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Donate!!!!!! Boost!!!!!

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Hey guys, I wanted to tell you about the Ihyaa' initiative. My friend Mohammed Ayesh, who's been our vetter on the ground in Ghazzah for the last year or so, wants to make a space and provide resources for University students to complete their studies in a proper learning environment, along with providing food parcels, stationary, and other essentials. You may have heard of the Isnad initiative! It's very similar to the Ihyaa' initiative but it's located elsewhere. They had to find the right room to use as a classroom for the Ihyaa' initiative and they're going to be paying rent of 2000$ for it. Mohammed Ayesh has informed me that starting on Monday this rent will begin.

University students are the foundation of a better and rebuilt Ghazzah! If you want to help Ghazzah rebuild, this is one of the first steps you can start assisting with.

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you cannot talk about the homophobic murder of jonathan joss without including in the conversation that he is indigenous.

american indian men are at the 2nd highest risk of death by murder compared to all other ethnic groups. in their lifetimes, 82% of native men report having experienced domestic violence. yet the overwhelming majority of perpetrators are non-natives (88% of native men and 92% of native women who reported violence said their attacker was non-native). what’s more, tribal governments are often stymied in their attempts to bring justice against non-natives, meaning that many of these cases go unresolved.

this was an intersectional attack. the fact that he is indigenous matters, even if the motivation was homophobic, because it made him even more vulnerable and disposable in the eyes of his killer.

as always, look into MMIWP to learn more, and speak up for us. miigwetch, take care

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🚨Take a moment to imagine your child or loved one. What would you do for them? How far would you go to protect them and shield them from pain, loss and despair🚨

I am Marwa, a mother of three girls, Belasan, Joan and Nada, ages 7 to 14. 🔊🔉🔈I will take a moment to share my story.📢📣

My children and I lived under bombardment and aggression. We had a safe home full of dreams and a bright future for my daughters.

But everything changed when the war on Gaza began. Our house, which we built with strength and effort before the war, was destroyed.

We lost our job, which was our only source of income. The journey of displacement and moving from one place to another began without the minimum necessities of life. We faced difficulties in providing healthy food and clean water. We lived in fear and terror. My daughters could no longer sleep from the intensity of fear.

My mother-in-law suffers from serious lung infections and chronic diseases, and we find it difficult to provide appropriate treatment for her, especially in the winter and the bitter cold. She is part of our family after losing her husband. We are now without shelter, moving from one place to another, and struggling to survive. Today we have no income, no life, and no work. We are determined to rebuild our dreams, secure our future, and rebuild our home. We cannot do this alone and we need your help in building our lives. Your support, no matter how small, can make a big difference. Thank you for helping us find hope on our journey.

Vatted by

@bilal-salah0

@negaspaces @ipod-shuffle @beatrixie12 @wingedalpacacupcake @ilovethetalkingclock @canvas-madness-txc

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Like me.

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Dissecting the Watcher's story & characters

This is a pretty long post.

I've seen a number of people claiming that the Watcher DLC has no story and that the slugcat has no characterization, but I definitely think it's there.

(SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE DLC!) There are no spoilers for the secondary ending until about halfway down, where there is a warning.

Adventurous...

Since this post gets a bit meandering, I will spell out the general framework of the story here:

The Watcher is a shy, lonely individual who desperately struggles to find companionship after their childhood was cut short. They will go to great lengths to achieve this connection.

Timid mouse

"And through the middle of it all, a lonely lost slugcat trying their best to outlast the ravages of a warped world."

Why are they called the Watcher? It's due to their nonconfrontational, withdrawn demeanor. This is immediately apparent in the intro dream:

When Watcher's parent steps up to fight the aggressive slugcat, Watcher's sibling joins in. But Watcher just hides away, afraid to confront the danger. It's unclear if their family survived the tussle, but they never reunite again. Watcher's shy demeanor has severed them from their family.

Time passes and Watcher grows a bit older, wandering around in what seems like a futile search for their family. Here, they meet Spinning Top, the child Echo.

