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heretherebedork · 11 months

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In Which I Absolutely Lose My Mind Over Pennhung

Pennhung is my most beloved and I would watch him in every scene even if it made no sense for him to be there. His tiny hat! The way he smiles! The fact that he's always thinking! I loved him from the moment he waxed poetic about croissants and I fully expect to only love him more.

His real fear in that kitchen was real. I also would not trust anything any of them cooked. He never hides his feelings but he doesn't speak up, doesn't criticize anyone, just watches them because he's absolutely the best boy ever.

His awkward words! The third person in the subtitles! The way he holds the lamp with both hands! He's so tiny and so awkward and he is just doing his best at all times. He puts down the little triangles to guide them home because he knows that getting lost won't help them! He is thinking in ways no one else does!

He loves those ducks from the instant he sees them and he makes sure they are not just loved but also cared for by everyone because you have to love your pets, you have to be able to take care of others in order to take care of yourself. He helps everyone to insure that the ducklings are okay and safe and fed and gives them all the knowledge they need.

The way he apologizes and begs not to be punished for defending himself, the obvious trauma that had led him here. This is an actually autistic character who is trying to cope with a world that has always punished him for being himself, that has pushed him down and locked him up and told him he was wrong for who he is and it breaks my heart to see him.

(Bonus: Please enjoy the bully getting slapped for being mean to Pennhung, may more punishment follow him for the rest of the series.)

And now the Pennhung Protection Squad is born and must also be protected at all costs.

Pennhung is brilliant and strong and fragile and beautiful and amazing and I love him so, so much. He named his duckling Baby Duck! Protect this boy at all costs. Please. Someone. Anyone. Everyone. Protect this boy.

And this is where you know how much he's going to hurt. Because he is so easy to manipulate because he doesn't understand how easily other people lie, how easily other people bend the truth or fake their emotions. He has no way to see past their smiling masks and fake apologies to the truth of how they're using him. And then he even went out before the storm and made sure to save their ducklings along with his own because he promised to protect them and care for them.

Protect him at all costs.

And we are not talking about how Hugo switched the tags to get him in trouble or how illegally absolutely traumatizing that ending was or how it was obvious that they knew the tag had been switched and still punished him for that conscienceless bastard's unwillingness to help him or how the protection squad stood up for him and I just... I can't.

Please, protect this boy and let him be happy again by the end. Give him friends, give him protection and comfort, let him matter to people and let the ones who would and will hurt him suffer for it.

(Do I already have a tiny corner of my heart dedicated to shipping him with Tibet? Yes. Yes I do.)

#home school #home school the series #home school series #gmmtv #thai series #thai drama #pennhung #actually autistic character #he is not coded he just is #i love him #i have a tiny corner of my heart dedicated to shipping him with Tibet already

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imaginedreamwrite · 9 months

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Happier Than Ever

Part 3: An American, A Brit & A Scotsman

Alex Keller, by the bequest of Laswell, had personally gotten you through the 6 weeks of basic training that was necessary.

Alex Keller was the soldier who had worked with Captain Price and had been part of the 141, had tasked with getting you up to speed and ready for the first mission.

In between your time with Alex Keller, wherein you learned orders and combat skills, dependency on your teammates, and how to handle a weapon, you worked in the base hospital.

You were put through constant scenarios and training exercises that had almost broken you. The exercises that detailed what you could live through in the field, what you could have thrown at you, were the focus of your time in the medical hospital on base.

For 6 weeks, you’d been given crash courses on how to survive and deal with the life-threatening conditions of these places you could go to. And with each difference scenario you were thrown into, had been a potential breaking point for you.

Although you had done four years of medial school, and you were a registered nurse, you weren’t prepared to be thrown headfirst into combat medicine.

Your degree as a registered nurse had been encompassed with techniques that were meant to be implemented in the field. It was a complete mindset change for you, to be thrown into this necessary urgency to work as fast as possible while knowing that people would be shooting at you.

Regardless of your fear, regardless of your apprehension of working alongside a covert and deadly squad of soldiers, multinational as they were, you had been prepared as best as you possibly could be.

The first mission you were on had taken you somewhere close to the Russian border, the task of keeping the squad of soldiers alive as they hunted down a nationalist hellbent on destructive weapons entering the Ukrainian border, before being sent to the U.S. You’d attended the mission as one of two medics, thrown headfirst into the dangerous, and potentially illegal, task of finding the enemy.

It was on that first mission that you had felt true, raw fear. You were a medic, a combat nurse, and you had soldiers between you and the enemy; however, you weren’t shielded completely. The other medic you were with had been shot in the leg, a wound that you’d had to take care of while being mindful of being shot yourself.

When the mission was over, Laswell had asked you if you’d wish to continue, if you’d want to change your mind about working for this specific task force. Your mind and body were at odds. Although you had negated leaving because despite being shot at, despite the other medic having an injury that would later require surgery, you’d been stubborn enough to stick around,

The first mission had become two, and two had become three. Now, you were on your fourth with Ghost & Soap and this, despite all the risks, was all you thought you’d wanted to do. This, with the potential of death, was a job you wanted to do.

You understood that their task force and their missions couldn’t have been reduced to a simple case of black or white. There was an incredibly shady area that had hovered above the moral compass that allotted them to go into hell and back to save more people than would even know.

