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sofreddie · 2 months

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Resigned 7

Summary: Jensen receives a call that his Omega has been arrested. Arriving at the police station, things don't go as expected.

Characters: Alpha!Jensen x Omega!Reader, Alpha!Jared, Beta!Clif, Officer Williams, OE Birch, Others

Warnings: A/B/O Dynamics, Omegas are treated as second-class citizens/treated badly, Violence, Derogatory Language and Remarks, Asshole Alphas, Whipping/Punishment

WC: 3.648

A/N: This part got a little longer, but there was a lot to fit in here. Continuing with the difficult themes, please heed the warnings. I am planning to post a new chapter each Sunday (as possible). Feedback is appreciated! :)

Resigned Masterlist

My Masterlist

Part 6

Y/N had never been in a police station, either visiting or jailed. She didn’t know what to expect, but it met her dismal expectations. She and Angeline - the other Omega who was arrested along with her - were led through many doors and into an empty holding room that had concrete benches built into the wall, a steel sink and toilet combination in the corner, and nothing else.

Angeline was retrieved first, led away by a police officer and the Omega Enforcement representative. The door was shut and locked behind her, leaving Y/N alone in the cold and barren room. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but it seemed like hours she had been left to sit with nothing but her thoughts. Her mind spiraled as she thought about her Alpha.

She missed Jensen even more now that she was arrested, but she was terrified that he would be angry with her. She shouldn’t have gotten involved in the situation, but she couldn’t stand by and do nothing as another person was abused right before her eyes. Maybe others could walk on and think nothing of it, but she couldn’t.

She supposed that her current situation was why no one had intervened on her behalf. It didn’t help that her Alpha was a well-known individual. She dropped her head into her hands, wondering if he would allow her to be punished this time. He’d saved her once, but twice? Hell, maybe he’d insist upon it.

“Omega.”

Y/N turned to see an Alpha officer unlocking the cell door, and she rose to her feet, cautious over the Alpha and perturbed by his use of his commanding tone. Exiting the cell, she bowed her head and waited for him to direct her where to go. She didn’t want to cause any more problems, and after the earlier altercation, she wasn’t looking to get into it with another Alpha.

“Not feeling so tough anymore, Little Omega?” the officer sneered.

She did her best to ignore it but couldn’t help the scents of distress and disgust her biology sent off in waves. Jensen didn’t want her on any suppressants or medications, and she agreed, though it was making things more difficult in the present.

The officer walked her to a large counter where several officers were bustling. He directed her to stand in one spot as he approached the desk to begin her booking. The OE representative that drove her there came around the counter, holding a small device in his hand. Brushing her hair back from her neck, he held the device to her collar until it beeped, then pulled it back to examine it.

“Mrs. Ackles,” the OE spoke. “I am Simon Birch, Omega Enforcement Representative for this jurisdiction. As your Alpha is not present, nor were they present during your arrest, I will serve as your ‘Alpha’ until he can take possession.”

Take possession. Like a damn piece of property, a thing to be owned.

“Ackles?” the escorting officer parroted. “No way! You’re the one he claimed in that hotel?”

“Officer Williams, please,” Birch interrupted, reviewing the information on his device. “It says here you were previously charged with False Representation. Posing as a Beta?” Y/N swallowed hard but didn’t respond, her eyes darting over the officers, pretending not to be paying attention to her situation. "As I mentioned on the ride over here, you are being charged with interfering in the affairs of an Alpha and his omega, assaulting an Alpha, property damage, and inciting a riot. Alright,” he turned towards the desk, and the officers returned to work. “Let’s book her and start her on Level 1 protocols while we contact her Alpha.”

Officer Williams grabbed Y/N by the upper arm, tugging her into a small cell. After removing her cuffs, he closed the door behind her. This room was barely big enough for a small concrete bed and the same sink and toilet contraption from before, except there was what looked like a TV screen embedded into the wall behind what she assumed would be plexiglass or something like it to prevent the TV from being broken. She didn’t understand why a TV would be in her cell until it flickered on.

Omega Rehabilitation—it reads across the screen in bold type: Part 1: Understanding Omega Laws and Responsibilities.

Y/N rolled her eyes, wondering how many parts there were. Not knowing how long she would be there or what would happen to her, she settled in to watch the video, hoping it would at least help her pass the time.

Jensen sighed in relief as he entered his trailer, shutting the door behind him and blocking out the world. While he was used to the long hours and intense schedule, he was a newly mated Alpha and missed his Omega with every fiber of his being. He hated that he hadn't seen her properly in days. At least he had the next day off before jumping into another several-days-long filming schedule.

More than eager to get home, Jensen rushed through changing. Hand on the trailer door, he paused as his phone rang. With a smile, he retrieved the phone from his pocket, hoping it was Y/N. Instead, he saw an unfamiliar number on the caller ID. His smile fell from his face, morphing into a frown as a sinking feeling settled in his gut like a lead weight.

"Jensen," he answered curtly.

"Mr. Jensen Ackles?" A man's voice spoke. "This is Simon Birch with the Omega Enforcement office. You are the registered Alpha for one Y/N Ackles?"

"Yes," he responded, holding back the growl growing in the back of his throat over having to talk to the OE. He despised the organization and everything they stood for, and they had been an absolute nuisance in his and Y/N’s lives. His blood pumped harder each second as he fretted over his Omega’s wellbeing. "Has something happened?"

"I'm afraid your Omega was arrested after attacking an Alpha. There are several additional charges related to the incident. You'll need to come to the station to sign some paperwork and discuss options."

Options?

Why was Y/N arrested? What the Hell had happened?

Attacking a random Alpha didn’t seem like something she would do; there must be more to the story. Jensen rushed out of the trailer and through the lot, intent on getting to the SUV where Clif was waiting to take him and Jared home.

"I'm on my way," he seethed through clenched teeth. After getting the address details and ending the call, he climbed into the back of the idling SUV.

Jared was already waiting, laughing at something he and Clif had been discussing before Jensen’s arrival. His nostrils flared as Jensen's angered and worried scent grew potent in the confines of the vehicle.

"What happened?" Jared growled, instantly defending his friend, whom he considered an extended pack.

"The OE," Jensen huffed, Jared growling again in response. "Y/N was arrested. Something about attacking an Alpha.”

He looked pleadingly at Jared, feeling himself lose control. His anger and fear brought his feral edge back to the surface. With his Omega threatened, Jensen was liable to go primal, which wouldn't help anyone. Jensen gave the address he was provided, and Clif drove them directly to the station, knowing neither he nor Jared would want Jensen to go there alone.

Jensen growled with every huffed breath, his scent potent and sour, his eyes tinged with bright gold from reaching the edge of fertility. Jared was angry, too, knowing he wouldn't react much better than Jensen if his Omega had been taken into custody. Neither of them agreed with OE laws. While he doubted that Y/N would have caused a scene, his mind ran through a million scenarios of what they could be walking into.

Jared and Jensen stood side-by-side when they entered the facility, and Clif entered behind them in case of any problems. The two large Alphas and their Beta bodyguard drew the attention of all officers in their vicinity, their potent scents wafting angrily through the building.

"Can I help you, gentleman?" An officer behind the front desk asked before breaking into a big grin. "Hey, you're those boys from Supernatural, ain'tcha?"

"Yes, we are,” Jared stepped forward and took charge to keep things calm. He knew Jensen was too far gone to be rational and well-spoken, and his scent was already drawing more unwanted attention. “I’m Jared Padalecki, and this is Jensen Ackles. We’re here about his Omega, Y/N Ackles."

The officer typed on the computer, looking up the details before his expression fell from glee to disapproval. Jared could hear other officers commenting toward Jensen and Clif, but he was focused on the officer behind the desk, hoping they could get through this peacefully. Jensen's increasing scent indicated an oncoming, stress-induced rut and Jared didn't want to be anywhere near him - or him near anyone else - when it fully hit.

"Um," the officer plastered a false smile on his face. "Just let me go fetch the OE."

Jared huffed and rolled his eyes, hating that he had to deal with the OE, that they were involved, or even that they existed. He was still determining if he could smooth this over since he had no legal connection to Y/N. He sent up a silent prayer as the douche in a suit approached that Jensen could hold it together.

"Mr. Ackles?" the OE asked Jared, who shook his head. Jensen immediately chimed up with a grunt and a step towards the suit. "Ah, yes," he flashed a professional smile. "I am Simon Birch, the OE assigned to this jurisdiction. I have several papers you'll need to sign, and we can review a list of rehabilitation facilities for which you can choose to have your Omega sent for her sentence."

"Sentence?" Jensen parrotted.

Birch chuckled. "I noted on your Omega file that you're new to Omega ownership. No, Omegas are not entitled to the same proceedings as Alphas and Betas."

Jensen’s body trembled with rage as he looked over the papers, his scent growing more sour and potent with each word Birch spoke.

"No," Jensen stated firmly. "I decline to have her placed in a facility. I'm taking her home."

Silence fell among the officers in the building before heated whispers were exchanged. Jensen continued to stare down Birch, who spluttered.

"Your Omega attacked an Alpha in broad daylight and started a riot! She deserves to be-"

"To be what?" Jensen growled.

