#I find that line between being good leader and their fear of instability is what made me interested in them

[penwrythe]

*sees fave Paintbrush's exit III interview*

That characterization was interesting to say the least. Even though I was a bit in *ahhhhhhhhhFAV* mode, I feel odd about PB's out-of-character dramatic personality.

Also, Lightbrush confirmed??????

[moustawott]

The movie’s final cut doesn’t necessarily contradict what Orion believes in the animatic imo, though maybe the writers overestimated the audience’s ability to read between the lines and their knowledge of politics and the judiciary system 😅 or maybe it was pacing/time constraints, or maybe it was corporate interference, we’ll never know

My analysis/thoughts under the cut:

Orion says a new society can’t begin with an execution and he’s right in a way: it only leads to fear and instability in the aftermath. + As many have noted, there’s this aspect of a cycle of violence: Sentinel kills the Primes and takes Megatronus’ T-Cog, D-16 does the same. If D had become leader instead of Sentinel, there’s noooooo way it would’ve gone well (and I’m not sure if Megatron would’ve ever been convinced to let anyone except him be the leader of their new society, he becomes a believer in the "might is right" philosophy after all)

Orion was also correct in believing that the peaceful solution should be prioritized: they wouldn’t have had anything to lose trying! And if using the recording didn’t work, then D-16 would’ve been justified

You also can’t have a single person be judge, jury, and executioner — that’s what D was trying to be — cuz that’s just autocracy, and Orion wanted to stop that (on top of trying to stop his best friend from completely losing himself). Sentinel was surrendering! He was all beaten up by D-16! He couldn’t actually harm anyone meaningfully at that point! The great majority of Iacon was against him now, and remember when Sentinel was trying to escape D-16? He was crawling away, he couldn’t fly or use any of his weapons!

I think there were a few writing decisions that went into cutting Orion’s lines:

Tighter pacing: the fact Orion and D don’t really have a quiet moment to unpack everything justifies D-16’s fall better. If D was given a chance to calm down, he couldn’t have been angry enough to drop Orion

Story intent: in the end, this isn’t political drama, it’s interpersonal drama. The politics of TFOne had to be put aside to focus on the drama between characters and their imperfections. I’m just glad TFOne gave us something that actually makes sense within TF lore as a whole! D-16 is sympathetic, but he’s also very wrong! He acts like a fascist; he takes advantage of societal injustice and people’s anger and directs this anger towards selfish goals! That’s how fascism rise every time! Orion Pax is naive, but he is right! He just needs to be better at choosing the right words and inspiring people! (My biggest pet peeve in the IDW continuity is Megatron having based politics, but ending up being a megalomaniac genocider. Hate that trope of justified "villains" and "good guys" maintaining the unjust system, TFOne makes it actually work by giving D-16 understandable reasons, but hella cringe politics lol)

Orion’s flaws: Orion still has room to grow. He couldn’t find the perfect words to explain everything to D-16, nor to calm him down, and that’s a mistake he’ll try to never repeat again. The cut lines are what Optimus would say, not Orion, not yet (I will still lament the loss of the most explicitly based Orion/Optimus we ever had, jakdlkajaj, gimme an MLK/Nelson Mandela-like Optimus that isn’t whitewashed to hell)

Again, we as an audience have hindsight and know the tragedy that’s coming, the characters can’t. Orion never could’ve expected D-16 becoming Megatron, how could he?? That’s his rules-following, hardworking best friend! And Orion wasn’t necessarily wrong to worry about exposing Sentinel first, they were being chased by the drones! And D-16 is a mature responsible bot, no? Orion can trust him to take care of himself

So we end up with this ambiguity in the final scene, and I’m not sure if I can call it good or bad, but it does make for some good conversation opener, especially about American attitudes towards vengeance + punishment = good justice system (cuz like, really, does the death sentence really have more benefits than restorative justice? Is the death sentence actually about long-term, concrete, societal good or actually about satisfying our personal resentment?)

I am so fucking VINDICATED

(From the movie’s draft script, link to the full animatic at the end of the post)

I’m so upset this movie couldn’t have been just a little more obvious about Orion’s beliefs, cuz the final version does look (at first glance) like Orion is playing out the trope “nooo, we can’t kill the fascist bad guy bc killing bad”

The only reason why I picked up on the writer’s og intentions was thanks to the way D-16 was built up: it’s very, very clear that he wants to kill Sentinel only for self-satisfaction and not true justice

I think the reasons so many have misunderstood that scene were:

A. The writer not being obvious enough with Orion who’s fine with Sentinel dying, he just doesn’t want D-16 to commit murder for self-satisfaction (the movie novelization and this animatic don’t have the same problem)

B. Americans love punishment in their justice system (and online “progressive” fandoms too, I can talk about this for hours lol). A major reason why death penalty still exists in the US is because of this kind of attitude where people will seek self-satisfaction and virtue signalling above true, restorative justice. This is why people support D-16’s way of thinking so much. But Orion is right: a functional—ideal—society can’t be executing people, everyone must have a chance for redemption, because if we draw a line between those who deserve and those who don’t, the line will always move in a way to fuck over some random unlucky people eventually

C. People are projecting too much IDW Megatron unto TFOne Megatron. Like, sure, IDW Megatron is based and Coptimus is cursed, but this ain’t the case in TFOne 😭 like at all 😭 D-16 is obviously meant to reflect right-wing thinking (he joins the High “might is right” Guard for fucks sake)

Blah blah something something poor literacy and people lacking the ability to infer/interpret stuff and needing everything spelled out, especially with movies where there’s not just textual info but also visual storytelling + pre-existing tropes that taint our perception of this story

[ashesandhackles]

The Hogwarts Express scene in Prince's Tale: A Sirius and Snape analysis

I really, really enjoy Sirius and Snape as characters and their respective narrative functions in story. But what gets me most about them is how much Rowling hints about their backgrounds and so much of it makes sense with regard to who they are as adults. So I am going to be breaking down a very small scene from Prince Tale and getting into long winded hypothesis about their respective childhoods.

So, let's start with Snape. The scene begins with Snape rushing to find Lily, already in his Hogwarts clothes. Harry notes he must have been eager to get out of his clothes - ones that look like he borrowed from his mother, as Petunia spitefully pointed out. This has always been a very interesting detail to me - first off, it indicates how poor Snape's family is. Second, this indicates his tiny rebellion from his father - he refuses to wear clothes of the abusive man, and prefers his mother's. I admit, I am partial to the reading that Snape refuses to associate with his father in tiny ways, rather than Tobias refusing to hand his son clothes.

(I have seen readings which say that it is also a sign of neglect - perhaps his parents bought clothes that simply don't fit him, but I am more inclined to think it's a hand me down, simply because Harry identifies so strongly with it. Because Harry knows what it is like to wear a hand me down that don't quite fit, that are too big for you, or the ones that make you look ridiculous.)

Lily and Petunia's relationship is fraught with Petunia's jealousy. And young Lily is upset over it when Snape meets her. "I am not talking to you. Tuney hates me" she tells him. "Because we saw the letter from Dumbledore". Young Lily shows signs of being extremely emotionally reactive and this scene is one of them. It's easier for her to deal with Petunia's rejection of her by telling Snape she doesn't want to talk to him. It's a childish displacement of her hurt over her sister's rejection. (I am genuinely baffled by interpretations that Lily and Hermione are similar. Hermione is very cognitive person, Lily, as we have been shown repeatedly in memories, is not).

Snape, however, with his bad history with Petunia and his inability/ poor social skills to understand why this matters to her, goes: "So what?"

Lily, who throws him a look of deep dislike, says "So she's my sister". This seed is important because this is what develops into "he doesn't get me" feeling she later displays in her teenage scenes with him. Interestingly, most of Lily's personal relationships have deeply interwined love and dislike - Petunia (whose rejection bothers her but she cheerfully informs Sirius that Harry nearly broke a vase her sister sent - which means there is resentment on her end too), James - who she was attracted to even before 7th year but also disliked at one point, and Snape - again, a contentious friendship filled with love and distance.

"She's only a -" we dont get to hear what Snape intended to say. And given his own acrimony with Petunia, it could be anything. However, I read it as "She's only a Muggle" because it ties into his feelings about his father. Snape, who is proud of being half a Prince, emphasizing his magical lineage from his mother's side, his refuge in a violent, neglectful home. (Barty Crouch Jr and Snape with their disappointing fathers - I imagine Voldemort is supremely attractive leader to people with broken homes like this)

Snape, by all accounts, shows a disorganised attachment style. His caregiver, his mother - and perhaps the only parent he seems to have regard for, is too preoccupied by her own abuse to be there for her son - we see this in glimpses Harry sees in OOTP: " woman cowering" where a man shouts at her, and a young, neglected Snape cries in the corner. Children born in homes like this have trouble regulating their emotions, simultaneously displaying tendencies to aggressively lash out or show disassociative symptoms. Both of which Snape displays. Statistically, this is also seen more in low income households where economic instability and resulting domestic instability creates an unsafe environment for the kids to safely form ideas of their identity, or express emotions in healthy ways, modelling instead out of behaviour seen at home.

Then, Snape reminds her that they are going to Hogwarts. He is already in his Hogwarts clothes - now, Snape gets to be the impressive figure. The one who told her about magic, who theorised about how Muggles get letters from magical people, the one who told her about Dementors and Azkaban. He has already left behind the Spinner's End version of him, he wants to bigger than that, and is keen to be in place of magical learning and to join Slytherin. Essentially, he shows signs of unstable identity, insecurity - all prime for grooming into a cult.

And here comes along James Potter, who looks around at the mention of Slytherin. James's comment uses Snape's line and directs it to Sirius instead and it becomes a conversation between them, as a way to bond more with a fellow "rowdy boy" Sirius. Effectively ignoring the other two.

Sirius as we see here, "does not smile" when James talks about Slytherin. He essentially says something that can be construed as a way to nip that conversation in bud: "My whole family has been in. Slytherin". This suggests to me that there is some loyalty to his family there and his disillusionment with them isn't entirely fixed yet. After all, Sirius's intense loyalty to his friends, more specifically James, did not come out of thin air. It is reasonable to suggest that he felt some loyalty to his family at some point and the intensity with which he regards his friends is a reaction to burned off and being a "displaced person without a family" as Rowling put it.

Interestingly, while his reaction to his mother and Bellatrix are obviously sore spots, his response to Regulus is comparatively quite soft. ("Stupid, idiot" - something he calls James later on in the same book, OOTP). I imagine Sirius has quite complicated feelings about his brother and he is capable of nuance (when the person isn't Snape, where his dislike seems to be borne of an intense projection): "The world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". As someone who is grown up among them, Sirius would understand that.

His framing of Regulus's need to please his parents also further highlights what exactly is the source of disillusionment. He calls Regulus "soft enough to believe them" - which means he is crediting his own intelligence to see through his parents bigoted world view. Clearly, bigotry is not something the Blacks explained in a way that Sirius, eldest of their male line and their heir, bought it. It also probably didn't help the Blacks case that Grimmauld Place is in a Muggle neighborhood and that their eldest son is a bit of a wild boy with interest in pushing boundaries. His intellectual disconnect leads to the righteous rage he later feels but it began there. (Boy, it must suck to discover that everything you have been taught to value in the world and in yourself as the heir is essentially rubbish). Since his differences with his family began with seeds of intellectual disconnect rather than on intense empathy with downtrodden, it makes him, as a pureblooded privileged boy, unable to truly understand Lupin's fears regarding his lycanthropy. Hence, the Werewolf prank (I am not getting to the Snape bit, just the Lupin bit). To James' credit, he does understand what that means for Lupin and saves all three of them from different set of consequences.

Anyway, back to the scene. James, who has made an ass of himself in front of his new friend, who he was getting along with fine until now, then goes "Blimey, I thought you seemed alright". (Btw, I find James wildly large ego kind of hilarious here, especially in light of Snape's comment about him to Sirius in OOTP: "You will know he is so arrogant that criticism simply bounces off him"). Sirius, who I believe has been raised like "royalty" as Blacks would, has good enough social skills to defuse a situation. He grins and says: "Maybe I will break the tradition".

This line is an indication of Sirius's desire for independence, an identity seperate from his family. The use of the word "tradition" is interesting. It sounds like Sirius is expected to behave in a certain way, the heir of Black family whose parents thought being a Black "made you practically royal". Adult Sirius is contemptuous of this, or their "valuable contribution to Ministry" which means they just gave gold - it tells me that any and all conditions put on him by his family were to fulfill tradition that is either worthless or holds no meaning in his eyes. The root of the emotional abuse Sirius suffers from his family is this - realising his parents love for him is conditional on him being a certain way. (In fact, you can read Regulus desire to emphasise his connection to the family as a reaction to what he sees with Sirius - Sirius does not behave, Mum and Dad don't love him). As a child with unconscious knowledge of lack of love, Sirius then acts out, they react, rinse and repeat "until he has had enough". Sirius chafes against boundaries well into adulthood and doesn't react well to people enforcing it on him, even if it is out of love for him. Cue the fire scene with Harry where he behaves as if Harry is rejecting him instead of protecting him.

