#I can't help being european either

[space-blue]

why are you european

You

[barabones]

I forget exactly where I saw the initial post asking for volunteers, but on July 10th, I reached out to the listed email. Jane, the organizer, got back to me right away and within an hour I was added in their discord.

Up until this point, I had been maintaining an average 8 ESims myself, so I already had experience checking in on them on a daily basis. The folks there helped me onboard with the spreadsheets for keeping track, and now it's very easy for me to catalog new ones I buy and record daily data usage. The whole process takes me maybe 20-40 minutes a day depending now on how many ESims actually need to be topped off.

Jane has been very up front with lots of the group's information, with frequent announcements about the groups current funds and amounts of daily ESims sent out. She and the others have been super helpful with getting funds to us when needed, and I've almost never had to actually spend any of my own money for any of this.

In the time that I've been volunteering, they figured out how to run a Business account with the Nomad ESim company. Which means that now and then they can just send 15 or so ESims my way, and I just catalog them and send the QRcodes towards Mirna and the Connecting Gaza folks. No more wasting time with the purchasing process, while getting a bit of a bulk discount on top of that.

We also share updates on whatever brand of ESims are most needed. When folks on the ground tell us that one network doesn't seem reliable, we are able to switch over for a while until either the networking issue is fixed, or we all pressure customer service enough to replace them for us.

There's also lots of complaining about new UI updates an general website bugs. There's surprisingly a lot of them and it's good to know other folks are getting info from customer service when things go wrong.

In August they made a meme channel

Anyways....

Lets get into some stats for myself. In 2 months (July 10- Sept12) I have:

Send off 171 ESims

Maintained around 60 active ones

Topped up these active ESims 139 times

Spend over $6400 donated dollars

I have multiple power users who have burned through close to 100GB. 2 of them have broken 200GB. These are most likely being used as hot spots.

Why am I sharing all of this? Mostly to show how easy it has been to make a marginal difference. I have helped at least 60 people stay connected with the outside world in just 2 months. Probably more if we assume some of the power users becoming hotspots for other folks. This is 20-40 minutes of my time a day, and I honestly regret not signing up to do this sooner.

I was specifically limiting myself to this workload because I wanted to test the waters. Those stats was me specifically not wanting to push myself and see what impact a normal person could make with 20 minutes a day. At this point I think I will be taking more advantage of Nomad's Tuesday discounts to really bulk up my numbers. It's pretty easy to buy 15 or so every Tuesday, and then send em over.

If you would like to join us in this endeavor, please reach out to Jane at cripsforesimsforgaza(at)gmail

We are specifically looking for people in European time zones, since a lot of us are in the Americas and that's quite a difference between us and Gaza. If not, that's no problem!

If you can't participate, that's totally fine, but please donate what you can! Folks like you are the ones who keep us going!

I hope this information has been useful in some way. Like I said, I wish I had heard about this group sooner, with how easy it has been to do. I can track my direct impact of what my daily time is doing for folks, and seeing the data be used up a little bit more day by day gives me hope for everyone in Gaza. Thank you for your time.

[incorrectbatfam]

Do the batfamily members ever get too into their undercover work? (Undercover in an office and theyre worried about spreadsheets, working in a warehouse and coming home complaining about missing parts)

Bruce: Status updates on your undercover missions. Dick, you first. What have you got down at the docks?

Dick: I haven't confirmed the Killer Croc sightings yet, but more importantly, our catch hasn't been measuring up to last year's. Tuna we're doing okay on, but the salmon population seems to be on the low end. I've contacted the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries but it'll be another 3-5 business days before they can come down and check it out.

Bruce: At least you're doing something to help. Jason?

Jason: Class was okay. I think the kids are warming up to me as their substitute while Mrs. Maloney is out on maternity leave. The average on the last vocabulary quiz was 83.53% so either I'm doing my job right or they need to be challenged. I'm worried about Tristan Lancy, though. He's normally a good student but his grades have been dropping recently and his parents don't seem like safe people to tell. I'll talk to him tomorrow and try to pair him up with a peer tutor if he needs it.

Bruce: Also see if he has any alternate contacts besides his parents. Tim, any updates at the chemical plant?

Tim: If by updates you mean OSHA violations, I could go on all week. We got a batch of new recruits today and they were just thrown into the work—no PPE, no safety training, nothing. This is what happens when you place production over employee well-being. I'm gonna file a complaint after this meeting. Also, I think the union will have something to say about the manager cutting people's lunch breaks short.

Bruce: I see. Damian? Please tell me you found something volunteering at the zoo.

Damian: Depends on how you define "found." While I have not obtained evidence of a mutant larvae black market, I did help some of the animals at the sanctuary make progress with their recovery. Bobo the monkey is healing from his broken arms and we're gradually getting him re-acclimated to climbing higher surfaces. Suzie the black bear was born a little prematurely but seems to be catching up to her peers in terms of growth. Lastly, we got a grant for additional wildcat research and enrichment. As an aside, we are having an educational seminar on European mountain goats this Friday at 3:30 and I expect all of you to be there.

Bruce: I'll put that on our calendars. Steph?

Steph: It's not really undercover work for me, just work. Anyway, yes the newest Batburger location is being used for money laundering. But I really need to vent about the customers for a sec. We don't open until 10 and at 9:30 this morning some moron was banging on our door demanding Jokerized cheese fries. Then right in the middle of the lunch rush, Janie got sick so I had to fill in as the cashier and it was hell. After that, I had to step in between a fight at the drive-thru because the customer claimed we only gave him nine pieces of his ten-piece Robin nuggets and tried to beat up the kid who took his order. And to top it all off, an entire high school hockey team came in five minutes before closing.

Bruce: Cass?

Cass, blowing balloons: Can't talk. Arranging bat mitzvah.

Bruce: Duke, you're my last hope.

Duke: Margie's bringing a peanut butter chocolate cake to the bake sale. I swiped her recipe and we can easily beat her. Her ganache is way too watery and just runs off the top of the cake, which isn't even leveled. She's also trying to do something with a raspberry filling that isn't working at all. It's like she couldn't decide on what to bring. The bake sale committee also asked if we can bring some apple pies because the original baker has to go out of town for a family emergency. I think we'll win if we bring them with some ice cream and a touch of caramel, even though this isn't a contest.

Bruce: Thank you. At least our most critical case has been taken care of.

Barbara: ...I'll save my book launch for later.

[dirtyzucchini]

Let me tell you something about Constable Benton Fraser, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who came to Chicago on the trail of the killers of his father and, for reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture, remained, attached as liaison with the Canadian consulate.

There was never much of a chance that Benton Fraser would grow up to be what most people would casually call "a regular guy". From what little insight we get, no part of his childhood would have been standard. Looking at the anecdote Bob Fraser tells in Burning Down The House, we can assume that Benton grew up in a cabin his father built by hand, in a location remote enough and far enough North that living in an igloo during the construction of said cabin was a sensible thing for his parents to do. We see one picture of the family in Good For The Soul, and it is a puzzler:

Now, I wasn't around in the mid to late 1960's when that photo would have been taken, and I've never been to Canada's far North, but everything I could find anywhere tells me that that is not how (white!) people dressed then even up there, and no, I am not talking about trendy fashion. Everyday clothing looked pretty much like what we still wear today, but the people in that picture don't. They look like this guy - a European "explorer" whose picture was taken in 1889:

Side note: I am purposely only talking about white/western/mainstream society in this post because the Frasers are white.