Several officers stood alert as his scent grew, sensing a possible altercation. Jensen was ready to tear them apart with his teeth to get to Y/N if necessary, but what little rational mind he had left begged him to keep his cool. Going feral Alpha on a room full of police wouldn't do anybody any favors. Despite his state, Birch and this asshole Alpha cop who keeps eyeballing him and muttering snide remarks are about to push him past his limits; consequences be damned.

"Deserves to be whipped like the bitch she is for what she did," the asshole cop spoke, stepping up to Jensen with his thumbs tucked in his belt. "You're a sorry excuse for an Alpha. You and your Omega need training!"

"Officer Williams, please!" Birch chastised the officer, but it went unheard.

Jared watched in what felt like slow motion as Jensen's fist connected with Officer William's jaw, his hands leaving his belt and flying into the air as he lost his balance and was caught off guard. Jensen bared his teeth as he charged for another strike, but a second officer attempted to intervene. Jensen shoved him easily and turned back toward Williams, only to see Clif blocking the attack meant for him.

Jared was pushed to the side as several officers moved in to restrain Jensen and Clif, cuffing them both and taking them into custody. He was shocked at how quickly everything spiraled out of control. After they were out of sight, Birch turned to Jared angrily.

"You need to leave. I suggest you call a lawyer for your friends."

Jared heeded the warning, rushing out of the building and grateful to have avoided altercations. Once outside, he took a deep breath and pulled out his phone, calling the lawyer he and Jensen shared.

Birch completed the paperwork for the booking of both Jensen Ackles and his Omega. They were an example—in an ever-growing pool of examples—of the changing tides in the air. Many people were rising and protesting on behalf of Omega Rights and Equality all over the globe. But Birch was a man of tradition—rules and laws that everyone must follow, whether or not they agree—and he had a job to do.

"Williams," Birch asked the officer who had completed his paperwork beside him. "Who here on staff is certified in Omega Rehabilitation and Whipping Techniques?"

"I am," he offered, standing and offering himself as needed.

Birch didn't like Williams—the man was a hot-headed Alpha if he'd ever met one—but he might be just what they needed to rehabilitate the disobedient and sheltered Omega. The station had already received calls from their lawyer negotiating their release. He knew it was only a matter of hours before they'd be let out, likely with simple probation and training.

With Williams and two other officers in tow, Birch went to Y/N's cell. The door opened, and the two officers moved to cuff Y/N and attach the cuffs to a chain in the ceiling, forcing her onto her tiptoes with a cry of pain. The officers stood back as Williams moved behind her, and Birch stood before her, ensuring he had Y/N's attention.

"Omega, you are charged with interfering in the affairs of an Alpha and his Omega, assaulting an Alpha, causing property damage, and inciting a riot. You will receive one lash for each charge. Additionally, I've decided to add the previous charge of False Representation, as this is a grave charge that should not have gone unpunished. Officer Williams, please deliver five lashings to the Omega."

With the first lash, Y/N called for her Alpha, the second drawing a raw scream as her body jerked. Each lash from the modified horse-whip landed multiple blows from the numerous strips. By the fifth and final blow, Y/N was limp in her bindings, her back throbbing in pain, tears, and snot, and saliva dripping from her in copious amounts.

"Take her down and remove the cuffs. She can lay her and continue the videos until she is released."

The officers followed Birch's command, leaving Y/N on the bed and locking the door behind them as they left. Birch was undeterred by her sobs, satisfied in knowing he followed the law and ensured proper recourse was taken.

Jensen stepped out into the chilly night air, the sedative they had given him making him feel drunk. He knew he had been inside for several hours but wasn't sure exactly how long. The familiar face of his lawyer greeted him, and Jensen relaxed a little, knowing he was in good hands.

"Hey Carl," Jensen slurred tiredly as he walked towards the SUV he'd spotted with Clif and Jared waiting. He was grateful that Clif had been released already, though he was concerned that he didn't see Y/N.

"Jensen," Carl returned as he kept stride next to his client. "So listen, they should be bringing your Omega out shortly-"

"Y/N."

"What?"

"Her name is Y/N," Jensen said sternly. "She's more than just an Omega, Carl."

"Okay. Y/N. They will release her soon. In the meantime, we should discuss the situation. This is a second offense for her. That means she's on probation, and a third offense, no matter the charge, will mean automatic rehabilitation for her and a ton of fines for you." When Jensen merely grunted, Carl continued. "As of right now, you must complete Alpha Ownership and Rut Management courses or face jail time."

"This is bullshit," Jared grumbled, followed by an enormous yawn. Since he'd left the station, he'd been busy calling everyone from lawyers to family to the producers and showrunners. Now, well after midnight, he was running on fumes. Silence fell between the men as they waited for Y/N's release, each contemplating the more significant problem at large.

Thirty minutes later, Y/N was escorted out of the facility by Birch, who gripped her by the upper arm as he dragged her toward her Alpha. She could smell Jensen's potent Alpha scent from across the lot. It was like his rut but stronger and tinged with a sourness from his anger. The closer they came, the more she grew terrified of Jensen, reminding her of when they met. She expected he would be upset, but not to the degree he was displaying.

Suddenly, jail seemed a better option.

Someone like Williams or Birch, she'd almost expect their cruelty. But not from her Alpha, not Jensen. Not after all the progress they made and how he worked to show her he wasn't like that. Maybe he wasn't, but perhaps his inner Alpha was. Her experience with his rut didn't leave her expecting the best circumstances. All the videos she watched said her Alpha was expected to punish her and how. She couldn't handle a lashing from Jensen; it would break her.

Stopping several feet from the group, Birch released Y/N, gently pushing her towards her Alpha as Carl stepped forward to collect documents. She winced as his hand made contact with her back. Keeping her head bowed, she hurried to Jensen's side, standing beside him and waiting.

"I've contacted the OE office in Austin. You're expected to report to your local OE Representative as part of your release and probation," Birch spoke clearly to Jensen and Y/N, ignoring the others before walking back into the station.

Jensen growled through bared teeth, stepping forward only to be stopped by Jared. Clig moved into action, guiding everyone into the vehicle and keeping himself between the group and the officer. Carl bid them farewell and promised to stay in touch before entering his car.

The ride was silent; Jensen pressed against the car door, focusing outside the window as the sedative wore off. Once they arrived at the condo, Jensen took Y/N by the hand and rushed through the foyer and up to their apartment. The door slammed shut behind them as she quivered, wondering what punishments her Alpha would deliver.

"What happened?" Jensen huffed as he faced her, the Alpha command in his tone undeniable.

"I'm sorry, Alpha," Y/N said, bowing her head. Afraid to look into his eyes, she swallowed hard and retold the events. "I wanted to go for a walk, just see the city, a-and I saw an Alpha. He was shouting at a woman and shaking her, and people were just walking by."

She finally looked up at him and met his gaze, "I was triggered. It reminded me of how we met, and I had to help her." She dropped her gaze and shook her head. "He slapped me, and I shoved him. He fell into a display. A bunch of people stopped then, and they were about to whip me in the street," she hiccupped a sob. "I should have let them."

"Why would you say that?" Jensen growled. He had to admit he would have intervened as well. He admired the fire within his Omega. But he was not thrilled at some random Alpha touching his Omega, let alone slapping her. Why in the Hell would she wish he had?

"Because I'm a lousy Omega," she cried. "Because, in the end, I was whipped anyway. If I had let it happen in the street, you would never have gotten in trouble because of me. And now you're angry with me and will punish me."

Jensen rushed forward and enveloped her in his embrace as she could no longer hold back her sobs. "I'm pissed at the situation, not at you," he insisted, noticing her flinch and her cries get harder as he held her close. It was then his mind fully registered what she had said. "Did you say you were whipped anyway?"

When she nodded, his heart shattered. Scooping her into his arms, he carried her into the bathroom, setting her on her feet and carefully undressing her. Turning her around, he examined her back, and several pink marks adorned her back. They looked painful but hadn't broken the skin. Jensen closed his eyes and breathed deep, trying to control the raging Alpha that wanted to go back to that station and beat every last one of them for touching her. Instead, he composed himself and treated her wounds before slipping one of his t-shirts over her head and carrying her into bed.

Lying down, he curled himself around her and tucked her as close as he could, careful to avoid her injuries. She was home and safe in his arms, but he couldn't relax. He was terrified that something would happen every time she left the house. One more strike, even the slightest offense, and she would be taken from him and forcibly placed into a facility.

These concerns she'd voiced to him in Texas, and he swore to her that Vancouver would be better. He didn't want to live like this; he didn't want her to live like this. As she drifted to sleep, he stayed awake, his rut still simmering but satiated by her presence beside him in their bed. He watched over her as he contemplated what he needed to do to eradicate Omega laws and take down Omega Enforcement. He was ready to fight with all he had until his last breath.