Sirius asks James about where he wants to go, and Snape, who is incensed about James being insulting about a House he put stock in, which he made part of new identity (so that he is no longer that Snape boy from Spinner's End) and was in general trying to be impressive about in front of Lily, "makes a disparaging noise" once James talks of Gryffindor. Snape's response to James' : "Got a problem with that?" is interesting. He says: "If you'd rather be brawny, rather than brainy-"

This is an important value for Snape. He knows he is clever and values it. He spends his spare time inventing hexes, making great shortcuts to Potions. He has genuine thirst for learning and he hones it. In SWM, we see that he has written far more longer answers than anyone else, he is poring over his paper after exams. He even mocks Hermione's lack of inventive answers: "Answer copied word to word from the textbook, but correct in essentials". He values originality. It may be me stretching this, but I am partial to the reading: this is his way of rejecting his father once again, who is implied to be a violent man. (in other words, someone who is hypermasculine - "brawny". In fact, Snape's rejection of hypermasculinity is a huge post on it's own - Potions (brewing, cauldrons - coded as feminine arts), the doe Patronus, his proficiency in Occlumency and Legliemency (intuitive mind arts, again seen archetypically feminine) etc).

"Where are you hoping to go, seeing as you are neither?" - Sirius is quick with emotionally cutting insults. Snape hasn't even finished his sentence, but Sirius is already on his case. Which suggests growing up in a household with sharp tongues. It's a fair assumption, given Mrs Black's half mad portrait. It also tallies with Sirius's talking about his mother: "My mother didn't have a heart Kreacher, she kept herself alive out of pure spite" . The wounds are fresh enough on this. (Another interesting way Snape and Sirius act as inverse mirrors - Snape rejects his father, Sirius rejects his mother. Sirius acts as proxy for James for Harry while Snape takes on Lily's role of protecting him). However, you know who else is spiteful? Sirius.

While James is the physical bully (the tripping Snape, doing most of the bullying in SWM), Sirius attacks emotionally. ( Sample the one about Snape's appearance - "I was watching him, his nose was touching the parchment, there will be great grease marks all over it, they won't be able to read a word" or even the carelessly vicious- "Put that away, before Wormtail wets himself in excitement"). Curiously, with all that talk of how his mother being spiteful, it's her room he spends time in when he is depressed. (Again, in inverse mirror way, we can talk of how Snape looks for a father figure in Dumbledore - craves his validation and is proud of Dumbledore's trust in him). We could argue it's also because Buckbeak is there, and perhaps it's the largest room in the house, but it's very telling that's where Sirius spends time when he is "in a fit of sullens". Sirius's sense of abandonment from his family, makes him look for family connections with friends - a trait he shares with Harry. Interestingly, the first time he glimpses Harry in Privet Drive, Harry is also running away from home - just like he did. Anyway, I could go on.

[liv-of-the-earthkingdom]

azula

from early childhood, azula was already seemingly shaped for royalty, she was her fathers favourite and a fire bending “prodigy.” while no one is born “evil,” azula is a perfect example that a child can be corrupted and became evil through pressure and responsibility. it certainly seems that azula was always supposed to be fire lord and that zuko never stood a chance of becoming fire lord. more evidence backing this up, is the fact that she, not zuko, was named after the current fire lord. while she was in favour of her father, it seemed very clear that zuko was her mother’s favourite and this began to form jealous rifts between the family, which would become a plot point as sibling rivalry between azula and zuko. “my father says she was born lucky, he says i was lucky to be born.”

when we are first introduced to azula, she is a cunning, witty and ambitious leader who goes to great lengths to succeed, yet even as scary as she seems, she still seems like she is trying to constantly impress her father. our first introductory scene of her, is the scene of her practicing on the ship and even one hair our of place is enough to discredit her impressive fire bending she had just displayed as it was not “good enough.” in season two we see her join up with friends mai and ty lee, ty lee who she “uses fear to control” and to convince her to come with her and leave the circus. throughout the entirety of season two, we see her play a steady cat and mouse game with team avatar, while also going after zuko and iroh and turning the dai li against their leader. she takes down aang, proving that she is calm, level headed and extremely smart as no one else made a move to while he was going into the avatar state.  

season three, we begin to see the start of azula’s downfall, especially in the boiling rock episodes. this is a huge turning point for azula, as she loses both mai and  ty lee, but it is more the way she loses them that leaves a larger impact. when sokka and the rest are escaping mai betrays azula and helps them escape, or as she puts it, “saving the jerk that dumped her.” this angers azula and she asks why. mai says “i guess you just don’t know people as well as you think you do. you miscalculated.” for azula, who likes to seem calculated and self-assured a lot, finding out that she was wrong can be very harmful. it is also a parallel from earlier in the boiling rock episodes where she states: “i’m a people person.” mai continues to say: “i love zuko more than i fear you.” which many people have speculated may have been something her mother said to as a child, or may have replicated feelings that her mother displayed to her as a child. it is no wonder that this sparks a tempered, and for the first time, out burst of emotion from azula. “No! YOU miscalculated. You should have feared me more!” which is the first time we see azula lose her unnerving calm. when the girls are preparing to fight ty lee steps in and chi blocks azula. this is very different from mai’s betrayal, because mai was not chosing between azula and ty lee, she was choosing zuko (much like azula’s mother). ty lee was choosing mai. whether or not you ship ty lee and azula or not, you can agree that ty lee plaid an important role in azula’s life, as did mai and their betrayal hurt azula.

now we move on to the final episodes of the series. most importantly the scene between azula and her father. when her father declares that he is leaving alone, azula once again loses her cool. the most fascinating line is: “you can’t treat me like this! you can’t treat me like zuko!” when fire lord ozai yells “AZULA!” the fear on her face is very real and it has been confirmed that she was worried she would face the same fate as zuko, regardless of smiling when he got the punishment. when discovering that she is the new fire lord she seems happier, but not like she would have acted the season prior, almost duller. not the kind of voice that has seem to won and got everything they wanted. 

in the scene where she fires the dai li, she mentions that “sooner or later they all would have betrayed her like mai and ty lee.” is this maybe a sign that she is not as nonchalant and uncaring about their betrayal then she is letting on? this scene is another scene in the same episode where azula is angry, which like afore stated wasn’t at all until boiling rock, because she is cool and unnervingly calm. even the way she’s sitting does not look like she has got what she wants, she looks defeated and empty.

now we move on to the mirror scenes. at first she “prepares her hair to meet its doom” by cutting it off with scissors, this is very far from the girl who wouldn’t have a hair out of place at her debut, considering this is her coronation. 

when her mother appears, azula is very hostile.her mother says she is there to see her coronation and azula says “don’t pretend to act proud, i know what you really think of me. you think i’m a monster.” considering this is azula’s imagination, could this be reflecting how she feels about herself? when her mother points out that azula uses fear to control people, azula says “well what choice do i have? trust is for fools, fear is the only reliable way.” this could be from the fact that the two people she trusted most had betrayed her, or azula has never trusted anyone in her life at all. therefore, confirming she feels she needs to use fear to control people. “even you fear me.” “no. i love you azula, i do.” and despite seeming to want her mother’s love all her life, she smashes the mirror where her mother is standing and falls to the floor crying. which we’ve never seen her do before, and we’ve never seen her this unhinged. 

finally, the final agni kai. the final agni kai, “the showdown that was always meant to be,” one azula had been anticipating her whole life. azula’s fighting type is usually calm and cool and pre-meditated. though, throughout the fight she is brash and not thinking moves through, rather just shooting fire. she is also laughing and seems to be tainting not only zuko, but herself. not to mention that going to strike katara with lightning did seem like a smart and sneaky move, but not really azula’s style, because she knew she was losing. 

in the final moments of the battle, is the final time where we see the complete unhinging and downfall of azula. could this be pent up emotion from trying to be perfect her entire life? we cannot be sure, but it seems highly likely. also to be beat by a mirrored version of herself, both same age and holding considerable power, one having grown up with love, and one grown up with coldness.

azula’s story is truly devastating. but does she deserve a redemption arc? she truly seems at times to enjoy being evil, and she was born and raised with evil and the desire to rule and conquer. she can still be defeated and not need a redemption arc. she is not zuko, she is azula. in the show she grew as a charatcer differently, becoming more powerful, than redeeming. but many people support that mental instabilities reached her to this point, comapring the symptons to paranoid schizophrenia. needless to say, she was a truly broken villian. 

[rebelsofshield]

Star Wars: The Clone Wars “The Phantom Apprentice” -Review

The Clone Wars creates a horror movie of inescapable dread in the game changing, “The Phantom Apprentice”

(Review contains episode spoilers)

Maul and Ahsoka Tano are now face to face. As the battle for the future of Mandalore unfolds around them, it becomes clear that something much larger is at stake. The fate of the galaxy hangs in the balance and everything that is known will change. And our heroes and villains are powerless to stop it.

It’s been known for quite a while that the end of The Clone Wars would tie into the events of Revenge of the Sith. The show has been on a collision course with this darkest installment in the Star Wars saga ever since it premiered in 2008 and now the inevitable moment has arrived. Everything in the galaxy is about to upend itself and the feeling of dread and tragedy hangs over everything. While The Clone Wars has dipped its feet into the horror genre before, director Nathaniel Villanueva and writer Dave Filoni have created a half hour experience of impending dread and terror.

The Clone Wars was always going to end in heartbreak. Revenge of the Sith was the inescapable end point for this series, but the unspoken cruelty of this series is in the unaware insignificance of its own cast. Ahsoka Tano, Rex, Maul, the Mandalorians are doomed to be side notes in the galaxy altering Skywalker Saga. Their narratives are twisting, emotional, and undeniably engaging but they will never escape living in the margins of the adventures of the mythic figures they count as their friends, allies, and enemies. There is a knowing futility to Filoni’s script for “The Phantom Apprentice” that pervades everything. We can be watching titanic battles unfold on the streets of Sundari and daring lightsaber duels, but it’s all for nothing. Composer Kevin Kiner, still the only musical talent that has come close to mirroring and expanding off the legendary work of John Williams, turns the aural landscape of this conflict into a sound that can only be described as Star Wars meets Hereditary. We are never once made to feel comfortable. There are no hints that this will work out. It won’t.

Like the standout season finale to Star Wars Rebels’ second season, the title of “The Phantom Apprentice” is deceptively nuanced. It’s actually in conversation with three different characters, one of whom never actually appears on screen.

The most obvious of the three is of course Maul, the original apprentice to The Phantom Menace. I’ve never hidden my adoration for the long, strange character arc that Lucasfilm Animation has taken this formerly one note villain on. Sam Witwer, Dave Filoni, and the rest of the creative team have transformed this former Sith assassin into a perpetually broken and emotional frail man that is never more than a few steps away from collapse. First hinted at in one of his first appearances on this series, Maul was always aware to some degree of The Clone Wars and the larger machinations of his master. The pieces were always in place and now Maul is slowly realizing that the end goal of his master’s decades long plan is finally upon them. And it terrifies him. Long gone is the confident Maul who thought he could carve out an Empire for himself in the shadows of the galactic underworld. After Darth Sidious’s humiliating beatdown of him in “The Lawless” and the murder of his mother in the Son of Dathomir comic series, it’s now clear to this lost Zabrak that his master is the most powerful being in the galaxy and something to be feared above all else. Witwer plays Maul’s former anger and jealousy at having his dreams of grandeur robbed of him as a transformation into existential collapse. He realizes that he really is nothing more than a cast aside bit player in the revolution that is about to come and he is determined to stop it from happening. Not out of any kind of good will or redemption, but out of his own desperation for survival and relevance.

I’ve always been a tad skeptical of one of the final confrontations of the series being a duel between Asoka Tano and Maul. Not at all because Ahsoka isn’t capable of taking on a character like this wayward former Sith. She’s more than proven herself able and “The Phantom Apprentice” more than sells that Maul is definitely not acting at full capacity. (We’ll talk more about that fantastic confrontation later along with the rest of the stellar action here.) Instead, I was concerned that this clash would feel hollow. Ahsoka and Maul do not have an existing relationship prior to “The Phantom Apprentice.” Their big climactic meeting of sabers could have been nothing more than a set piece that was created only because they were the only characters free during the Revenge of the Sith era to have one. That is very thankfully not the case.

Filoni smartly positions Maul and Ahsoka as two sides of the same coin. As Maul was eventually cast out and discarded as useless by Darth Sidious, Ahsoka was also tossed away by the Jedi order by their own dedication to doctrine and lack of trust. Both are victims of their respective order’s worst qualities and exist as relative outcasts. However, the true dramatic irony of it all is that by doing so, both Ahsoka and Maul are arguably in better positions to survive the coming slaughter and possibly put an end to it. Sure, Maul’s argument for their teaming up to stop Sidious is mostly self-serving (even if I suspect that it does have some root in the sad sack of a Sith’s perpetual need for companionship and belonging), but Ahsoka considers it for a moment because she can see the truth in it all. It’s a fascinating moment and the fact that it feels emotionally genuine is a true feat of Ahsley Eckstein, Witwer, and the entire creative team. We can’t not acknowledge that incredible shot of the shattered glass and embers blowing through the wind as Maul’s fateful offer is made.

