#and who have never in their life came across political theory

[szczylpierdolony]

socjo queer proves to be a fun class but the people can be so annoying

#idk how to describe it #but its ppl who think gay marriage is like. the height of gay rights #and who have never in their life came across political theory #or ig they have?? bc they will talk abt anticapitalism and stuff #but its just.. idk #ludzie którzy chodza na wywiady do gazety wyborczej itp #którzy mówią o lesbijskich stricte jako o kobietach #i przejęci polityka tożsamości #‘uu a co jeśli jestem lesbijką ale moja partnerka powie ze jest niebinarna :((’ #zabij sieeee #i ten jebany split attraction model #i grey seksualność i inne pierdoly #ci ludzie jak usłyszą ze lesbijki bywają trans i dalej sa butch to się rozpłaczą

[mo-aiki]

I now love you, is it too late? (Yandere Fiancé x F. Reader)

Summary: Heartbreak and romance are two sides of the same coin. They both deal with love between another. Your heart is broken but you are trying to move on, but someone is preventing you from doing so.

Notes: I never thought that the previous story would blow up like it did. You can read the first part here.

Warning: alcohol consumption, drugging someone, forced love, obsession, stalking, mentions of violence, I don't condone it, I just write it.

The days after his conversation with you, he should had been elated. For the first time in his life, he wasn't bothered by you and your antics. He could finally get work done without you bother him at every corner to come visit him or play with him. For the first few days, he was able to finish everything for once in his life instead of having a pile to do the next day. But overtime, somehow he was dreadfully bored.

His office felt quiet. Almost too quiet. The only sounds he could make out were the papers shuffling, the clock ticking, and the the voices that came in and out of his office.

Also, overtime he had completed work for the month. He was used to working more the next day and having work stacked up to the point that he needed to catch up, that now he has no idea what to do once he finished work for a month or two.

Alaric thought he could read. He has always enjoyed reading in his free time. But once he got to reading, he felt bored once again. He never realized that the books he read were nothing but boring. The books were full of political theory, history of the most boring topics, and informative information.

His lunches were quiet, his dinners were quiet, and his stomach often rumbled when he forgot to eat.

Life felt repetitive, boring, and dull. He was stuck in a routine of eat, work, and sleep. Nothing ever happened.

When (y/n) was here, she would always drag him somewhere, she had wanted to go to. To go shopping, a picnic, a play, an opera, to watch duals, or to eat. He always felt tired after those things, but at least it brought him excitment.

(y/n) often made sure he would eat flavorful foods and her favorite foods, to the point that he knows everything she likes.

(y/n) often made a ruckus in his home. Always talking, calling servant’s, squealing at her romance novels, and chatting with everyone.

'At least the manor was never deadly quiet whenever she was around...' he thought of as he smirked.

Wait. Why is he thinking about her?

He should be happy that she is no longer bugging him as often as she did.

He saw you outside. He was shopping for new cufflinks. His were "getting out of style" his secretary had told him. Maybe it was just a ploy to get him out of the manor, but he still went out nevertheless. He was in a jewelry shop. Unconsciously, he went to the one you often visited. The man knew who he was anyways, so might as well cut to the chase.

"Ah?! Your Grace!"

The man seemed to be looking for (y/n). "Where is Lady (l/n)? Doesn't she often accompany you?"

He just stood quiet for a moment before his secretary popped in. "His Grace is here to get cufflinks."

The man's eyes brighten. "Ah. Lady (l/n) has already thought of that for you. Please wait here Your Grace."

He brought out a box that he had gotten from a certain part of the store. He opened it, and there were square shaped, dark blue jewels, bordered with small diamonds, the metal gold. It looked like it suited him. Very well. She knew his taste well. She knew what he liked.

"If Your Grace does not like it, you can commission another..." said the man selling him the product.

Alaric shook his head. "No, it's perfect."

He signaled at his secretary to give him a generous check in his name as he left the shop, only to find you, looking at the ocean view from across the shop.

Why did it look like you were looking for something?

More importantly, why did it look like you were looking for someone?

You wore a bright dress, your favorite lace gloves, your prettiest sunhat and carried your favorite parasol.

He was confident that he was the only man who has ever had a very close relationship with you, other than acquaintanceship.

Wait, why was he thinking this?

Why should he care if you saw another man. This is an engagement of convenience anyways. There is no point in scrutinizing every man that either comes or came in your life.

But if you were going to be talking to men after him, they better be better than him. He was not going to be beaten by some half-rate man, who has never held a sword in his life, who has never had to train often to live up to your a standard(s), who has never had to deal with the responsibilities of being a duke from the moment he was born, who has not needed attention from you, and who has never lived up to your ideas of love.

He wasn't going to lose to a man who never even knew you like he did.

But he saw you were being accompanied by a maid after his thoughts had raged through his head. He walked closer towards you. He saw you.

Your eyes had seemed like the eyes that often looked his way when he greeted someone. Not like their lively selfs that he was so used to from you. Your eyes always shone brightly when he was in your presence.

Your smile, one of formality, not your genuine one. You smiled the brightest whenever he was around. Anyone could tell with that smile that you loved him.

You looked like any other person he had interacted with. Formal and in-line with etiquette.

Even your speech was formal. It was no longer bright and cheerful. It was no longer, "Alaric! What are you doing here?", it was now, "Pleased to see you, Duke Caius."

"It's pleasant to see you too, Lady (y/n)." he responded back.

You nodded you head while a wave of silence came through. He didn't talk, you didn't talk, both of you were looking at the distance of this port.

'She is rather quiet. Too quiet..." he thought in his head. Often she was the one who started up a conversation.

"I'm very sorry Duke Caius, but I must leave. I am shopping with a friend, and I wouldn't want them to keep on waiting for me, so, please excuse me."

You started walking off slowly, but then he spoke. "Would you like for me to escort you?"

You turned your head. He thought you would be smiling and agreeing to his suggestion immediately, holding his arm in a loving manner and chatting with him the entire way, like you used to do whenever he had brought out that idea.

But you had shook your head. "No, but thank you for your suggestion, Duke Caius. My guard is nearby here anyways."

You walked off as he could only look at you and your maid walking. He didn't even realize that his secretary had came back, as he only chased after you in the same direction.

He saw from a distance, you holding the arm of some man. A dull man. He was mad at that moment, but his anger wasn't towards you, it was towards the man you were with.

You had became more distant with him. Avoiding him at every moment, like he was the plague. Every time he noticed her, she had seem to always step away from him, with every step she had taken, walking away from him instead of towards him like they used to do.

At parties, you would often avoid him, while his arm was being stuck onto by Lady Thompson.

Social events had you talking to the ladies, sparring no time for him.

Outings with no small talk.

Every little thing you had done to distance yourself from him, almost drove him insane. His head now full of questions for your sudden change in personality. In the span of a few weeks, you had all of the sudden became the most formal person on earth, to the point people started questioning the legitimacy of the relationship.

"It seems like they will break up soon..."

"Are we sure they are engaged? Lady (l/n)'s sudden change in personality must mean something..."

"How sad this relationship had to come to. It feels like they are in a married’s quarrel!"

"I heard that Marquis (l/n) is planning on annulling their engagement..."

"Really?!"

These nobles and their chatty lips. These rumors meant nothing. (y/n) would never let something like an annulment happen to them.

He was bewildered. Shocked. Almost appalled with this letter.

He thought that she had delivered a letter to write to him once again, but this time, this letter was from Marquis (l/n).

Dear Duke Caius,

I regret to have informed you, that I am making a selfish and personal decision to annul this engagement between you and my daughter. I have came to this decision after her reaction and my bewilderment at the Royal Ball from 4 months ago, after you had escorted Lady Alina Thompson instead of my daughter.

I could see the heartbreak in her eyes, and as a father, it is painful to constantly see your daughter in constant heartbreak from the very boy you had known since he was young.

When your late father and I had planned this engagement for the both of you, I knew I would have to give up my precious daughter to a man I could trust, not a little boy who has yet to grown up.

You have yet to proven to me that you could be a man I could trust you with my only child, my daughter.

I wish you well and hope you will continue to collaborate and see the (l/n) house positively and as allies.

Sincerely,

Marquis (l/n)

The letter came with the annulment papers with it. He quickly looked through the papers too see your signature on them and your thumb print.

He stood quiet for a minute, before chuckling. "(y/n)...oh (y/n)..."

He felt like ripping the papers to shreds in the very moment.

You were happy for once in your life. You had met someone special to you. Arthur Johnson.

A stableman who engaged in conversation with you when he was working for your family. He always had a kind demeanor. soft spoken, and was often willing to hear you. Despite your age gap with him (being 10 years), his status as a commoner, and his rugged appearance, you felt like for the first time in your life, you had actually met your prince charming.

He took on dates to the crowded places like small festivals and the farmer markets. Your first present from him being a cheap pendent necklace from him.

His personality was well liked by everyone as he seemed to have a good relationship with everyone.

His voice was deep and attractive, smothering your ears and causing you to blush around him whenever he talked.

He always called you 'princess' or 'my lady' whenever out and about with you, causing you to be flustered at such comments.

He had introduced you to his ailing mother. You never felt so bad for anyone. You had offered to help him, but instead he rejected such offers from you. "My lady, you really don't need to help us..."

"Nonsense Arthur! Your mother is sick and-"

He always shook his head. "I do not want to rely on my lady to always help us. Thank you for the idea though."

Elliot was boring.

Gregory was pretentious.

Adonis was suspicious.

Adrian was paranoid.

But Arthur, was a gentleman.

Until you never heard back from him one day.

He had holed up in his manor until something had happened. He had gotten news of you being spotted on dates with other men.

Afterwards he had a reason to leave the manor from this point onwards. You were with a man after man often times. Talking, chatting, flirting, and being brought around with. He had his secretary look at the backgrounds of those men.

Low-ranking noblemen, and sometimes even commoners.

The perfect people to direct his anger at. After all, what are those families and people associated with them, are going to do against the wrath of Duke Caius and the Caius Duchy.

All of the sudden, these men had been riddled with debt and their families in financial ruins.

A son of a baron, tricked by a scammer he had paid for. He had fell for it, meaning he was too naive and not needed for (y/n), who was just as equally naive.

A son of a viscount, conned and arrested for the possession and the selling of forged art. The real artwork, costing millions, and in his own manor. He "might" had hired an artist to help him with it, paying off their own debt and giving them money. He was too irresponsible that he didn't even check to see if the artwork was genuine. (y/n) would had lived a life of cleaning up after him.

Another son of a baron, swallowed by loan debt after taking out loans to do his playboy schemes. He often bought expensive stuff in order to impress the women he was trying to bed with. Where did he get the loans from? He sure doesn't know, does he? He had troubles with infidelity. He will he constantly cheating on (y/n) if Alaric didn't catch it early enough.

A son of an earl, swallowed in gambling debt by him. He had seen him in the casino houses, and he thought why not taunt him. Plus, he paid off the casino house to always make him win no matter what. He was a gambling addict, spending his days holed up and gambling his money away. (y/n) would be left to die on the streets with nothing if she had been with him.

A stableman, in loan debt as well, after he had offered to help him with his ailing mother. But now his mother dead, and the loans still needed to be paid off. Otherwise, he could just kill him and sell his organs to the black market to get all the money back from him. Guess what option he did. He was poor, and poor men don't deserve her love if they cannot give her what she wanted. Plus, he might just brag often about his now, new lifestyle if she were to be with him.

