#*thinks about the eight nation alliance*

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Holy CRAP the UN Cybercrime Treaty is a nightmare

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If there's one thing I learned from all my years as an NGO delegate to UN specialized agencies, it's that UN treaties are dangerous, liable to capture by unholy alliances of authoritarian states and rapacious global capitalists.

Most of my UN work was on copyright and "paracopyright," and my track record was 2:0; I helped kill a terrible treaty (the WIPO Broadcast Treaty) and helped pass a great one (the Marrakesh Treaty on the rights of people with disabilities to access copyrighted works):

https://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/marrakesh/

It's been many years since I had to shave and stuff myself into a suit and tie and go to Geneva, and I don't miss it – and thankfully, I have colleagues who do that work, better than I ever did. Yesterday, I heard from one such EFF colleague, Katitza Rodriguez, about the Cybercrime Treaty, which is about to pass, and which is, to put it mildly, terrifying:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/07/un-cybercrime-draft-convention-dangerously-expands-state-surveillance-powers

Look, cybercrime is a real thing, from pig butchering to ransomware, and there's real, global harms that can be attributed to it. Cybercrime is transnational, making it hard for cops in any one jurisdiction to handle it. So there's a reason to think about formal international standards for fighting cybercrime.

But that's not what's in the Cybercrime Treaty.

Here's a quick sketch of the significant defects in the Cybercrime Treaty.

The treaty has an extremely loose definition of cybercrime, and that looseness is deliberate. In authoritarian states like China and Russia (whose delegations are the driving force behind this treaty), "cybercrime" has come to mean "anything the government disfavors, if you do it with a computer." "Cybercrime" can mean online criticism of the government, or professions of religious belief, or material supporting LGBTQ rights.

Nations that sign up to the Cybercrime Treaty will be obliged to help other nations fight "cybercrime" – however those nations define it. They'll be required to provide surveillance data – for example, by forcing online services within their borders to cough up their users' private data, or even to pressure employees to install back-doors in their systems for ongoing monitoring.

These obligations to aid in surveillance are mandatory, but much of the Cybercrime Treaty is optional. What's optional? The human rights safeguards. Member states "should" or "may" create standards for legality, necessity, proportionality, non-discrimination, and legitimate purpose. But even if they do, the treaty can oblige them to assist in surveillance orders that originate with other states that decided not to create these standards.

When that happens, the citizens of the affected states may never find out about it. There are eight articles in the treaty that establish obligations for indefinite secrecy regarding surveillance undertaken on behalf of other signatories. That means that your government may be asked to spy on you and the people you love, they may order employees of tech companies to backdoor your account and devices, and that fact will remain secret forever. Forget challenging these sneak-and-peek orders in court – you won't even know about them:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/06/un-cybercrime-draft-convention-blank-check-unchecked-surveillance-abuses

Now here's the kicker: while this treaty creates broad powers to fight things governments dislike, simply by branding them "cybercrime," it actually undermines the fight against cybercrime itself. Most cybercrime involves exploiting security defects in devices and services – think of ransomware attacks – and the Cybercrime Treaty endangers the security researchers who point out these defects, creating grave criminal liability for the people we rely on to warn us when the tech vendors we rely upon have put us at risk.

This is the granddaddy of tech free speech fights. Since the paper tape days, researchers who discovered defects in critical systems have been intimidated, threatened, sued and even imprisoned for blowing the whistle. Tech giants insist that they should have a veto over who can publish true facts about the defects in their products, and dress up this demand as concern over security. "If you tell bad guys about the mistakes we made, they will exploit those bugs and harm our users. You should tell us about those bugs, sure, but only we can decide when it's the right time for our users and customers to find out about them."

When it comes to warnings about the defects in their own products, corporations have an irreconcilable conflict of interest. Time and again, we've seen corporations rationalize their way into suppressing or ignoring bug reports. Sometimes, they simply delay the warning until they've concluded a merger or secured a board vote on executive compensation.

Sometimes, they decide that a bug is really a feature – like when Facebook decided not to do anything about the fact that anyone could enumerate the full membership of any Facebook group (including, for example, members of a support group for people with cancer). This group enumeration bug was actually a part of the company's advertising targeting system, so they decided to let it stand, rather than re-engineer their surveillance advertising business.

The idea that users are safer when bugs are kept secret is called "security through obscurity" and no one believes in it – except corporate executives. As Bruce Schneier says, "Anyone can design a system that is so secure that they themselves can't break it. That doesn't mean it's secure – it just means that it's secure against people stupider than the system's designer":

The history of massive, brutal cybersecurity breaches is an unbroken string of heartbreakingly naive confidence in security through obscurity:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/05/battery-vampire/#drained

But despite this, the idea that some bugs should be kept secret and allowed to fester has powerful champions: a public-private partnership of corporate execs, government spy agencies and cyber-arms dealers. Agencies like the NSA and CIA have huge teams toiling away to discover defects in widely used products. These defects put the populations of their home countries in grave danger, but rather than reporting them, the spy agencies hoard these defects.

The spy agencies have an official doctrine defending this reckless practice: they call it "NOBUS," which stands for "No One But Us." As in: "No one but us is smart enough to find these bugs, so we can keep them secret and use them attack our adversaries, without worrying about those adversaries using them to attack the people we are sworn to protect."

NOBUS is empirically wrong. In the 2010s, we saw a string of leaked NSA and CIA cyberweapons. One of these, "Eternalblue" was incorporated into off-the-shelf ransomware, leading to the ransomware epidemic that rages even today. You can thank the NSA's decision to hoard – rather than disclose and patch – the Eternalblue exploit for the ransoming of cities like Baltimore, hospitals up and down the country, and an oil pipeline:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EternalBlue

The leak of these cyberweapons didn't just provide raw material for the world's cybercriminals, it also provided data for researchers. A study of CIA and NSA NOBUS defects found that there was a one-in-five chance of a bug that had been hoarded by a spy agency being independently discovered by a criminal, weaponized, and released into the wild.

Not every government has the wherewithal to staff its own defect-mining operation, but that's where the private sector steps in. Cyber-arms dealers like the NSO Group find or buy security defects in widely used products and services and turn them into products – military-grade cyberweapons that are used to attack human rights groups, opposition figures, and journalists:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/24/breaking-the-news/#kingdom

A good Cybercrime Treaty would recognize the perverse incentives that create the coalition to keep us from knowing which products we can trust and which ones we should avoid. It would shut down companies like the NSO Group, ban spy agencies from hoarding defects, and establish an absolute defense for security researchers who reveal true facts about defects.

Instead, the Cybercrime Treaty creates new obligations on signatories to help other countries' cops and courts silence and punish security researchers who make these true disclosures, ensuring that spies and criminals will know which products aren't safe to use, but we won't (until it's too late):

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/06/if-not-amended-states-must-reject-flawed-draft-un-cybercrime-convention

A Cybercrime Treaty is a good idea, and even this Cybercrime Treaty could be salvaged. The member-states have it in their power to accept proposed revisions that would protect human rights and security researchers, narrow the definition of "cybercrime," and mandate transparency. They could establish member states' powers to refuse illegitimate requests from other countries:

https://www.eff.org/press/releases/media-briefing-eff-partners-warn-un-member-states-are-poised-approve-dangerou

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/23/expanded-spying-powers/#in-russia-crime-cybers-you

Image: EFF https://www.eff.org/files/banner_library/cybercrime-2024-2b.jpg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/

[stellar-constellations]

An Alliance (Part 9)

        

��       Fem! Spy! (Y/N) x Yuri Briar

        Parts: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, current part, ten (to be continued when Spy x Family has more Yuri content!)

        (Y/N) is given her own backstory that is important for the story!

        The setting for this story is based off West and East Germany's (because Spy x Family is heavily based off Germany in the 1940-1950) laws (or at least replicated to the best of my abilities since it's unknown what time period Spy x Family is exactly in, we'll go with 1950 for the sake of this story). 

        Historically-accurate women misogyny and mistreatment! Only small comments and historically-accurate laws (replicated to the best of my ability). 

        The story, plot, and settings might not match up to the Spy x Family manga as it's not completed and the manga is still being crafted.

        This series contains spoilers for the manga and anime!

        A couple weeks passed by and Yuri decided he wanted to visit Yor. Yuri's wound had healed up a little so I allowed it (by allowed, I mean I tried to restrain him and gave up since he was too strong and determined to see Yor).

        During those months I gathered some intel from the National Unity Party that I didn't know about until talking with Twilight about little details of his current mission (or doing a little bit of hacking into Eden Academy's files). I learned that WISE's top suspect is Donovan Desmond has two children I wasn't aware of, Damien and Demetrius Desmond, along with a wife, Melinda Desmond. A little trip to City Hall and snooping through some files and database there, I found out what they look like along with their private information such as their birthday and where they work.

        I wrote down everything I saw (even stuff I figured didn't matter) and placed it into a big white envelope with a false train logo imprinted on it, handing it to Franky when I saw him at the train station on the way back. How I did this without Yuri knowing? I got him drunk and made sure he was sleeping when I left. 

        But Vixen—the West Spy—doesn't matter right now. (Y/N)—Yuri Briar's wife and secret SSS agent—does.

        Yuri happily skipped to the Forger's apartment, barging in quite rudely as I trailed behind him, used to this routine by now.

        "Yay, my sweet sister! I came by for an early morning visit!" Yuri shouted.

        "I'm not satisfied with our life together!" Yor shouted at Twilight.

        Yuri's face morphed to horror (as did mine and Twilight's).

        Twilight and Yor are having relationship problems?! I thought to myself. This is really bad! Twilight's goal is to maintain a family to get closer to Donovan Desmond. If this is ruined, WISE will have to start all over again, and who knows how long it'd be until Donovan does something drastic that breaks this very thin ice Westalis and Ostania is on! We'll have another physical war!

        "LOID FORGER, YOU BASTARD! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY SISTER?!" Yuri screamed, pointing an accusatory finger at Twilight. 

        "Let's not get hasty! We haven't heard both sides of the story!" I smiled nervously, grabbing his shoulder.

        "Yuri? Didn't you get hit by a truck and hurt your shoulder not a little while ago? You should be resting!" Yor spoke, concerned.

        "That healed up right when I talked to you on the phone! More importantly..." Yuri spoke dully, then his tone changed as he got serious. "I warned you, Loid Forger, that if you ever made my sister cry, I would have you exe– er... I would be extremely upset." 

        "Yuri, no! It isn't like that!" Yor claimed.

        It's not?

        "So then what is it like, Yor?" Yuri questioned.

        "Um..." Yor stumbled, thinking.

        "Tell me so I can properly chastise this ne-er-do-well!" Yuri spoke, then looked as if an idea struck him. "If I can keep her angry at him, she'll finally dump him like I've wanted all along." Yuri muttered.

        "Um... you're thinking out loud." Me and Twilight spoke.

        "All right, Yor. Let's get you out of this marriage. We'll go file the divorce papers right now!" Yuri exclaimed.

        "Wait a second, Yuri! I'm sure this can be justified! Let's not get into something so big like that!" I spoke, worried for the future of Ostania and Westalis.

        "We're not getting divorced!" Yor claimed.

        "Yor, have you been holding on to this grievance all along...?" Twilight questioned, a million thoughts going through his calm blue eyes.

        "No, just since yesterday." Yor smiled ditzyily, causing Twilight to go wide-eyed.

        "WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY SISTER YESTERDAY?!" Yuri shouting, pointing his finger at Twilight again.

        "He didn't do anything!" Yor exclaimed.

        THEN WHAT ARE YOU MAD AT HIM FOR?! I thought to myself, yet held my inner peace as I watched the scene play out.

        "Apologize. I don't know what you did, but you're going to apologize to my sister." Yuri spoke, his tone intimidating me despite me not being at the end of his words.

        "I am so deeply sorry, Yor. I never–" Twilight started, but was cut off by Yor.

        "Loid, no! An apology from you is the last thing I want!" Yor claimed, causing Twilight to have a mortified expression on his face as I saw the Ostanian military clean their guns, ready for their command to infiltrate and kill.

        "HOW DARE YOU ATTEMPT TO APOLOGIZE YOUR WAY OUT OF THIS, YOU FLIPPANT LOUSE!" Yuri screamed, still pointing his finger at Twilight.

        "I understand, Yor. You want me to show contriction through my actions. And I will! I swear to you, I won't ever make you suffer this way again!" Twilight spoke.

        "TH-THAT'S EXACTLY THE PROBLEM!" Yor shouted.

        "HUH?!" Twilight and I exclaimed.

        I can hear the marching of Ostania's army. I can smell ashes from fire and gunpowder. 

        "Yuri, please, could you just stay out of this? This is a martial issue between me and my husband!" Yor scolded, directing her anger towards Yuri.

        "M-martial?!" Yuri exclaimed, a shocked and dejected expression on his face.

        Yuri depressingly made his way to the couch and flopped down, deflating like a ballon as he laid on the couch.

        Yor said this is a martial issue between her and Twilight, so I shouldn't get in the way too, I thought as I sat down next to the sulking Yuri. 

        The phone starting to ring and Yor quickly ran to go answer it.

        "Oh. I'll get it." Yor spoke. "Hello, this is Mrs. Forger." She answered, then redirected her attention to Twilight. "Loid, it's for you. It's from the hospital." 

        "Yes, hello?" Twilight spoke, answering the phone.

        Hospital? Oh, right! Twilight's cover job is a physiatrist for this mission!

        "I'm sorry. I've been called in for an emergency." Twilight stated, hanging up the phone.        

        "Oh dear, that sounds serious." Yor spoke, before it was like a switch was flipped in her as she started to shout. "EVEN ON YOUR DAYS OFF, YOU ABANDON YOUR FAMILY FOR WORK! HOW COULD YOU?! HOW COULD I EVER BE SATISFIED WITH THE WAY YOU ALWAYS PUT YOUR PATIENT'S FIRST?!" 

        "I'm sorry, Yor. We'll talk about this when I get back." Twilight stated calmly, sparing me a glance before walking out. "I really am sorry!" he exclaimed before walking out and shutting the door.

        Yor had a prideful smirk on her face as she looked at me and Yuri (Yuri seemed like he had a skeptical look on his face as he looked at the door Twilight just left).

        "Yor, I really don't mean to pry into your martial problems, but I really believe you need to think about this." I sighed.

        "Huh? But having gripes is a normal thing for marriages, right?" Yor questioned.

        "Of course, but you should understand his side too. You're claiming he spends too much time at work, correct?" I questioned, making sure I got the facts straight.

        "Yes, that is a normal gripe wives have against their husbands, right?" Yor spoke, genuinely seeming like she needed a gripe to appear normal.

        What's she need a gripe to appear normal for anyways? I thought to myself.

        "I hate to give unsolicited advice, but Loid works to provide for your family. I understand that you grieve the lack of time he spends with you and your daughter, but he's a physiatrist. He helps aid people's mental health to prevent something drastic happening. Life and death doesn't wait, that's just apart of this job. However, I do understand you. I believe it's a good idea to have a family outing soon, that way you're able to spend time with Loid and Anya!" I suggested. "That's just my idea though." 

        "I suppose, I could bring it up with Loid..." Yor mumbled.

        "I think it'd be fun for everyone! And don't worry, it's perfectly normal for couples to fight; I mean, me and Yuri fight quite regularly." I reassured. 

        "Yuri? You have gripes with (Y/N)?" Yor questioned, surprised.

        "Huh, yeah. Whatever you say, sis." Yuri spoke, his eyes not moving from the door.

        "Yes! Like this one right now." I smiled. "Yuri! You need to stop adding fuel to the fire! Yor was right! When a couple is arguing with each other, keep out of it! You could've actually did some serious damage to their relationship by bringing up divorce! We didn't even know what started the fight!" I shouted, grabbing Yuri by his shirt and forcing him to look me in the eyes and away from the door.

