#cw settler violence

[palipunk]

The massacre in Jenin is horrific but just the sight of bodies being left on the street because no ambulances/paramedics can get to them since Israel has been blocking them from reaching areas of the refugee camp…yeah there aren’t any words. Literally what can you even say

#palestine #free palestine #if you are on Twitter and following Palestinian news be careful #there are images circulating of the dead and wounded being left in these conditions #cw death #cw murder #cw settler violence #cw genocide

[bringmemyrocks]

"On Zionist Feelings"

By Dr. Randa Abdel Fattah, excerpt below

https://mondoweiss.net/2023/12/on-zionist-feelings/

Last month, Jewish Zionists were “outraged,” “profoundly saddened and disappointed,” and felt their ‘safe space’ threatened and disturbed by three actors in a Sydney Theatre Company stage production who wore Palestinian keffiyehs during curtain-call. Donors withdrew, a petition garnered over 1000 signatures, one performance was canceled, three board members resigned, and the company went into a frenzy of damage control and issued statements of apology about “safe spaces,” “harm,” and “offense.” One board member resigned because there was “no apology from the artists” for a gesture that “traumatized Jewish members of the audience.” Resigning from the company’s philanthropic foundation in protest, another prominent donor Judi Hausmann wrote, “I never imagined my resignation would be necessary because I’m a Jew.” In all these instances, expressions of Zionist fragility expose a calculated, purposeful strategy of insisting on the status of victim when confronted with the material fact of Palestinian existence and the solidarity of others. That the cultural presence of the keffiyeh on stage is enough to trigger Zionists in the audience and Zionist board members reveals how the fragility of Zionist privilege is being challenged at a moment of global awakening and reckoning of the genocidal violence of the colonial settler project. The keffiyeh, as a symbol of anti-colonialism and anti-racism, thus disrupts the Zionist narrative of victimhood and centers Palestinian resistance as a struggle for freedom and self-determination, supported by people across the world in their thousands, in their millions. What is grotesque in the weaponization of Jewish ‘trauma’ over a symbol of cultural significance is the fact that at that very time, the Palestinian death toll from Israeli airstrikes and bombardment had reached over 15,000. It is now over 25,000.

Dr. Randa Abdel Fatter does an amazing interview with Mohammed El Kurd below, but read the article first. Both are quite short, cw for mention of violence.

#zionism #palestine #randa abdel fattah #mohammed el kurd #mondoweiss #i #Youtube

[swolesome]

What if I told you that the antidote to Islamophobia isn't Antisemitism?

CW for this post (you have seen the title.) I feel like this shouldn't need explaining, but merciful Brigid, some of the shit I have seen. It's time for Led Tasso to come out. I'm not Jewish, let's just get that out of the way first, but my position on Palestine is largely informed by Jewish people who have been protesting for decades about the horrific treatment of Palestinians being done by a settler colonial state appropriating their religion, culture, language, and trauma. Fascist governments weaponizing fear and hiding behind religion is a well known tactic, and the fact that so many people have put this readily available information from their minds, specifically in this conversation, speaks to how incredibly pernicious antisemitism really is. I'm treading lightly here because as someone who's not Jewish, it really isn't my place to explain the cultural complexities, trauma, or general experiences of Jewish people. But if you haven't seen those discussions crossing your feed, you should be looking inward and asking why. Because if you're not invested in Jewish voices right now (or in general), that's a red flag for the kind of rhetoric you've internalized and the struggles you take seriously. The position I can speak from, however, is one of being committed to challenging all forms of systemic violence and oppression. So from that stance, and I cannot stress this enough: If you are fighting for some at cost to others, you are reinforcing oppression. It is wild to me that "Nazi" has come to mean "The worst thing a person can be" without recognition of the fact that the ideology is inherently antisemitic, that this is its centrepiece, that Jews are the number one target. This separation is, once again, an example of how insidious this brand of hatred really is--blatant erasure of the way Jewish people are uniquely targeted. I know a lot of trans people follow me, so here's a fun fact: You know the "Doctors are transing our kids to damage fertility rates!" conspiracy? You can thank antisemitism for that, too! It's literally just a rebrand of the Great Replacement conspiracy, which is modernized "protection of Aryan bloodlines." The most recent chapter of "My Life as A Bigot" by Joanne Klan Rowling isn't just another gleeful display of her hatred of trans people, it's another addition to the laundry list of antisemitic beliefs and talking points she's been peddling for years. The Charlottesville "unite the right" Nazi rally was spurred on by the removal of confederate statues and anti-Black racism. What is it they were chanting, again? Anyone remember? Any of this ringing a bell? OH RIGHT. "Jews will not replace us." So many other forms of systemic violence are steeped in the poisonous rhetoric of antisemitism. Acting like this isn't the case damns our Jewish siblings who need us while weakening our understanding of the oppressive forces we're fighting. "One struggle" includes all of us. The fact that the Likud government uses accusations of antisemitism as a cover for their violence should make you more diligent about condemning antisemitism, not less. Because letting them weaponize something that is already so widespread and destructive makes it that much harder to dismantle.