The stableman was the most annoying in his eyes. His last words before he had slain him were, "Protect her for me, please, for this old bachelor..."

All of these men strengthen his point overtime. That he was the perfect man for her.

He is skeptical and less naive.

He is responsible.

He has never had issues with infidelity that he has known of.

He has never been financially irresponsible with money, nor has he gambled.

He has always had the ability to give her everything she has ever wanted.

He came to the eventual conclusion.

No man could replace him.

You felt trapped.

A rumor had spread around about Duke Caius's wedding day coming up. You thought he was just going to get married to Alina, but instead you and your father were summoned by His Majesty.

He was congratulating you and your soon to be wedding day. "Congratulations Lady (l/n)! You must be a happy bride. And you too Marquis (l/n)!"

You and your father were confused, but still acted like everything was normal, until you brought it up. "Excuse me Your Majesty, but who has told you about this. I thought I had wanted it to be a smaller event..."

His Majesty let out a gleeful laugh. "Duke Caius came to me last week, talking about how now he had decided to plan his wedding. I thought it was a splendid idea! And thus I had given him permission to use the chapel. He seemed elated at the idea, and thus was willing to plan the wedding himself."

Your eyes widen as you nodded. Your head blanking out the entire time. 'Isn't that impossible, unless...'

You went running out of the palace, finding a carriage to use to get to the Ducal Manor. You needed an explanation of what was going on.

Once you got there, you immediately asked the butler where he was, only to see Alaric, looking happy to see you as he came down the stairs to the front of the manor.

"(y/n), my bride! You are just in time for your dress fitting."

He snapped his fingers to have the servants taking you somewhere as he followed, you resisting. "Wha-? No! Alaric, I have to ask about something!"

He smiled in front of you. The previous you would had elated and been happy at his smile. But now it felt uncanny. Like something was off.

"You have finally called my name..."

You gasped as the servants kept on dragging you to your dress fitting. His hand over his heart as he looked like a sad puppy all of the sudden. "Do you know what it feels like to be called one name for my whole entire life with such endearment, only for it to be taken away?"

"No! That's why I'm not here! LET GO OF ME!"

He snapped his fingers as the servants let go of you. He walked towards you, as he placed his hand on your cheek. All you could feel was how cold it was. Like it was ice. You looked directly at him. "I am here to ask, why are we getting married?!"

His puppy face came back, as both of his hands cupped you face. "(y/n), I thought this is what you had wanted..."

Your eyes widen as he looked directly at you. "A big fairy tale wedding, your dream dress, your knight in shining armor sweeping you off your feet, true love's first kiss...isn't this what you had wanted all your life?"

This is what you had always wanted, but not like this. Not while Alaric had this sudden shift in personality and when he felt completely different form the Alaric you had knew.

But also, when your feelings for him had wavered like tides in an ocean. "But I thought the annulment had gone through..." you had said to him.

He chuckled, soon going onto full blown laughter. "(y/n), I know you still want to get married to me. So let's have the wedding of your dreams." he said while placing a kiss on your forehead, something you would had blush at, if everything about this wasn't sketchy.

"But! But!"

"No buts. We are getting married in 9 days anyways. Now, let's go to your dress fitting!"

Everything was too sketchy these past 7 days. Alaric had a sudden change in personality. An extreme one in fact. He all of the sudden became loving.

Following you everywhere.

Bringing you onto his lap while he works.

Having picnics with you.

Having tea with you.

Being your dance partner for practicing.

Locking you in his manor and giving you a splendid guest room while at it.

Coming into your room and reading you to sleep.

Increasing security around you.

Feeding you himself, personally.

Disciplining the male servants if they had touched you.

And the most weird one, not leaving your room, even while you slept.

He had changed, but for what? Now all you felt was creeped out by his sudden shift in behavior. Every single little thing done by him almost felt suffocating. Like he so desperately needed you to either be beside him or to in this manor.

You wanted to see your friends again. You wanted to talk to people again. You wanted to see your father again. You wanted to go shopping again. You wanted to see Arthur again. You wanted to do the things you did. You wanted to leave this suffocating manor for once and do something other than being restrained by him.

So you snooped. When he left, you went around his office. Previously, you had always barged into his office, always running your mouth in a tasteless way. But this time, you had avoided his office, unless he dragged you to it to be with him.

You looked around with something on your mind. "He must have the annulment papers somewhere..."

There was a family portrait of him and his father in his office. A portrait must mean that there's something behind it. Touching the frame, you opened up a secret compartment that was full of bank statements. "Elliot Lancaster, Gregory McClain, Adonis Lovesett, Adrian Hill, Arthur Johnson..."

All the men you had been with. The bank statements had shown how their wallets had gone empty in the span of a week or two.

Elliot and his family had gone bankrupt and sent to an island in the north.

Gregory had been charged with forgery and sentenced to 3 years in prison.

Adonis had been bankrupt and charged with assault against a Marquis for mingling with his wife.

Adrian had been cut off from his family due to his gambling addiction, and has now gone further in debt.

And Arthur. The nice man Arthur. His body was never founded when his mother reported him as missing.

Your eyes widened in horror as you looked at the other pages. He had planned it. From the financial debt to killing Arthur and selling his body parts on the black market. Each paper described the reports of the deeds he had done.

Especially for Arthur. His was the most gruesome one. Chopping him up into bits and selling his innards to the black market while dumping the rest to the ocean on Beckett's Beach, where you took your first date with him.

You couldn't help but squat out of fear immediately. Were you responsible for all of these mens' demise?

Would Elliot and his family still be living in the capital in peace if he never met you?

Would Gregory go back to being his artistic and art loving self if he didn't buy from that one painter you had told him to buy from?

Adonis was already kinda shitty.

Would Adrian change if you had stayed with him?

Would Arthur still be alive if you never noticed him?

You didn't know, and that's when you started crying. Your tears fell down rapidly like waterfalls. The papers, the bank statements, the pieces of news, the reports, all of them now wet with your tears on the paper. You couldn't help but feel for them, especially Arthur.

Arthur was now dead, and his mother soon meeting him.

And it felt like it was all your fault.

"We'll always be together, my lady, this old stableman promises."

Crying alone in Alaric's study, you thought about the moments you had with Arthur. They were all going to be a faded memory of the past. If only you weren't so naive and if only you knew.

"Why is my bride crying?"

Your head turned to see Alaric at the door of his study. You gulped as you got up, dusting your dress while at it. "I-it's nothing, Alaric..." you stuttered, trying to hold back your tears.

He came close towards you as he looked at all the papers on the ground and the portrait, open. He chuckled for a bit. "Did you read these?"

You shook your your head. "I just...found them, that’s all. I swear I didn't read them!"

He looked at the papers, then at you. You could tell he knew that you were lying. He always said you were an open book and how you wore your heart on your sleeve. "Don't bother lying (y/n)."

He pointed to the part on which you had stained with your tears. The paper transparent as he put the papers down on his desk, walking closer to you. Each step growing closer, each step he took feeling like he was mad. Each step felt like an eventual punishment for your actions. "Why were you snooping around in my office, (y/n)?"

You answered with the first thing on your mind. "B-because! I just...w-wanted to l-look around, Y-your Grace..."

"I told you..." He gently pushed a piece of hair behind your ear. "Call my Alaric once agin, (y/n)."

His words laced with anger. He was speaking almost like he was threatening you. He looked at the pendent around your neck. Almost like he never noticed it before. Taking the pendent in his fingers, he looked at it obsessively. "Who gave you this necklace, (y/n)?"

You gulped instead of speaking. His hands felt cold when he touched your cheek, looking at you with his angry eyes. "I said, who gave you this necklace, (y/n)?"

"A-Arthur..." you mumbled.

"Who?"

"ARTHUR!" you said even louder before he started laughing hysterically.

"That peasant? Why bother keeping something cheap around your neck. I thought you hated these things?"

You used to, but now this necklace represented Arthur. "I-it's none of your b-business, Alaric!" you yelled out.

"It is my business. Considering you are to be my wife soon, something like this is unacceptable for a Duchess..."

He slowly got closer to your ear. "Especially if it came out that a peasant gave you such a thing...I wonder what would happen to your father...for allowing you to be romantically involved with a man of dirty origins..."

Your eyes widen. "Arthur isn't like that! You don't know him!"

You tried to walk out, only for Alaric to hug you from behind, holding you in a tight grip. You felt like you were losing air by the second once he held onto you. "He's never told you? His mother was apart of a brothel..."

You breath stopped as he whispered more into your ear. "He was the illegitimate son of a noble...people like that deserve to be killed for grasping an ounce of your attention..."

You tried to get out of his grip, but instead he had ripped off the necklace on your neck, letting it fall onto the floor and walking off to his desk, letting you go. You cried as you turned back to look at him. "You-you monster!"

He opened a velvet box with a diamond and sapphire necklace, placing it around your neck, smiling. "My beautiful (y/n)..."

He gripped you arms tight, dragging you to the mirror in the study while putting the necklace together, smiling.

"We will be together forever and this necklace, is to symbolize your new life as Duchess."

You only looked at yourself wearing the necklace as Alaric's hands kept you still.

"You can never leave me now..." he said, as he kissed your cheek.

You in your wedding dress as he went out into the hall.

Walking down the aisle with your father.

The flower petals dancing around you.

The songbirds singing their songs.

And your once dream husband at the alter.

"Do you take Duke Caius's hand, in sickness and in health, in wealth and or none, in forever lasting love?

"...I do..."

The final words of your previous life.

A/N: A part 3 for married life or not?

Taglist

@sirenetheblogger @wickedace12 @cyzvx @mel-vaz @blobbythebigblob @loucyberv @nikosovercoat @wintercloudyweather @insomniac1345 @a-living-person @kitcatfullmoon @happy-smiley @springkuinn @sunflower19561904 @hayatslife @oneandonlydice @nanaluvv @imnotabot28 @resident-cryptid @fluffyduckzy @starsdotalk @helloimamistake @pinkwitchdeservesbeingpraised @moyazami @whocaresimnothere @your-average-potato @runawaymf @redchocolate-bunny @sweet-flowering @droaxa @angie2rjebesttt @ersharyzst @lovley-valentine7 @maskedvoyance @xiaopleasecomehome @cynoswife @barbara-228 @uninhibitedsworld-18 @bea-ginner @imsamilol @lithespidy @grassclippingssss @reni502 @forgottendreamer02 @haileybb123 @nourrr123 @strawberrylips-1211 @usagikookiejams @blisyxx @twismare @despuyuh @majestichugs @ayatosneakylink @vivyolite

#yandere oc x reader #yandere male #yandere male x reader #yandere x reader #x f reader #yandere childhood friend #yandere duke #yandere duke x reader #yandere #tw yandere

[wandaslittlelove]

Destined Part 1

Warnings for this chapter: None?

Series Masterlist

I sighed as I heard a loud knock on my front door. Grabbing the bag of flour I made my way to the door assuming it was just my neighbor Marcy wanting some for baking again. The girl never seemed to have any and always came over for mine which I didn’t mind. I just started buying more when I would go to the store. 

“Marcy hun you should really just-” I froze as I saw Strange on the other side of the door and a young girl stood next to him.