        "O-okay..." Yuri mumbled. "But something's fishy!" he spoke, redirecting his gaze to the door.

        "What?!" Yor exclaimed, seemingly worried.

        "The way he ran off in such a hurry just now... He's cheating on you, Yor." Yuri accused.

        "WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST TELL YOU ABOUT ADDING FUEL TO THE FIRE?!" I screamed, resisting the urge to uppercut him.         

        "What?!" Yor gasped.

        "Let's go follow him." Yuri spoke.

        "W-we can't do that!" Yor tried to reason.

        "I agree! We can't do that, Yuri! Have you no shame?!" I exclaimed.

        He's acting like he's following one of the people suspected of espionage at our job (or my SSS gig)!      

        "You aren't worried at all, Yor? About your so-called husband cheating?" Yuri questioned, turning to look at Yor.        

         "Well... maybe just a little..." Yor muttered.

        I was about to interject, say some wistful words about "how relationships should have trust" before remembering when I bickered with Yuri about if he'd fall in love with someone else and cheat before we agreed to get officially married.

        I felt like I was about to throw up, I don't want to be a hypocrite! But I also don't want there to be another physical war between Ostania and Westalis! But if Yuri finds out that Twilight is a spy and he gets caught, then Twilight's mission to keep peace between Ostania and Westalis will be screwed!

        "You need to be careful that he doesn't notice you, Yor." Yuri instructed. "Stay close, but not too close. You need room in case the target suddenly stops. You can't stop yourself, or you'll get spotted."

        "You sure know a lot about this, Yuri." Yor commented.

        "Uh... they just said that on some cartoon I watched with chihuahua girl the other day..." Yuri claimed.

        Dummy, we weren't even here! You were healing up from your wound, remember? I thought to myself.          

         I heard some noise from an alley and peaked over, seeing our lieutenant!

        What does he want? I thought to myself as Yuri noticed.

        "I-I-I-I-I'm sorry, Yor! I just remembered I had some paperwork that I forgot to file yesterday!" Yuri exclaimed. "Stay with Yor." Yuri whispered into my ear.

        "Huh?" Yor gasped.

        "I have to run back to the ministry! You go expose Loi-Loi's infidelity by yourself, okay?!" Yuri spoke. "I'm really sorry!" he shouted as he ran from us.

        "Hey, wait a minute! Yuri!" Yor shouted.

        Shouting? Thanks for giving us away... I thought to myself, then redirected my thoughts to the serious matters. Two emergency summons today? There's something going on between WISE and the SSS today. I can't go to the SSS since Yuri ordered me not to, but I should be able to go to WISE? I'll follow Twilight.

        Me and Yor kept following him as he walked into the hospital, allowing Yor to see for herself that she's actually going to "work." 

        "See, Yor? You have nothing to worry about. When has Loid ever given you a reason to doubt him?" I smiled. 

        "You're right. This was childish..." Yor sighed. "We can go home and make some tea." Yor suggested, smiling at me.

        "I would love to, but I'm on the lookout for an anniversary present for Yuri." I smiled sheepishly. "This is the only time that he's not with me, so I need to hurry before I have to get to work myself later!"

        "Ah, I understand! Do you need any help?" Yor questioned.

        "No thanks, I want to give him something straight from my heart." I spoke. "Have a good day, Yor! Tell Anya I said hi!" I spoke, jogging off to the streets away from the hospital.

        I ducked into an alleyway and waited for Yor to leave the hospital, making sure her back was turned from me before running back to the hospital. I ran into the lobby and walked through the halls, finding a nurse. 

        "Excuse me, I have an appointment for Dr. Forger, but I got lost and I don't know where his office his." I smiled.

        "Ah, no problem! This hospital is pretty big. I'll guide you, follow me." The nurse spoke.

        I followed the nurse to an office as she knocked on the door.

        "Come in." I heard Twilight's voice as we opened the door.

        "(Y-) Mrs. Briar?" Twilight spoke, looking at me as a white-haired woman stood next to him.

        I recognized her as Nightfall. She's very pretty, but she's very scary to me, so I stay clear from her. 

        "Mrs. Briar has an appointment with you, Dr." The nurse stated.

        "Thank you. Come on in, Mrs. Briar." Twilight spoke. 

        I nodded, walking in and closing the door behind him.

        Bugged? I morsed through my blinks.

        Safe space. Twilight morsed with his own eyes.

        "You're Nightfall, correct?" I spoke in a soft voice just in case the walls were thin as I held out a hand.

        "You know her?" Nightfall questioned, eyeing my hand like it was gum on her shoe.

        "Yes, this is Vixen. She's infiltrated the SSS and is up to date with information from them. I heard from the Handler you're back on the force." Twilight informed. "What brings you here?"

        "The SSS." I spoke. "An emergency summon happened today with the SSS. I was informed from my husband to not attend, so I'm here." 

        "You came here without orders from the Handler?" Twilight questioned, his eyebrows raised in surprise.

        "I need information from WISE and the SSS so I can determine accurate and inaccurate information to feed the Handler." I explained.

        "You're married to an SSS agent?" Nightfall spoke, a glare on her face.

        "Just for this mission." I smiled.

        "There's no time to send the Handler a message. We'd bring you, but your husband will identify you immediately." Twilight spoke.

        "There must be something I can do. I'm still apart of WISE, after all." I huffed.

        "Fine. Let's make haste, the SSS may already be on the scene." Twilight sighed. "Nightfall, the details." 

        Nightfall gave me a glare before reluctantly speaking up.        

        "We have an extreme level 3 situation. WISE HQ in Ostania has been trying to ferret out a mole. Yesterday, they finally uncovered the culprit. However, by the time they were identified, the mole had gone underground. And right around the same time, numerous top secret documents were taken from agency files. Among them was a coded map indicating areas of operational activity by WISE agents in Ostania. And some of the information contained within that document pertains of Operation STRIX. If that were to fall into Eastern hands and be decoded... our lives would be in danger." Nightfall explained in a mouthful.

        I'm unaware of the SSS receiving new files, so it hasn't been delivered yet. I thought to myself. I haven't seen anyone at the SSS that is a spy at WISE, could it be a new recruit? I'm aware of the new woman that came aboard, she's a total rookie, but the Director really wanted her onboard. But I doubt she's the mole, it's just a gut feeling. I don't know of any new rookies other than her, so it must be someone whose been at the SSS for longer than me, but if that's the case. I might not be able to help... unless.

        "Hey, I got an idea. I'm heading to the library, take this. It's a tracker so I know where you guys are, I'll meet up with you both later." I spoke, handing Twilight a small chip that he attached to his collar without second thought. 

        "You better hurry with whatever you have to do. Nightfall, you and I will make our way to the scene." Twilight spoke.

        "Be careful!" I exclaimed, quickly opening and shutting the door as I ran down the hall.

        I followed the way the nurse guided me to the office and made it out of the hospital, running into town and to the HQ of SSS. I checked the clock and knew it was time. I clocked in and ran to find a guy who owes me a favor (by that, I mean making someone do my work).

        "Hey, Donnie! I need a favor, buddy." I spoke, patting his shoulder.

        "Oh, what's up?" he smiled.

        "Today's your anniversary, right?" I questioned.

        "Huh? Today's my anni- OH! TODAY'S MY ANNIVERSARY! NO WONDER CARMEN WAS ANGRY AT ME THIS MORNING- but that never seems to be new..." He spoke, going through many stages of shock. 

        "Listen, today's my anniversary with Yuri! I can pick you up an anniversary present too for Carmen if you put my name in your document with yours." I spoke, referring to the document he was writing as he listened to a bugged room on one of our potential suspects. "This is the only time I can go out and get the present, but I need to be at work too! Please?" I spoke.

        I need to make sure that the SSS don't know I'm working with WISE in this part of the mission. If I mess with the information they gain, the SSS will kill me! I thought to myself. 

        "Yeah. I got you. Barely doing any work anyways with this! Thanks, (Y/N)!" he beamed. 

        "No worries, man! I'll see ya soon!" I spoke, rushing out of the room.

        I carefully checked the room with our schedule, making sure that there wasn't anybody there, before I ran out of the room. I ran to a nearby shop I knew that WISE was in control of, where you make anonymous purchases for wigs, outfits, and contacts to change your appearance for missions (or, their public front, for costume parties or parades). 

        I purchased a (different hair color) wig and a different shade of (eye color) for my contacts (making sure they were appropriate for my eyesight since I decided I wouldn't wear my glasses [if you wear glasses]). I grabbed a pink t-shirt, a white ribbon, black shorts, and a pair of brown boots. I made the purchase and ran into an alley, changing clothes and hiding my old outfit behind a dumpster in the dark alley. I threw a cereal box from the dumpster onto the ground near the alley entrance so I'd find my clothes as I raced out and to the library near city hall.

        I made inside and snagged a computer, taking a seat and quickly logging into the public computer with the library's username and password written on a yellow sticky-note on the desk. I wrote a fake name on the computer's public name log, then disabled the browser from any third-party trying to watch my internet activity. 

        I hacked into the SSS database, the screen going black with green letters.

        Woah, cliche hacking. I thought to myself, before quickly pushing away that thought. 

        It took longer than I'd like to admit it, but I finally found the information the Director receives from his little mole (perhaps my hacking skills are getting rusty). Sometimes there were emails but as I long as I thought really hard enough, I would crack the words they made up and proceed with the next file. This scum has been actively giving information on WISE for at least two years now, in fact, he was originally from Ostanian Intelligence before he got in WISE solely for Ostania's purpose! Worst of all, there's no name! All of his emails and files are signed off with W.W. Who had the initials W.W. that I'm aware of?        

        Nobody, that I can think of that the top of my head, that is. But the good thing about our day and age is that the library has public files for use, so marriage certificates and criminal records are available to me. 

        I need to get to the backroom and get those files so nobody knows I retrieved them, but I need those librarians to get away from that back door.

        I noticed a group of kids nearby and walked over to them, fishing in my pocket for some money. 

        "Wanna make some money?" I questioned, changing the pitch of my voice to a high but monotone tone, that way if there's any cameras or microphones here being watched by the SSS, they wouldn't recognize me. 

        The three kids nodded excitedly.

        "I need you guys to distract that librarian, but don't tell them that! Tell them you're looking for a book that's about a zebra becoming a tooth fairy and convince them to go look for it with you, okay?" I instructed.

        "Okay!" they all agreed, rushing towards the librarian's desk and distracting the librarian as I watched from behind a bookshelf.

        The librarian seemed a little stingy to leave, but they eventually agreed after some pestering from the kids. While they were distracted with that, I ran into the backroom and looked through metal cabinet files. I made it to a large drawer with the letter W written on a piece of tape. I scanned through the folders and papers rather impatiently since I'm on a timer. 

        I found the files of civilians and searched through, looking at the faces in case they'd be familiar. It's going to be a man since me and Chloe, our new recruit, are the only females in the SSS and we're both new. The only think I'm running off on is they're a man and their initials are W.W. I found a file that made me pause, observing the face more closely.

        He had a long face with white skin and blue, droopy eyes. His hair was blond and he has thick eyebrows with a fair and tall build. I checked the name, making sure that initials matched up (they did). I checked his birthdate and figured it was reasonable since he's a double-agent. The file said he works at the Ostanian Foreign Ministry (a cover-up in case WISE agents come snooping around here, like me). I swear I've seen those eyes before, whether at WISE HQ or Ostanian Intelligence. 

        I know I have a bad memory, but I really think I just found my guy! I thought to myself, smiling.

        I know that WISE had identified the mole, but looking at these files tells me how much Ostania really knows about WISE, and I know if that coded map from Westalian Intelligence gets out, it'll definitely end up in the National Unity Party somehow, then we're all screwed!

        I placed the file back where I found it, now having information on the target myself.

        Now I can hunt this mole down myself, I thought to myself, smiling at the irony itself.

        I looked around to make sure the librarian wasn't around as I exited the backroom, getting away from the librarian's desk and waiting for the librarian to give up on their search of the zebra tooth fairy book. It didn't take too long before the librarian complained about this being a waste of time, and going back to their desk.

        "Here. Thanks for your help, and ya didn't see me." I spoke with my undercover voice, handing the kids their well-earned money and running out of the library.

        I checked the watch on my hand, turning a tiny button twice, and seeing the clock's face get swapped to a black screen with a bunch of white lines, and green and red dot. The white lines are the streets of Ostania being displayed from the satellites, the red dot is my location, and the green dot is where Twilight is. 

        I won't be able to run that far on foot, and the train would take too long (not to mention I'd have to hop multiple trains too).

        My only option is to steal a car. Well, it's for the greater good. I'll return it! I convinced myself, before finding a motorcycle on the street left unattended.

        Or... we'll be dramatic! I smiled, running up and hopping on it. 

        I grabbed the wires and retraced the steps I remember one of my WISE trainers telling me a while ago. I burnt my hand a couple times and lost the feeling in them, but I finally got it working as I heard the beautiful cat purr of the engine. 

        I checked my watch once more, looking at the location of Twilight once more and memorizing it as I fixed the white ribbon in my wig, making sure my wig was secured very tightly to my head by tying the ribbon on. I turned the gas and rode away. Judging by how far it looks on my digital map, they must be either in or nearby Shellbury, in Northwest Ostania. It'll probably take a good thirty minutes to get there—that is if I abide by traffic laws, but again, I'm on a timer and the small "peace treaty" Westalis and Ostania is in danger, so we're going fast enough that it'll make lightning look slow.

        I got there in ten minutes, internally glad of saving time as I parked the motorcycle on the side of the road, checking my watch to see Twilight wasn't too far. I made it to a fountain in some park, seeing one of SSS' captains meeting with Winston. 

        I sat down on a bench, eavesdropping into their conversation for any leverage.

        "How about you hand over those files, Wheeler. WISE seems to have gotten wind of the meet, so I don't want to drag this out." The captain spoke.

        Yes, yes. WISE agents like me, I internally thought, yet shut myself up so I can focus. 

        "Before I do... I want to verify that you're really with the State Security Service." Winston responded.

        The briefcase he's holding must be the files, I could shoot him with the gun on my waist under my shirt, but that's extremely risky. 

        "What, you think I'm really Twilight, Master of Disguise? Ha ha. Good one." The captain laughed. "Can you prove to me that you're the real Wheeler?" 

        "My green tie and yellow gemstone tiepin already have." Winston informed. 

        "Mm... hey, it's yellow." The captain spoke, looking at one of his men.

        "Got it." The lackey spoke, walking away to make a call.

        What is going on? Is that a code the SSS made I'm unaware of? Well, with my low-rank position it is possible. I'll have to find information on their secret codes later.

        "As for... Our fake Wheeler here... Is that you, Twilight?" the captain spoke.

        Twilight? I thought to myself, checking my watch. He is! No wonder why Twilight's location showed up here! I can't believe I forgot about that!

        "That really is an incredible impersonation of Wheeler. You're every bit as good as they say you are." The captain spoke, reaching into his jacket's pocket and pulling out a gun. "So, what's next now? You gonna peel off that disguise for me?" 

        I reached for my own gun, ready for combat in case Twilight needs some help as I watched Twilight wiggle his foot. Suddenly, the big water fountain next to them blew up. Someone fired at Twilight as he ran, clicking a button on his briefcase that turned the bottom of the briefcase into a gun!

        Woah! I didn't know HQ had those! A whole shoot-out took place and I decided this wasn't the place for me. If I get shot and Yuri notices, he'll know I didn't follow his instructions, and that I was possibly working with WISE!

        I ran away and ducked behind some bushes surrounded by a fence, hiding in them as I checked Twilight's location on my watch.

        He's running straight for me? 

