#(seriously its not a descendants only issue

[thetimelordbatgirl]

Honestly though, as much as I'm annoyed that Carlos didn't appear or at least get mentioned in Beyond the Isle of The Lost and what he is doing after D3 while his friends do appear and mention what they doing, I still will take it over The Royal Wedding and their mention of him, aka implying he's dead, because that's still more disrespectful then not mentioning him at all. At the very least that one is clearly Melissa not knowing how to handle the situation with Carlos and therefore, deciding to not touch on it while Royal Wedding felt the need to do so so they could be fine with themselves when deciding to drag Disney Descendants out beyond three films.

[our-sin]

Stiles is a wildlife biologist and one day stumbles upon a wolf pack during a hike through the national forest he works for. They weren’t gray wolves so at first he figures another species has finally made its was back to california but after an hour or so of studying them from a far he realizes they aren’t typical wolves and appear to follow many of the theorized versions of dire wolves.

Thinking he might have discovered a new species and a possible descendant of dire wolves he stays for the rest of the day and studies them further. He only leaves when the sun starts to set and keeps coming back to study them. He grows rather attached to the pack, especially when a particularly curious wolf comes up and introduces itself and eventually drags him by his sleeve over to meet the rest of the pack. He talks to them, tells them about how important they are and how lucky he is to be the one to have found them.

He keeps trying to publish his findings but no one else seems to be able to find them and whenever he brings a photographer out they’re always hiding. One day he brings his own camera, thinking the wolves are used to him and just scared of everyone else and he finds one of the pack dead. He doesn’t take a picture of course, feels it would be disrespectful to the creatures that so readily welcomed him. Instead he goes back to his jeep grabs a shovel and a knife before coming back to dig the poor thing a proper grave and putting down a marker with a big rock and doing his best to add an engraving. While placing the wolf in its grave he notices bullet wounds and cuts on the body and figures out someone had killed one of HIS wolves.

The next week he spends looking for a tracker that can help him find who hurt his pack -figures if they went after one they might have been going after the others too and are still possibly camped out somewhere. That leads him to Derek who agrees oddly quick considering Stiles can’t offer him much in the way of payment.

Day one Stiles leads Derek to the grave and where he found the wolf. The man does his tracker thing and starts leading them even deeper into the forest. It takes a couple of days before they find the hunter’s now deserted camp that has some bullets and gear left behind, even a gun. Derek seems even angrier than Stiles that they had only missed them by a day or so given the remains of a campfire. They stay there for the night before moving on first thing in the morning. Takes another few days before they find an active campsite with several hunters.

They try to lay low but at some point Derek loses his cool and gets them caught and subsequently captured (he had heard them talking about the pack mate they killed, not that Stiles knows that). The hunters tie them up and do their typical hunter thing which is how Stiles not only finds out about werewolves but that the dire wolf descendants he thought he discovered were really the pack fully shifted.

Anyway turns out the pack had been following their entire journey from a far and the night after Stiles and Derek are captured they attack the hunters camp. Both Stiles and Derek are seriously injured but Stiles being human is the more pressing issue. Stiles wakes up like days later in a super fancy house next to a wall of heat. The wolf that had introduced him to the pack initially which is, of course, Derek. The man had refused to leave his side since they left the camp. And once everyone is sure Stiles is alive and mostly well the pack introduce themselves as humans.

Then happily ever after and all that jazz.

[mellifexfarm]

News

My flock has contracted Marek's Disease.

Since 2019, after I brought home Lyra and Wren, my flock has been a closed flock. Meaning I take biosecurity very seriously, and opted to not bring any new chickens in or allow other poultry-keepers access to the yard where they are kept. The only birds that were added from 2019 until now have been from hatching eggs. There are a select few diseases that can pass from mother to egg, but not Marek's.

But within the past few weeks one chicken displayed symptoms of leg weakness and became unable to walk. I brought them indoors and started treating for vitamin deficiency, since that is by far the most common cause of sudden lameness in poultry. But she didn't get better, and then Lyra started walking unsteadily, and I knew something else was wrong. I suspected something was wrong with my feed and sent off a sample to get tested for mycotoxins, and switched feeds, because I know a lot of people have had issues with that lately. But then one morning I found Moss deceased in the coop, and it all kind of went downhill from there.

Sebrights are known for having extremely low resistance to disease. They are very inbred. It is the reason I lost Kip to fowl pox when everyone else recovered fine. And why all but one (her unnamed cockerel "emo" son) of the members of my flock who are descended from Lyra are affected. But none of the other tiny breeds I have, Seramas or Kikirkis, are known for being particularly disease resistant either. So. I am extremely cautious at jumping the gun and saying they wont be effected.

I sent off Moss's body for a necropsy on monday and got the results today, September 29th.

I do not know how this got into my flock. Our nextdoor neighbor got chickens a few months ago, but our birds don't have any direct contact. That is the only way I can think of.

There is a vaccine but it can only be administered to day old chicks. Vaccinating to prevent this was not an option.

It generally takes 4-10 weeks for the disease to develop after the chicken has been exposed, so it had to have been fairly recent. My flock has not been carrying this sub-clinically.

I genuinely don't know how this is going to go from here. There is no treatment for marek's disease. It is a virus. I have ordered a few herbal remedies with vague studies to back up some kind of efficacy helping reduce the damage the virus does and boost their immunity, but its mostly a crapshoot. The only good news I have with all this is that older birds are somewhat less likely to succumb to this disease. And the fact turkies and pigeons can't contract it.

The only birds displaying symptoms right now are Lyra, and Moss's unnamed pullet daughter.

Lyra is tentatively okay. I have crafted a sling for her, and she has been increasing in mobility over the last few days. She did not ever have full paralysis, so I am hopeful. Her daughter and Mouse, one of the younger keep-back pullets from this summers chicks, are the only casualties so far.

I'll be doing all that I can in terms of supportive care, but if any symptomatic birds get to the point I don't think they will recover from I will be euthanizing them. I will not be selling chickens anymore.

This disease has been a nightmare of mine for such a long time and now it is really happening. I am pretty crushed.

[neptxn3]

Synastry I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy ⋆｡˚꩜ . ݁ ˖ִ

Ok the title is an exaggeration, more like synastry I would prefer not to have, like always:

Disclaimer, these are observations I have made through personal experience and thorough research, observations also vary depending on other synastry and natal placements involved! All of these aspects can be worked through, none of these aspects make or break a relationship ❤️

Doesn’t resonate ≠ untrue

˚꩜ . ݁ ˖ִ | Navigation post

Lilith in the 7th house / conjunct descendant

♅ When women have their Lilith present in the seventh house in synastry, often times the house person can make the Lilith person feel shame just by loving who they are. The reason is because lilith in the charts of women is the area where society has convinced them is unnatural and wrong, something they should be ashamed of. So when the seventh house person who sees Lilith an an ideal desire and partner wants to love Lilith in the way they think is right, the Lilith person can pull away. Marriage is not seen as an appropriate act to follow a shameful relationship. Seventh house also represents open enemies, over time the Lilith person can resent the seventh house person. It’s typical for Lilith to pull away in these relationships in order to avoid any commitment.

