#(Also don't think i didn't suspect the ACTUAL reason someone sent me this ask i'm not a fool buddy)

[therealvinelle]

How do you read the sentence "Truly, Carlisle, nothing would please me more than to preserve your life today.” and come to the conclusion that it is true. Like cut away all Bella's perception, I just look at that line, and I am absolutely certain it is not true.

Well, I look at Aro's actions. He acts an awful lot like someone who's trying to preserve Carlisle's life, as well as their friendship.

A small disclaimer, since I suspect you're new to this blog:

At the risk of being condescending, anon, I'm going to point out that my reading of canon has yielded so many, uh, interesting headcanons because I don't trust the characters and I don't care about authorial intent. If our protagonists all agree that X is true, and the author says "Yes, this is a book about X where X is true", but X doesn't fit any of what's actually happening and it would make a lot more sense if X isn't true at all, then I'm going to believe X is false. This is the case with Aro: yes, he's supposed to be the villain, yes, Breaking Dawn is supposed to be the good guys standing up to the evil oppressors, but none of that makes any damn sense, so I'll be drawing my own conclusions.

Aro doesn't want Carlisle dead

The funny thing about the Breaking Dawn trial is, both the characters and the fandom act as if it was Aro seizing an opportunity to kill the Cullens. Nevermind that he had several opportunities before this, nevermind that he had every reason to believe Renesmee was an immortal child. If Aro is coming to Forks it can only mean that he's doing so for evil reasons.

So, what opportunities had he had to kill Carlisle/the Cullens?

Any time prior to canon

A central argument of Garrett's battle cry was that the Volturi wanted to destroy the Cullens because they're threatened by the animal diet. With that we're back to me not trusting things characters say simply because they say it, because Garrett made that up. There's zero indications that he's right, on the contrary Aro expresses happiness for Carlisle's sake that he's been successful with his lifestyle and found others. (And before you ask me how I know Aro wasn't lying, look at the context. Garrett is trying to incite an insurrection against an enemy that exists largely in his mind, Aro has received happy news about an old friend. One has reason to lie, the other doesn't.)

Say that Garrett's right, though, and Aro felt threatened by Carlisle's diet. Because nothing is more threatening than vegans. In that case, then Carlisle's attempt to leave Volterra gets him Didyme'd. Alternatively, Aro only starts feeling threatened when news of Carlisle having formed a coven for himself reaches him. In that case, then the Cullens are getting nerfed. No one would wonder about it, either, the Cullens were living among humans and Aro can easily say they broke the law. Who's going to know he's lying?

Not to mention, in this case then the Denali would be in danger from Aro as well. They have familial bonds, they may not live like humans but they do partake in the diet. Per Garrett's speech, they'd fit the same profile as the Cullens do, yet somehow Aro doesn't want them dead and nobody's thinking that he does. Funny, that.

Upon learning about Bella

Enter New Moon, and Aro learns that the Cullens told a human and then failed to kill or turn her, instead leaving her to live out her human life where they'd have no control of whether she kept the secret or not. Congrats, guys, you broke the law.

It could very well have ended there.

If Aro wanted Alice badly enough to force her, he had her right there in Volterra with Chelsea and Corin also present. He could have had her, just as he could have had Edward and Bella. If he found the size and power of Carlisle's coven threatening, he had three of the gifted members right there with him in Volterra, with Jasper sure to come after Alice if Aro didn't let her leave. Aro could have killed or kept them, and killed the remaining Cullens, and either way the Cullens would have been neutered.

Instead, Aro sent the three of them on their merry way, with his only caveat that this promising, potentially very powerful young human, must be turned! Will it make Carlisle's coven even bigger and even more gifted, yes. And Aro doesn't just not have a problem with it, he actively approves.

Not only are those not the actions of someone who feels threatened by the Cullens or want them destroyed, but of someone who considers the Cullens to be on his side. The man is ruthless enough to kill his own sister as well as guard members who have left Volterra all in the name of protecting his organization, if he thought the Cullens were a potential enemy he would take the necessary action right there in Volterra.

The Eclipse debacle

I have a tag for this, you know.

TL;DR: if Aro wanted the Cullens dead, they would be dead. No need for newborn armies, though if they're relying on newborn armies to get people surreptitiously killed (you see why I said that about X not making any damn sense) then Jane had the perfect opportunity after the newborn battle. She could have killed the Cullens then, and told the world that they tragically perished against the newborns. Yes, it's very sad.

Literally anytime

Just to rehash, even though I'm in danger of repeating myself at this point. Aro wields the most powerful coven of vampires in the world, if he wants somebody dead then they will die, regardless of reason. His critics are quite fond of saying he's an unfair ruler who uses the law as an excuse to take out innocent covens (I have my thoughts on that), so then, there should have been no problem for him to justify the execution of the Cullens.

In fact, he could just use Bella.

"The Cullens came into Volterra with their human, I let them go since they swore to turn her. Shortly after that, their petty squabble with a rogue vampire led to a newborn army wreaking havoc on Seattle, and the human was still running around. We had to take action."

Or he could make something up.

"Aro's bringing an awful lot of executioners to Carlisle's doorstep for someone who doesn't want him dead," one might say

So, if Aro doesn't want Carlisle dead, why the army in Breaking Dawn?

Carlisle had an immortal child, mate

Irina came to Aro with memories of vampire Bella playing with a toddler that looked like a vampire and had vampiric superpowers. What was Aro supposed to think?

Next up, he hears that Carlisle is gathering an army in a panic, and has no choice but to follow suit.

I can't understate how bad this all looked. And contrary to Carlisle's best intentions, the Romanians, Garrett's speech, and the Denali dividing amongst themselves who'd get which kill makes Aro's reservations more than justified.

And yes, Renesmee turned out to not be an immortal child. She's a hybrid instead, oh happy days.

Not really helping when the Volturi don't know what she'll grow up to be. Maybe she'll always be weaker than vampires, maybe she'll always be in control of herself, maybe the adorable little girl they see will grow up to be a wonderful young woman. They don't know that she will, however, no one does.

And Twilight is a horrifying world of man-eating marble statues, werewolves who will tear humans apart come the full moon, and god knows what else.

Aro had reasons to be skeptical and not simply say "Ah, so there's a heartbreat. Ta, then" that go beyond him being out to get the Cullens.

Aro covered up for the Cullens

The sad fact of the matter is, the Cullens had in fact broken the law. As explained here beautifully by @troquantary, Aro protects not only the Cullens by keeping their continued involvement with Charlie to himself, but he goes out of his way to reassure Caius the shapeshifters are not a threat either, nor an enemy to the Volturi.

He also tried to talk Caius out of executing Irina, she died because Caius ignored him and went ahead with the blowtorch.

Frankly, to me Aro's behavior at the trial reads as someone who's trying to smooth things out and avoid bloodshed from the start, and not just when he finds out what Bella's gift can do.

Aro has no reason to lie

What it says on the tin.

I'll just paste the context of the line you quoted.

“Fair words, Carlisle,” he breathed in his thin, wispy voice. “They seem out of place, considering the army you’ve assembled to kill me, and to kill my dear ones.”

Carlisle shook his head and stretched his right hand forward as if there were not still almost a hundred yards between them. “You have but to touch my hand to know that was never my intent.”

Aro’s shrewd eyes narrowed. “But how can your intent possibly matter, dear Carlisle, in the face of what you have done?” He frowned, and a shadow of sadness crossed his features—whether it was genuine or not, I could not tell.

“I have not committed the crime you are here to punish me for.”

“Then step aside and let us punish those responsible. Truly, Carlisle, nothing would please me more than to preserve your life today.” (Breaking Dawn, page 435)

Fanon Aro is largely an insincere figure, one who calls you a friend to their face while giving the signal for Felix to execute you behind his back. I think we have the movies to blame for this. And, sure, movie/fanon Aro would say "Oh my dearest friend Carlisle, just because I brought this army here today doesn't mean I intend to harm you!"

And, of course, Bella is incredibly suspicious of the man. Aro looks sad at the prospect of killing an old friend? Bella inspects his features for signs that he's faking it, nevermind that I can't conceive of a reason why Aro would. (And if he did want to fake grief, I'd think he'd want to make a bigger point of it than "a shadow of sadness")

I suspect this is a large part of why fandom generally assumes Aro is a lying liar who lies.

Canon Aro quite bluntly says "You made an immortal child and gathered an army, dude, drop the friendly attitude." and it's only when Carlisle claims to be innocent that Aro says "Alright, then, show me the criminal. I'd love to not have to execute you."

Yes, I'm paraphrasing them, but I feel it's called for. Aro's "Nothing would please me more" line is in the context of him calling Carlisle's bluff, it reads to me as sincere in that he's peeved about this entire situation. The Cullens didn't have to do this, the happy ending was right there. Now, for some inconceivable reason, they've made an immortal child and gathered an army to defend it. Would be great if Aro was somehow wrong about any of this and Carlisle's innocent, it really would be.

Then, of course, at the end of the disastrous trial Aro takes the trouble to reach out to Carlisle, and ask if there's a chance they might recover their friendship in the future. Of course, he could be lying for evil and machiavellian reasons, but I don't think he is.

In summation, I think Aro's perfectly sincere and really does want Carlisle to live.

#aro #volturi #twilight #twilight renaissance #twilight meta #breaking dawn debacle

[theaceofdragons]

Have a weird little Royai modern fantasy AU excerpt

(I'm feeling really bad about myself as a writer and I want to share something I actually like. If you like it too, please let me know because I could seriously use the dopamine boost)

Thank you to @goneadrift and @dairogo for useful comments!

Good morning, this is Oakenwald University Radio and I'm Kain Fuery. As most of you already know, a body was found last night on the edge of campus, between April and Cadwallis Streets. We have an update from the Resembool County Police, who suspect the death wasn't accidental. They'll be releasing the victim's name once the family has been notified, and there was no comment on whether this could be related to the library break-in. We'll keep you updated as we learn more, and students and faculty are encouraged to keep an eye on your phones and email and listen to this station for updates, and to travel in groups and follow instructions from campus security. If you have any information that might be useful to the investigation, please call ###-###-####. Evening classes will be online for at least the next week, so check your email for details. We'll have an interview with Julie Adler from campus security at one this afternoon, and we'll be discussing how you can stay safe on campus and in town.

Resembool County Courier, May 5th, 20XX

Body Found on Oakenwald Campus Identified

Police have identified the man found dead on the Oakenwald campus on Sunday.

63-year-old Berthold Hawkeye's identity  was released this afternoon after police were unable to locate his next of kin. Police also confirmed that Dr. Hawkeye's death was not a result of natural causes, and that they had reason to believe it was also not a "random event." Detectives are continuing to investigate, and say there is currently no suspect information. Anyone with pertinent information, or who saw or heard anything suspicious Sunday night, should call ###-###-####.

Correction (1:32PM): An earlier version of this article referred to Dr. Hawkeye as Mr. Hawkeye.

ROY MUSTANG, 2:08 PM

Do you remember when I told you about Riza?

MAES HUGHES, 2:08 PM

I don't think so

Wait is that the girl who went missing

ROY MUSTANG, 2:08 PM

Yeah.

The dead man they found was her father.

MAES HUGHES, 2:09 PM

Didn't see that coming

Did you look for her this year

ROY MUSTANG, 2:11 PM

I did my annual social media sweep

The police couldn't find her either.

MAES HUGHES, 2:12 PM

I'm sorry, Roy

Do you want to talk?