PART 8

FOREVERS:

@lyarr24

@hobby27

@kazsrm67

@maliburenee

@440mxs-wife

@writercole

@spnbaby-67

@all-alone-he-turns-to-stone

@leigh70

@laycblack

RPF:

@smoothdogsgirl

JENSEN ACKLES:

@slamminmine

@deandreamernp

@akshi8278

@mimaria420

RESIGNED:

@b3autyfuldisast3r

@sexyvixen7

@deans-spinster-witch

@deans-baby-momma

@muhahaha303

#resigned #Alpha!jensen x Omega!reader #Alpha!Jensen #Jensen Ackles #reader insert #supernatural #spn #supernatural fanfic #spn fanfic #supernatural rpf #spn rpf #rpf #a/b/o dynamics

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mariacallous · 5 months

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The Israeli attack on a humanitarian convoy in Gaza in early April that killed seven aid workers with the U.S.-based aid group World Central Kitchen has ignited a fierce global backlash against Israel’s policies of engagement in the territory. The attack involved the successive firing of three missiles at three vehicles, driven by suspicions of a Hamas combatant’s presence within the convoy, according to reports.

In Israel, the event is being portrayed as an accident, “a grave mistake stemming from a serious failure due to a mistaken identification, errors in decision-making, and an attack contrary to the Standard Operating Procedures,” as the Israeli military’s investigation team concluded. In humanitarian circles, it is seen as evidence of a culture that “treats Gaza as a free-fire zone with total impunity for gross attacks on civilians,” as Jeremy Konyndyk, the president of Refugees International who served in both the Obama and Biden administrations, has suggested.

But for the discussion to be useful, it should progress beyond these immediate interpretations to examine the deeper cultural patterns underlying such incidents. Most crucially, it must scrutinize the shift in military policy and ethos that can be traced back to the Elor Azaria affair of 2016-17. Azaria was an Israeli conscript who was captured on video executing a wounded and immobilized Palestinian assailant in Hebron. The Israeli military prosecuted Azaria for manslaughter and sentenced him to 18 months in prison.

While the case demonstrated the military’s commitment to its own ethical codes, it also sparked widespread protests from right-wing factions and a general backlash against military procedures. The army was accused of failing to support Azaria and creating a culture in which soldiers would hesitate to use force against Palestinian militants. To counter this claim, and from that point forward, the military began to announce the number of Palestinian fighters killed in its operations, demonstrating that its forces did not hesitate to engage.

Under the leadership of the military’s chief of staff, Aviv Kochavi, from 2019 to 2023, the killing-based criteria were reinforced. Kochavi’s goal was to remake the army into a “lethal, efficient, and innovative” fighting force—in other words, a death-generating army. He promoted this vision by enhancing the precision of weapon systems, improving the coordination between forces and intelligence, and increasing the rate of fire.

Kochavi’s directive for field commanders to assess, at the end of each combat phase, the number of enemy forces killed and objectives destroyed—rather than solely focusing on territorial conquest—signified a shift toward necrotactics, where the primary goal of military engagement is killing the enemy. Killing becomes not just an outcome of warfare but its principal aim.

The approach of using body counts as a metric of success has notably intensified during the current war. Soon after the Oct. 7 attack, the Israeli military began consistently reporting the number of Hamas fighters killed, echoing the way U.S. generals announced enemy fatalities during the Vietnam War—a scenario where traditional metrics for evaluating combat success are elusive, thus making the body count, rather than the strategic objectives achieved, the primary indicator of success. This was particularly evident as the Israeli death toll ticked up and the stated objective of dismantling Hamas appeared increasingly unattainable.

In fact, the military appears to have established a quantitative goal from the outset. According to the journalist Yuval Abraham in +972 Magazine, the Israeli army developed an artificial intelligence-based program named Lavender, designed to identify targets for assassination. This system tagged approximately 37,000 Palestinians in Gaza as suspected militants, marking their residences (and therefore their families as well) for potential airstrikes. The deployment of Lavender contributed to the deaths of around 15,000 Palestinians in the war’s first six weeks, according to the report.

By setting a numerical target, the Israeli military shifted from viewing outcomes as a measure of progress—like neutralizing the threat posed to Israel from Gaza—to making body counts the main standard. The trend has been reinforced by a pervasive adoption of the language of killing among military commanders. “Now we will go forward and kill them all,” Brig. Gen. Roman Goffman was quoted as saying just before the ground operation in Gaza began, in just one prominent example.

As Israel faces an impasse in Gaza, lacking a politically articulated exit strategy, the reliance on killing and its quantification as a metric for success becomes increasingly pronounced, leading to the erosion of operational constraints. This shift was evident in the recent raid at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, which inflicted extensive damage to Gaza’s most crucial health care infrastructure. The hunt for Hamas members has, to a significant degree, become an end in itself, complicating the dynamics of the conflict and placing military objectives above political resolutions.

This shift provides some context for the tragic killing of the aid convoy team—though it makes it no less disturbing. Once one or two armed individuals were spotted in the convoy, their neutralization became a top priority, apparently eclipsing overarching strategic considerations—factors that should have been incorporated at the tactical level. Fundamentally, such a situation warranted an approach aimed at preventing civilian casualties, especially along a deconflicted route designated for humanitarian aid delivery and when no direct threat was posed to Israeli troops. Moreover, the overarching political rationale should have prioritized safeguarding humanitarian missions, given the potential repercussions for Israel’s global standing amid the crisis in Gaza.

Yet the events unfolded with a seeming obsession for lethal action, as vividly illustrated by reporting in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz: Upon spotting a gunman or two, Israeli forces targeted three successive vehicles from the air. After the first one was hit, passengers moved to a second vehicle, which was then struck by a missile. And when the wounded were transferred to a third vehicle, it too was fired on. This appears to be a case of obsessive kill confirmation, overshadowing the principles of necessity, proportionality, and the sanctity of civilian life.

Hence, the fundamental issue extends beyond merely revising the rules of engagement or monitoring their application more closely, as such measures alone would prove inadequate to prevent future incidents. The problem also transcends the flawed assumption that every part of Gaza can be considered a free-fire zone where engaging Palestinian militants indiscriminately is justified. What is crucial is dismantling the prevailing culture that equates killing with military success.

Yagil Levy is a professor of political sociology and public policy at the Open University of Israel. His most recent book in English is: Whose Life Is Worth More? Hierarchies of Risk and Death in Contemporary Wars.

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tgrailwar-zero · 10 months

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Well, after our last big attempt to destroy the Solar Cell ended in failure we had our memories wiped and were forced to fight against each other in simulated grail wars. Anytime one finished we were thrust into another. A version of you was there for at least a few. Apparently we went through at least a trillion or something. Our memories were also wiped after each war to keep us fighting each other. We only managed to break free with the last one and ended up in this whole affair. Might have had something to do with most (if not all) the Servants that were summoned in that loop being versions of you and the other guys we had upon our initial incursion. From time to time we manage to recall bits and pieces of stuff either from our original arrival in the Solar Cell or a previous grail war loop, but that’s all.

Also, we seem to be a lot less callous than we were in the past. Probably something to do with us not longer having personal memories of the absolutely backstabbing life that is living in mage society and especially Clock Tower.

MUSASHI: "Ah, I see..."

You've gotten this sort of 'oh, wow'-type of reaction before. Best to just leave that one be for now. She's picked up enough from the conversation so far regardless.

MUSASHI: "Charlemagne... the name kinda sounds familiar, but I'm not totally sure... as for the other questions- not really. Sorry, I'm not much of a computer person."

INVADER: [ "We do not have that capability yet, and I cannot properly analyze the spell. However, Musashi possesses an innate Magic Resistance as a Saber-class. Whatever spell cast should have a weakened effect on her, but…" ]

MUSASHI chuckled, sheepishly.

MUSASHI: "Ah, you noticed that, huh? Basically. I'm sure I could have shrugged it off and made them struggle for it, but I didn't. A punishment's a punishment, after all. And it wasn't like my situation was drastically changed- I just went from one person's vengeful spirit to another. Either way, I wasn't fighting in a way I enjoyed."

INVADER: [ "…With how damaged her Spirit Origin is, you'd need a considerable amount of magical energy to restore it to a proper state. Either via my Command Spells, or through a powerful Mystic Code- and the only one in our possession is the Crimson Blade. However, that blade also belongs to the Servant 'Draco'. It is a considerable bargaining chip, and may be able to restore the Beast to a more manageable state. Examining our currently very limited resources, destroying her body and gaining a new Code Cast would be the most efficient course of action." ]

INVADER stated, coldly listing out the facts. You could see MUSASHI listening quietly, nodding, not exactly disagreeing with the sentiment.

MUSASHI: "...So it's this kind of situation, huh?"

You had come here in order to damage or slow down the MUSASHI in 'reality'. Leaving would just set you back to square one- maybe even worse than that, if she ended up adapting to your hacking.

You felt a tremor in the ground, as the mental world around you began to destabilize.

MUSASHI: "Ah- I think 'Shadow Me' is trying to boot you all out, so we don't have any more time to really chat. If you're going to do something, make it snappy."

You'd have to make a choice here.

#thgw story #thgw: chapter 4 #main post

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bookshelfdreams · 4 months

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There's been some news articles here that the AfD wasn't kicked out of the ID for being too Neonazi, but by being too obvious about it. RN cut ties because while they do in fact agree on politics, RN is trying to appeal to more moderate conservatives. AfD is just being too overtly nazi, especially currently. So it isn't really that AfD was too far right-wing for the others, even though RN and others may say that for publicity reasons to save their image, but that they didn't have the forethought to hide it a bit more.

