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ibijau · 3 years

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Futures Past pt8 / On AO3

Meng Yao's future is dealt with.

To say that Lan Qiren was disappointed in his nephew for helping Nie Huaisang escape into Yunping City would have been an understatement. It was made quite clear to Lan Xichen that he would face punishment of his own for this misbehaviour. Real punishment, too, not just copying texts as had become standards for small infractions. Still, Lan Qiren listened to that tale of a corrupt merchant scamming people with fake manuals, which greatly irritated him, and thus forced sect leader Huang to care as well and deal with it immediately.

It was wrong to think maliciously of anyone without proof, and even more so if the person was an elder. Yet as they all walked toward the market Lan Xichen couldn’t shake the feeling that had he been alone when news of that crooked merchant reached him, Huang Quiling might not have cared enough to do anything about it. After all, he hadn’t asked Lan Xichen for any details about this business, and instead appeared intent on continuing his conversation with Jiang Fengmian about borders and trade.

Lives were on the line, Nie Mingjue and Meng Yao’s futures depended on this day, and nobody cared.

They didn't care because they couldn't know, of course, but logic wasn't helping Lan Xichen's ever growing anxiety. He only calmed down when they all reached the place where the others were waiting, and found that everyone of any importance was still where he had left them.

While Lan Xichen was gone, things had changed a little in the market. Most of the earlier crowd had dispersed, tired of waiting for more entertainment, and the market street was almost back to normal. Those few curious folks who remained were trying to inconspicuously listen in as Nie Huaisang chatted with, or rather at poor Meng Shi. The unfortunate woman looked deeply uncomfortable, but didn't dare openly disrespect the young master who had confirmed her son's potential for cultivation by walking away.

She couldn't leave yet, anyway, not until she'd gotten her money back for those fake cultivation manuals. From what Lan Xichen could see, Jiang Cheng and Meng Yao were taking care of that, the two of them counting money with that crooked merchant. Here and there Meng Yao would glance at Nie Huaisang, as if something he said attracted his attention, but each time Jiang Cheng brought his attention back to the task at hand.

When Lan Xichen and his elders came close enough to hear, the distress made sense: Nie Huaisang, after all this time, was still discussing the many failings of Jin Guangshan. Lan Xichen wished he were surprised, but there really was that much gossip going around about that man. Most people just didn't usually discuss all of it at once out of respect for a sect leader.

“And then, da-ge said that Jin zongzhu brought in dancers,” Nie Huaisang was saying to a rapt audience, insensitive to the discomfort of Meng Shi next to him. “Da-ge said it was getting embarrassing to watch when Jin Furen arrived, and she made such a scene because apparently her husband had promised to consult her about all the entertainments at the banquet but he brought the dancers without tell her. So then, she… oh, already?”

Nie Huaisang, so cheerful while telling his story, turned a little pale at the sight of Lan Qiren. He looked around for something to hide him from his teacher’s angry glare, and had to settle for slipping behind poor Meng Shi. Lan Xichen refrained from rolling his eyes, and directed his elders' attention where it was actually needed.

“Here is the man,” Lan Xichen announced, motioning toward the merchant. “He has been selling fake cultivation manuals to people.”

“Fake talismans as well,” Jiang Cheng said, lifting a few before crumbling them in his hand. “And he has been doing this for a while. How long, did you say?”

“We started buying from him last year,” Meng Yao explained with a polite bow toward the older cultivators. “But he started coming to the market the year before that, and already offered the same wares. We assumed he had received permission to sell those items, since...”

Meng Yao trailed off, glancing toward sect leader Huang before bowing deeper as if in apology.

Strictly speaking, no sect could be expected to be aware of and to deal with every crook that operated in their territory, so Huang Quiling couldn't be blamed for that situation. At the same time, it would be considered shameful for any sect to have someone selling fakes in its own hometown of all places, and for so long. It spoke of unreliability on their part if people would rather go to a nobody on the market, or else it meant that they priced their services much too high for common people. It also meant they didn't care about commoners, who surely had to have complained about that merchant before. Either way, it wasn't a good look for Huang Quiling, and he would have to act properly to clean this stain on his reputation.

But instead of scolding the merchant or threatening him, Huang Quiling only had eyes for Meng Shi, who was glaring at him defiantly.

“So it's you again,” sect leader Huang muttered. “Meng Shi! Haven’t I told you to stop bothering cultivators?” he turned to the other two sect leaders and gave a small apologetic bow. “I’m sorry that your boys got caught up in this. Meng Shi is just a local whore who’s convinced herself that her bastard has what it takes to be a cultivator. Completely delusional, the boy will never amount to anything. You can't judge that merchant's wares just because the bastard of a whore didn't become an immortal from reading it. I'm unsure the boy can even read.”

Meng Shi, proud as a queen until then, went pale. Lan Xichen felt her shock and horror as if they were his own. He turned to glance at his uncle, worried he might side with Huang Quiling, but to his relief Lan Qiren instead appeared annoyed at the sect leader. It was probably only the coarse language that he disapproved of, and the public nature of this confrontation which he must feel stained all their reputations, yet Lan Xichen felt emboldened anyway.

“Huang zongzhu, have you tested Meng gongzi?” he asked. “We checked on him, and found he has potential.”

“What would mere boys know about these things?” Huang Quiling snapped at him. “Which one of you tested him?”

Lan Xichen hesitated, and glanced at the other boys. He hadn’t come anywhere near Meng Yao yet, and couldn’t lie about that. But if he said it was Nie Huaisang who had checked on Meng Yao, and after his horrible performance at the Night Hunt the day before, it wouldn’t be much of an endorsement. Lan Xichen himself only trusted Nie Huaisang’s assessment because he knew from that other future what sort of cultivation genius Meng Yao was.

“I’m the one who checked on him,” Jiang Cheng boldly lied. Or perhaps he really had checked, dubious as well of Nie Huaisang's assessment, because he continued: “For someone not born from gentry, his potential is not to be dismissed. It might be on par with Yunmeng Jiang's first disciple, if he were just taught properly.”

Huang Quiling, so disdainful a moment before, lost all of his confidence. He glanced at Jiang Fengmian whose face showed no particular expression, except perhaps mild curiosity now that Wei Wuxian had been mentioned. Lan Xichen wasn't sure what to make of that. He hadn’t often been near Jiang Fengmian except at the occasional discussion conference, and of course in the other future they had never gotten to work together as sect leaders. According to gossip, Jiang Fengmian was something of a pushover, who loved quiet and peace more than he cared about justice, but on occasion he could show strength of character if the mood hit him.

"What does his skill matter, with a mother like that?" Huang Quiling claimed, refusing to admit defeat. "No self respecting sect would knowingly take in the son of a whore. It'd be like teaching a pig to walk on two legs, dressing it in silk, and calling it human."

"People ought to be judged on their actions rather than their origins," Lan Xichen retorted, which caused sect leader Huang to glare at him with bulging eyes, his face dark with a rage so strong it robbed him of his words. Even without looking, Lan Xichen knew that his uncle too had to be shocked, that there would be hell to pay for this later. But then, if he was going to be punished, he might as well go all the way. "Just because you don't have the talent to teach someone,” he said, “don't assume a skilled teacher can't do it either."

Huang Quiling looked on the verge of having a Qi deviation, gaping and frothing at the mere boy who dared to insult him so openly. He wasn't the only one to stare, either. Nie Huaisang, the Jiangs, the Mengs, and above all Lan Qiren were looking at Lan Xichen as if he'd suddenly grown a second head.

A very rude second head, at that.

Lan Xichen just couldn't help it. Back in that awful future, the man he would have become had also been enraged and saddened at the unfairness of the world, particularly with regards to Meng Yao. If people hadn't judged him so harshly for something he had no control over, if instead they had taken notice of his skill, of his hard working personality, of his determination…

In that future, Lan Xichen had never dared to speak up, believing in the virtues of inaction and of leading by example, the way he'd been taught to behave. So far in this current life his attempts at being more active hadn't really worked so well, only ensuring that Nie Huaisang made a terrible friend in Su She and started hating Lan Xichen much earlier, but maybe this time, just maybe...

“Lan-xiansheng, your nephew is rather opinionated for a boy his age,” Huang Quiling complained. “I have heard a great deal how well behaved the young heir to Gusu Lan is, but it appears some reputations are undeserved.”

“My nephew will be dealt with,” Lan Qiren calmly replied, which dampened Lan Xichen's moment of rebellion more than anger could have. “And he will present excuses to you. Right now, Xichen.”

“But Lan gongzi's right!” Nie Huaisang exclaimed, coming out from his hiding place being Meng Shi. Under Lan Qiren's glare he shivered, but didn't give up. “I mean, he's right at least to ask if Meng gongzi was tested,” he mumbled. “And he's right to say it's not fair if nobody will teach him just because of his family! I've read our histories, you know. I know people didn't want to teach some butcher any cultivation because it's unclean work, and now we're a big sect. Isn't it the same? And it's not just us, right?”

His eyes darted toward Jiang Fengmian, who smiled at the unsaid accusation.

The official history said that Yunmeng Jiang had been founded by a group of rogue cultivators. They had tired of wandering, and established themselves in a small port which soon thrived thanks to their presence and influence. As far as founding stories went, it was a very respectable one.

The less official story was that their founder had been the leader of a band of thieves who had picked up a trick or two and figured that cultivation paid better than robbery. Lan Xichen had never been interested enough in the subject to do any research, but he had a cousin with a taste for history who swore that annals from that period corroborated the second version more than the first. If so, it wasn't much better than being descended from a prostitute, though enough time had passed that it didn't matter so much anymore.

“I see my nephew won't be the only one who needs to be dealt with,” Lan Qiren remarked in an icy voice. Nie Huaisang, having used up all of his courage in standing up to his teacher, hid again behind Meng Shi, trying to make himself small.

“Boys must stand for something, it's what youth is for,” Jiang Fengmian replied with good humour, before gesturing toward Meng Yao. “Come here, boy. Let's see what all the fuss is about.”

“Jiang zongzhu, you're not serious!” Huang Quiling exploded. “That boy is just...”

“I'm only curious. If his proximity is intolerable, then perhaps you might help my son check those manuals to see if they are real or fake. Jiang Cheng, help Huang zongzhu while we deal with this side of the problem.”

Huang Quiling went pale from rage at being ordered around in that manner, but with Yunmeng Jiang the larger and more respectable sect, he still obeyed. He stomped toward the merchant's stall in a manner Lan Xichen found lacking in the dignity to be expected of a sect leader. Meng Yao, for his part, hesitated to obey Jiang Fengmian's order until Jiang Cheng pushed him forward. Huang Quiling radiated hatred when Meng Yao passed by him on his way to the other sect leaders. He looked as if he might have tried something, or said some other insults, but Meng Yao wisely made sure to leave as much space as possible between the two of them, which wasn't easy in a crowded market street.

“Come closer, child,” Jiang Fengmian requested when Meng Yao hesitantly stopped a few steps away from him. “I am going to put my hand on you to check your meridians. It might feel a little odd... but if my son tested you, you know that already, hm?”

Meng Yao nervously nodded glancing back toward his mother who smiled encouragingly. He only shivered a little when Jiang Fengmian put one hand over his heart, and even less so when Lan Qiren did the same after being invited to do so by Jiang Fengmian.

“I suppose the children have a point,” Lan Qiren conceded, his expression turning somewhat warmer. “How old are you, boy?”

“I'm sixteen, Lan-xiansheng.”

Instantly, Lan Qiren's expression darkened again.

“Too old then. If you'd been two or three years younger... and even then it would have been difficult. It's best to start young.”

Meng Yao's shoulders slumped down at the news, while all of Lan Xichen's hopes were crushed. He knew that his sect preferred younger disciples, though he suspected it had less to do with actual cultivation, and more with the fact that children took to discipline better than teenagers. Still, he had hoped that Meng Yao, with his potential... but Lan Qiren's word was final in these matters, with only their sect leader having a right to contradict him. Meng Yao couldn't be brought into Gusu Lan.

Which meant another option would have to be considered.

With dread curling in his guts and a choking sensation tightening his throat, Lan Xichen looked at Nie Huaisang still half hidden behind Meng Shi, and found the other boy staring right back at him. Nie Huaisang no longer appeared as furious at him as he had been before, but that might have been because he was preparing his own move, ready to ruin all of Lan Xichen's efforts. Nie Huaisang opened his mouth, surely to offer again that Meng Yao be sent to Qinghe, but missed his chance to speak.

“Yunmeng Jiang has never looked down on older disciples,” Jiang Fengmian said with a pleasant smile. “It can be a challenge to learn cultivation with a late start, but anyone who cannot take a challenge has no place teaching in the Lotus Pier. Sixteen... it could be worse. One of my own shidi was in his thirties when he joined us, and still did well enough for himself.”

Lan Xichen shivered, his body tensing further at this proposition.

Perhaps it was because he knew already, but the resemblance between Meng Yao and his father, between him and his half-brother also, was quite striking to him. It was possible that Jiang Fengmian hadn’t noticed, but unlikely when he often dealt with Jin Guangshan. Even if he really saw nothing, his wife was well known to be a very close friend to Madam Jin. There was no way Madam Yu wouldn’t notice that their newest disciple resembled Jin Guangshan, and since she was said to be a tyrant and the true ruler of Yunmeng Jiang…

“Are you sure this is wise?” Lan Qiren asked. “Even if that boy can be taught, his family…”

“His mother taught him well enough that he would take the defence of a stranger even in a fight he couldn’t win,” Jiang Fengmian said. “Or so your nephew said before. A good heart is what matters.”

“But half of Yunping City could be his father,” Huang Quiling argued, who'd paid more attention to their conversation than to the cultivation manuals he was meant to inspect. “From the lowest beggar to any drunk merchant with too much money to waste.”

“His father is a cultivator,” Meng Shi said, striding to come at her son's side. “He said he would return for A-Yao, but…” She glanced at Nie Huaisang who had followed her to hide again behind her. He had shared so much gossip earlier, it would have been hard for her to keep her hopes up. She sighed. “I only want for my son to live up to his potential. If he can be a cultivator, then that’s... good enough.”

“Is your son under any contractual obligation?” Jiang Fengmian asked.

“He's not,” Meng Shi vehemently decried. ��He's free.”

“That will make things easier. If that is fine with you, I will accompany you two to your place of residence. We can talk about certain details while your son packs, and then he will come to Yunmeng with me. Would that satisfy you?”

Meng Shi, speechless, could only bow deeply before her son's new master. Meng Yao did the same a few times, before hugging his mother, both of them too stunned by this good fortune to even smile. As they held each other's hands tightly, Jiang Fengmian gave his son a few things to do while he was busy.

Huang Quiling too appeared quite stunned by this turn of events, and a good deal less pleased than the Mengs, but he wisely kept quiet about it. Lan Qiren's refusal to teach Meng Yao on account of his age would save Huang Quiling some face, since he could now pretend he had the same issue, but it wouldn't surprise Lan Xichen is the relationship because Yunmeng Jiang and Yunping Huang remained tense for a while.

Lan Xichen couldn't quite feel sorry for it. He didn't like people who thought they were allowed to be rude to their inferiors, and hoped that sect leader Huang would learn something from this experience.