“y/n nice to see you.” He spoke. With a sigh I sat the flour down on the small table by the door before inviting them in.

“Tea?” I asked while making my way into the kitchen as they both followed after me. The young girl politely nodded her head and took a seat at the island along with Strange who sat a very old looking book down on the countertop.

It was silent for a minute. The only sound being me getting down three mugs and the teapot whistling on the stove. 

I sat the tea in front of the two along with some sugar as I took to standing across from them.

“What do you need Strange?” My tone came out more bitter than I wanted it to but I couldn’t help it. After I left what remained of the Avengers I had hoped I would never have to see his face or any of theirs ever again. That's why I moved to Ohio so that I would be away from the never ending drama that is New York and to be close to my sister's grave.

“I- We need your help. This Is America Chavez. She’s able to travel the multiverse.” With those words I choked on my tea.

“The multiverse?” I questioned not trusting my ears to have heard the right thing.

“Yes. You know about it?” He asks as he and the girl, America, looked at each other.

“Vision often talked of his theories during movie nights” The word Vision seemed to make me scowl remembering how he got the life with the person I had loved. The person who was supposed to be my wife. 

“You said Wanda said the same thing” This was the first time the girl had spoken and the way she said Wanda had made your whole body shiver. It was as if she was scared of the woman.

“You spoke to her?” I hadn’t heard anything of her since that night I left. I expected to at least see something about her on the news but she never came up. 

“Yeah. She’s after me. She’s been sending these weird creatures after me to take my powers.” America explained as she fiddled with the mug.

“She has the dark hold y/n” The words caused me to stiffen. I had only heard of the dark hold a few times while I was studying with Strange but I knew it was nothing good. It was described as the book of the damned and anyone who touched it became corrupted. “I need your help in protecting America. Yours and Wanda’s magic are almost complete opposites. While hers is chaos magic while yours is Order magic.” The two shared another look as if they both knew something I didn’t. I watched as Strange opened the book he had brought and flipped to a page. “With the help of the darkhold Wanda has become the Scarlet Witch. Everything anyone had ever known about her is written in this book like a prophecy.” I nodded as I listened to his words. “It also speaks of yours.” He slides the book over to me and setting my tea down I quickly read the page he had opened to. 

The Scarlet Witch bringer of chaos and the White Fawn bringer of life and creation:

The Scarlet Witch is not born; she is forged. She has no coven or need for incantation. Her power exceeds that of the Sorcerer Supreme. It is her destiny to destroy the world. 

The White Fawn is the opposite of the chaos bringer. She is born to counteract the actions of the Scarlet Witch. Her destiny is to heal the wounds, love, and calm the Chaos Witch.

My eyes scanned the page three more times before I slammed the book shut. I watched as America jumped in her seat and I sent her an apologetic smile as I slid the book back to Strange. 

“That can’t be right or it can’t be me. Wanda does not love me. I will not let my destiny be what is written in some book. What is she even after in the multiverse?” My question seemed to keep Strange quiet for a moment before he spoke.

“You”

Tag List: @alexawynters @username23345 @casquinhaa @idontknow-llol

#wanda maximoff #wanda maximoff x female reader #wanda maximoff x reader #wanda maximoff x you #dark wanda maximoff #marvel #wanda maximoff x fem reader #wanda marvel #wanda maximoff mom #wanda maximoff imagine #wanda maximoff x reader smut #wanda x reader #wanda x you #wanda x y/n #scarlet witch #mcu fandom #marvel headcanons #multiverse of madness #dr strange #dr strange and the multiverse of madness #wanda mom #wandavision #wanda #wanda x fem reader #wanda x fem!reader #wanda mcu #mcu wanda #wanda maxmoff x y/n #wanda avengers #avengers wanda

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Paula Wright

Published: Feb 19, 2023

If any man could draw up a comprehensive, infallible guide to navigating this treacherous territory, we would certainly erect a statue to his everlasting memory. There is a Twitter account dedicated to exploring and enumerating precisely the distinctions and differences between the acceptably erotic and the intolerably sexist. It’s called @SexyIsntSexist. It is, of course, under the control of a woman.” Neil Lyndon. Do men really understand what sexism is? The Telegraph 20/5/14

I created Darwinian Gender Studies (DGS) in 2008 as a cross-disciplinary area of study and research which utilises insights across the evolutionary behavioural sciences, including but not limited to, evolutionary psychology, biology, anthropology, ethology, palaeoanthropology and cultural evolution.    It represents the consilience of the natural and social sciences, as envisioned by E. O. Wilson.

Back then, my planned PhD thesis was to be in developing an evolutionary, bio-cultural model of ‘patriarchy’ which challenged the premises of the feminist conception of patriarchy. Even in 2008, the project foresaw that political correctness, social justice and toxic feminism were taking us deep down the postmodern rabbit hole. My goal was to build bridges of understanding between the sexes not walls of fear and mistrust, which is what feminism does today. To learn about humans and humanity; what we are, and what we are not.

Two things we are, which we cannot cease to be and remain human, are a sexually reproducing, moderately sexually dimorphic, pair-bonded species. These are basic facts of our human nature which cannot be erased by social engineering.

Within DGS, I interrogate orthodox feminist concepts, such as patriarchy theory, objectification theory, gender, power, mating strategies, and sex differences and similarities, using humour and evolutionary explanatory models such as natural and sexual selection, parental investment theory, female choice, signalling theory, life history theory, intersexual competition and intrasexual competition.

History has demonstrated many times, that whenever our species attempts to take control of biology and bend it out of shape to ideological goals, human tragedy always follows. It’s a lesson we still don’t seem to have learned, as in spite of overwhelming evidence, many people still hold fast to the idea of an endlessly flexible human nature, and indeed, human nature is flexible, but a blank slate it is not. Neither however is it a crude caricature of immutable deterministic drives and instincts as often painted within the straw man of biological determinism. Human nature is very much mutable, but not infinitely or arbitrarily so, and here lies the nub: Within what may seem like infinite variations of human action and reaction to what life throws at us, our predispositions on an average scale are actually predictable. There are enough constants within this calculus to recognise the existence of an unmistakably human nature. This nature will vary and recalibrate between individuals and ecologies (variation is one of the engines of evolution) but these variations dance around a constant, evolutionary fire.

“Those who journey from political correctness to truth often risk public disapprobation, but it is notable that most never lose their tolerance or humanity. They may question the politics of race, but not that racism is bad; they may question campaigns about women’s pay, but not that women and men deserve equality of treatment.” Browne, A. (2006) The Retreat of Reason: Political correctness and the corruption of political debate in modern Britain. Civitas

I was, and am, standing on the shoulders of many female evolutionary scientists and philosophers who came before me such as Barbara Smuts, Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, Anne Campbell, Helena Cronin, Griet Vandermassen, Catherine Salmon, Maryanne Fisher, Bobby Low, Helen Fisher, and many more. Over the last 50 years, their scholarship has revealed that, far from feminist fears to the contrary, evolved sex differences do not equate to inferiority.  Via evolution, we in fact see true equality expressed in discrete and fascinating ways.

These women (and many men) have illuminated the role females play as potent agents of evolution via the phenomenon of female choice. This is sadly still an unsung revolution – unsung by feminism, not evolutionists –  as it shattered the male perspective biases that once dominated biology and Darwinism. These women did this, not with rhetorical declarations of war against ‘patriarchy’ but with logic and critical thinking.

When it comes to the principles of natural selection – the struggle to survive – men and women differ very little. Rather, it is in the principles of sexual selection – the struggle not just to survive but thrive enough to have offspring and allow them to thrive also – that the main differences start to become manifest. It is a categorical fact that none of these differences equates to any moral inferiority. No genuine evolutionary scholar would ever make such a claim.

Feminists have long claimed that logic is an exclusively male trait. So much so that to counter the “male” scientific method they felt the need to create “female” method – social constructionism - which ironically invokes every negative female stereotype they claim to want to refute. They did this not because social constructivism was a better tool – it is untested – but because it was the binary opposite of the scientific method.

Women, in fact, have nothing to fear from logic. Yet feminists do fear it, as philosopher Janet Radciffe Richards notes in her book The Sceptical Feminist, 

“…in spite of girls doing better at school than boys, feminists are still woeful at rationality…feminism has some tendency to get stuck in the quagmire of unreason from time to time [but] it cannot be denied that adopting an anti-rational stance has its uses; it can be turned into an all-purpose escape route from tricky corners”  

They also fear it because it falsifies the very premises feminism rests on – especially female inferiority.

This is a description of all feminisms today: radical, intersectional and all other tribes battling for dominance in the victim narrative – including ideological men’s rights, MGTOW and “red pill” groups. All feminisms eschew logic and reason for dogma and ideology and all are in thrall to the flying patriarchal spaghetti monster in the sky. Ask a question about female oppression, you already know the answer: it’s the patriarchy, stupid. And ideological men’s groups have their own version of patriarchy, known as gynocentrism. Both concepts are intellectually myopic.

I created DGS all those years ago because I wanted the opportunity to have a role, however small, in helping us better understand ourselves as a species.

It is true that as a woman I am perhaps more interested in the unique selection pressures women face due directly to their sex. As an evolutionist and a realist, however, this bias does not make me blind to the fact that men face their own unique selection pressures due explicitly to their sex.

The truth is, one sex cannot be understood except in the light of the other. Men and women have co-evolved, each shaping the other both physically and psychologically via sexual selection. Men desire power and resources because women desire men who have power and resources. And female conflict, well that doesn’t look like male conflict, and so often goes unseen, especially by feminists.

From an evolutionary perspective, feminism can be categorised as the study of the conflict between the sexes – intersexual conflict – aka the “battle of the sexes” with a particular interest in proximate, conscious mechanisms of how men can oppress women and how this oppression can be countered. But this is only half the story. Evolutionists posit that to really understand intersexual conflict one must also analyse intrasexual conflict. We do this because we observe across species that competition within a sex is always far more intense than between the sexes. An evolutionary lens also broadens the enquiry to include an analysis of ultimate, unconscious mechanisms of not just how, but why, men pursue the goal of power and resource control. What do men want to do with power? To create strong alliances, subdue rivals, protect against enemies and attract mates.  

Much is known about male intrasexual competition. We have had 2000 years to work it out – its role in shaping cultures and empires – for better or worse. Far less is known about conflict - and conflict resolution - between women; female intrasexual competition (FIC). It is the pink elephant in the feminist room. Do we have the same amount of time to understand female intrasexual competition? For better or worse? I don’t think we do. The epidemic of female-on-female bullying in nursing has long been acknowledged in academia, yet nothing is done about it. In the UK it costs the NHS billions of pounds in workplace attrition, sick leave and low efficiency. It can also cost lives, as a “culture of bullying” was highlighted in the official reports on two scandals in UK maternity wards where both infants and mothers lost their lives.

In another example observe the rise of intragender conflict in the West. Third-gender people exist in many cultures, but only in the West are males who identify with the female gender trying to use it as leverage to get access to sex-based rights and privileges. Then we have feminism itself a battleground fraught with female intrasexual competition, which is often mistakenly called “internalised misogyny”.  Women too, it seems, want to create alliances, subdue rivals and attract the best mates.

