#also we been knew but still this is the death of the west's claim to moral superiority. their colonizer ancestry is still alive and kicking

[mariesoliver]

There is an activist group for Palestine forming at my university i'm excited to see what we can work on

[polutrope]

Just pure headcanons, what do you think happened during Maglor's reign as a king? I don't know if his reign was short or something but I remember it took some time before Fingon was able to save Maedhros and unite the noldor and there was still some division between the host of nolofinweans and feanorians. I wonder if he considered himself a placeholder until Maedhros returned or was he a reluctant king? Did the host respect him as a king, did his own brothers respect him as a king? I am so intrigued because, aside from Maedhros, I think Maglor deserved some shoutout lmao (No, this isn't a maglor-obsession-spree that I have been on, nu uh). Also, I feel like he would have some cordial relationship with Fingolfin, they could bond as the second sons having to take leadership because the eldest died/was abducted idk.

Oh no, starlitelwing. I hope you know the Pandora's Box you've just opened. King Maglor is one of my all-time favourite things to think about.

First of all: there's actually no canonical information on Maglor's position after the capture of Maedhros (in fact, we don't even know what Maedhros' title/position was after Feanor's death; all we know is that Feanor "claimed now the kingship of all the Noldor" in Tirion. Contested leadership is SO GOOD isn't it? anyway...).

The published Silmarillion glosses right over the question of who's in charge during the time between Feanor's death and Fingolfin's official assumption of the Kingship of the Noldor (which, if you ask me, Fingolfin effectively had been King since the time of Feanor's exile, and he was in any case Regent at the time of Finwe's death... he said he'd follow Feanor but the people following him were calling him Finwe Nolofinwe soooo... aiee, I digress again). The book gallops at such a breakneck speed that you don't really notice the gap in leadership. Or, I didn't.

But then you look at the Grey Annals (where Tolkien Gateway gets most of its First Age dates) and you see that there are 2-3 Tree Years and 5 Sun Years between Maedhros' capture and his rescue. Now, however you imagine time works in Tree Years when there are no Trees, that's still a long time. Maedhros was gone at a minimum 6-7 years, more likely closer to the equivalent of 30 "regular" years. (That's way longer, by the way, than the time between Feanor's death and Maedhros' capture, which was like, a day to a month, at most. Maedhros, if he even was King, was King for way less time than whoever followed him. And he sucked at the job, btw. But I digress. Again.)

So someone had to be in charge for those 6 to 30 years, but whomst? That the leadership would pass after Feanor's death to the eldest son is logical, and that it would then pass to the next eldest is also logical. I see no reason to refute that, but note: it would not be uncanonical to have someone other than Maedhros or Maglor in charge at this time. You can make King Celegorm a thing and still be canon-compliant!

This passage in the published Silm is basically the extent of the activities of the sons of Feanor during Maedhros' absence:

Then the brothers of Maedhros drew back, and fortified a great camp in Hithlum; but Morgoth held Maedhros as hostage, and sent word that he would not release him unless the Noldor would forsake their war, returning into the West, or else departing far from Beleriand into the South of the world. But the sons of Feanor knew that Morgoth would betray them, and would not release Maedhros, whatsoever they might do; and they were constrained also by their oath, and might not for any cause forsake the war against their Enemy.

The sense here is that all six sons acted as a unit. But in the 1937 Quenta Silmarillion, the text on which this passage is drawn:

Morgoth held [Maedhros] as hostage and sent word to Maglor that he would only release his brother if …

To Maglor! Excellent evidence that Tolkien was also making the logical conclusion that Maglor, the eldest, was in charge. (My best theory for why Christopher Tolkien took that out is Too Many Names, but it's an odd decision.)

All that was to say: We don't know, canonically, that Maglor was in charge at Mithrim. But it makes a lot of sense, and it's my headcanon that he was.

Now. More interesting headcanons.

I don't think Maglor was called King until it was politically necessary.

I see him as someone who is comfortable in command (one meaning of Cano is "commander", after all) but who likes to command collaboratively. Double-edged sword: he values the input of others (admirable quality) and he does not like being fully responsible for the outcomes of a decision (less admirable).

Unlike much fanon I've come across, I don't think Maglor was a particularly reluctant or incompetent leader or that he hated it. He was miserable, yes, because his father just died and his brother was just captured, and he wasn't thrilled to become a leader on top of that, but he keeps it together.

So how do I imagine it all went down?

The problem with Maglor being in command is that his "collaborative" style of leadership is not appropriate for a time of crisis or for his family. While the Silm often talks about "the sons of a Feanor" as a unit, I do not think they were of the same mind on everything. At all. They need a firm hand, and Maglor does not have that.

But who does have a firm hand? Who would be a more martial ruler, someone who could get people in order during a crisis? Celegorm. And he knows it.

So why did the Feanorians "get nothing done" during those 6-30 years (sidenote: I don't actually think they got nothing done, but it does seem they didn't get anything BIG done)? Well, for one, they were fighting amongst themselves.

Maglor could not get his brothers to agree on anything, and yet he did not know any other way of commanding, and over time he becomes more and more miserable as a leader.

Celegorm, meanwhile, is chomping at the bit to "relieve him" of the burden.

Around them, everyone else is picking sides.

Curufin is an interesting case. I headcanon he actually was fully behind Maglor at the beginning, because he respects the orderliness of succession. But as Maglor proves himself unsuitable for the role, he aligns with Celegorm.

Outside the family, I headcanon that the Mithrim Elves were actually quite taken with Maglor, the poet-king. Their alliance hinges on him. But the Noldor, especially the army, would rather follow Celegorm.

As everyone knows, a rival for leadership with the army's support is Bad News. And yet Maglor manages to hold on. He should definitely get credit for that.

But why hold on? If he is hating this ruler job, why not just let Celegorm have it? Couple reasons:

It's Celegorm. He may be able to perform well, but Maglor knows he's the most like Feanor in temperament and, well, Feanor's kingship didn't end well.

If Maglor gives up that crown, he will have admitted to himself that Maedhros is not coming back. This is the same reason he doesn't give it over to Fingolfin when Uncle Nolvo shows up. He is hanging onto that thing for dear life because, to him, it belongs to Maedhros and only Maedhros. He is the crown's custodian, never its rightful owner (this bleeds into my headcanon that Maglor does not "in his heart" agree with Maedhros' decision to cede the kingship — he'll never be as vocal about it as the others, though).

Now we come to another piece. What did Maglor call himself? Like I said up top, I don't think he initially called himself King. He was "head of his House", or maybe, "Lord of Hithlum," or maybe King Regent, but never King. If one of the Mithrim got mixed up and called him that, he would always correct them.

That changes when Fingolfin shows up. Now there's another claimant to the title of King. Possibly a more legitimate one than even Maedhros (as Maedhros later says himself).

By that time, Maglor has been keeping that crown out of Celegorm's hands for years; he is not giving it up now. And Fingolfin is less likely to challenge his leadership if he offers no room for ambiguity. If he dons the mantle of kingship and pretends Maedhros is dead.

So that is what he does... Does Fingolfin accept it? Well: "Then there was peril of strife between the hosts."

For three years, on opposite sides of the Lake, they're at an impasse. Fingon doesn't go looking for Maedhros because he thinks Maedhros is dead (and other reasons: the mission is insane and desperate not the least, and contrary to popular opinion Fingon is not a rash idiot).

How does Fingon eventually learn the truth? You'll have to wait and read what @melestasflight and I are cooking up for Silm Epistolary Week ;)

ETA: Despite this, I do think you're right that Maglor and Fingolfin could have bonded over their similar experiences! There's the personal and there's the political, and I love the idea of the tension between these straining what could be an emotionally supportive familial friendship between Maglor and Fingolfin.

[idontwanttospoiltheparty]

I don't know how best to share it. But the strongest evidence is probably the paraphrased quote from the Norman book that you've referenced in the past. Where she suggests that John must have had feelings for Paul. (https://mclennonanthology.tumblr.com/post/77393769824/from-chance-remarks-he-had-made-she-gathered). Like, it's McLennon evidence. But it's also her speculation, not coming from John or Paul. Then there's the audio diaries. The part that gets quotes all the time is the part where she says Paul would be competition for her. But, in context, she doesn't really say it in a jealous way. She says it after a long monologue about how much she likes him and how she hopes he likes her, not for herself, but "because she belongs to John." She also talks about how she vibes with him way more than George and Ringo. (I couldn't find a good transcript but this one from a Yoko hate site ☹️is ok https://yuckfoko.livejournal.com/22933.html) Then there's the oft quoted bit of the Sheff interview where John is trying to talk about how normal his relationships with Yoko and Paul are and Yoko's the one suggesting that people might have found John and Paul abnormally close (https://www.tumblr.com/amoralto/57260485982/august-1980-playboy-writer-david-sheff-questions)! And there's the bit of Sticky Fingers where Wenner claims that Yoko walks around telling everyone that John was gay and Hagen claims she also tried to convince Paul of this theory! (https://www.tumblr.com/amoralto/180893176242/the-wenners-moved-to-the-west-side-of-manhattan-in?source=share). Heck, she's one of the core purveyors of the "Paul was John's princess" idea!

That's all the super McLennon-specific evidence. But there's also tons of evidence that she was very fascinated by John's sexuality overall. There's the 1981(!) interview with Philip Norman where she claims she used to call John a "closet fag" to his face. (https://amoralto.tumblr.com/post/69790080940/i-used-to-say-to-him-i-think-youre-a-closet). She's possibly referencing John when she sings "You're thinking of Rock Hudson when we do it" in No No No. And another paraphrased quote from her that Norman used in John Lennon: A Life is the quote where she's claiming John said it would hurt her less if he slept with a man (and that he thought David Spinozza was hot) (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-11785347/Inside-John-Lennon-Yoko-Onos-life-New-York-City-moves-Dakota-building.html). There's also the fact that Goldman makes endless references to Marnie Hair telling him Yoko gossiped about John and Brian a ton. Plus, she's the one confirming John was bi decades after his death in the 2015 interview. (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/10/13/yoko-ono-i-still-fear-lennon-s-killer.html) I'm not saying her statements aren't evidence of John's actual queerness. I think they are. She was his wife, she knew him well. But they are also evidence that she spent (and has spent since he died) a lot of time thinking about his sexuality and seems to revel in the idea that he was queer as much as any tumblr shipper. If I want to get super speculative, I would even point to the fact that John seemed to play up his "Oscar Wilde side" when he was around her at times, and a plausible explanation is that he did it because she found it attractive.

Which makes sense when we note that Yoko has dated other queer men. Most notably Sam Havadtoy. And, in that 1968 audio diary, talks about her suspicion that certain gay men are "as attracted to her as they can be."

I don't know. I started thinking about this when you mentioned that the most concrete evidence we have for John's queerness and McLennon comes from Yoko. And then I started realizing how much of the stronger evidence comes from Yoko. And it really does start to seem like she's acting similarly to how many shippers do

Yup lol!!! I agree with this, for the most part. It's kind of crazy to me when I see people painting Yoko as having been two-dimensionally homophobic for shipping reasons when the truth appears to be so much stranger and more complicated than that.