It wasn’t a conscienceless squad that had killed anyone in their sights, it was a chain of command and men and women themselves who had given their all. It was sacrifice and the knowledge that they may not live the next day, that they’d surrendered themselves to.

That you would, in some similar way, allot yourself to.

Laswell had been the one to recruit you; however, Captain Price had been the one to officially concede and have you part of the 141. Regardless of you being a soldier or not, you were a small part of their team, and they were a much bigger part of yours.

You depended on them far more than they had depended on you. Yet, if things had become fucked up in any sense, you would be responsible for trying to keep them alive until they could reach a doctor.

Mission 4 with you working closely with Sergeant Johnny ‘Soap’ MacTavish and Lieutenant Simon ‘Ghost’ Riley had taken you to Las Almas. And Las Almas was nothing like you had expected, even from a first initial impression.

The first blast of heat that hit you when you stepped off the ramp had been overshadowed easily by the streets that the Humvee was being driven down.

The streets that were laid with cobblestone and concrete, edges with brightly coloured buildings and overhanging trees or fauna, was undercut with dark and tempestuous control. The Las Almas Cartel had a sick hold on the city, one that you’d been warned about from Laswell & Price, and would see its hand now.

“White truck, four armed men in the back.” Soap’s voice was quiet, yet he warned Ghost, the lieutenant flexing his fingers against the belly of his gun.

You looked back over your shoulder at the passing vehicle, the white truck had been during down the road before turning the corner. Each man in the back had a rifle of some kind, all the men seemingly relaxed enough like it was a regular occurrence. Almost as if it were as normal as carrying a cellphone.

“Hey, tranquilo. Easy, that’s normal here.” Colonel Vargas had raised a hand to calm the building tension, and to reiterate the difference between Las Almas and everything else you’d seen before. “Guns on the street is the jurisdiction of the police.”

“Where are the police?” As Ghost questioned Alejandro, you leaned forward and looked out the window Soap was sitting beside, seeing a large and emboldened image of the Virgin Mary on a building, and on top of her image was El Sin Nombre written in black letters.

“Well, Las Almas has a very serious problem. There are few here to uphold the law. And many of those who resist corruption disappear.” Alejandro had spoken so calmly when he spoke of the disappearances, this every day occurrence to men like them was almost no different from experiences you’d had in the U.S.

Hearing of shootings almost daily in the US had been common to you, just as these disappearances were common to them.

“What about the military?” Soap set a hand on your shoulder and pulled you back to sit again, his eyes briefly locking on yours before he looked back at Alejandro.

“Well, because we are well-trained, soldiers are recruited by the narcos.” Another fact, another plain statement that was so common for men like Alejandro and Rudy.

“Why not you?” Ghost and Soap were carrying the conversation while you remained quiet. You were observant, trying to catch as much of the streets of Las Almas as you could.

“We grew up here. They call us Los Vaqueros…cowboys.” Alejandro had looked toward Rudy, the two of them sharing a single glance, almost communicating without words. “We love this place, and we will die fighting for it.”

As the vehicle turned a corner, you’d leaned forward again. You watched a father and his child buying a balloon, a sight which would have been common if it hadn't had been the armed man standing behind the child. The assault rifle in his hands was held down but tightly, and he had worn a skull balaclava like Ghost had borne.

“Kids, guns and balloons, that’s new.” Soap, side-eyed Ghost, his voice holding an edge.

“Think that’s more common than you think.” You finally spoke, muttering under your breath as you took another look at the scene unfolding.

“Narcos use generosity to win over the people.” Alejandro had nodded his head, understanding Soap’s reaction but adding further details into how corrupt the city was.

“Even the children?” It was a shared sentiment, though not one that you could say you’d gone without seeing.

Although not to this extent, with the US having the right to bear arms written in the Declaration of Independence, you could honestly say that you had witnessed men and women carrying guns around state fairs and celebrations while kids ran wild. It was a different atmosphere here however than it was back home, and this had carried with it a weight of corruption unheard of.

“Especially the children….” Rudys voice had carried to the back, and you’d heard him speak but hadn’t registered what he said.

Rather, your attention was grabbed by another image of the Virgin Mary on the side of the building, and a scene in an alley that made your skin crawl.

“What the fuck?” You cursed louder than anticipated, leaning forward to see first hand the taunting nature of this cartel with your own eyes. “What the fuck is that?”

In the back alley was an old truck with its tailgate down and a white cloth covered in black painted letters, the message was no less chilling than it was debilitating. On the stone road had laid two bodies, covered with the same white cloth and black lettered message.

“Narcomantas,” Alejandro rolled down the window of the Humvee, his eyes trained on the grisly sight.

“Cartel cloths,” Rudy had looked through the rearview mirror, catching your gaze as he spoke to you.

“Messages from El Sin Nombre. Warnings, marking territory. Our streets are laced with death.” The window, just as soon as it was rolled down, was rolled up again, and the vehicles started moving.

“Who’s Sin Nombre?” Ghost’s thick accent had bared the question, and it hung in the air for a few milliseconds before Alejandro corrected him.

“El Sin Nombre, the Nameless…the leader of the Las Almas Cartel.”

“Where can we find him?” Soap’s focus was aimed forward, while yours was trained on the streets. You couldn’t stop looking at the death, and the corruption they’d spoken of that bled through every seemingly endless faction of this city.

“You can’t. No one knows who he is.” Alejandro looked out the window, an image belonging to El Sin Nombre appearing on the side of a building.