I wonder what drove them to live like this, and so far away from other people? It can't have been money, Bob would have made enough to support them. I guess Fraser's parents weren't regular guys, either.

Anyway, we know that Bob wasn't around much while Fraser's mother was alive, and even less so after her death. He handed the boy off to his own parents instead, and Benton was raised by literal, real life Edwardians, people who were born before the invention of band-aids and bubblegum. Public radio broadcasts were cutting-edge technology when they were young. I'm glad they stepped up, and I'm sure they did their best, but they weren't exactly well-equipped to prepare a child for life in modern society. They were librarians who for some reason moved around a lot. When he was eight, they took Benton to a place called Alert - the northernmost continously inhabited place in the world. Unfortunately it's inhabited by soldiers and researchers who go there on six-months-tours, but it counts because the tours overlap. Fraser would have been the only child there, and, the times being what they were, his grandmother the only woman. What librarians would have done in Alert we can only speculate about, but between this and the fact that they helped build an English-speaking library in China before the revolution, we can safely assume that we are dealing with another generation of non-regular Frasers here. This idea is supported by the fact that they fed Fraser arctic tern for Christmas. Each bird weighs under 130 grams, and they would be hard to come by in northern Canada in December because they migrate to literally the other end of the world after breeding in the Arctic in the summer. I'm not entirely certain what this says about Fraser's grandparents, but it sure says something, doesn't it?

This bird may scream, but it does not scream Christmas to me.

Listen, I LOVE that Fraser's grandmother taught him how to box from a book.

Perhaps this one from 1922? In this book, the writer "not only describes the various moves of the game and traces the history of their development but deals comprehensively with all the factors of body and mind that make for success in the ring." Sounds like a good choice!

I do NOT love that she taught him that being in the hospital for three weeks after being shot in the back is "babying yourself". She also raised Bob Fraser to be the kind of man who tells his journal "The last time I saw Ben, he was barely tall enough to reach my belt. When I said good-bye he shook my hand. Never a tear or a complaint. Seven years old and he's already a stronger man than I'll ever be. Someday I'll tell him.", and friends, I DO NOT love that at all. That is NOT a healthy way to deal with emotions, and I think we can agree that growing up guided by these mindsets did Fraser no favors at all. Look at how he lives! His apartment is absolutely bare-bones, no personality, and after that he literally lives in his office - this is a man who gets REALLY uncomfortable when he's comfortable, is what I'm saying. Everything he does is quick and efficient to make sure he can devote a maximum amount of time to his work. I'd bet "Idle hands are the devil's workshop" was a very common saying in the Fraser household.

Look, our upbringing informs who we become, how we approach life, how we connect to those around us. Fraser's view of the world is completely different from how other people see it. Long before he's displaced geographically, he's displaced in time.

He grew up without TV, and while living with librarians gave him access to a large number of books, the libraries they worked at served remote communities and would not have been all too well funded. It stands to reason they would have had to make their books last as long as possible, and that new purchases would have been, shall we say, conservative? Copies of beloved classics, books with general appeal, books with educational/instructional value would have made up the bulk of purchases. Even if the librarians wanted to, there would have been little money to buy more controversial books - and it doesn't seem likely that Fraser's grandparents would have wanted to. Fraser probably grew up on adventure tales, detective stories and, as a teen and young adult, the classics from Austen to Shakespeare.

When he gets to Depot in Regina to become a Mountie he has nothing in common with the other recruits, and that continues throughout all his career. There's a reason he's still a Constable after all his years of service: he's severely lacking in social skills, and his upbringing is a big part of that problem*. He was raised by Edwardians on Victorian (and Romantic) mores and values, and bridging that gap to make connections with people from what's essentially a different world is very, very hard.

TL,DR: Fraser is both an alien and a time traveler, and we should remember that when we talk about him.

*Other parts of the problem are his queerness and neurodiversity, but those are topics for another essay. Please know that by problem I do NOT mean there's something wrong with him, I mean that there's something wrong with how society treats people like him.

Big thank you to @sammaggs and @sammeltassensammelsurium for excellent feedback!

[buckets-of-dirt]

(ID: A screenshot of tags that read "#Prev what are some alternatives to the word primitive that are less derogatory" /end ID.)

@panicdeleter I'm responding to your question on a new post so that the op of the original doesn't get this in their notes because answering in good faith is going to take a lot of explanation.

Short answer: there isn't one.

Long answer: as you say in your tags, "primitive" is a derogatory term with a very loaded meaning. Removing it from your vocabulary is less a matter of finding a more PC alternative, and more a matter of understanding why it's derogatory and changing your perception of what's being discussed. To do that, we're going to have to look at archaeological theory for a minute. Stick with me, I do have suggestions at the end.

Archaeological theory is a complicated subject and there's no way I'm going to try to summarize all of it in a Tumblr post since it's a topic arch programs devote at least a semester (if not longer) to. So we'll focus on the relevant bits.

Essentially, in the bad old days when archaeology was starting to become a discipline instead of a thing rich dudes did on the weekends, there was this idea that certain European societies were the peak of civilization and everywhere else was less evolved and therefore primitive. It was based on the misunderstanding of the theory of evolution that was common at the time. Like so:

(ID: a diagram drawn in pen. It's titled "Ye Olde Arch/Anth Theory TM". The next line says "Primitive = simple, less evolved, bad". Below it there is a vertical arrow pointing down, with the words "one way line" next to it. Under the arrow there is a line of text reading "Advanced = complex, most evolved, good". /end ID.)

These early archaeologists believed that all of humanity lived on a hierarchy with the "advanced" societies they lived in (and their ancestors like Ancient Greece) at the top and all the "primitive" past and current societies (destined to either become like them or die out eventually) at the bottom.

It's been a long road for archaeological theory. The 20th century was fraught with theoretical movements and debates that sometimes literally devolved into fistfights. But eventually we all ended up more or less here:

(ID: A hand drawn diagram in a similar format to the one above. It's titled "Arch Theory Today (Short Version). Below the title there is a single line of text centred around a horizontal line with arrows at both ends. The left side of the arrow reads "simple" while the right side reads "complex". The line itself is labeled "continuum or spectrum". /end ID.)

While you'll still find some archaeologists who disagree, the main consensus appears to at least be on the same page that instead of the old primitive vs advanced hierarchy, societies exist on a spectrum that ranges in complexity. In the most basic terms, because I'm glossing over A LOT of nuance here, hunter gatherer societies tend towards the simple end of the spectrum while big state societies are on the more complex end. This is not meant as a value judgement of these societies, but merely an attempt to classify them so other people have a frame of reference for what you're talking about. Even so, there's considerable debate about the language used for certain terms and societies, and I am not necessarily qualified to go into that in this post.

I say all that to help you understand why I can't give you a catch-all term to replace "primitive", because if one did exist it would be just as derogatory. In certain contexts there may be more appropriate words that you can use, such as simple (as in the case of the meme that inspired this post) or old. But a lot of the time an alternative just doesn't exist because we are not better or 'more evolved' than our ancestors any more than people living in big state societies are any better than people still living as hunter gatherers.

I know this has been a very long post, but I really am just scratching the surface here. For more information I suggest looking at podcasts like The Dirt or A Life In Ruins, youtube channels like The Welsh Viking or Archaeology Tube, or the blogs of any of my fellow dirt lovers here on Tumblr like @chaotic-archaeologist, @micewithknives, @art-thropologist, @archaeologistproblems, and @rhysintherain to name just a few. Archaeologists are generally a bunch of nerds who will take any opportunity they can to talk about the human past, and we rarely bite.