I mean, that's kind of true. Part of it is definitely that Krah couldn't just keep his big dumb mouth shut. That he had to go and be #notallSS. In an interview. With an Italian newspaper. Being "well, acshully" about the most notorious war criminals in European history still doesn't go over well with our neighbours who were the victims in said war crimes (like, say, literally erasing entire villages). Who would have thought. That's the line he crossed.

(Yes, he's an idiot of truly incomprehensible magnitude)

It is also correct that Le Pen and friends are distancing himself from him and the AfD in general more because of optics than any actual political stances. This is calculation, not the sudden emergence of a moral core, I agree with that.

However.

It really can not be overstated just how bad the optics are. This isn't just about a controversial quote.

This is also about the fact that the second in line after Krah, Petr Bystron, is accused of being entangled in the whole Voice of Europe affair - a misinformation network, revealed to have been controlled by the Russian state, and accused of having paid political actors to spread propaganda. Bystron is alleged to have taken 20,000€ from them. Supposedly, there's tapes of this. He denies it, of course, but there was enough evidence to lift his immunity and to issue a warrant to raid his office, so. (There's also reports that he initially complained about being paid in 200€ bills. Allegedly, he would have preferred smaller ones.)

Consequences from the party? He was advised by Krah to keep to the background during the election campaign. Other than this, nothing.

Then, of course there was Krah's employee Jian G., who was arrested on accusations of espionage for the Chinese government. Krah had no idea this was even happening, you guys, seriously! Taken aback he was. Shocked. Scandalized, even.

And there was the time chats came to light in which pro-Russia Ukrainian Oleg Voloshyn assured him that "problems" with "compensation" had been sovled and from May on, "everything will be as it was before February". Seems like he took money from Russia too, doesn't it? He denies it. He never answered the message, Voloshyn probably just wanted to invite him to the opera. or the message was meant for someone else. (No, really. That's what Krah said).

Again, consequences? From the party? For any of this? Nada.

This is the problem. The AfD is openly corrupt and incompetent, the chairs clearly have 0 control over their own members, and none of these absolute buffoons can behave like civilized people in public. This isn't even touching on all the many, many scandals the party had on a national level this year alone!

f course you can't be a far right populist and have manners or a modicum of decency, so the fact that even people like Marine le Pen find the AfD unbearable - honestly gives me a little hope? There's an election in my state this year, and the AfD is predicted to get about 30%. That's very bad.

I do not think any of the clowns in I&D are better people for excluding the AfD. I don't think any of them will take this as an opportunity to take a good long look in the mirror and examine all the hatred they have in their heart.

This is, however, another little act of self-destruction. Another brick crumbling from the foundation of the party. I hope it all comes crashing down.

#okay sorry for the rambling i just #i hope they manage to set themselves on fire #BEFORE september please and thank you #i do not trust the cdu to adhere to their stupid brandmauer nonsense #and if i have to live under a ministerpräsident höcke i might actually for real just jump off a bridge #but. it really can not be overstated just how bad things are looking for them right now #höcke? was just last week sentenced to pay a 13k fine for using a nazi slogan #for example #and thats not even the biggest thing #all hope is not lost. they might just all kill each other #anonymaus #message #besorgte bumsbirnen #afd

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genderisareligion · 6 months

Note

They are now trans-ing black Civil Rights Activist Pauli Murray

https://blog.n3vlynnn.com/p/how-the-trans-movement-is-erasing#%C2%A7who-is-pauli-murray

I had already reblogged this but you just reminded me to go back and read it.

What's bothering me is the fact that a lot of this "decision" to "trans" Pauli is apparently being done using her own words, from autobiographies and such, unlike the likes of Marsha Johnson who didn't write as a career and thus has less lived proof available for us to post humorously analyze.

Like this in her own words really stands out to me:

In Murray’s “summary of symptoms of upset” she included lists of questions she had been seeking answers for, and was hoping to find relief within the medical sphere: “Do I have a ‘male’ attitude towards life, or is there such a thing?” “Why the very nervous excitable condition all my life and the very natural falling in love with the female sex? Terrific breakdowns after each love affair that has become unsuccessful?” “Why do my emotional attractions flow consistently toward members of my own sex, without excluding friendliness on my part of members of the male sex?” “Why cannot I accept the homosexual method of sex expression, but insist on the normal first?” “Why are normal women whose experiences have been satisfactory with the male sex, find themselves emotionally attracted to me, and often admit that they wish they could find my qualities in the male.” “What is the physical basis for my tendency toward ‘boyishness’ in structure and appearance?" “Do I have tumors which are causing my emotional disturbances? Would the removal of these tumors return me to normal female reactions.” “By what means, other than an exploratory operation, can it be determined whether or not I have hidden testicles? ….[Could] it be possible that I have one normally functioning ovary, and one male organ, producing a physical and therefore emotional conflict?”

TRAs could never ask so many hard hitting questions and actually want the answers.

The end of the first question alone - "or is there such a thing?”- tells me that this woman was more akin to the modern equivalent of Gender Critical than she was "transgender." She went into questioning her sexuality with an open mind and already willing to accept that she could be wrong, which TRAs who shut down any criticism as "fascism" are currently incapable of.

Also notice that she refers to women as members of her own sex.

Anyway I'm so sick of nonblack liberals Noble Savaging us in particular to self flagellate about how "diverse" their praxis is. They're so clumsy with it they just end up doing more damage

Also also:

I find it interesting that the testosterone pills which Pauli was so fervently pursuing, were openly and unapologetically intended to be used as conversion therapy on gay, effeminate males. I also do not think it’s a coincidence that Pauli struggled with her own homosexuality, and saw this pill as an antidote to her same-sex attractions. What’s more, modern-day hormone therapy has been shown to have the same effect on its users, as far as changing their sexual orientation. It continues to baffle me that cross-sex hormones for ‘gender-affirmation’ are still viewed as progressive. I think we can all glimpse into the history of experimental hormone usage as a means to change one’s “gender expression” and examine the roots of where it comes from. Given what we know about the factors that prompted Murray to seek testosterone, is this really something that we should celebrate and glorify?

#ask.txt #WOCTBI

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justinspoliticalcorner · 2 months

Text

Lisa Needham at Public Notice:

It finally happened. Judge Aileen Cannon, who has been telegraphing for months that she was committed to finding a way to get Trump off the hook in his classified documents case, came through for her guy. In a sprawling 93-page opinion, Cannon threw out the charges against the former president, agreeing with Trump that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional. Since Trump stuffed the federal judiciary full of Federalist Society true believers, those courts are nothing but Calvinball. There are no longer any fixed rules and precedent doesn’t matter. What does matter to judges like Cannon is ensuring that a hard-right evangelical worldview becomes the rule of law in America and that Donald Trump is preserved at all costs.

Cannon’s opinion is a joke

There’s little to no legal support for Cannon’s decision. In short, her ruling turns on the assertion that a special counsel is a “principal,” not an “inferior” officer. The former are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate — basically the same as cabinet appointments. Inferior officers generally have the same confirmation requirements unless Congress has authorized a head of a cabinet department to make the appointment. In that instance, Senate confirmation isn’t necessary. The notion that the head of the Department of Justice can appoint special counsels as needed has been settled since the Watergate era. Indeed, if Senate confirmation were always required, special counsel appointments would become nearly impossible, as the Senate is basically non-functional thanks to the filibuster. Additionally, under Cannon’s view, if the Senate is held by the party in opposition to the current occupant of the White House, they essentially get a veto over every special counsel nomination.

The argument that special counsel appointments are unconstitutional if it makes Republicans sad has been pushed by conservative litigants who wanted to block Robert Mueller from investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. As Quinta Jurecic noted at Lawfare, when the DC Circuit issued its appellate opinion in 2019, four other federal courts had already considered the matter, agreeing that the special counsel’s appointment was proper. The architect of this anti-special counsel argument is Stephen Calebresi, one of the founders of the Federalist Society. Calebresi has shopped it around quite a bit, with major law review articles in 2018 and 2019 arguing Mueller’s appointment was improper and an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in Trump’s presidential immunity case. Recall that Cannon’s decision to entertain the Trump appointments clause argument led to an extremely odd hearing where Cannon allowed amici — outside third parties like Calebresi — to present arguments in favor of Trump’s position. That’s a highly unusual step and telegraphed either that Cannon didn’t know what she was doing, was deliberately to bolster her inevitable decision in favor of Trump, or both.

[...] Not content to deal with the case at hand, Cannon also decided she should go back to the 1980s and retroactively declare that the appointment of Lawrence Walsh, who investigated the Reagan Administration’s role in the Iran-Contra affair, was invalid. So, too, with Robert Mueller’s appointment as special counsel examining Russian interference in the 2016 election. The constitutionality of Mueller’s appointment had already been addressed by a federal appellate court five years ago when the DC Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Mueller’s appointment. However, yesterday’s opinion is very clearly Cannon’s job interview with Trump, and she’s writing this for an audience of precisely on person, so why not throw Trump some red meat about Mueller as well? Having disposed of decades of special counsel law, Cannon wasn’t left with much in the way of precedent. Perhaps that’s why she had to lean hard on Justice Clarence Thomas’s concurrence in the presidential immunity case to reach her preferred conclusion.