The final apprentice is of course Anakin Skywalker. Perhaps the most startling development of “The Phantom Apprentice” is Maul’s revelation that he is more than aware of Anakin’s eventual slip to the Dark Side and it was probably in the cards for quite some time. (His moment of post-mortem pity for Dooku is a fun wink to how doomed all of Sidious’s apprentices were on their eventual march toward Anakin’s ascension.) It recontexualizes so much of the final days of The Clone Wars and of Sidious’s plan itself. Of course as Anakin’s fateful seduction to the Dark Side is occurring parallel to the events of the Siege of Mandalore it is more than fitting that Maul is not the only one with Anakin on his mind. The brief call between Obi-Wan and Ahsoka comes from a place of compassion, but it ultimately serves as further example of Ahsoka’s suspicion of the Jedi. She sees a kindred spirit in Anakin at the moment that the Council betrays his trust and how could she not. The fact that Ahsoka and Maul’s duel happens mostly as a retaliation to the assertion that Anakin will fall speaks to her unbreakable trust in her surrogate older brother. It ends up playing as a bit of a fight for Anakin’s soul. Hope versus despair and denial versus inevitability.

And what a battle it is. Dave Filoni mentioned at Star Wars Celebration last year that they brought in original Darth Maul stunt actor Ray Park to assist with the animation for this fight and it certainly shows. While it may not be the most sprawling duel ever or as brutal as Pre Vizsla and Maul’s duel to the death, The Clone Wars has never featured a confrontation as fluid and dynamic as this one. The constant back and forth of the upper hand and the emotional instability of both fighters gives this encounter a strange edge that ratchets up the tension even if we know both combatants are destined to make it out of this alive. The final stage in the scaffolding that holds up the city of Sundari is a standout and brings to mind a similarly stellar set piece from Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation.

It’s not just our phantom apprentices that get in on the action this week. A claustrophobic showdown between Bo-Katan and Gar Saxon in an elevator shaft is one of the most inventive set pieces that the series has produced and Villanueva sells it with a cluttered intensity that never loses clarity. A prolonged battle between the liberating forces and Maul’s loyalists is similarly brutal and striking with sweeping tracking shots of the action that smartly know when to cut into the carnage and when to transfer back to other scenes. It brings to mind some of the great multi-tiered battles in Star Wars history and it once again gives big screen live action installments of the franchise a serious run for their money.

 A few random final thoughts!

It seems only fitting that Almec would be gunned down by one of his own allies. Gar Saxon is poised to take over Almec’s position as the self-serving Mandalorian leader in the era of the Empire and there’s certainly some poetry in this sort of cyclical killing. Poor Mandalore. Planet’s not going to sort itself out anytime soon.

Jesse lived! I’m sure every one of us clone junkies were prepared for one of our last surviving 501st boys to fall to Maul this week, but through some small glimmer of positivity the newly minted ARC Trooper survived. I’m not sure we can be as hopeful in coming episodes, but I’ll take the positivity where I can find it.

I actually really loved Maul’s cameo in Solo: A Star Wars Story and it’s nice to see “The Phantom Apprentice” tee that up with the blink and you’ll miss appearance by Dryden Vos. Was really hoping for a tiny line of dialogue from Paul Bettany, but I guess that’s as good as we’ll get for right now.

Sam Witwer remarked several months ago that the scripts for the final arc of The Clone Wars were the best the series ever produced and it’s hard to argue with that. Never before has this saga had more on its mind or felt as emotional or consequential. It’s a nail biting stunner of a chapter and I’m genuinely in awe that we are only half way done. Buckle in folks. This is when the pain really begins.

Score: A+

[marcusrobertobaq]

I think he's more worried about ceasing to exist as failure than actually just *puff* dying. Like, imagine being made to feel proud of being a slave just to fail his sole purpose? Depressing. And to die for really nothing? A damn punch. As any other android he has self-preservation but between tossing aside and letting it distract him it's better for the mission if he survives. His true denial is denying CyberLife is wrong about deviants, consequently he being wrong about deviants. He's, like, seeing all these signs he got in his mind are deviant shit (and deviant shit means failure = you're done) and thinking he himself is compromised according to his previous info but at the same time he's like "I still not a deviant?", know what i mean? He's conflicted in what to believe cuz all his own clues (and lack of knowledge about his background) points towards he being defective (a deviant), but if he were a deviant he'd def know cuz the brainwashing says it's something unacceptable and that'll be obvious when it's the case, and the fact they don't do shit besides wanting him to do the job doesn't help him either.

So, well, he remain on the line even after DPD assignment is over, and maybe hoping he'll find answers about deviancy in Jericho, where he can finally sit down and finally deviate parting ways with CyberLife, the leader gives him an ultimatum that will force him to make the decision alone, and if it's in prol of himself rather than humans he'll inevitably go against CyberLife's orders.

The problem is CyberLife knows about deviants and is hiding information not only about Kamski's relationship with both the deviant leader and tools that became what Connor is dealing with now but everything about what they wanna do with it. In Connor's mind CyberLife wanna put the revolution down for obviou$ reasons ($aving human$) and they got the right to do it cuz no androids should disobey humans or act against 'em as it brings chaos: machines with free will = not good.

But the ironic part here is from the outside circle pov Connor will be totally be seen as a deviant exactly cuz he can do these 2 things depending on the situation + suffer from instabilities a good machine shouldn't let it be relevant (interfere in decision-making), but the only reason he ain't a deviant in CyberLife's papers is cuz he remains obedient and haven't taken his "system compromise" seriously to the point of direct objection towards CyberLife itself yet (in this case Amanda as personification). And finally turning on CyberLife is truly "becoming free" or "opening his eyes" realizing his definitions on deviancy were covered by ignorance, now seeing himself as a person worthy life and voice after being used as tool (and it's no wonder his first mechanism is disasociation by "It wasn't really me before deviating"). What the deviant leader did was confirming Connor can and should make his own decisions (being capable of reason) instead of following his master - it's basically about rebellion, but it's twice as heavy cuz it's coming from a deviant android rather than just a human like Kamski.

But the "free" part is kinda fucked up in his case since indeed the handler function is gone and he's his own master in the system BUT CyberLife got the plan B that can still interfere and take control.

One thing i'm sure is deviant Connor regrets not deviating earlier and i think the earliest point in the game he could do it was refusing to find Jericho and taking the leader down the same way Hank can refuse helping saying "deviants deserve a change" (which conveniently after a very tense chat with Amanda due to the discoveries at Kamski's house). But i guess his fear of failing and being destroyed talked louder in this situation (this time in favor of CyberLife). Or maybe he was also just curious and wanted answers about where deviancy comes from and what's the relationship with rA9 - like, y'know, the original course was supposed to be.

This is basically what all androids go thru except it may be easier in 'em case since they ain't got the same bypasses on AA and they ain't trained (yet) to reject deviancy and fully embrace slavery - meaning anything can become reason for questioning or the butchering of direct orders. Ofc they're default self-aware of 'em condition as androids (as in not being a human or like a human and not try being a human) but we ain't got this level of rejection towards disobedience to a master, that probably comes from the Connor series function both as deviant hunter but also a large-range-decision-making model, since he's a RK.

Not sayin' your average office model won't have to make decisions alone (to assist the master) but Connor is in an active role characterized by decision-making (alone) with AA bypasses and a handler with vague orders wanting him to make the decisions and find answers himself as long as he doesn't ask his master "why?" about things. All he can do is make decisions that start distancing him from CyberLife priorities but even there he's still in 'em leash and on the mission (cuz he doesn't run away from it) until he totally "fucks up" by refusing to obey Amanda.

Before deviation all androids seem to go thru a process of questioning "whys" and finding themselves first then finally screaming to the world they're someone, and this "scream" will go against what androids are supposed to be in society. I say that cuz if we played more as Kara and Markus before deviancy we wouldn't really have such discussion about Connor alone (and i think the play time we got as Kara and Markus are enough to show basic things). The point with Connor was showing androids are people (probably, secretly, were supposed to be people intentionally), they just need to butcher the program keeping 'em in a box and free themselves from it a.k.a. becoming a deviant (and that's why we got mp walls as illustration).

Cuz i can argue they already got things that can potentially lead to conflicts (such as self-preservation but for the sake of a master) but the fact everything remains in place ain't making 'em being automatically a deviant for having self-preservation itself, it's part of the deal. Problem is when it butchers the master's intention and is focused solely on the android. It's no wonder they need be unstable to break thru, since raises the % of things becoming faulty. For a product it ain't an issue until things are out of control and ofc the manufacturer will make sure things are hard-coded under control and according to law... superficially at least.

It's quite sad, honestly. I'd prefer androids like these didn't exist if u gonna just make 'em slaves and hide potentials.

So, Bryan was casted for the role of Connor based on an audition tape, in which he did the scene from „The Bridge“.

He was picked to play Connor because he could portray Connor's uncertainty about whether or not he was a deviant so well.

He played Connor as someone who may or may not be a deviant, as someone who could be a machine but also could be a deviant who is repressing it. Bryan was picked for that role specifically because he could portray that desired nuance in his audition - using the scene from „The Bridge“ in which he hasn’t officially deviated yet.

Now, am I saying Connor was a deviant all along? No. I think that’s up to interpretation. All I'm saying is that people who think he might have been a deviant in denial from the start aren’t as „stupid“ as some of y'all like to call them. Because, depending on the route and the choices, he is quite literally intended to be seen as a „possible deviant in denial“. Many people can read between the lines and see what the narrative is showing them. That’s all.

Source at 7:38

[umccall71]

Chapter 13

Characters:Prince Liam x (mc) Lady Saige

Rating:Mature Content includes profanity, sexual content,talks about depression.

Word Count:3949

Disclaimer: All characters used are sole property of Pixelberry. I am simply borrowing them for entertainment.

Summary:After a summer of a Lifetime Prince Liam thought he could have it all. He was carefree, free, and sharing time with the woman of his dreams. When life as easy a balancing act between love and duty, he realizes his truths are lies, wrong is right, and decisions do have consequences.Lady Saige never imagined she would be one of his consequences. When an act of utter horror throws her world into a tailspin.

Warning: This series contains subject matter of depression and hopelessness .The story may trigger certain individuals. Please be advised. If your reading this series you are acknowledging you are at least 18 +.

*******************

It had been a month since Constantine requested that Liam take over as king as he was stepping down for health reasons. Liam was unwavering in his stipulation that only Constantine and Regina are out of the palace before his coronation. He wanted absolute certainty that Saige would not have to share her new home with her attacker for one night.Liam reveled in his role as her husband and protector. This was tantamount to anything else… keeping her safe.Liam has just finished up a call when he eyed Saige coming down the stairs at Lythikos.

“Are you getting ready for your appointment?”, Liam inquires.

“Yes… I’m meeting with Dr. Ashton in 30 minutes.”

“You seem a lot more relaxed since you found someone new…. I know how important your group meetings and therapist was back in Texas.”

Saige nods in agreement while biting her lip, “it’s … been helpful. Especially… since the news of you becoming king.”

Liam wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tightly. “Are you still in agreement with my taking over as the next monarch of Cordonia?”

Saige perched on her tiptoes and kissed Liam’s chin. “My love… I am all in with you becoming king. I know this a part of who you are. I respect that your willing in spite of everything to step in ….. in your father’s place… in your brother’s place.”

“I’m glad to hear that you are on board. You do know if at any time it becomes too much. I will not go through with it.”, he looked at Saige lovingly.

Saige felt such an overwhelming love, respect, and dedication to this man that changed her life in such a brief amount of time.She thought how she spent years on her own, fending for herself… now she can’t picture life without him.

“Liam, you have nothing to worry about . I’m fine. I am getting used to the new doctor you found.”, she smiled tenderly. “Thank you for finding her and her willingness to come here to meet with me.”

Liam kissed her fervently and not wanting to let go but he reluctantly pulled back after several minutes.Liam rested his head against hers, “ I hate leaving you Saige… but I know your in good hands. I have a meeting at the palace to confirm some details for the coronation. I wish I could stay here and be present for your appointment, but I want you to be comfortable with speaking freely.”

Liam placed a kiss on Saige’s forehead and bid her farewell. He turned back as he reached the door. He smiled tenderly and blew her a kiss. “ I will see you shortly my love..I love you .”

“ I love you so much Liam.”, she smiled and waved him off.

Liam arrived at the palace an hour later prepared to draw a line in the sand and stake his position in regards to the events of the coming weeks. Liam arrived at the study and was met by Bastien and Constantine with a host of advisors.

“Good Morning everyone… lets get down to business.”, he say at the head of the conference table.Liam surveyed the room before opening the briefs that were laid out in front of each of them.

Constantine seemed proud in that moment to watch his youngest son take control. “Liam, there’s a lot of decisions that need to be made before the ceremony. We cannot have your reign threatened by any sign of instability.”I would….”Liam quickly shot a warning look at his father, “my perception in the eyes of other leaders is not a concern you needn’t have at this time. I can assure you… my decision of how to lead… will not be swayed by you. In fact, your focus should be on making sure the staff get you and Regina packed up to start settling into your new home.”