Thank you so much for compiling this!!

I also just remembered the "boat called Paul" quote comes from Yoko and I think she also expressed to Norman that she found it weird that John was treating her like Stu by writing her letters.

It's genuinely bonkers how much of our theories trace back to her.

[jeannereames]

Conversely, if you and Alexander talked only once, what do you think he’d ask you? I guess he wouldn’t be surprised to find out there are professors studying his life and reign more than two thousand years after his death - but what do you think he would ask you about the history of, well, himself?

Interesting question. I think it would be difficult for him to know what TO ask. While it’s possible to forecast a little way into the future (science-fiction authors do it all the time), the further into the future we look, the further off-base we get. Unsurprisingly. Things come out of left field that even the most foresighted can’t anticipate.

For Alexander, I do think he realized that he died too soon, and his empire wasn’t established enough yet. Ergo, one of his first questions would likely be, “So, how fast did it all fall apart and who came out on top?”

He might even be weirdly happy to hear the answer. (Not long.) Why? It proved they couldn’t hold it together without him—which underscores his own uniqueness. I realize that’s self-centered on his part, but don’t all of us, deep down, kinda wanna know we’re irreplaceable? How much more for somebody raised in a society where kleos (glory) and timē (public recognition) were so important? An older king might have been more concerned with his “legacy” after ruling for decades. But Alexander was still young. He didn’t have much of a legacy yet to protect, other than his remarkable success. That nobody else could match it would, I think, have pleased him.

Would he have asked about his family? Probably. But I think it’d be part of the larger question of what happened next and who came out on top.

He’d LOVE that Rome named him “the Great.” In his own day, he was known as “the invincible” anikētos; “the Great” is Roman.

Yet I don’t think he’d have seen Rome coming. I expect he’d predict Carthage as the dominant Western power. Remember that, in his day, Rome wasn’t especially notable. This was still the Early Republic. Plebians were relatively new into the Senate, Rome was nowhere near in control of all the peninsula and just starting the shift from a Greek- and Etruscan-style phalanx to what would become the legion.

Reputedly, Alexander of Epiros (before his death in 331) resented Alexander of Macedon’s early successes, claiming he (Alexander of Epiros) was fighting real men in Italy while his nephew “waged a war against women” (e.g, barbarians). That’s a typical Western-centric view.* At the time, however, Persia had the most powerful army in the world. Whatever Livy claimed, had Alexander brought the Macedonian military machine west instead of east, he’d have mowed through Italy, just like in Greece, Thrace, and Illyria. It took another hundred-plus years of Roman military development to result in the wins at Magnesia or Cenoscephalae. Italy/Rome at that point was just no match for Macedon, much less Macedon under Alexander’s command.

But hoo-boy, he’d want to know about the legion, even if he wouldn’t know enough to ask directly. He might ask about future military innovations.

Also…he’d be PISSED that more people in the West today recognize the name of Julius Caesar than Alexander of Macedon. 😉 “Why didn’t Shakespeare write a play about ME???” But he’d be tickled there are more stories about him in more varied world cultures than there are about Caesar (true fact). IOW, Caesar may be more famous in the West, but Alexander is more famous in the larger world (thanks to the Alexander Romance).

Last, he might ask me about my world. If we assume he knew I was 2300+ years in his future, I think he’d naturally want to know what life is like in my time. I mean, wouldn’t we ask what life would be like 2300 years in our future? He’d probably be fascinated by the changes, although perhaps not the ones we’d anticipate.

Long ago, on a drive from Kentucky back to Nebraska, my son and I had a fun conversation about a fictional interview between Alexander and Stephen Colbert (Ian’s favorite talking-head person at the time). Stephen Colbert would ask Alexander what were the three most surprising things he’d found about the future? Would it be medical breakthroughs? Computers? The rise of democratic states? Flying through the air (and into space)? Etc.

Nope. The three things I think would surprise him the most are:

1. Near-instantaneous speed of communication 2. Easy availability of information (even if it may be wrong) 3. Changes in the importance of religion (at least in some places)

It was such an interesting conversation, I turned it into what’s now the opening Power-point in my World History I class! Ha.

————

* This supposed claim of Alexander of Epiros may not even be real. It’s recorded by Roman Cheerleader Livy, where of course the West is more powerful than the weak, decadent Oriental East.

[agentrouka-blog]

The rulers of Tarth are called "the Evenstar" and "Evenstar" is the famous nickname of Arwen in LOTR. Does this mean that Martin is pointing out Brienne and Jaime as the Arwen and Aragorn of ASOIAF ? Since Brienne will eventually become lady of Tarth after the death of her father Selwyn. But Brienne is also a blonde warrior lady like Eowyn. Should either parallel be seen as meaningful ?

Hi there!

I am not a LOTR expert by any stretch of the imagination, so I wouldn't be able to give you a credible answer on the finer details of that nickname within those books.

(I do, however, doubt that it's meant to imply a parallel between this couple and Jaime and Brienne, mainly because they don't share literally any other parallels with these characters either jointly or separately, that I can think of. Eowyn comes closer, but that doesn't make Jaime any kind of Aragorn.)

An interesting I thing I found after a cursory search is that Arwen got this nickname in reference to the world as they knew it nearing its end. If that's true, then that's rather melancholy, but it would fit with the general theme in ASOIAF of upheaval, endings and renewal, best summed up by Leaf, one of the children of the forest:

The gods gave us long lives but not great numbers, lest we overrun the world as deer will overrun a wood where there are no wolves to hunt them. That was in the dawn of days, when our sun was rising. Now it sinks, and this is our long dwindling. The giants are almost gone as well, they who were our bane and our brothers. The great lions of the western hills have been slain, the unicorns are all but gone, the mammoths down to a few hundred. The direwolves will outlast us all, but their time will come as well. In the world that men have made, there is no room for them, or us." (ADWD, Bran III)

This imagery of the setting sun is matched by the concept of the Evenstar and both of these indicate endings.

Something often overlooked is that Cersei shares this imagery, too.

All hail his lady mother, Cersei of House Lannister, Queen Regent, Light of the West, and Protector of the Realm." (AGOT, Sansa V)

Also in reference to Tywin, her father:

By the time they left Maegor's Holdfast, the sky had turned a deep cobalt blue, though the stars still shone. All but one, Cersei thought. The bright star of the west has fallen, and the nights will be darker now.  (AFFC, Cersei I)

Warden of the West, in the westerlands, the Lannisters in all the glittering golden light are still associated with the finality of the sunset and evening.

The evenstar and the morning star both actually refer to the same thing, though: the planet venus, all depending on its visibility in the night sky. It was also historically referred to as "lucifer", which can be translated as "lightbringer", the name of the sword forged by Azor Ahai, which is a hugely ambivalent tale in the books and resonates with both Dany's dragons and several special swords named in the series. The powerful weapon as a mark of a hero or a knight is a central theme in the series, and GRRM is begging us to look closer at what is truly heroic and what is merely a show of power or conceit.

An interesting twist here is that Brienne's House and island of Tarth is equally ambivalent. Their arms are sun and moon both. And their seat has an interesting predecessor associated with a significant knight.

 The Sapphire Isle, as some call it, is ruled by House Tarth of Evenfall Hall—an old family of Andal descent that boasts of ties to the Durrandons, the Baratheons, and more recently to House Targaryen. Once kings in their own right, the Lords of Tarth still style themselves "the Evenstar," a title that they claim goes back unto the dawn of days. Many of the folk of Tarth, highborn and low alike, claim descent from a legendary hero, Ser Galladon of Morne, who was said to wield a sword called the Just Maid given to him by the Seven themselves. Given the role that the Just Maid plays in Ser Galladon's tale, Maester Hubert, in his Kin of the Stag, has suggested that Galladon of Morne was no rude warrior of the Age of Heroes turned into a knight by singers a thousand years later, but an actual historic figure of more recent times. Hubert also notes that Morne was a royal seat of petty kings on the eastern coast of Tarth until the Storm Kings made them submit, but that its ruins indicate that the site was made by Andals, not First Men. (The World of Ice and Fire - The Stormlands: The Men of the Stormlands)

Evenstar and Evenfall vs. the Morning. Obviously, there's a hidden history there that may be as interesting as the more recent connection of House Tarth to Duncan the Tall, another noted knight. But clearly, we are seeing a tension here between evening and morning. Brienne is the daughter of the Evenstar, but must she be an evenstar herself?

Given Brienne's connections to knighthood, to Galladon whose story she tells in AFFC, it may well be that she herself represents that renewal, a shift from evening to morning. Where the story of Duncan is one of disintegrating ideals, Brienne represents the choice to uphold them. She chooses to take up Duncan's abandoned arms, commissioning to have them painted on her shield:

It was more a picture than a proper coat of arms, and the sight of it took her back through the long years, to the cool dark of her father's armory. She remembered how she'd run her fingertips across the cracked and fading paint, over the green leaves of the tree, and along the path of the falling star. (AFFC, Brienne II)

Which GRRM goes out of his way to associated with finality and endings:

She had made a better job of it than he could ever have hoped for. Even by lantern light, the sunset colors were rich and bright, the tree tall and strong and noble. The falling star was a bright slash of paint across the oaken sky. Yet now that Dunk held it in his hands, it seemed all wrong. The star was falling, what sort of sigil was that? Would he fall just as fast? And sunset heralds night. "I should have stayed with the chalice," he said miserably. "It had wings, at least, to fly away, and Ser Arlan said the cup was full of faith and fellowship and good things to drink. This shield is all painted up like death." "The elm's alive," Pate pointed out. "See how green the leaves are? Summer leaves, for certain.  (The Hedge Knight)

The falling shooting being likened to death is another interesting nod to the comet that lights the sky through much of ACOK. The one that heralded the birth of the dragons. Death.

It is the tree that represents life here. Given this context, Duncan's arms may not be her final arms.

A parallel in terms of imagery, knighthood and even history, may be House Dayne. Much like House Dayne (of Starfall) has an ancient origin and a fancy special sword named Dawn, you could argue that it has fallen from grace, the last "Sword of the Morning" (named so for the star constellation only visible before dawn) having been killed after guarding an imprisoned teenaged girl dying from childbirth. That's not knightly honor. Gerold Dayne is called "Darkstar" and describes himself as "of the night". He does not carry Dawn. Ham-fisted metaphors, no?

This is all my convoluted way of saying that no, I don't think this nickname is meant to tie Brienne and Jaime to Aragorn and Arwen, but rather part of a broader metaphor for disintegration and renewal, especially in association with knighthood, all expressed through Brienne herself.

Brienne, caught between Duncan (evening) and Galladon (morning), represents renewal, life, the way forward.

Jaime lacks this imagery entirely. He's no Aragorn. He's walking into the sunset with the Light of the West.