Do not stop talking about Palestine. Do not stop speaking up against the horrors of settler colonial violence. But if you can't do this without throwing another group of oppressed people under the bus, you need to question where you learned your resistance tactics, because the company you're keeping there should disgust and terrify you.

#enough is enough #antisemitsm tw #seriously what the fuck #fuck jkr #none of us are free until all of us are free #stop antisemitism

[daniigh0ul]

welcome to chapter 3 !!! i stole AFI's love like winter for this post. i alsot should acknowledge that 'fruit bats' is a real band with a very different vibe from the fictional fruit batz lol :) if there are any typos, no there aren't.

prev || next

transcript includes the wiki bio ! wiki psd can be found here

transcript:

Tati arrives around 4PM at the Copperdale library to meet Diego.

TATI: Hi. DIEGO: Hey. A short but awkward silence follows. TATI: So...what do you know about vampires? DIEGO: Not much...but I do know where a lot of them live. Have you heard of Forgotten Hollow? TATI: Yeah! Have you heard of Fruit Batz? They're my favorite band! My boyfriend doesn't like them--more of a BMTH fan. But, anyway! Their frontman Caleb Vatore is from there. DIEGO: Oh yeah, Fruit Batz! I love their second album 'bloodsuckerz'. Too bad Caleb quit after that. TATI: Oh my god yeah. He's basically a recluse now from what I've heard. DIEGO: The only thing I remember about him was that he was like, an out-vampire? Like he didn't hide that he was drinking plasma. TATI: Yeah! He was so punk rock for that. My favorite song was 'Love Like Winter'. Have you heard it? DIEGO: No. TATI: I have to show you it. One sec. [gif of caleb and his band mates performing Love Like Winter (a real song)] it's in the blood, it's in the blood i met my love before i was born he wanted my love, i taste of blood he bit my lip, and drank my war DIEGO (laughing): That hair sure was a moment. TATI: I'm sure you've had a few questionable hair choices. DIEGO: What? This beautiful shag? Never! TATI: OK you have to see his hair at the end of his career (furiously googling) DIEGO: OK, I know about their manager Miss Hell and the messy break up--who is 'Vladius Strod' and why is he mentioned!? TATI: Huh. I think this is new. Vladislaus Straud IV...

cw: implication of murder/violence

vlad's wiki bio

Count Vladislaus "Vlad" Straud IV (birthdate unknown), renowned musician and entrepreneur is the descendant of Count Vladislaus Straud I. His ancestor immigrated with a settling party and founded what became Forgotten Hollow. It remains a mystery what happened of the settlers, though there are many contested theories. Vlad is known for his charitable donations toward the Forgotten Hollow Symphony and his inheritance of his father's company Vladislaus Hardware.

Vlad was a notable organist on SNL in the 1980s. However, after an incident on Sims Night Live, he walked off set and never returned. It is unknown what triggered the incident nor is it known what happened to Miss Hell, that night's host, whom mysteriously disappeared for two weeks afterward.

His most recent public appearance was in a rare interview with The Copperdale Times in 2010. It was much discussed in online forums and Social Bunny, but he has not made an appearance since then. When asked about the SNL incident, or his relationship with former Fruit Batz band member Caleb Vatore, he laughed it off.

Notably, Vatore and Straud had a duel (as is vampiric custom) at sunset. Straud won, and now the Vatores hold a grudge against him. There is much speculation that the reason for this duel has to do with their differing beliefs about feeding on Sims.

Vlad is a well-known advocate for vampirism and is an out and about vampire. He believes it is the right of the vampire to feed on Sims as it is the right of the Sim to eat meat. When asked to clarify his position on consent of the Sim, he scoffed.

In the 1990s, Vlad was detained and arrested on suspicion of murder. A young man's body was found in the alley dumpster behind the well-known gay bar Martini. The young man had two bite marks on his thigh. It made international news when Vlad was acquitted of all charges.

DIEGO: There's been FOUR of them? I thought vampires were immortal... TATI: Hm. Do you think we should send Vlad an e-mail? Maybe an interview with him would be good for research? DIEGO: Yeah. I'll ask Mr. Flowers about it tomorrow. What better way to learn about a culture than from someone apart of it. TATI: Oh shoot. It's almost 7. My turn to make dinner. Gotta go! Let me know what Mr. Flowers say! DIEGO: Yeah! See ya! DIEGO (softly): Shit. Tati is out of earshot and on her way to her rusty truck and does not hear this.

#moonlight 2.0 #ch 3 #oc: tati #oc: diego #ft random deco sims #ts4 story #cw violence mention

[ask-nyc-boroughs]

Colonial Florida, Carolinas, & Georgia

CW: depictions of violence

Just sharing some information on some of the southern states I have worked on.

