, like any person, his own issues to be afraid of. Yes, he screwed up really bad, but I think he just made the wrong choices...

(Besides, he’s Gary Oldman, come on!)

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nightcoremoon · 5 years

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this is gonna be a highly unpopular opinion- and while I do welcome someone who has a differing opinion to educate and explain to me how I'm incorrect because of facts I may not know, in a calm, civil, and rational manner that doesn't carry vibes of "you're a stupid asshole and should die, go fuck yourself you dumb idiot racist xenophobic evil nazi apologist r*tard f*g bitch" as some who have Opinions™ on this subject may feel is, you know, something to do in a social interaction with another human- I'm just not gonna interact with people who get on my ass for being "mean". if I come to find that I am factually incorrect on the subject in some way, and owe people an apology, then one will be delivered. I'll even write it out in a letter and send it to your PO box with a neat little pink ribbon tied around it. I'm not kidding. I will literally write a [short] letter to every single person who asks for one and has a PO box (please don't anon me about how I'm being a classist for insisting on a PO box to prevent my own doxxing because yikes, or for being an ableist because I won't type out a Braille letter for any blind person my text post offended by reading, or any such ridiculousness) because of the feelings that I will have hurt through my own hypothetical ignorant arrogance, if I am presented with hard evidence that I'm wrong. however, if you're a fascist or a bootlicker or a dumbass republican or a troll, you will say hello to the wonderful modern magic of backtracing an IP address through the tumblr source code. be an intelligent and mature adult or fuck off.

ok, so now without further ado, enter the controversy:

contrary to popular belief the president is not the king of america and blaming every single thing (ie drone strikes) on the president just further adds to that misconception, and it hugely defers responsibility off of those who are actually responsible for making decisions. the president's only one person with a specific set of duties, responsibilities, and abilities as a government official. as we can clearly see from our current administration, having a bumbling idiot as a president has not stopped any of the alphabet agencies, the military, the economy, international trade and diplomatic ties, or the workings and machinations of the "illuminati" or whatever the secret organization of billionaires pulling the strings choose to call themselves. presidential cabinet just hands the president documents to sign, and he (because we've all seen that there's no way in hell our shithole of a society will ever let us have a female president, let alone someone who doesn't ascribe to the gender binary because like could you fucking imagine the shitstorm of cis tears and babyrage the GOP would go batshit over, let alone the general public of religious zealots content with their colonialist brainwashing) signs them and trusts that all the cogs will continue to spin as he juggles a whole bunch of work work work designed from the ground up by the system to distract him from knowing every single thing that the government does, that leaves barely enough time to get out of the office and play golf every once in a while (or every day, in our tangerine menace's case).

and besides. the whole "Obama did drone strikes" just invites "so he's no different from the right" which leads to "just vote apolitical or libertarian or green or some other third party and throw your vote away and contribute to the fascist takeover" which leads to concentration camps, brown babies ripped from their families, cultural genocide, spikes in hate crimes against minorities, literal nazis feeling brave enough to walk the streets behind three walls of swatpigs in riot gear, etc.

so shut the fuck up about drone strikes.

even if the president did directly authorize or, hell, pressed the big red button to launch the uav, whether he wanted to or not, whether he agreed to or not, because that's the job, then it's going to happen regardless if we don't just have civil war 2, get a bunch of guns, storm the government buildings, and have ourselves a coup, killing all dissenters and people who'd have supported the original regime. if we don't do all that then there's literally no point at all in even bringing it up, and the best case scenario is to just put the left back in control and try to repair all the damage being done on our own soil before we can even HOPE to try to stop the drone strikes drone strikes drone strikes shut the fuck up about the god. damn. drone strikes.

yes it's sad yes it's tragic yes it's evil yes the american government are evil imperialists yes this is a hell world but there's not a goddamn thing we can do about that but look out for our own. you're not jesus. you can't save everyone. the only thing that we are capable of doing is to mitigate the suffering as much as possible. you think if I was kara danvers or tony stark or idk fucking robocop that I wouldn't just fly by and tear off the arms n legs of every last murderous corrupt evil asshole contributing to human suffering in the world? well guess what. super hero stories are FANTASY. they're as bound to happen as star wars or lord of the rings or terry pratchett's discworld. pay attention to the real world that's horrible and think realistically. the big picture. there's 8 billion people in the world now and human nature being what it is more than half of those people are gonna be taken advantage of in one way or another. maybe even killed. the innocent, pregnant women, children, babies, brown, queer, jewish. okay? humans are evil murdering bastards.

and I'm not gonna just stand idly by as we idly blabber on about the ~drone strikes~ and just let the bullshit clog our common sense filters and lead to ANOTHER FOUR YEARS OF THE MOTHER FUCKING TRUMP DUMPSTER AND HALF-PENCE, BECAUSE YALL WONT

SHUT

THE

FUCK

ABOUT

THE

GOD

DAMN

MOTHER

FUCKING

DRONE

STRIKES

...

besides, if we're run by liberals and take all the damm refugees we create with those drone strikes, that's slightly better than bombing them, imprisoning them, and letting them die starving, cold, naked, standing in their own diarrhea and vomit and tears, afraid, and alone. like we're doing right now under the GOP's iron fist elephant blanket covering a swastika.

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ghostmartyr · 5 years

Text

Pokémon FireRed Nuzlocke [Part 10]

Welcome back to the tenth part of me trying to beat Fire Red doing a Nuzlocke with no grinding! That’s right, no grinding! The only experience allowed is against other Trainers!

Where are we in this harrowing journey now?

Aheh.

To heck with it, I’m naming myself Blue this time.

Do you know why?

I’m blue, if I were green I would die (da ba dee da ba die).

Oh yes, we’re doing this.

My ID # this time is... 50685. Which means...?

Bulbapedia says 4-6 is Fire.

Uh.

You know what. It’s hard to tell because this is done through text posts that are not posted when they are done, but I just did everything up to Brock with a Charmander an hour ago.

But okay! We’ll do it again! But better this time!

I will name you... Left.

Cool.

Left is Rash, so we should get along great.

Fetch quest? Complete.

Pokedex? Get.

Route 1 Rattata? Get.

Her name is Down.

Route 2 Pidgey? Get. Sidey.

Viridian Forest Caterpie? Get. Nalley.

Viridian Forest? Get wrecked.

Route 22 level 2 Mankey? Get. I dub thee Weast.

Green, whose name should be Blue except our name is Blue?

Get. Wrecked.

Now Brock’s Gym, where we shall be punished for our arrogance.

First and only trainer? Done.

Brock?

Eeeeeeeh.

Geodude goes down to a few Metal Claws, one of which raises Left’s Attack. But Geodude wasn’t the issue last time. Accuracy concerns, using Ember, and Onix being Onix were the main problems in that very near past.

Metal Claw doesn’t really uh. What’s the word... help. So. uh. now we. hm.

Yeah, now we be horrible. Weast, you are sacrifice the first. Down, you next. And if you live long enough, maybe you can use Sand Attack!

Or you can die.

Left, you’ve had your Potion. Get back out there!

For future reference, Ember is useless, stop trying to make it happen. You are not going to get the burn. Suck it up and cry when Metal Claw misses.

Okay! So Left is down to 13 HP. But Rock Tomb hasn’t missed yet! So!

Hey, it missed.

Now it just needs to like. Do that again.

It did.

See, the problem here

is that now I have to live with actively killing Weast and Down.

Look.

Guys.

I’d say I’m sorry, but I don’t have to fight Brock again until something else goes horribly wrong, so we’re calling this a win for our team! Everybody cheer! You supplied your friend that you knew for like maybe ten minutes a serious victory with your deaths!

My brother called me a horrible person for what I did to Tarle in the round of this that made it to the Elite Four.

Gotta say.

I get that.

But more importantly, I get Running Shoes. Life is okay. Not that Weast or Down will ever know that again.

Then Left tries to die to a level 9 Pidgey that knows Sand-Attack. He doesn’t. But he really does try. Then hits level 16, and just like Heero before him, becomes a Charmeleon. Oh happy day.

I miss Heero.

I don’t think I went over it extensively, because the horror of doing exactly what I am now was setting in worse than grief, but Heero and Allenby and Sprinkle and Zaft and Po... they were a good team. Left has got some gigantic shoes to fill. He’s alive, and that’s a great start, but. Oh. The pain of not being able to say that it’s Heero time anymore?

That will endure.

Time to see if we’re catching something to throw into the rotation or not. Route 3 option, show me what you’ve got.

Gee. no. really.

My Pidgey’s actually still alive, even. Caught and not dead. Like a pro.

Okay, found a Spearow.

Now we find out if Left (level 19) can kill a level 6 Spearow with Scratch. Let’s watch.

Yes. Yes, he can.

Route 3 is as dead as that Spearow.

Compensation for killing the route is 49 exp.

I can’t remember if I’ve brought it up before, but for the purposes of this playthrough, accidentally killing things is fine. Losing the Pokedex slot is punishment enough. This is hard enough without going out of my way to be mean to myself.

Intentionally killing things for exp is very much not allowed, though. If I don’t want the thing, and can’t catch it, I run. Snorlax, looking at you, bud. I don’t have high hopes for you not killing my entire team when we reach you. Catching Po was my one miracle, I think.

I still really enjoy the art done for the different tourist traps across the map. v pretty.

Sigh.

And we lose out on catching Zubat.

...do I need things in my Pokedex to get Flash? I think I do.

Left, you’re way too strong for something that will die if Misty blinks in your direction. It’s a problem.

Add on 54 more exp to the illicit gains pile. I think after this if there’s not a level jump (I think there’s a small one before the next patch of grass), I have to start throwing a ball first thing. I probably should have done that with the Zubat, but. optimism.

Optimism has gotten the grindlocke into heaps of trouble, when you stop and think about it. It will continue, but oh dear yes, we see how this happens.

Hey, Ember finally burned something.

A Clefairy.

Thank goodness. Much danger. Such fear. Wow.

I still don’t really dispute this. Poor guy.

Grabbed the Helix this time. I don’t think there is a way for it to matter less, but there we go.

Made it out of Mt. Moon! Hark and rejoice!

Now we’re going to start breaking out speedrun strats. In slow motion, so obviously mine will work out better. You might recall, if not from this experiment then from others, that there are two Move Tutors outside Mt. Moon.

Mega Punch and Mega Kick.

Mega Punch does 80 Normal, with 85 accuracy.

Mega Kick does 120. 75 accuracy.

So the reason we’re doing this is that we’re about to come across the areas where I have a chance to get an Oddish. If I end up with an Oddish, all will be well with Misty (hopefully). If I don’t, my options become majorly limited. Left will be the One True Starter and Finisher. He needs to be able to down the Starmie in one hit.

It will come down to luck, so we’re going to maximize the possibilities of that luck.

Mega Kick. Welcome. Later, Scratch.

Okay. Bought some more poke balls in Cerulean, also bought some Repels to see if a thing works. If it doesn’t I will avoid further comment on it.

Route 4, SHOW ME AN ODDISH POR FAVOR.

A Mankey is not an Oddish. And we already killed one, so next.

Spearow. Well, we killed the last one, so sure.

If it could use Growl a few more times, Metal Claw would become an option... Yeah, it’s an option, let’s go for it.

Yay, Spearow’s not dead!

.........

I forgot I was playing a Nuzlocke. Did not nickname the Spearow.

Damn it, Spearow.

Invalid pokemon go in the box.

So with no Oddish, Left is going to have to tackle our rival and Nugget Bridge all alone. Yeehaw. Then we can hit grass that might possibly have an Oddish. We want to do that first after the bridge, because there are enough trainers to make the Oddish a real asset in the Misty fight if it’s allowed the exp.

Assuming we get an Oddish.

First thing’s first, though.

Tiny things continue to amuse me.

Left is level 23 now. Pidgeotto’s Sand-Attack is honestly the largest threat. ...Not that Water Gun isn’t making a show of it. Geez, I’m going to have to buy Potions after this. If there is an after this. I missed Mega Kick every time except the last time, and since Squirtle was busy Withdrawring all through that, not only did I miss the chance to do useful damage, when Mega Kick finally hit on the last shot, it did not help.

So now we’ve used Smokescreen a few times in an attempt to even things out.

...

I think I’m about to lose.

Crap.

Uh.

I have to be the worst again.

Left needs his accuracy back.

Um.

Nally... would you uh. mind uh.

Nally the Caterpie is now dead, continuing this run’s trend of being inexcusably awful.

WELL UNLESS OUR LEVEL 3 SIDEY (PIDGEY) CAN WIN, I’D SAY IT’S RESTARTING TIME AGAIN.

She can’t.

She dies.

Welp.

Our name is GM this time.

Our rival is NPC.

This time our ID number is............ 59916.

-looks up-

Bulbapedia says 4-6 is Fire.

OKAY THEN.

Maybe I’ll just lose against NPC. That would keep the restart time down.

For now and forever.

His name is Scyther.

Scyther gets to stay for a little while longer. He’s Sassy. Great.

Fetch quest done.

Ugh.

I almost universally dislike the beginnings of Pokemon games. Unless nostalgia is kicking in, or the game is completely brand new. Being back at the beginning is very much Not Great.

Though this time I learned that you can choose to leave home without talking to your mother. Wow.