A desire to bond

Within the DLC's story, youthfulness is tied to a fear of isolation & loneliness.

Spinning Top has been lost & drifting for a long time. When they ascended, they feared the loss of connection to their old life and their loved ones. So they remained on world, searching for a sign that their loved ones still miss them.

This desperate pursuit has led them to travel across reality for eons and eons. By the time Watcher meets them, Spinning Top is now combing through places that have no relation to their life. Spinning Top won't find any sign of grief or remembrance in Coral Caves or Rusted Wreck, so why are they drifting along these pointless locations?

Spinning Top's loneliness and persistence arose because, as a child, they lacked the experience of maturing and could not handle the radical acceptance required to ascend. They are scared to accept the truth: their childhood has come and gone. Their loved ones eventually moved on and also left the world behind. Spinning Top is the only one holding onto this long-defunct family.

Shadow reflecting radiance

Watcher and Spinning Top are very similar characters. Both are lonely children that have been severed from their parents and siblings, and wish to revive the childhood that was ripped away from them. They're desperate to rekindle some kind of connection.

Throughout the campaign, Watcher continually searches for Spinning Top because they're the only individual that Watcher has seen who could bring a greater connection than chomping, fleeing, or stabbing. They even give Watcher the gift of infant godhood!

These childlike characters both find companionship in each other. In fact, Watcher's companionship is what gives Spinning Top the strength to return to the location of their actual memory, and confront the truth of their loneliness.

"All my mothers and fathers and crechemates who went along without me… Do they note my absence? I've traveled from the furthest future to the very seed of our past, and I see no evidence. Only echoes and strays. Aloof. Alone. Afraid."

Spinning Top accepts that it is best to grow up and move on, and so they disappear, finally ascending for real. Watcher, however, does not seem to learn the same lesson from this journey.

While they may seem happy playing with toys, it's still a symbol of juvenility. Despite everything that has happened to them, they still embody a desire to recapture their lost childhood.

And now, Watcher is alone once more. Soon, they will seek out a new companion.

Ripplespace as a symbol of isolation

Before I discuss the second ending, I want to talk about Watcher's abilities and the symbols they embody.

The ripple-world that Watcher is (accidentally?) transported to by Spinning Top is a continuation of the aching, drifting nature of these two characters. They are unable to stay in place for long, constantly seraching for a sign of connection.

Watcher's "gift" of invisibility is a clear extension of their characterization. They tackle threats by hiding away, slipping past unnoticed. As their Ripple level rises, the cloak begins pushing Watcher further out of their typical plane of reality, creating tears into a wholly different plane. And when they reach the (as of now) maximum Ripple level, Watcher is fully pulled out of the material plane and into Ripplespace. Here, they are truly alone except for the primitive, gnawing voidspawn.

Every gift seems to give way to a curse of isolation. Watcher has to detach themselves from reality itself to survive, and the gift-giver Spinning Top leaves them behind.

Endless hunger

SPOILERS FOR THE SECOND ENDING.

SPOILERS FOR THE SECOND ENDING.

Here's a cool divider.

While the purple Throne Rot seen across the campaign may not play by the same rules as Five Pebbles' Rot, its behavior is equivalent. The Rot is the ultimate embodiment of primal struggle, a collective consciousness of brain meat that forever hungers to consume as much of the world as it can reach. It is not unintelligent, but it is very one-minded.

From The Throne itself, a giant flower blooms and gives birth to the Prince.

The Prince is a piece of the Throne Rot that has partially separated itself from its collective consciousness. It is an individual connected to the Throne Rot, but it has its own mind. "STARVING, pressing, grinding, SQUEEZING against... us? But now... I? A... SELF. And… an OTHER."

The Prince is an imitation of an Iterator puppet. This part of his identity causes him to believe that he was born to solve the Big Problem, by assimilating the entire world into the Throne Rot. "The imperative that was in THEM [the Iterators] remains in me." "Imagine: a single substrate… Life! (...) Nothing lost. No one lost. From bug to god, all as one. A TRUE end to the pattern."