It was different from the ones before. Instead of the Virgin Mary, this image was crafted and created with flowers and bright colours that drew your attention. It looked entirely unseemly, and if you’d not known about the Las Almas cartel, you would’ve almost admired the images that were painted on that old brick.

“And this is a challenge. But Los Vaqueros like challenges.”

“With your mask, you’ll fit in well here, Ghost.” Rudy, attempting to steer the conversation, had spoken in the small moment of silence.

Soap had raised his hand and waved it in front of his neck, a signal not to push the issue, as Ghost glanced toward Rudy. You had snorted softly and laughed under your breath, remembering shortly before that Sergeant Major Rudy Parra had expressed his fear of ghosts.

“Something funny, private?” Soap grinned, nudging you when he heard you laugh. His blue eyes settled on you expectantly.

“Nothing, Sergeant.” you returned the respect for rank and cleared your throat. “Stupid joke.”

Your time spent with Soap and Ghost as their medic, more than most others in the 141, had led to an eased relationship between you and Soap. He wasn’t just your CO, he was also your friend and took the role of an older brother. In a sense, despite only being a few years older than you.

“Fuck, now you gotta share.” Soap’s natural charm had easily won over most people he had met and if you hadn’t seen him in uniform or known he was in the army, you’d never suspected a thing.

“It’s so stupid.” You looked away from him, laughing under your breath again.

“Now you gotta tell me.” Soap nudged you again. “Come on, don’t hold out.”

“You don’t need a parachute to go skydiving. You need a parachute to go skydiving twice.” You laughed under your breath, again.

“That was shit.” Soap laughed regardless of your stupid joke, the two of you conversing between each other in the back, and without needing to turn you could feel Ghost glaring at you.

“I told you it was a stupid joke!” You defended yourself, a moment of eased tension in the Humvee, until the vehicle had come to a slow roll.

“Checkpoint. It’s the army, turn right, and we’ll go around.” There was a barricade in the street with armed soldiers on either side of the entrance further down the street, blocking off any access.

As the vehicle was turned, you took another look out the window at the armoured vehicles behind the barricades. The soldiers who were waiting even further behind the checkpoint with unseen weapons to destroy and eliminate anyone who didn’t pass their inspection.

“Why?” Soap questioned the change, and received a response that was spoken with that same fact-of-life energy as before.

“Some troops are in the pocket of El Sin Nombre. Like I told you, he is everywhere…” There was a beat of silence, half a moment where the weight of his news had settled upon the three of you, and then he spoke again.

“The Cartel is hiding Hassan in the village across the river. Let’s hope he’s still there.” The vehicles picked up speed as the street cleared again, the destination was first going to be Los Vaqueros base.

There was intel they would need at the base, along with a scourge of weapons that would be waiting for both Soap & Ghost. There was no shortage of preparation for this mission, no small risk about following them into gunfire despite you being the medic responsible for keeping them alive.

Regardless of the hell that was being unleashed within Las Almas at the hands of the cartel, the city, and its surroundings, itself were beautiful.

The landscape of the surrounding hills had been captivating on its own without the lush, thick greenery that encapsulated the landscape. You hadn’t gotten a look at the ocean as you were transported to the city, however you imagined that the waters were just as wondrous and captivating as the rest of the country.

You wished you could’ve seen the nature and beauty of Mexico without being here to help track down a terrorist. Furthermore, you’d wished you could’ve spent days and weeks on the water, or near it, feeling the sun on your skin without the weight of your bulletproof vest on your chest and shoulders.

“It’s beautiful here.” Your comment had been aired, despite you thinking it was kept in your head.

“Las Almas is a beautiful but dangerous city.” Sergeant Major Rudy Parra had met your comment with one of his own, and had looked at you in the rearview mirror. “Have any of you been to mexico before?” 

“Private here always wanted to go.” Soap nudged you, grinning from ear to ear. “Though I think you’d rather be on a beach somewhere.”

“Yeah, with your head on a pike.” Your back and forth was mutually beneficial, despite the rank and the years of service between you. “Asshole.”

“So temperamental, PT!” Soap’s voice matched his laugh, especially after you’d struck him in the shoulder with your fist. “Maybe you need to sit on a beach somewhere.”

“You first!” You grit your teeth, all conversation dying when the vehicles had come to a slow stop in front of the gate that protected their base from any outside interference.

It was a momentary conversation between Sergeant Parra and the soldier guarding the gate, before it began to roll open and the humvee’s were allowed in.

#alejandro x reader #Alejandro Vargas x female!Reader #Alejandro Vargas x reader #Alejandro Vargas x nurse!reader #Alejandro Vargas #Rudy parra x reader #Rudy parra x female!Reader #Rudy parra x nurse!Reader #Alejandro Vargas x reader x Rudy Parra #Rudy Parra x reader x Alejandro Vargas #happier than ever series #happier than ever masterlist #happier then ever #happier than every part 3

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staydandy · 11 months

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Stealer: The Treasure Keeper (2023) - 스틸러: 일곱 개의 조선통보 - Whump List

List by StayDandy Synopsis : Throughout history, the treasures of an old empire have always been the best items for thievery. A professional thief named 'Skunk' forms an unofficial heritage redemption team called 'Team Karma' with a group of police officials to pull off an informal and illegal, yet in one sense righteous heist to retrieve the stolen heritages. In front of them is an all-time-scale mission. Somewhere in Korea, a large amount of cultural heritage that is worth 30 trillion won and spiritual beads that provide eternal life are buried. Against a group with a conscienceless purpose, Team Karma's thrill-filled retribution starts. (MDL) AKA : Karma: Seven Joseon Notices | Stealer: Seven Joseon Notices

Whumpee : Hwang Dae Myung / "Skunk" played by Joo Won • Shin Chang Hoon played by Kim Jae Won

Country : 🇰🇷 South Korea Genres : Action, Adventure, Mystery, Comedy

Notes : This is a Full Whump List • Someone likened him to Deadpool, and honestly, not a bad comparison. Not as brash as Deadpool, but style & comedy wise, I can see the connection.