Then, having given his son instructions, Jiang Fengmian walked back to Lan Qiren to bid him goodbye, explaining he expected his schedule for the day to be so changed that they might as well separate for good right then. Lan Qiren agreed, but frowned as he glanced toward Meng Yao.

“That boy's father, with his looks...” he said in a voice low enough the Mengs might not hear, but still clear enough for a cultivator's ears.

Eavesdropping was forbidden, but Lan Xichen found he couldn't help himself. Neither could Nie Huaisang, who leaned toward the two men to hear better.

“Probably. I'll have his mother confirm it,” Jiang Fengmian said in a similar tone. “but it won't change things. Even if my wife doesn't like it, I would be a fool to pass a chance to teach a boy of such potential. And Jin zongzhu would never admit any relation, so it'll all be fine.”

Lan Xichen let out a deep breath, relieved that things had worked out so well after all. He would have preferred to have Meng Yao in the Cloud Recesses, where he could have watched him closely and made sure he didn't go again down the same path as before, but the Lotus Pier wasn't an awful option either. They'd managed to turn someone like Wei Wuxian into an honest enough man, so they might know how to deal with Meng Yao as well.

Even when Lan Qiren reminded his nephew and Nie Huaisang that they would both be harshly punished for their bad behaviour, Lan Xichen found that he didn't mind, not when there was a good chance they had saved Nie Mingjue's life.

#xisang #nie huaisang #lan xichen #jin guangyao #mo dao zu shi #mdzs #jau writes #double time travel #I am... finally done with Yunping City...#This took so much longer than I wanted it to take...

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rabiid-bunny · 3 years

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Hi. In my ow there are a few characters of colour. Since racism isn't an issue in that fantasy world I assume I won't fail miserably at portraying the black experience but I'm still concerned about accidently making things weird/bad. So my questions are: May I come to you if I have questions about writing black characters? Do you have advice for writing black characters as a white person? Is it good enough for me to just mention that they're black and then write them just like the white characters? Have a nice day.

Hello dear.

I appreciate you being so thoughtful about this topic. I want to address some things here that are lacking some Black empathy.

You will always fail at portraying the Black experience because you are not Black. You should not write the Black experience or ever hope to. You can write POC in your works and white people can absolutely educate themselves and write about the systematic oppression POC may face in their works but writing the Black experience from the perspective of a Black person is not something that will ever be genuine if it is written by anyone that is not Black.

Even though racism does not exist in your world, it exists in your reader’s world. This must always be taken into account. An example: your world is in perfect harmony and then a white character comes along and wears something that resembles a (triple k) robe. This is fine in your universe but it is extremely hurtful and offensive and ignorant and triggering for Black people to consume irl. There are plenty of films in worlds where racism doesn’t exist where they kill off the Black person first. Whether the writer’s meant to be malicious or not, it is a repetitive narrative that is hurtful to Black folk and so you cannot assume that internalized racism will not drive you to offend Black people. To counter this, you must be actively anti-racist and always looking to understand and listen to what Black people have to say. And just as people say “the smarter you get, the more you realize you know nothing”; the more you learn about internalized racism and listen to Black people, the more you will see that the Black experience is something you could never portray. It is unfathomable unless you’ve lived it since the day you were born.

To your first question: Can you come to me about writing Black people? You may but only after the second question below has been achieved.

Second question: My advice to a white person writing Black characters? First off, thank you so much for putting POC in your story!!! We love representation! My advice is to do your thorough research and do not listen to any articles or media that are written by non-Black people. If you look these things up, it will save a Black person from having to explain their life experiences for probably the hundredth time they have that week. Convos on the mere existence and every day dealings, feelings and lives of Black people due to a lack of proper representation on every media platform are exhausting. It’s just a lot so research into the Black voices that stood up and shared their many experiences helps save Black folk some energy.

Your third question: Is it good enough for you to just mention that they're Black and then write them just like the white characters? Only if you don’t want Black people to read your work. There is a distinct difference between inclusivity and representation. Your work may be inclusive, in that it has Black people in it but it may lack representation. This means you have taken the skin tone of Black people and their hair and hollowed them out and shoved a white person in them. This is horrific. In media dating back to the 50′s, there are SO MANY Black people but literally, to this day, there is next to no Black representation. White people are constantly profiting off of our skin color, our hair texture, our verbiage for the sake of their white-liberalist consciences and never for the true representation of Black people.

So I say this. Think of your audience and who you want to connect to your story and characters. If Black people will be in that audience, much research is needed. If they are not, you probably shouldn’t write them.

Phew!

Thanks for the ask, have a great day!

#ask #personal #blm

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shmegmilton · 4 years

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Can you explain how Aaron and Alexander stopped being friends and started fighting?

They were never really ‘friends.’ I assume you got that idea from the play, but I have no idea why the play tried to push that narrative. Civil? Sure, but that was necessary. New York was less than 50,000 people at the time, and they were both accomplished lawyers & statesmen who had to work and interact with each other on a daily basis. Politics is politics, look at how people are acting right now during our election.

As for your question, it’s a long line of policy & personal disagreements, mostly. They were on opposite sides of the aisle on pretty much everything. Lots of small things, but a lot of big, BIG things.

Burr was (ironically) kind of a pacifist; he kept mostly to himself, didn’t really speak much publicly & didn’t necessarily go out of his way to confront people unless he’s been pushed long enough (everyone ‘snaps’ at some point, y’know?)

But that’s why the ‘Burr is an evil mastermind’ myth is so pervasive today. Burr just… didn’t bother defending himself, or correcting anything, because he (mistakingly) had faith in the inherent goodness of people that someday people would see him for his true character. So for that reason, we don’t really have a good timeline from Burr’s perspective as to how he felt about Hamilton—but BOY howdy did Hamilton never shut up about Burr.

----

Trespass & Confiscation Acts (1782ish)

During the Revolution, the British confiscated the property of patriots that fled the city. New York did the same thing, & for a while it was this game of: ‘Oh, you’re gonna take my stuff? **draws a line in the dirt** Well, everything behind this line is mine now.” It was all very bad, and after the way Tories & Loyalists faced a lot of honestly very fucked up discrimination & forfeiture of their rights. Hamilton (like most Federalists) was pro-British, so he represented a lot of these people in court. I’m sure it wasn’t purely out of the goodness of his heart--most of his clients were loaded--but the sentiment is there. On the other hand, there are multiple records of Burr buying up property around this time, most likely confiscated Tory property, which he would usually flip or give away to people that he knew, so he was taking full advantage of this. Burr also, most likely, went head-to-head with Hamilton on a few of these cases, because Burr tended to work with the ‘common folk.’

French Revolution (1789ish to 1799ish) & Proclamation of Neutrality (1793)

Burr (like most Democratic-Republicans) was pro-French, so much so that he took in French refugees fleeing the Revolution into his home. He was very sympathetic to the cause.Hamilton was not. He basically saw it the same way that right-wing Conservatives see the Black Lives Matter movement is the best way I can explain it. He also hated it for the amount of immigrants that were now fleeing to the U.S.

Burr Gets Chosen For NY Senate (1791)

Key word: chosen. As in, he didn’t actually run. That wasn’t how politics worked back then. The Hamilton musical just fucking lied outright about that, let’s be clear. He also never switched parties. Ever. Back then you were nominated by the people who were already in government--usually by one of the powerful families like the Clintons or the Livingstons, or yada yada. So Burr didn’t actually do anything. He didn’t even really want the position either, if I recall. But back then if you were ‘called to serve,’ you were obligated to do it. Hamilton was furious either way because it meant that Burr was replacing his father-in-law, Phillip Schuyler, meaning that he wouldn’t have that extra ear in government that he wanted. Burr also had a lot of views that were considered ‘extreme’ at the time, like getting extra rights for women, immigrants & black people, but I have no idea what Hamilton thought of those individual policies other than he just didn’t like women, immigrants or black people.

1792 & 1796 Presidential Election

Burr wasn’t really that serious about either of these elections, I don’t think (in ’92 he wasn’t that well-known & barely got any support, but it’s worth noting the fact he was nominated to run at all was really impressive. He’s tied with William Jennings Bryan as being one of the youngest people to ever receive an electoral vote, at 36 years old.) In ’96 he faired a little better—he got 30 votes, which is nearly half of what you need to get the ticket nomination, also very impressive.Hamilton was super staunchly opposed to both of these runs, though, and did his typical Hamilton thing of openly campaigning about how the people shouldn’t vote for Burr, yada yada.

Jay Treaty (1794)

I highly suggest looking up supplemental information on this because it’s a bit complicated, but it was basically a treaty between us and Great Britain to reaffirm that we were going to continue to not mess with France, as well as a couple of other weird hang-ups. It was not popular, at all, especially with the Demo-Republicans. There is a specific instance (that is actually kind of insane) where Hamilton gave a public speech in defense of it, and the Democratic-Republicans in the crowd started pelting him & the other Federalists with rocks. Hamilton got SO mad that immediately challenged a man to a duel, and threatened to fight each of the Democratic-Republicans one-by-one.

Reynolds Affair (1797)

Burr had a personal relationship with Maria Reynolds; he was her divorce attorney in 1793/1794, helped her out financially, & successfully petitioned (+paid for) her daughter Susan to attend a boarding school. I believe they also stayed in his him with him during the divorce proceedings, but don’t quote me on that. He never said anything publicly that I could find, but Burr probably had a personal investment in the Reynolds Pamphlet, since it painted Maria in a really damaging light.

Alien & Sedition Acts (1798)

These were some of the most worst laws ever passed in the history of the country. Like, these were AWFUL. It not only limited immigration, but it limited the freedom of the press and freedom of speech (ESPECIALLY immigrants, my god.)

Burr was right on the front lines helping defend people in court, he actively opposed it & is probably the thing that propelled him into Jefferson’s orbit as a potential Vice President.

John Barker Church Duel (1797)

John Barker Church had accused Burr of taking bribes (which was unfounded & untrue) and they ended up dueling. JBC was the husband of Angelica Schuyler, Hamilton’s sister-in-law.

Neither was injured (though, JBC apparently put a hole in Burr’s coat), but it supposed infuriated Hamilton & his associates so much that they would send out fake letters “from Burr” challenging people to duels.

The Manhattan Company (1799)

Burr was getting sick of the difficulty he was having getting loans from the Federalist-run banks and decided to do something about it. There had been several seasonal epidemics of yellow fever—caused by mosquitos but, at the time, it was thought to be caused by improperly treated water, miasma (‘bad air’) or (if you asked Hamilton) stinky evil immigrant refuges who were fleeing France and Haiti. Burr saw this and spearheaded a campaign to get a proper water treatment plant, even getting Hamilton to help him. Through some really weird loophole that I don’t quite understand, Burr was somehow allowed to use the ‘surplus capital’ for banking, which essentially turned it into a bank. The actual water treatment portion of the company was plagued with problems due to improper management and things like that. We’ll never know his exact thought process on this (people normally assume it was malicious trickery because people are biased to hate Burr anyway) & I highly doubt that Burr knew the extent of the issues (he was on the Board of Directors, but so were a dozen others--INCLUDING John Barker Church) so I don’t entirely think it’s his fault, but the fact of the matter is that it most likely exacerbated the existing problems & indirectly led to more people getting sick/dying until they finally fixed the problems.I would say that it’s completely justifiable for Hamilton to be mad at Burr, but, as we established, Hamilton hated both poor people & immigrants (two groups most likely affected by this) so he wasn’t actually mad at him for the reason a… y’know, a normal person would be mad at him. He was mad at him because Burr destroyed the monopoly that Federalists had on banks, making it easier for Democratic-Republicans & others to get loans. He was literally mad at him for making the economy fair.

1800 Election & 1804 NY Governor Election

These two are self-explanatory, I think, and I’ve already been writing way too long, lol. My hand hurts.

#Aaron Burr #Alexander Hamilton #Hamilton #AmRev #History #American Revolution #Long Post #Anecdotes #THIS TOOK SO LOOOOONG

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bmblboop · 2 years

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I still hope the gang in vacuo don’t waste too much time trying to save the atkasmoristicrats

If they’re willing to change their ways and be better like may and Whitley? Good on them, they can tag along

But you just know a LOT of them are just gonna complain about not owning slaves anymore,

And the ones like madam? And Jacques? Leave em,

The general rule should be “shut the ruck up and stop being racist/classist or get left behind”

"Atlastocrats": a portmanteau of Atlas/Aristocrats. I like it, I'm gonna use it from now on.

Of course the people offering help are going to offer it to all of the needy, people of Mantle and Atlas alike. I'm sure those that don't want to accept change will turn up their nose at being helped by these 'lowlifes', who will then take their assistance elsewhere.

Are you familiar with the Aesops fable of the Lion and the Mouse? In short, a Lion catches a mouse but spares it when it begs for its life and to return the favor one day. The lion scoffs at the idea, but obliges. Some time later, the Lion is caught in a hunter's net and the mouse chews the ropes to free it. The mouse says to the lion, 'see? I promised I would return the favor.'

Now clearly the moral is about treating those 'below you' with respect and they will help you in return. Obviously, not every Atlesian "lion" has spared a Mantle "mouse", but the logic still stands - the lion would not have been saved if not for that mouse. That 'humbling of the lion' is the important lesson that the Atlastocrats now have to face. The lion that had refused to concede to the mouse would not survive, ie. Atlesians that still refuse to accept their circumstances and reject help will not receive help, and thus suffer.

This show doesn't coddle the undeserving - we never got a "Cardin redemption arc" to show how he makes up for all his shitty behavior toward Jaune and the people he bullied. The same should hold true here; leave the bullies behind and unrecognized. Let them resolve their issues or die in their unchanging mindset (like goatman).

My assumption is that by the time we see Vacuo (again, assuming some time has passed in Remnant by the time RWBY returns) you won't be able to tell the former Mantle citizens from the former Atlas citizens. Because the rich pricks have to adapt quickly if they want to survive in a *gasp* diverse community of impoverished people!

Side note, I'm not sure how common it was for Atlesians to own slaves? We know from the DC comic that the SDC technically did, and Madame DEFINTLEY did, but it doesn't seem to be outwardly common, for obvious ethical reasons. I prefer to think Atlas folks were more ignorant than actively malicious toward others.

#ask bmblboop #out of show meta #rwby speculation #rwby atlas #atlastocrats in vacuo (anon discussion)#they aren't going to show us the Atlesian's 'getting what they deserve' by being stranded in the desert to starve bc they lost thier home t

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concussed-to-pieces · 3 years

Text

The Mettle Of A Man; Part Six

Fandom: Fallout (4)

Pairing: Eventual Paladin Danse/Female Sole Survivor

Rating: Holy shit M.

AN: Enjoy!

Part One: ArcJet

Part Two: The Prydwen

Part Three: Orders

Part Four: Finding Brandis

Part Five: Weston Water And Oberland

“General!”

The unfamiliar voice roused Danse from his staring match with the coffee pot and he lunged to his feet, Righteous Authority at the ready.

“At ease, Paladin. It's one of my friends.” Backhand soothed him, waving at the young man striding through the tatos towards them. “Preston! What brings you to this corner of the wilderness?”