Constantine scoffed, “you were not serious about me leaving .. I would think you would want to have me close by for my counsel.”

Liam steepled his fingers, eyes honed in on his, he leaned back and crossed his legs, “Would you all leave me alone for a private moment with my father?”,Liam barely spoke above a whisper but the room cleared out in a matter of moments.

Bastien glanced between the two men, cautiously moving toward the door. “Sir… are you wanting me leave as well?”, he spoke hesitantly. “If you fear my lashing out again, I can restrain myself Bastien.He won’t die… at least not today… at my hands.”

Bastien left the study, closing the door behind himself.

Liam locked eyes with Constantine sending a coldness through his nonverbal communication. “For some reason you seemed to think that I was asking you to leave...no it is a requirement… you will not darken a room that my wife May come into. The only job you have is figuring out how not to die too soon from your Cancer. This is non negotiable, you heard my terms for taking over… now deal with them!”,he spat. “Did you really think I would want to take any advice from you.. especially knowing the type of animal you are?”,Liam spoke through clenched teeth. “The coronation is in 3 weeks, you need to be out in two. I need to make sure my wife can come in and make decisions for her new home.You will be gone from this palace whether you like it or not. Which is far better than you deserve you derelict.”

Constantine’s nostrils flared, he bit his words back avoiding the pending confrontation. “What exactly are you wanting from me Liam?”

Liam stood from his seat and walked around to face his father, mere inches from his face, “ I want you gone from my orbit… you violated the woman I love and you expect what… a thank you?! I want nothing more than for you to pass on the reigns to me and disappear in the sunset while you cease to breathe.”Constantine stood to walk out, he stopped short to speak, but Liam halted his words with the raising of his hand.

The advisers and Bastien filed past Constantine as he left the room. Liam took a deep breath, firmed his stance and commanded that the advisers complete their briefing. “We need to lock down the decisions for the coronation and I also need to meet with the royal tailor … I need to make sure the dress for Saige is perfect for the Coronation.”The advisers looked at each other a bit confused, Bastien nodded, “yes sir”, being the only one in the room to know the relationship.

The meeting went on for a couple more hours, Liam deciding music, food, decor, processional,and privately the moment he would announce to the royal court once he’s crowned king that he had his Queen.

Saige sat in the parlor of Lythikos speaking to Dr. Ashton. She spoke freely about transitioning from life in Texas to being married to a prince, now crowned prince, and in a matter of weeks he would be crowned king.

“Saige… what do you think about the impending transfer of power? More importantly you becoming Queen?”, the doctor asked.

Saige contemplated her words momentarily before answering, I am more concerned with Liam taking his place on the throne. I mean… not many people know that we got married or even that we were dating”,she shrugged. “I don’t want to make this about me… it’s about that generous man that takes on the weight of the world.”

The doctor scribbled some notes, “Saige, you do realize that as Queen you will have certain expectations… right?”

“Yes I know, and the bad dreams will subside soon once we have our own space.” The doctor interrupted, “you have been having bad dreams… what about?”, she leaned forward listening thoughtfully.

“ I guess with a life in the spotlight.. that so many people will be assuming things about me. Like I am not fit to be married to Liam, like I am beneath him , people will think they can do things to me and against me.”

“Saige there will always be a subset of people that have a mindset of what the life of the upper echelon should look, act, speak, interact like ...they don’t know you … but they will.”, she touched Saige’s hand encouragingly.

“ I’m willing to do what needs to be done to grow into the role, but I… i'm nervous.”,she wrung her hands.

“About?”, the doctor asked.

“What if I can’t … if I can’t give Liam a child… an heir? I don’t want anyone , especially his family to treat him like he’s made a horrible mistake. I want to make him happy and proud. Liam is the first man I ever considered a lifetime with, a future, a family… I can’t disappoint him.”, the stress evident in her eyes.

Dr. Ashton eyes were widened, “I can’t see Prince Liam thinking anything other than you being extraordinary in his eyes…. you are a strong young woman Saige facing a big responsibility. You have to remember that you are you first, his wife second, and Queen third. Allow yourselves to depend on each other ...to be open… to be vulnerable… to just be human without the weight of the crown. There will be enough of that stress and insurmountable expectations outside of the two of you.”, she smiled at Saige.

Saige flashed a soft smile feeling a little bit better after speaking to Dr. Ashton. She walked her out to the door where she ran into Liam coming up the stairs. A huge smile spread across her face. Dr. Ashton appreciated being a witness into this private moment seeing the love shared between them in just a few seconds. “Your highness… it’s wonderful to see you again.”, she bowed.

“Dr. Ashton… no need to be so formal here. I am happy with the help you are providing.” They waived to the doctor as she drove away.

Liam and Saige spent the rest of the evening in their suite with a light dinner before turning in for the evening. They both lounged around, Liam wearing pajama pants and Saige wearing pajama shorts and a tank top with her hair pulled up top in a messy bun. Liam stared smiling into her ocean blue eyes as they curled up watching a movie. Saige glanced at him smirking, “what are you staring at Liam?”

He just basked in the feeling of love he has for his soon to be queen.”I am just happy to see you so relaxed and just enjoying our time together.” He squeezed her close to his chest as they watched a romantic comedy. Liam never fancied himself a connoisseur of any particular genre of movies.

“Liam it’s great to just be here with you… doing nothing… just being together.”, she grinned softly.

Liam leaned down and gently kissed her lips, he whispered, “you know you make me the luckiest man alive”, he nipped her skin beneath her ear. Liam’s fingertips traced lazy circles across her bare skin of her shoulder, her thigh, drawing likes against the fabric of her tank top. He suddenly started to tickle her teasingly. Saige rolled around in a fit of giggles, pure uninhibited laughter filling the room . Liam could never get enough of hearing that sound. They ripped around in laughter until the playfulness turned into exploratory passion.

Liam and Saige quickly pulled at each other’s clothes until they rubbed against each other completely bare. Liam’s erect manhood danced across Saige’s ass as he pulled at her tender skin from her neck leading a fiery path down her shoulders, her back, he playfully bit her ass cheek before landing a resounding thwack.

He flipped her body over, she laid on her back, arms over her head being held in place by his large hand , while the other grazed her breasts, her stomach, her thighs, he then parted her thighs allowing access to her moistened center. “Aww , Love… your so wet for me already. Is all of this for me?”, he teased in a low growl , seducing her with his eyes, his lips, his hands, and most impressive hardened length tapping at her entrance. “Do you feel that?... that’s all from you love… it’s what you do me”,he let out a laugh pondering what he wanted to do to Saige.

“Do you want to talk to him, let him know how much you want him… thrusting inside your hungry sex. You crave it don’t you?”, she started squirming in anticipation, “yes”, she stumbled breathlessly to get out of her lips. “Do you want to taste it on your pretty little mouth my love?”, he moaned softly playing with her slick folds with his hardened tip. “Yes… oh Liam please”, she pleaded. In that moment he released her hands and sat up on his knees knelt over her. Saige’s lust blown eyes devoured his body as she positioned herself on her stomach raising her head to meet eye level with his cock.She planted a kiss on the tip, she slightly parted her lips granting his length access to protrude her mouth feeling the welcoming warmth of her hollowed cheeks, she smirked as she swallowed more of his length with each stroke of his treasure passing her lips.

Saige locked eyes with Liam watching as he relaxed and then tensed each time he felt the build of pleasure about to erupt. He bellowed her name as she delivered skillful erotic conversations with her lips, her tongue flattened and curving under his shaft as he moved his hips meeting her mouth pleasingly.

“Fuck Saige, that feel fucking amazing.”, his hips bucked as he fought to hold back his release.His hands trailed down her arched back massaging and gently gliding down to her ass. He leaned slightly, just enough to reach her soaked core, throbbing, waiting patiently to feel him stretch her , fitted to him like a glove.

Liam's fingers felt the slickness from her wet folds, he rubbed them from her ass down to her clit. He teased her by slowly slipping one finger inside of her, massaging that special spot as he curled and hit repeatedly. Soon it was joined by a second digit both delivering agonizing pleasure as she pushed her ass back and forth, trying to adjust and ride his fingers. Liam’s thumb rubbed slow circles on her clit while his fingers developed a partnership learning how much she was enjoying feeling him inside with his fingers, but she really wanted the complete occupation of her sex by his massive length.

Saige hummed in approval swallowing his cock as he hit the back of her throat, “Damn… that’s my girl… just like that. You certainly know what I want.”, he spoke through uneven gasp . Saige was under his spell as he pumped away while she smirked pleasuring Liam. She spun beneath him , lying on her back, still bobbing away at his cock. She parted her thighs wider, arching her back off of the bed. He knew that she was mesmerized in the feeling of her wanting hole being filled by him, but he wanted to share in the feeling of his mouth on her nectar sliding down her lips and thighs from desire.

Liam leaned forward meeting her sex with his eager mouth, he gently tugged on her lips before flipping to his back , her frame now hovered over his face, she’s sucking effortlessly, as he parts lips with his tongue massaging her womanhood. Liam ran his tongue the full length of her sex front to back, as if he were a starved man savoring his last meal. His tongue swirled , sucked, delved into her lips before finding his way to the pearl of her clit.

Saige grinded her hips into his mouth, her core tightening as if a dam about to break. Saige tickled his cock with the tip of her tongue as she so desperately wanted to lose it . “Oh Liam … please don’t.. don’t stop”, she breathed out. That was music to his ears as his picked up his pace, lips locked around her clit as he slid his two fingers in her again working every inch of her pleasure path.

Saige was pushing down on his fingers and his tongue, wanting to feel him paint her inner walls. He knew she was close, he felt her walls tightening, constricting around his fingers. He knew it was near when her lips were pulsing around his tongue. Liam uttered beneath her, “cum for me love… show me what I do to you”, in that moment her body jerked and convulsed as she came undone on top of Liam. She locked her lips tighter around his throbbing shaft. Liam met her mouth thrusting up letting out low groans each time. Finally he couldn’t take it and he flipped Saige onto her back, pulling her body to be centered on the bed as he opened her thighs and thrust into her hard with one fluid motion.

Saige bit her lip from the welcomed intrusion. She loved feeling Liam make love to her and please her. She had no comparison to go by, but she felt he was made to pleasure her, she thought this must be what love feels like, this physical, emotional,exhilarating connection between two people that want to share their lives together.

He allowed her a brief moment to adjust, “oh my love… your so tight, I love feeling you and filling you”,he panted as he delivered long, sensually, stimulating strokes building a fire in her belly from the overwhelming sensation of the pleasure he was made to share with her. “Do you like that?”, he whispered and moan as he sucked on her neck and the sensitive spot by her ear. She rolled her hips into him as he drove deeper into her wanting hole . “Yes… god yes”, was all she could get out of her mouth.

Liam felt like he couldn’t get enough of her, he laid chest to chest with her, he gripped her ass cheeks as he thrusted repeatedly into her savoring every stroke they shared. His body towered over hers, he had a perfect combination of dominance and gentile love as they made love. Liam pushed off his toes digging into the mattresses his ass tightened as he too neared his climax.

Saige tried to focus on his smoldering eyes as they made love, but her body was no longer her own. She felt like a siren connecting with her god. She gyrated against him, barely able to move with the welcome weight of his body atop her own. “ Liam… I’m about to …”, she panted struggling to speak. “Cum for me Saige.. I want to watch you come for me baby “,he groaned sending her body over the edge as he felt his length coated with a wetness from inside her. Liam drove himself deeper, harder inside , riding her orgasm out to the fullest. He couldn’t tear his eyes away as blue eyes met blue eyes in passion. He plunged his tongue in her mouth and they tangled together as she continued to come undone. She screamed into his mouth that fought to muffle the sounds of her pleasure. In that moment she met her third release, this time joined by Liam in his own release. Saige cried out, “I want to feel all of you in me Liam, I want your seed in me. I hope we make a baby tonight”, the words crept out before she realized what she saying, but she also realized that she would welcome having a child with him.

Liam felt his heart explode with the love in hearing that she too was open to the family they wanted to share . Liam continued to thrust deeper through his release determined to share all he had in that moment. His lips found hers again and he smiled softly as he kissed her, pulling at her bottom lip. They both wouldn’t move trying to come down from the high of this night. Soon Liam laid aside Saige as he stroked her arm, the curve of her waist , her hip before he kissed her nose. She looked so relaxed and peaceful in that moment.

Liam took a hesitant breath before he gathered his words to ask her, “Saige… did you mean what you said while we.. were making love? That you wanted to try for a child?”, he waited with bated breath.

She rolled into his side, burying her face in his chest for a moment, “Liam, I don’t regret what I said. Your the only man I have ever even considered giving myself to wholeheartedly, let alone thinking of the family I want to share with you, if… if that’s what you want too”, she rose up to face him, she cupped his cheek kissing him lovingly. I guess it felt so real when you were making love to me. I’m not going to say it doesn’t scare me a little, but I’m opened to the possibility of having your child.”