Episodes on List : 11 Total Episodes : 12

*Spoilers below*

02 : Hwang Dae Myung falls down a burning hot rebar ladder, hitting his side on the way

03 : Passes out from knock-out gas (comedic)

04 : In a fight; hit several times with poles/boards.. shot several times while wearing a bulletproof suit, collapses.. in a fight in a van; chokehold, bitten … (@ 26:24, Korea is getting real sarcastic with their product ads these days 😂) … cuffed upside the back of the head … tied up; cuffed on a chair

05 : Thunderstorm causes traumatic flashbacks, unsteady .. (@ 21:13, seriously, these product ads are so off-the-wall funny) … in a fight, hit over the head with a brick, beat up, knocked out

06 : … continued from previous ep. ... Unconscious, unsteady … icing his bruises

07 : Shot (wearing bulletproof suit) … Shin Chang Hoon is in a fight, beat up; hit in the head several times, knocked out … bandaged

08 : Dae Myung PTSD from thunderstorm … [flashback] tied up, electrocuted, passes out (more on the comedic side), tied up again, electrocuted again

09 : Trapped in a room filling with poisonous gas … passes out … falls several times … trapped in a room with walls closing in … Chang Hoon is in a fight; head bleeding, cut … stabbed … crawling, passes out

10 : Limping … Dae Myung attending to the wounds on his arm … PTSD from thunderstorm; unsteady, heavy breathing … in a fight

11 : … continued from previous ep. ... Fight; neck scratched, strangled … passes out

12 : Car crash, knocked out, head bleeding … head pain, ear ringing

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dailyanarchistposts · 9 hours

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A.5 What are some examples of “Anarchy in Action”?

A.5.2 The Haymarket Martyrs

May 1st is a day of special significance for the labour movement. While it has been hijacked in the past by the Stalinist bureaucracy in the Soviet Union and elsewhere, the labour movement festival of May Day is a day of world-wide solidarity. A time to remember past struggles and demonstrate our hope for a better future. A day to remember that an injury to one is an injury to all.

The history of Mayday is closely linked with the anarchist movement and the struggles of working people for a better world. Indeed, it originated with the execution of four anarchists in Chicago in 1886 for organising workers in the fight for the eight-hour day. Thus May Day is a product of “anarchy in action” — of the struggle of working people using direct action in labour unions to change the world.

It began in the 1880s in the USA. In 1884, the Federation of Organised Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada (created in 1881, it changed its name in 1886 to the American Federation of Labor) passed a resolution which asserted that “eight hours shall constitute a legal day’s work from and after May 1, 1886, and that we recommend to labour organisations throughout this district that they so direct their laws as to conform to this resolution.” A call for strikes on May 1st, 1886 was made in support of this demand.

In Chicago the anarchists were the main force in the union movement, and partially as a result of their presence, the unions translated this call into strikes on May 1st. The anarchists thought that the eight hour day could only be won through direct action and solidarity. They considered that struggles for reforms, like the eight hour day, were not enough in themselves. They viewed them as only one battle in an ongoing class war that would only end by social revolution and the creation of a free society. It was with these ideas that they organised and fought.

In Chicago alone, 400 000 workers went out and the threat of strike action ensured that more than 45 000 were granted a shorter working day without striking. On May 3, 1886, police fired into a crowd of pickets at the McCormick Harvester Machine Company, killing at least one striker, seriously wounding five or six others, and injuring an undetermined number. Anarchists called for a mass meeting the next day in Haymarket Square to protest the brutality. According to the Mayor, “nothing had occurred yet, or looked likely to occur to require interference.” However, as the meeting was breaking up a column of 180 police arrived and ordered the meeting to end. At this moment a bomb was thrown into the police ranks, who opened fire on the crowd. How many civilians were wounded or killed by the police was never exactly ascertained, but 7 policemen eventually died (ironically, only one was the victim of the bomb, the rest were a result of the bullets fired by the police [Paul Avrich, The Haymarket Tragedy, p. 208]).

A “reign of terror” swept over Chicago, and the “organised banditti and conscienceless brigands of capital suspended the only papers which would give the side of those whom they crammed into prison cells. They have invaded the homes of everyone who has ever known to have raised a voice or sympathised with those who have aught to say against the present system of robbery and oppression … they have invaded their homes and subjected them and their families to indignities that must be seen to be believed.” [Lucy Parsons, Liberty, Equality & Solidarity, p. 53] Meeting halls, union offices, printing shops and private homes were raided (usually without warrants). Such raids into working-class areas allowed the police to round up all known anarchists and other socialists. Many suspects were beaten up and some bribed. “Make the raids first and look up the law afterwards” was the public statement of J. Grinnell, the States Attorney, when a question was raised about search warrants. [“Editor’s Introduction”, The Autobiographies of the Haymarket Martyrs, p. 7]

Eight anarchists were put on trial for accessory to murder. No pretence was made that any of the accused had carried out or even planned the bomb. The judge ruled that it was not necessary for the state to identify the actual perpetrator or prove that he had acted under the influence of the accused. The state did not try to establish that the defendants had in any way approved or abetted the act. In fact, only three were present at the meeting when the bomb exploded and one of those, Albert Parsons, was accompanied by his wife and fellow anarchist Lucy and their two small children to the event.