First encounter is Rattata. Rattata’s name is Pidgey.

Route 1 done.

Route 2 gives us a Pidgey. Its name is Rattata.

Route 22 has a level 3 Mankey. Now named Machop.

I think. Sigh.

I think that no matter what starter I end up with, my strategy for this is going to be to have my starter handle the first Gym. If I keep getting Charmanders, that will mean a lot of fails before luck goes with me, because luck was the only way we made it through Left’s run.

...

Damn it, Scyther.

No Viridian Forest catch.

May the +30 exp somehow help.

Through Viridian Forest, which means it’s back to Rival-san.

Rival-san is defeated. That’s probably going to be his actual name next time.

We doing this?

Yeah. Sure.

Hey guess what. That +30 exp means Scyther is level 15 instead of 14! Yay! Does that mean anything?

Why did Onix use Bind.

(Better question, self. Why did you use Ember. Your optimism is killing all your pokemon.)

Rock Tomb. After lots of Binds.

Why is Onix killing the rest of my team in slow motion. Stop using Bind. stop stop stop. just kill them.

Thank you.

FUCK YOU, THAT’S MY NAME THIS TIME.

YOUR GRANSON’S NAME IS ALSO OAK.

ID NUMBER.

WHAT HAVE WE GOT.

26268.

HELLA.

BULBAPEDIA SAYS “7-9 is Water type” SO FUCK YALL WE’RE GETTING A SQUIRTLE.

HELL YEAH.

ITS NAME IS OAK.

GOOD JOB OAK.

GO CATCH A PIDGEY ON ROUTE 1.

ITS NAME IS OAK.

RATTATA ON ROUTE 22. ITS NAME IS OAK.

CATERPIE ON ROUTE 2. ITS NAME IS OAK.

o shit.

His name’s Acorn.

Squirtle learns Bubble at level 7. AKA the most useless Water move ever. I suppose I finally understand why Rival-san was using Tackle instead.

Hi! Oak!

Bulbasaur is going to be a pain. Oak learned Water Gun at 13, but. that doesn’t really help.

Bulbasaur is only using Tackle. That helps greatly, and we’re done.

So. ARE WE DOING THIS THIS TIME?

YAAAAAAAAAAAY.

YAY.

Oki doki.

Now I have to think.

Is Acorn a real teammate, or not?

Rival-san having a Bulbasaur means that he’s going to end up with a Gyarados. Electric moves are very, very useful against such horrors. Electric moves are also very useful for, say. Misty.

I think I’m going to give Acorn a shot. Maybe I’ll have to shove him out into a box in the end, but there are enough useful points in his favor to train him up a bit. All the Speed EV pokemon are going to Acorn. When safe.

!_!

!!_!!

My Route... 4? I think 4. Route 4 catch!

His name is Tree.

And he is actually from Route 3.

Here’s where things (already) get a bit sad, I think. I have limited resources. I do not want to devote time to training something I don’t think I can use. Nidoking is a fantastic pokemon, and in a normal Nuzlocke, I would be so happy to have one.

However, his move pool is not going to help me enough, I don’t think. Maybe my mind will change. Maybe I’ll be wrong. But each member of my team needs to have a specific relevance.

...Maybe that relevance will turn out the be the reminder that I can’t count on getting a Snorlax this time.

Uggggh.

Fine, I’m digging up the pokedex.

I already know that Lapras is out. The leveling process is too painful. Hitmonlee or Hitmonchan can be options, because I think by the time I have access to them, they’re at a level that I can make use of. Eevee is technically an option, but. Flareon isn’t the best. I have a Water pokemon. I have Acorn.

If I don’t take the Eevee, that leaves room for something else from Celadon. If I catch a Magikarp sometime before Celadon, I can guarantee having a Grimer, which has the kind of move pool I think I want for a run like this.

Brute force is my usual tactic, but brute force only works in a run like this if I’m working with things that excel in force.

Other Celadon pokemon include things from the Game Corner. Pinsir has zero naturally learned Bug moves in this gen, so no. ...Oh. It’s also only an option in LeafGreen. Dratini takes too much exp to train into usefulness. Clefairy and Abra are too underleveled. Porygon is too laughably expensive. Scyther is hypothetically very useful, but doesn’t learn a Bug move until level 46. The main benefit until then would be Typing aid. A damn good one, and if it lived long enough, I could certainly make some magic happen.

The one thing I know for sure I want right now.

is a Diglett.

So assuming everything magically works out the way I’m intending, our future team has a Blastoise, a Raichu, and a Dugtrio. The question is what, out of my limited options, best adds to that.

...Tree. I don’t think this is your run, friend.

We soldier on.

Our Mt. Moon is a Zubat again. Yay. ...Oh, whoops. Huh. I only have one Poke Ball. Hope it catches our new friend.

It does!

Zubat’s name is Oak.

Oooooh, Oak learned Bite.

The Squirtle Oak.

Now Wartortle Oak.

Bite at 19.

One arduous Mt. Moon later, Acorn is at level 13, and Oak is at level 21. Now before we do anything else, we’re running to the Pokemon Center for healing, and then the Mart for Poke Balls. We’re clean out of those, and I refuse to go through caves without Flash. I refuse, I tell you.

No Mega Kick of Punch this time. Oak and Acorn should be okay to handle Misty. ...I think.

Route 4 gives us an Ekans.

Its name is Oak.

LET’S TRY THIS AGAIN.

Acorn tries to deal with the level 17 Pidgeotto because we’re all about risk now. He gets it to orange and paralyzed. Hopefully that’s enough for Oak to clean up.

It is! yay.

He sends out his Bulbasaur next, and with any luck, Bite over and over will handle any and all problems.

Wow. Lots of luck. Poisonpowder misses, and Bulbasaur just keeps flinching. Sorry about your luck, Rival-san. I’m taking it all hostage.

I don’t think Abra has an offensive move, so it’s all Acorn’s.

Only a Rattata left, and...?

Thank fuck.

So since we finally hit one, let’s end this on that high note.

Next time, Nugget Bridge awaits.

#Pokemon #Nuzlocke #Nuzlocke Challenge #playthrough

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theplaguezine · 5 years

Text

S.O.D.

Interview with Dan Lilker by Daniel Hinds

(conducted June 1999)

In the mid-80s, when extreme music of all sorts was coming together in bizarre new combinations, one band was right there applying their own wrecking ball to the walls between hardcore punk and metal: S.O.D., the Stormtroopers of Death. A side project consisting of Anthrax's Charlie Benante (drums) and Scott Ian (guitar), Nuclear Assault's Dan Lilker (bass) and Billy Milano (shouts), S.O.D. unleashed their tongue-in-cheek brand of crossover on the unsuspecting world in the guise of the album Speak English or Die! The effect was immediate and the impact was considerably deeper than anyone would have guessed, least of all the band themselves.

Due to various other commitments, a follow-up record was not forthcoming, though the four did manage to get together in '92 to record a live disc for their well-starved fans. Eventually, things fell into place and this summer sees the release of the band's second album - a full 14 years after the debut. Dan Lilker fills in the details between sips of coffee one recent morning…

Where did you record the new album and who produced it? Well, we recorded at a studio called Big Blue Meanee in Jersey City, New Jersey. It's a place that is run by some really good friends of Billy's. The actual recording was done there and produced by the band and Tim Gilles and he's like the main honcho there. Then it was mixed by the band and Vince Wojno.

Are you pretty happy with the results? Oh yeah, totally. I've done a lot of records and this is definitely one, like Sounds of the Animal Kingdom by Brutal Truth, where I go, 'God, I couldn't think of much more I'd want to do to that record.' Sometimes it's like, 'Fuck, we should have done this or that or that,' or more personal things like, 'I should have done this note' or whatever. But we rehearsed more for this record than the first S.O.D. record, so it's a little more thought-out.

What possessed you guys to do another album? Well, we've intended to for a long time. When I'd be out on the road with Brutal Truth, I'd always hear, 'Is there ever going to be any more S.O.D.?' and I know the other guys heard that all the time, too. There was going to be an S.O.D. tribute a year or so back and that fell through because a lot of bigger bands couldn't get permission from their labels, one of the nastier aspects of the music business. I think at that point we were like, 'Screw it, let's just do a record.' We had to stop back in '85 because a couple of the other guys in Anthrax were getting quite pissed off about it, but not all the same people are in the band now. Some of the people in the band now grew up on that stuff, so it's a little easier to do it now.

How does Bigger Than the Devil compare to Speak English or Die? When we were writing this record, at least for me personally, we had to walk a thin line. We had to maintain the integrity of the old stuff, but make it sound modern, not make it sound dated. It has a lot of the aspects of the first album, but lyrically and at some points musically, it has a lot of modern stuff, too. But not to the point where it sounds like something else. We injected a little black or death metal here that we might not have had on the first one, or a couple of blast-beats, but it is still S.O.D. you know?

What is the S.O.D. song-writing process like? A few of the songs, like "We All Bleed Red," "Kill the Assholes" and "Free Dirty Needles" are Billy's songs, ones he'd written and brought to the band. The rest of them was a process of Scott, Charlie and I sitting down in the rehearsal space, looking at each other and going, 'Okay…' The first song we had written together was "Make Room, Make Room," where Scott's like, 'I got a riff,' and I'm like, 'Okay, I've got some notes that fit really good after that,' and Charlie's like, 'Well, why don't you do it like this,' and the next thing you know, we've got like 20 songs. I guess maybe they relied on me a tiny bit to write some more extreme, more modern, more death-oriented stuff, because they know I'm the person who's been listening to and playing that all this time, but it's obvious that everyone was in on it. Like with Charlie, he puts his own stamp on everything, just the way he plays, it's amazing.

How did you respond to critics who were offended by some of the lyrics on the first album and do you think you'll have that problem this time out, too? Well, when we wrote the lyrics for the first album, we were a little younger than we are now and I can see how people would take them the wrong way if they weren't seeing our sense of humor. We tried to explain patiently to people that, you know, there might be a song on there called "Speak English or Die" but there's also a song on there called "Milk," which is completely silly, and people have to understand that both those songs have pretty much the same meaning. With this album, the lyrics are still nihilistic and offensive, but they're a little more mature and articulate. We don't go after nationalities because we realized that that is kinda tasteless. There's still tasteless stuff, but maybe it's more social stuff, like picking on crack-heads, I don't know. As far as criticism goes, well…whatever. You gotta weather shit like that. We're not gonna tone down our stuff to the point where it's not S.O.D., you know - it has to be rude and obnoxious. If people don't realize by now that there is a sense of humor underlying all that stuff, then they probably don't want to. It's probably extreme P.C. people who are dead-set against us from the start and don't want to hear anything different. If we go, 'Well, it's not serious,' then they'll go, 'Oh yeah, sure…' If people are like that, I'm just like, whatever, and throw my hands in the air.- think whatever you want.

How did you come up with the title Bigger Than the Devil? I think Scott came up with that. That has to do with the fact that metal is always identified with Satan and The Number of the Beast ties in with the album cover. By calling our album Bigger Than the Devil, it's just typical S.O.D. obnoxiousness. It's like, all these bands like Slayer and these black metal bands - we're bigger than that! Your god is just a little, puny piece of shit compared to Sergeant D. and the power of S.O.D. It's just an arrogant, S.O.D.-type statement. Meaningless as usual, but cool looking.

How did you get in touch with Nuclear Blast? They got in touch with us. I've known about the label for years, been friends with the people in the States and in Europe for years. So, when it all came around, everyone looked at me and said, 'Are these guys good?' and I went, 'Yep!' We had been taking to a couple other labels and I don't how much of that's gone now - I'm not gonna be like Scott and insult the other labels (laughs). They got in touch with us, we'd been talking with a couple other labels and going 'Ahhhh…..' - I don't know how you want to write 'Ahhh….' but… - Nuclear Blast called us up and said, 'We're totally into it and here's what we've got.' We were like, 'Wow, it's a really good offer," and that was it. I'm psyched about it, if that was your next question. So far, they are doing a totally awesome job because they're psyched, too. It's people who grew up with that shit. It's like if you were a kid, your favorite wrestler, if you got to manage him later, you'd be like, 'Oh, wow!'

I saw that you are going to be touring Japan soon… Yeah, we're going to Japan at the beginning of June for a week.

When was the last time you were there? Well, S.O.D. has never played there. We did a few shows in the States and that one show in Europe in '97, but before all those shows in '97, we'd only played New York and New Jersey. We've got more coming up in Europe, too, so it's gonna be pretty interesting.

I understand that Billy has been working as a manager. Yeah, for Agnostic Front and a few other bands that I should know of the names of, but I don't. A few other bands in the New York/New Jersey area. He's good at that, Billy's a go-getter and doesn't take any shit, so he makes a good manager.

What are your plans now that Brutal Truth has split? I'm in another band called Hemlock that plays black metal. We don't have all the trappings, like paint and spikes, because that is very old and tired. That's not the most active band in the world because you've got me doing this [S.O.D.] stuff and our drummer is in another band and then, just being a black metal band anyway, we've only done like 8 shows in the last three years. We have an album and an EP out, both on Head Not Found, and our next stuff when it comes out eventually will be on Full Moon Productions. Since I got a computer in December, I've been messing around a lot with graphics. I'm basically a creative person anyway, so I mess around in Photoshop and I come up with stuff and people look at it and go, 'Wow!' So, I might get into free-lance graphics stuff eventually, because I've definitely got a taste for it. Basically, I just sit there, take a couple hits, and do some crazy stuff, but it does look pretty cool.