♅ When a man’s Lilith is present in the seventh house in synastry, you’ll often notice they do not want to marry the seventh house counter part. Lilith in a man’s chart is the woman society has told him he should not pursue which only makes him want to chase her even more. It’s undeniable that the relationship is passionate, but it is also a sign that he does not intend to take the relationship seriously. Again, the seventh house is also the house of open enemies, the male Lilith can be very public with his intentions of not committing to the house person.

Celebrity Examples: Orlando bloom (Lilith) + Katy Perry // Andrew Garfield + Emma stone (Lilith) // FKA twigs + Robert Pattinson (Lilith)

Pisces and Libra mars

♅ I say this because Mars already has a hard time expressing its aggression or purpose in these signs, so when you take something that’s already confused and hand it to someone that will misconstrue your intentions to an even bigger extreme it becomes so draining.

♅ It’s like staying silent after an argument because you don’t know how to communicate your emotions, then the other partner sees this and thinks that your inability to work through these issues means you hate them. You just really have to hope the Mercury synastry is well aspected in this relationship😭

Sun square moon

♅ Moon typically views the sun to be someone who only indulges in their own pleasures and doesn’t seem to care about what others feelings. Often times the moon can feel as though the sun doesn’t understand or support them in endeavors that bring their inner child joy.

♅ The sun thinks the moon is irrational in its decisions and is too deep in thought to understand the suns true emotions. The sun is usually the most aware in this synastry that the moon is misconstruing it’s intentions, but is incapable of understanding how what they are saying is hurtful.

“ I want to start selling my paintings”.

“ well you’re not selling at that price, you know how much people like to lowball”.

“ maybe they’ll appreciate my art and buy full price?”.

“ moon, I wouldn’t buy a painting like that for more than 10 bucks, let’s be realistic here”.

♅ Moon person can be a push over the the relationship. To overcome this hurdle sun must be open to change, and moon must be willing to set boundaries and expectations. If not, there’s always going to be a nagging feeling in the pit of each others stomach where they know there’s an emptiness in your interactions.

Mercury square saturn

♅ Saturn person has a tendency to feel like the dominant partner in the relationship intellectually wise. They can feel like they have the wisdom and upper hand to teach the Mercury person about maturity and knowledge. However because it is in the tense aspect of the square, Saturn person has a habit of not understanding how Mercury has a way about going through things.

♅ Mercury is not only our communication but also our day to day mundane things. Saturn person can find a flaw in how Mercury spends their morning, their work habits, their food intake, how they do their hair etc. This can be frustrating to the Mercury person because they believe Saturn tends to nitpick everything the Mercury person does. The worst part of this synastry is Saturn can regard themselves too mighty and disregard the Mercury persons concerns which is where withdrawals can occur (Mercury tiptoeing around the issues and avoiding constant conflict with Saturn)

Pluto square Mars

♅ This synastry aspect can unfortunately have a great possibility of physical abuse. Pluto in one’s chart goes through intense transformations and changes that can be abrupt at times. An example could be, the Pluto person could go on a weight journey after overcoming a health problem that caused them to gain weight. The Pluto partner could expect of the Mars partner to join them in their new health routine, but the square between these two planets makes it evident they do not view this new change in the same way. Pluto can be angered with the mars partners lack of encouragement which in turn activates Mars’ aggression. Being the God of war, Mars will not back down when challenged which creates a back and forth conflict.

“ Can you get off your ass and take out the trash like you said you would.”

“Can you get off my ass and do it yourself, I’m the one who pays the bills around here.”

“I’m not taking disrespect from someone like you, I’ll leave you if that’s what it takes for you to see how badly you treat me.”

“Then leave.”

Moon square Uranus

♅ Unless the moon partner has natal moon/Uranus aspects, this aspect can be categorized as constant anxiety for the moon partner. There’s a lack of emotional stability and satisfaction which can be detrimental to the moon partner. It can feel like there’s finally a point in the relationship where you are both on the same page in life, but the Uranus counter part moves on to the next thing that causes turmoil in the relationship

♅ The reason this can be detrimental to the moon person is simply because the moon likes being in calm waters. The exaltion in Taurus indicates the moon likes to feel comfortable in the same spot for long periods of time, but when it’s aspected negatively by the Uranus individual it challenges the moon to constantly change its environment.

♅ Moon person can find themselves leaving the comfort of their home (not literally) in order to chase Uranus. Uranus finds themselves poking the hornets nest (Moon) to see how much independence from the relationship they can get away with.

Quincux signs

♅ When two signs are quincux (Virgo/Aries, Gemini/Scorpio, Aquarius/Cancer etc.) it’s difficult to understand what the other person is feeling. In sexual synastry (mars) , you both can have trouble understanding what pleases one another. With Venus signs, its a hard time understanding your love language.

♅ if one partners Sagittarius sun is quincux the other partners Cancer moon, it can feel to the moon person that the sun doesn’t even bother understanding the moons emotions, and it’s simply because the sun never even thought about what the moon person feels. Not because they’re selfish, but because they’ve never met someone who goes about their feelings like the moon.

♅ Aquarius mars quincux Virgo Venus. Mars partner can expect the Venus partner to allow them their own freedom and manage their own schedule while venus partner could be adamant about curating mars a monthly schedule to stick by which in turn can turn the mars partner off.

Quick Notes

♅ When one’s natal Saturn is negatively aspected and enters a persons 9th house in synastry, the Saturn person can seem to restrict the 9th house persons beliefs and knowledge. For example, turning the 9th house person religious/having them join a cult/demanding obediance of a woman (dispite previously potentially being more liberal.

♅ Negatively aspected natal saturn entering the money houses in synastry (2,8,11) can mean the saturn person takes away the house persons possessions/money. In the second house, they can refuse to buy you things because “you haven’t given them a reason to”/taking expensive things they’ve bought you back. 8th house, taking money your parents give you (allowances,inheritance) potentially disability checks if you receive those. 11th house, taking money from work you’ve done because of the connections they’ve given you that allowed your income to flourish.

♅ Negative Moon/Pluto can be stressful to have. Moon can open up to Pluto, and dispute being someone who isn’t shy of intense topics, if this relationships dissolves (due to other incompatible aspects) it can almost feel like “I just told you my deepest secrets, you can’t just walk away like I didn’t tell you the things that could ruin my life”.

♅ 12th house Neptune overlay. Ok this one’s a stretch but, if it gets to these deep rock bottom moments and you’re stuck in a room with someone who’s Neptune is badly aspected and it’s in your 12th house. Introduction to drugs/narcotics. Not the cool kind, I mean the one that has you sniffing the floor for snow ❄️

♅ Virgo mars man

♅ Malefics simultaneously in the 4th house and 9th house. Could lead to isolation from family and could potentially have you move away from any support systems.

[floofeh-purpi]

Getting isekai'd?! (Part 6)

Sagau! Genshin Fatui x Gn! Reader (ft. Your bsf)

『Beloved fluffball/s mentioned below! 💜』

@justmare @mc-cos-charm @keirennyx

NEW FLUFFBALL ADDED TO MY COLLECTION!! Mwehehehehe >:3

☆

A/n: Almost at 50 fluffballs guys! 🥹

Warnings: Swearing, grammatical/spelling issues, bbg if you srsly forgot you have vitiligo, I couldn't find the image that I always use in the header thingy part so I had to improvise, y/b/f/n and you being silly.