[mariposa-writes]

Good Sleep - LaMelo Ball

Summary: hate writing these, so just read and find out.

A/N: This man is the love of my life (and his brothers).

It was hard, dating an NBA player. Not that it was Melo's fault. He tried to make things as easy as possible. He called whenever he could, making sure to at least check in on me once a day.

It wasn't like I made things any easier. I took a lot of pride in my job and it felt like a lot of the time when he was home, I was busy working.

Which is what I am currently doing. Its around midnight, when I hear the garage open, I know it's Melo. His team was supposed to get back earlier tonight, but their flight got delayed due to weather.

After a few minutes he enters our room. I moved in with him a 6 months ago, since I practically lived there full time anyways. We both also thought it would be a good way to spend more time together.

"Hey, babe." He says walking over to me and giving me a quick kiss on the lips. He heads into our bathroom, getting ready to shower. He hates how he feels after plane rides, always complaining about being dirty. "What are you working on?" He calls from the bathroom.

"Just work stuff." I respond, not having the time to explain. I have to have these reports ready by Monday. I'm a CFO for a major clothing company in the US. We are currently working on expanding to European countries.

Melo showers while I work and before I know it he's climbing into bed. "Babe," He whines, "when are you going to bed?"

"I don't know, soon." I answer, dismissively. He frowns, looking up at me from where he's laying.

"You work to hard. Your not even 22 and your the CFO for a major company. I worry you're gonna work yourself to death." Melo's always hated how hard I work. We've been dating since we were both 19.

I was getting ready to graduate college, when he was getting drafted into the NBA. Being born a genius helped me fast track my schooling and career.

I started interning with the company I currently work at when I was 17, the summer after my junior year. I started working with them when they were just a start up, but in the past four years they have rapidly grown and I've been a part of the process the whole way.

This company is like my baby and I'm the one that has to track everything to make sure we are achieving our goals. I never intended on working here this long, but I love the people I work with (the pay isn't bad either).

They promoted me to CFO when their old one left to work for a bigger company. What an idiot, they didn't have believe in the company and soon ours will be bigger than the one they are working for.

Three hours later and I'm still working, Melo's passed out. After he fell asleep I headed to the office he set up for me, not wanting to wake him.

I have a blanket wrapped around me, with my headphones in and a cup of hot chocolate sitting on the desk. Once I get this done, I'll be on Monday and present to our investors I will be on vacation for the next 9 days.

I haven't told Melo yet, wanting to surprise him since our schedules rarely line up.

I look up from my computer, when I see the hallway light turn on. I take my headphones out, knowing it's Melo. He walks into my office, frowning. "Babe, go to bed." He groans.

"Ok, just give me a few minutes."

"Nope, you always say that and then a few minutes turn into another hour or two and then you're only getting like 2 hours of sleep before you head into the office." He walks over and shuts my laptop, before pulling me out of the chair.

I whine and protest the whole way back to our bed, but he doesn't seem to care. He makes me lay down and tucks me in like I'm a little kid, before climbing in bed next to me.

Once he's in bed his, arm wraps around my waist as he pulls me closer resting his head on my stomach. "Finally, I can sleep now."

"You've been asleep this whole time." I argue.

"Yea, but now I'll get good sleep. I only get good sleep when you're with me." I smile, even though he can't see me. I continue playing with his hair, before we both drift of to sleep in each other's arms.

[petermorwood]

I see you are an arms and armor fan.

Do you know of/have a copy of Stone's Glossary?

If so do you know how to look up specific things in it?

I have a copy but I can't figure out how to look anything up.

Yes, I have a copy. The entries are in alphabetical order so I look them up by name.

But...

The difficulty about looking up "specific things" is that if without their specific names - and Stone seems to assume his readers DO know most of them - there's a page-turning slog ahead.

The best way is to start with general terms like "Armour", "Axe", "Bow", "Dagger", "Sword" etc., then look up all the sub-names listed at the bottom of each entry.

*****

The problem is that George Cameron Stone was an Orientalist and especially Japanophile (a weeaboo, if the word existed back then) so his book has hundreds of entries for esoteric Asian stuff unlikely to be seen elsewhere - and unlikely to be needed for general reference, either.

Despite its grandiose all-inclusive title: "A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armour in All Countries and in All Times", Stone was so concerned with putting in esoteric Asian stuff that he left out obvious European stuff.

One of the most notable omissions is "Gladius", the short sword used by Ancient Roman legions for about 500 years. Does it have an entry in Stone's "All Countries and All Times" book?

It does not.

But is there room for an obscure armourer who made fancy embossed costume armour during the peaceful Edo period?

Oh yes.

I've posted about Stone a few times before: this one is him being wrong about the origins of the Scottish Basket-hilted Broadsword; this one is a side-comment about the pictures; this one touches yet again on inclusion vs exclusion of entries.

*****

"Glossary" is certainly a book any A&A fan should have on the shelf; just bear in mind that:

It's 90 years old, many entries are superseded by new information;

Despite its title, it's biased towards some regions more than others;

Because of that bias, it contains a lot of very limited-interest detail;

Because of that bias, it leaves out some major topics;

It's often wrong in matters outside the author's field of expertise;

It assumes knowledge of terminology, so isn't friendly to newbies.

All of the above is IMO, of course. Y (and others') MMV.

Hope this helps! :->

[roukabi]

Wayyy down crittertown, way down under the grouuuund

design notes under the cut

I can't believe it's taken me this long to finalize some animal-ifications for Hadestown, but hey, they're here now!

Orpheus was pretty simple. I wanted something cute and cuddly, and I figured it'd be interesting to turn him into an animal commonly seen as a trickster. It'd throw Eurydice (and maybe The Audience) off guard, maybe as a little nod to looking beyond the darkness of the world to find the abundance of light within. I like to think that he wraps Eurydice up in his fluffy tail when they sleep together :)

For Eurydice, I decided against a literal songbird in favor of something that would better foil Orpheus (and leave the avian designs to the neutral characters). Where Orpheus is an honest fox, Eurydice decided to be a true raccoon - traveler of the streets, thief of the city, and a true loner. Survival of the fittest is her life philosophy... until she meets Orpheus and sees the world from a different perspective. Deep down, she wants to let herself go, to enjoy life, and to be loved. Isn't that what any stray animal wants?

As previously mentioned, I wanted to keep Hermes and the Fates as birds to separate them from the story they tell. The tall, elegant form of a great blue heron seemed right for such a sage god, even if the real Hermes' bird is the rooster. He gets to literally take Orpheus under his wing, too.

Not all gods have to be imposing, though. Persephone as a squirrel is exciting to me, because there's a lot of comedic potential in a mighty goddess being contained in a foot-long, very lively, wine-loving vessel. That isn't to say she can't be serious, of course. I've learned that most squirrels do not actually hibernate, and instead tough out the winter with stored food and a deep burrow. Squirrels are also known to (accidentally) plant trees. Therefore, I think Persephone would be even more concerned about the seasons going haywire than normal, and would react accordingly.

Hades, meanwhile, is far more stony and mountainous than his wife. Unlike their European cousins, American badgers are so infamously pushy that the word 'badgering' was invented. Hades embodies this to a mild degree, being stubborn but not too ornery. He is, above all, a king. His leucism and reversed coloring helps him stand out as the big boss of the tunnels, and obscures him in the snow. Deep, deep down, maybe he's just a big fuzzball...