Using FIC as a lens to look anew at hot feminist topics such as the beauty industry, cosmetic surgery, anorexia, and the endless wars of attrition between the many tribes of feminisms brings fascinating new insights, as all these phenomena seem to be expressions of female competition not male oppression.

Nonetheless, there is still a comfortable consensus among all feminists that the beauty ‘ideal’ is a tyranny perpetrated upon women by the patriarchy. “Feminists down the ages have argued that the oppression of women is played out on their bodies, their clothes, their style of adornment. To politicise dress has been one of the enduring projects of the women’s movement.” (Walter, N. 1999) Naomi Wolf tackled this concept in her seminal book The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women. It suggested that this patriarchal strategy is one of ‘divide and rule’ as it “creates a climate of competitiveness among women that divides them from each other.”

Competitiveness is the keyword here. Perhaps the idea of sanctioning the idea, nay the fact, of female intrasexual competition seems frightening for feminists because on the surface of it, it threatens the very notion of a ‘sisterhood’. Yet we know that men are murderously competitive with one another, as homicide rates attest, and this does not seem to threaten their notion of ‘the patriarchy’.

The evidence actually shows that the beauty myth may not be a tyranny perpetuated on women by men, but on one other - if it is a tyranny at all! And it reveals a much more complex and fascinating picture of female agency which goes far to liberate women from the doctrine of passive femininity.

The fact is, women are fiercely competitive with one another, but as the existence of feminism attests, this does not stop women at least trying to cooperate to face challenges, though, as feminism also shows, its own willful ignorance of human nature means feminists cannot agree on anything for long. This explains the many tribes within feminism, and the fiercely defended hierarchies that exist within feminism itself.

I do not deny that these revelations are tricky for feminists to negotiate, but that is no reason for not taking them on. That female intrasexual competition exists is not in doubt. The degree of it however will vary from culture to culture. We know dominance hierarchies exist in many species and all apes. Humans add to the mix competence hierarchies which allow for the utilisation of innate talents and the division of labour which has allowed our species to become far more than the sum of its biologically determined parts.

We also know females have a large role in the construction and maintenance of such hierarchies, for better and worse. Women are individuals and as such are often not united in their interests. An individual’s environment is crucial to how they calibrate their own needs. Yet, ironically, the collective structure of feminism, suppresses the evolutionary mechanism of individual female choice. The epithet “choice feminism” is regarded with contempt by most feminists today.

 “If we do not know what we are capable of…then we do not know what to watch out for, which human propensities to encourage, and which to guard against.” Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors.

Further reading: Griet Vandermassen Sexual Selection: A Tale of Male Bias and Feminist Denial ; Griet Vandermassen: Who’s Afraid of Charles Darwin: Debating Feminism and Evolutionary Theory; Anne Campbell: A Mind of Her Own: The Evolutionary Psychology of Women ; Sarah Blaffer Hrdy: Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding ; Sarah Blaffer Hrdy: Mothernature ; Susan Pinker: The Sexual Paradox: Men, Women and the Real Gender Gap ; Christina Hoff Sommers: Who Stole Feminism? ; Cindy Metson & David Buss: Why Women Have Sex; Women reveal the truth about their sex lives, from adventure to revenge (and everything in between) ; E.O. Wilson: Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge ; Jerome H.Barklow (ed): Missing the Revolution: Darwinism for Social Scientists

==

We recognize that the evolution of peafowl, bees, seahorses, angler fishes and marsupial mice has resulted in males and females whose physiology and behavior development has influenced and responded to each other. Yet somehow, that female and male humans behave as they do as a result of the other is somehow unreasonable or even "sexist." Like creationist Xians, this is a denial of evolution and of humans as members of the animal kingdom.

It seems like the "god did it" dragon of "tHe PaTrIaRcHy," then, was conjured to fill the gap in the combination of denial of biological sex-based differences (directly responsible for the formulation of gender ideology; and itself a denial of evolution), and denial of intrasexual competition between women ("On Twitter, women are more misogynistic than men") in order to obscure female agency.

If "gender studies" had been based on science instead of Marxian psychosis and postmodern fantasy, it might well have been harder for the Queer Theorists to find a solid ideological foothold and enthusiastic collaborators.

#Paula Wright #evolutionary psychology #intrasexual competition #Darwinian gender studies #gender studies #feminism #patriarchy theory #biological dimorphism #dimorphism #sex based differences #western feminism #human evolution #science #religion is a mental illness

[cto10121]

You mentioned in the tags of one of your posts on Mercutio's (non-existant) sexuality that you're partial to the idea that he may have been inspired by Kit Marlowe; I want to hear all about this lol.

Also, do you have an Marlowe recommendations? I've heard good things so I would like to read some of his plays.

Oh, yeah, my Christopher-Marlowe-may-have-been-the-inspiration-for-Mercutio theory! Glad to talk about it.

So I’m definitely not the only one with this theory—some scholars have mused as much and I did come across them. But the case for Mercutio-as-Marlowe stands roughly as follows:

One of Marlowe’s nicknames was Mercury (!!). Now, Shakespeare clearly did not come up with the name, as he got it from his source material in Brooke et al. But as the Mercutio there was just some random courtier, I have no doubt that Shakespeare got an eyeful of that name in the Brooke poem and just 😏 and seized that golden opportunity to honor his friend in this way

By all accounts Marlowe was charming, erudite, intellectually edgy (an avowed Arianist and homosexual), with a nasty bit of a temper. Mercutio is much along those same lines

Marlowe and Shakespeare may have been friends as well as theater rivals, with similar backgrounds but (I suspect) opposite personalities and sensibilities—the iconoclastic Marlowe with the much milder Shakespeare. You see that same push-pull dynamic in Romeo and Mercutio’s relationship.

Mercutio was killed during his duel with Tybalt. Marlowe was killed while fighting with his fellow spies at a tavern/government safehouse in Deptford. So Shakespeare making Mercutio’s death off-stage may be a reference to Marlowe’s out-of-London death (and perhaps how Will came to find out).

So yeah, not much evidence, come to think of it. Just general vibes. Mercutio does have lines about dreams that are a reference to Thomas Nash, who was also friends with Marlowe and perhaps Shakespeare as well. But of course Shakespeare would make Mercutio a composite of his friends and not just limit himself to any ~one thing.

Against this is the fact that there is no clear evidence that Shakespeare and Marlowe knew each other. That said, the theater world was tiny and Marlowe wrote for Strange’s Men; Shakespeare may have been a player for them at the time. But it’s logical for many fangirls scholars to believe they knew each other and were friends/rivals and so forth.

As for recommendations, I’ve only ever read Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, which even got a Globe performance, and his Hero and Leander, a narrative poem along the lines of Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis. I’m ashamed to admit that in class I mistook a passage from Hero for Shakespeare’s, an ignominy that will live in me forever until my dying breath.

But while Marlowe was never as great at character as Shakespeare, his verse was very good (if a little too regular with the masculine endings) and nigh indistinguishable from Shakespeare’s in the beginning. Also, Marlowe is 1000x gayer, even writing about Edward II and his forbidden romance with his favorite Gaveston. Hence his popularity in fangirl circles. If you like Shakespeare but feel he could have been more violent, political, and gay, Marlowe will be right up your alley. There have been tons of fanfiction about him, some notable ones of which are:

The Marlowe Papers (Barber)—author is a stupid anti-Stratfordian, but her verse is legit

A Tip for the Hangman (Epstein)—not feeling the main romance, but it was fun and well-researched

The Secret Life of Shakespeare (Morgan)—actually focusing on Will/Anne, but this version of Marlowe is my favorite. He is just as I’ve envisioned him

#kaleb-is-definitely-sane #ask #romeo and juliet #william shakespeare #christopher marlowe #i think the reason is that marlowe’s personality is just much more evident than shakespeare’s #even though marlowe has fewer trails #hence his popularity in fanfic #meanwhile i can’t say i’ve encountered a portrayal of shakespeare that has satisfied me #life of will

[theology101]

My Works Master File

Howdy! I do a lot of stuff across a lot of different platforms, so I figured that I should maybe collect some of them. I'm only including active or completed works in this - I do not have the best history of follow up lmao

ASOIAF

She-Wolf of the Rock: My first ever fic and... you can tell. It's also my most kudos story... we make do. It's dogshit and a fetish story before I understood that it was. But I'm still proud of it

Tentacle Porn, but the Tentacle is a Metaphor: Female Theon Greyjoy gets silly drunk and seduces Jon Snow

A Quiet Conversation: The recently married younger son of the King Rhaegar Targaryen, first of his name, has come back from war. And not only that, he's gotten married and has a baby! Modern AU where Jon decides he and Joffrey need to have a chat

The Daughters of Tytos Lannister: Tytos' children are genderswapped. Tya is Tywin, Tyene is Tygett, Kyrene is Kevan, Gerion is Abigael and Genna is Gerold. Female Tywin is just as brutal - but in a different sort of way

Who would win in a fight, Robert Baratheon or the Mountain? My first major Quora answer and also a respect Robert Baratheon thread. Plus, I figured people might want some more info on medieval weapons

Will George R.R. Martin's Winds of Winter be different than the television series? Will he change the outcome or events or keep things the same? This is for those who are familiar with the show but don't know that much about the books. This thread is my explanation of a few differences.

Cannibal, the Cradle Egg of Maegor the Cruel, is alive on Skagos and will bond with Jon Snow: A theory I think I actually came up with? I've always thought Cannibal on Skagos could be the 'Waking Dragon from Stone.' Idk, I first posted this on quora years ago but this reddit link is the most clear

Unnatural Histories: A book-accurate Spreadsheet of all Dragons in ASOIAF sorted by either age, size, or political affiliation.

Baldur's Gate:

A Plant on the Road to Baldur's Gate: Halsin and Jaheria find some weed. Lae'zel, who has never been high before, get's overconfident. Shadowheart metls. (3/3)

Saved (Against her wyll): Wyll/Minthara starting in act 2. He learns that she's brainwashed and feels morally obligated to save her - only to then find out she was always like that, just her allegiance changed. (2/3)

Mommy? Sorry: Tavomir of Fort Morninglord's mother comes to visit the camp. But... she didn't know Tav would be there. The rest of the camp reacts to his mother, specifically Wyll and Karlach

Star Wars:

Two There Must Be: Anakin/Vader's spirit, immediately after Endor, is teleported back over fifty years to be reborn as his own older sibling. Or should I say, her own because she's in a female body. Started as silly goofy, but now I'm really into the politics of the Prequel era

Title of Jen'ari: AU of 2tmb, set a thousand years before Yavin on the planet Dromuund Kaas. Has minor spoilers for 2tmb (read until chapter 13) but is largely independent of anything. Anakin and Ava are siblings and they're Sith attending an Election on Dromuund Kaas

Fan Map of Dathomir: Legends and Canon have two wildly different depections of Dathomir. My solution? It's just different continents lmao. I consider the Nightsisters to actually just be a collection of other clans under the authority of one Overclan and it's Matron - that being Talzin. The Language is butchered Slavic but such is life.

Misc:

Nieces and Nephews: Sabrina Spellman is prepared to face down the Dark Lord... only for a sarcastic, British asshole to walk into Dorian's. He flashes his detective badge, and claims to be Lucifer Morningstar, who came from LA to deal with an impostor. And oops, Sabrina is his daughter!

Conductive Materials: Female Toni Stark and Thor bond over the fact that position's of power can often limit their personal connections. And then they bond over not having a power dynamic over each other.