【Part 5】

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆

The 5 signs that Our Holiness has descended upon Teyvat:

1. Golden blood.

2. The sound of Their Majesty's 'Kalimba' playing in the air.

3. Shooting stars.

4. Their Holiness' lovely voice.

5. Their dog that Their Majesty calls "Siberian Husky" yes aka your big baby sitting on your lap.

The Cryo Archon letted out a a quiet gasp. "How could I have forgotten the melodies My Grace used to play..." she thought as she closed the book and putted it back to its shelf, her shoes clicking against the floor of her icy-cold palace.

☆

You hummed a song to yourself as you helped your friend build a wooden house in Minecraft. "Yo should we just do milk chocolate or dark chocolate planks?" You asked with a stupid grin on yoir face.

"Bitch you could've just said oak or dark oak planks... 😭" Your best friend said affectionately. And yet you deadass expect them to take you seriously when your like this. "But now im hungry wtf?" You both said in unison.

"Bruh."

"Bitch? Anygays wanna go to the kitchen together?"

"Sure~!" Y/b/f/n said in the gayest fucking way possible.

You both turn off your computers and went to the kitchen.

☆

You guys were eating (f/f) Y/b/f/n was eating it because you were eating it too :3 until a knock on the door rudely interrupted you guys' snacking session. "Stupid fucking door..." Y/b/f/n thought. How dare the person interrupt their precious time with you? But anyways, they go to the door open it, only to see a certain gingerhead whose alias is the literal opposite of what he is *EHEM* Child...

"Hello comarde! May I come in?"

"Yah, sure. 😐" Your bsf made some space for him to go through the door. "HOY (N/N), WE HAVE A VISITOR! PISTE KA" Y/b/f/n yelled at you.

"PISTE I HAVENT FINISHED MY FOOD" Tartaglia sweatdropped slightly as you cursed back before you took the last bite of your (f/f). You started to make you way into the living room. "Hah?"

"Oh? Is this your roomate, comrade?"

"Yas, this beautiful person over here is (Y/n), aka the other person you saw in that photo near the fireplace. 😍" Childe's smile faltered abit as he remembered how your bsf nearly made his skeleton jump by by saying that behind him. "Right..." But the moment he looked at you, his first thought was: "HOLY SHIT THEY LOOK MORE PRETTIER THAN THE PHOTO" He thought, not realizing he blushing like a fucking strawberry.

"Is bro ok...?" You almost had a hand on your mouth as you practically called one of the villians in the game one of the most casual terms you know.

"Nah. He'll be fineeee..."

☆

Eeeeeeee finally done!

【Part 7】

Published: July 2 2024. 3:21pm.

[sage-nebula]

I'm thinking about Knuckles, and how little we know of him, and how what little we know of him informs what we do know of him, and how that makes some of the writing around him (in various canon materials and adaptations) feel . . . kind of disrespectful, at times?

What we know of Knuckles' backstory is this: he is the last of the echidnas, and specifically a descendant of the Knuckles clan. The Knuckles clan was an empire under the rule of Chief Pachacamac, and when they tried to take the Master Emerald and Chaos Emeralds for the sake of their nation's power, Chaos went on a rampage and wiped most of them out. Pachacamac's daughter, Tikal, sealed Chaos into the Master Emerald along with her own spirit (sacrificing her body in the process), and those that remained enshrined the Master Emerald on a chunk of land that they hefted into the sky to become Angel Island. It's there that they vowed to protect the Master Emerald, but because there were so few of them already, now Knuckles himself is the only one who remains.

What we don't know is: how the remaining echidnas on Angel Island died out, and whether Knuckles' parents were around when he was born or not.

We don't know this, because echidnas hatch from eggs at least in real life, and we don't know that they don't in the Sonic universe. And we also don't know how long it would take for those eggs to hatch . . . essentially, we don't know if Knuckles was born alone on Angel Island, with only the little animals and the Chao there to keep him company. We don't know if perhaps he named himself Knuckles, after a clan he never knew, to try to feel some connection to his heritage. We do know that he doesn't know all there is to know about Angel Island, that he doesn't know the meanings behind a lot of the murals (which is how Eggman was able to trick him back when they first met), which would lead me to believe that if his parents were around, they weren't around for long enough to teach him about his culture or their sacred duty. That perhaps they weren't around long enough to give him a name of his own, rather than just taking the clan name.

All of this is to say, if Knuckles was born alone (or if his parents died when he was too young to remember them), and he's just had to piece together what little he knows about his people and his culture from what there is on his island . . .

. . . then it kind of makes moments in canon when Sonic or others pester him to leave the island or to stop taking it all so seriously feel kind of . . . insensitive at best.

Like, I do get it. Sonic himself doesn't care about his own past, he has no ties to any family (besides Tails) or culture, that's all fine for him. But it's clearly not fine for Knuckles, who very obviously wants that connection, especially if he's the one who named himself after his clan. And while I get it from a character standpoint for Sonic, part of me also feels like writers have validated Sonic's view in things like having Knuckles decide to go on a journey away from Angel Island after Frontiers, after his conversations with Sonic goaded him into it a little. Which again, as a writer I understand, because it's hard to do things with Knuckles if he never leaves Angel Island. You have to bring the plot to him, or else you can't include him. But at the same time, he's literally the last of his people. And the only connection he has to those people, those people who are lost and that he can never get back, are there on Angel Island, in ancient murals and ruins he's not sure he fully understands no matter how many years he spends studying them . . . I don't know, I just feel like some more understanding or compassion could be given to him for this. Like the way his eyes lit up in that IDW issue when Amy returned the echidna artifact to him -- that was something made by his people! That's a part of his history! He may not (probably doesn't) understand its significance, but now that's another lost connection that he has. And while Sonic might not care about things like that, Knuckles does. That's important to him, and that should be respected.

I don't know, that post about how Knuckles is not just a warrior (or, imo, a warrior at all, but a protector instead) has just had me thinking about him the past couple of days. I'm not saying that he should stay locked to Angel Island forever, I do think it does him good to socialize with his friends as well . . . but I also wish that the writing respected a bit more often the fact that he is the last of his kind, that the island and the ruins there and the Master Emerald are all he has left of it, the only way he has any connection to his culture at all. And honestly, much as I love Sonic, and as much as this is an E for Everyone series, I do think that, at times, Knuckles should get to tell Sonic to fuck off when Sonic starts going on one of his "don't be so stuck on your dusty old island" spiels he sometimes goes on. Because it's not really about the island, and Knuckles' feelings are just as valid as Sonic's. Perhaps even more so, on this topic.

But that's just what I've been thinking about.