        I peeked my head out slightly, seeing a figure running to my spot. I ducked back into the bushes so I wouldn't get caught, hearing more footsteps running towards me.

        "Yuri!" a pair of guys shouted.

        Yuri?! Yuri's here?! Crap! 

        I felt my heartbeat raise out of fear for myself and Yuri's sake. This place really seems to be dangerous, he shouldn't be here! Twilight and I are here!

        "You still with us, man?!" one shouted.

        "Yeah, where did he go?!" the other shouted.

        "Ngh..." Yuri groaned.

        Is he injured? How?! Who ran into him and hurt him?!

        "The East gate..." Yuri mumbled.

        Huh, that's weird. He sounds like Yuri, but not at the same time? Is this... Twilight? I checked my watch to see his location, it proving my correct.

        "East! Got it!" they shouted as they ran away to find Twilight (who was right in front of them). 

        I very carefully peeked my head out and saw "Yuri" standing up, adjusting his jacket.

        "Oi!" I exclaimed, standing up from the bushes 

        I don't have to be careful, I'm in a disguise! I remembered.

        "Yuri" turned around quickly, looking at me with a surprised expression.

        "Um... hey...?" he paused.

        "No worries, Twilight. It's me, Vixen." I smiled as his composure relaxed.

        "Thank God, it's you. That's a decent disguise—amateurish, but it works well enough."

        "Sure as hell worked on the Master of Disguise." I smirked pridefully. "Now, what's next?" 

        "Let's make our getaway." Twilight spoke, looking around before his eyes landed on a sewer gate.

        "Ah, shit..." I mumbled, knowing what we'd have to do.

        Gross...

        "Let's go." Twilight ordered.

        "Yes, boss!" I joked, trying to make light out of this situation as we walked through some mud.

        I lifted the heavy cover and jumped in, Twilight following after as he closed the lid.

        "Stay quiet, light on your feet, and look out for all exits and entrances." Twilight muttered.

        "I'm a spy too, remember?" I huffed quietly.

        Even after all these years, he still has the audacity to treat me like I don't know anything. 

        We started running and heard some footsteps up ahead around the corner. Twilight efficiently kicked up a metal pipe for me as he ran. I caught it and gripped it tightly as he pulled out his gun, getting ready to fight.

        I felt a warm sense of admiration that he gave me the metal pipe since he's aware I don't like using guns, not after what I've used them for in the war. 

        We past the corner as Twilight shot, but instead we saw, Yuri, the real Yuri!

        Twilight's shot missed him, hitting his hat instead, as Twilight paused, making me pause too. Twilight's gun was aimed directly at Yuri's face, I was going to shout and tell him no, but he held his hand, behind me and only for me to see.

        He's telling me to stand down and stay behind him—like always...

        "Gah!" they both exclaimed.

        Yuri hasn't spotted me... he's too focused on Twilight that he hasn't seen me! This is good!

        Two gunshots rang simultaneously, one hitting the gun out of Yuri's hand and into the sewer water and the other piercing Twilight's shoulder. 

        "Guh!" Twilight voiced his pain as Yuri kicked Twilight's gun out of his hand then stepping back to make room as the gun hit the sewer wall before going into the sewer water too.

        Twilight clutched his shoulder tightly, a serious and frustrated expression on his face as they both stood still, looking at each other. They both look similar to each other, it's really scary. The only difference is that Loid is 6'1" and Yuri is 5'10". I wondered briefly on how good Yuri is at hand-to-hand combat, before seeing it myself.

        "Give up..." Yuri started, raising his fists. "And come quietly!" 

        He punched at Twilight, but Twilight dodged it and kicked him in the gut, giving Yuri a punch to his face as he fell down. While Yuri was distracted, I threw Twilight a white cloth from my pocket for emergencies just as this.

        I have to make sure I'm prepared in case me or someone else gets shot or is bleeding intensely. I've learned from my past mistakes.

        Yuri stood up, his fists raised once more, having a mark on his face as Twilight wrapped the cloth around his bleeding wound. 

        "Stop resisting and surrender. We've got the sewer surrounded." Yuri claimed.

        There's no way! They didn't figure it out this quickly that we were down here, did they?

        "If you don't want to die here, run back to the surface. Now." Twilight commanded, mimicking Yuri's voice pretty well.

        I understand why Twilight sounds different from Yuri. Twilight speaks in a calm and collected tone, always serious. Yuri, he speaks with his tone, he's very open about his feelings. 

        "DON'T TALK TO ME IN MY OWN VOICE!" Yuri screamed, rushing at Twilight. 

        Twilight quickly undid his belt and whipped Yuri in the jaw, hard, with it as he drew blood and possibly even broke his jaw! Yuri fell hard onto the ground as Twilight looked down at him.

        "You may not be eating any decent meals for a while, but you'll live." Twilight spoke.

        He's showing Yuri mercy. Could it be for operation STRIX? So Yor wouldn't be devastated and the family falls apart? Could it be he's aware of my feelings for Yuri and doesn't wish to kill him out of respect (or pity) towards me? Or, could it be he's genuinely grown attached to his "in-law"?

        That should be enough, I thought, worried for Yuri's safety and health. I'll make him some southern stew tonight, he really likes that since it came from his childhood. 

        Twilight turned around, giving me a nod as he started to walk away. I almost turned to follow, but I heard the sound of metal and raised my metal pipe. I turned the corner to face Yuri, our metal pipes clashing together. I pulled his leg from under him with my own leg, then used my metal pipe to shove him backwards, kicking the metal pipe that fell out of his hands into the sewer water.

        "You're wrong, Twilight! It's you who won't be eating any decent meals... in your prison cell!" Yuri spoke, spitting out blood.

         Wow, even though I'm right in front of his face and entered the fight, he's still caring about Twilight.

        "And who the hell are you?!" Yuri shouted.

        I ignored his comment, afraid if I talked he's recognize my voice as I stared him down.

        I really, really, don't want to fight him.

        Twilight noticed my hesitancy and was about to speak up, but Yuri charged at me. I hit him upside the head with my metal pipe with some heavy force, hoping to at least knock him out or disorient him so we can run and avoid further harm to him.         

        Yuri staggered to his side but quickly punched and hit my jaw.

        Man, he packs a punch! I thought, hearing a clack! 

        I grabbed him by his jacket and pinned him against the sewer wall as he grabbed my wig and pulled it. The wig fell as he looked at me, confused as my natural hair came down.

         "Wh-" I used his confusion to my advantage, grabbed his own hair and quickly turned him around so he was facing the sewer wall, slamming his head three times in the concrete wall before pulling back.

        Twilight quickly threw himself into the mix and karate-chopped Yuri's throat, coming up behind Yuri and elbowing him into the ground, (even giving a good kick to in-between Yuri's legs).

        I wanted to scold Twilight for being too harsh and mean (like I wasn't slamming his head against concrete a few seconds ago), but I understood Yuri's looking to kill (or at least capture) us both and watched on. 

        Yuri stood his ground and Twilight punched his face as I knelt to the ground and slammed my metal pipe into the back of his knee with full force. I ran back to Twilight's side as Yuri fell down, but he just got back up!

        Jesus Christ! Yuri Briar is seriously a force to be dealt with, how is he standing?!

        "Don't hold back this time." Twilight spat out harshly, his eyes kept on Yuri.

        "YOU BASTARD! I AIN'T!" Yuri shouted, holding his fist up and rushing towards Twilight as I took a deep breath and hid behind Twilight, clutching my metal pipe tightly and raised it.

        He said not to hold back. Sorry, love. I thought to myself. Consider this payback for my jaw.

        Yuri got closer and Twilight quickly side-stepped, leaving me vulnerable. Yuri didn't even stagger as he changed his target to me, but his eyes widened. 

        He ran too fast, so he can't stop now. His only option is to move forward and attack, even hesitate his attack now and he's screwed (which, he really can't stop now anyways).

        "He was talking to me." I huffed, making my pitch and tone high and monochrome as I did earlier in the library. 

        I swung my metal pipe down hard onto his head, the force even hurting my own arms as he fell cold onto the ground. 

        We watched closely as Yuri was on the ground, making sure he'd stay there. To my surprise, Yuri stood up, causing me and Twilight to let out a scream of shock. I swung my metal pipe upwards, hitting his jaw as he fell back to the ground. Me and Twilight watched on to make sure he was fully down as I held my metal pipe up high.

        Twilight huffed heavily as breathed in, finally glad it's over and that he's still alive.

        "Yor... I'm so... sorry..." he mumbled before passing out (for real this time).

        "Ready?" Twilight huffed out.

        I nodded, staring at Yuri before leaning down and checking his pulse.

        "He's fine." Twilight confirmed. 

        "I just have to make sure..." I mumbled, checking Yuri's pockets. 

        I found a walkie-talkie and looked at Twilight. 

        "Do his voice. Tell him to come find him; that he's injured." I ordered, shoving the walkie-talkie in his hand.

        "Are you serious right now?!" he hissed. "We gotta get outta here!" 

        "He's hurt!" I huffed. 

        "Fine..." Twilight groaned, grabbing the walkie-talkie. "Yuri Briar. Injured. Help, over." He spoke, talking in his tone.

        "Thank you." I smiled.

        "Let's move." Twilight spoke, grabbing my hand.

        Twilight started to run while clutching his shoulder as I followed, running ahead of him in case of any danger. I have to be able to protect him since he's injured. We ran a while until we heard different footsteps, causing Twilight to grab my arm and stop the both of us. The footsteps stopped as Twilight carefully led us to a corner. He peeked out of the corner as I watched his expression to see if it changes, indicating he saw something. I turned to look at my right just in case anybody was there, looking just in time to see a tall man holding up a brick and aiming it right at my head.

        "Oi!" I shouted, alerting Twilight of the man's prescence as I quickly ducked, bringing my metal pipe up and wacking his jaw. 

        The brick was crushed in the man's hand as it collided with the concrete wall.

        He was going to hit me with that! That would've killed me!

        Twilight grabbed my pink shirt's collar as he jumped backwards, forcing me away from the man. 

        "Winston Wheeler!" I shouted.

       "You're him!" Twilight exclaimed, quickly tapping a finger on my lower back as he let go of my collar.

        Don't, he's telling me. 

        "You're Winston Wheeler, right? Relax! I'm with the SSS! I was pursuing a wise agent down in the sewers! I don't know what you're doing here, but I sure am glad to see you! Captain Gascoigne and the others are waiting for you back that way! Let's join up with them!" Twilight spoke, grabbing a SSS badge out of his pocket. 

        I, too, grabbed a badge out of my own SSS pocket out of my pocket. 

        "How about you show me your I.D. to be sure." Winston spoke, outstretching his hand.

        "Okay." Twilight obliged, giving him his badge as I did the same with mine.

        "I don't match up with my badge at the moment, I'm in disguise." I explained.

        "What about the guy you were pursuing?" Winston questioned.

        "Securing you is our priority." Twilight spoke as I nodded.

        "WISE is here and infiltrated, we can worry about the agent later." I added as I crossed my arms.

        "Lieutenant Yuri Briar and Lieutenant (Y/N) Briar. You're married?" Winston spoke as Twilight crept behind him.

        Twilight came behind him and suddenly Winston turned his back, kicking Twilight in his stomach.

        "Or is that just the face you're wearing?" Winston commented.

        I immediately raised and slammed my metal pipe on his knee, causing him to huff and hop back a few steps. 

        "Nice try. Before you silenced them, your footsteps were those of someone being chased. You should know better than to lie like that." Winston spoke, the leg I hit raised from the ground as I yanked Twilight by his collar and pulled him up from the ground.

        "I don't understand you, woman. I've seen that hair before, facial structure too, and your badge just proves it. You're apart of the SSS too; are you aware of this?" Winston spat, his last question directed towards Twilight.

        "Course I am, you really didn't think you were the only double-agent, huh?" I smirked, my metal pipe raised. 

        "Huh. So you're both WISE. Those are really good disguises. Could you actually be him? Could you be Twilight?" Winston questioned. "We did an OP together once, remember? But I never got to see your face. So... let's take a look at that illustrious face of yours. Couldn't hurt to have one more gift for the SSS..." 

        "You gotta get through me first, pal." I spat out.

        I don't need to hold back at all. I can just kill him and have it over with; his life holds no more worth, not after he traded mankind for some extra pocket change. At least with me, I'm doing this to keep peace, not destroy it.

        "If I were you, I'd run. A weak woman like you is no match for me." Winston spoke, clutching his knuckles.

        So what he's taller and stronger than me? I'll whoop his ass! I thought to myself, grinding my teeth. 

        I clutched my metal pipe tightly, then threw it at him. He caught it with no thought.

        "That was stup-" I reached into my shirt and grabbed my gun around my waist, firing straight at his head.

        He dodged it effortlessly, then ran towards me with my metal pipe. I ducked and shot his kneecap, using the floor and rocketing my elbow into his stomach. His grip loosened on the pipe as I grabbed it and slammed the pipe down on his back, knocking him to the ground.

        He grabbed my leg and pulled it under, making me fall onto the ground and hit my head on the concrete floor.

        Shit, I thought as my head rang and felt a painful sensation, followed by something wet in my hair. That better be sewer water and not blood... I thought as he quickly got on top of me and balled up his fists.

        He hit me straight in my face, hearing a crack in my nose as I reached for my gun and aimed at his face. He dodged to his right as I pulled the trigger, his weight shifting, giving me the opening to roll my body right and make him fall. I stood up and stomped on his hand, kicking the metal pipe away from his hands as I took a few steps back. 

        Twilight grabbed the pipe as we both stood next to each other, I huffed as we kept our gaze on him.

        "His fists... are made of pure steel." I panted, blood flooding out of my nose, but I didn't dare care to raise my hand and cover it, I need both hands for this fight. 

        I kept my gun trained on his head, pulling the trigger. He ducked and rushed towards us, running to Twilight and throwing a punch. Twilight blocked it with his uninjured shoulder, but Winston was too quick and used his injured leg to hit Twilight on the side of his head, knocking him out. 

        I took the opportunity to fire while his back was facing me, but it was as if he knew this as he ducked low, quickly grabbing the metal pipe and blocking the bullet, creating a dent in the pipe before he struck it at me. I stepped back to avoid his swing, but he quickly grabbed my gun and fired it at the wall six times, wasting all of my rounds. 

        "Heckler and Koch P7. Eight rounds in a magazine. Not much for a shootout, but luckily you're not in one." Winston spoke, throwing the empty gun to his side. "You won't ever be in one after I'm finished with you." He threatened, raising his fists.

        "I don't think that was necessary." I huffed, lowering my stance and widening my footing so I could prepare just about an action I need that's necessary in the moment. 

        "Just evening th-" I quickly righthooked him while he was too busy yapping, then kicked him, hard, in his nether regions. 

        "Ammo cost money, bastard." I huffed. "To pay for the money you've wasted, I'll take your life." I brought my elbow into his back, aiming for his spinal cord and hitting it. 

        It should paralyze him for a few seconds. I thought, rushing to grab the metal pipe out of his large hands. 

        I would run, but I'm not going to leave Twilight here; he'll kill him. I thought, angry at this situation. I need to buy time, WISE must be aware that Twilight hasn't returned, WISE has trackers on everyone, so they'll find him.

        I turned around to see Winston already on his feet, in fact, behind me! He tried to elbow the back of my neck but I dodged, backflipping onto his back and wrapping my thighs around his neck tightly. He tried to pry me off him, but I refused. I've always been stronger in my legs, now that I'm here, he's a fly that's right in my trap now.

        I wrapped my arms around my thighs too so I can direct more pressure to him. He's a strong and tall man, who knows how long he can hold his breath. I need him to pass out, then I'll kill him right here and now. 