[...] Special counsel Jack Smith has already indicated that the DOJ will be appealing the dismissal to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Recall that the Eleventh Circuit overturned Cannon's previous ruling in this matter. Cannon granted Trump’s request that a special master review all the classified material Trump absconded with, which dragged the case to a halt. The Eleventh Circuit was not happy with this, saying, “We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so.” And this is the core of the problem: People like Aileen Cannon are perfectly happy with a rule that only applies to Donald Trump. Indeed, Cannon’s order already states that “the effect of this Order is confined to this proceeding.” Those of us who lived through the 2000 Bush-Gore recount case will recall that the Supreme Court tried to create a similar firewall between their bad and self-serving ruling and the possibility it might ever be used against Republicans instead of just Democrats. In Bush v. Gore, when handing the presidency to George W. Bush, the Court wrote that “our consideration is limited to the present circumstances, for the problem of equal protection in election processes generally presents many complexities.” See? Calvinball. The giveaway of the presidency to George W. Bush only applies to George W. Bush. The destruction of the special counsel process only applies to Donald Trump. If Republicans need either of these issues to go the other way in a court of law, they just have to point to Cannon’s language limiting it to this instance only. Cannon’s timing, whether a product of her overall incompetence or a deliberate choice, is exceedingly favorable for Trump. Even if Smith prevails in the Eleventh Circuit, Trump could petition his pet Supreme Court justices to review the case. No matter what, the case is DOA before the election. The process of an appeal, the result of which would ultimately only be to send the case back down for trial, will drag long past the election.

Trump-appointed judicial activist Aileen Cannon plays Calvinball to justify Donald Trump’s document theft in her United States v. Trump ruling.

#Aileen Cannon #United States v. Trump #Jack Smith #Jack Smith Special Counsel Investigation #Document Theft #Classified Documents #11th Circuit Court

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atqh16 · 9 months

Text

Sasunaru vampire au. Sasuke is finding it difficult to feed

“I really don’t want to do this”

"Is this your first time?"

"No Naruto, it is not my first time but it doesn't make it any less embarrassing!"

"Cause we're friends?"

"Cause we're parked five feet away from the festival grounds and anyone can see us!"

"Kurama isn't back yet! If we move the car he might not find us!"

"It's stupid that your cat can perform magic but will somehow get lost just because we move"

"He's a familiar. He helps with magic, he doesn't do it. Now are we going to do this or not?"

"I am not straddling you Naruto."

"I'm gonna go find a cup then," the blonde moved to open his door but was stopped by the Uchiha reaching out to clutch his shirt.

"Fine! Fine!", he exclaims, struggling to stretch his leg out to climb over the console and reach the other side of Naruto's thigh. Thanking the high heavens that both of them somehow had the foresight to buy a car with seats that could be adjusted in every way possible so his head wasn't bumping the ceiling when he was finally and properly seated on his best friend's lap.

Naruto leans back and turns his head to the side, "Go on then," he invites, trying to look nonchalant over the situation and being woefully betrayed by the flush of his cheeks. But his voice is still as comforting as it was all those weeks ago when Sasuke had fed on him for the first time.

It’s been almost 2 weeks since they’ve had to pack up and run after hunters managed to trace them to their apartment. Comfort was not a priority but even then they would usually do Sasuke's feeding sessions in the comfort of the motels they'd be staying in for the night. They'd be sitting side by side with their faces inches from each other and even then the whole affair still came with a delicate bubble of intimacy that neither of them were willing to examine any closer. But outright straddling his friend alluded to something else entirely. Unfortunately because of the festival, all the establishments in the small village had no vacancies so they were stuck with the car. To Naruto's credit, they had tried to do it with Sasuke standing outside his door but that just made it look even more suspicious to passers-bys. Especially since the whole thing would take at least 10 minutes. The back seat was currently full of their possessions and weapons and had just enough space for Kurama to sleep, stretch, and do whatever cat familiars do. At least this way most people who saw them would be too embarrassed to keep looking.

"Sasuke if you don't start I really am just going to get a cup"

"Fine! Fine! Just, lean back alright"

Naruto did so, turning his head to the right again, knowing that Sasuke preferred to go for the left side and the fact that Naruto even knew that made the hate Sasuke had for himself sting even more, like acid on bare skin, and he just couldn't move.

He expects Naruto to scold him again for taking too long but instead, he feels warm hands cup his cheeks and he opens his eyes to see blue, made dark from the lack of light, studying him with an understanding so familiar that it turns the painful burn into a soothing warmth that loosened his muscles and somehow made him feel like he was home, the way those familiar cerulean irises and whiskered cheeks always did.

"It's ok," Naruto whispers, " You have me and I have you remember?

Sasuke takes a deep calming breath and nods, left hand raised to Naruto's neck to slowly turn his head to the right for the third time. His other hand holds the back of his friend's neck so his thumb can trace the side of it, over the pale twin circular scars left over by his fangs from previous feedings. The rushing flow of blood from the artery beneath it calls to him but more than that he felt guided by its pulsing warmth. He lowers his right hand and halts it over his friend's heart, galloping beneath his palm in a furious race, but not out of fear.

Finally, he leans forward into the crook of it, lips resting deliberately on warm skin before opening them to cautiously sink through with his fangs. There is the usual sharp intake of air that Naruto insists every time was not from pain but it never made the Uchiha feel any less guilty after. But this time the left hand that had been palming the blonde's cheek raises to tenderly run its fingers through his hair. As if the air had been released out of him, Naruto deflated and sunk into the car seat content. Lips forming a smile that Sasuke can feel in the way the skin beneath his cheek pulls

And therein lies the problem.

Because it's not the blood that pulls Sasuka in. It is not the thirst that makes him seek it out. It is not the act that pulls him back.

It's the tanned skin and the heat from it under his pale fingers. It's the way the pounding heart would calmly soothe into a pleasant thrum. The intoxicating pheromones drowning his lungs. The feel of muscles uncoiling their knots and welcoming him in. It's Naruto loving caring for him so much to be willing to not only give, but to offer himself to Sasuke as if it was his all along and Naruto was simply giving it back. But it still felt wrong for him to so freely take.

So lost was he in the moment that it took him a second to realize they hadn't timed it. In alarm he pulls away, lips and teeth still stained red, to look for his phone. 12 minutes. He pulls out a wet wipe and smoothes it over his best friend's neck which was also stained red.

"Naruto?" he whispers, gently tapping his friend's cheeks as he wipes his lips, "Naruto? You OK?"

The blonde lets out a sound akin to what one would make after a long nap. He looks up at him with bleary eyes and a sleepy smile and raises a hand to the Uchiha’s cheeks to give it a hard but painless tap.

"You ok?" Naruto's words came out a bit slurred but Sasuke knew from previous experience that it was not a point of worry, so he sighed and lifted a hand to place over Naruto's that was still on his cheek. It would be so easy to pull it to his lips and rest them on its palm. So he pulls it down and replaces the loss of warmth by leaning forward to rest his head on Naruto's.

"I'm ok," he responds and the grin on Naruto's face widens just a bit.

"I'm gonna go to sleep"

"Ok"

"You're gonna be here when I wake up right?"

"Yes"

"Promise?"

Something in Sasuke's chest tightens in a strange melded knot of affection and grief. Unable to hold back, he raises his head to press his lips on his friend's forehead in a kiss.

"I promise"

#sasunaru #naruto uzumaki #sasuke uchiha #sns #mine #vampire au

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nitroglycerin-flavored-coffee · 2 months

Text

His Blue Serge

Chapter 3:

When Vaggie finally gave up on pounding on the door, and just stormed into Charlie's chambers, she was shocked to find she wasn’t there. The space was much more impressive than their previously shared room. Closer to Lucifer's suite than the other residents, Charlie's room consisted of multiple rooms. The former hotel was a much less grand affair, each room simply being a guestroom that had been turned into the generic affair of plain beds and a nightstand. In the new hotel, each room had an attached bathroom, some with little entryways that held counters and sinks for residents to place their own appliances. That was what Vaggie currently had. Charlie, on the other hand, had more like a mini apartment. The entry room with the coat rack and shoe bench led to a fairly empty- yet still elegant sitting room.

There was no TV, but a large plush couch and some love seats, all perfect for snuggling up after a long day and reading a book, or just enjoying the peace. To the side was a covered desk, papers in stacks surrounding it. Large windows looked out to the front of the hotel over Pentagram City, and only after taking a step into the room did Vaggie realize the windows were truly French doors. A feature surely carried over from the former hotel, Charlie's balcony that allowed her to view her Kingdom.

Through a large archway a small kitchenette and a small parlor set, papers cover that surface as well, along with a few mugs. Vaggie didn’t get the chance to venture further in. Just as she was about to call out for Charlie, looking for the door that would lead to the bedroom, a set of hands wrapped around her shoulders.

“Ah- ah- ah…” Drew out the filtered voice. Instinctively Vaggie shot out her wings to push the assailant and give her distance, summoning her spear to her hand.

While her wings didn’t make contact with anything, the hands let go, and she swiveled to face the one who startled her. Of course, there was no one standing where she would have expected, and she narrowed her eyes in search.