Preston was on the taller side, well-built and wearing a strange combination of period clothing that Danse quickly identified as a higher-ranking Minuteman’s uniform. A scar hugged the brown skin on his left cheek, its path similar to Maxson's (though not as deep). His eyes, while kind, were haunted even in the bright light of morning.

“We got the radio set back up in The Castle, and then we tuned into a repeating distress signal from a weird short-range frequency. Figured it was worth checking out.” The Minuteman touched the large brim of his odd hat while speaking to Backhand, almost like he was deferring to her. "You might have sent a message warning us that a Brotherhood research contingent was on their way. I'm not sayin' we would have left the queen untouched , but...well, you know how much folks around here like their seafood."

Preston Garvey ( head lieutenant of the Commonwealth Minutemen ) didn't appear to have a malicious bone in his body, his handshake for Danse firm when Backhand introduced him. Danse found himself pinned by those intense brown eyes, the paladin squirming inwardly while the dark-skinned man studied him.

“You Brotherhood boys are bad news for the Commonwealth, but we can't exactly afford to be picky,” Preston stated bluntly with a disarming smile. “So, welcome aboard!”

Danse felt his face go hot at the insinuation, opening his mouth to say... something , he wasn't sure what, but Preston was already refocusing on Knight Vega. Or should he say General Vega? This was the second time someone had referred to her as ‘General’.

Danse wasn't used to being so simply dismissed. He was, after all, a paladin . An overgrown specimen of a man in or out of his armor, with a carefully-crafted demeanor of stern authority. Preston didn't seem particularly rude though, mostly just exhausted. He had propped himself up with his laser musket as Backhand explained their mission of the day. Mainly, reacquire Danse's armor and mop up any remaining threats in Weston.

Danse realized he had no control in this operation as he was sans-armor and he almost laughed aloud at the role reversal in the field. Playing the damsel was definitely a novel sensation for the hulking paladin and he said as much, prompting Backhand into a fit of giggles.

“Pretty sure I was the damsel at first, this guy has a hell of a throwing arm!” She informed Preston, thumbing the reinforced strapping of her combat armor. “Tossed me like I was a skipping rock!”

“You threw the General?!” Preston sputtered.

“It was a reflex .” Danse stressed the word, flustered.

“Yeah but you threw a whole human being? ” The Minuteman asked incredulously. “I mean, damn, what do they feed you guys?”

“To be fair, the power armor enhances-”

“Oh yeah, and he can move his armor even when the core's blown.” Backhand tacked on like she was a proud parent. Preston looked at Danse a little sideways, as though he suspected Knight Vega was talking him up.

But the Minuteman simply shrugged after a moment, adjusting his hat. “So what's the plan, General? I'm going to assume it's his armor that was pinging the distress signal.”

Danse's breath hitched as it dawned on him that yes , that was exactly what was happening. The severe damage would have activated the emergency beacon, just like with Brandis’ team. And if some haphazard, ramshackle radio at Fort Independence could pick it up…

If it's been going off since last night ...

Their beacons carried their call tags. The Prydwen would have known it was his armor specifically. They had vertibirds to spare, despite Maxon's posturing when they had departed. Surely there had to be some logical reason as to why no one from the Brotherhood had come to investigate the signal. Danse couldn't think of anything at the moment, but surely …

…

The armor was exactly where it had been yesterday, a protective shell resting on a leg and three-quarters. Seeing the damage up close was sobering for Backhand, and judging from Danse's stony expression he was in the same boat.

“At least it was super mutants. If it had been raiders or, God forbid, gunners …” Preston trailed off, touching the brim of his hat. His hand shook a little.

“I know, trust me. We would have been in for a really terrible time.” Backhand muttered.

Danse, who had been essentially silent, abruptly began speaking. “Back in the Capital Wasteland, I once took an Enclave bullet to the leg. Hit a rust patch just right. Penetrated my armor and shredded my calf. I learned then that our equipment is not infallible by any stretch of the imagination.” Danse's fists were tight at his sides. “It's... distressing when a soldier jettisons his gear in combat, but I'll be fine.”

"You think you can get it working again?"

Danse scoffed at Preston's query, a grin quirking his lips as he tugged a fresh core out of one of his utility pouches. "Give me an hour. I'm no proctor, but I know a thing or two about my own armor."

The paladin muscled his armor onto its back, looking for all the world like he was slowly grappling with the empty suit. Backhand fought the urge to snort, shifting her attention back to Preston instead. "So how's Independence coming, hot shot?" She jibed, making him give her a tentative, self-conscious smile.

"Really well, I'd say. Crops are planted, we have 'round the clock radio coverage and old Minutemen are showing up to get their transponders re-tuned for our new frequency!" Preston replied excitedly. "We gotta' get yours fixed up too, General."

"You're still accepting the deserters?" Backhand wasn't exactly surprised , but it was a little strange to see how enthused Preston was about welcoming old Minutemen back into the fold.

"W-Well, new recruits are coming in too! We needed more trainers and-" Preston hurried to justify himself and Backhand jostled his shoulder.

" Relax , tight lace, I'm only teasing. It's any port in a storm. No matter what you've done, you know I'm proud of you." She said softly. Preston's cheeks darkened further with a ruddy flush, the young man coughing and tugging bashfully at the brim of his hat.

"That's...real kind of you to say, General." He muttered after a second.

"I try to only speak the truth with my friends." Backhand gestured vaguely towards the paladin who was straightening out the plating on the torso of his armor. "Sometimes they're a little... hardheaded , but I know it'll get through to them eventually." Her statement was pointed enough that Preston raised an eyebrow. "He's a decent man. Something is fucked up between him and their leader, Maxson. I'm not quite sure what ." She continued in an undertone.

"Careful about how deep you're digging the hole, General." Preston warned. "Brotherhood's got a fanaticism that's borderline religious."

"Garvey, I was in the original . If there's one thing I'm familiar with, it's military maniacs."

"Fair enough I suppose." Preston fanned himself with his hat, idly watching Danse beat his armor back into shape. "He's good looking, I'll give him that. Penchant for a type, General Vega?" He teased with a smile.

"I can neither confirm nor deny!" Backhand laughed, "you're nosier than a pre-war tabloid journalist, Garvey. Planning on taking up with Piper?"

"If it helps spread the word about the Minutemen, absolutely!"

The two of them lapsed into a companionable silence for several minutes. Danse abruptly glanced up, the lack of conversation seeming to penetrate his single-minded focus. "Am I being too loud?" He asked awkwardly. "I can try to be quieter."

"Nah, keep doing what you were doing." Garvey gave him a wave that was almost lazy. "I'm just taking in the scenery."

…

The plan that Knight Vega proposed was ludicrously simple.

She had found a metal bucket in one of the trailers beside the water treatment plant. She would put her Pip Boy into it, turn on the radio and set the volume to max. Hopefully the racket would lure any remaining mutants out of the facility, wherein the all too eager trio would fall upon them with gusto.

Preston was game for it as well, already cranking up the power in his laser musket as Backhand settled the bucket on its side by the front doors.

The usual vein of music issued from the Pip Boy, echoing a little in the bucket. Blaring brass overpowered any of the more delicate parts of the tune and Backhand laughed, playfully extending a hand to Preston. "Dance with me, LT? I'm sure we've got a few minutes."

To Danse's utter dismay, the Minuteman did just that. Surely, this was some breach of protocol? The young man referred to her as his superior officer! Regardless of how lax their standards were, this couldn't possibly be proper. This…

This was the most precious thing he had ever seen.

Danse would be eternally grateful for the rigorous self control that enabled him to school his face into a neutral expression. Preston wasn't a half-bad dancer but Backhand was terrible , just downright uncoordinated.

The two of them were laughing like they had forgotten the issue at hand and for one blissful second, Danse found himself strangely at peace. Just watching both individuals fumble through some semblance of a dance he would never know, grinning and poking fun, entirely unconcerned about the world around them.

Danse was used to being watched. Scrutinized. Held to a higher standard than anyone else around him due to rank or simple expectation. Knight Vega...he should say something. Tell her to shape up. This behavior was unacceptable . Maxson could have her stripped of her probationary knight rank for this. Maxson could…

Maxson .

The paladin gritted his teeth.

Elder Maxson could do a lot of things. The intensity of the depression that followed the thought startled even Danse. It was like a wet blanket wrapping itself around his entire body. Maxson could do a lot of things. He could have ended this before it even started. He could have mounted the assault when Brandis' team vanished. He could have-

The doors to the complex swung wide open, four super mutants sprinting out. Danse's heart leaped into his throat.

Backhand and Preston-!

His body moved without thought, the armored paladin placing himself between the threat and the two who were now scrambling to prepare themselves. Danse cracked his knuckles in his gauntlets, bullets whipping through the air by his head. Three of the mutants were only armed with boards and sledgehammers, but the largest one carried a rifle of some kind.

A musket shot boomed from behind the paladin, pulping the head of one of the mutants. Danse surmised coldly that it must have been Preston's kill. Danse wasn't unarmed, but the enemy also wasn't inclined to give him the time to sling his laser rifle back around, and so it was with his armored fists that he rushed the trigger-happy mutant.

…

"Gotcha'!" Backhand's shotgun sounded off, the loud report muffled by the way she had rammed the barrel into the mutant's chest. Beside her, Preston kept winding up his musket to power his next shot. That first shot had been just what the doctor ordered, quickly putting the odds more in their favor.

There was a loud, angry grunt and Backhand looked up to see a super mutant go sailing past her and slam through the side of one of the trailers. Preston gaped at the sight, ceasing to crank his musket momentarily.

A roar of " abomination! " echoed through the courtyard, the sheer volume of it enough to give Backhand pause. The paladin had gotten too close to the mutant with the gun for the creature to continue to use it effectively and Danse pressed his advantage. Backhand watched slightly dumbfounded while the large man went toe to toe with the massive mutant.

The mutant yammered at Danse, nonsensical rambling about cracking him open and the paladin repaid those threats with his metal-plated fists. "Should we…?" Preston queried. Apparently neither of them needed to worry as Danse proceeded to shoulder check the mutant, forcing it backwards through the doors into the building.

"It's probably therapeutic for him. He really, really hates muties." Backhand couldn't help but still feel slightly concerned and she sighed. "C'mon, let's make sure he's not getting devoured."

…

Danse manhandled the beast through two walls until he found one sturdy enough for him to pin the mutant against. It squirmed and struggled against the iron grip he had on its throat, choking out more insane nonsense. "This is for Cutler, you freak ." Danse's voice cracked as he drew his fist back.

"You okay in here, Paladin?" Backhand's voice distracted him momentarily and the paladin paused. " Danse? "

His fist crushed the mutant's skull, sending bone and brain flying. Danse released the now-dead mutant, shaking his gauntlet and hissing at the pain. Inadvertently punching a wall was assuredly not his finest moment. "Yes, Knight Vega?" He called.

She carefully picked her way over the two piles of rubble that had previously been walls, her shotgun ready. Behind her came Preston, sweeping corners in a practiced manner. "Just making sure nothing happened. You know we're supposed to be sticking together." Her tone was playfully chiding, even though her eyes betrayed a startling level of concern.

"Figured I should grab the opportunity by the throat." Danse answered after a moment of silent contemplation.

To his credit, Preston did attempt to keep his laughter under control. Vega grinned at her snickering lieutenant, patting his shoulder and then squinting at Danse. "You better watch it, Paladin. I'll have you written up for bullheaded heroics or something."

"A fate worse than death." Danse replied dryly. "Though I'm afraid your report would fall on deaf ears."

"Too true. You would probably be promoted to...double paladin, or whatever the next rank is for you."

"Knight sergeant."

"What?! But paladin sounds way cooler!" Backhand protested indignantly while Preston started laughing all over again. "The whole point of moving up in the chain of command is to get a better name! Even I know that." She teased.

Danse felt like he was back on the Prydwen attempting to educate a mess hall full of squires. "Well, I could be promoted to star paladin. But that's very unlikely." He explained. "They are exceptionally rare, akin to sentinels."

" Star paladin?" Backhand looked like she was about to burst with curiosity.

"Yes. They are paladins who have been specially recognized for their dedication or ferocity in battle."

"Uh General, not to cut this short, but-" Preston began hurriedly, rechecking the levels on his undoubtedly finicky musket.

"Right, yeah, job to do."

Danse finally swung his rifle around, doing a quick run-through of all the switches before he turned on the tact-light, beautifully illuminating the dust his demolition-style entry had stirred up.

He proceeded deeper into the facility, purposely taking point despite his unarmored head. Preston flanked him on the left while Backhand walked drag, their footsteps all but silent in the wake of the larger man's sabatons. "Remain vigilant." Danse cautioned.

"D'you think there's anything else in here?" Preston whispered, "I feel like they would have come for us."

"I've actually been in here before, last time the basement was flooded and there were mirelurks," Backhand muttered. "I was doing a favor for those 'bots at Graygarden."

"No rest for the wicked when it comes to you, eh General?" Preston quipped.

"Listen, I feel like making friends with the agriculturally-inclined robots is definitely a good strategy." She reasoned. "After all, they can work around the clock and everything!"

Danse hushed the two of them, leading with the barrel of his rifle. The tact-light flickered as he continued their sweep, ears open for any signs of hostiles.

...

Backhand tapped at the compass of her Pip Boy, scrolling the compass display a full three hundred and sixty degrees. Her scroll jerked to a halt when two red ticks appeared, ahead and to the right.

"Bogey at two o'clock." She whispered. Danse nodded grimly and Preston flipped the crank over to prime his musket.

Now Backhand could actually hear sounds, an odd snuffling and scraping noise. A hound, maybe?

Danse clearly heard it as well, the man advancing into the next room and sweeping the corners with his rail-mounted flashlight.

Something skittered by just outside the light, vanishing into a gap in the crumbling wall. Danse wordlessly stormed forward and with one brutal motion he rammed his gauntlet through the plaster and heaved out--

A child?

The paladin froze, one large metal hand wrapped around the leg of the waif he had just forcibly extracted. The little boy screamed and flailed in Danse's hold, tiny fists beating a tattoo on the gauntlet that suspended him upside down in midair. He was filthy , clad in a dingy pair of overalls. He had a cut over his right eye, possibly from Danse's speedy removal.

For the barest, heartbreaking second, Backhand thought that it was Shaun. But no, no, she was imagining things.

"Whoa, easy there." She breathed, trying to get her heart to stop hammering. Danse still hadn't moved. "Hey, hey hey, look at me." She caught one of the child's arms, easily dodging the bite he aimed at her hand. " Easy big fella', we aren't going to hurt you." Backhand soothed, "you're okay. Were you hiding from the muties?"

"Big d-d-dog tried t-to eat m-m-me." The little boy hiccupped, changing his tune instantly and clinging to her arm as Danse carefully, carefully set him down. "H-Hid in the wall. M-My mama, she told me not t-to wander off, b-b-but it got dark and I g-got lost." he sobbed, rubbing his eyes.

Backhand reached into her satchel and pulled out Sergeant Cathan's 'lucky' bandanna. With gentle precision she wrapped it around the little boy's hand, knotting it at his wrist. "I need you to do me a favor, okay?" She asked seriously. "I need you to hold onto this bandanna for me. It's lucky, but only if you're holding it super tight. Can you make sure we stay lucky?"