ROY MUSTANG, 2:15 PM

I have to finish this paper.

MAES HUGHES, 2:15PM

Call me any time.

Resemblool County Medical Examiner's Office - Autopsy Report

AUTOPSY REPORT PERFORMED BY: Sarah Rockbell, MD

…cause of death appears to be a single stab wound at the midline, the force of the blow fractured the sternum. Further examination revealed roots embedded into the subject’s heart, which has been sent for DNA testing to confirm it is that of the decedent. Further assessment is on hold pending preliminary results…

CAUSE OF DEATH: Terminal damage to organs

Death Notices

Berthold Hawkeye, 63, passed away May 4th in Fieldstone, where he had previously spent five years as an assistant professor of physics at Oakenwald University. He is remembered by colleagues as a unique and brilliant man. Dr. Hawkeye is preceded in death by his wife, Nicola, with whom he has one daughter, Riza.

A memorial will be held Wednesday, March 7, at Oakenwald University’s Paracelsus Garden.

UNKNOWN NUMBER, 7:21 PM

This is Riza Hawkeye. I'm at the bus depot off E-23 and I need help. I wouldn't be bothering you if it wasn't an emergency. Can you help me?

ROY MUSTANG, 7:21 PM

This isn't funny and you have extremely bad timing

UNKNOWN NUMBER, 7:23 PM

When you were thirteen you wanted to ask a boy out and I told you the line you had planned sounded more like a marriage proposal. You got annoyed at me because you would never marry someone who couldn't even [INSERT SCIENCE THING] and gave me a serious talk about how important a commitment marriage is.

UNKNOWN NUMBER, 7:28 PM

I'm almost out of data on this prepaid. Will you help me?

ROY MUSTANG, 7:28  PM

I'm on my way

#fic snippet #my fic #royai #fullmetal alchemist #fanfiction #urban fantasy AU

[paradoxcase]

Chapter 28 of Harrow the Ninth

We are now following up on the earlier scene with Dulcinea

What are we meant to read between the lines here? That Abigail has hidden them somewhere? I don't think they can have been sent back, since no one has the shuttles still. It's interesting that the Fourth teens seem to be non-characters in this recounting, considering they are definitely dead

She knows what coffee is, and what it smells like, but tea has too much flavor for her. I also note that Gideon didn't think the tea tasted strongly at all in the first book, but was unfamiliar with the concept of a hot drink. I'm really unsure what conclusions we're meant to come to about the Ninth House's hot drink situation here

How did she verify that event? Since there was no one else there when it happened and she saw both of them jump off the ledge into the ocean, how could anyone else have verified that for her? Or did she just wait for a while and see if she bumped into either of them later?

Actually, now I am wondering if the reason she kept Protesilaus's severed head in her closet without telling anyone for multiple days in Gideon the Ninth was because she wasn't sure if him coming apart had been real or not, and similarly didn't have any outside verification until Gideon found the head and brought it to Palamedes. So maybe when she told Palamedes she thought that he had been in on it, she didn't actually think that but was just using that as the reason for not telling anyone. i think commented back then that it wouldn't make sense for her to think that, as she thought at the time that Palamedes and Dulcinea didn't know each other

So, Abigail gives Harrow this piece of paper based on the fact that Corona has died (or something), and doesn't seem surprised when Harrow reads it, and later hypothesizes that Harrow is haunted. I'm not sure of the connection between Corona dying and Harrow being haunted, unless Abigail has some meta-knowledge that this is a fake memory and the pattern of who is dying in these memories is significant. Also, this is the second time in these memories that Abigail gave Harrow a piece of paper to read, so maybe she suspected that Harrow was haunted earlier as well?

This is kind of interesting, because it's not like they ambushed her this time. She got up and walked into their room alone of her own volition, and it never is made clear in this scene what she did that for in the first place. She didn't decide to tell them about Mayonnaise Uncle and Corona until after she was already in there

Ok, there is getting to be a lot of pronouns and also unquoted reported speech in these and it's hard to keep straight how many people there are here. Let me try:

[1] will remember the first time [2] kissed [1] -- [2] apologized -- [2] said, [2] am sorry, destroy [2] as [2] am, but [2] want to kiss [1] before [2] am killed, and [1] said to [2] why, and [2] said, because [2] have only once met someone[3] so utterly willing to burn for what [3] believe in, and [2] loved [3] on sight, and the first time [2] died [2] asked of [3] what [2] now ask of [1] [1] kissed [2] and later [1] would kiss [4] too before [1] understood what [2+4???] were and all three of [1+2+4] lived to regret it -- but when [1] am in heaven [1] will remember [2]r mouth and when [2] roast down in hell [1] think [2] will remember [1]ne

[2] has already died once and at least expected at one point to die again

[1] and [3] are/were "utterly willing to burn for what they believe in"

If these notes follow the same continuity, then possible [1] is the speaker in the earlier notes and [2+4] are the addressees of the second note, and [2] is the addressee of the first note and [4] is "him" in that note

[3] seems to be someone new

"she" from the second note doesn't seem to be in this one anywhere

So assuming that neither [1] nor [2] are the same person as "she" from the second note, there seem to be at least five people here, one female, two male, two undetermined. If we go along with the idea that these people are John + original Lyctors + a fifth person who is probably [1], then we can at least conclude that Gideon the first probably isn't either [2] or [4], but since [3] seems to be in the past at this point, he could be a Lyctor who is dead now, possibly. Or maybe "he" from the first and maybe second note is Gideon the First and [2] is John and Gideon the First isn't in this note at all. [4] is maybe Augustine?

Ok, like, forget about whatever is going on with Harrow's hallucinations, what on earth is this about?

It is true that Harrow didn't start having hallucinations until after she opened the Tomb, so possibly she is being haunted by the Body? That would make sense, since the Body is in so many of her hallucinations. So is the Body the person writing these notes? We can guess that she might be A.L. and obviously has something to do with John

Also, Magnus seems to think something about this is old news. Does Abigail habitually go around suggesting that people or things might be haunted? Or has Abigail been talking with him nonstop about how how Harrow might be haunted?

#the locked tomb #harrow the ninth

[queerasflux]

So I've been struggling real bad with working through some old childhood trauma, and my therapist asked me to sit down and write down everything my mother did to me that was just like, Objectively Not Okay- and jesus christ. I always just sort of assumed that like, yeah, my mom wasn't the most perfect mom, but she was doing her best and meant well.

then I just... couldn't stop writing. and the more I wrote, the more I realized that hey, this was straight up abusive. not just "made a few mistakes but generally well-meaning as a parent" but like honest to god "what the fuck is wrong with you and why would you do that to a child" shit, and I'm just so angry and I don't know where to put it.

I'm tired of people telling me that I must forgive/give my mother some slack, because she's my mom and she was also traumatized and "did her best"- as if being traumatized is a free pass to abuse others, or that it somehow negates the emotional and mental toll it took on me to be raised by someone like her.

I'm angry that I can't even confront her about these things, because she will immediately either get defensive/aggressive at me, or will invalidate it (it wasn't that bad/wasn't as bad as what her mom did/she didn't mean it that way), or hop up on the pity potty and want to be comforted that yeah, even though she severely abused her child, she's not a bad mom, right?

Really just struggling with things rn. List under cut, because I think other people should also be aware this shit is Not Okay, and because I'm tired of covering up for my mother's bad behavior, and not being allowed to talk about it or how it hurt me because of how it may reflect on her.

A (very) abridged and generalized list of shit my mom has done that was straight up fucked up and abusive and Not Okay that I was convinced was "not that bad" for literal decades.

Beat the shit out of her autistic kid having meltdowns, joked years later about "beating the autism" out of me, never got me tested for autism/ADHD/any other neurodivergency, I had to get diagnosed myself at 28

stayed married to a man that was not only physically abusive, but who she (rightfully!) suspected of being a pedophile

constantly ripped her children from places once they'd established friendships/finally settled in at school with no warning, apology, support system, or any way to contact old friends

when her child who is very smart starts struggling very badly in school (for above reasons and also because she was drinking heavily and was too busy partying to help her kid), decides the best option is not to get the kid tested/help in school, but to simply scream at them that they're just like their abusive father

medically neglects her children- one of whom didn't get glasses until they were 13 and had a note sent home from school. same kid becomes partially deaf in ear later due to medical neglect, and eventually ends up with several disabilities as an adult from things that could have been prevented or mitigated from childhood

repeatedly put children in the path of her own abusive mother, who she knew and described as abusive, and who she knew (commented on and joked about!) was targeting one of her children specifically

when I get depressed over that, and come to her asking for help because I'm suicidal, she proceeds to mock me for (actual quote) "needing [my] mommyyyyyyy", does not get me into therapy

despite never getting her children treatment for their own mental illness or being someone they could confide in, perfectly able and willing to use her children as free therapists, from as young as 6 years old.

constant breaches of trust/privacy- instead of simply talking to children or listening to them when they have a problem, she decided to simply read journals, chats/emails, anything private, then becomes angry when confronted.

The first two times I came out to her, she just ignored it because she didn't want to have to deal with it and thought I would just drop it

The third and final time I came out, she said I was mutilating my body, that my fiance would stop loving me and no one else would ever want me, and that I was holding her hostage/betraying her.

again, the most generalized/abridged version of what she's done, and seeing it all down just... disgusts and enrages me. this is not okay behavior. this is child abuse, emotional abuse, just sickening behavior in general, and this whole time I've been making excuses. Because I was taught/told that I "had to understand" because she had been traumatized, so that somehow made my own trauma acceptable? Because she wasn't as bad as her mother, I was expected to praise her and never hold her accountable for her behaviors and actions. I am expected to give her kudos and a gold medal for meeting the bare minimum of food/shelter, as if that's not the absolute bare minimum that doesn't get your kids taken away, and that animals in the animal kingdom do without any sort of celebration every day. a leopard doesn't get a mother's day card for feeding her cubs, she has to do that or they fucking die.

I'm just angry, and I need to get it out somewhere. I am sure this will be eventually seen/found by my sister, and like, sorry buddy but I can't be quiet any more, and I'm not making excuses for her any more. She was abusive. Is abusive. And I don't have to put up with it any more.

#flux's bullshuit #cw child abuse #cw emotional abuse #cw medical neglect #personal #you don't get a medal for bare-minimum parenting #I didn't ask to be born and no one asked you to shit out two kids

[arcplaysgames]

i'm finally up to the hawaii trip and i gotta ask: when Ryuuji's going on about the locals talking about the phantom thieves, does he put a little. i hate that i'm speaking mcelroyese here but does he put a little stank on it to make it clear that he's making fun of how they pronounce it

there is a thing in my next letter to you about how i suspect Mishima is a racist, but i think Ryuuji might be one too, from how he talks about the locals and An. like, neither of them are a level of racist that's socially unacceptable in japan, they're just a level of racist that pisses me off because i have to smile placidly and Be Tolerant at people who say this stuff ALL THE TIME

also, i KNOW i'm projecting but i am SUPER irritated that everyone who was a jerk to An is sucking up to her now that they need her english skills!

(You sent this to my side blog so I hope it's okay to publish, if not lemme know and I'll nuke. I'm gonna make it non-rebloggable just in case anyway.)

sup bro, sorry you reached the worst part of the game. Hawaii, esp if you don't have a romance locked, is horrendous. utterly miserable.

listen, sometimes we gotta use the McElroy-ese because its useful vernacular.