The Fates may look like old crows, but they're actually ravens, and they're very insistent on that. Clotho (left) is the youngest and least concerned about mortal woes. She just spins up the string, it's none of her business what happens later. Lachesis (top) is the middle sister with an airtight plan for everything, especially the lifespans of the people. She can be a bit bossy. Atropos (right) plays it straight, and cleanly cuts mortals' strings of life. She's not benevolent, but she's not unkind, either.

As for the workers, they're just miscellaneous critters doing Hades' burrow work. it used to be a snake pit before, y'know, the snakes moved out. Now it's Hades' new empire, just as warm and bright and unstable as the surface. The burrows are large enough to house some scary-looking hounds just waiting for a chance to stretch their legs and hunt...

That's it. Yaaaay! As usual, designs are free to use with credit, should they interest you. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be looking for every excuse possible to draw the hadestown cast as critters.

[ukranianacearo]

I find it ironic and hypocrite that people (that have privilege) complain about other people not speaking up about certain things going on in the world like Sudan, Congo, Palestine, etc, but they never spoke about Ukraine, share the Russian propaganda, use Russian sounds, play Russian songs (either somehow glorifying Russia or from a Russian) and (this is more of my own life experiences) make bad jokes or even bully people because of the war.

I know that my account is, mostly, not that serious at a first glance and all, but I feel that I NEED to speak up about things that people seem to forget. The war in Ukraine is still going. People are still dying from it. Just a few days ago Russia bombed a children hospital. And I say 'Russia', because it's not only Putin. All of them know what they're doing. And this isn't the first time. Look up any period of time that comes to your mind in Ukraine history. I guarantee you that it is very likely that in that period of time we were enslaved, killed, tortured, you name it, by Russians and probably some more people. It is very hypocrite of you to say "We're not free until all are free" of you never even so much mention what is going on in Ukraine. This is genocide, and it's clear.

I'm tired of people being not educated and not wanting to educate themselves and correct themselves. I understand if you didn't know prior due to some reason, but if you get called out for it and still don't change your behavior then it's on sight. It's Kyiv, not Kiev. It's Zaporizhya, not Zaporozhe. It's Kharkiv, not Kharkev. It's Mykola Hohol, not Nikolai Gogol. Malevich is Ukrainian. And I could go on. Because even if it's not about Ukraine, Russian acts go on to Syria, Kazakhstan, Georgia (Sakartvelo), the Balkans, if I'm not wrong, every Eastern European Country and even more. It even goes on to China and Japan. All that the russians know to do is to steal and bring harm, even if not directly. Do you know how much through I, on a person level, went through just for being Ukrainian? People don't take me serious, I'm called 'exotic', people always assume I'm not that smart enough, people make fun of me, and the list goes on. And that's just me in the 21st century. Learn about Holodomor, learn about the protest of the year 1907, read about how we were treated in the Russian empire, learn how degraded our lives were, learn about who were the kripaki and how they lived. Learn the fucking history before saying anything about it or worse, trying to dismiss us because "you're white", well guess what, it did not fucking help us at all.

In 2022 and 2023, my classmates made fun of me by shouting "Slava Russia" (Which to begin with, isn't even fucking correct to say), "Gloria a Putin" (Glory to Putin), made bomb sounds as in to mock me, asked me inappropriate questions and more stuff. From all the teachers who heard that, and it almost every fucking teacher I had, only one (1) of them said something about it, which I'm grateful for.

I appreciate if you have curiosity for my culture or history and ask me questions, but when you ask questions because you want to provoke me and have a fight or see me in no control it's disrespectful and I will not hold back and ask questions that are just as bad as those.

I don't want any "but they're civilians, they can't do nothing about it!🥹🥹😭😭💔" or some shit like that, because no. They can do it. There around 140k of them there, don't tell me they can't overthrow the president or make the government change the rules when Ukrainians and Georgians did with much less population than that.

I don't have compassion or empathy for russians. We will not forget nor forgive. Never again.

[sleepyburito]

Random thought: Jiang Cheng gives girl dad energy because I can't not see this man with a daughter

but more specifically a sports girl dad. Lemme explain

I keep imagning him having a kid who's some sort of sports fanatic or is on some sort of sports team (not because they're forced but just because of who Jiang Cheng is and how he'd influence a kid). He's the dad in the stands of say a volleyball game with very subtle school colours on his person and is yelling when things get intense

He's the dad who tries his best to be there for every event he can be and while it is embarrassing I feel like his kid would still love the attention and care

In the og/cannon universe this translates to him being very aware and active in helping his child train in cultivation

now other h/c's of Jiang Cheng as a parent:

not good with his words so he's very much a quality time parent, they have a designated movie night just so they can spend time together and he feels really bad if he misses it

a lot of playing in the back garden, either football (European) or volleyball, just very much a 'throw a ball around with your dad' vibes

harsh on his kid when it comes to things he knows they're good at but tries his best to understand why they're struggling

not the best cook but is good at simple comfort meals like the kind you make after a long hard day that don't take much time but make you feel warm and cosy

[science-lings]

more info for each option below

1- I just think it's funny if everyone knew who Sherlock Holmes was (Phoenix's 'Sherlock Holmes 2 baby!' moment) and it's a popular belief that he wasn't real but he was, just under a better name.

2- I can't help but look at these guys and point at them. Kazuma's concept art where he has his hair back is so Phoenix-coded and one of his thinking sprites looks a lot like Phoenix's and I think that in the afterlife whenever Phoenix is kind of a bitch Ryunosuke looks over at Kazuma and blames him for it. I don't know which one is trans and neither do historians, it's knowledge that has been lost to time. Though it would be funny if Ryu just popped out of nowhere to go to university where no one knew him so no one would know anything about him. Did he forge government documents to do it? who knows he's just living his best life memorizing tongue twisters.

3- It would either be something badass like a snake winding around her arm or something symbolic like a fleur-de-lys which is the flower-based symbol in TGAA for European prosecutors. I also think it's funny bc it's apparently based on an Iris (or a lily), and the iris has the connotation that it 'prevents fire' which would be funny subtle anti-phoenix symbolism.

4- as much as the fan renditions of scruffy beanix absolutely fuck, this guy has the most pathetic facial hair I've ever seen, he's trying so hard to look like a homeless rundown stoner but can only manage a sprinkling of stubble. In addition, Miles can grow facial hair and he tried to grow a mustache for a week in Europe but it was a sensory nightmare and he will never do it again.

5- idk there's a reason his little mascot is a mouse, I just think it's funny if he just appears next to people and they have no idea how he got there. quiet little guy (unless he's thinking loud enough for it to leak out of his mouth). If he was a little more chaotic he would make an excellent thief/ pickpocket. The closest he gets is making snacks disappear from the 221b pantry.

6- All the animals as evidence and his first defendant in seven years being an Orca, he has that disney princess vibe. He was buds with Polly the parrot during the trial and even Money the monkey warmed up to him, especially in the anime where he just chills on Phoenix's shoulders during the court demonstration. I also think eventually Taka would also warm up to him due to his immaculate bird vibes. Trucy's doves and rabbits love him, he does not know how this happened. He regularly has pigeons following him around during investigations. He accidentally makes friends with a crow when throwing out popcorn kernels, it regularly gives him things now and more than once it has retrieved evidence for a case he's working on. He names it Kay and refers to Human Kay accordingly.