I’ll start with Carlisle “Carl” Graves/ South Carolina & Margaret “Maisie” Ferguson / North Carolina. They’re half siblings. Carl’s father is probably some sort of English county personification (most likely Dorset), and his mother is an English woman with some French Huguenot heritage from Barbados who migrated with her family to South Carolina. Given the fact she’s in the tidewater south and given her class, having a kid out of wedlock was taboo so I imagine his father arranged for her to marry a man, who is of a northern English / Scottish background. They end up moving to North Carolina’s back country to be with his family, and have Maisie. In my lore, there is some discrimination, or prejudice especially in this period against personifications born to human parents. I imagine most settler colonial personifications have human parents, but the few that don’t like Carl, that has 1 personification parent, I believe that gives him some social clout. Also I decided to make North Carolina younger because tbph South Carolina was the seat of power and colonial North Carolina didn’t really get going without South Carolina. I also don’t go by earliest permanent settlement for a state-level oc, it doesn’t always make sense to me for a variety of reasons.

Anyways Carl is a bit controlling, and he’s more of a tidewater southerner, and Maisie loves her brother but doesn’t appreciate his controlling behavior. Also one final note on carl, he can come off a bit cold but he’s quite the stereotypical ideal of a southern gentleman. Charming. Polite. Etc. Maisie is more of an Appalachian ngl. I’ll discuss Maisie another time. But Carl’s , and his friend/neighbor, Curtis Bartlett/ Georgia childhood was marked by constant fights with the Spanish and their colonies especially Louisa Flores / Spanish Florida.

Obvs, that isn’t a great situation for a kid to find themselves in, and it does impact Carl’s controlling behavior and also makes him rather jealous of Alfred later. Alfred wasn’t always the US in my lore, and Carl believed that he would’ve been elected/ selected by his peers to represent this new country given Carl’s history and background. Also one other thing is prior to the Revolution, Alfred was not universally liked by his states. Actually he’s never been universally liked by his states lol. Anyways Carl does resent Alfred for a number of years.

I split Florida into two because it didn’t make sense to have 1 continuous Florida given the fact that most Floridanos (the Spanish settlers) leave during Florida’s British colonial period. Louisa ends up having a kid with an Anglo-American settler from the colonial backcountry, this kid is Elena/ Elaine Moore, who comes to represent the US state of Florida. I think Louisa hides the fact that Elaine is her kid for both their sakes since Elaine comes out really pale in comparison. I’ll discuss Elaine more in the future, she is 110% Florida woman tho lol, but sometimes you’ll see me draw her with much lighter skin and that’s cause like if Elaine isn’t going outside and tanning highkey she passes as a white woman.

White passing and its history is something I want to explore more in my lore, but yeah that’s all I’m gonna leave it with the basic info on these southern states. I will say out of all them, Maisie / North Carolina & Carl / South Carolina are major players in my Nor’easter lore lol

#aph oc #hetalia oc #hws oc #hetalia #aph #hws #hetalia South Carolina #hws South Carolina #aph South Carolina #hetalia North Carolina #hws North Carolina #aph North Carolina #hetalia Georgia #aph georgia #hws Georgia #hetalia Florida #hws Florida #aph florida #statetalia #nor’easter verse #hetalia art #hetalia states #aph states #hws states

[houseofpurplestars]

Cw: discussion of s/a

Okay so because some of you are really in love with this "hamas commits mass rape" story that the occupation is pushing as its latest flimsy excuse for genocide, i guess, let me address the real system of "mass rape": occupation prisons.

Sexual assault has long been used as a weapon by the zionist occupation, going all the way back to it's "founding." Occupation prisons are black sites where there is ZERO rule of law or accountability. Sexual assault is EXPECTED not only within occupation prisons but also AT CHECKPOINTS.

Checkpoints are EVERYWHERE. A Palestinian just going about their day could be stopped at half a dozen checkpoints or more. Sexual assault is EXPECTED. Palestinians KNOW this is a very real danger every fucking day.

Every. Fucking. Day. Just going from one place to another.

On top of this, because settlers are given carte-blanche, they can commit any crime they wish against Palestinians and they will never see any prosecution. Ever.

If a Palestinian dares to fight back, they are killed on the spot or thrown into occupation prisons- where sexual violence is guaranteed- for multiple life sentences, often with no due process at all.

So-called "israel" has been described by "israeli" settlers themselves as one of the most racist societies imaginable. If you are not familiar with the rhetoric of this culture of death and torture, you would not believe that it is possible.

This is not even mentioning how so-called "israel" is literally a safe haven for sex criminals from all over the world.