Flipping through my screencaps (which I have still not deleted for some fucking reason) of that awful sequence, I feel like Ryuji was at his most disrespectful and shitty. But some of that probably got lost in translation due to how the localization team had to bend so far to, like.... delineate between Japanese Characters Speaking "Japanese" and Americans Speaking English. It's hilarious, the two women who Ryuji fails to get it off with are speaking in THICK psuedo-Texan accents to make SURE the player understands.

So for me, I didn't get the racist vibes but I don't think I would have picked out vibes since Ryuji and Mishima treat literally everyone so fucking reprehensibly that.... pal, I wouldn't have fucking noticed unless they dropped a slur. They treat everyone like garbage or like someone they might potentially fuck. That's it.

That all said, Ryuji is so happy to thoughtlessly dehumanize people around him and sulks when he's called out about it, so I wouldn't be surprised. It's frankly kind of stunning how he just.... has no redeeming qualities that stand out against all his copious fucking flaws.

For Mishima, MAN. MAAAAAAN. When I think about the scenes in his SLink and that really fucking weird one with Futaba in her SLink, I don't even fucking KNOW. Am eager to see what you pull out of this shit because it's Yikes with and without cultural context imo. I heard he's vaguely based on a right wing weirdo but idk. I find it interesting that the game never seems to outright say Mishima is a good person and often gives the player chances to call him out.

The weirdness around Ann is a constant though, yeah. She herself is such a fucking ray of light, it's always.... interesting how everyone around her (except the player character) treats her like an aberrant of some kind. Given the treatise of the game, I assume part of the point is to show the difficulties of Ann's position and the attitudes towards her and the exoticization? But since they don't.... ultimately do anything about it (and circle backward with the whole Nude Painting arc) and her SLink doesn't say anything about it.... it's just another missed shot, imo.

Honestly, if you can hang on 'til the Royal bonus semester, the only Actually Great writing of the game is there. That's the only place.

#karmotrines #p5 #cw negative #persona liveblog #lmao this post is like Full Negativity Mode #fuck Hawaii its the worst fucking sequence in the game

[terresdebrume]

Your tags on that arundhati roy post are absolutely unbelievable. “Sometimes violence is the answer actually.” Violence is the answer when children are burned and murdered in their beds? When elderly civilians are shot and then used as background props for selfies from “freedom fighters”? When parents are murdered in front of their children? Is that the kind of answer you think is justified?

Anon, I'm going to assume this ask was sent under the impulse of strong emotion, okay?

Because you completely missed both the point of the post (that non-violent solutions are not always realistically usable by the people fighting against their oppression or destruction), the part where I said you should try non-violent solutions first, and the fact that a one sentence tag does not constitute a nuanced view of someone's position.

No, the things you describe are not acceptable or defensible. Which I'm sure you knew and I suspect you picked as examples specifically for the purpose of making me feel too ashamed to defend myself. It's okay, we're not always at our best when we react impulsively.

However. Pacifism is a doctrine that essentially says no one should use violence ever for any reason, and I disagree with that. When an oppressive force or a person with horrible intentions brings violence to you, I don't think you should be judged for answering that violence.

Is it always the best solution? Definitely not. Does it solve problems long term? No. I genuinely don't think it does. But also, I don't think it's always possible to respond without violence. If someone decides to beat you up, asking them to leave politely isn't going to get them to leave you alone. Fighting back might. When an army comes into your country or region because someone somewhere decided people like you didn't deserve to exist and your people should be eradicated, asking them to stop politely won't work, and asking or hoping other countries to intervene on your behalf might not work, and if it does will likely take a while, during which more of your people will die, more of your culture will be destroyed, more of your family will suffer.

(See: Palestine right now, see the Jews of Europe during WW2, see the queer population of Chechnya since 2017, see basically every genocide ever.)

So no, of course not, the things you describe are not okay. But would you blame a man who killed the ones trying to murder his son? Would you blame a woman for killing the people who try to murder and rape her? Would you blame the population or a region being invaded for sending homemade bombs on the tanks coming in to raze their homes? I don't know that I would.

Again, yes, try non violent solution first. Yes, privilege diplomacy as much as possible, because that is how you reach long term solutions and how you achieve durable stability, social improvement and peace. But. Democracy works slowly, and sometimes answering violence with violence is the only way to survive until democracy is done doing its job, and while I hope I and the people I love never have to make that choice, I can't and won't blame the people who chose violence when they're forced to pick between that and death.

TL;DR: Using violence to hurt people and using violence to defend yourself ore those you love are not the same thing and I think acting like they are or like we can have a blanket position towards the use of violence is never going to work. Mostly because it leads to people saying things like 'the jews in WW2 shouldn't have rebelled against the Nazis' (looking at u, Ghandi) or 'Hamas is good, actually' both of which are absolute dumpster fires of a take and unfortunately not alone in the realm of horrible opinions.

#Assbox #Nonners #Politics #I suppose #Discussion of violence #Mentions of terrorism

[adamsvanrhijn]

something that would be very interesting and compelling to me is an examination of what oscar being ill or injured means for john—the man oscar loves and cares for the most, whose intimate relationship with oscar must be kept secret for both of their sakes

if oscar doesn't come home when john expects him, john can't do anything about it.

of course oscar is an adult whose talents i suspect include being late, so i doubt this alone constitutes an emergency... totally plausible that oscar got held up somewhere or his plans changed and he didn't think to or chose not to send a message, which let's suppose happens all the time and is not worth dwelling on. if they had plans john is going to be annoyed but i doubt that's a rare occurrence either so he is probably going to react to this by brooding about it and planning the passive aggressive comments he is going to make when oscar comes home later that day, or that evening

if oscar doesn't show up later that day, that probably isn't a major cause for concern either, and as we have seen, john can wait at home for oscar into the evening secure in the knowledge that he will come home, at which point john will ask him how his day was, and maybe tell him how it was totally fine actually that oscar didn't meet him for lunch or let him know he couldn't make it or whatever, and he has no reason to be frustrated at all and he had a nice time alone, actually.

if oscar doesn't come home by Then, maybe there is an event john forgot about or something! or maybe oscar forgot to tell john about an event (which i assume john would think is more likely). however nobody is holding a ball on easter sunday, so there's still a certain point of night by which Oscar Should Be Back, unless something is up. Something Up could be ultimately benign, like, oscar got a headache or drunk or something at someone's dinner and they put him up for the night. or it might not be.

if john Is concerned at this point, well, it's the middle of the night and to everyone except for john and oscar, john simply has no reason to be missing oscar at this hour.

and nobody who is With oscar would be thinking about john at all—john is a close friend of oscar's, and his mother and aunt know about this friendship, but it's not even like oscar speaks about john very frequently. agnes likes john enough she thought he'd be a great nephew-in-law, but that doesn't say anything about how close she thinks or knows oscar is with him. for all we know she wishes oscar were closer to him so she could have him around more (or did, prior to him rejecting marian).

if oscar is ill or injured, nobody is going to tell john—nobody is going to think that john should be told, or ask if he has been told yet, or say that someone should tell him, or worry about him. nobody is going to know that john is waiting for oscar to come home or that john must be worried because nobody knows that john and oscar live together.

for john to get any information about this without attracting suspicion, he needs to think carefully—he needs a reason to be concerned for oscar's whereabouts that isn't "oscar didn't come home last night". one missed social appointment isn't really enough of a big deal for john to go out of his way to ask after oscar at the bank or his mother's house, and according to everyone else, john doesn't see oscar every day, there is nothing recurring for him to miss more than once. if oscar isn't seen for three days john has no reason to know or care.

john also wouldn't be expected to, for example, have a key to oscar's apartment or even to know where anything in his apartment is, like, bachelors don't really entertain at home. likewise, if someone were sent to oscar's apartment, they wouldn't expect to find john or john's things there.

drives me insane, losing my marbles, etc. this isn't a problem unique to being gay in 1883 & if they touch on it even a little — or if i'm off base and actually more is known about john's relationship with oscar than i assume and we get More Lore — i Will lose my goddamn mind and go totally bonkers.

#the gilded age tag #oscar van rhijn tag #johnoscar tag #the gilded age spoilers #tga spoilers #the gilded age s2 spoilers #they also of course may not involve john at all........... but if they Do....... this would drive me nuts.

[sarahali199x]

The Weirdos and Normals I Loved Chapter 19

19./42 H, a long love Warning: Sexual text, incest, cheating, paedophilia I was in the 6th grade and I was 18, it was 201X. I was a big fan of Evangelion then, and was in a facebook group for Evangelion fans. There I got to know H.. We started talking on facebook. She sent a lot. One day she sent me: 'I'm in love with… a chair.' This made me suspect that she was in love with me.

I first arranged to meet her for an Evangelion Fan Christmas Meet. H. was wearing a shoulder strap, she had an operation on her shoulder and it needed to heal. She already knew everyone in the group. After the meet I thought I'd meet up with her. I literally asked my parents and brother if they could leave that day, damn what a guts I had back then. They went to see a movie. It was snowing when we met. I told her I had autism and she said 'Yes, I already had the feeling that something was special about you.' I told them I had two mothers and she liked that for some reason. She later said that this made me grow up with respect for women. We were alone in the couch downstairs and there I spilled the beans: "I must confess something, I think I'm madly in love with you." We chatted a little further, but she was going to wait before starting a relationship. We kissed, a French kiss, and she bit my lip if I kissed too fast, that was actually hot. She also tended to lick my cheek for fun. After our first meeting alone I had written a text it went something like this:

We spoke a few times. I said I thought she was in love with me because she sent so much, but she sent a lot of messages to everyone and made that "I'm in love with….a table" joke towards a lot of people

After a while, H. said 'Yes'. We were finally in a relationship. We had sex in my room, I finally lost my virginity! At eighteen! Now I know it doesn't matter, some people are virgins, others have sex every week with someone else, to each their own. I couldn't cum inside her, but I jerked off afterwards.

I remember how Joris always jealously said "puppy love" He was wrong at first because our relationship lasted 5 years. But in the end he was right, we were both still young and had a lot to growing to do, ….growing apart.

As I said, H. wore a shoulder strap. Something had happened before I met her. She was on the bus with Josefien to go to school, and she was already standing upright to leave the bus.

A rich woman in a BMW suddenly drove from the parking lot, forcing the bus to brake abruptly. H. flew forward and fell to the ground. She called the 100 (Belgian 911) and then called her father and said 'My dislocated is shoulder! My dislocated is shoulder! Her father didn't understand. H. was panicking completely. Josefien said: 'Don't you mean: Your shoulder is dislocated?' H. was taken to the hospital, her shoulder 'clicked' back in like a piece of machinery, like a Bionicle toy. Her muscles were partially torn. She suffered from mild chronic pain all her life because of this. It was a huge battle with the insurance as well, they didn't want to pay her anything so they let the case drag on for so long, hoping H. would give up. There was going to be a lawsuit. She had to show her shoulder and her back in a room with a lot of experts where she had to take off her bra. She really didn't like that. They also did an examination to see if her nerve was damaged. They taped an electrical wire to her arm and sent shocks through it. She was in no pain, but her arm was moving up and down and she was crying. 'I felt exactly like an experiment.' It was a shame, because of her arm she could not finish her art studies. She studied at REDACTED ART-SCHOOL in REDACTED TOWN for a Bachelors Degree in Arts (Higher Education). Her shoulder made it difficult for her to operate the printing machines. She had also created abstract works, but because of this, the teachers felt that she could not work in themes. As a result, she had to stop her studies. She then did a teacher training course, but more about this later. She had to undergo multiple surgeries on her shoulder. Her life was changed forever. And that Karen who just drove in front of a bus didn't notice, and won't notice. That Karen will never know she made someone's life shittier, forever.