        He coughed, scratching my legs but to no avail. He backed up to the sewer wall, slamming his back and the back of my head into the concrete wall. He backed into it multiple times before I felt my vision stagger, a terrible headache forming as I felt my grip loosen. He noticed and grabbed my shirt's collar, throwing me down to where Twilight was knocked out. 

        I can't do this. He's so strong... I thought to myself. If only I had the endurance Yuri has, maybe then I can take him on.

        I huffed, sitting up, only for him to place his black boot onto my cheek and roughly hit my head back onto the floor. 

        "Such a shame, I've always been a fan of cold-hearted woman." Winston spoke. "I told you, should've ran when you had the chance." He spoke, applying more pressure under his foot. 

        He's going to crush my skull... I thought, my head pounding terribly.

        "While you die, I might as well see what Twilight's face really is." Winston spoke, reaching down next to me where Twilight was and grabbing his face mask. 

        "I hope... you fall onto that metal pipe... and tear your ass open." I huffed, the left side of my face smushed onto the ground as my right cheek was under his foot. 

        My vision was fading a black and white, a color I remembered from the war in Westalis when I was younger and lost my vision, or when I'd faint many times during my training in the army and in WISE. If only I was taller, stronger, worked out more or even took some extra missions, maybe then I could've fended him off. Maybe then I could've kept peace between Ostania and Westalis.

        I hate this feeling, I was always left behind. Even as a kid, my growth was stunted after I turned ten, promptly after joining the military. The work they put me through had negative effects on my body, my eyes, my ears, my memory, and my health. I couldn't grow like the other kids after that, but I guess I truly lost my childhood innocence when I forced my way into the Westalis Army like that. How childish I was.

        I heard footsteps and trailed my eyes to where I heard them, seeing a woman with black hair. 

        Is she apart of the SSS? I thought, then recognized her pretty eyes. Nightfall! I've never been more glad to see her! I felt a smile crawl onto my face. Twilight should be in good hands now, so I don't have to fight anymore. 

        I allowed my guard to go down as I closed my eyes, taking a quick power nap.

        .

        .

        The ringing in my ears was loud, along with the pain I heard screaming in my body. I heard muffled talking, recognizing Twilight's voice, but it was younger.

        "You're going to have to do more than that to take me down." Twilight spoke.

        "Shut up! I'm going to kick your ass!" I screamed, forcing myself out of the mud I was in and charging at him

        Twilight quickly sidestepped and righthooked me, throwing me right back into the ground.

        "I hate you..." I huffed.

        "I've heard." Twilight smirked. 

        "This isn't fair. You're stronger and taller and older than me! I need like, a gun or something!" I exclaimed. 

        "Do you think the enemy cares about that? If you're armed or not?" Twilight questioned. "The only thing they care about is if your head is still attached." 

        I looked down, adverting eye-contact as I felt tears welt up in my eyes. 

        "Hey, you're still a kid. You'll grow up to be strong." Twilight spoke, sitting down next to me in the ground as he ruffled my hair.

        "But you're a teenager and you're strong!" I shouted. 

        "I worked hard for it. You just need to train a little more, even during your free time." Twilight spoke, slightly scolding me in that last part. 

        "So much work..." I sighed. 

        "You wanna be big and strong, right? Surpass me?" Twilight questioned.

        "Yeah." I confirmed.

        "Then get up and let's do this again." Twilight ordered, standing up from the ground. 

        I stood up and looked at the sun, looking for how long it'll be until dark, but I just saw my vision fading instead.

        .

        .

        I opened my eyes to find myself on someone's shoulders. I looked to my left and found a roughed-up Winston. I turned around and saw I was being carried by one of the SSS captains!

        Aw, crap, the SSS found me here! I thought to myself.        

        "She's awake!" the captain spoke, in a voice I did not recognize as his.

        "Are you okay, (Y/N)?" I heard Twilight's voice and smiled in relief, seeing him not to far in front of us, carrying Nightfall on his uninjured shoulder.

        "Are you good?" I questioned. 

        "Always deflecting." He mumbled. "I'm okay."

        "I'm fine too. I just... really need a nap. And medical attention." I sighed, the headache I have almost felt like my head was splitting open.

        "Don't worry, we're almost out of here." Twilight spoke.

        I hopped off the imposter Captain's shoulder and followed them as we made our way out of the sewers, ending up in a van. 

        "We sure are lucky they stopped short of a full-scale mobilization with checkpoints and such. They refused to get the police involved from the start. Gotta be some reason they couldn't move overtly on this." Our driver spoke.

        "If our luck holds, we might actually make it all the way back to Berlint." The guy that was imposing as one of the SSS captains spoke (now out of his disguise).

        "At any rate, by catching Wheeler, we've succeeded in protecting the West's Intelligence assets in the East." Twilight spoke. 

        "Yeah, but we heard from Blue team that our mole in the SSS's comms team got taken out." The fake SSS captain said.

        "Even after catching Wheeler, we still can't get a clean win. It's hardly worth the effort." The driver spoke.

        "I tell you, I've had enough for today." The fake SSS captain said. "Hey, Twi-guy, you're getting a drink with me when we're back." 

        "HUH?!" Twilight exclaimed. "That's out of the question! I came here under the pretext of a work emergency! If I don't get home soon, it's going to look awfully suspicious."

        "Tch! Always the family man when you wanna get outta something." Fake captain said.

        "Being a family man is literally my mission." Twilight counterclaimed. "And especially today out of all days..." 

        "Oh? Are you and the wife fighting?" fake captain spoke.

        "Don't worry, Twilight. I feel you, man." I groaned, really hoping that Yuri wasn't at home right now.

        I still need to get an anniversary present for Donnie's wife, and for Yuri too. I owe him after all me and Twilight did to him today... I thought, sighing as my work wasn't done just yet. 

        "I don't know if I'd call it a fight, exactly..." Twilight sighed. "Let's just say I'm having trouble reading her feelings."                

        "So that even happens to the lofty Twilight, huh?" Fake captain spoke. 

        "It sounds like Operation STRIX is still in danger. I'll accompany Twilight home to investigate the source of friction." Nightfall spoke.

        "What's wrong with you? Get to a hospital already!" Twilight scolded, then looked at me. "You too!" 

        "Yeah, I probably got brain damage or something." I huffed, touching my head as I still felt it ache. 

        "Yeah, he's right. Only way to help a martial squabble is to stay the hell out of it." Fake captain spoke.

        We finally got to Berlint and I finally remembered the motorcycle I left back at Shellbury. 

        Ah, damn it. Well, the police will find it sooner or later. I'll just walk around. I thought to myself. 

        I looked at the stores open at this time, not finding many, but I did find a makeup store. 

        I remember from Yor that there was this new makeup kit every girl was after, but it's so expensive, so I should just buy that (I have the money with the two jobs I'm holding).

        Right! I still have to send in a report of today's events to WISE, along with the information the SSS has received, I thought, letting out a groan as I walk into the makeup store and quickly bought the makeup kit. 

        I headed to a flower shop and got some red carnations for Carmen too, thinking about what I'll get Yuri. A first-aid kit seems like a good investment at the moment for him (and me).

        I decided to grab some flowers for Yuri too. I heard guys never receive flowers, and I could believe that with the era we live in. I did a quick trip to the store and got a big stuffed bear for him too, that way he knows it was from the heart. 

        I also made a quick trip to the doctors, having them patch up my nose and the back of my head (apparently I got hit so much the back of my head broke open, so I'll have to return to remove these staples). I also washed the blood off my face and hands there, finding the alley I left my clothes in thanks to my little cereal box. I changed clothes and got rid of my eye contacts, wearing my glasses (if you have them) once more. I made it back to the SSS headquarters seeing a very worried Donnie.

        "You're so late! I thought that you had to leave for an hour or two, not the whole day!" Donnie exclaimed.

        "The line for this damn product, I swear!" I huffed, lying to Donnie as I gave him the makeup kit and one of the bouquets. "It was expensive as hell so consider that an apology for how long it took. The demand is high for it."

        "Thanks! This means a lot! I clocked out for you too." Donnie smiled. "You need me to walk you home? It's very late." 

        "No thanks. Yuri's a jealous man." I laughed. 

        "You're right. Be safe! If you feel anyone's following you, just call me!" Donnie spoke.

        "You're a good man. Later!" I spoke, waving as I walked away with my bouquet and my teddy bear. 

        I finally made it back to my apartment, just about ready to burst into tears since I was so happy to be home. 

        Home? Can I call it that after all that's happened? I basically just committed domestic abuse today at work without Yuri even knowing of this! 

        I climbed up the apartment stairs and made it to mine and Yuri's apartment, knocking on the door since Yuri has the only key (it's a work in progress for Yuri to get me a key). Yuri opened the door with an angry expression before it faded once seeing me.

        "Hey, what happened to your nose and face?" Yuri questioned. "And why are you so late?"

        "I worked with Donnie today on listening to bugged rooms, then did this extremely long interrogation and the bastard landed a few punches!" I huffed, gritting my teeth.

        "Are you okay? You should really lay down." Yuri spoke. "And what's with the bear and flowers?"

        "For you." I mumbled, adverting my eyes. "Donnie told me about how today was his anniversary with his wife, and it made me realize we never had a honeymoon or anything, for our real or fake relationship... so... I wanted to give you something so...you know...I care..." I muttered. 

        Yuri smiled, walking towards me as he took my gifts and set it down. I looked up at him, confused on what he was doing. 

        "I don't need you to spend money on me for me to know you care. Just you being by my side is enough for me." Yuri spoke, raising his arm and patting my head. 

        I smiled, ignoring the tears welling up in my eyes as I gave him a hug, completely forgetting about his wounds.

        "Ow! Ow!" he exclaimed.

        "Oh! Sorry!" I spoke, about to let go before he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in further. 

        "No! The pain is worth it!" he spoke through tears as I laughed. "What are you crying for anyways?" he smiled.

        "Listen, been a long time since I've had genuine love directed towards me." I huffed. 

        "I'll make it my life-long mission to make sure you're always loved!" Yuri declared confidently. 

        "By the way, I won't be cooking tonight. Today's been so long with how that damn brat broke my nose and fractured my jaw." I huffed.

        "So your jaw is injured too?" Yuri sighed. "I picked up some store soup for me since it'll be a while for me to see solid foods; you can have some."

        "What happened?" I questioned.

        "It's a long story..." Yuri huffed, resting his head on top of mine.

        Earlier, he said that just me being by his side was enough, but, I'm not truly by his side in this case... am I?

        Yuri Briar, I'm terribly sorry, but I don't think I could ever be the perfect Mrs. Briar for you. I'm Vixen, the West Spy after all. I've never failed a mission yet and I doubt I'd fail this one too just because of some measly feelings I harbor.

        Parts: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, current part, ten (to be continued when Spy x Family has more Yuri content!)

        Want more Yuri content? Yuri has his own masterlist now! Check it out!

        Have any requests? Check my masterlist to see the characters I write for: Masterlist (Please request, I have too much free time and too little fics).

        Hey! I need your help, my star! What do you wanna read for chapter 10? Help me decide on some new character’s personalities! Poll

[motocorsas]

also weird that i want to see an answer to this cus it wasnt my question but the last anon said smth abt how all the really successful riders have similar ethics abt the sport but that sort of alien thing is less common now do u agree with the fewer aliens thing also do all champions have to b a certain way where does that come from

the previous anon cited jorge, casey and vale as "aliens", and dovi as a "non-alien". i'm not exactly sure what the distinction is, but they give examples of alien behavior. for jorge it was riding injured, for casey it was the almost immediate post-race emotional spiral, and for vale it was using his charm, media prowess and "shenanigans" to get in his competitors' heads. all of these behaviors demonstrate staunch conformity to the sports ethic.

what i'm not sure is what constitutes a "non-alien". in an article for thew national motorcycle alliance, boris mihailovic says,

"No amount of training or tutelage will make you great in this sport. Genetics and mutations are in play here. What could it feel like to sit on that hallowed grid, bike in gear, clutch engaged, shoulders hunched forward, eyes fixed on the lights, while your brain enters a place denied to almost everyone else on earth?"

i think all riders are aliens. those we perceive as non-alien are still absurdly strong, committed and frankly terrified. everyone is crushed under the pressure, it just presents differently between individuals.

consider raul fernandez, who is easily passed over in discussions about the most talented or driven riders likely due to his subpar performance in the top class. but fernandez won eight races in his 2021 moto2 rookie season, even while riding with a broken hand. his opponent, remy gardner, took the championship that year while recovering from a fractured rib! gardner isn't even in motogp anymore, he got cut by ktm after only one season, even as a reigning moto2 champion. that's how much this behavior is normalized.

i want to clarify something; you say "all the really successful riders have similar ethics abt the sport," but there's just one ethic. a sports ethic in the sociological sense is the collective values and messages of a sport, bolstered by stories, mythologies and norms. some riders buy into the ethic more than others, but they all believe it to some extent. when coakley discusses "positive deviance", he specifically means how the positive aspects of a given sports ethic -- diligence, bravery, self-reliance -- can all have negative impacts when taken too far.

[covid-safer-hotties]

No Novavax COVID-19 vaccine in Canada this fall, immunocompromised N.B. woman feels 'expendable' - Published Sept 6, 2024

Linda Wilhelm wants protein-based vaccine, cites rheumatoid arthritis flare-ups after mRNA vaccines

Linda Wilhelm, 64, of Bloomfield, N.B., is planning a road trip to the United States. But it's not to go sightseeing or shopping.

Wilhelm, who suffers from severe rheumatoid arthritis, hopes to get the updated Novavax COVID-19 vaccine, which won't be available in Canada as part of the fall vaccination campaign, unless provinces and territories order doses on their own.

Wilhelm, president of the Canadian Arthritis Patient Alliance and a member of the Canadian Immunocompromised Advocacy Network, says the protein-based vaccine is a better option for immunocompromised people like her than the more common Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines. She says she feels "expendable" and urges the federal government to reconsider.

Less than two months ago, the network wrote to numerous federal, provincial and territorial officials, calling for improved access to Novavax and increased awareness.

They contend many immunocompromised people have suffered adverse reactions following immunization with mRNA vaccines, but have responded well to Novavax, which is included in the National Advisory Committee on Immunization's fall guidance for people 12 and older.

Disease flare-ups after mRNA shots Wilhelm says she has received six mRNA vaccines, both Pfizer and Moderna, and experienced longer and worse flare-ups of her rheumatoid arthritis with each one.

"You're tired and you're sore and you feel like you have the flu all the time," said Wilhelm, who was diagnosed at age 23.

When her third shot prompted a three-month flare, she started to think, "This is not real good," because the disease that ravaged her body for decades and resulted in 14 joint replacements or fusions, including both knees, both hips and both shoulders, had been stable for about 20 years. Prior to that, she was largely bed-bound and required a wheelchair.

But the married mother of three and grandmother of six was "terrified" of getting COVID, so she kept getting mRNA shots, with her latest flare lasting more than eight months and affecting her left elbow — one of only two healthy joints she had left.

In addition, her hands, while badly gnarled by the disease, never used to hurt. After the boosters, however, she suffered a "gnawing, uncomfortable, horrible pain" that kept her awake at night.

No adverse reaction to Novavax Wilhelm heard through a friend that immunocompromised people who received the Novavax vaccine had fewer adverse reactions. But she contracted COVID in October 2023 before she found a pharmacy that carried it.

She was "very ill" for two months, and in her weakened state ended up getting RSV, respiratory syncytial virus, for about another two months, but recovered.

In March, Wilhelm began her search for Novavax again. After being referred back and forth between pharmacies and the Department of Health, she received a dose in mid-April in Saint John — about 45 minutes from her home, with no adverse reaction.

She wants to stick with Novavax, but that won't be an option here, Health Canada confirmed to CBC News.