“I was so young when we lost my mother, so I can’t really say that I am fully prepared or have any real reference, but I am willing to try.”, she sniffed back tears that were threatening to spill over.

“Saige.. I have never wanted someone as badly as you. I never saw a path forward to being in love, wanting a life and a family with anyone. When I see the mother of my child… it’s only you. I couldn’t fathom sharing this experience with anyone other than you.”, Liam too become misty eyed talking about creating a family. “I couldn’t feel closer to you than in this moment.”, he pulled her close. “ This is the moment I want to cherish… the moment we decided that we want a family, a real family.”, Liam smiles wide just as Saige began to drift off. “ Are you hungry love… I’m gonna get snack.. be back shortly.

Liam sat up in the bed before he slid his pajama pants and a T-shirt on heading down to the kitchen. The chateau was dark, only a few wall sconces lit up the path. He quietly tiptoes down the grand staircase when his attention is bought to the parlor on the way to the kitchen. He doesn’t try to see but the door is slightly ajar. His curiosity is piqued when he hears a familiar male voice coming from the parlor. The voice is not loud, but resonates in the quiet .

He’s interrupted from his thought when he heard a woman moaning… he heard her voice dominate and commanding, “fuck me Drake, I don’t want to be able to walk tomorrow.. your cock is huge… make me feel every bit of it “, she moaned. Liam stopped dead in his tracks and cranes his head around the small opening,

“Drake… is fucking Olivia?Where the hell have I been ?”, he whispered and slowly backed away from the door continuing to the kitchen wondering what the hell he walked in on.

Upstairs while Liam is getting a snack Saige begins to slip into a dream state. She dreams of being in a bed after having given birth to Liam’s child.There is a pair of outstretched arms to the baby… only the arms don’t belong to Liam… but Constantine. “Noooo… get away!!!” Saige’s body jerks up fighting to catch her breath , quiet tears slowly rolling down her cheeks. Saige rolls to her side trying to compose herself before Liam’s return.

********

@ao719 @sashatrr @elles-choices @hopefulmoonobject @carabeth @indiacater @jared2612 @lauradowning29 @blackcoffee85 @3pawandme @wughhumans @whenyourheartskipsabeat @syphaxs@romanticatheart-post @smalltalk88 @gibbles82 @choices97 @furiousherringoperatortoad @custaroonie @marietrinmimi @jovialyouthmusic @ownworldresident @thesootsprite @drakesensworld @fantasy-of-fiction

[saltthreena]

I loved your rice-ball analogy! What would you say are all the other FB characters "rice balls?" You should make a second part to that post detailing it. A thought though, I think Shigure's riceball isn't so much his "different" motivations but how he's unable to feel normally and just empty he is inside compared to the rest of the Jyuunishi. Perhaps, most importantly, that he doesn't have his own identity outside the curse like everyone else does?

Thank you! To be honest, I did not go into details for my first post fearing that I was going to spoil it for people. This will be more in-depth so read at your own risk everyone lol.

Shigure - Compared to the rest of the Jyuunishi, his feelings are slightly more intense. In my opinion, Shigure does feel, but there is a thin line between possessiveness/obsessiveness and nurturing for him. What separates him from the other Jyuunishi is the fact that his relationship with the “bond” is so strong and intense that he finds purpose/”love” within it while the other characters want to leave but cannot. To him, it is more than just a curse. Think about it, while the older Jyuunishi’s allowed that moment where Akito was was in the womb to just be a memory, Shigure held onto that day even while everyone moved on. He is different. I do not think anyone really understands him, not even his close friends. That being said, I do think he is able to feel normally, and that can be seen whenever his friendship with Ayame and Hatori are explored. Also, let’s talk about his relationship with Akito. Although he communicates with her, at one point Akito also rejects him. She is honestly more concerned with losing the other members than worry about her relationship with him until later on.He is a rice-ball because he feels differently compared to the rest of Jyuunishi in my opinionKureno- boy! he IS the rice-ball. I cannot recall who said it, but even one of the zodiac members at one point mentioned how Kureno was not like the others. None of them really knew who he was. Similar to Yuki, he too was ostracized from the rest jyuunishi. Not only that, his curse was the first one to go. Imagine being part of an exclusive group but knowing that deep down that you’re not like the other members, BUTTT at the sametime you know you also do not belong in any other group. To be honest, I cannot even imagine Kureno having an enjoyable conversation during the annual banquet.I’m sure he must feel alone, and being alone in your own feelings is basically the concept of being a rice-ball.Akito- she’s an obvious anyone. Imagine everyone worshiping you because you are the incarnation of “God”. She is the leader of the group, but she doesn't fit in with the actual members. She is isolated. No one really knows her, but they *feel* obligated to listen to her. It’s out of fear and not out love.Hatori- Can you imagine having to erase the memories of people the jyuunishi loved. I doubt any of the members blame him for what he did, but he must feel a certain burden and responsibility for being the family doctor. His job is to ultimately take the most valuable form of relationships and connection. That job alone is ultimately a lonely one, and I do not believe any of the other members will ever understand it (but may empathize with him)Kagura and Hiro- These two were the hardest for me to actually think about because they both seem to have friends and families that love them. However, that too might be lonely. It’s not their fault that have a good family. They know how lucky they are but can you imagine the “guilt” they must feel because typically, parents who give birth to the zodiac members usually reject them or become overly protective.a) Kagura- out of all the members, she was the first one we knew that “loved” someone, and yet, by the end, she wasn’t with anyone. Asides from that, (I never thought of this until now) she had to come to terms with her own feelings and only to be left with tears at the end. Furthermore, similar to Tohru, the members that she was close to were the ones that had some emotional instability; yet, we know that those members had a better/supportive “bond” with Tohru than her.b) Hiro- he is so intelligent for his age, and he is still immature. Fighting that immaturity is a struggle for him. He knows what he does is wrong, but he cannot help himself; that same immaturity prevents him from doing what he *really* wants to do and say. That same immaturity is what causes a rift between him and those he loves.

Haru- Oh Boy! He is a kind-hearted soul. He’s the ox, and he has always felt dumb because of it. That in itself makes him a rice-ball. I also believe he is really kind, and he wants to be there for people and help them. However, he ends up watching them suffer, and I think he suffers a lot because it ( the same way they say Tohru might break if she keeps holding onto people’s problem). Throughout the story, we see how he cares for Rin, Yuki, and even Kisa. He is just a softy at heart.Besides, if he wasn’t a rice-ball, Dark-Haru would never have existed.Rin- There is so much to say about her! She loved Haru, and she had to be without him. She loved her family, but they rejected her. She wants to be close to people, but she is afraid of getting hurt. She bottles up her feelings, and she chooses to be alone in those feelings to not hurt others, and that is what makes her a rice-ball. Also, she is trying to break the curse, and she tries doing that alone too (that is another story, but it still connects to the analogy).Ayame- On second thought, he is the hardest character to compare to the rice-ball analogy. lol. He’s just too confident---- actually, we know that deep down he is slightly insecure. He knows he has a long way to go before he can become like those he admires. Fruits Basket never delved into how Ayame was affected by the curse/bond like the other characters. I think it’s because the curse was why had that vivacious personality. The series focused more on how his behavior caused a rift between him and his brother and not even his loud personality could save him from that distance.Yes, he rejected Yuki first. However, he also constantly feels rejected, and he notices that it’s hard for him to fix the mistakes he has done in the past.Anywaysss, I going to stop here. If I forgot something, please let me.(On another note: Rice-ball in a Fruits Basket. The cat in the Zodiac.)

Original Post: 

Tohru never fitting in with people at her school and keeping her feelings to herself= rice ball.Kyo not being part of the zodiac= rice ball

Yuki being placed in that room while all the zodiac dismissed him=  rice ball

Uotani not feeling like she belonged at home or at school= rice ball

Hanajima being the only one in her school to have supernatural power= rice ball

Momiji being shunned by parent= rice ball.

Akito being that powerful force within the zodiac= rice ball

Kisa looking different from the rest of her classmate= rice ball

Ritsu always “messing up” and feeling like he has no purpose= rice ball

Shigure being sly and having “different” motives compared to the rest of zodiac= rice ball  

[newstfionline]

Headlines

Americans Have Shifted Dramatically on What Values Matter Most (WSJ) The values that Americans say define the national character are changing, as younger generations rate patriotism, religion and having children as less important to them than did young people two decades ago, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey finds. The poll is the latest sign of difficulties the 2020 presidential candidates will likely face in crafting a unifying message for a country divided over personal principles and views of an increasingly diverse society.

Trump on US-China trade: ‘Sorry, it’s the way I negotiate’ (AP) Brushing off concerns about global economic instability, President Donald Trump on Monday defended the way he is trying to squeeze a trade deal out of China, saying it’s what worked for him in business. Trump was challenged on a negotiating style in which he praises Chinese President Xi Jinping one day and castigates him the next. Allies are complaining that that’s contributing to stability problems for them and other nations, a questioner noted at a news conference closing out Trump’s participation in the Group of Seven summit. “Sorry, it’s the way I negotiate,” the president said unapologetically.

Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $572 million for its role in Oklahoma’s opioid crisis (Washington Post) A judge Monday found Johnson & Johnson responsible for fueling Oklahoma’s opioid crisis, ordering the health care company to pay $572 million to remedy the devastation wrought by the epidemic on the state and its residents. With more than 40 states lined up to pursue similar claims against the pharmaceutical industry, the ruling in the first state case to go to trial could influence both side’s strategies in the months and years to come. Johnson & Johnson, which has denied any wrongdoing, said it would appeal the decision.

Barbados braces as Tropical Storm Dorian nears Caribbean (AP) Much of the eastern Caribbean island of Barbados shut down on Monday as Tropical Storm Dorian approached the region and gathered strength, threatening to turn into a small hurricane that forecasters said could affect the northern Windward islands and Puerto Rico in upcoming days. The U.S. National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane watch for St. Lucia and a tropical storm warning for Barbados, Martinique, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It also issued a tropical storm watch for Puerto Rico, Dominica, Grenada, Saba and St. Eustatius.

Venezuelan migrants flood into Ecuador ahead of new visa restrictions (Reuters) More than 85,000 Venezuelan migrants crossed into Ecuador from Colombia in the last month, ahead of new visa restrictions from Quito that took effect on Monday, the Colombian government said.

With $56 Billion Loan in Danger, IMF Officials Fly to Argentina (Bloomberg) The International Monetary Fund’s record loan to Argentina last year was supposed to turn the page on a troubled history. It’s looking more like a case of déjà vu. Less than two decades ago, Argentina crashed out of an IMF program, defaulted on debt and plunged into depression. As Fund officials arrived in Buenos Aires over the weekend to assess the country’s current $56 billion bailout--and decide whether to keep doling out cash--some of the same warning signals are flashing. President Mauricio Macri just got trounced by the populist opposition in a nationwide primary vote, after his IMF-backed program--based around budget austerity and the world’s highest interest rates--failed to pull the economy out of recession.

China Says Detained Australian Writer Being Processed According to the Law (Reuters) China said on Tuesday a Chinese-born Australian writer is being processed in accordance with law after Australia said he had been arrested on suspicion of espionage and was being held in harsh conditions.

Hong Kong Leader Starts Dialogue but Not Budging on Demands (AP) Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said Tuesday that she had met with a group of young people about the pro-democracy protests gripping the city, but she showed no sign of budging in a continuing stalemate over the movement’s demands.

South Korea-Japan tensions (Foreign Policy) Relations between the United States’ two closest Asian allies are already at their worst state in years, after South Korea announced that it would end a military intelligence-sharing deal with Japan in retaliation for new trade restrictions. But things are about to get worse, as Seoul on Sunday kicked off biannual military exercises aimed at demonstrating control over a set of islets that Japan also claims.

Zarif’s surprise G7 stop (Foreign Policy) Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, made a surprise appearance at the annual Group of 7 summit meeting this weekend, the latest twist in a conflict between Tehran and the West that has played out in recent months over oil tankers, drones and Iran’s nuclear program. Zarif met with French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been trying to mediate talks between Washington and Tehran, and the country’s foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, on the sidelines of the G7 but was not invited to attend any of the summit’s formal sessions. Iran’s tough stance. The talks appeared to be part of Europe’s attempts to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal that Trump withdrew from last year. But Iran has lately taken a harder line; on Sunday, officials told Reuters that Tehran would insist on being allowed to export at least 700,000 barrels of oil a day as a “good-will gesture” to revive talks on the nuclear accord. They also said Iran would refuse to negotiate over the country’s ballistic missile program or right to enrich uranium.

Attacks blamed on Israel across three Middle East countries ratchet up tensions (Washington Post) Attacks against Iranian-allied forces in three countries, all blamed on Israel, escalated tensions across the Middle East on Sunday, drawing threats of retaliation and intensifying fears that a bigger conflict could erupt. The attacks Saturday and Sunday targeted Iranian forces and their proxies in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, in what appeared to be a significant escalation of Israeli efforts to contain the expansion of Iranian influence in the region that could jeopardize the continued presence of U.S. troops in Iraq and draw Lebanon into a new war. Israel confirmed that it was responsible only for the first attack, in which its warplanes struck what military officials said was an Iranian-operated base in Syria.