#free palestine #cw sa mention #free gaza #solidarity #zionism is terrorism #fuck israel #zionism #cw israel #all of these things are easily googleable so dont come in here like source? #just do two minutes of research you got this i believe in you

[allgather]

cw for talk about antisemitism, zionism, and being tired.

there has been a lot of organizations and non-jewish allies in my community that want to stand in solidarity with jewish people in the face of rising local and global antisemitism. this is good, i love to see the allyship and that antisemitism is being taken seriously! but i am also seeing that this moment has a lot of well-meaning non-jewish allies googling local jewish organizations in their community to platform, and are platforming just about any one pretty uncritically. especially in small communities where there aren't a lot of options for local jewish folk. but its a problem when locally, i'm seing organizations that are historically and currently violent and exclusionary against interfaith families and queer and trans jewish people being shared as resources. how do i know this? i have experienced it first hand from these organizations. but also, the critiques of these organizations are pretty readily available online. and i am just wishing and asking well-meaning allies to do their research, to talk to marginalized jewish folks about which organizations are truly safe for them, before suggesting them as resources broadly. because seeking support for violence and being met with more, different violence is not okay.

and for the love of god now is not the time to allow zionist organizations to capitalize on the fear of antisemitism to bolster support for the israeli settler state. now is not the time to conveniently forget about the harm these same organizations do on a global scale, to forget our moral objections to settler colonialism, just to seek an idea of safety. we must not make our safety through the displacement, violence, and genocide of others.

we can make our own safety through organizing, through truly inclusive community, and through opposition to antisemitism, nazism, and fascism in all its forms.

#ooc #it has been a bit of a Long Day

[palipunk]

X X X

All eyes on Al-Aqsa mosque

#palestine #free palestine #mohammed el kurd #cw police violence #cw police brutality #cw settler violence

[danielanavas]

Jennifer White-Johnson on Facebook writes:

CW: Flowers for little Wadea Al-Fayoume. He only was 6 years old. Wadea was brutally attacked and stabbed 26 times by his horrendously evil and racist landlord. This is so heavy. I keep reading and hearing the phrase ‘hate has no place in America’ but for decades it’s been hard watching hate take up permanent residence in our nation and around the globe. As a mother of a young kid, I’m confronted with daily bouts of anxiety deciding how to avoid infusing the news into our conversations. I’m so tired.

Wadea's family came to the U.S. from the West Bank and settled in the Chicago suburbs 12 years ago to flee from the settler violence in the Palestinian territory, according to the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Last Wednesday, Oct. 11, the landlord said he wanted the mother, Hanaan Shahin and her son to "move out of the home," Shahin told deputies that on the same day, he "confronted her about what was going on in the Middle East." He told her he was angry at her for what was going on" in Israel. Shahin "stated she responded to him 'let's pray for peace'," Shahin "stated he gave her no chance to do anything ... then attacked her with a knife."

Shahin told police she was able to get away by locking herself in the nearby bathroom, but was not able to get her son. While in there, she called police, while on the phone her son was being stabbed multiple times. Little Wadea was probably trying to get away.

The mother and son were found in a bedroom. “Both victims had multiple stab wounds to their chest, torso, and upper extremities,” the Will County Sheriff’s Office said. The mother while trying to fight off her attacker was stabbed 12 times. Both were rushed to a hospital, but the 6-year-old did not survive.

the boy's mother told investigators, her landlord was an "angry" man. His wife, Mary, told investigators that he "listens to conservative talk radio on a regular basis" and became obsessed with the war between Hamas and Israel.

Wadea was laid to rest on Monday.

[jess-do-it]

This is the settler mindset Palestinians are up against. CW: threats of violence, just abhorrent behavior

[queer-games-library]

LOOKOUTS

Playable on Browser, Androids & Windows. https://paranoidhawk.itch.io/lookouts "Lookouts is a romance visual novel about two gay transmasc outlaws in the old west, finding refuge in each other, and a little hope for a better life. With roughly 45,000 words of story and a 5-6 hour reading time." As the blurb said, a game about two gay transmasc outlaws! I really enjoyed this game, and it took me about 3 hours to complete, with a very high reading speed. You really do not need to make many choices/complete puzzles in this game, it is more like reading a story. In this one you take the POV of one of the romantic partner(s), so keep it in mind. CWS: Gun violence (incl. sound effects), gun death, blood, injury, mild transphobia, discussions of racism and settler violence. None of the injuries are described in great detail but there are some visual aids and allusions/light descriptions.

#queergames #browser #android #windows #free #visual novel #romance

[subbyenbywitch]

[book review] aliens vs. predators: ultimate prey (2022)

(spoilers, cw: thirst, discusses themes of abuse, gendered violence, racism, slavery/colonization)

the first story of this anthology, "below top secret" by chris ryall, gives us a fictionalized[1] version of the 2019 social media phenomenon that was "storm area 51/they can't stop all of us."[2] that whole thing had to have pinged the radar of basically anyone working on any scifi franchise. it's kind of a shame that the x-files wasn't on the air anymore at that point, because i'm sure they would have referenced it.

this was a pretty fun way to start this anthology! basically one guy who's with the huge group storming area 51 splits off from the group and drags his friend who's more or less the audience p.o.v. character along. she's moreso there out of boredom and curiosity which seems like a terrible reason to break into a military base and get arrested or worse. he, on the other hand, is a serious conspiracy theorist and has been in contact with someone who supposedly works on the base and gave him codes into one of the buildings.

to his mild surprise and her utter astonishment, the codes work! and they soon find themselves in an underground research facility just in time to be caught in a lockdown due to an escaped xenomorph!