The reason why these eight were picked was because of their anarchism and union organising, as made clear by that State’s Attorney when he told the jury that “Law is on trial. Anarchy is on trial. These men have been selected, picked out by the Grand Jury, and indicted because they were leaders. They are no more guilty than the thousands who follow them. Gentlemen of the jury; convict these men, make examples of them, hang them and you save our institutions, our society.” The jury was selected by a special bailiff, nominated by the State’s Attorney and was explicitly chosen to compose of businessmen and a relative of one of the cops killed. The defence was not allowed to present evidence that the special bailiff had publicly claimed “I am managing this case and I know what I am about. These fellows are going to be hanged as certain as death.” [Op. Cit., p. 8] Not surprisingly, the accused were convicted. Seven were sentenced to death, one to 15 years’ imprisonment.

An international campaign resulted in two of the death sentences being commuted to life, but the world wide protest did not stop the US state. Of the remaining five, one (Louis Lingg) cheated the executioner and killed himself on the eve of the execution. The remaining four (Albert Parsons, August Spies, George Engel and Adolph Fischer) were hanged on November 11th 1887. They are known in Labour history as the Haymarket Martyrs. Between 150,000 and 500,000 lined the route taken by the funeral cortege and between 10,000 to 25,000 were estimated to have watched the burial.

In 1889, the American delegation attending the International Socialist congress in Paris proposed that May 1st be adopted as a workers’ holiday. This was to commemorate working class struggle and the “Martyrdom of the Chicago Eight”. Since then Mayday has became a day for international solidarity. In 1893, the new Governor of Illinois made official what the working class in Chicago and across the world knew all along and pardoned the Martyrs because of their obvious innocence and because “the trial was not fair.” To this day, no one knows who threw the bomb — the only definite fact is that it was not any of those who were tried for the act: “Our comrades were not murdered by the state because they had any connection with the bomb-throwing, but because they had been active in organising the wage-slaves of America.” [Lucy Parsons, Op. Cit., p. 142]

The authorities had believed at the time of the trial that such persecution would break the back of the labour movement. As Lucy Parsons, a participant of the events, noted 20 years later, the Haymarket trial “was a class trial — relentless, vindictive, savage and bloody. By that prosecution the capitalists sought to break the great strike for the eight-hour day which as being successfully inaugurated in Chicago, this city being the stormcentre of that great movement; and they also intended, by the savage manner in which they conducted the trial of these men, to frighten the working class back to their long hours of toil and low wages from which they were attempting to emerge. The capitalistic class imagined they could carry out their hellish plot by putting to an ignominious death the most progressive leaders among the working class of that day. In executing their bloody deed of judicial murder they succeeded, but in arresting the mighty onward movement of the class struggle they utterly failed.” [Lucy Parsons, Op. Cit., p. 128] In the words of August Spies when he addressed the court after he had been sentenced to die:

“If you think that by hanging us you can stamp out the labour movement … the movement from which the downtrodden millions, the millions who toil in misery and want, expect salvation — if this is your opinion, then hang us! Here you will tread on a spark, but there and there, behind you — and in front of you, and everywhere, flames blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out.” [quoted by Paul Avrich, Op. Cit., p. 287]

At the time and in the years to come, this defiance of the state and capitalism was to win thousands to anarchism, particularly in the US itself. Since the Haymarket event, anarchists have celebrated May Day (on the 1st of May — the reformist unions and labour parties moved its marches to the first Sunday of the month). We do so to show our solidarity with other working class people across the world, to celebrate past and present struggles, to show our power and remind the ruling class of their vulnerability. As Nestor Makhno put it:

“That day those American workers attempted, by organising themselves, to give expression to their protest against the iniquitous order of the State and Capital of the propertied … “The workers of Chicago … had gathered to resolve, in common, the problems of their lives and their struggles… “Today too … the toilers … regard the first of May as the occasion of a get-together when they will concern themselves with their own affairs and consider the matter of their emancipation.” [The Struggle Against the State and Other Essays, pp. 59–60]

Anarchists stay true to the origins of May Day and celebrate its birth in the direct action of the oppressed. It is a classic example of anarchist principles of direct action and solidarity, “an historic event of great importance, inasmuch as it was, in the first place, the first time that workers themselves had attempted to get a shorter work day by united, simultaneous action … this strike was the first in the nature of Direct Action on a large scale, the first in America.” [Lucy Parsons, Op. Cit., pp. 139–40] Oppression and exploitation breed resistance and, for anarchists, May Day is an international symbol of that resistance and power — a power expressed in the last words of August Spies, chiselled in stone on the monument to the Haymarket martyrs in Waldheim Cemetery in Chicago:

“The day will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you are throttling today.”