I remember the first time I visited H.'s home. She lived in 'the middle of nowhere', right next to a cafe, in the far nothingness. It was part of a municipality that didn't even have a station, it was that hidden. It was an hour's drive by car, two hours by public transport! First, I had to take a train and then a bus, or two buses in succession. The worst part was that the train and first bus drove past the municipality, so I always took a big detour. Both H. and I did not have a driver's license at the time. Now, I still don't understand how we could stay together for so long, but oh well. I was at her house and we played on the Wii first, the only time we actually gamed at her house. I kept asking if we could go to her room, but she said 'no'. We ended up going to her room and had sex. She did say I was asking for it too much, which was weird for her parents. Her father had a big walrus moustache, which made it difficult for me to take him seriously. H. thought this was terrible of me. Every time I said something negative about her parents she became upset. She's not her parents, is she? And when I tried to explain it, she only got angrier, so I dropped the subject. The same went for her neighbourhood. I said her neighbourhood was sleazy, just as my city could be sleazy. She was then angry at me 'Oh, you think I'm sleazy?' "No, I think your neighbourhood is sleazy, they make noise and keep us up all night." "Yeah, but you're generalizing again, you're rude to people living in poverty."

Sorry, a lot of people use sleazy when talking about the lower classes, but I use sleazy as in 'rude' and if someone is behaving 'rude' it is sleazy. A homeless person who sleeps outside is not sleazy, he can't help it. A well-known singer who beats up his wife, or a man with a red Ferrari who stops at a shop to pee against the shop's window are sleazy. H. therefore lived in a sleazy neighbourhood. It used to be quiet there, but next to her house someone had set up a café 'The FourClover' every time the owner was some crook who sooner or later ended up in prison, so there was always a different owner. 'The FourClover' was nicknamed 'The JailClover'. Because of the noise H.'s mother kept calling the police, but whenever the police arrived, the cafe turned the music down, only to turn it back on once the police had left. As a result, H.'s mother was seen as the witch of the village. It wasn't just that. She used to keep a 'Frituur' open, a chip shop, were she sold Belgian fries. They ate fries every day, making her mother, H. and her father fat. Her mother in particular suffered from it so much that she could no longer work and had to have a few back operations. Only her brother and sister had survived the Belgian Fries Era without becoming obese. Her sister was young, she was 13, when I first saw her.

Another reason why H.'s mother was called the witch was because she hated cats. H. had the luxury of living among cats, but neither she nor her mother liked them. Instead of enjoying all the feline love and free cat cuddles, they were upset because a cat occasionally pooped in the yard. The owner of the cats often lost a cat and searched for it with food 'Minnie, Minnie!' she cried, which got on H.'s nerves. Her mother called the police to have the cats taken away, but the owner was always angry and said to the police that those cats were hers. But when the mother sued that woman for nuisance, that woman said "but those cats aren't mine!" Her mother fastened glass shards with cement to the top of the wall, which acted as a gate, to scare the cats away, but the cats just sat, along and on the shards. Sometimes one of the cats walked into the house, and you should know, H.'s house was a high house with many floors, it used to be a hotel. As soon as the mother saw a cat, she threw it out the window from the top floor. One of the cats she'd thrown from the top floor was meowing in pain in the street until someone took the poor animal to the vet. She really was a witch, the witch of the village.

I loved H. She was sweet, warm and soft. She took my flaws into account and accepted me as I was. And we both loved Evangelion. Even before I was in 6th grade, I decided to go to REDACTED ART-SCHOOL where she also studied. So we had that in common as well. She had even given her old courses that allowed me to learn the lessons before I even had those lessons. I had a bit of a head start. I went to family parties. She had a big family, and the family parties lasted a long time, sometimes about 5 hours. I would take material with me to study, but that was sometimes difficult. She, her sister, niece and I used to play board games then.

The family thought I was weird, but I told jokes and they thought I was nice. They did ask H. "Is there something wrong with that boy?" and she said, 'Yes, he has autism.'

Warning, this paragraph contains descriptions of child sexual abuse. H. also told about her ex. Johnny. He was very sweet at first, but afterwards his dark side revealed itself. H. was only 16, but Johnny was already 24. He had epilepsy and was afraid of snakes. Despite this, he drank a lot, which caused him to have seizures and whenever he had a seizure, he blamed H. They sometimes went to the movies, but whenever a snake appeared in the movie, he left with H. and blamed her again. One evening he confessed to H. that he was a paedophile, showing her his "carefully curated child porn collection". He said that "Its okay, because for children, it's like "a game"". One video was of a child in a buggy, she was wearing a skirt with her diaper underneath. There was another video, in which an eight-year-old girl and her dad. She, well, she gave a blowjob. The girl looked angry. Obviously, Johnny had a sick mind. Towards the end of the relationship, they often quarrelled. Johnny went looking to buy a house near her neighbourhood. H. came to visit for his birthday, but they argued and then he threw a plate towards her face, luckily H. was able to avoid it. Then it was over. Johnny sent his mother to H. His mother had to beg H. to go back to Johnny. Mr. Johnny was a pathetic manipulator, his poor mom had to do his dirty work. I then thought "Ah, finally a woman who can distinguish bad men from good men, and had chosen a good man; me!" I had absolutely no idea how moronic and toxic I was then.

When H. and I had a date, it was always for a reason, and I thought that was a shame. We could never just be together, have sex and cuddle in bed for a long time. It was as if H. had to have an excuse every time so we could be together. I had to go with all her friends, girlfriends and family. I always tried to keep some time in my agenda free because I never knew when H. wanted to meet and I was not allowed to cancel 'too many' things or H. would be angry.

H. also told about her neighbourhood. She used to play there with her friends, but they have grown apart. Those friends were pretty sleazy. The brother and sister had had sex when they were teenagers, and the sister had become pregnant. The child was born with mental impairment and a physical deformity. Their mother and father pretended it was their child, but the whole neighbourhood knew the dark truth.

The end of each year was extremely difficult this period. I had exams and always lost a lot of time with the holidays. Each party was celebrated several times at H.'s family. I had to spend Christmas with all her family AND then separately, because they are "heathen" and that father couldn't be at the first family party because of his work. AND then I had to spend another Christmas with my family. Then suddenly it was New Years, which I always had to celebrate with her and her friends AND then I had to go back to the big family New Years party.

The next section is about sexuality and death, so you can safely skip this one: H. also had someone in her family who wanted to become pregnant. Her husband happened to work in a morgue. She was heavily pregnant, but she was in tremendous pain. The doctor looked shocked, she had worms. She told this to her husband, and her husband confessed: He had sex with corpses. He had thus acquired worms and infected his wife and unborn child. The child died before birth. The woman and the man, of course, separated.

H. had to take medication for her shoulder at one point. She had strange dreams because of this. In one dream she had a nightmare that her friend Josefien and I were completely ignoring her.

H.'s uncle, Frank, once ran a café. The cafe actually belonged to someone else; his boss. That boss made false promises. He said that the uncle would get the cafe if he worked hard enough. He had to work overtime and sometimes did not get his wages. It was a situation he had to get out of.

H. also had a girlfriend she hated. She had a YouTube channel and made vlogs. H. didn't understand that exactly. "She always films herself, what a big ego she has!" There was something special about H.'s family. As if you weren't allowed to be too much of an individual. Her brother once had a group project in higher education. And as with all group projects, you always have just one person doing all the work and the rest sitting lazily in their couch gaming and eating chips. The brother had to do all the work but this was too much for one person. So he stole the code from another group and tweaked it a bit so he could succeed. The school saw this afterwards, and he failed that task. Such things happen, but it was so strange that all H.'s family, kept talking about it. Again, again and again they told this story and they said "He has no sense of guilt, he has no sense of guilt". What should he do? Cry? Give himself 26 lashes?

Her brother always put too much garbage in the garbage can. He always complained to H. "You change the bags in the garbage bags too quickly! Those bags are expensive! If you live alone you will have to pay a lot!"

"Look, I'll show you how to do it!" he then rolled up his sleeves and, with a big smile, pushed the trash down. Unfortunately, the bag would tear each time, and rotten milk or other foul-smelling juice would drip from the poor garbage bag. It was a scene that kept repeating itself.

My family, H. and I once went to Budapest for a few days. I had found all kinds of nice places through Atlas Obscura, such as the Michael Jackson tree, etc. We also visited a cave church that was hidden in a mountain. Budapest is a beautiful city, hills covered with colourful houses.

During my studies, art project in higher education, I went to France with my class. It was only for a week or two, but it seemed like an eternity. It was the first time I went abroad "alone", and my French was bad. I camped there with my class. I felt lonely there. There was a girl from REDACTED ART-SCHOOL I talked too and she gave me a hug, but after that trip we stopped chatting. There was also a lesbian girl she was chubby but beautiful. She sat on my lap. Another girl said I was a player, and I was honestly amazed and said "Player? I wouldn't even know how to do that?" I was just a lonely boy who always looked for affection.

The Evangelion fan group also organized camps for the Evangelion fans. We were with 20 to 30 members. We rented a room and dormitory somewhere in the woods. We played games and so on. The organizers had experience in the scouts, so they could handle the responsibility. This happened three times, once a year. The last 2 times H. was a member of the organizers together with Josefien. It was fun. The group consisted mainly of girls, and to sleep in one big room full of women is a dream that, for many, will never come true! Nothing happened, I was together with H. I had also jokingly 'fought' with a girl, whoever got the other in the ground first won, she was stronger than me. Quite a nice experience to be dominated by a woman…. We also did a water balloon fight, all the women were wearing bathing suits or bikinis. We had a lot of fun. We also watched shooting stars, together. There is a group of meteorites that are always visible around the same period, so you can see shooting stars. H. and I lay on the ground together with everyone else, watching the white stripes that occasionally sparked in the black sky. You saw a little sparkle, and as soon as you looked at it, it was already too late. It's a very special experience. My love and I held hands. It was beautiful.

There was a point during dinner when I didn't have enough with one plate so I took a little more. H. was mad at me then because apparently the food was running out. I felt like a little child being punished. Next time I always took some food from home. You probably think I'm fat, but no, I weigh 76kg but I have a tummy, yes.

Afterwards, H. said that two people had sex in the woods. Everyone acted like this was something bad. I don't understand, what was wrong with this? Two people had a good time, and they did it in private in a place where no one saw it and no one was bothered.

#life #love #relation #writing #written #blog #personal #irl #drama #real #weird #diary #daily

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

A question regarding your list - are keepie uppies and kick a ball around the same thing? Kicking a ball around with your mates in the UK is known as a kickabout, not a keepie uppie, which is when you kick a ball in the air repeatedly to not let it touch the ground. Apologies if I've misunderstood the American term. Also in the UK we sometimes call Xs crosses, both terms are used interchangeably.

(Sorry if this is patronising or rude, it was not intended to be.)

(Off this post, if anyone wants context.)

First of all, I like that I'm getting multiple replies off this post, but it is making me feel the need to clarify that I didn't mean anything in it too seriously. I by and large prefer the British way of using language - I get quite annoyed when I see American spellings that aren't used in Canada (I have a completely disproportionate negative reaction to "center"), but generally just amused when I see British words that aren't used in Canada.