[gold-rhine]

In an ideal universe where your wish fulfillment came true... any particular characters (including npcs) you'd like Kaeya to interact with when he gets there?

by wish fulfillment i assume you mean "kaeya moves to sumeru". to proper answer, i need to explain my pet crack theory which is Kaeya and Candace are related. buckle up babes

ok, so, we know chlothar is one of kaeya's ancestors. look at this pasty ugly dude. he did NOT produce the hottest man in the game by in-breeding with other pasty khaenriah nobles from same bloodlines. and we know it had to be same bloodline or kid gets hilichurled.

where are kaeya's hot genetics are coming from??? the darker skin?? blue eyes, dark blue hair?? like they could've at least give him the same brown skin tone to match, but no. and genshin matches relatives OBSESSIVELY. hot genetics HAVE to come from somewhere.

sumeru is near khaenriah. deshret's civilization is connected to khaenriah in canon, we know for a fact some of the survivors became part of khaenriah. deshret's civilization was also highly advanced AND fucked with the abyss. it's all not crack, thats just stating canon facts. so like it doesn't seem to me as a stretch to guess that the khaenriah's noble bloodline originated from Deshret. like, a lot of ppl connected to the desert have rhombs in their pupils, which we know is the main visible sign of this bloodline. like, thats not precisely khaenriah diamonds, but its fucking close, ok?

and Candace is canonically a direct descendent of Deshret himself. Brown skin - check, blue eye color - check, dark midnight blue hair - check, hotness - hell yeah check.

if you catch my drift, i think khaenriah's main noble bloodline, the one that is not hilichurled, hailed from deshret. their only choice to get a normal, non-cursed kid was to find the descendants of the same bloodline who did not leave desert for khaenriah and so were not cursed, and it's Candace's family. booom babyy

so in ideal world, Candace and Kaeya realize they're distant cousins bc she's like Alberich? My aunt married some shady dude named Alberich, was that your dad? like all kaeya always wanted was to belong, and here he finally will have family that is not trying to use him OR repressed anger issue catholics. and nahida let even scara to redeem after he tried to murder her. kaeya could finally come clean and just live as himself.

and he would be so needed too, like the desert ppl are in turmoil process of integrating with sumeru, criminals are overrunning aaru village. and who keeps treasure hoarders in mond in check with nothing but three dumb sergeants and a smile? kaeya would sort that shit out in a month. seriously, i had to go to liyue to farm treasure hoarders, there are no roaming mobs of them in mond. kaeya would also be the best liason to akademiya, growing up with nobility and being used to political games as mond's spymaster.

after this premise, there is literally not a single character in sumeru it would not be fun to see kaeya interacting with. he and dehya are immediately besties, they met on a shopping trip where candace was helping him choose his new skin outfit, and this same evening drunk dehya is princess carrying him out of tavern. he can amplify cyno's horrible puns into a weapon of mass destruction and tighnari can't even hate him, bc he also made ppl stop eating poisonous mushrooms by spreading rumors that if you eat too much of them, their spores will grow inside of and mindcontrol you. its absolute bullshit, but it worked, goddamit. kaeya could solve kaveh and alhaitham's communication problems in one evening at a bar, but he wouldn't, bc he's a little shit and he thinks its entertaining to watch and he's curious how long its gonna take them by themselves, but he would give them trollish little nudges. also, in nilou's tropue he would finally have a proper bohemian scene to exercise his flair for dramatics and inspire several epic poems by being a heartbreaker.

tldr little desert village has neither rich nobility nor grand destiny he's supposed to fulfill, but it has ppl who will accept and appreciate him, and i think realizing that he doesn't have to choose between a coinflip of bad and awful and learning to live for himself instead is one of kaeya's arcs best possible resolutions

[shadowkoo]

Chasing Clouds - Prologue

→ Summary: Namjoon made the decision early on in his training that he would abstain from dating or entering any form of relationship while in active duty. He’s determined not to burden anyone with the likelihood of being to be notified of his death or causing pain to someone he loves by his long absence. Ironically, he found himself drawn to you, a doctor who challenges his beliefs and contradicts everything he upholds.

↠ namjoon x f.reader | 1k words | 18+ ↠ genre: military au, angst (future chapters include: doctor au, s2l, slow burn, smut, fluff, romance

→ Warnings: Read at your own risk! war, ptsd, bombs, guns, violence, injury, death, blood, (future warnings include: murder, use of other weapons, smut warnings)

→ Author Note: my favorite kdrama of all time is descendants of the sun and in honor of my fifth rewatch, I wanted to write this series! it takes place about a year after the show ends, just so you know the timeline :) i would recommend that you watch it first, but it’s not a requirement - it just gives insight to some of the character's personalities (plus i’ll take any opportunity to tell people to watch it lol)

Prologue

MAY 02 - 0340 - USTANA

The darkness of the night feels heavy; its weight is unsettling as the soldiers start their most recent assignment. Namjoon has an odd feeling in the pit of his stomach. It’s twisting and turning like never before. He isn’t usually nervous before missions; he hasn’t had a reason to be. He's always followed through and completed his tasks without issue; which is one of the main reasons everyone has such high hopes for him.

Tonight is different though, and he knows the others have the same odd feeling as they all take off their dog tags and set them aside. If captured, they need to remain anonymous.

"You guys know the drill. Once we locate the hostage, everyone will need to be attentive because it'll only be a matter of time until the whole building knows it's been breached. This isn't another exercise boys, lives are at stake here,” Big Boss, Captain Yoo Shijin, says to his team of special force soldiers.

"As this is the last mission of your training term, I expect nothing but excellence in your delivery of the hostage. We've orchestrated the specifics of this mission in such a way that will prove whether or not you are cut for these types of diplomatic high-profile assignments," Wolf, Big Bosses best friend Seo Daeyoung, adds.

"Whatever you do, don't compromise the mission. Don’t use your birth name to communicate, use the nicknames you were given, as well as ours," Big Boss hollers, finishing off their short speech as the back door of the aircraft opened.

Ustana, the country they’re secretly entering, is known for its drug and weapons problem due to its corrupt government. If things end badly, it will reflect on Korea. That’s why the team’s identities and nationalities can’t be known.

The plane jolts, narrowly missing the projectile that was aimed at the steel bird in the sky, solidifying the seriousness of the current situation below.

Namjoon repeats his orders to keep some level of sanity and peace of mind as he descended from the sky with the rest of the Puppy Pack, the soldiers in training to join the Alpha Team.

‘Find the hostage. Mislead the enemy. Return home. Stay alive.’

Once on the ground, he waits for the signal to ambush the guards watching the doors and proceeds to lead the group. Shijin and Daeyoung follow behind with the rest of the soldiers at their feet.

Daeyoung nods, giving Namjoon the go-ahead to align his gun on the enemy. This is the part he often tunes out. You need to be able to turn the switch, as he calls it, on and off with this kind of job.

He aligns his scope with the target and quickly pulls the trigger before moving to the others nearby before they even realize what’s happening. He watches as their bodies drop, waiting to see if anyone else runs into the room, but it’s quiet. Almost too quiet…

"Wildcat, All clear,” he says into his mic, letting the others know their access point is now safe for entry.

‘Find the hostage. Mislead the enemy. Return home. Stay alive.’

It takes less than two minutes for the group of highly trained soldiers to find the hostage. He’s badly beaten and unconscious, his body hunched over in the chair he’s tied to.

Wolf keeps watch by the side door while the team works on releasing the man. Jihoon, another one of the Puppy Pack trainees, helps Namjoon carry the man back to where the transport aircraft is waiting.

“I don’t want to jinx anything, but that was almost too easy…” Jihoon says, looking at Namjoon.

He agrees. Something’s not adding up…

He peers through the open door of the transport helicopter, gazing outside. They’re waiting for the last of the group to make their way onto the craft, and he just wants to ensure that everyone is safe. His shoulders relax when he can see their dark forms exiting the building.