they end up in a panic room with a scientist who works there and who berates them for being stupid enough to be there. after ruling out most of the possible ways they could escape, the scientist says she has an idea and they go let a yautja out of a holding cell to fight the xenomorph. and yeah this is kinda dumb and silly but i don’t care i kinda love it? and the scientist is explaining how they should act around the yautja and she’s telling them to avoid any threatening movements and “i’d even kneel and lower your eyes” and that’s so horny, omg. i might not love the predator movies the way i love the alien movies, but the yautja themselves are equally hot af.

anyway, like i said, very fun way to start this anthology! b-rank.

i appreciate that the protagonist of “isla matanzas” by steven sears is disgusted by the british slave traders he encounters, but he’s also a spanish colonizer whose beloved home is stolen land. stolen land that acts of genocide have been committed on. so let’s not be too quick to hand out credit there?

look, i’m sorry, but if you really want to do a story about abolitionists teaming up with yautja, maybe have the slaves be the protagonists? rather than a competing colonial power? just an idea. c-rank.

“homestead” by delilah dawson is about a lady who lives on an old west ranch and has the misfortune of going into labor in the middle of fleeing a xenomorph/yautja slugfest. obviously there is plenty of unexamined settler colonialism going on here, but this is probably an alright read if you're into all this rustic pioneer type stuff and wanna see that juxtaposed with xenomorphs and yautja fucking shit up. there's some pregnancy horror stuff towards the end that was just super not for me. c-rank

"the hotel mariposa" by david barnett is about the crew of a ghosthunting show running into yautja and xenomorphs and i was already in as soon as i realized that was what was happening. and it just gets more awesome from there, with one of the ghost hunters ending up bonding with a yautja and they end up killing a xenomorph together in a moment that's weirdly emotionally cathartic for both of them, and if that's not enough they also exorcise their mommy issues together. this is also the first story in this anthology to feature extended scenes from a yautja's point of view, which is basically always a plus. a-rank.

in "planting and harvest" by mira grant, our setting is a remote botanical research station. the station's crew is composed of company scientists who have flamed out of more prestigious positions but not badly enough to get fired. when their station is attacked by xenomorphs, a nearby band of similarly disgraced yautja decides to ride in to the rescue to restore their status as hunters and escape the menial tasks they've been assigned. pretty straightforward space bullshit! c-rank.

“blood and honor” by susanne l. lambdin has a trans protagonist!! she’s a colonial marine who’s having an affair with her married c.o. and ends up being marooned on a planet infested with both xenomorphs and yautja. the xenomorphs on this planet are experiencing a civil war of sorts between two rival queens, whilst the yautja are having issues with a male hunter going around killing all the female hunters for reasons that our protagonist is never entirely able to discern.

i really liked all the interconnected conflicts going on. there’s also some interesting parallels here with all three sides experiencing conflicts within their own ranks, as well as our colonial marine protagonist[3] and the yautja she teams up with specifically experiencing gendered violence. i also love the triumphant note this story ends on, with our protagonist telling her yautja ally, “long live the queens. that means you and me.” just great stuff all around. a-rank.

you might recall that i really enjoyed how rachel caine’s “broken”[4] turned on a subversion of the assumption that artificial people are necessarily less compassionate than humans, though i was a bit turned off by its implied misanthropy. so it’s really no surprise that i loved “carbon rites” by jess landry which had similar virtues but actually went quite a bit out of its way to not be misanthropic.

the protagonist of this story is an android who does not know she’s an android, living in a simulation that she does not know is a simulation. it’s sort of like the truman show but with guns and xenomorphs and yautja. this is set in the more distant future we saw a glimpse of in alien: resurrection, and the people running these incredibly unethical experiments are the united systems military, the same people who experimented on ripley’s clone.

in these tests an android is paired up with a human and put through a deadly encounter with a xenomorph, a yautja, or presumably other alien species in a variety of environments. but this one is prematurely ended when a strike team of former victims of the experiments comes to break our protagonist out.

i really enjoyed how gradual the protagonist’s understanding of the situation evolved, and her utter horror and disgust when she found out that all the humans from the previous experiments were “disposed of” at the end of the tests. this subverts not only the expectations that androids are without emotions or empathy, but also the entire trope of the “robot apocalypse.” this story believes that if we prove ourselves worthy of it, our robot siblings can not only not be our destruction, they can be our very salvation from our mutual oppressors. a-rank.

i actually feel a little bad about skipping bryan thomas schmidt’s “drug war”[5] now, but not bad enough to go back and read it after all. i mean, it’s a fucking direct sequel to predator 2. but i did really enjoy his contribution to this anthology, “first hunt”. this story is told largely from the perspective of the yautja. there’s a bit of human perspective mixed in to give you a more grounded/horrified perspective on things, but i’d say it’s like 60/40 in favor of the yautja, which is just awesome. plus it’s just really well-written in general. b-rank.

i like “abuse, interrupted” by yvonne navarro quite a bit more than her previous story, “reclamation.”[6] as its title implies, the protagonist of this one is a domestic abuse survivor. there’s some rather explicit descriptions of what she’s been through, so do be aware of that going in. but that just makes it even more cathartic when her new yautja girlfriend fucks up her abuser. with his life hanging in the balance, the yautja looks at the human “almost as though waiting for her to protest.” our protagonist looks at him and realizes she feels “well, not much at all.” she gives the yautja a shrug, and taking that as permission she cuts him from neck to tailbone and rips his head and spine off.

this wasn’t my favorite story in the anthology or anything, it just isn’t the kind of thing i’m really looking for out of this franchise, but it was very satisfying. b-rank.