Sorry, that has almost nothing to do with the message I've been sent, I just now worry that the post I made without thinking may have come off as condescending, like, "What's wrong with those British people who talk weird?" So I'm trying to explain that no, I think the way you guys talk is cool! It's objectively the original form of the English language, and subjectively, I like it so much that since I was a kid, I've had someone ask me about once every five years why my speech patterns sound more like British English than North American English. To which I suspect the actual answer is that I spent my childhood reading a lot of British fantasy novels, and watching/listening to/reading old British comedy with my dad, and not interacting with my peers because of severe social anxiety, and the then-undiagnosed autism meant my years of doing that were a more formative period of language development than they were for kids who developed faster. I basically rarely got actual practise of talking to people so I learned how to use English manually from Harry Potter, and now I very occasionally say "I've not" instead of "I haven't". My reason for sometimes using British-style phrasing (not specific words that aren't used here, just the method of putting words together) is either that, or that I'm just very pretentious and want an excuse for it. Probably a bit of both.

Anyway, the point is that I have no objection to British English overall, to the point where I sometimes actively try to stop myself from talking that way because I don't want to sound like I'm pretentiously pretending to be British.

Having said that, having said all those things that do not in any way respond to the question I've been asked, I maintain that Naughts and Crosses is an unnecessarily ostentatious way to refer to a children's game that takes thirty seconds, eight square centimetres, and no effort to play. Though as I write this, I realize I might mainly think that because hearing those words make me picture the cover of the Malorie Blackman novel, which I've always thought is a beautiful design, and of course the book itself is intelligent and layered and complex and made me think so much as a teenager. So I feel like there’s such a weird disconnect between the words “Naughts and Crosses”, which bring up all that, and a little grid scribbled in pencil. I didn't think of that before now, and if that is the reason why I feel like the name is too fancy for what it describes, then that makes no sense whatsoever because obviously the book is named after the game. So... I might have to concede that my thought process makes no sense on that one, and give Britain permission to go on calling it whatever they like. Permission granted.

On the other thing, I guess I should have written "kicking a ball in the air repeatedly", instead of just "kicking a ball around", because I do know it refers to that specific game. I just wrote "kicking a ball around" because I don't think we have a specific word here for the game that British people call keepie upies. Or at least, Russell Howard calls it keepie upies. I don't know how common the term is in Britain, I just know I find it really funny every time Russell Howard, with a straight face, will brag about how many "keepie upies" he can do. But he's said it to enough other people (guests on his show, other people on panel shows) who have not said, "Sorry, what term are you using for that?" to make me assume that British people accept that the game of trying to use your feet to keep a ball from touching the ground is called "keepie upies", even if you're an adult. And I'm sorry, but I have to stand firm on this one, that is very silly. I love you guys, but between that, "footie", and "telly", sometimes Britain is a silly place. Not as often as North America is a silly place, but still.

[gumceline]

“Power of positivity doesn’t suit me dude”.

#(fi would def get something that suited more to fighting) #(I could see finn wearing it tho) #(Guess we're back to random show crossovers XD ) #Adventure Time #adventuretime #at #atimers #Fionna the human #(Also don't think i didn't suspect the ACTUAL reason someone sent me this ask i'm not a fool buddy) #miraculous ladybug #anonymous

[echo-three-one]

Whatever It Takes : RELOADED

Augustus' burner phone is the key to locating Nero but the team discovers that it's more than just Nero that's behind all of this. Will the former 141 soldiers find out what Nero is up to? Will Alex rescue Samantha?

Table of Contents

Hello! Ray's Back in his game!

Chapter 16 to another story made by Ray (echo-three-one) Comments and Reviews appreciated! I hope you enjoy! Love you all ❤️

My Damsel in Distress

"Alex"

Task Force 141 - Disbanded

On a plane off to somewhere

General Shepherd.

The name sent Alex's blood boiling from rage. He couldn't believe that a high ranking official would actually betray them and could still run away from it.

It's no secret that he wanted 141 out of the Nero scene. But why? He knew full well that Samantha doesn't have access over the address but he still took her? And he also knew that this little team won't walk away without her safe. Alex wondered what's running inside the snow-caterpillar-stache's little brain. He couldn't even say his name now.

He clenched his fists, feeling the thick leather gloves he wore for battle. It was a devastating day for him. They just bonded for a few moments here and there and now she’s already taken away from him. He couldn’t keep count how many times it happened. It was frustrating.

“So, which safehouse are you bringing us today?” Alex joked with his former CO. Jack looked serious as always, he never gets these kinds of humor.

“Same one in Brazil. It’s the most forgotten and spacious. No one’s going to come looking for us in South America.” Jack replied, looking worriedly at Alex.

“I know when you’re preoccupied Alex. What happened afterward?” Jack turned to him and Alex knew he had to open up. He deserved the truth anyway.

“I uh… I fell for her, Jack. I know I told you that I won’t but it just hit me.”

“Like a fucking brick…” Jack interrupted and chuckled.

“All I can say is that you’ve done a better job than I did when I fell in love. I could still see your determination towards your work. Or maybe because she’s still involved in all of this.” he added, causing Alex to relax his tensed shoulders.

“It’s good to have you back, old man.” Alex shook his hand and smiled. With all the problems around him, it was good to have someone close to him to talk to. He was glad Nero didn't kill him back in the Gulag.

“Yeah. Me too, and it looks like you’ve got yourselves a determined bunch. Especially that guy.” he noted, pointing to Soap who was sitting with France. Alex remembered how the two of them met at the Gulag and in that short span of time Jack was able to read the whole guy’s personality.

“Soap? Yeah, he’s an achiever. Heard he’s top of every obstacle course back at the base.” Alex mused, looking at the two. They were sitting together quietly but Alex felt jealous. He could've been doing that with Samantha right now. Now that she's ready to hear the truth about them.

"Yeah. He's got some fight in him. I'm sure we'll defeat Nero even with this little band right here. And I'll do my best to be of assistance to you." he patted Alex's shoulder and went back to check on Nikolai.

~

Safehouse 110197, Brazil

Alex remembered that this place was compromised, but then again that was the CIA mole's henchmen that found them here and they're no longer affiliated with Nero. Or he picked this place because no one would think of going back here after being compromised. The Reverse Psychology card. Either way, Alex didn't mind.

As the team slowly scattered around the house and prepared everything, Alex took note of some changes since his last visit. More beds were added and supplies got restocked. Even the bullet cache looked reloaded.

The team loaded off everything they salvaged, or stole, from the 141 and set it all up. Ghost prioritized the tech stuff while the women fixed the bedrooms. Alex offered help but was denied by Gary saying "Your face still hurts so don't over exert yourself, we can do this on our own."

So Alex plopped by the central couch as Ghost untangle the wires, putting them on their respective slots.

"You holding up okay?" The masked man asked as soon as Alex released a deep sigh.

"I'm worried about Samantha." he replied, resting his hands on the back of his head.

"She doesn't have the address, what does Shepherd want from her?" Alex added, his tone raised like a kid complaining.

"I have no idea. But I do have something else. Information on the surprise attack at the 141." Ghost said, as Jack and Price moved toward them and discussed the contents of Augustus' phone.

"That bastard gave away our location." Price cursed.

"So his plan to disband us would be successful." Alex added and Ghost nodded.

"Why get Samantha though? He knows we'll be coming for him." Ghost added and the rest of them speculated their theories.

"Augustus failed to get her so Shepherd did it for him? For what?" Jack noted, reviewing their whole mission for reference.

"Something bigger, I presume." Price spat and everyone fell silent. The rest of the team except for Gary and Maxine gathered for a short briefing. Everyone gave away their take as to why, some of them made sense while some reasons don't add up. And thinking about it was only making them more frustrated.

Everyone looked serious until they inhaled the fresh aroma of dinner from the kitchen. Alex turned and saw Gary and Maxine, smiling while serving up the team's dinner. He could sense something him and Samantha once shared in this place and it looked like the Safe house did it's charm once again.

"Now that's bloody good cookin'" Price announced and everyone laughed. He wasn't the kind of person to say those kinds of things, but he did, and it was all they needed to ease the tension of not knowing what's next.

They never gathered like this before, together, happy and noisy. The two oldies sat on the opposite edges of the round table while Soap, France, Gary and Maxine sat beside each other on the left. Simon and Alex sat on the other side, an empty chair resided beside them.

"Don't worry lad, we'll rescue her." Price muttered and Jack nodded. Alex smiled as they started to eat some food.

"Hold on a minute!" Soap exclaimed causing everyone to halt.

"Thank you Lord for thy blessings which we are about to receive. Amen." he muttered while everyone looked at him.

"Amen!" they all said in unison and wolfed down Gary and Maxine's delicious meal.

"This tastes so good! Just like Mom used to make!" Francine chewed happily. Maxine stared at her supposed to be sister and smiled.

"It does?" she breathed.

"Mmhmm.. I was always jealous that you two were so close together in the kitchen, everything I touch turns to a culinary mess." she frowned and made everyone else laugh. Soap stared at her in amazement.

"You and me both, France." Jack agreed. The gang bonded throughout dinner and enjoyed the company. Alex volunteered on the dishes and France offered to help.

"You think she's going to be fine?" Maxine asked as she checked the contents of the fridge, looking at Alex who looked very focused on the dishes he's cleaning.

"She's been kidnapped a lot of times now. I think she's used to it." Alex attempted to joke, but the tone of his voice was far from kidding.

"Aye, That lassie's a tough one. Don't worry Alex. We'll get her, Shepherd's bound to make a mistake anytime soon." Soap commented from behind him while leaning on the kitchen island.

"I told you I can handle assisting Alex on my own!" France giggled as she wiped the plates dry.

"Aye! I know! Can't a man just enjoy some time with his girlfriend?" he raised his hand mocking surrender. France turned back and crossed her arms.

"Ahem. Girl space Friend. There's a space in between." she scolded and MacTavish just chuckled.

"Whatever you say, Babe." he joked once again as he stepped out of the kitchen.

"Ugh. That guy's so full of himself." France groaned. Alex and Maxine exchanged glances and laughed, causing the female soldier to worry.

"What?" she asked.

"You two look cute together." Maxine chuckled, closed the fridge and walked away.

"We're not together!" France yelled, making sure Maxine would hear it wherever she went.

"We will be soon!" Soap exclaimed from outside, followed by collective laughter from the group of men with him.

~

Alex groaned and looked at his watch. It's already 3:36 am and he couldn't sleep. He slowly got up and looked around. On the huge bed, Jack and Price slept peacefully as evidenced by the loud snoring. Beside him on the floor was Soap, Roach and an empty spot where Ghost was supposed to sleep. The girls occupied the guest room.

Alex slowly got up and carefully assisted his metal leg, trying not to make noise as he waltzed to the balcony where he suspected Ghost to be.

And he was right, Ghost sat by the railings on the terrace, not a single expression of fear etched on his face. A face Alex saw for the first time.

"Can't sleep?" the former CIA asked. Ghost slowly turned his head and nodded.

"I'm just contemplating…" he muttered, the tone of his voice sound defeated.

"We caught ourselves in a crazy situation, huh?" Alex chuckled trying to make the best of the situation. Ghost didn't seem to like the vote of happiness as he clicked his tongue and sighed.

"I'm into France… but it looked like she's happier with John." he spat. From what Alex heard from Roach, Ghost was not the kind of person to open up. And this was all too surprising for him.