Namjoon turns to look back at Jihoon, “I see them, they’re-” his sentence ends unfinished.

“What is that?” he says, taking a step closer to the unconscious hostage that Jihoon and a combat medic are helping. He points out the red blinking light on the man’s neck. It’s not a laser from a gun. It’s coming from inside his skin. ‘It’s almost as if…’ His thought trails off. “Run!” he screams, though it’s too late.

The bomb’s detonation rips through the helicopter, unleashing an intense burst of energy. In an instant, the searing shockwave propels fragments of debris outward. The air vibrates with a deafening roar, drowning out all other sounds.

The chaotic energy tears apart surroundings and scatters the remnants in all directions. A plume of smoke and fire billows upward, consuming everything in its path. The impact leaves a scene of devastation, marked by shattered glass, twisted metal, and a sense of raw destruction.

Namjoon feels the force of the explosion in his chest and is thrown far from his comrade, and debris crashes around him. His head bounces against the ground, and the ringing in his ears is so intense, he believes he will never hear again.

Jihoon is several feet away. His eyes are frozen open, and blood trails down his face from the head injury he suffers from. Namjoon reaches for his lifeless friend but it’s all too much.

Then, everything fades to black.

← series m.list | next →

©shadowkoo 2023. All rights reserved.

[zonerobotnik]

My "Rise of Red" Review

So, a new Disney Descendants movie came out, and while I didn't bother reviewing the others, I figure I'll share my opinions on "Rise of Red".

There will be spoilers.

--

Oh, where to start. I suppose the beginning is a good start. First of all, I question the thought-process behind making Uma principal of Goody-Goody-Two-Shoes School when she's never actually attended said school and the most "goody-goody" stuff we see Uma do is help them stop Audrey in D3 and even then that was only for her own interests. Maybe she learned to be a better person in ten years, I dunno, but from what I could see she wasn't really. And there is no way she is even reading that list Fairy Godmother gave her, much less following it.

Then we get into her dumb idea of letting a volatile Kingdom send its VK over to study. Which, uh, first of all, the Queen of Hearts had to have been on the Isle of the Lost as a Disney Villain, so she's only been back in her Kingdom for ten years and it's a bit of a mess. Also, she apparently decided to start a war and got her Kingdom locked up. So…that was a thing. Slightly off-topic, but that means that her daughter was five or six years old when she left the Isle and moved into Wonderland if she is high-school age now.

I also question how exactly Wonderland works, since Alice has a canon daughter in Auradon but according to Disney it was all a dream of hers, so…I have questions. So many questions. Unfortunately, this movie will not provide me answers. Moving on.

We then move on to the next part of the movie, the introduction of Wonderland and the song "Red". I have issues with this! So many issues! This song is amazing, but the fact that it's the Princess of Hearts singing this while vandalizing the courtyard and her mother's portrait is really, really frustrating. Because, let's face it, her mother likely wouldn't have actually punished her with anything major, but the guys that she screws with? They are likely to get executed for failing to stop her. This is all a game to her, but to them it's life or death, and that's seriously screwed up. I love the song, but I hate the context.

This would be better sung by someone that actually has a risk involved, maybe someone that is defying the Queen and knows they could be killed if actually caught. But, no, instead we get Princess Red playing with the lives of not only all the guards but also her friend/tutor if it's discovered he helped the vandal escape.

By the way, after he saves her and gives her a little lecture, he shows her his brand-new time machine that he just built that takes you to the point in time your heart most desires and then tells her she has to go. She then does the classic hug-and-snatch move and steals the time-machine to use later. Classy.

And then, the next morning, she gets to witness the consequences of her actions and she makes a joke about removing the captain of the guard's helmet. The only thing that saves the man's life is the arrival of the letter from Auradon. (Due to word-count, more will be in reblogs)

[ptseti]

KAMALA HARRIS NOT FOR REPARATIONS

US President Joe Biden appears to have heeded calls from fellow Democratic Party members to withdraw from the 2024 US presidential race, ending his re-election bid on 21 July.

This follows his debate performance on 27 June, which fuelled some Democrats’ worry about Biden’s ability to defeat former President Donald Trump. Public opinion polls released over more than a year have shown Biden faring poorly against Trump.

He has endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, whom reports say is the only other Democrat who could access $91 million in Biden-Harris campaign donations.

Since the announcement, Harris has secured the backing of several Democratic Party bigwigs. However, beloved figures like former President Barack Obama held off on endorsing Harris. The Democratic Party will hold its nominating convention in August in Chicago. Still, it remains unclear how the party will democratically choose a nominee, with state primaries ending in June.

The mainstream media has touted Harris’s identity as a mixed Indian and Black woman as why her candidacy is notable, showcasing her as a champion of Black people.

However, in this 2020 interview with theGrio senior correspondent Natasha Alford (@NatashaSAlford on IG, X and TikTok), Harris made it clear that she does not support calls for paying reparations to Black people who are descendants of enslaved people in the United States. Meanwhile, a Reuters/Ipsos poll in 2023 revealed that at least 74 per cent of Black people support reparations.

That position, as well as her record imprisoning Black people as California’s attorney general, has raised questions about her loyalty.

Like Biden, Harris fares poorly in polls against Trump.

Video credit: @theGrio (YouTube)

BUT someone made this comment :

It does a disservice to voters who are in the election of a lifetime to share this clip without the full context or a balanced analysis of her civil rights record. VP Harris has endorsed HR 40, a bill for a reparations commission (along with an anti-lynching bill, Black maternal mortality initiatives and more). She has given nuanced and slightly different answers on the reparations issue with various outlets over the years, each revealing how her thinking has shifted- as most politicians do. This won’t be satisfactory to some people, and everyone is entitled to their opinions about the way she answered the question in 2020. But that was FOUR years ago. The Trump administration does not support reparations, let alone DEI. Civil rights for Black Americans are being rolled back before our eyes. The choice between Trump and Harris is day and night. Let’s advance the conversation further so people understand what is at stake right now.

MY RESPONSE TO HER COMMENTS:

I completely get where you're coming from—this is the first time I've actually sat through all her comments on the issue. The REALITY is that none of our so-called leaders have a clue how to tackle this. Sure, they back it as a right to right a wrong, but not one of them has seriously put in the work to make the reparations issue coherent. And let's be honest, all those "leaders" are too scared to even whisper about it to their colonial overlords. So she's just doing what they all do best—DANCE around the question. Until we, as Black people, UNITE and form a global commission with representatives from the Caribbean, Latin and North America, and Europe to sit down, analyze, and figure out what and how much reparations are due, all this talk is nothing more than post-slavery freedom of speech.

[lemonhemlock]

Who do you think should be the ruler in hotd?

I put off answering this because it was the most complex question and, as a result, I'm going to break it into two parts (part II linked here).

I've already posted my thoughts on House Hightower, so my answer will unfold in a similar way: I do not believe House Targaryen should be in charge of the affairs of Westeros (and, no, I do not believe Dany will sit the Iron Throne at the end of the series, but ofc we will only get confirmation once the final book is published).