[hplovecraftmuseum]

Lovecraft and animals, Part 7: Snakes - Snakes did not become particularly important in Lovecraft's tales until fairly late in his career (since Lovecraft considered himself a gentleman amateur 'man of letters', using the term 'career' might have been distasteful for him). The 'Father of all serpents' first appeared in his ghost writing/revision work. THE CURSE OF YIG and THE MOUND, both featured references to 'Yig'. Though there was some uncertainty as to who really coined the name (Lovecraft or his client) in his letters to other writer friends Lovecraft claimed that he himself came up with the name and concept of Yig. Yig is never actually featured in any Lovecraft story in the same way as Great Cthulhu. We do not get a detailed discription of him either. We might assume that since the stories that carry his name most abundantly are connected to the American West and it's pre - Anglo inhabitants that Yig is perhaps the original entity around which all First Nations Snake-God myths were born. The Aztec diety Quetzalcoatl would be a prime example. A snake-like bundle of hair that can move about even after it is cut from a woman's head shows up in the particularly dreadful tale, MEDUSA'S COIL. Lovecraft penned this abomination for Zealia Bishop but the story did not see publication until after his death. (1940. Weird Tales) Of all Lovecraft works written for clients seeking to develop a career as professional writers, MEDUSA'S COIL has got to be one of the most rediculous! Still, Lovecraft injects references to Cthulhu - called Clooloo here, as well as Shub-Niggurath and R'lyeh. Interestingly Lovecraft also makes mention here of the author of the fabled book, Les Chants de Maldoror, also known as Maldoror by a young Frenchman who called himself 'Comte de Lautremont'. Les Chants de Maldoror was written between 1868 and 1869 and was highly influential for the Surrealist School of artists and poets of the 1930s. Lovecraft admitted in letters that he had read parts of Maldoror on several occasions. HPL also knew of Salvador Dali's early works. Apparently Lovecraft was not particularly impressed with Surrealism in general, however. Lastly Lovecraft makes a passing reference to 'the serpent-men of Valusia in one of his later tales. This brief mention was a tip of the hat to Lovecraft's writer pal, Robert E. Howard. Howard and Lovecraft never met, but they corresponded by mail for many years until Howard's death by suicide on June 11, 1936. Howard is best known today for his virtual 'invention' of the Sword and Sorcery genre of imaginative writing. He was the creator of the famed barbarian King, Conan. Lovecraft made mention of a number of his writer friend's fictitious gods and monsters as his own mock mythology/cosmic religion developed, most importantly Clark Ashton Smith's whom Lovecraft admired greatly. (Exhibit 415)

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

Don't Go Blindly Into the Dark

Summary:

To hide that he can't read, Jan Van Eck has been forcing his son to pretend he's blind since he was eight years old. Wylan is now attending Ketterdam University, and meeting Jesper Fahey may very well be about to change his life. But is he safe to tell Jesper the truth? And what will Jesper say if he does?

Jesper is struggling to weigh up his life in the Barrel and his life at the University of Ketterdam, and there's a good chance that his growing debt is about to make the decision for him. He hasn't attended class consecutively for months, but maybe that will change when his newest project includes partnering up with Wylan Van Eck. But can he really leave the Barrel behind him? And how long can he keep up the pretence of who he thinks Wylan wants him to be?

Meanwhile there is a darkness growing in Ketterdam, and it seems a killer may be stalking the streets of West Stave. An unknown evil is closing its jaws over the city, and it’s starting to feel like nowhere is safe.

Tags: @justalunaticfangirl @lunarthecorvus @i-need-help-this-is-my-obsession

If anyone else would like to be tagged let me know :)

Content warnings for this chapter: death, murder references

AO3 link

Chapter 49 - Kaz

“I need you to gather as much intel on them beforehand as possible,” Kaz lifted his gaze to glance over at Inej, “We have a week. Riesen is sending Geels, I know, but I need you to find out who his seconds will be - by tomorrow, if possible. We’re at a considerable advantage without Stoevelaar in the fray; they might not know who our seconds are until the meeting, but keep your eyes open. I assume there’s been no further word about his interest in you?”

“Nothing since Liesbeth died,” Inej’s tone was light but there was a hidden weight to her voice that Kaz had learned how to read; in the slight movement of her shoulders, in the almost imperceptible glance away from him as she spoke, in the ever so slightly of kilter inflection over the word died. 

Kaz didn’t have time for her moral quandaries tonight. She had killed Liesbeth, she had killed others, and there was nothing she needed to hide here so why did she insist on this discomfort? He did his best to ignore it - he had other things to focus on now. There was the game, of course, to prepare for - Nina was due to arrive at the Crow Club in just over an hour, Kaz would make a move there soon - but there was also the added complication of planning this parley with the Black Tips. Haskell had told Kaz to arrange some weeks ago now, if things didn’t change, but Riesen had beaten them to it about two hours ago. 

“Relax, boy,” Haskell had said, leaning back in his chair and swishing the glass of brandy sitting in his palm, “This is what we wanted,”

It was decidedly not what Kaz had wanted. 

“We’ll get things all squared away quick and easy,” the old man drawled on, “and re-establish our claim on the harbour. Easy,”

Easy. Kaz wanted to snort his derision, but he restrained himself to a curt nod and bit his tongue. He’d marched from the office and across the ground floor of the Slat with something jagged twisting inside his chest. Easy. Nothing but a trap was ever easy. 

He sent for Inej before he’d even reached the stairs - her shift had ended after she reported back to him a little over an hour ago, but he expected she’d still be in the house somewhere. And it would seem he was correct; Inej had knocked on his door barely two minutes after he’d walked in himself. She looked tired. 

“They’ll expect me to make you my second,” Kaz continued now, eyes tracing over the shape of Inej’s bent legs on his windowsill. “So-”

“So I won’t be,” she finished, “Obviously,”

Kaz nodded, though he wasn’t sure that she was actually looking at him, and forced his eyeline back towards his desk and the ledger lying open in front of him as though he needed to create some pretence of working. They both knew he wasn’t working on a ledger whilst he planned this parley; he needed his focus. So stop studying her. If Inej said her leg was painless enough to climb then he could trust her word and stop scanning her for a slip in the façade. 

Even if they hadn’t been expecting her, would Kaz want to bring Inej in as his second for this? Did he want to put her back in the Black Tips line of fire? 

This was her job. It didn't matter. It shouldn’t matter. And it didn’t. It didn’t. 

“I’ll take Jesper,” he said, turning a page for absolutely no reason, “And Big Bolliger,”

He saw the sharp movement of Inej’s head as she snapped up to attention at that last word, pictured the little furrow between her brows and the downturned edges of her mouth before he looked up to see them. She was, indeed, frowning when their eyes met; her hand drifted to count her knives and he was sure that she was thinking of their names in turn. 

“Why name it?” he’d asked her, when she told him the first blade he’d given her was Petyr. 

“For Sankt Petyr,” she said, almost confused, blinking at him. 

“I didn’t ask why that name; I asked why you’d bother naming it in the first place,”

For a moment he’d thought that she was going to reply, as he watched her it seemed like a retort was forming and he’d been intrigued to hear it, but then the colour rose in her cheeks and she turned away from him. Kaz stood watching her back for a moment before he spoke again, and once he did they seemed to carry on as though the moment had never happened in the first place. He hadn’t brought it up again, though of course it didn’t stop him from broaching the subject of philosophy every time he heard her name another blade. 

“Why Bolliger?” she asked, now, her little frown refusing to relent, “He’s not bad muscle but-”

“Jesper and Bolliger,” Kaz repeated, not bothering to temper any impatience in his tone, “Let them know, and let me know who Geels is bringing. I want you there as well, out of sight,”

She nodded - perhaps a little stiffly, but if that were true then Kaz was ignoring it - and stood up from the window ledge. As far as he could tell there was no wince, no buckle in her knee when she moved her weight onto it, no sign at all that she was in pain. Good. It wouldn’t do for the job if she was still injured.

“Is that everything?” 

“Anything else you can get me,”

Inej gave him another short, sharp nod, and then in the space of a blink she had vanished through the open window and disappeared somewhere between the raindrops. It seemed as though she knew how to enter some kind of hidden world, one that really did just exist in that liminal space in between two droplets of rain falling too rapidly to track. Chasing each other to the ground, splashing against the cobbles and seeming to cease their existence - only to fall from the sky again, in their inescapable little circle. 

After another half hour of working Kaz began to make his way to the Crow Club, pausing on the way to check in with Anika. It would seem that Layla had not been doing anything untoward. 

“When you told me to watch her I didn’t think that meant holding her hair back whilst she hurled,” Anika complained, leaning back against the doorframe. 

“Where’s Pietro?”

“Fuck if I know, I’ve been with her ain’t I?” she jutted her chin towards the closed door, “If I catch something I’m blaming you,”

Kaz didn’t bother with the retorts that offered themselves up to him, and instead just asked her to confirm that someone was following Pietro - they were - before he turned away. 

“Oh - did Nina respond?”

He paused and nodded over his shoulder. 

“She coming?”

“Of course. Why?”

Anika shrugged.

“Heard she was gonna be busy tonight. She said some toff wants her to go to the Geldstraat,”

Nina had neglected to mention that to Kaz. Van Eck again? Didn't she think that was relevant? He scowled as he began to walk away, nodding at the door as he said: 

“Enjoy your handful,”

Anika sighed melodramatically.

“I’m not being paid enough for this,” she muttered, distractedly twisting a lock of yellow hair from the non-shaven half of her head tightly around one finger, then undoing and redoing the same little action, as she spoke. 

“None of us are,”

Kaz walked on, down to the ground floor of the Slat, and was taken by slight surprise to see Wylan Hendriks cautiously weaving his way through the crowd. Since he had stopped using a cane upon arrival to the Barrel Kaz had rarely seen the boy without a sighted guide, and now he paused to watch him traverse the room with intrigue. Wylan moved slowly and in places with hesitation, but not without confidence for the majority of his steps, and after a beat Kaz realised that he had memorised how many steps it would take him to get from one obstacle to the next in the setup of the room. The rest, that being non-stationary obstacles, he seemed to track by sound - someone shouted something near his right and he side-stepped neatly to the left, though they wouldn’t have been directly in his path if he’d continued, and Kaz frowned. He was good. He was very good. But Kaz still wasn’t sure he felt convinced - he just couldn’t place his finger on why. 

There was also now, of course, the matter of Wylan’s scars. Kaz could hardly claim that they didn’t look believable. 

Raske, who’d been lounging on a chair with some little project or other - Kaz hoped, for all their sakes, nothing explosive - twisting quickly beneath his fingers, metal slotting in and out of place, looked up and noticed Wylan crossing the room with a small frown. It was unusual to see Wylan around the Slat, that much was true, and Raske stood up to speak to him as Kaz stood watching from the other side of the room.

What time was it? Getting late. Nina would soon arrive at the Crow Club and Kaz wanted to be there to oversee the setup of the game, and as much as he was sure the Heartrender could cover Layla’s task once the cards were laid she didn’t know her organisation system. Layla usually directed the other servers and kept as much control over the game as she could without dealing the cards herself; it was to be an honest game tonight anyway, but Kaz still needed things to go swiftly and smoothly. 

He could have crossed the room and found out what Wylan was doing there, but ultimately decided that there was no real need. Wylan’s role in tonight's job was already done, and Kaz had other things to concern himself with. For one moment longer he looked on, then turned away and left the building in silence.