What do you make of the current black metal scene? I still think there are too many bands running around with keyboards and violins and stuff like that. For me, black metal was Venom and Hellhammer, shit like that. However, if a band does it really good, like Emperor, I can get into it. I'm glad to see that black metal kids, Norwegian kids, don't have the same stupid attitude they did five years ago, when they had to be snobby and say that everything other than black metal sucked, especially death metal. I don't know how much you want to get into it, but the reason all those kids were saying that is because they saw something on the back of a live Mayhem record, a quote from Euronymous, where he said how much he hated death metal. But, that is because he was speaking from the point of someone being disillusioned, because he used to love it and it got all trendy and political. These kids didn't understand that and said, 'All death metal that ever existed sucks,' because that's what they read out of it because they weren't old enough. I'm glad to see that people are growing up a little bit. I prefer the more brutal bands like Gorgoroth, shit like that. I don't know if you've heard my band, but that's kind of the vein we're in. We like Darkthrone a lot.

I've heard the name, but I haven't heard Hemlock yet. Well, it's definitely no frills. It's straight-up, punishing type shit. I mean, I'm friends with guys like Dimmu Borgir and everything, but personally, it gets just a little too, I don't know… If I want to listen to something nice and ambient, I'll listen to something directly like that. If I listen to black metal, it should be pretty much in-your-face, but that's just my unholy opinion.

How long do you think you'll be working with S.O.D.? Is it kind of open-ended right now? Yeah, it's definitely open-ended. We could conceivably do another record in a couple years, we wouldn't wait 14 years - we'd be too fucking old by then. Right now, there's a huge, tremendous buzz on the record, a lot of good shit coming up, and if we do a whole bunch of stuff and at the time other people's schedules are open - I mean, I'm not sure what Anthrax's schedule is gonna be. My personal schedule is more open that it used to be. The whole time I was in S.O.D., I was in Nuclear Assault and then in Brutal Truth and that even overlapped a couple of years, so I'm always in more than 2 bands at the same time. To answer your original question, yeah, it's open-ended, but I'd be into more if there was a reason for it.

You've been in the business for a number of years now and I was wondering if your opinion of it has changed any over the years. There's a lot of down stuff, but then again… When we signed to Relapse, that gave me a lot of faith because we'd had a lot of problems with Earache before that. There are some labels, like Relapse and Nuclear Blast, that shine through as people that are totally committed. There are other labels out there, I'm not going to mention them, that were big in the early 90s for a lot of metal bands and their names start with 'E' and 'R' - you can figure that out later - that make it really hard to do stuff, because eventually you just become a product and they don't care about you and it's very frustrating. As far as how it has changed since I first got into it, I don't think it has - it's all just a cycle. Something gets popular, everyone else tries to do it, all the labels sign all these bands that are trying to do something to get in on it. Then, it's like a ship that takes on too much water and it just sinks. It happened with thrash metal, it happened with death metal, it happened with black metal. As far as all this Korn stuff, I really don't like any of that shit at all so I shouldn't really comment on it too much, but it definitely seems to be happening with that. As much as I don't like Korn, I'll give them credit for being one of the first bands to do that, but I don't like what they're doing so, whatever.

All the copycat bands are just that much worse. For me, I wouldn't want to play in a band that sounds just like someone else. I mean, how many interviews have you read where one of the first lines is, 'Oh, well we're influenced by a combination of Korn, Pantera and Machine Head,' and you're just like, 'Oh, crap, not again…' It's like, what are you contributing? Absolutely nothing.

Outside of the graphic art work, what else do you do in your spare time? Umm… I live at home with my parents because it is too expensive to live around here in New York. Besides that, I've got my digital studio here in my room. I've got these boxes that Roland makes, these hard-disk recorders. One is a 16-track and one is an 8-track, but I've been real neglectful since I got my computer because I've been messing around online, learning Photoshop and all this other stuff. If I wanted to, I could make album-quality stuff in my room, which I used to - weird ambient stuff. Other than that, just a normal laugh: go out with my friends, have a few drinks, a few laughs. Pretty much normal shit, you know, I don't go out and kill people or anything.

Do you spend much time on the Internet? Yeah, I mess around, I'll look at certain sites and stuff, but after a while it gets boring. It comes in very handy like, let's say, I want a book for my computer - I mean, this isn't very interesting in the scope of metal, but… - let's say I want to learn about Adobe Illustrator and I've got a pirated version. So, I can go on the Internet to Barnes & Noble or something, find the book I want, order it and it comes in a week later. I go on some black and death metal web-sites, look around, say 'hi' to people, shit like that.

#S.O.D.#interview #jun1999

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historyrepeatsitself-phff · 6 years

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Chapter Ninety

“We need to talk about hiring you a nanny.”

Harry and Emmy were sat in the offices in Kensington Palace, opposite Edward, Claire and – to Emmy’s surprise – Rick. Grace sat on Harry’s lap, sleepy after her morning feed.

Harry looked at Emmy to see her reaction to Edward’s words – it wasn’t really a shock. In a few days’ time they were attending Emmy’s cousin Bella’s wedding, and they had had no one to babysit Grace. Edward had stepped up, but both Harry and Emmy knew that they couldn’t keep this up for much longer – people were busy, and so were they. They wouldn’t always be able to find someone to look after her. Emmy, reluctantly, had acknowledged that there was no other way.

“We will start searching around and invite some of the best people we can find, advertise in the best institutions,” Claire explained. “I’ll start looking on Saturday, while you’re at the wedding.”

“And I am going to organise hiring a PO for Grace,” Rick added. “So while you’re at the wedding, we’ll be sorting all this out.”

“Nothing for either of you to worry about,” Edward said, with a smile.

Harry looked so good in his three-piece suit, sunglasses on in the early summer sunshine. He walked with one hand in his pocket, his other hand in hers, smirking slightly – almost as if he knew how sexy he looked, or perhaps he was thinking about how she looked. Guests looked their way as they walked down the pathway to the church.

“You know all these people?” Harry asked, as a group of middle-aged women waved at Emmy, cooing about how grown-up she had become.

“Some of them,” Emmy answered, trying to steer him away from any more extended family, knowing they would just embarrass her. “Big family, you know.”

“Hmm, I know a lot about having a big family,” he replied, throwing her a grin.

“It’s so easy to forget, we haven’t seen them in so long,” she said dryly, although he knew full well she was enjoying the distance.

“No need to sound so happy.”

“Pfft, please, as if you’re not dreading seeing my father today.”

His mouth twitched, but he said nothing.

“Is Benedict coming today?” he asked; Emmy’s older brother was the only member of the Farrington family that Harry could stand.

“He should be, yeah, him and Susie flew over especially for the wedding,” she explained. “They’re going to come and see me in the week, while you’re away. They want to see Grace again.”

“Shame I won’t be there, I actually like Benedict,” he said.

She rolled her eyes, but then turned hopeful. “Well, if you change your mind and you want to stay…”

He sighed. “I can’t.”

“You can’t or you won’t?”

“I can’t,” he said. “I can’t cancel. And then Australia as well-”

They’d come to a stop beneath one of the trees, and its droopy blossom provided some shade from the hot sun. The warmest of breezes ruffled Emmy’s loose curls as she turned anxious eyes to his.

“Australia is so far away though.”

“Let’s not do this again,” he said gently, looking around. “Especially not here.”

“But what if I need you?”

“You won’t, you’re a perfectly capable woman. You won’t need me at all. You’ll probably enjoy not having me around.”

She raised a sceptical eyebrow as he took her hands and tried to distract her. “I doubt that.”

“It’ll be nice for you and Grace to have some alone time. And you can prepare for your visit to Denmark.”

“Are you trying to make me feel better by terrifying me with my trip?”

He grinned sheepishly. “Is it working, by any chance?”

“Of course not,” she said, actually laughing and shaking her head at him. She wanted to try and persuade him to stay some more, or to grovel about how she was going to miss him, but she knew that would sound whiny and so she looked around at the other guests to distract herself.

“Where’s your dad then?” Harry asked wearily. “Why is he not here annoying us?”

Emmy rolled her eyes at him. “You’re so predictable.”

“What?!” He tried to sound innocent.

She giggled at him. “That could be a good drinking game. Take a shot every time you mention my dad.”

“As if you’d be any good at drinking games?” he teased lightly. “Remember that time you got drunk on champagne?”

She blushed, knowing exactly which time he was talking about. “Let’s not.”

“You tried to kiss me.”

“I asked you to kiss me, totally different.”

He scoffed. “Right. And that time you got drunk on Vodka. Taylor’s 21st.”

She blushed somehow even deeper. “Don’t.”

“You asked me to eat you out.”

“And what’s worse,” she replied, scowling. “Is that you did! I was drunk and you took advantage of me!”

“Well I had no idea you felt that way,” he replied dryly, knowing that she was only joking to try and get revenge on him for bringing it up. “If that’s how you feel, I promise to never eat you out again.”

She glared at him, and he chuckled, snaking an arm round her waist to pull her to him. She moved into his hold, her hand going to his chest as they tried to hug inconspicuously – the press had caught on that the Duke and Duchess of Clarence would be attending this wedding, and so dozens of paparazzi were camped over the road, trying to snap as many pictures as possible.

“Ahh, here you are,” said a familiar nasally, arrogant voice, and Harry turned to see Alexander approaching them. Harry’s smile disappeared – he loathed his father-in-law.

“Hi Father,” Emmy said, moving to hug him in greeting. Harry merely nodded once.

“Henry,” Alexander greeted him. “And how is my little granddaughter? Still crawling?’

“Yep, she crawls everywhere now,” Emmy said, with a little laugh. “She’s becoming a nuisance.”

“Oh I can’t believe that,” Alexander replied. “I keep meaning to come and visit but I’m just so busy, you know.”

Harry very nearly scoffed, but stopped himself.

“You look very smart today, Henry,” Alexander observed.

“Father, it’s Harry,” Emmy murmured.

“Do I usually look stupid?” Harry replied coolly.

Emmy shot him a look – after all, her father was being nice.

Alexander looked pointedly at him as though to emphasise that he wasn’t biting, and then turned to Emmy. “Emmaline, have you been and spoken to Aunt Helen yet?”

Somehow, hearing Alexander call Emmy “Emmaline” always annoyed Harry more than being called Henry. He glared at him, thinking back to the time he’d punched him and trying to focus on the satisfaction that had come with that.

“Not yet, we’ve only really just got here,” Emmy explained. “I’ll probably catch up at the reception.”

“You must go and say hello,” Alexander replied insistently. “They’ll be very offended if you just stand with Henry all day. Besides, you see Henry all the time.”

Emmy nodded, trying to get him to get off her case, and finally he muttered something about spotting an old friend of his, and he hurried off to brag to someone else. Emmy let out the breath she’d been holding and turned to Harry.

“Thank you for biting your tongue,” she said, moving back into his arms. “I could tell it was hard for you.”

“I thought about that time I punched him to distract myself,” he admitted.

She giggled lightly into him. “I know he said that I see you all the time, but it’s really nice to just have a day with you all to myself.”

“Unfortunately, you have to share me with your father, apparently.”

“Of course, Henry,” she replied, smirking.

He groaned. “It’s so annoying when people call me that, because that’s what my parents always used to call me when I was naughty.”

“Have you been naughty?”

Harry recognised her playful tone, and he grinned before dropping his voice and saying, “You tell me.”

She fought a giggle, her arms snaking up to drape round his neck. “Are you going to be naughty?”

“Maybe tonight,” he whispered, his hands folding at the small of her back. “If you’re lucky.”

Warmth spread into Emmy’s cheeks, and she leant up on her tip-toes to kiss him in order to spare herself the embarrassment. He chuckled lightly into her mouth, holding her tightly to him.

“Remember when this was our wedding?” he breathed.

“I remember you kissing me in Westminster Abbey, and the Dean walking in on us,” she said, laughing lightly at the memory.

“Our first kiss,” he mused, thinking back. “Everything was so much easier back then.”

She raised an eyebrow, confused. “What? Arranged marriage and all?”

“Back then, that was the only thing that we had to deal with,” he said. “Now, we have to worry about showing Grace off to the public, and we have to worry about upsetting Kate while somehow doing more engagements than most of my family.” He shrugged. “It’s just sad, is all.”

“We are expected to do a lot right now,” Emmy agreed. “But I don’t mind. I like visiting my charities.”

He half-smiled at her. “And that is honestly the most incredible thing. I’m so proud of you for that. Well, I’m so proud of you for everything.”

She giggled lightly. “Thanks. Oh, is it time to go in?”

“I think it might be.”

They walked hand-in-hand towards the church, following the rest of the guests and blending in effortlessly.

Meanwhile, Edward was pacing the living room with a screaming Grace in his arms. She’d been crying for what felt like forever and he couldn’t figure out what was the matter.

“Why are you crying?” he complained. “Your father said that you’re a good baby, he said you hardly ever cry!” Then he scowled. “Somehow, I think he may have just been saying that to get me to babysit. Well I won’t make that mistake again, Grace. Don’t worry, you’re not the only one here who wants to scream. Why are you crying?!”