Up to 19M mRNA vaccine doses coming Canada will be receiving up to 19 million doses of mRNA vaccines, pending regulatory authorization, said spokesperson Nicholas Janveau.

Health Canada is currently reviewing vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna that target the KP.2 strain, he said. The latest strains of Omicron circulating in Canada and the U.S. have names that start with KP.

Health Canada is also reviewing a vaccine from Novavax that targets the earlier JN.1 strain. "However, Canada's current contract with Novavax only provides access to domestically manufactured vaccines, which Novavax has been unable to confirm for the 2024/25 season," Janveau said.

If Novavax's JN.1 vaccine does get approved, provinces and territories "may choose to procure independently from Novavax from supply produced in India for their fall vaccination campaigns," he added.

But "New Brunswick and other provinces have investigated and are unable to find other options to procure this vaccine," according to Department of Health spokesperson Sean Hatchard.

"The amount of vaccine that needed to be ordered to procure it independently was too large based on the minimal demand in the province," he said.

'Very low' demand for Novavax Demand for Novavax has been "very low" across the country, according to the Health Canada spokesperson. Of the 125,000 Nuvaxovid XBB.1.5 vaccines ordered in 2023, only 5,529 doses have been administered, as of June 30, 2024, he said.

Wilhelm contends uptake has been low because many people either don't know about the protein-based vaccine, or have had a hard time trying to get it.

About 14 per cent of Canadians aged 15 or older have a compromised immune system, as of 2020, according to Statistics Canada. That's a "significant portion" of the population, Wilhelm said.

Immunocompromised people can use either type of vaccine, said Janveau. "Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) no longer preferentially recommends one vaccine type over another."

Adverse reaction stats by vaccine type Wilhelm suspects mRNA vaccine reactions in immunocompromised people and others are underreported, due in part to the "abysmal" reporting system that does not include an online option.

In addition, many people may not think to file a report, she said, noting that even she, as an advocate, failed to report her reactions until recently.

Cost of vaccine in U.S. not covered Wilhelm says she's trying her best to stay healthy and not cost the health-care system money. "But [if] the government doesn't give me the tools I need to do that, then what do I do?"

Her only option, she said, is to drive to Maine — either three hours return to Calais, or six hours return to Bangor, depending on availability.

Wilhelm expects it will cost her about $180 US, or $243 Cdn, which the province won't cover, but says it's a small price to pay compared to the risk of another long flare-up, or getting COVID.

Still, she hopes the government will reverse its decision.

[mariacallous]

FAR AZA, Israel—There is a pervasive sense in Israel that time stopped on Oct. 7, 2023. Kibbutz Kfar Aza, one of the first places Hamas attacked on that day, is now a closed military zone, frozen in time. A sukkah, or temporary hut erected for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, which took place the week leading up to Oct. 7, still stands in the yard of one house. In another, a cluster of children’s bikes lean under a tree. 

In the home of Sivan Elkabetz and Naor Hasidim, a young couple in their early 20s, there are still dishes on the drying rack by the kitchen sink. Writing on the wall by the front door, scrawled in the aftermath of the attack, reads “human remains on the sofa.” 

In the days after the attack, in which thousands of militants led and organized by Hamas streamed into Israel at daybreak on Oct. 7, raping, mutilating, and killing some 1,200 people and taking a further 253 hostage, much of the world rallied in support of Israel. Monuments from the Eiffel Tower to the Sydney Opera House were illuminated in the blue and white of the Israeli flag in solidarity with the country.

Eight months later, much of that international outpouring of sympathy has given way to condemnation as Israel has waged an unsparing war in Gaza in a quest to root Hamas out of the coastal territory. 

A little over a mile to the west of Kfar Aza lies Gaza, where Israel is now embroiled in the longest war it has fought since the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Amid the burned houses of the kibbutz on a recent morning in late May, a black anvil of smoke could be seen hanging over the the Gaza Strip, accompanied by the distant thud of artillery fire.

“If you want to take a metaphor from a different conflict from around the world, Israel started the war as Ukraine, and seven months after, it’s Russia,” Shira Efron, the Israel Policy Forum’s research director, said at an FP Live event last month. 

More than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health authorities, which do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Some 8,000 children have been killed, according to data shared by the United Nations—a likely undercount as an untold number remain buried under rubble. 

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, has asked the court to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, alongside senior Hamas leaders, accusing them of having committed war crimes, including the use of starvation as a method of warfare. The United Nations has warned that a full-blown famine has taken hold in northern Gaza. 

But although Israel has grown increasingly isolated, the war is viewed in starkly different terms within the country, where many see the campaign in Gaza as one of existential necessity. 

“For us, it’s a ‘never again’ war,” said Avner Golov, the vice president of research and alliances at the Tel Aviv-based think tank MIND Israel. “My generation now faces a question that I never thought I [would] face, and this is whether a Jewish state can exist in the hostile Middle East,” he added. “We need to make sure the answer is yes.”

While global attention has turned to Gaza, Israel is still mired in the trauma of Oct. 7 and the security failures that left thousands of people defenseless in the face of Hamas’s onslaught. There’s a creeping fear that the bloodshed of the attack is being forgotten or even denied. 

“I feel like no one believes us enough,” said Yarden Gonen, whose 23-year-old sister, Romi Gonen, was taken hostage from the Nova Music Festival. In a country of just under 10 million people, almost everyone knows someone who survived, was killed, or was taken hostage. 

Reminders of the 120 hostages who remain in Hamas captivity—only about 80 of whom are thought to still be alive—are omnipresent throughout Israel. Passengers arriving into Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport are confronted with images of the captives on biometric passport scanners, ATMs, and a phalanx of posters that line the ramp down to passport control. The media is filled with an agonizing drip of information about their fates. 

Hamas struck as Israel was embroiled in its most profound political crisis in decades over judicial reform proposals by the Netanyahu government that critics feared would undermine the country’s vaunted independent judiciary. And though Israelis rallied together in the wake of the attack, that did not translate into greater support for Netanyahu, and frustration has only mounted over the government’s failure to secure the hostages’ freedom or present a viable path out of the war.

Shmuel Rosner, a researcher with the Jerusalem-based Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) who has been conducting weekly polls of Israeli public opinion, said there was no surge in government approval ratings in the wake of Oct. 7. 

“There was never a case in which a country was attacked by another country or by a terror organization in which the leadership of the country did not get not even one iota of bump in the polls,” he said. 

But when it comes to critiques leveled by the international community, Israelis largely stand united, said Dan Illouz, a member of the country’s parliament, the Knesset, from Netanyahu’s Likud party who sits on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. “On almost all of the issues where the international community is trying to pressure Israel, those issues are not seen as political within Israel,” he said. “There’s tremendous consensus within Israeli society on these issues.”

A Pew Research Center survey conducted in March and early April found that almost 40 percent of Israelis felt that the country’s military response in Gaza had been about right, while just over a third felt that it had not gone far enough. The poll found sharp divides in the way Jewish and Arab Israelis see the war. Almost 75 percent of Arab Israelis, who make up around a fifth of the country’s population, see the war as having gone too far, compared with 4 percent of Jews.

“I just came back from Canada and the U.S., and I saw that even very intelligent people adopted this thing of [the Gaza war being] ‘Netanyahu’s war,’” said Einat Wilf, a former Knesset member who served as a foreign-policy advisor to former Israeli President Shimon Peres during his tenure as vice prime minister. “It is Netanyahu’s bungle—I think he is in large responsible for it being so badly done,” she added. “But the war? It’s the war of our people.”

Part of that disconnect between Israeli and international perceptions of the war has to do with how the war is portrayed in the media. “The media here [in Israel] doesn’t show what’s happening in Gaza the way that other media does,” said Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst on Israel-Palestine with the International Crisis Group. “Suffering in Gaza is just not a factor in the way this war is being narrated in Israel.”

International media has been awash with harrowing reports from Gaza of doctors performing amputations without anesthetic, of parents writing their children’s names on their bodies for identification in the event they are killed. But although left-leaning Israeli outlets such as Haaretz and +972 have closely scrutinized the conduct of the war and the vast suffering it is causing for the millions of Palestinians living in Gaza, analysts say it has not featured prominently in the mainstream Israeli media.

“Seven months of Israel displacing, shelling, starving, killing, crushing and crowding together about 2 million people—and on the Israeli channels there’s nothing,” Israel lawyer Michael Sfard wrote in an op-ed for Haaretz last month.

Amid international outrage about the death toll in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) contends that it has gone to significant lengths to spare civilian life while fighting in exceedingly challenging urban terrain against an adversary that has deliberately entrenched itself among the civilian population. 

“Israelis by and large feel that the world puts too much emphasis on the humanitarian issue in Gaza and does not have proper consideration for the need for Israel to win the war and hence to fight in problematic urban areas,” said Rosner of JPPI. “Israelis feel that the world does not appreciate enough the huge effort that the IDF is making not to harm innocent people, not to hit civilian targets.”

By the end of March, the IDF had dropped more than 9 million leaflets and sent 17 million voice messages warning civilians to evacuate ahead of its operations in Gaza, according to IDF data. “The army, in its very protocols, does much more than what is needed according to international law,” said Illouz, who previously served as a legal advisor to the IDF. 

But longtime observers of the IDF, including some in Israel, counter that the military has, in recent years, loosened its rules of engagement, particularly in the current war. “It was very clear from the beginning that the IDF adopted new rules,” said Yagil Levy, a professor at the Open University of Israel, who said he feared that the campaign was fueled by revenge “in a most severe way” in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack.

Statements made by Israeli officials have also furthered the perception that the country’s political and military leaders don’t see as much of a distinction between Palestinian civilians and militants in Gaza as the rest of the world does.

“Though it is distinguished from the civilian population, Hamas is a Palestinian organization,” said Capt. Adam Ittah, a spokesperson for the Southern District of the IDF’s Home Front Command. “There is collective responsibility once you conduct such a massacre.”

Most controversial has been Israel’s use of hundreds of heavy ordnance in Gaza’s dense urban environments, including 2,000-pound bombs that are capable of killing and severely injuring people within a 1,000-foot radius. 

In the first two weeks of the war, around 90 percent of the munitions Israel dropped in Gaza were satellite-guided bombs of 1,000 to 2,000 pounds, according to a senior U.S. military official cited by the New York Times. 

“Even a 500-pound bomb is too much in a densely populated area,” said Wes Bryant, a retired U.S. Air Force master sergeant who led a U.S. strike cell against the Islamic State in Iraq. “I could tell from the start that Israel, from the government to the IDF, was waging an emotional campaign.”

In early May, the Biden administration paused a shipment of heavy ordnance, including 2,000-pound bombs, to Israel as its troops planned to enter the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where U.S. officials have urged Israel to conduct a more targeted operation than those seen in the early phases of the war. 

The civilian death toll, Israel’s throttling of humanitarian aid, and the killing of aid workers in Israeli strikes have placed enormous strain on Israel’s relationship with its closest partner, the United States, which provides the country with billions of dollars of military aid annually. 

Eleven days after the Hamas attack, Biden touched down in Israel for an extraordinary wartime visit. In an emotionally charged speech, he drew on the Hebrew Bible, his decades in office, and his own experiences with grief. “As long as the United States stands—and we will stand forever—we will not let you ever be alone,” he said.

His remarks also contained a word of caution, based on the United States’ own bitter experiences of going to war in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “While you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it,” he said. 

Biden referred back to this warning in an interview with Time magazine published last week. “They’re making that mistake,” he said.

[sodamnradd]

(mentions infertility)

They’re eighteen when they plant the Eternal-Yew tree.

Professor Sprout assigns the simple task: choose a sapling, then a patch of land on the outskirts of the Dark Forest, and make some magic. Both partnerless, Hermione and Draco work together.

It’s a taciturn but courteous alliance.

Draco doesn’t protest when Hermione chooses to plant, “an Eternal-Yew, the longest living magical tree in Europe, to promote peace and prosperity for as long as it shall live.”

Since she chose the tree, Draco picks its home, the exact location where Buckbeak attacked him. “To commemorate the deadly experiences I narrowly missed at this school.”

Hermione rolls her eyes but puts up no argument as they get to work, digging, planting, then using a combination of water and magic to encourage the tree to grow.

-

They’re twenty-eight when they reunite at Hogwarts. Professor Sprout invited them back to witness the growth of their trees a decade later.

Hermione is a woman, Draco realizes with a startling jolt. Poised and passionate, she recently made the 30 Under 30 list of society’s most influential witches. Her smile hasn’t aged a day.

They picnic beside their young tree, now exceeding Draco in height. Gods, her eyes, he thinks, finding himself asking Hermione about work at noon, and leaving The Three Broomsticks at midnight, drunk on Firewhisky and Hermione’s cinnamon-sweet lips.

-

They’re thirty when they visit the Eternal-Yew, the last stop on Draco’s scavenger hunt. The day started with a trip to The National Gallery where they reminisced about their first official date, then led to Draco’s old flat, the first time a nightcap drizzled into dawn, and now here they are, by the tree that started it all.

Draco kneels. “Hermione, will you—”

He doesn’t have a chance to finish the question before they’re grass-stained and rolling in leaves, lungs tight from laughter and relentless snogging.

-

They’re thirty-five when Draco sweeps a tear from Hermione’s cheek.

She clutches her hollow body and apologizes again before he can stop her. “I wanted to give you everything.”

“I don’t need anything. You’re all I want,” he whispers into her ear. Then uses his wand to carve their names on the trunk of their tree: D&H Malfoy, always.

-

They’re forty-four when they attend Albus’s graduation ceremony. They show Hermione’s god-children their Eternal-Yew and find their names inscribed ten feet higher than where they last left them.

“It’s magnificent,” says Hermione, her hand on the thick trunk. A surge of energy flows beneath her skin. It feels like them. The progeny they never had. Their magic roars deeply within its vein-like branches.

Draco takes her hand, brushing his lips across her knuckles. “Always,” he reads aloud.

-

They’re ninety-seven when they visit Hogwarts for the last time.

Draco is thin and brittle and puts more weight on Hermione’s shoulders than she lets on. They sit beneath the arms of their Eternal-Yew and watch the sun set behind the towers of their beloved castle.

-

Albus is eighty-four when he visits his great-granddaughter at Hogwarts. He tells sweet Lily that a great couple planted her favourite tree, where students study beneath the shelter of its whimsical branches and rub its twisty trunk for good luck before Quidditch matches.

-

It’s a sunny day when a pair of second-years race their Nimbus 3009s to the Eternal-Yew, the oldest, largest, and luckiest tree at Hogwarts.

“Look at this,” one of them shouts from high above.

“D&H Malfoy, always,” the other reads curiously. “Wonder who they were.”

The first shrugs. “In love?”

Spilling into laughter, they swoop over the ancient tree and soar back to Hogwarts.

(600 words, written for semi-finals of LDWS, prompt: year 3000, came 1st place)

[beardedmrbean]

The opposition Centre Party saw an uptick in support in newspaper Helsingin Sanomat's latest survey, while support for Finland's three largest parties has remained almost unchanged.

Led by former defence minister Antti Kaikkonen, the Centre now has 12.9 percent support, up from 11.8 percent last month. It saw support rise to its highest level in more than two years.

At the same time, support for the governing National Coalition (NCP) and Finns parties fell by 0.6 percentage points apiece. The opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) held onto its position as the most popular.

In fifth place was the Left Alliance with 10.1 percent support and in sixth place were the Greens, who garnered eight percent of support.

SPP leader: Enough cuts

Rural-focused newspaper Maaseudun Tulevaisuus examined differences in opinion within Prime Minister Petteri Orpo's (NCP) coalition government about budget cuts.

Anders Adlercreutz, chair of the Swedish People's Party — one of four parties in government — said the planned nine billion euros in cuts are sufficient.