7- A little detail I noticed was that a lot of the information Mia got on Redd White was from conversing through the spiritual veil which seems to be her strong suit even as a spirit herself. She can talk to Phoenix without having to use a medium. I think it would be interesting to delve into all the nuances of the Fey's spiritual abilities outside of channeling. There's definitely a whole lot more to it than we're provided. How does that magatama work? how does Pearl charge it with 'spiritual power' and why is she the only one that can do it? I'm a hoe for magical worldbuilding so I would love to get my grubby fingers all over the Fey's.

8- Just two haters who can't have the job that they worked so hard for and are bitter about it. I like to think that Ema visited America at least once a year to visit Lana in prison and she stayed with Phoenix to save money on hotels. It just means something to me that it's her pin that's on his beanie and she gets included in the Wright family (+ Apollo) new years official art, and he keeps the investigative tools she gave him for nearly a decade. They aren't the best influence on each other but they understand each other more than nearly anyone else. They send each other pictures of Edgeworth whenever one of them is hanging out with him so the other doesn't feel left out. Also, they both think it's funny to catch him in the middle of talking or making a weird facial expression.

9- Some guy can't just change how trials are done for everyone without a lot of political bs, Phoenix is famous in law circles and even outside of law circles but he needs to convince a lot of important people (and expose a lot of corrupt important people) before it can go through. At some point, Edgeworth is going to pick him up and they're going on a private plane to talk to the president. It's important to me that he has trouble grasping how important he has become and is surprised every time he's invited to speak at some fancy event even though he's literally important enough to have statues made of him. He is the most iconic defense attorney, he solved the deaths of the two most notable defense attorneys before him in some of his first trials. He is going to be in history books and that is unimaginable to him.

10- Obviously since his canon ancestor is Japanese he's at least part Japanese but I mean like, in my mind, he's fully Japanese American who can speak the language and was raised by immigrants, but I also think that so many other hcs are fun. Is he latino with his black daughter? love that, inject some melanin in these attorneys please. I see the ensemble artwork and am blinded instantly.

[izzabela]

Hello! I was wondering if you could do part 2 of the "Night Changes" Smoke x reader? I would like to see what's in store for the reader after finding out the horrible truth.

Under the Moonlight - twisted!Tomas x male!reader

in which your mind tells you go, but your heart says stay

a/n: i was actually going to do this on my own time. since requested, perhaps i'll speed the process up

ship[s]: Tomas x male!reader

warning(s): TWs: knife play, mind break, MDNI, smut, m!reader = m!genitalia, rough, creep!Tomas, perv!Tomas, huge dick Tomas(???), size kink, degradation

[Lord, help me and give me the strength]

=====================

You ran.

Ran as far as your legs could carry you.

Ran as far as the elder gods permitted you to do so.

Ran as far as fate allowed you.

Your adrenaline took you so far, and your body gave in when you barely passed the forest's end. The compound was right there, just a little ways more, and you could speak your truth on the atrocity you witnessed.

However, as your brain and body moved, you felt stuck.

If you told Kuai Liang, who would he believe more? Yes, you were inner circle Shirai Ryu, but you weren't his brother.

You may be talented, insightful, and helpful, but the line between family and ally was thick- and Kuai Liang drew it that way.

You begin to think, wonder, comb over your options in your head as you cross ideas off. While doing so, you had to be alert for any movement around you.

After all, you were being hunted.

Although, it made zero sense for you to be listening around you.

Your hearing may be top notch, but Tomas was a former hunter and ex-Lin Kuei. Stealth practically raised him; mastering smoke magic only makes him more formidable and threatening.

He has perfected his hearing, blended in with his surroundings, knows one-hundred ways (or more) to kill someone.

The fact he could do such a thing, to his own clan, and with a smile.

It shook your heart, nerve, and shattered your soul.

This really was not the same man you loved from afar. This man was a monster, a demon- a dark entity that took the European man hostage.

But dear, oh dear, you knew deep down you were wrong. The eyes know, and what they saw was the same Tomas that was training other initiates that same day, the same Tomas that ate with you in the dining room.

The same Tomas that patrolled with you late in the evening.

You had another pressing matter to think about, which was how you really feel about Tomas after this.

You couldn't really do that, though, when you felt a knife against your back and a hand cover your mouth.

Eyes wide, your body feels everything that's around you. The rough, calloused, and pale hand that covered your mouth.

The knife that pressed into your uniform and barely nicked your skin, had a distinct curve that could only belong to one person in the clan.

And by the elder gods, the voice you heard only sealed the deal.

"Hello dear," Tomas calls sweetly, voice muffled from his mask. "Didn't I tell you to wait for me?"

You remember a couple hours earlier. How he told you he'd take the other side of the compound while you went opposite, but you don't recall him telling you to stay put.

Tomas moves his hand to your neck, gripping it tight enough so you don't run, but loose enough so you could utter an answer.

Nervously, you answer him. "No sir, Tomas. You only told me to go the opposite."

You weren't entirely wrong, but it wasn't the full truth either. A switched flipped in him, his pupils shrinking as his colored iris took over.

Rage overcame him as he pressed the knife further into your back, snd you feel a little more blood spill.

"Are you saying I lie?" Tomas inquires with a sultry voice.

He forces you to walk backwards along with him, just enough that Tomas's back hits a tree from the forest.

Again, despite the harrowing situation you find yourself in, you can't help but flush at the proximity in which you are near Tomas.

You knew he was tall, his genes differentiating him from the others. He was almost two heads taller than you. When you two sparred together, he could easily pin you down with a kick of a leg and one hand over both arms.

He had large, well, everything. Large not just in height, but large in width with bulging muscles that bore scars and physical trophies of his history as a ninja.

If he was big like that, you could only image him down there.

You should be disgusted, afraid of him, any feeling other than aroused. But you can't help it, and it twists your mind with more thoughts and ideas.It seems Tomas sense your confusion, and he removes the grip from your throat to your hip.

Even though the fabric, how tightly he holds you proves he won't let you leave so easily.

Tomas's kind voice is in your ear, his knife pressed threateningly against your back, and his hand clamping down on your hip makes your member throb and begin to grow.

It's no better when you feel Tomas's already firm length rest in between your clothed bum. Your breath skips a little, and Tomas catches it.

"My, my, excited aren't we?" Tomas questions teasingly, rutting against your clothed ass.

Against your best wishes for yourself, against all better judgement, your body wants more. You whine and grind backwards, wanting his cock free from its material prison of his pants. Tomas catches this as well, and the knife drags from your back to your ass.

"Do you want this, honey?" he tuts. "Even after what you saw? What a twisted, filthy man you are."

He isn't wrong either. You curse your heart for feeling such a way with him, especially in this situation. However all rationale leaves you as his knife skillfully cuts your pants down, revealing your plump and impressible ass.

His laugh is dark, his twisted way completely corrupting him totally as he loosens his own britches.

The slight heat emanating from his cock can be felt on your ass, and your theories on his size may just be confirmed soon enough. Before your theory is tested, you can hear Tomas lick and slobber his fingers up before plunging them into your asshole.

You cry out, but you feel the cool tip of his curved blade against your neck. You've just been silenced by the possibility of death- and your cock twitches at the excitement of it.

As Tomas keeps pumping his fingers in and out, perfectly poking the oh-so good spot of yours, his karambit keeps you in your place. You moan, sobbing as Tomas shifts from the sharp edge to the flat part of the blade.

The biting coolness of the flat edge of his blade is pressed into the side of your neck, and fat tears roll down your cheeks as he reduces your manhood to nothing.

"The mighty example of the Shirai Ryu, lessened to a common whore getting off death."

You dumbly agree, babbling and begging for more of his fingers to stretch you out.