He sighed, overwhelmed by the noise. This was why he didn’t particularly like children, because they were loud and noisy for absolutely no reason at all. He didn’t even have a tie or his favourite pen to give her to try and calm her.

“Grace, please stop crying,” he said, sitting down and rocking her. Her cries faltered for a moment, and he hastily continued, quickening, but then she started to cry harder and he guessed that maybe he was rocking her a little too hard.

Why had he agreed to this? He had so much paperwork to do!

He decided to try her with her bottle again, and this time she latched on eagerly.

“Was that it? You were hungry?” he asked, incredulous but relieved. “I tried to feed you earlier, but you screamed at me!”

Her blue eyes were wide and big as she peered up at him, one hand going to her bottle. He couldn’t help but smile down at her, now so peaceful.

“Hey, that’s better,” he breathed, stroking her blond hair with his other hand. “Now I can hear myself think.”

She simply stared back at him, and then as he smiled down at her, she broke into her own smile, spilling milk everywhere.

“Oh silly billy!” he gasped, reaching for her bib and wiping her chops with it. She giggled, the fabric tickling under her chin, and he chuckled too.

“That’s a lot better,” he mused.

The phone rang then, and he cursed, expecting it to disturb Grace, but miraculously she barely noticed it. He cradled her with one arm, holding her to his chest, before hurrying over to get it. He saw Harry’s name on the screen.

“Harry? Everything okay?” he asked, as Grace stopped feeding and let her bottle fall to the floor.

“Yeah, everything’s fine, just checking on Grace.”

“And here I thought you wanted to speak to me,” Edward replied dryly.

“Is she okay?”

“Yeah, she’s fine, she was crying for about half an hour and then she finally fed and now she’s fine,” he explained, then added playfully, “Do you not trust me with her?”

“Of course I do,” Harry said, laughing. “But Emmy doesn’t. She’s been getting on at me to check on Grace.”

“Well Grace is fine,” Edward said. “How is the wedding?”

“Well, we just finished the service and now we’re heading to the reception,” Harry said. “Unfortunately I’ve already had to speak to Emmy’s father three times. And he’s called me Henry about eight.”

Edward chuckled. “Maybe I should call you Henry, then you might actually do as I say.”

“Or I’ll punch you, one of the two.”

“True, true.” He laughed. “Okay, I’ll let you both get on. Enjoy your evening.”

“Have fun with Grace.”

“As much fun as you can have with a six-month-old and Sky TV.”

Harry snorted. “See you tomorrow morning.”

“Have fun.”

Emmy watched as Harry spoke on the phone, wondering how Grace was, hoping she was okay, hoping that Edward was coping. She hovered somewhat nervously as Harry talked, and didn’t appreciate how she joked.

“Is she okay?” she blurted, once Harry had hung up.

“She’s fine, she’s just fed.”

“Oh thank god, I kept having horrible images of something happening,” Emmy breathed, raising a hand to her forehead. “Edward’s okay with her?”

“I think so.”

“You mean you don’t know?!”

“He is okay, yeah, he’s fine,” Harry added hastily. “He’ll look after Grace like she was his own.”

“But he doesn’t have a child of his own, how does he know-”

“Em.” He cut her off, and she silenced immediately. “He’s fine. Grace is fine. Now let’s go get some food.”

She nodded, trying to force the anxiety from her mind. They were at a wedding, and they should try and have a good time.

They took their seats in the dining hall; there were dozens of round tables there, decorated with flowers and lace and ribbons that matched the bridesmaids. Harry and Emmy found themselves sat beside Benedict and Emmy’s sister Lucy. Opposite them, strangers began to take their places. One of them shook hands with Benedict after exclaiming about having not seen him for so long.

“I went to school with him,” Benedict explained to Harry, as he too his seat beside him. “He’s friends with the groom.”

“Ah,” Harry said, watching as another guy – evidently also an old classmate of Benedict’s – joined them, and started introducing himself to Harry.

“Oh shit, Emmy, look who it is,” he heard Lucy say.

He looked round instantly, wondering who it was, who could induce such amusement and smugness in Lucy’s voice. His eyes went to Emmy’s face as a blush doused her cheeks, and she looked horrified.

“Please don’t be sitting here,” she hissed, and Lucy smirked.

“Who is it?” Harry asked, eyes following Emmy’s to a guy who looked to be about her age. He was tall – although not as tall as Harry, he would like to point out – with naturally good looks. There was a curvy brunette on his arm, who was hanging on to his every word, giggling annoyingly.

The guy stopped at their table and greeted the guys who were Benedict’s old classmates, as apparently they knew each other. Then his eyes flickered round the table; Harry saw his eyebrows rise slightly as he took him in, and then his gaze moved on to Emmy. His eyes widened.

“Well look who it is,” he said, and Emmy could no longer pretend to ignore him. “Hi Emmy.”

“Oh hi James,” she said weakly. She got up so that they could shake hands, and Harry got up too, guessing who this was and knowing that an introduction was imminent. “This is my husband, Harry. Harry, this is James, an old friend of mine.”

“We dated,” James stated somewhat smugly, confirming Harry’s suspicions.

“Briefly,” Emmy added, blushing.

Harry shook James’ hand, already disliking him. He’d heard things about this guy, about how he had tried to pressure Emmy into getting drunk, into having sex, even trying to give drugs to her at some point. So Harry’s eyes narrowed as he surveyed him. “So you’re where Emmy’s issues with men comes from.”

While those around the table laughed, thinking it was a joke, James scowled. “I never got much of a chance to be a man to her. I would’ve, if she’d let me.”

Harry’s mouth was set as he answered. “You would’ve been more of a man if you’d accepted her decision.”

James’ eyebrow raised, and he turned to Emmy. “Been bitching about me to him?”

“I just told him my experience of men,” she replied coolly. “Which wasn’t particularly pleasant. I must say, since you I’ve been pleasantly surprised.”

He rolled his eyes, then turned to his girlfriend. “Shall we sit down, babe?”

The table was now full, and the food was served quickly, to Harry’s relief. He managed to focus on his food and only occasionally join in with Benedict and his friend’s discussion. Lucy and Emmy spoke animatedly to the girl they were sat beside, who had gone to their college. She wanted to hear all about Emmy’s new life as a royal, and Harry couldn’t help but notice that James seemed to be listening in to that conversation. Harry hoped he was jealous.

Before long the speeches were over and it was time for the first dance. Bella and her new husband took to the floor; she looked lovely in her white dress which flowed around her as she was spun, and Harry and Emmy watched from the side with the rest of the guests. Harry’s eyes kept drifting, finding James in the crowd; James kept watching Emmy, and Harry did not like that one bit.

“Let’s dance,” Harry murmured, hand at the small of Emmy’s back, once other couples had joined the newlyweds on the floor.

“Ooh okay,” Emmy mused, letting him lead her on. “Two dances in one month, what is happening to you?”

He chuckled lightly, watching James as James glared at them. “I just really love you, you know.”

Now Emmy frowned up at him, suspicious. “Alright, what is it?”

“What?”

“Why are you grovelling?”

He laughed innocently. “I’m not! I do love you!”

“Oh, I know, but why are you saying it? And why are you dancing with me?” They spun, and Emmy finally noticed James. “Because of him? Are you showing off that you’re with me?”

“No!”

She raised an eyebrow up at him, and he sighed.

“Fine, maybe a bit, but he keeps looking at you and watching you and I don’t like it one bit,” he admitted, turning his blue eyes to her in what he hoped was an apologetic and perhaps slightly distracting way. “He’s obviously angry by how confident you are now. And I think he’s jealous because of it.”

Emmy rolled her eyes. “And you’re jealous because he’s watching me?”

“I’m smug because no matter how much he wants you, I have you.” He reached up from his neck and took her left hand, thumbing her engagement and wedding ring. “He didn’t appreciate you, and now look. He lost you.”

She smiled, resting her head on his chest and sighing. “I think I need a drink.”

He chuckled. “Sounds good to me.”

After the song had ended and the party had started, they went to get some drinks, and then they spent the rest of the evening on the dancefloor. Emmy didn’t want to speak to her family, and Harry was only too happy to cooperate, so they spent the next few hours dancing, and then going out to get some fresh air in the gardens of the hotel.

They went in to get their third round of drinks when the night was unexpectedly brought to an end. As they waited at the bar, the man beside them was talking to one of the waiters.

“It’s awful, I can’t believe these things keep happening,” he was saying. “Second attack in London this year, too.”

Emmy couldn’t miss that. She stopped and stared, trying to hear more of what they were saying, as horror filled her. London? An attack in London? What had happened?!

Harry appeared to have had the exact same reaction, for he looked at the man and said, “What was that? An attack in London?”

“Afraid so,” he man said, after gaping at who he was talking to. “Apparently man just drove car into pedestrians on London Bridge. There’s been reports of stabbings too, and something about explosive vests.”

“London Bridge?!” Emmy quoted, struggling to catch her breath. London Bridge was only about 15 minutes away from Kensington, where Grace was! What if the attack had been close to the palace?! What if something was still going to happen at the palace, what if they were coordinated attacks?! What if something happened to Grace?!

All of a sudden, the alcohol she’d drunk had gone from her head, and all she could think about was her little girl.

As soon as the door was opened Emmy ran inside.

“Grace?!” she blurted, hurrying to the living room. Edward was just getting to his feet from the sofa, with Grace dozing in his arms. He tried to smile reassuringly, but Emmy was too busy trying to take Grace from him. “Oh Grace, baby, you’re okay, thank God you’re okay!”

A hand at the small of her back rubbed reassuringly, and Harry kissed the back of her head. “She’s fine, she’s fine, I told you she’d be fine.”

Emmy couldn’t take her eyes off her, holding Grace tightly to her. “Oh thank God, oh thank God.”

Edward watched, smiling sadly. “It’s awful, isn’t it? I’ve just been watching the news.”

“I’m sorry we messed you about,” Harry said to him. “We just couldn’t bear to be so far away with her here.”

“It’s okay, I understand,” he answered. “I’ll just grab my stuff and then I’ll let you three be. She was very good, by the way. When she wasn’t crying.”

Emmy sank into the chair with Grace, holding her close. “I never want to be away from her again,” she whispered, once Edward had gone and Harry had sat down on the sofa beside her.

“That was scary,” Harry agreed, stroking Grace’s head as the little girl slept on.

“I don’t want you to go tomorrow,” Emmy breathed, sounding teary. “That’s the second attack in two weeks. What happens if there’s another one?!”

“Don’t be silly, what difference is it going to make if I’m here?”

“I won’t be as scared if you’re here.”

He wrapped an arm round her shoulders, pulling her into him, and he kissed her forehead. He didn’t like the thought of leaving his girls there on their own, he didn’t like the thought of Emmy being scared, but there was nothing he could do. As hard as it would be, he had four days in Singapore and Australia to deal with, to smile and be happy while all along all he wanted was to be back here and look after his family.

This was going to be a difficult four days.

#historyrepeatsitself-phff #Prince Harry #prince harry fanfiction #royalfanficcentral #prince harry fanfic

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xxmadsxoxo · 6 years

Text

How to get on Santa’s nice list.

{Part Seven}

|Final Part

Pairing: Buck Barnes x Reader

Pre warning: Fluff, Fluff, and some more fluff

Warnings: and probably bad punctuation because I’m using my phone.

Summary: you moved in with your best friends apartment around 3 years ago, and found out she has one hot neighbor. Only problem is he is a huge smart mouth, and he always has jokes. Worst thing of all is he is a huge flirt, the boy could make your face warm up with a look. One day he gave you a snarky comment (to no surprise.) but you decided in spirit of the holiday to challenge him. No, smart mouth, or dirty jokes for the rest of November lets see if he can get on Santa’s nice list.

Here’s part 5

This is for (@lovelynemesis) Sam’s rockin’ around the Christmas tree writing challenge!

______

12:00pm

For some reason I have an alarm set, and it’s currently making me want to cry. I shut it off and slam my phone onto the bed. I’ll tell you what, drinking is only fun when you remember what you did the night before, the next day. I don’t remember a whole lot, I know that we all took a shot and Tony started talking about proposing to Pepper. Pepper wasn’t at the party last night, Nat says she had work to do but I think it’s because Pepper doesn’t like me.

I roll out of bed, and realize I’m naked. I’m suprised I even got to my bed, but I also got naked? Wow. I throw on my black oversized sweater, and walking out to the living room where Nat is sitting on the couch. “Morning sleeping beauty.” I look at the microwave clock, and back at her. “Yeah, yeah I know.” She smiles big “do you remember anything from last night?” I rub my eyes and sit down next to her. “Not anything past Tony’s proposal.” She sets her empty mug on the coffee table “Well it’s probably best that way than.” She sits back and looks to me again. “Probably, but did you get me into bed last night?” She shakes her head. “Nope, Barnes did I was way to tired.” I raise a brow at her “So you let Bucky deal with drunk me?” “Well I figure if you win the bet he’ll always have to deal with drunk you.”

I roll my eyes, and cross my arms. “He’s winning, 1 day after today. Then he’s homefree.”

