#a good majority of our forest fires are just so bastards can buy land and build their “summer retreat” away from us plebs

[maranull]

I feel desensitised at this point, cause this is happening every fucking summer, but might as well make a post.

Attica is on fire again. This time houses were burned in less than a day. At least one stray shelter was burned before they could get the animals out. I don't even want to think how many other animals, wild or not, didn't (and won't) make it. At least, as far as I know, we don't have any human casualties (yet). Fires have been burning in neighbourhoods and houses since yesterday and given how we're going to have yet another heatwave from tomorrow, things are looking great.

But hey. At least in a couple years, when most folks would have forgotten this, look how many more villas will pop up in those places. There was a rich boy bitching how no firefighters were by his villa. Motherfucker, this is how you bought the land and build on it, taste your own medicine for once.

And we're still hiring more and more cops. Within NATO, Greece is #3 (#1 in 2022 (higher than the fucking USA)) in military spending per GDP (x), as if our main enemy isn't in the same fucking alliance.

Meanwhile, our firefighters are constantly understaffed. Meanwhile, we're having yearly fires basically inside the country's capital, with more and more houses being burned each time.

But that's no reason to buy more firefighting planes, helis and general firefighting equipment. That's no reason to focus on firefighter training and recruitment. No, no. See, we just need more cops and more army funding. Oh, oh, and don't forget the priests. We should never forget the fucking priests.

Gonna fight the fires with bullets, bombs and prayers.

[fire-the-headcanons]

"Why don't farms raise deer, anyway?"

The twins stopped in unison to look back at the two of them. "Because they're bastards."

 "Huh?"

 "Try fencing in an animal that can jump over your head," Qrow added.

 "And if you somehow manage to corner one it'll kick the shit out of you."

 "Oh." Summer nodded. "That makes sense. But what's it taste like?"

 Qrow scratched his neck. "Well, it's the most like beef…"

 "Tell you what," Raven said, pausing and squinting down at a bit of dirt. "If you shoot a deer Qrow and I will show you how to process it."

"...Um. I don't think that would go over well with Professor Mesánychta."

Follow the Beacon Taiyang—Off Track

[Link to Masterpost]

Professor Mesánychta held her hand up and curled her fingers into a fist, bringing the class to a halt and silence in one move. Pete drew his weapon, a hazardous-looking combination of blunderbuss and battleaxe that would have made Carmine break out in hives if a new student brought in its schematics.

"Welcome back to the Emerald Forest." She turned to face the students as Pete continued to monitor the trees. "Now that everyone has learned the basics of tracking, it is time to practice them. From now on our lab hours each week will be spent off school grounds. Each session your team will be given a specific target to eradicate in the area. Your goal is to destroy as many of your target Grimm as you can while avoiding all other varieties." A few hushed whispers broke out in the class. "Ordinarily, Huntsmen and Huntresses would destroy any Grimm in their path that they safely could, but there are many instances in which you may find you need to avoid trouble. If someone were injured, or you were escorting civilians, for example."

"Your scrolls will keep track of your targets as well as your kills," Pete said. "And as always, be on your guard. Your primary objective is to live to fight another day!"

Summer tapped her scroll closed before buttoning it back in her pocket. "Looks like we've got Ursa. Shouldn't be too hard to find." Around them, the other teams began to disperse, most with their eyes glued to the ground.

"It'll be harder to avoid the Beowolves," Qrow agreed. Raven stalked away without a word, straight toward the nearest pine and darted up—almost faster than Summer could have with Gungnir.

"Uh… what's she doing?" Summer asked. "She knows we're supposed to do this as a team, right?"

"We used to hunt deer a lot at home. Uh—extra food, y'know?" he said, glancing over his shoulder. "She's looking for water. Grimm usually leave animals alone, but use the same paths. It's a good place to pick up a trail."

Raven dropped from the tree and took off west. "This way."

"How do you know there's water down there?" Summer asked, half-jogging to keep pace with Raven in the front of the group.

"The plants are always more vibrant where it's close to the surface," she murmured. Another team crept through the bushes to their left, examining the ground as they walked. "The trees this way are taller, greener. It's the best place to look."