“Ahem,” Alastor coughed from one of the loveseats, his red attire sticking out on the white fabric and instantly drawing Vaggies eye. “You know, It is quite rude to trespass into someone’s personal space like this.” He examined his nails, surely as sharp as ever.

Vaggie snarled but retracted her spear nonetheless. “You’re one to talk,” she growled. “What are you doing in Charlie's room?” Her stance held strong even as the radio demon dispersed in a film of shadow and reappeared right in front of her, closer than would be comfortable. She pulled her spear across her chest, a form of barrier between her and the Radio Demon.

“You know!” He laughed, ”I was about to ask you the same thing.” He leaned down into her face, hands clasping behind his back as his smile grew ever wider. “I was under the impression she wanted nothing to do with you.”

Vaggie repositioned her spear, aiming it at his face as he backed up into another chair, becoming eye level with her. “Where is she?” His being here, in Charlie's space, that only spelled trouble.

“Now why in Hell’s great realm would you need to know that?” Alastor asked as he completely ignored the spear nearly scraping his nose as the angel looked down at him. She stepped closer, holding the spear the same distance from him as she puffed up her wings.

“She’s my girlfriend! Now tell me!”

“Oh?” The lights dimmed, static filling the air as Alastor leaned forward into her spear, forcing her to pull it back to avoid pricking his face. As much as she hated this prick, she wasn’t going to hurt him unless he moved first. It would just upset Charlie. “I hadn’t noticed. You know, with her evading you at all opportunities.” He laughed as Vaggie’s wing folded up over her ears, giving away her insecurities where her face would not.

“With how she is, what was it? D o n e .” The lights flickered, and his yellow teeth and red eyes were all that were visible within those few seconds. “Surely she made it clear that she did not want your company.” The lights came back on as Vaggie withdrew her spear, holding it close to her once more as her wings betrayed how small she truly felt. They curled up even further over her shoulders and shadowed her pensive face.

Alastor leaned on his palm, fully reclining in the chair as he smiled victoriously at Vaggie. “Well dear, she isn’t here. But I do recommend you give her space.” Shadows swallowed him up, and before he fully dissipated, he finished, “Something seems to be stressing our dear princess out these days. I wonder what it could be.”

Alastor returned to his tower. It wasn’t much unlike Charlie’s in that it was more like an apartment than a hotel room. It was darker in style though. If Alastor was forced to explain the style of his suite, he’d probably say a cross of dark academia- with large bookshelves and many nooks and crannies one could park themselves on and be comfortable- and a New Orleans Voodoo museum. Scattered all around on his shelves were bottles of elixir, and only he knew the effects each would have. Boxes of herbs and a few shrunken heads.

When he was alive, he and his mother were avid practitioners of Voodoo-Catholicism. Most of it was just rituals or spiritual healing, but he found that in the afterlife, there were practical applications of some of the skills he carried with him. For example, the tea that he had been drinking before his little excursion, the very same that he had shared with Charlie.

His mother had whispered incantations of healing over them, to reset the spirit and aid with the physical symptoms of spiritual unrest. He continued this habit and found that while it wasn’t the most effective in healing large wounds, it helped with the aches that remained after receiving them. Better than any narcotic without unnecessary inhibitions. It truly did help with the tension that followed the scar that dragged from his shoulder to hip across his chest.

He may have been hiding away in his suite more often until the vulnerability remedies itself, but it’s not as if the potentially fatal blow was nothing he couldn’t bounce back from.

And poor Charlie, she had half a cup, and he had hardly begun to conjure a somnolent charm before she practically fainted on the couch. It spoke volumes about the true amount of stress she was feeling. As the Hotelier, he did his part in making sure she could truly take her much-needed break. After finishing off the last of the pot, he snuck through the main staff office and tried to put together a proper way to check in for their guests. Before they had simply moved their stuff into an empty room, which was fine for all of the two residents, but they would need to be a bit more thorough if even half the cannibals trying to check in now were committed.

Lucifer didn’t venture far from his suite often since the battle. Most trips necessary were negated by summoning whatever he needed, but the issue was that there had to be something already in existence in order to summon it. Now that most of his supplies from his old work room were gone, he took a trip out into the main area of the hotel.

Of course, he could conjure something, but that takes energy. He hadn’t been out in a minute anyway. Most of his trips were to show Charlotte what he had made or been tinkering with. He decided to involve her more after that one conversation. She had said he inspired her, and it seemed like a good start to try and build their bond back up.

He couldn’t find her though. He knew her rooms- which he had insisted on! A Princess having one of those- those cells! That the Sinners stayed in was just not it. Not cool. Not… Just not where a Princess should stay! What was he doing?

Right! Charlotte's rooms were close to his. Not on the same floor, but on the same side of the building. He thought. He might have walked right past them and not known. In fact- he walked right past them. He was sure of it. He knew because Charlotte’s room was not on the main floor. Lingering sinners, some of those dark-eyed sharp-toothed fellows had taken to lounging in the lobby. Some were scattered about and nodded to him politely.

Oh shit. He had been noticed. Acknowledged. He didn’t want to look like he was lost, he helped build this place for Dad’s sake! He squared his shoulders and took casual steps towards the front doors. If needed, he could just walk out and portal back up to his room. But he still hadn’t seen Charlotte yet! Forget whatever stupid thing he wanted before, now he just wanted to check on her. Partly because he didn't remember the exact material he was looking for- but partly because he loves his daughter and the whole point of him staying in this (admittedly tasteful and improved) Damn Hotel was to be closer to her!

He almost stumbled, almost, when he saw the bar sitting nestled in the front of the lobby. Supposedly it was also supposed to function as a reception, but this place was huge, they could put the bar anywhere. Seems silly to stick it right there. On the other hand- Booze! That can be where he was pretending to have been intending to have been wanting- wait, what do you call what he’s doing?

Getting a drink! Doesn’t matter what he may have been doing, to look like the super legit and serious king he was, he just would stride up to the front desk bar thing!

Billy- no that’s not his name. That's a stupid name. Howard? That’s not right either. The kitty cat with wings was grumbling behind the desk/bar as he slowly restocked the shelf behind him. He flinched at the clinking of the bottles together. Clearly, Husker had a hangov-

“HUSKER!” The King happily exclaimed as he walked right into and fell over the bar. He knocked down the stacked crates that held cheap liquor and stopped himself on Husker's knee. The poor sinner, now he had a hangover and a sore knee. He held his head in one hand and steadied Lucifer, still balanced on the knocked-over crates.

“Sooo-” He said, limp against the sinner's knee as he casually picked up one of the bottles he had knocked over. “Long night? Or day? I don’t know what time it is.” In response, he got a loud groan, and in sympathy, he passed the bottle over to the sinner. He needed it more than him.

Eventually, Lucifer was at a proper spot at the bar. Which was actually to the side of the check-in desk. The check-in desk was much shorter than where the seats were pushed in, which explains how his short ass was able to easily fall over it. Or maybe he was just taller than the average checking-in sinner. Yeah, let’s go with that one!

Husker was already halfway through the bottle he had retrieved and was surprisingly refreshing to talk to. He either didn’t care that Lucifer was the literal ruler and all-powerful leader of the realm, or he was just too inebriated to care or notice who he was talking to. Of course, the conversation wasn't easy to follow with all of Husker’s mumbling and swearing. But Lucifer was happy to sit and nod along as he casually held his glass of Washington Apple.

“And I was just fucking minding my own business! I don’t even know who to blame for waking me up!” Husker seemed to easily reverse the roles of the therapeutic bartender. “Can’t a man just have a single moment of peace!”

Lucifer happily sipped on his drink, careful not to embarrass himself by scowling at the burn. He was happy to let his mind wander once more until Husker scoffed and turned away from the bar.

“Here comes a headache.” He popped another bottle open against the shelf, leaving a scuff.

“Are you still drinking!?” Charlie’s girlfriend demanded as she stormed up to the bar, holding her spear towards the floor as she stomped towards them. Lucifer raised an eyebrow. She had her spear out? Her angelic spear? Those hurt. For sure, he doesn’t pity who she would aim it at. Wait, why is she aiming it at anyone?

“Is there trouble, Maggie?” He asked, placing his glass down firmly, rising from the chair as he looked around for the danger. She quickly realized why he was worried, and let the spear disperse.

“We’re all good! Sorry, Your Majesty.” She took a deep breath and wiped her sweaty hands on her skirt. It was so cute! Her little uniform. He should get a uniform, then He could match Charlie and her little girlfriend. “Just got spooked by a pest, is all.”

Lucifer wondered where the scary little person was, she was in charge of that right? She was always chasing… Something or the other! Maybe she was already on it! Speedy little thing.

Turning back to the angelic girl, He had just an absolute genius idea! “Say, Vinnie,” He started.

“Uh- Vaggie, Sir.”

“Uh-huh. Where is my Char Char? I’d love to see my little Apple Gal-ette.” He moved from behind the chair and put his hands on his knees. “Get it! Gal -ette? Galette? I- you know what I’m hilarious.” Lucifer straightened up and summoned his apple-topped cane to lean on. “So where is she?”