Without warning, he roughly takes his fingers out your asshole, leaving it throbbing and red. Subconsciously, you squeeze, and the muscle contracts in his sight.

Tomas still has the knife at your neck, but he expertly uses his other hand to line himself up and tease you a bit with his cock.

Girthy and long, he taps it against your asshole to torment and edge you- his cock just a couple of inches away from entering your. His bulbous, mushroomed head is prodding your entrance.

Because he won't push himself in, you try and speed the process up. However your punishment was the karambit's pointy edge threatening a little off-centered your chest.

"You greedy vixen," he snarls. "You wouldn't want me to use this on you? Hm? Not on my precious little pet."

The blade's edge is over your heart, but your excited moans removes any intimidation from the danger of death.

You enjoy the feeling of it- and Tomas smiles sadistically at you succumbing to your newfound truth.

To reward you, Tomas shoves everything of his inside of you. You're immediately winded, the size of his cock too much for your small, tight hole.

Even so, the pain of him pistoning in you causes pre-cum to pearl and form over your cock's head. You also feel your insides taking shape to his monstrous size, and Tomas practically melts at the feeling.

"I knew you were mine," he says lowly as he slowly pumps into you. "Your slutty hole is sucking me in so well."

Your breaths are choppy and uneven, still trying to get used to his size as he thrusts. In a couple of strokes, though, you're comfortable with his size and mewl happily.

Disobeying him, just this one, you turn your head as far as it could go and reach his eyes. You're smiling, tongue slightly out as you enjoy Tomas ravaging you.

That's all the permission he needs to go mach fuck (literally).

Your mind is blank, and you don't care if your debauched cries draw attention to you two. His dick, huge and rough with veins, is hitting all the right spots for you in your insides.

He's feral, head leaning into your back as he moves his karambit from over your heart to your stomach. You flinch at this, but the chilled metal is welcome as it only adds to the experience.

Oh you, the mighty, hath fallen to the sins of the night.

"You've been waiting for this, weren't you?" his voice condescending as he fucks into you.

"You just put up a front. The innocent stares, the not-so-secret pining," he reminds you, his voice sickeningly sweet with arousal.

You just hum mindless yes's and more's, the feeling of his cock plowing you makes you go stupid- cock drunk, if you will.

"You don't want that kind of love," he says, practically reading you. "You wanted this- the darkness, the sadistic honor, the things mad men do for a person. That kind of love."

Everything he says goes in one ear and out the other, and Tomas just drops the knife to grab your chin and pull you closer to him. Your back is arched beautifully, and your head is turned ninety degrees so you could see him from your side.

"But you don't need to think anymore, honey," he says kindly. "You can be my toy, no one has to know what you saw- not with me by your side."

Your eyes gleam, rolling backwards as he roughly thrusts inwards. That's really the only answer Tomas needs from you as his pace goes from already fast, to even faster.

His high is near, and instead of his knife edging you near death, a tight grip around your throat menaces your life.

Such a tight grip on your throat, Tomas is controlling how close you are to passing out. That, plus his rough and lusty length bulldozing into your asshole, sends you over the edge.

Hot strings of white come out, decorating the rough soil below both of you.

The second time you disobey Tomas, but he lets a boisterous laugh free as his hand finally leaves your throat and joins the other hand at your waist.

With him still inside, he switches your positions and puts your face into the tree. With both his hands evenly at your waist, he continues his pace and slams into you.

Your sweaty bodies against each other harmonizing with your moans and groans, it's a symphony of the erotic- and it only drives Tomas closer and closer to his edge.

Tomas uses his right hand to reach around to your dick, squeezing and stroking it to get you to cum once more.

No, he doesn't care if you're telling him you're sensitive.

"Don't you want to help me honey?" he manipulates you with that same sweet voice. When you whine in response, throwing your head back in pleasure, Tomas is finally near.

With final, powerful thrusts, he buries himself deep inside you as he fills you up good. You're filled to the brim, seed spread all over and his fat dick lodged perfectly inside you. He practically molded you into his personal pocket pussy.

He's trying to pull out, keyword trying, but you're sucking him up good with the muscle. He gives you a decently light spank, and you let go just enough so he can slip out.

A sight for Tomas to behold, his lover happily full to the brim with his heirs, watching the white leak out and drip down his thighs.

He has to physically hold himself back from eating you out and rimming you right there.

Your knees shake with how rough Tomas was, and you're caught by him right before you could hit the ground. You groan and wriggle in his strong arms, carrying you like you weigh no more than a feather.

"Gonna take care of you so well," he praises you. "Gonna make sure you have it all."

His promises to you fall short as you drift off into sleep, your asshole still leaking as he took you back home.

However, you knew he would keep his oaths. Tonight was proof. Your dreams are filled with the endless possibilities of Tomas protecting you- morally correct or not.

=====================

i came back from a party that started two hours late, ate two whole plates of food, danced for two hours, then broke out in hives

see yall in the next fic!

[enloveha]

Ok so this acc was not made for me to make posts but I think it's needed for me talk about this whole Ni-ki smut situation.

So we actually had two people that were writing smut about him to finally realise their mistakes, so that's good, but sadly there's still some out there who are still writing..now I saw A LOT of people use the excuse "but no one cared when people were writing smut for Jungwon and Sunoo when they just turned 18" see that's when some of you missed the point, we're not picking who to protect, but we're making sure it doesn't happen again, since it already happened to Jungwon and Sunoo, and those are protecting Ni-ki and writing smut about the other members are not hypocrites, smut about idols in general can give you the ick BUT there's a difference, one is CHILD porn and the other is just written of legal idols, it's still fucked up (had to change since people didn't understand my point) to write sex stories about them without knowing if they're comfortable with ir or without their permission, bc lemme tell yall that you go on a lawsuit, they can easily sue you, and if they asked or showed that they don't like it and you're still doing it, hope you know you're doing harassment at this point.

Another excuse that was used is "but ni-ki is Japanese and the legal age in Japan in 18, the korean one can't be used on him" you have to be either a whole child or someone who knows nothing about laws, but it's okay lemme explain it! For example I live in UK but I'm 3 different ethnicities, but since I'm in uk I have to follow their laws, since laws in different countries are different it would be weird for me to just follow the laws is Turkey while being in uk, the moment you step foot in a different country, the laws in there apply to you, you legally transported there which means you let them know you're gonna follow their rules even if it's just for a day, so same goes for Ni-ki, for example he won't be able to drink alcohol in Korea bc he's still a minor, in America as well, but if he went to Japan or any European country, he can freely drink alcohol, does that help now? Hope that made some you realise that your excuse makes no sense.

Now to the last point..as much as I dislike Ni-ki smut PLEASE refrain yourself from sending death threats or even worse wishing for those writers to get r@ped, as someone who's a victim of r3pe please don't say those things, it doesn't make you any better, best way is to report the acc and posts, telling them to kts won't help and you're wasting your breath, bc like I said, two of those writers stopped, and how? By getting explained how messed up their works are, ik it's sad that they didn't realise it at the start, but honestly it's better late than ever atp, bc lemme remind you, on Ao3 there's almost 300 smut posts about riki, and those started since he was 15 and most of them are him getting shipped with the other members, even the adult ones, and those people just don't stop, can we really go to them and hold them at a gunpoint and tell them to stop? No, sadly all we can do is report but it doesn't matter bc they'll keep going, I talked with my friend for DAYS before his bday about how I wished he just stayed 17 so that people wouldn't sexualise him, it's really sad.