I personally don't believe this was the original goal of the Throne Rot, but rather the Prince instinctually assigning purpose to his new life as an individual. He rationalizes his intrinsic hunger to consume in the lens of a "higher" ideal.

You can see how the Prince reflects Watcher's desire for connection in a deeply twisted manner. They're both in an endless pursuit to connect—Watcher offers itself to others as a companion, while the Prince takes companions and forces them into himself.

Opposing will

The Prince loves Watcher. He considers them to be a great friend, as they are the primary individual responsible for spreading the Throne Rot and the only one to have witnessed their genesis. "You have done so much for me, I will not burden you with my troubles. Please, rest here as long as you wish. You are always safe here, my dear friend. You, who were there for me."

Watcher has finally found it—a new companion, who showers them with praise and affection. Out of an acute desire to retain this friend, they go on to spread the Throne Rot across all the threads that connect the ripple-world. Every viable world is corrupted.

Unfortunately—or perhaps fortunately—something goes terribly wrong for the Prince. "I can almost feel... a will... at odds with my own."

Karma is antithetical to corruption. When the Throne Rot sufficiently engulfs the "fringes" of the ripple-world (Outer Rim and the Rotted vanilla regions), these regions become unstable and you cannot create a warp to escape them. However, there are pockets in The Throne where a bed of Karma Flowers allows you to exit. It's unknown if the phenomenon is natural or intelligent, but Karma inherently opposes the Rot.

When Watcher returns after corrupting all the regions, Karma Flower begin sprouting from the ground of The Throne. The Prince attempts to keep them in, but he ultimately fails—he freezes up, and countless Karma Flowers sprout from the corruption. The Throne Rot might not be outright dead, but its power has clearly been drained. The Prince has failed.

Karma Flowers are all over the map now. The "unstable fringes" have also been stabilized by their presence. You can create a warp to leave Outer Rim and the Throne from anywhere, and the same goes for the Rotted vanilla regions.

Going by the tone of the select screen art, Watcher just seems to mourn their loss. Another new friend, unceremoniously ripped from them.

Moving forward

Watcher cannot seem to find connection. Their family left and possibly died. They helped Spinning Top mature, but Spinning Top left—given that they viewed corporeal and primal life as absurd, they were bound to do this.

Watcher may have attained infant godhood, but their powers encourage them to hide away and detach themselves from the world, concealing them in the desolate Ripplespace with nothing but occasionally violent voidspawn.

It's almost scary how this godlet is willing to go such great lengths to secure companionship, falling for the Prince and corrupting the entire accessible ripple-world to make their friend happy. This friendship ends fruitlessly, too.

Watcher will eventually have a full conclusion to their story. So where will they go from here?

Narratively, I don't think Watcher will get what they want. Their next (and final, I believe) venture for companionship will end in ruin once again... but possibly, Watcher will recognize that while other people come and go, the only constant who will always be there for them is Watcher themselves, and they will learn to overcome the trauma and yearning of their lost childhood.

That's my slightly blunt prediction for the overarching theme of the Watcher.

Extra thoughts

Scav Prediction

I personally believe the next arc will involve Scavengers. In the old pre-release Watcher concept, Watcher journyed with an enlightened Scavenger. While James Primate has stated before that Downpour kinda stole the old concept's thunder (i.e. with Artificer), I get a strong indication that the next arc will still involve Scavengers because of the new Acolytes.

Acolytes are Scavengers who are BRIMMING with attributes that reflect a knowledge of Karma and Ripples.

Acolytes wear glowing golden masks and clothes

A faint Karma symbol between 6-10 surrounds them, suggesting that they are already enlightened (or their armor is imbued with some kind of karmic concentration)

When they are grabbed by a predator, they initiate a crazy karmic retaliation blast to free themselves (which I failed to get a GIF of)

The blindfolded Disciple Acolytes emit a sort of karmic echolocation ping that detects entities from a distance

The definition of an "acolyte" is "a person assisting the celebrant in a religious service or procession". The celebrant is someone performing a rite; often a priest. This implies the acolytes are carrying something out for a leader who is almost certainly not the Chieftain Scavenger in Downpour.