No One Escapes Cidhna Mine: My first attempt to chronicle my elder scrolls character. It was fine, I guess, I'm not too crazy about it and would definitely change a few things about it now. My Dragonborn (or the one I consider to be my 'main') is a Half Nord Half Reachman intent on reaching godhood through artifacts and political schemes.

#asoiaf #asoif/got #asoif fanfic #star wars #Star Was fanfiction #fanfic #fantasy #marvel #tony stark #anakin skywalker #female anakin skywalker #female tony stark #fanfiction #ao3 fanfic #ao3 author #ao3 writer

[bernadettelovestokiohotel]

Movie Analysis:

Shoujo Tsubaki-Midori

Warning:This movie is the most banned anime in the entire world,don't watch it for your own safety and well being.

Midori is the protagonist of the movie called "Shoujo Tsubaki" that translates to "Camellia Girl".This movie was made by Suehiro Mano,all by himself because nobody wanted to help make this disgusting,disgusting movie.

The movie is about a young orphan who joins a freak show to survive.

The movie is extremely graphic,deeply upsetting and shouldn't be seen as something to make fun of,mainly because it's about child abuse and how nobody's stopping it.So,let's deep dive into this movie,just what was this man thinking while making this.

Midori was born in a small town,the timeline in this movie is in 1920's and she chases the dream to go to Tokyo one day.She lives with her mother who's very ill,and her father disappeared and never came back.In order to earn money,she sells flowers on the streets.One day,a man with a fancy suit offered her a place to stay incase she ever needed it,she politely thanked him and went home.When she came home,she found her mother dead,being half eaten by rats.

She didn't really have a choice except to go to that location on the small paper that the man gave her.She arrives,seeing it's a circus with all kinds of monsters.The circus performers,seeing Midori's young and kind,immediately take advantage of her.They hurt her in multiple different ways,there's also a very very disgusting scene of child r@pe when a man with no arms that looks like a mummy attacks Midori while she's trying to sleep.And it's absolute hell for her.But one day,a magician came into the circus because the circus is starting to lose money,and he takes interest in Midori and asks her to marry him.Even though she's 12 and he's a grown man.And after that,she starts standing up for herself more,knowing her magician pedophile husband will be there to protect her.After a while,they both decide to leave the circus together,and in one scene,the magician tells her to wait so he can get some food for them.On his way back,he sees a mugger and he gets killed.Now Midori is getting worried,so she starts running and looking for him.She stumbles across all the circus performers,including the magician,and they're all laughing at her.She then takes a stick and tries to best them all to death but they started floating away and after everything disappears,she's stuck in this endless white void and starts crying,thats the whole movie,just about misery and pain of a very young child.People make loads of theories based on this ending.One theory is that the ending was actually an illusion and it's just the magician messing with Midori.Or we have a theory where Midori dies from suicide,which isn't really surprising and actually quite accurate but it was never confirmed by the creator what actually happened so..yeah.

This is actually a very interesting movie.Beautiful art,the story is a chefs kiss.

People think that Suehiro Mano is trying to sexualize abuse.This movie wasn't made to romanticize child abuse at all,the movie was made to do the opposite.Also,the r@pe scenes are not portrayed as sexy,they're portrayed as disturbing,disgusting,scary..which is the exact goal,to scare and disturb people.

The main message of this movie is that life can be so depressing and so unfair to people,and how nobody's doing anything about it.I mean most of the circus performers are absolute pedophiles,and the performers who are not aren't bothered at all.

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So yeah,this is my personal interpretation of Shoujo Tsubaki.What movie should I write about next?

[random-bi-writer]

Trying to figure out Six

I lost my braincells making this.

This is just for fun, so if you want to correct me on some things, do it peacefully and politely.

I respect that the developers are done making the games but I need Six lore.

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Rcg (Ori), Mono, and Rk (Sven) are all survivors. It’s obvious from the start. While there’s no actual backstory for Rcg (Ori) you can tell that she knows what she’s doing and has been surviving for a long time. Mono used to live with a group of children and the only one who survived during an attack. While I’m not sure how long Rk (Sven) has been in the Maw, you can tell that he’s been trying to escape for a long time.

Six isn’t like that. She’s a survivor, sure, but the way she survives isn’t like the others.

She’s agressive when she needs to be but she still acts like a child, she still acts her age.

She copied Mono in his game like real children do when they look up to someone. She played with the toys in the hospital even if there’s a posibillity of her life being in danger at any second. She hugged all the nomes she sees in the Maw before being forced to eat Rk (Sven).

Mono might have goofed around in the game, but along with Rcg (Ori) and Rk (Sven), they don’t act like kids because all they know is that their lives are in constant danger.

From what I have noticed, Six only acts like a survivor when she sees her enemies while the others are always ready even when they can’t see their enemies.

Why? Why does the one kid with the most trauma out of everyone still act like that?

Her official character descriptions on both games is even more confusing.

She belongs elsewhere.

Six is not a normal child.

Awaking in a world she cannot recognise

That last one is really weird because it seems like the transmission have been happening for years yet Six doesn’t know this?

Why?

And when you think about it. We don’t even know where Six came from.

Like, even if there was no official backstory for RCG (Ori); the theory where she’s the lady’s daughter has enough evidence to be considered as canon. Mono used to live with a group of kids and Rk (Sven) has been living in the Maw for a long time.

Yet, we don’t know why Six is at the Nest. And like I said earlier, she doesn’t recognize everything around her so it doesn’t explain the pictures in the school. And we know how Six got captured by the Hunter but despite all that, we don’t know her backstory.

There’s also the fact that in the standards of Little Nightmares world; Six would have come across as a very strange child from everyone. The children have to be tough to survive. If we think about it, if the protags were in our world, Six would have been the normal one because she acts like her age.

Also, there’s Dark Six and the rooms that Six was trapped in: the Hunter’s basement where Six has drawings of the other protags despite never meeting the boys and her room as Monster Six where there are items only you could see in the Maw.

So what’s the deal? Why is Six is so different?

So I came up with three different conclusions:

Isekai

This one started as a joke, it sounds so stupid when I thought about it, but I don’t think it’s a joke anymore.

It’s mainly because of the “She belongs elsewhere��� and “Awaking in a world she doesn’t recognize” thing.

It would explain why the bullies recognize her yet she doesn’t recognize them. Like Six was born in a world where the transmission doesn’t happen and she finds herself in the world of Little Nightmares.

It also explains why Six copies Mono because she has no idea what to do to survive in this world.

This kinda makes Monster Six even more depressing.

Timeloop

I’m not talking about the Thin Man or the Lady theories.

I once thought that Dark Six was just Six in a previous time loop trying to guide her current self since she doesn’t remember the previous loops. Also I can’t remember where I read this, but apperantly it’s canon that Six is stuck in a loop, not Mono.

And the previous loops are finding their way to the current loop; either through random objects or dreams.

Six has powers she doesn’t realize

I’m not talking about the eating the soul thing.

I think Six has a...”Sixth Sense.”

The game logo thingy where Six standing is a replacement for the pupil of an eye. It feels like that there’s more to that.

Well the symbolism for an eye is usually seeing the future. So if Six can see the future without realizing, it explains why in the Hunter’s cabin; there’s a drawing of Rk (Sven) holding hands with a Nome along with the Lady dying despite not having meeting them yet. Also the random items in her room as Monster Six probably came from her powers and it manifested into physical items. And how Six knows how to pull Mono out of the tv when he’s transitioning.

#arrow rambles #little nightmares #ln #ln six #analysis #theory #actually these would make great aus

[twosentencereviews]

Is Spider-Gwen trans?

I saw Across the Spider-Verse when it came out recently. It's fantastic, you should go see it. I did note while watching that Gwen's room has a trans rights flag in it, but didn't really think anything of it.

But then, I saw this article on CNN saying that there's a fan theory that Spider-Gwen is trans. They point out the trans flag, as well as other details like the pink-and-blue pastel shades, and just like, the general vibe of the character, you know?

Let's dissect this take from a few angles.

The first thing to observe is that Spider-Gwen is not real. She's a fictional character. Her existence is a delusion that the filmmakers put in our heads, and we as audience members choose to suspend our disbelief about. This means that "is Spider-Gwen trans" is the wrong question to ask; she isn't anything, because she just isn't.

But that's not the end of the discussion, now is it? Just because she isn't real, doesn't mean she doesn't matter, because discussions about art affect the people who are real in the world.

One question that has a refreshingly simple answer is "does Spider-Gwen's story resonate with trans people?" That seems to be yes, according to the CNN post. That's not surprising; Spider-Gwen is an incredibly well-written character, and the struggle of being open about your true self with the people around you is relatable to a lot of people with marginalized identities. If a trans person watches Spider-Gwen and says "this feels true to my life" then that's great.

But a muddier question is "did the creators intend for Spider-Gwen to be trans"?

The "yes" argument is backed up by the fact that they took the time to put the trans flag in her room. With how insanely elaborate the Spider-verse animation style is, that is far from an accident, and it's framed in a way that calls attention to it.

They didn't explicitly say it, though. They have (at least so far; maybe Beyond will change this) left it in the realm of coding and plausible deniability. You don't have to be trans to have a Protect Trans Kids flag, just like you don't need to be black to have a Black Lives Matter flag. Her world's background art has a lot of pastels, but pinks and soft blues are also just, like, feminine colors. They could just be there to highlight the fact that Gwen is a teenage girl and Miles is a teenage boy (his surroundings tend to have more oranges and reds). And Gwen's relationship with her dad is deliberately juxtaposed against Miles and his parents, as parallel Spider-person arcs.

If they didn't intend Gwen as trans, but the reading comes through anyway, they might choose to stay silent because saying "no, this character you're excited about isn't trans, stop having fun" is kind of a dick move. This paints either paint the creators as oblivious ("whoops, we did a trans") or the fans as ravenously starved for good trans representation (justifiably so, but still) and grasping at straws.

So, what if they did intend Gwen to be trans? Then why not make it explicit?

There is one possible, mostly okay justification. One of the differences between being LGB and being T is that, if you're gay, you want other people to recognize you as gay, and have uniquely gay experiences (namely, same-gender romance). But if you're trans, you just want to be treated like the gender you are, and have the fact that you were assigned differently at birth be something forgotten or deemed irrelevant. With this in mind, if Gwen is intended to be trans, then not signposting that and letting her just be a normal teenage girl (with superpowers, obviously) might be trying to treat this with respect. That's the charitable reading.

A disappointing justification might be that the creators wanted to be more explicit, but corporate said no. Trans rights are a current political battleground, and Sony might have vetoed to cover their ass. Or, alternatively, maybe it was no-go because it violates Marvel canon--Gwen Stacy has never been trans before in the comics. This would make the hints and innuendos the creators pushing in as much representation as they were allowed.

But the worst justification is, simply, queerbaiting. If you hint that a beloved character might be trans, you get all the attention from pro-trans people but can maybe duck the heat from the bigots. (Note: this never works. Fox News sees "the trans agenda" everywhere; they are hypervigilant and keyed in, same as trans people and allies, just for all the wrong reasons.) Queerbaiting is frustrating and stupid and bad, because it treats LGBT issues as useful for boosting sales and viewership...but not worth engaging with honestly or openly.