This issue goes beyond Targaryens being awful people or the system being structurally unfair in the first place, favouring the strong and rich above the majority of population. House Targaryen are proudly descendant from the fallen empire of Valyria, which became as evil a place as you could probably conceptualize within a fictional world, before you write in their inevitable demise by hubris. House Targaryen should and do meet a similar demise in the main series.

Old Valyria was not only a slaver's empire, but they based their entire way of life on horrific blood magic. They intentionally expanded and conquered peaceful societies in order to subject those people to forced labour and human sacrifice rituals to sustain their malignant civilisation. The Great Empire of the Dawn predates Valyria and tells a similar story: of a great and vast society that reached legendary peaks only to fall as a result of corruption and depravity. We are not meant to look at these fallen empires and wax nostalgic over them.

The Targaryens are in no way as repugnantly villainous as their ancestors, but they have not escaped the rot of Old Valyria either. They take pride in being the last Valyrians left and actively look to preserve their Valyrian bloodline, keep to their Valyrian customs as much as possible and set themselves apart from society with their doctrine of exceptionalism and their refusal to assimilate. "People say Targaryens are closer to gods than men".

Incest and polygamy are one thing, but the main issue I would highlight in regard to the Targaryens is their use of dragons. It's easy to overlook because dragons are very popular mythical creatures, look cool AF and represent a very entertaining wish-fulfillment fantasy. But in-universe, dragons are a terrifying weapon of mass destruction that Targaryens use in order to subjugate an entire continent. They represent the worst type of absolutism - the one you can't fight back against because they possess a military weapon that outclasses any other and they can wield it with impunity, without any checks and balances.

The fact that the dragons die at the end of the Dance is a good thing.

After losing their dragons, the Targaryens do not necessarily get any better at ruling. At least now the balance of power with the other great houses is fairer, but the history of the dynasty continues with rebellions (of their own making) and many other questionable reigns. Their last King, Aerys II, commits such appalling abuses of power that the Westerosi lords have no choice but to depose him.

The removal of House Targaryen is not done bloodlessly and without its share of barbarity, but it is not meant to be seen as an unfair usurpation either.

I thought it very fitting that we begin HotD with our two main characters discussing Princess Nymeria finding shelter in Dorne. Alicent is trying to convince Rhaenyra to take the lesson seriously, but she is distracted and playful. She knows the story already, but does not engage with it critically. In that scene, she is merely a girl bored by a historical event she is made to recite from memory.

But we, as the audience, shouldn't discount the symbolism: Rhaenyra the dragonlord is telling Alicent the dragonless about Princess Nymeria and her people fleeing the horrors of dragonfire and extreme violence. She rips the page out. "So you remember."

Alicent will remember and, years later, when she is the one terrified for her own children's lives under Targaryen rule, she sends the page back to Rhaenyra, as a reminder of their childhood friendship. But there is nowhere for Alicent to run and no other way for her to protect herself. She has appropriated dragons for her faction (Aegon's banners hanging behind Otto as he hands Rhaenyra the page) and is now using them as her own deterrent.

Princess Nymeria found shelter in Dorne, but Dorne is not part of Targaryen rule at this moment, even though they abusively include Martell sigils on their emblems of state. Targaryens play by their own rulebook and there is no way to resist them other than controlling them via infiltration or fighting fire with fire. The Greens have failed with the former; now they will try with the latter.

[inconspicouslurker]

My headcanons why Oracles didn't foresee the Day of Unity.

We all thought about it. How odd it is that a whole track of magic, a track that has fortune telling as part of its expertise, didn't know the true intentions of the Day of Unity.

From my very lack of research, from my understanding, celestial bodies and phases have an influence on fortune telling. Now, I don't know what an eclipse would do as an effect, but I'm going to ignore the eclipse part of things.

My reasoning, is well...the spell itself. We learn that Belos learned it from the Collector. Which I'm taking as its a Archivist spell not a Titan/Isle/Witches spell. We know that the Titans spell/roar can negate Archivist abilities (all or some), but I have a hunch that Archivist can cancel out Titans too (some spells). I think a lot of their (Titans and Archivist) abilities and spells just cancel eachother out and they are pretty much at a standstill if there's no outside help. I mean, the Draining spell had no issues being cast nor The Collector changing the landscape and doing whatever they pleased. So perhaps the draining spell can doing something similar to an EMP that kills off any foreseeing once it hits that timeline.

The other reason, and the reason I'm leaning heavily one, is the Collector themselves. The kid is a child of the stars, and quite literally a celestial body. If fortune telling is heavily rely on celestial bodies and phases, then I think a living breathing, wild card of a celestial body just created a huge static on future readings for the Day of Unity and following until they left and taking his influences with them.

If some powerful skilled oracles do manage to see anything and try to warn people, I think they be treated as human realm crazy doomsday sayers. The ones that hold signs of "the end is near!". "A new god will descend on us and transform our land and way of life as we know it to something different!" Oracles who did this, were considered crazy and not taken seriously before they Belos had them removed. So if an oracle do manage they may just stay quiet as to not seem crazy and taken out of the picture.

However I believe for most, theres a "celestial interference" -Static (The collector emerging) that keeps them from foreseeing.

I find Odalia in cahoots with Belos so odd. Why would he include her? It been mention that Odalia foresaw everything and Belos promise her everything she wanted from ruining it. Which seem even more strange to me. If Belos was afraid his plan he been working on for centuries be ruined by an oracle with a blabbermouth...he would just make that little problem disappear like all the other oracles.

I do think Belos could use Odalia favor for the products, So it is a possibly she just saw the future and was like, hey lets me make a deal with this guy that wants us all dead, but hey, he let me and my family live because I'm not opposing him. Odalia is vicious and cruel and cunning. She do whatever it takes for her and her family to survive and Belos might see that. I personally don't headcanon it, because not even the Golden Guard, which would be the closest person for Belos to confine in beside The Collector who already knows about everything, knew his true intentions. So to a Belos be like "Oh. okay, to Odalia seem like a stretch. The whole Odalia knowing and Belos knowing she knows or straight telling her is just a weird piece of information. But it also not to far off from my own head canon that i'm about to mention again below.

So the only thing I can work make Odalia work with Belos is mention on my previous post. She intuitive and with the ever increasing large supply of abomtrons figured it out. Belos wanted/need the abomtrons have a way to entrap the witched at the head during the spell to work properly. (cue copy and paste)

So Belos manipulated Odalia. He good at telling people what they want to hear. I'm pretty sure he told Odalia point blank, a lot of witches will die during the Day of Unity but only the worthy and the faithful to the Titan will survive. It's the Titan will. You don't want to go against his will do you?" Essentially trapping her to keep the secret. It worked. She was terrified She has to stay silent, if she spoke of it, she unworth and unfaithful which would mark her for death. But Belos still can't chance her if she risk being brave by telling people that would start an uprising. So he promise her all something she always desired if she stay quiet. Higher status. What higher than being royalty of the new world of the faithful and worthy?

These are all just my headcanons, that others might find interesting?

Odalia, and other oracles may have been able to see the future for the Day of Unity. Who knows. I do not think that's the case. I think there would been a larger or more groups of rebel forces for example, or doom sayers. Hopefully, I didn't ramble to much and it was coherent as I'm insanely tired and heading to bed now.