Vaggie’s eye hardened as she cast it downward. Isn’t it weird that her wings healed and her eye didn’t? Surely it is in her power as an angel to heal that right up. “I don’t know. She doesn’t really want to talk to me right now.” Oh, too bad. He’ll just have to keep searching on his own. Surely he won’t miss her rooms on the way back up. He didn’t see Vaggie sigh in relief when he shrugged and strutted past her back towards the stairs.

While Lucifer waved at the friendly cannibals on his way back up, Husker gave Vaggie an irritated, yet sympathetic look. She sat down instead of continuing to scold him for drinking. Husk had a feeling the girls were over for good, and a good bartender let his patrons vent.

Sorry for the weird gaps between paragraphs. It's like that from the google doc and I can't be bothered to fix it

#alastor #charlie morningstar #hazbin hotel #charlastor #fanfic writing #radiobelle #husker hazbin hotel #hazbin alastor #hazbin lucifer #hazbin vaggie #hazbin charlie #chaggie #chaggie breakup #hazbin husk #hazbin husker #His Blue Serge

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theoutcastrogue · 8 months

Text

Over the past year or two, the news has been full of horror stories about shoplifting. To hear some people tell it, you’d think petty theft was a crisis of apocalyptic proportions. In the New York Post, for instance, we read that shoplifting is an “epidemic taking over America.” The Financial Times issues dire warnings of “surging shopping crime,” while Fox News insists that “the shoplifting crisis is a nightmare.” ABC’s Nightline airs scary-looking footage of what its hosts call “brazen smash-and-grabs”: people in masks breaking store windows, grabbing armloads of clothing, and running off. In the opinion pages of the New York Times, Pamela Paul waxes poetic over “What We Lose to Shoplifting.” (The loss in question? Paul herself feels less comfortable in stores these days. Riveting stuff.)

In response to this supposed scourge, there’s been a resurgence in “tough-on-crime” tactics, both from corporations and political leaders. In department stores like Target, customers are confronted by elaborate new security measures, with everything from toothpaste to frozen pizza locked behind glass. Rite Aid pharmacies have turned to facial-recognition software to guard their merchandise, only to discover that their computers falsely identify people as “likely shoplifters”—particularly if those people have dark skin. In New York City, Mayor Eric Adams has launched an entire police task force dedicated to retail theft. And on the campaign trail, Donald Trump has called for more violent measures, saying that police should simply shoot shoplifters on sight.

But statistical data shows that the reports of a shoplifting “epidemic” are highly exaggerated, if not outright made up. In a recent report, the Council on Criminal Justice gathered data about retail theft from 24 different U.S. cities, examining the frequency of reports, the dollar value of items stolen, the number of people involved in each crime, and several other factors. At first glance, it did appear that shoplifting was on the rise in the first half of 2023, as it increased by 16 percent compared to pre-pandemic levels. However, as German Lopez notes in the New York Times, that figure was heavily skewed by data from New York City. Remove the Big Apple, and the numbers tell a different story: shoplifting has actually decreased in 17 of the 24 cities surveyed, and is now fairly rare, with just 38.6 reported incidents per 100,000 people. In June 2019, that number was 45.1. Shoplifting might be happening more often in New York City specifically, but an “epidemic taking over America,” it isn’t.

[...] As author and civil rights lawyer Alec Karakatsanis points out, there’s also a strong class element involved in what kinds of behaviors are deemed newsworthy to begin with:

When the daily news media reports on a “crime wave” or a “surge in shoplifting” nearly every time the numbers from the police department fluctuate upward (note that no similar metaphors are used for decreases), they are almost always using these terms to describe the collective behavior of poor people and other marginalized groups. Things rich people do don’t often get this same metaphoric treatment in daily news. How many times do you see a major news story on a “surge” in tax evasion (a problem over 60 times the magnitude of other reported property crimes) or a “wave of crime” by oil companies?

[article by Alex Skopic, January 2024, keep reading]

#Alex Skopic #theory #shoplifting #big thief little thief #Alec Karakatsanis

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richea · 10 months

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Character Biography: Primula Rosso

The following information has been pulled from the Tales Channel official site's page on Tales of Fandom Vol. 1. Typed below is a transcript of its English translated entry on Primula.

Story synopsis

"Craymel Detective: The Keele Zeibel Affair" In this Tales of Eternia spin-off, Keele is arrested on suspicion of leaking Mintche University's exam questions. Primula, who leads the school's detective club and has unilaterally drafted her classmate Keele as a member, opens an investigation to clear his name. But having already earned a reputation as a bumbling investigator, Primula has a tough road ahead.

Primula Rosso

A deeply inquisitive scholar, Primula majors in Aurora Artes at Mintche University. She's love detective novels since she was a child, and has established an unofficial detective club at the university, with herself as its self-declared president.

The following information has been pulled from the official Bandai Namco site page on Tales of Fandom Vol. 1. The site is in Japanese.

A character introduced in Fandom. She's a girl brimming with curiosity who is currently studying at Mintche University. She works as a "detective" in the school (in actuality, she's a handyman). She gets wrapped up in an incident with Keele in the Faceventure story...

Name: Primula Rosso (プリムラ・ロッソ) CV: Miki Nagasawa Character designer: Daigo Okumura Gender: Female Height: 159cm Weight: 45kg Hometown: Inferia City Occupation: Scholar at Mintche University Social standing: Commoner. Her family runs a business in the capital and they're fairly well off. Family: Father, mother and four younger brothers. She's the eldest daughter. Personality:

For the most part she's well intended

She's cheerful and doesn't have a bad side

She's brimming with curiosity

She's prone to simplistic thinking

She's quite the dreamer

She has (surprisingly) good grades. She excels at courses requiring memorization skills

She's decently athletic

She loves to cook, to the point that she makes her own lunches every morning before school She excels at eggbear dishes and has the skills to make just about anything. She doesn't have any disliked food

Hobby: Reading mystery novels Future dream: Operate a detective agency (in collaboration with Keele) Current goal: Promote the detective club to the university officials Treasured things: A book she bought with her childhood savings called "Introduction to Becoming a Great Detective". She's read it to the point she can recite it from heart Other things: After an incident revolving leaked examination questions, she became good friends with Lunaria Barnes of the newspaper club. They went out to a cafe they had heard about and enjoy their student life together to the fullest. Lunaria is from Chambard, and her future dream is to become a newspaper reporter and make the Barnes family the richest in all of Inferia.

Primula's character design

Okumura-san's comment:

During early conceptions, I had considered removing Primula's "detective antenna" (the cowlicks) but I ended up leaving them for the sake of their capabilities in expressing emotion. They can form into heart shapes and stars, and if she's feeling so strongly, she can even form them to replicate Keele's face. Quite fanciful, isn't she. *There's not scene in the game where this happens.

"A slightly long interview"

Miki Nagasawa

[PROFILE]

Agency: Atomic Monkey Birthday: July 11th Notable works: Maya Ibuki (Neon Genesis Evangelion), Maki Izumi (Kidou Senkan Nadesico), etc.

Interviewer: Namco's Tanaka-san

The interview took place in the studio where "Craymel Detective: The Keele Zeibel Incident," which is the story Primula appears in, was recorded.

Tanaka-san, who is a publicity clerk, awaited recordings to be finished in order to request an interview with actress Miki Nagasawa. You can probably feel how nervous Tanaka-san was when talking in front of a lady as beautiful as her...

Interview, start!

Tanaka: Nagasawa-san, were you n-nervous at your first time voicing for the Tales series? (*person who is nervous himself) Nagasawa: Let me think. It's a well-known series, so the pressure was definitely on... Tanaka: Is that to say you knew about the series prior? Nagasawa: Yes, I hadn't actually played the games myself, but I'd seen it in commercials and popularity rankings. I'd heard of it plenty. Tanaka: Thank you. (*a bit relieved) Nagasawa: I was really happy when I heard I got the job, given it's such a great series. I wouldn't say I was stressed, but having a role that was alongside the most famous character Keele-kun was a bit nerve wracking. Tanaka: Keele is quite popular, isn't he! Hahaha! (*proud laughter) Nagasawa: Yes! Primula is the character that Keele-kun lovers can project onto the most. I did my best to portray Primula's emotions and how she loves the things she loves even if it isn't reciprocated. Tanaka: I see! The development staff actually chose to create Primula because they believed fans would feel closer to Keele by controlling a character who interacts with Keele closely rather than controlling Keele himself. That said, what is it about Primula that you want the players to pay close attention to? Nagasawa: Let's see, I would say the fact that Primula has a robust imagination... (laughs) There's this one scene that's really funny... So enjoy it! (laughs) It's the part where me and Hoshi-kun (Keele's actor) talk over each other! Tanaka: Oh man, overhearing the recording to that was an absolute blast! I laughed so hard. (*during recording, Tanaka-san burst out laughing to the point the other staff glared daggers into him to stop) Nagasawa: Hahaha, thank you. (laughs) There's also a scene where Primula lies when going around investigating all the rooms trying to find hints, and I tried to make that bit more lively too. (laughs) That was a lot of fun. Tanaka: You sure had a lot of fun voicing her, huh? That's great! (laughs) Could you give a message to the fans who are all eagerly awaiting the release of the game? Nagasawa: Of course. I'm very proud to have been casted for such a wonderful game. I did my best to voice Primula, to be worthy of the love all of the fans who love the Tales series and Keele-kun have. I hope you can all play the game and feel your love for Keele-kun reflected properly in it. Primula doesn't profess her love or anything, but I did my best in voicing her more romantic dialogue, so I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on my efforts in that regard. Tanaka: Hearing how passionately you voiced her for the sake of all the fans and Primula herself has me emotional! (*teary eyed) I could really feel that passion as I listened to your recording. Everyone, you better pay good attention to her work! (*doing his job as a PR clerk) To close things, could you talk a bit about your future work plans? Nagasawa: It's a while from now, but in March of 2002, I'll be producing my own public appearance. Tanaka: That's incredible! Nagasawa: This is actually my second time... (laughs) Tanaka: Ahahaha... (sweat) Have you decided on a location? Nagasawa: Yes! On March 22nd to the 24th of 2002, I'll be on stage at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre in Ikebukuro, so please come watch me! Tanaka: I'll be there for sure! Nagasawa: Be my guest. (laughs) Tanaka: Thank you so much for today! I'll definitely see your performance! Nagasawa: Thank you as well.