[cyarskj1899]

'Now We Got Bad Blood': Kanye West Ex-Fans Shut Down Subreddit As They Part Ways With Embattled Rapper & Show Love To Taylor Swift

SOURCE: @CELEBCANDIDLY/ SNORLAX / MEGA; LUMEIMAGES / MEGA

By:Samantha Benitz

Dec. 2 2022, Published 5:35 p.m. ET

Fans of Kanye West are turning on the embattled rapper after his latest shocking comments and Twitter posts, RadarOnline.com has learned, and many are now siding with Taylor Swift following their years-long feud.

Several people in his Subreddit said he had gone too far this time, leading to multiple posts about the Anti-Hero singer in regards to her public spat with the Yeezy designer.

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SOURCE: MEGA

"This is now a Taylor Swift Subreddit. We had a good run fellas," read a post on December 1 amid dominating discussions about his rhetoric in an explosive interview.

Several clips of Ye have been shared on Twitter, showing the Eazy rapper explaining why he likes Hitler during a November 30 appearance on Alex Jones' InfoWars, arguing "every human being has something of value that they brought to the table."

"I love Jewish people, but I also love Nazis," he doubled down. 

Ye later tweeted an image appearing to show a swastika inside a Star of David, which was then blocked by new Twitter chief Elon Musk as a violation of its rules. 

His account is now suspended for the second time, and fans are sounding off in a Subreddit once dedicated to Ye.

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SOURCE: MEGA

"Now we got bad blood," one commented under the thread.

"Kanye, Kanye, I'm not gonna let you finish…," another quipped, referring to his now-infamous on-stage moment with Swift as she attempted to accept her award for Best Video by a Female Artist at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. 

"Your nemesis will defeat himself before you get the chance to swing," a third posted, referring to her lyric in Long Story Short.

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Meanwhile, others brought up the drama between West and Swift following the rapper's February 2016 release of his song Famous, with the controversial verse, "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that b---- famous." 

Tension reached a boiling point after his ex-wife Kim Kardashian's subsequent claims that Swift knew of West's plans to release the track, and the leak of a phone call between West and Swift discussing the song before its release.

SOURCE: @CELEBCANDIDLY / MEGA

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West, who recently announced he was running for President in 2024, has been at the center of controversy since making headlines for his antisemitic message about wanting to go "death con 3 on Jewish people" in an October tweet.

The Bound 2 lyricist has been dumped by Adidas, Balenciaga, and the talent agent CAA amid his recent tirades, speaking out about his disdain for cancel culture before his account was suspended.

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[one-half-guy]

On one hand, I love your Sonic posts. Espilver is one of my favorite ships. On the other hand, I’m Jewish. My extended family is in Israel, in a bomb shelter, scared for their lives. Friends of their friends have been killed. Tumblr is endorsing people with the most vile anti-Semitic posts. With every post on the situation is Israel-Palestine, I feel more and more alienated by people I thought I could look up to. That includes you.

All I have to ask you is this: do you support Hamas? Because you are reblogging posts that say the HOSTAGE’S FAMILIES are crisis actors! Are you so desperate to see Israel off the map that you’ll support a terrorist group that has ‘kill the Jews’ in their official charter?

Short and quick answer: No, I do NOT support Hamas, I condemn this group's ways as well as I condemn the State of Israel

Now, the long answer: For start, the Hamas is a consequence of Israel's actions: such as the Apartheid akin regime Israel established and all the DEATHS of palestinians they caused since 1948, so is not like we could say Israel is the victim, that's the last thing we can say! Looking only the current "conflict" they caused over 7000 deaths so far, much more than the over 1000 they claim Hamas caused.

Also, while they claim to be attacking only places where Hamas is hidden, they attacked several hospitals, one of these cases was amid a live broadcast to TV, several schools, AND MOCKED THE CHILDREN IN ITS RUBBLE, and even the West Bank where THERE IS NOT Hamas activity, freak they attacked a mosque while the civilians were PRAYING! Do you want me to believe they are only aiming Hamas?? Where THERE IS NO activity of them like the West Bank?? ATTACKING SCHOOL AND HOSPITALS WHERE CHILDREN, ELDERLY AND PATIENTS ARE EITHER HIDDEN FULL FEAR OR CAN'T GET AWAY BECAUSE DUE HEALTH PROBLEMS??

The fact is that Israel hides itself in the excuse of pursuing Hamas to promote their genocide, that's clear: they bombed a refugee camp claiming there was a single comander of Hamas there. They KNEW hundreds or even thousands of civilians would either be killed or seriously injured and bombed the camp anyway claiming it was in order to kill a single member of Hamas.

With all that it's already impossible to stand by Israel's side.

Also it got worse as I learned that Israel foundation itself was an antisemitic move of England to get the jews out of Europe, basically meaning they wanted to have the european jews out of Europe so desperately that they didn't care in support the migration of all of them to a land that was already occupied (detail, previously both european and american jews and palestinian were called by the british to help in the WW1 against the Ottoman Empire with lots of promises, the palestinian received nothing while the jews were supported to migrate to the palestinian lands)

Also remember that even many modern jews are against Israel.

Then I reiterate: I don't support Hamas, as well as I condemn Israel. I'm really sorry in know your family and friends are in this situation as I understand the civilians of both sides are suffering. But the fact is that the situation is far worse for the Palestine side, it's clear cruelty is still euphemism to describe Israel State's atrocities.

You are not antisemitic by condemn Israel as well as you are not supporting Hamas by defend Palestine

Hamas is only ONE group, Israel is the government itself.

[nickgerlich]

To-Go Box

Quick! Let’s play Jeopardy. “This product will only be used once (presumably!), is typically bought under emotional duress, and costs a ridiculous amount of money.” Cue the theme song.

If you said “What is a casket?” you would be right. While Costco sells caskets, and you can find some online, they are the domain of funeral homes who roll them into expensive packages to send you on your way.

And never mind that 59% of all deaths these days are actually cremated—a much cheaper option, if only because you need a small urn for your incinerated remains—there’s still enough profit to be extracted from those metal, mahogany, or oak boxes to keep an industry afloat.

But they’re nervous now, because caskets are going DTC, or Direct To Consumer. Now cue the disruptors, there’s change going on once more.

The casket market is a classic duopoly, with two companies—Hillenbrand and Matthews—claiming more than 70% of the market. They follow a traditional distribution model, meaning they sell through funeral homes, who act as retailers. That ensures hefty profit margins along the way for both the manufacturers and funeral homes, and especially at a time when grief overruns a customer's existence.

Titan is a DTC competitor that launched in 2016, and has grown significantly in recent years. But let’s face it—buying a casket online and having it shipped directly to your local funeral home is a nonstarter for many, if only because they don’t even know it can be done. They also sell through Costco, Walmart, and Amazon.

Then there’s the issue of having to shop online when that’s the last thing you would rather be doing at the moment. The price savings are significant, though, and come at a time when a lot of people feel they have been fleeced once the grief subsides.

There’s one wild card, though, working to the advantage of consumers. The Federal Trade Commission’s Funeral Rule says that consumers have the right to buy caskets from alternate sources, such as directly, and have them sent to funeral homes, who cannot refuse to handle it or even charge a fee.

That’s probably something you don’t see in funeral home ads or on their websites.

Naturally, there are some matters to be considered. A snowstorm or other bad weather could delay a delivery, and at a time you probably don’t want that to happen. It’s bad enough when the winter running gear you ordered last week because the weatherman said it was going to get cold didn’t arrive in time for the weekend, thanks to a snowstorm north and west of here. It would be terrible if the casket did not show up in time for the funeral.

And the funeral home does provide service. They are there to answer questions, and although they have the classic suited up and hand-wringing pose, they’ll hold your hand at a time when you may need it most. Still, they know we are at our weakest at that very moment, and that we do not wish to disrespect our loved one. But would they upsell us? Of course.

Maybe that’s why funeral directors and used car salesmen are often ranked as synonyms.

That FTC law is old, though, having been written in the 1980s, long before the e-commerce era. There is movement afoot to require more of funeral directors, such as posting easy-to-read pricing on their websites and in emails. Right now, it is nearly impossible to shop in advance, and a choice of funeral home often has to be made at the moment of death. I recall having to tell the ambulance driver where to take my Dad—and it was 2:00 in the morning. In Florida.

“Hold on a sec…I need to get online.” Yeah, right.

Naturally, funeral directors are even more nervous now that they may have to provide full disclosure everywhere they conduct marketing. They have had a long-standing grip on this business and the 41% of Americans who exit via this route. True, they provide valuable services, but they are things that we could attend to ourselves, if we only knew we could.

If anybody ought to be nervous through all of this, it is the cemetery owners. With cremation on the rise, they have huge investments in land that cannot be repurposed easily at all. Worse yet, they only get paid once for that little plot, and so their revenue stream is dependent upon selling guilt-laden adult children on the notion of perpetual care. Good luck with that in the future.

I am intrigued to see how this all plays out, because the entire industry, from funeral homes to cemeteries, is in great flux. It’s just that I’m not dying to find out any time soon. Ba da boom.

Dr “Upward And Onward” Gerlich

Audio Blog

[hanjeongrp]

Welcome to Hanjeong, Osuke. You are quite the dryad. At 28 (200), you have quite a claim to the usurping royal family.

Enjoy paradise.

OOC:

Name/Alias: krys

Pronouns: she/they

Age: 26+

Timezone: CST

Triggers: none

Password: n/a

IC:

Biography Information:

OC Name: Osuke

FC: Kento Yamazaki

Species: Nymph, dryad

Occupation: tea vendor at market

Residence: the forest and west side

Gender: cisman

Pronouns: he/him

Age: 28 (actually 200)

Claim(s): other royal usurper: cousin

Biography:

There are certain unique trees that stand among the forest of Hanjeong. One that is deep in the forest, hidden in a grove is known to some, as the king cherry tree. A 250-year-old cherry, standing tall and blossoming when the time is right. It liters the ground in beautiful blossoms creating a picturesque scene. Not only does it brighten up the area, but it also happens to be the anchor of a specific nymph. A dryad known as Osuke.

Osuke has always been a bit of a wild card among his people. While he is on the younger side of nymph life, he isn’t as social as some of the other younger nymphs. Preferring to be amongst his tree or sprouting and encouraging various poisonous flora and fauna. His specialty. He has been more on the quiet side for most of his life and tends to enjoy things that way. But, he happens to be a little chaotic at the same time.

For instance, his grove was home to a group of other trees and plants. The grove where the usurpers congregated and spoke in whispers. Osuke never said a word of the upcoming betrayal. Instead, offering a few ideas here or there. Something to spice it all up for the plans he overheard. While he never intended to be, over time they called him a cousin. Being from the same grove it was a bit like an extended family. Him being included.

Most didn’t see his involvement coming, but in truth, it shouldn’t have been a surprise. Much of his life, while still young, was a life of slight exile among his own kind. Specifically, within his age range. Not for his actions but for his gifts. Poisonous plants and flowers weren’t always welcome. The poison didn’t differentiate between humans and nymphs. No one was safe from it. Truth be told, Osuke never wished to try to be different than he was. Clearly, he was meant to be that way.