The PM told the paper more cuts were still needed, but Adlercreutz offered a differing opinion.

"Now the focus should be on growth-creating measures. I believe there is a common will in the government to do so," Adlercreutz told MT.

According to Adlercreutz, the government is also boosting labour migration in many ways. For example, a foreigner who has completed a degree in Finland can obtain a residence permit immediately upon graduation.

However, the business sector has criticised the government's draft law, which would cancel the residence permit of a foreigner who becomes unemployed within three months if they don't land a new job.

"If labour immigration in Finland is not at a sufficient level in the future, SPP believes that it is worth analysing matters before the economic and social good," Adlercreutz told MT.

Holiday huts and helicopters

Tabloid Ilta-Sanomat wrote that Prime Minister Orpo stayed at the Finnish Border Guard's remote Somasjärvi patrol hut during his summer holiday on a hiking trip to Halti.

Orpo admitted at a press conference on Tuesday that he had missed a European Political Community (EPC) meeting in the UK because of his wife's birthday. His wife Niina Kanniainen-Orpo turned 50 years old on 17 July. The meeting was the following day, 18 July.

Orpo was hiking in Käsivarsi — the northern arm of Finland — with his wife, son Pekka and dog Taavi. Orpo said in an Instagram post that they made a day trip to the Halti fell — Finland's highest elevation — from Somasjärvi along the Norwegian border, a hike of about 17 kilometres.

The Somasjärvi area has no public accommodation other than an open wilderness hut where anyone can stop for the night or pitch a tent.

However, there is also a patrol hut on the lake for use by the Finnish Border Guard.

Orpo admitted to IS that he stayed in the Somasjärvi patrol hut.

"The Border Guard offered me the hut in Somasjärvi to stay overnight, but it was just an overnight stay," Orpo said in Rovaniemi at the summer meeting of the National Coalition Party's ministerial group.

Orpo knew about the patrol hut, having visited it during his time as interior minister in 2015-2016.

"I humbly asked if I could use it, knowing that there was a hut out there on the fells," Orpo told IS.

When questioned by the paper on whether it was the right use of his position, the PM said staying at the hut was simply a minor request.

"Yes, I think it was. But it's quite a small scale thing and the Border Patrol judged it that way," Orpo told IS. When asked for comment, the Border Guard said all they did to facilitate the stay was hand over the key to Orpo.

IS and other news outlets suspected that Orpo also took a helicopter to leave Somasjärvi and flew 50 kilometres to Kilpisjärvi, the closest road in the region. Orpo denied any involvement from the Finnish Defence Forces or Border Guard in accessing the flight.

At an event at Rovaniemi's Lordi Square, a member of the public asked Orpo about the matter.

The PM explained that he made the helicopter trip at his own expense. Local helicopter operators estimated the cost of a trip from Somasjärvi to Kilpisjärvi at 1,700 euros.

[thoughtlessarse]

Brits living in France have described keeping their head low and fear their rights will be eroded under a far-right government that has pledged to crack down on immigration British expats and foreigners living in France fear that their rights could be eroded under a potential far-right government after the National Rally (RN) pledged to crack down on immigration. Opinion polls ahead of the first round of voting on Sunday have suggested the RN has a comfortable lead of 33 per cent – 36 per cent of the popular vote, with a hastily assembled left-wing coalition, the New Popular Front, in second place on 28 per cent – 31 per cent and Macron’s centrist alliance in third on 20 per cent – 23 per cent. The far-right party led by Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella has announced plans to ban dual nationals from holding key “strategic positions” in the defense or security sectors as well as scrap the right of nationality for children born in France and raised by foreign parents. It also plans to restrict welfare and healthcare access for foreigners and preference some people for welfare payments in a breach of EU rules. The crackdown has affected the mood of British expats and foreigners living in the UK who don’t have French nationality, with some feeling like their future in their adopted home is in doubt. David Schischka Thomas is an art dealer and DJ from Birmingham who has been living in France for eight years with his wife, near Limoges. He said the current election has led them to think hard about their future in the country. “We have lived through the rise of the far right in the UK with all the racism, hatred, misinformation, and then the polarisation caused by Brexit,” he told i. “I am now worried that France will go the same way.” “My wife is black and we are both very anti-far right,” he adds.

continue reading

If the far-right win in France, the racism will eclipse the huge rise in racism in the UK after brexit. The French are very racist but refuse to see it. Those on the far-right complain about migrants not integrating into French society but apply for a job with a foreign name in France and you're automatically put behind all the French names. If your name is Arab or African you'll be last in the queue. If you're Black or Arab your housing choices will be very limited meaning you'll probably end up in one of the banlieues that surround large cities, places where the people that could not advance in French society are put and hence home to large numbers of disaffected French-born "migrant" youth.

[minsarasarahair]

Novel Lou Zhu's appearance (You Yao)

Character profile: 180 cm, his current body in main story is 27 years old, disheveled long black hair, has drifting eyes and curling lips, has mix of sinister and hedonist expression, not too thin nor too fat (Average healthy Chinese man in China's standards?), has lazy demeanor, dress with expensive clothing

First appearance (Medicine arc)  ↓ Rich and Smartlooking ass lol

Lou Zhu's surname is Lou and his first name is Zhu. Lou Zhu usually dressed like a rich and idle person, with a face of scholar, but he has drifting eyes and has curling lips, and his whole body exudes a spirit of never sitting down if he can lie down. The people in the capital all knew that this body was originally owned by a low-ranking civil official who later died and came back to life, and changed his name to Lou Zhu. In short, he was a transmigrator who interview fellow transmigrators for the emperor.

Lou Zhu's past life ↓ His original body is more beautiful than his current body? At his late 30s?

Zuo Yunqi said: "You must have been very beautiful in the past." Lou Zhu t said: "Just average. I've only been stopped by talent scouts about 30 times whenever I was walking on the street." Zuo Yunqi said: "Damn you."

Zuo Yunqi's perspective ↓ Just a lonely guy who Zuo Yunqi wish to protect awww~ He might look like a villain to others but for ZYQ he's his "Little meow meow" lol

Zuo Yunqi listened to Lou Zhu's rambling endlessly, and his eyes unconsciously moved from the unique items to Lou Zhu's face. The whole secret room was piled with weird items that were not tolerated by this era and useless in this world. It was covered with rust and dust, and exuded the smell of death. Even the figure standing in it seemed to be immersed in a thick and suffocating loneliness. Zuo Yunqi didn't know if this feeling is called homesickness.

Impostor arc  ↓ The text really said he has average good looks but his lazy gestures made him more attractive lol

Lou Zhu has basis qualifications for seduction: He is good-looking. Jing Huanzhi left him with a decent face, a pale scholar's appearance, but his lazy bones gives off a strange charisma. He is not only handsome, but also rich, very rich. Lou Zhu's extraordinary IQ is all used to have comfortable life. He used to serve the emperor, and later he went to Lin Kai of Wulin Alliance, no one can stop him from making a lot of money. Such a person never tried to pursue a girl.

After 5 years ↓ He's an immortal lol jk That's actually impressive without cultivation. I think he's just good at taking care of himself and he has the money for it so yes, of course he will look youthful at his 30s just like a celebrity. Only Zuo Yunqi has drastic change.

In these past 5 years, the old age was not shown to Lou Zhu's appearance. Although he had drastically cleared the remnants of the Tuo Huang and escaped several brutal assassinations during this period, he also helped Lin Kai consolidate his regime, emptied the national treasury into a small gold mountain of initial scale, and put it in his own warehouse. He had experienced a lot of things, but overall, he lived a good life. Lou Zhu's head doesn't have any single white hair, and his body that always sit and never walk, had not become plump. In a trance, it seemed that nothing had changed except his robes, which had become more expensive.

Reverse Isekai AU (Modern setting) ↓ Hobo Lou Zhu lol Deserve! He later shaved and has decent look. This is Danmei so of course he's still good looking. He's no longer rich but he's planning to exploit Xie Liang's talents...

Lou Zhu was looking at the billboard and was thinking about it, when a strange smell suddenly hit his nose. He lowered his head and sniffed, then stretched out his hand to touch up and down, his pupils trembling. Even though there was no mirror, he could still feel himself. Lou Zhu had a tangled beard and hair, and the clothes on his body had probably not been washed for eight years, giving off a weird smell. It seemed he transmigrated into a homeless man’s body. Lou Zhu looked at the speeding traffic on the road in front of him and began to seriously consider whether to run into it. But he never took a step forward.

[b4nt14rn4]

I think one of the more interesting things I picked up from Renaissance Samurai was that Fate!Ryouma's pacifist nature is really more of an exaggeration.

Firstly, Fate!Ryouma is a character first and foremost. Obviously we shouldn't expect a character based in a fantasy-historical gag manga series/gacha game to have the most accurate representation of a historical figure. I'm not even to saying that Ryouma's interpretation within Fate is inaccurate either. It's more of a case of what the author chooses to focus on and communicate with Ryouma (which is an interesting analysis in and of itself, considering Ryouma throughout the past century has been used as a propaganda mouthpiece by liberals and conservatives alike within Japan, but I digress).

I had been speaking with a friend about this a while ago (Aelen on Twitter), and one thing that was mentioned in our conversation was how Fate!Ryouma is written as "a kind-hearted gentleman raised by three sisters," rather than the typical "goofy, reckless country boy," we see Ryouma portrayed in other mediums (Ryomaden, Renaissance Samurai).

I think in part it's a twist by Keikenchi to subvert Japanese audiences' expectations with how their national hero is typically portrayed. Keep it fresh, y'know?

But within Renaissance Samurai, Ryouma was not adamantly against war, unlike what his profile and mannerisms in FGO seem to convey.

See the most interesting part about Ryouma is that his views evolved the more he learned about the predicament facing Japan. He was very much on board with "Expel the Barbarians" in his early years, and it was over time that he began to realized this was not the answer to the crisis Japan faced.

The people that touted "Expel the Barbarians" he slowly realized were shortsighted. They didn't understand or refused to admit just how outgunned Japan was in terms of military. Japan, as it was, could not win a war against America, England, France, etc. Ryouma soon realized that in order to help Japan through this crisis, they needed to trade with other countries to catch up militarily.

A lot of people felt that the Bakufu, the government that ruled Japan at the time, could not weather Japan through its current crisis, Ryouma included. The Bakufu was too concerned with maintaining its power, not with the welfare of Japan.

Ryouma wanted to overthrow the Bakufu and restore the Emperor to power. He worked endlessly to make that happen. Recruiting ronin into Katsu Kaishu's training academy to help build a national navy, uniting two feuding domains together in an alliance to make the anti-Bakufu faction stronger militarily, setting up a private shipping company that also doubled as a navy to purchase the latest weaponry from foreign nations. Ryouma was preparing for a war.

But Ryouma came to the realization that an all-out war with the Bakufu would invite foreign subjugation. There was the risk of it already happening with the Bakufu working with the French and the British cozying up to Satsuma and Chousu. A civil war, he felt, would just leave Japan open for the French, the British, and anyone else who had interest to pick it apart one by one.

So, Ryouma drafted The Eight-Point Proposal While Shipboard, the blueprint for Japan's new government that would be used to convince the Shogun to peacefully restore power to the Imperial Court.

So here Ryouma was helping his allies prep for war while simultaneously working to have the shogun peacefully abdicate the throne to the Emperor, thereby avoiding the war all his allies were preparing for.

I don't think it's due to Ryouma being a true pacifist that he wanted to avoid a war, but due to the fact that he felt a war would have been devastating for Japan.

But at the same time, Ryouma also felt that he could not convince the shogun to peacefully abdicate unless the shogun knew that war was the only other option. Either risk destroying the House of the Tokugawa in a war, or peacefully resign to preserve your power in the new government.

His underhandedness is presented within Fate, but I feel like we haven't touched on it to this degree. And I feel like we are really missing that when Fate!Ryouma is presented like a true pacifist.

If the Shogun did not abdicate the throne, Ryouma was 100% going to war. Even if peace was his preferred route, he was prepared to overthrow the Bakufu, by any means necessary.

[velvetvexations]

(anyone who may know better - I happily welcome corrections!)

I was reading some more into the Second Sino-Japanese War, as is my wont, and I think the key to understanding Imperial Japan is that they were (A) obsessed with securing the dominance and propagation of Yamato culture via (B) copying everything the West did as closely as possible. They were undoubtedly motivated by a very strong envy of Western empires and entitlement to a seat at the same table. Not that they were more entitled than the ones already sitting at the table, of course! No colonial asperations were morally pure or justified beyond simple nationalistic greed. But it's interesting because in those other cases the table, by which I mean not just the benefits of empire but the balance of power where the Western empires had a stranglehold on the world, kinna gradually formed between them over the course of centuries, and Japan was like, on the outside trying very hard to break in and take that for themselves after the Perry Expedition. And holy hell did they go a long ways towards making themselves a modern world power in an extremely short amount of time, the exact opposite of the Qing Dynasty, which was in such disarray during this entire period that by the time WW2 rolled around it was interrupting China's ongoing civil war that had been going on since a couple of decades earlier when the Qing had fallen.

Like, they suppressed the local languages of their colonial conquests but then, also, look at this:

That's a group of IJ officials pretending to inspect where a fake bomb was set off to false flag a justification for taking Manchuria. Japanese people dressed in "Western"-style clothing is hardly anything surprising now, but in-context, it's strange. Because like, IJ was trying so hard to make all of East Asia distinctly Japanese, right? But it was all filtered through that desire to be as powerful and glorious as they saw the Western world. IJ was, in a sense, stuck in a mindset of "anything you can do I can do better" - towards the West, with East Asia just being the tool with which they proved that with.

Fear of a Qing-style Century of Humiliation probably made it feel existential on some level, a case of doing or dying on top of plain nationalism. To assert their independence, because an empire by definition can not be subordinate to any other power, Korea went through modernization reforms and proclaimed itself an empire in 1897 despite patently not being an empire (the justification being that Korea had historically once been divided into three kingdoms), but it was too little too late and IJ annexed them just a decade or so later, which absurdly must have seemed to justify IJ's worldview that one was either a colonizer or the colonized.

There was a political cartoon about the Boxer Rebellion where the Eight-Nation Alliance is seen carving up a pie labeled "China" as a Chinese man looks on in outrage, and it's so fascinating, because the Chinese and Japanese man (who, side note, appears to be the only genericized ENA rep rather than a caricature of a specific person) are drawn in the same racist way yet Japan was nevertheless by the turn of the century seen by the West as being at least close to same level - the full understanding of how far Japan had come on the world stage would arrive just a few years later when Japan kicked Russia's ass in the Russo-Japanese War.

The Russo-Japanese War is particularly interesting in regards to the disparity between how IJ viewed Asia and the West, because one thing that particularly shocked the latter was how 'gentlemanly' IJ's wartime behavior was, treating prisoners and civilians with boundless (and most importantly for the IJ, vocal) generosity. Yet, just a decade earlier during the First Sino-Japanese War, they committed many atrocities that would foreshadow the many they committed in the second. Unsurprisingly, the West quickly forgot the PR scandal IJ made for itself with the Port Arthur massacre of 1894 and declared that it's conduct in the war with Russia (keep in mind I am paraphrasing a turn-of-the-century opinion in a historical context!) "proved Japan is civilized".

It's interesting to think that the person who sent Perry to open up Japan and had this huge radical affect in causing Japan to become obsessed with modernization and catching up, which led to as much as it did, was...Millard Fillmore. Who Wikipedia notes is ranked by historians as both one of the worst and least-memorable presidents ever. The fact that he's in a very real way responsible for one of the most evil regimes in history is probably underdiscussed.

[aworldforastage]

just finished: 穿成苏培盛了 by 一渡清河

Finally, another story that makes me feel a bit hollow inside after finishing it. It has almost 2 million characters and took me weeks, and now I have to leave these characters behind but I can't stop thinking about them ...