"I… uh…" Alex stammered.

"Look, I'm also sorry… You don't have to reply… I was about to vent to Gary about this but he seemed too preoccupied with Maxine and I didn't want to bother him."

"Look, it's okay. Ghost."

"It's Simon, Simon Riley."

"It's okay Simon. That's life. You win some, you lose some." he consoled. He tried to make it as positive as possible but he was also down in the dumps, like him.

"Thanks for the honesty. I just realized how devastated you must be. I never got to hear your story until Gary told me. It must've been tough losing her over and over again." Gary talked without looking at him.

"It's like I've been cursed to lose her and save her all over again." Alex complained.

"Like Link." Simon announced like it's a great metaphor which Alex didn't get.

"Link?"

"Like from the video game. Where this knight was always out to save her damsel in distress. It's got many different variations but it's always the same name. Generations have passed and Link was always destined to save Zelda." he said in amusement.

"My damsel in distress…" Alex noted and looked up at the stars, wishing that wherever Samantha may be, he hoped she's safe and also thinking of him.

Next Chapter : Delayed Flight

Notification Squad my beloved

@smokeywhalee @samatedeansbroccoli @enderio @whimsywispsblog @beemybee @ricinbach

#horRAYfic #whateverittakes #reloaded #alex echo 3 1 #john soap mactavish #john price #gary roach sanderson #simon ghost riley #i miss yall

[sanstropfremir]

swf anon here! (also im the same person who sent in the ask about beg and gain so im excited to hear ur thoughts about them!! when i saw coca n butter use the eden concept, it made me think of gain's paradise lost for some reason. and i went to watch that and it made me miss her a lot :( i hope she's doing well)

-

mnet is very weird with this show's editing. not all the performances are shown in the episode but they do upload all the fancam clips before the episode airs. this is so they can calculate the video views and counts at the end of the mission. i believe they upload them a week before but they aren't made public to every country. ur location has to be in korea; i was lucky that someone uploaded it for this round instead of trying to navigate through blurry clips.

for this episode, only lachica, hook, and coca n butter performed (but as an audience, we've seen all the performances if that makes sense). the judges votes aren't a high percentage of their overall score. its similar to kingdom in which public votes are valued more (for kingdom it was fanvotes and for swf its video views/likes). in the last mission, ygx received the lowest scores from the judges but because of their video views/likes, their rank went to one of the top 3 and they were able to escape being eliminated. judges' comments have been shorter and shorter as opposed to the beginning where there were definitely more attention on them. i think its because of the public's backlash? maybe that also influenced their scoring.

i think mnet should just have the episodes be the fancam clips instead of editing it so weirdly where u cant see anything.

i think it reminded you of paradise lost because they tried to do it sexy and didn't really succeed lmao. also you are a pretty longtime follower then thank you <333333

ok the logic with counting the video views by releasing all the performances at the same time actually makes a lot of sense, i suspect they probably changed it because of how fucked the kindgom voting and streaming (there were actually streaming/views for kingdom too, the votes just had more weight. why did the kingdom scores involve so much math) ended up being. it does make the episode editing really weird though, but i don't really know what a better solution would be, honestly.

they're probably shortening the judges' comments because now it's not the judges bringing in the viewers, it's the dancers themselves. at this point i don't really think the judges actually matter that much, they're just kind of there as a part of the structure of this type of show. obviously i love boa and she probably says smart things and i'm sure taeyong is trying his darndest, but the show's been on long enough now that nobody is paying attention to them.

also yes i agree it's annoying as fuck when they don't just edit the full performances into the goddamn episodes like come ON. i get that reactions are funny and to be completely fair we got some beautiful ones during kingdom but i think it's different for swf because mnet REALLY does not know how to film dance. like at all. it's painful. obviously i yell about it all the time (although for these most recent fancams they actually kept the camera relatively still, so maybe someone finally heard me complaining), but from the clips i have seen that are taken from the full episodes it is so painful how badly the editing botches the flow and timing of these choreos. when will they learnnnnn???

#street woman fighter #swf #swf reviews #the answer is mnet will never learn obviously #although maybe it is good that they release all of the fancams early? so then you know everyone has seen the full performances #and then you can edit reactions in as much as you want in the episode itself....... #this only works while the show is airing though. it doest work if someone needs to like #catch up on episodes. or is watching it after it finishes #hmmmmm.....i dont think the tradeoff is good but i think i can see where its coming from #also like.......i think a lot of people who watch these kind of shows like....dont actually do anything extra for them? #i dunno maybe thats just me. but im literally never going to vote or whatever for a competition show. i never have and i never will #i cant be arsed and im not particularly interested in that type of engagement but i guess im an outlier bc obviously people do vote #thoughts to be thunk me thinks #got a lot of asks this weekend r u guys bored what's going on #normally its dead af on the weekends #just when i think im down to only a few asks left i get like seven out of the blue. don't stop its good keep doing it #i just have yet to figure out a discernable pattern and it's kind of funny #text #answers

[paradoxcase]

Chapter 6 of Harrow the Ninth

Mercy seems like a very high-strung person. Completely disabling Harrow seems like it was probably unnecessary - I wonder if Ianthe gave her some kind of trouble or something, or if Mercy is just used to everyone giving her trouble, or is just very easily upset such that it seems to her that everyone is constantly giving her trouble, or maybe everyone just gives her trouble because she is ridiculous

Ortus's eyes are described as "dark" in the Parodos, so presumably this is the eye color that Harrow thinks is relevant to her right now.

A number of questions here: 1) Do they measure age in something other than years in some contexts? That might make sense when everyone lives on planets that don't have 365-day years, actually. I'm reminded of Embassytown, where the main character measures her age in hours, although that sounds hellish to keep track of. 2) Why does the Body tell her to lie? Mercy is extremely unlikely to know about the 200 children, given that she doesn't spend much time in the main solar system anyway and doesn't seem to know much of anything about Harrow right now. Or, would she have known something about Gideon's mom crashlanding on Pluto, and Harrow having been born not that long after that would be considered significant? Also, I don't think Gideon has a reason to say this, so the Body probably isn't Gideon's ghost. She has Gideon's eye color, but there's probably some reason that Gideon has that eye color, like that she inherited it from her mom, maybe. Is the Body Gideon's mom's ghost? I think we were given to understand that that ghost fucked off a long time ago and couldn't be reached for comment. Or maybe that color eyes just means something Significant in this universe and that's why both Gideon and whoever this is have this eye color? 3) Do people sometimes count age starting from conception in this universe? I guess if you have the ability to know exactly when that is and have good enough medical science to mostly guarantee a safe birth that might be a thing. 4) Why is Mercy relieved? Is it just because she thinks Harrow is 15 instead of 14 and 3 months, because that would not make me feel that much better, personally, or because she thinks that Harrow's birth didn't coincide with Gideon's mom crashlanding on Pluto or something? Harrow's birth coinciding the Gideon's mom appearing on Pluto might indicate to Mercy that Harrow might actually be Gideon-who-was-adopted-by-Harrow's-parents, so maybe she's just relieved that Harrow isn't Gideon. If that's the case she doesn't seem to suspect that Gideon might have been the cavalier, since she didn't ask about Harrow's cavalier's age

I wonder if the Emperor thinks that Harrow might be special in some way, possibly due to Harrow maybe being Gideon?

I'm glad that someone is having a normal reaction to people who are 13-18 years old being sent to the Lyctor trial, although it seems like she's mostly unhappy about having to work with teenagers and not necessarily the forcing teenagers to kill and eat their cavaliers angle. Although, Ianthe is 21, and I don't think she has a reason to lie about that. That's young, but it's not "pubescent"

And lmao at Mercy literally saying "hiss"

Referring to the second-person narrator by a regular non-proper noun is just weird, yo. The narrative also uses the third person possessive pronoun "her" for this one sentence, and then promptly goes back to "you". Please pick a POV style and stick with it for at least the entire paragraph

Is the primary thing the Ninth House needs to import lightbulb filaments and vitamin supplements? Yes, yes, I get it, it's dark and not very full of nutritious food, but aren't there a lot of other more critical things that they would need to import, like, you know, actual food, which is not going to be made up for by vitamin supplements, and water, and probably a bunch of technology that's doing things like creating breathable air and heating and so forth? And the mayonnaise, which is clearly something Gideon knew about, who was responsible for importing the mayonnaise?

This is funny to me, because I made the mistake of saying "chop-chop" once as a teenager, and my best friend never let me live it down

So why does this not require a thanergy source?

I didn't comment on it before, but animaphilia looks like it means soul+philia, but clearly the Third House wouldn't want to be known for doing the same kind of soul magic as the Eighth House, so I'm not sure what kind of necromancy is meant by "animaphilia". Also, we learned in the last book that Ianthe isn't really an animaphiliac, that was just what she pretended to be when she was also pretending that her sister was a necomancer too. So, either Mercy is really up-to-date with what the Third House is saying about its heirs, which seems unlikely, or every Third House necromancy does animaphilia, or Ianthe is continuing to lie about her specialty

Also, is physical attractiveness like, an important part of being a Lyctor, or maybe just an important part of being Mercy's coworker?

And Ianthe's relationship with her mom doesn't sound great

I think if Ianthe manages to persist as a Lyctor for another 10,000 years she might just become Mercy 2.0

Why did the Emperor stay on the Erebos for 80 years? It didn't take 80 years to send the letters and wait for the Lyctor trial to finish. If we believe the timestamps given on the first two sections of this book, it took less than five months from the letters being sent to the completion of the trial. He spent 80 years here, and suddenly there isn't time to wait for Harrow to recover all the way before leaving. Some of that rush might just be Mercy, but he also told Harrow that he was short on time himself

I'm curious what entity the Empire is fighting that they lost 18 thousand soldiers and three ships to. Not a Resurrection Beast, probably

Is getting a runny nose because you eat spicy things actually a thing? Like honestly practically whenever I eat anything of any description that's more substantial than a light snack I get a sneezing fit that's like a minor allergy attack and I've seen and heard people say, oh, that's because of spicy food but no???? it's not??? literally everything I eat has this effect, and no I don't have any allergies other than penicillin, I got extensively tested for them as a child because I was constantly sneezing and had a runny nose all the time. So I feel like this reaction is not caused by spicy food and this take might be bullshit, personally, and it seems like the same kind "flavorful food is bad actually" discourse that gave us stuff like graham crackers and Kellogg's cereal

Anyway

Here is the narrative again criticizing Harrow's internal monologue

So the Emperor told someone to go make static noises at Mercy and so she physically came to the Erebos to retrieve the Emperor and actually got her way because the Emperor didn't want to fight with her in public, and she's also having a very long fight with Augustine. Is the third Lyctor, the one whose name might be Gideon, the one who passes notes between the three of them because they can't stand each other? But no, because she "can't even confirm the third is alive". In the prologue, it said that "five sets of eyes closed" or something to that effect, so I figured that must be the five Lyctors, including Ortus/Gideon, but did it actually refer to the other four plus the Emperor? And for some reason, the Emperor doesn't want Harrow and Ianthe to know what Ortus/Gideon is actually doing

So this is whatever it was that was keeping him there for 80 years. "Nearly twenty years" is approximately the amount of time it's been since Gideon's mom crashlanded on Pluto, just as a point of reference