Tai craned his neck over the others. "That's a lot of guesswork."

“More precise than what they're doing," Raven muttered, quietly enough the other team wouldn't hear.

The hill eventually evened out. Undergrowth thickened and snagged at their clothes—or in Tai's case, at his aura. I knew I should have zipped on the pants today. Five minutes in, no sign of trouble, and he was already down a point.

"…What's deer taste like?" Summer asked, untangling her sleeve from a raspberry bush.

Qrow glanced back. "You've never had it?"

"You can't exactly buy it at the supermarket. And there are no deer on Patch." Tai said. "Plus Dad's not really into hunting. Zaff's dad is, though —he likes duck. Every fall he trades us a few for a couple pounds of chestnuts. Lot of trees near our house."

"...What kind of meat do you eat?" Raven asked.

"Y'know…Pork, chicken, beef…the same stuff they have in the cafeteria," Summer said, scanning the trees for trouble. "Why don't farms raise deer, anyway?"

The twins stopped in unison to look back at the two of them. "Because they're bastards."

"Huh?"

"Try fencing in an animal that can jump over your head," Qrow added.

"And if you somehow manage to corner one it'll kick the shit out of you."

"Oh." Summer nodded. "That makes sense. But what's it taste like?"

Qrow scratched his neck. "Well, it's the most like beef…"

"Tell you what," Raven said, pausing and squinting down at a bit of dirt. "If you shoot a deer Qrow and I will show you how to process it."

"...Um. I don't think that would go over well with Professor Mesánychta."

"I didn't mean during class." Raven knelt, inspecting the soil. Now that she’d drawn attention to it he could see the path had been a little trampled. "There's—"

"Wait! Let me guess, and tell me if I'm right," Tai said, kneeling next to her. She stared, taken aback, but allowed him in for a closer look. "From the claws…Beowolf?"

"…Creep." Raven pointed at the longer grooves cut in around the claw marks. "You can see where their tails hit the ground."

"Oh." The size had thrown him off. "That's a big Creep."

"And not what we're looking for," Raven said, standing and walking in the opposite direction that the tracks led.

They followed the trail for another fifteen minutes, finding plenty of signs of smaller Grimm but nothing as large as an Ursa yet. Qrow and Raven quietly pointed out the traces the other two missed, largely leading the way.

"Wait. What's that?" Summer asked, pointing at a broken sapling. "Was it recent?"

Raven grabbed the trunk and snapped it again, further down, comparing the first break to the second. "No more than a couple days. There's so many Grimm in the area it doesn't tell us much."

"I'll see if I can spot anything from up there," Summer said, firing her arrow into a nearby oak before taking off.

"It'd be the right size," Tai glanced around the base of the broken tree. "Do you see any prints?"

Qrow crouched, shrugging. "Nothing clear enough to say it's not an Alpha Beowolf." A shadow rippled through the bush behind him, and Tai almost ignored it—the sun had been dancing through the leaves all morning—

—but right now there was no wind. "Oh, no, it's definitely an Alpha Beowolf," Tai said, flicking the shield on his left arm open. Qrow whirled back to his feet, drawing his sword and extending it to full length as the monster's head rose over the bush.

"We don't want to fight that one!" she shouted, halfway up the oak.

"Uh, that may not be an option, Summer!"

"I got it!" She slammed the arrow down the barrel of her gun and fired, sending it over the wolf and into a distant tree. With a screech, she leapt down, activating the gravity Dust about just above the ground. As she rose again both of her boots made solid contact with the side of its head—

WHAM.

The Grimm pitched over into another pine, shoulder spines embedding in the bark. It lurched, clawing in vain at the three of them and snarling furiously.

"Time to run!" Summer shouted, landing neatly in the tree next to the arrow and popping it from the wood.

*    *    *

"So what's our plan of attack?" Tai hissed.

"I mean, I can shoot at least two before they notice us," Summer said, sighting down Gungnir's scope at the largest of the pack. Nearly twice the size of the others, it was probably the reason the rest of the group had congregated. Its back was so covered in spines it looked more like a porcupine than a bear, but it was definitely still an Ursa.