Which leaves me with my last question. Assuming no further developments in Beyond, should we accept Spider-Gwen as a trans icon? Should we point to Spider-Gwen as "good trans representation" even without explicit confirmation from the creators (in-story or meta-textually)?

I don't think we should. This isn't enough. Whether Spider-Gwen is trans-coded by accident, stealth trans to slip past the censors, outright queerbaiting, or just a really good character that trans people happen to emotionally connect with...this isn't isn't what representation means. Representation means taking a stand, saying "trans experiences are normal and healthy; transphobia is abnormal and shameful". As long as an average person can leave the theater oblivious to your coding, you aren't moving the needle of public perception.

Don't take this as a condemnation. Across the Spider-verse is a truly excellent film with tons of other good representation. I particularly like the fact that there's a Spider-man actively parenting his kid, and a pregnant Spider-woman kicking ass. And, of course, the lead is still a black Hispanic teen. All of that is good and rare and awesome. But I'm not going to give them more than they've earned on Gwen maybe being trans.

#across the spiderverse #spider gwen #trans

[hymnless-space-nugget]

Honestly, no matter which political side you’re on, both brainwash you.

TLDR: I used to be on the left and now I’m on the right. Personal experience of shift in ideologies. Lefts = individualistic, focus on the now, sugarcoat the difficult truth. Rights = collectivist, focus on future, adopt cold truth of life, dismiss individual concerns. Looking for good left-leaning Tumblr/YouTube accounts to follow.

I used to be a hardcore liberal leftist, saying that all lives matter was a joke, hating the cops, preaching that trans women are women, critical race theory is real, etc. Back then I came set with this ideologies and only followed a few lib accounts on Instagram. I absolutely hated conservatives & gops, never listening to what they had to say.

Now, I’m not sure exactly where I align, but a liberal republican seems most fitting, saying that all lives do matter (except rapists, pedos, & murderers), liking cops, saying trans women are trans women, critical race theory perpetuates racial division, etc. Now I follow conservative/republican accounts across the board (Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr, etc.). After listening, I agree with conservatives & gop on several things, but not all. I listen to the left-leaning, but I don’t see the validity in most of their points anymore.

I got into a fight with a close family friend back when the BLM protests were ignited in 2020. I was mad at him claiming that he didn’t want to have an open mind, when in fact I was the one who had a closed mind. He told me that young people are all left-leaning and that he was like that too. He said that when you get older, you start to see things differently and see things from a right-leaning pov. I put my money where my mouth is and began watching and reading things that irritated the hell out of me. Over time, I started understanding their perspective and adopting the ideologies as my own, as they made more sense to me than left ideologies do.

Since I’ve been strongly on both sides, I can compare overall perspectives.

The liberals of the left are highly more individualistic in what kind of rights they ask for. They focus more so on the now and want people to live easy lives.

In my opinion, I also feel they sugarcoat the truth to make it more appealing and palatable, or they focus on the superficial matters of things. They also are more verbally aggressive to those of differing opinions.

The republicans are more collectivist in their rights, looking at the bigger picture. They focus more so on what actions/choices of today can impact those of tomorrow and want people to face life head-on, without dancing around the issues or making it easier.

In my opinion, I also feel they speak the hard truth of certain matters, even if it’s not what people want to hear. They are very dismissive and belittling to people with different views, due to their ability to see the bigger picture. They dance around individual concerns and have difficulty finding a way to get their way without hurting others in the process.

I look back and compare my former self to my current self and am shocked at how stark the comparison is. I do feel like my eyes are more open than before, but I don’t know what left-leaning media I’d want to look at. I want to tune into that kind of content, but honestly don’t know where to start. I don’t know of any good lib/left accounts (on any platform, but I prefer Tumblr & YouTube) to follow. Any recommendations are greatly appreciated.

Anyways, I’m glad that I have opened my mind so much to accept opinions that were originally different than my own, but now I feel my mind is too crowded with right-leaning ideas. I’m firm on a lot of what I now believe in, but I’d still want to listen to people’s concerns and to those who are open for genuine discussion. I’m tired of people on either side who just belittle, who are belligerent, and just name call or dismiss others of differing opinions without even examining the true argument. Which, if you do those things I just mentioned, then you are just weakening your side of the argument since you reverting to fallacies or childish behavior.

#hit me up if you wanna talk about issues #genuine discussion #long text post #left ideology #right ideology #TRAS #terfs #libs #conservatives #political opinion #my opinion #open discussion #growth #it’s possible #almost polar opposites #more alike than different #thoughts? #lgbt #trans #human rights #gender criticals #critical race theory #pro choice #reccomendations #open minded #diversify your feed #diversity #radfem

[back-to-louis]

Relatively new HS/LT/1D music enthusiast here 🙋

I'm the same age as the youngest 1D member and in a depressive phase post pandemic owing to a monotonous job, social anxiety and slightly troubling relationship issues. Tiktok got me through the pandemic and I came across HS, 1D, LT and ultimately the rabbit hole that is Larry. Mind you, I never knew any of the 1D names before and the only thing I remember was dancing and singing to WMYB when it got released when I was doing my first year undergrad.

From my understanding of my hopefully short stint of obsession that is Larry, I have a few things to convey:

1. Larries have completely taken Larry out of H and L's hands now. It is quite evident that they have created two characters who are playing parts to some convoluted theories and stories.

2. It is very telling of how people can get obsessed with Larry. Speaking from my experience, believing or atleast hoping for two men (yes men, because when men are soft and romantic it clashes with their stereotyped image of negative masculinity and is perceived as rare and precious) to be in a committed long term relationship gave me hope in a love so strong and devoid of gender roles. Waking up everyday thinking of how they are fighting against all odds for their love was something akin to Shakespearean love. Couple this with going through a depressive phase in your life, you got yourself an anchor to hold onto while living one day at a time.

3. I did my own reading into all the "proofs" and the "debunks" and realized that two grown men are not sending signals to each other through two colours which are objectively deemed as extremely complementary colours in fashion and everywhere else.

4. Also fake baby? Really?? That kid looks like LT's literal reincarnation. Haven't people heard of one night stands gone wrong? Or even unexpected accidental pregnancies? The whole baby gate masterposts were the antidotes which shook me out of the reverie that was Larry.

5. H and L probably had something going on. What that something was we will never know. But that does not erase the fact that they had girlfriends, PR or not. Sexuality is very fluid so people have absolutely no right to deductions, allegations or assumptions about theirs. They can dream, write fanfictions, fantasize and even fetishize (not in anyway insinuating that that is right but, here we are anyway) But that's all people can do.

6. HS and LT will never explicitly say, "No you have to stop shipping/supporting us as a couple, it is not true and we do not like it". Reasons:

a) They have politely indirectly stated that before.

b) They know that a considerable portion of their Fandom consists of larries. As much as they may be uncomfortable with it, they are artists and businessmen above all. Why would they want to close drapes on that share of their market?

c) Since I do think that they had something ,maybe a fling or whatever that was earlier (which ended possibly badly or amicably) they would find it difficult to address the topic in public explicitly. Imagine people incessantly and constantly asking about your fling or ex assuming that that person was your soulmate. I shudder to even think about facing such questions 😶.

d) They are artists. Embodiment of liberal thinking. How can one assume that whatever H and L had had can never ever be an experimentation or a fling? So any statement that could give this away from their side may also affect the image that the larry Fandom has specifically curated for them. Which they would not want, I think?

e) Also, (I nearly forgot to add this one) maybe they don't give a flying f**k because it isn't true at all and it isn't worth their time to go over the denials again. They might not even be aware of the stories brewing in the Larryverse.

7. L and H cannot have more different personalities. Atleast the personalities that they are projecting onto the fandom are strikingly contrasting. Opposites attract yes, but one must pause to think of how far one can go in the opposite direction to not even be in the same magnetic field. It is highly unlikely for a feasible relationship to exist between two men like L and H.

8. All the proofs and the convoluted connections can be pushed aside citing confirmation bias (like how a lot of antis have debunked) except for one. Which is why maybe I think that they may have had something (something very short) in the past. Also so many of the proofs are just coincidences and some are just bat crap crazy (sorry)

The points stated above have not even scraped the surface of the rabbithole of debunking the Larry theory. These are my conclusions formed solely by just thinking about it (not even researching deeply wrt closeting - which has been extensively discussed by antis). So I find it amusing to see people vehemently holding the Larry flag up when you can just think or even try to read the other side of the story.

I hope you allow this post on your timeline even though it doesn't deny the entire Larry theory. I'd love to know your opinion on this. Apologies for the long post. I had to do it for my own detox from this conspiracy. 😩 Also, I love L more than H :)

======

Em back-to-louis comments: sorry I took so long to post this! I have been traveling and when I wasn't, I was dodging aggro from right-wing in-laws or making sure my cats weren't lonely or battening down the hatches for a blizzard or playing video games :). Thanks for sharing your thoughts and opinions!

My only comment regarding your position on "past larry" is that I refrain from making any definitive statements about their status since the only thing that matters to me is that they've denied it. I don't think it makes a material difference whether we believe them or think they're lying because the outcome is the same either way, so you do you.

#submission

[gallus-rising]

the timeline of Birds of a Feather as explained by a series of Crow’s most prominent and far reaching Incidents

Incident 0: the shapeshiting cat [NAME REDACTED] is in vulture form sailing across the desert fleeing a great famine. he spots Some Human Loser who is also fleeing... something but bc he ran out into the Fuckin Desert alone and w nothing he’s collapsed on the ground dying. [NAME REDACTED] heads down and tries to save That Guy by, like, dragging him to safety despite This Dude telling him to give up and leave him to die. [NAME REDACTED] doesn’t and both of them die of exhaustion. they wake up as immortals for Reasons and That Dude’s faith in humanity (and sentient life general ig) bc this tiny cat died trying to save him, a random stranger, and they become bffs

Incident 1:  [NAME REDACTED] got sent on a p bog standard political assassination and never came back. due to the fact he’d been expressing Unpopular Opinions for the past while it was assumed he’d either defected or just left. what actually happened was the whole thing was a trap to nab and incapacitate him and/or An Important Advisor Guy. since neither of them can die via starvation or dehydration it’s v efficient to just bind them and throw ‘em in a basement somewhere. [NAME REDACTED] spent around 50 years alone in a basement somewhere before he tricked someone into killing him. after respawning he made a a b-line straight to everyone who “abandoned” him. many lineages were ended in the process, sending multiple countries into succession crises and triggering a dark age

Incident 2: Electric Boogaloo: thousands of years have passed, technology has greatly advanced, ppl have figured out how to make large portal gates for easy travel! there was a lot of danger around them in the early days bc if one gate is destroyed the one on the other end will violently explode. dw tho safety regulations and such, no gates can be built in major metropolitan areas, you can’t built a “hub” of gates too close to each other so as not to trigger a chain reaction, they are highly profitable so more and more keep getting built. anyways they make travel super easy! so ofc ppl start making ones to difficult locations. big mountains, deep sea, the moon. Crow and the besties go to check out the soon to open moon gate, and what do you know! multiple of them immortal bitches also decided to check them out. TLDR: it’s not a good idea to get in big crazed magic battles near cutting edge tech, and the bigger they are the harder they fall