Here, Harrow doesn't know the word "pommel", but the narrator does. The narrator knows technical things about both necromancy and swords, while Harrow only knows about necromancy because she removed Gideon. Given that the narrator knows about both necromancy and swords, that sort of indicates that they are a Lyctor, and the only Lyctor who would recognize Naberius's offhand weapon is Ianthe. Is Ianthe stealth-narrating this story? If so, she isn't referring to herself in the first person, the way that Dirk was when he started narrating the Meat Epilogue

So that's what a stele looks like, and it's something that goes on a ship. What's interesting to me here is that this is the first ever mention in this series of there being dead languages, or even more than one language, in this world that's spread out over nine planets and a space station full of Lyctors that haven't been back to the solar system in a very long time and that has lasted for 10,000 years. What are the dead languages? How many of them are there? What is the distribution and history of speech communities in this world? Are there at least dialectal differences between the different planets? Are we ever going to find out? I'm going to guess probably not. We have Abigail as a world-renowned historian researching shit from 9000+ years ago and not a single mention or implication that any languages other than the one that everyone is speaking here in the year 10,000 are involved in that, until now, and I'm guessing this will probably be the last mention of that, dead languages are just mystical shit that make steles work, that's the only relevance they have

Also, steles apparently have to "hook up to" obelisks, which are presumably out in space somewhere, like necromantic cell phone towers I guess

I know this is a metaphor, but I've very skeptical of this. Let's math it. The earth's circumference is only 24,901 miles. Assuming you were only travelling eight hours a day, you only have to be travelling at an average speed of 8.5 miles per hour in order to get entirely around the whole earth in a year, you could do it in a 17th century tallship, except that the tallship can actually be sailing 24/7 so realistically it would be about three times faster. But ok, let's say you're power-walking or something and are travelling at 4.26 miles per hour for eight hours a day to get to the exact opposite end of the earth in a whole year, and you're somehow able to do this in spite of all the oceans being the way. How much faster would it be to travel at the same speed directly through the center of the earth instead? The diameter of the earth is 7,917.5 miles, at 4.26 miles per hour that's still approximately 1858.6 total hours of travelling, whereas, if you power-walked over the surface, that's a total of 2922.7 hours, which is only like 50% more walking. You're definitely not going to get there in a hour unless you can go through the center of the earth at thirteen or fourteen times the speed of an airplane, and if you can do that, you can travel the same distance overland in just a bit over 3 hours

So I think this is a bad metaphor to explain River travel

Very curious which Lyctors these were

You know, I might have to take back my statement that Ianthe is less irritating than Draco

Also, Ianthe is a flesh magician, and one of the weird POV breaks here was the narrative chiding Harrow for hating on flesh magicians

Now Harrow is surprised by what she actually says. Does this mean something? I can't think what

Ok, so this is why we can't have a bunch of regular necromancers hanging out with the Lyctors and siphoning their power

Was this meant to be the challenge where they fought the construct at the beginning of Gideon the Ninth? Because I'm very sure that was Lab Two, and if it's to do with Pyrrha, she's listed as the Second House cavalier at the beginning of this book, so it should indeed be Lab Two

#the locked tomb #harrow the ninth

[yuvon-writes-letters]

[Right on the top of the letter is a sighing girl drawn]

I really thought I could rest a few days before leaving. Like last time, ya know? I could've been more prepared. Didn't even get the call yet.

But I guess you're right. Exactly when you figured it out Jake did, too. (With a little bit help of goldie. They sent him the Tumblr conversation. The whole conversation. Without any comment.)

So yeah, either the MWAF knows where I work or (and that is a scary thought) even is there somehow sometimes.

Jake wanted me to promise to not go back there, but I couldn't. At least not for now. I want to go back there once, for now I shouldn't be in danger. At least not if he goes the same way as last time.

I should get a call from him later that day. And tomorrow I should find the raven note on my desk (after my lunch break). Later that day I saw the first time a guy with a mask. Then again the morning after I took the picture I sent TSB.

And that same evening I started hiding.

So I thought I still had some time...But it seems that isn't the case.

I would love to take Max, even though he can be a real asshole sometimes, but I don't believe that is clever. [The writing becomes shaky, almost unreadable to the end of the sentence]

I don't know anything anymore, just that I don't want all of this to happen again...

[Here are many ink blots, as if a pen was thrown on the paper]

Sorry..Sorry about that. My door bell started ringing. Surprise surprise, my idiot of a cousin. (I still love him though. Even if I'll never forgive him that he stole designs of me. Urgh. Sorry, nervous.)

He thought I acted weird when we texted earlier and my boss wanted him to check up on me.

What does a nervous little fox Liska do? (Little fox is a nickname he gave me when we were little xD I somtimes start using it when we're both in a weird situation)

He almost called the police, thinking I was in some weird 'abusive relationship' with, and I quite, "this Jake asshole".

It seems someone wrote him a text. An unknown number.

I already texted Jake about that..Any my guess is that the MWAF realised that he couldn't hack Jake anymore. So he tries different ways.

But it's fine now, I think I could convince him that everyone was okay. Even though now I have to take vacation with him. He wants to go tomorrow afternoon if I don't want him to call my parents. Why? That if I'm lying I'm not in danger anymore.

I mean, he's not fully wrong. Just that he doesn't have the facts right. (Which he couldn't. I'm still surprised that me being a suspect of kidnapping Hannah or helping a wanted hacker didn't go beyond Duskwood. But that's good.)

Oh and also, Jake just answered, he thinks it's good if I just go with Max in the moment. I think he stalked his Facebook profile. (Max did taekwondo for many years. Facebook tells his story)

But yeah, I am very sorry if this is an unsorted letter, not much happened and still many unsaid thoughts crossed my mind.

Liska🐾🔥

Ps. Also Jake wants me to thank the both of you for taking care of me when he couldn't. And still doing it.

And that I say that he's still not pleased with my decision to go to work tomorrow.

Lis,

So, Goldie's really taking more of an active role, now. I sort of thought they were finished until we massively fuck up again, but I guess they just don't want us to ask them questions or something. Interesting.

I wonder if that means the TSB timeline is still continuing

So the raven note on your desk comes tomorrow? I really wouldn't assume you're safe 'til then, but I guess if your Jake can't convince you, no one can XD

Still. Maybe now-ish would be a good time to take a long trip somewhere sunny. And crowded. Preferably with as many people as possible, who will notice if you go missing.

This is not going to happen again. We have several Jakes and two fairly smart people plus me helping you, PLUS an entity on your side, PLUS the advantage of knowing AND HAVING DOCUMENTATION on exactly how the previous timeline went. All we have to do is figure out a place you'll be safe, and bam, we're done.

...That's a pretty good opportunity, honestly. I agree with your Jake, you should go with your cousin. Though I'm curious what exactly the MWAF said to your cousin that convinced him that you were in danger. You might want to make sure that, a., the MWAF didn't suggest a location and you're not going there, b., your cousin turns off GPS tracking on his phone or just leaves it at home, and c., that your cousin doesn't post pictures of you on social media wherever you go.

Don't worry about the letter not being neat and stuff, I don't care too much about that. As long as

One sec Jessys texting me

Nothing important, she's still trying to test if I've been kidnapped or not without saying it outright. I lost my train of thought from earlier. Oh well.

You're welcome, Jake :) And I definitely emphasize with you on that one -_-

Passing the letter over to my Jake now.

(The handwriting changes to Jake's.) Hello, Lis.

Your workplace is very clearly an unsafe environment, but upon reflection and having read ahead and read Max's offer, I believe you actually should go into work, at least for the day. It will give less of our cards away to the enemy. However, do be vigilant. We know that our actions have already changed the timeline to at least some extent, the breadth of which is still unclear.

I am not entirely sure what the kidnapper would gain from having your cousin watching carefully over you in the window of time the kidnapper would have taken to track you down, however. Could it be possible that Goldie was the one to send your cousin the message, rather than the kidnapper?

I concur with Yuvon that the previous timeline's events will not repeat, however, for the exact same reasons she listed, though I will edit it slightly: we have three Jakes and three intelligent people working on the case, including Yuvon. I think I may need to speak with her about this.

Most of the advice I would have given about precautions for the vacation with your cousin has already been covered by Yuvon :)

You are welcome, Jake.

I noticed that in my agitation from your last letter, I accidentally skimmed over some key points. My apologies. I'll answer them now.

I will attempt to find a good point to bring up the matter with her, but she is busy enough trying to mitigate the concerns of the "Crow Crew" that I do not think that should be done at the current moment.

While I am... fond of the "underlying desire" theory, I do not, on reflection, believe it. The fact that she would subconsciously choose me, rather than a family member or a friend she has known longer than myself, seems unlikely. Especially not when she had been quite incensed at me very, very recently. It simply makes no sense.

Though, admittedly, if the situation was reversed, she would likely be

The stasis wavering is both good and bad news. It has been both a benefit and a detriment thus far. Ensure that the group does not draw the kidnapper's ire instead, without alerting them that you are in danger, should they break loose of the stasis alone. Until then, based on the results from Yuvon previously contacting them, I suggest you avoid contact unless they open communication first.

Good luck, Lis and Jake.

—Jake & Yuvon

(The letter tucks itself into the paper clip with the others.)

#duskwood letter game #yuvon writes letters #duskwood #duskwood game #duskwood everbyte #duskwood jake #lis

[lunarssong]

I feel like this should go here, too. (Post is being written by Sieglinde, @punkroselalonde.)

(Transcript below the cut.)

I think we've talked about this here before, but I don't think I have, and we left the house twice in the past week or two, so I'm thinking about it again.

The difference in how people treat you with a cane and how they treat you without one is shocking. We're getting used to the new treatment now, but it's still so different.

The one time we rode the bus, it was a vastly different experience, even ignoring the changes due to COVID. In a thrift store, an elderly shopper was very apologetic for accidentally getting in our way.

In Hot Topic, an employee moved a chair out of our way, and other shoppers were also much more apologetic/accommodating/polite than strangers tend to be.

In a Walmart, when we saw a visibly distressed, shivering, and alone dog wearing a service dog vest, who was trying very hard to get our attention, and sat with him to try to help him out until someone came back + sent our sibling off to go look for our parent, because I was just at a loss for what to do, and was really concerned about whoever he was supposed to be with, though he was acting off-duty, since he still had a vest on.

People passing by assumed that he was ours. (For anyone else also concerned, Henry was the service dog of the late girlfriend of the man he was there with, and he was shivering because he'd come inside while it was raining. So, very reasonable explanation he was cold, and wasn't with whoever needed him.)

I also believe we've been semi-followed by employees in stores as of late, though not with ill intent. They just really want to help us and make sure we're finding everything okay so much more than they used to.

There's also been concerned looks when whoever we're with walks off someplace else (usually our sibling) and we stay, because we realized we needed a basket or buggy or something and didn't want to walk all the way over and back, and prefer to wait.

On the topic of the bus - The driver asked if we wanted the bus lowered when we were getting off, and began to lower it before we could automatically respond with "No, it's fine" from the "don't be an inconvenience" instincts.

It's not necessarily *bad* that people are being more accomodating of us now, just.. new.

We've always had invisible disabilities most of the time, aside from when we can't suppress tics or fully mask, which is terrifying, but doing it is so uncomfortable and exhausting, so that's a different situation, or sometimes for the few moments it takes to get out and use our inhaler before putting it away again, but no one actually treats asthma like the physical disability it is.

There are a lot of other things/places I'm honestly almost excited to do/go, just out of curiosity about what ways people will treat us differently now.