"I don't like the look of that Major," Raven muttered, sword already drawn and her other hand primed to shoot an ice blade. "I think it'll take more than one shot."

"Not if I hit it in the eye."

"Or, we could try to draw a few of them off," Qrow suggested. "There are seven over there. It's a bit much for just the four of us."

"Hey, come on," Tai said, grinning. "It’s been over a month and you haven't really seen me fight yet. We can take 'em."

"Okay, I'll shoot the Ursa Major. Then what?"

"Then shoot it again," Raven said. "To be safe."

“I could lure them into that gully," Qrow said, pointing past them at the ditch. "Raven, you could portal me out and then we fire at them from above."

"You're the only one with a gun that's any good for rapid attacks," Summer countered.  "But if I were up in the trees I could cover you all."

Though… Raven's Semblance opened up some interesting possibilities.

"No way. There's too many, they'll knock one of these trees right over with you in it," Raven said.

"I'll leave the arrow in another tree so I can get away quickly."

"Raven…" Tai murmured, interrupting their debate. "…Could you bring a Grimm through a portal?"

Next Chapter: Raven—Golden Dragon

[one-shoop]

My mother actually admitted to a professional that she would "push us to face our fears" and "square up" or whatever when we were anxious. I don't know why this information doesn't make me happier. I have proof that she's the one who's been at the core of all my most complex mindsets -- like the "don't ask for help unless you really need it" and "am I hurt enough to be allowed to be sad" and "is this bad enough so I don't need to swallow it and search for solutions, or is this pain bad enough I can keep it". She literally admitted to doing all of that.

She's the reason I didn't ask for help in exams. She basically admitted to all the stuff she did as a mother -- her miraculously-unused scheme to push me off a bike so I wouldn't be scared of it anymore ("but pushing you nicely, so you don't actually get hurt, just to show you it's not scary" says mom like this excuses anything), all the times she talked about messing around with her students' rigidities and complex things (she called it "breaking them" like seriously) -- she'll "confront" autistic people or perfectionnists. She admitted to making sure the kid who hated losing loses at all games until he "learns to suck it up" and "accept things" or whatever, she admitted to messing up an autistic/rigid kid's meticulously arranged pieces of paper to "show them it didn't matter if they were messed up, it's the paper itself that counts", and doing that everytime they meet up, even going so far as pretending the kids actually like when she does that. How is this woman even a freaking orthopédagogue, I have no idea.

But she keeps "pushing them out of their comfort zones" and it's just not okay. And the way she talks to them, the way she behaves around them -- it pisses me off just thinking about it. And yesterday she confessed to her motives.

And -- this is a woman who said that the Roman Empire was justified, the murder of millions and all the crap was justified, that people were being stupid when they refused to have roman soldiers on their land -- this is a woman who said that "the tribes didn't want to be in peace, they wanted to keep fighting" and "Rome was keeping the peace". Someone who literally has no freaking reason to believe this crap -- seriously???? The Roman empire was garbage???? This is someone who said "well, if you see slavery as the limit, no civilisation ever was good" when I told her the goddamn empire worked on slaves' back, and refused to acknowledge how Caesar was a piece of garbage, how people watched prisoners of war get freaking KILLED in arenas like it was a fun thing to watch.

Like seriously???? She told me "homeless people should just work harder" and "it doesn't mean society is broken if they can't get jobs/housing" and "it's their fault -- and I know, I watched a documentary once" and "most homeless people are idiots, they don't want to get healed, they want to do drugs and they're childish, they don't want to get jobs, they don't want to work" and "we can't force people to do things they don't want to do, they don't want to get healed so leave them be" and "they basically want to stay homeless" and "they can't handle having a job" and "there are shelters in place, so if they don't go there, they're basically saying they want to stay homeless" like sure mom, this is a good mindset. Absolutely -- i so agree with the humanity of "they don't want to work, so let them starve" like this is forgetting that many homeless peeps are mentally ill? Or addicted? And they CAN'T GET TREATMENT much less any sort of respect from people???? And shelters are the worst??? If I base it on my experience at an Elder's retirement home, let me tell you social workers can be assholes and retirement homes can be a hostile environment to its patients. And also???? Some homeless peeps just leave because OH SNAP maybe they got THROWN OUT OF THEIR HOUSE and and since they're going they have fucking nowhere to go? Like -- ever hear of someone losing their spouse and having nobody ro turn to, so they spend a night outside, and then another, and when their boss hears they fire them so now they're jobless and penniless and BAM. And ever heard of the concept that maybe BEING ALCOHOLIC ISN'T CONTROLLABLE WITHOUT EXTERNAL HELP and do I really have to explain how buying alcohol/weed and being left to starve and freeze and get mugged all the time -- like seriously, there is NO REASON you should LET SOMEONE DIE.