The child frowned after a moment, sniffling and then gripping down on the bandanna. Backhand heaved a mental sigh of relief, thankful that the distraction tactic had worked. Sometimes she couldn't get her target to buy into the grift; it was always a gamble. Sergeant Cathan had taught her (long ago and far away now) the benefits of implication, suggestion and placebo effects on survivors. She had carried the 'lucky' bandanna since her honorable discharge, it being one of the few possessions she had refused to relinquish even while being sealed in cryogenic stasis. It made her feel a little warm inside to be able to use it's so-called powers for good once more.

" It doesn't have to be real. It doesn't have to be lucky, or important, or special in any way ." The sergeant had informed her when he explained the trick of distraction. " All it needs is belief, Backhand. That's it. If you can get them to believe in it, the hard part is already over ."

"Okay kiddo, how about we bring you back outside?" Preston cajoled gently with a smile. "You want something to eat?" The little boy nodded furiously, his eyes wide in the glow of Danse's rail-light. "Alright, take my hand. You're gonna' be just fine."

A loud howl echoed down the hallway and Danse jerked to attention, his rifle snapping upwards. "Go, get out!" He demanded Preston, "pick up the child and go! Knight Vega, on my six, now! " He barked.

Backhand thanked God that Preston was the type to help first and ask questions later, the young man easily scooping the little boy up in his arms and ducking out in the direction of the foyer. Danse shone his light back down the hallway, illuminating a hound so old its green skin had gone gunmetal gray. It sampled the air and bayed hoarsely, milky eyes staring ahead. It was ancient, obviously blind, possibly deaf-

Danse pulled his trigger once, and then a second time for good measure. Backhand noticed that his hands were shaking as he straightened up. He strode forward to the end of the hall, shoving the dog's body aside without so much as looking at it.

Backhand looked down at her compass, scrolling it this way and that. But it was empty, no signatures reading on it whatsoever. "Paladin, I think that's it." She said, holding her arm up so he could see her use the compass.

Danse nodded in an absent manner, still looking down the hall and running his light over the walls around him.

"We should get back outside. Make sure Preston and that kiddo are okay." Backhand suggested gently.

"I could have killed that child."

Ah . Backhand understood why his hands were trembling now. She let him carry on with his double-check, giving him the time he needed to decide whether he would say more.

"I...I could have…" Backhand heard him swallow, the noise loud in the silence. " Christ , Vega. I'm not setting a very good example for you, am I. We were almost killed by a behemoth due to my own inattention, I had to jettison my power armor, my helmet is unsalvageable , and I very nearly slaughtered a lost child."

"It's been a hell of a shakedown campaign." Backhand agreed, pushing the glasses up on her nose. "Imagine the trouble we could get into if we keep sticking together."

Danse's laughter was a grim bark of a noise, the paladin nodding his head ruefully. "Just imagine. If I keep up my trajectory, the Commonwealth will be in flames by tomorrow morning."

Backhand placed a wary hand on his gauntlet, fingers grazing the worn red-orange paint that denoted his rank. " Or it'll be a better place." She reasoned, patting his arm and turning on her heel. "Now, c'mon. We've got a little one to return to his parents." She urged, waving the paladin on.

Preston had made it safely outside, the man still cradling the child as Backhand emerged from the double doors onto the front steps of the establishment. He raised his brows in question.

"There was an old hound, probably too old to hunt anymore. Blind." Backhand explained, sliding her satchel around and digging through it until her fingers brushed the plastic-wrapped snack. "Ah, here we go. You must be hungry, right slugger?" She asked the little boy, extracting the snack cake from her bag and waving it to catch his attention. "How about you munch on this until we get back to Oberland, and then my friend Preston will see about finding your parents. That sound good to you?"

The boy nodded, still sniffling but eagerly accepting the pre-war confection.

"You still got that bandanna? I know you must have held onto it real tight, because that hound didn't even know we were there!" Backhand praised with a grin, thrilled when the child gave her a weak smile in return.

Danse emerged from the building, towering over the trio in his armor. "It seems that beast was the last holdout." He said finally, his voice uncharacteristically soft. "Have you checked the child for injuries?"

The cut over the little boy's eye had already stopped bleeding, and aside from a few minor scrapes and bruises he appeared to be fine. Obviously his largest issues were being lost and hungry. Preston continued to hold the child while Backhand cleaned the dried blood off his forehead, well aware of the eyes trained on her. "There. You'll be just fine." She assured the boy, barely resisting the urge to kiss the bandage and instead kissing her fingertips to press against the bandage. After all, she wasn't this kid's mom.

"A-Are you the Minutemen?" The little boy asked after a moment of hesitation. "My papa said you guys help people."

"We are! Good guess." Preston praised, adjusting his hold on the kid so he could tip his hat. " There at a minute's notice , or that's the idea anyway."

"Let's move out. The sooner we get to Oberland, the sooner you can broadcast your APB on him." Vega adjusted her satchel and began carefully picking her way back through the flooded area, boots sloshing in the water. "What's your name, wall boy?"

"Matt." The child replied through a mouthful of cake. "Mat'ew Amadeus O'Brian."

Backhand blinked, a little stunned at the elaborate name that the kid had rattled off. "Well, Matthew Amadeus O'Brian , my name is Elizabeth Backhand Vega, and the nice man being your legs right now is Preston Garvey." She hooked a thumb over her shoulder, indicating the silent paladin who was bringing up the rear of their little party. "The big one is Paladin Danse."

"He's big," Matt repeated, watching the paladin narrowly before tacking on, "An' scary ."

"He's not really scary, but it's easy to think that." Backhand could almost feel Danse growing more and more tense. "He's sorry for surprising you earlier, I promise!"

Matt's eyes stayed suspiciously squinted at the paladin, the little boy continuing to inhale the snack cake. "Are you sure? " He asked in a stage whisper. "'Cuz he looks angry. Like how my papa looks when he says I'm bein' too os'servant ."

Preston snickered at that. "You must be real observant then, if your folks are scolding you for it."

Matt puffed out his chest a bit, stating proudly that, "My mama says I've got good eyes and nothin' between them. Then, she laughs."

Danse made a choking noise, the large man obviously attempting to stifle his mirth. "Your mother sounds immensely charitable." He remarked, a faint smile playing across his mouth.

The little boy looked befuddled for a moment, pursing his lips. "I 'unno what that means, but I love my mama. So that better not be somethin' nasty." Clearly, the child had recovered some of his original pep, no doubt aided by the copious amounts of sugar in that snack cake. "Otherwise I'll kick your butt."

"Whoa now, language." Preston chided gently.

"He started it!" Matthew protested, "callin' my mama some...carrot, carrotible ."

" Charitable . It means good, kind. Even when you don't have to be." Backhand laughed as she explained, watching the realization dawn on the kid.

"Oh. Okay then. That's fine." The child allowed, "as long as it's nothin' bad."

...

Danse wiped the sweat from his brow, hammering the last nail into place. There . With the metal scrap and lumber they had salvaged from the area surrounding the station, Danse actually managed to cobble together a half perimeter fence that was a bit more fortified than the old chain link lining the once-uniform garden. It wasn't anything incredible , but it wouldn't fall over at the next stiff breeze.

Upon their arrival, Knight Vega had sat Matt down by the old pump out front of the station and carefully scrubbed the rest of the child's face clean. The boy somehow managed to keep up a constant stream of chatter even as he was being scoured to within an inch of his life. Danse knew he ought to find it irritating, as his entire military career he had been taught that squires should be seen and not heard, but instead he found it oddly endearing.

Preston had eventually managed to raise the Castle (or rather, Fort Independence), the Minuteman relaying the information that they had acquired a precocious young man by the name of Matthew Amadeus O'Brian.

Preston and Backhand had kept busy in the aforementioned garden for most of the day, tearing up weeds and tilling the soil. The two had an easy rapport, going back and forth on a variety of topics. Matt occasionally chimed in around a mouthful of almost gone-by tato, the child more than eager to assist in the stripping and demolishing of the plants.

Danse had half-listened to their chatter while he engaged wholeheartedly in building the defenses up as best as he could, wanting desperately to make himself useful even as he soaked up the conversation. Agriculture had never been his strong suit. Coming from the Capital Wasteland, he was incredibly leery of any produce borne of the radiation-rich soil. He certainly didn't eat any of it without properly preparing it. This led to less adventurous but also less dangerous meals, the vegetables usually gray and tasteless from their time in the pot of his mess kit.

Danse took a step back to admire his handiwork. It had been too long since he was able to actually devote the time to a task that it required, instead of just smashing resources together and hoping they held. He knew it was technically a fence made out of the refuse of the area, nothing to be proud of, but he relished the opportunity to craft something useful.

He heard a low whistle from behind him and realized that Preston was looking up at the fortifications, a massive grin on his face. "Damn, we could have used you at the Castle!" The Minuteman commented, clapping a hand on Danse's shoulder. "You got the place squared away in half the time, color me impressed."

"Being able to find or create a defensible position is a necessary skill for field ops. You never know when you may need to bivouac in less than hospitable territory." Danse knew he must sound unbearably stiff, and he grimaced inwardly at his casual usage of the word bivouac . That had been something from Cutler's verbiage. "This wall should function optimally, but it can always be improved upon."

"I appreciate it. The Minutemen thank you for your assistance." Preston said warmly, his hand squeezing Danse's shoulder gently before he turned back towards the garden. "General, we should probably break for dinner! I know you two will be leavin' early tomorrow, wouldn't want you to be overtired." He called to Backhand, who tossed him a thumbs-up.

Danse opened his mouth, hesitated, and then carefully stated, "if we stay another day, I may be able to erect something for the lower side of the hill. It won't be as tall as this, but as it's the lower hillside, inhabitants will have a better chance of spotting the enemy and preparing."

Preston's eyebrows shot up. "You'd do that for us? I'd be incredibly grateful, I'll be honest. We're spread so thin, I'm probably only going to have one armed individual to assign to this outpost. Whatever help you can give-"

"Only one?" Danse looked at the copious tilled soil, his brow furrowed in thought. "You may have too many resources here for you to defend them with just one gun and a wall of scrap, Lieutenant Garvey."

"At the moment, the only resource is the water pump. I'm hopin' by the time the crops pop, we'll be a little fatter in our ranks. If not, well, I'm always up for extra field duty." Preston drew a finger along the brim of his large hat, sighing. "Nobody said it would be easy, y'know?"

Danse nodded. He knew overwell the disproportionate work load that a commander must shoulder in exchange for the safety and stability of their regiment.

After a hearty supper of some of the remaining tatos (safely over-stewed to within an inch of their lives), canned beans and fresh-last-week bread that Preston had brought with him, Danse took up his post along the defenses he had built. His armor creaked a little louder than normal, but he supposed that was to be expected after the beating it had taken.

Backhand had been quiet during their dinner. He assumed she was simply tired. He could hardly blame her; it had been a very eventful few days.

Danse bit his lip. He knew he ought to be rushing back to the Prydwen, but he felt an odd sense of responsibility for this new development. After all , he reasoned, what better way to win hearts and minds for the Brotherhood? Showing that they were benevolent, willing to work with existing factions regardless of their differences…

Well, at least Danse was at any rate. And with a little luck, his obviously-high rank would convince the battered survivors of post-apocalyptic New England that the whole of the Brotherhood was here to help.

Possibly in spite of Maxson's lofty aspirations for wiping out the Institute. What good was it to remove the proverbial boogeyman of the Commonwealth if the Brotherhood's resources were stripped from the campaign? The more prudent option would be to gain the trust of the locals, and then press them for support should the need arise.

That was all he was doing. Gaining the trust of the locals.

He glanced up at the light that wavered in the window of the towering station. He could imagine Knight Vega tucking the little boy in, maybe pressing a kiss to his forehead…

Danse's heart ached. She had lost her son, he recalled, though she hadn't said how . He couldn't even begin to imagine the agony of losing a child. Losing Cutler was devastating enough.

When Vega came out to relieve him at two hundred hours, Danse noted that she still looked worn. Her eyes were puffy, like she had been crying. "Tell me about what happened to your son, Knight." He requested quietly.

"That's...it's kind of a long story, Paladin." She tried to brush him off, fiddling with her combat armor straps. "You should sleep."

"That's an order, Knight."

Vega hiccupped, her sob rattling Danse's composure. "The Institute. They...they ripped him right out of my arms in the Vault." She whispered. "The stasis was put on hold, somehow , and they just...they took him. The next thing I knew, I was waking up alone." She stared at the ground. "I know it was the Institute. I know there's a way in. But I don't know...God, Danse, what if he's dead? " She asked helplessly.

Even though he hadn’t known, Danse still felt like a bastard for making her relive that horror. She had been so sure before, so certain that her child was alive. But now for whatever reason, she was entertaining the alternative and Danse was lost . What the hell could he even say?

"You didn't let me give up on Paladin Brandis." He pointed out. "So I'm not letting you give up on your son."

"Is that an order, sir?"

"A promise , Knight, not an order." Danse saluted her sharply, his gauntlet clattering on his breastplate. "As a Brotherhood of Steel paladin, I swear to you that I will do all I can to help uncover the truth of what happened to your son. And for as long as feasibly possible, we will operate under the assumption that he is alive and well. If we give in to despair, then they've already won."

Backhand looked up at him, her expression distraught. Danse didn't expect her to wrap her arms around his armor, the woman barely able to reach past his sides due to the bulky frame. She tucked her face against the handles on his breastplate and Danse was terrified of making the wrong move. So he stayed still, one massive gauntlet eventually moving forward to cautiously rest on her back.

"We will find him." He assured her softly. "I promise."

Part Seven

#fallout 4 #fallout four #paladin danse #paladin danse x sole survivor #paladin danse/sole survivor #paladin danse x f!sole #fallout #bethesda #video games #bos #brotherhood of steel #paladin danse imagine #fallout fandom #fo4 companions imagine #preston garvey #we stan a helpful paladin

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faranae · 4 years

Text

Rant Incoming:

I’m not blind to the fact a few thousand of you are probably only here for my rants at this point, but for those of you who are here for my more wholesome takes and guide-related content I encourage you to please block the #discourse and #fandom drama tags. As always, your dashboard content is in your hands. Please stay safe out there, and try to prioritize your own mental health over sipping the latest tea.

This post may include some vaguely accusatory language directed at a lot of “you”s and “they”s, but I am not singling out any one individual here. I’m just very frustrated and disappointed in humanity right now and no amount of editing is going to scrub that squeaky clean.

Now, with that said...

Y'all really out there actively threatening a woman's life and livelihood in the middle of a global pandemic over:

A: An opinion on a kid's movie;

B: Two paragraphs in said opinion warning that toxic fans might pull exactly this, which the author admitted herself was childish and apologized for very quickly;

C: Some reblogs screenshotted out of context and posted to Twitter, some months or years old.

Cancel Culture™️ is horrifying.

I've been sitting here for days watching maliciously crafted screenshots circulate on Twitter; screenshots taken in such a way that masks they are of reblogs, not original posts. To anyone who uses Tumblr regularly it's obvious, right? We all know that left-hand bar means quoted text that doesn't necessarily belong to "OP" or reflect their views (usually).

Twitter users and global news outlets, not so much.