So, in the spirit of simply being, he has taken the time to experiment and learn the right plants to mix and turn into a micro dosing type of tea. Yes, this came from trial and error. Yes, this may be one of the reasons the younger nymphs don’t like him much… Since he would trick them into eating ones, he knew weren’t too deadly… But wanted to see what would happen. Maybe they shouldn’t have been so gullible.

Either way, he has been successful in putting together different mixes depending on what the user is looking for when it comes to experience. These mixes are sold at the market to humans looking for a little bit of fun. The usurping never really put a dent in that business. Even when everything was still said on done... There were a few naiads that continued to get teas from him…

Even the death of the human mayor hasn’t put a dent in his business. Secretly he thinks that it has risen slightly. Humans looking for an escape, but he has no comment on it really. Mostly he thought human issues were just that, human issues. But there was a part of him curious if it was a death caused by a creature of the wilds... Like himself. If it was… How did they do it?

Anything else? Changes you want to make? Comments you have? Extras you want to include?: i didn't make any wild lore this time but i bet we can discuss things cause obviously you had a character connected to the nymphs before i did! 

[nataliesnews]

Fwd: The background to what happened at Hawarra and pictures from the demonstration last night, Sara Netanyahu and the ploy to gain sympathy  7.3.2023

Fwd: The background to what happened at Hawarra and pictures from the demonstration last night, Sara Netanyahu and the ploy to gain sympathy

Inbox

Natalie Ginsburg <natanyag@gmail.com>

10:19 AM (5 minutes ago)

to bcc: Helen, bcc: Debby, bcc: Cindi, bcc: Nathan, bcc: Talia, bcc: Linda, bcc: Belling, bcc: Ingrid, bcc: Uta, bcc: me, bcc: Ivan, bcc: Galia, bcc: corinne, bcc: Shelley, bcc: renee, bcc: Elisabeth, bcc: Raymond, bcc: Jethro, bcc: Martine, bcc: Mika, bcc: Carey, bcc: Behnam, bcc: Susan, bcc: Mervyn, bcc: Ronnie, bcc: Rene, bcc: Debby, bcc: Joy

---------- Forwarded message ---------

From: Natalie Ginsburg <

natanyag@gmail.com

>

Date: Tue, Mar 7, 2023 at 9:55 AM

Subject: The background to what happened at Hawarra and pictures from the demonstration last night, Sara Netanyahu and the ploy to gain sympathy

To:

Read the Pdf below as the background to what happened on Saturday night at Hawarra.

These are the followers of Baruch Goldstein. Has anything been said about the settler who shot a Palestinians to death in the first pogrom? It is hardly mentioned. All we get are shocking statements by Ben Gvir, Smokric, Daniella Weiss of how they want Palestinian villages burnt. The latter says that Jews are being killed. Does she know how families were still inside the houses when the settlers set fire to them?  None of them condemn the attacks. See the utube interview ...."settler leader Daniella Weiss call for burning...." . I ask you family and friends if this was said about Jews overseas how would you feel? I am

How would you feel as a Palestinian knowing that you had no protection whatsoever. Probably he feels as the Jews did when the Gestapo came for them.

Maybe you should also ask why the media, at least as far as what I heard, said nothing about the soldiers dancing with the settlers and why, when we the protestors are not allowed in, the settlers are. I wish I could send you the video of a four year old crying from the gas attack which was made on the car in which she was sitting with her family.

IDF soldiers dance with settlers in flashpoint West Bank town of Huwara

Clashes between settlers, Palestinians also reported, over a week after rampage in city; several said injured; IDF opens probe into dancing troops

https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-soldiers-dance-with-settlers-in-flashpoint-west-bank-town-of-huwara/

The attacks at Sheikh Jarrah on Friday which I have seen on the net and also from what friends told me was a return to the violence of months ago and even worse. There is a video of a woman for no reason except that she was in his way,  being pushed by the policeman in charge so that she flies across the road and hits a pole and the rest of the police walk past as if nothing has happened. Remind you of 1939?

Last night there was a demonstration at the home of a former mayor,| Nir Barkat and there the rabbi of the neighborhood read selected passages from Megilat Esther. I am quoting  " ...There were women in red reminding us that the regime reform  will essentially bring us to a Giliad state with the same  cop squad  that goes to suppress demonstrations in Sheikh jarrah showing up to keep order"  Louis Frankenthaler, Rabbis for human rights,  The pictures are out of place but I don't have the energy to correct this.

As far as the ridiculous story of Sara Netanyahu ....for years this sick blonde had her hair only done at home....suddenly she decided to do it outside and says she is a victim and people are out to kill her and her family.....what a waste of time that would be when there are so many others who would carry on the work of destroying the state. It is so true what they say....Yoni Netanyahu died defending Israel  and his  brother will sacrifice Israel to save himself. And there was no reason for her to claim to be besieged....on facebook it is shown that they could have left by a back door which no one knew anything about.

The secret service by the way  knows nothing about death threats to any person on the right. In fact the first political murder will probably be of one of the protestors or someone like Arik Aschermann who tried to protect the Palestinians.

--

ReplyForward

[thetldrplace]

Stalinism and Bolshevism- Leon Trotsky

This was first published in Socialist Appeal in Sept 1937

This is the fifth of five writings included in the Classics of Marxism vol II, recommended by Marxism.org

Trotsky starts off by warning that they were in a reactionary epoch and it must be resisted. The reaction would have been against what the Soviet state had become in practice versus what the promise of socialism was.

The reaction against Marxism and Bolshevism Trotsky says great defeats provoke a reconsideration of values that goes two ways: for the true vanguard, defeat enriches his experience and causes him to fight to the death to hold on to his principles; for the rest, they go backwards in their search for answers.

There have been many examples of the defeatist mentality. They aren't interested in searching for the causes of defeat.  

Former Austrian communist, Willi Schlamm, wanted to create a new socialism that would insure against defeats, but he is apparently unaware of the history and development of socialism, so he would return to a pre-Marxian socialism. He denounces class struggle and dialectics and hopes to transform society with realizing certain moral truths.

His entire analysis is to look at the defeats and say they were a product of class struggle and dialectics.

"Back to Marxism"? Trotsky says Marxism found its highest historical expression in Bolshevism, and that the first victory of the proletariat and workers' state was established under the Bolsheviks.  

Since the Revolution, the triumph has been of the bureaucratic state, repression, plunder, and falsification. Based on this, many have jumped to the conclusions that Marxism leads to Bolshevism leads to Stalinism.

But others, not believing that Marxism inevitably leads to Stalinism, want to return Bolshevism to Marxism. But what does that even mean? The Bolsheviks read the classics too- but how do we get from Marx and Engels to a practical state? The Bolsheviks knew the classics well, and it still resulted in the degeneration of the Soviet state and the Moscow trials.

Is Bolshevism responsible for Stalinism? Stalin himself claimed this. The Bolsheviks outlawed other socialist parties and set up a dictatorship of the Bolsheviks, therefore the dictatorship could only result in a dictatorship of the bureaucracy.  

Trotsky says the flaw in this is in the identification of Bolshevism, October Revolution, and Soviet Union.

The state built by the Bolsheviks reflected both the ideology of the Bolsheviks, but the cultural history of the country, which was backward and barbaric. It would be unfair to think that the barbarism was purely an invention of Bolshevism. (Fair point)

Trotksy then argues that Bolshevism can't really be identified with the October Revolution or the Soviet state it produced. It was only one of the factors, even if a really important one. (I don't know how Trotsky can claim this. Clearly they weren't the ONLY factor, but the structure of the government was ALL them. Furthermore, the concentration of the power in a few hands, which they felt necessary for keeping the reins on the ideological decisions that would need to be made, was the exact thing that made it possible for a dictatorship. To my mind, they are nearly 100% responsible for the disaster that followed.)  

Trotksy also argues that while the state took power, and that did give them outsized influence, it doesn't transform them into sovereign rulers over the historical process. (This is true)

Trotsky does admit that while Stalinism grew out of Bolshevism, it did so not as a revolutionary affirmation, but a reactionary negation. (This seems to me a complete revisionist explanation, meant only to disavow the horror that came out of what the Bolshevists established.  

Bolshevism's basic prognosis Trotsky says that without a corresponding socialist revolution in the west, the revolution in Russia would degenerate and then fall. He quotes Lenin as saying that history is decided by masses, and the Party was not the decisive factor. Without a corresponding revolution in the west, the proletariat lost some faith and the political gravity shifted from the proletariat to the bureaucracy.

Stalinism and "State Socialism" Trotsky addresses the anarchist argument that the state socialism that arose is the real problem, and that Marxism and Bolshevism lead to it.

Trotsky agrees that the state as an apparatus of coercion is an evil, and that real history will begin with the abolition of the state. This is a theoretical goal of Marxism, so Trotsky uses the evil of the Soviet state as a proof that Marxism is right.

The political sins of Bolshevism as the source of Stalinism Trotsky addresses the arguments of the rationalists, who claim Stalinism was a result of the errors of Bolshevism. The dictatorship of the proletariat was replaced by the dictatorship pf the party. Trotsky claims one can make these arguments, but for all their "apparent effectiveness", they are empty.

Trotksy says the proletariat can only take power through a vanguard. The necessity of state power is derived from the insufficient cultural level of the masses. But without the vanguard, the working class has no way to achieve power, and no one has shown how else they could take power. It's true that the domination of politics by a single party has been the entrance point of the Stalinist regime though. And certainly the Bolsheviks applied not only conviction but compulsion in a severe degree.

Questions of theory The Bolshevists were extremely doctrinal. Stalinists are purely practical. Trotsky claims they are absolute revisionists of Marxism.

Questions of morals Trotsky defends the Bolsheviks against accusations that they "maliciously exaggerate differences, are incapable of loyal collaboration, and by their intrigues disrupt the unity of the worker's movement".  

I'm not sure of the third, but the first two are absolutely true. We read in Lenin's piece on "Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder", where he accuses those who disagree with him of being opportunists, etc. He relentlessly put down all but his own version of Marxism.  

As for the second- incapable of loyal collaboration, that is also true, as we read in Lenin's own work. He states that in the early stages of gaining power, it would be necessary to compromise with others, but in due time, they could be discarded after they had served their purposes.

Then Trotsky goes on to defend the "moral qualities of Bolshevism" as flowing from "intransigence in the service of the oppressed". Right after this he notes that when intransigence and flexibility are applied by a police apparatus in the service of a privileged minority, they become a force of demoralization and gangsterism. He then goes on to accuse Stalin and his regime of being reactionary and violating the revolution. But it was the Bolsheviks who set the table for this very thing to happen, and apparently it all hinged on the most pure and moral people being in charge... but who the Bolsheviks thought of as pure and moral were in fact rigid ideologues who would act outside of legal measures if they deemed it necessary, in order to accomplish their goals.  

The traditions of Bolshevism and the Fourth International Trotsky complains that about all the critics offer is platitudes about purity. But none of them have any real idea about what it takes to wrest power from the bourgeois, and then actually run a society.  