"better luck to borrow" by curtis c. chen reads a bit like a ya-style jason takes manhattan? it takes place on a class field trip on a boat, the protagonist is a little girl with a robot hand, she gets bullied a little bit towards the beginning of the story to get you in a goosebumps/etc sort of mindset, and then all hell breaks loose when xenomorphs start fucking people up and yautja show up to hunt them. this was pretty wild, i loved the clashing styles here. b-rank.

"film school" by roshni "rush" bhatia follows a documentary crew to a colony that was supposedly wiped out by a mining accident. as the story progresses you find out that the director is the only one who knew the "mining accident" is a cover story, and she's trying to find out what actually happened. which sounds like a noble enough goal, but she's clearly being a bit of a glory hound and the fact that she kept the rest of her team in the dark is just unconscionable.

anyway, given what anthology this is, you probably already have a pretty good idea of what actually happened to the colony.[7] i'm tempted to say this story is hampered somewhat by having another story in the collection with a similar setup[8] that i somewhat preferred for several reasons, but this story differed enough in what it did with the basic idea of a film crew thrown between a xenomorph/yautja melee that i think it sufficiently distinguished itself. it definitely used the documentarians as a grounded point of view to show much more of an epic setpiece battle between the two sides. so if that's what you're looking for, unlike me you might actually end up preferring this one. and i liked it quite a bit, regardless. b-rank.

in “night doctors” by maurice broaddus, the aliens and predators are not the monsters. instead, they are fellow victims with the protagonist, her brother, and who knows how many other colonists.

the villain of the piece is a sickeningly evil doctor who is experimenting on the colonists as well as several imprisoned yautja and xenomorphs. the chilling horror of these experiments are contextualized through examples of white doctors committing similar atrocities on black people throughout history.

our protagonist is an extremely race- and class-conscious black woman who at one point explicitly states in the narration that she does her best to leverage the company’s resources while consciously avoiding letting them exploit her or her people. she also acts in solidarity with the yautja and the xenomorphs to overpower their mutual oppressors.

it's just… so fucking refreshing to see this kind of class warfare be explicit within the text and dramatized through a total badass action hero lady doing badass action hero lady things and taking names. a-rank.

"scylla and charybdis" by e.c. myers is about a crew whose ship is dead in space due to sabotage. the setup here is actually pretty similar to the first few minutes of alien: covenant but with more suspicion and without the intrusive theism. eventually, a yautja ship shows up and starts hunting the crew, and the captain thinks they’ve all been killed but eventually he wakes up to discover they’re all alive and well. apparently the yautja–who calls himself keeper–captured anyone who put up a fight. they find themselves in a zoo-like prison that seems to have various “cells” containing vast, simulated environments for a variety of species being held captive there.

the captain finds out it was his own wife who did the sabotage due to political tensions between her united americas and the international body that put this mission together. there’s also a reference to some political weirdness involving korea and a bunch of different acronymed-factions that i didn’t entirely pay attention to so it might be gross imperialism? like, my assumption is pretty much always going to be gross imperialism when westerners write about korea and politics, but i can’t really say for sure and i honestly didn’t circle back to try to parse it.

i did enjoy the space disaster stuff early on, and the fact that the characters ended up essentially as “living trophies” until other yautja attacked keeper because obviously that’s not how yautja are meant to operate. and at that point a bunch of xenomorphs got loose and things got rather predictable.

overall this is a fairly middle of the road story. not great, but not bad. c-rank.

i do enjoy scott sigler’s writing style and his contribution to bug hunt was one of my favorite stories in any of these anthologies. his contribution to this one, "another mother", is apparently a sequel to an avp novel he wrote. unfortunately i do have to say that unlike a lot of the other stories in some of these anthologies that are sequels or prequels to larger works, this one does very much suffer from inaccessibility for new readers. i can tell that he put some thought into explaining his setting to new readers without overexplaining to old readers, but it feels like the scales are tilted very decisively towards the latter. consequently i can’t really meaningfully comment on this, as i don’t feel like i was the intended audience and that’s totally okay in an anthology like this. as a result i will not be rating this one.

the final story of the anthology is "kyōdai" by jonathan maberry and louis ozawa, and it expands the story of the latter’s character from the film predators (2010). specifically it is about kawakami eiji, kawakami hanzō’s brother. i liked this quite a bit more than maberry's contributions to the other two anthologies. i think a lot of that is down to the content and the fact that this is a much more character-driven piece than the other two. like his alien 3 follow-up in bug hunt it does end in a very cliffhanger-adjacent manner, but this one at least felt much more like a complete story and not like one that just stopped in the middle of setting the table. c-rank.