The soonest one is sometime this month, I forget exactly when. We're going to finally get vaccinated for COVID. Of course, the majority of people there will also be disabled, which is also pretty interesting to think about - We've never actually been in a space with primarily only disabled people present before.

But, that factor might mean less of the aggressively accomodating behavior than we generally get in public now, at least from other patients/patrons/etc. Employees, though, I suspect may still act roughly the same way.

I guess my interest in this is probably some kind of psychology thing. I know @iris-sylph-of-mind finds it interesting, too, and they're the one in our system with a reputation for literally taking notes on headmates' behaviors, tone, body language, moods, motivations, etc, and she also likes to do a lot on Fear alignment and classpect/sway, the connections between them, and assigning them to people, so it wouldn't surprise me if it's something similar.

Ramble over, I think.

#actual post #Sigi speaks #long post

[broadwaytheanimatedseries]

Once Upon A Time, In A Far Away Land... - AU:

The legend says that King Raymond, then still a Prince and an adventurer, went to find the terrible threat known as the dragon witch, that has been rumored to have hurt innocent people and was the cause of great distress for a long time. What he found was a lovely, beautiful woman with charm and wit and a heart of gold, who's reputation had been tainted by those who tried to steal from her and payed the price when she defended herself.

It was then and there that the king decided he would do anything to make her happy.

Many years later, and the two married and had a family together. Three beautiful boys. Two of them ordinary looking twins, and the younger one seemingly half dragon and half human.

Now of course not everyone in the kingdom was immediately on board with their new queen, not did they all approve of the princes, especially the young one. But eventually, most of them came around, or at the very least knew better than to voice their negative opinions.

The years pass and the children grow up. Roman and Remus learn magic and swordsmanship, both being more talented in the latter, and they go on lots of adventures, both together and separately.

while Drake learns all that and more, doing his best to perfect all his skills but being especially talented in magic. he wants to be able to always have the right answers, to never be caught unprepared.

Unfortunately, he is caught very unprepared.

One day, while adventuring in a part of the woods rumored to be overtaken by the misfits and rebels of the kingdom, Roman and Remus are caught in one of their traps.

"well well well, a couple of trespassers." A hooded figure teased, eyes lighting up in amusement.

"those are no ordinary trespassers! It seems we're in the company of royalty!" Replied a man with glasses who didn't seem that mean compared to the hooded figure.

"Vee did good job with those traps, I gotta hand it to him." Said the woman among them, sounding pleasantly surprised.

The twins were too weak from their previous fight to do much, and they could only stare angrily as they waited for one of the rebels to speak.

Finally, the woman gave an order.

"R, Em, escort our guests. I'll go tell boss the wonderful news."

Hours later, as Drake was pacing in his room and his parents were sitting in the throne room patiently waiting for news on the whereabouts of their sons, all knowing it isn't like them to disappear for this long without giving a proper warning.

Finally, a message came, from the leader of the forest dwellers.

"if you wish to see your sons, there are matters to discuss. I will come to the forest's entrance every night for the next three days. Send a representative, they must come alone. We shall see if we can come to an agreement that's favorable for both sides. Should you fail to accept this offer, we will have no choice but to keep the princes as our prisoners. Their transgressions can not go unpunished, but perhaps theit unfortunate mistake can bring about a new era, for all those who deserve a better life.

Sincerely, P. Sanders"

Drake couldn't sleep that night, knowing that his parents had no intention listening to the rebels' wishes. He couldn't help but worry what his life would be like without his brothers. He didn't like the idea of it, not one bit.

So that night, after tossing and turning in his bed for hours, he decided to do something he never thought he'd do in his life.

He snuck out of the castle to disobey his parents.

He went to the entrance of the forest to speak to the leader of the rebels. The man he saw before him, however, was not at all what he expected.

Patton Sanders has been fighting ever since he could remember himself. He was hardly the first rebel to find shelter in these woods, but with all the elders that had raised him having passed away, he became the new leader. It wasn't an easy job, but it was rewarding, and someone has to do it. He couldn't let all these poor people go without any help, not when he knew from personal experience how hard it was to survive in the kingdom for anyone who couldn't be born or marry into nobility, and who couldn't fit into whatever narrow path was set up for them.

So to see that the king and queen sent their youngest son to negotiate was... puzzling, to say the least. After all, you'd think at least one of them would want to show up to discuss a way to get their sons back.

But when he saw the prince's nervous body language, he suspected he knew what was really going on.

"greetings, Mr Sanders." the young prince gave a small bow.

~at least he cares enough to show up and be formal about it.~ Patton thinks and decides that he can allow himself to be a little nice.

"please, Mr Sanders was my father. You can just call me Patton, your highness."

"oh, alright. Well then I suppose you can address me as Drake, if you wish."

There was a moment of uneasy silence before Drake decided he'll cut to the point.

"so what is it that you want in exchange for my brothers' safe return?"

"simply put? Justice."

Drake raised an eyebrow, not in judgement or mockery but in confusion. "I'm afraid you're going to have to be a bit more specific."

"why is it, you think, that generations of outcasts and misfits have sought shelter in these woods? Have you considered why we'd need to seek shelter from our own kingdom?"

Drake had a few ideas, but by the look on his face they troubled him too much to express.

Patton sighed in sympathy and decided to say it himself, as he had many times before, to save the young prince (who actually was about Patton's age, although the leader looked older due to all that he's had to endure) the embarrassment.

"the kingdom is under attack from within itself. The rich and powerful are attacking the poor and helpless, by not extending to them the aid they need in order to just barely survive, let alone thrive as the nobles do. And your parents have been complacent, content to let the broken system that benefits them go on as it always had. All I want is equality. To be provided with what we need to survive and to be allowed to exist however we choose, be given the same freedom the nobles have that we had to escape from the kingdom into the forest to find. That is all the rebels have ever wanted, and it is all I ask."

Drake listens carefully, studying Patton's face for any deception or insincerity, and finds none. He sighs, tiredly, heavily.

"you know my parents didn't send me, don't you?"

"I figured as much, yes."

"so you understand this is gonna be hell on earth for me, trying to accomplish what you're asking of me, against their wishes, right?"

"indeed, but considering your choice of words, it sounds to me like you've already joined the cause."

"...unfortunately, yes." Drake couldn't help but agree. He knew it was dangerous, and would take expert planning, and would be downright impossible to achieve, but besides the fact that it was the only way to get his brothers back without starting an unnecessary war with the peaceful forest dwellers, it was also the right thing to do. And besides, Patton was very cute- convincing! Drake had meant convincing, he insisted to himself, unconvincingly. Yes the irony of that is not lost on him.

Meanwhile, At the rebels' campsite, the twin princes were surprised to find that aside from the occasional jab or tease, they were being treated rather respectfully. Sure their hands were tied to ensure they couldn't escape but they were treated more like guests rather than prisoners. In fact, they were treated like equals, which has never happened to them before. Their parents treated them like kids and, although they tried to be subtle about it, so did a lot of the older nobles, and everyone else treated them like royalty, which they were. But this was the first time they've ever had a normal conversation with people who saw them as equals.

Roman was a bit huffy at first, insisting he be treated with the respect worthy of a prince, only to be met with laughter and eye rolls. "there aren't any classes here, you're no better than anyone else. Better get used to it, Princey." said a figure standing completely in shadow, though his eyes almost glistened in the darkness, the fire reflecting off them. "let him whine, Vee. It's all he's got now." the woman he now knew as Valerie teased, and the only reason he let her get away with it is because she had bested him in combat earlier that day, when he made a daring escape attempt. Seeing as she proved herself a fierce warrior, she had his begrudging respect. But then he heard the shadowed figure chuckle in response, and the sound evoked many different emotions in him, so he decided to focus on annoyance and anger. "so, you're the Vee in charge of the cowardly contraption that ensnared my brother and I." Roman could see the eyes squint as they looked him up and down, and then a smug smirk spread across the shadow's face. "the very same. Pretty neat trick, isn't it?" "I don't know what you think is so impressive about a machine made by a man too weak and scared to best his enemies face to face." "it's efficient, and it takes a hell of a lot more wit and talent than waving a sword around like a reckless idiot." the shadow bit back, sounding very defensive. Roman would have been prouder to have gotten him riled up if it were for Valerie looking very mad at him for insulting who he now had to assume is a friend of hers. He really didn't wanna anger Valerie. "I wouldn't expect a ruffian like you to understand anything about the fine art of sword fighting." at that, the shadow growled. Well and fully growled, sending a shiver down Roman's spine, filling him with fear and... Well he was going to ignore that other feeling for now and hopefully it would go away. "okay, fuck this. Val, can you untie his hands?" Valerie's eyes went wide. "Vee, you don't have to-" "no, I want to. It's worth it to get this asshole to shut up and show some respect." Roman would have said something if he weren't intrigued by the conversation. "alright, but I don't like this." "no one's gonna get hurt. I promise." as Valerie untied his hands she glared at him. "what? How was I supposed to know he'd react this way? Also what the hell is going on?" "you'll see in a second, just don't see this as a chance to try escaping again or I'll personally knock you unconscious." "noted." as the bindings were fully removed from his hands and Valerie backed away, Vee stepped out of the shadows, allowing Roman to see him for the first time. This was already a very big problem for Roman, as he was not prepared for how hot the rebel was. To make matters worse, Roman wasn't done checking him out sizing him up, when Vee pulled a sword from where it was resting on his hip, and he held it directly at Roman's throat, just inches away from grazing his skin. And that really should not have made the blood rush to the direction it did for Roman, but his body just had the worst timing. Luckily, somehow, he still managed to focus on Vee's next words.

"you wanted to fight face to face? Fine. I, Virgil Fabre, challenge you to a duel."

And that is when Roman realized his big mistake. Well, too late to back out now.

"I accept your challenge."

Remus was ecstatic, though. He immediately started feeling more at ease and free to be himself. He didn't even mind being tied up all that much, and he made sure to get that point across with a bunch of inappropriate humor that made everyone uncomfortable. Well all except for the two men who brought them to the camp, and a third, much cuter nerd, resembling the rebel in glasses but seemingly more stoic, but even he was clearly smiling at one of Remus's crass jokes. Their eyes locked and the serious rebel blushed and turned back to resume his conversation with the men he now knew as Remy and Emile. Fuck. Finding a way to enjoy being kidnapped while waiting to be rescued or until he found a way to escape? That was one thing. But crushing on one of the rebels who was holding him prisoner? Remus would have to be a fool to act on these emotions. He glanced the other way to check on his brother and asked why he was sword fighting with one of the rebels. After being updated on what happened, he sighs heavily. Well you know what? If Roman was allowed to be stupid, and they were truly equals in this forest, then dang it Remus can do whatever Roman can do if he damn well pleases. With this new conviction, he boldly strutted over to the handsome nerd, only for Emile to give him a death glare that immediately makes him turn around.

But he's far from giving up. They all are.

Anyway thats it for this au, for now (;

Let me know what you think and as always -

Stay Tuned!

#dee writes #sanders sides #sanders sides au #dee's aus #kingdom au #fantasy au #dragon witch #king creativity #creativitwins #and lil bro deceit #moceit #working together #but still on opposite sides #of what could become a war #if they're not careful #prinxeity #intrulogical #siblings! lomile #haven't decided yet #but #established remile #probably #tension #gay #gay tension #if at any point it seems like I'm talking out of my ass it's because this wasn't #supposed to be a commentary or anything #the salt just spilled out of me and I like it now fight me #I need to stop doing this to the tags