“Well lets hope so.” She reply’s sticking her tongue out at me. Bucky walks in and sits on the chair. Nat asks the question we are both thinking “Aren’t you a bit late?” He looks from the tv to us. “Yes, well I had to run some errands.” We both nod and hum in understanding. “So Buck how terrible was I to deal with last night?” He chews the inside of his cheek before answering “You we’re fine, just kept trying to get me to bring you food.” Lie. That had to be a lie, if I don’t eat before or while I’m drinking I won’t wanna eat after. Why would I do that? I stand up and stretch. “Well I better go get dressed, Tony might need me to come in today.” Nat stands up and takes her mug to the sink. “Okay, we might see you around the tower later.” I smile and head to room holler if back. “Sounds good!”

_______

1:47pm

Tony is currently messing with Friday’s programing, I guess I’m only here to make sure he has coffee. “Dear, why don’t you run to the training room and see how everyone’s doing?” I stand up almost immediately. “Alright, I’ll be back soon boss.”

I head down to the training room with a cooler full of waters. As soon as the elevator doors open, I can hear the gym equipment and the music comming from the training room. As soon as I walk in I see Rhodes, Wilson, Romanoff, Barton, and Barnes. There are a couple more farther back in the gym, but I can’t tell who it is yet. Nat and Clint are sparring, and Rhodes is doing pull ups while Barnes is bench pressing. Wilson is doing standard stuff like sit ups, and such. I set the cooler by the bench, and sit it out. Just watching everyone do their own thing is cool, that is until Bucky spots me. “Hey doll, when did you get here?” I shift in my seat, the nickname now has a worse affect on me. “Just a few seconds ago.” He nods and uses his shirt to wipe off the sweat on his forehead. “Why don’t you come workout with us.” I laugh so loud it’s crazy “That’s a good one Barnes. I’d rather sit here.” He smiles “Oh come on, it could be something as simple as what Wilson is doing.” Wilson gives Buck a glare, and gets back to work. “No really Barnes. I’m good.” He tilts his head a bit and lays back again “suit yourself doll.” He goes back to work as well.

I run to the locker room, past that is the showers/bathrooms. I didn’t have to go or anything, I just couldn’t sit and watch Bucky much longer. I sit on the bathroom counter, and think of ways to avoid him. Just as I go to leave, in walks Bucky. “Hey Doll.” I smile and throw a small wave “Hey Buck.” He runs his fingers through his hair and sighs. “Do you remember anything from last night?” I shake me head “No not really, just Tony’s rambling.” I laugh. He nods with a small smile, and it’s quiet for a little while before he speaks up again. “I can’t win this bet.” Knit my brows in confusion “What do you mean?” He slowly walks closer to me as he answers “Well I don’t want to win this bet. I mean I did when you offered it up, because I wanted you to take some training. Now? Well I just don’t want you to think, that I’m trying to win to get a lap dance.” I look at the ground going over his words. “Okay, so you wanna Shut it down?” He sets his hands either side of my thighs on the counter. “Oh god no, because everyone knows about the bet now.” I scoff and shake my head at his arrogance. “You’re such an asshole.” He opens his mouth to speak but closes it immediately, no words now huh sparky? “Doll, I’m not trying to be rude. Just a bet, is a bet.” I roll my eyes and go to push him back so I can leave, but his grip on the counter tightens. He gets closer closing me in. “Sugar, as bad as I’d love to see you dance for me. God would I love that, I’d rather you win so I know you’re gonna be okay every night.” I fight a smile and reply with “So what are you gonna do to lose with witnesses?” He smiles with mischief in his eyes. “Before I tell you the plan, can I take you on a proper date this weekend?” I am a bit shocked by his question, almost forgetting to answer. “Yes, yes!” I hugs him, and wrap my legs around him. He chuckles, and hugs back tighter.

____________

3:14pm

Just about everyone is in the living room, and I walk in with Bucky behind me. I bend over and set a few waters on the coffee table. “God damn sugar, you keep doing that with a skirt on I may have to take you for myself.” I feel my face heat up almost instantly, the words running straight to my core. Everyone kind of quiets down realizing what Bucky said. “Buck, dude you’re not alone here.” Steve says slapping his arm, sam is holding in laughter behind them. Nat looks so shocked, and angry. I stand back up, and bite me lip before speaking up. “Hey Bucky, I think you’re my new body guard.” He pretends to look shocked, and fights a smile. “Well I held out long enough, you’ve been wearing those skirts way too often. I’m suprised I didn’t break sooner.” Everyone just kind of goes back to what they were talking about, only after a few moments of silence.

____________

It was a stupid bet considering, I don’t need to go clubbing anymore. Maybe just out for drinks, but not clubbing.

_____________

3 Days later

It’s our first date, and he’s not even here. Typical, I can’t believe I agreed to this. It’s been 45 minutes, and the waiter has been very patient with me. I feel so bad for the kid, I already wanna leave him a $30 tip just for getting me water and checking on me. I think maybe I should just go home, and wait for him there. Just as I go to leave money on the table, Bucky runs in towards the table. “I’m so, so fucking sorry sugar.” He says taking a seat and giving me puppy eyes. I roll my eyes and put my purse back. “Don’t ‘sugar’ me Barnes. It’s 7:56, you owe me a good explaination.” He knows I’m half kidding, I’m angry that he was late but I’m sure it was work related. “Oh doll, you know if I wasn’t stuck at work I’d be here in a flash.” I smile and sip my water. “I know buck, just was starting to feel uncomfortable waiting here.” He gives me a half smile, and holds my hand over the table. “I’m sure it was, the waiter has been taking care of you well though right?” I nod, and run my thump over his hand. “He’s been good, deserves a big tip. Because not only did I have to wait for you, but He did too.” Bucky smiles and nods in agreement.

______

8:41pm

Bucky paid the bill, and left quite a generous tip. We ate like royalty, and it was amazing. We talked the whole time, about family, friends, exes, and even our teenage years. Which were 100% different from each other considering he’s a man out of time but, I did enjoy learning what his life was like in the 40s. If he wanted to, he could talk about it all day and I wouldn’t mind one bit. We were walking out, holding Bucky’s metal hand as he used is flesh one to catch a cab. I was only a bit tipsy from the wine, so balnce and my words weren’t all there. Bucky held my hand in a way to keep me standing, when we got in the cab I layed my head on his shoulder. The car ride was gonna be a while.

__________

9:50pm

Traffic was terrible, but Buck kept me occupied if you know what I mean. We were outside his apartment about to say our goodnights, but I wasn’t ready to leave. I think Bucky read my mind “Would you wanna-po-possibly stay the night?” I smile big, and nod. “Sounds good to me.”

__________

That’s a date, I will never forget.

__________

••••••••

-End-

That’s all I have for this entry, maybe I’ll write more fluffy stories in the future. I hope you guys liked this mini series, and I wish you guys a Merry Christmas! Or a happy 25th of December. Heck I just hope you have a happy day no matter what you celebrate, or even if you don’t celebrate at all.

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dfroza · 4 years

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the heart is meant to hold and to treasure sacred truth

and this points to the new covenant of grace that we’ve been entrusted with to share, to illuminate the heart in Light of Love.

(God is Love)

and God came to earth as a man to reveal this to us, and to protect its True story of rebirth for the heart & body for all those who “believe...”

Today’s chapter in the New Testament is chapter #2 in the book of Mark:

Some days later when Jesus came back to Capernaum, people heard that Jesus was back in town and many gathered at the house where He was staying. Soon the crowd overflowed from the house into the streets, and still more people pressed forward to hear Jesus teaching the message of God’s kingdom. Four men tried to bring a crippled friend to Him; but since the crowd prevented their carrying him close enough to get Jesus’ attention, they climbed up onto the roof, opened a hole in it, and lowered the paralyzed man on his mat down to Jesus.

Jesus recognized the faith of these men.

Jesus (to the paralyzed man): Son, your sins are forgiven.

Some scribes were sitting in the crowd, and they didn’t like what they were hearing.

Scribes (reasoning to themselves): What does this Jesus think He is doing? This kind of talk is blasphemy, an offense against the Most High! Only God can forgive sins.

At once Jesus realized what they were thinking. He turned to them.

Jesus: Why do My words trouble you so? Think about this: is it easier to tell this paralyzed man, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to tell him, “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk”? Still, I want to show you that the Son of Man has been given the authority on earth to forgive sins. (to the paralytic) Get up, pick up your mat, and go home.

The man rose to his feet, immediately rolled up his mat, and walked out into the streets. Everyone in the crowd was amazed. All they could do was shake their heads, thank God for this miracle, and say to each other, “We’ve never seen anything like that!”

Another time Jesus was out walking alongside the Sea of Galilee teaching the gathering crowd as He went. He saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the booth where he collected taxes.

Jesus (calling out to him): Follow Me.

Levi left the booth and went along with Him.

At Levi’s house, many tax collectors and other sinners—Jews who did not keep the strict purity laws of the Jewish holy texts—were dining with Jesus and His disciples. Jesus had attracted such a large following that all kinds of people surrounded Him. When the Pharisees’ scribes saw who shared the table with Jesus, they were quick to criticize:

Scribes (to His disciples): If your master is such a righteous person, then why does He eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners, the worst among us?

Jesus heard them.

Jesus (to the scribes): People who have their health don’t need to see a doctor. Only those who are sick do. I’m not here to call those already in good standing with God; I’m here to call sinners to turn back to Him.

The disciples of John the Baptist and the Pharisees made a practice of fasting.

Some People (to Jesus): Why is it that John’s followers and the Pharisees’ followers fast, but Your disciples are eating and drinking like it was any other day?

Jesus: Guests at the wedding can’t fast when the bridegroom is with them. It would be wrong to do anything but feast. When the bridegroom is snatched away from them, then the time will come to fast and mourn.

These are new things I’m teaching, and they can’t be reconciled with old habits. Nobody would ever use a piece of new cloth to patch an old garment because when the patch shrinks, it pulls away and makes the tear even worse. And nobody puts new, unfermented wine into old wineskins because if he does, the wine will burst the skins; they would lose both the wineskins and the wine. No, the only appropriate thing is to put new wine into new wineskins.

One Sabbath Jesus and His disciples were walking through a field of grain; as they walked, His disciples grew hungry. They began to pull from the stalks and eat.

The Pharisees confronted Him.

Pharisees: Did You see that? Why are Your disciples doing what our law forbids on the Sabbath?

Jesus (turning toward the Pharisees): Do you remember the story about what King David and his followers did when they were hungry and had nothing to eat?

They said nothing, so He continued.

Jesus: David went into the house of God, when Abiathar was the high priest, and ate the bread that was consecrated to God. Now our laws say no one but the priests can eat that holy bread; but when David was hungry, he ate and also shared the bread with those who followed him.

The Sabbath was made for the needs of human beings, and not the other way around. So the Son of Man is Lord even over the Sabbath.

The Book of Mark, Chapter 2 (The Voice)

Today’s paired chapter of the Testaments is chapter 17 in the book of Deuteronomy where Moses continues with instructions under the old covenant laws that includes the death penalty for idolatry if the people were to worship other gods. a harsh sentence, to be sure, and in the grace of the new covenant we aren’t punished this way. although our sins certainly do deserve to be punished, yet Christ on the cross is what this all means in taking our place and dealing with the death penalty for violating God’s law. a perfectly innocent man laying down His pure life for His friends.

(A sacred point of rebirth)

[Deuteronomy 17]

Moses: Don’t sacrifice an ox or a sheep to the Eternal your God if it has any defect or problem. He would be deeply offended by such an offering!

What if, in one of the towns the Eternal your God is giving you, a man or a woman does what He considers wrong and breaks His covenant by going and worshiping other gods, bowing down to them or the sun or moon or stars (which I’ve never commanded you to do)? If you discover this, if someone tells you about it, or if you hear about it; then conduct a careful investigation. If you establish conclusively that the report is true, that such a horrible thing has been done within Israel, then bring the man or woman who has done this evil thing out to the gates of your town, and stone that man or woman to death. But for someone to be executed on a charge such as this, there must be testimony from at least two or three witnesses. No one is to be executed on the testimony of just one witness. The witnesses must throw the first deadly stones, and then everyone else must join in. Expel the wicked from your own community.

If one person in your town brings a complaint against another to be judged at the city gate, and it’s just too difficult for you to decide what a fair resolution would be—if you can’t determine whether a killing was premeditated, or if you can’t decide who in a dispute makes the best argument, or if you can’t tell whether someone was injured accidentally or intentionally—then adjourn your proceedings and go to the place the Eternal your God will choose. Bring your case to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is serving at the time, and they will give you a verdict. You must carry out their verdict exactly as they stated it because it was delivered in the place the Eternal chose, and it has His authority behind it. Follow each word of the law as they interpret it for you; do everything they’ve told you to do, as they’ve explained it, without deviating from it at all. If anyone is so arrogant that he won’t listen to the priest who serves right there in the presence of the Eternal your God or to the judge of the tribunal, that person must be executed to expel this kind of wickedness from Israel. Everyone will hear about it, and no one will dare to be so arrogant, for they will be afraid.