Incident 3: Revengeance: this one dude West gets out of that clusterfuck alive and w Crow in tow. he’s one of the many, many, ppl that want Crow Dead For Real This Time, so he’s been watching and studying and trying for centuries. see when Crow respawns he lies dormant until he hits his og death age of 16-ish months, and West’s working theory is that Crow doesn’t reincarnate so much as he “steals” the nearest and youngest cat body, and there’s got to be an range for that. his plan was to capture Crow and test this theory in the middle of fuckin Point Nemo or w/e, but now there’s obviously a bit of a hold on that. West makes it to a protected and fully locked down city and shoves Crow in a basement somewhere. West then politics himself into leadership positions, as he is wont to do, and starts exterminating all cats in the city. since no one’s getting in or out for who knows how long, and he’s pretty sure most life on the other side of the dome isn’t there anymore (spoiler; he’s wrong) it only takes a couple of decades to totally wipe out the cat population. he finally kills Crow and that’s that taken care of

Incident 4: New Beginnings: West tried to account for the fact that in a world where shapeshifting animals exist there could be human/cat hybrids. he did not account for how long that ancestry can go back while still having the person count as a “cat” for the purposes of Crow respawning. an infant Jack, the younger of a pair of twins (missed a bullet there Jade!) gets hijacked. but, like, he’s still there, and Crow’s gonna be dormant until his og death age of 16-ish months, which is now around 14-16 years in human time, so now Jack grows up w a weird kind-of-imaginary friend who Knows Things and has bad dreams all the time and (violently) protects him from mortal (this term is loosely defined) danger! and then one day Jack’s friend wakes up

#*furious pecking* #oc talk

[devoutpriest]

langstonmatriarch:

“Of course,” Margaret nodded, her expression tight though the smile was there, which seemed to imply that any offence he might have caused had been wiped away. She had curled her hair, top half in a ponytail and the rest down. Though one could not be entirely certain. But of course he hadn’t meant to speak out of turn; religious people never did, not the truly religious anyway. Conmen like the preacher she remembered from when she was a girl, they always poked their noses where they weren’t wanted, because they were playing a game and wanted to know all they could in order to play it. He preached he could walk on water, like Jesus in the Red Sea. The really religious, the genuine, like this…Athelstan, they were different. She didn’t think she could find malice there…but you never knew, and monks were still men.

“Jacob and I have always been close,” She explained as the monk smiled politely at Jacob across the way. Her eyes flickered between them briefly, and she silently willed Jacob not to come over, hoping he would understand his grandmother’s gaze. Thankfully he seemed to, and he remained with his Mother. “His Mother, Lucille, (a woman with bright red hair) likes to keep him close” Another tight smile as she returned full attention to Athelstan and she clasped her hands behind her bag authoritatively as she listened to him. “You think we’re to help?” She asked, looking up at him, the look in her eyes sharp, cutting without words, “A NOBLE thought,” She allowed with a little nod, “I don’t believe anyone has said that yet. Here to reunite people, here to start again, here to cause pain, here to…mock the dead, here to trick people….those I have heard A LOT. But tell me,” She continued, “If we’re here to help then why have murderers come back? Bullies? People who would have been better off if they REMAINED dead?” She was a schoolteacher now ; as the Returned came back alive, one by one. She remembered people like Henry Bowers and his gang, who bullied classmates, one who even threatened to carve one up with a knife. He had come back to life too.

Athelstan was relieved to both hear and see from Margaret, that his offending words were forgiven.

“That is good to hear.” He nodded, turning his attention back to Margaret. “Is he also one of the Returned?”

It was when this concept was brought up–of murderers–whom would commit one treacherous act after another without any REMORSE, being alive again & arisen from the dead, that ultimately vanquished his theory. Athelstan thought about saying, “God works in mysterious ways”, but he was doubtful if this ambiguous response would satisfy Margaret.

His fellow Vikings who he spent time with in Kattegat, when not working on his monk duties, were technically murderers ; they pillaged and plundered, killing monks he spoke to, were friends with.

“Perhaps…” He allowed, with a hint of a frown in his features, “There truly is something else at work here.” Could this, this peculiar event, REALLY be God’s Will after all? But, then what else could it be? So many questions and doubt settled into his mind.

#rp partner | langstonmatriarch #ic

[neworleans-in-thearts]

Ways of Seeing: Art of New Orleans

This is a great introductory post for my blog, please enjoy!

I will be looking at different pieces of art based on New Orleans and using John Berger's theory to show you what the pieces want you to "see" and what is "seen" by the viewers.

Lets start with this painting. Its' got a water-colored style about it. I can see the paint-strokes and the movement of the lines. The colors are super vibrant. The subject of this painting is not only the New Orleans Seafood restaurant and other buildings, its this African American playing his trumpet leading against the streetlamp. I can't see his face, but he looks so cool and collected.

This makes me think New Orleans is fun, playful, and cool.

This painting is at night, unlike the other picture. The paint strokes and movement are still noticeable here too. It is visually a similar style. However, there is a lot more people in this painting. The band looks like they are having lots of fun and a small group next to them is just enjoying the performance.

I can see the energy, movement, and vibrancy of the city in this painting.

This painting is very stylized. It is more abstract because of the many brush strokes. Still, the St. Louis Cathedral is clearly the center of this picture. The people here are just blobs of color, but they look engaged (almost a part of the environment).

I feel the same sense of energy and vibrancy here, but also intense beauty.

So, that's what I see from the paintings. However, does it line up with what I "see" about New Orleans?

No.

This style of painting that I've shown is actually commonly found near the French Quarter, being sold. Its marketable to tourists.

Kinda sounds like this idea of "New Orleans" catches the eyes of the people who aren't from the city. And when they are here, we might as well make money from them too.

And of course it catches their eye: life looks so simple and chill in New Orleans! But have you ever seen it? Its way too busy and chaotic for one person to chill on the street. I cant image leaning against a streetlamp, ew.

Everything looks too empty. New Orleans can be crowded, busy, and so yes- it does has a lot of energy!

These pictures have so much character to them. But its not exactly true to New Orleans' character. N.O. is not just a place to get drunk and play music, its defined by its suffering. Whether it be natural distastes or political ones- the city changes because of that- and I don't see that character impression on these paintings.

However, there is a collection of art that actually matches the character and energy of the city of New Orleans- and that is graffiti.

Take a look at this one- its based on the author James Baldwin. Even if the name wasn't on the book, you could tell who this is. I was attracted by the message "Artists are here to disturb the peace. -J.B." This was painted by artist Brandon Odums, or B-Mike, and speaks to me about the message of New Orleans. Its a city of creative and inventive people breaking the status quo to make an impact on their city. This graffiti- this is what I see about N.O.

Finally, we have this smaller piece at the corner of an abandoned building. Its a young girl standing under an umbrella of rain. This is very detailed and gothic-styled. This painting is meant to be a message about Katrina- how the people of the city experienced the aftermath.

It is so telling to me. Even if I wasn't from the city, I could see the despair- the hope for the damage to heal.

I love how for both of these pieces I could see the faces of the subjects, and I connect to them more than the people without a face in the street paintings. Even if they tried to appeal to everyone by removing the faces of the people in the paintings, it never came across that way to me.

That New Orleans is beautiful, but is too ideal for a resident.

The graffiti shows me the true New Orleans, the city of heart and suffering I know so well.

#long post #new orleans art #art #graffiti #paintings #new orleans #john berger #brandon odoms

[newstfionline]

Saturday, April 1, 2023

Behind a Surge in Teenage Killings: Grief, Anger and Online Grudges (NYT) When the New York City police in January announced arrests in the killing of a 17-year-old in Coney Island, not one of the three people charged was old enough to drive: A 13-year-old had stabbed Nyheem Wright, the police said. His friends, ages 14 and 15, were charged with aiding him. The fight started over a girl after school, prosecutors said. Now, the boys, who turned themselves in, face maximum sentences that range from nine years in prison to life behind bars. From 2018 through 2022, teenagers were arrested and charged with murder in the city at a rate that grew twice as fast as that of adults. Forty-five children ranging from 13 to 17 were arrested and charged with murder last year, nearly double the number in 2018. Violence breaks out more quickly and more often now than it did before the pandemic, law enforcement and education officials say. Conflicts that were born online, and that festered as threats were exchanged behind screens, have increasingly spilled into the real world. Young people “came out of quarantine with scores to settle,” said Patrice O’Shaughnessy, communications director for the Bronx district attorney, whose office charged 26 adolescents with murder last year.

A President Faces Prosecution (NYT/AP) For the first time in American history, a former president of the United States has been indicted on criminal charges. For all of the focus on the tawdry details of the case or its novel legal theory or its political impact, the larger story is of a country heading down a road it has never traveled before, one fraught with profound consequences for the health of the world’s oldest democracy. And the hush money case in New York that has led to criminal charges against Donald Trump is just one of a number of investigations that could pose legal problems for the former president. Trump faces a string of other inquiries as he campaigns for another term in 2024, including a criminal investigation over top secret documents found at his Florida estate, a probe in Washington into his efforts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election, and an investigation in Georgia looking into whether he and his allies illegally interfered in the state’s 2020 election. Trump, a Republican, has denied any wrongdoing and says he is being targeted by Democrats trying to keep him from reclaiming the White House.

Medicaid ‘Unwinding’ Begins (1440) Pandemic-era policies affecting Medicaid eligibility will begin expiring tomorrow, a change expected to affect between 4 million and 15 million Americans currently enrolled in the low-income healthcare coverage program. Notably, a provision known as continuous enrollment will end. The rule barred states from dropping participants during the pandemic in exchange for increased federal funding. Each state will determine how to unwind the policy, figuring out which participants are no longer eligible or need to renew paperwork—at least 40 states have said they will spread the renewal process over a 12-month window.

China’s global influence looms over Harris trip to Africa (AP) When Vice President Kamala Harris touches down in Lusaka, Zambia on Friday for the final stop of her weeklong trip across Africa, she’ll see a glittering new airport that’s doubled in size. Rather than a symbol of promising local development, it’s a reminder of China’s deep influence there. Beijing financed the project, one of many that has expanded its footprint on a booming continent that’s rich in natural resources, often generating goodwill among its citizens. The global rivalry between the United States and China has been a recurring backdrop for Harris’ journey, and nowhere has that been more apparent than Zambia and her previous stop in Tanzania. Besides the airport, China built a 60,000-seat stadium in Lusaka, plus roads and bridges around the country. Zambia is on the hook for all of the development with billions of dollars in debt. Tanzania is a major trading partner with China, and it has a new political leadership school funded by the Chinese Communist Party. China is Africa’s largest two-way trading partner with $254 billion of business in 2021, according to the United States Institute of Peace. That’s four times the amount of trade between the U.S. and Africa. In addition, dealing with Beijing features less admonishments about democracy than with Washington.

Shadowy brokers walk off with billions in Venezuelan oil (AP) One startup lists as its address a small home in a working-class district in Venezuela’s capital whose owner has never heard of the firm. Another is a Hong Kong-based shell company created in 2020. Yet another belongs to a Spanish commodities trader indicted in the U.S. for allegedly helping Russian oligarchs launder ill-gotten profits. They are among the dozens of obscure middlemen and go-betweens at the center of a new crackdown in Venezuela on corruption in the state-run oil industry that has government insiders scurrying for cover. At the same time, regular Venezuelans are asking how more than $20 billion in proceeds from oil shipments seemingly vanished. Corruption has long plagued Venezuela—the OPEC nation was the fourth-most corrupt in the world in the latest rankings by Transparency International.