To understand why the state and business class were so determined to hang the Chicago Anarchists, it is necessary to realise they were considered the leaders of a massive radical union movement. In 1884, the Chicago Anarchists produced the world’s first daily anarchist newspaper, the Chicagoer Arbeiter-Zeiting. This was written, read, owned and published by the German immigrant working class movement. The combined circulation of this daily plus a weekly (Vorbote) and a Sunday edition (Fackel) more than doubled, from 13,000 per issues in 1880 to 26,980 in 1886. Anarchist weekly papers existed for other ethnic groups as well (one English, one Bohemian and one Scandinavian).

Anarchists were very active in the Central Labour Union (which included the eleven largest unions in the city) and aimed to make it, in the words of Albert Parsons (one of the Martyrs), “the embryonic group of the future ‘free society.’” The anarchists were also part of the International Working People’s Association (also called the “Black International”) which had representatives from 26 cities at its founding convention. The I.W.P.A. soon “made headway among trade unions, especially in the mid-west” and its ideas of “direct action of the rank and file” and of trade unions “serv[ing] as the instrument of the working class for the complete destruction of capitalism and the nucleus for the formation of a new society” became known as the “Chicago Idea” (an idea which later inspired the Industrial Workers of the World which was founded in Chicago in 1905). [“Editor’s Introduction,” The Autobiographies of the Haymarket Martyrs, p. 4]

This idea was expressed in the manifesto issued at the I.W.P.A.‘s Pittsburgh Congress of 1883:

“First — Destruction of the existing class rule, by all means, i.e. by energetic, relentless, revolutionary and international action. “Second — Establishment of a free society based upon co-operative organisation of production. “Third — Free exchange of equivalent products by and between the productive organisations without commerce and profit-mongery. “Fourth — Organisation of education on a secular, scientific and equal basis for both sexes. “Fifth — Equal rights for all without distinction to sex or race. “Sixth — Regulation of all public affairs by free contracts between autonomous (independent) communes and associations, resting on a federalistic basis.” [Op. Cit., p. 42]

In addition to their union organising, the Chicago anarchist movement also organised social societies, picnics, lectures, dances, libraries and a host of other activities. These all helped to forge a distinctly working-class revolutionary culture in the heart of the “American Dream.” The threat to the ruling class and their system was too great to allow it to continue (particularly with memories of the vast uprising of labour in 1877 still fresh. As in 1886, that revolt was also meet by state violence — see Strike! by J. Brecher for details of this strike movement as well as the Haymarket events). Hence the repression, kangaroo court, and the state murder of those the state and capitalist class considered “leaders” of the movement.

For more on the Haymarket Martyrs, their lives and their ideas, The Autobiographies of the Haymarket Martyrs is essential reading. Albert Parsons, the only American born Martyr, produced a book which explained what they stood for called Anarchism: Its Philosophy and Scientific Basis. Historian Paul Avrich’s The Haymarket Tragedy is a useful in depth account of the events.

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vampiremeerkat · 2 months

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honestly i have nothing to ask, just want to know more about lossrax and lorax shenanigas and i guess futher opinions about taht from onceler

Okey.

You want him to be an examiner of their relationship? Surely he has better things to do than watch two hamster boys tussle, he's an important businessman. Whatever disaster Lorax and Lossrax bring into the world by being themselves, he doesn't care. As far as he's concerned, Lossrax is just another conscienceless animal that preys and kills, therefore not remarkable. If he were to do something he didn't like, his "opinion" would be to step on his skull and tell him to go die a real death. ..Lossrax would melt in his warm chokehold, as "Join Me in Death" by HIM plays romantically in the background, truly everyone wins.

#the lorax #the biggering #remake #rewritten #reboot #rax #lorax #lossrax #the once-ler #onceler #leronce roaxl #barbaloot

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drifting-pieces-blog-blog · 9 months

Text

Breaking down the comics: Going Home.

Moon Knight, Issue #14: Stained Glass Scarlet

OH BOY OH BOY.

Just…Take a minute to appreciate this art:

Damn that’s beautiful!

Okay everyone!

Here's a bit of rogue history for you! Especially since Scarlet showed up in a recent run!

Her story is a sad one.

The story starts in an abandoned church. A story of forgotten worship, run down and empty pews, infested sanctuary, and empty promises of atonement.

"But high above the corruption, just under the church's vaulted roof in what was once the attic, there is a place of melancholy comfort... If not sanctuary.

It is here that Scarlet-- Stained Glass Scarlet-- has lived for the past three years, quiet as languid smoke, unknown by the crumbling world outside."

Damn fine narration as always, Moench.

And damn fine art.

She carries out a lonely routine. Playing on the silent ruined Organ, gazing at the vast empty space and far away stars, playing pre-recorded chess games, and at last looking through her old photo album.

"And each piece of the past is like a shard of stained glass... But all of them, even glimpsed together never adding up to a window with a clear view."

She looks at pictures of her first communion. Her wedding. Her baby.

The album ends in a newspaper clipping "Joe 'Mad Dog' Fasinera escapes prison. Guard killed in break."

Cut to a vastly different location. "A fortress of wealth and security...Sanctuary."

We are at Grant Mansion.

Here we see Steven and Marlene sharing a moment.

Marelene remarks that they really are lucky.

"[...] Referring to you, to the change you've accomplished. Going from a conscienceless mercenary to a man like Moon Knight is no light-"

"Yes... well, if it's the miraculous redemption of my spirit we're talking about-"

They sit together and look at a collected work of "Alphonse Mucha."