Moses: Once you’ve gotten into the land the Eternal your God is giving you, and you’ve conquered it and settled there, you may say to yourselves, “Let’s appoint a king to rule our country, just as all the nations around us have!” If you do have a king, remember you must enthrone the king He chooses. It must be a fellow Israelite whom you enthrone; you must not enthrone a foreigner who is not a fellow Israelite. Although an Israelite, he must not try to build a strong army by collecting large herds of horses for his cavalry troops and a chariot corps. The king must certainly not send people back to Egypt to get large herds of horses, because the Lord has commanded you, “Don’t ever go back that way again!” This king must not have many wives. If he takes foreign wives in marriage alliances, they could turn his heart away from the Lord and lead him to worship foreign gods. And the king must not accumulate great quantities of silver and gold for himself.

As soon as this king takes the royal throne, he must write out a copy of this law for himself on a scroll with the Levitical priests looking on. He must keep this copy with him and read it every day, so that he will learn to fear the Eternal his God and to obey everything in the law and remember all these regulations very carefully in order to do them. That way he won’t think he’s privileged and oppress and exploit his fellow Israelites. He won’t deviate at all from what the Eternal has commanded, and he and his descendants will rule over Israel in a long dynasty.

The Book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 17 (The Voice)

my personal reading of the Scriptures for Wednesday, july 15 of 2020 with a paired chapter from each Testament along with Today’s Psalms and Proverbs

A post by John Parsons to accompany Today’s reading:

Our Torah portion this week (i.e., Mattot) begins with Moses instructing the leaders of the tribes, saying: "If a person makes a vow (נֶדֶר) ... he shall not break his word; but he shall do according to all he has said" (Num. 30:2). Notice that the phrase "break his word" (לא יַחֵל דברו) literally means to profane (חָלַל) his word, which implies that breaking a promise is a type of spiritual defilement... If we do not honor and respect our words, we lose a sense of meaning, and the substance of what we say and think becomes unstable. Such double-mindedness leads to shame, since without inner conviction we become inwardly divided and fragmented, so that we no longer trust ourselves... Being honest (יָשָׁר) implies that what we say and what we mean are unified. An honest person doesn't play games with words but understands that communication is a sacred trust...

We must be careful with our words so that we do not mislead others. This is called shemirat ha’lashon (שמירת הלשון), or “guarding of the tongue.” Yeshua warned us not make formal oaths, but instead to be trustworthy in our words: let your "yes" mean yes, and your "no" mean no... The talmud agrees by saying that 'no' is an oath and 'yes' is an oath." Our words are to be regarded as sacred, as an expression of truth. God has made us inviolable promises, and we are never to play games with that. Just as His word is sacred, so we should strive to be sacred in our speech, too....

The Torah states, "You shall not put a stumbling block (מִכְשׁוֹל) before the blind" (Lev. 19:14). In addition to its literal meaning, the word "blind" figuratively refers to a person unaware of all the facts and who is therefore made vulnerable. Someone who misdirects the blind deceives them, and this violates the 9th commandment not to bear false witness (Exod. 20:16; 23:1). Such deception is called genevat da’at (גְּנֵבַת דַעַת), or "stealing the mind," since it defrauds the other person’s trust. For example, it is common practice for politicians to disclose only what they think others need to know, and therefore they offer incomplete versions of truth for the sake of their own self-serving interests. Lying to others is a violation, then, of both the commandment not to steal and the commandment not to bear false witness. "The righteous person hates lies" - דבר־שׁקר ישׂנא צדיק (Prov. 13:5).

"Deliver me, O LORD, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue" (Psalm 120:2). The sages say that the virtue of aminut (אֲמִינוּת), or trustworthiness, begins with learning to trust others... Parents are therefore responsible to fulfill their commitments to their children. Rabbi Zera said, "One should not say to a child, 'I will give you something' and then not do so, since that teaches the child to lie" (Sukka 46b). People learn to lie from a sense of betrayal, from the mismatch between professed words and reality. The breakdown of trust leads to the evasive use of words to protect ourselves. We tell others what we think they want to hear or we mislead them to keep ourselves safe. Breaking promises wounds others, and children can learn to become hardhearted, untrusting, and fearful of intimacy as a result. [Hebrew for Christians]

7.14.20 • Facebook

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gideonbdbrw-blog · 7 years

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#BigBerthasBitch #BDBRW @Ezekiel_BDBRW

-I let my eyes bore into his luxurious green colored ones. I set my cup of tea down that his Mahmen had just brought in, she was such a thoughtful female. I could see the adoration in her eyes for him. It would have been touching if the anger in mine could have matched his. I straightened my cuffs in bonafide Glymera fashion and rose to my feet. Our eyes remained focused, and when his Mahmen was not looking, I winked and blew a kiss towards him. I knew I was an arrogant fuck, but I didn’t care. He had what belonged to me and one way or another he was going to tell me how he managed to get it out of the party, or I would let his precious family know of his sticky fingers and what a disappointment he might be to her. “Forgive my rudeness,” I said as I crossed the floor, extending my hand, “Ezekiel, right? You left before we could get better acquainted. I was told you were a man who could be of some use to me. I am always looking for someone who is good with their hands.” I raised an eyebrow, with a smirk tugging at the corner of my lips. I could see he had not been home, still in his tuxedo, probably not showered either. In my head, I was cursing his ass out. My fingers clenched making fists as I imagined choking his little neck. “But, hey, you get cleaned up, I can wait, your Mahmen is such a gracious host, we were about to have a spot of tea.” Loosening my fingers, I took her tiny weathered and aged hand into my smooth manicured one, leaned down and kissed her hand softly. I rose my brows, once again making eye contact with Mr. Sticky Fingers. I was an academy award winning actor right fucking now, and this was the role of my life.-

Ezekiel: ["Language, Ezekiel!" My eyes snapped to my mother for a split second before returning right back to the intruder in our midst.] Sorry mom. [It was an immediate response that I wish wasn't because it made me look stupid when I needed to be on my game. My eyes narrowed as I assessed the danger in front of me. He was bigger than I was. There was probably Warrior blood in his line somewhere. But he was Glymera, and he had probably never been in a real fight. I wasn't a great fighter but I could hold my own. I shook out my hands, getting loose unless it came to that. And there he was extending his hand to me like this was just some casual visit. I looked to my mahmen, making sure that she hadn't been hurt in any way. She seemed even more cheerful than normal. Fuck... She thought this was an actual job offer. She didn't like it that I was an electrician. She thought that I could do better. Working for a frickin glymera lawyer would be exactly what she deemed as appropriate. Double fuck. Time to step up my game. I wiped the stupid look from my face and finally took the offered hand. My grin was slightly flirtatious. I took his hand and ran my fingers over the back, just like I'd done the night before, giving it a firm shake.] Of course. Gideon. We had such a wonderful time last night. Didn't we? [I stopped to wink over at my mom.] He has a way with his hips that is simply divine. [It was a long shot but I was going for it. My mother knew that I was gay, she had known for a long time. But most glymera kept that kind of thing strictly under wraps. It simply wasn't proper.] How nice of you to stop by and make sure that I made it home. I admit that I did have to find somewhere in between here and there to rest. You wore me out. [I let go of his hand and made my way to the couch, flopping down like I was completely exhausted.] I don't know how you have the energy left to do anything right now.

Gideon:

-I gently let go of his Mahmens hand. “Isn’t your little boy so cute, as if he could even stand a chance with me. I mean, no disrespect Ma’am, but I am outta his league, I mean, shopping at Wal-Mart is not where I would think he would have gone when trying to impress the Glymera. You, Madam, deserve to be taken care of like a Queen.” I looked over at the piece of shit who thought he was performing at the Comedy Club for some real cash. My lip twitched as I fought back the urge to jerk him up and beat him into submission. “About being worn out, well, lover, sorry I didn’t respond to your failed attempt of flirting, it was rather cute, though.” I turned from him, walking past him sitting on the couch as he tried like hell to play this off. “ In all honesty, we need to do a proper interview for you, but it seems that some things were taken and moved about at the meeting the other night. They all pointed the finger to you, as a matter of fact, you kinda fit the description of a male who seems to be asshole deep in shit.” I softened my look my eyes averted over to his Mahmen. “Sorry for the language ma’am, I hope I didn’t offend you.” I now set my glare upon this shifty ass little wannabe thief who had somewhat of a misdemeanor rap sheet and began speaking his type of bullshit back. “I did inform the Princeps to not look at your little rap sheet, and not to break your Mahmens heart that I was willing to come down here and sort out the apparent confusion, I told them that you were a potential job recruit.” Yes, I was going to make this fucker pay in a big way if I had to, that flash drive was my family's ticket outta hell. I’d be damned if some small time criminal was going to fuck this up for me. “So, I am offering my services to you, pro-bono of course, I wouldn’t want to trouble your only means of support with a huge lawyer fee.” Once again I flashed a soft grin and a wink at his Mahmen, she was going to be eating out of my hand in no time. “How’s bout it Ez E” I let the sarcasm roll off that little nickname. “Would you like to to come to my personal office and discuss strategy?” I would have to try and refrain from whooping his ass; I desperately needed to know where that flash drive went.-

Ezekiel: [Yeah, this guy sure knew how to wipe the smile right off of my face. Of course I knew that this was pretty much how it was going to go down. My one Hail Mary had been thrown with no one on the receiving end. I sat there with a blank, slightly pissed off, look on my face as he disparaged me in front of my mahmen. She looked like she was about to say something but I shook my head slightly to keep her from it. Mocking how poor we were was a given, I expected that from any glymera and he surely didn't disappoint me. It didn't really bother me but I knew that it did bother my mom. She'd been witness to the cruelty that my father endured the one and only time that he attended one of these events. In fact she was giving me the 'I told you so' look right now behind Gideon's back. And then the dick head just kept talking. He thought he had something on me. Technically, he did, he just couldn't prove it. Yet. My gaze flicked to the bag of items that I dropped at the door, trying to see if anything was showing out in the open. From what I could see nothing was obvious so I kept myself from looking so that I wouldn't give anything away. "Ezekiel... What have you done?" Her tone was what really tugged at me. She always wanted to believe the best of her boy. I dug my fingers into the couch to keep from beating the shit out of him right now. I could actually visualize my fists hitting his stupidly handsome face over and over again. I took in a few deep, cleansing breaths and looked at my mahmen instead.] I'm an electrician, mother. Some higher up probably decided that they didn't like the work that I did and started throwing accusations around. You know how they are. [Case in point: this asshole in front of me right now. I turned my gaze back up to him and flashed a fanged grin and mouthing, 'Bring it.' I knew that if he actually had any kind of real proof someone like the Brotherhood would be banging on my door right now.] So nice of ya to offa yur services ta us po folk. [heavy accent applied] I declare, I just don't know wha we would do without ya'll lookin ova us. [I flashed a very unamused smirk.] Curiously though, exactly what job is it that you were trying to convince my mahmen that you were offering me?

Gideon:

-His smartass meter went up a few notches as he so despairingly mocked the comments I had solely intended for him. I turned to the female of the house, her weathered eyes reminded me of my Mahmen, and suddenly I felt bad for the things I said in her presence. I could be careless about hurting his feelings, though. It seemed as if she was the only one he cared about, and what she thought of him must have been crucial to him. I hated to do this to her, but it was time to bring him down off his high horse. “Well, Ma’am, it seems as if someone did some fancy finger work and swiped a few things from certain wealthy individuals.” Then tried to plant them on me with all his touchy feely bullshit. “ All of the victims of this crime had one thing in common; they had a degree of interaction with your son, and with his record, although it is some small time petty larceny, it points to him. Now, I am willing to take him to my office and legally get his side of the story; I wouldn’t want you to worry.” I decided to step this up a notch, wanting to get to the bottom of this ordeal. I noticed his casual look at his little plastic bag that he brought in. Perhaps it was in there, before giving it a second thought I took a few giant strides to the front door and picked the bag up and looking inside. My eyes wide shot right to Ezekiel, that fucker swallowed it! It all made sense to me now. My eyes now narrowed slits like a snake about to strike and it felt like steam was going to blow out of my ears. Oh, he was coming home with me if I had to pull out some big guns to get him there, he would be in my house kicking and screaming if necessary by any means possible, and at this point, all bets were off, I didn’t care who I offended. -

Ezekiel: [That motherfucker! Now he was using my own mother against me! It really shouldn't surprise me. He was a slimy ass lawyer after all. They were never above taking the crotch shot on their victims if it meant they could get what they wanted. I almost felt like reaching down my own throat and puking on his fancy shoes just to get him the fuck out of my house. The stubborn side of me reared its ugly head and flat out refused to give him what he wanted. I jumped up off the couch and put my nose right up in his face, invading his personal space.] FUCK YOU! [I might have even spit on him a little, I was that pissed. I could hear my mom gasp and grab onto something to keep herself from falling. MOTHERFUCKER!! I poked my finger in the center of his chest.] If you had ANY proof of all this shit you are spewing then you would have brought something official with you! [Poking him again, trying to get him closer to the door so I could shove him out of it.] Instead you came in here with some stupid line about offering me a job. You can take all of that bullshit and shove it up your tight ass! [I was careful to keep myself between him and my mahmen. I didn't know what kind of sneaky shit he was able to pull but I wasn't about to let my mom get hurt in the process.] Work your way through stupid ass legal system. Plead your case to the King for all I care. I'm not going anywhere with you!