so, there’s our last[9] of these anthologies! overall this one was probably my favorite of the three, as aliens: bug hunt got rather bogged down with distracting continuity issues whilst predator: if it bleeds was mired in repetitive episodes of bootlicking historical narratives.

i’d say the only real big picture issue with this one is that the xenomorphs consistently get their asses handed to them, and while it oftentimes feels like the right choice for many of the individual stories, when it’s a trend that’s happening basically without fail throughout the entire anthology it starts to wear rather thin for those of us who are bigger fans of the alien side of this crossover franchise.

oh, i was excited to learn that apparently a lot of very online white dudes consider the fact that one (one!) of this anthology’s fifteen stories stars a trans woman (and mentions that’s she’s trans… once), one (one!) features a disabled character, and a few feature one or two characters who aren’t white[10] grounds to dismiss the whole anthology as “woke garbage.” the only blatantly political messaging was in "night doctors," and y'all would agree with that messaging if you weren't too effectively brainwashed with racism to see your own damn class interests.

also, leaving aside for a moment how utterly vile this attitude would be even if all 15 stories starred black disabled trans women, despite having known for years that there are people like this taking up valuable oxygen to form these thoughts and express them publicly, i still cannot, i still just really cannot wrap my head around the one-two punch of entitlement and fragility at play here. other people existing is "sjw shit." i just. what the fuck, guys?

anyway it was already my favorite of the three anthologies i read before i saw those reviews, but now it’s even more my favorite of the three just to spite you, so there.

notes

1. and drastically more successful, in that they actually attempted to storm area 51.

2. personally i was very much of the opinion that we should take that energy and direct it against ice detention centers instead, but y’know.

3. she eventually deduces that her c.o., the one who was sleeping with her, is responsible for stranding her on this planet.

4. from aliens: bug hunt, the companion anthology set in the alien universe.

5. from predator: if it bleeds, the companion anthology set in the predator universe.

6. from aliens: bug hunt, the companion anthology set in the alien universe.

7. [extremely jonathan frakes voice] what happened here? was this really a tragic but simple mining accident as the company claimed? but then, how do you explain the message from the terrified miner? are we asking you to join our hunt for the truth? or are we hatching lies in your face?

8. "the hotel mariposa" by david barnett.

9. there is another one of these anthologies, predator: eyes of the demon, but i felt my curiosity about predator-focused stories was whetted by if it bleeds.

10. there are plenty that don’t mention the characters’ races at all, but i’m sure these ghouls read those characters as white. also, you incel losers got your bootlicking in the last anthology, shut the fuck up.

#avp #alien vs predator #aliens vs predators: ultimate prey #alien #predator #book review #books #reviews #cw: abuse #cw: racism #cw: misogyny

[yearnin-cryptid]

⭐⭐ Here you go <3c ~ @avid-adoxography

Ooooo two of 'em! Thank you so much! @avid-adoxography Ask Game

My first random was Charon! So a CW for Mentions of slavery and canon typical violence for him. Honestly I wish there was more we knew about him and more for him in general because honestly?? Bethsuda you gave us a cool dude and just left?? COME BACK. I NEED A QUEST WHERE I KILL THE GUYS THAT DID ALL THIS TO HIM. Charon and Marina are like, the slowest slow burn you can imagine. Marina is endlessly patient and kind while Charon slowly figures out how to let his walls down. It's hard, but when your contract holder/partner is nothing only soft and honest in all your travels, it does help break barriers. I originally had something written in a server where after they do get closer there would be a moment where Marina handed Charon his contract to rip over their campfire because her slow, persistent insistence that Charon is his own person. Charon never tells Marina who his original slavers were. One part due to wanting to move past and never have to touch that again. Another part because he knows if Marina figures out who it is she will annihilate them with cruelty and extreme prejudice. He heard the horror stories from other settlers and companions of what she is capable of. Thankfully he just met her a little after that period in her life and she's not absolutely going through it so he was spared. They have three dogs by the way that I have never shown here but their names are Dotty, Sarge, and Sage. :)

And the next one pulled was Prince Sidon! Shark prince my beloved. Honestly this is one of those ships where not a lot of thought is put into it, it's just Aroura leaning over to Link and saying in a very quiet and scared tone "You didn't say your royalty friend was hot, how am I suppose to behave???" Answer is; he doesn't. Link just encourages them to be feral and Sidon for some reason finds it so endearing and cute. Aroura and Sidon flirting just consist of complimenting each other. And not in the way that is clearly flirting, it's the, "Oh! Your hair is very pretty today. :)" "Awww thanks, oooo your claws are so nice, did you get them polished or somethin' recently?" Also their dynamic is just funny because it's royal chad and country-ass boy falling in love because there is some hidden charm to each other. Sidon gets to meet Mallow, Aroura's horse, and is ecstatic about her. She was a little spooked by his height but warmed up to him so quickly after that. He would jokingly ask Mallow for permission to date Aroura and the horse just nickers in response. He realizes how much Mallow means to Aroura and so he just wants to check playfully.