You have to understand something about comics. When they show you a book with a title or author, it has a purpose.

You are supposed to recognize the name or title and understand that it will have an impact on the story later.

So...

Alphonse Mucha. Who is that?

He's a Czech painter/illustrator/graphic artist from the art Nouveau period.

He did this:

Yeah. THAT. You've seen his work. You'll also notice that the second cover image has a similar style.

He also did this stained glass art piece in the :

He loved his country of Czechoslovakia and did many works celebrating the slavic people and the independence of his country... in 1920s-1930.

Yeah... You see where this is going if you know your history.

When Hitler invaded and took over Czechoslovakia, Mucha was captured as a nationalist and severely interrogated for many days. When he was released, he was in poor health. He contracted pneumonia and died a month before the outbreak of WWII.

Check out his art, it's beautiful.

You should also keep in mind that The Spectors are also from Czechoslovakia.

"The clerk in Rizzoli's said he's seen the originals of these--ten feet tall, almost like stained glass windows--hanging in belgium."

So Steven bought this book.

Why? Sure, he's about being rich and living the high light. In earlier issues (particularly the one with Mogart) he had shown an interest in art.

But why this one?

Marlene goes to the piano and starts to play "In My Life" by the Beatles.

Wait, when did this comic come out?

December 1981.

Ahhhh. The one year anniversary of the death of John Lennon.

Sometimes comics cover world events and note how they affect others.

We see them cry and hug.

"The dream is over. John Lennon is dead. [....] Guns. And guilt."

We cut to Scarlet, listening to the news on the radio.

It talks about gunfire in the Bronx attributed to the 'Mad Dog' Fasinera, the escaped convict.

The radio goes on about Mad Dog going on a murder spree.

Scarlet sheds some tears.

Back at the mansion, Steven also hears about the shootings. He runs to get ready as Moon Knight.

We cut to Mad Dog in a shoot out. He talks about revenge for his father and getting his father's money. He's going ot 'cut the old neighborhood to ribbons'.

We see Moon Knight on the roof getting into the chopper.

"Don't worry about it, Lady- Grant'll be back."

"Who will be back, Steven?"

"Okay, Already. I'LL be back."

Again, we see the push by Marlene to have them all be Steven and the push back and frustration.

Marlene still at this point thinks they are pretending to be someone else and she wants them all to just be Steven.

Scarlet also cloaks up in her signature red outfit and heads out into the night.

Moon Knight fights the Mad Dog and his gang shooting up a store. He busts in and breaks it up, taking down a few while the others get away.

He follows them to an abandoned grocery store and sees Scarlet standing outside.

She goes inside and finds the rest of Mad Dog's gang, but no Mad Dog. She demands to know where Joe 'Mad Dog' is.

She tells them that when they see Joe to tell him 'What he's looking for is in the church." She then leaves.

Moon Knight follows her back to the church and confronts her.

She tells him her story.

Joe is her son!

"I was young, Moon Knight, in love with the idea of being in love..."

She talks about how Joe was the result and consequence of her love. Now, she means to 'salvage' the consequences and save Joe.

When she was much younger, she wanted to be an actress or a nun. She chose the role of being a nun.

Once she was a nun, she realized that she was only acting and regretted her choice.

She realized this when she met a man named "Vince". Vine had just stolen a lot of money and run to the church out of guilt.

She helped him and 6 months later she married him and left the church.

"Instead, I devoted myself to my husband, hoping I could help him change, hoping I could use my own failure to redeem him... The baby came and I named him Joseph... But Vince never came to the hospital once. I had to take a cab home."

After 15 years, she realized that this too was just a 'role'. Vince robbed a bank and killed the guard. He stashed the money and got in a shoot out with the police, who killed him in front of the church.

When Joe heard his father was killed, he 'declared war on law and order."

By 19 he had killed someone and left home. He went to jail for life.

When her son went to jail, she moved to the church. "Jut to play another role, the fallen woman turned mad hemit."

Moon Knight asks her why the church.

"Just before the police caught up to him, Vince told a friend that he was going to hide the bank money in a special place where he 'pulled an angel straight down from heaven'."

She moved to the church knowing that her son would eventually come looking for the money.

Joe makes a draatic entrance and demands to know where the money is.

She begs him to stop. To give up and turn himself in.

Moon Knight gets shot in a scuffel and Scarlet shoots Joe.

Joe staggers and accidentally grabs the church bell rope. As he falls, all the hidden money falls down with him.

Scarlet stands over her dead son.

"Thomas Wolfe's Maudlin line is true, Moon Knight... You never can go home again. Once you've turned your back on it... It's gone. Forever."

(A very hard and true statement. I wonder if it hit home for Marc too. A man that ran from home and turned his back on everything. Had he ever tried to go home? Or was he still running?)

Scarlet disappears into the night. Moon Knight stands over the discarded gun. “Guns…” Lamenting on how easily they take and destroy. Much like the death of John Lennon. An idea that is killed.

Moon Knight returns back to the mansion, wounded but alive.

"Some succeed in their chosen mission. Others fail, no matter how hard they try."

That is the end of the issue, but not the last time we will see Stained Glass Scarlet.

I’ll cover each of her appearances, but this is a Moon Knight Villain that I always did enjoy.

So what about the artist? Alphonse Mucha is best known for his Art Nouveau period, but it wasn’t what he wanted to be known for.