Gideon:

-Calmly and arrogantly I wiped the spit from my jacket lapel and gave a sorry look towards his Mahmen. “I am sorry for this Ma’am.” My eyes scanned back over the now hostile rather sexy as fuck when the vein popped in his forehead male before me. I mouthed to him as his mother did not notice. ‘I brought it, motherfucker,’ and with a sly hand I pushed a button on my key ring and with that, the forces, equivalent to the Glymera police, came crashing through the front door rushing towards the now confused lackey that should have just complied and left with me. ‘Ezekiel Stone son of…. ‘ the police said their spiel. ‘You are under arrest for the crimes of holding a blood slave against their will; you have the right to remain…..’ blah blah blah…. I quirked a brow, the arrogance now oozed from my pores, and I have to admit my cock became stiff as I seen this male in handcuffs. I turned towards his Mahmen once more handing her my business card. “Please, don’t hesitate to call me with any questions, I want to help him, but the ball is now in his court. I will still offer my services, but he will have to pay my retainer fee.” Nodding politely, I turned picking up his little bag of goodies and walked to my car. I couldn’t help but laugh as I hit the keyless entry for my car and the lights flashed. All the fake cop cars and their lights lit up the streets like Christmas, and I am sure everyone was peeking from behind their blinds. He wanted to call me out and try to make a fool of me, well we will see how he likes a date with Big Bertha the jailhouse transvestite that loves cute little Glymeras. She especially loved the ones who would fight off her/his advances; he said it made for better sex. I looked over at Ez E once more as I put my hand to my face resembling a phone mouthing “Call Me” I gave him one last wink and jumped in my car. I couldn’t wait for this call; I would clear my schedule and devote all my time to him for this.-

Ezekiel: [I called his bluff and this was what I got. I felt suddenly detached from what was going on. It was like I was floating above my body watching all of the carnage around me. Glymera fucks stormed into the tiny space that me and my mahmen shared. They grabbed me like I was the scum of the earth that needed to be plucked off the road so that others might walk through. I saw my head swivel to look back at my mother. That was when my heart broke. She had already endured so much shame. This was just too much for her. I had horrible thoughts about her not being here when I managed to get out. The tears streamed down her face. She wouldn't make it. Not without me. She was barely hanging on as it was. I reached for her only to be snatched away.] NOOOO!! [I was turned back around only to stare into the face of my accuser. If looks could kill. This prick would be dead where he stood. He made the motion for me to call him and I tried to kick him in groin. The ones who had me were on the ball unfortunately and they pulled me back just before my foot was about to make contact with his tender bits.] FUUUCK!! You fucking asshole!! You know I didn't have a damn thing to do with any blood slave! This is EXACTLY what is wrong with the fucking glymera! [I was still cursing at him as he got in his fancy car and I was shoved into the back of some van. It would be a frosty day in hell before I gave him what he wanted.]

#BigBerthasBitch

#BDBRW

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02/11/2021 DAB Transcript

Exodus 32:1-33:23, Matthew 26:69-27:14, Psalms 33:1-11, Proverbs 8:33-36

Today is the 11th day of February welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is an honor and a privilege, it is a joy to come in out of the cold and come around the Global Campfire together with you and just let it go, let any…any of the things that are pulling us in all kinds of negative directions just let them go for a minute and let this be an oasis for God's word, for the Scriptures to be read and for us to bring them into our minds and hearts. I will say it probably 100 times before this year’s over. I mean we don't have to drag the anxiety in here. This is a safe place. We’re here together. We’re here together for one reason. We don’t have to guard ourselves. We’re here together for one reason, to hear the Scriptures. We can go back into the anxiety when we’re done, We can even amp it up. We can leave here as if it doesn't matter and go right back and pick all that up or maybe we can catch our breath in here and maybe we can go back out into the world with a renewed perspective and that happens more than it doesn’t. And, so, let’s just let go, whatever’s going on. We just have a few minutes. We can take a break. If we want all that anxiousness, if we want all that depression, we can go pick it back up. But we can let go while we’re in here and see what God does through His…His word today. So, we’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week going back to the book of Exodus and God has been meeting with Moses on the top of Mount Sinai. He has been laying out the expectations and weaving together the tapestry of a culture that will be formed out of these former slaves who…who are Hebrew people. He’s reforming them and the people have been all around the mountain freaking out. Moses has been gone a long time up in the clouds, the…the glory of the Lord upon the mountain. And, so, they don't know what's going on. And we’re gonna see…we’re gonna some things today that shouldn't have happened and we’re going to see ourself in those things. Exodus chapters 32 and 33 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of Exodus, the story of the golden calf, that's a pretty famous story. And so…well…chances are we've encountered it in one way or another before. This happens because Moses has been gone too long in the presence of God hearing from the Lord what he, you know, how to lead the people and what the expectations are, all the stuff that we’ve been reading for the last several days. Meanwhile this…this whole thing takes 40 days, and the people are down around the mountain going, “whatever happened Moses?” And “where do we go from here because we don't know what happened to him?” And, so, they decide to make a god, the gods for themselves to lead them forward and leave Moses behind. And, so, they commission Aaron. And we know this will story. Then God tells Moses to go down and Moses goes down and he throws down the tablets and they shatter, and this visually represents the breaking, like almost the instantaneous breaking of the covenant, the breaking of the law of the expectations of God. And he confronts the people about their idol worship. He confronts his brother Aaron about their idol worship. Aaron does all this whole back side-stepping blurring of the whole situation that we’ve probably seen so many times in our lives or even done so many times in our lives. Aaron is directly confronted about what he has participated in and he’s like, “what? How? You know. What? You know how these people are. You know how they are. And I don't really know what I did wrong. I just told them give me all your jewelry and I threw it over here in the fire and out came this idol and so we worshiped it”, which of course…I mean…it’s like, “dude couldn’t you’ve…you don't think very quickly on your feet do you? Like we can all see through this.” And Moses is just exasperated. He has been in the presence of God receiving this revelation about this people and formation. And, so, it's like quite a contrast to come down off the mountain and see what's going on. So, he grinds up the…the golden calf and everybody has to drink the water that it's poured into and then Moses goes back up onto the mountain and it gets really interesting because Moses is back up on the mountain kinda changed. Like he knows how ornery and rebellious these people are. He's one of them. He knows, but it’s like things just went to a new level. God has done so many miraculous things to rescue and protect this people. And they are around this mountain that God is descended upon and spoken. Like they’ve heard the voice of God at this mountain. It terrified them to the point that they asked Moses to be the spokesman for God and not God be the spokesman for God. So, they know God is upon this mountain and they know Moses is upon this mountain. So, Moses is back up on the mountain and God is like, “I'm not gonna go with you. It’s time…you need to lead to people but I'm not going to go so I don't destroy the people.” This is like a whole change in complexion for Moses where he's realizing deeply the gravity of the situation. He's realizing for himself no matter how good of a leader he might be and no matter how revered he may be, he's got almost 0% chance of success. Like if God doesn't go this is not gonna work knows it. So, he's pleading and asking like, “if you don't want to go then just take me out of the story altogether because there's no way.” And Moses says something really really riveting that we should be saying and meditating upon. He says, “you said” so, he's speaking to God, “you said I know you by name.” In other words, Moses is saying, “you told me you knew who I was. And you also told me that you found favor with me. So, if indeed I have found favor with you” and I'm quoting here, “please teach me your ways and I will know you so that I might find favor with you.” God's response to that is “my presence will go with you and I will give you rest.” May we remember that as we go out into the chaos of the day. Like if we’re gonna pick all that stuff up we were just talking about at the beginning, may we remember Moses and his leadership here. We don't have a grandstander, we don't have an arrogant person, we don't have a power-hungry person here and Moses. We’re seeing a leadership style here in the Scriptures as we see the posture of Moses. And Moses is a human being and has done all kinds of things including asking God to send somebody else, but here we are. We've gone through all that, and now Moses reaches this point where he realizes very clearly, there really is no other way to lead or navigate life without an acute awareness of the utter dependence that we have on God. And when we acknowledge that then we are surrendering our own power and control into the hands of the Almighty knowing that there is no other way. And God responds, “my presence will go with you and I will give you rest.” May we remember that today.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit come into that. When we surrender it feels counterintuitive because it feels like we have to put our hope and trust outside of what we can control or speculate or see it forces us into this other realm called faith, that we believe in what we can’t see or prove, that we believe in Your power, that You are mighty to save and we are not. We need to know this. We need to live this. It could rescue us from so much damage. So, come Holy Spirit and help us learn to surrender. Help of us learn to acknowledge You in all things as we are seeing built into this culture may we find all of the things that will continually remind us of Your goodness and make them a part of our practice as we are continually reminded of who we are, Your children, and who You are, the most-high God and where we are going -wherever You go where all things are made new. Come Holy Spirit we pray in Jesus name, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that is home base, that is that where you find out what's going on around here and how to get connected and how to find the resources that are available that surround this journey through the Bible that we are on. So, check that out. Of course, if you have the Daily Audio Bible app then you can check most of these things out as well said, so, indeed do that.

One thing that's in the app or on the web would be the Community section. This is where to begin to get connected. This is where the Prayer Wall lives. This is where we can always reach out to each other and reach back to each other. Also in the Community section are different links of places to be connected on social media. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in the mission that we share collectively to do what we’re doing and bring God's spoken word read fresh every day and offered to anyone who will listen anywhere any time then to build community around that so that we’re never alone and we’re aware of that, clearly aware of that. If that has been a life-giving source to you than thank you for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the little red button at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi, everyone it's Christy and this is Tim from Kentucky. We wanted to call and let you know that we are keeping each of you in our prayers as we hear your prayer requests and I just want to say as special hello to Abigail and Desiree in Golden. I just want you to know that we have been listening and praying along with you and your names are just etched on my heart lately, just such young people with so much faithfulness to call in and we thank you so very much and will be praying for each of you. Also, I just want to let Tiffany know that we will be praying for you and Tom and also for Emily. Just all of your calls were so heartfelt. And we want you to know that your family, your DAB family is lifting you up in prayer. Also, Kingdom Seeker Daniel, brother we are praying for you. You and your wife are so very special and just praying for your children and we too are battling some issues with my husband's children. So, we understand, and we are praying for you. Also, if you would please keep Chris Thurston’s family in your prayers Pam Carlyle’s family in your prayers, Gene and also Dottie one of the ladies from our church. We…we've had to say goodbye to four of those in the past month. And, so, if you would, we'd ask you to pray for them and I just thank you for that. They’re now home with Jesus. I just wanted to ask for your prayers. Alright everyone. We love you so much and we pray each of you are having a most blessed and lovely day.

Hi, everyone it's Desiree. I called in January regarding about my mother with the drug addiction. I want to thank all…all of you guys who have been praying for my mother. She is still the same. I’ve been getting…I've been listening to all the prayers that you guys have done they melt my heart. And I want to say thank you to all of you guys, even though you may not call, thank you though for keeping Her and I in your hearts Lord. I'm thanking the Lord for all that. So, after I submitted my video, I just want to say she…after some of your prayers that you've done, she called after 8 months of not knowing what was going on with her. So, that was a big crazy time for us. And with all that's been going on though I want to say that you guys hit it right on the nail. I mean, my life has been so much better living here with my aunt and uncle. My grades are good. I'm an A, B student A+ B+ student. I still have problems with school you know that teenage little attitude. So…so, I just��I'm getting to know God so much more than I've known before. And I just want to say that’s thanks to my parents…well…my adopted parents but it's all because of them and mostly because of God. So, I just want to say thank you to all of you guys that have been praying for us and I love you guys and I'll be listening to you guys and I just want to say I'm praying for you guys as well, who have been having problems. So…

Hi, this message is for Tyler from the February 8th podcast of the Daily Audio Bible. My name is Jessica from __ California and I just wanted to say a prayer for you. You said that you've been praying because you have a pitiful spirit. And I just wanted to let you know or share that God's been working with me lately. Those are thoughts from the enemy and every time I think about, you know, I need to lose weight or condemn myself for eating something or not exercising enough, God's been just having me repeat this over and over again when one of those thoughts comes in my head. He has me say, “thank you God for just the way I am. Thank you God for just the way I am.” And I know it sounds kinda silly but actually it's only been less than a week and these thoughts are coming less and less into my mind. So, you know, I know it's hard to love ourselves sometimes and the enemy really can get ahold of us but just know that Jesus loves you so much and you're not a beautiful spirit. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. And I know people have told me that before and I'm like, “sure, sure. Easy for you to say.” But really, just believe it and just like right now actually have…I have a sheet covering my mirror, so I don't look at myself, I don't judge myself every day. I know it kind of sounds weird, but he really just has me trusting him and saying, “thank you God for just the way I am. Thank you God for just the way I am.” So, I encourage you Tyler that God loves you just the way you are, and you should be thankful for it. In Jesus’ name I pray.

This is Dave from the United States calling. This prayer call is for Haneron from New Zealand. Once I heard your call it stopped me in my tracks. You've been through some tough times. You've had the strength to call in and ask for prayer. And in detail you asked for a covering. I will be covering. This family, Daily Audio Bible will be your covering and the Holy Spirit will be your covering. I pray that you continue to call in anytime that you need strength from your covering. We will be here. And anytime give this family a call. Someone on this planet will be praying for you. I'm going to commit to a day to pray and fast for you and your family and the Holy Spirit be there for you. Thank you so much for calling and giving me the opportunity to ask our savior to pray and cover you and keep you…keep you covered as your request is.