Anyways thank you if you read the whole thing 🫶

[ca-suffit]

https://www.tumblr.com/ca-suffit/759736544563281920/you-ppl-are-so-dmb-its-fascinating-really-anne?source=share

Regarding this post I want to address anon (I apologise for a repeat ignore my first response) I want to state that the origin of Vampiric lore, the one considered one of the oldest, is Egyptian lore.

This predates the colonisation of Kemet, what Egypt was originally named by the indigenous people there before. Here is a wiki that compiles studies over the years and you can see the trend of Scientist saying that indigenous people of Egypt looked like other Africans and were like indigenous people there.

The story of Sekhmet, the Egyptian feline warrior goddess associated with both plague and healing, is considered by some to be one of the oldest vampire tales. Legend holds that the sun god, Ra, sent his daughter Sekhmet down to punish humankind for their disobedience. But after Sekhmet couldn't stop drinking blood amid her slaughter, Ra quelled her planet-draining thirst by dyeing a bunch of beer red.

So technically the first vampire was African. Just a fun fact that the lore grew over time to European and so most people take source from that. That doesn't not excuse the exclusion of poc vampires and you can't argue that the lore can't agree when the first ever recorded Vampiric lore, or more properly said the oldest, was made by a poc community.

Second Mrs. Anna Rice saying that their skin was unnatural as anon said and being so pale it takes away all colour wouldn't that cause alarm to the humans? Wouldn't humans have nipped them in the bud in being too different (as humanity always does) and try to get rid of them? How did they blend in then? Doesn't make a lot of narrative sense in regards to storytelling.

It's the same story with Mrs. Stephanie Meyer who said that when a black person is turned they lose all their colouring and turn to a beautiful and white vampire. You can't be one and not be the other. It's racist because it basically sends the narrative that you can't be both beautiful and black at the same time.

Here is also a free more thread talking about why there are no vampires in Africa, the first answer just explains the European reason why it's not on mainstream media and the next one explains how there are vampiric creatures in African Folklore.

It doesn't hurt anybody to be properly educated and not ignorant.

It is a problem this narrative that vampires have to be pale and white because it puts out the narrative that poc can't be in positions of power (if we look into the metaphor of vampiric nature in Media and Entertainment) and that you have to be white in order to be in that position of power. This saying that poc should always be below and helpless to white people.

So Mrs. Anna Rice saying that is racist anon in the context of what racism is: Definition. ← From here I want to highlight what exactly puts Mrs. Anna Rice's worldbuilding in regards to what Anon said she said racist.

Associated social actions may include nativism, xenophobia, otherness, segregation, hierarchical ranking, supremacism, and related social phenomena. Racism refers to violation of racial equality based on equal opportunities (formal equality) or based on equality of outcomes for different races or ethnicities, also called substantive equality.[1]

Here is where her worldbuilding becomes racist. It violated the narrative of racial equality. In there being no poc vampires you put all races below the Supreme Race (the vampires because they are the strongest and now no one can have that power unless turned white, removing their unique racial background and forcing to be either white and powerful or poc and powerless).

I hope this helps.

It's not dumb that people are calling out racism. If Mrs. Anne Rice just did her research and expanded European Folklore (that in of itself not all of them state that vampires need to pale and white) then this wouldn't have been racist.

Racism is bad. Why do you think that they had poc in the remake of the series? To negate that. To acknowledge it was racist. Move on and try not to repeat the same mistake again.

Racism isn't always rooted in hate, it also stems from ignorance and being removed (or removing yourself) from general society and not trying to connect to other people who are different from you.

This hurts the people around you and just gives the people whose racism is stemmed from Hate louder voices.

thank u sm for all of this!! I'm sry it took a min for me to post it ❤️

[wingedjellyfishflight]

Viper for the King

CW: threats of non-con, possible death, ambiguous ending, torture briefly mentioned

You have been captured by the enemy with no chance of rescue. There will be no hail Mary operation to extract you and you are at the mercy of the enemy. König is the Colonel, in charge and the scariest person you have ever met.

He threatens to rape you to make you talk when no other form of torture works. His eyes light up at the prospect, thinking he may have found your weakness. You grin up at him with blood-coated teeth.

"Sounds like an interesting cultural exchange. Is that a European thing to brag about being so bad at sex that it's considered torture? Hmm.. anyway, go for it. This is getting boring anyway and I'm near outta fingernails as is."

"We will make you talk," he grinds out.

"Honey, I'll bet you can't even make me scream, let alone talk," you try to wink up at him through the blood and swelling on your face.

He admires your spunk and as much as he wants the information, he will be disappointed when you break as it means no more toying with you. No more carving his initials in your skin. No more spark in your eyes. Hell, you at least look him in the eye, none of his men dare to do that anymore. He has much more respect for you than anyone else he's ever met, he is surprised to realize.

"Do ya hide your face because you're so handsome it's a hazard or because it gives the men heart attacks in fear when they see it? Seems like it could be the latter, given the weak men you have working for you."

He stops the man to his left from striking you. He knows you're right about the quality of men. "I've seen your Ghost. Why does he hide his face? Afraid to be known?"

You chuckle back, spitting out a bit of blood to keep from choking on it. "Makes the girls swoon with his blinding smile. Gotta tuck it away or else he'd be mobbed."

"Ahh... pretty boy. Sounds just your style." He smirks as he goes over the roster of men in his head, thinking to exploit this possible weakness.

You look him up and down, eyes pausing to stare at his beefy arms and thighs. "Too skinny and small for my taste. I prefer... insertion specialists." You see his chest puff up and sigh dramatically. "Too bad the best ones are always the enemy. Though it feels almost as good to crush them under my boots. They never seem to expect it."

König knows you're flattering him on purpose. It's working. He just hasn't worked out why you would. You know he won't go easy, your body can already attest to that. Your voice goes quieter. "I've heard you're called a human battering ram. Wolf among men."

He whispers back, "does that make you the viper, spilling poison into my vein?"

You grin, "No. I'm the raven. Collecting shiny things to line my nest. Can't stand not having the best things to play with, no matter the cost."

He goes quiet, his eyes narrowed as he works out the double-meanings and weighs his options. I should shoot you for having the audacity to label me just another shiny thing, he thinks. But he still considers the offer.

You watch, letting him weigh the choice. Either he ends you now or he helps you escape. Staring him in the eyes, you cant your hips up slightly and lick your lip. If he takes the offer, you're eager to see if he can live up to the hype.

He chooses, unsheathing his firearm. He chooses you. He realizes there was no choice, really. A nebulous offer versus where he is now, feared, but bored. It is a hard choice to make. As he carries your limp body, he thinks about the initials he carved in your body. You will carry his brand to the grave along with his heart, because he will always be yours. He was right, you're a viper dripping poison in his veins and he couldn't get enough.