Like ffs?????????? She said bombing an entire town full of civilians was a good move???? Since "they didn't want to surrender, they were too proud" and "they were too stubborn to give up so they had to be shown we wouldn't back down" like wow, minimalizing much??? We're talking about two whole goddamn towns being blown away -- imagine freaking Montreal just blown away like that. Those bombs were MASSIVE. Imagine the freaking KIDS. Seriously -- she can't bear to watch documentaries on the atomic bombs, it should be enough to make her realize that hey, maybe if something is too horrible to watch, you shouldn't DO IT TO PEOPLE? Nor excuse it????

Said that our country "didn't do too much slavery" and "WE were nice people, not like the English" and "we lived in peace" like seriously???? Remember all those times native people got sold as slaves??? Remember how métis came to be, with white people going in forests, stopping for a night at a tribe, and raping a woman there????? And then that woman would get expelled and her baby would be shunned for not belonging either with the white bastards or with the mother's birth tribe?? Remember how Montréal was built to be a freaking conversion thing for the native peoples thar lived near??? Remember how we had missionaries?

Remember that time she kept saying that in the Bible, the Jewish people were the bad guys -- the Romans were good? Defending the dude from the washing hands thing, saying he had no other choice to keep the people happy than to kill J-boy, and saying it was "the Jewish religious leaders's" fault for all of it? For "forcing people to hate him"? Saying the Jewish people were jerks like they didn't want to pay taxes to this guy who invaded their land, right??? Well apparently they're jerks for that???

Saying Sikh community people can never get into politics because "politicians are supposed to represent the majority of their people, and they're never part of the majority anywhere" and rolling her eyes when I say "what, so what you're saying is that if you're part of that community, you can't EVER get into politics? What if it was your dream??? Should you give up your religion to be allowed to compete?"

And apparently all of that is because of some "book" she read once about how to deal with anxiety in kids. How, apparently, this "book" was enough to spark all of this nonsense.

Like wtf mom

Wtf

Like for someone who keeps talking about "facing your fears" she sure is ignoring a whole lot of information back here. Like ever heard of someone dismissing the truth because it's too hard? Like if this was really your philosophy I'd think you'd be the first one to fall out bs propaganda and fight for a better place and a more compassionate view of others, and like -- her philosophy is supposed to be about confronting your fears to work on them like how tf can you do that without even admitting there's a problem???? She's making shif up for a shitton of historical shit that have literally no fucking data on all the goodness she pretends exists -- like seriously man just google literally any of those things and you'll have proof it happened -- even NOW we have literal places where every native person lives like some weird ghetto bht wirh government funding. Native lands aren't even legally recognized by our bs country, they don't have a fucking representative or their own, they don't even have their own province ffs they live in shitty places where poverty happens because SURPRISE when you strip someone of their land, their dignity, their culture, and their religion, and all their space to just freaking exist -- MAYBE it fucks them up. And just MAYBE being stripped of your integrity as a person and a clan is MAYBE stripped away and MAYBE you have nothing to really do with your identity. So MAYBE you should consider that when you pretend the shit our people did wasn't completely horrific. MAYBE you'd understand how desperatly something needs to be done.

And ALL OF THIS just doesn't cut it for a goddamn book about education or whatever it was. I dont know what this is but this just feels like fucking victim blaming. This can't be about "facing your fears", this is about dictating them, this is about making things up, about controlling the reality. This is about making the reality to be more pleasant for you to live in, this is about you controlling people to see things as you do. This is about you thinking people will never like you if you outright say you agree with the goddamn empire so you pretend there's some silver lining on it.