Warning for period-typical polygamy and mutilation for a Qing Dynasty court drama: the shou is a real eunuch, and the gong is married to multiple women and has biological children

The Premise

Thirty-year-old Su Wei dies in the modern world and transmigrates to the Kangxi Era into the body of eight-year-old Su Peisheng, who has just entered the Imperial Palace to become an eunuch. After two years, he is assigned to serve the five-year-old Fourth Prince, Yinzhen. Su Wei knows Yinzhen will eventually become the next Emperor, though currently the young prince looks like he will be lucky to survive until adulthood.

In a story that spans four decades, Yinzhen grows from a child completely at the adults' mercy, to a young noble fighting for room to breath in complicated imperial politics, to a powerful prince with a vision for his nation, eventually making his way to the throne. He falls in love with Su Wei in his teens, and Su Wei stays by his side through all the highs and lows of his turbulent life.

[see end of this post for a more detailed plot summary]

Why I am obsessed with this story

Fantastic plot. This story tracks very closely to real history, and covers a lot of real events like wars, natural disasters, and political turmoil as documented in history -- the author did serious research, even if she did take major artistic liberties. The Qing Dynasty is undergoing a paradigm shift as it consolidates and stabilizes its governance of China. The struggles between the Princes are proxies for the conflicting interests of different political factions and ideologies. Every remark at court is a battle of wits between lots of smart people. As a danmei novel, we experience this through a personal lens, and see these conflicts strain familial relationships, make and break alliances, launch some into stardom and ruin others' lives.

A large, dynamic ensemble cast is the key to a good political drama. Characters in this story are intelligent, principled, and consistent, even if they are not always sympathetic. Each of the "Nine Princes Competing for the throne" have strengths and flaws, people they care about, and people who cares for them. They change and grow with their experiences, and it's not always for the better. The same is true of their consorts, concubines, servants, and allies. There are no pure-hearted saints or dramatic cartoon villains in this story: just people swept up in the tides of history and time.

Interesting female cast. This is by far one of the largest and most dynamic cast of female characters I have ever seen in danmei. At least ten of the Emperor's imperial consorts and just as many women from Yinzhen's generation have active roles in smaller story arcs. They show off incredible social, political, and emotional intelligence, but are also flawed in a human way. They love their family and children and lord husband, maybe too much or maybe not enough. Some learn from their mistakes, and others lose their best selves after being worn down by grief, trauma, and systemic oppression, but most of them have held on, fighting with impossible resilience to make the most out of life in a world that never saw them as fully human.

A complicated main relationship, to put it mildly. The gong is a prince with a legal harem, remains intimate with them throughout his adult life until he has "enough" biological children. The shou is the gong's personal eunuch, a slave who is considered more like property than person, but also his first and closest companion and confidante. For most of the novel, they have "old married couple" vibes, completely comfortable and relaxed around each other, loving and trusting each other unconditionally. Their relationship is consensual and fulfilling, but there is an insurmountable power difference, and it needs to remain an illicit secret forever.

Rich interpersonal relationships. Every relationship in the imperial family is a careful balancing act between emotion and politics. The Emperor loves his children, but has to treat them like subjects. The princes are constantly engaged in vicious competition with each other, but everyone values the few brothers they stay on good terms with. Yinzhen tries to love and raise his children in a gentler way, unlike his own stressful childhood. Su Wei and even Yinzhen have important friends, allies, colleagues, and family outside of their romance. This world come alive with these relationships and the hopes and vulnerabilities they inspire in the characters.

Just a laundry list of characters still living in my head rent-free. Kangxi is a father and an emperor but can't be both at the same time. The Fourth Princess Consort, who is never the same after losing her child. Shiyue is trapped by her gender and social position but keeps trying to convince herself to just live with it. Consort Nian's intelligence and ambition are wasted in an "inner court". The Fourteenth Prince, trying a find a balance between his family and his own ambition. The tragedy that is the original Crown Prince, doomed to fail by history and the impossible expectations of his position. And Dezhu-gongzi, who bought the best writing brushes and kept the soup warm for his lover, becomes a raw, bleeding wound that never heals in the heart of the man he died to protect. I absolutely hate the Eighth-prince in this adaptation, but his tenacity and resilience is sort of amazing.

But on the other hand

Transmigrator Golden Thumb. Su Wei knows the general course of history, but not enough specifics to help Yinzhen too much. Instead, his modern knowledge and experiences are used to make some toys for a young Yinzhen, and starting a business empire with a hotpot chain restaurant. His business ventures take off when Yinzhen needs to lay low in politics and they need to spend some time apart, but it is an exceptionally smooth enterprise. The business "side quest" is necessary to help Su Wei maintain a sense of self away from the power hierarchies of the imperial palace, but imho it feels a bit out-of-place in the narrative.

Su Wei's status as a eunuch and a slave is heavily downplayed in most of the novel; in 80% of the text, he lives in Yinzhen's estate outside the palace and is treated with great respect as the prince's right-hand man. His business ventures are about building an identity as a respected boss and master outside of imperial affairs. Even though the royals still treat Su Wei like a servant, he believes the indignity of slavery is a state of mind that he has saved himself from. It makes the story easier to read, but I do feel like it hand waves something very dark and fundamental to the premise and setting.

Length and Pacing. The novel is nearly two million characters long -- which is twice the length of QJJ, but covers a time frame that is around 15x longer. Slow and uneventful periods get skipped over, so you need to pay attention to the "Year x of the Kangxi era, Month y" annotation for each section. I have a hard time adjusting during Yinzhen's teen years, when the character grows a lot emotionally and physically, and still get a bit of a shock every time another young prince seems to grow out of their cute kid phase to broody teenager in the blink of an eye.

Character Decay, sort of. Remember how I said there are lots of interesting female characters? Well, sadly most of them don't stay that way. With very few exceptions, they either die as interesting and memorable icons of the potential they could have had, or live long enough to become another petty and scheming harem drama stereotype. But maybe that's the point, that such an oppressive and misogynistic system will ruin even the best women trapped in it.

Overall

This story feels like an epic period drama. Su Wei and Yinzhen spends nearly a lifetime together, and their relationships is impossible to ignore, but this story is so much bigger than just the two of them. It takes a lot of time for the author to build such a rich world, and also takes time for the reader to digest it, but it's all worth it in my opinion. All this context really helps the reader appreciate how special and important the main relationship is, and it feels extra-rewarding seeing other characters we have grown to care about also get satisfactory resolutions to their stories.

And Finally, A Plot Summary

[reasonably spoiler-free, covering roughly the first half of the novel]

Su Wei, in the body of Su Peisheng, is the protagonist. But as a prince's personal eunuch, his life is almost entirely defined by serving and supporting the prince.

Fourth Prince Yinzhen's first decade of life is marked by the tension between his adopted mother Imperial Noble Consort Tonggiya and biological mother Consort De, who resents being forced to give him up. The clan of his adopted mother has little interest in maintaining a relationship after her death. His biological mother Consort De has chosen to prioritize the younger children she has raised herself, and holds back on advocating for him. Yinzhen nominally has a prestigious background but very little substantial support.

In a few years, the rivalry between the two oldest princes, the First Prince and Crown Prince, intensifies as they grow up. Powerful officials at court and consorts in the Imperial Harem subtly (or not so subtly) start taking sides. Kangxi Emperor repeatedly sidelines Yinzhen, unwilling to see him building up a power base and complicate the rivalry between the older princes at court. Yinzhen is forced to step back from politics, and only supports the Crown Prince from time to time.

At around fifteen years old, Yinzhen is given two concubines, and soon takes a primary consort. It's around this time that Yinzhen realizes his feelings for Su Wei. They move out of the palace to his estate, where they have more freedom to be together. Yinzhen becomes closer with Su Wei, and keeps a diplomatic but not very emotional relationship with the women in his harem. However, he loves the three children he has with them, and is content to keep things like this for now. (The number and fates of his children differ from history due to Su Wei's presence.)

As time passes, the Eighth Prince grows up to become a substantial competitor against the Crown Prince and First Prince. He is smart, articulate, and strategic about building alliances with younger princes and key officials. Yinzhen's only son, Honghui dies as collateral damage in a political scheme, and it becomes a key turning point in Yinzhen's life.

Yinzhen's primary consort is wrecked by the grief of losing her only biological child, and the entire household is thrown into disarray. Su Wei and Yinzhen can't bring themselves to talk openly about the whole thing, because both of them feel guilty. Their relationship have caused Yinzhen to be emotionally distant with the mothers of his children, while the children's existence continues to be a shield for their illicit affair. And it's worse because they both genuinely love those children.

Su Wei and Yinzhen decide take some time apart. Su Wei travels and gets ideas to start his business. Yinzhen is determined to avenge his son, and dives deep into the dangerous court politics that has killed Honghui. Even though Su Wei has already made small changes in history with his transmigration, the general trajectory of history seems unmoved, and we all know it will get much worse before it gets better ...

[cfkingdoms]

felix mallard, cis male, he/they, 24 — dear all nations, TYR MAGNUSSEN has crossed the city borders to edinburgh to the sound of SEVEN by TAYLOR SWIFT. the PRINCE of DENMARK is known to be AGAINST making peace. HE reminds me of THE GLINT OF A BLADE & BROKEN GLASS AT YOUR FEET however did you know that HE KILLED THEIR FATHER & HAGEN HELPED CONCEAL THE TRUTH?

tw for abuse, injury, eye injury, ptsd, death, murder, unhealthy coping mechanisms

BASICS.

full name: tyr erik valdemar magnussen

nicknames: n/a

age: 24 years old

gender: cis male

pronouns: he/they

orientation: gay

family: magnus hagensen (father, deceased), anneliese ivarsdatter (mother deceased), hagen magnussen (brother, deceased), ivar magnussen (brother), [open] magnussen (brother), clara magnusdatter (sister, deceased), dagmar bjørndatter (sister in law), anneliese hagendatter (niece)

religion: norse pagan

language(s): danish, swedish, polish, russian, english 

status: single

APPEARANCE.

hair color: brown

hair length/style: shoulder length, usually pulled back

eye color: brown

height: 6' (183cm)

dominant hand: right

distinguishing marks: several small scars littered across hands, chest, arms, and chin/jaw ; two especially prominent scars on the left side of the face, one jagged from the temple to the middle of the top lip that runs across where an eye was & one that extends from the bridge of the nose down ; several thin scars on lips, right eyebrow, and left cheek

BIO.

you’re born into war, but not the sort armor will save you from. the youngest of your brood by quite some years, your eldest brother, the future king, is thirteen years your senior. doting and protection would abound, but not from your parents. it’s your brothers who look after you and your sister, hagen the most so. you spend early childhood as his shadow, knowing better than to stray too far from your big brother’s protective watch. straying too far means dealing with him. your father is not a kind man raising his children. your father is a general raising soldiers without a war to send them off to. you’re four when he puts a practice sword in your hand, and barely eight when you’re handed a real one. you never take to it like your brothers do. the sword feels unwieldy and awkward in your hands. hand to hand combat isn’t much better. your father tells you you hit like a woman. it’s not that you can’t fight. it’s that the ways you want to train –daggers, a bow, maybe? not to mention your poison knowledge is extensive– do not align with your father’s vision for you. come to think of it, little about you aligns with what he wants. 

you’re a child when talks of betrothal reach your ears. in your father’s opinion, you’re not much use for your strength, but you can still be useful in alliances. you and a young girl from another clan are promised to each other, and every time a visit is made in either direction you’re all but shoved together, like the forced socialization will help. you don’t like her. it isn’t necessarily anything she says or does or how she acts, you just. you don’t like her. something is off. you don’t have the vocabulary for it, yet, but. everyone tells you she’s beautiful and you’re going to be so lucky and they bring up children. you hate it. it feels wrong. you don’t voice any of this, though. you've been nothing but a disappointment your entire life. you can't fail at this, too. this betrothal will break, later, along with a few other constants from your life. 

and this is how your life proceeds. training, studying, learning when to duck and when to just let him hit you. you learn not to cry. you learn when to just endure the shouting and when you can clamp your hands over your ears to try and block it out. when you’re 12 you take a blade to the face, at your father’s hand. he misses your eye, just barely. the scar is pale now, almost unnoticeable if you just glance. it’s your punishment, he asserts, for losing your focus in training. go stop the bleeding and come back. and so it goes. for years. you learn to take a hit, get back up, get hit again. you're 16 when a guard is instructed to swing on you, and does not concede you the mercy of missing. now, your father asserts, you can look as useless as you are. this will cost you an eye, an injury that spells the end of any hope you might be good enough for him. he's already written you off. there is no comfort to be found with this brute. you've long given up on the idea he's even trying to toughen you up. you're not a hope, you're an example. one thing your father should have anticipated, however, is that you can only kick a dog so many times before it bites. you’re a powder keg waiting for that one, good spark. once you get it, you’re going to blow. 

that spark does come. the two of you had been left alone, and– well, really, the full details are a blur. he was in your face, you’d upset him, somehow. he was yelling, he grabbed you, you wrenched your arm away, tried to shove him away from you, panic overtaking logic. the look in his eyes as he advanced forward is the last clear memory you have. you don’t remember picking up the rock. you don’t remember hitting him. he’s on the ground. you hit him. you hit him. you hit him. you drop the rock and you just….stare at him. he looks…pathetic. he’s still alive. you can see him gasping for air, his eyes going unfocused, and he just lays there. is he dying? oh gods, what have you done? you don’t move. you don’t help him. you stand there, and you freeze. if you get help now, will he survive? but if he survives, you’ll be executed for what you’ve done. your brother can protect you from much of his wrath, but not this. but can you really stand here and wait for him to die? you don’t know. 

it feels like ages later you make your choice. you have to find hagen. even if he cannot protect you, you need him. you're hysterical when you reach him, and he hardly understands what you try to tell him. there’s been an accident. it was an accident. an accident. help is too late. you're both horrifically aware of the seriousness of the situation. you've prided yourself on learning to be quick, to plan for everything. such a skill escapes you now. hagen, though. his plan is simple. it's quick work, and the story quicker still. clearly, magnus had overindulged, as he was known to do, and in his staggering, lost his balance and bashed his head heavily, right on this corner here. what a pity. clearly you’d tried to help. you’ve grown up around most of these people. the idea you could ever have something to do with it, well. it feels preposterous, even if the circumstances are a little strange. the king’s death is ruled a freak accident, and life goes on. 

nightmares plague you. when you close your eyes you swear you see his staring back at you, glassy and unseeing. you swear you can hear him screaming for you. it’s horrific. you barely sleep. you’re prone to nodding off at meals and at meetings and even sitting to watch the others train. you’re easily distracted, often staring off into space, oblivious to what happens around you. you know people are concerned. but what can you do? hagen takes your father's place, and he and dagmar settle into their new roles. you and hagen never breathe a word of what really happened. you'd almost convince yourself of your own lie if you didn't still see the blood on your hands some nights. you do what you can to ignore the emotions it stirs up, falling into beds it would be best for you to avoid, overindulging yourself in a marked uptick. doing anything you still can to keep yourself busy. you think you manage it well, until. hagen is killed, and a third king is on the throne in your lifetime now. losing hagen sends you on a spiral. grief is not an emotion you understand well, having been so young when you lost your mother, guilt ruling over any grief for your father. this, though? this is a pain you haven't yet known.

you do what you can to shake it, to ignore it in favor of the things still left to do. hagen leaves behind a pregnant wife, and not long after his death your niece is brought into the world. from the moment you see her, the connection is strong. call it guilt, call it all you know, but as your brother hovered in your own life, so do you in hers. he isn't here, and you know if he was he would have doted upon her less like a mere princess and more like a girl granted godhood. he cannot, but you are here, and you want to see right done by her. the news of an invitation to scotland has you wary. you do not trust easily, and though...certain things may sway your hand, as it stands you do not trust the people as a whole, and you do not want to participate. but news of the viking clans in attendance leave little choice. they cannot be left to form alliances. you need to secure your own. and so travel you do. had you known then what you now know, you would have said to hell with it all. ivar can go by himself. you will not allow the others to be in harm's way. but you did not know. and so you all went. and now tragedy has struck once more, your sister, your only sister, struck down in the night by a yet unknown assailant. you have your suspicions. by now, little else is left.