I have no doubt this is true, but to be honest, neither did the Bolsheviks themselves. In the name of liberation, they enslaved even more people. They did it on the basis of an untested theory based in foolish thinking about human nature. And all they really had to go on was that they truly, religiously believed it would work. Then their sense of real-politick grabbed power, allocated everything to themselves that seemed good at the time, and when they had implemented this, it predictably was turned against them in a play as old as time. The American founders knew that if you concentrated power, it was an open invitation to the power-hungry to try their hand. So they spent a lot of time devising a system of checks and balances.  The Bolshevik fools took the opposite approach and did what was necessary for them to grab power, but the entire system was doomed to failure from the start, and Trotsky details the inherent contradictions in this treatise.  

As he mentions, how else could power be grabbed? Clearly, it couldn't. But once it was grabbed in this illegitimate manner, the rest was predictable. Marxism is for fools.

[violetrainbow412-blog]

Pink geraniums [P. M]

Peter Maximoff x fem!reader

Word count: 3.5k

A/N: it's just me throwing up my desire to have a father figure in Charles and a very nice first meeting with Peter, I hope you like it

Request (for Peter) are open!

"I hate you injecting that stuff," you exclaimed, walking into the room. It was completely messy, with Charles in bed. His eyes were slightly teary and he seemed to be looking at the photograph he had on his nightstand, which he had refused to take down for years.

"It's my business"

"What will you do?" you asked, to change the subject and avoid a fight. A few minutes ago, you had received a visit from that maniac who claimed to come from the future, promising a war against the mutants and eventually an apocalypse. And apparently, the only way to prevent it was for him and Erik Lehnsherr to team up to search for Raven.

You thought it was easier for the sun to rise in the west than for those two to work together again.

"What do you want me to do?" he answered. His voice was softer when he talked to you, but he kept sounding annoyed, tired, and frustrated “Listen to that man? Put myself at risk for something I don't even know is real? Or put yourself at risk? he murmured, looking at you.

Things had been very difficult for him, you knew that, but right now you were all he had left. After the death of your parents during the battle on the beach in Cuba, he had practically raised you, educated you, and even when the school closed you had stayed with him. You were like his daughter and after losing his best friend and his almost sister, you were the greatest consolation he had. Although of course, you had bad days and good days, like everyone else.

"Besides, I don't know where Raven is, and even if she did, she won't listen to me."

“She will do it” you promised her “And if not, she will listen to Erik”

"Erik is a killer"

“But he was also your friend”

"He was," he hissed. You knew he was a wound that still hurt.

“Listen, I believe him” you exclaimed. Charles watched you from his place, frowning “I watch the news and I know what's going on in the world, even if you don't believe it. The world fears us and it will only be a matter of time and a couple of bad representatives for them to start hating us” he didn't say anything, he just kept looking at you “I know your relationship with Erik isn't the best, but even I know we need it. And I think that if you sent someone to warn us, we have to listen to him” you asked. You moved a little closer and reached out to put your hand on hers. “It's worth a try, don't you think? For you, for me, for all those who are like us… and for Raven”

There was silence for a moment, in which he kept watching you. His hand turned to take hers, holding it gently.

"Sometimes I forget how much you've grown" he smiled at you.

"And what I'll grow up in" you added, with the same friendly grin he had "But to do that, I need a world to grow up in, right?"

"Yes, it's true," he reflected. He saw him let out a sigh and then stood up, picking up the glass from him with barely a sip of liquor "I hope you're not mistaken"

"I never do" you answered, with a smirk, as you listened to him laugh.

“Sometimes I feel like I fed your confidence and self-esteem too much when you were a kid,” he murmured, still a little amused. He nodded at you for both of you to leave and you walked away, letting him hug you by the shoulders.

At this very moment, he needed someone to support him and you were willing to be that person.

“Here, here, here,” said Logan (he had asked you to call him that and nothing to do with sir). The three of them were in the front seat and you were in the back, watching everything with amusement. Logan had said that the mutant you were looking for was about your age and you'd be lying if you said you weren't excited to find out who it was. You hadn't dealt with mutants your age in a long time, your only company was Hank, Charles, and the enormous library of the mansion “Next time I'm driving. Don't get used to it,” Logan snorted.

You got out of the car quickly and knocked on the door of the house. It was pretty and you noticed that the doormat was pretty worn. After a few seconds, you were greeted by a woman with a worried expression and tired eyes.

“What's done now? I will just write you a check for whatever he took” she murmured. You looked at Charles with raised eyebrows, silently asking him what the hell you were getting yourself into.

"We just need to talk to him," Logan reported. You saw the woman nod in resignation and then she yelled into the house.

“Peter! The cops are here. Again”

Wow, that Peter sure liked getting into trouble.

A beautiful girl dressed as a princess greeted you and you had a short conversation, where she kindly gave her a flower that made her smile. When you caught up with them, they were already going down the stairs to get to the basement and when you got there you saw a figure moving back and forth on a ping-pong table.

“What do you guys want? I didn't do anything” he exclaimed, still playing. It was difficult to follow him with his eyes until he sat down on the sofa that he had on the other side. Once there he dresses him carefully, silver hair, Pink Floyd shirt, and a pretty face "I've been here all day."

“Just relax, Peter. We're not cops.”

“Of course you're not. If you were, you wouldn't be driving a rental car,” he muttered, hands on his head and feet crossed, showing how confident he was.

“How did you know we've got a rental car?” Charles asked, frowning. He wasn't much of a fan of dealing with annoying teenagers and you knew that from experience.

“I checked your registration when you were walking to the door. I also had some time to kill so I went through your rental agreement. Saw you were from out of town. Are you FBI?” he asked. As well as how he moved, he talked too fast. He saw him run from one side to the other and a second later he had Charles's wallet in his hand “No, you're not cops. Hey, what's with this gifted youngsters place?”

"That's an old card" he replied, uncomfortable at the intrusion on his privacy.

"He's fascinating" you whispered, unable to help it, while you followed his trail with your eyes.

"He's a pain in the arse," added Charles. You knew he was frowning behind his sunglasses.

You continued to see him from one side to the other, while your companions argued.

"So you're not afraid to show your powers?" you asked. He seemed to notice your presence at last and he smiled charmingly at you.

“What powers, honey? What are you talking about?” he asked you, feigning innocence “Do you see something strange here?” he insisted. You all looked at him strangely "Nothing anybody would believe if you told them" he argued, shrugging. Then he ran again, to a video game machine “So, who are you? What do you want?

"We need your help, Peter," Logan began to explain. You walked around the room, looking at the dozens of boxes with food, the televisions, game machines, skateboards, jackets… the guy really had everything lying around.

“Prison break? That's illegal, you know” you heard him say, snapping you out of your thoughts.

"And you would never do anything illegal, right?" you asked ironically. You saw him smile, without taking her eyes off the screen.

"So, what's in it for me?" he exclaimed. You were about to reply when Charles did, his voice exasperated.

“You, you kleptomaniac, get to break into the Pentagon” that seemed to capture his attention enough, as he turned to look at you.

"How do I know I can trust you?"

“Because we're just like you” you replied. He watched you and then his eyes traveled to Charles, searching for an explanation.

“Show him”

Logan pulled his claws out of him and even you looked a bit surprised as your gaze flickered between him and the silver-haired boy.

"That's cool, but it's disgusting."

Okay, the entrance to the pentagon had been fucking crazy. You had insisted on accompanying them out of curiosity, especially about Erik. He knew you because he had seen you when you were little, but you had no memory of that. And as stupid as it sounded, you've been secretly admiring the man ever since you saw him on TV.

Once there when he was out of his cell there were fistfights (you've never seen Charles hit anyone) and shots you thought you wouldn't make it out alive, but luckily you were saved by a silver flicker.

“You're Y/N, right? Y/P/N's daughter”

"Yes, she is. Please don't talk to her” replied Charles from the seat opposite. Hank had already left for the mansion, but you were in the rental car squeezed slightly between Magneto and Peter, not knowing which way to lean.

"You look a lot like your mother" Magneto whispered, ignoring his partner's comment "I remember you when you were a child, you always wanted me to carry you"

"Really?"

"Really. But you've grown a lot since the last time, it's evident” he smiled at you. He didn't seem like a bad person and you understood why he and Charles were once friends.

You thought about both of them, about everything that could have happened… Would he ever tell you that story?

"Erik" he insisted, with a tone of voice that seemed to warn, "I said don't talk to her, please" he ordered. He was like that, always protecting you more than he should.

You looked in the redhead's direction and he made a sign of putting a zipper on his mouth, which amused you. You looked ahead, hoping that the trip would be less boring until you felt a finger gently touch your shoulder.

"You want to listen to music?" he asked, lips sealed in a line and staring at you. You didn't understand what he was referring to until he extended one of his headphones in your direction and after hesitating for a second, you accepted.

The boy had good musical tastes and the trip was more enjoyable thanks to that. When you arrived at your final destination, the Xavier family plane was already in position.

You went down immediately and were about to go up when Charles stopped you, grabbing your arm.

"You stay here"

"What?"

“You heard me. You will stay here. It's dangerous for you to go with us, especially…” you saw Logan pass by your side to go upstairs, and after him was Erik, who saw you for a moment and nodded goodbye “Especially for him”

"Charles..."

“No, it's not up for discussion” he interrupted you “I let you go with us to the pentagon, but this is too much. You will be safer here” he explained to you. You felt the look of Hank (who had gotten off the plane to talk to Charles) and also of Peter, who were near the car, and you concluded that it was useless to try to change the blue-eyed's mind. However, you didn't say anything else, and your downcast eyes made Charles feel guilty “Listen...” he started to say "Why don't you invite... this guy Peter to stay for a while?"

"What?"

“I don't need to read your mind to know that you like him” he mocked, now a little more animated "This is too stressful and dangerous, wouldn't you prefer to stay here and make a new friend?" he asked, but only got you to roll your eyes "Come on, Y/N, Since we closed the school you haven't talked to anyone your age and a little company would do you good" his hand went to your head, to caress your hair tenderly “You don't have to isolate yourself like me, and you don't have to fight like me. Let me do it, this is my fight”

"It belongs to all the mutants" you corrected him "And that's why I don't want to stay here because I..."

“You want to help,” he interrupted again, “I get it, but you help me more by staying here safe than by having to protect yourself from Erik's bullshit or anything Raven might do. Please, understand me. Understand that my peace of mind comes from knowing that you are safe” he asked. You sighed and nodded resignedly, as you walked over to hug him.

"Can I order a pizza?"

"Sure"

“And ice cream?”

"Yeah"

"And also cake?" you insisted and Charles laughed.

"Take your chance to eat all the junk food I normally forbid you to," he said simply and you smiled. Then Hank came over and Peter the same "We have to go now, it's late"

“I saw your flight plan in the cockpit. Why are you going to Paris?” Peter exclaimed. You exchanged glances with Charles and then with Hank, but they just pursed their lips.

"We'll meet someone there" he simply replied. Then he threw the car keys at her “Do me in favor and return it for me”

"Okay"

"And, Peter?" he continued. He looked at him and then at you “Take it slow”

You heard Peter laugh and by inertia, you laughed too, shortly before walking over to Hank for a hug.

"Please take care of Charles," you asked him, in a very low voice, while the aforementioned went up the stairs "Promise me that he will come home in one piece"

"I promise" he exclaimed. Once everyone got in you also got in the car and Peter drove a few meters to the school parking lot and then you saw the plane take off, disappearing into the clouds.