Some people are taking advantage of that social media divide to blow this discourse way out of proportion in an attempt to decimate an innocent woman’s life and livelihood. Bot accounts are repeatedly posting accusations against OP with no proof only to disappear without a trace once their "tips” take off.

I sincerely hope that none of you reading this are taking part in the current brigade. If you have, I implore you to take a step back and ask yourselves if you have the whole picture. Ask yourselves if you truly believe you have the right to threaten a regular person over a difference in opinion, even if you think it's a bad take.

Try not to assume malice when ignorance could just as easily be the underlying factor. This is why civil discussion even when things get heated is so tremendously important.

Nobody deserves to have their life threatened over a fandom, no matter what their opinion is. Nobody deserves to have fame-chasers jump out of the woodwork claiming OP is a "racist ableist abuser of minors" without proof just because they're globally trending on Twitter. Nobody deserves to have their entire livelihood put at risk over a kids' movie.

This is a regular person, not some hot-shot politician or celebrity who has an agent to go over their posts with a fine-toothed comb. She doesn't deserve to have those other posts she didn't even write taken and added as fuel to the fire for the sake of drama. Folks are adding lies to the pile of “evidence”, either through malice or misinformation, and claiming they're some “smoking gun” with regards to both her strength of character and the supposed skeletons in her closet.

Even if they were: Our skeletons give structure to who we have grown to be in the now. Full stop.

Actually, once more for the people in the back who don’t understand why Cancel Culture™️ is so dangerous:

Our skeletons give structure to who we have grown to be in the now.

Even if you think someone’s suffered a fracture or two in their life, you don’t invasively cut them open to check the bones directly. You take an x-ray, say “Oh yeah, that was broken once but the patient has taken steps to make sure it isn’t impacting their current quality of life”, and move on.

(Or, alternatively, point out “Yo man you might wanna have that looked at further because I’m pretty sure it didn’t set right the first time.”)

I hope you can forgive the shit metaphor.

The point is be kind. Even if you don't agree, try to take the road of civil discussion. Keep a level head. Ask questions. Educate yourselves if not others, or leave it alone if you genuinely don’t care.

It's a choice we all have, and it’s all some of us have left.

Disclaimer: I suppose I technically know Hailey/Squigg in passing - she’s a friend of a friend, though since we frequent different social and academic/professional circles we’ve never really been acquainted proper. Does that still introduce some level of bias? Of course it does. However, I can condemn the mob mentality currently surrounding her without agreeing with the post she made.

This isn't black and white. She is more than a subject of discourse. She is a passionate theorist and a talented storyteller. She is an industry professional with several fantastic portfolio projects under her belt. She is in my limited experience kind and empathetic and more than a tad mischievous, but also opinionated and far from perfect.

We all have moments where our mouths outrun our brains in the moment; Not only is Hailey no exception, she near-immediately took the steps to correct her slip-up when she realized part of her wording was pointlessly accusatory. You’d be surprised how rare that is. Unfortunately the post had already taken off and Cancel Culture™️ deems the appropriate response is to glass the planet rather than acknowledge any gestures of correction or goodwill.

Anyway!

Standing up against bullying and cancel/doxx culture isn’t bootlicking, it’s just common sense.

Be kind.

#Lilo and Stitch #Disney #cancel culture #Discourse #Long Post #Fandom Drama #Fara Rants #I've been watching this develop since the beginning #From afar #Last time I tried to play devil's advocate I got threats sent against not just me #but also my kid #I can't just say nothing when folks are straight up lying #And not even lying WELL #SMH

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anticallouts · 3 years

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Question. does your idea of being anti-callouts also include folks of different belief systems that would involve, say, a much narrower view of sexual morality, or are they fair game to be called out as homophobes and all that just because of their beliefs, even if they’ve never actually displayed any kind of discriminatory behavior? Or what about those who sided with or even remotely supported trump or are from MAGA groups? Are they outside the scope of your anti-callout mission too? Asking cuz imo it’s hypocritical to say you’re anti-callouts but then think its ok for these folks to be ostracized and bullied cuz “they need to be held accountable” for beliefs that you don’t agree with and more often than not, don’t fully understand what they believe or why. And I’m not talking about stuff they said decades ago, I’m talking about present day stuff.

First, I will direct you back to this post, specifically the ending paragraph:

One important thing to internalize is that ignorance doesn’t make you a bad person. This goes for judging your own actions as well as others’. It’s okay to constantly be learning and adapting your behavior based on new information. If you find out from discourse that you had been using hurtful language or promoting a hurtful idea, it doesn’t mean you were secretly a bad person all along. It just means you didn’t know. In an ideal world, we would all be patient and forgiving with people who weren’t acting in bad faith, but unfortunately this is Tumblr. Just try to do your best, and take breaks if you need them.

The key point here is ‘in bad faith’. This blog, and the general disagreement in fandom re: callout culture, usually stems from the idea that it is bad to hold people with taste in unpopular fictional ships to the same standard as unrepentant abusers, pedophiles, racists, and homophobes. The point is not that those categories of people aren’t in themselves problematic, just that shippers shouldn’t get tacked on to that list for liking anime boy 1 and anime boy 2, nor should ANYONE get tacked onto that list based on rumors or anon messages if there is actually no evidence of wrongdoing.

We can debate until the cows come home about what ‘counts’ as bigotry and the right way to deal with microaggressions, but for this post (and because you mentioned MAGA and homophobic Christianity) I’m going to assume you’re talking about standard, run-of-the-mill bigotry. The kind you can look at and easily understand exactly why it is hurtful.

Being against callout culture is not the same thing as being against all callouts, all the time, for any reason. (I did not name this blog, I inherited it. I am now considering a revised URL if that is the impression this one gives.)

I am never going to defend a homophobe. I am never going to defend a racist. If someone comes to me with a tweet from a homophobe’s twitter acct that says ‘God says all lesbians are abominations but I’m not homophobic tho it’s just what the Bible says’ I’m not going to assume they’re an infant who doesn’t understand logic or empathy or critical thinking. I’m gonna block them. If they’re famous, I’m gonna show my friends and my friends are also gonna block them and also possibly talk shit about them on Twitter because they’re bajillionares and it doesn’t matter.

(Except really I encourage people not to do this - not because it’s morally wrong, but because they can use their much larger platform to harass you if they feel like it. See John Boyega’s behavior towards the women who were hurt by his misogynistic language as an example.)

Now, on a smaller scale, if they’re just a regular old member of a fandom? If it turns out everyone blocks them because they won’t stop talking about how much they hate the gays and Jews and SJWs and the fandom is full of gays and Jews and SJWs who don’t want to listen to it, that’s not ostracization, that’s quality control. No one gets to complain that other people won’t listen to their opinions, and that’s not what this blog is advocating for.

I am extremely pro-block. I block people for ALL KINDS of things. I see a comment in the notes of a post I do not vibe with? Block. Don’t care if that user has never spoken to me in my life. I am the arbiter of my fandom experience, as is everyone else.

Furthermore, I want to address what seems to me to be the core of your complaint here:

“... even if they’ve never actually displayed any kind of discriminatory behavior?”

See, this is a bit logically inconsistent and it makes me wonder if this ask was not sent in good faith, but rather to try and catch me in a ‘gotcha, so much for the tolerant left’ type of way.

If someone is not displaying any kind of discriminatory behavior, then they fall under the ‘don’t make baseless callouts’ protection. There’s no evidence of any wrongdoing, no victim, no crime. Thinking gay people are horrible is, like, wrong, but as long as they keep that to themselves when engaging with others, fine. However, the fact that someone is being called out for open homophobia or racism means that... Hm... how do I put this... they kind of are displaying discriminatory behavior, my dude.

If they’re 12 years old and repeating what their racist dad said or homophobic pastor said, then yeah, don’t harass them. Don’t harass anyone, actually, but I am not Fandom God and I don’t control the whims or ways of the internet denizens so I can’t really do anything about that. Harassment doesn’t actually accomplish anything and is a waste of energy. Report them if they’re breaking the TOS and move on. (See my pro-block stance above for the acceptable alternative. Blocking! It’s like Herd Immunity, for fandoms.)

But everyone else in the fandom space has a right to warn each other ‘hey, there’s a 12 year old over there with no filter and they’re super racist, here’s their tweets.’

If they’re an adult and they’re doing that? As you said, present day stuff? It is completely fair game for their tweets or posts to be catalogued and shared as proof that they are a clear and present danger to other people in the fandom. Racists and homophobes have this nasty little habit of attempting to hurt people they hate, fandom needs ways to self-regulate and keep itself safe from actual harmful bigots.

There’s also a lot to be said about expecting vulnerable members of the community to do all the work educating people who are actively being malicious towards them in the hope that one comment will break through their willful ignorance and show them the light of human decency and teach them how to be good people and decent fans. If someone feels bad that other people don’t like them because of their homophobic beliefs, it’s not the fandom’s job to take them under wing and teach them why homophobia is wrong. None of us came out the womb knowing how to treat people; if the majority of us could figure it out by cultural osmosis, so can our racist homophobic strawman here. Either by being told directly, or by seeing that bigots are not welcome and making the single necessary logical leap that maybe it’s because homophobia/racism/etc hurts people and no one else likes being hurt.

So, to break it down:

Private racists: not posting anything racist, not harassing poc in the fandom, how would you ever know? Gross, but ultimately harmless. Can’t do anything about them, hopefully they see enough posts about why racism is bad to finally change their ways.

Past racists: said some dumb racist shit in the past, apologized, aren’t currently doing anything racist? Leave them alone. Be thankful. Hope that other people look to them as an example in learning and humility and growth.

Active racists: do not deserve your pity or protection. Learn to treat other people with respect or get off the internet. Shed no tears when they end up blocked by 90% of the fandom and anyone else with a brain. Their ignorance does not supersede everyone else’s right to feel safe and welcome in a community. Much like with private racists, I hope they learn (with a more direct lesson) that no one likes racists or wants to hang out with them and if they want friends they should learn to treat others as human beings.

#mod fox #racism #homophobia #callout culture #responses

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edda-blattfe · 5 years

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You have good taste, I stan. I mean I already stanned you but still. Okay sooooo please talk about your boys, like headcanons and how they interact or whatever you want just. Tell me all the things about them, rant and rave about them. I love reading anything you write (I didn't have many thoughts on Leona til I read your Leona x Reader thing and now he's in my head HOW DID YOU DO THAT) so I'll take anything you got. Also, while I'm here, I love you and I really hope you have a good day/night💕

Magic works wonders on the heart,love!

‘Twas only a matter of bringing out his best qualities. Thank you, I can’t begin to tell you how much your kind words warm my heart! I love you too!

If it is your wish then I certainly shan’t hold back! Fair warning, most of these are going to be about Trey, since there aren’t many headcanons or requests for him. Hope y’all enjoy!

Trey Clover:

- The first thing you notice after Trey shakes your hand and offers a cheerful, “How do you do,” is the pleasant expression that never seems to leave his face; the second is his lack of urgency as Riddle begins sentencing people to get their heads chopped off. He’s shockingly calm and pleasant, no matter how rude someone is or what pool of liquid chaos he’s sinking into. Trey is the embodiment of that, “This is fine,” meme.

- He’s exceptional at de-escalating tense situations. Riddle on a rampage? Send in Trey to talk him down. Mozus needs a third student to group with Vil and Leonna in order to keep them from ripping each other’s throats out? Congrats Trey, you’re going in! Dude is so chill, it’s contagious.

- Just cause he’s easygoing, don’t assume he’s a pushover. If someone tries to coerce him into doing something degrading, he’ll find a polite way to turn it down without ruffling any feathers. Now, if said person is an inconsiderate git who won’t take “no” for an answer, they’ll see a side of Trey rarely witnessed and never forgotten.

- Despite knowing that he could easily tone down Riddle’s crazy demands, Trey won’t. He actually enjoys his underclassman’s eccentricities to a certain extent and will gladly play along. Trey will humor Riddle by pretending to carry out his sentences; he’ll drag the convicted off with that cheerful grin on his face, joking about how comfy the Hearstlabyul dungeons are, before opening the front door for them and wishing sending them off with a, “thanks for visiting, come back soon.”

(Fun fact: In the book version of “Alice in Wonderland”, very few of the Queen’s sentences were actually carried out; the King would pardon almost everyone, the guards would only pretend to obey her.)

- Trey is one of those people who are ridiculously easy to talk to, even for those suffering from social anxiety. Other than Ortho, he’s one of the few people who can hold a conversation with Idia without freaking out the hikikomori.

- He handles responsibility well but never feels compelled to seek it out. This is probably why he isn’t the head of the dorm, despite being the most logical choice (personality wise). (Btw, did y’all notice that -other than the dorms consisting of only 2nd years- Heartslabyul is the only one without a 3rd year in charge?)

- Riddle takes him along to most of the dorm leader meetings, which is a major relief to the others; no way in hell any of them are willing to put up with the red head’s hissy fits. Trey will also go as a proxy when the second year is ill or doesn’t feel like getting out of bed.

Vil Schoenheit:

- Personally, I think Vil is low key ocd. Like, if he finds a single smudge on any of the dorm mirrors, out comes the gloves and cleaner. Sometimes he’ll fix his classmates’ hair or fold their clothes before gym, maybe touch up their eyeliner if it’s uneven. He might be the fairest of them all but that doesn’t mean everything else can look vile!

- Vil is perfectly comfortable wearing a dress so long as it’s flattering. (I wanna see Vil in a furisode.)

- He and Maleus have the best friendship imo. Mal is so used to everyone being terrified of him and his power that he’s kinda given up on the whole “making friends” thing. But then there’s Vil, who has no interest in anything but beauty and chemistry in extension and is just unfazed by the miasma of oppressive energy the fae exudes.... It’s a little unsettling to Maleus, but pleasant, nonetheless.

- Smells of sweet cream and lavender.

Maleus:

- Despite not being much of a people person, Mal does want to take part in group activities; which is the reason he gets salty when folks forget to invite him. Like, yeah, he might not interact much, but he likes to listen to the conversations.

- He’s a people watcher and has a tendency to eavesdrop. Sometimes Mal will sit in a public place with a book, pretending to read as he casually listens in on random strangers’ exchanges. It’s not meant to gather info or anything malicious...just, reflective.

- Mal’s sense of humor is both dark and sadistic...paired with his aesthetic it’s no wonder folks are terrified of him. 😅

- His eyes are exceedingly sensitive to bright light, which is one of the reasons he prefers to stay in dark places. This is one of the few weaknesses that could easily be exploited during duels.

#maleus draconia #vil schoenheit #trey clover #twisted wonderland headcanons #disney twisted wonderland #ask edda blattfe #twisted wonderland

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farklelucas · 5 years

Note

all about the lesbian sea pirate

ahsjdkflg okay im gonna do the first section above the cut and the rest under

send me an oc and some numbers pls!! | here are my ocs!

Section 1 - About:

1. Briefly Describe your OC: Appearance, personality, role in a story, etc..

okay so!! hana is half-japanese, half-german, she’s got short/spiky black hair and fucking Huge brown eyes. she’s the protagonist of a thus-unwritten pirate love story and i fucking love her. she’s superbly socially awkward (doesn’t get customs like politeness or like asking before doing things asdjkfl), she’s a Romantic romantic, she loves sword-fighting, she was raised by her father (alongside three older half-brothers, though she was chosen as the heir to his ship which hmm pissed two of them off), she’s very much butch/tomboy, she loves adventure and sailing so fucking much, uhhh yeah her.