Lebanon’s President Aoun likens Israeli drones to ‘declaration of war’ (Reuters) President Michel Aoun said on Monday that Lebanon had a right to defend itself, likening Israeli drone strikes to a “declaration of war” amid rising tensions between Hezbollah and Israel.

U.S. Increasingly Disappointed With Zimbabwe Government--U.S. Official (Reuters) U.S. disappointment with Zimbabwe’s government keeps growing amid the heavy-handed response of authorities to any form of opposition, a senior State Department official said on Monday following a crackdown last week against protesters.

[sufredux]

Blood for Soil

Since the French Revolution, nationalism—the idea that state borders should coincide with national communities—has constituted the core source of political legitimacy around the world. As nationalism spread from western Europe in the early nineteenth century, it became increasingly ethnic in nature. In places where the state and the nation did not match up, such as Germany, Italy, and most of eastern Europe, the nation tended to be defined in terms of ethnicity, which led to violent processes of unification or secession. At the beginning of the twentieth century, ethnic nationalism came to disrupt political borders even more, leading to the breakup of multiethnic empires, including the Habsburg, Ottoman, and Russian ones. By changing the size of Europe’s political units, this undermined the balance of power and contributed to two world wars.

But then came the liberal norms and institutions established in the wake of World War II. Principles such as territorial integrity and universal human rights and bodies such as the United Nations managed to reduce ethnonationalist conflict in most parts of the world. Today, large interstate wars and violent land grabs are almost entirely a thing of the past. The rate of ethnic civil war has fallen, too.

But now, ethnic nationalism is back with a vengeance. In 2016, British voters chose to leave the EU out of a belief that the postnational vision of that body undermined British sovereignty and threatened to overwhelm the United Kingdom with immigrants from Africa, the Middle East, and the less developed parts of Europe. Donald Trump won the White House that same year by tapping into fears that the United States was being invaded by Mexicans and Muslims. And in office, Trump has not only fanned the flames of ethnic nationalism; he has also denigrated and damaged the norms and institutions designed to save humankind from such forces.

Other leaders around the world have eagerly embraced their own versions of ethnic nationalism. Across Europe, right-wing populist parties that oppose the EU and immigration have gained greater electoral shares. In Austria, Hungary, Italy, Norway, and Poland, among others, they even hold executive power. The brunt of ethnic nationalism has targeted migrants and other foreigners, but ethnic minorities that have long existed in countries have been on the receiving end of this wave, too, as illustrated by the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Hungary and growing discrimination against the Roma in Italy. Brazil, India, Russia, and Turkey, once some of the most promising emerging democracies, have increasingly rejected liberal values. They are defining their governing ideology in narrowly ethnic terms and giving militants more room to attack those who do not belong to the dominant ethnic group. Ethnic nationalism now exerts more influence than it has at any point since World War II.

That fact has been bemoaned for all sorts of reasons, from the uptick in hate crimes against immigrants it has caused to the damage it has done to the post–World War II order. Yet the scariest thing about today’s ethnic nationalism is that it could bring a return to the ills that accompanied its past ascendance: major violent upheavals both within and among countries. Should ethnic nationalism continue its march, it risks fueling destabilizing civil unrest in multiethnic states around the world—and even violent border disputes that could reverse the long decline of interstate war. Politicians need to resist the electoral temptations of exclusionary politics at home and reconfirm their commitment to the norms and institutions of cooperation abroad. Those who toy with ethnic nationalism are playing with fire.

IT’S BACK

At the end of the Cold War, there were warning signs that ethnic conflict might return. But at the time, any fear of that actually happening seemed unwarranted. As the scholar Ted Robert Gurr pointed out in this magazine in 2000, despite the violence in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda, the frequency of ethnic conflict had actually decreased since the mid-1990s. Pointing to inclusive policies and pragmatic compromises that had prevented and resolved ethnic conflicts, he argued that the trend toward peace would continue. Gurr’s essay reflected the liberal optimism that characterized the decades after the Cold War. Globalization was transforming the world. Borders seemed to be withering away. The optimism was not simply fanciful, and today, ethnic conflict is far less common than it was three decades ago.

Those who toy with ethnic nationalism are playing with fire.

A big reason is that governments are increasingly accommodating minorities. That’s what the political scientists Kristian Gleditsch, Julian Wucherpfennig, and I concluded after analyzing a data set of ethnic relations that starts in 1993. We found that discrimination against ethnic groups and their exclusion from executive power—major drivers of conflict—are declining globally. Outside the exception of the Middle East, where minorities in Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Syria continue to struggle for influence, ethnic groups are increasingly being included in power-sharing deals. Since World War II, the percentage of the world’s population that lives in countries engaging in some form of ethnic power sharing has grown from a quarter to roughly a half. Some groups have been granted autonomous rule—for example, the Acehnese in Indonesia and the indigenous Aymara and Quechua communities in Bolivia. The UN’s globe-spanning peacekeeping operations, meanwhile, are helping prevent the outbreak of new hostilities between old belligerents, and efforts to promote democracy are making governments more responsive to minorities and thus convincing such groups to settle their scores at the ballot box rather than on the battlefield.

Our data also show that the number of rebelling ethnic groups has increased only in the Middle East. Outside that region, the trend is moving in the opposite direction. In the mid-1990s, about three percent of the average country’s population was composed of groups that rebelled against the government; today, the share has fallen to roughly half of that. Moreover, based on a global comparison of the concessions made to various ethnic groups in terms of rights, autonomy, and power sharing, we found strong evidence that such moves have helped prevent new conflicts and end old ones. By and large, the post–Cold War efforts to stave off ethnic nationalism and prevent war appear to have worked relatively well.

Yet there have long been signs that it is too soon to declare victory over ethnic nationalism. Around the turn of the millennium, right-wing populist parties gained strength in Europe. In 2005, the treaty to establish an EU constitution was defeated by French and Dutch voters, suggesting that Europeans still cared greatly about national identity. In 2008, the financial crisis started to undermine confidence in globalization (and weakened the EU). The upheavals that rocked the Arab world beginning in late 2010, rather than marking an expansion of democracy, brought instability and strife.

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, nationalism tended to appear in waves, and it is unlikely that the current one has finished washing over the world. Moreover, it comes at a time when the bulwarks against conflict appear to be giving way: democracies around the world are backsliding, and peacekeeping budgets are under renewed pressure. Ever since it first appeared, ethnic nationalism has had violent consequences. There is good reason to worry that the current surge will, too.

THE ROAD TO VIOLENCE

Rising ethnic nationalism leads to conflict in several different ways. The key variable, recent research has found, is access to power. When ethnic groups lack it, they are especially likely to seek it through violence. Oftentimes in multiethnic states, elites of a particular group come to dominate the government and exclude other, weaker groups, even if the leaders’ own group represents a minority of the country’s population. Such is the case in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad, a member of the Alawite minority, a Shiite sect that composes 12 percent of the population, nominally runs a country that is 74 percent Sunni. That disparity has fueled widespread grievances among other ethnic groups and led to a civil war that has so far caused at least 400,000 deaths and triggered a wave of migration that has destabilized Europe. Most of the time, however, the groups struggling for power are minorities, such as the Tutsis, who launched a civil war in Rwanda in 1990, or the Sunnis in Iraq, who are still fighting to win a seat at the table there.

Scholars have consistently found that inequality along ethnic lines increases the risk of rebellion.

It’s not just a lack of political power that can motivate ethnic groups to take up arms under the banner of nationalism; economic, social, and cultural inequality can, too. Scholars have consistently found that inequality along ethnic lines increases the risk of rebellion. The economist Frances Stewart, for example, has shown that such inequality is much more likely to lead to violent conflict than inequality among individuals, because it is far easier to mobilize people along ethnic lines. Similarly, my own collaborative research has found that the risk of rebellion increases rapidly with economic inequality along ethnic lines; for example, the average Chechen is six times as poor as the average Russian, which translates into a tenfold increase in the propensity for rebellion.

These findings are not limited to ethnic groups caught in power struggles over the control of existing countries; they also apply to minorities seeking self-rule. States usually view such demands as anathema to their sovereignty, and so they often resist making even limited compromises with the groups issuing them. They are disinclined, for example, to grant them regional autonomy. This stubbornness, in turn, tends to radicalize the aggrieved minority, causing them to aim instead for full-fledged independence, often through violence. Look no further than the Catholics in Northern Ireland, the Basques in Spain, the Kurds in Iraq and Turkey, and several different ethnic groups in Myanmar.

A man walks past a mural in west Belfast, Northern Ireland, February 2017 

Toby Melville/REUTERS

Ethnic nationalism can cause conflict in another way, too: by leading to calls for territorial unity among a single ethnic group divided by international borders, which encourages rebels to rise up against their current states. After the breakup of Yugoslavia left ethnic Serbs stranded in several countries, their leader, Slobodan Milosevic, capitalized on the resulting resentment and advanced claims on territory in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Frequently, nostalgia is invoked. Characterizing the collapse of the Soviet Union as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century,” Russian President Vladimir Putin has annexed Crimea and invaded eastern Ukraine and justified these moves by talking of the unification of the Russian nation. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has drawn heavily on the past glory of the Ottoman Empire to extend his country’s influence far beyond its current borders. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has similarly invoked the Habsburg empire, accepting Russian help to back Hungarian-minority militias inside Ukraine that advocate separatism.

Ethnic nationalism is most likely to lead to civil war, but it can also trigger interstate war by encouraging leaders to make the sorts of domestic appeals that can increase tensions with foreign countries. That dynamic has been at play in the disputes between Armenia and Azerbaijan, India and Pakistan, and Greece and Turkey. Researchers have found some evidence that political inequality along ethnic lines makes things worse: when ethnonationalist leaders believe that their kin communities in neighboring countries are being treated badly, they are more inclined to come to their rescue with military force.

What’s more, those ethnonationalist leaders are typically hostile to international organizations that favor minority rights, multiethnic governance, and compromise. In their eyes, calls for power sharing contradict their ethnic group’s rightful dominance. They view the protection of human rights and the rule of law, as well as humanitarian interventions, such as peacekeeping operations, as direct threats to their ethnonationalist agendas, and so they work to undermine them. Russia has explicitly sought to weaken international law and international institutions in order to create more room for its own project of occupation in Crimea. Israel has done the same thing in the service of its occupation of the West Bank. Trump, who has called for an end to U.S. sanctions on Russia and moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, has actively backed these ethnonationalist impulses, further encouraging the erosion of the postwar consensus that put a cap on ethnic conflict.

If all of these are the risk factors for ethnic nationalism sliding into ethnic conflict, then where are they most prevalent today? Statistical analysis suggests that the ethnically diverse but still relatively peaceful countries most at risk of descending into violence are Ethiopia, Iran, Pakistan, and the Republic of the Congo. These are all developing countries with histories of conflict and where minorities face discrimination and exclusion from power.

The risk of conflict in the developed world is much lower, but even there, ethnic nationalism could well threaten peace. In Spain, the rise of the new right-wing populist party Vox has put pressure on two center-right parties, the People’s Party and Citizens, to become even less willing to compromise with Catalan nationalists, setting the stage for an enduring standoff that could turn violent if Madrid resorts to even harsher repressive measures. In Northern Ireland, Brexit could lead to the reimposition of customs checks on the border with the Republic of Ireland, a development that could destroy the agreement that has kept the peace since 1998. In eastern Europe, the return of ethnic nationalism threatens to reawaken so-called frozen conflicts, interstate disputes that were stopped in place first by the Soviet Union and then by the EU. Beyond the outbreak of new wars, the weakening of liberal pressures to share power and respect minority rights will likely embolden ethnonationalists to perpetuate ongoing conflicts—particularly the long-standing ones in Israel, Myanmar, and Turkey. Across the globe, after seven decades of steady progress toward peace, the trend could soon be reversed.

THE PATH TO PEACE

In order to head off such destructive consequences, it may be tempting to see ethnic nationalism as part of the solution rather than the problem. Instead of trying to resist such urges, the thinking goes, one should encourage them, since they are likely to bring political borders in line with national borders, thus eliminating the grievances at the root of the problem. Some scholars, such as Edward Luttwak, have even recommended that ethnic groups simply be allowed to fight it out, arguing that the short-term pain of war is worth the long-term benefit of the stability that comes when ethnic dominance replaces ethnic diversity. Yet as the case of Syria has shown, such harsh strategies tend to perpetuate resentment, not consolidate peace.

Others, such as the political scientist Chaim Kaufmann, contend that the best way to diffuse ethnic conflict is to partition a state along ethnic lines and then transfer populations among the new political entities so that each group has its own territory. After World War II, for example, Western policymakers supported population transfers in the hopes that they would lead to, in the words of the historian Tony Judt, “a Europe of nation states more ethnically homogenous than ever before.” The problem with this option, however, is that even with large-scale ethnic cleansing—which tends to be both bloody and morally dubious—there is no guarantee that separation will create sufficiently neat dividing lines. If Catalonia broke free from Spain, for example, a new minority problem would crop up within Catalonia, since many non-Catalans would still live there.