For him, he loved his home. He loved his little country that had fought and struggled to become whole. One of his final pieces was about his own people. “History of the Slav”. It depicted his people’s struggles to survive and build their country.

It was put in a museum for a bit then rolled up and put into storage.

Now and then it is pulled out and shown in Prague, but not for long or often. His country was then invaded and torn apart over and over again. He died as it was on the brink.

Again, we have to remember that the Spectors are from Czech. While Mucha was devoutly Catholic and did a lot of work that went to the churches, he wasn’t openly recognized for a lot of it. He was most famous for the work he did in Paris.

Scarlet tried to find herself and found herself in role after role, pretending to be happy and not finding herself. Her legacy becomes her failure to save her husband and then her son, born from her misguided attempt to find her purpose. She then kills that legacy.

It’s odd in this comic how Moon Knight really doesn’t have much of a role in it. We focus on Mucha, John Lennon, and Scarlet.

The bits we do see of Moon Knight are him looking into an artist from Czech who left a legacy he didn’t want. Him lamenting over the senseless killing of a man that meant so much to a lot of people. And him hearing the story of a woman trapped in finding her meaning and her past.

It’s one of those issues that leaves you feeling like you are taking a peak behind a curtain but can’t quite see the full picture. It also leaves you wondering.

And later, much later, in recent issues, when we see the remains of Scarlet, there is a sadness there. A bit of the past that Moon Knight could never let go of. And we’ll see more of that later when she shows up again.

#Moon Knight #Moon Knight Comics #Moon Knight meta #Analyzing the comics #Marc Spector #Steven Grant #Jake Lockley #Stained Glass Scarlet #Moon Knight's rouge gallery #For everyone that had no idea what that new Stained Glass Scarlet episode really was about #I want more than anything to dive into the idea of Steven wanting to know his past #I want Steven to research his own people #I want Marc to talk about going home #I want Jake to touch on the fact that he has built his own people because he has none #I'm not normal about Moon Knight #I love Stained Glass Scarlet #She always makes Moon Knight pause and reflect #He lets her get away

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lotus-pear · 4 months

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Hi! (Sorry this is long. I wasn’t sure how to shorten it)

I saw your most recent post involving your social experiment with your friend and I figured I can (maybe) contribute data to your social experiment!

Context: I started watching BSD somewhere around 2019 (I think I watched season 3 as it aired or it had just finished and it seemed like the anime ended). I accidentally found it, the description seemed interesting and the names looked familiar (i.e., I recognised some of them as authors right away)

So, I looked up the characters and while trying to minimise spoilers (and somehow mostly succeeded in that?) and was exposed and was exposed almost exclusively to knkdz (I didn’t realise Chuuya existed until I got to episode 9 and wasn’t aware of any other ships). It’s also worth noting that I didn’t really interact with fandoms that much back then (the most— for all the things I was a fan of/consumed— was accidentally discovering and seeing knkdz fan content. It seemed like an interesting ship)

Anyway, then I watched the show (and started the manga). The result? For me personally, I found knkdz to be the least interesting ship (romantic or queerplatonic)— don’t get me wrong/that being said, I *love* their canon relationship and whatnot

(We’ll see if that changes after I read the light novels since stuff like new manga scenes/arcs, Beast and Dazai, Chuuya, Age 15 have affected my opinions on characters, relationships and etc)

Most of the relationships I like to see when consuming content is actually platonic, with the few ships I do like being mostly queerplatonic (off the top of my head, I think the only actual romantic ship I have is Fitzgerald and his wife?), and all relationships being treated as roughly equally important

(And, if asked to list my favourite ships by order, it would have more to do with my favourite characters than actual ships lol)

Note: I’m on the romance-repulsed area/spectrum (for lack of a better word that I can think of at the moment) of AroAce so, like, that probably affects things lol

(That being said, it’s nice to see that BSD treats all relationships fairly equally and contributed me to liking the show so much!)

a response that i’ll make sure to factor in! i will say however that i have to disagree w you bc even as just friends or even going lower as just work acquaintances kunikida and dazai are written to have a lot deeper relationship than they actually let on. none of this is elaborated on in the anime or manga bc the series’s main focus is atsushi for the beginning but if you read dazai’s entrance exam you get kunikidas entire inner monologue abt dazai and it’s very interesting how quickly they latch onto each other. dazai’s reasons are more tragic than he lets on i believe, but until we get that directly from him we can only assume he gets so close to the ada and kunikida especially bc kuni reminds him of odasaku. that’s a whole tangent i can go on separately but suffice to say it’s the reason why he fell hard and followed him like a motherless duckling everywhere in the beginning, bc he saw oda’s unwavering resolve and firm ideals in that man. despite being in a conscienceless world that weighs survival against humanity, both oda and kunikida fight to ensure their personal beliefs are still held up. dazai finds that admirable in both men

#SRY FOR GOING ON A TANGENT I JUST #when ppl say that knkdz isn’t their fav bc they don’t have much content i have to take a step back and ask if they read ln1💀#bc the anime does a horrible job of portraying their dynamic and partnership if i’m being honest #and the manga focuses on atsushi so we don’t get their personal relationship or even much of THEM unless they’re accompanying atsushi #sigh……when i say i hâte studio bones i really mean it. we were robbed so badly #sskk and knkdz stans 🤝🏼 being absolutely fucked over by studio bones #lotus’s asks

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