[morewoe]

lady   jonquil   of   house   sunglass

stretched   muscles   and   graceful   movements,   fabric   streaming   behind   them   as   they   leap   through   the   air,   she   dances   and   it   looks   like   the   wind,   or   the   water,   or   anything   they   wish;   shoes   worn   through,   until   there's   nothing   between   the   floor   and   their   feet,   the   cool   stone   soothing   the   skin;   a   secret   love   held   deep   in   her   heart,   not   for   any   person   or   place   but   for   the   sword   hidden   under   her   bed,   because   what   is   the   difference   between   a   dance   and   a   fight?

statistics… 

# basic information.

official    name:    jonquil   sunglass.    nicknames:    jon.    noble    title:    lady   of   sweetpoint   sound.    date    of    birth:    12th   day   of   the   eight   month   (august   12th).    age:    23.    birthplace:    sweetport   sound.    home:    sweetport   sound.    nationality:    westerosi.    gender:    demiwoman.    pronouns:    they/she.    orientation:    pansexual.    monikers:    has not been gifted any, yet.    languages:    common tongue, trade talk.    accent:    light,   crownlands.

# physical information.

faceclaim:    amita   suman.    ethnicity:    andal.    hair:    black,   straight   as   an   arrow   and   long,   generally   left   unbound.    eyes:    dark   brown.    height:    5   foot   six.    build:    lithe   but   strong,   a   dancers   strength.    scent:    roses.    dominant    hand:    right.    allergies:    none.    scars:    none,   but   calloused   hands   and   feet   from   practice.    distinguishing    features:    the   mischevious   tilt   to   their   head,   and   the   lightness   to   their   step.    clothing    style:    light   and   loose,   silks   and   chiffons   that   float   in   the   air   and   barely   touch   the   skin.

# personality.

label:     the   entertainer.     mbti:     esfp.     enneagram:     7w8.     element:     air.     star       sign:       leo.     temperament:     choleric.     character       inspirations:       being   tough   enough   to   stand   on   your   own,   being   smart   enough   to   know   that's   not   always   the   best   course   of   action,   ballet   dancers.     deadly       sin:     pride.     heavenly       virtue:     diligence.     godly       parent:       apollo.

# drives.

hobbies:    dance,   lute,   swordplay.    religion:    the   seven   (not   devout).    alliance:    the   crown,   whoever   funds   her   art.    personal   goals:    to   become   known   for   her   own   skills.    would   they   choose   family   or   power?    family,   without   question.

# familial ties.

parent   one:    unknown.    relationship:    father.    parent   two:    unknown.   relationship:    mother.    sibling: ruling   lady   tbd.   relationship:    older   sibling.   sibling:    spouse   of   ruling   lady   relationship:    sibling-in-law.   sibling:    pearse   sunglass.   relationship:    older   brother. sibling:    tbd.   relationship:    older   sibling.   sibling:    alec   marbrand   nee   sunglass.   relationship:    older   brother.   sibling:    aemma   sunglass.   relationship:    younger   sister.   sibling:    garrick   sunglass.   relationship:    younger   brother.

  narrative...

they   do   not   think   of   their   birth   often,   the   hands   they   must   have   passed   through   to   find   themselves   at   sweetport   sound,   in   the   hands   of   house   sunglass.   they   do   not   think   of   their   mother,   whether   they   shared   eyes   or   a   voice,   or   their   father   to   think   if   his   hands   are   calloused   like   theirs.   they   do   not   think   about   any   siblings   they   might   have   out   there,   whether   they   would   have   loved   them   like   the   siblings   they   have   now.   they   do   not   think   about   the   life   they   might   have   had,   whether   they   would   have   loved   it   as   much   as   the   life   they   had   now.

instead,   they   throw   their   entire   being   into   the   performance.   it   starts   from   the   moment   they   wake   to   the   moment   their   head   hits   the   pillow.   long,   lithe   movements,   a   gracefulness   in   everything   that   betrays   their   skill   as   a   dancer.   with   this,   they   have   a   way   to   make   a   name   for   themselves,   not   just   to   rely   on   the   one   given   to   them.   they   travel   short   distances   from   home,   performing   at   small   events   to   generous   applause,   and   less   generous   payment.   they   hone   their   craft   until   it   is   perfect,   until   every   move   is   sharp,   and   soft,   and   wonderful.   they   fly   in   silks   like   a   bird,   and   think   not   of   the   small   bones   that   would   be   crushed   if   they   fell   instead.   and   when   invited   to   the   capitol,   they   see   it   as   a   chance   to   break   into   a   bigger   world.

in   quiet   moments,   they   pull   out   a   sword   purchased   with   the   small   amount   of   money   they   had   earned,   practicing   in   the   dark   of   night,   copying   sights   seen.   it   is   not   a   skill   they   can   monetise,   so   it   a   skill   they   do   not   advertise,   not   even   to   those   they   love   the   most.

# wanted  connections.

partner:   friend/platonic soulmate.

they   travel   together,   perform   together,   have   grown   together   as   people.   one   is   not   likely   to   be   seen   without   the   other,   and   when   jonquil   arrived   in   the   capitol,   they   were   not   far   behind.   an   artist   themselves,   together   they   work   together   as   halves   of   the   same   whole   towards   the   same   goal,   fame.

benefactor:   neutral.

someone   who   has   seen   jonquil   perform,   and   now   funds   it.   they   perform   at   all   their   events,   and   are   indebted   to   them   for   the   leg   up   into   this   world.

# random headcanons

their love of dance has directly led to a love of swords. the movements are similar, and they find simple joy in the weight of a weapon in their hands.

her arts of choice are dance, and the lute. has a voice fine for around a campfire, but not so great that she ever performs with it. hopeless at art, and doesn't enjoy it (thinks its too still)

has a pet cat back home, it's name is silks and she misses her a whole lot (ask them about their cat if you want to be stuck for twelve hours)

doesn't think before they speak, or of they do its for about half a second. embodies making inside thoughts outside thoughts

loves her siblings a whole lot. so much that it needs its own dot point.

[warningsine]

NEW DELHI (AP) — Nearly 970 million people — or over 10% of the global population — are eligible to vote in India’s general elections that start Friday and last to June 1. The mammoth exercise is the biggest anywhere in the world and will take 44 days before results are announced on June 4.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a third successive term. He will face off against a broad but flailing alliance of opposition parties that are struggling to challenge his appeal. Most surveys predict Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party will win comfortably, cementing him as one of the country’s most popular and consequential leaders.

WHY DOES IT TAKE SO LONG?

It boils down to two key reasons: the sheer size of India, the world’s most populous country, and the astonishing level of logistics needed to ensure that every registered voter is able to cast their ballot.

Over the years, the duration of voting has wavered. It took nearly four months to complete the vote in India’s first elections in 1951-1952, after it gained independence from British rule, and just four days in 1980. In 2019, voting took 39 days, and this year’s election is the second longest.

With 969 million registered voters, the size of India’s electorate is bigger than the combined population of the 27 European Union member states. This includes 18 million first-time voters, and around 197 million who are in their 20s.

The vote to choose 543 lawmakers for the lower house of Parliament takes place over seven phases. India’s 28 states and eight federal territories will vote at different times. Each phase is one day, with the first held on April 19 and the last on June 1.

While some states will cast their ballots in a day, voting elsewhere may take longer. The largest state, Uttar Pradesh, which is the size of Brazil with 200 million people, will vote on all seven days, for example.

General elections in India tend to take weeks to conduct, but Modi’s opponents also say it gives him an advantage as it makes it easier for the prime minister, the public face of the BJP, to travel and campaign, especially in states where they are weak.

EVERY VOTE COUNTS

The Election Commission of India, which oversees the vote, has to make sure there is a voting booth available within 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) of every voter.

“Election officials have to travel to great lengths to ensure that even a single voter can exercise their franchise,” said Chakshu Roy of PRS Legislative Research, an independent think tank.

Some 15 million election officials and security staff will traverse the country’s deserts and mountains — sometimes by boat, foot and even on horseback — to try to reach every voter.

It can be especially arduous. In 2019, when India last held elections, a team of polling officers trekked over 480 kilometers (300 miles) for four days just so a single voter in a hamlet in the remote state of Arunachal Pradesh, which borders China, could exercise their right.

Officials also traveled to a village tucked away high up in the Himalayas in 2019 to install a booth at 15,256 feet (4,650 meters), the highest polling station anywhere in the world.

This time too, polling stations will be installed in remote places, including one inside a wildlife sanctuary in southern Kerala state and another in a shipping container in western Gujarat state.

TIGHT SECURITY

Experts say a key reason behind the multiphase elections in India is about security.

Tens of thousands of federal security forces, who usually guard borders for instance, are freed up and deployed alongside state police to prevent violence and transport electoral officials and voting machines.

Deadly clashes involving supporters of rival political parties, particularly in the eastern state of West Bengal, had marred previous elections. But such violence has tapered over the years, thanks to heavy security, and voting has been relatively peaceful.

“Look at the geography of the country … there are rivers, mountains, snow, jungles … think of the security forces’ movements. They will have to travel through the length and breadth of the country,” Rajiv Kumar, the chief election commissioner, said on Saturday. “We will walk the extra mile so voters don’t have to.”

[mariacallous]

A lot of ink has been spilled on Germany’s supposed stinginess, hypocrisy, and lack of a geopolitical compass. The country’s 2025 draft budget, approved by the governing coalition after some acrimony, is halving aid to Ukraine to just over $4 billion and offers little prospect of future assistance while narrowly meeting NATO’s 2 percent defense spending target—all of it to satisfy the country’s strict public debt rules.

Here’s a thought. Instead of the constant hand-wringing and trying to shame Germans into playing a geopolitical role commensurate to their size and centrality in the European Union, perhaps their allies should just leave them be. Berlin does not want to turn the Bundeswehr into a formidable fighting force, project hard power, or use its defense industrial base to arm Ukraine and other Eastern European nations. And perhaps that is OK.

None of this is to downplay the assistance that Germany has already provided to Ukraine—which exceeds $16 billion, making Germany the second-largest donor after the United States—the $100 billion-plus Zeitenwende fund, or the significant economic costs of essentially decoupling the German economy from Russian natural gas.

However, it is time to drastically reduce the centrality of Germany in the U.S. conversation about the trans-Atlantic partnership—on both sides of the aisle.

Democratic administrations have long seen Berlin as their first point of contact in Europe. Postwar Germany seems to fit the Obama-esque fantasy of a country that has moved to the right side of history, chastised by historic experience and committed to taming its darker instincts and upholding the rules-based international system. As a result, Democrats—not least President Barack Obama, who in 2016 called then-Chancellor Angela Merkel “probably [his] closest international partner these last eight years”—have filtered their perception of European affairs through German lenses.

The Biden administration has continued in treating Germany as its European interlocutor of choice. This has been most notable in the escalation management involved in military assistance to Ukraine. Washington and Berlin have gone in tandem first denying and then providing vital weapons systems to Ukraine, as well as imposing restrictions on their use in order to keep the conflict contained. In some cases, such coordination was explicit—most notably the U.S. decision to supply Ukraine with M1 Abrams main battle tanks in January 2023 followed and was justified by Germany’s decision to send its own Leopard tanks.

For Republicans, especially those close to former President Donald Trump, Germany is a case study of everything that has gone wrong with U.S. alliances: an effete nation imbued with progressive dogma and free-riding selfishly on U.S. security guarantees. The war in Iraq brought U.S.-German relations to a low point during the Bush administration. Merkel’s perceived welcoming of hundreds of thousands of refugees into Europe further antagonized U.S. conservatives, as did Germany’s energy dependence on Russian energy and the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, launched after Russia’s annexation of Crimea and invasion of the Donbas.

Neither lionizing nor constantly bashing Germany strengthens the trans-Atlantic partnership. Never mind the obvious naivete of a worldview in which multilateralism and trade have supposedly turned hard power obsolete. More importantly, unlike during the Cold War when Germany was a front-line state and its military had some heft, NATO is no longer about Germany. Germany’s territory is not being contested, and the country is surrounded by thoroughly benign neighbors in all directions. Should one be surprised that German voters do not support massive increases in defense spending?

Kicking Germany out of NATO is neither feasible nor desirable. However, the dirty little secret is that from the perspective of hard security, not much would happen if Germany were to somehow disappear from the alliance—perhaps with the exception of the need to find new air bases and logistical centers outside Germany. Given its size, Germany contributes disappointingly little to the alliance’s joint capabilities—yet it is also asking for very little, if anything, in return. Most importantly, the country is supremely likely to invoke Article 5, ever.

The centrality of Germany in U.S. thinking about NATO is an unhelpful remnant of the Cold War era. Today, however, NATO is about protecting the countries of its eastern flank—from Finland in the north, through the Baltics and Poland, to Romania in the south. On balance, the presence of Western European countries, including Germany, in the alliance is helpful, but it does not affect the fundamental strategic rationale for the alliance’s existence.

In other words, the imperative of deterring Russian aggression in Eastern Europe through ironclad security guarantees exists independently of Germany’s behavior. Nor is it an act of charity from Washington. Rather, it is an expression of the core national interest in keeping a single foreign power from dominating the Eurasian landmass—and in preventing another large-scale European war. Moreover, the immediate beneficiaries of Article 5 guarantees—think Poland, Finland, or Lithuania—are no free-riders. Not only do they take their obligations within the alliance seriously, but they can also be Washington’s best advocates within the EU—including, in the Lithuanian case, on the question of China.

True, given Germany’s current economic size, nothing ever happens in the EU without Germany. Yet, time and time again, not much happens with Germany either. Just as Berlin has resisted calls for a substantial military buildup, it has also thrown water repeatedly on efforts to turn the EU into a properly federalized institution with real fiscal and geopolitical heft. Especially given the state of German politics today, the prospect of a genuine German leadership on the European and global stage is akin to waiting for Godot in the eponymous play.

While engagement is necessary, the constant cycle of hectoring Berlin or building up expectations about historic turning points, which are then promptly disappointed, seems to be an inferior strategy to simply working around Germany to build up military power across NATO’s regions that are threatened by Russia. The same is true of the EU. Countries frustrated with Germany’s intransigence ought to think about building coalitions of the willing, conceivably under the rubric of so-called enhanced cooperation to proceed with projects of their mutual interest, effectively leaving Germany behind. Such an approach may become completely unavoidable if the next federal election brings the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) to power—or indeed if it results in yet another broad and dysfunctional coalition designed to keep the AfD out of power.

No U.S. policymakers get upset over Austria’s or Switzerland’s supposed neutrality—it is simply taken for granted that the foreign policy of otherwise friendly nations operates within different parameters from the United States’ own and that the perception of no outside threats breeds complacency.

The same is largely true of Germany. Yes, Berlin remains a treaty ally—but so are several countries with which the United States does not see eye to eye on important strategic issues, such as Turkey or Hungary. To be sure, we should be hoping for a more strategically minded German leadership than the assortment of box-ticking accountants who occupy most, though not all, positions of influence in Berlin. But, as things stand, the United States shouldn’t just grant Germany its current privileged position to shape the trans-Atlantic relationship, nor should it go on an anti-European crusade simply to punish German fecklessness.