Of course, where widespread violence and hatred have destroyed all potential for peaceful cohabitation, ethnic separation may well constitute the only viable solution. That’s why, for example, the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict still enjoys widespread support, at least outside Israel. Yet the problem remains that there are no clear criteria for just how violent and generally hopeless a situation needs to be to justify division. Without such a clear benchmark, secessionism could destabilize interstate borders around the world. Disgruntled groups and irredentist states the world over would have more cause to resort to arms to boost their influence.

Even large-scale ethnic cleansing—which tends to be both bloody and morally dubious—will not create sufficiently neat dividing lines.

Although there are good reasons to be skeptical of these radical solutions of ethnic separation, nationalism cannot be wished away. Despite the emergence of such organizations as the EU, supranational bodies are not going to replace nation-states anytime soon, because people still mostly identify with their nation, rather than with remote and unelected regional bodies. For the EU, for example, the problem is not the lack of stronger decision-making authority but the absence of pan-European solidarity of the type that would allow, say, Germans to see themselves as part of the same political community as Greeks. Thus, any hope of replacing the nation-state is bound to be futile in the near future.

CONTAINING NATIONALISM

Nationalism should therefore be contained, not abolished. And to truly contain ethnic nationalism, governments will have to address its deeper causes, not just its immediate effects. Both supply and demand—that is, the willingness of governments to implement ethnonationalist policies and the appetite for such policies among populations—will have to be decreased.

On the supply side, political elites need to reinstate the informal taboo against explicitly discriminatory appeals and policies. Ultimately, there is no place for the tolerance of intolerance. What is required is courage on the part of centrist politicians to fight bigotry and defend the basic principles of human decency. Multiethnic democracies will also have to take more forceful steps to resist foreign attempts to stoke grievances among their ethnic groups and sow domestic divisions, such as Russia’s interference campaign during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, when, for example, Kremlin-backed operatives masqueraded as Black Lives Matter activists on social media to stir up racial conflict.

Within international organizations, governments must defend core liberal values more strenuously. In the case of the EU, that means cutting the financial support for illiberal member states and perhaps even creating a new, truly liberal European organization with more stringent membership criteria. It also means doubling down on the promotion of inclusive practices such as power sharing. The UN and regional organizations, such as the EU and the African Union, have done much to encourage such solutions. A weakening of these organizations could also undermine the norms they are reinforcing. Inclusive practices tend to spread from state to state, but so do exclusive ones: just as it did in 1930s Europe, the commitment to power sharing and group rights has now started to slip in eastern Europe and in other parts of the world, including sub-Saharan Africa.

As for the demand side, ethnic nationalism tends to attract the most support from those who have been disadvantaged by globalization and laissez-faire capitalism. Populist demagogues have an easy time exploiting growing socioeconomic inequalities, especially those between states’ geographic centers and their peripheries, and they blame ethnically distinct immigrants or resident minorities. Part of the answer is to retool immigration policies so as to better integrate newcomers. Yet without policies that reduce inequality, populist appeals that depict out-groups as welfare sponges will only gain traction. So governments hoping to tamp down ethnic nationalism should set up programs that offer job training to the unemployed in depressed regions, and they should prevent the further hollowing out of welfare programs. Although the economic problems on which ethnic nationalism feeds are most acute in the United States and the United Kingdom, inequality has been increasing across western Europe, and many of the welfare states in the region have been hit hard by austerity policies.

Ultimately, however, the answer to ethnic nationalism goes beyond narrow economic fixes; political elites must argue explicitly for ethnic tolerance and supranational cooperation, portraying them as matters of basic human decency and security. In Europe, politicians have preferred to use the EU as a scapegoat for their own failings rather than point out its crucial contribution to peace. Setting aside the question of whether and how the EU should be reformed, European political elites would do well to address their own homemade problems of socioeconomic inequality and regional underdevelopment. They should stop pretending that draconian cuts to immigration levels will do the trick when it comes to countering populism and ethnic nationalism.

As the violent first half of the twentieth century recedes into history, it becomes harder and harder to invoke the specter of ethnic conflict. It would be tragic if memories of that past were forgotten. For what they suggest is that the journey from ethnic nationalism to ethnic war may not be so long, after all.

[gwynne-fics]

wei50-blog replied to your post “Pictures – Bo-Na & Chan-Young bad luck “I had my doubts about this...”

Love the line ‘love is not luck!’ Yay they do get married! Huh, Bo-Na’s mom hasn’t met Chan-Young yet? How long has the engagement period been? Did Mother try to do anything since she wasn’t happy with this arranged marriage? Sad that dad used this way to ‘settle’ Bo-Na, and she doesn’t like working at Mega Entertainment. Would be wonderful if Bo-Na could be doing something that she enjoys!

Love might start in the heart but I think it stays through the mind. Bo-Na values the choice and so does Chan-Young. They choose to be here so they will fight for it.

Her mother didn’t like it, so she avoided all of the family meetings between her husband and Jae-Ho. She only agreed to stop complaining when she saw how happy Bo-Na was with her father’s choice.

He did this because he wants Bo-Na to take over the company. He sees that she’s the better leader and the only thing stopping her was her instability in her personal life. So he picked a man that he thought would be grateful for the match and let Bo-Na be Bo-Na. He’s patting himself on the back that they like each other.

Bo-Na likes throwing parties, drinking, and having sex. She wanted to do that with her entire life but being a president requires more self-control. Now she’s married, she’s a little adrift at the changes in her life. She will bounce back and be awesome once she finds herself again.

Aw, feeling weird and diminished? Isn’t it good Bo-Na has never seen the color and texture of the love Chan-Young has for her? He is special, and the trials they have been through together, as well as the differences they have had to overcome, all make this particular love in her life unique, as it should be! This is a whole new experience for Bo-Na! She has never had the kind of relationship she has with Chan-Young before!

Bo-Na will eventually come to this conclusion but she’s still figuring it out ^^;

Yay, building that trust by sharing with each other their fears! So true Bo-Na’s fears are valid and glad that she is having these thoughts. Shows that she is serious about controlling her abilities and keeping her promises to Chan-Young. Aw, Bo-Na feeling wrong because guilt? Getting something she doesn’t deserve? She seems so timid now, compared to when she first met Chan-Young.

Sometimes feelings just happen and this is where she’s at. She’s trying to figure it out but hasn’t been able to. Rachel helped her untangle some of the emotions so she could move forward with confidence.

Needs Chan-Young to come to her? To take the initiative? True that for much of their relationship, Bo-Na, being the one with more experience and comfortable with her sexuality, is the one who has taken the lead. Chan-Young wants to regain the relationship they had, which is not a bad thing. At the same time, their relationship will be different now because of what they have gone through, and it will continue to change in the future.

She needs a little bit of that. Most people have chased her and she hasn’t had to be an educator or a leader. Even when she’s not using her ability she’s a lovely and charming person that people want to be around. Chan-Young’s sexuality makes that a little bit different. But he’s working on it because he loves her. That’s why he asked her if she needed to be chased.

Is it possible for Bo-Na’s power to sneak out when she’s sleeping? Only someone who has her power, her biological mother, (or, ahem, Gwynne), would know. This is where having a mentor, her mother, would have been so helpful to Bo-Na. Someone to teach her from her own experiences and knowledge. Someone who can tell her what is ‘normal’ and how to have control over her power and use it appropriately.

In addition to that, she’s unsure if she wants to know her mother at all. If she was abandoned, she doesn’t know if it was for a good or selfish reason and either answer might be painful. Bo-Na did grow up loved, in a wealthy family, and with the exception of her kidnappings, grew up very happy and normal.

I will say it doesn’t sneak out when she’s sleeping. If it did, and Bo-Na realized it, she would never sleep and it would create new problems.

Aw, BN’s panicked thoughts spiraling about what could go wrong in the future. R so good at encouraging BN to think rationally, and giving her space to let her feelings out. No one can know all the problems in the future, and worrying about them just takes the joy out of the present. CY and BN love each other and have decided to commit to the relationship. Even if things aren’t completely comfortable right now, they have what they need to work out a happy marriage!

All true!

>.>

[amunetred]

Black and Blue

A/N: T rating.  I’m writing my seven days in the form of a continuous short story, so here is chapter 1, Black and Blue.

Break down, tears fall to the ground

Tell myself: “Damnit, nothing can be found”

When you’re a fighter

You’re a fighter, fight on baby - Sia, Black and Blue

Chapter 1

Black and Blue

I’d seen dark. If one could say they’d looked into the abyss, into the endless nothing, the obsidian trap where hate could swallow you whole and hold you captive, I’d faced that many times.  That kind of darkness was no stranger to me. I’d looked it in the eye, and fought it with a vengeance, one that threatened to consume me along with it. But Leo’d always been there to pull me back, save me from the brink of any and everything, including myself.  

During the Kraang invasion my mutation was a fresh hell, my life collapsing in upon itself as the world outside appeared to be doing the very same thing.  Most nights in that time I’d spent coiled tight beneath a billboard, wishing the power might be restored that the giant bulbs should illuminate and warm me, lest I learn to self-regulate my serpent body heat. I wasn’t sure I could-- then I did.

This time was different.  Not the body-heat part, I’d had many years to become one with my mutant side.  It was the invasion that was different and it wasn’t the Kraang.  

I dropped to my belly, willing myself to transform enough that my tubular form permit me to slither along the dank, narrow passage. I halted as the last remnants of the sun’s warmth faded from my tail, the darkness swallowing me whole as I looked back to the last slivers of a melancholy blue sky.  How far we’d fallen, each and every one of us.  My heart clenched. Perhaps it was because I’d spent so much time walking the grey line between black and white, right and wrong, good and evil, that when the Unnamed invaded, ripping apart the veil that separated the two worlds, black and white, right and wrong, good and evil, I remained unchanged.  Because, I’d lived my life that way all along.  That and whoever my otherworld counterpart had been, she was dead before they came.

But that blurry high wire I danced upon, that wasn’t so for Leo or his brothers.  They had boundaries they did not cross.  At least they hadn’t at the time.  

Moisture seeped from the ground beneath, water dripping from the low ceiling above.  I should hate tight spaces, but I’d been locked in a cell enough times that I was capable of shutting that part of me off.  The fear of the walls crumbling, collapsing and closing the passage, trapping me along with it, what should be terror was merely a faint whimper inside me. The most prominent emotion I carried, I’d hesitated to name.  It was what drove me forward, kept me searching... kept me breathing. No.  The only fears I bore were either faced or yet to come.  The first had been loving him, for in those moments of peace, true bliss, those fleeting moments we cannot keep and do not last, they leave a burn, something precious covered with the scar you wear after they’ve gone.  The only thing I truly feared was losing him. But, in a sense, I’d lived through that too.  Though I did not fearing dying at his hand, because I would die knowing I’d done all I could to save him.  

“Don’t do this, Karai.  He ain’t the same.  If I can’t save him, you can’t.”

I would’ve laughed at Raph’s warning, were the scar skipping across his upper lip to dash his brow not still sutured, purple and hopefully not infected.  The bruises on his body, black and splotchy, his arm in a sling, his ankle wrapped. He’d almost lost an eye, by his brother’s doing.  I might lose my life.  But if I’m to die at the end of anyone’s sword, let it be Leonardo’s and I’ll die heartbroken but honored.

“If he-- kills you-- and ever comes out of this—if he remembers, he’ll never forgive himself.” Donatello put his hand on my shoulder.  “Think of how April feels, knowing they used her the way they did.” He glanced toward the end of the hall, a full tray of food from the morning still outside the door. “Don’t put this on him, Karai.”

I squeezed deeper along the passage, my forked tongue tasting the air, searching for him.  What had Donatello thought I would do?  Not go for him?  Not fight for him?  The universe and the Unnamed knew his brother’s had tried.  We tried.  One by one we’d saved all that remained from their brainwashing, from the spell they’d used April’s mind to cast over us.  One by one we’d died.  Shini, Jones, and so many others...  Strange how the two worked together, an alien sentient being possessing a psychic half alien human, to unlock a terrible door that left us twisted and broken, facing our polar opposites, left to destroy ourselves… or to struggle to get back to who we were.  

Clumps of mud sprinkled my back like spit before a rain shower.  I should be afraid.  Fear should course through my tepid blood, chilling it with icy pinpricks.  Thought I could not see, though I could feel the instability of the earth surrounding me, I feared nothing, not even the blade of my lover’s sword—should I ever find him.  

“I can’t give up on him, Donatello.  He never gave up on me, and I’ll go for him again and again until I either bring him home or die trying.”  I adjusted the strap on my backpack, stepped out onto the rickety front porch, paint peeling beneath my boots, waved to Raph and left the Hampton’s house.  Without a radio.  Without a phone.  Without back up.  Because there was no power in this hell.  Because there was no one to spare that was not needed elsewhere.  April was a complete mental case, Donatello’s hands full just trying to keep her from starving to death as she recounted all she’d been used to destroy. This left Raphael working to be sure Donatello ate, and that the unconscious Michelangelo didn’t fade away.