2. Briefly describe their backstory/childhood

like i said, she was raised by her dad, who she idolizes, along with her three brothers on the sea; she never knew her mother, because her father told her that she died giving birth to hana (or did she….? hm. maybe hana’s dad is just shitty?). she was always super excited to play and go on adventures and fight, especially with her three older brothers (only one of whom actually like. liked her.), and by the time she was old enough to hold a sword, her dad taught her how to. eventually, her dad became ill, and named hana, who was only 16, his successor. her two eldest brothers planned a mutiny to overthrow her, killing the other brother who protested. hana fought them but they escaped with half her treasure, promising to come back and kill her, and she’s spent the past six years seeking them out to defeat them.

3. Describe their family life and friends.

i mean i pretty much nailed her family, but she’s very close to all the crew. i’ll give you a quick rundown: there’s caspian, her first mate/quartermaster (grew up on the ship with her, an orphan who was stolen in one of the raids, searching out his lost family but is also a big time goof), dover, her “advisor”/sailing master (wise, lazy, arrogant, bitchy, basically her pseudo-father because her father was usually off being captain), darya, her gunner (slutty bisexual aromantic queen, runs the artillery AND the under deck gambling ring, always drunk, loyal to a fault especially to hana), and zarya (we’ll get to her later ;)) and the other lower-ranking crew members.

4. What is the world they come from like?

hmmm very mystical and mysterious, very “pirates are bad and suck and we dont like them even though they’re not usually bad” but. you know. hana is still an outlaw of the land. there are mermaids and sirens and cracken and curses so it’s better to assume that if its magical it exists.

5. Are they original or exist in a certain fandom?

original!!

6. Are they an introvert or extrovert?

extroverted babey

7. Greatest fear?

being unable to sail but also, later on, (SPOILERS) being arrogant and greedy and malicious like her father

8. What’s their sense of humor like?

honestly just fucking. stupid. she probably likes puns and like dirty jokes.

9. Favorite pieces of fiction or genres they enjoy?

i dont think she can read???? but her third eldest brother bourne would usually tell her princess stories and she liked those

10. Favorite music genres?

folk ig

11. Describe their vision of a perfect spouse, if applicable.

a tall, beautiful, kindhearted woman, who sees past the pirate savagery and sees her heart beneath; a woman who can rule the sea alongside her and knows how to handle her and keep her in check. (looks at zarya meaningfully)

12. Largest regret?

not being able to save bourne

13. Something your OC would say?

my quote for her in her bio is “what am i without adventure?” but i also imagine her saying to zarya, “you are more celestial than the stars, my love, and twice as beautiful to behold.”

14. Whats their morality like?

technically lawful good but could be a roulette wheel depending on the day

15. Would they live in a city, rural area, or suburb?

oof none but if she had to probably rural

16. Which actor would you like to portray your OC? (Or a voice actor)

sjskdldldl my face claim is jen ruggirello

17. Sexuality? Gender Identity?

lesbian baby!!!!!

18. What inspired you to make this character?

honestly?? probably a lack of rep in romance and adventure novels. i just love her!!!

Section 2 - If…

1. If they existed in another decade, what would they wear? (Asker can choose what decade) (Bonus points if you draw them!)

hmmm ill pick… current day tbh, and i imagine lots of overalls and baggy sweaters!

2. If they were in a RPG, what would be their class?

i have to imagine somewhere between paladin and a fighter, im not sure which.

3. If they received a large amount of money no strings attached, what would they use it for?

i honestly think she would just. go into the nearest village and buy all the local hungry children bread. like she wouldn’t horde it or spend it on herself. she has everything she needs.

4. If they competed on a competitive TV show, how would they approach to winning? (the “mean” one, the one who makes friends, the one who’s there for fun)

hm… i honestly dont even think she would think about it like that dkdkflfl. probably the charming one, the leader, the adorkable one.

5. If they could change one thing about their past, what would it be?

i think she would choose to keep in contact with her mother. not necessarily live with her, because then she wouldnt have her first love which is the sea, but just like. talk to her. know her better. go see her every few months. write her from different ports about their adventures.

6. If you met them, what would they do?

i would honestly probably be so fucking charmed by her. shes got that way about her, a leadership quality you can’t shake, even if shes really incredibly awkward too.

7. If your character exists in another series’ world, what would they be doing/look like?

i kind of imagine her in harry potter as like. this half blood gryffindor who’s So Gryffindor it hurts. on the quidditch team, always screaming about house pride, everyone loves her. and then she goes and falls in love with this muggle born slytherin and shakes the whole school dkdkkrklr

Section 3 - Other:

1. What other OCs would they get along with?

oh… i think it’s kind of cheap to say jack, because they’re both pirates, but honestly i think they’d get on like a house on fire. other than that… definitely michael minkus, who would make an epic first mate, and lucy stilinksi-hale, who she would probably wanna smash.

2. What’s their singing voice like?

bad. comically bad. she tries to sing to zarya sometimes and zarya locks her out of their room.

3. Take a personality test as the character. Post results.

okay so ive already taken a couple for her in the past (ex: gryffindor, entj, the motivator, etc.) so im gonna take a completely benign one off buzzfeed and post the results. so if she were a song off of thank you next she would be “bad idea” skskkdkd

4. What would be their fighting style in a fighting game like Mortal Kombat, Super Smash Brothers, or Street Fighter?

to outsmart her opponent, think two moves ahead of theirs just like in real life. jokes on her no one else is ever thinking skdkkfkfl

5. What are some mannerisms/quirks?

putting her feet up on tables, walking into rooms without invitation, holing up in her cabin for days working, smirking instead of smiling, smoking, docking in random cities for the thrill of adventure, wearing her blouses nearly completely unbuttoned, just taking things and enforcing sharing bc. she’s always shared everything with everyone naturally and she doesnt know to ask djdkfkfk

6. Describe their favorite meal.

honestly she’ll eat anything but just like. a Nice leg of mutton and a glass of beer. that’s it. that’s the dream.

7. What do they do when they’re bored?

her favorite activity is to randomly attack caspian and have impromptu sword fights with him, but she also loves stargazing and telling stories to the town children.

8. How do they express love/affection for someone?

honestly she’s very. nuzzley. soft. like a little kitten. also waxes poetic. at least romantically. platonically, shes usually like a dad friend sjdkkrlr. like im talking “attaboy” and punches on the arm. pep talks. dad voice. the whole nine yards.

9. Most embarrassing thing that could/has happened to them?

honestly, she’s not easily embarrassed ever. i think she’s kind of just like meh over most things. the most embarrassing thing that could happen would be losing the respect of her crew. she would hate that so much.

10. Make a portrait sketch of them!

#nicole #hana #oc stuff #love her!!!! so much!!!!!!!#loveallthatjazz #what kind of woman doesnt have an ask #long post #go all the way to the bottom of this post to see a qt uwu #katie writes #wow i went off

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i-chaoticcollectorballoon-m-blog · 5 years

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Dowry System in India

Dowry System In India

The endowment framework is a social malevolence predominant in India till date which each subject needs to battle against. Every one needs to take up this battle by making mindfulness in the family, networks and society on the loose. Steady and ready activities against individuals rehearsing this malicious will gradually help in disposing of this abhorrence completely.

Settlement framework is one of the social shades of malice that wins in the Indian Society.To destroy this shrewd endowment framework from India,it requires continued and solid endeavors the correct way.

Endowment framework in Indian Society: Origin, effect and cures

Among the social wrongs that win and torment Indian culture, the settlement framework assumes the most obliterating job. It has spread out its arms far and wide in the general public influencing pretty much every area of the general public.

Root of Dowry:

The arrangement of settlement had its source in the Vedic time frame which started just as a formal ritual in the organization of marriage.

At the end of the day amid Kanyadan type of marriage, the groom must be given something in real money or kind which comprise Varadakshina.Thus Kanyadan type of marriage moved toward becoming related with Varadakshina,i.e the money or blessings in kind to be paid by the guardians or gatekeeper of the lady of the hour to the spouse. Accordingly Dakshina or Varadakshina was offered out of friendship and did not establish any sort of impulse or commitment or thought for the marriage. It was a deliberate demonstration or practice followed in those days to consent to the stipulations urged in Dharmasasthra with no coercive hints.

Be that as it may, over the span of time, the deliberate component related with Varadakshina amid Kanyadan marriage has vanished and the coercive component has sneaked in. It has taken profound roots in the wedding service as well as stretched out to the post-conjugal relationship.

Along these lines what was initially expected as a token Dakshina for the spouse has now left extents and has accepted the cutting edge terminology ‘endowment’. Considering its implications and the effect it made in the general public, the share framework has developed into a ravenous beast, which is always paying special mind to hapless preys particularly from female sexual orientation.

The effect:

Resulting to the huge development of endowment framework, it has turned into an integral part of the foundation of marriage. As it were, without settlement no marriage is solemnized. In the position ridden Hindu society, the best three ranks and its sub stations constantly pursue the endowment framework. Indeed before settling a marriage or commitment, settlement is requested as a precondition. At the point when the interest for share isn’t acknowledged, a contradiction is come to and the proposition to be engaged gets thwarted even at the starter arrange. The identity of a lady or groom, their eagerness for the proposed marriage and so forth which are regularly considered as the fundamental requirements of a marriage take the backstage.

Another remarkable component of the settlement framework is that it is constantly connected with the status of the gatherings to the marriage. Specifically, in the orchestrated relational unions, the groom’s folks request a total in real money or in kind, as gems, material things like family unit articles, vehicle and house and so forth. The incongruity is such requests are made befitting the monetary status of the spouse’s family or the position held by the groom or the real sum that he gains as pay or in his business or calling. In the event that the concurred measure of money or kind isn’t paid before the marriage, it even prompts the end of the agreement of marriage and the marriage isn’t solemnized.

The arrangement of settlement has likewise turned into an essential wellspring of post-conjugal debate. At the point when the concurred measure of settlement isn’t paid or it is mostly paid and incompletely guaranteed, a few times the marriage is solemnized and even fulfilled. At the point when the lady of the hour’s family can’t satisfy the guarantee of endowment because of destitution, the hardship starts at the conjugal home, in which the whole relatives of the husband is hollowed against the lady of the hour. Going further, the lady, for no blame of her, is verbally manhandled in a vituperative dialect, struck or savagely beaten by her significant other, in outrageous cases the lady is choked to death or put to fire utilizing petroleum or lamp oil. The lady of the hour isn’t saved notwithstanding when she is pregnant or a mother of a child.

Powerless to satisfy the share requests of the conjugal home, the lady is for the most part determined back to her parent’s home. By one way or another or other, the ladies guardians ought to satisfy the requests for settlement, in order to guarantee a superior future for their girls at their conjugal homes. In the outcome, the lady of the hour’s folks turn out to be intensely obliged and suffer from neediness or battle to have their the two closures meet for a mind-blowing duration.

In the advanced days the Dowry Prohibition Act, explicitly makes the demonstration of requesting or taking just as giving share amid the marriage, a wrongdoing. Therefore, there is a long line of hapless ladies remaining before the ladies police headquarters just as the courts to lean toward a grumbling against the individuals from their conjugal home. At times, provocation for endowment results in passings of ladies prompting an extended trail against the individuals from the conjugal home.

In some cases, hapless men are being pestered by ladies abusing the arrangements of Dowry Prohibition Act, leaning toward false objections against their spouses. Thus, courts have started to consider such cases thoughtfully and even issued guidelines in like manner. In the event that a lady lean towards a grievance against her better half on the ground of badgering for share, the police specialists require not naturally capture him except if an at first sight case is made out on enquiry.

In this manner the settlement framework makes a bedlam in the general public, by advancing savagery and hardship among the individuals from the families and along these lines dismantling the families.

Cures against the share framework and its shrewd consequences for society:

As right on time as 1939, the shades of malice of the endowment framework were felt. Sporadic State enactments were not do to keep the generally common endowment framework. Ensuing to freedom, the Government of India started to establish enactments engaging ladies in India.

1) In the Hindu Succession Act, 1955, a lady was put on equivalent balance with men, qualifying them for have property rights. The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, attempts to get rid of the arrangement of endowment by announcing that both taking and giving settlement as a wrongdoing. It stipulated disciplines as long as 2 years for endowment badgering and as long as 10 years of thorough detainment for passings brought about by settlement provocation. Absolutely, these institutions go about as an obstruction against the arrangement of share. Nonetheless, all things considered still the arrangement of endowment wins and the guilty parties go without scot since no body approaches to favor a grievance against them.

2) It requires concrete and continued endeavors to crusade against the arrangement of endowment and kill it unequivocally from the general public:

I) It should start from the schools and universities in which the understudy network ought to be legitimately instructed against the disasters of endowment framework and they ought to try and take a promise that they won’t plus or minus settlement from their imminent life partners.

ii) Promoting love relational unions from one perspective annuls the rank framework and then again it discards the share framework into the residue canister.

iii) Spreading the message against the share framework by directing periodical lawful guide camps and offering advising to the exploited people just as the overall population will spread the mindfulness among them against the settlement framework.

iv)Creating progressively stringent arrangements in the endowment forbiddance act like granting a higher discipline to the individuals who take or give or even interest share. Forcing disciplines like detainment to the individuals who cause the demise of the injured individual by settlement provocation is a method for giving stringent discipline.

v) The main driver for the presence and continuation of the settlement framework is that guardians of the lady of the hour regardless of being poor consent to the preposterous requests for share made by the guardians of the spouse. Thusly, they should make it an approach that they will never concur or make any bargain on the issue of giving or taking settlement, to what extent their little girl may stay unmarried.

It expects promise to annihilate the arrangement of settlement. Maybe an entire age may need to endure to dispose of this underhanded framework. Rather than experiencing share provocation or losing your valuable lives, it is smarter to stay unmarried for a typical reason and to assist the family.