Comment from Tanaka:

During the recording, I kept thinking to myself how incredible Nagasawa-san was. When I interviewed her, it felt so obvious to me how much she understood both her character as well as the series as a whole. And she had so much fun with it to boot! I'm so moved! I witnessed most of the recording, and all of the other voice actors involved in this game seem to really hold a lot of love for the Tales series and had such a blast recording for it. This game will be such a joy to all the fans, so please try it for yourself. Phew! Talking to pretty people sure is nerve-wracking!

#seines translation #tales of eternia #tales of fandom #tales of fandom vol 1 #primula rosso

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leaderpinhead · 11 months

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Malleus - Mundane Affairs

As the heir to Briar Valley, Malleus admittedly expected a certain level of respect. Sometimes it came in the form of silent (and in Sebek’s case, loud) admiration. In many cases, the respect was tinged with fearful awe. No matter what end of the spectrum they lie, many, if not all, would agree it was below his station to participate in most mundane activities.

Still, he found himself more amused than offended following the Ramshackle prefect through the Mystery Shop. Her angry little huffs sounded like a small kitten’s sneezes. “I swear, Sam rearranges his shop every week just to mess with me.”

Malleus’s already small grin widened. They turned up one aisle, startling an Ignihyde student they encountered. Yuu ignored him, focused entirely on her goal, but Malleus offered a polite nod. The boy sputtered when he returned the nod and quickly fled. Malleus absently noted his fear before dismissing him entirely. “I am sure Sam takes immense pleasure singling you out amongst the student body.”

“Oh, hush.” Malleus chuckled in response to the prefect’s unapologetic disgruntlement. He followed her to the other side of the store. “There’s only one thing I come here to get every week, and without fail, it’s not in the same place twice.”

Malleus’s eyes flitted across the wall of candy they passed. His eyes lingered on the green dragon candy for a second longer than the others. “Do stores not usually change the location of their inventory?”

“In my experience, no,” Yuu huffed. She paused and glared at a small bin of items in the back of the store. Malleus leaned over to examine the items. They were an odd group with seemingly no relation except the bright yellow stickers declaring them as Clearance! “It all stays in relatively the same location except seasonal stuff.”

Malleus hummed. “Is that why the display at the front of the store reflects current holidays?”

“Yep.” Yuu turned and walked the length of the store’s back wall. Her kitten sneezes started again. “That’s the stuff Sam wants to sell quick.”

“Interesting,” Malleus muttered. They encountered another student, this one wearing Savanaclaw’s yellow-orange vest. The beastman’s round ears perked, and Malleus grinned in obvious amusement when the boy released an involuntary hiss. “I have seen an inordinate number of students wearing the headband with large round ears lately. Is that in response to a human holiday?”

“I actually have no idea what that’s about,” the prefect answered. She sidled past the agitated boy and continued on her quest. The boy tried to buck up at Malleus, but he wasn’t able to maintain eye contact long enough for Malleus to feel intimidated. The boy shuffled off with his slender tail tucked around his ankles. “I think it’s something to do with an anniversary? Ace just made fun of me when I asked.”

“I will apply further research on the topic later,” Malleus assured. He was curious now that he understood the significance of the odd attire. It certainly wasn’t an anniversary celebrated in Briar Valley. “For now, I will point you in the direction of your desired item.”

Yuu stopped mid-step, twisting on her heel to face him. “Have you known where it was the entire time?” Malleus’s chuckle made her cheeks balloon. “Hornton!”

“I have been told it builds character to dedicate a certain amount of work towards a desired goal,” Malleus teased. In truth, he had wanted to spend a bit more time with the prefect after she had caught him strolling across the campus alone and invited him on her shopping trip. It was rude not to make the most of an invitation. “Admittedly, I also assumed you would eventually strike upon the right path and find your desired outcome.”

“Stop being so elusive and show me where the stupid tuna is.”

Malleus chuckled and led Yuu back to the front of the store where a display of tuna cans sat beside a small mound of anthropomorphic mouse dolls. He patiently waited for her to debate herself on buying the special edition cans, as they were not the usual brand she bought Grim. Once she had a small stack in her arms, he carefully placed one of the mouse ear headbands on her head, smirking at her disgruntled glare when he refused to take it off her head. He slipped Sam a few extra coins for the headband when they checked out.

Heir or not, participating in mundane, everyday affairs had its perks. Especially when he was rewarded with a small bag of green dragon candy the next time he ran into the prefect. He saw no issue with accepting a similar invitation from her a few weeks later.

#twisted wonderland #malleus draconia #twstober #day 21 heir #this boy just wants to be invited to everything

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beardedmrbean · 12 days

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One of the leading daily Helsingin Sanomat's most widely read stories on Monday examined the problem of Finland's plummeting birth rate and shrinking pension funds.

Trade unions are currently negotiating pension reforms at the behest of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (NCP). Simultaneously, a working group led by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the Ministry of Finance is also mulling pension reform. The report is due by the end of January 2025.

The reform is driven by Finland's low birth rate, which has fallen from 1.9 to below 1.3. Without immigration, a rate of 2.1 is needed to maintain the population. With the current birth rate, the reform is necessary to keep the pension system functional for younger generations, according to the HS report.

Negotiations aim to achieve an annual adjustment of around one billion euros and to ensure the stability of the agreed contribution level through some automatic mechanism. Options include raising contributions, cutting benefits or boosting birth rates and immigration.

Experts from the Finnish Centre for Pensions (ETK) have calculated that a shortfall caused by declining birth rates could be offset by increasing pension contributions by about one percentage point.

But if the decline in birth rates is not addressed in time, pension contributions would need to be increased by 2–3 percentage points in the future.

"Alternatively, the scale of the issue could be addressed by reducing pension benefits by about three percent," the CEO of ETK, Mikko Kautto, told HS.

Last spring, Kautto told business daily Kauppalehti that the pension system's financing situation could be balanced if annual net immigration were 30,000 people or the total fertility rate rose to 1.5–1.6.

Finland addressed rising life expectancy in its 2017 pension reform. The system links retirement age to life expectancy, with the minimum age currently at 64 years and 9 months, rising to 68–69 years for those born in 2000.

Criticism for plans to cut household tax credit

The government aims to save 100 million euros by tightening the conditions to receive tax credits for household expenses starting next year. The proposed changes have been opposed by multiple organisations, according to a report by Aamulehti.

The plan includes reducing the maximum deduction amount from 2,250 euros to 1,600 euros and lowering reimbursement rates from 40 percent to 35 percent. The out-of-pocket share would increase from 100 euros to 150 euros.

Finland's tax credit for household expenses provides deductions that allow individuals to claim a percentage of costs for services such as cleaning, childcare, nursing care and renovations performed in their homes.

Several organisations, including the Taxpayers' Association of Finland, the Federation of Finnish Enterprises, the Finnish Homeowners' Association and the Finnish Commerce Federation among others have opposed the move.

They argue that the cutbacks could drive the growth of the black market, negatively impact employment in the construction sector, lead people to delay necessary home repairs and make it harder for the elderly to manage in their homes.

However, the VATT Institute for Economic Research said household tax credit mostly benefits high-income households, costing around half a billion euros annually. They view the proposed reduction as a suitable measure for budget adjustments and suggest further cuts could be considered.

Study: Newspapers most trusted media

Tabloid Ilta-Sanomat reported on a recent study commissioned by the trade association News Media Finland (Uutismedian Liitto) that found newspapers to be the most trusted media across all age groups.

Nearly four out of five respondents considered printed or digital newspapers reliable. Television channels and their online services were trusted by three out of five respondents, while just over two out of five found radio channels and their websites trustworthy.

Social media, YouTubers, and blogs were trusted by only 1–5 percent of respondents.

The study also revealed that nearly 90 percent of respondents prioritise reliability as the most valued quality for news and current affairs media, followed by expertise and independence. Newspapers ranked high in all categories.

The survey, conducted in August by IRO Research, included 1,000 Finnish adults and has a margin of error of over three percentage points.

#nunyas news #updates from up north #don't know that I trust them more #but I do appreciate being able to read the news #since it's generally far more complete

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