#.txt #Gusher.txt #Charon #Prince Sidon #Hehehe

[victimhood]

Brutality and racism are the core of any imperial army, but for the British this was institutionalised on a huge scale, unbroken over centuries and impacting countless men and their families. The world’s greatest training ground for the slaughter of non-white people was in India, where hundreds of thousands of British men over several generations learnt to fight and kill. By the early nineteenth century, the East India Company’s army boasted 195,000 men under arms, making it one of the largest standing armies in the world, around twice the size of the British Army itself,22 which took over the company’s armies after the ‘great mutiny’ of 1857.

British soldiers in India were trained to commit atrocities in cold blood, involving mass hangings, shootings, floggings and deportation of suspected rebels.

Also see Omar Sakr’s Twitter thread on this article

#Australia #british imperialism #settler colonialism #cw violence #cw violence against indigenous populations #long read #militarism #colonial legacy

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“Descendants Of Raiders, Eskimos In Trouble Again,” Toronto Star. April 5, 1941. Page 29. ---- Belcher Islands Are Reported Scene of Three Murders, Believed Children --- R.C.M.P. FLYING IN --- ‘Three Eskimos murdered.’

That was the curt message that sent an R.C.M.P. airplane soaring into the north today. Headed for the Belcher Islands.

Every once in a while in the last 50 years the usually docile, stolid Eskimo population of the iron-bound group of islands in James Bay have been getting themselves into the headlines.

This time it is thought three children have been the victims, and the murders took place some time in February. The story got out when the lone white trapper on the Belcher Islands, thought to be Ernest Riddell, trekked 60 miles across ice to the Quebec shore, where he sent out the news over short-wave transmitter.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police left Ottawa by plane, stopping at Moosonee to pick up the government doctor, and by now are well on their way to the Belcher islands.

Men experienced in northern travel say a ski-equipped plane should be able to land at Belcher Islands without difficulty. They believe, if necessary, a party could be sent over the ice to the islands, which are about 300 miles north of Moosonee.

Visits by the mounties are an old story for the Belcher Eskimos. They don’t fight very often, but when they do somebody gets killed. Sometimes their fights arise out of a shortage of women. At other times food is a little scarce and it’s the survival of the fittest.

Descendants of Raiders Belcher Eskimos are descendants of those who half a century ago raided the Hudson’s Bay Co. trading post at Great Whale river and killed all but a few of the white men there.

The raid was the result of lack of food due to a bad trapping season. When the mounted police of that day caught up with the raiders they were banished to the Belcher Islands.

In The Star three years ago J. K. Doutt and Dr. A. C. Twomey of the Carnegie Museum at Pittsburgh, told of having spent four months with the Belcher Island Eskimos. They were convinced at that time that the Belcher Eskimos had a superiority complex and also had the intelligence to back it up.

These Eskimos, of whom there are 200 families, with 5,000 square miles of barren land, have as prized possessions long strings of the metal bands Jack Miner of Kingsville puts on Canada geese during their migration. The bands the women hang around their necks as jewelry. Brass cartridges are also popular. The men put them to a more practical use as metal plugs and for repairing their kayak paddles.

Can Read and Write Primitive as they are and still living as their ancestors did before them, most of these Belcher Eskimos can read and write in their own language. Despite a steady diet of fish and the animals and birds that live on fish, with a few blueberries in the summer, for variety, the Eskimos were found three years ago to be a happy, healthy race with good teeth.

The Belcher Eskimos depend entirely on the sea for their livelihood. Their clothes are made from seal skin and from the skin of the eider-duck and because they are far above the tree-line they go for miles to get a little driftwood to build a fire.

The police will have no easy task investigating the reported murders. The Eskimos may kill each other, but they don’t talk about it to outsiders, and it will probably take the R.C.M.P. months to run down those responsible.

Took Year to Trace Killers In 1915 it took Inspector LaNauze, now assistant commissioner at Regina, more than a year to find out who killed two missionary priests near the mouth of the Coppermine river to obtain their possessions.

In 1921, the late Staff Sergeant A. H. Joy arrested three Eskimos for the slaying of Robert Janes,a  trader. Inspector Phillips investigated two slayings on the islands in 1920. After a hearing before a jury composed of six members of his ship crew, Inspector Phillips made effective a recommendation for clemency and left the principals with their families who might have died had their parents been taken away.

If any arrests are made in the present case, the Eskimos will face trial in the same way as accused white men. It is likely they will be taken to Moose Factory on James Bay, for trial.

[AL: These events became known as the Belcher Island Murders, as two men, convinced their were Satan and God, killed nine other people.]

#cw racism #sanikiluaq #belcher islands #belcher islands murders #inuit #settler colonialism #settler colonialism in canada #violence of settler colonialism #moosonee #murder investigation #far north #royal canadian mounted police #james bad #indigenous people #indigenous history #anti-indigenous racism #canada during world war 2 #crime and punishment in canada #history of crime and punishment in canada