"Nice place, huh?" he murmured behind you. For a second you had forgotten that he was there.

“It's an inheritance from his ancestors or something. It belonged to his parents and when they died it became his” you explained to him, looking at the castle. Sometimes you forgot how big he was.

"And then it will be yours, I guess," he murmured. You looked at him with a frown. "You're his daughter, right?"

“His daughter? No!” you laughed "I mean, I am a bit, but... it's complicated, my parents died and he took care of me"

"I am so sorry"

"Okay, it's a thing of the past"

"I never knew my father," he told you as if he was trying to tell something bad about his life to make you feel better "It's just my mom, my little sister, and me"

"I met your little sister"

"Before I came she told me that you were very pretty and that you gave her a flower," said Peter, slightly amused. You got nervous at the compliment, even if it wasn't directly from him. You were quiet for a few seconds until he spoke again “I guess I have to go... huh... it was nice meeting you Y/N”

"Same here, Peter," you smiled at him, raising a hand to wave goodbye. He started walking towards the car at a normal pace and you took this as a clear sign that he didn't want to leave just yet.

A little company would do you good, you heard, almost as if Charles was using his powers again.

“Hey” you half-shouted, to get his attention. He turned around as soon as he heard you, "Do you want to stay for a while?"

"How could you live so many years without listening to Pink Floyd?" Peter asked incredulously. It had already been several hours since they had left and you had taken the opportunity to show him most of the house/institute, even though you knew that he could go through it himself in a second. It was more a matter of hospitality.

Now you were in your room, listening to a cassette on your old player that you were sure Peter had stolen from a store.

“I thought it was music for drug addicts”

"No! I think with this you could stop consuming. I mean, listening to it feels like a fucking LSD trip… or so I think, I've never been high” he argued, making you laugh. In front of you, you had almost every type of fatty food that existed and also a couple of sodas, as well as some sweets that he had never tried but that Peter promised were wonderful. He hadn't been wrong.

You talked a while longer and he told you about how he had discovered his mutation, telling you a pretty funny story from when he was little. Charles had been right, it was fun talking to a boy your age again, mutant and also… well, also quite handsome.

"And what is your mutation?" he asked. You widened your eyes when you realized that in all that time you hadn't told him.

"Chlorokinesis" you replied, but seeing his brow furrow slightly you thought it would be better to explain "It is the ability to control plants"

"Really? Brilliant!" he muttered, genuinely excited, "Could I have a demo?" he timidly asked.

"Sure, but for that, we have to go..." from one second to another, you were in the huge green area that the institute had, and Peter smiled at your side "... outside"

"Show me," he exclaimed, sitting on the floor in a lotus position and watching you intently. You suddenly felt nervous about his pretty eyes on you, but you sucked in a breath and then walked over to one of the trees, placing your outstretched palm on it. Peter frowned as nothing happened, but then he felt an object hit his head: it was an apple. Suddenly dozens of apples began to fall before him, leaving him completely amazed.

"It's very useful if you're out for a walk and you're hungry," you laughed.

"And what else can you do?" he said, with a bright smile. You knelt near him and he suddenly got nervous, but then you made a sign with your hand and many flowers began to surround you, completely covering the grass. You plucked one and offered it to the boy.

“This is a pink geranium; it symbolizes a new friendship” you explained. He smiled and took said flower, brushing your fingers "I've had a lot of free time to study the meaning of flowers and Charles has like a dozen books about it" you added. Peter smiled and straightened up to get closer to you, causing your breath to hitch. You felt him brush your hair to one side and then put the flower you had given him over your ear.

"I've never met anyone like you," he said honestly. "I mean... a mutant."

“Really?”

"You're the first" he confessed "You must know a lot of guys, right?"

“I used to, but it was years ago. Although I've never met someone with super speed” you told him, with a smile. You were still kneeling in front of him and it wasn’t necessary to speak more than a whisper.

“Hey, I hate this, but I think I have to go. My mom must be wondering where I am."

"Yes! Sure, I… I get it,” you murmured. You'd be lying if you said you weren't disappointed that your time with him hadn't been longer. You brushed the grass off your knees, then helped him to his feet, taking a slow (for him) stride toward the mansion.

"Thank you so much for having me, I really enjoyed it," he exclaimed. 

“Thank you for staying. It's been a long time since I've talked to someone who wasn't so grumpy with Charles,” you joked. Both of you were in front of the car and you didn't know if it was wise to wrap him in a hug, but you did it anyway. He reciprocated with pleasure "You can visit me whenever you want, I'm always here"

“Oh, that's… great” he managed to say, not wanting to look excited. He was sure that as soon as he crossed the gate, he would want to see you again "See you soon then"

"Take care," you said goodbye. He got into the car and when he moved forward, he waved goodbye, until you saw him get lost on the road. Before entering you let out a sigh and thought how long you would have to wait to see his pretty face.

You didn't have to wait long, because when Peter saw the altercation that arose in Paris on the news, he didn't hesitate to run to where you were in case you needed any kind of comfort or help.

And for a while, you were never alone again. 

[cyraniadebergerac]

A Minor Mystery of the Show

Obviously, there are several key mysteries of the show. But there's one minor one that could also use explanation. Yor and Yuri lost their parents when Yor was a teen and so had to take on the care of her brother. Because of the age, it's potentially connected with the war. Yet we don't hear how exactly their parents died. But a bigger mystery than that is where are any other near relations? If they had aunts or uncles or even grandparents around, they could have gone to them for help. Their absence in the story suggests they weren't around to help, but why would that be?

Theory 1: There just weren't any. Yor and Yuri's parents were the last of their respective families. A possibility due to the war and potentially due to something that I'll cover in Theory 4. It wasn't like one child was the norm at the time.

Theory 2: Yor and Yuri's parents were estranged from their families and so contact was lost. Another likely possibility, though you would hope that if they heard news of their death, then someone would still come to help the children. If it's this case, maybe we'd see a family member during the story who wants to reconcile then finds out about the deaths.

Theory 3: The Shopkeeper purposely kept any family members from coming to claim them. It would put Yor's employment under him in a darker light as him doing this would mean he purposely placed her in a position where she had to work for him in order to support herself and her brother. It would also mean though that he would have been an early part of the tragedy, perhaps even arranged fir the parents' deaths himself. But he would have to really want Yor for some reason for that to be the case. Maybe she was actually born with super strength and durability and he knew it somehow?

Theory 4: Yor and Yuri's parents were immigrants to Ostonia. Think about it. While we see Ostonians have hair ranging from golden blond (Camilla, the first girl Loid broke up with) to light brown to dark brown (Frankie, Damian), we hardly see anyone with black hair except for Yor and Yuri, except for that one co-worker of her's where the black hair and glasses seem to be marking her as the brains of Yor's coworker trio (Camilla likely being the will while the last one is the heart). On top of that, Yor, short for Yolanda, and Yuri are basically the only characters with full on Eastern European names as well as the only ones with red eyes. The rest of the cast have English to German names and regular colored eyes, fitting being in an East Germany setting. And the author said himself that he meant for Yuri and Yor to have East European names. While it could be simply to have names to fit the setting while still sticking out from the rest, it could also point to their parents not being Native Ostonians but coming from a different Eastern country. The real question would be from where then, but there's one potential place based on what time period the show's supposed to be based on.

We haven't heard much about just what the rest of the world's like. Our main countries are based around West Germany/East Germany during the Cold War, yet the reason for the divide after WWII was so the USA and the rest of the West could work to rebuild the Western half of Germany while the Soviet Union rebuilt the Eastern half with the understanding that the nation would be allowed to come back together after both sides were rebuilt. Needless to say, while the West stuck to their side of the bargain and let West Germany be it's own country, the Soviet Union didn't honor their promise with East Germany, instead building a wall and no man's zone between the two sides to keep their subjects from easily escaping into the West.

This doesn't seem to be the case within this story given that Ostonia is considered a sovereign enough nation to declare war on their own and doesn't seem to be part of a Soviet Bloc. Yet we also have talk about people escaping across the border into other countries so they can reach Westalis and a secret police for, though other than those two things, we don't see any other signs of the country being Soviet, Fascist, or Nazi. Otherwise, there would be rationing, the characters wouldn't be able to just waltz into a grocery store then waltz out as there would be items missing in the store and/or long lines as people got what they were assigned to get with only the privileged getting anything more, and some things just not working and not being repaired even for the elite (mirroring how the apartment complex the Soviet party leaders lived in didn't have a working elevator, requiring them to have to walk up several flights of stairs), and Spy Wars doesn't seem to be Ostonian propaganda like most Soviet/Fascist shows were since Loid would have been commenting about the inaccuracies. Really, from what we see Ostonia seems to be more Imperial in it's structure with some capitalist elements while Westalis may be more democratic (since we don't actually see it much and so don't know), making the whole thing feel like a post-WWI world than a post-WWII one.

If it is really meant to be post-WWII though, there is an event fron before WWII that could have a parallel in Spy x Family and so could be where Yor and Yuri's parents came from. As talked about by MatPat in his lore video on the Cooking Friends horror game and by Blue on OSP in his History of Ukraine video, Stalin ordered that all farmers had to use modern equipment, such as tractors. However, the tractors broke down and it would have taken too long to wait for them to get fixed for there to be a harvest, Ukranian farmers went back to their horses and traditional farming methods. Seeing this as obstinate disobedience of his orders, Stalin ordered that no food should be left to the Ukraines, but that it all should be forcibly taken away even in the midst of harvest and set up a barricade to trap them within. And so started the Holdomer, The Great Hunger, an event that killed 9 million Ukrainians from starvation before Stalin's rage was satisfied, more than were killed total in Hitler's Holocaust. Some people could and did manage to escape the Holdomer though, and if an event like that happened in Spy x Family's world, then that could be where Yor and Yuri's family came from and explain even more the absence of any family members. It would also make things very tragically ironic for Yuri to end up in the SSS, an organization similar to what would have been used to nearly kill all his family before.

Those are just theories though, Spy x Family theories.

Have any thoughts or comments, please feel free to share them.

[urfictional]

𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐜𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 – 𝐤𝐚𝐳 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐤𝐤𝐞𝐫

pairing: kaz brekker x fem!reader

summary: there's a new face in ketterdam and kaz will be forced to strike a deal with the devil in order to get what he desires

warnings: blood, blood, and again blood, mentions of torturing, did I mention blood? my bad writing

A/N: I'd like to say that this is my first time writing a fic but then I would be kind of lying because a while ago I started to write a Kaz Brekker fanfiction on Wattpad. BUT. this is my first time writing a short fic, so we'll see how it goes.

also, English is not my first language so bear with the mistakes (I'm sure that there are some)

It’s hard to earn a name for yourself in the Barrel. You essentially start from nothing and then slowly brick by brick you start to grow your empire. You spill sweat and blood to achieve the goal and from then it only takes so little to remain at the top. It’s simple. One just needs to show the power that they hold. And Y/N has power.