The mouth of the tunnel widened as I flicked the air, tasting sediment, mold, something metallic….steel!

Steel and— my heart fluttered— sandalwood!

My body transformed, the starving mouths of my hands dissolving into the curling fingers of my palms.  He was near, I could taste him.  He was near and soon I would look into those hard blue eyes and search for the soul I loved inside him.    

A cold laugh carried along the tunnel running vertical to mine.  A chilling, shrill sound that hurt like a blade to the gut.  Because it was his, and yet it wasn’t.  “You back again?  I thought you would’ve learned.”  

I didn’t need to close my eyes for the darkness enveloping me, not to see, to recall the last time I’d heard this sound…

It, the sentient leader of the Unnamed possessed April, much like that ancient Aeon bitch.  Only this creature didn’t need her for long, using her like a key to unlock the veil between two worlds, us and our polar opposites.  Only not all of us had them.  Or if they’d existed there, in that other world, they were already dead. 

 A white bolt split the sky, one half a brilliant summer blue, the sun bright and shining, though it was muggy and hot, nothing was perfect.  The other a starless, moonless black, with crumbling buildings that looked as though they’d dissolve to ash if one touched them.  And the split remained, even after the battle, both seeming both lost and never-ending.  

The people from the Night, that’s what we’d called the dark side, wanted to live in the Day, our side.  And the war began.  The problem was when Light destroyed Dark or the Dark murdered the Light, the soul left without a vessel was absorbed into the surviving body.  Leo was the first to make that mistake.  We lost him first.  He’d been gone the longest.  And what he’d become was—

Steel cut the air before me and I flinched back into my tunnel.  Transforming again, I coiled as tight as I could in the tight space then sprung forward launching myself at him, returning to my human form as I wrapped my arms and legs around his body.

I’d tasted the rope he dangled from.  Knew he held it, supporting his body with one hand.  It was nothing for him to add me to that burden, but it was unexpected and he flailed.  Though he did not complain, no cry of surprise, not in pain, nor distress. He made no sound at all.  And that terrified me.  

Rather than struggle to be rid of me, he wrestled an arm free and began climbing.  

“What- what are you doing?” I managed, though it was stupid for me to speak to him unprepared.

“Climbing.” His voice was a cool, detached thing, lacking the warmth-dashed-with-arrogance that I enjoyed.  I longed for the voice he used to tease me with when we sparred.  A flash of steel, a bead of sweat glistening his brow, or beading on the bridge of my nose, his reflection and mine blurred and stretched in the cross of our blades.  He’d back me into a wall, I’d drop him to the floor.  A roll.  A twist. A thrust.  My match.

As we ascended my mind caught up to the present, to the scent that was still him, clung to his skin and oozed from his pores, that he could not wash off and I was glad of it.  Though the warm, spicy aroma seeping from his flesh stirred my insides it also brought pressure to my chest for I missed the touch that had always accompanied it.  For right now he was rough as he drove his free hand into the soft tissue surrounding my shoulder blade.  “Gah! Leo, stop! Please, stop!” My arm went numb, dropped limp and useless to my side.

“You came back.” He clucked his tongue as if I’d asked for the pain.  He clipped something to my belt.  Oh no. I struggled with my one arm, desperate to remove the metal binding, though I couldn’t see to understand how the clasp worked. Then he released my shoulder, thrust a hand into my chest, at the same time he lifted his knee and drove his foot out sending me flying into the wall.  I bounced off, tumbling down the shaft, clumps of dirt and loose soil falling into my eyes.  I met the end of the rope, bouncing and dangling beneath him as he hauled us both up.

There was no point talking to him now.  Not until we were on solid ground.  I took a deep breath, clearing my mind on the exhale. I’d planned to find him.  Step one complete.  I’d planned to convince him to take me in.  Step two… in progress.

[aslightstep]

29 - Tony / ABO AU

(This is the start of how it all ever ends/They used to shout my name, now they whisper it)

Yellow Flicker Beat

When the world finds out, the people almost seem relieved. “Yes,” they breathe, laughing under their breath. Vindicated. “He’s exactly the monster we always thought he was.”

Crowds rage outside of his tower day and night while he watches them from on high. He’d had a glass of whiskey in his hand, but Clint had dashed it to the floor the moment he saw it. Clint, who had always let him be, let him cope, never treated him differently even if he was Tony Stark. Clint who was fearless, who had then shrunk back when Tony whirled on him, the remnants of the glass in between them. Normal, adjusted Omega Clint.

The Avengers are…gone now, maybe, Tony is too tired to care. (Too scared.) The big secret came out and suddenly there was a tinge of fear in Steve’s eyes, a knowing in Natasha’s glance, a shock of betrayal in the new set of Bruce’s worry lines. If Thor had been here…well, perhaps he could have kept Thor. Thor had been greatly confused by Earth’s gender dynamics when he first arrived and once they were explained, had been even more greatly discomfited.

“A warrior should be judged by his mettle,” Thor had protested. “His honor.”

“And they are,” Natasha had replied smoothly. Betas were always smooth, but Natasha was like silk. “As long as they’re in control.” 

The glass is still on the floor, the crowds are still outside, and there’s a strange beeping echoing through the floor. “J,” Tony croaks. “What is that?”

“A reminder, sir. It is time for you to take your suppressants.”

Oh, God. That had been the first thing he had ever taught JARVIS to do, over twenty years ago. Not once had it ever been needed, not after nearly a decade of ruthless conditioning by Howard and his teachers on their necessity. 

Not once, until now.

“Cancel it, J. No point now.” Tony leans into the cold glass. He can’t see the signs that people are waving from up here, but he can imagine what more than a few of them say. It’s a slogan ingrained in every child’s mind.

TRUST NO ALPHA 

Once upon a time, Alphas had ruled the world. They were leaders, kings, emperors. Strong and quick, amassing great packs filled with loyal Betas and Omegas that bent to their will. Alphas were strong, quick, and fiercely protective.

They waged wars over great swaths of land, gobbling up whatever fell in their path and making it their own. There was no individuality. There was only Pack. You were in it or you were dead.

And in the pack, there was only Alpha.

But over time, things changed. Rulers became dictators. Kings became tyrants. Protection became possession. And the loyalty of those Omegas and Betas became slavery. 

Alphas were rare, even back then. The masses rose up and cast the Alphas down. A new world order arose. Betas were so much more even-keeled, after all, and omegas just as fierce and loyal without riding the razor’s edge of madness. What did Alphas provide anyone but a lifetime of unwanted devotion and terror, never-ending instability in their constant need for control?

Alphas were dangerous. Alphas were unstable. Alphas were intrinsically inferior from the moment they were born. Trust No Alpha. They were only good for fighting and fucking. 

No one wanted them. Parents in third-world countries drowned their Alpha babies, not wanting to risk a new Pack rising up. Developed countries sent their Alphas to faraway, isolated schools with the same fear. Because no matter what Omegas and Betas told themselves, the awful truth was that an Alpha demanded Pack by sheer virtue of his or her existence. They were scared. Letting any Alpha roam free was a chance that at any moment, it could all be undone. A new Pack could be born.

They had tracked down one out on tundras of Russia just last year. Shot them all dead to a man. Tony was still surprised to this day that Howard hadn’t done the same the moment he presented. Instead, Howard had traced his mother’s lineage. Found more than a few Alphas in her line. Beat her black and blue. 

That, more than anything, proved to Tony exactly what he was worth.

“The board’s vote was unanimous, Tony,” Pepper whispers, barely audible as she chokes back her tears. She’s known what Tony was since the moment a bond almost formed between them when the dosage for his suppressants needed a re-up and his hormones had gone out of whack. Tony had torn it apart quickly and efficiently but she had still felt it. “I’m so sorry.”

His company. His legacy. Gone, just like that. Because his DNA did this, instead of that. “It’s not your fault, Pep.” Tony hangs up the call. He’s been drunk for days. There’s a Stark-issue pistol sitting pretty on the coffee table, calling his name. “Any word from the team, J?”

“No, sir.” And why would there be? He was an Alpha in their midst. Hadn’t SHIELD warned them how out of control Tony could be? He could’ve formed Pack at any moment if he’d gone off the suppressants. Could’ve bent them to his will, unmade and remade them to his liking. 

But he didn’t. Doesn’t that - doesn’t that count? He didn’t. He never would have. He didn’t want a pack. He wanted a family.

And he’d had it, for one brief shining moment. One rogue hacker with an agenda going through his medical records and in an instant it was all gone. “Try their cells, every four hours, alternating, J.” He’s past caring about appearing clingy or pushy. He just wants to talk to them.

“Is there a message you would like to leave?”

Tony looks down at the crowd outside. Hears the round table going on the news. Rhodey’s phone call from yesterday evening echoing in his head. “Tell them I’m sorry. Tell them there’s not much time.”

He picks the gun up. Puts it down. He doesn’t want to die like this. Like an Alpha. He wants to be Tony Stark.

“Tony, they’re coming for you.”

“They’re not getting their hands on the suit.”

“They’re coming for you. You’re an unbonded Alpha with more power than most of the free world. They won’t allow you to…”

“Live?”

“Tones. I’m coming, okay? Get your suit ready, we’ll make a run for Finland. Their Alpha laws aren’t so insane.”

“I’m not making you a fugitive, Rhodey.”

“Tony-”

“I love you, okay? You saved my life. Think of this as me returning the favor.”

“Sir. They are shutting down power to the building.”

“Initiate Project Nuketown, J,” Tony says. The lights go out, but Tony’s not an idiot. His penthouse and lab have their own generator. “JARVIS?”

“Sir?” JARVIS sounds almost scared now, as the sound of boots echo in their stairwell from a long ways away.

“Look for me. This isn’t the end, alright? I’m not going out like this - okay, I totally am, but it’s like the song says-”

There are soldiers in the living room. Tony grins at them, full-grown Alpha snarl, teeth bared, relishing in the collective flinch.

“’Iron Man lives again.’”

When they lead him out in a hood (to decrease sensory overload) and handcuffs that would probably keep Steve Rogers in check (never underestimate an Alpha’s strength) the crowd that has been protesting at the base of the tower goes strangely quiet. He can hear their feet move as they shuffle aside, letting them pass. High up above in the labs, a special corrosive liquid developed by him is eating away at the suits while the bots lock themselves away in a private room and JARVIS retreats deep into the Internet to hide and bide.

Tony Stark is disappearing before their eyes. Iron Man is no more.

They take him to a prison called 42. A sneering government agent tells Tony that he can go free if he bonds, which Tony refuses. “I’ll rip out the gland if you try to force it,” he tells them. “Don’t think that I can’t.” Alphas are devoted to the Omegas they bond with, on occasion to the point of obsession. They can’t think of anything but providing and protecting for their Omega. Nowadays, that kind of mental imbalance is encouraged - to keep the Alphas in line and under control. 

Tony imagines that it used to be a very profound thing, the Bond. An Alpha’s body yearns for one their whole life. But a smart Alpha is careful to let that be the only thing that does. Keep your heart and your mind safe. They are the only things you will own.

Tony is stuck in a dark cell, alone, always cold. He dreams about life before constantly. Even with years of suppressants destroying his body and his mind always screaming as its most base part was ruthlessly shut down, Tony had been so happy. He’d had Pepper, and Rhodey. He’d had the Avengers. No one knew his secret; it had died with those men in the cave and Obie. He was going to live an incomplete life, but that had just made what he did have all the more sweet.

He was warm, and respected, and maybe even loved. They’d make Pack, and gender dynamics could go fuck themselves. It had been all their own.

Now it’s all gone. 

They, of course, want him to make weapons.

“You’re smart. Amazingly smart, for an Alpha. It’d be a shame to let that go to waste.”

And Tony agrees.

They lead him into a room with all sorts of metal and chemicals and tools and he smiles. The guards are watching him at all times. But they’re watching out for an Alpha. That is their mistake.

It was never being an Alpha that saved him. It was being Tony Stark. And they can take away his money, and his toys, his friends and his team, but at the end of the day, he is what he made himself, not what his biology dictated. He is Iron Man.

It doesn’t take three months this time.

Three months later, Bruce Banner is awakened by a beeping sound. He sits up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. They had been pulling so many long nights lately. The world insisted that Tony Stark had died in the Prison 42 explosion, but the Avengers didn’t believe it. Couldn’t believe it. 

“JARVIS? What is it?” 

“I have located him,” the AI answers, clearly overjoyed. The audio seems to cut out and quietly, Black Sabbath’s ‘Iron Man’ begins to play. “It is on a loop. Repeating for over three weeks.”

Bruce laughs disbelievingly. “Oh, Tony,” he whispers, a fierce wave of longing rising up in him. He’d missed his friend. “Are you able to contact him?”

“Yes, I am. Would you like to pass on a message?”

“Tell him his apology is accepted. And we’ll give our own in person.” He stands, yanking the cricks out of his back, and heads for the elevator. “And tell the team to Assemble. Our Alpha needs us.”