Overall, these guys know something, and I think we're going to find out why.

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Fav region so far of the dlc.

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Rainworld musings.

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Mutual Aid initiatives to donate to:

Ghazzah:

Dahnoun Aid

Sameer Project

Mona's mutual aid project (X)

MECA

Sudan:

Sudan Solidarity Collective

Khartoum Aid Kitchen

Period Care in Sudan

Al Abbasiya community kitchen (Al-Abbasiya / Umdurman based)

Basmat Wasl (Khartoum-based)

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Experimenting with shapes.

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Do you need help deciding what to donate to?

Link to mutual aid initiatives.

Recently I made some polls that would help me figure out who can afford to donate how much. I will base the following 'categories' based on the answers I received.

Preface: This is NOT a personal budgetting guide. This is just about telling you where you can donate what you've already decided you can afford to set aside for the month / week. Furthermore, if you have to struggle to scrape by, I strongly urge you to reconsider donating. There are others who can afford to donate and you should focus on urging them to do so and sharing fundraisers with them. You should also follow this guide on a dynamic basis. I.E. if you suddenly find yourself out of a job, don't keep donating weekly just because you used to. Likewise if you suddenly score a six figures, please consider increasing the amount / frequency you donate.

If you don't want to follow this guide, don't!! If you prefer donating differently, do so. This guide is exclusively for people who aren't sure what to do and need a little bit of a system but don't know how to start making one.

PS: please do not share what category you belong to in my notes or whatever. I don't need to know.

Those who can afford to donate daily:

According to the poll there's about 9 of you who can afford to donate daily. If you can afford to donate daily, it matches up with the amount of fundraisers for individual families that I queue to post on my blog per day. Please prioritize families that are struggling with difficult healthcare issues, or families who have one or more disabled members who need expensive specialized care. You can find fundraisers to donate to on the lists linked in my pinned post. I personally think this would be helpful because it provides these families in need with that extra help they need. Look out for the fundraisers that I post daily on my blog, or alternatively if you can't pick one you can consult gazafunds, which picks a fundraiser for you if you feel you can't choose one yourself. The people who run the website vet every fundraiser listed there as well.

Those who can afford to donate weekly:

There's far more of you who can donate weekly rather than daily ~ 40-50. I think most effectively it would be best to ask you to donate to mutual aid initiatives for 2 weeks in a row, and then to alternate on the 3rd week and donate to some of the individual fundraisers, prioritarily for people who are in need of medical aid. Having a large amount of people donating to mutual aid efforts every week helps make sure that people are fed through the week and allows for a steady stream of support over time. However it also helps to have people sustain the individual fundraisers with the little extra boost they need outside of the daily donators. This is why I think alternating between both would be most help.

Those who can afford to donate monthly & less often than monthly:

This is the largest donator group and for that reason I strongly urge you to donate to mutual aid groups. Because it consolidates a small amount of donations from hundreds of people and causes the most widespread positive effect. Mutual aid initiatives reach the people who cannot advocate for themselves online and who have no means to ask for donations themselves.

Here's some links to mutual aid efforts for those who will be donating.

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One last plea... before I lose him forever

I'm not asking for money... I'm asking for life. I'm asking for a chance to see my child open his eyes again, laugh, call for me... I'm asking for a chance to hold him without feeling his breath disappear in my hands.

My little boy, a piece of my soul, is fighting death right now. His frail body is trembling, his eyes are filled with fear, he's searching for me as if he knows the end is near... and I stand helplessly by his side, my heart crumbling, my soul torn apart a thousand times every second. The doctors said he needs urgent surgery, but death is faster than me... and money stands between me and saving him.

Imagine watching your child dying, and all your screams, tears, and pleas meaningless because you don't have the money... Imagine that life forces you to be rich to keep your children, otherwise death will take them from you mercilessly...

I am writing these words and my heart is burning, collapsing, dying before my child... Please, please, with every tear, every pain, every compassion in your hearts, help me with anything, with any amount, with any share of this appeal... Perhaps your hand will be the one that saves him before it's too late.