Metal worker, soccer coach, honey salesman: three jobs to beat Argentina’s 100% inflation (Reuters) As Argentina’s over 100% inflation rate saps earning power and outstrips wages, Jorge Pedro Armoa, 67, has found a painful solution: juggling three jobs as a metal worker, soccer coach and part-time salesman of medical creams, flip flops and honey. Armoa, who lives in a small home in the outskirts of capital city Buenos Aires, gets up early every day for his seven-day working week to stave off poverty that affects almost four in 10 people in the South American country. Argentinians are battling through a painful economic crisis with annual inflation at 102.5% and expected to climb further, strict capital controls warping the peso’s value, and tumbling foreign currency reserves raising fears about future defaults. “With the issue of the price of things, it’s difficult to live. But hey, sometimes we get there and sometimes we have scrape by to get there,” said Armoa while chopping onions at his home to improvise a dinner. “You have to put a positive face on things.”

Europe’s inflation eases to 6.9% as energy falls but food up (AP) Inflation in the 20 countries that use the euro currency slowed to 6.9% in March, the lowest level in a year, with food costs still on the rise while energy prices fell, making a sharp turnaround after months of punishing increases. The inflation has dropped to its lowest level in a year since peaking at 10.6% in October. But prices for food, alcohol and tobacco rose by a painful 15.4%, faster than the previous month’s 15%. Energy prices, however, fell 0.9%—an abrupt change of direction after rising at double-digit rates over the past year. Russia’s war in Ukraine pushed up prices for natural gas used to heat homes and generate electricity, fueling overall inflation, but the latest reading indicates that a mild winter and European efforts to store and source gas from sources outside Russia have paid off.

Macron unveils water-saving plan, dismisses French pension unrest (AFP) French President Emmanuel Macron sought to rally citizens around a plan to save water on Thursday and stressed that protests will not stop reforms, in a nod to both climate change and an unpopular pension bill. The water-saving plan includes 50 measures, such as fixing leaking pipes, adapting the way farmers and the nuclear industry use water and making water more expensive for those who use a lot. This was the president’s first major policy announcement and public outing after weeks focused on the pension bill, which has triggered fierce protests across the country. With the water plan, Macron and his government are looking to move to other topics. Water is also a contentious topic in France as the worst drought on record last summer sharpens the debate over water resources in the European Union’s biggest agricultural producer.

Vatican: Pope OK to leave hospital, has pizza, baptizes baby (AP) Pope Francis has been cleared by doctors for discharge on Saturday from the Rome hospital where he was treated for bronchitis, the Vatican said, adding that the pontiff had pizza one evening with medical staff and baptized a baby in the pediatrics ward. Earlier in the day, Francis sent a tweet on Friday possibly inspired by his current health challenge. “When experienced with faith, the trials and difficulties of life serve to purify our hearts, making them humbler and thus more and more open to God,” Francis wrote.

Turkey approves Finland’s NATO bid, clearing path for it to join alliance (Washington Post) Turkey’s parliament has voted to approve Finland’s NATO membership bid, paving the way for the Nordic country to join the security alliance. The decision only applies to Finland, not Sweden, its neighbor and fellow NATO hopeful. Both countries applied on the same day last year, having made the decision to join the alliance after Russia invaded Ukraine. Thursday’s vote was the last hurdle in Finland’s quest to join the military organization. Its eventual accession would remake European security, doubling NATO’s land border with Russia and bringing the full force of the alliance to Europe’s far north.

A costly clash (NYT) Early this month, the head of NATO warned that the fierce battle over the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut could end with a Russian victory within days. Three weeks later, his prediction has yet to come true. Ukraine and Russia are still fighting for control of the city. The stalemate has come at great cost for both sides, particularly Russia. Ukrainian officials have estimated that for every one of their soldiers lost, Russia has lost seven. Russia tried to replenish its ranks by letting prisoners fight, but it has nearly exhausted the supply of those recruits as well. The battle has also taken a heavy toll on munitions, vehicles and other military equipment—and has also taken a lot of time. The first time Bakhmut was mentioned was in July, when Russia increased its attacks near the city. Russia could still capture Bakhmut, and some analysts expect it to do so. But for now, the battle over the city has become yet another example of Ukraine defying the odds and of Russia performing worse than many experts expected.

35 bodies found inside well after collapse at Indian temple (AP) Thirty-five bodies have been found inside a well at a Hindu temple in central India after dozens of people fell into the muddy water when the well’s cover collapsed, officials said Friday. Witnesses said a large crowd of devotees had thronged the temple to perform a fire ritual and celebrate the festival for Rama. Dozens of people fell into the water when the structure over the well collapsed and were covered by falling debris. The structure apparently caved in because it could not handle the weight of the large crowd.

Members of exiled Chinese church detained in Thailand (AP) More than 60 members of a Chinese Christian church have been detained in Thailand, supporters said Friday, raising fears they may be returned to their home country, where they face possible persecution. Deana Brown, one of two American supporters detained along with the church members, told The Associated Press that Thai authorities in the coastal city of Pattaya detained the 63 church members, many of whom are children, Thursday. Members of the Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church, also called the Mayflower Church, came to Thailand in 2022 seeking asylum. They fled China in 2019 alleging that their members were being persecuted by government security forces, initially settling on South Korea’s Jeju Island. They left South Korea for Thailand after meetings with local and U.S. officials made it clear that prospects for refuge there were dim. As the group looked into renewing their visas, they had been told that there was a new requirement that any Chinese citizen renewing a visa in Thailand must report to the Chinese Embassy first. Realizing they had no chance of new visas, they had been in hiding since October.

A.I., Brain Scans and Cameras: The Spread of Police Surveillance Tech (NYT) A brain wave reader that can detect lies. Miniaturized cameras that sit inside vape pens and disposable coffee cups. Massive video cameras that zoom in more than a kilometer to capture faces and license plates. At a police conference in Dubai in March, new technologies for the security forces of the future were up for sale. Far from the eyes of the general public, the event provided a rare look at what tools are now available to law enforcement around the world: better and harder-to-detect surveillance, facial recognition software that automatically tracks individuals across cities and computers to break into phones. Advances in artificial intelligence, drones and facial recognition have created an increasingly global police surveillance business. Israeli hacking software, American investigation tools and Chinese computer vision algorithms can all be bought and mixed together to make a snooping cocktail of startling effectiveness. Fueled by a surge of spending from Middle Eastern countries such as the United Arab Emirates—the conference’s host and an aggressive adopter of next-generation security technologies—the event pointed to how tools of mass surveillance once believed to be widespread only in China are proliferating. The rising use of the technologies signals an era of policing based as much on software, data and code as on officers and weaponry, raising questions about the effects on people’s privacy and how political power is wielded.

#headlines #news

[wither-rose-circus]

Right, right, I had an idea for an empires headcanon before I got....distracted

Anyway, I can’t remember what fic I originally saw it in, but I remember reading about the Grimlands and Crystal Cliffs being territories under Mythland. I also remember a post (by theminecraftbee I believe?) which talked about Smallholding having come from Mythland as well.

That got me thinking, so here’s my ideas about how the civilizations of Empires started.

Lizzie’s book mentions that she and Jimmy ruled over the ocean together long before the kingdoms of the land were formed. Well, we all know those evolutionary diagrams that show fish-like creatures crawling out of the water and becoming humans, right? And we’ve seen that leaving the water caused Lizzie to take on a form akin to what we consider normal humans. So my theory is that the current human civilizations came from the ocean.

Fish people from the ocean’s domain slowly explored the land, expanding outward into the original kingdoms: Mythland, Pixandria, the Lost Empire, and what would later become Mezalea.

(Note that this does not include the Overgrown or Rivendell because those places were already populated by various fae courts detached from these rising empires, hence why I specified human civilizations.)

Those who traveled West into the desert would form Pixandria. Though life was difficult, the use of rivers and other water gathering techniques allowed its formerly aquatic denizens to adapt. It would remain largely uninvolved with the greater continent, though, due to its initially harsh climate making those who had settled in more lush areas see nothing to gain from exploring it.

Those who traveled South into the swamp would continue onward and claim the long stretch of fertile land they called Mythland.

Those who attempted to make their way East would often find themselves lost in the unfamiliar, dense forests. It was long believed that any who traveled into these forests would die there, but unbeknownst to the outside kingdoms, those who survived would band together and established the Lost Empire.

At some point along the way, the ocean queen would create her submerged kingdom and make her presence known to the land dwellers. Much like herself, they had long since forgotten their watery past, so neither party recognized the other.

The people of Mythland were the first to establish contact with the fae. In exchange for items from the seas, which many of the fae had never seen before, they shared their own magic with the humans. They also showed them how to traverse around the forrest, leading to the settlements across from the main kingdom of Mythland. This would lead to the reconnection with those who had been thought lost within the great forrest as well, most of whom had long since adapted and were happy to remain where they were.

It was around this time that Jimmy followed in his sisters footsteps, arriving on the swamp. Those of Mythland took offense to these outsiders trying to claim their land, culminating in a war that would leave bad blood between the two kingdoms for centuries. Backed by the Ocean Empire, the amphibious cod people won, though, and erected the Cod Empire.

Meanwhile, this war had greatly disrupted Mythland. To make up for their losses, they began demanding more of the settlements to the East. These settlements, who had no active part in the war, believed that they should not have to shoulder such a burden, leading to harsh infighting. Unable to stand another war so soon, this dispute was solved politically, and the settlements were ultimately granted independence from the greater Mythland kingdom. They would later be peacefully divided into those who had integrated with the bordering fae courts, and those who remained true to their original way of ruling, becoming the kingdom of the Grimlands and its sister city-state, the Crystal Cliffs.

Much further down the line, long after many of the kingdoms were well established, infighting would strike Mythland yet again, this time from farmers who felt they were being tossed aside in favor of the kingdom’s growing industrialization. This feud was mostly bloodless and the Smallholding was able to emerge as an independent nation.

Meanwhile, a young gnome from a far away land would find herself lost within the depths of the forrest. Eventually giving up on her trek, she made her own small settlement, dubbed the Undergrove.

Of course, you’ll notice this leaves out Mezalea. In truth, it is unknown whether Mezalea was first inhabited by the humans or the fae. The people who came from the water found it utterly inhospitable, and the fae held no record of a court existing so far away. Those within it do have their own creation mythos, though.

It is said that a wandering traveler came across the long stretching mesa and fell in love with its beautiful colors. They spent their days crafting all kinds of clay items, from bowls, to vases, to statues. Many thought they were a fool, how could they stand to live in such a lonely, awful place? But they persisted, intent to make a masterpiece that would put those critics to shame. In their final years, it is said they became a recluse, only getting out of bed to work on this grand final project.

Years later, travelers would find no evidence of any breathing person in the mesa. Instead, they would find a tree, beautiful and splendid, as if crafted by the gods themselves, and tending to that tree, a host of clay statues that called it “Mother.”

#mcyt #empires smp #mythicalsausage #pixlriffs #joey graceffa #smallishbeans #ldshadowlady #solidaritygaming #fWhip #geminitay #smajor1995 #katherineeliz #pearlescentmoon #shubble