Please do a shoutout if you doing a fic or something with my headcanon, as I am using these headcanons in my own fic but haven't gotten to that chapter yet.

[beardedmrbean]

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and the University of Southern California's school of social work have taken steps to ban the word "field" on official documents, citing racist implications.

In a Monday memo, the University of Southern California's Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work informed students, faculty, and staff that it would no longer use the word "field" or "field work" from its curriculum and would now use the term "practicum" instead because the word "field" was linked to slavery.

SIX TEXAS MEDICAL SCHOOLS HIT WITH LAWSUIT FOR ANTI-WHITE AND ANTI-ASIAN ADMISSIONS

“This change supports anti-racist social work practice by replacing language that would be considered anti-Black or anti-immigrant in favor of inclusive language,” the letter said. “Language can be powerful, and phrases such as ‘going into the field’ or ‘field work’ may have connotations for descendants of slavery and immigrant workers that are not benign.”

In a statement to the Washington Examiner, Cherise Trump, the executive director of the free speech organization Speech First, blasted the university's policing of language, noting that "the absurdity of 'approved speech' coming from our universities often stops people from understanding the significance of just how bad it has actually become for students on these campuses."

Trump, who is not related to the former president, added: "Administrators are employing despotic tactics not only to suppress students’ voices, but to also teach students that because anything can be 'offensive,' students should let universities be the arbiter of what is right and wrong. It is imperative that these desires to censor and compel speech on campuses are taken seriously. Board members, faculty, state, and federal lawmakers need to act when they see their universities putting speech codes in place, no matter how ridiculous."

The censorship of the word "field" was not limited to USC. A similar story unfolded in Michigan, where officials at the state's Department of Health and Human Services issued a memorandum on Jan. 4, which said the department would no longer use the terms "field work" or "field worker" due to its supposed racial connotation," the Washington Free Beacon reported.

"Recently, staff and stakeholders have raised concerns about the use of the term 'field worker' and its implications for descendants of enslaved Black and Brown individuals," the memo says. "While the widespread use of this term is not intended to be harmful, we cannot ignore the impact its use has on our employees."

The department said staff should use the terms "community/local office" and "community/local staff."

"This action is a small step towards creating a culture that values the contributions and voice of all employees," the memo read.

[fanworldbuildingfun]

Today, I have a rough outline for a personal headcanon for Isu

(Mostly made for an AU brainchild that shan’t probably be written)

The root of it stems from three things: Isu genetic memory, the Yggdrasil of Valhalla, and Sages

In essence, I hypothesize the following: The Isu we are familiar things are one of the latest generations to be present an earth, and they have had their own predecessors. Logical, right? Long-lived or not, they had to come from somewhere. Now this is where I would be a little more contentious: I propose that those predecessors did not have as an… Organized genetic memory / knowledge as latter Isu did. The predisposition was there, but it had to be shaped into something better, before it takes a form we are more familiar with

Enter the Ennead. I’m going to go with Egyptian deities (and please, do pardon me if I misrepresent things about them: this is an outline for the idea, and needs further research) – for the reason that, to this point, we know Ancient Egyptian religion as one of the most concerned with afterlife

They were the group of Isu that have first ventured into modification of their genome – and its potential to extend a person’s life beyond the capacity of their bodies. The Isu Atum was the beginning of the research; his “children” Shu and Tefnut, the first viable results of research. Their capacity for genetic memory was altered from the original Isu-standard and it is with them that it begins to resemble what we later know as “Knowledge”

Mind, Shu and Tefnut are not necessarily made of just Atum’s genome; I imagine this kind of research would involve far more than one head Isu, and thus there would be plenty of volunteers to provide genetic material for the experiment. Still, as they would have been ‘decanted’ close to each other, they ended up considered as sort-of ‘siblings’

Shu and Tefnut, in turn, driven by the inherited desire to see the culmination of idea through, continue Atum’s work in genetics. And they do: with the inherited knowledge of Atum, they only had to build on what his team already discovered

And thus we come to the second generation of the experiment, and the main heroes of our drama: Osiris, Isis, Set and Nephthys

Their Knowledge, is near identical to what Isu following them have. They become the staple template for “mass update”, so to say, of the people

Which… Leaves abovementioned four to pursue other venues of study

This is when we hit the point that leaves them remembered so heavily associated with afterlife

Osiris took up creation of artificial intelligence and virtual realities

Isis and Nephthys continued research into genetic memories, albeit with slightly contrasting approaches

Set, given the seriousness of the study his “siblings” were conducting, worked with protections – from virtual to physical

The issue started when Nephthys’ research hit upon a previously-undiscovered venue of the research: a potential to preserve a beings’ mind to be passed on through their descendants. A perfect preservation of the mind, to be given an opportunity to live again

At this point her and Isis’ work split paths, as Isis’ work strays closer to working with the living minds, rather than those of deceased. However, it also means that her and Osiris’ works started to cross more and more – if for no other reason than the inability to create such an “imprint” without assistance of technology

This is where Osiris’ work comes into play. His virtual environments become a befitting options to “preserve” the imprint of the mind before it can be converted into a “genetic” version of itself

When they finally manage a working system together, it becomes something of a sensation

An ability to live on? Made as simple as insuring one has a child, wearing a mask that would collect an imprint of one’s mind just before passing, and then transferring it to one’s bloodline, to reawaken within a generation or two?

Naturally, people want it

Naturally, it goes wrong when the wrong people grow desperate enough to see the screening process as too zealous, too time consuming

And as a result, Osiris, who is a much more public figure than his ‘siblings’, becomes a casualty of their attempt to get access to the new technology. When it doesn’t go according to the plans, it turns as gruesome as original myth goes

From here, we are more familiar with what goes on: as Osiris was still relatively young and wasn’t looking at prospective death, he had left behind no imprint. Isis, distraught at her spouses’ death, restores his body and uses Ankh to attempt to restore Osiris to life – at least long enough to collect his imprint, if nothing else. But it’s not perfect – could never be perfect, that is why Osiris and Nephthys were developing their method.

And so, the imprinting fails

Isis is left with only her child to remind her of her spouse

Nephthys, hit by extreme case of survivor’s guilt, and horrified at what her sister attempted, decides that this technology should not remain – no matter how good it was. So she starts working to sabotage it. Disconnecting and repurposing the banks that carried fresh imprints. Sabotaging the tech that was meant to pass the imprint on unto the Isu’s descendants

And Set? Loyal, protective Set who spent most of his life working to protect his ‘sibling’s’ work? Caves in when Nephthys requests his help with physically destroying the tech that has, by now, spread throughout Earth

Which earns him his ‘evil’ reputation in history

****

Okay, so this is about as far as I got with the outline. Honorary mention for pieces I want to add but did not decide how to fit in:

For those Isu who have already undergone the procedure, some kind of sabotage is done, so they are incapable of ‘reawakening”

Nephthys somehow passes her imprint on, in attempt to prevent the knowledge from being recovered

Set is killed at some point, and does not manage to finish the removal of all the tech; remains include the proto-model installed in region of what is known as Scandinavia

Yes, I am speaking about something that is later developed into Yggdrasil of Valhalla

Yggdrasil, Juno’s living-to-AI work, and Sages are an imperfect replica of what Ennead developed

No one managed to fully replicate the destroyed work of Ennead

Ennead-Sages didn’t take over/integrate with host personality, they WERE that personality from get go

[ausetkmt]

The Spectator: The fact that collapses the case for slavery reparations

The case for slavery reparations seems to be growing louder every day. This week, indigenous representatives from 12 Commonwealth countries called on King Charles to begin the process of paying reparations. The King has personally expressed sorrow for the suffering of slaves and Buckingham Palace has said that it is taking the issue of reparations ‘profoundly seriously’. Earlier this year, a former BBC journalist committed to sending £100,000 in aid to the Caribbean to atone for her own family’s historical links to the slave trade.  