Hi DAB family this is triple T calling to encourage those of you today who are longing for a spouse, longing for a child, longing for friendships just to be surrounded by love in a like tangible way. I know leading up to Valentine's Day and that time frame is always quite difficult on people. I have many people in my life who are struggling and just want to encourage you guys, just press into the Lord and to seek Him and just to keep going after Him and letting him be or strength, your love, you're all in all. In psalms 34 17 and 18 it says the righteous cry out and the Lord hears them. He delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. So, Lord we just come to You right now. God, I thank You for these men and women across the globe. God You see their hearts, You hear the cry of their hearts Lord longing for a spouse, longing for a child, longing for a friend that they can walk through life with. God we just pray that You would open the doors of opportunity, Lord that You would give men wives and give women husbands Lord Jesus and give them together children Lord Jesus, that You would bring friendships that are unified Lord and strong and growing and encouraging and accountable Lord and just pressing into You God. Through all these things and their waiting in Your time and God we know Your timing is perfect. May You give them the strength to continue, may they press into You even more. Lord Jesus may You be their everything. All that they are, all that they have Lord may they press into You. We love You, we glorify Your name Jesus, for in Your name we pray all these things. Blessings and love. Bye.

Good morning DAB family this is Doctor John in Illinois good this morning I was listening to the prayers and I hear Greg from Washington. Brother it’s hard to hear all your troubles in your families but I guess what I hear…what I hear most of all is your love for your family and your concern. Again, your honestness and your contriteness is what I hear more than anything. And I want to read to you, this is psalms 57:15. For thus says the one who is high lifted up who inhabits eternity whose name is holy, I dwell in a high and holy place had also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. Just know brother that He hears here. The word says there's nothing outside His hand. There's nothing He doesn't see or touch or hear. And Father I pray for my brother right now for Greg and for all these Lord that petition you for their families. Lord would you woo their hearts. Just know brother that there's a lot of people, a lot of brothers and sisters in this group, in this family, this wonderful family that are praying and believing for you that God will make a way for you. So, I pray, God bless you. Keep your head up and trust in God. Wait on the Lord and be of good courage for He strengthens your heart.

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12/21/2020 DAB Transcript

Zechariah 1:1-21, Revelation 12:1-17, Psalms 140:1-13, Proverbs 30:17

Today is the 21st day of December welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian. Today would've been my parent’s anniversary. It’s funny how you remember all these things when they come up. But I obviously have lost both of my parents, but I am grateful that they had a wedding day or none of us would be here doing this right now. So, grateful today for my parents but also grateful every single day for you, that we can come around the Global Campfire together no matter what's going on and relax, exhale, come into a safe space where all the things that are going on, they…they can wait, they can wait a few minutes, they'll still be there. But we may need a change of perspective before we come unglued about them. And maybe with a change of perspective we go back out into the day energized, restored, oriented to God as we take the next steps forward in our lives. And, so, let's take the next step forward in the Bible. And it has been a custom to read a book a day. That custom is gonna end here basically. We have arrived at the 11th of the 12 minor prophets. And this book is called Zechariah and we’re gonna camp out in Zechariah for a few days. In fact, all the way up into we only have two days left in this year. So, we’re gonna settle in here for a minute and catch our breath before we end the year.

Introduction to the book of Zechariah:

What we know of Zechariah is that he and Haggai, which we…we read the entire prophecy of Haggai yesterday. Haggai and Zechariah were contemporaries. Zechariah would've been maybe a little younger. His ministry continued long after Haggai and they were actually prophets in the same place prophesying about the same thing at the same time for the same reason, which is all centered around the rebuilding of the temple. So, Zechariah’s grandpa, his name was Iddo, he's named in the Scriptures among the first leaders of the priestly families to come back from exile with Zerubbabel. So, from that we can surmise then Zechariah was probably a priest or at least from a priestly family. And the name Zechariah means “God remembers”. And it’s the remembering of the covenant and the restoration from the remembering of the covenant that is central in this book. Si, I said, Zechariah and Haghai prophesying at the same time for the same reason about the same kind of thing, but Zechariah’s way longer than Haggai. So, there's more context, more scope, more material. Like Zechariah talks about eight different night visions that he experienced that sound an awful lot like what we’re reading in Revelation. They’re apocalyptic in nature which makes them highly symbolic. And what we begin to see is that God wants the centerpiece of the Temple rebuilt to be the centerpiece of the people because He has plans for moving things forward, plans of restoration, plans of good and not harm. But the people have to collaborate, they have to respond. And what they have to respond to is essentially what God says through His prophets, “come home to me, return to me. Don’t stay in rebellion.” And we’ll see that as we read through that Zachariah also talks about the coming of a Messiah. Zechariah is one of the texts that are used in the New Testament in reference to Jesus. In fact, we find quotations from Zechariah in Matthew, Mark, John and the book of Revelation as they refer specifically to Jesus. And, so, ultimately what we receive in Zechariah is prophetic encouragement and once again reminds us that God is the most-high. There is none higher. There is no competitor to His sovereignty, not even close. And if we will remain in a covenantal relationship with God well…well then, we are going somewhere good. And, so, we begin Zechariah chapter.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for Your word. We thank You for bringing us into this week of rejoicing. We thank You for the comfort of community. And Father as we move through these days, leading right up to Christmas as we move toward the end of the Advent season, help us Holy Spirit to put ourselves in the position of…of the ancient ones, longing, waiting, expecting a Redeemer, a Savior to come. And You came and we rejoice in that, but we put ourselves in that position because…O Jesus we long for Your restoration, for Your return, for all things to be made new again. And, so, Holy Spirit some of these things are mysteries that are beyond us and some of our life is pulled in all kinds of directions during this week because of all the festivities but we want to stay rooted and grounded in deep intimacy with You almost as if it's our little secret, not that we’re keeping You a secret, but that no matter what we face, no matter what room we walk into and the conversation is going south in a hurry or no matter what situation we are pulled into whether that be envy or jealousy or pride or arrogance, no matter what we get pulled toward we want to have been walking with You, speaking with You, being led by Your spirit so that when we face those things and we see the little triggers that we usually get pulled into we can just smile, we can just smile at each other knowing that we didn't fall for the bait this time, we stayed connected in a covenantal intimacy with each other and we brought light and good news into any darkness that we face. Come Holy Spirit we pray. We can't do this without You. We need You. But we can do this with You. Come Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what's going on around here.

And it's Christmas time and that's pretty much what is going on around here, as we…I mean…this is it…this is Christmas week friends. I can't believe it. And it is our intention to be releasing our annual Christmas party, our virtual get together from all over the world. And that's literally the truth. We have voices coming in from all over the world, and we plan to release that this evening. So, watch for that. And the other thing that’s going on right now is the Family Christmas album, just reminding you of that. You can stream it wherever you stream music. You can download it wherever you buy music. If you want a physical CD copy you can get that from the Daily Audio Bible Shop. But that is what we have created to be the backdrop, the soundtrack for Christmas around the Global Campfire. So, check that out.

And also reminding you that we released a new vocal single with Jill, my wife, singing “O Holy Night.” So, check that, you can stream that anywhere or download that anywhere as well. So, just look for Jill Parr, that’s P A R R, since that my wife’s…well…that’s her maiden name. That's what she was known as before she got herself all entangled with somebody like me. And thank God that she did or none of us would be here because I don't know how I could…I don’t know How I could just exist now without her and her support and…and her love. And, so, yeah check that out at iTunes, Google play, YouTube music, Spotify, wherever you get your music. Just look for her or “O Holy Night” and you'll find it.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There is a link on the homepage. And I thank you. I thank you deeply and profoundly as we near the end of the year. I appreciate all of…all of you who have clicked that link. That is why we continue to be able to throw logs on the Global Campfire and to keep moving forward day by day. So, thank you for your partnership. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address, if you prefer, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can it the Hotline button in the app or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today. I’m Brian. I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Father God thank You for our grandparents and our parents, those…those loved ones who are struggling in their…in their everyday life, whether that be from dementia or Alzheimer’s or something else or aches and pains, whatever it is Lord we entrust them to You. We pray that You would be soothing those aches and pains, You’d be relieving them, You’d be healing them. We pray Lord that You would remove any confusion in their life, that You’d be protecting them from harm, that You would be helping them to enjoy their everyday. Father God we thank You for those that do know and love You and we pray that they would be comforted by You and rely on You during this time and all time. But Father God for those who don’t know You, we pray that…that You would be revealing Yourself to them, that there would be those in their lives that would be able to share the gospel with them and they would be able to understand and respond, that they might know the joy of knowing You, of knowing Your son, of knowing that they are saved and knowing Your love. Father God, thank You for those who are caring for our loved ones. I pray that You’d be supporting them and encouraging them and refreshing them and replenishing them, that You’d be giving them wisdom on how best to offer care. Please be at work Lord in Jesus holy and precious name. Amen. Hi guys it’s Michaela from…

Hey DAB family its Nick just asking for prayers. It’s been a long tough season of ministry and I’m just deflated, I’m just done, and I just covet your prayers, the hugs of God’s people that just will surround me and help me, give me the strength to put one foot in front of the other and keep moving forward. Thank you so much for your prayers. I know that…that God will bless it.

I just wanted to say good morning to everybody and thank you for Daily Audio Bible. My family, my wife and I and my older kids have been pulled away from the Lord and we got…we got off the rails of our…our life with the Lord and we just thank you Daily Audio Bible family for being that beacon in the dark. I recently downloaded the app and became…listening to the Lord became slowly back to the line with my Christian faith and it’s helped me tremendously. I’m overwhelmed by the things going on in this world, but this beacon of light has helped me put back on the path and give me faith back in the Lord. I just want to say thank you. It’s…it’s helping me greatly. And thank you for being there and being that beacon of light for us who get lost in this world. It’s…it’s a dark world and it’s helping me build my…build my faith back up and helped me in life to pursue and to continue on searching the Lord and given me strength to help me deal with these issues in life and bring me closer to my family. And I thank you. God bless everybody.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family my name is Ben I am calling from Salem Virginia and just wanted to thank all of you guys for being a part of this. I can’t make up my mind whether it’s a holiday greeting or an encouragement or a prayer request. I got it all. You guys have it all. So, Brian thank you so much. I love this program. I just started tuning in this year, but I’ve been so ministered to by you all and this program, the prayer requests, the encouragements, moving through the Bible like we do. I’ve heard God’s spoken word on the inside of me and He has confirmed things as Brian reads and as you guys talk. It’s amazing. I…I…I love it. It is definitely a part of my daily routine and I am so thankful for each and every one of you all and I just pray that this ministry would continue and grow and that this is, you know, it’s eternal, we’re together forever. And I’m thankful and I love each and every one of you. I know that sounds silly, but I don’t know how. I love God’s word and I am…oh man my time is running out. I'm like Jonah I'm in the belly of the whale. I’m looking forward to being spit out. Not sure how much longer I have to stay and pray but I thank you all…

Hi this is Victoria Soldier just calling tonight to pray for some of DABbers who are…who are having the challenges. I'm trying to find the ladies name who her husband and her were planning on moving to be around family and you kept getting discouragement. I wanted to tell you to keep on being encouraged and keep on looking and God wants to see do we really want it and He's…just continue to pray and I continue to encourage him. I continue to encourage the lady who said her son went away to…went away to travel over overseas and his car and somebody had taken his passport. I'm praying for that young man. Lord in the name of Jesus you have your way Lord. Let him be somewhere protected. Let him be somewhere safe. O father in the name of Jesus you touch the heart of that young man. He's only 23 years old. Lord you bless him, you bless him wherever he is. You open doors even in the worst places. In the name of Jesus. I thank you Lord. I want to thank…I want to thank God for China and Ben, pray for their precious little…little…little brown and her are continuing on in the ministry and I pray for Jill and her coming and thanking her for…for the heart and for the love of God enough to come and…and just looking forward to enjoying her. I want to just say thank you to all the people and encourage those who are going through, those who are going through jobs because of this pandemic, those who are going through challenges because of this pandemic as…as Paul said when they were on the ship he said anybody who was whaled onto this ship that they would have a safe landing. And let's hold onto the ship because God is ready to bring us through out of this 2020 into…

Good morning DABber family this is Walta the Burning Bush that will not be Devoured for the Glory of Our God and Our King. I just heard Daniel Johnson Junior's call in with his praise report about the echocardiogram results from last year this time and where God has brought him close to normal. And my brother, I just want you to know that God's got you. God's got you. And thank you for sharing your life with us. Your job, your family, everything, God's got you. And I'm looking back at 2020 myself and I'm just thinking, not just 2020, the last…gosh…the last 13+ years of my life that I've spent with DAB and looking at what…what you guys have brought me through. There's some days that I would turn on DAB and I’d be so desperate to hear the word of God and so desperate for…for some sort of comfort or insight and then some other days it’s, you know, business as usual just listening to it. But you guys, my father's death, my sons drug addiction and recovery, my mother's death, you know, job losses, Ebola, now coronavirus, marital problems, divorce, marriage. God thank you for DAB. Thank you for this ministry. And I know that those of you who are listening, some of you guys in the same situation, know that we’re here for you. God is here for you. And, you know, as Daniel Johnson Junior always says, make it a great day. I love you all. God bless.

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