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backstorywithdanalewis · 3 years

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Massive Computer Hack U.S. Back Story with Dana Lewis podcast link : https://www.buzzsprout.com/1016881/7180093

Suzanne Spaulding: (00:00) Well, this is not a case where you can say the system worked. The system did not work. Um, but, but I will say the system was not designed for government agencies. They, uh, intrusion detection system, which we call Einstein was not designed to catch things that we'd never seen before. Dana Lewis - Host: (00:22) Hi everyone. And welcome to backstory. I'm Dana Lewis in London, while you were watching the American election and the disturbing assault by Trump's crazy supporters on the Capitol building amidst that flurry of views lost in the headlines was a massive computer hack. Most likely by Russia say the NSA and FBI and Homeland security. Now at least 10 federal entities had their networks breached, including major agencies, such as the department of state treasury, Homeland security, energy, and commerce. The hack may be ongoing, meaning it hasn't stopped. The hackers likely used US-based platforms to get into critical systems and it appears they entered those systems through a Texas security company and its links to sensitive networks. In total 18,000 entities. I told you it's massive. Mostly private corporations used compromised Orion system while estimates vary. The latest thinking is that about 250 of those were selected by the Russians for deeper hacks on this backstory. How vulnerable are we and how do we stop outsiders from compromising our computer networks, including banking, defense, the power grid, private enterprises. There's a lot at stake. Dana Lewis - Host: (01:52) All right. Joining me now from Washington is Suzanne Spaulding. She's a senior advisor for Homeland security and director of the defending democratic institutions project at the center for strategic and international studies. Suzanne. Welcome. Suzanne Spaulding: (02:07) Thank you, Dana Nice to be here. Dana Lewis - Host: (02:10) Hell of a time in Washington. I mean, I can not just talk to you about cybersecurity without getting your feelings and your reaction to what happened in the Capitol building yesterday. It's shocking. Suzanne Spaulding: (02:21) It is shocking. It's appalling. Uh, it was, um, distressing on so many levels, not had just on Tuesday. I've been talking to a young girls, seventh grade through 12th grade about our democracy and they had a lot of questions about why they should trust to believe in our democracy. And I told them, um, it is worth fighting for, it must be fought for not because it's perfect, but because it has the capacity for change. Uh, and we all must be agents of that change, but that change has to come about peacefully through our democratic process. Thank surprise. Dana Lewis - Host: (03:00) Is it Suzanne? Sorry to interrupt. But I mean, when you see the president constantly saying that the elections were false, the election is being stolen. Eventually people started believing it. Even if there's no evidence in 60 some odd court cases, they get angry. Then he encourages them to go to the Capitol building. I mean, you can't keep throwing kerosene on the fire like w without an explosion, can you Suzanne Spaulding: (03:21) Now I met Rami, had it right when he talked about an insurrection incited by the president, Dana Lewis - Host: (03:28) Should the president be removed? Suzanne Spaulding: (03:30) You know, those are decisions that his cabinet will have to make. Congress needs to look at that. I certainly think we are in a very dangerous and perilous place for the next two weeks between now and January 20th, if he continues to be the president of the United States. Dana Lewis - Host: (03:45) Talk to me about cybersecurity. I mean, you've had a terrible hack, uh, inside the United States, you also served as a member of the cyberspace solarium commission. You were also the under secretary for the department of Homeland security, and you led the nation's, um, the national protection and programs directorate now called the cyber security and infrastructure security agency. You managed, uh, I mean, a lot of the budget that was supposed to protect government agencies in this hack is not only about, uh, companies, but also many government agencies, such as treasury that have been hacked into. Suzanne Spaulding: (04:23) Yep. So the, you know, this is not a case where you can say the system worked, the system did not work. Um, but, but I will say the system was not designed for government agencies. They, uh, intrusion detection system, which we call Einstein was not designed to catch things that we'd never seen before. Uh, and that's something that, you know, they've been working on, but what needs to needs to happen. We need to get, we've been telling our private sector partners this, uh, we need to get to a point where we can detect malicious activity, uh, that we've never seen before. Right? We need to understand how to detect anomalous behavior. So there was a failure there, but there's also, this should also be a reminder to folks that our planning needs to assume that everything we put in place will fail in terms of keeping the adversaries out of our systems and that we will be breached. And now how do we mitigate the consequences of that breach? What are our mission essential functions? How are we going to make sure they continue? Dana Lewis - Host: (05:27) Surely that was already framed around cyber security protections in the United States? Was it not? I mean, you know, that you're in a constant chess game, not only with hackers and individual hackers, but I mean, people like the SVR in Russia and the FSB and the NSA and the FBI and Homeland security are saying that this is an ongoing hack. What does that mean? And are they not able to very quickly shut it down and limited? Well, no, they Suzanne Spaulding: (05:58) Have to find it first. Uh, and once it's in your system, very difficult to get the adversaries out, uh, on a permanent basis. What we've seen in the past, uh, with the very actors that we suspect are behind this, um, hack, is that they will do hand to hand combat. I mean, you, you will think you've gotten them out of one place and they'll pop up somewhere else. They don't just melt away quietly and go away when they are detected. And so, um, it will be a long time finding all the places that they may have managed to infiltrate throughout our system and, and a very long time, uh, rebuilding in a more secure way Dana Lewis - Host: (06:36) Comment on the fact that president Trump eliminated the role of cyber security coordinator in 2018. Suzanne Spaulding: (06:43) Well, I think it was a huge mistake. Uh, and I was pleased to see, uh, the, uh, Biden incoming Biden administration announced yesterday that they are going to restore, uh, central cyber security coordinator in the white house. I think it's critically important. We have so many parts of the government and the private sector that bring important capabilities, resources, authorities, to bear, and it needs to be coordinated from the white house. Dana Lewis - Host: (07:07) I just played this eternal chess game with Russia where, you know, we try to block them. They try to go around, they try to get in, or does it become, I mean, at what point is it, I mean, is this just an, another layer in spying and espionage or at a certain point, do presidents speak to one another and say, wait a minute, there's gotta be some rules here. You are intruding into critical systems in America. And we view that with great disdain and there will be a penalty. Suzanne Spaulding: (07:37) Absolutely, absolutely. And so, uh, certainly in the Obama administration, in which I served, we worked very hard to establish norms, uh, around the protection of critical infrastructure upon which a civilian society depends. Uh, I don't think that we just can just dismiss this as traditional spy versus spy espionage. Uh, we need to assume that they're doing at a minimum reconnaissance that would enable them to cause disruptions in the future. Dana Lewis - Host: (08:07) It's naive of me to think that a conversation is going to solve it because the Russians or the Iranians or the Chinese, whoever they be are going to continue to just go at this whenever they can, if they can steal secrets, they'll steal it. Suzanne Spaulding: (08:18) Absolutely. But the lack of a conversation is, is more damaging. You can, a simple conversation is not going to deter or stop our adversary, but not having that conversation. Certainly emboldens them. Dana Lewis - Host: (08:33) Last question to you. What do you think the damage is potentially that was done? When do we know? And are you worried that they were doing more than simply stealing secrets? They were trying to embed something. Suzanne Spaulding: (08:44) So I'm worried, uh, about all of the above, but what I'm most worried about is that they may have been doing reconnaissance, you know, getting access, for example, to industrial control systems that control machines or the electric grid. It's not sufficient to have a really damaging impact through a cyber attack. You need to understand those operational processes. You need to understand what would be hardest, for example, to, to repair, to recover. Um, how can you have that impact? That requires a fair amount of reconnaissance. And, and my worry is that, uh, while we didn't see them necessarily get into operational technology, that they're gathering information to be able to have that kind of disruption, perhaps with access they've already achieved, Dana Lewis - Host: (09:30) Should the public be worried about it? Suzanne Spaulding: (09:33) I should be worried about it, not, not losing sleep over it, but they should be demanding that our public officials, uh, take this seriously and act with the sense of urgency that is required. And I was pleased to see the Congress enact, uh, many of our recommendations from the solarium commission in this new, uh, most recently signed defense bill. That's what needs to happen. We need to, we need to move forward on the things we know need to be Dana Lewis - Host: (09:59) Suzanne Spalding at the center for strategic and international studies to, public's got a lot of things to worry about these days. Don't they? Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. Adam Darragh serves as the director of intelligence for vigilante in South Dakota, a US-based cyber intelligence firm. Hi Adam. Thanks for joining me. Appreciate it, Dana. Thank you. There are now seeing the 250 companies were hit by a Russian intrusion. Um, and there've been all sorts of characterizations and descriptions of this hack. How would you characterize it? It seems unprecedented. Adam Darrah- Vigilante Sec. : (10:39) Yeah, it does seem that way. Uh, but I characterize this as, uh, espionage, um, your standard espionage operation, um, which from an adversarial point of view, they consider inbounds and they are probably thinking we are doing the same things to them. So, uh, I don't see this as a, I believe it to be unprecedented in terms of what we know about it publicly. Usually these types of intrusions are kept, um, much more quieter, but, uh, yeah, this is, uh, this, it just demonstrates the sophistication and the vigilance of our adversaries. They are, they are, um, very sophisticated. They are aggressive and they are relentless. Dana Lewis - Host: (11:18) It sounds like it's Russia, according to the NSA, Homeland security, uh, the FBI, everybody, but Donald Trump is naming Russia. Adam Darrah- Vigilante Sec. : (11:27) Well, you know, um, there are only, Dana Lewis - Host: (11:30) Which means that's probably an, a confirmation Adam Darrah- Vigilante Sec. : (11:34) Perhaps. Um, uh, yeah, th the, the Russian, the Russian security services definitely meet all the requirements of this type of intrusion and this type of espionage campaign. They're very good. Probably the, one of the best in the world. Dana Lewis - Host: (11:47) So the, the, those agencies also declared it as an ongoing operation nearly a month after it's discovered. So I now, you know, talking to people who don't know anything about computer hacking, does that mean once they're in there, they're like rats in your attic trying to get them out. Adam Darrah- Vigilante Sec. : (12:06) It is, it's a, that's a very good analogy. Um, and not calling the Russians rats, by the way, just saying, um, that, but yeah, that's a very good analogy. Um, there are very smart and capable people on the inside. And so when an intrusion like this is discovered, um, you know, th the, the sophisticated nation States like Russia, like China, and in, in some very small pockets of Iran, actually, um, they they've used this initial intrusion to pivot because they want the family jewels. They want the crown jewels, uh, on classified systems. And so, um, this is, this is, uh, probably why, uh, these very good agencies are saying things like, yeah, like we, this is an ongoing thing because the forensics that are being done behind the scenes by very smart people, uh, you know, it takes time, uh, because they're good, uh, though the Russians are very, very good. And so it does take time to make sure that you pull on all the threads and follow each thread to its logical conclusion, because again, um, they want intelligence, they want to know our plans and intentions, uh, and they want to use the information gleaned from such a substantial, um, intrusion such as this to, for onward intelligence, operations, human, and human intelligence, operations, technical, onward, technical operations, internal counter-intelligence operations. I mean, this is a, this is a rich targeting set that they've had. Dana Lewis - Host: (13:32) How were they able to do this? Because, you know, we've had hacks before, and then we hear that everybody's going to overhaul their system. Um, the idea that they would actually penetrate, um, private companies and then government agencies and agencies like treasury, uh, and worse, and then remain in there for months at a time. I mean, it's, you know, somebody again, uh, a layman listening to this, it just amazes me that we're not better at detecting. Adam Darrah- Vigilante Sec. : (14:02) Yeah. Um, that's an excellent question, Dan. Uh, and, and when you have, when you have multiple buildings dedicated to this endeavor, uh, in the Russian Federation, you have some of the, you have some of the world's most foremost technical, uh, experts with incredible acumen, um, and a very aggressive mindset. Uh, vis-a-vis the United States. So, uh, the way this works is a full as a full approach, they use open source intelligence, they use human intelligence, they, they use company insiders, you know, nothing is off the table with regard to a sophisticated intelligence operation. And this, this has all the makings of somebody that probably was recruited by the intelligence services to help them understand more. Now they may have been an agent is what we say on the inside. Uh, they could have just had a really cool friend that they bounced code off of. Um, the Russians may have also recruited, you know, third party foreign nationals in other countries to, you know, hire as contractors. So again like this is, uh, this is a really, really well thought out and a sophisticated operation that, um, that they almost certainly used a full whole of government approach in, in orchestrating this, this particular hack. Dana Lewis - Host: (15:21) And it was done inside the United States Adam Darrah- Vigilante Sec. : (15:24) Almost certainly. Yes, that's, that's what that, that's what gets me that feeling in my stomach of like, Oh my goodness. And, and, you know, on the one hand you want to, you, you, you are legitimately outraged, right? One can be legitimately outraged, but on the other hand, you think, well, I tip my hat. Now we need to be better. Dana Lewis - Host: (15:43) Mr. Warner, the vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee said, you know, we need to make it clear to the Russians that any misuse of compromised networks to produce destructive or harmful effects is unacceptable and will be promptly met with a strong response. Is that the answer? I mean, Russia is going to do whatever it can to steal whatever is stealable, isn't that the game Adam Darrah- Vigilante Sec. : (16:07) It is the game. And, you know, and, and let's separate the games, you know, politicians have a game to play, and I understand that. And, and I think it's respectable those comments, you know, those are, those are those need to be said, you know, we need to send a message that, Hey, you got us, but, you know, um, we're going to do what we can to defend ourselves. I mean, that, that is a political message that, you know, I'll leave that to the politicians to figure out how to best message that. But as far as you know, when we talk about the game that we play, it is a shadow, a game of shadows. It's a game that's played, uh, behind the curtain, and you can see this. Um, you can see this in the response of, of the two different, you know, um, societies, let's call them the two civilizations. Adam Darrah- Vigilante Sec. : (16:53) You have the Western civilization that is much more open. Uh, and so I applaud the response of, of the companies of the government, you know, even internal government, um, not being on the same page, you know, internal, like, uh, robust disagreements that that's, that's the consequence of living in an old, more open society, you know, but the Russians, you know, they, they reacted, you know, in such a way that they're signaling to us, in my opinion, that they want to go back to the way it was before 2016, which is the, Hey, let's keep this, you know, let's keep these things behind the scenes. You know, they're, they're now they're denying it, of course, because that's their job. I mean, that's, their job is to deny it. I mean, you don't say yes, that was us, which they did in 2016. They said, yep. That was us. Adam Darrah- Vigilante Sec. : (17:43) Um, as a signal to us, that to say, Hey, look, let's get back to the old way of playing this game. Let's keep it behind the, let's keep it, you know, for lack of a better term spy versus spy. But, uh, my goodness, what's the answer. The answer is, um, you know, to continue to recruit the best talent, um, everybody must be vigilant. And th the mindset has to be that if you are a private person or a private company that does business with the United States, federal government, you are inbounds. You have a target on your back too. You already legitimate recruitable intelligence, target, and entity. And so adversarial governments are going to come after you, your networks. And because they want to know what we're up to, just like the United States wants to know what other countries are up to our adversaries. Also want to know, Dana Lewis - Host: (18:33) I remember reading a book about, uh, the black volt and the beginnings of the NSA. And in that book, there's this incredible chapter because I've been to come Chaka peninsula inside Russia when I was a correspondent. And that was where a lot of their submarine pens are. And the fact that, you know, in that book, they revealed that an American submarine went to the bottom of the [inaudible] peninsula and buried into a cable which monitored military communications, um, from the, the main sort of Russian mainland out to come Chuck it to the peninsula. And it was revealing in the sense that it showed that a lot of the Russian critical communication, especially military communication was, you know, certainly not computerized in those days, but even in Y2K, Y2K days in 2000, you know, a lot, a lot of it was not put on the computer systems and that it was hardwired and it was old school and old style because they understood the vulnerability. Forgive me for a long question, the vulnerability of computer systems. Right. And