The voluntary role that many Africans played in the transatlantic slave trade is ignored

The central thesis of slavery reparations is that white majority countries owe money to ethnic minorities as their ancestors may have enslaved others or benefited from a slave-system economy. 

There is a problem with this though: ultimately, the great evil of slavery was practised by all inhabited continents and all races. And there will be almost no one alive today in the world who doesn’t have an ancestral link to the slave trade. This fact collapses the modern-day reparations argument.  

Take the Afro-Omani slave trader Tippu Tip, who in 1895 was reported to have seven plantations and own 10,000 slaves. He was one of the largest slavers in all of East Africa.  

Most popular

The sad truth about Phillip Schofield

Long before the transatlantic slave trade began, slavery was commonplace in many parts of the globe. As Al-Tabari, the Muslim scholar, showed in the mid-ninth century, the Basra port at al-Ahwaz alone had about 15,000 enslaved workers. Even in New Zealand, Maori chiefs enslaved prisoners of war – occasionally going as far as eating them in tribal feasts. The further you go back in history the longer the list of slavers grows, including everyone from the Ancient Egyptians to the Shang dynasty in China.  

Given that many of the nations now calling for reparations also enslaved and sold others, the reparations argument when brought to its logical conclusion would have to demand that descendants of African slavers owe reparations to those who may have been the victims of slavery.  

This argument could even be applied to the white descendants of the victims of the Barbary slave trade. Though undoubtedly far smaller than the transatlantic slave trade, the Barbary trade still saw over one million Europeans captured by North African pirates in slave raids between the 16th and 18th centuries.  

So why is this devastating blow to the reparations argument often ignored? Politically, it seems that although we generally accept that slavery was universal in ancient history, we often pretend that only European powers practised slavery from the 16th century onwards, when this is clearly not the case. Meanwhile, the voluntary role that many Africans played in the transatlantic slave trade is also ignored.  

Generally the European powers, with the exception of Portugal, lacked the resources to delve deep into the African continent for slaves. They were instead met at the coast by willing traders looking to make a profit by selling their fellow man. Though it is undoubtedly true that the rise of the transatlantic trade encouraged the growth of African slavers, this does not excuse those who took part in the trade.  

Nor did slavery end in Africa when European colonialists were removed from the continent. When the Portuguese were forced off the East African Coast in 1699 by the Imam of the Omani Empire, he himself owned about 1,700 slaves.  

The same is true for colonies outside Africa. In the early 1820s, Brazil broke away from the Portuguese Empire. Despite its later anti-slavery treaties with the UK, Brazil would continue importing about 750,000 slaves between 1831-1850. In 1844 it refused to renew the Anglo-Brazilian anti-slave trade agreement. Brazil’s slave trade only effectively stopped after 1850 when the UK formed a naval blockade in its coastal waters. 

During the age of abolition led by Britain, the King of Dahomey (a West African Kingdom in modern day Benin) reportedly protested to a British officer that:  

‘The slave trade has been the ruling principle of my people. It is the source of their glory and wealth. Their songs celebrate their victories and the mother lulls the child to sleep with notes of triumph over an enemy reduced to slavery.’ 

Some independent African nations and empires continued to allow slavery well after abolitionism in Europe. This was especially true in the eastern side of Africa where it was more difficult for the British to influence local politics and for the Royal Navy to enforce abolition.  

From the 1860s onwards, Bemba chiefs in North-Eastern Zambia traded ivory and slaves for guns. As the supply of elephants for ivory depleted, the chiefs moved to selling even more slaves. In Barotseland, the monarch Lewanika was considered king of the Barotses, a South African ethnic group. From the beginning of his reign in 1878 until the region became a British protectorate, oral sources claim that up to a third of his subjects were slaves.  

There is no question that the Euro-American trade in slaves – which began with Portugal and later included other colonial powers like France and Britain – was huge in size. This evil should never be forgotten.  

But neither should we forget that people from all parts of the world, races and religions took part in what was one of the most horrid systems in human history.  

In many parts of the world today, slavery is still rife. Rather than trying to create division by blaming people for the sins of their ancestors, we should instead come together to try and solve the problems we face today. 

[thepastisalreadywritten]

SAINT OF THE DAY (December 10)

St. Eulalia descended from one of the most prominent families in Spain in 290 AD.

She was educated in the Christian religion and was taught the sentiments of perfect piety. From her infancy, she distinguished herself by an admirable sweetness of temper, modesty and devotion.

She showed a great love of the holy state of virginity. By her seriousness and her contempt of dress, ornaments diversions and worldly company, she gave early signs of her sincere desire to lead a heavenly life on earth.

Her heart was raised above the world before she was thought capable of knowing it so that its amusements, which usually fill the minds of youth, had no charms for her. She continued to grow in virtue every day of her life.

Legends say that she was just twelve years old when the bloody edicts of the Emporer Diocletian were issued in 304, by which it was ordered that all persons, without exception of age, sex, or profession, should be compelled to offer sacrifice to the gods of the empire.

Eulalia, although young, took the publication of this order as a sign of battle, but her mother, observing her impatient ardor for martyrdom, carried her into the country.

However, the young saint quickly found a way to make her escape by night, and after much fatigue, arrived at Merida before daybreak.

That same morning, as soon as the court convened, she presented herself before the cruel judge, whose name was Dacian, and reproached him with impiety in attempting to destroy souls by compelling them to renounce the only true God.

The governor then commanded her to be seized. First, employing caresses, Dacian presented to her the advantages that her birth, youth and fortune gave her in the world, and the grief that her disobedience would bring to her parents. 

Seeing that these temptations had no effect, he began to threaten her, placing the most cruel instruments of torture before her eyes, saying to her:

"All this you shall escape if you will but touch a little salt and frankincense with the tip of your finger."

Provoked at these seducing flatteries, she threw down the idol, trampled upon the cake, which was laid for the sacrifice and spat at the judge -- an action only to be excused by her youth and inattention under the influence of a warm zeal and fear of the snares laid before her. 

Upon the judge's order, two executioners began to tear her tender sides with iron hooks so as to leave the very bones bare. While this was happening, she called the strokes the trophies of Christ.

Next, lighted torches were applied to her breasts and sides: under which torment, instead of groans, nothing was heard from her mouth but thanksgivings.

The fire at length catching her hair, surrounded her head and face, and the saint was stifled by the smoke and flame.

History says that a white dove seemed to come out of her mouth and to wing its way upward when the holy martyr expired: at which prodigy the executioners were so much terrified that they fled and left the body.

Her relics are kept with great veneration at Oviedo, where she is honored as patroness. The Roman Martyrology mentions her name on December 10.