[uselessheretic]

but also bouncing off of this with ed, racialized masculinity, and rage (and i'm using that term specifically and for a reason) one of the other parts i think is fascinating is the way that rage is dangerous. not to an individual but to the oppressive structures surrounding us.

moc and anger is something that has always been policed and their image in media has to be crafted to fit a specific ideal. i'm taking a look at this through the lens of a biracial african-american, but if you look at the history of how black men are depicted in media you see a stark change occur upon the abolition of slavery. during slavery, the image of enslaved people that was promoted were those of a happy and content group of people. they were infantalized and portrayed as child-like and mentally deficient. you can see gone with the wind as an example of "the happy slave" myth. there's a great teen vogue article you can read if you wanna see more about the myth and how it relates to current pop culture. you can also read more about caricatures and the way they're still normalized currently with mascots of aunt jemima and uncle ben in this op-ed. but like all caricatures, they serve a purpose and fulfill a need of white supremacy. when it came to the happy slave, it was to push the idea that black people were content in slavery, that slavery was a civilizing process that was actually white people helping them, and that the only kind of work black people were capable of is physical labor, that any other kind would make them unhappy.

you can see similarities actually with the way māori men are spoken about and locating their use to physicality. when māori schools (in traditional western sense) were first opened, māori students scored just as well as the european lead schools. white people actually literally forced them to change their curriculum to be labor based completely because anything else was thought of as too complex for their simple minds or some bullshit like that. there's a great paper by brendan hokowhitu "The Death of Koro Paka: “Traditional” Mäori Patriarchy" that goes in depth about the white supremacist fetishization of māori physical labor.

in the same way that māori school curriculums were changed, the happy slave myth was a way for white supremacy to maintain a status quo that naturalized using poc for hard labor while patting themselves on the back for doing them a favor. for a long period of time in america, black rage and anger was erased. it was hidden from white eyes to shield them from having to face the reality of their brutalization. this is why frederick douglass was so revolutionary, btw. he pulled back the curtain on the myth, showing these caricatures as the shadow puppets they were, forcing white people to look at the brutality they were inflicting on real human beings.

the abolition of slavery changed this image. it's like it underwent a PR campaign overnight (which it kinda did) where suddenly pictures of slaves singing with huge grins were replaced with the image of animalistic, out of control, absolutely furious black men. part of this was from a white paranoia projecting their anxiety that black people will come at them for revenge from slavery. but the main reason for this was because of a caveat in abolition that still allowed slavery in the case of incarceration. (the 13th is a documentary on netflix that goes in depth on this!) you can't say that you're enslaving people because they like it and it makes them happy anymore, so what do you do? you change that narrative. it's not to keep them safe, it's to keep you safe especially your women safe. jim crow laws are rolled out, black men in the south are either incarcerated or lynched (the great migration from the south was fleeing white terrorism!) the myth of the angry, violent, savage negro takes form.

the point i'm making related to ed, beyond the history lesson, is related to that idea of white fear of moc's anger. when we talk about the anger of moc, we don't erase it. that's already happened before, and it was used against us. instead we lean into the idea of what makes white people so fucking shook at the idea of an angry moc.

a huge part of this that i think is very relevant to ed is the need for the state to control him. piracy is disruptive as fuck. a huge portion of pirates were ex-navy who left because they no longer wanted to put up with how fucking shitty the navy is to their men (no, it wasn't for radical reasons 😭) piracy also had a large amount of black people fleeing slavery too! one of the reasons black pirates were so scared of capture was because unlike their white counterparts, they wouldn't be hanged, they'd be brought to plantations. if you want to read an interesting article about piracy and race i'd suggest this one! it's untrue to say that piracy was an aracial utopia, but the history of it is complex and fascinating. (fun fact, blackbeard actually gets cited sometimes as one of the pirate ships that were a lot more equitable with race where the famous pirate black ceasar served upon his ship. this does not mean blackbeard wasn't horrifically racist. he still sold slaves and raped black women. do not mistake this for him being an antiracist legend)

pirates were able to operate outside of state control and this was terrifying. at times, they would work with the navy, also a fun fact. hornigold is famous for attacking spanish ships and leaving the british ones alone, meaning england just kinda looked the other way lmao.

but for ed (the character) i think this is what grants blackbeard so much power in a way that just plain old edward teach would never be able to harness. all the way up the chain, blackbeard is feared, and blackbeard is respected. the mere chance that blackbeard would be willing to take an act of grace and concede that power to the king is so lucrative that even an admirals subordinates are willing to go against him for it. to have blackbeard under english control is the greatest propaganda anyone could've offered them.

i think i said this yesterday, but as a powerless child being told that he can't have fine things, that's just how it is, it can feel like your only two options are either anger or despair. ed chose anger, and by doing so, ed chose survival. he can despair over his surroundings or he can get angry, say fuck this, join a pirate ship, and go ham. he can despair over his mother's abuse, or he can get angry. angry that she's treated like this. angry that his father is so cruel. angry that there is nobody who is willing to help them. angry enough to kill your father. not because ed is, at his core, a violent person, but because, at his core, he's a loving one who will kill off a part of himself if it means keeping his mother safe. ("when you kill, you die as well.")

and not just anger, but rage? it's powerful. it's the natural conclusion for having even the slightest awareness of your circumstances as a moc, and it's in the states best interests to quell that as much as possible. not to be like "malcolm x said" but also malcolm x said "Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change." and i think there's something to that with ed, where he's trying to change the circumstances of his life to no longer be a nobody. that anger has served him well over the last few decades, his path has scorched a legacy, but it's also burned him out on the way. something stede offers to him alongside retirement is the possibility that he may be able to let that go. doesn't have to hold onto that anger anymore and wield it like a weapon. maybe love can be enough?

and in this case, it doesn't work out for him. there's many reasons why, but a big one is that ed hasn't yet done the introspection necessary to move forward. he struggles with acknowledging his past (he frequently forgets his acts of cruelty) and although he may be ready to let that go, it's not so easy. it clings to him. also why i think izzy's role is so important and not just black and white villainy. what he and izzy had worked. for decades it served them both well. but now it doesn't anymore and ed wants to let that go, but it isn't that easy to sweep it under the rug and pretend it never happened. izzy is his reminder of that, good and bad.

i mentioned malcolm x earlier, and it feels worth it to bring up how much a disservice history does to his legacy where he's painted as angry with no other nuance. they called him the angriest negro in america. there's also a fascinating legacy within the black male community of attempting to claim him for black masculinity at the expense of others, but malcolm x was also a loving husband and father, and a huge proponent for self-love. his love was complex, and it was only after he began to start making connections globally and start advocating for a more nuanced approach of black radical politics that he was assassinated.

ed is angry, and in that anger is power, but it's also exhausting. he wasn't wrong that love and vulnerability is something that will heal him, but he also hadn't yet done the work of examining his own internalized self-hatred, despair, loneliness, and anger. he's not going to have a fairytale ending where stede swoops in and rescues him from the evils of piracy, but will need to dig deeper into his emotional roots and connect with that same complexity of love that figures like malcolm x embodied.

this will probably look different for ed though since there are māori practices specific to that self journey of healing. Te Whare Tapa Whā is a model of health and wellbeing that takes a holistic māori and indigenous approach to health that positions five tenets as necessary for one's health.

i don't feel like i can do it justice summarizing it since it's focused on five culture specific concepts, but here's a neat link!

this is something i try to keep in mind when writing ed and his healing. even if i'm not naming the model specifically, i think it's great to check back in on "is ed getting these five needs?"

i would highly recommend reading more about māori approaches to mental and physical health where the trauma of colonization is something that is brought to the forefront of needing to be addressed to heal. not only that, but how strong a backlash this receives from white groups because acknowledging that pain and history is dangerous to white supremacy.

but ed's relationship to emotion is something i really love about the show. rage and anger threatens the control of the british empire. it wreaks havoc across the seas and makes a mockery of their power. with ed though, when he's able to take control over the navy and for a brief moment becomes the most powerful person on that naval ship, is the act of grace. an action born from his love of another person. it feels so? hopeful and kind. and it wouldn't hit as hard if there weren't those moments of pain. after all, ed's desire for softness becomes all the more meaningful when we know he's use to only being treated roughly. that contrast is what keeps us feeling.