do we understand, are we overconfident in the West about our, uh, protection systems? And do we think that we're never going to be, our systems are going to be penetrated the way that the Russians have just shown us once again, uh, that they can and will do. Adam Darrah- Vigilante Sec. : (19:55) Yeah. Um, I don't think the people in my former circles and current circles, um, circles, uh, definitely don't think that we're, we're untouchable. Let's just say, uh, the, the, you know, in the, in the cybersecurity community, um, there are a lot of individuals who, you know, their default is their default is, Oh my gosh. Like they only see our vulnerabilities, right. Same in the intelligence community. Uh, especially in the, in the smaller circles of like, um, offensive, uh, technical operations, defensive, technical operations, all those wonderful individuals see are the vulnerabilities. Uh, and so I don't think, uh, from the United States point of view, we've never thought or under, and we definitely do not underestimate, uh, the Russian capability, uh, with regard to what they can do against us and what they do against us. Uh, the mindset is if this is what we imagine, what we don't know, Dana Lewis - Host: (20:50) You don't think to use your term, they got the crown jewels. Adam Darrah- Vigilante Sec. : (20:54) Oh gosh, no, I don't think so. I think that's what they want. Uh, and I think that's why they do these, these operations, um, you know, and don't get me wrong. Um, if I was sitting at my desk at my former job and I had access to the Russian equivalent of the information that they got, I mean, your careers made, I mean, that's, that's just unbelievable. And it it's a rich targeting set, no matter what, even if they didn't get the family jewels or the crown jewels, um, that it's a very rich data set. And we can learn a lot from, from the type of people, they employed, what they talk about, uh, people people's personal problems and, and, and also Danna. They're watching us very closely, both from a technical perspective, like what, how did we respond once we knew? What did we do? What countermeasures did we take? How was this playing in their media? I mean, this is a very, very interesting time. And there are many, many people back in the Russian Federation watching us and figuring out, okay, how do we pivot what's next? Now that the Americans did this, they message this, we did this, what can we do next? Dana Lewis - Host: (22:06) It's just a never-ending chess game, but do we do the same to Russia? Adam Darrah- Vigilante Sec. : (22:10) Yes. Uh, we have a wonderfully talented people who have been students of that fascinating civilization guys, like you that live there and they get it and they've studied it. And they've, they've gone head to head with the Russian target, you know, behind closed doors. And, and so there, there is a rich understanding of, of the Russian mindset and there's a rich understanding of, of their capabilities. We do not underestimate them. Um, at least behind closed doors, we do not underestimate them. And, uh, a lot of really intelligent people on both sides of the pond are fully engaged. In this question, Dana Lewis - Host: (22:53) You sound very confident that we're still pretty smart in the West. And yet this was such a broad, deep hack across so many businesses and agencies. And I mean, the one company, you know, um, um, out of Texas, you know, handled some 18,000 companies. I mean, it's, it sounds like we, we didn't do very well. Adam Darrah- Vigilante Sec. : (23:20) Well, here's the thing Danna like, uh, and I want to, this is another clear cut. This is an example of the difference between a more open society and an a in a, in a different mindset, right? You have, Russia has a very different mindset here. I applaud the, these public companies who had, who had to do a public Mia culpa. I mean, that's not easy, you know, but we live in a more open society. So I applaud fire. I applaud solar winds that they came out Microsoft. I mean, nobody has run away from this and is pointing fingers. Um, but that, that's very Western. It's very American dare I say. Um, because like, we want to be better. Um, yes, we have egg on our face. Don't get me wrong. There's definitely egg on our face. But, uh, you know, again, it's, it's this do the dual nature of man. Adam Darrah- Vigilante Sec. : (24:08) On the one hand we have this like indignation, we're angry. We're like, let's get, I'm like, ah, we're embarrassed, we're angry. But on the other hand, it's like, okay, I tip my hat, you won this round. Like, but we're going to be better. Uh, but you know, something like this, this type of disclosure, let's say, hypothetically, this happened to the Russian equivalent of these companies. There wouldn't be public discussion about this. Um, and so again, like it, it's not better different or worse, different, we're just different. And, and these types of disclosures, you know, the, our press is doing its job, Bravo. Our government's doing its job. You know, the press is keeping us honest, you know, uh, you know, they're editorializing this, that's fine. We welcome these robust discussions. We welcome them here in the West. Um, uh, but you know, and, but you know, Russia, Russia is good. They're very, very good. And they're very, very motivated to, uh, find out what the heck we're up to here in America. And in, in the UK, in the West in general, Dana Lewis - Host: (25:08) Adam Dara, the director of intelligence for vigilante, US-based cyber intelligence for him. Good to talk to you, Adam. Thank you. Adam Darrah- Vigilante Sec. : (25:15) Thank you, Dan. Appreciate it. Dana Lewis - Host: (25:20) All right. Glenn Chisholm joins us now. He is in California and he's the CEO at obsidian, uh, which protects cloud services from account takeover. Uh, they say that, uh, they protect from insider threats and identity sprawl, which I have no idea what that is. Glenn, what is identity sprawl? Glenn Chisholm - Obsidian: (25:39) It's just the normal effect of a company's changes, gross motor movements. And, you know, everyone has an identity in the computer system and whether those accounts are, and those identities are properly maintained and reduced and controlled over time. Dana Lewis - Host: (26:00) All right. So there's a lot of firms out there that claim that they do computer protection. I mean, yours in particular, uh, you say among others on your leadership team are former members of the national security agency. The NSA is that right? Glenn Chisholm - Obsidian: (26:15) Yeah. Two of my co-founders are ex NSI. Dana Lewis - Host: (26:19) All right. So you should be very muscular in terms of security, computer security, and you should tell me, um, how in the world, and I know you're not responsible for it, but how in the world do you think 250 companies and government agencies have been hacked likely by Russia? Glenn Chisholm - Obsidian: (26:37) I think what you're dealing with is I very thoughtful and deliberative. Who's willing to spend significant amount of time and preparation and resources to get into their targets. Um, and given that type of mentality, then you are going to expect some degree of success Dana Lewis - Host: (27:04) And you would expect that these guys would just keep on coming. I mean, that's, that's always been the game, isn't it? That the Russians or whoever are trying to hack into American system? Glenn Chisholm - Obsidian: (27:14) Yeah. I mean, I think it's, it's, feticide this, this class of attacks is often referred to as IP today's, which are advanced persistent threats. And the reason why they're persistent threats is because the opponent is resourced and motivated in a way that allows them to continue to target you. Um, they don't have to score some immediate return. This isn't a pedestrian criminal that has to make money. This isn't a crime scene together. That's going to look for the easiest opportunity to get a cash return. Uh, these are people whose motivations are nation state oriented, and with nation state orientation comes patients time and just the continual repetition of the attack. Dana Lewis - Host: (28:01) How would you describe knowing what we know about it? And I assume you don't have any firsthand knowledge of it, but how would you describe the depth of this hacking and the seriousness of it? Glenn Chisholm - Obsidian: (28:15) I mean, I think this is, this is obviously going to be one of the most iconic, uh, computer security breaches of all time is, is, is I think a reasonable statement. Uh, I don't think there's any hyper ball in that from a, from a, from a depth and approach perspective. Um, you know, this is what is referred to as a supply chain attack. You know, you, you look at that target, the target may be difficult to get into it, maybe well defended, um, it may have good controls in place. And so it becomes the easiest way to do it is to find the weakest link in the supply chain or, or let me rephrase that. That's unfair find a link in the supply chain that you can explore it once you're in that link into the supply chain, use that to move into the other companies. And that's what was done here. It's find a software supplier that is broadly used break into that supplier, sit there for a period of time, make sure you're not detected, modify this software to let this software allow you to get into other organizations and then sit there for a period of time, make sure don't have to take to it. And then start to extract information at the value. Dana Lewis - Host: (29:23) This was a Texas firm named solar winds, reportedly. Glenn Chisholm - Obsidian: (29:27) It does. The P is solar winds was a key component in this attack, but it also appears that there were other suppliers in the supply chain that were targeted. Um, and it's, it's fair to say that because we do know that the company that found the bridge, uh, and the one that I think has, has, has shown themselves to be extraordinarily responsible and thoughtful about this, which is, which is far I, and I have no stake in fire. I have no shares. It's nothing like that. It's just that nice down the breach that we're very public about it though. They assisted everyone else and understanding the nature for the breach and help track it back to its souls, which is solar winds. FARA is also a supplier. So, you know, if, if they were targeting FireEye, that was another element of the supply chain that they were targeting and that work's going to use that to get it elsewhere. So I think it's, it's that there's, there's more to this than just solar winds. It's, it's, it's a broader attack and a broader set of approaches that we use to, to, to gain access to these organizations. Dana Lewis - Host: (30:25) I mean, the depth of this seems pretty serious. I mean, because, um, the, the one company in Texas, uh, solar winds, actually, maybe it's not fair to say it's solar winds customers, but reportedly there are 18,000 entities here, mostly private corporations. They use the comprised Orien cyst Orion system. Um, so I mean, that's, that's a huge number of companies that may have been affected including government system. Glenn Chisholm - Obsidian: (30:54) Yeah. So, so obviously the attack, the guide access to solve the winds, and then they modified the specifically, are there, there are a product called the Ryan 18,000 people, took the update that, uh, that had this, this malicious code in it now. I mean, it's also fair to say that all the [inaudible] thousand people, the vast majority of those would not have been accessed by this particular opponent, but it did give the opponent the opportunity to access them, whether it was now a LIDAR. Um, and so, you know, thoroughly identifying this attack, the approaches to the attack is important to make sure we clean all of those 18,000 organizations right through from top to bottom to make sure the attacker can't come back into one of those and then start the process all over again. Dana Lewis - Host: (31:44) We know that they've left. If you're saying come back in. I mean, it may be according to a statement yesterday by a Homeland security, the NSA and the FBI, I believe said it was an ongoing operations. So it's that, that seems to flirt with the idea that they may still be inside those systems. Glenn Chisholm - Obsidian: (32:02) No, I, I think it's very fast side that the, the, the general understanding that most computer security people, particularly incident response teams applies that the attacker is still going to be there. And the task number one is containing, where are task number two is removing them and clean and tossed. Number three is applying controls to prevent return. So, I mean, certain organizations may have expelled the attack or others might be in the process of doing so. And maybe in the process of doing so for the next six months, do you work with government agencies? Uh, we have some experience with working with some agencies. Yes. Dana Lewis - Host: (32:42) What kind of information are we talking about? I mean, when you're called in to protect somebody system, is everything vulnerable, everything from treasury to, you know, I don't want to be over overly dramatic and I'll tell you why I even raised the idea, but to, to say nuclear launch codes. I mean, how serious does it get? Glenn Chisholm - Obsidian: (33:00) Uh, I mean, this type of attack is, is, and, you know, you can see it from the nature of the disclosed. Victoza is far more at the civilian agencies, rather than the DOD type entities, the DOD type entities have far more disconnected systems that aren't connected to the, you know, to the internet or connected to external systems that would prevent this type of attack of had even any, uh, uh, Y successful. Now, obviously there are other ways that the tax code, and there are other approaches that have been applied, um, and, you know, for disconnected systems, we've seen, you know, in the past approaches that have been applied that have been very successful and, you know, um, but, but, uh, what, what I would, what I would say is that the information is going to have value. So the question is, is, uh, what, like what information would you as treasury have that would have information on sanctions programs, individuals who are going to be targeted to sanctions what treasury understood to be components of sanctions, you know, us programs around the economy, et cetera, et cetera. So, you know, the information is very rich and so, you know, there's value to it. Uh, there's value to it, to nation state attackers. Dana Lewis - Host: (34:18) So how do you, you know, leave me with lessons learned, um, you know, it, it reminds me like back in 2000, when I was a correspondent in Moscow, we're working for NBC, we recovering Y2K. And the idea that all of the computer systems around the world were bugged in my crash, transportation networks, uh, nuclear launches, and the Russians kind of said, well, you know what, w we're not really on the computer. We're not really computerized very much. So, I mean, a lot of our, I mean, that's 20 years ago, but a lot of our systems, they said at that time, weren't really vulnerable, like Western, uh, systems from, you know, banking and economics to maybe military to, um, were, were any lessons learned there or did the Russians just, you know, catch up or, I mean, and what are the lessons coming out of this? Like, how do you protect like this very important information from both private corporations and government? Glenn Chisholm - Obsidian: (35:16) The, the coalescent is to always be looking and to understand the nature of your environment and the intimate of your environment with every other environment. Um, you know, lessons are always learnt and the processes, and, um, you know, this is, this is, this is different to Y to K Y K I is, you know, or in most situations, you know, what you have to understand is that computer systems are built to be resilient. Um, you know, security systems are built to be resilient, um, the built to be reliable. Um, but you have an opponent, you have a highly intelligent opponent that's highly motivated. And so, you know, this is a unique situation. This, this isn't a normal sort of, uh, set of controls. That one has to balance that is, is, is the standard for managing risk. Um, you know, if you're managing risk in a bank against fraudulent activity, um, you know, you, you don't necessarily have nation States attempting to defraud you when you're managing risk in this case. Glenn Chisholm - Obsidian: (36:30) Um, you know, the nation state may be attended to for the bank, maybe North Korea, because they're attempting to get foreign currency. Um, people tending to target treasury, maybe the Russians, because they want to understand, you know, and I use this as an example, without any direct knowledge of the exact target, but something like sanctioned programs against their individual members of government. Um, they may want to understand, you know, uh, various programs, the us government is running so they can try and identify, you know, intelligent sources of interest. So all of these things are very, very complex. Dana Lewis - Host: (37:07) It just seems like it just seems like a chess game that we can't afford to never win that every time we lose that game, whether it be China, whether it be North Korea, whether it'd be Russia, whether it be Iran, um, the, the, the costs are, I mean, we'll probably never know exactly what they got, but the costs are huge. Glenn Chisholm - Obsidian: (37:31) The costs are huge. And so, you know, the lesson learned is investment understanding what your information is, building defenses for your current problems, not yesterday's problems. And that's typically one of the biggest issues that can be faced in computer security is people are very focused on what the loss for each was not what the next breach will be. Um, and so, you know, one of the things I've said before is, you know, your defenses need to be oriented towards where you're going, not where you were. Um, I think that people, people have to understand that to allow themselves to be more resilient against these types of attacks. And then most importantly, with anything, whether it be a human agent or a computer security breach, um, the most important thing you can do is, is detective detection is key because breaches happen. You know, people do become foreign agents. Glenn Chisholm - Obsidian: (38:28) People become, you know, breaches happen. Detection is what matters, identifying the breach as quickly possible, minimizes the scope of a loss. And that is what truly matters, right? Except in this case, nobody know, knew that there was a breach and it apparently went on for months. So it's an it's, it's an unusual one. No, unfortunately it's not unusual. That's the problem. It's, this is more normative that the breach goes on for a period of time. And that's, that's the problem. You know, these type of nicest state breach is getting to take it very quickly is unusual. So that's why the controls need to be so well thought out. That's why detection needs to be so well thought out. And that's why you have to be moving to where the attack is going. Not where the attacker was when Chisholm with the obsidian. Thank you so much, Glenn. Thank you. Appreciate it. Dana Lewis - Host: (39:21) That's our backstory on a computer hack that still hasn't been untangled in is ongoing. And we really don't understand yet the loss and the thread it's posed. We appreciate you subscribing sharing, supporting us by spreading the word on backstory. I've now started a daily newsletter to help people navigate the news. And that includes news links. So you can read original sources news. I think that's fair and impartial and not anchored in the disinflation. That's confusing. A lot of people it's Dana's backstory on substack. Please sign up. I'm Dana Lewis in London. Thanks for listening. And I'll talk to you again soon.

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