Kaz Brekker was wondering. Standing in a dark room with fancy furniture, his Crows, Inej and Jesper, behind him. He was wondering from where she came from. The girl, approximately his age. Just a few months ago, the Barrel practically swarmed with rumors about a girl that Ketterdam hadn’t seen yet. No one knows from where she came from, or who she is. If Kaz has to think, he even doesn’t know her name.

She has many names but none of them is her real one. At least Kaz thinks that the girl that is sitting in front of him couldn’t possibly be called the Executioner. On the other hand, who knows this is the Barrel. A perfect place for weird people.

“You surprise me Kaz Brekker.” Even her voice sounded mysterious. It was confident, powerful and Kaz caught himself thinking that he could listen to her voice till death finally takes him. “You came to my house, walk through my corridors and now your dirty boots are staining my Persian rug and the only thing that you tell me is that you want to strike a deal that would make us acquaintances.”

Kaz didn’t utter a word. He watched the girl and the girl watched him. Her feet were resting on her desk and she comfortably leaned into the chair. She smirked.

While the Y/H/C haired girl was staring at Kaz, Jesper let his eyes closely inspect the girl. In a weird way, she reminded him of Kaz. Perfectly tailored clothes, black dress shirt, and grey west. Dress pants and heeled boots on her feet that laid crossed at her ankles on the desk’s surface. Her Y/H/C hair made into a tight knot at the back of her head. The only thing missing was leather gloves and cane.

“People who hold power in the Barrel should have acquaintances who do the same.” Kaz would be lying if he said that he wasn’t nervous about this meeting. He has heard stories about this girl, stories that possibly are nasty rumors, yet you never know. This is the Barrel after all.

She let out an amused laugh.

“And you count yourself as one?” She raised her eyebrows, an amused smile present on her face. “An acquaintance who holds power in the Barrel?” Y/N waited for Kaz to say something, to defend his honor yet he stayed quiet. She smirked while standing up. “Congratulations, you just passed the first test.”

Y/N needed to know if Kaz Brekker really is the Dirtyhands, the Bastard of the Barrel. She won’t let the boy know all her secrets and ways how she works if he isn’t half of what Ketterdam claims him to be.

“Though I have to ask.” She stopped millimeters away from him. Y/N could feel the ragged breath of his that made her furrow her eyebrows and tilt her head a little. She looked into his eyes and stepped one step away from him. “If you claim that people who hold power in the Barrel need to, say, familiarize with others. What about Pekka Rollins? Hmm?” She watched how Kaz visibly stiffened upon that name. She smirked. Y/N got what she wanted. “I hope you will pass the next test, for I would be glad to make you an acquaintance.” With that Y/N walked past the trio towards the door. “Follow me.”

From outside, the building seemed to look like any other building on this street. Yet when the group made the turns for what seemed like a thousand times, they realized that the exterior is just an illusion. The Crows followed the girl down the steps and judging by the fact that there were no windows, and the air was a tad humid, they were in a basement.

They walked down a corridor. Kaz noted that there were doors every few meters on the left side. It looked awfully like a prison down here. Y/N walked past one door but then stopped causing the group to halt. She walked back towards the doors she just passed and opened the latch in the door. A small window with bars allowed to see inside the room yet the group couldn’t see anything from the position where they were standing.

They could hear a chain rattling and groaning which forced Kaz to think that there was someone in there.

“Well, have you changed your mind?” Her tone was demanding. Kaz observed her side profile. Sharp eyes and clenched jaw, he wondered if this is how he looked when he demanded something and didn’t accept no for an answer. The group heard more chain rattling and louder groan that sounded awfully like no with a couple of colorful words that were no doubt directed towards the girl. Y/N smirked. “As you wish.”

She went to close the latch when she glanced at the group on her left. Then without closing it moved forward along the corridor. Y/N purposely left the window open, she wanted Kaz to see with what kind of devil he is making the deal.

While walking past the doors Kaz glanced inside and visibly gulped. A man in his late thirties was hanging by his hands from the ceiling, his feet barely touching the ground. He was bleeding from, well, everywhere, and by the looks of it, he has been here for a long time. He was barely alive, and it seemed hasn’t eaten for weeks. Kaz wondered if behind all those doors were hanging men or even women.

“Do they even get food or water?” Inej was troubled by the scene that she saw behind the doors and couldn’t help but to be a tad concerned.

Y/N glanced behind her before turning to face the front again.

“When I remember, they do.” She nonchalantly shrugged her shoulders. They turned a corner and continued to walk along another hallway. The girl turned to throw a smirk towards the Suli girl. “I am a tad forgetful; you know. Can’t always remember all those poor souls that need feeding.”

So, then there were more people down here. Kaz suddenly wondered how many of them were still alive and how many were just hanging dead.

The group reached the end of the corridor. They were met with a man who was undoubtedly guarding the doors. With one nod from the girl in front of them, the guard opened the doors and let them inside.

This room was bigger than the previous cell that they saw. The walls were lined with cabinets that contained things, starting from various kinds of weapons to bottles of different sizes and colorful liquids.

“How’s our guest feeling today?” The Crows turned to where Y/N was standing in front of a man who, much like the previous prisoner, was hanged by his hands from the ceiling. The only difference was that there were also chains on his feet and he was hovering above the ground. Kaz observed the room and noticed three men standing on the sides. More guards. “Did the acid did its work?”

The Y/H/C-haired girl walked towards the table on her left. She was slowly unrolling the sleeves of her shirt up to her elbows. After she was done Y/N picked up a bottle inspecting it.

“The man at the market said that it's pretty effective.” Only now Kaz noticed the burn marks on the prisoner’s body. One of the guards stepped forward.

“He didn’t utter a word.”

Y/N tsked while shaking her head in disappointment. She then turned to the hanging man.

“This is not how we work, darling, you know that.” The mock concern in the girl’s voice caused Kaz to shiver slightly. “Such a pretty face ruined for nothing. I can give you one more chance.”

The prisoner raised his head and looked at the girl in front of him. Y/N could easily live without the information that this man could give her but then it wouldn’t be interesting anymore. Any kind of information even the smallest one about the people of Ketterdam could turn out to be useful. You just need to find the right way, the right place and time.

“I am bound by an oath, I won’t tell you anything. Even if I’ll have-”

“-have to die, yeah, yeah don’t I know it.” Y/n interrupted the man by rolling her eyes. “You’re pathetic.”

The Crows braced themselves after what came next. The hanging man mustered all the strength that was in him and spit the blood that was in his mouth right into her face. The guards launched forwards, but Y/N raised her hand halting them in their steps.

Kaz watched how the girl was trying to calm her breathing the muscles of her back stiffened. He admired the control that this girl possessed. Not many people that Kaz knew would have such a perfect grip of themselves. Hell, even Kaz himself sometimes dropped the controlled behavior behind and acted a little reckless.

Y/N slowly turned around and the group of three could see the specks of blood on her face mixed with spit.

“Alright, if this is how you want to play. Let’s play.” She pulled out a cloth from her vest pocket and walked to her left where a small mirror was hanged on the wall.

When she was done cleaning her face, she walked back to stand in front of the prisoner. One of the guards walked beside her and handed something that reminded Kaz of a sheathed sword. Y/n took the handle and pulled out a long shiny sword. It was very long, it even was longer than Jesper’s arm. It looked heavy but she held it like it was light as a feather.

“I have always admired the old weapons.” She turned to face the Crows. “All those revolvers, pistols, and bombs, they are boring.” The girl extended her arm and pointed her sword at Kaz while smirking. “There is something about swords and weapons that have sharp and pointy things that excite me.” She glanced at the Suli girl on Kaz’s right. “Wouldn’t you agree with me?”

Inej couldn’t get anything past her lips, so she opted with just a nod.

Y/N lowered the sword and Kaz dared to breathe again. He didn’t even notice that he was holding his breath.

“There is nothing more exciting than feeling the sword digging in the flesh. Feeling the muscles breaking when you turn the sword-” She suddenly looked up at the group and offered a half-embarrassed smile. “Sorry.”

Then the smile disappeared, and she turned to walk closer to the hanged man.

“Let’s play a game. Heads or tails, Kaz Brekker?” Kaz looked up startled and watched how the girl turned to face him, any sign of the embarrassed smile long gone. Two steely eyes were staring into his soul waiting for his answer. “Heads or tails?”

“Tails.”

Kaz knew that it was something to do with the way how the girl is going to kill the man. There was no point in trying to get away from that. The man is going to die anyway. With or without Kaz’s answer.

“Tails.” She smirked while turning to the hanged man. “This is your lucky day. You’ll be able to see me perfectly in the last seconds of your life.” Then she turned to face the Crows once more. “I have many names, yet only one of them is true. I am an Executioner.”

Kaz watched how she turned her head and raised her sword. With one swing sideways, the sword cut through the hanged man detaching the top half from the bottom separating him just above the waist. Kaz could hear Jesper cursing from his left and Inej taking in a sharp breath from his right. But Kaz did not let his eyes wander from the girl whose arm was still extended with the sword. The blood dripping from the weapon and the top half of the dead man.

“This part is my favorite.” Y/N lowered the sword and grasped the hilt in both hands, she supported the tip of the sword against the ground like a cane. Now the only thing missing is leather gloves. Jesper thought while watching the girl who yet again looked exactly like Kaz. “His brain hasn’t fully comprehended the pain and the fact that half of him is missing. Last seconds before he dies, he sees my face and wishes he had done otherwise.” Kaz couldn’t see her face, but he imagined a contented smile resting on her face. “The silent art. What could be more beautiful than this?”

Y/N turned around to face the Crows. One of the guards walked closer with the empty sheath. She cleaned the sword before taking the sheath and putting the sword in it. With the sheathed weapon in one hand, Y/N walked closer to the group of three. She stopped before Kaz and squinted her eyes while inspecting him. Satisfied with whatever she saw, the girl smirked.

“Congratulations. You managed to keep everything inside. So did your friends.” She looked from Inej to Jesper then back at Kaz with a cheeky smile. “Some people have the need to display their previous meals. I’m not a fan of those people.” She then pointed at the guards behind her. “Nor are they. Because, well, they are the ones that are cleaning everything.”

Kaz forced himself to not look at the hanging body behind the girl, not a second longer, otherwise, he too will have the need to display the meal he had earlier this day. He was surprised how Jesper managed to hold himself together. Kaz took a mental note to ask him that after they will be done here.

Soon they left the basement and followed the girl back upstairs. They arrived in the room they previously were in. Y/N walked to the cabinet on the left and placed the sheathed sword on a stand. Then she walked to the front of the desk and her hands crossed on her chest leaned against it.

“Well? You still want to make the deal?”

Kaz knew that there is a possibility that he will regret the decision but there was one thing that forced him to not think about this possibility. There was a reason she mentioned Pekka Rollins. And that reason was simple, she wanted him gone just as much as he. If that wouldn’t be the case, she wouldn’t have bothered with all this play. Therefore, Kaz firmly nodded his head forcing a smirk to appear on the girl’s face.

She stood straight and extended her hand, waiting for Kaz to shake it.

For a moment he hesitated, but then slowly extended his hand and felt her fingers wrap around his leather-clad hand.

And so, the devil made deal with the devil.

A/N: aight let me know what you think. ;))