I don't want to lose him... I don't want to carry him to his grave knowing that the chance to save him was in your hands...

Please, don't let me enter the darkness of eternal sadness. Don't let me live like a dead person while I bury him with my own hands...

Verified : @90-ghost

Vetted by @bilal-salah0

@mahoushojoe @sar-soor @rhubarbspring @schoolhater98 @sawasawako-archived @anneemay-blog @commissions4aid-international @wellwaterhysteria @mangocheesecakes @kyra45-helping-others @7bittersweet @tortiefrancis @ot3 @amygdalae @ankle-beez @communistchameleon @dykesbat @komsomolka @riding-with-the-wild-hunt @heritageposts @watermotif @stuckinaprill @mavigator @lacecap @determinate-negation @deepspaceboytoy @paper-mario-wiki @kibumkim @socalgal @chilewithcarnage @ghelgheli @sapphic-dino @rooh-afza @shesnake @totallynotsilversora @nabulsi27 @gazavetters @gaza @gazanarchive @palestine @palesttino @palestinianliberator @palestinianrose

@timothylawrence @roakkaliha @lostacelonnie @huznilal-blog @parsleyrosemarybotch

#SaveMyChild #EveryMomentMakesAMatter #AMother'sScreamAM #PleaseForGod'sSake

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Breaking News 🥺😢💔💔💔

Gaza under fire again‼️‼️

✅️Vetted by @gazavetters , my number verified on the list is ( #523)

We wake up afraid from bombing and unfortunately the war return again. 💔💔💔

I'm so afraid about my family and my kids please help us evacuate from this place we are crying now and screaming because of the strength of bombing around us.

please help us everything is very dangerous and we return to the killing people. you can support us and my family by donating or sharing my compaign.

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In light of the ceasefire agreement, Gaza needs resources now more than ever, and you absolutely should continue donating. Here are some important campaigns:

1. Gaza Funds - provide direct support

2. Life for Gaza - rebuild vital infrastructure

3. Crips for eSims for Gaza - keep Gaza connected

4. The Ghassan Abu Sittah Children's Fund - provide medical support for children

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‼️Helping me means helping 5 members of my family..‼️

🥶We're freezing🥶

Hello, I'm Wasim from Gaza, in Al-Mawasi specifically... My family and I were displaced from Rafah after hardship, bombing, displacement, and hunger.😭😔

Now we have been away from our city and our beautiful home for 9 months. We have lost our house that my father built stone by stone and he worked 24/7 to build this house. But the occupation destroyed it, and no house remained in my beautiful city remained intact.😭💔💔

We are now living in a tent or semi-tent, which does not protect us from the cold of winter or the rain. Our lives are very difficult.😔😭

Thanks to your donations, we have been able to buy food and flour, and now I am asking you for help to buy a tent that will protect us from the cold of winter. We do not know what it means to sleep because of the extreme cold.🥶

This is our tent made of fabric and some nylon, not closed on one side. We are freezing from the cold. Help us to buy a new tent. You are our last hope.😭🥶🥶🙏

I also want to ask for help for my mother, who is the most precious thing in my life. Without her, I am nothing...

She has a back cartilage disease and is in great pain. She needs physical therapy, medicine, and vitamins, and I am unable to provide them. Help my mother receive treatment.🙏���😭

Campaign Link⬇️⬇️⬇️

@gazavetters

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Hello, my name is Jaafar from North Gaza. I previously created a GoFoundMe donation campaign, and when I got $2,400, they deleted the campaign without knowing the reason. Please support me in my new campaign, Chuffed. Any amount you donate, even if it is small, will help buy flour and vegetables for my family. The price of everything we have is many times its normal price. Please help save my family from starvation! 🥹🙏

✅️Vetted by @gazavetters, my number verified on the list is ( #299 )✅️

Please know that the beginning is difficult for everyone, donate even a small amount, it will definitely mean a lot to us 💔🥲

https://chuffed.org/project/helpjaafar

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Neuron fly headcanons.